Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter has always had poor vision, couldn’t see across the room, colors were dull and muddled, patches missing, his eyes shook constantly. It was worse after the bite, what little he could see through the cataracts(which grew) was impossible to focus on with his nystagmus. He could see vague blobs of color but nothing more.

That never stopped his science interests of course, he may not have been allowed to touch the chemicals by himself but he has memorized every possible combination and their outcomes, he’s theorized, bullied Ned into being his hands and eyes, discovered. It hardly affected his engineering at all, no live wires or soldering but he could build a clock with nothing but feel. Practice (and uncle Ben) allowed him to perfect those skills.

When Ben died, Peter blamed himself, he ran off in a fit to the corner store. It was one o’clock in the morning, he was tired and angry and scared. His world was darker than it had had ever been.

Ben was shot in that corner store, the bang of the guns mf the stench of blood a combination Peter will never forget. The warmth of Ben’s blood as he desperately tries to find and staunch the bleeding. Sirens and screaming and confusion.

Peter listens as Ben’s heart stops beating, as breathes fade and the sirens stop.

He never stops listening, to May sobbing after peters gone to bed, to the baby screaming down the street, the couple fighting next door, the young women screaming help or fire or whatever can get someone’s attention.

He listens.

And he Learns.

—— :p ——

They call him Spider-Man.

His eyes don’t work but the rest of his senses are in overdrive, including an extra one.

He uses the vibrations to make out objects, identifies people on smell and vitals, creates web fluid stronger than his natural webs.

He flies.

His world is brighter in the skies. He stronger. He can help.

—— :p ——

Eight months later when he’s freshly 14, Tony Stark picks him up to fight in Germany. Caps lost priorities. Didn’t read the fine print. It goes. Peter fights some people, get his identity discovered by Iron Man(Iron Man!!) and gets a new suit.

The new suit is way better than his track suit with goggle to protect his eyes. Built in AI, tracker, very helpful voices guides. Turns out an AI to help fill in gaps where sight is important is very helpful, colors, signs, visual descriptions.

Anyway, then he blows up the ferry. Stark is not happy, he demands the suit back, tells him to go home and stop Spider-Man. Peter is furious, but resigned.

He doesn’t need that suit. He didn’t then and he doesn’t now.

He finds Toomes, takes him down not before Toomes takes down that warehouse. He gets the suit back, alongside an actual internship, not for Spider-Man, he and Tony still can’t agree on his methods, but they flourish in the lab together.

Who he does find is are Mathew Murdock, aka Daredevil and Wade Wilson(The merc with a mouth, Deadpool, hottie, whatever you wanna call me- shut up Wade this is my backstory) And oh what a shit show that team up was. Two blind guys and an entirely unreliable narrator.(HEY! It’s true) but it worked out in the end barely. They didn’t team up frequently, but it was often enough they knew each other, styles, weaknesses, Mexican order(Wade pays, I’m not turning down free food). But DD sticks to Hells Kitchen and Spider-Man Has broader horizons.

Peter Parker and Tony Stark get closer, mornings spent with golden light spilling into the lab, warmth sinking into Peters skin.

Stark doesn’t make a big deal of Peters blindness, he makes more of an effort to keep the floor clear, labels smaller tool sizes, ensures Friday doesn’t let him blow himself up with chemicals, but other wise he’s free to do as he pleases. And he creates, he takes everything Ben taught him, everything he’s learned since, and he builds.

He revolutionizes prosthetics, creates more accessible computers for blind people, writes paper after paper on his studies, creates accessible lab starter kits for all sorts of disabilities. He’s not well known outside of science fields, but he’s on his way to the big names within it. His world is practically glowing.

He spends time with May, around Ben’s birthday Peter decides to rebuild Ben’s old clock for her.

She’s dead before it’s finished. Car crash.

Peter is thrown head first into the darkness again. He doesn’t have anywhere to go.

Tony takes him in, tells him he’s doesn’t want to replace Richard or Ben, but won’t leave him alone either. He stays Peter Parker, but he knows that he and Tony love each other like father and son. He’s ok with that too.

He mourns, leaned to move on, holds May and Ben and his parents in his heart. Lets their love fuel him.

Now he’s 16, doing his thing. Saving people and cats and helping old ladies.

Then of course, Nick Fury walks up to him after a fight.

Chapter Text

“Spider-Man.”

Peter nearly jumped out of own skin at the voice, he’d heard someone approaching but hadn’t realized it was Nick Fucking Fury.

“Nicky! What are you calling this spider for?” Peter faced him, tilting his head playfully. He heard Fury’s sigh of annoyance.

“Come with me,” Fury was blunt, brokered no room for argument.

Of course Peters never been one to follow instructions.

“Uhhhm how ‘bout no? Y’know I’ve always been told never go without a trusted adult. And by the way, taking people off the street is bad form.” Peter turned, prepared to web to roof and never think about Fury again, but-

“I don’t think so Mr. Parker,” Peter freezes. “I believe it’s bad form not to listen to your elders.”

“You callin’ yourself old, Nicky? I’m not going to disagree, but I was willing to keep it on the inside! But for the record, I don’t know who this Mr. Parker is, and frankly you should check your sources before you start throwing around accusations.” Peter kept walking, voice likely not as calm as he wanted, but certainly more calm than warranted, given Fury just threw his secret identity right at his face, in public. Talk about a lack of tact.

“You could be better, a better spiderman, a better hero, a better leader,” Peter paused with one hand prepared to flee, Fury was probably blackmailing him, it was a bad idea to listen. But hey, a guys got to listen to spiels sometimes, know what the other person wants.

“There is a hyphen in Spider-Man. And what’s in it for you?” Fury scoffed, like he’d just won. “What do you want? I’ve seen your track record, you don’t do things out of the goodness of your heart, Nick.”

“You haven’t seen much of anything kid, but with shield maybe you could learn,” Peter tensed further, Fury definitely wasn’t bluffing that secret identity stuff. “As for what I want from you? I want you to lead a team, the next set of greats, the Ultimates.” Fury body didn’t change from it straight backed stance, but his presence grew, like this was some great honor and a ploy to get Spider-Man on his side.

He snorted, “Great speech director, but I’m gonna have to pass. I’m busy. Besides, your little boy band sounds cool and all, but I’m a solo act, occasionally collaboration, but not a team player.” He heard Fury sigh, felt the vibrations as he turned. Peter was usually much more expressive, but Nick didn’t seem like the type to buy into exaggerated body language.

“Think about it Spider-Man. My team has the training, but you have the experience, they could use some help entering the field.” Fury started walking, to where? Peter didn’t know, given the helicarrier is floating above the city, but semantics.

“Thanks but no thanks, Nicky, you’ll have to find someone else.” Peter took a running start into his swing.

“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” He was gone before Fury could say anymore.

—— :p ——

The rest of patrol was not as smooth, Peter was distracted. ‘A helping hand to the next generation’ huh? There could be worse things than that where sheilds involved, he could be publicly outed, tossed into the raft, etc etc. Not that Tony would allow for any of that, but shield could try.

But he didn’t need a team, he was a lone spider. He liked it that way, less stress about keeping others safe, let alone rookies.

Also he and Fury ran on different moral codes, even if he did join shield would one day do something that Peter couldn’t accept and everything would blow to pieces, he could let a bunch of kids get caught in the middle of that(like a messy divorce, ew, gross mental image. Me and fury together? Blech).

A scream cut through Peters musing. Left, six blocks, two people. Peter threw himself off his perch, he’s on larch street, 56ft off the ground, north west winds, 3 mph fall speeding up, left, up, two buildings over, force of-there Peter web hit exactly where it was meant to, margin of error not-with-standing. It took months to figure out all the calculations that went into swinging. Months, and a lot of falls into dumpsters, and less soft areas. Now though? Now Peter could calculate everything near instantaneously, a base of calculations and a healthy dose of spidey sense and the vague outlines of nearby buildings, and Peter almost never missed a shot.

The mugging was easy enough to take care of, swing in, say a few quips, web the guy to the wall, comfort the girl, call the cops, leave a note. Standard procedure.

“Heh, let’s see a rookie do that.” Peter paused again, a rookie couldn’t do that. That’s why they’d need someone in charge. How many injuries could Peter have avoided had he had someone watching his back?

A lot.

Peter groaned, he’d ask Tony. See what he thought. Another scream. After patrol anyway.

——;p——

“I don’t know, Tony- I don’t trust Fury, I barely trust that shield actually has everyone’s best interests at heart. They managed to get infiltrated by Hydra. How do you not notice that? AND, how would a team react to me? Huh? DD and Deadpool are only so cool with it because DD is also blind and Wade has gotten his ass kicked by us both enough times for saying something stupid he wouldn’t even dare. AND-“

“PETER” Peter took a heaving breath, having forgotten to breathe in his rant. He turned back to where he’d put down his tools in his anger.

“Kid, Petey, Bambino, Tesoro. Breathe. I think you should do it-“

“WHAT?!” Tony doesn’t get to finish his sentence. “But why?? You hate shield way more than I do, I’m pretty sure your fist fight Fury on sight if you could, you’d get your ass kicked Mr. I’m-old-and-I-have-a-weak-heart vs super spy Nick Fury, but still!”

Tony stares at Peter while he rants, knowing he’s not going to get a word in edge wise. Tony throws a wrench at Peter. It’s effective.

“Tony! That could have hit me! What if I wasn’t paying attention? What if-“ Tony cuts him off with a sigh.

“Tesoro you’re not thinking about this rationally. Who gives a damn what Fury thinks or does, you’ll stand by what you think is right and that’s the important part. And what about these kids? You’re just going to let them follow Fury blindly? Throw them into the deep end? You’re too kind for that, Tesoro, and we both know it.” Tony rubs the bridge of his nose as be talks. He knows Peter understands what he’s saying.

“Besides it would be good practice, if you can keep a gaggle of tweenagers alive then you can handle whatever the board throws at you. Also no one is saying you have to tell them who you are immediately, make Fury sign a contract on your terms, have that lawyer of yours draw it up, make it in braille just to fuck with him.” Peter deflated at Tony’s words, he knew who was right, he couldn’t just ignore a bunch of kids his age who needed help.

Peter turned back to his project, “Fine I’ll do it, but if this blows up in my face I’m never letting you live it down.” Tony grinned at peters back, knowing he couldn’t see but could feel his amusement.

“Deal.” The sounds of tinkering continued.