Disclaimer: Everything you recognise here either came from the MCU films or the original Marvel comics, but I hope you enjoy the results anyway

Feedback: Feel free

The Legacies' Triad

Blinking his eyes open, Peter was surprised to register that he was wearing his Spider-Man suit while lying in a bed. Even before he'd started training with Kate and Yelena, he'd taken care to never fall asleep while he was wearing the suit, and he briefly couldn't think of what could have changed that…

Then he felt something shift on his chest, and looked down to realise that Kate was resting her head there. A quick glance around reminded him that he was still in the safehouse; by the time he got back from leaving Taskmaster at the nearest police station, he'd been so tired that he'd just needed to rest somewhere, and he must have gone to the safehouse bed…

And Kate joined me?

He couldn't remember if he'd made the suggestion or if she'd just decided to do it because it was comfy- there was a couch but it didn't let you stretch out like the bed did- but looking at his sleeping friend, also still wearing her purple archery suit (once again without its vest even if she hadn't unzipped this time), Peter wasn't going to make a big thing about it. After they'd both stopped a deranged mercenary setting off bombs and trying to kill the, they'd both deserved to have a comfy night; they must have just been so tired after all that…

Without thinking about it, Peter reached up to brush a lock of Kate's hair out of her face, smiling slightly as he looked at her. The tied-back-hair look worked for Kate, and he got how it made sure her hair didn't get in her face when she was trying to shoot, but he preferred it when she felt that she could just let her hair down literally… the way he could just-

Peter stopped himself as he realised that he was about to start running his fingers through his friend's hair. Collapsing in the bed because they were tired and wanted to rest somewhere comfortable was one thing, but… touching her… like that…

Determined to take his mind off those thoughts, Peter carefully slipped out of the bed, simultaneously moving the pillow down so that Kate could still rest while he went to check the computers. However Yelena or whoever had done this had set up the network access, Peter had been able to confirm that Tony Masters had been taken to prison under the Sokovia Accords; his tech might have been disabled before he was taken to the station, but it was pretty clear what it had been meant to do if it was working. Satisfied that had been dealt with, Peter turned back to the bedroom to see Kate standing in the door, her expression slightly awkward as she looked at him.

"Hey," she said, giving a nonchalant shrug.

"Hey," Peter replied, returning the shrug with his own nonchalant gesture, lost for what else to say in this situation; he didn't want to bring up the fact that they had just been in bed together, but it didn't feel like something he could just ignore either. "I was just… the police have Taskmaster secured, so I thought I'd… well, I thought I'd make sure that was done…"

"Yeah, that… that's cool," Kate nodded at him. "Anything from Yelena?"

"Uh… no," Peter confirmed, after a quick glance back at the computer compared no e-mails since last night. "I mean, maybe that's a good thing, right? We handled Taskmaster, she knows we handled it… it's not like we need her to hold our hands or anything, right?"

"Well… yeah, but it'd still be nice to…" Kate began, before she shook her head and smiled sheepishly. "OK, I get that seeing her would be stupid when that guy just showed up last night- and I mean the idea of her just showing up here in person, you know-"

"I get it," Peter said, hoping he wasn't totally misinterpreting Kate's words. "I mean… I miss her too."

He wasn't sure if he could explain why he missed Yelena so much without it sounding weird, even if he knew on some level that Kate was basically the only other person who'd understand what he was talking about.

Still, anything to avoid talking about the fact that we were in bed together all night…

"So," Kate said after another moment's awkward silence, "let's just… get back to our homes, huh?"

"Yeah… probably a good call," Peter noted. "I mean, I can tell May I had some last-minute study thing…"

"And Mom probably wouldn't have even noticed that I wasn't there anyway," Kate noted with the kind of cool tone that always made Peter feel depressed that his friend had such a poor home life. "Anyway, good night's work; see you later?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded. "Feel free to take a night off-"

"Don't tell me you-"

"I'm the enhanced one; you deserve a break when you're still training," Peter said. "You're doing great, Kate, but you can let yourself take a personal day sometimes."

Kate still looked a bit hesitant at the idea, but the gratitude in her eyes at least made it clear to Peter that she was going to take his advice on board. He suspected she'd try and give him some other reason why she wouldn't join him on patrol tomorrow, but the important thing was that she give herself a break after a hard one.

Heck, even the Avengers took a little time off after the Battle of New York, and they were all a lot more experienced than us…

By lunchtime, Peter wasn't sure if he should describe his feelings as paranoia or if he was just being cautious. He acknowledged Yelena's warnings that he and Kate had to be cautious about their other activities (even if he still wasn't sure if she had expected Kate to actively start going out in the field), but there was just something about today that made him feel a bit uncomfortable. It wasn't quite an active warning from that 'tingle' he got whenever he was in trouble, but he had some feeling that there was something he'd overlooked…

Fortunately for his concentration, he finally got the answer half-way through the lunch break. After eating his food, Peter had been heading off to the library for a quick bit of reading when his phone beeped, revealing a message that he was only surprised he hadn't been expecting earlier. Heading up to the school roof for some guaranteed privacy, he dialled the indicated number.

"Uh… Mr Stark?"

"Hey there, kid," Mr Stark said at the other end of the phone. "Just got an update about how you caught some big-league black market merc guy last night; not too shabby."

"Uh… thanks," Peter said, already wishing he could say something more original. "Actually… while we're talking, I was wondering; my suit got a bit torn in that fight-"

"Oh, so the nanites work?"

"Nanites?"

"Yeah, your suit has a low level of nanites in it similar to what I've got for my own armour," Mr Stark explained. "Obviously it's not armoured on the same level as my stuff, but they're enough to keep your gear in good repair when dealing with most street-level crap."

"Huh," Peter said, lost for anything better to say to that. "So… is the suit still… I mean, it doesn't feel like armour…"

"It's not," Mr Stark replied. "The nanites are stored in the circuitry and released when they detect that the suit's suffered something more than cosmetic damage; the main suit is basically a tough but flexible cloth, so I didn't want to compromise your ability to do all those flips."

"OK…" Peter nodded in cautious understanding. The concept of nanites in his suit felt a bit overly complicated, but if it meant that he didn't have to worry about sewing his own costume to fix any future damage, he supposed he was OK with it. "There's… they don't do anything else? I mean, what you said about the suit… I don't want things to be too easy…"

"Really?" Mr Stark said, an amused curiosity in his voice before he shifted to adopt a more proud tone. "Well, I suppose I can get that. You'll still need to do some work to keep it in good shape if it gets dirty, obviously, but if it's just dealing with the obvious things like battle damage you can pretty much let the suit take care of itself while you focus on doing your stuff."

"Thanks," Peter said, before deciding to deal with another point. "And regarding Taskmaster, I should stress that I wasn't looking to face someone like that, but if he's going to be a problem anyway…"

"Yeah, I get it; you can't control who decides to go after you," Mr Stark replied. "Just don't go looking for the next Loki, and everything should be OK; anyone big enough to be a more serious problem would probably attract the wrong kind of attention before you'd have to focus on him anyway."

"…Right," Peter said, wondering if he should mention the Red Room before deciding it wasn't worth it. He wasn't sure if spy programs like the Red Room were the kind of thing the Avengers should deal with, or if it had just been stopped before it could become that kind of threat, but if Tony didn't know about it he wasn't going to draw Iron Man's attention to it. He wasn't sure if Yelena qualified as someone the Accords needed to 'monitor' or not, and Kate was still in training even if he trusted her as an ally in a fight, but if they weren't ready to 'go public' Peter wouldn't be the one to tell Tony about them.

"Anyway," Mr Stark said, with a tone to his voice that made Peter think of a casual grin without even seeing his face, "just keep doing what you're doing, and let me know if anything freaky happens."

"Sure," Peter nodded in understanding as the senior Avenger ended the call, leaving Peter to look thoughtfully at his phone before he put it away. He was a bit uncomfortable lying to the man who had been such a help in getting him to a new level as Spider-Man, but after everything the girls had said to get him thinking about the Accords…

"…was Bennett who had that… OK, he should never have had to make that deal!" a familiar voice suddenly reached Peter's ears. Unsure what to do even as he knew he couldn't let someone else see him up here, Peter jumped up to perch on the side of the school's central tower.

"But…" the voice said as Peter crawled carefully around the tower, until he saw a distinctive blonde head. "I can't just… this isn't fair… he's the one who ran up that stupid debt…"

Betty?

Looking at his schoolmate and aspiring reporter as she spoke to someone on the phone, Peter was lost for how he could respond to something like this. He liked to think that he and Betty were at least friendly even if they hadn't hung around that much one-on-one, but even if he knew he wasn't ready for her to know his secret, that didn't mean he could ignore her when she was obviously panicking about something.

"You can't- collaborator?" Betty said, fear obvious in her voice even as Peter tensed himself to spring away if she happened to look up. "I'm not just- he didn't do- you can't-"

There was a loud shout from the other end of the line, before the voice dropped to a lower level. Peter's senses might be enhanced, but hearing was one area where he didn't seem to be that much sharper than the human norm, so all he could be sure of was that whoever Betty was talking to was male.

"…All right," Betty sighed at last, a surprisingly bitter edge to her voice that Peter hadn't heard from the usually cheerful girl before. "I'll… when you're ready, you can… let me know."

Peter could only watch as Betty hung up the phone and turned to face the tower. He quickly scurried over to another side of the tower to stop her looking up and spotting him, even as he listened for anything else Betty might say.

"Oh God…" Betty sobbed as she pressed her head against the wall. "Bennett, you idiot… why did you do it…?"

Bennett?

Peter wasn't sure who that was, but as he kept a careful ear out for Betty's movements as she headed back inside the school, he already knew that he would be keeping an eye on her for the next few days at least. Maybe he was being overly paranoid, and he didn't think Betty herself had done anything wrong on purpose, but all that talk about collaborators and debts raised a few worrying questions, and he didn't like any of the possible answers.

AN: Comics readers may guess what storyline I'm adapting for Betty, but be assured I have a twist or two planned; if nothing else, I intend to use a different member of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery for this particular take on events…