Chapter Text
Peter was usually in a rush to get to school every morning, mainly due to night patrols going on for longer than anticipated, which caused him to sleep through his alarm. Today though, the reason wasn’t due to patrols, but simply was due to him staying up late. He had wanted some regressing time, and since his schedule was so jam-packed, tiny time had to happen at 2 in the morning after his night patrol. It’s was moments like this though where he was truly grateful he had a loving aunt who could have very well chose to let him be late for school every day and give him a lecture about responsibility, but instead chose to lovingly and gently wake him and remind him the bus arrived in 10 minutes before she went to work.
The haze of regression and sleepiness lingered in his mind, so he ran around in a daze trying to get himself ready for school. After he got dressed, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and tied his shoes, he shoved his books into his backpack. He didn’t realize he had also shoved in something else.
Peter bursted out the door (before running back to lock the door because he realized he forgot), ran down the sidewalk, and caught the bus just as it was about to close its doors. He breathed a sigh of relief as he slumped down in his seat. This moment of rest allowed him to turn his attention to his backpack, which looked more stuffed than usual. He slowly opened it, revealing a fluffy brown teddy bear with a red and blue striped bowtie. He immediately felt half-small at the sight of the bear, and this did not help his embarrassment. With a bright red face, he quickly zipped up the backpack before anyone could see.
That bear was his absolute favorite stuffed animal. Uncle Ben had given it to him when he and Aunt May had gotten custody of him. He had hauled it around everywhere when he was a kid, and he still carried it around when he was regressed, except the bear was limited to the home.
Except for today, apparently. He had accidentally brought his stuffie to school! And now he felt half-small before school even started, and he had a history exam, one of his worst subjects. Just another sucky day in the life of luckless Peter Parker…
But the childish thought that he now had a friend to get him through the exam and the day provided him some comfort. Peter hugged his backpack close to his chest as he imagined his fluffy friend cheering him on.
You can do this, Peter! I’ll be right there with you. You’ll do great on that exam, I just know it. I believe in you!
He had History first period. Best to get it over with, he guessed…
The bear being there had surprisingly helped lessen his anxiety, and probably helped him do better than he would’ve without the bear. He was almost brought to tears and almost fully regressed over the short answer section, as it seemed like he couldn’t remember anything, but the reminder that his fluffy friend was right there with him was just the push he needed to calm himself down and really focus. It was the first time he had handed in a history test confident he didn’t fail it.
When he opened his backpack to put his pencil case away, he also secretly checked on his friend. Peter felt bad that his bear had to be confined to his small, scuffed, smelly backpack, but it had to be that way. He couldn’t risk anyone seeing and telling everyone that Peter Parker brought a stuffed animal to school. He’d never hear the end of it.
He breezed his way through the rest of the day and walked out of school with light, happy steps. He went into an alleyway to change into his Spider-Man costume, but before he did so, he gave his stuffed bear a big hug and cuddled with it for a few minutes. He really wanted to regress, but New York needed Spider-Man. So with a heavy heart, he put his bear back into his backpack.
“Sorry…” Peter mumbled. “I’ll come back for you, promise. Protect my bag while I’m gone.”
He webbed the backpack high up on the wall before zipping away.