peter parker

He couldn't believe it. Staring down at the man's name tag, Peter's eyes widened under the mask.

Max Dillon.

The famous Max Dillon Peter had been hearing about since he was young. Months has passed since the whole Oscorp-evil-lizard-in-the-streets-thing and ever since then, Peter and Imane had spent nearly every day together. With that, came the knowledge of family.

Aunt May had her fair share of draping a blanket over the two whenever they would stay up all night working on things she would never fully understand—but up until this moment, Peter never realized how little he knew of her family. Of her current family, that is.

"You okay? You all right?" Peter- er, Spider-Man asked, fixing the familiar man's glasses.

The man was star-struck. "You're Spider-Man."

"Costume gives it away?" Extending his web shooters towards two fallen pieces of construction paper, Peter recognized the name of his best friend written in big bold purple letters and handed it over to the recovering citizen. "These look pretty important, Max."

""Max"? How do you know my name?"

"It's written on your badge." The vigilante pointed out, flicking the badge he'd seen all too frequently.

"I'm a nobody." Maxwell mumbled, saying his thoughts out loud.

Peter's head snapped up, his head tilting to the side, "Hey, you're not a nobody. You're a somebody." He held his hand out. "Lick that. All right. Listen to me. Now I need you, and i'm not the only one."

"Really?"

"You're my eyes and ears out here. Okay, and you gotta get these posters to whoever "Imane" is, right? All right?"

"Imane..." Max whispered, blinking rapidly.

Despite the fact that he wouldn't be able to see it, Peter smiled and tapped him on the shoulder. "All right. I'll see you out there."

Showing up fashionably late to graduation was not in his bingo cards for the year but hopping across that stage, collecting his diploma with a cheeky smile, certainly was. Peter's eyes searched for his uncle in the crowd—swallowing his disappointment when he saw his Aunt sitting in the distance. Her hands clasped in a prayer and tears in her eyes, a smile gracing her lips warmly. Waving at her like a kid in a playground, his cheeks burned a bright pink.

He gave Gwen a tight hug and skipped down to his seat, bumping a few people with his behind in order to sit next to a yawning young woman.

A pair of thick black sunglasses rested on her nose bridge, masking the way her eyes drooped as her head threatened to fall. Peter chuckled to himself and lifted the girls glasses just slightly above her eyebrows, causing her to groan and pull them back down.

"Don't." She mumbled.

A cheeky smile remained as he leaned in. "Are you hungover?" He whispered. Imane turned to him, seemingly looking at him like he was stupid before facing forward again.

"Tired." She nearly left it at that until she dropped her glasses lower and looked at Peter from above them. "Unlike some people who enjoy riding the back of trucks at 9AM."

He shrugged his shoulders and blew a raspberry, "People these days are crazy, right?"

"You-"

"Imane Morris."

The crowd erupted in cheers, including Peter who slipped the sunglasses off of her nose and folded them into his pocket, pulling her long braids over her shoulders and giving her a bright smile.

"Go get 'em, sunshine." She rolled her eyes at him, typical, but she was grateful her hair covered the smile creeping up on her face.

Imane Morris walked across the stage, shook her teachers hands for the last time, collected her diploma, and exchanged a look with her family who sat front and center. Maxwell Dillon and Runako Morris held up a sign with her name splattered across it, their teeth showcased within their excited smiles.

Despite being unprepared for the event itself, she would always be prettiest in the room, in the area, in the world. Nothing compared to her. In his mind, anyway.

. ˚ ⚘ ˏ'۰ ˖* ℘

"Oh my god! Imane! You're actually here." Yuri exclaimed, sounding slightly confused but happy, nonetheless. "I totally thought you wouldn't come after..." She stopped herself, her eyes trailing over to Max and Runako, giving them a wide grin and pretending she didn't say anything.

"Looks like you showed up fashionably late, huh?" Mitzi butted it, leaning against her tall pale friend and popping an m&m in her mouth.

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you just showed up fashionable."

She shrugged, "Gotta make 'em remember what they're missing out on. Can't be caught off guard, unlike some people." Her eyes flashing towards Imane.

"Oh fuck off—"

"Language." Maxwell interjected, bumping his elbow into his niece's arm. "Oh! That reminds me, Imane. You will not believe who I met!" She waited for him to finish. "Spider-Man!"

Yuri gasped and pointed at him. "Me too!"

"Really?!"

"Yes!" She said happily, standing in front of him and recounting what they had witnessed of the masked hero many months ago.

Two onlookers watched in disgust while two others smile at the interaction.

"You two's obsession with Spider-Man needs to be deeply reevaluated." Imane mumbled

"Deeply." Mitzi agreed.

Peter and Runako made the same face towards the two girls. The youngest of the two scoffing.

"Y'all don't like Spider-Man? What has he done to you?" Ko asked, crossing his arms over each other.

"Yeah, what he said." Peter encouraged, copying his position.

"It's nothing personal I just...don't find him that interesting." Imane shrugged, trying and failing to hide the growing smirk on her face at Peter's offended expression. "I mean, what if he's a weirdo in real life?"

"What if he's bald?" Mitzi added

Runako gasped, "What if he's black? Oooh, that'd so awesome! A black Spider-Man, could you imagine?!"

Peter's eyes widened, looking between the younger boy and his sister in a panic. He let out an awkward chuckle and patted his shoulder. "So, how's school?"

"Peter!" A high pitched voice called out. Turning around, the new graduate smiled and opened his arms wide open for his aunt. "Those public bathrooms are a mess, I gotta tell ya." She huffed.

"Aunt May!" Imane gasped, peaking over Peter's shoulder. "Hi, how are you?"

Aunt May reciprocated the gasp and fully pulled away from her nephew to bring the young girl into a hug, Imane slightly crouched down to rest her shoulder on the older woman's neck, giving Peter a prideful smirk. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, ignoring the way his palms grew sweaty at the adorable interaction.

"Oh dear, I have to take a picture of this!" She exclaimed, suddenly removing herself from the hug to hold up the camera she took from Peter's room.

"Ah, come on, Aunt May." Peter whined

"No buts, you're not getting out of this." She rebutted, pulling her bangs away from her face and steadying the camera. "Lean in close. No, closer. Peter, wrap your arms around her, she won't kill you."

Yuri and Mitzi snickered to themselves in the distance as Max looked to them with a proud smile on his face.

. ˚ ⚘ ˏ'۰ ˖* ℘

Laughter and talking filled the tiny apartment, making it more lively than it had probably ever been. Yuri, Maxwell and Peter devoured the adorable yellow cake Imane bought him only hours before, while Imane and Runako argued about which superhero's would win in a fight. Aunt May left, despite Peter's protests, with a plate of food and fatigue on her mind. Mitzi laid across their couch as if she'd been there a million times, casually clicking through different channels.

"There's nothing good on, do you guys even watch television?" She complained.

"Eh, we usually watch old movies on tapes." Max responded. Mitzi say up on the couch to look at him.

"Oh, so you're the reason Imane acts like such a grandma?"

"Hey!"

"HA! Ow!" Runako cried out

Imane moved away from harassing her brother to snatch the remote out of her best friend's hand, switching the tv to static channel and grabbing a random tape off their large collection. "How about The Goonies?"

Peter stood up from the table and swiftly walked over to the collection of tapes that was ready to tip over any day now. "Oh no way, you guys have "Back To The Future"?!"

"Unfortunately." She slipped the tape out of his hands with a disgusted look on her face.

"First it's Spider-Man, now it's "Back to The Future," I'm starting to believe you have something against me, personally." Peter joked, snatching the tape back and holding it over her head.

She looked up at the tape, "You know we're like, practically the same height, right?"

"Eh, I got a few inches on you." He shrugged

"Oh, really?"

He hummed with a proud smile on his face.

She continued, "Wow that's crazy, is that a spider on your neck?" Peter gasped and dropped the tape, slapping his palm down at the back of his neck frantically. Yuri laughed aloud from the other side of the room as Imane crouched down to pick up the tape and hold it behind her back.

"We're watching The Goonies."

Peter rolled his eyes and held up his hands in surrender, "Okay, okay, whatever."

Waiting until the girl walked in front of him, Peter looped his pointer finger in the open belt loop of her jeans and spun her into his arms like a cliche chick flick. Unbeknownst to her, his other hand slipped the tape from her fingers as her mind tried to process what just happened. Before she could protest, Peter clicked the eject button and slid the CD in place, successfully stealing the movie.

When her mouth finally caught up with her brain, all she could mutter was a meek, "You suck." Barely audible before pulling away from him and jumping on the couch with Mitzi, successfully hiding her embarrassment in the darkness that cascaded the living room, curtesy of Yuri's excitement to watch a movie.

The three girls piled up on each other on the couch, despite its size, as Runako took a bean bag and Peter sat on the floor in front of them. Mitzi forced herself to swallow the teasing and sarcastic comments that were building up and instead settling on making a mental note to remind herself about this later.

Later ended up being never once the first half of two movies strolled on by and almost everyone on the couch had knocked out, Runako snoring his life away—much to the annoyance of the subconscious minds of his family. Still somewhat delirious, Peter nearly jumped out of his skin when a phone near his ear began buzzing, causing him to whine and rub his ear at the sensitivity.

Blindly reaching for the phone, Peter didn't bother to look at the make, model, or phone number, answering on auto pilot. "Hello?" He answered groggily

"Hello?" The person on the other line sounded more confused than him

"Who is this?"

"Who is this?" The other person questioned him harshly. Peter sat up, slightly more alert.

"Hey, I asked first."

The other person sighed, "It's Harry, now, who are you?"

Peter's ears perked up. "Harry?"