Work Text:
Peter clears his throat, holding back a laugh as the teenager jumps back in shock, dropping the spray can.
“What you doing there?”
The other looks between the wall in front of him and Peter. “Nothing. Just, you know, enjoying the fresh air.”
Peter does laugh this time, jumping off his perch. “Fancy that, I was doing the same thing until I started smelling some weird fumes. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
He pretends he can’t see the cans lying on the floor and tilts his head in question as the teenager also looks pointedly away from the cans.
“Nope, nothing, sorry Spider-Man.” A can falls over as the teenager backs away. “I haven’t seen anything.”
Grinning beneath his mask, Peter leans against the wall, trying to seem as unthreatening as possible. “Chill out man, I’m not about to hand you to the police for this.”
Maybe he should – vandalism was a crime after all, but as far as he saw it, it wasn’t hurting anyone. Spider-Man was supposed to be for the people, sticking up for the little guy, not getting a random kid a criminal record for drawing on some walls.
The teenager sighs in relief and Peter knows he’d made the right decision. “Don’t scare me like that, I thought I was dead for sure.”
“What’s your name?” Peter didn’t need to know, necessarily, but he liked to meet and connect with people, even when they were technically criminals.
He laughs again as eyes narrow in suspicion. “Are you going to use it to report me?”
“I’m way too busy for that.” He crosses his fingers over his chest. “Cross my heart.”
“Fine, but if you break it, I’ll – I’ll do crime.” He ignores Peter’s snort. “I’m Miles, uh, Miles Morales.”
Peter tilts his head, the name irritatingly familiar. He thinks for a second, snapping his fingers in excitement when he remembers where he’s heard it before. “Wait, your father wouldn’t happen to be Jefferson Davies, would it? I’m sure he said his son was a Miles.”
Miles groans. “No, definitely not, never heard of the guy.”
“No I remember now, he showed me a picture of you holding that award, the one for the art competition right?”
Peter holds his hands up as Miles picks up a spray can and holds it like a weapon. “You can’t tell him, he’d go crazy if he knew I did this again.”
“I’m going to ignore the ‘again’ there.” Peter smiles in what he hopes is a reassuring way, blushing in embarrassment when he remembers he’s wearing a mask. “You can put down your terrifying weapon, I’m not going to snitch on you.”
“You’re Spider-Man, you’re like, the ultimate snitch.” Miles lowers the can anyway.
“That’s uncalled for.” He stands up properly, moving to stand next to Miles. “What was worth the risk of punishment, it had to be something good if –“
He stops breathing as he finally looks at what Miles had been painting – who Miles had been painting. Tears started to rise and he lifted his hand to touch, pulling back at the last second because that was Tony.
He’d seen the murals and the graffiti across the city – it was impossible to avoid, everyone was grateful that their lives had been saved and their loved ones brought back and wanted to show it – but those were always of Iron Man and Iron Man might have been Tony Stark but Tony had always been more than that.
He couldn’t fault people for not looking beyond the armour, not when he knew what it felt like to grieve for the man as well as the hero, but there were still times when frustration tightened his chest and all he wanted to do was scream at a world that had no idea of the true cost of their happiness.
But this – this was undeniably Tony.
“It’s not finished yet.” Miles’ voice was quiet by his side. “But he got my uncle back, you know? I just wanted to do something.”
Peter couldn’t seem to take his eyes off it. He went to speak, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out, so he stayed silent.
“And his feud with Oscorp has always been pretty famous, so I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if I painted him on their main building? And they can’t get rid of it without the whole world, like, shunning them or something, and I think, I mean I didn’t know him, but that seems like something he’d like?”
Miles’ rambling gives Peter time to remember how to breathe. He laughs shakily, folding his mask up to his nose, the smell of paint nowhere near as annoying as he’d initially found it.
“Fuck.” He laughs again, steadier this time, hand reaching to run through his hair only to pause when he couldn’t because of the mask and itching to just pull it off completely. “Tony would love it, he’d be bragging about it for months.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah, Tony loved anything that made Norman Osborn’s life harder.” Peter shakes his head in an effort to clear his thoughts. “How can I help?”
“Help?”
“Do you need someone to shake the cans or something? I don’t know much about spray painting, but I can do that at least.” Wringing his hands, Peter wonders if that’s rude to ask an artist – was that something that people preferred to do themselves? Was there a technique he should know? “Or I can just sit here and watch out for anyone else who sees you doing this.”
He glances to his left, finally able to look away from the wall – Miles looks like he’s about to combust from shock alone. “You’re Spider-Man.”
Peter almost rolls his eyes. “Uh, yeah, thought we cleared that up a while ago.”
“I’m pretty sure Spider-Man is supposed to stop criminals, not help them.”
“Maybe I’m secretly a supervillain.”
Miles laughs. “Impossible.”
“That’s so rude, you know what? You’re going to be my first victim.” Peter crosses his arms, feeling a little put out that Miles doesn’t think he could be a bad guy. “You can find someone else to shake your cans for you.”
There’s a tingle on the back of his neck and he holds his hand out, catching the spray can that Miles had thrown at him.
“Shut up and start shaking.”
Peter does but not without grumbling about the lack of respect Miles has for potential villains.
Slowly, he watches as small details are added to the picture and his admiration for Miles’ talent only increases as the final product comes together.
Finally, Miles steps back, arms stretching above his head. “There, done.”
“Wow dude, this is seriously good.” It still makes his chest ache a little, looking at Tony’s face, but he thinks that maybe it’s a good ache. “Twelve out of ten. The city should hire you to do this.”
Miles swats him on the arm but Peter can see the small smile he’s sporting. “Shut up man.”
Jumping up and down to release some of his energy, Peter glances over the edge of the building, tilting his head in confusion as he realises how high up they are. As far as he can see, there’s no access to this part of the building.
“How’d you even get up here anyway?”
Miles looks away, shifting on his feet. “How did you get up here?” Peter gestures to his suit. “Right, stupid question.”
“Not to point out the obvious, but there’s no normal way for people to climb this high.”
Miles looks at him and then at the finished painting, then back at him before sighing and walking a few steps away from it, still next to the wall.
He jumps up and presses his hand against the wall and Peter can hardly believe his eyes as he stays there instead of falling back down to the ground as gravity demanded. “I was thinking about trying to talk to you but I was kind of hoping that criminal activity wouldn’t be your first impression of me.”
Peter doesn’t care – he doesn’t care about the supposed criminal activity or that he didn’t know Miles or the implications that someone else had his powers.
He didn’t care because this meant that there was someone like him.
He doesn’t hesitate in pulling off his mask. “I’m Peter, Peter Parker.”
“Dude!” Miles slides off the wall and turns around, hands over his eyes. “You can’t just do that!”
“Why not?”
“What if it was a trick? You can’t go around telling random people your identity, you’ll get yourself killed.”
Peter scrunches up his nose. “Are you going to kill me?”
“What – no!”
“Then I don’t see the problem.” Peter sighs. “You’re allowed to look at me, I wouldn’t have taken my mask off if I didn’t trust you.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“Maybe not, but you’re like me. Us spiders need to stick together.”
Miles turns around slowly and Peter grins as he finally looks at him. “Shit, you’re even younger than me.”
His grin turned into a pout. “No, I’m not.”
“Oh come on, you can’t be older than fifteen.”
“I’m seventeen.” He holds back the ‘and a half’ that’s on the tip of his tongue, knowing from experience that it won’t help his case. “How old are you?”
“Sixteen but I don’t believe you.”
Peter is ridiculously relieved that he really is older than Miles. “That’s fine, I’ll prove it to you later or something.” He flaps his hand through the air. “That’s not what’s important anyway, there’s so much that you need to know.”
Miles frowns, looking down at the ground. “Actually, I haven’t decided on whether I want to take up the whole, superhero thing.”
“Huh? Oh not that, I’d never, just, presume that you want to do this too.” He scratches the back of his neck, uncomfortable with the thought of it. “There are other things that you should know as well, things that you might struggle within normal life.”
Staring at Peter, Miles has possibly the most hopeful look Peter has ever seen. “Really? You’d help?”
Peter hates the idea of Miles struggling to figure it out alone. “Yeah man. You’ve probably noticed a few things already, but there will be some things that you won’t notice until it’s too late.”
“Like the sticky hands thing? I swear I’ve broken more things by accident in the past month than I have the rest of my life.”
He laughs. It makes him feel lighter than he has in weeks. “That’s one of the things for sure. You should avoid peppermint – oh, and I’ll make you some headphones and glasses. Are you free tomorrow?”
Miles looks like he’s not quite sure what’s happening. “I’m free.”
“Cool, that will give me the time to make a list and start on some of the stuff I need to build. You know where the Avengers tower is right?”
“Isn’t that still being rebuilt?”
“Yeah but Pepper made sure the labs were one of the first things to be rebuilt, so we’ll have the resources. Come by some time in the morning.”
“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Miles looks overwhelmed.
Peter winces. “Sorry man, I’m a little excited. You don’t have to do any of this, but I’d feel better if you at least knew what to expect from your powers instead of learning the hard way.”
Holding up his hands, Miles hurries to respond. “It’s all good, it’s just a lot, you know? I never thought I’d meet Spider-Man, never mind be invited to the freaking Avengers tower.”
“I get that. I’ll leave you to let things settle in your mind and all that, I’m going to go patrol for a little longer. Are you okay to get down from here?”
Miles nods. “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Peter walks to the edge of the building, hesitating before he jumps off. “And uh, if you ever make up your mind about the whole superhero thing, I can make you a suit, if you want.”
Miles nods again and Peter flips off the edge, catching himself with a web and swinging away.
Behind him, he can feel Tony’s gaze following him and hopes that he would approve. Peter thinks he would. After all, hadn’t Tony done the same thing for him?
Miles takes the device from him, no longer hesitating in adding to the pile of things Peter had given him.“Did you even sleep last night?”
“I don’t need to sleep. In a few months, you probably won’t either.” Peter turns away to hide his large grin.
Miles gasps. “Really? That’s so cool.”
Clutching the counter in front of him, Peter barely saves himself from falling to the ground in laughter. “Nah man, I’m just messing with you.”
“That’s cruel.”
“You are technically a criminal.”
“Stop saying that, someone will hear you.”
Peter raises an eyebrow. “We’re in one of the safest and most guarded places in all of America, I don’t think someone’s going to overhear anything.”
Pouting, Miles crosses his arms. “Still.”
“Okay, I’ll send you the list of things you need to know, but I’ll tell you a few key things now. You might have figured them out already but they’re still super important, you know?” After Miles’ nod, Peter starts listing things off, ticking them off on his fingers. “First of all, your metabolism is like, 100% faster than before, which means if you want to not pass out, you need to eat way more. There’s a constant stock of specialised food here that will stop you looking suspicious in front of your friends. Typically one alongside your normal meals should be enough but if you’re active then that needs to be doubled.”
Miles shifts on his feet, looking between Peter and the cupboard he’d gestured to. “How, uh, how much are they?”
“Don’t worry about that.” His own argument with Tony about the same thing had lasted weeks. “Technically, the Avengers pay for them but if that stops for whatever reason then I can make them, although I don’t think Pepper would let it come to that.”
“But –“
“Nope, no arguments, you’re not paying for them. They don’t taste good enough to actually be worth anything.” There was a reason he was working on his own version of them. “Along the same lines, normal medicine won’t work on us. It’s not usually a problem – as far as I know, we can’t get ill – but general anaesthesia also won’t work and waking up in the middle of surgery is not fun, trust me, so any future operations or surgeries will need to be done by people in the know.”
“I don’t know anyone who could do that.”
“I told you man, I’ve got you covered.” He’d talked to Dr Cho and Bruce earlier on and they’d agreed to do for Miles what they did for Peter – he hadn’t told them who Miles was, of course, that wasn’t his secret to tell. “There’s a private surgery in this building. We will need an excuse for your parents though, unless you want to tell them?”
Miles shakes his head, looking a little dumbfounded by the whole thing.
“Right, yeah, I get that. We can figure it out. An internship or work experience or something should work, that way we can say Stark Industries covers your medical insurance and gives you access to private facilities.” It was what he and Tony had told May at first, before she’d figured out the truth. “My aunt’s a nurse as well, so she can help with anything smaller.”
“You trust her?”
“More than anyone. May would never sell your secrets or whatever else you're worried about.”
That wasn’t what Miles meant. “No, I just mean, why do you trust your aunt more than your parents?”
“Woah man, tragic backstory isn’t unlocked until at least the third level of friendship.” Peter holds up his hands as Miles starts to stammer out an apology. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. My parents died when I was little, I live with my aunt now.”
Miles winces. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad stuff.”
“It’s no big deal.” Peter didn’t want Miles to think he couldn’t ask questions. “The point is that I trust May, and you can trust her too. I haven’t told her about you but I know she’d be happy to make sure you don’t bleed out because you fell on some glass or something.”
“But don’t we have super healing?”
“Not as super as it could be.” Peter frowns. “Then again, maybe your mutation is different. I’d have to do some tests to be sure.”
“Aren’t tests bad? Like people doing experiments on us?”
“I do all the tests on my blood myself, I’d be happy to do yours too. Or I can teach you how to do it. Or I can ask Bruce to do it.” Tony had learnt how to analyse blood tests overnight so he could teach Peter. “I get what you mean though, the danger of evil scientists is real, but I trust everyone who has access to the sort of data that could get us in trouble.”
“I trust you.” Miles grins. “You’re Spider-Man. If I can’t trust you, I can’t trust anyone.”
That was… surprisingly touching. Silently, Peter vows to protect Miles and his data with his life.
He isn’t quite able to hide his own grin and carries on with the list before Miles can comment on it. “I mentioned the peppermint yesterday, right? We’ll need to see if you have any other allergies but that’s the one you’re most likely to come across. You said you were struggling with your powers?”
“Dude.” Miles throws his hands up. “I can’t stop sticking to stuff. It’s constant.”
“I remember that.” He’d ended up waiting it out but Tony had helped him figure out a few solutions since it still happened at times. “Sometimes gloves will work but a lot of the material is too thin to actually help. There’s not much you can do apart from giving yourself time to adapt to the changes and learn to control it. One thing you can do is try to keep yourself calm because the more stressed you are, the more you’ll stick. Until then, let me know if you want me to repair anything.”
He’d been fairly good at fixing stuff around the house before his powers, but after he’d had no choice but to perfect his skills – there was a limited number of times he could accidentally break a doorknob before May started to get suspicious.
“Thanks. For all of this. I don’t know how I’d manage without your help.”
“You’d manage fine, you got this far on your own, didn’t you?”
Miles smiles, scratching at his wrist. “Yeah, I guess.”
Peter’s reply is interrupted by the door to the lab being thrown wide open.
“Petey!”
Frantically gesturing for Miles to hide, Peter leans down to catch Morgan as she throws herself at him. “Morgan! I thought you and your mum were at the lake house this week? What are you doing here?”
“Mummy said that you were in the lab all night and that Auntie May didn’t know.”
Heels click around the corner. “I also said to wait for me before going inside.”
Peter gulps, reconsidering his decision to not tell Pepper. He glances to his side and is relieved to see no sign of Miles.
“But Peter’s here and you said that Peter is always safe.” The extra emphasis on ‘always’ makes his heart warm.
He waves as Pepper comes into sight, holding Morgan with one arm. “Hi Pepper.”
“Peter.” She gives him a stern look, features softening as she takes in the bags under his eyes. “Honey you look tired, why don’t you finish up and head to bed?”
Peter puts Morgan down as she starts wiggling in his arms. “I’m good, I’ll just have an early night tonight.”
Pepper studies him. “Morgan, Uncle Happy said he needed your help choosing tonight’s film.”
Morgan sighs and pats Peter’s hand. “Bye Petey, I have to go help Uncle Happy or he’ll choose Toy Story again.”
“Ew, gross. Go save the day Morgan.”
Morgan laughs at Peter’s scrunched up face and runs out, Pepper calling out for her to slow down.
“Who else is here?” Pepper crosses her arms and Peter suddenly remembers just how bad he is at lying.
Peter shakes his head. “No one. It’s just me here.”
“Oh? Then why are there two backpacks by the door?”
Lying to someone who regularly deals with a five-year-old is probably the hardest thing Peter has ever done. “I have a lot of stuff.”
“I see, like the two coats hanging up?”
Peter pretends to shiver. “It’s extra cold today.”
He almost says ‘brr’ but figures that would be a bit much.
To his right, he hears movement. “Uh, hi, I’m Miles.”
Peter sighs. “Miles, I totally had that.”
“You didn’t have that at all, it was embarrassing to listen to. I thought Spider-Man was supposed to be good at lying.”
Peter frowns. “Why would Spider-Man be good at lying? That makes, like, zero sense.”
“Boys.” They both turn to face Pepper. “I’m not even going to ask what’s going on here, just let me know if you need a lawyer.”
“What? Why would we need a lawyer?”
Pepper turns around and starts walking in the same direction Morgan did.
“Pepper? You don’t think we killed anyone do you?” Beside him, Miles facepalms.
She disappears around the corner.
“We didn’t kill anyone, I swear!” Peter shouts, increasingly concerned that she thinks they’ve actually done something bad.
“Go to bed Peter.” He hears her call back.
“Dude.” Miles finally speaks up. “I have no idea how you’re not dead.”
Peter can’t help but agree.