A Family of Flaws

Chapter Twenty-One; An E-Mail To Remember

*Peter's POV*

Peter had tried to repress all thoughts about Deadpool, choosing to focus more on his studies and hero-work. Speaking of which, he was worried and he didn't know what to do. Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, the man Peter had looked up to since he was five, had been uncharacteristically absent. Everywhere.

And Peter didn't want to be a weird fan— he honestly just looked up to the man and he was genuinely concerned. But it felt weird to be so anxious for someone who didn't even know he existed. So he didn't do much and just tried to forget about it, Tony Stark was famous all over the world so he was probably just going on vacation or something. Still, Peter felt the nervous inklings creeping up on him even though he desperately wanted to push them away.

  It was Tuesday and he had yet to go to school, having woken up and gotten dressed lazily after the chaotic night he had with Deadpool. Ned and MJ would be back from D.C. today so he could hang out with them, but he remembered the promise that he made them— he said he would be more open about his emotions. But how could he talk to them about this? His hero life was a strict secret and he didn't want to risk even mentioning what he was feeling because he could slip up and tell them something on accident, and he didn't need them involved in that part of his life.

  Thankfully, he still had another thirty minutes before he had to leave for the subway, so he was spending that time trying to mask how he was feeling. Unfortunately, he had never been good at that, and he was an awful liar. He just needed to try and push away all thoughts on Deadpool, but that was a lot harder than it should have been. The man was plaguing his thoughts, a strange guilt hanging over his mind.

  Peter would admit that he felt a little bad for shouting at the mercenary, he had seemed confused and a little upset when Peter had stormed off and he hadn't even really done anything to warrant that reaction. Peter had just been freaking out because Deadpool was the only person that had verbally said that Spider-Man was a kid— that was a little more unsettling than he was willing to admit.

  So he was considering apologizing to Deadpool, but he was still a little weary of him considering his record. Still— Peter felt like he deserved an apology and he hadn't been all that bad when they had been talking, they might actually be able to be friends.

  Despite how much his common sense told him to stay away from the man, Peter felt like he might actually be trustworthy. And it was a little comforting to think that he might have a masked friend in the city.

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*Peter's POV*

The next week passed by with a mundane atmosphere shielding it, nothing even remotely exciting happened that Peter felt was worth mentioning. School continued on as per usual, except that it was much harder for Peter to pay attention because he was focusing on keeping himself from slipping up and revealing anything to his closest friends. And patrols were normal, though he was trying his best to avoid the mercenary that had been on his mind for a little too long now. He couldn't decide how he felt about him yet so he was choosing to ignore the situation for now.

And then Sunday came, and for the most part it was just as boring as the rest of the week. Peter did some chores around the apartment, completed all the homework he had been assigned for the weekend, and then went on a quick patrol.

He got home around three in the morning with no real motivation to do anything, but his body wouldn't let him sleep. So he sat up and slouched over to the computer that he had made with Ben and pulled up his e-mail, going through the multiple un-read messages that had been sent to him.

Unfortunately, Peter tended to forget to check his e-mail, or just text messages in general. He wasn't great with checking or answering so he normally missed a lot of stuff, so it wasn't surprising that there was so many things to go through.