New Beginnings

7

"I am so tired," Peter said to himself as he yawned. It was Sunday afternoon and for pretty much the entire weekend, he had been studying for his AP U.S. History, AP Psychology, and AP English Language tests that he had on Monday.

"Hey, Kid," Natasha said as she walked in the kitchen for a bottle of water. "How's it going?"

"My brain hurts," Peter admitted and smiled a bit. "Where's everyone else? I'm shocked that I haven't seen one person all weekend and like a gazillion people live here. I'm actually even more shocked I haven't noticed till now."

"Well, Tony is visiting Pepper in California," Natasha began. "And I think Wanda, Steve, and Sam decided to go to Brooklyn for the weekend."

"Oh," Peter nodded and yawned again.

"I think you need a break, Pete," Nat deadpanned.

"I'm fine," Peter replied with yet another yawn. "You aren't even that blurry right now."

"My god, you sound like Tony," Natasha muttered. "C'mon Kid, you've been at that all weekend. Let's go do something actually fun."

"Like what?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, go to a movie, get some food, go do some touristy sh#t, anything you want," Natasha shrugged. "Plus Tony is willing to pay for it anyway."

"Huh," was all Peter managed to say. "Well, some food sounds good."

"Great," Nat smiled. "C'mon, follow me."

Natasha immediately turned on her heel and started heading towards the garage. Peter quickly shut his computer off and bookmarked his textbook before grabbing his phone and hurrying to catch up with her. Once they were in the garage, Natasha grabbed her keys to her black Corvette and got in the driver's seat.

"So, where are we going?" Natasha asked.

"I'm good with anything," Peter answered.

"Hm, well have you had shawarma before?" Nat pressed.

"No, what even is that?" Peter's eyebrows crinkled.

"Oh, you'll like it," Natasha typed in an address on her GPS. "All of the Avengers love it."

"Wait, when did you guys have it?" Peter looked at her confused.

"We went after the Battle of New York and we have it for dinner every once in a while," Natasha began backing out of the garage.

"You guys went out to eat after the entire city was almost destroyed?" Peter stifled a laugh.

"Yep," Nat smirked. "Tony's idea, actually. Not so shocking if you think about it."

It was only about a 20 minute drive to the Avengers' favorite shawarma place. Natasha let Peter control the music, so naturally he played some childhood favorites.

"Hopped on the plane at LAX!" Peter (poorly) sang along.

"Why did I let you control the music?" Natasha teased.

"C'mon, Nat!" Peter laughed. "You know you secretly love this!"

"I really don't," Natasha deadpanned as she turned into the restaurant's parking lot. "Thankfully, we're here and my misery is over."

"Wow, thanks," Peter said, only mildly offended.

The duo walked into the restaurant and Natasha immediately ordered the Avengers' normal order. Well, obviously only for two people, because Odin only knows how much food the Avengers have to order at a time. Once their food was ready, they sat down at the table the original 6 sat at after the Battle of New York.

"Why did you choose this table?" Peter asked, confused since it was for a party of 6.

"This is where we sat after New York," Natasha reminisced as she sat in her spot. "You're sitting in Tony's."

"Nice," Peter smiled as he took a bite of food. "Holy crap! This is good!"

"Told you you'd like it," Natasha began to eat her food.

They continued to eat their food and talked a bit about school, a little bit about possible missions, and a bit about Spider-Man.

"So how did you even get your Spider powers?" Natasha asked.

"I got bit by a spider," Peter answered, way too calmly. "I was at Oscorp and they had radioactive spiders. I'm guessing that one escaped."

"Wow," Natasha said in disbelief. "I shouldn't even be surprised, I've worked with literal aliens."

"Will I  be allowed to go on missions?" Peter asked, hopeful.

"Not sure, Pete," Natasha truthfully responded.

"Please?" Peter pressed.

"I don't know," Natasha said.

"Fine," Peter sighed a bit. "Are we ready to leave?"

"Yep," Natasha began gathering her trash.

After cleaning up their garbage, throwing it out, and thanking the owners, they headed back to the car.

"Where to next?" Peter asked.

"Well, I'm thinking we need something sweet," Natasha smiled. "Does ice cream sound good?"

"Yes!" Peter pumped his fist.

Natasha laughed as she searched for the nearest ice cream shop, which ended up being a local and gourmet shop. It was a short drive, only 5 minutes away. Once they got there and went inside, they sampled a few flavors before deciding on one. Peter sampled SuperMan, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and Rocky Road. Natasha sampled Cookie Dough, Toffee, and Honey Lavender. Peter ultimately got Rocky Road with sprinkles and whipped cream and Natasha got Toffee with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

"So, I don't think anyone has actually talked about this with you," Natasha began. "But can we talk about Aunt May?"

"I guess," Peter's shoulder slightly slumped. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, I don't necessarily want to talk about her, but how long was she the way she was?" Natasha asked.

"I lost track," Peter admitted. "After Uncle Ben died, she was just never the same. By the time you and CPS came along, I think it was around 6 months."

Natasha stayed quiet for a few moments, trying to figure out what to say. "And that was the first time she almost got...physical?"

"Yeah," Peter sadly nodded. "The smell of alcohol was the worst part."

"Well, I can assure that you won't deal with any of that with us," Nat assured.

"Thanks," Peter smiled.

"And how are you feeling about all of this?"

Peter took a minute trying to gather his thoughts. "I really do miss her. At least the way she was before. And Uncle Ben. But I'm glad I got out of there. I just hope she gets better."

"Do you want to visit her soon?"

"Not really, I want to give her some more time to finally recover."

"Makes sense," Natasha nodded. "I'm sorry if you didn't want to talk about this. I just don't want you to bottle these kinds of things up. I saw it happen to Wanda, and it was horrible."

"Yeah, she told me a bit about her life," Peter said. "It's horrible."

"It is, for both of you," Natasha sighed. "I'm glad you two met, she needed someone her own age around and you two seem to get along well."

"Yeah, she's nice," Peter nodded.

By then, they had both finished their ice cream and left after they cleaned up and thanked the employees. They headed back to the Compound and Peter finished up the last of his homework. The next day, he aced all his tests.

"Hey, Nat!" Peter texted. "I aced my tests! Thanks for forcing me to take a break, I think it helped."