Never Again

Ch. 1

Peter's POV

If you've never been hugged by a gorilla, then you don't understand what it's like to be hugged by Aunt May. Honestly, you would think by the way she hugs you that she hasn't seen you in years. Obviously, that's not true since Aunt May has been taking care of me most of my life.

"I think that's tight enough, May," I said, my words barely recognizable as my face was squished into her shoulder. She sighed and let me breath, pulling back just enough to look at me, keeping her arms around my shoulders.

"I'll be back in one week, Peter," she promised. I grinned and nodded, hugging her one last time then stepping back. "You sure you'll be okay?" she asked. I gave her a look and she brought her hands up in defeat. She had only asked that a dozen times in the past three hours.

"Relax, May," Mr. Stark said. He slung an arm over my shoulder and I grinned even wider. "He's in good hands." Aunt May seemed reluctant to agree, but eventually she nodded her head slowly and sighed. She reached for her small suitcase and turned towards security.

"Alright then," she said. She glanced back at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Go!"

"I'm going! I'm going!" she exclaimed. She hugged me one last time before heading off towards security. Mr. Stark and I waved goodbye until we could no longer see her. Even then we waited a little while longer before turning to leave the airport.

Happy hadn't been the one to drive us, Mr. Stark had. We made our way back to where he had parked the car and as I was pulling open the passenger door, Mr. Stark held out his hand to stop me. I looked at him in confusion but he just smirked.

"You drive, kid," he said. My eyes widened as he handed me the keys then slid into the passenger seat. I scrambled around to the driver's side and closed the door. I sat for a moment, staring at the steering wheel before Mr. Stark cleared his throat. "You've done this before, kid. You know how it works." I nodded hastily and turned on the car. Thankfully the airport wasn't that busy, so I was able to make it out and onto the freeway without any trouble. After that, the most difficult part would be navigating New York City so we could get back to Stark Tower.

Mr. Stark decided to keep the tower after I crashed his plane of stuff. He said something about needing a place where he could easily keep an eye on me, but I came over every weekend at Mr. Stark's request for what I liked to call Nerd Night. Mr. Stark would deny he knew anything about it, but I knew he enjoyed the nights. He always seemed disappointed when I couldn't come, so I tried to come whenever I could. Besides, it was only a 40 minute subway ride from school and May worked late nights.

It took us about an hour to drive from JFK Airport to Stark Tower. Mr. Stark complained about how slow I was driving, but the minute I went 5 miles over the speed limit, he freaked out and told me to slow down. That's why we were pulling into Mr. Stark's private underground garage an hour after May had left us at the airport.

"Finally," Mr. Stark said, slamming his door shut as he climbed out of the car. I tossed him his keys back and pulled the back seat door open. I tossed my duffel bag over my shoulder and grabbed my school bag. Thankfully, I didn't have any homework that I needed to do tonight, so I would probably be able to convince Mr. Stark to let me go out as Spider-man.

"Hey, Mr. Stark?" I asked. I dropped my backpack near the couch and followed him into the kitchen. Mr. Stark glanced up at me as he opened the fridge, so I continued, "I don't have any homework tonight and I was wondering if I could go be Spider-man?" Mr. Stark frowned as he held his beer in one hand and the opener in the other.

"Why are you asking me?" he asked. I fiddled with my hands for a moment as he looked at me questioningly.

"Um, because I, um--"

"Sure, kid," he cut me off. "I'll even come with you." My eyes widened as I watched him put his beer back in the fridge. "Fight a few bad guys, get some shawarma afterwards. How's that sound?" he asked. I nodded my head quickly, nearly falling off the counter stool. He just smirked and waved his hand at me. "Go suit up, Underoos."