Peter coughed as he hopped over his couch. The smoke alarm was blaring too loudly, making his ears ache, but he really couldn’t get mad about it. He moved swiftly in front of the pot of oil containing the burned mozzarella sticks. He used the kitchen tongs to pull the sticks out onto a plate lined with paper towels. The oil bubbled and popped dangerously close to his bare arm, which was already littered with bruises from his previous patrols.
A knock sounded at the door, which was immediately opened by Ned, with MJ following closely.
“Oh, wow. Peter, did you really try to cook?” Ned came behind Peter, still at the stove, and peered at the fried remains. “Are those mozzarella sticks?” MJ’s laugh was heard over the alarm as she pulled a chair directly under it. She grabbed a broom besides his fridge to tap the ‘off’ button. “Ah, well. They don’t look too bad.”
Peter turned the burner off. He greeted them with a sheepish smile as they hugged.
“Yeah, well, I tried to do something nice for you guys, but if you really think I’m such a bad cook…” He trailed off, letting them interrupt.
“No!”
“It’s okay,” MJ took a bite of a still-hot stick, “and you know we love and appreciate your subpar cooking skills.” Peter pulled a face at her as he took the plate to the living room.
They busied themselves with setting up the room. Peter turned on the television, flicking through the channels first, then Netflix for a good movie pick. Ned and MJ took turns using the bathroom to change, and setting up their traditional pillow and blanket fort. Once they were settled, they looked through Netflix one more time to find a show that would suffice their combined tastes.
Eventually, they settled on a movie titled The Stanford Prison Experiments. It occupied them for many hours, since they began pausing and either discussing or yelling about the actions in the movie. It was only after they put iCarly on for some mind-clearing, did anyone fall asleep. As per usual, MJ was the first to go. Ned used the time to discuss some classes and homework that they had finished the morning before. They did have school the next day, so Peter and Ned found themselves getting ready to turn in. Ned set an array of alarms, while Peter secured the apartment.
Living in New York, Peter had been raised to be careful about the locks on his windows and doors. Routinely, he and his aunt would go through their living space, closing and locking each opening to deter any trouble, like robbers and such. Even though Peter is Spider-Man, and he and his aunt both know he could probably handle anyone that came in, it’s always better safe than sorry.
He went through the apartment quietly, his feet padding softly on the wood floors. When he made it to the kitchen, just before the room where his friends were fast asleep, his body tingled with the feeling of being watched. He paused where he was leaning over the sink to pull the curtains over the small window. He glanced at the large window next to the tv. It was low to the ground, and led to a fire escape that connected to Peter’s and May’s rooms.
There, in the darkness was a dark figure, crouched in a low and hunched position. Recognizing the person, Peter internally winced. He rushed to the window, locking and pulling the frame up.
“Logan?” Peter grew confused.
The Wolverine’s face was tight, and he tried to give Peter a small smile.
“Hey. Can I come in? I need somewhere to get stitched up.” He gave an insincere huff of laughter, signaling his reluctance to ask for help. Peter undid the latch holding the screen to allow him in.
Logan caught sight of the two teens asleep on the floor. He stepped over the bodies gingerly, making sure he wouldn’t disturb their slumber. He lowered into an old leather armchair, hissing in pain as his side jostled. Peter left him there to grab his first aid kit from the bathroom.
He returned, and began treating Logan’s side as if he’s done it a thousand times. In reality, Peter had only really met Logan in passing, besides a few times they’d teamed up for a particularly hard take-down. Peter had treated him a few times, and Logan had down the same for Peter. They knew of each other’s healing factor, so Peter wasn’t surprised when he saw the wound trying to seal itself up. However, the edges were glowing with a bright purple substance that didn’t look particularly healthy.
“What is that?” He whispered, bending down to peer at the gash. It was a gash, definitely, and it was a nasty one, that probably hurt a lot. Peter thought it looked a bit like the one he had received after chasing the Vulture down. He was glad he was able to take him down. He still had nightmares about that night, and about how that building had crushed him. Thankfully, he had gotten most of the weapons out and sent them to the FBI and SHIELD.
He had hoped for a personal thank you from Tony Stark, for saving his stuff. He received a public thanks, but it was short and insincere. Probably because he really couldn’t be endorsing a vigilante, what with his multi-billion dollar company and public affiliation with the Avengers.
“Honestly, I think it’s one of those plasma guns you were in charge of during last year.” Ouch. Talk about subtle digs at his amateurity. “It’s only a graze, but it hurts like a bitch.” He growled when Peter applied alcohol. “Thanks. This was the closest place I was welcomed.” Peter grinned at him.
“Who said you were welcomed? Besides, how’d you get my address?” Logan leaned into the chair, stretching his wound for Peter to have more open access.
“That’s for me to know and for you to wonder about. Anyway,” he scratched just under his mask, “I really came here to warn you ‘bout something. The fight was just on the way. I got intel from a reputable source that says you’ll be a target for SHIELD. They contacted the X-Men, too. I’m not sure what for.” Peter grabbed a roll of bandages and gauze.
“That’s weird. I thought the Accords covered vigilantes?” Logan sat up, muscles flexing, which allowed Peter to wrap the bandages around his middle.
“Yeah, they did. You’re bigger than most vigilantes, though, and the X-Men are classified as something else too. Daredevil and Deadpool are both being targeted, I’d wager, so at least you ain’t alone.” Logan stood, stretching to test the bandage-work. “You’re getting better at this, kid.”
“Hey! I’ve always done fine with bandages, thank you very much.” Logan chuckled at him.
“‘Kay, kid. I’ll probably see ya around.” Logan opted for the window, which Peter was thankful for. It would be hard to explain to the building’s security why the Wolverine was walking out of his apartment at almost 2 in the morning.
Peter finished locking up, and finally settled into the giant blanket-bed. His alarms were set and ready to wake him up for school, so he was satisfied with his phone being charged across the room. He was an early riser anyways, so he’d probably beat the alarms.
“Hey, have you guys seen this yet?” Tony walked into the Avenger’s common room with a mug of coffee. Steve and Bucky looked up from where they lay, and Clint yelled in exclamation as Natasha and Rhodey threw in their hands of some type of card game.
“What the hell? We were in the middle of a game!” Clint turned to him despite the ruined game.
“You were going to win anyways. You saw my hand already and Rhodes is just bad.” Rhodey’s jaw dropped at her jab, and Clint waved his hand.
“No, I did not see your cards, you’re just paranoid—”
“Oh my God, shut up about your game!” Tony sank into the couch near Rhodey, who was seated on the rug. “Friday, be a dear and play the clip, won’t ‘cha?” Tony spoke quickly, setting his mug to the side in favor of fiddling with his watch.
The tv turned on straight to a Youtube video, depicting a figure in a red and blue costume. The figure was suspended in the air by thin cords of webs not picked up in the horrible video quality. The video began, the figure swinging with a great velocity towards a car that nearly was hit by a high-speed train. Tony had Friday pause the video.
“Spider-Man?” Steve began. “What’s so special about that video?” Tony rolled his eyes. His colleagues just didn’t understand, huh.
“What’s special about this video is that this is the first time he’d been caught on camera, yeah?” Once everyone nodded, he continued. “Well, I know I said I would leave it alone, but everything about him screams curious! Who is he and where’d he come from? His powers are strange, not like what we normally deal with, and how the hell did he get them? Don’t you guys wonder?” Rhodey grinned and looked down.
“I thought we were going to leave him be. You promised me!” Tony laughed, sinking further into the couch. “Besides, we don’t get paid enough to deal with him. He can do his thing, and we can do ours.”
“And,” Steve joined, sitting up and pushing Bucky’s head off his chest, “he’s no bad guy. From what we’ve seen, he’s only done things to help the people. He even stopped Adrian Toomes from stealing the tech off your plane. I think you owe his identity and protection to him.” Tony nodded, thinking.
“I know, I know. I just— Isn’t it dangerous to leave a stranger with superpowers out to the public, no strings attached?” Steve’s face darkened.
“What are you saying about enhanced people, Stark?” Tony bristled.
“That’s not what I meant, don’t twist my words like that. Enhanced people aren’t the problem. The problem is that he isn’t regulated, and could be doing this for a not-good reason. We don’t know his background, and it would be dangerous to be reckless, and you know that.” Steve’s glare crumbled.
Everyone was silent. Ever since the initial drift in the team, any argument made everyone nervous. They didn’t want what happened to happen again. They strictly stuck to unproblematic topics if they could, but sometimes they just couldn’t keep their differences in check.
“I know. I’m sorry. I just really like to see that someone’s using their enhancements for good, for the people.” Natasha stood and saluted in satirical humor. “Oh, ha ha! What do you think about him, Nat?”
She hummed in thought for a moment, but her answer was short. “Another spider sounds fine to me.” Clint grinned at her, kicking her leg that stuck at a weird ankle.
“You’re so weird, Nat.” He said, gathering the forgotten cards to shuffle. “Anyone else wanna join? I’ve got a game to win!”
Steve slid to the ground to join, and Tony did as well, leaning against Rhodey. Bucky stayed on the couch, laughed silently along with them. Despite his bragging, inviting an actual genius to play cards wasn’t good for Clint’s ego.
“Oh! I need to introduce you all to someone. His name’s Harley Keener, and he’ll be staying up on my floor for the school year.” Tony went to speak again, but Rhodey interrupted him.
“Lord, please don’t tell me that you have a kid. I can’t handle two of them.” He pressed his hands together to feign prayer, eliciting laughter from all of the adults.
“Jesus, no! Rhodey, I was always safe, you know that,” he winked at Rhodey, “but he is a lot like me. He’s smart, rude, funny, and great with mechanics. The kid’s a genius, and I know you’ll all love him.
“Well, when’s he coming? We’d like to be informed of what’s going on here, you know.” Natasha put down three Queens.
“Later today, actually. His plane’s landing at 6, and he’s got school tomorrow. A great school called Midtown.”