Peter woke up to the sun filtering into his window, wait window? Suddenly the memories of the previous day came rushing back and he sighed, flopping back down onto the bed. He couldn't shake the uneasy feeling form hs dreams, he couldn't remember them, but he knew they weren't good. He stood up easily, and walked into the bathroom, dragging new clothes behind him. He still was baffled by the easy access he had to everything he needed, he felt like he should be working his ass off for it, but he knew Tony wouldn't let him.

After showering and blow-drying his hair he ventured out of his room and walked to the lounge, no one was there and he realised it was still early in the morning, the sun had only just risen. Peter sighed, not really knowing what to do with his body. Does he sit on the couch? No, way too soft. Peter tried the floor but the carpet was too soft as well. He finally settled cross-legged on the table. It was what he was used too. He pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his chin on his knees, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear, getting his hand caught in the curls. He let out a frustrated noise, attempting to pull his hand free, not succeeding he just stared at his hand caught halfway through his hair. That haircut didn't sound too bad now.

"You need some help there?" A voice said in the doorway, Peter snapped his head up to look at the person, the woman with red hair. He nodded sheepishly, she smiled a little advancing on him with a brush in her hand. It was strange, she didn't make his spidey sense go off, she obviously wasn't a threat. Peter found himself trusting her a little, an odd feeling, he hadn't allowed himself to trust in a long time.

"What are you thinking?" She said as they helped him untangle his hand and brush out his hair.

"You don't make my sixth sense go off, I feel like I can trust you, but it feels weird to." Peter allowed her to keep brushing his hair, even though there weren't any knots.

"You don't have to trust me if you don't want to, but I'd like you to. You can trust me, I won't hurt you, I promise." She said Peter, looked her in the eyes. He tried to keep up his Stoney exterior but it broke, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He didn't bother to wipe when away, letting them roll down his cheeks. He couldn't really remember the last time he cried. He threw his arms around Natasha's shoulders, burying his head in her shoulder. She hummed, hugging him back, allowing him to wet her shirt with his tears. After some time he pulled away from her and whipped his face clean of tears.

"Everythings changing so fast and I don't know how to adapt. I've always been able to adapt and survive, but this time I don't know if I can." He said, fiddling with the ends of his hair again. Natasha hummed, making him lookup.

"I know what you mean. When I saw in the Blackwidow program things changed for the worse all the time, then suddenly they changed for the better. I didn't allow myself to open up, and I shut everyone out who wanted to help me. Whether you believe me or not, all of us are ready to help you. You don't have to do it all in one go, but we are ready to support you, with all of your negatives and positives." She said, holding his face in her hands. Peter nodded, unable to form words. She smiled and pulled something from behind her.

"I brought those hair ties for you, I haven't ever used them. Have you ever seen a scrunchie?" She held up what looked like a puffy hair tie, Peter rose an eyebrow at it, taking it from her extended hand.

"Why's it so squishy?" He said, squeezing it in his hand. She chuckled lightly at his confused face.

"They are more for decoration, they make your hair look cooler. I brought you a ton of stuff." she opened a decent size bag, "You can keep all of this stuff too." Peter looked between the bag and her.

"You mean that?" He said softly, she nodded, Peter smiled, watching as she pulled things out from the bag and explained what they were used for and what they were called. Soon Peter had double dutch braids in his hair, small clips in his hair, Natasha had found some bird clips and Peter was very happy to put them in his hair. Natasha was a quick learner and had easily finished he braids as well. She even let him put some clips in her hair, he chose the little flowers for her. She looked at herself in the mirror nodding in approval. Peter didn't think he had smiled this much in years.

"Say, Peter, why are you sitting on the table?" A voice from the doorway said, Peter looked up to find Captain America, who didn't seem perturbed by the two doing their hair. Peter shrugged, redoing a part of Natasha's hair for her, she hummed repeating it.

"Couch was too soft," Peter said.

"Why not the floor then?"

"Still too soft. The table feels like an alleyway." Peter said, brushing a loose hair out of his eyes. Steve nodded.

"I'm going on my run, should be back in a couple of hours." Natasha and Peter nodded, still absorbed in what they were doing.

Natasha stood up, hauling him up by his hand, she was the first person he let touch him, and he wasn't objecting. "Come on, let's get some food in you." She said, guiding him to the kitchen. She sat him in one of the barstools, and opened the fridge, pulling out what looked like containers.

"What are they?" He asked, picking one up and rotating it in his hand.

"It's yogurt." She said, showing him how to open it. He frowned at the contents.

"I repeat, what are they." He said, prodding it with the spoon Natasha had given him. She laughed, scooping up some of it with her spoon, Peter copied her, pausing when he was about to put it in his mouth, "Why does it smell sweet?" He said before putting it in his mouth.

"Ok, I have no idea what this is but I like it." He said, continuing to eat it, Natasha was surprised when he seemed to be pacing himself. But Peter had learnt not to eat too fast when you haven't for a while if you didn't want to throw up.

"Hey, can I give you a nickname?" She said, Peter looked up at her, nodding an ok.

"How about Ben?" Peter shrugged, years ago he would have winced, but now he couldn't stand someone calling him Peter or a variation of it.

"Sure, as long as I can call you Nat." Natasha nodded.

"Deal." Peter laughed, continuing to eat the yogurt.

"Hey, random question, do you know if you have an enhanced metabolism. Cause if you do we'll need to let everyone know so we know to cook more food." Natasha said, passing him another yogurt, she wasn't sure if he was eating so much because he'd skipped dinner, or because he normally did.

"I think so when I got my powers I had to eat a lot more, I worked out it was because my body burns through calories to maintain my strength, speed and flexibility." Peter shrugged again, he was making a habit of it by now.

"Cool, I'll tell the others for you. Cap and Bucky have enhanced metabolisms, so you aren't the only one." Peter nodded in appreciation. He froze when he sensed someone about to put their hand on his shoulder, he jerked to the side, locking eyes with the owner of the hand. It was the man with dark blond hair; Clint, he thinks. He rose an eyebrow at Peter but turned away.

"Clint won't hurt you, he just has dad instincts," Natasha said, making Clint snort. Peter sunk back into his seat again, putting the empty yogurt container with the others, stacking them. Peter drew in a deep breath before turning to Clint.

"Sorry for jerking away, it is a lot harder for me to trust men compared to women when it comes to physical contact," Peter said, Clint just waved a hand in the air.

"No problem dude probably should have thought it through more," Clint said, using the toaster. The team slowly filtered in and paid Peter's stack of Yogurt containers no mind, they assumed they were Natasha's. When Bucky walked into the room he gaped at Peter's hair.

"Dude, your hair is so cool!" Bucky said, examining his hair from across the room. Peter sheepishly smiled, "Who did it?" Bucky said, looking between Natasha and Peter, Peter curled into himself, aware of everyone looking at him.

"Ben did, he taught me how to do mine too. I gave him some of the hair accessories I never use." Natasha said, pointing up to her hair.

"That's so cool! Can you teach me?" Bucky exclaimed, Peter shifted, narrowing his eyes at Bucky, who didn't make his senses flair. Peter shrugged.

"Sure, but you have to put hair clips in," Peter said, banishing the bag of accessories in his hand that he had picked up from the counter.

"Deal, but I get to pick," Bucky said. Peter nodded happily, putting the back backdown. Bucky went to continue around the kitchen, pausing when he saw the pile of yogurt containers, "Who ate all the yogurt, only Steve and I can eat that much." Peter flushed red.

"That would be Ben, we figure that he has enhanced metabolism. From what Ben's said it's highly likely." Natasha said, happy to talk for Peter. Who was blushing madly. Bucky examined the containers closer, counting them.

"It looks like you went through three times the amount Cap can on a good day, I have a feeling your metabolism is higher, I'd get Bruce to test it." Bucky said, grabbing an apple.

"Who's Bruce?" Peter said quietly, making Bucky shrug.

"Just one of the guys in the med-bay also happens to be the hulk." Peter let out a squeak.

"Are you talking about Bruce Banner?" Peter said disbelievingly.

"You know him?" Tony said, moving closer to Peter.

"Of course I do! I have one of his books, it's one of the only things I kept when I moved around. I used to read them all the time at the library too. His books are amazing, especially the one on Gamma radiation-" Tony cut him off by raising his hand, making Peter flinch slightly.

"You're telling me you can understand his books?" Tony said. Peter shrugged, nodding.

"Oh my god, you need to meet him, he'll adore you. No one understands his books! You're telling me you've read all of them?" Peter nodded again, clearly not understanding the severity of the situation.

"Say, Peter, did you keep up with your studies while you moved around?" a man said, who Peter had figured out was Scott. They had adopted using 'moving around' for what Peter went through.

"Kinda, I used to go to the library all the time and go through the textbooks they had, they were a little out of date, but they did the trick. I stayed in school till I was 13, which was when I ran." Peter shrugged, fiddling with his necklace again.

"Would you maybe want to go back to school?" Clint said, his dad popping out.

"Yeah sure, I haven't interacted with people my age in a long time, it'd be nice. And I still want to go to college." Peter shrugged, tugging on the necklace slightly, "I could try out for midtown tech down in queens, I was gonna go there before ya-know." Clint nodded.

"I'll get on that, I'll ask Pepper if she can help me out with it."

The team steadily filtered out of the kitchen, until it was just Wanda and Peter. He was still fiddling with the necklace absentmindedly in his hand. The chain was slightly rusted now, but the charm stayed intact. He managed to get it off so he could stare at it, MJ definitely still had a place in his heart. He missed her, and he missed how casual she was about everything, about how she was nonchalant about what was happening. He hadn't seen her since he was 13, which was when he ran. It was after the bottle incident, and he didn't want to move again, he had already moved twelve times in two years.

"The person who gave you that necklace, they mean something to you?" Wanda said, Peter looked up at her, a dazed look on his face.

"Yeah, she did," Peter said, flipping the charm so he could see his and MJ's initials.

"Hey, loser!" MJ said as she ran up to him, he'd told her he was moving schools, not that he was going to run. She was blushing as she trusts a small box into his hand with a ribbon on it. Peter rose an eyebrow. "So you can always remember me." Peter carefully opened it, revealing a necklace with a small bird charm, in flight. He looked up at her with a wide smile on his face. "You always talk about how birds are the most beautiful animals. And that how-" Peter cut her off with a smile, "How they can fly away whenever they want to." The small necklace in his pocket he wanted to give to MJ was burning. He couldn't give it to her and knowing he was lying. They hugged briefly before Peter left school. That was the last time he saw her.

"Have you always worn it?" She asked Peter, smiled, putting it back on.

"I've never taken it off. I was going to give her one too, but I had told her I was moving schools, and I couldn't think about giving it to her without feeling guilty." Peter pulled it out of his pocket, "She was my best friend, and when she was right, I'd never been able to forget her." Peter put the necklace carefully back in his pocket, a black dahlia.

"Maybe you'll see her again one day." She said. Peter hummed, he hoped he would.