[fanfiction] all the weirdos in the world (become friends at Harvard) part 2

[kisforkurama]

When they're on the StarkJet and up in the air, Pops hands Peter the debrief folder and he scans over it quickly. Apparently aliens are coming to attack the Earth of their own free will this time-not like the time Loki decided to call aliens from null space or something about a tesseract and shooting Uncle Bruce out of the SHIELD magic airfloaty ship and Agent Coulson trying to take on Loki all by himself and almost dying. Peter doesn't know, it's just the story of how his family became a family and he's heard it so many different ways from so many different people that it all comes out a little muddled when he tries to retell it himself. He wasn't there, and all he has is second-hand gossip.

The point is that SHIELD has called all the supers they have record of to come and fight off the impending alien invasion-which means Peter's whole extended extended extended family is going to be there and it'll be a blast. Except for how that means all of the X-Men will be there and the Fantastic Four will be there and apparently SHIELD is paranoid enough that they've resorted to calling in the Great Lakes Avengers, which.

Peter looks up at Dad, "Seriously? They're calling in the Great Lakes Avengers?"
"I'm pretty sure they're just calling them in because Squirrel Girl is on the Great Lakes X-Men and it would be kind of rude to only call her in."

It kind of makes sense, but Peter sort of thinks that the rest of the Great Lakes Avengers-who are apparently calling themselves the Great Lakes X-Men now because they received a cease and desist from the Maria Stark Foundation, something that was probably Dad's doing-aren't worth how awesome Squirrel Girl is. And Squirrel Girl is really fucking awesome, Peter knows, because she once took on Doctor Doom single-handedly and defeated him without breaking a sweat. She wanted to become Dad's sidekick, but Dad had said no because he worked alone. The rest of the Great Lakes X-Men, though, are . . . sub-par. Really sub-par. Even Professor Xavier thinks the Great Lakes X-Men suck, and Professor Xavier is all about all mutations being useful and shit, so Peter knows that he doesn't really need to feel that bad about ragging on them.

Pops gives him the look that says "play nice with the Great Lakes X-Men or I will be very disappointed with you," and Peter goes back to reading over his file more carefully. Apparently these aliens may or may not be after the tesseract that Loki had gone after before Peter was adopted by the Avengers, and Loki was even cooperating with SHIELD for the moment because these guys were bigger and badder than the things he called up and they were angry about not having the tesseract in their possession because apparently Loki was supposed to have given it to them and he didn't because the Avengers stopped him and so now these aliens (with what was probably super-advanced technology) were coming down to Earth to find it and kill everything in their path that stopped them. So, in essence, it sounds like Peter is going to spend his whole weekend fighting aliens and being covered in alien blood.

Sometimes, Peter thinks that saving the world kind of sucks. It's worth it at the end, sure, when the good guys have won and the Earth is safe from the assorted hazards that befall it for a week-maybe a month or two if everyone is lucky-and there's the promise of a bed and food and pancakes if everything is really utopian. Saving the world kind of sucks during all the other parts of the process, though, especially because there's people who hate that superheroes didn't save their mother or their sister or their pet Rover, because saving everyone is actually impossible and trying to save everyone generally means that you don't live to save anyone else. Still, everyone just assumes that when a superhero comes to save the day it means no one gets hurt and no one dies, but Peter knows that's not true.

He's seen his family come back from saving the world hollow and a little broken because someone died in their arms or they couldn't get somewhere in time. He's pulled people close and repeated the words that Agent Coulson taught him when he was really small, back when he didn't quite understand why he was all alone again: "You can't save everyone all the time. Almost everyone is as good as everyone, most of the time." He's been held close and had those words whispered into his ear, fierce and unapologetic.

Saving the world really sucks, when it comes down to it, and Peter is so not looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Twenty years old and Peter has saved the world more times than he can count on his fingers. He wishes he were happier about it.

When the StarkJet lands on top of SHIELD's airfloaty ship (it has a name, and people have been telling it to Peter since the first time they had to take him on the ship, but Peter mostly refuses to remember it on principle at this point), the rest of his family is there to greet him. Uncle Thor picks him up in a bone-crushing hug, because that's what Uncle Thor does, and Peter can hear his bones crack in mildly unpleasant ways that'll be fun to heal up. Uncle Bruce hugs him too, much softer and with less cracking bones, and Peter sighs into it. Aunt Natasha gives him a curt nod, and Uncle Clint ruffles his hair. It's the kind of homecoming he loves, but he seriously wishes it were for a different purpose.

Agent Coulson is waiting off to the side, and he clears his throat once they've finished their little family reunion and tells them that it's time for a full debrief with everyone. Those always suck, because not everyone wants to do what they need to do because they think they have a better plan, and Peter puts on his best fake-smile-Uncle Clint calls it the "Stark Schmoozer," and Peter is generally inclined to agree.

The meeting is exactly like every other large tactical meeting that Peter has sat in on, and Peter pays as much attention as he really needs to while Director Fury outlines their plan of attack and Loki schools them on the powers of these aliens. As much as Loki causes trouble, Peter thinks he might actually like it on Earth enough-or maybe he wants the honor of blowing it to smithereens for himself, which is something that Peter seriously does not want to think about-to be providing them with real information. Peter breathes in and then out, giving Pops a smile when he glances over, worried.

Luckily, the basic plan of attack seems to be "take the enemy out and don't die." Peter can work with that, because that's generally the plan his family adheres to. Sure, they've all got assigned sections of the city to be protecting, but Peter and his family are so attuned to each other that he doesn't think it'll be a problem. Director Fury releases them after an hour and a half, and then they wait. It's the part that no one tells the newest recruits about, the fact that saving the world requires a lot of waiting, and Peter drops his messenger bag into the lab that Dad and Uncle Bruce usually work in while they're on the airfloaty ship before he goes to find Uncle Clint or Aunt Natasha. Either would work, but Peter knows that Uncle Clint is probably with Agent Coulson getting a special debrief and interrupting them would be a bad idea. Aunt Natasha is likely to be alone down in the training room at the moment, though, so he tries for her first. She's exactly where he thought she would be, and Peter steps onto the mat with her.

"So," he says once he's loosened his muscles, "Remember how you once told me that some day I would have to lie to someone that I cared about and that there were good ways of fixing the situation and bad ways of fixing it?"

Aunt Natasha nods, shifting imperceptibly before she charges at Peter, who dodges her barely and takes a shot that she blocks. The conversation continues while they fight.

"Lying is necessary more often than it's not," Aunt Natasha says as she tries to kick Peter's head, "but the important thing to mention in this situation is that you weren't lying to them because you wanted to, but because it was the best chance of keeping a large number of people safe."

Peter tries to block Aunt Natasha, but miscalculates and ends up flat on his back. Aunt Natasha looms over him, looking down, and Peter likes knowing that some things never change-no matter how many superpowers he gets, he'll never be able to beat Aunt Natasha in a spar.

"You're improving," Aunt Natasha says, "but to continue the earlier topic: by lying, the average supervillain would have to do a lot of work to figure out where you are, and you know they're not that motivated. There are easier and flashier targets than one scrawny boy who still can't defeat me in a fist-fight. Go find some of your X-buddies, I'm sure they'll be happy to see you."

Slowly getting up off the floor because he just likes being slow after losing fights with Aunt Natasha, Peter mock-salutes her and smiles when she rolls her eyes. He wanders back to the lab in time to find Dad and Uncle Bruce excitedly working on something, so Peter sits on one of the tables and watches them work. He doesn't really feel like making nice with all the other supers that are currently milling about, because part of him wants to go save the world and the other part just wants to be back at Harvard.

That part of him just wants to crash Harvard’s servers with an algorithm he made up when he was fifteen because Dad said he couldn’t, just wants to fall asleep on Mark, drunk and happy. It wants to be around people that make fun of him when he complains about the shawarma around Harvard or refuse to believe that he can shoot as accurately as he claims until he grabs a handful of darts and sinks them into the board-all in the bullseye. Mostly, though, Peter just wants to be Eduardo Saverin again, although he’s not sure he can at this point. There’s a lot of explaining to do on his end, that’s for sure.

Some part of Peter hopes that they'll understand that he didn't lie because he wanted to. He lied because it was either lie or not go to school at all and Peter really, really didn't want to give up higher education because he was scared of supervillians. He doesn't know how easy that is for normal people to understand, but it's everything that Peter knows and it has to be enough.

When Dad and Uncle Bruce finally notice him, they kick Peter out of the lab and tell him to play nice with the other supers. Peter wants to point out that they've both been hiding from Reed Richards, who's kind of over-enthusiastic but not as bad of a guy as they seem to think he is, but he knows that'll just get him into trouble so he goes out and plays nice with the rest of the supers. Kitty Pryde is entertaining herself by phasing through doors, and she almost gets stuck in the metal when he sees him, over-excited and all smiles.

"Hey, Peter! They pull you out of school for the impending alien invasion too?"
"Yeah," Peter slumps into a nearby chair, "I've got a lot of explaining when I get back, though. I've kind of been Eduardo Saverin for the past two years instead of Peter Parker and, well."
"Tough break," Kitty patted his shoulder, "Being a superhero is full of situations like that, though, and you learn that sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. You can't dwell too much on it, okay?"

One of the X-Men that Peter doesn't recognize (and really, there are like a hundred thousand of them so he doesn't feel bad about that) calls out for Kitty, and she gives Peter's shoulder a quick squeeze before she flits off again. There's a couple of minutes where Peter just sits in the chair and tries to steel himself for the coming battle before he sighs and tries to get some sleep like everyone else. He wakes up with the sun, before the alarms are flashing red and Peter hears Pops yelling Avengers Assemble! on the communications system that's hooked into the suit he's just finished pulling on. When the alarms do go off, everything is a mad rush to get everything into place and go save the fucking world. He stands up, rushing to where teams of supers are being deployed one after another to stop the aliens from destroying the Earth.

They land on the ground in their designated sector and it's an immediate fight. Peter ties up some of the aliens with web and leaves them for someone else to take out while he follows the rest of Uncle Clint's orders being called out from up high. He'd moved on from being sad about losing his cover at Harvard to being angry at the aliens for ruining his life, and punching alien scum certainly helped alleviate his anger. Uncle Bruce is always telling him that letting out your anger is a good thing, and he sees that the Hulk has made an appearance, smashing things left and right while Peter is flying off walls and straight towards aliens that he punches in the face, so Peter thinks this counts as letting out your anger.

He probably shouldn't think of the fight in personal terms, but Peter blames the aliens for the fact that going back to Harvard could suck (if he goes back at all), blames the aliens for the fact that he might never see Mark again, blames the aliens for the fact that his weekend is ruined, blames the aliens for the fact that he's not memorizing his speech for class on Tuesday right now. There is no inter-dimensional portal to close this time, which makes the possibility that they'll all die trying to defend the Earth a very real and tangible thing, and all Peter can see is the endless waves of alien figures coming down to wreak havoc on the world. It shakes him, but Uncle Clint's in his ear saying to your left, Peter, and Peter moves without thinking.

There is very little time to think in a battle like the one they're currently fighting, and Peter knows that he won't remember this fight with a whole lot of clarity beyond we won. Eventually he might remember the way his body twisted out of harm's way, the way his knuckles felt impacting against alien faces, the way Aunt Natasha took out an alien coming up behind him that he didn't have the time to react to. He'll remember the whole fight in brightly colored flares of memory that flash in his mind one after another like some kind of slow-motion movie montage, but he won't really remember it at all. He won't remember it the way every second of the night he helped crash Harvard's servers with facesmash is burned into his mind-the way Mark's sheets had felt under his hand, the way Mark seemed so angry and Peter just wanted to fix it, the way Dustin's laugh was a little too loud, the way Chris' face lit up when he saw what was on TV, the way the endless input of characters flew across Mark's screen, the way Mark had turned to Peter and said we did it in a quiet whisper-because he doesn't want to remember this.

Peter doesn't want to remember the battles that he fights, because remembering them would mean having to think of all the people that he didn't manage to save and all the ways in which he could have died. He never wants that. Caving to those feelings of guilt is what sometimes turns people from doing good to doing bad, and Peter believes that the world is a decent place. Maybe not everyone is decent, and maybe not everyone can see that the world isn't half bad, but growing up surrounded by people that believe the Earth is worth fighting for and who consistently put themselves in danger to make sure other people are safe? Peter can't turn his back on that so easily-even if his Dad could have been a supervillain, could have been someone that Peter needed to take down because the world had betrayed him.

Maybe that's what scares Peter, deep down: the knowledge that it isn't that hard to turn evil because that the line between good and bad is very fine and they all walk along it at some point. Are they doing this because it's what they should do, or because it's what they believe the people need? Who is to say that they're actually doing good and not bad? Do the aliens just think they're doing the right thing too?

The world is a lot of shades of gray without a whole lot of black and white, which is a scary thing for someone who frequently saves the world. Peter tries not to dwell on that too much, because dwelling on it would probably make him turn into the thing he fears.

Uncle Clint tells him to swing up to help Dad with the cluster of aliens he's dealing with, and Peter does it on autopilot. He kicks the one who seems to be giving Dad the most trouble away, and doesn't manage to dodge another of the aliens in time. The alien throws him into a building that Peter absently notes is not a building he's been thrown into before fancy that, and Peter hisses when the shattering glass cuts into him. He thinks that he should tell Dad to send a donation to the owners of whatever building he's tumbling through as an apology. They do that a lot, actually, because Peter always feels bad about it and the city's repair fund covers most damage caused by shit like superheros being thrown through windows but Peter likes to help out.

"Spider-Man," Dad says through the comm link, "do you copy?"
"Yeah," Peter stands up and tries to shake some of the glass off, "I'm fine, Iron Man. Hawkeye, orders?"
"I need more arrows."
"On it."

Shooting web at different structures and swinging across the city, Peter heads toward Stark Tower to retrieve another stash of arrows for Uncle Clint. It happens sometimes, because as careful as Uncle Clint is with his arrows, they're not like ammunition for guns. Since being added to the team, Peter usually ends up on arrow runs if they're absolutely necessary, because he's the fastest and smallest target. The whole arrow retrieval mission takes three minutes total, not counting the minute he spends taking out a particularly persistent alien, and then he's swinging up to where Uncle Clint is stationed and handing him his new sheaf of arrows before being instructed down to where Pops is trying to face off against twenty aliens by himself.

Peter takes out two when he's swinging down to the ground, and it's really not that hard to take the aliens out but they just keep coming. He doesn't know how many they've taken out, but the bodies are piling up and he's covered in more than a small amount of the oozing purple blood the aliens bleed. Not that far away, Peter can see aliens dropping to the ground dead as Emma Frost walks by, her fingers brushing against them. Loki's on the top of a nearby building, casting magic and dropping aliens like flies. He can see some of the flyers engaging in aerial combat too, and Peter wonders how many of the people fighting are going to make it to the end of the battle. He hasn't been very far and he has no idea what the body counts are like on either side, but it seems like they're winning and that thought pushes Peter on.

He couldn't count the number of aliens he kills, without remorse and without feeling anything, because it becomes a kind of muscle memory after a while. It's how all the battles he's been in go, because at some point it stops being about anything but surviving and Peter knows he's pretty banged up after hours and hours of fighting. This is the longest fight he’s ever been in, and he's more resilient than a normal human because he can handle being thrown through a building or two, but at some point he's just not going to have the energy to fight anymore and Peter doesn't want to think about what would happen in that case. Looking around, Peter can see that everyone is a little worn out. They can't keep doing this, and the stream of new aliens doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon.

"Oh my god," Peter says as he ducks alien gunfire and punches one out, "I'm going to die."
"Don't you dare say that," Aunt Natasha yells over the comm link, "None of us are going to die today."
"Black Widow's right," Uncle Clint says, "Swing up to help Thor, yeah?"

Swinging up to the second floor balcony of some building, Peter manages to pull one of them off the balcony and swing away as it hits the ground. He doesn't really know how or why Uncle Thor is on that balcony, but battles are a strange place and Peter's generally discovered that it's better not to ask. He's swinging up to help out Uncle Thor again when everything goes blindingly white. It retreats after a few seconds, but it's enough time that Peter's too close to a building and he smacks into it. Luckily, Peter still has the presence of mind to cling to the building instead of ungracefully sliding down. Everything is full of static for a moment before he hears Pops yelling in his ear.

"Spider-Man, do you copy? Spider-Man, do you copy?"
"Ow," Peter mumbles, "I swung into a building, but I'll be okay. Any word on what that white flash was, Cap?"
"We don't know yet," Pops says, voice still a little loud, "but it appears to have stopped the waves of aliens flying down to destroy us and was probably magical in origin. Report to ground while we wait for further instructions from SHIELD."

Carefully, Peter climbs down the building because there's no chance of another blinding flash making him hit a building if he climbs down it instead of swinging down. The wall-clinging is muscle memory, web-swinging is physics. Suddenly aware of how much his everything hurts, Peter walks over to where the rest of his family, minus Uncle Clint, is slumped against various pieces of rubble. Peter sits on a demolished car when he reaches them.

"I never want to do this again," Peter groans, "Let's never piss aliens off so badly that they bring the entire race to come destroy us."
"SHIELD says that they've scanned the skies," Pops says solemnly, "and whatever that light was? It seems to have sent the rest of the troops away or otherwise made them disappear. They're checking with the magic users now to see if it was magical. Everyone stays put until we know what that thing was. Spider-Man, are you going to be okay? You look pretty banged up."
"I'll be fine," Peter shrugs, and it hurts, "Just got thrown through a couple of buildings, nothing to write home about."

Pops looks him over like he's not fooling anyone, but there's other people on the team that look just as battered as he does, so the subject drops. Peter wants to make a snarky comment, but he can't think of anything so he waits instead. None of the aliens they were fighting are moving, and SHIELD still hasn't sorted out what the fuck just happened. Peter would be more worried about it, but extraordinary shit happens in his life often enough that it's mostly all just ordinary at this point. He breathes as a reminder that he is, in fact, alive and is happy that it doesn't hurt in the way that breathing with cracked or broken ribs does. It just hurts in the way that means he's bruised to all hell and probably going to need to come up with an excuse for that. They'll go away, but Peter suspects that moving isn't going to be the most fun activity for the day or three.

They're all just waiting, and SHIELD takes long enough trying to sort out what happened that Uncle Clint comes down from his vantage point and leans against Aunt Natasha. He's not that banged up at all, but he looks as exhausted at the rest of them, and just when Peter is started to get fed up with standing out in the street when there's a bed and painkillers waiting at Stark Tower after he gets through medical, Pops gets word from SHIELD.

"The light wasn't magical, it was apparently an experimental weapon that one of the Great Lakes X-Men found in the lab, stole, and fired because they figured they had nothing to lose. Is there something you maybe want to share with the class, Iron Man? Doctor Banner?"

Dad and Uncle Bruce have the decency to look a little sheepish, and Peter squints a little before it suddenly hits him. They hadn't wanted him in the lab because they were working on totally dangerous and untested secret weapons. Peters covers his face with a hand and sighs out.

"Really? That's what you guys were doing?"
"We've been working on something since the first alien attack," Dad says with a shrug, "and we figured that now was as good a time as any to actually construct the thing."
"And then you left it out," Pops glares, "for anyone to find and take. We're going to have a talk about why we don't do that once you've all been checked by medical and cleared."

Uncle Clint looks like he's going to complain about that when he turns his head slightly toward where the airfloaty ship is probably concealing itself and just sighs. It happens a lot, so Peter doesn't think anything of it, just waits while Pops signals SHIELD for pickup. Medical is swamped when they actually get on the ship, which doesn't surprise Peter in the slightest, and he slumps into a chair while he's waiting. A junior agent he doesn't recognize (and he doesn't feel bad about that because SHIELD goes through junior agents like tissue paper) hands him a bottle of water and something to eat. Peter doesn’t really look at it, just eats it before his body decides to give the fuck up on him.

And then it's really just more waiting. Seriously, Peter kind of wishes someone had told him that being a superhero required so much downtime.

He eventually gets checked out by someone on the medstaff though, and they declare him really fucking banged up, but probably okay enough that they don't need to rush him into surgery or anything. They do give him a couple days' worth of painkillers, though, and Peter appreciates that. Painkillers make the healing part easier, because he's really been through worse, but what he needs right now is to sleep for a week and maybe never ever wake up because everything hurts.

(It's melodrama, of course, and Peter knows that he'll actually be close enough just fine when he wakes up that it won't even cause a problem, but right now everything kind of sucks and there's not any adrenaline from winning to keep him mostly sane. He really just wants to go back to Harvard, curl up next to Mark, and never leave.)

Pops ushers them all into one of the SHIELD helicopters, and Peter wants to fall asleep, but he's so tired that it's actually kind of impossible. The helicopter ride feels like it takes approximately forever because of the way Peter's mostly fitful sleep before the battle has been stretched too thin and is going to snap. It doesn't really help that he's not that fond of helicopter rides to begin with.

When the stupid helicopter ride is over, when Peter is tired, banged up, still covered in icky purple alien blood and sitting on the couch trying to convince himself to get up and go to sleep, he remembers the little device Mark gave him. Fishing it out of his messenger bag, Peter turns it over in his hands. There's not really anything complicated to it now that he's really looking: the device is just a red button and probably some electronics inside that do something Peter is too exhausted to comprehend and doesn't really want to look at anyway, but there’s a latch on the back that makes a piece of paper flutter out when it's released. The paper says when you get your miracle, push this button. in Mark's heartbeat handwriting, and Peter does because he can't think of why he wouldn't do anything that Mark wants.

The button flashes red, and the tiny device says: "Transmission sent. Please come back soon."

It's not Mark’s voice, because it's female and faintly Jarvis-like, but Peter can hear Mark saying it all the same. He smiles. Well, if Mark wants him back enough to make a stupid little device like this, then Peter will go.

Going home is the best part anyway, and Peter would really love to go back to Harvard (which, he supposes, is home in a way that Star Tower isn't) only he really isn't in any shape to be going anywhere. Convincing himself to actually get the fuck up, Peter stumbles to his bedroom and falls asleep by flopping onto the bed after a shower, exhausted beyond all belief, before he can even think about going anywhere. He knows better than to try and fight the exhaustion to do something like travel, because there are times that you can ignore the way your entire body feels like it's filled with sand weighing you down, and there are times where you're of no use to anyone without some fucking sleep. Peter has seen his Dad on the bad end of sleep deprivation enough to know that trying to fly back to Harvard before resting would probably be disastrous in his current state. Besides, he's also sure that Pops would probably tie him down if he tried to leave without resting even a little. Or, well, Jarvis would detain him because Pops gave him the order not to leave and really that's the same thing. So Peter sleeps off some of the battle.

When he wakes up, though, Pepper is standing in front of him and looking down. She's holding food and a water bottle, patiently waiting for Peter to sit up so she can get some sustenance into him. It takes effort, but Peter does drag himself into a sitting position and lets Pepper hand him the items. He eats the sandwich that Pepper brought, drinking most of the water too, and is about to ask about how he's getting back to Harvard when Pepper smiles.

"The StarkJet is waiting to take you back whenever you're ready, Peter. Go back to Harvard and we'll try not to cause any more incidents big enough to require your help. I would assume you've got people waiting on a very complicated explanation from you."

Peter winces a little at Pepper's words, because he really does have to explain the whole situation. At least he kind of knows how to do it now, thanks to Aunt Natasha. He doesn't say anything, though, just drains the remainder of his water bottle and dumps the trash before gathering up his stuff and preparing to leave soon because as much as he wants to grab his messenger bag and hop in the StarkJet, Peter knows that he has to at least say goodbye to the members of his family that are up and not in recovery in SHIELD medical facilities. He asks Jarvis who's awake and who isn't, quietly saying goodbye to each of them before he climbs into the StarkJet and heads back to Harvard.

(The only people Peter doesn't say goodbye to are his Dad, Thor, and Aunt Natasha-who is being kept in medical because she apparently cracked a rib somehow and letting her run around while it heals is a terrible idea because she's Aunt Natasha and it would probably just break in two before it healed.)

The plane ride is uneventful because it's not very long and there aren't any current threats to air travel on the supervillain side, which Peter is glad for because he's had to fight aerial battles and they're never fun. He gets back from New York and saving the world when the early morning light is just touching the campus, bathing it in dim light, and people are kind of waking up but not really because it's a college campus and no one wakes up before noon if they can help it.

The only people who are up are the sorry losers that have morning classes and the people who have been up all night. Peter is technically in the first category, because he has a class later in the morning, but Peter knows he can afford to skip it and charm someone into giving him notes later just this once. He doesn't do it that often, because Peter actually likes knowing he earned his grade himself, but he's pretty sure you don't grow up with Tony Stark as a father figure without picking up a little charm that's good for getting what you want and using it for slightly less than moral purposes. Peter figures that it's okay as long as he doesn't make a habit out of it, and he knows Pops would probably be mad at him for playing hooky just because he didn't feel like going, but Peter's pretty sure Pops will forgive him for doing it on this particular occasion if he ever finds out (which he won’t, if Peter can help it).

Once he's gotten off the plane and actually arrived on campus, Peter heads to Kirkland without much thought and creeps into Mark's dorm after using his universal cardkey (that is totally illegal but something Dad would be proud of) to get into the building. No one has ever asked how Peter gets into their dorm when it requires a card key to get in and he doesn't actually live there so he wouldn't have one, but if they did Peter has a lie about waiting for someone to exit and then getting it that way. He's pretty sure most of the people in Kirkland assume he lives there anyway, because he's there enough that it seems like that.

Taking the stairs quietly so he doesn't disturb people who are probably still sleeping like normal college students, Peter finally gets to Mark's suite. He picks the lock using the lockpick set Aunt Natasha gave him for his thirteenth birthday that he nearly always has on his person, careful to use the efficiency and quiet that Aunt Natasha has drilled into his head. That might take a little more creative explaining if Chris or Dustin decides to ask how Peter got into their locked room without knocking, but he's banking on the fact that they'll be distracted by the bombshell he dropped on them. Carefully closing the door behind him, Peter walks across the suite's common room toward Mark's room, faintly glowing with the light of computer screens. He walks into Mark's room without really alerting Mark to his presence, but he suspects that Mark knows he's there because Mark is alarmingly good at knowing where Peter is even though Peter has super-secret spy skills learned over years of training with Aunt Natasha. Peter sits on Mark's bed and waits for him to notice that Peter's there or finish what he's doing. It takes five minutes, and Peter's really not very surprised when Mark doesn't bring up the fact that Eduardo Saverin isn't a real person at all. Peter figures that he probably went digging for information on Eduardo Saverin, came up with nothing, and found that the data matched Peter instead a long time ago.

"That didn't take very long," Mark says.
Peter shrugs, "Dad let me take the private jet, because Pops was all worried about me missing too much class."
"You have class in fifteen minutes."

The statement isn't an accusation, just a fact. Mark doesn't care either way, Eduardo knows, because Mark couldn't care less about perfect attendance (or attendance in general). He's the same kind of person that Dad is, and Peter sort of wonders what that says about his taste in potential love interests, but that tends to fall under the category of gross shit he tries not to think that hard about. He stops and tries to roll some of the tension out of his shoulders instead of dwelling on it.

"I know," Peter says, cracking his neck, "I thought I'd play hooky. I think I deserve it, having just saved the world and all."

Mark looks like he's going to open his mouth and say something about Peter’s questionable choice in slang again, but he doesn't. Instead, he stands up, bones cracking awkwardly in a way that makes Peter want to offer a massage even though he's probably just as sore, and sits on the bed next to Peter.

"I have this new idea," Mark says, "Do you want to hear about it?"
Peter smiles, "Always."

He means something slightly different than what Mark's asking, probably, but Mark seems to understand that when Peter says always he really does mean always and it's not just a line. The implications of Peter saying it to Mark don't quite translate, but he's sure that Mark would understand if he ever met the family. Slumping against Peter's side, Mark starts talking about thefacebook and how it'll change everything and how Dad will probably want to buy it from him but Peter is going to help fend him off and help with the coding and functionality and advertising and how Mark is a little frightened because this could be big but it could also fail spectacularly and how Mark is probably going to need some financial help anyway so maybe Peter should just hammer out a deal with Dad to get Mark control of the site while still pouring a little cash into it and and and endlessly.

There's something soothing about hearing Mark's hope after fighting a battle that seemed hopeless. Yeah, they won, but it didn't feel like a win at all and Peter's still a little defeated. Hearing Mark talk so easily about having a future and all the great things about it makes Peter smile. It's refreshing to talk to someone and have it not be about supervillains or saving the world.

Content, Peter listens to Mark talk and is glad to be where he belongs.

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