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Peter leaned back, his head resting on the back of the bus seat. His eye lids grew heavy as his vision blurred in and out of focus.
“Peter,” a soft voice called.
He knew he had to get focused soon or there would be consequences. On the other hand, sleep sounded like a wonderful idea at that moment.
“Peter.”
It was the same voice, harsher this time. He rolled his head to the side. He just needed to close his eyes for a few minutes. It would take a while to get to school anyway.
“Peter!”
A jostle at his shoulder, and his spidey-sense kicked in, snapping him awake. He whipped his head toward the voice to see you staring right at him.
“Hey, sorry,” Peter said, trying to force the sleep out of his voice. “What were you saying?”
Your face gave nothing away as you ignored his question completely. “Long night?”
He shrugged it off, making sure to keep his face as innocent as possible. “Well, you know, homework.”
You saw right through him, your lip straightening into an annoyed line. “You went on patrol again, didn’t you?”
He opened his mouth waiting for a better excuse to come out, but it never came. He knew he was caught, the trouble was breaking it to you easily.
“Well…yeah, but…”
“God damn it, Peter!”
He quickly shushed you, looking around the bus to see if anyone had heard you. Luckily, practically everyone had their headphones in or were busy talking to someone else.
“You promised you’d take it easy,” you said, forcing your voice into a whisper.
“What do you want me to do? I can’t just not do something.”
“I know, but it’s also the fourth night this week.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” you snapped. “You’ve been falling asleep in class too. You’d be completely behind if me and Ned weren’t taking notes.”
Peter huffed a sigh. You weren’t wrong, but he didn’t have it in him to say you were right either. He was trying to balance everything out. It was why he decided to stay just a friendly neighborhood Spider-man, but it was hard. People still got hurt and he had the power to stop it. He couldn’t just stop.
You seemed to catch his struggle and let out a long sigh of your own. Carefully, you took his hand in yours and squeezed.
“Look, I’m just worried, okay?” you said softly.
He nodded his head, returning the squeeze.
“I know. I’m sorry. What can I do?”
“Don’t go out on patrol tonight.”
He opened his mouth to protest.
“Just for tonight,” you said, cutting him off. “I’ll come over. We’ll do homework. Watch some crappy YouTube videos, and just hang out. Nothing weird.”
A smile spread across his face at the thought. It had been a while since you had spent time just the two of you. One night’s break wouldn’t hurt.
“Okay.”
You grinned and leaned your head against his shoulder, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“You promise.”
“I promise,” he said with a laugh, “nothing weird.”
He leaned in to kiss you, when he felt his spidey-senses tingle once more. He pulled away, turning towards the window.
A giant right like space ship was hovering over New York City.
He turned to you. You had spotted it as well, your mouth hanging open. You caught his eyes, begging him silently not to do it. He could only shrug with an apologetic look before leaning over to tap on Ned’s shoulder.
“Ned, I need you to cause a distraction.”
He turned around, spotting the space ship and immediate took to action.
“We’re all gonna die!”
Everyone in the bus turned their heads before leaping out of their seats toward the back of the bus. Peter slid past you, kissing you quickly on the cheek.
“Homework and YouTube later, I promise,” he said, before jumping out the opposite window.
He promised you. He promised he would make it back. It was going to be just you and him, like a couple of regular teenagers. But now, he didn’t think he was going to be able to keep it.
“Mr. Stark,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don’t feel so good.”