"Got everything?" Mirko asked from down the hallway, tapping her foot lightly as Peter closed the door behind him and grabbed his things up from the floor.
In the corner of his eye, he notices that the doorknob was silver instead of gold like the rest.
He then remembered he kinda crushed the last one a few days ago, so he stopped noticing.
Yeah, he didn't have a lot of proud moments that day.
"Yeah, I'm pretty much set." He said, adjusting his grip on the bags and the briefcase with his suit in it before beginning to walk toward the woman.
Day 14, the final day of his internship under Mirko and the day he can finally go home .
And no offense to her, or anything! He just… He really wanted to lay in his own bed for the next few days, especially cause he knew that his Spider-Man suit wouldn't be in his actual room like in this one.
During the days following the stuff with Dr. Connors, it was hard to sleep sometimes knowing the suit was just… there, inside of a suitcase in the corner of the room.
So, for just a few days, he wants to wind down from… everything, honestly.
He would've rathered not go through like half of what happened to him this week.
He honestly would've rathered not go through like half of what's happened to him because of Spider-Man in general, but that's not the point.
As Peter follows Mirko down to the lobby, he can't help but think back to the last few days after his fight with Dr. Connors, and everything that's happened because of it.
Peter and Mirko acted a bit different with each other after their screaming match, neither of them actually knowing how to proceed after that whole thing.
Because seriously, knowing that she actually cared about what happens to him on the field kinda took the wind out of his sails when he'd be about to say something sarcastic.
And from what he understood, Mirko had the same thing going on. Sometimes she looked to be about to say something snarky before stopping herself.
Guess being unnecessarily snarky and sarcastic with someone got kinda hard when one of them nearly got mauled in a sewer.
Who knew?
Everyone, probably, but whatever.
Physically, Peter was hanging in there. Most of the bruises had gone away by now, leaving only some soreness behind that was taking a bit to go away.
So basically, he was fine.
Except for the scars.
The main ones were 3 large slashes going from his right collarbone down to his left side, with a few other less visible cuts and gashes around his forearms and ankles.
And yeah, sometimes his nerves kinda messed up so the new scars began to sting and ache and burn and hurt just because he tried to like, breathe the wrong way and it kept happening-
But for the most part, he was fine.
Yeah, fine.
He'd go home today and get like 2 days to piece himself together as much as he could before he had to see Hound Dog after school when he went back to UA.
He'd be fine, hopefully.
Emotionally, things kinda sucked. Peter was still angry, he was still hurt and bitter and guilty just like he always was but in a different way.
It felt like all that stuff was still there, hanging out in his brain along with his complicated feelings about the word 'Responsibility' and memories of movie nights with Ben and May, but they were just… different.
All that anger and guilt and bitterness just felt… burned out? Focusing on those feelings made him feel tired and spent now, more than usual at least.
It was as if he just took most negative feelings that he had and just used them up, leaving him with nothing but smoldering ash and perpetual exhaustion without their presence to keep him going, keep him motivated .
So he's been kinda dragging himself through the past few days, waiting for old rage and hatred to roar back to life like they always do.
But outside of that, he was just tired
So basically he was fine.
On the whole 'Dr. Connors being a monster lizard with a connection to Oscorp'? Stuff got kinda… complicated.
The idea of the spider that bit him being connected to Dr. Connors hadn't stopped rattling around in his head, something Peter's had to deal with since Mirko decided to not patrol for the rest of his internship.
So he was left with way too many questions, no answers, a bit of paranoia and no one to punch to take his mind off it.
And then Fury texted him, giving him a quick congrats on a 'job well done' before letting him know Dr. Connors was in good hands and that Oscorp would be 'looked into'
He wasn't sure what they meant by that Oscorp bit, but he hoped it'd mean no more freaky genetic experiments going wrong like what happens to Dr. Connors and Peter.
Fury also said something about him not appreciating that Peter told Nejire most of what he personally knew, which to be fair wasn't a lot, and that Peter refrained from telling people about S.H.I.E.L.D.
Which was kinda fair, but it wasn't like Peter actually had much of a choice.
Peter already had enough shit eating him up inside, S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't gonna be added to it.
Mid-thought, Peter realized he and Mirko were already in the lobby, simply standing there for some reason.
And man, he was already done with internships! He worked under the number 7 hero for 2 weeks.
And you know what?
He was… He was gonna miss her.
Being Spider-Man had its ups and downs, sure, and he's always had thoughts and dreams of how it could be better .
And working with someone for real ? Just having another person to watch his back in fights and to talk with in the downtime? It wasn't something that Peter thought he could hav e, much less something he'd like .
And yet, he was gonna miss that and he was gonna miss her too.
Not that he'd tell her, though.
Peter looked at the clock on the wall, making sure he still had time before his train was supposed to get there before his attention was caught by Mirko sighing.
"I'd ask how well you liked Hosu, but given all the shit that happened I'm gonna guess it wasn't a ton." She chuckled, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm used to having mixed feelings about all this crime fighting stuff, anyway." Peter shrugged. "But it wasn't that bad."
"You nearly got killed or hospitalized every 3 days, dumbass."
"And I'm still here! Got the proportional survivability of a spider, you know?" That got a laugh out of her, Peter wasn't sure if what he said was actually a joke or not.
Because if it wasn't, then he wouldn't be here right now.
Probably wouldn't have made it to his arrest, honestly.
He shifted his grip on the UA suitcase, Mirko looking him over for a second before placing her other hand on his other shoulder.
"Gonna get real for a sec here, so don't fucking talk for a bit." She sighed, looking him in the eye.
What? He thought they wouldn't have another heart-to-heart for the rest of his time here!
He honestly wasn't sure if he was emotionally charged enough for one after the last one.
Mirko cleared her throat, snapping him to attention.
"When you first got here? I didn't think I'd like you. I thought you'd be like the little brother I never wanted but got anyway, and somewhere along the line? You were one that I found myself caring for." She laughed. "Cause I don't know how you did it! I really fucking don't!"
A beat so silence passed before she grinned.
"Cause somehow, I found myself actually liking your company along the way. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up enjoying having your dumbass around."
...
Now, was Peter expecting that? No.
What Peter was expecting was like, one last dose of sarcasm between the 2 of them before he'd go on his merry way, keeping that whole 'I like having you around but i don't think i'll say it' thing they had going on.
But, was Peter gonna say that actually hearing her saying it after the shit that's happened in the last 2 weeks made him feel a lot better?
No, he wasn't.
Because hearing her say it was nice. Unfamiliar, but nice.
"You got some serious unaddressed issues going on and you can kinda be a prick and you never shut the fuck up, but you're not that bad. This didn't make me throw away all that 'No teams' shit, but it was nice." She laughed, giving a pat on his arm.
And Peter should probably say something, he wasn't sure it was gonna be meaningful or anything like that, but he'd try.
Cause trying is something he's been doing a lot lately.
"You gonna say something mature or you gonna make a joke?"