Chapter Text
Aunt may died 5 months ago. She wasn't a good person in this word, far from it.
After Ben died and she learned of Peters secret identity she turned from a loving woman who card to much to a cruel one who didn't care enough.
May started drinking more, that was the first crack in the life Peter had to rebuild far to offten. She started shouting aswell, screaming at Peter for made up things like 'walking to loud' or 'having messy hair.'
About a year before that, a couple months after the spider bite, Peter was diagnosed with anxiety. He was put on medication that was thankfully coverd by Mays health insurance. After May started drinking she stoped going into work and was eventually fired (which was Peters fault according to May). Since she got fired the health insurance stoped, therfore Peters meds stopped. His mental health only got worse after that. May told him he didn't need the 'stupid' meds anyway, that he was making it all up. He believed her for a while. He thought she was helping. But his blindness didn't last. He started to question it quietly. Never to Mays face, he learned that lesson fast. But in his head, when he got the chance, he analysed it like a math problem. He came to the conclusion May was just making a bad decision out of love. He was partially right, it was a bad decision, it just wasn't made out of love
One night, May bad been drinking more then usual. Peter came back after patrol and walked into the kitchen to look for snacks. May was loudly snoring on the couch in the atached lounge.The kitchen was, like always, empty. With a sigh, Peter turned to walk back to his room but he had missed the quietness that had overcome May moments before. he didn't even take a step before his spider senses blared harshly, a sharp pain sudenly spiking at the back of his neck. He ducked just in time to miss the empty pill bottle May had thrown at his head with suprising accuracy.
"May?" Peter stood up again
He sounded hesitant. Scared.
"You woke me" May steps closer, traping Peter who is now shaking.
"I didn't mean to. Please, May....... your scaring me"
Smak. Then a beat of silence. Then the painful sound repeats, over and over.
The second Mays hand made contact with Peters cheek everything changed for him. The cracks in his life gave way and shattered more then ever before. The heart breaking abuse happend more then once. With his enhanced healing no one noticed the marks. They took longer to heal due to the lack of food, but May was smart. She got away with it for about 2 months before she died. Drug overdose. It happend while peter was out on patrol, so naturally he blamed himself.
Peter found her cold, pale body on the sofa. She wasn't breathing. No pulse. Peter was the one who had to call 911 crying. Peter remembers the pitying look the cops had when they saw him and the apartment. Empty pill bottles everywhere, the unmistakable stench of booze, sharp tv static humming around the room. Peter dosent remember much from that night or the months before it. It started to smudge together. Was it really that bad?
Was May really that bad?
Hes not sure anymore, how could he be. He loved May and she did love him, right?
.........right?
Tony adopted peter. He was practically his father at this point so it made sense. Tony had noticed the changes peter exhibited over the months before Mays death. The weight loss, the increase in anxiety, the bruises. He didn't want to push. He assumed it was just stress from school mixed with his duties as Spider-Man. So when Tony read the police reports of how they found the apartment he nearly cried relising he could have prevented that poor boy, his poor boy, from all that pain. Pepper reassured him that it wasn't his fault but he still had doubts of course. How could he not. He loved Peter more then anything.