When Peter walked into his apartment that evening at 5 o'clock, he wasn't expecting it to be so quiet. Usually when George had the afternoons off, he was always there to greet Peter when he got home. At first it had been awkward, as Peter wasn't used to having a male figure in the apartment, but over time it was something that Peter secretly looked forward to. It was nice to have someone excited to see you when you came home, even if it was just from school.
"Alex?" Peter called out, "You home?"
"In the kitchen," Alex returned.
Walking into the kitchen, Peter saw Alex sitting at the kitchen table, his laptop sitting in front of him while his school binder rested to his left.
"Hey," Peter greeted. "Where's George?"
Alex glanced up at him for a moment before returning back to what he was typing on his laptop. "Dad had an emergency board meeting with the hospital executives. Something about one of his residents or something. Either way, he won't be home until sometime tomorrow."
"Oh," Peter replied lamely before coming to sit down at the table across from Alex, dropping his backpack beside him.
Alex finished typing something and he let out a victorious "Yes!" which left Pete raising his eyebrows.
"What's got you so happy?" Peter was amused.
Alex fist pumped the air, "Damn essay for my history class. I've been struggling with it this past week and it's finally done !"
Peter nodded in congratulations, "One day before your game too."
Alex smiled bitterly at that, "You have no idea. Only September and my teacher already has an essay due that's 10% of our grade."
"What?" Peter was shocked. "It's only the second week of school!"
"My sentiments exactly, but Mr. Grimes is out to kill us, I swear." Alex huffed, crossing his arms. "Although everyone is starting to call him Mr. Grinch."
Peter laughed at that, "That's going to become a hit when it hits December."
"Are you serious? It's gonna hit after Halloween, dude," Alex disagreed. "Christmas comes earlier every year."
"What's wrong with Christmas?" Peter asked jokingly.
"There's nothing wrong with Christmas, it's just sad that turkey season gets cut out because people just want Santa to hit the streets."
"Turkey season? You mean Thanksgiving?" Peter couldn't disguise the amusement on his face.
"Oh hardee harr, Pete, you know what i mean," Alex rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Anyways, how did it go with Ned and Harry? Did Ned claw out Harry's throat?"
Peter's smile fell at that, "That's not funny."
Alex leaned over and gently punched his shoulder. "Don't look so put out, Pete, I was only kidding."
Peter sighed, "I know."
Alex grimaced, "Did it really go that bad?"
Peter shook his head, "It actually went surprisingly well, much better than I ever expected at least."
Alex's eyes sparked in excitement, "So are they best friends now?"
Peter chuckled, "Not yet, but maybe in the future, I don't know. I mean they obviously didn't hate each other, so that's good news at least."
Alex studied him, a frown on his face, "Something's bothering you, though."
Peter's mouth dropped open, "Am I that obvious?"
"You get tense when something's bugging you," Alex admitted. "It's like you're waiting for something to jump in front of you and scare the crap out of you."
Wow, Peter thought to himself Maybe I'm not so good at hiding after all. "Okay, something's bugging me, alright?"
Alex leaned forward on his elbows, giving Peter his full attention, "What's going on?"
Since when did I suddenly become so comfortable around you? Peter wondered. "It just seemed a little easy, you know? Ned was so put out about Harry for the past week and after meeting him once he's suddenly kinda buddy-buddy? I mean, don't get me wrong I'm happy they are finally getting along, I just don't know how I feel about the whiplash of it all? What if Ned is just saying he likes Harry because he knows it makes me feel happy?"
Alex frowned, "Why would Ned do that? From all the stories that I've heard about him, not just from you, but from May, Ned doesn't seem to be that kind of guy. Maybe don't look a gift horse in the mouth? This is what you wanted ever since Harry had come back to Queens. Don't let the paranoid thoughts take that away when there is genuinely nothing to worry about."
Peter shook off the pessimistic thoughts, "You're right, I'm just being stupid."
Alex grinned goofily at that, "You ain't stupid, Parker. You're a genius that can rival the great Tony Stark for all I care."
Peter rolled his eyes at that, "Gee, thanks, but don't let Tony hear that or else he might just fry you with his suit."
Alex laughed, "Duly noted. Consider me warned."
Once the laughter died down, Peter decided to change the subject. "May told me you and your dad were going down to visit your grandparents this weekend?"
Alex began rummaging through his school binder, but Peter didn't know if he was actually looking for something or if the question bothered him. "Yeah. My grandparents are moving a little further downtown and Dad and I are going to go help them unpack. They, uh, wanted to be closer to us. Actually, no, Dad convinced them to move closer to us. My grandma, she's not doing too well in her old age and Dad's not sure how much time she has left. Dad's really worried about Grandpa, and so he convinced them it was better to be closer to family."
Peter visibly flinched at the revelation, guilt and sadness washing over him. Guilty because he brought up the sore subject and sad because he knew exactly how it felt. "I'm really sorry," Peter apologized. "It really sucks losing someone close to you."
Alex brushed off Peter's comment and said, "It's fine, I was never really close to my grandparents growing up. It wasn't their fault, but life always kinda got in the way. They lived halfway across the country my entire life, even before I moved to New York I was in Connecticut and they always were in Oregon. I'm more worried about how it's gonna hurt my dad, they're his parents."
Peter was silent for a moment before he said softly, "George has a family who will catch him when he needs it." Peter was genuinely surprised at how easy it was to utter a promise that he knew he would keep.
Alex smiled kindly at that, "Thanks, Pete, that means more than you'll ever know." Alex then cleared his throat, "I gotta go work on a project, so I'm just gonna..."
Peter could see Alex losing his battle with his emotions and he nodded, "Yeah, I got you."
Alex hummed in appreciation before he stood up, grabbed his things and made his way into his bedroom before closing the door. In the end, Peter just lets him leave.
Later that night, Peter finally gave into the temptation and found himself perched on a rooftop, surveying the streets below as he looked for any kind of trouble that usually followed that time of night. Peter knew it was reckless; it was just Alex and him in the apartment that night, and even though Alex had gone to bed relatively early, Peter was paranoid enough to worry about Alex stumbling on the discovery that Peter had snuck out. He should've played it safe and waited until Friday night when George and Alex were safely out of the apartment, but Peter would be lying to himself if he said it wasn't worth it.
Peter ended up decking out in his Stark Tech suit that night, as the Iron Spider suit was still out of commission from the battle with Thanos. Peter could've repaired it if he had wanted to, but he didn't have the energy the past few months to dive into something completely new. Anyways, he'd never admit it to Tony, but he really liked the spandex instead of the armor. The loose fabric accommodated his flexibility a lot better than the Iron Spider suit ever did.
However, the lack of the Iron Spider's suit repairs also fell partially on the billionaire. It just served another reminder of how different post-snap Tony was from the Tony before Peter had been dusted. Pre-Snap Tony would've instantly started on the suit's repair after the battle before Peter would ever have the chance to ask him. Post-Snap Tony, however, was so far gone in the world of "retirement" that he didn't even bring Peter's suit up once.
The only thing that Peter missed was KAREN. The AI had been his one constant source of comfort when he was patrolling Queens. Before Peter had been beamed up to space, a blast from one of the alien's weapons had short circuited some of the suit's functions, causing KAREN to go offline because her motherboard in the suit had been fried. Peter didn't even know where to start on repairing something that colossal. He remembered mentioning it to Tony at least twice, and both times Tony had promised to fix it, but that proved to be a false promise.
In other words, Peter's patrols got lonely and he hated getting lost in his own thoughts, especially since his thoughts never seemed to be happy nowadays. At least now, he had something positive to think about. Alex and George were finally bonding with Peter, Harry had come back, and Ned is finally starting to try to become friends with his childhood friend. The happy thoughts helped this time around, but Peter was still bored out of his mind with no one to talk to. Peter couldn't even call someone with his suit even if he wanted to with KAREN's mainframe down.
By the time midnight rolled around, Peter had successfully stopped two muggings and an attempted robbery at a 24 hour diner. Overall, Peter had come out unscathed and every encounter had ended smoothly with little property damage and no civilian casualties. The victories aided in boosting his increasingly good mood and the diner had given him a free BLT for saving their business.
Perching on top of a roof, Peter took off his mask, his identity safe in the shadows of the night. He ran a hand down his face and tried to shake off the feeling of dread that had formed a pit in his stomach. His sixth sense has been lingering for weeks, but it has steadily been growing increasingly powerful throughout the night, enough where it felt like someone was watching his every move. The fact that it didn't subside after stopping the muggings and robbery made Peter feeling incredibly uneasy.
You just got too much free time without someone there to keep you company, Peter told himself. When you're alone you stress too much.
Pulling out his phone, he bit his lip and wondered who would be awake that time of night. He just honestly wanted someone to talk to while he ate his free sandwich and surveyed the streets below. If his sixth sense calmed as a result, well Peter would welcome the relief.
Peter scrolled through his contacts and his thumb instinctively hovered over Tony's number. Biting his lip, Peter pressed the call button before he could second guess himself. Even as Peter heard the endless ringing, he knew it was wishful thinking.
This is Tony Stark...
Peter hung up before the voicemail tone sounded and sighed in defeat. He shouldn't be surprised. Tony doesn't do his sleep-deprived lab sessions anymore. He's probably comfortable in his lake house, asleep at a decent hour because he's a father now.
Scrolling through his contacts, Peter tried another number.
"Hello" They picked up on the third ring.
"Did I wake you?" Peter asked guiltily.
"Peter?" Bucky sounded worried. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
"Peter? Is he okay?" Another voice sounded distant.
"I'm fine," Peter reassured them. "Just wrapping up a patrol and I got kind of lonely."
"Patrol on a weeknight?" Clint's voice displayed his sarcastic disapproval. "More than that, a school night? That's blasphemy!"
Peter rolled his eyes, "Now I'm wondering why I even bothered to call."
"Get out of here bird brain," Bucky scoffed at Clint's dull attempt at humor.
"Okay, I admit, it wasn't the strongest retort but it's midnight. You're a kid, Pete, you should be in bed."
"I needed some fresh air," Peter admitted.
"Don't we all," Bucky agreed. "How'd the patrol go?"
"Surprisingly smoothly," Peter admitted. "I stopped two muggings. One of which was a clown carrying a baseball bat. That was traumatizing."
"You're scared of clowns?" Clint failed to hide his amusement.
"Don't you dare laugh at that, Mr. Barton," Peter warned. "Clowns are the scariest thing in the entire circus world."
"Why? They're frickin' hilarious!" Clint disagreed.
"Have you ever seen the movie IT?" Peter argued.
"The horror movie? Yeah, what about it?" Clint asked.
"What's IT?" Bucky asked.
"What's... Are you serious?" Clint sounded offended. "It's a fantastic movie!"
"Don't let him wrap you into it! It'll leave you with nightmares for months!" Peter protested.
"What the hell is IT?" Bucky asked again.
"Two words: Killer Clowns," Peter summarized.
"Interesting," Bucky amused. "The fearless Spider-Man is scared of clowns because of a killer clown movie.
"Why am I being ganged up on?" Peter whined. "I'm the one who called you!"
"That's right. You called us, what did you expect?" Clint jested.
"Technically I called Mr. Barnes," Peter corrected.
"Kid you got to stop calling us with those titles. We've told you numerous times that it's okay to call us by our names." Bucky told him kindly.
"Oh, I know," Peter said. "It just annoys the hell out of everyone and it makes it funny."
"Smart-ass," Clint called out.
"What's going on here?" Another male voice broke through the phone speaker.
"Sam, they're picking on me!" Peter whined. "Please help me."
"Why are they picking on you?" Sam asked.
"Peter's scared of clowns and fought off a mugging that consisted of a clown carrying a baseball bat." Clint stated.
Sam laughed at that, and even over the phone Peter could picture him bent over on his knees laughing.
"It isn't funny!" Peter squawked indignantly. He took a bite of his sandwich, "I mean it was a clown with the frowny make-up on his face! Those clowns are sad for all eternity and it's like they want to infect you with their sadness!"
That caused all three heroes to laugh harder. Bucky finally managed to get out a response, "Low and behold, the one thing that would truly be blasphemy is a clown infecting you with sadness."
"I'm going to hang up the phone," Peter threatened.
"No, no, wait," Clint recovered. "You didn't tell us about what you're eating right now."
Peter rolled his eyes, "Haha." He took another bite of the BLT. "For the record, I got a free sandwich from stopping an attempted robbery."
"You got a free sandwich?" Clint was jealous.
"Is it a good sandwich?" Sam asked.
"BLT that could rival Delmar's," Peter stated.
"Delmar's?" Bucky was confused.
Peter made an 'OH' sound before he clarified, "Best sandwich shop in Queens." He went to take another bite but a sharp spike of pain in his head caused him to hiss in surprise.
"Peter?" Bucky grew serious in an instant.
"What was that?" Clint sounded concerned.
Peter shook off the feeling, but the tingling in his brain caused him to stand up and survey the streets below.
"Peter!" Sam shouted, trying to get his attention
"Can we track the suit? Why isn't he responding?" Clint asked.
"What's going on?" A feminine voice got closer
"Peter, answer me!" Bucky called out to him.
Once he caught his breath, Peter put his mask back on and raised the phone back to his ear, "I'm here." His voice sounded pained even to his ears. "I'm alright."
"What the hell just happened?" Natasha demanded, and Peter realized that she must've walked into the room when his Spider Sense split his head in half.
"I... I don't know," Peter admitted, scanning the streets. "My Spider-Sense just went haywire, but I can't see..."
Peter didn't get a chance to finish that sentence because suddenly there was the sound of wind whooshing behind him. Peter had a second to glance behind him and see a hulking figure darting toward him by at least forty to fifty miles an hour before he was sent flying off the rooftop.
Everything that happened after that happened in a blink of an eye. As Peter went flying off the rooftop, he was so dazed from the breath being knocked out of him that he hit the side of the next building front-first at full speed. Instinctively Peter scrambled to reach out and stick himself to the wall, but his powers failed him and his hands and feet gave way, causing him to plummet 10 stories below. Just before he hit the ground, Peter managed to shoot a web upwards to slow his descent. However, the momentum was too much and he landed on his back relatively hard.
Peter laid there, coughing through the pain that enveloped his entire body. Looking at the stars as he tried to take in deep breaths, Peter wondered what the hell had just happened. He literally didn't know what hit him. When his breathing returned to a bearable amount of pain, Peter tried to sit up, but cursed as his right shoulder gave out in pain. That must've been the shoulder he had caught himself on with his web. Trying to sit up once more, Peter carefully hauled himself up with his left arm and wrapped his injured shoulder protectively across his ribs.
Okay, I'm done for the night , Peter told himself and carefully got to his feet. His entire front side felt bruised to the core and he could tell that he definitely broke a few ribs with the way his breath was catching with every inhale that he took.
Should I go get checked out... No... Peter drawled but then his eyes widened with fear. THE AVENGERS!
Peter looked around to see his Stark Phone shattered on the ground a few feet in front of him. Walking up to the phone, Peter picked it up and tried to turn it on, but the screen refused to turn on.
Well, there goes another phone, Peter thought grimly. Compound it is, or else the Avengers are gonna skin me alive for making them worry like that.
The trip to the compound was difficult, his entire body protesting every swing he made. Thirty minutes felt like an eternity, but when he swung up to the Compound, he wasn't surprised to see Sam, Bucky, Clint, Natasha and Steve waiting outside for him. He could tell the moment the Avengers set their sights on him because their forms were visibly tense. Peter made to land, but the pain was too much and he fell to one knee, hissing in pain as his shoulder heavily protested and his ribs felt like they were shredding his inside apart.
"Peter!" Someone was running up to kneel beside him. Looking up, Peter saw it was Steve who had reached him first, Sam right beside him.
"Ugh, that sucked," Peter groaned in pain.
"What happened? What hurts?" Sam asked him urgently.
"Everything," Peter confessed. "Oh god, I can't..." His breathing was getting labored.
Sam cursed. "He can't breathe. We need to get him inside."
"What should we do?" Clint inquired looking between Steve and Sam.
"Clint go call Dr. Cho, Bucky you call Banner, we need whoever is closer to get here fast," Steve ordered before turning back to Sam. "Sam what can you do?"
"I can do what I can, but we need to get him inside," Sam repeated. "Can you carry him to the infirmary?"
"Yeah," Steve readjusted his position so he could crouch beside Peter.
"I'll go call Tony," Natasha said.
"No!" Peter immediately protested.
That caused the three remaining Avengers to raise their eyebrows at him.
"I mean, it's not that bad," Peter amended. "Hurts like a bitch, but don't call Tony."
"Tony would want to know, Peter," Steve told him gently.
"Please, don't call him," Peter begged, his voice wheezing and a tickle began to form in the back of his throat. "I don't want him to worry, you know what he's like..." He was cut off when he started to forcefully cough and he suddenly tasted copper in his mouth. The bitter taste made him want to throw up, but he was too busy hacking up a lung to do anything else but just spit out the blood that bubbled from his lips.
"Shit, we need to get him inside now, the way he's holding his ribs..." Sam sounded genuinely scared.
"Punctured lung?" Steve guessed, his face pale.
"I'm fine," Peter managed weakly in between coughs, but he knew he was kidding himself.
"Shut up, Kid," Sam told him fondly.
"Peter, this is gonna hurt you as much as it'll hurt me," Steve said sadly, repositioning Peter so that he had a hand on the small of his back and a hand under his knees. Then Peter was airborne and the blinding pain caused him to blackout.
Was it good? Was it bad? Feel free to let me know!