Chapter Text
Peter would have liked to state, for the record, that this was not his idea. It was completely, one hundred percent Ned’s fault for talking him into volunteering. He was a terrible friend, along with MJ, who hadn’t told him not to.
It all started at the senior all-nighter. The school had rented out some place with a pool, a few cool games, and a climbing wall, and basically told them to have at it “within reason”. Peter knew he would give his secret identity away in a heartbeat if he even attempted the climbing wall, and he was avoiding the outdoor hot tub at all costs because he had no desire to stumble on something he absolutely had no interest in seeing.
There was probably someone who had snuck in alcohol, but in the interest of maintaining his identity and the spirit of that general desire to do the right thing he never seemed to shake, Peter was avoiding the punch dispenser. For all he knew, alcohol wouldn’t even have much of an effect on him at all, but he was already feeling lightheaded and punch-drunk enough from lack of sleep. There was no reason to potentially make it even worse.
He, Ned, and MJ were hanging out by the snack table around 3 AM when the announcement buzzed over the speakers. Peter winced at the shrill tone that accompanied the words.
“Attention, Seniors! Our next activity will be a hypnotist show. Please meet in the gym in 10 minutes and be sure to check in at the entrance.”
MJ rolled her eyes. “They actually got a hypnotist? That crap is so dumb. They’ll probably just make someone do the chicken dance or say the ABCs backwards.”
Peter shuddered. He’d seen videos of hypnotists before and they kind of freaked him out, not to mention the fact that their work was uncomfortably reminiscent of an old villain he’d faced called Mysterio. Mysterio worked with artificial illusions, and Peter had been trapped in them too many times for his liking. He had no desire to be stuck again in a pretend world where he had no control over his actions.
“You don’t know that,” said Ned. “I bet it’ll be awesome. Maybe they could hypnotize us into actually being cool!”
Peter gave his friend a look. “Ned.”
“Okay, okay, that wouldn’t happen,” Ned agreed. “But what if Flash goes up there and embarrasses himself? That would be so amazing!”
“Yeah,” Peter said a little wistfully. “That would be pretty sweet.”
The three friends wandered over to the gym, told the volunteer parents their names, and went to sit on the bleachers. It was the last time these uncomfortable things would ever hurt his butt, Peter thought a little nostalgically. He watched as the hypnotist set up a long line of chairs and tested the microphone. He’d been expecting some crazy costume, like a purple cape with bells on it or a gaudy mask, but the guy actually looked pretty normal.
Once the stands had filled up and the parents confirmed that everyone was there, the man began.
“Hello Midtown seniors!” he said. “My name is Frank Millwith and today we will be exploring the wonders of hypnotism.”
MJ snorted. Peter hid a grin. Ned elbowed them both, keeping his eyes fixed on Frank.
“I know there are those of you out there who believe that hypnosis is freaky, or even completely fake, and I would like to challenge those individuals to keep an open mind. When someone is hypnotized, they are put into a completely relaxed state almost like sleeping, and they become very susceptible to suggestions. However, someone who is hypnotized will never be forced to do something they really don’t want to. If you are truly uncomfortable, the hypnosis will break entirely and you can freely go back to your seat with no harm done. Does everyone understand? Nod your head at me if you’ve got it.”
Everyone nodded. Peter’s nerves eased slightly, especially when a grinning Ned quietly pointed out Flash. He was practically bouncing in place with excitement, and Peter hid a laugh.
“Alright,” said Frank. “Now we’re going to start with a warm up activity for everyone to give us an idea of who is going to be really good at this hypnotism thing. Everyone close your eyes and hold out your hands. Try to keep them on the same level while I talk.”
Peter reluctantly shut his eyes. Frank continued. “Now I want you to imagine your right hand is very heavy, and your left is very light. The right hand is pulling down, down to the ground like gravity has gotten so incredibly strong for only your right hand. Your left hand is floating up, up to the sky like a balloon…”
Frank kept talking for a long time. Peter began to drift, losing snatches of his words. It was three in the morning, he was tired and a little freaked out, and he just wanted to relax.
“Just listen to my voice. One hand up, one hand down. You really want to follow my voice. I won’t ask you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, you will be completely safe…”
Frank seemed like a nice guy. Much more trustworthy than Mysterio. The whole class and the parents were all watching, so what could Frank do, really?
“Now, I’m going to count backwards from ten. At each number you will rise a little more so that when I get to one, your eyes are open. Then I want you to see how well you did at keeping your hands next to each other. Ten, nine, eight…”
It was a little strange. Peter felt like he was becoming more alert with each number. He had been nearly drifting off before, but now he felt almost wide awake. At number three he sat up straighter. Had he been slumping over? He hadn’t thought so. Good thing everyone had their eyes closed, so no one would have noticed that he nearly fell asleep.
“...One! Eyes open, wide awake! How did you do?”
The gym filled with surprised conversation as everyone checked out their results. Peter stared at his own arms. His right hand was on the floor and his left was raised above his head, but he hadn’t even noticed until now. He thought he’d been keeping them level, but…
“Woah,” said Ned, staring at his own hands. “That is so cool! I mean, I could’ve guessed this would happen, but still. Awesome.”
Peter nodded a little hesitantly. “It was okay, I guess.”
“Not that impressive, if you ask me,” said MJ.
Frank was walking through the stands, looking for volunteers. Peter watched Flash stride up to the first chair and secretly hoped that he did the most mortifying crap in Frank’s reprotair. Did that make him a horrible person? Peter wasn’t sure. Several other people followed Flash, going every other with boys and girls, until there was only one spot left.
“One more boy, one more…” said Frank, looking around until his eyes landed on Peter. Peter gulped. “You there, young man, would you like to volunteer?”
“Aw man, you always do the coolest stuff,” Ned moaned. “Go on, Peter, you can do it!”
“You won’t do anything that stupid,” said MJ. “And if you do, at least you’ll look better than Flash doing it. Besides, it’s apparently totally safe.” She shrugged and raised an eyebrow.
Frank was still looking at him.
“Fine,” said Peter finally. “I’ll try it.” He never would have done it with a totally functioning brain, but apparently sleep-deprived, punch drunk and peer-pressured Peter Parker was not hard to convince.
“Great!” said Frank. Despite the sinking feeling in his stomach, Peter shuffled down the bleachers and sat between two girls he vaguely recognized. One was named Emily, who he’d seen once or twice before in the hall, and the other sat in front of him in physics, but he couldn’t remember her name. Alana? Alyssa?
“Okay, I want everyone in front with me to focus on this.” Frank turned on a strange, flickery light that gradually changed colors every so often. It didn’t hurt Peter’s eyes to look at, which was an added bonus. He was still working on the other girl’s name, but he tried to keep his eyes on the light. Amanda? No...
Frank began to talk. “I need the audience to be very quiet for the next few minutes, okay? This is a very important part for the show to work. Now that you on the stage are all looking at the light I want you to not think too hard about it. Just relax. Listen to my voice. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want; you can stop at any time and go back to your seat. But up here is a great place to be. These chairs are way more comfortable than those bleachers, so you’re happy to be up here, I would say. You don’t have to think about the audience at all, they’re just wishing they were up here too, but you all are the best candidates, so don’t even worry about it.”
Peter gave up on the girl’s name. He couldn’t exactly ask her right now, and he found that he liked counting the seconds between the light’s soft color changes better. Red, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, purple, 1, 2, 3, 4...
“I know you all are pretty tired though, at least I am, so if you want to close your eyes please do it. It’s fine, no one will be bothered at all. You won’t miss a thing if you close your eyes; in fact, you will have more fun and success on this stage if you do it. Sleep is a wonderful thing.”
Peter’s eyelids were feeling a little heavy now that Frank mentioned it, but he wasn’t quite sure about closing them yet. He wanted to be absolutely sure about Frank before he did that. Besides, the light was still changing colors and he wanted to watch it. Green… yellow… orange...
“Your only job on stage is to stay relaxed and listen to my voice. This is going to feel really good, it’s like a free pass to take a nap and still be cool at the senior all-nighter. You don’t have to worry about other people at all. The other people on stage won’t mind a bit if you lean on their shoulders, just like you won’t care if they lean on your shoulders. In fact, you’d probably like them to lean on your shoulders. It would feel pretty nice. The more you lean on each other, the better you feel. So leaning on your neighbor will actually make both of you feel even more relaxed and happy than you do right now.”
That was true. Peter knew leaning on people did feel good, sort of like hugs felt good. Someone’s head fell onto his shoulder and Peter smiled lazily. He was pretty tired, and no one would judge if he just leaned over right? Frank’s voice was saying so, and Frank seemed like a pretty trustworthy source. Peter let his head fall sideways and it landed on the shoulder next to him. The shoulder was too skinny, though, so instead he fell all the way to someone’s lap. The head that had been on his shoulder fell to his side and a hand was on his face.
His eyes were still on the light.
Frank’s hand touched his shoulder. “Are you okay, man?”
“Yeah, ‘s good,” said Peter.
“Alright. You’re doing great, keep it up.”
Peter smiled. He was doing great, he felt great, this was great. His muscles relaxed and he just laid there and enjoyed it as he watched the light change from blue to green. Frank’s voice droned on in the background, but Peter was barely listening anymore.
“There is an audience of your classmates, but you shouldn’t pay any attention to them. In fact, they’re not even there. The only people around are the other people sitting in chairs up here and me, and you only have to focus on me. You won’t ever be distracted or embarrassed by anyone in this room. You can watch other people and have fun watching them, but you need to always be focusing on me and my voice, okay? Okay.”
Peter was happy and comfortable, and he was watching a pretty light. He was so glad he’d done this.
“You are an awesome group of kids, you’re all doing so well. Everyone give me a thumbs up if you’re okay to keep going.”
Peter didn’t know if his thumb was pointing up, specifically, since he wasn’t entirely sure where his hand was in space at this particular time, but he managed to make a fist and put his thumb out. It was close enough.
Frank’s face was suddenly in front of his own, but it didn’t block his view of the light, so Peter didn’t mind. “Would you look at that, his eyes are still open. What is your name, young man?”
“Peter,” he said.
“Well, Peter, you win the prize! May I shake your hand?”
“Yeah,” said Peter.
Frank took his hand, said a word, and Peter’s eyes shut. Hey laid there happily in the darkness as his hand was set back on the ground where it had been dangling. He’d liked the light, but now that his eyes were closed he liked that much better. Why hadn’t he done this before? Oh well, Frank said he was doing great, so it was okay.
Frank said this was sleeping. Whenever he said to sleep, this is what they would do. Peter liked that idea. Frank’s footsteps walked down the line. The hand on his face was moved over and a warm weight fell closer instead. Next Frank’s hands settled Peter’s shoulders into a more comfortable position. It was wonderful.
“I’m going to count backward from ten,” said Frank. “With each number you are going to become a little bit more awake. When I reach one you will be sitting up with your eyes open, and you will not remember anything after sitting down in these chairs. You won’t remember any instructions from me, but you will still follow them.
“Ten. You are still completely asleep, no problems here. Just relaxed and doing well…”
Peter felt himself slowly becoming more and more awake as Frank counted down. The warm weights on top of him came off, and Peter sat up.
“Two. You’re almost at the surface. Your eyes are barely closed, you’re sitting up, ready to be awake…
“One. Eyes open, wide awake!”
------
Peter was having trouble remembering the name of one of the girls next to him. Alana? Alyssa? No, that wasn’t right…
“Okay,” said Frank in front of them. Peter fidgeted a little with his hands. “Have any of you ever done this before?”
No one raised a hand.
“Perfect, it’s more fun that way,” Frank grinned. “Now I know hypnosis in theory is a little freaky. Is anyone at all nervous about it?”
Peter glanced around. A few of the others tentatively raised hands. Slowly, Peter raised his own a little as well. He didn’t want his brain to be taken over, despite what Frank said about it being totally safe!
Frank looked up and down the line. “Hmm,” he said, coming to stand beside Peter. “You’re nervous?”
“Yeah, a bit,” Peter admitted.
“Maybe it will help if we get to know each other a little,” Frank said. “What’s your name and who is your favorite celebrity?”
“Peter Parker, and, uh, Tony Stark,” said Peter.
“Why do you like Tony Stark?”
Peter shrugged. “He’s cool, he builds robots, and who doesn’t like Iron Man?”
Frank laughed. “That’s fair. Nice to meet you Peter, I’m Frank.” He held out a hand and Peter shook. “Sleep.”
Before Peter could be confused his eyes closed and his whole body went limp. Frank’s hands caught his shoulders and settled his head on his knees so that he didn’t hit it. It felt great, like he was taking a nap, but still aware of Frank’s voice.
“I want you to listen very carefully to me, Peter,” said Frank, keeping a hand on his shoulder. Peter was happy to do so. Frank gave the best ideas, and he wanted to listen.
“For the rest of this all-nighter and only until the end of this all nighter, you are convinced that Tony Stark is your father. Your real parents or guardians are just relatives, and you live with Tony Stark, who is your parent. As soon as you leave this building at the end of the night your guardians will go back to whoever they are for real, but now and for this night it is Tony Stark. Do you understand?”
Peter smiled just a little. “Tony Stark is my dad.”
“Yes, perfect,” said Frank, giving Peter’s shoulder a little pat. “I’m going to count down from ten to wake you up, and when you do you will have no memory of this conversation, or the one before where I asked your name and favorite hero. You will go right back to the moment in time just after you sat down. Ten, nine, eight...
------
Frank began on the end of the line after Peter sat down. “What’s your name?” He asked the girl next to Peter.
“Ayla Taylor,” she said, fidgeting with her hands. Peter had been wondering what her name was. She sat in front of him in physics, but he just hadn’t been able to put a finger on it.
“Nice to meet you, Ayla. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?” said Frank. It looked like he was going to give everyone a little interview before they started.
“Strawberry cheesecake,” Ayla said with no hesitation.
“Decisive,” said Frank. “I personally prefer cookies ‘n cream myself.” He grinned at her before turning his gaze to Peter.
“And what’s your name?” he asked.
Peter took a breath. He hated when strangers wanted his full name. It always drew commentary. “Peter Stark.” There was some background noise at his answer, but Peter was used to it and kept his eyes on Frank, whose eyebrows had gone up.
“Stark, huh? Any relation to Tony Stark?”
“Yeah, he’s my dad,” Peter admitted.
“Can you tell me one funny fact about your dad that the public doesn’t usually know?” said Frank.
“He treats his robots like they’re his kids,” Peter said. “I literally have robot siblings.” The people next to him snickered, but Peter didn’t pay them any attention. He was too busy listening to Frank.
“That is pretty funny, Peter,” Frank said, and moved on to Emily.
Peter wondered when the actual show was going to start. Frank seemed like he was spending a lot of time just getting to know the participants, which was nice, but he couldn’t imagine the audience was that entertained. Then again, Peter thought he saw a mischievous glint in the man’s eye as he finished speaking with Emily.
“Well, it was nice to meet you… sleep!”
Peter stared as Emily slumped right over in her chair. Frank calmly walked around behind the line of seats and placed a hand on Ayla’s shoulder. “Sleep!”
With that, Peter was boxed in by two “sleeping” girls. It was beyond weird. They looked pretty peaceful though, so maybe it didn’t feel weird? Peter was glad Frank hadn’t done it to him unexpectedly like that.
“Ayla,” said Frank, keeping a hand on her shoulder, “when you wake up you are going to look at Emily and realize that if you can manage to kiss her cheek you will win free strawberry cheesecake ice cream for life.”
A huge grin spread across Ayla’s face. Peter looked from side to side apprehensively.
“You like that idea don’t you?” said Frank. Ayla gave a wobbly nod. “Good. Now Emily.” He moved his hand to the other girl’s shoulder. “Ayla wants to kiss your cheek, Emily, but you are a germaphobe. You don’t want to touch anyone and you don’t want anyone to touch you. If she manages to kiss you, you have to spread this cleaning solution on it.” He handed her a jar of peanut butter, and even Peter had to laugh at that. “After you spread it on the kiss, you will forget you have put it there. You will not see or feel it, and it anyone tells you about it or shows it to you in a mirror or a phone camera you will not believe them and you will not see it. This will last until you leave the building tonight. Do you understand? Please repeat it back to me.”
“When Ayla kisses me I put this on my face and forget about it.”
“Perfect,” said Frank. “Neither of you ladies may leave your chairs. Ten, nine, eight…”
Peter watched as the girls slowly sat up until Frank said “One! Eyes open, wide awake!” Both their eyes opened at exactly the same time. They seemed totally normal until Ayla caught sight of Emily in her peripheral vision.
“Emily!” she mumbled, reaching out a clumsy hand. Peter leaned away. He was not getting involved in this.
“No, gross,” said Emily, leaning back out of reach. She almost landed right on Dylan, the guy next to her, but caught herself in time with a little squeak. While she was distracted, Ayla dove across Peter’s lap to catch her hand, just barely keeping herself on top of her own chair.
“No!” shouted Emily as Ayla dragged her closer, but Ayla was apparently stronger, despite the fact that she was built like a twig. She dragged Emily right in front of Peter’s face and plopped a big smacking kiss on her cheek before letting her go, apparently satisfied.
Emily shuddered and opened the peanut butter jar, clumsily spreading a generous amount all over the side of her face with her fingers. Frank handed Ayla a blank slip of paper. “Here’s your pass for a lifetime of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. You’d better put that in a place where no one will find it.”
Ayla considered the paper for a minute before decisively sticking it in her bra. Peter looked away, blushing, but Ayla didn’t seem to care people were watching her at all.
“I’ll take that cream when you’re done with it,” Frank told Emily, who was determinedly rubbing circles on her forehead. Reluctantly, she handed it back, and then seemed to forget about it entirely.
It was actually really funny to watch Frank. He continued down the line of Peter’s classmates, sometimes causing them to sleep right away, other times waiting for a bit and then getting multiple people to do something together. Peter couldn’t hold back his snickers as Abe from decathlon became convinced that his belly button was missing and it was Cindy’s fault, or when Dylan angrily strode over to a girl named Mikayla to demand the return of his canary, only for her to wail that she’d eaten it accidentally. His favorite by far was when Frank got to the end of the line where Flash was sitting.
“Hi--sleep!” Grinned Frank, reaching out for Flash’s hand. “Alright, young man. For tonight and only tonight until you walk out of this building’s doors, your first name is gone. If you have a nickname, it’s gone. Your name is now E-I-E-I-O. Can you repeat that back to me?”
“My name is E-I-E-I-O,” said Flash. He had drooled just a little and sounded half-asleep. Peter laughed.
“Very good!” Frank said, and woke him up. “Hi man, what’s your name?”
“E-I-E-I-O Thompson,” said Flash, completely straight faced. If Peter hadn’t seen Flash lying in the past he would have sworn that he was faking.
“How do you spell that?” Frank said curiously.
“E-I-E-I-O,” Flash told him slowly. Peter stifled a snort.
“And what’s your middle name?”
“Uh…” Flash looked genuinely confused. “Eugene? No, wait… Jack. It’s Jack.”
Frank held out a hand. “Well, it’s good to meet you, E-I-E-I-O Jack Thompson.”
Flash looked at the hand suspiciously. “Are you going to hypnotize me when you grab my hand like you did to some of them?”
“Nope,” Frank said cheerfully. “Scout’s honor! I need your help with our next thing instead.”
Flash continued to watch him suspiciously, but he seemed pleased to make it through the handshake unscathed. Everyone was dying of laughter, but Flash didn’t notice. Peter briefly wondered if he’d done something similar, but he didn’t feel any different. Maybe his contribution had been being stuck between the two girls? All Frank had done was ask about his dad, which wasn’t uncommon. He probably didn’t want to step on Tony Stark’s toes, just to be safe. Oh well.
“Okay, everyone,” said Frank. He’d brought Flash up in front of the line with him. “Me and E-I-E-I-O here are now in possession of sleep guns!” Peter recoiled. He didn’t want to get hit by a sleep gun. He was having fun!
Frank’s hands were suddenly holding a freaky-looking gun, which he fired straight into the air. “Pew! That’s a tester shot. Now that you know what it sounds like, we’d better get started! You must stay up front, and if you get hit by a sleep gun you must gently fall asleep. I don’t want anyone hitting their head. Ready, set… go!”
Peter sprang out of his seat and moved to escape in the scramble. He wanted to avoid this for as long as possible. For some reason, his eyes were stuck pointing toward Flash and Frank’s sleep guns. He watched as Cindy went down, then Ayla, then Dylan… finally, Peter was cornered by Flash. He could have used his powers to escape, of course, but Peter didn’t want to.
“Gotcha, sucker!” Flash laughed. “Pew!”
Peter’s world went dark, and he felt his body drift slowly to the floor. It felt nice to just lay there, and he wondered vaguely why he’d been running away from it. It sounded like the battle was still going on for a while, but Peter didn’t listen too closely. He felt light and floaty and warm. His muscles loosened and he melted into a little Peter-Puddle right there in the gym. He let himself drift.
Frank’s voice echoed through the gym. “If you are standing up right now, you very much want to carry someone back to their seat. You think it would be a great idea to pick someone up and just give them a lift and gently set them down in a chair. If you are on the ground right now you can no longer get back to your chair unless someone helps you. You would love to be carried to a chair, and will sit down when you get there, but you need someone to help you do it.”
Oh. Peter couldn’t get back to his seat. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed until now, but Frank was completely right. Peter wasn’t worried, though. There were people in the gym who could help him, and he knew that they would like to carry him back. Thank goodness Frank was here to tell them.
“Over here!” Peter called. He blinked his eyes sluggishly and saw a person shuffling toward him. “Please help?”
“Of course,” said the person. Peter smiled and held out his arms. The person raised him up to a standing position and let him climb on their back for a piggyback ride. Peter might have used his sticky powers to help just a little, but he made sure to keep it subtle so that no one would notice. His eyes drifted closed sometime on the walk, and the next thing Peter knew, he was sitting in a chair again. However, now he was situated in the middle instead of on an end.
Frank’s voice continued to drift through his head for a while, and Peter was happy to follow his advice. For the most part, though, he drifted happily in his sleep-muddled state. This felt good. It was great.
------
Frank wasn’t looking when Peter opened his eyes, and Peter suddenly knew that he really needed to call his dad and tell him how awesome he was, along with the fact that Peter was currently at a hypnotism show. He wasn’t sure why it was so important, but the urge was strong enough that he took out his phone and immediately pulled up the contact labelled Mr. Stark. He kept that name so no bad guys could figure out his relationship to the man through his phone.
“Oh, are you making a call?” said Frank.
Peter looked up guiltily. “Yeah, sorry, it’s really important.”
“That’s fine,” said Frank pleasantly. “But I have a rule that any calls made during the show have to be on speaker so everyone can hear. Is it that urgent?”
“Yes,” said Peter. He hit the call button and put the phone on speaker, holding it up to Frank’s microphone. It rang twice before his dad picked up.
“Peter? Why the heck are you calling me at almost four in the morning?”
Frank’s eyes went wide and he cursed under his breath, but Peter was already talking.
“Hi, Dad, I’m at a hypnotist show and I just really wanted to call and tell you that you are so awesome and amazing and you’re my hero, you know? Also, are you in the lab? You obviously weren’t asleep, anyway.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, during which Frank seemed freaked out for some reason. Peter just waited. He knew it took his dad a while to process anything even slightly emotional.
“Well, I guess you’re right that I wasn’t sleeping, Pete,” laughed his dad, finally. Peter could tell that he was really touched, though, and that was the important thing. “A hypnotist show, huh? Why am I assuming that you’re on stage with a microphone in your face right now, I wonder?”
“Actually, the microphone is by the phone,” said Peter.
His dad sighed. “Of course it is. Hello hypnotist person and Peter’s class. Yes, this is Tony Stark, no, you can’t have an autograph. Was that all?”
“Yup!” said Peter. “Bye, Dad! Go to bed or Pepper will be angry.”
“Only you, Kid,” said his dad. “Bye.”
There was a ringing minute of silence in the gym while Peter put his phone back in his pocket. Frank pinched the bridge of his nose, but altogether recovered pretty quickly from meeting someone famous, Peter figured.
“Okay,” he sighed. “Hey, Peter, want to try something cool?”
Peter nodded.
“I thought so. Everyone else, listen close, we’re going to play a game. You all have to try to keep your eyes open for as long as you can. Whenever you blink, your eyes are going to stick shut and you're going to fall into a deep sleep. Do you think you can win?”
Peter looked around determinedly. He could totally do this.
“One, two, three, go!”
Dylan on his left slumped down almost immediately. He must not have been ready to start. Peter kept his eyes wide, watching the others fall one by one. He almost broke when Flash fell down onto the gym floor, but just barely managed to hang on. His eyes were drying out when he glanced at Ayla, the last one left besides him. She grinned in challenge and Peter pointed a finger at her nose, only to find his eyes stuck shut. He was falling forward onto her lap before he could do anything, and he felt her head land on his back not a second later.
It didn’t really matter though. Peter was floating in waves of dreaminess and Ayla was welcome to join him or not.
------
It didn’t feel like long at all before Frank woke up all the volunteers and sent them back to their friends in the audience. Everyone kept asking them questions about what they remembered, but the answer was never much. Emily’s friends kept trying to show and tell her about the peanut butter on her face. She had begun giving them weird looks and left to use the bathroom. Flash kept sending people into hysterics with his new name.
“None of you have ever had a problem with it before,” Peter heard him say. “My name isn’t that funny, you guys!”
He smirked.
On the other hand, people kept asking him questions about his dad for some reason. Peter figured it was because he’d gotten him on the phone, and everyone went insane over celebrities even if it was just an annoyed dad at the crack of dawn. He did a lot of shrugging and used the word “classified” more times than he ever thought he would, but eventually everyone left him alone.
Except Ned.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive right now,” he said as they headed for the buses outside that would bring them back to school. May would be waiting for him there.
“What do you…?” he stepped over the threshold and froze. He might have even felt a little lightheaded. “Oh, crudmuffins!”
“Yeah,” said Ned.
“I just… I called Mr. Stark at four in the morning… for no reason… and I called him my dad!” Peter buried his face in his hands. Maybe they would shield him from whatever wrath Mr. Stark was sure to rain down from heaven upon him. Ned grabbed his elbow and led him hesitantly toward the bus.
“He knows you were hypnotized when you did it, man. That’s got to count for something, right?”
“I don’t know!” said Peter. Ned pushed him into a seat and squished in beside him. Peter didn’t want to know what everyone else was talking about at the moment, so he focused as much as he could on his best friend. “Ned, we really don’t know each other that well. I mean, yeah I go over to the lab to help him with stuff every week or two, and I did meet Pepper Potts one time, which, awesome, right? But honestly he just asks me about school and patrol and I ask him about Iron Man and homework and we both trash talk DUM-E and eat pizza sometimes and…”
Ned was staring at him, eyes wide. “Holy heart failure, Batman! He is your dad!”
“He is not,” said Peter.
“Is,” said Ned .
“Is not.”
“One hundred percent is.”
“Ned,” Peter groaned, “I might have just made it weird for the rest of my natural life, okay? Can we not?”
Ned grumbled, but he thankfully gave in soon enough when Peter brought up some new Star Wars theories he’d been considering.
Peter was so not looking forward to seeing Mr. Stark after this.