Spiderman Oneshots

The bargain 2 (nwh spoilers)

"Geez, Parker," Flash stared at the boy in front of him. Peter took a couple of deep breaths.

It was evening - Flash had agreed to meet him after his classes had all ended, and over takeout Peter had told his old bully everything that had happened to turn his life upside down. Somewhere along the line, he'd broken down and started sobbing over his curry. He was a mess, and the look Flash was giving him told him that the other boy could tell. It didn't help that they were sat in his miserable apartment.

"I mean... geez. I honestly have no idea what to say to that."

"You don't have to say anything. Sorry for unloading on you like that."

"I can't just... not say anything after you went and said all that, can I? Honestly I have no idea what to... I can't help you with this, Parker. I'm just a college student, you're a secret superhero. I'm still a kid, I can't get mixed up in this mess."

Peter heard the silent 'your mess' and had never missed Ned more than he did in that moment. He don't know why he'd expected Flash to leap at the opportunity to help him, even if it was just offering to keep him company occasionally. He'd listened, though. At least that was something.

"This is crazy. No, seriously, this is insane. A wizard put the whole world under a spell and I'm the only one that remembers? Why?" 

And that was the million dollar question, wasn't it? Why? 

"Wait, does this mean I'm the only person who knows you're Spider-Man? Am I, like, your sidekick now?"

It was crazy. A year ago, Flash knowing his secret identity would have been a disaster. Now it was a profound relief to at least have somebody know. Even if he was only still here, listening, because of Peter's alter-ego (it definitely wasn't the mediocre curry making him stay).

"Did you not notice that everybody stopped talking about me?" Peter asked suddenly. Surely Flash would have noticed his book disappear and Peter Parker vanish from the news.

Flash blinked, then frowned. "I... That's really weird. It wasn't that I didn't notice, I just... didn't question it as being off, I guess? Like, there was something stopping me from thinking about it for too long. Was that magic? Because that's freaky."

"So you would have been quite happy to live your life like I- like Peter Parker never existed?"

"I guess."

"So what made you remember?" Peter was pacing now, thoughts clamouring for attention.

"I don't know. This morning I was waiting, but I wan't really bothered about what I was waiting for, but after a while I knew I was gonna be late and I was like, I thought we had a deal, but Spider-Man's gonna make me late for class, so I just... called you. It wasn't like something unlocked and everything came flooding back, I just starting thinking about you again." Flash watched him pace. "Are you trying to work out how to make people remember?"

"What? No, I got Strange to do the spell for a reason. Nobody can know who I am." If everyone started remembering him like Flash had, then his entire sacrifice would've been in vain.

"Not even the other nerds? You said you were going to tell them, right?"

"I can't put them in danger again. You saw what it was like when everyone found out - they didn't get into MIT and it was all my fault."

"But you promised, that's not cool. Michelle's your girlfriend, and Ned... how long have you two been friends?"

"Ten years, give or take?"

"So if it's the same for them as it is for me, does that mean there's a whole chunk of his childhood he just can't think about?"

Peter blinked at Flash - he hadn't thought about it that way.

Instead of being sympathetic, Flash just seemed fascinated by the whole prospect. For all Peter appreciated the familiar face, he was starting to wish literally anybody else had remembered him instead - he might even take one of Mysterio's supporters if Flash didn't shut up about Ned and MJ soon. "I wonder what effect it's had on his personality? That's gotta mess with a person."

The thought was enough to make Peter recoil. What if he had been unintentionally harming his friends by staying away from them? "How do I make them remember?"

Flash stared at him blankly. "Why are you asking me? This is your problem."

Peter kicked Flash out of his apartment.

Hours passed, and Peter still lay awake, unable to sleep. He'd forgone patrol in favour of wearing a hole into the floorboards as he paced back and forth. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that he needed to get back Ned and MJ's memories. He just had no idea where to start going about it (there was no way he was going back to Dr Strange after the mess he'd caused last time). Flash had just remembered, by himself, in a moment of stress, but he'd been able to remember everything else once it had clicked. He hadn't even been anywhere near Peter, so something else must have triggered it. If Flash remembered - and Peter had never even wanted him to know in the first place - then his best friends definitely deserved to have their memories restored. He'd promised, after all.

He'd promised.

He'd promised them that he'd remind them.

Just like he'd promised Flash he'd swing him to school.

Peter sat up, mind running faster than ever before. What had Flash said? I thought we had a deal, so I just... called you. It had been the bargain they'd made that had forced Flash to remember him. An instinctive keeping of the deal that needed memories of Peter to rationalise. It all made perfect sense - he just needed his friends to think about deals he'd made with them. 

Thinking of deals was easy enough - he'd replayed their last days together over and over in his mind. He'd promised MJ he'd find her and tell her he loved her. Ned had promised him that he'd never go evil and try to kill him, although he still had no idea what had prompted that seeing as he'd been too focused on making the cures to listen in on the surrounding conversations. The main issue here was that neither deal had a deadline. He didn't want MJ to scowl on her deathbed and go, 'hey, I just realised that loser never said it back', and he was struggling to think of any scenario where Ned went evil and tried to kill him. That meant there'd have to be some interference on his part. Would keeping the promises or reminding them of them be enough to tip the scales?

Peter forced himself to pause his train of thought there and get some sleep, seeing as it was so late it was about to be early and he was starting to go in mental circles. In the morning, he'd go to the coffee shop, and he'd tell MJ he loved her. Then, if that worked, he'd figure out how to check in with Ned that he wasn't planning on going bad anytime soon. Peter huffed slightly as he drifted off to sleep - these things always sounded so much easier in his head.

A/N: To everyone who requested a part two, I hope this satisfies. Don't worry, I'm already working on a third part, coming soon.