Peter could feel his aggressive tendencies welling up within him. He thought he was bitter when Gwen died; the demon within had only gotten more vicious since Aunt May's passing. School, once a safe haven, felt unforgiving and alien. Only his strange friendship with Flash saved him.
He was trying to hide his identity as much as possible, but there were only so many pratfalls that he could do. It was really hard to fake clumsiness when he was naturally graceful and completely aware of his surroundings.
A workout would have to wait, however, since Pepper had asked him to babysit Morgan. He stumbled into the kitchen area, half-asleep. His hair stuck up and out all over his head and he yawned widely. Last night's patrol had not gone well, even by his standards. He flopped down on the kitchen stool and nursed a cup of strong, black espresso. Morgan climbed the stool next to him and began to study his face.
"What?" Peter snapped, trying to look away from her. He hunched his shoulders and lowered his face.
"You've got a really bad black eye," Morgan announced. "Did a truck hit you? You look all beaten up."
Pepper had been getting Morgan a bowl of Corn Pops, involuntarily turned towards the kids and said "Morgan Stark, get down off the breakfast bar! I'm sure Peter would like it if you weren't in his…Oh, my god, Peter! What happened to your eye?"
Peter looked up with a roll of his good eye. The other one was swelled shut and blackish green."
"I got into a fight," he admitted morosely. He gingerly touched the swelling and hissed in pain. "Don't worry, the other guy looks much worse."
"That's not comforting, Peter." Pepper was worried. Where did he go to get so savagely beaten up? She knew May would constantly worry about him, and now she knew why. "By the way, what would you like for supper?"
Peter perked up. "Either Larb or Shawarama," he said eagerly.
"Oh, you like your food tasty, like Tony, huh?" Pepper sounded amused. "I'll see what I can do. I wonder if Tony's ever eaten Larb?"
"It's Thai," Peter supplied helpfully. "I love Thai food. It's my favorite. Larb is great!"
Pepper made a mental note about Peter's preference. "Is there anything that you don't like?"
"Bland food," Peter said shortly. "Life is too short to eat bland food." He took another swig of his stout coffee and grimaced. It was actually a bit too bitter, but he was determined to soldier on.
Morgan giggled delightedly. "Now you sound like daddy. He hates bland food, too."
"Speaking of daddy, where is Tony?" Peter wanted to work on his project. He was busy sequencing his genome. He wanted to know exactly how much the spider bite had changed him.
"He's on his way up from the lab. I need to go now. You two be good, ok?" Pepper kissed both on the head and clacked her way out of the apartment.
Peter blushed a bit. He wasn't used to such expressions of affection, but it felt nice, nonetheless.
"Whatcha gonna do today, Petey?" Morgan happily dug into her cereal and looked up at him through her bangs.
"I've got a little DNA project going on in Bruce's lab. You can come with me if you promise not to touch anything."
"Is it because you're Spider-Man?" Morgan looked nonchalant as she made her proclamation and blinked at Peter.
"What are you talking about?" Peter asked levelly. He squashed the panic rising and knelt, so he was on her level. "Why do you think that?"
"I saw you coming through the window the other night," Morgan explained between bites. "You went into your room, so I knew it was you. Two superheroes in the same house is so cool!"
"Let's make this our little secret, ok? If anyone knew I was a teenager, "I would not be taken seriously." Peter rested on his haunches as he spoke to her.
"Ok, Petey," she said brightly, blessing him with a brilliant smile.
Two hours later, they entered Bruce's lab and slipped on white lab coats. Peter wondered why there was a miniature coat hanging in the corner, almost as if it had been carefully preserved.
"Bruce, whose coat is this?" Peter asked in confusion. He thought Bruce to be childless; this was intriguing.
"Oh, that belonged to Peanut," Bruce said, looking up from his screen and blinking. "Sorry, his name was Peter. But we called him Peanut because his initials were P.B." He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and continued. "Peter Benjamin."
Peter gulped. "How weird. Same as me." Oh, well. It was just a coincidence nothing more, nothing less.
He went over to his project, looked at the readings and smiled grimly. He then muttered to himself. "Mutation seems to be stable. Guess I won't become Man-Spider anytime soon."
"What was that?" Bruce sounded shocked. He'd overheard everything Peter had said, and it shook him to the core.
"Oh," Peter said tightly. He hadn't meant to be so loud. Bruce was normally in his own little world.
"Yeah, oh," Bruce snapped. "You've lived here six months. Didn't you think we should know that a spider lives among us?"
"I don't want everyone to know. The Goblin is still a pain in the butt and gunning for me. He blames me for Harry's death. Harry blamed me for Gwen's death. It's a vicious circle."
"Oh, Petey," Bruce sighed, resting his head on his hand, and rubbing his face tiredly. "How did you become Spider-Man?"
"I was bitten by a radioactive spider," Peter explained quietly. "I felt like I was gonna die because my genome was being rewritten."
"Tony needs to know," Bruce said simply.
"Tony needs to know what?" Tony's sharp, sardonic voice emanated from the doorway and Peter swiveled to see him leaning lazily against the frame.
"Uh…" Peter searched for the right way to break the news. Finally, he just blurted it. "Um, I'm Spider-Man."
"I was wondering how long you were going to hold on to your little secret," Tony said with amusement in his voice. "One of the last things May said to me before she died was "Please take care of Peter. He doesn't want anyone to know, but he's Spider-Man."