School the next day is a lot easier than it's been in a long time; Peter thinks that's the result of him taking an entire day off to get his head as in order as it can be without professional help. His classes pretty much breeze by and before he knows it he's walking out of school with his phone held up to his ear.

After four rings Matt picks up, and there's the immediate sound in the background of two people crooning "Who's Peterrr~?" followed by the sound of a door shutting.

"Hey, Peter, what's up?" Matt asks, ignoring what sounds like four hands knocking on the door for another ten seconds before they give up.

"Oh, just calling to say I can take the cats off your hands now."

"Uh, okay. You mind coming by my office to pick them up?"

Peter is internally freaking out because Daredevil—Matt— trusts him enough to let him meet him as a real person. Unless he works in the Daredevil costume at a different building each day with complete strangers. "Sure! Where's your office?"

Matt tells him an address deep in Hell's Kitchen before he says he has to go and hangs up. Peter takes the subway to Manhattan just like on the days when he goes straight to the Tower after school, but this time he heads a bit further to get to the address Matt gave him. It's an unassuming brick office building, but Peter heads on up to the first door on the left on the second floor. The glass in the door reads "Nelson, Murdock, & Page: Attorneys and Investigative Services".

When he opens the door there's a small waiting room set out with a desk at the far wall. A pretty blonde woman is sitting at the desk, typing away on a laptop and doesn't look up until Peter clears his throat.

"I'm uh… I'm here to see Matt?" Peter says unsurely as he reads the nameplate on the desk. "Ms. Page."

Before Karen Page can say anything, the door to the office on her left opens and a man with dark hair and red tinted sunglasses comes out. He's wearing a black suit and looks fairly put together aside from the very faint bruise on his cheek.

"Peter," he greets with a smile, and yup that's Daredevil's voice.

"Oh. You look so… normal," Peter blurts out, earning him a choked back laugh from Karen along with the sound of the office door on the other side of the room opening. "Not that that's a bad thing! I was just expecting you to look more uh… Frank Castle-y and less Men's Warehouse model-y. And you're a lawyer. Which is, like, only slightly less ironic than if you were a cop."

The other man laughs at that and Matt sets his mouth into a straight line, looking very unimpressed by his business partner. Once he's done laughing he gets a highly concerned look on his face.

"Matt," he says.

"Yes, Foggy?" Matt replies pleasantly.

"That's a child."

"Yes, it is."

"There's a child in our office."

"Yep."

"Surprised by how normal you look."

"That's what he said."

"Matt, how do you know this child?"

"We're in the same line of business."

"Matthew," the man Matt called Foggy says, sounding absolutely scandalized.

"How old are you?" Karen asks, looking slightly concerned as well.

"I'm fifteen."

"Fifteen?!" Foggy says shrilly, causing Matt to cringe a little.

"Hey! I'm almost sixteen, and besides I'm just here to get the cats," Peter says, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You can lecture him about his life choices later, Foggy." Matt sighs and motions for Peter to follow him into his office where Spatula is sitting on his desk, swishing her tail and knocking blank papers to the floor left and right.

"The kittens are in there," he says, pointing to a small, blue plastic pet carrier sitting on a chair in the corner of the room over by the radiator.

"What are their names?" Peter asks as he goes over to check on the kittens, counting to make sure there are still six of them.

"Uh, I don't remember. Hey Karen, could you tell Peter what you named the kittens?"

Karen pops her head into the office from where she and Foggy have both been eavesdropping. She walks into the office and over to the carrier, pointing at each of the kittens as she lists off the names. "The black one is Ladle, the orange one is Spork, the orange and white one is Tongs, the calico is Rolling Pin, the white and grey one is Whisk, and the tortoiseshell is Tablespoon. And the mom is Spatula. Matt told us not to name them because then we'd get attached, but jokes on him cause I was gonna get attached anyway."

"Yeah Murdock, you can't just bring cats to the office and expect us not to get attached," Foggy says before turning to Peter. "You know he pretended he didn't bring cats at first? He got here super early and stashed them in his office and when I asked him if he heard meowing later he said no. And we all know how good his hearing is."

"So you guys know about…?" Peter asks hesitantly.

"Yeah, we know about the going out at night dressed like the devil and knocking the shit out of people," Foggy answers. "Question is, why do you know about that?"

"Matt told you; we're in the same line of work," Peter answers as he pulls out his phone and gets the picture of Daredevil with the kittens on his screen. "Will you stop harassing me about my life choices if I show you the best picture you'll ever see of Matt?"

"Well, now I'm tempted," Foggy replies.

Karen looks over Peter's shoulder to see the picture and laughs at it. "Oh my God, I'm giving you my phone number so you can send that to me."

"Now I'm very tempted." A short pause. "Fine, you've sold me. No more lectures on teenage vigilantism," Foggy says with a defeated sigh as he comes to look at the picture.

There's a moment of silence as he absorbs the full glory of the image before him.

"Oh wow, Matt," Foggy says, clearly holding back laughter.

Matt looks unimpressed from where he's picking up the papers Spatula knocked off the desk.

"No, really, wow. You've spent the past four years making sure your name strikes fear into the hearts of criminals, but if anyone ever sees this picture that's completely done for.

Matt frowns back at him. "Frank literally gave into torture when someone threatened to hurt his dog. Helping animals doesn't make you less scary."

"Okay well if people saw the picture of Frank passed out on your couch cuddling with his dog then people wouldn't think he's scary anymore either," Karen points out helpfully.

"Uh, those are definitely words spoken by a crazy person because Frank will never not be scary to literally any sane person on the face of the Earth," Foggy counters, raising an eyebrow at a now-sullen Karen.

"Who's Frank?" Peter asks curiously.

"Someone who Matt is going to do everything in his power away from you because literally no child ever needs to be around that man ever."

"Frank Castle." Matt answers. "He's actually pretty good with kids," Matt replies. "They like him more than they like me. It was pretty surprising at first, but apparently black tac gear with a skull on it is less scary than my costume."

"Is it bad for me to say that I miss the days back when you and Frank were just doing the whole alpha-male 'no, Hell's Kitchen is my territory' thing?"

"He literally shot me in the head, Foggy."

"And yet apparently you rescue kids with him now!"

"A singular child. Who just wandered off and got lost. Who we both happened to find," Matt corrects.

"Okay, well as entertaining as this is, I gotta take the cats to Mr. Stark now. Do any of you want me to like… save a cat for you when they get old enough to be away from Spatula?" Peter asks, halting the argument between Matt and Foggy in its tracks.

"Yeah, save Spatula for Matt. He went and got attached to her," Karen replies. Matt glares in her direction but doesn't object.

Peter smiles at her and hands her his phone. "Okay cool. Send yourself that picture while I get the cats. These guys are like two weeks old, so I'll bring Spatula back in about… ten weeks? I think that's right."

"Alright, Peter. Don't be afraid to call if you need anything," Matt says with a slight smile.

Karen sends the picture to herself and Foggy as Peter holds Spatula up to Matt's face and makes him kiss her goodbye on the top of her head before he puts her in the crate with the kittens. She hands Peter back his phone and everyone says their goodbyes, including to the kittens.

"Bye babies, you're going to a better place!" Foggy assures the kittens through the slotted holes in the crate.

"What the fuck you make it sound like they're gonna die," Matt says, frowning at Foggy.

"Language, Matthew! What would Father Lantom have to say about you speaking that way?"

All three of them are bickering by the time Peter manages to sneak out of the office and head to the Tower to pass off his cats to a hopefully responsible adult. He's most of the way there when he realizes he'll have to tell Tony he already found a person to adopt Spatula out to, and that he has no excuse for why he knows said person. He pulls his phone back out and dials Matt's number. As usual, Matt picks up after just a couple of rings.

"Quick," Peter says, not giving Matt a chance to even say hello, "give me an excuse for us knowing each other as real people."

"Uh…" Matt replies. "You're in tenth grade, right?"

"Yep."

"You taking a foreign language?"

"Yeah, Spanish."

"Okay, great. I'm your Spanish tutor."

"Do you even speak Spanish?" Peter asks curiously.

"Yeah, took it in college."

"Wow. You're a bilingual lawyer. Not at all what I expected."

"You know, those aren't usually the qualities people are most surprised about when they meet me for the first time."

"Really? What are they surprised about?"

Matt doesn't say anything for a second. "Nothing. Not important. Anyway, that's your cover for knowing me."

"Alright, thanks Matt."

Peter's about to hang up when Matt says something.

"Hey, are you free tonight? I have a job that I think I could use your help with."

Peter feels his heart flutter in his chest. Daredevil needs his help. Daredevil. A part of him wonders if Matt can hear his heartbeat over the phone, and he decides that he probably can't.

"I'm totally free, nothing going on."

"Great. Meet me at Pier 88 at 11:00," Matt says, followed by the click of the call ending.

Peter makes his way the remaining couple of blocks to the Tower and sneaks in through the parking garage entrance so that Friday can help him sneak in with the cats without any of the security guards finding out about it. That goes according to plan and Peter goes up to the Avengers common floor where Friday tells him Tony is along with Ms. Romanov, Clint, Captain Rogers, and Sergeant Barnes. They're all professional spies and superheroes, so Peter doubts that they'll snitch to Pepper about the cats. In all reality, she'd probably be delighted by kittens, but for some reason, Tony wants to keep them a secret from her.

"Mr. Stark, I got you the cats!" Peter announces as he steps off of the elevator, holding up the carrier high in the air before he sets it on the counter.

"Tony, why are you ordering your child minion to get you cats? Oh God please tell me this isn't for an experiment or something," Clint says, looking mildly concerned.

"No." Tony sighs. "They're strays Peter's been looking after. But they were in Hell's Kitchen and I don't want him going over there."

"What's wrong with Hell's Kitchen all of a sudden?" Steve asks curiously as all the heroes circle up around the carrier when Peter opens it to let Spatula out.

"Daredevil's taken an interest in Spider-Man, and that's a big no-no," Tony answers.

"He's not that bad," Natasha replies with a shrug. "Wish he'd ask before he gets my knives all bloody though."

Tony gives Natasha a mild grimace. "Uh, no Natasha. We don't want Peter working with unstable vigilantes who think torture is an A-Okay thing to do on a regular basis. You at least save torture for special occasions."

Natasha shrugs as if to say 'you're not wrong' before she reaches into the carrier and pulls the kittens out carefully, distributing them so that everyone is holding one.

"What'd you name 'em all?" Bucky asks softly as he very carefully holds the kitten Natasha handed him in his real hand.

"You've got Ladle, Captain Rogers has Whisk, Clint has Spork, Ms. Romanov has Rolling Pin, Mr. Stark has Tablespoon, I've got Tongs, and the mom is Spatula."

"Strong theme. I like it," Clint says with a nod as he pets Spork's head with one finger.

"Thanks! And I already found someone who's gonna take Spatula once the kittens are old enough to get adopted."

"Who?" Tony asks curiously as he switches cats with Peter, looking over Tongs carefully.

"My Spanish tutor," he answers easily.

"You have a Spanish tutor?"

"Yeah, I was struggling a little bit. The mom of one of the girls in my class knew him, so she got me in contact with him."

"Cool, good job taking initiative with that."

Peter smiles back at him sunnily. "I'm gonna actually head on home now. I want to see Aunt May before she goes to work."

"You want a ride back?" Natasha offers, now holding both Spork and Rolling Pin.

"Um, actually that'd be really nice. Thanks, Ms. Romanov."

Natasha smiles back at him and places her kittens on both of Sergeant Barnes's shoulders. "Of course, Peter. Come on."

Peter hands Ladle to the kitten-less Clint before waving goodbye to everyone and heading down in the elevator with Natasha. They're both quiet as they get into Natasha's black Aston Martin, and she doesn't say anything until they've been driving for about ten minutes.

"So, Peter," she says evenly, her tone giving away precisely zero about whatever it is she's about to say.

"Yeah?"

"Word on the street is that Daredevil's taken on an apprentice. A red and blue spandex-clad apprentice."

Peter freezes worse than he had when the guy pulled a gun on him. "Uh…"

"Now, I'm not going to tell Tony about that because I think it's important for you to interact with fellow middle-class vigilantes who don't have multimillion-dollar technology and enough influence to be able to announce their identity with approximately no long-term legal repercussions. And because Daredevil's a good person who I know wouldn't put you in danger."

"You know him?" Peter asks, not sure what exactly to start with when it comes to unpacking all of what Natasha just said.

"Yeah, he's a good contact to have. Now, all of that being said, I do think you should tell Tony that you're going to work with Daredevil and that it's none of his business which heroes you choose to work with so long as you aren't causing more harm than good."

"I—I think I'll take that into consideration. Thanks, Ms. Romanov—for not telling Mr. Stark."

"Of course, Peter," she says simply before turning on the radio and letting the music fill the otherwise silent car.

They don't talk anymore on the ride to Queens, but when they pull up outside of Peter's building Natasha ruffles his hair before he gets out of the car.

"Make good choices. And call me when you get in over your head, малютка," she says softly.

Peter smiles and nods. "I will. Thanks again."

She smiles back at him once he gets out of the car before driving back in the direction of the Tower. Peter sighs and cracks his neck. He's got a big night ahead of him, so he better get cracking on his pre-calc homework.