Work Text:
Miguel wasn’t quite sure how he kept ending up in this situation. He could say no. Hell, he’d even thought about setting up a Spider-Society daycare for the other members who also happened to be parents. But every time Peter got assigned to a mission on one of his ‘Mayday days’ he would turn up in Miguel’s office with those pleading puppy dog eyes (which Mayday was learning to imitate) and Miguel couldn’t bring himself to say no.
So there he was, again, trying to navigate an infinite amount of work while also babysitting little Mayday Parker-Watson.
Honestly, she was no trouble at all. Well, once Miguel got the web shooters off her, without which she couldn’t escape from the playpen he’d set-up for her. Additionally, Lyla was also on watch, and would let Miguel know if Mayday was acting fussy as it might mean she needed a diaper change, or a snack, or just some attention. At this point Miguel felt like he should just run the theoretical Spider-Society daycare himself.
Peter's most recent mission involved locating a new Spider-Person. Miguel was reading a report on one of his monitors about that particular Earth when Lyla suddenly popped into view, pretending to file her holographic nails.
“Heads up. Miniature Parker meltdown is imminent.”
So engrossed in his work, he hadn’t noticed that Mayday had thrown several toys out of her playpen. He had to admit, she had a good throwing arm for an eleven-month-old.
He descended his platform with ease and approached the playpen to find Mayday on the verge of tears, smashing a cuddly toy against the soft floor in annoyance.
“¿Qué pasa aquí?” Miguel spoke softly as he approached the edge of the playpen and put his hands on the padded railings.
Immediately Mayday’s eyes were on him, the brightest blue he’d ever seen, tears threatening to trickle down her cheeks.
“No tears chiquitita, come here.”
As soon as Miguel reached down to pick her up, Mayday had her arms outstretched, making grabby hands for him; it made him smile. Once he had her in his arms he held her against his waist and safely webbed them back up to his platform.
Although she wasn’t full-on sobbing, those big tears rolled down her cheeks and she had the saddest little pout on her face.
“What is it, chiquitita? Need something to eat? You don’t smell like you need changing…”
Miguel looked around his console and realized for the first time just how messy it had become. There were various snack-food items for toddlers strewn around the desk, as well as a couple of Mayday’s teething toys. He really needed to tidy up at some point…
Miguel offered Mayday a snack and she turned away from it, obviously uninterested. He tried to offer her a teething ring as he knew her teething was making her more fussy than usual, but again she shunned the offering. Finally he noticed it, draped over one of his smaller monitors—one of Mayday’s favorite blankets. It was a small, old raggedy thing that apparently belonged to MJ when she was a baby.
Miguel grabbed the blanket with his web and then offered it to Mayday. Her expression immediately changed and she brought it to her cheek, seeking comfort in the way the fabric felt against her skin.
“That’s it. You just wanted your blankie back. Lo siento. I didn’t realize it wasn’t in the playpen with you.”
Mayday smiled up at Miguel, big and bright, giggling with delight.
“You know, you’re the only one I’m nice to. Don’t tell anyone that. It can be our little secret.” Miguel said softly to the girl in his arms.
Mayday babbled in response and Miguel realized with a soft pang of sadness in his heart that he would miss this when Mayday got older and she would actually be able to understand what he was saying.
But his bittersweet thought was short-lived as Mayday opened her mouth and said a single word with all the confidence she could muster.
“Papa!”
Miguel was dumbfounded.
“What?” He stupidly asked in his surprise.
“Papa! Papa!” Mayday repeated, her voice surprisingly loud for such a tiny person.
A wave of sudden anxiety came over him. It was like someone had just poured ice-cold water on him, and burst the little bubble of happiness he was in.
“N-No, no! Chiquitita, I’m not your Papa… Peter is your Papa!”
“Papa!” Mayday responded.
Miguel suddenly realized how stupid he was being for trying to reason with an eleven-month-old.
Panic was making Miguel’s thoughts trip one over the other.
Was this Mayday’s first word? Miguel panicked at the idea that this was her first word and he was the one to witness it. How could he live with himself knowing he’d taken this experience away from Mayday’s own parents?
But even worse, why the shock was she calling him ‘Papa’?
“Lyla, get Peter’s records on screen now. Open his file photo.”
“Which Peter?” Lyla responded, rather unhelpfully.
Mayday tried to grab for Lyla’s hologram while Miguel brought his free hand up to run it over his face in exasperation.
“You know which Peter!” Miguel growled out, trying not to raise his voice too much in front of Mayday.
“Nuh-uh boss, I know I’m good, but I’m not a mindreader.”
Lyla waggled her fingers at Mayday, which made the little girl squeal with delight.
Miguel sighed, irritated, but nevertheless he gave in to Lyla’s demands.
“Peter B. Parker, Earth-616B.”
“See!” Lyla cooed, “Was it that difficult?”
As soon as Lyla disappeared from view, Peter’s file popped up on the big screen in front of Miguel, displaying a rather attractive photo of the man.
Miguel tapped on the screen to get Mayday to focus her attention on it.
“See, that is your Papa.” Miguel insisted.
Adorably, Mayday began blowing kisses to the photo of her father, and Miguel thought he might have finally gotten through to her.
But then she turned back to face Miguel and made grabby hands like she wanted to be lifted higher. Miguel obliged, lifting the little girl in his hands until they were face to face. Her chubby hands patted on Miguel’s cheeks while she gurgled, and she finally looked at Miguel again with those big blue eyes and said that single word.
“Papa!”
Miguel felt like a vein in his forehead was about to explode. How had she made this mistake?
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Miguel heard the door to his office open, the sound of a conversation filtering in. Lyla automatically set his platform to descend so he could speak with his new visitors. He looked over to see for himself who had decided they were important enough to interrupt his work. It was Jess and Gwen, having a fast-paced conversation, as they approached Miguel and Mayday.
He turned the little girl into a sitting position against his waist again whilst she babbled at their new visitors.
“What do you want?” Miguel asked in annoyance, a scowl on his face.
Jess immediately folded her arms over her chest while Gwen cocked her hip to the side as she raised an eyebrow at Miguel.
“Okay, rude,” the teenager commented.
Miguel didn’t have time for this.
“Oh, is it a ‘Mayday day’?” Jess asked when she saw the little girl happily clinging to Miguel. “You know, you could have asked me to take over Peter’s mission, and then the two of you could have stayed here with her.”
“Peter is one of the longest serving Spider-Men—he knows better than anyone how to track down a new Spider.” Miguel replied, for some reason feeling like he needed to defend his decision to send Peter on these solo missions.
Jess looked about ready to roll her eyes at him until something else had caught Gwen’s attention. The teenager started giggling, and whispered a secret to Jess who chuckled conspiratorially.
“What is it?” Miguel immediately snapped.
Gwen tried to speak but their inside joke had given her the giggles and she couldn’t get a single word out.
Jess spoke on Gwen’s behalf.
“Missing him so much you have to look at his picture while he’s away?”
Jess’s earlier annoyance at Miguel dissipated and she smiled knowingly while raising an eyebrow at him.
“What?” Miguel snapped, turning around to see what Jess and Gwen were looking at.
It was the picture of Peter from his file, blown up as big as possible over several monitors. Why had Lyla done that?
Then holographic love hearts started appearing in the air around Peter’s photo, while Lyla made kissy noises.
“Lyla!” Miguel snapped, while Gwen laughed so hard she was doubled over and clutching her belly.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Mayday had obviously decided not enough attention was on her, and she reached up for Miguel.
“Papa!” Mayday demanded.
Jess’s eyebrows almost shot up into her hairline in surprise.
“Did Mayday just call you dad?” Gwen gasped, tears of laughter still in the corners of her eyes.
“No,” Miguel replied in a deadpan tone, which was instantly met with another shout of ‘Papa’ from Mayday. Miguel gritted his teeth so hard he was sure he was going to chip a tooth.
Gwen’s hysterics recommenced in earnest while a little holographic version of Lyla appeared next to Gwen, also rolling in the air in laughter.
“She’s confused,” Miguel tried to explain. “The picture of Peter was so I could correct her. Actually, she’s probably just trying to ask for him. She’s not calling me that.”
He was fumbling and Jess wasn’t buying any of it.
“I think Mayday knows more than you and Peter seem to,” Jess replied with a confident smirk before turning on her heels and heading towards the exit with Gwen in tow.
“What did you even come in here for? To torment me?” Miguel called after her, exasperation bubbling under his skin like an uncomfortable itch.
“I’ll tell you next time when you’re not on babysitting duty,” Jess said as she tried to wave Miguel off. “See you later, daddy.”
Her comment got both Gwen and Lyla to howl in hysterics, even Mayday joined in despite not understanding the conversation. Miguel felt like his face was on the verge of bursting into flames.
It was much later in the day, and Peter had returned from his mission on Earth-314 with nothing new to report. However, he wasn’t completely empty-handed—he’d come back with a dinner of burgers and fries from a family-run diner he’d apparently had time to discover during his mission.
This had become a common occurrence—Peter returning to HQ with food for himself and Miguel—and after what Jess had said earlier, something about this simple act made Miguel’s chest feel tight.
He hadn’t told Peter yet about what had happened earlier that day with Mayday; despite his anxiety over it, Miguel resolved to wait until they put Mayday down to sleep to bring it up with Peter.
After eating, Miguel had returned to his workstation, while Peter remained seated at the table they’d eaten at, bouncing Mayday on his knee while rambling on about Earth-314.
“I’m telling you Migs, either the Spider-Person there hasn’t got their powers yet, or they only got them recently and probably have no idea what to do with them! Gee, I can hardly remember what that was like!”
Peter laughed and Miguel felt his heart clench, realizing it had become one of his favorite sounds.
He glanced over to where Peter sat and another thought occurred to him—there was a time when he didn’t have a single chair in this workspace, but since then and over the course of several meals, he finally caved and got himself and Peter a chair, and a highchair for Mayday.
Jess’ words from earlier rang in Miguel’s ears again.
“I think Mayday knows more than you and Peter seem to.”
Miguel hated to admit when Jess was right.
He noticed that Mayday’s eyes were growing heavy.
“Peter,” Miguel spoke softly, “I think she’s ready for bed.”
“Is my little madam tired? You must be full from all those fries I snuck you earlier when Miguel wasn’t looking.” Peter said to Mayday, lifting her into the air so he could look at her face to face.
Peter quickly gave Miguel a wink after mentioning him, and even though Miguel could feel his cheeks warming up, he gave Peter a scowl because he was sure Mayday was still too young to be eating fried foods.
Mayday grabbed at Peter’s face sleepily, squeezing his nose.
“Dada…” she muttered, but it was loud enough for Miguel to catch it.
“Aww, Mayday!” Peter cooed, “You’re getting so good with your words, aren’t you?”
Peter turned to look at Miguel, and Miguel knew he must have a look of utter astonishment on his face.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you? Mayday said her first word last week! Of course her first word was ‘Mama’, no surprises there, but then a few days later, she started calling me ‘Dada’!”
Peter’s chest swelled with pride, but his smile faded when he realized Miguel was still looking at him with total confusion. Mayday followed her father’s lead and also turned her attention towards Miguel. Then, in her sleepy little voice, but still loud enough for both men to hear, she spoke again.
“Papa.”
She extended her hands out towards Miguel, clearly asking for him to pick her up. He froze, alarmed that she would call him ‘Papa’ in front of Peter. And Peter looked equally baffled, standing up with his daughter still in his arms, a dusting of pink rising to his cheeks.
“Mayday, sweetie, who am I?” Peter asked his daughter, holding her in one arm whilst he pointed to himself with his free hand.
“Dada.” Mayday replied easily.
Peter then turned both of them and pointed at Miguel.
“And who is that?”
“Papa!” Mayday squealed, reaching out again for Miguel.
Miguel sighed, putting his whole body into the action.
“Peter… I think you need to put Mayday to bed and we need to talk.”
Miguel paced his workspace while he waited for Peter to put Mayday down, the anxiety of all this gnawing away at him.
How had this happened without him even realizing it?
He had allowed Peter and Mayday to make a home in his life, and his workspace was no longer a workspace—instead it showed evidence of domesticity, and childcare, and meals shared around a table that used to be just a place for Miguel to work on his inventions.
No wonder Gwen laughed. No wonder Jess made the comment she did. No wonder Mayday had decided Miguel was her third parent. Apparently whatever was going on between him and Peter was obvious to everyone except them—even obvious to a toddler.
“She’s out like a light.” Peter said softly, returning to the platform with ease.
The man had even had time to change into something more comfortable than his Spider-Suit—those blasted gray sweatpants and his fuzzy pink robe—how had Miguel not realized that Peter was even leaving clothes here?
They were side by side and Peter had his arms crossed over his chest, a blush already on his face despite the fact their conversation hadn’t even started yet.
And Miguel came to a sudden realization—at some point he’d relaxed his defenses, and Peter had torn down those walls and climbed into Miguel’s life. Without even realizing it, they’d built something together. Then, gradually, the way Miguel felt about Peter had turned from friendship into something more, but so busy between work and just getting through the day, he’d never stopped to examine exactly what it was.
The facts of the matter were that Mayday had made Miguel realize something he hadn’t before. It trickled out before he could stop the words, slipping through those cracks in his defenses.
“Peter, I… I think I’m in love with you.”
The words seemed to echo around the large room, repeating over and over in Miguel’s mind. He couldn’t quite believe what he’d just said.
He expected Peter to laugh it off, the same way he laughed off a lot of things. He expected Peter to say that Miguel was confusing Peter’s basic kindness for something more, when all they had was a convenient friendship.
What he didn’t expect was Peter to drop his arms to his sides, and stare at Miguel long and hard before leaning in, grabbing Miguel by the shoulders, and kissing him forcefully.
It was a culmination of what had obviously been growing for months, and with Peter’s lips pressed against Miguel’s, Miguel never wanted that moment to end.
When Peter finally pulled away, Miguel’s eyes opened to see Peter with the biggest smile on his face. Peter laughed, and it was one of his loud and jovial ones. Miguel couldn’t help smiling in return.
“I guess we’ve been doing the whole relationship thing backwards, haven’t we?” Peter said with a content sigh and a huff of laughter before pressing his own forehead against Miguel’s.
Miguel let out a sigh too, one he hadn’t realized he’d even been holding since their kiss.
“Makes sense, I guess…” Peter mumbled, taking Miguel’s hands into his own in the most gentle gesture. “The two least normal people in the entire multiverse end up building a life together before they’ve even been on a single date.”
Miguel couldn’t stop his smile from widening.
“When you put it like that, it makes a lot of sense that we’d be the ones to do this all backwards.”
That made Peter laugh hard, and Miguel realized he wouldn’t have wanted this to come about any other way.
He pulled Peter into a hug and took a chance at running his fingers through the back of Peter’s hair with one hand, while the other wrapped around his waist.
“Will you and Mayday stay the night tonight?”
Miguel took a chance.
Peter let out a content chuckle before replying,
“I thought you’d never ask.”