The rest of the party was fun, but he couldn't get any time alone with MJ. Eventually when it was past three, lots of people were leaving. Morgan had gone to sleep hours ago, and now maybe he would soon get the chance to actually show MJ to the roof. They could look at the New York skyline.
But then someone put their arm on his shoulder.
Peter spun around.
"You're still awake, Underoos. You should have gone to bed when Morgan did," Tony said. He was sipping a Coke.
"I'm…" Peter stopped because then Tony would just say something about how he knew his age. "I'm old enough to stay up."
"Don't think so. Time for MJ to go home too," Tony said, glancing over at her. "You're… pretty scary actually, but I like you. You seem good for Underoos here."
MJ smirked, but nodded.
"Can't MJ stay the night?" Peter asked.
Tony looked at him and then laughed as he moved his hand away. "I don't think May would like that. She probably wouldn't want there to be any more baby spiders. You're enough."
MJ rolled her eyes.
Peter glared at him. "We weren't going to do that. I didn't even say that we were going to sleep in the same room." MJ wouldn't have wanted to do that yet anyway. They had only been dating a couple months and weren't at that stage yet.
"Yeah, I remember what it's like being a teenager… Well sort of… I was pretty drunk then," Tony said. "But I do remember some things, and you could just sneak to her room. The whole sticking to walls would make it even easier."
"I told my mom I would come home anyway," MJ said.
"Yes, you heard the girl," Tony said. "I'll make Happy give her a ride home."
Happy wasn't going to like that, but at least he was one of the few people who hadn't been drinking. Peter had caught him looking at May a few times and sighing. Peter couldn't help but wish that Happy and May had stayed together. He liked Happy.
"He can give Ned a ride home too."
Ned had been talking to Scott Lang for awhile, which Peter thought was weird, but it was good at the same time.
"Okay," MJ said. She leaned over and kissed Peter on the lips for a moment before pulling away "I'll see you later."
Peter smiled and then hugged her before she broke away. He also said goodbye to Ned before heading to his room at the Tower. Today had been… something… The morning… He wasn't looking forward to it and wished the morning would never come.
But, of course, it did like always. He would have slept longer, but then someone was laughing and jumping on his bed.
"Wake up, Petey! Wake up!" Morgan laughed as she kept jumping around.
"Morgan, it's…" He forced his eyes to open and saw the clock. "Seven AM." It wasn't normal to wake up this early on a day when there wasn't school.
"Daddy says I should wake up and you'll play with me," Morgan said as she continued jumping on the bed. Tony had told her this? He probably just wanted to keep sleeping in himself. "I want to have chocolate chip pancakes."
"I'm tired," Peter said, grabbing one of his pillows and putting it over his head. "I'm tired, Morgan."
"No! Wake up!"
Another pillow hit Peter and he forced himself to sit up. Morgan grinned and jumped around more.
"Pancake time! Pancake time!" Morgan chanted.
Peter groaned but forced himself to get up. The sun seemed especially bright today and he put on EDITH just for that reason. Morgan then raced out of the room and he followed her into one of the kitchens. There he somehow managed to find and make pancakes. He hesitated before adding chocolate chips, but Tony and Pepper should have been awake if they didn't want him to give her those.
And besides Morgan wanted chocolate chip pancakes.
After that, the two of them went to watch Frozen again. Peter couldn't help but fall asleep before "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" played. It was like his eyes couldn't stay open. Sleep wanted to claim him and he couldn't resist it.
When he woke up, nothing was playing on the TV. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell that someone had shut the windows and turned off the lights. In the background, he could hear people talking quietly but it wasn't like before. There was a giggle. Morgan… It was Morgan. Footsteps came into the room, but Peter still didn't open his eyes.
"You still sleeping, kid?" Tony asked in a whisper after awhile.
"Mmm," Peter muttered.
Tony must have decided that was a yes because the footsteps started again and were leaving.
"Morgan woke me up at seven," Peter muttered.
The footsteps stopped. "Yeah, sorry about that, kid, but you can sleep more if you want. I told May that you might stay here a bit longer. Spiderlings need their rest."
Peter grabbed the blanket which hadn't been on him when he fill asleep and pulled it over his head. "Have to talk to May," he muttered.
"She knows you're here. Don't worry. You won't get in trouble." The footsteps were leaving again.
Peter forced himself to sit up. "No, I have to talk to her. It's… It's important." Yes, there was a part of him that was tempted to put it off, but he couldn't. If he kept doing that, then he might never tell May what happened.
And if he didn't tell her, he was putting her in danger. Eddie might hit her one day. She didn't have the powers that he did. He could seriously hurt her. She at least needed to be aware of what he had done.
Tony came over and sat next to him while giving him a look. "Everything okay, kiddo?"
Peter rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, it's just… I have to tell her something important."
"Really? You sure everything's okay? You seemed off earlier yesterday."
"Because of the train." Peter picked at a loose thread on the red blanket.
"Maybe, but I think there's more to it than that, and you know I'm pretty smart." Tony grinned, but it didn't reach his eyes. Probably because he was worried. "You know with the whole being a genius and all that."
Peter knew that he should tell Tony that he was fine. Tony might not believe him, but maybe, if Peter was lucky, he would drop it, at least for now.
"I just… I just don't know how she's going to react." Peter kept picking at the thread and didn't even look at Tony, even when he had FRIDAY turn on the lights. "I just…" Peter shrugged his shoulders.
"What's going on?" Tony asked. "You're freaking me out with this kind of talk? I can fix whatever problem you have. That's what I do. Fix things."
Peter shrugged.
"You got me worried. Does this have to do with a Spider-Man thing? Because I might be retired, but if it means protecting you, I can suspend my retirement for a day."
"No, I'm fine," Peter said. "I can handle this. It's… Just stupid teenager things."
Tony was studying him so intensely that Peter cringed and pulled at the thread more. Finally he sighed. "Okay, Underoos, but if you need to talk to me, then I'll be here. I'm sure that I could fix your problem."
Peter looked at him. It was almost tempting. Tony would be able to fix it. In a way. He also could overreact and make it worse, and Peter didn't want Tony to know that something like this happened to him. He was Spider-Man and so he should be able to take care of himself.
Peter didn't stay much longer. He needed to get home after all and talk to May. When he was about to leave, Tony asked if he wanted a ride, but Peter really needed to think. He wasn't even going to swing home. He planned to walk and take the subway.
However, he had just gotten off the subway when a car pulled up in front of him. Instantly he recognized that it was Eddie's Nissan Xterra.
"We need to talk," Eddie said after he had rolled the window down.
"There's nothing to talk about," Peter muttered, pulling up the hood on his MIT sweater that Tony had given him.
"Come on, Pete. Give me a break," Eddie said. "I know you told your aunt you want to talk to her."
Peter shrugged.
"Please. Let me just explain," Eddie said. "Don't you ever want to have a second chance? Don't you know what it's like to make a horrible mistake?"
Peter froze. Obviously he did know what that was like. With Beck mostly. He had made a mistake by trusting him.
And giving him EDITH. Maybe that proved he shouldn't talk to Eddie either, especially when he had done what he had.
"Come on. I know your mentor had problems with his parents too. I've heard the stories about his dad." Peter froze when Eddie mentioned this. Tony never talked about his parents, especially his dad, but the tabloids had probably had stories in the past. "I did too. Let me talk to you."
Peter was going to regret this. He already knew that but he ignored common sense and spidey sense and climbed into the car.
"We can only talk on the way back to the apartment," Peter said as he shut the door.
"Sure, thanks, Pete," Eddie said with a sigh and he pulled away. "I'm sorry about what happened the other day."
Peter stared at him.
"I bought you something to make up for it," Eddie said. "A couple things actually."
Really? Like giving him gifts was going to make him forget what happened? He couldn't be bought.
But sure enough when they were at a red light, Eddie grabbed some bags from the back seat and shoved them into Peter's arms.
"You didn't have to get me anything," Peter said. "I don't want anything. You can't…"
"Buy your love? Isn't that what Tony Stark is doing with you?"
With that, Peter almost got out of the car. Eddie should show some respect. Tony had saved the world.
Then Eddie laughed. "It's just a joke. I know that's not what's happening with you and Stark. I know he's a great man and he's lucky to have you as a mentee."
Peter opened the bags. Inside was a Star Trek shirt and a gift card to the movies. "Thanks, but you didn't have to get me anything."
"I wanted to. I know you like nerdy things."
Peter remained quiet.
"I want to talk to you. This… it's hard to talk about," Eddie sighed and turned off the radio so it was completely silent. Great. "Growing up, my father was harsh."
Peter didn't say anything and pretended to look at the Star Trek shirt. He preferred Star Wars.
"He… he was…" Peter saw Eddie shake his head. "Well, he was more likely to turn violent than say anything good about me. I don't want to be similar to him."
There was no way that Peter could look at him after this confession.
"But I guess I am. I apologize. It's not going to happen again. You just somehow made me so angry, but it won't happen again."
Peter sighed. He knew what it was like to make mistakes, but he wasn't violent. And he would never have done something like this. But what if it had just been a mistake. A one time thing?
And May loved him, right? Wasn't it selfish of Peter to ruin this for her when she was happy? She had gone through a lot because of the blimp. Maybe if Peter had been better, he could have stopped Thanos from getting the time stone and from that even happening.
But he had failed.
"I.."
"Please, Peter."
There was a lump in Peter's throat. Tony would tell Peter not to give Eddie a second chance. Peter's spidey sense didn't even seem to like the idea.
And yet…
"You better not ever do anything to hurt May," Peter said. "If you do that then you'll have to deal with me." And since Eddie didn't know he was Spider-Man, he realized he should add something else on that. "And Tony. I'll tell him. He won't like it. I'll say you hurt me too."
Eddie paused and his eyes widened but then he nodded. "I'd never hurt your aunt. She's a grown woman. Not a child."
So that made it okay for him to hit him? No, Peter was thinking too much into this.
"I mean it, Peter. I won't do anything to her. I love her."
Peter nodded.
"You know, you really do look like Tony Stark. Are you sure he's not your biological father? You're the splitting image of him and everyone knows how wild he was in the early 2000s."
Peter didn't even say anything to that and just pulled the tag off the Star Trek shirt.
"It wouldn't surprise me if you were his. I doubt Tony Stark randomly mentors teenagers."
It wasn't random since he was Spider-Man, but Peter just shrugged. Maybe it would be better if Eddie did think he could actually be Tony's son. He might think twice before doing something bad.
"So are we good, Pete? You'll give me a second chance?"
"I'm…" Peter sighed. "I'm not going to give you a third one."
Yeah, if he messed up again then he would tell Aunt May. She deserved to know despite that Peter didn't want to ruin her happiness.
"Don't worry, Peter," Eddie said. "I'll make sure you don't regret it."
Peter nodded but his stomach was twisting painfully and his spidey sense if anything was even worse. But people deserved a second chance.
Right?
((AN: Thank you all again! Please, please, review. It makes me smile and I need that right now. My life is crazy.
kellentia: Hope this chapter isn't too frustrating since it doesn't have Eddie get punished yet. I hope your day is amazing!
UntamableWyldeRaptor: In my head, Peter should be able to lift it, even more than Captain. Peter is such a good person.
I.D.'s Fantasy: It did, but Thor gets it back in Endgame when he goes back to the past. And thank you. I will do my best to keep it up.
Moorsey23: Aww you're so sweet. Hearing this kind of thing makes me so happy. Thank you so much for reading.
PicassoPenguin: I know. In my head, Peter can totally pick it up, and I would really love to see him lift it in canon. I hope it happens one day. And thanks. I love writing, and I've always been glad I can write so fast, since I have so many stories in my head.
skydancer121: I won't be trying to prove you wrong, because I totally believe he should be able to lift it. :D
Michelle2003: I hope this was soon enough. Probably posting next chapter tomorrow too and it's a big one.))
