Chapter Text
Peter runs to the library at a normal human speed, he tries to tame his hair before going in and fails miserably.
Miss Barbara waits at the desk, her eyes fixated on her phone but they aren’t moving, Peter wonders if she’s waiting for an important call or something.
“Hello Miss Barbara” He calls, keeping his tone cheerful but not overly so.
Miss Barbara snaps out of her weird trance and looks at Peter with a soft smile that she uses to hide a grimace, Peter wonders what about him worries her now.
He made sure to look like a completely normal ten year old!
Maybe the clothes? He might need new ones if he’s being honest…
“Hello Peter, how did the exam go?” She asks and Peter beams at her.
“You remembered!” Peter sees as Barbara’s smile softens at his words “It went great! I mean, I had to guess a bit in history but otherwise I did well! Jay helped me with English Literature so in the end it was not a problem”
Barbara’s eyes widen in shock before she can manage to control her expression, Peter really wants to know what's going on with her today.
“Is that so? I’m glad” She answers cautiously “Is Jay your uncle?”
“...” Peter realises maybe telling Miss Barbara his parents are dead will lead to her calling CPS, or maybe not, if Barbara is a rogue then maybe she won't care, or maybe she’s a rogue that cares? But a rouge probably would know how fucked up the system is… so many questions not enough answers. Whatever he’ll tell Jay he used his name to get away from CPS later “Eh, uhm yes”
He watches as Barbara’s hands shake, which means Peter has probably given the wrong answer. Fuck, he can fix this, probably, hopefully.
“I mean no! Not my uncle, not at all” He should get an award for his incredible acting skills but Miss Barbara doesn’t agree because her hands keep shaking.
What did Jay do to get such a bad reputation with the librarian man?
Jay didn’t look like the type to destroy books, maybe he fistfought people that criticized Jane Austen? Peter could see him do that.
“Ah, is he your literature professor?” Barbara says, saving him the need to find an excuse, Peter takes it.
“Yeah! He is” He taught him for a day that has to count “Are you okay Miss Barbara? You look stressed”
“Ah yes, thank you for worrying Peter, is just been a long day” She admits, not looking at Peter in the eyes “Something happened with a family friend, I just worry”
He feels guilty for wringing it up, Peter just wanted to thank her for the help and here he is, making Barbara more stressed than ever.
“Sorry to hear that” Peter tells her sincerely “I’ll go use the computers now if that’s not a problem”
“Of course, remember that guest accounts only get half an hour of usage so use it carefully!”
Peter nods and salutes her as he runs to the same blind spot he was at yesterday, the first thing he does is plug his frankenstein-computer to charge its battery.
In the meantime he entertains himself by reading more about this world's vigilantes, he finds out there is one called Flash and he almost has a heart attack thinking Flash of all people became a superhero. He considers hacking into the Justice Leagues, this world’s equivalent of Avengers, to check if this is true or not.
He stops himself before that luckily and instead checks for a Eugene Thompson and when he finds no equivalents to the one he knows he sighs in relief.
He also begins to realise this world's superheroes work in families, which is a good change of what he’s used to, at least in his opinion. Sure, the Avengers felt like a family towards the end but before that? Not really.
Team Red felt like a family now that no one remembered him, because Matt and Wade even with their memories gone seemed to remember enough. And because Wade insisted on dragging them to movie night, Peter still didn’t understand where Wade found the energy to watch movies after patrol.
Or where Wade pulled stuff from, he swears his suit doesn’t have room for all the shit he brings around with him.
When his half an hour of computer usage ends he tells Karen to overwrite his searches to make them look normal, like the curriculum in Gotham Academy and math minigames.
Then he takes his computer, fully charged! And makes way to the exit, ready to run back to the shelter to get lunch.
“Bye-bye Miss Barbara!” Peter yells as he runs out of the library with a cheerful smile “Thank you so much for all the help!”
Barbara laughs and waves him goodbye, her smile a bit strained, clearly whatever is happening with her friend must be serious.
“Take care Peter” He hears as the door closes, once outside Peter runs and avoids the cameras skillfully until he gets to the top of a rooftop.
He lets himself enjoy the feeling of flying, he’s always loved the heights even before the spider bite. The air feels cleaner even if he knows that's not how it works.
When he gets to the shelter Jay is already there, passing the food to hungry children that cling to him without a second thought. Jay doesn’t bother to shake them off and Peter thinks it’s surprisingly adorable.
He gets his food from another volunteer in the end, not wanting to add more work to Jay and sits at one of the tables a bit away from people. His enhanced senses have been overwhelming him these days and he’s hearing too much, blocking them works on occasion but it tires him more than it should.
Being realistic he needs more food, his metabolism is not that of a normal person after all.
“Sup kid” Jay drops in the chair next to him, his food tray clinking against the table “How’d it go?”
Peter stops mid bite and grins at him, he swallows his food as fast as he can to answer.
“Good! Except history of recent years, I guessed a third of the answers in that one…” He admits, a bit embarrassed to admit it “Thank you for helping Jay! I would have cried bitter tears in Literature without you”
Jay laughs, ruffling his hair and Peter leans into the touch, is nice, he has missed people doing that.
“No problem kiddo” Jay huffs and Peter thinks Jay is terrible at his scary persona, sure he’s built like a brick wall but it’s kinda pointless when he always has a kid or two clinging to him.
This reminds him, he needs to ask Jay about why the librarian hates him!
“By the way Jay” Peter begins, Jay simply gestures to him to go on “Did you get into a fight in the library or something? Miss Barbara reacted weirdly when I mentioned you”
Jay looks at him with a dumbfounded expression and Peter guesses that's probably not why Miss Barbara hates him.
“Babs doesn’t hate me?” Jay says, clearly confused.
“Oh!” Peter finally realises his mistake, Miss Barbara was not looking at Jay weirdly, Miss Barbara was just reminded of her friend! Jay probably was the friend that had a problem. But that was weird, surely there were more Jay’s in Gotham? “It might be because I told her you were my uncle, sorry about that, didn’t want her to call CPS”
He hears Jay choke on air, Peter looks at the guy in concern.
“You… what-?” Jay asks, confusion obvious but before Peter can explain himself Jay speaks again “If I’m your uncle I might as well get you better clothes”
Peter squeals in indignance, he was not asking for that! Damn adults that worry too much.
“What's wrong with my clothes!?” He asks instead, because he likes his blue hoodie, is comfortable even if it’s too big; he could go for some new pants though, he still has to hold them with his webs.
Jay gives him a look that makes Peter squirm, yeah, Jay is not impressed.
“Your hoodie’s sleeve is broken and those pants seem to defy the laws of physics because I don’t know how they’re holding up” Jay says and Peter can’t seem to find words to refute the statement “Come on, I’ve got some stuff that I was going to donate anyway, took it from several of my brothers”
It calms Peter a bit knowing that at least it’s second hand, that Jay isn’t spending money on him so he nods and finishes his food.
When he does Jay gives him part of his portion too without a word, and damn it Peter is hungry.
“Come here, I’ll show you where the donated clothes can be found” Jay says and Peter is grateful about how normal he makes this feel, he knows most people make a big deal out of situations like his but Jay doesn’t.
Maybe Jay was in the same situation that he is when he was younger, it wouldn’t surprise Peter.
They walk some streets away to a part of Crime Alley that is closer to New Town and find a small lounge with clothes neatly folded all around.
The clothes are not in pristine condition but they are clean, Peter looks at Jay with a silent question and he nods.
“Is under Red Hood’s protection, no one dares steal or take more than needed” Jay says but Peter knows it’s bullshit, most people probably will follow the rules but controlling everyone is impossible “There is no money to steal here anyway. Go, pick up to six clothing items, that’s the limit”
Peter thinks is a pretty high limit, especially when he reads the sign that says socks and underwear count as one single item.
He grabs a red shirt first, a bit bigger than usual but he likes it, it’s red, he likes red. He then finds some pants that actually fit him correctly and smiles, he also adds some shorter pants just in case.
Underwear and shocks come in packages, Peter grabs one with a smile, the person at the desk gives him a wave and points at the jackets, Peter beams at them before rushing there.
He hears Jay appearing behind him before he can take his pick.
“Kid, don’t pick a jacket, I’ve got one of mine for you” He says and Peter can hear the amusement in his tone “I think you’ll like it”
Choosing to trust Jay Peter goes to pick extra shirts and a pair of shoes, the shoes are comfortable and permit him to jump properly which was his main concern.
Finally the shirts, he stares at the mix of mismatched colours for a while until he finds a blue one with a bird symbol in it. It’s a bit big, but so was the red one so that’s not really a problem.
The symbol belonged to one of the vigilantes right? The Blüdhaven one if he remembers correctly.
He has to admit the symbol is pretty cool, he pokes a bit at the shirt before adding it to his small pile.
As his last item he picks a blanket, he still runs cold and if he’s honest he isn’t looking forward to figuring out how cold Gotham gets.
“That 's all?” Jay asks, Peter nods.
“Six items” Peter says happily, Jay snorts.
“Good, Duke is bringing me the jacket I told you about” Jay admits easily and Peter wonders if Jay has blackmail on Duke or something.
“Thank you Jay” Peter says instead and he sees him soften.
“Don’t worry about it baby Wing” Jay says instead and Peter arches an eyebrow at the nickname.
Oh no- Is Jay trying to adopt him!? It’s like Tony all over again!
He follows Jay into the dark alleys as they make way to what seems to be an ice cream shop, Peter doesn’t know what to think anymore.
“Why are we here?”
“It’s my favourite shop” Jay says, shrugging “I’m getting us ice cream, any preferences?”
Peter looks at Jay with his best poker face, yeah, he’s absolutely getting adopted damn it!
“As long as it’s not mint, not really” He says because only crazy people refuse free ice cream.
“Not a fan?” Jay asks, curious.
“Nah, allergic” Peter admits, spiders didn’t really mix well with mint after all.
Jay stumbles on his feet, turning to look at him in concern.
“Have you told anyone in the kitchen this?” He asks and only then does Peter realise most people don’t have a sixth sense alerting them of danger.
Damn, if there wasn’t a no meta rule he would tell Jay he has a tiny-tiny ability that warns him of danger.
Fuck you Batman, Peter thinks solemnly, you’re not even that cool, your name doesn’t have an hyphen.
“Uh… I forgot?” Peter tries and it only makes Jay look at him with horror in his eyes “It’s not deadly?”
Like, it gives him stomach ache yes, but he still heals fast, just like bug spray, those things suck.
Jay lets out a very long tired sigh, Peter should have just kept his mouth shut.
“Thank fuck you said anything, I was going to ask for mint chocolate chip ice cream for you otherwise” Jay grumbles, Peter nods, it’s a good option, it used to be his dad’s favourite if he’s honest “A Neapolitan ice cream for me and a chocolate chip ice cream for you, what about it?”
“Sounds good” Peter admits and lets Jay order.
Jay seems to know the shop owner because they chap for a bit before he returns and offers him his ice cream cone.
It’s good, it reminds him a bit of his dad, his tata. Really, he’s been thinking more about his parents these days than ever, maybe because he’s back to a young age where their lack of presence still weighed on his bones.
Maybe Gotham’s fumes were getting to him, who knew?
“Whatcha thinking kid?” Jay asks as he devours the ice cream.
“My tata” Peter admits, talking with Jay is easy, he never judges and he’s, well, kind, Peter really liked kind “Hadn’t thought about him in a while”
There is an emotion behind Jay’s eyes he can not decipher, is strange, it reminds Peter almost of how Uncle Ben watched him when he spoke about his dad.
“Do you miss him?” Jay asks, his throat feels dry.
“Sometimes” Peter admits “When I was younger I missed him much more, I was really angry too, my uncle tried his best but- in the end he- I…”
A sound of a motorbike interrupts them, Peter feels a sense of relief fill him. It used to be easier, talking about Ben. About how he could have saved him.
The motorbike stops in front of them and Peter recognises Duke as the driver.
“I’ve got the clothes!” Duke says, a big smile on his face.
“Wait, clothes, in plural?” Peter looks at his already filled hands and backpack and frowns, he doesn’t have much space for all of this.
“Eh, yeah” Duke looks away sheepishly “Tim wanted to add some Red Robin merch and Dami added some Robin shoes”
Jay sighs, loudly.
“Really?” He asks and the disbelief in his tone makes Peter giggle.
“You have no room to talk!” Duke tells him with a teasing grin “You asked for a mini Red Hood jacket"
Peter watches as Jay’s ears turn pink, he must really be a fan of the crime lord or something. Was that a thing? Did crime lords have fanclubs? Honestly this crime lord was pretty cool, free clothes, free food, free bed…
Was doing crime so profitable? Damn, Peter should consider changing career paths.
Ah, wait, no, he was a hero, nope nope.
“Is a cool jacket!” Jay argues and Peter knows in that very moment that he’s lost, because Duke is grinning like the cat that got the cream.
“Ah, yes, of course, no other reason” Duke says with fake kindness, Peter decides that very moment Duke is cooler than Jay.
“You little-”
Peter laughs, he can’t help it, it reminds him of the Avengers meetings where Loki managed to piss everyone off.
Or when Tony and Steve would argue over the smallest thing just for the shake of it.
Duke and Jay look at him, they share a look before Jay huffs.
“Whatever, come on Pete, we'll drop you off at the shelter" Jay says as he picks him up.
Three people in a motorbike is probably not safe, Peter thinks, another part of him thinks the visual of three people in a motorbike is pretty funny.
Duke drives surprisingly safe, safer than Jay definitely and he knows for a fact he slowed down for Peter’s shake.
Once they arrive Peter jumps down and waves them goodbye, a small smile on his lips. In around a week the results from the scholarship should arrive, Peter decides to not waste time and investigate the vigilantes patrol routes before he begins going out as Spider-Man.
He’ll do that after dinner, now? Now he showers and changes into clean clothes.
Jason replays the conversation with Peter as they make their way to one of his safehouses. How Peter called Dick tata, how Peter had looked at the Nightwing shirt for a bit before picking it, what he was going to say about his uncle-
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Jason curses, Duke lets him “If this is time travel Dick is absolutely dead in the future, Timbit too”
Duke doesn’t flinch away from him, instead he stays, a firm presence against him as Jason tries his best to hold back his anger.
“What about us?” Duke asks, his voice soft in a way it makes Jason want to scoff even if it works “Killing all of us is quite complicated, we are a lot”
Jason relaxes, is something in the way the kid talks about his family, like if there was no one left, that it makes him want to punch something, or someone.
For his nephew, because there is no way Peter isn’t related to Dick, to look like that… Jason hates it.
When they arrive at the safehouse Tim is already there, his motorbike parked neatly and he has his suit on his bag.
“Just in time” Tim says, not looking up “Come on, I already disassembled Jason's security measures”
“Fucking baby genius” Jason grumbles, he didn’t even give Tim the fucking location and he was the first to arrive “Did B really have to pick the first stalker around?”
Duke snorts but follows Tim into the safehouse, completely trusting Tim’s abilities which infuriates Jason to no end.
He’s going to have to put everything back later, for fucks shake, couldn’t Tim have waited for them to arrive?
“Show off” Jason tells him and Tim begins to pull out his computer and several devices Jason doesn’t even try guessing what they do.
“How do you carry all that there?” Duke questions, a bit in awe.
“I don’t always, and I made sure my bag was big enough when I designed it” Tim says easily “Now, why did you two call me?”
Jason and Duke share a silent conversation before Jason sits on the floor, next to Tim.
“Around three days ago I found a kid walking alone in the road” Jason begins, his tone controlled “He, we think he might be Dick’s son”
Tim freezes, then he furiously begins clicking on the computer.
“Honestly, I think you might know how to break the new to Dick best” Jason admits “And also, confirm our theory”
Duke nods, Jason relaxes slightly even if he sees Tim typing faster than ever.
“I mean, you probably know how to confirm if he’s a clone or not” Duke admits “And we haven’t gotten a DNA sample or anything but-”
“Don’t worry” Tim interrupts them “Good, here, look”
Tim turns the computer towards them, it shows a DNA test that has been run over eight times, Jason arches an eyebrow, for a moment he has the weird thought that Tim has in the span of five minutes managed to run a test on Peter’s DNA.
“So?”
Tim rolls his eyes, then points at the paternity part.
“Peter Parker” Tim reads and pulls out the legal documents he’s found “Fourteen, orphan and taken by his aunt and uncle, Ben and May Parker. The digital footprint exists but it’s… too perfect”
Jason’s mouth hangs open, how the actual fuck?
“Wait, wait- when did you get time for this?” Jason asks in disbelief, Duke matches him.
“Found the kid in a rooftop, took some of his hair, don’t worry about it” Tim says with a shrug, Jason has too many questions “Anyway, the whole identity is fabricated, the kid is not fourteen and while I do not know how he managed to get it or who he paid for the whole fake identity they are good”
Jason stops for a bit, considering his words.
“Are they better than you? Or like you?” Jason asks, Tim stops to consider it.
“The way it’s done does remind me of the way I create fake identities, yes. That was how I could guess it was fake, why?”
Duke lets out a strangled noise, Tim’s expression changes, clearly realising he’s missing information.
“Peter made a computer with parts he found while dumpster diving” Jason admits easily “He mentioned his uncle taught him about computers and mechanics”
The three of them stare at each other in silence until Duke speaks up.
“So, how likely is it that Peter, who we just confirmed is Dicks biologically, has an uncle that created fake identities and is a tech nerd just like Tim?” Duke asks awkwardly.
“Don’t forget the caffeine addiction, Peter’s uncle also has a caffeine addiction” Jason chimes in.
Tim looks at them, then at his information chart and makes a copy in silence before beginning to write on top of his information and deleting theories.
“How often time travel is too often?” Tim asks no one in particular, Jason considers he might be going crazy form the lack of sleep “This cannot keep happening I swear”
“How many times have you had to deal with time travel?” Duke asks, clearly curious.
“More times than I had to deal with being Santa, next question”
Jason looks at Tim, really looks at Tim, and wonders if he heard wrong. The look Duke gives him confirms that no, he heard right, what the fuck why was Tim’s life a soap opera?
“Timbit?” Jason says, trying to not sound concerned, Tim hums to let him know he’s listening “How much have you slept in the last week?”
Tim stops typing, Duke gulps.
“Enough to know we better have a plan for when we call Dick” Tim says and Jason really wants to tell him that is not an answer “I already asked Barbara to do damage control and Damian to distract B”
Jason doesn’t ask how the demon brat of all people was convinced, at this point he’s sure Tim has blackmail on all of them, not as much as Barbara but- no, actually, scratch that, if Tim wanted Barbara’s blackmail he would hack into her database and Jason knows he would succeed.
“So? Do we call him?” Duke asks, nervousness obvious, Jason agrees in the sentiment.
Tim gulps, pulling out his phone as he dials Dick’s number, it rings, once, twice-
“Tim?” Dick’s voice is heard through the phone “Did something happen? Is everyone okay?”
“Ah, yeah, kinda” Tim cringes as his voice breaks “Are you bussy?”
“Me and Wally have been investigating this lab I found some days ago, otherwise no?”
Tim bites his nails, a terrible habit Jason immediately stops by pulling his hands away from his mouth.
“I- you should come home early” Tim says, his voice devoid of emotion in a way that Jason knows will only worry Dick further.
“Tim!? Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m okay Dick, but… Don’t tell B you’re coming, I’ll send you the location of one of Jason’s safehouses. We need to talk”
There is silence on the other end of the line, Jason pulls Tim a bit closer to him and Duke and hopes it relaxes the kid.
“Alright, I’ll be there tonight” Dick says and Jason knows Tim hasn’t succeeded on calming him down “Let me ask Wally to deal with the lab situation for me”
“Okay” Tim says easily and relaxes against Jason “Take care Dick”
“Always baby bird”
The three of them stare at each other for a bit and Jason sighs.
“If he starts driving now he’ll be here at one in the morning more or less, I better start my patrols early” Tim tells them, Jason agrees.
“Same, Duke, you stay here?” Jason asks and Duke nods.
“Yeah, I’ll try to decipher Tim’s notes while you two patrol” Duke adds with a teasing edge, Tim rolls his eyes at this.
Jason doesn’t waste time, he pulls out his Red Hood getup and mask while Tim pulls out his suit from his bag, in no time the both of them separate with a nod and go patrol their own areas.
Crime Alley is… still a lot, Jason works on stopping a drug trade before it happens and gathers information on the area.
The sky is beginning to darken when he realises he isn’t at dinner in the shelter to see Peter.
He’ll have to make it up for the kid tomorrow with some extra food. The kid had the appetite of a speedster.
“...”
Wait a minute-
Yeah, no, no way… Jason is not considering his brother having a son with Wally, sure they definitely had something going on but…
Jason firmly believes some questions remain better unanswered, and Peter was not a redhead.
He’s about to head back or tap into Tim’s comm to bother him when he sees a blob of blue jumping around the roofs, the moment Jason catches sight of him the blob freezes and hides.
He wastes no time and uses his grappling hook to get to the roof, he doesn’t know why he’s surprised to find Peter, in his new Nightwing shirt with shorts already preparing himself to jump to the next rooftop away from him.
“...” Jason thinks this is karma, maybe for stealing the Batmobile's tires, or Tim’s favourite shocks and hiding them in Steph’s room “Kid what the fuck”
Peter looks at him like a deer caught in headlights, then, suddenly, relaxes.
Jason makes sure to use this to catch Peter, the kid immediately tries to jump but Jason, using way too much of the League's training than he honestly should to catch a kid, manages to grab him by the leg.
Peter hangs upside down, a surprised expression on his face.
“Jay let me go!”
Jason freezes the same moment Peter realises his mistake. This is going to be a long night…
Small sketch of Jason grabbing Peter by the leg:
