Chapter Text
Peter is sat at the kitchen table in their apartment in Queens, chemistry textbooks thrown across the surface, frantically scribbling down notes when Leia stumbles into the room.
“Daddy?” She whispers, tugging on his pyjama pants and climbing into his lap. Peter startles, sighing when he notices the redness of her eyes.
“It’s nearly midnight, princess,” He replies quietly, glancing at the time on his phone before wrapping his arms around her. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“Monsters, Daddy,” Peter coos softly when tears start falling down her cheeks. He stands up slowly, rocking her gently until the tears dry up. “Scary,”
“You know,” He starts when she calms down, just letting out little sniffles into Peter’s neck. “When I was smaller, just a little bit bigger than you, Uncle Ben used to make a monster spray to scare the monsters away. Do you think making one would help?”
“Monsta spray?” She lifts her head, looking up confused.
“Hmm,” He hums. “You mix all the ingredients together, and then you spray it in all the places monsters like to hide. You know, under the bed, in the cupboards, behind the curtains. It scares them away,”
“And the monsters leave?” Leia asks, looking hopeful. She sniffs once more, wiping her nose on her sleeve. Peter pulls a face.
“They should do. Do you want to make some? We might have to go shopping, though,” He muses softly.
“Now?”
“Yeah,” Peter laughs. “Night-time adventure, yeah? We used to have lots of them when you were tiny. We’d go out in the dark and go shopping in our pyjamas and we’d just walk around until you fell asleep.”
“We went out in our pyjamas?” Peter laughs at the confusion on her face. “But Aunt May says pyjamas are only for wearing in the house,”
“Well. What Aunt May doesn’t know won’t hurt her, hey?” Peter smiles down as the confusion grows on Leia’s face. He laughs. “Go grab your coat, baby. We’ll go and get everything we need.”
Leia giggles when they enter the store at half past twelve. Peter has a large smile on his face when he crouches down to be eye level with her.
“Okay, Leia. First thing we need is a bottle. With a spray nozzle on it. Where do you think they will be?” Leia takes his hand and pulls, running her way up and down the aisles, dragging Peter behind her. She skids to a stop when she’s in front of the plastic bottles. She looks up at Peter. “Take your pick, sweetheart,” He smiles when Leia bites her lip, looking at all the bottles the store has to offer. She eventually picks up a light blue one, holding it up to Peter.
“This one?”
“Sure thing, tesoro.” He grins, taking the bottle and placing it in the basket he has picked up. “Next! We need to find something strawberry scented,”
“Why strawberry, Daddy?” Leia frowns as she takes Peter’s hand again and starts pulling him through the aisles. Peter hums, trying to make up an excuse. Really, he picks strawberry because he knows it’s Leia’s favourite smell, mostly because they both use strawberry shampoo.
“Uncle Ben told me once that monsters don’t like the smell of strawberries. Real strawberries will make you all sticky though and I think you’re too tired to have a bath before you sleep now,” Peter grins as he sees Leia try and hide a yawn. “So, we’ll just have to get a special strawberry oil.” He steers them towards where he knows the bath products are. When he sees the essential oils on the top shelf, he picks Leia up and points up to the glass bottles. “Pick one of those up, Princess,”
They spend another half hour going around the shop picking out ingredients for the monster spray. Peter has to bribe Leia away from the glitter, insisting that glitter will shine and encourage more monsters to hide in her bedroom. She frowns and pouts, tries to change his mind, but gives up easily when Peter offers to buy her a new teddy to be her bodyguard.
By the time they get to the checkout, the basket in Peter’s hands is full and Leia is dragging her feet across the floor. Peter tries to stifle a yawn as he puts the basket on the counter.
“Hey, Parker,” Peter’s head snaps up when he hears his name, confusion that was on his face clearing.
“Oh, hey, Clark,” He smiles tiredly, slipping the backpack off his shoulder and handing it to Leia, before picking her up and settling her on his hip. “I thought you’d quit, dude,”
“I did,” the kid replies, scanning the items slowly and handing each one to Leia to put into the backpack. “Then Chloe lost her job and couldn’t find another, so here I am,”
“That sucks, man,” Peter frowns slightly. “I’m sorry,” Clark waves him away.
“Don’t worry about it, man. Mom’s helping us out for now. Plus, it’s all worth it when I get visits from my favourite people,” He reaches over the counter and taps Leia’s nose. He grins when she giggles and scrunches her nose up. “Mom says you haven’t been round to see Ned for a while,”
“Aunt May’s been working out of state for a while, and then she went on a trip to Italy, so we’ve been staying with family out of town. We’re back now though, so we’ll go round at some point, say hi,” He smiles, rocking slightly.
“Good. She misses you both,” Clark finishes scanning the items, holding out the spray bottle to Leia. “What’s all this stuff for?”
“We’re scaring monsters ‘way!” Leia mumbles from where her head is resting on Peter’s shoulders. Clark nods.
“So, you’re making a monster spray?” Leia smiles sleepily. “Ned used to have monsters under his bed, and we made a monster spray. A week later, they had all disappeared!”
“F’rever?” She looks up hopefully. Peter laughs quietly.
“Ned hasn’t seen any monsters since. And that was years ago,” Leia nods and puts her head back on Peter’s shoulder, closing her eyes. Peter smiles as he takes the bag from where it’s slipping out of her fingers, slinging it across his shoulder.
When they get back to the apartment, Leia squirms in Peter’s arms, trying to get down.
“Thought you were asleep, princess,” He says as he puts her down. He closes the door quietly behind him.
“Just did’t wanna walk, Daddy,” Peter laughs and bends down and starts unlacing Leia’s shoes.
“Cheeky,” Leia giggles when Peter tickles one of her feet. “Come on, take your coat off.” Leia shrugs her arms out of her jacket while Peter kicks off his own shoes and holds it out for him to hang up. “Okay, go and wash your hands and then we can get started!” She toddles into the bathroom, using her little step stool to reach the taps and washes her hands. When she walks into the kitchen, Peter has laid a sheet over the table and set all their ingredients on the top. He lifts Leia up to stand on one of the chairs.
“Uncle Ned had monsters?” She asks him while he washes his own hands. Peter hums and reaches for a towel.
“Lots of people have monsters, sweetheart,” He smiles and slips one of May’s aprons over Leia’s head and folding it a few times before tying it, so she doesn’t trip over it. “I used to have monsters. Uncle Ned did. Aunt Emmy probably scared all hers away because she’s very scary,”
“Did Uncle Tony have monsters?” Peter smiles as he gets a measuring jug out of the cupboard. He places it in front of Leia, hands her a bottle of water, and holds his finger about halfway up the jug.
“Pour this into the jug, up to my finger,” She struggles slightly unscrewing the bottle, but manages and begins to pour. “I haven’t spoken to Uncle Tony about monsters before, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t,” She finishes pouring and hands the bottle back to Peter. He replaces it with another of the bottles that they bought and moves his finger a little bit higher.
“Okay,” She smiles easily. They talk quietly while they continue making the spray, Peter telling her stories of all the monsters he used to have in his room before he and Uncle Ben sprayed them away.
“Right,” He says as he pushes the jug towards the end of the table. Some of the pink liquid spills over the top and onto the floor. Leia giggles. “Oops. Oh, well. Okay, now we need to decorate!” He hands Leia the bottle, along with the foam letters, stickers, and glitter glue. Peter lets Leia do this part on her own, only helping her with the spelling.
By the time she’s finished, Peter decides that the spray has had long enough to sit. He pulls a funnel out of the cupboard and holds it out to Leia.
“This part might get messy, alright?” He asks her, smiling when she nods rapidly. “You’re going to hold this in the bottle, and I’m going to pour, okay?”
“Yeah, Daddy,” She grins. As she’s concentrating, her tongue pokes out of her mouth. Peter smiles fondly as she holds the neck of the bottle tightly with her two hands. He pours the liquid quickly before he takes the jug and the funnel over to the sink. He screws the lid onto the spray bottle quickly and hands it to Leia.
“Come on then, munchkin,” He laughs as he takes the apron off Leia and lifts her down. “Let’s go and spray the monsters away,”
They start in Leia’s room. Leia takes the bottle, spraying under her bed and in the bottom of her wardrobe before getting behind her door. Peter picks her up and places her on his shoulders so she can get the curtains and the top of the wardrobe and her cupboards. Peter lifts her off his shoulders and puts her down on her bed. He goes to take the bottle out of her hands when she makes a wounded noise.
“What’s up, baby? You don’t think we got everywhere?” He frowns.
“We gots t’ do your room, ‘Addy,”
“My room?” He asks, stroking her head. “I don’t have monsters, sweet,”
“Gotta,” She demands, eyebrows furrowing and beginning to frown. “Please, Daddy. Just ‘n case,” Peter smiles as he sighs dramatically.
“I guess,” Leia giggles as Peter lifts her back up. “But after this you’re going straight to sleep, okay?” She nods happily and makes sure to spray every inch of Peter’s bedroom until Peter laughs and forces the bottle out of her hand. He puts it down on his desk.
“I think you got it all. I’ll be super safe,” He smiles, moving Leia from his shoulders to his hip. She yawns and tucks her head into his neck as he walks back into Leia’s room. “Let’s get you to sleep, yeah?”
“’Kay, Daddy,” She doesn’t protest this time when he puts her down on the bed, lets him tuck her in. She reaches behind her head until she grasps Bearbear. Peter tucks him in, too, as well as the new teddy she got tonight.
“D’you think there’s monsters in Uncle Tony’s tower?” She mumbles as her eyes flutter shut.
“I don’t know, Princess,” He smiles as he crouches down by her bed. “We can go and visit after school tomorrow if you want? Get all the monsters out of your room there as well,”
“And your room. And Harls and Uncle Tony,”
“Of course,” Peter laughs softly and kisses her head before he starts running his fingers through her hair gently. “Goodnight, sweetheart,”
“Gots t’ save them from the scary monsters, Papà,” She murmurs, trying to fight her eyes falling shut. “Love you.” She whispers, breathing evening out.