Rice and fried shrimp
There was someone moving around in the apartment, Jason could hear them. Luckily, before he could grab the gun under his pillow, he remembered he had a new temporary roommate. It would have been really awkward if he had threatened the guy with shooting him in the gut.
Which reminded him… He had some calls to make.
“Hello, Jason. I must inform you it’s only nine AM. On a Sunday, the only day I get to sleep in”, answered the other person on the phone.
“Right, it’s not like you haven’t been awake since five AM anyway”, he chuckled.
“What do you want? I don’t think this is a social call”.
“I need you to run a test for me, I’ll deliver the sample in a couple hours”, Jason said, straight to the point.
“You better bring me coffee. Two shots of espresso”. Barbara then immediately hung up. Despite the lack of interrogation, Jason knew he would have to be ready for many questions (most of which he probably wouldn’t be able to answer).
After getting dressed and leaving his room, he was hit with the smell of coffee and eggs and bacon. It was a nice way to start the day.
“Hey!” greeted Peter. “I made breakfast? Also, you really need groceries, dude”
“Haven’t really gotten around to doing that” Jason lied, sitting at the kitchen table, not wanting to admit it had been weeks since he had arrived and still hadn’t done that.
“Sure”, the other man conceded. “But I must warn you, your fridge is officially empty”
“I’ll see what I can do, I need to go out soon, anyway”
Peter got a thoughtful look on his face. “... I could go buy some stuff”
“By yourself?” Jason questioned. Well, the guy was an adult, he couldn’t exactly put him on house arrest or something. However…
“Okay, listen. Why don’t I show you around when I come back so you can get familiar with the place and then you go? That way, you won’t get lost in a completely different dimension,” he offered.
“... Fine”, Peter didn’t seem to have an argument against it.
After they finished eating, Jason got up to clean up the dishes, to Peter’s disagreement (“I’m not paying rent” “You cooked”). He almost smiled; it had been a while since he had shared his space with someone else.
“I’m leaving, don’t burn the place down. Also, don’t go out; as I have said before, Gotham is not a tourist spot” he warned. Jason had the feeling Peter only pretended to listen.
Was it wise to leave someone he barely knew to his own devices? Probably not. But Jason had access to the cameras inside the safehouse and, to good measure, put trackers on the clothes he had left for Peter.
When he arrived at Barbara Gordon’s place, he decided to knock on the door, feeling it would not go well if he just entered through the window without warning.
“I bring payment”, he said, holding the tray of coffees. Barbara silently let him in.
“What brings you here? Case-related or personal business? I know we are not that close for the later, so I’m guessing there’s something going on in Crime Alley”
“It’s actually kind of both? I need you to run a DNA test on this hair and check if you find anything about the person’s identity”, he explained. Jason knew it might attract attention if (when) Barbara didn’t find anything on Peter’s identity, but he needed to check. Even if it was only to find the guy had a version of himself in this universe.
“May I ask what is this about?”, she said, clearly suspecting there was more to it.
“Can you keep a secret?”. She narrowed her eyes. “Seriously, I want to make sure of some things before sharing it with the others… And I really don’t think he’s dangerous”
So, he told her what had happened, keeping to himself the issue with Joker.
“And you believe him?” She questioned. Which was fair, maybe.
“Well, I checked the cameras near the alley. The guy showed up out of nowhere”
“Fine, I’ll run the tests. I’ll keep it a secret for now too, but if I think he is dangerous, I will tell Bruce”, Barbara warned. “Also, he’s staying with you? Are you willingly sharing your space with another human?”
“Shut up” was all he had to say in his favor. The weird glint that appeared in her eyes made him uncomfortable.
…
People should know better than to tell Peter to stay still. It was physically impossible for him. Meh, taking a look around wouldn’t hurt, as long as he stayed close to the safehouse.
He went to check out the nearby stores, finding a hidden burger place, which he would tell Jason about later. He just hoped it wasn’t a cover for something else, given what he knew about Park Row.
After a while, he climbed on top of a building and sat down on the edge, taking in the view of the city he was dropped in.
Without looking back, Peter could sense someone appear behind him. His spider-sense didn’t catalogue him as a danger, so he was calm.
“Hey, mind stepping back from the edge?”, said the new voice. Peter sighed.
“I’m not going to jump, you know?”
“For my heart’s sake, please”, the voice insisted. Peter moved back from the edge.
In front of him stood a man with black hair, wearing a hero-like black suit with a blue symbol on it. He had a relaxed smile on his face but Peter could tell it was fake.
“I was only enjoying the view”, he explained. “Who are you, by the way?”
The man looked at him confused. “Uh, I’m Nightwing”
“Nice to meet you, I guess… Well, I’m going to leave now”. Peter began to step away.
“Wait! Are you okay? Want me to walk you home? It’s getting late”, Nightwing said.
That drew Peter’s attention, realizing the sun was setting. He hoped Jason hadn’t gotten home yet. Or at least that he didn’t think Peter had run away without warning or something.
Suddenly, gunshots could be heard, a few blocks from the building.
“Uh, shouldn’t you go check that out?” He said to Nightwing. The man looked troubled.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back!” he yelled, already swinging away with his grappling hook (Peter did not think it was cool).
Again, people should really know better than to tell Peter to stay still.
…
The spider thing was true, huh. Also, Peter Parker seemingly didn’t exist in Gotham or anywhere else (Barbara had checked every available record).
“Who on earth is this guy? A kind of meta? How is this even possible?” she said, amazed. “I might not be a biologist - you should really send this to someone else -, but this says it’s spider DNA. Spider!”
At least Peter’s story was holding up.
“Just some guy I found on the street”, Jason cheekily said. Barbara looked at him, unamused.
“Listen”, he continued, “let me handle it. Don’t tell Bruce yet, until I have figured everything out. I don’t want him treating Peter like a criminal just because he doesn’t have all the information”.
“Why are you protecting him so much?” She eyed him.
“I just feel… like the guy deserves a chance”.
Barbara stared at Jason, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.
Eventually, she sighed. He had won.
When Jason got home, Peter was just entering through the window. He knew the guy had left the apartment, but didn’t think he had run away, since Peter stayed near the building.
“Hi?” Peter said, grimacing at his own greeting.
“Hey… I bought groceries”. Jason gestured towards the bags. “I see you went out, after all. Did anything interesting happen?”
“Eh, not really. Found a burger place that I hope it’s not a cover for criminal activities, it smelled nice”. Peter said. “Also, I met a vigilante, I think? He thought I was gonna jump from a building or something”.
What.
“... Were you?” Jason seriously asked.
“What? Of course not. I was just looking at the city”, Peter answered, confused.
“At the edge of the top of a building?”
“I like high places”, Peter shrugged.
This idiot was going to make Jason get grey hairs. He just knew it.
“Anyway, which vigilante did you meet?”
“Some dude named Nightwing. Do you know him, mister anti-hero?” teased Peter.
“I have encountered him a few times, yeah”, Jason blatantly lied. Exposing himself so soon was one thing, Dick was another.
Peter eyed him suspiciously. “I see… Well, he was kind of nice? Though appearing out of nowhere would have probably made a real jumper fall over the building”
Jason couldn’t help but snort. “Yeah, the guy should probably work on being more subtle”.
…
“So, radioactive spider, huh? That made you a metahuman?” Jason said while he started dinner, resuming their previous conversation on the subject, which they never got around to finish. It smelled divine. Something with rice and fried shrimp.
“Uh, if you mean that gave me powers, then yes. I went on a school trip to a lab where they studied a lot of biology-modification things and I guess a spider escaped the enclosure” he explained.
“And the superhero thing?”
“That’s quite simple, I just wanted to help people. Especially since the Battle of… since this big catastrophe occurred in New York” It would be way too long to explain if he got into specifics about that.
“That 's it? You just wanted to help people?” Jason looked baffled. “No big trauma? No billionaire weirdo drops in and adopts you or something?”
“Actually, there was one involved that sort of became my mentor, but that happened a bit later on”. It was painful to think about that. To remember Tony.
“You must really want to go back, then. Your mentor and your family must really miss you”
“Not really”, Peter answered, ignoring the burning behind his eyes.
Jason must have seen something on his face at that moment. “Dinner’s ready”, said instead.
“It smells nice”, Peter smiled.
Dinner was actually delicious, Jason turned out to be a pretty decent cook, and quiet. It had been a really long time since Peter had shared a meal with someone.
“What are you going to do in the meantime?” Jason said, breaking the silence. “Ya’ know, with you ending up in another universe and all. Find a job? Go back to the hero business? That one might be hard, the one running the city is very territorial”.
“What”. Peter was dumbfounded.
“You can’t just stay here in the apartment; you’ll go crazy. At least until we figure something out”.
Wait. Jason was talking like Peter would stick around for a while, talking about jobs and hero stuff.
It kind of hit Peter, then. He didn’t know when we would be able to go back or even how he could accomplish it. He was stranded in an unknown world, by himself, with no one to call if things went awry. He was alone, again.
He should have seen the panic attack coming.
The dread was overwhelming (what on earth is he going to do?). Breathing was hard and felt like his heart would pound out of his chest at any moment (somebody please help me). He either was going to throw up or pass out (there’s no one left to help him).
Ben was gone. Tony was gone. May was gone too.
He couldn’t breathe.
He had lost MJ and Ned.
He didn’t exist in anyone’s mind. Not anymore.
He felt like he was going to die.
Would that be any better?
He was alone and it was all his fault.
Was it even a place worth coming back to?
…
Jason really didn’t feel qualified to handle other people’s emotions; he could barely deal with his own. What was he supposed to do when a guy from another dimension was having a panic attack, probably because of something Jason had said?
“Peter, hey. Can you hear me?” One of his hands hovered over the young man’s shoulder for a moment, before grabbing it softly. He was shaking.
“... I can’t… there’s nothing left…”, Peter kept mumbling. “It’s all my fault… everything”
Peter clearly couldn’t hear him, trapped in whatever he was remembering.
“I need you to do something for me, okay? You need to ground yourself” tried again. “What can you touch? What can you hear? What can you smell?”
“I… the kitchen table, I think. I hear your voice. And I smell the shrimp you cooked”, Peter breathed.
“That’s great, you are doing good”, Jason had moved his hand from the shoulder to caress his hair before realizing it. Peter leaned into his hand, so he didn’t stop.
He didn’t look too well.
Jason couldn’t help but wonder what the hell had happened to him.
Slowly, Peter seemed to come back to himself.
“I’m sorry about that”, avoiding his gaze, Peter seemed embarrassed.
“Hey, it happens to the best of us”, he said, trying to sound comforting. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Not really, no”, Peter shaked his head.
“Okay. You should get some rest, though, I bet it has been a hard couple of days”
“Yeah, you could say that”, Peter chuckled weakly.
Jason could only watch him go.
…
Peter didn’t know how long he had just lay there on the bed, curled up on his side with his eyes closed, but unable to sleep. Then, someone knocked on the door. Peter stayed still.
“Hey”, a soft voice spoke. “I don’t know if you’re awake, but just in case. I have to go out, I’ll be back in the morning probably… see ya’”. He left, closing the door behind him.
It was annoying, sometimes, how Jason kind of treated him like he couldn’t take care of himself. He was a grown man, okay?
Peter knew it was actually kindness. Jason barely knew him for what, two days? And had already shown him so much more kindness than his universe had in a very long time (not that it wasn’t Peter’s fault that everything got so messed up).
Anyway, Jason was kind, about that he was sure. Would that last when he truly came to know Peter? What he had done? The people he had hurt?