Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter walked into the coffee shop and did a double take. Sure enough, his eyes weren’t deceiving him. The Black Widow was sitting there waiting for him.

He had gotten a strange text earlier that day while he was in 2nd hour English class. It was really cryptic and just said to meet at this cafe at 5 o'clock. He looked at his watch. It was 4:38. He had gotten there early so he could scope out the area and see the person when they walked in. So much for that, He thought.

He realized he had been just standing there for a bit too long and finally put his feet into motion. He walked over to the table and sat down across from the Russian. She slid a steaming coffee mug in front of him as soon as he sat down.

“Cream and two sugars.” She said.

Peter didn’t know how she knew how he took his coffee, but he decided he didn’t want to know. Besides, she is the Black Widow. She probably knows everything about him. He shivered at the thought.

He realized he was being rude just staring at the cup so he stuttered out, “Th-thank you Mrs. Black Widow, Maam.”

She smirked. “Call me Natasha.”

Peter didn’t know what to think of the whole situation. He had no idea why The Black Widow- Natasha- had called him to a random cafe and given him a cup of coffee. He felt a small feeling along the back of his neck. His Spidey Sense was telling him to be wary, but he wasn’t in imminent danger.

She began talking, “Look, kid, I know you’re probably wondering why I’m here.” He nodded and she continued, “I know about your late night activities and I thought I’d give you a little friendly advice.”

She looked him over and thought about how young he was. Nowhere near as young as she was when she started in the Red Room, but still a kid all the same.

Peter had been on edge since he realized it was Natasha Romanoff who had summoned him. He knew there was no way she didn’t know he was Spiderman. It wouldn’t make sense for her to want to talk to Peter Parker. Despite this, he relaxed a bit at her words. She seemed pretty genuine, and Peter didn’t think she was here to turn him in or hurt him. He stayed quiet and watched her take a sip of her own coffee before she continued.

“At the tower, we keep track of all potential threats and assets. So, when I noticed that you’ve been straying a bit outside of your normal territory lately some metaphorical alarm bells went off.”

Peter was confused and became slightly guarded. “What does it matter to you where I patrol?”

She clocked the note of defensiveness and took another sip of her coffee. “I don’t care what you do, I’m just trying to look out for you. I know you normally stick to Queens, and my advice is that you continue sticking to Queens. I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt because you strayed a little too far into someone else’s territory.”

Peter scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. He didn’t see the harm in expanding his patrolling area every now and then.

“Look, Mrs Black Widow-”

“Natasha.” She corrected him.

“Natasha, sorry. Look, I appreciate the concern for my wellbeing or whatever, but I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing this on my own for a while now and I’m just fine.” He concluded his statement by downing his cup of coffee in one go. (He pulled an all nighter to study for Senora Garcia’s Spanish test that he took this morning.)

Natasha sighed. “I know that you think you’re helping more people by covering more areas, but if you won’t do it for your own safety, would you do me a favor?” Peter listened while she continued.

“Just steer clear of Hell's Kitchen, okay? Think of it as a favor to me.”

And with that, she stood up and left. Peter was puzzled. Why Hell’s Kitchen?

When Peter went out as Spiderman that night, he stuck to his normal patrol route. He didn’t know why, but he had a nagging feeling that he should take the Widow’s advice. Peter didn’t think about her words again until a few weeks later.

Chapter Text

Peter was patrolling after school like he normally did. So far, he had stopped a mugging, helped an old lady carry her groceries, returned a lost kid, and some random vendor had given him a free hot dog. Now, he was sitting on the edge of a roof eating that hot dog. He dangled his legs off the edge and swung them back and forth. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to look at the message.

Ned: *picture of cute dog*

MJ: *thumbs up emoji*

MJ: 7/10

Peter gaped at that and replied:

Peter: dude that is definitely at least an 11/10

MJ: that's not how this works dumbo

The trio had been having a competition to see who could find the cutest dog in all of New York. MJ was the official judge because it had been decided that neither Peter nor Ned could be objective when it came to dogs. If they were judging, all the dogs would be 10/10s on a cuteness scale.

Peter finished his hot dog and checked the time. It was already 5:30. He decides to head home to see if May needs help with dinner. He shivered at the thought of her cooking by herself. She is a really bad cook. One time, she burnt a casserole so bad that someone called the Fire Department.

Even though he just had a hot dog, he was still hungry after swinging around because of his enhanced metabolism. He pulled on his mask and hopped off the roof, catching himself with his webs. After they ate dinner, he thought about trying to finish his history paper that was due tomorrow. He was already falling a bit behind due to his Spidermanning around every night.

As he was swinging home, he was broken out of his thoughts by police sirens in the distance. He abruptly stopped and turned around to head in the direction of the sound. As he got closer, he saw that it was a high-speed car chase. It looked like the suspect was heading west and he shot a web to swing over to the action.

He tried to get in front of the car to cut them off, but the driver swerved at the last second. Peter quickly changed course and gave chase. He shot a few webs at the tires. Peter was successful in his efforts to get the car to stop, but the driver lost control of the car and veered right onto the sidewalk.

Peter saw that the car was heading directly for a mother and her child, so he jumped in front of the car and used his strength to stop it before it hit them.

Everyone stopped for a breath, adrenaline pumping. At that point, the police cars rolled up and the officers quickly got out and arrested the driver. Peter went over to the woman and her daughter.

“Are either of you hurt?” he asked kindly.

“No, no we’re okay thanks to you. Thank you, Spiderman.” The woman threw her arms around Peter, and he tensed for a beat before hugging her back.

“It's okay, you’re okay now.” He reassured the civilians and then checked in with the officer in charge. When she saw him, she walked over to greet him.

“Hey Spiderman, I’m Officer Henderson. Thanks for the assist.” She stuck out her hand and he shook it.

“No problem, just doing what I can to help out.”

“Well, I appreciate it. Things could have been much worse if you hadn’t been here. We’re going to take this guy in and book him. Have a nice night.”

Peter waved as she walked away. He shot a web up to a nearby roof and propelled himself up. He hadn’t been paying attention during the chase, but now he realized he had no clue where he was. None of the streets looked familiar.

He checked the time again and saw it was now just past 6:00. He really should be heading home. He thought about going back down and asking Officer Henderson where he was when he heard a crash in a nearby alley. He looked at his watch again before deciding to check it out. It’s probably just a cat or something so it won’t take long.

As he approached, he heard what sounded like fighting and he sped up. When he got there all he saw was two unconscious guys and a puddle of blood. The weird thing was neither of those guys were bleeding.

He followed the trail of blood up the fire escape and onto a different roof. He thought he lost the trail when he heard a thud down in the alley below him. He looked down to see none other than the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen unconscious in a dumpster. Oh my god, he thought. Oh my god.

Ned had shown Peter the news when this guy first showed up and he had thought it was all a little crazy. At first the guy just wore a black mask and beat up criminals, but then he upgraded to a suit. A devil suit. Both of the boys had thought it was a little dramatic, but that was kind of hypocritical considering Peter’s own suit.

Peter knew he had been operating solely out of Hell’s Kitchen for a while now, but he was too busy to keep tabs on him. If he was being honest, Peter had forgotten about him. Until now.

Now, Peter was staring at The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen lying unconscious in a dumpster. Peter quickly hopped down to check on him and when he got close enough, he realized the man had a knife sticking out of his side. Only slightly panicking, Peter shook Daredevil a bit to see if he would wake up. He stirred a bit, but was still unresponsive.

Peter didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like he could take the man to a hospital. They would want to know who he is and why he has a hole in his side. Peter put his hands on his head and paced back and forth. He decided to call Ned. Ned would know what to do. Peter pulled out his phone and it rang four times before Ned answered.

“Hey Peter, what's up-”

“Ned! Ned, I need your help. I don’t know what to do.”

“Whoa, whoa, Peter, are you okay? What happened?”

“I don’t know! I just stopped this car chase, but then I somehow ended up in Hell’s Kitchen and didn’t know where I was. So, I went up to a roof, but then I heard this crash, and it sounded like people were fighting. So, I went to check it out and there were two guys knocked out and a trail of blood. Obviously, I followed the trail and I found Daredevil unconscious in a dumpster and he’s not waking up and I don’t know what to do!”

Peter didn’t realize he was rambling until he stopped and had to take a huge gulp of air. He was Panicking.

“Thats… a lot. Okay Peter, calm down it's going to be okay. How bad is the bleeding?”

Peter had to take a second to focus and realize that Ned asked him to do something. “Let me check.” He went up to the dumpster and turned the man over to get a better look at his wound. “Umm, there’s a knife sticking out of his side and it’s bleeding a lot.”

“Shoot. Okay, whatever you do, don’t pull the knife out. That will make the bleeding worse. You need to get him medical attention.”

“I can’t take him to the hospital! They’d ask questions and it’d be bad for both me and him.”

“Okay, you’re right. You need to get him someplace safe to patch him up. My aunt lives in Hell’s Kitchen and she’s out of town this week so you can take him there. I’ll text you the address and meet you there."

"Thanks, Ned. You're the best."

Chapter Text

After Ned had sent him the address, Peter had carefully picked up the unconscious man and swung to the apartment. He landed on the roof and gently set down the vigilante that was previously in his arms. Peter didn’t have a way to get into the building and it’s not like he could waltz in through the front door. It would be pretty noticeable if Spiderman strolled in carrying a bleeding Daredevil.

Peter checked Ned’s location on his phone to see that he was almost there. Peter was being silly thinking that they would get here at the same time. Of course it would take him a while, he thought. He was probably all the way in Queens.

Peter refocused on Daredevil while he waited for Ned. He could hear him breathing and he concentrated closely to be able to hear a faint heartbeat. He checked the man over for other injuries and found a couple superficial cuts and bruises, but nothing serious.

Other than the knife in his side. Peter noticed it had started bleeding even more than it had been when he had initially found him. He quickly applied pressure to the wound the best he could while working around the knife. He stayed like that for a couple minutes before his phone rang and he pulled it out to see Ned was calling him. He answered immediately and said, “Ned, I’m on the roof. I need you to let me in through the roof access.”

Peter heard the light thundering of steps both through the phone and with his enhanced hearing. In his panicky state, he wasn’t thinking clearly enough to notice the second set of footsteps. Ned burst through the door and Peter swung his head to see Aunt May follow slightly behind him.

“You brought May?!” Peter all but shouted.

“Do you think I know how to fix a stab wound?! May is a nurse!”

“This chat needs to happen later.” May butted in. We need to get him stabilized right now. Let's take him into the apartment.”

Peter quickly carried the man into Ned’s Aunt’s apartment and set him on the couch. May had a way of dealing with emergencies that snapped him out of his stupor. Ned shut the door and May called out, “I need scissors, alcohol, and something like a sewing kit or a stapler to close the wound!”

Peter grabbed the scissors and alcohol while Ned found a sewing kit under the sink. May didn’t hesitate to cut off his suit around the knife as soon as Peter handed her the scissors.

“Okay, hand me the alcohol and the needle. Peter, when I say, pull the knife out and I’m going to stitch him together. Ready?” Peter nodded. “Now.”

Peter quickly pulled the knife out and more blood started flowing out of the wound. May doused the wound and the needle in alcohol as a poor attempt at sterilizing them. She quickly stitched up the wound and as she was finishing, she ordered, “Ned get me some towels and Peter get me something like a bandage to wrap around him.”

They had already returned with the supplies when she finished the last stitch, and she quickly grabbed the towels to clean the area and she dressed the wound the best she could. There was a moment of silence as May checked his pulse. She let out a breath and sat back on her ankles.

“He’s as stable as I can get him considering the circumstances. We’ll have to monitor him to make sure he doesn’t deteriorate, though.”

Peter let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He suddenly felt exhausted as the adrenaline wore off. None of them spoke for a minute or so, letting an awkward silence linger.

Suddenly Peter broke the tension with, “Thank you.”

His eyes started to water and suddenly May was hugging both Ned and Peter together.

“It's okay. Everything is okay.” She comforted him. When everyone had settled down, May let go and said softly, “So tell me what happened.”

And he did. He told them about the car chase and finding Daredevil and everything else that happened. May and Ned just listened intently. Eventually, May sent Ned home so his parents wouldn’t worry. Peter and May ended up sleeping on the floor next to the masked man while they waited for him to wake up.

-

When Matt woke up, he heard two heartbeats in the apartment. One woman and one kid. The kid was quietly talking on the phone a couple feet away.

“I don’t know, Ned. He hasn’t woken up yet.”

“But what if he-”

“Its fine, Ned. Even if something did happen, May’s here.”

“Okay, just update me later, please?”

“Yep. Bye, Ned.”

The kid hung up and sighed. He let out a surprised squeak as he turned around and saw that Matt was awake. Matt heard the boy’s heart rate skyrocket. Flustered, he cautiously approached and said, “H-hi there Mr. Devil. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Matt painfully sat up and growled, “Who are you?”

The woman butted in. “It’s okay. You’re safe. I patched you up. Do you remember what happened?”

Matt ignored the question and asked another of his own. “Where am I?”

“We’re at my friend’s apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Well, technically it's my friend’s aunt’s apartment because my friend lives in Queens-”

The woman interrupted his rambling. “What Peter means to say is, he found you with a knife in your side, bleeding out in an alley and brought you here where I stitched you together. I’m May and this is my nephew, Peter.”

Matt relaxed a little, and uttered a quick “Thanks.” He abruptly got up and rushed out the door. Peter ran after him and yelled for him to wait. Matt didn’t wait. He ran up the stairwell towards the roof and burst through the roof access doors.

He quickly jumped across to the neighboring roof and hid on a fire escape. He listened as the kid came racing out the door and stopped in his tracks when Matt was nowhere to be seen. Matt knew the moment Peter gave up and decided not to try to find him. He was grateful that Peter didn’t try to come after him. He was pretty sure he tore out most of the stitches May gave him during that short chase and didn’t think he would’ve made it much farther.

Matt reached for his pocket to grab his phone and call Claire when he realized he left his phone next to his bed. He sighed. Slowly and painfully, he began his trek to Claire’s apartment. He hoped she wasn’t working at the hospital tonight.

Chapter Text

After Daredevil had run away, Peter went back and told May that he lost him. They agreed that if the Devil didn’t want their help, then there wasn’t much they could do anyways.

Peter had been worrying about him ever since the ordeal a couple weeks ago. He knew that Daredevil was alright because he had been seen out on the streets taking down some gang in HK. Despite that, Peter was still uneasy. He had caught himself drifting off during class thinking about the mysterious vigilante.

Specifically, he thought about how worried his loved ones might have been if Peter hadn’t found him and helped him. It was pure coincidence that brought Peter into Hell’s Kitchen and if he hadn’t… He didn’t want to think about what might have happened to the Devil.

Since the whole Daredevil almost dying incident, Peter had started being more careful about patrolling. He had been going out less at night and always told May and his friends when he was going to be out. He couldn’t stop thinking about his loved ones being in that position of not knowing whether Peter will come back. Peter doesn’t normally get seriously injured while spidermanning, but there have been a couple close calls.

The most memorable of which was a couple months ago when he had a run in with Deadpool. Peter had been swinging around the city one night when he heard a commotion coming from an alley. He went to check it out, but when he got there, he saw Deadpool holding a smoking gun over a man’s corpse and a woman who looked drugged nearby.

He quickly put the pieces together that Deadpool had stopped an attempted rape, but Peter could only focus on the body that was bleeding out on the ground. Blood had rushed to his head and his heart was beating in his ears. He was leaning over the edge of the roof overlooking the alley when Deadpool noticed him and fired at him without hesitation. Thankfully, Peter’s Spidey-sense went off just in time for him to jump out of the way. He yelped and shouted, “What was that for?!”

When he recovered enough from the fright, he slowly peeked over the edge of the building again expecting to see the mercenary pointing a gun at him. But he wasn’t. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen. Peter looked around confused until he felt a tingle run down his spine and whipped around to see Deadpool on the roof behind him. Peter quickly put his hands up as Deadpool cocked his gun.

“Whoa, hey, it's just me!” Peter yelled.

“Spidey?” Deadpool relaxed and lowered his gun slightly. “What’re you doing snooping on rooftops?” He asked, still skeptical.

“H-hey Mr. Pool. I was in the area, and it sounded like someone was in trouble. I came to help but when I got here, you…” Peter trailed off.

“Oh. Sorry about that kid.” Deadpool put his gun away and became much more friendly all of a sudden. It was kind of unnerving for Peter. “I probably wouldn’t have killed him if I would've known you were gonna see that.”

“I’m not a kid.” Peter responded immediately, like a knee jerk reaction.

“Of course you’re not! You immediately denying it makes you seem very mature,” Deadpool said sarcastically.

Before Peter knew what was happening, he was being picked up by a very large Deadpool. The mercenary spun him around while Peter bewilderedly tried to get him to put him down. Eventually, Deadpool relented but not without ruffling Peter’s hair through his mask a bit.

“Sorry to cut this first meeting short, but the author got distracted and forgot where the rest of this scene was supposed to go.” Deadpool shrugged and started walking away.

“Wait, what?” Peter asked, confused.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, kid. People tell me I say weird things all the time. See ya around!” Deadpool winked at him, and then he jumped off the building.

Peter heard a thud come from the ground followed by a distant “I’m fine!” He had known about Deadpool’s abilities and enhancements, but he hadn’t truly believed the stories he’d heard until he had seen it for himself. Now that he had met Deadpool, all the things he’d heard suddenly made a lot more sense.

Peter was in English class, his teacher giving some boring lecture on the War of 1812, when he thought about what would’ve happened if his Spidey-sense hadn’t warned him in time.

If he hadn't gotten out of the way fast enough, then he could have been bleeding out in a dumpster that night just like how he’d found Daredevil. He didn’t even want to think about how that would affect May, Ned, and MJ. He was snapped out of his head when he heard his teacher calling his name.

“Mr. Parker, are you with us?”

“Oh-uh, yeah,” Peter scrambled.

“Would you like to answer the question?”

Peter looked to the board to try to get a clue of what the question might be, but it was empty. “Uh…”

“Would you like me to repeat the question?”

“Yes, please.”

The teacher sighed and repeated, “Which American ship was given the nickname Old Ironsides because of its resistance to cannonballs?”

Thankfully, Peter actually knew the answer due to AcaDec practice a few weeks ago.

“Oh, it's the USS Constitution.”

The teacher looked surprised that he answered correctly due to him obviously not paying attention throughout the lecture, and replied, “Correct. Try to stay with us next time though.”

Peter just nodded and actually focused on what the teacher was saying for the rest of class.