Evolution

“Wade – simple rules. All we want to know is who the kid is you've been working with and why he killed that girl.” Agent Coulson told him calmly. He as well as the Avengers and Fury looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Wade fidgeted nervously in his seat. He was torn whether to tell them the truth or a lie or something in between and finally as the staring became to intense to bear anymore he settled for the truth – at least a creative form of it.

“Oh well.. I.. uh.. “found” the kid while-” He started.

“Wait? What do you mean by “found”? Tony interrupted promptly, looking anything but amused.

“Err.. like.. I never meant to meet him or anything.. it just sort of.. happened?” Tony, Steve and Coulson sighed simultaneously. “So.. as I said; I found him during a mission and since he couldn't really remember anything..”

“You thought that taking him home with you was the best idea? Instead of.. bringing him to the police? Or the hospital?” Stark asked in a sarcastic manner.

“Well.. when you put it that way..”

“Wilson.” Fury growled. “I think what Stark means is that we don't believe you anything.”

“Oh..” Wade deflated.

“Wade we have to be able to trust you and we can't do that, when your hiding something like that from us.” Steve said with a frown and he looked at Wade with so much disappointment that the merc couldn't help but to finally spill it out.

“Okay.. okay.. I.. I'm just..” He rubbed his forehead. “He's a good boy and I don't want him to get into any kind of.. trouble..”

“And you think killing a girl isn't trouble?” Tony snarled.

“He did not kill her dammit! It was an accident.”

It was silent in the room for a few moments, but then Cap raised his voice.

“Wade. Is that person the same boy I've met at the zoo?” He asked seriously.

“You know..?”

“I've seen him with you.”

Wade hesitated. “Yes.. yes, that was him.” He admitted.

Steve took in a deep breath. “Then let me meet him again, he seemed like a nice kid. We would just talk a little so I can be sure he's alright.”

“That.. you would do that?”

“Yes, no problem.” Steve exclaimed before Tony had the chance to interrupt.

Wade nodded still a little surprised, but thankful.

By the time Wade was opening the door to his apartment for Steve he wasn't all that optimistic anymore. Instead he feared Cap's reaction to the former spider.

“Wow, it's cleaner in here as -” Steve stopped as he saw the giant spider-web, looking at Wade as if he was kidding him. “This..” He gestured towards Peter's lair. “He.. made it?”

“Yeah.. it's uh.. his little spider-cave, you know? He sleeps in there and everything, but since that little incident on the bridge he won't leave at all.” Wade explained to a shocked Captain America.

“Does he.. have a name?” He asked.

“Ah, yeah.. it's Peter.”

Cap nodded and looked at the web again, approaching it slowly, trying to look inside. “Peter? It's me, Steve. You want to talk a little buddy?” He exclaimed cheerfully, but as always there was no reaction. Wade just watched Cap, hoping that he could lure Peter out of his hiding place. “Your friend Wade told me what happened a few days ago on that bridge and that you feel guilty about it.” And then he went on talking about how he felt, when he wasn't able to safe someone and how it felt to loose his best friend Bucky, without being able to do anything. He revealed all those demons he had been carrying around and it made even Wade sniff. It was simply heartbreaking, but then he told Peter why he never gave up, while he had to stand up again, because of his responsibility, because there were other people that needed him and when he was finished there actually was movement in the net.

Peter slowly crawled out of his lair, he looked so tired and vulnerable that Wade had to hold back himself to not instantly hug and kiss him okay. Steve however just smiled softly, patting the boy's head before pulling him into a hug. “You are a great kid, Peter.” He said encouragingly. “And me and Wade are just here to help you.”

They hadn't really talked after that. Steve had tried to get to know Peter a little bit, but the boy never answered any of his questions. Before he left Steve told Wade that he would talk to Fury about making Peter a S.H.I.E.L.D member, training him, stuff like that. And after he was gone he and Peter spend the rest of the day cuddling and holding each other on the couch, watching sappy movies that made them both cry.

Soon after that Peter was back to his normal, cheerful self and one night when they patrolled together they had met the other Avengers.

“Let me guess: You got your powers when you were bitten by a radioactive spider?” Tony teased.

“I'm sure that's not how radioactivity works.” Banner had interjected and somehow this started some heated science debate between the two Avengers and when Peter suddenly interfered, giving his opinion on the matter they were astonished that anyone else was actually able to follow their conversation. That set the base for a beautiful science-nerd-friendship.

Some other day Tony invited them over to the tower, mostly because he wanted to brag about his cool labs. Peter was of course totally into it, but then Black Widow and Hawkeye wanted to spare with him. The real spider won with ease, but the Avengers showed him a few flaws in his positioning and in the end he and Natasha teamed up against Hawkeye. Wade felt a little left out, but when he saw how much Peter enjoyed the time with the other Avengers he tried to be happy for him. It was hard though. All this time he had been the one and only in Peter's life, hell he was probably the only reason that he had turned into a human to begin with and now seeing him growing more and more independent broke his heart.

His sorrow soon turned into frustration and anger, but instead of telling Peter how he felt and why he just started to argue with him over everything, which ended up in Peter distancing himself from Wade even more. In the end they stopped talking to each other and started to go on patrol alone. Wade was so angry that he never even noticed that something was wrong with the former spider, but someday he decided that it couldn't go on like this anymore, they had to talk it out and get along again, because in the end Wade just really missed his baby boy. So one night he did not go on patrol and instead waited for Peter to come home from his. It wasn't until early in the morning that he finally heard the young hero climbing up the wall to the apartment window. When Wade looked at Peter – really looked  at him - for the first time in days he noticed how thin the boy had become. Wade frowned and stepped into Peter's way as he moved to the bathroom for a well earned warm bath. “Peter, we need to talk..” Wade said with a frown, but the teen just ignored him and walked past the merc into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. “Peter, I just want to apologize!” Wade pleaded from the other side of the door, knocking gently.“Let me in, please - baby boy. I know that I've been a dump, egoistic idiot and I'm sorry!”

It was silent for a few minutes, but then Peter finally opened the door. He had changed his clothes and looked at Wade tiredly. “I'm sorry, Peter.” Wade said in a small voice. The boy gave him a gentle smile and leaned in against Wade. The merc put his arms around him, stroking his back gently. He hesitated a little before kissing his forehead.

“Whoa Peter, you are rushing a fever.” He noticed shocked, the boy just shrugging it off. Wade stroke through his hair and picked the boy up carrying him into his bedroom. “You've been probably pushing yourself to hard.. but don't worry, I will take good care of you.” He promised. He laid the boy on his bed, arranging pillows and blankets the way he liked it most and when he was finished and all tugged in Wade noticed that Peter was fast asleep, a thin streak of blood dripping from his nose.