*Peter's POV*
Pushing all dreams and memories aside, Peter slipped on the mask that he adorned almost every night. It was still a struggle to pretend to be the same comedic hero that everyone had grown accustomed to, but he couldn't have the public trying to pry into his personal life again. So he practiced as many corny jokes and puns as he could and slipped out his window, glad for once that May was working a night shift.
After going to school hours earlier than he needed to, the dream had lingered at the back of his thoughts all day. Flash had been surprisingly tame all day, though he had seemed preoccupied with a new girl toy so that was probably why. But the lack of abuse did nothing to ease his negative mood.
Anything could set him off, pushing him back into one of the few memories he had of Ben (which he had long since suppressed). MJ and Ned were out of town for the day (and they would be gone until the following Monday) for a Decathlon trip in D.C., the usual place for such events. So there was no one constantly watching him to see what was wrong, but there was also a tight feeling of loneliness that surrounded him with the lack of his closest friends.
The air felt nice rushing past him as he swung from building to building, relishing in the feeling of control that he had in that moment. The start of the night was slow so far, two muggers were harassing an older women and a kid got locked on the roof of her apartment building, but both those situations were dealt with swiftly.
Peter sat down and watched the busy streets below, despite it being late into the night they were still bustling with people. There were loud noises coming from cars and conversations filtered in his ears like background noise. Listening for any sounds of distress, he sat back and allowed himself to relax on the roof.
A strange prickling rose at the back of his neck, lifting the small hairs and sending goosebumps up and down his arms. Staying still, trying to appear unaware, Peter strained his ears for the slightest noise. Whoever was staring was very quiet, but they couldn't hide their breathing. And from the sounds of it, they were merely steps away by now.
Peter brought his arm up and pretended to scratch the back of his neck, but he was just trying his best to have his webs aimed at the unknown creeper. Holding his breathe, Peter sat there for a moment longer before pushing himself up and spinning around in one fluid movement. The roof was empty.
Looking around, Peter stumbled for his bearings. He had heard them. They were breathing right behind him. And even if they knew he heard them, there was no way they could have moved quickly or quietly enough to escape his radar.
Peter pushed away every other sense and focused on his hearing, searching for any living sounds that could indicate another person was nearby. Unfortunately, the city noises made it hard for him to pinpoint a specific noise such as breathing unless he knew exactly what their breathing sounded like. There were far too many other people walking around, talking, socializing, etcetera.
Taking a step closer to the edge of the roof, Peter did a final scan of the area and turned away, ready to swing away. "Impressive senses, Spidey." A calm voice echoed from behind him, making his skin crawl with familiarity.
Slowly, Peter turned around. Red hair and a skin tight suit, Black Widow was standing in front of him as if this were some casual gathering. Forcing himself to stay put and not run (they had a truce, an alliance, why should he be afraid), Peter laughed and tried to hide his confusion. "Aw, did you miss me after our last play date?" He asked in a sing-song voice, trying to push the thought of her unconscious, bleeding face out of his mind.
"Well, seeing as we didn't even get to say hello before I was thrown across a building—" Her face turned sour as she recalled the incident. "I wouldn't exactly call it a play date. But, I guess you could say I wanted to thank you for the help." She smirked and closed the rather large distance between them, coming to stand in front of him. "I probably would have been blown up or something if you hadn't helped."
Peter shook his head and shrugged at her words. "All I did was patch you up and move you." He said with a sheepish smile, feeling self-conscious in front of the spy. "Plus, it was already enough that you and the other Avengers let me help. That was like, totally awesome."
"Good, because I thought that you should come to the tower one day and train with me." Black Widow spoke, almost casually, while placing her hands on her hips. "I hate to say it, but you have no proper technique. It looks like you just picked up on some good strategies and go with what your instincts tell you." She said critically, dropping the friendly act and looking at him with a dead serious face. "Instincts can save your life, but so can some proper training."
Peter froze and nodded mutely. She wasn't the first Avenger to want to train with him, Hawkeye had mentioned it too, and Captain America and Falcon had mentioned training with the team when they first confronted him. But it was so weird to hear someone critique him when they hadn't even seen him fight.
Unless Black Widow had seen him fight.
But there was no way she watched him, right? He wasn't even that important of a hero. All he did was stop local muggings and maybe help with containing some bigger villains (which were always handled by the Avengers or some government unit). Maybe Black Widow just didn't trust him and wanted to see if he was really trying to be a hero or not.
Peter pushed all his thoughts away. Black Widow might just actually be interested in his skills and abilities. For once he might be more than a street hero who stood in the shadows. But that didn't matter right now, clearly she wasn't here to talk about why she wanted to help him improve or why the Avengers wanted to recruit him. She was here to invite him to train with her at the tower. And that was awesome on so many levels.
Trying to keep himself from freaking out, Peter stood up a bit straighter and turned back to Black Widow, hoping she didn't see the way he zoned out a bit, lost in his overactive thoughts. "Training sounds cool." He replied, trying to sound nonchalant (and failing). "I'm free all weekend." He added, making sure to leave out as many personal details as possible. Even if he wanted to trust her (and the other Avengers) he was definitely not ready for his identity to be revealed, but knowing the team's history, he truly doubted they wouldn't try to figure it out.
Hopefully they could learn to just trust him and let him reveal his identity in his own time.
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*Peter's POV*
Crawling back in through his bedroom window, Peter felt tired but excited. After his interaction with the Black Widow, his night had continued as per usual, and that had been that. Tomorrow (technically today because it was already four in the morning) he was going to be meeting Black Widow on the roof of Avengers tower and training with her, and possibly meeting some of the other Avengers.
Though he was tired and wanted to sleep, he also wanted to take a shower and eat something so he could be ready for the training session. They had arranged to meet around six o'clock in the afternoon, so he still had a lot of time, but he vibrated with enthusiasm and anxiety. Training with the Avengers. That was so cool but they were also some of the smartest and strongest people in the world, the elite. Would his identity be compromised if he let his guard down? How was he supposed to go when he would have to be on edge constantly?
Peter sighed and rubbed his eyes, he didn't want to think so badly of the Avengers. They were Earth's mightiest heroes after all, but it was hard to trust people when their job was to protect the people of Earth, no matter the cost. If they thought it was necessary, then they would do whatever it takes to find out his identity. Thankfully, it seemed they had settled on recruiting him and they weren't pushing him to reveal his identity.
Maybe they would just trust him, get to know him, and let him reveal his identity on his own. They all seemed genuine enough, from the brief interactions he had with them outside of fighting.
As Peter pulled off his suit, he made sure to stretch his hearing as far as possible, listening all around for the usual sounds that signaled May was on her way up to the apartment. She had worked a long night shift so it was unlikely she was going to barge into his room, but she was going to be home in about half an hour, and he didn't want to risk outing his identity to her. With the stress of everything else, he should be the one thing she didn't have to worry about.
Peter threw on a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt before sitting down at his desk and pulling out some homework. He could take a nap later when May was sleeping as well, then he could shower quickly and leave to make it to the training session. Unfortunately, just because it was the weekend, teachers still decided to assign ungodly amounts of homework. Getting a head start on it was never a bad thing, even if it was four in the morning.
Cringing at the sight of the large packet, he grabbed a pencil and began jotting down answer after answer. The answers were messily written and he was hardly showing any work (preferring to do most of the things in his head) but they were all correct as far as he was aware, which meant he made quick work of the whole packet within forty minutes of starting it.
May had come in a few minutes ago, going straight to bed without even changing from what he could hear, and heading off to dreamland long before Peter would be. It was nice to hear her soft breathes at the back of his mind, unnoticeable for people with normal senses, but background noise for Peter.
Finishing off a short page that was supposed to be written about a book the class had read at the beginning of the year, Peter pulled out his earphones and put his music on the lowest setting, still a little too loud for his ears, but it drowned out all the other things that he could unfortunately hear.
Paper after paper was finished in record time, and then messily shoved back into Peter's school bag. There was still one class that had a packet that needed to be completed, but it was in Chemistry so it wouldn't take long.
Checking the time, Peter allowed relief to wash over him as he noted it was about eight, which meant he could shower without May thinking it was weird.
Still being careful of where he stepped and how loud he was (May was no doubt exhausted and he didn't want to wake her), Peter grabbed some clean clothes and headed into the small bathroom. The water would be cold and unwelcoming, but it would wash the smell of sweat and the dirt that still managed to get all over him despite the suit off of his skin.