𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xxxii. mess with the cat

chapter thirty-two
mess with the cat
( you get the claws )

    "OKAY, SO!" Peter glanced to his side as Nina and MJ joined up with them. He and Ned were walking through the halls back to the front of the school as the last bell sounded, by passing students cleaning out lockers, chatting about what they'll do for their Summer: holiday houses, trips, beaches, movie hangouts━or better yet, the trip to Europe. Everyone going was mostly excited for that. Especially Peter. A break from crime fighting? Yes please. A break from all of the cameras? Yes. A break from school work? Well, sort of ... its a school trip, so ... Able to get the best backdrop to tell the girl he likes he still really likes her? Who wouldn't want to hear that at the top of the Eiffel Tower?

    A break from seeing Mr. Stark's face everywhere?

    ... Peter had a feeling he needed that the most.

    Even as he looked to the side, there he was, staring back at him in a bad drawing from a student in red and yellow marker. Peter felt his throat close up. Memories flashed back to that day━so dark with ash and fire that it seemed like night. The Avengers Compound destroyed around them ... One second Peter was on Titan, and the next, surrounded by a war five years later, expected to catch up and fight for his life ... and watch Mr. Stark die.

    He wasn't just a mentor, he wasn't just some idol Peter admired since he was a kid. He wasn't just the man that told him: Good job, kid, back at the science expo in Queens all those years ago. He didn't know how to explain what Mr. Stark was, and now it was too late, because he was gone. He was gone, and Peter barely had the chance to catch up, to ask what he did in the past five years, to see him as a father, to properly say goodbye and to thank him. For everything.

    And it still hurt. It still hurt like a fresh wound to Peter Parker's chest.

    And he'll never forget how Mr. Stark looked: burnt and barely conscious, unable to say a word ... just stare, only just stare.

    Peter had to look away. He had to.

    "Peter?"

    He realised he lost track of what Nina had been saying. Turning to her at the sound of his name, he saw a face gentle with concern. She followed them all at a slow pace on her skateboard, only just having gotten it back from the principal's office. She didn't have Felicia around to steal it back for her anymore. "You okay?" she asked him.

    He forced a smile on his face, nodding, "Yeah, yeah, just thinking about the trip, you know. What were you saying?"

    She pursed her lips, not believing him, but said no more. Instead, she nudged MJ beside her, "I was saying," said Nina, "that we're having a sleepover━" Michelle turned her nose up at the word, "━before we head to the airport tomorrow, together." She sent Peter a pointed look that MJ couldn't see, telling him: no turning up tonight.

    MJ frowned at the tone of her voice, "You're weird," she told her.

    Ned stared at her, incredulous, "A━and you're not?"

    "I'm not weird," she stated, "I'm just very observant."

    MJ was the only one out of the group of them that didn't know Peter's secret. And while they hated keeping it from her, it wasn't exactly something Peter wanted to tell. Ned and Nina both figured it out, and the idea of MJ figuring it out, too, sort of scared him. She had a look on her face, constantly, of suspicion: whenever Peter left to go to the 'bathroom', or whenever he called Nina saying he was late to school after being caught up in 'traffic'. She was always watching like a hawk, like she knew something wasn't right━that they weren't telling her something, and it was stressful especially for Nina, who had to keep reassuring her that there wasn't. Peter knew she wanted MJ to know, but didn't say a word about it in respect for him. That didn't mean she didn't hate the idea of MJ being left out of things just because they were Spider-Man related.