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Otto and Norman were quietly enjoying some snacks and drinks, sitting comfortably in the comfy couch in Normans mansion as they watched whatever they could find on TV. The boys were currently doing their college work in Harry’s room, so the older men decided not to bother them and take time to relax a bit.
The time was currently 10:30pm, and frankly that was the time for Otto’s children to be little troublemakers.
“You have very naughty children.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Otto snorted, eyes narrowing when Flo and Harry hissed at Norman at the seemingly offensive remark. Their threats were drowned out by the sound of the large TV Norman and Otto were watching.
“Hey, have some respect. Norman was nice enough to let us into his home and relax this late at night. You two apologize.”
Why? He called us naughty! Flo growled.
He can’t tell us that! Harry chimed in, I don’t even know why he’s using such an offending term-
“Now,” Otto said again, not mean but stern to where there was no more room for an argument. That finally had the actuators weakly hiss as an apology and nudge their heads against Normans blanket covered arm.
“Oh aren’t they just sweet?” Norman cooed, patting them softly as they nuzzled. Norman raised his brow in amusement. “Apology accepted, little ones, and you’re putting those parenting skills to good use, Otto.”
Otto snorted as he shook his head. “I guess so, but that’s only half the problem.”
Otto’s attention was turned to his other 2 mysteriously quiet children, who were playing with a bucket of popcorn. Larry and Moe were gently throwing popcorn kennels in the air trying to see who could catch them the fastest. Once Otto cleared this throat, the two troublemakers accidentally kicked a kernel onto Normans head.
Once Otto gestured them to come and looked at them with an unamused glance, seemingly quietly disciplining them, the two actuators slowly recoiled closer to the older men and purred weakly. Larry hesitantly picked the piece of kennel out of Normans hair as the man was laughing.
”I don’t know what’s gotten into them, terribly sorry Norman,” Otto couldn’t keep the wide grin out of his face though as he saw Norman pet them too. “Troublesome little munchkins.”
“Hmm, probably not as troublesome as Harry,” Norman stretched out his legs, getting ready to start on a flashback. “It all started on a Tuesday morning, Harry just had finished his cereal-
THUMP
Norman and Otto suddenly had their attention brought to the end of the hallway. A shuffling figure , accompanied with a messy brown tuft of brown hair and light baby blue PJS slowly pad to the living room.
“Hello, Peter,” Otto hardly said above a whisper, watching as the boy sleepily waddled towards them. “I presume you and Harry finished your homework?”
But the boy didn’t say anything. Normans and Otto then noticed that peters eyes weren’t fully open, but enough to see a bit of his baby blue irises. Before Otto was gonna ask what was wrong, Peter immediately shot a web and swung to the ceiling with another THUMP.
“WOAH!” Norman exclaimed, turning on the light and both men watching as Peter was now on the ceiling. “Peter, my god, you almost gave us heart attacks! Or maybe Otto since he’s a bit older.”
”Hey!” Otto narrowed his eyes at Norman before turning his attention back to Peter who was now absentmindedly crawling around on the ceiling. “Moe, please see why Peter isn’t saying anything.”
After Moe whirrled up to Peter and gave the results to Otto, he simply started to giggle. This confused Norman. “What’s wrong with him?”
”Hes asleep, so I’m assuming he’s a sleepwalker. Or, sleepcrawler,” Otto sighed fondly, his heart calming down from now knowing nothing was wrong with Peter. He gently walked around under Peter, making sure that he wouldn’t fall. “Alright, I think that was enough spider time for tonight. Let’s get you down.”
The procedure went carefully, as Otto instructed his children to pry Peter carefully off the ceiling, Flo curling around Peters torso as he was lowered. Otto didn’t miss the way peters toes tangled underneath his somewhat long pajama pants or the way his legs were still softly kicking.
Adorable. He thought he was still crawling on the ceiling!
“It looks like he’s riding a bike,” Norman snorted, fascinated as he watched Peter sleep kick. “And I had no idea he could stick so easily! I thought it was all in the costume!” He tried inspecting Peters toes, which was a bad idea since that almost caused him to get kicked in the head. Norman let out a high pitched yelp in return as Otto shook his head.
“Careful, he’s a kicker.” Otto kept Peter in the air, gently laying him on one the spare couches. “Oh, I better get him home. I’m assuming Harry lended him those PJS.” As the man almost left, Peter stopped him with a small tug. He promptly got himself up from the couch and instead gently pushed Otto to sit. “Uhh…”
Otto watched as Peter slowly grabbed some cushions off the couch and brought them to the ground, creating some kind of nest. After he stole the blanket Norman was using (they tried so hard no to laugh but Peter was a spectacle when asleep) Peter approached Otto once more , but grabbed his hand. Otto looked at Norman for help but he only shrugged.
“Mmh!” Peter pulled Otto to the best of cushions, slightly pushing him down to sit on the ground now. When he did, Peter shuffled to Norman who took his hands and set him in the nest too.
“Oh, he created some kind of fort,” Otto examined. “I believe it’s called a pillow fort?”
”That or a nest, usually pillow forts have chairs as well or bigger couch cushions,” Norman smirked at Otto. “Your first nest blanket, how does it feel, mama bird?”
Otto gawked as Norman laughed. “Mama bird? “
”Oh, I’m sorry, mama octopus. If you were a mama bird you’ve been constantly feeding him probably. Not worms or bugs or anything…you get my drift.”
“Ew.” Otto rolled his eyes. “You know Norman, in order to be also considered a “mama bird” as you put it, my offspring would have to be with me-
And in that very moment, Peter found it a right time to crawl onto Otto’s lap himself.
Otto’s breath hitched.
He watched and felt as the boy tried to get comfy on his lap, Otto not fully realizing just how small Peter was in size compared to him. Peters small hands clutched into Otto’s sweater, while his face was planted firmly into Otto’s jacket. His legs somewhat dangled in the air, as Otto watched Peter curl and stretch out his toes to find a comfortable position to sleep in.
Otto instinctively wrapped an arm around the boy so he wouldn’t roll off, almost cradling him as the spider tried to get comfortable. Otto found himself shushing him and ruffling his hair, the spiders fussed kicks turning slow, and before knowing it, Peter was no longer sleep walking. His children watched in fascination while Norman couldnt keep the smirk off his face.
“Would you look at that, the spider has imprinted on the mother octopus,” Norman laughed as Otto hit him with a pillow cushion.
“That’s not how imprinting works!” Otto felt the heat creep up on his neck as he gave a quiet laugh, “ Plus, I think he’s too tired to tell whether I’m a pillow or not. After all, I was told I was quite cuddly.”
Norman groaned, covering his face with a pillow. “Not my fault I fell asleep on you! The last movie you picked was boring!”
The actuators started to purr around Peter, bringing a smile to Otto’s face. “You also drooled on me…”
”Hush you,” Norman huffed playfully as he watched in delight, seeing Otto brush Peters hair back softly with his fingers. “Anyways, what did I tell you? Slowly, these things come in instinct.”
The scientist watched as the boy snuffled against his coat. “Yeah, I thought it would have been more-
“Oh thank goodness! Pete!”
The older men turned to the new voice at the end of the hall, seeing Harry shuffle against the floor as he headed in their direction. They could tell Harry barely woke up himself, the poor kid was rubbing his eyes as he plopped himself next to his dad. He took one good look at Peter and Otto, then smirked.
“Pete really lied to me and said spiders couldn't imprint.”
Norman busted out laughing as Otto rolled his eyes as the laughing father and son duo, quickly shushing them as Peter slightly shuffled from the noise. Norman had the lights lightly dimmed as Harry layed a gentle head on his dads shoulder. Norman smiled and started ruffling Harry’s messy hair.
”That’s exactly what I said! But he doesn’t believe it! Can you believe it? A scientist not believing in Mother Nature?” Norman smiled fondly at now Harry’s sleepy face, Otto watching with fondness as Harry was slowly being wrapped in a blanket. “How’d you figure Peter creepily sleepwalked over here, son?”
Harry snorted. “Well, he’s been sleepwalking for a couple weeks now, so I tried to keep a close eye until we figured out what was going on. I was really tired today tho…
“Oh Harry, I appreciate you looking out for Peter, but you need your sleep. We’ll figure out something for him so he doesn’t crawl out or anything,” Otto said gently as a warm thank you. “But now I know why he’s been sleeping here instead of his apartment…”
“Yeah, he didn’t really want to worry you. And neither did I,” Harry yawned, stretching himself in the blanket as his dad was already asleep. “And I told him that we should figure something out soon, but he’s too stubborn and said it’s fine. That’s basically Pete in a nutshell.” Otto couldn’t see quite well in the dark but saw the smile Harry produced when looking at Peter, almost with the fondness and love of a best friend and an older brother.
Harry snuggled closer to his dad as he was instinctively pulled closer to the smaller scientist. “G’night Otto. Stay…for breakfast. We’re having pancakes and Peter loves..pancakes…”
“If you insist, tiny Osborn,” Otto felt his chest flutter, about 6 months ago he felt completely empty, alone and helpless. But now, as he felt the warmth of Peters breathing, the noise of silence now filled with Normans quite loud snoring, and Harry’s sleepy mutters, he felt alright.
The actuators chirped as he felt them began to rest on his shoulders and nearby pillow cushions. Otto let out a fond sigh.
He felt okay, and that’s good enough for him.