Chapter 32
PETER
Just when he thought he was making progress with Leo, it somehow backfired. One step forward and two steps back.
He hadn’t had another anger outburst - on the twins anyway. If the boy was extremely angry or upset, he lashed out at the pair. Mostly words, sometimes tiny fists. When Peter talked to his Pops about it on the phone, he said Leo was ‘testing him.’
Testing his patience maybe…
It was getting to the point that Peter was actually having second thoughts. Wade tried to convince him they could do it, even suggesting the boy see a psychologist. But the doubts were still there, and hearing from his case worker that his father (who had just recently been released from prison) wanted to see the boy - did not make him feel any better.
What also did not help...was the boy’s reaction upon hearing this.
“Can I see him?” Leo asked excitedly, bouncing on his feet. Two nights ago the kid had a nightmare that his father was beating him to death - Peter only knew because Wade later told him. And now, well, Peter couldn’t deny the kid the right to see his father.
“It’ll be a supervised visit in Melanie’s office,” Wade reminded him, sharing a look of uncertainty with Peter.
“I don’t care. I like Melanie,” the boy said simply. The happiness etched on his face made Peter’s heart ache in a way he couldn’t describe. Wade looked at Peter a moment longer before shrugging and turning back to their foster son.
“Okay, I’ll call Melanie back to arrange it,” the vigilante said with a frown while the boy started cheering in excitement.
“Thank you guys!” he shouted back to them as he took off down the hall.
“Well,” his husband said before huffing out a laugh, “this can only end terribly.” Peter couldn’t help smiling back at him, accepting the hug the taller man was trying to pull him in to. The arachnid tightened his arms, relishing the moment until he felt a certain pair of hands roam down his back and cup his ass.
Peter sighed heavily in his arms.
“Remind me again why I put up with you?” he asked before pulling back, though still staying in his husband's hold. A dopey grin spread across that handsome bastard’s face before he bent down to steal a kiss from the shorter man’s lips.
“Cause you’re madly in love with me. And my cock-sucking game is on point,” Wade argued in his defense. Peter couldn’t help chuckling at that, rolling his eyes as his husband continued distracting him from the upcoming event.
It went about as well as expected. Peter and Wade had dropped the twins off with his dads before taking Leo to the DHS office. After ten minutes of waiting in the lobby and speculating, Wade got up to use the restroom.
That’s when Peter heard shouts, followed by the sounds of doors slamming and feet pounding as Leo made his way into view. Behind the boy he could hear people arguing, but Peter’s frozen attention was on Leo. The boy had tears in his eyes and didn’t stop until he ran straight out of the building.
Peter was finally able to snap out of his shock enough to run after him. He was surprised by the boy’s speed, only catching up to him down the street.
“Leo!” he shouted in an attempt to stop the boy, dodging strangers along the way. Leo kept running until Peter was finally able to grab him by the arm and yank him into the closest alley.
“Let me go!” Leo screamed as he tried to break free. Peter stood firm even when the boy turned and started kicking and punching him in his attempt to run. The arachnid kept a hold on his wrist but otherwise let him get his anger out. “Let me go!” he screamed again, though Peter could hear his little voice beginning to break.
“I’m not letting you go, Leo. Not until I know you won’t run again,” Pete said as calmly as possible, ignoring passing people who stared.
“Fuck you! You’re not my dad,” the boy spat out. It was true, but that didn’t make it hurt Peter any less.
“I know I’m not, but I am your guardian.”
“Stop pretending you give a fuck!” Leo suddenly shouted at him while choking back tears. Peter stood frozen for a second, hating the implications behind that statement; because dammit he gave a lot of fucks about this kid!
“I’m not pretending anything, Leonardo. If I didn’t care, I’d let you go,” he answered with gritted teeth, tears forming in his eyes when the boy started crying for real and just continued with his harmful accusations.
“You don’t care about me! Just let me go so I can run away...it’s what you want!” Leo declared before he collapsed in on himself, crying his tiny eyes out. Peter finally released his wrist and sat on the ground next to him, hesitating a moment before wrapping one arm around the shaking boy’s shoulder.
He had prepared himself for a loose fist to come flying his way.
He had not prepared for Leo to return the hug and crawl into the man’s lap, still crying.
Peter experienced a short moment of shock before he wrapped his arms tightly around the boy, resting his cheek on his mop of black hair. He gently shushed him, rocking the two and using one hand to rub the boy’s back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Leo slowly calming down and breathing more evenly. When his crying eventually stopped, Peter expected some kind of scramble of embarrassment to occur or for his foster son to lash out in anger.
But the boy remained in his lap, rubbing his eyes tiredly as a yawn escaped him.
He must be exhausted, Peter thought as he smiled to himself.
“Come on,” he murmured aloud, standing them up before bringing him into his arms without even thinking. Leo was limp in his grasp, not protesting as Peter walked the two back. He realized after a moment that the boy must’ve fallen asleep.
His head lolled on his shoulder, and Peter found himself clutching the boy a little tighter to his chest as he saw his husband and Melanie waiting outside for them. Even if Peter had been doubting Leo's placement with them, he couldn't deny the overwhelming urge to protect this child.
Wade had a smile plastered on his face and Peter had to roll his eyes at the man a moment later when he pulled his phone out to snap a picture of the two.
“What?” his husband whispered harshly. “Look how cute you guys are,” he said as he showed the arachnid his phone. Peter couldn’t help smiling, cause damn that was a really cute picture of the two of them.
It was actually the first picture of the two of them.
But hopefully not the last, he thought fondly to himself while shifting the boy in his arms, before being interrupted by the case worker.
“Mr. Stark, I was just telling your husband about what happened,” the woman said quietly. She was sporting a small smile on her face, lips pursing like she was considering ending the conversation there as Leo continued sleeping peacefully. “I’ll let him fill you in on the details, but I think it’s safe to say we won’t be allowing visitation for a while. Mr. Reyes was under the assumption that I didn’t speak Spanish,” she finished with a wink, getting a chuckle from the two men as they watched her nod before turning to walk back into the building.
“I like her,” Wade said with a bright smile, as if this entire thing hadn’t been a complete disaster.
“Good for you,” Peter muttered before walking him and Leo back to the car.
“Woah, wait! What’s wrong?” his husband asked while fast walking to catch up to him. Peter came to a halt at that, reminding himself they promised to be more honest with each other.
“What happened between him and his father?” Peter asked in a quiet voice while subconsciously shifting the boy somehow even closer in his embrace. Wade said nothing for a moment, looking between the two with a sad smile before taking a deep breath.
“He said some not so nice things about us fags, tried to convince Leo that we were secretly planning to rape him and when Leo called him a liar, he went on a rant about us white devils poisoning his ‘sissy’ son, some unsavory things about Melanie, and back to us child-raping/child-abandoning fags,” the man said with his normal sassy bluntness, but at least in a semi-quiet voice.
Peter stood there another moment, absorbing all of those words before sighing heavily and continuing their walk back to the car, husband walking next to him.
“Out of all of that, I think I’m most offended by him calling Leo a sissy,” Pete said honestly, smiling when his husband threw his hands up in agreement.
“Right?!” the man squeaked out as they approached their car. “That is the single toughest kid I know, and that’s me saying that.” Peter just glared at him as the dumbass helped him put a still passed out Leo in the backseat.
“You cry every time you watch the FRIENDS finale,” Peter sneered at him while he got into the driver’s seat.
“She got off the plane yoU MONSTER!” his man-child cried out before climbing into the passenger’s seat.
“You’re ridiculous,” Peter said fondly, checking the rear-view mirror to still see his oldest asleep in the back.
“Yeah, but I’m your ridiculous,” the man countered with wiggly eyebrows. And honestly? Fuck everything else right now, because this was his ridiculous man.
So he leaned over to kiss the crap out of his lovely, absurd, dumbass of a ridiculous man of his.