sixteen.
When Wade woke, Peter was curled up to his chest. His hair was a mess and he was snoring and drooling all over himself. With a chuckle, Wade carefully got up and grabbed his shirt from the floor, wiped Peter's chin off, and then made sure he was covered up before going out into the living area of the tiny cabin.
There weren't walls to split up the floor plan, so the kitchen, living room and office area were all parts of the same room. With a shiver, he lit the fireplace so Peter wouldn't be cold when he got up and then proceeded to set up Peter's computer and equipment on the small desk in the corner. Part of him knew that Peter would want to get to work the moment he woke up.
The desk wasn't very big or very sturdy, but he knew that Peter would find a way to make it work.
He didn't turn anything on, just laid out Peter's laptop and other little devices on the top of the desk to let Peter set them up how he pleased. Peter didn't bring a whole lot, but upon further inspection of the cabin, Wade realized there was still food from the last time he'd been here.
Unopened cans of beans and year old packages of burritos were what he'd left for his future self to come back to. He knew that what was here, and what Peter had brought was not enough to last them, and so he knew he'd have to hike back and ferry back to the mainland to buy more groceries.
In Stark's storage room he'd found ziplock bags of money confiscated from the pockets of other villains, so it was obviously a no-brainer to just pack it all... Just in case.
Peter emerged from the bedroom, hair still a mess and looked up at Wade with tired eyes. Wade threw together a cup of instant coffee for the little spider and Peter was thankful, to say the least. He sat on the floor by the fire and sipped from his cup.
Wade let him know that he was going to shore, but that he'd be back as quickly as possible.
----
When Wade returned from shore that afternoon, Peter was already curled up in the desk chair, eyes glued to his computer screen. Wade didn't attempt to make him move just yet, opting instead to make some food before even bothering to remove Peter from his work.
He put the food away and, figuring that Peter wouldn't take a real break to eat, settled for bringing him a snack. He crouched down next to Peter's chair and a moment later, the younger lad was looking down at him. Wade gave him a soft smile and offered him a package of pop-tarts.
Peter gave him a smile as he opened the package and popped a piece of pop-tart into his mouth.
"So, what are we working on?"
Peter speaks around the food in his mouth, "I found stuff about my parents on Mr. Stark's computer and now I'm trying to figure out what it all means... Some of this looks like code, but it's not making any sense to me." He points to some little sections on his screen and Wade shakes his head.
"It's a military code."
Peter furrows his brows as he stuffs more of the breakfast food in his mouth. "What do you mean?"
"Well that right there," Wade points to a collection of words. "That's NATO, it's a code used by the Army, Air Force, and the Navy."
Peter looks back to the screen. "Okay, so does it work like a skip code?"
Wade shakes his head. "No, NATO has one word for every letter of the alphabet. It's used so outsiders have a harder time deciphering the message. So for example, to spell your name, it'd be Papa, Echo, Tango, Echo, Romeo. P-E-T-E-R. So, Charlie, India, Alpha would spell C.I.A. and, wait what does this have to do with the C.I.A.? Petey, are we spies?"
Peter stares at the computer for a long moment. "I think my parents were spies."
----
Peter sat at the computer for hours on end, and Wade didn't bother him, didn't try to make him move. He brought Peter food when he heard the boy's stomach growl and brought him something to drink every time Peter emptied his glass. He only had to remind Peter to use the bathroom once, which was a lot less than he thought.
Wade took to sitting on the couch and playing Dragon City on his phone. He didn't mind sitting by himself, and he wasn't bothered that the only noises were the crackling fire and the typing on Peter's laptop.
Every once in a while Peter would start thinking out loud, asking all kinds of questions that neither of them had the answers to. "Why would they hide this? Who were they really? Who would have killed them?" And so on and so forth. There were a few questions Wade didn't WANT the answers to, "Would they have come back for me? If they loved me, why would they keep leaving?"
Once two in the morning rolled around, and Peter had been yawning off and on for nearly three hours, Wade put his phone down on the arm of the couch and sighed. "Petey, honey, I think it's time for bed."
Peter didn't move.
"If you want to keep looking, that's fine, but you need your rest. You don't want to get sleep deprived and miss something important."
Peter sighed and gently closed his laptop. He stood and swayed, he hadn't stood in hours. Wade carefully lifted him and as he carried the boy to the bedroom, he could feel Peter tracing the burns on his arms. Peter's touch burned his skin, and it hurt. But it wasn't the kind of burning that made his skin that way, and it wasn't an awful hurt.
It was a burn that brought color to the surface of the skin, his blood rising to a boil in his veins. Peter's touch set him on fire and sent his heartbeat rushing like water down a stream. Peter's touch hurt. It made Wade's chest hurt. His heart beat on his ribs like a bird inside a cage that felt every miserable thump when it tried to escape. Peter's touch made his head hurt. All of the thoughts bounced around on the walls of his skull like basketballs on concrete and he couldn't focus on a single one of them.
Not with Peter's fingers touching him the way they were. His fingers were gentle, delicate, like a ballerina's dance across a stage. His touch was light, soothing. Wade didn't remember ever being treated so gently, so kind.
Peter's touch was distracting. Wade remembered hearing people talk like this when they admit they're in love. Is that what this was turning into? Love?
Wade can't recall ever feeling such a thing... Each memory of a past love was locked away inside the Fort Knox inside of his mind. And he wanted it to stay that way.
As he looked down at the sleeping boy in his arms, he realized that they might not stay that way after all.