Epilogue
“Dude! I can’t believe Tony Stark is your dad!” Ned spun in the chair by Peter’s desk, with his legs lifted in the air so he didn’t hit the numerous boxes spread out throughout the bedroom. This wasn’t the first time the two of them had had this conversation, and Peter was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last. But he didn’t mind, not with Ned. He even grinned back at him.
His best friend’s enthusiasm was contagious.
”I can’t either. It’s so weird. It always felt like living here was temporary, and it was, I guess,” he waved his arm at all of the partially packed boxes that were cluttering his room. “But I’m not moving back into my apartment with May and it’s super weird.”
”Wait, where is May going? I thought you were still going to be living with her?” Ned put his feet on the ground, making the chair come to such a haste halt, that he swung forward a little bit.
Rolling his eyes with amusement, Peter shook his head. “May’s agreed to live in the tower too. It’s going to be like this weird joint custody thing. I don’t really know. I let them figure it out. They asked me what I wanted of course, but I’d rather not be apart of it. I’m just… it’s all been a lot and I’m not against living with Mr. Stark—“
“Your dad.”
”Right. My dad. Still getting used to that too. I’ll still have a bedroom on May’s floor too. I don’t know, I guess we’ll see how it goes.” He shrugged, flipping his phone absently in his hands. “I’m a little nervous about being back in the city,” he admitted. He hadn’t admitted that to anyone yet, he felt like he should be excited. He loved the city and everyone knew that.
But he’d gotten used to the quiet, and as much as he missed being Spider-Man and had even started training with the new arm some, the thought of being back in the city and not being Spider-Man yet, was a bit daunting. He was sure he would start feeling obligated to and that’s not how he wanted it to be.
Ned’s eyebrows had raised in surprise, but he hadn’t commented on it and Peter was grateful. As soon as he’d said it, he realized he didn’t actually want to talk about it. But if he did, Ned would probably be the one he did talk to about it.
“Excited to be close to you again though.” He added after a beat of silence, giving his phone another toss.
He suspected a lot of his nerves were just about having another big life change in less than a year. But this could potentially be the first real step back into normalcy. Something he’d practically been begging for anytime he noticed yet another look of pity being sent his way.
“Alright. Enough wallowing or… not wallowing, or whatever it is we are doing,” Peter started as he stood from the bed and pocketed his phone. He flexed the fingers of his prosthetic, a new habit he’d started to assure himself it was actually there. “You gonna help me finish packing before Mr- Tony - my dad - comes in here and wants to know why we haven’t done anything yet?”
Of course, Tony was the last person that would possibly come in there to berate them about the lack of packing done. But Ned didn’t know that, and watching the way he just grinned so wide when Peter fixed himself to call Tony dad was worth mentioning him as opposed to Pepper or May.
“Man, I can’t believe Tony Stark is your dad. Your actual real life dad.”
Peter just laughed, picking up an empty box off the floor to sit on his bed. “I know.”