Morning Run (Closed to Peter

[st_x5_494]

Alec believed Peter when he said he'd be up. He knew Peter would take the challenge seriously, too, because the kid had this wish to show people he could do things. He just hoped Peter was actually ready for the amount of running today - almost 50 miles - and that he could keep up.

He padded out of his room in jogging pants and a t-shirt and eyed the room. "Ready or not, time to get your ass kicked."

Comments

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah," Peter says, trying to sound more sure of himself than he felt. Honestly, he'd been ready to throw college away until he defeated the Vulture and Mr. Stark took him to the Avengers Facility. After that, though, he thought that maybe college wouldn't be so bad, and that maybe he could handle both; he'd managed high school and the Vulture, after all -- even though it meant he was being called to the principal's office all the time.

But in the future, it sounded like he wasn't fighting high-tech alien weapons dealers in New York; he was fighting really bad guys in space. This wasn't missing Decathlon Nationals. He was probably gonna miss a lot more school than that.

"I don't think I'm gonna do that well on the interviews, though," Peter says, scratching his cheek. "I always get really nervous about that stuff."

That was also a big part of why this was a daydream.

"You have any others?"

[st_x5_494]

"Any what?" Alec watched Peter for a moment. He needed way more confidence. Even with a girlfriend and some ass-hat telling him he was an Avenger, it seemed Peter still doubted himself.

"Daydreams?... I don't know if you notice, but I suck at them." He paused. "I can tell you over twenty different ways to exit the inn in case of different scenarios, though - that's how my brain is wired."

[st_arkintern]

"You're not gonna get better at it unless you try," Peter says. "Like running."

[st_x5_494]

"Maybe I shouldn't. I have a family history of letting my imagination turn me into a psycho-killer."

[st_arkintern]

Peter would tell him that he doesn't think he's a psycho-killer, except Alec has told him he's killed people before and he just thinks it'd start an argument about whether or not Alec was responsible for his actions when he was brainwashed.

"You said earlier that you never imagine anything," Peter points out, but he's going to let it drop there.

"I just think it's more fun than always looking for danger all the time." Even though there did end up actually being danger during their run.

A beat, and then:

"I'm starting to feel a little better. The stitches itch, though."

[st_x5_494]

Ben was a bit different that Alec. He had gone crazy. Alec tried not to think about it too much.

"The stitches are there so you didn't bleed out. Itching means it's healing." He paused. "You going to tell anyone what happened?"

[st_arkintern]

"No," Peter says, in a why-would-you-even-ask sort of tone. "Are you?"

[st_x5_494]

"Yeah. I figured I'd tell Kitty, first, then Liz, then re-enact the whole thing in the lobby." Alec deadpanned, looking at Peter.

[st_arkintern]

Peter frowns.

"Why'd you ask me if I was gonna tell anyone, then?"

[st_x5_494]

Because Peter was a boy scout sometimes.

"You're really defensive, you know that?"

[st_arkintern]

"Only when I need to be," Peter counters. Truthfully, he'd been more agreeable until he met Mr. Stark, but that was because no one really challenged him until that point. Yeah, Ned did sometimes after he found out he was Spider-Man, but Ned usually backed down.

Mr. Stark and Alec really didn't.

[st_x5_494]

That got an eye-roll from Alec, but then he lifted up his arms. "Alright, fine. I surrender."

[st_arkintern]

Peter runs a hand through his hair. "Why do you bring up the whole defensive thing, anyway?"

[st_x5_494]

"Because you're trying to hard, and it shows." Alec didn't know how to explain it, but he didn't buy everyone's 'one day Peter will see the errors of his ways' bullshit. "I'm an asshole and I acknowledge it."

[st_arkintern]

Peter has to bite back the urge to tell Alec that he's not trying too hard.

"What am I supposed to acknowledge?" he asks, finally. Peter at least seems amenable to listening.

[st_x5_494]

"I don't know, Peter. Maybe that everyone needs help, including you, and that you're still learning because everyone is still learning?"

Talking with Peter was frustrating.

[st_arkintern]

Peter sighs and leans back in his chair. For a few seconds, he doesn't say anything.

"This isn't the first time I screwed up," he says, scratching his arm through the bandage. "I know I need to do better. I just don't need people telling me I need to."

I'm not a kid, he wants to say, but he doesn't.

[st_x5_494]

"Who's telling you?" Alec looked at him. He usually tried to do it naturally and then Peter called him out on it and made a big whiney deal.

[st_arkintern]

Peter tries to pull a name out of a list, but no one at the inn explicitly ever said that to him.

"They all act like it!" Peter says, exasperated. He lets out a sigh.

"I just wish I could be better. I'm tired of waiting for it to happen."

[st_x5_494]

Ironically, Peter never sounded more like a teenager than at that very moment.

"Or, maybe it's all in your head, like how you thought that other Liz didn't like you."

Alec stood up. He was feeling exponentially better now. The wounds were already starting to heal. He'd be healed by early afternoon. Thanks Manticore.

[st_arkintern]

"Maybe," Peter concedes. He hates that he feels this way. He just wants to feel like people believe in him. But he doesn't know how to believe it. He's not sure that it's even possible.

[st_x5_494]

Alec can't help with the confidence thing unless he wanted to go fake an attack and have Peter save him and even then, he was sure Peter would find a way to belittle himself.

He looked at the kid and sighed quietly. He looked like a hurt little puppy.

"One day you should show me how to use those web things of yours."

[st_arkintern]

"They're pretty easy to use," Peter says. "There's not a lot that they can do when I'm wearing them like this, but the suit has a 576 possible web-shooter combinations."

He presses something on his web-shooters and a projection lights up the ceiling. "They also do this. And there's web-tracers. They're good for tracking bad guys."

[st_x5_494]

He looked up at the ceiling. "What does that do other than project your face on the ceiling?" Though maybe the webshooters were kind of cooler than he thought.

[st_arkintern]

Peter presses the web-shooter again; the light disappears and a tiny mechanical spider shoots out onto Alec's shirt. It begins to crawl up and to the back of his shirt.

"The web-tracers," he says. "It's how I tracked the Vulture's guys back to their not-secret-lair." It was just a gas station. It was probably not a lair, even though Peter was hoping it was. "Karen helped."