After his almost kiss with Caden, Peter Parker had given up. He had completely given up on him and Caden ever being normal again. It was inevitable that they wouldn't work out in one way or another; it was too good to be true.
He had started to become increasingly depressed. It affected everything: his superhero patrols, his homework, his effort in school, and his interactions with everyone around him. The depression brought on a lot of dysphoria which was the best thing to add on top of the pile of his life going downhill.
Peter threw himself into his own work. He had much bigger concerns than his love life, he had to find a way to stop Flash and whatever plan his group had devised.
Peter consulted Ned many times over the weeks after Caden's birthday, coming up with ideas and theories on what could fully stop Flash.
"I just," Peter sighed in the middle of another long phone call, "I give up!" He threw his pen against his notebook, shaking his head at the list of ideas the boys had been compiling.
Ned sighed into the phone as well, and Peter could hear the exhaustion the action gave off. It was around midnight, and they hadn't come up with a solid plan for hours.
"I can't keep tying up Flash and throwing him to the side, Ned!" Peter muttered, spinning around in his desk chair in an attempt to shake out his nerves.
Ned snorted, chuckling a bit under his breath. This made Peter partly frustrated, partly too tired to care. "Sorry," Ned replied to Peter's sigh of exasperation. "The way you said that is basically saying you're procrastinating the Flash situation, but also, like, procrastinating Flash just as a person."
Peter shook his head, laughing along with Ned before his eyes settled back onto his notebook. A few beats of silence passed between them before Peter spoke up again. "I hope Tony's got a better plan than we do right now."
"I bet he does," Ned said without hesitation. "If there's anyone without a plan, it's Flash. I mean, he can't keep randomly meeting you with his dysfunctional group forever, you know?"
"And, I can't keep avoiding him forever," Peter mumbled, his eyes drifting from the list to the blue velvet box holding his lion bracelet.
Starting off as a statement only about Flash, Peter realized that it applied to Caden as well. He chewed the inside of his cheek in thought, having to listen closely as he missed half of what Ned was saying.
"...Flash or Caden?" Ned finished, figuring that Peter hadn't heard a word he had said.
"I don't know," Peter finally groaned, stretching as he stumbled over to his bed. "The Flash thing or the Caden thing really is the question, isn't it?"
As a rhetorical question, he knew what his answer should be, but Peter couldn't tell what the right answer was at all.
-
Peter was ready to throw down his bag into his room and sleep away his problems for a few hours after school, but when May told him that a friend was waiting for him in his room, everything stopped.
"Another friend," May quickly added upon seeing Peter's face washed of its color. "Not Caden," she whispered, placing an arm around him before turning Peter towards his room.
Peter ran through a list of every one of his friends that could possibly be there, but he was not expecting Tony Stark to be standing in the middle of his room.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter said slowly, his eyebrows slightly raised in confusion. He closed the door behind him, slowly walking around as if he was in some type of trouble. And, the several occasions when Tony Stark showed up out of nowhere, Peter was headed to Germany, got his suit taken from him, and was offered a position on the Avengers team.
"Hey, Peter," Tony greeted him, taking off his sunglasses before sitting in Peter's chair. "May's told me about how you've been depressed these last few weeks."
Peter gulped, scratching the back of his neck anxiously. Out of all the things Tony could've said, he wasn't prepared to be the direct concern so early on in the conversation. He sat down uncomfortably on his bed, fiddling with his hands as he avoided the man's eyes.
"I mean, yeah... I guess I've been feeling pretty bad about, well, everything."
The man in front of Peter put his glasses in his front jacket pocket, leaning his elbows to his knees while holding his head up. "Do you have anything you want to talk about? It might help you to just rant before we get into the Flash stuff." His face was visibly soft, making Peter shrug.
"I guess that's all where it starts really," Peter said, an edge to his voice.
He continued on to tell Tony the events of meeting. With Flash and his friends, getting off the phone with him, and finding Caden in his room where a war broke out. Peter went on to explain that he was going to tell Caden about him being Spider-Man but was interrupted, he had never meant to manipulate Caden or his friends in a way, and how the break up went down. Finishing up his rant about the almost kiss and having no idea where to even start with the Flash situation, Peter was appreciative at how intently Tony was listening throughout the whole thing.
Peter tilted his head to the side afterwards, expectantly awaiting a reaction from the man instead of a blank stare. Tony cleared his throat, rubbing his hands together, and Peter watched his every movement, his eyes moving as the man sat up straight, cracking his knuckles.
"I'm not going to comment on the things that are troubling you because that's just not my place," Tony started, and Peter felt a little deflated and disappointed at his words. "I will say that if I had a mental breakdown every time I went through something difficult - physically, emotionally, or mentally - I wouldn't be here right now. Take a page out of my book, Peter, and try to relax."
"I can't!" Peter exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. He didn't want to hear how he should relax at that point. He had too many things to go through that relaxing would seem incredibly pointless. He could relax after he found a way to get everything done, and so far, Tony wasn't much of an aid in that.
Tony sighed, a sympathetic look in his face as he saw how distressed this situation made Peter. "You've gotta, kid, it's not up to us. You have to ease your mind before we're able to devise a plan to outthink these kids. Now, I have a few ideas in mind, but you have to chill out first."
Peter slowly nodded his head, covering his face with his hands. He breathed in and out, wiping his sweaty hands on the toughness of his overly baggy jeans - willing to be a shapeless mess for a week to feel as though his clothes weren't clinging to his ghost of a figure.
When Peter looked up, he nodded again. He managed to give Tony a fake smile before they delved into a strategy to take down Flash and his crew.
Soon enough, the two had created charts and lists and everything in between on several pages of Peter's notebook. They listed all of the boys and their powers that were known, going through what seemed like every course of action Peter could take upon meeting them for a final time.
Tony left when the sun had already set, the time approaching the usual dinner time for the Parkers. With Peter's suit shoved into his briefcase, Tony excused himself from the apartment, saying goodbye to Peter and May.
"I hope you feel better after Mr. Stark's visit," May told Peter softly, kissing him on the cheek. She ruffled his hair, smiling up at him before turning back to the kitchen with a shake of her head. "I'm thinking... pizza for dinner?"
Peter quickly nodded, laughing at May's glance at the kitchen. He picked up her phone, placing it in her hand before leaving to his own room. "Pizza!" he yelled out to her, giving her a thumbs up.
-
The next morning was hectic. It didn't help anyone that right as Peter and May were about to leave the apartment, the house phone rang, earning a groan from both of them.
May got to the phone first which Peter soon realized was a huge mistake on his part.
"Good morning, Mrs. Parker, sorry to call so early," the woman on the other end of the phone started. May checked the caller ID, shaking her head at another pointless call from the school. "The Midtown school officials were wondering if you know anything about Eugene Thompson's abnormal amount of excused early dismissals this past month. He's almost a junior, and as you know, attendance is very strict these upcoming years. We-"
"I'm sorry to cut you off, but how would I know anything that's happening in this situation?" May was focused on doing so many things at once, yanking her jacket off a hanger from the hall closet, holding the phone between her cheek and her shoulder.
"We were just wondering if you've heard anything from, uh... your nephew, Peter, about where Eugene could possibly be."
"Him and Peter aren't friends," May replied shortly, not particularly a fan of the hesitance before the word nephew. She looked to Peter with a mocking confused expression, rolling her eyes, completely missing how the color left his face entirely.
"Which is exactly why we called you because we figured Eugene might be continuing to harass Peter outside of school despite the strict orders to keep them away from each other inside the building."
May immediately stopped her apartment-wide search for her purse as the words hit her hard. "Excuse me, I'm not sure if I heard you correctly... Harass?"
At the word, May's eyes flicked from the ground to Peter who was watching the conversation with wide eyes. He could tell everything was falling apart, his plan was foiled, and everything was coming crashing down.
"Yes, I assume you're aware of the insistent threats Eugene had directed towards Peter since the beginning of the school year?" the woman continued on as if the two were having a nonchalant conversation while May was at a loss for words. "After it was brought to our attention, we took care of the problem and devised an exact plan to keep them away from each other."
"If you don't mind me asking," May's wide eyes settled on Peter who was folded up in his seat at the table, "when was this plan decided? I'm sorry, my memory's not like it used to be."
After a lengthy pause, the woman responded. "I see in our files that Peter was sent an email about the school-wide plan around January 8th. You may want to check with him about that."
"I-I will, thank you so much." May's voice was shaky and unstable at that point, her knuckles white as she gripped the phone tightly. "And, no. We haven't seen or heard anything from Eugene Thompson outside of school."
She quickly hung up the phone, placing the phone on the kitchen counter with a slam, whipping her head around to face Peter.
"What the hell was that, Peter?" she asked, the usual May Parker humor stripped from her voice.
Peter shook his head, looking at May with fearful eyes. "I-I didn't want you to worry about anything!" he insisted with a shaky voice. "I didn't know they would call the house!"
"Thought you would have a foolproof plan, huh?" May questioned, making Peter now his head in shame. "Why wouldn't you come to me if you were being bullied and harassed for months, Peter?"
Her raised voice made tears spring into Peter's eyes, and he replied in a choked tone. "I just... I don't know. I thought I had everything under control, okay?"
"Yeah, and now everything is falling apart," May snorted, shaking her head with a long sigh. "I only care about your safety, Peter, I always have. I just wish you would've thought to talk to me about it so we could've worked through it together."
"May, can we just not talk about this right now?" Peter asked softly, reaching for his backpack off of the chair across from him.
"No!" May yelled, the crack in her voice breaking Peter's heart and freezing his actions, his hand dropping back to his side. "Peter, this is serious, and I'm not sure if you quite get it yet. Let me break it down for you: Ben and I tried our best to stop those little assholes at your school, we went to the school and everything, and instead of telling me about things getting bad at school again, you kept it from me for months! What if you had gotten hurt? I wouldn't know what to do with myself! You just don't think sometimes, Peter!"
"Don't yell at me!" Peter sobbed out, wiping his tear streamed face with his arm. "Everything's fine, May, alright?! The school has it handled. The plan has been working. Don't you know that I have my own stuff going on? I fucked everything up with Caden, and you know that, but here you are, yelling at me for something I tried to make easier for you."
May lowered her voice, and Peter found it even worse that he felt the urge to tell her to continue yelling at him. "You could've gotten seriously hurt, that's what I'm concerned about. It's what I'll always be concerned about. I don't care about the Caden thing right now, all I want to hear is what plan your school came up with to fix this mess."
"I deleted the email so even I wouldn't be able to find it," Peter admitted softly, not daring to raise his eyes to see May's reaction to that. "Can I explain it to you after school, I really need to leave now so I won't be late. They won't let me in if I'm gone for a long time, May."
He wasn't sure if the urgency in his voice reached May, but he needed to be at school. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something Flash related happened in school and he wasn't there to at least attempt to stop him and his group.
May ignored him, crossing her arms. "Peter. The plan."
"I'm not sure who exactly is operating the plan, but it's basically that Flash isn't allowed to be near me under any circumstances at all during school. Including after school activities. If he's caught speaking about me or harassing me with his friends, I'm pretty sure he'll be expelled."
May nodded once, apparently satisfied with the explanation before grabbing her jacket and purse that Peter held out to her. He reached for his bag again, but May stopped him again.
"You're not going to school today, Peter," she said finally, grabbing her keys from her coat pocket.
"May, are you seriously not seeing how unfair that is?" Peter asked, throwing his hands up in the air. His voice was raised, but it was hardly enough to depict how he felt internally. His heart was racing, and he was surprised his anxious heart beat hadn't burst out of his chest.
"Peter, you can make up anything you need to tomorrow." May shook her head, her voicing sounding exhausted from the screaming match the two had just finished up.
"May-"
"Just stop, alright? You're staying home, and that's it." She shook her head again, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Never thought I'd have to fight you on that."
Peter groaned loudly, waiting until May left the house to slam his own bedroom door. He dug into the back of his closet, surprised that he so easily found his old makeshift Spider-Man suit.
"May never said you couldn't go to school," Peter spoke to his suit before changing into it.