There was a sudden realization for Peter in his planning that confronting a girl from his school was not nearly so simple as confronting any other criminal. There was a certain element of it that made him feel like a stalker. Unlike with any gruff criminal, he couldn't confront her on sidewalk without scaring her half to death. Though Peter hated it, he couldn't just stick her to a wall. Finding out when to speak to her by watching her walk felt more and more creepy as time passed. Eventually, he just watched from as far away as he could to feel less like he was doing something wrong.
Peter took a faint notice to the fact that her brother wasn't picking her up a few blocks away like he always remembered. She used to brag about being walked to the library every day. Peter knew her brother went to school in the area, so he figured it must have just been an off day. Michelle would have told him if that routine was broken, she always had a way of sharing the more thoughtless details of her everyday life. As classmates, he knew plenty of useless information about her but never anything significant.
This was feeling less and less like something Peter thought he'd want to do, but he had to take the lesson he learned from Tony. Steve Rogers betrayed his trust (though the exact details as to how, Peter had yet to find out). Tony pursued him though it was difficult to do because they were friends. Peter remembered all through his training that he was taught about how to stay true to his morals. It was difficult to confront people that you knew, but it was important work that needed to be done.
He followed her to a park, making himself visible to her from up in a tree branch above the bench she had parked herself on.
"Meet me by the bridge in an hour," He announced to Michelle, pretending not to notice her flinch when she first saw him. He knew a more public place would make her comfortable, there were plenty of rooftops near the bridge where they could have had their conversation.
"Why?" She'd said.
"You know why."
"I'm surprised you came," He admitted. Peter saw her the moment she stepped foot on the raised platform.
"What do you want?"
"Let's talk somewhere more private."
"What's more private than-" Peter didn't really ask her permission before lifting her to join him on the rooftop of the nearest building. Michelle screamed at the top of her lungs, and he was suddenly glad the building was so tall that no one would be able to hear or become alarmed. He tried to steady her when she landed, realizing she was shaking. "Afraid of heights?" He asked, trying to play it off.
"That was HORRIFYING," She answered him honestly, pushing him away from her to no avail. "Don't you ask people before you do these things?!" He'd never quite thought of it that way. He loosened his grip so she could get the space she clearly wanted.
"That'd probably be a better idea, yeah." He agreed sheepishly. Peter was so much more used to dealing with gruff criminals and rogue superheroes.
"What do you want?" she asked him, fear in her eyes masked by the angry expression on her face.
"We should talk."
"I don't know you."
"But I know you," he answered, pulling out her wallet with her ID on display. Peter didn't know when he let Spider-Man's persona form, but he could really feel the act radiating off of him when he talked to her. "I've met plenty of kleptomaniacs in my life, but definitely never a girl your age," He started, scaring her out of her frozen state.
"What?!"
"What do you think you're doing? You're way too young for this."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Michelle insisted, still clearly startled. He felt bad for scaring her this much and Peter willed himself to calm down.
"I just don't like seeing good kids like you getting themselves into trouble." Peter really couldn't tell how presumptuous and condescending his tone could get when he was in costume. He just felt like he was being himself now, a hero. This was Spider-Man speaking now, and he just wanted what was best.
"You don't know anything about me." She was pouting at him, clearly just waiting for him to keep going. After a long silence, he decided she needed to get the message as to just how long this conversation would be.
"Let's just start at the top, why did you steal the jewelry?"
"Are you going to turn me in?"
"That depends on your answer," He said, realizing now that he was just scaring her in an effort to get her to tell him the truth.
"I needed the money."
"Why?"
"What do you want?"
"For you to tell me whether or not this is worth turning in to the police."
"Please don't call the cops." Her switch into fear was so immediate Peter could only wonder what had triggered it.
"What were you doing that night?"
".….I was just walking past the robbery when I saw all the windows were wide open. The door was cracked, I saw all the jewelry. You don't understand,"
There went his pity. "Of course not."
"We need the money."
Peter felt like he'd been slapped in the face. "What?" Michelle had never been particularly well off, but he remembered having seen her house once when they were younger. She lived about the same way he did then, comfortable.
"Please just don't call the cops. I promise I won't do anything illegal ever again, just please don't tell anyone. I'm sorry."
"You have to explain."
"It's none of your business." Peter was being left to a million mysteries and none of his questions were even answered. She was right though, being Spider-Man didn't give him a right to pry. "Are you going to let me go?" It took him a minute to decide before-
"Yes." He handed over her ID and wallet.
Peter woke up the next day willing it all to have been a nightmare. He glared at his suit, as though it had made the decisions for him. He went to school dreading that Michelle would show up. When she wasn't in their first class together he let himself get worried. He wondered all the places she might have been before she finally turned up for the next class - Physics again.
He had never been more grateful that Michelle was such a stickler. There was so little time for small talk as she talked about details for the project, speaking the whole time and never really giving him an opening to respond. Peter was sure on another day, that would have been upsetting, but today it was a welcomed relief.
"Peter? Did you hear me?" She inquired, as though she'd been trying to get his attention all this time.
"Sorry."
"You look exhausted."
"Long day. What do you need?"
"Where are we going to meet?" Peter tried his best to resist asking about her home. He'd thought long and hard about their meeting the night before and he'd decided the best thing he could do was respect her privacy. "We can't meet at my place."
"Why not?" Peter internally winced. He really didn't think he'd be so weak to his own curiosities. He looked away when he watched her face twist, knowing he'd done the wrong thing. "We can do it at my house," He volunteered quickly, chickening out of his own interrogation. "Saturday."
Peter had spent most of the week watching her when he felt lost. He got a few updates from Tony's office regarding his new costume. They encouraged him to give its features a try without getting into any trouble. He knew that meant they'd be watching the news to make sure he didn't interfere, so he figured perhaps trying to figure Michelle's story out would be worth a shot. Peter was hoping to stop her and ask for the jewelry back. Even if she needed it, he didn't have a right to neglect that she should be giving the property back. After all, it wasn't his to give away.
For a day or so, when he did look for her, Michelle wasn't really doing anything out of the ordinary. Every day she left school, stopped by the park on her way to the library, then got home at about the right time for an early dinner. She almost never deviated from her schedule. One day, though, she went straight home. Peter told himself not to think anything of it, knowing better than to read too much into everything. He was already watching her schedule patterns, this couldn't get any more disturbing for him. He was about to leave his post when he saw her deviate.
Before long, he was trailing behind Michelle to a coffee shop where she was meeting with other girls he'd met in his year. They were inside for hours. He rationalized his actions to himself, noting that Tony had asked him to retire for the time being. This wasn't about fighting crime anymore. He just wanted to keep his friend Michelle out of trouble and he couldn't do that as Peter without revealing his identity as Spider-Man. This would be for the best. It was a healthy distraction.
Though Peter really tried to keep a low profile, he ended up assisting in a car chase between the police and some suspected kidnapper on the main highway. It was really only a matter of minutes, but from then on he sat on the rooftop of the cafe Michelle was in, tracing himself in social media as he watched live footage of himself. The debate about whether he was helping or hurting the city was still on, as it had been since his first sighting. By now, he'd learned not to let it bother him too much. Peter took that lesson from Tony, for sure, remembering how hated the man once was. In time the city would understand him too.
Peter was laughing about a post noting his upgrade in apparel when he noticed Michelle was leaving the cafe. He followed her again only to realize that she was just going home. Looking down on her, he decided then and there that he'd just wait a few days and inquire again. He had to get back to his own life. Aunt May was becoming increasingly concerned about how late he would stay out. Just as he was about to give up the tracking, Michelle left her home again. It had been only minutes later, but there she was in all black, dressed much unlike her.
Following behind her, Peter suddenly resented being in a city of tall buildings, though he knew his superpowers would be useless otherwise. It was just so hard to see her closely from rooftops and climbing the sides of buildings would slow him down. He tried make out details in his rush. She was wearing a hood over her head, her hair all tucked into her sweater. He didn't recognize the area they were in, but when she stopped in an alleyway next to a bar, he really wished they were anywhere else. "Michelle, what are you doing?" He mumbled to himself worriedly.
She looked around before she started texting on her phone. Moments later, a guy about five years older than them both appeared. "What are you doing here?" He demanded. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Please Benny."
"No, you shouldn't be here. Vin would not want you here. It's late and you have school tomorrow." Michelle pulled something out of her sweater. Peter craned his neck over to get a look. It was as though a single ray of light hit it and he just saw the glimmer. The jewels. "Where did you get that?"
"Your dad owns a pawn shop, right?"
'Benny' took them from her. "Where did you get those?"
"It's not important. Can you sell them?"
"You can't afford these."
"I found them. How much can you get for them?"
"At least a few grand."
"Then do it."
"Michelle, what did you do?" She never answered despite the long silence. "Vincent would be worried about you. I am worried about you." Still, she didn't speak. Peter wondered what he was missing. Peter knew 'Vincent' was the name of her brother. "Fine, I'll do it, just get out of here."
"I need a promise. Vin said I could trust you."
"You can, but I need you to get out. Do you know how not okay it is for you to be here?" Peter didn't need to see the shrug to imagine that was her answer. "Have you seen him lately?"
"I tried to visit these last weeks. They said he lost privileges because of fights with other inmates."
"That doesn't sound like him. Fighting."
"It's not him. I've been looking into-"
"Stop that. Look, I'll look into that, I'll figure out the sale, I'll worry about it. You worry about school. Vin would kill me if he knew you were even here talking to me." Michelle never even got to answer. The bar door opened again, a fight breaking out into the alley. Benny had backed away in time but Peter had seen the punch that accidentally pushed Michelle to the ground. The two men fighting were large, two times his own height and three times his width.
Peter immediately hit the ground, in action the moment he saw Michelle get pushed. She was in no immediate danger post-fall but he couldn't help but get involved. What he didn't notice was the flood of people who had been following the fight, trying to split it up themselves before he intervened. He saw the flash from the phone video taping the fight but he didn't stop. In what felt like not even a minute past, Peter had ended the fight. Before he could even so much as turn to Michelle, he was picked up by some crushing, stiff metal hands and torn from the scene in seconds.
Moments later, Peter was dropped onto a rooftop watching Tony Stark fly just a foot above the roof.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?!" He yelled, his suit unmasking his face. Peter tried to swallow but it was like there was a lump in his throat.
"This is not what it looks like!"
