Chapter Text
Peter just wanted to take a nap, but he slept for hours. It wasn’t a good thing either, Peter’s body was slowly just.. not complying anymore. Fever broke out. He was tired. So he slept. Peter was so tired in fact that when someone knocked on his door he didn’t immediately hear it. Only when the knocking turned into a loud banging did he snap back into the world of the living.
“I- What- Coming!” He’s out of his bed, almost landing on the floor. Glancing out the window it was dark out- shouldn’t it be day by now? What time was it.. a glance at his clock- 3 AM? That didn’t make any sense.
But his brain didn’t make the connections. None of them. Well, one, the one telling him he couldn’t answer the door in his costume-
“Open up, I know yer still in there! I can smell ya!” Oh fucknuggets- he was wide awake immediately, snatching his mask instead and scrambling to tear his front door open, or that was the plan.
With a loud crack the thing was just pulled right out of it’s hinges, dropped to the side like trash which left Peter blinking with wide eyes at the shorter male standing there, in front of his doorway with.. with two suitcases..?
“I.. ..er..” What?
There he was. Mister Midget. Wolverine had dumped the clothes that he stole from Peter and instead was wearing his own stuff, a leather jacket, flannel shirt, jeans and boots.. plus a cowboy like hat that sat loosely on his head.
He should be angry right now, his door was on the floor. But.. Peter was too exhausted and hurt to care.
He looked normal again. Giving Peter a disgruntled look.. a moment, then he inhaled once, deeply. “Ya smell awful. C’mon.” And just like that he was being shouldered to the side. He was too confused, too hungry, too exhausted to really do anything about that. Peter even closed the door so they were alone again but.. eh..?
Wolverine had opened the suitcases, both were empty.
He crossed his thick arms over his broad chest and just gave Peter a pointed look. What was going on..?
“Pack ‘em.” Sure thing- why? Peter didn’t move. He didn’t even know if he heard properly. His brain was trying really hard to explain this situation and why it wasn’t right. Why this was off. Pack them? Pack the suitcases.
“With what?” His voice sounded just as confused as he was feeling. It sounded off. Maybe off enough to have Wolverine frown a little bit harder and relax his body stance a little. “..Yer stuff, bub. Whateva’ fits in there, ya pack it in.” His stuff. In the suitcases. Alright.
Peter just stood there a bit. Pack his stuff into the suitcases. “Mh.. why?” He tilted his head and just went to sit on his bed again instead. He wasn’t aware of how closely he was being watched. “Yer comin’ with me for a bit.” Was it him or did the man sound a bit softer. His whole demeanor seemed to chill out a bit. Didn’t get why.
“C’mon, yer hungry, right? Got some food back home jus’ waitin’ fer ya.” Peter slumped a bit where he was sitting. Food.. He was hungry. The promise of food made him get off the bed and walk over to his closet, grabbing the few articles of clothes he had and dump them inside the suitcase, just not caring about how orderly it was.
The older man did though, he crouched down and shuffled around with the clothes until they all fit neatly and more space was left. Went to his desk and grabbed some stuff from it to put it in there also. Clothes, equipment, whatever Peter had just disappeared into those suitcases.
He didn’t own a lot, so, pathetically, it all fit. Soon his home was nothing but his bed, the bit of furniture he had and trash. Peter only now woke up enough to really question this. “..Where.. Why are we..?” He rubbed over his face. Wolverine had put a coat and a hat next to his suitcases and once he was done closing them up he stood again.
“Yer fine. Put this on.” And both articles of clothing were shoved right into his arms. Peter grunted and stared in annoyance at the other just commandeering him around. He put ‘em on anyway because what the hell, what else is he going to do? The fact that he was Spider-Man and this was super whack didn’t occur to his fever ridden-mind.
The coat hid him properly, the hat helped. Spider-Man going anonymous! Right, he’s in his costume. He.. Peter frowned a bit. Wolverine didn’t even try to make him change his clothes or take his mask off. Somehow that made him relax a little to a certain extent. He was safe.
Why did he think that while watching Wolverine haul all of his belongings out of here. He turned and looked around a bit. Looked trashed.. Empty. Unlived in if you ignored his garbage.
“Move yer ass! We’re leavin’!” The rough bark jerked him a bit into motion. He was sweating balls, no because he was nervous though. Peter felt hot, he had already earlier but now with the hat and coat it was like he was on fire. His fever really pulled on his reserves as he slowly stumbled out of his apartment, closed the door behind him and followed the shorter man almost blindly.
His head was pounding like a drum, breathing was becoming increasingly harder. Thankfully, it was 3 AM, technically almost 4 AM by now so the hallways were empty with everyone asleep, so no one noticed Spider-Man wobbling through here, following an ill mannered, short gremlin.
Down the stairs, through the front door and he watched his new companion store his suitcases in the back of a small, red car, strapping them down and then getting into the driver seat.
The car in question? It looked pretty old but well taken care of. The model was certainly not up to it’s times but that kind of gave it some weird, rustic charm. Oh, he’s supposed to get in, isn’t he..? He was in pain. Everything hurt, he felt incredibly awful.
Still, he didn’t move further until the short man leaned over from his driver seat to open the passenger seat door.
“Bub, c’mon.” When Wolverine’s voice reached him, it sounded oddly gentle. Like he was trying to lure a wild animal to trust him. “This car is nice ‘n warm. We’re goin’ straight to get sum’ food, so get in already.” Ahh.. warm and food. His apartment wasn’t cold per se, but he didn’t have heating.
Technically he did but he never turned it on. He already enjoyed the luxury of short, hot showers. Didn’t wanna push it- “Oi, Kid.” He snapped back to attention, just beginning to drag his feet over the concrete below, all the way to the car so he could climb into the passenger seat and close the door.
He strapped in automatically. Peter couldn’t fucking breathe right, letting his head drop back as he gave a weak noise of discomfort. The man next to him worked on driving from his parking spot to the street, eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed. “Yer gonna be alright, bub.” Was he? Peter didn’t feel like it. He just closed his eyes when the soft vibrations of the car driving slowly pulled him back to sleep again.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake. Peter didn’t care for it, he was warm, very warm, sweating buckets- but also comfortable. The hand didn’t leave him though, shaking him a little harder and now a voice cut into his black haze of unconsciousness. “-‘m tellin’ ya, it’s fine. Pretty sure he’s fightin’ an infection from me stabbin’ him, can’t just leave the kid to rot this out on his own.”
Peter didn’t bother moving, but he did open his eyes, grunting weakly and lifting his head to see who was bugging him. Stupid, dumb Wolverine again.. the man was standing next to the passenger seat, outside of the car and had a phone between his ear and shoulder while he kept shoving at Peter.
“No- Yeah I fuckin’ get that, Slim, but can ya- Oh finally. He woke up. Hey bub, I know yer tired, but we gotta move. Yer stuff’s already inside, ya need to get up. Food’s right in there.” He doesn’t listen all that much. He just heard ‘food’ and his stomach clenched painfully.
Ok, last stretch, right? He shifted, which caused the shorter man to get out of his way so Peter could fight his own way back up on his legs. Where..? He looked up.
The X-Mansion, or, Professor Xavier’s school for the gifted. Mutant school. He could see some heads poking out from behind the windows, looking on who was coming to visit. Ahh.. that sobered him up a little. What the fuck was he thinking, following Wolverine like some lost puppy?
“No- Slim, ya aint catchin’ me. He aint doin’ well.” Wolverine gave the small of his back a gentle shove so he began the tedious journey to the entrance of the huge building. “He aint talkin’ none, he jus’ let me come into his place an’ pack his shit up before draggin’ him home. That aint the obnoxious bug we know.” Fuck you too.
He scoffed and shoved off the other, stumbling a bit forward but catching himself, just climbing the few stairs up so he could get inside the building. Wolverine growled lowly at the action but just let him do his own thing until he closed the huge front doors again. Still on the phone and all.
“Literally stabbed the man an’ ate him outta a home. Can’t leave him like this. Jus’ can’t.” Augh.. he was dizzy. “No- Not that way, c’mon, right here.” Screw him, he had to climb all these stairs? Looking up he could see even more kids, all peeking at him, peering, big, curious eyes. He coughed into his hand.
Being watched by innocent faces somehow cleared his sick induced fog, Peter made way for Spider-Man, who pushed on even if he was doing horribly. So, he climbed those stairs. Wolverine shot a bit in front and barked out a loud. “It’s past curfew! So git’ off!” Shrill squeaking and giggling as they scrambled away.
“Scuse ‘em, they’re jus’ curious.” Wolverine shot a glance over his shoulder, grabbing him by his wrist now to tug him a bit faster up the stairs, his attention turned back to the phone. “Slim, gettin’ real tired o’ this. We can talk ‘bout this later, I really gotta hang up he might kneel over any bit now.”
“No, I’m not.” Peter spoke up, almost startling at the hoarse, sore, cracking noise that was his voice now.
“Sure yer not, bub. No, yeah- Slim, I got it. I’ll take care of it. Yeah. Yeah. Aight, fine, bye.” And click, the phone disappears back into his jacket pocket. Peter just continued to let himself be dragged by his healthy arm. Takes a bit, huge hallways. Many doors.
Peter didn’t really think at all at this point, with his walking basically taking care of, not having to pay attention where he was going. The older mutant took a turn and finally, five to ten minutes into the building, it took so long because the man had to stop several times to bark at the kids that couldn’t take a hint- finally they made it to wherever Wolverine wanted to go.
“Here we go-“ He opened the door, ushering Peter inside. “Gonna go an’ get ya sum’ food. Clean yaself up, aight? Smellin’ like death on legs.” And, door closed. Not immediately though. He was being watched by careful eyes but.. then the other man left the younger hero to himself.
Clean himself..? With what? Peter rubbed over his masked face and had to take a bit of a breather. He felt dizzy but the instructions were clear. Clean, then eat. If he was cleaned, he could eat- So.. He scanned the room. Oh, there were his suitcases. Right next to the bed.
Looked like a normal guest room. A tidy bed, a closet, a desk and a chair. It wasn’t massive, it looked like an unoccupied dorm room, really. The walls were white, there weren’t any curtains over the medium sized window that showed a view over a large property where a forest sat in the distance.. it.. it was fine.. but it also seemed to be connected to a small bathroom.
Peeking inside he spotted a toilet, a shower and a sink. Simple. Ok. Clean yourself and then eat. Peter narrowed his eyes, forcing himself to focus long enough to walk to his suitcases and dig through on of ‘em to find what he needed for this endeavor.
There, a spare mask, a shirt and some shorts.. screw the rest. As long as his face was covered, all was good.. Once that was cleared up, Peter began to dress out of his filthy uniform he’d been wearing for.. by now.. way too long..
He didn’t expect the foul stench that hit him once he pulled it off his upper body but it wasn’t his body odor alone. The stench alone was enough to sober him up a little, his survival instinct kicking in as he could tell immediately, it came from his shoulder. Still bandaged but something was clearly off, going by the smell alone.
“..Shit..” He mumbled to himself, sitting on the toilet so he could focus better on unwrapping the hot, steaming mess that was festering in his body, the sight probably worse than what he expected.
The wound was infected. Peter almost retched at the disgusting sight, especially combined with the smell. How could this happen? Sure, his healing factor wasn’t that strong but shit- he took care of the wound before anything else was going on- he cleaned it and everything before he took care of Wolverine!
The skin around the three stab wounds was clearly infected, swollen and the wounds? Oozing pink puss. He’s fucked. Nicely put. Food would have to actually wait. Now that Peter was in Spider-Man mode, he prioritized. First off, getting clean was a smart idea but not with shampoo.
Cue Peter struggling for fifteen minutes in the shower to clean himself while leaving the wound relatively dry. Shirt, shorts and mask back on and he was out of the bathroom, stumbling a little as he made a beeline for the door to the hallway. Sleep could wait-
Nope, it couldn’t. Peter slipped two steps out from the shower and slammed against the side of the bed, right before laying on the floor and despite attempting to convince himself to get back up again, staying right there.
He grunted weakly, grabbing weakly through the air to attempt and.. and do anything, really. His body wanted sleep.. He let his arm drop back on the ground. Fortunately, he would likely recover. He always recovered- Peter went through worse. Literally. These three stab wounds getting infected was unlucky but like, Peter survived more horrendous wounds.
Which the man sat through on his own, alright? Solo style- he heard the door open. “N’aw god damn it- Kid, no.” But.. but apparently not this time? His vision was still swimming so he could only tell roughly the shape of the guy who moved closer to put something down on his desk, only to turn and help him up and into bed.
Just like that.. he got tucked in, basically. “Shouldn’t have left ya ‘lone- aw crud, did I do tha’?” There were fingers near his injured shoulder and Peter grit his teeth and hissed weakly. “Can you, shit- Stop touching it?!” Peter surged up a little, by now having caught on with who he was dealing with.
“I gotta clean it, damn it! Stop yer wriggling, hold on..” The hands moved away. Peter was left by himself as the older man got off the bed and jogged out of the room.. leaving him alone again. His stomach clenched in pain. God he’s fucking hungry.
Five minutes later, his companion was back. Peter was conscious enough from laying here and not struggling around to be able to look at the man straight on when he sat down on the bed, next to his hurt shoulder. He had a first aid kid and a frown on his face.
“..I think we’re past first aid-“ “Shut yer mouth, ya think I dunno tha’? Stop yer whinin.” And yet, even having acknowledged it, he began doing his damage control. Which started by him cleaning the wound without bothering to numb it for the suffering hero in any manner.
“Argh! Shit- Give a dude a warning!” Peter snapped but didn’t move away from the touches, which earned him a wide, feral grin. “At least yer talkin’ again. Got me a tid-bit worried fer a sec there.”
“As if.” He sneered back, wincing when the older man began patching the wound over again until it was completely hidden by gauze, plasters and bandages. “You left me behind to die before.” He deadpanned. Staring blankly ahead and up at the ceiling.
Wolverine growled low and deep in the back of his throat. “I haven’t-“ He cut himself off. Murring lowly as he shifted from left to right. “Alright, maybe once.. or.. or twice- Shit, kid. I didn’t always.. I don’t..” It was fun to bring the guy to the state of stuttering.
It felt nice rubbing into his face that he was a shit person. “Whatever. Yer here now. I’m helpin’ ya.”
“After doing this to me.”
“Shut yer pie hole! I’ll toss ya ass right back out if ya pipe at me one more-“
“Ohhhh yeah, throwing me out after crippling me and waggling the idea of food and a warm bed in my face. Great heroism!” God why did he do this-
Peter’s mind had cleared up some but not by a lot, he still felt weak, so when Wolverine just got off the bed and stomped to the desk he let the man. Just to flinch when something was dropped in his lap. He almost striked out but then the smell hit him.
Food.
His mind blanked out. “Tch, ungrateful shit. Ya coulda got yerself sum’ food too if ya were going to be a brat about it.” Wolverine leaned against the bed but didn’t sit back down. “Well, ya gonna-“
Nope! Peter tore his mask over his nose and the next scene must have jumped right out of a horror movie. Bread, some form of meatloaf, condiments- he was probably supposed to put the cheese on the bread but he just grabbed the stuff bare handed and began shovelling it into himself.
“Jesus fuck, kid-“ The way the other mutant almost startled was lost on Peter as he began the gruesome journey of choking everything down. Holy shit this tasted amazing. Was this the sensation you got when you went hungry too long so everything tasted good?
This was it. This tasted like heaven. Hrgfh- Peter choked a little from trying to eat it all at once and coughed brutally into his arm. There’s a glass of water being held in his face and he snatched it immediately to down it completely. Someone’s saying something, Peter gives no shit.
Not even ten minutes. Maybe make it six. Six minutes was all it took for Peter to absolutely destroy everything on that tablet and immediately after he felt the violent urge to vomit, thankfully, the tablet was taken and Peter was able to lay back and pant freely into the air as he attempted to keep it all in.
He wanted to cry.. when was the last time he had eaten enough to actually feel this full? “Uhhfg..” He whimpered, groping up to pull his mask back down and just feel miserable. He was clean and full.. and miserable. Shit.. Peter couldn’t.. exhaustion slowly began to creep up on him again.
Full, clean and tired.
Why fight it? He had company. But this company would leave if he went to sleep. Right.. Peter grunted weakly, feeling a hand on his healthy shoulder, but it didn’t matter anymore. He just closed his eyes regardless and went right back to sleep..
What time was it..? He tilted his head.. 11 AM.. daytime. There was sunlight peeking through the window, getting right in his face and bugging the shit out of him. Peter groaned and immediately checked on his mask first.. it was still on his face. Good.
He felt.. tremendously better. Like, a lot. Peter felt like a new person.. this bed was soft, it wasn’t digging any parts into his back and shit he slept so nicely. The man slowly sat up, pulling his mask off for now after making sure he was alone to breathe a little.. what else..?
He shifted his body to get to his suitcases without having to leave the bed, rummaging through ‘em until he found his phone.. only to immediately notice seventeen missed calls from.. from his landlord?
Oh holy shit. Instantly he dialed the number and held it up to his ear as he tried to figure out how to explain the commotion that happened yesterday. Fuck. The fucking door-
“Parker? Is that you?” The man already sounded annoyed. Peter wanted to disappear.
“I- Yeah, yeah it’s me. I saw you tried to call-“
“Just to let you know that you’re off the lease.” Straight to the point and Peter winced and curled up a little. “I’ll pay for the repairs-“
“So you know what it’s about. Great. Don’t bother, you can’t even pay your rent on time and while I don’t particularly care about your financial situation I don’t intend on making it purposefully harder.” A small mercy but it was eclipsed by the fact that Peter was now, indeed, homeless.
“Please, I don’t know where-“
“Don’t waste my time, please? You should have thought about that before destroying your door.” But that wasn’t even him! Peter grit his teeth. He couldn’t tell the guy that because then he’d want to know who did it..
And Peter could already see that lie escalating before he even spoke it. “I’m sorry..” He felt resigned. The call ended and Peter rubbed over his face. He needed to find a new place.. He also needed to talk to Jameson about getting paid better. Either that or get a different job.
Which would be the smart idea but then he would have to juggle steady hours and as Spider-Man that was impossible. He felt trapped. Peter couldn’t hold a job because he was Spider-Man and had to be able to leave whenever there was something going on. Being a photographer left him with enough free time to kick baddie butt on the way.
Still.. Wolverine just cost him his only place of living. His jaw tensed as he grit his teeth, moving back to the suitcases and digging his spare costume out to change into it, the dirty laundry in a neat pile in the corner.
He’s going to pull this guys body hair off. A full body waxing was in order- this was- shit! Why did he get involved- he knew why. The man had needed help and Peter couldn’t just leave the dude but now the consequences of having saved the mutant were really endangering his own existence.
So, he pulled the door open and stalked out of the room with purpose behind each step. It was daytime, now the hallways were filled with kids. Some adults. He didn’t recognize any of them but they very obviously recognized him. He could hear them whispering and whatever not.
This couldn’t be any worse. Where was this man- a glance out of the window found the other by accident. Looked like Wolverine went right back to his role as a teacher, currently out there on the wide lawn, surrounded by kids and demonstrating some.. some sort of self-defense stance?
Damn it. Peter felt awful trying to barge in there right now. But he had to get out right now anyway, moving to the side and opening the window he had looked out of. Ready to just jump right out.
His spidey sense kicked in.
“E-Excuse me?”
Peter didn’t flinch, he knew they were coming, but looking over his shoulder he noted that it was a little girl, accompanied by two boys. All three looked like the power puff girls in coloration, green, blue and red. Their skin was.. was it moving? Ahh.. mutants. How fun. He relaxed his body posture and turned to face the kids, crouching down to be at eye level.
“Hey there! How can this friendly spider help you?” He chipped, putting on a happy tone to try and relax their anxious little appearances. It worked, a little. The boys behind her glanced at each other before Mr. Green piped up. “Erm- You’re Spider-Man, right? You got Mr. Logan back, right?” Ohhh..
He.. didn’t think the older man would tell anyone to the extent that it made it’s way back to the kids he taught. “Mhhh, yep. That was me. But it’s fine-“
Nope, apparently not. Suddenly Peter found himself with an armful of kids and not just those three- more and more kids began piling onto him, all babbling chaotically around and leaving him unable to understand what the heck was being said but the gist, the gist he got.
Thankful. They were thankful. He’s drowning in children. Peter didn’t think he could survive this- the only option was digging himself out but where even was up? He’s going to die like this. This was it.
Maybe there was hope on the horizon yet though, because slowly he was being freed, the babbling quieting down and then there was the light! At the end of the tunnel! Oh how pretty-
Nope. It was Wolverine, crouching on the window hilt that Peter opened and looking down at him with an amused smirk. The kids were dispersing like plankton, just shooting in every possible direction. Peter’s panting, laying there like he got shot or something.
“Smelled ya.” Was all he got for an explanation why the dude was here. Peter frowned under his mask. “And yet you can’t smell yourself.” The smirk only got wider as the older mutant leaned a bit down so they were somewhat face to face. “So ya smelled me?” “Not willingly. It was like my nose was being taken hostage and forced through torture.”
The smirk didn’t leave. Peter sat up and rubbed his head, glancing out the window and seeing that the kids were seemingly practicing on their own now. “Got bored?” He came here, ready to rip into the other for ruining the little bit of a life he had but the man had kind of taken the wind out of his angry sails by spreading the word of a good spider being around.
“They can work a bit themselves. Class’s almost over anyway.” Wolverine finally stepped inside, closing the window behind him and patting his pants down. “What did ya want? Clearly been lookin’ fer me. Got lonely?” It sounded almost good-naturally teasing.. if not for the fact that now Peter’s anger slowly seeped back in.
“You broke my door.” He deadpanned. “Mhh.. Yup. I recon I did that.” Guy looked smug about it too. Made Peter want to just wring his neck. “Just got evicted and I remember telling you I’m broke. Wanted to see your face when I congratulated you for making Spider-Man homeless.”
The smirk left the mutants face abruptly and he looked almost.. almost uncomfortable. “N’aw. Really?” “Mhm. As real as this red spandex right here.” Peter was almost surprised that Wolverine didn’t outright start laughing. “Cuz’ of the door?” He sounded genuinely confused and while it was funny, it almost made the brunette cry.
“What do you think? ” There was a bit of a pause there. Peter finally decided to get off the floor completely and stretch his back out to give the old mutant a bit of a glare through his mask. It was funny watching the older dude almost squirm. Almost only though. He looked barely uncomfortable.
Just made the younger male want to rub it in a little, but before he got to that, suddenly the other relaxed his posture again and seemed.. to be grinning again?
“…What? Why are you smirking? Stop that.”
The older mutant snorted and leaned a bit into Peter, having to tilt his face up and giving him a wide, feral grin that showed off his pointy fangs. “Just had to think about how, ya know, technically ya could jus’ stay here fer a bit longer then if ya got nothing better to do.”
Peter’s eyebrow twitched. Then he squinted. “Me? Overstaying my welcome? Where’s that feral hatefulness when it comes to me? You can’t stand my guts and yet you seem so happy about this idea.”
The shorter man leaned back a bit, rolled his shoulders and shrugged, tugging a bit on the plain, blue shirt that he wore today, it was brighter than his jeans so it meshed relatively well. “Things change, I guess.”
“You guess.” Peter deadpanned, turning his body when the other circled him a few steps to keep facing him. “Yeah, aint unheard of. Day turns ta night, water ta ice-“ A mix of blue and green got Peter’s attention when the other fixated him with a stare again, still smirking.
“-and sometimes, only sometimes, an’ old canucklehead like me changes his opinion about sumeone.” He turned his wide body to face Peter too now, crossing his arms confidently. “I mean, used ta hate ya an’ now?” He leaned in again, forcing Peter to be still or back off.
“Now I think I might even wanna get ta know ya bit more.. intimately.” Peter’s eyes went from squinting to wide.
That sounded awful. Right?
Right…
Right?