"You look tired, Peter."

The teenager paused. He looked up from his phone, and frowned at his aunt.

"Huh?" He said.

May studied his face. She touched his cheek. "Your face has thinned out. Have you been eating?"

Peter yawned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just stressed. Finals are in a week."

She nodded slowly. Her forehead creased with worry lines.

'She looks pretty tired, herself.' Peter thought.

"How's tutoring with that Liz girl?" May asked, as she sat down.

"It's good." Peter replied.

"Are you going to ask her out soon?"

If the teenager was drinking something, he would have spat it out.

"What?!" He stuttered out. "Aun-Aunt May! Why would you even-I don't like-She has a boyfriend!"

May chuckled. "I had a boyfriend before your uncle came along."

"Oh my god!" The teenager covered his reddening face with his hands.

"Ah, I'm just messing with you, baby." May laughed to herself.

Peter mock glared at her.

May reached over, and ruffled his hair.

"I'm really glad that you're spending more time with your friends, honey." She smiled.

Peter paused.

"Between school and work, I was nervous that you'd be getting too busy to socialize." She tucked stray brown locks behind his ear.

Peter nodded. He bit his lip for a moment, before saying, "How about you, Aunt May? You haven't hung out with any of your friends, lately."

"Oh, we both know that I'm far too busy for that." May's smile faded slightly. "Oh, now, don't give me that guilty look. It's my job to do this."

'To what?' Peter thought sadly. 'Exhaust yourself to death?'

Aunt May stood up suddenly. She kissed her nephew's cheek. "Well, I need to head out. I love you, Pete."

"Love you, too." Peter forced a smile as he watched her walk out the door.

"It so weird that you're going to be a senior next year."

Eddie laughed as he completely destroyed Peter's high score. "It is weird, isn't it? One second, you and I were screaming our little heads off on the playground, the next, I'm going to college in a year."

Peter shook his head. "You'll be an old man before you know it."

"Yeah, well, you won't be too far along." Eddie blasted an alien with masterful tact.

"You say that as though I'm not going to be young forever."

Eddie laughed. "Okay, yeah, sure. Have fun being fourteen for the rest of your life."

"Almost fifteen." Peter corrected. He crossed his arms. "Hey, I can always say that I look young for my age."

"'Oh yeah, I'm definitely seventy-six. I...Uh...Just use very good moisturizer.'"

"I will push you, and make you lose."

"Not if you want to make it to fifteen, shorty." Eddie grinned. He had just beat the game.

Tickets poured out from the slot, with no chance of slowing.

Peter whistled. "Bro, I think you'll be able to get that lava lamp."

Eddie snorted. "All that effort for a stupid lava lamp? You're kidding."

"Lava lamps are cool."

"Yeah! When you're twelve! Oh, sorry, Pete. I forgot that you're pretty close to twelve-"

The shorter of the pair jokingly pushed the other. The taller lightly shoved him back.

Peter laughed. It was cut short by a feeling of guilt.

Eddie peered into his bro's face with a slight frown. "You okay, bro?"

The brunette laughed it off. "Yeah, I'm good. Let's go get you that lava lamp!"

"For the last time, I'm not getting a damn lava lamp!"

The pair laughed.

'I really hope that your dad isn't involved, bro.' Peter thought as they approached the prizes. 'You won't be laughing with me anymore if he is, and I kept that from you.'

(By the way, Eddie did not end up picking the lava lamp).

The guilt was growing.

Secrets, secrets, so many secrets.

Peter felt like he was going insane.

Hide contact of his father from Aunt May. Hide Spider-Man from Aunt May. Hide Spider-Man from Mary Jane. Hide his powers from Gwen. Hide Spider-Man from everyone. Hide Dad's secret from everyone.

Hide hide hide hide hide hide hide hide HIDE!

Too much! It was too much! Too much too much too much!

The guilt hurt too much!

They were going to hate him! They were all going to hate him!

It was all getting to be too much!

No one so much as decided to warn Peter about Mary Jane.

No texts. No phone calls. Peter entered Gwen's room completely blind.

Liz and Harry glanced at him with sheepish expressions. Gwen was staring at her computer, her blond hair preventing Peter from seeing any facial expressions.

Mary Jane was glaring at Peter from Gwen's bed. Her arms were crossed.

"Peter Benjamin Pesach Binyamin Parker," She growled.

"MJ?" Peter's voice came out as a squeak.

She stood up. Her brown eyes were narrowed, and she crossed her arms.

"For the past three weeks," She said slowly. "I saw you acting all funny. Dodging questions, avoiding topics, being oh so busy! And here, I thought it was because your dad finally decided to talk to you, so I thought, 'Okay. Wow. I'll give him some space. I'll give him some time before he talks to me.'

"But then, I see that Harry was also acting weird. So I thought, 'Okay...maybe they actually are dating, and they aren't telling me-'"

"You are aware that just because I'm pan, doesn't mean that-" Peter interrupted, a blush flickering on his face.

Mary Jane held out her hand. "But then, I saw Liz Allen chilling with you guys. And that made me wonder, 'What on earth would Liz Allen of all people hang out with you losers?'"

"Gee, thanks." Harry replied.

"You guys kind of are losers, though." Gwen said.

"So, than," MJ continued, like she wasn't interrupted. "I followed you guys yesterday-"

"You stalked us?" Peter exclaimed.

Everyone else had similar looks of alarm and annoyance on their faces that Peter was sure was also on his face.

"Yup." The red head replied.

'My spider sense didn't even pick her up.' Peter's eyes widened. 'Guess because she isn't much of a threat...When she isn't angry, that is.'

"So, I decided to crash whatever party this is." MJ slowly approached Peter, which slowly made his face turned as red as her hair. "Only to find out that you were almost murdered a month ago by a crazy super villain! And you know how I found out, tiger? Not from you, but from Liz Allen, of all people!"

Liz made a face at being called, 'Of all people'.

"Wait," She said. "We haven't been hanging out at school...Have...have you been watching us for awhile?"

Mary Jane grunted. "That is not the point! The point is, you guys decided to make some kind of dream team to fight Mr. Bad Guy, and you didn't even invite me!"

There was a pause.

"I'm...I'm sorry?" Harry frowned.

"What? You thought I wasn't game for this?" She glared at everyone. "You thought I couldn't help? Why? Is it because I'm a ginger?"

Liz rolled her eyes. "Isn't your hair dyed, or something?"

The corners of Mary Jane's lips twitched. It dropped. "But seriously, why didn't you guys tell me?"

Peter stepped up. "MJ-"

"Everyone except Peter, tell me." MJ's eyes narrowed.

Everyone else exchanged looks.

Liz stood up. "It's Peter's secret. He was afraid of involving anyone else."

Mary Jane thought that over.

"Okay," MJ said slowly. "Than why are you three involved?"

They exchanged looks.

"Well…" Liz said slowly. "I saw the murder attempt take place…"

"And Liz told me that the murder attempt took place."

"And they needed to use me for my hacking skills." Gwen added.

Pause.

Mary Jane studied everyone. Her frown deepened.

"Okay," She said slowly. "I still don't understand why you couldn't tell me."

"Mary Jane-" Peter tried.

She glared at him. "No. You don't get to talk. Not when I am super angry at you."

She turned to the others for an explanation.

But after a minute of no one talking, Harry said, "I think Pete is the only one who can explain…."

He paused when MJ glared at him.

She sighed, and turned to Peter.

He gulped. He glanced at the floor.

"I was scared," He admitted. "That I'd be putting you in danger."

Mary Jane raised an eyebrow. "Yet, you were okay with putting everyone else in danger?"

Peter's eyes darted back to her, widened in horror. "No! I'd never-"

"We insisted, Watson." Liz interrupted. "We knew that no matter what we'd do, Peter would do all the investigating by himself, and we couldn't let him get himself killed."

Pause.

MJ studied everyone again. She sighed.

"I'm now apart of this little Mock-Avengers, or whatever." She crossed her arms, and clearly daring anyone to disagree with her.

No one did.

"Okay." Gwen said finally. She glanced at Peter. "Well, we finally got into Oscorp's database. Anyone want to see what we're working with, here?"