Spider-Man Imagines II

Life Begins (part three) | Peter Parker (TH)

dedicated to Melonhead15, who is my most dedicated reader and stayed up to see this published

you are the real MVP

//

Your heartbeat was in your ears. Everything felt numb and far away. You stared at the gun on the ground. At some point, Peter knelt down in front of you and grabbed your wrists, pulling them from the sides of your head. You had your fingers clamped down around your skull, fingernails piercing the skin, without you even knowing. 

"Hey, hey, stop, you're okay," he said. His mask vanished. "I got him. You're safe."

You let out a whimper. "He... he could have shot me. He could have-"

"I know, I know. It's scary, huh? But you're fine now."

You looked up at him. "He could have shot you."

"I could have handled it."

"I don't even know you, and you were going to die for me?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah... I mean, that's my job."

You were starting to have a panic attack. You shook your head fast. "No, no... I need to go home. It was a mistake doing this. I ran away and I thought - I didn't know that things like this happen." You pressed a hand against your mouth as you held back a choking sob. 

"I know, it's scary. But hey... hey, look at me for a second. Just look at me, not back there. ___, things in the real world are scary. Not everything is as perfect as you want it to be... but I can handle protecting people. I have these powers to keep people safe. I'll keep you safe just like I'll keep anyone else safe." He sat back on his heels and took a deep breath. "But if you want to go home, I'll take you. I get it, trust me."

You swallowed and sat up a little straighter. "That was really scary," you said, voice slightly breathless.

"Yeah, it was," he said, nodding. "You good?"

You nodded with him. "Uh-huh. I'm okay."

He smiled. "Awesome. You wanna go home, or you wanna keep going?"

"I wanna keep going," you said. 

He grinned. "Great!" He held out a hand. You took it and he helped you up. You brushed off your clothes and Peter dragged the unconscious criminal to the nearest light post. He webbed him up and tore a piece of notebook paper out of his binder. He wrote something and taped it above the guy's head. 

You approached slowly to see what it said. It read, in bold ink:

CRIMINAL. HAD A GUN. CALL THE COPS, THANKS!

- YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN

You smiled in amusement. He turned and looked at you. "What?"

You shook your head. "That's just..."

"It's just what?" he asked.

"Nothing," you said.

His cheeks were a little rosy. "You ready to keep going?"

"It's getting dark," you noted. 

He nodded. "Yeah, why? You got a bedtime?"

"No," you said. "Can you swing around at night?"

"Really? There aren't, like, rules or anything." 

"No, I know, but-"

"Did you think there were rules?" he asked, stifling a laugh. 

"Never mind," you mumbled. "I was just worried about wrecking into the side of a building, you jerk." 

He held out his arm, laughing and shaking his head, waiting for you to step into his hold. "I'm not going to hit the side of a building, Rapunzel. You worry too much."

"All of your references go right over my head, you know," you said. You wrapped your arms around his neck. 

"Then you need to watch some movies," he said. "Hey. Before I take you home, we can totally have a movie night!"

"Okay," you said, smiling. "Where to right now?"

"We can start making our way to D.C.," he said. "Let's stock up on some snacks and then we can hitch a ride on the highway."

...

Thirty minutes later, you and Peter had his backpack stuffed with snacks. Chocolate bars, bags of pretzels and chips, gummy worms, packs of gum - stuff people really couldn't survive on, but Peter was determined to, anyway.

He let you climb onto his back and hold on while he ran from the top of a car to the top of a semi. He found a moving truck and managed to unlatch the lock. He slipped in and set you down, shutting you both in. 

He turned the flashlight on his cellphone and propped it up on a stack of boxes. It lit the truck up enough. You laughed, seeing the couch perfectly sitting at the center of the truck. 

"It's like a luxury bus," he said. He plopped down and plotted the cushion next to him.

"What happens if the truck goes off an exit?" you asked. You sat down.

"We'll get there, I promise," he said. "I am very invested in this dream of yours now, if you can't tell."

You smiled. "You are?"

"Totally," he said. "Like I said, it's like Tangled. I love that movie."

"What did Rapunzel want to see?" you asked.

"Uh... some floating lanterns," he said.

"Floating lanterns?" you asked. 

"Yeah, like... they're paper lanterns or whatever, and you light the ring down here on fire, and it floats up. The story is that she was the lost princess and was kidnapped from her room when she was a baby. They never found her and she never knew she was the princess, 'cause the lady that kidnapped her didn't tell her. Oh! I guess it's important to say that she also had magic hair that heals and makes people young because her mom was healed with a drop of sun from a magic flower..."

"What?" you asked, blinking. 

"It's complicated to explain," he said. "I'll show you the movie. Anyway, the king and queen released the lanterns into the sky every day on her birthday. She never knew why, but she could see them through the window of her tower. Her mom was crazy abusive - not saying yours is, by the way, 'cause I've never met your mom - and Flynn Rider snuck into her tower one day because he was hiding from the guard's horse after he stole the lost princess's crown."

"Her crown?" you asked. 

"Yeah. But she doesn't know. So she convinces him to take her to see the lanterns and then return her home safely."

"Does he?" you asked, scooting closer. 

"He falls in love with her, actually," he said. He nodded and pressed his lips together. "And she falls in love with him." 

You sighed happily. "Really?"

"Yeah," he said. He looked down at you. 

"That sounds like a really nice movie," you said.

"It is. I think you would like it. Like I said, before you get home, I'll watch it with you."

"It'll be like our floating lanterns," you joked, grinning. 

He laughed softly. "Uh, yeah. It'll be our floating lanterns." He situated himself in the chair and yawned. "If you don't care, I'm gonna take a nap for a while. Wake me up if the truck stops or you feel it slow down."

"Okay," you said. 

"Unless you fall asleep, which is cool, too," he said. He leaned his head on his arm that was propped up on the arm of the couch. 

In just seconds, he was snoring. You smiled at him. You felt tired, but not enough to sleep.

You were too excited about the adventure you were on.