Chapter Text
Blood. That was the first thing he noticed in the alleyway. There were puddles of blood everywhere. He looked down, seeing the scarlet liquid blend into his red spandex suit. The metallic smell was everywhere, and he could feel its stickiness on his hands. He felt sick to his stomach. Taking his Spider-Man mask off, he ran his hand through his hair, only to find that it too was caked in blood. His whole body was.
He walked forwards, his footsteps making an unnatural squelching noise as he stepped in the puddles on the street.
“Peter! Help! Oh god help me-” A woman’s voice choked. Peter’s heart dropped to his stomach. His heart rate picked up as he recognized the voice.
He stood there frozen as he listened to the sobs.
“Peter, please. Help me!” He forced his feet to move forwards and coughed to clear his throat of all the red, sticky blood.
“May-“ he choked out. “May, where are you?”
“Peter! Save me! Save me Peter!”
Peter saw a silhouette at the end of the alley. “Aunt May!”
He used nearly all of his strength to drag his feet through the sticky, red liquid. He kept trudging along, a sharp pain in his left hip slowing him down. He was almost there.
“Peter!” He was close enough to see the tears streaming down her face. His aunt was tied to a chair, drenched in blood.
“May!” He finally reached her, and limped around to the back. He untied her from the chair, then walked around to the front, prepared to carry her home.
To his surprise, she stood up by herself.
“May? Aunt May, what did they do to you? Did they hurt you?”
She didn’t reply. She looked... unnatural. Like someone from the Twilight Zone. Her eyes were glazed over and her usually expressive voice now spoke in a monotone fashion.
“Aunt May? Who did this to you?” He opened his mouth and took another step towards her.
“You did.” Peter looked at her in confusion.
“Aunt May, what are you talking about?” A few beats of silence passed.
“It’s all your fault. You didn’t tell me you were Spider-Man.” Peter’s throat tightened up. Her voice droned on. “You didn’t tell me you were out making enemies, not caring if they decided to get revenge on you by targeting me.”
His eyes started to sting with tears. “May, that’s not true! I kept my identity secret, I made sure that no one would make the connection between me and you-“
“You’re wrong.” May interrupted. “People know your secret identity. You let them know your identity.”
Peter froze. It wasn’t his fault that his identity had gotten out. Right? The lives of his friends and classmates were at stake. Peter had been up in the Washington Monument’s elevator with the Decathlon team when the radioactive purple stone exploded. He had saved them, saved their lives. Sure, he had revealed his secret identity, but it was necessary. Right?
“They won’t keep your identity secret.” May’s voice startled him from his internal monologue. “Your so called friends will just betray you and leave you, just like everyone else in your life. Everyone except for me.” She paused, either to choose her next words carefully or for emphasis, he wasn’t sure. “But now you’ve betrayed me Petey. You lie to me about your ‘Stark Internship’ and now you make a reckless decision to trust your classmates. You’re putting their safety before mine!”
“No! That’s not what I’m doing!” Peter heard a feint beeping from beside him. A bomb? He looked around before turning back to his aunt. “I would never put anyone else above you!” The beeping grew louder.
—————
Beep. Beep. Beep. Peter jolted, sitting upright as he tried to steady his breathing. He sat in his bed, tears falling as a result of his nightmare.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Peter hit the alarm clock’s button, blinking sleep from his eyes. Light was streaming in through the windows, too bright for so early in the morning. He stayed in bed for a few minutes, trying to steady himself.
“Peter! Time to get up!” he heard Aunt May yell.
He groaned, knowing that if he didn’t get up now he’d be late for school.
“Coming!”
All of Peter’s doubts had been expressed in his nightmare. Are my classmates actually trustworthy? he wondered. I should probably tell Mr. Stark that they know and ask him for advice.
It was the morning after the incident in DC. His teammates had kept his identity a secret, lying to the police, saying that Peter had watched it all take place from the ground.
He felt like the whole identity reveal thing was going just a little too smoothly.
Even Flash had agreed to keep it a secret.
Flash? Agreeing? The two were never put in the same sentence.
Nevertheless, when Peter stumbled out of his room and walked over to the kitchen table, he breathed a sigh of relief when he read the morning newspaper’s headline.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Saves the Day in DC!
There were no mentions of his name, just the usual, incorrect speculations about who the person behind Spider-Man’s mask was.
Peter grabbed the Lucky Charms from the cabinet and the almost-empty milk carton from the fridge.
What would Mr. Stark say?
On one hand, Mr. Stark isn’t super obsessed about keeping my identity a secret. And besides, I did the right thing. There was no other option.
Peter poured his cereal into one of the few clean bowls. He then poured the remaining milk and grabbed a spoon.
On the other hand, Mr. Stark was unpredictable. Who knows what his opinion will be?
Honestly, he’ll probably just offer to bribe them. Peter thought with a smile on his face.
Halfway through his abnormally large amount of sugary cereal, he heard a creak from the floor behind him. Aunt May pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Good morning sweetie, how are you?”
Peter responded with a groan of tiredness, making her chuckle.
“Well, I’ve got to get to work, but have a good day!”
He answered with a grunt, making her smile as she went out the door. He would never be able to understand how his aunt was such a morning person.
Finishing his breakfast, Peter grabbed his backpack, phone, keys, and last night’s homework before hurrying to catch the bus.
—————
Peter scurried quickly to his locker out of habit, wanting to get to class before Flash saw him.
From down the hall, Peter heard a shout.
“Hey, Peter!” He looked up, eyes widening.
“G-good morning, Liz,” Peter said, voice cracking. He could feel his face rapidly reddening.
She (thankfully) ignored his awkward reply.
“So are you coming to Decathlon today? Mr. Harrington says he has a surprise planned for us.”
Peter replied, saying that he would, when he saw Flash over Liz’s shoulder.
Flash was the person Peter was most worried about. He had very little reason to protect Peter’s secret. I mean, I did save Flash’s life yesterday. Maybe Flash realized that he owes me?
“-eter? Peter?” Liz was waving her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention.
“Huh? Oh sorry, I spaced out there for a second.”
Liz looked at him a bit weirdly, “Are you feeling alright?”
“Yup, I’m all good,” ding the warning bell rang. “I’ll see you later!”
“Peter.” Liz grabbed his arm. “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah, I just didn’t get much sleep.” Liz still had a concerned look on her face.
“Remember, you can talk to me about anything. Okay?”
Peter nodded and ran off, nearly forgetting to close his locker. He put his hands on his cheeks, trying and failing to get rid of the persistent blush that always appeared when he was around Liz.
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