Something was off with Peter.

Harry had dropped by to see him several times over the last week, and while Peter was outwardly friendly, there was a distance between them that couldn't be crossed. Even May was curt in their few interactions. He was sure he hadn't done anything to offend her, of all people.

He tried asking Peter what was wrong but the bloke only smiled and acted as though Harry was imagining things. Harry wasn't buying it though and, fed up as he was, he considered using legilimency on the Parkers. Only two things stopped him — the massive violation of privacy, and the fact that he was absolutely pants at legilimency.

So he was forced to let it be, watching as his new friend pulled away for no reason.

'You've only known this chap for a month,' he told himself, 'you shouldn't care this much.'

But he did care. And it did hurt.

Over in the other apartment, Peter was on the phone with Happy again.

"So he hasn't done anything suspicious?" Happy sounded skeptical.

"Yeah, he's just been acting normal." Peter confirmed. "I did what you said, I acted normal and we chilled, but I don't know, I haven't seen anything weird."

It had been a little over a week since Peter had stumbled into his new friend's dead body, and he still wasn't sure what to make of it. He was absolutely sure that it had happened, and that the body was Harry's. The familiar — if grossly disfigured — face, the identical clothes, and the ringing phone in its pocket. There was no chance it was anything but the guy on the other side of the hall.

And if that wasn't damning enough, he had Karen to back him up. He could believe that he had only been hallucinating, but somehow he doubted the AI in his suit shared the delusion.

Peter sighed and turned over in his bed, facing the wall.

The advice from Happy was to stay alert and keep an eye on Harry. He and Mr. Stark thought that Harry might be an enhanced human of some sort; they decided that a wait-and-see approach was best. They were probably right. None of them knew for sure what they were dealing with, and there didn't seem to be any harm so far in waiting for more information. But this invisible dance between Harry and himself was getting on his nerves. He was more than a little tempted to say screw it and just ask Harry what happened that day, but Happy was clear. No direct confrontation until they knew who or what Harry was.

Friday had run several background checks on Harry, and so far nothing stood out. He was a rich orphan, had decent grades, and was a legal adult. His family was pretty reclusive, going out of their way not to associate with people, even for their strange religious community. There were some pictures of a young Harry looking bored and vacant, but while they were a strange bunch there was no smoking gun.

His search history was weird though, lots of googling the most basic things. It fit with his background though, but Peter had his doubts.

Friday also accessed cameras across the city, compiling all the footage of his adventures in his time over the city. They had noticed that on his first day he spent a suspiciously long time by the Woolworth building, then he went off screen and he wasn't seen on any of the other cameras. There were hints of something strange happening in the telecom store in the corner of the building — some sort of flashing light and some blurry movements — but even after Friday tried to process and clean up the footage it was grainy and unclear. This of course raised more flags, because except for that short period of time the footage was very clear, being recorded by excellent cameras in high definition. Unfortunately — or fortunately? — further investigation didn't turn anything up.

In the end the standing instruction was to keep watch and wait.

But Peter was tired of waiting.

Throwing caution to the wind, he decided to act. The information was out there and he resolved to find it.

Last time, he got busted walking in through the front door — which, in his defence, was not his fault; he thought Harry was dead after all. He was sure that with his abilities he'd be able to take a more stealthy approach.

Later that night, Peter tried to calm his nerves as used his abilities to defy gravity, latching onto the building just below Harry's living room window. He was worried he would get caught and he could have sworn there was a little voice in his head telling him he was an idiot for not listening to Mr. Stark.

It was around 2 am, so Harry was already asleep, as was most of the city, so there was little chance of someone looking out their window and seeing Spider-Man busting into an apartment.

Peter carefully climbed up to perch on the window sill and jostled the glass pain. As he expected, the window wasn't locked. He was able to open it, doing so slowly to avoid making any noise. The window was open. So far so good.

Peter then tried to crawl into the apartment, moving to enter feet first. In a shocking turn of events, however, his foot encountered some sort of resistance and was halted in place. He tried to push through whatever this unseen barrier was, but it refused to give way and instead he had the shock of his life when he was flung into the air by an invisible force.

"What the fuuuuu—" Peter yelled out as his body flew through the air and across the street.

His reflexes kicked in and he was able to reorient himself, quickly taking stock of his situation. Peter shot a web at the nearest building and used his momentum to swing forward and up, propelling himself back into the air. He shot out another web, and maintained his forward trajectory until he was some distance away from the apartment building. The last thing he wanted was to be spotted.

He landed on an apartment building at the far end of the street, and perched on the side of the flat roof.

"What the fuck was that?" he panted, trying to calm his frantically beating heart.

He had no clue what happened, and neither did Karen. The best she could guess was some sort of electromagnetic field but the readings his suit had taken didn't support that theory. Still… if this wasn't proof of something fishy going on, Peter didn't know what was.

He had to report to Happy.

With a sinking feeling in his gut, Peter had Karen dial Happy. He wasn't looking forward to this call at all, largely because of the subject matter but also because he knew Happy was going to be pissed at being woken up past midnight.

It took a minute for the call to connect.

"Peter," Happy sighed, voice husky with sleep, "you better have a good reason to call me at two in the fu-," Happy cleared his throat. "At two in the morning."

"Hey Happy. I'm really sorry, but something major happened," Peter rushed to say.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Happy questioned, more alert, voice steeped with concern.

"Yeah I'm fine, I caught myself."

"Wha-"

"Just let me explain," Peter cut him off. "So uh, I kinda got tired of waiting for something to happen, so I decided to sneak into Harry's apartment."

"Peter…" Happy sounded really disappointed.

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. But anyway, I wait till now so that he'd be asleep, then I scaled the building and opened the window. But when I tried to crawl in, it was like I hit an invisible wall or something and then it sent me flying, like it just frickin' catapulted me way into the air — as in, someone without superpowers would be dead."

The other end of the line was silent for a heartbeat or two, then he heard Happy moving, followed by a muffled swear.

"So I'm guessing I'm in trouble?" he asked, knowing full well what the answer was.

"Oh no, you just ignored us and got yourself into a potentially dangerous situation without even a heads up. No big deal."

That was a yes.

Peter resigned himself to deal with inevitable lectures from all three adults in his life. In the meantime, however, there were things to be done, so he asked Happy what the next step would be.

"You can't do anything with this stuff right now. Just go to bed Peter, I'll tell Tony tomorrow morning and let you know what he says," Happy instructed him sternly. "Got it?"

"Got it," Peter rolled his eyes. "Talk to you in the morning."

Happy said his own goodbye and hung up.

Peter was ever so slightly irritated. He knew Happy was concerned about him but that didn't mean he wasn't a capable superhero. He ignored their instructions, sure, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. It got them a new lead on Harry!

Letting out a yawn, Peter decided to go back to his room and catch some shut eye. There was nothing left to be done at this time, and he was getting drowsy. He swung across the street, and landed on all fours on the roof of the building opposite. He then leapt across the roofs until he landed on the roof of his apartment building.

From there Peter walked over to the edge of the roof and leaned forward, placing his hands on the side of the building. Using his abilties he was able to crawl upside down to the window of his bedroom. He lifted the glass pane, and entered the room.

Minutes later, he was out of his spider suit and curled up in bed.

On the other side of the hall Harry was wide awake and alert. Someone had attempted to breach his wards, though he couldn't pinpoint where exactly. He checked the windows in the bedrooms, then the front door, finally stopping in the living room where he spotted an open window.

Harry tried to feel for any magical traces, but he couldn't sense anything. Evidently the would-be home invader was a muggle. Harry peaked out the window, but saw no one in the immediate vicinity.

He popped his head back inside, and closed the window.

Harry considered investigating more thoroughly, but it was late, he was tired, and the wards had obviously done their job in keeping him safe. This could wait till tomorrow.

He went back to bed, enveloping himself with the sinfully comfortable blankets, and fell asleep in no time.

May Parker was not amused. She'd only just started her day when she checked her phone and saw a text from Happy Hogan describing Peter's late night antics.

Sure, she'd agreed to give him the space he needed to be a hero, but part of that agreement was that he would listen to Happy and Stark's instructions. And hers for that matter.

It was seven in the morning; she was making waffles, waiting for Peter to wake up.

Once they were ready she stacked them on a plate, and whether by coincidence or from the tempting smell of the waffles, Peter was soon found stumbling out of his room. His hair was an unkempt mess, his pyjamas were wrinkled, and he was looking at the room like he didn't recognise it.

"Mornin'" he grunted, taking a seat at the dining table.

"Good morning," May replied in kind. She handed Peter a plate, then grabbed the plate of waffles and brought it over to him. "How many?"

"Three please!" Peter watched the plate of waffles with hungry eyes.

May served the kid three waffles and put the plate back on the counter. Rather than serving some food for herself, she chose to go back to the table and take a seat opposite Peter, who was already shovelling food into his now wide awake face.

"So I hear you were up late last night," she told him casually, waiting to see how he'd react.

Peter stilled immediately. He put down his fork, swallowed, and looked at her warily. "It's 7am. How did Happy tell you already?" he asked, exasperated.

"He texted right after you called him," she replied. "saw it when I woke up."

"Of course he did," Peter grumbled. "Look," he sighed, "I just tried to sneak in through his window. It's not like I expected to be, uh, sent flying. I'm fine."

May sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"I'm glad you're fine Peter," she finally said. "But it's not about that. Part of me letting you be Spider-Man was that you would listen to Happy and Stark. I need you to be safe, and I can't trust that you'll be safe if you go around doing whatever you feel like."

"I didn't even leave the street," Peter told his aunt indignantly. "I know what I'm doing May! I'm not just some kid playing superhero or some dude LARPing. He was asleep, I was sneaky, and I knew he had no alarms. It wasn't that dangerous!"

"You went after him without telling anyone Peter!" May snapped, raising her voice. She then caught herself, and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for yelling, just... look, I don't want to believe that Harry is a threat, but he could be. Stark is right, what are the odds that a mutant or alien or whatever he is would end up living next to you of all people?"

She sighed and slumped backwards in the chair.

"I need you to be safe," she blurted out, "and if he's actually dangerous, and if something bad happened, no one would have known until morning."

"I still had Karen, she could ha—"

"I know! And I'm glad she can help keep you safe, but it doesn't make it all okay Peter. If you at least talked to Happy or Stark before you went, I could at least rest easy knowing they had a backup plan or two ready, not that they'd be scrambling to save you after something went wrong."

May stopped talking, feeling a lump in her throat. She had to close her eyes briefly then blink to keep her eyes dry. Peter wasn't unscathed by the emotion of the moment either. She watched as he let his head hang, picking up his fork and toying with the food.

"I'm sorry," he told her quietly. "I just wanted this to be over. I really like Harry you know? He's nice, he's funny, he doesn't judge. I actually have a new friend. Like, how often does that happen?" he laughed sardonically, then sighed, letting his head hang as he stared at his half eaten waffle. "I... I don't know. I just wanted to get it all over with. Better to know and get it over with, y'know?"

May felt a deep sadness wash over her. Peter was such a great kid, even before he became Spider-Man. He was so good, in every sense of the word, that she had a hard time believing he wasn't the most liked guy at school.

With a soft sigh, May reached over and ran her thumb gently down his cheek.

"I get it Peter," she relented, "but that doesn't mean you get to just rush into danger like that. Those two are responsible for your safety and, even though it worked out this time, I need to know that you're not doing this on your own."

May pulled back back and stood up, circling around the table to sit next to her nephew so she could wrap her arm around him and pull him close.

"I can see where you're coming from, but what I don't get is what makes this so different," Peter admitted after a moment's silence. "I go out on patrol every day, and sometimes I end up getting shot at. I don't always tell Happy about those before going in. Why's that ok, but not this?"

May didn't really have an answer for him at first. She took some time to mull over it and go over her thought process.

Over the last year she had adjusted to Peter's 'profession', trusting him to go around taking on the evils of the New York streets on his own. Those were usually a known quantity though. Between the strength of his powers and that fancy suit, she had faith that Peter could handle any amount of armed thugs. But Harry was an unknown. If he had special powers, and May thought he did, well... the whole world had seen what people with special powers could do if they meant harm.

"This is something new Peter," she replied carefully. "We don't know what he's capable of, as you saw last night. I trust you to handle yourself on your patrols because you know what the dangers are, and you've proven that you can handle them." She waited for Peter to nod in acknowledgement. "And," she admitted, "if you think I wasn't worried as hell when you started, you're dead wrong. I still worry… but by now, it's easier to have faith, I guess."

Peter moved closer and gave May a tight hug. "I'm sorry I made you worry."

"It's okay hun. I'll always worry, it's part of the job. Just don't overdo it again," May gave Peter a soft smile and ran her fingers through his hair, remembering the days when he was younger and he could curl up in her lap. She savoured the moment for a short while, then pulled back and stood up, offering to heat up Peter's now cold waffles.

Peter rejected the offer and went right back to demolishing the plate of food.

Amused, and partly amused, by the way Peter damn near shovelled the food down his throat — seriously, did she not teach him table manners? — May plated some waffles for herself and joined her nephew at the table.

She hoped she'd gotten through to Peter but knew that it wasn't likely. He was a teenager. They were impulsive by nature, and even Peter — smart and mature as he was — wasn't immune to that. But if he was a bit more cautious for the next few weeks, well, she'd consider that a win.

It was 10 in the morning and Harry was just getting out of bed. His eyes were lidded and his senses were dulled with sleep when he tripped over something and fell over. He only just managed to catch his fall before he smacked his head on the floor. With a groan, Harry got back up on his feet and looked around to see what the blasted obstacle was.

He was not expecting to see a pile of magic books spread out on the floor next to his bed.

Harry stared at the scattered tomes and, as his eyes flitted between different covers, he noticed a piece of parchment perched on the most central stack of books left caught Harry's attention. He bent down to pick it up, unrolled it, and read its contents.

It was a message from Death.

'A parting gift from an old world. Use them well.'

Shaking his head in amazement, Harry surveyed the books again. He was never much of a reader but these books were undoubtedly a priceless resource when stranded in a world without magic. And… was that a chest?

Harry crouched down and picked up a small wooden chest. He set it on his bed and sat down, unlatching the lid and peering inside.

Well. It looked like he had more to thank Death for. This little magically expanded chest was stocked with potions ingredients; nothing too special, they might well be from his old school potions kit, but that was plenty.

Harry shut the lid and got off the bed. He realised he needed a place to store the books and ingredients. It occurred to him that he could just get a bookshelf and set them up in the living room with a notice-me-not charm, but that had risks Harry wasn't comfortable allowing. He recalled that sometime in his sixth year, in Charms class, Professor Flitwick had lectured them about recently discovered side effects of the notice-me-not charm. Evidently, some research had been done that proved that constant exposure to notice-me-not charms could make some Muggles go barmy. Naturally, many of the Slytherins in the class hadn't cared one bit, but Hermione had been positively horrified — as was Harry.

He knew he needed to keep it out of view, and that was how Harry decided to use the second bedroom. He set the note on his bedside table then walked into the living room, summoning his wand as he did so.

He went on to levitate the bookcase from the living room and set it up in the corner of his newly dubbed 'magic room'. He then brought the books over and slotted them into the bookcase in no particular order, and — lacking any other storage space — he pulled out the jars of potions ingredients and lined them up on the shelves as well.

Unfortunately, that was it; he didn't have any scrap material left to transfigure, so he couldn't furnish it any further for now, save for bringing in an armchair from the living room to leave in the corner.

With that, he was done — and just as well, he was hungry and couldn't be arsed to do more.

He also couldn't be arsed to cook anything, so he decided on a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich. He was just slicing a tomato when he got a text. Figuring it was Peter, Harry set the knife down and picked up his phone.

Harry's eyebrows shot up.

+01 212-203-6443: Congratulations Dear Customer [Harry Potter]! As part of our give-back program at O'Reilly's Healthy Foods, you've won a ticket to go see an exclusive outdoors performance from New York Insider's local act of the year - the FE group! The show is at 6pm tonight, at Kissena Park. Please text back 'YES' to confirm your attendance. Your ticket will be issued at the site.

Harry was a little confused by the message. He had been to that store, but he didn't think he signed up for anything. Still, how nice of them to send him a ticket to a musical performance. Obviously, he wasn't familiar with the act, but he wasn't opposed to giving it a go.

Without thinking about it too much, Harry texted back 'YES'.

The second text message came back moments later.

+01 212-203-6443: Attendance confirmed. Thank you for shopping at O'Reilly's Healthy Foods! Your ticket will be issued at the site [Location]. We hope you enjoy the show.

Harry stared at his phone for a little bit, a strange feeling building up in his gut, then shrugged it off and went back to making his sandwich.

After having his fill Harry lounged around the house for most of the day, watching videos on his phone, practicing his magic, and — Merlin help him — reading one of the books. Eventually, the time for the park performance came around. He got off the couch and shoved his phone in his pocket, alongside his wallet and keys, and left the flat. He took the stairs down to the front of the building, having decided to make his way to the park by foot. It would only be a twenty minute walk according to his phone.

Having been here for almost a month now, the shine of the city had worn off, but as he stepped outside Harry admired the shadows cast all around by the setting sun. Far from him to be poetic, but he almost wished he could tell time to stop, leaving the world forever at the precipice of night — bathed in the golden, red, and purple hues of the sky.

Time stopped for no one however, no matter how nicely one asked. It was an endless current, unstoppable; one could only brace for the wave. The sun was on its way down, and it wouldn't be long before street lights flickered on all around the city, bathing it in their artificial lights and drowning out the stars.

A car honked in the distance, disturbing Harry's musings. He sighed and took one step forward, then another, and ambled down the streets of New York.

[A/N:] Another long wait, another chapter! There's been like 2 or 3 other versions of this chapter. Honestly, I'm posting it just so that I don't have to look at it again.

Enjoy! Can't wait to hear what you think — moments you liked/disliked, any errors, anything ^^ And of course, thank you for all the reviews of the last chapter!

Cheers!