Spider-Man Oneshots

Stimming Part Two

A/N: It was requested I do another part two of this, so here you go whoever that was! Also just letting you know, I'm always open to requests/doing part two of something!

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Peter slumped down onto the bed, curling into the fetal position and squeezing his eyes shut. It was only 3 pm, but he was ready to sleep for a week. He knew he needed to get ready for the internship, so he pulled himself up and heading for the kitchen to grab some food. The smell of Aunt May's burnt cooking attacked his nose and he fled back to his room, deciding to just get some food after the internship. Hopefully, the smell would be gone by then.  He decided that he might as well start shoving everything he needed into his bag. He pushed in his ear defenders and weighted stuffed animal, just in case. He grabbed an extra phone charger and a battery pack, knowing no matter how much he charged his phone it always seemed to die. Finally, he threw in a small glitter jar he had made in therapy. He slumped down on his bed again, taking a few moments to reflect on the weeks since he had first started the internship. 

The first week he had managed it pretty well. But then the higher-ups noticed how easy the work was for him, and piled on more and more. It only got worse when they discovered he was autistic, which made them think he must be a savant. But he wasn't a savant, sure he was smart, but he didn't have a great memory or visualization skills. It had begun to get too much by the second week, but he didn't dare say anything. They couldn't know or they might kick him out of the internship program entirely. Now he was on to the third week, and because of extra school work being added due to exams, he had started staying up late trying to finish it all. He felt like he was walking the thin line between losing it and holding it together, but all he needed to do was get past exams and it would be okay. 

Peter was pulled out of his thoughts by his alarm going off, which made his flinch and cover his ears instinctively. He turned off the alarm and stuffed his phone in his pocket, rushing out of his bedroom and past the kitchen, trying not to smell the smoke.  

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Peter walked up to the large glass doors of Stark Industries and pushed them open, immediately he squinted at the fluorescent lights, which seemed to hurt more than usual. He sighed and passed through the security, avoiding eye contact more than normal, which the security, who had gotten used to seeing Peter come in looking excited seemed to notice, but he didn't say anything about it. Peter went into the elevator, secretly praying that no one would come in with him. But his prayers weren't answered today, and what seemed to be the most chatty businessman ever came in and tried to strike up a conversation. Peter did his best to answer him, but it took a lot out of him. By the time he got to the intern floor and headed for his desk, he felt ready to cry. He took out ear defenders and put them to block out the noises of the bustling floor and set to work, his job today was to program a new app that would be able to alert the city of New York when the city was in danger of another attack with just the push of a button in the Avengers tower. It was one of his easier project, but it still felt like so much. He began to type out the code, his mind zooming in a million little directions. He wanted to start flapping his hands or rocking, but he didn't feel like drawing the extra attention to himself. He pulled through the first hour of work, and he was about 1/4th of the way done with the programming for the app. He let his hands fall from the keyboard to his side and he stared blankly at his desk for a minute, completely stuck in his mind. He shut his laptop, got up and left the building. He felt his body was moving on autopilot, even though he wasn't done nor was it time to leave. Suddenly, tears came to his eyes and he moved faster, feeling his breath picking up. He turned into a random alleyway and sunk to the ground. He swiftly pulled out his weighted stuffed animal and squeezed it to his chest before setting it on his lap, letting the weight ground him. He let his hands flap for a moment, before switching to tapping his fingernails on his ear defenders, which helped filled his mind with sound instead of racing thoughts. He sat in the alley like that for half an hour, just controlling his breathing and focusing on the weight. He slowly packed his bag back up and walked home, already thinking of how he would explain his leaving early to his higher-ups. But that could be for tomorrow, right now he just needed to think about one thing, it's okay to take a break sometimes. He could forgive himself for this. And that's what mattered.