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Peter pulled at the bottom of his mask, making a disturbing choking noise for a moment before coughing up what looked his insides, just in time to miss catching any of it on his suit. Not that his suit was faring much better than his insides, but still, walking around with blood/puke/maybe his liver decorating his suit didn’t sound too pleasant.
“Shit, kid, you alive?”
Peter panted harshly, trying to spit out as much of the vile substance in his mouth that he could. He looked up warily when he felt like he might be done, and looked through the upper half of his mask. Deadpool, whom he’d only ever actually run into a few times before, was standing there, somehow looking concerned behind his mask. Peter kind of wanted to throw up again, shakily trying to push to his feet. “I’m fine.”
Fine, right. Actually, he had needed Deadpool’s help just to stand all the way up at all, but he was fine. He’d be damned to hell if he let SHIELD try and pick him up while he was this weak again. He was covered in blood, mostly his own, and he’s pretty sure that something in his right leg was snapped. Not sure if it was a tendon or a bone though, because it hurt so damn much. He just couldn’t let SHIELD get a hold of him again.
It wasn’t that he liked living on the streets, he didn’t. No one that lived on the streets liked it, but… he preferred it… to his other options at least.
“Kid, you need a doctor. I’m pretty sure you just barfed up a spleen.”
Peter tired his head away from Deadpool a little, looking sick. “It’s fine. I have a healing factor. Whatever I just lost will grow back.”
Deadpool made a grossed out noise, “Yuck, my body does that too. Sucks balls. You still need a doctor, if you’ve got internal tearing this bad.”
Peter was starting to lose vision in his left eye, that might be a good idea. “C-can’t.”
Wade sighed, pulling the bottom of his own mask up so he could speak better, “What do you mean you can’t?”
Peter shook his head minimally, leaning against the merc’s side. “Can’t afford a hospital. Don’t have any money.”
Wade sighed. He was a mercenary, and he did his job damn well, but no one in this world was paying him to let this kid stay hurt and in pain. He was also a father and husband. This was someone’s little boy, and he was fading fast.
He rolled his eyes, deciding to hell with it, and picked the kid up. He expected the kid to at least yell at him a little, but he didn’t. Wow, Spiderman was nearly down for the count, and that was actually worrisome. “Lucky for you, SHIELD is around the corner cleaning up the mess you just crawled out of, and will happily provide free healthcare for superheros. At least, since Stark started working for them they do.”
That got him a bit of a struggle. It was weak, but if Spidey had been at full strength, Wade would have had one hell of a fight on his hands. “Not SHIELD, no no please not them.”
Wade paused in his steps. Spidey was crying? “Okay, what’s the deal, why no SHIELD?”
Peter started really crying then, painful sobs wracking his body until the pain became too much and they tapered off out of self preservation. He sagged tiredly against Wade, thinking that he had maybe a few more minutes of consciousness at most. “They… they just… I can’t. P-… Phil Coulson. If he’s there, or if you know where to find him-“
“I can do that, but he’ll want to take you to SHIELD anyways.”
Peter paused a moment, “Alright, just don’t let him leave me while I’m there. I can’t-“
“Alright, alright, lets just go before you fully bleed out on me.”
Peter didn’t answer, eyes tightly shut against Wade’s shoulder.
***
Peter was out for the count. Spiderman was just a little bit more than broken right now.
He had a private room in the helicarrier because of Peter’s non-outed status as Spiderman. And also, because Phil had argued that he didn’t damn well had a place to live on his own, so it was the least they could do while he was here. No one deserved to have all their privacy taken away when they literally had no other option of places to get it.
“Why’d he ask for you?”
“Huh?”
Phil looked like he hadn’t slept since Sipdey had gotten there, and he probably hadn’t. Not with the way the he was doing paperwork at Peter’s bedside with a single minded focus. Wade was on the other side of the bed. No one had actually told him that Peter was unmasked right now, and he felt a little like he was trying to ignore a naked child right now, but Phil had told him to stay after he’d already seen him.
Phil felt a little like he needed everyone he could get on Peter’s side right now. He could always just ask the Avengers to give Fury hell if he was being a jackass, but no one, not even all the Avengers together, could stand up to an annoying Deadpool. The man was like a walking car crash.
“Peter. He asked for you by name, and refused to go to anyone else.”
Phil scrunched up his eyebrows, “How’d you get him on the carrier then? I wasn’t called until he got up here.”
Wade shrugged, “He passed out. I told the ground agents to call you or I’d walk.”
Phil snorted, “And do what with him? He excreted some pretty important parts of himself last night. The only reason he’s alive right now is because of his healing factor.”
Wade shrugged, “I can afford a hospital. I just wasn’t going to send him somewhere that he was that freaked out about. The way he said it, I thought he thought you were going to kill him.”
Phil got a thoughtful look at that, putting his papers down now. “Okay, thing is, Peter has been homeless for a while now. He left a foster home when he was ten because of an abusive situation, and he’s been Spiderman for two years now. He’s only fifteen. Of course, when your entire life happens on the streets, you don’t really see an issue with trying to protect them.”
Wade squinted at the teen on the bed, “He’s in school though, isn’t he? I heard him talking about homework once-“
“That was SHIELD’s doing. Or, more importantly, mine. When Peter said he didn’t have anywhere to go, I worked with SHIELD to get a teens program running out of a high school. I’m currently posing as their principal, and with how many hero kids are there, most of them live at SHIELD. I told Fury it was to give them a most realistic view on life and everyday work. He agreed saying that it would help weed out the kids that didn’t actually want to be a hero.
“But, Peter still wouldn’t come to live at SHIELD, and so I just tried to make things as easy for him as I could. He can shower and get all his school work done at the high school, gets free lunch, and I make sure he’s always got food or money with him for later. I just still can’t convince him to live with the other kids.”
Wade shook his head, “Why not? He’s got to have a reason, right?”
Phil got a slightly pissed look on his face, before shrugging. “I’m blaming this one of Fury. Peter is a little.”
Wade looked up at the ceiling with his mouth in a small ‘o’, “Christ, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Is Fury trying to get him to stop being a super out of some old fashioned sense that littles can’t defend themselves? Wait, isn’t your husband a little?”
Phil nodded, “Clint and Tony are both littles, and as well as me being a regular caregiver in Peter’s life, he knows I’m a sure bet to go to when he needs to hide from Fury being a dick again. Fury’s just about given up trying to get rid of Tony and Clint, but he’s always seen Peter as ‘easy bait’. The last time Peter had to come in, his worry, wasn’t that Fury was going to bother him, so much as yelling that if he woke up in a nursery where people refused to listen to him, he was going to ‘cut a bitch’.”
Wade’s lips quirked upwards. He was quiet for a few minutes, which is odd for Deadpool, before finally getting an idea. “What if I take him home? It’ll get him off the streets, one less thing to worry about. My wife is a Domme, she would love having a little in the house, and Ellie would love not being an only child, and Peter could be more of a regular kid outside of superheroing.” He got a little bouncy now, looking excitable. “Oh oh! I could teach him to be a hero! I’ve always wanted a little sidekick!”
And that’s when Phil knew, that Wade Wilson, was completely and totally, insane.
***
“Why does Phil want to send me home with you? Like, I thought he wanted me alive?”
Peter was still mostly down for the count, but had demanded that Phil give him his homework so he wouldn’t be behind. Wade would have offered to help, but Peter already seemed to be in more advanced classes than Wade had ever thought about taking back in high school. Wade was a little bit scared that Peter’s math book might kill him. He snorted. “I have a wife and daughter. Haven’t killed the kid yet, and wife’s a better parent than I am. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Peter lowered his notebook, reaching over to grab a water bottle off the side table, without moving any of his abdomen. Wade nearly hit himself over the head as he suddenly realized that Peter was a little. Him and his wife didn’t keep sippy cups in the house anymore, and Ellie hadn’t actually needed any help with much since she turned eight. She was too old to need Daddy’s help anymore.
“Well, I don’t want to put anyone out about anything, so maybe you should just leave me with Phil-“
“That depends, are you actually going to stay with him, or are you going to be back in the streets as soon as you’re better?”
Peter stopped, looking a little sad. He swallowed once, face set into a tight ball of upset. “I just… I don’t want to put anyone out-“
“Then stay with me. Vanessa is already expecting you, in fact, she seemed damn near excitable about the idea of you staying with us, and Ellie needs a brother, and this way, I won’t waste precious brain power thinking about if you’re okay. I don’t have much brain power to begin with, I can’t use that on you when you’re not even there.”
Peter’s lips quirked upwards, but he didn’t say much, going back to his homework quietly.
***
It was four agonizing weeks of regrowth and therapy. This was, by far, the longest that Peter had even been sick for after getting bit. It was kind of getting tiresome.
He’d gotten a few different visits so far, some of them from other teen heros, but Spidey didn’t seem to care too much for them. He had really liked the times that Vanessa had shown up with Wade’s daughter, Ellie. He liked Ellie, because she understood the importance of proper crayon care and why adults were rather rude when they told you that you couldn’t draw on yourself with pens. Adults are boring. He liked Ellie.
He liked Vanessa too, but she fussed over him a lot, and that’s was tiresome. It had been nice on the times that Peter was feeling little and in need of some attention (normally, Phil gave him attention when he was little, or sent him to the nursery that was at Midtown High, because there were caregivers for the littles and puppies at school for when someone was in headspace) but otherwise, he much preferred it when they all just let him be.
Right now, he would really prefer to go back to Avengers Tower with Phil, because Phil didn’t make him sit in the back seat of the car, and he definitely didn’t give him stupid baby blankies. He wasn’t this little, Wade and Vanessa might be going a little overboard. Even Ellie was giving them funny looks when Wade insisted on giving him a cuddle blankie in the back seat and putting his seat belt on for him.
Peter snorted. New mommies and daddies were funny to watch from afar, but up close, the coddling was a bit much.
He wasn’t sure how Tony handled it. He’d only been on a few play dates with him and Clint, back when Phil was constantly trying to get him to come home with him and sleep in a real bed at night, and he didn’t think he was little like Tony was. Tony constantly had Steve and Bucky fussing over him, and it was cute and all, but Peter just didn’t understand the fuss over him right now. Why fuss over littles? Peter just wanted to go back to their house and maybe sleep a little more. He’d been in a physical therapy session earlier that day, and it’d hurt a little, so the evil SHIELD doctors had drugged him again. Ugh. Just cause he was moving in somewhere new. Rude.
“Mommy, should Peter be doing that? You told me that babies need pacis because fingers are germy.”
Vanessa looked in the rear view mirror at the little and frowned. Peter had his right thumb in his mouth, and seemed to be starting to dose off. He was cuddling the blanket Wade had given him, and looked close to a nap, but big eyes popped back open at Ellie’s words and he glared at Vanessa, as if he knew what she was going to do next.
“Wade, can you give him a pacifier please. I don’t want him getting sick so soon after getting out of medical.”
Wade seemed amused, but did so, pulling a pouch out of the center divider and turning around in his seat to try and coax Peter’s thumb out of his mouth. “Hey, baby boy, we don’t want to be sucking germy fingers, do we?”
Peter glared harder. He was tired, but this was worth staying up for. Without taking the thumb out, he mumbled around it, “Yes we do.”
Wade chuckled, but kept up, till he’d gotten Peter to tentatively remove the thumb, and replaced it with the teen sized paci. “Good boy, you’re being very good right now, thank you.”
Peter felt his cheeks heat up at the praise, and let his eyes flicker away, smiling shyly behind the paci. “T-thank you.”
Wade smiled and turned back around. They still had a while before they got back home, and New York would always be more crowded than it should be, so it would take a bit. Maybe Peter would take a nap in the back. He looked like he might need a nap.
***
Peter’s room was right next to Ellie’s, and across the hall from Wade and Vanessa’s, and it was the first thing that Wade had shown him in the house, and so Peter had the feeling might have known, just a little bit, maybe, how much he was trying not to fall asleep right now. Just a little bit.
“Come on, baby boy, that sweater can’t be so comfy, can it?”
Peter looked down at his sweater. It was clean, since he’d been staying in a hospital for so long, and also it never really got dirty, because Phil made him get his clothes washed as often as possible when he was still on the streets, but it was pretty much one of his main things. Phil occasionally snuck bags of new clothes in Peter’s locker when Peter wasn’t around, because he was trying to make sure he was okay, but Peter liked this sweater. He’d gotten it last year at Christmas when he stayed at Avengers tower. Bruce got it for him, and so it was thick, and roomy, and also very soft, because Hulk might have a bit of a crush on Spidey, and that made Bruce very fond of him as well.
“But, ‘s warm and soft.”
Wade smiled at him. He was getting a few things out of one of the dresser drawers, and opened the closet to pull out something long and big. “I know it’s soft, but it’s not jammies. Vanessa got you other things to sleep in. Do you like footie pajamas?”
Peter thought about that. He couldn’t remember ever having worn footie pajamas for a while. Tony pretty much wore them exclusively as a little, and Clint wore overalls, but Phil had gotten him into a few pairs of them. He didn’t keep them with him though, because fuzzy things got dirty quick and he didn’t want that.
He still had a hand tangled up in the blanket he’d slept on for a half hour when he was in the car, and it was soft and fuzzy too. Peter liked that. “Okay.”
Wade’s smile was blinding, “That’s good, kiddo. Come on, can you dress yourself, or do you want me to help?”
Peter felt kind of little right now, and that was awesome, since he didn’t often feel so little, so he needed his head, looking happy. “Help, please.”
Wade smiled and came over to help Peter stand up again, unzipping his sweater for him.
The door opened and Vanessa stuck her head in to see them, “You two need any help?”
Wade hummed, gently prying the blanket out of Peter’s left hand, and the paci out of Peter’s right. “We’re just getting dressed into comfy new jammies, aren’t we, baby boy?”
Peter nodded, mouth opening demandingly for the paci back when he saw that he no longer had it in his hands. Vanessa just smiled at them, pressing a short kiss to Peter’s cheek before leaving again.
Wade worked the tee shirt up Peter’s body next, raising an eyebrow when he found that the paci he’d given Peter back was once more, in his hand now.
“You don’t like your paci, kiddo?”
Peter’s eyes went wide, and he shoved it back in his mouth, “No, like paci, see?”
Wade nodded, kneeling down to help Peter get out of his pants without tripping. “Okay, baby boy, time for jammies now.” He tugged Peter’s hands in to brace on his shoulders, and helped him step into the legs of the fuzzy cookie monster themed pajamas.
He slid up the boy’s body, and ended up needing to bend over once he was fully standing. Peter was kind of small. But, once Peter had the footie pajamas, he had a bright gin on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror on the inside of the closet door and smiled, looking tired, but happy.
Once more though, the paci was out of his mouth and in his hand. Wade had only really had an issue with him sucking his thumb in the car, where he couldn’t wash his hands, but now, if Peter really didn’t like it… “Peter, is there something wrong with your paci?”
Peter looked up at Wade before back at his hand where the paci still was. The button was down against his palm, and he looked like he quite preferred it there. “It’s for holding.”
Wade’s eyebrows pushed together, “Your paci… is for, holding?”
Peter nodded, looking relived that someone got it. “Some, some pacis, like this, they’re for holding. Doesn’t fit right in mouth, but it fits in hands.”
Wade nodded, not actually understanding to be honest. But, Peter shoved the paci back in his mouth and turned around to crawl onto the bed. Wade wouldn’t just have to tell Vanessa and see if she could figure it out for him. She liked little kids, and Ellie had always been a bit different by most kid standards. Maybe it just wasn’t shaped right.
“Come on, baby, I think it’s time for a nap. I’ll even read you a story.”
Peter turned around once he was at the top of the bed near Wade, and reached out to wrap his arms around Wade tight. Just a squeeze, but tight enough for Wade to really feel it. “Thanks you.”
“Of course, baby boy.”