Work Text:
This is one of those rare days that Pete gets off from being a CI, and he is just so bored.
He’s so bored he’s walked on every inch of the walls and ceiling.
Ned isn't around because he, unlike Pete, has a family to spend time with.
Pete can’t even go and bother Burke because he actually has work today.
Come to think of it, why does Burke have work but Neal doesn’t? It's not like Burke wants to spend some time at work without him, right? Right? Right??
Pete hangs upside down on the ceiling. He made a little ball of webs out of the webs that come out of his wrists, and is bouncing it off the floor. He also has one at the office, one which he painted to look like a rubber band ball. It’s really fun to play with, no matter what Burke says about toys in the office.
His phone makes a sound, which causes Pete to jump out of his thoughts.
He shoots out a web, which hits his phone and takes it back to him.
"Hello!" Pete greets cheerfully, glad for a break from the boredom.
"Hi, Neal! It's Elizabeth. Peter gave me your phone number." Elizabeth explains with a smile in her voice. “You have the day off right?"
"Yeah. Peter is finally giving me a bit of a break." Pete tries to joke, but can’t tell if his tone of voice comes out right. Why is talking to people so confusing and difficult?
Elizabeth laughs, and Pete gives himself a thumbs up. “Peter can be a bit of a workaholic. I'm glad he isn't overworking you."
"Yep." Pete pops the p.
"I am wondering if you could do me a little favour?" Elizabeth asks. "Peter hates taste testing my food. It's just too fancy for him. I was hoping you could help me?"
"Of course, I'd be glad to help!" Pete says excitedly. He still enjoys helping people. Plus, free food!
"Great! I'll see you soon." With that, she hangs up.
Pete puts his phone into the pocket of his pants and flips off the ceiling, landing on his feet.
He heads towards the door, not bothering to grab a jacket as it is in the middle of spring, and he is only going to Burke's house.
Since it isn’t work, Pete doesn’t feel the need to look professional. His white t-shirt and dark blue jeans will do.
He walks down the stairs and makes sure to lock both his apartment door, and the front door, as no one is home. He decides against calling a taxi, knowing that the walk will be good for his health, and his wallet.
Pete walks down the streets with a smile on his face.
It is a nice day for a walk.
As he walks, he sees two dogs, and gets to pet both of them! And when he gets to the Burke's house he will be able to pet Satchmo, that means he will pet three dogs today, and that means it is a very good day!
And maybe he’ll even get to pet more dogs on the way home!
Pete walks past a small park, and that's when he spots some wildflowers.
He skips over to them and picks a handful of the delicate purple flowers.
He looks down at them, and realises that they would make a perfect gift for Elizabeth. That's what you do when someone invites you into their home, right? You give a gift? Pete is pretty sure it’s a thing, he saw it on tv once.
After walking for over 45 minutes, he finally gets to the house.
Peter walks up the steps, a little bit nervous, then he takes a deep breath and knocks.
It doesn’t take long for the door to open.
"Neal!" Elizabeth greets with a big smile on her face.
"These are for you." Pete awkwardly shoves his fistful of purple flowers in her face, careful to not damage the delicate blooms.
Elizabeth gently takes the flowers out of his hand and brings them to her nose.
"These are beautiful! Thank you." Elizabeth wants to pull Neal into a hug, he’s so adorable standing there with that smile on his face, but she doubts he would like it, she just met him. Instead she pats the hand that was holding flowers. The hand that is still in the air for some reason.
"Sorry. I didn’t buy you flowers. I can't afford them." Pete says.
"Don’t worry about it.” Elizabeth says. “You didn’t even have to get me anything, these are just as good as bought flowers”
Neal blushes faintly.
El smiles, and turns to go into the house. “We better get to taste testing, and I'll put these in a glass of water."
As they walk in, Pete catches a glance of El in a mirror while she thinks he can’t see her face. Her lips are pushed together in a thin line that reminds Pete of Pepper. He hopes he didn’t say or do something to make her upset.
As El walks in, she can’t help but frown as she wonders if Neal is getting paid enough by the FBI for his services.
While Elizabeth goes into the kitchen, Pete gets distracted by the adorable dog, and stays in the living room to pet Satchmo.
Once he hears Elizabeth exit the kitchen, Pete goes into the dining room, where a few plates of food are lined up.
Most of the foods remind him of when he went to the galas with Mr Stark. Mr. Stark never made Pete try them. He knew Pete wouldn't like the most of the food, so he always packed snacks he knew Pete would like.
"Try something basic first." Elizabeth tells him as she hands him a bread roll with butter on it.
Pete takes a bite of it and moans. It's been a while since he’s had food this good. He can’t afford to buy food like that, and even if he could afford the needed ingredients, he has no idea how to do much cooking himself. He takes after Aunt May that way, she couldn’t cook well either.
June has offered to cook breakfast for him, but she already lets him stay in her wonderful home for much less money than she should, so he refuses her offer, not wanting to be anymore of a bother then he already is.
"This is so good." Pete says as he shoves another bite into his mouth, his manners temporarily forgotten.
Elizabeth waits for Neal to finish the roll. She doesn't want to make him feel like he can’t eat all of it, or that he needs to rush.
"What's next?" Pete asks as he goes to wipe his mouth on his arm, then changes course at the last moment and grabs a napkin.
Elizabeth picks up a cracker with some kind of spread and half a teaspoon of small black balls on it. They look like those things you can put in water to expand, before they get put in the water. Kinda.
"What do you think of caviar?” Elizabeth asks as she hands it to him.
Pete shrugs as he takes it from her and places it in his mouth. As he bites down the balls pop between his teeth. A slight saltiness accompanied by a mild fishy taste fill his mouth.
Pete brings the napkin to his mouth and spits the caviar out.
Elizabeth laughs.
"I’ve never had it before, and I will never have it again." Pete sticks his tongue out in a childish manner at the taste and shakes his head. "I'm going to get a drink."
He makes his way into the kitchen and approaches the fridge to grab some juice. Before he opens the door, he pauses to look at the photos on the fridge.
One of the photos makes him freeze in his spot.
Pete blinks a few times, and rubs his eyes. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
When he opens his eyes, the photo hasn’t changed.
Staring at the photo, he is staring back at his 16 year old self.
The boy in the picture has a massive smile on his face. Pete is sure that he hasn’t smile that big in years, not since before everything happened.
His eyes are also different, even more different than his smile. His young self eyes are bright, young, and full of life. Now his eyes aren’t like that, when he looks in the mirror, Pete can see that his eyes have dulled. He's seen too much, and experienced too much to ever get that spark back.
In the photo Mr Stark and Pepper stand behind him.
Mr Stark has his signature glasses on, and a big smile on his face as he wraps his arms around young Pete in a half side hug.
Pepper looks like she is holding back a smile and is fondly annoyed at her husband and chosen son playing around.
With trembling fingers Peter removes the photo from the fridge.
"Neal? Are you okay?" Elizabeth asks.
Pete tears his gaze away from the photo and sees Elizabeth standing in the doorway with a concerned look on her face.
"You're crying." She points out.
Pete raises his free hand to his cheek. Sure enough it is wet. He didn't even realise his eyes had started to leak.
Pete makes a soft confused sound.
"What's the matter, Sweetheart?" Elizabeth asks as she carefully approaches him.
The night when Neal broke down to Peter, after he left, Peter told El that Neal crying was the most heartbreaking thing he had ever witnessed.
He is right.
Elizabeth never wants to see Neal cry ever again. It is worse than looking at a kicked puppy. It just breaks her heart.
Pete doesn’t say anything as he hands the photo to Elizabeth.
She gently takes it from his hands and gives it a sad smile.
"This is a photo of my family." This knowledge shocks Pete, and he keeps quiet, waiting for her to tell him more.
“The lady is my sister. Her name was Pepper. Her husband was Tony Stark. Everyone knew him, he was pretty famous after all.” She chuckles a little at that.
“The kid is Peter. He wasn’t their biological son, but they cared for him and loved him like he was their own.” Elizabeth sighs sadly and almost doesn’t continue. "I lost them all. It was horrible finding out that Pepper and Tony died, and how they died. But what happened to Peter is even worse. No one knows actually what happened to him, it’s assumed he’s dead, but with nobody, we couldn’t have a funeral, or any closure.”
Elizabeth sniffs and takes a few deep breaths to centre herself. When she continues, she speaks in barely a whisper, as if she is ashamed of what she says. “I never even met him before, before… Pepper and I talked often, and every time we talked we would say that we should make plans to see each other, but we never followed through with those plans. Something always came up. We were too busy with our careers and personal lives. We should have tried harder to make the time. I should have tried harder.”
As Elizabeth explains, Pete bites his lip to try to stop it wobbling, and tries to blink the tears away.
"I uhhh, I may know the kid." Neal hesitatingly stutters out.
"Really?" Elizabeth sounds shocked.
"H-he uhh, he. He is me." He looks at his shoes, afraid to see her face.
"You're Peter Parker?" Elizabeth asks, not really sure she should believe him.
Having no words to say Pete just nods.
There is thick silence for a long moment, during which Pete doesn’t dare look up from his shoes.
Suddenly Elizabeth pulls Pete into a hug. At first he hesitates to wrap her arms around her, but he can't help himself. It's been a while since he had a hug like this. It feels good, safe, and comforting.
Elizabeth tries to say something, but Pete can’t really make it out over her quiet sobs.
The sobs die down, and this time he understands her. "Oh Peter, sweetheart, I missed you so much. I’m so sorry.”
Pete wipes his eyes on his arm and shyly asks. "Actually can you just call me Neal? I uhh, I chose it as my new name because I wanted to leave Peter's grief and pain in the past."
"I can do that.” Elizabeth agrees with a soft, understanding smile.
After the reveal, neither of them can focus on taste testing, so El puts all the event food away, but keeps enough passion fruit cake out for her and Pete to have a slice each.
They need something nice and sweet after that.
"You may keep that photo." Elizabeth nods to the photo that somehow ended up back in Neal’s hands.
"Are you sure?" Pete asks as he lightly traces the figures in the photo with his finger.
"I’m sure, I have another copy. And I have a few more. Would you like to see them?”
Pete nods, his throat too tight to speak.
They spend the next few hours looking at photos and telling each other stories of the people they loved and lost.
"Thank you." Pete gives her a soft smile when it is time for him to leave.
El responds with a tight hug, that lasts a little longer than needed, as if she is afraid that once she lets go she’ll never see him again.
“I’ll be back, I promise.” He whispers in her ear before she finally lets go.
They both pretend not to see the tears in each other’s eyes as they wave goodbye.
Maybe, Pete lets himself hope as he walks away, just maybe he can have a family again.
Peter finally arrives at home. The day felt longer without Neal’s antics, but he is happy that he got Neal the day off. They both needed it, plus Neal can't get into a lot of trouble out of work. Right?
Wrong? Oh how wrong he is.
Peter walks into his bedroom to get out of his work clothes but stops when he sees Elizabeth sitting on the bed, her eyes red as if she had been crying.
"Are you okay, Hon?" Peter asks in concern.
"Neal came over today. He did some taste testing for me." She chuckles. "He spat out the caviar."
"I didn't think we could find a food the kid doesn’t like." Peter says lightly with a smile. El smiles as well, then the smile slides off her face and her eyes dampen.
Peter sits on the bed beside her and pulls her into a hug. He rubs her back as he waits for her to speak.
"I learned something.” She sniffs. “I know Neal. He. He’s someone I thought was dead.”
“What?”
El nods against him. “I’m not sure I should tell you more, it’s Neal’s secret not mine, but it was quite a shock.”
“Of course.”
As Peter comforts his wife, he can’t help but think that maybe he shouldn’t give Neal any days off without having himself available to supervise.
THE END