Some unexpected reveals
Aunt May had had an exhausting day. As she walked up the steps to her apartment, nursing scrubs stained with throwup, all May wanted to do was to lay on the couch while watching Cupcake Wars and eating Oreos for a solid 5 hours.
Of course, when she reached her apartment, the sight Aunt May was met with made it clear that her day was going to become even more exhausting. There were the Avengers, sitting in her living room.
On the couches and loveseats that Aunt May and her now deceased husband had bought over the years at estate sales and goodwill were the Goddamn Avengers. Aunt May was utterly floored. What the hell were they doing in her house?
Sitting on her favorite couch was who Aunt May assumed was Captain America. He had a beard now, but she still recognized his iconic dorito figure.
Next to the man was someone Aunt May vaguely remembered from a press conference she saw on TV once. Sue her, she was too busy paying the bills and raising a teenage boy than to keep up with the Avengers and their newest members.
Lounging on the comfiest armchair in the house, was who Aunt May assumed was either Natasha Romanoff or the Sokovian avenger who caused the destruction in Lagos.
Either way it was one of the girl Avengers who were rarely mentioned by the news unless the media had something bad to say about them, which now that May thought about it, was kind of sexist.
Across from the girl Avenger, sat Peter and Ned, who were whispering to each other and eyeing the Avengers with astounded expressions on their faces. May’s gaze lingered on her nephew’s for a second, wondering if he had anything to do with the Avengers sitting in her living room.
She quickly flung that theory away as preposterous, for the man obviously responsible for this scenario was sitting on the couch across from Captain America. Next to him was who May assumed was the famous War Machine.
Aunt May glared at Stark as he argued with Captain America. What the two men were saying, May didn’t care one bit. All she knew was that Tony Stark was sitting in her living room, unannounced, again.
Aunt May did not approve of Tony Stark or the internship he set up with Peter at all. She didn’t like how he constantly overworked her nephew, making him skittish and constantly busy. She didn’t like how Peter seemed to be obsessed with proving himself to Stark.
May noticed that once Peter lost the internship, he was sad, but she also noticed that after a week, his stress vanished away. Yes, Peter was still sneaking out, doing normal teenage things that Aunt May decided to not get involved with, but he was more at peace with himself.
Of course May didn’t entirely blame Peter’s mental state on Tony Stark. Peter had been sneaking around, acting odd, ever since Ben had died. But the Stark internship hadn’t helped either.
During this past week, it seemed to May that Peter and her were finally getting their lives back on track. They had reconnected, watching Star Wars for the first time since Ben’s death.
Now Tony Stark was here, with his group of Avengers who were still war criminals. Aunt May didn’t know why they were here, but she was certainly going to get to the bottom of it.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” The Avengers, Peter, and Ned, turned to look at her. Tense silence filled the room.
Still hopped on adrenaline from confronting the literal Avengers, Aunt May continued, “You better have a good explanation for this.” She eyed both her nephew and Stark.
While Aunt May was still mad at Stark, she didn’t entirely think that Peter wasn’t behind this incident either. Goodness knows the boy had been hiding something from her for a long time, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.
After a few seconds of more silence, the girl Avenger, who Aunt May now recognized as the Black Widow, spoke up, “We will explain everything to you once you sit down and,” She shot a glare in the direction of her fellow teammates, “As soon as the boys calm down.”
“Okay,” Aunt May leveled her breathing, “I’ll grab a chair.” She pulled up the chair seated at her and Peter’s kitchen table/dining room table, deciding to remain calm.
If May’s hippie mom had taught her anything, it was that if she wanted people to talk, it would do no good to appear threatening to them. Multiple people would have to talk a lot in order for May to understand the situation at hand.
She settled into a chair. Seated next to Peter, Aunt May asked, “Okay, now explain to me Stark, what you are doing in my living room again, and why you all,” She gestured to the rest of the Avengers, “Are doing here.”
May continued, “Whatever Avenger bullshit is happening, this shouldn’t involve Peter.” She huffed and crossed her arms, waiting for Tony to answer.
Tony put a hand on his forehead and sucked in a breath. Leaning back he replied, “Well May,” He started nervously laughing, “Heh, uh, I’ll let Natasha explain, it’s just.” He covered his face with his hands and leaned forward, vibrating from laughter.
Tony couldn’t help it. Whenever he massively screwed up, whenever everything around him was going to shit, all of his stress just turned to laughter.
May though, May was practically vibrating with anger across from him. Tony honestly didn’t blame her. He had coerced her nephew to fight Captain America, given him a suit, and then left him to fight crime on his own for a solid 6 months.
She obviously didn’t know about the crime fighting aspect, but Tony expected that she wasn’t too happy with him causing Peter stress over the Stark Internship, which was a code for Spider-Manning.
Honestly, Tony wasn’t too happy with himself. He wasn’t fit to be a part of Peter’s life. He wasn’t fit to be a father to him. If Cap didn’t have this weird obsession with telling everybody the truth immediately, Tony would have thought it better to just not tell Peter about his true parentage.
But Cap had thought the same way about telling him the truth about how his parents died, and look how that turned up. Peter deserved to know the truth, even if the truth upturned his life.
Before Tony could dwell on what Peter’s reaction to this news would be, May finally put her anger into words, “You think this is funny Tony!”
Everyone tensed around him. Tony eyed Cap, who was looking seriously out of his depth. Sam and Rhodey looked to May, and then to Peter, and then to Tony and Steve, trying to make sense of the situation. Natasha folded her arms, and sat back, getting ready for the inevitable rant,
“Ever since you got into Peter’s life, you’ve brought him nothing but trouble. You know what he had when he got back from your little grant trip in Germany! A Black Eye Tony! A Black Eye!”
“And he said he got that fighting some bully called Steve, from Brooklyn!” Steve tensed as he made the connection. His face was pure guilt as he turned to look at the boy who he had fought months earlier.
The fact that the kid who had packed a serious punch was this young, had never crossed Steve’s mind.
“Then for 6 months, all Peter can talk about is the Stark internship! You overworked him so much that he was late for classes and quit band and robotics,” It was Peter’s turn to glance from May to Mr.Stark guiltily.
May was blaming Mr.Stark for his actions, which had never been Peter’s intention. He just used the Stark internship as an excuse for where he was all the time while Spider-Manning.
“Now,” May had calmed down a little by this point, “Peter is in a good spot in his life. If you’re coming back to offer another internship, you’d best be going.”
After Aunt May’s speech, tension in the room was thick. Nobody knew exactly what was going on. Natasha sat back observing everyone’s reaction, waiting to intervene until the group sorted out the whole Peter is Spider-Man fiasco.
Aunt May was breathing heavily, glaring at Tony, as if daring him to answer to her speech. She was still mad at the man, for she thought that Peter’s stress was due to him, rather than Peter putting too much responsibility on himself because he blamed himself for Ben’s death.
Peter sucked in a breath and held it. During the last ten minutes, the avengers had come to his apartment, discovered his identity, and Aunt May had told off Mr.Stark. This situation was really going off the rails.
All Peter had planned for the night was to finish some homework with Ned and then go patrolling. He never fathomed he would be stuck in whatever this was. A million questions formed in Peter’s mind as he glanced at Mr.Stark.
His super-hero boss’s, or mentor’s, Peter didn’t know what to call their relationship, grimace matched Peter’s. Peter felt sort of guilty. Mr.Stark hadn’t caused Peter to be stressed and overworked, Peter had overworked himself.
Yet Aunt May was blaming Mr.Stark for Peter’s mental state over the past 6 months. Judging by the disappointed looks that War Machine gave Mr.Stark, the anger radiating from Captain America and the wingman directed towards the mechanic, the rest of the room blamed Mr.Stark too.
Peter spoke up, “May, everyone in the room. I just want to let you know that Mr.Stark is not to blame for me quitting robotics and band and being stressed-”
Aunt May gave a sympathetic glance to her nephew. Her voice softened from it’s angry tone just minutes before, “I know you think that sweetie, but he shouldn’t have overworked his highschool intern.”
She glared at Tony who just wore the same grimace, waiting for this absolute road wreck of a conversation to end.
“But I’m partly to blame too,” May sighed, “I should’ve checked in on you more after Ben’s death. I thought that you getting an internship would be beneficial, but obviously it wasn’t. I should’ve been there for you more while you were grieving.”
Seeing the look of guilt and sadness on his Aunt’s face made Peter decide to do something. Everybody in this room already knew about his secret identity, except for May. She was going to learn anyway, and Peter decided, in a mature decision that he would not have made a few weeks prior, to tell her.
“May,” for what seemed like the one hundredth time, Peter sucked in a breath, “There was never a Stark internship,”
He gouged her guilty expression before continuing, “The reason why I quit robotics and band, is because,”
Peter decided to just get the news out, “I’m Spider-Man.”
Silence once again reigned in the room as Peter waited for May’s reaction. Beside him, Ned covered his mouth, he didn’t really know what to think with the literal Avengers being in Peter’s apartment, but he knew that this was a huge moment for his friend.
The rest of the Avengers/ex-Avengers in the room held their breath as they, like Peter, awaited May’s reaction. They had unwittingly become invested in this family drama of people they barely knew.
Finally, May’s face morphed from disbelief to shock, “You what!?”
“I’m Spider-Man,” before May could talk, Peter hastily added, “I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d freak out I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner, but it seemed like you were always busy with the rent and-”
May cut him off, “How long has this been going on Peter? Just What?..”
Peter sighed in defeat, “Since Ben died. I want-wanted to tell you guys, but then everything happened and-I’m sorry.”
May’s face was a mixture of fear, guilt, and lingering surprise. She finally asked, “Wha-Why Peter?”
“If you can do the things I do but you don’t, and the bad things happen. They happen because of you.” Peter clenched his jaw in resignation.
When Aunt May didn’t respond, he added with a heavy voice, “I could’ve saved Uncle Ben that day. It’s my fault he died, all because I didn’t use my powers for good.”
“Peter that’s not on you! I-I’m,” May looked hopelessly out of her element, “I’m going to need a few moments to respond to all of this,” she gestured towards the room, filled with people who felt as though they were imposing on a close familial moment.
“I’ll go,” Peter stood up, grabbed his backpack, and quickly ran to his room, throat heavy and eyes wet. Having to bring up Ben’s death, which he had been pushing down, really affected Peter. He was so used to pushing down his grief, because between Spider-Man and Aunt May having to work extra hours due to one less income, they hadn’t had time to fully process what had transpired almost a year ago.
The thought of bringing Aunt May more stress and worry, affecting another family member in a negative way, made Peter regret what he had revealed. He climbed onto the fire escape and swung away, with only his mask to hide his identity.
Back in the Parker’s living room, the 5 unexpected guests and 2 expected ones were still reeling from the encounter. May was sniffling a bit, but her face hardened. She seemed to be still processing her thoughts.
Finally, Sam broke the silence in a somewhat sarcastic voice, “Well, this has been fun.”
“Sam,” Steve’s voice was hoarse. He had been emotionally moved by the exchange between the son he never knew he had and said son’s Aunt.
Ned finally stood up, “Uh, well, I’ll go check on Peter.” He scampered to Peter’s room, not knowing what to do in this insane situation, but wanting to support his friend anyways since he had been through a lot this past year.