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It all started when Ben died, she needed an outlet, and he was at fault, he killed Ben. If he hadn’t been a selfish brat, Ben would still be here, but he wasn’t, and it was Peter's fault.
Peter’s health deteriorated, fast.
On top of the neglect and the new found metabolism, things weren’t easy, but he made it work.
Make-up and long baggy clothes to hide his frail bruised beaten body.
He tried to keep his health as high as possible with his current living conditions.He went to Mr. Delmar’s a lot, he, as spiderman, was given food by citizens as a thanks for saving their lives.
(sHe b0uGhT mE a chUrRo!)
And Ned and MJ were only told that they were just low on money at the moment.
His only place of freedom was away from her, and Flash but mostly her.
He loved the tower, and the only reason he was allowed to go there was cause, wHo wouLD tuRn doWn a sTaRk inTerNshIP? It would of been to suspicious, so that was that.
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Today was the 3rd year anniversary since Ben’s death (Peter was 13 and then became Spiderman at 14 he’s 15 now btw) and this day was always one of the worst. May nearly killed him the last time!
Le Flashbac
May had gotten a gun from god knows where! And was now pointing it at Peter, “This is what Ben felt like! All because of you he was shot! You are a murderer Peter! A MURDERER!” May screamed at Peter, cocking the gun at him, as he cowered away from his clinically insane Aunt. “This is how it felt!” She yelled, shaking the gun like a maniac. “Please Aunt May.. just put the gun down!” Peter said barley whispering when a gunshot rang through the apartment.
BANG
The gun clattered to the floor as Peter stared at his Aunt with wide eyes, “M-may..” and he dropped, blood pooled out of the side of his hip where the bullet shot right through. “Oh my god! Peter?! Baby.. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!”
(Peter is 14 and has his powers at the time)
Yeah she didn’t take him to the hospital otherwise she could get caught, so she (being a nurse) nursed him back to health, and it was healed within 2 weeks, odd… but she never questioned it just happy he was healed so she was in the clear.
The one good thing was she was so nice to him during that period of time, giving him the right amount of food, and she was so gentle. He liked that May, it was May before Ben died, and he was glad to see that side to her but it made everything else just so much worse.
----
Peter reluctantly bid farewell to Ned and walked home, 7 blocks away from school.. fUN! He raced off towards his house the deadline time being 3:15 and it takes 4 minutes per block if you’re walking 3 miles per hour sooo y’know gotta go a bit faster halving the time.
Peter got caught trying to cross the street, cars raced by, no gaps in between, he bounced on the balls of his heels in anticipation needing to carry on as soon as possible otherwise he would be late and that never ever ends well. Trust me.
Finally a window between the cars opened and he raced through to the otherside only having 2 blocks left and 4 minutes left until his deadline. I know you’re probably wondering why not just swing home? Well he didn’t want to get caught and he just was to scared to in case May might watch. I don’t know he just felt uneasy about it and would rather not risk it.
He finally entered his apartment complex, already racing up the stairs taking them in twos.
He just had 3 more flights and only 30 seconds, come on Parker! He pushed himself up and up, and when he finally reached the oh so familiar door he looked down at his watch to see it flashing 3:17. He felt like breaking down right there, to run away but he opened the door and as soon as he did all hell broke loose…
“Oh look what the cat dragged in! You’re late you piece of shit. Can’t even get home on time. Typical!” May screeched, slamming her fist into Peter’s cheek making him stumble back some. “Time for little Petey to learn his lesson…” She said, sweetly, making him shiver in fear.
She grabbed a hold of his arm, wrenching him forward, “You good for nothing piece of garbage!” she yelled at him, slapping him across the face.
“You don’t deserve a roof, education, nothing!” She punched him in the face.
“You are a dirty, foul, MURDERER!” She shrieked kicking him to the ground, pounding her foot into his gut, face, back, arms, legs, anywhere. She abruptly stopped and went off, but he knew it wasn’t over, and he whimpered silently in fear, knowing what was coming in just about 10 more seconds.
10…
9… he hears rummaging in a closet
8… he hears the familiar jingle of the metal
7…
6… he hears footsteps stomping through the house
5…
4… he can now see her towering over him
3…
2… the belt is brought down with a SNAP!
So he was wrong, 9 seconds.
----
Now Peter sat huddled in the corner of the locked, dark closet.
If you can even call it that.
It was so small that Peter couldn’t stretch out in anyway fully, couldn’t stand without being half his height and when he sat his knees would be up almost touching his face.
So he sat and waited to be let out, he knew it was probably going to be a while, he usually sat in here until morning if it was school but it was Friday today so he would probably have to stay here until Sunday or Monday morning, it just depended on how May felt I guess.
He shivered with the cold, the closet was always very cold, so so very cold.
He curled up tighter trying to gather as much warmth as possible, he rocked back and forth gently singing a small broken tune.
(Chim Chimney from Mary Poppins but it’s slower and sadder as he hums it)
He hums it under his breath, sometimes letting out a quiet lyric or to, it sounded so sad, so mournful. And that’s how his night went, humming the song that brought some comfort as he rocked slowly and gently back and forth.
-------------------------
Suddenly the door swung open, may glared down at him, “Get up, get ready, and go to your stupid Stark Internship, you’re staying there fo the weekend, request of the ‘Oh so great Mr. Stark’.” She sneered down at him.
He didn’t say a word as he got up, slowly stretching his tired, stiff muscles hearing the usual popping and cracking as everything shifted into place. He slowly trudged down the hall to his room grabbing some clothes and going to the bathroom to assess the damage.
He looked at the mirror seeing a dark blotchy blackish blue bruise adorning his cheek bone and a faint black hand mark on his other cheek, his left eye was black at the edge it trailed up around his temple as well. Yeah he was looking worse for wear.
He hissed in pain as he lifted his arms to take his shirt off and assessed the damage of his arms and torso.
It.
Was.
Bad.
He was thin enough that you could easily see his ribs but not thin enough for anyone to notice, or they just didn’t care. Probably the latter.
His arms had an array of bruises ranging in colour, they trailed all up and around both his arms.
His chest and stomach had big patches of black, and he could see a few cuts and scrapes from where the belt opened his skin. He turned around and looked at his back in the mirror. He almost cried at what he saw. His back was practically just black now normal skin really in sight, cuts littered his back, old scars reopened and new cuts ready to scar his already scarred back.
He sighed, got in the shower, wincing at the sting of it but allowed the water to relax is aching tense muscles. He put on a tank top and a big hoodie, he put his usual jeans on and then went to go back his bag for the things he’d need. Suit, homework, web shooters, extras.
Y’know the stufffffff.
-------
Once Peter had covered up all the bruises, May had given him a once over, given him the same threat he was told almost every day.
“Tell anyone and you know exactly what will happen”
Peter nodded and ran off to where Happy was waiting outside for him.
“Hey Kid” he said as they both sat in their respective seats. “Hey Happy” and then he went silent as he sat recalling the past 12 hours. The silence did make the usual uncaring Happy uneasy, not used to the kid being so quiet, I mean he did this every so often but it was just weird as he usually saw the kid so happy and bubbly.
He pushed it to the back of his mind, it wasn’t his business and if there is seriously something wrong with the kid Stark would probably figure it out.
--I don’t know what to write ahhhck help---
Peter got out the car thanking Happy and rushing off towards the tower, entering the building he immediately relaxed, smiling. He rushed to the elevator and greeted Friday, “Hey Fri can you please take me to the penthouse” Peter asked the AI “Of course Peter” he felt the elevator rise up and soon he was in the living area of the Avengers.
“Hey Pete’s here!” Peter heard Clint yell which caused everyone to turn away from the movie they were currently watching to look over at him with grins.
“AYYYYYE PETTTTTERR!!”
He received various greetings. He grinned and walked towards the couch where all the Avengers lay all together. He flopped down in the spot between Steve and Natasha immediately being hugged by Nat, his hair ruffled by Steve. Holding his wince in as Steve’s hand brushed the bruise on his temple and Natahsa’s strong hug.
“Hey guys! Where’s Mr Star-”
As soon as Peter said that the elevator opened again and Tony walked out covered in oil.
“Heard Pete was here! Where is he?”
He asked, Peter poked his head out from the pile of Avengers.
“Here Mr Stark!”
Tony laughed. “Hey kid, wanna come down to the lab and fix up your suit?” Tony said,
“Yeah! I’ll be right down just gotta put my stuff away!”
Peter raced off, chucked his bag in his room, and then raced off to the labs with Mr Stark in tow. And that’s how the rest of the day went, first fixing his suit cause it was ripped and singed from when he saved a couple families from a burning building.
It had been broken for a couple days so he wasn’t able to go out as spiderman for a while. Then they worked on a couple formulas and small projects.
Soon they were covered in sweat and as they went up for dinner Tony chucked him a towel to wipe the sweat off. Peter still had his hoodie on so he was sweating buckets,
“Hey kid why don’t you take your hoodie off it’s boiling in here, or like go change into something cooler” Tony had said on multiple occasions and said once more. “Nah it’s fine Mr Stark, it’s comfy” Peter wiped his face on the tower as the exited the elevator, completely forgetting how cheap and shitty the makeup he had on was.
When he removed the towel from his face Bucky and Clint looked up and over at the sweaty duo and saw Peter wipe his face and then when he removed the towel.
“What the fu-” Clint started “LANGUAGE!” Steve shrieked from the kitchen oblivious to why Clint was about to swear.
This chaos caught the attention of everyone who looked over at Bucky and Clint who were looking at Peter in horror.
This caused everyone to look over at Peter and they all gasped, Steve walked in wanting to see what the fuss was and stopped dead in his tracks dropping the plate he was holding. It shattered on the ground Peter jumped, Tony looked over at Peter and froze.
Tony shook his head “What.. I- what happened!?” Peter stared at them in confusion, then it dawned on him, are they talking about his face?! He looked down at the towel and saw the foundation all smeared there! ‘Aye you’re meant to be on my face’ Peter screamed internally.
Tony grabbed Peter’s chin looking all over his face, “Go clean your face so I can have a better look please” he said but Bruce was already on it having a damp towel and he started gently dabbing away the rest of the make-up.
“Explain please” He asked softly, Peter sighed, “I- uh.. Uhm- It’s just patrol, patrol last night was toug-” Tony cut off Peter “Bull, cause your suit was broken 4 days ago and your injuries from 4 days would have healed by now.” Tony said.
Peter started sweating again, he wanted to tell them but he couldn’t, he couldn’t tell them.
“Take that hoodie off you have to be boiling under there!” Steve said, Peter shook his head sharply
“Are you hiding anymore injuries” Nat said sternly, Peter started to shake his head but was sent a stern glare from Nat which caused him to immediately rip his hoodie over his head.
They looked at his bruised and battered body, the tank top hanging off him quite a bit that they could vaguely see the cuts and scars across his back and chest.
“Peter… what the hell happened” Clint asked.
Peter fought the tears, the need to tremble “I-i can’-t” His voice broke, he started to tremble.
All the Avengers walked over to get a closer look. Bruce grounded Peter so he wasn’t sent into a panic attack. “Who did this to you” Bucky said darkly “I- I can’t tell you or she will-” he clamped a hand over his mouth and let a tear fall down his cheek. “What will she do Peter? Who is she?” Bruce asked softly.
Peter shook his head “No, I-” He sobbed and sank to his knees, curling into a ball, “I-i’m so-rry” he said over and over. Tony sank down to Peter pulling him into a hug. “Shhh shhh shhhhhh, it’s alright, I’ve got you, you’re alright” He rocked back and forth. The rest of the Avengers joined the hug all rocking back and forth.
Then they heard ever so softly a broken hum of Chim Chimney, and here and there a hushed broken voice softly mumble out a word or two to the song. They all hummed slightly with him until a soft melody of humming and singing emitted from he cuddle puddle.
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when
I shakes 'ands with you
Peter had calmed down significantly and soon they moved from the ground to the couch.
“I um.. M-may” A tear rolled down his face, “excuse me?” Tony said in confusion and shock “She is May” Peter said, they all gaped Aunt May was the one hurting Peter?
“Sh-she uhm..” Peter took in a deep breath.
“You know my Uncle Ben, how he was shot, it- it uhm was my fault and I uhm I’m responsible for his death… I got in a fight with him and ran off, he followed me I guess and then this guy ran past me, he had a gun and I did.. I did nothing I did nothing to stop him. My uncle Ben I guess wasn't far behind me as I heard some fighting behind me then a gunshot, I turned around and saw- B-ben on the grou-nd bleeding… and I - I couldn’t save him.. I- couldn’t I just- I should have don-e something!”
Peter said and the Avengers looked at him in sympathy.
“May- she blamed me for what happened to Ben, she calls me a murderer and I am, I did kill Ben. But I just- she has all these rules, and I- I haven’t eaten in 3 days before coming here today. I haven’t slept in so long cause I’m she- she’ll-” Peter sobbed once, twice
“Just before I came here she had locked me in the closet- she locks me in the closet a lot. It’s so small I can’t stretch out, I hate it in there, it’s so dark and cold and lonely. All the cuts and scars on my back and chest are uhm are from her beating me with a belt. I jus-just don-t.. Why does she hate me..” Peter said.
The Avengers were all silent as Peter told them everything, he told them about what happened last year on Ben’s death anniversary, e v e r y t h i n g.
Tony and the Avengers immediately contacted the police and after a long fight with the court trying to get May in jail and then getting custody of Peter. They finally were a happy family, healing slowly but together.
Peter was finally home.