In this series of oneshots, you may notice that Peter is a little more pessimistic than he is in the movies (or even in the comics). This is on purpose! I feel like even though he exudes a happy exterior for the world, he really is hurting and needs a friend (see Mysterio in Far From Home). Just an fyi! Also, whew, angst ahead!

Long A/N at the bottom. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: "You can't tell Aunt May!"

Peter stared out the window and watched the Compound fade from sight as the Stark Industries car headed towards the city. He had less than a day to somehow get May to be ok with the whole superhero Avenger gig; that is, if she didn't murder him on sight. He'd managed to get Tony to delay the release of the press conference for another day so that his Aunt wouldn't find out from the television (that would be bad) but even Tony Stark couldn't hold off the reporters for much longer than that. Under normal circumstances, Peter would be thrilled to be going home to see May, but this last month had been anything but normal.

What happened? Well let's see: Peter discovered an illegal weapons operation, experimented on space technology, got a concussion, hacked himself out of a security facility, climbed the Washington Monument, accidentally crashed Tony's plane, and captured a dangerous villain (to name the more important ones). Spider-Man had done a lot of good for New York City, but being a superhero comes at a price.

May had nearly worried herself to death while Peter had to sneak behind her back to save the city. Ned had managed to save his life multiple times, but put himself in serious danger in the process. Mr. Stark was right, endangering his friends and family was inexcusable; Peter had to learn to be better. Maybe some distance from home for a while would be good...


"Pete? Are you asleep back there? You better wake up because I'm not carrying you inside, even if you do look like a ten year old…"

Peter groaned as he cracked open his eyes, Happy's voice annoyingly loud thanks to his heightened senses. He didn't even remember falling asleep. Geez, he was tired.

He tuned out the rest of Happy's grumbling and stretched his cramped arms as far as he could, letting the tips of his fingers brush against the top of the car. Peter could still feel the faint ache in his ribs from his throw-down with Vulture, the pain being more of a memory than an actual injury anymore.

Rubbing the remainder of his impromptu nap out of his eyes, Peter grabbed his phone and backpack. His eyes skimmed over the multitudes of notifications his phone angrily flashed at him. Four missed calls from May, nine unread texts from Ned, three emails from Midtown Science regarding recent absences…

The car pulled to a stop with a jerk, distracting Peter for a minute from having to face the digital chaos.

"Alright kid, ride's over! Let's get out quickly, I have lots of errands to run for Mr. Stark, c'mon," Happy hurried Peter out of the vehicle, grabbing his duffle bag from the trunk and placing it none-too-gently on the side of the curb.

"Remember, I'm picking you up at 8 AM tomorrow morning. Not 8:05, not 8:15, 8:00 sharp because we have to be at the Compound on time. Tony needs you to...kid you ok?" Happy slowed to a stop as he noticed Peter tuned out, staring up at his apartment complex. "Hey," he said, shaking Peter's shoulder, "what gives? You've been out of it ever since the press conference. Are you sick or something? Should I call Tony?"

That woke up Peter's brain.

"No no Hap you don't need to call Mr. Stark! I'm absolutely one hundred percent all good, just need a nap, everything's great!"

Happy eyed him doubtfully.

Peter took that as his cue, swinging his backpack over one shoulder and grabbing his duffel with the other hand. "Bye Happy!" Peter flashed a bright smile at Tony's driver and practically ran the three steps into his building, nearly colliding with a woman walking her poodle on the sidewalk. "Sorry ma'am!" he tossed over his shoulder as he yanked the door open and disappeared inside.

Happy stared at the door for a second, then turned and got back in the car, pulling out his phone as he did so. The caller on the other end picked up on the second ring.

"Any issues?"

"Not exactly, but…"


As the door shut behind him, Peter leaned back against it and took a few deep breaths.

Ok Parker. You are Spider-Man. You can climb up the sides of buildings, stop a car with your bare hands, and have fought and beat super-villains. Telling May you're Spider-Man is going to be a piece of cake. Plus what is she going to do? Say no to Tony Stark?

Unfortunately for Peter, that's exactly what she planned on doing.

"PETER BENJAMIN PARKER!"

Peter didn't know May was capable of screeching, but yet here she was, in the middle of their small living room, about to break a wine glass with her decibel level.

After Peter had trudged slowly up the stairs and knocked on the apartment door, blissful silence was nowhere to be found. Her tirade started with the "where were you?!"s and the "I called four times!"s, then escalated into the "you nearly gave me a heart attack!"s and the "you're grounded for life!"s. But nothing compared to the aftermath of Peter's revealed secret.

"I can't believe you would put yourself in danger like this! Constantly! Without ever asking me for permission!"

"Listen, Aunt May, I tried to-"

"No Peter, YOU listen! I knew you were sneaking behind my back ever since that Stark internship nonsense, I'm no idiot! You had so many opportunities to share but ohhh no, don't tell May anything, she's a no-fun old stick-in-the-mud that only cares about safety and not freaking dying! Peter, I try so hard to give you as much freedom as possible; I remember what it was like to be your age. I hated it when adults tried to tell me what I could and couldn't do! But this isn't going out drinking with your friends, or going to parties, or even sneaking out with a girl, this is putting your life in danger!" May took a watery breath and exhaled deeply.

"Peter, I love you. But you can't keep doing this, please don't keep doing this. Ben and I made your parents a promise a long time ago, that we'd keep you safe and happy as long as we could, and even though Be-" May's voice broke, but she kept going, "Ben isn't here to help me, I plan on keeping my word."

Peter opened his mouth to defend himself, but no words came out.

May hardly ever mentioned Uncle Ben. Even though he'd died almost a full year ago, the name was still taboo around his aunt.

Bringing up Ben was May's trump card.

A few tension-filled second passed before Peter finally found his voice again. "Aunt May," he said quietly, " I have to do this. I was meant to do this. I miss Uncle Ben as much as you do, but I think he would be with me on this one." Peter was uncharacteristically serious; he knew this conversation would be the deciding factor for Spider-Man's future. "Helping people is in my blood, just like it was in his. Spider-Man has helped a lot of people, and being an Avenger will let me help even more.

"Having these powers means I can help people, save people. And when you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you. Does that make sense?"

May stared at him, tears in her eyes.

"It's not just that I can. It's that I have to." Peter dropped onto the couch heavily, and put his head in his hands.

"I can't choose between you and Spider-Man," he said, his words muffled by his fingers. "Don't make me make that choice. I can't do it. I can't."

May joined him on the couch and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, honey," she whispered. "I understand." She sniffled and hugged him tighter. "I don't like it, but I understand."

Peter could feel his shirt getting damp, but whether it was May's tears or his own, or both, he couldn't tell.

"Love you May."

"I love you too Peter."

They sat there for a while, until the sun started to dip beneath the horizon, and long shadows grew in their small living room.

"Hey May?" Peter said thickly, pulling away a bit, "can we order Thai? I'm hungry." On cue, Peter's stomach started to grumble.

May burst out laughing, wiping the tears off her face. "Sure." She got up from the couch and grabbed the phone, "I hope you know," she said, dialing the number from memory, "that I'm still going to give Mr. Stark a piece of my mind for putting you in danger like that."

Peter chuckled uncomfortably, "Uh, most of it kinda wasn't his fault."

"Wha-oh hi, it's May Parker," she held up a finger to Peter, "Can we get two orders of pad thai and an order of larb? Yes...yep. Oh that's very sweet of you, but I don't think we need...oh, ok, if it's on the house. Ok...ok...thanks, bye."

She turned back to Peter, a glare growing on her face. "What do you mean, it wasn't his fault? What did you do?"

"Uh, heh heh, nothing really, I mean kinda just fought a super-villain by myself but it was all fine!" Peter got up from the couch and backed slowly towards his room. "Also I have to go start Avengers training at 8 AM tomorrow,"

"Excuse me?"

"Ok I gotta go shower! Thanks for understanding and for food and for being so awesome I'll see you later!" Peter ran inside his bedroom, shut his door and breathed a sigh of relief.

That wasn't so bad.


*HONK HONK!*

"PETER! Let's go!" Happy shouted from his car window, blaring the horn several more times for good measure. "I don't have all day kid!"

Peter's head stuck out of his bedroom window and yelled, "COMING HAPPY!"

Five minutes later Peter opened the front door, covered head to toe in bags. May followed close behind.

"Did you remember your toothbrush? And your earphones for the car ride? And your razor? I know you only started shaving a month ago-"

"Aunt May!" Peter cut her off, turning red. "I have everything. Too many things. I don't need an extra car battery or three pairs of swim trunks or half of this stuff honestly. It's really -oof," Peter dropped all of the bags on the sidewalk next to the car with a huff, "unnecessary."

"Ok, honey. Give me a hug," May wrapped her arms around Peter tight. "I love you so much. Be safe and don't forget to call me!"

Peter, to his credit, allowed the physical contact, though his face was still beet red. "Ok, ok May, I love you too, I'll call you soon."

Happy got out of the driver's seat and helped Peter put the mountain of bags in the trunk, chuckling at May's antics as he did so.

"It was nice to see you May. I hope you're doing well," he said with a small smile, as Peter finished throwing the last bag inside.

May smiled flirtingly back. "It was nice to see you too, Mr. Hogan."

Peter covered his ears and groaned. "I don't want to hear this, so I'm just gonna sit in the car." He slid in the back and shut the door behind him, then ran his fingers through his hair.

He suddenly had a very weird feeling. His spidey-sense was going off like crazy, was something about to hit the car-

"Hey kid."

What the hell- "Mr. Stark?"

"We need to talk."


I have SO many ideas for this story/collection/writing thing, whatever you want to call it. I'm going to do my best to update this as much as I can!

Thank you so much for all of the love! I didn't expect this big of a response at all. I'm sorry it took a little while for me to get this second chapter up, life is crazy! I'm going to try (key word- try) to update this story weekly, but no promises. I'm finishing up an internship right now, and I go back to school and get to start navigating the awful process that is a law school application in a couple months, so updates will be more sporadic then. I would also rather spend more time on a chapter and make it higher quality than churn out low-quality content more often. I'll keep y'all updated on my profile. Thank you so much again!

(reviews feed the muse!)

P.S. There's a couple sentences in here I borrowed from Civil War. I don't own them or the characters, just the plot!