Work Text:
For Alina — Keep being you.
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You know, as far as friendly neighborhood Spider-Man's go, Peter had it relatively easy. No one knew who he was. He had a cheap suit, but that didn't really matter. He was broke, but he and Aunt May managed. He was invisible, apart from Ned, in school. That was fine. It was all fine. He had it covered.
He had it covered.
That was, of course, until Mr Stark was in his bedroom asking for his help. Something about the Avengers being in trouble. With him on the same side as Iron-Man, starting an internship with him, kinda, it was a dream come true! Like, maybe he'd be the next superhero or something.
But it was becoming harder and harder to keep his life secret.
When Ned found out, it was like a lift off his shoulders. And Aunt May, he didn't have to keep lying to her anymore. In fact, she supported him. That was great, really. It felt awesome to know that she was there every step of the way. Just him, Aunt May, Ned, and Mr Stark.
Then, one afternoon, one of the people from the street thanked him for saving her and her baby from a car crash. He was surprised when she asked for a picture so she could boost his support on social media. That's when it hit him — the best, and later, worst idea he'd ever come up with.
Spider-Man.
On Twitter.
Now, he wasn't really one of those interested in social media, the closest he had gotten was making an Instagram account but he had deleted it because most of the comments were from Flash saying he was a loser in the most creative ways he could think of.
So when he ran the idea past Ned, he wasn't at all surprised when Ned encouraged him to get it, saying that he would be viral within hours of getting it. Peter didn't care about that sort of thing, but he supposed it didn't hurt.
More one-to-one interaction with the public. Yes, that would be nice. To see what everyone thought, without hearing from the news.
And so, with the go ahead from Aunt May and Mr Stark, he downloaded Twitter one Friday night while eating pizza — with Ned there with him for moral support.
"What's the first tweet going to be?" Ned asked, grinning as he ate a slice of pizza.
Ned had enough excitement for the both of them, Peter thought, as the excitement radiated off Ned through to Peter.
"I thought of something during History this afternoon," Peter replied, setting up his account name and details. "It's something cheesy, and a little personal to me but something Spider-Man would agree with," he rambled on in his explanation, hoping Ned didn't lose him half way through.
"Brilliant! What are you waiting for?" Ned asked, practically bouncing on the chair.
Peter sniffed, taking a huge bite of his pizza and almost choking on the pineapple as he used his left hand to type out his first tweet.
@OfficialSpider–Man
It's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man here. Delmar's — best sandwiches in Queens. Good day, everyone!
He smiled, and hit send. Peter then sighed, placing his phone down on his bedside table. What if he finds out everyone hates him, what if he only gets one like? Not that he cared, but… at the same time, why did he come up with this idea, anyway? What was going to be the outcome?
He glanced at Ned, who was still grinning as he checked his phone.
"Of course, that's such a you thing to say!" Ned said laughing to himself.
Peter's eyes widened. Was he too himself? Would people figure out who he was just from that tweet? What if he revealed too much about himself and his identity wasn't so secret after all? Or if he was hacked and everyone found out? No. No one would believe him. He was just a kid.
He could get Mr Stark to help him if anything were to happen.
"Woah, Peter. Check the tweet! Didn't I tell you this was a good idea? They love you!" Ned said, jumping up and down with excitement.
The news didn't calm Peter, it made things worse. If there was love, there was going to be hate too. How much hate could he handle? He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to stop his hands from shaking as he slowly picked up his phone.
His eyes widened at the notifications showing through. He'd have to do something about that, too. Imagine if he was in school and someone saw the replies. He couldn't let that happen. Peter made a mental note to ask Mr Stark how to change the settings in his phone for that to happen.
He took a breath and opened the app. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at the numbers which were going up every time he refreshed the tweet.
8k retweets. 11k likes. 850 comments.
How was that possible? Was he really that popular — or, looking at the comments, perhaps unpopular?
Peter scrolled through the comments, his heart beating heavily, and his leg shaking uncontrollably as he was finally going to find out what people truly thought of him.
He was surprised to find that most comments were nice. Really nice. There was one that stood out to him the most, making him smile, like and retweet. His first ever.
@MrsLGreene
I brought Spider-Man churros, I wonder if he remembers. He was really sweet and I just wanted him to know how much I appreciated him helping a little old lady like me. Thank you.
@OfficialSpider–Man
*Retweet*
Really, Mrs G. Any time! I'm so happy I helped you. Oh, and the churros were amazing.
"Peter!"
Peter glanced up trying to stop his smile as he raised his eyebrows at Ned, who had his eyes wide with shock.
"Ned?" Peter asked, his voice filled with confusion. What happened, what went wrong? Why did everything have to go wrong?
"Iron Man just followed you, and so did Captain America!" Ned exclaimed, literally jumping up and down on the chair. "This is so cool!"
Peter gulped as he looked at his growing list of followers. Ned was right – there, on the list, was Iron Man. Captain America. Peter hadn't followed anyone yet, so he figured this was a good place to start. His thumb was shaking as he followed them both back, biting his bottom lip nervously.
"Aren't you going to follow me back?" Ned asked, not thinking much about it, still too excited from the fact that his friend was the Spider-Man.
"I mean, sure!" Peter replied, also not thinking much about it as he clicked the follow back button on Ned's Twitter. He also followed a few of the other superheroes, and his own account before he decided to stop with the following.
He grinned to himself, this was going well. For once, he was glad he came up with the idea. Nothing could spoil this day. Nothing at all.
"Uh oh,"
Ned's voice brought him out of his musings. Peter frowned, his heart beating heavily.
"I do not like the sound of that. What do you mean, 'uh oh'?" Peter asked, his eyes widening with panic as Ned showed him the trending hashtag.
- Who is Spider-Man?
- Why is Spider-Man following Ned
- Spider-Man on Twitter
- Churro Lady
- Is Peter Parker Spider-Man?
"Shit!" Peter swore, groaning as he ran his hand through his hair frustratedly. It had only been one click, one follow.
He started pacing back and forth, stressing as he thought of every scenario that was going to happen in the next few minutes.
Unfortunately, he didn't get far. His phone started ringing.
"It's Mr Stark!" Peter exclaimed worriedly, his hand shaking as he debated whether to answer the phone or not.
"Answer it!" Ned said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I can't!" Peter replied, as he did the opposite, and pressed the hang up button.
He jumped when there was a ring on the doorbell and both he and Ned looked at each other before running out of Peter's bedroom, both going in different directions to get to the front door. Peter climbed over the sofa and switched off the TV that his Aunt May had been watching.
"Hey!" Aunt May turned round, looking at both teenagers as Ned stood in front of the door so it wouldn't open.
"Hey!" Peter replied back cheerily, "Everything's fine, absolutely fine!"
Aunt May put her hands on her hips, not believing him for a single moment. "Oh, is it? Why is Ned struggling to hold that door closed?" she questioned.
"No reason," Peter replied, nervously.
"Sure, and when we start telling the truth to each other again, let me know the real answer."
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, I —" Peter started but didn't get to finish as Ned was shoved away from the front door which opened with a heavy slam through the doorknob which consequently fell off.
There, stood in front of them, was Mr Stark.
"You hang up on me." Mr Stark stated. "Not cool, kid. Not cool," he said as he stepped into the apartment.
"Hey, Mr Stark. I didn't hang up on you, I just… lost the signal..." Peter tried to lie but it didn't work as he trailed off at the look Mr Stark had given him.
"You, shut up. You don't get to talk. The adults are talking now," Mr Stark said, turning to Aunt May. "Your nephew is an idiot."
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed in offence. He glanced at Ned, who was now sitting on the apartment floor in awe of seeing Mr Stark. His friend wasn't going to back him up any time soon.
"What did he do, Tony?" Aunt May questioned, gesturing to him to sit down on the sofa with her.
As they sat down, Peter scratched the back of his head awkwardly. What was going to happen? Was Mr Stark going to take away his suit, again?
"He followed himself on Twitter, that's what he did," Mr Stark informed her, "Obviously, it didn't take long for the world to figure out from Peter Parker's tweets that he was Spider-Man," he said, rolling his eyes.
"Seriously, Peter?" Aunt May asked with a disappointed tone in her voice. "Why would you do that?"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking!" Peter replied, wanting to forget that all of this had happened. What would it be like at school on Monday? Would they still talk to him? What would change? Would they still like him? What about...
"Clearly. Look, it's alright, Peter," Mr Stark's voice brought him out of his panicked thoughts.
Peter looked at him with hope and Mr Stark sighed, patting the sofa as he stood up, stretching.
"Friday hacked into your account and made you follow everyone who followed you. We made you tweet that you were doing a random follow spree, and that if anyone had any more churros to send them your way," Mr Stark said all in one breath.
Peter felt a weight lifting off his shoulders, collapsing in the nearest chair. Mr Stark fixed it. Of course he did.
"Thank you, sir! Thank you so much, I don't know what to say…" Peter replied, very grateful. He grinned when Mr Stark patted him on the shoulder supportively.
"You're welcome, kiddo. Next time, don't hang up on me, got it?" Mr Stark smiled, walking slowly out of their apartment, "Nice to meet you again, Aunt May. Nice to meet you too, Ned. Oh, and sorry about your door."
Ned, who had been sitting quietly on the floor through the whole encounter, mouth opened with shock as Mr Stark left.
"He knows my name!" Ned exclaimed.
"Yeah," Peter said in a daze.
"Cool!" Ned grinned brightly, not bothering to move.
"Well, I don't know about you two. But I fancy Chinese. Who's coming with me?" Aunt May asked, running a hand through her hair as she started dialling a number on the house phone.
"Sounds good, Aunt May. I'll just be a minute," Peter replied, running back into his room to get changed. Mr Stark had helped him. He had to thank him somehow.
He grabbed his phone and nodded while smiling to himself. He knew what he had to do.
@OfficialSpider—Man
Sorry, Captain America. But I'm on Iron Man's side. Not just because I was on his team, or anything like that. But because of these detention videos the government gives the school. There's only so many times I can hear 'So, you got detention'.
Peter laughed, switching his phone off and leaving it on his bedside table as he rejoined Aunt May and Ned, who were laughing about the door that needed to be fixed at some point.
He thought back to when Mr Stark first discovered who he was, and he smiled to himself. He knew one thing:
He wouldn't change anything. Not one bit.