"So, Spider-Man," Sam Wilson says, "you're, what, 14?"

"I know that sounds young," Peter says quickly, "but I'm, like, basically an adult. I can totally handle this."

"Oh, I believe it," Sam says. "I've seen the videos. You're damn good at what you do."

Peter smiles at his computer screen, the same way he does every time he rewatches these videos. Sam Wilson thinks he's a good superhero. Sam Wilson – the Falcon! The real-life Falcon! – thinks he's a good superhero. He's so glad he got that on video, or he fully would have convinced himself he'd hallucinated that.

"I just wanna know how you do this and go to high school at the same time."

"I don't know; I'm just good at time management, I guess," Peter tells him. "I mean, I was already juggling classes and homework and band and robotics and academic decathlon. What's one more thing on my plate, you know?"

Sam lets out a low whistle. "Talk about an overachiever."

"Is high school as awful as it looks in the movies?" Pietro asks.

"Oh, it's so much worse," Peter tells him. "I swear, my friend Ned is the only reason it hasn't killed me yet."

"What about gym class?" Pietro asks. "Gym class looks fun."

"Gym class is a nightmare," Peter tells him. "And it's the only class they don't have levels for, which means you get all the super athletic kids and all the not-athletic kids in one class and all of a sudden you get a dodgeball to the face thrown by some guy with, like, three hundred pounds of muscle, and then you gotta walk around with taped-up glasses like some stereotypical nerd until you can get them fixed."

Sam chuckles. "You really don't like gym, do you?"

"I hate it," Peter says.

"It sounds awesome," Pietro says with a grin.

Peter scoffs. It does not sound awesome.

"You look like someone who'd be good at gym class," Bruce remarks.

"Well, I haven't taken gym since I got bitten by that spider," Peter says. "And when I have to take it next year, I can't just suddenly be good at gym. That'd be suspicious."

"Pretty badass, though," Sam says.

There's a knock on the door, and Peter immediately exits out of his Germany vlog before anyone can see it. He shuts his computer off, and then he tells whoever it is – he has two guesses right now – that they can open the door.

Either guess, it seems, would have been correct, because it's both May and Bruce on the other side of the door. Peter does his best to contain his excitement. The first time Bruce came, Peter was more wary than anything. This time, he just cannot wait – and the fact that he's had to wait anyway has made it a painfully long couple of days.

Bruce greets him with a smile. "Hey, kid," he says. "You ready to go?"

"I sure am." Peter hops to his feet, grabs his backpack off his bed, and heads over to join him.

May pats Peter on the shoulder and leans in to kiss the side of his head. "Have fun – and send pictures!"

Peter makes a show of rolling his eyes. "Alright, alright, I'll send pictures," he says. It will give him good excuse to take them – and maybe also an excuse to vlog his weekend, because once shit hit the fan in Germany, it started feeling really weird to think about pulling his camera out, and he'd like to not have a repeat of that.

Bruce pulls a business card out of his pocket and hands it to May. "If you need to reach me, my cell phone number's on here, and, uh..." He shrugs. "I'll bring him back tomorrow."

May wishes them well, and then they're off. Bruce's car is parked out front, and with his invitation, Peter throws his bag in the back seat before hopping in shotgun. He's practically vibrating with excitement, which he hopes goes unnoticed. He can't believe he's going to Avengers Compound. He gets to hang out with the actual Avengers – for a whole weekend! He can barely even believe it!

"I just want to let you know," Bruce says, "we've got a couple more people hanging around than we did last week."

"Really?" He'd always assumed it was just the Avengers who lived there – though their families probably hang out there, too, right? Do they have families? He's not sure he's ever actually heard of any of them having families. That's kinda of... sad...

"Yeah, they took down the Red Room the other day," Bruce tells him, "which is where they trained the Widows, so Nat's adoptive sister Yelena is moving in, and there's another Widow, Antonia, who's just hanging around until Stark gets her a house set up."

"Oh, cool!" Peter says. "I didn't know Ms. Romanoff had a sister."

"Until a few days ago, neither did we," Bruce tells him.

Peter furrows his brows. He really hadn't expected that. But, speaking of other Avengers, there is somebody he really, really wants to ask about: "Is Thor there?"

Bruce shakes his head, much to Peter's disappointment. "The last I heard, I think he was in London with his girlfriend. He might be back in Asgard now – or he could be back at the Compound; I don't know, he just kinda comes and goes."

"When do you think I'll get to meet him?" Peter asks.

Bruce shrugs. "Soon, probably," he says. "I can let you know next time he's here on a weekend, or maybe in the summer when school's out. We'll see what happens – I'll make sure you get to meet him eventually."

Peter very much does not want to wait until the summer to meet the local god Avenger – Godvenger? – but when the alternative is begging Bruce to get him here this weekend, waiting seems like the right idea.

"Loki's gonna be there, though," Bruce tells him, almost a warning in his tone, and Peter shudders. "He's been in a much better mood since we dealt with the whole Accords thing so I don't think you'll have a problem with him, but he can be a little... standoffish, sometimes – especially with new people."

Peter grimaces at the thought. He really does not want to interact with a standoffish Loki. He actually doesn't really want to interact with Loki in any form, but he especially doesn't want to interact with a standoffish Loki.

"But you really don't have to worry about him," Bruce adds. "He's harmless."

Peter's mind flashes back to 2012, sheltered in place in his middle school classroom waiting with the other kids for an adult to take them home. Nobody knew if Loki was going to stay put; nobody knew if he was going to make his way to Queens; nobody knew the Avengers existed and were going to save the day.

There hasn't been a single moment as Spider-Man that's measured up to how terrifying that day was. To call Loki harmless, after that? He can't fathom it – and even stories of Loki watching Disney princess movies or obsessing over Taylor Swift isn't going to change that.

But he suspects that's not what Bruce wants to hear, so instead of saying any of that aloud, Peter just plasters a smile on his face and says, "Sounds great."

"I think you'll have fun," Bruce tells him. "It's very relaxed over there. There's a lot of video games and watching TV. It's probably not what you expect, but I think you'll like it. And I'll show you around the lab while we're there; we'll probably have pizza for dinner. It'll be pretty casual."

"I do like pizza," Peter remarks. That's probably the only exciting thing he just mentioned – except maybe the video games; playing video games with the Avengers does sound like a fun time. But it can't really be that boring there all the time, can it? They're superheroes. They're the Avengers. He'd assumed it was always busy in the Avengers Compound.

"And if at any point you decide you want to go home, just let me know and I'll take you back," Bruce adds. "I want this to be fun and comfortable for you."

Peter gives him a soft smile. "Thank you, Dr. Banner," he says. "I can't wait."