DISCLAIMER: I do not own Marvel or The Amazing Spider-Man.
*This story takes place about 10 years after the first story.
It was a bright sunny day. Peter wanted nothing more than to be swinging through the city, feeling the cool breeze against his face. Instead, he was sitting inside Lonestar on a date that he promised his family he would go on.
He was absentmindedly sliding his grilled chicken around on his plate. Aunt May had been trying to get Peter to go on a date with her coworker's daughter for the past several months. She was currently watching his two children, Andrew and Violet. He took a bite of his chicken and attempted to listen to whatever the girl in front of him was talking about.
"And yeah, so she was like there's no way that would happen. And I told her that she was like totally wrong. But she didn't believe me and she did do it, and it totally did happen!" She smiled at him, waiting for a response.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's great," he quickly responded, mentally cringing. What was he doing here?
She took a sip from her water and nodded to him. "I know, right!"
Two small children ran past their table, bumping it as they ran past. Her glass of water tipped over and spilled.
"Oh here, I got it." Peter stood up and began drying up the water with a couple napkins.
"Oh my gosh, I cannot believe that just happened. I have water in my salad. Where are their parents?" She crossed her arms and peered around the room.
Peter rolled his eyes without her seeing. "It's fine. Here, I can buy you a new salad."
"No, that's fine. Sweet of you, though." She smiled at him as he sat back down. "I just don't get what the appeal of having children is. I'm, like, going to be twenty-seven this year and I still don't want any, and I don't think I ever will." The kids ran past the table again and she rolled her eyes.
"You're not much of a 'kid' person?" Peter asked.
"Not at all." She gestured for a waiter to come to their table.
"How may I help you?" the waiter asked.
She gestured to her empty water glass. "Those children over there like, spilled my water. Can I have a new glass?"
"Of course." He grabbed the empty glass and walked away.
Peter took another bite of his chicken. He couldn't wait for this lunch to be over.
"So what about you? Do you want kids some day?" she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure if I'd want any more."
"You have a kid?" she questioned, her eyes wide. The waiter came over and set down a new glass of water on the table for her.
"Yeah, I have two actually. They're twins." He smiled and sipped his Coke.
"Oh. That's.. nice. How old are they?" She didn't look like she thought this was 'nice' news. In fact, her nose was slightly turned up at him. He tried not to laugh at how ridiculous she looked.
"Just turned ten last week." He inwardly smiled at her reaction. She definitely hadn't expected any of this.
"Ten!? Wait, how old are you?" she raised her eyebrow.
"I'll be thirty in a couple of weeks."
She stared at him for what seemed like forever. "Wow, you don't even look that old. I thought you were my age."
Peter just shrugged at her.
"Wait, so you were only nineteen when they were born?"
"Yup." He took the last sip of his Coke.
She reached across the table and grabbed his left hand and pulled it forward and then released it.
"What are you doing?" Peter asked, staring at his hand.
"I was checking to see if you had a ring on. You're not married, are you? Please don't tell me I'm like on a date with a married guy who has kids."
"No, no I'm not married," he sniffed.
"Then where's their mother fit into all of this?" She raised an eyebrow and gave him a smug smile.
Peter stiffened at this. "She... she passed away giving birth to them." This was the story that people outside of their family heard.
The girl froze and then shook her head. "I am so, so sorry. I totally didn't mean anything by- I just didn't know."
"It's fine," Peter told her as the waiter came over. "Can we please have the check?"
"Yes, I'll be back in one moment," the waiter said as he strode off.
They spent the next couple minutes in awkward silence waiting for the check. The waiter finally came over and set it on the table. Peter took out two twenty dollar bills and set them on the table and then quickly stood up.
"So like, did you want my number or something? Are we going to go out again?" she asked him as she got out of her chair. He groaned, thinking she was the one who was going to have to say no to a second date.
"Um- no offense, Jessica, but I don't think you and I should go out again together. I just don't have time to date anyone right now."
The girl nodded to him and grabbed her purse. "It's Jennifer, by the way." She rolled her eyes and walked the opposite way. "Jerk," she muttered before she left.
Peter laughed to himself as he left the restaurant. He knew her name was Jennifer, but had hoped if he didn't seem interested in her, she wouldn't bother with him again.
The walk home from the restaurant was about forty minutes, but he didn't mind. It felt good to actually walk among people every once in awhile, instead of always being stories above them.
Suddenly, a women in front of him loudly gasped and pointed her finger at Peter, an excited look in her eyes.
"Look, it's Spider-Man!" she yelled.
Peter's eyes got wide and he looked around to see if anyone else was looking at him, but it seemed they were actually focused on something behind him. He quickly turned his body to see what everyone was staring at, because, obviously, it wasn't Spider-Man.
A flash of red and black whirred passed everyone and the cheers of people filled the air. The 'Spider-Man' did a few flips in the air and then carried on.
Peter sighed and shook his head.
Most people might not notice because of how high up this 'Spider-Man' was, but with his keen eyesight, he could clearly see this person wasn't even five feet tall yet.
He continued walking home and pulled out his cell phone to give Aunt May a call.
"Hello honey, how did your date with Jennifer go?" Aunt May answered.
"Where are the twins?" he said in a clipped tone.
"Th-they're here with me, Peter. Why what's wrong?" Aunt May sounded confused.
"Can you please go check on them?"
Peter could hear her footsteps through the phone.
"Of course I can. Let's see here... Violet is reading in her bedroom. Let me check on Andrew, hold on one second, Peter."
"No problem, Aunt May." He waited about a minute before he broke the silence. "So, is he in his bedroom too?"
"I- no he wasn't in there. I'm just checking through the house right now, but I just—"
Peter sighed again and squeezed his eyes shut. He did not want to have to deal with this again.
"It's fine, Aunt May. I'll be there shortly." He hung up his phone and hurried home.
When he finally got back to his house, Aunt May was waiting for him on the porch.
"I can't find him anywhere, Peter! He told me he was just going to watch the TV in his bedroom, and now he's nowhere." She looked worried.
Peter hastily walked up the stairs to his house, "I think I know where he went." he said, scowling.
He walked into the house and Violet came running down the stairs.
"Hi Daddy!" she yelled as she squeezed him around the waist. "How did your date go?" she asked with a cheeky smile.
He rolled his eyes and gave a small laugh. "We'll talk about that later. Where's your brother?"
Violet let go of him and attempted to put a puzzled look on her face. "He's in his bedroom, isn't he?"
Peter raised an eyebrow at her as Aunt May walked into the house.
"No, he isn't," Aunt May answered, crossing her arms.
Violet looked between the two and looked torn.
"I- I promised not to tell," she whispered.
"Violet—" Peter began but was interrupted by a loud noise upstairs. He began to ascend up the steps when Violet grabbed him by the hand.
"Wait, maybe he's at his friends' house next door! I think that's where he is," she said, trying to pull him back.
"Violet, enough." He gave her a stern look and she let go of him with a defeated looked on her face.
Peter opened up his son's bedroom door and wasn't surprised at what he saw. Andrew quickly looked up at him with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face that Peter would have laughed at if it was a different situation.
"Dad! You're home early," Andrew said with a guilty smile as he finished pulling his hoodie over himself.
Peter narrowed his eyes at him. "It's over ninety degrees outside and you're wearing a hoodie?"
"Yeah... I just really like it." He shrugged. It was an over-sized black hoodie with a red Spider-Man symbol on the front.
"Take off the hoodie, Andrew."
"Dad—"
"Take off the damn hoodie!" Peter raised his voice.
Andrew huffed and rolled his eyes. He quickly took off the hoodie and tossed it on the bed, revealing the red and black suit underneath.
Peter shook his head at him. "This is the third time this summer, Andrew. You only have three weeks before school starts, and now you're going to be grounded for those three weeks."
"What!" he yelled. "That's not fair!"
"How is it not fair? I told you what would happen if you went out and pretended to be Spider-Man again."
"I'm not pretending to be Spider-Man! I'm calling myself Web-Weaver."
Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. "Andrew! I don't care who you're saying you are. You're not going to go out into the city in your suit again."
Andrew smirked and raised an eyebrow. "So I can go out in my regular clothes?"
"If you're with family and not swinging around."
He sighed and sat down on his bed. "This isn't fair. You get to go out and be a super hero and all I want to do is help and you won't let me."
"You're ten years old."
"So? I can take out guys twice my size. You know I can handle myself out there against petty thieves and robbers." Andrew crossed his arms.
"You know as well as I do that that's not always the only thing we have to worry about," Peter said in a somber tone.
"Well, I wouldn't go after them! I'd stick to what I can handle. Violet could come with me, we could be a team. She's the one who made our suits."
Peter laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, I know she made them. But when I gave her permission to do it, it wasn't so you could go off and fight crime. You two told me you just wanted to use them for Halloween costumes."
Andrew just stared at him with an upset look on his face.
"Look, when you're older, and after the proper training, you can fight crime too. It's too dangerous for you right now." He walked over to him and put his hand on his son's shoulder, but he shook it off.
"Whatever," Andrew answered.
Peter walked towards the door. "I mean it, though. You're grounded until school starts again. No TV, no video games, no friends. Three weeks." He opened up the door and went to shut it when he heard his son mumble something.
"Just gonna do it again."
Peter opened up the door again. "What was that?"
"I said I'm just going to do it again. It's not a crime to stop crime." He stared at him with a defiant look.
"Believe me, if there is a next time, I will take drastic measures." He shut the door a little more loudly than necessary and then went downstairs.
Violet walked up to him with a regretful look on her face. "Sorry I didn't call you to tell you he was sneaking out. He made me promise not to tell and you know I hate breaking my promise."
Peter smiled and looked down at his daughter. "I know you do, Vi. But, your brother could have gotten into a lot of trouble today. He could have been hurt. You two are not old enough to be doing this, okay?"
She nodded to him. "Okay, Daddy. I'm sorry."
"Next time he decides to do this, I hope you'll talk some sense into him, or call me to tell me. Your brother is grounded for three weeks."
Violet looked like she was about to argue, but she let it drop and nodded again.
"Okay. I'm going back to my room to finish reading my story."
"That's fine, Vi," he said and she raced back upstairs.
Aunt May walked over to Peter with a small smile on her face.
"I told you that you'd have your hands full."
Peter just rolled his eyes.