The gangs back together
Aunt May
May: Hurry straight home from school today sweetie...as fast as you can.
May: There's people at the apartment who want to see you.
Peter re-read the messages over and over again with wide eyes, multiple scenarios running through his mind at the mere implications of Mays most recent texts. Was she okay? Was it Mr stark? Was she being held hostage by someone who had figured out his secret identity? He bit his lip in despair. If she was being hurt right now, there would be no way for him to stop it. He was on his lunch period before his last lesson, which was science. Normally he would be excited for the down time to create more web fluid but right now all he could focus on was the dark pit swirling in his stomach, and there was no way he could skip anymore school, the teachers and faculty were bad enough. He mustn't have hid it well though, because MJ caught on exceptionally quickly. That's something Peter loved about her, so, so much. But sometimes it could be a pain in the ass.
"What's wrong?" She asked sharply, and Ned glanced up from the soggy school nuggets he was attempting to eat. Peter took a shaky breath and showed MJ and Ned the texts, anxiety practically rolling off him in waves. Ned eeped, obviously thinking that this was something Spiderman related, while MJ's eyes narrowed sharply, concern glistening in them for a split second before hiding it.
"Well, aren't you going to text her back? Or are you going to jump to conclusions and skip so we have to cover for you?" She asked, disguised as a demand, but Peter could see right through it. MJ knew Peter was under a lot of stress as Spiderman and his frequent skipping's of class and date nights caused him too much unnecessary guilt, but at the same time he refused to stop. Because that's who he was. Peter winced in guilt, and Ned and MJ braced themselves for a couple of days worth of apologies. They never really minded though. I mean how could they? When their best friend and boyfriend was out there being a superhero and saving lives?
"I-I'm sorry Em… I think I have to skip date night again.." he whispered, ashamed, and MJ rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me right now, Parker? This is May we're talking about. We could always pretend to watch a movie and make out another time." Peter buried his face in his hands, keening, as Ned choked on a nugget, hacking and spluttering into the table with a rough oh my GOD MJ. She shrugged, unbothered, before discretely asking again.
"So.... you skipping?" And Peter was about to say yes and book it out the doors before his phone pinged again, forcing the three teens to give it attention.
May
may: I'm sorry baby I know that with your....job that was a bad way to put it
may: look who came!!!!
may: -ATTATCHMENT-
May: ...larb you
A large sunny smile instantly split Peters face, much to the alarm of his friends. God his mood swings were wild.
"Oh yeah, I'm definitely skipping!" he said with glee, with a "sorry em" hurriedly attached on the end. He studied the photo hard, caught in the throes of joy, of the people sitting around the table of his and May's shared apartment. There were three men and one woman all waving at the camera and nursing beverages, people peter KNEW. On one end of the table sat a proud looking, self assured, gentle man, with his beautiful blonde wife sitting next to him, purple scarf draped over her slim shoulders and arms linked. On the opposite end sat two men, hands laced together. One was a tall, skinny man with wild brown hair that stuck up in all directions and thick nerdy glasses. He was laughing at something the other man was saying and was clearly trying hard not to break down for the photo. The before mentioned man was a heavily muscled man who was covered In horrific looking burn scars all over his bald head and body, yet his teeth sparkled and his eyes glistened with happiness and a spark that Peter knew hadn't been there years before. These were Tobey, Gwen, Andrew and Wade. Peters brothers and family.
May
Peter: OH MY GOD!!
He turned the phone to show his concerned friends, and Ned gasped loudly. "Dude! No way! The clan are back!?" And Peter nodded happily, doing little happy noises at the back of his throat and wiggling around in his seat. If the thought of he's so fucking adorable crossed MJs mind....no it didn't. "It looks like!"
"The clan?" Michelle asked with an air of confusion, and ned took the liberty of answering.
"It's what we call Peters older brothers and their partners!" He explained, lost in a daze of excitement. "We haven't seen them in two years, nearly three!"
"I didn't know you...had brothers?" MJ asked, sounding almost a little hurt. Peter was quick to reassure her, however, putting his phone face down on the table.
"Yeah...sorry Em I don't really talk about them much I guess...Basically, I have two older brothers called Tobey and Andrew! They both left the nest back when Ben was...still here and had lives built by the time he died. Tobey is my oldest brother, he just turned 30, and is married to his high school sweetheart Gwen! They both work together as reporters, although Gwen is more successful in Oscorp, where she's been working for ten years, ever since the whole Osborn thing went down and Norman was arrested for some shady shit. Tobey's actually old friends with the head of Oscorp, Harry! Don't tell Mr Stark a family member of mine works at Oscorp, he'll never let me live it down." He took a deep breath before he started to turn purple, and continued.
"And then there's my other brother, Andrew. Or Andy as we call him. He's 24 and he works as a high-ranking scientist at indormus inc!"
"Wait, the company that makes prosthetics and runs eco friendly projects funded by stark industries?" Michelle queried, remembering her mother talk about it in one of her rallies.
"Yup! We're all super proud of him. Oh and Tobey too! Andrew and wade moved to California to help continue with Andy's research over at one if Indormus's sister sites, and Wade went there because it was closer to an organisation he needed to take- involve himself in. Tobey and Gwen moved to San Francisco a while back too, last I heard they teamed up with THE Eddie Brock to take some evil indent corporation down. They cross paths with Wade and Andy a couple of times a year for their yearly reports on Indormus, so they've kept in contact more than we have. I mean SURE we call and message and we have a family group chat but it's not the same....The day before homecoming Wade told me to get the girl but use protection....IN FRONT OF EVERYONE ELSE. I was so -Stop laughing- I was so embarrassed! And then there's Wade, I guess. He's 30, Andy's boyfriend and he's....." Peter trailed off, mumbling something under his breath.
"What was that"
"He's a m-merc......"
"Peter."
"He's freaking Deadpool!" He cried, before covering his eyes and groaning as he could spy Ned expanding from excitement, eyes glowing wide as questions prepared to spill from his mouth.
"WHAT!? Peter why didn't you tell me! Oh my god did he try and kill your brother? Is he hot under the mask? Oh wait he's wade I know who he is. Is he dangerous? Has he ever tried to hurt you? Do you think he's into knife play? Does he know you're Spiderman-"
His endless stream of questions was cut off by a wail of despair from Peter, who threw his head down into his arms and let out a muffled scream. No it's not fucking dramatic. He has his reasons. Ned poked him in the arm a few times while MJ sat in total silence, wondering, how fucked up can peter parkers life get?
"You good buddy?"
"No!" Peter fumed. "Guys, the last time they saw me I was an asthmatic with eyesight problems, I was skinny as hell, had a stutter and DIDN'T HAVE ABS" he panicked, and his two friends sucked in a breath of sympathy.
"This would be great for my crisis notebook."
"Em! I'm serious! They're totally going to find out I'm....you know!" he looked around in paranoia, hidden slender hands gripping and unbunching the sleeves of his sweater rhythmically, and Michelle raised an eyebrow in wonder. "Why not?" She challenged. "They're your family after all. I mean, May knows."
"On accident!" He protested, before sighing in a puppy dog way that nearly had MJ swooning. "I'm the baby of the family, guys. They've all grown up seeing me as some weak little skinny kid who can't protect himself. When they left I was stick thin, now look at me! I look like a gym rat!"
"It'll be fine Peter. Just blame it on the puberty bus." Ned said, before seeing the bright side of things and perking up. "Hey, at least your brothers are back!"
Peter cocked his head for a moment, contemplating, before he sat up straight and smiled again, light dancing back and swimming in his doe eyes.
"Yeah, they are! Oh, sorry Em... reschedule?"
...........................................................................................................................................
Peter practically flew up the stairs of his homely apartment building, cursing the broken elevator for the 3907th time since he moved in and dodging the buildings tenants as he passed, shouting hello's and apologies over his shoulder. Okay yes, sure he had the super stamina to rival Captain Americas, but damn he had just sprinted all the way home from school as soon as the bell rang. It was a two mile walk each way, which would normally take him around 45 minutes, or a 20 minute subway, but today he was so excited he accidently cut it down to 25....on foot. Oops. That would be suspicious, but hopefully nobody would notice. Dashing over to his and Mays apartment in record time, he threw open the door with a little more force than necessary, kicked off his shoes, threw down his bag and pointed at the first living thing he laid eyes on.
It was Andrew.
"YOU!" Peter bellowed, locking eyes on his brother who was closest, standing in the empty space between the living room and kitchen. He barely had time to put his coffee down before a warm body ploughed into him and he had an armful of a laughing, excitable teenager.
"Peter!" He cried out happily, wrapping his arms around the quivering teen and swinging him about. "Jesus Christ I've missed you kid! But you just about scared the shit out of me" Andrew spun The 15 year old around and walked with him in his arms towards the kitchen table, where Tobey stood up and invited himself over, sweeping Peters hair back until he looked up and caught sight of him. The adults in the room laughed as Peter registered his presence with a loud "TOBEY!" and launched himself onto his oldest brother, laughing and giggling away in Joy.
"Hey what am I, dead meat?" Wade called, gesturing towards himself, and then grunting in surprise 3 seconds later as a doe eyed, brown haired blur hit him full force, latching on like a spider monkey and attempting to bury his face into Wade's broad chest. Wade ruffled his hair wildly, and hugged him back fiercely.
"Jesus Petey you're gonna make me shed a tear! And I'll warn you, that's not a pretty sight." Peter cackled and disentangled himself from the mercenary, smile threatening to split his face in half. "Shut up, Wade!" He jolted in surprise but let himself be maneuverered as Andrew latched onto both of his arms and pulled him backwards into the light of the window, fixing his hair and smiling through teary, disbelieving eyes.
"Oh my God Pete...Look at you! You've changed so much! You look so grown up now!" Peter wrinkled his nose.
"Andy you sound like Grandma!"
Wade roared with laugher as Andy gasped, crossing his arms and levelling him with a stare that could melt steel. Luckily for Peter, he had faced much worse than his brother as Spiderman. Although they didn't need to know that.
"You take that back!" "No!" Tobey ran a hand over his smiling face and crossed his arms, his sweater feeling uncomfortably warm in the middle of the New York heat wave that was currently going on.
"Seriously though Pete...You've changed. You shot up, filled out, you sound like a squeaky version of Andy, you haven't even looked at an inhaler and the glasses! Where are your thick little nerdy glasses? The twelve year old Peter Parker we know ALWAYS had his lil glasses on!"
"Ah, yes. But the fifteen year old Peter Parker doesn't." he gently reminded them. "Of course I've changed! And thank God because I wasn't really attractive back then was I?"
"You were-" Andy stated, before trying again. "That didn't matter back then did it?" Peter scoffed, crossing his arms and bringing his shoulders up. "What!? Of course it did! That's all that mattered! I didn't date anyone until I just turned fourteen!-" shit.
"excuse me!? Peter!" "AWW PETEY!" "Do we need to have the talk? PLEASE don't say we need to have the talk!" "we don't need to have the talk-"
"What's going on in here? Who need's the talk?" A strong voice asked, before May Parker herself strode in with a bag of groceries, something the men couldn't NOT smile about because, A) It was their aunt (Wades by default), and B) Peter had immediately gone to help her unasked. Just as polite as they remembered. He kissed her cheek and took the bag away from her gently, taking it and putting it on the kitchen counter, where he jumped up and stayed.
Andrew pointed a finger at Peter accusingly. "You let the baby date!" and May snorted, wagging her finger at Peter, who shrugged in return.
"Oh please! I had no idea that he was dating Harley, Peter said he was just a friend! Anyway they broke it off sometime last year. Then there was the stint with Lizzzz-" She teased, stalking forward dramatically, drawing out the name as she knew it embarrassed Peter, who jumped down and met her halfway, and he whined and hid his face in his hands. "Mayyyyy!"
"But now he has Michelle, and he knows the rules. No closed bedroom doors."
"May....you literally leave us alone for our date nights for hours. What's the difference?"
"The difference is I don't want to catch you making out with her this time."
"That was ONE time, May! You can't fault me for that!"
"Oh I CAN mister! Your sense of hearing is...amazing you could have stopped in time! I mean who makes out with someone on a fire escape?"
"Hold on a minute here!" Tobey intervened, Wade and Andrew too busy looking back and fore between May and Peter with the biggest shit eating grins on their faces. Peteys gotta girlfriennnddd Wade sung to Andrew, who slapped his arm because Tobey looked like he was going to have an aneurism.
"So you're telling me, in the two, nearly three years we've been gone, Peter goes from looking like a stick insect to a teenage dream, lost the glasses because his eyesight magically fixed itself, shot up like a weed, doubled his body mass, had his first kiss, had a first date, is now at the make-out stage of teenagerhood, and has dated three people?"
"Okay technically, technically I've only dated two!" Peter defended himself. "I-I took Liv to Homecoming but she moved the next day, and me and MJ started dating a while back sooo...yeah"
"You could have dated Liz if you asked!" May singsonged, which earned her a pout from her nephew.
"I couldn't May! I was dating Harley at the time, and by the time I moved on from HIM Liz was only there for a week!"
"I can't believe you tricked me into thinking you were straight so Harley could sleep over."
"It worked, didn't it?"
Tobey nearly started crying from being overwhelmed, and Wade and Andrew gasped, looking at each other and back towards Peter with happiness imbedded into their faces. Oh they were definitely having a talk later. May smirked, sauntering over to Peter, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in for a side hug, hands gently combing through his soft brown curls.
"Yup, our Peter's doing pretty well in terms of being a teenager!" she smiled, quietly but proudly. Peter looked down at the ground modestly, a blush covering his cheeks and sweater covered hands played with each other as he leant into Mays touch, letting his eyes flutter closed as he breathed in the scent of strawberries and cinnamon.
"Now wait until you see THIS!" And the next thing you know Peter could feel cold air on his stomach and muscles as Aunt May yanked his shirt up. Traitor.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?"
"WHAT KIND OF FUCKING TEENAGER AREYOU??"
"MAY!"