Chapter Text
"We can't both be Benjamin."
Peter pressed his back into the corner of his bedroom.
"How about I play you for it? If I win, I get to keep Ben, and you get to keep the rest."
"Jamin isn't a name."
His head was so muddled by discordant thoughts and feelings, like the entire band just dropped their instruments.
"Sure it is. You can go by Jamie. Or Jam."
The Spider-Sense goes off like a sharp pain, splitting his head in two. He flinches. Hard.
"What are we playing?"
"Why don't we figure that out?"
There's another pang and his mind went blank for a moment. He saw white.
Then he came back.
"What's the B stand for anyways?"
He felt a shudder throughout his entire body and he didn't get it, he didn't know why.
"Benjamin. But I prefer J."
And something's wrong right now. Something's wrong with his body.
"Do you know what this means? You can be PJ! We can be MJ and PJ!"
His Spider-Sense was telling him he wasn't safe. He wasn't safe and he didn't know why.
He breathed. And breathed.
Only to bite back the shock of it again. And he panicked.
This isn't normal.
There's this thread in his head he's trying to follow. The Spider-Sense was trying to tell him something somewhere. Whatever it was that was hurting him and he needed to fix it, he needed to find the source.
"Please Spider-Man, I want to name my son after you."
But he couldn't. He didn't know.
"You saved my life– his life. Just your first name, please."
He pressed further into the corner, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his head, and that's all he can do.
"Ben. He can have it. And I'll keep the rest."