Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter stood just behind the couch, Aunt May and Uncle Ben sitting on it looking practically done with him.

“No is no Peter, that’s our final answer. You're not going to Oscorp labs tomorrow.” May had exclaimed to Peter, who was begging for her to sign his permission forms.

“But my entire class is going! I’ll be the only one left behind-” He whined, heavily learning on the couch before him.

“Well I don't believe that's a us problem. You can't be trusted in labs right now, not since you set fire in the school ones.” Uncle Ben had stated.

To be honest? Fair, no one knows how Peter even started the fire, they were only making Oobleck for a fun, chill day, Peter was really confused by that.

The sad part is that he hasn't been allowed in any labs since then. Apparently, the school was scared by what he could use to start fires now as if this was the first time he’s made the school burn, cowards, the lot of them.

“But-”

“No. Look we know you've been itching to get back to labs, you got that from your parents, dear, thank god you only got that part from them” Aunt May had mumbled the last part before she was lightly tapped by Uncle Ben, signally for her to be quiet.

“Whatever, look, you got it from your parents but until you tell the school how you even made the cornstarch catch fire, you've been banned. I don't know why they've even given you the opportunity.”

He tried telling them he didn't know how the project went up in flames, but they didn't listen and just said he was lying and had further banned him from the school labs.

He also didn't know why they gave him the slip when they knew damn well he wasn't allowed, like, legally. Apparently he starts way to many fires using the most innocent materials, like who cares about the fact he has only been allowed to use child grade equipment in the past, and yet he still ends up out on the football field with the rest of his school being forced to talk to the firemen that know him a bit too well by this point… the government, apparently, they care.

“It's not my fault they continued to let me back in after the twenty-seventh fire of the term. And it wasn't the cornstarch that went up, it was the water.” Peter grumbled

He would be fine if he got to just see the labs, but they have teachers on guard to make sure he doesn't go down the hallways, like he won't start a fire in the damn hallway! He learnt his lesson last time, best keep it to one room and only have that shut down for a short time then the whole hallway which cuts off access to the labs in general.

‘Sweetie! That's the problem, you shouldn’t be able to say that, at all, not any of it!” Aunt May did have a point with that…

“Peter, I'm sick of arguing with you about this. Go to your room.” Ben put his hand on his forehead, as if he was getting a headache… How rude.

Peter didn't bother replying as he turned and left, as he slammed the door, he heard his guardians let out a sigh. He looked at the piece of paper he had on his desk waiting, just lying there patiently for a signature.

The disgruntled teen changed into his sleepwear, took off his glasses and placed them on his desk, and curled up under his Star Wars sheets, his eyes kept meeting the slip of paper on his desk even as he was failing to keep them open. Before he blacked out, one thought ran clear in his head through the fog… what if he forged their handwriting? He’s done it before when the school sent home a letter asking for their consent to allow Peter back in the school labs, that was for the second last fire, this time he's banned indefinitely until the government signs off on it.

Chapter Text

May’s voice rang out reaching his ears where he lay awake on his bed, “Peter wake up darling, just because you can’t go on the field trip doesn't mean you're skipping school.”

Ah, how nice of her to remind him of how unfortunate he is.

Peter covered his eyes with a pillow as he rolled over, unfortunately he rolled the wrong way, which he only found out as he tumbled off his bed, groaning despite a weird lack of pain he looked down at what he must have landed on, pillows, that makes sense.

Still laying on the pillows he blindly reached up to his bedside and grabbed his glasses, he put them on and continued with his day.

Looking up, his eyes set on the paper, just before moving to his clock which stated he has just under an hour to be up and out the door if he wants to get on the bus to the field trip… which he does not have permission to go to…

But the school doesn't need to know that, making up his mind Peter reaches up and grabs the paper, he rarely fakes signatures, but sometimes he just needs to you know, and he really really wants to go, after all, it's Oscorp, despite them being shady their company still hold labs, real labs which Peter NEEDS to see.

He swears he won't even set fire to them accidentally!

Picking up a pen as he stands up, leaning over his desk he forges May’s signature for what would probably not be the last time.

“Peter hurry up or you're going to be late, you need to go to the reception to ask what class you’ll be sitting in for the day.” Ben yells out, the sound of the front door shutting makes its way to his ears, that means Ben has left for his job, being a police officer, it's apparently good fun til his workmates come in with another report stating that Midtown Tech had caught fire again.

He put the slip in his bag, making sure to hide it folded up in one of his books. Zipping up his bag he continues to get ready for the day.

Just as he’s walking out the door May stops him, takes his bag off his shoulder and searches through it.

“Uhh, what are you doing?” Peter asks hesitantly, despite knowing exactly what she's doing.

“I'm checking your damn bag for that goddamn note!” She said, looking up frustrated after clearly not finding what she hoped for.

“Hmm, pray tell my dear aunt, why the fuck would i bring a note with no consent given?” The boy had sighed, May mistook it for being done with her nonsense, he was thankful she didn’t look in the folds of one of his books which would clearly show the note he’s trying to hide.

He takes his bag back and gets ready to walk out the door.

“Because we don’t yet know how you convinced the school we gave permission for you to be allowed back in the labs last time, for all we know you could have someone be faking our signatures.” she gave him a stern look, maybe hoping he would break, Peter refused.

She shook her head, clearly not finding what she wanted in his eyes, little did she know she was pretty much on the mark. She quickly met his eyes again, the stern look back already.

“Though you do have to stop taking bets on when you’ll make the labs catch fire again, and that also means not being paid to not be as careful. You know what, no more bets on the fires in general!”

Peter didn’t respond, just laughing as he ran out the door, he couldn’t promise that, he needed an income somehow to pay for all the strawberry cloud sweets he buys, and so long as the school believes that the accidental fires are completely accidental, he’ll be fine. So what if he was taking bribes to be a bit more dangerous, the school, after putting together that it was gonna continue happening, made sure everyone had more than enough fire safety in their heads, his peers really listened in those school meetings, knowing it's for the better. Eh they're the ones paying him… along with the every now and then teacher.

In a flash he’s running up to his teachers, who look at him weirdly, he doesn't really remember getting there as he was probably just in his head.

He was nearly late; they were doing the last round ups of his classmates.

He hands the note to Mr. Harrington, as the teacher begins to lift his phone to probably call Aunt May to check she was the one to actually sign it, Peter shook his head, pointing at the currently boarded up lab.

Mr. Harrington sighs knowing he was the one who paid for Peter to be uncareful when that happened wanting to get out of a long meeting the teachers were meant to have.

“As long as it has a signature.” Mr. Harrington avoids eye contact.

Peter nods with a look in his eyes that scream ‘Damn fucking straight, know your place’ turning away he hops on the bus where everyone else was waiting, he gives a grin at the students that were previously calm til he walked on.

“Hey Penis! Gonna set the bus on fire agai–” Flash gets shut up by Betty Brant.

“Boy shut the fuck up, or I’ll put in the school news that you are the reason Peter managed to set the bus on fire in the first place! Don't ruin this for us by baiting him!” Betty glared at the gaping fish that is Flash.

Don’t ask how he did that, once more, Peter doesn't know.

He sat next to Ned, who looked at him in shock.

“You know if Ben or May find out you're gonna be in trouble” Ned said nervously, looking around as if he’s going to find a teacher walking up to them to tell Peter off.

“Ned, that's if it even gets to Aunt May and Ben.” -Ned tilted his head in confusion- “Mr. Harrington isn’t going to tell anyone if he knows I faked the signature, he’s too scared of being found out by the principal of being the person to bribe me last time.”

His friends shook his head, clearly not believing what Peter's life was.

“And even if it gets to the principle, he can't say shit. If I had a nickel every time that guy paid me to set fire to equipment and let it spread to the whole room so the government is forced to give that school lab room an upgrade due to our school housing lots of geniuses, I’d have two nickels–”

“Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice right?” Ned finished for him.

“Exactly, you get it!”

They manage to hold their laughter in for five seconds before they were heaving for air, Ned nodded, Peter couldn’t get in trouble if it never got back to his Aunt and Uncle and it wouldn’t, not if the adults at Midtown Tech were cowards, and they were.

It wasn't long before they were suddenly stopping out the front of Oscorp Labs, Peter started watching a few interesting videos on the debate on if a person could mourn their life. A person they assume will be the tour guide waiting by the doors, the building as a whole, looks like a huge box, a giant metal shipping container.

“Now remember class, no wandering off, touching things you're not supposed to, opening anything or setting fire to anything” Mr. Harrington had stated once they were off the bus and in a line on the side, at the last part of his speech, which was clearly aimed at Peter, the tour guide looked baffled he even had to say it and the guards that were around the outside of the building, you know, guarding it, had raised their eyebrows.

They were handed badges that said ‘guest’ on them, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant.

And at that, Flash clearly wasn't anything close to being a genius and as he asked what the cards meant, everyone just stared at him blankly til it was time to go in, there’s a reason he had to use his daddy’s money to get into the school.

Making sure everyone was set and had everything they needed, the doors opened and everyone was finally allowed into the building.

Chapter Text

The trip had been going well, Peter was still getting bribes, yet it was different as it was to not set fire to things and be uncareful, but to basically wrap himself in bubble wrap and not unleash flames upon the shipping container that is Oscorp.

Though to be honest Peter does think that the Oscorp building would look great bathed in the warm lighting of fire.

Peter took the money obviously, but they all know that it's never a guarantee, as once more, say it with him, he doesn't do it intentionally.

Either way, he should have known the peace wouldn’t have lasted. Peter was just calmly waiting for the group in front of him to go forward, so his group could go into the next room, when something happened as they were walking in.

“So now, this room has only just been opened to tour groups, you guys are some of the lucky people who get the first glance at our new experiment!”

Maybe that's when Peter should have turned around and left, honestly he should be pinching himself right now to check if this is real or a dream because there is no way this could be his life, looking back it would have saved him heaps of trouble.

“Now, these are our radioactive spiders, they are all safely in their containers after being in the labs, so please don't open the locks.”

Now that just feels like they are asking for one to get out.

“Sir, are you sure all of them are back from the labs” That was the first warning sign that something was up.

“Yes I'm sure, why?” -Abe just pointed at a container, with a suspicious lack of colorful spiders in it- “Oh, well, uhh, I'm sure one of the labs needed it for more experiments… on another note, we should probably be getting out of this area.” The tour guide looked around nervously, up at corners and dark areas.

Everyone filed out quickly as it was quite clear that one of the spiders had gotten out, the tour guide wasn't fooling anyone.

As Peter was sarcastically cheering in his head for knowing this would happen, because just like he said, they were just asking for this to happen. He felt something tickling his left arm, hoping it was just Ned pranking him. Peter looked down, he wanted to see Ned’s arm yet he knew it wouldn’t be what he laid eyes on.

Peter went cold as he stared directly at the bright red spider with blue lines running up its side sitting peacefully on his arm. It was clearly a small jumping spider, yet its size didn’t take away from the pure radioactive look pouring from it.

He resisted from shaking, it would scare the spider and probably lead it to bite him. Peter had never felt fear like this, not from his first fire, not from his smallest fire, not from his largest fire and definitely not from his last fire.

The spider began its descent down his arm when it realized the boy wouldn’t harm it or spook the small thing.

It had reached his hand and was going to hop down to the table Peter’s hand was resting on when Flash wanted to be a dick.

“Move dipshit!” A shoulder hit him, jolting Peter.

Before he could steady himself Peter felt a sharp strike of distant, cloudy pain go through him as he slapped his right hand down on his left, starting at the back of his hand before rapidly spreading up his arm, his hands went to clutch his chest as the pain reached his heart, the spider long since jumped off of him to die in a hole somewhere.

“Stop being dramatic Penis! Move it”

He stumbled out of the room, taking in the pain each step gave him, it felt fuzzy, maybe even blurry? If you could describe pain like that, far away, like it wasn’t real, as if it was a dream, but it couldn’t be, Peter had seen the spider bite him, he knows this is real, no matter the effects the radioactiveness obviously had on his pain factor.

Ned placed his hand on his shoulder, asking a silent question ‘Are you ok?’, no, the answer was no, because as Peter looked around where he was sitting on the bus, driving back to the school, he wondered when they got there? He knows they had other places on their list to tour after the spider exhibit, where did the time go? why doesn’t Peter remember anything? did nobody notice Peter not acting right? If he can’t remember it then he must have been in his head, how did nobody realize? Why did it take Ned this long to snap him out of it?

Nodding his head in response to Ned, he soon wished he didn't as Peter watched the world around him spin.

Like a time vortex his head continued to spin with each bump that the bus had, it was only when they reached Midtown did his head calm down. Ned, being the good friend he is called Ben as soon as they got back to their class to wait for the last ten minutes of school.

It was faint and loud at the same time, sounding like Ned was speaking through clouds a million feet away yet Peter still had to cover his ears, even being distant it was like his friend was speaking right into his ear, Peter didn't know how that could even be right but he wished it would stop.

Peter had his head down on a desk, eyes closed, hoping to block out as much light as he could, it burned too bright which should be impossible for normal school lighting as Peter regularly stares into his flames.

“Yeah, we entered our class after hopping off the bus and there was Peter, head down on the desk, a fever that seemed like it could make the fires he sets jealous.” Ned said unapologetically, he heard his uncle’s chuckle on the other end of the phone… or right into his ear? Who knows, his sense of hearing is all messed up it seems.

As well as his sense of time apparently because before Peter knows it a hand on his shoulder is leading him into the car and away from the buildings he regularly sets ablaze, when he stood up? A mystery. When the car ride passed by? Once again, a mystery as Peter is laid in his bed, a cold cloth laid on his burning up forehead, his glasses being taken off his face and placed on the bedside table.

The pain had never once stopped, only dulling sometimes before ranking up higher than even before, he didn't know when he began to hate the pain dying down but he did, because he knew that it only meant more pain, worse than before sooner than later.

He heard his blinds being pulled closed by his aunt, he didn’t know how he knew it was his aunt as he never once opened his eyes but he just knew, maybe it was the lighter footsteps. Either way Peter wished May would be more quiet, he could hear the metal rings of the blinds against the rusting curtain rods, he swears his ears would bleed before the pain would subside.

When sleep finally came to Peter he embraced it quickly, the pain had been taking a toll on his energy, if he even had any during the rough ten minutes he laid there on his bed in pure agony, the boy couldn't toss or turn, maybe it was for the better, who knows it could of just made his seemingly life-long cloudy pain worse.

All he knows is that he was grateful for the release it gave him, he could only hope that the pain would be gone by morning or at the very least dulled, but not distant or cloudy, it was annoying, wondering if it was even there, if it was even real, Peter didn’t like it at all, in fact he could say that was the worst part of the whole thing.

And so when he awoke in the morning, the sunlight that bled in through his closed blinds burnt his closed eyes, he laid there in silence, well that was the wrong wording, it wasn't silent, in fact it was the opposite but he knew it wasn't coming from the apartment, he could hear the cars down the street, dogs barking in the park, parents yelling for their children to get out the door for school.

His eyes shot open at that thought, school. He was going to be late. He put all other thoughts on the sidelines for the time being, not even noticing the fact he was running out the door after getting dressed quickly without his glasses or the fact the door handles crushed slightly when he grabbed at them.

In fact, as he sat down next to Ned the only thing he realized at Ned’s questioning was that the pain was completely gone, maybe the world is finally starting to look up for him.

That thought was quickly proved wrong when he saw Flash whispering to his buddies about how he was going to show Peter his place after school, how he heard that, he didn't even think about, more focused on how he was going to have to be one of the first to get out of school to avoid Flash today before he tuned back into the lesson, it was something he already knew but there was no harm in making sure he still knew the work before him.

Chapter Text

Powers, Peter has powers. He came to that conclusion when he realized that he finally had the chance to lay down and take in what had happened to him.

Also the fact that at lunch Flash had pointed out that Peter wasn't wearing his glasses and therefore he must have been faking having glasses for attention… The weird part of that was that Peter could see better now than before with his glasses on.

He had summed it up to his eyes getting better, but the little things he started noticing had been adding up throughout the day.

And with all the puzzle pieces in place he saw the full picture, there was no way to deny it, Peter Parker had powers, powers he more than likely got from that blue and red spider at Oscorp, god he should have burned that place when he had the chance.

Also the tiny little detail that when Peter had come home, he went to reach for the doorknob to his room and found that it was molded into a weird lump shape, as far as he knew only Peter touched it today, so add super strength to the list that he apparently has to make now to keep track of those weird things.

Oh yeah, and the fact he was sticky.

Anyways, Peter still couldn't comprehend that part of his newfound powers so he’s just going to skip right over it, you know, like a normal, completely sane person would!

Peter had taken two painkillers for the ache in his head that had been a recurring thing throughout the day, just going off at random moments, he’s starting to think maybe not all the effects from the spider bite had worn off.

Luckily the moments where his head started randomly hurting had caused him to stop in pain and actually really helped him in avoiding Flash.

Either way he had to learn how to get these things under control or it spells out danger for those around him, he can't be accidentally breaking people's hands when he does handshakes or high fives.

And maybe he also wants to get his new senses under control so as to not be overwhelmed like he was all day today, maybe that was just a tiny little reason, oi you can't blame him, it gets annoying after a while.

But Peter couldn't train in his bedroom, it's too small and would only serve to cause danger to those in the apartment building, and you know, that's kind of the whole reason he’s doing this, as to not be a danger to those around him.

The schematics don't matter, all that matters is the reason why Peter was currently climbing out his window in a dark hoodie and jeans in the middle of the night to go find some abandoned place to train himself, which he’s already clarified so honestly he should just be moving on with this whole thing.

As soon as he had made it out the window and onto the side of the building, hanging onto the brick walls using his newfound stickiness which he still refuses to think about, he quickly made his way down and onto the footpath to start this journey.

The place he was headed to was near the old warehouse district, full of abandoned factories, basically it would work to make him not be seen.

Before he even could tell it had been weeks, like he knew the time had passed but he only had vague ideas of it, like he wasn't really present and time just fast forwarded, being in his head isn't fun sometimes. Peter had found the most perfect training place, as it was far away from all the other warehouses, it looked as if it was completely gutted from the inside and then left abandoned, perfect for the boy.

He hadn't found out exactly how much he could lift or how much strength he now had but he knew it was much more than any fourteen-year-old should have, then again in about a month he would be fifteen.

Peter had been working out via YouTube tutorials and the likes, and he was getting so much better at controlling his new-found powers. The headaches had been such a recurring thing, appearing at the weirdest but helpful moments, causing enough pain that he would stop in his tracks, which would in turn make him avoid something either annoying or harmful. Peter actually couldn’t call the headaches painful or even really headaches, they were more like tingles shooting through his head.

Based on what had been going on when they were occurring, Peter had come up with a theory, he may have a sixth sense… crazy right? He’s probably wrong about it but for now why not lean into the tingles/sense? Whatever they seem to be doing him good when he does listen to them so might as well.

Anyways he was bringing that up as he had been punching a large piece of thick metal when the tingle happened, almost immediately he stopped and looked in the direction where his phone was laying on a side bench, it was on silent but he could see that the screen had lit up with a notification.

He picked it up and saw a message. It was nearly 2:00 am so Ned shouldn't have been awake, and he didn't have any other phone numbers… expect May and Ben’s.

He slowly raised the phone and clicked on where a, very familiar, number was trying to call him, he pressed answer and held the phone away from his ear, it wasn't on speaker but his hearing combined with his uncle likely going to start yelling was more than enough without having it at his ear or on speaker.

As soon as the call went through a cold voice spoke, no yelling needed for his words to come out clear.

“Peter. Fucking. Parker. You are to be home within the next ten minutes or you are in so much trouble young man.” The line went flat as his uncle hung up.

Peter, without much thought gathered his things and ran home as fast as he could, powers and all. He made it home with three minutes to spare.

His aunt was waiting angrily by the open front door still in her nurse scrubs, probably having barely gotten home when they found him to be missing from his room.

She grabbed his arm and brought him into the apartment, closing the door behind her.

His uncle was sitting on the couch, his foot tapping the floorboards under them, he didn't wait for Peter to sit down before he went off on him.

“Sneaking out?! Really, it was bad enough when you were starting fires every other week, let alone taking bribes for it! At least those could be proven as accidents!” -He took a deep breath, calming himself before he continued.- “Peter if you continue down this path you're going to end up just letting your parents, first it’s secret missions, probably to sell drugs or some shit, next it's being labeled as a traitor to this country, please we can help you if you just tell us… don't turn out like your parents, we went through enough trouble convincing all their friends they called family that you were better off away from them.” . . . What? What were they talking about, his parents? What weren’t they telling him??

“What-... what are you talking about??” Aunt May tried her best to not make eye contact, so he stared dead at uncle ben, who looked somewhat sheepish, like he hadn’t meant to say what he did.

“You, uh, we never told you… did we? Your parents, my brother-” Ben gets cut off by May putting her hand on his shoulder, signalling that she would tell whatever fucked up story this was.

“First things first Peter, this does not mean you're off the hook, we will come back to this, mark my words.” She took a deep breath.

“Your parents were always doing shady things, disappearing at random times, weird cryptic calls that had them up on their feet running out of the house, random injuries. We soon got used to it, whether it be the multitude of weapons in that house, or that weird eye patch wearing guy, we got used to it. That was until they were made traitors to the states right before their death, we were never told why… Peter, we just don't want you to turn out like them, we understand what you're going through.” Aunt May insisted, Peter could only shake his head, it was reeling from the amount of new info, they didn't know, this was nothing like what they are thinking of, and he voiced that.

“No, you don't know, you think you do but you don’t… why would you keep this from me, my parents, i thought they were good people, You said they were good people. You lied to me, you lied to my face over and over again!” He shouted, his emotions taking over, he needed to keep control on his strength, so all control over not shouting went out the window.

“Is that not what you've been doing, sneaking out in the middle of the night! Going god knows where! This is why we didn't tell you, so you wouldn’t turn out just like your parents!”

Uncle Ben shouted as he stood up sharply before he realized what he had said.

Peter couldn’t believe what was happening, his entire view on his parents was broken in just a day, he couldn't deal with this, he had to get out. He turned and quickly opened the door and rushed down the stairs. He could hear his uncle calling after him, trying to say he was sorry, he didn't need that at the moment, he felt as though he needed air, he felt like climbing a building to get high up.

But he couldn’t, he may have been bitten by a spider, but he was not any type of Spider-man hybrid.

He slowed from his run as he walked into a convenient store, ah, how convenient, he laughed at the pun in his head.

Walking in there was a little old asian lady maintaining the storefront with no one else there, he nodded to her, Peter walked to the candy aisle and picked up a packet of strawberry clouds. It seemed like someone must have messed up on this batch, they were normally more pinkish, he personally likes the red on it though. Just as he was about to walk to the counter he heard someone else walk into the shop, thinking it may be Ben he ducked behind a shelf. Had he been calmer he would have noticed the footsteps and sharp breath sounds nothing like his uncle.

“Give me all your money!” The sound of metal rang out loudly on the counter, this couldn’t be happening, there was no way.

The place was being robbed.

Peter froze, he couldn’t move, he could possibly help, but he didnt move, sticking to his spot he heard as the lady started handing him money, he heard as the door’s bell rang once more and someone ran in, yelling for the robber to stop where he was.

He couldn’t make out the voices, but could hear the words quite clearly. The new person explained that they were a cop and had called for back up, he heard as the cop listed his badge number.

He was frozen as he realized the numbers matched up with uncle Bens, who didn't have a gun on him like the robber, who was off the clock, who had made an effort to stop what was happening despite having nothing on him, all while Peter was frozen in the back, with powers that could have stopped it.

Peter's hand dropped the bag of candy that he was holding at the sound of a gunshot, a gasp, a body hitting the floors and the store's doors quickly opening with the sound of someone running out.

He peeked around the corner, and tears started flowing, the tears he had been holding back since being yelled at in his apartment had started running with no sign of stopping.

Uncle Ben was laying in a rapidly forming puddle of red, bright red blood. His hand was holding his chest where the blood seemed to have been coming from. Peter didn't know when he sat down beside uncle Ben, all anger from the night washed away as he held his uncle, who was more than likely dying in his arms.

Ben's weak, pained eyes met Peter's as red and blue lights slowly appeared, effectively bathing everything in a haze of ethereal lighting, like a beautifully painful painting displayed in an abandoned museum.

Thinking back to why this whole thing happened, he remembered the debate he watched on the bus going to Oscorp labs.

Can a person truly mourn their life if they are not yet dead? Peter now knows the answer to be a yes, a person can in fact mourn the life they had lived. He knows because he could see it in his uncle's eyes as Ben realized despite the shop owner yelling that she had called an ambulance, he wasn't going to make it. Peter watched as Uncle Ben's life had flashed before his eyes, watching as fond memories cloud his vision, clearly noticeable by Ben's smile, he knew when the regrets of his life had popped up by the dying man's winces.

Uncle Ben lay there waiting for help that would absolutely fail arrive, mourning the things he had yet to do, mourning the things he had.

Peter thinks he saw the flashes in Ben's eyes as he realized what was truly becoming of him, his regrets in this world coming true, his life depleting, the blood draining from his body as slowly as the life drained from his eyes, not yet fully gone but not fully there.

He was confused as he watched his uncle's head slowly turn to the empty space beside Peter, even though Ben’s eyes held very little life in them, they still lit up with surprise.

Peter turned his head, maybe someone was there? No one had yet to appear, even though it was clear his uncle was seeing something, or someone. Peter had no clue on what it could be until Ben’s weak voice filled his ears.

“Your parents, Mary, Richard. They’re here… I reckon it's my time.” Peter was now more than confused, he was baffled, his parents were dead, no, they are dead, there was no debating that.

Uncle Ben knew he wasn't going to make it but Peter still held that hope, he held the hope that his uncle would live to see another day, that he would continue on with the story of his parents without having Peter storm out of the apartment in disbelief. He hoped Ben would live for them to make up for the fight, but he wasn't going to, Ben already knew that, and here, at this moment, Peter was realizing it too, well he was more so coming to terms with it.

His uncle was stuck between the portal of life and death, in the rift where you could live, breathe and hear alongside the living, yet still do the same beside the dead.

He knew it was likely that his parents were in fact bringing his uncle to their side, it was his time even as much as Peter wished it wasn't, and god did he wish it wasn't.

“What… what are they saying??” Peter asked gingerly.

“They say it's my time, that there is so much we hadn't known of them that they wished to tell us but never had the chance, not everything was as it seemed apparently, i do not know what they mean by that, perhaps i will learn it soon. For now though, the book is open, their story's ending isn't true, they say they’ll tell me later, when we have time forever.” Talking was taking out any life his uncle still had in him, making it drain faster, the ambulance was rushing down the street, he could hear it. By now cops had surrounded the place, waiting for the ambulance til they came in.

“Remember Peter, my dear boy” -His uncle took his hand and held it as tight as he could, it was still really weak as the final bits of life started making their way out of his eyes.- ‘With great power… comes great responsibility…” Peter knew right then and there that his uncle had just taken his last breath, his eyes leaked out the last bits of life in the form of tears. The life that could previously be heard in his laughter that would no longer ring out, the life that had been present in the apartment when everyone's schedules finally lined up, aunt May back from a shift at the hospital, Ben back from saving lives as a officer, Peter back from school, not yet run out of the house to train his new-found powers. Those scenes would no longer happen as Peter's uncle was now dead.

Seconds felt like hours, minutes like days as the cops rushed in just in front of the paramedics, they froze as they saw their off the clock co-worker laying on the ground, his last heartbeat having just faded out, they lower their weapons and made their way to the shop clerk and started asking questions.

Peter moved backwards mindlessly as the paramedics checked Ben’s pulse, finding nothing they left his lifeless body to the cops for evidence as there was nothing they could do, he was already too far gone. They carefully brought Peter to the back of the ambulance, draping a shock blanket around his shoulders.

He was lost, Peter knew he should call Aunt May, inform her of what had happened, but he didn't have the energy at that moment, a soft hand took place on his shoulder.

Looking up he met eyes with the little old shop owner, she had finished talking with the police it seemed, they had tried talking to and getting Peter’s side of the story but he was unresponsive.

She held out her hand and there was the strawberry cloud sweets he was trying to buy, red sweets, the bright red sweets, she handed the packet to him and walked back inside. He held the candy in his hands as his eyes blurred, the red was nearly identical to the red blood all over his hands.

As he said, normally they were more pinkish but it seems this batch was red, red as the blood making quick work of staining his hands the color that once let his uncle live beside him, left to stain him and leave his uncle to watch silently beside his parents.

He quickly put them down beside him so he wouldn’t have to look at the thing that would only serve to bring him more pain, he would never look at them the same, and yet just a second ago they were his favorite, then again just a second his uncles heart was still beating, a second ago none of this happened.

While he's happy the old women’s shop didn't get robbed, another thing had been robbed, time spend with his uncle, time that could have been spend with his uncle, with happy moments they could have had, and yet, here he was, sitting in the back of an ambulance covered in blood from a man the paramedics had announced dead on arrival.

Then again isn't Peter the one who robbed them of that time together, instead out trying to control powers he barely had a clue of when he could have used that time to spend with family, the only ones he had left since his parents were dead, and Ben just joined them.

His uncle had been in the store only because he was trying to find Peter, he knew he had no weapons on him and yet he still helped… Unlike Peter he was the cause of this, he had powers and yet he still froze, didn't do anything and it cost another one of his family's lives.

That's the Parker curse, he always heard them speak of it, he hadn’t put together what it meant till now, Peter now knows exactly what it means.

Death.

They are all destined to die, leaving someone behind, whether they are biological or not means nothing. It happened with his grandparents, his parents and now it happened to his uncle, god he can only hope it doesn't pass on to his Aunt, he can only hope.

He wishes it was a dream but it can't be, it's all too real, this is his reality, he can feel the warm blood slowly turn cold where it lay on his hands and knees as he tried his best to not look at the candy, he would never be the same, never, ever, ever. Peter doubts he could stand the sweet taste knowing what transpired due to just trying to get a taste of the sweet addictiveness. The addictiveness of the sweet and sour candy balance, the perfect balance of Aunt May and Uncle Ben shattered at the sound of a firing gun, one he used to find comfort in, a sound that proved his uncle was protected by the weapon at his hip, one he didn't have today when he died.

Peter knew what he had to do, with great power comes great responsibility as Ben said, he could have prevented this had he just used his powers, the ones that caused this whole thing.

He can control it now, he can stop things like this from happening, saving others from the pain of losing family members. Peter said before that he wasn't a hybrid of a man and spider, but by technicality, isn't he? He has the blood of the radioactive spider in him.

By looking at everything that had happened, he is in fact, a Spider-Man.

Picking up his phone, he gives Aunt May a call to tell her what had happened, while waiting for her to answer Peter remembers the red and blue hoodies he has laying around, that mixed with some stitching he has a whole new hoodie that matched the exact colors of the spider that bit him.

Well, Peter knows what he’ll use to distract himself with, he’ll set the plans and soon become a true Spider-Man.

Chapter Text

Uncle Ben's funeral was held a week earlier. Since the day his uncle died, Peter had yet to go back to school. Ned knew why, he didn't know why Peter had stormed out of the house and what Ben had said but he knew that Peter’s uncle was shot and died at the scene. Then again, Peter is pretty sure the whole school knows, he had been getting emails from his classmates trying to comfort him.

It was going to be his first day back, Peter had distracted himself from Ben’s death learning to sew so he could make his hoodie hybrid. It matched almost perfectly to the spider that had bitten him, although the spider was more bright red then bright blue. Peter had decided to make his outfit more focused on the blue rather than red, he also may have mixed a bit of watered down black dye with the red hoodie before cutting and sewing it to the blue, just for no reason at all, totally not because he couldn't stand the sight of how bright the color of the red was, so much like the faint red he swears he can still see on his hands, crusted under fingertips.

Yeah, totally not because of that… that would be crazy.

Either way, Peter had been distracted from the recent loss in his family. His family of now two, he had been making himself tired enough as to fall asleep early enough that he couldn’t hear how May cried into her pillow when she got home from the hospital, the cold empty space next to her too much to bear, he had made the mistake of staying up once to hear it and never wished to again.

Speaking of May, she had been avoiding him, not being able to look in his eyes. Peter knows she blames him somewhat. She doesn't want to, he can also see that, she's ashamed of herself at it, but Peter understands, he lets her. It's better to have someone to blame at the end of the day, instead of thinking that she maybe could have prevented it.

Maybe the reason Peter is okay with her blaming him is because he is blaming himself as well.

He could feel people's eyes on him as he walked into the school building, he could also hear all their whispers, another downside of his powers, all the whispers on how ‘The poor boy has lost another’ ‘At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in foster care by the end of this year’ ‘I would just get rid of him rather than risk it.’ ‘I wouldn’t want a kid that sets everything on fire.’ ‘How about you leave him alone, you don't know what he’s truly going through right now. Degenerates… honestly.’ ‘Besides, you dickwads are the ones paying him to set the fires!’ …What? That was kinda funny, but I beg your fucking pardon?!

He looked at where that came from, he saw a shocked group of teens, they looked a bit ashamed, and Michelle Jones walking away, looking annoyed, quickly followed by Betty Brant, who had said the last bit.

Seeing that he was looking at them, Michelle scoffed while Betty gave him a quick nod and smile before going on their way.

What Betty had said wasn’t wrong, in fact Peter had been given money over the weekend by one of the shocked teens to set fire to the labs today, just so they could get out of a talk with their teachers about grades or some shit like that. He can only hope he has permission to go back in the school labs.

Eh, Peter can’t hold what they said against them. He’s not hateful, just spiteful.

When he walked through the doors into the school he was waved over to the school desk by the receptionist, she handed him a note with a stamp on it, a government stamp.

“The government has granted you permission to go back to the school labs as they don't want you setting anything else on fire. I wish you and your aunt well” She gave him a pity smile, that is what he hates most.

He walked away, he had labs in his third period then, just before the kid that paid him had to go into their meeting. Perfect timing.

As he arrived at his locker, a hand landed on his shoulder. Not a harsh grip but a soft one, from the smell of the cologne, it was Ned.

“Hey dude, first class is going to start soon, what's in your hand?” his friend questioned him, Peter could swear he had left early, dumb train being late.

“I was finally granted permission to go back into the labs.” He could tell that more eyes had landed on him at that, but they looked less like pity but more knowing looks, he could hear them whispering bets that they would be on the football field by the end of the day.

Ned started leading Peter to their first class of the day while Peter mapped out the school day schedule.

9:00 AM - 10:18 AM ; English.
10:18 AM - 10:50 AM ; Snack.
10:53 AM - 12:04 PM ; Humanities.
12:09 PM - 1:20 PM ; Science.
1:21 PM - 1:50 PM ; Lunch.
1:55 PM - 3:06 PM ; Food Studies.

Peter stopped and mentally changed it.

9:00 AM - 10:18 AM ; English.
10:18 AM - 10:50 AM ; Snack.
10:53 AM - 12:04 PM ; Humanities.
12:09 PM - 12:15 PM ; Trying to set a fire.
12:16 PM - 1:20 PM ; Football field/ Talking to firemen.
1:21 PM - 1:50 PM ; Eating/ talking to firemen/ Football field.
1:55 PM - 3:06 PM ; Talking to firemen/ Football field/ Being sent home.

How exciting.

Peter sat down in his chair, having been guided by Ned. His teacher gave him a pity nod. Personally, Peter low-key feels like if another person, let alone a teacher, does something out of pity again, he’s gonna start swinging.

He took out his book and started writing. He couldn’t be bothered with what this preschool teacher was trying to teach him. They weren't really a preschool teacher but the dickhead was teaching things far below him and his peers' level. Hell, he went as far as to say that he thinks that Peters and his classmate’s IQs were over exaggerated, so really no one pays attention in this assholes class, they would prefer Mr. Harrington but he’s only a math and science teacher.

The pity looks had followed all throughout English and into snack. Peter did nearly punch someone, that someone being Flash. He would have done it if it wasn't for Michelle Jones.

That motherfucker didn’t have a ‘pity look’, but he did have an ‘L bozo, womp womp’ look, and that made Peter want to tear out his throat with his bare hands, watch him choke on his own blood and rot away slowly more than anything, although it seemed as if Michelle had already taken care of that for him.

She had gone behind where flash was, tapped him on the shoulder, watching how Flash turned around with a smirk that got wiped off quickly by Michelle’s fist.

Honestly, it was great. She had left soon after but hey, anything to see Flash get put in his place, it did halt what Peter is now calling the ‘your uncle died? How sad, queue crab rave’ looks.

He barely got past Humms because apparently they now have to watch the Captain America PSAs in Humanities as well as P.E. Thankfully it wasn't the sex ed one, Peter reckons that if it was he would genuinely just die on the spot. That monster is only for P.E when everyone is being a little bitch and the P.E teacher wants them to suffer, but after they got to watch the old videos of Captain America and his best mate, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, during it he could hear the girls near the back talking about how Captain America and his ‘Buddy’ were definitely more. Peter did nearly bust out laughing many times due to it, all the theories and the fact they are probably true.

Peter had managed to make it to science without hitting anyone, bursting out in laughter at more than likely true theories on 1940’s men and having a breakdown at the loudness of the bell reminding him too much of a gunshot.

Doesn’t matter. Either way, Science had finally come along and it was time to start being himself, because truly, Peter doesn’t set fires on purpose they just happen.

He could see Mr. Harrington watching him as he walked in, the students that were grabbing their books had started to smile before putting their books and laptops away, the teacher walked up to him.

“Uh, Mr Parker, I don’t believe you are allowed in here.” His classmate’s smiles had faded as they brought back out their equipment.

“Actually, sir, I got a permission slip.” He put it on his teacher's outstretched hand. He saw Abe hold out his hand to stop the others where they were bringing out their books once more, they all stopped and watched, holding their breath.

“Well, it seems like this is real… god help me.” - His teacher handed back the slip and put his fingers on the bridge of his nose, he turned and started packing up his own things, mumbling under his breath. - “Those idiots, how can the government fail us like this, we’re doomed.”

Mr. Harrington turned to the class after taking a few deep breaths and gave everyone a shaky smile.

“So class, today we are doing the experiment I was talking about last session. The powder we are going to be working with is relatively unknown, we were trusted with it due to… uh, Mr Parker,” -The teacher gave him a fearful look- “No longer being allowed in here… that has now gone out the window but since we don't have anything else lined up, it will have to do. Remember to keep your backpacks on for when we eventually have to leave this class and go on the oval for the fire that Mr Parker will most definitely be starting.” -Flash put his hand up, probably to ask how the teacher knew. - “Put that hand down Flash, we can just tell, it's in his eyes. Plus, he hasn’t started one for a while and I saw that kid down in B-12 giving him cash.”

Peter rolled his eyes, everyone was exaggerating. Actually wait, no they’re not.

The teacher handed out a grayish powder, saying to do whatever they wanted with it, something about how it was just a powder so they were probably safe. His mistake.

Peter quickly ran up to the cabinets as his teacher just started spinning in his rolling chair, waiting to flee the class.

He grabbed vials of different chemicals to put in, already creating a formula in his head.

None of his peers were a foot away from their bags at a time, not trusting when they would have to go next, they weren’t watching Peter though. They would know when it's time to leave by the lack of noises Peter would make. Ned says he gets too fascinated by the fire. There's a picture that someone took of him just standing in front of this huge fire that's on the desk in front of him, not scared but instead amazed. A joke came from it, ‘If they don't look at me like Parker looks at his fires, I don't want them’. He thinks it's bullshit but his classmates have been sticking by that ‘rule’.

He turned around from where he was writing down the newest chemical that he had poured into the powder and saw a rather strange thing occurred.

It looked as though the powder had slowly been becoming a, well, something. He took a bit out in an eyedropper and quickly squeezed it out the eyedropper, it shot out and quickly solidified.

He began putting things on top of it, testing its strength among other things, now that its form had changed, it crazily enough, had looked like webs… huh.

Peter looked at the bags upon bags of the white mystery powder that lay just beside the teacher's desk, Mr. Harrington got some kids to move to the bag's storage room, they weren’t small bags at all and were only going to lay in the storage room.

He eyes the bags before pocketing the formula, he now has his mode of transport if all things work out.

Maybe just one last test with these, all things considered, webs. How flammable are they??

He turned around and grabbed a lighter as he heard a ‘whoosh’ behind him and knew it had randomly gone up in flames like most of his experiments, he would have to play around with the formula to make sure it didn't do that.

When he faced the beaker that the rest of the web fluid was in, he saw a steady fire rising from it. A beautiful amber color shining back on him from the flames.

The fire soon started spreading to the desk, they were fireproof but Peter had always done the impossible… Maybe that's how the school gets most of their money, not from the government for their grades, but instead suing ‘fireproof’ companies each time he successfully made their equipment go up.

He slowly tuned back in from where he had been focused on the fire by Ned shaking his arm. He could hear chairs scraping the floor and footsteps retreating from the lab.

Soon enough, a shrill alarm had started ringing, the fire alarm. Peter finally stopped resisting against Ned from where he was trying to pull him away from the bench and out to the football field.

He probably would have stayed by the warmth basically spitting from the thing, but he had learned that the sprinklers would start up soon.

Peter allowed himself to get dragged from the room and out into the hallway where all his peers were making quick work of getting to the football field.

Some were happy for the interruption and others were pissed, none yelled at Peter about it though, they had learned the hard way that if they got pissed at Peter for a fire he would never set a fire on the day they asked, but instead on a day where they couldn't afford to have a fire be set. It has happened a few times, mainly to flash, and no one has been confident enough to talk to him about it again.

When he and Ned had walked onto the field, the fire had already been put out and firemen were waiting on the field to hear about this one.

As he recounted the story to the firemen, all he could think of was how he could technically go out and help people tonight, it was real, he was going to be a hero.

The thought didn't just ring out as Peter was talking to the firemen and cops, but as he leaped out his bedroom window and quickly shot a web.

The thought rang out as Spider-man had made his debut.

And barely missed hitting a wall.

Chapter Text

Peter had been walking up to the apartment when a glint of light grabbed his eye, it was a shiny car parked outside his apartment building, and he means really fucking shinny.

He had just come back from school, it had been a few months since the creation of his webs and the debut of Queen’s newest vigilante.

The government had been notified that he had started a fire the exact day he had permission to go back in the labs and honestly the fire should have made the government rethink their decision to allow him in any labs across the country, instead of being permanently banned they sent a messenger saying that ‘they aint fucking with that no more’ and ‘if he aint burning this damn school, he burning our government building, deal with it’, well they didnt actually say that, but it was what his peers were spreading around the school so its close enough.

So basically the government was throwing the school to the wolves aka Peter and his ‘pyromaniac’ tendencies, he doesn't think he’s that bad but everyone else thinks otherwise.

May had no reaction to the news, or if she did she hadn’t bothered to bring it up.

Maybe the reason there was a fancy car outside was because Peter was no longer legally allowed to go back in labs again, maybe the Government had actually rethought their choice and changed it to a smart one for once.

He side-eyed the car slightly, before heading up the stairs carefully.

He unlocked the apartment using his keys, and walked inside, and to be honest he’s not sure which he’d prefer, the government sitting on the couch next to his weary aunt or Tony Stark.

Not that he had much of a choice as he stared back at the famous man.

“Welcome back from school Peter…” Aunt May had said, it was one of the first sentences she had spoken to him that he hadn’t started and he knew it was just for appearance sake, that hurt more than anything.

“Hey May… uh, what's happenin-?” He got cut off when Stark had made a movement that everyone knows means stop talking quickly, the back and front flat hand in front of their throat. He was being told to be quiet by Tony Stark, so he did the only thing anyone should do in this situation, he shut the fuck up.

“If anything she should be asking you, you didn't tell her about the grant? The one we’ve talked about through all those emails.” He made a winking motion, obviously he was to go along with it.

“Oh right! I completely forgot about the grant, sorry May ive been a bit busy with homework and you’ve been busy with the hospital. I swear Mr Stark, you have shown up at one of the worst and best times, i was gonna tell her tonight!” May looked convinced enough and that's all that they needed, Stark gave him a thumbs up.

“Well, since you didn't get to inform her by the time i got here, i’ve taken it upon myself to tell her so she's all caught up, how bout we head to your room to speak about this more yeah?” He gets up before Peter can respond and as soon as May isn’t in his view, she loses the eye contact she had been maintaining for appearance sake, she looked pained that she couldn't hold eye contact with someone she called her nephew, but that's fine because Peter understood, he doesn't hold it against her.

As Peter leads the billionaire and hero to his room he becomes very thankful for his spider habits liking his web clean and neat, as it meant that the room reset that his spider side liked to do each week came in handy.

As he opened the door he could tell that Mr Stark had been expecting a messy normal teen room and was shocked as he walked into a neat looking but still teen space.

Peter had redecorated his room since the bite, SS, which was just his ‘Spider Side’ that he nicknamed SS for convince, had really been wanting some little webs on his roof for some reason and like, its makes sense, spiders like being up high, but he couldn't do that so he put up those fake vines instead. His single bed had been changed for a bunk that was neatly made on both beds with drawers underneath, beside it was his bedside table with a rug that went under his bed as well as his side table, that wall was covered in movie posters and printed out pictures. On the opposite wall was his desk closest to the door was his desk with pop figures. He’s glad that he had sold all those hero posters for some cash because now he couldn't be embarrassed.

“Honestly not what i expected for a teens room, it's actually clean.” Welp, that just proves that he knew what Stark was going to say, Peter must be a mind reader, everyone should bow to him.

“So what is this about?” - Stark raised an eyebrow at him - “Unless you regularly try to strike cords that are probably minors?” Look he couldn’t get that damned diss battle out of his head alright? Besides it would be funny to see if Stark knew what he was talking about.

“Really? You better not be referencing that battle thing.” - At Peters' surprised pikachu face he explains.- “A bunch of interns are talking about it.” His face turns to something of understanding.

Everything becomes fuzzy from there, Peter had gotten the baseline details but it was like his mind was only supplying the info he needed to know.

Stark had confronted him about being spiderman which Peter tried denying but it was no use, the man had found where he kept his suit.

Now there was a fight that he wanted Peter’s help with, apparently a ‘civil war’ but he’s just gonna call it a custody battle and explain as such.

The Avengers had a messy divorce and by Avengers he means Tony Stark and Captain America because the Captain apparently had a side guy or someshit like that? A guy he knew coming out of nowhere??? From what Stark said Cap took most of the kids.

He mentioned the name ‘Barnes’ so peter was just going to assume he meant James ‘bucky’ barnes, he couldn’t get what those girls had said in humanities out of his head and if the rumors were true, which lets be real, they probably were, then it makes complete sense if it was to be the Barnes Peter was thinking of.

Mr Stark said it was in Germany and when Peter was gonna say no, the motherfucker blackmailed him! The bastard. He does the blackmailing in this house.

Either way he now had no choice but to be on a plane going to Germany within the hour.

May, she didn't really care, more zoned out when he finally let Stark out of the webs he put him in so he wouldn’t tell May.

Peter doesn't even think his aunt has even realized that he had left, and that hurt, but he couldn’t show it, he was in a plane with the only company being Tony Stark’s driver that wanted nothing to do with him. He had tried talking to ‘happy’ in the car but the man had put up a screen, so Peter got the idea and hasn’t tried talking to him since, he also got the feeling that he probably shouldn’t talk much in the actual fight, he would most likely just embarrass himself.

Happy, who didn't seem that happy, was perfectly fine with the silence that lasted from the moment they stepped into the plane to the moment they got to the hotel.

The man handed him a briefcase and left him to his room telling him to get ready, looking inside was a brand new suit, probably for the best since when Stark confronted him about it the man had pretty much made fun of his outfit of choice like he wasn't just a kid with barely any materials, at least he was impressed by his webs?

He had gotten dressed into the new suit and immediately silenced his mic, he wasn't linked up to any other comms yet but it was better that no one realized he was a teen, that and he would probably ramble and he didn't want any of that today.

A knock sounded on the door and opened, it was time to fight.

Peter was a hidden element so he was to hide behind the shipping containers and wait for a signal, which just happened to be the embarrassing nickname Stark had given him. His job was mainly to steal America’s shield, property theft? Hell yeah.

“Underoos!” The man in Iron had yelled out, his companions looking confused while Cap’s side went on guard.

Landing a web on the build behind them Peter swinged upwards and shot a web at Cap’s shield and pulled it towards himself. Landing on the container behind Stark silently, normally Peter would be ranting his head off but he just didn’t feel comfortable doing that around these people. He eased out of his landing position gently and into a seated position with one leg propped up on the ledge with the other hanging off it, just hanging over the edge, with his arms rested on his propped up knee. He looked frankly intimidating the way he was staring at them silently, he knew that because of the whispers they thought he couldn't hear and the way their heartbeats never slowed. He passed the shield over to Stark who had his hand out waiting for it.

Stark’s side stared at him shocked, well all but the black widow but he could tell she was unnerved at his sudden appearance by her unsteady heartbeat.

Captain’s side quickly went into defensive positions but it was too late, Cap’s shield had already been stolen by a teeny tiny spider, not his words, Stark’s.

Words started being thrown around and soon after fists followed, the battle that ensued was fast and Peter knew if he wanted to have any chance of keeping up, he too had to speed up from his normal speed just used to catch criminals, he couldn’t be, ‘Peter who caught small time crooks’, no he had to become ‘spider-Man, the enigma who could keep up with the Avengers’ and damn was he going to do it, he had rarely needed to use more strength and speed but hey, these were top notch heroes, not muggers.

He had done what he was brought to germany for so he went off after where two males had began running, swinging up to the glass he shot through it, he could hear the lamer looking guy mutter about how ‘everyone has a gimmick now’, which, rude, that guy has mechanical wings, he’s a spider, he doesn't see him getting bite by a radioactive bird so really he should just be quiet.

And damn did Peter make him go quiet with one swift hit to the jaw, not enough strength to knock his jaw off but enough to make him think twice about getting into combat with him, the answer for the guy would most likely still be a ‘let's fight this bitch’ but he would at least think twice before getting his ass handed to him.

The guy was knocked back into the wall behind him as a result of the punch, he turned as his senses went off and caught the metal fist that was flying towards his head, wait metal?

The guy looked shocked as Peter examined the fist in his palm, it was so fucking cool! This must be the side-guy that Mr Stark was talking about to him earlier, Barnes, at least he had a name for one of them, wait, wings.

So Peter’s a fucking idiot the other dude was clearly The Falcon, otherwise known as Sam Wilson, speaking of the Falcon, Barnes had lowered his fist in shock and confusion as Wilson finally got up. The man clearly did think twice as he should have gotten up much sooner.

Eitherway Barnes had leap backwards as Wilson turned his wings, jetpack thing, on that Peter so desperately wanted to take apart and figure out.

He could have gotten out of the way, his spider sense had been going off from the moment the man had gotten up, but he wanted to see what was going to happen. Which was getting picked up off his feet by the man and brought into the air, The Falcon probably thought he was in the best place he could be, after all he was a bird while Peter was a spider, little does he know that this little spider has done its fair share of swinging in the wind, this was nothing.

He started fighting mid air as Wilson struggled to keep onto him. Peter really wanted to say one of those funny cop show lines but he still wasn't comfortable talking out loud, so instead he said it in his head.

Birdy let go of him so Peter shot a web and started swinging after him, it was better this way as he now had control of where he was going. The battle outside the building looked rough and Peter knew it would be better if he was to get these guys finished soon so he could go and help, and the fact that just because he had his comms muted didn't mean that he couldn't hear Starks' team, and he’s gonna be bloody honest, they sounded rough.

He stopped swinging and landed on one of the poles that went across the roof helping hold it up, he soon had to flee from that position though when Wilson had shot something at it, the pillar pole thing exploded by the time he was swinging away from it, Peter knew he shouldn’t dare try on land on another one of the poles because if Wilson exploded another than who knows how much force would have the whole thing coming down.

Unfortunately he didn't have a choice but to land on one a bit of a ways away, one more wouldn’t matter all too much but he still really hadn't wanted to risk it, that doesn't matter as he needed to due to something coming flying at him, and it wasn't Wilson.

He couldn’t risk being in the air catching it or the thing would just drag him along, so he landed and hoped that Wilson wouldn’t explode this pillar.

Lucky The Falcon didn't, so as Peter watched Barnes duck behind a map locator thing he threw it at the man, he didn't know what the map thing was called, all he knew is that it now had a large chunk taken out of it.

Barnes had peeked out at the wrong time and basically got a face full of the thing, Peter gleefully made jokes in his head before he was snapped out of his day-dream state by a swift kick to the back, sending him fly forwards, shooting a web to get back control and the motherfucker chilling on his back as if he was surfing off of him.

Wilson quickly gained back his own control with his jetpack wings much like Peter with his webs, but you know, that isn't allowed.

So Peter shot a web straight at his back where his wings function, sending him right into the floor like a loser.

He tried getting back up but Peter was smarter than that, he webbed Falcon's hands to the glass fence thing, balcony railing? Yes, balcony railing. He webbed the man's hands to the glass railing behind him as he landed swiftly onto a weird looking info center, or what he was assuming was one.

“These things coming out of you?!?” It was the first thing the man had said since Peter shut him up earlier other than grunts from all the fighting.

Peter, not wanting to break his not talking streak, didn't say shit, keep that bitch in silence, that's what he gets for surfing on him.

“I get that people don’t talk much during fighting but normally there's at least a tiny bit of chatter.” The man deadpanned at him.

Peter, wanting that man to be quiet again, quickly started swinging straight at him, Barnes ran in his way, it didn't stop Peter from kicking Wilson through the glass railing but instead just brought Barnes with them.

They both fell onto the ground below them as Peter shot his webs upwards so as to not fall like those noobs.

He webbed them to the floor so they couldn't move, his sense had warned him of a drone flying past him that was probably to hook onto his web to bring him away from the two laying on the floor. But since Peter could tell it was there he just shot a web at it on purpose and let it bring him outside, all while listening to Barnes complain.

“You couldn’t have done that sooner?” Lol no it won't have worked.

“Did you see that guy? He knew it was coming, I was hoping to catch him off guard with it but he knew Redwing was coming, it would have only worked against us.” at least someone knows it.

The fight outside was indeed a mess, People were fighting everywhere, there was a man growing in size before going tinier than any normal person should.

Before he knew it, Peter was engaged in a battle with Roger’s. The man was fighting really well, to the point Peter had to speed up considerably, he did struggle to keep his strength just at the level the man could handle but he ended up not losing control of it.

The Captain had clearly noticed his effort because when he collapsed something above Peter, causing him to have to hold onto it, he took that chance to talk to him.

“How much strength do you have? I've upped my strength like four times, yet not once have you fallen behind, only sped up??” The fossil had asked curiously.

Peter decided to unmute his comm, not the part that allowed him to speak to those he had on the comms but just so those outside his suit could hear him.

“As much as I need.” He really hoped the icy pole didn't notice his voice being that of a childs, lucky the man didn't seem to notice, instead looking like he was in shock at the thought that Peter had actually talked to him.

It was the first time he had talked in the entire battle, plus he had heard Wilson and Barnes complaining that he hadn't said anything at all, well more Wilson than Barnes.

“Huh, where are you from?” He eyed the man, watching as an intrigued look overtook Rogers face at his mask's eyes clearly showing what he was doing.

“Queens.” Peter was everywhere, the man was bound to find out.

“Brooklyn.” You know what that actually fits him.

Rogers quickly left as the man whose size had been changing although out the fighting quickly sized up a lot, and when he says a lot he means a lot.

Peter dropped whatever Rogers had collapsed on top of him and went to help, muting his comms along the way.

He watched as the two men in matching Iron armor grab things to ram into the bean stocks legs, Honesty those two are just Ned and Peter in different fonts with their matching but different color Iron suits, kinda like Peter and Ned’s matching but different color bracelets, they barely put them on but the boys still had them so it counts.

By the time he had made the short trip over to where the men were fighting he had come up with a plan.

He began swinging around the giant's legs, over and over again. Peter heard as the two Iron men had realized what he was doing and began following suit.

It seemed as though he swung too high up as the giant swatted him like a fly away, he got thrown back into the container he had previously hid behind.

Barely taking a second he quickly got back up and dusted himself off, he saw as Iron man looked towards him, as if he was going to check up on him but seeing that he was fine and already about to rejoin the fight had made Stark turn back to the fight.

The rest of the fight had passed by in a flash before Rhodey got injured badly and had to be taken away, The Black Widow had joined the otherside mid fight shocking no one.

As soon as Rhodey was taken away Stark quickly followed after him, trying to make sure his best friend was ok, causing Rogers and Barnes to get away, whatever happened to the others.

Peter didn't know and didn't care, he still had to be home before Aunt May realized, though Peter doubted she would. He didn't care though, if there was even the slightest chance she would worry, he would try his best to make sure she didn't.

So he left on the soonest flight back to Queens, ready to get back to patrolling his city.

And luckily he was told that he could keep the suit too and if they needed his help they would call him!

Chapter Text

Peter was being ignored. He was a smart kid, there was no way he wasn't going to notice it.

He had been sending in voice messages to Happy asking questions like any other curious teenager that loves to know everything would.

But it doesn't take a genius at the level of Tony Stark to see that he was being ghosted. If they didn't want his help after Germany they just had to say so, in fact it hurt more that they didn't just say it to his face.

He felt weird each time he sent the messages but he didn't want to stop, it was relieving having someone to talk to about his patrols, or more accurately, somewhere he could yap about it all.

So, taking that big brain of his, wanting to be able to voice whatever happened on his patrols, but not wanting to bother people who could care less about what he got up to, he just started recording himself talking about it all. Now of course he deleted them afterwards, but talking to thin air vs a recording is different.

Slowly but surely he sent less and less voice messages to Happy, when the numbers of voice messages lowered so did the weird feeling that appeared whenever he thought of the situation he was now in, the feeling that said it wasn't going to last. It wasn't the tingle saying that so he’s sure it’ll be fine.

Peter was sitting atop of a rooftop, he’d gotten fairly well known throughout Queens during the months since he had made his debut, if you could call it that.

There was a lot of wall smacking at the start, which people eventually started piling into compilations that the public loved.

There had been comments on how quickly he picked skills up but that was normal for Peter, as he’d come to find out he was great at hacking.

Why did he start learning how to hack, you might be asking, because what Uncle Ben had said stuck with him.

What were his parents doing with their lives while they had them? Peter knows well enough to know that small level drug cartels don't get you put as a traitor to your country. Clearly something was going on, so he started with a simple google search of his parent’s names.

And it was frankly weird… All the basic info he was originally looking for came up in one little search, like someone had piled it all into one page so no one had any reason to continue on their looking.

He had found out some cool things however, his parents were scientists that much he knew. But they were pretty well known, and had the honor of working with some of the best fellow scientists! And from the looks of things the other scientists felt honored to work with them!!!

Some pictures Peter had found in hidden websites that most definitely needed to update their firewalls, were… interesting.

Hell who was he kidding, they had worked with Dr Bruce Banner and Dr Hank Pym! And from the looks of things it was when Peter was just a toddler!! The picture showed the scene of a lab, his parents in the background with their lab coats on laughing at the scene in front of them. Dr Pym was off to the side, looking rather amused because there stood Dr Banner holding a young brown haired toddler, struggling to get a small lab coat on the boy who seemed rather happy to just try and grab Dr Banner’s glasses.

The title of the picture only made him more shocked.

‘Mini giving his Uncle trouble.’... Dr Banner, being called his uncle??!?!

Mini was clearly a nickname given to Peter by whoever, he scrolls through the photos, this whole thing seems to be a small photo album for the Parkers, kept away from any actual websites as a way to preserve what others want to erase from the looks of things.

A picture of Peter, or well, what he seems to always be called in the titles ‘Mini’, playing in an empty office, clearly belonging to someone important. ‘Mini waiting in grandpa’s office’, both sets of his biological grandparents died long before mum was pregnant… weird.

‘Mini meeting his new aunt.’ A redhead was holding him gently. It was only a picture but anyone could tell by the soft look in her eyes, she looked familiar.

‘Mini insisted on painting Auntie Nattie’s nails.’, The redhead was back, glaring at a male figure laughing near the back of the scene, her nails were black, red and really messy.

‘Mini’s taking after his grandpa.’ A male was holding Peter, he had an eyepatch on and was glaring at someone out of view, Peter was trying to copy the male.

…Wait a damn fucking second.

Clicking onto a fresh tab, Peter searches for the name ‘Director Nick Fury.’ The pictures came up with the exact male that was being called his ‘Grandpa’, he changes the search, ‘The Black Widow.’ he scrolls down far enough to young photos of the hero now turned rogue… a match. Thinking back to the male in the background of the painting nails picture he searches for ‘Clint Barton.’, the younger photos are a match.

Peter slowly scrolls through the photo album, slowly but surely matching people in the photos to more and more people belonging to SHIELD.

His parents weren't cartel drug lackeys, they were SHIELD agents… or, his mother was. In the photos his father almost always shows up in his lab coat, but his mother switches between a lab coat and an agent suit, sometimes showing up in photos training with others as Peter watches.

It… it explains a lot, but not everything.

If they were SHIELD agents why were they made traitors to the country, what happened??

After awhile the photos just stopped, it was clear he was going to need to hack into the SHIELD database if he wanted anymore info.

But for now Peter had patrol, so he got on his suit and left through his window, leaning against the open window backwards, he let himself slip out and quickly shot a web to the roof tops.

Peter mainly just sits around waiting, because let's be real, if someone's screaming or doing something wrong? He’s gonna fuckin hear it. His super hearing, curse or blessing? You decide. Wait no, actually Peter’s gonna bloody decide. Curse, it's a curse.

A curse that's just made him aware of a bank being robbed a few blocks down.

He leapt off the building and began heading to the area his senses were pointing in, soon enough he came across a couple of men in masks robbing ATMs.

They turned to face Peter and he couldn't stop himself from commenting on their masks.

“Iron man? Hulk? Thor? Captain America? Didn't know you guys were going broke, Stark Industries stocks going down??” Now, Peter thought he was the funniest thing on earth since his Parker Luck decided to not only take away his parents but also his uncle and make his aunt unable to look at him, trauma equals humor afterall.

Seems like the robbers didn't feel the same.

The four males looked at each other before coming at him rapidly, he ducked under weak punches, slowly but surely taking them down one at a time.

Just as Peter had finished with the third robber he felt his weight shift, and suddenly he was floating and being smashed into the top of the roof.

The gasps that sounded out made it clear that the robbers themselves didn't know what would've happened. And just quietly? That made Peter more worried than the actual gun they used made him.

They didn't know what would have happened and yet they still fired the weapon at him, they were desperate to get away, even if it meant they might have killed him.

He knew he had to take them down quickly, they have proven that they will not hesitate in pulling the trigger and that's more dangerous than anything.

He ranked up his strength to what he knew they wouldn’t be able to take down, what they would be overwhelmed with and started actually hitting.

Normally he tries to give everyone fighting chances, to be able to say that they held their own against him for a while.

But these guys? Yeah, fuck no.

He got them on the floor soon enough and quickly checked the gun they used, Peter being a tech nerd noticed what it was right away.

Alien tech, the type of thing where if you tell someone they call you the boy who screamed wolf. As much as he wished to tell Mr. Stark, he knew the man was most likely to ignore him or not believe him.

So he looked at the phone holding the contact where he had just finally stopped sending voice messages, and shut it off. He picked up the weapon, planning to experiment with it later.

Wrapping up his patrol, going back to his apartment after a bit and going back to researching his parents.

Or he would have if Ned wasn't waiting for him when he arrived.

Peter had snuck in via the window like how he normally did, crawling on the ceiling and closing the door. He had stuck a hand on the ceiling and let his feet drop, waiting a second before unsticking his hand, allowing Peter to land perfectly on his feet.

Just as he thought he once more got away with his nightly patrols, a crash sounded out behind him. He spun around and saw Ned sitting on his bed, Lego death star in pieces at his feet.

“What was that??” Aunt May’s voice rang out, Peter had to remind himself that it wasn't because she wanted to know, only because Ned was there.

It was for appearance.

“Nothing, May!” Peter responded quickly, knowing May, she wouldn’t bother checking, plus he could smell the burning food that she would be worried about, though since Uncle Ben’s death she had been focusing on distracting herself with getting better at cooking, two meals a week would be actually good to eat nowadays

He made a shushing motion to Ned and quickly got out of his suit, rushing to put a shirt and shorts on.

Peter could hear May ordering Thai food due to the burnt food, just as the door opened he fell into his bed, signaling for Ned to be quiet, the teen was still staring wide eyed.

His aunt explained that she had ordered Thai for dinner and that it would be at the apartment soon, all while avoiding Peter’s eyes of course.

Waiting for the food to get there, Peter started explaining and answering Ned’s questions, and soon enough he got Ned to leave after giving him enough info.

Now he could get back to researching his parents.

The more he looked the more that got revealed.

His parents went to HYDRA and betrayed SHIELD, they were named traitors to the states, then died.

How fun.

Just as he was about to stop, semi ok with thinking that his parents were simply assholes.

He came across Nick Fury’s statements about what had happened.

‘I don’t believe that they were traitors, there is no way. Otherwise I wouldn't have been the first non-blood family member to hold their son, I wouldn't have been named his grandfather. I don’t care what the reports say, I will fight this and look for the truth. M & R weren’t traitors.’.

That's a strong statement, lotta info… just a couple crises for him to now deal with. Silently, he began to hack again, this one took a lot longer, some vague back and forth messages to Ned and he had a backdoor into what he believed was HYDRA’s info, or at the very least something that could help.

He sent the backdoor info to SHIELD’s anonymous line, hopefully they would check it out, but for now sleep was calling him.

Well, not really. He wasn't tired despite the time but he was really hoping for his eyebags to leave, no matter the amount of sleep the teen got they never lessened, like he doesn't really care but at the same time. What the heck dude?

Closing his laptop, he laid on top of the covers, mind reeling from his apparent past, he let it slip into a light sleep.

He could only hope they take the backdoor seriously, maybe Fury was right.

…Maybe Uncle Ben was right, the book is still open, their story's ending wasn’t true.

He’ll just have to wait and see.

Chapter Text

Peter didn't know when it all started going downhill, maybe when he had taken the alien tech into school as to study and take it out of the weapon encasing it was in?

Perhaps when he had ignored Happy’s call to him, asking what the heck had happened?

Or maybe, just maybe, when he decided he was the one that needed to check out what was going on behind the scenes.

As mentioned before Peter had taken the Chitauri technology to his school as to, basically, dissect it.

As Ned put it.

They soon left the area where they had been removing the core from the weapons when Peter saw two grown men walking down the hall.

He had a sinking feeling and tugged Ned down a side hallway, his suspicions were proven right as he watched the men turn down into the classroom they were just in.

“Ned, stay behind.” His friend looked confused, but stayed put as Peter left and followed behind the men.

Somewhere along the way, Peter had managed to put a tracker on the two men, he knew this was his chance, he had to follow them.

Soon enough the tracker finally stopped moving after a few hours, the location was near enough DC Washington.

Which, luckily enough, is where his competition for academic decathlon was being held, he had rejoined it just as the bus was leaving.

He was sure there were many more details he was missing, but as he lay on his bed trying his best to remember what had happened within such a short amount of time, he knew he was blanking on parts but, oh well.

Anyways, he had snuck out of his room that he shared with Ned, instead of going down to the pool with Liz, he went and found the base of a pesky little bird… let's just say it didn't turn out well after that.

Getting trapped in a warehouse, not making it back for the competition, finding out that the Alien tech core could not be allowed to go through any scanners lest it blow up, finding out that Ned took it through a scanner without knowing about the danger… blowing up the Washington monument.

But that was neither here nor there you know??

He got a text from Happy, telling him that Stark had said to basically just leave everything alone, but honestly? This wasn't Avengers business, Tony Stark was not going to follow up on any of this stuff, ok maybe it would be Avengers business had Peter told them about the alien tech, but he didn't, they didn't know about any of the tech so honestly it just wasn't their problem and they should just leave it to him.

That's what Peter had thought at the time.

But then he had tracked a deal going down on one of the ferries, and he tried to help, he really did!

But it just kept going downhill, the boat was splitting apart, his webs were only strong enough if nobody was moving, but that couldn’t be expected.

Maybe it's no surprise that Ironman had come to help, maybe it's no surprise that everything only turned out fine when Ironman was helping.

He should have left it to the professionals, that's what Stark said when he had cornered him later that day, Peter knew he was correct at that moment, he wasn't meant for the whole big business, that wasn't him.

Still, he had started it and wasn't just going to stop, once more Stark had no intentions of continuing the case if Peter stopped.

Soon, they got into an argument, then Stark asked for the suit back… No, he demanded it, and Peter knew it was for the best, and Stark knew that too, so why did his expression look regretful when he realized what he had said? What he had demanded back? And why did his breath hitch when Peter agreed?

Either way he knew it had to happen, that's why he didn't try fighting him, he led the man quietly to his apartment, May was still out at work.

He had made the hero sit waiting in his living room while he changed, he walked out in comfortable clothes and handed the man the suit back to his face. Just… Why could Peter hear the Man of Iron’s heart speed up like he had made a mistake? Like he didn't expect it?

He watched Stark look at the suit, as if making sure everything was in its place, he looked up at Peter and nodded, his expression looked somewhat like guilt and regret, but that couldn’t be right??

Peter took a brown paper bag they had lying around and took the suit from the man's hands, he almost looked thankful that Peter had taken it back… weird, he put the suit in the bag and handed the bag to Stark.

The man's expression fell again and he left soon after. If he believed Peter wasn't right for the suit, why did it look like he hated the idea of him not having it?

Now, Peter is probably experiencing a lot of overstimulation from the events that had all happened so shortly after the other, so he’s pretty sure he’s just being delulu.

So, for a while after he had just tried to catch up on his schoolwork and the likes, he had quickly just taken his homemade suit out from where he had hidden it.

Stark couldn’t take this one away, plus, the difference in the suits seem to make it clear that he, the small, neighborhood only (No more trips to dc), friendly Spider-Man was back.

Of course, he couldn’t just give up on his pest in the sky, but just no more taking on big jobs.

Either way the bird hadn’t shown itself in ages, so Peter took that as an opportunity to rest up for a bit.

So… Pray tell, why the fuck did the man not only show up, but as his homecoming date’s father.

He had just managed to ask Liz to homecoming, and don’t get him wrong he was really excited for it… just, why now?

The man had basically threatened him, wait no, he out right threatened him.

Which, rude. Bro he was there to take his daughter to homecoming, leave that shit for the next day.

So, to be the little petty bitch he was, Peter dropped his phone in the back of the pest’s car and had Ned track it.

Basically ditched his homecoming all together, found the prick that was single-handedly ruining his life because like, rude, that's fate's job.

And well, he tried to kick his ass, but you know, emphasis on tried.

It pretty much just went to complete shit.

The building kinda collapsed on Peter, and mind you he was in his homemade suit, safe to say he didn't feel cute crawling out of the ruins of the warehouse after screaming his throat out crying for help, before he realized hero don't get help, they aren’t allowed, they can only suffer in silence so it seems.

He had to put his big boy pants on and wasn't even allowed time to process what would probably be a new trauma for him and go track and bring down a plane.

All while hoping Mr. Stark wouldn’t be too upset at him, after all… he did just end up crashing it, at least the douchebag lived?

Well, it seems like he did good, as after that long as fuck time of overstimulation, which was basically fucking up his entire sense of time and reality of what was real or just a dream (what should really be considered a nightmare), he had a message off of Stark telling him to come to the compound.

Which, as Peter stared unblinking at the message, he promptly turned off his phone and tried to catch up on some desperately needed sleep. His eye bags weren’t dimming at all.

Chapter Text

Peter had been shooed into Happy’s car once more, honestly he wished he could get some more sleep.

Being told he was going to the compound wasn't at all stressful for Peter (He’s lying), so when he was taken upstate to meet up with Mr Stark for no reason at all, he wasn't scared of any possible consequences that could pop up due to him crashing Stark's plane.

Totally…

He was desperately hoping his Parker Luck wouldn’t strike as hard today, fat chance though.

There was a weird amount of cars around the place, not like ‘rich man spends money on lots of cars for no reason’, more so, lots of people are here.

And yet as he was guided to the meet up place by Happy, he didn't spot a single person.

His spidey sense was just tingling at the back of his neck, not shouting danger, it was more like it was whispering in his ear that something was off, that it wasn't real.

He mentally told his insecurities to shut up, that just because he was a loser didn't mean everything good (slightly) around him was fake.

He spotted a quinjet taking off from the windows, they were in what was a hallway, or waiting type room? Eh, just a huge rich person space without much in it. Lovely view though.

“You don’t see that every day” Happy said, the man was being nicer than previously, or his tone was just overall more friendly.

He could finally hear a bit of chatter from different people, and it was all originating from behind the large door at the end of the ‘hallway’, or what he thinks is a door, rich man being rich man, anything could be a door.

Hearing the sound of footsteps he looked to the side, seeing Mr Stark walking up to them.

“Oh there they are.” Mr Stark's tone seemed to be lighter as well.

The rich man, overly rich to still be wearing the same pair of glasses each day, had stopped by them.

“How was the ride up?” He asked but Peter knew by now that it was only a filler question to whatever would come next.

“Good.” Happy nodded, knowing his Boss wouldn’t want more info.

“Give me a minute with the kid.” Stark had originally been looking at Peter but switched to looking at Happy, basically telling him to get lost for a bit.

Not nerve wracking at all.

“Seriously.” Happy looked blankly at Stark but he could tell there was something more there.

“Ye.” Stark said fast.

Happy looked between Stark and him.

“I’ve gotta talk with the kid.” Mr Stark continued.

“I’ll be close behind.” Happy informed Stark, which was weird, because it was aimed like a warning to Mr Stark… really weird.

“How bout loose follow, alright? Boundaries are good.” Like he said, weird.

Stark patted him on the shoulder, leading him away from Happy.

“I'm sorry I took your suit.” Did Tony Stark just apologize to him? Is he dreaming??

“I mean you had it coming.” Yep there's the normal Stark, he ain't dreaming.

“Actually it turns out that it was the perfect moment and the thing you needed, right, to urge you on.” Peter disagrees, he didn't like being under that warehouse without a proper way to get help.

But his actual opinion isn't wanted. Too bad, because Peter is great at making his unwanted opinions known.

“Right, wouldn't you think. Don’t you think.” Nope.

“I mean, I didn't quite like being crushed under that warehouse without any way to get help at all. But other than that, I guess, yeah?” Stark stopped.

“What?” Oh shit did they not know he was under the warehouse when it went down, welp new lore dropped, like the warehouse too!

He saw Happy look up startled behind them, he picked up his pace, still hanging behind like Stark said but as close as he could be.

“Uhh, continue what you were saying Mr Stark.” He looked frankly done with Peter at this point, not, i dislike this kid, but instead, this kid is going to put me into an early grave.

“We’re coming back to this, I hope you know.” He sheepishly nodded as a response to what Stark had mumbled.

“Uh, god damn kid, what the heck. What was I going to say. . . Right. You screwed the pooch hard, big time.” The man stumbled on his words before continuing.

They continued walking.

“But then you did the right thing.” Oh, yippie?

“Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies.” -I'm sorry what? Is that what screwed the pooch means?! It’s meant literally?!- “Alright, not my best metaphor.” Yeah he can tell, new horrifying information just dropped...

As they walked up to the wall, it opened up and revealed another door. Seriously man, what's with all the doors???

“I think with a little more mentoring, you could be a real asset to the team” …Huh?

“There's about fifty reporters behind that door, real ones, not bloggers” He pointed at the door Peter had noticed before. He tapped something on his watch.

The door in front of him opened up, the one that had just appeared.

“Now, when you're ready, try that on.” As Stark spoke, a brand new spider suit rose up out of the ground.

It was a deep red like Peter’s homemade suit, black up and down the sides with the spider symbol in the middle, silver accents all around.

There was no blue, no blue at all.

Peter subtly hated it.

Yes he had modeled the homemade suit after the spider that bit him, but it represented for those that didn't know the backstory behind it, meaning everyone, police lights, red and blue.

Action and Justice. That's what those flashing lights mean for him. The red being action, the blue being justice. The suit has no blue on it. And he knows he’ll still be bringing justice to those that need it, that isn't why he feels the need for the representation of justice in his suit.

The blue on his suit meant Justice for his uncle, killed because he wouldn't bring someone to justice, causing his red blood to spill, causing action.

The action of becoming spiderman, with the red on his suit the action was still represented, the blood still stained his hands but there was no justice.

“And I’ll introduce the world to the newest official member of the avengers, Spider-Man.” Peter was cut out of his thoughts by the man.

He stood a few feet away from the suit, taking it in, the lack of blue.

He zoned out, Stark and Happy were discussing something, Vision not caring about walls or doors?

All the while Peter stood there in that same spot, remembering when he gave up his suit, the confidence that he wasn't ready for bigger things.

He hadn't gotten better yet despite what Stark thinks, he knows that because he knows himself.

He wasn't ready to be an Avenger, Queens still needed their much hated but loved Vigilante.

“You’ll fit right in.” No, no he wouldn’t.

He finally turned and faced Mr Stark.

“Thank you Mr Stark, but I'm good.” Stark did a double take.

“...You're good? How are you good?” This man seems to be just a bit flabbergasted, Happy seemed, well he actually seemed a bit happy, for once.

“Well, I'd rather just stay on the ground, really, you think I've changed but I'm still no different from the kid you took the suit from, rightfully too. I'm just not cut out to be an Avenger.” Peter told him with no hesitation.

“Is it the suit? I saw you look weirdly at the suit, we can change it you know.”

“No, the suit is fine, well it lacks blue and that's a really important part of the suit for me, but no. I'm just not cut from the same sting as you all, I'm not meant for this.” Stark took off his glasses, seeming confused.

“I can change it to have blue, heck I'll make the main part blue, you can choose the exact design you want. Last chance yes or no.” The man reasoned with him.

“No.” Peter said immediately after.

“Alright, uh, Happy will take you home, kinda a busy day.” Stark wasn't expecting it, he could tell. But Peter knew he wasn't ready and was going to stand by it.

“Yep, can you go wait in the car kid, I need a minute with the boss.”

Peter shot Happy a thumbs up and started walking back down to the car. He wondered what they were going to use as the reason for getting all the reporters there now that he was no longer going to be the announcement?

Mr Stark and Happy watch as he leaves to the car, making sure to not underestimate his hearing abilities.

“Happy, be sure to pass along an intern opportunity for him.” Stark passes Happy some forms that were laying on the table nearby.

“This is too much for it just to be Intern forms boss, what else are you giving him??” Happy might be getting a nephew if Peter and Tony's relationship gets better during the internship, so don't sue him for already getting protective.

“Just forms for him to design his own Spider suit, if the blue is really that important for him, which it seems to be, I don't wanna get anything wrong.” How nice, that's rare for Tony, maybe he does have a heart, too bad he rarely uses it.

“I thought you were going to give that one to him, are you really going to make him wait longer for a better protective suit, Tony?” Happy asked him.

Now this man in particular is weird, does things for weird reasons. Happy definitely knows this, but hopefully this dumbass will actually have a good reason for this. Maybe he’s just seeing this wrong.

“Of course not, i'll change the black on this suit to blue, give it to him, put a bit of silver, meaning he’s not yet an avenger. And using his design I'll make a stronger, better, suit, with gold in place of silver. It will be his signal as an Avenger, the moment he puts it on, he is one of us.” Happy raised his eyebrows, before nodding in agreement. So he was seeing it wrong.

“He was right, you know, he isn't cut from the same sting as you lot.” And Happy meant that as a good thing.

“Oh trust me, I know, he was cut from something stronger, something meant for better.” Yep, Happy's getting a nephew, time to make sure he has a head start from Rhodey to being the favorite uncle, he’s waited years for this.

At that moment the doors behind them opened and out walked Pepper, Happy immediately looked over at Tony, signaling he would not be taking the fall for him.

“Where's the kid?” Pepper looked around, too bad, he's gone, now it's not Happy’s fault, don't listen to Tony.

“He left.” Tony told her bluntly, too bad both Happy and Pepper could see him sweating.

“Everyones waiting?” She seemed exasperated with them, when really she should be aiming that all at Tony.

“You know what, he actually made a really mature choice, just surprised the heck out of us.” Him, surprised the heck out of him, Happy could see this coming, he's a good kid.

“Did you guys screw this up?” Uh, uh uh, Tony, screwed this up, would people stop placing part of the blame on him.

“He told the kid to go wait in the car.” What the fuck man?

“Are you kidding me?” -Happy started stuttering. -”I have a room full of people in there waiting for some big announcement, what am I going to tell them?”

“Think of something, uhh, how about that newly solved case, the one with these two dead shield agents. M & R or something, think that's what they’re duo name was? Or, Hap, you still got that ring”

“Do i?” Honestly, this man, he asks him to hold onto something, and doesn't expect him to have it at all times? Who does he look like? A fool? This man is impulsive at the best of times, it's safer to never put anything down then to try and predict his moves.

“The engagement ring” He aint a dumbass he knows what he’s talking about, oh lordy this man.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been carrying this since 2008.” Since 2008 Happy has waited, is Tony actually going to propose? Oh Rhodey is going to throw a fit if he does propose for not being there, hopefully he’s watching the news.

“I think we can use the first story.” Pepper, PLEASE, he’s been waiting so impatiently for these two smart dumbasses to finally get engaged, DON’T, wreck this.

Pepper made her way back to the door, ready to deal with the reporters and most likely use the story about M & R, or the S.H.I.E.L.D agents Mary and Richard, this might be the day they are cleared of they’re charges, their family could finally know the truth.

“I can't believe you have that thing in your pocket this whole time.” Did everyone forget that Happy knows perfectly how Tony works?

“Let me get the door for you.” He’s really buttering her up there.

“I've got it.” Pepper got to the door way before Tony, so Happy tapped him and leaned in to whisper something to him.

“Just saying boss, why not both?” He whispered when Tony leaned over to him, he placed the ring in his hands and pushed him to the door.

Watching as Tony winked, and left through the same door as Pepper, now Happy had to go take the kid home, maybe get ice cream on the way, do teens still like ice cream? Whatever he needs a headstart from Rhodey.

;)

The kid was eating ice cream in a fairly known ice cream shop, as it turns out the kid is fine with ice cream but much prefers Gelato.

Considering when they entered the shop, he immediately went to that section of the place.

Either way he was also buying time for Tony to change the black on the suit he made to blue. By the time the kid is dropped off at his apartment the suit should be on his bed, and the announcement will be ready to be aired to the world.

Just hopefully Tony didn't change his mind like a scared possum like all the other times.

So he drops off Peter and makes sure to get Rhodey on the phone to hear his reaction, the kid waves goodbye hesitantly as Happy drives off.

Peter makes his way upstairs to where he could hear May most likely burning dinner, TV on a news station as background noise.

Most likely not knowing Peter was even gone, though she had slowly been getting better at making communication with him.

And no matter how it was nothing like their old relationship, it was something, so he would take it.

He opened the door, she turned and nodded her head at him in a hello gesture, it was better than what he normally got.

He sat down at the couch, the TV was beginning to air what was most likely the announcement he was meant to be a part of.

“Now, moving onto a case previously thought to be solved. The information of the case is as such, two married ex-SHIELD agents thought to have betrayed the once long standing organization having been spies on the inside, feeding information to others.” Peter turned up the volume, he could tell May had become interested in this.

Did SHIELD go through the backdoor he gave them and found information to prove his parents as innocent? This is sounding an awful lot like their case.

“The case was announced as solved, charging the duo with their crimes and announcing them traitors to the states; they died not long after. Despite this, the Director of SHIELD at the time, has made it quite clear what he thinks of this end result, believing it to be false. The agent's names were never released to the public and their family was told as little info as they could get away with. The couple had a young boy, who was favored by most people he came across, the very director being named his grandfather.” Ok, move on from him, just get to if their case has been fixed.

“In his parents death, he was moved to live with his last living family members, the old friends of his parents that had become their family were denied permission to see the boy, being cut off from the people at SHIELD he once knew. This is as much information as we were able to get at the time of the case originally being solved by various agents who knew the boy, one of which being the director Nick Fury himself.” My god, just to get to the point. May had sat down near him, fixated on the reporter, most likely seeing the overlay from his parents and this case.

“This case has once more come to life in the face of new information that may prove the Directors view of what truly happened as correct. With an anonymous tip, they gained access into a fairly hidden organization, the name of which has not been released to the public, using the backdoor they managed to discreetly gather information when they came across the truth, the two ‘traitors’ had gone on a secret mission to gather information on the other side, so secret in fact that no one was made aware. The duo was going to explain everything when they got the info they needed but they were found out as spies before they had gotten out, the couple were killed and the truth was buried so they would never be cleared of their charges.” …He did it, they're going to be cleared, the truth is out… their story's ending is being fixed.

“On this day the SHIELD duo have been cleared of all their charges, using the info they gathered which was previously seen as tramped with, hundreds of cases have now been solved. They have been named heroes, far too long after their death, but better now then never. Their family will be notified within the coming hours, but now, for the first time, with the case finally closed for the last time, their names will be released.” A knock on the door, he really did it.

Aunt May kept an eye on the TV, probably putting the dots together, as she moved to get the door.

“The M & R duo, Mary and Richard, are no longer traitors to the states and have been hailed as heroes. Their last names however have been kept hidden for the safety of their family and son, whose name will also be kept secret, forever known as the nickname they used for him, ‘Mini’. Thank you, that's all for today, now back to the engagement of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, announced just this afternoon.” It’s done, their story's ending is now, finally, true. Wait engagement?!

Aunt May had a look of realization on her face, she understood now, and so did the world.

She opened the door.

“Hello, is this the Parker residence?” It was obvious that she recognized whoever was at the door though, if even faintly.

“Yes, who might you be?” May blocked the doorway from his view on the couch.

“Nick Fury, Ma’am, we’ve met before, either way I'm sure you’ve seen the news.” His… grandfather? If he was remembering correctly.

“...We have met before, and my husband told you to never show your face around us again.” Oh yeah. They did mention they did that, the same day Ben died… It’s why he left, causing his uncle's death…

“Yes, he did. But that was back when we allowed you to have the belief that we were, as you put it, ‘The Cartel’, nevertheless you know the truth now.” They fucking what? They let them believe what?

“So why are you here, we need no messenger.” Ok, calm down woman.

“I ask you, like I did all those years ago, may at least one of us see him, my grandchild.”

“You do know you're not actually his grandfather.” Thats harsh, what the fuck? May isnt even related to him by blood, what is she on about? Besides, she can barely look at him.

“I was named it at his birth by his parents, I am his grandfather, in all that matters. So? May I at least see him, if not the others? Not even talking, just a look at how he’s grown, we kept by your rules and haven't investigated him” Huh, how sweet?

“No, I'll tell you the same thing my husband said that day. Get out and don't show your face around here again.” Well, that takes away the chance of getting more info about his parents and how they were like, plus meeting the people his parents called family.

“Goodbye then.” Oh, he left that easily...

He listened to the door close, May walked over and turned off the TV. She left to her bedroom, speaking about Ben would be hard for her.

Lucky for him that meant she didn't notice as Peter slipped into his own bedroom, closing the door and walking up to the window, looking out onto the street.

The man he saw all over both the media and the photos he found was walking over to a black car. The doors of the car opened and a few people that could be recognized by the photos looked slightly hopeful, the man shook his head.

They looked dejected, Fury looked up and saw him from where he had opened his window and was leaning out slightly.

He heard whispers due to his super hearing. Mainly just his old nickname they had used back then, ‘Mini’, as they spotted him.

It was like a staring contest between the two, Peter tilted his head, Fury copied.

The other agents commenting quietly about how it was like but when he was a child, his super hearing once more picking it up, Peter can just imagine himself as a baby doing the same motions as he is now.

The parallels were probably striking for them.

“Peter, make sure you're ready for school tomorrow!” May had yelled out from her room, she didn't normally care but most likely wanted to keep him away from seeking them out. She was too late for that though.

He turned his head to the door, responding.

“Of course, May.”

He closed the window without looking back, walking over to the door, not wanting to see how they would react to him having to leave when they only just got to see him. If they would even care, maybe that scared him more, that they wouldn't care.

“Goodbye Mini.” He heard rather faintly, first by Fury, before it was copied by the others at the car.

He stayed by his door, not daring to look back as he heard the car leave.

May knocked on his door before opening it, getting a bit startled at Peter just standing there, she was quiet for a moment before asking to talk with him.

He sat down with May at the couch once more, she placed a cup of tea in his hands.

“...I'm sorry for being so distant, dear.”

“It’s fine May, you needed time, it's understandable.”

“I, I just. You didn't seem affected.” She said finally.

“What? I was, he died in my arms, I was affected, I can't look at red, my favorite sweets? Puked down the drain if I eat them, what are you talking about?”

“That, you have been affected, but you're not acting normal, most people break down crying, weeks off of school, you barely have been any different.”

“...I dont process. Yeah I know it happened, it's real, but my emotions don't work that way, I don't know. Trust me, I've cried but my tears never last for more than ten minutes. I don't know, I can’t cry with noise, it's rare if there's a hiccup. May, I think I'm just broken, but I am affected.”

She was silent as he pleaded to her.

“My mind, body, I don't know, it just won't allow me to express my true emotions.” He tried explaining it to her, but it is hard to say, you only truly know if you have experienced it.

“Ok, I think your father was similar in that way, I understand somewhat about what you mean dear, I'm sorry, let’s try and get back our old relationship?.” Yeah, gladly.

They talked more and more, before going off on their separate ways, it would take a bit to get to what they were like before, but it was a step.

Besides he's got to check out what that brown bag on his bed was, also were they just going to move on from Mr Stark proposing to Miss Potts?.

Ugh he needs a sweet treat desperately, of course he still had a craving for Strawberry Clouds but they still made him feel sick when he looked at them. It made Peter have to pick a completely new favorite candy, the choice was made easier for him.

As Peter walked down to that convenient store, the same one that his uncle's life was taken in, his mind still somewhat reeling from the info dump, he knew which candy he wanted.

Entering the store he walked over to the Strawberry Cloud's old spot, to find Strawberry Pencils, you know the one with the yellow bear on it? With the nice filling inside? He discovered them when he went to reach for the Strawberry clouds one day by habit, and found the new sweets in their place.

The old lady still manning the storefront had smiled at him kindly when he saw.

At least he wouldn't have to relive the memories of that night by the Cloud sweets.
Peter had been shooed into Happy’s car once more, honestly he wished he could get some more sleep.

Being told he was going to the compound wasn't at all stressful for Peter (He’s lying), so when he was taken upstate to meet up with Mr Stark for no reason at all, he wasn't scared of any possible consequences that could pop up due to him crashing Stark's plane.

Totally…

He was desperately hoping his Parker Luck wouldn’t strike as hard today, fat chance though.

There was a weird amount of cars around the place, not like ‘rich man spends money on lots of cars for no reason’, more so, lots of people are here.

And yet as he was guided to the meet up place by Happy, he didn't spot a single person.

His spidey sense was just tingling at the back of his neck, not shouting danger, it was more like it was whispering in his ear that something was off, that it wasn't real.

He mentally told his insecurities to shut up, that just because he was a loser didn't mean everything good (slightly) around him was fake.

He spotted a quinjet taking off from the windows, they were in what was a hallway, or waiting type room? Eh, just a huge rich person space without much in it. Lovely view though.

“You don’t see that every day” Happy said, the man was being nicer than previously, or his tone was just overall more friendly.

He could finally hear a bit of chatter from different people, and it was all originating from behind the large door at the end of the ‘hallway’, or what he thinks is a door, rich man being rich man, anything could be a door.

Hearing the sound of footsteps he looked to the side, seeing Mr Stark walking up to them.

“Oh there they are.” Mr Stark's tone seemed to be lighter as well.

The rich man, overly rich to still be wearing the same pair of glasses each day, had stopped by them.

“How was the ride up?” He asked but Peter knew by now that it was only a filler question to whatever would come next.

“Good.” Happy nodded, knowing his Boss wouldn’t want more info.

“Give me a minute with the kid.” Stark had originally been looking at Peter but switched to looking at Happy, basically telling him to get lost for a bit.

Not nerve wracking at all.

“Seriously.” Happy looked blankly at Stark but he could tell there was something more there.

“Ye.” Stark said fast.

Happy looked between Stark and him.

“I’ve gotta talk with the kid.” Mr Stark continued.

“I’ll be close behind.” Happy informed Stark, which was weird, because it was aimed like a warning to Mr Stark… really weird.

“How bout loose follow, alright? Boundaries are good.” Like he said, weird.

Stark patted him on the shoulder, leading him away from Happy.

“I'm sorry I took your suit.” Did Tony Stark just apologize to him? Is he dreaming??

“I mean you had it coming.” Yep there's the normal Stark, he ain't dreaming.

“Actually it turns out that it was the perfect moment and the thing you needed, right, to urge you on.” Peter disagrees, he didn't like being under that warehouse without a proper way to get help.

But his actual opinion isn't wanted. Too bad, because Peter is great at making his unwanted opinions known.

“Right, wouldn't you think. Don’t you think.” Nope.

“I mean, I didn't quite like being crushed under that warehouse without any way to get help at all. But other than that, I guess, yeah?” Stark stopped.

“What?” Oh shit did they not know he was under the warehouse when it went down, welp new lore dropped, like the warehouse too!

He saw Happy look up startled behind them, he picked up his pace, still hanging behind like Stark said but as close as he could be.

“Uhh, continue what you were saying Mr Stark.” He looked frankly done with Peter at this point, not, i dislike this kid, but instead, this kid is going to put me into an early grave.

“We’re coming back to this, I hope you know.” He sheepishly nodded as a response to what Stark had mumbled.

“Uh, god damn kid, what the heck. What was I going to say. . . Right. You screwed the pooch hard, big time.” The man stumbled on his words before continuing.

They continued walking.

“But then you did the right thing.” Oh, yippie?

“Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies.” -I'm sorry what? Is that what screwed the pooch means?! It’s meant literally?!- “Alright, not my best metaphor.” Yeah he can tell, new horrifying information just dropped...

As they walked up to the wall, it opened up and revealed another door. Seriously man, what's with all the doors???

“I think with a little more mentoring, you could be a real asset to the team” …Huh?

“There's about fifty reporters behind that door, real ones, not bloggers” He pointed at the door Peter had noticed before. He tapped something on his watch.

The door in front of him opened up, the one that had just appeared.

“Now, when you're ready, try that on.” As Stark spoke, a brand new spider suit rose up out of the ground.

It was a deep red like Peter’s homemade suit, black up and down the sides with the spider symbol in the middle, silver accents all around.

There was no blue, no blue at all.

Peter subtly hated it.

Yes he had modeled the homemade suit after the spider that bit him, but it represented for those that didn't know the backstory behind it, meaning everyone, police lights, red and blue.

Action and Justice. That's what those flashing lights mean for him. The red being action, the blue being justice. The suit has no blue on it. And he knows he’ll still be bringing justice to those that need it, that isn't why he feels the need for the representation of justice in his suit.

The blue on his suit meant Justice for his uncle, killed because he wouldn't bring someone to justice, causing his red blood to spill, causing action.

The action of becoming spiderman, with the red on his suit the action was still represented, the blood still stained his hands but there was no justice.

“And I’ll introduce the world to the newest official member of the avengers, Spider-Man.” Peter was cut out of his thoughts by the man.

He stood a few feet away from the suit, taking it in, the lack of blue.

He zoned out, Stark and Happy were discussing something, Vision not caring about walls or doors?

All the while Peter stood there in that same spot, remembering when he gave up his suit, the confidence that he wasn't ready for bigger things.

He hadn't gotten better yet despite what Stark thinks, he knows that because he knows himself.

He wasn't ready to be an Avenger, Queens still needed their much hated but loved Vigilante.

“You’ll fit right in.” No, no he wouldn’t.

He finally turned and faced Mr Stark.

“Thank you Mr Stark, but I'm good.” Stark did a double take.

“...You're good? How are you good?” This man seems to be just a bit flabbergasted, Happy seemed, well he actually seemed a bit happy, for once.

“Well, I'd rather just stay on the ground, really, you think I've changed but I'm still no different from the kid you took the suit from, rightfully too. I'm just not cut out to be an Avenger.” Peter told him with no hesitation.

“Is it the suit? I saw you look weirdly at the suit, we can change it you know.”

“No, the suit is fine, well it lacks blue and that's a really important part of the suit for me, but no. I'm just not cut from the same sting as you all, I'm not meant for this.” Stark took off his glasses, seeming confused.

“I can change it to have blue, heck I'll make the main part blue, you can choose the exact design you want. Last chance yes or no.” The man reasoned with him.

“No.” Peter said immediately after.

“Alright, uh, Happy will take you home, kinda a busy day.” Stark wasn't expecting it, he could tell. But Peter knew he wasn't ready and was going to stand by it.

“Yep, can you go wait in the car kid, I need a minute with the boss.”

Peter shot Happy a thumbs up and started walking back down to the car. He wondered what they were going to use as the reason for getting all the reporters there now that he was no longer going to be the announcement?

Mr Stark and Happy watch as he leaves to the car, making sure to not underestimate his hearing abilities.

“Happy, be sure to pass along an intern opportunity for him.” Stark passes Happy some forms that were laying on the table nearby.

“This is too much for it just to be Intern forms boss, what else are you giving him??” Happy might be getting a nephew if Peter and Tony's relationship gets better during the internship, so don't sue him for already getting protective.

“Just forms for him to design his own Spider suit, if the blue is really that important for him, which it seems to be, I don't wanna get anything wrong.” How nice, that's rare for Tony, maybe he does have a heart, too bad he rarely uses it.

“I thought you were going to give that one to him, are you really going to make him wait longer for a better protective suit, Tony?” Happy asked him.

Now this man in particular is weird, does things for weird reasons. Happy definitely knows this, but hopefully this dumbass will actually have a good reason for this. Maybe he’s just seeing this wrong.

“Of course not, i'll change the black on this suit to blue, give it to him, put a bit of silver, meaning he’s not yet an avenger. And using his design I'll make a stronger, better, suit, with gold in place of silver. It will be his signal as an Avenger, the moment he puts it on, he is one of us.” Happy raised his eyebrows, before nodding in agreement. So he was seeing it wrong.

“He was right, you know, he isn't cut from the same sting as you lot.” And Happy meant that as a good thing.

“Oh trust me, I know, he was cut from something stronger, something meant for better.” Yep, Happy's getting a nephew, time to make sure he has a head start from Rhodey to being the favorite uncle, he’s waited years for this.

At that moment the doors behind them opened and out walked Pepper, Happy immediately looked over at Tony, signaling he would not be taking the fall for him.

“Where's the kid?” Pepper looked around, too bad, he's gone, now it's not Happy’s fault, don't listen to Tony.

“He left.” Tony told her bluntly, too bad both Happy and Pepper could see him sweating.

“Everyones waiting?” She seemed exasperated with them, when really she should be aiming that all at Tony.

“You know what, he actually made a really mature choice, just surprised the heck out of us.” Him, surprised the heck out of him, Happy could see this coming, he's a good kid.

“Did you guys screw this up?” Uh, uh uh, Tony, screwed this up, would people stop placing part of the blame on him.

“He told the kid to go wait in the car.” What the fuck man?

“Are you kidding me?” -Happy started stuttering. -”I have a room full of people in there waiting for some big announcement, what am I going to tell them?”

“Think of something, uhh, how about that newly solved case, the one with these two dead shield agents. M & R or something, think that's what they’re duo name was? Or, Hap, you still got that ring”

“Do i?” Honestly, this man, he asks him to hold onto something, and doesn't expect him to have it at all times? Who does he look like? A fool? This man is impulsive at the best of times, it's safer to never put anything down then to try and predict his moves.

“The engagement ring” He aint a dumbass he knows what he’s talking about, oh lordy this man.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been carrying this since 2008.” Since 2008 Happy has waited, is Tony actually going to propose? Oh Rhodey is going to throw a fit if he does propose for not being there, hopefully he’s watching the news.

“I think we can use the first story.” Pepper, PLEASE, he’s been waiting so impatiently for these two smart dumbasses to finally get engaged, DON’T, wreck this.

Pepper made her way back to the door, ready to deal with the reporters and most likely use the story about M & R, or the S.H.I.E.L.D agents Mary and Richard, this might be the day they are cleared of they’re charges, their family could finally know the truth.

“I can't believe you have that thing in your pocket this whole time.” Did everyone forget that Happy knows perfectly how Tony works?

“Let me get the door for you.” He’s really buttering her up there.

“I've got it.” Pepper got to the door way before Tony, so Happy tapped him and leaned in to whisper something to him.

“Just saying boss, why not both?” He whispered when Tony leaned over to him, he placed the ring in his hands and pushed him to the door.

Watching as Tony winked, and left through the same door as Pepper, now Happy had to go take the kid home, maybe get ice cream on the way, do teens still like ice cream? Whatever he needs a headstart from Rhodey.

;)

The kid was eating ice cream in a fairly known ice cream shop, as it turns out the kid is fine with ice cream but much prefers Gelato.

Considering when they entered the shop, he immediately went to that section of the place.

Either way he was also buying time for Tony to change the black on the suit he made to blue. By the time the kid is dropped off at his apartment the suit should be on his bed, and the announcement will be ready to be aired to the world.

Just hopefully Tony didn't change his mind like a scared possum like all the other times.

So he drops off Peter and makes sure to get Rhodey on the phone to hear his reaction, the kid waves goodbye hesitantly as Happy drives off.

Peter makes his way upstairs to where he could hear May most likely burning dinner, TV on a news station as background noise.

Most likely not knowing Peter was even gone, though she had slowly been getting better at making communication with him.

And no matter how it was nothing like their old relationship, it was something, so he would take it.

He opened the door, she turned and nodded her head at him in a hello gesture, it was better than what he normally got.

He sat down at the couch, the TV was beginning to air what was most likely the announcement he was meant to be a part of.

“Now, moving onto a case previously thought to be solved. The information of the case is as such, two married ex-SHIELD agents thought to have betrayed the once long standing organization having been spies on the inside, feeding information to others.” Peter turned up the volume, he could tell May had become interested in this.

Did SHIELD go through the backdoor he gave them and found information to prove his parents as innocent? This is sounding an awful lot like their case.

“The case was announced as solved, charging the duo with their crimes and announcing them traitors to the states; they died not long after. Despite this, the Director of SHIELD at the time, has made it quite clear what he thinks of this end result, believing it to be false. The agent's names were never released to the public and their family was told as little info as they could get away with. The couple had a young boy, who was favored by most people he came across, the very director being named his grandfather.” Ok, move on from him, just get to if their case has been fixed.

“In his parents death, he was moved to live with his last living family members, the old friends of his parents that had become their family were denied permission to see the boy, being cut off from the people at SHIELD he once knew. This is as much information as we were able to get at the time of the case originally being solved by various agents who knew the boy, one of which being the director Nick Fury himself.” My god, just to get to the point. May had sat down near him, fixated on the reporter, most likely seeing the overlay from his parents and this case.

“This case has once more come to life in the face of new information that may prove the Directors view of what truly happened as correct. With an anonymous tip, they gained access into a fairly hidden organization, the name of which has not been released to the public, using the backdoor they managed to discreetly gather information when they came across the truth, the two ‘traitors’ had gone on a secret mission to gather information on the other side, so secret in fact that no one was made aware. The duo was going to explain everything when they got the info they needed but they were found out as spies before they had gotten out, the couple were killed and the truth was buried so they would never be cleared of their charges.” …He did it, they're going to be cleared, the truth is out… their story's ending is being fixed.

“On this day the SHIELD duo have been cleared of all their charges, using the info they gathered which was previously seen as tramped with, hundreds of cases have now been solved. They have been named heroes, far too long after their death, but better now then never. Their family will be notified within the coming hours, but now, for the first time, with the case finally closed for the last time, their names will be released.” A knock on the door, he really did it.

Aunt May kept an eye on the TV, probably putting the dots together, as she moved to get the door.

“The M & R duo, Mary and Richard, are no longer traitors to the states and have been hailed as heroes. Their last names however have been kept hidden for the safety of their family and son, whose name will also be kept secret, forever known as the nickname they used for him, ‘Mini’. Thank you, that's all for today, now back to the engagement of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, announced just this afternoon.” It’s done, their story's ending is now, finally, true. Wait engagement?!

Aunt May had a look of realization on her face, she understood now, and so did the world.

She opened the door.

“Hello, is this the Parker residence?” It was obvious that she recognized whoever was at the door though, if even faintly.

“Yes, who might you be?” May blocked the doorway from his view on the couch.

“Nick Fury, Ma’am, we’ve met before, either way I'm sure you’ve seen the news.” His… grandfather? If he was remembering correctly.

“...We have met before, and my husband told you to never show your face around us again.” Oh yeah. They did mention they did that, the same day Ben died… It’s why he left, causing his uncle's death…

“Yes, he did. But that was back when we allowed you to have the belief that we were, as you put it, ‘The Cartel’, nevertheless you know the truth now.” They fucking what? They let them believe what?

“So why are you here, we need no messenger.” Ok, calm down woman.

“I ask you, like I did all those years ago, may at least one of us see him, my grandchild.”

“You do know you're not actually his grandfather.” Thats harsh, what the fuck? May isnt even related to him by blood, what is she on about? Besides, she can barely look at him.

“I was named it at his birth by his parents, I am his grandfather, in all that matters. So? May I at least see him, if not the others? Not even talking, just a look at how he’s grown, we kept by your rules and haven't investigated him” Huh, how sweet?

“No, I'll tell you the same thing my husband said that day. Get out and don't show your face around here again.” Well, that takes away the chance of getting more info about his parents and how they were like, plus meeting the people his parents called family.

“Goodbye then.” Oh, he left that easily...

He listened to the door close, May walked over and turned off the TV. She left to her bedroom, speaking about Ben would be hard for her.

Lucky for him that meant she didn't notice as Peter slipped into his own bedroom, closing the door and walking up to the window, looking out onto the street.

The man he saw all over both the media and the photos he found was walking over to a black car. The doors of the car opened and a few people that could be recognized by the photos looked slightly hopeful, the man shook his head.

They looked dejected, Fury looked up and saw him from where he had opened his window and was leaning out slightly.

He heard whispers due to his super hearing. Mainly just his old nickname they had used back then, ‘Mini’, as they spotted him.

It was like a staring contest between the two, Peter tilted his head, Fury copied.

The other agents commenting quietly about how it was like but when he was a child, his super hearing once more picking it up, Peter can just imagine himself as a baby doing the same motions as he is now.

The parallels were probably striking for them.

“Peter, make sure you're ready for school tomorrow!” May had yelled out from her room, she didn't normally care but most likely wanted to keep him away from seeking them out. She was too late for that though.

He turned his head to the door, responding.

“Of course, May.”

He closed the window without looking back, walking over to the door, not wanting to see how they would react to him having to leave when they only just got to see him. If they would even care, maybe that scared him more, that they wouldn't care.

“Goodbye Mini.” He heard rather faintly, first by Fury, before it was copied by the others at the car.

He stayed by his door, not daring to look back as he heard the car leave.

May knocked on his door before opening it, getting a bit startled at Peter just standing there, she was quiet for a moment before asking to talk with him.

He sat down with May at the couch once more, she placed a cup of tea in his hands.

“...I'm sorry for being so distant, dear.”

“It’s fine May, you needed time, it's understandable.”

“I, I just. You didn't seem affected.” She said finally.

“What? I was, he died in my arms, I was affected, I can't look at red, my favorite sweets? Puked down the drain if I eat them, what are you talking about?”

“That, you have been affected, but you're not acting normal, most people break down crying, weeks off of school, you barely have been any different.”

“...I dont process. Yeah I know it happened, it's real, but my emotions don't work that way, I don't know. Trust me, I've cried but my tears never last for more than ten minutes. I don't know, I can’t cry with noise, it's rare if there's a hiccup. May, I think I'm just broken, but I am affected.”

She was silent as he pleaded to her.

“My mind, body, I don't know, it just won't allow me to express my true emotions.” He tried explaining it to her, but it is hard to say, you only truly know if you have experienced it.

“Ok, I think your father was similar in that way, I understand somewhat about what you mean dear, I'm sorry, let’s try and get back our old relationship?.” Yeah, gladly.

They talked more and more, before going off on their separate ways, it would take a bit to get to what they were like before, but it was a step.

Besides he's got to check out what that brown bag on his bed was, also were they just going to move on from Mr Stark proposing to Miss Potts?.

Ugh he needs a sweet treat desperately, of course he still had a craving for Strawberry Clouds but they still made him feel sick when he looked at them. It made Peter have to pick a completely new favorite candy, the choice was made easier for him.

As Peter walked down to that convenient store, the same one that his uncle's life was taken in, his mind still somewhat reeling from the info dump, he knew which candy he wanted.

Entering the store he walked over to the Strawberry Cloud's old spot, to find Strawberry Pencils, you know the one with the yellow bear on it? With the nice filling inside? He discovered them when he went to reach for the Strawberry clouds one day by habit, and found the new sweets in their place.

The old lady still manning the storefront had smiled at him kindly when he saw.

At least he wouldn't have to relive the memories of that night by the Cloud sweets.

Chapter Text

Peter had been shooed into Happy’s car once more, honestly? he wished he could just get some more sleep.

Being told he was going to the compound wasn't at all stressful for Peter (He’s lying), so when he was taken upstate to meet up with Mr Stark for no reason at all, he wasn't scared of any possible consequences that could pop up due to him crashing Stark's plane.

Totally…

He was desperately hoping his Parker Luck wouldn’t strike as hard today, fat chance though.

There was a weird number of cars around the place, not like ‘rich man spends money on lots of cars for no reason’, more so, lots of people are here.

And yet as he was guided to the meet up place by Happy, he didn't spot a single person.

His spidey sense was just tingling at the back of his neck, not shouting danger, it was more like it was whispering in his ear that something was off, that it wasn't real.

He mentally told his insecurities to shut up, that just because he was a loser didn't mean everything good (slightly) around him was fake.

He spotted a quinjet taking off from the windows, they were in what was a hallway, or waiting type room? Eh, just a huge rich person space without much in it. Lovely view though.

“You don’t see that every day” Happy said, the man was being nicer than previously, or his tone was just overall more friendly.

He could finally hear a bit of chatter from different people, and it was all originating from behind the large door at the end of the ‘hallway’, or what he thinks is a door, rich man being rich man, anything could be a door.

Hearing the sound of footsteps he looked to the side, seeing Mr Stark walking up to them.

“Oh, there they are.” Mr Stark's tone seemed to be lighter as well.

The rich man, overly rich to still be wearing the same pair of glasses each day, had stopped by them.

“How was the ride up?” He asked but Peter knew by now that it was only a filler question to whatever would come next.

“Good.” Happy nodded, knowing his Boss wouldn’t want more info.

“Give me a minute with the kid.” Stark had originally been looking at Peter but switched to looking at Happy, basically telling him to get lost for a bit.

Not nerve wracking at all.

“Seriously.” Happy looked blankly at Stark but he could tell there was something more there.

“Ye.” Stark said fast.

Happy looked between Stark and him.

“I’ve gotta talk with the kid.” Mr Stark continued.

“I’ll be close behind.” Happy informed Stark, which was weird, because it was aimed like a warning to Mr Stark… really weird.

“How bout loose follow, alright? Boundaries are good.” Like he said, weird.

Stark patted him on the shoulder, leading him away from Happy.

“I'm sorry I took your suit.” Did Tony Stark just apologize to him? Is he dreaming??

“I mean you had it coming.” Yep, there's the normal Stark, he ain't dreaming.

“Actually, it turns out that it was the perfect moment and the thing you needed, right, to urge you on.” Peter disagrees; he didn't like being under that warehouse without a proper way to get help.

But his actual opinion isn't wanted. Too bad, because Peter is great at making his unwanted opinions known.

“Right, wouldn't you think. Don’t you think.” Nope.

“I mean, I didn't quite like being crushed under that warehouse without any way to get help at all. But other than that, I guess, yeah?” Stark stopped.

“What?” Oh shit, did they not know he was under the warehouse when it went down, welp new lore dropped, like the warehouse too!

He saw Happy look up startled behind them, he picked up his pace, still hanging behind like Stark said but as close as he could be.

“Uhh, continue what you were saying Mr Stark.” He looked frankly done with Peter at this point, not, I dislike this kid, but instead, this kid is going to put me into an early grave.

“We’re coming back to this, I hope you know.” He sheepishly nodded as a response to what Stark had mumbled.

“Uh, god damn kid, what the heck. What was I going to say. . . Right. You screwed the pooch hard, big time.” The man stumbled on his words before continuing.

They continued walking.

“But then you did the right thing.” Oh, yippie?

“Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies.” -I'm sorry what? Is that what screwed the pooch means?! It’s meant literally?!- “Alright, not my best metaphor.” Yeah, he can tell, new horrifying information just dropped...

As they walked up to the wall, it opened up and revealed another door. Seriously man, what's with all the doors???

“I think with a little more mentoring, you could be a real asset to the team” …Huh?

“There's about fifty reporters behind that door, real ones, not bloggers” He pointed at the door Peter had noticed before. He tapped something on his watch.

The door in front of him opened up, the one that had just appeared.

“Now, when you're ready, try that on.” As Stark spoke, a brand-new spider suit rose up out of the ground.

It was a deep red like Peter’s homemade suit, black up and down the sides with the spider symbol in the middle, silver accents all around.

There was no blue, no blue at all.

Peter subtly hated it.

Yes, he had modelled the homemade suit after the spider that bit him, but it represented for those that didn't know the backstory behind it, meaning everyone, police lights, red and blue.

Action and Justice. That's what those flashing lights mean for him. The red being action, the blue being justice. The suit has no blue on it. And he knows he’ll still be bringing justice to those that need it, that isn't why he feels the need for the representation of justice in his suit.

The blue on his suit meant Justice for his uncle, killed because he wouldn't bring someone to justice, causing his red blood to spill, causing action.

The action of becoming spiderman, with the red on his suit the action was still represented, the blood still stained his hands but there was no justice.

“And I’ll introduce the world to the newest official member of the avengers, Spider-Man.” Peter was cut out of his thoughts by the man.

He stood a few feet away from the suit, taking it in, the lack of blue.

He zoned out, Stark and Happy were discussing something, Vision not caring about walls or doors?

All the while Peter stood there in that same spot, remembering when he gave up his suit, the confidence that he wasn't ready for bigger things.

He hadn't gotten better yet despite what Stark thinks, he knows that because he knows himself.

He wasn't ready to be an Avenger; Queens still needed their much hated but loved Vigilante.

“You’ll fit right in.” No, no he wouldn’t.

He finally turned and faced Mr Stark.

“Thank you, Mr Stark, but I'm good.” Stark did a double take.

“...You're good? How are you good?” This man seems to be just a bit flabbergasted, Happy seemed, well he actually seemed a bit happy, for once.

“Well, I'd rather just stay on the ground, really, you think I've changed but I'm still no different from the kid you took the suit from, rightfully too. I'm just not cut out to be an Avenger.” Peter told him with no hesitation.

“Is it the suit? I saw you look weirdly at the suit; we can change it you know.”

“No, the suit is fine, well it lacks blue and that's a really important part of the suit for me, but no. I'm just not cut from the same sting as you all, I'm not meant for this.” Stark took off his glasses, seeming confused.

“I can change it to have blue, heck I'll make the main part blue, you can choose the exact design you want. Last chance yes or no.” The man reasoned with him.

“No.” Peter said immediately after.

“Alright, uh, Happy will take you home, kinda a busy day.” Stark wasn't expecting it, he could tell. But Peter knew he wasn't ready and was going to stand by it.

“Yep, can you go wait in the car kid, I need a minute with the boss.”

Peter shot Happy a thumbs up and started walking back down to the car. He wondered what they were going to use as the reason for getting all the reporters there now that he was no longer going to be the announcement?

Mr Stark and Happy watch as he leaves to the car, making sure to not underestimate his hearing abilities.

“Happy, be sure to pass along an intern opportunity for him.” Stark passes Happy some forms that were laying on the table nearby.

“This is too much for it just to be Intern forms boss, what else are you giving him??” Happy might be getting a nephew if Peter and Tony's relationship gets better during the internship, so don't sue him for already getting protective.

“Just forms for him to design his own Spider suit, if the blue is really that important for him, which it seems to be, I don't wanna get anything wrong.” How nice, that's rare for Tony, maybe he does have a heart, too bad he rarely uses it.

“I thought you were going to give that one to him, are you really going to make him wait longer for a better protective suit, Tony?” Happy asked him.

Now this man in particular is weird, does things for weird reasons. Happy definitely knows this, but hopefully this dumbass will actually have a good reason for this. Maybe he’s just seeing this wrong.

“Of course not, I'll change the black on this suit to blue, give it to him, put a bit of silver, meaning he’s not yet an avenger. And using his design I'll make a stronger, better, suit, with gold in place of silver. It will be his signal as an Avenger, the moment he puts it on, he is one of us.” Happy raised his eyebrows, before nodding in agreement. So, he was seeing it wrong.

“He was right, you know, he isn't cut from the same sting as you lot.” And Happy meant that as a good thing.

“Oh, trust me, I know, he was cut from something stronger, something meant for better.” Yep, Happy's getting a nephew, time to make sure he has a head start from Rhodey to being the favourite uncle, he’s waited years for this.

At that moment the doors behind them opened and out walked Pepper, Happy immediately looked over at Tony, signalling he would not be taking the fall for him.

“Where's the kid?” Pepper looked around, too bad, he's gone, now it's not Happy’s fault, don't listen to Tony.

“He left.” Tony told her bluntly, too bad both Happy and Pepper could see him sweating.

“Everyone's waiting?” She seemed exasperated with them, when really, she should be aiming that all at Tony.

“You know what, he actually made a really mature choice, just surprised the heck out of us.” Him, surprised the heck out of him, Happy could see this coming, he's a good kid.

“Did you guys' screw this up?” Uh uh uh, Tony, screwed this up, would people stop placing part of the blame on him.

“He told the kid to go wait in the car.” What the fuck man?

“Are you kidding me?” -Happy started stuttering. - "have a room full of people in there waiting for some big announcement, what am I going to tell them?”

“Think of something, uhh, how about that newly solved case, the one with these two dead shield agents. M & R or something, think that's what they’re duo name was? Or, Hap, you still got that ring”

“Do I?” Honestly, this man, he asks him to hold onto something, and doesn't expect him to have it at all times? Who does he look like? A fool? This man is impulsive at the best of times, it's safer to never put anything down then to try and predict his moves.

“The engagement ring” He ain't a dumbass he knows what he’s talking about, oh lordy this man.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been carrying this since 2008.” Since 2008 Happy has waited, is Tony actually going to propose? Oh, Rhodey is going to throw a fit if he does propose for not being there, hopefully he’s watching the news.

“I think we can use the first story.” Pepper, PLEASE, he’s been waiting so impatiently for these two smart dumbasses to finally get engaged, DON’T, wreck this.

Pepper made her way back to the door, ready to deal with the reporters and most likely use the story about M & R, or the S.H.I.E.L.D agents Mary and Richard, this might be the day they are cleared of their charges; their family could finally know the truth.

“I can't believe you have that thing in your pocket this whole time.” Did everyone forget that Happy knows perfectly how Tony works?

“Let me get the door for you.” He’s really buttering her up there.

“I've got it.” Pepper got to the doorway before Tony, so Happy tapped him and leaned in to whisper something to him.

“Just saying boss, why not both?” He whispered when Tony leaned over to him, he placed the ring in his hands and pushed him to the door.

Watching as Tony winked, and left through the same door as Pepper, now Happy had to go take the kid home, maybe get ice cream on the way, do teens still like ice cream? Whatever he needs a head start from Rhodey.

;)

The kid was eating ice cream in a fairly known ice cream shop, as it turns out the kid is fine with ice cream but much prefers Gelato.

Considering when they entered the shop, he immediately went to that section of the place.

Either way he was also buying time for Tony to change the black on the suit he made to blue. By the time the kid is dropped off at his apartment the suit should be on his bed, and the announcement will be ready to be aired to the world.

Just hopefully Tony didn't change his mind like a scared possum like all the other times.

So, he drops off Peter and makes sure to get Rhodey on the phone to hear his reaction, the kid waves goodbye hesitantly as Happy drives off.

Peter makes his way upstairs to where he could hear May most likely burning dinner, TV on a news station as background noise.

Most likely not knowing Peter was even gone, though she had slowly been getting better at making communication with him.

And no matter how it was nothing like their old relationship, it was something, so he would take it.

He opened the door, she turned and nodded her head at him in a hello gesture, it was better than what he normally got.

He sat down at the couch; the TV was beginning to air what was most likely the announcement he was meant to be a part of.

“Now, moving onto a case previously thought to be solved. The information of the case is as such, two married ex-SHIELD agents thought to have betrayed the once long-standing organization having been spies on the inside, feeding information to others.” Peter turned up the volume, he could tell May had become interested in this.

Did SHIELD go through the backdoor he gave them and found information to prove his parents as innocent? This is sounding an awful lot like their case.

“The case was announced as solved, charging the duo with their crimes and announcing them traitors to the states; they died not long after. Despite this, the Director of SHIELD at the time, has made it quite clear what he thinks of this end result, believing it to be false. The agent's names were never released to the public and their family was told as little info as they could get away with. The couple had a young boy, who was favoured by most people he came across, the very director being named his grandfather.” Ok, move on from him, just get to if their case has been fixed.

“In his parent's death, he was moved to live with his last living family members, the old friends of his parents that had become their family were denied permission to see the boy, being cut off from the people at SHIELD he once knew. This is as much information as we were able to get at the time of the case originally being solved by various agents who knew the boy, one of which being the director Nick Fury himself.” My god, just to get to the point. May had sat down near him, fixated on the reporter, most likely seeing the overlay from his parents and this case.

“This case has once more come to life in the face of new information that may prove the Directors view of what truly happened as correct. With an anonymous tip, they gained access into a fairly hidden organization, the name of which has not been released to the public, using the backdoor they managed to discreetly gather information when they came across the truth, the two ‘traitors’ had gone on a secret mission to gather information on the other side, so secret in fact that no one was made aware. The duo was going to explain everything when they got the info they needed but they were found out as spies before they had gotten out, the couple were killed, and the truth was buried so they would never be cleared of their charges.” …He did it, they're going to be cleared, the truth is out… their story's ending is being fixed.

“On this day the SHIELD duo has been cleared of all their charges, using the info they gathered which was previously seen as tramped with, hundreds of cases have now been solved. They have been named heroes, far too long after their death, but better now than never. Their family will be notified within the coming hours, but now, for the first time, with the case finally closed for the last time, their names will be released.” A knock on the door, he really did it.

Aunt May kept an eye on the TV, probably putting the dots together, as she moved to get the door.

“The M & R duo, Mary and Richard, are no longer traitors to the states and have been hailed as heroes. Their last names however have been kept hidden for the safety of their family and son, whose name will also be kept secret, forever known as the nickname they used for him, ‘Mini’. Thank you, that's all for today, now back to the engagement of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, announced just this afternoon.” It’s done, their story's ending is now, finally, true. Wait engagement?!

Aunt May had a look of realization on her face, she understood now, and so did the world.

She opened the door.

“Hello, is this the Parker residence?” It was obvious that she recognized whoever was at the door though, if even faintly.

“Yes, who might you be?” May blocked the doorway from his view on the couch.

“Nick Fury, Ma’am, we’ve met before, either way I'm sure you’ve seen the news.” His… grandfather? If he was remembering correctly.

“...We have met before, and my husband told you to never show your face around us again.” Oh yeah. They did mention they did that, the same day Ben died… It’s why he left, causing his uncle's death…

“Yes, he did. But that was back when we allowed you to have the belief that we were, as you put it, ‘The Cartel’, nevertheless you know the truth now.” They fucking what? They let them believe what?

“So why are you here, we need no messenger.” Ok, calm down woman.

“I ask you, like I did all those years ago, may at least one of us see him, my grandchild.”

“You do know you're not actually his grandfather.” Thats harsh, what the fuck? May isn't even related to him by blood, what is she on about? Besides, she can barely look at him.

“I was named it at his birth by his parents, I am his grandfather, in all that matters. So? May I at least see him, if not the others? Not even talking, just a look at how he’s grown, we kept by your rules and haven't investigated him” Huh, how sweet?

“No, I'll tell you the same thing my husband said that day. Get out and don't show your face around here again.” Well, that takes away the chance of getting more info about his parents and how they were like, plus meeting the people his parents' called family.

“Goodbye then.” Oh, he left that easily...

He listened to the door close, May walked over and turned off the TV. She left to her bedroom, speaking about Ben would be hard for her.

Lucky for him that meant she didn't notice as Peter slipped into his own bedroom, closing the door and walking up to the window, looking out onto the street.

The man he saw all over both the media and the photos he found was walking over to a black car. The doors of the car opened and a few people that could be recognized by the photos looked slightly hopeful, the man shook his head.

They looked dejected, Fury looked up and saw him from where he had opened his window and was leaning out slightly.

He heard whispers due to his super hearing. Mainly just his old nickname they had used back then, ‘Mini’, as they spotted him.

It was like a staring contest between the two, Peter tilted his head, Fury copied.

The other agents commenting quietly about how it was like but when he was a child, his super hearing once more picking it up, Peter can just imagine himself as a baby doing the same motions as he is now.

The parallels were probably striking for them.

“Peter, make sure you're ready for school tomorrow!” May had yelled out from her room, she didn't normally care but most likely wanted to keep him away from seeking them out. She was too late for that though.

He turned his head to the door, responding.

“Of course, May.”

He closed the window without looking back, walking over to the door, not wanting to see how they would react to him having to leave when they only just got to see him. If they would even care, maybe that scared him more, that they wouldn't care.

“Goodbye Mini.” He heard rather faintly, first by Fury, before it was copied by the others at the car.

He stayed by his door, not daring to look back as he heard the car leave.

May knocked on his door before opening it, getting a bit startled at Peter just standing there, she was quiet for a moment before asking to talk with him.

He sat down with May at the couch once more, she placed a cup of tea in his hands.

“...I'm sorry for being so distant, dear.”

“It’s fine May, you needed time, it's understandable.”

“I, I just. You didn't seem affected.” She said finally.

“What? I was, he died in my arms, I was affected, I can't look at red, my favourite sweets? Puked down the drain if I eat them, what are you talking about?”

“That, you have been affected, but you're not acting normal, most people break down crying, weeks off of school, you barely have been any different.”

“...I don't process. Yeah I know it happened, it's real, but my emotions don't work that way, I don't know. Trust me, I've cried but my tears never last for more than ten minutes. I don't know, I can’t cry with noise, it's rare if there's a hiccup. May, I think I'm just broken, but I am affected.”

She was silent as he pleaded to her.

“My mind, body, I don't know, it just won't allow me to express my true emotions.” He tried explaining it to her, but it is hard to say, you only truly know if you have experienced it.

“Ok, I think your father was similar in that way, I understand somewhat about what you mean dear, I'm sorry, let’s try and get back our old relationship?” Yeah, gladly.

They talked more and more, before going off on their separate ways, it would take a bit to get to what they were like before, but it was a step.

Besides he's got to check out what that brown bag on his bed was, also were they just going to move on from Mr Stark proposing to Miss Potts?.

Ugh he needs a sweet treat desperately, of course he still had a craving for Strawberry Clouds, but they still made him feel sick when he looked at them. It made Peter have to pick a completely new favourite candy; the choice was made easier for him.

As Peter walked down to that convenient store, the same one that his uncle's life was taken in, his mind still somewhat reeling from the info dump, he knew which candy he wanted.

Entering the store, he walked over to the Strawberry Cloud's old spot, to find Strawberry Pencils, you know the one with the yellow bear on it? With the nice filling inside? He discovered them when he went to reach for the Strawberry clouds one day by habit and found the new sweets in their place.

The old lady still manning the storefront had smiled at him kindly when he saw.

At least he wouldn't have to relive the memories of that night by the Cloud sweets.