Chapter 42: What's in a Name? II

Smiling at his work, Peter's eyes looked over the goggles one last time before going back to his half-sewn glove.

Peter sighed, rubbing his eyes out of exhaustion.

Yeah, he should probably get back to work

...

Just as he was about to pick the needle back up and continue working on the glove, the back of his skull buzzed lightly right on queue for him to hear the blast door to the workshop slam open.

"Peter!"

Nejire?

Turning around in his seat, he could see the out-of-breath girl looking at him as a few traces of golden sparkles floated about around her.

Did she fly here?

"Nejire? What are y-" As Peter was talking, the girl flew across the room and grabbed onto his arm before starting to fly away.

"No time to talk! It's important!" She cut him off as they flew to the door, Peter was about to protest but decided to just sigh and stay quiet.

Not like she'd let him go, anyway.

"Young lady, do not use your quirk in the halls or you'll land yourself in detention!" Power loader yelled after them, Nejire didn't even look back.

"I'm alright with that!"

Oh, hey! He'd have someone with him in detention!

Sweet!

"Sorry, man! I don't control her! Also, could you put my stuff away? Thanks!" Peter apologized, soon disappearing out the door with only a trail of golden sparks behind.

As they flew down the surprisingly empty halls, Peter finally decided to ask about what was going on.

Kinda crazy how he didn't do it earlier, now that he thought about it.

"Uh, Nejire? Mind telling me why you just kidnapped me from working on my suit?"

"Wait, you were working on your suit?" She asked, looking back and seeing Peter nod. "Oh, cool! We should totally work on our suits together! Wouldn't that be fun? I've been meaning to request some upgrades! Wait, wha-"

As the girl rambled on and on about different types of upgrades she could have on her costume, Peter couldn't help but smile softly at her.

She looked pretty when she rambled on and on to the point where she forgot was she was talking about

Wait, focus!

Get a grip, man! She's kidnapping you!

Worry about how pretty she was later!

"Nejire! While I would love doing all that stuff later, where are we going?"

Hearing him, the girl stopped talking and took a second to get herself back on track.

"Oh, that. Well, it's pretty important! Just trust me on this, okay?"

Now, he should probably not go along with this as easily.

Because were this anyone else, he'd probably shake off their grip and stand there until they told him where he was being taken to.

But how could he say no to those blue eyes?

"Can we at least walk there?"

"Nope! Flying's fun! Now c'mon, we can't leave Amajiki and Togata waiting!"

With that, Peter sighed and let the girl fly down the halls with him in tow.

Wait, he just realized something.

A girl was holding his hand!

...

Eventually, Nejire had finally stopped at the stairs that lead to the roof of the school, Amajiki and Togata stood there smiling at them while Togata proudly held two McDonald's bags in his hand.

Oh, food!

Sweet!

"No way! You guys got takeout? For all of us?" Once his feet finally hit the ground, Peter let the smell of the food hit his nose.

At that moment, he could only sigh as a small smile graced his face.

It smelt great.

"Yeah! We thought it'd be nice to hang out after, y'know…" Togata made a fwooshing sound, with Peter quickly realizing what he was trying to say.

Endeavor.

And you know what?

Yeah.

Peter didn't really wanna talk about it right now either.

"Oh, a-and Hado said you had faster metabolism so we got you two small f-fries."

"Wait, when did I tell you about my faster metabolism?" Peter asked, Turning to see Nejire floating up to his height.

"I remember that you mentioned it two weeks ago! Wait, you do have a faster metabolism, right? I might be thinking of a different quirk."

A feeling of pure warmth and comfort began to spread around his body at the thought of his friends accounting for that.

At the thought of anyone actually seeking him out to just eat food and relax for nearly no reason.

Of just having people that liked spending time with you and cared.

It was nice.

Actually, it was spectacular.

"I… thank you, guys."

With a small smile on his face, Peter followed his group of friends up to the empty roof and sat down. that small smile never left his face as Togata distributed the food between them.

Peter just sat there and listened to his friends talk to each other and to him, occasionally joining in or just enjoying their company quietly along with his food.

Seriously, the food was great.

Even so, it wasn't perfect.

"Aw, what! This is cherry coke!" Peter sighed, putting his drink to the side.

Togata shrugged, taking the cup from him. "You don't like it? I think it's great!"

Wait, should he tell them?

Probably.

Quickly, Peter pulled out his phone and opened up a video from what must've been 3 months into his vigilantism. It showed him with his mask down drinking from a McDonald's cup.

His friends raise an eyebrow in confusion, Peter simply lets the video play until the part in which he gets hit in the face by a drone and falls off the building.

"Yeah." He pockets his phone and reaches for a few more fries, ignoring how his friends laughed.

"Wait wait wait, so you don't like cherry coke because you got hit in the face with a drone while drinking it?" Nejire asked, leaning forwards toward him.

When thinking about it, it sounded dumb.

That was a lie, it sounded incredibly dumb.

But still, have you ever gotten hit by a drone?

It hurt, man! Now everyone time he tastes that drink he can only think of the feeling of that stupid drone hitting him.

"Pretty much, yeah! Dude, it made me fall off a building, have you ever fallen off a building?"

"I fell off of a tree when I first started flying! That count?"

"Wait, really? How did that happen?"

The four of them sat there, telling random stories of things that happened, things about their quirks, their families, or just things they found interesting in their daily life.

Things like how it took Togata a week to get Amajiki to say a full sentence to him after they first met, or how Nejire once knocked over three trees in a park when she first got her quirk before passing out.

Funnily enough, Peter didn't talk as much even though he was probably the one with a lot of stories, even when he did it was never about Spider-Man stuff.

Man, not even he knew why he wasn't talking about that stuff, you know? His friends always seemed interested in that stuff, Nejire especially.

But he just… didn't want to.

Not right now, at least.

It was nice not to recount stories of that, sometimes. Nice to not think of that spider that bit him or about how he used to swing around and dodge bullets every night.

To just be Peter Parker for a bit, you know?

To just let himself be a regular teenager telling and listening to dumb stories with his friends while eating fast food.

It was nice.

Scratch that, it was perfect.

isn't that Ironic? The place where Peter is feeling the most normal is at UA, the top hero school in the country.

Wonder what that says about him, though.

Nejire took a sip from her soda, pulling out her phone for a second before letting her eyes go wide as she nearly choked on her drink.

Something told him whatever she saw was gonna ruin his mood in some sort of way.

"Guys, look!" The girl presented her phone to the three boys, Peter squinted at the screen before raising an eyebrow in confusion.

It was just a picture of a grey cat cuddling with a husky.

Looking closer at it, Peter smiled at how cute the picture was.

Maybe he should get a pet?

"Uh, Hado? T-That's a cat picture." Amajiki pointed out, making the girl gain a confused look on her face before looking at her phone again.

"Oh, crap, wrong pic! It's cute though, right?" She laughed, swiping the screen a few more times before showing them her phone again. "This is what I wanted to show you guys!"

Squinting at it, Peter saw that on her screen was an article from The Daily Bugle with a picture of Endeavor yelling at some random photographer. Looking even closer, the boy began to read the article over before freezing, eyes going wide.

Yeah, now he understood why Nejire froze.

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Breaking News!

Flame Hero: Endeavor plummets in national rankings! #2 hero now #14!

After yesterday's events at the Musutafu International Heroics Museum that saw the flame hero nearly kill a UA first year, the former #2 has faced a record-breaking amount of public backlash, leading to his 6-month suspension from hero work coming directly from the HPSC!

But guess what? That's not all! Not only has Endeavor been suspended from hero work, but his public approval has hit an all-time low! In an update for the national hero rankings, we can see how he has fallen from his prized spot as the #2 hero!

We at the daily bugle have tried to get a statement from him, but have only gotten this response:

"I swear to god, I will make sure that that criminal will not find work in any agency in this country with an ounce of self-respect!"

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