Dust - On Hiatus

Secrets

Peter was aware that SHIELD would likely not approve of this. But why did they need to know? He had access to the equipment to build his own suits now, and he had done fine on his own. They didn't need to know that Night Monkey was him. Sure, they could figure it out easily enough if Fury looked at any of the news reports from Europe, or maybe he had seen it when they were there.

Then again, Fury didn't seem to remember much of the time they spent in Europe. Peter knew that some of the times Fury had been there, it was just Mysterio's illusions, but still. There was something wrong there but you can be sure that Peter was not going to be the one to ask Fury about it. He wasn't that brave.

Anyways, even if SHIELD did suspect him, it wasn't like they could do anything about it, not if they didn't have proof. And Peter hoped that maybe they would just turn a blind eye and give him a break, for once.

Seriously. Hadn't he gone through enough in the past couple of years?

MJ looked up from where she had been scrolling through her phone. "Looks like there are still a lot of conspiracy articles about "Night Monkey". A lot of people are wondering where and when he is going to show up again."

Peter smiled. "So people are ready to believe."

"Yes," MJ said cautiously. "But, you have to be careful. I mean, first Night Monkey shows up and then it's confirmed that Spiderman was not too far from him in Europe. Then he shows up in Spidey's neighborhood? It's suspicious enough already."

"So what do you suggest I do, alter my voice?"

"Not exactly, just..try not to do anything that will give you away. No mannerisms associated with Spiderman, and don't let them look at you for too long. No conversations. And no bantering with the bad guys."

Peter frowned. "But that's the fun part," he moaned.

MJ sighed. "Fine. But try to tone it down a bit, okay? It was a very recognizable Spiderman trait, especially for the aforementioned bad guys. It's not every day they get a superhero joking around and talking to them in the middle of the fight. We don't want anyone putting two and two together."

"Yes, mom," Peter said, earning him a punch from MJ. She frowned when her phone buzzed, notifying an incoming text.

"That was Happy," she said, walking over to the couch and picking up her bag. "He's here to pick up Ned and me and bring us home."

"Already?" Peter asked, not really wanting to be alone again. But MJ just smiled and adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"I'll text you, okay?" 

"Okay," Peter said.

"And Ned will too, won't you, Ned," she said, nudging him from where he was spaced out over some cool tech. He started, looked up, and nodded.

"You'll be super busy working on the suit anyway. And you'll have to hide the fact that you're making it from SHIELD and anyone at this facility. Are their security cameras in here?" MJ asked, scanning the walls and ceiling.

"Don't worry," Peter said. "I'll just have Karen wipe the audio for this room and make it look like a glitch."

"Okay, good. I'm sorry I'm being so paranoid. It's just, after Mysterio..." She trailed off, not meeting his eyes.

Peter felt like kicking himself. All this time he'd been focused on him, and he hadn't remembered that Ned and MJ had been there with him. Without MJ, he probably wouldn't have figured out that Beck was evil. It had affected them too. They had gone through stuff that they had never experienced before. They weren't used to being attacked. Of course, MJ would be worried. After the things the world had experienced in the past years, she would be on the lookout for the next threat.

And now, no one wanted to rule out the possibility that the threat could come from close to home.

Peter put a hand on MJ's shoulder. "You're not being paranoid, you're just being smart. I should've thought of that."

He smiled at her and Ned. "You know that I really couldn't do this without you guys."

At that comment, MJ seemed to regain some of her spark. "Of course you couldn't, loser," she said teasingly. "You didn't have to tell me that."

"See you later," he said, his hand cupping her face for a moment. "Stay safe."

"See you later, bro," Ned said, smiling and heading for the door.

Peter smiled, watching out the window to make sure they made it safely to the car. He hated that they had to be on guard all the time, but that was just how life was now.

He sat down at his workbench, pulling up some of the suit design technology that Mr. Stark had left. Humming, he began to lay out the parameters of the suit. He was already excited and had so many ideas for new components.

This suit was gonna be epic.

********

A few hours later, Peter was about ready to call it quits for the night. He was starving and he could barely keep his eyes open. If this is what Mr. Stark had felt like after not sleeping for a couple of days, Peter wondered how he had even functioned most of the time. Peter doubted he could even hold an intelligent conversation at this point.

Of course, Nick Fury took that moment to come to check up on him.

"No offense, sir," Peter said as he paused rummaging through the fridge in the living quarters of the compound, "But I haven't had a full night's sleep for three days, I haven't eaten for at least one, and all I want to do right now is shove some food in my face and sleep for a decade or two."

"I don't appreciate your sass, Parker," Fury growled, sitting on the couch with his legs crossed.

"I learned it from the best," Peter said, pouring some cereal in a bowl. He picked the sugariest one he could find, as it didn't look like he would be able to sleep for a while yet. A splash of milk and a spoon, and he was sitting on the couch, trying not to give in to sleep. Surely Fury was just coming for a routine check-in, wanting to know how the suit was going. Speaking of...

"I couldn't obtain the footage. The suit is fried. We tried everything, but it's done. There's no way we're getting anything useful out of it.

"I already know that," he said, picking up on Peter's surprised expression. "I'm not completely useless, Parker, and it might do you good to remember that I'm the head of the largest intelligence organization on the planet."

"Yeah, right. So...You checked the security footage?"

"I checked part of the security footage. It seems that the audio had been mysteriously wiped from some of it. You're good, Parker, I'll give you that. But I don't like it when people hide things from me."

"I'm sorry, sir, but it's my life. And you don't have to know every part of it," Peter said, hardly daring to meet his eyes.

"You got some guts, kid, you know that?"

Peter sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "If you don't have anything urgent, can we argue about this another time? I just need to sleep."

"Damn right you do. You look terrible, kid." The director stood up. "You better not make my job harder, Parker. The last thing I need to do is deal with whatever disaster you're planning."

He turned and walked into the elevator, and Peter didn't relax until he was sure Fury was out of the compound. That had been close. Of course SHIELD was monitoring him. They couldn't keep there noses out of other people's business.

Peter fell face first onto the couch, pulling a blanket over himself and sighing. At least for now, no one needed him and he could sleep for as long as he wanted.