Surprisingly, we didn't go home right away. We hung out a bit more, with Pepper and Happy asking us questions, mostly so they can get to know me and the rest of us (sans the other X-Men). When we were in the kitchen, grabbing drinks from the fridge, I asked if Kitty and Craig were ever Avengers. They told me no. Kitty turned down an invitation and Craig was never asked. Craig wasn't bitter about it, though – while he admired The Avengers ("Some more than others," he said), the thought of him working under the U.S. Government didn't sit right with him, given how mutants often got the short end of the stick as far as certain policies went.

That was fair.

"So I gotta ask you homie," Craig began as he cracked open his can of Vanilla Coke. "How do you feel about The Accords?"

"I'm not a fan," I replied. "Why you ask?" I knew why he asked.

"Well… you were fighting with Iron Man during that huge fight in that German airport. I figured you were on board with it at the time."

I sighed. "I didn't fight for The Accords. I fought for Tony. Iron Man was my favorite hero growing up. In my mind, he was the blueprint, you know? So I was only a little reluctant when Tony Stark reached out to me, a kid swinging around in a thrift store costume, to come fight for him." I frowned. "I didn't even know what The Accords was about at the time. And given how unprepared we were for Thanos the first time around… If I knew then what I knew now, I probably would have just stayed home."

At that, Kitty raised her eyebrows briefly. "Well… Tony's not infallible," she said. "None of us are, really. I'm sure that he was trying to do the right thing, and I understand where he's coming from. Heroes do have to be held accountable for their actions just like everyone else." She frowned. "I just don't think the U.S. Government and its entities are the best people to watch over us given their… track record."

"Yup!" Craig said in agreement.

I nodded. Really, I couldn't see how I could disagree with that.

The following night, we were at SI's New York headquarters. It wasn't exactly the most spectacular site. It was a simple office building that was mostly used for meetings in the city and clerical work for the few operations they still had in New York. Had it not been for the Stark Industries logo on the outside and that fact that Happy Hogan was leading us to the very top floor, I wouldn't have even known who this place belonged to. It was rather run of the mill – it looked like the typical office setting you'd see in a movie or TV show.

"It's definitely not the Avengers Tower," Scott commented as we all entered the elevator.

"That's for sure," Happy replied in agreement as he pressed the button for the top floor. "But, the Avengers moved upstate and the Avenger Tower was sitting there, collecting dust. I wish Tony kept it, but, considering what Thanos and company did to the last base, it's probably a blessing in disguise."

"Why you say that?" Betty asked as the door closed.

"Because if the Avengers were still based in NYC, there'd be a lot of casualties during the battle," Kitty pointed out. "There'd probably be a lot of casualties just from the tower being obliterated." Betty looked at Kitty before she mouthed an "Oh". I didn't say anything, but the thought of fighting amongst civilians made me cringe internally.

"Blessing in disguise, indeed," Craig said.

We all went quiet as the elevator ascended. During the ascent, I wondered what Pepper wanted to talk to Scott and myself about for a bit. I then decided to just wait and see what she had to say. However, Ned, being Ned, had other ideas.

"So, anyone wants to take bets on what she wants to speak to Scott and Peter about?" he asked. Scott turned his head towards Ned and raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" he said indignantly.

"Dude," I added.

"Now, hold on, guys," Craig interjected. "Let's talk about this." He looked towards Ned. "What we're betting?"

"I don't know… Lego sets?"

"Ned, we're not betting Legos on something that could be majorly important to Scott and Peter," MJ said in a serious tone.

I smiled at MJ. "Thank you, MJ."

She turned her head towards me and smiled sweetly – and that scared me. "We're betting cash."

I blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I can get behind that," Betty said agreement.

"I'm with it," Kitty spoke up. "I say twenty dollars each. Sounds good?"

Ned nodded. "Sounds good to me," he replied. "I say that Peter is going to have a secret bank account with boatloads of money from Tony – like in Harry Potter. And Scott will have some gadgets, machines, or something."

"I'm going to go with… Cyclops and Spider-Man being a part of new team of Avengers," MJ suggested.

"Does she even have the authority to do that?" Betty asked.

"She has more than enough influence to do that," Happy answered.

Betty nodded. "Okay, well… I say Scott and Peter are offered jobs with SI."

"Well, I guess I'll go with one that's out there – Pepper adopts Peter and asks out Scott on a date," Craig guessed. At that, Scott fully faced him and gave him a glare. Behind his glasses, his eyes glowed. I myself gave him a look of exasperation. "Look man, Pepper ain't exactly hard on the eyes. Plus, you've been out the game for a while. I'm just sayin'."

"…You are so lucky we're in an elevator," Scott said in a grim tone, prompting Craig to laugh. He took in a breath, and his eyes stopped glowing. "Anyone else have any outlandish guesses?"

"…Maybe we're all getting a new place to live?" Kitty said with a shrug. "I don't know. Let's go with that."

"Quite the family you guys have here," Happy said with a chuckle.

"Oh shut up!" Scott and I replied at the same time with equal amounts annoyance, causing Happy and the others to laugh out loud.

We all finally reached the top floor. Once the elevator doors opened up, Happy Hogan led us out and guided us to the short walk to the main room of the floor, that being a large conference room. He opened the door to it and beckoned us to walk in. We did just that. As expected, there was a long wooden conference table with office chairs on each side of it. On the table were four boxes of pizza, a stack of paper plates, a stack of red Solo cups, and two 2-Liter bottles of soda – one Coke, one sprite. Sitting at the head of the table was Pepper Potts, dressed in black and white business dressed.

"Hey guys," she greeted heartily. "I'm glad you all are able to make it. I bought pizza and soda for everyone. I wasn't sure you guys had dinner. I got pepperoni, cheese, Hawaiian pizza with chicken added, and veggie."

"Don't mind if I do," Craig said as he took a seat and opened up one of the boxes. "Thanks a lot, Ms. Potts."

"Pepper." She smiled. "I think we're all on first name basis."

Everyone else took a seat as well. I pulled a seat out for MJ. She gave me a look. I smiled sheepishly at her. She smiled as she rolled her eyes, as if to say "what am I going to do with you?" I chuckled as I sat down. I grabbed the plates, took one for myself, then passed the stack to MJ, who did the same. Once all the plates were passed out and we all grabbed pizza to eat, Scott spoke up.

"I thank you for the hospitality, but I'd like to get to the heart of the matter," he said solemnly.

"Of course you do," Pepper said with a shake of her head. She took a moment to take a bite of her pizza. After she chewed and swallowed, she nodded. "Then again, you've always been one to get straight to the point."

"That is part of the reason. But it's also a school night for four of us here, and only one of said students has the excuse of being a superhero."

"Aren't you lucky, Peter," Ned grumbled. "I wish I was a superhero."

"You want to live every day with a high risk of getting shot and stabbed?" I asked.

"Because that's how you live every day with a high risk of getting shot and stabbed," Craig added.

"Anyway," Scott interrupted. "Pepper, if you will."

"Okay." Pepper nodded as she leaned forward. "Last night, I had to go digging into the assets of Stark Industries and Tony. After doing so, I found out there was some things that Tony set aside for you guys. Starting with you Scott… well, you know how Tony tends to have a bit of difficulty expressing how he feels. That said, he did have remorse about you two ending things on a bad note. So, during the time after the Snap and before the mission to get everyone back, he made some arrangements to acquire certain items that the X-Men lost. We couldn't get Cerebro or the mansion back – X-Force has that locked down tight."

"Of course Logan would," I heard Craig said underneath his breath bitterly.

"However, there were a few things he did manage to secure for you – namely, the X-Men's fleet of aircraft."

Scott's mouth went ajar. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kitty and Craig look at each other with giddy smiles on their faces. Scott's expression returned to normal as he tilted his head. "…How did you guys…?" He trailed. After he took in a breath, he nodded as a small smile graced his face. "…Pepper. Thank you."

"Hey, you still have friends in The Starks," she replied with a smile. "Of course, you would have known that if you weren't in your head about it, but I suppose I can't blame you, given the circumstances." She then looked at me. "As for you, Peter… Once again, I apologize for what happened to you. While I maintain that you could have come to me, we should have reached out to you as soon as the video dropped." She paused for a moment as she looked down at the table, her eyebrows furrowed up in thought. "Come to think of it, I'm wondering why I didn't. I'm usually proactive about these things." She raised her eyebrows briefly as she raised her head and looked back at me. "Tony obviously cared about you a lot and wanted to make sure you're taken care of." She smiled a she looked around at all of us. "Fortunately, you have a lot of people who are looking after you."

"Yeah," I said with a smile. "It just only took me getting shot and for Scorpion to wipe the floor with Craig and I for me to actually let everyone in."

"Peter, as smart as he is, can be a bit dense," MJ added as she laid her head on my shoulder. "But he means well."

I smiled wryly. "Thanks… I guess." Michelle chuckled before she nuzzled her cheek against mine.

Pepper smiled. "You two are so cute."

"Adorable, actually," Betty replied before she gave MJ and I a knowing smirk.

Pepper scoffed as she closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. She then opened her eyes as her serious expression returned. "Back on topic, though, as I said before, Tony wanted to make sure you were taken care of. That is why he set aside a bank account for you to help you pay for college and other things."

During this, Betty, MJ, Kitty, and Craig groaned out loud as Ned did a fist pump as he yelled out "Yes".

"Pay up, bitches!" Ned exclaimed. There even more groans as wallets were pulled out. While Betty, Craig, and Kitty slid their respective twenty dollar bills to Ned, MJ balled hers up and tossed at him, hitting him in the forehead. As Ned collected the money with a smile on his face, MJ pouted as she put her head on my shoulder again.

"They had a bet," Scott explained as he lifted up his glasses. With his eyes closed, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please continue."

"A motley crew you have here," Pepper commented, which prompted me to smile and MJ to chuckle a bit as we both remembered the first time I was in her room. "But, as I was saying, you'll have more than enough money to go to any college you want, if you plan on going. And speaking of which, when that time comes, I'm going to expect you to meet with me with your choices of institutions, and I'll make sure to write up a letter of recommendation for you. Not to brag about myself, but my word tends to hold a lot of weight." She then looked around at MJ, Ned, Betty, Kitty, and Craig. "That offer goes to you guys, too."

"…So if I wanted to go to MIT…" I started to say. I trailed off as I looked down at the table in thought. Getting into MIT was a goal of mine for years. During my junior, MJ, Ned, and I would talk about us getting into MIT together, and how we'd all make sure that we'd be on top of our studies, especially me because of my life as Spider-Man. It was at this moment I realized that perhaps not every dream I had prior to The Spell was dead. I shook my head slowly. It seemed too good to be true. I looked up at Pepper. "…I'm sorry to ask this, but… what's the catch?"

"No apologies needed. But there are a couple of caveats. Caveat number one, for obvious reasons, you won't be able to have access to said bank account until you're eighteen. The other caveat is this… I'll be hiring you as a freelancer for Stark Industries."

My eyebrows rose. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I know this is sudden, but there aren't a lot of people that are as familiar with Tony's tech as you are. And within that amount of people, there aren't of a lot people who I'm willing to trust with his tech, especially since one of those people was so egotistical that he not only endangered the lives of many people to try and make himself look like a hero, he partially succeeded in doing so by framing someone who is both one of the most upstanding heroes there is and just a kid." There was a part of me that wanted to feel some kind of way about that, but she wasn't wrong. So I kept quiet. "And on that same note, Morgan is going to be the heir to Stark Industries. When that day comes, I want her to at least have one person she can trust working within the company. And, though I don't expect this of you, you'd make a great backup heir in case Morgan wants to do something else with her life – after all, her life, her choice, unless she does something stupid." She paused as she looked off to the side briefly. "Lord knows I have done so in the past." She looked back at me. "Anyway, while you're on retainer, you'll have access to all of SI Tech and company information, even the top secret stuff. Also… it'll be easier for me to keep in touch with you."

"…Dude…" Ned said, smile on his face.

"That's a lot," MJ commented. She raised her head from my shoulder. I turned to look at her, seeing the expression of concern on her face. "Are you okay with this?"

"I… don't know?" I responded. "I…" I took in a breath. "All this time, I thought joining you and Ned at MIT was a dead dream, and I came to terms with the fact that I'll likely being do a lot of travelling between New York and the Boston area. And now I have a chance to go to MIT again…" I huffed out a breath. "I'm just…"

"I'm laying a lot on your lap, I know," Pepper said. I turned my head towards her. "Maybe I'm overcompensating in trying to make things up to you. But I really do want to look after you."

"Perhaps it'd be best if he goes home and takes some time to process it," Scott suggested. "I have some things to discuss with you Pepper – something X-Men related." He looked at me. "I'll give you a summary of everything we're going to talk about tomorrow so you're not left in the dark. But for now, please rest. And I do mean rest – Craig and Kitty will ramp up their patrols for tonight."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"We got you, man," Craig assured. "Besides, the more I'm out there, the quicker I can get back into shape, you know?"

I nodded. "Okay."

"Happy, would you kindly give them a ride to their respective homes?" Pepper asked. "I'm assuming they all rode with Craig."

"We did," Kitty confirmed.

"I can do that." He then turned his head and looked at me. "Me and the Half-Pint have some catching up to do on the way, anyway." I glared at him in response.

"I'll see you around, Ms. Potts," Betty said as she stood up.

"Pepper," Pepper corrected her with a smile. "Friends of Peter, friends of mine. You all have a good night."

We all said our byes to Pepper, Scott, Craig, and Kitty before we all made our way out. I was quiet as we moved into the elevator. The last couple of days… well, I didn't know what I expected. I didn't expect to reconnect with Pepper and Happy. I didn't expect for Pepper to take me under her wing so quickly. And I didn't expect to get another chance to go to my dream college. I actually allowed myself to smile a bit. It looked like my luck was on the upturn.

And that scared me.

My smile faded. MJ looked at me from the corner of my eye. "Hey, Peter, are you okay?" she asked.

I sighed. "My luck's been good lately," I commented. "I don't like that."

Happy turned towards me and gave me a look of confusion. "Why would you not like having good luck?" he asked.

"Peter's luck comes in waves," Ned explained. "When it's really up, that means something bad is about to happen, and vice versa."

Happy glanced at Ned, then looked back at me. "Well, that bad thing better not happen while we're on the road." He looked forward. "I'm not trying to get into a wreck today."

I didn't say anything in response. I just remained silent. I felt MJ's hand around my own. Almost on instinct, I gave her hand a soft squeeze. It got me out of my head a bit. Still, I decided it would be best to prepare myself for might come.

Life of a Parker, right?