9

Chapter 9: a short chapter wherein everything looks like it'll go okay for onceNotes:

1) I was gonna post this tomorrow but I'm running low on the will to do anything rn and need some serotonin.

2) Updates might slow down over April and the beginning of May bc there's stuff happening so updates might be stretched out…idk yet.

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

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

Chapter Text

Half an hour had passed with no call or text from May. He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

He needed to let her process everything and sort out a deal with Tony over the internship just like last time, even if it meant he needed to stay out for an hour. In a way, he was relieving himself of any future guilt he would feel once he revealed his abilities to May and mentioned his enhanced senses. Disappointing her by saying he was eavesdropping on her and Tony's conversation wouldn't be impressive and he didn't need to relive that.

Sighing, he turned the corner and into one of the parks, choosing to sit on one of the benches as the sun set, painting the dying grass gold as a few clouds dotted the sky. Some song from 2012 blared in his ears as he tuned out most of the world, taking a second to freak out about his problems.

He couldn't do anything about May and Tony for the moment so he would forget about it for a few minutes. He still needed to talk to Stephen about his progress with the Infinity stones and then work out what he could do to help. Surely he could help with the Mind stone since it was in Vision's head.

Thanos's arrival was supposed to happen in about a year and a half, surely they could find a way to prevent him from getting the Infinity stones? Stephen had the Time stone and Vision had the Mind stone, the Soul stone was on Vormir and required a sacrifice so if they managed to stop Thanos from reaching Gamora then they might have a way of stopping Thanos from killing half the universe.

Except…they didn't know the Guardians of the Galaxy that well -assuming that was who Gamora was with- and had no way of contacting them. Maybe Stephen could portal his way to where they were?

He sighed, his shoulders sinking as he tried to work out the scale of the problem. He hadn't even thought about the Space or Reality stones yet. Didn't the Tesseract contain the Space stone? Where was it even stored?

He needed to talk to Stephen at some point and get his phone number. Going to the Sanctum with no idea if the sorcerer was even there would be a waste of time, especially if he was in a different country.

The idea of failing once again scared him more than anything. He couldn't bear to think about getting dusted again and having no control over the next five years despite literally time travelling to help save the universe. He couldn't fail that badly, not if it caused trillions to die. If he had to sacrifice himself to stop Thanos from dusting half the universe or to stop him from killing Tony…well he would have to resign himself to that, even if he didn't want to.

'Calm down, you don't even know if you have the internship or not,' he told himself, staring as the sun sank below the horizon despite it only being around five o'clock. 'Focus on the present and then go and see what Stephen has found out.'

He would need to buy some more jackets so he could keep warm in school. The spider bite had changed his DNA and whilst it hadn't given him the mutation to hibernate during winter, it made him much more susceptible to the cold which absolutely sucked. At least his suit was equipped with a heater and the tiredness would fade away with caffeine.

His phone buzzed and his heart skipped a beat as he checked the message, breathing out when it was May telling him to come back.

Time to face whatever consequences he had dealt himself this time.

"We have decided that you'll be allowed to go to the Compound every Friday from straight after school until 8:30 and every other Saturday from noon until half 5," May said, the firmness of her voice leaving little room for argument. Not that he was going to argue – he was pretty lucky that she hadn't outright banned him from being Spider-Man.

"Okay. What about patrolling?" He asked, watching as she crossed her arms under each other. He doubted she was going to let him negotiate his hours at first.

"From after school until 12, and that's pushing it." He blinked, too stunned to speak. That was a lot longer than before. "You're lucky Mr Stark showed me the average hours your suit is usually online and how crime increases after 9, otherwise you'd be expected home way earlier."

"I- uh…thank you." He tried not to sound too surprised or questioning. He didn't want May to reduce his hours but it took a massive weight off of him. Lying often plagued him with guilt and he had too many things to focus on for that to be a primary concern.

"If you're able to keep on top of your homework and manage your GPA then I might let you stay out for longer, but you have to tell me if something is going to make you late. Unless you're in the middle of an arrest, swinging home at that very moment or on death's doorstep, you have no excuses to be late." He nodded, too afraid to say anything that could worsen his situation. He was getting away with this far too lightly.

"You do have an official internship at Stark Industries and I can give you the certificate next week. Happy will pick you up after school and drive you back whenever you visit," Tony said. "By the way, you'll need to continue your daily reports and text him if you're not patrolling. Remember, I can see what you do in the suit with the Baby Monitor Protocol and if your aunt requests to see any footage then she can too."

"Okay," he replied as Tony stood up, quickly waving goodbye to the billionaire before May showed him to the door. He buried his head in his hands as they had a quiet discussion by the door, thinking over everything he had been told.

The patrolling hours were fine. He could easily complete his school work during the school week and the internship would be a relief. He needed a chance to get rid of any spare energy and he would benefit from the training lessons, even if he had gone through them before. Hopefully the instructors would let him move onto higher levels once he showed them what he already knew.

The Baby Monitor Protocol wouldn't be too much of a worry if he kept himself out of trouble. He knew what to avoid for the most part and his main problems were dealing with the fallout of Toomes's arrest.

There were a few major criminals he needed to deal with like Shocker and Mac Gargan who was otherwise known as Scorpion. Toomes had been affiliated with him and they traded alien technology around the black market – it wasn't anything he couldn't handle but he didn't know what Scorpion would be doing currently.

He needed to ask Ned to hack into the Raft database and see who was captive and who was on the list to be captured to see if Scorpion was there. There was a good chance he had decided to lay down low and avoid too much police attention, especially when his partner in crime had just been arrested. Gargan was one of the smarter criminals and hopefully he wouldn't be as desperate as Toomes to reclaim any weapons or money.

As for the Baby Monitor Protocol…he would need to visit Stephen without his Spider-Man suit. He couldn't risk Tony finding out about the future and the Infinity stones lest it led to him forcing Peter to stay out of it despite the future resting on his actions. Tony could stay in the dark, for his own sake and for Peter's. The last thing he needed to know about was that Peter died and was then resurrected and then himself dying to save the universe.

"Peter." He raised his head to look at May, quickly glancing at the door to see that Tony had left and they were by themselves. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

…yes, he did.

"Where, uh, do you want me to start?" He asked, deciding that being honest with May was the least he could do after lying to her for over a year about his after school activities.

'Why did you become Spider-Man? You cut down your explanation earlier." He hid a wince at the palpable hurt in her voice. After all she had been through with Ben and him being distant throughout his grief…it wasn't fair for her to hear that he was risking his life constantly and she was constantly at risk of losing another relative.

In that moment, he swore to stay alive for as long as he could to stop her ever feeling that heartache. He wouldn't give himself up to the universe without looking for every option.

"After I was bitten and gained my abilities, I thought it was some cool trick I could show Ned and carry on normally. Then I didn't do anything to stop the robber…I figured I couldn't let anyone else get hurt because of me not doing anything."

Because when he looked back, everything boiled down to those few moments when he stared at Ben glaring at the nozzle of a gun to protect everyone else in the shop. His few seconds of cowardice led to Ben's death and he refused to let anything like that happen again.

He answered a few more of May's questions, filling in any details of why he was late to class because of Spider-Man or what he did when he started as Spider-Man and how he created his first suit.

He laughed sheepishly when she asked what happened to that suit, stating it had been destroyed when he faced Vulture and he had thrown it out. He had taken one look at it after he had left Ned's on Saturday morning and thrown it into a bin down an alley. He would rather make a new suit than try and scrub the bloodstains out of the chest area.

He had finished explaining his enhancements and abilities when he realised how late it was, his stomach rumbling before he flushed in embarrassment and May chuckled before ruffling his hair and stood up to go and put something in the oven.

She hadn't taken it as badly as he had thought she might. At least he stood a chance at balancing his home life with his vigilante life.

The file he had been uploading from his suit to his computer finally rendered and he opened the video, quickly running through it to see if it had no glitches before pulling his mask off of his head and leaving it in his desk drawer.

He had compiled all of his footage of alien technology onto a secure file on his computer -the older ones were more difficult to hack if he did things right- and he zoomed in on a clear frame which showed the Anti-Gravity gun. The police had given the Department of Damage Control the gun -they were required to when it came to any Chitauri related stuff- and it meant one less gun to go on the black market.

He would need to find Gargan at some point and find his lead to the guy who knew the other dealers, but that could wait for tomorrow. He still needed to meet Stephen and see what he knew about the Infinity stones, then he would go on patrol and find the one guy.

Tracking him down would be a nuisance if he didn't have the technology to do it and he knew Ned was at a family gathering…he would have to ask Karen.

He pulled his mask out of the drawer and put it on his head, releasing some of the tension in his body as the mask's special features dulled his senses. Having everything dialled up to eleven was exhausting even if he had gotten used to relying on his senses but getting used to them didn't mean everything was comfortable.

"Hello Peter, how can I assist you?" Karen asked.

"Could you find someone for me?" He replied, pushing himself away from his desk and spinning around in his wheelie chair.

"I have access to a lot of databases. Who would you like me to find?"

"Um…" How had he forgotten this guy's name? The was on the tip of his tongue! Something beginning with 'A'…he had been in one of the drug deals he had stopped. "Search for every male in New York with key characteristics: black skin, black hair, brown eyes, between ages 20 to 30 and has a criminal record of affiliated arms dealing."

A few seconds later his HUD filled with many faces, a lot of them from security cameras or police mugshots.

"Fifty matches found." God, what was this man's name? His last name was something really common like Dean or Daniels…

"Narrow down to first name beginning with 'A' and surname beginning with 'D'."

He had found the guy sometime before the ferry disaster and had met Shocker and the criminal- aha!

"Search for Aaron Davis."

He waited for a few seconds, grinning when Karen brought up a picture of Aaron Davis on his HUD. The time stamp was from a few hours ago and he was walking to a shop.

"Where was this taken?" He asked, grinning at his success. He knew Davis didn't mind him because he had mentioned that Peter kept the area where his nephew was safe.

Surely he wouldn't mind helping Peter out to arrest some more arms dealers?

Notes:

[not for this story] what do people think of MJ as a spy (taken from the scene in Homecoming when Peter quits and she says what other stuff he's quit and she just says 'I'm very observant')…it seems like a good concept.