Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Peter Parker was twelve years old, his parents left home for a short trip, leaving him alone in the house for a few days. They weren’t worried about leaving their son alone; he was a well-behaved, smart boy, and they trusted him. They didn’t expect him to throw parties or burn the house down. They knew that once they returned home, Peter would be intact, and the small house would be intact. What they definitely didn’t expect was that they would never return.

Peter was excited to be left home alone for the weekend, he wasn’t scared or anxious like a lot of kids his age would be because he was used to spending nights alone in their tiny house. His parents were always going away for work, and for a reason Peter never knew, they couldn’t hire a babysitter or send him to one of their friends’ houses. So he knew what to expect. He spent his days alone either watching the TV, drawing, working on his robot or singing. nothing was different, he was just doing it alone.

The days went by quickly, and before he knew it, Peter’s parents were due to return home. Except they never did. Peter waited for hours, days, by the front door, hoping they would walk through any moment, apologize for being so late home without calling and give him a big hug. He called their mobiles over and over again, knowing it would go straight to voicemail, but still trying anyway because he had to do something. They never answered the phone and they never came home.

After a couple more days went by with still no contact, Peter decided to go to the police station, he might have been experienced in being alone, but he was still only twelve. His parents had always told him, that if they never came home, then to go to their neighbour’s house, but he was dead now. Peter didn’t have any other options.

He was scared, walking into the station, he had never been inside one before and didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Luckily, the woman behind the desk noticed him before he could run out in panic and flagged down one of the loitering police officers.

The officer must have noticed the distressed look on Peter’s face, he spoke in a calm town and knelt down a little, hoping to help him feel calmer. The officer asked him what was wrong. Why was he in a police station so early in the morning?

“I think my parents are dead,” he uttered.

The next two weeks were chaos. Richard and Mary Parker were pronounced missing and Peter was placed into care. He didn’t like the house he was in, nine other children were living there. The kids were nice and so were the caretakers, but it wasn’t home and Peter was uncomfortable, he was living on the edge the entire time he was there and all he wanted were his mum and dad.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to stay there for long. Social Services had gotten in contact with his aunt and uncle and they were coming to pick him up to move with them. They lived in New York, but at least he would be with people he knew. It was not like he had much for him here anyway.

—

When Peter Parker was fourteen, his uncle Ben died.

Life had been going okay since he moved to America. He got into a STEM school (he would have preferred the performing arts school nearby, but May wouldn’t allow it) he joined clubs and made two amazing friends, Ned and Mj.

One day his class went on a field trip to Oscorp. Peter was excited, he had always loved science and he never would’ve gotten this opportunity back home. But because he lacks all self-preservation skills, he split up from his class and walked through a door with a big red sign that read ‘do not enter’. In his defence, any door that has a sign like that is going to make even the least curious people want to know what’s inside.

Peter came out of the room with a spider bite on his hand.

The next four days were come and go for Peter. His fever had skyrocketed, and May was considering taking him to the hospital. But miraculously, he bounced back hours later and was completely back to normal. May was a nurse, but she had no explanation for what had happened, and Ben was just as confused as she was.

Over time, Peter discovered things about himself that definitely weren’t there before. He could walk on walls, he could hear three blocks over, he didn’t need his glasses and he could rip the faucet off the sink. He was terrified.

He knew it had something to do with the spider, that was the only explanation. He decided to forget about it, nobody had to know about his new-found abilities and he didn’t have to use them, they only freaked him out. The six-pack was okay though.

Ben noticed that something was up with his nephew, he was distracted and moody, a complete 180 from the kid he knew and loved and he decided to say something about it. Peter didn’t like that Ben was so close to finding out his secret, so he stormed out of the apartment and ran down the street. Ben, of course, didn’t want his fourteen-year-old nephew out on the streets of Queens by himself so late at night, so he followed him.

Ben was shot in the chest three times at a gas station robbery.

Peter would blame himself for the rest of his life, he had powers, he knew something bad was going to happen yet he just stood there, cowering behind Ben as if he was the invincible one. Peter knew he wasn’t either, but he knew he could have survived that.

—

Peter went back into his shell, and everyone around him could see the difference in how he acted. His friends never left him though, they stood by his side the entire time and once a robotics competition came up, Ned encouraged Peter to take part, hoping it would be enough to distract him even if only for a few months.

They didn’t know the prize, but Peter put all of his efforts into his project, it had to be perfect. If May wasn’t going to let him do what he really wanted to do, then he needed to have a backup.

He worked tirelessly for the next few months, and once the competition arrived, he was confident about his entry.

He won first place. He won an internship with Tony Stark.

—

The internship was the light of Peter’s life, it was the only thing keeping him going. He got along great with Tony and Pepper, he wasn’t too sure Happy liked him, but he would win him over eventually. He got to meet the Avengers and have weekly movie nights with them. It was great and it was something Peter looked forward to every other day. He was happy to have a place to get away from home. May was becoming someone different, she wasn’t as happy as she used to be, which was understandable considering her husband had died, but she took it out on Peter. She went to work and once she was home, she screamed at Peter and went to bed. It was up to him to pay the bills, clean, go grocery shopping and so much more. They had swapped roles and Peter was exhausted.

She saved him, but he couldn’t wait for the day he could leave.

Chapter Text

Peter walked into his bedroom and threw his backpack to the side. As he was lying on his bed, scrolling through Twitter, his eyes caught sight of the guitar in the corner of his bedroom. He wasn’t allowed to play it when May was home, she thought it was a waste of time; Peter was surprised she hadn’t thrown it out yet. He wanted to play, he always wanted to play but recently May had moved her shifts around so she would have more time with Peter. He was grateful that he got to spend more time with his aunt, but he wasn’t grateful that he had to sacrifice doing something he loved.

He got up and gently placed it at the back of his closet. Having it out in the open was too tempting and he wasn’t in the mood to be reprimanded once May started to hear the sound of strings. She would storm in, take the guitar and tell Peter he would be better off studying. She would end up feeling bad later on in the night and give it back, but he knew it was only because his dad had bought it for his seventh birthday.

He didn’t do much for the rest of the day, he ate dinner, watched a movie with May and set off to his room after saying goodnight to May. He couldn’t sleep though, it had been months since he’d had the chance to play. It felt like May had changed around her shifts just because she hated his hobbies so much; they hadn’t spent that much time together so he refused to believe that it was for the reason she said it was for. They barely even see each other around the place.

It had been like that since Ben died. Peter always knew that it was Ben’s idea to take Peter into their home, but he thought that May had at least agreed with him. Recently though, he started to think otherwise. She asks how his day has been, cooks him dinner, maybe watches a movie with him and then goes to her room. They never properly talked and spent time with one another, they were living together and that was it.

Huffing, Peter got out of bed and opened his closet door, he felt like an addict. He couldn’t forget about it. He looked around his room, trying to find anything that would muffle the sound and sighed when he came up empty. Then he caught sight of the fire escape.

He quickly got dressed, making sure to wrap up as warm as possible and grabbed his guitar. He wasn’t worried about how loud he was being with opening the window, if May heard him she would assume he was going patrolling. He did make sure to be quiet as he put the instrument on the fire escape though, he didn’t want to accidentally catch one of the strings and be caught before he had even left his bedroom.

Once he was out, he closed the window and mentally celebrated, he felt as though he had just solved the biggest problem in his life. He grabbed his stuff and took the stairs up to the roof. Once he was up there, he took a seat next to the AC unit and took in the view. It wasn’t the nicest, but every now and then he enjoyed looking across.

Remembering why he climbed up there in the first place, he grabbed his guitar and began playing until the sun came up and he had to climb back into bed before May caught him.

---

Once Peter heard the front door close, Peter climbed out of bed. He had no reason to be pissed off at her, she only wanted him to do well at school, but she never let him do anything fun. He didn’t have time to stew though, he had to be at the tower in an hour. He had a quick shower, brushed his teeth and got dressed. He didn’t have time to eat breakfast but he could eat at the tower.

Plugging in his headphones, Peter left the apartment, locked up and made his way to the tower.

---

“Peter’s here!” Clint shouted from the kitchen. A second later Tony came running down the stairs holding his tablet.

“Hey Pete,” Tony greeted, ruffling Peter’s here.

“Hey guys,” Peter replied, kicking off his shoes and throwing himself onto the couch.

“Peter, the shoe closet is right next to the elevator,” Steve sighed, ignoring the way everyone laughed at him. Steve was the only one who put his shoes in there.

“I know. You’ve told me a million times,” Peter smirked. He loved messing with Steve.

“Well then use it!” Steve facepalmed.

“Enough about the closet, I’m in dire need of a new Mario Kart partner, you in?” Clint asked. Peter grinned and grabbed his controller.

---

“Are you sure you don’t want a ride from Happy?” Tony asked for the thousandth time.

“I’m Spider-man, I think I can escort myself home,” Peter laughed. He waved goodbye to everyone and left the building.

5 p.m. was always the worst time to get on the subway, and every time, Peter wished he had taken Tony’s offer. The carriage was flooded with people, if you looked up you were bound to have some old guy’s coffee breath in your face and it was horrible. As soon as he stepped off the train, he wanted to celebrate the fact he could finally breathe again.

Peter made it home from the station in only a few minutes, he was glad it was only a short walk as it was still pretty cold in New York, but as soon as the weather started to warm up, he would take the long way home.

Once he made it into the apartment and greeted May, he went into his room to put his stuff away when he noticed something was missing. He knew he didn’t put his guitar back in the closet this morning, he put it back on the stand. Even though he was sure he was right, he still checked the closet anyway. It was gone. Only one other person could have taken it.

He calmed himself down first, not wanting to confront her whilst he was still angry and made his way back to the living room where May was keeping her attention solely on the TV, she had a sour look on her face and Peter immediately knew she was guilty.

“Where is it?” Peter asked, trying to stay calm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” She replied, keeping her focus on the screen in front of her.

“Don’t play dumb May,” Peter sighed, “I’m not stupid.”

“Fine, I’ve donated it, my window was open last night and I heard everything, you’re not as sneaky as you think you are Peter,” May smirked.

Peter didn’t say anything. What was there to say? He knew why she did it and he knew she would never tell him where she donated it. He just walked back to his room in silence and sat on his bed. May knew why the guitar was so special to him, that was why she always gave it back. Not this time though. And Peter was pissed. He had enough savings to get himself a new one, but it would never be the same. He wouldn’t be able to hide it either and he wanted to save his money for an emergency.

He didn’t think it through, he packed his bag with a few outfits, hygiene products and a few sentimental items. He grabbed his wallet, locked his bedroom door and climbed out of his bedroom window. That was the last straw, he couldn’t stay there any longer. She was cold and distant, she never wanted anything to do with him and he felt like a burden, like he was just living in her house and eating her food. She never wanted him in the first place and now she had her wish.

He didn’t know where he was going or if he should call anyone. He could call Tony, he’d know what to do, but he was probably busy doing company things. By the time he looked up from his feet, he realized he had somehow ended up at the bus station. He looked around at the boards, trying to decide where to go when his eyes settled on the airport. He could go back home; Ben and May never sold the house which was probably down to Ben. He had the key in his wallet, his uncle made sure he carried it everywhere for some reason. He was going home.

“Can I get a bus ticket to JFK please?” Peter asked.

“Hm, thirty-seven dollars,” She said, Peter was sure she was high off her face.

He paid, took his ticket and sat down by the window. The bus would arrive in only a few minutes so he made sure to be quick as he bought some snacks from the vending machine, he hadn’t eaten since lunch and he was starving.

The bus arrived and Peter grabbed a seat by the back. He hoped no one would sit by him but by looks of the station, it seemed as though he would be the only one on the entire bus anyway. Once the driver started the engine, he plugged his headphones in and leaned his head against the window. He had enough money for the flight, he had a house to go to and he would have enough money to keep himself fed for a while. He had other things to worry about, but he would get to it eventually.

---

Peter thanked the driver and made his way to the airport. Deciding against going to an actual person, he went over to one of the machines and bought a ticket to Manchester airport. Nobody stopped him as he wandered around and went through security, so he guessed there wasn’t a problem with his age. He flew alone at twelve so it shouldn’t be a problem at sixteen, almost seventeen, anyway.

Still hungry, Peter quickly went into McDonald’s and ordered himself some food. He was pretty paranoid about missing his flight so he took his food and waited by the gate. He was a little nervous about flying since his parents had died in a plane crash, but he had bought the ticket now and it would be a little embarrassing going home, especially if May had noticed he was gone and hadn’t bothered to call him.

Just as he was throwing away his trash, he heard his flight be called over the tannoy. He grabbed his only bag and made his way to the door. He got onto the plane with no problems and was happy to see that he had an entire row to himself. As the plane was taking off, he put in his headphones and leaned back. He didn’t have any plans for what he was going to do once he arrived back home, it wasn’t like he would be going to school, he was 16, he could probably get a job since the bills wouldn’t pay themselves forever. He didn’t want to think about it too much and work himself into a panic so he turned his music up and laid back.

---

Peter was woken up by the air hostess nine hours later. He had somehow slept the whole flight and people were deboarding. He tiredly grabbed his bag from the locker above and followed everyone else off the plane. Once he was inside the airport and finally had a signal, he turned aeroplane mode off and waited, wanting to see if anyone had tried to contact him. He had a few texts from Ned and Mj and a few from Tony asking if he was coming over to the tower, but none from May. Surely she had noticed that he was gone, or that he hadn’t left his room for ten hours. If she had, then she clearly didn’t care.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, Peter quickly went through immigration and left the airport. He didn’t have to worry about a visa since he had dual citizenship, he supposed there were a few perks to being born and living in another country, it made running away a lot easier. He felt dramatic, saying he was running away because there wasn’t a lot to run from and nobody was looking for him, it felt like he had moved out.

Outside, he called a cab and gave the driver his address. He hadn’t been back there in four years. Hopefully, there weren’t any squatters living there, he might have just slept for nine hours straight but he was still too tired to be dealing with that.

He got out of the car after paying and stared up at his old house, it felt like a lifetime since he had been home. He put the key in the door and opened it up. Looking around felt weird, he took in every detail like he had forgotten it all, when in reality he laid awake at night, imagining the day he could go back. He didn’t forget a thing, not the pictures still on the walls, or the broken leg of the sofa. Not the piano at the back of the living room or all of his old toys still on the shelves covered in dust. He didn’t forget the guitar that never left the kitchen, where it would be easy for his dad to pick it up and annoy his mom when she was cooking. He never forgot any of it.

He ran up the stairs to his old room and threw his bag on his small bed. He didn’t know what to do first. He should probably clean the place up, but he was starting to feel hungry again. He had already exchanged all of his money when he landed at the airport so he grabbed his wallet and left the house again. There wouldn’t be any food in the kitchen, and if there was, it wouldn’t be edible.

He made his way down the street, never taking a wrong turn and eventually made it to the shop he would go to every day after school in year 7. He was a little disappointed to find that new owners had taken over, but he got his stuff either way. He was glad the owners didn’t know him though, it would be quite difficult to explain why he was back home.

He headed back home and put the food away, after cleaning out the old stuff first, and made himself a sandwich. He didn’t want anything big, the time difference was already messing with him and he just wanted to go back to sleep.

As he walked up to his room, he checked his phone again to see he still had no missed calls or texts from May, she would be a work, which meant she hadn’t even bothered to check if he was okay before she left. He had a few from Tony, only question marks probably wondering why it was taking him so long to reply.

Lying in bed, he thought about how he should probably destroy his phone and get a new one, if Tony started to get worried then the first thing he would do was track his phone, but that was a problem for tomorrow. He plugged his phone in, turned around to face the wall and went to sleep.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Peter shut off his alarm and rolled out of bed. He only had one thing to do today and that was to get a new phone. He didn’t want to splash out and get the newest model, his savings had to last him as long as possible so the plan was to go to as many pawn shops as he could to find a good phone, but also a cheap phone.

He had a quick shower and got dressed in the same clothes he wore yesterday. He needed to get some laundry detergent. As he walked into the kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal, he sighed once he noticed that May still hadn’t tried to contact him. Tony was starting to get worried though, and so were Ned and Mj so he needed to be quick.

He ate his breakfast, barely chewing it and ran out the door. He thought about destroying his phone first, but he didn’t want to be walking around without one in case something happened. He hoped the first store had what he needed.

He walked through the door of the first store and aimed straight for the phones. They didn’t seem to be expensive at all and Peter mentally celebrated that he wouldn’t have to walk all around town to find one in his budget. He took note of an old Stark phone and let the shopkeeper know. The woman took the phone out of the case and turned it on to prove it worked. Peter took out his wallet and handed over the £100.

As soon as he left the store, he headed straight for the nearby canal where he planned on throwing his old phone. He checked his missed calls and texts one last time and felt like crying when he saw there were still none from May.

He knew he would regret it later, but he still texted his friends and Tony, just so they knew he was safe but he didn’t tell him where he was or that they wouldn’t be able to contact him again.

A few minutes went by, and when there were no replies from any of them, he threw his phone down to the ground as hard as he could. Once it was smashed beyond repair, he picked up the pieces that were barely being held together and threw them into the canal as far as he could.

He felt a sense of relief, watching the phone sink. He knew now that nobody could track him and he wouldn’t be checking it every thirty minutes in hopes that May had tried to call him.

Certain that no one would be able to retrieve the device, Peter turned around and headed home. He thought about exploring, but he had already seen everything, and he would be bored within minutes.

Peter relaxed on the couch, watching TV, and strumming his guitar like he did as a kid. His mom always hated it when he did that and complained that she couldn’t hear the TV. Peter would always laugh, apologise and put the instrument down. But now she wasn’t around to complain about the noise, even if she never really meant it and it felt weird to be able to play without it.

If May was here she would have already taken it and threatened to smash it up.

As he strummed, he realised he had begun to play a familiar tune, one his dad would play every night before he went to sleep. Without realising it, he started to sing along, just like he had all those years ago, except this time, he was doing both of the roles. It was weird, doing both, but it felt like his dad was watching over him somewhere, probably shaking his head at his stupid decision to run away.

The shitty tv show ended and the adverts started to play. He wasn’t usually a big TV watcher, but right now he had nothing better to do with his time. He was about to turn over the channel when the next ad started, it was an X-Factor ad. His mother’s biggest dream for her son. She watched the show every year and always hoped her child would use the talents he had and apply them. He had thought about it too, but once he moved to New York he thought it was completely out of reach.

It was probably a stupid idea, Friday would be able to detect his face as soon as he walked onto the stage and Tony would know exactly where he was. It would also be super embarrassing if he didn’t even make it through the first round. Those reasons should have been enough to steer him away from the idea, but they weren’t. He was gonna do it for his mom.

He grabbed his phone and went straight to the website. The application was long, he felt like he was writing an autobiography, but he supposed they were looking for the right sob story to get the audience interested. He made sure to get into it, how his parents died and then his uncle, then how his aunt never supported him. He was certain his dead relatives wouldn’t mind.

Once he was finished and had submitted the application, all he could do was wait. The confirmation email stated that it could take a few weeks to see if he got an audition so the least he could do is start practicing just in case. He wasn’t about to make a fool of himself on national television.

The last few weeks had been completely uneventful for Peter. He didn’t have a lot to do so he spent his time cleaning up the house, getting the washing machine working and heading out for groceries now and then. He still wasn’t the best cook, but he had gotten better, meaning he wasn’t eating frozen chicken nuggets every night anymore.

He was completely used to being on his own again like he was when his parents would go on trips. It wasn’t like he lived in a dangerous part of the city, it was quite peaceful, he would only hear police sirens once every other week which was a massive difference compared to Queens, where he would hear them every hour. It was a relief to his enhanced senses too, he never had to worry about going into a sensory overload because there was never enough noise to cause one.

As he was putting his clean laundry away, he heard a notification from his emails come through. When he had gotten his new phone, he had created all new accounts for everything just to be sure nothing could be tracked. He hadn’t signed up for anything since doing so apart from the X-Factor which meant it had to be that.

Peter approached his phone as if it would strike at any moment, he felt ridiculous being so scared of opening an email, the only person who knew he had applied was himself and whatever unlucky fuck got stuck with the job of looking through them. Nobody was there to laugh at him or comfort him if he failed, and wasn’t that a sad realisation?

He was too impatient to let the email sit there whilst he stared at his black phone screen. Whoever was sending out these emails wasn’t sitting behind a computer screen ready to call him a loser for replying too quickly. He just needed to get it over and done with.

Peter unlocked his phone and opened up the email. He scanned through the irrelevant parts, not interested in how they were happy he applied because he knew that was a copy and paste throughout the other thousands of emails sent out. He was looking for one word, and when he found it, he was pretty sure the floor was about to meet his face.

Congratulations!

He certainly didn’t expect to get this far.

Chapter Text

Peter stared down at the email in complete shock. He didn’t expect his application to even be looked at, never mind accepted. His first audition was in two weeks, he only had two weeks to prepare. Now, he was the master of procrastination, but this wasn’t something he was willing to risk, not when it had his mother’s dream relying on it. If he wasn’t going to do his best for himself, then he was going to do it for her.

He finished the remaining household chores, and once he was sure there was nothing else for him to do, he grabbed his guitar and took a seat on the old couch. He didn’t know what song he was going to do, he’d had a few ideas that he’d practiced whilst waiting, but he only had ninety seconds to give everything he had and he didn’t want to put it to waste.

After an hour of mindless strumming, he finally came to a decision. He was going to sing Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon. It had been one of his parent’s favourite songs. It was a hard song to sing, but he had done it many times before and knew he could do it. He just hoped the pressure wouldn’t get to him on the day.

For the rest of the nights, Peter’s focus was limited to the song and the coffee machine. Now and then he had to remind himself to take a bathroom break and have a snack but he rarely left his seat on the couch. He had to stop eventually though, he didn’t want to damage or lose his voice because he was practicing so hard and decided a few hours a day should be okay.

Looking at the clock, he noticed it was already eleven o’clock at night and decided he should probably go to bed. He checked around the house, a habit he had picked up at an early age, to make sure there was no one hiding and waiting to kill him in the night, and once he was sure he was the only one home, he cleaned up his mess, filled a glass of water and went straight to bed.

The two weeks of practising and waiting went by too quickly for Peter’s liking. He felt prepared as he locked the front door but he was still nervous. This performance could make or break his career and he didn’t know how he felt about that.

He was sure Tony and the Avengers were looking for him at this point, so he had to be careful. There was no doubt that Friday would be looking out for him whether that was the news, the internet or just in the background of a random show so he was pretty sure that he would be found as soon as the show aired. He just hoped Tony wouldn’t tell May.

Peter sat on the train, nervously replaying the song over and over again through his headphones. He didn’t know what would be more embarrassing, his voice cracking or forgetting the lyrics. His voice hadn’t cracked in a while though so he didn’t think he had to be nervous about that. But it was Peter, so he was.

The train was packed, he was lucky enough to grab a seat before they all filled up so he thankfully didn’t have to stand up for the entire journey. He was unfortunate enough to be sat next to an elderly man who was determined to tell Peter his entire life story though. Usually, he didn’t mind when they did that, but there was a time and a place which didn’t include him being so nervous he was a little worried he was going to shit his pants. No one had to know he packed a spear pair just in case.

Eventually, the train came to a stop and the overflow of people trickled out. He waited until he was one of the last still onboard before taking his leave, not wanting him or his guitar to be crushed in the crowd of impatient people.

He didn’t know what bus to get from there, so he settled on calling a taxi. He knew the address of the arena like the back of his hand and had no problem giving it to the driver. The journey went by quickly, giving him almost no time to think about how much he regretted his decision and turn back around.

Before he knew it, Peter had his contestant number stuck to his stomach and was about ready to throw up everything he had eaten that morning. He looked around the room, a few people his age catching his eye and imminently felt like he was about to crash down in a burning pile of flames. They were either practising or they looked so confident in their abilities that they were either sure to get through or were about to be so bad that they would be spoken about on the internet for the rest of their lives, like Ant and Seb.

The number of people in the room dwindled rapidly, people were coming in and out either grinning from ear to ear or sobbing so hard Peter was a little worried they would stop breathing. Finally, Peter’s moment came, the assistant led him through the hallways until he reached the right of the stage, she informed him of what was going to happen once he walked out, wished him luck and sent him out.

He prayed to fuck that no one would ask who came with him, because knowing himself, he would end up telling them the entire story of how he ended up on the stage.

He plastered on a smile and walked onto the stage. The stage lights were blinds and the amount of people sitting in the crown watching his every move was almost overwhelming, when you add in the cameras and Simon Cowell, that was just a panic attack waiting to happen.

“Hello, how are you?” Simon asked, completely stoic.

“Good, thank you, how are you?” he might have been nervous but he still had manners.

“We’re great, thank you,” Louis smiled, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Peter Parker,”

“How old are you Peter?” Simon asked.

“I’m 16,”

“Just finished your GCSEs?” He had actually, he had managed to find a way with all of the free time he had.

“A few weeks ago, yeah,”

“Planning on going to college?” Louis asked.

“Yes, I’m gonna be doing Physics, chemistry and maths,” The judges whistled for reasons unknown to Peter.

“What are you doing here today?” Nicole asked.

“Well, growing up I would watch the show every week with my mum, she always said that one day she wanted me to audition so I thought id give it a go now I’m old enough,” Peter smiled, hoping he didn’t look like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

“Is your mom here with you?” Nicole asked, smiling. Oh, how Peter was about to make this incredibly awkward.

“Uh, no, she passed away four years ago,” Peter replied.

“Oh, we’re sorry to hear that,” Nicole frowned, “I’m sure she’s watching from wherever she is.”

“Yeah,” Peter smiled, awkwardly.

“What are you going to sing?” Simon asked.

“I’m going to sing Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon,”

“I love that song, I see you have a guitar, you going to be playing it live?”

“i am,”

“Well then, we wish you luck, take it away whenever you’re ready,”

Peter didn’t give himself even a second to look around him before starting, he knew that once he realised how much pressure he was under, he would crumble. He felt at home on stage and a weird boost of confidence came through him once he started singing the first verse. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves but he refused to look at the judges to see what they were thinking.

He got through the song perfectly, with no voice cracks, no forgetting the words and no wrong chords on the guitar. He thought he did okay and judging by the clapping, whistling and shouting, the crowd seemed to think he did okay too. The judges were smiling, some even standing. He mentally celebrated that he didn’t fuck it up.

“That was amazing! You did the song justice and I love the little rasp you had every now and then,” Louis spoke first.

“Thank you,”

“That was beautiful, you have such a unique tone and amazing control over your voice, if this was a blind audition I never would’ve guessed that you’re only 16!”

“Thank you,” Peter was about to walk out of there the most egotistical asshole on the planet.

“It was really good and I think you have some real potential here,” Simon smiled for the first time since he walked onto the stage, “How about we vote, Louis?”

“Its a yes from me,”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Nicole laughed.

“You’ve got three yes’, you’re through to the next round,” Simon smirked.

“Thank you so much,” Peter grinned. He waved to the crowd and walked off the stage, finally feeling like he could breathe.

He didn’t know how the next round would go, but he was feeling pretty confident.
Peter arrived home with a week to prepare for boot camp. He had booked a hotel in London for two nights, not wanting to get ahead of himself and spend half of his savings just in case he got sent home.

He wasn’t nervous to sing, he already knew he was good at that but he had a feeling that the dancing wasn’t going to be where he struggled. He had never been a good dancer, had always had two left feet and was positive he was going to embarrass himself.

He unpacked his bag and started a load of laundry, cleaned up the mess he made before he left and took a seat on the couch with his guitar. This time around he had half of the time to prepare so he going to have to practice even harder. He had already picked the song he was going to do, Somewhere Only We Know. He didn’t want to pick a song that he didn’t already know, so he picked one that he was sure of knowing all of the words.

For the next four hours, Peter went over the song repeatedly until he felt his eyes start to droop. He turned the TV off, put his guitar down and headed up to his room. It still felt weird walking into his old bedroom, every time he opened the door he felt like his dad was going to be waiting on his bed, ready to tuck him in for the night. His heart felt like it was being ripped apart when he remembered he would never be there again.

As he lay in bed, Peter couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when Tony found the audition, it would go live on Saturday night and Friday was bound to catch it. The most likely thing to happen is Tony coming to Manchester, he had no other way to contact him. Or maybe he would just watch the video and forget about him. He didn’t know what he wanted to happen, all he knew it that he never wanted to see May again.

Chapter Text

It was a week later and Peter was back on the train, this time with a suitcase. He didn’t know when he would be going back home and he didn’t want to take any chances with the amount of clothes he took. If he made it to the live shows, then the X-Factor team would probably dress him but he still didn’t want to risk it.

He slept the entire train journey, not wanting to get stuck listening to more war stories again and once he got to the hotel he immediately began practicing. He had to try and be quieter than he would at home, the worst thing that could happen right now was getting thrown out of the hotel because he was being too loud.

He had to be at the arena in two hours so that gave him an hour to practice and an hour to get there.

He wasn’t as nervous as he thought he’d be, he assumed he was going to feel so nauseous that he wouldn’t even be able to leave the hotel, but that wasn’t the case. He felt ready, he didn’t know what was going to happen, he could be sent home today, but he was still ready.

——————

Peter entered the arena for the second time and was greeted with a few new faces. The only one he recognized was Harry. Their auditions had been on the same day and they had spoken a little before Harry had to go on stage. He was happy for him when he got through, he was really nervous but he had a great voice.

Peter wanted to go up to him, just to have a semi-familiar face around, but he seemed to be talking to a few other people and Peter wasn’t in the mood to make any new friends. He wasn’t nervous when he left, but as soon as he walked into the waiting room he felt like his heart was going to fall out of his ass. He found a seat in an empty corner and took it, he wished he had brought his guitar just to give him something to do whilst he waited instead of twiddling his thumbs and mindlessly scrolling through Twitter.

The auditions would be going live later tonight and he didn’t know what to expect. May was never going to see it unless Tony told her or someone at the hospital she worked with watched the show. That gave him some peace of mind knowing May wasn’t going to find him anytime soon and Tony was smart enough to figure out that he must have run away for a reason and therefore won’t tell her until he’d gone to Peter.

“Hey Peter,” Harry greeted, taking the seat beside Peter, distracting him from his thoughts.

“Hey,” he smiled.

“Are you nervous? I think I’m gonna poo myself,” Peter laughed, he thought Harry was a weird type of funny.

“I’m surprised I haven’t already pooed myself,” Peter agreed.

“I think we’ll do okay, I mean, they said yes for a reason,” Harry shrugged.

“But they also said yes to all these other people,” Peter waved his hands around, “Only so many people can go through to the judges houses,”

“Oh yeah,” Harry whispered.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to make you even more nervous,” Peter felt bad now.

“It’s okay, I was probably getting a little too cocky for my own good anyway,” Harry smiled.

Their conversation was cut short when the assistant came in and called someone’s name. It was starting and Peter knew it wouldn’t be long until his name was called.

Peter and Harry talked until Harry’s name was called. He didn’t like how he was now sitting alone with only his thoughts to keep him company. Harry had distracted him from the nerves and now he was gone the only thing he could think about was how he was going to be called any moment.

A few minutes later, Harry re-entered the room and re-took his seat beside Peter.

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, you’ll be fine,” Harry whispered. It did little to ease his nerves but he was grateful that he had attempted anyway.

He didn’t have much longer to sit and question why he had decided to audition in the first place because almost as soon as Harry had sat down, Peter’s name was called. Harry patted him on the shoulder and wished him luck and he walked towards the door, concentrating so hard on how he was walking that he was surprised he didn’t fall.

“Peter! It’s good to see you again, how are you?” Louis asked.

“I’m good thank you,” Peter replied, not knowing where to put his hands without his guitar.

“We’re not going to bother you with any silly questions, take it away,”

Peter walked back into the waiting room not feeling confident at all, the judges looked impressed, but they didn’t look as happy as they did last time which meant he was worse and didn’t live up to their expectations.

Harry was no longer in the waiting room, so he had probably gone back to his hotel. They wouldn’t find out if they were through or not until tomorrow afternoon after the dancing shit which Peter was not looking forward to, so he had no reason to be there any longer. He grabbed his backpack from the back of the room and left the building.

On his way back to the hotel, he stopped by a McDonald’s to get something to eat and once he was back, he collapsed face-first onto the soft bed. He was exhausted and all he could think about was having a nap.

—————

Peter was woken up by a pounding on his door. He jumped out of bed and used his enhanced hearing to listen out, trying to see if it was anyone he knew. He sighed in relief when he realized it was just Tony. Wait, Tony? he thought. He quickly checked the time and wanted to slap himself when he noticed his nap had turned into a nine-hour sleep.

The pounding was getting annoying and Peter was still tired. He dragged his feet as he walked over to the door and swung it open, almost getting punched in the face by Tony as he went to hit the door again.

“Sup,” Peter mumbled. He left the door wide open and walked back over to the bed, immediately getting straight back under the covers and facing the other way.

“Sup? Is that all you’ve got to say?” Tony whisper-shouted, “We have been worried sick, looking for you for two months and you’ve just been prancing around England and auditioning for TV shows,” Peter wasn’t looking at him, but he knew that one vain was really prominent right now, “It was really good by the way but that’s not the point,”

“How about we talk in the morning,” Peter mumbled, so tired he could barely open his mouth.

“The morning?- you know what, fine,” Tony sighed, kicking his shoes off and sitting on the other side of the bed.

——————

Peter turned his alarm off after putting it on snooze for the fourth time. He was about to close his eyes again when Tony, who he had forgotten was there, spoke up.

“Nope, get up or you’re going to be late,”

Peter didn’t know how to feel about Tony being there, on one hand, he was happy that he was so determined to find him that he came to London, but on the other hand, he wanted to punch him because that was adding a whole lot more pressure on him to do well.

“Get up,” Tony sang, ripping the covers off of Peter, and exposing him to the cold air in the room.

“It’s freezing,” Peter groaned.

“Go take a shower, I’ve already laid out your clothes for the day,” Tony said, placing a small pile into Peter’s hands.

“Huh?” Peter was too tired for this.

“Shower, Peter, go,” Tony rolled his eyes.

Peter eventually climbed out of bed and got into the shower. It did a good job of warming and waking him up and once he put on his fresh clothes, he was even warmer. He looked at the time and cursed, he had to be at the arena in an hour and with London traffic, he had to leave in the next five minutes.

“I gotta go!” Peter ran into the main room.

“I told you,”

Peter quickly put on his coat and shoes, grabbed his phone and ran to the door, “Bye!”

He knew that once he got back Tony would have the lecture of a lifetime prepared, but right now he had other things to be worrying about.

——————

Peter entered the arena with three minutes to spare. He signed in, headed to the stage and took one of the only empty seats. Looking around, he noticed that everyone was a lot more nervous than they were the previous day. It probably had something to do with the fact that most of them had never danced a day in their lives. Peter wasn’t sure what dancing had to do with singing, most of them, if not all of them, had no plans to dance on stage. He had plans to practice a little before he went to sleep last night, but those plans were quickly diminished when he fell asleep as soon as he got back to the hotel.

Peter felt distracted as he sat, watching the other contestants mingle with each other. He couldn’t stop thinking about Tony and how he was waiting for him back in his hotel room. He didn’t have much time to ponder on it this morning and now it refused to leave his mind. The man didn’t seem mad when Peter left this morning, but then again he wasn’t all there in his rush to leave. He had run off around two months ago now, and it was clear Tony had been looking for him the entire time, worried out of his mind. Peter felt a little guilty about that but he didn’t regret his actions one bit.

Harry must have noticed that Peter was lost in his own head, because a few minutes after he sat down, he swiftly walked over to his new friend and planted himself next to him.

“You okay?” Harry asked, looking directly at Peter.

“Yeah, just a lot on my mind today,” Shrugged Peter.

“Well, how about we take your mind off whatever it is?” Harry stood, “follow me.”

Harry didn’t give Peter a second to refuse, grabbing his wrist and dragging him to the other side of the room where another one of the contestants was staring down at his phone.

“Peter, this is Louis,” he pointed, “Louis, this is Peter.”

“You alright, mate,” Louis smiled, the type of smile that you couldn’t help but return.

The next ten minutes only included Louis’ terrible impression of an ostrich, Simon Cowell and his attempts at the worm. Peter couldn’t even remember what he was stressing about in the first place and he was grateful to Harry for finding a way to distract him. He couldn’t afford any of those today, he had ran away from New York and there was no way someone from Midtown hadn’t seen his audition by now and he refused to embarrass himself once Tony dragged him back to New York if he failed.

——————

The choreographer entered the room and introduced himself. He seemed nice enough, Peter thought, but he still hated dancing with a burning passion. The choreographer asked everyone to find a space and began teaching everyone the dance.

It wasn’t as hard as Peter thought it was going to be, but he assumed it had something to do with his spider abilities because as he looked around the room, quite a few people seemed to be struggling with the steps. That was another thing Peter hadn’t thought about in his haste to leave the country, Spider-man. He had left Queens with no protection and if things went well here, he didn’t know when he would next be in Queens.

Whilst he was daydreaming about his alter-ego, Peter failed to notice that the judges had entered the room and had gathered everyone around, and because he hadn’t noticed, Peter was left standing at the back of the room staring into space like a creep.

He quickly caught up to everyone else and listened to what Simon had to say.

The cameras were turned on and everyone took their positions. As Peter went to re-claim his spot right in the back, one of the producers cut him off and guided him to the front, right in the center and he wanted the ground to swallow him whole. He was about to embarrass himself in front of the contestants, the judges and the entire country. He didn’t even want to know the reason he was put there.

The music started and they were counted in. He relied on muscle memory the entire time and prayed to god he didn’t miss a step since he couldn’t watch anyone in front of him but at least he didn’t fall over. He did the best he could do and that was all that mattered.

The contestants were asked to leave the room whilst the judges made their decision and as soon as Peter made it backstage, he grabbed a bottle of water and threw himself on the ground. He planned to never dance again. To distract himself from the fact the judges were deciding the fate of his career, Peter took out his phone and seen he had a text from a number he recognized to be Tony’s.

Tony: everything going okay?

Peter didn’t reply, he could say yes but in a few minutes that could all change and he wasn’t willing to take any chances. Feeling his eyes start to droop, Peter put his phone away and closed his eyes, he wasn’t intending on falling asleep but he didn’t know how long the judges would take and he was exhausted.

—————-

Peter woke up to Harry shaking his shoulder and telling him they were being called back in. He didn’t know how much time had passed and his head was pounding but he accepted Harry’s help up and followed him on stage. Everyone was lined up when he entered and it was all starting to feel a little too real for Peter’s liking; so far, it had all just felt like a fever dream, like none of it was real but now it felt serious.

Simon began calling out names, and the longer the list got, the more nervous Peter started to feel. He could tell Harry felt the same, the way he was dead still and staring blankly at the judges gave it away. He could also hear his heart beat which helped. The group dwindled and Peter quickly realized that he hadn’t made it through. His suspicions were confirmed when Simon announced that was the end, and everyone still lined up would be sent home.

There was crying, swearing, hugging, but Peter felt nothing. He should have known that he wouldn’t be good enough, he got too cocky, thinking he would make it past boot camp and that was where he went wrong. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was getting excited, thinking about the live shows and what he could do with them but he should’ve just taken it by the moment and now he had jinxed himself. He hoped his mother wasn’t too disappointed.

After grabbing his bag and swapping phone numbers with Harry, Peter made his way over to the exit but just as he was about to leave, one of the assistants stopped him.

“The judges have called you back in, they want to speak to you.”

Confused, Peter dropped his stuff and followed the other who had been called back, out onto the stage. The cameras were still rolling and he felt like his despair was being used for entertainment, which made sense since it was a reality show, but it still didn’t feel good.

He looked around the room. The judges were still in the same spot as they were when he left and there were nine other contestants in the room with him, four girls and five guys. He was told to stand by the guys and wait. He was happy to see that Harry and Louis were there, that he wasn’t alone in whatever sick play this was and they all waited to see what the judges wanted with them.

“Hello, thank you so much for coming back,” Nicole started, “I know judging from some of your faces, that this is really hard.”

No shit, Peter thought.

“We have thought long and hard about it and we thought of each of you as individuals and we feel that you’re just too talented to let go of.”

If Peter wasn’t confused before, he definitely was now. He looked around the room to see the others just as confused as he was and he desperately wanted Nicole to spit it out.

“We think it would be a great idea, to have two separate groups,”

“We’ve decided to put you both through to the judges house.”

Peter didn’t know where to look, what to do or what to say. The boys were jumping all over the place and the girls were crying, but all Peter could do was stare at the judges in astonishment. He thought he was done for and was already preparing for having to go back to America with Tony; but now he didn’t know what was going to happen, there was no way Tony was going to let him stay in London without an adult but he knew he wouldn’t make him drop out of the competition after the events of today he had just gone through.

He was brought back into the real world when he felt Louis’ arm drape over his shoulder and he finally let himself breath, smiling at as the realization that he was still in the competition set in, except now he was no longer doing it alone. They were sent out of the room, all smiling brightly and Peter couldn’t help but laugh as he felt one of his new band mates jump onto his back, they had never spoken and he didn’t know his name but Peter couldn’t have cared less. He hoisted him up and ran backstage, feeling the others running behind them.

Once they reached the spot where all their stuff was stored, Peter placed the guy back on the ground (he really needed to learn their names) and took out his phone. The only thing he wanted to do in that moment was call Tony and tell him the news.