Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-man (Tom Holland Movies)

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Characters: Tony Stark | Iron Man, James Rhodes | War Machine, Peter Parker | Spider-man, Sam Wilson | Falcon, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Steve Rogers | Captain America, James Barnes. Thor, Loki 

Tags: Uncle Happy Hogan, Irondad, Ironmom, Team Cap bashing, Peter is worthy, Peter is the heir of Stark Industries, Peter saves Tony in Siberia

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Brief Warning: there is significant Captain America bashing in this fic. TW: canon-typical violence

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Revelations (n.)

That 'holy fucking shit' moment

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

James Rhodes had been friends with Tony Stark for a good few decades already, had stuck with him during his awkward lanky teenager slash younger adult days, the crazy college days, the let's get black-out drunk days, the I'm a fucking superhero days, and even the what the fuck am I doing days.

Rhodey had been with Tony Stark since day 1, had seen him grow into the person he was now, had seen him when he was at his best and at his worst.

Likewise, Tony had done the same.

They were integral and important aspects in each other's lives whether they'd admit it or not. Tony was, after all, Rhodey's best friend.

As Rhodey had gotten to know Tony over the years, he had also gotten to know the people in Tony's inner circle, Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts.

From then on, it had always been just the four. It was always just Happy, Pepper, Tony and Rhodey against the world, regardless of how far they were from each other on any given day. They were the people who had had each other's backs for years.

The three had had Tony's back when the reality of what came with being a superhero hit too hard and had to shut down a bit.

They had witnessed each other's best and worst.

They had been there when Pepper wasn't coping with being a CEO well, when Happy was starting to flounder a bit in his work as a security detail, when Rhodey was doubting his ability in the military, when Tony had sunk deep into the life of an alcoholic.

They were family.

So, when Peter Parker had crash-landed into their tiny little circle and promptly made himself a home, it was obvious that everyone had had to change and adapt to the new circumstances a little.

The changes, however, weren't so big that they happened suddenly.

No, the changes were gradual things, like a trickle of water in a bucket, drop by drop.

The changes that mattered were the small bits, the little, subtle details that had adjusted, like their sleep schedule or working habits, to accommodate the presence of their spiderling.

It was a process and a half but by the end, Peter Parker had slotted himself into their small little family quite nicely, as if he was always there.

This process, however, wasn't something that Rhodey had consciously done. Instead, it was something he realized was happening unconsciously, slowly but surely.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

one.

The first revelation made itself known at Leipzig.

Going into the battle, Tony hadn't told Rhodey much about their allies. So when Spider-man had flipped in the air and stolen Steven Rogers' shield, Rhodey couldn't help the thought 'that was so cool!'

The thought, however, had promptly been cast aside when the guy had talked about his landing and tried to strike a conversation mid-battle.

In hindsight, Rhodey should have known that that would happen given Spider-man's usual style of fighting with both his webs and bright quips and jokes in the spur of the moment, evident through the numerous Spider-man compilation videos that had went semi-viral and appeared on his feed during a late-night binge.

This thought had come back full force when he realized that Spider-man sounded like a child and also, wasn't he fighting Wilson and Barnes not a few minutes ago?

Belatedly realizing that this kid, and he was pretty sure by now that he was a kid, no doubt about it, had had to fight the winter soldier and the Falcon at the same time. That fact that he was here, talking about really old movies (which by the way, weren't that old!!) and Star Wars like he wasn't in the middle of a fight meant that he had fought Wilson and Barnes and somehow won.

He had fought the Winter Soldier and the Falcon, both of whom were trained individuals, alone and with no back-up and somehow was here, meaning he either escaped or won somehow.

Finding out that the drone took him out made it lessen a bit but seeing him swing around the airport, doing flips and whooping like he was having the time of his life, Rhodey couldn't help the grin slowly spreading on his face and thought again, 'Spider-man was so cool!'

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

two.

The first time Rhodey meets Peter Parker and not Spider-man, it is in a hospital in Siberia. Situated right in front of the heater and slightly shivering from the winter cold, the child sits still, numb and blank, never taking his eyes away from Tony who was lying on the hospital bed a ways in front of him.

Rhodey and Pepper had been notified that Tony was injured a few hours ago and Rhodey had flown over as fast as he could, with Pepper set to arrive an hour or two after him because she needed to sort a few things out.

He had used most of his connections and sheer willpower but with his injury and the multiple flights he had to take to get into the country, they had just missed the 13 hour surgery.

His best friend looked... bad. According to the doctors, he had symptoms of hypothermia, heavy bruising, severe blood loss and was in danger of a heart attack when they brought him in.

Why Happy had called and told them over the phone with a pained and shaking voice that they were flying to the nearest hospital with an injured Tony, Rhodey had numbly said some sort of affirmation and replied with an absentminded 'I'm on my way'.

Rhodey was aware of Tony's situation, Happy had made sure to call and update the two every now and then. Yet, when faced with the reality of the situation, it is then that it truly sets in that his best friend was nearly killed while trying to help Steve Rogers who they fought literally hours ago.

"They double teamed him."

Turning to the look at the child who was still shivering ever so slightly and clenching his fists, Rhodey slowly moved his wheelchair to position himself beside the sleeping Happy, still unused to his lack of ability to move.

Eyes slowly reddening, obviously holding back tears, the child repeated with a strangled voice, "They double teamed him."

Placing a hand on the kid's shoulder, Rhodey gathered his courage and slowly asked, having a small inkling of what the child meant but praying to god that it wasn't what happened, "who double teamed who?"

Happy had told them the situation vaguely, only updating on Tony's condition but not how it happened. Rhodey wasn't aware of anything that happened in Siberia. As such, the only possibility would be- "Barnes and Rogers double teamed Mr. Stark."

Jolting at the sudden reply, Rhodey's thoughts come to an abrupt stop. "What?" Barnes and Rogers did this?

Likely sensing the unsaid question, the child shifts slightly, uncomfortable with the chair and his next statement, "I... needed something to distract myself during the long surgery and decided to look at the suit camera, thinking I could find clues on Zemo or something. At the time, I had... assumed that Zemo was the guy who... injured... him that badly. After all, it couldn't possibly be," laughing humorlessly, he spits out, "Captain America, right?"

Expecting the child to angrily spit out his next few words too, Rhodey was startled when he was met with only a small whisper, with a wobbling voice, he said, "wrong."

And as Rhodey looked at the kid beside him, who whispers his next few words, obviously in a mixture of disbelief, anger and hateful disappointment, he is met with the revelation that this child, who was shivering and curled into a ball, crying, was Spider-man.

Because Rhodey was told that Spider-man had saved Tony and this child was telling him what happened with no hesitation, as if knowing that every point in this conversation was fact.

It was as if... the kid had experienced or seen it himself.

Peter Parker was Spider-man and everyone knew that Spider-man was relatively new in the hero business, only a year or two in. Though Rhodey couldn't deny that his work as vigilante in Queens was worthy of applause and praise, he knew that meeting the top dogs, the team that symbolized heroism in this country, the Avengers, was an entirely different thing.

At Leipzig, Spider-man had fought with a sense of giddy amazement, obviously idolizing the heroes that he was fighting. Yet, only a few days later, Rhodey is faced with the image of a child who had been presented with the cold, hard, reality of the situation.

Tony Stark was injured by Captain fucking America and this kid had been the one to find him.

They say, never meet your heroes, and that statement, for the most part, was true. It was almost always a let-down and this kid, who probably hasn't even finished high school yet, had missed his flight back home to save Tony Stark based on an inkling that was really just sheer luck, and was met with the disappointment of both Iron Man and Captain America only a few days after meeting them.

It was probably a hard thing to realize.

Rubbing a hand on the child's shoulder, Rhodey sees Peter shed a few frustrated tears. "How is it that people like that, who put themselves on a pedestal, are called," angrily pausing, as if trying to compose himself, "heroes?"

And it was at this point that Rhodey realized that the kid wasn't crying because he was sad that he met his heroes and was let down.

No.

He was crying because he was frustrated. Everyone in the hero circle knew that Spider-man was one of the stronger vigilantes working, on par with big-name heroes, even at his young age and yet, had never tried to go bigger than Queens, preferring to stay and protect his territory.

This kid, probably less than 16 years old, had put the people over himself multiple times.

And here he was, seeing famed superheroes like Captain America disregard the collective input of 117 countries for one man and broken ideals.

Spider-man, Peter Parker, was frustrated at the reality of heroism at the top of the food chain.

It hits hard, to see someone disappointed at the thought of the Avengers. It was probably the first time in his whole career as War Machine that he was presented with the disappointment so blatantly.

Yet, Rhodey... couldn't bring himself to say a word in rebuttal.

Because Peter Parker was right.

As he watched the footage, as he watched Captain America - Steve - ram his shield down, down, down, into the chest of his once teammate - of Tony - and simply stand up and leave from Tony's own perspective because they were watching through his suit's camera, Rhodey sheds a few tears of his own. Only a thought echoed in his mind, repeating itself again and again, he was right, Peter Parker was right.

How is this man what they define a hero?

To Rhodey, who was staring at the limp body of his best friend and listening to the repeated beeps of the monitors attached to him, he thinks to himself that this man - Captain America - was not someone he wanted to call a hero.

And over the next few months, as he receives Peter Parker in his hospital room every day for the first month, ready to cheer him on in rehab while Tony was still in his coma, as he watches Tony slowly come out of his shell while teaching Peter Parker, as he watches his best friend allow the boy to hand him a wrench nonchalantly, as if it wasn't a huge fucking milestone, Rhodey is met with the revelation that yes, Peter Parker is Spider-man.

Spider-man had saved Tony in Siberia. Peter had saved Tony's heart, given him purpose, encouraging him to build things while he was recovering so that he wouldn't drown in his own negative thoughts.

Peter Parker had saved Tony in more ways than just one and, in the process, had saved Rhodey too.

Because losing Tony, watching Tony slowly lose the light in his eyes over the years had been painful and gut-wrenching and had filled him with dreadful helplessness. So seeing this bright, bright kid bring the old Tony back little by little, it made Rhodey tear up inside a little.

Peter Parker was Spider-man.

And Spider-man was Rhodey's definition of a hero.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

three.

They were mid-battle when it happened. The New Avengers had been fighting a bunch of robot things when Thor was about to throw his hammer at the tallest and strongest robot standing in the middle of NYC but had gotten hit by one of its underlings, making him unable to stop the motion of throwing the weapon and, at the same time, changing its trajectory slightly that it would hit a building instead of the intended target.

Every Avenger who had seen this had the same thought, 'It's not going to make it!' and had tried to get Thor out of the pinch so that he could recall the hammer but alas, they were all occupied with some robots of their own.

Rhodey, from his position in the sky, had winced slightly, preparing for the hammer to hit the building and prayied to god that it wouldn't tear directly through it and hit more in its path, knowing that hammer's strength.

Yet, Rhodey, in all his life as a human being that walked the earth, would have never imagined what happened next.

Because Peter Parker, vigilante extraordinaire, suddenly swung up to the speeding hammer and just. Plucked it. Out of the air.

Like it was nothing.

Short-circuiting for a moment, Rhodey's mind blanked.

Did Peter just pluck Mjolnir out of the air?

What the fuck?

Peter, who had seen the hammer fly towards the building out of the corner of his eye and knew that should it land, would decimate not just that building but all the buildings in its direct path for the next few blocks, had reacted unconsciously and swung up to grab the hammer out of the air and chucked it towards the right target, completely forgetting that no one other than Thor could lift the hammer.

And, instead of realizing that holy shit, he was worthy, Peter Parker simply looked at the hammer making its way to the robot and promptly decimating its target in glorious explosions and fire and let out a sign of relief then turned back to the robots he was fighting and continued on with his day.

To Rhodey, however, who was in the sky and had the perfect view of the scene and had watched Peter fucking worthy apparently Parker pluck out the hammer, chuck the hammer and turn back towards the robots he was fighting with explosions in his background as if what he did didn't just break the worldview of a frozen, wide-eyed Thor as well as the Avengers, who, based on the very wide-eyed glances at the spiderling and mildly stiff postures, were just as shocked as the god, it looked as if Peter Parker had just starred in an action movie.

Rhodey, who loved action movies, had just seen Spider-fucking-man throw an unthrowable-by-humans-and-really-any-other-being-that-wasn't-Thor-or-Vision hammer nonchalantly, turn towards the robots he was fighting and then promptly destroy them and walk away with a semi-fiery explosion in the background.

It was the thing of Rhodey's dreams, his life goal.

To walk away from a fiery explosion like a badass.

Holy fuck.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

When they finally wrap up everything, documentation included, the team is strangely quiet, the normal banter absent. Instead, the Avengers numbly walk into the compound and gathered around the kitchen island.

Then, as if rebooting abruptly, they all turned to stare at the spiderchild who was stuffing his face with leftover pizza from the night before incredulously. Caught in the act, Peter shifted guility, thinking they were mad about the pizza, said, "What? I'm hungry."

The Avengers, all of whom shoot Peter a weirded stare, are suddenly hit with the thought that Peter just... forgot he could wield Mjolnir.

What the fuck?

As if realizing that Holy shit, Peter just lifted Mjolnir, the room erupts into chaos, voices overlapping each other with the amount of ribbing, congratulating and proud hugs they send Peter.

And as he observes this, Rhodey exchanges knowing glances with Pepper and Loki who were beside him. Here, he is hit with the third revelation and, arguably the most jolting of them all. Because his best friend, Tony Stark, was standing at the edge of the room with the posture of a proud father and eyes that screamed, 'that's my kid!!!'.

Holy shit, his best friend was a dad.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

four.

If there's one thing Rhodey knew about Tony Stark and could guarantee that only a select few people knew, it was the fact that Tony Stark doesn't like coffee, or more specifically, the dark, bitter and black type of coffee, which, in Tony's opinion, was way too bitter in the mornings and only drank them as a last resort when he wanted to do an all-nighter.

This fact was well-known in their small circle of friends and family, all of whom had, on one occasion or another, accidentally bought Tony a cup of black coffee because he 'seemed like the type'.

He wasn't.

This, however, was not known by Tony's little intern slash superhero mentee, Peter Parker.

Now, Rhodey, who knew that Peter had been around Tony for months now, would normally say 'he should, though' because they'd been around each other for months. But, he knew that Peter couldn't possibly know that Tony didn't like black coffee.

Why, you ask?

Because, Peter Parker has never, in all his months working with Tony Stark, been refused.

Peter Parker who still thought that Tony liked black coffee and, because he was precious like that, went out of his way to order a venti on his trip to Starbucks before arriving at Stark Industries every day, a fact that will have Happy Hogan chortling every single time it is brought up.

This, of course, presented a few problems to one Tony Stark.

One, Tony didn't know whether or not Peter's feelings would get hurt by his refusal and two, what if he just doesn't do it anymore?

Peter, Tony would admit, had grown on him over the months that they'd worked together, both as superheroes and scientists and now, the kid was an integral part of Tony's life.

Given that Peter was a genius at literally everything the same way Tony was and had the same sense of humor, Tony may or may not have gotten himself attached.

As such, Tony couldn't really bring himself to tell Peter that he didn't like dark, bitter, evil coffee.

Instead, he choked it all down like a man ready for war because his pride, honor and image would not accept anything less.

This fact, of course, did not escape his best friend Rhodey, who had been present for a total of thirteen (13) different occasions of this problem.

Rhodey, who watched his best friend's face subtly contort into disgusted and mildly terrified resignation for a nearly unnoticeable second before chugging the drink like a man, was having the time of his life.

Really, he was.

Never had he seen his best friend so wrapped around someone's finger since Pepper, much less that of a child. His best friend, Tony children are stressful and noisy Stark is drinking black fucking evil incarnate coffee and acting like it was ambrosia from the gods just to please Peter just his intern Parker which, personally, Rhodey called bullshit on.

Still, watching his best friend talk to Peter Parker was something out of a movie to Rhodey and if he were honest, he'd say he was enjoying it but he isn't honest, now is he?

Instead, he heckled his friend, giving him a pointed stare that obviously said, 'just an intern, my ass'

And as he watched his best friend smile at Peter proudly when the kid shows him his perfect A+ test, Rhodey finally realized why he found it so funny and endearing.

Because every single time Rhodey mentioned Tony being Peter's father figure, Tony would just smile and grumble, probably thinking that he was joking and not completely and utterly serious.

It's here that Rhodey thinks of all the times that Tony boasted or subtly flexed about Peter Parker around others, including but not limited to, the board of directors, the UN, the New Avengers, the coffeeshop barista down the street, Stark Industries, their regular pizza delivery guy and the president of the United States plus staff.

Every single time.

Every. Single. Time.

Tony would receive pointed stares from every single person who hears about 'did you know that my intern, Peter Parker, got A+s on all his tests? Yeah, the kid's a little genius!' and every single time he'd see said pointed stare, he'd just think that it meant that they didn't quite understand that his intern got A+ on all of his tests and proceed to reiterate that his intern got A+ on all his test, which was amazing, multiple times.

And here, Rhodey is hit with his fourth revelation because, his best friend was a fucking dumbass and holy fucking shit, his best friend didn't know he had a son.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

five.

The first time it happens, Rhodey doesn't quite get it yet.

He had been visiting the Stark tower, giving tips to the interns at the labs because they were working on a project that he had done his college thesis on and had wanted some input.

Deciding to visit Peter and Tony in the spur of the moment, who Rhodey knew would be working in the lab right about now, he made his way to the elevator and called out to FRIDAY, "Can you take me to Tony, Fri?"

"Of course, Honeybear. Moving to the Topaz sector. Floor 66: Lower Meeting Sector."

Shaking his head at the nickname, Rhodey thanked the AI before leaving to look for his best friend.

Seeing them in the first meeting room, he is met with the sight of Tony Stark teaching Peter Parker using honest to god presentation slides with a serious face. If he didn't know how Tony treasured the kid so much, Rhodey would be shocked at the sight.

Tony Stark, as a rule of thumb, hated making presentations, preferring to just give a lecture without any visuals or, if needed, use FRIDAY to do it.

Yet, here he was, giving a lecture, complete with what looked like diagrams and statistics to his kid, Peter Parker, who looked very engaged and attentive to the presentation. Moving closer, Rhodey realizes that Tony was teaching the kid about public relations, or more specifically, how to handle cameras and public scrutiny.

Deciding not to disturb them, Rhodey shakes his head at the pair fondly before turning around. Maybe he'd visit Pepper instead.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

The next time it happens, Rhodey noticed that Tony started bringing Peter along to a few meetings, both for the UN and even, on occasion, the monthly board of directors meeting.

Tony had been sitting beside Peter every time, with the kid taking detailed notes about the topics presented, acting like a true personal assistant. His best friend would occasionally lean in and peek at the kid's notes, patiently correcting or giving advice on which to focus on when needed.

Rhodey, who sits across from them as a representative of the New Avengers, fondly rolls his eyes. He was aware that the two had grown closer and closer over the months that they'd been working together and Tony could now openly admit to calling Peter his kid and had even, in a moment of vulnerability, acknowledged that he looked at Peter like a son.

It wasn't really a surprise that Tony was starting to groom him into becoming the heir of Stark Industries. Really, Rhodey shouldn't have been surprised that Tony 'Patience is for those who have no power' Stark would always guide his son patiently, making sure he knew what things worked and what things didn't.

The revelation, however, didn't click until a month later, when they visited Wakanda for a meeting with T'challa for some tech that Stark Industries and Shuri were collaborating on.

They were on their way out when they see the rogue Avengers standing a bit away from them, standing as self-righteous as ever.

Tony, for his part, merely tensed at the sight of Steve Rogers, but didn't do much else, simply choosing to look away. Peter, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to fuck shit up, not that Rhodey would blame him. He'd be a hypocrite if he said that he didn't want to attack the guy too, considering his palm was nearly bleeding with how much his fingers were digging into his palm in an effort to stay calm.

Peter, however, was young and very much furious and looked like he was actually going to attack them. So, Tony, who was beside him, noticed it quickly and whispered to the younger, "Kid, you gotta calm down. Just... smile and wave. Smile and wave," looking at the shaking kid beside him, he places his hand on his shoulder, "if we attack them out of fury, we'd be no better than them, understand?"

It is here that Rhodey's fifth revelation arrives.

His best friend, Tony 'I'm a bad example for children' Stark was trying to teach Peter how to do everything that Tony had done wrong in an effort to make sure that Peter wouldn't go through what Tony did.

Tony was trying to set a good example.

And as Rhodey watched Peter Parker breathe deeply and send Tony a small, reassuring smile, he thinks, holy shit, it's actually working!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

(Though Tony's efforts nearly go down the drain when Tony finds out the extent of bullying Peter experienced a few months later.

His best friend had smiled a very ominous smile and told Peter with a dark look, "Do as I say, not as I do. Okay, Pete?" Then, nearly threw hands with Peter's teachers.

It was a very interesting day.)

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

six.

Rhodey's relationship with Happy Hogan could be described as that of blood brothers.

The two were close, sharing the same exasperated fondness for their best friend and, later on, had realized that they too had the same thoughts on social interactions, aka none when permitted.

If there was one thing Rhodey knew about Happy, it was that he hated energetic people, kids especially. He thought they were too unruly and excitable and Happy, being the perpetual grump that he was, absolutely hated it.

This fact had been emphasized over the years, with the Stark expo and handling security for Stark Industries which meant he had to interact, to some extent, with the children and teenagers that visit for tours yearly.

Happy hated it, preferring to just go about his grumpy way in peace.

It was because of this fact that Rhodey's revelation became even more apparent.

Because, as they were hanging out at the tower, Peter Parker had called Happy in the middle of their conversation and Happy 'I hate talking to people' Hogan had simply shrugged and answered the call with a fond, "Hey kid,"

Subtly listening to Happy's side of the conversation, all Rhodey could make out was the multiple 'mhm' Happy answered with and the final 'yeah, sure, I'll be right there.'

He watched as Happy smiles fondly at his phone before turning to Tony, saying, "Peter needs me at Midtown so I'll be back in a bit, guys."

And as he watched Happy stroll towards the elevator, Rhodey's sixth revelation is clear.

Happy 'hater' Hogan hates all children unless their name is Peter Parker.

What a world to be in, truly, Rhodey didn't know how so many people could be fond of one kid but, he supposed, it wasn't a bad sight.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

seven.

When Tony and Pepper announced that they were going to go on vacation for two weeks and, in the process, put Peter Parker in charge of Stark Industries, Rhodey had exhaled slightly with relief.

He knew that both Tony and Pepper were overworking themselves because of the upcoming UN meetings and multiple Stark Industries' product launches next month. His efforts in getting them to slow down, however, had been fruitless.

So, he should have known that Peter, who was closest to the couple, would notice and be able to hatch a plan and actually pull it off.

As far as he knew, Pepper Potts had never taken a day off ever, working even through a bad migraine and fever.

Now, here he was, sending the couple off to wherever they were going.

Huh, miracles do exist.

Because Tony and Pepper had been grooming Peter to take over for a while already, and even turned it up a notch the past few weeks, Rhodey wasn't very surprised that Peter had somehow managed to pull off getting the UN board's approval for the Accords changes after a brilliant 18 hour UN meeting.

What did surprise him, however, was the sheer amount of people that Peter had wrapped around his tiny little finger.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Stark Industries' board of directors were all relatively new because the old ones were all scrapped after Pepper took over and had been replaced by younger, more open-minded businessmen and women. Obviously, because they were all like-minded, Tony and Pepper got along well with their investors and partners, all of whom were very supportive of their choice to entrust SI to Peter Parker.

To those who didn't know them well, the board would come off as entitled assholes but these people were like Tony, all brilliant in their own right. Normal people wouldn't be able to understand their mannerisms and business attitudes.

Peter Parker, however, was different.

See, Peter was also a certified genius and like recognized like. Everyone in the room was aware of their own intellect and also acknowledged each other's intellect. It's how they all worked so well together and how Stark Industries became a company that had a kickass management system.

It shouldn't have been a surprise to Rhodey that they all treated Peter like their long lost nephew and casually give him their own little pieces of advice, patiently agreeing to nearly everything Peter suggested, though with a grain of salt, acting like wise old men teaching children the way of the lord, aka, manipulation of government officials.

So, when they hear about Peter's monumental 18 hour meeting and subsequent success of the Accord signing, they held a meeting which was literally just a celebration of Peter's success.

It's not until later, when he follows Peter out of the building on their way to the compound and notices that Peter was greeting literally everyone they passed, that Rhodey is met with the revelation that holy shit, Peter had everyone wrapped around his finger.

And then, paused, remembering every instance where he lost to Peter's infamous puppy dog eyes, mutters to himself, "Holy shit, Peter has me wrapped around his finger."

Yet, as he watches Peter excitedly converse with the receptionist, Rhodey couldn't bring himself to dislike it.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

eight.

Pepper Potts was a force to be reckoned with, Rhodey had found over the years.

Pepper was Tony's assistant turned wife and, as such, automatically made her a sister to Rhodey. Over the years, they had gotten to know each other quite well, quickly becoming close friends.

As such, Rhodey knew that Pepper going into dark mode, aka when she becomes furious meant either the end of the world or a new funeral to visit.

Rhodey had only ever seen Pepper go into full dark mode once and that was during the whole Obie fiasco.

That day had been seared into Rhodey's mind and ever since then, he would swear that the one person he'd never cross was Virgina 'I'm a fucking badass' Potts. He had nothing against her, don't get him wrong, Rhodey loved that woman like a sister.

He's just saying that if she wanted to, Pepper could rule the world. It wasn't a matter of if but a matter of when and, quite frankly, Rhodey would rather she was on his side than not.

It's been years since the last time Pepper got furious so when he walks into the tower and is met with the sight of one Pepper Potts emitting an ominous aura and an equally furious Tony Stark, he should have known that it was about Peter Parker. He was, after all, like a son to them.

Apparently, the two had been watching footage all day, going through CCTV footage of the last month and, after he read their logs and evidence files, Rhodey could feel the rage in himself build up too.

This school was allowing Peter Parker, Peter who was the embodiment of sunshine and rainbows and had only ever been kind, even to the numerous criminals he faced, to be bullied by some no-name kid for money.

Rhodey watched with a peculiar sense of fascination as Pepper Potts typed email after email after email, sending out one very strongly worded email after another to their principal, his teacher, the school's board of directors, and even the department of education.

Honestly, Rhodey should have realized by now that Pepper Potts was a lot of things and efficient was at the top of the list.

But it isn't until he sat beside the couple as they read through the email the principal sends, notifying them that Flash Thompson was put on suspension for a mere three days that the next revelation really arrives.

Pepper Potts was a mild and gentle woman but that only meant that she was terrifying when furious.

Because there isn't anything like the sight of a furious Pepper Potts typing furiously on her computer and notifying all Stark daughter companies and business partners that under no circumstances will there be any Stark partner who will ally, perform business, or invest in anything remotely related to Senator Thompson and his family as well as furiously talking to a shaking principal over video call that hammers the point home.

Later, when Rhodey asks why she didn't just attack Senator Thompson directly, especially with the famed PR department of Stark Industries in her disposal, she replies with, "PR would only last so long before people lose interest. My son was hurt by that bastard. So, I want him to understand that money doesn't mean power." Walking ahead of him, Pepper says darkly, "He doesn't know what power looks like,"

"This is not how wars are fought." Ahead, the usually mild-mannered woman turns to him darkly and says: "No. This is how wars are won and I will make sure he understands that they can mess with everyone but definitely not my child."

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

As he stares at the back of the disappearing woman, Rhodey's eighth revelation is, perhaps, the most terrifying one yet.

You can mess with anyone but not Peter Parker.

After all, to be a mother is to be strong and Pepper Potts would do anything for Peter Parker.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

nine.

The next one arrives like a dam breaking. At first, a slow trickle before abruptly bursting.

Peter had started calling Tony and Pepper dad and mom respectively, now formally acknowledging the couple as parental figures as well as accepting his role as heir to Stark Industries.

Naturally, when the Avengers had heard about it, they had all excitedly clapped Tony on the back saying things along the lines of, so you finally admit it and couldn't you have done it two months ago? Because the team had a betting pool ranging from tens of thousands on when Tony would finally slip and call Peter his son or vice versa.

Rhodey had bet on a week ago while Loki, the winner, had smugly accepted all four hundred grand with a smug expression on his face that made Rhodey want to punch his lights out, figuratively, of course.

Still, watching Loki smugly wiggle his eyebrows at the complaining Sam and Bucky across the room had been a sight to see. They all knew that Loki was one of the people that weren't fully comfortable with their role in the Avengers family and had only recently started allowing himself to accept that he was a part of their family after Peter had lectured him extensively, complete with powerpoint slides.

Rhodey had always been fond of Peter, even from the get-go. The two had bonded extensively during Rhodey's rehab and time in the hospital all those months ago. At the time, he had treated Peter like his little nephew unconsciously, not really realizing the way he was acting.

Now, as he watched the rest of his found family fawn over the kid, exclaiming that he 'call us your aunts and uncles, Pete!', he realized that he really did think of Peter like his long-lost nephew.

Later, as he hears Peter shyly call him 'Uncle Rhodey', the dam finally breaks and Rhodey's heart fills with fondness for the boy who stitched this family together little by little all on his own.

Peter was the glue that held the new team together when they were starting out and now, a few months later, the team had finally grown as close as family, treating each other like blood brothers and sisters, and it was all due to Peter Parker.

The ninth revelation arrives and he realizes that, shit, if Tony doesn't sign the legal adoption papers then Rhodey was going to throw hands. He wanted him as his honest-to-god nephew ASAP, goddamnit. Put your ass in gear, Tony!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

ten.

The last and final revelation arrives during a press conference. The New Avengers and Pepper were holding a press conference on their most recent mission and was being led by Peter Parker.

Pepper, who had also signed onto the Accords as a rescue specialist, had gone on the mission as well using Rescue because the team needed all hands on deck due to the mission being a natural disaster and needed to rescue as many people as they could in the least amount of time. Pepper had led the team's logistics along with Peter, who was using his spider army to search for more victims.

Now, Peter Parker had had a growing presence in the online community for a while, ever since his exposure in the Oscarn fashion show as Tony Stark's first and only personal intern ever.

Coupled with his intelligence and charming personality, Peter pretty much had his own fan base already. That and the multiple times various Avengers had interacted with him both on and off the internet as well as his mildly successful jewelry business, it wasn't really a surprise that Peter was a highly sought after individual both for interviews and press, though he had it milder considering he was still a minor.

His first stint as the person leading the press conferences for a few New Avengers missions had really established him as a high-ranking person in the Stark Industries so the press conferences he usually led always had a certain amount of order to it, as was usual with his attitude in leading SI as the main intern head and Tony Stark's personal assistant.

This order, however, had gone through one of the reporter's head because he had raised his hand and spoken without being called on, his question ringing throughout the conference hall, "Ms. Potts, how did you feel on your first mission? I heard you led it, was it because you had access to the suit that Mr. Stark had built?"

At this question, the hall turned noticeably colder. The Avengers, who had quickly picked up on the change of atmosphere, looked to Peter, who was coldly staring the reporter down. However, as if ignoring the fact that he had reduced Pepper's involvement in the mission to an accomplishment of her husband due to her equipment, stood firm and haughtily tilted his head.

Slowly wording his question, Peter coldly asked, "Are you saying that Ms. Potts could only accomplish her achievement in leading the most recent mission because she had equipment built by Tony Stark?"

The reporter nodded, as if wondering why Peter didn't get what he meant and replied, "Well, of course. Ms. Potts, no offense, is a, well... woman and she doesn't have powers like the rest of the women on the New Avengers roster do. How else could she have done it if not for her connection to Tony Stark? I'm sure you understand what I mean, don't you, Mr. Parker?"

Briefly glancing behind him, Peter notices that all of the Avengers were shaking in anger and were about to talk back to the reporter. Before they could do that, however, Peter raised a hand to stop them, as if signaling that he had this handled.

Turning towards the reporter, Peter replies matter-of-factly, "By understanding what you mean, do you mean understanding your blatant misogyny?"

Staring at the reporter who had started to flounder about, Peter spat out venomously, "or maybe it is your outdated and, quite frankly, prejudiced views on the capabilities of women? Is it the fact that your misogynistic comments enforce the culture that women in business, in STEM, in education, in politics and even in heroism face hostility in nearly everything they do and accomplish simply because they are women?"

Watching the reporter slowly redden, Peter continued without mercy because how dare he imply that his mother was less because she was a woman, "Pepper Potts is the CEO of Stark Industries, a company that leads the science and business industry with her leadership. She has been hailed as one of the most powerful women in the world and has received multiple awards for her efforts in business."

Emphasizing his next statement clearly because he wanted everyone to know that Pepper's role was more than just 'Tony Stark's wife', Peter said clearly, "Pepper Potts is not on the New Avengers roster because she is an accessory to Tony Stark or has, and I quote, connections to him. She led the mission because she is capable and had the brains to do so, a fact that the team had both unanimously acknowledged and agreed to. The fact that you imply differently simply because she is a woman shows your own ignorant ideals."

Peter stopped his tirade briefly and narrowed his eyes, speaking slowly with words filled with venom, as if staring at a low-life prey, he said, "Why is it... that you... only expect greatness from men?"

It is here, as he watched Peter sunshine and rainbows Parker verbally and furiously tear into a sexist reporter so hard that the bastard is nearly in tears by the end of it all that Rhodey's final revelation dawned on him.

He knew that everyone in his found family would do anything for Peter Parker but it is here that he realizes that likewise, Peter Parker would do anything for them too.

Beside him, the Avengers stare at their youngest proudly with feral smiles of their own.

That's their boy.