Spider-Man? Who's He?

Ch. 8

Peter was nervous. Harley had just called him to say the party was in full swing. Peter was at Ned's house, Spider-Man suit in his backpack along with the gift. He changed in Ned's room then pulled his backpack over his shoulders. No use leaving it at Ned's house. He could just drop it off in his room before crawling over to the living room windows to get in. He'd purposely left one of his window panels open so he could get in and drop his stuff off.

"Good luck, man," Ned said. Peter nodded and jumped out Ned's window. He swung towards the Tower, throwing himself up as high as he could. He scaled the building, refusing to look down, and stopped when Karen announced they had reached his room. He climbed inside and searched his backpack for the present Spider-Man was giving Theo. Once he found it. He webbed it to his chest for lack of better options and jumped out his window. He webbed a window when he neared the ground and hit the ground softly. He still stumbled and ended up falling on his face. He managed not to crush the present, though, so he counted his landing as a success. It definitely could have gone worse.

Peter walked in through the lobby, waving at the receptionist and telling her he was here for a birthday party. She just nodded silently, taking him over to the Stark family private elevator and telling him how to get up. Peter thanked her and the elevator doors closed. Karen had activated the voice modifier on his way down from his room, so he didn't need to do that. For some reason, he just felt anxious. His spidey sense hadn't gone off, though, so he knew it was just nerves.

When the elevator doors opened, letting him out at the penthouse, Peter tentatively walked off. He spotted Harley across the room, talking to one of his friends who happened to be one of Theo's friends' older brother. Once Spider-Man walked off the elevator, the room went silent. Harley looked up and grinned across the room at his brother. Peter smiled back, but he knew Harley couldn't see it.

"Um, hey, everyone," Peter said awkwardly, giving a small wave. The kids were the first to recover, all running over to him excitedly. Peter smiled and hugged them all. When he came to Theo, he pulled back and took the present that had been webbed to his chest. It was covered in webbing and Peter frowned. "Sorry. It was wrapped nice, but I couldn't get it here safely otherwise," Peter said, handing the webbed package to Theo.

"Awesome!" Theo exclaimed. He looked at the webbing closely, poking and prodding at it. He seemed more excited to discover it was covered in Spider-Man's webbing. "Can I open it now?" he asked eagerly.

"Sure," Peter nodded. Theo carefully pulled the webbing off, asking Spider-Man to hold it for him. He then tore open the paper Peter had found at Ned's house and pulled out a pair of night vision spy goggles.

"Whoa!" Theo squealed, struggling to open the box. Peter helped him and Theo put them on. "Nothing changed," he frowned.

"They're night vision goggles," Peter explained. "They help you see in the dark. They won't do much in the daylight."

"Oh," Theo said. He took on the goggles and returned them to their box carefully. He rushed to hand to box to his mom then hugged Spider-Man tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No problem," Peter said, hugging Theo back. "Happy birthday, kid."

* * *

Peter spent the rest of the party playing games with the kids. He didn't eat any cake, not wanting to take off his mask, but acted surprised to see it was a Spider-Man cake. Theo told him how Spider-Man was his favourite hero. Peter didn't stop smiling the whole time. Seeing Theo so happy made him glad he had lied to his parents (which was a weird thought for him). He played twister, pin the Spider-Man to the web, and red light green light before saying he had to leave. It was 5:30PM and he had seen his mom looking at the elevator expectantly.

"Aw man," Theo whined when Peter told him he needed to leave. All the other kids whined as well, resulting the parents telling them to all be nice. Spider-Man gave them all hugs then got back in the elevator. He waved until the doors closed. Once he was down at the lobby, he went into the guest bathroom. He found the backpack of clothes he'd hidden under the sinks, web nearly gone. He grabbed it and changed in a stall, shoving his Spider-Man suit in his backpack. He walked out, waving to a few workers, and got in the private elevator. He rode it back upstairs and walked inside to see the kids opening presents.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," Pepper said, stepping beside Peter. He gave him a smile, but it wavered when he saw her watching him. "You missed Spider-Man."

"No, I saw him on his way out," Peter said, pointing to the elevator. "Seems like a fun guy. Did he stay long?"

"Longer than you," Pepper replied. Peter frowned. He could tell something was wrong. She was disappointed in him, that was easy to see, but he felt like something else was wrong too.

"Sorry, Decathlon ran late and then Ned's mom couldn't pick us up right away because of traffic," Peter said. Pepper just hummed then walked over to help the kids clean up the wrapping paper mess. Theo said goodbye to all his friends then showed Peter all his gifts.

"Spider-Man gave me night seeing goggles!" Theo said, showing Peter the package. Peter smiled.

"That's awesome," he replied. Theo nodded. "That reminds me, I have a gift for you too. I'll go get it." He got up from where he'd been sitting on the floor beside Theo and walked to his bedroom. He found the gift he'd gotten for Theo then walked back out to the living room. Theo frowned when he saw it.

"It better not be a book," he said. Peter chuckled and handed it to his baby brother.

"Just open it," he told him. Theo did and gasped when he revealed a book dedicated to paper airplanes. He opened it up, flipping through the see all the different kinds of airplanes he could learn to make.

"Wow!" he said. He hugged Peter tightly. "Thank you!" Peter said it was no problem then left to find Harley while Theo played with his new gifts. Harley was eating more ice cream, but he scooted a piece of cake over to Peter.

"Thanks," Peter said, sitting on a stool and taking the cake.

"Mom almost wouldn't let me save it for you," Harley told him. Peter frowned, taking a bite of the cake. "She's really upset you didn't come until it was practically over." Peter sighed.

"Yeah, I figured," he replied. He finished his cake quickly, regretting not having some as Spider-Man too. "It's alright, though. Theo had a good time. I can take whatever mom gives me." Harley gave him a doubtful look.

"Good luck," he said. Peter nodded. He knew he'd need it.