Peter honestly wasn’t expecting to be immediately left alone in the mansion with only Damian and Alfred for company.
Really, Alfred wasn’t that bad, but the old butler had waved Peter off so he could go clean just fifteen minutes previous. So now Peter was pondering if he was bored enough to bother the youngest Wayne.
Turns out, he didn’t even have to.
Damian appeared then, right in the doorway of Peter’s room, “Parker. You said to locate you when I was finished with this. I have a significant number of things to discuss.”
In Damian’s hand was the copy of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood that Peter had given him to read a few days before.
Peter nods simply, gesturing for Damian to come in, “Alright, where do you want to start?”
Damian looks utterly shocked that Peter was even entertaining the idea of listening to him, let alone actually meaning his earlier offer of discussion, “U-I would like to start in the very beginning. I do not understand how Robin Hood is meant to be good if he begins by murdering. Murder is bad.” Damian says murder is bad as if it’s something someone has drilled into him, as if someone had repeatedly said the phrase to him until he mindlessly repeated after them.
Still, the boy walks over to stand beside Peter’s bed.
“Well, yeah, but sometimes it’s necessary. Sometimes the only way to end something that you know will hurt more people than not is killing, no matter how moral the person. Is it more moral to not end someone who you know would kill more people painfully?” Peter questions.
“I suppose not. Then those murders would be stopped by the murderer not being around.” Damian concedes.
“We know that Robin Hood didn’t mean to kill, he felt so guilty about it, and after that took to vowing to help everyone he could.” Peter replies easily, the story a touch too close to home.
Damian nods, taking in that information, “But he continues to steal from others, such as the beggars.”
Peter nods, “Well, yes. Robin Hood’s moral code is questionable, but he believes he’s helping. Him and his crew believe the government is corrupt and that they are simply taking actions against that by redistributing wealth. The beggars' situation shows that even though he’s doing good sometimes, others his moral code contradicts itself.”
“But he is doing good as well, allowing people to be married to who they wish, and actually helping out the poor?” Damian’s eyebrows are scrunched in confusion, “He’s both?”
Peter laughs, “Everyone is both, Damian. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things. That’s Robin Hood’s point, he’s doing bad things to work towards a good outcome, so to you does that make him a hero or a villain?”
“Both, I suppose. Robin Hood is still doing those bad things, even though it’s for a good reason. So, he’d fall into anti-hero territory.”
Peter tilts his head in acknowledgement, makes a so-so movement with his hand, “But that’s your view on it. If you grew up like I did, poor and on the streets, you’d see him as fully a hero until you have the opportunity to see the wrong in his actions.”
Damian frowns, “Why?”
“Well, you grew up rich. Of course your first instinct is that because he’s stealing, he must be bad, you had that wealth in the first place. I didn’t get that, we had days where there simply was no food to be had. When I heard about him, he was a hero to us because we needed that money to simply exist, and the rich had a surplus of it.” Peter explains.
Damian sits on Peter’s bed then, “So he’s a hero because he’s helping in the only way he can. Even if that way is through theft.”
Peter nods, hands fiddling with his shirt, “Isn’t that what all heroes do? Help in the only way they can? It’s complicated, just because people are complicated. Most people don’t do bad for the sole reason of doing bad. They do it because they view it as good.”
Leaning back on one hand, the other on his face in deep thought, Damian replies, “So doing one bad thing doesn’t make you a bad person, but same as doing one good thing doesn’t make you good.”
“Exactly, and in Robin Hood’s case, he was doing both bad and good in pretty equal amounts. It was still against the law, which almost resulted in his death, but because his good was also viewed he survived. People are complicated. All people.” Peter shrugs.
Damian agrees with that, "You think the King disliked them because of the theft?" A nod from Peter. Damian makes a tt sound, like Peter's an idiot, before continuing, "I took it as the King disliking Robin Hood and his outlaws because the Queen liked them."
"Oh, I never thought of it like that. Yeah, that's really smart actually." Peter says, and Damian positively preens under the praise.
Damian seems to come to a conclusion then, and nods, “I would like another favorite book of yours. Despite myself, I found myself really enjoying Robin Hood’s adventures.” He sounds so genuinely distraught that he couldn’t force himself to hate it that Peter laughs.
Peter grabs the next book from behind him, The Borrowers, and hands it to Damian, “I’m glad you liked it, Damian. Try this one next and come find me to talk about it when you’re done.”
Damian nods again, snatching to book up quickly, “I am keeping Robin Hood. Just to make you aware.”
Peter shakes his head with a grin, “Go ahead. I liked talking about it with you, Damian. Your perspective was nice.”
Damian smiles slightly, barely visible, “You are not awful to speak with, I suppose, Parker. I will come back when I finish this.”
Then Damian’s gone, and Peter is back to shaking his head with a smile. Peter digs up his suit from his mattress and gets back to mending it. He was going out as Spider-Man tonight, he had to. Both to clear the air, make it known he was still alive, and because he simply had to help.
---
Finally, after working on it all day after his little talk with Damian, Peter managed to fix his suit. He’s once again infinitely grateful to Aunt May for teaching him how to mend, and for Ned, who had to fix the suit so many times he got tired of it and taught Peter how to fix the tech parts.
Peter doesn’t have the most tech at the moment, but it still helps to have some. His earpiece, something Ned, Mr. Stark, and Peter himself have all fixed just about a billion times, was the easiest thing to fix.
He popped the cover, replaced the wires by stripping a broken charger cord and fucking with it until it looked right, and simply popped the cover back on after he was finished. Simple, and only took like half an hour.
Peter locks his door, putting on his suit and carefully making his way out of the window. He lets his spider sense pull him naturally away from the cameras and swings his way to Crime Alley before putting on his earpiece and turning it on.
“Oracle?” Peter asks, wondering if he fixed her tech correctly.
Oracle sounds shocked to hear him, putting him through to the main vigilante line quickly, “Spider-Man?” She asks.
Peter swings through Crime Alley, stopping a mugging on his way, “Yeah, it’s me. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I had to fix your earpiece and heal.”
Red Hood’s gruff voice replies, “You’re alive. That’s what counts.”
Isn't that the truth Mantis' voice comes through then, sounded vaguely drained.
Sorry Mantis, can't control it really Peter thinks back, upset at having stressed the poor alien out.
He lets out a laugh that sounds miserable to his own ears, knowing every bat could hear him, “Yeah, barely. Otherwise, I would’ve made it back out sooner.”
Nightwing’s voice crackles through, “How? How’d you survive? I saw you drop into the river.”
Peter sees Red Hood ahead of him, and nods absently in response to Nightwing’s question, “I did drop, but I used the stickiness from my spider powers to stick to the side. I couldn’t move, or hear anything, because of the drop.”
He’d tell them the truth later at some point. For now, he turns off his comm and waves at Red Hood, who’s standing guard at the park Spider-Man cleaned.
“It’s real good to see you, Spidey. Real good.”
“Nice seeing you too, y’know. Didn’t get any news back the first day and I thought you were injured way worse than you seem to be.” Peter replies, falling into step with Hood easily.
The man in question snorts, “Yeah, I suppose that wouldn’t be pleasant for ya. Come on, lets get some food before we go out.”
Peter smiles, following Red Hood to Bat Burgers, where he lets Hood order for the both of them. Peter retreats to the rooftop where Hood and him first ate burgers together, knowing Hood would find him.
And he did, climbing onto the roof with his grapple and throwing the burger at Peter, which he caught easily. Hood took his helmet off, looking over at Peter, “You’re a sentimental bastard, you know that?”
Peter pulls his mask up to reveal his mouth, smirking cheekily, “One of us had to be.”
Hood snorts, clearly rolling his eyes even though Peter couldn’t actually see him do it and takes a bite out of his burger.
Just like the first time, they eat in relative silence, a few quips here and there. Mostly just appreciating the fact that the other was still alive.
After they were done, and had properly disposed of their trash, Hood looked at him, “So, you joining me on patrol?”
Peter pulls his mask back down, “Aww, you want me. Course I am, Hood.”
Once again, Peter gets the distinct feeling that Hood is rolling his eyes at him, before he grapples off. Peter follows.
The night is pretty relaxed, especially for Gotham’s Crime Alley. But for once, Crime Alley was happy. Happy to have their Spider back.
Red Hood and Spider-Man only stopped a few petty criminals and helped with some basic neighborhood stuff, but when Peter went to bed that night, he felt more accomplished than he had when he was fighting the big bads.
---
After waking up so many nights in general comfort you’d think Peter would have gotten better at it. That, at some point, the nightmares would cease to follow. You’d be wrong.
Yeah, he hears Sam’s voice come through, They never do go away
Sighing, Peter rolls himself out of bed. Apparently, his brain had decided it was time to get up, and who was he to deny it what it wanted?
As a hobby, Peter’s taken to baking after nightmares. Baking is a science, -everything to the exact right degree and it works, too much of anything and it doesn’t- and Peter’s good at science. It gives him something to focus on so he doesn’t have to have visions of everyone he loves dying.
You know, regular teenage boy things.
He hears Fury snort in the back of his mind, Kid, if you think there’s anything normal about you, you’re more nuts than we thought
Peter rolls his eyes in lieu of a response, padding his way through the kitchen to find all of the ingredients for brownies. The best part of this particular science is that the results are delicious.
Peter’s mind went blissfully blank as he baked. It always did when he focused on getting the perfect amounts of literally anything. By the time Peter had snapped back into reality, he had two pans of brownies, 36 cupcakes, and a tray of cookies.
Lovely.
Unlike when it was just him and his aunt, though, the Waynes actually had the funds to support all of that baking. So, Peter really didn’t feel too bad. He was back in his right mind when he began decorating the cupcakes, simple decor really, just the colors of the rainbow.
That’s what Steph walked in on him doing, “Peter? What on Earth are you doing?” Peter notices her arm is clutched over her gut, and her face is twisted up in pain.
“I’m baking, it helps calm me down after I’ve had… a rough time. Are you alright?” Peter asks, gesturing to her stomach with a piping bag.
Steph hums, “Yeah, just cramps. Hurts to move actually, turns out having the best doctors at your service really doesn’t help if they don’t believe you. I was just hungry.”
Peter puts his piping bag down, shoving a cookie at her, “Yeah, my friend MJ used to get them real bad. I had to threaten a doctor for her to get him to diagnose her with PCOS. Healthcare system fucking sucks. Eat, and then we’ll watch some movies.”
Steph grins at him, settling down into a chair by the island of their kitchen slowly, “Thanks Peter. Really, it means the world. And make more of those purple.”
Peter nods at her with a smile, picking up the purple piping bag, “Favorite color, eh?”
“Yeah, it’s the prettiest. Plus, if there's more purple than the others, the boys and Cass will know it was me asserting my dominance, and that always makes me feel better.”
Peter lets out a startled laugh, throwing his head back in his joy, “Just for that, I’ll make sure there’s more purple. Assert your dominance how you please.” Steph grins at him and grabs another cookie. They sit in a comfortable silence as Peter finishes frosting all of his cupcakes and Steph rapidly eats through the cookies he baked.
After he finishes, he calls for Alfred, who, of course, comes to help at his request, “Hey Mr. Alfred, can you get all of these to the big room in there, we’re gonna have a movie night.”
Alfred smiles at him, “No need to call me Mister, Mr. Peter. I will take these to the movie room then. Up the stairs to the left, third door down, is that room. Let me know how your movie night goes.”
Peter flashes him a grin, “You’ll have to stop calling me Mister first, Mr. Alfred. Thank you, I’ll be sure to let you know later.”
Alfred laughs quietly at Peter’s antics, managing to grab all of the sweets at once and make his way to the movie room. Oh rich people, never change. A whole room dedicated to movies is insane. Never change.
With a softer smile, Peter walks around the island to Steph, “Mind if I lift you up?”
Steph nods, “Not a bit, don’t know if you’ll be able to, though.”
“Nonsense!” Peter exclaims, easily lifting Steph from her seat at the island. Steph lets her shock color her laugh, and Peter laughs with her, “So, young Steph, to the movie room we go!”
Throwing her head back, Steph laughs harder. Less out of surprise this time and more out of joy that Peter would do this for her after just telling him once that moving hurt her. It meant a lot more to her than she’s sure he knew.
Peter carried her up the stairs like it was nothing. Well, it was nothing to him, but Steph didn’t know that. Duke passed them on his way downstairs and did a double take, which both Peter and Steph thought was hilarious.
Steph turns her smile to him, “We’re having a movie night, join us Duke! Invite Timmons too, lord knows he needs out of that room sometime.”
Duke laughs, “It’s like 5 in the afternoon?”
Peter laughs back at him, “And? You in on our movie night or not? I made snacks.” Peter charms him easily, dragging out the ‘s’ on the end of snacks.
Duke agrees, “Yeah, I’ll join you dorks on your movie day. I’m inviting everyone back, though.”
Steph nods her agreement adding, “Yeah, for sure. Call up Jason and Dick too, just in case.”
Duke nods at her, “Very well, Miss Princess.”
“I’d beat the shit out of you if I wasn’t very much happy where I am.” Steph retorts, flipping him the bird.
Peter continues up the stairs then, “You can beat the shit out of Duke later, right now we have movies to attend to.”
Duke sends him a thankful look before he’s off to the kitchens. Peter finds the movie room easily enough. With Steph’s ‘help’. He sets her down carefully in the corner of one of the big couches, making sure it was by an outlet, before he calls out, “I’ll be right back.” and heads off to the bathroom.
When he was in there earlier, just generally fucking around, he found a heating pad. Quickly searching through the drawer it was previously in, Peter finds the pad quickly and rushes back to the movie room, only getting a little lost without Steph’s help.
Which was an upgrade from with Steph’s help because she enjoyed fucking with him.
Peter plugs the heating pad in next to her and hands it to her. He smiles, and with a deep, dramatic bow says, “For you, my Lady.”
Just how Cap tried to teach him when he was giving his stupid lesson on courting girls in like the 20’s. Bucky and Sam laugh from the back of his mind at the memory, which is a plus.
Steph just laughs, taking the heating pad with a, “Thank you, my Good Sir.”
Then they both dissolve into absolutely hysterical giggles.
Peter grabs the remote and makes a note to thank Alfred again later as all of the snacks he’d made, and a few extra things, were set up on the table in front of them. Which was flat out impressive.
He sits down next to Steph and turns on the huge ass TV. Seriously, though, who needed a TV that big?
“So, Steph, what do you wanna watch?” Peter asks, easily navigating to the universe’s version of Netflix.
Steph thought for a second, pressing the heating pad to her stomach hard, “I dunno. You’ll have to wait for the boys to get here anyway, they’ll argue over it.”
Peter grins at her, “That’s the best part about getting here first! You don’t have to listen to their opinions. Ooo, what about Moana?”
Cass is the first of the siblings to make her way into the movie room, settling in on a beanbag across from Peter and Steph. She grins at the option and signs ‘Please! I’ve never seen it, and I don’t think anyone else here has either.’
Peter nods, “Moana it is then.” And presses on the movie, not pressing play just yet. Slowly but surely, all of the Wayne and honorary Wayne kids filter in. With Jason and Dick being the last two, of course.
Damian sits next to Peter, which is a bit surprising but it’s not as if he’d sat next to Tim. Tim sat with Duke on the couch by Cass’s bean bag, both chatting about something to do with school.
Dick sat on the other end of the couch from Cass, relatively close to Damian. Despite Damian sitting by Peter, he was still an entire couch cushion away. Jason, being the dramatic bitch he is, threw himself across the entirety of the last available couch.
Just when Peter was about to start the movie, his phone started ringing. It was Felicia. Peter answered with an internal sigh, knowing that she’d be upset if he ignored her.
“Hey Fel, what’s up?”
Felicia immediately responded, “On a scale of 1-10 how busy are you right now, I’m bored and was thinking of doing something mischievous.”
Peter audibly sighed this time, but his smile was clear when he spoke, “Busy Fel. And how many times do I have to tell you I’m not letting you steal anything!”
Steph tuned into his conversation then, signing to ask if it was Felicia. Peter nods at her and she mouths ‘Put her on speaker.’
“One sec, Steph wants to talk to you. I’m putting you on speaker. No stealing!” Peter said, pressing the button and letting his phone rest on his thigh.
Felicia groans, “Fine. You’re no fun, Pete, y’know that.”
Tim perks up from his seat, “Felicia?”
“Oh, Pete, I forgot you were with rich and richer! Heya Tim.”
Peter rolls his eyes, “You can’t see me but I’m rolling my eyes in annoyance at you right now.”
Steph whacks Peter in the shoulder, excitedly calling out, “Felicia!”
Felicia, with the same amount of excitement, shouts back, “Steph!”
Steph grins, “You should come over, we’re having a movie night.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ve got nothing better to do. What happened, ya tell Peter you got your period.” Felicia jokes.
“He’s done this before?” Steph’s eyes widen, looking at Peter, who shrugs.
Peter vaguely nods, his hand doing a so-so motion, “Not a movie night, cause that’s really not Fel’s thing, but yeah.”
Felicia shakes her head, the only tell-tale sign of it being the static-iness through the phone, clearly moving through some kind of public transport, “Yeah, he picked me up and everything! I didn’t even know he could do that. Told ‘im MJ taught him well.”
Peter rolls his eyes again, “You’re funny if you think MJ would’ve let me touch her. Nah, she hated being touched even when she wasn’t on her period, which is why I ask, y’know.”
Over the phone there was a vague hum, then, “So, how’d princess treatment come about? And I thought MJ was cool with you.”
“Yeah, she was. We were best friends for sure, but boundaries and all. I did punch her doctor for her, but that was deserved.” Peter thought out loud for a minute, “I guess ‘Princess Treatment’ as you call it came from my little neighbor.”
Jason’s eyebrows raised.
“Yeah? Proud of you for punching that doc by the way.” Felicia’s grin was audible.
“Yeah, I guess. Maya lived in the apartment next to me and May back in queens. She only had her dad, so she never really got the whole ‘talk’, y’know.” Peter did the air quotes with his hand even if she couldn’t see. Everyone’s eyes were on him anyways, “I was always the one anyone came to if there was blood. So imagine 12-year-old Peter’s surprise when a crying 9-year-old comes to the door crying about how she’s dying.”
Felicia laughs, “Can not have been fun.”
Peter shrugs, “It was whatever. I had to teach her how to put on a pad though, and that was really not fun. I’m sure that watermelon I used for my demonstration still feels violated.”
Felicia laughs harder, this time joined by both Steph and Cass, as Peter shudders jokingly. Steph, through her laughter, asks, “How did you even do that?”
“Don’t ask. Anyways, she was hurtin' and we were both thoroughly embarrassed by that point, so I just princess-carried her back to her apartment to make her feel better. It worked, so whenever someone’s hurting, I ask now.”
Felicia, who’s clearly gotten off of whatever transport she’d been on by now, says, “You’re such a good person it makes me actually sick, Peter.” With a solid fake throwing up sound.
In his head, he hears Sam, She’s right, kid, I didn’t even know you did that.
Peter rolls his eyes for a third time in the past fifteen minutes, at both of them, “Fuck off, Fel.”
Tim rolls his eyes at Peter from the other side of the table, “She’s right, you know. The fact that you were so willing to help even though you were uncomfortable is sweet.” If Peter were paying any attention to his face, not his words, he’d notice that Tim’s face was pink.
Unfortunately, Peter’s oblivious to that, “Okay, you fuck off too.”
Felicia chimes in, “I’m about ten minutes out, I think. Tell me there’s food, please.”
Duke grins, aimed vaguely at Tim, but just grinning in general as well, “There is, did you know Peter could bake?”
“Bake!?” Felicia startles, “No, I did not. Cooking, I knew about, but baking? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Peter flips Duke off, “It’s whatever. I just do it in the form of scientific measurements.”
Duke snorts, “Nerd. But what is this I hear about cooking?”
Felicia agrees, “You are a fucking nerd Peter. Pete’s first date back in Queens I got the tail end of food on.”
Peter, once again, rolls his eyes. At this rate, he believes what Aunt May used to say about them falling out of his head, “It was not my first date, first of all. It was my first date with a guy. And you didn’t ‘get’ the tail end of it, you stole it.”
“Pish posh. It was good, and that’s all that matters.”
Dick was, in the least subtle manner physically possible, making loud kiss-y sounds at Tim. Tim, who at this point was doing a rather swell impression of a cherry tomato.
Felicia luckily saved him, “I’m here!”
Tim immediately stood up, “I’ll let you in, be back in a minute guys.”
Then Felicia hung up on Peter, who shrugs and tosses his phone back into his pocket.
Damian, who’d gotten closer at some point during the group conversation, whispered to Peter, “You have to explain at least half of whatever that was to me later.” at Peter’s nod, he adds, “May I have a cupcake?”
Peter grins at him, “Go for it.”
Damian quickly grabs a green-frosted cupcake, sitting down closer to Peter than he was at the beginning, but farther than where he was whispering to him. Peter took one of the blankets off of the back of the couch while Damian was leant forward and threw it over Steph, who was curled around her heating pad with her head resting on Peter’s shoulder.
Tim came through with Felicia then and retook his own seat. Felicia expertly took two cupcakes, a brownie, and a cookie before sitting down in a bean bag by Cass.
That really started the battle over snacks, with Jason hoarding all of the red frosted cupcakes and Tim complaining about it, and Duke taking over the yellow cupcakes.
Dick suddenly shouts, “Why are there so many purple ones?” And every one of the Wayne and honorary Wayne siblings turned to Steph, who was grinning wider than the Joker at this point.
Peter has to hold back on rolling his eyes, “She asked. Anyways, can I start the freaking movie already?”
A chorus of yes's and nods answered him, so Peter clicked ‘PLAY’.
Halfway through the movie and Dick had already cried once, Damian informed Peter that Dick was just a very emotional person. Felicia on the other hand was currently trying to goad Peter into singing Shiny with her.
“Come on Peter, please?” Felicia asks, dragging out her please in a very exaggerated manner.
Peter grins at her, “Fel, I can’t sing. Like at all. Trust me, you don’t want this.” He adjusts himself forward, grabbing himself, Damian, and Steph some cookies, before falling back into the couch.
Felicia smiles back, “That’s what makes it fun. When it gets to ‘I am Moana’, I’m making you dance with me.”
“Yeah, fine, okay.” Peter agrees, “But I’m not singing.” Felicia leaves him be then, singing along to Shiny loudly and out of key. Eventually, when Duke knows enough of the words, he joins her, which makes her very much happy.
As soon as it gets to ‘I am Moana’, about three quarters of their snacks have been completely depleted and Felicia has grabbed Peter's hand. Peter shakes his head fondly, moving Steph’s head to the back of the couch before taking her hand.
Felicia pulls him up, grabbing his other hand and pulling him in front of the TV. They didn’t take up much of the movie sized TV, so Peter let it be. Instead of focusing on that, he laughs at Felicia, who’s still singing loudly, and twirls her around.
They dance around the room wildly, Peter being to only one to keep some sort of rhythm. Nearing the end, she stops singing to instead shout, “Come on Peter, Mamma Mia lift me.”
Peter rolls his eyes but still lifts her above his head easily, spinning her around until the music stops, “Happy now?”
“Very!” Felicia grins, going back to her seat.
Jason had begun poking at a concerningly red Tim about 15 seconds in to their makeshift dancing session, and was joined by Duke as soon as Peter lifted Felicia above his head.
Tim smacked at both of their hands and hissed, “Will you guys just focus on the movie.” His brothers’ resounding laughs gave him his answer, though it wasn’t the one he wanted.
Peter, for his part, didn’t notice any of this. He sat back down where he was and let Steph lay on him again, refocusing on the movie. Then Cass tapped on the table to get his attention and signed at him ‘you dance?’
Peter nods, signing back, ‘yeah, I do. Used to do ballet, actually.’
Cass immediately got excited, ‘Tomorrow. We dance.’
Peter nods at her, going to look back at the movie when Felicia involves herself, speaking in perfect Italian, “You know sign, Peter? You have to teach me so I can talk to the pretty girl.”
Peter grins, teasing her, “Yeah, I do. Someone’s got a crush~”
Felicia rolls her eyes with a blush, flipping Peter off. Peter just laughs, “I’ll teach you later.” To which he gets a thumbs up.
Dick looks over to Tim, who looks frankly like he’s about to pass out. What can he say? Competence is his kink. On the other side of the room, Damian has been taking notes, mentally of course, of the movie. There’s going to be a lesson, there always is, and Damian is dead set on understanding it.
Of course, when the twist happens and Moana calms Te Fiti down by giving her back her own heart, Damian’s first instinct is to look at Jason. He’s not the only one, Steph points at Jason and says, “Literally you.” So, he’s also not the most obvious.
Jason just groans, “Come on guys. Peter, put on the next movie.”
Tim grins, “Just a minute Peter, I texted Alfred to ask if he’d bring us some more snacks. How about we wait for those.”
Peter nods, and in his head he hears, Keep an eye on Tim, he’s planning something. Kid’s got Steve’s look down from Bucky.
He does, in fact, have revenge gleaming in his eyes.
The Wayne siblings spend the next five minutes terrorizing Jason for having anger issues, much to the amusement of Peter and Felicia. During this, Damian tugs on Peter's shirt to ask, "Will you give me the next book now, we can discuss The Borrowers tomorrow. I quite enjoyed it actually."
Peter smiles, "Of course, I'll grab The Outsiders for you after the next movie. It's one of my all-time favorites."
Jason butts into their conversation then, ignoring the barrage of insults being thrown at him, "I've never heard of it, you've got a spare? I'd like to read a copy too, little fuckwad over here wouldn't let me touch 'his' copy of The Borrowers, which I'd also like to read at some point."
Peter laughs, "I've got a few, I'll let you borrow one, sure."
Tim stops insulting Jason's every, well everything, for just long enough to glace at Peter with puppy dog eyes, "Me too?"
"Alright, yeah. I have some copies from when MJ, Ned, and I read it together. Fair warning though, they're definitely annotated." Peter gives in immediately to his puppy dog eyes.
Damian quickly nods, "I want whichever one you annotated."
Peter's pretty sure that's Damian-speak for being the favorite, so he nods. Damian goes back to bullying Jason, who looks up at Peter, face deadpan as if he were looking at a camera in The Office, "What kind of annotations?"
"Don't worry, I'll give you MJ's, she's always got good thoughts, so hers will definitely be great. Which means Tim's got Ned's annotation."
Tim nods at Peter, then joins his little brother in brutally making fun of Jason.
Peter goes to talk to Felicia, and it turns into deciding on the next movie for them to watch. When Alfred brings more treats in, the terrorizing comes to a stop, which means that Peter’s conversation with Felicia is all that’s heard throughout the room.
“Felicia. We’re not watching Encanto. Dick’ll cry again and it’ll give everyone here a mental breakdown.”
Alfred smiles at Peter after putting down the snacks, “Perhaps you’re underestimating their mental states, Mr. Peter.”
Peter shakes his head, “No, Mr. Alfred, you don’t understand. That movie could shake the most mentally stable, and they are not the most mentally stable!”
Alfred laughs, “Understood, Mr. Peter. Choose another option, Ms. Felicia.”
Felicia shakes her head, “One day, we will be watching Encanto. Until then, how about Tangled? Both Rapunzel and Flynn Rider are hot.”
Alfred takes his leave as Peter agrees, “Ay, good opinions, Fel. Tangled it is.”
Steph whacks Peter in the arm as soon as Alfred’s gone, “Excuse me, I am perfectly mentally stable.”
Peter laughs, “Yeah, Steph, but they’re,” and Peter waves in the general direction of Dick, Jason, Damian, and Tim, “decidedly not.”
That causes a few of them to babble up excuses, which Peter silences by hitting play.
At the halfway point of Tangled, Peter and Felicia have gotten much agreement on the attractiveness of Flynn Rider and Rapunzel, most of the previously replenished snacks are gone, and Peter’s stuck; Steph’s asleep curled into his shoulder, and his arm is around her so he could continue holding the heating pad to her stomach, and Damian is asleep on his thigh, with his legs on top of Dick’s thighs.
Peter puts up the footrest, very carefully so he doesn’t disturb either of them, and lets his other arm fall forward over Damian.
Duke, after getting back from going to the bathroom, saw that Peter’s shoulder was unoccupied and that Damian only took up the front half of the couch. So, to make fun of Tim, he hops the back of the couch and settles in.
His head is on the back of Peter’s shoulder with his feet shoved behind Dick’s back, much to Dick’s complaint, and he snatches a blanket to set over himself and Damian. Peter looks at him startled for a second, before mentally shrugging and settling into his new role as a pillow.
By the time the movies ended, all of the wards of the Waynes are asleep, and so is Felicia.
Don’t worry, Alfred got a picture. Or a few pictures. Okay, it was a lot of pictures.
---
“Parker, I require- what are you doing?” Damian halts his sentence halfway through after opening Peter’s bedroom door to see him in front of a mirror drawing little dots on his ears.
“Hmm, oh hey Damian. I’m about to pierce my ears, why, what's up?” Peter says back, attention never drifting from perfectly lining up his doubles above the first holes and making sure they were even.
“You purposefully pierce yourself?” Damian asks, tone completely befuddled.
“Yup, then I put in jewelry through the hole. I’ve done it multiple times before, most of them on my friend MJ, but I did my own firsts too.”
Damian’s eyes lit up in recognition, “Oh my! Cain has those in her ears. She has these fantastic swords through them, she usually has one keeping her hair up as well, but my hair isn’t long enough for that. My ears, though,” Damian tilts his head in thought, “Parker! I demand you pierce my ears as well.”
Peter looks back toward Damian for the first time, “You sure? How about you watch me do my own ears first and then decide if you still want them.”
He wasn’t going to deny Damian pierced ears if that was what the kid wanted. Especially since, knowing Damian, he would just try to pierce them himself anyways. But he still wanted the kid to at least think about it.
Damian seems to mull over that for a minute before nodding, “Yes, I suppose that will work.”
Peter rolls his eyes at Damian through the mirror before picking up his needle, “Alright, so basically I drew the dots on my ears evenly, where I’m going to pierce this needle through. Right now, I’m putting my stud in the back of the needle so that once I push it through my ear, I can just pull it all the way through and boom! Earrings.”
Damian nods along as Peter talks, eyeing his first piercings, which were red studs, and the ones he was currently putting in the needle, black studs.
Peter continues, “If you want, you can pick out the starter earrings you’d like from over there,” He tilts his head to the right, where a small pile of jewelry is laid out on the counter, “Remember though, you’ll be stuck with them until your piercings heal.”
Damian nods again, slightly overwhelmed by the influx of brand-new information, but glad that Parker had taken the time to explain it all to him.
“Now watch.” Peter said softly as he stuck the needle through the dot on his ear, pushing it all the way through easily and fastening the backing on after the needle came out of his ear.
“Easy enough,” Damian assures, tone confident, “I require earrings too.”
Peter laughs, sterilizing his piercing needle, “Alright, let me do my other side, then we’ll pick out your jewelry, deal?”
“Deal.”
With quick, practiced hands Peter steadied the needle right over the dot on his other ear and quickly pushed it through. Painlessly, at least for Peter, fastening the pretty black stud into place.
Then he sterilizes the needle again, pushing it into a small bag just in case he doesn’t have any new needles in the future. Technically, the piercing needles are still clean and sterile, but it’s always preferred to use new piercing needles so the piercings won’t get infected.
Peter usually doesn’t have to worry about that, with his super healing and all, but he makes sure to clean his jewelry anyways because why waste his healing on something easily preventable?
Finally, he turns to Damian, “Alright, let’s pick out some earrings for you then. What color would you prefer?”
Damian tilts his head slightly, checking out all of the jewelry Peter picked up the last time he went out shopping, “I suppose I am uncertain. I appreciate the black earrings you have in right now though.”
Peter nods absently, quickly sifting through the pile to find small black studs, “These up to standards?”
He gets an excited nod in response before Damian notices his excitement is visible and reels himself back in, “Yes, those would be precisely what I’d like!”
“Alright, let me mark your ears and then look in the mirror and see if the dot is where you want the piercing then. If both are too high or too low, tell me. If one is where you want it, but you think they’re uneven, point it out and I’ll fix it, yeah?” Peter says quickly, hiding his frown at Damian’s need to hide his own emotions.
Damian gives him a nod, so Peter begins. Quickly dotting the places he thinks Damian’s ears would look the best with, Peter makes sure they’re as even as can be before shooing Damian off to go look in the mirror.
As Damian is looking at the placement, Peter grabs an unopened piercing needle. Different people, different needle, guys.
Just how often do you do this? Shuri questions.
Often enough, Peter thinks back, subconsciously remembering every time he’s pierced MJ, himself, or even Harry. The souls watch these memories with him, and Peter smiles at the reminder of his friends.
Blinking back into his current reality, Damian is tutting in front of him, “Zoning out, Parker?”
Peter just smiles, “Caught up in my own head. Do you like where the dots are?” The boy just offers a small hum and sits cross legged in front of him, which Peter takes to mean he’s fine with the placement.
“Alright, I’m gonna take the needle out of the bag and set it up, how about you tell me how you’re liking The Outsiders while I’m prepping?” Peter suggests, tearing the packaging of the needle open and getting the jewelry ready.
Damian hums at him again, “I have to be honest; I’ve really enjoyed it so far. I haven’t had the chance to talk to Drake or Todd about it, but I’d assume they have too. Though I don’t know how far along they are.”
Peter nods, “I’ve told them we’d all talk about it after the gala if they hadn’t wanted to before that, so they’ll be finished by then at the latest. I’m glad you’re liking it.”
“Your annotations make me laugh sometimes,” Damian admits quietly, “It’s surprisingly pleasant to have your perspective on things as I go.”
Alright, Peter can’t help it at this point, his heart softens, “Thanks, Damian. Are you ready for me to pierce your ears?”
Damian nods, and Peter lines up the needle with his ear, “Would you prefer a count-down or for me to just do it and not tell you?”
“Just do it, please.” Damian requests, hands squeezing his own legs. Peter nods again, waiting for a few seconds before pushing the needle through. Quickly after, he puts the backing on the earring, “Alright, Damian. Turn so I can do the other side.” Damian does as Peter says, and Peter repeats the process on this side as well, “Okay, you’re all done.”
Damian immediately walks over to the mirror, unable to hide his joy at the piercings, “I like them a lot. Thank you… Peter.”
Peter’s surprised by the use of his first name, the blatant display of trust by the most untrusting Wayne. No insults, no last name, just Peter.
Without even thinking about it, Peter’s face splits into a blinding smile, “I’m glad Damian, really. You can change them to swords in a few weeks, until then keep them clean.”
Peter hands Damian a bottle of piercing cleaner and is surprised by the boy for the second time in the past 30 seconds when he gets a hug. Peter doesn’t waste a second in hugging him back, letting himself indulge in his love language for a minute. He has been slightly devoid of non-harmful touch for a minute.
That’s… sad. Sam whispers in the back of his mind. Peter mentally shrugs him off, focusing on holding Damian close.
After a few moments Damian pulls away, thanking Peter again.
“Anytime, Damian, anytime.” Peter says softly back, watching the boy leave with smiles on both of their faces.
---
Peter was out of breath, fighting in a quarter of his suit, wounded, and had just watched one of his only friends in this universe fall to their death.
So, yeah, his Friday's going great.
That's really when Ebony Maw gets him, taking advantage of Peter's horror at being forced to watch Tim die. Logically, he knew Tim was one of the Bats and could handle himself, but emotions have never been logical, and he just watched Tim fall to his death.
Using the piece of the Mind Stone he'd been entrusted with; Ebony Maw gets a handle on Peter and uses him.
Truthfully, Peter doesn't remember most of the fight against the Bats, almost any of being mind controlled. He can't even remember while he's fighting them, which is probably a side effect of the whole Infinity Stone being used on him thing.
All he remembers is green hot rage. He's winning, tanking hits he really shouldn't be able to, and thrashing with no true sense of fighting.
Then, suddenly he's snapped out of his green haze induced rage by the Red Hood in front of him. He can only tell partially, still fighting the other colored outriders.
Peter stops once he sees the bit of Red Hood's face, which lets the yellow outrider get him.
For a moment, that doesn't matter to him, he's completely snapped out of the daze by the way Red Hood looks, the only word he's able to force out with the yellow outrider pinning him down is a choked, "Damian."
All of the outriders' heads snap to him immediately, but Peter simply looks at Red Hood, "You," he takes a deep breath as the restrictions on him loosen, "You look like Damian."
The voices in his head seem to agree.
He hears Sam say, "He's snapping out of it!"
Yellow guy apparently hears him too, as he loosens more.
Red Hood scoffs, fighting against a mutant bat at this point, "Spidey, if I knew that was all it took to get you outta mind control, I'd have done it a lot quicker."
The green haze is back, and Peter is actively fighting against everyone, all but one. Red Hood.
They notice immediately and he hears an undetermined voice, one that he definitely knows but can't place, shout, "Why isn't he attacking Hood?"
Peter's eyes snap back, the fight falling out of him again, "Can't," he breathes, "Can't hurt Damian. Just a kid, a kid."
All of the colored blobs look at him in surprise, and clearly see Peter fighting against the mind control, nothing but sheer force of will to protect Damian fueling him.
One of the blobs waves the Damian lookalike, Red Hood, over. He comes with swiftness that only dealing with maniacs all day everyday can give you.
Peter looks into the eyes on his one side, startling himself when he shouts, "No! Can't hurt Damian. Won't hurt Damian, you stupid," a deep breath, "stupid fucking alien."
A simple, "Why?" Is all that Red Hood says, tilting his head to the side just like his brother did a few days previous.
Peter zeros in on the question, glad to have something else to focus on, "Just a kid," He struggles against non-existent bindings, it clearly helps him escape the mental ones a bit, "Same age I was when I lost everything. He," Peter struggles even harder, breathing matching the struggle, "He can't lose everything. He's a sweet kid, a good kid. Not allowed."
For a moment, he's winning. Then he's falling into the depths of his mind even more. Red Hood fights off the actual outriders trying to get to Peter.
Suddenly, luckily even, Captain America's shield is glided over to him, and he sees Felicia is the one who slid it over. Mantis finally gets a proper hold on his anger again after both Damian and the shield.
He nods his thanks to Felicia before she disappears again and repeats, "Damian. Fuck, I need to get this to Damian."
All of the Bats have their attention on him, but every one of them is engaged in a fight. Except for yellow blob, Signal, on top of him.
Peter gets up, and Signal allows it, looking between the shield on his arm and all of the chaos going on around him.
He thinks, directing his thoughts to the souls in his head. I know you guys are weak right now, but I need you to send all the energy you can spare to T'Challa. T'Challa, I need you.
He hears the grumbling in his mind, closer than it was previously. After a moment, Peter very clearly states, "T'Challa! Help me!"
The Bats attention on him becomes even more intense than previously as he literally summons a guy -and not just any guy, the Black Panther- from his head.
Another soul snorts at the thought, sounding distinctly like Princess Shuri.
Signal shouts out a, "Dude, what the fuck!" Oh yeah, Signal could see ghosts. He probably just watched a soul he thought was a ghost go Poltergeist mode from out of nowhere. The thought made Peter want to laugh, instead he focused on his little mission and the souls in his head laughed for him.
Peter ignores Signal, handing T'Challa Cap's shield, "Get this to Damian. Now, please." His tone is respectful, hurt, and pleading. The combination of the three seems to make T'Challa want to listen, but before he can leave, they're both engaged in a fight with Proxima Midnight. Knowing it's going to take both of them, and hopefully Signal, fighting in top notch form to even shake her impeccable hand-to-hand fighting.
Peter let the matter rest for a minute, instead yelling for Signal, "Signal, dude, we're going to need your help."
Signal looks surprised for a minute, then confused. Which is fair, he's seen Spider-Man do some super strength shit that was definitely supposed to be impossible and knew that Spider-Man knew that Signal didn't have super strength. So fair, but annoying. Peter rolls his eyes, ducking under a punch.
He knows that all of the bats have their attention on him, doesn't even need his spidey senses to figure that out, so he explains, "This is Proxima Midnight, she's quite possibly the best hand-to-hand fighter in the fucking multiverse," Peter dodges another swing, which allows T'Challa to go for a heavy punch to her shoulder, it doesn't land, "Last time we beat her, it took two people with super strength, one trained assassin with a knife, and we still needed a gun. Don't underestimate her."
Signal nods, stepping in then to help.
Proxima smiles, sharp and evil, "Thanks little Spider, but I'll happily take a victory this time." She takes a shot at Peter's gut, T'Challa isn't fast enough with the shield to block it, and Peter certainly isn't fast enough to dodge it. It lands, right in his gut, and it takes everything in him not to keel over. That's what happened last time, and she broke his nose.
She laughs, throwing three hits at Signal behind her and landing every single one, "The Spider remembers."
Peter rolls his eyes, but Proxima is still focused on Signal, and has turned around to fight the yellow vigilante better. Quickly, Peter rolls to his right, underneath T'Challa, saying, "Black Panther." In an urgent tone. It's all he needed to get his point across and have the shield passed to him.
T'Challa himself distracts Proxima with some strong punches, which she blocks skillfully, while Peter raises the shield in front of Signal. Proxima is just distracted enough by T'Challa to not be looking when she's throwing punches behind her, her hand landing hitting the shield with a painful THWACK.
Peter can tell without even having to see it up close that her hand is broken, Cap's shield isn't made to be hit full force, and for a regular person it's detrimental. Still, he sort of admires Proxima, because she certainly doesn't let it slow her down.
Hood comes up behind her, and it's suddenly a 4 v 1 and the 1 had a broken hand. She's still holding her own, but is no longer able to use her right hand, which would throw even the best off. Unfortunately, Proxima is the best of the best, and she takes it like a fucking champ.
Instead of relying on her downright cruel uppercuts and harsh punches, she changes to focusing on her kicks. Swiping feet out from underneath them.
Red Hood begins fighting her, not pulling any punches or kicks, and is doing well with Signal at his side. Not well enough to beat her, even with her broken hand, but holding his own. Peter comes up with a plain in a split second.
Peter kneels down and makes eye contact with T'Challa, who understands his hidden request without a word passing between the two. So, Peter holds the shield star down to his back, like an upside-down turtle shell. T'Challa flips over his back, grabbing the shield and using Peter's back as a springboard in one motion. It's smooth and fast, but unchartered territory for both of them. They make it look easy.
With the momentum he's gained from the jump, the Black Panther strikes. Hood's still in hand-to-hand with Proxima, though her eyes are on Signal, and she doesn't see him coming. With a stunning efficiency, the Black Panther is on top of Proxima's back, shield in hand and being clashed against the side of her head.
She's down quickly, and it's extremely impressive for someone who's unused to fighting with a shield. Peter offers his hand in helping T'Challa up, both Red Hood and Signal charging back into battle after she's down.
So does Peter, fighting the first group of outriders he sees, which allows Black Bat to go after Corvus Glaive with the help of Batman, Spoiler, and Nightwing. They are fairing quite well at the moment, but Peter's ready to jump in the minute anything goes wrong.
T'Challa speaks first, "Spider-Man, Damian will not have need for this, he's not involved in this fight."
Peter shakes his head heartily, "Come on T'Challa, you're a better detective than this. You call yourself the King of Wakanda and can't figure this one out?"
Shuri's laugh is audible to all this time, as is shown by Red Hood shouting out curses in shock.
T'Challa simply backs Peter up, a Peter who is getting increasingly more exhausted, but doesn't say a word. Spoiler throws the beaten Corvus Glaive out of one of the broken windows- doors?- black hole thingys.
Eloquent, Sam jokes.
Every Bat has their eyes on the two. Peter sighs before responding, in a perfect mimicry of Damian's voice, tt.
"Damian and the kid in the suit upstairs are the only two I've ever heard tut like that. It's Damian, Panther, and I know it. I'm going to make a path for you and you're going to get that fucking shield to him. If he doesn't need your help, leave, if he does, help him." Peter manages, bashing two heads together from the outriders in emphasis.
T'Challa's eyes go wide with recognition as soon as Peter makes the noise, and he does listen to the rest of Peter's speech, but he pauses at the end. They both felt the Bats get even more intense, something Peter didn't think possible.
Finally, he responds, "Peter." and wow, it's been a while since someone called him his first name in suit, "My existence here is draining your life force. I'll get it to him, but I can't stay."
Peter's eyes go wide, heartbroken, "T'Challa. A lot of things villains say to me during battles are wrong. These guys, they're right about something. I've lost everything time and time and time again. I failed Tim, I will not fail his brother too. I know you're connected to me, but if my death saves this planet, hell even saves Damian, it's worth it. Go!" As he says go, he creates an opening. It's just big enough for T'Challa to get through with all of his Black Panther expertise. T'Challa looks at him sadly but goes.
Peter turns back to the Bats, all of whom have finished up their battles at this point and have witnessed the entire conversation. All of them seem different arrays of sad, angry, and most of all hurt.
Actually, most of all for everyone but Red Robin, who seems sad more than anything.
"Ignore that for now. Black Panther is one of the best fighters in the multiverse, as you've seen, and a friend. We'll see where that goes."
The Bats nod wearily, Red Robin looking close to tears at this point.
Peter pushes on, ignoring the sadness that practically radiates off of the other hero, "I'm going to need your help. T'Challa being out is going to weaken me -scratch that is already weakening me-" Peter explains, "We need to destroy that portal," he indicates with his head, "Or villains even you guys, along with me and the cats, won't be able to fight off."
Nightwing nods, "Of course we're helping, but I do have a question first."
Peter raises an eyebrow, "Shoot, and follow me."
He immediately swings off, every Bat managing to match his pace, and Nightwing asks, "How long have you known about Damian, and why do you feel the need to protect him so bad."
Peter smirks, "That was two questions," Nightwing rolls his eyes at Peter before Peter continues, "Figured Damian out as soon as he got here. He really did give himself away. Now Batman on the other hand, I've known about for weeks. You're not really inconspicuous guys."
Sam's in his mind joking at him, Nice diversion kid, way to answer the question all of us want to know.
Peter holds back on rolling his eyes. He would answer the question, but he really doesn't know the answer at the moment. Plus, it's not that important, they have a fucking universe to save, yknow.
Batman's eyes snap to him, "How?"
This time, Peter rolls his eyes at him, "First, this. The souls have let me know that Black Widow is the one who closed the portal, sacrificing something huge after Tony nuked it to hell. Meaning, the portal needs to be down enough that the magic can't regenerate itself, which is weird with fighting portals, and I'm going to have to sacrifice something. Which is going to suck."
The souls in his head seem to agree, and Peter notes that T'Challa is not yet back with them, which means that Damian really needed help.
Before anyone could speak again, Peter turned to Black Bat, "T'Challa's not back yet, which means Damian's in danger bad enough that T'Challa has taken up his defense for him. Will you go to the two of them and the cats and help a bit, I think he needs someone to lighten the load."
Black Bat looks intrigued, pointing to herself and signing in a way that clearly meant 'Why me?'
"You match with T'Challa's fighting style the most, he's complimented you on it before actually, so he'll fall into line with you easier than anyone else. And please, warn all of them to be careful." Peter signs deeply, "Ebony Maw," at the confused looks he gets from all of the bats he rolls his eyes, "Big, ugly alien who just tried to murder Signal,"
Finally, some fuckin' recognition from the bats and the birds Bucky comments grumpily, and honestly Peter's inclined to agree.
"Anyways, Ebony Maw has a piece of the Mind Stone which means he pretty much has mind control if your brain is less resilient, if it's resilient enough, the Mind Stone can still fuck you up, especially in Maw's hands, and he will not hesitate to use it to show you your biggest fears, worst memories, anything. Be careful." Peter finishes warning.
At that, she gives a stark nod and quickly gets to the rooftop.
Red Hood bounces back quickly enough, "So how could you snap out of it?"
Peter smiles behind his mask, "You really do look like your brother, y'know. I couldn't let him get hurt, that was something both Spider-Man and Peter agreed on, and once my mind was united against one thing all it took was a little push. The shield from Black Cat was what got me in the clear. If it showed me my worst fear, hell even my worst memories, that would've gone way worse."
Jason, for his part, is stunned into silence. Signal, on the other hand, is not, "You know who Hood is?"
"Only ward Batsy over there has who lives in Crime Alley, it doesn't take a genius. Now, the portal." Peter smiles genuinely at their confusion of how nonchalantly he reveals he knows who Red Hood is, but points to Signal, Batman, and Spoiler respectively, "I need you three over by the left side of the portal, directly to the left of the glowing stone, everyone else to the right."
Immediately, they listen to Peter's instructions. Which, he has to admit, it quite a nice change of pace to being ignored consistently. He feels more than he hears the cats, Black Bat, and Damian join them, meaning that T'Challa is safely back in his head. Well, maybe safely isn't the best word, but whatever.
"Spidey! You didn't tell me you were going to have the freaking Black Panther come help us! Come on dude, that's my king, why wouldn't you tell me that?" Felicia immediately goes into whining at him.
"Oh, shut up and get over here, kitty. I need your help too, and your mentor's if she'll help." Peter teases right back at her, voice so obviously fond.
Felicia looks to Selina, who nods, and Selina makes her way underneath the stone by Spoiler, while Felicia stands right next to Peter. Black Bat stands between Batman and Signal without Peter even having to ask.
Robin interrupts, "You don't require my assistance?"
Peter knows hurt when he hears it, "I do, I just need to address you differently because you have a different job." Peter watches as Damian turns that over in his head, coming to the terms that his job being different doesn't make him less than anyone before continuing, "I need you to use Cap's shield to protect all the people on the right side, except Black Cat, she'll be fine. My forcefield will only be able to cover the people on the right."
Robin nods, quickly moving into position like an assassin trained. Which, he supposed Damian was.
Off track kid, Fury practically growls in his head.
Right, yeah.
He hears Ebony Maw come up from one of the back corners of the room, one of the Bats must have tossed him out while Peter was in ravaging mode. Quickly, Peter talks, "Okay, listen up everyone because this is critically important." All eyes were on him, again, this time he just has to not fuck it all up, "The stone charging this portal is the Time Stone, fundamental to every universe and all. Last time I took a stone out, I didn't get all of it and half of my universe was snapped out of existence."
That certainly caught everyone's attention.
"I died then, again and again, and ended up here. Here's the deal, this stone may not like me like the last one did, so we're all going to link hands or arms or something, minus you" He gives a serious look to Damian, "It can't pick you anyways and we need you to hold up the shield in case this goes wrong. If it doesn't pick me, then it'll either pick one of you and explode, or it'll explode and launch itself off of this planet. When it explodes, we've got the shield and my forcefield to protect everyone, okay?"
Felicia is the first to speak, and Ebony is getting closer, "The snap wasn't your fault, Spides, you know that, right?"
"It was. It really, really was. If I'd managed to get that tiny piece out, no one would have died. Instead, half of the goddamn universe died." To the horror of everyone, Peter just sounds truly resigned.
"Besides, Cats, once I do this there's no going back to our universe. That's why I wanted you next to me, make your decision. You can go home, right now, and see your family again. Or you could stay here. Either way I'm on your side." Peter said softly.
"If I go, you're not gonna be able to come with, are you?"
Peter signs, having expected that, "I can't get home either way, this is your decision. Make it, but don't think of me while you do."
Confidently, Felicia grabs his hand and responds, "I'm staying here. Now, everyone-Let's do this."
Ebony Maw laughs then, a truly ugly thing if you ask Peter, and presses the sliver of the Mind Stone he has to the back of Peter's head. Peter had already linked elbows with Batman before he'd done so, leaving one free hand to grab the stone, so everyone was truly linked, except for Damian.
Everyone, including Damian, was seeing Peter's worst fear and worst memories melding into one in sand, though. With the Mind Stone making direct contact, there was nothing Peter could do to stop it.
The sand picked up -no, not sand, dust, and God wasn't that cruel- drawing out a detailed scene of 8-year-old Peter learning his parents had just died for not wanting to be corrupt.
Peter was waiting with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben for his parents to be back from their trip. He was clearly very young, coloring in a superhero coloring book. Kid him hadn't tuned in to the phone call his Uncle Ben was on behind him, but it was clear the memory was visited so often that part of the focus was on the call.
It cut out at points, the memory old and the phone call not the main focus, 'No-But Peter. He needs them, they can't be gone.' Ben sounded distressed.
There was silence for a moment, Peter's Iron Man picture almost done, before Ben started crying quietly, responding to whatever was said with, 'Okay, alright, they died heroes.'
Ben came up behind Peter then, who's focus immediately shifted to his uncle, 'Uncle Ben! Look, I'm almost done. Mommy and Daddy are almost back now, right? I could finish it in time to give to them.' He then clearly caught the tears in his uncle's eyes, 'Uncle Ben? Why are you sad?'
His uncle smiled at him, small and painful, 'I'm so sorry Petey, your mommy and daddy aren't gonna make it back.'
Peter nodded, putting his coloring stuff down, 'That's okay, they'll be back tomorrow, right?'
His aunt was now at his other side, shaking her head sadly, 'Oh Peter. No, sweet boy, your mommy and daddy died in a plane crash. It's being investigated.'
Peter shook his head rapidly, 'No, they're not allowed. They said they'd be back for me.'
His aunt and uncle pulled him into a hug as he sobbed. The only thing running through his mind was that he clearly wasn't enough for them to come back to. He had to be better so that Auntie May and Uncle Ben would stay with him. He had to.
Gasps of horror came from everyone as it shifted to 13-year-old Peter getting bit by a spider and that very same night watching his Uncle Ben die because he wasn't fast enough to save him.
Peter was on a field trip, a bus headed to a big building called OsCorp. It was clearly a science building and pre-teen Peter was very excited to go.
There was a skip, assumedly of all the time that was spent normally, then a little black spider was suddenly there. Pre-teen Peter didn't notice it until it had bitten him, and he smacked at his hand. The spider fell dead, but it had already bitten Peter.
His thoughts were a simple, huh, that's strange, before he shrugged and left the OsCorp building.
After he got off school though, his hands had started sticking to things, and his head was shown hurting badly.
There was movement in the alley beside Peter, a mugger stealing some woman's money. Peter shrugged it off, ignoring it and going to his aunt and uncle's apartment. It was like Crime Alley, in a way, the way crime seemed so normalized.
The scene shifted again, and it was clear an argument had just happened, but only the tail end of it was caught.
'Peter, I said no! You are not quitting school. I know you want to help out, but you need your education.' Ben argued, his eyes pained.
Peter shouted back at him, 'You're not my dad!' Before running out the door and down an alleyway.
It was the same alley as before, the one the mugger was down. Peter hadn't noticed, running down it. His Uncle Ben followed after him, shouting out, 'Peter. Peter, stop.'
The same mugger from earlier popped out in front of Peter, holding a gun up, "Give me all your money.' The mugger's voice was shaky, like he was on something. Peter's senses were brand new and going wild.
Peter did his best to ignore them, gritting his teeth, 'I don't have any.'
Then the mugger shifted between pointing at Peter and Ben, both giving the same response. After a moment, he got annoyed and shot at Peter. Ben pushed him out of the way and took a bullet to the gut.
The mugger ran off as Peter shouted out, 'No!' and dropped to his uncle's side.
Ben looked up at Peter, 'I'm sorry that you thought I was taking over for your dad Peter.'
Peter was crying at this point, putting pressure on the wound, 'It's okay, Uncle Ben, you're the closest thing I've got to one. It's okay.'
Ben wasn't listening to him, 'Listen, Peter, the choices we make define who we are. It's hard, and the hardest choice is usually the right one. Okay? But with great power will always come great responsibility.'
Peter nods at him, barely listening to a word he says. His super senses zone in, and he hears the exact moment his uncle's heart stops beating. His sobs turn to wails and he cries. His mind goes to how he could've stopped it. There's about a million different ways filing through his mind as one thing is clear to him.
Peter has lost someone else, and it's all his fault.
His mind falters over his uncle's last words. His uncle who'd only ever done good. That's the minute he decides to become a superhero.
Peter can't help but find it a bit ironic that all of the people he had failed to save on his Earth were the ones literally picturing all of his worst memories.
Wow, kid, and I thought I was depressing Bucky Barnes quips.
Peter rolls his eyes and thinks back, you really thought you could out-depress me, I thought you knew better by now!
Distantly he hears laughter before he tunes back in to reality.
Felicia squeezed his hand, eyes wide in shock and horror. Peter shook his head at her, feeling the Mind Stone against his neck at every shift. The scene shifted again, this time showing Titan.
Peter was clearly on a different planet, pulling at a gauntlet that is snug on a purple alien's arm. Thanos. He's almost got it, and that's when Peter Quill lashes out in anger, and Peter manages to grab part of the Soul Stone.
Thanos still snaps.
Looking around wildly, Peter curses himself internally. He never learned, never got quicker, and never was fast enough. That was Spider-Man, someone who had to be good enough, but with Peter behind Spider-Man, how could Spider-Man ever be good enough?
Peter watches in confusion as some of his friends begin to turn to dust around him, head flailing around to find someone who can explain.
Dr. Strange's voice is clear as day, 'There was no other way.' He's clearly exhausted still, and not talking to Peter at all, but Tony. They were his last words before he, too, was turned to dust.
Peter speaks then, his healing factor kicking in to an insane degree, 'Mr. Stark?' Tony's head snapped toward him, and he began to make his way to Peter, who was still speaking, 'I don't-. I don't feel so good.'
'I - I don't know what's happening.' Tony had grabbed Peter at this point and Peter latched on to the man and the comfort he gave quickly.
Peter cried out into Tony, "I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go Mr. Stark, please.'
Tony held Peter close, repeating 'It's okay, you're okay.' over and over again as Peter turned to dust in his arms.
Peter looked up at him one last time, feeling awful for what he was asking of Tony, knowing that Tony couldn't do anything, he said, 'I'm sorry.'
Peter did not, in fact, like listening to his awful, terrible first death in Tony's arms begging not to die. He whispers his very last words along with his memory self, "I'm sorry."
Everyone's eyes snap to the real Peter, varying looks of horror and concern on their faces. For once, the voices are silent. It's the first time any of them have heard Peter's last words, the first time they've seen Peter die.
Their eyes then back to dust Peter as he dies over and over again in green goo.
Peter woke up choking, choking on green. It was all he could see, and he couldn't hear.
He was drowning in it, hitting repeatedly against the glass capsule he was in. Peter even tapped into his super-strength, hitting with all his might as the glass only creaked and cracked slightly. Peter was still drowning.
He dies again.
When he wakes up, he's still choking. Peter tries shouting out for someone, but the green fills his mouth faster and this time he dies without hitting the glass once.
Now, he knows the drill. Wakes up, tries to ignore the pain that comes with dying and drowning and revival as he pounds against the glass.
Two more deaths before the glass finally shatters and Peter takes a deep, painful breath as a woman runs up to him.
Then the dust changes from memories to his worst fears. He sees his mom and dad's death, his Uncle Ben's death again. Then Aunt May being brutally murdered by Thanos personally. MJ falling off of a building to her death. Ned and his moms being dusted. Every single the Avengers deaths were watched, miserably at that, and expected.
Then Tim and Duke, which gained gasps from the Bats. Tim, who Peter had seen fall just 10 minutes previous, gets the same death Peter just watched him die. With Duke, he's in a school building. Loki is too late this time, and Duke is standing right next to Tim when a piece of pipe is thrown through him. He dies miserably, in massive amounts of pain, and choking on his own blood as no one can get to him.
Then Steph, Felicia, and Cass. Steph dies due to electricity; it shows her getting soaked saving Peter while they were patrolling together, and the Joker pushing her onto an electric wire while she begs for a tied-up Spider-Man to help her. Felicia is being dangled above a building, Scarecrow taunting her while asking if it was time to test if a cat always lands on their feet. Joker's laugh as Scarecrow drops her and Peter isn't fast enough to catch her.
Peter attacking Cass while under mind control and the look of betrayal in Cass's eyes as she dies.
Jason, dressed as Red Hood, dying at the hands of the Joker. Peter recognized his contempt for the villain the first time Jason spoke of the Joker, but watching in his own head as Jason gets beat to death burns.
Dick, Peter twisting his trust against him accidentally and leading him into a more deadly Riddler trap. They fail one riddle and Dick drops off of the platform both of them are on, hundreds of feet in the air, to his death.
All of their vigilante and villain identities that Peter had met while brand new to the city.
Before it could really get into the details of dust Damian's death, and exactly how it was Peter's fault, Peter tightens his grip on Felicity and Batman. In turn he felt them tighten their grips and knew it went all the way down.
In one quick swoop, Peter bangs his head up against the Mind Stone, then he reaches up and grabs the Time Stone, in the same breath yelling, "FRIDAY, protect Black Bat." Before throwing down the forcefield he'd gotten working well enough again while everyone else was watching his memories, not his hands. He makes sure it encloses Batman and all the others, unfortunately not being large enough to encompass himself as well.
His spider sense goes completely nuts right before the stone explodes and when the Time Stone explodes, man does it explode.
Everyone else is covered and shielded, Peter's made sure of it, so no one else has to feel the barrage of pain. Peter's head is already in mind-numbing pain, so when the explosion throws him back into a wall, it doesn't register at first.
As soon as it does, Peter's sticking to the wall. He doesn't know if there's floor beneath him and he doesn't want to find out. After his head hits the back of the wall, and he's thoroughly stuck, the pain hits.
Time doesn't seem to register, just pain. Peter's thoughts are going hundreds of miles an hour, thinking about everything that had just happened during the duration of the battle. A lot, and his brain was just getting the time to process.
Sitting there, in absolute pain and torment, probably dying, Peter realized what he sacrificed. Home.
Technically he was aware that exploding the portal meant he was never getting home, but the full weight of what that meant hit him as soon as he had an inkling of a break. Which, you know, was dying for Peter. The usual at this point.
Christ kid, we need to get you some therapy Quill muttered into his head.
Yeah, Peter thinks back, doesn't work for me. Been there, done that. Turns out when no one else in your universe has experienced what you have, there's very little they can do for you.
Then he filters back into the present, Felicia at his right side, "Peter, you are not allowed to die on me after all of this bullshit. Do you hear me? Not allowed." Her voice breaks, and distantly Peter registers that she's crying. Felicia, perhaps not even intentionally, has echoed Peter's last thoughts about his parents when he learned of their death.
"Fel, I'm not dying. Trust me, I know what it feels like. Just hurt." Peter calms, though he truthfully doesn't know.
"Not helping Spider! Not helping." Felicia grabs on to his uninjured arm tighter.
Red Hood makes his way to Peter's opposite side, "Kid, your left foot has been completely blown off, how can you act okay right now?" His voice is incredulous but pained in an understanding way.
Ah, that's right. Jason has died before; he knows the answer to his own question. Peter grins slightly, knowing everyone could see his face, and dramatically jokes, "Damn, and that was my favorite foot too. What'll I do?"
"Peter." All eyes turn to Damian, the worry in his voice as surprising as him using Peter's first name, "Your foot is gone, how can you not see this problem for what it is?"
"Oh, that's right. You guys don't know." Peter smiles, though it's definitely pained, as everyone crowds around them.
Damian demands, "Know what?"
"My limbs grow back, guys. It'll be fine in like three to five weeks. I took a calculated risk knowing that no one else here could do that." Peter explains, unsticking himself to wall, more for something to do than anything else.
Your limbs what?Shuri asked, her tone incredulous.
It was clear everyone could hear her, as many of the Bats agreed. Peter sighed, "You guys literally watched my memories of being bitten by the radioactive spider. It changed my DNA, I'm part spider. They have an insane healing factor, so do I. A few years back I lost my entire arm at the beginning of June and it was back the week before school started. And then I wasn't even eating as good as I am now! AND it's only my foot, not my whole leg! It'll be back by like end of next week probably, maybe sooner depending on how well I eat."
Felicia punches his arm, hard, "I hate you and your self-sacrificing tendencies, you know that!"
"Fel-" Peter started, just to be cut off by Sam.
The girl's right you know, again. People care about you Peter; my god accept that. The fact that you regrow limbs is insane, but even fucking crazier to just know!
"Stop ganging up on me! It was calculated!" Peter complains, "Besides, my self-sacrificing tendencies? Fel, you could've gone home. And you didn't, because of your self-sacrificing tendencies!"
Nightwing, aka Dick, and Felicia were helping him up from the ground, not letting him put pressure on his foot. Felicia rolls her eyes, responding, "Peter, if anyone can get us home, it's you, and we both know it. Of course I wasn't leaving without you, but I'm also not leaving if I don't know if I could come back or not. There's people I care about here, too, you dumbass."
Red Robin was between them now, mask off to reveal a worried Tim, "And you didn't fail me, Peter. Promise." Dick relinquished Peter duty to Tim, who took Peter's charred to hell arm carefully, "We're getting you back to the manner, and you're going to eat and stay there until all of your wounds are gone. Then we'll work on a way both to your home and back for you two."
Bucky's voice shone through; I knew I liked him.
Peter rolls his eyes, "Shut up Winter Soldier, you just like people bossing me around."
Also true. Two things can be true at the same time. Bucky replies, smile clear in his tone.
"I hate it here." Peter deadpans. Felicia and Spoiler laugh at him.
Felicia grins after their laughing spell stops, "Once we're back at the manor, we're watching Encanto. I'm going to enjoy every minute of everyone's mental breakdowns, and I fucking deserve it."
Peter grins back without even thinking about it, "Yeah, you do."
Damian's little hand is at his side, "Before that, I require to speak about Outsiders with you. Todd and Drake don't necessarily need to be there, but you do."
Red Hood's hand smacks the back of Damian's head, "Hey! I'm there too, and if I've finished, I know that Replacement has!"
They argue all the way back to the manor, and Peter really thinks he could get used to this.
Before they go in, Dick's hand is on his chest, "Don't you dare think we're not going to talk about what we saw back there. We'll give you some time to recover, but we are so talking about that."
And of course. Fucking Parker Luck.
"Wait...which one of you did the Time Stone bond to?"
And everything stops.