Chapter Text
It’s been five weeks since the funeral, and Peter couldn’t say it hurt any less. The weight on his chest was heavy and constant, although he would put a small smile on his lips and pretend life went on. To him, though, life seemed very much stuck in the battlefield that once was the Avengers Compound.
He opened the bedroom window after spending the last two hours scouring the streets for some crime to fight, but it all seemed way too quiet that night. Being Spider-Man was the only thing that could make him forget about the pain, even if just for a little bit, but it didn’t seem to work tonight. Maybe even the criminals were missing Tony Stark.
Peter sighed while he closed the window behind him, checking the clock over the bedside table. He was about fifteen minutes early for his curfew, which was a relief. Last time he broke it, there wasn’t a fight, but the sheer fear in May’s eyes was way worse than any grounding she could have given him. He could hear the TV coming from the living room.
“Hey, May, I’m home!” He called out, taking the mask off.
There was some shuffling around on the couch, the TV was turned off, and slow steps came up the hallway. May was in her pajamas, but seemed very awake, eyes ready to check on Peter. It took about a minute looking him up and down for her to decide he was okay, give him a kiss goodnight and tell him there was dinner in the oven before she went to bed.
That was their ritual every night since they came back home. The fact that they still had a home to come back to was only thanks to Tony and the fact that he actually bought the apartment building while Peter and May were dusted. He wasn’t sure if Tony thought they would ever be back, but apparently, he wouldn’t let anyone else live in their home. So now the whole building was a steady reminder of his loss - not that he needed one, the weight in his chest did a good enough job.
Peter ate some dinner in his room without really tasting it, then took a shower and changed into pajamas. It wasn’t until he was sitting on his bed, staring at his homework - it’s been two days since he went back to school, and it was absolutely bizarre to be surrounded by so many people he’s never heard of, he was actually lucky Ned was dusted too -, that he noticed a small movement in the corner of his ceiling, right above the closed door.
“Oh, hey Medusa. You’re back,” he greeted the not so small spider that had made a home in the tall corner of his bedroom.
Peter had noticed the spider a couple of weeks ago, but he obviously wasn’t gonna kill her, she wasn’t hurting him, why the hell would he hurt her? Besides, after the third day, he started feeling comforted by her constant presence, she seemed to be gone during the day, but was always back to that corner in the nights. So he did the obvious thing and decided to name her Medusa. He wasn’t even sure if it was a ‘her’, but he liked to think it was. He wasn’t sure when exactly he started telling her about his day, but it felt much easier to let it out to a spider then it did to the expensive therapist his aunt had arranged for him to go to once a week for the last three weeks - something Pepper Potts seemed to insist on helping with. Apparently, the therapist was from Shield, so it was okay to talk about the battle and Spider-Man stuff, but he just couldn’t make the words spill out. Instead, he would talk about Star Wars. A lot.
“It’s a nice night, weather-wise,” he continued, putting his pencil down over the Chemistry textbook. “But I didn’t get much done. It was hell,” he sighed, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, trying to count the number of eyes on the spider, but she was far away and all the lighting came from the lamp by his bed. He was guessing it was probably eight. Could be six. He wasn’t sure what species Medusa was. “I really miss him,” his voice lowered, but he didn’t look away. He was getting better at this sharing-stuff-with-his-personal-spider thing. “I’m not hating him anymore, which I guess is a good thing. Hating the dead man is really guilt-inducing, you know?” The spider moved two legs, as if in agreement, and Peter nodded. “Yeah, Medusa, don’t hate dead people, it’s bad for your digestion,” he stopped and chewed on his lower lip. At least the tears were gone. It was a good step forward. Or at least he hoped it was. “I really wish he was back, though.”
“Maybe I could help you with that.”
Peter jumped to his feet so fast the world spun around him. His spidey-senses did not yell at him, he could not feel anyone else in the room, so where the hell did that voice just come from?
“Sorry to scare you, Pete. Up here,” the voice called, and Peter looked up, seeing Medusa raising two legs again. He blinked, the world slowly coming to a stop.
“This is not happening,” he said to himself. “I did not just hear a spider talk back to me. I’m not that insane!” He put his hands on his hair and grabbed a few locks, trying to ground himself.
“Peter,” she called. It was a ‘she’. It was definitely a female voice. “Breathe slower, please. You’ll hyperventilate if you keep breathing like that,” Medusa said, moving her two front legs again, but not moving from her spot, probably afraid to scare him any further.
His hands were shaking on his hair, and he closed his eyes. Mentally, he tried to think over all the time that has passed since he’s been bitten by that spider two years ago. Did he ever have a two-way conversation with an arachnid?
Well, he really shouldn’t be surprised, he thought. There were wizards, aliens, talking raccoons, demi-gods, super-soldiers, dead parental figures… Why not talking spiders? Okay Peter, breathe.
“That’s it,” Medusa said, her voice as calming as a spider voice could sound. “You’re doing great, Pete.” If she had muscles on her face, he could think she was smiling as she said that.
Peter opened his eyes and looked at her.
“You can talk,” he deadpanned.
“Yes,” she said in a semi-soothing voice. “Again, sorry for scaring you. I just thought we had enough of a relationship for me to make you an offer,” she said tentatively.
“An offer?” He repeated, slowly letting his body fall back down to his bed, the pencil rolling from the textbook and into the carpet. He checked his senses again and again, but could still detect no signs of danger.
“Yes,” she said, and she started crawling down the wall. It took surprisingly little to reach his desk, still on the other side of the bedroom from where Peter was. “I can help you get Tony Stark back.”
Peter felt dizzy again. Were his emotions playing a trick on him?
His thoughts were interrupted by the vibration that came from the phone sitting on his nightstand. Peter slowly reached for the device, eyes still glued on the spider up until he brought it close enough that his periphery vision could read the words “Pepper Potts” on the screen. He finally lowered his eyes and checked the time, seeing it was way past Morgan’s bedtime, but it was a video call and usually, those only came from the little girl. He furrowed his brow, momentarily forgetting about the talking spider and her alleged plan to bring Tony Stark back to life, and picked up the call.
“Petey!” Came the voice from the phone, and Peter immediately noticed the red eyes, even though she had a big smile on her face at the moment.
“Mor, what are you doing up?” He asked, getting concerned.
“Hey Peter, I’m sorry, we didn’t wake you up, did we?” Pepper appeared behind Morgan and Peter realized she was holding the little girl while Morgan made the call.
“No, don’t worry, I was just doing some homework,” he assured her, then looked back at Morgan. “What’s going on, Mor?”
“Nightmare,” she said in a small voice, and Peter’s face softened.
“She really wanted to talk to you, make sure you’re okay,” Pepper explained in a voice that said she meant more than her words.
Peter nodded. It wasn’t unusual for Morgan to have bad dreams about Tony, but he guessed it was the first time she had one about Peter. They met for the first time right after the battle, and he was shocked to find out that little Morgan had spent the whole of her four years hearing stories about not only Spider-Man, but also Peter Parker. Like a big brother she just then finally got to meet, and she welcomed him to the family with open arms. It took him all of ten seconds to fall in love with her. He just wished she wasn’t going through the loss of a parent.
“Oh, Mor, I’m okay. See?” He raised his arm and flexed it for the phone camera, making her giggle. “Eating my spinach and everything.”
“I like spinach!” She said, bringing the phone a little bit closer.
“That’s good, it makes you strong,” he winked.
“Okay, it’s time for bed now,” Pepper said, and Morgan pouted.
“But Petey!”
“Peter has homework to do, right, Peter?” Pepper said, looking into the camera.
“Yes, in fact, I do. So you will go to bed now, miss Morgan, and I’ll do homework,” he said, and she was about to complain when he continued. “And I’ll make sure to visit you on the weekend and we’ll build a new toy,” he looked at Pepper, asking silently if it was okay. She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up, thanking him for the effort.
“Promise?” Morgan asked.
“I promise.”
They said their goodnights and Morgan’s kiss was so adorable that Peter almost forgot about the spider sitting and silently waiting for him on his desk. He put the phone down and narrowed his eyes.
“What, exactly, did you have in mind?”
---
His body was getting very confused with him, because it was already way past midnight and he knew that in a school day, it was a bad idea to still be up, but the whole thing with the talking spider and bringing Mr. Stark back was making Peter super hyper.
Medusa was still standing on the desk, leaning on her back four legs, and it almost reminded him of a dog sitting in front of him. A very weird dog.
“So, before we get any further, there’s something else I need to tell you, Peter,” she said, her bluish eyes glistening in the poorly illuminated bedroom.
Peter braced himself. How much crazier could his night get?
“What is it? You’re not here to avenge a radioactive dead relative, are you? Because they bit me first and-” he started babbling nervously.
“What? No, Peter… I’m not actually a spider,” she said slowly, as if the information was a complicated calculus problem.
He blinked once, and then another time. Huh. He scratched his head, not really sure as to what to say to that.
“Okay,” he said after a few seconds. “So what are you?”
She sighed, as if she’d been dreading that moment.
“My name is Azure,” started the spider, blinking all the small bluish eyes. “I’m what can be called a therianthrope,” her voice was steady and slow, keeping all eyes fixed on the boy. “I have the ability to shapeshift into animal forms. And also draw from their specific skills.”
Peter kept staring at the spider. Therianthrope, that was a word he hasn’t heard of before. It sounded mythological. The ability to shapeshift into animal forms, she said… Huh… Oh.
Oh.
“So you’re… Human ?” He blinked, feeling his mouth dry out.
Has he been opening up to an actual person this whole time? He felt so used all of a sudden. Like his personal space had been invaded - which, you know, it has - and his stomach started taking painful turns. And why didn’t his spidey-senses tell him about this? Were they failing him?
“Listen, Peter, I know it was quite an invasion of privacy, and I honestly did not want to hurt you in any way. I was not expecting you to start talking to me, really. You just started to, and you seemed to feel better after, so I didn’t stop it,” she paused for a few seconds, but Peter didn’t say anything. His head was spinning. “And I don’t know if it means anything to you,” she finally added, “but I really do care about your feelings and I’m sorry I hurt them,” her voice sounded genuine enough, but he still felt a little nauseous.
He swallowed, trying to calm his heart down.
“Why…” He tried, not looking at the arachnid over the desk. “Why would you even do this?”
She took a step forward with all her legs, then stopped.
“I needed to make sure you’d be inclined to help me. I was only supposed to watch you for a few days after school, to feel out your possible disposition, but then you started talking to me, and… I kind of felt like I should keep coming back.”
Peter didn’t know Medus- Azure! Azure all that well, but he could sense some guilt in her words. He looked at the spider for almost a whole minute, and she waited patiently.
“Can you… turn back to normal?” He finally asked.
“Yeah, sure, if you’re okay with that,” she answered, and then turned her whole body a little bit towards the door. “Let’s just hope your aunt doesn’t wake up.”
Yeah, it’d be a little bit difficult to explain a strange woman in his bedroom in the middle of the night.
Azure quickly walked towards the edge of the desk and climbed down the wooden leg, reaching the carpet. Peter scooched his legs back a little bit, still sitting on the bed. Although there was enough space for at least two people to stand between where Azure and Peter were, he had no idea what shapeshifting looked like. Was there gonna be an explosion? Oh my god, that would totally wake May up.
While his mind took him through earth-shattering possibilities of what could happen, the spider simply raised her two front legs and started to grow. It was fast and fluid, one moment she was a spider, in the next there was a person, fully grown and clothed standing in front of him. His mouth gaped as he stared at the woman, probably in her mid-twenties, tanned skin of who had somewhat light skin, but enough melanin to get way darker if spent enough time under the sun. Her face had freckles all over it, which gave her a jovial look, and the black hair fell in a few curls from a messy bun on top of her head. But the one thing that got his attention were her eyes - big, bright violet irises stared right back at Peter. That was probably the reason why he always saw a bluish tinge to the spider’s eyes.
“Uhm… Hi,” she said with a tentative smile and raised a hand to him. “Let’s try this again. My name is Azure. Nice to meet you. Wanna help me bring Tony Stark back to life?”
Oh. Right .
Mr. Stark.