manhattan
Peter’s new apartment felt… empty.
After he’d patched himself up, he’d dashed into the public storage where most of his and Aunt May’s belongings now lived. He didn’t know if there were any records of him, but he didn’t want people asking questions about all the pictures of the unknown boy in May’s stuff.
He’d taken box after box to a rooftop that had an access that had been blocked off since the blip. Those had always been his favourite spots to sleep, so he knew where a lot of them were.
The next few days were a blur, but eventually he remembered swinging through the city in a hoodie and sweats and his old goggles pinning a beanie to his head. Peter webbed his suitcase and a duffle bag of clothes and notebooks to his back and had took it all through his window. He took those two bags back and forth from his building to the rooftop until it was all laid out on his floor. Afterwards, he’d taken the boxes to use as shelving, because he couldn’t afford any more furniture.
Then he went back to the storage unit, having to sneak in between shifts because they were starting to empty it out, and had dug around until he’d found the box that they’d shoved pieces of his bed into. At that point, he’d been pretty hungry and it’d taken him a while to figure out that the box would not fit through his window and had taken it in through the front, like an absolute moron .
When Peter finally stopped to look at everything he’d mindlessly placed on the floor, he realised that one of his only framed pictures of him, Ned, and MJ had cracked (either on the swing over or by his super-strength that had been a little wonky since he wasn’t eating) and he couldn't afford to get it replaced. He promised himself that he'd buy some string and clothes pin to do that cool picture mural thing with all of his unframed pictures. It still made him cry.
It was the next day when Peter was certain the Spider-Man rage had passed. (MJ had gone into an extensive rant about how most (white and male) stopped trying to support social rights in minorities less than a week after it had been brought to their attention, if they even tried to help at all. It really helped him learn how to navigate the news.) He’d charged his phone at a library and opened the news app. He’d been greeted by Clint Barton and Hawkeye and Rockefeller tree.
Apparently… shit had gone down.
And he hadn’t been there to help.
How was Peter supposed to be the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man if Spider-Man couldn’t even help the neighbourhood? It had flown right under his radar.
It’s not my fault, he reminded himself. Double D wasn’t even a mile away and he wasn’t spotted at the scene.
…
Where was Daredevil?
Peter had done extensive research into the other vigilantes during his second year as Spider-Man, and he knew for a fact that before the blip, Daredevil had gone out almost nightly.
After the blip his sightings had been less common, but he’d come all the way to Queens to talk with Peter a day after his identity was revealed and had forwarded the credentials of his lawyer . Peter had thanked him, even though he believed it was unnecessary and had been insincere when thanking him, but after research into the other cases the guy had taken for Daredevil, he’d come by Hell’s Kitchen and left a thank you note, but had taken it back the next day because it would probably be hard for him to find.
But with all the shit that had happened this month, surely he’d be out and about? Hell, there’d been a Ronin sighting in the city, and he hadn’t done anything?
What if he was injured?
It was with that thought in his head that Peter started jumping from building to building towards Hell’s Kitchen.
He hadn’t even stopped to consider that maybe Double D had been taking some mental health time until he was standing on the roof where Peter had left the thank you note a few months back.
When he’d finally stopped to consider what he was doing, he realised that it’d been two weeks since he had someone to care about. Someone to worry about.
That realisation made him feel empty.
It was almost Christmas time. Peter used to be constantly panicking, knowing that (enhanced) criminals loved this time of year and adding Midterms to it was a recipe for disaster. Long story short, he used to be super stressed for all of November and December.
But now, he didn’t go to school.
Now, he had nothing to do.
And it felt suffocating, all of a sudden.
Peter didn’t know when the panic attack subsided, but he did jump at a thud of boots from behind. They were too light to be Daredevil’s.
“ Oh my god, ” a woman mumbled. “Spider-Man?”
Peter turned and was greeted by a woman in a purple and black leather suit with a bow strapped to her back. “Hi,” he said softly.
“You know your mask is wet,” she said.
“Whoops!” He said good-naturedly. He’d grabbed a face mask to cover more of his face since the beanie wasn’t going to cut it.
How much had he been crying?
“You okay?” She asked. “Wait- this is probably over-stepping for a first meeting. I- I’m Hawkette.”
Peter raised his eyebrow before remembering that the left lense had been unresponsive since the fight with the Vulture so he squinted in an attempt to get the message across.
“I’m uhh… the one who was helping Clint at the Rockefeller centre. I’m kind of like his mentee. Wait- I’m sorry. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, it was just really cool and only like fifteen hours ago, so I’m still kind of in shock or something like that- I should shut up.”
Fifteen?
“But the articles I saw about it. They were all posted on the 24th. That would make today the 25th.”
‘Hawkette’ had a gator mask covering her mouth and a hood over her head but when he asked about the date, her eyes widened substantially.
“Yeah. Did you forget about Christmas? Is that like… something that’s going to happen to me if I keep this going? I hope not because honestly, that would suck. ”
It couldn’t be Christmas.
Not today.
If Christmas was today, and he’d wasted it, he’d never forgive himself. Because Christmas this year was starting on the same day as Hanukkah. Peter and May had made a deal that there wouldn’t be a Hanukkah as bad as their first without his parents, but then when Uncle Ben had died they’d broken it so they’d made a new agreement to never have a Hanukkah hindered by spirits ever again. But if he’d done nothing today? That would make him a traitor.
“Shit. Uhm, buddy, you okay?”
He wasn’t okay. If Peter was okay , he would have remembered Hanukkah.
“Shit. Can you name five things you can see for me?”
Peter swallowed hard and then continued gasping for air.
“Spider-Man, can you hear me?”
“I need to be alone,” he choked. “I’m sorry. Just- we can meet here tomorrow at 9, if you want. I have nothing planned. Just- right now I need to be alone. You seem nice, though. Most of Clint’s friends are. Unless you’re an agent of SHIELD.”
Peter made it halfway back to his apartment before shutting down for a few hours on a random rooftop.
He congratulated himself on that progress when he woke, and then went to find a dollar store so that he could get some food in his system.
Kate didn’t know what she was expecting when she saw Spider-Man staring into space on a random rooftop, not even in his full suit. Her dumbass brain decided that she was going to approach him, and she didn’t realise how dumb it was until he’d made sure they’d meet again the next day.
He’d forgotten Christmas.
Spider-Man had forgotten about the most crime-filled holiday of the year.
But Kate didn’t want to pry.
Maybe someone had found him out and accused him of being a murderer… or something like that. Kate honestly didn’t know what to think.
But maybe she was just thinking too much. Maybe Spider-Man was just a busy guy with a wife and… no kids and it had just… slipped his mind.
Whatever. She’d just try to get the answer out of him in a few hours.
Touching down on the specified roof, Kate spotted Spider-Man almost instantly.
He wore the same hoodie and sweats, but this time there was a spider-insignia pressing the hoodie to his chest. It was the only thing he had that was still in his colours. The hoodie was green and the pants were grey. This time, it seemed like he’d located his original mask because the goggles were no longer pining a beanie and face-mask, rather he was just wearing one cloth over his head.
“Hi!” He greeted cheerfully. “I’d like to say that I asked Clint about you, but we’ve only spoken a total of 3 times. So I guess this is a kind of… get to know you patrol!”
“Can I ask the first question?” Kate asked timidly.
Spider-Man nodded.
“The fuck happened to your suit?”
The right lense on his goggles opened all the way while the other one stayed stubbornly slitted.
“It- uh- the Statue of Liberty fight involved a lot of blood. Stained all the way through. And short-circuited. There was a guy made of electricity.”
Kate nodded in sudden understanding.
“Guess you’ve been busy trying to clean that mess up, huh? I got some experience. I’ve been donating to charity to make up for everything I broke during this last week.”
Spider-Man huffed. “You know, I can stop bike and car thefts without getting a single scratch on the metal, but whenever I step near a national monument shit just goes wild. I call it my- wait, that’s my name. Huh. I guess we can call it my ‘Spidey’ luck.”
Spider-Man gestures to the side and then they both take off, jumping from roof to roof in a direction Kate isn’t really sure of.
“I mean, you’re getting pretty lucky with these jumps right now,” Kate remarks. “You’re hardly looking.”
Spider-Man was just kind of jogging and jumping without glancing around. Kate wondered how often he took this route to know it so well.
“It’s one of my powers,” he says with too much confidence.
“So where are we going, anyways?”
“You notice how this roof is kind of on the edge of Hell’s Kitchen?”
Kate shook her head. She just assumed that it was a random roof.
“It’s because not too far from here – at least when I had extra web – is a Mcdonalds that is open 24/7. I’ve got a friend who works until 2am. Xe also has a crazy ex. About a month ago we made a deal that xe gives me free food and in exchange I make sure there’s someone guarding them on the walk home. Xe might not give you food, we only made the deal because I accidentally broke their bike. Long story. Still, sometimes it’s useful. Free meal. I usually only stop by on quiet nights. And tonight is hopefully one- ugh, I’m rambling again. Sorry, Hawk.”
Kate laughed a little. “Hawk?”
“Trying to think of something shorter than Hawkette that isn’t ‘Hawkey.’ You can call me Spidey, by the way. I don’t have many people to just jump around with like this.”
His voice had jumped into a solemn tone with those last words.
Maybe he had and they’d died?
Kate shouldn’t try to pry. It wasn’t her place. Hell, they’d only met a day ago.
“I guess Hawk works-”
Kate missed a jump and started hurtling into an alleyway.
He’d messed this up with MJ.
She’d nearly died because he had forgotten to send out a webline.
If he had just sent out one web, when the Goblin grabbed him, she wouldn’t have fallen. Peter 3 wouldn’t have needed to save her.
He couldn’t mess this up again.
A web stuck to her stomach and suddenly, Kate wasn’t falling anymore.
She definitely had a little whiplash, but she’d be fine.
Spidey, on the other hand, had one eye as wide as it could go and his chest was moving faster with his breaths. “Are you okay?”
Kate swallowed her panic. “I’m fine, just hanging out, honest.”
Spidey laughed bitterly. “I bet we’re going to get along great.”
“Yeah, we definitely are,” Kate mumbled. “But I hope that your jokes are better than mine.”