Remember Me
Disregarding the fact they were trespassing, Steve and Bucky walked through the shoebox apartment. It was still larger than their apartment in the 30’s but that really wasn't much of a comparison for modern living accommodation.
Bucky Swept through, checking for bugs, security, and threats. Steve followed him, looking at the more personal things. He spotted a small stack of mail, a GED guidebook, and the sparse sentimental objects.
“This is Parker’s apartment,” Steve affirmed, now flipping through the stack of mail. Bills, official documents, and junk mail.
Bucky nodded. “He’s got an interesting security system. It looks like he rigged himself, but there's no internal surveillance, so he should come back.”
There wasn’t much to do as they waited for Parker to come home.
“We’re taking him in, right?” Steve checked. Bucky and he usually were on the same train of thought, but Steve had to make sure. Especially with something so important.
“Yeah,” Bucky said, wandering around and getting more and more intrusive as he looked through the apartment. Steve shadowed him as he searched.
“Are you looking for anything in particular, or are you conducting search and seizure for the hell of it?”
Bucky glared at him. “It's not search and seizure if I don’t take anything. ‘Sides, nothing better to do.”
Steve realized something. “You do this with my shit, doncha?”
Bucky nodded, looking through the kitchen trash.
“Fuck any sense of privacy. Damn.”
Bucky reached a metal hand through fast food bags. “Are you hiding something?”
“You would know if I was.” Glancing at the trash, Steve remarked, “Does the kid even know how to cook?”
“You say that like I don’t do most of the cooking.”
“Shut up,” he said, shoulder checking the other.
Shuffling from outside the window had them freezing. Bucky quietly shoved his hands in his pockets before thinking better of that position and removing them again. Neither soldier even breathed as Parker unlocked and slipped through his own window.
He shucked off the Spiderman mask, dropped his backpack and turned around to be met with the hulking figures of two supersoldiers in his tiny kitchen.
“OH!” Parker yelped, freezing in his tracks.
“Um… Hi?” Steve said, awkwardly.
Peter slowly raised his hand and shot webs that stuck Steve’s left hand to the counter, his right to Bucky’s left, and Bucky’s right to the wall. His eyes never once moved, just staring with shock at Steve’s face.
“Why are you here?” Peter asked, panic creeping into the edges of his words. “I- You- I thought…”
“Parker,” Bucky said. “We’re not going to hurt you.” Though both men could have torn out of the webs, they stayed immobilized.
Peter started to shift his weight from foot to foot. “I don’t- but you’re not supposed to remember me. And Rogers, sir, Captain. I thought you were dead… or on the moon. I don’t know. But either way, you guys definitely shouldn’t remember me.” He spun back to the window and peered up at the sky, making sure it was still intact. It was.
“How? I don’t exist anymore. How are you here? Why?”
“I remembered you,” Bucky said simply.
Peter shook his head. “But that shouldn’t be…”
“Hey, Peter,” Steve said softly, but authoritatively. “How's about you release us, then we can sit and talk. I promise we’ll explain everything we can.”
Peter nodded and moved forward, but froze. “Wait. How do I know you guys are the real Mr Barnes and Mr Rogers?” he asked.
Bucky smiled slightly. Smart kid. “You bring us back magnets from your trips. You were an intern at Stark Industries and that was just as much truth as it was a cover for your Spiderman shtick.”
“I have postcards from you,” Steve chimed in. “I actually don’t remember much about you, but… Well, I swear on my mother, Sara Roger’s grave, that I am Steven Grant Rogers.”
Peter nodded, satisfied, and moved forward to cut them loose. “I don’t, I don’t really have a living room, or a couch, or anything. Sorry. We can sit on the floor, though?”
So they settled on the floor, backs against cabinets, and hands in plain sight.
“You said you’d explain,” Peter started.
Bucky nodded. “I saw you in the news today. And I remembered you being in the news earlier this week. Your identity being plastered everywhere, public enemy no. 1? So I asked Stevie what he thought.”
“I didn’t remember you,” Steve picked up the story. “And turns out I’m not the only person who didn’t, doesn’t, remember Peter Parker. We went to Strange, but…”
“He didn’t remember me,” Peter said.
Steve shook his head.
“Strange thought it might have been a spell he did,” Bucky continued. “So we came here. To you.”
“What happened, Peter?” Steve asked.
Tears welled up in Peter’s eyes. “I- It was my fault,” he said, voice thick. “I didn’t- I just thought-”
“It's okay,” Bucky said, gently placing a hand on the teen’s shoulder. “Just let it out.”
So they sat on the floor of the small apartment, while the sun set outside, and Peter cried. Two super soldiers trying to comfort a ghost child.
When Peter’s sobs died down to hiccups, Steve rose and grabbed the kid a cup of water. “I don’t want to push you, but can you tell us what happened?”
Peter nodded, staring blankly into the red plastic cup. “Everyone found out. And it- it hurt MJ and Ned and… and May. So I went to Stephen. Strange, not you,” Peter corrected unnecessarily. “And he agreed to do a spell for me. But I- I messed him up and the multiverse got… unstable? Yeah, unstable. So there were people from other universes who came here.
“I met two other versions of me. That was pretty chill. But there were more bad guys who came through. And Stephen wanted to just send them back, but I couldn’t do that because they would die and May said I was a good person.
“So I tried to fix them. And I… we did, but,” he trailed off, hiccupping. “But May didn’t- May was… The Green Goblin killed her. And I- I almost killed him.
“Anyways, Stephen had put the messed up spell in a box, but the box got destroyed and the spell was going to destroy basically the multiverse as we know it, because everyone across the universes who knew Peter Parker was Spiderman was going to come here. So I made a call.
“I told Stephen to use his magic to make everyone forget Peter Parker so those people would have no reason to come here. And it worked. No one remembers me,” Peter admitted.
Bucky shook his head. “We do. We remember.”
Peter made eye contact and Bucky saw complete heartbreak behind the boy’s eyes. “But you shouldn’t.”
Steve shrugged. “That doesn’t matter. What's done is done. All you can do is learn from it and keep pushing forward.”
“Just when I think it's gone,” Bucky muttered. Steve raised an eyebrow. “The whole Captain America shit. You just have the ability to pull inspiring snippets out of your ass and I’m not quite sure how.”
Peter laughed a bit and dried his eyes. Steve and Bucky both smiled at that.
“So where do we go from here?” Peter finally asked.
“Well,” Steve started carefully. “Do you know how much you’re… remembered? Sorry, that's a weird way to put it, but…”
“I think I know what you’re asking,” Peter said. “Like, in a legal sense and shit.” Steve nodded so Peter continued. “I still have my passport, birth certificate, and id. But I’m not enrolled in school. I don’t have any education transcripts. There are no standing college applications or records of my uh… rejections.”
“So that's what the GED book is for?” Bucky asked.
“Yeah. I still want to go to college, I think. So I’ll need that.”
Steve looked at Peter, considering. Peter tilted his head at him like a curious dog. “You’re still 17, Peter.”
“Yes?” he nodded, not sure where Rogers was going with this.
“That's a bit young to be on your own. Especially after… everything.”
“What are you saying?”
Steve sighed. “Would you come stay with us?” he asked. “You don’t have to stay for long, if you don’t want to, but you are welcome to. Just to help you get on your feet and sort things out. I mean, you exist in a more official capacity than even I do, so it's not like getting you either completely on the grid or off the grid would be too hard. But it's easier if-”
“Stevie,” Bucky cut him off. “Foot, mouth.”
Steve smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Peter looked dumbfounded.
“Steve was just saying that you are welcome to come stay with us for however long you need,” Bucky said politely.
Peter opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a goldfish, glancing around the apartment. “Are you, are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes,” Steve and Bucky said in unison.
“Look, Peter,” Bucky said. “We have a lot of experience with memory bullshit and finding your footing.”
Peter nodded. “Okay. I-I’m not exactly… officially here. So I needed a new place to stay soon, anyways.”
Steve snorted. “I like this one,” he said to Bucky.
Bucky sighed and stood up. “If I end up in an ‘oh god there's two of them’ situation, I’m suing you for emotional damages.”
“You’re so emotionally damaged at this point, what's a little more?” Steve shot back.
“Dr Raynor would beg to differ with that statement,” Bucky scoffed.
Peter listened to the two’s comforting banter and he changed and gathered up all his things.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Raynor would also beg to differ with the illegality of the shit you did with Sam, but okay.”
“Y’know what, punk?”
“What?”
“Sam at least has a sense of self-preservation. At least a was pretty fucking safe when I was in Europe this time.”
“Yeah. Safe breaking fucking Zemo out of jail.” The thud of bodies hitting the ground was enough for Peter to assume the two had lunged at each other. For being over a century old, they both acted like a couple of teenage boys.
Peter smiled softly to himself. At least he wasn’t going to be alone.