Chapter Text
Peter Parker was a good kid. That was what everyone told him over and over again. And even he knew it was true, for the most part at least. After all, he got good grades, followed the rules, was respectful, kind and considerate to his classmates and the people of Queens and was just overall good. And it was true.
Almost always.
But today… today was one of those days. One of those days that was hard. Maybe it was because last night May had talked about how she was going to be gone this weekend. Spending time with her boyfriend.
Peter was happy that his aunt was happy. That mattered more than anything else. Peter… well, he didn’t like her boyfriend, but he was… okay. He didn’t think he would like anyone after Ben. Ben who had been like a father to him.
But that didn’t mean that May shouldn’t find love. She deserved happiness more than anyone Peter knew. He could still remember how devastated she had been after Ben died. How she had slept for almost twenty hours some days after. Back then, there had been times that Peter was worried and scared for his aunt. Now she was doing better and she was even happy.
And there was no way that he would interfere by saying he thought her boyfriend was weird and that he wanted he to stay. So obviously when she asked if he was okay with her going on a trip with him over the weekend, there was only one response
To say he was okay with it.
“You can call me anytime,” May said as she reached out to touch his brown curls.
Peter allowed it and let her pull him into a hug.
“I know,” he said as he pulled away and smiled at her. “And it’ll be fine.”
“Just because I’m gone doesn’t mean that you can stay up all night doing Spidey things.”
Aunt May had found out a few months ago about Spider-man. At first, she had been furious and it seemed like she was never going to let him have anything to do with it. Eventually, she had changed her mind. Peter didn’t know exactly why, but he suspected that Mr. Stark might have talked to her a little bit.
But it was crazy to think that he would put his neck out for him, Peter Parker. Despite what had happened on Homecoming.
“Are you okay with it, Peter?” Aunt May asked, as a frown appeared on her face as she pulled away and looked at him as if he was a puzzle she was hoping to solve. “Because I don’t need to go if you’re not comfortable with it.”
“I’m… I’m fine with it.” Peter forced himself to smile even though he and Aunt May had plans for this weekend. It wasn’t much but she was going to watch Rogue One with him. Despite that Peter loved the Star Wars series more than any movie franchise, Aunt May hadn’t seen Rogue One.
And it was pretty good, even if it wasn’t his favorite.
Still, there would be other times. They could watch it later.
“You should go,” Peter said, trying to smile. “I can invite Ned over, and MJ. We can study for Decathlon.”
Aunt May smiled and then she hugged him. “You know how much I larb you, right?”
All Peter could do was nod and smile back.
“It’ll be a short weekend but if you need me, you can call at anytime.”
Peter nodded.
“You should go to school,” Aunt May said. “I can drive you if you want.”
Peter shook his head. “No…. you… I don’t want to make you late.” It wasn’t like money was abundant for their family. But Aunt May had gotten a promotion recently so she had been working more hours. It made her deserve a break even more.
Even if it was with the person she had been dating.
“You…” Peter frowned trying to figure out what he should say. “I’ll see you on Sunday.” Yes, that was okay.
And so that was it. Peter caught the subway like he normally did. The school day started out normal enough although the sub was delayed, which caused him almost to be late. Once there, Flash was worse than normal. Usually Peter would have no problem ignoring him. After all he had done that since before he even had his powers.
But today… today it just got to him. There was something about it. Why couldn’t he just let it drop? But of course, Peter knew that he couldn’t and wouldn’t. Even before Peter had been bitten by that spider, Flash had been a bully.
“Hey Penis Parker, are you going to your Stark Internship today?” Flash asked, flashing him that annoying look that he always did. Even though it had been months since the homecoming incident, Flash still believed that he couldn’t possibly be a Stark intern.
And like always, Peter never said much about it. It wasn’t like he could talk about his experiences as Spider-man or even working in the lab on Mr. Stark’s Iron Man suits with him. Not that Flash would have belied any of it.
“Just ignore him,” Ned said as he smiled weakly at Peter. Somehow even he knew that Peter was on edge today. “So tonight--”
“Aunt May’s going to go to her boyfriend’s,” Peter said as they walked to their next class. History. One of Peter’s least favorite subjects, even if he did well in it.
Ned shrugged. “There’s a party at Betty’s tonight.”
A party? Peter hadn’t gone to one of those since Liz’s and that had ended horribly. He could still remember what it had felt like when Toomes had dropped him in the lake, and then Mr. Stark had rescued him and lectured him about going after someone with such dangerous weapons. Even now Peter wasn’t sure which had been worse.
“The party’s not going to go like the other one,” Ned said as he put his arm around Peter’s shoulder. “I mean it’ll help you relax. I got another awesome hat. I know the last one didn’t work but this one will be different. It’s not like Flash or anyone is going to try and get you to bring Spider-man to the party either.”
Peter put his hand on his neck and sighed.
“But if you have to do Spider-man things than I can help you with that instead.” Ned grinned at him. “I’m your guy in the chair after all.”
And he was the best. And he deserved to go to the party if that was what he wanted. But yet Peter was supposed to see Mr. Stark today.
“I can’t go,” Peter said as he put his hand on the back of his neck. “Mr. Stark and I are supposed to work in his lab.”
Working in the lab was Peter’s favorite thing he did all week, besides patrolling. But the two were so different. There was no way that he was going to miss that, even if the party might have been fun.
And even if he felt bad for not going with Ned.
“I don’t need to go then,” Ned said. “It’ll be lame going by myself.”
“No, you should go. MJ can go with you,” Peter said. Even though Ned and Peter used to not be that close with MJ, now they were. The three of them texted constantly. She would still call them losers and nerds, but that was just how MJ was.
“You sure you can’t come at all?” Ned said, probably because they hadn’t been able to hang out as much. And it was tempting to tell him that he could.
Aunt May would have been okay with it anyway. She had driven him and Ned to a party before homecoming and she trusted him. But no, Peter was just going to concentrate on lab things today. Maybe he could figure out a way to make his web fluid even stronger.
As for Spider-man, he could patrol for a little bit after school before went to Avengers tower. May didn’t like when he stayed up too late doing it anyway. When she found out, she had given him all sorts of restrictions. They were less strict on weekends, but still.
“Tomorrow we can work on a new Lego kit I got,” Ned said. “It’s an Assault Walker.”
Peter smiled and nodded. That would be cool. Maybe the two of them could do a Star Wars marathon. They did every couple months, but there was never such thing as too much Star Wars.
The rest of the day went pretty slowly. Luckily Flash left him alone, but knowing him, he would be at the party.
Patrol went well. No injuries or anything that significant. He did stop someone from stealing a car and helped a lost child find her parents. It was just normal friendly neighborhood Spider-man things.
It almost made this crappy day a little bit better.
At least until he got a text from Mr. Stark.
“Sorry, kid, but have to cancel today. Some urgent Avenger business came up.”
Peter stared at it for a long time. Urgent Avenger business? What was going on?
“Is everything OK,” Peter texted, hoping that he would hurry up and respond. This wasn’t the first time he had canceled. It seemed like he was cancelling more and more recently. And he refused to tell him what was going on.
“Don’t worry about it, Underoos,” read the text. Yep. there it was.
Peter tried to get him to say something else, but then he wouldn’t even answer the texts. He tried to text Happy, but he left it on read. Damn it. This was just like how it used to be before Homecoming when Mr. Stark and Happy ignored him constantly. It was aggravating how they could just choose when and if they wanted anything to do with him and yet he was always supposed to be available if they called or needed him.
He was tired of it.
Peter looked down at his phone as another text from Ned showed up who was going on about the party and how he was looking forward to seeing Betty there. The party…
“U sure u can’t go,” Ned texted.
Peter hesitated, but then typed back. “Change of plans. I’ll go.”
Parties weren’t usually his style, and the last one reminded him of Liz which reminded him of Toomes, but this would be different.
Maybe this would be fun.