Gwen, and the others, were amazed once more. Peter had started to take the empty offices apart, and cross beams and walls were already attached to the new ceiling apartment he was building. 

As the weeks went by not only was Peter making great progress on the new homes but making sure that each of his partners was happy. 

A sweaty, and thoroughly satisfied, Gwen lay back on her bed. On her day off Peter had cooked her, her favourite meal and then taken her to bed, where he pounded her until both she and Poison were unable to move,

“I’m not complaining but why?” she asked, purring in contentment. She knew that Nat was in the same boat, as she had hardly moved from the bedroom she was currently staying in, and the whole home smelt like Peter and now, Natasha.

“Sorry, I just felt that maybe I’d been ignoring you all,” he explained, after making sure that he and Felicia had been out to the movies, sharing a slice of pizza on the way home. He took MJ out to visit a production she was auditioning for, but also wanted to watch, and then Gwen just shook her head and they spent several hours just buried within each other. She cared little about romance, and simply stripped herself, then Peter, and spent the time practising what would make the Kama Sutra blush.

Liv had requested training and had been working with him on a  new harness and exploring Octave's technopathic powers, branching out into minor empathic abilities. She couldn't read minds but found that with practice she could not just sense but influence the emotions of those around her.

To give Peter some space, and as it would require sharing, Wanda had travelled to Genosha to live with her father. Selene had sent several messages, asking Peter to visit, but he was simply too busy to deal with the telepathic seductress, especially as Nat had filled half that position already.

As for Nat, she took to living in the warehouse like a college student. Her old place was vacated and once she settled into Peter's home, and he took a temporary one while he worked, she indulged in the party girl lifestyle.

It was strange to think she was the stoic Shield agent who lectured him about responsibility when, most of the time, she slept, ate, or simply screwed Peter whenever he made himself available to her. Gwen and the others would often find her passed out drunk in his chair at the breakfast table but Peter just shrugged.

“She had it tough too. If she tells you, you’ll see it's fine as well,” and as she snored on the recliner he just shrugged.

“Yeah it's fine dear but so far she's drunk most of the booze, stolen most of my snacks, and hasn't paid a dime towards the bills. I get that you like her, but right now, she’s a leech and well, we’re starting to get low on funds.” Liv explained, and Peter frowned.

“Really? Nat? Super responsible Nat is being like that?” and Liv nodded, “Fine, fine, I’ll deal with it, give me a moment.”

Peter looked over at the sleeping figure, curled up with a blanket and sighed. Even with her eyes closed, she spoke,

“I’m on leave, and you have a brewery, nice beer, nice cider,” and she opened an eye and gave Peter a side look, up and down, ”nice everything. I’ll behave once I start work again, my card is in my pants, think Pete threw them somewhere last time, get it, PIN is 4523, grab what you need, don’t care, sleeping.” and curled the blanket up around her head and was silent once more.

Peter shrugged, “Guess that's that, want to or will I?” And Liv shrugged, 

“She’s your girlfriend Peter. She made it clear she is completely uninterested in women, so you can, plus, we’re all working except you,” and as Peter raised an eyebrow and stared up and then over at the half-built bathhouse Liv shrugged. “I know I know, sorry. You’re the only one free to leave work when you feel like it, so can you be a dear?”

Peter sighed but nodded, Liv was right. While he had been studying, read all the required textbooks, and worked on the warehouse, he was also free a lot of the time, still able to spend an hour or two swinging around New York, but even then as Dusk it didn't feel right. He was barred from crime-fighting, so all he could do was swing and report anything he saw. It was wrong to him, it touched a nerve and it bothered him.

Or did it? Was it more than once Laura and Jean had left that night they never came back. He didn't have Jean's number and had no way to contact them and all instances of the Xavier Institute were dead ends. Even trying to find the mansion again only drew him in circles and he knew that Charles was purposefully keeping him away. He could use the power of the Mind Stone and blast his way through them but without knowing why. Was he simply inviting more trouble into himself? Or more importantly onto Jean and Laura.

Sighing he stood at the ATM, checking that Nat had money and took out a couple of hundred, it would cover everything for the next month plus what she would have spent on replacing everything she had already eaten. Remembering Liv saying they were out of a few things, he swung by the convenience store and stocked up, spending almost a hundred buying everyone's favourites, cheese puffs were his but making sure everyone got something. He would have to get Nat to transfer rent and bills later, the ATM wouldn’t let him take out that much.

As he made his way back to the warehouse he made a note to spend more time with Aunt May. Curt was happily living with her now and the Lizard was under control, using the collar for its intended use. It was still an opportunity to see her, and while sometimes he struggled with his alter ego and telling Aunt May he knew that going legit might make it easier. She had mentioned she knew what his mother and father did, maybe Shield was a blessing and even after he was free to go back to Venom he could tell her. Where the problem lay though was with everyone else, Venom was known to have friends, and if he told her about him, he’d have to out Felicia and everyone else. 

Taking a breath, it was one more thing to add to the pile of thoughts and problems going on right now. As he slowly walked back to the warehouse thoughts of the future filled Peter's mind and he could only shake his head. Too many things were too important to risk, too many things were too fragile. He could see Gwen and Felicia moving out, MJ moving up in the world with her movie parts making her famous, and who would expect her to live in a  warehouse. Liv and Nat would be around, as he was a Shield agent now, but with Liv spending time in the lab more than in the field, would he see her less? Even Wanda would become more involved with her mutant friends and would stop visiting, did mutants need other mutants to keep their population up? Was he making all the changes to the warehouse to end up alone?

Wait, what the hell was that? Peter thought to himself, where the hell did that bullshit come from? and realising that his thoughts had turned darker and were driving him in a direction he never imagined. Shaking his head, sure life could go wrong at any moment but not like that, nothing would break the family up so quickly. He quickly extended out his telepathic senses and caught a brief flicker of someone else before they vanished.

As he hurried home, he checked his mental defences and scanned around him for any hostile telepaths. Something was out there, and an attack like that on him could mean the others were in trouble.

As he hurried through the streets, a woman, dressing in white, sparkling as the light glistened through her diamond form, tutted,

“Well darling, it seems that a little mental push isn't going to phase him, he caught on and if I hadn't shifted he would have caught me,” Emma spoke into  her phone,

“Well, do what you do best and whore yourself to him. I said to invite him not fucking antagonise him.” Sebastian on the other end was angry, and Emma shook her head at his crudeness.

“Darling, he has six other women there, I doubt even my ample charms could sway him, and please. If you want to call me a whore you’ll have to do better, I don't recall you complaining as I sucked your-” and the line clicked as Sebastian ended the call.

“That’s what I thought, you fucking hypocrite.” Sebastion liked to remind Emma that once upon a time her work took on a seedier tone, but once her powers developed it was an easy enough task to move from the physical to the metaphysical. Shaw was just a bastard to those he thought lesser of. If it wasn't for the money and the power she gained from the Hellfire Club, Emma would have turned the man mentally into a toddler years ago, but for now, she would tolerate his bullshit.

Watching as Peter scurried home she did ponder. I wonder if it would be easier if I did just sleep with him? She had already infiltrated the warehouse through the Shield agent known as Natasha. What had surprised her was that all the others there were mentally shielded against her, even discreet probes returned nothing. It was only one woman and boy did she find out a lot of juicy information. Emma had spent the better part of two weeks just listening in on her thoughts, keeping her probes to surface thoughts only as to keep her intrusion a secret. 

While she was focused on the boy and the warehouse, she spent a considerable amount of time reading the sleeping Natasha, as she and Peter did nothing but screw. Emma was amazed at the stamina the boy had and thinking of the orgasms she got through Natasha, she thought that it might not be a bad idea or an unpleasant experience.

Putting pleasure aside for one moment she compiled a report for Sebastion, lengthy and more detailed than their moles and bribes had managed. Emma knew the kind of person Peter was, and with the report from Hell's Kitchen about the clean up that the Black Cats were doing, she knew that they would end up refusing the deal Shaw was offering, regardless of how sweet Emma made the pot. 

Shaw wanted control, and Peter and Felicia would resist. Drugs and some of the more dubious activities were being stamped out, and Shaw did more than dabble in the darker aspects of the underworld. Sighing as she sent the email, she was slightly disappointed she wouldn’t get to spend more time with him, and as her mind drifted back to Natasha’s, she wondered if he was the one she needed, the one to help her put her master plan into action.

As she was deep in thought her phone rang,

“Do your fucking job, Emma. I don’t give a fuck how or what you do to get it done, just fucking do it,” Shaw spat down the phone at her before hanging up.

Shaking her head, “Sabertooth, hang back, Azazel. He can probably sense you, go up and keep your distance, If I need you, and this gets ugly, I’ll call,” and as the giant moved into the shadows the other dark blue skin man sneered. 

“I don't care, he won't see me coming,” and vanished in a bamf. Emma shook her head. Azazel was Shaw’s right hand, here to make sure her leash was on tightly enough and always belligerent when ordered around by anyone other than Shaw. If she didn’t know any better she would have imagined that they were pounding each other at night, but Shaw was too much of an egotistical bigot to admit that he would ever be a homosexual. Instead, she knew it was simple loyalty. Shaw had taken him in, fed him, clothed him, and gave him everything he ever wanted, including a collection of fine women to play with. Emma herself had been offered up but a swift kick with a diamond foot put an end to that, and Azazel had been angry ever since.

Sighing as she approached the young man she shook her head, If only, she thought.