Honey, honey
–🕸️–
The night was filled with shadows as Peter Parker lay in his dorm room at Gotham Academy, the city's constant buzz penetrating the thin walls. The dream had haunted him again, a recurring vision that pulled at the strings of his heart. Aunt May, his parents, and the warmth of a family that was lost to him. He woke up, feeling the emptiness of his solitary existence in this unfamiliar universe.
He’d never felt so alone, sure, he’d been through difficult times but he had a support system back then; he had May, he had Ben, MJ, Ned, hell, even Flash was reliable in his relentless teasing. Now he only had himself, his shadow and the cockroach that lived under his bed and fed on his crumbs; he hadn’t had the heart to kill it after realizing it was alone like him and the thought of killing him felt like killing his only companion in life, so he named it Kafka and he’d talk to it sometimes. Despite the rare hangouts with Steph (she wouldn’t leave him alone) and his nighttime endeavors as Spider-Man, he remained a loner, the rest of the Wayne children, who attended the same prestigious academy, eyed him with suspicion, making his stay at the school more challenging.
But today Kafka wasn’t there and he was in pain, he’d been done patrolling around Gotham and when he swung outside of the bowery the bats had chased him around the city and it ended with him falling into a dumpster in an alley with a batarang in his shoulder. He changed into his civvies in the dumpster and staggered home, immediately passing out in the small dorm from exhaustion.
All he wanted right now was a hug, a warm comforting hug from May or Ben, like when they’d hug him after a bad anxiety or asthma attack. The thought brought tears to his eyes as he reminisced about what caring human touch felt like, what family felt like. He couldn’t help but let out a harsh sob as he remembered the day May had tried to hug him after Ben had died and he’d pushed her away telling her to leave him alone as she cried, all he wishes for now is that he had hugged her back then, that he wasn’t so absorbed in his self-hatred to treat her that way, that she’d forgive him.
With a sigh, he swung his legs out of bed and sat up, wiping the tears from his face with his hands. The events of the dream and the reflection about his intense loneliness lingered, leaving an ache that he couldn't shake. His gaze fell on the journal he had discovered among his Other Mother's belongings. The pages held the (possible) solution to his loneliness and lack of (living) family, listing three names that could potentially be his father - Richard Grayson, Oliver Queen, and Wally West.
The dream lingered in the back of his mind throughout the day, a constant reminder of the family he once had and the uncertainty of his present. Graduation loomed ahead, a milestone that brought both anticipation and anxiety. As the sun dipped below the Gotham skyline, casting long shadows across the city, Peter couldn't help but feel a yearning for a family that no longer existed and for the family that didn’t know he existed.
That’s how he ended up writing those emails when he got to his dorm after a long night of crime-fighting and bat-avoiding. He’d sent the three of them pretty much the same email except for a couple of changes here and there like their names and how they’d met his mother. (He failed to mention that she was, in fact, dead, but that's a problem for future Peter)
He invited them all to his graduation party and ceremony on a whim, feeling sorry for himself going to those events on his own. He had, of course, avoided the subject of their possible fathers status, only stating that he was very busy and couldn’t meet them before or after and that his mom talked about them all the time and that he wants to know more about her, which wasn’t a complete lie, Peter was curious about the alternate universe Mary who’d lived ten years more than his own version of her. He wondered if she was happy for those ten extra years she lived here, if she also loved chocolate, and read him stories, and if she was the type of parent to coddle him or to run her hand through his hair like the Mary Parker he faintly remembered would. These men couldn’t answer these questions but they would at least help him feel closer to the stranger he called his mother.
–🕸️–
“What’s up with you? You’re acting so weird today”
Peter was snapped out of his daze by Steph’s voice. He couldn't stop thinking about those stupid emails he sent, there hadn't been a response from any of them yet, and he hoped to every deity possible that there wouldn't be one, because he knew that he was weak. That if one of them replied or wanted to meet, he'd immediately do so because he was so deprived of love and care and family that he'd do anything to at least pretend to have one even for a second.
Now he was in the yard laying against a tree, when Steph approached him, sat in front of him and took him by surprise, not even his spidey-sense warning him.
"I think I might've done something stupid last night" he mumbled, distracted by his own thoughts of impending doom and loneliness.
"Like you'd ever do something dumb.... besides isolating yourself from everyone who ever tries to be your friend" Stephanie joked, mumbling the last part to herself, which Peter totally heard because super hearing, people.
Peter took a deep breath before deciding to just tell Steph about the emails "You know how I'm an orphan? and it's like, my main thing?" he asked, still thinking on how to put the situation into words without making his mother sound like some skank.
"I think smart orphan is more like it but, yeah?" she wondered where this was going, Peter didn't seem to like talking about his parents so this was a weird topic for them to talk about and Steph didn't want to push it, especially considering how hard it was to get even this close to the quiet boy.
"Turns out I'm not fully like an orphan orphan" he said and then continued staring off into the distance leaving Steph to freak out by herself about what Peter just said.
"wha- what- Waddayamean?" she said after stammering for a bit, trying to find words, Peter continued staring at grass?? she thinks.
"Peter, you can't just say something like that and not explain, and what do you mean you did something stupid then? please just tell me" she said desperate for information.
Peter finally turned to look at her and said "So, I found my mom's journal from the year she had me and I might have found my dad and invited him to my grad-" he pulled the journal out of what seemed like thin air, he opens it on a specific page and starts reading it out loud.
"November 20th, 2007 What. a. night. Oliverdrove me to Starling, we danced on the beach and we kissed on the beach and dot, dot, dot." finished Peter and looked up at Steph "what?" she said confused at the dots "dot, dot, dot, that's what they... did back then..." he replied trying to get the point across without saying anything extremely uncomfortable.
Realization flooded Stephs face as she exclaimed "Oh my God keep going!" she said in a raised voice at him as she moved to sit next to him.
"Ollie is the one! I know he is! I've never felt like this before. I'd heard about him before, I wanted to know more and now I know what they mean, He's a love machine!!" Peter reads the entry making an exaggerated swoon-ish tone at the end as his friend watched with fascination.
"So this guy Oliver is your father!" Steph says, exited for her friends discovery and engrossed in the story.
"The plot thickens-" he turns back to the journal and turns the page to the next entry "- all this time Ollie has been telling me he loves me and now he's announced that he's engaged so he's gone to get married and I'm never gonna see him again" Steph barely has the time to let out a sympathetic sigh before Peter turns the page and continues reading.
"December 4th, What a night Wally rented a car and took me camping to the mountains-" Peter paused to turn the page and take a breath "WALLY?!" exclaimed Steph confused at this new character "though I'm still obsessed with Oliver, Wally is so wild, he's such a funny guy and one thing lead to another and dot, dot, dot!" he finished reading the entry returning to his swoon voice as Steph exclaimed over the dots.
She's about to ask a question when Peter turns the page and begins reading another entry "December 11th, Richieturned up out of the blue, so I said I'd show him around the city, he's so sweet and understanding and he cared so much so I couldn't help it aaaand..." he looked at his friend who was exited and expectant and they said at the same time while squealing like little girls "dot, dot dot!!" they finished laughing and Stephanie was finally able to ask a question.
"So who is your dad? Oliver, Wally or Richie?" she asked with wide eyes.
"I don't know!" he said with a little excitement showing on his face.
"But, Which one did you invite?" she asked starting to get worried that he had done something stupid. Instead of an answer he just looked at her and tilted his head, the expression on his face saying enough.
"Oh. My. God" she said as she let herself lie on the grass, and Peter had a weird smile on his face.
"Do they know?" Stephanie asked, worried about her excited friend's emotions.
"What would you write to a total stranger? "Please come to my graduation you might be my father and I have no other family alive"? No, they think that I invited them because I had no time before or after the grad and that I wanted to give them some stuff my mom left for them and with what's written in the journal, I wouldn't be surprise if they all said yes" he said exasperated and terrified and a little excited.
"I just want to know what they could mean to me" he said with his eyes once again down turned. Steph looked at him in surprise, she'd never seen him so vulnerable. She'd known him for two years now and had never seen so many emotions leave him at once, much less publicly, he'd barely ever tell her about something he felt much less something about his family, this just made her worried about what these men might bring with them and how Peter would come out of it.
*bzzt bzzt*
*bzzt bzzt*
*bzzt bzzt*
It was Peter's phone, Steph leaned over to glance at it too upon seeing her friend freeze up after opening whatever notification popped up. Peter turned the phone off an put it in his pocket before the nosy girl could see what it said. " well? what is it?" she asked him, with an understanding look in her eyes.
"They all said they'd be there" he said with wide eyes as the meaning of this sank in.
–🕸️–
"I heard about you before
I wanted to know some more
Now I'm about to see what you mean to me"