The night Peter came home in Hello Kitty pajamas, after returning the suit, May opened the door with relief on her face but didn't say a word to her nephew, annoyed she went to the living room without ceasing to squeeze the phone. She couldn't stop moving and her words wouldn't come out of her mouth. Peter was silent, with a lump in his throat and a couple of tears coming out of his eyes, the same tears he held back when he confronted Tony.

"May, I'm fine."

She barely heard Peter's inaudible voice. He cleared his throat once again and tried to keep talking without his voice breaking, still feeling guilty and ashamed that she felt that way because of him.

"Of course you're fine! but what about me?" May snapped sarcastically, she was hysterical. "Not a single call, you disappear all day and I've noticed you sneak out every night. You have to tell me what's going on, we only have each other.

Peter thought about it. Tempted enough to have the answer on the tip of his tongue. Tell her that he was spiderman, and that Stark's internship was nothing more than a blanket to cover what was really about.

"I lost the internship."

"What?"

"I lost Stark's internship." Another tear fell down his cheek, he sat in one of the armchairs running his hands through his hair. "And I think I also messed up these feelings towards this person. I want to close my eyes and wake up to a new day."

"Oh Peter." May sat next to him, hugging him as he sobbed and snuggled into her shoulder. "You're very smart, Stark will surely return you a chance. And if he doesn't, I'll go straight to his door myself and face him.

That made Peter laugh.

He took his place where he could see May's face, he moved his hands restlessly, May knew that the internship was no longer bothering Peter's mind at that moment.

"And why do you think you ruined the feelings towards this person?" She said quietly, helping her nephew say the words. "Do you want to tell me what happened?

"Yes" Peter nodded. "My eyes were on this girl, she's amazing and smart and......she's everything. And then there's this guy. He makes me feel new things. And when I least realize it, I want to be with him maybe holding his hand. But everything got complicated and I screwed it up.

There was silence at first.

Then May slid the hand she had on Peter's shoulder, processing what he had said.

"You know what I think?" She said. "You should invite this boy to your school dance. And so you fix what you have to fix.

"Wait what?" Peter nodded, wiping away the traces of his tears with his wrist. "Y-You don't have a problem with that? A-Aren't you upset?

"What should I be upset about? That you like boys and girls? What about that?"

"Oh well I just thought that ..." Peter swallowed his words, smiling tenderly. "I think it doesn't matter anymore, I'm going to ask him if he wants to go to homecoming with me, and if I'm lucky he'll say yes."

Tony grounded him. Of course Tony grounded him.

Nikolas got out of the shower after spending a long time under the hot water that cleaned the dried blood from his back sliding down the big scars where his wings had come out until it went down the drain. Tony was already waiting for him with his arms crossed outside his room, or what was left of, since everything was now inside boxes ready for moving.

"You should have told me about this, if he wasn't going to, you should have done it." Nikolas heard the disgust in his tone. "What would have happened if I hadn't arrived? If I hadn't called the police? Do you have any idea what could have happened?"

Tony was standing up and Nikolas was watching him with a grimace on his face sitting on the bed.

"Are y-you mad at me?"

"What about the people who saw you?" Tony moved his watch and a hologram came out playing a video of Nikolas falling over a fruit stand, growling at everyone around him before continuing his flight. He looked away and Tony stopped the recording. "Luckily your face was different, but you broke the agreement."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Give me the phone."

"Not the phone." Nikolas shook his head scared, almost begging. "Peter said I should text him,  if I don't he'll be worried."

"Then you should have thought about it before." Tony took the phone.

"Am i going with you?" Nikolas said suddenly before he left. "A-Am I going with you to the new place or am i going back there?

Tony felt his throat dry when he looked into Nikolas's frightened eyes. A shiver ran through his body when he saw himself on Nikolas. Remembering for a brief moment the relationship he had with his father. He even felt sorry and thought about apologizing. 

But he turned and walked out the sliding door, leaving Nikolas behind.

His hair had grown slightly since he had left that place. Some hair stung his eyes as Nikolas stood in the middle of the hall looking at the posters about a dance after leaving the sports coach's office.

"There you are!"

Nikolas turned and saw Peter approaching wearing the blue sweater with the school logo on it. He looked happy despite what had happened and it confused him. Peter pointed at the sports office and then at him.

"Were you leaving already?"

"I dropped the team, she didn't want me to, she thought someone was bothering me again and I had to use methods to convince her to sign me out." Nikolas squeezed the sleeves of his backpack. "The last things from the tower are leaving tonight, I heard Happy talk about a camouflaged plane. Sounds cool doesn't it?"

"You can't just leave like that." Peter denied. "I just got out of detention and this is the first thing you have to tell me? Well, actually y-you don't have to tell me something but I-I do have to tell you something... rather ask you."

"Peter, I'm a slow learner. I don't think I'm following you."

"Will you go to the dance with me?" Peter snapped, tapping the list he was holding in his hands. "If it's your last night, at least you should take the best memory with you, right? In case we don't see each other again.

"I..-" Nikolas shifted his weight and then smiled. "I want to go with you."

"Seriously?" Peter responded enthusiastically, his cheeks the natural red color they took on when he got nervous. "I'll pick you up at night, okay? This will be...fun."

Nikolas made sure to knock on the door before entering the area where the plane was with Stark Industries people carrying the last boxes. He nearly bumped into one of the men until he spotted Happy programming the autopilot on his tablet.

"Uhhm Happy? Can I ask you something, one last time?" Nikolas raised his voice to get his attention, Happy looked away from the tablet with a frown. "Could you cut my hair?"

"I don't have time kid, in less than 4 hours I have to get this thing off the ground."

"I'm having a dance, probably my first and last, and before they shut it down I asked Jarvis to show me videos about dancing." Nikolas scratched the back of his neck. "I learned some steps, do you want to see them?"

"Let's do this quickly, will you? Let's go." Happy interrupted, taking his shoulder before Nikolas began to dance, his smile faded but he nodded. 

Nikolas and Happy went to a room where there was a mirror big enough to reflect the bag on his shoulder where the hair excess would fall. Happy started on the sides, he even needed to wear his glasses while Nikolas kept seeing himself shifting his eyes from time to time to see if the new cut made him look more normal.

"You already learned to control it from what I see." Happy asked.

"Yes, something like that."

"I wasn't the biggest fan of the idea of you coming here." Happy continued carefully, Nikolas hair falling into the bag. "But I never had children, so your presence was good for all of us. Regardless of what happened, I don't regret having you around.

Nikolas wanted to cry, but he didn't, nor did he respond. He just gave Happy a half smile and let him continue.

They arrived a few streets before, so Peter would walk until he reached the tower. The lights were off and the building looked desolate. Peter adjusted his vest after getting off the car, noticing that May was telling him with her hands that he should calm down.

"If you're nervous you're going to sweat." she scoffed. "You just go there, give him the gift, and then both of you come back. That's it, easy right? You practiced this all afternoon.

"Y-yes. Easy."

Peter looked at the tower and its lights off, wondering if he was already too late, if Nikolas was really gone. Not until Nikolas walked out of the doors with Happy trying to fix the bow that was wrapped around his neck. They didn't see him, so Peter watched the whole scene of Nikolas refusing Happy to help him any further.

"I think I'm doing fine." Nikolas reproached.

"Nobody likes badly done bows." Happy insisted. "You should have put more gel on this side. Do you have the gift? You brought it, right?

"Happy, seriously I...-"

Peter approached.

"Well, I guess that's as far as my help goes then." Happy gave a thumbs up awkwardly. "Have fun, okay? But not too much fun.

Happy returned to Stark Tower while he took a call. Peter and Nikolas looked at their hands, both had a detail.

"You look stunning." Peter tilted his head slightly. "Your hair, it's different.

"Happy helped me, Happy is a good friend, he helped me get dressed, do you think blue looks good on me?" Nikolas said hesitantly, pointing to the box. "He also helped me get this, I chose it. It's not much but it's for you.

"I brought you a rose." Peter took it out of the small box and clipped it onto Nikolas's vest pocket. He offered his arm and Nikolas stared at him, Peter leaned in with a smirk. 

"This is where you have to take my arm.

"Oh."

(06/01/2023)

With these new changes I am very happy to give the focus that I intended to give to Tony and Happy from the beginning. Reading and changing, the first version simply didn't do justice to these characters. 

Believe me when I say that this version is much better than the first one. I will never stop saying it lol

It doesn't change the story, but the way I had put it.

And i won't deny it, while I was writing those scenes I was listening to eminem's mockinbird song (and covers of course).

In my tiktok you can find edits :) (xpeterbanana)