This was clearly not going to work. He'd ruined it while saving people from a burning building after school, but fixing the filter after so much smoke inhalation was proving to be more difficult than he'd originally thought. FRIDAY wasn't giving him clearance to do so (something about 'Baby Monitor Protocols' that he was definitely going to talk to his dad about) and Karen wasn't functioning due to the smoke damage. Although Peter knew his dad was busy, he'd told FRIDAY to notify him when he arrived at the Compound. Four hours later and she still hadn't said anything about him returning.

Throwing his mask at a wall in frustration, Peter gave up and yelled, "FRIDAY, where's Dad?"

"Boss is in the upper conference room."

Peter frowned, looking at the ceiling in confusion.

"Has he been there this whole time?"

FRIDAY said he had, so Peter sighed and picked up his mask.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he grumbled, walking out of his lab and up the Compound stairs.

He knew where the upper conference room was better than almost any room other than those in the Stark Wing of the Compound. It held the best coffee maker so, of course, Tony spent a lot of his out-of-lab work up there. What he was doing there now, however, Peter had no idea.

Fiddling with his mask, Peter pushed his back against the glass door and walked in.

"Dad, I need my mask fixed," he announced, turning on his heels.

He stopped so quickly he would have toppled over had he not had sticky feet. Sitting in front of him was not just his dad, but the rest of the Avengers team.

"Hey, kiddo," Tony said awkwardly.

Peter quickly pulled his mask behind his back and smiled at the team of superheroes in front of him.

"I'll just come back later..." Peter trailed off, pointing towards the door and slowly walking back out.

"Hold up," Steve said, stopping Peter in his tracks. "Who are you?"

Peter looked at his dad, waiting for confirmation before revealing who he was. As Tony gave him a small nod, Peter inched back towards the table and knew he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

"I'm Peter Stark," he answered, receiving several blank and confused stares.

Tony nudged him gently, telling him to tell the team about himself.

"I'm 16 years old and like science," he said uncomfortably, glancing back at his dad to see if that was enough. Tony just sighed.

"Pep and I adopted him when he was seven right after his aunt and uncle died at the Stark Expo," Tony explained. He looked up at Peter who was fiddling with his mask again and smiled as he said, "The kid wouldn't leave Pepper and after finding out he was all alone, we agreed to take him in. Any questions?"

Sam's hand shot up and Tony called on him as if it was a classroom.

"Yeah, how the hell did we not know about him earlier?"

"You're stupid," he answered immediately. "Any questions that aren't stupid?"

Sam scowled and Steve gave a disappointed 'Tony'. Tony groaned.

"Fine," Tony grumbled, "He and Pepper usually stay in Malibu, especially whenever I think I'll have people in my Tower besides Rhodey."

"Don't look at me like that," Rhodey said as the team gave him varying looks of annoyance. "I knew the same hour he found out the kid existed."

When no one protested further, Tony patted Peter's back and sent him to the door.

"Alright, Underoos," he said, "Head on back down to the lab. I'll be down in a moment to help you once we agree on what we want for dinner."

Peter nodded and was halfway through the door when Steve called out again.

"Wait, "Underoos"?" he asked. Peter froze. "That's what you called that spider kid."

How could that man remember something as small as a nickname from Berlin, Peter wanted to ask. They were beating each other up and Steve recalled a nickname?

"You're delusional," Tony said sharply, standing up to walk Peter out. "Come on, kid. Forget dinner. I'll help you now."

Clint was the first one to put the puzzle pieces together. "We fought your kid in Berlin!"

Tony waved over his shoulder as he and Peter stepped out of the conference room, the team calling out questions that Tony didn't bother listening to and Peter just ignored.

"Now, tell me what happened to your mask," Tony said, taking it in his hands and walking beside Peter down the stairs.

"Oh," Peter said, recalling the story of the burning building. "There was this massive fire—like huge—in this big apartment complex, so I went in and got all these people out, but my mask got plugged up so I couldn't see and I got crushed by the ceiling and—"

"I'm sorry, there are many things wrong with this scenario," Tony interrupted, waving his hands. Peter paused. "When were you gonna call me?"

"Oh, Karen broke when the ceiling fell on me," Peter said casually. "I was gonna call you after I got that off me, but she wasn't working and I had to save this cat, so I just swung in and helped it to safety."

"You risked your life for a cat?"

Peter looked at him as though he had seven eyes.

"Yeah," he said obviously. "What else was I supposed to do?"

"Stay safe!" Tony yelled at the same time Peter said, "Let it die?"

Tony groaned and glared at Peter.

"Gosh, kid," he sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. "You're the reason I have heart problems."

Peter just grinned. At least he didn't have the burns anymore.