Superhero? •PETER PARKER•

Chapter 21

I break away from the class telling Betty I should run home to tell my dad I'm alright. When I'm far enough away I throw my clothes off and leave my suit which I left on for convince. It'd be less weird to see whoever this part of me is jump on rooftops than plain old me. I leave my backpack in an alleyway near my favorite rooftop and put my mask and hood up. I jump up to the roof, and sure enough Spider-Man is sitting on the cement slab wince and trying to web himself up. "Need some help?" I ask him. He looks up at me and it looks like he'd been crying. "Peter you alright?" He nods and wipes his face.

"Yeah the stupid bullet hole is bleeding again," he says. I look down and he actually has is webbed up pretty well. I sigh knowing that's not it.

"Peter," I say taking my eye mask off. "What's really going on?" He looks away from me and fixes his hair .

"This is way bigger than me," he says. "I've never fought that many dudes by myself and I know that's not even the half of them," he explains. "I didn't get everyone out. I got people killed today," he says. "I did exactly what Mr. Stark didn't want me to do," he says throwing his mask down on the gravel. I think and there was probably a couple people who got caught in the cross fire before I decided to help. I sigh and look down at my suit. I start to feel like a failure also.

"Peter, that's not your fault," I say after a couple minutes of him struggling to web up a wound on his back through the suit. He really should see a doctor, or at least go to Avengers tower and get help there. They must know he's Spider-Man.

"How can I be a hero if I can't save everyone?" He says giving up on the back wound. I want to help him but I don't carry around a first aid kit.

"Lily is there anything I have that can help his wound?" I ask. I figured she could hear me if I had the hood up.

"You have flesh memory," she says simply. I furrow my eyebrows. "It's not a permit fix, but learning more about you it seems you are able to connect with people and can even heal them for a short amount of time through this flesh memory."

"How's it work?" I ask.

"Skin to skin contact and concentration," she says. That's why my side has been hurting a bit since the party. I guess this flesh memory was slowly coming in. I look at Peter who hasn't been paying attention and has just been watching the sunset. I take one of my gloves off and look at his back. "Peter I need your back," I say kind of nervously. I looks at me confused but doesn't really question it. He pushes a button on the front of the suit becomes baggy he puts it down so that just the pants part stays on him. I think Peter is the first guy I've seen shirtless this many times. Like Betty said before I normally date douchebag guys for about a week so it isn't often we get passed just kissing. When I dated Jason he had his shirt off one time, but now I've seen Peter's body way more, and he's just my friend. I look at him and sigh. "I hope this works," I say. I lightly touch where he is cut, probably from a bullet the grazed him or if a dude had sharp nail that got him, and Peter winces but let's up. I try to ignore everything else and focus on healing him for the short amount of time it's allowed. I watch as his skin slowly moves together stopping the bleeding. Peter doesn't seem to be in pain anymore and looks back. "Lily," I say in sort of shock. "How," I pause not believing my eyes at how normal his back is. "How long does that last?"

"We haven't done many diagnostics on this power, so this is a trial run, by I imagine he will feel it slowly return to the wound, but it won't be nearly as fresh. You saved him the worst parts." I smile a bit and look down at my hand. Peter just keeps looking at me.

"That's amazing," he finally says after feeling part of his back where it was cut. "That's why the bullet hole isn't as bad anymore. You kept touching it that night you stitched it up," he explains. I look at him confused and he pulls the webbing off. It looks pretty healthy actually just a little blood. "I thought maybe the floss was actually doing its job, but when I got home and went to clean it it seemed to have disappeared. I didn't understand because the floss was still there. I thought maybe I was just tired," he puts the webs back on as a sort of bandaid. "But the next morning it was back but not nearly as horrible. I think if you saved it from getting infected," he adds. We are silent for a long time and he pulls his suit back on in the time.

"Was MJ alright?" I ask him. He shrugs.

"Yeah, She wasn't hurt or anything, but she seemed a little upset that I had my suit with me," Peter says drawing his name in the gravel then putting 'is Spider-Man' next to his. He wipes it away with his foot and sighs. "Why did you have your suit?" He asks looking over at me. I had been playing with my hood and decide to leave it down.

"I was going to return it," I say almost laughing. "I thought Avengers tower isn't far from the museum I'll drop it off like I told Happy I would," I add. "But everything happened and I thought, maybe I can help out in some way." I shake my head and laugh a bit.

"Why are you laughing?" Peter asks.

"It just seems like I didn't do anything. I'm not cut up, I don't have bruised ribs," I say as I notice he can't really get comfortable and probably is messed up in his rib area from how many blows to the stomach he took. "I don't have a black eye. All I did was debate for too long and get people killed."

"You got people out," he says sounding a little upset that I'm down playing what I did. "You saved over 40 people today," he adds. "Yeah I feel horrible that five other people got caught in the cross fire but that was my mistake. I wasn't fast enough," he says. I sigh and look out at the last of the sunset.

"It's not your fault either," I say. "We both messed up, that's what superheroes do right?" I pause. "Sometimes they mess up and don't do everything they are supposed to. That's how they know to be better," I look up and see a huge mural for Iron man a couple buildings away. "I bet he messed up too, and he's just be proud that you didn't kill anyone yourself and you got as many people as possible out." Peter looks at the building for a second and then goes back to the gravel. He then stands up and puts his mask on.

"I'm gonna head home Aunt May is probably worried about me," he says. "Bye Stella," he adds jumping off the roof and swinging away into the night.