New York
August 22, 09:52 EDT
Before spending the day going around the city as Spider-Man, he decided first to head home, drop his stuff off, and eat some breakfast. He also thought it would be good to spend some time with his family since recently, most of his free time had been spent as Spider-Man. And Grant's advice of not letting himself be consumed by the life of a vigilante was still fresh on his mind.
Instead of swinging, he chose to ride the train and walk home like a regular person for a change. As much as he enjoyed the feeling of swinging at fast speeds and the moments he felt like he was flying, he missed walking the streets of New York while listening to music.
As he turned the corner onto his street, doing a very poor job of air-guitaring Van Halen's Eruption solo, his spider-sense tingled. Before he could turn to check what had set it off, a red streak sped past him on the street, creating a big gust of wind and setting off a few car alarms. With the red streak passing him, the tingling from his spider-senses stopped.
'Was that the Flash?' thought Peter, baffled as he looked where the Flash had sped past him. 'I'm not arrogant enough to think I'd be able to react to the Flash even with my spider-senses, but I thought I'd at least be able to catch a glimpse of him. I couldn't even do that. How the hell do his bad guys even stand a chance?'
In awe, he stared at where the Flash had passed him by for a few more seconds before snapping out of it.
'If I had Silk's spider-sense or Mayday's, maybe I'd stand a chance, but somehow I doubt it.' thought Peter as he reached his house.
Entering, he was hit with the smell of pancakes, which made his stomach growl.
"Peter, is that you?" shouted Mary from the kitchen.
"Yeah, it's me." he responded, taking off his earbuds and pausing his music.
"What are you doing home so early? Don't you have your boxing lesson today?"
"Can I put my stuff in my room so we can stop shouting?"
"If you want. I kind of like shouting. Feels very therapeutic." she said, making Peter shake his head in amusement.
He went up to his room and put his bag down before changing out of his workout clothes into something more casual. If he were going out soon, he would've put the suit on under his clothes, but since he was going to spend some time at home first, he decided to put it on later. It wasn't the most comfortable thing on Earth to have a spandex suit on under his clothes.
He took out the picture Grant had given him and looked at it before putting it away in a drawer in his desk.
"Meow." said Dexter as he walked into Peter's room, jumping up onto his desk.
"Hey, buddy." said Peter, scratching under his chin and making him purr.
Because he had caught Black Spider, whose real name was Eric Needham, he had snuck out early in the morning the day before to take Dexter to visit the grave of his previous owner, Debbie. He laid some flowers on her grave, while Dexter laid there for a while, crying.
In the day since, Dexter had become a much more energetic cat, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It was a welcome change as it livened up the house a bit. Everyone was curious about the sudden change in his personality, but they all attributed it to him finally feeling comfortable in his new home.
"Did you eat already?" asked Peter.
"Meow." said Dexter, shaking his head.
"Me either. Let's go eat then." said Peter, picking up Dexter and putting him on his shoulders.
The duo went down the stairs and made their way to the kitchen, where Mary was cooking breakfast.
"Why is Dexter on your shoulders?" asked Mary, glancing back at the two before turning her attention back to the food.
"He likes to feel tall." he said.
"Meow." said Dexter, putting his front paws on Peter's head to make himself even taller, looking like a certain cartoon lion overlooking his kingdom.
"Well, if you go out for Halloween this year, you could go as a pirate and Dexter could be your parrot." she said.
"That's not a bad idea. Thanks, Mom." he said, seeing the vision of him in a bad pirate costume and Dexter dressed like a parrot on his shoulder. "What do you think, Dexter?"
"Meow." said Dexter, vigorously shaking his head no.
"You'll come argh-ound." he said, doing a pirate accent.
"So what's going on with the boxing lessons?" asked Mary.
"Well, to make a long story short, Grant said that unless I start fighting in the amateur circuit, I've learned all I can." explained Peter as he put some of Dexter's cat food into a bowl and placed it on the counter before Dexter hopped down from his shoulders and started eating.
"He won't teach you unless you go to matches? Uh-uh, I'll call that old grump and give him a piece of my mind." she said, getting riled up.
"No, Mom, relax." he said, chuckling at her reaction as he poured himself some orange juice. "That's not what I meant. Basically, technique-wise, I've learned everything I can, and unless I start fighting other people, I won't learn anything else. I have the knowledge, and now I need experience."
"Oh, okay." she said, calming down. "And you don't want to do that, I'm assuming."
"Not really. You know me, competition's not what fuels me. I like to learn." he said, having already come up with an excuse. "I'm surprised, though. I would have bet big money that you'd try to stop me from fighting."
"I would try to talk you out of it, but if you were adamant, then I'd support you. As much as it would pain me to see you get hurt if it were a path you wanted to follow, then I'd be there for you." she said. "Unless you started losing a lot, then I'd stop you."
"Thanks, Mom."
"Of course, honey." she said. "So, boxing's done. End of an era. How do you feel?"
"Honestly, a little sad. I liked going to the gym, and Grant's a great teacher and mentor. It'll be weird not spending every Saturday morning there, but I'll get over it." he said, petting Dexter as he ate.
"That's normal. You've been going for a while now, and it's made a big impact on you, so it makes sense you'll feel a little down about leaving it behind." she said. "At least you still have that Dragon fellow on Wednesdays. You are still going to go to that, right?"
"Uhh ... maybe."
"Maybe? Why? Did something happen?" asked Mary, worried.
"No, I've just been thinking about stuff. I don't know if I want to continue the martial arts thing." he said, running his hand through his hair. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I like it, but it's not really for any purpose, you know."
"It doesn't have to have a purpose. If you enjoy it, then that's enough reason to continue." said Mary. "But if you don't want to go anymore, then that's your decision. Just mull it over for a bit longer, okay?"
"Trust me, I will."
"That's good." she said, plopping a perfectly cooked pancake down on the stack. "Can you go see if your father's awake? Breakfast is almost ready."
"No need, light of my life. Daddy's awake and hungry." said Richard, walking into the kitchen in his pajamas.
"Ew." said Peter. "Please don't call yourself Daddy."
"Why? I am your Daddy." he said, petting Dexter before he walked over to Mary and whispered. "And I'm your Daddy too."
"Richard, not now." said Mary, smiling and blushing.
"I hope you both know I can never unhear that. It will haunt me for the rest of my life." said Peter, shaking his head and hoping the memory would disappear.
"Huk!" said Dexter, making a noise like when he hacks up a fur ball.
"See, even Dexter thought that was gross."
"Come on. Wouldn't you rather your mom and I be like how we are now than cold and frigid to each other?" asked Richard as he poured himself some coffee.
"Honestly, before I saw and heard what I just saw and heard, I would have agreed with you. But if you being cold and frigid with each other could have prevented that, then I prefer it."
"Years from now, when you have kids, we'll be hearing them complain about you and your wife and all the things you do." rebutted Richard. "I can hear it now, 'Pop-pop, Pop-pop, Meemaw, Meemaw, mom and dad were kissing in front of us.'"
"You want to be called Pop-pop?" asked Peter, eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, much better than just Grandpa Richard." he said, using a monotone voice.
"I'm not being called Meemaw." chimed in Mary.
"Why not? I like Meemaw." said Richard. "Meemaw Mary."
"First of all, ew. Second of all, we're not from the south and we don't make moonshine in our backyard." she rebutted.
"We could." mumbled Richard.
"So then what would you like to be called, Mom?" asked Peter, curious.
"I like Nana." she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Nana is so boring." said Richard.
"Well, you can be called Pop-pop and I can be called Nana."
"Fine." said Richard, taking a sip of his coffee.
"You still have a lot of time before you have to decide." said Peter.
"I hope so. I don't want to be a young grandparent." said Mary, pointing her spatula at him. "I also don't want to be an old grandparent. Just saying."
"He needs to talk to a girl first before you can become a young grandma." joked Richard. "Boom! Roasted."
"Nice." said Peter.
"Thank you." replied a proud Richard.
"Speaking of girls, did you ever find out what happened to that Yolanda from the gym?" asked Mary, rolling her eyes at Richard's joke.
"Wait, why aren't you at the gym right now?" asked Richard, just realizing.
"He learned everything he can, so he won't go from now on." said Mary, quickly summing it up for Richard. "So, Yolanda?"
"Uh, turns out her family moved to LA a month ago. That was why I hadn't seen her around." he said, unable to help it as his thoughts flashed back to the realization that she liked him.
"Uh-huh." said Mary, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "And?"
"And what? That was it." said Peter, almost gulping from her stare.
"You learned something else about her, so spill it." said Mary.
He was about to deny it since he was still embarrassed at how blind he had been, but Mary cut him off before he could say anything.
"Don't try to play dumb with me, Peter Benjamin Parker." she said, pointing the spatula at Peter. "I am your mother, I have been your mother for nearly sixteen years, and I will be your mother even when we both die and, God willing, meet in heaven. I can tell when you're holding something back, and my motherly senses are telling me whatever it is, it's juicy. So spill it."
"Give it up, Peter. Your mother's like a bloodhound. She'll sniff it out eventually, even if it takes her weeks. Might as well tell her now and get it over with." said Richard.
He debated whether to lie or at least omit the truth, but Peter knew that Mary was nothing if not insistent and persistent.
"Fine, but you have to promise not to make a big deal out of it." he said.
"Sure, I promise." said Mary, nodding, but Peter knew the chances of her keeping that promise were practically nil. "So what'd you learn?"
"Well, you both know since you had that talk with me on my birthday, but I used to be pretty walled-off, I guess you could say." he said, to which they both nodded. "Right, so it turns out that apparently, Yolanda had a crush on me."
"Are you serious?" asked Mary, invested. "And you couldn't tell? How obvious or subtle was she being?"
"That's what I wanted to know, so I took a little look back on my memories to determine that. And with hindsight, she was very obvious." he said. "Turns out I'm very dense. When it comes to romance stuff anyway."
"Well, we all knew that." she mumbled, before acting like a love-struck maiden. "So what are you going to do now? Are you going to call her? Or, don't tell me you're planning on getting on a plane to LA and professing your love to her?"
"Uh, no." said Peter, both he and Richard looking at Mary with a look of confusion.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because this isn't a romance novel, Mary. Besides, they've had very little interaction with each other outside the time spent in the gym, and more important than that, they're high schoolers." said Richard, taking a sip of coffee. "That kind of love doesn't last."
"We met in high school." she said, eyebrow raised, causing him to spit out his coffee.
"Yes, I know, but obviously I didn't mean us. We're special, destined lovers." he said, quickly backtracking. "By the way, have I told you how beautiful you look recently? I mean, just, wow. Stunning. I love you?"
"Mm-hmm." said Mary as Richard shrank into his mug.
"Anyway, the bright side to this whole thing, I've realized I have a blind spot and I've fixed it." said Peter, amused at their antics.
"Really?" said Mary, sounding skeptical.
"Yep. The blind spot is patched; software update to my brain." said Peter, sounding very assured. "No more missing things like that from now on."
"Well, we'll see about that." she said, smiling as she looked at the entrance to the kitchen. "Morning, ladies."
"Morning." said Teresa, in her pajamas, still looking a little sleepy, and Zatanna, who was wide awake and wearing casual clothes.
"Morning." said Peter and Richard.
"Aren't you supposed to be at ... boxing or whatever?" asked Teresa, moving over to pet Dexter.
"Graduated." said Peter to make a long story short, again.
"Good for you." she said.
"Are you going to be staying for breakfast, Zatanna?" asked Mary.
"I'd love to, Mrs. Parker, but I have to go meet up with some friends for a school project. Thank you, though." said Zatanna.
"You sure? Mom makes a mean pancake." said Peter.
"Uhh ... no, I can't." she said, with a regretful look. "I don't want to be late."
"Are you taking the subway?" asked Teresa.
"Yeah, why?"
"Peter should walk you then." said Teresa, winking at Zatanna.
"Oh, yes, he should. A young girl shouldn't be walking to the subway by herself." said Mary, smiling.
"I can drive her if-" said Richard, stopping himself from finishing his sentence when he received two death stares. "Better yet, Peter should walk her."
"It's fine. I don't want to be a bother." said Zatanna, blushing a little.
"You're never a bother, Zatanna." said Peter, smiling at her and causing her to blush even more. "Besides, it gives me a chance to walk Dexter. Let him stretch his legs and walk off his meal."
"Okay, sure." said Zatanna.
"Come on, Dexter." he said before Dexter walked off ahead of them.
"Good luck." said Teresa, in a sing-song voice, smiling.
"Thanks? I guess." said Peter, confused as to why she was wishing him luck.
The three of them walked out of the house, then turned left and made their way to the station, which was only three blocks away.
"So, what kind of project are you working on?" he asked.
"Huh?" said Zatanna, startled out of her thoughts. "Oh, it's an art project for History."
"What about?"
"We're learning about the Old West right now, and we're supposed to make something from that time. It can be any medium about pretty much anything so long as it relates to the Old West." she explained.
"Sounds fun." he said. "What did you decide to do?"
"One of the girls just wanted to paint a scenery of a cowboy on a horse and get it over with, but I thought it would be fun if we did a papier mache sculpture of an Old West figure." she said, kicking a rock down the street. "The other girls thought it would be fun too, so we're doing that."
"Wow. That's going above and beyond for an art project." he said, impressed.
"Yeah, that's what that one girl said, too. I just like doing things right."
"Nothing wrong with wanting to do things right. So, who are you doing it on? Billy the Kid? Wyatt Earp? Doc Holiday?" he said, doing a bad southern accent while saying the names, making her laugh.
"No. One of the girls recently read A Face Full of Violence by Amadeus Arkham, so we're doing a sculpture of Jonah Hex."
"That's the bounty hunter with the scarred face, right?" he asked, vaguely remembering reading about him in middle school.
"He was more than just a bounty hunter. Some people called him a hero, some called him a villain. Just depends on what side of his gun you were on, I guess."
"What do you think? Is he a hero, villain, or an anti-hero?"
"Anti-hero? What's that?" she asked.
"An anti-hero is a hero who lacks the conventional heroic qualities, like idealism or morality. They do things that the audience considers morally correct, but the reason for and manner of doing it may not align with the audience's morality." explained Peter, his thoughts flashing back to many of the anti-heroes of Marvel.
"Like Jonah Hex. He was a bounty hunter, and he killed people, but all the people he killed were bad guys: murderers and rapists." said Zatanna. "So what do you consider him to be?"
"I'm sure his life was complicated and hard. I'm sure he experienced a lot of things that no person should ever experience. If we still lived in those times, then maybe I'd reluctantly consider him a hero or at most, not a bad guy." said Peter. "If he lived now, I'd probably consider him a villain, or more likely, a broken man who needs help."
"Wow." said Zatanna.
"Anyway, his face will be an interesting face to try and sculpt, that's for sure."
"Meow." said Dexter, pawing at Peter's leg.
"You don't want to walk anymore?" he asked, to which Dexter shook his head. "You're going to get fat, you know. Especially with how many treats Teri gives you."
Still, Peter obliged and picked him up, putting him on his shoulders before continuing the walk. The two continued talking, and they quickly arrived at the station entrance.
"Thanks for walking me." she said, smiling as she tucked her hair. "Even though you didn't have to."
"It's no problem." he said. "Good luck with your art project. Send me a picture when it's done."
"Sure."
As he turned to leave, he was surprised when he felt Zatanna plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Bye." she said as she practically sprinted down into the subway, leaving Peter stunned.
He was taken out of his stunned state when Dexter hit him in the face with his paw.
'Uh-oh.'
~~
AN
Looks like his software had a bug. Thankfully, Zatanna helped him debug it.
Bit of a slower chap, but the next chapter should ... cool down. And it shouldn't take as long. Hopefully.
Added that little bit about Jonah Hex because I recently read his All-Star Western run. Good read, recommend it.
Also, Superman was amazing, 9/10, highly recommend.