Peter's workload from his classes actually increases quite a bit over the next day; it's like all of his teachers coordinate when they decide to assign reading, homework, and projects. Frankly, it's a little ridiculous. Between the schoolwork, playing Overwatch with Ned, and being Spider-Man, Peter doesn't end up back at the Tower until the next Monday. Over those few days, he gets a single text from Daredevil (now saved as Matt From Work) offering a meeting time and place that he has to decline. The guy is really understanding and just tells Peter to text him when he's free.
When Peter finally shows back up at the Tower, he makes his way up to the lab as usual, but unlike usual, Tony is sitting in an office chair about eight feet away from the elevator doors with his arms crossed over his chest and an unimpressed look on his face.
"Umm… hi?" Peter says cautiously as he steps out of the elevator, glancing around the lab to make sure nobody else is there.
"Do you have something you'd like to tell me, Peter?" Tony asks, his voice much calmer than usual. Honestly, it's a little bit scary.
Crap. Tony knows about the Daredevil thing. He's gonna take away the suit again and tell Aunt May, and she's going to ground him for forever for hanging out with the scariest vigilante in the city aside from the Punisher.
Peter's in trouble no matter what, so he decides there's no reason not to keep digging the hole deeper. He's gonna be buried in it soon anyway.
"Uh, not particularly. Why..?"
"I was going through some police reports—" Tony starts, quickly being interrupted by Peter.
"Is that legal?"
Tony narrows his eyes at Peter. "No. But that's not the point. The point is that I read a report saying that a police officer found three men who had been restrained with a "web-like substance" while "perpetrating the burglary of Cho's Electronics near West 42nd and 10th. There was a note left at the scene signed "Spider-Man". Would you like to explain that?"
"I stopped a crime, Mr. Stark."
"In Hell's Kitchen?" Tony asks, still looking highly unimpressed.
"Yeah, I think 42nd and 10th is in Hell's Kitchen."
"Right after I tell you not to meet up with the vigilante who stays pretty much exclusively in Hell's Kitchen?"
"Well I saw a crime happening—I couldn't just ignore it."
"Why were you even going in that direction in the first place? It's the complete opposite direction of Queens? For the love of God, don't tell me there was another cat."
"But there was!" Peter replies immediately, taking the excuse and running with it. "There's this cat in this alley and it's got kittens and I like to check on them to make sure they're doing okay and I bring the mom food and it was really cold that night so I wanted to put another blanket in the box they live in!" He gives his best puppy eyes and forcing them to water just slightly by looking at one of the many bright lights for just a second (thank you for that trick, MJ). "I didn't want them to die, Mr. Stark!" he finishes, actually having managed a single full tear.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry kid—Jesus I'm sure your cats are gonna be fine. Just be careful in Hell's Kitchen," Tony replies, getting up from the chair and walking over to Peter to actually hug him .
Peter tenses up for a second, and Tony sighs.
"I'm hugging you this time, not getting the door."
Peter can't help the smile as he hugs Tony back for just a second before pulling away.
"Look, if you promise not to tell Pepper, then you can bring the cats here. I'm sure I can find someone who'd want to take care of them, or I can just… hide them in the lab or something," Tony offers.
"You'd really let me keep them here?" Peter asks softly as he realizes 1) Tony definitely very much cares about him, because he's normally extremely anti-pet and 2) he has dug himself into a very, very deep hole. Where the hell is he gonna find a cat with kittens this time of year?
"Yeah, kid," Tony says, ruffling Peter's hair as he walks past him. "Just bring 'em by sometime soon, okay?"
"Alright!" Peter says, heading over to one of the lab benches to make some more web fluid and figure out exactly how to find said cats that he apparently now owns.
Tony smiles at him again before heading to the elevator. Once the sound of the doors closing fills the room, Peter exhales heavily and lets his head fall into his hands. Think, dammit. Where can he get some cats on short notice? Probably Hell's Kitchen honestly. There are a hell of a lot of cats in the neighborhood, so looking is worth a shot.
Peter lets out a sigh and shakes his head as if he could shake off the stress. For the time being, he just needs to work on his Spider-shit, and then he can think about the cats. It only takes him about an hour to do everything he needs to get done, but being that it's mid-January in New York, that means it's already dark out. And Peter still needs to find the cats.
Today is one of the rare occasions where Peter doesn't leave the Tower from the roof as Spider-Man; he leaves from the front doors as Peter Parker, loyal high school intern. The walk to Hell's Kitchen from the Tower is only about seven blocks, but walking really highlights just how much quicker it is to swing his way around as Spider-Man.
He stops at a bodega on 39th to buy the cheapest can of cat food they have before continuing onward to the Kitchen. Peter makes his way down near the docks because that just seems like a place that cats might rather hang out than, say, outside a dive bar where drunks are always hooking up in the alley. He suddenly feels sorry for any cats that do live in alleys behind dive bars because ew, he wouldn't want to see or hear or smell what goes down in those places.
He opens up the can of cat food in the hopes that maybe the scent will manage to attract a nearby cat—hopefully one with kittens. It does manage to attract a cat, but only one and it's the ugliest, mangiest thing Peter's ever seen in his life. And it's a boy cat, so that automatically takes it out of the running.
After another half hour, Peter's just about to give up all hope when the hairs on his arms all stand up. He spins around immediately, looking for whatever it is that's setting the Spidey sense off, and finds absolutely nothing.
When he turns back around, Daredevil's standing about two feet away, and Peter reflexively throws a punch because the costume is actually kinda scary in the dark—especially when you're not expecting it.
Daredevil dodges the punch and tilts his head slightly in the odd way he does every so often. "Sorry for scaring you, Peter," he apologizes, and Peter freezes up because apparently Daredevil somehow managed to recognize him even without the mask.
"Uhh… who's Peter?" Peter says.
Daredevil gives him a funny look before it quickly morphs into an exasperated one. "You're Peter. Don't lie, your heartbeat and breathing sound the same regardless of what you're wearing."
That's right; Daredevil has like freakishly good hearing.
"Oh, I was wondering how you knew."
"Super senses, remember? Anyway, what're you doing here?" Matt asks, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the brick wall beside them.
"I'm uh… I'm looking for a cat. With kittens."
"Do you own this cat and kittens?" Daredevil asks with a slightly confused look. The guy has a really expressive mouth.
"No…" Peter answers, dragging the one syllable out for way longer than he needs to.
"Okay. Can I ask why you're looking for a family of cats that aren't yours?"
"Because I lied to Mr. Stark and told him I was hanging out in Hell's Kitchen to take care of a stray cat and her kittens and he told me to bring the cats to the Tower and that he could find homes for them and now I'm really screwed if I don't bring him the cats because then he'll find out that I was lying and I was really in Hell's Kitchen to work with you and he'll be so pissed," Peter blurts out.
Daredevil looks like it's the funniest thing he's heard all month. He snorts unattractively and sighs. "Alright, kid. Let's find you some cats."
"Wait—you're helping me find my made-up cats?"
"Yeah, come on," Daredevil replies, turning and gesturing for Peter to follow after him.
They stick to the streets, Peter following along at Daredevil's side as they weave around down the different alleys, Daredevil stopping occasionally to either listen or smell the air which is actually super effing weird, but Peter doesn't say that out loud because it would probably be kind of insulting.
Finally, Daredevil turns them down the dead end between a church and a pizza restaurant and takes the can of cat food from Peter, carefully setting it down near a dumpster. He walks back a few feet and Peter follows him, not saying a word as Matt indicates for him to be quiet.
A minute later a small, tortoiseshell cat pokes her head out from beneath the dumpster and approaches the cat food cautiously. She's skinny but not deathly so, and she eats the cat food quickly.
As she eats Matt very slowly approaches her, stopping every half step for anywhere from ten seconds to a minute until he's finally kneeling in front of her. He works off one of his gloves slowly before extending it for the cat to sniff. She does so hesitantly before lightly bumping her head against Matt's knuckles. He sits down and inclines his head toward Peter before lightly patting the ground beside him.
Peter approaches cautiously and takes a seat beside Matt, letting the cat sniff his hand as well.
"Not that this isn't great and all DD, but I kinda need her to have kittens…" Peter says a few minutes later once the cat has finished the food and crawled into Matt's lap where he's scratching behind her ears gently.
"She has kittens," Matt replies simply, lifting his free hand to point at the dumpster that the cat had been camped out under before they'd arrived. "There are six under there in an old cardboard box. There's some sort of fabric in the box—an old t-shirt I think."
Peter's eyes light up, and he gets up from where he's been sitting. The cat lets out a soft mrrow sound as Peter moves, but she seems content to stay in Matt's lap even as Peter moves towards where her kittens are stashed.
Sure enough, there are six small, wriggly kittens in the box when Peter pulls it out from under the dumpster. Their ears are still tiny and round and they look like they've only just opened their eyes.
"Awww," Peter coos softly, running his finger along an orange kitten, all the way from the top of its head down its stumpy little kitten tail.
"Think these'll be good enough?" Matt asks, now standing beside Peter with the momma cat perched happily on his shoulder and rubbing her face against one of the horns on his helmet.
"Oh my God, can I please take a picture of you," Peter blurts out immediately at seeing the glorious scene before him.
Matt's expressive lower half of his face makes an appearance again, but he just shrugs with the shoulder that the cat isn't standing on. "I don't see why not."
Peter grins at him. "Alright, cross your arms over your chest for me," he instructs.
Daredevil obliges and Peter picks up two of the kittens, setting them in the cradle of Matt's arms. Two more trips from the box to Matt and all six kittens are piled in his arms while the momma cat is still rubbing her face against his horn.
Peter pulls out his phone and stands back just enough to get from the top of Daredevil's head to his waist in the picture before putting it away, thankful for the nearby streetlight so he didn't need to use flash.
"Um, Peter, help," Daredevil says, sounding slightly strangled, and Peter looks up from his phone.
Two of the kittens are trying to get out of Daredevil's arms and onto his shoulder with their mom, so Peter grabs the box off the ground and walks over to him, carefully loading all six babies back into the box.
Peter frowns slightly. "Um, I can't really take these guys tonight—it's late enough that Mr. Stark would know I had to go find some cats instead of getting ones I already knew."
"I can take them for tonight," Matt offers, scratching the momma cat's head fondly as she purrs.
"Really? Because I'm sure I can figure something else out—"
Daredevil waves him off casually. "It's fine. I live pretty close by. Just text me when you need them and I can bring 'em to you."
"Wow, thanks. You're a life saver, Matt. Really—Mr. Stark would actually kill me if he knew what I was really doing."
Matt smiles at him. "Now I doubt that. Jessica says he's pretty fond of you."
Peter feels his face flush slightly and he mutters something gibberish before Matt huffs out a soft laugh and takes the box of kittens from him.
"Go on, Peter. I'll take care of them," he assures.
"Alright. Don't get too attached to them, though," Peter warns with a smile.
"I won't," Matt promises. "Now go home. It's a school night, and I'm assuming Spider-Man still needs to make an appearance before you go to sleep."
"Yeah, you're right," Peter says with a sigh. "Goodnight Matt."
"Night Peter."
As Peter starts his trek towards the nearest subway station he can almost swear that he hears Matt cooing softly to the cat and her kittens. So much for not getting attached, he thinks.