Going Through Changes -> Peter Parker

13.

The boys spent the rest of the day as predicted, staring at the holographic map and piecing together the ginormous lego death star, something Liam never thought he would ever do but found himself enjoying very much. In his upbringing, there was just never the time or space for traditional toys like that, and his younger self would never have bothered with those plastic blocks anyways. 
Ned, who had fallen asleep at some point, was laying sprawled out over the floor softly snoring; Liam was lounging on the bed again like he did the previous nights, watching Peter hanging upside down from the ceiling. "Don't you get dizzy, spinning around the whole time?" he asked the younger boy who just looked at him with tired eyes. "The only thing keeping me awake.", Peter answered groggily. "Usually, I would make a smart remark about how I could keep you awake in a fun way, but it's too late, and I'm too tired for it.", the dark-haired boy said, rubbing his eyes, which looked even more blue than usual due to the dark bags underneath them. "And I'm too tired to be offended about it.", Peter retorted. "So you're not gonna blush when I'm telling you your ass looks cute in those pants?" Liam teased with a soft smile. He was never too tired to at least try. 
"Nope.", was Peter's simple answer while still spinning. "It's a shame.", the older chuckled hoarsely. "I like making you blush." "I can tell.", the other muttered underneath his breath while spinning another round. The edges of Peter's vision had become a blur. However, he could still make out clear as the day that the other teenager was still watching him with that mischievous glimmer in his eyes that would make him feel uncomfortable in any different situation. But tonight, he just didn't care and choose to ignore it for this night's peace's sake. 

Liam was very much impressed by that. 

The sound of shuffling of blankets made them look to Ned, who was now sitting up and stretching his body with a giant yawn. " I will never get used to sleeping on the floor.", he exclaimed, and both other boys huffed at that. At least he had been sleeping at all.
With another big jawn, the boy rose to his feet to make his way over, plopping down on the edge of Peter's bed. "You two look like hell. Maybe you should sleep for a few hours. I'm gonna watch the map.", he pointed out after a glance down at Liam. " I don't know, man, you're the first to fall asleep on your own.", Peter begged to differ, still in a continuous spinning motion. Ned blinked at him, guts filled with guilt as he knew his best friend was right. But then an idea came to his mind. With a quick motion, he snatched the spiderman mask from the nightstand and pulled it over his head: "The suit will keep me awake."
Peter knew he was grinning triumphantly under the mask, and he couldn't help but trust in him. Liam still eyed the other boy with skepticism, but then his eyes wandered to the holo-map, where still nothing was happening at all.
"Ok. But wake me up when something moves.", he then decided to trust Ned with the responsibility as well. A great honor as he hardly trusted anyone ever. But he was just too desperate for some sleep. So was Peter, who dropped down from the ceiling lazily to look at his best friend. " Immediately.", he emphasized Liam's demand, then gestured for the agent to move over so he could squeeze himself onto the mattress with him. He fell asleep almost immediately. 

After what felt like seconds of sleep, he was shaken awake roughly.
"Guys!" Ned's voice excitedly exclaimed. " They moved to Maryland." "Maryland?" the groggy voice of Liam repeated from right beside his ear. Peter only now noticed that the warmth he'd had snug up to during sleep was the body of the older boy but now was way too excited to deal with the strange sensation the realization was sending through his body.
Finally, something was happening. They had waited for this moment for way too long.
" What's there?", Ned asked confused pointing at the source of the signal that was blinking aggressively. "I don't know. Evil lair?" Peter shrugged, rubbing his eyes to wake himself up. Liam next to him huffed, eyeing the map with expertise "That's a weird place for an evil lair. Difficult to hold. Maybe it's just a safe house and the business is going down somewhere else. I mean, a gas station could be useful as a stop with DC not that far..." As if  a flash had struck him down, Liam quickly sat up, his bright knowing gaze jumping between the younger boys as he realized: "At least we already got a ride with a perfect alibi."

Peter was the one to first understand what he was referring to. "The championship!" he breathed out, impressed by how simple yet genius the idea was. " The perfect opportunity to get Tony and Happy off our asses.", Liam nodded, having already reached for the poster Peter had had next to his bunk bed. In bright letters, it announced this year's decathlon championship, complete with a list of the participants. And, of course, Midtown High was on it.  He held it in front of Ned while the boy quickly typed the printed address into his smartphone along with the coordinates of the tracker. The distance was calculated rapidly. "It's not super close but manageable.", was Peter's conclusion as he followed the route with his eyes, squinting at the brightness of the display. 
" We could be back just in time for the team's departure.", Liam agreed. "We win the championship, and no one is ever going to suspect a thing.", Ned concluded with a happy chirp. "It's brilliant."  And with that the only critical thing left to do was to convince Tony to let Liam go to Washington.