“Miles, how do I solve this problem? I’m aware that we just learned how to, but I forgot again.” Ganke asked Miles as they worked their way through the math page that they had been assigned for classwork. Today they had started a new chapter, and, no matter how much of a nerd Ganke was, he always needed practice before he could just memorize how to do it.
Miles let out a sigh and leaned over to look at Ganke’s paper to see what problem he was on. It was the problem Miles had just finished. So, thankfully he had some practice already. “Okay, multiply these two things together.” Miles pointed at the paper as he explained so that Ganke wouldn’t be confused. “Then divide them by three and plug the answer into the equation we learned today. It’s written at the top of the paper before you ask me what it is.”
“Hey! I know it’s at the top of my paper. I’m the one who wrote it there after all.” Ganke defended, gently pushing Miles’s hand away from his paper. He started writing down the answer as he plugged various things into his calculator. Miles went back to working on his paper too.
Thankfully the classwork was graded by whether they tried their best and actually did some of their work and not completion. Class ended in roughly five minutes, and, although Miles had worked through most of his classwork, he didn’t think he would fully finish it.
Time tended to pass faster when you were working hard, so soon there wasn’t much time before the teacher’s voice rang out across the room. “Please bring your papers to the front of the class, and put them in the proper bin for your class.” Miles grabbed his paper and walked up to the front, lightly shoving his way through the crowd of students to put his paper in the bin. He walked back to his seat and started packing up his things.
He put his water bottle, pencils, and calculator into his bag before double checking to make sure he got everything. After concluding that he wasn’t going to forget something extremely important on his desk he waited for the bell to ring. Only a second later the bell rang, loud and clear through the hallways, and he got up to leave the classroom.
The bell had seemed louder than normal and it echoed in his ears even after it had ended. Miles shook his head to try and get rid of the ringing, but it stayed. He started walking towards his next class. Ganke had a class on the other side of the school, so it wasn’t like he could ask him if the bell seemed louder than normal. Sure, he had a few friends in most of his classes, but none of them were quite as close as Ganke.
It would be kind of awkward to go up to a random classmate and ask if the bell had seemed louder than normal. Besides, his senses were dialed up because of his spider-abilities. So, maybe he had just heard it a little louder for some reason. Though, when the gentle chatter in the hallways also seemed to be louder he started to get a little bit concerned.
This could be the beginning of a sensory overload. It wouldn’t be the first time that one had occurred since he gained his spider powers. Pete had also warned him about them, and he gave him multiple tips on how to avoid them. Most of the time he had the option to dip away from people, but right now he had to go to class. It wasn’t too bad anyways. So, he should be fine for the time being.
Miles adjusted his backpack on his shoulders and kept walking down the hall to get to his next class. He took the left turn that he always took before walking into his chemistry class. He knew they were doing an experiment today based on the stuff they had learned recently. So, he was very excited about that.
He walked over to his desk where his lab partner was already sitting down and taking out the materials he needed for the lab. Miles sat down and started pulling his chemistry supplies out of his bag. Soon enough, the five minutes of transition time had passed and the teacher was starting to go over the experiment they were going to do in class.
It wasn’t a particularly complicated experiment. It was to see which materials reacted to which substances differently. You had to do that then record the results. Some of the materials were toxic though, so of course everyone had to be careful and wear proper protection.
The experiment started off normally. Things only seemed a little bit louder, and things like smell and touch weren’t bothering him too much. Then it hit him like a wave roughly 30 minutes into class. The smells of the chemicals and the other students hit him like a wave and Miles had to stop himself from gagging. Everything was too much and it all felt wrong. His clothes felt wrong, the air felt wrong, just- everything. “Hey, I need to use the bathroom.” Miles told his partner who nodded at him.
Miles almost ran out of the classroom and down the hall to the boys’ bathroom. He slipped into the bathroom and pulled up his sweater over his nose. The stench of the boys’ bathroom went through his sweater and he dry gagged again. If it happened anymore he might just actually throw up, and he didn’t want that to happen.
He barged into a stall and quickly locked the door behind him before proceeding to throw up into the toilet. Well, there goes the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he had eaten for lunch. Miles dry gagged another time before pulling his phone out of his pocket. There was about 40 minutes left until the school day ended. He could survive until then, right?
Turns out that he couldn’t really. The lights were too loud, the humming of the electricity was too loud, the temperature was wrong, the smell made him dry gag every five seconds, and everything hurt. Finally, the sharp ringing of the final bell pierced his ears. Although it hurt like he got punched in the head by Rhino, it meant he could finally call Pete and have him help.
Miles pulled his bag out of his bathroom, squinting his eyes against the bright light of the phone screen. He decided that calling Peter would be better. It might kill his ears, but at least he’d be able to see without squinting his eyes to the point that they were barely open. He clicked Peter’s contact that was conveniently near the top of his messages and clicked the call button.
It didn’t take too long for Peter to pick up the phone. “Hey, Miles. What’s up?” Miles whimpered. Peter’s voice was way too loud, but he already had turned the volume on his phone as far down as he could. He moved the phone a little further away from his head and pushed himself up against the stall wall a little tighter.
Everything hurt. Everything was wrong. He didn’t want to be here. “Pete.” Miles whined. He needed to tell Peter what was going on, but even his own voice was too loud. Everything hurt, and he was stuck in the boy’s bathroom at his school. Well, maybe he could power through it. A little more pain at the moment was better than sitting on the bathroom floor for hours. “Sens’ry overload.”
Miles heard rustling on the other end of the phone as Peter got up from wherever he was sitting. He was probably relaxing in his apartment after the busy night they had fighting crime. The next time Peter’s voice comes through the speaker he’s whispering and probably holding the phone further away from his face “I’ll be right there, Miles. Just hang on. Where’s your backpack?”
Miles mumbled out the room number before curling back into a ball. He could lightly hear Peter’s web slinging as he neared the school. He could have hung up so he would be able to sit in silence, but having someone there for reassurance definitely helped.
Tme always moved so slowly when he was having a sensory overload. Seconds felt like hours as he sat on the floor, unmoving, because the slightest motion could cause his whole body to hurt from the fabric. It wasn’t even like he was at home with a soft hoodie. He was wearing a dress shirt and a sort-of itchy sweater on top of it. Not the greatest combination by any means.
The floor and smell of the bathroom also wasn’t great. Sure, it wasn’t nearly as bad as a bathroom in some public event thing would be, but it still wasn’t great. Normally it didn’t smell that bad. Mostly it was just cleaning supplies, but when everything decides to go to level eleven it’s not that great. And, the floor was covered in grime that poked him through his slacks.
“Okay, I’m here. Just let me change, and I’ll be right there.” Miles let out a noise of confirmation to show Pete that he had heard him even though it probably wasn’t necessary. At the moment Miles could easily hear everything. The electricity in the walls, the semi-faint talking of one of the after school clubs, footsteps coming down the hall quietly, a teacher listening to music as they graded, wait- footsteps.
Sure enough, Miles quickly heard the door of the bathroom open as the person let out a familiar but extremely quiet to the human ear, “Hey, Miles.” Miles slowly moved to unlock the door to the bathroom stall he had been hiding in. The fabric of his clothes rubbing against his skin burned, but at least Peter was there to help him now.
“I can probably swing you back to my apartment where I’d be better equipped to deal with this. You don’t have to put your suit on. I can just go down the less populated streets. Okay?” Peter whispered, looking to Miles for confirmation that this was okay. Miles nodded.
Peter pulled out the noise-canceling headphones that Miles owned from his backpack and handed them to the younger boy who quickly put them on. It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but it was certainly better than it would be otherwise. Especially when swinging over the streets of New York where people had a love for honking their horns at the traffic that never seemed to move. Miles grabbed his phone and slipped it into his pocket
“This is probably going to hurt, and I’m sorry. I’ll go as fast as I can.” Peter said before gently scooping up Miles in his arms. Miles flinched at the touch causing Peter’s heart to shatter into a million pieces. “I’ll get you home soon, buddy.” With that Peter slung Miles’s backpack over his back and made a run towards the exit he had entered from. Obviously not the main entrance.
He could tell how uncomfortable Miles already was, and his goal was to get back to his apartment as fast as possible to fix that. Once they got outside (and Miles squeezed his eyes shut even harder) Peter put him down for a second. “I’m just changing into my Spider-Suit. Don’t worry.” Peter reassured him before changing into the spandex. With that, he picked Miles back up and started swinging towards his apartment.
Swinging one-handed was not an easy task. Generally, Peter only had to do this for short periods of time when he was getting civilians down from tall things they shouldn’t be on. Now he had to worry about a kid in the middle of a sensory overload. He tried to make his movements as smooth as possible so any sudden jerks wouldn’t cause more pain, but it wasn’t easy.
At least he didn’t have to worry about Miles falling. Between how he was sticking his hand to Miles’s back to make sure he didn’t fall and how Miles was clinging to him and probably sticking as well, Miles falling was the least of his worries. He turned around another corner of a building. So close to home.
Only a few swings later Peter was crawling into his apartment window. Thankfully the window he left open was the one to the living room. So, he was able to set Miles down very gently on the couch and place Miles’s bag next to him. Peter jumped into the bathroom to change into his normal clothes before quietly reentering the living room.
Miles had already curled himself up on the couch in a way that probably wasn’t the most comfortable, but also wasn’t as bad as the bathroom floor. Peter moved across the floor, making as little noise as possible so he could close the window and the blinds. He flinched a little at how loud the blinds were and what pain it probably caused Miles while he was closing them, but it was better than before.
Now that the blinds were closed it was significantly darker in the room than before. It wasn’t fully dark since some light still seeped through the blinds, but it was better than before. Next was to let Miles get into something comfortable than that sweater and dress shirt. Peter went into his room and found one of his softest hoodies. He was only about a size bigger than Miles. So, hopefully it will be fine.
Peter walked back into the main room with the hoodie in hand. “Hey, Miles.” He whispered. Miles flinched at the voice, but was clearly still paying attention. “I brought you a hoodie. It should be more comfortable than your school uniform.” Miles nodded and reached out a hand to take said hoodie.
Peter handed it over and Miles grabbed onto it tightly. It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but nothing is the best when you’re having a sensory overload. It was very soft though, and much better than his school clothes would ever be. He heard Peter quietly walking out of the room so he could change in peace.
Miles slipped off the noise-canceling headphones from earlier. Then he slipped his sweater over his head, cringing at the pain the rough texture brought. Next came the dress shirt that he carefully took off. None of the fabric felt nice at all against his skin as he took it off, but it was better than leaving it on. Anything was better than leaving thick, stiff clothes on. Miles even agreed with that statement normally.
He relished in the cool air on his skin for a moment before grabbing Peter’s hoodie. Since the room wasn’t bright he could open his eyes without internally dying. The hoodie was dark blue with a college logo in white on the front. It was pretty soft on the outside, which hopefully meant that the inside would be soft too. He slipped the hoodie on.
God, it was softer than the outside of the hoodie was. It was also slightly too big which made it feel like he was either getting smothered in a blanket or getting a nice hug. Except, there wasn’t the physical pressure that would kill him right now. Miles slipped off his socks and shoes and laid back down on the couch. He closed his eyes again and relaxed.
This was so much more comfortable than the school bathroom.
A few minutes later Miles heard the door open as Peter walked back into the room. He was obviously trying to be as quiet as he could until he sat down at the other end of the couch. It was a longer couch that May probably gave Peter. May probably had it back when it was her, Ben, and Peter living together. Anyways, it made it so that there was plenty of room for Miles to lay down and for Peter to still sit at the end of the couch by his feet.
It could take anywhere from minutes to hours for a sensory overload to finally stop, and Peter was prepared to sit there for as long as he could waiting for it to end. He knew first hand how much they sucked and wanted to be there for Miles through the entire thing. Though from how comfortable Miles seemed now, hopefully it would end sooner rather than later. He couldn’t tell until it happened though.
So, Peter and Miles sat and laid there respectively until Miles was comfortable again. He focused on both of their beating hearts and their breathing. It distracted Miles from the uncomfortable way his clothes pressed against his skin and the way the smells from the street and the apartment were too strong for his liking. Just his breathing and the beating of their hearts.
Miles wasn’t sure how long he was laying there before things started to return to normal. Sounds such as cars honking no longer caused his head to feel like it was about to explode. The scents from everywhere didn’t threaten to make him throw up. The clothes didn’t make his skin feel like it was on fire. It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but it also certainly wasn’t as bad as it had been earlier.
At this point Miles wanted two things. The first thing was food, considering the fact that the contents of his lunch didn’t stay in his stomach very long. The second thing was the comfort of human affection. Technically, the best wording would be that he was being clingy. Considering the fact that having food right now still didn’t feel like the best idea, he decided to be clingy.
Miles carefully turned around on the couch so he could lay his head on his mentor’s lap. It was comfortable and warm. Exactly what Miles wanted right now. He felt Peter stiffen up for a second before relaxing again. He probably hadn’t expected Miles to do this to be fair.
Well, not expecting might even be an understatement. Peter was shocked when Miles turned around and essentially went back to zoning out while laying with his head on his lap. He figured that this must be a thing Miles was comfortable with since he was the one who had initiated it. He was just surprised. Now what did he do?
Peter gently put his hand on Miles’s head to see if the younger boy would flinch away from his touch, but since he didn’t Peter kept going. Miles had extremely short hair, so it wasn’t like Peter was doing the thing in movies where people run their fingers through someone’s hair to unknot it. He was just lightly scratching Miles’s head. That was the best way to put it.
It wasn’t an awkward thing by any means. It’s just that neither of them had ever really been this close before. Peter also wasn’t quite surprised that right now was the first time they did anything like this. Sensory overloads were extremely tiring for literally no good reason. They just were. So, wanting to relax with a person you're close with afterwards was kind of expected. He had done it with MJ a number of times.
Thankfully, Miles didn’t seem uncomfortable with what Peter was doing either. There was a content smile on his face as he relaxed and recovered from the sensory overload. It only seemed to have lasted two hours after Miles had called, but knowing Miles it could have gone on for any number of time before that. He just hoped that Miles hadn’t decided to suffer alone for two hours before calling him.
It probably was better that he waited until after school ended. It would have looked quite a bit weirder for him to try and walk into the school when classes were still in session. After school no one would question him as he walked in or out though, which was nice.
They probably stayed like that, Miles’s head in Peter’s lap as Peter gently scratched his head, for another 30 minutes before Miles finally recovered. “Thanks, Peter.” Miles said, opening his eyes and looking up at him.
Peter smiled down at Miles. “It’s no problem, Miles. I’m just glad you’re okay now.” Miles sat up and looked around the room, his eyes finally landing on the clock. “How long did it last?” Peter asked, assuming that Miles was looking at the clock to figure that out.
“Roughly 3 hours. Something like that.” Miles responded, sinking back into the couch as he leaned backwards. “Do you have any food? I kind of lost all mine earlier.” Peter flew up from his spot on the couch, cursing himself for not remembering that food would be a good idea sooner. Of course he needed food.
“Oh, yeah! Fuck- uh. Do you want like- toast? I could also order Chinese or pizza with rooftop delivery if you want either of those. I can really do whatever you want.” Peter said, rushing through his words.
Miles laughed. “I think that some toast would be fine. I threw up earlier. I know I probably won’t do it again, but I’d rather not risk anything,” Miles said. Peter nodded, getting up from the couch and offering a hand to Miles.
“Okay. I can do toast.” Peter said, sounding much more relaxed since Miles didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t already have food prepared.
“You can’t do dumplings though.” Miles teased, taking Peter’s hand and standing up as they both walked to the little kitchen area.
Peter groaned as he got materials out of the fridge to make both of them two pieces of toast with butter. “That was one time. You weren’t even there for it! Why won’t you and MJ just acknowledge it and go home.” Peter grabbed a butter knife and waved it at Miles in a silly ‘I’m gonna stab you, but I’m not actually gonna stab you’ type way.
Miles pushed it away. “You have to admit that it is kind of funny.”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“I am going to send you home and not invite you back. Ever.” Peter threatened jokingly as the toast popped out of the toaster and he set everything out on some plates.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Miles responded dramatically, a hand over his heart in mock offense to Peter’s words. “Without me you wouldn’t have to constantly clean your living room in case I crash here for whatever reason.”
“I would keep the living room clean anyways,” Peter responded. He grabbed the butter knife from earlier and buttered the four pieces of toast. He handed a plate to Miles who immediately took a bite out of one of the pieces.
“Peter, I heard the stories from May, and I have seen your room. I highly doubt that.” Miles replied before taking another bite of his toast as they walked back over to the couch in the living room.
“Betrayed by my own kind. This is a terrible day for the Peter Parker community.” With that they both burst out laughing. They ate their toast in silence, both putting their plates on the coffee table when they were done.
Miles leaned back again. “Sorry, for uh- y’know. Calling you in the middle of no time earlier. Also, I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable when I like- almost fell asleep on you. I don’t normally do that, and if you don’t want me to do it again I can. It just felt right and-”
Peter cut off Mile’s anxious rambling by scooting closer to Miles on the couch and putting an arm around his shoulders. “Miles, it’s fine. You can call me any time, and I will probably be fine to answer. Don’t worry about it. About the leaning on me thing too. I didn’t mind that, I just was very surprised at first. It was kind of nice.” Peter said, as Miles leaned his head on the older’s shoulder.
“Oh, okay.” Peter laughed at Miles’s awkwardness as they both sat there for a few seconds just enjoying each other’s presence.
“I think the cops can do their job for a night. At least, I sure hope they can. Do you want to stay here for the night? We can watch a movie or something, and I can help you with your homework.” Peter offered.
“That would be great, Pete. Just let me check with my mom real quick.” Miles took out his phone and quickly sent a text to his mom. Within a few minutes she replied saying that it was fine by her as long as he got to school on time tomorrow. “She says it’s fine. I just have to attend school tomorrow.” Miles rolled his eyes in mock annoyance.
“You better attend school.” Peter threatened lightly before grabbing the remote for the TV and turned it on. “Now, what do you want to watch?”