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Matt twisted his mouth as he stood at the steps of the steeple. He’d never been very conflicted about going inside of a church, they’d always been a place of solace for him. But now, as he stood there, he was worried. This probably wasn’t a great idea. Peter thought he was out early for some Daredevil work, but here he was, at a parent support group.
The thought had only ever occurred to him because Foggy had put one of the flyers on his desk, which apparently he hadn’t needed to punch braille into. That was appreciated.
But he was now seriously second guessing his plan to come, and turned around.
Then immediately walked into someone else.
He probably would’ve noticed them if he wasn’t so distracted with leaving immediately. He stepped back, startled, and offered an apologetic grin.
“Are you here for the new parent support group too? I told Jenny that the braille flyers were a good idea.”
Oh. Oh God.
“Uh-Yeah, is this the place?” Double down, Matt, there's no escape.
“Yep! I’m Flint. What’s your name?”
“I’m Matthew, but everyone I know calls me Matt.”
“Great to meet you, Matt! Come on in, it’s great to have new meat.”
Matt followed the man, and ignored the arm he was offered. The arm was put down a few moments later. They got to the room rather quickly, though he really only knew because of the very abrupt stop Flint took.
“Here we are! The others are gonna love you, Matt, I bet.”
“Anything I should know going in?”
“Don’t touch Lorraine's cookies unless you love raisin cookies. She’s got the tin with a whole bunch of wavy grooves. But still take one to make her feel nice. She’s a good friend to have. Taylor is an awesome opera singer, but he doesn’t rub it in your face or anything. Just ask him if she’s done anything like that, and he’ll feel real nice.”
“Sounds great.”
Matt opened the door, letting Flint in before him.
“We’ve got a new member, y’all!” Flint shouted, and Matt tried not to flinch away from the sudden loud noise. “Everyone, meet Matthew.”
“Call me Matt.” Matt said warmly, forcing an easy smile. He could tell they were all looking at him, even if he couldn't see it.
“Oh, you’re that big shot lawyer, right? Love your work, guy.” Someone said.
“Thank you.”
“Alright then, everyone, gather round!” A new voice called. “This meeting of New Parents of Mutants is now in session!”
“I still think we should change the name.” Someone muttered. “Just calling them mutants feels weird.”
“Multiple mutants have come forward and said that they prefer that term over others, Claire, I tell you this every week.”
Someone, assumedly Claire, huffed.
“Anyway, I’m Annalise, I’m a nonmutant and a longtime parent of a mutant. She graduated Harvard Law recently, actually, at the top of her class!” The mediator introduces herself, voice bright and cheery.
The small group bursts into quiet clapping.
“As everyone here knows, I’m Flint, I’m a mutant, and my daughter’s latent powers manifested a few months ago. Recently, she’s started building statues of her dreams in her sleep, but has been doing a great job cleaning them up in the morning. I barely have to remind her anymore.”
Soft clapping again.
The room is silent for a moment, and Matt realizes they’re probably waiting for him to talk. “Oh-Uhm, my name’s Matt, I adopted a teenager a few months ago, and he’s been amazing. He finished his LEGO Deathstar with his best friend a few weeks ago, and took some photos of it on my phone.”
“What brought you here, Matt?”
“My… partner found the flier the other week, and knew Peter and I had been experiencing some disconnect, so he passed it to me. I thought it might be helpful to talk to other new parents about the problems we’d been having to see if you all had any advice.”
“Are you a mutant?” Flint asks, leaning a bit closer, and Matt fidgets with his cane.
“No.”
“Some of us are mutants, Matt.” Someone else says politely. “I’m a mutant. It’s nothing to be ashamed of if you are. Anyways, we all have an NDA we need to sign, so it won’t leave this room.”
Matt takes a long breath.
“Then yes, I am. Do I have to say any more?”
“Not at all.” Annalise says. “You can say as much or as little as you want here. All we ask for is the truth.”
----
“And, Mrs. Claymore had been an amazing teacher until now, but she let it happen on her watch, and it’s just-” Flint made a grabbing motion with his hand, and everyone else edged away slightly. His shoulders then slumped, and he took a breath. “I’m just frustrated. Penny is such a sweetheart, all she does is make sand castles. She doesn’t deserve to be quarantined like she’s infected with something.”
Annalise set a hand on Flint’s shoulder.
“That’s not okay. You should make a formal complaint with the school board. Penny sounds like she was really affected by this experience.” Marie said from across the room
“If you run into legal trouble, my partner and I do pro-bono work. Mutants have protected rights, after that whole Ross fiasco to ensure they’re safe and don’t experience prejudice.”
“You’d do that for me, Matt?”
“Of course, Flint, I’d do it for anyone. I know you, though, so I’m advertising it to you.”
“Thank you, man. That means a lot to me.”
“Damian had a teacher like this.” Edward said from beside Matt. “It was going on for about half the year before Bruce found out. The situation escalates if they don’t experience consequences. Bruce went nuclear when he found out. Marched up to the school, demanded a meeting, all of that.”
“How’d it end up going?”
“I wasn’t with Bruce at the time, so I don’t know all the details. But, he says he sued the shit out of the school, they were apparently aware of it and thought it was a normal consequence.” Edward continued, with a slightly wry tone, “Damian’s got a nice college fund now.”
The group breaks into laughter, Flint's being the loudest. When it dissipated, Flint spoke again, voice much lighter.
“Thanks, you guys. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t get your advice.” While he was still chuckling, his words were wholly genuine.
“Of course, Flint.”
----
Matt messed with his cane, adjusted his tie, adjusted his glasses, and messed with his cane again.
“Matt? Is there something you’d like to share?” Annalise asks, and he furrows his brows, turning his head to face her.
“Hm?”
“You seem agitated.”
“It’s just..” He starts, floundering for words.
“Take your time, there’s no rush.”
“I think Peter’s hiding something from me.” It comes out in a big burst of words, and it feels like a weight is off his shoulders saying it.
“Is he a vigilante, maybe?” Edward muses. “All of my boys had that phase.”
“No, it’s not that. That’s been going on for a while. This is different.”
“Wait, he’s a vigilante? And he told you?”
“Uhm.”
“That’s great!” Edward said brightly, a clear grin in his voice. “He must trust you a lot!”
Ah. That was not the reaction Matt expected.
“I guess so, yeah.”
“So, can you not just ask him?” Lorraine asked, her mouth a little full with one of the store-bought danishes Edward brought.
“I want to, but I don’t want to invade, you know? He’s gone through so much, I don’t want to make him feel like I’m helicoptering over him.”
“I’ve got an idea. Maybe, if you don’t already, sit in the same room as him, remind him he can tell you anything he wants.” Taylor offered. “That’s what I did with Stone, and he eventually told me he’d gained a new power. It worked wonders.”
Matt nods. “I think I will.”
“Tell us how it goes, Matthew.” Annalise said warmly. “Now, does anyone else have anything exciting they’d like to share?”
----
“I’m telling you, Ed, Matt’s kid is Spider-Man.”
“Ugh, but isn’t that such an obvious answer? That’s no fun, is it?” Edward whined, taking a long sip of the chocolate monstrosity he called a Starbucks order.
“Yeah, sure, but it’s the logical one.”
Edward huffed, leaning back in his seat. “Well, what now, then? If Peter’s Spider-Man, what would we even do with that?”
“Well…I don’t know. I honestly didn’t think that far.”
Ed choked on his coffee before coughing out a laugh. Flint sympathetically taps on his back.
“You do that supervillain thing, don’t you?”
“Well, so do you.” Edward gagged, mopping up some of the spat up coffee.
“Okay, supervillain is a stretch and you know it. I mess around sometimes.”
“Okay, Sandman. ”
“I will throw out whatever devil drink you’ve gotten today.”
“Wait, no-”
----
When Matt came back to group therapy, he looked worse.
“Matthew? Is there something you want to say?”
“I think Peter’s hurt and not telling me.” He blurted out.
“Why?” Annalise asked, leaning forward slightly. Claire took a sip of her tea.
“Intuition? He’s been walking strangely too. Like raising the other foot to take another step is hard.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m so worried. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
Flint reached over and patted Matt’s shoulder. “Matt, man, I feel you there. I’m guessing he hasn’t told you what he’s been hiding yet?”
“Not at all. He’s in his room more often, or out of the house. It’s not like I want him to be a shut-in, but he’s been digging into our eggos much more, and he only does that after particularly strenuous patrols.”
“That must be hard. I think the best thing to do is to ask him directly, Matthew.”
“But what if that makes him pull away? If he isn’t telling me, it might be important that he doesn’t want me to know.”
“What if you don’t ask him and miss something worse? Mutants, teenagers especially, can easily feel alone. By telling him you see him and that you want to hear him out, he might tell you.”
“Yeah…Yeah, I’ll try that.”
“I’m happy to have helped. Does anybody else have something interesting about their week?”
“This weekend Kaleigh-”
----
Peter was home early.
More than that, he was dancing.
He barely did that anymore, but with the way he hummed triumphantly and moved quickly in the kitchen, that was pretty much the only conclusion. Matt smiled to himself, standing up and walking to their kitchen.
“You’re in a good mood.” He commented, leaning against the doorframe.
“I am indeed! I didn’t vomit again and I had a good science night with Mr. Stark the other day.”
“That’s nice, Peter, I’m glad you had fun.” Matt paused for a moment, and sucked in a breath.
“Peter, you know you can come to me with anything, right? I’ll always be here for you.”
Peter stilled, and for just a moment his heartbeat sped up.
“Uhh..yeah, I know, Matt. Same to you.”
“Alright, I just wanted to be sure you knew.”
“‘Course I do. Do you want, like, an Eggo, or to order in for dinner? I was thinking we could get take out since I’ve been hankering bad for Italian food, and there's this place I know that boxes it up real nice like it’s chinese food.”
“I’d rather avoid ever consuming an Eggo, but the Italian place sounds great. Read me the menu?”
“Yep, I’ll pull it up.”
----
The next time Matt showed up to the meeting, he was excited to talk about how well the conversation went. He was dipping into the most definitely store-bought cookies Edward brought when the man sidled up to him.
“Do you like the cookies? They were my Nana’s recipe.”
Edward is definitely lying.
Matt humors him. “That’s nice, these are fairly good. Could I have the recipe?”
“No. It burned in a fire.”
“Ah, alright.”
Edward was silent for a moment longer, and Matt waited for him to speak.
“Is your son Spider-Man?” He blurted, and Matt choked.
“Excuse me?”
“It all lines up, and I thought you’d rather I asked instead of trying to find out myself.”
Matt ‘stared’ at him for a moment.
“My husband's Batman.” Edward said, like it was some kind of explanation.
Matt took a long breath. Then turned and walked away.
He heard Edward mutter to himself. Something like; “He’s definitely Spider-Man.”
Matt decided not to engage with that.