Chapter Text
Peter paused in the stairwell. “Can you give me a sec? I’ve got some people I need to call.”
“Sure, kid,” said Aaron.
“Karen, mute external audio.”
“Of course, Peter. Would you like to talk to Happy and May again?”
“Yes.”
“Kid, you there?” Happy’s voice was worried.
“Yeah, I’m here. I’m off the street, don’t worry. A, uh, fan’s offered me a place to hunker down for a couple hours.”
“Are you sure you can trust them? They might be trying to turn you in.”
“Don’t worry, May. I’m sure.”
“Peter, this is Pepper.” A new voice cut across the call.
“Miss Potts?”
“Yes. I’ve been talking with Happy. We’re going to need you to lie low, at least for a couple hours. Happy and May are already out of the city. Is there anyone else you think needs to be evacuated?”
“My friends, Ned and Michelle. Happy, you know them from London.”
“Yeah, I remember. I’ll send someone to get Ned, but Michelle disappeared after you dropped her off in Times Square. I think it might be better not to attract any more attention to her for right now.”
“Michelle! I left her behind. I have to call her and-”
“You can,” says Pepper, all business. “In a minute. But with those immediate concerns addressed, we need to start thinking long term. Specifically, how we’re going to deal with this. Peter has a decision to make.”
“I do?”
“You do. We’re working on a few ideas to get you out of the city. But which one we use depends on how you want to respond to your identity being revealed. Now, obviously, we’re suing the Daily Bugle. The Sokovia accords state that superheroes such as Spider-man have to be registered, but they’re allowed to maintain a secret identity. Therefore, this counts as a breach of privacy, and a minor’s at that. But, Peter can either say he wants to deny that he’s Spider-man, or he can choose to go public and confirm that he is.”
“We can deny it?”
“Yes. I’m not going to lie and say we can make this all go away. There’s always going to be that one crazy who still thinks you’re Spider-man, and you’ll be semi-famous as ‘that guy everyone thought was Spider-man’, but we can probably convince most of the public you’re just a normal teenager.”
“What do you think I should do?”
There was a beat of silence. Then May spoke up.
“Honey, we can’t tell you what you should do. This affects you much more than any of us.”
“Can I have more time to decide?”
“A few hours, at least,” Pepper’s voice, for the first time, was uncertain. “We might need your decision to get you out of the city, though. Call Michelle, and get settled in wherever you are. Then we can try and formulate some more solid plans, hopefully with more information. And Peter?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry we didn’t catch this before it happened. We should’ve known Beck would have a back-up plan. We certainly should have noticed the Bugle talking about Spider-Man.”
“It’s all right. I should’ve phrased my order to cancel the attack better.”
“Wait, you actually said ‘execute them all’?”
“I’ll explain later gotta go bye! Karen, hang up and call MJ.”
“Peter? What’s happening, did you get arrested?”
“MJ, it’s me, I’m hiding in the city, I didn’t get arrested. Are you OK? I didn’t mean to leave you, but everyone was yelling, and-”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I got out of there before anyone remembered you swung in with me. I’m in Brooklyn. I’ve got an uncle who lives nearby, I’m already in his apartment building.”
“OK, yeah, about that-” A door opened down the hall.
“Shhh!” Aaron pushed him back into the stairwell. “My niece is here. You might’ve saved her too, but I don’t know how she’ll react to you. She was in London. She might hold a grudge. Our family tends to do that.”
“Yeah, look, about that-”
“I’m gonna go check on her. Stay here, and don’t make a sound”
“But-” It didn’t matter. Aaron was already in the hall, walking towards MJ. Peter slid down the wall and groaned. Only he could have luck this bad. It’s your own fault , a voice in his head whispered. If you hadn’t fallen for Beck’s tricks, if you’d hadn’t given EDITH to a freakin’ super-villain you wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Or even if you’d called off the drone strike literally any other way! “Execute them all”? You couldn’t have just said “Cancel the attack”? You idiot!
“So, not that I’m complaining, but what’s my favorite niece doing at my place? I thought your dad didn’t want you or your brother coming over anymore,” Aaron’s voice cut into Peter’s dismal thoughts. He peered around the corner to see Aaron standing in front of a door, holding MJ at arms length.
“That hasn’t stopped Miles from visiting you, and it won’t stop me either.”
“Whaaaaat? Miles doesn’t visit me! That’s crazy,” Aaron’s voice was completely unconvincing. MJ’s eyes narrowed into an expression Peter had spent decathlon learning to fear.
“He’s in your apartment right now, isn’t he?”
“No.”
One eyebrow raised.
“Yeah.”
“Thought so. How’s he feeling about the whole Spider-Man thing? How are you feeling about it? I know you’re a pretty big fan…”
“That’s...complicated.”
“You only say something’s complicated when you don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then take the hint. How are you feeling about all this?”
“I don’t think he did it. I just hope Spidey’s OK. Too bad we don’t know where he is.”
“So, look, funny story”
Peter took that as his entrance cue. “Hey MJ.” There was a beat of silence. Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I did try to warn you.”
“You two know each other? How?” Peter blinked. He’d never heard two people speak in sync like that, except in the movies.
“I, uh, have a bit of a relationship with...well, with both of you actually. I’ll explain it to both of you later. For now, we should get inside the apartment. Also, who’s Miles?”
“My brother.”
“Wait, what?”
“Also a long, complicated conversation that we should have inside. But, fair warning, Miles is a huge spidey fan. When he sees you, he might, uh...”
“Pass out from excitement,” Aaron took over.
“He’s not going to pass out.”
“5 bucks says you’re wrong.”
“I’m not intimidated by you, or your freakish talking money.” Apparently, that was an inside joke, because Aaron grinned and shook her hand.
“Regardless of what he does, he’s going to wanna show you his artwork. He’s drawn a lot of pictures of you. You swinging, you on webs, variants on your suit, things like that.”
MJ nodded grimly. “And as much as I love him, if you let him show you all his artwork, you’ll be looking at art until the end of time. That being said, do yourself a favor and look at some of the costumes he designed for you. They’re way better than what you’ve got now.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“All right then. Let's go in.” They stepped through the door.