Chapter 78: Another Day at The Office I

Wanna know what sucks? Peter's had to go through a lot of things that suck, but wanna know one of the things that sucked more than most?

He tossed around in his bed, the soreness from two days ago still very much present in his body.

Waking up after getting hurt, that's what sucked.

Those times, his brain would always go into overdrive trying to figure out why it hurt so much to do… basically anything while his body adjusted to the pain.

And given that whole bus deal from 2 days ago, there was a lot of pain to adjust to.

God, he should've asked Mirko for some painkillers.

She probably had the good kind that actually worked on him.

His eyes took in the environment of Mirko's guest room, taking a moment to get used to the darkness before landing on the clock sitting on the nightstand.

4:56 AM.

That meant he still had a few minutes to himself.

Alright, let's do a quick recap.

Today was his 3rd day at his internship with Mirko, and it was clear it already had an… exciting start.

Seriously, having to stop and then lift a 15-ton bus on his first day there? Give him a break, man!

Thankfully, Mirko was oh so kind as to call it a day after that so he could go back to the agency and rest for a bit.

At first, she had suggested that she patch him up but he told her about his small healing factor so she left him to recover.

And yeah, healing faster was pretty great given how cuts and bruises were always gone by the end of the day with broken bones being gone in a night…

But that didn't mean the pain went away as easily.

Which left him with a lot, a lot of soreness he had to deal with.

But, hey! At least the injuries were gone! That was a plus, he guessed. Better to be a bit sore than to have to walk around with fractures.

Oh, and wanna know what Mirko thought about his injuries being gone?

Apparently, she simply saw it as having a sparring partner you can fight with a lot more than usual!

Yeah.

Lucky him this was who he had to live with for the next 2 weeks.

Maybe it was a good thing she didn't take sidekicks.

At least she was kind enough to not go on patrol on the second day, but that didn't mean she wasn't cruel enough to take it easy on him during training.

If anything, it felt like she was giving him a harder time to make up for not going on patrol.

So, today not only was he waking up feeling the soreness of lifting a bus on the 1st day, but he was also waking with the added soreness of Mirko's training on the 2nd day.

Jesus, was he tired.

As he pulled the blanket closer toward him and tried to bask in the comfortable warmth, he looked over to the table next to his bed and at the clock.

5:00 AM.

Crap.

Peter felt that small vibration that he knew so well in the back of his skull, the boy closing his eyes as if that would change what was about to happen.

Right on queue, his door was kicked open.

"Wake up, brat! We got shit to do!" Mirko yelled, Peter groaning and shutting his eyes tighter as if she'd go away if he didn't look at her.

He just had to go with Mirko, didn't he?

...

Tiredly, Peter brought a spoonful of Edgeshot branded cereal to his mouth while Mirko made a smoothie off to the side.

You know, he was starting to question Mirko's building layout.

If memory serves, then the first floor was the lobby, the second floor was a bunch of random stuff she threw together like guest rooms, the third floor was for training… and then the other two were just her house?

Seriously, she just made the top two floors into her house. The thought of her living at her office made sense though, given how she was a well-known workaholic.

At least it was pretty cozy.

The blender stopped, Mirko pouring the smoothie into a glass before walking over to the kitchen table and sitting down.

"How you holding up, kid? Everything heal alright? Don't gotta take you to the hospital or some shit?" She asked, Peter rubbed his eyes to try and keep the tiredness away for a bit.

"Everything hurts, but no injuries." Peter said with a small smile, running a hand through his hair while Mirko raised an eyebrow.

"Thought you had super strength! The fuck do you mean everything hurts?"

"Man, that doesn't mean I'm invincible! Lifting buses takes a toll on young spider-folk like me, you know? Normally I give myself more time to rest up after stuff like that, but…"

Peter gestured around at her, getting a chuckle from the woman.

Yeah, back when he was still a vigilante he'd either take a few days off or just stick to low-level things that didn't require too much effort for him.

But Mirko didn't seem like she cared too much about that.

"Eh, don't gotta be a pussy about it! I took easy on ya yesterday, so you're gonna have to suck it up today! But look, I'm gonna be nice and hold off on patrol till tomorrow, yeah?"

Rolling his eyes, he scoffed.

"You nearly punted me through a wall and then you kicked my shoulder that you dislocated back into place yesterday, wouldn't call that going easy."

Was that even possible? It didn't feel possible!

All he knew was that it hurt like hell, but he was pretty sure Mirko wasn't even sure it was going to work.

"You were fine, weren't you? Besides! I made the responsible choice an adult would make and didn't kick you through that wall, so try being thankful."

"Not sure if I can describe anything that's happened to me in this building 'a responsible choice an adult would make'" He chuckled, Mirko kicked his leg under the table.

For what felt like a few minutes, Peter simply ate his bowl of cereal while just bickering with the woman sitting with him.

Oddly, it kinda reminded him of how morning used to be with May. It wasn't exactly like that, but it kinda helped him remember the feeling of having someone there when you woke up.

It was nice.

Who knew spiders and rabbits could get along so well?

...

How did he miss the fact that Mirko had a boxing ring in this place? That felt like a pretty noticeable thing.

Eh, he should've guessed she had one when she said that they'd go a few rounds of boxing.

His spider-sense buzzed, Peter blocking a kick aimed at his side before doing a few quick jabs that were dodged.

Oh, right! Mirko changed it to kickboxing after the first round! Cause apparently, Peter hasn't been kicked enough during his stay here.

Apparently, this was a way for Peter to learn how to fight better on the ground without flipping around.

Or something like that, Mirko kinda explained it while kneeling him in the stomach so he couldn't listen too well.

Across from him, Mirko bounced from foot to foot with a grin on her face, her ponytail swinging from side to side as a drop of sweat rolled down her forehead.

On the other end, Peter wasn't looking as good.

His posture wasn't as trained, Peter simply keeping his fists up and relying on his spider-sense to tell him when to dodge.

God, he was tired. They've been doing this for like two hours!

A part of him felt like Mirko would just keep fighting until she gave him a black eye to match the one he already had.

Also, who knew that MMA gloves were more to protect the person doing the punching rather than the one getting punched?

"C'mon, kid! How about we finish this round and then take a break, yeah? No offense but you look like shit." She laughed, sending a kick his way.

Blocking it with his forearm, Peter groaned before doing a quick jab followed by a left hook.

"Oh, really? Wonder why! Not like you've been kicking the hell out of me for the past… wait, what round is it?" He asked mid-punch, getting his attack blocked by the woman.

He ducked under a high kick, his spider-sense buzzed fast enough for him to dodge when her leg came down.

And next thing he knew? Mirko grinned as she kicked him hard in the ribs, Peter coughing before he felt his other side getting punched even harder.

Yeah, safe to say that Peter was on the ground real fast.

"Ha, that's round 19 for me! You gotta stop relying on that sixth sense bullshit you got, kid! Gotta start acting instead of reacting." She gave him a light kick as he laid there, Peter wheezed as he brought air back into his lungs.

He hated this place so much.

"Hate… you…" He wheezed, the woman rolled her eyes and took off her gloves before hopping out of the ring.

"Yeah, fuck you too. If you don't get your ass up in the next two minutes I ain't giving you water." She called back, sitting down on a bench and opening a water bottle.

Wonder if this could count as child engagement? Maybe the bugle could run a story about it.

Groaning, Peter somehow willed his aching arms to push his similarly aching body off the ground and to his feet.

He bets that Nejire wasn't getting beat up by Ryukyu! Or that Togata was getting his ass kicked by that precognition guy! No, only he was learning like that!

Stumbling over to the edge of the ring and jumping down to the floor, Peter walked over to Mirko and sat down.

...

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