Chapter Nine

As it turns out, Peter's friends were really nice. Ned and MJ. MJ shared Ace's love of dark jokes and hatred of most people, and Ned was chipper and talkative in a way that made you instantly love him.

"So, do you have superpowers, too? 'Cause like, all the Avengers live here, and you're living here too, so I was just kinda connecting the dots, but I might have connected the wrong dots, so I just wanted to clear the air."

Ace blinked. Ned talked a lot. "I live here because I'm homeless and the Avengers are too nice for their own good. They don't know I'm secretly robbing them dry in the middle of the night and selling all their belongings on Ebay for millions of dollars."

Ned's eyes widened, and he looked at Peter. "Is that true?" He stage-whispered. Ace snorted. Ned was the best.

MJ was eyeing Ace the entire time they distracted Peter from his chemistry homework, until Ace finally gave and glared back. "What?" He snapped.

"Are you gay?" MJ asked, propping her head on one hand. Ned spit out his lemonade and Peter flinched.

"MJ!" He said, affronted. "You can't just ask people that!"

But Ace locked glares with MJ and said "I am, actually. Pansexual."

She nodded. "Thought so. I'm a lesbian."

Ned spit out another mouthful of lemonade. "You're a LESBIAN?"

"Yeah, I dated Liz for like two months before she moved away, where were you?"

Ned continued to look like a lost puppy, and Ace chuckled, turning his attention to Peter and his homework. He was working on a complicated-looking equation with what Ace recognised as chemical symbols. He pointed to a part where Peter had written 2Hg instead of 3Hg.

"That's wrong." He said. "There should be another one there."

Peter furrowed his brow, double-checking his work, and adding another mercury. "How did you know that?" He asked in shocked perplexity.

Ace shrugged. "Well, you have six over here, on that side, and if they get split up to make these two compounds, they each need three mercury to balance out with the oxygen and hydrogen."

Peter blinked up at Ace. "This is senior-level chemistry, Ace. How do you know this stuff so well?"

Ace shrugged. "I guess I just do. It seems pretty easy."

Peter thought for a minute before standing and dragging Ace by the wrist out of the kitchen. MJ and Ned were absorbed in an argument about coconuts and didn't notice. Peter led Ace to one of the labs, one that was filled with chemicals and beakers and those burner things and stuff.

There were whiteboards lining the walls and most of them were covered with formulas. Peter showed Ace one that was in the middle of the room.

"This is my formula for the web fluid I make," Peter explained. He started running around pulling chemicals from cupboards and grabbing beakers from sinks, setting up a workstation.

"Basically, I need it to be super strong and supple, enough to hold my weight and let me swing around, but it also needs to be sticky enough to immobilise. I've been trying to increase the tensile strength, because I've been having issues with the web strands snapping."

"And why am I here?" Ace asked as he donned the lab jacket, gloves and goggles Peter handed him.

"Because I have a suspicion that you might be like a chemist prodigy or something. So, if you look at the formula I have written out, I've been playing around with adding this compound here, and it should be able to strengthen the individual bonds between the atoms, which would in turn up the tensile strength. What do you think?"

Ace examined the formula in front of him. "Hmm. I think you're on the right track with the rubber, but it should work better if you heat it with sulphur before you add it to the regular web fluid."

Peter's eyes widened. "Oh my God, I can't believe I never thought of that!" He rushed to one of the cupboards and pulled down a container of presumably sulphur.

Ace helped Peter as much as he could, which was when they discovered that he was excellent at the theory of chemistry but horrendous at the actual practicality. So Ace mostly just handed Peter things and watched as stuff changed colour and texture.

Peter loaded the final product into a cartridge and grinned at Ace. "What is that look for," Ace asked, wary.

Peter just smiled wider. "Wanna test it out?"

Ace grinned back.

"OH MY GOD PETER SLOW DOWN!" Ace yelled as Peter launched them from one rooftop to the next, feet hardly touching down. Ace was clinging to Peter piggy-back style, his arms wrapped around the older's neck and legs around his waist.

Peter just whooped, speeding up and Ace shrieked in adrenaline-rush induced euphoria. Peter was decked out in his spider-suit and Ace buried his face against the back of his neck as his sweater hood blew off, long red hair flying in the slipstream. 

When they finally landed back in Peter's room through the open window, Ace was shaking so hard he just collapsed onto Peter's bed, laughing breathlessly.

"That was the best thing I have ever done in my life!" He giggled as Peter pulled his mask off.

"Mr. Stark is so going to kill us!" Peter flopped down beside Ace, both of them looking up at the smooth ceiling.

"Ned and MJ are going to kill us," Ace added. "We just kind of abandoned them."

"It was worth it, though. That was the funnest hour of my entire life!" Peter sighed, turning to look at Ace. "I'm really glad I met you."

Ace blushed a little. "Me too. Although you still did technically kidnap me."

Peter groaned, throwing an arm over his face, his fingertips brushing Ace's cheek bone. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Nope!" Ace poked Peter in the ribs until he rolled off the bed, whining. "Now go get changed, I'm hungry!"

Peter popped his head over the edge of the bed, resting his chin on the blanket and giving Ace puppy eyes. "My aunt wants to meet you. Will you come to my apartment for dinner tonight?"

Ace pretended to think very hard about it, but when Peter gave him those eyes, he would've done anything.

"Ugh, I guess so," he said, fake-rolling his eyes. Peter whooped again, pumping his fists. "Yes, you're going to love May, she makes the best spaghetti, believe me, you won't be disappointed!"

Ace smiled as Peter disappeared into the bathroom to change.

"Somehow, I don't think I could hate anything about you," Ace muttered.