Chapter Text
Peter was already having a crappy day.
His alarm clock broke making him run late for school, and while he was rushing to get ready he not only stubbed his toe, but as he was hopping with his good leg had landed right on a lego. Then, he somehow managed to drop his toothbrush into the toilet before he could even brush his teeth, and had to fish that out and throw away (which was gross ), and realized he didn’t have any more backups, so he simply used some mouthwash instead.
Then, because the universe seriously hated him, his toaster stopped working and he ended up just going without breakfast, and he nearly missed the subway. Though a part of him wished he did miss the subway, because he ended up being stuck next to a creepy old man who kept trying to grab his thigh.
School was worse. Not only was Flash being an even bigger a-hole than ever before, but Harry-freaking-Osborn was back at Midtown, and every student was swooning over the heir of Oscorp. Peter hated the guy, and he didn’t hate many people. Apparently, his strong dislike towards the man was obvious, especially to his AcaDec teammates, because they had scoffed and questioned why he was making such a big deal about his academic rivalry with the guy.
Which wasn’t the reason at all.
Peter had met Harry in middle school, and they were friends once upon a time. But then Harry started getting really popular, and Harry started acting like a douche bag. In the very beginning of freshman year before Harry was transferred to some uppity fancy private school, Harry had even invited Peter to a party and then proceeded to publicly humiliate him by stealing his glasses, tricking him to fall into the pool which quickly led to an asthma attack, then making fun of him as he had scrambled for his inhaler that May and Ben had just bought but was then at the bottom of the pool. It was Ned who had rescued him and called the ambulance, which then broke up the party and made the entire school hate them because the cops showed up.
So yeah, that was the reason Peter absolutely hated the dude. The day that Harry was transferred out of Midtown was the best day of his life, not including the time he discovered his powers or finding Tony Stark sitting in his living room.
Even Flash wasn’t so bad in comparison.
(Funny enough, Flash actually hate’s Harry, too. What’s that saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend? )
It honestly didn’t help that Peter hadn’t been in a great mood ever since coming back from the blip. Finding that half of his class had moved on without them and coming back to a world that had changed so much was hard enough.
He was thankful that Ned and MJ blipped too, even if that sounds horrible. But even though May was left behind, she had moved into a smaller apartment in an even worse part of Queens and now Peter was basically sleeping in the living room. Not only that, but May’s career had taken off, and she had spent the past three and a half years traveling the world making a difference.
But then Peter came back.
May was happy. Of course she was. But Peter couldn’t help but notice how May was five years older yet looked better than ever, but then she quit her fancy job because she couldn’t afford to be gone for months at a time leaving Peter alone. As a result, she started working at an ER with terrible hours, terrible pay, and at a hospital with a high crime rate.
Peter came back, and then May looked like she was aging five years in the first three weeks he was back, and Peter knew that it was all his fault.
May always told him he wasn’t a burden, but Peter knew that was a lie.
So yeah, things haven’t been great since coming back, and then his day was one of the Worst Days Ever TM with Harry Osborn making everything worse.
But what really was the cherry on top?
May calling to let him know that there was a gas leak in their apartment building and a minor explosion that – while thankfully didn’t effect their unit – the building was too unstable and they couldn’t go home. May said she was already planning on picking up some extra shifts anyway and would have a hotel provided for her, but she didn’t want Peter alone for that long so Mr. Stark offered to take him in for a bit.
Except, here’s the thing: Mr. Stark was going out of town with his wife and daughter to go see Pepper’s parents in California, and apparently now was going to drag his personal intern along to make it the most awkward family vacation ever.
Honestly, as much as Peter loved Morgan and hanging out with the Starks, he seriously did not feel like fourth-wheeling the entire weekend with them. He thinks he’d rather spend the weekend with Captain-freaking-America who did cringy ‘ So, you got detention’ or ‘ So, you’ve hit puberty’ talks, but apparently May didn’t know the other Avengers all that well and “Mr. Stark insisted”.
Yeah, right.
This was going to be awkward and horrible and agonizing. Peter can feel it in his bones. He just wanted to go home – back to their apartment before the blip – and go to bed and pretend like the world didn’t move on while he was freaking dead for five years.
When Peter had gotten to the tower, Mr. Stark had packed him a bag because Peter wasn’t even allowed to enter the apartment building since it was too unstable. He’s pretty sure the Starks bought him a bunch of clothes right after May called or something, because none of the outfits were his (though, they were his style at least). Now Peter felt even worse, not just for invading their family bonding time, but also costing them money.
(And sure, they’re billionaires, but still. )
Pepper didn’t seem to mind him tagging along, but was likely just pretending for everyone’s sake.
Mr. Stark said that it would be fun, but he was so awkward about it that it was clear he was uncomfortable.
Morgan, at the very least, seemed so happy that ‘her Petey’ gets to come meet her grandparents, but Peter knew that there was nothing to be excited about.
But for her sake, Peter tried to relax on the plane ride to California, and pretend like everything would be okay.
Oh, how he was so wrong.