Saturday morning, Peter finds himself being awoken by the sound of his phone vibrating two inches away from his ear. He groans and does his best to ignore it, folding the pillow up over the side of his head. His phone stops for a second before the buzzing resumes and it vibrates itself right off the edge of his bed and lands on the floor with a loud thump.

Peter groans again and rolls onto his back before finally opening his eyes to look up at the ceiling; it's bright enough that it's probably a little bit past noon, and that gives him the motivation it takes to roll over to the edge of his bed and pat the floor, searching for his phone without looking. Eventually, his hand sticks to his phone, and he pulls it up to hold in front of his face.

He blinks a few times to focus his eyes on the screen and watches as notifications continue to pour in. The buzzing is getting on his nerves, so he sets his phone to complete silence before opening his texts and clicking on the group chat that's the source of all of the fuss.

The first spam of messages that woke Peter up are all from Luke, the first one simply reading 'check out what Malcolm just sent me' followed by six pictures. The first one looks like it was taken last night, and it shows Matt and Jessica sitting at her desk and smiling. Jessica's in her chair, and Matt's on the edge of the desk, but the most important things to note are that Jessica is passing a bottle of some kind of alcohol to Matt and that the picture was 100% taken through the cracked open door of Jessica's apartment. The picture after that is taken from a similar angle, but Matt's now laying on his back on the floor, and for once the sunglasses are off. Jessica is sitting on the desk, and they both have separate bottles of alcohol. The third picture has daylight streaming in through the windows and shows that Jessica's apartment is a mess. There's a new hole in the drywall by the desk. The fourth picture is of Malcolm face palming. The penultimate photo shows Jessica passed out in her bed cuddling two empty bottles of liquor and Matt on the floor beside the bed with a bottle that's slightly more than half empty. The final picture shows Matt and Jessica throwing up in the bathroom into the trash can and toilet respectively. Malcolm's hand can be seen giving a thumbs up while both Matt and Jessica are flipping him off.

12:17 PM

Frank: classy

Luke: our adorable little alcoholics

Danny: why don't I ever get invited to drink-yourself-into-unconsciousness nights?

Another message comes through as Peter is reading.

Jessica: anyone with childhood trauma is more than welcome to join drinking nights

Jessica: except Peter

Jessica: children can't drink sorry

You: :-(

Jessica: don't worry. Frank had a normal childhood so he can babysit you.

Luke: somehow, I don't think that's a good idea

Peter smiles a little at the messages and locks his phone before stretching and getting out of his bed. He regrets it the second his feet hit the cold floor and all the warmth in his body gets siphoned out through them. It might not be the most hygienic thing in the world, but he grabs the nearest pair of socks discarded on his floor and pulls them on, not caring that one is inside-out.

After turning it back to vibrate, he slips his phone into his pocket as he heads into the kitchen to find something to eat. May hasn't been to the grocery store in quite a while, so all he manages to scrounge up is a slightly stale box of cereal. It isn't until after he's already poured it into a bowl that he realizes they're out of milk. For a second he seriously considers substituting in orange juice, but an unusually rational voice in his head tells him that's a bad idea.

Five minutes later when Peter's sitting on the couch and eating dry cereal by the handful while he half pays attention to a rerun of CSI: Miami on the TV, his phone buzzes with a notification.

12:25 PM

Frank: fuck you I'm great with kids

That gets a snort of amusement from Peter, but he doesn't reply to it before switching over to Twitter and scrolling through it aimlessly for a while. The next message comes just as Peter's hand brushes the bottom of the cereal bag.

12:34 PM

Spanish Matt: He actually really is

There's another message from Matt, but this one is sent directly to Peter instead of on the group chat.

12:35 PM

Spanish Matt: Your suit's ready. I can take you to get it tonight

Peter's heart skips a beat. He's honestly a little nervous about the idea of getting a new suit. His first suit was just some crappy red and blue clothes, and his second suit came from Tony. It has an awesome design, sure, but with the way Tony takes it and controls the programming in it, it's never truly felt like it's his. This one though… Peter has a feeling that this one will be different. Sure, there won't be any fancy tech, but if he needs anything he trusts in his abilities enough that he believes he can make upgrades to the suit.

12:35 PM

You: that would be awesome man what time?

Spanish Matt: Meet me at my place at seven tonight. Bring your web shooters.

With the meeting time and place set, Peter lets himself daydream for a while about what the end result might look like. He wonders about the colors and the patterns and what features it might include, and if he'll need to modify it at all to accommodate the web shooters or something. He honestly isn't sure how long he spends thinking about all of that before he's jolted out of his thoughts by the feeling of his phone buzzing in his hand. It's a message from Ned that simply reads 'play fortnite with me loser.'

Peter smiles and rolls his eyes at the message before heading back into his room and turning on his computer. He and Ned end up playing about three rounds before Ned finally decides to ask what precisely the hell happened when he went missing Thursday night. Peter offers him a longer explanation than he'd given before, this time including details of the argument with Tony and the talk with May.

"Wait—she knows?" Ned asks incredulously.

"I'm pretty sure she's known for a while. It was like a don't ask, don't tell sorta thing. I don't know, it was weird," Peter explains with a shrug, turning slightly in his chair. "But speaking of don't ask, don't tell—"

"That's always the start to an interesting sentence," Ned interrupts playfully.

Peter rolls his eyes. "I think Daredevil might be gay."

"What? Why? What happened?" Ned asks, the game being forgotten in his excitement about more details into the personal lives of the Real Vigilantes of New York. His character gets killed, but he doesn't even notice with the way he's hanging off of every syllable coming from Peter's mouth.

"Because when I was at his apartment waiting for him he came back with some guy, and they were both at least a little bit drunk, and the guy had his belt undone, and Matt's shirt was mostly unbuttoned, and I think he had a hickey," Peter explains, though he does feel a little bit weird gossiping about Matt's life like this when the guy has been nothing but nice to him.

"Huh, well, I mean that's interesting, but it doesn't really change anything. A lot of people already think the gays are the devil," Ned replies, being sure to put on a thick southern accent for the last sentence.

Peter snorts at that. "Yeah, you're right. I kinda want to ask him about it, but I don't know if we're on that level yet."

"What level would that be?"

"I dunno, that's like a level four friendship question. If anything, we're level two."

Ned makes an approving sort of hum. "You could ask his business partner."

"That would be even weirder than just asking him about it," Peter replies.

"Yeah, that's probably true."

They play for a while longer before they both hang up to go do their respective homework that shouldn't be put off until the last minute. After Peter finishes his, he takes the shower that he very desperately needs and changes into clean clothes, including socks that haven't just been lying on his floor. He screws around on his phone for a while before the alarm that he set to remind himself to head to Matt's apartment goes off, and he gets up and pulls on his shoes and jacket before heading out.

The subway ride isn't so bad this time which is a little surprising, but Peter appreciates it nonetheless. The people aren't packed on like sardines for once, and it even smells like at least 75% of them remembered to put on deodorant before they left their houses this morning. When he emerges from the station, the streets around Times Square are crowded with people as always, some of them just passing through on their way home from work in rumpled suits while others are only now starting their night in skin-tight clothes. Peter's in such a good mood about finally getting his suit that he can't even be bothered to feel irritated at the tourists blocking the middle of the sidewalk and pointing their cameras up at the big neon advertisements all around.

It takes around fifteen minutes for him to actually get there as he weaved through the crowded sidewalks. He received the reminder of why it they called it 'the city that never sleeps'. When Peter knocks on Matt's door this time, he's sure to keep it down to not to annoy the neighbor that he had the last time he was there. But before his hand can even hit the door once, it's pulled open to reveal Matt standing there in the dark with the whole suit (aside from the helmet) on.

"You probably shouldn't answer the door looking like that," Peter comments as he steps inside and shuts the door behind him, following Matt into the main body of the apartment.

Matt shrugs. "I knew it was you, and nobody else was in the hall. You bring the web shooters?"

Peter nods and pats his backpack. "Yep, right here."

"Alright," Matt says, setting the sunglasses down on his coffee table and pulling on the helmet. "You walk on the sidewalk; I'll follow along on the rooftops."

"I might be more following you. I don't really remember where this place is," Peter replies with a slightly sheepish tone.

That gets him a smile from Matt. "That's alright. I'll be sure to stay in sight for you."

"Thanks."

Peter feels a little bit awkward leaving Matt's apartment and going back down to street level as Matt takes the roof access exit. Once he's down on the street, he scans the surrounding buildings until he sees a flash of red on top of one. Matt gives him a signal on which way to go before melting into the shadows. The walk there continues in a similar pattern with Matt popping up every couple of minutes to give a new signal to Peter before disappearing until they finally arrive back at the familiar sketchy building.

Matt drops down from the roof onto a dumpster before hopping down and walking over to Peter's side. "You excited?"

"Yeah," Peter answers casually despite the fact that he's pretty much vibrating out of his skin at the promise of the new suit waiting just behind that rusted metal door.

Matt flashes a quick smile before stepping up to the door and pulling it open.

Peter thinks this is probably not a great place to leave your doors unlocked, but Melvin's a pretty big dude, plus he's friends with Daredevil. So, it most likely isn't too dangerous for him. Peter also notes just how many sharp objects there are all around the workshop- from screwdrivers to sawblades- as he follows Matt inside.

Melvin's sitting at a desk and humming along to something when Peter and Matt walk in. The main source of light in the room is the yellowish light coming off the lamp on Melvin's desk, but there are a few fluorescent overheads buzzing and doing a poor job of upping visibility in the connecting hallway.

"Melvin," Matt says from where he's standing a few feet away from the man.

Melvin lifts his head up from where he's been focusing on drawing something and turns on the stool to smile at Matt and then Peter. "Hey, you two!" he greets, getting up and walking towards where a large black trunk is sitting on a workbench. "Finally finished the suit. A lot more detail than I'm used to, but I like a challenge."

Peter can't see around Melvin, but he hears the sound of the latches on the trunk clicking as it opens. He turns his head to Matt who smiles and gestures to where Melvin's waiting for Peter to come check out the suit.

Peter takes a deep breath and walks over to the workbench.

The first thing he notices about the suit is that it's darker than his original one. The red has been replaced with a maroon similar to Matt's, and the blue is now a navy color. The colors are generally in the same placement, but they're more like separate armored pieces with a different black fabric between them. It still has the same spider web design over the colored parts of the suit, but it's all raised, gunmetal detailing. He unfolds it from the trunk and pulls it out, holding it in front of himself to admire the whole thing. The spider emblem in the center of the chest has longer legs that span from the tops of the shoulders down to the hips, and the whole design is just… sharper looking. There are raised gauntlets of a sort on the wrists that mimic the spider design on the chest, and they're made of the same dark metal as the web design.

"The red and blue parts are bulletproof, the black should deflect a knife at most angles. The mask gave me the most trouble," Melvin explains as he pulls it out of the trunk and hands it to Peter. "Getting the eyes to be white but still see through? Man, I tried to figure it out, but I had to ask a guy I know how he did it on his suit."

The eyes are still the same large, white ones that the Stark suit had, but rather than being rimmed in black they're surrounded by more metal detailing as is the web pattern on the mask. The shape is slightly different though, and it makes the whole thing more intimidating. It's not as scary as Matt's, but it's more frightening than it was before. It has a small zipper at the back of the neck.

"I just… wow," Peter breathes out, running his fingers over the mask before Melvin gently takes it from him and sets it back in the case with the main body of the suit, and passes him a pair of boots.

They go up to about mid-calf, and they're the same maroon color as the suit, but the toe is covered in the same lightweight metal that seems to be everywhere else. Kicking someone too hard with these would definitely kill them. Just like he'd specified, there's no rubber on the sole; instead, it's just more of the maroon fabric. Is it fabric though? It seems a little tougher than that.

"Last thing I have for you are the gloves," Melvin says as he passes them to Peter.

They're a thin fabric the same color as the boots, and there's more web design on them, made with the same metal. But the web design is placed in such a way that it's like a very sleek version of brass knuckles. They look like they'll be just fine for him to still be able to use the web shooters.

"I don't know what to say," Peter finally says. "It's amazing."

Melvin smiles at that. "I hoped you'd like it. You should try it on and see if anything needs to be adjusted. Bathroom's over there."

"Great—I'll be back in just a second." Peter thinks he hears Melvin say something to Matt just as he shuts the door to the bathroom behind him, but he can't be sure.

This suit is tougher to get into than the stark one considering it's actually already fitted to him instead of just shrinking down once he puts it on. It's a bit of an uphill battle, but eventually, he manages to get the suit on, affixing the web shooters over the gloves before he pulls on the mask and tucks it into the neck of the suit. He takes a second to shove his regular clothes into his backpack. He'd be lying if he said he didn't admire himself in the mirror for a minute before finally stepping out to show Matt and Melvin.

"It's perfect," he declares. "What do you think, Matt?"

Matt smiles at him. "It looks great, Spider-Man."

"You ever need me to fix it, just text me or bring it here. Matt can give you my number," Melvin says. "Kick some ass for me, kid. I gotta get back to work."

"Alright, Melvin. We'll get out of your hair," Matt replies with a smile. "Thanks again for this."

"Yeah, thanks again!" Peter adds waving at Melvin as he follows Matt out.

Once he's outside with Matt, he follows the man up to the roof of the building after checking that both his hands and feet can still stick to things in this suit. He does an unnecessary but incredibly fun acrobatic trick to land on the next roof over and turns back to see Matt smiling at him.

"I'm sure Queens has missed you. Go help some people tonight, okay?"

"I will. You help people too," Peter replies, doing his best to give a serious nod before turning and shooting a web to swing him across the street and to a taller building.

It's incredible to be able to web his way back to Queens instead of taking the subway like he has been, but it is a little bit tiring. Once he's finally back in Queens, he stops a couple of muggings and attempted car theft as well as just helping someone who'd accidentally gotten locked on the roof of her apartment building when the door swung shut behind her. The people who are out and about and happen to see him are quick to take pictures. There haven't been any Spider-Sightings in over a week, so people were starting to worry.

By the time Peter gets home, 'Spider-Man's New Suit' is trending on Twitter.