Chapter Eight

Peter felt exhausted as he finished his fourth shift of the week at the grocery store. Who knew that he could get more tired just by stocking shelves in the grocery store and being in the freezer for six hours a day than being Spiderman.

He waved goodbye to one of his co workers as he went towards his familiar path home, it was almost nine at night and he still had his English essay and math worksheet to do and the only thing that he wanted to do crawl into bed and go to sleep.

Peter briefly thought about patrolling, but then decided that he didn't want to risk it because of what had happened last time that he had gone on patrol. It had been two weeks since Scott had come to live with them ever since May's accident. It seemed that both Peter and Scott were avoiding each other and that was the only good thing about the situation.

Other than the occasional snide comment, Scott mostly left Peter alone for which Peter was grateful. He had also taken extra shifts at the grocery store to avoid Scott on the weekends if he was being completely honest, though May and Scott were usually not home on the weekends. Scott felt so bad that she had injured herself skating that he took her to the movies and to get ice cream.

His cell phone rang and he saw that it was Tony, Peter sighed and clicked ignore. He felt bad that he was ignoring the billionaire, but he knew what he was going to ask, when are you coming back to HQ? And Peter couldn't exactly respond when my aunt's asshole boyfriend leaves.

When Peter got home he saw that May and Scott were in May's bedroom and the TV was slowly playing in the background. Scott was asleep with a pillow covering his face, May whispered, "Welcome home, Peter."

"Hi May. How's the arm?"

May gave a small shrug, "Oh, you know the pain pills don't seem to be working, I still feel like my arm is made of broken glass. It was a pretty bad fall, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to see if they can give me something stronger. I need to get some sleep." She smiled. "I left some dinner on the stove."

"I'm actually not very hungry," Peter admitted. "I'm just very tired and I have a lot of homework."

"You're working too hard," May scolded slightly, "You need to rest, Peter you're not a middle age man, Peter."

"Not yet anyway." Peter joked, he relaxed slightly. Their conversation made him think of how things had been before. "Good night, May."

"Good night, baby."


"You're deep in thought," Steve said as he looked at Tony who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. They were in Tony's lab going over the details for the new shield that Tony wanted to create for Steve. Though to be honest they hadn't been getting much work done, which in all honesty didn't surprised Steve, but Tony was never this distracted. "Are you ok?"

"Fine." Tony admitted. He didn't want to admit to Steve that he was worried about Peter and his lack of communication. Peter didn't owe anything to Tony after all, and besides he was sure that Peter was busy with his nerdy activities. "Just peachy, hey I was thinking we should have the kid over this summer. Maybe he can stay over, him and Wanda can share bunk beds."

Steve's furrowed his eyebrows. "The kid? Why?"

"So he can get some training done." Tony said as if it should have been obvious. "The kid's good, but it's been a few months since Thanos, he's starting to get a little rusty."

Steve snorted. "I know that's hard to realize, but it's a good thing that he's getting rusty. It means that he can live like a normal teenager again. Sure, we don't mind having the squirt here, besides there is something all of us can teach him." He paused. "What is your relationship with him? You two seemed awfully close."

Tony paused. What was his relationship with Peter? He's gone from superhero recruiter to mentor to boss. He wasn't so sure, besides their relationship was in it's weird stage because the sense of impending doom that bonded them together was done. "He's my intern." He blurted out. "But also all his father figures seem to die on him so I have that going for me." Steve looked perplexed, but didn't ask him to elaborate.

"The kid hasn't been here for a while."

"I know," Tony said trying not to sound too disappointed. "I think he's busy with his after school job or his saving the whales protests or something else that I can't remember."


". . .Parker. Wake the fuck up, Parker. Pa-" someone was jabbing him in the shoulder when all he wanted was to continue sleeping. He had a feeling it was Happy or Sam messing with him.

"Mr. Parker, could you please grace us with your presence?!" a voice said irritated.

Peter's brown eyes shot open and he stared at the angry eyes of Mr. Wilson his pre-calculus teacher. Mr. Wilson was a short, angry man who Peter had never seen smile during the entire semester. As it turned out it was MJ that had been poking him with a pencil and who was now snorting in his direction, but she looked slightly sorry for him.

Peter ached with tiredness, he hadn't gotten to bed until 3am as he frantically finished his homework. He gave Mr. Wilson an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Mr. Wilson."

"This is the third time, Mr. Parker." Mr. Wilson said as he scribbled on the pink detention slip. "I suggest that you stop playing Minecraft or whatever you kids do today and go to bed at a reasonable time. If this happens again, you will be speaking with the principal."

Peter's face flushed pink as he mumbled an apology and Mr. Wilson ignored him and started talking about the homework that was due tomorrow. MJ turned towards Peter. "Hey, I'll keep you company during detention."

"You have Decathlon practice today."

MJ shrugged. "I can reschedule, I am the captain. Besides I kind of need you, loser." Peter smiled as he started putting his stuff away.

True to her word, MJ stayed with Peter during his entire hour long detention. May called him as soon as he left the building. "Hi honey," May sounded out of breath. "Did practice just finish."

"Yes," Peter lied. "I'm on my way home."

"Great, honey listen I got stuck in the hospital, a nurse called in sick and I'm covering her for a few hours until the replacement comes in. There's a meatloaf in the fridge."

Peter cringed, May's meat loafs were never good. "Thanks, May."

"See you tomorrow, Parker." MJ chewed on a piece of gum and handed one to Peter. "Get some sleep. Otherwise, people are going to start to talk and you and I know that some of these kids don't know how to use their brains. Later."

"Later, MJ thanks for staying!"

"Just don't make a habit of it."

Thankfully, Peter didn't have a shift today so he went on parol for two hours (three kittens and a kid were saved from incoming traffic) before heading home. He was so hungry, May's meatloaf actually sounded good.

He opened the door of his apartment and saw Scott standing there with an angry expression and holding a belt in his hand.

-End of Chapter Eight-

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