8

Chapter 8: I'll catch you in your own courtesy

Notes:

1) Deadass, I never meant to disappear for so long but I started to get back into Merlin and then I lost motivation for a week...it's been rough. I'm trying to pre-write chapters and see when I can post but we'll see.

2) This is my safe space so it's unlikely that I'll mention any world events but I stand with Ukraine and wish anyone from there good luck and safety.

3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

You Know Who I Am

You free after school tomorrow?

Um, yh…why?

You Know Who I Am

I've got everything sorted.

Your aunt can find out then…?

Oh yeah, ofc!

Thank you for the suit

You Know Who I Am

No problem kid. Remember to

leave a voicemail for Happy.

Will do

He placed his phone in his suit pocket, zipping it up before throwing his rubbish in the bin and shooting his webs to the top of a building.

The autumn breeze swirled the amber leaves in a pretty spiral until they were trodden on by pedestrians, the bustle of New York leaving barely any time for nature. Cars honked along 5th avenue as different vendors tried to sell hotdogs and churros to the occasional person, sometimes catching a customer and often being ignored.

He breathed a sigh of relief before shooting his webs to a lamppost, leaping off the building and enjoying how his stomach swooped before pulling himself up as tourists stared in awe and a few pulled their phones out, but he knew he would be a few hundred metres away before they could get a good picture of him.

Some of his anxiety about May finding out faded away as he swung through Midtown, the wind howling in his ears the faster he went. He hadn't been sure about when Tony would contact him, let alone when he would get his suit back, but to his surprise on Tuesday, the suit had been returned in the same paper bag as before with the same note.

He hadn't put it on immediately, instead choosing to hide it in the same place he had hidden his old suit because he wasn't stupid enough to repeat history. Having May walk in on him in the Spider-Man suit would have screwed up his plans and he wasn't going to have a repeat of that.

Besides, Ned and Michelle wouldn't have been happy with him if he had gone out as Spider-Man when he was still wincing at sudden movements and flinching whenever he breathed too deeply because his ribs moved in a way they shouldn't.

He wasn't sure why his healing factor was taking so long to heal his ribs -maybe because he wasn't receiving enough food for a person with a metabolism faster than Captain America's- but he hadn't gone on patrol until Wednesday afternoon, choosing to scope out the area and picking up plenty of crime.

Today wasn't too different. He had gone to school, theorised a bit more about time travel with Ned and Michelle during lunch before finishing the school day and patrolling for a couple of hours. As far as May was concerned, she thought he was at Ned's finishing off some physics work and revising for a test happening tomorrow.

Truthfully, he wasn't going to revise for the test. He had completed all the work that was due for the week on Tuesday afternoon because he hadn't gone on patrol and he wasn't going to revise for the test until later -not that he needed to because technically he had done it before and received high marks- so he thought it was fair to patrol until later.

"Hello Peter, a corner shop nearby has a panic alert and the security footage shows the weapons you flagged up. Would you like directions?" Karen asked as she showed the location on his HUD, highlighting a route as he shot a web at a building and pulled himself up before swooping down to gain momentum.

"Yes, thank you Karen," he replied, immediately shooting a web in the direction that Karen indicated before he was practically flying through the streets, barely breaking out in sweat.

Thank God Tony had decided to install a cooling function as well as a heater in his suit, otherwise he would have struggled to patrol during the summer and the early stages of autumn. He knew there were still a few functions he needed to learn because wow, Tony had installed nearly everything into this suit, but he had a good amount of time to learn.

"You are one minute away from your destination. The police are also on their way if you require assistance," Karen said as he swung over a rooftop.

"We'll see if I do," he muttered. "What weapons do they have?"

"Security footage shows that the thieves have a similar weapon to when you first encountered the hybrid technology. The footage is unclear but my sources identify it as an Anti-Gravity gun."

"Another one?" He groaned. "Who robs a corner store with an anti-Gravity gun anyway? Let's hope I get to it before the police do. It'll become a huge mess if they're involved."

He pulled himself around the final corner before slowing down his momentum by dropping further down onto the lampposts. The area was pretty quiet with a couple of civilians milling around on the opposite side of the road, completely unaware of the robbery taking place in the store a few metres away from them.

"Better late than never?" He murmured, quickly psyching himself up before swinging off of the lamppost to the ground and jogging up to the door, smirking when the bell hanging from the top of the door rang and startled the two criminals inside of the shop. He made sure to leave the door open as he took in the appearances of the criminals.

Both of them were wearing black jeans, military vests and black masks. One was holding a pistol at the poor shopkeeper's face as the poor man dumped codeine bottles into a bag on the desk, and the other was holding a gun with a glowing lilac core at the centre. He assumed it was the Anti-Gravity gun.

Everyone in the shop turned to face him as he took in the scene and squinted like he was confused as the criminals froze like a deer in headlights. He almost wished he could make a compilation of criminals reacting to him because it was way too funny.

"I'm pretty sure stealing corner store drugs wasn't on the shopping list," he cheerfully said before he raised his hand and shot a web at the guy threatening the shopkeeper, yanking the gun towards the floor before he shot a web at the other guy as he fired the gun.

A violet blast hit the floor instead of Peter as he shot another web at the unarmed criminal, pulling him towards the door and switching to a different web combination and shooting it at the criminal. He grinned as it knocked him to the ground and trapped him under the stickier webs which he used to keep people trapped before his Spidey-sense buzzed and he dodged another violet blast.

"Stay still you little shit!" The man grunted as he stumbled through the doorway, the lilac core emanating energy that made the air vibrate.

"Karen, record this and bring up the energy levels on my HUD please," he muttered before he dodged a violet blast, grimacing when it hit a bin and it started levitating. It would be a pain in the ass if it exploded and there was a load of rubbish on the pavement.

He shot some webs at the bin and yanked it to the ground before dodging another violet blast - he really needed to separate the guy and the gun before he destroyed anything. He shot some webs at the guy's chest, pulling him forwards as Peter sprinted towards him before punching him in the stomach and uppercutting him.

Ignoring the guy's yelling, he shot webs at the nozzle of the gun and with a vicious yank, disarmed the man and threw the gun at the floor. He barely registered it clattering against the concrete as he dodged the guy's punch before grabbing his arm and throwing him to the side.

"Police ETA is two minutes. I would advise that you apprehend the criminal soon if you wish to avoid the police," Karen said as he cursed, making sure to duck under the man's next punch before he realised he was closer to the gun than Peter was and bolted over to it.

He quickly armed the gun by pressing a button on its side before shooting with little regard of his surroundings, hell, he barely took the time to aim at Peter. All he seemed hellbent on was hitting him.

Annoyingly enough, his webs didn't block the violet blasts and the webs on the nozzle disintegrated with the first blast. He needed to make a web substance that could deal with it but that could wait for later.

"Missed me!" He shouted, jumping on a floating bin to push it to the ground before webbing it in place. "Missed me again!" He backflipped onto a floating bicycle, shoving it to the pavement with his weight and attaching it to the bin. "Man, for someone with a gun, you have terrible aim."

He dropped to the ground before he shot a web at the man's chest, pulling himself forward before kicking the man in the stomach, making him drop his gun. Dropping low, he kicked the gun far away before ducking to avoid a punch before he used his webs to stick the guy's hands to his sides and stick his ankles together so he couldn't run away.

"Gah!" The guy toppled over, falling backwards until Peter caught him. "What the-?"

"You don't want a head wound, do you? They suck and I don't think the police would like to ask you questions when you have a concussion," he said, calmly dragging the guy to the store front where his friend was. "It'd be a waste of time if they questioned you and you were unable to answer."

He shot a web at the gun, pulling it towards him and dropping it beside the apprehended criminals.

"Oh yeah, Karen, stop recording."

Police sirens echoed in the distance and he took that as his cue to leave, quickly waving goodbye to the men -he knew how much it pissed criminals off when he acted nonchalant about arresting them- before swinging towards the next crime.

Butterflies swarmed in his stomach as he stumbled into his home, cursing the one step that was slightly higher than the rest. His nerves had slowly increased over the day and had peaked a few minutes ago when Tony had messaged him to say he was arriving in a few minutes.

At least last time May had found out and hadn't given him much time to be anxious about how the conversation would go. He had patrolled late into the night to work off his anxiety, successfully exhausting himself enough that he slumped into his bed after completing his homework.

He had spent the whole day running through every scenario possible and they had become worse and worse until Michelle had thrown enough paper balls at his head during physics that Flash had pointed it out. The embarrassment of Flash calling him out in class had never faded away and so had (rudely) kicked him out of his dread filled thoughts.

"Okay, you can do this, you did it before and you can do it again," he mumbled, ignoring how his thoughts screamed at him that May could be killed. Her not knowing was more dangerous than her knowing his secret.

At least she wouldn't be oblivious to how much danger she could be in if something went wrong and someone found out his identity and tracked her down-

'Shut up brain,' he thought. The worst had already happened in the original timeline and if she knew in this timeline she could protect herself. May Parker was a fighter and she never backed down, not even when it was for her own good.

She had stayed when he had been hurting himself after Ben's death and had gently taken his bruised hands and listened to his guilt over not saving his uncle. She had stayed when he had lost the internship and comforted him after he had behaved like an idiot. She had stayed after they had been getting their lives back together after the Blip and helped him cope with his grief for Tony.

She hadn't left whenever he'd had a brutal nightmare after Beck had betrayed him and had listened about Berlin and the train, after the fight in London and almost being shot at point-blank range, after Beck had revealed his identity to the world. She had stayed when he had rasped at her to leave him when Goblin had beaten the shit out of him and choked him in the rubble before she had tried to cure him.

He needed to learn to trust again and May was the easiest person to start with. His paranoia would be his undoing and he needed to let someone other than Ned and Michelle know about Spider-Man.

At least he had some control over revealing his identity and Tony would help him. He wasn't sure about what Tony had planned but he would have to trust him even if it felt weird considering he had been dead for about two years in the original timeline.

Subconsciously, Peter was well aware that he would need to let go of his past and embrace the present and deal with the consequences of his actions at some point, but for now he was content with dealing with the fallout of Toomes's arrest and taking down anyone who had bought his weapons.

"Peter, are you home?" May called out as he shut the door and kicked off his shoes.

"Yeah," he replied, slowly wandering into the living room as if it prolonged the conversation that would shatter May's world in a few minutes. "Mr Stark will be here in a few minutes. I'll be right back."

He had told her about how Tony wanted to speak with both of them about the internship -a half lie hopefully, but he didn't like lying to her anymore- which had surprised her slightly, but it was better than Tony dropping by without warning. It was better than listening to May calling Tony and berating him over the phone for twenty minutes like last time.

She nodded as he turned around to leave his bag in his room, swallowing down his slight nausea. It was almost funny that he could face an army of aliens with little hesitation but it felt like the end of the world when he needed to tell his aunt about his identity again.

You Know Who I Am

I'll be at yours in a minute.

He pinched himself, fighting to keep his thundering heart in check as he left his bag in his room and returned to the living room, hovering nervously around the table.

He could do this.

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," he called out, striding down the hallway and breathing in and out deeply before opening the door to reveal Tony waiting at the door. He was in a black three piece suit with a red tie and hardly seemed fazed by the idea of telling May about his part in helping Peter become Spider-Man, but he guessed it was a façade.

They were about to face their doom anyway, it wouldn't hurt to look cool while doing it.

"Hello Peter, Mrs Parker," he said, waving at May as he strolled into the living room with Peter following him.

"Would you like anything to drink?" She asked, gesturing for him to sit down. He chose to sit on the sofa.

"Water, please," he replied as Peter sat down in the chair, forcing himself to sit up straight instead of hunching over and he refused to let his leg move up and down. May didn't know how anxious he was and he doubted it would help him now, so he resolved to fiddle with one of the drawstrings on his hoodie.

"Peter told me you would be dropping by to talk about the internship?" May asked, placing a glass of water in front of Tony before sitting down on the other side of the sofa.

"Ah, yes. He told you that he lost it about a month ago?" He asked.

"Yes, he did. He never explained why though," May replied, frowning slightly. He had been a bit too preoccupied about feeling guilty about screwing up with the ferry to tell her about why he had lost the internship, plus he couldn't tell her about Spider-Man at the time. She would find out eventually or figure it out – whichever came first.

"Well…" He bit the inside of his lip, using the pain to ground himself so he didn't let his anxiety get to him. "It was a cover for something else."

"What for?" May's brow furrowed in confusion, as if she didn't believe what she was hearing.

He took in a breath, glancing at Tony and taking his calm expression as a reason to not panic. His identity reveal couldn't go any worse than last time. This part was on his terms and he had some control over the situation.

"I am Spider-Man."

May blinked.

"It was a cover up for when I went on patrol."

Silence rang throughout the living room. He could hear the hum of a car engine as it passed down the street and Tony's slightly sped up heartbeat and May's accelerating one. His heart roared in his chest as he waited for May's response.

"What the fuck?" She exclaimed.

It seemed as if she was piecing everything together now. Why he had been late to school and had dropped most of his clubs, why he had returned home late and came in through the fire escape, why the internship had needed him so often. "So you're telling me that you've been swinging around the city arresting people?"

"Yes."

"Are you insane?!"

And so he endured twenty minutes of May going through the five stages of grief over him being Spider-Man, except she never reached acceptance, instead stopping somewhere between anger and bargaining and going through the cycle.

"Hold on a minute." She paused, running a hand through her hair before turning to face Tony. "You took my child to Germany to fight the fucking Avengers!" Rage seeped through her voice and only then did he hear Tony's heart skip a beat.

"May, if you give me a second to explain-"

"It's Mrs Parker to you," she cut in, her tone icy as she stared at Tony. "Do you know how many things I could charge you with? Child endangerment, exploitation, the works! And you-" she turned to face Peter, "-how dare you lie to me for so long! Do you think this is a joke? You could have been killed so many times! Just because the Avengers seem like they are cool superheroes does not mean you can go around parading like one in a fancy suit! I don't know what you were thinking but I know you're smarter than this."

He swallowed down a retort, knowing damn well that it would land him in more trouble which he really didn't need. He would have to wait until May's tirade was over before he could even think about getting a word in.

"I've seen what trouble Spider-Man gets himself into, regardless of if he's stopping a robbery or dealing with the Avengers. You're fifteen, Peter! What makes you think you can handle these things?" She glared at him expectantly, waiting for him to respond.

"Do you remember that field trip a few years ago to that science university upstate?" He asked, braving May's furious nod. "I was bitten by a genetically modified spider which caused me to get really sick after. It changed my DNA and gave me the abilities of a spider."

"Yes, but what does this have to do with you being a vigilante?"

"Uncle Ben died a few months later a-and…" He paused, forcing himself to calm down so he could give his poor aunt a decent explanation. "And I didn't do anything to help because I was scared, but I had my enhancements and I could've saved him, but I didn't because I was a coward."

Confusion and sadness swirled in May's eyes as he mentally worded his justification for being Spider-Man. He wouldn't give up who he was, not when there was a lot more at stake with Thanos. If he had to hide away from May and hide out with Stephen…so be it.

He quickly glanced at Tony, storing away the fact the billionaire was listening as intently as May. He hadn't told Tony about what happened with Ben when the billionaire had first sought him out during his dispute with the other Avengers. He could think about the consequences of Tony knowing later when he went on a walk and internally freaked out.

"After that…" He trailed off. "I figured that if you can do what I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen…they happen because of you."

May sat down, her head in her hands, as she absorbed the weight of Peter's words.

"Is that how you felt after Ben's death? Constant guilt?" She weakly asked. "And then you became a vigilante because of it?"

"…yeah." He quietly sighed. "About Germany…I was willing to go." May looked at him, her eyes filled to the brim with questions. "Mr Stark upgraded me to a better, safer suit and gave me strict instructions to stay out of the main combat and apprehend the rogue Avengers from a distance. He didn't intend for me to do more than that. But it was my choice to go and it was my choice to be Spider-Man. I'm not going to give that up."

He figured giving Tony some defence in the conversation he was bound to have with May when she sent Peter away would help both of them, but he was strong in his resolve about staying as Spider-Man. He had been given a second chance at saving the universe and he wasn't going to throw it away.

"There's…a lot to deal with." May sighed, slumping slightly and appearing as if she was too exhausted for all of this. He couldn't blame her. It was selfish of him to bring her into his vigilante life -never superhero, he couldn't live up to that- but she needed to know. It would make both of their lives easier in the future and she wouldn't like it if he kept his secret any longer.

"Mrs Parker," Tony started, barely faltering when she raised an apprehensive eyebrow at him. "Bringing Peter to Germany was a mistake on my part. He shouldn't have been in that fight and I understand if you are going to press charges against me and you have every right to do so. However, if you'll let me, I want to support Peter as much as I can and reduce the chances of him being hurt."

"And how are you going to do that?" She asked coldly. "You brought him to fight the Avengers under the guise of an internship."

"I'm going to give Peter an actual internship at Stark Industries. He would go to the Compound every other Saturday and be given self-defence lessons, and, based off of his GPA and school records, I know he is incredibly smart. He was the potential to do great things with the right guidance which I'm very willing to give."

He let his shoulders loosen with the knowledge that the internship was back on the table as relief surged through his system. There were some similarities with the original timeline and he needed what little stability he could get.

"Would you want this?" May asked him, deep tiredness mixing with wariness as she turned to face him.

"I really would," he replied quietly. "But is it reassuring to you?"

"…I don't know yet. Can you go to your room or something? I want to talk to Mr Stark alone." She said wearily, the slump in her shoulders more prominent than before and the overall atmosphere subdued by the weight of his secrets.

"Can I go on a walk?" He didn't want to hear the argument that would happen and he didn't want to stew in anxiousness in his room. He would pace on the ceiling for however long it took them to come to a decision and he didn't want to torture himself like that.

"Right. I'll call you when we're done." He nodded, hiding his eagerness to leave the room and think over how well the whole reveal had gone.

He tugged on his shoes as quickly as he could before stuffing his keys in his pocket and leaving his home, praying things would go as well as last time and his life would be back on track.

Notes:

Are we going to pass over the fact that Mysterio shot at Peter from point blank range and was going to kill a child? Because that was brushed over way too quickly (albeit Peter's identity reveal blew everything out of the water.)

Last Chapter Next Chapter