"I don't need a party", Tate huffed for the fifth time in the last twenty four hours. There was a loud bang as the ball Charley had been throwing and catching, missed his hands and bounced off Tate's desk. There was a screech from Callum as it shot past his face and across the room. Peter barely look up from his science homework as his hand shot out and snatched the ball from mid-air. For a second, the group of boys all stared. The ones who knew about spidey stuff; Tate, Ned and Callum, barely reacted. Jason, Abe and Charley all blinked. 

"Dude", Jason threw his hand over the mattress where he and Peter were sprawled surrounded by books. "Great catch". Peter flicked the ball over to Tate, who caught it in both hands, and slapped his palm. 

"As I was saying", Tate continued from where he was sitting crosslegged on the rug of his bedroom with Ned and Abe. A lego set for a red dragon was half assembled between them. A matching black dragon sitting complete on a shelf above them. "I don't need a party for my birthday. They're overrated". 

Callum caught the blue bouncy ball as Tate tossed it across the room. He was sitting on Tate's desk, eyeing the room with a judging gaze. It had been roughly two years since the fight with vulture and Tate's seventeenth birthday was coming up. During that time, the Stark tower had been sold and Tate's family had moved to a penthouse closer to midtown for his last year of school. It was only going to be temporary as after school Tate would beheading to college and Tony and Pepper would be moving to their lakeside house in the countryside, away from the city. But for now, it would be home and he still hadn't fully decorated his room, which is why Callum was judging the space. Half of the room, one desk pushed into the corner away from the floor to ceiling windows and near the door, was a big computer. Four monitors rested on the wall and under the desk were built in hard drives. While the other half held his bed and usual belongings. One wall was half filled shelves of books, boards and boxes of wheels to screw on, and lego. The second desk was mostly covered in school work. 

"But you've never had a birthday party before!" Callum complained. "Not even a kid one with stupid clowns and silly party games. You have to let us throw you one proper kids party before you reach adulthood".

"Why?" Tate asked in confusion. He turned round as the door opened and MJ strolled in. She was chewing from a packet of cheese balls, cheeks bulging. 

"These are mine. You losers can use your feet and get your own", She stated as she flopped over Jason's back. The tanned boy let out an Oof at the sudden weight but only adjusted her and kept reading his homework. MJ dropped a cheese ball onto the book and Jason popped it into his mouth. 

"Thanks babe". 

Callum rolled his eyes. "Stop being disgusting you two". 

"Says the boy with his feet in his boyfriend's lap", Ned pointed out. 

"Stop making us third wheel", Abe huffed at them all then he frowned. "Seven wheel? Eight wheel?"

"Yeah Yeah", Tate rolled his eyes at the old argument. (It was a conversation they had all had before but Abe seemed unable to keep a girlfriend longer than a month and Ned had yet to show any interest in dating). "But as I was saying, why is it so important for me to have a party?" 

"Parties are overrated", MJ spoke up. "Its all drunk teenagers guiding sloppily and breaking your house". 

"We're talking about kids parties", Charley corrected. "The king at a diner where the waiters bring you a cake and everyone sings while wearing various party hats. The ones with those silly party games, like piñata. Tate has never had one". 

"Or been to one", Peter voiced. Callum's face became comedic with shock. Tate scowled at his boyfriend in betrayal. Peter just widened his amber brown eyes and blinked cutely as he blew the hair from his face. (How could he be mad at that?)

"You've never been invited to a birthday party?" Abe was the one who spoke. 

"I've been invited", Tate replied as he stood up. "I just never went because Mom was too busy working to take me. Any one for chips?" 

"What was your childhood?" Peter stated with a judging look. Tate stared at him for a moment then he was throwing himself at the other boy. Peter yelped and rolled, catching Tate's weight in his hands as the asian boy fell. He flopped over Peter, caging him in on the mattress. "Tate!" He yelped as he began laughing.

"You are supposed to be on my side", Tate muttered. "And you can't judge my childhood". 

"It was a joke!" Peter yelped again as Tate began poking his finger's into the other boy's ribs. "Stop tickling me!" 

"You can't judge my childhood", Tate grinned as Peter giggled madly. He poked him a few more times until Peter batted his hands away. 

"Get off. I thought you were getting chips". 

"I want some!" Callum called. 

"Me too!" Abe added. Tate rolled his eyes fondly and rolled off of Peter and the bed and onto his feet like a cat. He stretched his arms up above his head and for a moment his tshirt rode up to expose a strip of his belly. The skin marred by a vertical line about three inches along from surgery that matched the lines around his knees. The skin was white now, healed with his various other injures. His legs still played up but for the past six months, he had been almost back to the level of activity he'd had. Skating, boxing at the gym, and he was getting back into the martial arts training he had been taught by Black widow. Other than rest days when his injuries ached (like during sudden thunderstorms, atmospheric pressure changes, overdoing it, or when they simply liked to remind him that they existed) it was almost back to the level of normality he'd had before. 

He shuffled, slippers on the heated marble floors, out of his room and down the small corridor to the open plan living area. Tony was out in the city at some conference and Pepper was in Dubai negotiating turning the stark buildings there into another symbol of renewable energy. She was due back in two days and would be taking a week off on holiday to celebrate Tate's birthday. He was looking forward to it as he and Tony had prepared adoption papers for Pepper, so that she and Tony would share custody of him. So that they could both legally be his adoptive parents as despite them being married, Pepper was still not legally his guardian but they were planning on changing that. 

He reached the kitchen and found the drawer where they kept the snacks. It was a deceptively large drawer that Tony called 'The Tardis' for obvious reasons. It was located in the bottom of the isle table opposite the large floor to ceiling windows that spanned the wall of the living space. It was because of this positioning that when Tate rose, three bags of chips in hand, his eyes caught the gleam of metal through the glass. Frowning, he crossed round the table and past the leather sofa towards the glass to peer out at what had caught his attention. 

The penthouse was located onto of a very tall apartment building that was a good story or two higher than it's surrounding counterparts. (Tony liked being tall). It wasn't as tall as stark tower had been but it was still tall for the area. Because of this, they had a great view of the sky and off the flat roofs of the other buildings below. On one of these buildings was a figure dressed in dark demin and a puffer coat. It was too far to make out anything distinguishing. He was holding a large silver camera and was aiming it towards their building. Tate frowned at it for a second, the bright afternoon light glinting off the lens had been what had caught his attention in the first place. 

But there was no way the photographer could see inside, the windows were reflective glass, specially designed one way. Maybe he was just taking cityscape photos, Tate reasoned with himself as he turned and began heading back towards his room and his friends. But still, it was unusual for him to be there of all places. FRIDAY had not picked up any danger so it must be benign. Even so, something about it niggled Tate's mind as he closed his bedroom door and tossed a bag at Callum and the other at Abe before keeping the third to himself. He sat down heavily on the mattress next to Peter and leaned back against his boyfriend comfortably. "I just saw some dude through the window taking pictures of the city", he spoke aloud through the noises of crunching. "Pretty weird". 

"City scape photos have their own charm", Peter defended. "It's all about the beauty of urban civilisation and the way people live around each other"- Tate listened to Peter trail into a rant about the beauty of city film and photography. The boy had always loved such aesthetics but had began taking his own photos recently. Tate listened fondly and watched as Peter's hands moved in the way that they did whenever he was excited or passionate about something, the strangeness the photographer had given him falling to the back of his mind.

unedited