Happy Saturdaaaaaay! Which means update time! Classes are almost over so that'll be nice, but Peter's struggles are juuuust beginning. Time to welcome in some new characters!

Good luck for any of you have finals 3000 No trigger warnings! Just have fun and stay safe! ❤️️ 💛💚💙💜

Chapter Five: This is My Good Side

After about an hour of digging through his closet for anything even remotely professional, besides his prom suit and Ben's wedding suit, Peter comes out completely empty handed. With his artfully messy bedhead sticking up in every direction, he trudges out into the living room and flops onto the couch next to May.

"I can't find anything to wear," he complains as he manneuvers himself to sit correctly. May has a book in one hand and a spray bottle in the other while I Dream of Jeannie plays in the background.

"Good morning to you too." She looks up from her book to glance at Peter. "You don't have to look uber professional. Just wear a nice shirt, maybe a button up. One of your plaid ones. No science pun shirts. Then throw on some nice jeans or your khakis." After her string of suggestions, she looks to her dead succulents on the windowsill. "I think my succulents died." Peter follows her gaze, only to see the furled, dry edges of his aunt's wilting succulents. They're definitely…not looking great.

"I think I'll do the button up and jeans. Khakis make me look like more of a nerd than I already am," he counters. "How did you manage to kill succulents?" May sticks out her bottom lip sadly and shrugs her shoulders.

"I misted them and everything," she says with a sigh before turning her full attention to Peter. "You ready for your big day? Remember what we talked about?" Peter takes a deep breath, sits up straighter, and nods.

"Be confident, be polite, and don't give away my secret identity," he recites, wringing his hands together nervously.

"Right," May praises, "because revealing your identity…"

"Is bad," Peter finishes and takes a deep breath. He can do this, it's for a good cause. Anxiety be damned.

"Good. Now, what's our plan?" May has always been good with helping Peter think things through, especially when he's nervous.

"I'm gonna introduce myself, say it's nice to meet him."

"Mhm," May hums in confirmation.

"Say that I managed to get some good pictures of Spider-Man and then find out stuff about Scorpion without giving away that I'm Spider-Man."

"Mhm."

"And, uh, don't make him angry. He's meaner when he's angry." Peter cringes slightly. He hasn't forgotten how pissed off J. Jonah Jameson was just to see Spider-Man. If he wants to pull this off, he has to be relatively careful, even if he's just there to drop off photos and discreetly get some info.

"If all goes wrong compliment him. All men feel better when you feed their ego." Peter nods at May's advice and stands, straightening out his beyond wrinkled t-shirt as he walks towards his room. "Oh, and here's your phone." Before she even finishes, she's tossing the phone at Peter. The phone arcs through the air and Peter snatches it down with his adhesive fingers.

"Mr. Stark texted?! And you didn't tell me?!" His voice squeaks with anxiety as he tries to unlock his phone. Due to his nervousness, his thumb sticks to the phone screen each time he tries to unlock it. After a few failed attempts at unlocking the phone, he lets it hang from his sticky thumb. "Okay, this is ridiculous," he states, dumbfounded. May holds back laughter as she stands to help pry the phone from Peter's hand. Luckily, with a deep breath from Peter, the phone comes off easily.

"Smooth," May compliments, obvious sarcasm in her voice as she hands the phone back. Peter huffs and accepts the phone.

"You try having these tiny setules on your fingertips," he mutters while walking back to his room to change. As he gathers his clothes, he texts Tony back periodically.

Mr. Iron Man

Tony: Ready to meet your boss?

Tony: If you want I could give you some pointers since I'm great and all

Peter: yes please thatd be great i'm already nervous out pf my mind

Tony: First and foremost, deep breaths kid

Tony: Second off, act like you own the place

Tony: Don't get cocky but don't let anyone push you areund either

Peter: righy got it. dont be arrogant but dont sell myself short

Tony: Exactly. You're a smart kid so use those brains. Don't be too forward but remember why you're there, you need information. Just get good enough photos to get you in

Tony: Sound good?

Peter: oh yeah totally

Peter: as good as it can be ig

Tony: Ig?

Peter: short for "i guess"

Tony: Then why didn't you just type out "I guess"

Peter: cause us teenagrs are lazy

Peter: apparently not lazy enoguh to not get a job tho

Peter: did i do that doublr negative right

Tony: Don't focus on that, focus on JJ

Peter: i'm tRYING

Tony: Don't use all caps with me young man

Peter: kdcnnekxensoendkds

Peter: gotta go! cant text n swing! thanks Mr Stark!

Tony: Take deodorant for your Spidey BO

Tony: Knock 'em dead kid

Tony: Just not with your BO

While being thoroughly embarrassed by Tony, Peter manages to stuff his backpack with a change of clothes and dons the Spider-Man suit. Once he's done texting, he yells a goodbye to May before slipping on his mask and crawling out the window. Nothing quite like the smell of gasoline and sounds of car horns so early in the morning. He climbs to the top of his apartment complex and takes in the bog ladened city of Queens. Still, it's home.

"Good morning, Peter," Karen greets as pleasantly as always. Peter smiles underneath his mask and lets his feet dangle over the side of the roof.

"Hey, Karen. How's-"

"Five missed calls, and twelve unread texts from Guy in the Chair. Three unread texts from MJ," Karen interjects without warning. With a tilt of his head, Peter's lenses narrow.

"Um, okay. Start with-"

"Incoming call from Guy in the Chair," Karen interrupts once again. Peter throws his head back and lets out a breath with puffed cheeks.

"Yeah, answer." As he confirms the call, he jumps off the roof and starts swinging in the direction of The Daily Bugle. This is when he loves swinging the most because he doesn't have to deal with early-morning work traffic or crowded subways.

"Peter!" Ned screams in his ear. Peter flinches at the volume, but it doesn't distract from his swinging. "You, like, disappeared off the face of the planet!"

"That's what happens when you get your phone taken away." It shouldn't take too long for Peter to get to The Daily Bugle, but it's not exactly close either.

"Oh," Ned responds. "Dude, that sucks. Is it because you put Tony on hold?" Peter has no idea how Ned came to that conclusion, despite it sounding like something Tony would definitely do.

"What? No! They were just, y'know, upset and worried and stuff. It was only for one night anyways. And Mr. Stark can't take away my phone," Peter counters as he pulls himself through another swing.

"Peter. He took your suit, he can totally take your phone," Ned reminds, making a good counterpoint. Even the mention of the ferry incident makes Peter's stomach twist with a mix of guilt and anxiety.

"He wouldn't do that, Ned," he states as confidently as possible. They worked out their problems, so Tony wouldn't have to take anything away…right? "You, you don't think he'd do that again, right?" Peter voices his slight concern. Even though Peter can't see him, Ned shrugs.

"I mean, he did it once. And it's his multi-million dollar suit," he nonchalantly points out. The seemingly innocent, accurate probability only serves to plant a seed of doubt in Peter's mind. It is Tony's suit, after all. If Peter screws up again…it would be gone. He has to be exceptionally careful with how he approaches this Scorpion issue.

"Yeah…" he hesitantly agrees while distractedly shooting a web to the top of a building. "Hey, we should probably get MJ in on this. Karen, can you add her to the call?"

"On it," Karen confirms. MJ's contact picture pops up a second later and it doesn't take long for her to answer.

"Look who decided to join the land of the living," she greets in usual MJ fashion. "Or should I say land of the undead since technology is slowly turning us into a horde of compliant zombies." Typical, optimistic MJ.

"Phone got taken away. How's it going?" Peter asks conversationally. Just a few more blocks and then he can set up.

"Well, while you were missing in action, Ned and I got some information on your Scorpion friend," MJ informs as if it's no big deal. Peter hums to himself, thoroughly intrigued.

"Knew I could count on you guys." He lands in an alley about a block away from The Daily Bugle and tosses his backpack behind a dumpster. "Whatcha got?" As MJ and Ned begin their explanation, Peter swings from the alley and perches on a lamppost.

"We know why Scorpion knows you now," Ned starts off. A few passersby point up at Peter and wave, which he happily returns, while he sets up his phone to take a picture every twenty seconds or so. "He was arrested by the FBI at the ferry. The ferry." Peter freezes at Ned's words, heart rate picking up just a tad.

"I remember," he states, trying to keep his heart rate even. He worked for Toomes, which feels like something he should've realized. "He wasn't…that back then, though. I think I'd know if there was a Scorpion guy at the ferry. Do we think he's new to the villain thing?" When the phone is ready to go, he webs it to the lamppost and starts swinging down the street while trying to be as casual as he can while wearing bright red and blue.

"Probably," MJ answers noncommittally. "He isn't particularly great at the whole 'under the radar' aspect of it. Didn't care that you found him while he was trying to get at J. Jonah Jameson. If anything, he was happy to get his hands on you, Parker." Peter knows she's right. He flips into the frame of his phone's camera before continuing to swing.

"Okay, uh…" Peter does his best to think back to the day of the ferry and visualize everyone he fought. It's hard since the incident was over a year ago at this point, but something manages to catch his attention. "He was this, this guy who I, like, shot with a web and slammed into the edge of the ferry. Then I think Toomes picked up a car and hit him with it…" he recalls with a wince.

"I'd hold a grudge," MJ agrees, playing devil's advocate once again.

"He was a bad guy!" Peter quickly defends as he changes the angle of his swing and lands on a glass panel of a building.

"And you gave him a crazy looking scar," Ned chimes in while looking at Gargan's mugshot. There's a gnarly scar that travels over his left eye and, at the time, there were spots of blood in the white of said eye.

"Again, he was a bad guy!" Peter points out again, then swings back to the lamppost to retrieve his phone. "And that wasn't me, that was Toomes! I only-" He stops mid-sentence, his eyes wide as he stares at his phone stuck to the lamppost. With his webs. I'm an idiot.

"Peter? Are we having connection problems?" Ned inquires, keys clicking and clacking in the background. Peter lowers his head in defeat and resists the urge to slam his head into the lamppost.

"No," he groans. "I'm just stupid." MJ's eyes narrow at his words.

"What did you do?" she questions carefully.

"I webbed my phone to the streetlight," Peter grumbles and rubs his hands down his masked face. Ned's eyes widen and his jaw drops.

"Crap," he mutters, only making MJ more confused.

"So…?" MJ tries again to get an explanation. Peter pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a slow breath.

"It takes two hours for my webs to dissolve." He hangs his head in shame. Looks like he might have to take Tony up on that offer for a StarkPhone since he can't exactly wait two hours for this to dissolve and risk someone else getting to his phone first. One look at his texts and his identity is as good as revealed.

"Oh," MJ simply responds, then presses her lips together. "Nice going," she commends sarcastically.

"Okay, y'know what? This is fine. Easy fix. Karen, transfer all photos we just took to Ned, please" Peter requests. A progress bar shows up at the bottom of his HUD and he waits until it's finished before grasping the web-coated phone.

"What are you going to-" Ned is cut off by the sound of glass crunching as Peter crushes the phone in his grip, rendering it useless. There's a beat of silence.

"Well, that was a bit aggressive," MJ comments under her breath.

"It's okay, I have a better idea," Peter divulges calmly. He rolls his neck and jumps off the lamppost back into the air. As he gets his momentum for swinging, he talks to Karen. "Can you deploy Droney for me, Karen? And ask him to take pictures of me at ground level as I swing."

"Not a problem, Peter. Just don't shoot the Spider Drone with any webs, too," Karen informs with a hint of sass as Droney detaches from his chest and flies away.

"Oh yeah, thanks. I feel really supported guys. We don't tolerate mutiny," Peter complains. He makes it a point to do a few extra flips and runs across the side of a building. "Sorry about the footprints!" he yells as he goes.

"Not our fault you didn't use that famous brain," MJ shoots back at him.

"Yeah, I thought you made those webs?" Ned agrees. All Peter needs is patience. That can't be too hard, right? He's almost done and then he can go scream into a pillow. Maybe he'll ask Tony if they can work in the lab. That sounds nice and relaxing.

After about a half hour of Droney taking pictures of Peter while Team Spidey chats, they decide they have enough pictures to deliver to J. Jonah Jameson. Peter has Ned send the best photos to a printer on the main floor of the building and hopes beyond hope that no one touches them. He swings back to the alleyway where his backpack is and says goodbye to Ned, MJ, and Karen. After they wish him luck, he unzips the top pouch of the backpack and carefully pulls out his fresh change of clothes. Once he's changed and the Spider-Man suit is safely tucked away in his bag, he heads to The Daily Bugle.

The front of the building is still under construction due to Scorpion's redecorating from yesterday, so he carefully steps through the doors lined with caution tape and glances to the demolished elevator. The first thing he's sure to do is discreetly pick up the newly printed photos before walking to the stairwell. It's a long, eighteen floors to ride up, but it gets him time to calm himself and go over the words May as well as Tony prepped him to say.

As soon as he opens the stairwell door for the editorial room, yelling slams into him with full force.

"Spider-Man blasts in the side of the building and not one person thought to get a picture?! You're all fired! Get out!" J. Jonah Jameson yells with his usual vibrato. He walks swiftly down the walkway in between the employees desks. There's a cigar in the corner of his mouth, but Peter doesn't see smoke trailing from it.

"Sir, you can't fire everyone," a man trailing behind Jameson sheepishly counters.

"Shut up! You think I don't know that?! You think I'm stupid?!" Jameson questions around his cigar, keeping his steps quick and purposed. Peter slowly exits the stairwell with his fingers tightly gripping the photos.

"No, of course not," the other man backtracks. "I was just-"

"Don't tell me how to do my job or else you'll be the one fired! What do we have for the front page?" Jameson questions impatiently as he circles back around towards his office, which still has shattered floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Well, so far we have a rise in crime rate in Queens involving a criminal by the name of Flint Mar-"

"You're boring me! What else you got? Anything on that red and blue clad screw up?!" Jameson interrupts. He walks into his demolished office, regardless of the surrounding glass, and sits down at his desk. Rise in crime rate? I'll have to check that out on patrol, Peter mentally notes. He looks around the editing room with curious, observant eyes. It's like an organized chaos with the employees doing different jobs. There are people organizing papers, passing out mail, transporting files, typing on computers, and none of them are in one place for more than a few seconds. Despite wanting to analyze the hivemind, Peter walks towards the office in shambles.

"Peter?" He whips around to see Betty Brant from school holding a stack of files in her arms.

"Betty, hey," he greets politely, albeit nervously. "What are you doing here?" Betty smiles at his question and brings her feet together to perfect her posture.

"I'm interning here over the break. I wanted to see what it's like to be out in the field of real journalism," she informs proudly with her head held high. "I finally get to do it all on my own too, without Jason." Peter nods distractedly, glancing back to Jameson's office.

"Yeah, that's awesome," he agrees. Somehow he always forgets how to talk to people who aren't in his tight-knit group. But he knows Betty is nice, so long as you don't aggravate her, so he isn't too anxious.

"So, what about you?" Betty inquires accompanied by the tilt of her head, causing her blonde hair to sway.

"Oh! I'm actually here to give Mr. Jameson some pictures. If, if he'll, uh, take them. Hopefully." Peter nods a few times, his lips pressed firmly together. Betty opens her mouth to speak, but is cut off by Jameson yelling,

"What do you mean we have nothing on Spider-Man?!" Peter looks over his shoulder while Betty looks around him to get a glimpse of the one-sided argument. They both turn back and make eye contact.

"You should probably give him those photos," Betty recommends with wide eyes.

"Yeah," Peter instantly replies. They turn on their heels and walk in opposite directions. Peter does his best to walk near the office without disturbing the two men.

"Our sales are down and the only damn thing that can save us is that two-bit hero in pajamas! I want full coverage. The works. I don't care how we do it or how it looks, I want a picture of Spider-Man to bring up our-" The sound of glass crunching stops Jameson in his tracks. Peter winces and slowly looks up to meet Jameson's eyes.

"Hi, Sir." He clears his throat and tries to maintain a confident posture.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" Jameson interrogates, his face void of emotion but voice tight.

"My name's Peter. Parker. Peter Parker. I, I have pictures of Spider-Man. I saw your ad saying 'cash money for a picture of Spider-Man' and-"

"I know what my ad said," Jameson interrupts before turning to the other man. "You, get the other pages together. I'll work on the cover. Go!" As the man rushes out of the room, Jameson turns his harsh gaze back on Peter. "You, Parker, sit." Jameson motions with his cigar to the chair across from him. At the order, Peter immediately complies and places the photos on the desk. "How old are you? Twelve?"

"Um," Peter clasps his hands together, "actually, I'm sixteen." Jameson laughs a single time, a grin plastered on his face.

"Not with those cheeks you aren't. Who said I need your photos?" he demands. Peter's brow furrows.

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said! I'm un-saying it!" Jameson narrows his eyes before speaking again. "Spider-Man, you said?" Peter nods slowly. "What you got?" Without hesitation, Peter passes over the photos. When his hands are free, he rubs his cheeks.

"Nothing's wrong with my cheeks," he mutters under his breath with a pout. Jameson cycles through the photos, glances up to Peter, then looks back down at the photos. He takes out his cigar and sets it on the table.

"How'd you get these?" Peter cocks his head to the side in confusion.

"I'm sorry?" he asks for clarification.

"Don't be sorry, answer the question! How'd you take these crystal clear photos when my people can't get a single shot that doesn't look like it's been taken in a snowstorm?!" Jameson slams down the photos and stares at Peter expectantly.

"Oh! I, uh, I rigged cameras in some of the places that seem to have the most Spider-Man activity so-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Jameson once again interjects disinterestedly before looking back at the photos. There's a few moments of silence in which Peter can hear his heart pounding. He has to at least make an effort to get some information.

"I, uh, heard about that villain dude attacking you the other day…" he starts as his brain frantically thinks of how to get the necessary information.

"Yeah? What of it? You got something to say?" Jameson challenges without lifting his eyes.

"No! Nothing!" Peter quickly defends. "Just, can you think of any reason why he'd have something against you?" Oh, great. That's not suspicious. Way to be smooth. Jameson finally looks up at him.

"That's none of your business! What are you, the cops?!" Then, he does a one-eighty. "I'll give you fifty bucks per photo. Best one gets front page. Now take your money and get out!" Okay, that could have admittedly gone better. Still, Jameson's words cause Peter's eyes to widen.

"You, you mean I get paid?" he clarifies with his mouth slightly open in disbelief. Jameson scribbles out a check and slaps it down in front of Peter, who's still frozen.

"That's how a job works, isn't it? What are you, dense?! Too young to ever have a real job?! Huh?!" Jameson's booming voice only makes Peter more nervous, but they can't reach him past the bewilderment. He can make money off this?!

"Well, I, um-" he stutters, but Jameson doesn't have the patience to wait.

"Go on! Get out there and bring me more photos of Spider-Man! More photos, more money! But no bargaining! You don't like my offers, you can find someone else!"

"No!" Peter quickly assures. "No, this is great! Thank you so much, Mr. Jameson. I really appreciate this. You won't regret it!" He clumsily gets up from his chair and starts making his way towards the door, a wide smile on his face.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Parker. This is just freelancing. Not a job. Now get out!" Jameson reiterates, shooing the kid.

"Yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!" Peter repeats and all but skips out of the office. He waves bye to Betty from across the room and walks through the stairwell door. With this extra money coming in over the break, May might let him pitch in and help pay bills. It's a win-win!

As soon as he's happily running out of the building, he rushes to a nearby alleyway and pulls on his mask.

"Call Mr. Stark, please!" he requests with a smile. It takes a few more rings than usual, but Tony picks up like he always has following Homecoming.

"Hey, kid." Peter halts his excited rambling at Tony's exhausted voice. His happiness slowly fades into concern.

"Hey, Mr. Stark," he greets back, unsure of how to approach the situation.

"How was the interview thingy? Did JJ give you a rough time?" It's the typical Tony cadence, but he just sounds…off. Empty. Something's up.

"It was good…" Peter trails off. "Yeah, he did, but he kinda gives everyone a hard time so…" He listens for any clues in the background that could give away what's wrong.

"That's great, Pete. Good job," Tony praises, the smile evident in his voice. A bit of Peter's smile is restored with his.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark." The silence stretches just a moment too long. "Is, is everything okay?" He remembers how the last time he asked Tony what was wrong ended in a fight, so he stays cautious.

"Of course. Don't worry about it," Tony reassures softly. Peter isn't used to his mentor's voice being so calm and lacking sarcasm.

"Okay…hey, I was thinking maybe we could do some stuff in the workshop?" he offers without trying to overstep. "If that's okay with you." It isn't very loud, but he can hear the sigh on the other end.

"I'm sorry, kid. I'm not really feeling up to it today, to be honest. But I'll text you when I do. Cross my heart." The end of his sentence takes on more of his customary wit and Peter decides it's best not to force anything. If Tony needs or wants to talk, he'll know where Peter is.

"No worries, I'll do some patrolling then head home. See you later?" he double checks, just in case.

"Count on it, kiddo. Swing safe," Tony urges regardless of his odd mood. Peter nods and says,

"Yeah. Bye, Mr. Stark." There's a muffled "bye" on the other end before the dial tone sounds. Peter stands in the silence of the alley for a few contemplative seconds before letting it go. It could just be that Tony is having an off day. That kind of thing happens to everyone. So he'll just see how Tony's doing tomorrow.

"Karen, you there?" he calls hopefully.

"Always. I hope everything went well with your interview. What do you need?" she inquires with utmost kindness.

"Call Ned and MJ back. While we aren't dealing with Scorpion, we have to take care of this guy named Flint. I'll catch you all up at the same time," Peter explains as he starts to change into the rest of his suit. It looks like this winter break is going to be more eventful than they initially anticipated.

Hmmmm... I wonder if Tony is okay... ANYWHO I think a good chunk of us know who Flint might be 😏 look forward to a fight next chapter!

Thank you for reading! ❤️️ 💛💚💙💜

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