#hooueh

[fourdaysofrain]

In a Flash

Summary: Peter sees a familiar face during patrol.

(Post-Far From Home, ignores the end credits scene)

Read on AO3

Peter Parker was standing in a cemetery.

It’s not the first cemetery he’s been in. He’s had experience with grieving, of course. His Aunt May and Uncle Ben helped him process the death of his parents, and then his Aunt May alone helped him with the death of his uncle. Even before that, he was brought to the funeral of his great-grandfather before he was old enough to realize why everyone was crying.

But now, he stood in front of the grave of Tony Stark. It was bare, with dirt that hadn’t yet begun to grow grass. Peter slowly leaned down and placed a single white carnation against the gravestone.

“Mr. Stark, I–” his words caught in his throat, countless unsaid feelings floating just out of his reach.

Peter kept taking slow, deep breaths. He didn’t plan anything to say, he had hoped it would come to him in the moment. He settled for just looking solidly at the dirt, too afraid of the finality of seeing the name engraved in the stone.

He watched as a small spider slowly stalked through the ground. Another unearthed right behind it. And another to the left. Peter tried to shift backward, but his shoes were glued to the earth beneath him. He couldn’t even look away.

He saw the dirt shift almost imperceptibly. And then it continued to shake, a mound forming in the center.

A gauntlet burst out, one that was too achingly familiar. Peter wanted to move, to run away, to do anything, but he couldn’t even blink. He was trapped to watch as the rotting carcass of Tony Stark pulled itself out of its grave and grabbed him, pulling him down into the earth.

If you were good enough, maybe Tony would still be alive.

Peter slowly slid his window open, not wanting to disturb Ned, who was still snoring loudly underneath a pile of blankets. They had yet another sleepover last night, both still too afraid to sleep comfortably alone. They both passed out to Ned’s laptop almost judgmentally showing the “Are you still watching?” screen from Netflix.

Peter had nightmares about Tony’s death even before he sacrificed himself to save the world. But after Mysterio, they were happening more and more frequently. Thankfully, he was able to wake up without screaming now. He cringed as he remembered the first couple weeks when he would feel Aunt May softly rubbing his back as he sobbed himself awake. But tonight, he just needed some fresh air to calm down. Sticking to the outside of his bedroom, he double-checked that his suit was sealed correctly, and then put his mask on.

“Hey Karen, how’s your night going?” he asked casually.

“Good evening Peter. Your heart rate seems to be elevated, is there anything I can do to help?” Karen’s voice cut cleanly through the dull sounds of the city at night.

“Uh- no, no I don’t think so, I just need to swing around for a while. You know.”

“Of course, Peter. Would you like me to play your patrol playlist on Spotify?”

“No, that’s okay, Karen. Thank you though.”

“I’m here if you need me.”

Peter took a deep breath before jumping from the wall and falling to the ground below. He felt the rush of wind around him and waited as long as he could before shooting a web and pulling himself back into the air.

He tried not to think about when Karen would offer to call Mr. Stark on nights like these. She would read his fast heartbeat, figure out he had a nightmare, and Mr. Stark would call him with a lazy excuse about needing his opinion on a project. They would end up talking for so long he’d forget what the nightmare was even about. Or, Mr. Stark would get an alert that he was using the suit past curfew, and he’d get an angry phone call on his display. The current lack of supervision was almost oppressive, some nights. Aunt May was always willing to help him, but she had no way of knowing what he did after he went to bed each night. Happy kept in touch with him, of course, and he was able to get some information from the suit, but he didn’t even know the half of all the protocols Mr. Stark made. Peter himself was only barely starting to scratch the surface.

The first time he went out patrolling after Mr. Stark di- after the blip, he got stabbed. It was nothing he hadn’t seen before, he just needed to get to the MedBay. Karen had innocently asked if he wanted to call Mr. Stark, and he broke. He was barely able to tell her to call Happy instead. The next day, he went through her code with Ned and removed any reference to him. The next month, he put it all back in, and slowly struggled through telling her the story of how he saved the universe.

The night progressed slowly. He swung from building to building, no end destination in mind. The beating of his heart eventually slowed to match the steady rhythm of his swings. He finally ended up on the roof of a nearby building to take a break before going back home. He wasn’t keeping track of how much time had passed since he left, and he wanted to get home before sunrise.

The hair on his arms stood up, and he got a short burst of adrenaline. Something was wrong.

“Karen, what’s happening?” he whispered.

“There seems to be a mugging happening in the alleyway to your right,” Karen responded.

“Thanks, Karen. I’ll check it out.”

He slowly peered over the edge of the building to get a read on the mugging. There were three men surrounding someone who was cowering against the end of the alleyway. He couldn’t see any weapons out, but that didn’t mean there were none.

“Hey Karen, activate enhanced reconnaissance mode. Let me hear what they’re saying.”

“On it, Peter.”

A small rectangle appears over them in his mask’s display and magnifies his vision.

“C’mon kid, just fork it over and no one gets hurt,” a gruff voice said.

The reply consisted of mostly whimpers and heavy breathing.

“Dude, if he’s not gonna just give it to us, we’re gonna have to take it,” a second voice grunted.

Peter decided this was a good time to jump in. He dropped slowly down to the ground, making sure to remember Nat’s advice about landing on his toes so he didn’t alert the muggers.

“Thing like that must cost a pretty penny, eh? Not like your daddy can’t just get you a new one, with how much you were runnin’ your mouth back there,” the third voice finally chimed in, a small flick of his wrist revealing a switchblade.

Peter took one more slow, deep breath before intervening, putting on the Spider-Man persona like an old leather glove.

“Hey, guys! Looks like you’re all having fun, but unfortunately, I gotta break this up.”

When the three criminals turned around, Peter shot a web at the third’s hand that held the blade to pin it to the wall. His hand instinctively opened, and the switchblade fell to the ground. One of the remaining two dove for it.

“Oh no you don’t,” Peter shot a web over the knife to make it unreachable, “don’t you guys have more than one of these? That’s poor planning on your part.” He shot a web across the torso of the third, who was trying to pry his hand free. He was pinned to the side of the alleyway. Now he just had two to worry about.

They were both moving towards him aggressively. He threw a web grenade at the side of the alley, and when it detonated it threw the two of them to the opposite side. All three of them were stuck to the wall in some way or another. He could handle petty criminals like these in his sleep. He mumbled a quick reminder to Karen to alert the local precinct and got a short confirmation in return.

The person at the end of the alley was still curled up in the fetal position. All he could see was the top of a very gelled hairstyle. He shot a quick web over each of the mugger’s mouths before starting to approach the victim.

“Hey guy, or uh- person! Don’t worry, these things happen all the time. Are you hurt? Do you need help?” Peter could hear a staccato rhythm of quick, sharp breaths underneath the muffled yelling of the muggers as he got closer. He slowly crouched and put a hand on the person’s shoulder, when they yelped and started to run out of the alleyway. Peter froze for a beat and then lightly jogged after them.

“Hey! Hey, you can’t just run away! I know it’s kind of scary but I want to make sure you’re okay!” Peter called as he caught up. It didn’t take long, but they were able to make it out of the alleyway. At least he didn’t have to keep looking at the wild eyes of the three men webbed to the walls. Peter grabbed their shoulder again and they whipped around.

“Hey, do you have anyone I can call for–” he froze. It was Flash. He just saved his high school bully from a group of muggers.

“Holy shit!” Flash exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Hey, hey, hey. The bad guys are gone now, it’s just you and me.” Peter tried to sympathize with him, being in danger for the first time can be a big shock.

“Jes- Jesus Christ! They could have killed me!”

“They didn’t though, you’re good, they’re stuck back there for a couple of hours.” Peter awkwardly motioned to the alley before trying to find a natural position for his arms.

Flash let out a huge sigh and slumped against the wall of the adjacent building. Peter looked at him and sighed in turn while he wondered how to proceed. Sure, Flash gives him a lot of shit in school, but it’s not like he was irredeemable. Peter also knew that he was a huge fan of Spider-Man, and he didn’t want to ruin that.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Flash looked at him with a start.

“Are you Spider-Man?” he yelped.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am.” No, these are my pajamas.

“You’ve saved me before.” Peter didn’t want to give anything about his identity away.

“When?”

“I was in the Washington Monument when the elevator broke. Part of an academic decathlon team, if you know what that is.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Were you the guy who tried to save the trophy before himself?” C’mon, just because he was helping him didn’t mean he couldn’t make a little fun of him.

Flash gave a dry chuckle.

“Yeah, I guess that was me.”

Peter hummed in response, wondering how he could end this conversation quickly.

“You also stole my dad’s car.”

Peter’s gaze quickly snapped back to Flash, but he didn’t sound angry. He just sounded… sad.

“I’m really sorry, you were the first person I–”

“Don’t apologize,” Flash interrupted, “That was the first time in a long time that my father paid any attention to me.”

The statement hung heavily in the air between them as Flash’s breaths started to even out.

“Y’know,” Flash started, “I swear I’ve heard your voice before, Spider-Man.”

Oh shit. Peter felt his blood turn to ice. He knew he should have made a voice modulator, but he kept putting it off. All the ones that Mr. Stark had made him were over-the-top and dramatic, just like the man himself.

“Voices are weird like that, huh? You just said we met before anyways, so…” He tried to subtly deepen his voice.

“You just changed it, you sounded different before.”

“Listen, Flash, it’s not a big deal.”

“How do you know my name? You said it while you stole the car, too.”

Double shit.

“I– Someone said it in the Washington Monument, and I remembered it because it’s a cool nickname?” Peter squeaked out, hoping Flash would be blinded by the compliment.

“Are you spying on me? Is this because of what Father did? I know he’s rich, but he’s not worth all this trouble. Because if you hold me hostage, it’s not like he’ll give you anything. And he’s not available, anyways. I tried calling him when those thugs tried to get my phone, but I only have the model early because he paid for an exclusive prototype. If you want it, just take it, they weren’t lying when–”

“Woah woah woah, hey,” Peter cut him off before he ran out of oxygen, “I’m not spying on you, don’t worry.” Flash’s fear turned to anger. He pushed off the wall and got into Peter’s personal space.

“Then tell me how you know my name, Spider-Shit. And why you sound so familiar. I’m just tired of no one listening to me.”

“It’s not a big deal, don’t worry. I’m just going to leave now.”

“I’ll show you a big deal”

Then it happened. Before Peter could lean away, Flash grabbed the top of his mask and pulled.

Peter stilled, cursing his supposed Peter tingle. He kept eye contact with Flash, blinking a few times to let his eyes adjust to the change in brightness.

Flash was frozen, his mouth in an almost perfect ��O.” He stuttered a few times, not knowing what to say first.

“I– You– Wh–”

Peter’s inner conscious was swinging between fight and flight like a metronome on meth. Eventually, it stopped on one.

“Bye Flash. The cops are already coming, you can leave,” he said grimly. Before Flash could form a coherent sentence, Peter jumped off a nearby streetlight to gain momentum and grabbed his mask from Flash’s hand with a web as he used his other hand to swing from a nearby building. He quickly put it on before getting out of Flash’s line of sight, turning his head to see him staring right at him.

“Shit,” Peter murmured.

—

Peter was able to get back to his bedroom before anyone woke up. He changed back into his hand-me-down pajamas and booted up his laptop. There was no way he’d go back to sleep now. Thankfully he didn’t have to see Flash until Monday, and it was still Saturday.

He checked the clock. Scratch that– Sunday. He sighed and rubbed his face. He had no clue how he was going to face Flash knowing he was Spider-Man. He checked Spider-Man’s mentions on Twitter and Instagram, but there wasn’t anything online about his identity yet. That was a good sign, at least. The only people who weren’t superheroes or part of Mr. Fury’s group that knew his identity were May, Ned, and MJ. And Liz’s dad, but he figured it out last year and nothing has happened yet. He really didn’t want to add anyone else. Flash knowing was… manageable, as long as he didn’t tell anyone else. He decided to just mindlessly browse Twitter while he waited for the rest of the world to wake up.

—

“Are you sure I can’t miss a day?” Peter groaned out from underneath his pillow. Sunday went by too fast. He managed to not let it slip that Flash found out his identity to Ned or May, but it still sat like a stone deep in his stomach.  

“Peter, superheroes don’t get sick, you already miss so many classes. Ned’ll be here soon, chop-chop!” May yelled from the kitchen, no doubt trying to get the coffee maker to work.

Peter stretched his spine before quickly throwing on the cleanest looking clothes he could find on his floor and made it to the front door just as Ned was knocking, being sure to grab his wrapped up lunch and snacks from the counter before he left.

“Bye May, love you!” He yelled behind him as he walked out, locking the door behind him.

Peter and Ned walked to school together, like always. Ned was talking about LEGO’s new Avenger Tower set when the secret bubbled up into Peter’s throat. He made sure no one was around, and then interrupted Ned.

“Flash saw me in the suit!” He said harshly.

“What? When?” Ned looked at Peter with the same wide-eyed look that he always has when talking about his extracurricular activities.

“During our sleepover, I went out after you fell asleep and I stopped some people who were mugging Flash and then he took my mask off and I just left and now we’re going to see him in school and he’s probably already told everyone!”

“Why did you let him take off your mask!”

“I don’t know it just happened!”

“I thought you had your Peter tingle?” Ned acted out his words, waving his fingers near his temple.

“Stop calling it that, I’m freaking out right now, man!”

“It’ll be fine Peter, we can figure this out together. Does May know?”

“No I didn’t tell her, are you crazy? She already hates Flash, this would just give her an actual reason to go murder him!” There was only one adult he would feel comfortable telling, and he was six feet underground somewhere upstate.

“Okay, just… Deep breaths. We can figure this out.”

Peter and Ned’s conversation kept ping-ponging between the two for the rest of their walk. Eventually, they reached their lockers.

“Ned, we have chemistry first period with him! What’ll I do?” Peter said, sounding more like a strangled cat than a teenager.

“Guy in the chair, I’ll figure something out. I can cause a distraction whenever you need. I’ll just drop all my stuff onto the floor, just give me the signal,” Ned said pointedly, grabbing an extra textbook he doesn’t need from his locker.  

“I don’t see how that will help,” Peter hissed at Ned before they walked to class.

—

Flash was already in his seat and had a crowd of students around his desk.

“I was scared out of my mind, when all of a sudden–” Flash’s eyes snapped to Peter and he choked on his words for a second. He cleared his throat before anyone listening to him noticed and returned his attention back to the group around him– “Spider-Man came in. He just wiped the floor with these guys, it was awesome. I got to see it all happen five feet away.”

Peter tried to keep his face as neutral as possible as he watched Flash from across the room. Ned, meanwhile, was looking visibly anxious as he fiddled with his stack of textbooks put purposefully near the edge of the desk.

“After he was done and all the guys were stuck to the wall, he just swung away, probably off to save more people’s lives,” Flash finally looked up from the small group of students and made eye contact with Peter as he finished his story, “I wasn’t even able to say thank you.”

Peter let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding.

Peter nodded slowly.

Flash nodded back.

And if either of them noticed Flash started calling him Peter, they wouldn’t tell.