Survivor

8. Make it count

"You will never have this day again so make it count."

"Woah, I didn't mean right now!" Ned insisted as Peter moved to launch out the window. "But Ned, I have so much work to do before I'm ready to beat the Avengers! I have to steal and arc reactor and find a way to adapt it to my web shooters and..."

"Peter, its a school day tomorrow!" Ned cut in and Peter stared at him blankly. "I took notes for you yesterday but..."

"Ned. I have to save all of New York from the bloody evil Avengers!!! School day? Seriously?"

"You think the Avengers would want you to neglect your studies?"

"Let's see, get homework and save the world, or go to school and do nothing and let the city go to sparks. Yeah, I think the choice is obvious."

"Listen, that sounded a lot better in my head." Ned admitted and Peter rolled his eyes good naturedly. "But its not just school, you need to sleep Pete! And when was the last time you ate? You're injured and I know you have a healing factor but nothing can heal if you're depriving yourself of nutrients!"

"Right, ok, calm down!" Peter raised his hands in surrender to silence his friends over-dramatic rant. "I will wait until tomorrow to defeat the Avengers." He relented, his shoulders sagging as he too became aware of his own exhaustion.

"After school!" Ned called after him as he swung out the window. Ned leaned against the wall in disbelief. "Ugh. Parenting is hard."

oOo

Peter barely slept, but he did manage a solid four hours and some sporadic half-asleep minutes, so he decided it would have to be good enough for Ned. After six calls from said guy in the chair, Peter finally agreed to come to school after grabbing the arc reactor on his way.

Aunt May was overjoyed in the morning and he decided to change into his suit in an alleyway later and not ruin her mood.

"You're going to make it to school today?" May asked warily, even though he had only missed one day. "Yup." Peter said around bites of toat. That wasn't a lie; he was determined to make it to school. Eventually.

"And you got to sleep last night? I'm proud of you Pete." May chirped, kissing him on the head. "Would you be proud if I defeated the Avengers?" Peter asked softly, hopefully, knowing the inevitable answer anyways. "What?" She blinked in surprise, not really comprehending the weight of the question. Peter shook his head sadly. "Nevermind." He muttered, ducking out the door.

He knew May was proud of him, he did. But he also knew she would never approve of his 'extra-cirricular' activities.

oOo

Spiderman swung through the streets of New York, heading toward the compound. When he defeated the Vulture he saw a whole box full of arc reactors, so he knew Mr. Stark had a large stash somewhere. He also knew that they were very powerful and probably kept very safe. If only he could find Happy or someone...

Holy spades! Peter nearly fell from his web, just realizing something. What happened to Happy? He hadn't heard word from the man since the incident. Peter landed on a roof and quickly whipped out his phone, dialing Happy.

Happy had learned that missing a spontaneous call from a reckless teenager was never a good idea, and he answered after three rings to Peter Parker panting worriedly.