Spider-man: Christmas with Two Hawks

The Lovely Rookie

Peter has learnt that Spider-man and his relationships couldn't exist together. Liz's, first girlfriend, father had tried to kill him so he put him in jail. This forced Liz and her mom to move away, heartbroken. Liz also seemed to have grown to hate Peter, if her interviews during his time as a public figure were anything to go by.

MJ was worse. Their relationship had a chance to bloom properly, so its end was even harder. There was no argument, no fight, and no talk between them. Just a broken promise and a memory spell. It ended like a flower that died as soon as it was cut from the soil.

That's not even considering all of his less intimate relationships, such as his friendship with Ned, or his being acquainted with the other Avengers. Tldr, Peter should know better than to fall in love with a near stranger.

'It's not love. It's not love. It's love. Kate is just the first friendly person that you've talked to for more than five seconds that also has a pretty face. It's not love. It's not love. It's love.'

Peter kept repeating these words as walked through a cleaned-up footpath, going to the only place where he could maybe get the answers he wanted. It was still early in the morning, so it was still relatively dark, but the early sun shined brightly enough for Peter to make out the words on the two graves before him.

May and Benjamin Parker.

"Hey May, Uncle Ben. Boy, do I have a story to tell you two today," he said kneeling in front of the two headstones.

So Peter recounted everything, meeting Clint in the bathroom, helping Kate fight the tracksuits in the wine cellar and up to their chat at the safe house. Before, his two parental figures would have been able to give him words of advice. Tell him what he should do, but now all Peter heard was the silent wind.

So he had no choice but to continue.

"I haven't talked to MJ since I tried to tell her the truth. I did it to protect her and Ned. But what's the point if I start feeling like this again for someone else? And so soon? How can I move from MJ so fast?

A part of Peter had a reason. That he was lonely. That he craved affection and Kate was so much like him from the years before. With endless love to give and enough energy to rekindle his own joy. Peter would never admit it, but as much as he loved MJ's dark humour and brutal honesty, there were times when it made him feel slightly gloomy. Kate didn't appear as if she would ever cause anyone gloom.

"She's in trouble. The Tracksuit Mafia is after her. Clint is helping her, but I'm also involved. I should be involved. But I'm worried that if I get involved, I'll end up breaking Michelle's heart."

Even Peter knew that was a weak excuse. That was only his guilt complex talking. MJ didn't remember him. No one remembered him. None of his previous relationships truly matter anymore. All that is left is Spider-man.

"I should get going. I neglected the streets last night, I better go make up for lost time and lost money."

The patrol wasn't what Peter would consider entertaining. He needed to vent more, and these days he did that by beating up criminals under the cover of the night. That was not something he could do during the day. So he spent the whole day swinging, webbing and spinning while also taking brief breaks to eat and do the opposite of eating. He did it without rest until the skies began to darken as night began to fall once again.

Despite the sun fading behind the horizon, the city remained bright and active. Christmas songs invaded every street and light shows were around every corner. Peter swung and swung, punching bad guys whenever he got the chance. It was a great way to relieve stress. That was when he saw a flash of purple on the roof of a warehouse that seemed to belong to a toy factory or something.

Spidey swung over and silently landed next to her and thus startling Kate. Kate was wearing some sort of purple jumpsuit. She had a quiver of arrows and a bow that seemed to be made out of wood.

"What are you doing here?" They both asked at the same time.

"I'm on patrol. I saw your very bright purple colour scheme and decided that I should check it out. And what do I find, you, on a rooftop, not hiding like you were supposed to be."

"Well, I can't hide forever." Kate hissed back at him, "I have a life to live and an overprotective mother always watching over my shoulder. Besides, this is more important. The tracksuits kidnapped Clint."

Peter wanted to laugh, which was saying something since he hasn't had a proper laugh in a long while. He crawled over to the skylight that Kate was looking down through earlier while checking, "Good one Kate. As if some low-level street gang like the Tracksuit Mafia could ever capture an Avenger like Hawk- Oh look at that. They're interrogating him."

Peter was understandably stumped by the situation. Not even for a moment did he believe that Hawkeye, one of the OG Avengers, the world's greatest archer and one of its greatest spies and assassins, would be captured by some random street thugs. That's when he noticed something.

Clint had freed himself from his restraints.

"Seems like your idol has more control over the situation than we expected," Spidey explained as he backed away from the skylight, not wanting to be noticed.

"Let me see," Kate said with excitement, pushing him aside and rushing to the skylight. The glass couldn't hold the sudden weight and shattered causing her to fall down to the floor, landing flat on the ground between Clint and the thugs.

Kate slowly picked herself up and realised that roughly two dozen guns of various sizes were all aimed at her. She forced a chuckle and said, "I didn't realise that we were supposed to bring guns."

Clint groaned in frustration and Peter couldn't help but facepalm in frustration at what had just happened. There was no way in all of the Nine Releams that he was this bad when he first started.

Meanwhile, a voice in his head that surprisingly sounded a lot like MJ asked, "Are you sure that she is the one?"