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Peter trudged out of the elevator, dropping his backpack and flopping face-first onto the couch with a groan. He had stayed out late patrolling the night before (which had resulted in a few bruised ribs and cuts that he told Karen not to notify Tony of – he did have to hack Karen a few months ago to get her to ask instead of immediately notifying him, but Tony doesn’t need to know that) so he ended up falling asleep in half of his classes, which earned him some stern looks and comments from his teachers, and he had to run the fitness gram pacer test in PE which would have been totally fine if his ribs weren’t screaming at him.
He refused to acknowledge how Flash had been especially annoying today, in a way that was actually the main reason Peter was face down on the couch at the moment, trying not to think about the day.
Hey, Penis. Why’d you skip practice last night? Is it that “internship” you don’t have? Y’know, one day I’ll get proof to expose you for the liar that you are and I’ll get the internship instead of you. My dad can make sure you never get an internship, he’s that powerful. What about your dad? Oh wait I forgot, you don’t have one
Peter tried to shake the image of Flash’s sneer out of his head. Shake off the grief threatening to bubble to the surface.
He was so busy in his head he didn’t notice someone enter the living room until a voice cut through the silence.
“Hey! Peter, right? Are you… okay?”
He sniffed and quickly wiped away the tears welling at his eyes, sitting up to see Wanda standing in front of the couch.
“Um, yeah. Sorry, just being dramatic and stuff.”
Wanda looked at him curiously, obviously not believing him, but didn’t push him.
“Do you want to watch TV?”
Peter was surprised. He had always imagined Wanda would be very closed off based on how she was portrayed by the media, not having interacted with her enough during the fight in Germany to form his own idea of her. But here she was, holding up a remote with a small smile.
“Uh, sure. What do you like to watch?”
“Different things, but I like sitcoms the best.”
Huh. That wasn’t what he would’ve expected, but he couldn’t complain. He liked sitcoms too. They had a comforting feel to them that helped sometimes when he was having a rough day and May was busy at the hospital.
“Me too.”
Wanda smiled and sat down on the cushion next to him, not too close, but not far, and turned on an old black-and-white sitcom he hadn’t seen before.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, making Peter stiffen.
“About what?”
“Whatever it was that made you upset. I know you’re not being dramatic.”
“No, I’m being dramatic, don’t worry.”
“I don’t believe you are. From what I’ve heard of Peter Parker, I don’t believe you are one to be dramatic. If something happened, it’s okay to feel upset and it’s okay to talk about it.”
Peter sighed, realizing she probably wouldn’t let it go. For all he knew, her powers could have already told her exactly what happened the moment he came home (he had no idea how her powers worked but knew enough to know he didn’t ever want to go against her)
“It’s just something someone said at school today. It’s really nothing.”
“What did they say?”
“Some kid just made a comment about… um…”
“About?”
“About how I kind of don’t have a dad.”
Wanda sat in silence for a moment, thinking, as Peter blinked back the tears that were already coming back up.
“That kid is a dick.” she said simply, earning a wide-eyed, open-mouthed stare from Peter.
“What?” she shrugged, “he is. I dealt with that sometimes too. After my parents died.”
“How did you handle it?”
“Well, at first I didn’t handle it well, that’s for sure. I got aggressive, which didn’t work at all but felt right in the moment. But Pietro handled it better, and he taught me how to handle it. Anytime we missed our parents, we would watch this show. It was my favorite show to watch with them. We would watch it to practice our English, making some of my favorite memories of us. It was something we would all do as a family, the rare times we were all together and happy. So now, when I miss my family, I watch this show and think of them. It helps keep their memories alive.”
Peter stayed quiet for a minute, watching the people on the screen as Wanda would let out soft huffs of laughter, bittersweet memories shining in her eyes.
“Does it work?”
“Not always. Sometimes it makes me sadder. I don’t ever regret watching it, though, even when it makes me sad, because I know the sadness comes from the love I had for them, and I am grateful to have experienced that love, even if I hate how soon that experience ended.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you have something you used to do with your dad?”
“Well, my dad died when I was really little, but my uncle kinda stepped up as a father figure. He wasn’t really a dad, he was still my uncle, but he was the closest I really had to a dad.”
“What did you like to do with your uncle?”
Peter thought for a moment. There was a lot they would do together, but he remembered most fondly was listening to recordings of the US Marine Band.
“Uncle Ben was in the military, and in a band before that, so we would listen to recordings of the United States Marine Band when I was having a bad day. It was really nice.”
“Well, then let’s listen to some marches.” Wanda said, holding out the remote.
“But your sitcoms-”
“-Are nice, but I am not the one in need of comfort right now. Plus, I am intrigued. I have not heard of this band before. I want to listen too.”
Peter reluctantly took the remote and opened youtube, where he knew most marches would be now, pulling up “Semper Fidelis”, which would seem like an odd song to be comforted by, but Peter remembered it was the first march Ben showed him.
By the second strain, Peter was smiling slightly, and by the fight, he was rocking softly to the music, remembering how he and Ben used to bounce around to it and pretend to play the different parts on air instruments.
Peter turned back to Wanda, eyes glimmering with unshed tears, different from those he had cried before. “Thank you,” he whispered. She simply nodded back, understanding shining in her eyes. “You’re welcome.”
Wanda watched him with a warm smile as the boy relaxed into the music. She knew what it felt like to be where he was when she first walked in. She remembered hiding her tears as she was mocked, wanting to disappear. But she also knew well the soft connection he was feeling now, and was glad to have helped give him that. She didn’t know the boy well, but she knew he had been through a lot, and promised herself that she would try to always be there to help him if he needed it.