Peter was still in shock. He couldn't believe it had happened. She was there one moment and gone the next. He blamed himself despite the glaring fact he didn't know and couldn't have stopped it.

Aunt May had had a heart attack. Peter was in the other room and called 911 as soon as possible but it was too late. She died in transport to the hospital.

So there Peter sat. Alone and crying in the beige waiting room, thinking of his next step. He had medical bills to cover, rent, food, school. He couldn't just drop out of school to get a job. It took a while (almost 2 hours) but he realized what he had to do.

Peter stood up and quickly walked to his apartment. He left a note for the landlord asking for the furniture to be out in storage before grabbing anything he could fit in a small backpack. School books, clothes, food, a book or two. As he closed the zipper, he looked around the apartment with his bloodshot eyes, trying to soak in every last detail of the place he had called home for a decade.

With one final glance, he pulled on his Spider-Man

mask and swung out the window.

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It didn't take long to reach his destination. He managed to sneak in quietly through an open window before tip toeing on the ceiling and crawling into the vents.

Peter was lucky considering how large the vents were. They needed to be big so that the immature heroes could crawl through during prank wars or in case of an emergency.

The teenager set up camp with what little supplies he had and quickly fell into a deep sleep in the air vents of Stark Tower.

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Peter awoke a few hours later to the sound and vibrations of someone moving through the vents. His spidey-sense (as he dubbed it) was not alerting him to danger so he knew there was no threat but he still needed to move. The teenager quickly began to through as many personal items as possible into his backpack before crawling silently away.

He cursed himself as he realized he had left behind his favorite pair of Spider-Man socks (he owned 7 pairs). But it was too late now and Peter could only hope the mysterious clothing item would be passed off as someone else's.

After roughly 5 minutes of crawling and even running in places where the vents widened, the homeless arachnid stopped. Peter probably would have continued moving through the mostly abandoned air vents where it not for the sound of people conversing. Judging by the smell of pancakes and bacon, he reasoned he was directly above the kitchen.

Peter peered through a vent opening and got a glimpse of a majority of earth's mightiest heroes enjoying a hot breakfast. The teenager's stomach rumbled as he stared at the probably delicious meal only 10 feet below him. He hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday and with his enhanced metabolism, he needed at least 4,000 calories a day.

A few of the heroes left the kitchen, leaving Tony, Steve, and Bucky together. Thankfully, the Accords had been settled so there was no fear of another argument breaking out but there was still a little tension. Steve stood up, mumbling something about working out before leaving the kitchen.

Bucky and Tony stood awkwardly before they too muttered half-assed excuses and left. Peter took this chance and quickly moved the grate in the vent, leaving a small square opening. He shoot his webs and picked up a pancake, setting it carefully on top of his backpack and not the dusty metal of the vent. He repeated the process a few times over until he had a total of six pancakes. The teenager would've grabbed more but it might look suspicious. Carefully, he placed the grate back over the hole and crawled away.

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The next day Peter was up before the sun rose. He managed to sneak into the fridge and grab breakfast. After grabbing his backpack, he was airborne.

He made it to school on time and got through the day fairly easily. Another short swing across New York and he was landing on the side of Stark Tower. This time, Peter made Tony aware of his presence and simply pretended May was doing alright.

And then in a stroke of pure genius he said May was on a business trip.

"How long?" Peter was surprised Tony believed him but replied as nonchalantly as possible.

"Two weeks"

Tony seemed to take this in for a second before saying, "why don't you stay here with me, kid? That way you're not all alone in your apartment and we can spend more time together. What do you think?"

Peter pretended to ponder for only a moment before eagerly nodding with an enthusiastic 'yes'. Now all he had to do was keep up the lie about his aunt.

Easy. Right?

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