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?"
...
Peter laughed a bit, looking around at all the trophies and newspaper clippings hung and framed around the room. "Honestly? That's a tough decision! I'm still trying to figure out what you said relates to how much you beat me up this entire internship."
The woman scoffed, waving a gloved hand as her right ear twitched.
"But yeah, I'll miss you too!"
"Oh I did not say that shit!"
Peter placed a hand over his heart, mock-hurt on his face. "I'm about to leave and you can't even say you'll miss me? Oh, for shame ! I knew I should've gone with hawks, he'd probably send me off with a cool gift bag and merch."
She rolled her eyes, giving him a light shove. "Nah, the guy gets one of his sidekicks to walk interns out the door. You should be fucking grateful I even see you out."
A moment of silence passed, Peter stood there and waited.
"Dude, I'm not leaving until you say it."
"Oh fucki- Fine, I'll kinda miss you, kid." She groaned, Peter laughed as he began walking to the door. "If I find out you told anyone I said that, I swear t-"
Peter waved her off as he reached the door, smiling a bit. "Who's gonna believe me anyway?"
Shame, really.
Could you imagine the bonus Jonah would give him if Peter let him run a story on that? Peter's probably gonna get a decent pay with whatever photos he managed to take when he wasn't in a life threatening situation, but still!
With all the stuff that's happened lately, he could dream.
Another moment of silence passed, Peter and Mirko standing by the door.
She gave him a small pat on the arm, doing that smirk she always did on TV but a little different.
"See ya around, Spider-Man" She said, Peter smiled a bit.
Spider-Man, the name still felt bitter, but… It wasn't that bad right now.
Maybe that was a good sign.
"See ya around, Mirko."
...
As he let his body sink into the cushioned chair of the office, Peter's mind slowed down just enough to look how things have been since leaving Mirko's agency.
He had about 2 days worth of time before going back to class, and his whole plan of resting and relaxing didn't really pan out. Sleeping was hard, mostly, with Peter's mind replaying too many old things and thinking up too many new things for him to focus on the now .
A few nightmares came and went when he did manage to get some sleep, taking form in the usual random burning buildings, uncles bleeding out outside convenience stores and girls walking off ledges but with the addition of giant lizards slaughtering random people on some Hosu street corner.
And when it wasn't a nightmare or just constant thinking that kept him up, it was his body hitting him with whatever random old injury and scar that wanted to act up at the moment.
Stabbing pains in his chest that almost made him gasp for breath that never reached his lungs before the pain was replaced with the fiery aches of a burn on his lower back gained from an office-building fire he couldn't remember that left him shaking at the edge of his bed while he waited for it to die down.
And so, Peter was tired . Tired of way too many things, with none of them being able to be addressed at the moment.
People must've noticed, he guessed.
Jonah was incredibly more soft-spoken and less berating when Peter went to turn in the pictures of his internship, along with no one at the Bugle bothering him to fix whatever random issue was going on with their computer that day.
His friends were insanely nice when he got back to UA, not like they weren't nice already but whatever. The 3 of them spent all day tangled up in him, hugging him at random times or just sticking close while they talked about internships and cool things they did and how the heroes they went with there like.
His friends were already incredibly keen on physical contact, with Mirio and Nejire always hugging him or Amajiki whenever they felt like it, with Amajiki normally not being prone to contact unless it was a whole group thing.
But today was just on another level, it wasn't bad or anything! Just… random.
So imagine his face when he asked them about it and they legitimately said 'You're our friend who spent 2 weeks nearly dying, we're just happy you're alive right now!'
And.. wow. It was so concerning he didn't even think that concern over his life was actually part of the situation.
It kinda made him want to cry for a second before he got himself relatively together.
Yeah, he started leaning into the touch after that.
Guess it made sense how they kept their questions about his internship to the shit that didn't nearly put him in the morgue.
Man, Spider-Man left an effect on him.
But he guessed it's good he's starting to think about that now, given where he is and all.
The clacking of a keyboard brought him out of his thoughts, Hound Dog getting some things out of a desk cabinet and laying them out in front of his computer.
"Good afternoon, Parker." The man greeted, giving him a friendly smile behind the muzzle, Peter guessing with how his eyes closed. "I'm Hound Dog, the school counselor but you probably already knew that."
Peter chuckled a bit at the little joke, shifting in his seat and looking around the decently-sized office.
It was… warm, honestly, stuff like a coffee table, a small couch in front of the desk and decorations like pictures and motivational posters being placed all over the walls with a small nameplate on the Hound Dog's desk reading 'Ryo Inui, School Counselor'. The armchair he was in was made of nice leather, Peter had the distant thought that the chair itself was more expensive than everything in his room.
Next thing he laid his eyes on was the man in front of him, Hound Dog.
The man was huge, probably 6'5 at the least with a wild mane of blonde hair and the appearance of… well, a dog, basically, with a muzzle over his face and reading glasses. Despite his appearance, the guy was soft-spoken and pretty friendly-sounding.
Maybe this was a one-time thing, given the stories that students tell about him yelling and howling when he got mad.
"Honestly, I didn't even think this place would have… regular school stuff like actual teachers and counselors, you know? Guess I never thought you could get a teaching license on top of a hero license before I got here." Peter chuckled, Hound Dog gave a small laugh before straightening his glasses.
"Getting my degree while being a hero was a pain, I'll tell you that."
Peter laughs a bit, bouncing his leg as they both got done with pleasantries before he actually had to start talking about the serious stuff.
"First things first, I'd like to apologize for not being able to set up an appointment with you sooner, Parker." The man began, folding his hands on the desk. "Given your quite unique background by UA's standards, it was my priority to get to talk to you as soon as possible. Even so, hero work, even for hero students, can take quite a toll on someone, so you'd understand my schedules are decently filled up by hero students alone, not to mention the students from other courses with more personal problems."
Being a hero had the chance to mess people up? Who could've thought.
In the back of his mind, Peter laughed bitterly at that thought.
"It's… fine, honestly. There's probably a bunch of people in this school that need someone to talk to more than me, right?" Peter shrugged, giving an awkward smile before noticing the small eyebrow raise from Hound Dog.
Damn, he probably got some sort of meaning from what he said.
Which… makes sense, therapists tend to do that.
"Quite the selfless way to look at it, Parker." The man commented, typing on his keyboard for a bit before eyeing him again. "Still, while caring about others is good, you should always know that your health and your mental wellbeing should be the number 1 priority in your mind."
Peter let out a small breath, unconsciously tapping his finger on his knee to a random rhythm he made up.