Chapter Text
Peter shot up with a gasp, a scream poised on his lips as he was thrown out of his nightmare.
Hunching over, Peter took in gasping breathes as images of black goo and large white eyes that stared back at him faded. The psychological wounds that Venom had left behind on Peter were healing but not fast enough for his taste. It was tiring to have these nightmares and flinching away at things that reminded him of the parasite.
Rubbing the nightmare from his eyes, Peter cracked them open to take in the disheveled blanket covering his legs. He looked around the living room on the Stark family’s private floor where Peter had fallen asleep on the couch after school. Last night had been one where Peter had gotten almost no sleep – cheers to another nightmare about Venom – and he felt dead on his feet after getting home from school.
The blanket spread out over his legs told Peter that someone had come by and saw him. He was grateful for the blanket as it showed they cared. Looking out the window, Peter could see that it was now dark compared to the sun that was starting to get low in the sky when he flopped onto the couch.
There was a buzz at Peter’s side and he looked down to see his phone face down. He perked up at the thought that Ned or Michelle had texted him and picked the phone up, flipping it over to see the screen. His excitement died when he saw what the notification actually was.
“Goblins and Spiders! How the new villain Green Goblin and the Spider-Menace are actually partners in crime!”
Peter frowned at the title of the article and threw his phone off to the side of the couch. He didn’t need to hear more about how the Daily Bugle hated him again. There was plenty of newspapers articles out there that already slandered him to the moon and back.
His thoughts did cling to the Green Goblin though. He was a new villain that was climbing in notoriety despite his short time on the scene. The Green Goblin had only recently become a name whispered amongst the civilians. No one could pin down the reason the drove the goblin as he destroyed multiple buildings before zooming off in the cloud coverage again on his high-tech hover board. He had appeared during the small break Peter had taken so he could recover from his Venom possession and no matter how late and often Peter stayed out, he never crossed paths with him.
“Stupid Daily Bugle,” Peter murmured under his breath. “Why do I even have their app downloaded?”
“Petey!” Morgan cheered as she came running into the common space Peter was in.
Peter perked up and pushed thoughts of James J. Jameson and the Green Goblin out of his head to give his sister his full attention. His lips quirked into a smile to see Morgan in her child’s sized Spider-Man suit and laughed as she raised her wrists to pose as him.
“Do you like my costume?!” Morgan exclaimed and practically vibrated in her spot in excitement.
“I would have passed you off as the new Spider-Man,” Peter laughed. He pushed himself off of the couch and swooped Morgan up into his arms. “Or, I guess I should call you Spider-Girl,” he grinned and booped the girl on the nose.
Morgan giggle and kicked her feet in joy.
“Fri, please tell me you got a picture of that,” Tony’s voice cut in as he revealed himself from a few strides behind Morgan.
“Of course, Sir,” came Friday’s cool reply. “It is already saved to your personal drive and backed-up on several hard drives.”
“Perfect,” Tony grinned and sauntered up with his hands in his pockets. “I see you’ve seen the little miss’s costume for Halloween.”
“I have,” Peter grinned and bounced Morgan on his arm to make his sister squeal in joy.
“I tried to convince her to go as a mini Ironman but as you can see, I was unsuccessful,” Tony sighed dramatically.
“I’m going as my favorite hero,” Morgan chirped and wrapped her arms around Peter’s neck in a hug.
“Aww, Mo,” Peter cooed.
“If it was anyone other than Peter, that statement would have probably hurt my feelings,” Tony said with a wink at his kids.
“Maybe I should go as my favorite hero,” Peter murmured to himself but loud enough for Tony to hear.
Tony’s face fell at that. “No,” he vetoed. “I’m not going trick-or-treating with two of my three kids going as heroes other than me. The media would have a field day with it.”
“Three?” Peter furrowed his brow.
“Harley is driving down to join us,” Tony answered.
“Really?” Peter brightened. He hadn’t seen Harley in a while as he was away at college up at M.I.T. and he didn’t get much time to come visit between studying and see his own biological family.
“Morgan invited him,” Tony said and jerked his chin at his daughter. “And there was no way he could turn her down.”
“I’m very convincing,” Morgan smirked with a wrinkle of her nose.
Peter laughed and rubbed his nose against Morgan’s. “That you are, my little world dominator.”
“Are you going to go trick-or-treating with us?” Morgan asked. She had her best puppy-dog eyes on and Peter could see Tony snickering behind them as he knew there was no way Peter would be able to resist them.
“Well, if I have the protection of the mighty Spider-Girl,” he teased and booped Morgan on the nose again to make her giggle, “then I guess I can make some time.”
“And Chelly and Neddy!” Morgan chirped.
Peter’s smile grew larger. It would be so much fun to get everyone together for a night of fun and candy. If he told them that Morgan personally asked for them, then he knew they would fold immediately.
“We should all go as the avengers then,” Peter announced with a sly look at Tony. “We can all argue on who should be Thor.”
Tony shot Peter a fake angry look. “You know what – just for that, everyone besides Morgan is barred as going as a superhero.”
“There goes my plans then,” Peter fake pouted. “When am I supposed to live my dream as dressing up for Halloween as a superhero?”
“You’re already a super hero, Petey,” Morgan giggled.
“And don’t you forget it,” Peter winked at Morgan.
Tony rolled his eyes at the dramatics of his children but the smile never left his face.
“Both of you have your costumes?” Peter asked his girlfriend and best friend.
“No, I totally forgot it home even after you texted us three times about it this morning,” Michelle said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.
“I’m just making sure,” Peter chuckled with his hands held up in surrender.
“I got my Obi Won costume in my book bag,” Ned answered Peter’s question with a lift of his shoulders to shake his bag. “What are you going as?”
“A ghost,” Peter answered. Michelle snorted and Peter gave a fake offended gasp. “Do you have something against ghosts?”
“When it is literally just you wearing a sheet with holes cut out for you to see, then yeah,” Michelle answered.
“Why a ghost?” Ned asked.
“It’s the easiest costume for you guys to carry until I can join up with you all,” Peter answered.
“He has a point,” Ned said to Michelle. She stuck her tongue out at him to which Ned returned.
“Wait until you see Morgan in her costume,” Peter beamed. “She’s so cute.”
Speaking of Morgan, they heard Peter’s excited younger sister’s voice squeal as she spotted the three teenagers sauntering up to her school. It was a day that Peter wasn’t patrolling right after school and there was no AcaDec due to the holiday. The weather was more on the warmer side in an unusual turn of events which made Peter’s mood brighter.
“Petey!” Morgan cheered as she jumped in place inside the gate of her school’s playground. Her costume mask was held in her hands but she was wearing the rest of her spider-man ensemble.
“Hey Mo,” Peter greeted with a lazy wave and turned around. He saw her teacher and also waved to her. “Hi Mrs. Smith.”
“Hello Peter,” Morgan’s teacher inclined her head in greeting. She turned her attention to the young girl at her side that was practically vibrating at her side. “You have everything little miss spider-morgan?”
“Yes!” Morgan exclaimed and Peter could hear all the candy she had gotten for the day jostle around in her bag.
“Then you are free to go with your brother,” Mrs. Smith said and opened the gate for Morgan to go. “Have a good and safe Halloween all of you,” she said to the teenagers and her student.
“Thanks Mrs. Smith,” Peter said to the teacher. “See you next time.” Morgan grabbed ahold of one of his hands so he used the other to wave over his shoulder.
Morgan wrapped her free hand around Michelle’s after passing her bookbag off to Ned. They each took up their positions around Morgan and started their trek home. It was a lively affair with the four of them, especially with Morgan regaling her fun school day to the teenagers. With a single stop at a donut shop to get a sweet treat, they made it home in no time.
They had all been in the elevator as Peter and Michelle swung Morgan in the air by their joined hands, making the little girl giggle, when they reached their stop and the doors opened. On the other side leading into the main living space, they all saw Harley leaning on his forearms on the kitchen counter as he talked to Pepper. He looked over as the elevator opened and his smile grew when he saw who it was.
“Harley!” Morgan cheered when she saw her oldest brother. She ran forward with her arms held out.
“Morgan!” Harley laughed as he scooped Morgan up by her armpits and lifted her into the air, spinning her around before pulling her in close. “I swear you’ve grown a whole foot since I’ve seen you last.”
“She’s going through a growth spurt so you’re not that far off,” Pepper giggled into her hand. She came sauntering out of the kitchen with a plate of Halloween themed snacks in each hand. She placed them down on the table and waved the teenagers over. “Come have a snack. Peter, one plate is just for you.”
“Heck yeah!” Peter cheered and dropped his bag on the floor. He rushed forward and grabbed the plate on the right, jumping right in by shoveling one snack at a time into his mouth.
“Why does Peter get a plate just for himself?” Harley pouted.
“Because he has a super metabolism,” Michelle answered and flicked Harley in the temple making the college student yelp. “We don’t need him passing out on patrol again.”
“It was only two times,” Peter argued softly.
“And four times where you nearly did,” Tony cut in as he entered the living room. He had a streak of grease on his cheek and one of his old band tees meaning that he had been working on the old car engine again.
“Hey, the next time there is a prison break, you can go chase them all down by yourself then,” Peter countered with a shit-eating grin.
Tony rolled his eyes and lightly smacked Peter upside his head. He leaned in to kiss Pepper on the lips as he walked by into the kitchen to grab a wet wash cloth. “Is everyone okay with watching Halloween specials until we go meet up with Peter for trick-or-treating?”
“What do you mean meet up with him?” Harley frowned in confusion and pointed at his surrogate brother who was scarfing down food noisily next to him. “He’s right here.”
“I gotta go patrol for a bit,” Peter said around a full mouth of food.
“Swallow then speak, sweetheart,” Pepper instructed Peter softly.
Peter nodded and swallowed a large lump of food, chasing it down with a gulp of water that Michelle passed over to him. He took a breath to make sure he was all good. “It’s going to be a crazy night so I’m going to take an early shift of patrol and then take a break to trick-or-treat with you all before heading back out.”
“What?” Harley’s mouth fell open. “You have to work on Halloween?”
“I know. It’s unfair,” Michelle frowned.
“I’m a hero,” Peter shrugged. “I have to stop the bad guys.”
“I wanna be a hero,” Morgan murmured as she took a big of her snack.
Something akin to fear flashed in Tony and Pepper’s eyes before they blinked it away. Tony reached down to ruffle Morgan’s hair. “Not for a long time, little miss, if ever.”
“What about when I’m the same age Petey started?” she asked.
“Absolutely not,” everyone chimed in at the same time.
Morgan slouched in her chair and jutted her bottom lip out in a pout. “Aww, don’t be like that, Mo,” Peter said to soothe his sister. He sat up straight as he perked up with an idea. “Hey, I have the perfect job for you. What about you become a gal-in-the-chair?”
That caught Morgan’s attention. “Like Neddy?” she asked.
“Even better than me,” Ned beamed as he chimed in.
“Better than being active in the field,” Tony murmured under his breath but Peter heard it clear enough.
Peter’s watch that also acted as his panic button that Tony forced him to wear since the volcano incident beeped with an alarm. Looking down at it, Peter dismissed the alarm and stuffed the last bit of his snack into his mouth. “That’s my cue,” he said around full mouth and stood up from the chair.
Reaching down, he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his head to reveal his suit that he had been wearing underneath. Peter aimed his wrist at his book bag and shot a web to grab his bookbag. He gave it a sharp tug to send the bag flying towards him and grabbed the bag out of the air, pulling it open to grab his mask from inside it.
“Don’t forget that we’re meeting up at six to go trick-or-treating,” Tony reminded his kid.
“I know,” Peter said and kicked off his pants as he hopped over to the window that Friday opened for him. “I’ll see all of you later,” Peter smiled as he pulled his mask over his head.
“Try not to get shot!” Tony called after him.
“No promises!” Peter laughed as he jumped out and shot a web into the web to carry him into the city.