**Request for galaxy_404. Ohhhhh my god, I'm so sorry, this took me forever... To be honest, September and October hit me like a truck and I have been so busy with school starting up and work and all that. This one doesn't need as much explanation, but Peter is still pretty young, and still figuring this stuff out. Think pre-Homecoming, post-spider bite. Catch my triple contraction, y'all. Enjoy :)**

"Uncle Ben? I'm home!" Peter swung the door to the little apartment shut behind him, kicking off his shoes as he did so. His Uncle was in the kitchen, getting a lunch ready for work.

Uncle Ben worked night shift maintenance for a factory in the industrial part of town, which was gross and dirty and made him exhausted, but he got to be home every day for when Peter got back from school.

"In here," the older man called to his nephew.

"Tuna fish sandwich again? Don't you ever get sick of that stuff?"

"Never."

The two made idle chit-chat for a while, Peter pouring himself a glass of milk and grabbing a handful of chips from the pantry as he and his uncle chatted. Suddenly, the sound of a phone alarm going off interrupted the two, and Ben looked at the time.

"I have to go, buddy, but I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Of course," Peter said. The two hugged and Ben headed out the door. After hearing the lock slide into place, Peter slumped in the chair in the kitchen. He never mentioned it to Ben, of course, but he hated being home alone. Every noise, every flicker, every shadow made the teen jump. It was strange to think he'd be so jumpy, seeing how he was a crime fighting vigilante, but as plain old Peter Parker? He was terrified.

And as much as he hated being alone, he knew that if Ben were home all night, he'd've caught Peter by now, and then there's be no more Spiderman at all.

Peter got up and got out some homework. If he could get it all out of the way by 8, he'd have plenty of time to go out and still make it back in time to catch some sleep before school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter let out a whoop as he swung from a particularly tall building, doing a couple flips before catching himself with a web and swinging close to the ground. A few people laughed and rushed to get video of the Queens vigilante, but Peter was moving so quick that the only footage anyone got was blurry and short.

The superhero landed on the top of a building, catching his breath and smiling under his suit. "Karen, is there anything going on around?"

"There appears to be a robbery a few blocks away, but I would suggest you do not get involved, Peter. The man is armed and is becoming more and more erratic."

"Karen, you know I have to go," Peter said. "I'm the guy who looks out for the little guy."

Peter didn't give his AI any time to respond before he was swinging away towards danger. Karen tried to warn him again, and even threatened to call Mr. Stark, but Peter didn't pay her any attention. Besides, he'd removed Karen's ability to contact FRIDAY and Mr. Stark ages ago.

Soon enough, the teen was perched on the side of a building across from a little pawn shop. The front windows had been shot out, and Peter could see a man in a mask holding the (supposed) owner at gunpoint, while another masked man stuffed things in a bag.

Peter shot a web and pulled himself across the road slowly and quietly. He crept over the wall, trying to give himself as much of a surprise element as possible.

"You really should be making this much noise at this time of night. It's what they call disturbing the peace," Peter said, hanging down from the door frame and crossing his arms.

"Scram, kid."

"Rude."

With that, the fight was off. Peter shot a web at the man holding the gun, but he ducked and Peter's web connected with the wall behind the crook, pulling him off the door frame.

The second man, the one with the bag, lunged for the teen, but the superhero was just quick enough to dodge.

I'm off my game, tonight, Peter thought. He shook his head and shot another web, catching the second man in the arm. He pulled hard.

The man spun backward with a yelp, tangling himself in the web as he did so.

"Seems you landed yourself in a sticky situation," Peter quipped. "You should really watch where you're going, you almost tripped back-"

The young vigilante cut himself off with a sharp breath as he felt pain rip through his shoulder. Bringing a hand up to his collar bone, Peter felt for a wound. He'd been stabbed, burned, and bruised before, but never shot.

His suit was ripped, a small circle of frayed and broken fabric in between his arm's bone and the start of his rib cage. Hot blood was pouring out and down his suit, making him grimace in disgust.

"You..." Peter was at a loss for words. His normally quick wit was no match for a gun shot wound. "You shot me."

The burglar looked almost as shocked as Peter did. He didn't move, not even when the shop keeper moved to grab his phone.

"Police are on their way," the shop keeper said. That was all it took for the burglar to move, and he quickly threw his friend over his shoulder and raced down the street. Peter could hear siren in the distance, and he swayed slightly, his hand still tentatively moving over his shoulder.

"Hey, woah, are you okay?" The shop keeper rushed over to the superhero, catching him as he nearly fell over.

"Fine," Peter said shakily. "Don' like blood. I got to get going."

"Are you sure you can make it? You've been shot, you need a doctor."

"I've got a guy at home, he'll fix me up." Peter stumbled to the door, brushing off the man's protests as he did so. His right shoulder, the one that had been shot, was going to be no use to the boy as he swung home, so he instead used his left, which was untrained and weak.

"Karen, call Ned."

The AI dialed the number and after a few moments, Ned finally picked up.

"'ello?" Clearly he'd been sleeping.

"Ned, I need you to come over right now. Ben won't be home till later so we'll have time to clean up the blood."

"Blood?" There was rustling on the other end and Peter knew Ned was getting dressed. The familiar sound of the window being slid open and the clatter of a fire escape told him that Ned was on his way. "What happened?"

"There was a robbery and I got shot."

"We're going to the hospital."

"Nope. We're going to clean it up at home and let my healing factor take care of it."

Ned and Peter argued for a while, but finally Ned gave in. Peter met him outside his bedroom window, on the fire escape outside his building.

After a few hours, after Ned dug out the bullet with Peter's pliers, cleaned the wound with alcohol (which stung like hell), and packed it with gauze, they were done, and Peter sat back on his bed. The clock read 3:30am and they were both beat.

"Go home and get some sleep, man, you're the best guy in the chair I could ask for."

Ned only hummed in response, and headed towards the window. Peter slid it open and watched his best friend climb out. Just as he was about to close the window, Ned turned back around. "Peter."

"Yeah?"

"Be more careful. Please."

Peter nodded and shut the window, then collapsed onto his bed and passed out.

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The alarm clock went off too early for Peter's liking. The teen pressed his pillow over his head and moaned in exhaustion.

Peter rolled over to turn it off, but gasped in pain as his shoulder was crushed under his own weight. He rolled back to his original position and relaxed his muscles. Lifting his left arm over his chest, he shot a web at the clock, shutting it off.

Peter took some breaths, readying himself for when he hauled himself out of bed.

"Here we go, Parker," he murmured to himself, then finally got out of bed and got dressed without too much pain (and only 3 gasps of pain and teary eyes).

Peter made his way out to the living room, looking for breakfast. Instead, he found his Uncle on the couch, next to a very worried Mr. Stark.

"Peter!" The teen's eyes widened in shock as his Uncle stood up abruptly and pulled him into a hug. "You didn't tell me you were interning at Stark Industries! Oh, your parents and May would be so proud."

"Uh, I-"

Mr. Stark stood up. "Peter had a very impressive application, Mr. Parker. You should be-"

The billionaire stopped shot as his eyes drifted towards the teen's shoulder. Uncle Ben noticed this and looked, too. Peter looked between the two men before connecting the dots and raising his left hand to quickly cover his shoulder.

"I knew it! FRIDAY said there was an injury but Karen wasn't responding to anything!"

"Mr. Stark, it's nothing, we can look at it-"

"So then, in my 3am panic, I wrote a bit of extra code and updated Karen for you!"

Peter's face drained of all color. Ben, on the other hand, was looking between the two wildly, his face drawn up in confusion.

"You were shot and you didn't call me? Or Bruce? Or anyone who could help you?"

"I called Ned, actually," the teen fired back. "And for your information, he did a very good job, got the bullet out and everything."

"For Christ's sake, kid, this is why I put safety protocols in your suit."

"And this is why I disabled them! Because I can take care of myself!"

"I'm sorry," Uncle Ben finally said, raising his hands and stepping between Mr. Stark and Peter. "Can we go back to when you said my nephew was shot?"

The silence in the living room could have suffocated a person.

"Uncle Ben, I-"

"Nope, I don't wanna hear it. Show me your shoulder."

The teen knew better than to argue, so he simply pulled his flannel down to show his Uncle the gun shot wound.

"Actually," Mr. Stark said after a minute. "This is pretty clean."

He stepped past Ben and pulled at the edges of the teen's wound, checking it under a careful gaze.

"Mr. Stark, it hurts."

"I know, but you don't have infection. Ned cleaned it out well. Give him my compliments."

Peter rolled his eyes and shrugged his flannel back into place, wincing at the movement. "I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know he has a career in would cleaning. It'll be healed by tomorrow, can I got to school, now?"

"No, no, no," Ben said. "No way. I want to know what the hell is going on."

Peter and Mr. Stark looked at one another, then at Ben.

"It's a really long story," Peter started. "And it all starts with a spider."