It was moments like this that Peter remembered the very real existence of the fabled 'Parker luck'. There was no one else this would happen to, except for him. See it was no normal person Peter had bumped into. Oh no. Instead it was Steve Rogers—better known as Captain America.

The Captain turned around to see who had bumped into him, only to be met with the face of one embarrassed Peter Parker.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I should have looked where I was going. I'll just get out of your way. Sorry- " as Peter scrambled to let out as many apologies as possible he tripped over his own feet causing him to fall backwards. Only to be caught by Steve, who quickly reached out to stop him from falling, grabbing him by the shoulders.

Flinching at the sudden contact, Peter moved away from the touch with haste. Why was he flinching so much lately? Steve seemed to get the message, removing his hands just as fast as he had caught Peter, a concerned look plagued his face.

"You okay, son?" The Captain asked as Peter straightened out his clothes and pushed aside a piece of hair that hung in-front of his face.

"Yes, Sir. Sorry again," Peter apologised.

"No harm, no foul. What are you doing out and about, isn't it a school day?" Steve asked with innocent curiosity.

"Oh, yeah, it's just uh—a day off. Yeah, day off," Peter lied, his words seeming blatantly fake even to him. As Steve remained quiet, Peter worried he wouldn't believe him. Why did he care anyway? He didn't know him in this world, he was just some random kid.

Steve finally seemed to accept Peter's answer, though begrudgingly. He smiled at Peter, and he couldn't help but feel like he was back in his old life; before time-travel, or Thanos. When everything was normal. The way it would never be again.

"Are you getting lunch, kid?" Steve asked, gesturing to the cafe behind him.

"Yeah."

"Same, c'mon I'll buy you lunch. Least I could do for scaring you half to death," Steve laughed as he spoke, opening the cafe door for the two of them.

Peter rushed to reply as he entered the cafe "No, sir. It's fine really. I have money I can buy my own. I was the one who ran into you, so really it's my fault, I'm sorry about that again- "

Steve cut off his rambling with a reassuring smile, "Kid, calm down. Just let me buy you lunch. You look like you need it, you look like me before the serum."

The remark was supposed to be a joke at his small size. Steve probably thought he was a weak kid from his frame, he couldn't see it was from the lack of eating. His hoodie covered the ribs peaking out of his skin. Though it was meant to be a joke, it hurt how true it was. He did need the food, and even though he had some money now—anything would help. Swallowing his pride, Peter said to Steve:

"Thank you, sir."

"All good, what do you want?"

Looking up at the options that were printed on the wall, Peter scanned for the cheapest option. He finally saw a cheese and ham toastie for only 4 dollars. Perfect.

Telling Steve his choice, the man went to order their lunch. Peter stood awkwardly by himself as he waited for Steve to return. When he finally did, he told Peter the food would be ready in about 5 minutes and offered Peter a seat at the table he was waiting at.

Was this an opportunity? Maybe the voice that sent him here was trying to push him towards the people he used to know. You can't help people who don't know you exist, right? Then again, the choice Peter had made was none of their responsibility. It was his problem to fix. Nevertheless Peter accepted the seat, out of politeness—not friendship.

"Thanks."

It was calming, how quickly the two fell into meaningless small talk as they waited for the food. Steve didn't pry at Peter's blatant lie about it being a day off from school or why he looked so thin, which Peter was thankful for.

In turn, Peter didn't ask anything about the Avengers or hero things. Which Steve seemed to be equally grateful for. Peter knew what it was like to only be seen as your hero persona and just how annoying it got, so he stuck to meaningless conversation; what he was doing today, and the weather until finally the food was ready.

"Two sandwiches, two donuts and a coffee for Steve!" The worker called out, looking around for them.

Steve stood up, collecting the food and thanking the worker. As he came back over to Peter, he handed him two paper bags of food. One containing the toastie he had asked for, and the other containing a cinnamon donut.

"Uh, sir? I think you gave me your donut by accident," Peter added, trying to hand back the donut.

"No, kid. I got it for you. Like I said you look like you could use it," Steve countered, pushing Peter's hand which held the donut back towards him. Sighing, Peter smiled and thanked him.

"It's no problem."

The two exited the cafe carrying their lunches. Steve turned to Peter and said:

"Stay safe kid, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure. Thanks again for the lunch, you didn't have to."

"I wanted to, but I mean it. Stay safe." Steve paused in the street, before pulling out a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket, writing his number and handing it to Peter, "If you need help, call me ok?"

Steve watched Peter wordlessly, but his eyes gave voice to everything he wanted to say—let me help you. And yet, Peter couldn't bear the idea of dragging people into his mess. Looking away from Steve's knowing gaze, he took the piece of paper and put it in his pocket without looking at it. He didn't have a phone anyway.

"Thanks," Peter said for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

With a sad look, Steve said goodbye and turned, walking off in the opposite direction. Peter did the same, pulling the paper out of his pocket to look at it. Next to the number, Steve had written:

"If you aren't safe, call me."

He stuffed it back into his pocket and kept walking towards his "home," not looking back. If he had, he would have seen Steve watching his back with concern.

—

Crawling back into his makeshift home, Peter took a seat next to the window. Taking out his newly acquired lunch, he let out a happy sigh at his first bite. Only then did Peter realise how hungry he really was. He practically devoured the food, unable to get enough with his increased metabolism. When he had finally eaten it all, he leaned against the brick wall behind him.

All in all, it had been a pretty good day. He had a job, some extra money and lunch. Even a chance to go back to SI.

Though, he couldn't get his encounter with Steve out of his head. He hadn't seen the soldier since the final battle with Thanos, before the man had gone back in time to live with Peggy. It was weird to see him act so normally, like nothing had happened. Peter supposed that was because nothing had happened yet.

He looked around at the mess he was currently calling his home. With a huff, he stood up. Peter went around the abandoned building, cleaning up empty beer bottles and spiderwebs. If he was going to be staying here, it would need a little bit of cleaning.

There was nothing useful left behind in this dump he was calling his home. The rest of his equipment would have to be found the way he used to make tech—dumpster diving. History really does repeat.

Peter climbed the fire escape down the side of the building, landing on the dumpster. Jumping off the lid, Peter tried to open it. With an ear piercing screech, it opened. Gripping the edge of the bin, Peter leaned in to look around. For the most part it was real garbage. But if there was one thing Peter knew from his old experiences in dumpster diving, it was that people always throw away things that he could use. One man's trash is another man's future tech.

Moving around a couple of trash bags, Peter found nothing. As he was about to give up on the dumpster—he saw something reflecting light into his eye from the far right hand corner. With a smirk, he reached forward and grabbed the object.

To Peter's delight, it was exactly what he had hoped it would be—if not a little banged up— an old Stark Industries laptop.

The screen was completely cracked and falling apart on one side, but that didn't matter. The laptop itself wasn't what Peter needed anyway. Back in his time it would have been, back when he fixed stuff like this for him to use. But for now, all Peter needed were the parts.

Smiling down at his new found treasure, Peter quickly checked that there wasn't anything else only to find a half used roll of duct tape. Could today get any better?

Closing the lid, Peter climbed back up to his "home" and settled down with the laptop and duct tape next to the broken heater. He could make this work, right? He always had in the past, now it just means a little more.

Taking a deep breath, Peter started to take apart the laptop to see what pieces he could use. He had some time before his first shift, he could start working on the heater now. He just had to keep an eye on the time.