Time to Slap on Some Big Boy Shoes
Same Day
(TW: Mentions a gun being shot and a brief previous mention of being shot with a gun.)
Peter POV.
I was just putting my keys into the door of the apartment when my spidey sense started tingling. I pulled Jason close to my chest, not seeing anything just yet but not wanting to take any chances of someone trying to just snatch him away, he was sleeping too so whatever happened I didn't want to wake him up from his nap. I take my keys out and push them into the door, unlocking it. I went to open it when the tingle increased...
[Duck]
I quickly dropped down with Jason and a bullet flew through the door and over us where my head would have been. "Wade?! What the hell?" I exclaimed and shifted Jason behind me, securing him to my back with webbing as I crawled backwards down the hall in case another one flew through the door. My nerves were on edge but my spidey-sense wasn't tingling as much as it was just a few seconds ago. My heart was pounding fast and the only thing that I was thankful for at this moment was Jason somehow managing to stay asleep through the gunshot going off and breaking through the wood of the door and the wall across from it getting hit. That's just one less thing he will end up talking to his therapist about later on in life.
"Peter?" I heard Wade exclaim before a thud of metal colliding with wood was heard, signaling the gun had fallen to the ground. The door swung open to reveal him head to toe suited up with the white expressive eye lenses showing concern and a lot of panic.
"What are you doing?!" I ask him, my voice higher than it is when I'm talking to him when calm. It definitely wasn't the first time Wade had tried to shoot me, we weren't always dating and we weren't always even friends, but that was a long time ago and I really thought that this was all behind us.
"What am I doing? Are you okay? Do you have Jason?" He quickly moved towards me and dropped to the ground next to me, "I didn't hit you did I?" His hands cupped my face as he moved my head around, looking and checking to make sure he didn't hit me when he shot through the door.
Oh, oh okay, this is my fault. I didn't tell him I was leaving with him. "Jason's right here, he's on my back. We're both fine. You just hit the wall." I told him.
Wade stayed quiet, quiet Wade was more concerning than being shot at by Wade. I could tell there was emotional turmoil going on under that mask and I could practically hear the boxes he mentions on occasion screaming in the silence that there was between the two.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you I was leaving and taking him." I told him, "I didn't mean to make you worry, the doctor said that if we came straight in he'd be able to check him out and I just wanted to make sure we got him in before the doctor left for the day."
Wade nodded softly, "I shouldn't have just shot through the door like that, it was stupid and irresponsible, I just was so... I thought someone took Jason and maybe took you too and I felt like I was going crazy, well more crazy than usual and I just knew I had to go out and get you back no matter what the cost." Wade leaned forward and kissed my head through the mask. "You swear you're both alright?"
I nod. "Jason didn't even wake up when it happened." I shift into a more comfortable position on the ground, my legs going underneath me. "You're a good dad Wade, I should have just been a little more rational before sneaking off with him." I sighed. "I just get overwhelmed with all this parenting stuff all the time and you always seem to be so calm when I'm not."
"You're the calm one when I'm overwhelmed. We're here to ground each other and work this out together." Wade sighed and sat back against the wall. "Don't think parenting really involves shooting your counterpart."
"I shoot you all the time." I offer as a joke, rather than joking about the time before we were acquainted when he shot me in the face. Yeah that wasn't a fun one to heal up from but I don't hold that against him, he didn't know it was me and he was just doing a job, which I had protested against before and after that incident might I add. If I had any worry about Wade going after me or Jason we wouldn't even be here right now and we'd be very far away from him.
"Yeah but you know I like when you shoot me, even if we end up getting our faces stuck together for a couple of hours." Wade hummed, it was clear he was trying to be chipper and his usual goofy self but he wasn't okay with what just happened. I wasn't either but what was there really to say at this moment other than jokes. As long as Jason didn't ever get hurt that's all that mattered. "Especially in training, you do go overboard with your webs during training I'll admit that."
I give a little smile, as much as one could smile right now after almost being shot. "I go overboard because I know you like being shot up with the webbing."
Wade nodded cause he couldn't deny that. "Are you really okay?"
"I'm fine Wade, a little shaken but it's not like you knew it was us," I tell him, he would never hurt us, he loves Jason too much to ever try hurting either of us. The whole reason he even had his gun out was because he was worried about Jason.
[Who are you trying to convince? Yourself or the readers?]
What readers? I'm not Wade, I can't break the fourth wall just like that.
"Of course not! I didn't know it was you, I wouldn't shoot you on purpose, not again, I swear I didn't know it was you guys on the other side of the door. I really have to actually look before I'm firing." Wade rubbed a gloved hand over his masked face. "What did the doctor end up saying?"
I reach over and take his other hand, we probably shouldn't still be sitting out in the hallway like this but we couldn't seem to move right now. "He took some blood but after I told him everything that happened he said it was most likely a reaction to the watermelon."
Wade looked up at me again, "The watermelon?" He asked, "So it's my fault that he ended up breaking out in hives?"
"It's no one's fault, we just know now for the future not to let him touch it." I told him. "The doctor put some medicated ointment on him and said he would call when the test results came back."
Wade nodded and took a deep breath. "Well, at least we know now."
I nod back and sit there with him quietly for a good while, both of us thinking and in our own head going over what happened and beating ourselves up over it.
"It's kind of concerning that the police didn't show up. Our neighbors heard a gun go off and none of them decided it would be a good idea to call the police or look outside of their doors." Wade said after a moment. "It doesn't seem like anyone on our floor even questioned it."
I listen to him before looking around, "Yeah what's that about, there's no mistaking gunshots for anything else this time of year, someone could have just died and none of them called the police to investigate the noise..." Moving was not an option right now, it was difficult enough moving in here to begin with, packing everything back up and trying to move to a new place with enough space for Jason to grow up in without causing suspicion would be impossible between actually finding a place like that and taking care of him and work and school and being Spider-man, and attending meetings at the avengers compound, which he's missed a bunch in the past week. Why do they meet up every day? Why isn't it always at the tower? Why is the compound so far away? There was little to grab onto webbing wise and even though I have incredible stamina I wish I could just teleport because even though they offer me a ride I'm so nervous about them figuring things out that I refuse them.
"Petey?"
I looked up at him and realized I zoned out as my thoughts went off into a tangent. "Let's get Jason to bed, we can talk about the building later. It's too much for right now."
Wade nodded before moving behind me and unwrapping Jason from the webbing, it had been enough to safely keep him in place but not the kind that would stick to him for hours before dissolving.
I felt the weight lifted from my back and turned to face Wade and the sleeping child, giving each a forehead kiss before getting up and walking into the apartment, picking the gun up off the floor, and checking to make sure the safety was on before unloading the magazine. I might not like them but I have Steve Rogers as my dad, Bucky Barnes as my Uncle, and Natasha Romanoff as my Aunt, it's safe to say they made me familiar with the mechanics and how to properly use one, which I hated when growing up because what child wants to use a gun? Scratch that, there is clearly a lot given the brand nerf but I preferred those plastic bullets to the real thing.
"Did you want to put him down or should I?" I asked him and closed the door behind him as he walked in with Jason.
"I can do it." I heard him say and Wade walked up the stairs without another word. I could already tell that this was going to be an awkward couple of days. It wasn't unusually for us to go days without talking to each other after something happened other than mentioning things about Jason, actually, that was our usual at the moment but no jokes or casual talking between, no falling asleep while tangled on the couch and obvious ducking out of the room to avoid the other before things settle and we can actually talk things through and return to our normal lives. I hoped it happened sooner rather than later though because even though I'm part of the reason it happens, I want things to be okay. It's not fair to either of us or Jason to do our normal avoidance of the problem. Time to slap on some big boy shoes and try to sort it out.
I went to the kitchen and upped up on the counter, waiting to see if Wade would end up coming back down or go right to his room after putting Jason down.
...
It didn't take me long to realize it was the latter but I gave him another minute in case he was just deciding to change. I tried to plan out something mature to say to try and calm things between us but nothing seemed right.
...
Some more time passes and I hop off the counter and go to make my way to my own room when I feel the tingle on the back of my neck.
[Stop.]
I did halt my motions which kept me from walking right into Wade, which was out of costume but still had his mask, though it was pulled up above his nose.
We don't say anything, just standing there for a moment before suddenly our mouths are locked and we're grabbing at each other, both an apology for what we each did. No, neither action was okay but all was... slightly forgiven and we'd get through it. This was just a small pebble in the well of worries that neither of us had room for, I hope this will help settle that so tomorrow would go back to being a normal easy day... well easier than today.