At 6:35, Peter got a text saying Tony was outside. He said goodbye to May and raced out to the curb. Happy was standing outside the car, and opened the door for him as he got close.
"Hey, Happy!" Peter called out.
"Quiet down, kid, we're not trying to attract any more attention here."
"Whoops, sorry," he replied. Sure enough, people were stopped along the sidewalk trying to get a look at who could be inside the fancy car. The windows were too tinted to see inside, but Peter sat down in the back next to Tony Stark.
"Hey, Pete, how are ya?" the billionaire said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey - Hey, Mr. Stark."
Happy got back in the front and started the car. They pulled away from the curb.
"I hope you're hungry, because we're about to go to eat a ton of pasta." He pulled his hand away and removed his sunglasses. "I was in meetings all day and I never got to eat anything."
Peter smiled. "Pasta? Nice. I love pasta!"
"Everyone loves pasta. It's the world's favorite dish."
There was a loud honk and Happy swerved. "Guy just totally cut me off!" he cursed from the front.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Hey, hey. Relax. New York drivers can't help it, they're automatically set to aggressive."
"They should be automatically set to take the bus," Happy replied.
"That reminds me," Tony looked over at Peter, "You gotten your permit or anything yet?"
He shook his head, "Nope, I haven't been doing any driving lately."
"You should get on that. It's a useful skill."
Peter thought of his experience driving Flash's car with a wry smile. "Yeah, probably good to know. But I mean, the subway takes me anywhere I need to go. And if it doesn't, Spider-Man does."
"Well, don't knock it 'till you try it, huh?"
He laughed. "Yeah, sure."
They made it to the restaurant fifteen minutes later, hearing horns honking around them every few minutes as they attempted to merge. Happy pulled up to the curb and dropped them off before driving away.
"Happy's not eating with us?" Peter asked, watching as the car turned around the block.
Tony shook his head. "Guy eats at like 4 PM. He's set. Now come on, I'm starving."
They entered the restaurant. It was a family style place, with dark walls and red table cloths. It didn't seem like a place a billionaire went out to eat, but Peter knew that Tony's tastes weren't always so refined.
There was a table reserved for them in the back room, where there wouldn't be so many eyes on them. There was only one other couple in there, and they seemed pretty distracted.
Peter took a seat in the chair up against the wall, the wooden legs screeching against the floor as he pulled it back.
Tony cringed. "God, my ears."
Peter blushed and sat down quickly. "Sorry," he said quickly.
A hand waved in dismissal. "Chill out Pete. We're just here for the pasta."
He nodded, then asked, "So what were your meetings about all day?"
Tony shrugged. "Nothing very exciting. Mostly budgetary stuff for SI, and of course S.H.I.E.L.D. just had to suck me in for something while I was in town."
"Why do they need you to meet with them in the city? Don't you practically live with them?" He pulled his napkin onto his lap.
"Well, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. have kind of been separate agents lately," Tony explained. "We try to keep them away from the compound, anyway. It's supposed to be more of a living and training arrangement there. Of course, they rarely listen to that, which is just great." He signaled for the waiter and ordered himself a drink. Peter got a Sprite.
"Anyway," Tony continued, "Exams are over, yeah? School's out!"
Peter nodded. "Yeah, finally. Summer took way too long to get here."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, really. What does your summer look like? Because I've got something great for you." Their drinks were put down in front of them.
"What - what do you mean?" Peter asked, confused. Where was this headed?
"An internship," Tony said. "And I mean a real one this time."
Peter's eyes widened. "Really? With you?"
The older man shrugged and sipped his drink. "Yes. Well - not exactly. I mean, it's under my name. And by under my name, I mean part of SI."
Peter frowned. "I'm confused."
Tony leaned forwards, elbows on the table. "We've been trying to fund more medical research, and Pepper happened to meet this guy - he's brilliant, his name's Dr. Curtis Connors. We've pretty much absorbed his lab into SI; he's completely funded by us."
"Cool," Peter replied.
"It's amazing stuff he's into - mostly stem cell research and biomedical engineering." Tony paused, waiting for a response.
Peter gave one. "And you're saying - you're saying I can intern for him?"
"Yeah! Now you've got the idea. It's Tuesdays and Thursdays - just say the word and you're in. And I don't know why you wouldn't be."
Peter blinked. "That sounds amazing! But I've… got a job already."
Tony frowned. "What? Where?"
"At the - uh, at the movie theater."
"Seriously?" Tony laughed. "Wow, that's rough. I didn't know the job market was so tough out there."
"I'm 16," Peter replied. "With no experience. People aren't exactly jumping to hire me. I was lucky to get what I got." That got him thinking. "Hey, why would Dr. Connors take on a high schooler anyways?"
"Because you're smart. And because I recommended you."
Peter frowned. "So, it's just because I know you?" Surely that meant he didn't really deserve it.
Tony rolled his eyes. "You are the most moral person I know. And don't take that as a compliment. But no, it's not just because you know me. It's also because you're smart as hell. So, tell the movies you'll be gone on Tuesdays and Thursdays and take the offer."
He gave a wide smile. "Yeah, okay! Wow, that's awesome, Mr. Stark! Thank you!"
"That's the spirit. But hey, it's no big deal. I wouldn't say you should do it if I didn't think you were up to the challenge."
His spirits were soaring. He couldn't deny it felt nice to be told he was smart by one of the smartest people in the world. "When do I start?"
Tony raised his eyebrows. "On Tuesday. So, four days from now. That's okay, right?"
Peter nodded quickly. "Yeah! Yeah, that's great."
Tony smiled at his enthusiasm. "Great! I'll send you all the details. And I expect you to keep me updated, okay?"
He smiled back. "For sure!"
Eventually their food came, and they dug into some of the best pasta that Peter had ever tasted. All the while, they talked about all sorts of things - the internship, of course, but also American history, Game of Thrones, the Avengers - and Peter was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Tony. His nerves settled as the meal went on, and he laughed at himself for being nervous in the first place.
Tony waited until after they had paid for their meal and walked out the door to bring up Spider-Man. "By the way, I saw what you got up to today. You're on track to be a firefighter."
Peter looked at the ground sheepishly. "Yeah, I already got a talking to from May, so no need."
Tony quirked his brow. "I wasn't planning on laying into you, but… you two finally had the talk? What's the verdict?"
Peter smiled. "She's gonna let me keep doing it. Didn't exactly give me her blessing, but it's enough to know she doesn't hate me because of it."
"Huh. That is one tough lady."
He nodded. "Oh yeah. And get ready for her coming after you. She - she made me give her your number."
Tony laughed. "Oh, wow. That should be good. Tell her I'm looking forward to it."
Peter looked around for Happy. He should have been coming up with the car soon.
"That's not what I meant to say, though. About the fire," Tony added.
Peter looked up at him. "What?"
Tony stared back. "I meant to say good job. That took guts. And you saved that woman and her kid."
Peter shifted his eyes away, embarrassed. "Oh. Uh, thanks, Mr. Stark."
Tony gave a small smile and glanced over as Happy pulled up to the curb. "Don't mention it."
"Dude, no way!" Ned exclaimed. "You had dinner with Tony Stark last night? Why the heck didn't you say anything?"
They were sitting in Peter's room, messing around with a new LEGO set and waiting for MJ to show up.
"I didn't know! He called me right after I left the fire."
Ned shook his head, grinning. "You are so lucky, man. You know I live vicariously through you, right?"
Peter laughed.
"And what you did with the fire? I saw it on the news - you looked badass! You're really back in it now."
Peter gestured for him to keep it down, glancing over at his door. "Just - keep quiet about that stuff around May, okay? She's on board now, but I don't want her thinking about it so much she'll change her mind."
Ned nodded. "Right. But what did I tell you?" he added. "I told you she'd come around! May is the best!"
"She's a little bit the best," Peter agreed.
"So tell me about this internship." Ned continued, placing a LEGO. "Are you gonna actually be working with Tony Stark now?"
Peter picked up a piece and looked closely at it. "I guess not. It's for this doctor - Dr. Connors. He does a lot of research with stem cells, but also like, genetics and stuff?"
"That sounds pretty intense. What are you even gonna be doing?"
He shrugged. "I have no idea. I mean, I read up on this guy, and he's - like, I'm sure I'll be out of my depth like 99% of the time."
"Does this mean that you won't be working at the movie theater?" Ned asked.
"No, I'll still be working there. Just not Tuesdays or Thursdays."
Ned nodded. "Right. Cool."
A voice came from the living room. "Oh, hi! - Boys! Michelle is here!"
They pushed themselves to their feet to meet her and saw her stride in, backpack over her shoulder.
She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Hey losers," she greeted them.
Ned grinned. "Ready to get bucket listing?"
Michelle raised an eyebrow, but flashed a thumbs up nevertheless.
"Heck yeah!"
They gathered back in Peter's room and he pulled out one of the big workpads he had used as a kid. Then they got brainstorming - coming up with a list of fifty things they wanted to do that summer. Some of them were touristy, some were fun, and some were downright stupid. But if the thought was enough to make them smile, they put it on the list.
When they finished, Peter taped the finished list on his door. The three of them considered it for a moment, reveling in their hard work. But they already knew what they were going to cross off today: a trip to the Museum of Natural History.
It had been one of Peter's favorite museums when he was little. He used to beg Ben to take him there, and they would spend hours wandering around, Peter staring wide eyed at dinosaur bones and taxidermied lions. But tickets were twenty dollars, which usually felt like a bit much to pay with his own money. He felt a flare of gratitude for the number of tickets Ben had bought him over the years.
"See you, May!" Peter called out as they left the apartment.
"Bye, guys! Have fun!" May caught his eye and pointed at him. "Don't stay out too late!"
Peter nodded. He knew what she meant.
As they walked to the subway station, Peter snapped photos of random things: street signs, a cat, Ned tossing him the middle finger, MJ's tongue stuck out, her hair blowing in the wind. He had picked up his camera before they left his room. After all, if they were doing touristy things he might as well look the part.
They joked and talked on the way to the museum, discussing whatever random topics crossed their minds. Peter and Ned got in a heated discussion about Star Wars: the Clone Wars, and Michelle shared her tangent on offshore drilling.
An hour later, they walked through the doors of the Museum of Natural History. Peter felt a wave of some feeling - maybe comfort, or nostalgia - as the familiar entryway opened before them.
"Ah, I'm excited!" Ned said with a clap of his hands. "I forgot how cool this place was!"
They bought their tickets and grabbed a map. Michelle opened it up to study it.
"Where's the whale?" Peter asked, leaning over to look. "I love the whale."
Ned shot him a look. "Come on, that thing is lame. I mean, it's just a model." He pointed to the t-rex skeleton in front of them. "Now that is cool. Just think about how big that is! Those things used to be all over the place!" He shook his head in wonder.
"The blue whale is the biggest animal to ever exist," Michelle said.
Peter nodded at her and poked Ned in the side. "And they exist now," he added. "You could literally go scuba diving and see the biggest animal ever!"
"Yeah, but do they have massive teeth? I don't think so," Ned replied, petulantly - though he was smiling now.
MJ started walking off to the right. "We're going to see the whale," she called back at them.
Peter flashed Ned a shit-eating grin. His friend rolled his eyes, but followed after him and Michelle to find the whale anyways.
It was just as cool as he remembered. The ocean hall was bathed in blue light, and the huge model of a blue whale hung over them. Peter smiled and pulled Michelle forwards so that they were standing right in front of its nose.
"Just think," he said, "This thing could swallow you whole."
MJ looked at him. "Well, not really. Blue whales eat little fish, and krill and stuff."
Peter shrugged. "Tell that to Pinocchio," he replied.
She just smiled and shook her head.
Ned pointed towards an alcove that held a model of a sperm whale eating a squid. "Now, that's what I'm talking about! Nature is metal."
Peter followed him across the room. "What weapon would you take to fight a sperm whale?"
Ned laughed. "I wouldn't need a weapon, but I'd make the fight take place on land. Then you could just wait for it to choke."
"Whales breathe air, dumbass."
"Ha! Oh, right. Well, they're not exactly graceful on land, are they? So I'd still do that."
Peter chuckled at the image of Ned fighting a whale. "I'd pay to see that."
The three of them wandered around the exhibits, soon leaving the ocean hall for a room filled with huge slices of tree trunks, then around to another with lots of taxidermy bears and deer. Ned got impatient to see the dinosaurs and raced ahead, so Peter walked with Michelle up the "Cosmic Pathway."
The railings displayed a timeline of the creation of the universe, and they looked at the blurbs as they walked up.
"My uncle used to take me here a lot," he said to MJ.
She looked up. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. And we loved this thing. He used to get me to stand in one spot and jump as far as I could. He told me I was time travelling," Peter chuckled. "And every time I would try and break my record."
"He sounds like a nice guy," she replied.
Peter nodded, a soft smile on his face. "Yeah, he was."
They were quiet for a moment after that.
Then Michelle said, "It's funny, isn't it?"
"What?"
She gestured towards the display. "How in the grand scheme of things, people have been on earth for so little time. We're all just insignificant little blips. I mean, look at that." She pointed at the section that represented the human timeline. It was as thin as a thread. "How much of that is us? Not even enough that you could see it."
Peter shrugged. "That's true. But you know, they - they say time is relative."
Michelle gave him a wry smile. "I guess you're right."
Peter felt like he had to change the subject. "You know, I didn't tell you - I'm gonna be working somewhere else along with the theater this summer."
MJ frowned. "Huh? Where?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's an internship -"
"Oh, you mean the Stark Internship. Yeah, everyone knows about that, Peter."
He shook his head. "No. Well, kind of. It's different." She looked at him to explain, and he said, "It's at a research lab. For this guy, his name's Dr. Connors."
"Oh," she replied, then frowned. "Wait, when did this happen? You just found out about this?"
Peter scrambled to come up with an explanation. He should have thought this through a little more. "Well, I - I had - I had applied, but I didn't say anything because I didn't think was gonna get it. But I just heard back from them last night."
Michelle looked at him in that way that made him feel like she knew more than she let on. "Right," she said slowly. "Well, that's cool. What are you doing there?"
Relieved that she seemed to have believed his explanation, he replied, "I'm not sure, to be honest. But I'd scrub the floors at the place. What this guy is studying seems really cool."
"So, you're doing that and the Stark internship? And working at the movies?" She raised an eyebrow.
He shook his head quickly. "No. Well, yeah, but the Stark internship isn't as intense over the summer. It's like a couple days a month." He would say it didn't happen at all over the summer, but he wanted to cover his bases just in case he left town with Mr. Stark for whatever reason.
"Oh, okay." She looked like there was something else she wanted to say, but thankfully Ned chose that moment to race back over to them.
"Geez, you guys are slow! Come on, I just saw the coolest thing."
Peter shrugged at Michelle before turning and following Ned further into the museum.
Later, after grabbing some hot dogs from a stand for dinner, they headed back to Queens and MJ and Ned split off back home. Once he was alone, Peter ducked into an alley to change into his suit. After tucking his backpack away on a nearby roof, he leapt off the side and let himself freefall until the ground rushed up and he webbed up just in time to swing above a row of parked cars.
As the air rushed past him, he smiled under the mask. The sun was setting, casting a golden red hue over the city and lowering the temperature to a cool and comfortable level.
He heard Karen's voice in his ear, and chatted with her as he swung around for a few blocks, situating himself.
After he had warmed up, he started looking around, making sure to watch out for any niggling of his spider sense. People walking around pointed and he waved back at them.
"Evening, ma'am!" he said to one lady who was standing and looking wide eyed at him.
"Yo, it's Spider-Guy!" one man called out, shoving his friend and pointing up.
Peter flashed them a salute and swung on. Man, he loved his city. This is why it was worth it to be a 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.' Getting to interact with the people who lived here was the best part. Well, web slinging was probably the best part. But chatting with New Yorkers was definitely up there.
He paused as he felt his spider sense flare up, and looked around for what the source could be. He picked up the sounds of someone struggling in the alley below him. Someone was getting mugged down there!
He looked down and saw a man holding a knife out in front of him, another guy trapped against the wall, his hands up in front of his face. "Come on!" the mugger hissed. "Whatever you got, hand it over. Now!"
Peter landed silently behind the mugger, and watched as the other man's eyes bugged out of his head as he noticed that Spider-Man had just arrived.
He cleared his throat, and the mugger startled and turned to face him. "You know it's not polite to wave knives at people," he said.
The mugger's face turned from shocked, to confused, to angry. "Who the hell are you?" he said. The guy he had been trying to mug was still frozen behind him, his eyes flitting between him and Spider-Man.
"You don't know me? I should get a better agent," Peter replied. The mugger just stared at him. "Well, the gist of it is that your night is about to turn sour."
The guy squinted at him like he was crazy. "Get the fuck out of here, man. You should know I'm not afraid to use this," he added, pointing his blade at Spider-Man's face.
"And I'm not afraid to use this," Peter responded, lifting his wrists. One move of his fingers and the mugger was webbed to the wall of the alley.
He looked around for the man who had been getting robbed, and didn't see him anywhere. Had he run off?
Then he noticed that where the mugger should have had one head, he had two. His eyes widened. "Oh, god! Sorry!" he exclaimed.
When he had webbed mugger to the wall, he had trapped the other guy as well!
He rushed forwards and pulled at the webbing. Of course, it didn't budge.
"What the hell?" the guy said. Apparently he had broken out of his shock. "Oh, come on. Get me out of here!"
"Ah! I'm trying, I'm trying!" He exclaimed. "Karen, what do I do?"
"My name isn't Karen!"
"Web shooters switched to dissolve mode," Karen replied.
Peter looked down at his wrists, then up at the two trapped men. This time when he activated his web shooters, a liquid spray appeared. It covered the webbing, and when he pulled at it, it stretched and came away.
The two men burst away from the wall. Immediately the mugger ran off down the alley.
"Back to regular webbing!" Peter said quickly. He aimed as best he could, and the webbing caught the guy's ankle. He tripped over himself and face planted into the ground.
Peter winced. When he looked back over at the other man, his face was incredulous, but still pale. "Are you okay?" he asked. "I'm so sorry!"
The guy shook his head and chuckled a little hysterically. "Uh, yeah," he replied. "Thanks? I think?"
"I - uh, I -" Peter stammered. "You should probably call the cops," he said finally.
"Yeah."
"And, uh - stay away from alleys!" With that he webbed the top of the wall next to him and pulled himself up and away, twisting to land on the roof.
He shook his head at himself. "Smooth moves, Spider-Man."
In another alleyway across town, a man in dark hoodie answered his phone and brought it up to his ear.
"Johnny."
"Yeah, it's me," he said.
The voice on the other line said, "You said you had news for me?"
"That's right," he replied. "Spider-Man's back."
There was a beat of silence. Then, "You're sure?"
"Definitely. He's been all over the news. Was at an apartment fire yesterday."
"That's good." Johnny could almost hear the smile. "You know what needs to happen now?"
A rat scurried by the wall next to him, and he took a step back towards the street. "What do you want from me?"
"I haven't been able to get a name in here. I got a feeling Toomes knows, but won't talk. So forget that. But we gotta get eyes on this freak. Tail him wherever he goes. I want that guy's head on my wall."
"You got it. I've got some guys for the job," he replied. "But what about you?"
"Don't worry about me. I won't be here much longer. But when I get there, you better have some information for me."
With that, the line went dead.
Johnny looked at the screen of his phone for a moment before pocketing it and stepping back out to the sidewalk, the sun dipping low in the sky behind him.
A/N: So, if you can't tell, this thing's gonna be kind of a slow build. But look, there's some plot!
As always, let me know what you think!
