Peter had been spending a lot of time thinking about the Vulture lately. Yes, he was in prison, and there's no way that he could get to Peter anymore. But Peter was still scared. How could a man, a father, be that cruel, menacing. Peter couldn't stop seeing the gun in his face when Mr. Toomes confronted him. He couldn't stop feeling his grip on his shoulders, dumping him into the freezing lake. He couldn't stop picturing his malicious smile staring back at him. And he couldn't stop feeling the tears stream down his face when the building crushed him. Peter had wanted to give up at that very moment, and if you were to ask him, he wouldn't really know how or why he got out of that alive.

A quiet knock on his door snapped Peter out of his thoughts.

"Peter? Honey?"May's soft voice came through the door. Peter stood up and opened his bedroom door for her.

"Hey May,"he smiled, trying not to show how sad and scared he was feeling inside. He knew the Vulture wasn't a problem anymore, but he was still scared.

"I have to go to work now, my shift is overnight, I won't be home until after you go to school, so I wanted to say goodnight, and have a great day tomorrow,"

"I thought you weren't going to do overnight shifts anymore,"Peter said, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"I know, I'm sorry, but, we need the money and-"

"No, I get it, I just- you're right,"Peter said, looking up at her, smiling softly. "Have a good night,"

"I'll try,"she smiled back, "I made you dinner, it's on the stove, put it away when you're done with it, get your homework done, and don't go to bed too late, okay?"
"Yeah,"Peter said.

May smiled sadly, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. She tried to pretend she didn't see him flinch. The flinching and hiding started a few months ago. Every time she tried to talk to him about it, he clammed up, never revealing what was wrong. Peter was always closer to Ben, and she was okay with that, she'd just wished that he would come to her with his problems.

"Alright, bye. I love you,"

"Bye,"Peter responded. May wasn't sure if it was a teenage boy thing or what, but she tried not to let it bother her when Peter didn't respond back with "I love you, too,"

May left his room. Peter could hear the chime of her keys and the lock of the apartment door before everything became quiet. Leaving Peter to his thoughts again.

A few hours had gone by, Peter had done his homework and watched a movie. Now he was getting tired. He made his way into the bathroom, brushing his teeth and getting dressed in his pajamas before heading to his bedroom.

He played on his phone for a little bit, every once in a while looking up at the time at the top of his screen. He still wasn't ready to sleep, and it was now 3AM.

Peter finally shut off his phone, and turned onto his back, staring at the top bunk of his bed.

He wasn't sure why he couldn't fall asleep. He sat up in his bed, fixing the blankets around, and laid back down. A few minutes later, he got up, got a glass of water, and went back into bed.

Why couldn't he fall asleep? Another couple minutes passed before a shiver went up his spine.

All the hairs on his arm stood on end, alerting him of danger. He heard the sirens long before anyone else would be able to. Peter hopped out of bed, and reached into the attic hatch for his spider suit. He quickly undressed from his pajamas and switched them for his suit. He slipped on the mask and asked Karen to tell him where the action was. He slipped out his window and climbed up to the rooftop. Listening to her directions, Peter began swinging towards the commotion.

He could see it now, a 7 story apartment building was up in flames. He landed on the roof of the next building over. Listening closely, he could hear faint screaming from people inside the burning building.

"Karen, scan the building, find me the best way in."

"Scanning now."Karen replied. "The safest way into the building is through the back left window of the 6th floor. There are 3 people on the 7th floor, 2 on the 6th, and 2 on the 4th floor. There is also a cat on the 3rd floor."

"On it,"Peter said swinging to the window Karen directed him to. He first made his way up to the 7th floor to find the 3 people there. He found a small boy, sitting in his closet, covered in ash.
"Hey, it's alright, I'm here to get you out of here,"Peter said softly, "But we have to hurry, there's lots of other people here too that need to get out,"

The little boy nodded and reached out to Peter to be carried.

"Uh, okay-okay, come on then,"Peter said, putting the boy on his back, "hold on tight, okay?"

Scrambling through the rest of the 7th floor, he found two more people trapped behind a door in flames. Peter made a hole in the wall where the flames weren't, and directed them to follow him out to the remaining intact stairwell. After making sure the three were safe on the ground outside, getting medical attention, Peter ran back into the building. The smoke was getting thicker, regardless of the firemen now on the scene, now fighting the fire.

After clearing the 6th and 4th floors, Peter once again ran back in to find the cat on the 3rd floor.

"Here, kitty,"Peter shouted, "Come here!"

Peter coughed roughly, the smoke was filling his lungs quicker now that he was yelling, and tired from helping everyone out.

Looking around, he spotted the small, what once was white, kitten in the corner, sitting in a potted plant. He quickly grabbed the small creature in his arms, and ran to the stairwell. The stairwell was now collapsing and unstable. He had to find another way out. He subconsciously started petting the kitten as to soothe it.

"Karen, find me a way out of here,"Peter spoke, before breaking out into a coughing fit.

"The only way out of the building is through the window, down the hall and to the left."

"Got it,"Peter said as he took off running, kitten tucked away in his arms.

Once Peter got to the window, he looked out, there were bystanders everywhere. He lent out the window, putting his feet on the side of the building. He looked at the building across the street, and then at the kitten sitting in his arms. He shot a web out to the building and landed on the roof. He slowly made his way down to the street. A little girl ran up to him, "Mittens!"she shouted, grabbing for the ash-covered kitten in Peter's arm.

"Thank you! You saved him!"she smiled brightly at him, ash smeared across her face.

"You're welcome,"Peter spoke out, as the little girl ran over to her parents, holding up the kitten like Rafiki did to Simba in the Lion King.

He shot up a web to the nearest building, that wasn't on fire, and started his journey back home.

Too tired to change out of his suit, Peter plopped onto his bed, finally falling asleep.

The next morning, Peter awoke to his aunt yelling his name.

"Peter?!"May screamed, "What the f-what are you wearing?!"

Pure horror was spread across Peter's face. May was home early. Peter had fallen asleep in his spider suit. Now May was seeing him in his spider suit.
"M-May, I, I can explain!"Peter yelled, defensively, pressing on his chest, allowing the suit to fall off his body. He slipped on sweatpants, all the while trying to explain to his aunt who was having a panic attack in his doorway. "May, this- this isn't what it looks like!"

"Oh? So you're you weren't asleep in your room, wearing that-that spider costume?!"
"Well..I-"
"No! I don't want to hear it!"

"But, May-"

"Enough, Peter!"May shouted. "I told you, when you saw that dangerous stuff, to run away! And-and this whole time, you-you've been sneaking out!? Fighting these horrible dangerous people! This is not okay!"

Peter stopped talking. This was his worst nightmare come true. May was never supposed to find out about this.

"How long have you been...this?"May asked, gesturing to his suit.

"A month before Ben…."Peter whispered out.

"Oh my god,"May said, placing her hands on her temples. "Oh my god, Peter! You lied to me, for over a year?! You've been this, this thing, for over a year!?"

"I wanted to tell you, when it happened, I swear, but, then Ben, and I- you-you worry and when you worry, I worry and then nothing ever-"Peter ranted, but was cut off by May holding her hand out.

"No, no, Peter. No! You don't get to make excuses now, you, you lied to me! We don't lie to each other, we don't do that!"

"I'm sorry,"Peter said softly, heartbroken.

"I-I can't do this, I can't deal with this right now, I need sleep, I need a drink…"May said, mumbling to herself as she ran off to the living room, leaving Peter alone.

"Fuck...fuck,"Peter spoke, "FUCK!"he shouted as he punched the wall, drywall turning to dust.

"Ow…"he whispered, gripping his bruised fist in his other one.

Peter sat on his bed, tears now flowing from his eyes, both from pain and from seeing such pain in his aunt's eyes.

"Shit."

Four days had passed and May refused to talk to Peter. She took up drinking to deal with her stresses. Peter hadn't gone out as Spider-Man, figuring it wouldn't be the best idea in this situation.

What he didn't think about was how Tony was going to notice that he wasn't going out to patrol. One, maybe two days without Spider-Man roaming the city was normal, but three nights? That wasn't like Peter.

Peter's phone rang just as he got out of school. It was Tony.

"Hey Mr. Stark!"Peter said cheerfully.

"Kid."Tony greeted, as per usual.

"What's up?"Peter prompted with Tony didn't say anything else.

"I sent Happy to pick you up, he's gonna bring you to the compound."

"Uh, okay? Where is he-"Peter's thought was broken off as Happy pulled up right next to Peter.

"Found h-"Peter was cut off by Tony as the older man hung up on him. Peter frowned, but pocketed his phone and got in the front seat of Happy's car. Peter stopped sitting in the back seat a long time ago, as he thought it was weird to have such a gap between them.

"Hey, kid, how was school today?"Happy asked him.
"It was great! I aced my chemistry test, actually I got a 110, cause I got the extra credit correct."

Happy nodded, he never really did say much anyways.

"Why does Tony want me to come to the compound, I'm supposed to be there in two days anyways. Oh! Do you think he already finished my new web shooters, or maybe he-"

"I'm not sure, guess we'll find out when we get there,"Happy said.

"Yeah...I guess so,"Peter said, kinda bummed that he was just shut off by Happy. Normally he would let him finish rambling before he spoke. Weird.

The ride felt long in the silence but eventually they reached the compound. Peter grabbed his backpack and followed Happy into the main compound building.

FRIDAY's voice rang through the front hall as the two entered. "The boss is waiting for you in the lab, Peter."

"Okay,"Peter said, making his way to the elevator. As FRIDAY brought him down to the lab, Peter spent his time wondering why Tony wanted him to come in early, before he could even run over any scenarios as to why, the elevator doors opened up to the lab. He walked through, until he found Tony working on some of Clint's new arrows.

"Hey Mr. Stark!"Peter said happily as he through his backpack down on the next table over from where Tony was working.

"Hey, kid, how was school?"

"It was good! I got a 110 on my chemistry test, and Ned told me about this new Lego set he got so after this I'm gonna go there so we can build it."

"I don't think thats gonna happen tonight,"Tony started.

"Oh? Do you need me to work on stuff here? I can call Ned, we can work on it tomorrow,"Peter said, a little disappointed at first, but then becoming happy again when he realized he would be able to stay late at the compound with Tony.

"How has patrolling been?"Tony asked as he fiddled more with one of the arrows.

"Oh, it's going well! I, uh, it's been kinda quiet the last couple of nights, but it's-"
"Really? So if I checked the logs on the suit, it would say you've been out the last couple of nights?"

"I- wait what? Of-of course it-I-what-"

"I mean I know you can't go out every night, but you kill for time to be able to go out as Spider-man, so, why haven't you been out for three nights. Is something wrong?"Tony confronted him.

"I've just been, busy, I guess,"Peter said, nervously, "I guess I just forgot…"

"That's not like you, Peter, so tell me,"Tony said standing up in front of Peter, "What's going on?"