Home Again
Peter ran a hand through his wet hair, adjusting the towel at his waist so it was a bit tighter. Training had been long and sweaty, and now they were reconvening back downstairs for some more food (Vic was cooking!). Peter pulled on underwear,some sweats and a v-neck, all stolen from Tim of course, and jogged down the hall, skidding to a stop in front of the ops room. Peter poked his head out, grinning when he saw Dick and Tim helping to chop food up. Gar was right next to Vic at the stove, apparently using Vic’s leftover barbecue sauce to cook up some tofu so he could have some protein without feeling gross. Starfire merely watched from afar, explaining to Peter, “I have been banned from the kitchen for the majority of the time. Every now and then I am allowed, but it is a rare occasion.”
“Why?” Peter asked, hopping up to sit on an unoccupied area of the counter.
“She almost burned down the Tower one time,” Dick explained, arranging the chopped celery on a large platter with carrots, cucumber spears, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, strips of bell pepper, and something Peter didn’t recognize.
Kory cheerfully snatched a piece of the unknown food off the plate and crunched on it happily. Peter didn’t ask what it was, and no explanation was given. Tim pushed Peter over a little and joined him on the counter, apparently finished with his task. He hummed pleasantly and rested his chin on Peter’s shoulder, closing his eyes as Peter carefully massaged his shoulder. Gar looked like he was about to say something, but Peter raised a challenging eyebrow and quickly silenced him. Vic had no such qualms, and demanded that if they were going to be gross, they were to take it to the couch. Laughing, the two acquiesced, curling up comfortably on the couch.
“So,” Tim murmured quietly. “What do you think so far?”
“It’s cool here,” Peter responded just as softly. “Everyone’s really nice, and as weird as it sounds, it was cool to lose to someone at arm wrestling again. I haven’t done that since I arm wrestled Thor.”
“I’m sorry, what?!” Vic shouted, staring at Peter slack-jawed.
The other Titans looked at each other in confusion, clearly not having heard what Peter said. Peter gave him a shit-eating grin and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, man.”
“How the hell am I supposed to ignore you saying you arm-wrestled Thor?!”
Having heard that, the other people in the kitchen gave Peter almost identical expressions of bafflement, except for Kory, who just looked confused. “Who is this Thor?” she asked.
Dick blinked a couple of times, managing to shake himself out of it. “He’s a Norse god… a god, Peter!”
Peter smiled innocently while Tim cackled to his side. “Don’t worry about it, man. Don’t worry about it.”
Any more questions directed at him were deflected with yet another ‘don’t worry about it’ and the food was done.
Peter fell asleep that night with a full belly, four more friends, and a wonderful Tim curled around him.
“Recognized, Red Robin, B-20, Spider-Man, A-68.”
Peter beamed at Tim. “I have my own number now!”
Tim pecked him on the cheek. “You sure do, babe. Welcome back to Gotham.”
Peter stretched, yawning. “Is it just me, or does zeta travel take a bit out of you?”
Tim paused, tucking a bit of hair behind his ear thoughtfully. (Peter thought this was absolutely beautiful and kinda made Tim look like some sort of elven prince and man Peter was down bad. ) “I’ve never noticed any effects. That could do with a bit of research…”
Peter shrugged it off and headed for the elevator out of the cave. “Think you could give me a ride into town? I don’t think I can thwip from this distance.”
“Yeah, no prob.”
Peter yawned and collapsed into his bed, which still felt a little weird to him. (Holy shit, he has a bed now!) A soft knock interrupted his almost asleep nothing thoughts, and he wearily called for Jason to come in.
“You mind if I sit with you?” Jason asked.
Peter sat up, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. “Yeah, I don’t mind a bit.”
Jason awkwardly sat on the end of Peter’s bed, rubbing the back of his neck. “So, how was it?”
“It was pretty good.”
“You uh, planning on staying with them?”
“What? No! I’ve still got school and everything.” Peter smiled, lightly poking Jason in the ribs. “I’m not going anywhere unless you wanna kick me out, which I totally get.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Then you’re not going anywhere. Good. Having someone else do the dishes is nice.”
Peter laughed, falling back onto the bed. “I’m sure it is. Speaking of which, got anything you need doing?”
“Nah. You just got back, and something tells me that spending time with the Titans didn’t really leave any room for homework.”
Peter sighed, nodded. “Yeah, yeah. You sure you don’t want any help with dinner or anything?”
“Positive, Pete. Dinner will be ready in about half an hour. Do the homework you least like first. That ought to help get it out of the way.”
“Yessir,” Peter sloppily saluted Jason, who got up and left.
“One more thing,” Jason paused in the doorway. “Make sure to visit Harley and Ivy after school tomorrow, yeah? They’ve been missing you.”
“IVY! PETEY’S HERE!”
Peter laughed and sat back on the couch, leaning into Harley, who wrapped her arm around him.
“So, how ya been, kid?”
“It’s been pretty good! I visited the Titans this weekend!”
“Oh, and how’d that go for you?” Pam asked, sitting down on Peter’s other side with a plate of cookies that Peter gladly took from when the plate was pushed in his direction.
“It was amazing! They’re so cool, Aunt Pam!” Peter froze, carefully glancing at Pam, who had the biggest grin that Peter had ever seen on her. “Sorry. A-are you okay if I call you that? It’s just… things didn’t end so well for the last person I called that.”
Pam scooped Peter into a big hug, with Harley joining in a millisecond later. “Ivy, we’re aunts!” she gushed.
Peter chuckled nervously, being starkly reminded of just how much he loved good hugs. “Of course we don’t mind, Peter,” Pam comforted, squeezing Peter ever so slightly more before letting him go.
“Anyways, you were talking about the Titans?”
“Oh, yeah! They’re really cool! They had me go through this wild training course, just to see what I could do, then we faced off against Doctor Light, who Raven scared the shit out of, then Cyborg made some of the best ribs I have ever had! I even got to try some of Changeling’s tofu, which was actually pretty good! Not as good as the ribs, but it came pretty close! We trained for a bit, we arm-wrestled, and the next day we trained some more! I haven’t had that good of a sparring session in ages!” Peter gushed. “It was epic!”
“That sounds wonderful, Pete!” Harley exclaimed. “I’m happy ya made some friends. Gives me hope that you won’t turn out to be too much of a Bat…”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Aunt Harley?” Peter teased.
“Don’t you worry about that, kid. You planning on joining the team full time?”
“Nah. I’ve still got school here and besides, it’s not… home, you know?”
Harley sniffled, wiping a tear out of her eye. “Yeah, I know whatcha mean, kid. It ain’t New York, but it’s home.”
“Yeah, it’s home now.”