"Ok, that's creepy."
Miguel silently agreed with Carlie's statement.
Walking into the lab, the duo find Peter hard at work. He sat crouched in a web swing barefoot and shirtless. Six arms worked in harmony. Top pair typed on the computer near by. Middle scanned through an electronic tablet. Finally, bottom fiddled with some mechanical device unrecognizable to the observers. Peter's attention seemed nowhere in particular as he worked effectively.
Spiders covered the area, moving things around the desk, and holding a pen Peter occasionally used to jot notes down.
"Ahem", Miguel tried to get his attention.
Peter swiveled his head in their direction. "Oh, hey you two!"
He hopped from his perch and put down his things as his extra appendages fell from his body. They shattered like cheap glass on the floor.
"Take five guys", he directed to the spiders. The arachnids dispersed and seemed to disappear as what looked like a Roomba with eight mechanical legs appeared from under a desk and vacuumed what was left of the arms.
Peter shot a web out of his wrist and caught his shirt on a chair across the room. He gave his friends a grin as he got dressed. "I think I'm making a breakthrough on the case."
Carlie hummed as she passed by, stepping over the Spider-Vac on the way.
"Uh huh", Miguel declared, watching the little robot.
Peter turned to watch as well. After sucking up the mess on the floor, it rolled to the wall and used it's legs to climb to the ceiling. Upside down, it made it's way to the web swing. Using a tiny, taser like device in it's "mouth", it cut one end of the swing and began slurping it up like spaghetti. Soon, the web was removed and the vacuum disappeared back under the desk. No trace of any Spider activity was left.
"You have too much time on your hands", Miguel declared. He walked to his desk and swept away a lingering spider.
The younger hero awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I, uh, I really don't." He looked around and found some flip flops he had worn that day and slipped them on. "Been throwing everything into work, spending time with the family, and training Laura."
Right on cue, the young lady walked through the lab door. Miguel took a step back in case the claws started flying.
With gritted teeth, she presented Peter his request. "Chilli cheese dog, extra relish, easy onion."
He shook her glare off easily. "Now, what did you learn?" He asked as he took his meal.
When her hard edged stare didn't lessen, he continued.
"First of all, this is the best dog you can get in the upper west side. But more importantly, you're trying to rock the secret identity thing right now. I think you've got experience in infiltration, but LIVING another life is a while new ballgame. People treated you different when you weren't in costume or claws bared. You gotta get used to that. With those glasses on you're an ordinary woman, and interacting with people is part of that." He finished his little speech with a large victory bite of his chilli dog.
Carlie snorted from her desk, "hypocrite much?"
Miguel nearly laughed in Peter's confused face. He started going over Peter's notes while Carlie continued her rant.
"When was the last time you interacted with someone voluntarily?"
Peter put his dog down on the table, "all the time! I usually have a big dinner at my place about once a week!"
"And outside that? Have you seen Mary's club yet? You know Kaine put an actual down payment on an apartment with LEGALLY obtained money? Besides work you shut yourself up in your place, or you're at Carol's."
"How'd you know I've been going to Carol's?"
"Carol told April, April told Kaine, Kaine mentioned it to Aracely, and Mary overheard their conversation and told everyone else."
"Ah", Peter put his face in his hands. "It's not- it's just- we're kind of taking this slow ish? We're working on some issues and keeping it quiet." Like why it seems a billionaire is trying to keep them separated, or a deceased mutual friend is sending pictures of people not even existing in their universe.
"Regardless Peter, you're talking a big game for Laura. Admittedly, she could use help socially interacting, and I think it's adorable you two are helping each other like this, but you're not practicing what you're teaching."
The man put on the spot tried to sputter an excuse or a denial, but Miguel cut him off. "Listen man. Far be it for me to interfere, but Carlie's right. You're closing yourself off while still giving an illusion of being sociable."
Carlie continued. "You promised to look after your newly arrived family. I would think part of that would be actually getting out of the lab and SEEING them."
"I'm in the middle of a case right now and-", Peter was cut off by the man from the future.
"We're here to work on it. We DO work here too."
"And", Carlie helped, "we have old FF and Avenger records to help us. I think we'll be fine without you for a night."
Peter looked helpless for a moment. "What do you want me to do? Everyone is probably busy..."
Laura swiping on her new sidekick drew everyone's attention. "You have a message from Mary from earlier today. She is inviting you to her club. Kaine is working and the twins will be there."
"There you go", Miguel patted him on the shoulder. "You got your afternoon set. Ask Carol to go with you, make it a date."
"I'm not asking Carol to the club. We're working through a few things and-"
"JUST GO TO THE SHOCKING CLUB PETER!"
Both males turned shocked faces towards Carlie's outburst. Laura merely raised an eyebrow.
Carlie composed herself. "Sorry, but stop making excuses Peter. Get out and enjoy your night for once. We have this. I AM trained in Forensics you know."
"She's right. We can handle things here. And if we get stuck, we can call. Go out and mingle." Miguel urged him.
Between his coworkers' recommendations and Laura's creepy stare that he could almost feel, he felt like he had no choice.
"Ok, I'll go. But message me as soon as you think you have a suspect pinned."
Carlie waved him off, "yeah, yeah. We'll see."
Peter pouted a little and turned to Laura. "Well, guess we got the rest of the day off."