When Trauma Comes Knocking

Her Highness Has Arrived

OKAY HI HELLO ALL YOU LOVELY PEOPLE i know this update is a little later in the day than usual, pleeease forgive me I got my second dose of the vaccine and finished exams yesterday so have been a bit discombobulated lol but thank you all so much for your patience!!

Get ready for some Peter, Tony, and Karen shenanigans!! And maybe some...hurt/comfort 👀

No TW!!

Have fun and stay safe🖤🤎❤️️🧡💛💚💙💜

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For a few hours, Peter, Shuri, Ned, and MJ all sit on Peter's temporary bed and catch one another up on everything non-hero related. Turns out, it's just the medicine Peter needed to lift his low spirits. He's still achy, but it seems like his enhanced healing is finally starting to catch up with him and do its job. That coupled with the medicine makes him feel like he actually might have a shot at fighting Gargan without being in constant pain. Or that's what he hopes, at least.

Peter's drooping eyes contradict his fast-paced speech as he relays their finals week from the end of the semester, but May and Tony recognize it almost immediately and have the teens call it a night. Peter doesn't protest much, knowing that he needs rest for his body to heal faster, but once everyone except for May has left and he's settled in bed, he can't sleep. He carefully flips to try to get comfortable, easing his body onto its side. However, the position pulls at his stitches and he flips onto his back again. With a sigh, he interlocks his hands over his stomach in defeat and stares at the ceiling. What else can he do? May needs her sleep, and her being awake wouldn't help him sleep anyways. Nothing else to do and bored out of his mind, he carefully leans over the side to pull his mask out of his backpack. He holds his breath as pain flares up, but pushes through it and successfully retrieves the mask.

"Karen," he faintly whines once his mask is on, "I'm bored." Karen's voice rings clear, just as it has many times before.

"It's 2:37am, Peter. You shouldn't be bored, you should be asleep," she corrects in an amused voice. As usual, she maintains her matter-of-fact guise and that distinguished aura of knowing what's best. Tony did create her, after all, so Peter figures he should've expected as much. "Or, alternatively, I could add Tony to the call if you prefer. I feel like he could be more persuasive." Considering Peter's exhaustion and mild pain, his patience is dwindling.

"You're living up to your name," he grumbles, bottom lip poking out. "Y'know, I came for Cool Karen, not I-Want-To-Speak-To-Your-Manager Karen." His matter-of-fact tone practically begs Karen to prove him wrong and take his side. Instead, she focuses on the former of his statements.

"I thought we already established that I like my name." Peter softens slightly as he recalls when she said her name was given to her by a close friend.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," he teases nonetheless. However, his mind wanders to that night a few months ago. God, that feels like forever ago, he thinks with a pensive breath. It was so much easier back then. Dying makes everything more complicated... I probably shouldn't keep bringing that up. He chuckles to himself, but Karen chooses to address it.

"Is something amusing?" She maintains a hushed, soothing voice, which Peter appreciates.

"I think I'm too...I dunno, casual? About what happened?" His words aren't backed by a lot of confidence. If anything, they're more dubious than they were in his head.

"How do you mean?" Karen inquires, and Peter isn't sure how to explain it to where it makes sense.

"I mean that, like, it's," he internally groans and tries again, "I'm upset that it happened, y'know? I don't go out there wondering if tonight's gonna be the night I...I die..." His nerves cause him to involuntarily swallow after he relays his stream of consciousness.