Chapter Text
One stray of her long, hazelnut coloured hair has fallen in front of Lila Bartons eight year old face as she finally appeared on Peters computer screen. She looked exhausted. Her heavy breathing and fushed face were evidence enough for that. Or maybe for the emberassment of beeing late. Again. Especially to a lesson with Peter. Dark eyes looked at him apolegetic and before he could say or do anything, she already started her explanation:
"Morning Peter, nice to see you. I`m sorry for beeing late, but I was busy and forgot the time and," she only stopped her rambling speech when she noticed the amusement flashing in Peters chocolate brown eyes and heard a light chuckle coming from her laptop, "What?"
"Morning to you as well", he said while dramatically sighing at his watch.
"Come on, Peter", she whined, a pout appearing on her face, "those were only two minutes. Way better than last time."
"I know, I know", he admitted, setting up his screen for the lesson, before watching her search in a tiny violett backpack for her math homework. "Did you have any new problems since the last time we talked?"
Lila shrugged absentmindedly: "Not really.The usual stuff, you know. Just the same old things."
Noticing the bitterness at the last sentence, Peter looked up, confusion visible in his eyes and saw a familiar frown forming on her face, which normally only showed up during an especially hard task. He wanted to ask her if something was wrong, but hesitated. If whatever happened lead her to this reaction, it was probably something rather personal. At least, something you would`nt want to talk with your Tutor about. But he coudn`t really help himself in the end:
"Is there any specific reason why that keeps on happening or ...I mean, is something bothering you?” he began, grimacing by the worried sound of his own voice.
Lila didn`t seem to catch it though. She was too busy , fumbling on the sleeves of her blue shirt. After a few seconds of silence Peter was about to drop it, not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable, when she spoke up, unusually quiet:
"Well, ahm, you know”, she murmured, seemingly not finding the right words.
"You obviously don`t have to tell me if you don`t want to. Sorry, that was rather personal.”, he awkwardly tried to reassure.
"No, that`s not, that`s not… It`s just that…”, she took a deep breath and glanced up at Peter, "Remember when I told you about my Dad? That he`s a really great archer?”
"You mean that one time you talked 30 minutes of our one hour long lesson?” Her face immediately reddened and she once again had a sheepish look on her face: "Hey, that’s not my fault and you got paid anyway didn`t you." She pouted, now resembling a tomato: "you`d understand if you were to meet him.”
"I`m sure I would,” he admitted, smiling warmly. As much as Lila and Cooper talked about their father, he really sounded like a great man and it was honestly really sweet how much they looked up to him.
"Yeah”, a grin started to form on her face as she remembered. "The last time I actually managed to convince him to teach me a bit. That was so fun,” she started to speak faster and her eyes light up at the memory, "so I decided to surprise him when he gets back home by how awesome I would be, but “, her face deflated. "I don`t know. I`m not really making any progress. I guess I´m kind off stuck?”, she said, though it sounded more like a question than anything else.
"Oh,” Peter wasn´t really sure how to answer that,"I think, I mean, it`s rather normal to be stuck sometimes, isn`t it? Sure, it`s frustrating, but … maybe you could ask your dad for some tips?” Jesus, he really wasn`t the right person to talk about this with .
She stared at him for a while, before biting her lips a little bit unsure: "That would work, but I wanted to surprise him. I think he`d be so happy if I´d already be good at it when he finds out.”
"But, don`t you think, he`d really like it, if he was able to help you with something you`re both passionate about?”, Peter asked, remembering his aunts happy face, when he asked her to teach him first aid. Even though he was sure that if she were to find out that the real reason why he needed to know that, was to sneak out and swing around the city in an red and blue costume designed by tony stark to fight against criminals and save people from burning buildings, she might regret that decision. He shuddered at that image.
"Yeah”, she let out a light giggle, while thinking about her fathers reaction. "I think he`d love it. Maybe i`ll try. Thanks, Peter.”
After that the lesson continued rather normally, the two of them were finished with Lilas homework and were currently discussing her latest test, before she decided to speak up again:
"Do you have something like that as well? I mean something you`re passionate about.”, she added after Peter send her a confused glance.
His eyes light up in understanding and he started to grin slightly: "Well, yeah. You know engineering , physics, math, stuff like that. And you bet, that I was stuck a lot of times while researching about those things.
"When For example?” She asked, blinking at him curiously.
"For example when he decided to become a vigilante and had to develop his webs secretly during his chemistry class", he thought, though there was no way he could say that to her.
"Well, eh”, he started, searching for something else to say, "you know Dr. Bruce Banner? “
She nodded.
,,When I was younger I read his book about biochemistry and really enjoyed it, so I decided to read his other books as well. I started to read about his research on radiation physics, but since that was my first experience with that area, I had a little trouble with it. It was fine though, after while.”
Lilas Eyes were clenched in confusion: "But aren`t those books like really complicated? I heard dad complain about that once.”
"Your father read those books?”
"Not really”, she answered quickly, seemingly searching for the right words, "ehm, you can say a good friend of his is pretty familiar with Dr. Banners work. “
Peter hummed in response and threw one look the bottom right side of his screen.
"Well, it seems that’s it for today. You did great. Just finish those tasks if you can and if you have any trouble, just tell your mom to text them to me.” Lila nodded and put her books back into her backpack. "See you next week, okay?
"Yeah, see you the-“, before she could finish her sentence, a loud bang was heard as her door was being pushed open, revealing a 12 year old boy with light brown curls and a missing tooth beaming at the screen: "Peter!”
While the boy in question also began to smile after recognizing the person standing there, his sister just rolled her eyes and looked at her brother with clear annoyance:,,Cooper? What are you doing here?”
"Why do you sound so upset”, he asked while making his way over to her, "your lesson`s over isn’t it? Anyway I just wanted to tell Peter about this”, he said, pulling a slightly crumpled piece of paper out of his jeans, which, after a moment of observation, turned out to be his latest Spanish test, with a big red B on top of it.
"You`ve got a B? Cooper, that’s awesome. “
"Yeah, I know,” Cooper said, smirking smugly in response to Lilas stares, "It`s thanks to you though”.
Lila just crossed her arms. "Okay, congratulations Cooper, you did great”, she said in a bored voice, "now is there any other reason you just busted into my room?”
"Actually, there is”, her brother said and looked back at peter, a somewhat apologetic look in his eyes. "Mom asked me to invite you to dinner again and I have to warn you. She`s dead set for you to accept this time.”
A little groan escaped Peter, which he immediately regretted after seeing Coopers disappointed face.
"I mean I also thought it`d be rather cool. You know, actually meeting you.”, Cooper added, somewhat emberassed.
"Yeah, Peter,” Lila said, eyes shining in excitement, "you have to come. Please?”
"Obviously it would be cool to see you, but I don’t know. I mean, woudn`t I bother you when I attend one of your family dinners. I mean- “
,,Are you kidding?”, a voice interrupted his rambling and Laura Barton walked into the room. "Trying to contain the excitement of those two after alone revealing the idea gave me more gray strands than I`d like to admit.” She looked lovingly at the two as both of their faces grew even redder than before.
A small grin formed on Peters face, but disappeared almost immediately, when he though about her suggestion: "But Mrs. Barton, I`m just-"
"If you don’t want to, that’s alright”, she cut him off, "but Lilas and Coopers grades really went up thanks to you and me and my husband just want to express our gratitude. So, would you like to come? Next Friday, 8 pm?”
A few seconds passed in which the siblings stared at him with big, hopeful eyes, until he sighed in defeat.
"All right, I will”, he finally gave in, "thanks for the invitation Mrs. Barton. “
"Yes”, Lila exclaimed, jumping happily up and down on her seat, while Cooper unsuccessfully tried to hide his relief, "I cant wait! See you then, Peter.”
"You know that both of you still have a lesson before that, right?”, Peter asked, right before Lilas hands moved to turn off her laptop and the videocall disconnected.
An exasperated sigh escaped him as he stretched his arms and also shut down his computer. He looked again at his watch: 3 pm. There were still 3 hours left until may would come home. With anticipation starting to bubble in his stomach and a last glance at the clock, he put on his familiar costume and jumped elegantly out of his window.
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The day was relatively calm and the air warm as he swung trough the city. Civilians swarmed the ground below him. Some looked up and waved, pulling out their phones, elevation visible on their faces. A group of children, not older than 13, stared at him with wide eyes and pointed excitedly, as he stuck to one of the higher buildings to get an overview of the area.
So far he hasn`t encountered any situations, which might require his help and as he glanced over the city, nothing really stuck out. At least not from where he was.
With a quick salute to the kids he let go of the wall he was sticking to, nearly falling to the ground, before shooting a web to a nearby roof and pulling himself towards it.
A slight snort escaped him as he heard the shocked screams of the people, walking on the streets and the laughter of the children, previously gesturing to him.
The wind blew strongly against him and he felt the adrenaline filling his veins as he moved trough the city, he grew so familiar with the last few years. He was just about to swing around the corner of a larger shopping mall, when his phone suddenly started to ring.
Confused he glanced down and was met with the friendly face of Ned Leeds, his best friend, proudly holding a light saber the two of them once unsuccessfully tried to build together. Grinning he accepted the call, while landing on the malls roof.
"Hey Ned, what`s up?”, he asked, sitting down and letting his legs dangle down the edge of the building.
"Hey, dude. You`re right now patrolling aren`t you. I saw you on the news”, his friends voice sounded from the phone , "you looked really cool by the way."
"Sure am. Why?”
"Do you have something to do right now?”, he asked.
,,No, I`m right now on top of a building, down the metropolitan Avenue. You`ve got something for me?”
"I just watched a livestream and there`s seemingly a robbery taking place next to the museum we visited last month. The perpetrators seem to be armed. You think you`ll manage?” Ned added the last part with a slight worry in his voice. He still got used to the idea that one of the superheroes he admired was actually his best friend and, while the thought was exciting, he couldn`t help but be concerned about Peter when he was on patrol.
"Sure”, Peter stood up, stretching his legs and preparing to start swinging again, "thanks, I`ll have to hang up then. Bye Ned.”
"Yeah, good luck Pete.”
Once he leaped down, he eagerly made his way towards the old history museum, new yorks buildings only a grey flash next to him. It didn`t take a long time, until he spotted the old building, made out of 200 year old reddish stone. He closed his eyes, completely concentrating on finding the right shop, just when a threatening voice disrupted the air. Triumphantly the teenager swung in the direction the sound came from and finally got a glimpse of the robbers.
They were big, around 1,90 meters, rather well build and with two black pistols in their hands. The one closest to him had short black hair and glanced hastily around the area, while his accomplice, an angry looking bald man, threatened to shoot the middle aged shop owner, who held his shaking arms high above his head in fear.
Peters eyes narrowed and he silently crawled down closer to them. He focused on their movements, patiently waiting for an opportunity to strike. Or at least he was, until the black haired robber suddenly catched sight of him.
"Yeah, he definitly has to get better at this,” he thought as the guy let out an angry scream and pointed his weapon at him.
Immediately his spider-sense got off, sending an uncomfortable crawl all over his body, shortly before a shot was heard trough the now empty street. With quick movements he jumped to the side, closing his eyes and trusting his instincts as the bullet hit the stone wall.
He webbed the gun to the ground, pulled himself towards the robber and knocked him out with one focused hit to the neck. After that he turned his head to robber Nr. 2, who stared at him with a mixture of shock and fury.
He was about to lift his arm, but before he had the chance to, a web was connected to his weapon as well and tugged out of his hand.
"You know, you can hurt someone with those, right”, Peter asked, watching the other blindly running towards him. He sighed: " People like you always make the same mistake, don`t they?”
The man raised his fists, ready to punch but Peter was quicker. He stepped to the side letting the man lose his balance, before throwing him to the ground and webbing his hands to the street.
"Thanks for your cooperation”, he said drily, while slowly walking towards the shopowner, who had sunken to the ground, shakingly holding a phone in his left hand.
"Are you okay?”, he asked, trying to keep his voice as soft as possible as he approached him.
"Yeah”, the man sighed, running his fingers trough his blonde locks, "Yeah I`m fine. Thank you Spiderman. I already called the police for”, he gestured to the lying men, "them.“
"Okay”, Peter said, glancing at the shop behind him. It looked relatively normal, but you never know what might have happened here, before he showed up. "You need here help with anything?”
"No need, no need, I`ll manage.”
The vigilante nodded: "Okay, then, stay safe. I gotta go.”
"Yeah, thanks again. "
"That`s what I´m here for”, Peter laughed over his shoulder, a warm feeling starting to build in his chest and he pulled himself on top of the nearest building, while sirens got louder and louder, the nearer the officers came to the crime scene.
Once he got high enough to see the red and blue lights of the police cars coming to imprison the robbers, he swung away, a proud feeling filling his body as he made his way back home.