Time waits for no man, and that was especially true for Peter, the more he did the more he found he had to do. With MJ tentatively agreeing to rent out the other box home he now raced to get both finished before the summer started and for them at least, school ended. Gwen wanted to be settled before her new term started and MJ, while not in as much of a rush, wanted to move in at the same time as Gwen so it wasn't ‘weird’ as she put it.

He had no idea how to feel about MJ moving in. They had been close when they were young but Flash made it clear he was to stay away from her and MJ gave him the cold shoulder as well. He could never decide if it was MJ that prompted the response from Flash or if it was the other way round. If Flash was a dick to him, it wasn’t too much to imagine that he wouldn’t exactly be the nicest boyfriend either.

He had to give her a chance, even if it meant dealing with Flash. She had been his only friend growing up, staying with him after Uncle Ben died and it had broken his heart when they had to leave. This wasn’t High School, Flash might have had sway there, but here, here he was the landlord and any shit, and signs of Flash being an asshole and Peter could legally, and very happily, throw him out on his ass.

With two tenants stilted he needed to move with the actual decorating aspect. The walkways had been barred, and unless MJ or Gwen decided to jump over some iron bars they would know to stay off them. The floor had been finished, the homes and his own office had been finished on the outside. Painted a white colour, it was cheap and clean and with the warehouse being indoors Peter figured if Gwen or MJ wanted to hang up something on the outside that was on them.

Inside was the same. Using the same whitewash Peter had sprayed the whole place down. If Gwen or MJ wanted colour, well then they could arrange that themselves. He had finished as far as he was concerned with both homes built and decorated. Carpeting had come thanks to a small word to Alexsi and while it was simple woven carpet, in an off grey-blue colour it was still a floor covering, and he had enough to not only floor both rented homes but his own.

As well as the warehouse, his fight with the now named Black Cat had put a dampener on his nightly excursions as Venom. He knew that against a stupid mugger or thief with no training he could squash them flat but against someone with training, and Black Cat showed she knew several martial arts, he was all muscle and brute strength and no finesse or tactics. He needed guidance but while he could attend self-defence classes or martial arts studios as Peter, going as Venom was more of a problem. Even so, he signed up for a self-defence class. It utilised a mix of everything and with his enhanced speed and strength he wanted something more fluid than a traditional Martial Art with the added bonus of it being one class. He had neither the time nor the money to sign up for three or four different ones.

His problems lay in his enhanced senses, he could move faster and hit harder than a normal person, but loud noises, bright lights gave him a headache, his enhanced senses were going haywire most of the time and as Venom it just got worse. He had sketched the basic design of a headpiece, simple ear baffling with a speaker to allow him to block and tune out specific noises but still talk. Simple goggles, with light-sensitive lenses. Simple dark covers were no good, he needed something adjustable. The headset would be easy enough to build, a quick visit to a Radioshack and a couple of hundred bucks would have a working prototype built, so Peter wasn't too worried about it, what did worry him was the latest edition of the Daily Bugle.

Pictures of him as Venom, Black Cat, and a third costumed hero had started to appear in The Daily Bugle, a local newspaper owned by J. Jonah Jameson. It hadn't painted him or Black Cat in a good way though, costumed menaces were plastered below their names while Spider-Man was given a much nicer subtext, ‘A new hero for a new year.’ 

He had been taking pictures of crimes as they happened, leaving criminals and memory cards behind, evidence left undisturbed and crime scenes left without contamination. Peter cursed, whoever this Spider-Man was, he was making Venom look bad. Especially with a few screenshots of the fight he and Black Cat had had on the roof of his building, and a URL to a video of the actual fight. 

Thankfully no one from the Daily Bugle had contacted him about it, either Spider-Man didn't know it was his or didn't know where the fight took place. It was still worrying though, not only had Black Cat snuck up on him but Spider-Man had been close enough to film. His security had been lax and with two tenants to take care of he needed to make sure it was better.

Between fixing up the warehouse, fixing up the box homes, and filling out paperwork, which suddenly went from a few forms to a massive pile of permits, and licence applications, Peter was beginning to feel swamped. Alexsi had been gracious enough to give him a week off and while the lost money had hurt, especially when finding out the cost of some of the land-lording licences and home safety licence permits, he had needed it. Peter was almost crying with each visit to the bank, the small amount of money he had saved, coupled with the small amount he had left from Norman was almost gone but each permit he got stamped and each inspection he passed brought him closer to starting the first part of his plan, tenants and money.

Thankfully a legally binding lease could be bought for dollars off the internet and once notarised there would be no further issue. Once the homes passed their final inspection Gwen and MJ were both free to move in. A modest rent of $1000 a month was agreed upon. While he could have asked for so much more these were his friends and he argued the area wasn’t residential, lowering the rent he could charge.

Leases were signed and move-in dates settled. Peter had taken advantage of the warehouse's position, a nice open roof next to the bay with lots of sunlight and had made it as green as he possibly could. Spending a few extra hundreds to add in insulation and solar panels saved in the long run, cheaper electricity and water bills made anyone happy, especially once he'd seen how much they were expected to be. Peter was finding out slowly that being an adult was no fun.

But at the end of the month, it was done. High School would be finishing up soon and as he'd dropped out he had no exams or end of year prom to worry about. Gwen was upset and had decided to boycott the whole thing to support Peter but he needed to do something to make up for it. Peter stared at the warehouse, now a freshly painted clean looking set of sub-apartments, the box homes. At Gwen's request, he'd built two decks on top of each box, giving the girls more space, his own was still just the porta-office but now a pale blue colour, extended up with another to give Peter more than one room to live in. 

The side of the warehouse where he was going to live was now end to end with reinforced offices. Alexsi coming good on his promise and he now had an extra five, all empty of course, the last of his money had been spent on bringing the place up to code but it didn't matter. Broke but happy Peter was ready to begin the next phase of his life.

"Hey, Pete," Gwen already had keys and had let herself in, "I got a moving-in date set for the weekend after school breaks up." She threw her arms around him and leant her chin on his shoulder.

"Oh yeah, and how's Captain Stacy Taking it?"

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Uh, Daaaad doesn't know yet, cause he'll pitch a fit once he does."

"Oh yeah, Gwen. Great plan," Peter exaggerated rolling his eyes back at her. Her dad wasn’t exactly known for his patience when it came to Gwen.

"Oh shush, he'll complain and then realise it’s too late and before you know it, he'll be taking charge."

"Uh-huh," was the only response she got back.

"Soo, I was thinking of you, me and MJ going out for our first official drink once school ends, you know, celebrate the new place, exams finishing, uh sorry," she quickly added when Peter winced a bit, "but more moving in day. MJ's up for it, We're all ID'd and legal so it’s just you Pete."

Now Peter did roll his eyes at her. He was never the most sociable person in school and now he hated crowds even more. His super-senses gave him more information than he needed and sure, it was easy enough to tune out voices and whispers but body odour was an issue. Unless he wore nose plugs or smeared something on his top lip, he'd probably be smelling unwashed bar fly for a month.

But this was Gwen, and as much as he hated to admit it, she was right, "Sure, but, what about a diner instead, there's that new burger joint on 18th street, they have a bar too so we can get drinks."

In an attempt to curb underage drinking New York implemented a policy. For two weeks after High School graduation, as long as the group had a designated driver or an adult, anyone over 18 could drink legally, lower than the normal 21. 

The police department got tired of finding kids passed out drunk or causing mayhem, so with some success, they left the responsibility of herding graduates celebrating the end of their school lives to their parents.

Gwen interrupted him with a smooch on the cheek, "I'll let MJ know." She took out her phone and scrolled through her calendar, "Moving is the 15th, so how about the night before? Should stop us from uh, overindulging." Peter knew what she meant, the last thing they wanted was to try and move when hungover, "Sounds good," Peter reached over his workstation and made a mark on a calendar, 

"Phff, so retro Pete"

Peter laughed, "please ask MJ to avoid Flash for that night though, I'm still kinda sore at him for things. Oh, see if Felicia is free,” and Gwen shrugged,

“She’s been kinda weird the past few times I saw her, but I can ask.”

He looked around the warehouse at the semi-finished work he had to do. It was a good distraction and while he was still sore over what happened, it was also true that he was losing the edge on his anger at Flash. Things were getting better and better and once school ended he had tenants and money coming in then he could start phase two of his plan. Getting a diploma and starting to get more serious with Parker Industries. While it wasn't necessary, people would take him a lot more seriously if he had a formal education, even if it was just a piece of paper at the end of the day. 

Peter was slowly learning, with the warehouse and the new business, that adult life revolved around having the right piece of paper and the money to pay for them.

~

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