( CHAPTER EIGHTEEN ! )

(  COOKIES AND REVELATIONS )

°

Colin did not like Harry Osborn, mainly because he was actually fucking nice, a bit arrogant but completely sweet and funny. Well, Colin did not like him on principle, people who were beautiful, rich and nice shouldn't be allowed and it usually raised the question: are they pretending?

Anyways, not gonna lie, Harry was what he was, very talkative and confident when he was talking with Peter and a bit more guarded when he talked to Colin but still.

"Peter told me a lot about you!" Harry stated once he realized the boy sitting on Peter's couch was Colin indeed. He pulled Colin into hug and Colin stiffined involuntarily, hugging people he didn't know enough to trust weirded him out.

Harry pulled away quickly, ugh, he was smart as well, he picked up on the clues on Colin's distress in no time but did not comment on it.

At least Peter seemed to be distracted from the massive Spider-Man related problem they had since he was almost giddily jumping around, practically gushing. "This is awesome! I was waiting for the day I would introduce you two, I know you'll get along so well-"

Colin's phone rang, oh, wishes did come true. A number he did not know was calling in and he cancelled the call, sighed a little, it was his queue to leave. "My brother is calling, I should go," he stated and directly walked towards his bag and jacket. "It was nice meeting you. We'll talk later, Peter, yeah?"

Peter raised a brow but he was probably suffering from sleep deprivation and he was high on caffeine to read the signs and Colin left in a hurry. He hated that he was weird with meeting knew people, he hated that he had a problem with sharing Peter' s affection, he hated that he had bigger problems like criminals being on his tail than teenage angst.

Oh, well, this was his life now.

.

They had promised to each other over a phone call that they would stay in home for the night, no Spider-Man related action for that night until they had a plan to take down Agent X. At least, that was the nickname given to Arden Geller by Peter due to the X mark on her costume and guns. He was not that creative but Colin had to admit that it was rather catchy.

Yet, his father had a call, paging him for a crime scene nearby, a robbery, and Colin had an unsettling feeling inside that if Peter knew about this, he would not stay at home. So, he decided to break his promise just a little, if Spider-Man was not in the scene, he would go back. He would be breaking his promise if Peter was also breaking his.

He listened in as his father wrote down the adress, and changed quickly into his less than efficient clothes for a heroic night and hopped on to his bike in no time.

This time he was not rushing into things as he drove a little slower than usual (his bike was nothing fancy anyway), trying to keep an eye for anything suspicious. He did not have to wait for long though since a figure appeared out of nowhere right on the road and he hit the breaks, almost causing the bike to flip over.

His mind felt fuzzy for a moment but he realized that it was her, tried to turn around with his feet on the gas but she had grabbed his arm, and she was strong. She pulled him in a narrower street, trapping him between the wall and herself.

To his surprise though, she took her mask off and took a step back. "We know each other's faces. No need for that," she said, aslo gesturing him to take his helmet off.

Colin obeyed but his hands were shaking and all the blood was drained from his face, he felt like throwing up once again. The woman looked symphatic at his state and sighed, running his fingers through her hair in frustration. "I'm sorry for scaring you. Both of you. If I had known that the Spider-Man was a kid, I wouldn't have roughed him up.".

"You can win the reward of the nicest criminal then," Colin replied, making her quirk a brow. He immidiately regretted being mouthy, stupid brain working on adrenaline-

"Look, Colin. Its Colin right?" She said, her voice was soft and almost caring. "I'm not-"

"Stay away from him!"

Colin could faint or kiss Peter at that moment.

He tried to get away from the woman as Peter landed on the ground, webbing Agent X and yanking her away from Colin.

"You're making a mistake. I'm not the a part of the theives you are looking for."

"Oh, yeah? But I learned that criminals lie."

Colin took in the scene and tried to decide which way he could ran for. They were blocking the way his bike was at and he needed it to be at least slightly helpful. Meanwhile, the two were fighting but it was not as violent as the last one, she was really holding back on him yet Peter was more agresive than normal.

"That bag you have is mine but I did not rob all those places! Listen up, kid. We need to have a talk-"

Surprisingly, Peter was not in the mood to talk.

So, Colin decided to ran towards the other way, he would find his way back around the corner and get to his bike, and he could distract the woman with... something. At least the morning runs were helping since he ran fast and he felt okay.

He stopped in his tracks when he heard a voice other than Peter's or Ms. Gellers.

"Peter, stop!"

It was Aura.

Colin turned around the see Aura and Aamir standing at the other side of the street and Colin's mind started to race, they also knew about Peter, then.

He saw the hesitantion in Peter's movements and Aamir stepped up, looking tentative. "You have to listen to her. She is my mom, you can trust her, okay?"

Colin though the fuck not, but after all, it was Peter's choice and Colin watched as his shoulders sagged and he took a step back.

It was going to be a long night.

.

Some situations did not make anysense, especially when you were right in the moment.

It was as if Colin was in a racing car, watching the scenery go by, but it was moving too fast for him to understand and catch every single detail. Everything around him was a bit blurry and it did not make total sense, and he was sure that he would sleep for the next 48 hours to recover that weekend's events.

Currently he was at a cozy looking living room with a woman that they had believed to be the villain of the story, her husband that made them cookies (cookies!) and his children that were supposed to be their friends (at least Aamir was) but apparently, they did not know them, not exactly.

"How did you manage to keep it a secret?" Colin blurted out, it came from a a place of a geniune surpise than an outburst.

You see, keeping Peter's secret was hard enough on itself and Aamir was able to hid that he had some super powers, his sister also had super powers, their mother was an ex secret service agent (at least they were right about that) and their father looked... pretty normal. But you got the point, they had a lot to hide and they were really good at that.

"I mean, my powers are pretty weak, I can just feel other's emotions a little," Aamir shrugged with a smile, eating his cookie as if it was totally normal conversation, he continued talking with his mouth full. "Not to sound offended but Peter had been keeping Spider-Man stuff a secret from me and told you- and I'm kind of his best friend. So."

"One of my best friends," Peter corrected as if it was a second nature to him, even when Ned was not around, he was thoughtful like that. "Well, tonight Colin promised to stay inside but he lied so we're all liars here," Peter said with a pout on, refusing to look at Colin.

"You did not stay in either!"

"I knew you would go out so I wanted to make sure you're okay."

"Well, I thought-"

"Can we talk about important stuff like dangerous criminals, please? Go to couple therapy for your trust issues," Aura stated, playing with a strand of her hair.

It was a total caos after that, the teenagers in the room were all arguing about something, not full on yelling but bickering and Colin stopped engaging into the conversation abruptly, feeling himself detach from the scene.

Things made more sense under this new light of information, at least things about Aamir. How he was so easy to forgive Colin for punching him on the first week of his return in Queens, as if he knew how sorry he was. Or how knowing and mature he always seemed to be, as if he knew what everyone was thinking- well, he knew how everyone was feeling. Suddenly, he felt a little bad for the boy, it must've been hard.

He worried on his bottom lip and stared at the parents in the room, the Gellers were looking a little confused as they watched the teenager let out their frustration for a bit, sharing worried yet knowing looks. In all honesty, they were a nice couple, Jake Geller had thick glasses on a kind smile and Arden Geller looked elegant yet warm.

Nothing made actual sense and Colin was freaking out a little yet he was ninty nine percent sure that the Gellers were not going to assasinate them on the spot.i so that was relief.

The heat was cooling down in the argument and Aamir was looking at him as if- well, yeah. The boy smiled reassuringly and Colin tried to smile back but it was half hearted, still, he appericiated the gesture.

"I get that you are confused boys. We're quite the extra ordinary family, you see," Jake Geller stated, smirking a little as the other Gellers smiled as well, as if they were sharing an inside joke. "Let's not get into details but basically, I'm an engineer-" thankfully, someone normal- "I used to design weapons and gears for a secret organization called SHIELDS, where I met my wife." Okay, no one was normal in those house.

"We fall in love, a bad secret orginazation currupted SHIELDS, we had to ran away- you can guess the rest of the story. Meanwhile, the incident in Sokovia happened, with Ultron, maybe you've heard on the news. We found out that they were experimenting on orphans, some of them had been really young and they had developt some special abilities. Some agents took them in, the most famous and the oldest one is Scarlet Witch. And Aura and Aamir came into our lives like that.

"A month ago, our bakery was robbed because I still design stuff for the former head of SHIELDS and some of our stuff was stolen. I believe you have them now."

The man concluded, pushing his glasses back with his glasses and leaning back against his chair, he let them process all the new information that was dumped on them.

Colin searched for Peter's gaze asking an one silent question: do you believe them? Peter nodded briefly, almost humming to himself, he said, "It makes sense in a weird way and this is too complex to be a lie, I guess."

That was enough for Colin to keep an open mind, he was still on edge but he relaxed a little as Aamir and Peter stared at each other with smiles, at least he couldn't be lying.

"I will give your stuff back, Ms. Geller. Sorry for, you know, punching you and all," Peter said with a sheepish smile on.

With her make up gone from her face, a bruise was clear on her fair skin. For a moment Colin was sure that she also had super powers but perhaps she was just that good at fighting. "Sorry for fighting you as well, kid."

"I have one condition though. I want to know whats inside the harddrive, if thats okay."

The couple shared a look, and Jake Geller nodded affermitively. "It was an honor to fight Spider-Man and it will be an honor to work with him as well."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

hi, i'm here and i didn't like this chapter, not exactly.

i've been feeling a bit uninspired but i'm sure i'll get over it soon :)

let me know what you think, the next update might take awhike depending on my mood to write, take care xx

shameless self promo:i posted a remus lupin book, if you're into harry potter it would mean a lot to me if you checked it out!