Chapter 2
Peter chittered softly as he clung to the ceiling, hiding away from his exasperated aunt bellow him.
"Peter, you need to take a bath." She said, putting her hands on her hips as she stared up at him.
"No." The nine year old said, before skittering towards the stairs, only for his uncle to be waiting on the first step.
"Not so fast small fry," his uncle said, "you wanna get up there you'll have to go through me first." He added.
"No." Peter said, before crawling towards the kitchen and slipping into the cupboard over the fridge, ignoring his aunts exasperated sigh. This was his usual hiding spot.
"Okay, plan b." His uncle whispered as he walked into the kitchen and quietly pulled something out of the fridge.
It was quiet for several minutes, and peter began to think that they'd given up, before-
"Peter! I have a strawberry-mango smoothie with extra cream," he heard his uncle say from somewhere in the house. "If you can find it you can have it." He added.
Uncle Ben heard the bang of the cupboard door being flung open, and laughed softly as the excited chittering that was soon followed by the sound of rapid footsteps on what he assumed was the ceiling.
They'd recently discovered more of Peters spidery abilities, such as enhanced hearing and sight, and the most recent, enhanced sense of smell. Peter was able to smell the difference between potatoes without salt and potatoes with salt, somehow able to smell the salt when Neither his uncle or aunt could.
They were also discovering things that irritated peter, like allergies. No more lavender, peppermint, lemon, limes, oranges, cinnamon, cedar, eucalyptus, mint, chestnuts or walnuts allowed in the house or near peter, since he either had minor or major reactions to them, from feeling a little sick to having violent allergic reactions that have resulted in several rushed trips to a trusted friend who was a doctor and was more than willing to keep Peter's secret.
Ben was brought out of his thoughts by peter pushing the door open and rushing inside.
He looked up and saw his uncle standing there with the smoothie in his hand, and his eyes lit up, not noticing his aunt closing the door behind him.
"Now peter, you can have this smoothie," His uncle said, "if you be good for your auntie and take a bath." He said.
Peter paused, looking between the full bathtub next to uncle Ben, just now realizing that he'd been tricked to go into the bathroom, and the smoothie in his uncles hands. He really wanted it, since it was one of the sugary ones he only got as treats.
"I drink while I take bath?" Peter asked, his sentences still a bit chopped and incomplete.
"Hmm," His uncle thought for a second. "As long as you don't get any of it into the bath and if you listen to your auntie." He eventually said.
Peter quickly nodded in agreement, before reaching for the smoothie, immediately sucking on the straw when his uncle handed it to him.
"He's all yours May." Ben said as he exited the bathroom, smiling at her.
"Alright, but you need to get him dressed." She said, walking into the bathroom and closing the door.
Ben laughed and went to go pick out some clothes for peter for when he was done.
Although peter was technically a nine year old child, he acted much younger than that, and he was very small for his age. He and may assumed that was from his spider-ness. Mary and Richard had explained everything too them after a year of having peter, and they both understood and agreed to keep everything a secret.
And although peter didn't quite act his age he was much smarter than most his age. The couple had begun homeschooling him, since he still didn't know how to both control and hide his spidery-ness, and the two had noticed he figured things out rather quickly, and had begun to need to get material for higher age groups for him.
They also quickly found out his eating requirements. Apparently his stomach couldn't really handle normal food, so everything needed to be puréed into a smoothie or a soup. It wasn't that bad are hard to manage, but having to blend up pizza so he could try it was something that just made Ben want to gag. Peter also needed to eat more often as well, and ended up having one of his smoothies ever hour or every other hour depending on the day.
Ben eventually found a clean pair of red shorts, a pair of underwear, and an orange t-shirt with a sun on it, and set them on the small table outside the bathroom, before wandering back down stairs to wait for Peter to finish his bath.
The kid didn't seem to have many memories of his time in the lab, just a few bits and pieces, mostly stuff with Mary and Richard. Ben thought it was a good thing, since some of the things his brother and sister-in-law had told him were far from pleasant that no child should have experienced.
Peter did seem to understand that he was special though, and that people wouldn't be 'nice' to him if they found out about his abilities, which motivated him to practice his English and his control as often as he could.
Ben was pulled out of his thoughts by May calling to him that peter was done and ready to get dressed.
He went back up stairs to find peter standing in the hall, wrapped up in a bright blue towel and bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Did you have a fun bath?" He asked as he scooped him up, smiling as peter chittered happily.
"Yes." He said as he wrapped his arms around bens neck.
"Well that's good," Ben said as he held peter with one arm and grabbed the clothes with his free hand, before carrying him into his room. "Ready to get dressed?"
"Have to?" Peter asked with a pout.
"Yes you have to, you can't just go running around naked silly head." Ben said with a laugh as he set peter down.
Peter huffed softly. "Fine." He mumbled.
Ben quickly went about getting him dressed, knowing that peter would get used to the clothes after a few minutes.
"Wanna go watch a show now?" He asked as he scooped peter up again.
"Science?" Peter asked as he crawled up onto bens shoulders.
"Sure we can watch some science, do you want Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson?" He asked as he carried peter out of his room and down stairs to the living room. Peter had expressed joy in watching both shows with the two scientists.
"Bill!!" Peter cried happily, bouncing a little bit on his shoulders.
Ben laughed softly before putting peter down on the couch. "Okay we can watch some Bill." he said with a smile.
Peter made an excited chittering noise as he quickly got comfortable on the couch, grabbing onto one of the throw pillows and hugging it tightly as his eyes lit up when he saw Ben turn on the TV.
-
"Alright, time for bed sleepy head." Uncle Ben said as he turned off the TV.
"Not sleepy." Peter said stubbornly. They'd been watching the show for a few hours, and had only taken a break to eat dinner with may, before all three of them went back to watch a few more episodes.
"Well that's no good," Ben said as he picked peter up, ignoring his frustrated huff.
"If you don't go to bed then you'll be to tired tomorrow to go to the park." May said as she got up from the couch.
Peter instantly looked up at her from his spot on bens arms, "park?" He asked.
"Yup, we're going to the park tomorrow," Ben said as he began to carry peter up stairs, May following behind.
"But we won't be able to if you're too tired," May added, "so you should go to sleep now so your wide awake tomorrow, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Peter said as he looked over bens shoulder at her with a wide grin that may mirrored.
They went to the bathroom and all three of them brushed their teeth before May took Peter to his room to help him get into his pajamas.
"Now remember to come get one of us if you're hungry in the morning and we aren't already up okay?" She said as she set peter down in his hammock bed. Apparently it was more comfortable for him than a normal bed, something to do with it feeling more like a web. "We don't want a repeat of yesterday." She added, shuddering slightly at the memory.
Peter laughed softly and snuggled up under his covers. "Okay Auntie." He said softly as he nuzzled his face into his pillow.
"Goodnight dear," she said softly, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead before leaving the room, but not until after she'd turned the lights off.