Chapter Text
Things had been a lot better for Peter since everything came out to May and Tony.
It'd been a little hard to get used to at first. After all, he'd been hiding the more... unsavoury uhhh more spidery aspects of his powers for years. It was just... second nature to, like, lock the door when he slept so no one would walk in, deal with the injuries to his extra limbs on his own, sneak out at night to hunt for his food where no one would find him. So having 2 people who not only knew about his secret, but who were also actively trying to make him talk about it... it was nice, of course, but also really weird. He knew, objectively, it was good, but. Still just... weird.
Living at the tower was weird too. He'd been staying there for a little while already, of course, but that was when he had the constant reminder of everything going on with May keeping him away from home. But now, everything with him and his aunt was the same as before, (better even), and he'd been living in that little apartment in queens for almost a decade. So it was weird sometimes to wake up in the tower, in his new fancy bed, and realise oh, I'm rich now. More than once after a long patrol, he'd found himself swinging towards his and May's building before realising wait! shit! I don't live here anymore! And had to swing back all the way across the city.
One time, after a particularly rough patrol, he'd actually gone so far as to crawl in through his old window. He'd been trying to get into the habit of using his extra limbs more often- they really did make things a lot easier - and this time he'd managed to break not 1, but 2 of his spare arms. Why was it always those arms? There was this weird guy in a mech-suit robbing a bank, and he'd grabbed Peter mid-swing and crushed them in his grip. So not cool. Peter used those. Fully intending to fall straight asleep and deal with his injuries in the morning, Peter had flopped face down into his bed in the dark - only, that wasn't his bed, that was the floor, and actually now that he's down here why is there a bunch of gym equipment, and oh god that is one very buff very angry woman opening the door-
Suffice to say, he half-swung, half-limped his way home with 2 broken arms and a brand-spanking-new black eye that night. The woman had turned out to be a fan of his in the end, luckily, and one quick, very apologetic autograph later, he'd managed to convince her not to call the cops.
Really, Peter should be the one calling the popo. Everyone knows you're meant to catch spiders in a cup and put them outside, not punch them in the face. The nerve of some people.
He'd arrived back to the tower waaaay past his curfew, and was very glad he'd managed to convinve karen not to alert anyone. May was scary on her own, but now, when she's backed up by the full force of Tony's disappointed-dad stare? Nightmare fuel. And trust, Peter has more than enough of those.
He's so fine guys.
This time, when stumbled through the window and flopped down on his bed, he didn't hit the floor.
"Yippee!" he celebrated weakly.
His bed was so nice and so warm, and the pain in his arms had numbed to a dull ache, and he was sooo sleeeepyyy. His spidey sense was wiggling at him, like Hey! listen! but Peter so did not care right now. He snuggled down into the soft comforter mumbling for Friday to lock his door, and had begun to fall into a deep, easy sleep, when he was immediately flash banged by some fucking guy turning on the light.
He should probably like, be alarmed by this.
He told his body to get up, and his body told him to Fuck Off.
So real. so valid.
But he's not gonna die without some kind of fight. He rallied his fighting spider-man spirit.
"Nooo, plea', jus' kill'm in th' morningggg."
And then he snuggled in deeper. He might even start purring, oh my god his bed is so good...
"Peter Benjamin Parker, do you have any idea what time it is??"
His eyes shot open.
That wasn't some fucking guy. And it certainly wasn't some mysterious murderer.
"Aunt May?" He asked meekly, face still shoved in his blanket and praying that whoever was in his room would say, "No, I'm Mister evil man and I'm here to put you out of your misery."
Thankyou Mr. evil man.
"You bet your butt it's Aunt May, now sit up and explain yourself."
Noooooo
He whined in a very manly, not at all teenagerly fashion, and slowly pushed himself up with his good arm, cradling the other two to his chest. When he finally managed to shift himself into a sitting position, he heard a gasp.
Aunt May was looking right at his arms, and immediately he felt his body flood with adrenaline.
Oh no oh no I'm so stupid they're right there she can see them oh god oh god-
He panicked and instinctively tried to shove them back into his second skin, maybe she hadn't seen maybe she didn't realise-
But instead of the usual smooth slide of skin, he felt horrible, stabbing pain.
"OUCH! FUCK FUCK FUCK-"
ohhhh trying to contort broken bones like that was such a bad idea-
"Peter!"
Immediately May was at his side and softly, so softly grabbing his broken arms and shifting them into a more comfortable position, as Peter screwed his eyes up tight and tried not to cry.
Don't cry don't cry don't cry-
He could hear May tutting and making soft sounds of distress, and slowly, slowly, his heartbeat began to calm.
Idiot. Aunt May already knew. Why did he panic like that?
"Peter?"
He kept his eyes closed a few extra seconds, just to let the rest of the adrenaline flood out of his system. Just to catch his breath. He let out a deep sigh, then met May's eyes and smiled sheepishly.
"Heyyy, Aunt May. How's it goin'?"
She was not impressed.
"Peter," She hissed, "What happened? you've got at least two fractures in this arm, and probably a full break in the other."
His eyebrows shot up. "Really? Thats great! I thought they were both broken-"
"Peter! This isn't funny! Do you have any idea how worried I was? You're lucky this is the first time Tony's willingly slept in 2 days, or it would have been him waiting for you instead of me-"
"Wow, only 2 days? that's like, never happened. Is he okay? Is he dying? Because if he is, I'll-"
"Peter."
Oh, that was a shut up tone, yep yep yep-
Deep breath.
"I'm sorry, Aunt May," he whispered.
Flashes of the last time he came home past curfew flashed across his mind, and he could tell May was thinking about the same thing.
Her eyes softened.
"Look, it's okay, honey. You don't need to be sorry, I know you didn't mean to be home late. just- what happened?"
He quickly told her about the guy in the mech suit. He played it down a bit, obviously, but May was still visibly concerned by the end.
"Fucking Iron man wannabees," She muttered. "And the eye? That from him too?"
He almost said 'no' and went to explain, but then he realised that he definitely didn't want to add 'Breaking and entering' to his list of offences for tonight.
"N-Yep! Yeparroo, that was him, the mech guy. Black-eye extraordinaire."
May just looked at him flatly.
"Try again."
Fuck his stupid chungus life.
Luckily, he was saved from digging himself a deeper hole when a very panicked, half-asleep Tony, clad only in My Little pony pyjamas pants and the left arm and leg of his Iron Man suit, burst through his door.
"HEY HEY I HEARD YELLING WHATS GOING ON-"
May just sighed. She grabbed Tony by the armoured hand to prevent him from wildly shooting everything that moved, and guided him and Peter by the shoulders down to med bay.
"Come on- hop up." May said softly, patting one of the medical beds as Tony tiredly crashed around in the side room looking for a portable X-ray.
She pulled a tray up and had him lay his arms across it, and he winced at the touch of the cold metal. She stood back and squinted at him, eyes roaming across his shoulders and torso suspiciously. He shifted uncomfortably at the scrutiny.
"What?" He asked. She just squinted harder.
"What?? Aunt Mayyyy."
She sighed. "Come on. Show me the rest."
He blinked. "Uhhhh. Why?"
"Because you're my son and I don't trust you to not be secretly hiding, I don't know a bullet wound or or a gouged eye or something. Let me have a look at you."
Normally he felt uncomfortable when May asked him to do that, even now, but his tired brain was too busy feeling all warm and dopey at the word son, so he grumbled half-heartedly and relaxed. His remaining arms slipped out and the rest of his eyes opened, making him sigh with pleasure at the feeling of the cool AC air washing over him. And then he winced, because damn they keep the lights bright in here.
There was a loud crash from the side room and the sound of Tony cursing profusely, before he suddenly popped out the door holding the portable x ray over his head triumphantly. Which was kind of concerning because it was kind of big and already Tony was beginning to wobble under the weight of it.
Aunt May gasped and ran over, helping him put the thing down for goodness sake and roll it over on the wheels that were there for a reason.
"Honestly Tony. Sometimes I don't understand how you're still living."
There, as he watched May and Tony patch him up, arguing over who he got his questionable sense of survival from, he felt some secret, buried knot inside him... let go. He hadn't realised, but a part of him had still been holding out- waiting for one or both of them to change their mind, to kick him out again. To realise he was a freak after all, that he was the monster a small, small part of him was still convinced he was. But here, in the middle of the night, as his 2 favourite people looked after the most vulnerable parts of him, he felt all that worry fall away. He was honestly and truly safe. He could be himself with them. No more hiding, no more shame. Maybe, with their help, he might even consider telling Ned and MJ. (He thinks MJ suspects something off already anyway. After she came up to him a few months ago and boldly declared 'you're spider-man, and I'm going to stop you from dying like the stupid motherfucking idiot you are', she'd been exposed to a lot more of his alter ego, and she was much less oblivious than Ned was). He knew he should probably tell the Avengers as well- he lived with them, and they'd find out eventually - but while they probably wouldn't judge him given that one of them turns into a big angry green guy, he just wasn't very comfortable around them yet.
He was just about to open his mouth and ask for some sage, parent-ly advice, when the door to the med bay slid open.
Tony, May and Peter turned and stared at the bedraggled form of one James 'Bucky' Barnes.
He blinked. Stared back.
No one moved.
Finally, Bucky squinted and rubbed his eyes, turning around.
"Gotta tell Stevie I'm fucking halluc'natin' about spiders ag'n.." He grumbled, and left the room.
Tony started laughing hysterically.