Chapter Text
Peter Parker has awful luck.
So awful that he has a name for it.
Parker Luck
It was called Parker Luck because it wasn’t just him: it was the majority of his family.
His Uncle Ben had told him that it meant anything bad that could happen, would happen. If anything could go wrong, it would go wrong. And boy was he not exaggerating, even if he only meant it as a joke.
First came the death of both his parents.
He was 6 at the time.
The mental toll that came with that, he prefers not to talk about, even if he was young, it was still hard on him.
He moved in with his aunt and uncle after that.
It got better, he swears it did.
Then a few years later came the damned spider bite.
The stupid bite that gave him weird abilities.
It was mainly all downhill from there.
No more than a week after The Bite (as he was now calling it), Uncle Ben was shot by a mugger, and bled out in front of 15 year old Peter.
Every day after that day he would replay his uncle’s words in his head, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Peter had power.
But he failed to take responsibility.
He failed to save his Uncle Ben…
From that day coward he chose to help people.
Sure he was in a red hoodie, red and blue sweatpants, two red gloves, and his everyday sneakers with a red ski mask on— just jumping from rooftop to rooftop saving people in Queens at night, but what do you expect from a fifteen year old kid?!? Actually, strike that, just a fifteen year old, because after all this, yeah he wasn’t a kid anymore, he’s seen too much to still be a kid.
Getting back on topic, he had limited resources. It wasn’t until later into the year (like march or April) where he had finally perfected his chemical concoction that became his webs.
Sure, jumping building to building was fun, but swinging building to building with chemically made webs?!? That really sold the whole spider gimmick.
Now does it matter that his webs were technically made during school hours, in chemistry class. Meaning he himself stole those chemicals to make the web fluid, no. Because the school offered those resources no? Okay he knew it wasn’t his finest moment—but you make do with what you got, and school chemicals and such was ‘what he got’.
Eventually he had started going out Spider-Manning in the afternoon as well. He was able to do it while his Aunt May picked up extra shifts at the hospital she worked at.
His Aunt May was amazing.
She made homemade meals (that tended to come out a little burnt) that always made him feel warm inside—that everything is alright right now, despite what is really going on right now.
She was there for him at his lowest points talking to him—even when he wouldn’t talk back—or sometimes just sitting with him, listening to him ramble or even in silence.
She bought him the occasional Lego set for him (and sometimes Ned as well) to build, making sure he still had some fun to do along with all his schoolwork.
She picked up extra shifts (occasionally night shifts) to earn a little more cash for the both of them. Working herself rugged.
He loved his Aunt May, she was really all he had left after everything…
…Well her and his two best friends, Ned and MJ
Ned and Peter had been friends since middle school. They would build Lego’s together. Have sleepovers together. They ate dinner together a couple of times. They studied together occasionally. They were truly the definition of best friends.
Then there was MJ.
MJ was not as close to Peter as Peter was to Ned, but they were still extremely close (all three of them were). He and Ned met her Freshman year of high school, at first it was just small talk then slowly it turned into lunchtime conversations, then after school hangouts. And one day she just said, “You can just call me MJ.” Prior to that they called her Michelle, now though, it was official they were friends so MJ it was!
Now that Peter Parker had his life (somewhat) sorted out. He was able to get into the swing of being Spider-Man.
A sewing class here and there (for free at the courtesy of the kind old lady, Mrs.Elle from two floors below him), and a quick trip to the small fabric store on 37th and he gave a nice upgrade to the suit. He figured her was in desperate need for one as this whole hero/vigilante thing was clearly not a phase.
At this point, Peter had been Spider-Manning for a while—about 6 months—when his Parker Luck struck once more and his identity as Spider-Man was revealed to none other than Ned Leeds…
After Ned stoped freaking out about the whole thing, he actually helped Peter a lot here and there. Whether he got injured, or needed a cover-up, even occasionally needing Ned to check something online goes him, or as Ned liked to call it, being his ‘Guy in the chair’.
And that was that.
Peter’s life was going pretty swell if you asked him.
Until his Parker Luck made another dreaded appearance.
May was called to deal with a major incident that happened in Europe, yeah you heard that right Europe.
Apparently some major breakout happened that they needed lots (and I mean lots) of nurses doctors, all medical professionals etc, in Europe. And May, his Aunt May, was called to be one of them.
She couldn’t decline, well she could’ve, but not in good conscience. No May was just like that. She always helped people when she could—especially if she knew that they really needed it.
May promised it would be short.
May said it would only be 2-3 weeks at most.
So a week after the call, May was off…
And Peter never saw her again…
But there was one problem. Peter was 15–well about to turn 16 but you get the deal. And he was not going into the system. Not after what he heard about it. He was not taking any chances.
But Parker Luck never came around this time.
No one ever showed up. Not to the door of his apartment. Not to the office of his school. Not even his doctors office.
For once Peter felt grateful to be ignored by the general population—as Peter Parker at least.
He got lonely in the empty apartment pretty fast…but he managed it. He picked up a job at a nearby restaurant, for the money, and made sure he knew the code to the safe.
He was also able to do a little more Spider-Manning now, even though Ned had gotten concerned why he was doing so, Peter was able to brush it off. (Since when did he get good at lying?)
I’m total he had a little under $900 by the end of week one and two living alone (including the safe money)
Had Ned and MJ gotten concerned about why he was eating lunch faster than a wild hyena? Maybe. But he brushed it off because it totally wasn’t because of the fact he stopped eating breakfast.
But he made sure of one thing was his number 1 priority: Make sure no one finds out, about both his absence of a legal guardian and being Spider-Man.