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Butch's soulmark was on his right hand. To be specific, on his right hand, over the knuckle of his middle finger. It had appeared on a random day after his thirteenth birthday, just like everyone's soulmark did. At first, he'd thought it was a curse.
After all the red mark that had settled itself into his skin was in the shape of a scythe. The red was the shade of red his pale skin went when it got irritated, and the mark was ever so slightly shiny. It had taken him about a week of having the scythe on his knuckle for him to realise it was indeed his soulmark.
It wasn't exactly a promising soulmark.
When it had appeared, after Butch got over the 'oh no, I'm cursed' fear, he'd started to wonder if that was him getting claimed. Thanatos perhaps, but it was not the way of claiming. Then again, a minor god rarely claimed their children, there was no point it changed nothing for them at camp. But during that week as he wondered, he'd gotten his claim from Iris.
"Do you think your soulmate is a demigod too?" Annabeth, a relatively new camper, asked.
"Maybe," he said, shrugging.
"Thanatos' child, or maybe Hades," Annabeth said confidently. He smiled at her. She was a sweet kid. She was only eight, and her birthday had been recent. She'd been there since seven, but he still thought of her as new, the way he thought of Luke.
Peter's soulmark appeared on his right hand, right over the middle knuckle. It appeared on a random day after his thirteenth birthday. That was how it was.
It wasn't the most reassuring of marks, a scythe etched in skin-irritation red. That felt like a warning. A sign of bad things to come, or something like that.
Aunt May and Uncle Ben told him not to worry about it, that surely they'd be alright.
After the spider-bite and uncle Ben's death, Peter changed his tune. For the worse. He thought that the scythe didn't mean his soulmate and his lives together was doomed before, but after that no. No after all that, he was certain his soulmate was death.
He thought his soulmate was doom, and tragedy, and death, and gloom.
He thought is soulmate was loneliness, and a permanent unlucky nature.
It felt that way for the coming years.
It felt that way when he failed, and it felt that way he died for five years, it felt that way when he came back only for Tony to die. It felt that way as the world crashed down around him.
It felt that way as he had a sword pointed at him and a blonde yelling at him in a language he didn't know but somehow understood.
"You know man, I love the sword. Would like it better if you pointed it somewhere else," he said. At least he'd been accosted in the Spider-Man suit. It'd be worse if he was currently walking around as a perfectly normal civilian he'd be more worried.
Still, he'd never been held at sword point before.
"Who do you work for?" the boy, seemingly his own age and the one holding the sword, asked.
"I'm spider-man," Peter said, shrugging slightly. It was a little more difficult to shrug when a sword was pointed at him, dangerously close. "You know, the local vigilante. I mean I know I was dead for five years, but like I didn't expect this negative reception upon my return. And if you're upset I'm back you're a little late, I've been back for a while now. Well, relatively."
"Who do you work for?" the blonde asked. There was something about her that was unnaturally terrifying. Something to her that made him want to run, and it wasn't triggering his spider-sense, no it was triggering something more scary.
"I'm a vigilante I don't have a boss! That's like J. Jonah. Jameson's whole problem with me! That I answer to no one," he said. If he could just get his hand up, and send a web at a perfect ninety degree angle and he could go up the web at a perfect angle, he could get away. It wasn't likely, but it seemed his only way out.
The sword wavered slightly, moving back a tiny bit, and lowering just barely.
"I don't think he knows what we mean," the swords-man said. The blonde girl hummed.
"Look this is fun and all," Peter said, tilting his head. There were guns, several streets away, and the 'silent' alarm of a bank had started going. Enhanced hearing, it wasn't just stronger than normal Human Hearing, he could hear beyond the human scope of sounds. "But there's a bank robbery going down and JJ will have a field day if I miss that. Mrs Potts says I have to maintain my public image, and she's a scary lady. Oh there you go! I sorta, I guess, work for her? Not really I mean, I just listen to her advice. She's a very scary woman, especially when she thinks you did something stupid."
"He seems honest," the boy said, glancing back to the blonde girl. She hummed and just stared at him.
"Bank robbery, you know, gotta go," Peter said, interrupted whatever conversation they were about to have. "Like, really need to leave and I don't want to get an closer to that sword than I have to be. Swords are scary. I'm used to guns! I know what to do in the face of a gun! I've not been held at sword point before!"
He didn't mean to wave his hands around. Really, he didn't. Peter had been trying desperately to stay still. After all, he had a sword pointed at him! What sort of person carried a whole ass sword around with them? Apparently the sort that held Spider-Man at sword point, evidently.
Knifes? Yeah he'd dealt with those pretty regularly those weren't too bad. Guns? Frighteningly common. Weird alien weapons? Dealt with those, they were pretty cool along with being weird and scary. Swords? Nah, not dealt with those. And he really didn't want to.
But damn his habits! He couldn't stay still. It was just against his very nature. He had to move, he had to wave his hands around. And his hand caught on the sword.
His right hand, and it wasn't his hand so much the suit glove.
"Shit," he muttered, looking to where the suit had gotten cut. His right hand, over the middle knuckle. The one place he had to keep covered! His soulmark could identify him! That, or get him mistaken for his own soulmate.
"Percy put the sword down," the blonde woman said.
"Oh shit," Percy, apparently, said.
"Oh shit indeed," she said.
"Look, love to stay and chat. But bank robbery so," Peter said. They both nodded.
"Come back though," the blonde said. "we know you're soulmate."
"Oh, right. Cool," Peter said. He would stick around, if there wasn't a bank robbery in earshot of him. Though of course, Peter's earshot was a little larger than the average person. So with his rather dull reaction to being told he could easily meet his soulmate, Peter swung off.
Butch only had a flip phone because Annabeth had one. It was a way to stay in contact with her. She was his age now, which felt strange. He still remembered the seven year old girl that came to camp with Luke and Thalia, only for Thalia to die at the border and Annabeth to suffer some more. He was still processing everything he'd learnt about the five years he'd been dead.
Five years, a lot changed in five years. He had a cabin, and a sister. And Annabeth had a boyfriend. And Luke, he'd betrayed them and he was dead now.
When his phone rang it was one of three things. Someone at the big house phone, Annabeth, or scammers with his phone number thinking he'd fall for stupid scams. This time it was Annabeth.
"What do you need?" he asked, answering the phone.
"Me and Percy found your soulmate," she said, just as happy to brush over greetings as he was. He heard a rustling over the line.
"It's Spider-Man," Percy added, so he'd taken the phone. Annabeth and Percy were a package deal, so Butch had learnt since coming back from the dead.
"No way," Butch said, shaking his head even though they couldn't see him. "Nope. Spider-Man?"
"Yeah, he's ran off to deal with a bank robbery but I saw it," Annabeth said, taking the phone back from Percy. "The scythe on his right, middle knuckle."
Butch had a motorbike. He had a pegasus in the stables that liked him well enough. He also had a chariot but that needed at least two pegasi to fly. He had options! But did he really need to travel for his soulmate?
The soulmark on his knuckle wasn't anything encouraging. There was nothing saying he had to meet his soulmate, nothing promising him a good life if he did.
But, meeting his soulmate would mean laving camp.
Don't get him wrong, Butch liked camp. It was his home. He hadn't outgrown it, he still needed it. There was nowhere else for him to go, except maybe up to his mum's shop but he didn't really fancy trying to move in with a goddess even if that goddess was his mother.
Camp though, he'd been away from it for five years. It was growing, faster than he could have ever imagined. Sure, a lot of lives had been lost in the war he had not witnessed, but half the universe's population had also been gone during that and now they were back. Not to mention new rules with demigod claiming and location.
Camp Half-Blood had outgrown him, just a bit. Butch didn't mind living there still, it meant he could help out, it gave him something to do. But, there was no denying it had gone beyond the scope of what Butch had seen from camp before the missing five years.
If he left, it wasn't like he was swearing off camp all together. He could come back whenever he wanted. But, maybe going after his soulmate was a good idea, if just to get out of camp for a few days.
"Where should I meet you?" Butch asked, snapping back to it. Annabeth let out a relieved sigh on the other line, he had no idea how long his thinking had actually gone on for, but he knew he'd sort of disconnected mentally as he tried to figure out if it was a good idea to go or not.
"There's a doughnut shop," Annabeth started, before rattling off the address. "We'll be there all night."
"Alright," he said, before hanging up.
His motorbike was fast, and more discrete than a pegasus. A pegasus could be faster with the right coaxing, but it wasn't exactly the best option to take a horse into the city. Besides, it wasn't like his motorbike was fast in the average mortal way. No no no, he'd handed it over to the Hephaestus kids to improve, it was freakishly fast. Dangerously fast even, but Butch had good control and he didn't drive like an idiot so it was fine.
There was also the Taxi Service, but if he had to be taken somewhere with reckless abandon and abhorrent driving, he'd rather be the one in control of the vehicle.
It was late evening, already dark out, but he knew his way around the garage well enough that he didn't need to fetch a Hephaestus kid to grab his bike for him. It was his bike, and unlike his car he wasn't going to let it become camp property. He much preferred the bike anyway.
He was careful of the cleaning harpies as he slipped around, but the moment he was in his gear on the bike, he had no fears. They could try and catch him, but they never would. Besides, him leaving camp on the bike was a sure-fire why to make sure everyone knew he was gone, and not to cause mass panic at his vanishing.
It was a terrible idea. A truly and utterly horrible idea. Possibly the worst idea he'd ever had, or gone along with.
Peter was considering resigning from being the local genius with how stupid of an idea it was.
It could be a trap for Thor's sake! And wasn't that a weird saying now he'd met and worked alongside Thor?
And yet there he was anyway. Taking his sweet time sure, but still heading back to that alley where he'd been accosted at sword point to meet back up with the attackers.
What Tony would say to this, if he were still alive to find out, Peter was glad he'd never know. At least he wasn't going to be subjected to a lecture about trusting strangers.
Though maybe he needed one.
Really, it could easily be a trap. And there he was, showing back up to face the two people that had held him at sword point, without his damn suit.
Yeah, he should probably get his 'genius' title taken away from him. Oh well! He made sure to let both MJ and Ned know that he was meeting people that supposedly knew his soulmate, and that he didn't actually know these people, and that he'd met them in the mask and was not going in the mask. He sent them his live location too, at MJ's prompting.
Peter should have worn the mask. Just approaching the same alley he'd been accosted in got him tense. And there he was, doing it on foot with no easy escape. He was an idiot.
Well, too late to back out! Technically, he could turn the other way and go home and never come back but that was rude. And Peter didn't do rude. Sure he did sassy, and he did back chat, but that was in the suit. He was a teenager and he did have his moods but he didn't do rude.
Peter entered the alley hand first. Not the normal way one would enter and alley, but he had to show them he was the same guy somehow. So he entered with his right hand extended in front of him, turned to face them, with his scythe soulmark on clear display.
"Hey," Peter said, drawing it out awkwardly.
"You're younger than I thought Spidey would be," the guy said.
"Which is a good thing," the girl said. "Butch is seventeen."
"In my defence, it's Spider-Man! You don't think a kid about five years older than you was running around saving people and risking themself," the guy said.
"I'm sorry you were just holding me at, at," Peter's voice became a sort of squeak as he tried to vocalise the whole being held at sword point by someone who was seemingly a fan of his. "At swordpoint!"
"Yeah, sorry about dude. Look I love Spidey, but wise girl here knew something was up with you," the guy explained shrugging slightly.
"That's another thing!" Peter sort of screeched out. He coughed, the sort of cough someone did when their voice broke and they needed to catch up with everything "We don't know each other's names."
"You're Spider-Man, obviously," the guy said, smiling slightly. Peter threw his arms up.
See, if he'd done the smart thing of coming back in the suit, he'd be able to pace the walls. He liked pacing walls! Walking around on walls was nice! It was fun! It let him think!
"Yes!" he said, his voice almost hysterical. "When I was born my parents looked at me and named Spider-Man! Because that's totally a name!"
He'd once walked across the city, walking without dodging anything. Just so he could process things. It had been very hilly, but very fun. He could do it again, maybe as a fundraiser thing.
But no! He wasn't in the suit. Just because the two people in front of him knew he was Spider-Man, didn't mean he could walking on walls all willy-nilly. It wasn't just Spidey-Fan and Wise Girl that could see him pacing the walls. They were in a very public street, well they were off a very public street in a small dead end alley way with no camera. Still, people walking past could see!
"Annabeth," Wise Girl said, not making a move to come any closer to him, not that Peter minded. She was sort of creepy and off putting in a way that Peter couldn't explain or understand.
"I'm Percy," the guy said, moving as if he were heading to shake his hand but he didn't offer a hand.
"Peter," he said, glancing around. He really wanted to pace the walls. The walls looked so nice, nice firm brick walls he could easily pace along. Plenty of rough surface for him to cling too as he paced. But not, he couldn't pace on the walls.
"Your soulmate's name is Butch, he's seventeen and he's probably breaking several traffic laws to get here," Annabeth told him rather matter of fact.
"As long as he doesn't hurt anyone," Peter said trailing off slightly with a shrug.
"He won't," she said with confidence. Peter nodded. Annabeth seemed to have a lot of faith in Butch, which Peter could only hope was a good sign. Peter itched to do something, anything.
Pacing the walls was out of the question. But he really didn't want to just stand there. He couldn't do his usual dramatic break acrobatics he tended to do, because no human should really be doing those so casually on the street. But he could do a few ground level flips. No swinging or anything, but flips were something.
"We should head to the doughnut shop," Annabeth said, nodding across the street.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Oh yeah," Percy said. "Butch will be heading there when he gets here."
"The twenty four hour doughnut shop? You want to go there?" Peter asked. It seemed like a good idea, all in all. But the shop wasn't really the best place, and the last time Peter went in there he'd seen a family of spiders living in the corner. And he was pretty sure he'd heard rats under all the shouting and everything else.
"Yeah, the doughnuts are good," Percy said. Peter sighed and shook his head.
"You couldn't pay me to buy a doughnut from there, nope, no way," Peter said, shaking his head. "And like I can be bought, in certain situations anyway. Usually food related. I ate something with citric acid once which I'm like vaguely alergic too, just because my buddy Ned said he'd give me twenty bucks. Mr Stark was not happy when he found out. He wasn't happy about the laundry detergent thing either, but Shuri gave me fifty bucks!"
"You ramble alot," Annabeth said.
"Sorry," Peter muttered.
"You'll balance Butch out just fine," Percy added. "You'll have to excuse Annabeth, you're really spidery and she's a severe arachnaphobe."
"I don't look all that spidery! Or act all that spidery most of the time. In public anyway," Peter said. Annabeth shook her head.
"It's a sort of genetic thing, I can tell you're a spider, at least half spider," she told him.
"Oh, neat," Peter said. "Like a built in spider detector." He remembered the family of spiders in the doughnut shop, hopefully they'd moved out. She didn't seem like the sort of person Peter wanted to argue with, and she seemed pretty set in her plan.
When Butch finally got to the address Annabeth had given him, it was to see Annabeth, Percy, and a guy he could only assume was his soulmate, sat on the path outside.
"There's a hoard of spiders living in there," Percy told him in way of explanation.
"And rats in the kitchen," the guy said.
"Let's go somewhere else," Annabeth said.
"I'm not walking my bike, and four people cannot fit on it," Butch said, shaking his head. Who he could only assume was his soulmate pulled his phone from his pocket.
"I could get us a car, and we could pick one of the twenty four seven pizza places instead," he suggested.
"Taxis are expensive," Percy said, shaking his head.
"Never said anything about a taxi," he muttered.
"Then what are you talking about?" Annabeth asked, turning her head to analyse him.
"Um, I knew Mr Stark and he had the worlds best self driving cars, and I can get one to come pick us up," he said, talking to the path more than any of them.
"I'm sorry, this is my soulmate?" Butch asked. Percy grabbed the guy's right wrist and held his hand up to him. There on his middle knuckle was the scythe that matched Butch's own.
"I'm not like rich or anything. I just accidentally stumbled into this life with Mr Stark and he wanted me to be safe so I have access to a bunch of weird high tech stuff. Mrs Potts insists I actually use it," he mumbled.
"This is Peter," Annabeth said. "Call a car," she added, looking to Peter.
Butch, admittedly, didn't know much about Spider-Man. He lived at camp full time and had since he was eleven, but he'd heard about him. He'd seen clippings from newspapers, and he'd seen photos from the Aphrodite Cabin because a bunch of them thought he was really hot. Something to do with the flexibility and the skin tight suit, he'd managed to figure out.
The boy in front of him didn't look like Spider-Man. Spider-Man wasn't the sort of person that would wear an over sized jumper and be all awkward and hunched in on himself.
Except apparently he was.
Peter being Spider-Man really didn't matter. Peter being his soulmate was what mattered.
And apparently Peter was some sort of Nepo Baby. He really wasn't the sort of person that Butch expected.
While they waited for the car to get there, Annabeth and Percy figured out what twenty four hour place they could go to. Every few suggestions Peter would mention something about the place that the other two hadn't known. The whole while Butch sat on his motorbike, not really getting involved with the conversation.
With a place in mind, they waited. It wasn't long after that, that a car rolled up. Butch inputted the address into his small built in gps, and nodded to the trio before setting off.
It was one of the stupidest things Peter had ever done. He'd had MJ preach at him time and time again not to go to secondary locations with people he barely knew. But he was in control of the car and the travel so surely it was fine. Though he hadn't actually seen Butch's soulmark.
He hadn't learnt much at all about Butch while he'd been sat there.
"You're sure he's my soulmate?" Peter asked. FRIDAY had full control of the car, but he was still sat in the driver's seat with his hands resting gently on the wheel.
"Certain," Annabeth said tightly from the back.
The car fell into silence then. Peter didn't try to break it. Normally he would have. But it was late, things were confusing, and he didn't know how he felt about the people currently sharing a car with him.
"You know, I always thought Butch's soulmate would be like death related," Percy commented. Annabeth hummed.
A lump formed in Peter's throat.
He himself wasn't tied to death, not really. But a lot death happened around him. A lot of death, and destruction, and pain.
"Maybe this is a bad idea," he voiced.
"Why?" Annabeth asked, tilting her head slightly as she analysed him from the back of the car. Peter tried swallowing the lump in his throat.
"Just," Peter started, shrugging it off. "Reasons," he finally answered. Annabeth snorted, like he'd given some bullshit excuse, Percy though hummed thoughtfully.
"How many super-heroes and the like have a happy life?" Percy asked, trying to sound casual. Peter hummed. Clint Barton was the only one that came to mind.
"Not many," he answered plainly. Annabeth hummed then, as if something clicked.
"Hey FRIDAY?" Peter called.
"Yes Peter?" FRIDAY asked, her voice filling the car.
"Can you call MJ from my number?" he asked.
"Of course Peter," FRIDAY answered. The dialling rang out in the car.
"You're an idiot," MJ informed him as soon as he answered.
"Yeah," Peter agreed.
"Ned and I are revoking the genius status you've been hoarding," she told him.
"Sounds smart," he said. MJ huffed.
"If you know you're being an idiot, why are you still doing it?" MJ asked. Peter shrugged even though she couldn't see him.
"I mean, it's my soulmate?" he tried. She sighed, and Peter could picture her shaking her head at him.
"The same soulmate you thought didn't exist?" she asked.
"No! I thought my soulmate existed," he said. "As an abstract concept," he added slower and more quiet. Though he was sure Annabeth and Percy could still hear him. "Oh, by the way, the strangers are in the car."
"Peter!" MJ almost shouted at him. He smiled awkwardly, though she still couldn't see him. "Why does anyone let you protect New York?" she asked.
"Technically, no one lets me," he said. "I just do it."
"I let you," MJ said.
"Hey!" Peter complained.
"You know I could stop you if I wanted to," she said, the threat clear in her voice.
"It's not like I'm bringing anyone back to mine," Peter said. "Plus, like, my soulmate isn't the abstract concept of death, bad luck, and doom and gloom!"
"Who is it then?" MJ asked with a sigh.
"This guy called Butch," he said. He wasn't really all that sure how to describe him.
"That's all you know?" she asked.
"He's quiet," Peter offered.
"Peter for fuck sake, you're a dumbass," MJ said.
"He's a biker guy?" he tried.
"He does like his bike," Percy chimed in.
"Not your conversation," MJ said firmly. Peter snorted slightly.
"Look, MJ, you and Ned can call me an idiot all you like, but I just need a pep talk going in to like my first conversation with my soulmate," he said. MJ sighed, and Peter could almost see her nodding slowly.
"He's not going to die," she told him firmly. "You're not cursed."
"But," he started, not quiet willing to divulge all his secrets to the pair in the back of his car.
"Pete, look. I know your history. But me and Ned aren't dead. Pepper and Morgan aren't dead. Your soulmate isn't going to drop dead because of you," she said. He nodded slowly.
"Go eat shitty pizza with him, and be a nerd," MJ instructed.
"How did you know I was getting pizza?" he asked, but he didn't get an answer because she hung up on him.
"Thank MJ," he said, rolling his eyes. "Love you too! I'll be here for you too when you meet your soulmate!"
"You know she hung up right?" Percy asked.
"Peter," FRIDAY cut in, "is well aware MJ has ended their call. He enjoys snarking the end of call screen."
"Thanks FRIDAY," Peter said, rolling his eyes. Finally they pulled up at the pizza spot. Three parking spots were out front, and only one was available.
The car carefully manoeuvred itself into the spot. From the centre console he pulled a small bag of coins to pay for the parking.
It was time to face his soulmate.
Butch hadn't been waiting all that long. His soulmate and the fancy car had obeyed traffic laws getting there, and he hadn't, but it hadn't really sped everything up for him too much. Annabeth gave him a small nod as she got out of the car.
Peter was the last out of the car, though Butch wasn't sure what kept him. He nodded to him and got an awkward smile back.
"I'll pay for pizza," he volunteered. Butch hummed. He wasn't exactly sure how he'd ended up with a rich boy for a soulmate. Or Spider-Man for a soulmate.
"We'll stick around for a little while," Annabeth said. "Until you're ready for some time alone."
Butch nodded at her.
This wasn't how his first meeting with his soulmate had been pictured. With the scythe marking their connection on the rare occasion Butch had allowed himself to think on it all, he'd assumed they'd meet in some sort of life or death situation.
They settled at a table in the back, Annabeth and Percy on one side, them on the other.
Slowly Butch took of his biker gloves, finally revealing the matching scythe mark to his soulmate.
"Cool," Peter said, staring at it. "Not a trap. Probably not going to get murdered. Definitely still getting a lecture from someone," he continued. "I hope it's MJ, actually no. MJ is way too scary. Pepper too. Ned doesn't know how to lecture, but if it's May I'll be subjected to the disappointing stare."
"He rambled," Percy informed him.
"Sorry," Peter apologised, slightly sinking in on himself. Butch nodded just barely.
"It's ok," he said. "I like it." Peter beamed at him, for a moment it made sense. Peter's smile being directed at him sent a wave of butterflies through his stomach.
"What do you think the scythe means?" Peter asked.
"I don't know," Butch answered truthfully. Peter hummed.
For first meetings, Butch supposed it could be worse. Then again, it definitely could have been better. They hadn't even met each other! They'd been introduced, and the discovery hadn't been fun it seemed.
"Your soulmate is very spidery," Annabeth told him quietly. Well, that explained her unease at least.
"And rich," Percy muttered.
"Not really," Peter said. "It's not really my money, and It's not like I have unrestricted access to it. I don't even want the money, but it comes in useful when needs must."
"Like pizza?" Percy asked. Peter shook his head.
"That's paid for by my job thanks. And the car isn't mine, exactly. It's more like on loan. And if I didn't use it when I need too, I'd get an earful. It's not as simple as you want to think," Peter explained. Butch hummed and nodded.
"I wouldn't be against getting to know you," Butch said. Peter snorted.
"A ringing endorsement. I'm sure that's gonna make my friends so happy I got in a car with two strangers," Peter said. "Sorry, um yeah. I'd like that."
It wasn't much, but it was a start. Butch didn't want to rush things. They didn't know what the scythe meant, and even with a living breathing soulmate beside them it didn't seem any less intimidating. Still, Peter seemed a nice balance to him, and Butch rather liked it so far. Peter seemed rather sweet, even if he was some strange sort of nepo-baby.