Chapter Text
Wade was worried, more like freaked out. Peter had been gone for hours, and after seeing how aggressive he had gotten with those baddies before he was beginning to suspect some things about the boy's past. which meant that Peter was not in a good headspace. which meant that Wade might not be able to track him due to Peter probably being erratic at the moment. Que even more panic.
He was retracing Peter's steps, he knew he would have brought the girl home. Spiderman took his duties as a hero very seriously. But after that? Wade had no clue what he could've done. So here he was, ready to tear his non-existent hair out over his not so little crisis.
As he was walking he looked into every alleyway, stopping little muggings as he came across the because he knew that that's what Peter would have liked him to have done. Just as he was ready to scream into the sky, hoping his wordless pleas would reach the heavens he heard a whimper, and then a sob. those were Peter's sobs. he would know them anywhere. Wade slowly walked into the alley and sat cross legged on the grimy alley floor in front of his spider. "Hey Pete, its okay yeah?"
"no, I-I can't breathe!" Peter wasn't having a panic attack, that much was true but he was holding his neck as if to stave off hands that weren't grasping him. it was a memory then. Wade had a good deal of experience with flash backs, but Peter? Peter was only 16 and experience wasn't there yet. So Wade sat there for an hour talking Peter out of it, coaxing him back to reality. It was hard, Wade realized, when you had to help someone when you barely knew how to help yourself. But eventually it worked and Peter looked up at him with tears clinging to his lashes and a wobbly reassuring smile. obviously the kid knew he was worried about him.
"Back to the land of the living I see." He paused thinking. "I think we have the stuff at home to make mac and cheese? I know we had Mexican not so long ago but it doesn't hurt your metabolism to have ore food."
"Yeah, sounds like a good plan."
They got back home with little fanfare, Peter was nearly dead on his feet, swaying side to side as Wade opened the door for him to go inside first (because he's a gentleman at heart). Peter dozed a bit on the couch while his brothe- Wade made them dinner. Second dinner? They were starting to live like hobbits Peter thought to himself.
While eating Peter caught himself staring into space from time to time and he figured he owed Wade some sort of explanation. "My babysitter, when i was younger, Skip... He used to do things when he drank. May didn't know he was an alcoholic, or that he was drinking on the job, but-" He cleared his throat loudly, fighting past the lump forming.
"You don't need to tell me something you aren't comfortable talking about Petey."
"I know, I just... I want somebody to know. Even if there's nothing to do about it." Peter sighed. "He used to- touch... Well when he was drunk he would do things to me, say things. He called me Einstein. Which is a weird thing to be upset about but May also called me Einstein and now the nickname is ruined you know?" He said a bit hysterically.
Wade leaned over and slung his arm around Peter's shoulders. "Yeah, well you're safe now. The asshole is as good as dead when I find him, and don't argue with me over killing people for you. You're fine when I do it on patrol so this isn't any different."
"I wasn't going to... I know that I wasn't the only one. I'm sure of it." Peter leaned into Wade letting the silence fall over them.
***
Wade added therapy to Peter's weeks. Every Friday he had an appointment with this lovely lady called Paula. she seemed calm and collected on Peters first visit but it didn't take long for him to realize that Paula was really a thunderstorm of a woman, in other words: she got sh*t done no matter the cost.
Peter told her everything, or almost everything. He and Wade had come up with a believable story about him finding Peter in the streets after May's death and long story short he ended up adopting him. Quick and simple right? Yeah, no. Paula saw through the bullsh*t as soon as it had left their mouths. Peter liked that about her, she never failed to call him out on his delusional sh*t.
"What would you say to your child self?" Then there were times that Peter thought she had lost her 'marbles'
"you know... I am only all of sixteen." she could be a bit presumptuous.
"I'm talking about the younger you, your child self that had to deal with what happened."
"So words of encouragement?"
"Peter, you're good at avoiding things. I can tell that you know where this is going. What do you wish you had heard when you were younger- or even now."
"Well." He tapered off, thinking. "I guess I'd do what most would and tell 'younger me' that it's not his fault."
Paula leaned back in her chair and took her glasses off to clean them. When she had placed them back on she sighed out, "I really wish that you could believe that."
***
"I think it's good that you're seeing someone. My parents saw a psychologist when they were going through a rough patch."
Peter had confided in Ned not expecting anything to come of it but it turned out the other boy was full of unnecessary insight. They were sitting outside of Delmar's eating their sandwiches on the dirty tables that Peter didn't even think had been cleaned in the last month. The place had charm, it was one of his favorites of course, but it was still a bit shambly when you took the time to really look at it closely.
"I don't know Ned, I don't even know how helpful talking is. I just feel like we keep coming up with solutions that I can't actually resonate with. I just don't know."
"I think you should give it a chance, what's the worst that can happen right?"
"Yeah, you're right." the conversation turned to star wars after that, and they parted ways to go home. Or at least Ned went home, Peter walked a couple blocks and walked suspiciously into a nearby alleyway to change into is suit.
The sun was setting so Peter sat on top of a building to watch it go down before his patrol. This was the first day in a while that he didn't have his web shooters on him. He was finally healthy enough after the few days living with Wade with a stable food source that he could go without them. his spinnerets had finally healed and weren't rashy and red anymore. Spiderman smiled to himself. He was finally coming right.
Once the sun had fully set he leapt of the roof and landed on the next, he ran across rooftops and when he couldn't jump all the way to the next one he would swing to it, smiling every time his webs held up.
Eventually he heard a scream and landed on the rooftop in the dingy-est neighborhood he'd been to yet. There were three men, each holding outlandish weapons that seemed to glow in the dark. Spiderman had to shake his head to clear the thoughts of a robbery done with kiddie toys. Now was not the time. He watched as a poor homeless looking teenager backed away in fear while the three men laughed at him. The closest one laughed even louder.
"Now hold still, we just got permission to test 'em and we would'na want to have to chase ya to do it." The other two laughed and jeered at the kid and Peter decided that he had had enough.
"It's not very nice to point guns on innocent kids, or anyone at all really. Did nobody ever teach you how to handle a firearm?" Everybody looked up at him on top of the building, but the three men seemed to smile even wider at Peter.
"Run along now little mouse, We have a Spider to test on now." the kid had no problem running away from the grinning maniacs. And Peter felt a sense of dread when he faced the men. Testing they said. As in testing the weird glowing weapons they all held.
He had no time to think about what to do next as he was lifted off his feet and thrown into the alley by some weird blue light that came from one of the guns. Turns out, Peter thought hysterically, they're not guns. Even still Peter had to leap into action, he avoided the glowing gun the second time it was aimed at him and he got to clock the sod in the jaw, knocking him out cold. The other two didn't smile after that, their grins twisted into something ugly and soon they were shooting glowing purple bullets at him while retreating. Spiderman ran after them but got his by one of the bullets. It tore through his suit but only just grazed his arm.
Spiderman was hit by dizzyness. He fell to his knees but still scrambled to get up to give chase to them. What was in those bullets? He found that he couldn't get up for a good five minutes and when he did the two men were long gone. Spiderman waked to the downed man on the floor and checked him over. His jaw was seriously swollen from Peter's overpowered punch but otherwise he was still alive and breathing which was good. Peter called the cops and gave them the address and swung his way home with the magic weapon he had on him. Maybe Wade knew what it was, and if not, what to do with it.
