This is a story I'm uploading to Archive of Our Own because I plan on uploading another story over there. Reason being is because you can actually post images in stories and there's one story on here I think would benefit from a few pictures in them. I needed to figure out how things work on the other website because I only just made an account over there, which is the reason why I've mentioned this. I also changed my username on here to reflect that so they should both be the same in case anyone wanted to go over there once I've figured everything out. So, I haven't forgotten about my other stories in favor for this one, but I will upload this one basically in sync on both sites. But this story will not get the benefit of pictures with the story so don't feel pressured to go there in fear that you'll miss on anything due to platform preference.

Thanks for reading that explanation if you did, hopefully this doesn't seem strange or put anyone at ease, and if you didn't really care about this or didn't follow any of my other stories then feel free to ignore this and enjoy the immediate two chapters!

Empty. That's how I felt as I carried the lunch tray through the cafeteria. I was drained. But I didn't feel like eating.

It wasn't like I wasn't hungry. My stomach was practically screaming at me to take care of myself! My appetite just wasn't there. It wasn't like this a week ago. Back then I was scarfing down the food this cafeteria offered.

This food was easily leagues above the stale junk Midtown served. That only added to my frustration. I knew why my appetite was gone, though. I was used to this school and the mannerisms by now, so there wasn't something to preoccupy my mind with. So, I was trapped thinking about what happened back home.

'No, Pete! Stop thinking about it! You promised Aunt May you'd try to not think about it.'

But it was hard not to now, especially when I couldn't manage to join any friend circles. It seemed more difficult to do here than it ever was in New York! I looked at a few blogs regarding that and it seems that other foreigners coming to Japan has had similar experiences. Some theorized it was because of the chance a foreigner from America could be a mutant whose X-gene hasn't set off yet. Others thought it was just the social setting that schools embodied.

Either way, it wasn't helping my situation any. I was in the Aichi Prefecture now, attending Asahiyama High School and this was my opportunity to get better. And maybe now I could resume my normal high school career like I've been wanting to! Maybe then, people close to me wouldn't be hurt like…

I sighed. "Looks like this isn't going to be as easy as just taking a breather, huh?"

I finally reached my usual spot. A small table built for one to two people which no one ever sat at because the lighting wasn't too good, and it was in a corner in the middle of a room due to a divider. A perfect place to sit to be able to dwell in your own thoughts and not eat the food in front of you!

The sound of plastic hitting more plastic sounded as something seemed to bump into my tray. It was enough to bring me out of my funk and to become more aware of my surroundings. The culprit of the bumping seemed to be a girl with long, red hair with two yellow hair clips shaped like stars. She seemed to be in a similar funk as I was because she looked about as shocked as I figured I looked. This look quickly turned into something more annoyed.

"Hey, I got here first!" She nearly shouted.

Or it seemed that way, at least to me. But as I glanced around no one seemed to be paying it any mind so it must have been my imagination.

I cleared my throat before trying to respond myself. "Um, sorry, but I've been sitting here since I got here last week."

"What does that have to do with anything?" She stood adamantly, "I want to sit here, so you can sit somewhere else."

I didn't groan out loud, but I almost did. I didn't have the energy to even try to start anything with anyone. That and, just before I was about to let the groan out, I had finally noticed that her uniform wasn't this from school. Which meant she was a transfer like me. This was a light bulb moment.

"Look, there's two seats available. Looks like you're new, same here." I offered a hand towards the seat against the wall. "You can even take that spot and I can use my head to conveniently block the sunlight. Deal?"

She stood with her cheek puffed, but she did let out a held in breath in agreement. She took her seat and I placed my bag on the ground before I took mine, doing as I said and blocking the Sun from obstructing her vision. She took to eating and because I wasn't in the mood to eat, I decided to take out my notes from my extracurricular research which involved following up on the most recent development from Stark Industries. I hated Tony Stark with the way he threw his Iron Man identity around in people's faces, but his sciences divisions were nothing to scoff at. The only company that really rivalled his was Oscorp but I couldn't even look at the name without being reminded.

I almost got to writing before the girl in front of me remarked, "Do you even know about proper table manners or are you just trying to be rude?" Her tone shifted a little as she shifted her eyes to my tray. "Guess you weren't planning on eating in the first place, huh?"

I looked down at my bowl of plain rice next to a cup of water. In truth, it was a pitiful sight to behold but I came into school today knowing I wasn't going to be eating much. It started all the way at midnight and creeped up into the day as I couldn't get five minutes of sleep. Compared to her tray, which looked like a meal that equaled more than a thousand yen, it was even worse.

I looked up, putting on a smile, "Yeah, I just didn't want to fall behind on this. There's a new IHHUD in development and I'm dying to know-."

"A… a what?" The girl's eyebrows were furrowed as her entire face screamed that she had no idea what I was leading into.

"An IHHUD; Interactive Holographic Heads-Up Display. Think of it like a phone screen suspended in the air, like a sci-fi computer."

One eyebrow raised from its place, "Uh huh, in other words you're more of a nerd than you look?"

"Huh?"

She laughed a little before waving her hand, "Sorry, that's not what I meant." She leaned forward, "If you're smart enough to understand something that complicated, school must come easy for you, huh?"

"I-I wouldn't put it like that." I began scratching the back of my hand, "But what does it matter anyways?"

"What's your name?"

"Wait a minute, don't change the subject."

She leaned forward, "I'll get to it, just tell me your name. It's not exactly proper to have a conversation without knowing someone's name in the first place. And since we're both new it would be good to have someone to talk to, right?"

I couldn't argue with that. It still annoyed me how jumpy she was being with the conversation, but at this point I was just happy for the convenient distraction.

"I'm Peter Parker, second-year."

She smiled, "I'm Itsuki Nakano! And I'm thinking Lady Luck is turning a card for me." She pointed to me, "You should help me study, Parker!"

'That's a way to turn it around on me. Not that I mind tutoring anyone in the first place. In fact, it probably would be a good idea to do it just so I can occupy myself with something. But, still, it's just feels too similar…'

I put on a smile again, but bowed my head as was customary, "Sorry, Nakano, but I can't. I don't mind answering a few questions on the side, but I just don't have it in me to tutor like that right now."

"I guess that was kind of a long shot from someone I just met in hindsight." I raised my head as she replied, "Is that why you decided not to take care of yourself?"

"Take care of myself? What do you mean?"

She pointed at my single bowl of rice. It really was kind of obvious at that point I wasn't just too preoccupied with a hobby to be concerned with eating. In my years of work in New York and keeping secrets from others, however, I already had a lame and unoriginal excuse lined up for the chopping block to save myself the embarrassment!

But, I hesitated to give it. I couldn't tell if it was because I was tired of lying or if it was because I associated these lame excuses with my secret from back home. A large part of me thought it was a little bit of both. Eventually, I just decided not to make an excuse for something that doesn't need one and actually responded like a normal person should.

"I was that bad at hiding it, huh?"

She smiled, "You were trying to hide it?" She replied with a little laugh, "If you want, I can share some of mine."

I looked up at her, waving my hand, "Y-you don't have to do that."

"You need to eat, otherwise you won't be able to keep up with what's going on with the IHDs as well as you should." She grabbed her two pieces of shrimp tempura she had in her bowl, placing them on my fluffy rice with a smile, "Transfer students should look out for one another, right?"

I stared at the two pieces of shrimp for a minute before grabbing my chopsticks and turning back to her. Our eyes met for a second of silence before she averted her gaze and puffed her cheeks again.

"Just so you know, I'm only helping you so you can help me study in return. You got it, Parker?"

I smiled, this time with a little less force behind it. "Thanks, Nakano. I'll tell you as soon as I'm ready to start a study session."

Her puffed cheek turned into a smile of her own, albeit a nervous smile.

I tried to break that nervousness by turning to my food, "Waste not!"

That shrimp tempura was tasting better than usual today.

The one thing I didn't expect was for Nakano to be in my class. I suppose it wasn't a low chance for a transfer student to be in the class in of itself, but the fact that two transfer students moved into the same classroom sounded like a bit much. I wasn't complaining, though. Having someone in the class I could talk to during breaks was a breath of fresh air.

When she introduced herself, she noticed me at a glance. Her seat was assigned in the row to my right a little behind me, so when she passed by I gave her a nod and she gave a wave. There was certainly something to look forward to in school now. The rest of class went on as normal, lessons going by and notes being taken on my part. After the English lessons in the class, Nakano even came to me for help on one translation. I tried my best to explain it, but it wasn't easy to get it through to her.

"I kind of get it, but every time I try to use that verb I still end up saying something different than what I mean." She sighed, placing her arms on my desk to lean on.

"Verbs are one of the most crucial parts of the English language. You basically can't communicate properly if you can't get it down." I explained before shrugging, "Thankfully there are other words you could use for it if that helps you understand it. So, this single word isn't going to cripple you."

"It's not just that word, if I'm being honest."

"What do you mean?"

She began fidgeting a little, not wanting to look me in the eye. "Well, studying just doesn't come easily to me. Every time I try to process information like this, I get something mixed up. So, you know, it's kind of amazing that you can understand all the Japanese-based subjects so well."

"What are you talking about? Studying is incredible to you?" I laughed a little. She tensed up a little, which prompted me to tone it down, "Sorry, I'm not trying to tease. But I'm pretty sure everyone struggles with studying at least a little bit."

She didn't respond. She opted to continue averting her eyes.

"I think you're being too hard on yourself. It can't be that bad." I tried to ease her mind.

She pushed herself off the desk, leaning towards me a little more, "Everyone else is talking about a test they had yesterday. Tell me, what did you get on it?"

"Hold on, I don't think you should compare yourself to other-."

"What did you get on it?!" She leaned her face close to mine now.

I sighed, leaning back and crossing my arms, "You don't need to focus on that."

"Fine, if you aren't going to tell me…" She pulled back before rushing down and towards my bag on the floor! "I'll just see for myself!"

"Hold it!" I panicked, rushing down to grab the bag myself! I knew from the morning that I had forgotten to take my other outfit out along with its complimentary devices. However, in the rush I didn't think about how I was moving and both Nakano and I butted heads.

She reeled back as I did, both of us rubbing our heads. Fortunately for me, it didn't hurt as much as it felt like a small flick to the forehead. But this didn't make Nakano very happy.

"W-what's your problem?! You didn't have to hit my head like that." She complained, rubbing her face which was a little red from the impact.

"The test isn't even in there." I explained, rubbing my own head to play the part, "It's back at my apartment. I was planning on reviewing it tonight."

"If that's the case, why are you so defensive about the bag?" She shouted at me.

I leaned down to grab my bag, shaking my head. "There's just important things in there, okay? I don't want you to break it on accident."

This wasn't wrong either. Next to the outfit was my camera. With it, the memories of the past two years as well as what would eventually be paying the bills while he was in Japan.

"Either way, you shouldn't just go searching through people's stuff without permission."

"U-um, right. I guess that was presumptuous of me." She responded, hands behind her back and averting her eyes again. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

The bell began ringing, signaling the end of the day and being a convenient tension breaker for the two of us. She returned to her seat and began packing her own things. I did the same, placing my pencil, erasure and notebooks into the back and zipping it up. I stood before beginning to make my way out of the classroom. But not before stopping at her seat.

She was already ready to go herself, but had her head tilted forward. "Are you sure you're not angry?"

"Positive. You going straight home, or?"

"Yeah, I've got some things I want to work on back home. What about you?"

"Sure, I'm probably going to stop someplace to eat before going on the train, though." I replied as we both began making our way through the hall and down the steps.

"Oh, you take the train. You must live pretty far, huh?" Hakano responded.

I laughed a little, scratching the back of my head, "Yeah, all the way in Kamimaezu, I guess."

"Wait a minute, Kamimaezu?! You'd have to take the metro train to get to school on time!"

'It's even worse knowing that I could get to school in a quarter of the time if I moved like I usually did in New York. Or in the same amount of time because of the amount of times I would have to stop some woman's purse from being stolen or halt a car chase. Sometimes I would even be late.' Overall, I was not upset about the times of the train and the wait. It was, well, not relaxing but easy.

"It felt more city-like, having so many low buildings just doesn't feel right as a New Yorker." I nodded as we both finally reached the entrance to switch out our shoes from the indoor shoes to the outdoor shoes.

We began to walk out of the school, returning to our conversation as we departed. "I guess it would be jarring to not live in a city after living in one like New York after so long."

"Even though my aunt would kill me if she knew I went to the most city-like place to rent out. But the apartment was cheap, so I can't complain." I laughed.

"So, you live with your aunt, huh?" Nakano raised an eyebrow as we both reached the front gate. She readjusted her bag, turning to me and pointed away from the school with her thumb. "Well, I'm headed this way. Pick this up tomorrow?"

I nodded, waving, "Sure, see you tomorrow, then."

She turned swiftly with a smile on her face, her eyes meeting with a group of girls across the street. She waved to them and shouted out to them. I turned away with a smile on my face. Part of it was because I could honestly say today was a good day. And I knew that was because she was willing to put up with my stubbornness for my spot in the cafeteria.

'Thanks, Nakano. You might have been my hero today. Even if you didn't do anything.' I thanked in my head.

My stomach suddenly dropped.

That tensing in my head, the warning that tells me about dangers around me, went off as it usually would. Then the honking of a horn went off! I turned around as the world seemed to move in slow motion as I processed everything that was happening. A semi-truck with its cargo was already trying to swerve but the turn was too sharp! It was going to topple over.

Right on top of Nakano.

Before I could even think, my instincts over the past few years kicked in! I dashed for her, moving into a lunge which I landed on my feet for fast enough that I knew my shoes would probably be smoothed out on the bottoms. I didn't let myself stop completely before I grabbed hold of her waist, pulling her towards me and letting myself assess the situation for the half-second we both had. The oppositional motion the truck was in made it nearly impossible to simply back up as I would like to. And unfortunately this truck was pulling the longer freights so moving clear of the sides was not an option either! I looked at the space between the truck itself and the freight.

That was the only option through this as I was.

I sidestepped, keeping her pressed against me as tight as I could manage without hurting her. Then I jumped up, just barely slipping through the crack of the truck! I pressed my foot against the top of the trailer's hook, pushing the hook out of place so the truck itself didn't topple with the trailer. When time caught up with me, I let myself act as a cushion for Nakano as we hurtled towards the ground. There was a few screams that came from crowds but those quickly subsided.

I looked around, waiting to see if things were okay, but it didn't seem like anyone else was caught in the accident and even the driver was safe as he scrambled out of his seat and walked towards Nakano and I on the ground.

I looked down at Nakano, who was still clenching on my shirt and in a state of shock. I loosened my grip on her, taking hold of her shoulders.

"Hey, Nakano? Are you okay?" I asked, trying to get her back down to Earth.

She pushed herself off me a little, turning around to look at the truck before turning back to me with tears now on her face. "P-Parker? You…"

"Itsuki!" Four voices sounded from across the street.

I turned, meeting four new faces. Actually, their faces were ones I were familiar with. They looked exactly like- "Nakano?" I blurted out.

The four girls took hold of the one I saved, getting her off of me and into their own arms. Seeing all their faces next to each other, it was clear that the were all sisters. I mean, they were unmistakably sisters! They were identical to each other in almost every way, save for hair lengths and styles and a few accessories they had on.

One of the girls, one who wore a yellow jacket, turned to me. She wiped off the tears in her eyes, opting to put on a smile instead. She leaned down, holding a hand out for me to grab.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

I took her hand to let her help me up. I nodded, a smile on my own put on my face. "Yeah, I'm fine. No one else was hurt, right?"

She shook her head, placing her hands on her hips, "Nope, it looks like everyone managed to pull out of it unscathed. Even the truck seems like it's fine. Can't say the same about the trailer though."

"The trailer can be fixed."

She nodded, turning back to her the Nakano I know, this time crossing her arms. Another of the girls, one with a black and green ribbon on each side of her head struck Itsuki in the back of the head.

She added onto the strike, "Itsuki, why didn't you look both ways before crossing the street? Honestly, this is something we're taught in grade school!"

Another of the girls, the one with a single, large green ribbon in her hair, shouted at Itsuki with her brow burrowed, "Even I know that! You need to be more careful."

The sister that talked to be before looked back to me over her shoulder, "You were talking with Itsuki earlier, right? It's good to know she has a friend like you already. What's your name?"

"Um, Peter Parker."

"Well, Peter, between us quintuplets I think it's safe to say we owe you for rescuing our sister." She winked before continuing, "I'm Ichika, by the way. If you need anything, don't be a stranger."

I nodded, scratching the back of my head, "Uh, sure. Thanks."

It wasn't long after the crash the police arrived settled the situation. Itsuki apologized more formally to everyone. When I mentioned I was going to be eating someplace, the girls offered to pay for my food, but I refused. I was wanting to eat alone anyways. Particularly because I was annoyed at the situation.

'I'm trying not to do any more heroics! How bad does my luck have to be for me to make a friend and the universe instinctively has to try to get them hurt or killed! Did I pass a hundred black cats on the street or is the one cat I know enough to count as an equivalent?'

I mentally yelled at myself as I sat in the fast-food chain, eating the food I ordered. As much as I was happy I was there, I was also pretty sure this was the world's way of convincing me to jump back in with the heroics. Almost like it was saying, 'See, you did a good thing!' as if the world wasn't the one that made it happen in the first place.

I sighed, looking down at my bag that was sitting beside me. I quickly stole some glances around the restaurant, making sure my bag wasn't going to be in direct view of anyone. I turned back to the bag, opening it and moving everything around so I could see it. The one-sided glass framed in a thick, black, curved frame which was sewed on top of red spandex. Black embossment in the shape of webs was patterned down the mask.

I couldn't lie by trying to say the temptation was easy to resist. Because undoubtedly I did something good today, I stopped Itsuki from meeting her end in front of her sisters and even stopped a truck driver from getting hurt. If I wasn't Peter Parker back there, but I was Spider-Man? It would have been even easier to swing in, grab her and elevate the truck using my web shooters. Even with these relatively low buildings, it would have been stupidly easy!

I dug around the bag some more, grabbing my camera. I pulled it out, only to find the lens cracked and the exterior somewhat dented. I broke it during the fall to save Itsuki.

That was the reminder, that every time I save someone as Spider-Man, without fail, I lose something as Peter Parker! I'm late to my dates, I get fired from jobs, my grades plummet, and the people I love suffer for it. Especially those who are closest to me.

She was the testament to that…

I only noticed I was crying when the droplets landed on the camera screen, turning it on and showing her picture. A blonde girl with a black ribbon playfully taking her picture as she pressed a cotton ball doused in alcohol on cuts on my chest. A celebratory picture from when I was able to cure Doctor Conners from being the Lizard. That was half a year into when she learned about my secret and by then she was almost insistent that she be the one to tend to my injuries. Mainly because I was terrible at it, even after doing it for more than a year after I became Spider-Man.

Another breath escaped me as I wiped my face from the tears, looking down at the mask one more time. The rest of the costume was visible now, the symbol of a spider showing where the camera once sat. I swore against ever using my powers again after Gwen suffered for my mistakes. I wouldn't break that promise to myself.

I wouldn't break a promise like that ever again!

I placed the camera back into the bag and closed it. My appetite was gone again. I picked myself back up, taking the tray and began to pick it up.

"Is that why you decided not to take care of yourself?"

Another promise, to take care of myself even if I didn't want to. I sat back down, looking at the food in disgust. But, I did continue to eat. And eventually the disgust turned into a smile.

"Thanks, Itsuki. I owe you."