Work that night was pretty uneventful, especially compared to the day Peter had. He spent most of his shift at the bar making drinks. Apparently word of his mixology abilities had spread amongst those who frequented the place because the bar was packed—especially since it was a Tuesday night.
It seemed like one of the people sitting at the bar, who Peter had met last night, noticed.
"You seem excited about something, Spider. You got somewhere you'd rather be?" They jokingly asked. They took a quick sip of the beer Peter had just served them in-between their sentences.
Peter wiped up some melting ice from the counter, then swung the cloth he used over his shoulder, resting it there. He gave a breathy laugh and he began making another drink.
"Don't worry, just excited about something I got tomorrow, I'm not gonna run off in the middle of service," Peter joked, passing a drink to someone.
"Good, cause I need to try me one of the drinks everyone has been talking about. A strong one please." the man said, sliding forward his now empty beer glass and wiping his mouth.
"Coming right up." Peter replied, taking the glass and putting it in the wash.
The night continued like that, not much excitement but it was actually fun talking to the mercenaries and people who visited the bar. Though Peter tried his hardest to not listen to any of the deals they were taking. He wasn't Spider-Man right now, he didn't have any of his tech, so he couldn't do much. But knowing something was going to happen and not doing anything still made him feel weird. Some repressed guilt most likely.
It was odd—he had never met a mercenary before working at the bar, Peter had always thought that they would be cruel, heartless people because they killed for a living. And don't get him wrong, he didn't condone their actions at all, but they were for the most part nice people.
It was strange.
For most of his life Peter had thought that people were either good or bad. That people who did good were nice people—and people who did bad things were malicious. But they weren't, and Peter was still struggling to wrap his head around it.
Through his time as Spider-Man, Peter had started to see the world in a black and white fashion. You were either a hero who helped, an innocent civilian for him to protect, or a bad guy who Peter was trying to protect people from. But the world isn't truly like that.
Look at him. He was working an illegal job and hiding out at an abandoned building and forging documents, but he wasn't a bad person. He was just surviving. Wasn't everyone just surviving? No one can be truly good, or truly bad. Maybe it was about time he learnt that.
Peter heard the sound of the bar door opening, but he was quite used to it by now so he didn't look up, he was too busy serving a customer a whisky sour. He did look up though, when the person, whom he had never seen before, walked directly over to the bar and without looking at him asked:
"Where's Weasel?"
"Uh, out the back I think… why?" Peter responded.
At the sound of his voice the stranger, who he could now see was covered in scar or burn tissue, looked up at him confused.
"Why is there a five year old in the bar?!" The man asked, gasping exaggeratedly before he spoke. "Weasel, if you don't get your ass in here right now my stunt double is going to fuck you up!"
Peter heard rustling from out back, confused by the strange man, Peter kept making drinks but kept a side eye on him. Just in case. In return the man seemed to be side-eyeing him. Eventually, Weasel came to the front of the bar. He didn't seem surprised by the odd man's presence, in fact he seemed completely unfazed.
"Wade, you're back on time for once. How'd it go?" He questions, taking a drink Peter had just made and handing it to the customer.
"The job is boring news compared to the literal toddler you have roaming the bar!" The man cried.
Peter just snorted in return, "I thought I was 5?"
"And he admits it," Wade jokingly says. With a sigh, Weasel fills Wade in.
"Wade, this is Spider, he works here. He is not 5 and can handle himself perfectly fine. Don't get your panties in a twist over it."
"I will twist whatever I want, thank you very much. And don't worry baby boy, I'll save you from the bad bad man. Just tell me what orphanage he stole you from and I'll bring you home," as Wade spoke he came around to the other side of the bar and picked Peter up. Throwing him over his shoulder, Wade began to walk out. Peter couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Rubbing his face, Weasel said, "Please put the kid down."
"La, la, la. Can't hear you over my massively heroic gesture of me saving this vulnerable child from your evil clutches." Wade sang as he looked over his shoulder back at Weasel.
Someone standing at the pool table gave a laugh at the scene before adding "Listen to Weasel, the kid can handle himself. He broke a bottle over some douchebag's head yesterday who tried to feel some girl up."
At their words, Wade dropped Peter back onto his feet, but kept his hands on his shoulders. He looked him deep in the eye and said:
"You got some nerve, kid?"
It was phrased as a question, yet sounded more like a statement. Peter simply shrugged in return, unsure of what or how to answer. Giving an uncertain nod, Wade brushed a bit of dust off of Peter's shoulder and turned the both of them back towards the bar.
"Hurt the kid and you will look more like an old avocado than I do," Wade said simply. Even mercenaries have rules against hurting kids—who would have thought?
"I can take care of myself," Peter said before simply moving back to his spot behind the bar. "Now, what can I get you?"
—
After his shift, Peter made his way back to the abandoned building he called his home. He looked longingly at his 'bed'. He was beyond tired from the long day and lack of sleep. And yet he couldn't stomach the idea of falling asleep there and waking up to another panic attack about the building falling on him.
He needed to sleep, he just couldn't sleep here right now.
Sleeping on the streets was immediately out of the question—it was too dangerous. He could try and find a shelter, but it was already into the early hours of the morning. All the beds would be full or close to. Even if there was room he would have to spend the little money he had for food on the bed for the night, he couldn't waste it. He had only one other option.
Sighing, he picked up the cushions and fire blanket that made up his bed and dragged them up to the roof. The sky was once again clear, meaning it wasn't going to start raining while he was sleeping.
Setting down the pillows onto the floor of the roof, Peter got comfortable. He pulled the blanket tightly around himself and closed his eyes. Being outside the building meant that he could hear the sounds of cars passing more easily. It was quite annoying at the start, but he quickly grew used to it and it became nothing more than white noise. It was a small price to pay for a good night's rest free from panic attacks.
A price Peter was willing to pay.
Soon the sounds of car engines racing by turned into sweet lullabies as he was taken over by sleep. The soundest sleep he had had since turning up in this new universe—and not just because he was on the roof.
He could finally support himself, he had a somewhat steady stream of money, a place to stay, and now a chance to get back into a lab. Things were looking up. Perhaps he would make this universe work for him. Maybe if he found the materials, he could be Spider-Man again.
Every universe needs a hero, right?
Many hours passed before Peter finally woke up. Even when the sun began to rise, he stayed in a restful slumber for a few extra hours. It wasn't like he was supposed to be anywhere until 3pm for the first day of his internship. Of which Peter was using as an excuse to stay in bed longer. He needed the sleep to perform well on his first day, right?
The time leading up to the internship passed slowly. Everything seemed boring and tedious compared to the idea of getting back in a lab. Peter tried to keep himself busy by getting some more food, cleaning up a bit more around the fire station, and checking on the heater—but despite this it felt like years before lunchtime passed.
Even then he still had a couple hours before the internship. Peter finally decided that he would start walking, slowly though so he didn't arrive too early.
Through his many walks Peter has learnt how to pass time looking at the world around him and had even invented a game to cure his boredom. When he passed someone, Peter would look at the clothes and demeanour and try to come up with a story about who they were and their life. It was more fun than Peter thought it would be. It felt like he was Sherlock Holmes, deducing everyone around him.
Though Peter knew he was probably wrong about all the things he was guessing it was fun anyways, so it didn't matter. It did its job however, as he realised it was 3pm and he was standing outside of Stark Industries.
Finally.
Peter tried to fix his messy hair a bit while he walked in. He wanted to look at least somewhat presentable. Though he had learned long ago that his hair was somewhat untameable at times, he still tried.
Peter walked over to the reception desk he had signed in at yesterday. A different person was sitting at the desk compared to before. Peter didn't know why it surprised him, a big company would have more than one receptionist he supposed. Walking up to the desk Peter introduced himself.
"Hi. I, um, I'm here for my internship. I was told to report here first. My name is Peter Parker."
The lady at the desk looked up, for a moment. Before looking back down at her desk, opening a drawer and pulling a card out. She passed him the card before explaining:
"This is your internship card, it has your name, status, authentication and everything you need on it. Always keep it clipped on your clothes in an area where it is easy to see. If people can't see you wearing one they may think you are not supposed to be there. Please use the elevators you used yesterday, when you get in the elevator there won't be any buttons. Just ask to be taken to the intern's floor and FRIDAY, the tower's AI, will take you up, but she won't respond. Good luck with your first day," the woman spoke calmly.
Thanking her, he made his way up to the interns floor. It was weird, for FRIDAY not to respond for once. Back before everything went to shit he would have long winded conversations with the AI. The silence was a little unsettling.
Swiping his card at a security door to enter the floor, Peter finally got a look at the lab he was going to be working at.
The lab itself was huge. The room was covered in tables, computers, testing areas and what looked like any material and chemical he could ever need for a project. It wasn't as nice as Tony's personal lab, sure. But it would do. This was going to be fun.
As Peter looked around, he noticed two other people were in the room. A man, who looked to be in his 50s and a girl, who looked just a little older than him.
The man was dressed in a suit, with a white lab coat in place of his suit jacket. He also had a pair of black glasses on that he seemed to be constantly adjusting so they didn't fall off his face.
The girl had what looked like bleached blonde hair that was cut into a bob cut. She wore white button up with a black skirt and converse.
The two seemed to finally notice Peter's presence, turning fully to look at him.
"Ah Mr. Parker, is it?" The man asked, Peter just nodded in response, "My name is Dr. Williamson, I will be the scientist in charge of the interns. FRIDAY just alerted me that the other 3 interns just signed in, so when they arrive I will debrief you all. I will let you two get acquainted."
Leaving the two interns for a moment, Dr. Williamson walks over to a computer, and Peter suddenly felt a little awkward. He was never good at making friends on the spot, he was normally quite a jittery person and his nerves made him stutter over his words as a result.
"You have a name? Or am I supposed to call you Mr. Parker?" The girl questioned, raising an eyebrow jokingly.
"Haha no, It's Peter. My name is Peter," he held out his hand for her to shake after introducing himself.
"Gwen Stacy," she responded, taking his hand and shaking it. They dissolved into silence for a moment before the other three interns showed up mere seconds later.
"Wonderful, wonderful, you must be our remaining interns? Yes?" The three who entered nodded in response. Pointing at a red-haired boy he asked, "Roy Dunes?" The boy nodded. Then pointing at the blonde haired boy, "So you must be Oliver Haver?" The boy shook the man's hand as he nodded.
Looking over at the raven haired girl that had entered he confirmed, "And you must be Rachel Burner."
"Yes Sir."
"Here we have Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. I trust you all will become quite close friends over your time here. As I said before my name is Dr. Williamson, I will be overseeing your time at SI while you are interns. Let's not waste time, you have an assignment to test your skills," The man spoke, he seemed very professional, all his words sounded practised and precise.
The interns stood up straighter at the information that they already had an assignment. They looked at each other as if to see how they were all reacting to the news.
"Don't look so frightened, it is nothing like the tests you completed yesterday. In fact there is almost no brief, it is mostly up to you. For the next 2 weeks, you will design, build, test and complete anything you think could be used to help people in one way or another, however if you choose to build something of a larger scale—you may just create an in-depth design, as I know it may be impossible to create something in 2 weeks. This will show us not only your skills but what you are interested in and passionate about. This isn't school, there is no pass or fail, just do what you can. You will get to take it home when you are done. Once we have seen everyone's strengths we can start group projects. Good luck. Find a place in the lab and get going, and if you need help, come find me, I will be at my desk."
That was it? Peter pretty much had free reign to do whatever he wanted. And he got to bring it "home" when he was done. Maybe he could make something he could use. The heater he had fixed already looked like it was dying, turns out the computer battery he used to fix it was almost dead.
Peter made his way over to a desk and sat down.
Maybe he could find a way to make a small, cheap, heater that uses renewable energy. It would help him yes, but also the design could be used to help the wider homeless community. Taking a piece of paper and a pencil, Peter started to sketch out a design.
This internship might turn out to be more than an escape, maybe it would help him survive.