Peter left the bar all smiles that night.
He and Wade had decided that they would train Monday, during the time he normally had a shift, and Thursday before his shift.
They had spent the rest of the night with Peter telling the story of how he got his powers and talking about what he wanted his suit to look like.
When Wade got him to draw his ideal suit, Peter drew the first suit Mr Stark had given him. Minus the tech of course. Wade had jokingly suggested that he make his colours for the suit red and black like his—but Peter just laughed and joked that the blue and red weren't up for discussion. Besides, brighter colours made it more obvious he was a hero, not a villain people should run away from.
Eventually when Peter did leave the bar in the early hours of the morning, he left with more hope than he came in with. No longer was being Spider-Man again a distance dream, something he wanted but had to be pushed to the side. Now, it was going to be a reality.
But, for all the excitement, there was also boredom.
Tuesday was back to the boring reality of not having friends, out of work, and living alone. But this time he had something to do, and a small bit of motivation to do it. And so he spent his time that day going from shop to shop. Buying some food from Auntie Camilla's shop, non-perishables that he could keep for a long time as well as some fruits, like apples and bananas.
The other thing he really needed to do was get some more clothes, his whole body felt disgusting wearing the same set of clothes for a week.
Peter looked down and the 50 dollars he had left. I was a lot of money for him, buying clothes would mean spending a lot of money, especially since he had just bought food. He had 20 more dollars at home just in case. So maybe he deserved to spend a bit more?
He had had a shit week and he wanted to get out of the clothes, now. He deserved it.
Peter returned to his home that day with enough food for a week and, thankfully, a cheap new outfit.
Originally, Peter couldn't find clothing stores nearby where the prices were cheap enough for him to get what he needed. But eventually he found a small, back alley thrift store on his way back to his home just before he was going to give up on his quest for new clothes.
Peter had gotten a new pair of jeans, an old ACDC top and even another hoodie. He would have to keep this place in mind next time he had enough money to get more stuff.
He changed as soon as he got home, throwing off his dirty clothes in favour of his new cleaner ones.
He ran the old clothes under water in a vain attempt to wash them before leaving them on the counter in the kitchen to dry so he could wear them again another day.
Peter soon found himself snuggled up in his makeshift bed. That would be the next thing he bought, a new blanket or pillows. Why hadn't he bought that today? Instead he had wasted his money on clothes. Mentally slapping himself and vowing to save up for a blanket or pillows Peter leaned back into his bed and soon fell into the warm embrace of sleep.
—————-
When it rolled around to 3pm the next day, Peter found himself once again standing outside of Stark Industries.
Waving hello to the receptionist and swiping his card at the security desk, he made his way up to the interns floor. Even though Peter knew she wouldn't respond as she didn't know him in this universe, he still said, "Thank you Ms. FRIDAY," as he exited the elevator. It was more instinct now than anything, though he couldn't help but feel a little sad when FRIDAY didn't respond.
Just another thing he was still getting used to.
When he entered the lab, Peter noticed that just like the first time he had arrived for his internship, there was only Dr. Williamson and Gwen in the lab so far.
Dr Williamson was sitting at his usual spot near the front of the room. He waved at Peter as he entered and told him to get started whenever. So Peter did.
As he started to walk to his desk near the back of the room, Gwen looked at him and said:
"New outfit?"
With a breathy laugh Peter responded, "Despite popular belief I do have more than one outfit, I just really like my other one." It was just a bend of the truth, he did have more than one outfit now, though he didn't really like the other one. But he wasn't going to say that, was he?
Gwen just laughed as she put her backpack on the back of her chair and got started on her project. It looked like she was basically ready to start building, with only a few modifications she had left to make on her plan.
Peter sat down on his desk, grabbing out his plan and heater to make it look like he was working on it when he saw a piece of paper folded up on his desk. With curiosity, Peter picked it up, unfolded it and read the note that was held in it.
"Peter,
I know you left for a reason, and don't want to impose on your life—but me and Steve were worried about you. I know you have Steve's number but here is mine as well. If you need us, PLEASE call us. You don't have to be alone.
1 212 555 0480
From Bucky
P.S. Steve wants to see you to make sure you're ok, he will be at the coffee shop you met at on Sunday at 3pm. No pressure, but if you're ok with it go and see him, he's going a bit insane not knowing if you're ok but we don't want to impose. Stay safe."
Peter stared at the note for a moment. Why did everyone think he needed help? That he wasn't ok? He was fine. Not great, but was anyone?
Folding up the note, Peter stuffed it into his pocket. He would think about meeting Steve. On one hand he was lonely and seeing people was good, on top of that he needed a way to help stop Thanos and the Civil War, if he keeps pushing people away he wouldn't get the chance. On the other hand, well he didn't really have a good reason not to go, but he was still going to think about it.
Grabbing a new piece of paper, the rest of the interns started filing in. They all waved and said their hellos, asking how each other's projects were going. Peter more or less kept to himself, though he added to the conversation every now and then.
Picking up his pencil, Peter started to map out plans for web shooters. The web fluid would come later, once he had the web shooters in the first place.
The design itself was simple enough, they didn't need to be as high tech as the ones Mr Stark had made him. They just had to work. Special features like web grenades could come later if he had time, though they weren't a priority.
Collecting up some of the materials he would need, small pieces of metal, wires, some switches, Peter got to work right away. Though, to avoid suspicion every now and then he would tweak his heater to make it look like he was still working on it.
In reality the heater was basically done, other than the few small changes Peter was adding as he was putting together his web shooters, there wasn't much else Peter had to do before it was completely finished. Which was good, it meant he had more time to work on Spider-Man stuff.
Secretly working on his web shooters reminded Peter of when he had first become Spider-Man. He used to sit at the back of classes and tinker with his contraptions. Or when he would write ideas for his web fluid in the margins of his notes for different classes.
Of course, the situation was a little different. This time he knew what he was doing , he just needed to focus on not getting caught. Back in the day he had to worry about figuring it out in the first place. Peter had to say he much preferred knowing what he was doing.
The next thing Peter knew, the time had flown. He was almost completely done with the web shooters and it was only 4:55pm. He still had over an hour before he had to go. He would even have time to make a batch of web fluid.
Which means he could take them both home to test properly and fix up anything he needed to change.
Peter smiled down at his creation in his hands. Even just having them in front of him put him at ease. He used to always have them on him, not having them on him began to feel like losing his phone or his earphones.
Standing up from his desk he walked over to where the chemicals he was allowed to use were. Peter breathed a sigh of relief when all the chemicals he needed were there for him to use. He carefully measured out the amounts he needed before making his way back over to his desk, chemicals in hand.
He put on some PPE, gloves and goggles just in case, and looked over the instructions he had written out to remind himself of what to do. Not that he really looked at it, but it was there as a precaution in case he suddenly forgot the formula he knew by heart.
Time seemed to move at double speed as Peter mixed up and completed his web fluid with 10 minutes to spare.
He put the fluid into a containment unit that would fit into his web shooters and slipped both objects into his pockets. Along with his plan, which he folded up and slipped into his pocket next to the note from Bucky.
He noticed like him the rest of the interns had also packed up and were preparing to go home. Rachel was talking to Dr. Williamson about something she needed for her project, Oliver was talking to Gwen while finishing up cleaning their station.
Peter walked over to Roy, who was slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Hey Peter, how's your project going?" The red-haired boy asked.
"Pretty good, almost done. Just a few things I need to tweak," Peter replied, it wasn't a complete lie. Just not the complete truth either, "you?"
"Finally got started, the plan took forever. There was this one part I couldn't get right but I figured it out in the end," Roy said as the two boys made their way to the elevator followed by the others.
As Peter joked with the other interns he realised something.
Yes, he missed his friends from back in his time. Ned and MJ were some of the nicest people he knew. But that didn't mean he couldn't make new friends. He would have to make new friends.
Maybe that wasn't bad.
He had lost so much, but that didn't mean he couldn't find something new.
————
Dr. Williamson sat at his desk, finishing up looking over some reports that were due later when he heard the elevator open and someone walk out. Nearly 10 minutes had passed since the interns had left so he expected to see one of them returning to pick up something they had left behind.
Instead, standing in front of him in a full suit complete with his iconic glasses, was Tony Stark.
He quickly stood up to meet the man, "Mr. Stark," he greeted, holding out his hand for the man to shake.
"Please call me Tony, Doctor. You've worked for me for years, surely we're on a first name basis by now, no?" Tony asked, taking off his glasses and sliding them into his pocket.
Shaking the billionaire's hand, he replied, "Of course. Might I ask why you're here?"
Tony started to walk around the room, looking at the desks and different inventions. "I thought I should come check on the younglings, make sure they aren't blowing up the labs. But I guess I just missed them."
"Indeed, they just left. You're welcome to have a look at their different projects though. They are still out on their desks," the doctor invited, gesturing to the different desks around the room.
Nodding his head, Tony began to look over at the different inventions and plans. He took a moment at each desk, reading over the plans before moving on. Eventually he stopped at a desk near the back.
Tony looked at the heater on Peter's desk and carefully read the plan and different notes he had left on the blueprints. He was quiet for a second before asking:
"Whose is this?"
Dr. Williamson walked over and looked down at the work area thinking for a moment before saying, "Peter Parker, sir. He's our brightest, smarter than half the people who work in my department. He aced the entrance test, barely took him one session to plan this entire thing."
Tony seemed impressed, he began walking out the room after saying goodbye to Dr Williamson. Before reaching the elevator he turned around and said:
"I guess we will have to keep an eye on Mr. Parker then."