"Aunt May, I'm home!"
May Parker looked up, startled, as she heard her nephew calling from downstairs, followed by the door slamming shut. Taking a last look at the bills she was looking over, feeling a twinge of dread at the red "Past Due" stamp on several of them, she swept them into the open desk drawer before closing it.
Peter had enough to deal with at school, he didn't need to worry about this as well.
"Aunt May?" Peter called again from downstairs. May began to push herself out of her chair, her hands pressed against the desk for leverage.
"Up here, Peter! I'll be down in a second! I got some dinner for you in the oven, but it might be a little cold, I was expecting you home earlier." May answered as she began moving towards the stairs, wincing as she felt the creak in her bones. Ever since... since Ben... she had begun to feel her age more. She tried not to show it in front of Peter, but it was getting harder to ignore, and her nephew was a smart boy, she doubted he hadn't noticed her difficulties, even if he would never say anything.
Slipping carefully down the stairs, she moved towards the kitchen, where Peter was already kneeling down by the oven, removing the plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes she had prepared for him.
"I know, Aunt May, I'm sorry, I got held up" Peter said as he stood up, grabbing a fork and knife from the kitchen drawer before he walked over to the table. "I had some errands I had to run right after school, and... well, it's a long story, but I have something for you..."
May watched in surprise as Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope that he handed over to her. She hesitated for a moment.
"Please, just take it."
She finally accepted the envelope and after glancing back at her nephew one more time, she opened it. Her eyes widened. Her hand shook slightly as she pulled out the money inside.
"Peter, what... how did you get this? And why are you giving it to me?"
Peter shrugged, looking down on his plate "That's why I was late, I got this... well, after-school job. It's just part-time, but it pays pretty well and... look, I know you don't want me to worry, but I'm not blind, I know things are tough now. And I want to be able to help."
May felt her eyes water, a mix of guilt and pride flaring up inside her. She moved to put the money back into the envelope "Oh, but Peter, I can't! It's not your job to-" A hand closed over hers, stopping her.
"Please, Aunt May. Take it. For me?"
She paused, and then finally nodded, slipping the money into the pocket of her dress. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him into a hug. "You're a good boy, Peter. Ben would have been so proud of you."
She felt Peter stiffen at the name, and her heart ached. The poor boy had taken his uncles death so hard. Sometimes it almost seemed like he blamed himself for it...
.....
Peter Parker winced as the chemical mixture poured over the edge of the beaker he was mixing it in, over his protective gloves and down on the tarp he had draped over his desk. Biting back a string of curses, he pushed his chair back, and stood up to help steady the mixture, placing his hand over the expanding fluid to keep it from spilling further. He waited until the mix had settled, then pulled his hand away to check the damage. He sighed as he saw the useless blob of grey sludge inside the beaker.
That's one batch of web fluid he wasn't going to swing around the city with.
Carefully wrapping the ruined result in plastic for disposal, he thought about trying again, before deciding against it. His head just wasn't in it, and he had enough web fluid to last him another few days, better to wait until he snapped out of this funk than waste valuable chemicals. Quietly, he cleaned up his work station, putting away his chemistry set in his desk drawer, before walking over to the window and pushing it open, letting in the fresh air.
He wasn't sure what was wrong, it had been a stressfull few days, but not the worst he'd ever dealt with. Heck, it wasn't even close! So why did he feel so unsettled by the events of the past few days?
He had a paying job now, an actual paying job for being Spider-Man, one that didn't revolve around Jonah Jameson screaming at him because he didn't photograph himself in a comprimising enough position that could be used to demonize half the city into thinking he was comitting all the crimes he was stopping. The Avengers hadn't even demanded that he reveal his identity to them, Mr. Stark had been understanding and was willing to pay him in cash. That had been his biggest concern when he got their offer, that he'd have to show them who he really was, and.. he didn't think he could do that. Not yet.
So why did he have this sinking feeling of dread in his stomach?
Mr. Sunshine.
Peter thought back to their first encounter at Middleton High, and was surprised at the sudden rush of anger building up inside him. All those things he said... What did he know about responsibility? Everything he had sacrificed to help people, and Sunshine just threw it back in his face! No one wrote headlines about what a horrible person he was, did they? No one tried to spin everything he did to make him look like a criminal!
Except... that wasn't really true either, was it?
Sunshine had even pointed that out in their second meeting. Jameson had it in for Sunshine too, even if Sunshine actually did say and do the things people got angry at him for. And yes, dealing with Jameson every day was bad, but atleast no one came on national TV to slander Spider-Man because he said something unpopular. A lot of people hated what he said, how he dressed... they REALLY hated that flag mask he wore. Peter didn't agree with a lot of what Sunshine said, but the criticism he got seemed a bit much... So why did the idea of working with him feel so off-putting?
If he was being honest with himself... it was probably those "future visions".
Peter didn't know if Sunshine really could see the future or not, the idea sounded ridiculous, there was no reason for why light-manipulation would somehow also let you see into time. But then again, there was no reason for why having spider powers just let him climb walls and jump high rather than, say, grow two new set of arms and four new eyes. Who knew how any of this worked, or why. All Peter knew was that, if the visions Sunshine talked about were true... then he'd been setting himself up for a very bad fall. All his work, all his sacrifices, it didn't amount to ANYTHING... Just him all alone, with nothing to show for it.
And the idea that someone had seen his failure, even if it was just a "vision", whatever that meant, it made Peter feel... exposed. Vulnerable. Weak. And, he was starting to realize, he resented Sunshine for that. The idea that all of this, all his work to use his powers responsibly, would amount to nothing if he kept at it like he had been.
He couldn't do this alone. And the thought frightened him. The idea of trusting a team to have his back frightened him. Part of him wanted to just forget the whole thing, just go back to working by himself, and pretend he'd never even heard of the Avengers.
And it was a part he carefully pushed back down, feeling a twinge of self-loathing over having felt like that at all.
No, he couldn't act like that anymore. With great power came great responsibility. And maybe he'd been a bit misguided about what that responsibility actually was...681