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“You’re insane,” Pete complained from the backseat. “May, tell him he’s insane.”
“Tony, you’re insane.”
“Now you’re just mocking me,” he said, sliding back into his seat.
May looked over at Tony from where she was sitting in the passenger seat. “Can you believe how dramatic teenage boys are?”
“Don’t be so mean. He’s a good boy, if annoying-”
“I liked it better when you guys didn’t get along.”
Tony glanced at him in the mirror. Pete could see he was smiling just from his eyes. “But then you wouldn’t be going on a beach trip,” he pointed out. “Meanwhile, I remember a day when you would have shit your pants to spend time with me. Where did that time go?”
“I can’t imagine I would have been that excited if it had been 6 in the morning then too,” he said, daring Tony to disagree.
“Mark my words, young padawan, you’ll be thanking me when we don’t have to carry our shit three miles down the road.”
“Why don’t you go back to sleep, honey? It’s another twenty minutes until we get there.”
“Mmm, maybe. You are insane though,” he added, jabbing Tony one more time. Curling on his side in the backseat, he conked out almost immediately. He’d gone patrolling the night before and ended later than he’d thought he would. So far the two adults in the front hadn’t mentioned it.
Tony was the one to shake him awake a half hour later. “What’s the matter?” he mumbled, uncurling a little and blinking up at the man.
“We’re here, sleeping beauty. Come on.”
“Where’s all the stuff?” he mumbled, glancing around him. It had been hard to find a spot to lay before. Now the car was empty.
“We unpacked the car while you snoozed, kiddo.”
Peter followed Tony down along the beach, marveling at the fact that there were already families here. He glanced at his watch- 8:20 in the morning. Fucking morning people. “Wow, you guys really wanted to be close to the water,” he said, looking at the high tide line. It was six inches from where they’d set up their stuff.
“So we can keep an eye on the tent when we’re in the water,” May explained. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you covered in sunscreen. You don’t have our Mediterranean blood to protect you.”
“You’re still putting sunscreen on, aren’t you?” he asked, letting her dab at his face with the stuff.
“Yes, but we won’t have to do it every half hour like you. Tony’s also got a swim shirt-”
“Less recognizable this way,” Tony interrupted. “I’ll do your back. There’s a lot of you to cover. All this white is burning out my retinas-”
“Yeah, yeah,” Pete said while May laughed. “I can’t believe you guys managed to unpack without waking me. I’m the strongest.”
“We’re not decrepit. I carried the bags and Tony got the tent and the cooler.”
“Can we go in the water? There’s waves.” He looked hopefully between the two adults.
“Tony will go with you-”
“No, no, no, we go together or not at all, Mrs. Parker-”
“Come on,” Pete said. He grabbed Tony’s hand on one side and May’s on the other and towed them towards the water. Now that they were here, he wanted to be in the water, especially now when there was barely anybody here. A couple of kids had already gone in- “See, it can’t be too cold.”
“Maybe they’re just stupid,” Tony suggested.
A wave crashed up, pushing water up the sand and soaking their feets. “Oh, they’re definitely stupid,” May said, letting go of Pete’s hand to pull back. “Sweet jesus, that’s cold-”
“It’ll be better if we go in further,” Peter said, turning to give them puppy dog eyes. It was cold- fucking freezing, in fact- and he loved it.
“That sounds like a lie,” Tony called over to him. Peter turned up the intensity of his begging eyes and the man deflated. “Come on,” he said, taking May’s arm. “I packed you a muffin. We’ll follow the squirt in and then I’ll find you a coffee place.”
Peter loved being at the ocean- couldn’t believe that it had been years since they’d gone. Not since before Ben- The water surged forward, the iciness breaking into his thoughts, and he sighed as it rushed out again, pulling at the sand below his feet. His toes were numb. Tony made an unmanly shriek when they got doused with another wave, much bigger than the previous ones. “That was cute,” he said, sloshing back to them.
“Shut up. I’m not accustomed to being doused with ice water this early in the morning-”
“That’s right, your dating days are over, aren’t they?”
“Very funny, Mr. Parker. See if I leave you in my will after all-”
“Give me a hug? I’ll warm you up-”
“Not even to save my life, you cad-”
He looked at his aunt who was laughing at them. “May, want a hug?”
“Pete, want a punch to the throat?”
He was awake at last, and suddenly not tired at all. He was laughing- this was fun- He splashed further into the ocean, watching the waves form and break. He’d missed this more than he’d known. “Thanks for bringing me here,” he said and turning, he found that they were watching him.
“Come here, Pete,” Tony said at last and when Pete had drifted back into range, he pulled him close. “I love you,” he said, and Pete had never gotten used to hearing that from his formerly aloof mentor. Tony chose to ignore that. He brushed wet hair out of Pete’s way. “The adults are going to go thaw out, you psychopath.”
“Kay. I’ll come back in soon.”
“Take your time, we’ll be watching you,” May said and she led the way back to the shoreline.
Pete was watching them and almost got knocked down by the next wave to come in. He ducked back under, letting the waves raise and lower him. He felt strangely at peace. When a whitecap rolled in, he grinned and pushed himself off the ocean floor so that he was above the foam.
They’d already been there an hour by the time he came back to their beach tent and the area around them was starting to fill up. “Are you nervous about being recognized?” he asked Tony in an undertone, crawling in beside the man and stretching out his legs.
“Nope, I don't think anyone will expect me this far north. But I intended to keep up the baseball cap, glasses disguise all day.”
“Does that really fool anyone?” May asked from his other side. “If you really wanted to blend in, you’d lose the goatee- I’ll shave it for you.”
“Nobody’s touching my beautiful facial hair except me.”
“What have you two been doing while I was in the ocean, just bickering?” Pete asked lazily. He stretched out on his back, letting the sun warm him up. His body was unnaturally pink from the cold water. Sunlight glinted off the plastic of his prosthetic leg and he tossed a towel over it. All the better to avoid detection. The prosthetics garnered a lot of attention.
“We were trading gossip about you.” May stroked his head. “Close your eyes, I’m going to spray you with sunscreen again.”
He let them rub the sunscreen in. Sometimes it paid to be lazy. “Turn over,” Tony ordered, and they did the other side of him. He yipped- the spray was cold.
“You were just literally in the Atlantic,” May admonished. “Don’t complain to me about this being cold.”
“It’s different,” he said, resting his forehead on his arms. Careful to rest the left arm on top of the right. “Did you pack a muffin for me?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes, but we may have eaten it-”
“Don’t tease, you know you have a muffin for me. I’m your favorite.”
“Let me look- yeah, we have an apple bran oatmeal muffin, I stole this from Cap myself-”
He rolled over, throwing an arm around Tony’s middle, and looked hopefully up at the man. “Chocolate chip?” he asked and his mentor sighed. He pulled a bag out of one of the totes- they’d stopped at the good bakery at some point, maybe when he was asleep. “You’re the best,” he said, nuzzling Tony’s side.
“Then give me some.”
“You’re not that good-”
May broke off a chunk while they bickered. They watched her pop it into her mouth, staring off at the water. “Here, have this piece,” Pete said and he gave Tony a solid third of the remainder.
“Jokes on you, I bought you two-”
“You’re the worst,” he said decisively. He flipped over onto his back and started eating the muffin. Tony hauled him up into a sitting position- “You’re going to choke, kid,” his mentor said firmly.
They joined him back in the ocean half a dozen more times. Tony insisted on holding his hand when they got further out. Pete was examining the ocean floor with a set of goggles and the engineer protested that he was going to float away or get knocked out because he wasn’t paying attention, but Pete wasn’t fooled. He liked the contact himself.
“It’s so cold, my nipples could cut glass,” he heard May mutter to Tony on at least one unfortunately timed moment that he resurfaced. They laughed at his expression; he went back under, cursing them out.
“What are you doing?” May asked around noon time.
“Digging a hole- you guys insisted we go in. Where’s Tony?”
“I’ve sent him around to collect Italian Sausages from all the nearby food vendors. We’re going to judge which one’s the best.”
“You two are ridiculous,” he said, using the heel of his foot to dig through the sand.
“Ridiculously funny,” she said, leaning over to look at his hole in the sand. “You’re making good progress. Tony’s going to think he was gone for hours if you keep up at this rate.”
“Help me,” he said, tossing her the rock he’d been using to chip away at the floor.
They’d dug four feet down by the time Tony came back and had attracted many a double take in that time. “I heard whispering that some lunatic family was digging a trench,” he said amiably, sitting with his feet dangling in the hole. “I had the sneaking suspicion that it was my family.”
“Tony, when are you going to stop talking and throw your sausage into the hole,” May said, grinning wickedly at him. He beamed at her-
“Stop,” Peter interjected. “No more jokes concerning holes or sausage until after I’m back in the water.”
“May, you’re embarrassing the boy. Cut it out-”
He spluttered, but May had already pulled herself up beside his mentor. “It takes two to tango. Alright Pete, do you want first dibs?”
He examined the three sausage sandwiches in front of him. “How about this one?” he asked finally, jabbing at the one that looked the least intense.
“Alright, and then do you want the one that’s covered overwhelmingly in peppers or onions?” Tony asked, looking at Pete’s aunt.
“Neither, let’s trade some peppers for onions. My mother used to make a sandwich that people would have laid down and died for. Too bad neither of us got those genes.”
“Agreed.”
“Are you having a good day, baby? Even if Tony and I are embarrassing you?”
“Yeah,” he agreed, leaning against one of the walls of his sand pit. “Good day…”
“You’re getting tired,” Tony pointed out.
“Not…”
Still though, he was only too happy to climb in between them on the beach blanket after he’d finished his sandwich (he tossed the crumpled wrapper into Tony’s lap) and stretched out on his stomach, feeling pleasantly warm and full.
They must have let him sleep through the early afternoon because the tide had rushed far away from them when he finally woke up. “What time is it?” he mumbled, rolling onto his back. He blinked up at May.
“Nearly five. You were sleepy.”
“Five? That’s most of the day gone,” he yelped.
May was sitting on the edge of the hole, he realized, her head propped on one arm. “We can stay a little longer, but Pete, sweetie, you’re still recovering.”
“We could always come back again,” Tony said then, and Pete looked to his left. His mentor was stretched out beside him- the hole had gotten bigger since he’d been asleep- and now he tapped Pete’s foot with his own. “Want to go back in one more time?”
“Yeah. Yeah, May are you coming-?”
She shook her head. “We took turns going in while you were napping. I’m pooped. I’ll start packing up.”
“I thought I’d be sunburned if I slept on the beach,” Pete mused, following Tony down to the water.
Tony adjusted the brim of his hat briefly to look at Peter; his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses. “You think we’d let you get sunburned? We took care of it.”
The teen had a sudden image of them applying sunscreen while he was sleeping- like a toddler, he thought- and he was embarrassed, but Tony was already stepping into the water, and right, it was rising, the tide was coming in- Tony winced. “You never get used to how cold it is,” he said conversationally and Pete jogged a little, catching up to him.
“The waves are coming in, come on,” he said, pulling at Tony’s hand.
His mentor- father figure?- let himself be pulled in and soon they were standing deep enough that Pete was skimming the ocean floor with his toes and floating on waves. He thought it was a miracle they hadn’t been found out, but then, nobody knew that Spidey had acquired some new bionic limbs, did they?
Tony’s arms encircled his shoulders, rising and falling with him on the waves, looking at him like- like- “Are you happy to be here?” he asked, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by everything. Had he wasted Tony’s entire day? He-
“I’m happy wherever I’m with you,” Tony said. “Wave coming-”
They jumped at the same time, just barely cresting above the wave. Pete’s body was tired alright- nap notwithstanding apparently- his limbs hurt where they met the prosthetics. “What about you, honey?”
Pete blinked. He liked being called ‘honey,’ he really actually did, but he’d never fully associated it with himself and now- “Me?” he asked thickly.
Tony actually lifted him up with the next wave. “You,” he agreed. “You wish we’d woken you sooner?”
“No,” he admitted, thinking it over carefully. “I wish I could have stayed awake.”
Tony hummed. He pushed Pete closer to shore- they’d been drifting apparently. “You’ll get there. Body’s healing. That takes time.”
There were other things Pete wanted to say, but he was fading fast. “Can we get a pizza when we go home?” he asked, letting Tony lead him towards shore. Waves came in behind them, pushing them firmly closer to land with every step. He could feel the pull of sand below him as they went out again.
“Anything for my baby,” Tony agreed, taking on more of his weight. “May, we’re all done.”
She reached out, pushing wet hair out of his face for him. “You can sleep some more on the way home,” she said. She held out a sweatshirt. “Tony got this for you. We thought you might be cold by the time we left.”
“Thanks,” he mumbled, smiling at them. “I need… need to dry off. Did you pack the towels already?”
She indicated the towel that she’d left out. He wrapped it around himself, following them up the sand towards the municipal lot. He was tired but happy. Every day was a small step forward. At the car, he leaned against the side, letting them pack their shit away in the back while he watched the waves come in.
“Now you,” May said lightly, opening the back door. She folded a towel over the seat and indicated he should get in. He played with the strings of his new hoodie and grinned sleepily at her when she covered him with a blanket. He blinked and they had somehow gotten into the car- time had jumped or he’d fallen asleep for a couple of seconds there- hm-
“Close your eyes,” Tony said, twisting in his seat. “We’ll save you a whole pizza for yourself but you’ve got to sleep now to get it.”
“That’s extortion,” he mumbled, but god, he was fading. “Love you both…”