sporadic | avengers

SEVENTEEN / when spider-man became an avenger

"hey, happy, just calling again to see if i can talk to mister stark. his number's disconnected so i can't ask him personally. i just wanna know, if since the war and then vulture, if i would be considered a..." a car's horn blared, "... please let me know. thanks happy, talk to you tonight... when you call me like every week."

peter tucked his phone into his pocket and kept walking down the sidewalk. it'd be two months since he beat vulture, liz left, and he turned down living at the new base upstate.

he was also a week out from summer. ned was going away to an engineering camp in the midwest. peter was pretty bummed about it, but at least he'd be able to work on figuring out the new suit more.

stop some bad guys... that sort of thing.

happy called him once a week to go over what peter had done and should do. it was really brief, only for fifteen or twenty minutes.

it was friday so happy would call in a few hours, hopefully with an answer about getting to talk to tony.

peter crossed the street and headed down the stairs into the metro's tunnel. he reached into his backpack's water bottle pocket and withdrew his wallet. he took the metro card out and scanned it. he then walked through the turnstile.

the train home took ten minutes to arrive, then he got on. peter took a seat next to a woman with a baby in her lap.

peter pulled out his phone and earbuds.

NOW PLAYING INTERSTELLAR EXPLORATION; A PODCAST FROM SPACE

he looked around the train and out the window. people watched other people, their phones, or the city.

then his eyes landed on a familiar face.

he stood, backpack and phone in hand, and moved over to the empty seat beside mj. she looked up from her highlighted copy of 'i am malala.'

"hey stranger," she said with a cocked eyebrow. she tucked her index finger into her book, and shifted in her seat.

the train stopped and people rushed out or in. it was the last stop before the train crossed the water.

"how's your book?" peter asked and paused his podcast.

"good. your podcast?"

"good," he shrugged.

"you okay?" mj put her book into her bag and faced him.

"mister stark just isn't really being helpful right now. he isn't letting me know my shift schedule and where i stand..." another stop, more people in and out. they were twenty minutes from peter's stop.

"i'm glad you go your internship back, though. other than that, how is your internship?" something was off and he fidgeted with his hands. he shouldn't have brought it up

"it's good, yeah it's good. it's a lot of on-call work, y'know?"

"yeah, yeah," she said. his gaze fell on the floor while hers went on him. she could see straight through him.

they were quiet for another two stops. ten minutes from home. the train slowed.

"well, i gotta go, this is my stop," he lied and stood.