Work Text:
Peter had had a blast .
He’d finally started going on patrol by himself a little more, and it couldn’t be going any better. Mister Stark hadn’t been pestering him as much about going with him, but wasn’t completely off his back. Peter figured he never would be– not that he minded. While he didn’t want Mister Stark to worry (ha! Have you met the man?) about him as much as he did, it also, selfishly, felt kind of nice to have someone worry about him like that again. He hadn’t had that in . . . a long time.
Peter guesses Mister Stark started to worry about him when he disappeared from the alley without a trace, so he wasn’t too upset about it. He couldn’t really blame the man. Besides, Peter had also gotten shot that day. But that was nothing new.
Apparently, though, Peter had had such a good time on patrol today that he had forgotten that his new friend was coming over.
He and Ned had started hanging out outside of school a little bit, and the times that they did seemed to be more and more frequent. Peter had never really had a proper friend before, middle school not having been too kind to him. Ned told him that he hadn’t, either, and they always laughed at the stunned expression in which Ned had stared at Peter the day they first met and bonded over Peter’s Star Wars shirt. Then Peter started sitting at the same science table as him. After that, Ned started inviting him to sit together at lunch so Peter wouldn’t have to sit alone. So, gradually, their friendship began to blossom.
But not quite enough for Peter to tell Ned about his other life as a superhero.
But when he crawled back into his bedroom from the window in his little nook, the first thing he saw when he turned around was Ned, staring at him with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
“Ned–!” Peter whisper-yelled. “What are you doing here?”
“We were supposed to hang out today! Mister Stark said he told you that I was here.” Ned said, obviously trying to soak in the fact that Peter was currently wearing the official Spider-Man suit. “You’re the Spider-Man. From TV. The news-”
Crap. So he hadn’t checked his phone and hadn’t known it had gone off because Karen had been out for repairs and upgrades. And now Ned knew. “Youtube?”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah, well, I’m not–I’m not! All that stuff is edited, you know? With fancy computers and all that stuff.”
“But you live with Mister Stark, like, the Tony Stark!” Ned says, frowning. “Does the school know? I thought your record only said Parker.”
“It does. We didn’t want to draw too much unnecessary or unwanted attention.” Peter is also frowning now. “But how did you know that?”
“Because the school only calls you by Parker.”
“Right.” Peter says. “Ned, I know it’s a lot to ask, but you can’t tell anyone about this. I cannot let my secret get out. Not Spider-Man, not living with Mister Stark, none of it. Okay?”
Ned nods quickly. “Of course.” he says. “Wow.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” Ned says. “it’s just . . . I can’t believe I know Spider-Man! My best friend is a superhero.”
Peter freezes from where he’s digging through his clothes to find something to change into. In the back of his mind, he thinks it’s kind of outlandish that he’s standing in the building where he lives with Mister Stark, in a skin-tight red and blue spandex suit with a spider emblem on the front, with the ability to stick to literally pretty much everything, and here he is, digging through a clothes drawer. What is his life?
But now, just now, Ned had said . . . he just said . . .
“Huh?”
“It’s crazy. My best friend is Spider-Man.”
“Best friend?”
“Well, yeah.” Ned says. “Have you ever had a best friend?”
Peter looks down at his feet and shakes his head.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Middle school wasn’t the nicest and I couldn’t even go to school for a while.” Peter explains. “I had to take a placement test just to get into the right grade level.”
“I’m sorry,” Ned tells him sincerely. “you know, if you want, I’ll be your best friend.”
“Really?”
“Yeah!” Ned says, pauses for a minute, then asks, “as your best friend, I am asking if I can tell Michelle about this.”
“What–no! Of course not!”
“You’re right. She’ll probably figure it out anyway.” Ned laughs.
Peter laughs too. She probably will. Have you seen how insanely smart she is? “No she won’t!”
“Sure.”
“She won’t!”
They both start to laugh harder, eventually moving onto anything and everything they can, and Peter has a great time with his best friend.
He supposes it really is nice to have someone else to talk to besides Mister Stark, just like both Karen, FRIDAY, and Mister Stark had suggested, although he’d never outright admit that they were right. But they were. And he had a best friend, a Ned, to prove it.