Chapter Three
After the night that he had spent with Mr. Stark, Peter didn't leave Queens for a month. It wasn't because he was busy practicing questions for the decathlon meetings or because he was being a friendly neighborhood Spiderman or because he was avoiding Mr. Stark.
In fact Mr. Stark was offended at the prospect of being rejected so many times that he had actually told Peter to call him when his scheduled had cleared up. Peter had been too busy and too tired to recognize the hurt and sarcasm in his mentor's tone.
After Scott had brought it up that he should get a job to help his stressed out Aunt, Peter had done just that. At first Aunt May had protested to the high heavens telling Peter that he should concentrate on school and researching colleges (and privately she told him about the whole Spiderman thing.) But with a bit of coaxing from the ever charming Scott and recognizing the familiar stubborn look on Peter's face May had finally agreed.
Though she warned him that the second that his grades dropped he would be sent to the nearest military school. Peter had rolled his eyes at the veiled threat earning him a raised eyebrow from Scott that immediately caused Peter to stop the action.
Peter's plan had been to get a job at Mr. Delmar's bodega, but Mr. Delmar had informed him that he already had all the help that he could need with his daughter and son in law working behind the counter.
Peter had quickly found another job at a large grocery store in Queen re stocking items in and putting them in and out of the freezer. Peter often had to wear two scarves and special gloves to keep from freezing to death. He didn't know if it was because of his Spidey side or because he was too sensitive, but he seemed to feel the cold more than his other co workers.
He spend most of his afternoons unpacking freezing groceries and putting them in fridges. Most of the time he was too tired to patrol, but he forced himself to go out at least four times a week even if he had to crawl into bed past eleven o'clock.
Peter was thankful that May was either at the hospital on a late night shift or staying over at Scott's apartment. Otherwise, she would have ended up scolding him. His shift at the grocery store sucked, but he made a little bit more money than the average minimum wage worker.
His pay helped pay for the light and water bill. At first May had refused to take his money, but Scott had coaxed her telling her that Peter needed to learn some responsibility. May had only agreed once Peter promised her that he would keep half his paycheck so that he could buy whatever he wanted.
"-Peter. Earth to Peter." Peter was falling nearly head first into his bowl of cheerios as Aunt May looked at him worriedly. "Honey, you look so tired. What time did you go to bed?"
"Uh, late. I have a Chemistry test today." Peter lied. He had told May that he had been at Ned's all evening studying for a Chemistry test when in reality he had been stopping a robbery that had gotten a bit messy. Thankfully, no one had gotten hurt.
May looked concern as she put down the milk on the table. "Are you sure that you are doing alright, Pete? Maybe you should cut down on your hours, or you could work in the summer-"
"No." Peter said rather sharply, almost rude. He blushed when he saw the worried look on his Aunt's face. "No, I'm sorry Aunt May I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just I'm handling it ok, it just takes a little getting used to. I'll be ok." The last thing he wanted was for Scott think that he couldn't handle it, even if May vowed to support Peter until after college.
May ran a hand through his soft curls. "I just don't want you to overexert yourself." May said gently. "I can handle the bills, Peter although money may be a little tight sometime, we won't starve Peter."
Peter looked at his bowl of cereal. It wasn't about starving it was about the fact that Scott was right. He wasn't a child any longer and he couldn't rely on May forever, besides college was just around the corner and college was expensive. "I know, May." He said softly. "Sorry, I'm just a little cranky about this test. I will be alright after it's over."
May brightened as she kissed Peter's forehead. "Alright, my sweet boy. Good luck on your test."
After that May left for work in the familiar pink scrubs and Peter quickly finished of his breakfast and headed on the familiar route towards school. His cell phone rang and he frowned at the caller ID-Mr. Stark.
Tony had only called him a handful of times. Had Thanos been reborn? Had Captain Marvel gone mad? Those were the only reasons that Peter thought that Tony would have called. "Hello, Mr. Stark?" he started babbling. "What's wrong? Who died?"
"Whoa, kid ease up a little, no one died." Tony practically screeched. "Are you that traumatized?"
"Well, could you blame me if I was." Peter said dryly. After everything that had happened, losing his parents, losing his uncle, becoming Spiderman, turning into dust, reviving-Peter wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in a mental institution.
"Fair point." There was a pause. "Listen, Pete is everything alright?"
"Yeah," Peter sounded surprised. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"I-" he trailed off. "We haven't seen or heard from you in a couple of weeks. Happy was afraid that you've fallen into a ditch. I'm trying to convince him that, that wasn't true."
Peter almost smiled, was Mr. Stark actually admitting that he kind of missed him? "Nothing that dramatic. I got an after school job and with school and being a friendly, neighborhood Spiderman well things have gotten crazy."
Peter could almost hear Tony breathing a sigh of relief. "Well, if you could spare some time tomorrow from your busy schedule, Bruce would like to speak to you."
He was off tomorrow, which was rare. "Count me in. What are we working on?"
"I'm not spilling kid," Tony was smiling. "See you tomorrow, kid."
Blood, he was covered in blood, but for the life of him he didn't know where he was bleeding. He took off his mask, believing that if he did it will make looking for the spot that was actively bleeding easier to search.
Peter was hiding in the alleyway next to his apartment. "Karen," he choked out. "Where am I bleeding?"
Peter had been on his way home, when he had stopped an attempted murder of a seemingly innocent sixty-year-old man. Peter had rounded up the assigned killer and had managed to keep both of them in check until the cops had come, but the would-be murderer had pulled up quite a fight and had stabbed Peter in his middle section various of times.
"You are bleeding near your liver and left intestine," Karen said calmly. "Your healing abilities are stopping the bleeding; would you like me to call emergency services? It is recommended."
"No!" he forced himself to breath as he found his backpack that he hid behind an old washer. He managed to slip out of his suit and into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Peter forced his breathing to calm down. He could feel his healing abilities doing their job and the pain wasn't as bad.
Peter looked at his watch. It was one in the morning. Fuck. May was going to murder him. How had he not noticed so much time had passed by? Peter forced himself to wait fifteen more minutes, by that time most of his wounds had healed and he didn't feel like passing out.
He crawled up to his bedroom and breathed a sigh of relief when he reached his bedroom. The apartment was quiet. Maybe he wouldn't get killed today. The door opened and he saw someone standing there with a stony expression. At first he thought it was Mr. Stark, but it wasn't.
It was Scott.
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