This was a request from @Xxbittersweet_RosexX. Peter is self-depreciating and Tony doesn't realize it for awhile.

Third Person POV

Peter was always hard on himself, though he didn't think of it that way. He just thought it was the truth - Tony and Flash certainly agreed. After all, Tony would laugh at him and Flash would tell him he was useless, worthless, and a waste of space.

It was only natural. It was his fault that his parents, May, and Ben had all died. It didn't matter that he didn't pull the trigger - Ben died because Peter let a robber go and May because of a robber that broke in when Peter should've been home.

Tony laughed when Peter told him that he screwed up and it resulted in a civilian breaking their arm, saying "you sure did," though, in the billionaire's defense, Tony was referring to the fact Peter thought it to be his fault despite the fact that it wasn't.

Flash told him that his parents, Ben, and May's deaths were his fault, that they wanted to be free of the worthless waste of space that was Peter. That he was lying about the Tony Stark adopting him, that, if it were true, Tony would only adopt him to improve his public image.

Iron Man agreed with him when he said that the ferry incident was his fault - an incident that resulted in the death of three civilians, though the former didn't know that. The Avenger laughed when told it was Peter's fault that Toomes' wings exploded and injured the man.

Tony laughed when Peter miscalculated on a project and it blew up in his face, sarcastically stating,"Everything around you blows up!"

Peter missed the sarcasm and the fact that the man was joking.

Steve jokingly told Peter to get out of the kitchen before he killed someone after the latter had accidentally caught a pancake on fire. Once again, Peter missed the fact that it was a joke.

Bruce laughed when Peter made an obvious mistake in his calculations, commenting a variation of "shouldn't you know this already?" like most do when a friend makes an obvious mistake, as a joke.

Clint laughed when Peter epically missed the target he'd been aiming for, the arrow embedding itself in the bullseye of the target to the right of the one it was meant to hit. Peter still didn't know how that had happened, but he still laughed until Clint made a snide comment. The comment wasn't meant to be taken to heart in the archer's eyes, it was harmless. He would've said the same to Steve, Tony, or Bruce (Natasha and Pepper were too scary and he didn't know the latter woman very well).

Unbeknownst to the Avengers, Peter hadn't been joking. Peter hadn't taken the jokes for what they were, instead thinking that the Avengers were serious and actually meant them. They didn't know Peter was self-depreciating because of them and one Flash Thompson. All they saw was a bright, energetic spider with a sense of humor. They didn't see the insecure, self-depreciating boy who thought everyone around him believed he was a charity case hiding behind a façade of happiness.

Tony was the first to find out, though. He'd been heading to bed at around 2 am, Peter having excused himself a few hours earlier, when Friday told him Peter was having a nightmare. Immediately, the man had ran to his son's room, rushing to the bed where the spider was.

"Don't leave, please! I'll be better! Please, don't go!" Peter was crying, reaching out towards someone in his dream, "No! I'll prove I'm worth it, just stay!"

He started crying, and Tony had reached over to try and shake him when Peter spoke again, his words making the billionaire freeze.

"Mr. Stark, please stay! I'll prove I'm not worthless! Just give me a chance!" Peter couldn't stay in that dream, and Tony wouldn't let him. He started shaking Peter and calling his name, effectively waking the boy.

"M-mr. Stark? What are you doing here?" The spiderling was confused, and his voice was soft, almost timid.

"Fri told me you were having a nightmare. I heard what you were saying... Do you really believe that I think you're worthless?" When Peter nodded, Tony finished with a "Why?"

"You, the other Avengers, and people at school. You guys laugh or agree that the screw ups are my fault. Flash tells me it was my fault my blood family is dead and that I'm a worthless waste of space that you adopted as a charity case to improve your public image." Tony froze again, shocked and disbelieving.

It was his fault that Peter thought so low of himself?

Though his mind had stopped working, his body hadn't, and he found that he'd hugged Peter on instinct, much to the spiderling's surprise.

"Peter, you are the most important thing in my life. You are not worthless. You are not a waste of space. You are a brilliant, loving, amazing teen that I wish was my child by blood. You are an amazing, strong, intuitive superhero, one I am planning to invite to join the Avengers. You are a miracle to this world. If anything, we don't deserve you." Tony let the tears that were building up in his eyes go, openly crying at the fact it was his fault that Peter was self-depreciating. Once the spiderling processed what Tony had said and affirmed that yes, that was the billionaire's honest opinion of him, Tony wasn't the only one crying.

The next day, seeing as Peter had cried himself to sleep on Tony and the man didn't want to move or wake his spiderson and had fallen asleep still hugging the boy, Tony called an Avenger's meeting while Peter was at school.

"We have made the biggest mistake of our lives," he solemnly informed them, "We hurt Peter."

Cries of "How?", "What?", and "How did we injure the precious spider?" echoed through the room at the statement.

"We made Peter self-depreciative. Us and a bully named Flash, or Eugene Thompson. It was our laughing at and agreeing with what we thought were jokes. They weren't jokes."

"We need to make this up to ребенок паук. I suggest we start with this Eugene Thompson." Everyone instantly agreed.

When Peter returned from school to find a common room filled with apologetic avengers, a dining table full of his favorite foods, and a wall in his room covered in sticky notes containing handwritten messages from all the avengers telling him that he was important and worthwhile, he hugged each and every avenger in the room. If he and everyone else (including Natasha), were silently or not-so-silently crying, no one needed to know.

If Flash then started defending Peter from bullies after spending an hour begging for forgiveness, no matter how many times Peter told him that he had forgiven him, no one needed to know why.

AN: No, I haven't abandoned this story. Life just decided to drop a few huge bombs and scares on me. As in, I lost a pet and came close to losing a very close family member a couple times. They're on the mend though.