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Chapter Text

After Ms. Captain Marvel snapped the universe back, things have basically been nothing but bad for Peter.

Aunt May suddenly getting hit by a vehicle completely destroyed him, the only good news is that Mr. Stark has adopted him! And Peter is super grateful but something has him feeling more on edge around the cottage since the accident, his spider sense always on a light buzz giving him an annoying headache all the time, adding to his already ‘great mood’.

One thing that seems to help his spider sense calm down a bit is to spend time around Mr. Stark which makes sense he’s Iron Man! totally not because he feels like a father figure to Peter or that he adopted Peter when he had no one left and was already helping him a few times a week before the whole snap thing… nah it’s definitely because he’s Iron Man.

The only other thing that seems to help is being in dark places usually high up and for some reason surrounded by his webbing.

So when he woke up from a particularly bad nightmare and climbed up into the shelf in his closet it felt nice.

The doors of said closet could be separated to only close on the top part, effectively sealing him in a dark place high up where his webs could block him in even tighter.

For the first time… in a long time Peter finally felt safe and he felt strangely good when he woke up that morning.

Peter decided to break a small hole in the corner of the closet, it was just big enough he could easily climb in and out of the area.

The small hole was also not obvious, he started going there sometimes when he needed relax or calm down when things were to much, mostly after a bad dream.

Mr. Stark gets notified of his panic attacks or sensory overload’s, but after one to many nightmares and the guilt from Mr. Stark getting woken up becoming to much for him, Peter had found a way to disable it, FRIDAY only getting notifying once and awhile as to not draw attention to less and less alerts.

—————————————————————

This morning Peter woke up feeling like he was hit by a truck, his back felt like it was going to explode and his head was hurting more then usual. Only when he found enough strength to walk to the bathroom did he figure out why.

Sticking out of his back growing in two rows right under his arms, are four dark brown fluffy protrusions that look like someone decided to stick harry hokey pucks on his back.

Peter was so thankful that FRIDAY didn’t have access to cameras footage in the bathrooms.

Peter quickly found himself pulling his clothes back on instead of taking a shower and throwing on a big sweater with MIT plaster across the front that he totally didn’t steal from Mr. Stark because it made him feel safer.

After Peter regained his composure, he decided to go down stares for breakfast.

“Morning Peter” Pepper said in a warm and happy tone scrambling some eggs, only for her face to fall just slightly when looking at Peter.

Pepper walked over to Peter almost putting a hand on his forehead only for Peter to push it away lightly before she could actually touch his head.

“N’ sick just headache” Peter grumbled out trying just to focus on the pain in his skull rather than the one on his back.

Pepper let out a small huff looking him over once before walking to the cupboard to grab a bottle of enhanced painkillers to help him even with his metabolism. “Would you like some painkillers?” Pepper asked with a hint of worry.

Peter didn’t usually take painkillers for his headache’s or any other kind of pain because well he can handle it, but as he was about to decline a flash of red hot pain went up his back so quickly it made him shudder.

Peter forced a smile and nodded.

Maybe taking them will make him forget that he was changing…

—————————————————————

Peter knows that he should probably mention becoming more and more spidery each day but it’s Christmas soon and he really doesn’t want to dampen the mood with his problems, and something in the back of his mind is always saying not to mention anything because…

Well some have already mentioned they don’t like his crawling on ceilings and stuff so maybe just maybe is it really that far fetched that some may not like him anymore because of his new extra not so natural developments?

—————————————————————

That was one of many changes that started over the next few months and before he knew it Christmas was right around the corner and the Avengers were over today for a Christmas party, some came around earlier to help with preparations despite Mr. Stark saying he could handle it.

And with the holidays came the hard to avoid candy canes…

Ever since the bite things like lemon, lavender and mint have never made Peter feel great, but recently peppermint has really made his spider sense scream and it extra didn’t help that he could literally smell it through the plastic!

So when Peter came down this morning to see Hawkeye literally hanging more of the damn things on the Christmas tree.

The new found urge to maybe just wrap some of his webs around the archer, bite and use just a bit of his new found veno- no no not thinking those things again! He said mentally cursing himself.

Instead of doing what his horrible spider instinct were telling him along with some other not so human thoughts, Peter decided just to help around like hanging some Christmas lights, because Captain America and the Falcon weren’t doing such a good job.

“Need some spider assistance?” Peter said letting on a slightly teasing grin when looking at Captain America tied up in light’s.

“I think Steve just really wanted to become the Light sparkle spangled this year” Sam said teasing Steve about the situation as he tried and failed to untangle the lights around Steve’s arms and torso.

Steve did smile slightly at Peter as he came to help. “You are probably much better fitted for this job than I am” Steve said with a slight chuckle in his tone despite looking like a Christmas tree.

Eventually the three managed to untangle and hang the lights just intime to be called for lunch.

—————————————————————

The rest of the evening went well… except for Peter.

It felt like every inch of every surface was covered danger and so was everyone.

Even Mr. Stark who was usually someone who made his spider sense calm down, he was now covered in danger aka candy canes from his hot chocolate, Mr. Stark’s breath smelling like said candy.

Not only were his sense of taste and smell being bombarded with so many stimuli his hearing and sight were too! Christmas tunes being blasted and colourful lights lining every surface (that he helped put there) were deafening and blinding.

He felt overwhelmed and nauseous by everything!

He hadn’t even eaten anything yet because everything was saturated with mint, lemon, cinnamon and so many more sent’s and colours, so he couldn’t eat anything being served.

Everything else aside, he also was just aching everywhere, his new natural spinnerets were hurting from not being used and his legs were sore from the constant uncomfortable and still position he left them in.

He was so done trying to actually keep up the act and talking to people.

he. needed. to. get. out.

“Mr. Stark?” The spider boy said trying to get the man’s attention by pulling his shirt like a sad toddler.

“Yea kid” Tony said all happy only to turn towards Peter with a worrying expression.

And crap that’s also why he was trying to keep up the facade, he didn’t want anyone worrying.

Peter put on a smile. “Just wanted to let you know I’m going to get some fresh air real quick”

Tony’s face seemed even more worried now. “You doing ok Underoos?”

No. “Yup” Peter said popping the ‘p’ and bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet to make sure he seemed fine. That’s how he usually acted right? “Just want some air no need to worry and I’ll be back in like five minutes”

The man looked sceptical but smiled back at Peter.

“Ok kid just don’t be too long we are going to start the secret Santa soon”

Peter flashed a quick smile before he walked outside, only not running because he held himself back as to not draw suspicion.

Once outside he felt relieved but also cold, so SO so cold.

Right another recent development, he can’t thermoregulate.

After a few minutes of trying to calm down, he couldn’t take the cold anymore and was about to go back into the hell hole that was the cottage only for something to move in the corner of his vision.

A rabbit or a bunny? maybe a haire?
Honestly Peter didn’t care what it was his instincts just wanted it.
He wanted it.

His legs started twitching under his hoodie, spinnerets were itching to wrap it up and his mouth felt full with something he wasn’t sure he possessed.

If Peter wasn’t starving and was thinking clearly maybe he would have started freaking out at his suddenly sharper teeth and large mandibles that were exiting his mouth dripping with saliva, but right now he didn’t care.

Then the bunny started to hop away and Peter followed.

Even through the snow Peter was quiet and once he reached the trees he could blend perfectly.

He perched on a branch, his hoodie off so he could finally let his extra limbs free, he was cold but it didn’t matter he was too concentrated on the bunny.

The creature stopped moving for a moment and Peter’s instincts burst into action.

Peter leaped down from the tree spinnerets extended webbing his prey to the snow and jumping on it.

Sharp teeth and mandibles bit down on the struggling creature, the prey twitched twice before all life it.

There was the tearing of flesh, the snapping of bones and blood everywhere, it was like some horror movie and Peter was the monster.

And when Peter finally realized what he was doing he really did feel like one.

Silent tears started to fall as he pushed himself away from the carnage, he was horrified and so many things started to flood his mind.

Some of them were scenes of Uncle Ben’s death.

Others were comments like ‘monster’ or ‘menace’.

And some were questions.

What will others think?

What if I hurt them?

After a while of just trying to process, Peter finally decided one thing something he was almost sure of from the start but was obvious now.

No one can know.

He threw snow over the carnage while he tried to get any off himself.

He finally just ripped off his shirt covered in blood and put his hoodie on, he ran away from the gruesome scene as fast as he could.

—————————————————————

Peter slammed right into the door of the cottage with already a plan in mind.

Scott was the one to open the door, the music was turned off as Natasha heard Peter crash into the door and told someone to shut it off.

Scott helped Peter up, the boy looked scared and panicked.

He Was panicked but not for the reasons he was going to tell.

Tony rushed over to Peter with a cloth to wipe his bleeding nose.

Oh when did that happen, guess I hit the door to hard he thought as Tony passed him the cloth.

“Kid are you ok what the hell happened!?” Tony sounded worried and looking around everyone else looked worried too. Peter felt bad but he needed something to play off his emotions, because he really couldn’t handle them right now.

“Bear” is all Peter choked out before he walked, trying to do so normally, over to a chair far away from the tree covered in candy canes.

A bear would explain how he ran into the door and why he looked scared and if anyone found the carnage near the cottage it would probably, maybe?, play that off too.

Some laughed, others scoffed as for Tony he still looked worried. Peter really has gotten better at lying, it doesn’t feel good but he reminded himself of his reasons for doing so… they can’t know.

“Kid” Tony let out a sigh rubbing a hand down his face.

“Glad you’re ok kid” Tony said putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “You ok to do the secret Santa still?”

“Oh yea just the shock of it all I’m fine now don’t worry” yea he was definitely getting better at lying because Tony’s face immediately brightened up.

“K Underoos” the man said removing his hand.

“Telling you now I didn’t get you for the secret Santa but some gifts may have been put under the tree for you anyway” Tony said with a smug smile.

Peter let out a laugh at the man’s antics, ok so he isn’t the only one who couldn’t stick to just buying one present.

Tony went and sat down on the couch near Peter smiling all the while.

A few of the Avengers started passing out the gifts to the person labeled on the boxes and bags.

Clint came to Peter with a box and Peter had to repress the flinch that came along with a wave of nausea that hit him when he saw a candy cane taped to the top of the colourfully wrapped box.

“Is the wrapping job really that bad” Clint joked clearly catching Peter’s reaction, Peter decided to go along with it.

“Oh my goodness yea it’s horrible” Peter said the tease rolling off his tongue pretty easily, and it had the desired effect because Clint just put a hand to his chest with a painful look.

“And I was actually trying this time” Clint said with a huff as he walked away to continue handing out gifts.

Guess Clint got Peter in the secret Santa, Peter presumed, but why the hell does the man like candy canes so much.

Peter glanced quickly at everyone before throwing the candy cane from his box onto the ceiling webbing it in place, now he could smell it slightly less… yay.

—————————————————————

Natasha had been skeptical about Peter’s behaviours all night, to everyone else he looked to be behaving normally but Natasha could see behind it all despite the act, which was pretty impressive considering in the short time Natasha knew him before the snap, Peter had never been this good at hiding.

When Natasha shouted over the music because she heard Peter slam into the door, oh yeah she definitely noticed him slipping outside to get away, she was concerned to see the absolute terror the boy was trying to hide.

Everyone else looked concerned but when Peter gave a short explanation by it being a bear suddenly everyone seemed to relax a bit.

Natasha didn’t, a bear would probably startle her маленький паук ((little spider)) but it wouldn’t scare him this much, there was something else at play here.

Natasha noticed how Peter was showing enough emotion to look freighted and maybe a bit shaken, but what he showed when he thought no one was looking was something much stronger.

When Natasha caught Peter webbing a candy cane to the ceiling she knew she needed to do something but before she could get up from her spot on a couch Thor with his ever loud voice said “Ah man of spiders there you are you must try these Midgardien treats my brother made”

Thor proceeded to toss one of the mint gingerbread cookies towards Peter who looked taken over bye fear of the treat.

Everyone caught how Peter jumped to the ceiling to get away from the cookie only to fall right back down on the couch presumably away from a candy cane everyone saw stuck there, Peter then jumped away from the cookie he landed on scurrying around on the floor like a scared animal before leaping away climbing up stairs and walls faster then humanly possible.

The sound of a door being slammed shut snapped everyone back to reality.

Natasha knew what everyone was thinking and she didn’t need to be a spy to know.

What the hell just happened?

—————————————————————

danger Danger Danger DANGER DANGER DANGERDANGERDANGER

Peter ran so fast and was panicking so much he almost broke the doors to his room and on his closet. He did rip his clothes though, well not the MIT hoodie but everything else. He tossed the clothes into the wall and grabbed some that weren’t covered in crumbs smelling like danger before closing the closet doors and crawling up and into the webbed off shelf of his closet.

He waisted no time using his webs to close the hole off and he put even more webs around on the walls and floor/shelf.

Tears started welling in his eyes, his whole body shaking as he pressed himself against the wall and curled in on himself.

He couldn’t hold it in any longer and just broke down.

Chapter Text

Tony wasn’t oblivious he knew Peter wasn’t doing great this evening, Tony thought maybe he was just nervous seeing all the Avengers and company again or maybe nervous about gifts, but clearly Tony should have looked closer.

The des play that just happened looked like one of those cat pickle videos, but it wasn’t funny in the slightest just worrying and shocking.

Tony started to rush towards the stairs before being stopped by Natasha her face blank but eyes strong and determined.

“I know you want to run after him but first you need to take a breath we don’t need two pe-“ the woman started before glancing at everyone else in the room who still were either in shock or face full of worry “We don’t need more panicking” Natasha decided after a moment.

Tony took a shaky breath before looking back towards the spy for confirmation he could go.

Natasha gave Tony a look before speaking with “I’m coming with you” she did after that statement turn to the Avengers and company “me and Tony are going to see what’s up with Peter you can all continue with the gifts”

Anyone who hadn’t registered what happened now started too but most just gave Natasha a look that stated ‘we are not doing that’

Natasha turned back to Tony and the two walked upstairs towards the door with the handle that had seen better days.

Tony slowly open the door glancing around the room and looking on the ceiling as well, he has found Peter up there before in the middle of a panic attack.

Tony walked into the room after a moment Natasha following.

“FRI were is Peter” Tony said worry lacing every word.

“Peter went into the closet after coming in here with en elevated heart rate and erratic movements, I believe he was having a panic attack” the AI helpfully stated.

Tony took a deep breath. “Thanks FRIDAY”

“No problem Tony” the AI said after a moment. “I would suggest you check on him”

Before Tony even turned to face the closet, Natasha already opening it.

And nothing, Peter wasn’t in the closet.

“ FRIDAY where is Pete-“ but before Tony could finish Natasha interrupted him. “Look at this Tony” Natasha said her foot poking the ripped up clothes on the floor.

It took Tony a moment to actually gain his composure. “Why the heck is that important” scratch that he didn’t.

Natasha just gave him a look that’s like ‘I thought you were smart’.

“I know they are Peter’s clothes Natasha why are you focusing on that” Tony said completely forgetting who he was talking too.

“They were ripped off” wait a second what that threw Tony for a loupe Peter was super careful with stuff Tony bought for him much less toss it off to the side looking like confetti.

“What” man he really sounded dumb and with the eye roll Natasha gave him it furthered that feeling.

“And they have cookie crumbs on them”

“Just explain Nat I don’t have the patience for whatever you’ve discovered” Tony just wanted to find Peter and was tried, but he remembered if it’s important to Natasha it’s probably important now or at least in the long run.

“Clint loves mint because it keeps spiders away because he screams whenever he sees one” Natasha was pulling him along for this one.

“Yeah I know that’s why he put candy canes on the tree because he saw spider webs on the ceiling… why is this important” and their it was again the look that said ‘Stark you are an imbecile’ “just tell me Nat-“

“Spiders don’t like mint Stark”

“Why does that mat-ter… oh” man he was stupid.

“Spiders hate mint” Tony repeated as he pulled his hands down his face. “Ok so Peter hates mint now noted”

Natasha gave Tony a pat on the shoulder “You think that’s why he’s been acting weird all night? Natasha just huffed. “I think there’s more at play here but it’s an idea”

——————————————————

Even within the think walls composed of his webs Peter could hear Mr. Stark and Ms. Romanov talking about him, he could also feel all the vibrations that came with Mr.Stark poking at the entrance to his safe space.

But it didn’t feel safe if Mr.Stark decided to break through his webs he couldn’t escape, he couldn’t go through his room because Ms.Romanov and Mr. Stark were there.

They would ask him questions, he couldn’t deal with questions, he was too tired and wound up.

He needed to escape and now.

So instead of going through his room to a super spy and his gardien (totally not dad) he followed his instincts.

He started biting through the wall.

Once Peter got to the other side he was met with a scream, oh right Morgan is next to his room and she got put to bed during the secret Santa.

The scream made him fall out of the wall, clutching his rigging ears and his eyes shut quickly as he crashed to the floor, dust flew up into his face making it much harder to breathe then it already was.

The sound of panic was audible and it sounded like a heard of zebras (ok bad comparison) was running towards the room.

Peter tried to get up, but the lights shot on before he could causing him to stumble around and cover his face.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the blinding light he was met with the worrisome expression of many Avengers.

Ms. Pots and Mr. Stark were trying to calm Morgan down, who was doing a pretty good job by herself and Ms. Romanov was the closest slowly inching toward him.

As soon as he moved his arms almost completely away from his face his ears were assaulted by more screams and his eyes were now locked on all shocked faces who were blocking his only path of escape.

——————————————————

Natasha ran to Morgan’s room as soon as she heard the scream.

Nat did get there first but Tony and the rest of the Avengers & company were close behind.

She switched on the lights and saw a scared Morgan curled up in her sheets and Peter looking distraught on the floor in a pile of dry wall and wood.

Natasha tried to slowly move towards Peter as the kid tried to get up while covering his face, she assumed it was because of the light, but as his arms moved slightly she saw it, them? whatever they were they were harry and covered in dust and saliva.

As Peter adjusted to the light his arms moved away more from his face revealing the appendages sickly coming out of his mouth, everyone either screamed (Clint and Bucky) or just choked and looked shocked -Natasha, she was surprised but kept her expression blank.

Peter’s already panicked expression just increased at the reactions, Natasha tried to get closer but the kid visibly flinched back and she saw so much fear in his eyes.

His body moved slightly and Natasha caught it, he was going to try and run even though everyone was blocking the door. (the window wasn’t an option because Tony loved to reinforce the things)

Natasha shouted “he’s going to bolt” just as Peter backed up the wall and started to crawl around on the ceiling.

The Avengers tried and failed to grab him. (Which was impressive to say the least, maybe Natasha could help him perfect those mobility abilities later)

Peter flipped out the door and ran down the stairs and the walls.

Natasha watched as Peter tried to slow down but ended up crashing right into the Christmas tree.

Only a few saw him crawl up into the rafters and most spotted him use a plethora of webs until all anyone could see was a white cocoon.

Once again no one knew what the heck just happened, but Natasha had a feeling that this was so much more than anyone (including herself which was rare) was expecting and ready for.

——————————————————

Steve, Bucky, Sam and Clint started picking up pieces of shattered ornaments and the tree itself while the others cleaned up the gifts and packaging.

All the cleaning up was done in silence.

Clint finally broke it after practically everything was picked up.

“Does anyone understand what just happened? Or what was-“ the archer didn’t continue after that rather he was interrupted by Tony.

“That was Peter Clint” Tony knew that’s not what the man meant but he wasn’t thinking straight and the venom in his words came before he could stop it.

“You know that’s not what I mean Tony I-“ the archer was once again interrupted but it was the other spy who spoke up this time. “We get what you’re saying Clint this situation is just new and stressful for all of us but especially for Tony Pepper and of course… Peter”
Natasha dragged out the last name and everyone was quiet again.

It took Scott yelling and stubbing his foot for someone to speak. “Ahh fucking ant shit!” A few Avengers said language at the profanity and a few others let out some dry laughs.

“Ant crap really Scott” Steve said and Scott only shrugged. “I live with them it’s part of me”

Something sparked for Tony though.

“Do you have ant’s with you?” The man rushed over putting his hands on Scott’s shoulders. “I always have a few buddies wit-“ “Make them go up” Tony said pointing at the white cocoon.

That really made the size changing hero stutter. “What b-but spiders eat ants!”

At this point it didn’t matter everyone just gave Scott a look and finally the man asked a few of his ant friends to climb up to the rafters.

…

None of the ants came back.

Chapter Text

Peter just huddled in his webs trying so hard not to panic, he should have learned by now that usually just made everything worse.

His wrists were hurting so much now from how much he used them and he couldn’t push away the feeling of dread that his spider-sense kept screaming at him.

Peter knew he tried to hide his new appearance for a reason, they were scared of him… they screamed at him.

He just couldn’t push the horrified faces of the Avengers, of Ms.Pepper, of Morgan… of Mr.- his dad out of his mind.

It absolutely plagued Peter and he couldn’t even imagine what would happen if he came down from his webs.

Scratch that he totally could.

Peter had heard stories about how Wanda was treated poorly… ok huge understatement, and Mr.Bucky… he had also heard about so many things that were done to him or that he did when under the control of…, or even what Ms.Romanov went through, she rarely said much about her life, but from what Peter gathered it wasn’t pretty…

but would they do things like that to him too?

Would they send him some place no one knew about so they could cut him open and take him apart, push him to his limits so they could find out how he worked.

‘Train’ him in the most inhumane ways possible to create the perfect soldier.

Find out how much of a menace he really was or could be.

To see how much Peter Parker was turning into the ‘Spider’ part in his title ‘Spider-Man’.

Is it really inhumane if he isn’t human anymore?

Throw him in a cage he couldn’t get out of…

Well he was already accomplishing that last one pretty well himself.

——…

The spider saw movement, heard the small snapping and bending of his webs, felt the vibrations on his webs, smelled sugar and pocket lint and tasted the crunchy limbs and blood of his food.

——————————————————

The venom polling in his mouth was beginning to become too much for the spider to handle and his stomach was not satisfied by the few measly ants he had, which must have been hours ago now.

Slowly he began to chew his way out of his barricade.

Once he made a significantly big enough hole to climb out of, he did just that trying to make as little noise as possible as to not wake anyone.

Peter crawled down the walls only to freeze as he saw Captain America sleeping on one of the couches and Hawkeye on another.

Now making an extra effort to keep quiet and to not trip on anything (yes he has tripped before trying to be quiet, leave him alone) ultimately deciding it to be better if he just sticks (ha ha sticks) to climbing on the walls.

After making his way to the kitchen he carefully opens the fridge making sure to press the light switch as to not disturb the sleeping Avengers and to not destroy his eyes who were perfectly fine seeing in the pitch black house.

He wrinkled his nose as he picked up the different sent’s, the hair on the back of his neck also stood up just slightly higher.

Peter shook his head in disgust after only a minute of looking around in the fridge, he stuck his tongue as he closed the fridge, not like he actually wanted to eat anything anyway.

Grumbling in annoyance at the lack of edible food in the huge fridge of the Stark house hold he crawled his way over to the pantry only to almost immediately recoil and fell from the ceiling with a relatively quiet tump as he was able to mostly catch himself, but it still made him quickly go and check on the Avengers sleeping on the nearby couches.

After a few moments of making sure that the two were still asleep Peter breathed a sigh of relief and walked back slowly towards the pantry, needing to investigate what made his Spidey sense spike so suddenly and aggressively.

…

Really. Oh my fu- gosh why!?

Peter had to bite his mouth shut as to not start screaming bloody murder, which turned out to still not be a great plan as it really hurt with his new sharp teeth.

His eye twitched in anger as he stared at how many candy canes were in the pantry, not only were they strewn on every surface, someone had the bright idea to hang a mistletoe over the doorframe that for some reason had two little candy canes on either side, it was like it was done on purpose just to prevent him from going in.

So not knowing what to do and being bored and hungry, Peter started pacing back-and-forth across the ceiling trying to come up with some sort of plan.

He could just wash some of the food in the fridge… but that would require making both noise and holding something that made him feel nauseous and like someone was pointing a gun right at his skull, so that idea was off the table.

Ok real second plan (cause blowing stuff up or shooting stuff isn’t an actual plan despite what Deadpool would have you believe) he could… wait actually shooting all the candy canes in the house did actually seem like a decent plan if you don’t factor in the noise or how it would most likely just spread the shards everywhere.

Ok new second plan he could grab his suit and initiate gas mask mode and put on oven mitts to start carefully removing all the candy canes in the pantry… who was he kidding he didn’t have the patience to do that.

Peter continued to walk around the ceiling with growing impatience and hunger, he was also blissfully unaware what he was doing because of how concentrated on finding a solution to his hunger problems that he didn’t realize that his spider ones were acting out.

His long spindly spider legs were out and Peter probably looked at bit like doc oc with how he was using them to walk around the ceiling as he continued to think of a plan.

Well he could just wrap up the literal lumps of food on the couch-

Peter paused not because of his thoughts but because he felt something wet dripping down his face.

They were out again, those mandibles, another recent addition to his collection of spider characteristics.

Peter silently cursed (he didn’t want to make any noise + it was hard to actually speak with these things) as he physically pushed the appendages back into his mouth, opening and closing his jaw a few times to make sure that they were actually back in, his mouth was slightly bigger to accommodate them and so was his throat but otherwise once he manages to snap them into his mouth they weren’t visible anymore.

That didn’t stop them from being super annoying, it’s like losing a tooth your tongue can’t stop exploring the area, only this time they are covered in hair and bits of sawdust.

Peter wiped his jaw with his sleeve and huffed, he flipped down from the ceiling with ease and tapped his finger to his chin.

What was he doing again?

The following grumbling of his stomach quickly reminded him of his task to hunt down food.

He turned his head to the side as he heard something shifting beyond the kitchen, walking over there he saw it was just Hawkeye turning around on the couch in his sleep.

Oh but to the spider it was like prey struggling in his web after causing the spider so much pain.

He stocked closer to the archer using all appendages to crawl like a fast moving shadow across the floor to watch the one that lays traps and screams closely.

Four fuzzy spider legs position themselves on either side of the couch, two grabbing the top of the couch and two grabbing the cushions, the spider hovering over the unsuspecting archer, only an inch was separating the spider from the other.

Black eyes blinked looking down at the still sleeping figure.

One.

Two.

The sick sound of the appendages, that were just moments ago forced away into hiding, make their way out once more dripping with saliva and bubbling with venom that with every passing second was getting closer to skin.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

The spider leans forward and is about ready to web up the insect when the quiet sound of little feet walking down the stairs catches his attention.

He lifts his head up and towards the noise causing the venom to fall onto the couch top rather than onto the skin below.

The spider slowly makes his way onto the ceiling, narrowly missing hitting Clint with one of his more spidery legs, as to check who was making their way downstairs.

Morgan slowly makes her way down stairs trying to be as quiet (as a 5 year old could be) as possible, clutching what appears to be a red bunny with a glowing white circle on its chest in one hand and a black and red spider in the other.

The sight makes the spider pause and tilt his head in curiosity, delight and concern, the feeling concern is then multiplied when the noise coming from the child causes those sleeping on the couch to stir, which also distracts him for a moment a time span that was long enough for the child to reach the ground floor and look up.

When the spider returns their attention to the kid his eyes widen, but not because of the child’s reaction but lack of there of.

“Pete?”

Morgan questions with a tilt of her head, causes the spider to do the same.

“Why are you on the ceiling again?”

She asks in a poor attempt of a whisper.

“Did you have another nightmare?”

The amount of just pure concern coming from this small child makes Peter blink and rub his eyes momentarily forgetting about being stealthy, his plan on getting food or any of his other problems, Morgan doesn’t even seem to remember the whole chewing through her wall fiasco that happened merely hours ago in favour of helping her brother.

Peter drops down and opens his arms to silently ask the girl if she wants to be picked up, Morgan immediately rushes in hugging the teen as she’s being picked up.

“Don’t worry big brother is just-“

“Daddy says teenagers go through lots of changes and that’s why they are moody”

Peter almost spits and bursts out laughing at the sudden comment from his little sister, it’s so unexpected and it makes a small smile creep its way up onto his face.

“Is that why you’re turning into a monster?”

The smile is dropped and he freezes.

Monster?

Oh.

It takes Morgan patting Peter’s cheek for him to start moving again.

The child unaware of what was happening in the moment grows worried and quickly.

“Pete Pete please tell me what’s wrong”

She starts to say out loud, much louder than the sort of whisper of before especially when the teen slowly sets the kid down to stunned to say anything even as she holds onto him and starts speaking louder causing those in the room to begin waking up.

“Pete Pete w-wher-“

The youngest stark is cut off when Peter pulls himself out of the grip of the other, which in tone causes tears to spring up.

“Pete!”

——————————————————

When Steve is woken up by the sound of screaming his soldier training makes him leap into action before he even has time to process what’s happening.

Getting up from the couch in a flash his eyes already adjusted to the limited lighting freeze at the sight of the little frame of Morgan trying to run out of the house out into the cold, oblivious this sets off alarm bells, but the fact that it’s out of a broken glass door makes him grab the girl off the floor before she can take another step, even if he can feel glass stabbing into his soles.

By this point Morgan is crying in his arms, Clint had turned on the light and the sound of others running down the stairs made Steve painfully turn around to see plenty of horrified faces.

He glaces up at the white cocoon, before handing the still crying child over to her parents.

“Tony”

The man glances up, a look of dread crossing his features.

“I think Peter’s gone”

Chapter Text

So much for no one knowing, Peter grumbled as he slowly pulled one leg in front of the other through the thick white snow.

His body no longer shivered with cold as that was no longer something his body did to try and conserve what heat he had, Peter also held his arms and spider arms/legs close to his torso trying to conserve heat… it wasn’t working.

Each and every step felt longer and heavier and by the time that Peter had no clue were he was surrounded by white snow on the ground and falling from the sky, barren trees here and there and no sign of any human constructs, his steps felt like trying to wrestle the Incredible Hulk just by putting one foot in front of the other.

He was finding it difficult to even feel his body, he felt lethargic and heavy, his eyes wondered over the terrain as he felt them slowly falling shut, only for him to jerk himself up again to keep forcing himself to move needing to get as far away as possible from everyone.

Peter could feel his breath becoming shallow and slow, every hot puff of air turning frigid and visible in the cold dark night. His heart rate seemed to be battling itself between wanting to beat out of his chest and run away because of fear and anxiety or to slow down just as his movements were.

There was no target in mind for where to go or a solution for the biter cold and persistent hunger, it was just one step forward and another and another until slow walking turned into shuffling turned into Peter no longer able to fight the growing fatigue.

He leaned against a bare tree one same as all the others he had past before this one, there was a few attempts at using his webs but the cold winter air turned even making a single thread into an impossible task, so he slumped down against the tree, everything felt distant.

As snow began accumulating over top of the spider, no longer was there the fear of hurting anyone, of scaring those he cared for, of being alone because of his flaws, instead there was no cold or snow, no tree or threats, there was only the darkness that awaited the little spider.

——————————————————

“What do you mean he’s gone!?”

“Look around Tony, his cocoon thing is torn and your glass door is shattered!”

Steve shouted over the inventor, hoping somehow Tony would actually register that fact that Peter was gone and that everything was a mess.

Of course he already knew, he’s Tony Stark he’s not stupid and yet when Steve says those words when those incredibly stupid words come out of his mouth Tony suddenly feels really incredibly stupid.

He should have taken the signs earlier he should have done something pushed harder tried to be better to go put on his iron man suit and fly up to that white cocoon rip it open and give Peter the biggest hug and tell him that everything was going to be okay that he still loved him even if he didn’t like mint and made white cocoons and had- mandibles.

But he couldn’t do that because Peter was gone, he left, ran away into the cold snowy night to who knows where.

Tony was stuck, frozen in place, he wanted to run out into the snow and start shouting and searching telling Peter that he loved him and wanted him to come back, he sucked at emotions but damn he would do them anyway for that kid.

He wanted to do that, but Morgan needed him too so just like Pepper he held her and rubbed her back in an attempt at comfort, he hated when people cried he never knew what to do, he does with Morgan most of the time though, so he does what usually works even if he feels like he’s going to start crying and hyperventilating just like Morgan is.

It feels like someone is trying to pick up his intestines and stomach with chopsticks, tries to twist them and pick them up and pull them out but when that doesn’t work they just start frustratingly stabbing them.

Morgan begins to calm down while Natasha helps Steve pull glass out of his feet, Tony soon realizes that his kids probably have glass in their feet too.

Pepper helps with this one, the three Stark’s get up off the floor and put Morgan down on the couch beside Steve, Tony isn’t sure but he thinks it helps his daughter be a bit braver when Steve is sitting there like nothing is wrong and encourage her to be brave as well.

Tony doesn’t wait around very long though, he and Pepper only share one glance and a whole conversation is made, Tony will go out and find Peter but will come back in a bit if he has no luck in finding him and he’ll try not to be stupid and Pepper will stay with Morgan who still seems distraught but is trying to be strong and brave as a few small shards of glass are removed from her socked feet.

Tony activates his iron man suit and flies out the broken door before anyone can stop him, he was angry at the fact that he was the first one outside to look for Peter, why was everyone else just standing around while his son is probably freezing to death!

Tony followed the bloody footsteps left in the snow until they were gone, filled in by the constant falling snow that seemed only to grow heavier the longer he was out here.

“FRIDAY send out the extra suits I was tinkering with in the basement I don’t care if they’re not finished send them anyway we need more eyes out here then just mine”

Tony shouted at the AI, he needs to find Peter he wouldn’t forgive himself if he froze to death or something thinking that everyone hated him, he hopped Peter wasn’t thinking like that but he just knew the kid and he knew he would think like that and he doesn’t blame him. Everyone including himself didn’t do anything to reassure Peter that they still loved and appreciate him even if he was more spidery now.

Tony heard FRIDAY giving him confirmation that the other suits were deployed, he had every single type of vision on right now, like night vision, heat vision and a few others, he wouldn’t miss Peter he just hoped he was covering the right area, he was going in the general direction that the footprints were going in before they vanished, but he just didn’t know.

Tony didn’t know if he would find Peter in time.

It was cold out and he knew the kid didn’t come out here with much on and hypothermia can set in quickly in this weather and he didn’t know if being more spidery would make that worse, were spiders more susceptible to cold?

After definitely not long enough for Tony FRIDAY starting alerting him for the third time that he should go back but now with the added bonus of the fact that he was running low on energy after pushing his thrusters so much, but he couldn’t leave he just couldn’t he would never forgive himself if he let his kid die for a second time.

Tony kept pushing, going over more snow and trees that all looked the same, lots of nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing until-

“Tony you need to return or I’ll be forced to bring you-“

“FRIDAY stop I saw something”

Tony slowly landed to where he thought he saw something other than white and brown, he couldn’t be more thankful in that moment for colourful dumb science pun shirts.

——————————————————

Clint couldn’t help but look horrified at the puddle of black liquid by his sleeping area, whatever it was got way too close to his head, what was that stuff and why was it black!?

Chapter Text

“Found-“

“-ot hur-“

“fine”

“sleepi-“

“ok?”

Words floated around his brain like fog, not clear and never staying long enough to grasp. Peter never stayed present long enough to grasp anything, the most he ever registered was mild feelings. He didn’t feel asleep he just felt like he was in some in between, but never was he actually really there, it was annoying to be so stuck.

Sometimes Peter was pulled into lights and familiar smells, but all those moments were just that moments, temporary and it was never long before he got pulled back into the weird in between.

When he woke up this time Peter was surprised when he didn’t immediately get pulled back under and he was glad that he didn’t because there were no bright lights or annoying noises this time. Just warmth was what greeted him this time, which he loves and yet it still felt wrong somehow.

There was just something he couldn’t place, that was until he noticed the weight on his arms.

There sleeping on top of two of his spider appendages and holding his arm was Morgan curled up into his side.

Peter sucked in such a sharp breath that he was almost certain he would wake her up, he needed to get out of this situation cause neither he or she was safe right now.

Well he didn’t feel safe and he knew that Morgan wasn’t safe anywhere near him especially with his own terrible thoughts screaming at him to bite.

With great difficulty he manoeuvred himself out of bed and carefully pulled all of his limbs away from his si- Morgan.

When he finally got himself sitting up he already wanted to go back to sleep, the tug of the promised darkness tempting, but as always he forced himself onto his feet, he just couldn’t be beside her.

Peter got up and almost immediately fell forward, his whole body shook with the effort of just holding himself up, he was able to stab his spider limbs down to catch himself, which in the moment felt stronger than his arms or legs and he was very grateful to not have face planted.

He didn’t know if he’d have the strength or energy to get back up if he had.

Using a mixture of his spider limbs and the wall he made his way over to the door, but the IV and heart monitor that were attached to him pulled and snapped causing the line to go flat.

The sudden spike in noise caused Peter to fall, covering his ears as the high pitched sound tore through his eardrums.

Only a moment later their were suddenly more of an onslaught of stimuli, the lights came on, there were so many more smells, voice after voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard with the addition of the high pitched mechanical noise.

He backed himself into a corner trying to cover his face, his breath caught in his throat as he tried to keep himself as small as possible, he wanted to climb up the wall to stay out of reach and safe, but their was already a figure looming over him.

They blocked out some of the light and yet he felt oh so much worse than when all the light were directly in his eyes.

Bearing his teeth and clicking his mandibles he tried to make the threatening shadow go away, but of course they stayed and kept making sound after sound.

The spider blinked and suddenly the figure was in front of him, they were going to kill him.

Without hesitation he struck out striking his mandibles into the exposed flesh and bit down. Hard.
Injecting his venom into the threat as his limbs tried to find perches as he was lifted into the air and was flung back against the wall forcing him to release his grip.

The darkness once again pulled as his body crumpled to the ground along with flecks of the wall, the noise becoming more blinding than the lights.

The spider fought against the darkness as panic began rising, he wasn’t safe!

He wasn’t safe not yet only one threat was taken care of there were more.

Lots more.

Before he was able to get up another threat pinned him down, he tried biting this threat but his mandibles tried to pierce something that wasn’t skin and it made him screech with pain.

He couldn’t escape, he didn’t have the energy to and his enemy was invincible.

He was going to die.

The spider let the darkness take them this time before that happened.

——————————————————

Steve watched Tony shoot out the broken glass door faster than he had ever seen the other man do before.

He ordered the other Avengers present to go help with the search and as soon as he could he also rushed outside to help in whatever way he could.

They could deal with the fact that Peter was- well whatever was happening with him when the kid was back into the warmth of the lake house.

When Tony shouted over the com system that he found the kid he heard the numerous sighs of relief and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t let one go himself.

Steve knew it wasn’t over though, frost bite can set in quickly in this type of weather and this wasn’t a quick rescue either so there was much to deal with.

He got back to the house as quickly as he could, but he was one of the last ones back since he was the only one on foot, except for Bruce who had Hulked out.

He heard the man return so he knows that Bruce is back and ok.

So now he could fully focus on the scene in front of him now that he knows all of his teammates are accounted for.

Everyone was shouting so much that he had to keep reminding himself that everything was as ok as it could be and that he wasn’t back in the war.

He noticed that doctor Strange came in at some point and told everyone to shut up so that he could work.

Turns out that Peter was fine, apparently in some sort of spider hibernation, but he was fine.

That was few weeks ago now.

Steve would visit the lake house when he could just to check in and see how everyone was doing.

The answer was not great.

Tony was always in Peter’s room fussing over the littlest things because there was nothing he could do but wait.

Morgan was upset because she desperately wanted to celebrate Christmas with her brother, said holiday happened a week ago and yet all the presents were still under the tree.

And Pepper well Steve’s pretty sure that she was the one holding everyone together, but he could tell it was hard on her too.

What he knew was keeping everyone on edge the last few days though was that Peter had been in and out of consciousness.

That may have been a stretch because the boy didn’t look all that present when he was awake which were moments few and far between from what he’s heard.

Just like he’s been doing over the past few weeks he’s at the lake house, checking in and pulling Tony out of Peter’s room, but literally though Bucky picked the man up and brought him down stairs to eat something that he started making for everyone.

Steve was about to call everyone to eat when his ears picked up something that made his heart skip a beat and instead of saying anything he ran out of the kitchen and bolted towards the stairs, doing three at a time as the voice of FRIDAY echoed throughout the house, announcing that Peter’s line had gone flat.

Bursting into the room and turning on the lights he stilled as he took in the empty bed or well lacking the spider boy that had been sleeping there for the past 3 weeks Morgan was still there covering her ears from the sound coming from the heart monitor.

The thing that snapped him out of the stand still was the sound of other people running up the stairs.

Glancing around the room his eyes landed on a figure huddled near the doorway, but before he could go and comfort the boy Tony was already in front of him whispering words of encouragement.

How did Tony know that Peter was there and acted before Steve could he would never know but he chalked it up to dad instincts or something along those lines.

There was a few minutes where it was just Tony talking to Peter and Natasha fiddling with the heart monitor to get it to stop.

When the high pitched noise stopped though he saw the shift in Peter.

It was- something.

Two pitch black eyes squinting at Tony turned into eight of them, four spider legs creeped up the wall pinned back and wound tight and even though he can’t believe that this is actually happening, Peter started clicking his mandibles together and baring his teeth like a wild animal that’s cornered.

If you asked Steve what prompted him to rush forward when he noticed Tony taking another step forward he would probably say it was simply reflex to protect his friend.

And well part of that is true the full reason would be that he saw a look that he’s seen too many times for comfort.

The look of someone who knows they are going to die and they’d do anything to see another second of daylight.

They’d kill for it.

Steve pushed Tony (he heard the man protest but he’d assume that he’d probably be thanked later) out of the way and shouted as Peter bit into his arm with so much force that he knew that if he wasn’t enhanced that his arm would have almost definitely been snapped in half.

He saw the spider legs being raised and feel the kid start reading to attack again so in the heat of the moment he made a snap decision to throw Peter off and into a wall and stumbled away.

He would have taken the chance to pin Peter or make sure that he was down but ok.

The problem was that he couldn’t, his arm felt numb and his brain was having a hard time making his body move, just staying up right made his vision swim slightly so to say he was glad Bucky was there to do what he couldn’t was an understatement.

When Peter seemed to return to the land of sleep, Steve felt his own legs buckle, he felt like he had just taken on a whole hoard of aliens not one spider teen and perhaps that’s when he should have started questioning himself

He should feel his arm pulsating with hot pain but otherwise it felt strangely fine mostly a bit numb at worse, another time where he should have maybe started to panic or question if maybe something was wrong.

What finally made him snap back into reality was the quite loud and sudden sound right in his face of:

“Steve what the fuck you moron are you still with me!?”

He didn’t even realize that he was so out of it until Tony shouted at him and started quickly slapping the side of his face.

“Yeah yeah I’m here Tony”

Tony didn’t look all that convinced but helped him up anyway and he didn’t miss the quiet.
“Don’t do that again but thank you”

As he was helped up though he felt dizzy all over again and had to catch himself on a nearby wall.

“Whoa there capicicle take it easy ok? We just need to get you outside a jet is on it’s way”

Steve couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as Tony guided him towards the stairs.

“Don’t think I need anything serious Tony just a bandage at most I haven’t even looked at it yet but that’s probably all it n-“

The words died in his throat as he glanced down at his arm when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Climbing up and down his arm starting from the deep imprint on his arm crusted in blood was a dark purple and black splotch with vines slowly growing from the source.

Then it dawned on him that that must be why he feels so dizzy, tired and that his arm is completely numb.

Peter is a spider now.

Some spiders are venomous and he’s been bitten.

The venom must be in his system and the fact that it hasn’t been killed off by his immune system yet means that he’s got to hope that a cure can be made quickly.

Because if not.

Well then he’s in some real fucking danger.

Chapter Text

The spider woke already on edge and had to do a double take, he was still here?

He wasn’t dead?

He then scanned the room he was in, the smell was pungent but manageable and there didn’t appear to be anyone else.

The lights were practically nonexistent and the only way he could see was because of the small hole in the door that let in a beam of light in.

The spider got off the surface they were on or at least that’s what they would have done if it weren’t for the fact that they were bound to it.

Strapped around all their limbs were cuffs that a simple tug didn’t immediately solve so he started to panic.

After tugging a few more times the spider felt unease crawl up their back as the panic and mix of other emotions chased away any chance at sleep that was still clinging to him.

He was starving and while a few of the smells that lingered in the room were familiar they brought no comfort with the other now overwhelming smell of alcohol.

Why won’t these cuffs come off!

He continued to struggle against the bounds until a loud bang rattled the room as his four hairier limbs ripped out of the constraints, his four other limbs though just ached more from the force he was putting on them.

The spider waited for their ears to stop ringing before going slack and lying back down as he just breathed.

That was tiring, but at least now since half of his limbs were free he had more ability to move and contort himself.

So pulling his right arm as far as it would go to the left he twists his stomach while keeping the higher part of his back against the surface he’s on so that he can start chipping and breaking away the cuff on his left arm using his freed limbs.

He was almost done with freeing his left arm when the uncomfortable feeling started increasing and sounds started making their way to him.

Someone was coming and he wasn’t free yet.

Oh fuck it he was trying to make this as painless as possible, but he wasn’t going to let whatever put him in here catch him again.

He tugged the arm he was working on and didn’t even take the time to celebrate another limb being free. He instead went straight to working on the limb on the right, but instead of slowing trying to get the cuff off he started scraping away the inside of the cuff instead of the outside.

Which meant his arm sometimes got in the way, but he was able to get it out much quicker.

Whatever was coming towards the room was close, too close and because of that he was able to pinpoint that it wasn’t just one thing but many.

With still two limbs to free he shot webs with his non-bleeding wrist at the door while he started to do a similar strategy to his legs that he did with his right arm.

The problem was that it was no where near as fast since he was working on two limbs at the same time and he only had so many functional-… names they need a name something other than hairier limbs…

…

Metarm? Femarm? Ok so maybe he’s just using a section of the limb and adding arm to it but he didn’t have any other ideas… Tibarm?

The thought of coming up with a name for something that clearly should have one already for anyone who is trying to talk or write about the limb of a spider is broken by the sound of the door handle shaking and the sound of someone repeatedly pushing on the door.

The spider makes one final chip using all four of his barachials on his left leg and then his right, ignoring the fact that he is bleeding from his legs much more than he is from his arm the spider rips his legs out of the cuffs.

He jumps onto the ceiling and not a second too late as the door burst open.

He stayed silent and still in the corner he put himself in, but the threat that broke the door down found him quickly after they got up off the floor and started to approach him.

He scanned the room while still having his largest eyes locked onto the approaching threat.

While his side vision is not as clear he’s still able to tell that there is two other threats, ones heart beat though is significantly faster than the other two and he can smell more fear coming from that threat.

Now changing his main focus over to the one who is the most fearful he realizes that he’s also the one who smells also the most dangerous and he doesn’t like that fact one bit.

——————————————————

He was just visiting Steve with Bucky and Sam now that the man was actually recovering thanks to the antidote for the venom that was coursing through his veins, but the visit had turned into a much to stressful situation.

Clint ran a hand through his hair, he was sweating profusely and his eyes were fixated on what in front of him.

This was not a good situation, he didn’t have any resources and luck definitely wasn’t on his side.

You would think he would be better at this since he was a spy but nope!

Clint put his hands up and shouted.

“No no you did not just do that!”

Bucky started laughing as Sam and Steve just sighed in defeat as Bucky built a settlement and somehow built four roads to steal longest road from Clint and won the game of Settlers of Catan.

“Yeah I did now hand the longest road over bird boy number two”

Bucky said with smirk as he extended a hand for Clint to pass the piece of cardboard that indicated the achievement and the number of points that was accorded to it, was it necessary since he already won, obviously not, but he was going to rub it in Clint’s face.

“Bird boy number two Bird boy number two!? You fuc-“

Clint was offended at least Tony had the decency to just call him Bird boy like he knows Sam is here too but why is he number two!?

He didn’t get to finish cursing out Bucky though as FRIDAY interrupted him with an announcement.

“Peter has broken out of four of his eight restraints and is currently working on breaking out of another one I would advise checking on him”

Bucky was already out of his chair before FRIDAY had finished and was rushing out the door with Sam on his tail, Clint hesitated though and instead stayed behind longer.

He turned his head to see Steve trying to get up despite having just been cleared a few hours ago, cleared as in Cho knows that the cure for the venom was working and he’d be fine.

“No Steve you just got over one dose of super spider venom and we don’t need you almost dying again!”

He couldn’t help the raise in his voice, it’s not- this whole situation is just his worst nightmare come to life no biggie.

Eventually Steve stays and he leaves.

Once he gets to where they were holding- that sounds a bit cruel- Bucky is there trying to bust down the door.

The door finally caved in with a bang and webbing flying everywhere something that Clint is still very unsure about the fact of if it’s still artificially made by the kid.

Speaking of which where the hell is he and where is Tony isn’t he basically always in here- was he eaten!?

Clint looks around the room and is the last one to find where Peter was hiding in the shadows of the room high up in a corner.

His heart can’t stop pounding, this is literally the plot of a horror movie right- holy fuck he just turned his head towards him- that is so not natural- they’re making fucking eye contact! Bucky hurry up and catch him before he gets eaten!

Bucky gets practically right under Peter before jumping up to grab him, he couldn’t have been more then an inch away from catching him before Peter jumped away from his grasp and then used his back as a purchase to jump towards Clint, who totally didn’t scream at a higher pitch then an opera singer.

Somehow Clint dodged the attack going to run behind Sam who was in a ‘surprised’ stand still. Peter easily anticipated the dodge apparently as he quickly rotated and was right back to fixating on the archer before he was even behind Sam.

Peter scurried back up the wall and onto the ceiling all while Bucky started hopping around like a rabbit trying to somehow catch the spider who didn’t even seem bothered by the sore attempts at capture.

Sam was snapped out of the stand still by Peter pouncing at him and had no time to get out of the way, but instead of being the target he was just used as a springboard causing him to fall to the floor as the spider continued their pursuit of their actual target.

Clint tried to run but in such a small room he was at a disadvantage and was pinned to the ground mandibles pinching dangerously close to his face only being held back by his arm.

“No FUCK ew ew ew!”

Though he is still a trained spy believe it or not who is not completely defenceless without his bow.

Clint kicked and rolled back throwing the kid into the wall behind him as he quickly rotated and got back onto his feet, fighting stance ready.

Bucky and Sam had both seen Clint’s fighting stance and took their own, the kid seemed ready to cause damage so they should be prepared to do the same.

Peter got up slower this time and didn’t make any sudden movements, instead he slowly crawled up the wall behind him only using his spider legs and stopped only a few inches off the ground.

He was getting ready to fight and the three other Avengers were getting ready too, this was going to be interesting.

“Peter?”

Chapter Text

“Peter?”

The voice cut through the tense quiet like a knife.

That was familiar.

Why was that familiar it was just a simple sound.

There was also the return of the smell of oil, coffee and something metallic, it peaked the spider’s interest, but it also made him weary, cautious, just because it was familiar didn’t mean it was good.

He liked it though, it didn’t make him tense rather it did the opposite. His shoulders lowered and his gaze flickered.

Perhaps it was foolish to take his main eyes off of his prey, he’s so fucking hungry, but he did anyway.

He was hungry, but also curious, curious to decipher that familiar sound and smell.

Besides he could still hear the panicked piter pater of his prey’s heartbeat.

He blinked a few times to adjust to looking straight at the light and there in the doorway was something that seemed so similar to the threats.

They weren’t one though. Not a threat. Not an obstacle. Not prey.

Different.

Their heartbeat was different and they didn’t seem to be the same scared as everyone else, the smell was different it wasn’t fear exactly.
The fear was different, stronger, a searching a the need to protect and something that he couldn’t place.

“Peter?”

The sounds they were making weren’t hostile either and in the relative absence of any other hostile noises it was somewhat comforting. The vibrations flowed through the air like they were filling in nerves that were broken or frayed.

A deep need stirred in his gut, replacing the hunger with something unpleasant, something that they didn’t know how to fix.

He wanted them, but-

Turning his head back to the two threats and his food.

Clicking his mandibles a few times he internally groaned, he wanted to take care of them too.

The spider turned their head back and forth a few more times before making their decision.

His limbs really hurt, well his human ones anyway. Sure he still felt like his insides were digesting themselves, but he argued that whatever was swirling around- it was more than just in his stomach now it was in his chest- it won this time.

He slowly creeped down the wall and stood on shaking legs that sent a flash of pain through his body. He sensed that everyone in the room either tensed or flinched when he started moving.

Except for one.

He didn’t understand why, but he wanted them more now than his prey, there was just something telling him that they would know how to fix everything.

That they would finally make the nagging feeling go away.

He walked towards the familiarity and pressed the side of his face against the soothing hum of a metal contraption, the soft almost blue tinted light flickered imperceptibly. He could tell, but it didn’t bother him, it just made him want whatever this is more.

“Peter?”

The voice sounded a bit more like a chuckle this time, but it still sounded more worried and nervous than humorous.

Peter just breathed in the comforting sent, there wasn’t any danger on him anymore and that in itself chased away quite a bit of the unease.

He wrapped his arms and two of his barachials around his dad and let out something akin to a hum from his chest as he pulled his mandibles in slightly so he could bury his face into the warmth better.

He heard sighs go through the room and heartbeats slow, he also heard a few sounds of indignation, but he ignored those ones in favour of the relaxing touch that sent a shiver down his spine.

He hasn’t felt that in a while, it’s warm, feels nice.

Sure it feels nice but it was actually getting harder to solely focus on the warm touch with the continued arguing.

Peter pulled his face just far enough away so he could fixate the archer, he let off a few warning clicks that shut him right up.

In fact it shut everyone up and the room fell into silence again.

For about 3.5 nanoseconds before the rumbling of his stomach broke it.

He felt the warmth move slightly and he clung on tighter burrowing his face back into them, which earned him a chuckle.

“Come on we need to get you something to eat Bambino”

——————————————————

Tony finally, after constant nagging from FRIDAY and Pepper’s threats to revoke his precious lab time, he left Peter alone in the room to go to the bathroom and get something to eat.

It couldn’t have more than five minutes later that he got an alert from FRIDAY that Peter was awake and ripping out of his cuffs (which he was extremely not happy about the team voting for the kid to be bound for safety reasons and until they could find a better solution to Peter’s, what the team dubbed, “spider problems”).

Turns out he only needs to be out of a room for 5 minutes for everything to go to shit.

Which is really unusual usually he’s the one who causes the problems the moment anyone leaves him alone.

When he got back to the room after running way faster than he ever has before, doesn’t the kid know that he has a heart condition? He was shocked to find three Avengers trying and failing to catch Peter who seemed hell bent on chasing a screaming Logalas.

Does this whole situation look ridiculous, yes, is he also worried by the blood, also very much yes. So he speaks up.

“Peter?”

He questioned if he would even be registered, but when he actually was he didn’t like the look of confusion he got.

It wasn’t as bad as the look of fear he got a few days ago.

“Peter?”

He tested again, like he was making sure his kid was still with him.

He watched as Peter looked at everyone like he was making some big life decision.

Eventually though he seemed to make up his mind and started slowly stepping down the wall and towards Tony.

He definitely didn’t like the way Peter was walking using his spider limbs more than his bloody human ones. He also very much didn’t like how everyone tensed up, they shouldn’t be tensing up because of Peter, but they did and he hated it, hated this situation.
Not Peter never Peter… okay he can hate stuff later right now though maybe he should focus on his kid walking towards him.

Peter came up to him and without saying anything just placed his head on his chest and stayed there. Tony didn’t move until Peter moved again and he was then suddenly being nuzzled into like he was some pillow.

“Peter?”

He questioned like he wasn’t quite sure about what to do with the situation.

He felt the boy wrap his arms and two of the spider limbs around him and then let out something that if Tony had to classify the sound- maybe a hum? Or perhaps a chitter was a better word for it. Whatever it was it made Tony heart feel just slightly better when it was accompanied by Peter hugging him tighter.

He heard a sigh from Bucky and Sam. Clint on the other hand made a choking noise when Tony decided to start rubbing a hand up and down the boy’s back, he was just happy to have him back and he didn’t need Clint complaining about that.

“Calm down Bird boy he’s not doing anything”

“He tried to kill me!”

“Well he’s not anymore so stop your belly aching”

“Belly aching!? I was going to be his next meal if you hadn’t shown up and tamed him!”

“Peter is not something to be tamed!”

“That’s not what I meant”

“Yeah well-“

Tony was cut off when he felt Peter tense, shift and stare right at the archer letting out something that could only be classified as a growl and clicked his mandibles in a way that surprised him and by now it really shouldn’t have. He just didn’t say anything else and Clint shut up real quick too.

Only a moment later the rumbling of a stomach cut through the stifling quiet of the room and it made it abundantly clear that he should probably get the kid something to eat. When was the last time he’d actually eaten anything? Must be weeks now.

Peter buried his face back into his chest and Tony tried to laugh, because usually he would. He would laugh at the kid acting all embarrassed about things like this. The thing is that he isn’t sure if the reaction was because of embarrassment or because he was a walking source of heat for a spider mutant who could no longer create their own body heat.

“Come on we need to get you something to eat Bambino”

There was no reaction. No movement towards the hallway just another movement to press those mandibles deeper into Tony’s chest. At least he wasn’t being bitten, but the lack of reaction was concerning.

He shifted his position to try to get the kid moving and eventually he got the desired result with an awkward drawback.

Which was that Peter stayed stuck to his side as they walked. He was walking fine and so was the spider attached to his side, like the awkward angle didn’t affect him at all. He used his two lower spider legs to control, balance and correct every step that was missed or done wrong by his legs. It was as if his legs couldn’t properly function and Tony blamed it on the wounds around his ankles. He ignored the fact that they already looked to be healing.

——————————————————

One of Bucky’s famous boosting berry smoothie later and Tony is back with a headache, not that it’s necessarily a bad one more of the what the fuck kind.

Clint’s back to the verge of screaming and running away, but not because Peter is chasing him rather it’s because Peter is not chasing him.

No the kid is simply hugging him and apologizing numerous times about trying to hunt him down like he’s an oversized chicken.

Tony is trying really hard to decide if he should either face palm and go and help the guy or just laugh.

He really wants to laugh.

He decides to chuckle and then face palm with a smile.

“Ok Peter we need to make sure that you’re not going to try to eat Bird boy next time you’re hungry”

Tony says as he gets up and partly pry the kid off the uncomfortable looking father who is trying so hard to be like a father and comfort the child instead of running away.

Peter looks defeated and the pout on his face is further accentuated by a little fang poking out of the corner of his mouth, behind the giant mandibles of course.

“Mr. Stark I didn’t mean to-“

Tony sighed.

“I know kid that’s why now we need to have someone look at you to make sure that everything will work out”

Because Tony had a feeling that this was not going to be the last he would be seeing Peter being spidery.