Chapter Text
Peter Parker didn’t need a mentor in his life.
Not anymore.
He told himself this frequently and he almost believed it.
He was his own man now. Losing Mr. Stark had set him on that path, and then………his mind fogged with pain when he tried to think about it…that other loss… But it had sealed his fate and thrown him into the deep end of adulthood – ready or not.
And without anyone else to lean on, the deep end was very, very deep.
It was weirdly comforting to know that the other Peters were out there…living their own lives…facing their own struggles. They were two guys who understood him on a level that nobody else ever could. But that comfort was mingled with a sense of profound isolation.
They were literally universes apart.
Somehow, even alone, It had been surprisingly easy to piece together some semblance of a life.
After a few intensely anxious days of investigation, he was able to ascertain that the identity of Peter Parker did still exist on paper, and that Spider-Man’s recently deceased publicist/philanthropist had left her estate to that distant nephew. Peter enlisted the help of his Aunt’s lawyer, Mr. Murdock, in order to claim his inheritance and apply for legal emancipation. While the blind lawyer naturally had no memory of meeting Peter, he seemed a genuinely good guy and was happy to help a relative of his old friend. He’d even agreed to co-sign the lease to Peter's new apartment, at least until Peter was old enough to take full legal responsibility.
Oh, and he was Daredevil.
Peter had strongly suspected something was up with Murdock. He didn’t know many blind people, but he was pretty darn sure superhuman reflexes didn’t come standard issue with that particular condition, so he’d shadowed the lawyer a few times between their business-related meetings and, sure enough: champion of the legally downtrodden by day, champion of the literally downtrodden by night. Matt Murdock and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen were the same guy.
Since learning of Daredevil’s identity, Peter made a point of dropping by the Kitchen a few times a week to check in on the masked vigilante and even, occasionally, team up. The Devil had initially been somewhat resistant to the idea of working with him (Peter wasn’t sure if it was Spider-Man’s notoriety or the fact he was pretty sure Mr. Murdock could tell he was a teenager), but they had eventually developed a mutual respect and unwritten rules for working together.
They had learned about one another’s abilities as well.
Spider-Man was orders of magnitude stronger than Daredevil and could heal much faster than the vigilante, who was practically human in that regard. The Devil claimed he could use some kind of ninja meditation technique to speed healing up a little, and Peter thought that was probably BS. But Daredevil did have sharper reflexes and better enhanced senses than Spider-Man, and he’d trained extensively in a variety of martial arts so that he could take full advantage of those enhanced senses and reflexes, making him an exquisitely dangerous fighter and making Spider-Man look downright clumsy by comparison.
He’d offered to train Spidey to fight, but Peter had refused, at least for now.
As he told himself frequently– he didn’t need a mentor in his life.
Peter Parker didn’t need a mentor in his life.
The teenager hadn’t quite said it to Matt out loud, but everything about the young man’s guarded attitude practically screamed it.
The kid had suffered loss -a lot more of it than he was willing to talk about- and he was trying to come to terms with it and make a way for himself in the world. On his own.
Matt wanted to help, but, being acutely familiar with the experience and mindset of orphaned-teenager-reaching-for-independence, understood that attempting to bring Peter under his wing would almost certainly result in the kid pulling up stakes and getting his legal and practical advice elsewhere. It would be a shame, both because he felt bad about not being there to help May Parker, and because Peter seemed like a genuinely good kid who was just trying to put the pieces of his life back together.
Oh, and he was Spider-Man.
Not long after the kid had shown up at the office for legal assistance he noticed that he was being followed on his walk home by somebody moving quietly across adjacent rooftops. He’d resigned himself to yet another battle with Hand ninjas when a closer inspection revealed that his stalker was none other than Peter Parker. Matt was so shocked he almost gave himself away. Almost.
Eventually, after due consideration, he decided to let Spider-Man ‘discover’ that he was Daredevil. He’d researched the web-crawler’s history and affiliations, learning that the young superhero had been recruited and mentored by Stark and was considered by some to be a member of the Avengers before falling from grace in some international terrorism debacle. If he ever got to know the kid, he’d have to ask him about that– carefully. But as far as anybody knew, at the moment Spider-Man was operating alone once again, and in New York. With both his superhero mentor and only parental figure recently deceased, the young man could certainly benefit from whatever support he was willing to accept, in or out of costume. Matt figured the web-crawler side of Peter Parker couldn’t resist the temptation of a superhero team-up, and he’d been right. It was…concerning… to go around beating up petty criminals with a teenager, but the kid had taken on far more dangerous opponents with far less backup, and, if anything, they quickly learned that Matt was the more vulnerable of the two.
He was concerned at Spidey’s lack of technical fighting expertise. He hadn’t gotten an origin story out of the kid just yet, but ‘trained by ninjas’ was definitely not part of it.
He offered to teach Peter some techniques but wasn’t surprised when the answer was, “No thanks, Mr. D. I appreciate the offer but…things to do, places to be.”
Daredevil nodded. Matt understood.
Peter Parker didn’t need a mentor in his life.
Not now.