Spoilers: For Homecoming and previous Spider-man movies. This basically starts off where the clip at the end of Homecoming ends.

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, Homecoming, or a Spiderman suit. Pity.


"What the F-!" shouted Aunt May.

Peter's eyes grew huge and he whipped around to face her. "Um… It's not what it looks like!"

"And what does this look like?!" she said, storming up to him. "Like you are a superhero who goes out and risks their life, even though I've told you to run away from stuff like that?"

Peter froze. "I, uh…."

He hummed thoughtfully, trying to make up his mind. He had always tried to keep her from knowing, but there had also been hundreds of times when he wished that he could tell her. Tell her about the things he did, the people he saved. He didn't want to have to lie to her anymore.

"Alright," he said, taking a deep, steadying breath. "Okay. You're right." He nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'll tell you the truth."

She was staring at him in a wary, yet fierce way that made him feel even more scared about telling her.

He gulped in one last breath, then spat it out. "I'm Spider-man."

She continued staring at him, without blinking.

"Um… Aunt May?" he swallowed. "Oh, no. Please tell me I didn't break you."

Suddenly, he was being slapped in the face.

"How could you?!" She stormed out of the room.

Surprised, he continued to stand in the middle of his room. When he regained the feeling in his face, he went after her.

She was pacing in the living room, treading a deep trench in it. "Sit down!" she screamed.

He sat down.

"How could you?!" she reprimanded. "All this time… all this time, you could have been hurt—or worse—and I would have never known what happened to you—"

"I didn't mean to worry you, Aunt May. That's why I didn't tell you!"

"Shut up!"

He shut up.

He continued to stay quiet and listen to his aunt as she continued pacing and yelling at him.

It would have been comical- with him sitting in his new suit on the couch with his hands in his lap, a hero, as his aunt scolded him like a child or bad puppy- were it not for the fear that fueled her rage. He could see it behind her eyes. She was afraid to lose another person she loved. She couldn't handle that.

She stopped pacing, and fell quiet, standing in front of Peter. She reached out to his face and he twitched, closing his eyes, and waiting for another blow to fall.

It never came.

Instead, her palm brushed gently across his cheek, cupping it in her hand.

He opened his eyes to find her kneeling in front of him.

"Peter…"

"I'm sorry," he said. And he was. He really was. But he had never been able to decide whether his aunt would be safer and happier or less so if she knew his secret.

Guess he would find out soon.

They stayed quiet for a heartbeat or three.

"Stark," she said, "he got you into this?"

Peter shook his head and proceeded to explain everything to her.

She moved to sit on the couch next to him as he did so, interrupting sometimes with a question or a gasp.

When he was done, their apartment returned to silence.

Outside, the sun had fallen over the city. It was on clear nights like this that Peter especially liked to patrol the city, making sure it was safe. That wouldn't be happening for a while, that was for sure. His aunt would make sure of it.

"Peter… You know you can tell me anything, right?'

"Yeah." He nodded his head. "I just didn't want to put you in danger by telling you."

"And you know I love you."

"Of course."

She sighed. "Well… I guess you haven't died yet, doing your little hero acts…"

"Huh?" Peter blinked, confused.

"And you have done a lot of good," she continued slowly.

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying," she replied, looking him in the eye, "is that I will allow you to continue being Spider-man. "

He jumped up off the couch. "Really?! Oh my God! This is amazing!"

"But!" she interrupted. "Under a few conditions. You have to be home by midnight. If you can't face someone, get help. If you get hurt, get away and get help instantly. And… you must always, always tell me the truth. Understood?"

He nodded ecstatically. "Yep. Yes. I understand."

She crossed her arms. "Well, I'm sure I'll think of some other rules later. But, for now… let's get some dinner, and then you can go out and put your new suit to the test. We wouldn't want to be rude to Mr. Stark, now would we?"

Peter blinked. "Uh… what? I thought I was grounded for the next years of my life, for sure."

She nodded, standing up. "Oh, you are definitely going to be punished. But we can figure it out later." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm so proud of you, my little hero."

He blushed at the praise. "Thanks, Aunt May."


A/N: So, I started writing this before I came up with the idea of "A Spectacular Failure," which ended up being influenced by this story, and then I ended up deciding to put this one up since it was more canon, seeing as how this is how May actually finds out Peter's secret. So feel free to check out that story for a longer and better fic.