Chapter Text
It had started off as a simple Monday morning. March 21.
He had woken up slightly late, he would have most definitely missed the bus if he started getting ready now and walking was definitely going to get him there extremely late. So he thought about the next best thing. Swinging. I mean why not, it hurts no one, he thought.
So while he got ready, he quickly texted his friend Ned telling him to open the bathroom window for him and stand guard for him making sure the coast was clear so he could get in quickly and, obviously, while not getting caught.
Ned had known his secret for slightly longer than a month. He had caught him sneaking back into his room through the window in his make-shif, Spider-Man suit and had been thrilled to help in whatever way, dubbing himself, the guy-in-the-chair. Since then Ned had helped him with lying, excuses, and in some cases, with injuries.
He was also the only one who knew. The only one that could know.
He finished getting ready, checked the apartment, making sure that his aunt was gone. He went back into his room, got his hoodie and mask, quickly pulling them on. He got to his window, crawled out, closed it and shot a web to the closest building.
He had the plan down in his head. Swing to school. Get through the window. Take his hoodie and mask off inside of a stall. Head to class.
Simple , easy, and quick.
The universe had other plans for him.
~~~~~~~~~~
His plan for getting to school on time or - if he was lucky - early was thrown down the drain - with the itsy bitsy spider- two minutes into swinging through queens.
He noticed it at a distance.
A large truck was heading down the road and showed no signs of slowing down and an unsuspecting driver in a small, orange Audi was going for the green light.
He had to act quickly if not, someone could end up seriously injured. He turned and landed a few yards in front of the Audi and got ready for impact.
The Audi stopped with a screech, a couple feet away from him, and he heard the driver scream - a woman - and then quickly turned and braced himself for impact. It had not hurt too much, but the impact was still something he could not get used to.
The truck in his hands had a dent up in the front. He personally didn’t care about it, more just about the driver. Well, both drivers.
He checked the driver of the truck first, checking for any head injuries that could explain unconsciousness. After noticing that the guy was out cold with no head injury, he focused his senses to hear the man’s beating heart. Which thankfully was there. He woke up the driver by shaking him.
Once he asked the correct questions he found out that the driver was not injured or anything, it had turned out he was just extremely tired, so Peter made sure the driver was good to go.
Next he went to the woman in the Audi.
She looked fine or at least there were no visible injuries on her. She looked pale and was breathing pretty fast and hard but she looked good. And she looked familiar, but whatever.
“Ms.- umm- are you okay? Do you need me to call someone for you… like an ambulance or do you think you can drive? If you can’t drive I can move your car to the side- like I can push it and you can wait there-”
He could hear her heartbeat, it was beating pretty quickly, but he could see that she realized that, yeah, she was still in the middle of the road.
“Umm, no I'm good, thank you.” She smiled at him - a little shaky - and took a breath - also a little shaky - and waved him goodbye.
She drove off and he decided that it would be okay- This random lady who almost - key work: almost - got run over or hit was going to be fine.
Ding
He heard his phone go off and shot a web to get out of the middle of the road and onto a roof top. Once out of the way he pulled out his phone and checked who it was. Ned.
Guy-in-the-chair:
Dude where are you???
Helloooo?????
You're going to be late.
Webster:
I’m on my way, had to stop to save sum1
Guy-in-the-chair:
… COOL
From what??
Who??
Webster:
tell you l8er
And off he went. Shooting a glance over his shoulder one last time.
Yeah, everyone was good.
~~~~~~~~~
Thankfully he had gotten to class on time. Well, his teacher seemed to think so. She had gone to get some copies from the printer and he snuck into class, which technically meant he was on time and was not getting detention.
He sat next to Ned, near the back of the class, and told him what had happened. Ned looked amazed at the idea of stopping a truck that weighed a ton. Or multiple, he wasn’t sure how much exactly.
He went through the day excited for the presentation a member of Stark Industries was going to give at the end of the day. It was for an internship opportunity that seemed both interesting and promising. That on a resume would be amazing for MIT.
His dream school.
Both Ned and him wanted to get in but Ned already had a full schedule and so did he. God, would it not help his future though.
The auditorium was big and kids were barely filling the seats and others still had not gotten in yet, or decided to not go to it at all.
Both him and Ned went to the front. Hoping that if they did sit up-front, they would have a better possibility of asking questions and actually getting answers.
Kids continued to slowly fill in some of the seats. Teachers stayed off to the sides and asked for the students to stay quiet for the special speaker.
The lights dimmed and the projector turned on, causing the stage to be the only lit area, and making it the center of attention. Then a woman came out.
The woman.
The one he had saved that same morning, and he now realized who exactly she was.
Pepper Potts. CEO of the Stark Industries. Tony Stark’s fiancé. HOLLY HELL. He gasped quietly, hoping for no one to have heard, but his best friend had heard him and noticed the shift of mood, and looked at him.
“Dude, what’s wrong?” Ned asked in a hushed tone. He looked worried and if he had to imagine what he, himself, looked like then, yeah, he too would be worried.
“It’s her- like the one I saved-” he said, pausing to swallow, “this morning.”
That was enough for his friend to look just as shocked as he felt. “You saved her and you did not even notice who it was.”
“Well, I don’t just go out asking people who they are. I just kinda just save them-” A teacher stepped right in front of them and crouched down.
“Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds, do we have a problem here? Is this not up to your standards?” The teacher kept his voice low and hushed. The random teacher had an eye-brow raised.
“No, sir, everything's fine, sorry,” and with that the teacher left, but not before giving them one last look.
They looked back at Ms. Potts who had just about wrapped up the section of her speech that explained what Stark Industries was about. What they did. What they stood for.
The rest of the speech was about the opportunities that came from the internship and how after a few months it could end up being a paid internship with benefits since Mr. Stark did not believe in free labor, but also needed to hear that the interns would do their job well enough.
That they were worth it.
After she had finished, she allowed questions. All she asked for was raised hands. Ned asked all the questions for both of them since Peter feared her recognizing his voice. There were others asking questions but by that time he zoned out.
She said her goodbyes and walked out, leaving behind applications which several students grabbed - including himself and his friend - and walked out.
Sure they were already planning on not applying, but they could change their mind in the future.
Ned walked towards a different direction to ask some teachers about some projects and assignments he still had questions on. Leaving Peter to his own thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~
The day had been good and eventful, he checked his phone - seeing that he could go out patrolling before May got home - and headed behind the school and started putting his suit on.
He quickly sent a message to Ned asking him to get his backpack from the ally so he would not have to carry it while swinging, or lose it because someone decided to steal it. He also asked his friend to take it with him, he would swing by and get it after patrol.
After a few seconds he got a thumbs up and focused to hear Ned heading towards him.
While listening for his friend, he also heard in the opposite direction someone talking and his Spidey-senses went off. He climbed the wall and crawled over to see what was going on.
The lady from that morning - Ms. Potts was on a call asking someone to pick her up at a different exit than apparently, previously planned, but the problem wasn’t her, no, it was the two guys in ski masks with knives.
They were trying to either mug her or ask for her to autograph their knives, which was less likely to happen, so he guessed the former was the one.
He got higher and closer with the help of the nearby walls until he could land between her and the two guys.
“Hey there, you know this is a school, I'm pretty sure you can get in trouble for having that here-” His little quip was cut short when one of the two - the taller of the two - started running towards him and started slicing the air.
Peter dodged and weaved, quickly forgetting about the other guy.
Which was his biggest mistake at that moment.
He sensed it before he saw it.
He could not jump out of the way for two reasons; Ms. Potts would be left unshielded and he did not have the space.
He saw it coming for him, either his heart, Ms. Potts, or his arm. The last seemed like the better option. Honestly it was the better option, he could and would heal quickly.
He would survive.
So he moved slightly to the left, turning and ended up getting stabbed in the arm.
Flashing pain was sent through his body, but he couldn’t get distracted.
The shorter guy - the one that had ended up stabbing him - seemed shocked and froze long enough for him to grab the mugger's arm, twist it and shove him towards a wall, shooting a web, and trapping him.
The one that had first gone for the attack seemed scared.
Peter shot another web, pulling the guy towards himself like a yo-yo and tossing him towards the guy already stuck on the wall. He shot one final web, trapping the second and last guy and turned towards Ms. Potts.
She was quick to see the wound and quicker to panic.
“OMG, YOU GOT STABBED- YOUR BLEEDING- DO YOU- DO-” she was scared for him and he was just glad that she was fine.
“I’m fine, thank you-” His reassurance was cut short.
“PEPPER!” He winced at the sudden noise and the intensity of it. He turned and saw a man. He wore a black suit jacket, black pants, white button up and black tie.
The guy had gotten out of an Audi, black unlike the one he had seen this morning, and was heading straight for Ms. Potts.
Peter heard Ms. Potts’ heart slowing down slightly, a sign of being with someone familiar or someone she could trust.
And with that, he shot a web and headed towards Ned’s place.
He could hear her screaming after him, calling for him, and felt bad for ignoring her, but if he did not get his wound looked at he would just end bleeding out.