"I really don't see what all the big fuss is about" Peter said, sitting cross-legged on his bed while eating an apple "The doctors said it didn't hit anything major besides muscle tissue, what little there is, and a few days at the gym should help build it back up" May stood completely still, stunned by how her nephew was reacting to the fact he'd just woken from surgery to have a bullet removed from his lower abdomen.

"You have just been shot!" May exclaimed hysterically "You need to take this a little bit more serious" Peter swallowed the apple chunk he'd been chewing before shrugging.

"Eh, it's a flesh wound"

From outside the room Twilight could hear the family members arguing with each other as the doorman who'd been knocked out by Peter was being walked out of the ward.

"This is unbelievable" she said, putting a hand to her face "How did this even happen?"

"He was only trying to be nice" Cadance said quietly. She'd been trying her bet for the past half an hour to make sure Peter didn't get into trouble for what he'd done but the doorman seemed adamant that it was Peter's fault to begin with.

"I know that" Shining said angrily "But he also ended causing a trained professional to discharge a firearm in self defence"

"I've told you before, he shot first" Cadance interrupted her husband.

"Because Peter made a gesture that he was going for a gun" Shining refuted.

"Guys, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Twilight snapped. Shining whirled around and glared at her.

"And where the hell are we supposed to get Twilight?" he demanded "The situation has been defused so all we can do now is argue, so just let the adults talk about this"

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child Shining" Twilight hissed.

"Why shouldn't I?" he demanded "You are a child, you have no idea what's going on right now"

"Neither do you!" Twilight yelled. The siblings glared at each other hatefully before Cadance's phone began to vibrate. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID, a surprised expression springing onto her face.

"Shhh!" she hissed before answering the phone "Aunt Celestia?" Everyone in the room froze at the mention of the name. They all held a sense of awe at the fact that the leader, the founder of the country was speaking through the phone.

"Cadance, Dear" a regal, clear and beautiful voice spoke "I heard what happened to you, are you alright?"

"Yes thank you Auntie" Cadance nodded "I'm healing nicely now, I'm just in hospital with the family and a few friends"

"That is incredible news my Dear, when are you expected to make a recovery?" the Princess asked in a happy tone.

"In a few weeks, most of the damage was skin level thanks to our... uh... gene type" Cadance said, pausing to find a particular word, "The bruises and swelling are going down and besides a few fractures I'm not too bad"

"Incredible... your Aunt Luna and I are in Germany at the moment on a conference tour but now that we have a date for your recovery we shall be in the country, don't you doubt it" she said in a pleasant, sing-song voice similar to her niece's.

"That's great!" Cadance exclaimed "I can't wait to see you two!"

"And we cannot wait to see you, but we must go now, give our love to Shining and company" Celestia hummed "I love you"

"I love you too Auntie" Cadance beamed, hanging up the phone "Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, I haven't seen those two since the wedding" Shining nodded "And Luna owes me forty bucks"

"I can't wait to see Princess Celestia again" Twilight chimed in "I really miss her lessons you know"

"It'll be good to catch up with her again" Mrs Velvet nodded "We used to have such great talks"

"Peter Benjamin Parker!" a furious voice hollered as the door to Peter's room opened. Peter strode out, fully dressed with shoes on, with a second apple in his hand.

"I'll see you at home Aunt May" Peter nodded, taking a bite out of the apple and looking back and forth between his friends and their family "What?"

"Why are you out of bed!?" Twilight, of all people, demanded. She grabbed hold of him by the jacket and placed her her face no more than two inches away from his "You better get back in there right now" Peter grinned cockily before striding past her and waving goodbye.

"I'll catch you guys later" he called back.

"You need to stay here and rest" Mrs Velvet called to him.

"I'm fine" he called back.

"Parker" Twilight growled, storming after him. As she attempted to grab hold of him again a door swung open and connected with the back of her knee, knocking it out from underneath her. She held her arms out to protect herself from the impact only to have the flat of Peter's hand connect with her stomach from in front of her and push her back up to her feet.

"Christ" Peter chuckled as a panicked hospital worker emerged from the door "This hospital is a fucking death trap" Twilight nodded, gingerly putting pressure on her leg before declaring it in good shape.

"Yeah" she nodded.

"I am so, so sorry" the hospital worker said "Are you OK?"

"I'm OK thanks, don't worry" Twilight nodded before turning back to Peter "But you need to stay here"

"No I don't, I'm a free bird" Peter winked. Twilight lowered her gaze for a second before a grin spread onto her face.

"Alright then, just show your discharge papers to the guys at the door and they'll let you out" she said, crossing her arms and standing as tall as she could.

"Fuck" Peter sighed, walking past Twilight and back into the hallway.

"That's what I thought buddy" Twilight chuckled victoriously. Peter sat down on one of the beds, eating his apple with a sulking expression.

"Well done Twilight" Mrs Velvet nodded "Quick thinking"

"Thanks Mom" Twilight smiled.

"I hate you" Peter mumbled, looking as his Aunt May stormed over to him "Oh no"

"Oh no is right" May yelled, clapping him on the back of the head "What the hell were you thinking you little smart-ass?"

"I don't wanna be here, I need to go home" Peter moped.

"And what could be so important as to risk your own life at home?" May demanded. Peter was silent for a second before speaking.

"I'm about fifteen head shots away from getting a rank up on my Kap-40s in Black Ops 2 and-" he began.

"Shut it" May snapped "You're staying here until the doctors say you can go, are we clear?"

"Yes Aunt May" Peter sighed in defeat.

"Well..." Cadance said, a few beds across from him "At least I can have someone to keep me company when you're all at work"

"But, doesn't Peter need to get his school work brought to him?" Mrs Velvet asked.

"Thankfully no, he got himself suspended for a few months" May sighed.

"How?" Mrs Velvet queried.

"I beat up the basketball team" Peter said casually, finishing off his apple and looking around. His eyes landed on a worker who was carrying a trash can over to a new spot.

"Kobe!" Peter grunted, throwing the core thirty feet down the corridor and into the trash can.

"Impressive Pete" Cadance nodded.

"Thank you" Peter chuckled "So, if I'm staying here then... somebody's gonna need to bring me a TV screen"

It was late in the evening, the staff had left, the curtains drawn and the lights were off. Peter had spent the past hour lying on his back staring at the dark ceiling, his night-vision having been amplified somehow by the spider bite enabling him to see everything in a light green hue. He'd been moved into the bed next to Cadance who was peacefully sleeping the night away while Peter just felt sick. He felt disappointed in himself for being shot. He hadn't even broken in his costume yet and he'd already been hospitalized through inadequate decision making. He'd fucked up and now he'd been fucked up.

"What goes around comes around I guess" he thought. It dawned on him that he really needed to go to the toilet but he decided to hold it on as he didn't want to risk waking Cadance again, still afraid that if he did a doorman would appear from the wall and shoot him again. His eyes wandered around the room, being able to see small rays of light reflecting off metallic objects and flaring brightly, just like regular night vision goggles. It was in the night vision he saw Cadance's figure move slightly. He looked at her for a second, watching closely for another sign of movement but when there was none he returned to staring at the ceiling. He then heard the sound of movement followed by Cadance's soft call.

"Peter?" she whispered "Are you awake?" He nearly immediately answered but a small niggling sensation in the back of his mind told him to keep quiet, to see what her response would be.

"Peter?" she asked again, followed by silence "Good" A small alarm rang in his head as he heard Cadance sit up, still looking at him, but after her next sentence his emotion changed to one of curiosity.

"Please don't wake up" she quietly begged. Out of the corner of his eyes Peter saw her climb out of bed and move between the two of their beds, hobbling slightly due to her leg cast. She walked down to the small pile of bags, her bags, that had been brought in my Shining and company for her to change into. The minute Peter ran the word change through his head he knew immediately what she was going to do.

"You close your eyes Parker, you look the fuck away right now you sick son of a bitch" he thought, ordering himself to avert his eyes. But he didn't, that perverted fifteen year old part of his mind told him to open his eyes as wide as he could and savour in the moment. Cadance moved, grabbing hold of the bottom of her hospital gown and pulling it up over her waist. Peter was thankful she had her back to him so that his sick mind couldn't see her body. As a stroke of luck for Peter's disgusted mind, revolted with his own desires, she was wearing underwear. And even better it wasn't lingerie, it was just plain and well-covering underwear. About as well as underwear could cover. She had revealed her long, slender legs and her curvy figure. Peter's heart began to pound in his chest as sweat began to form on his forehead. Knowing that he'd gone way too far he squeezed his eyes shut and turned over before he even looked at the top half of her body.

"Bad move kid" a mocking voice said in his head. The lurching feeling took him over as he rolled off the side of the bed and only managed to bring his hands up against the resistance of the covers before he collided with the floor. Peter's head connected with the floor despite his efforts to achieve the contrary and Cadance gasped loudly.

"Peter?" he asked in a loud whisper.

"Owww" he groaned, throwing his covers off him and getting up to his knees, doing his best to look like he'd just been rudely awakened by gravity "That fucking hurt"

"What happened?" Cadance asked, grabbing the covers off her bed and covering herself with them.

"I just had an express appointment with the floor" Peter groaned, feeling blood run from the re-opened cut on his forehead.

"Are you alright?" she asked him, placing a hand on his back "Peter... your shirt is soaked... have you been sweating"

"Nightmares" he coughed out, standing up and looking around, feeling strangely restricted by his Ramones shirt all of a sudden.

"Anything badly hurt?" Cadance asked as Peter climbed to his feet.

"Not really, I just opened my head again... I'll be back in a second, I need to go wash up" Peter moved past Cadance, trying his best to not make bodily contact with the beautiful woman before he walked out the bed alley and into the custom built en suite the room had.

"I need a shower" Peter said "Half eleven at night is a great time to wash up" He clicked on the light and walked into the large shower, turning the dials and waiting for the water to warm up. He slung his sweat soaked clothing off, his only clothing for that matter, and stepped under the spray. As he allowed the water to run over him he stood like a statue, allowing the water to splash onto his face from the large shower head.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" he asked himself in disgust "She's a married woman and ten years older than me... why do I have a crush on her?" Peter mentally flashed through every time he'd ever looked at the beautiful deity of a woman before nodding his head.

"Oh yeah... that's why" he sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands to try and wash away the grime and the guilt. After only a few minutes he turned the shower off and grabbed a soft towel from the rack. He dried his hair, face and body before tying it around his waist and wondering what he was going to do. He had soaked his shirt and underwear with sweat and he was not going to put back on a pair of wet, salty boxers in this life. He wiped his fringe out of his eyes and looked at himself in the full body mirror. He stared at his face for a brief second before looking over his linguine body.

Or so he thought.

Peter's jaw nearly hit his toes when he looked at himself in the mirror. His usual spaghetti-strand body had changed dramatically. His shoulders were now broad, thick balls of muscle with powerful arms, each muscle large and trained. He looked at his pectoral muscles in shock, seeing two rather large, toned muscles that most fifteen year-old's weren't supposed to have. His abdomen was made up of a set of six abdominal muscles that were large and solid, as were the rest of his new muscles. He looked like a seasoned gym veteran who'd been working out their entire lives. He wasn't anything close to Arnold Schwarzenegger but his body was as muscular as a fifteen year old could physically be at his stage in his development. Now that he looked at himself, he seemed a few centimetres taller than he did the previous day. And chasing that he noticed that all of his baby fat had disappeared completely, his cheeks being sharp and defined with a masculine, broad jawline and a strong chin.

"What the fuck?" he asked himself. Of all the developments he had since the spider bite this was one of the most aesthetic and probably his favourite, definitely his favourite. After checking his legs to find that they were just as muscular and toned as his upper body, and an extra few horses added to the undercarriage, he couldn't have been happier about his figure.

"I- this is..." Peter said before the smile dropped off his face, realizing what this meant "If they see my like this after I was a skinny little twerp yesterday they're going to suspect something... I need to get out of here, this is getting a little bit out of my league" Next Chapter: The Ballroom Blitz. Feat. Spider-Man Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 35 Minutes