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La Cosa Nostra

Summary:

Peter lives in a sketchy part of town and unknowingly gets involved in the mafia because he doesn't want to get jumped. Tony is fascinated by the boy who saved him a headache and decides to reward him for it.

Chapter Text

“Peter, are you closing tonight,” May asked and he looked over.

“Yeah, I can,” Peter answered, “I’m just gonna need time to do some homework.”

“Okay, yeah, go upstairs and come back down at four.” Peter nodded and headed upstairs, starting on his homework.

Ever since his uncle had passed away, it was just up to him and his Aunt May to keep the coffee shop up and running. Peter didn’t mind, but there was only so much he could drop out of to help. He had already quit marching band, robotics, and decathlon, all three of his extracurriculars, to help out. Peter couldn’t just drop out of school. He needed to get into college next year.

At four, Peter headed back downstairs and worked the closing shift, which left him to walk home at ten at night. Peter didn’t live in the best part of Los Angeles, but it was semi-close to his school and enough for the two of them. But a bad neighborhood meant crime. He did his best to stay out of it, but sometimes, it was inevitable. He had been mugged a few times and even jumped once because he didn’t warn some people doing some shady stuff of police officers, so he made sure to just keep his head down and his headphones in. Thankfully, he got home safely and finished his homework, only to wake up early to help open the next morning.

Peter went to school and almost fell asleep during his first class. The school year was almost over, but they were doing an exam review, so he had to pay attention. Peter did fall asleep during his second class because the exhaustion just hit him like a ton of bricks. Peter finished his day, then went to the shop. He did his homework, then closed again. He was on his way home when Peter saw cops come around the corner. There were people in the alley loading a truck, both having guns in their holsters.

“Cops just came around the corner,” he said as he walked by, “probably two minutes.” He just continued walking, keeping his head down. He made his way to his apartment and went inside, shutting and locking the door behind him. Peter hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass, but he would find out, wouldn’t he?

The next day, nothing was out of the ordinary. He went to school, came home, did his homework, closed the shop, went to sleep, and did it all again the next day. It wasn’t until three days after the incident that he noticed something...weird. Peter wasn’t one to judge, but a middle aged man came in around seven on that Saturday night and got a black coffee, then took a table. But the man didn’t do anything but watch Peter for the next two hours. Peter could feel his eyes watching him, but he acted like he didn’t notice. The man looked rugged. He had shoulder length brown hair that was pulled back in a bun; stubble ran across his chin and around his mouth; he wore a black leather jacket, covering a prosthetic arm made of metal that Peter had first mistaken for a glove.

This man wasn’t the type to even step foot in the coffee shop. Ben didn’t want the standard coffee shop look, so Uncle Ben’s Coffee Shop was anything but. There was almost every color of the rainbow in the shop; it was bright, but cohesive. He wanted it to be a place where people felt happy and could enjoy their coffee and have a laugh with their friends, but didn’t want it to be the dark type of coffee shop everyone was familiar with. Every Thursday at four, the yoga moms would come for their post-workout coffee; a group of elderly women had their book club there every Monday morning; teenagers came everyday after school. Almost everyday, someone commented on how beautiful the shop was, so Peter did his best to keep it that way.

When Peter went home, he thought he was being followed, but the man had left over an hour ago, so he brushed it off and was thankful when he got to his apartment safely. He decided that it was just another creepy man getting a coffee, but he was quickly proven wrong when the same man showed up the next day. And the next. Same black coffee, same dark outfit, same time. Peter couldn’t say anything to him, though. He had no business doing so and whoever he was, he would go away eventually. At least, Peter hoped so.

Peter was watched for a week. He knew it at the coffee shop and even noticed blacked out cars sitting outside the shop and his apartment building, even his school. He didn’t have time to worry about it. He had his last two exams today and had to ace them. And he did. Peter went home and found May.

“How was your last day of junior year,” she asked, “exams?”

“Good, passed all of them with flying colors. Mind if I take the night off and go hang out with Ned,” Peter asked and May smiled at him.

“Sure, go be a teenager.” Peter smiled and gave her a hug. “Be home by ten.”

“I know,” Peter said and left, heading back to his apartment. He changed, then started his walk to his best friend’s house. He noticed the man in the black outfit getting on the same bus as him, sitting behind Peter. Peter turned around and smiled at him. “So, are you stalking me for fun or is this some kind of pervy thing? Because I’m only 17.”

“Neither, just following orders from my boss.”

“So your boss is the perv? Or is this like a police thing? Because if it is, you can tell your supervisor that I’m not in a gang, I just like the color blue.” The man just rolled his eyes.

“Turn around and just let me do my job. I’m not a cop,” the man said.

“Well, if you’re gonna follow me, at least tell me your name,” Peter said, “I’ll go first. You seem a little shy. I’m Peter Parker, but you probably already know that.” He held his hand out, but the man just looked at it, then out the window.

“Turn around, kid. I’m serious.” Peter huffed and turned around, taking his phone out. He heard the man talking on his phone a little bit later, but he was speaking a language Peter didn’t know. He barely passed his Spanish class, so he wasn’t multilingual.

Peter also questioned what came over him. He always told himself that he wouldn’t get involved in gangs, but here he was, talking to a stalker. To be fair, the man probably should’ve sat a couple rows back to maintain his secrecy. The man blatantly followed Peter to Ned’s house, but continued walking after Peter walked in. Peter and Ned watched some movies, ate some snacks, and talked about their plans for the summer. Peter left around nine to make sure he was back by ten. He was just walking towards the bus stop.

“You know, it’s dangerous to walk this late at night,” someone said, scaring Peter. He had already grabbed his keys and turned on the taser that was attached. “Hey, chill, it’s me.” Peter looked at his arm and saw the light from the streetlamp bouncing off of it. Peter turned it off and hit his arm.

“Don’t do that, creeper, god.”

“Don’t touch me,” he said seriously, “or I will break your fingers.”

“Whatever, creep, I don’t even know you.”

“So you put your taser away when you know I’ve been watching you?”

“You and that car and the one parked outside of my apartment and the one outside the shop. Am I gonna get jumped again? It wasn’t fun the first time.”

“When did you get jumped?”

“Couple months ago. I was walking to school and there were some shady people in the alley and cops coming their way, but I didn’t say anything and they jumped me the next day,” Peter explained, “I don’t wanna be jumped again, that’s why I warned you. Wait, are you the guy from the alley?”

“No, but I know the people from the alley. They report to me.”

“So you’re like a criminal?” The man laughed a little.

“And you’re an accessory,” the man said and Peter cocked an eyebrow.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble, I don’t want to be involved or work for you or whatever. I just want to go on like that day never happened. I’m not gonna say anything to the cops and I’m not gonna expose you or whatever you’re worried about. I just wanna go home,” Peter answered.

“I was just messing with you. I’m just following you because my boss thinks you’re cute. But I’ll let him know.” He crossed the street and got in a car that was gone before Peter even processed what happened. Peter was just dumbfounded, but continued home.

The next morning, he woke up and looked out his window, the blacked out car that had been taking up the spot across the street had now been replaced with a regular car. Peter showered, got ready for work, then headed to the coffee shop. The car there was also gone and the man with the metal arm didn’t come in, nor did anyone that looked like him or dressed remotely similar to him. The next few days felt oddly empty. Peter had just gotten used to being watched, but knew it would have to end eventually.

Peter was just super confused about who they were. Were they cops that thought he was involved with whatever he stopped? He wasn’t. He didn’t know those people and didn’t want to. May always preached to never get involved with gangs or the mafia or drugs or anything and he didn’t. He was scared of that crowd. Living the fast life, doing drugs, selling drugs, stealing cars. He doesn’t really know what gangs do, but that’s what they do in video games. They obviously kill people, too.

What if they’re here to kill him? What would he do then? Just disappear? What if his body was never found and May worried? May would be alone for the rest of her life. She had already lost her sister, brother-in-law, husband, and a few of her own kids. May always wanted to expand her family, but she would miscarry or her baby would be stillborn. Peter’s heart always broke for her, but they had each other at the end of the day and that’s all they had. Maybe Peter should do some research and see if he can find these people. Maybe that’s a bad idea. Peter was the king of bad ideas, though.

The next day, Peter took to his trusty laptop that had only broken on him twice, so maybe it wasn’t that trusty. Oh well, it’s what he had. He looked up local gangs and the history of them, but didn’t find any that met the criteria he was looking for. They were more like a secret army than a gang. Gangs don’t drive blacked out SUVs and watch people. At least...he didn’t think they did. Then he looked up the mafia. There wasn’t much current information, but what he did found matched closer to the behavior that they were performing. It wasn’t like there was just a database for the world’s most current mafia members and all their activities.

Peter decided it was the mafia, so he moved onto trying to figure out the man with the metal arm. He first checked the registered sex offenders list and had his last name and first initial from the records of the shop. He wasn’t on there, so Peter silently thanked the sky for that one. Peter was safe from child predators...he hoped. But it kind of put him at a dead end. J. Barnes didn’t produce much. Neither did “Man with a metal arm.”

“What are you doing,” May asked, opening the door. Peter looked up and smiled.

“Just, uh, looking at colleges around here.”

“I thought you wanted MIT.”

“I do, but it’s MIT, so realistically, I may not get in. It’s good to have other options, plus I love working at the shop and may not want to go to college.”

“Well, it’s up to you. Just know that I love you no matter what, okay,” May replied, “and if you’re not sure, take a year off or just do community college for the first two years. Your degree will still say MIT if you choose that route.”

“Thanks, May,” he said, “I did have a few ideas for some things though.”

“For the shop?”

“Seasonal stuff.”

“Okay, catch me when you’re ready. I love you.”

“I love you, too, May. Thanks for taking care of me and letting me explore my life.”

“Hey, you’re not even 18. I don’t want you to pick something and then think you’re stuck in that, okay? You have your whole life to figure out what you wanna do, so there’s no rush. Trust me, your mom left me a book of her wishes and forcing you to go to college wasn’t in it, just encouraging you to trust yourself and your judgement.”

“She did?”

“Oh, yeah. She knew being a SHIELD agent was risky and hoped to never use it, but I still have it. She wrote a note for you for when you turn 18, so that’s what you’ll get then.”

“She did? Do you think she knew she was gonna die,” Peter asked and May came over and sat on his bed, so he shut his laptop and pushed it aside.

“I assume it was like going into the army. You know you have missions and risks come with those missions and that you might not come home. I don’t think she ever went into a mission thinking “this one is where I die” because that’s not practicable. She just knew that if she didn’t come home, she wanted me and Ben to take care of you and do everything we could for you. I’m sure your dad was the same way, but I don’t think they expected to get on that plane and have it crash.”

“That’s what happened?”

“We think. The plane was found, but only a pilot and another agent were recovered. The wreckage was too much, but lord only knows.”

“Y’know, when I was younger, I used to think they would just come home one day. There was never a body for me to say goodbye to, y’know?”

“Well, your parents never got wedding rings and just had bracelets so they could wear them when they worked, but never took them on missions. They’re magnetic and click together and I always saved them for you because I didn’t know if you would want to bury them or keep them or what, but I have them.”

“Really?” May nodded and left, coming back a few minutes later with a black box with their initials on it. Peter opened it and smiled at them, then flipped them over. “What does “La Cosa Nostra” mean?”

“Huh,” she asked.

“It’s engraved on the inside of the bracelets. See?” May grabbed them and Peter thought he recognized it, so he grabbed his laptop and typed it in.

His parents were in the mafia.