You Again

The weekend after

It was Friday, and Peter was just getting home from school. He came in through the front door and quickly ran up the stairs to his room. He said hi to Aunt May as he passed by, who was making dinner in the kitchen, and told her that his day was good. She was making her 'famous' meatloaf, which Uncle Ben claimed nobody liked. But it was food, so, might as well eat it so they don't starve themselves.

When Peter got to this dimly lit room, he threw his backpack to the side of his bed, removed his jacket and tossed it to the side, and carelessly threw himself onto his bed in exhaustion, lying on his back while facing the ceiling.

"I am so looking forward to the weekend," he said to himself.

Peter had been working hard all week during school. This was probably the only time he wasn't making straight A's throughout the year because of calculus, the class in which he has a B average in, but other than that, everything was going swell. His relationship with Gwen was managing well, and his side job as The Amazing Spider-Man was as the same as ever.

It was a striking 90 degrees outside in New York, and Peter was sweating uncontrollably. So he got up from the bed and opened the window so that some air could come in. It hasn't been this hot in New York in ages. Still feeling overheated and exhausted, Peter went downstairs to the kitchen to get himself a glass of cold water. When he went down, Aunt May was there still making meatloaf.

"Another tiring day at school?" Aunt May asked with concern.

"Yes," Peter answered as if he just walked the Sahara desert. He took a glass from the cabinet and filled the glass with ice and water.

"Then you should get some rest. Dinner should be ready by the time you wake back up."

"Meatloaf again?"

"There was nothing else to make but meatloaf today. I know my meatloaf isn't the best thing in town, but it's better than air, I suppose."

Peter smiled. "I think your meatloaf is great, Aunt May."

"Really? Are you just saying that?" Aunt May smirked.

Peter laughed this time. "No, really, I do."

"Oh, alright. I guess I wouldn't be too surprised since that one night you came home and ate up all the meatloaf in the fridge."

"Oh yeah, that night," Peter looked away embarrassed. "That was definitely one of the strangest nights I've had." Peter then took a nice, cool, relieving sip of fresh water from his glass.

"I can only hope it wasn't because you were doing something you had no business doing," Aunt May looked back at him with slight suspicion. She was using a common reverse psychology method used by many parents.

"Of course not, Aunt May! You know I'd never do such a thing. Besides, I hate taking pills anyways."

"I never said anything about pills."

Peter turned his eyes to the side out of confusion. He knew he didn't do drugs, and for sure Aunt May did as well. He knew she was just joking, but she seemed so serious about it.

"I, uh… didn't say I did do drugs either," Peter said trying to come up with something to say.

After a few moments of Aunt May giving Peter an extreme gaze into his eyes, they both broke into immediate laughter.

"You really fell for it, didn't you?" Aunt May teased.

"No, I was just playing along," Peter lied.

"I guess those years of drama classes paid off for me," said Aunt May.

"Lucky for you, I'm a terrible liar."

Aunt May laughed again. "Alright, Peter, have a good rest."

"Will do," Peter called as he walked halfway up the stairs back to his room with his glass of cold water.

When he got back to his room, he placed the glass on his computer desk. He sat in his computer chair and buried his head in his hands. He really didn't feel like doing his homework, but it was better to get it over with now so he didn't have to worry about it later. He thought that he could sleep afterwards and then wake up at probably 8:00 p.m., where then he could go out for the night and swing into action. But, schoolwork comes first.

After several minutes passed by with him still not doing anything, Peter finally decided to turn on his desk lamp, pull out his homework assignment, and open his textbook to the chapters that it was over. Calculus. How exciting.

Suddenly, a voice heard from the corner of his room caused Peter to stop what he was doing, and he jerked his head towards the direction of the voice.

"You know, for a guy with preeminent spider-senses, you aren't that hard to sneak by," said the voice.

Peter was frozen and didn't take his eyes off the dark corner for a second. He couldn't exactly see who it was because the room was so dimly lit and the only thing illuminated was his desk lamp. He had curtains now that would cover up the windows so no light could shine through. It was a sunny day outside and normally it would fill up the whole room, but with the curtains put up in his room, he could never tell how it looked outside unless he looked out the window himself. But who could've broken in so easily at this time of the day? It wasn't even nighttime yet. From one thing Peter could tell, the voice was that of a female, and it sounded familiar for some reason. It sounded like a woman; a young woman about in her mid-20's or 30's. Where had he heard a voice like that from before? Peter's heard many fine women's voices before, but this one was a rather particular one. It wasn't too harsh, but it wasn't too flattering. It wasn't too seductive, but it wasn't too unpleasing. Who was it?

After what felt like minutes had passed by, Peter finally snapped out of his state of shock and bravely responded.

"Who's there?" Peter asked the anonymous voice in his room.

"Oh, you already forgot the sound of my voice?" said the voice in a less mysterious tone and a much friendlier one. The person then came from out the dark corner of the room and showed themself. Peter then saw and remembered who it was. It was The Black Widow.

"You again," said Peter in surprise.

"Has it been that long?" said Black Widow standing there with her arms crossed and dressed in her signature black catsuit. She looked exactly the same as she did last time.

"How did you get in here?" Peter asked suspiciously.

"You left the window open."

Peter then looked over to see that he did indeed leave the window open because it was hot as hell.

"And no one saw you?" Peter asked again.

"I have my methods," Black Widow responded. "But that's the least of your problems."

"How did you even know where I lived?"

"You think that a mysterious woman wearing a skintight black suit with red hair, that only gave you her codename, who also knows your name, and that you're just a teenager in high school wouldn't also know where you lived?"

"Point," Peter agreed.

"Mr. Parker, I've been sent here to talk to you about something urgent."

"You've been sent here?"

"Yes, on behalf of SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" Peter asked confused.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division-or for short SHIELD. We're a secret intelligence agency that protects the planet from extraterrestrial and terrorist threats. We do our best to deal with the situations in the best possible manner, and cover it up the best way we can to pretend none of it had ever happened in the first place. There are many agents who work behind the scenes of the organization, and I'm in fact one of them."

"You've got to be joking," said Peter not trying to believe what he's hearing.

"I'm afraid I'm not, Mr. Parker."

"So, why has "SHIELD" sent you to come to me?"

"Because our director, Nick Fury, would like to meet with you to talk about his initiative."

"His initiative? You mean like a team?"

"Exactly."

"Exactly what kind of initiative would this be?"

Black Widow pulled out a flat, wide, black touchscreen phone from her utility belt, placed it on Peter's desk, and slid it toward him slowly. Peter looked at the phone's screen and on the screen displayed pictures of what looked like superheroes. They were pictures that dated from last year. They were in Manhattan. Peter then remembered. The attack on Manhattan that occurred last year. It was an extraterrestrial attack. It was something you would see in a Hollywood film, but it was all too real. Him, his Aunt May, and Uncle Ben were watching the news when it happened and they all thought that it was a joke. It had to be. There was no way. But when they stepped outside, they saw the truth. It was very real. Buildings were destroyed, streets were covered in ashes, and firemen were out still trying to put out fires that were burning for hours. And now that the pictures were shown on the phone, it reminded Peter again how real the whole incident was in the first place.

"Look familiar?" asked Black Widow.

"Yeah. I remember." Peter quietly replied.

"We tried covering up the whole incident from the media as much as possible, but there was no hiding it," Black Widow continued. "The people who were there at that very moment saw what happened with their own eyes. Others who weren't in New York at the time and were watching it on the news thought it was a blockbuster film being displayed, which in a sense it probably was like that, except for real."

Peter then thought back to 9/11. Everyone who wasn't living in New York didn't think it was real at that moment either when they saw it on the news, but Peter knew, and so did other New Yorkers. Peter continued to slide his finger across the screen to go to one image to the next and found that one of the photos had Black Widow herself in them.

"You were there?" Peter asked in astonishment.

"Yes." Black Widow responded. "I fought alongside Director Fury's initiative in hopes of bettering myself and others. It wasn't exactly something I would do, but that's what I felt at that moment."

"I thought you said New York wasn't your fishbowl," Peter teased.

"It still isn't. I go wherever I'm tasked to in the world. At that moment, it just happened to be Manhattan. However, that time, I tasked myself."

Peter kept searching through the pictures and then one in particular caught his eye.

"Is that Tony Stark?" he asked in amusement.

"Indeed it is," Black Widow replied sounding annoyed. Since she knew Tony Stark well enough, just saying his name was more than enough to give her bad memories of working in his old beach house in Malibu.

"I remember," Peter spoke. "I remember seeing them all on the news. They saved the day. You all saved the day."

"Apparently," Black Widow simply spoke.

"Don't you feel honored?" said Peter.

"Fame and glory isn't my thing, Mr. Parker. I don't wish for people to look up to me. I'm not a really good example for the public. In fact, I'd rather not be living the life that I am now."

"Why's that?"

"You have no idea."

After all the photos in the photo album had been seen, Peter slowly gave back the phone to Black Widow and she placed it back in her belt.

"So, that's the initiative?" asked Peter, still not fully convinced.

"Correct. But it's ultimately up to you to decide if you want to meet with Director Fury himself to discuss it. You just give me the word now, and I'll report directly back to him and tell him your final answer."

Peter stared at his desk and thought for a moment. This was a much bigger opportunity than it sounded like (if it was an 'opportunity' at all).

"If you can't make up your mind today, then we can always give you several days or maybe even a week or so," said Black Widow. "But if you surpass your deadline, then we'll have to call off the recruitment, and it'll be as if none of this ever happened."

"What, are you gonna do the same thing to me like the Men in Black?" Peter joked.

"No, Mr. Parker. Hollywood has no absolute knowledge of the world they think they know."

"I guess I can say that too now."

Black Widow then walked back towards the window and gracefully and smoothly raised herself up and placed both feet on the window sill with her upper body bent down so that she wouldn't hit her head on the sash. She was incredibly flexible to be able to bend down and stay balanced on the thin window sill without feeling uncomfortable. Peter wondered how she wasn't burning up in that tight suit in this weather condition outside. She then held onto the halfway open sash and turned back to face Peter.

"Remember, you have two weeks to make up your mind," she said again. "I'll be waiting on your roof the day you're ready."

"And that exact date would be uh-

"You do the math, Mr. Parker."

Black Widow then impressively climbed out of the window and up to the roof where she apparently would disappear. But Peter had to be certain. He quickly raced to the window, jumped outside, and quickly lunged onto the roof in less than 5 seconds. When he made it up to the roof, there was no one in sight.

"Man," Peter said to himself in wonder.