Chapter Text
“Riles, what are you doing?” Peter asked, Pausing his walk towards the stairs now that he had finally sourced the toolbox again and wondering how he could kindly remind Jake that his help was always appreciated but the guy should not be left in charge of kit.
“Working.” She said simply, clicking two puzzle pieces together.
“Really?”
Riley nodded, continuing to rifle through the puzzle pieces. There wasn’t really too much they could set her doing at FEAST but Peter liked to get her involved however he could. Tidying and sorting the toys that they had out for kids who came by while their parents went to sessions felt like a good compromise – teaching responsibility, kindness, sharing, etc. It felt like a solid bit of parenting on his end, if he didn’t mind saying so himself.
However, Riley did find herself getting distracted and playing with the toys instead of tidying them away as she’d promised she would.
“It kind of looks like you’re playing with that puzzle instead of clearing it up.”
“I’m testing it.”
“Right. Well, maybe set it aside for now and clean up the cars?”
“But why?”
“Someone might be looking for them, and when things are a mess it’s hard to find them.”
“Is that why you couldn’t find your keys this morning?” Riley asked, cooking her head. Too smart for him and knowing that if she turned the lesson round on him she might just get what she wanted from it.
“You’ve got a bright one there, Parker!” Lucy, one of the weekend regulars cheered, laughing at his expense.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.” He grumbled to himself, wondering if there would be a day where his own mistakes didn’t have to be aired out so publicly by his kid. “That’s right. It would have been easier if our house was tidy, but your daddy is a bit of a slob, yes. But you’ve got the time now to do it. So you should.”
Riley hummed and shrugged, looking back down at her puzzle and continuing to lay the pieces out for her to complete.
Peter sighed, deciding to give up for the moment. He still had to fix a couple more lights upstairs. Lessons were a constant thing. He’d try again later.
Upstairs, May was waiting for him with the ladder beside her, pointedly ignoring the glare he shot her when he realised that she’d dragged that up there alone. Before he could open his mouth the remind her that she was meant to be taking it easy, she pointed back to the ground floor by the mats where Riley was now tidying up the very puzzle she’d just been ‘testing’.
“I was gone for two minutes. What happened there?” He asked. Proud, but confused.
“Ezekiel stopped by.” Ezekiel was a familiar face at FEAST. His parents having met there and still returning regularly for some of their events. He was only a year younger than Riley. “He loves this one book, reads it every time he’s in.” May half explained. Her hand coming to rub his back as he joined her against the railing to watch as Riley began taking the work she’d been assigned more seriously. “I don’t think he could find it.”
A beat.
“Riley helped him.”
Peter’s mouth slowly spread into a proud smile, glancing to the side to see May returning it with one of her own before turning back to watch Riley continue on with tidying up the mats. A silent statement that simply said:
You did good.
“Right, shall we get this light changed?” May asked, pulling him out of his reverie. Parenthood had definitely turned him sappy, because he could stand there for hours watching Riley pack books on to the little shelf and sort toys into their respective buckets simply because she’d realised how important it was to help people in little ways.
He pushed off the railing and turned to set up the ladder, reminding May that he’d be taking it down with him not her.
Hallways up the steps, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He paused quickly, just to check who it was from, unable to stop the smile from spreading back across his face when he saw MJ’s contact.
“Switching out our lights is something to be so cheerful of, you’re right.” His aunt commented from the bottom of the ladder with a knowing smirk. “I mean, it couldn’t possibly anything else.”
Peter tutted, but his smile remained and slid his phone back into his pocket and climbing to the top, perching there as he began to open the light casing.
“Things are going well then?” She asked. It’s fair that she’s checking in, he hasn’t really updated her since his rambled phone call to her on the swing to Ned’s house that MJ knew and he had no idea how he was going to deal with that.
Her teasing smile doesn’t make it any easier for him to share though.
“We’re still seeing where things are going.” He replied, keeping his answer vague enough. “Talking about it all is one thing, but it’s another to live it. So... it’s light and you know... easy?”
“Light and easy?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged before popping the screwdriver into his mouth to remove the first light. May groaned at it, no doubt disgusted by his habits.
“Light and easy is not how I would describe any of your relationships, Pete. Nor would I say ‘light and easy’ is what’s got you smiling like that.” May pointed out, holding up the replacement light for him to grab. He exchanged her for the old one.
He supposed that was... fair. A little hurtful in some ways, but fair.
Peter fit the new light into place and pulled the screwdriver from his mouth to replace the cover back on.
“We’re taking things slow still, but. They’re going. A lot of people probably would have ran when they knew about Riley, and they definitely would have started sprinting when you add in the other thing, but we’re trying.”
“What does trying entail?”
“Dating.” He shrugged, the first set of screws back in their place. “Talking.”
It had been a while since someone he’d been dating had been involved with every part of his life. Betty had known about Riley but never met her outside of friendly gatherings. He knew she had her suspicions about Spider-Man – she was too smart not to - but they never outright talked about it.
His fling with Felicia was miles away from introducing her to Riley. Felicia herself had no desire to cross that line with him. Also, more because Peter wanted to scratch himself raw at the idea of bringing someone who’d been so... for lack of a better word, intimate with his other identity into Riley’s vicinity.
His choice had been vindicated when they’d had their-... difference of opinions in the past.
He knew what it looked like to juggle his private life with his hero-life, keeping that a secret. He knew how spend his evenings gallivanting with a pretty thief and still making it back in time for the school run.
The last time he’d properly been with someone who’d known every part of him was Gwen, and even then, they were both still learning how to be themselves and how to care for a kid. Those two short years they’d raised Riley together not feeling like enough time for him to know really what it meant to be a hero, a father and a partner all at once.
Back then everything felt so jumbled and intertwined. They weren’t starting from scratch, they had a history to base things off. They could use that to feel their way through the hard patches.
He and MJ didn’t have history. They just had a lot of rocky road ahead of them, but he supposed at least they could see the pitfalls that were coming up.
On top of that, this was really the first time he’d really had much of a choice in telling someone. He could have chosen not to. He could have taken Riley to Ned’s place by himself – he would have ran the risk of Rhino taking down more of lower Manhattan and would have had to live with that – but he didn’t. He’d trusted MJ and knew she could help him – help get him gone sooner and get Riley somewhere that he knew she’d be safe and comfortable.
That felt entirely different to how Ned and May found out. It was different to how Gwen and Flash had found out after they’d managed to piece it all together.
It felt different like Peter should have all the answers she was looking for, but he didn’t.
“Lot of talking.” He insisted. He left out that a lot of their conversations were neatly bracketed by other activities but he had no interest in sharing that with May.
A lot of the discussions they’d had since MJ had found out started by her tracing his skin until her fingers had come across an old scar. One she’d touched before but knew she wouldn’t get a truthful answer to about it’s origins.
He would explain, slow and hesitant, and remind her that things were different now. He was older, less reckless and with more reason to not wear himself so thin. Depending on how she reacted, he’d guide her hand to rest above his heart and the silence would say enough when he found other ways to prove to her that it was still beating.
Laying on the pillow, taking each other in before they had to start their respective days their pillow talk was filled with a lot more than just sweet nothings by addressing other expectations. Large family functions were already off the table – anything that Leah was in attendance at Peter couldn’t accompany MJ alone for fear of how that might get back to Riley, but it served as a good reminder to them both that he might not always be able to attend even after the kids know – if they got to that point of course.
Peter wasn’t under any illusion that all the talking would be enough to prepare them for it all, but-...
He swallowed.
It gave him hope. That they were getting this far at all.
“I see...” May hummed. Peter looked down at her, seeing a soft pride in her eyes that looked a little bit like the hope he could feel inside his chest. “Let me have Riley for the night.”
Peter shook his head. “I don’t need you intervening just so I can get a date.” He huffed.
“Shockingly not everything is about you, kid.” May said.
Peter whipped his head around to glare at her, affronted before he managed to rein himself in. It was too late though, May had already caught sight of the crease in his forehead and confusion in his eyes, her eyes shining with amusement which told him she knew exactly the kind of reaction she was going to get from that.
“I just want to spend some time alone with her. I’m her great aunt. I’m allowed to want that.”
“Careful, Helen might hear you.” He muttered under his breath. May swotting his foot gently in warning.
Gwen’s mom and May have not always seen eye to eye, especially when Helen didn’t grant Peter the same kindness as everyone else did following Gwen’s death. May was probably the first to admit she’d breathed a sigh of relief when Helen had ultimately decided she couldn’t stay in the city that had taken both her husband and her daughter from her moving out to live with her sister, of course not after trying to make a point that Peter couldn’t raise Riley alone, but she did well to at least be civil anytime Helen did come to town for birthdays and holidays.
However she did not enjoy any comparisons to her, and Peter knew he was toeing a dangerous lie with that joke.
“Let me have time with my grand baby.”
“No wild nights on the town, okay?” He teased.
“Of course not. We’ll leave that to you and Michelle.”
“I’m not-...” Peter sputtered. His cheeks turning red. “I was just going to have a quiet night on the couch. Catch up on some TV. You know they released a new documentary on marine life in the Adriatic? Thrilling stuff.”
May hummed, patting her nephew’s shoulder. “I’m sure. I’m also very certain that you told me you’d be ‘catching up on Blue Planet’ when I walked in on you and Gwen using the couch for-“
“May!” Peter gaped, staring at her in horror. The rest of his face turning as red as his cheeks. His ears feeling too warm.
Though, if May already thought he was going to be getting up to no good that evening... he might as well make the most of it, right?
“You sure you want to do this?” Peter asked for the fourth time that evening. It might be excessive, but with how tightly MJ was gripping him, and her much her nails were cutting into his skin, he wanted to give her as many outs as possible.
The clenched jaw and grinding of her teeth doing nothing to convince him that this was something she was actually looking forward to.
“You said this was the best part, right?” She asked.
“Yeah? But that’s-... I’ve been doing this a long while, you know, I’m used to it. I’ve also been hit in the head a lot so it might be my brain being scrambled, there’s no shame in not doing this.” He rambled, though his heart wasn’t really in it.
This was the best part. He loved getting to see his city in a different way, loved the gasps from kids below when they saw him pass, loved the freedom of it, loved that it felt like his alone.
It sucked that he could never really put into words how swinging felt because so often the people he shared it with were more relieved that they hadn’t just died.
However, the distance he kept his loved one from Spider-Man was a necessary one. Even just standing on this rooftop with her had him itching in his suit a little, but she’d been adamant to try this – ‘acclimatise herself’ to the idea of Spider-Man being in her life was her exact turn of phrase.
Given how much Peter was asking of her: patience, dating him when he had a kid, accepting the spider of it all. He figured the very least he could do was set his own fears and stresses aside for one night to at least attempt to ease hers.
“No.” She said, a resolute shake of her head. “I want to do this. Let’s do this.” The words coming out in short breaths as she tried to hype herself up.
“Just tell me when you want to go down, okay?” He asked, looping his arm around her waist and holding her close. “I’ve got you. The entire time.”
“I know.” She breathed, nodding for him to go.
His affirmations apparently did nothing to soothe her. As soon as they leapt into the air, she began to scream and he really, really wished he’d informed her a little more about how sensitive his hearing was because having that right by his ear was-... almost deafening.
He kept going despite the screams, her hand occasionally going to his face before he hand to remind her gently that it was creeping ever closer to covering his eyes which were needed for seeing where they were going.
She chose to bury her face into his neck instead, causing him to laugh. The whole idea had been for her to see the city from his perspective and now she was hiding away.
It gave him an idea. He pivoted suddenly, the jerking pulling another scream from MJ and hoisted them higher, and higher until he brought them to a stop against a glass window.
He shifted how she was sat on his hips and struggled a little to climb further up the glass, but managed it – he was a pro after all.
“Keep your eyes closed.” He ordered, trying not to laugh again as she followed the instruction without any hesitation, almost seeming pleased for the permission to hide away.
Peter kept going higher until they were at the very top, carefully helping MJ to stand on the weather rod, and keeping his hands firmly on her waist. The sun was finally starting to dip low in the sky – the city well into spring now and the daylight holding out just long enough for him to give her this.
Some apartment lights and streetlights starting to turn on and beginning to illuminate the shadows left by the setting sun.
“Open.” He whispered into her ear, knowing exactly when she’d followed the instruction by the stutter in her heartbeat and breath.
“Oh my god...” She whispered, awed by it all. Something he could completely understand. Years of this, and some sights never lost their shine. “Peter, this view is...”
“I know.” He finished for her. There weren’t enough words to explain it. Not only for how breath-taking it was to see the city all already put beneath them but because it served as a reminder. Perspective almost – that the further away from things he got the smaller the less he saw the detail of them, but the life still remained. People were still down there doing their jobs, going home to their families, crossing the Street. He couldn’t see them all, but looking over this view, he could imagine and knew they were there.
Just in the same way, he knew that MJ could as she pointed out blurry buildings to him, ecstatic laughter as she tried to figure out where exactly her parents’ place was or if she could see Gayle’s apartment from there.
It was a whole host of possibilities that somehow he’d managed to navigate through – with a lot of help. It was a reminder to how Riley probably saw the city she was growing up in, huge and filled with possibilities like new friends in the park and new lessons to learn. She’d get through it too, just as he had, he just had to be there along the way.
There were a lot of things that got him up in the morning, but this and everything this moment captured for him was probably what kept him going.
“This is what being Spider-Man’s like?” MJ asked. The wind was blowing her hair and there was a slight sway to their post, but she didn’t seem to mind too much anymore now that they weren’t moving.
“Occasionally. There’s probably a lot more bad than there is good, but...”
“The good outweighs the bad?” She guessed, Peter nodding before hooking his chin over her shoulder, keeping her close to his chest. “I think a lot of stuff is like that.” She added on thoughtfully.
He hummed in agreement before pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“We should probably start heading down.” He said to her.
MJ sighing and leaning back into him. “Five more minutes?”
Her hands were still holding on to his forearms tightly, nails creating crescent moons in his skin even through the suit, but her posture was a long way from where they’d been a little while ago. Relaxed and trusting him.
Yeah...
Peter could do this for five more minutes.