The Day After (Spiderman Fanfiction)

Part 7 - Her Nephew

"Karen," Peter flew through New York's streets, the time was around 4 am, the sun was soon to rise, Peter reminded to himself that he should call Scott and let him know he would have to miss the next shift.

"Yes Peter? What can I help you with?" Karen's robotic sound echoed through his ears. 

"Could you possibly track down Happy for me?" Peter honestly didn't know what he would do if Karen would say no, where would he even go? There's no way he could make it if he had to leave the state.

"Would you like me to call him?" Karen asked.

"No, no, it's... Shit it's 4:42 am there's no way he's even awake." Peter thought of a thousand more reasons to why it's a bad idea.

"According to his heartbeat Happy Hogan is now awake." Karen reported.

"So you have his heartbeat but you can't tell me where he is?" Peter asked frustrated.

"I'm sorry Peter, according to protocol 'Doom's Day' I am forbidden to let you know where Happy Hogan is."

Peter groaned, stupid Stark and his protocols. "Can't you even tell me if he's New York?" He tried.

"I'm sorry Peter" 

Peter stopped swinging, landing on a random rooftop. Why was she able to report that he was awake and not his location? Why would Happy would even be awake? He tried to trace down what could Happy do since everything changed.

Then the craziest idea crossed his mind. Peter dropped his head, chuckling at himself, 'there's no way, that's stupid,' he thought to himself. Honestly he had nothing to lose, if he should start searching for him, it might as well be the first one.

Peter swinged his way to Queen's graveyard, once he got closer he let himself down, walking the streets, first sunrays was staring to show. He walked quietly inside the graveyard, slowly approaching one of the latest graves that been added. Then he saw him there, it was Happy. Peter's heart skipped a beat, he didn't have the next step planned.

Happy sat down, knees on the ground, he wasn't wearing a suit, which may sound reasonable since he was at the graveyard at almost 5am, but it was weird to Peter. He wore a parka, his pants looked like PJ's sweatpants, he had his head down and a hand on the grave Peter came for. On it was engraved:

Maybelle Parker
1970-2024
R.I.P

Peter pressed on his chest, sizing down his suit and going back to his Peter Parker attire. He then approached the same grave, walking on dried leaves, catching Happy's attention. Happy looked up at him, a broken look in his eyes, and eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Hi," Peter finally waved, he put his hands in the pockets on his hoodie. "You knew her?" He nodded his head towards the grave.

"Yes," Happy stood up slowly, still confused by the boy, "she was a... A friend of mine."

Peter heart sunk down, he was talking to Happy, and he really did not remember him. He always pictured what it would be like, and a part of him always hoped that they would remember something, they went through so much together, it was really painful looking at Happy's empty look.

"You did as well?" Happy asked Peter.

"Yeah..." He whispered, looking down at May's grave, tears brimming at his eyes. "I'm her nephew." He said quietly.

Happy looked surprised, "oh, I don't remember her mentioning you."

"Yeah," Peter felt the first tear dropping down. "Umm.. I'm out of town, we didn't really met a lot." His voice broke.

Happy nodded, "she never really spoke of her family at all."

"Right," Peter sniffed and looked up to Happy, "we don't have much, just us I guess," Peter swallowed, "well, just me now."

Happy looked at him with empathy. Peter felt terrible, but he knew he had to do that, his intentions were good. "She told me about you."

Happy looked shocked, "really? Did she?"

Peter nodded, "yeah, she said you used to work at Stark Industry."

Happy blushed, was she really telling her family about him? "Yeah... I was good friends with him, with Tony?"

"Really?" Peter pretended to be surprised, "I was a big fan of him, must be sad, losing such a legend."

"Yes well, you know, that's what heroes do." Happy looked down. Peter hated himself for it.

"It was my dream when I was little," Peter looked down as well, "to work with him. I went to a special school in my old town."

Happy chuckled, "really? So you're like a genius kid?"

Peter looked up, catching Happy's look, "I don't know, I'm trying out for MIT now, that's why I'm in town."

Happy smiled at him, he stepped closer, taking something out of his pocket. "Here, you can take this," he placed some cube object in Peter's hand, "you can show them this, they love this glowing shit."

Peter looked down, it was some projector, it was glowing with light blue light. Bingo. This has to have Palladium in this.

"I never caught your name." Happy stood by Peter now, he reached out his hand to shake, "I'm Happy."

Peter looked up at him, and met his hand to shake, "I'm Peter."

"Peter?" Happy asked, "Peter Parker?"

 Peter looked at him and nodded, "Yes sir."

"Well it was nice to meet you Peter Parker." Happy then walked by and headed to the graveyard exit.

Peter stayed a bit by May's grave, he wondered whether she would have remembered him. It seemed kind of crazy that she wouldn't, they lived together, she took him in since he was 4 years old.

The sun was rising, when Peter looked at the time it was 5:34 am.

Ruby was probably  on her way to the secret condo she wrote down for him.

Peter ran his hand through his hair. "Hey aunt May." He whispered, dropping on his knees, he never done this before, he didn't know how to talk to her, if she could hear him, if she does, does she remember?

"It's me, Peter. I hope you remember, if you're even listening," he chuckled at himself, he felt so stupid, but he had to say this. "I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, I don't know if I should hold on, or move on. I don't know if I rather you to be dead or to be alive and don't know me, I know it's horrible to say, but it's truly heartbreaking. I just wish that I'd have one person to talk to, one who knew about this, one who isn't my stupid robot suit." He felt again tears running down his cheeks. "I used to think it was hard playing Spiderman, hiding out my identity, but honestly, it's much harder playing Peter Parker, and much more lonelier. I just hope that it would all work out, I don't know what should happen, it was usually you guys who led me, you or Tony." His voice cracked.

He reached down his pocket and touched the cube Happy handed him earlier.

"I'm scared I won't know the way, what way should I be looking for? The way home? Maybe that's not possible anymore."

Peter stood up, he knew he needed to go back to Ruby, he had to put on his suit again. He breathed deeply and took last glance at the grave. "Bye May, I'll keep you updated."