The next day at school, Peter gets a text from a very put-out text Matt (now saved as 'Spanish Matt') saying that Matt's suit was confiscated by his friends, and he's being forced to stay off the streets for two whole weeks while it's being repaired. Matt also says, sounding even more put-out, that it is also while he heals from actually being shot. There are several texts hinting that it won't be that long, but Peter suspects that's just Matt being more antsy than truthful. Over the next half hour, there's no shortage of him bitching about how awful his life is, not being able to do anything, before he finally gets to the point- that he'll have a few guest teachers for Peter until Foggy is done literally sitting on him to keep him from escaping. Peter wonders if that's such a good idea since he knows he left webs at a murder scene not long ago, but he trusts Matt with his well-being, even if he can't trust him with Matt's own well-being.
Peter rolls his eyes, knowing that Foggy babysitting was what it would take to keep Matt from doing something stupid. Peter may be young, he knows that he is, but he still knows better than to jump around the city with a fresh bullet wound. After a few moments, there are a few completely illegible messages, before one that just says 'Matt's phone has been confiscated because I caught him being an idiot.' Foggy is an even better friend than Peter originally thought, apparently, and he wonders what else Matt could have possibly done to warrant the confiscation.
Peter wonders if Ned would ever sit on him to keep him from being an idiot. He determines the answer is probably no. Though, Ned might sit on him to see if he can do a push-up with a whole person on his back. Obviously, Peter can do that theoretically, but he hasn't actually done it, so now he definitely wants to try. Because unlike Matt, he hasn't been shot recently and can do everything he can on a normal day.
"Who's 'Spanish Matt'?" MJ whispers over Peter's shoulder, causing him to flinch and nearly throw his phone, only managing not to by the power of sticky-hands.
"Huh? Oh, um, my… my uh Spanish tutor. Matt," he replies. Smooth, Peter. Smooth, like crunchy peanut butter. He wants to sink into the ground.
"You have like a 93 in Spanish, dude," Ned says from where he's sitting beside Peter, actually trying to take notes on what the teacher is lecturing about.
While MJ's busy giving Ned a weird look for knowing Peter's exact grade off the top of his head, Peter gives Ned a very forced smile while dragging his finger across his throat.
Ned's mouth forms into an 'o' shape and he nods quickly, tripping over himself to change direction. "But like, I totally get it if you wanna actually be like, fluent, and not just pass tests."
MJ raises an eyebrow at them and fully acknowledges the weirdness of the interaction that just went down between the two. "Ooookay. Well, you two wanna go get something to eat after school and talk about this project?"
"What project?" Peter and Ned ask simultaneously.
MJ gestures to the front of the classroom with her pen. "The one he just assigned and said get in groups of three for. So, do you wanna do that, or do you have to go to the Stark internship?"
"Oh, uh... no, I'm good. We can do that," Peter replies after glancing at his phone again to make sure Matt hasn't texted him anything of life-or-death importance. Or you know, something like a request to take over the Daredevil mantle until he recovers from getting shot like an idiot. That'd be pretty cool, Peter thinks. He could totally take over for DD, though he won't have as deep of a voice yet. And he definitely doesn't quite have the mad ninja skills either.
There aren't any messages.
Peter makes his way through the remaining two classes of the day, somehow managing to not be constantly checking his phone for either updates from Matt about his condition, or a lecture from Mr. Stark about his webs being found at the same crime scene as a dead body—not to mention the fact that there were multiple witnesses who saw Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Punisher there. Yeah, Peter had kind of forgotten that he wasn't supposed to be seen or caught with Daredevil, but now that he thinks about it, Tony might be even angrier to find out he's now hanging out with actual murderers that carry guns and stuff. He shivers at the thought of what Tony might say if he were to ever find out.
He should probably just take Natasha's advice and tell Tony that he can do what he wants, but that's also an absolutely terrifying prospect. He catches himself day-nightmaring (night-dreaming? day-maring?) about the outcome of either him telling Tony to shove off or Tony confronting him about it. Neither option plays out all that well in his head. Peter, despite what many might think, isn't too hip on being confrontational, especially with someone like Tony, who he's more than a little desperate to impress.
Peter only snaps out of that train of thought when he feels someone's hand on his shoulder. The part of his brain that had been at least sort of aware of the world around him during the daydreaming supplies the fact that someone had been talking to him.
"Huh?"
"Dude, the bell just rang. Time to go," Ned repeats, looking at Peter strangely. "Are you alright?"
Sure enough, the room's empty, as everyone else took off at the speed of light when the bell rang.
"Oh, um… I…" Peter pauses for a second. "Last night some shit went down."
"Like, some Spider-shit?"
"Yeah, Spider-shit," he answers. "I'll tell you about it later—aren't we supposed to meet up with MJ?"
Ned nods in response. "Yeah, she said she'd wait for us by the front office. You gotta tell me soon dude, you've been weird all day."
"I will. I promise."
Peter and Ned make their way to the front office, the former casting frequent concerned looks at his friend with every few steps. Peter usually doesn't seem too shaken up after he goes on his patrols or whatever he calls them, but clearly, something happened the night before that either scared him or upset him pretty significantly.
Ned and Peter have known each other for… well, what feels like forever. In reality, it's probably been about eight or nine years, but that's more than half their lives, so it's more than enough for Ned to know Peter as well as he knows himself. He wants to interrogate Peter then and there to find out what happened, but he knows Peter well enough to know when to wait. He's still vibrating out of his skin in anticipation, though.
MJ's waiting for them outside the front office like she promised, and they all decide on Chinese food. Trying to do their project in a restaurant doesn't seem all that appealing to any of them, so they grab some and make their way to Peter's apartment since, as Ned mentions,
"Hey, Aunt May's either gonna be chill as always or heading to work."
It turns out that it's option B, and Ned and MJ get the satisfaction of watching May kiss Peter on the top of his head while he tries to brush her off before she has to leave to take something to the post office before work. Peter mumbles something about traitors under his breath and fixes his hair from where she's ruffled it.
"Nice place," MJ compliments as she looks around, picking up a glass bird figurine from the counter and turning it over in her hands before setting it back down.
"Thanks," Peter replies with a smile. "Um, it'd probably be easiest to work in my room…" he offers, as he takes in the clutter of tax forms and other bills all over every flat surface in the apartment before leading his friends down the short hallway to his room.
MJ takes the desk chair while Ned and Peter both sit on the biggest beanbag chair Peter's ever seen. They start passing around the takeout containers of Chinese, along with chopsticks and fortune cookies. The teenager who had taken their order thought MJ was cute and gave them about fifteen fortune cookies solely for her good looks. Peter makes a mental note to only go get Chinese with MJ from now on; he adores fortune cookies.
"So, what's the project about again?" Peter asks after they've all been eating for a few minutes.
"It's the 'keep an egg from breaking when you drop' it thing. Just something easy and fun," MJ answers with a shrug. "He said it's a good chance to impress him with our ingenuity and that the best project gets bonus points on their lowest test grade."
"So we could just put it in a jar of peanut butter or we could actually do something cool," Ned says, nodding. "Nice."
Peter's Spidey-sense goes off about half a second before someone knocks on the door to his apartment, and he fights the urge to snap his head over to the door, instead waiting like a normal person. MJ and Ned both look up at him expectantly after a second goes by without him moving. He has no idea who it could be.
"You expecting someone?" she asks with an eyebrow raised.
"No—you two just… stay here. I'll get it," Peter says as he leaves his bedroom, closes the door, and makes his way to the front door carefully. Once he's in front of it, he swings it wide open, hoping to surprise whoever it is, especially if it's someone bad.
Oh.
Oh no.
"Suit. Now," Tony demands, his arms crossed over his chest. He looks pissed.
"Uh, Mr. Stark—hi!" Peter so doesn't have the time for the damage control this conversation is going to take.
"Nope, no talking, get the suit right now. You, kid, are in so much trouble. I'm not here to listen to anything you have to say. I thought you were smarter than this, but I guess I was wrong. You should be grateful I at least waited until May was gone." Tony continues, as he just walks right into Peter's apartment and nearly slams the door behind him. Peter can't think, he has a sick, sinking feeling.
"Look—whatever this is about, I'm sure I can explain, but right now I have friends over, Mr. Stark." Tony looks like he's about to shred Peter anyways, but Peter butts in, louder. "Mr. Stark, I have friends over , can we talk about this later, please ?" Peter's holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender, knowing full well that he can't explain in a way that'll make Tony be any less pissed at him, but that he would rather die than have this conversation with MJ in the other room. Tony looks like he's about to explode, but he deflates a little at Peter's insistence. He lowers his voice rather than leaving like Peter had hoped, and continues.
"No, Peter, we most certainly can't! The cops found your webs next to a guy with a hollow-point in his head! There are 13 people in custody and a body! Not to mention,"
"Mr. Stark-" Peter says, at normal volume. He's not sure if Tony is scarier when he's yelling or when he's not, but even if MJ can't hear what they're talking about, he doesn't want to have this conversation right now.
"Don't Mr. Stark me, kid! They're saying that between the living ones there are roughly ten fully-functioning kneecaps! You wanna know what the perps are saying, kid? They're saying that Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the fucking Punisher stormed the place! Daredevil's one thing, Peter. But the Punisher?! That guy's a fucking maniac! Get the suit, Peter. Right now."
"No," Peter replies in a sudden moment of defiance, trying to sound a lot more confident than he feels, especially when he's being defiant at the level of a whisper.
"What?" Tony goes still, and he narrows his eyes at Peter disagreeing with him.
"I said no. These people—Daredevil and the Punisher— they're way more like me than you'll ever be. They have to see the ways that the law doesn't work, they have to see the injustices first hand, they don't get the luxury of hearing them summarized by Friday for them in a skyscraper on Park Avenue. They don't just come out for terrorist attacks and aliens like you, Mr. Stark! They help the little people with everyday problems, and they have the police out there trying to arrest them for upholding the law better than them. How many purse-snatchers have you stopped, Mr. Stark? How many robbers? How many kidnappers? How many rapists? You don't—" Peter takes a breath, shaking with the effort it takes to contain all the emotion that wants to pour out. "You don't deal with the things that we have to deal with. You get the glory of winning the big fights, but the increased crime rates after the city gets blown to shit? I deal with that. Daredevil deals with that. The Punisher deals with that," Peter's hands are balled up in fists at his sides as he fights to keep his voice steady. "You don't see the dirty side of the city, and you don't see the good sides of the people who fight to keep it clean. And Mr. Stark, I'm one of those people, now."
Tony actually looks a little bit taken aback by Peter's speech, but after a second he squares his jaw and rips into what he considers to be Peter's naïve, idealistic views.
"They may do all of that, but they aren't good people, Peter." He laughs sarcastically, angry. "They aren't there to keep the city clean; they're there because they need the violence. They're the lowest of the low, and the police are right to be trying to stop them! Working with them is going to lead you to the bottom of a bottle or an early grave, and you're better than either of those things."
"They aren't going to get me killed. You know what is, though, Mr. Stark? You not answering my calls—ever . That almost got me killed. Daredevil didn't just give me a fancy piece of tech and then shove me into the ring. He's teaching me how to fight, and last night he took a bullet for me. He's just a normal guy," It's not quite a lie, he heals like a normal guy, at least, "and he got shot in my place. You make it sound like they're savages, Mr. Stark, but they're people too! The Punisher dropped everything to take Daredevil to a doctor who could help him because even if they don't agree on their methods, they both know that the city needs people like them—like me. And, Mr. Stark, would you be willing to take a bullet for me?"
Tony's silent for a moment after that, but Peter knows this isn't over. "You can make your own choices, I'm not your father. But I'm still taking the suit," he growls, finally. He looks so disappointed. Peter feels his shoulders sag. He thought he'd made some pretty good points. Tony continues. "Look, kid- Peter. Maybe I should answer your calls more, but you chose to lie to me about this, and I can't support you if you're not willing to even try to keep yourself safe. Now, suit. " Tony crosses his arms and nods, a clear indication that this is over, and that Tony is the one who came out on top, wrong or not.
Peter gives up and silently heads back to his room, jumping slightly when his bedroom door opens to Ned poking his head out fearfully.
"Hey, uh, hey is everything okay? We heard, like, angry whispering? Should we go so you two can actually fight?" Peter shakes his head, and Ned opens the door fully to let him in.
He silently and as furtively as possible shoves the suit into a bag while repeating a mantra in his head, the stinging of frustrated, disappointed tears already pricking in the corners of his eyes. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. May has always been of the school of thought that it's okay for anyone to cry when they're upset, which is an idea she passed onto Peter, but he's not about to let out the waterworks with his only two friends and Tony Stark right there. When he zips up the bag and heads out of the room, MJ and Ned both follow behind him.
"Wait, guys, this isn't a good time-" Peter protests half-heartedly as they follow him into the living room where Tony's still seething.
"Hey, Mr. Stark," MJ says.
Tony looks unimpressed and nods at her.
Peter hands the bag containing the suit to Tony and gives him a disappointed look. "We have to get back to doing our homework now. Do you mind?" Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.
"Stay in school. Don't do drugs," Tony says flatly, before turning and leaving.
Once the front door shuts, Peter deflates a little bit and Ned looks to MJ to see her reaction.
She looks back at him. "What?"
"What do you mean what? You were so chill with Mr. Stark!"
"I mean, I assume he was here to talk about how Spider-Man was implicated in a murder last night." She says this calmly as she finishes a text.
"I'm sorry, what?!" Peter asks shrilly, his thoughts suddenly yanked away from how disappointed he is in himself even though he really didn't do anything wrong.
MJ starts listing off points on her fingers. "Spider-Man operates in Queens, Peter lives in Queens. Spider-Man gets recruited by Tony Stark to fight Captain America, Peter gets an internship with Stark Industries. Spider-Man just happens to show up in DC when we're all there? And save our AcaDec team? While Peter's the only one not accounted for? Whenever you're acting weird Ned does this," MJ moves her hands to mimic Ned's classic spider gesture. "Plus you never even break a sweat in gym even though you're pretty nerdy. I was already like 90% sure." She pauses to take in the twin stunned looks on both Peter's and Ned's faces. "You guys really thought you were keeping it a secret?"
"Uh, yeah!" Ned replies. "Why didn't you say anything?!"
"Because at least one of us had to be subtle about it, right?"
"Oh my God, I can't believe this—Peter, can you believe this?" Ned groans, turning to Peter to get his friend's input, and the smile immediately drops off his face. "Peter, are you okay?"
Peter is definitely crying now. He's got both hands in his hair and he's pulling on it as he paces back and forth along the five-foot width of the ugly, patterned area rug that's been in the Parker's living room for as long as Ned can remember.
"Peter…" Ned says again softly, setting his hand on Peter's hunched up shoulder.
Peter flinches away from the touch at first before he accepts it, and that's alarming enough on its own, even without the tears and the hyperventilating and the hair-pulling. Peter loves being touched. He's always poking Ned or putting an arm around his shoulders or hugging him or something, and he's never flinched like that before, ever.
"I fucked up," Peter whispers, latching onto Ned in a tight hug as MJ stands by awkwardly and with no small amount of concern herself.
"It's okay, Peter. I'm sure he'll get over it—I mean, it's not like you killed anyone." The strangled whimper that line earns from Peter makes Ned backtrack. "It'll be okay! Just give it a couple of days and talk to him and…" Ned trails off when he realizes that nothing he's saying is helping. "Do you want me to call May..?" he tries finally.
"No!" Peter sounds absolutely panicked at the idea.
Oh God what if Aunt May finds out about this too? She won't let him be Spider-Man at all anymore and- and- and- and his chest hurts. His vision is blurry and far away, and he can't breathe.
"Peter, you need to breathe," MJ instructs softly laying a hand gently on Peter's shoulder as he starts hyperventilating even faster.
"I— I can't," he whispers, squeezing Ned so tight that it makes his ribs creak.
"Yeah, you can," she murmurs. "In and out, just breathe like Ned's doing…"
Peter inhales shakily, and he's trying to breathe like Ned but he just can't it feels like there's a weight on his chest—like he's under that building again, and oh, God—
Peter dissolves into even worse hysterics after that and pretty much collapses against Ned- which causes him to stumble back until the backs of his knees hit the couch, and he then sits with Peter crying all over him.
"Shit—um should I— do you want me to call Matt?" he asks, trying to keep his shit together as well as he possibly can with Peter being this upset.
That gets an immediate, definitive nod from Peter and a questioning look from MJ.
"Spanish tutor Matt?" she asks.
"Okay, okay, we're gonna call Matt," Ned assures Peter, glancing over at MJ. "Can you get me his phone? It's on the desk."
She nods and disappears for just a second before returning with the phone and handing it to Ned who immediately puts in Peter's password. He scrolls through the contacts until he finds "Spanish Matt" and clicks the icon to call him.
The phone rings and rings and rings before going to voicemail, and that makes Peter cry even harder, though the crying has gotten scarier, since it's intermixed with gasping, and Ned worries Peter might pass out.
"Do you know where he might be? Or have another number to reach him?"
Peter blinks away the tears enough to clear his eyes for just a second before taking his phone and scrolling through his text conversations before selecting one and handing the phone back to Ned and collapsing against him, exhausted.
The number is unsaved and the only message between them is the picture of Daredevil with the cats, but Ned calls it anyway.
After three rings, a woman's gentle voice answers the phone.
"Peter?" she asks softly. "What's going on?"
"Um—Peter's kind of… not great right now?" Ned answers hesitantly.
"Did he get hurt?" she asks, her voice going hard. Honestly, it's a little bit scary.
"No- no he's just really upset, and Matt wasn't answering his phone so Peter told me to call you."
"Um… Matt should be at his apartment… one second," she says, setting her phone down. There's the sound of someone pressing buttons on a landline followed by a bit of silence before the plastic-y click of a receiver being set down. "He's not answering… one minute…" There's the sound of more buttons being pushed, but instead of silence afterward this time they can hear the woman's half of the conversation.
"Foggy? Are you with Matt?" Pause. "Okay, well tell him to call Peter back right now. And unmute his phone." The receiver clicks down again before the woman's voice becomes clear as she speaks into the cellphone directly. "Alright, he should call you in just a second."
"Okay, thanks-" sure enough, another call pops up on screen, and Ned hits the end current call and accept option on the screen.
A man— presumably Matt AKA Daredevil (holy shit, Ned's talking to Daredevil)— is immediately talking. "Peter, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
Okay, Ned can fanboy later, when Peter isn't having a panic attack. "Peter's having a panic attack, I think," Ned blurts out because it's the first thing that comes to mind.
"Put him on the phone," Matt says, and wow, yep, that's the scary Daredevil voice he was expecting.
Ned hands the phone to Peter, who sits up slightly and wipes his tears away before he speaks softly into the phone. "H-hi Matt," he says around the sniffling and soft hiccuping sobs.
"What happened, Peter?" Matt asks in an even, gentle tone. Peter at first is unable to answer, but after a few minutes, Peter gets better control of his breathing and can answer.
"I um- Mr. Stark found out about me working with y—" Peter stops as he glances over to where MJ is standing, "about Daredevil and the Punisher and he's so pissed, and he took away the suit again and he's so disappointed in me and I don't— what if he tells my aunt and she makes me stop being Spider-Man and—"
"Peter," Matt interrupts softly. "It's okay. You're not going to have to stop being Spider-Man."
"But—"
"No, I promise. I'll talk to him, okay?"
"I- you don't have to do that Matt," Peter protests softly.
"I want to talk to him."
Peter hesitates for a second. "You do?"
"I do. Tell him to be at West 51st and 11th at nine o'clock. The roof above the hardware store."
"You're hurt," Peter says with a frown.
"And I'm not going to be fighting him. I just want to talk. I promise."
"Okay… I'll tell him," Peter says softly, seeming a lot more calm now that there's some sort of a plan along with a task to focus on.
"Thank you, Peter. I'm sorry I didn't answer earlier— I'll try not to do that again."
"It's okay… Uh, I gotta go and text Mr. Stark. Nine o'clock at West 51st and…?"
"Eleventh," Matt answers. "The hardware store."
"Okay. Okay, thanks. Bye Matt."
"Bye Peter. Call anytime, alright?"
"I will," Peter promises before hanging up.
He sniffles again for a second before opening up his text conversation with Tony and sending him the details of Matt's specified meeting place and time. The message is read almost immediately, but there's no reply.
"Can we work on the project tomorrow or something?" Peter asks softly, staring down at the floor and refusing to make eye contact with either Ned or MJ, as he sits sort of hunkered over on the couch. "I'm kind of tired…"
"Yeah—yeah of course. You want us to go..?" Ned asks softly.
Peter nods tearfully, and Ned pats him on the shoulder. "Alright, we'll go. You sleep well, okay?"
"'Kay," Peter answers softly.
MJ and Ned go back to Peter's room to grab their backpacks, and MJ snags a fortune cookie off the desk before they both make their way back to the living room. MJ drops the cookie in Peter's lap before patting him on the shoulder gently and leaving with Ned.
Peter waits a minute after hearing the door close before he unwraps the fortune cookie and cracks it open, pulling out the piece of paper inside.
All things are difficult before they are easy.