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Peter opened the heavy door to the office with a sigh. After the whole endeavour with Agent Web that completely tired him out, the beach party, the team had later, stretched out for way longer than anticipated. The sun sank behind the horizon and it was late afternoon.
Everyone else was getting ready to sleep or relaxing in one way or another and Peter wanted to join them so much, but despite saying he wasn’t like Fury, he couldn’t just leave all the paperwork undone. By the next day the already high piles could double and dealing with that would be a nightmare.
Peter sat heavily in the armchair and pulled himself closer to the desk, picking up one of the papers. They were stacked in neat piles according to what they were about. Building bills were on his right, then taxes, cleaning fees, pay-outs for employees, insurance statements and finally materials. It was a lot and that was only one category of different documents that needed his attention. There still were legal documents, witness statements and reports as well as some others that didn’t fit any category.
Peter’s eye twitched as he took all that in. “Ugh, I should just send all of this to Fury by mail or something! It’s his division after all.”
He took off his mask and groaned as he looked down at the sheet in his hands. It was a Public Recognition report and Peter just couldn’t repress an eye-roll, he already knew that the only thing he would find in it would be warnings about how J.J.J.’s articles are dangerous to the academy because of how they affect the civilians and how he should deal with it.
As if he could force Jameson to stop! Do these idiots not realize that if he could shut him up he would’ve done it ages ago?
Peter stood up and walked over to the vending machine and the coffee machine right next to it and put some coins in both. He got two tall, black coffees and seven cans of different energy drinks and carefully brought them back to the desk in two trips before settling down once again. He rubbed his eyes as he picked up the despised document once more and started reading it.
It was going to be a long and very exhausting night…
***
The next day rolled up sooner than peter would’ve liked. He managed to finish everything before class, but to accomplish that he had to sacrifice breakfast and he still was running late. What was up with that anyway? He runs the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D. and still has to go to school? Ridiculous! Well, at least he could excuse himself out of a few classes because of his status as a long-time hero.
Peter walked into the classroom stumbling a little bit. He glared at the guilty doorstep as if it had murdered his family then walked over to his desk and slumped into his seat. The first class was strategic planning, so even if he wanted to skip it and get at least an hour of shuteye, someone would most likely drag him back there anyways, it was just easier not to fight it. He just had to survive ‘till the end of the day, training and that day’s patrol before he could collapse in his sweet, warm bed.
Peter groaned and let his face hit the desk. Was it even worth it? He could just pretend he was sick or something… Sadly with Dr. Connors on board that was not an option.
Nova sent him a worried look as he sat down next to him, “Yo, Webhead, you’re alive?”
Peter turned his face to look at the other with drooping eyes, “Nah, I’m actually a corpse and you’re the one hallucinating that I can speak.”
“Woah, dude you sound terrible! What were you doing last night?”
Peter forced himself to sit upright by pushing himself from the tabletop, “Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork.” He grimaced under the mask and went to lift it up. “My eye bags are so big I could use them as a backpack.”
Nova hissed at the sight of the very dark circles decorating Peter’s eyes, “You seriously pulled an all-nighter? Are you sure you should be here?” Peter waved his hand in the air.
“I’m fine Nova,”, he pulled the mask back on when he saw the rest of the class walk in in his peripheral vision, “It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Nova didn’t look convinced.
“If you say so. Just say something if you start feeling worse, okay?”
Peter laid back down on the desk, while other students were settling in their own places.
“Yeah, yeah, sure.”, he said under his breath each word a little more slurred.
Wait a moment.
Everyone else was just coming into the class? Peter’s head shot up to look at the clock, it was half past seven. Did he seriously mixed up the hours and came to class half an hour early when he could eat something in that time?! Peter groaned loudly and hit his head on the desk with enough force to make Agent Venom, who sat down next to him, flinch in surprise.
***
Next was the History of Heroes. Why did they have to learn that? Nobody knew and especially not Peter in his sleep deprived stage. He was trying to listen to the lecture and take notes, but the whole speech blurred with his own thoughts, whispers between others and second-short dreams that he would have before quickly forcing himself to stay awake. It felt as if he was astral projecting or about to start hallucinating. It didn’t look much better from the outside.
White Tiger, usually very attentive in class, now could only focus on Peter sitting in front of her. He was swaying from side to side, his head kept falling forward only to shoot back up again before it could hit the desk and at some point he started saying something under his breath, too quiet for anyone to decipher. With the way his eyes seemed to not comprehend what they were looking at he seemed almost delirious.
Finally the bell rang, which, to White Tiger’s surprise, seemed to sober Peter up enough to get up and walk to their next class. Ava looked after him as he almost walked into the doorframe only catching himself at the last moment.
She sighed and stood up also intending to go to their next class when she caught a glimpse of Spidey’s notebook, he must’ve forgotten it. She was about to close it and bring it to Peter, but she stopped herself when she noticed what was on the inside.
Both of the open pages were covered in half written words and sentences that didn’t reach completion, random squiggles that looked as if Peter’s hand was moving on its own with no control and something else that she couldn’t decipher. Was it a drawing, a text she couldn’t read or a cipher? She couldn’t really tell. The whole thing was a mess of ink without sense, going in all directions at once.
White Tiger grimaced at that before closing the notebook and climbing up the stairs out of the room. Now she was really worried about Peter.
***
Finally lunch rolled around and Peter crashed through the canteen’s door. Rubbing his eyes he mindlessly walked over to the counter, grabbed a tray and piled himself a true mountain of food. He grabbed a glass of juice and walked groggily to his seat among the Web Warriors.
He sat down heavily between Miles and Cho, Flash sitting opposite to him, and started slowly shoveling the food into his mouth not even fully comprehending what he was eating. He didn’t even notice the disgusted stares he was getting from Miles and Cho.
“So, um, you two see what I’m seeing, right?” Cho asked, disgust clear on his face as he pointed at Peter’s tray.
“An abomination that is this lunch? Yeah, I see it too.” Miles pretended to gag to the side.
Even Flash, who was always backing Spider-Man up, couldn’t defend this meal. There, on Peter’s tray, were potatoes, chicken, beef, sauerkraut, apple slices, grapes, gravy, a slice of pizza, some cookies and something that looked like soup and should definitely be in a bowl, but instead was dripping over the pile. All of that was mixed together in a soggy, revolting mess and Peter didn’t even seem to notice.
Flash wasn’t sure if Peter even noticed someone was sitting next to him, let alone talk. He wanted to say something, ask Peter if he was alright, but got stopped when Peter finished his meal. The teen pushed away the tray, grabbed the glass of juice and chugged the whole thing in less than ten seconds before getting up to take away the dishes. The trio stared after him for a moment, astonished at how quiet he was. No quips, jokes or witty banter.
“I think Spidey’s broken, guys.” Flash said with a grimace. The other two couldn’t help, but agree and exchange worried glances until they had to move to their next period.
***
Finally a class he could skip without consequences – “witty banter” as he liked to call it. The teachers would disagree calling it their own scientific name, something with distraction or diversion? Peter couldn’t remember. All that mattered is, thanks to his charming personality™ and sharp tongue, he was excused from the lesson all together. For once his quips were coming in handy and he was going to use that hour of freedom to the best of its extend.
Peter desperately wanted to take a nap, so he started searching for a place to lay down. First he wanted to go back to the dormitory, but quickly remembered that Squirrel Girl was there sick and he didn’t want to disturb her or, you know, also get sick.
He tried taking a nap at one of the tables in the cafeteria, but the sound of baking trays and pots being put away, as well as forks scraping against porcelain while being put in the sink made him reconsider. Then came an idea of going to the library. Sure, it was rarely used since all the students had all the books available on their tablets, but it was still there. Libraries are supposed to be quiet and cozy, right? A perfect place to take a breather.
He was smiling at idea as he pulled on the doorknob when he felt the door putting up resistance. He tried pulling one more time and when the door didn’t budge he tried pushing. Finally he looked up to see a hand-written note taped in the line of sight. He leaned in and squinted to read what it said. “Closed due to recent damages until further notice.” Peter stared blankly at the text before completely deflating and walking away with a groan.
At this point he was desperate and would take any semi-quiet place to sleep in. That’s how he ended up in the janitor’s closet. He had gotten as comfortable as he could in the corner of the small room and was about to fall under when a loud noise of the door slamming open startled him. He jumped up to his feet ready to move, but stopped when he saw who walked in.
The cleaning lady stood there with a shocked expression and a mop in hand. Spider-Man stared at her with the same amount of shock as if it was her who didn’t fit into the surrounding. Next thing he knew, Peter got rudely kicked out of the closet and was walking down the hall with a brand new and painful bump on his head, courtesy of the mop.
In the last act of desperation Peter decided to just make himself a hammock in the corner of the corridor, close to the ceiling and hope to get at least a bit of shut-eye. He stuck the webs on the two adjacent walls and climbed in with a lot of effort. He listened for a moment trying to catch anything that could disturb him, but when he didn’t hear anything he let out a sigh of relief. Peter closed his eyes and got comfortable.
He was already drifting off, sweet dream overtaking him, when an earsplitting beeping made him jump in surprise and tumble out of his hammock straight onto the floor. Peter picked himself up from the painful fall to a sitting position and with blurry vision tried reading the alarm’s name from his watches small screen. It read “training” in big, red letters and Peter groaned out loud as he hid his face in his hands. Even on his free period he couldn’t get a moment to himself.
***
Training was not something Peter looked up to that day. He was exhausted and not thinking clearly, but it’s been a while since he last trained with his old team, so he couldn’t just ditch. He needed to be in sync with them in order to be a good leader, which meant no skipped training.
Peter turned up to the training ground first, which was unusual compared to his regular delays. Normally he would’ve used his spare time to go out into town, have some fun, maybe patrol a little and most likely stop some petty crime, so him being late quickly became a norm. Now everyone stood surprised as they shown up to see Spider-Man already in the room, clicking away at the training control. He didn’t seem to notice the new arrivals, so Nova was the first one to speak.
“What are you doing here, Webs? Is your watch broken again, because it’s way too early for you to already be here?”
Peter turned around slowly, unfazed by the people he didn’t noticed before, “Very funny, Nova. I just didn’t feel like going out today.”, he shrugged as if that was a normal thing he could do. His team would say the idea of Spider-Man not wanting to connect with people sounded crazy. ”Anyways, I’ve already prepped the console, so today we’re doing 1v1 fights. First with bots then each other, how does that sound?” As he asked that Peter made finger guns at the rest of his team.
Power Man stepped forward, “Weren’t we supposed to train strategies together, you know, to be in sync or something.”
Peter put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes, “Yeah, but you snooze, you lose, and I was here first. Next time you can set up the training plan, but for now,” Peter walked around Luke and without further ado, pushed him to the center of the arena, “You’re first! Have fun!”
That was the last thing Peter said before pushing others into the control room and shutting the door behind him. Power Man stared after him with a raised eyebrow when suddenly the room started changing into a new scenery – a sign that the fight was about to start.
Meanwhile in the control room Peter stared out the one sided window, observing the fight after he started the simulation. He pulled out his tablet and started checking his email. The others were staring at him, uncomfortable with his silence. Gathering her courage and remembering how he acted earlier, Ava decided to speak up.
“Spider-Man, are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’m fine, Tiger, don’t worry.”, consumed by his task, Peter didn’t notice when Ava walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched slightly, but didn’t look up from the tablet.
“You’ve been acting really weird the whole day, of course we’re worried.”
Peter grimaced and finally raised his gaze from the device to look at his friends. “I’m fine, just haven’t had time to sleep much.”
Now Danny moved to stand next to them, “You haven’t slept the whole night?”
Peter turned to face him, “Not really, but it’s fine. I just had a lot of paperwork with Fury not being here, but it’s okay now. Just have to deal with a few more details,”, he raised the tablet to show off the wall of text displayed on it, “then patrol and I’m off to sleep.” Peter smiled in hopes of calming his friends’ worries, but it didn’t really gave the impression he wanted.
“Peter-“, Nova was interrupted, by the sound of a bell that indicated the end of the exercise.
Peter leaned in close to the microphone, “Good job, Power Man. Come over here and I’ll change you.” Without waiting for protests, Peter walked out of the room and to the center of the arena.
He could hear the voice coming from the speakers, “You don’t have to train if you’re not feeling well, We-“
“Just start it already!” Peter was a patient man, really, but even he had his limits. How many times did he have to tell them he was feeling just fine until they’d shut up? The voice stopped and the scenery changed to a calm forest. Peter swayed in his spot, squinting his eyes to get rid of the blurriness that fogged his vision. Okay, so maybe he didn’t feel as well as he said, but he was perfectly capable of fighting a simple bot!
Speaking of which, Peter turned around when his spidey sense warned him of danger. A slightly bigger than normal copy of Doc Ock charged right at him and Peter barely had the time to jump out of the way. Even with his sixth sense still working his reflexes suffered because of his tired muscles. The robot didn’t seem to like Spider-Man’s awkward dodge as it stopped in its tracks and started running right at him, ready to attack.
Peter prepared himself to punch it. When the machine was close enough Peter hit it straight in the jaw with just enough force to… take the whole jaw clean of the bot’s face? Peter stared at it still in his last pose, surprised by his own strength. The illusion stopped and Peter couldn’t do anything, but stare at his fist with horror. He could’ve sworn he was holding back his strength, just like always. The rest of the team poured out of the control room and surrounded him.
“What the hell was that, Webhead! You were supposed to capture him not kill him!” Nova gesticulated wildly at the robot that lied now lifeless on the ground.
“I-I don’t know what happened! I swear I was holding back!”
Danny tapped his chin in thought, “Perhaps it’s a result of your lack of sleep. You can’t completely control your body because your brain isn’t completely awake.”
Peter stumbled back, putting a hand to his forehead, “So what are you saying?”
Luke grabbed Peter’s shoulder from behind and Peter’s head snapped up to look at him. “He’s saying you need to go to sleep now.”
“But I have a patrol to do, people rely on me to keep them safe and- Hey what are you doing?!” Power Man didn’t listen to Peter’s rant in the slightest and instead decided to pick him up and throw him over his shoulder. “Put me down right now!”
“Nuh-uh, We’re bringing you to bed and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“But what about the patrol?”
“Don’t worry, we can take care of it, just tell us your usual route.” Ava smiled as she walked beside Luke.
Normally Peter would’ve put up more of a fight, but he was too exhausted to complain anymore. As long as the citizens of New York were safe he didn’t have any arguments against going to sleep. Suddenly he was put down on his bed and a blanket was thrown over his face. He quickly pulled it down and glared at the snickering Nova. Danny crouched down next to his head, blocking the view.
“Now my friend, what is your usual patrolling route?”
Peter pointed to a notebook that sat on the table. “I write down everything there and there’s a map.”
“Got it!” Ava picked up the book and started to leaf through it.
“If anything happens you will wake me up, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, just stop worrying or you’ll kill someone on accident.” Nova made a move as if he was hitting someone, Peter chuckled uncomfortably. Nova noticed that and quickly backtracked as he leaned down to him. “Sleep, we can take care of ourselves.”
Peter smiled tiredly and nodded before turning around, wrapping himself up in the blanket and dozing off. The rest of the team filed out of the room, turned the light off and closed the door behind them. They stood in front of the door as Ava shut the notebook closed.
“I think we might need some help with this.” She grimaced as she said that.
Luke looked at her confused. “Why?”
“Spidey’s route basically takes into account the entirety of New York. Literally the only place he doesn’t check is Hell’s Kitchen.” She opened the book on the page with New York’s map. There was a clear route drawn out all around the city and in the place of Hell’s Kitchen there was a giant, red writing “DD’S GROUND”.
Nova snatched the book out of her hands to inspect it. “What the hell? And he does that every night? We’re never going to finish!”
Ava sighed as she clicked something on her watch, “We will finish faster if we get the Web Warriors to help. I already texted them, so let’s get to work. We need to split it between us and we should finish before dinner.” She said that while walking away causing the rest to follow.
***
When Peter woke up a few hours later he saw his two tired teams, slouching around the dormitory on beds or at the desks.
“What’s up with you guys?”
Nova barely looked up at him with his head still laid on the desk, “I never realized how much muggings happen in this city.”
“And small robberies.”, Miles whined from his own seat.
“And all the other things, there’s a lot of people asking for help.”, Flash said from his spot on the floor. Peter chuckled at the responses.
“Sorry guys, didn’t thought it would be that tiring.” A round of groans could be heard around the room. Peter smiled once more, “Well, I’m still a bit tired, so I think I’m gonna go back to sleep. You should do that too.”
Another round of groans ringed out, but Peter already laid back down and closed his eyes. A little sleep never hurt anyone.