InsaneJournal

May & Peter Thread
Who: May & Peter Parker
What: Peter has some news to share.
When: Sunday afternoon
Where: May’s apartment
Warnings: TBA
Status: Started in GDOC, tbc in comments.



May liked her cozy little apartment, which was bright and filled with books, but she liked it even more when Peter visited. She wasn’t used to living alone, even after watching him go off to the West Coast first. Hence, she always made sure to spoil him when he came over. Food? Hugs? Never enough for her favorite nephew. Still, she was concerned about what he wanted to tell her. He joked on the network that she’d need a notebook. Were his dreams that in depth? She hoped they weren’t bad. Peter suffered enough in his short life.

Peter was anxious about seeing May and telling her about his powers. He hadn’t done that in the dream world, obviously, but it seemed bizarre to him that he hadn’t confided in her. His instinct when anything happened to him - good or bad - was to reach out to May, someone in his family that had always been there for him unwaveringly.

His hands were sweaty and he had cakes from the bakery en route to her place in his backpack, along with his web fluid and canisters. He hadn’t started swinging yet, but it felt better to have them with him, safer.

He let himself in with his key and called out a greeting as he toed off his sneakers.

“Smells good in here,” he said as he moved further into May’s apartment. “Hey.” He held up the bag of pastries and cakes like a peace offering. “Bought fuel for a movie night?”

May grinned and exited the kitchen when she heard Peter. She hurried over to her nephew and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Sounds perfect, baby.” She gestured to the table. “Go on, put it there and tell me how you’ve been! How are classes?”

“Busy,” Peter admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “It’s a heavy course load but it’s okay; it’s a good school. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do an internship next year. So far only a couple of people have given me trouble for being younger. When I’m eighteen it’ll be easier, I’ll be the right age for college then.”

She frowned. She didn’t like the idea of anyone giving her nephew trouble, few or not. “We’ll have to celebrate in a big way,” she told him. “Eighteen is an important year.” She held a hand up, indicating to wait a minute. She hurried into the kitchen to check on the food. She reappeared a moment later. “Right on track.” She beamed. “Right, your birthday. Do you want a party?”

Peter laughed, “My birthday isn’t for another few months! You don’t need to plan it yet. We’ve gotta survive spring and summer here first.” He sat down on the couch and tucked his feet underneath himself, watching his aunt affectionately over the back of the couch. “And I’m okay, I promise. It’s not- it’s just weird being the youngest on campus and definitely the youngest in my classes.”

“Oh, fine, take away my fun,” she teased. She came around to join him on the couch. “Dinner will be ready soon. I set a timer so don’t worry about me burning anything!” May was a decent cook, but sometimes she got sidetracked so the timer was important. “I’m dying to know what you wanted to tell me.” She was curious, sure, but mostly concerned. She hoped he was really okay and not just telling her what she wanted to hear.

Peter chewed on his lower lip as he looked at her, lifting one leg and hugging it to his chest. He played with the hem of his jeans and cracked the knuckles of his left hand, indecisive and trying to work out what the best approach would be.

“Okay, so it’s probably easier to just… show you? But you gotta promise not to freak out, okay?”

She could tell he was nervous so she shot him an encouraging smile and squeezed his shoulder. “Cross my heart, honey. It will be okay, whatever it is.” Still, her heart pounded. Was he okay?

“Oh, yeah, I’m okay. I just- don’t freak out.”

Peter gently moved her hand from his shoulder and got to his feet, rolling his shoulder and bouncing on his toes for a moment before he jumped. This was no ordinary jump though, he lifted a good six, nearly seven feet off the ground from standing. As he did, he twisted his upper body so he was upside down, feet sticking to the ceiling.

“So, uh, I can do this.”

May just sat, shell-shocked for a moment. She kept staring from the place he jumped back to where he hung. She knew people in their new environment had powers, but her own nephew? Finally, she stood and began pacing. “Oh, wow. Pete, that is...an amazing ability. You’re being careful, right?”

Peter tipped his head to look at her upside down and then lifted his arm to touch the ceiling, feet unsticking so he was hanging by his fingertips before he dropped into a crouch on the floor.

“Sure,” he told her, the slight flush to his ears indicating he wasn’t being entirely truthful. He had stopped a runaway bus by standing in front of it, after all. “Totally careful.”

She raised her eyebrows. That was going to take getting used to. “Right. So long as Aunt May doesn’t know, Aunt May can’t worry.” She gave him a little smile, showing she did appreciate him trying to protect her, but he really didn’t have to. “Is this something with the dreams?” she asked. “Do you see yourself doing...what you just did?” Her dreams were mundane so far and she was starting to prefer it that way the more she heard about other people’s.

So far so good, Peter thought. May was being relatively calm. He’d have to see how she felt once she knew he’d stopped a bus with his bare hands during an attack. He’d have to tell her about that too, oh man.

He flopped down into the nearby chair and tucked his legs underneath himself, lacing his fingers together.

“It- yeah,” he admitted, chewing the inside of his lower lip. “I mean I- It’s not- I got bitten by a spider on a school trip and then woke up with powers and not long after I had that dream, it happened to me in real life too. It’s not just being sticky though,” he said. “I’m- I’m also really strong and pretty fast and I can jump really far. And like… it took me a while to work out how to control my senses since they’re all… better?”

“You were bitten? And you developed all these abilities and no one ever checked you out? I mean a doctor?” She paused. “No, of course not, a doctor probably has no idea what is going on, but what if something terrible is happening to you? Baby, maybe there is someone out there that does know about...this stuff.” She walked over to him and rested a hand on his head. “Right, so strong and fast and jumping and your senses and…” She stroked his hair. “How are you testing all this exactly?”

“Aunt Peggy checked me out,” Peter told her quickly, “she said I was okay. I mean I’m stronger and faster than I was before, which is neat. And I’m more resilient but I can still get hurt, which y’know, sucks. Invulnerability would have been-” He cut himself off when May’s hand rested on his head and he leaned to the side and into the touch, the comfort that she was offering and he took it, closing his eyes slightly. “There’s a few people here who have powers… not like mine but similar? I’ve got a friend who tests with me so I’m safe. But also there was…”

He took another breath and glanced up at her.

“Okay, so don’t freak out.”

May tried not to let on that she felt a little hurt that Peggy knew before she did. It was just good Peter got checked out. She closed her eyes when he said not to freak out. She wasn’t sure she could make that promise. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath. “Lay it on me, kid.”

“Okay, okay,” Peter said after a moment, reaching up to curl his hand around her wrist to keep her close. “Okay so a little while ago there was… some kind of incident where monsters came to the OC and they attacked and- I- sorta stood in front of a bus and caught it with my hands ‘cause the driver lost control and it was sort of on fire.” He winced, prepared for his aunt to go into a whistle-pitch in response. “I fought evil dimension hopping robot things and that’s kind of how I realised just how strong I am…”