The sound of the ocean waves crashing into the sandy shore and the crunching of rusted metal filled the air, the noise being accompanied by the smell of garbage and saltwater.
Peter crushed the old microwave into a more compact shape as he breathed through the re-breather Tokoyami had loaned him, the boy throwing the old appliance across the beach with little to no effort.
Dagoba Beach, Musutafu's resident natural landmark turned dump.
As Peter looked at the towering amounts of garbage still littered across the sands, he sighed and got back to work.
It was the 4th day of the dorm life for Peter, and he had finally made it to the weekend.
What better way to spend that time than cleaning up some random beach, right?
Let's catch up on how exactly he had gotten here.
The boy had realized that without going out every night to fight crime, his life had lacked a certain amount of… purpose, you know?
He needed something to do, something that actually benefited someone.
So, imagine his face when the fact that he could clean up a beach and return it to the community had appeared to him; he could finally do some good again.
That's what he's been doing for the past hour or two, getting the smaller pieces of trash out of the way and bringing them over to the collection zone on one end of the beach.
You know what? He actually didn't mind spending his time like this.
He didn't mind whatever he had to do as long as he was helping in one way or another.
The morning sun rained warmth down onto his chest, his shirt having been discarded somewhere in the cleaner parts of the beach. He had only brought some basketball shorts, sneakers, a water bottle, the re-breather, and his phone on his little community service outing.
He crushed a mini-fridge down onto a cube-like shape, throwing it toward the other end of the beach and grinning at the distance it went.
This was nice.
Just him and the ocean,
The breeze soothed his scar body as it blew by, a couple seagulls come down from the sky to see what he was doing before they took off again. He smiled as he took a seat on the warm sand, feeling it stick to his hands.
This was the calm he needed.
Just him, the sand he sat on, and the breeze that passed him.
He felt at an odd peace as he looked past the waves. The 9:00 AM sun was beautiful, wasn't it?
Just imagine how it'll look when the beach was cleaned up.
The hairs on the back stood on end as his spider-sense altered him of someone coming close, he didn't move from his spot, knowing whoever was approaching was someone he knew and didn't mean harm.
His spider-sense would tell him otherwise.
"Young Parker?" The raspy voice of All Might came from behind him, the man's footsteps barely made any noise on the sand.
"Hey, All Might." Peter greeted without looking back, he felt the small smile that crossed the skinny man's face.
"Quite strange that someone would spend their Sunday in a dump, isn't it? Also, please call me Yagi in this form." Yagi sat down next to Peter, he wore a white shirt that hung off of his body and baggy green cargo pants.
Peter ran a hand through his hair as he shrugged. "You ever feel like you're not doing enough? Like, there's always more to be done no matter what or how you wished you could do more?"
Yagi looked down at the teen with a sad smile. "Every day, my boy. What brought this on?"
"Since I can't really sneak out and punch criminals anymore, my life had lost a small bit of its purpose, it's frustrating that I can't do the same good I did before as freely. So I guess cleaning up this place and giving it back to the community is a way to make up for that, to help out even if it's in a different way. Even now, it feels like there's just so much I should be doing, you know?"
"That's quite the honorable motivation, young man. I remembered how this beach looked like in its prime, but I never had the time to clean it myself. I'm glad someone is finally doing it." The hero gave a chuckle and patted Peter on the back.
"Thanks, Mr. Yagi. It'll probably take a couple months to finish, but after this, I'll probably sign up at shelters to fill that void." Peter responded, he grabbed a fist full of sand and watched it fall from his hand.
He always loved to do that at beaches.
The pair sat in silence once again, the air being filled with the sound of waves crashing into the shore.
It was a peaceful moment.
But Peter had to ask him a question the hero must've been dreading.
Maybe he knew it was gonna happen before he sat down.
"Have you talked to him yet?" Peter asked, watching as Yagi's posture tensed up and how his hands clenched.
The breeze filled the air as Peter waited for an answer.
"I have not talked to young Midoriya, no. I… don't even know if he's going to accept this power after what I've done to him."
Peter thought about his response before he shrugged. "To be honest? Me neither. I said he was worthy of your power, not willing to accept it."
Yagi stayed silent as his sunken eyes looked past the shore and onto the vast ocean.
"He's happy now, you know? Has a new dream and everything in which he can help people in his own way, I don't know if he's gonna throw all of that away now."
The man stayed silent again, Peter decided to continue.
"But either way, he's a good person, so he's not gonna hate you forever or anything if you're worried about that; he may forgive you for what you said even if he says no. You might want to be careful when you actually offer it to him, just be understanding, alright?"
Peter raised an eyebrow at the small chuckle that escaped the blonde's lips.
"Thank you, Parker." He said as he began to get up from the sand.
"For what?"
Yagi bulked up into his other form before warmly smiled down at him, not giving the fake grin he always carried. "Thank you for being a better hero than me, for picking up the hopes and dreams I shattered that day. Thank you for putting a smile on the face of the boy I failed." With that, All Might leaped away before anyone even noticed he was there.
Peter looked as he traveled through the skies toward another end of the city and let a small smile graze his lips.
He turned his head back to the ocean before him and stared off into the distance, letting the ocean breeze flow by him as the morning sun rained warmth on his scarred chest.
All Might really was just a man, wasn't he?
...
"You alright down there?" Peter asked as he landed in a crouch on the gym floor, his forehead had a few drops of swear, but he didn't look too bad.
His sparring partner, on the other hand.
"Hate… you…" Shinso gasped out as he laid on the floor, his hands tightly gripping the capture weapon that Aizawa had given a few days ago.
Peter only chuckled as he held out a hand, one that Shinou quickly grabbed before he was pulled back onto his feet.
Things had been decently quiet for the brunette since his conversation with All Might back at the beach, which now brought us to the 11th day at heights alliance.
Nothing too interesting had really happened, he'd taken some photos here and there, cleaned up the beach a lot more, worked on his suit with Midoriya and Mei, and spent time with his friends.
All in all, it was nice.
What was even nicer was when Aizawa showed up and asked him to help 'train' shinso for the sports festival.
By 'train', he must've been meaning that he wanted Peter to kick his ass until he improved.
...
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