Peter's POV

Ned and I sighed in unison once more as we sat in the school gym after hours. Somehow, thanks to y/n, we had signed up to clean up after the careers fair, and yes, we were the only three candidates.

"Man... why can't the juniors do this cleaning junk," Ned complained.

"Why do you think?" I asked, pointing at the piles of trash laying around everywhere.

Ned sobbed. "Dude, your girlfriend is mean..."

"Yeah..." I hummed, staring at her from across the hall. "I mean, no, she's just, cute."

"Peter? Snap out of it!" Ned threw a balloon at my face. "You're gonna creep her out, man. Remember we said, if we ever got girlfriends, we'd make sure we wouldn't-"

"Creep 'em out, right..." I nodded and blushed.

Y/n looked over to us and smiled. I nodded in acknowledgement, with a smile, trying my best to be cool. Ned just waved awkwardly.

"You guys gotta get up eventually," she laughed, then turned back to her work.

Ned gave me a pained look. I returned the same expression.

"Peter," her sweet voice called.

"Hmm?"

"I need you," she said, still looking at her work.

I grinned at Ned. "You hear that?" I said through my cocky smile. She needs me, I mouthed.

"Niiiiiice," Ned whispered, nodding slowly.

We performed our handshake at the speed of light and I skidded over to y/n.

I instantly lost my cool and turned awkward. "Hi – hey, what – what do you need?" I stammered.

"Um, could you take that side of the banner? We need to take it down," she informed me.

"Yep." I nodded quickly and tiptoed to reach to reach the top. "So, you look nice today," I managed.

"R-really?"

"Mmm." I detached the banner from its perch. "Really," I assured, blushing profusely.

She giggled. "Thank you, you're so sweet. You – you're – you look adorable as always..." she murmured, taking her side of the banner down too.

I almost fell off my ladder, but luckily held on for dear life just in time.

Y/n gasped. "Are you alright?!"

"Wha-"

I suddenly realised I was sideways on the wall. I gulped. "Um, I-"

"How are you holding on like that?!"

I dropped onto the floor, as clumsily as possible. "NO IDEA!" I shrieked in pain.

"Oh! Poor baby!" Y/n slid down her ladder hastily.

Across the room, Ned gawked at me. I shook my head a little, despite being in considerable pain. He closed his mouth and acted cool – well as cool as Ned can get, anyway. "Geez Peter, so clumsy!" he said loudly, trying to help me, but he sounded pretty unconvincing.

Y/n didn't seem to notice though. She was to busy fussing over me, sprawled out on the floor, dying. (Okay not dying... but it hurt.)

"That was out of nowhere! How did you fall?" she asked with concern.

I laughed with pain. "You called me adorable, I got kind of dizzy..." I said truthfully, super glad she had already forgotten about the whole sticking to the wall thing.

Her eyes filled with warmth. "Aww," she whispered quietly. "Okay well you can rest a little. Ned and I can clean for now."

I heard Ned groan from the other end of the gym.

I sat in the corner, with an ice pack on my head, laughing at Ned without y/n seeing and teasing him. Like, 'haha you have to do all the work, peasant', or 'I ain't payin' you for nothing, peon'.

It was fun.

"So Ned, did Peter tell you? I met Spider-Man the other day!" Y/n said with excitement.

Ned gave me a look. "Oh yeah? And, what did Spider-Man say?" he asked, eyeing me.

I threw an empty bottle at him and mouthed don't say anything pleeease.

"Well," y/n began, oblivious to the silent screaming match going on. "Not much, really. He gave me a lift to Peter's place since there was so much traffic. He was really cool..."

"Peter knows Spider-Man," Ned blurted AGAIN.

I sighed, lacking the energy to object.

"Huh?" Y/n held her broom still and spun around to look at me. "You didn't tell me that... really?"

I felt guilty... and I knew what was coming next.

"Ya, he knows him through the Stark internship thing he's got going on," Ned explained.

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. "Stark? Peter, I didn't know the internship was with Tony Stark! Why... is this the first I'm hearing of this?" She played with the top of the broom.

I lowered my head. "I'm sorry... it... people don't usually believe me when I – and I didn't want to tell you cause'..."

"Because he got fired once for telling everyone!" Ned blurted again.

I sighed with relief. "Yeah, I got in tons of trouble with Mr Stark. I – uh – I had to plead for him to take me back on..." My stomach turned with guilt for lying to her.

"Oh no! Well, don't worry, your secret is safe with me!" y/n promised. "I swear"

"Thanks, thank you so much," I said sincerely, beaming at y/n.

She smiled back and nodded. "No problem!"

Ned gulped. "Whoooo, glad you got that off your chest am I right?"

I looked helplessly at him. "Yeah, totally," I laughed with a smile.

"And the thing is Karen, I feel soooo bad..." I was lying on my bed, talking to Karen about my inner crisis.

"Well, Peter, if you feel so bad, why don't you just tell her?" Karen said. "This is just like what happened with Liz-"

"Karen we don't talk about Liz anymore," I said in a hushed tone, cringing remembering I had such a bad crush on her.

"Noted. If you feel like you love her, you should tell her, Peter,"Karen advised.

"Hey, can Mr Stark listen in on these conversations with you?!" I asked, thinking of the possibility and panicking.

"Technically yes, but he's far to busy to listen to this stuff," she assured.

I covered my face and blushed. "I hope he doesn't..." The number of talking sessions with Karen I'd had when I was bored... if Stark knew - oh, the horror...

"Incoming call from y/n s/n" Karen notified me.

"Okay don't pick up yet, lemme just practice. Hello there, hey cutie, hi darling, yo, yeah we'll go with that. Okay... Go!"

I ripped off the mask and held the cellphone to my ear.

"Hey," y/n said on the other side of the line.

"Yo, y/n. What's up?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to... I mean if you don't mind, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your internship..." she sounded guilty about even asking.

"Sure! Sure, I – whatever you wanna know, I'll tell you. I'm... sorry about keeping it from you but... maybe soon I can tell you... exactly what I do." I stared at my suit in the corner and swivelled around on the chair in my room.

"I understand Peter. It's kind of cool that my boyfriend is an intern for Stark... you don't have to tell me everything, but... just tell me this; do you do really cool stuff?" she asked, her voice bubbling with excitement.

I blushed furiously, trying not to explode from just how cute she was, and how kind and understanding. "Yeah, it's pretty cool!"

"Awesome! Well if I were you Peter, tell Ned to make sure he doesn't blurt to anyone else, or you might jeopardise the internship again," y/n giggled.

"Ha ha, you're right, I'll make sure!" I laughed. "Um, thank you for caring so much, y/n. You're the best girlfriend ever."

"I'm glad you think so! Bye, Peter. Get a good night's rest!"

"I will. You too."

"Mwah!" she hung up.

I melted. "Mwah? She kissed me through the phone... I melted some more.

I realised I was gazing tenderly at the floor. "Stop being weird..." I scolded myself. "Urghlejgljlrjgwlrhghhh" I groaned as I fell onto the floor.

Suddenly, my web shooters emitted a glow – spider signal?

"But I didn't even activate it," I mumbled, getting up and pulling on my mask again. "Karen?" I called, waiting for an explanation.

"Remember Peter, you asked me to alert you via the Spider-Signal if any major events were reported."

When I arrived at the scene, where a train had careened off the rails, I used all my strength to hold it up while the authorities evacuated the passengers inside. The city lights in the darkness brightened as it got darker. My limbs felt like they were on fire. Sure, bring Spider-Man gave me strength beyond belief but I was really getting crushed under the huge train's weight. Not to mention that I just got slammed really hard in the back by a loose rail.

It took a while, but finally, late into the night, I was able to leave the wreckage to the authorities – I strung it up so as to make it easier for them to clean up, of course.

My bones ached and my legs creaked with each step. To make things even better:

"My backpack's gone..." I sobbed. "My keys..."

The authorities were all dotted around my place, and so were the reporters, since the incident happened so close to it. I couldn't even climb into my window – they'd see me and then who knows what'd happen if they knew I was a high-schooler...

Y/n's POV

I sat on my bed, reading in the semi-darkness, when suddenly a knock at the window scared me out of my mind. I jumped up, poised to strike, when I saw the Spider-Man perched the window, waving lifelessly. I gasped and slid it open.

Without speaking, he climbed in and stumbled over to my chair, groaning in pain.

"Umm..." I whispered, still startled.

"Just take off the mask, it's me," he drawled.

"What?"

"Trust me, it'll be cool you'll be like, whoa," he coughed. He really wasn't in great shape right now...

I did as he said and gently pulled off the mask. I stopped pulling when I saw his lips.

"Peter?!" I shrieked, jumping and then hyperventilating.

"Yeah."

I pulled off the rest of the mask. "S-Stark Internship?" I stammered.

He nodded. Peter looked so tired and bruised.

I held his face gently and examined for injuries. There weren't any serious ones.

"Sorry," he croaked. "I got locked out of my apartment, and May wasn't home. You know she leaves my bedroom window locked now..."

"It's okay, you can stay! My parents aren't home this week anyway. Umm... so does anyone else know?" I asked, running my fingers through his slightly wet hair.

"Ned and May both found out accidentally."

"I feel dumb... I should've recognised your voice..." I laughed quietly.

He smiled.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" I asked, checking his face for the fifth time.

"A little," he admitted. "My back... one sec."

He touched the little black spider on his chest, and his suit turned all loose and fell off his shoulders, revealing his chest.

"Oh god!" I gasped. "You're all bruised... what did you do?"

"I held up some train, it was really heavy and some rail hit me in the back."

I kissed him on the forehead. "You wait here, I'll go get the first aid kit," I told him.

He smiled weakly, then yawned.

"I guess even heroes get tired," I murmured to myself, still dazed that Peter Parker, my boyfriend, was the Spider-Man...

I had applied antiseptic to the little cuts on Peter's body and and cleaned his bruises for him.

"Thank you," Peter yawned.

"You're welcome, darling," I replied, hugging him and blushing, suddenly remembering he was half naked. "You can shower in the morning, but just get to sleep, okay?"

He nodded, all tired and groggy, and he just went with it as I ushered him into my bed.

"You can sleep on the right, I like being on the left," I added.

"Yes Ma'am."

I left him there to sleep like a baby and sat down at my desk, my mind buzzing with questions for Peter. But he was tired now... It would have to wait.

At least I now knew one thing for sure: Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and in other words, I was dating a superhero...

I glanced over to him. His eyelashes fluttered delicately as he snored lightly, cuddling my teddy bear and smiling, fast asleep. He was still the same, cute, weird, random Peter I knew and loved.

And he was sleeping in my bed without a shirt or pants.

This was all too much.