Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter One

Peter was just exhausted. He was done with his hectic day. He had finished his early morning editing footage for J. Jonah Jameson, gone to Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop to study for the GED, taken a shift at a tech repair store and done a patrol. That was his day, over and over again.

And, like, he knew that working for Jameson was bad for his mental health. Like, yeah, totally. Editing an asshole’s rants about how terrible he was for his internet show was not great. But he paid twenty dollars an hour. It seemed, from his Craigslist ad, that he wanted someone from Gen Z because he was sure someone younger understood how the internet worked better. But, it also appeared that Gen Z had told him to take a hike because he was a gross person, and most people liked Spider-Man. For twenty dollars an hour, he was willing to sell his morals and say, “Screw Spider-Man,” even though he was Spider-Man. It was five bucks more than minimum wage, and Jameson didn’t ask for recommendations.

Every morning he would go over to Jameson’s tiny studio at three-thirty, and he would edit hours of the guy’s rants, plugs for supplements and cellphone footage of himself, recycled over and over again. He worked until seven-thirty. It was four hours, six days a week. Peter was pretty sure Jameson wanted him to work more than that, but there was some regulation where if he worked more hours or more days, he was gonna have to end up paying for breaks. And Peter never caught a break.

It was four hundred and eighty dollars a week. Which seemed okay. Until taxes happened. Taxes took, like, so much of his money. And he’d always been super pro-taxes. Taxes covered stuff like food stamps. People needed food stamps. He liked helping people. But, now that almost eighteen percent of his paycheck was being eaten up, well, ouch. The internet told him he’d get it all refunded when he filed his taxes because he was poor. But Tax Day was a long way away, and his rent was really expensive, considering it was a terrible studio. It was in Manhattan. It was available. He didn’t know anyone to get a roommate. And he couldn’t trust anyone enough to live with them as he had a huge secret.

He was pretty sure he was eligible for food stamps because he didn’t have a full-time job and was struggling. But the website just sucked, and when he had applied, he’d been told there was a five-month backlog, but it had been longer than that, and when he checked, his application still hadn’t been reviewed.

He still went to Peter Pan for coffee and a doughnut most days. Because it was cheap and they had free Wi-Fi, he could study there for three hours for three dollars a day. MJ and Ned were at MIT, but he could hear their ghosts and was less lonely. It was his biggest extravagance. It was also the only thing that stopped him from crying. He could feel close to them even when they were hundreds of miles away and had no idea who he was.

He remembered when May was alive and people saying maybe poor people would be less poor if they didn’t buy Starbucks. The response had always been that poor people deserved nice things too. Now he was poor, and his daily coffee and doughnut were the only things he looked forward to.

After Peter Pan, he headed to his second job, where he made fifteen dollars an hour, two hours a day, seven days a week, fixing laptops, StarkPads, smartwatches, cellphones and cameras. He got to keep some things deemed too broken to fix as a bonus. They knew he was building his own computer, and the owners were nice — had given him a laptop shell for wholesale and would oftentimes buy him lunch.

All in all, working thirty-eight hours a week, he was very nearly almost making ends meet. He was making over minimum wage but under what was considered a living wage. And living wage was calculated for someone who didn’t have his grocery bill. Almost three-quarters of his money went to his rent. And then there was health insurance, which he couldn’t get at work because he wasn’t full-time, but he was told he needed it for taxes. He couldn’t go to a doctor. But he needed it anyway. Then there was his cell phone, which he needed to study and for the police scanner. And chemicals for web fluid weren’t cheap. And he ate almost eight thousand calories a day. And he had to pay for heat. And water. And electricity. And all that was assuming he didn’t need to fix his web shooters or have anything extra ever.

After the tech store, he would head home, sleep for a couple hours and then head out again. Most nights, before patrolling, after traveling to Queens from Manhattan, he would go to F.E.A.S.T. and eat dinner. He used to help May serve the meals. He knew they were good. And their food pantry always gave out boxes with staples on Sundays that helped him through the rest of the week.

When he was about ten, after Ben had died, he had started going with May on Saturdays. She had always gone on Saturdays, but Saturdays used to be his and Ben’s baseball days. May had offered to watch baseball with him, but he couldn’t face it, so he had joined her instead.

He asked May why so many homeless people didn’t look like homeless people in movies. She had explained that movies wanted people to think all homeless people looked alike, and they all looked dirty. But there were ways for people to wash and get clean clothes. She also said that not everyone who came to F.E.A.S.T. was homeless. That had confused Peter. May had said, “Peter, when you grow up, you’ll learn that the world can be very hard. Sometimes having a job isn’t enough. You need a good job and a lot of luck. And not everyone has those. People come here because they’re down on their luck. They might have homes, jobs. But sometimes that isn’t enough. They need the extra help. There’s no shame in that. We all need extra help. Sometimes it’s food, sometimes it’s support, sometimes it’s just people to listen. We all need help. If you need help someday, I never want you to feel bad for asking for it, for reaching out.”

Looking back, he wondered if she had worried about leaving him an orphan. His luck had finally run out. Because yes, he’d technically been an orphan since he was four-years-old but, but he’d never been alone until now. He’d always had a nice home filled with love, a pantry full of food and a closet full of weather-appropriate clothes.

Now, he took her words to heart, and he didn’t feel ashamed about getting his dinner from Anna, who smiled just was warmly at him now that he was a stranger as she had when he was her coworker’s nephew. Yes, he was Spider-Man, and it was his job to help people. But Peter Parker needed help. He couldn’t cover an apartment, eight thousand calories a day and the cost of being Spider-Man. He worked two jobs, and he couldn’t do it. So, he took the meals and groceries and free clothes. May had taught him there wasn’t shame in accepting help. His luck had run out, and he needed all the help he could get.

Today, well, today had been rough. Because it had started with Jameson being pissed because Spider-Man had been spotted stopping a sexual assault. Jameson had tried to figure out if he could spin it into Spider-man being the aggressor, but the footage was all over the internet, and even he couldn’t pull it off. It had been a gruesome scene. And to go from helping the poor woman to hearing Jameson trying to figure out how to exploit it had been hard.

Then, Peter Pan had been out of French crullers. Which was a stupid thing to be upset about. And Peter totally got that it was a stupid thing to be upset about. But, like, he’d been listening to Jameson talk about how he wished Peter’s alter ego were a rapist. All he wanted was a cruller to go with his coffee, but he had to settle for a glazed to go with the small coffee he nursed for as long as possible to justify his space in the café. His doughnut was his big treat of the day, as well as his ticket to the Wi-Fi he needed to study. Not getting the right one after a horrible night was a blow.

And the tech store had ordered salads for lunch which was good — free food. But they were healthy salads, without tons of croutons and not as many calories as when they ordered subs. And sure, vegetables were important, but Peter would kill for a meatball sub. He went home and made pasta from his meager pantry supplies. He thought longingly of May’s pasta sauce that was her grandma’s recipe. He’d been in their apartment for just a half hour, grabbing things before the cops had come. He’d taken what he thought was the most important stuff. He had taken clothes, May’s emergency money from the soup pot on top of the fridge and his textbooks. He wished now that he had taken her handwritten cookbook, more pictures.

He had crashed out for a couple of hours of restless sleep and had nightmares about that poor woman. She’d gotten away mostly unscathed. It was Peter who had taken all of the hits. But her shirt had been ripped, and she’d been scared. Even if she wasn’t injured, it must have been traumatizing.

When he’d woken up, he had wanted to stay in bed, not wanted to do it another night. But he thought of May, who was gone, who had died because of him. She had wanted him to be Spider-Man. He’d gone to F.E.A.S.T. The first break of the day had been that they were serving turkey with mashed potatoes, green beans and brownies. It was pretty great, and he had seconds.

Thank God patrol had been quiet. Because, seriously, he might have dissolved into tears if anything big had happened. As it was, it was just one carjacking and a purse snatcher. Then he had swung home at midnight to get a couple of hours of sleep before heading to stupid Jameson.

But when he’d climbed into his window, his Peter Tingle had gone off. He’d wanted to rename the sense. But May had named it. And May was dead. So that was what it was called now. He had so little of May left that he wouldn’t give up the scraps. The sensation screamed in his head. He kept the suit on. He saw Bucky Barnes sitting at his tiny kitchen table and said, “Hi, um, hello. What are, what are you doing here? In this random citizen’s apartment?”

“I’ve been busy, for months, Flag Smashers and the fake Captain America,” said Barnes.

“Yeah, I saw on the news,” said Peter. “Gotta say, he is no Sam Wilson. And I don’t think Captain Rogers would have ever considered him a brother… not that I ever met Captain Rogers.”

“But you did, Peter, you did. You talked to him for an hour at Tony’s funeral, you grabbed his shield in Germany. Steve liked you; you didn’t like him much. We all liked you. Tony Stark ripped time and space open just for you. You’re why any of us are here. Because you’re Peter Parker — Tony Stark’s beloved little buddy. I have been busy for months. But then I get one pause to breathe, one second, and I make a pop culture joke and Sam doesn’t laugh and I say you would have liked it and Sam just stares at me and says ‘Who?’ And I reach out to Pepper Potts, to see how you and Morgan are, to see if there’s anything I can do to help either of you. And she doesn’t know who you are. And I use the Google, and you’re working for that guy who calls Spider-Man the worst thing since syphilis. And, Peter… of course you know Steve. You know all of us. But they don’t know you.”

Peter just stared, dumbfounded. “You know me? You remember?”

“How did everyone else forget?” asked Barnes.

“Magic. Stephen Strange and I… This guy, Quinten Beck. He exposed me. And then Stephen was going to erase Spider-Man’s identity from people’s minds but then I talked over him when he was doing the spell to ask him to keep me in some people’s memories. And then it all went wrong. And villains came from different universes, and other Peters came, and May died and the whole world was gonna end. In the end, the only way to fix it was to erase me, Peter Parker, from everyone, completely. Even Stephen doesn’t remember me. The whole world woulda just shred itself to pieces… May was gone anyways so… yeah. I don’t really exist, kinda, anymore.”

“So this is Strange’s fault?”

“I talked over his spell,” said Peter.

“Strange watched us fight fourteen million, six hundred and five times. He knows us. He knew all of us intimately, knew how we react at all times. If he didn’t think, ‘Peter’s chatty, he’s going to talk over my spell’ and plan ahead that’s on him. I’ve met you three times: you talk. That’s what you do. You don’t shut up. This is his fault.”

Peter didn’t have a response to that. Instead, he asked, “How did you remember me?”

“I don’t know. HYDRA messed with my brain so much, for so many years. Maybe them wiping me so many times broke me. But Shuri in Wakanda promised no one would ever mess with my memories again when she took the code words out of my brain.” He shrugged. “New mental programming? One of the glowing teas she had me drink as healing measures? I don’t know. I’m glad I do. How long have you been living alone, like this? When did this happen?”

“Ten months ago,” he said. “I’m doing okay, so far. I miss my friends, May. But… yeah, I’m okay.”

“You’re working for Jameson,” said Barnes.

“I’m getting all of my bills paid and the GED is in a month. Then I can apply to schools.”

Barnes snorted angrily, “We’re going to Strange.”

It wouldn’t work. It would be more heartbreak. To have Stephen kick him out would be adding insult to injury. “I have to be at work in less than three hours, man, please. Can I get some sleep? Please? It’s been a rough day. I just want some sleep.”

“You’re not going back to Jameson, Peter. You’re going back to your real life.”

“My real life is over. May’s dead. MIT doesn’t know who I am. My friends are all better off without me. This is my real life now. And I need some sleep.” His voice rose, and he shouted the last couple of sentences. Someone banged on the wall, and he flinched. Quietly he said, “Please, Sargent Barnes.”

“With all due respect in the world, Peter: no. If there is one thing that being held captive by the mystical arm of the Nazis for decades taught me, it’s that when magic gets you into trouble magic will usually get you out of it. We’re going to Strange right now. You’re not going to that job ever again. Now, put on some real clothes and let’s go.”

Peter was… too tired to fight. Fighting would actually take more energy than going. There was something incredible about having someone who knew him talking to him. And, as much as he wanted to curl up in his bed, he pulled off his suit and pulled on real clothes. He didn’t bother with the bathroom. It was too small to change in comfortably. Instead, he had Barnes turn his back.

They walked down the five flights of stairs in silence, and Peter sighed. “It’s going to be okay, Peter,” said Barnes.

“No, it’s not. And I’m going to go to work on zero sleep.”

“You’re done there. Trust me: listen to the hundred-and-six-year-old. You’re done.”

“You count the years of the Blip?” said Peter. “Then I’m turning-twenty-four soon.”

“Don’t be silly: you’re a kid.”

“Then you can’t count them either.” He trudged after the man, “If you don’t count the years in cryo, how old are you?”

“I do count the years in cryo,” said Barnes.

“Why though? It’s like counting being an egg. You existed but you weren’t awake, or living, or aging. So how old are you really, like, really?”

Barnes sighed as though Peter were annoying. “Thirty-three.”

Peter nodded, “Okay, well, I’ll be nineteen if you’ll be thirty-three. You can still claim to be older and wiser.” A car pulled up with a pink Lyft light, and Peter said, “Wow did you call a Lyft? I don’t have any money to split it.”

“Just get in the car, Peter,” said Barnes.

Peter got in the car but felt ill. After a couple of minutes, Peter said, “Sargent Barnes, this seems like a really bad idea. The only way to save the world was to erase me. And now you want to un-erase me. That doesn’t seem safe.”

“He’s the Sorcerer Supreme; he’ll figure it out,” said Barnes firmly. “And if you’re going to demand I’m thirty-three then I’m just ‘Bucky.’ I don’t need an honorific.”

“He’s not the Sorcerer Supreme. He lost the title by being Blipped.”

“He earned the title to begin with,” said Bucky.

Peter fell silent again. They pulled up in front of the Sanctum Sanctorum and Peter thanked the driver, wanting to protect Bucky’s passenger rating. He trailed Bucky up the stairs. He didn’t use to think the building was intimidating: his friend lived there. Now, he wasn’t supposed to be there. But, the doors opened for him.

Stephen was in PJs and his cloak as he walked down the stairs saying “Barnes, it’s past one in the morning. What do you and,” he looked at Peter, “this child, want?”

“This is Peter. He’s one of our best friends. Your dumbass erased him from our minds and his dumbass is being graceful about it. And you know what? I’m sick of people accepting things with grace. I’m so sick of it, Strange. You messed this up. He is a child-”

“I’m nineteen,” said Peter.

Bucky nodded, “A child.” To Stephen, he said, “Fix it.”

Looking at Peter, Stephen said, “Explain.”

Peter launched into it. He talked fast — not wanting Stephen to get angry. He told him about Beck, about the video, about the threats to May. About the spell. About how it all went wrong. About how Stephen hadn’t wanted to finish the spell. How his last words had been a warning that they would all forget him. But he said that Bucky was overreacting. That he was making it work. That it was okay. Because, like, yeah, he was broke. And yeah, he was lonely. And yeah, he couldn’t go to MIT. But he was gonna get a GED and figure it out; he just needed a little time, and he’d be okay. Bucky put a hand on his shoulder.

“This is how much — and almost how fast — he talks all the time. You watched our lives fourteen million, six hundred and five times. How the hell did you cast that spell without thinking about how much he talks and not talk it out beforehand and then make sure he was silent during it? You’re supposed to be a genius, Strange. This is wholly your fault. Peter says the world can’t know him. Okay. But HYDRA always found workarounds when they did magic. And, sure the world can’t know him but why can’t his world? Not many people, just the important ones? You loved him. The Starks loved him. He had a couple of friends. I get that you can’t give him MIT. But you can do something. This is on you, Strange. There’s always a work around.”

Stephen looked between them both, then sighed, “Peter, who should know you? Forget the college admissions. For the sake of love, who should know you?”

“People got hurt,” said Peter. “MJ wanted me to find her, afterwards, and force her to remember. And I went. And she was laughing with Ned. And she had a Band-Aid from the fight. People get hurt. I ordered a coffee and left. I told her my name, but I couldn’t… Ned and she got to start fresh.”

“She should be allowed to decide if she wants to be a part of your life. Listen to someone who had all his choice and all his memories stripped away,” said Bucky, anger glinting in his eyes. “I fought for my memories. Not knowing your past… it’s terrifying. It’s disgusting. Your friends should know.”

Strange nodded, “If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right.”

Peter nodded, “Happy Hogan, Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark, James Rhodes and you, Stephen… maybe Sam Wilson. He wanted to be my friend. He wanted to be there for me. It’s not so much love but… kindness. Knowing all the Avengers was fun, but they weren’t really my friends. If I had to introduce myself to them again, it wouldn’t be bad. But Sam would probably… he’d probably want his memories back. Ned’s family… Lola doesn’t need stress. It’s too much.”

“I can do a handful of people. A handful of people won’t break the world,” he said. Then he held out his hands and started doing the spinny-thingy, and portals appeared, and moments later, his tired friends stumbled through them. MJ and Rhodey were dressed and alert, everyone else was in PJs. MJ even had a satchel; she had clearly been out. Rhodey was in uniform.

Pepper grabbed Morgan as they entered, looking scared in her nightgown, then she said, “Strange, do you know what time it is?”

“Apparently, it’s time to rebalance the world,” he said evenly. “I erased this boy from our memories and that was a bad move. I don’t know him any more than you do. But I have been informed we loved him.”

“You’re that kid from May’s grave,” said Happy as MJ said, “You’re Peter Parker who ordered black coffee.”

He nodded, “Yeah, that’s me and I… I mattered to you. But I couldn’t… I didn’t want to endanger you again.”

“I’m going downstairs, alone,” said Stephen, “we should all have our memories back in a couple of moments.” He left, cloak swooshing dramatically behind him.

Peter sighed, exhausted and looked at Bucky, “I have to be at work in two hours or Jameson is going to kill me.”

“Jameson?” said Ned. “You’re Peter Parker who edits all those hateful videos about Spider-Man?” He sounded pissed. And, of course, Ned still followed Spider-Man; of course, he was still a fan. Peter nodded, exhausted. “Spider-Man is a hero.”

“Well, he’s destroyed my life, gotten my aunt killed and left me destitute, so it’s debatable,” Peter shrugged. “But the job pays better than minimum wage. To quote MJ, a person can fight the system or be a cog in the machine. I edit the videos so I can very nearly almost pay for my life. And then I go to my other job so I can attempt to make up the difference. I’m just a cog — take it up with the system.”

“When did I say that?” asked MJ.

“On the roof of school while explaining Marx to me. And I think fighting the system is great. But my rent is due on the first of the month and I work thirty-eight hours a week while also trying to cram for the GED so I don’t have time to lead a charge.”

Pepper was studying him and said, “I have photos of you in my house and a bedroom for Spider-Man that is decorated for a kid, not an adult, and I can’t remember his face.”

Peter said nothing, and Happy spoke too soon for Peter to have to attempt to find an explanation. “Peter Parker, at May Parker’s grave. I treated you like you were invading on my time. But you have her name.”

Peter shook his head, “No, Happy, you weren’t mean. I was just glad to see she had visitors, that you remembered her.”

“I was the executor of her will,” said Happy. “She didn’t have any family. There was a bedroom in her apartment filled with a teenage boy’s things.”

“Did you keep it or throw it away?”

“I thought if it was important to her, I should keep it,” said Happy.

“So my Mets pennants? And my computer? And my blue sweater?”

“You had a bedroom in her apartment,” said Happy. A flash of light seemed to start at the ceiling and then travel down the walls and hit the floor. Sudden recognition and horror dawned on Happy’s face, “Oh God, Peter. Oh God.”

“It all went so wrong, Happy,” he said. And then Happy was hugging him before anyone else could move, holding him so tight.

“Oh God, Peter, it’s gonna be okay. Okay? I have a huge penthouse. We’ll move you in. I have all your stuff. We’ll set it up. We’ll figure out school together. Gimme your phone?” Peter did as asked as he pulled back, and Happy started clicking through it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m quitting your job with Jameson and asking him to mail your last check. You have a massive family emergency. Totally unforeseeable. Absolute nightmare. You won’t be in the city for weeks.”

“Happy!” he cried out.

“You’re not going back there, Peter. It’s not healthy,” Happy said firmly.

Peter knew his tone and when not to argue. Morgan had been drowsing in her mother’s arms, but she scrambled down Pepper to rush to Peter and slammed into his legs. He was exhausted. He ached from months of getting less than five hours of sleep a day. But he scooped her up with a big smile, “Hey there, Maguna.”

“Peter, did you miss me? I didn’t know I missed you. But now that I’m thinking of it, I missed you tons. The woods aren’t as much fun without you.”

“Well, I’ll have to come play in the woods soon,” said Peter. His back ached at the idea of crawling into her tent. “I missed you so much, Morgan: every single day.”

She threw her arms around his neck. “And we can have sleepovers in your room. Mommy won’t let me go in there because she says it’s Spider-Man’s space. But there’s LEGO in there.”

“We’ll have so much fun with LEGO,” he agreed, hugging her close. He looked over her head. Ned was silently crying, Sam was pale and Pepper had a drawn look of horror. MJ looked pissed. “Em,” he said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I came to Peter Pan’s to tell you everything. I had it all written out. But you had that cut on your face. And you said it had stopped hurting, and I just… I couldn’t. You didn’t know me. And you were about to have such a wonderful adventure at MIT, excited about something for the first time ever. And what could I do but drag you down? I couldn’t make you remember. I could just tell you a sad story. Maybe I would lumber you with a sad sense of responsibility to me. I would definitely put you in danger. You’re in more danger when you know. And I’m not an MIT student with a bright future. All I could do was drag you down. I love you. I love you. And I didn’t want to endanger you or drag you down.”

“We had a plan,” she said, and he nodded. “You don’t call an audible. We had a plan. You don’t protect me like,” she shook her head.

“Like a superhero?” he said.

“Like a chauvinist,” she replied.

“This wasn’t misogyny,” he said. “I didn’t tell Ned either. I just… I wanted you to get to have nice lives. But Bucky had a lot of experience with memory loss, so he talked me into you being here.”

“So you weren’t going to tell us?” she said angrily.

“I just want you to get to have a nice life, a safe one.”

“I kissed a girl,” she said. And it stabbed like a knife to the gut.

It was uncharacteristic for her to be mean. MJ wasn’t someone who lashed out. Her cutting remarks had always been funny or saved for bullies. But he deserved it. He nodded, “You can’t cheat on someone you don’t know exists.”

“No, you don’t get it. She was so hot and so nice and funny and smart. And it felt so wrong — like I was cheating. And I went home and cried in the shower thinking I was going insane.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to gaslight you.”

“You’re editing videos for Jameson?” she said. “Seriously? What else are you doing?”

“I have another job at a tech store. It almost keeps me afloat. And then I study a lot for the GED. And then every night I go out as Spidey. And that’s over a hundred hours right there. And then with showering and commuting to all three jobs I get about four and a half hours of sleep.”

“Jesus, that’s even worse than I thought,” said Bucky.

“I’m doing okay,” said Peter.

“You have half of a Snapple in your fridge. Who saves half of a Snapple?” asked Bucky.

“It was going to be my post-patrol treat,” Peter replied. Then he realized how pathetic that sounded once it was out of his mouth.

Stephen staggered back into the room, looking devastated. “Peter, I’m so sorry. I never should have cast the spell.”

Peter shook his head, “I asked you to do it.”

“I should have known better,” said Stephen. “I’m a master of the mystic arts and I know you. I know you are a chatterbox. I should have refused. I’ve left you all alone for ten months. I can’t imagine.”

“I’m not a little kid. I’ve been fine,” he said. “I have jobs, I pay rent, I have hot water and lights and health insurance — because apparently you have to have that or you get fined when it comes to Tax Day. And, like, everyone says it’s cheap now but how expensive was it that this is considered cheap? And I buy my chemicals for web fluid and I save about five bucks a week for community college.”

“He saved half a Snapple for a post-patrol treat,” said Bucky. Stephen looked even guiltier. “If it weren’t for how broken my brain is, we never would have found him. Don’t do unnecessary spells.”

“Bucky,” said Pepper gently but firmly. The man looked at her and she shook her head. She came to Peter and took Morgan. He realized she had fallen asleep. It was amazing how fast, and how deeply, little kids could fall asleep. Smiling at Peter, she said, “You have done amazing. Working two jobs, and studying, and being Spider-Man? That’s incredible. Paying all your bills and still saving money? That’s so great. You did so well. May would be so proud of you. I’m so proud of you. Tony had a trust fund for you. You were supposed to get it when you graduated from college. We’ll buy you an apartment in Happy’s building in your name so you can never be left homeless again. You’ll be right next door to him so he can fuss over you. You need to let him fuss. You’ve done so well. You’re not a little kid, you’ve been living alone. And you’re gonna be in college; you should have your own place, but you need your family. We all need our family.” She stroked his cheek, “May and Tony would be so proud of you, but it’s time to accept some help. And we’ll figure out MIT.”

He shook his head, “May and Ben went to ESU. It’s a great school. It was my dream school before I met Mr. Stark. New York needs Spider-Man, more than ever since the Blip. And I want to be here.”

Nodding, she said, “Okay, okay, if that’s what you want, we’ll figure out ESU. You didn’t disappear from photos. Happy had all of your stuff. You didn’t disappear. The world just forgot. So, Midtown probably has your transcript. You need to take the GED to graduate but the school has all your letters of recommendation and grades on file. We’ll figure it out. Go to class, do your best, take six years to graduate because you have the money and you’re not going to sacrifice your health and sanity being a full-time student and Spider-Man. He made you a billionaire specifically so you would never worry about a life, super-life balance. We’ll figure it out. I was Tony’s PA before I was a CEO. If I could run that mess’s life, I can help you schedule yours. Okay?”

He nodded and rested his cheek against her hand. His head felt heavy. She stroked his cheek. Then she looked past him to Bucky, “I know things were tense between you and Tony. Steve handled things so poorly… Tony never forgave Steve. But you,” she shook her head, “he never blamed you. After a certain point, he felt too embarrassed about Siberia to apologize. Which is absurd but also the man he was. You brought Peter back, which means you’re family. Anything you need, ever, never hesitate.”

“Well, Sam’s family is in a big fight with the bank about refinancing their home,” he said with a shrug. “Do you think you can scare the bank into letting them refinance?”

Pepper’s shoulders dropped, looking frustrated on top of exhaustion, “Seriously? There is a whole fund for the Avengers. Did the lawyers never talk to you?” she asked Sam. “It was all set up. None of you should ever want for anything.”

“Oh, I just figured, after Germany,” said Sam.

She shrugged, “Friends fight. The only one he never forgave was Steve. I’ll talk to the lawyers in the morning about contacting everyone. I send Sarah a Christmas card every year. She’s not losing the house or the boat. I’m sorry you were worried. Between Morgan, Stark Industries and the Maria Stark Foundation’s efforts to help the rebuilding-”

“No, Pepper, I never expected,” Sam started, but she interrupted.

“I know you didn’t, but this shouldn’t have happened. I have to talk to the lawyers in the morning about buying Peter’s apartment and getting his trust fund sorted out. So, I’ll make sure they contact everyone with their banking details. You’re not losing the house or boat. The world is on fire. We can’t do anything to fix it if we’re struggling to take care of ourselves.” Turning to Stephen, she said, “It is very early on Saturday morning. Pete’s the only one who had to go to work, but we all need sleep. We all need to recover. The lake house has space. You can come. I’m pissed, Stephen, but I know you didn’t make this mess on purpose. It’s time for all of us to go to bed and we’re going to where Peter has a nice bedroom.”

Stephen didn’t argue with her, just put out his hands and did the twirly thingy. A portal opened up to the living room.

Chapter Two

Peter missed the lake house. Stepping through felt surreal. It smelled the same. It looked the same. Morgan’s toys were scattered around, and a book was open, face down on the chair arm where Pepper was marking her page. It was just as he remembered it.

Pepper spoke firmly to the group, saying, “No more anger or accusations tonight. Just sleep, please. The guest bedrooms are all upstairs. It struck me as odd that Spider-Man’s was down here. Good night.” She headed toward Morgan’s bedroom to put her down.

Ned hadn’t spoken to him yet. But he came to Peter now and said, “I’m not gonna be pissed. I’m gonna leave it to MJ. I love you. I’m glad you’re here. You’re never allowed to do this again.”

Peter nodded. And then Ned hugged him, and they did their overly complicated handshake. “Never again,” Peter promised.

Sam passed him and squeezed his shoulder, “It’s good to have you back. And I’m so pleased to know Bucky’s not losing it.”

“He wasn’t losing it,” agreed Peter.

“You’re still a dumbass,” said Sam. Peter just laughed.

Stephen came to him and hugged him, and said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Peter assured him.

The sorcerer replied, “No, it’s not.”

“Well,” said Peter, “I forgive you.”

Stephen passed, and Rhodey came to him, “Next time, this ever happens again, you come right to me. Tony got in weirder scrapes. I will believe you. You just say: ‘platypus, the drapes are on fire.’ And I’ll know, whatever you say is true, okay?” Peter nodded, and Rhodey drew him in for a hug.

Happy said nothing as he passed him, just gave him a tight hug. That left just him and MJ. MJ didn’t head toward the stairs and the guest bedrooms. She went toward his room. She opened his door, and he was confronted again with memories of happy nights spent talking late with Pepper and then crashing out in a comfortable bed in a room decorated with movie posters. It was a perfect room; one Pepper had made just for him because he was family, and she had always wanted him to have a home with them. He took a shaky breath as he entered.

“I’m livid,” said MJ. “And I know Pepper said anger can wait until the morning. But I am so… we had a plan. You were going to find me. I didn’t ask to be protected. I asked to be your partner.”

“I just… didn’t see any way out. And I didn’t want to be a millstone. You’ve had so many people try to drag you down. Your dick of a dad, your mess of a sister. I didn’t want to be another burden when you were finally getting out.”

“You were never a burden. You were the bright spot. I used to go to detention just so I didn’t have to go home for a couple extra hours. I always had to wonder if this was the week if Dad was getting out of lock up. Or if Gayle was going to come and try to score drug money off Mom while claiming it was for a fresh start. And Mom was always dating a loser. And then there was you. And there was fun. And being happy. You were never a burden. And Beck screwed things up. But you unilaterally decided to just throw it away.”

“Well, I couldn’t really discuss it with you.”

“You could have posed it as a weird hypothetical when you came into Peter Pan. You know I love weirdoes with weird questions. And I would have told you to tell the girl.”

He nodded, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to drag you down with me. You’re having this amazing life at MIT. And I… keep half a Snapple for a treat.”

She sat on his bed, “I kissed a girl.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said.

“Have you been kissing people?” she asked.

“I work, study and swing every hour I’m awake. The closest thing to a social life I have is talking to Anna at F.E.A.S.T. while I have dinner. Sometimes, there’s this guy, he’s around our age, at the graveyard. His dad is buried three rows over from Mom and Dad and May and Ben. Sometimes he shares his thermos of coffee. He’s as close to a friend as I have. And I guess that’s indirect kissing — sharing a thermos.”

“Jesus, Peter, that’s more depressing than if you were sleeping with people,” she said. Then after a pause, she said, “You’ve been going to F.E.A.S.T.?”

“May always said a lot of people who ate there weren’t homeless, they just needed help. You’d be shocked at how quickly two part time paychecks get eaten up by rent and utilities considering I almost work full-time. Needing eight thousand calories a day… F.E.A.S.T. let me not be hungry and put a little money aside to go to school… eventually.” He sat on the bed next to her. “You’re incredible. You have never let any obstacles change your actions or stop you from doing what you want. You fought through everything. And you deserved, for once in your life, to get to be happy without anything holding you back. You deserved to be a co-ed having fun on campus, not thinking about the boy eating dinner at the soup kitchen. I managed.”

She nodded, “No more bullshit, Parker, I forgive you for this but never again. Got it? Never again. We’re supposed to be a team. I’m supposed to be your partner in problems.”

He nodded, “I’m sorry. I love you.”

“I love you too, but this is your one and only strike, Peter. Too many people in my life have done too many fucked up things for me to give you more than one pass. I refuse to go down the same path my mother did.”

He nodded, “No more fuck ups.”

She moved and swung a leg over his legs to straddle him and hugged him for the first time. “Ten months,” she said.

“I missed you every single day,” he said, breathing in the coconut scent of her shampoo.

“Something was missing,” she said. He was… exhausted. Just bone-deep tired. He barely remembered what it felt like to have energy. MJ felt amazing against him. But all he wanted to do was sleep. She yawned into his neck. “I was at the library for six hours today. I had just gotten to the dorm when I got pulled through that hole. I’m so tired.”

“Stay here with me?” he asked. She leaned down to kiss him slowly. He wrapped his arms around her waist as they kissed and cuddled closer. “I love you and missed you.” He gasped as they broke apart.

“I’m here,” she promised and kissed him again.

“I was so lonely,” he said.

“You’re not alone anymore,” she promised. “I’m with you. We’ll FaceTime, text and visit. You’re not alone.”

They made out as he fell back on the bed and held her close. Then he yawned into her mouth. She started to laugh, and he said, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’ve been getting four hours of sleep a day for ten months. Let’s go to bed.”

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” she said. She got off his lap and started to reach for the hem of her shirt but hesitated. It had been ten months.

“Do you want some jammies?” he offered.

“Yes please,” she said.

He went to his drawers and got her a t-shirt and flannel pants. He kept his back to her, giving her privacy. He changed too, comforted by seeing his old clothes still in their place. As he was just about to pull on a t-shirt, she said, “Oh my God, Peter,” and then her hand hovered over his back.

Twisting, he looked down and said, “Oh, yeah, a guy with a literal flail. I had to google ‘weapon spikey ball and chain’ to find out what it was called. It screwed up my kidney for a while. But, I’m fine now. It’s all good. Just an idiot with a weapon from the Middle Ages.”

“Jesus, Peter,” she said. She ran her hand over his back and up his spine, “You’re too thin.”

“Well,” he shrugged, “money’s tight. No Ben and Jerry’s for a while. I’ll gain it back.” He pulled on his shirt. “I was making it work. I was okay,” he said as he turned back to her and saw that she was in his baggy t-shirt but had forgone his pants. “And it’s going to get better from here.” They climbed under the covers together, curling around one another. “I love you,” he said. They had never said it before the Statue of Liberty. He now intended to say it as often as possible.

“I love you too,” she said, using his shoulder as her pillow.

***

It felt like a second later that he heard a very insistent cell phone ring. MJ picked up with a groggy, “Hello?” Then she listened and said, “God, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was coming home from the library and I got a call from my high school boyfriend. He was having a family problem. Ned and I rushed to rural Buffalo in the middle of the night to help… I’m not sure we broke up… it’s just a sore spot to talk about… and… we’re back together…” She lifted her head from his chest and looked at him, “Yeah, you’re decent. I’m turning on the camera.” She changed the setting of the call. “Peter, Gwen. Gwen, Peter.”

“Hi,” said Peter. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’ve never heard of you, and I deeply distrust this whole situation,” she replied.

“MJ and I parted sobbing the same day my aunt died shortly after I didn’t get into MIT because of my extra curriculars. And MJ’s right, we didn’t break up. That was never even a conversation.”

“Jesus, Michelle, did you dump a boy because he didn’t get into MIT?”

Peter started laughing and shook his head on his pillow as MJ said, “No,” with shock. “Absolutely not. That was never our problem. Peter’s way, way smarter and academically gifted than me. He got screwed by politics.” She yawned widely. “Time is it?”

“Five,” said Gwen.

“Jesus, we’ve barely been asleep,” said MJ.

“Okay, well, I woke up and you should have been back no later than one thirty. And my dad is a cop. You check on people. The first forty-eight hours after a disappearance is essential. And we’re young women — prime kidnap slash murder age.”

“I’m sending you a location tag so you can see where I am. We’re probably going to Manhattan or Queens later. I’ll be back Monday morning. But we’ve been asleep for about five minutes. Thank you for checking on me. I’m good. Ned’s with me, if his roommate checks. But, honestly, that guy just grunts at him.”

“Sure, sure. Send me your location tag and go back to sleep.”

“Thank you for keeping MJ safe,” said Peter.

“Girls gotta stick together,” said Gwen.

“Yeah,” agreed Peter.

MJ hit some key combination, sending the location and said bye before burying her head in Peter’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her and passed out.

***

It felt like another minute before there was insistent knocking at the door. MJ groggily rubbed her face on his chest.

Outside the door, Morgan shouted, “Why did you lock your door, Peter?”

He slid out from under MJ and went to the door, unlocking it, “Morning, Morgan. My whole apartment is a bedroom, so I just lock the door automatically.”

“Your whole apartment is a bedroom? That’s so cool! Where do you poop?”

“There’s a little bathroom,” he said. “But the rest is one room.”

“Cool. Mommy’s making pancakes and told me to come get you.”

“Awesome.” Turning back to the bed, he said, “MJ?”

“Two seconds, promise,” she groaned.

“Okay,” he agreed. He scooped Morgan up into his arms. “Let’s go get pancakes.”

He saw that there were a lot of pictures of him up on the walls. Some with Morgan and Pepper since the Blip was over, others from when he’d been younger when he’d hung out with Mr. Stark. In the kitchen, he said, “Morning, Pep.”

“Morning, Peter,” she said smiling, “It’s so good to have you home. So I called the lawyers and the bank and the real-estate agent. The apartment just below Happy’s was for sale. It’s the whole floor. That’s good for Spider-Man, no nosey neighbors seeing you coming and going. People know Tony worked with Spidey. Try your best not to be spotted?” He nodded even as she didn’t give him time to reply. “We have to go to the bank to sign some papers and get your credit cards and keys. Happy can go get your stuff out of storage with Rhodey. And we’ll go over to your place to pack you up.”

“I don’t have too much stuff. I don’t need all that much help. It’s, like, maybe four boxes… I found the couch on the street, but the rest of the furniture belongs to the apartment.”

She nodded, “Okay. Well… I don’t think anyone wants to let you out of their sight. And I was thinking…” Her words trailed off, and he put Morgan on a kitchen stool and poured himself some coffee from the carafe. “Well, you can say no — of course you can say no. You should say no if you want. You have a hero complex that may be worse than Tony’s was, so sometimes you have a hard time saying no.”

“Pepper, I can’t say no if you don’t ask,” he said.

“I just know, well, I’ve heard, that maybe Bucky hasn’t been doing all that well. And I thought maybe you could use the company. And maybe he could use the company. But, if you want space that’s okay too. You don’t have to have a roommate.”

“You want me to ask Bucky to move in?” he asked.

“Your place has five bedrooms,” she replied.

“Five? That’s crazy.”

“It’s a full floor in a nice building,” she shrugged. “Late high school graduation gift.”

“I didn’t graduate,” he said.

“Early GED present,” she shrugged. “You’ll love it, and I love that it’s so close to Happy. Just keep Bucky in mind?” He nodded, and she said, “Good.” She had three plates of pancakes made with eggs and bacon and said, “F.R.I.D.A.Y., wake other people in twenty minutes, give me some time alone with these two.” Peter picked up two of the plates, and she touched his cheek. “So happy you’re here.”

“You’re not getting twenty minutes, Mommy, MJ is getting up in two seconds, she said so. She was in Peter’s bed — with the door locked,” said Morgan.

Peter said, “Nothing happened,” to Pepper quickly.

Pepper laughed, “You’re both nineteen. Enthusiastic consent, protection and a locked door, please.”

“Nothing happened,” he repeated as he brought the plates to the table. “And I really doubt she’ll be here in two seconds. Her roommate called at five this morning when MJ wasn’t in their dorm to make sure she was safe somewhere. MJ isn’t used to four and a half hours of sleep and a coffee. I got more sleep than that and a coffee? I’m set.”

They sat down for breakfast, and Peter moaned as he took a bite, “You really do make the best pancakes. So fluffy.”

“Hand-cranked eggbeater until it’s frothy. My mom swore by it and now I do too.”

Peter smiled and said, “That’s awesome… do you know if Happy kept May’s recipe book? I don’t know how to cook very well but it has her grandma’s pasta sauce recipe and my mom’s apple flan recipe. I can learn how to cook better.”

“Happy kept everything,” Pepper promised. “I can help you learn how to cook. You have a beautiful kitchen now.”

They ate, Peter asking Morgan about how preschool was going. She was gushing about making friends, playing and reading good books.

“She’s reading at a third-grade level,” said Pepper.

“A lot of Roald Dahl and Amelia Bedelia,” said Morgan. “Have you ever read The Penderwicks?”

“No, tell me about it,” said Peter. She launched into an explanation of her current favorite book. He loved listening to her enthusiasm.

He felt himself tear up, and she said, “Peter, are you crying?”

“I just really missed you and really like listening to you. It’s good crying, happy crying. I love you and I love hearing your stories.”

“I love you too, Peter,” she said.

MJ walked into the kitchen with wet hair and wearing some of Peter’s clothes. “Morning.” Looking around, she said, “Where is everyone?”

“I only had Morgan knock on your door,” said Pepper. “Plates are to your left. Food is in the warmers.”

“Oh, I,” said MJ, “I can leave you guy-”

“Don’t be silly,” interrupted Pepper. “I’m pleased you’re here. Join us. Everyone else will be getting a wake-up call in a little bit.”

Morgan went back to telling the plot of her book, and MJ told her she had loved The Penderwicks when she was little. “Are you at college now, MJ?” asked Morgan.

“I am,” agreed MJ.

“Is it MIT?” she asked.

“Yeah,” MJ nodded.

“Daddy went to MIT. That’s where Peter wants to go.”

“I changed my mind. I’m gonna try to go to ESU, in the city: I want to be close to home.”

“Oh no, will you get a good education there?” asked Morgan, brow knitting as she said it.

“It’s a great school,” he said with a laugh. “Dr. Emma Frost, Dr. Bradley Bolton, Dr. Reed Richards, Dr. Steve Hopkins — a lot of amazing scientists went to ESU. I’ll be standing on the shoulders of giants. May and Uncle Ben went there.”

“Reed Richards’ brother-in-law is there now. He’s a model,” said MJ, “and a mechanical engineer major. Apparently, girls follow him in flocks and he has to shoo them to go to class.”

“Johnny’s nice,” said Peter. “I had to rescue him from a mob of paparazzi that got way too aggressive. I swung him out and then he bought me a hot dog, pretzel and knish. It was awesome.”

“Do you like MIT?” asked Morgan.

MJ looked pained, and Peter said, “You can be honest. It’s okay. You can talk about it.”

MJ sighed, “I love it. I love my classes. My roommate is nice. Ned is two dorms over. The food is pretty good. My intro to labor right history class is fascinating. Also, I love being far away from home.”

“You don’t miss your momma?” asked Morgan.

“My mom and I do better at a distance,” said MJ.

“What’s the best thing in the cafeteria?” asked Peter.

“There are multiple cafeterias,” she said. “The one I like for dinner, I love their mac and cheese. It’s spicy and creamy. The one I like for breakfast has sandwiches almost as good as Delmar’s. The sausage, egg, cheese and avocado on a hard roll is amazing. We’ll have to eat there when you come visit me.”

“I can’t wait,” he said with a grin.

“Can I come visit you, MJ?” asked Morgan.

“Of course you can,” said MJ. “I would love that.”

Peter was on to his second plate when Happy came in. Happy came to him and hugged him tightly. “I’m okay, Happy,” he said.

“No, you’re not. But you will be. You’re too thin.”

“Well, money was tight.”

“I bought Peter his apartment. We have a couple of forms to sign at the bank, but he’ll have the keys to the place below you in a couple of hours.”

Happy nodded, “F.R.I.D.A.Y., give Peter access to my place.”

“Happy, you don’t have to-”

“I have a pool in my apartment and a roof garden. And DUM-E is there.”

“You have a pool in your apartment?” asked Peter, and Happy nodded. “Like Taylor Swift?”

“Does Taylor Swift have a pool in her apartment?” asked Happy.

“Yeah, so cool to have an indoor pool in an apartment,” said Peter.

“Then yes, just like Taylor Swift. It’s only four feet deep. It’s for laps, but it’s nice to relax and there’s a hot tub on the roof,” said Happy. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., give Peter access.”

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, but I need your biometrics.”

Peter swallowed hard. “F.R.I,.” said Pepper slowly, “you know Peter. Stephen Strange erased him from all of our memories but… you know Peter. I’ll get Stephen to fix you and E.D.I.T.H.”

“I don’t want E.D.I.T.H.,” said Peter. “She is too much. I can’t. She’s too big. I’m not even kind of ready. I miss Karen but E.D.I.T.H. is just… Karen is… it’s like going from a cute, reliable, zippy Vespa to a monster truck. I can’t drive a monster truck. Karen was my friend and perfect and then E.D.I.T.H. was just so much.”

Pepper listened as he spoke and nodded at his words. “Okay, okay, that’s fine. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. But we’ll get F.R.I.D.A.Y. and Karen back to you.”

People kept coming in, Ned texted his roommate, who hadn’t reached out, and Pepper greeted Stephen, saying, “Morning, can you fix the memories of AI? F.R.I.D.A.Y., DUM-E and Karen don’t know Peter. That’s sad. They were his family too.”

“Morning to you too,” he said with a slightly sardonic smile.

“We don’t hit people in this household, Stephen, so I’m not hitting you,” she replied. “But if you think you’re anywhere close to forgiven you’re wrong.”

He seemed to sober and nodded, “I know. I agree. And, yes, I can fix their memories. I would say we have to keep the circle to under fifteen people, three more would be okay. It doesn’t matter if they are human or not.”

“Pepper,” said Peter, “Stephen was trying to help me-”

“Stephen has been caught in time loops and is millions of years old. You were a senior in high school. One of you is responsible for this mess. It’s not the person who was panicking over MIT,” said Pepper.

“Pepper’s completely right, Peter, this is my fault. It’s on me,” said Stephen.

Chapter Three

They got moving, splitting into groups — Stephen opening portals for people. Only Peter and Pepper were going to the bank. With so many people going with Happy to pack up the stuff from his and May’s apartment, he felt overwhelmed and said, “Thanks, you guys. I can’t say how much-”

“Then don’t,” said Sam. “Go to the bank. We’ll see you soon.”

The bank was a little overwhelming. It was a nice location, and Peter was in a science pun t-shirt and jeans that were ever so slightly too short for him. Pepper was dressed in a relaxed way, but at her most relaxed, she was still more classy than Peter in a suit.

They were immediately ushered into a meeting room with multiple people. They started introducing themselves to Pepper. She stopped them and gently, politely said, “These are Peter’s accounts. Speak to him.”

They addressed Peter instead of Pepper. They started explaining things, and when it got complicated, Peter said, “Dumb it down. Talk to me like a guy who had a savings account, a debit card linked to a joint account with his guardian and a piggy bank. And sure, it was a jam jar, not an actual piggy bank, but it wasn’t any more advanced. So talk to me like I’m your nephew you’re explaining banking to.”

They explained what a dividend is. They kept writing down numbers and telling him it would be his monthly income. He asked why they weren’t just saying the numbers. Pepper said it was considered unseemly. They talked about his shares of Stark Industries. It’s a lot; it’s too much.

He saw the number of zeros on a form about his current assets he was supposed to sign and felt his breath catch. “I’m sorry, I need. Please. I need a minute.”

“Can we have the room?” said Pepper. The bankers cleared out, and Pepper said, “Talk to me, Peter.”

“It’s just crazy amounts of money and it’s just… I don’t know, it’s just. What am I supposed to do with this money?”

“Exactly what he wanted you to do: live a comfortable life where you never think about a bill, or funding a project, or a sudden expense. Then you have a will that donates what’s left as a scholarship to ESU in May’s name. That’s what you do with the money: live. That’s what he wanted for you.”

“And all these stocks?”

“Tony… he wanted you to make your own choices, of course he did. He wanted you to be your own man. But he always had the hope that one day you’d be the head of the R&D department. Not the CEO, that’s too much business, not enough fun. But he hoped you’d be in his lab.”

“I like chemistry. I’m good at tinkering. But I’m not a computer scientist. Mr. Stark could build and program anything. And I can build stuff, sure. But, like, Karen? I can’t build her. I can make a computer chip or a motorbike engine. But I top out at the accomplishments he had as a kid. I can use the fabricators, but I can’t-” he felt himself hyperventilate, and Pepper hushed him gently, taking his hand. “He gave me E.D.I.T.H. with a note that said, ‘For the next Tony Stark, I trust you.’ And he shouldn’t have. I messed it up so badly. I can’t be him. His shoes are too big. His shadow is too big. Mr. Stark was a hero and a genius, and I’m just me.” He felt the tears falling down his face as he said, “I can’t do this.”

“Shhh,” she said softly. “Peter, no one is asking you to do that. Tony never should have asked that of you. It was unfair of him. E.D.I.T.H. was too much for anyone in your position. He was so proud of you and Karen. He made E.D.I.T.H. before the Snap, thinking you’d be an adult when he died. He had no idea you would be a high schooler. He expected to train you. And you don’t have to take over the R&D department if you don’t want. You could work in the chem labs. Hell, with your money you could crash yachts professionally for the rest of your life. And he’d be up in heaven proudly saying, ‘That’s my kid,’ as long as you were happy. Just be you and be okay. Step one is signing the paperwork. Let him take care of you one more time. Let him protect you this one last time.” He nodded. She looked at the sideboard and sighed, “We ran out of water bottles. I’m going to go get you one. Gather yourself and we’ll get this done and get you moved into your new place.”

Pepper left, and Peter started wiping his face, sniffing hard, trying to get it together. One of the bankers came back. She was young, probably only a few years older than him and pretty fresh out of college. She craned her neck out the door and then said, “You can drop the act. She can’t see you.”

“What?” asked Peter, feeling dazed.

“Pepper Potts went around the corner,” said the girl, “You can cut the waterworks.”

“Get out,” said Peter. He spoke louder when she didn’t react, “Get out.”

Pepper came back and said, “Leave.” The woman scuttled out of the room, and Pepper came to him, bringing him water, “What did she say?”

“It doesn’t… I don’t want to get anyone fired,” he shook his head and uncapped the water.

“She won’t be fired, Pete. But, what did she say?”

“That you were out of sight so I could drop the act and cut the waterworks.” He shook his head.

Pepper studied him for a long moment before saying, “People thought I was a gold digger and a ladder climber. They thought someone would only put up with Tony’s flaws for the cash and the job. There will always be those people. Y’know, Tony hated kids. Thought they were creepy. Then he met Harley Keener. And he realized kids were smart and funny. He paid for Harley’s college, paid off his family’s debt. He did a lot of that boy, as a thank you for teaching him that lesson. And then you happened. And you, Peter, you were when he learned that he could mentor a kid, love a kid without breaking them.

“And, Jesus, the things you didn’t know that were going on. The time he drunkenly suggested we make May look like an unsuitable parent so he could somehow get custody? It was convoluted and stupid and he sobered up in the morning and felt guilty about it. But he suggested it. There was also the time he drunkenly asked me if he had a chance with May because then he’d be your uncle and he could adopt you. I reminded him I was his fiancée and he waved me off assuring me we could have an affair.”

Peter laughed, and she nodded. “Yeah, I had to tell him May had too much taste for him. There was also the time, just before the spring break before the Snap, when May told him he was being overbearing and that you needed more free time to hangout with Ned and less time in the lab and the suit for better sleep and he said that he knew what was best for his kid. And then he didn’t see you for over a month. You and May went on that road trip over the break. Then she got you and Ned that huge LEGO project. Then you had all those tests you had to study for that May wouldn’t let you patrol during. Then there was that canned food drive at F.E.A.S.T. she needed your help with. It was thirty-four days before he got more than short texts with emojis. Some of them you apologized for not patrolling more but said May had pointed out you needed more sleep, and she was worried about your health and she the only family you had so you had to make her feel less worried. And then during the tests you apologized for not going out at all but said, ‘May just worries about my grades. And I do too, y’know? Grades are important. But Karen said she would keep an ear out and let you know if anything needs your help here.’ Then during the food drive, you said thousands of people would benefit and F.E.A.S.T. needed the extra help and sometimes Peter Parker was more helpful than Spider-Man. And he got the message loud and clear: back off or she was cutting him out completely by filling your days.”

Peter’s eyes were wide. She nodded. “He wanted in, and May had to put her foot down and remind him that he was not your parent. And he had never wanted to be a dad. Honestly, that’s part of what I liked about him. I never wanted kids. And I wanted to be with someone who would never want kids. Then you gave him baby fever. I said no. He wanted me more than he wanted kids, so he said okay.

“Then the Snap happened. And you died in his arms. Everyone else just vanished into dust, but you said please, you said you didn’t feel good, you apologized. He thought it was your healing ability — that you held on for longer because your powers fought against it. I thought I was going to lose him. I thought he was going to end it all… Some people have babies to try and save their marriage. I had mine to save my husband’s life. He was so depressed. He didn’t get dressed or out of bed for weeks and weeks. He disappeared on me. But she worked. He became a stay-at-home dad. He never returned to the office. Built himself a garage at the cabin and telecommuted with a baby sling strapped to his chest. He was a fantastic dad, and he loved every minute of it. He learned to cook, he sang, and he played in his garage, building technology for the people who survived the Snap. He was okay again.

“I never wanted to be a mother. She was his. And now he’s gone and… if it weren’t for Morgan I would no reason to go on. She babbles and I hear him. She laughs and I hear the future. She is everything to me. Morgan saved his life and then mine. And she has no idea; she’s lived an idyllic little life in a lake house with toys and fun and parents who loved her. You gave her to me. If you ever question your place in this family, remember, it wouldn’t exist now without you. From a purely, gruesomely, pragmatic point of view, he was a superhero who was fifteen years older than me. I was always going to end up a widow. I wouldn’t have been a mother without you. So thank you, Peter, for being the first child he loved. Thank you for being my family.” She kissed his cheek. “Let’s get this done?” He nodded.

She went outside. Then just the boss and the woman came back with her. “Sit.” She commanded. They did, and she said, “Peter doesn’t want anyone fired. I want what he wants. No one is getting fired. If this woman ever touches a penny in my family’s accounts, I’m pulling every cent we have out of this bank. Is that understood?” The boss nodded. “Good. Were either of you Blipped, or had someone you loved Blipped?”

“My son,” said the boss.

“I was Blipped,” said the woman softly.

“Okay,” said Pepper. “If you have listened to Scott Lang’s absurd podcast about reversing the Blip, you know that they didn’t figure out how to make time travel work until my husband stepped in. Scott said that Tony was worried about the possible ways it could go wrong but stepped up because he was a selfless hero. Scott was lying. I’m going to tell you a secret that about fifteen people know. You’ll be the first people who aren’t family or superheroes know. If I ever see it in print, I will destroy you and everything you love. Do you believe me?” They both nodded, looking terrified. “My husband didn’t want our daughter to grow up in a world without Peter. He didn’t sacrifice himself for the world. He did it for this boy and this boy alone. Everyone else is entirely incidental. To question Peter’s connection to my husband and his grief is an obscenity. So, as Peter is the reason you are alive, what do you say?” she asked, staring at the woman.

The woman looked at Peter and said, “Thank you. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Get out,” said Pepper. The woman borderline scarpered out of the room. “We’re signing whatever we have to and leaving. I can explain how high limit credit cards work. Peter’s tired and he’s done. She is not to be fired. But no one speaks to my family like that.”

“Yes, Ms. Potts,” said the man before leaving the room to get the last of the paperwork.

“They’re very good at handling money,” said Pepper.

The man returned with a few more things to sign, four credit cards, a debit card, checkbooks and five sets of house keys that the realtor had dropped off.

The man said, “My son is everything to me.”

Peter didn’t really know what to say to that, so he spoke from the heart when he said, “I’m happy for you. I really am. But the world is better with Mr. Stark than me.”

Pepper shook her head, “You two idiots would trade your lives for one another for eternity if you could. He wanted you to live, Peter, so start living.”

***

Pepper texted Stephen, and he opened a portal right into Peter’s studio apartment. As they entered the apartment, he saw Pepper looking around and felt embarrassed. It was tiny and kind of damp, but it was clean. He was glad he had made his bed. He couldn’t look at her.

Before he could think of anything to say, Pepper said, “I am so proud of you, Peter. You did so well. No GED, weak credit score, no references. But you managed to get an apartment and two jobs and make a plan. You did amazingly well. Now, none of the furniture is yours other than the couch?”

“Yeah, and it kinda hurts to sit on,” he agreed.

She shrugged, “The couch you find on the street for your first apartment always does. That’s how it works. Furniture for your first apartment comes from street corners when you’re in your early twenties. Most people don’t do it as young as you. You and Bucky can bring it back downstairs and someone else can take it for their apartment.” She looked at the sewing machine, “That’s nice.”

“It was May’s,” he said, “managed to grab it. The nanobots of the suit didn’t know me so I made my own. It’s good.”

She smiled, “I’ve seen you on the news, it’s a big upgrade from that sweatsuit you ran around in at fourteen. Once Karen knows you, you can make whatever kind of suit you like. But being able to sew is a good skill. Maybe you can help me with Morgan’s Halloween costumes?”

“Totally,” he agreed with a smile.

“Thank you,” she said. “Do you have some boxes we can use for your stuff?”

He got them out of the closet, and Pepper was careful with his things as she put them in the boxes, respecting that he didn’t own many things at the moment. As she put away his clothes, she said, “I don’t recognize most of these jeans.”

“Growth spurt,” he said, “F.E.A.S.T. helped me with new pants and a new coat.”

Pepper nodded and gave him a slightly watery smile as she said, “It’s almost like May taking care of you from beyond. I’m glad they could help.” As she put clothes in the box, she said, “I know Bucky was contemptuous about this place. And I know it’s not the Ritz. But when you think back on these ten months, don’t think about this being a bad apartment. Don’t ever think of this time as being anything but a win. Think of it as the ten months you thrived without a GED, without an identity, without anyone’s support or love when you weren’t even nineteen for most of it. With everything you were up against? This place is phenomenal. This life you built is incredible. You found ways to pay bills, to keep the lights on, to get enough to eat, to have clothes that fit, to study and still be Spider-Man. Hell, you even have half an iced tea in the fridge as a treat. You made yourself a life with treats. I am so proud of you.”

“Thank you,” he said, “because Bucky was so harsh, but I think I did pretty okay here.”

She nodded, “Everyone has their own measuring stick and sometimes people won’t see it. You did amazing, Spider-Man. This apartment is incredible. You did so well.” They had four cardboard boxes, his bedding, the sewing machine and the contents of his kitchen. “We’ll just transfer it into your fridge.”

“Pepper, thank you for all this help.”

“You’re family, and I love you. I’m happy to do it.” She typed on her phone, and a moment later, a portal opened. People were in a beautiful apartment, and his and May’s couch was in the middle of the room.

Walking through carrying three boxes stacked on each other, he said, “Wow.” Looking at the big windows, he said, “I live here.”

“You own it,” said Pepper. “It’s fully yours.”

“Wow.”

Happy came and silently held out his phone. Before he could ask what was going on, words hit him fast. “Peter, I missed you so badly,” said Karen. “I couldn’t remember your name. When you tried to put on the suit, I didn’t recognize you and I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for ten months. I missed you. I didn’t get to hear about your day or go on any adventures together for ten months. I saw on the internet that you had a homemade suit and I thought you didn’t like me and now I know the truth. Are you going to go back to a high-tech suit? I miss you.”

“I missed you, Karen. I want a high-tech suit. I want company on patrol. And maybe, I don’t know, how would you feel about being a home system too? Like F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Are you kidding? I would love that, Peter. We could wake up together and hangout and be together. We have ten months to catch up on.”

“I can help with the install,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. piped up from the phone. “I’m sorry about this morning, Peter, I would never hurt you on purpose.”

“I know, F.R.I.”

“I’m right upstairs,” said Happy. “DUM-E was very excited to see Ned. He is raring see you. Down here, since we got here, Morgan has claimed a bedroom. It’s pink. I think it was a kid’s bedroom before.”

“Cool,” said Peter. As Pepper rolled her eyes and said, “She has a bedroom upstairs.”

“She wants sleepovers with Peter,” said Happy.

“You guys can drink wine upstairs and we’ll do LEGO and cartoons down here,” said Peter as he put the boxes down. “She can have my bunkbeds and I can get a king.”

Pepper had brought one box. That left only food, bedding and his sewing machine. He saw that Rhodey was in his studio, and he went back. Rhodey asked what else was his, and when Peter told him, he looked sad, but Peter said, “I’m okay, Rhodey. I think Mr. Stark would be happy that I paid my rent on time and did okay.”

Rhodey nodded. Taking one of the empty boxes, he said, “I’ll transfer your kitchen for you.”

“Thanks,” said Peter, picking up his bedding and the sewing machine. He carried them through and said, “Hey, Bucky, can you help me carry the couch to the curb? I can lift ten tons but I shouldn’t carry it alone in public.”

Bucky gave him a gentle smile and said, “Sure, Peter, whatever you need.” Bucky followed him, and they lifted the couch easily. Either of them could have done it with two fingers. Once they were out on the stairs and away from Rhodey, Peter said, “That place is huge. My apartment would fit in the living room twice.”

“I mean,” said Bucky, and Peter shot him a look. Bucky didn’t finish his thought. Instead, he said, “It is huge.”

“What’s your place like?” asked Peter as they descended the winding stairs. He was walking backward. It was a tight fit. It made him think of the show Friends, that May had loved, with Ross shouting “Pivot.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “You’re not thinking of running away, are you? My apartment is not big enough for two people.”

Unlike the Friends characters, they were moving fluidly, two enhanced humans, one with tons of training and the other with Peter tingle. It wasn’t hard to talk and descend the stairs at the same time.

“No, I’m saying, it’s got five bedrooms. I won’t put Karen in if you hate the idea. I just… it’s so big. You don’t even have to see me every day if you don’t want but there’s company there. And Happy’s there. And there’s a garden. I know we’ve only hung out once before, and I know I talk a lot and too fast. But, like, it’s so big. And it’s rent free.”

“Peter,” said Bucky firmly, stopping Peter’s words. “I could pay you rent.”

“You don’t have to, I own it. You’d be doing me a favor. As of, like, twenty minutes ago I’m a billionaire.”

“I don’t want to be a leech.”

“Not leeching just… I don’t want to echo around in there. And I mean, if you hate the idea of Karen-”

“Are you kidding? I love technology. I always have. I spent hundreds of hours in the Modern Marvels pavilion at World’s Fair in Queens back before I shipped out. I was even there with Steve when Howard Stark showed off his flying car… it crashed after a couple of seconds, nowhere near as impressive as Iron Man, but for the time, it was amazing. I always loved the idea of living in the shiny future. This isn’t the way I wanted it, but… living with a cool robot friend is a bonus. And I don’t think you talk too much. You talk a lot, but that’s not bad. Just because I don’t talk doesn’t mean I mind it.” They finally reached the ground floor, and Peter opened the front door so they could put the couch out for someone else to take.

As they put it on the curb, Peter said, “In AP World History, we had to write a paper on one of the Howling Commandos. Most people picked Steve. A ton picked Jim Morita because his grandson was our principal, and they thought they could suck up for a better grade. Some did Dum Dum Dugan — great name, great mustache, great hat. I figured, go for someone no one else was doing, and you get a better grade, right?” Bucky nodded. “So I did you. Just strategic. Plus, you had a really cool coat in all the publicity pictures the war department took.” Bucky laughed. “Anyway, all the history books said you had to be crazy smart to be accurate with a gun back then, and you were one of the best snipers in the world. And your school records were amazing. And you were the Howling Commando who read books for pleasure on the front line.”

“Why are you recounting my life to me?” asked Bucky.

“The GI Bill would let you go to college for free.”

“I only recently got pardoned for mass murder,” Bucky said with a laugh.

Peter winced like he’d been slapped, “You’re a hero. And if Pepper is going to talk to ESU about me going, she could do it for you too.”

Bucky sighed heavily and shook his head. “Look… I know she said she owes me for finding you but… I killed Howard and Maria.”

“No,” said Peter. “No. HYDRA killed them. And then that stupid Civil War happened because none of the Avengers were good friends to each other. And then Thanos happened and we died. And then Mr. Stark died. And then Steve just left. I know Mr. Stark, if he were here, he’d say, ‘Forget Steve: it’s never too soon or too late to think about college.’ You liked school. You could go.”

Even though it was on the sidewalk, Bucky slumped and sat on the couch, “I wanted to go to college. My parents had enough money for it. But Steve’s Ma died right as we were graduating high school, and he was poor. And his medications were so expensive. So, I just… we got a little apartment together, got a couple of jobs each and made it work. Then the war happened… you really think Pepper would do that?”

“Absolutely,” said Peter.

“What are you studying?” asked Bucky.

“You don’t have to have the same major,” said Peter.

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to be the war criminal with no one to sit with,” he replied.

“I want to study Chemistry and Physics,” said Peter.

“I always preferred science,” agreed Bucky. “This couch is really uncomfortable,” he said as he stood.

“Yeah, but it was free. Don’t worry, the one from home is comfy for our living room.”

“I have one from my apartment for the drawing room.”

“We have a drawing room?”

“And a study, a home theater, a giant kitchen and a gym. Do you work out? I don’t work out. Steve found it calming, I think it’s pointless.”

Peter nodded, “I’m just like this. Exercise is just a waste of time.”

“There’s equipment in there.”

“Maybe Sam wants it. He has to be Captain America without the serum,” said Peter. “Why would anyone need that many rooms?”

“Five bedrooms could mean ten people,” Bucky shrugged.

“I don’t think ten people need six rooms on top of their bedrooms. That’s more than a room per person. I thought it sounded crazy when Happy said he had a pool upstairs, but I get it now. There’s so many rooms.”

“The balcony has a firepit and there are two fireplaces in there,” said Bucky. “Plus, there are seven bathrooms.”

“That’s insane,” Peter took a breath. “To go from a fine studio and making it work to owning,” he tried to take a steadying breath. “You got me into this.”

Bucky just laughed, “We can convert one to a lab. You can work on stuff. And help me with arm maintenance. Let’s go up; all your friends are up there.”

They headed upstairs, and Peter looked around his apartment, “I have four months on my lease, and I was told I couldn’t break it unless I went to prison. But, I guess I’m rich, so… ten months of fighting every month to meet the deadline and pay on the first of the month. And now? Now I’ll just pay it? Without thinking about it? Like it’s nothing?”

Bucky just sighed, “I guess that’s what rich people do. I could pay this rent?”

“You don’t have to pay me rent,” said Peter. He breathed out. “Bye, apartment, thanks.”

He stepped through the portal with Bucky and saw that all of his stuff was there. Bucky sighed, “I guess I should get my things too, huh?”

“Are you moving in?” asked Stephen.

“This place is huge,” said Peter.

Stephen nodded and did his finger twirl, and the room behind the portal changed. The apartment was nicer than Peter’s, but it didn’t have much furniture. The two chairs seemed fancy, with a nice couch and big TV. Then there was a pile of blankets and a pillow on the floor.

Peter averted his eyes from the bedding quickly. Lord knows he had problems of his own with sleeping. Bucky said, “This room has two exits and a window — I sleep better when I feel like I have an out.”

“Will you be able to sleep on the… whatever floor we’re on?” asked Peter.

“Sixteenth,” said Bucky. “Karen and F.R.I.D.A.Y. are watching the doors. The people on the front desk are ex-military who Happy ran the background checks on. And your bedroom and the second largest one open to the terrace. With a long enough rope, I could scale it. I think I’ll sleep better than I have since Wakanda, to be honest. I’ll start sleeping in my bed again.”

Peter smiled, “Cool, so, where should we start?”

***

They spent the morning moving furniture and washing linen. Pepper got frames for his posters and pennants delivered, stating that adults framed things before they went on the wall. Pepper talked about getting an interior designer to make a “lookbook” of furniture. Peter felt overwhelmed again, the way he had in the bank. He tried to breathe through it, but his voice sounded high, even to himself, when he asked if getting stuff from IKEA was out of the question. He and May had bought things from IKEA. IKEA made good stuff. And it had a restaurant. And they sold candles that May liked that would make this place smell like home.

Pepper looked a little wet-eyed as she said that, of course, they could go to IKEA if that’s what Peter wanted. People started organizing for an IKEA trip, and he felt like he should apologize for putting them all out, but when he tried to, Sam shook his head.

“I have helped nine people move,” said Sam. “Just a part of growing up and having friends. And then you reach your thirties and people hire movers because their backs aren’t great anymore. But Bucky is a super soldier, Strange is a wizard and I have to be Cap without the serum so I have to lift.”

Peter smiled, “Y’want our gym equipment? I want to turn our gym into my lab.”

“I’ll take your weights, please,” said Sam.

“Can Gwen have your Elliptical and Peloton, please? She would love that.” asked MJ.

“Absolutely,” said Peter. “Stephen, what do you want?”

“For Sam to not call me a wizard,” said Stephen.

“Sorcerers don’t erase Peter from the timeline,” said Sam. “Also, the only difference between a sorcerer and a wizard is a pointy hat. We can get you a hat.”

They had fun shopping at IKEA. Morgan played house in each little tableau. He and Bucky picked out some stuff. But the store was overwhelming. Stephen said they could come back any time they wanted. He didn’t mind opening a portal to the store in Brooklyn any time they wanted. Really, Peter needed a bed. The fifth bedroom needed a bed for Sam for the night. And they needed a dining room table to have somewhere to eat that night. Other things could be picked over time.

Peter picked up twelve of the Lugnare candles. They were the entire stock IKEA had. They smelled of a mix of ginger and lavender and pear — May’s favorite candle. He could make the new place smell like home. It would be okay.

They’re having a good time, laughing, enjoying the day out. And yes, people are looking at them. Captain America, War Machine, the Winter Soldier and Dr. Strange were together, and that made an impression. But when someone came over, it wasn’t to talk to them. A man went to Pepper as she was looking through the rugs and launched into a speech about how great Mr. Stark was, how much he had done for the world, how much he was missed.

Pepper held up a hand to stop the man, “Thank you, thank you. I’m here with my daughter. We’re having time with our family. And-”

“I miss Daddy,” said Morgan, having gone from bubbly and bright moments before to frowning and deflated.

“I know, sweetheart. I do too,” said Pepper. The guy looked horrified as he realized how he screwed up. Pepper gave him a tight smile and said, “It was nice to meet you.” Giving her full attention to Morgan, she crouched and stroked her cheek as she said, “I know, baby.”

Peter went to her and scooped her up, hugging her right there in the rug and throw pillow section of IKEA. He said, “Y’know, I lost my mom and dad when I was about your age. It gets easier. You never stop missing your dad, but you’ll stop thinking about him every day. It gets easier. And no one knows what happens when you die, but I like to think you just get to rest, relax and have fun. And I think your dad is hanging out with my mom and dad, and Uncle Ben and May. I think they are having a party. And Ben and your dad knew how to party.”

“Will we see them again?” she asked.

“I don’t know. But I think so; I think we all just go and join the party when we die.”

“I hope so,” said Morgan.

“Me too,” said Peter. She kissed his cheek and wiggled a little to be put down again. She rushed away to show Rhodey a pillow with a penguin on it, and Peter went to Pepper softly, saying, “You okay?”

“They always think they’re being kind. They’re twisting the knife. I don’t need to know that they miss him. We miss him. I don’t need their grief. We have ours. And… I forgot to be sad about May. I thought she was just Happy’s girlfriend who I must have met at some point… I didn’t even remember to grieve for my friend. I can’t handle strangers’ grief when we have more than enough of our own. Little kid grief comes in waves. For the rest of us,” she shrugged. He nodded and hugged her.

“Y’know whenever May and I came, when we got overwhelmed by how big the store was, that’s when we would stop for meatballs. Y’wanna do lunch?”

She laughed, “Yeah, yeah, I really do.”

They ate lunch at the long tables in the café. Laughing and reclaiming the happy vibe they had had before. At one point, Morgan was sitting in Peter’s lap, and Pepper said, “Kids, look at me.” Peter didn’t identify as a kid anymore. But, he knew when he was being addressed. He looked at her and heard the noise her phone made to emulate a camera shutter. Looking at her phone, she said, “Adorable, thank you. I needed a new lockscreen picture.” Peter grinned, and she took another one, “So cute.”

As they were finishing, Peter’s phone rang, and he saw it was the electronic store and said, “Oh no, oh no. It’s my other job. I totally forgot.” Happy started to reach for his phone, and Peter said, “No, they were really nice, Hap. They bought me lunch and gave me an employee discount when I worked there for less than a week.”

“Peter,” said Pepper, “tell them that your situation has changed dramatically and you now have the means to support yourself and focus on studying for the GED. And you apologize for forgetting your shift but explain that the last fourteen hours has been chaotic and emotional with a lot of tears and you moved apartments and that you are currently at IKEA because you don’t have a bed for tonight.”

He nodded and lifted Morgan off his lap, going to the quietest corner of the cafe to call the store back. His boss seemed concerned, and Peter tried to explain things without details. His boss was nice and said, “Peter, are you selling drugs?”

Peter laughed, “No. No. I, I, used to be Tony Stark’s intern. We were very, very close I had a bedroom at his house. He and Pepper viewed me as family. But I lost touch after the Blip. And I didn’t reach out to her when my aunt died and things got bad. I didn’t… I didn’t want to be a burden as Mr. Stark died and things already sucked. And a mutual friend found out I’ve been struggling. And Pepper told me Tony left me a trust fund. He wanted to buy me an apartment when I graduated college. Now Pepper got me an apartment and I’m hanging out with her and Morgan and some Avengers for the first time since my aunt died and there’s a lot of crying but it’s good. I’m good. I’m not selling drugs. I’m eating meatballs at IKEA with Pepper Potts and my friends. I’m good. I just totally forgot my shift because I haven’t seen any of my friends in ten months. I’ll come in and buy my computer. I didn’t mean to leave you short staffed.”

His boss clearly didn’t believe him but said it was okay and Peter could collect his last paycheck when he picked up his computer. The parts were ready whenever Peter could pay for them.

Hanging up, he returned to his friends and said, “My boss thinks I’m selling drugs and lying.” He told them about the conversation, how friendly everyone he worked with was, and how unfortunate it was, especially as he had already built a quarter of a computer.

Nodding, Pepper said, “You and I will go together to pick it up.”

Chapter Four

After lunch, they brought everything home. It felt weird to call anywhere home, even in his own head. Looking around, he went into the kitchen, started the coffee machine and put bread in the toaster. He lit one of the candles and fried some garlic. Breathing deeply as the bread began to burn, he said, “Karen, or maybe F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you control the air flow?” There was a speaker on the counter like an Echo dot, he would have to install her properly, but he wasn’t sure how much access Happy had given her.

“Sure, Peter,” said Karen, “The toaster is really going dark.”

He saw smoke starting to come from the toaster and pressed the cancel button. He tossed the toast into the garbage, poured out finished coffee into mugs and took the garlic off the stove, breathing in the scent in the room.

“This place is huge, the scent of the kitchen can’t reach my bedroom without help. This is what home smells like: this candle, coffee, burnt toast and cooked garlic. If this is going to be home, I want it to smell like home.”

MJ and Ned came in, and both breathed in deeply and sighed. Ned smiled, “Oh, God, Peter, I feel like we should be breaking out homework.”

MJ said, “I feel like we should be waiting for May to go out so we can make out.”

Ned picked up a cup of coffee, “Do you have milk?”

“A little,” said Peter, getting it from the fridge. “Karen, would you let people know there’s coffee if they want it?”

“Of course, Peter.”

People started coming in, and Happy sighed happily, “It smells perfect in here.” He picked up a coffee and drank it black.

The doorbell rang, and Peter asked, “Who could possibly be ringing this bell?”

“DUM-E,” said F.R.I.D.A.Y. “He doesn’t like leaving the apartment, but he wanted to see you and Happy had a fabricator you can use to make a new suit. And I put a rush order on everything you’ll need to install Karen. I also ordered all of the chemicals you need for your web fluid. He has a lot of material and tools.”

Peter smiled and rushed to the door to meet the robot. He opened the door to DUM-E. The bot had a fabricator and four carts of stuff around him. Peter greeted his old friend, so pleased to see him okay after the explosion. DUM-E just kept gripping him with his claw and then patting his face. Peter felt someone behind him and turned to see Bucky. He smiled, “DUM-E, this is Bucky, he is my friend. He lives here too. Bucky, this is DUM-E, he’s probably the smartest learning robot on Earth. He’s a learning bot who is, like, thirty-five years old. He’s brilliant. And he’s super nice.”

“You’re friends with a robot? That’s amazing. It’s great to meet you, DUM-E,” Bucky held out his hand, and DUM-E shook it. Then he reached out to tap Bucky’s metal arm, “Yeah, I’m part robot, but not amazing like you.”

DUM-E bounced at the praise. He turned to Peter and preened. “Yeah,” Peter agreed, “Bucky thinks you’re amazing. I really missed you. I’m going to have a lab. I know you love living with Happy. And I wouldn’t dream of stealing you away because he loves you. But, if you want to come hangout with me in the lab, that would be pretty awesome.” DUM-E made happy beeping noises. He started gesturing around to all the stuff in the hall. “Yeah, okay, buddy, let’s bring this through to the lab. There’s gym equipment in there right now because the people before us mistakenly thought the lab was a gym.”

DUM-E didn’t have hands, just his claw. That meant he was better at nudging than moving things. Peter took two of the carts; Bucky grabbed the other two; DUM-E nudged the fabricator along. DUM-E was looking around curiously as he followed them to their new lab. Once there, DUM-E peered at the exercise equipment before zipping around it and going to the windows. He tapped on them and turned back to Peter.

“I know,” agreed Peter, “it’s not blast-proof. But I don’t plan on doing anything crazy.”

DUM-E just stared at him, and Bucky started to laugh. “DUM-E, he’s not lying.”

DUM-E shook his claw slowly like they were idiots.

“Maybe I’ll upgrade the glass,” said Peter and DUM-E nodded enthusiastically.

Morgan came in, skipping, “DUM-E, I came to say hi. It’s been two weeks since I saw you.” DUM-E reached down to pat her head. She smiled at Bucky, “DUM-E is my big brother; Daddy made him. He used to live with us, but he moved in Uncle Happy. Uncle Happy says big brothers move out.”

“He is thirty-five,” agreed Bucky.

“How old are you?” asked Morgan looking at him with open curiosity.

“Well, I was born one hundred and six years ago. But… I’m thirty-three,” Bucky sighed like he was pained to say it, and Peter laughed.

“We live weird little lives, don’t we, Morgan?” he asked.

She nodded, “Yeah. Bucky, did you used to ride horses? ‘Cause cars weren’t invented back then, right?”

“Cars were invented. Your grandpa, Howard Stark, made a flying car. I saw it in person.”

“That’s so cool,” she said. “Mommy says we gotta start building stuff if you want a bed to sleep in tonight.”

“Okay, Maguna,” Peter scooped her up. “Let’s go, DUM, y’wanna help?”

He nodded and trundled along with them.

Pepper was drinking from a mug and said, “Thank you for the coffee. The place smells great.”

“Thanks,” he said with a smile. “So, you’re good at plans. How do we get this done?”

They split into groups. Pepper directed the “kids” into Peter’s bedroom. He, Ned, MJ, Morgan and DUM-E were left facing his new bedroom furniture and old decorations. He turned on his laptop, that he hadn’t seen in months and opened Spotify to his “Get It Done” playlist that he and Ned used to listen to while building LEGO.

They built while listening; Morgan was supervising. They were short a hammer, but Peter just pushed nails in with his thumb. He, Ned and MJ made his bed while DUM-E made both bedside tables. Then Peter made his dresser while Ned made a chaise lounge and MJ made a chair.

Looking at the chaise lounge, MJ said, “Why did you pick that?”

“Because Pepper pointed out that my chair will become a clothes chair and… she supported me on IKEA so when she pointed it out, I said, ‘Oh it’s perfect, Pep.’ It’s a huge room: it fits a couch.”

“Do you like it?” asked Morgan.

“Yeah, it’s perfect,” repeated Peter. He put his newly washed sheets on the bed along with his quilt. The quilt was never intended for a king-sized bed, but he didn’t care — his mom made it, and it had always been on his bed. She’d made it for him to grow into; it could fit a full-sized bed. She had probably assumed he would have outgrown the desire for his mom’s quilt by the time he had a big-ass bed. But he was young to have a massive bed. And she had died when he was so very young.

He started to figure out where to put up his art — pushing in nails to hang up posters, photos and sports memorabilia. Ned put all of Peter’s clothes into this dresser, went into his closet and said, “Your walk-in closet massive has a set of drawers.”

“Pepper says that’s for out of season clothes,” said Peter.

MJ laughed from where she was reclined on the chaise lounge.

“It’s bigger than your old room,” Ned called from the closet. “There’s a built-in bench next to… maybe a shoe rack? This apartment is massive. Karen made the air in here smell like your place.”

“Awesome. I want my stuff to smell of home,” said Peter. He finished hanging his things and said, “Morgan, what do you think?”

“Very you,” she said.

***

Pepper and he went to the computer shop while Happy set up his internet and access to things like Netflix. His boss was behind the counter, fixing a StarkWatch when they went in. His eyes went huge when he saw Pepper.

Pepper was in full-on graceful goddess mode, thanking him for looking after Peter, saying that Peter had been working three jobs for over a hundred hours a week for ten months, “Yours is the only place he felt badly about not quitting in person in. Thank you for making a workplace where employees feel valued enough to want to quit in person. Businessperson to businessperson — we know how rare that is.”

It was pandering, but she said it with so much sincerity, and Peter’s boss bought it and was flattered. Pepper saw the watch and said, “Peter helped my husband design the second generation of that watch. He’s been a genius since he was a kid. Peter’s been a part of my family since he was fourteen but things since the Blip… I’m thrilled I’m with him now.” She reached out to straighten Peter’s waves. “Pete said he was buying a computer through you and that you have all the parts.”

Peter’s boss nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, sure, Peter, you have everything in your area set aside, you can go back if you want.”

“Thank you,” said Peter, going behind the counter, “I appreciate it.”

In the backroom, he pulled out everything he had ordered and everything he needed to put it together. He carried everything out to the desk, and his boss pulled up his spreadsheet. He reviewed the wholesale cost and said, “Do you want me to subtract your last paycheck? I can do it pretax.”

“That’s a good deal,” said Pepper, “do that.”

Peter smiled, “I know, Pepper. But thank you for your advice.” He knew the store preferred checks if they trusted the customer. He said, “I have a checkbook. It has my new address on it.”

“That’s great. I am so pleased for you,” said his boss. “And you know I like checks. I don’t get a surcharge.”

“Thanks for letting me have the employee discount.”

“You were a good employee for months. I appreciate the help. You’re always welcome back.”

“Thanks, I’ve been trying to get ready for college between my three jobs and now…I’m going to go to college. Thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome, Peter. Take care of yourself, kid.” Looking at Pepper, the man added, “Take care of him.”

“Oh, believe me, he’s got a whole family looking out for him now.”

***

There was an old woman in their apartment when he and Pepper went back. There was also a take-out spread on the fully assembled dining table.

The woman said, “Hello, I’m Rebecca.”

The name tickled something in his mind. He remembered the paper he wrote about Bucky in AP World History. Smiling, he said, “Oh, Bucky’s baby sister?”

“Baby sister,” she laughed.

“He’s very proud of being the oldest,” said Peter. “He’s only thirty-three but he is still the oldest.”

She laughed, “How do you know each other? He was cagey, he just said his new roommate is nineteen and is talking him into college.”

“We met through Mr. Stark. It’s sort of a touchy subject because I miss Mr. Stark so much that it hurts, and Bucky and Mr. Stark didn’t get along. They would have… given more time. But Bucky and I really get along.”

She studied him and said, “Y’know, Steve Rogers was a tiny guy and my big brother followed him into all sorts of trouble.”

Peter laughed, “Hey, he wasn’t even five foot five. I’m five foot nine and compact not skinny. And Steve Rogers wanted to fight bullies and get into trouble and mischief; I’m an honor roll student. Steve dragged Bucky into back-alley fights; I’m pulling him into college. Once upon a time I would have been thrilled to be compared to Steve Rogers. Nowadays, if you’re going to compare me to Captain America, it had better be Sam or I’m gonna be offended. I was a huge fan of Steve’s as a kid but… Mr. Stark was my friend, and I don’t like the way Steve treated any of his friends.”

She smiled, “It’s very nice to meet you, Peter.”

Pepper talked to Stephen about visiting Midtown Science and Tech on Monday. They would tell Principal Morita that Stephen had made a big mistake and get Peter’s transcript. Karen piped up that Peter’s transcript was in the system, as were his college recommendation letters.

“Karen, you can’t hack the school,” said Peter.

“Oh, I totally can,” she replied, “it was super easy.”

“We still need to go so they can send it to ESU for you,” said Pepper. “Karen, don’t hack things Peter doesn’t ask you to hack.”

“Of course,” said Stephen. “We can do anything to fix this.”

“I need to make a quick trip to MIT after dinner for clothes,” said MJ.

“Me too,” said Ned.

Stephen nodded, not calling it a misuse of magic, not pointing out that he was a master of the mystic arts and not a cab service. As they ate, Peter said, “Thank you, all, for your help today. I can’t believe we went to IKEA. But, this place looks great, and it feels very homey.”

Rebecca looked confused by his words, and Peter saw Bucky leaning into her, softly explaining Peter’s recent problems. They discussed getting rid of gym equipment, and Peter said he would donate it to F.E.A.S.T. It was fancy equipment: they could sell it if they didn’t want it.

Eating with people who cared about him in a warm, friendly space was the first time he’d felt really happy and comfortable in ten months. He felt himself unwind, and Morgan said, “Peter, you’re crying again.”

“It’s happy crying, Maguna,” Peter said. “I’m just feeling really good and happy. I missed you, sweetheart.”

She climbed into his lap and cuddled up close to him. He rocked her gently. They talked and ate, Morgan not joining in, and, after a little while, Pepper said, “She is fast asleep. I’ll put her down in her room.” He kissed the top of her head before handing her off to Pepper. Once Morgan was gone, MJ curled up next to him.

The older people were yawning after the late night, and Peter was always tired. He could see that MJ and Ned were wide awake. Bucky also looked fine, but he was a super soldier. Ten months of exhaustion, despite the combination of being both young and enhanced, meant Peter was tired. Now, undernutrition and chronic fatigue meant Peter was never rested. MJ smiled at him and took his hand. Standing, she said, “Stephen, I need clothes, please. Peter, we can give Gwen the gym equipment to appease her for me disappearing.” He nodded, and she said, “Then bed; you’re dragging.”

First, Ned went to his dorm. His roommate didn’t bat an eye, just bro-nodded at Ned as he collected clothes. Once the portal was closed, Ned said, “He’s taken apathy to an art form.”

When the portal opened to MJ’s dorm, it was totally different. Gwen was not apathetic. She had a music app open and said, “Oh my God, thank God, you’re alive. Is that a Dr. Strange portal?”

Stephen leaned in and said, “Hello.”

“Stephen, Gwen, Gwen, Stephen,” said MJ. “He erased my boyfriend from living memory.”

“I made a terrible, terrible mistake. I will never be able to apologize enough.”

MJ collected up a bag of things and explained, “Pepper bought Peter an apartment… because everything is terrible. It has a gym. He doesn’t want the equipment. He wants to make a lab. So, I claimed the Elliptical and Peloton for you.”

Their beds could be stacked into bunk beds. Needing more space, Bucky and Sam stacked the beds after introducing themselves. Gwen just looked stunned and asked how they knew “Michelle.”

“Peter was Tony Stark’s beloved intern,” said Sam before explaining that Bucky’s brain was different, so he remembered.

MJ went into her desk and pulled out a box of photos. She flicked through them and found ones of her and Peter. “I knew these were too important to throw away even though they made no sense.” They were obviously couples photos — the two of them cuddled up and laughing, some even kissing. She put six up on her whiteboard above her desk. And she put up one from Freshman year of them as kids with Ned, MJ faking indifference as Peter and Ned grinned at the camera.

Peter and Gwen exchanged phone numbers, and he gave her his address and said he’d be back for a visit. Her parents also lived in Manhattan, and he said, “When they drive you crazy, I have a spare bedroom.” Fitting the workout equipment was tight, but Gwen was excited about it.

After the portal closed, MJ said, “You’re exhausted; we’re going to bed.”

Peter nodded and said, “Good night, everyone, shout if you need us.”

MJ led him to bed and, in his room, said, “Are you as tired?”

“No, I’m more awake. I miss you.”

They stripped each other, and MJ said, “We gotta break in your bed.” She pulled condoms from his bedside table. “I saw Pepper shove these in here awkwardly. I have never seen her behave more like a mother. Usually, she’s so cool. But she was so awkward when stashing condoms for you.”

“Very sweet of her to worry about us having a baby,” said Peter.

Relearning each other’s bodies felt amazing. Being in a king-sized bed was different and new. And they knew that MJ’s mom and May weren’t about to come in, so they didn’t have to be covert or fast. As they relaxed against each other, she laughed and said, “God, this feels good. I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” he kissed her shoulder, stroking his hand up and down her back.

They curled together, and MJ said, “Get some sleep, Peter, you’re exhausted.”

“I love you,” he said, kissing her neck.

“I love you too,” she promised.

***

Getting rid of the equipment was easy; they brought it to F.E.A.S.T. The staff was thrilled with it, and Anna said that Peter was looking great. Peter just laughed and said he’d slept for a couple of good nights. Anna had recognized Happy. He’d come to F.E.A.S.T. a couple of times with May.

Happy looked between Anna and Peter and said, “Anna, I’d like you to meet Stephen Strange.” Stephen gave a half wave, knowing where Happy was going with his words. “Ten months ago, he had a spell go wrong and erased Peter from people’s memories. Peter is Peter Parker — May’s nephew. You knew him. You cared about him.”

Peter smiled at her as she looked awkwardly at him, “You’ve been just as kind to me as you always were. May always taught me that F.E.A.S.T. was a place for people who needed some help. You’ve kept me going for ten months. Thank you.”

“Were we close?” she asked.

“You came to my birthday parties when I was little,” said Peter. “One time I won you and May prizes at Coney Island. She didn’t want to take me and my best friend all by herself after Ben died. We were a handful. We were as close as anyone is with their parent’s friend.”

“My little panda?” she asked.

He nodded, “Yeah, I’m good at boardwalk games.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss. And I’m so sorry that I haven’t said it before.”

“Thank you,” he said softly.

“We have some things from her office. A couple of pictures. I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the offices and came back with a vaguely haunted looked. Peter knew what to expect before he saw the pictures. They were framed photos of her and him together. “I didn’t notice,” she said, sounding confused. “You’ve been coming in for months, but I didn’t notice.”

“That’s wholly my fault,” said Stephen.

Peter accepted the photos from her and said, “Thank you for these. And thanks for everything since she died.”

“Let’s go home?” asked Happy.

Peter smiled at the word home and said, “Yeah, home.”