peter parker x reader || the newspaper (part three)
part one || part two
summary: the reader finds a lead on Spiderman’s and somehow manages to enlist Peter’s help in discovering his true identity
warnings: like two swears
The paper was doing better than anyone expected, like a lot better. You had already exposed what was really in the lunches for 'Mystery Meat Monday', busted the science fair sabotage and covered every competition and celebration the school had held. Plus it was wildly popular with the students, despite what you had expected.
And your relationship with Peter was better than anyone expected, like a lot lot better. It seemed with every second you spent with him your affections continued to grow, much to your displeasure.
It was moments like this, when you were sat in the same booth in the same coffee shop as you always did with the same drinks as you always had, that Peter felt less like a person and more like home.
"I have some exciting news!" you said, determined to shake the thoughts away. You couldn't afford to think like that.
Peter raised his eyebrows, "News for me news or newspaper news?"
You rolled your eyes at him, "Big news: I might have found a lead on who Spiderman is."
"What!?" Peter choked on his hot chocolate.
"Look, I know it is more of a punt than anything solid but just hear me out: I think he might be a kid from our school." Any colour that was left in Peter's face had drained out. You grabbed your laptop and opened it in front of you both, "This is a list of all the recorded sightings of Spiderman. If you look here, weekends are sporadic but from Monday to Friday you can see that the earliest sightings are all around 3:45. Never any earlier. School finishes at 3:30, so you have to agree that there is at least some plausibility in this." You flicked up a map of Queens onto your screen, "And here, I've plotted all these sightings and any schools in the area. If he's our age, he has to be going to our school, Peter. You can't deny all these sightings are basically a cluster around school and if you can think of any other explanation, please enlighten me." You sat back and observed Peter's reaction.
"But... Y/N... that would make him just a kid." He licked his lips.
You wanted to catch him off guard. You didn't want to interrogate him but if the rumours were true... "Are you saying he's not a kid?"
"Yes!" Peter shot back.
"Because you know him."
"Yes!" You weren't sure whose eyes went bigger, "I mean no. I don't know him. I know Spiderman but I don't know who he is." He tried to recover, "I just know he isn't a kid. He's too tall and broad and his voice is too deep and he's too... too intimidating to be some kid. I hate to say this but it is probably just some coincidence." Peter exhaled, finally meeting your eye, "Why do you want to uncover Spiderman's identity anyway? Surely if he wanted to be known he would make it so."
You considered this for a moment. To be completely honest, you hadn't thought that far ahead. It was just the thrill of the unknown and the glory of being the only one to know who he really is. "I don't want to expose him," you knew that much was true, you respected his want for privacy, "I just- there's something about the mystery of it all, you know? Imagine getting an interview with Spiderman or exclusive details? I just enjoy this, the sleuthing, the stake-outs... I know I won't really find out who he is, it's just the excitement of it all, you know?"
"I just don't want you getting involved with Spiderman; he's the one fighting the bad guys and if they find out you're involved with him? They'll come after you, Y/N." Peter shook his head, "And I think you'll find that's the opposite of what he's trying to do."
Everything became too sombre too quickly. You didn't like it, with Peter it was meant to be all laughs and smiles, not whatever this was. You sat there in silence for a while, neither wanting to disturb the other.
"Hey, how about this," Peter met your eye for the first time in forever, "if you help me look around school tomorrow and we find nothing, I'll forget about this whole Spiderman thing."
The side of his mouth curved up into a smile. "Deal."
-
"What are you even looking for?" Peter leaned against the row of lockers which you were idly flicking open.
"Right now?" you asked, peering into the next locker, "I'm looking to see if Spiderman's made a mistake whilst we wait for someone to unlock the reprographics room."
"What, you think Spiderman's left his suit in his locker? Don't you think he must be slightly more intelligent than that?" he said too quickly.
You frowned as you came across a locked locker, completely ignoring Peter. "Hey, isn't this your locker? What secrets have you got locked away in there?" you turned to him to laugh but he looked too sheepish to join in. You rolled your eyes instead. "Whatever, forget I even asked- I don't want to know what could be so bad that you had to lock it away."
Fortunately, one of the reprographics staff walked past and saved you from whatever hell of a response Peter was going to come back with. You waited for the door to almost shut before catching it with your foot, millimetres from it locking. Peter looked at you with a big oh no when he realised why you had asked if he was any good at quickly copying files. You tossed a memory stick across to Peter.
"It's your time to shine, pretty boy."
-
In theory, your plan was foolproof. You were going to distract the reprographics staff in the back room whilst Peter copied the list of everyone's extracurriculars. Simple.
However, Peter didn't seem to agree- because if anyone is going to lose their neck over this Y/N, it's going to be me. You shrugged and told him something along the lines of suck it up, princess.
The member of reprographics was more than surprised to see you- students were strictly prohibited from entering- and made signs of protest before you swooped in to explain.
"Hello, I'm so sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you could help us? Peter and I are working on an article for the school newspaper special on our school's rich and frankly fascinating history. I was hoping that you had some old documents you could show me that I could include?" You managed to muster a sweet smile and any fight left in her face drained out.
"Follow me." she gestured towards the back room. With her back turned, you finger gunned towards Peter. He pursed his lips in response with a slight raise of his eyebrows as if to say, why am I doing this? Why is it always me?
You turned your attention back to the reprographics lady and humoured her small talk as you flicked through files without really seeing any of the documents. You couldn't focus, all you could think about was Peter's stupid locked locker and whatever he was hiding from you. It was stupid, you knew he didn't have to tell you everything- everyone had secrets, even you- but you didn't like it. It was as though someone had stuffed a huge locked locker shaped wedge between you.
Perhaps what bothered you most wasn't the secret itself; it was what it meant. It meant that Peter had a bigger secret than your biggest secret and you thought your secret was pretty big.
That secret being Peter, of course.
You lost whatever train of thought you were following because the reprographics lady was leaving to go back to her computer, her computer which Peter was currently meddling with. Without thinking, you gasped so she turned back to you. She looked at you expectantly as you struggled to explain what had surprised you so much.
Grasping at straws, you exclaimed, "I love your shoes!" You both glanced down at her brown, shapeless loafers.
"Thank you." She said, turning on her heel. Her voice was filled with thinly veiled indignancy.
"Wait! Where did you get them from?" She knew you were stalling this time and after a momentary pause she hurried back to her desk with more speed than before. You scrambled after her and reached her desk at the same time as her.
Her desk which Peter was sprawled underneath.
"It looked comfortable?" He tried.
-
Needless to say, you got kicked out.
You sat outside the school as the sky began to darken, backs pressed against the wall and chins tipped to the sky. You were horribly aware of how close you were, barely centimetres away from each other, and yet it still felt like each centimetre was a kilometre. You sighed and Peter turned to look at you for what seemed to the first time all day.
"What's up?"
You ran your tongue along your bottom lip as you calculated the perfect words to summarise how you felt. "Well, I fucked that up."
Peter frowned at you, "What do you mean?"
You went to give him an exasperated glance- as if he didn't think that the whole plan had completely fucked up- and saw him toss something and catch it.
"You did it!?" You looked at him in awe.
"Y/N, I have never and will never fail you." He smiled at you and some of the icy distance between you seemed to melt away.
-
You couldn't wait to go through the data so Peter suggested you went back to his since his aunt was away. You printed the lists off and highlighted all the names of students who did no extracurriculars and then narrowed it down to just the boys (Spiderman couldn't be girl, no matter how much you wanted him to be because he had the wrong build) and finally crossed out the remaining names who were either too short by Peter's judgement or too young, leaving a little over a dozen names.
"I think we can cross my name out.", Peter said next to you.
You raised an eyebrow at him, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
"The truth is I'm not Spiderman."
Could Peter be Spiderman? You dismissed the thought with amusement. You sighed, crossing his name out and Peter exhaled in response. Poking him in the arm you said, "I guess it is impossible- Spiderman definitely doesn't have stick arms."
Peter looked offended, "I do not have stick arms! Look at them!"
You rolled your eyes, "Yeah, your biceps are even bigger than Thor's, Peter." You collapsed onto the sofa, your short list of names still clasped in your hand. One of these kids is Spiderman. You shook your head to yourself in amazement. What next? What next indeed- you tried to think only to find you couldn't.
"What time is it?" You groaned.
"It's just gone two." Peter flopped down next to you and yawned. At least he was as tired as you were.
"I'm just going to close my eyes for a moment." Peter murmured something that sounded like agreement. You put your legs on the side of the sofa and leant back until your shoulder was pressed against his forearm and your head leant against his bicep. He tensed at the contact and you immediately felt stupid for saying he had stick arms as you realised that that couldn't be further from the truth. You almost pulled away- you were tired to a degree that your thoughts were so incoherent that you had only thought about getting comfortable- but then he relaxed and leant back into you.
Just before sleep took over, you could have sworn he whispered "Good night, Y/N."