april hogan // peter parker fanfiction

1

"Hey, Happy," I answer the phone.

"April," he replies. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm at Pepper's," I remind him. "I'm sort of the babysitter."

"Right," I can hear Happy snap his fingers. "When will Pepper be home?"

I look up at the clock. "Probably like 15 minutes. What do you need, Hap?"

"Look, there's a school in Queens-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," I cut him off. "I don't have to go to school. And I'm not going to. I know everything I need to know. Besides, isn't it like summer vacation or something?"

"Yes, it is. And I wasn't going to say you should go to school there," Happy says. "I was going to say that this school is taking a trip. I have a - friend. Her nephew is going and-"

"Are you talking about May? As in your secret girlfriend? A.K.A. Peter Parker's aunt?" I interrupt him.

"She's not my girlfriend," he argues.

"Mmhmm," I hum, crossing my arms. "Look, I'm not going on a little field trip with Parker's school. You know I haven't actually met the guy right? I mean, I've seen him, but he doesn't know I exist."

"You were partially responsible for creating his suit," Happy argues. "He knows who you are."

I shake my head. "No, Happy. Nobody knows I made that suit and I'm not going on some school field trip with a kid I don't know."

"They're going to Europe," Happy adds. I can tell he has a victorious smirk on his face.

"Europe?" I ask, swallowing hard. "You'd let me go to Europe?"

"Your dad even told me he wants you to go," he says.

I stare at the front door of the house, deep in thought. Quickly and quietly, I clear my throat. "I'll pack a bag."

*****

"Peter doesn't know who you are, but then again he doesn't know a lot of the kids in his class," Happy says as we drive to the airport. "Just introduce yourself as any other student."

"And when he hears Hogan, what's he gonna think? Or if he decides to pull up old class photos what do I do then?" I question him. "Parker's obviously not dumb. And my acting skills aren't the greatest despite having Nat as a teacher."

"You're overthinking," Happy says.

"It's my superpower," I shrug. "It's the only one I've got."

"Look," Happy says, patting my shoulder. "I want you to have fun on this trip. This is supposed to be your own little vacation too."

"I'll be fine, Hap," I reply. "I'll just avoid Parker and if people start to ask, I'm just a kid that didn't blip and I've been homeschooled ever since."

"You know, that's actually not a bad story," He nods.

"It makes sense," I tap my head with my index finger. "Half the kids in my school go missing, so my parents pull me out and decide to teach me everything themselves or through private tutors. That way they don't have to say goodbye to me everyday and they can, of course, keep a watchful eye over me so they'll be the first to know if I turn to dust."

"That's a little morb-"

"We're here," I say quickly, cutting him off. I understand that I act harshly toward Happy sometimes, but there are a lot of things that have made me upset with him over the last 17 years. He's part of the reason I never got a normal childhood. I didn't get to go to high school or middle school or even finish elementary school. I never got to be naive and young. I knew how to properly throw a punch by the time I was 4. And I learned what a sharp edge can do when I was only 3, meaning I never got to hold a pair of safety scissors and cut my own bangs. All because Uncle Hogan saw it fit I was raised in a way that would turn me into an adult by the time I was 14.