"Holy—"

Peter breathed out a long, shaky breath and leaned back in his desk chair. He loosely gripped two fistfuls of his own hair – which had been carefully combed and parted a few minutes before – and went over all of it in his head one last time.

But he knew he had finally figured it out. It just all fit together too well: the intel he'd gathered at the docks, the weird number and letter combination he'd found scribbled on the side of that boat three days ago...even the smug comment of that criminal he'd caught last week.

He was ninety-nine percent certain that the human trafficking ring he'd been getting whiffs of for the past few weeks was going to be making a move soon.

Very soon.

As in, tonight soon—high school graduation night.

As if an invisible string holding him back suddenly snapped, Peter jumped into action, the shock of his own discovery morphing into the adrenalized urgency he'd come to know so well as Spiderman. He had to get out there. He was the only person – as far as he knew – that had both the information and power needed to stop this thing from going down.

He glanced toward the cracked door of his bedroom.

"Hey, Aunt May?"

Peter jerked the tie from his neck and quickly stripped off the dress pants he'd put on to wear under his graduation robe.

"Hey, Pete?" May responded from the living room as Peter pulled his white button-down off too. The lightheartedness in her voice made him wince because he knew that she was probably looking forward to tonight as much as he was. They'd both gone through so much waiting for this day to come.

But he also knew she'd tell him to follow his gut if she knew just how many lives were bound to be tied up in this. She'd tell him to be the Spiderman New York City needed tonight. And that's what he was going to do, because even if he was wrong about when and where the deal was to take place, he would be better off safe than sorry.

Plus, graduation wasn't for another hour yet, so maybe he could still do both…

"Hey, uh...something came up. If you wanna go ahead and head to the school, I might not be far behind. I just need to deal with something first," Peter called loudly, inwardly cringing at how pathetic his explanation was. He pulled his Spiderman suit out of the hidden pocket in his backpack, where it had been since this afternoon, and unfolded it.

He knew Aunt May would know his excuse had something to do with Spiderman, so he wasn't surprised when she appeared in his doorway, arms crossed and eyebrows raised as she quickly took in the fact that he had transformed from Peter Parker the High School Graduate to Peter Parker the Crime-Fighting Hero in just a few seconds.

He held his gloved hands out and offered her an apologetic grin.

"Peter—"

"May, pleasedon'tworry. This is that, that thing I was telling you about. It's happening tonight. Right now, and..." Peter glanced at the screen of the laptop on his desk. "And I only have a few minutes before I think I'll miss my best chance at stopping them."

His words came out in a hot rush, but May listened calmly, concern growing warm in her eyes even as her posture tightened. She didn't know all the details about what he'd been looking into, but she knew enough to understand it was riskier than his everyday patrols.

He opened his mouth to say the words that would ease the tension in her expression, but she stopped him by closing the gap between them and hugging him tightly.

"Be careful, sweetie," she whispered into his ear.

There was fear and worry in her voice, but there was also conviction and affirmation. Though it didn't lessen the pressure he was feeling to get out to the pier in time, it made him feel like he had someone in his corner. And with the way his Spiderman career had been going since this past summer, that meant more than he could ever tell her. He swallowed.

"I will," he said before moving to perch on the windowsill of his room, ready to jump out and make his way to the pier where the bad guys were going to be. He offered May a more confident grin than before.

"And I might even still make it in time to walk the line."

May tipped her head and smiled softly in response, and then Peter pulled on his mask and leaped out into the evening air. He shot a web to the adjacent building, swung into a vertical crouch on the wall, and then scampered up to the roof.

Not on my watch, New York City.

May watched her nephew until he was out of sight and then pulled in a shaky breath.

Peter's navy blue graduation robe—complete with its impressive array of cords, stoles, pins, and medals—lay smoothed out on his bed.

She walked over and brushed her fingers across it, still staring out his open window, where he had been swallowed up by the city. She felt uneasy, but then again she always did when it came to Peter and Spiderman, especially these days.

She looked down at herself, at the navy dress she'd donned. She had just finished curling her hair when she had heard Peter call from his bedroom, and she had known instantly by the slant of his voice that something related to Spiderman had come up.

Of course the fact that it was graduation night hadn't even made him hesitate.

That's just how he was—and she wouldn't have wanted it any other way, really—but it would have been nice if he could get a break every once in a while, a little room to breathe and do something as normal and as important as graduate from high school.

But he was strong, she reminded herself.

He always had been.

She was just going to have to trust that his strength would be enough to bring him home to her once more.

*Next chapter coming within the next few days*

A/N: Y'all, I am SO SORRY that I haven't posted anything in SO long. As it turns out, graduating does NOT automatically make your life less busy, and I wish I could say that my schedule will be more consistent from now on, but that's probably not true. Especially once August rolls around. O_O

Anyywayy...I wrote this Thing because I was inspired by my own Real Life Things, and I hope you like it! I have four short chapters written (including this one), with about four more planned (and it is highly likely they'll be finished too, so don't worry), and it's been fun if a little therapeutic for me. Plus, I'm writing again so YaY. ;)

I have some hopefully deep character conversations, Spiderman action, and some good old fashioned mischief planned, so I hope you stick around and let me know what you think! Thanks so much for taking the time to read and/or leave feedback for me - I really appreciate it. Love you guys...God bless! :D

(DISCLAIMER: I don't actually know how big high schools do their graduations, so please forgive any mistakes there, and...uh, that's all we'll say about that)

(ALSO: If you follow any of my other works and want some updates there, please check out my profile. I plan to update it soon :)

"If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday."
~Isaiah 58:10