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Peter Parker was fascinated by magic. Always has been, always will be. Whether it was real or fake, he loved it.
Growing up, it always interested him. He had distinct memories of going to his old friend, Harry’s, birthday party, where his dad had hired a magician. The mindless party tricks the man did drew Peter in and before he knew it, Harry’s birthday was forgotten and Peter stared aimlessly at the man and his tricks in wonder and awe.
From that moment on, he spent all his time learning simple tricks of the eye to show all his friends. Of course, everyone loved it. When they were in 1st grade, that is.
Whenever Peter got the chance, he would attend a magic show. After the death of his parents, Ben and May took him to a magic show to cheer him up. He got magic lessons at age 10. After Ben’s death, Peter took up magic as a “full-time-hobby” to distract himself from his guilt.
But of course, it was just fake magic. There was no actual magic going on, they were just tricks, illusions.
But then he met Loki, Wanda, and Dr. Strange and he damn near passed out. He knew, from the moment he laid eyes on the three, that he would get them to teach him magic, no matter what he had to do to convince them.
It took him a while, but one day he finally brought up the courage to ask them to teach him.
Of course, he had done his research, and read up on the trio, so he knew that Loki and Wanda were born with their magic, not taught it, so going to either of them first would be a bust.
So he went to the wizard first.
“Dr. Strange, sir?” Peter said quietly, peeking his head into the living room, where he knew Stephen would be.
“Mr. Parker,” Stephen had responded. Peter smiled a bit, stepping completely into view of the magic do-er.
“Uhm, I have a strange request,” Peter said. Stephen gestured for him to continue and Peter felt his nerves get the best of him.
“Can- Are- I was,” Peter started. He paused and took a minute to organize his thoughts.
“Is there any way you can teach me magic?” Peter asked. There was a beat of silence before Peter dipped his head, pulling out a deck of cards.
“Other- other than-” He quickly did a small card trick- “y’know?” Stephen raised an eyebrow at the boy.
“You should show Scott that trick,” Stephen mumbled, earning a smile from Peter, before continuing.
“You already have powers, why do you need the Mystic Arts?” Stephen asked. Peter moved his head in thought.
“Well, my magic tricks are only, well, tricks, there’s no actual magic to them. I always used magic as an escape and doing the same thing over and over gets repetitive and boring,” Peter explained softly.
“You’re not gonna get any less repetition out of the Mystic Arts Peter, I hope you know that,” Stephen said. Peter groaned, growing frustrated.
“My tricks are fake. Your magic is real . Real,” Peter responded. Stephen took a breath.
“If you do really well in school this semester, I’ll take you to the Sanctum Sanctorum over winter break to learn if you would like,” Stephen offered, face softening. The offer was worth it as Stephen watched Peter’s face morph into a joyous look.
“Oh- Oh my god thank you, sir,” Peter stumbled out, jumping out of the living room. Stephen chuckled, watching him leave.
That semester Peter worked harder than he ever had in his life before. And in the end, he ended up ace-ing all of his classes. A in each. Pretty damn impressive.
When break hit, and Peter received his report card that was littered in A ’s, Stephen caved in and told Peter to start packing and soon, the two were stepping into a portal into the lobby of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Stephen gave Peter a few minutes to put his stuff down and change into more comfortable clothes before the two stepped through a second portal, to where Stephen himself first learned magic.
Peter jumped in his spot, shaking out his limbs in preparation. He watched in concentration while Stephen walked him through his first lesson: making a portal.
Stephen gave Peter his very own Sling Ring, slowing walking him through the steps of making a portal.
“Now, Peter, this took me a while to master, so don’t expect to achieve a full portal on your first tr…” Stephen’s words died on his lips at the sight of a glowing, open portal that led onto the top of the Empire State Building.
Stephen took a deep breath before turning slowly and walking away, muttering, “It’s too early for this shit,” under his breath. That was the entire lesson that day. That didn’t stop Peter from making random portals from place to place all day, only stopping when Stephen grabbed him and manhandled him back to the Sanctum Sanctorum for sleep.
Slowly, over the course of a month, Stephen taught Peter all he needed to know to fully master the Mystic Arts. And once he returned, if he used his portals to fuck with Mr. Stark, no one needed to know.
………
Peter had become one of the Masters of the Mystic Arts last break. He knew all he needed to know about the Mystic Arts and now, he figured, it was time to ask Loki and Wanda about their magics.
Quietly, he knocked on Wanda’s door one day, nerves making his heart pound in his chest. Wanda was the sweetest, so he wasn’t sure why he was anxious.
Wanda opened the door nearly immediately, giving Peter a questioning glance.
“I went away last break with Dr. Strange,” he breathed. Then he groaned and turned around, cursing himself for saying the wrong thing.
“I know,” Wanda said slowly, reaching out to turn Peter around. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I- uh-” Peter had to pause to get his thoughts together before he could continue talking.
“He taught me his type of magic,” he continued. Wanda nodded. “I was wondering if you could teach me about your magic? Maybe I’ll be able to do some of it?” Wanda remained silent.
“Well…I mean, I’ve never tried teaching anyone else my magic. It really just came naturally to me,” she said.
“I’m- I’m a fast learner! And I can solve problems really well. I’m up to the challenge,” he declared. Wanda took one look at his face and laughed.
“Alright, I’ll try to teach you. But it won’t be easy,” she said. Peter let out a rather loud yell, before his eyes widened and he covered his mouth. Wanda let out a surprised giggle at his yell, before she pulled him into her room to get started.
………
“Kid…are- are you okay?” Peter looked at Tony through bleary eyes and nodded slowly.
“I think so?” Tony gave him a concerned look with his eyebrows furrowed low.
“Are you sure? You kinda look like a disaster right now,” Tony commented.
“I’ve been trying to learn how to do Wanda’s magic. It’s hard to do anything without it blowing up in your face. Literally,” Peter said. Tony blinked in subtle surprise.
“It’s also really tiring,” Peter continued, rubbing at his eyes to try to clear the film over them. Tony sat on the chair opposite of him, with a coffee in his hand.
“Don’t you have an English project due tomorrow? You were talking about it all this morning and how you were going to finish it tonight,” Tony said. Peter paused, freezing in his exact position.
“Shit!” he yelled, jumping up from his position and running to his room.
A week later, Peter had still barely scratched the surface of Wanda’s magic. Somehow, through unexplained circumstances, he managed to make a pillow float without it blowing up, pale yellow energy forming around his hands and the object. Wanda had clapped excitedly, snapping Peter out of his concentration. The pillow fell to the floor with the slightest thud. Exhaustion seeped into his bones and he collapsed backwards.
“Peter, that was awesome!”
“But it wasn’t as good as you!” Peter argued, sitting up quickly to look at her. Wanda gave him a fond smile, walking over and sitting next to him. Putting a hand on his arm, she quietly continued speaking.
“I’ve had years and years to practice these abilities. My first attempts at all of this definitely weren’t pretty, so don’t feel bad,” she said. Peter smiled feebly, raising his hands, willing the yellow energy to come back, and lifting the pillow back off the ground. It slowly floated towards the two until it landed on Wanda’s head, making her jump and widen her eyes.
She burst into laughs after the initial shock wore off a split second later, making Peter laugh with her. Learning may be hard, but he was getting used to it. And the memories he was making along the way were also well worth it.
………
He had never thought of using these new abilities outside of messing around, but while on the battlefield with the Avengers (the Avengers !!), Wanda had called out to him, saying she needed help. Rushing over, he excepted to see her being swarmed, but only found her being pinned down by one of the bad guys.
“Touching him gets rid of your abilities!” she yelled. It took a moment to process, but the thought passed through his mind. He knew what he had to do.
Willing his month of practice to continue back to him, he willed the energy through his veins, to let it surround his hands, and lifted the bad guy off of Wanda, launching him into the air with more power than he had ever used. The initial power was too much for him to handle and it wore off quickly, making the bad guy start freefalling.
Gasping, he realized the energy wouldn’t come back, having been spent too much at once, and quickly focused, moving his hands in a circle to open a portal with the magic Dr. Strange had taught him, depositing the bad buy in a jail cell with only a dull thud. He closed the portal before the bad guy could regain his senses.
Taking a deep breath to sooth his aching lungs, he turned to Wanda to make sure she was okay to see her staring at him in shock. When she caught his eyes, she smiled, clapping him on the back.
“Thank you, Мали брат,” she said. She ran back into the fight a moment later, leaving Peter in the dust.
………
It took months to master a fraction of Wanda’s power. By the time Loki came to visit with Thor, Peter was only able to master the telekinesis bit and touch upon the levitation. He figured he would put it on hold for a while while Loki was there.
“Mr. Loki,” he said, walking up to Loki the moment he landed with Thor because wow, he was getting good at this whole ‘asking for magic lessons’ thing.
“Yes, small human?” Loki said, still glaring at his brother for whatever Thor had done before they left.
“Can you teach me how to do your magic?” Clearly, Loki wasn’t expecting a question like that and he gave Peter a confused glance.
“My magic?” Peter nodded. Loki laughed.
“Small spiderling, I was born with my magic. It is not something easily learned,” he said. Peter pursed his lips, looking at him with an unamused look.
“Wanda wasn’t taught her magic either and look,” he said, bringing back his energy to make Loki start floating. Eyes widening spectacularly large, Loki looked to the ground and then to Peter’s hands.
“Put me down and maybe I’ll consider it,” he said. Peter’s eyes narrowed, but he placed Loki’s feet back on the ground with mild hesitation.
“I suppose I could try to teach you something,” he agreed, with what Peter could tell was fake, nonchalance. Peter smiled, feeling accomplished, and dragged Loki to the gym.
It turns out learning the magic of a god wasn’t as hard as they both had thought, after having mastered a learned magic, and studied a subconscious magic. Both experiences helped Peter successfully disguise a knife as an apple (Loki chose the object and illusion, not Peter) rather quickly, in just under 4 hours. Loki’s eyebrows had raised at the believable illusion, and gave Peter a somewhat impressed look.
“That’s basically the extent of my magic–that I’m willing to teach you, that is–and all you need is practice to apply it practically,” Loki said, before disappearing and leaving before Peter could get a word out. Silently, Peter promised that the next time Loki returned from space, Peter would have it mastered, along with Wanda’s strange magic.
………
“We should stop before he gets too upset,” Wanda whispered. Peter looked out of the air vent he and Wanda were hiding in, watching Clint get increasingly more frustrated at the portals that kept disrupting his tasks.
“Nah, let him get mad, it’s funny,” Peter whispered back, giggling when Clint tugged at his hair when his coffee cup disappeared down another portal. Summoning Loki’s magic (that after a few months of practice, he had mastered 100%), he disguised a cup of apple juice as Clint’s mug and watched in amusement as Clint ran for it, grabbing it and cheering when it didn’t disappear. Just as the liquid was about to enter Clint’s mouth, Peter erased the illusion.
“It is funny,” Wanda whispered, watching Clint’s face grow confused and concerned when he tasted what was very clearly not bitter coffee.
Wanda joined in on the fun, using her own magic to slip into Clint’s mind and persuade him to run into a wall.
Another 10 minutes went by before Clint seemed about done, sitting on the floor and closing his eyes with his head buried between his knees.
Peter and Wanda gasped when Tony walked in, almost as if it were a soap opera they were watching. They listened closely as Tony asked Clint what he was doing on the floor. Defeated tone smothering his voice, Clint explained that his coffee kept disappearing and turning into various other beverages and gestured to the harmless mug of coffee that sat on the counter.
Confused and a bit skeptical, Tony walked over the mug, picked it up and took a sip.
“I’m pretty damn sure that’s coffee, Katniss,” Tony said. Wanda and Peter had to muffle their giggles and Natasha walked in next, hearing the same explanation from Clint while Tony shook his head where Clint couldn’t see him. Nat did the same thing, drinking the coffee and confirming that it was indeed coffee that was in the mug. A few other Avengers joined them, repeating the very same scenario over and over until Cap walked in, heard their muffled giggles, and pulled them from the vent.
Clint understood as soon as he saw them and they watched his face turn from distress into some type of anger and they shrugged in sync, before looking at each other and running.
Clint chased them with a war cry, but was met with another challenge when Peter disappeared through a portal and Wanda disappeared into thin air.
Eventually, Clint grew tired of trying to chase them and the two apologized (not without laughing and giggling) and Clint, begrudgingly, accepted their apology. Steve had to come in to make sure they meant it and soon they were sworn to not messing with Clint’s coffee. Once Clint had left, sipping on a new cup, feeling all high and mightly and achieved, Steve had turned to the two of them and said they were free to mess with him in any other way, as long as they gave him at least a week or so break from the pranks.
Clint was a not so happy man when the TV remote kept escaping him a mere week and a half later.