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peter thoroughly enjoyed being your friendly neighborhood spiderman. he loved that he could be a hero right from the comfort of his home in queens, while still attending school and staying on A Honor Roll.
the only complaint that spiderman could possibly give was that the crimes that happened in his neighborhood were generally... low-grade. it was less like walking away from an explosion like a bad-ass after defeating an army of space warrior aliens, and more like stopping petty thievery, or getting a toddler out of the street. and sure, peter knew that that’s what he deserved. he turned down being part of the avengers, so yeah, he was on every-day crime and cleanup. that’s just how it was. but peter didn’t think he would be this bored.
this attitude of “my crime stuff is boring and i wish i could do cool stuff like iron man even though i still want to at least finish school before i become a real-life avenger” made him a little cocky and over-confident when he performed his public services. and that attitude was very, very dangerous to have when you’re fighting criminals.
peter parker ignored this fact like he did every other day on this particular sunny sunday afternoon. he had finished his homework, so he was free to patrol. with, of course, aunt may’s expressed verbal permission.
peter was exploring karen’s many, many settings with his feet swinging gently over the roof of an office building when he spotted a masked adult, most likely male, dressed in dark clothes. he(?) was headed purposefully towards a flower shop, one hand buried deep in his pocket.
“yikes, man, way to look super inconspicuous,” peter muttered to himself,
slowly rising to his feet.
he sprung into action when the man started retracting his hand from his pocket as he walked steadily towards the cashier.
“hey, buddy,” peter shouted from the doorway, already prepping for combat.
“beautiful day we’re having,” peter shot a web towards his gun hand, which was now out and aiming, but he dove out of the way, accidentally flinging the gun across the room. the firearm went off with a sharp bang, reaching peter’s ears at a far higher frequency than it would a normal person’s.
peter continued to advance, despite the ringing in his ears. he heard himself speaking, through muffled ears.
“quick are we?” this was an easy take down. no real effort required. petty thief. petty thief who peter could easily take care of.
“y’know, when your wife asked for flowers, i don’t think she me-“ oh shit. a petty thief who just got under peter’s arm with a swift kick to his side and -shit- that hurt. peter grunted but continued. no matter. deal with it later. criminal to deal with as of now.
peter lunged forward and ripped the guy’s mask off- it was a guy! he took the man’s momentary shock to shoot web fluid into his eyes. the man stumbled back, hand flying to his face. peter took care of the rest. less than a minute later, the guy was stuck firmly to the wall, struggling weakly, with a black eye forming on the right side of his face.
“just call the police, they’ll take care of him,” peter said to the woman who was still cowering behind the counter.
peter walked out of the small shop, and shot a web up to the opposite building with the intent of swinging away, but that intent was quickly shot down as he was brought back, stumbling to the ground. peter held is side, face frozen in a wince, waiting for the pain in his side to diminish.
“you appear to have broken your third and fourth true ribs on the right side. should i alert mr. stark?”
“no!” peter shouted quickly. it had taken the kid weeks to work around the new and improved baby monitor program, all for situations like this. peter wasn’t going to bother iron man for a couple broken ribs.
“i got it karen, thanks.” peter grimaced a little as he straightened his stance, and started walking down the street towards his home.
when he quietly opened the front door and stepped inside, sunset was almost over. he carefully set down his backpack, which he had picked up along the way, along with changing into his normal clothes (that was painful), trying to be as quiet as possible. he was just wondering whether or not may was home when she turned the corner and saw him.
“hey peter, good day?” may smiled at him and turned into the kitchen. peter followed meekly after.
“yeah, it was good. did well on my science exam.”
“good! proud of you.” may gave peter a firm, reassuring pat on the back as he walked into the kitchen after her, causing peter to groan and fall quickly to his knees, curling up and holding his side.
“peter? oh my god. i’m calling an ambulance? okay? can you hear me?”
“no, no, it’s fine, i’m fine.” peter hissed out between sharp breaths.
“just... got hit on patrol... i’m good,” peter slowly start to rise to his feet again. before he could protest, aunt may was pulling up his tee shirt where he was cradling his side. she let out a small gasp as she examined the deep purple and blue bruise that was already forming where peter was kicked.
the bruise would be gone by tomorrow afternoon. the process of bruises forming then fading always went a lot quicker for peter than it would anyone else. unfortunately, aunt may didn’t seem to care.
“this?, on patrol? i told you, peter, i told you to be careful! and you come home with this? stark told me he’d keep you perfectly safe, not a scratch on you! how’s this for a scratch?” she gestured to the large patch of discolored skin before peter backed up a step and let his shirt fall back over his side.
“aunt may, it’s not a big deal, it’ll be gone soon, i swear.”
“peter, we can’t brush this off. how many times are you gonna be coming home, looking like you got the crap beaten out of you? i don’t want you getting hurt like this.” aunt may pursed her lips and considered something for a moment, before stepping out of the kitchen.
peter sunk into one of the kitchen chairs and let out a small sigh, running a hand through his hair. he heard aunt may talking through the wall and sat up. had she been talking to him?
“...situation. this is not okay. you need to get off your ass and do something. thanks.” she talked sharply, sounding very annoyed. she walked back into the kitchen a few moments later. her phone was gripped loosely in her hand, hanging down by her side.
“how bad does it hurt?” aunt may gestured to peter’s side. her expression had softened a little from what it was before.
“barely, may, not at all. were you talking to me just a second ago?”
“no, pete, i was on the phone, it’s nothing. i can give you something, we have advil, or-“
“doesn’t work. something about enhanced senses and radioactivity. who were you on the phone with?” before may could answer, there was a sharp knock at the door. may let out a short sigh before going to answer it. peter slumped farther into the chair, resting his hands in his palms. maybe he could just go to his room and go to sleep. may wouldn’t wake him up, peter was sure of that.
peter was about to put his plan into action when may walked back into the kitchen, tailed by -oh, great- tony stark.
“hey kid, what’s up?” tony gave him a short wave.
“may... may why is mr. sta-“ peter was cut short by his aunt may pulling him off of the chair and lifting his shirt again, exposing the bruised skin. all his protests were cut short by mr. stark holding up a finger.
“how’d this happen?”
“i was on patrol, it just-“
“how many were there?”
“... what?”
“how many? how many guys were you fighting?” well, shit.
“uh, ...yeah, well...”
“i don’t have all night, kid. how many? did you see their faces? where was this?”
“well... there was... it... they we trying to rob the, uh, flower shop. it was... a guy, yeah, i saw his fa-“
“wait, hold, pause. guy. singular. as in one guy?”
“...yes.”
“did this ‘guy’ happen to be the hulk, or otherwise genetically enhanced? because last i checked, not many normal guys can break your god damn ribs.”
“no, i don’t think so, mr. stark, he was just... i guess... i wasn’t really... i thought i had everything covered so i just... chilled.”
“oh. oh, i’m getting the picture. you strolled into the flowershop, like an over-confident dick-“ aunt may shot him a glare “-and ran into someone who knew what he was doing. and now you’ve gotta bruise the size of your head to pay for it. i see.”
“no, mr. stark, i-“
“moreover, why didn’t your AI let me know you’d broken, what, three ribs?”
“two... two ribs. and i sorta... found a couple loopholes... in the system...”
“sorry. excuse me. are you telling me that you hacked a multimillion dollar suit, and disabled the most important program wired into that suit. for the second, god damn, time?”
“i didn’t disable it! i just... tweaked it?” peter rushed to defend himself. this was bad.
“tweaked it. you tweaked it.” ton let out a humorless bark of laughter before turned back to peter, serious once more.
“grounded. may will take your phone. i’ll take your suit for tonight. and when i bring it back tomorrow morning, you will not have a blink of a chance of cracking the system again, not only that, your AI will alert me when you do, inevitably, attempt to hack it. wait and see how that’ll go. also, i’ll let you know that the only reason youre getting the suit back is because i know that you’ll go patrolling anway, even if you’re in your goddamn pajamas. mrs. parker, any more terms and conditions?”
“yes. ned isn’t allowed to come over next weekend.”
“what? aunt may, please, we were supposed to finally finish the death star, ned knocked it over two weeks ago and we’ve been waiting-“
“no. you heard me. you said that bruise will be gone in no time? great, then you don’t need medical attention. so you can give me your phone and go to your room.” peter let out a defeated sigh and placed is phone in aunt may’s open palm before turning to go to his room.
“kid,” mr. stark addresses him sharply.
“yes, sir?”
“don’t call me sir. suit, please.”
peter ground his teeth together and walked to his backpack where he’d dropped it in the hallway to retrieve the suit.
he turned to give it to mr. stark when he was squeezed into a hug, which was kind of painful.
“we just don’t want you to get hurt, kiddo.” tony murmured into peter’s brown mop of hair. mr. stark grabbed the suit from his hands and squeezed peter’s shoulder before walking out the front door.
“you can go to your room now, pete.” aunt may called from the kitchen. peter hung his head and walked to his room. he closes the door behind him and layed gently on his bed, before curling into a ball under the covers and falling quickly asleep.
what a shit day.