Chapter Text
Peter's scooter poot poot pooted through the streets on his way to Joe's.
He had left his house extremely early, intent on getting there on time despite his Spiderman duties and his little side quest at the Daily Bugle. Now he was glad that he had, after the handful of muggings and assault attempts that the boy had to stop. He was barely going to be on time.
Peter walked into the pizzeria the moment the clock on the other side of the wall struck the hour. A breath of relief slipped past his lips, and he allowed himself five seconds of composure before he made his way to Mr. Aziz sitting at one of the corner tables.
"So, cuttin' it close, eh?" Mr. Aziz raised his eyebrows at Peter. Peter winced. This was going to need a lot of salvaging.
"Yeah, sorry sir, i-it's just that traffic got caught up when Spiderman started showing up." At least that wasn't a complete lie.
"Oh, yeah yeah, I get it," Mr. Aziz nodded his head. "The bastard's made me late to so many birthday parties and family things. Y'know how it is."
He couldn't lie, he was a little taken aback by the outright bash on his character, but nodded along with him anyway. In any other situation Peter would've tried to defend his honor, in the third-person of course, but he really needed this job.
"Yeah, uh, what a nuisance," Peter attempted. Aziz seemed to buy it.
"Yeah. So, anyway, it's Peter right? Peter Parker?" Peter nodded. "Okay. So, Peter Parker, what're your qualifications for this job?"
-*-
Aziz told Peter to wait for a call confirming his job title as a pizza delivery boy, but he assured the kid that he had it. He just had to look at the schedule and put him on the payroll first.
It was easily the best news that Peter had gotten in ages. He couldn't wait to finally have enough money to spare on his textbooks (though he figured that he could probably just illegally download a PDF file of the books that he needed from somewhere on the internet). He didn't want to feel like he was wasting his few, precious dollars when he bought the more expensive, better tasting hotdogs.
Peter had to physically restrain himself from skipping his way out the door when he left. His grin was stretched from ear to ear, and he just knew that today was going to be a good day.
That is, until, the sirens started wailing and he saw the black smoke billowing up towards the sky.
Screams of "Somebody! Somebody help!" rang throughout the air. Peter knew that it was selfish of him, but his mood deflated a little. He really wished that that building had chosen any other day to catch fire than this one.
Always the hero, though, Peter sprinted into a back alley and tore his sweater and jeans off to reveal the suit underneath. He whipped the mask out of his backpack and pulled it over his head, and he was off towards the chaos where people were starting to call for Spiderman by name.
Today was going to be a long day.
~