Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter one

“The new students have been weird since I told them about my childhood. How did you tell others about it and not have them run away?” Laura queried her sudo father figure, or the half of him that wasn’t under the truck at least, which she was perched on top.

“I know Kitty and some of the others weren’t put off what you told them, and I’m glad you’re being more open with your past, but you need to be less blunt with it. Pretty sure some of the X-Men I served with still have nightmares about my past.” Came the gruff reply from underneath the truck.

“I didn’t want them thinking Gabby was an extreme case and avoiding her. Now they seem to just be wary of her, but are avoiding me.” It was true, Gabby had been getting strange looks from some of the other students because of her known association to Logan and her. At least that was less of an issue now, Gabby was the happy Wolverine in the eyes of her fellow students.

Relatively happy one at least.

“Yeah our crap isn’t for most people. I know your teammates accepted yours, but they had me as a trial run.” Logan slid out from under the truck, looking up at Laura who was lost in thought. For one not commenting about her sitting on the hood of his truck, even he had to learn time and place after a century or two.

“Even after all this time, it feels… like it’s a barrier.” Laura eventually continued, “no one else really understands, most are still worried about it. How did you cope with all this?”

“I got drunk a lot, hit on Jean, stabbed a few people and got thrown out of a plane.” Logan grinned as she turned to look at him, not impressed in the slightest. Their relationship was still a work in progress, a couple of years ago she would probably attack him for that.

“I’m serious Logan.” She growled, her calm facade cracking, showing how much this was bothering her, earning a sigh from the older man.

“So am I kiddo. Don’t go making the same mistakes as me, the only reason Scott kept me around this long was because of Chuck. I’m the best at what I do, most of which isn’t very nice, but I ended up finding a home here, you just have to pick your friends carefully. Having someone to bond over trauma and ‘unlock their tragic backstory’ helps.” Logan moved to sit against the truck, knowing he wasn’t getting any work done until this conversation was over.

“Unlocking what?” Laura looked at him in confusion, it almost felt like what Kitty had been trying to explain to her about boomers trying to talk like millennials. A concept she still had trouble with, but it just felt wrong to hear the old man use phrases like that.

“It’s just a phrase a friend of mine used, he’s helped me through a few things, but you didn’t hear that from me.” The older man laughed to himself fondly, recalling some of their past adventures. At least the ones where he didn’t want to stab webhead.

“Who is it?” Came the puzzled query. Logan had few friends she could think of, most of them she knew from the X-Men, though she was aware he had others in the Avengers.

“Spider-Man actually.” That deepened Laura’s frown, thinking for several more minutes, before leaping off the truck and stalking into the manor. Logan just shrugged and went back to what he was doing.

********

“Spider-Man, as in this clown?” It must have been an hour later, before she reappeared, thrusting a tablet at Logan the second he stuck his head out.

The screen had a headline from the Daily Bugle, something about Spider-Man stopping a mime themed gang, because he didn’t want other clowns in town to show him up.

“Jonah’s had a hate boner against the guy for years.” he grumbled, pausing for a moment, “but yeah, he is a clown. That part you can tell him I said.”

“How could someone who doesn’t take what we do seriously be able to help you with your past?” Laura was convinced he was winding her up at this point. She hadn’t looked too deep into the other hero, sure, but everything that came up painted him out as either ridiculous, a menace, or both.

“One of the few men I trust, living ones anyway. Steve Rodgers thinks highly of him, as do a number of others. Sure he’s annoying as hell sometimes, well, most of the time, but he is someone you can rely on when push comes to shove.” He could see his clone thinking about what he said, the mention of Captain America giving her pause for thought.

“Why?”

“Here, let me show you something…” he held out his hand for the tablet, which was passed over, before passing it back when he had found what he was looking for.

They sat in silence, while Laura watched the video brought up on the tablet. It looked like it was shot off someone’s phone. Absorbing Man was trying to get away after a bank robbery gone wrong, panicked screams filled the air as he threw an armoured truck at the heroes trying to stop him, which missed and went flying towards the crowd.

Then out of nowhere, a red and blue blur arrived on the scene, hurtling over the fight, a blast of webbing blinding the villain as Spider-man rocketed towards the crowd in pursuit of the truck. Laura blinked as she watched him not only overtake the falling truck, but catch it with minimal effort, placing it on the ground between the crowd and the fight, before checking on the civilians.

She was trying to work it out in her head, armoured trucks weighted like ten tons, the way he caught it, that wasn’t close to his limit. After getting the crowd to safety, the video ended with Spider-Man leaping back into the fray and helping subdue Absorbing Man.

“See, he might be a clown, but he’s damn good at what he does.” The smug comment breaks Laura out of her thoughts.

“Who trained him to be that fast?” Laura replaying the video, muting it, just focusing on one person. This video alone painted a completely different picture to the articles.

“No one really, he’s had the odd bit here and there from various Avengers, but most of it is either instinct, or on the job experience.” Laura was on her third watch of the video by this point.

“And he’s going to be able to understand? What did he go through?”

“Not my place to say kid, you want to know, best hunting him down for a chat sometime. That channel has a whole bunch of videos of him, run by a fan or something. The papers might often slander him, but the man is an Avenger for a reason.”
“I think I have a lot of research to do…” Laura stated quietly, before wandering off again.

‘Well that should keep her out of trouble for a bit’. Logan thought to himself, before finishing up the repairs to his truck. At least he would have that ready to go for his trip tomorrow.

********

He was trying to enjoy a quiet beer several hours later, now that all the kids had gone to sleep, leaving him undisturbed. He had barely sat down and his phone started ringing. Took him a moment to realise it was his, very few people had his number.
“This had better be important.” He growled into the speaker.

“Logan! Buddy old pal! Have you been holding out on me?” Recognising the frantic voice on the other end of the line, Logan sat in surprise. It was rare for webhead to call him, let alone sounding like this.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear…” groaned Logan, “what do you mean have I been holding out on you?”

“Weeell…” There was a pause on the line and the familiar sound of webshooters and rushing air. “Do you have a sister, daughter, relative of yours that’s less grumpy and easier on the eyes?”

“Sounds like you don’t need my help then…” With a threatening growl, he made to hang up, before pausing when he heard screaming and the sound of a struggle. “Webhead, what’s going on?” He was left waiting for several seconds, convinced he had just heard his friend get ambushed, before he heard the other hero regain control of his phone.

“So I’ve been trying to escape from what looks like the female version of you for the last hour! I climbed a skyscraper to escape and she used her claws to climb up after me! She even has foot claws!” Spidey whisper-shouted down the phone at him.

“Ooooh, right, you’ve not met Laura yet… I really should have phrased that better… You taunted her, didn't you?”

“Of course I did, she didn’t seem to have any way to get to me, then she started scrambling up the building like it was nothing! Logan, what did you do? What did I do to you?” Spidey was actively panicking now, the ominous phrasing didn’t help his mood.

“What did you do with her?” Logan could just feel the headache that was already forming from this.

“She’s webbed to an air duct like five blocked back, if she's like you, she could take being dropped off a rooftop, but I don’t want to piss her off any more than she already is! Why does she want me dead!”

“Oh she doesn’t want you dead, I might have accidentally told her to hunt you down. Should have worded that better, but she was having a crisis about… well you know my backstory, hers isn’t too far off…, you’re experienced with clones as well…”
“...so your… daughter?”

“Daughter is close enough.”

“Is hunting me down, to try and unlock my tragic backstory?”

“I still hate that phrase…”

“Just answer the question Logan!”

“Well I might have mentioned how you helped me, so yeah, can you put her on?”

“Put her…” whatever Spider-Man had been about to say was cut off by a yelp and a thump. As well as several seconds of struggling before everything went quiet.

“Come on kiddo, I know you can hear me…” Logan definitely needed something stronger to drink. Also to have a word with Laura about not taking him too literally.

“Thank you for distracting him, I was able to hunt him down.” A female voice Logan knew all too well answered.

“You didn’t rough him up too badly did you?”

“It’s mostly my dignity at this point, what little I have left, but thank you for asking.” came Spider-Man’s muffled reply.

“I’m sitting on him so he doesn’t escape, but he is otherwise unharmed.” Laura clarified.

“You have no dignity webhead… Alright I was going to introduce you to each other sooner or later, Laura, Peter. Peter, Laura. Now get off him and let him up.”

“It’s a secret identity for a reason Bub!” Logan could hear the complaining and the sound of shuffling over the phone.

“She’s one of the good ones, now your problem for the night, best of lucky old pal.” Logan grinned, hanging up now that the crisis was averted. Glancing at his untouched beer, he decided to break into Scotts room and steal his whiskey.

Assuming those two hadn’t strangled each other by morning, he was going to need something to drown his sorrows in. Super healing really made getting drunk a pain in the ass. If anyone would ask him, it was totally revenge for something Peter had done to him, people might think Logan liked the guy otherwise.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

“Alright, so, Laura was it? What can your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man do for you today?” Peter was slumped against a wall, regarding his… Well, captor wasn’t entirely inaccurate.

“Logan seems to think you are good at dealing with tragedy in your life, I don’t see it.” Came the blunt reply, Laura crossing her arms and glaring at him. “You don’t seem to take anything seriously, even a strange assailant chasing you was nothing more than a joke to you.” Her frown grew as the other hero burst out laughing, she was starting to think that her sudo father had been messing with her.

“Ok, first off, I have my Spidey sense, which only gave me the same low background tingle I get around Wolverine Senior! So I knew you wouldn’t hurt me, well too much!” He protested, “Secondly, if you have come to me for advice on dealing with tragedy, then you’ve met with a terrible fate…”

“That’s a reference to something isn’t it?” She growled, stomping towards him. “Is this all just a joke to you?”

“Oh if only you knew…” He said sadly, half to himself, before leaping back as her claws popped out with a sound he knew all too well. Something ran in the family, just like he runs from this family. Gesturing his surrender, he managed to get her to calm down after a few minutes.

“Ok ok, compromise? You follow me for the rest of my patrol and see what you think? Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes?” He offered, before she started trying to scale the wall again to drag him back down.

She paused. “Alright, that seems less of a waste of time than listening to you babble.” Peter waited until her claws were away before leaping back down to where she stood.

“Alright, side saddle or koala?” When she looked at him in confusion, he explained. “You’re not going to be able to keep up with me unless I carry you, so do you want me to carry you with one arm, or grab onto my back?”

“...which is easier for you?”

“The koala honestly, it leaves me both arms free to swing.” She glared at him for a moment, before nodding.

“The… koala then. Don’t get any funny ideas.”

He chuckled, “Laura I wouldn’t risk it, if you don’t stab me, Logan definitely will! I’m a gentleman and a man of my word when I say it’s just to get around quicker.”

“A man of many words, sure.” Peter paused at that.

“Did you just…” the claws came back out “never mind, moving on, do you have a mask of something? Secret identity and all that.” Laura was just wearing a grey tank top, arm warmers and leather pants and boots. Hardly an outfit that made her stand out, but also not one that hid who she was.

“Always ready to go, blame Logan.” She pulled a domino mask out of a pocket, attaching it to her face and tying her hair up. “Anything else, or can we get going already?”

********

The next couple of hours was a different experience for Laura. She was used to the missions the X-Men, or X-Force, took part in. High stakes, rapid response, much more organised than what Spider-Man got up to.

Not that she would admit it aloud to the webslinger, as he whooped and flipped through the city, but this was certainly more exciting than flying in the blackbird. Though he seemed to have no particular pattern for where he went and just criss crossed the area, hurling himself around at high speed.

From the videos, she had always thought it was part of his spider powers, but holding onto him like this, she could hear the constant stream of muttering as he calculated the physics of his swings in his head. Turns out there was a brain under all that snark, who knew.

It wasn’t just the seemingly aimless wandering that threw her off, it was what he responded to. Her senses were heightened as part of her mutant abilities, sometimes she caught the noise that sent him changing course and racing off down a different street, sometimes it seemed to be at random.

Whatever it was, it led him where he needed to go.

Their first crime was stopping two thugs from mugging a frightened teen, Spider-Man webbing their guns out of the would be muggers hands, before throwing them to the wall with another blast of webbing. Making some joke about picking on someone their own size, which didn’t make sense to her, with both thugs being taller than either hero

The teen was thankful, letting the heroes walk him a couple of blocks to his home, making sure he got home safely. All while Spider-Man kept up a steady stream of bad jokes, light hearted queries, and what she could only assume were references to the neighbourhood.

After that, they rescued a cat from a tree. Literally. If Laura hadn’t been staring dumfounded at the other hero as he eventually managed to coax the angry feline out of the tree. The creature turned soft as a newborn kitten the second it was reunited with its adoring owner, Laura did take a small amount of satisfaction from how upset that man is rescuer.

Then another mugging. Escorting a woman home who thought she was being followed. Leaving her stalker hanging upside down from a lamppost. Busting a street corner drug deal. Helping an old lady close up her shop for the night.

It was all so… mundane. The man could bench press a car and here he was solving petty crimes. It felt like such a waste to her. He was an Avenger, the big leagues of the super powered community, yet in his spare time he took care of the crimes even the police didn’t always bother with.

Her point was proven about an hour in, Spider-Man’s head snapping round as they caught the sound of sirens. Swinging into the street they were coming from, they saw a car racing towards them, three police cars in pursuit. All while the car in front was firing wildly at the police.

“Sorry Laura, but I’ll be back in a moment.” He had spent the last hours cracking jokes, playing the fool, but now as bullets ricocheted wildly over the heads of the passersby, that was all gone.

She rushed to clear the civilians from the line of fire, watching as he webbed up some scaffolding that got hit and was beginning to creak, before swinging down to meet the car.

Literally

He smashed feet first into the hood, flipping the car into the air. Then he spun the damn thing around in his hands like he was spinning a plate, before tipping it on its side. Shaking it, until the dazed criminals fell out, then leaving them to the tender mercies of the police, he then gently put what was left of the car down at the side of the street. She swore she could see them groan at whatever bad joke Spider-Man had said before departing.

“Sorry, couldn’t have safely stopped them while carrying you.” He was apologising as he jogged up to her, while she stared at him in shock.

“You just stopped three thugs, firing out a speeding car, without any casualties, and you’re worried about my feelings?” Laura was beyond baffled, he had simply taken the most logical approach.

“Erm, yes? Is that wrong?” Oddly, her companion seemed equally as confused, as if leaving her behind briefly was a problem.

After a few minutes of staring at each other in mutual confusion, the awkward silence was broken when Laura gave up and gestured for them to continue on their patrol.

********

The guy just helped an old lady across the road and escorted her home, she didn’t even think that was a real thing that people did! He was an Avenger, had helped save the world, the sight of him helping someone cross the street was just jarring.

********

They stopped a few more petty crimes before winding down for the evening, though Spider-Man perked up as they were swinging down a seemingly random street, before telling her to be quiet and softly dropping them behind a figure fiddling with an ATM.

“Hey Leonard, didn’t know they let you out early!” Spider-Man breaks the silence with a gleeful tone, causing the ATM man to jump and drop the gadget he had been fiddling with.
“Oh come on, why is it always you!” The man bemoaned, “This is the third time!”

“Well three strikes and you’re out, now if you assume the position and I’ll call the umpires…” Laura was confused, before the man sighed, moved to stand with his back to the wall, offering no resistance as he was webbed up. She almost felt sorry for the guy, with how done with everything he looked, as Spider-Man wrote a note for the cops and called it in.

“Alright, that about does it for today, what’s say we grab something to eat and have that talk you wanted? Any preference?” He turned to her, once they were out of earshot of Leonard.

“Fine, as long as it’s something spicy,” She agreed, before he swung them off into the night again.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

In the end he swung her to the roof of some local restaurant she didn’t recognise, leaving her there while he vanished inside. She sat in thought for fifteen minutes or so, before he reappeared with two small pizza boxes.

“Spicy meat feast for the lady, pepperoni for the spider” He passed her box over, before sitting down beside her and biting into a slice. She followed suit, appreciating that he had at least taken her somewhere with nice food.

“What do I owe you for the pizza?” While she appreciated the food, she didn’t know him well enough, or yet trust him enough, to let her owe him even the smallest thing.

“Oh it’s on the house, pun intended.” He raised his hands defensively at the snikt as the claws came back out. “Alright alright, look, Luigi makes the best pizza in the city, I’ve saved him a few times over the years so I get free pizza, within reason. It’s all part of a little ecosystem that formed around me.”

“Is this a common thing for you? I was under the impression people hated you.”

“Look, J.J hates me for some reason, but I’m a grassroots kinda guy! There’s plenty of great little food places that I’ve saved over the years.They give me free food every now and then, they never take my money as long as I don’t abuse their kindness, they get Spider-Man hanging around their shops at random and people feel less inclined to rob places I’m known to frequent. Saves me money on food, keeps them from being robbed as much, as well as nearby areas.”

“I can see the advantages, but I’m guessing that gets spun badly?”

“Spider-man stealing food from innocent citizens is one of J.J’s favourite headlines…” As dramatic as his impersonation of the newspaper owner was, there was a sense of tiredness to Spider-man for a brief moment.

“Alright, ignore that, what’s this ecosystem you mentioned then?” Laura settled herself as comfortably as she could against the wall, hoping she could finally get an explanation that made sense.

“Ok, if you don’t mind me asking a question first, Logan told me about how you guys track down and help mutants in trouble, who just awoke their powers etc, why?” She was thrown off as the clown she had been dealing with all evening suddenly vanished.

She mulled it over for a few minutes, wolfing down another slice of pizza, before answering. “Newly emerged mutants can’t control their powers. There’s not a great number of us, so we do what we can to protect our people from themselves and others. I do it because no one should go through what I did. The experiments forced on me, I was worse off than most, they created me. At least the natural born mutants will get a chance at a normal life, not having to live in as much fear, among people like them, who know what it’s like..” She got an understanding nod in return.

“The worst night of my life, I let the man who raised me die.” Laura’s head snapped to stare at him in shock, not expecting anything like that to pass from his lips. His heart rate didn’t fluctuate, he was completely still. She could tell when people were lying, either he had more control over his body that she thought was physically possible, or she might have to admit she misjudged the man.

Just not to his face. At least, not yet. After a few moments of silence, he continued.

“I got my powers as a teenager, from an accident of all things. Before then, I was a dork, the quiet kid who got bullied and looked down upon for their intelligence. Then suddenly I had super strength, it went to my head. Logan told me about what you do to help mutants with their powers, I wish I’d had something like that when I first got them.”

“You’re not a mutant? Some of the others have a betting pool going, but the Professor and Logan refuse to reveal the truth…”

“Heh, would have made life easier, but no, I’m not sure what I count as, but that’s not important here. I let the sudden power go to my head, showing off at school, even looking to use my powers to make some money as my family was struggling with bills at the time.”

She almost accused him of joining the circus for the money, but she had enough social graces to know that time and place were a thing. Otherwise she might end up scrapping with someone like Scott and Logan do constantly.

“My uncle, the guy who raised me after my parents died, was worried about me. Warned me. I was too stupid to listen to him. There was this wrestling gig, win a bunch of money if you lasted five minutes in the ring with their headline act. I thought it would be easy, ended up getting mocked for running, and threw the guy out of the ring in under three minutes. So they refused to pay up, as I didn’t go the full five minutes. Then they got robbed after the show, the guy ran right past me, I was angry at the guys running the show, so I didn’t get involved.”

He paused for a few minutes, both silent as they ate their pizza, before he continued.

“Uncle Ben was meant to be picking me up, I told him I was at the library studying. Came out to find him dying in the street several blocks away, got shot trying to stop someone from stealing his car. I hunted the guy down, found him holded up in a warehouse, surrounded by police calling for his surrender. Turns out, it was the guy I let go, if I had just stopped him earlier, Uncle Ben…”

He trailed off into silence, his voice raw, his body completely still. Lost in the memory. Laura was waiting, fearing what came next, but also hopeful.

“I almost killed him. It would have been so easy, throw him out the window, snap his neck, crush his skull. I still get nightmares about what would have happened… If I haven’t been able to stop myself. Even then Uncle Ben saved me.”

Laura frowned, unsure what that meant. “How did he save you?”

“He always told me, with great power comes great responsibility. The guy who killed him wasn’t some master criminal, he was a desperate guy who needed help. I almost killed him, but Uncle Ben wouldn’t have wanted that.”

She knew what this was now. Guilt. Peter carried the guilt of his uncle's death, like Laura carried the guilt over the death of her mother. Maybe Logan was smarter than she gave him credit for.

“Since then, well I have the power and chance to help people, so I can’t not help them. Mutants have the X-Men to look to for hope, the people of New York have me. I might not be able to save everyone, but everyone I do save, that’s someone who doesn’t go through what I did. Who doesn’t have to suffer because life gave them a shitty hand.”

His story coming to a close, they sat in silence for a while, finishing their pizza in comfortable silence. He even began to relax around her, now longer getting the usual background buzz when he wound Logan up.

Meanwhile she was beginning to understand why Logan had suggested this guy in particular.

“And you’re just happy talking about this on a rooftop with a complete stranger?” She queried, not quite sure where to go from that bombshell. Especially after he let out a short laugh.

“Logan vouches for you, which says a lot. Kinda nice that I’m the guy he thought of when you’re struggling with something. Therapy helped, don’t think my Aunt May recovered from Ben Grimm throwing me over his shoulder and dragging me to the first few appointments…”

“Ben Grimm… as is The Thing of the Fantastic Four?” She had heard stories about the rocky hero from Logan, but they always painted the guy as grumpy. Learning many different sides of people today it seems.

“Yeah, I made a complete ass of myself the first time I met them, but they saw something they like and we’ve been close ever since. Really helps having people in your corner, especially in our profession. I might annoy the hell out of a lot of the other heroes, but they know I will have their back, and there’s a fewI know will have mine.” He was smiling now, an almost wistful one.

He certainly looked more at ease than before. Maybe there was something to this bonding through trauma business.

“So that covers my traumatic origin story, you’ll have to unlock the rest later.” She could see him side eyeing her, waiting for a response. After a few moments, she knew exactly what her response should be.

She held out her hand, smirking as he looked at it in confusion. “Nice to meet you Peter Parker, my name is Laura Kinney. Maybe we can start over?”

She was not expecting the crooked grin that spread across his face, as he took her hand, more gentle than she would have imagined someone capable of throwing cars around like toys. Seems they both had a lot to learn about each other.

“Nice to meet you Laura. Never expected a Wolverine to get sentimental like this.”

Snikt

“And shutting up now…”

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

When he had realised she had even less of a childhood than he realised, he had immediately challenged her to what he called a game of skill and control. That had been after their second meetup, same as the first, to help people out, get food. This time it was hot dogs from a literal hole in the wall, which didn't go down as well as the pizza, but it would do.

It seemed only fair she talked this time, after he poured his heart out to her, but she still had trust issues. It didn’t help that he joked about it running in the family. So in the end she had admitted that she had been born in a lab, skipped the parts about murdering her mother, for now. Glossed over her escape and becoming one of the X-Men.

He was sympathetic, but to her frustration had latched onto her lack of every day experiences, so had declared he was going to fix that. It almost made her regret giving out her number, when he bugged her to meet him on the civilian side of things after he had finished work on the Friday.

Which is what led to her leaning against the wall of the building he worked against, trying to ignore her nerves. She wasn’t much of a social person, but she also wasn’t one to turn down a challenge.

Plus the way Peter shrieked as he exited the building, pulling out his phone and caught completely off guard as she appeared at his elbow. Well that alone made the trip worth it.

“Jesus! I didn’t think jump scaring me was genetic!” Peter exclaimed, dramatically holding his heart as he leaned against the wall while he calmed down. “Wait, what are you even doing here, I said I’d message you after I finished work?”

“I got bored and followed my senses. You’re not exactly hard to find when I know who I’m looking for.” Tapping her nose, a brief almost smile flitted across her face at his distress. She had a feeling this was part of the charm for Logan as well. “For a guy who claims to have a sixth sense to danger, you are surprisingly easy to sneak up on.”

“That just means you don’t intend to stab me right now. Unless you’re a symbiote?” When all he got was a confused look, he sighed and moved on. “Well alright, now you’re here, we might as well get going. It’s not that far on foot.”

“Alright fearless leader, lead on.” She got her own funny look in return, Peter would recognise a Logan comment, and maybe expect it from the guy's sudo daughter, but he was still adjusting to that new addition to his reality.

“Snark is my other job’s thing, please try to behave…”

“Nope.”

“You really are your fa…”

“Finish that sentence and I will get the claws out in public.”

“Yes Ma’am!”

********

“Bowling?” Laura was shooting Peter an unimpressed look as they arrived at their mystery destination.

“Hey now, it is a game that requires skill and control, given our abilities. So we’re going to throw down at Joe’s!” He looked proud, gesturing dramatically like he was revealing some great secret. In reality it was a slightly run down bowling alley that had seen better days.

“Bowling.” She stated, again.

“Have you bowled before?”

“...no.” She admitted.

“Then maybe give it a chance before you judge it too harshly.” He got a glare for his smug grin, but he elected to ignore it. For now, if the claws came out, he was checking out of this hang out.

As it was, he indicated for her to follow him, a nerd in a shirt and jeans strolling happily inside, followed by a grumpy leather-wearing Canadian. If there was anyone in Joe’s who cared, someone might question the odd pair as Peter led the way to the counter.

Peter was clearly a regular, the duo were set up in the furthest lane away in short order, though Laura was glaring suspiciously at the shoes she had been forced to wear.

“So, ever bowled before?” Peter was going over the top warm up stretches, grinning widely and giving her the impression he was up to something.

“No… only see it played in a film or two, but I understand how the game works.”

“Alright, well we have two games, let’s get to it!” Ok she hadn’t spent much time around him, but that grin definitely meant he was up to something.

********

He destroyed her. She was a novice, so there were a number of gutter balls to start with, while he kept consistently getting splits, spares and the odd strike. He never got a good enough score to stand out too much, but enough that she was fairly sure he did that on purpose.

“You weren’t even trying, were you?” She growled, gripping the table and glaring at him. There was a cafe attached to the bowling alley, which only served basic stuff, but enough they both had a milkshake and burger sat in front of them. Peter took an obnoxiously long sip of his shake, before leaning forwards.

“Actually, that took a lot of effort, I thought you’d have noticed?” Catching her confused look, he continued. “Ok, so how much would you say you can lift?”

Taking a few moments to work out if there was a possible trick here, not finding any she could think of, she eventually answered “A little less than a ton, why?”

“I can lift fifty tons, not putting the ball through the back wall takes a lot more concentration than you’d think. Doing things like this is great practice for not breaking everything you touch. Now add in spider senses, which make it easy to work out where to place the ball to get a good score without standing out.” She blinked, nodding at his logic.

“So if you could get a strike at will, why not?”

“To avoid standing out, the point is to get time away from our other jobs, to relax. Drawing too much attention could ruin that and leave you with awkward questions.”

“How long have you been doing this, your double life?” There were a lot of things she hadn’t even considered, the X-Men working differently from the other heroes and hero groups, so they never had to consider stuff like this in the same way. At least, in so far as she had experienced, which wasn’t a whole lot.

“Eight years give or take, since I was fifteen.” Admitting how young he had started out in the hero business felt a little undermined by the way he threw a fry into his mouth afterwards.

“The more you say, the more questions I have, and the more I question why Logan sent me to you in the first place…” Slamming her head and letting out a groan, the enigma seemingly never ending.

“Well, we can always start there, what do you mean he sent you to me?” Peter leaned forward, curious about how the whole meetup even happened. Logan had been very vague with the details.

“I was wondering how he dealt with trauma and other people, then he started praising you. Had to find out who it was he thought so highly of, he’s never spoken about anyone else like that.”

“Even Jean?” She glared across the table at him for that, getting a gesture of surrender in response.

“...even Jean.”

“He hit on my now ex-girlfriend, who also happened to be a red head, right in front of me, I claim the right to make comments about his relationships!” Ok that was something she hadn't heard about, but could see Logan doing it. Guy could be a dick at times, even she couldn’t deny he had his moments.

“Ok, despite that, the guy seems to think really highly of you, for whatever reason. I still need to find out who threw him out of a plane…”

“Oh that was Hulk, they didn’t have the best of reunions, something about Logan having to crawl five miles to get his legs back when they first met and they never let that grudge go.”

Laura honestly didn’t know how to respond to that. She had no reason to suspect Peter was lying, she knew the world was a strange place, but it really felt like there had to be a limit somewhere. Then she remembered some of the things she had encountered with the X-Men, it was a strange old world.

“Alright, so what was it that got you to ask him in the first place?” Laura zoned back into the conversation, Peter movement as he leaned forwards almost triggered her reflex to a threat catching her off guard, but she managed to suppress it in time. Barely even twitched.

It took a few minutes of thinking, then trying to work out how to phrase it, before she just said “Gabby.” He waited patiently, smiling encouragingly, before she continued. “You know of Logan’s story, right?”

“Not all the details, but yes, he has made me aware of what he went through over the years.”

“He was born… I was bred. Created from his DNA and my… mother’s. I was created to be the assassin they tried to make him. Hoping that by controlling me from birth, that they could mold me into a perfect weapon. Thanks to my mothers interference, their plans failed. There was… a lot of death, but I was able to break free before I went too far to come back from it. Gabby… She started out similarly, bred to be a weapon, a perfect clone of me, but was more sheltered. She was saved from becoming like me, like Logan, by her sisters. She has a chance, a chance I never got. I just… I worry I’m going to screw it up for her…”

The last part trailed off quietly until she sat there in silence, staring at the table.

“I was made to be a weapon, I scare people around me, what if I try to help her and make her like I was?” Anxiety was a rare thing for Laura, she was too self assured usually, but this was new territory.”

“Nah, I think you’re going to be great.” Her head snapped up, fury blazing in her eyes, until she saw his gentle smile, not cocky, not nervous, but the first genuine one she had seen. “Want to know how I know?”

“...how?

“You’re a good person, you…”

“How can I be a good person! When I…” Her interruption trailed off as quickly as it started.

“A bad person wouldn’t worry about being a good person. A bad person wouldn’t want to be a better person for someone else’s sake. At the end of the day, you want the best for Gabby. Even if you screw it up, and trust me you will, I’ve screwed up more times than I care to admit, she knows you mean well and won’t hold it against you.”

“Peter, have you killed anyone?” She looked him dead in the eyes, hers widening as she saw a familiar haunted expression flicker across his face. If she hadn’t been watching, she might well have missed it.

“I haven’t, directly, there’s always accidents, but there was one other time I came close, besides Uncle Ben…” Memories of manic laughter and a scream that still haunted his nightmares surfaced for a moment, before he squashed them down again. “I might not have the same experience as you, but I know you wouldn’t be here if you were still the weapon you think you are.”

“Maybe…” she admitted, her expression softening just a little for the first time since she had met him.

“You want to stop Gabby, and other mutants, going through what you went through. I want to stop anyone I can from losing their uncle Ben. How about we help each other with that?” He held a hand out to her, there was less hesitation than before when she took it and shook.

“Deal.”

********

“I have to ask, why bowling?” It had only occurred to Laura to ask as they were leaving the bowling alley, but her curiosity got the better of her.

“I find it’s easier to get you people to open up with a bit of competitive fun.”

“You people… do you mean mutants, or Wolverines?”

“Canadians, I know three and they all so far have reacted the same way.”

“Ok, so there’s me, bowling was alright I guess. Logan?”

“Darts. Let’s him drink at the same time.”

“I can see that. Who is the last one?”

“Deadpool. Really gets into his air hockey. Probably to do with the jokes I made about Ice Hockey, and him being banned from every ice ring in town.”

“You know Wade?”

“Not by choice I can assure you…” He looked offended as she actually snorted at the look on his face from remembering his previous encounters with the merc.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

“You have a what now?” Laura was convinced he was taking the piss right now. He had invited her out for lunch, as he would be busy in the afternoon, but what he was busy with came as a complete surprise.

“A doctor's appointment?” Peter paused before he took another bite of his sandwich, looking at her in confusion. “It’s a fairly normal thing?”

“You are far from normal. You might not have my level of healing ability, but you already told me you heal faster than normal, but what do you need a doctor for?” The dawning light of comprehension lit up his face did make her question how he was considered to have a bright future in research, according to some online journals at least.

The man either was worse than her in some social situations, was so used to his life he stopped questioning it, doing it on purpose, or a combination of the above.

“Oh right, it’s a bit of a special doctor, with a problem so far unique to me. Probably genetic, they’re still working on the details.” She nodded at this, genetic issues were fairly common among mutants, to the point she hadn’t even considered it for non-mutants. She should probably work on that.

“Who would even be remotely qualified, and able to keep a secret enough, to be your doctor?” The random bits of ‘lore’ drops about his biology over the short time they’d known each other, well Laura wouldn’t be surprised if Peter would need an entire hospital just to keep up with whatever his crazed genetics had cooked up.

“Well my doctor is Reed Richard.” Peter mentioned it casually, taking another bite of his sandwich. It took Laura a few seconds to join the dots, coughing mid gulp of coffee before hissing at him.

“Your doctor is Mr Fantastic?! How can you say that so casually!” She might not know much about the group known as the Fantastic Four, but everyone knows who Reed Richards is. The smartest man alive was infamous, which raised the question… “How did that even happen?”

“Well I had a run in with them early on, I was in desperate need of money, so hoped to team up with them. Turns out they were barely surviving as well, but when they got themselves established, then we worked together on more projects. Heck the lab I work for is one of their branch labs.”

“How did they find this genetic problem of yours?”

“Well there was a whole thing with clones, symbiotes, radiation, turned into a giant spider once… they got my medical history helping with those problems, only to find out about this specific one.”

“So… what is the issue specifically?” She had to try and stay focused, this was giving her more questions. Especially the giant spider part…

“I’m not exactly sure myself, now hold on!” He saw Laura’s objection coming and cut her off in time. “It involves Dr Strange as well, magic is even further out of my field than some of the stuff Dr Reed gets up to, they will be the better ones to explain.”
“Alright, well I’m glad that’s decided.” Laura nodded, gathering her stuff, their sandwiches finished some time ago, before getting to her feet.

“Indeed!... wait, what is?”

“If you can’t explain it, then as you said, I will need to hear it from them.”

“Wait… I walked into that one didn’t I?” Peter groaned, head in hands, missing the brief smirk that flitted across Laura’s face.

********

“Hey, got an appointment with Dr Reed at two, name is Parker” As Peter was speaking to the receptionist, Laura looked around the foyer they were standing in. She expected a more extravagant entranceway, given the fame and wealth associated with the team, but outside the futurist look, and the odd display about the building's inhabitants, it was a fairly low key affair.

She suspected it was like the mansion, the outside was unassuming, but that just hid the more dangerous aspects from any passerbys. Well, the ones who weren’t fully aware what was hidden in the building at least.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take it from here.” An unfamiliar voice from behind her said. Not a threat, based on the way Peter turned and smiled, so Laura didn’t tense up. At least, not enough to be noticed, she hoped.

“Hey Ben, long time no see!” Peter laughed, meeting the newcomer half way and embracing him. Turning around as well, Laura was greeted with the massive rocky form of The Everloving Thing, Ben Grimm. Who was currently laughing, having picked up Peter in one arm, nothing like what she had heard about from Logan.

She was starting to think her sort of fathers personality had made him a little biased.

“Well if you came to visit more often, you’d not miss me as much.” Ben rumbled, setting the smaller man down. Aunt Petunia sees more of you than I do.”

“Oh yeah, Aunt May and her really hit it off huh.” Peter was doing his embarrassed, shy nerd routine, before Ben caught sight of Laura staring at them uncertainly.

“Where are my manners, why don’t you introduce me to your lady friend here. Fancy ignoring her just because you got lost in my beautiful blue eyes.” Peter got an elbow in the side, to accompany the teasing, that would probably have thrown most people through the wall, but he just brushed it off and chuckled.

“Sorry, you’re right. Ben Grimm, this is Laura Kinney, Laura, this is Ben.”

“Pleasure to meet yah.” A rocky hand was held out to shake hers, after a moment she took it. The resulting handshake was firm, but surprisingly gentle. She knew The Thing was strong enough to at least hold his own against the Hulk, the level of control the hero must have would be insane.

“You don’t quite match the stories I’ve heard.” Laura admitted, as Peter and her were guided to the elevator, the receptionist just shaking her head and moving onto her next job.

“Well Logan is an acquired taste,” Ben chuckled as he punched the button for the top floor. All the buttons were sized for Ben to use them easily, which was a nice touch. Seeing her surprised look, he added, “Peter and him have mentioned enough about you. Nice to put a face to the name.”

They made polite small talk for the few seconds it took for them to arrive at the laboratory levels. Laura was confused when they exited, only for Ben to hit the button for the ground floor, while keeping the doors open.

She got her answer when a blond guy came racing around the corner, making a bee line for her on sight, before Ben grabbed the guy by his head, tossed him in the lift and sent it back down.

“Sorry about that, Jonny is in an off period with in his on and off relationship with his latest girl, flirting with everyone he meets. Thought you might want to avoid that.” Ben explained as they carried on their way again.

“Yeah, love the guy, but he can be a bit much with his skirt chasing.” Peter sighed, nodding in agreement.

“Oh. Well in that case, thank you for dealing with him.” Laura appreciated it, though from her experience of the last few weeks, she would probably find out Jonny was the greatest guy ever when not doing… whatever it was he had been doing.

“Alright, I’d best head in, it shouldn’t take too long if you want to wait here?” Peter paused at the doorway to what appeared to be Dr Reed’s personal lab.

“Won’t worry Web’s, I’ll keep her company, now go and stop being a nuisance.” Ben grinned, waving him through the doors before shaking his head and turning to face Laura. “Hope you don’t mind, just wanted a quick chat.”

“That would depend on what you want to chat about?” Her eyes narrowed, that rarely ended well.

“Is Petey doing alright?” Ok, that was not what she expected.

“I’m… not sure I’m the best one to judge that? I’ve only known him for a few weeks now.” The understanding nod she got helped her relax a little.

“Well you see, Webs is something of a special case. We let him down when he first came to us for help, which is why Reed goes out of his way to help the guy. Well that and his status as technically a millionaire.” Even Laura’s control over her facial expressions couldn’t stop her jaw dropping at that nugget of information.

“He’s… nothing about him even hinted at that, are you sure?”

“Hah, yeah, the guy doesn’t live the high life, but he is only technically a millionaire. The Fantastic Four used to just deal with world ending threats, but after we encountered Peter, and the desperate situation he was in, we realised we needed to widen our focus. One thing Reed did, when we had the money coming in to support it, was help fund the street level heroes in New York. We actually hold the merchandising rights for Spider-Man, so he can collect the money from it without revealing his identity.”
“So he makes millions off… toys?” Her raised eyebrow encouraged Ben to continue.

“He’s a surprisingly popular guy, always looking out for the little guy on the street, so they don’t end up in the same situation he did.” Ben paused for a moment, Laura giving a knowing nod, remembering the talk about Uncle Ben, before the rocky hero continued. “So his merch makes him a lot of money, but he just takes enough to cover his bills, heck his salary at the lab is technically paid from that money. The rest he makes us donate to the other heroes, to support them, local charities and community groups. He thinks he doesn’t deserve it.”

“That… checks out.” She admitted. The guy had an infamous run of self sacrifice, she could see him giving away any money he got. Hell she could see him panicking about what to even do with that much money.

“He’s a great guy, you just have to ignore his inability to shut up for more than five seconds.”

“He seems like the kind to fight against the help you’ve given him, how did you even convince him to accept it?”

“Oh I got my Aunt Petunia to distract his Aunt May, then got my wife Alicia to pretend to be lost. When he swooped in to help her out, I grabbed him, threatened to pick him up from his Aunt’s house next time, see how he fancied explaining that, then dragged him to therapy.”

Laura paused, Ben looking back as he kept walking for a few steps. “Having to blackmail him into accepting help… I will have to remember that.” Her grin was matched by Ben’s.

“Well it ended up with his Aunt befriending my Aunt and Wife. May knows he works for us, so isn’t surprised about our friendship, but he’s kept up his end of the bargain. Went to therapy, took a couple of goes to find one who could handle his life, channelled his energy more into helping us build a supportive community. Heroing doesn’t pay the bills, but we can help ease the burden.”

“How did that even happen?”

“Oh he had one session where he came out crying about how stupid he was. Apparently Samson put together a powerpoint about how refusing the help of others made him worse at his job and life. Science geeks like Petey can’t refute numbers and hard data. Doesn’t stop him falling back into old habits and trying to lone wolf it from time to time though.”

“...and why are you telling me all of this?”

“Pete is a good guy, the nicest I’ve ever known, but he has a bad habit of thinking he doesn’t deserve what he offers to others freely. I know Logan’s big plan introducing you two was to help you out, but he needs it as well. Especially someone who can hunt him down if he tries ghosting people again. He might act like he’s always fine, really good at hiding it, but would you just keep an eye on him for me?”

He smiled as she solemnly nodded, a pact was formed, before they both started at a loud noise. Getting a second ping, he pulled out a phone-like device, before nodding to himself and pocketing it again.

“Speaking of, the Doc’s are finished with him, let's head back. He said you had questions for them.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

With Peter…

“Alright Doc and Doc, give it to me straight, are my good looks salvagable?!” Sitting up as the lights came back on in the large room, Peter perched on the edge medical table he had been laid on. Strange rolled his eyes at Peter's antics, while Reed let out a small chuckle.

“Well you will be pleased to know that the treatment is still working.” Reed informed him, pulling up the web slingers vitals on a holographic monitor. “The treatments we have been doing look to be working and holding nicely.”

“Well I for one have noticed less issues lately, which I am grateful for, otherwise you’d need to work this out yourself.” Came Strange’s grumbling comment as he cleaned up the rune circle surrounding the table Peter was sitting on.

“Hey Doc’s, brought the kid, any problems with the not so small kid?” Ben Grimm’s usual unsubtle entrance killed whatever snarky comment Peter was about to throw out. Well, that and the nervous twitch Laura was giving off right now, though he doubted anyone but him could tell.

At least, within the room's current occupants.

“The betrayal!” Peter declared dramatically, pointing at Ben, before being silenced by a glare from Laura.

“Oh you have to teach me that trick sometime, never seen him shut up that fast before.” Strange was oddly cheery about the whole interaction. Peter wasn’t even aware of pissing him off that much lately.

********
Jumping back to Laura!

“I’m more concerned about what this whole checkup is about.” Laura practically growled. Her chat with Ben had distracted her nerves, but now she was reminded about why they were here. About what could be bad enough to require this level of medical and magical attention, this had been less of a distraction from her own issues than she had hoped.

Her poker face was holding up well, it didn’t look like Peter had noticed when she swept him up and invited herself on this trip.

“Oh yes, Miss Kinney, I’m surprised a Wolverine is willingly hanging around him.” Strange raised an eyebrow in question. “He punched the other one through a wall at one point.”

“He hit on my girlfriend in front of me because he thought it was funny!”

“And this one?... Oh.” Strange found himself with a claw in his face, not even seeing Laura move until she was in front of him.

“I am beginning to get tired of people comparing me to Logan, especially when it feels like you’re avoiding the topic.” Her poker face must have slipped, because next though she knew, Peter was stroking her back to calm her down and had guided her to sit with him on the table.

“Sorry for my colleague, he reacts badly to this topic because…” Reed started.

“It’s stupid and shouldn’t exist!” Strange almost screamed the last part, having retreated behind the projector.

“...what?” This wasn’t the reaction she had been expecting.

“Right, so, how much do you know about interdimensional beings?” Reed tried to keep the conversation on topic, while Strange continued having a moment in the corner.

“...above my paygrade.”

“Ok so after a series of… incidents, we investigated the apparent source, which we tracked back to Peter.” He raised a hand to halt Laura’s confused retort, before continuing. “Peter was only the source in so much that he was the focus point of a creature we barely understand, or can really find out much about, beyond it’s a near infinitely powerful being called Ditko. We don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but because of the focus of Ditko on Peter, it led to something we called the Parker Luck.”

“I have tried every spell and source at my disposal, but I have so far been unable to work out why Peter is the focus of this particular curse.” Strange added from the back.

“Right. Whatever the cause, it led to Peter having a continuous series of increasingly awful events. Which had knock on effects for those around him as well, leading to a lot of people avoiding him, sometimes without knowing why.”

“On a cosmic scale he isn’t even notable! Outside of the Great Web, but that’s another story…”

“The Great what?”

“Another time…” Everyone except Laura said at the exact same time, with the same tired tone, so she decided to let that one go for now.

“While we haven’t been able to find out the exact cause, or reason, between my magic, and Reed’s technology, we have found a way to divert this attention onto another being. Which has removed the Parker Luck, meaning that just associating with him is no longer a health risk.” Strange continued, recovering himself enough to join Reed at the holoprojector. “At Reed's suggestion, we passed it onto Galactus.”

“You… you cursed a planet devourer?” Even Laura was aware who Galactus was, the giant figure who had attempted to consume the planet on several occasions was one of the few events that unified everyone behind one goal.

“It has made him much easier to deal with, all worked out for a spur of the moment thing.” Reed admitted, looking embarrassed about the whole thing.

“You cursed him, on a whim?”

“He was the safest option.”

She turned to poke a finger at Peter. “You are cursed by a magical being…"

“We don’t know what he is…” Chimed the sorcerer supreme.

“...a being of unknown power and origin, which is powerful enough to curse one of the strongest beings in the known universe, and before that it caused chaos in your life, and anyone you came into contact with… and you’re alive how?”

“That’s what I keep saying!” Strange screamed, before Ben took him aside to calm down again.

“And what is…” She gestures at the setup she’s sat in the middle of. “All of this?”

“It’s a combination of magic and technology that shields Peter from this… well we have been calling it a curse. Not entirely accurate, but for the purposes of this will do. It shields him, and moves the focus to a target of our choice. Since we did that, life for heroes in New York has become a lot calmer.”

“Ok.” Laura nodded, trying to process this.

“Screaming room is on the left, second door.” Reed had seen that look before, pointed her in the right direction. She nodded in appreciation, before leaving the room. The other occupants waited for several minutes, before a much calmer Laura returned.
“I apologise Doctor Strange, I understand your frustration.” She went up to the magic wielder, who she felt like she understood more than she should after the five minutes they’d known each other.

“As for you…” She turned on Peter, who squealed in fear under her glare. “How does every single thing I find out about you lead to even stranger things?! Only you could need two of the smartest people in the world for a problem like this. I thought it had to be something bad, but this is beyond ridiculous and so… you, that I’m not even surprised. Only you could have something this insane happen to you!”

“Ok, first, this is by far the strangest thing! Second, apparently because of this Ditko being!” He backed away nervously, until his back hit the wall, followed by her finger hitting his chest.

She paused for a few moments, counting in her head, before nodding. “Alright.”

“Alright? After all that, you’re alright?”

“Well as long as standing near you isn’t going to cause something to explode?”

“Black Cat isn’t in town, so probably not.” She assumed it was a regular enemy of his, not one she knew, but that wasn’t surprising. Guy had a lot of people after her, which said a lot coming from a former assassin.

“So, there’s no chance of this backfiring horribly at all then?” She turned to fix the two doctors with a look.

“There’s always a small chance, but we have warnings in place should anything go wrong.” Reed assured her.

“And I think on that note, we should be on our way! Thanks again Doc and Doc, Ben I’ll see you next week, Strange hopefully not when there’s another interdimensional invasion!” Peter had slung his arm around her shoulders, guiding her quickly to the door and beating a hasty retreat.

“Well that was a little odd.” The sorcerer supreme noticed.

“Of course you noticed when something… Strange is happening.” Came Ben’s comment, to which he just got an eye roll and a poof of smoke as the magic wielder teleported back to the sanctum.

********

He had apologised for touching her without asking, but felt it was better to get her out quickly before things escalated. They quickly left the building behind, finding themselves sitting in a nearby park.

“Alright Laura, what’s up?” The look of concern she was getting was new, people rarely gave her that kind of look. Most people were too nervous. Of course the guy with little to no survival instincts would be the exception.

“What do you mean?” She was also going to try and maintain her poker face as long as possible. When in doubt, shut down and deflect, even if his observation skills were better than she realised.

“As much as I’ve known you for only a few weeks, you’ve only ever threatened to stab me. So threatening to stab someone else in my presence, either means I’m no longer the most annoying person in your vicinity, or something else is up.” Strike that, he was just an idiot. An idiot who had been open with her, so far…

“It’s… Gabby.” She admitted. “She’s making friends, which is good, but they also keep asking her why she’s so happy, while her family is so…”

“Canadian? Shutting up!” She barely even looked at him that time, angry at him trying to ruin the moment, but at least he was learning.

“Scary is the word they usually use. What do they think we were like at ten years old…”

“Well Logan is too stubborn to die, was experimented on for years, and like two hundred years old. You had a childhood no one would wish for their worst enemy and didn’t know friendship until more recently from what I gather?” Laura nodded and indicated for him to carry on. “People have a bad habit of fearing what they don’t understand. Logan and you are scary people, that’s how you were trained, or had to be to survive. Gabby I’m guessing had an easier time?”

“Yeah, she was part of a group of clones, the youngest, so they tried to shelter her from as much as they could.”

“I’m also guessing based on you nearly gutting Strange back there, you’re also getting a lot of comparisons to Logan?”

“Yes, it’s becoming frustrating. I’m my own person, yet they don’t see me, they see him. They only see me when they look at Gabby and wonder how we’re so different.”

“You know why I joke around a lot?” Trying not to be thrown off by the sudden change in conversation, she played along.

“Because you’re an idiot?”

“Oh so now you can ruin the moment?” Peter clutched his heart in exaggerated betrayal.

“It was my moment to start with.”

“Alright alright. Well it was originally because I was scared, so I cracked jokes to psyche myself up. Then it had the added benefit of distracting the villains I was fighting, making them mess up when they got angry or frustrated. Then I also noticed it helped the people I was saving, made them feel that if I could be cracking jokes, then things were going to be ok. Then I got into the habit of it and can’t help myself.”

“I noticed… where are you going with this?”

“People take me for someone who doesn’t take it seriously, a lot of people, but the important ones will see what’s really going on.”

“...how do you know that?” She was almost whispering by this point, her uncertainty getting the better of her.

“Because I thought you were Logan’s crazy daughter when I first met you. Now I know you’re Laura, who’s trying to do better for herself, and for her loved ones. Which is something I can really understand.”

She looked at him. Really looked at him. He wasn’t lying, he had changed people’s opinion of himself, she had changed his opinion of her. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as she thought.

“I’m sorry for taking this out on you, and for assuming you were an idiot before getting to know you are an idiot.” The laugh she got out of Peter made her relax, her shoulders feeling just a bit lighter.

“What are friends for? I’m sorry for judging you before getting to know you, but I know why you thought I was an idiot… hey wait!” The corner of her mouth perked up slightly when he realised what she had said.

He froze up when she slumped against him, head resting on his shoulder. “Don’t say a word, just accept the moment.” She whispered, the threat implied in her tone. When she felt him relax, she closed her eyes for a bit.

Maybe he was right, maybe having someone to lean on made things easier. Even if that someone had the stupidest curse she had ever heard of, that was going to take some getting used to.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

It was into the third month of their friendship when something happened. Their messages back and forth had largely been a stream of random updates from Peter. Memes she didn’t understand for the most part, random tidbits from his patrols and updates on heroes of varying levels of fame.

Her replies were more scattered, mostly replies, as well as the odd new article querying how truthful it was about his latest exploits. The joys of a childhood in captivity, she wasn’t sure what people talked about in situations like this. On the bright side, Peter more than kept up the conversation for both of them.

Turns out the awkward guy was more at home on messaging apps than in person, when he wasn’t channelling his inner Spider-Man at least.

It was because of this established way of communicating, that it came as a shock when one day she just got nothing. No messages, no calls, no memes, nothing. She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but his presence did ease her own loneliness, so the sudden lack of contact worried her. It was sad to say that it was early afternoon and this was the longest they had gone without messaging since they’d started.

After several messages, and even a call, went unanswered, she had to resort to drastic measures. Call Ben Grimm.

“You know, I didn’t think you kids did phone calls anymore.” Was the answer she got when he picked up.

“Has something happened to Peter?” She wasn’t in the mood for small talk, which he thankfully dropped when he realised this was a serious call.

“What do yah mean? I’ve not heard anything about Webs? Is everything Ok Laura?” The concern in his voice was nice, and made her think she wasn’t entirely over reacting.

“He hasn’t messaged all day, he isn’t picking up, this is… unlike him.” Laura wasn’t sure how else to put it. She didn’t know anything was wrong, but things weren’t right either.

“That is….oh, that’s today…” She heard a heavy sigh and what sounded like rocks scraping against each other, at a guess, Ben just ran his hand down his face. Not the best of signs. “Ok kid, you’re gonna want to grab Logan, then head to the Brooklyn Bridge. You will find Peter there, by the towers close to the Manhattan side.”

“Ben… what happened today?”

“It’s not my place to say, has he told you about the two mistakes he made?”

“He told me about Uncle Ben…”

“This is about the second one, just… find him, see how he is. If he doesn’t tell you, don’t push it.”

“I will, thanks Ben.” Hanging up she went to find Logan, dragging him out by his ear if she had to.

********

“Oh, right, the anniversary, give me five and we are heading out, just need to grab something. Don’t hot wire my jeep, I’ll get you there.” She didn’t want to question why her sudo father seemed gruff, even for him, when she filled him in, but getting to the bridge as quickly as possible was all that mattered to her right now.

********

By the time they had driven to the city, parked up, and made their way to the bridge, it was getting to late afternoon. As they advanced down the bridge, Logan paused when they passed a red headed woman, and sent her on ahead.

She wasn’t sure what to expect, it certainly wasn’t Peter stood quietly at the railing, staring down at the river, completely silent for the first time she had known him. It was unnerving, even the people passing by gave him a wide berth, as if sensing the dark cloud hanging over him.

She joined him, leaning against the railing, standing with him in silence for a while.

“Logan?” He eventually whispered, the emotionless tone of his voice not helping her concern.

“Ben, actually. Logan came as my ride.”

“Figures.”

They lapsed into silence again, listening to the bustle of the city around them. She had a vague idea of what this was about, so took a gamble.

“I killed my mother. Not by choice, the facility that created me put a scene based kill switch in to ensure they’d maintain control. When she helped me to escape, they used it on her. When I came around, I was in a room full of dead guards, holding her dying body in my arms. She told me she loved me, that I needed to go now.” Laura paused, her voice quivering. “I only talked to Logan about this, now you. It’s something I hate myself for, even if a certain idiot thinks I’m not all that bad.”

“That idiot of yours certainly does sound like he’s too stubborn for his own good.” Peter finally spoke up, if not for her enhanced hearing, Laura might have missed it.

“He also keeps telling me that going it alone is a stupid idea and just hurts you more long term.”

“Logan sent you then?”

“Nope, he drove me here, talking to some red head further down the bridge.”

“Ben then.”

“Yep. Though he’s doing a terrible job of hiding the other side of the bridge.” They both looked, a looming figure in a hat and trench coat jumped and shuffled behind the bridge tower.

“What did they tell you about today?” Peter sighed, accepting her olive branch.

“Just that it’s the other tragedy that drives you.” God she hoped she wasn’t misreading the situation.

“Have you heard of the Green Goblin?” He seemed to shrink in on himself slightly when he asked.

“I have heard a little.” The name had come up when looking into Spider-Man, but she hadn’t gone into more detail before rushing off to hunt the wallcrawler down the night of their first meeting. She should probably get back to that sometime.
“Norman Osborn. He was a brilliant man, founded Oscorp, until his wife's death, and his lust for power, led to him taking an unperfected serum. It gave him physical abilities, not too different from my own in strength, but it broke his mind. We clashed a few times, before he found out who I was, from my friendship with his son Harry. Things escalated, he kidnapped Gwen, the first woman I truly loved, then threw her from the top of the tower.” He stopped talking for a while, tears running down his face, shivering that only seemed to settle down when she leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I was too slow. In attempting to save her, her neck was broken. I was so lost in grief that I thought I had killed Osborn that day…” He trailed off, manic laughter only he could hear echoing in his ears. “He came back, he always does, like a cockroach he somehow keeps finding a way to torment me by going after those close to me. Today is always a reminder of that.”

“You worry he might come after me?”

“He might, part of me hates taking the risk.”

“He will regret it if he does.” She laid her hand on the railing they were standing by, out of sight of passing gazes, before quickly popping her claws out and back in. “You keep telling me we are stronger working together, is Osborn that different from the other villains, that your friends keep their distance?”

“He’s the monster that keeps haunting my life, Venom, Carnage, Doc Oc, they’re some of my worst villains, but Osborn always makes it personal.”

“Oh, you have your own Kimura.”

“Kimura?”

“My…. handler I suppose, from the Facility where I was raised. A sadistic bitch who keeps trying to make my life hell. Took great pleasure from torturing me, knowing I could heal from anything she could do to me.”

“What happened to her?”

“Last time we met, Kitty phasepunched the bitch’s liver, before she got thrown in some deep, dark government hole. This guy I know pulled a few strings to make sure that woman would never see the light of day.”

“You know Nick Fury too?”

“Pretty sure he hates my guts, I’m on about Steve Rogers. Saved me from Shields' plans.”

“Yeah that does sound like Cap.” She felt the pull of his cheeks, maybe not enough to make him smile, but it was a start.

“Look, Peter, I’m not saying you can’t grieve, but doing it alone just hurts. If needed I will hunt you down and stop you being lonely by force if I have to. You have friends hanging around the bridge, waiting for you. Logan got his hands on what he claims is Asgardian mead. Jonny and Ben are hiding out. I’m assuming the red head is someone you know?.”

“Probably Mary Jane, my ex. She was never a fan of the Spider-Man stuff…”

“Shush, I don’t usually speak this much, but it’s important. You’re there for all of us, and many more from all the stories I hear. Let us be there for you. We don’t want to take this away from you, we just want to be there to ease the burden. Like you do for everyone but yourself. You’re not alone anymore, please, let us prove it to you.”

“Someone taught you well on how to trick people into going along with your crazy plans.” That was almost a laugh from him.

“I learnt from the best, socialising seems rather tame compared to your usual antics.. Now are you going to come willingly to see your friends, or do I need to drag you kicking and screaming.”

“Well I suppose I have no choice in the matter…”

********

The pair grabbed Ben, Johnny, Logan and she was introduced to MJ. Making their way to the Fantastic Fours living space, the call had gone out to others who were in the area and able to join them.

They were joined by Reed, who introduced her to his wife Susan, as well as several other faces she knew, as well as several she didn’t.

A blind guy, who gave her a knowing nod, who she swore she had seen somewhere, but couldn’t place him.

She knew Bobby, aka Iceman, as well as Angelica, aka Firestar, both of the X-Men. She hadn’t known they were that close to Peter though, something she made a note to follow up on later. When they weren’t trying to gang up on Johnny at least.

There was some African American kid, probably the only one here younger than her, who seemed rather skittish for some reason. She blamed Logan, it was probably his fault somehow.

She was surprised, but also not, when she spotted Steve, sharing a nod.

There was an older lady with a neat hair bun, who rubbed Peter’s back when he cried, after making a toast to those they lost, with Logan’s mead being passed around. At least to the ones allowed to have it, several guests weren’t allowed to, or had enough experience to refuse it.

All in all, Peter seemed a lot happier when she took her leave with the other X-Men in attendance. As happy as someone could be passed out face down on a couch, surrounded by the equally comatose forms of Johnny and Ben.

She knew from experience that these things took time, as he had taught her, as well as life. Getting him to open up to the others, that seemed to be a good first step, one that had lightened the load on his shoulders, as well as hers.

It had been a gamble, but she couldn’t argue with the results. From the proud looks Logan was giving her on the drive back to the mansion, neither could the others.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Later the following day, things were returning back to normal. Well, once Peter stopped begging her not to let him drink whatever stuff Logan brings that can get both of them drunk.

Turns out his inability to get drunk normally left him with no experience dealing with hangovers, and he hated it.Once he got over that though, his messages were just that bit more open, less skirting around some things.

Like how he was. Currently, praying for death, until Reed took pity on him and cured his hangover.

Maybe there was something to that tragic story comment.

She sat up on her bed as she heard a knock at her door, surprised someone actually wanted to speak to her.

“You there kid?” Oh right, Logan. The one person who wasn’t nervous around her. They were friendly these days, but she wasn’t sure Kitty ever fully recovered emotionally from phasing through the wall to say hi and nearly getting stabbed by a startled Laura.
Instead of answering verbally, she padded silently to the door, unlocking it and raising an eyebrow in question.

“Run out of words, huh? You did give Webs an earful.” She narrowed her eyes at the smirk she was treated to.

“What. Do. You. Want?” she put emphasis on each word, which just made Logan grin wider.

“Got a message from a mutual friend, they would like to have lunch, if you’re up for it?” He held his phone up, showing her the contact.

“Huh.” Was all she could say in surprise, too shocked to make any snarky comments, even as Logan burst out laughing.

********

One thing she shared with Logan was her love of motorbikes. While he preferred a louder Harley, she preferred something more subtle, riding a Yamaha instead. It was odd that Logan had some of these, but after learning about his time in Japan, it did make sense in a way why he had a couple. One of which he had gifted to her after she had passed her test.

She hadn’t seen the point at first, the Facility had trained her to drive most types of vehicles, as well as to maintain them. His arguments about trying to stay within the law, to avoid drawing attention to herself, did eventually win her over.

She had yet to get into trouble riding around, but being a mutant could come with a host of problems, many of which she had to learn once she escaped. Things she was still learning, things that others considered normal.

She was shaken out of her thoughts as she spotted the dinner she was looking for, pulling off the road and into the parking lot. There were a handful of cars parked, and one other motorbike.

A 1942 Harley, not the kind of bike you would expect to find outside a diner like this. It would be more fitting to see it in a museum. Though this one was clearly very well loved and taken care of, if she didn’t know the age, she wouldn’t even have blinked. It even had saddle bags, something she hadn’t seen anyone else using.

Her mouth twitched, almost a smile, pulling her bike up next to it, dismounting and heading inside.

********

The bell above the door pinged as she stepped inside, a few glances, otherwise little attention was paid to her. Except for one booth, who waved her over, not that she needed it.

It was rather hard to miss Steve Rogers, even when he was trying to be less conspicuous, though even out of costume, the man still had a presence.

Being six feet tall and built like a pro athlete will do that for you.

She nodded as she slipped into the seat opposite, accepting the smile and offered menu. He already had a cup of coffee in front of him, barely touched, at least he hadn’t been here long
.
“Hey Laura, are you keeping well?” They had done this a few times over the years, forming a strange bond since he had taken her in after she got on Shields radar. Picking her up before anyone else got to her.

Rather literally, even with her life, it was one of the most bizarre moments. Getting held up by the scruff of her neck, in front of Nick Fury, as a fourteen year old, while Captain America shouted her case. Her pout had gone completely ignored, as Fury had agreed that taking a teenager trained to be a weapon, then forcing her back into that life, was a bad idea.

Which is how she had ended up with the X-Men. After nearly being thrown head first at the notoriously dangerous director of Shield, when Steve had gotten a little over zealous and nearly launched her out of her jacket.

She still was convinced that at least one of the two men hadn’t thought about how literally she could be a weapon until that moment. She really hoped they didn’t find out about Logan’s Fastball Special.

“It has been… an interesting few months.” She admitted, while she browsed the menu, before settling on a steak, cooked rare of course.

“So I see, I had heard Peter and you were getting on, but I didn’t expect to see you at that group gathering the Fantastic Four put the word out for.” The waitress came and took their order, Steve waved off her attempt to pay for her own meal, claiming he was an old fashioned gentleman as his excuse. That he had invited her out last minute, so it was only fair he paid.

She only relented when he said he would do it on the credit card Shield paid for. Petty revenge against Fury was something she was all for.

“He kept telling me I didn’t need to suffer alone, so I just followed his example. He’s a lot more popular than I would ever have guessed.” A coffee was provided for her, as well as a refill for Steve. “I don’t get why he was allowed to go it alone for so long.”

“Peter… is an unusual case,” pausing long enough to drop a couple of sugar cubes in his coffee, much to her quiet disgust, before he continued. “He’s fast, if he wanted to, he could run rings around most Avengers. Most of them aren’t as stubborn as you, anyone else he might have run away from, or at least climbed up high.”

“You think I'm that different?” She raised an eyebrow as he chuckled, before pulling his phone out of his pocket. It took a moment or two of fumbling, before he found what he was looking for, handing it over to Laura. She found it was a video, a series of CCTV clips of her pursuit of Spider-Man that first time. It ended in a final clip, which someone had added dramatic music to, where she had leapt off an air conditioning unit, tackling him and taking his phone.

“Let’s just say no one else managed to catch him like that.” Steve’s grin was met with an amused snot, as she played the clip again, before handing the phone back.

“I got the impression not a lot of people would try.”

“Peter does tend to rub people up the wrong way, not everyone copes the same way with what we do, but not everyone understands that. If you haven’t already, you should ask him about it.” The conversation paused as their food got delivered, Steve getting a hamburger, her steak looking just the nice level of barely cooked.

“It has been mentioned in passing, but why do others take it so personally? It serves a purpose both in fights and rescuing civilians.”

“You’ve seen Peter fight, he can dodge bullets, lift buildings, heck I’ve seen him outrun a car. Part of why he is how he is, is because he’s scared, which is understandable, given what we do. He once punched the Hulk so hard that big green actually paused in surprise! Others who see him joking around, when he has all those powers and abilities, often get the wrong impression that he isn’t taking this seriously. Despite this, they know that when push comes to shove, Spider-Man is someone you can rely on.”

“I’m sensing a but there?”

“They know he will have their back, they just find him annoying.” Steve sighed. “Something we have been trying to work on, old habits die hard. Trust me, I’m older than most.”

“Oh shush grandpa.” Laura smiled as he laughed. Cap was a special case for her, in many ways he felt like the big brother, or father figure for many of the superhero community. He was Captain America after all.

For her, they had bonded over how they were made as weapons, but wanted to be more. How he despised anyone who would use people like that. He had fought the literal Nazi’s, she could see why that would be a particular dislike of his.

He was also the first person to fight for her freedom, and win, something she would be forever grateful for.

“Now now, I might be old, but I’m still young at heart, young lady! How are things going with the others at the Mansion?”

“It’s…. A work in progress.”

“And how is Gabby getting on?” She smiled at that, remembering what her little sister got up to now she had the chance to be a kid.

“She’s getting better, thankfully. I believe she is becoming what I’m told is a gremlin?”

From there the conversation meandered around. Bucky was apparently evading the Canadian government as part of a training exercise, which they would get told about eventually, assuming no one in the Canadian government realised he was hiding in their mountain ranges.

Laura was still trying to work out how to get back at Logan, Steve helpfully, and very innocently, suggested maybe she could have a training session in the Danger Room with Spider-Man, then if they just happened to bump into Logan afterwards, well that would just be coincidence.

There were some more anecdotes about team members, Hawkeye started a prank war and got left tied to the ceiling, some of the new X-Men recruits had no idea how to work together and had taken their own team out before the opposing team had a chance to. It was nice to just chat with someone who neither judged, nor felt the urge to try and fix things without being asked.

“So, is this the part where you tell me to look out for Peter?” The conversation was beginning to die down, she had been noticing a pattern to how these things went though.

“Nope, if anything I’d tell you both to let the other look out for them. Peter has the heart of a true hero, one day he will be among the best of us, but he needs someone to keep him grounded, and drag him back when he’s being stubborn. You need someone to be more open with in, and who will keep encouraging you. I never expected Logan to be this smart about pairing you two up, even if I suspect he did it to get some peace and quiet, and maybe as a prank on Peter…”

Eventually they did depart, Laura had only recently bothered getting a cell phone, so made sure to swap numbers. At the very least, it would keep Logan from needing to be a middle man.

Steve offered a handshake, but she took a quick hug instead. Steve was learning about this selfie trend, so they got one together, that she had a feeling was going to be used for mischief.

Then after some teasing back and forth, they ended up racing off down the road together, Steve determined to defend his bike's honour. Laura because it sounded like fun. After it ended in a draw, a concerned police officer decided it was better to let them off with a warning, rather than be the one to try and bust a national hero, they parted ways with an agreement to do this again when Steve’s back in town.

It was also rather amusing to see Captain America looking like a scolded child, the photo of that she would keep for a rainy day.

Oh and to top it all off, she got a photo from Reed, showing Susan suspending Peter, Johnny and Ben in the air with invisible spheres. She looked to be mid rant, something to bug Peter about tomorrow.

For now, today was just… nice.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

It had been an odd start to the morning.

“Hey, want to help with a Maggia raid tonight? Luke Cage asked me to help and I thought you might want an excuse to punch some bad guys?”

She thought her irritation with life had been well hidden lately, but it seems Peter was better at reading her than she expected. It was a tempting offer, she was getting a bit restless, and it had been a while since they went out on patrol together.

In the two weeks since the impromptu party for him, things had gotten busy, half of the time she had been away on an X-Men mission, so the chance to catch up would be nice.

“Sure… who is Luke Cage though?”

“Oh, didn't you meet him at the party? He’s a great guy, I think you’ll get on. One of the street level heroes I work with the most.”

“Fine, just send me the address.” There were a few unfamiliar faces she had seen back then, but if they were there, then Peter trusted them enough for her to relax. Besides, anyone that put up with him enough to become a close friend, would probably put up with her.

********

“This is your backup?” The man introduced as Luke Cage turned to Peter and raised an eyebrow. The African American was head and shoulders taller than her, and based on what she had been able to quickly Google, had strength and durability enhancements. She could understand why he was sceptical when she rocked up on her bike, one of her greatest strengths was people underestimating her based on her size and frame.

Strangely, she took more offence to him questioning Peter’s decision making. She had given them the benefit of the doubt, why couldn’t he do the same?

“Luke, she’s a lot more than she looks, trust me.” Peter sighed, edging slightly back from the other two.

“It’s a big target we’re hitting, you show up with someone new, I just have questions….”

“You saw her at the party Reed organised…”

“Which is why I’m questioning and not demanding to know who the hell…” Both of the men stopped arguing at the sound of an irritated cough from the subject of said argument.

“If you want a reason…” She growled, holding one fist up and letting her claws pop out for a few seconds, before sheathing them. She did take some amusement from the way Luke’s jaw dropped.

“Oh shit. You’re a Wolverine… Spidey, a moment please.” Apparently her wearing a black version of Logan’s suit wasn’t enough of a give away then.

Luke tried to act relaxed, as he put his arm around Peter’s shoulder and led him to the other side of the warehouse they were currently standing in. “Pete, where the hell did you find another Wolverine! Why is there another Wolverine!”

The last part has been more of a hissed whisper, than the shouting Luke had probably wanted to go for, but Laura’s enhanced hearing still picked it up.

“Luke, relax, we’ve patrolled together, she knows what she’s doing. Don’t let Logan cloud your judgement here, she hates it when people judge her because of him.” She relaxed somewhat as she saw the larger man's shoulder droop in acceptance, before both men made their way back over.

“Sorry about that, can we start over?” Luke held one massive hand out, relaxing when she took it and shook, after considering it for a few seconds. She could play nice, sometimes, and not just because she can see Peter making his ‘please play nice’ face behind Luke.

“Sure, now what was it you brought us here for?”

********

The Maggia. Not a name she was that familiar with, but she picked up a lot more from their plan and explanation. They were made up of several groups, known as the family’s, who changed over time, but there was usually a core constant group.

One of them was the Hammerhead Family, led by a criminal of the same name, who Luke Cage had a bit of a grudge against. Spider-Man too from the sounds of it, Hammerhead was a constant nuisance to several heroes. Then they got sidetracked while Peter moaned about other Family heads called Tombstone, another called Silvermane, before she dragged them back to their mission.

Hammerhead was bringing in a shipment of guns, never a good sign when criminals start arming up, so the goal was to catch them in the act, take down the guards, secure the shipment and make sure those weapons stayed off the street while the bad guys went to jail.

That was what the street level heroes tended to focus on when not on patrol, going after the more organised crime. She had been warned about avoiding a guy with a white skull on his body armour, the Punished or something.

They refused to elaborate beyond whoever the man was tended to make organised crime very disorganised via the excessive application of explosives. They assured her this guy was probably not going to be an issue for her, just be aware in case she ran into him.

She also heard stories of the devil of hell's kitchen, Luke’s various heroes for hire partners, and some other street level heroes, as a way to pass the time while they waited for the deal to go down.

They also mentioned some moon guy who screamed like a bird on bad days. She decided her sanity wasn’t worth questioning it.

That was all she got out of them though, their targets arriving at the deal location and the team snapped into action.

********

One thing Laura did have to admit about Peter, was for all his reputation as someone who can’t shut up, he is very good at being quiet when needed. By the time she had vaulted onto the rooftop of the meet location, and taken out the two guards that were her targets, the two he went after were knocked out and webbed up.

After securing hers, they crouched at one of the skylights as phase two of the plan went into action. Which was not called Kool-Aid Man, despite Peter’s insistence.

Not that either of the others enlightened her as to who the Kool-Aid Man was, she wasn’t familiar enough with all the heroes, but her questions about him were met with groans from Luke and chuckles from Peter.

As it stood, Peter was also the only person who wasn’t surprised when Luke came bursting through the outer wall, smashing three goons into a pile of crates. They didn’t get back up again as he advanced further into the warehouse, though Laura could see them still breathing.

Felt a bit like fighting alongside Colossus again. The thought gave her pause for a moment, long enough for her companion to smash through the skylight, with her following seconds later.

As was their plan, Luke stormed to the centre of the room, demolishing anyone that got in his way, aiming to take control of the boxes of weapons and ammunition. Peter was up high, webbing up anyone he could around the edges of the room, then chasing down anyone left standing.

Her job was to take out the guards they knew were in an office area to one side of the warehouse. Which was fine, until the door was blasted off with a shotgun blast, pellets tearing into the side of her head and throwing her against the wall.

“One down, spread out and get any other heroes stupid enough to pull this on me!” Through a bleary eye, the other one out of action for the moment, Laura spied half a dozen men, one of which matched the description she had been given for Hammerhead.
With her slumped against the wall, her head a bloody mess, they barely spared her a glance as they strode past her, Hammerhead taking the lead. He did put a couple of revolver rounds in her chest, the double tap would have worked on anyone else, but she had to respect anyone who actually bothered.

Her right eye still hadn’t fully healed when she stood up, taking down the rear most thug with a single blow to the temple. The first they knew about it was the sound of his unconscious body hitting the floor, and her bloody growl as she spat blood out of newly healed lungs.

The others turned in shock, a look of horror crossing their faces as she leapt at them, like something out of a horror film. She had been practicing, the next two thugs raising their guns, then looked down in confusion as the weapons were sliced in half.

They didn’t even see her claws for the split second they were out, let alone the rapid blows that reduced the pair to a crumpled heap on the ground.

The man with the shotgun was next, the barrel raising up to take another shot. Her foot lashed out, sending the blast into the ceiling, before he was slammed into the wall and knocked out as well.

The final thug hadn’t even recovered before a punch to his face sent him sprawling across the ground, Hammerhead having to step out of the way to avoid tripping over the body.

“Well you’re new, didn’t realise Cage or Spidey knew someone who was crazy enough to get back up after getting shot. Except Castle, but he’s a special case.” The mob boss growled, holstering his gun, knowing it wouldn’t do much more than piss her off at this point.

“When you cause problems, you should expect to get the attention from heroes.” She shot back as they circled each other warily. After several seconds of this, Hammerhead launched himself forwards, head first and faster than she thought he could move.

Not fast enough though, launching herself up and over him, letting him slam into the wall and striking while he was recovering. The others had mentioned Hammerhead had increased strength and durability, thanks to adamantine implants.

Not enough to stand against one of the originals. She had been trained where to hit someone with durability or super healing, to make sure they stayed down. Hammerhead barely made it back to his feet under a flurry of targeted blows, before turning to look at her in confusion.

Then the temporary nerve damage kicked in and he face planted on the concrete floor with what sounded like a clang. Laura checked all of them were unconscious, pulled out some zip ties to secure them, before moving on.

********

“You know, I thought they would have more help than this.” Peter looked around, mopping up the last of the goons with Luke.

“Man, we talked about this…” The other man groaned, right before the loading door crumpled. “Your luck isn’t one hundred percent contained and you know better than to tempt it!”

“Yeeeeah that one is on me.” Peter sighed, as they both turned to see who the newcomer was. “Oh come on!”

“Well well, it’s been a while, webs.” Aleksei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino, growled with amusement as he took a step inside, the ground shaking under his weight.

“Hey buddy, thought you might have wised up and retired, any chance of it?” Spidey tried hopefully, shoulders slumping when the villain burst out laughing.

“When you’re a known super villain, it’s hard to do anything else. So they juiced me up and put me back on the street. Even you won’t be able to stop me now!” The last few words were shouted as the man mountain launched himself across the room at the heroes.

Spider-Man barely had time to launch Luke one way, and himself the other way, before Rhino had ploughed straight past them, barely stopping himself from ploughing through the far wall.

“Luke, cavalry, I’ll keep him busy. You’re gonna have to do better than that big boy, I am a small target!” Webbing Rhino’s eyes, swinging behind the flailing villain, before pulling his legs out from under him with more webbing.

Attempting to web the rampaging Russian down for good proved tricky, when the larger man kept either tearing the webbing apart, or ripping chunks of the floor free with him. Without letting himself swing harder than he was comfortable with, Spider-Man’s blows also seemed to have little effect.

“Call has been made, just hold him down!” Came the call he had been waiting for. Tripping Rhino again, Peter grabbed one arm, locking it in place and holding Aleksei down. Normally, this wouldn’t have been enough to keep him down for long, but Luke Cage slamming down on the other arm was enough to keep the larger man pinned to the ground, his thrashing unable to dislodge the combined strength of both heroes.

Then a few seconds later, the roof exploded again.

********

Laura had already stacked her downed opponents in a heap, with Hammerhead at the bottom in case he woke up, when Rhino came bursting through the wall. In the ensuing chaos, with some help from Luke while he made a phone call, she piled the rest of the unconscious thugs in the corner out the way.

Even if it did involve slicing a webs and chunks of wall or floor to go with them. The building had a few holes in the wall, it would probably survive her additions.

The pile made a comfy enough seat as she watched, knowing that Spider-Man at least would let her know if her help was needed. As good as she was, she wouldn’t be able to do anything to Rhino without getting her claws out.

Which she didn’t mind, but she had promised to keep the stabbing to a minimum. Plus it gave her a chance to clean the blood out of her newly healed eye, though she would need to get the suit repaired when she got back to the mansion.

When the roof exploded though, after the dust had cleared, Laura couldn’t help but point at the newest newcomer. “I like her style!”

Peter almost looked offended at the enthusiasm Laura was showing to the new arrival.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

Jessica Jones had been sitting in their apartment, debating with herself, when she got the panicked call for backup and containment. Groaning in annoyance down the phone, before hanging up, but secretly glad for the distraction, she went to grab her sturdiest boots, and a couple of other items.

For the plan, or what vague idea of a plan she had been told, she made sure it was the ones with the shock absorbers. Those things were life savers for someone with her abilities.

Muttering under her breath as she made her way to the roof, waving her phone around until she got the directional ping. With a vague idea of which way to go, she launched herself into the night sky.

********

It took about a minute, before she spotted the only warehouse in the area with multiple holes in it. Which made lining up with Rhino’s head that much easier.

“The things I do for that man…” as she dropped out of the sky. The big guy never knew what hit him, the concrete floor shattering as she slammed both feet into the back of his head.

Just to make sure he stayed down, she shoved the tranquilliser dart pistol she brought along just in case, and fired a dart up the villain's nostril. When he didn’t stir from a boot to the face, and Spider-Man had webbed him down, she declared the job done.
“I like her style!” Came an unfamiliar voice, Jess turning to see who it was, while dusting her trademark leather jacket off. While she didn’t recognize the voice, she did laugh when she spotted the other woman sitting on a pile of unconscious goons.

“Not a bad look there either, whoever you are.” Jess grinned, recognising another fan of the leather jacket. These things bonded you on a spiritual level after all.

“Right, Jessica Jones, Laura Kinney, Laura, Jess.” Peter made the introductions when they were sure all the villains were unconscious and secured. He had never seen Laura this animated.

His jaw almost hit the ground when the two women strode towards each other, grasping each other's forearms and nodding in understanding.

“Yours wear a leather jacket?” Luke whispered, seeing Peter’s confusion.

“Yeah, what’s that got to do with anything?”

“Game recognises game. Badass recognise badass, or in this case, the Jacket.” Luke nodded sagely, like he was spreading great wisdom of the ages.

“Really?”

“Look I stopped questioning it, the world we live in is weird and sometimes stuff like this just happened. The ladies are now friends, just accept it.”

“It took me weeks before she stopped contemplating stabbing me..”

“And I know Avengers who have known you for years who still consider it.” Luke countered. “Now the police are on the way, you and your friend should clear out before they get here, they don’t know her and last I heard a certain detective wants to throw the book at you. Meet us back at our place.”

“Fiiiine, need to grab Laura’s civilian stuff first though.”

********
After a quick trip back to where they had met up with Luke, Peter swung them to the roof of an apartment block that looked the same as the surrounding ones, but to her trained eyes, there were some slight differences.

The walls were slightly thicker, there was an enclosed grass area surrounding it, she could even spot a perimeter scanner that must have only let them through because of Peter. It was a miniature stronghold, but if she hadn’t known this was where they were meeting Luke and Jessica, she wouldn’t have spared it a second glance.

Not from ground level at least, but swinging over it was noticeable. Or maybe it was her unique training and seeing it from above, Logan warned her she still assumed others saw what she did too much.

Landing on the roof, Peter checked his phone, while Laura stretched. “Alright, they will be here in a couple of minutes, just had to give statements to the police.”

“I’m surprised they chased you off for that?” She raised an eyebrow at him, knowing his reputation had its ups and downs, but usually he didn’t flee from the police.

“Weeeeeell lets just say the detective involved is still sore about how I spammed her with my alter ego…”

“You spammed her as Peter?”

“....Spider-Cop!” Oh god he even struck a pose and did it in a deep voice, caught so off guard she nearly burst out laughing. Annoying a detective like that was something she could see him doing, it was so on brand she didn’t question it for a second.

“Never, ever, do that again in front of me!” She growled, coughing to hide her laugh. She felt bad when he drooped, but seriously! She had a reputation to uphold, goofballs like him were going to ruin her.

“Yes ma’am…”

********

Luke let them into the building shortly after, Laura avoiding Peter’s eye until then, for fear of laughing at his antics. Ushered into a homely apartment, she was directed into the shower first.

She had forgotten about how blood soaked she was after getting shot repeatedly. The water pooling at her feet ran red for several minutes, as she relaxed in the hot water. Wandering out in her civilian clothes, with a towel wrapped around her head, she was bemused at what she found.

Peter, still in his suit, apart from his discarded mask, had picked Jessica up and was swinging her around while they laughed. Luke was hovering in the background, clearly unsure if he should step in.

As big as the guy was, his wife kerb stomped the Rhino and Laura was pretty sure Peter was physically stronger, but then Luke had struck her as the protective type.

“I clearly missed something, Peter is in one piece so it’s not something he did, anyone gonna fill me in?” Laura announced her presence with some snark.

“I just told Peter I’m pregnant, he was a little happy about the news.” Jessica had an honest smile on her face, not the snark of a leather jacketer. Made her look younger.

“Well they are two of my oldest friends, it’s exciting news!” Peter put Jessica down, only to pounce on Luke and give him the same treatment, much to the larger man's displeasure.

“Congratulations?” Laura hazarded as the other woman moved to stand with her, while Luke tried to escape.

“We both know that isn’t your thing, but thanks.” Jessica grinned. “Guess I’ll take the next shower while the boys are rough housing, feel free to stab them if they get too rowdy!”

The grin Laura had on her face as Jess left, stopped the other two in their tracks. “Gladly…”

“Don’t move, she can’t see us if we don’t move…” Peter whispered, frozen holding Luke in mid air.

“That’s dinosaurs dude, I don’t think it works like that here…”

********

Eventually, everyone had their turn in the shower, which led to Laura sitting on one of the sofas wearing a pair of ‘comfy’ pants Jessica loaned her, while the group discussed films. It was late in the evening, in that weird period where it was late for normal people, but not for super heroes.

So Jess declared they were having a movie night and sleep over. They had a spare bed for Laura, and Peter was used to crashing on their sofa and happily accepted that. Laura paused briefly, whispered assurances from Peter for her ears only gave her the courage to stay and not peace out like her usual social outcast ways.

All it had taken was him giving her the option, even offering to let her crash at his if she wasn’t comfortable. While she appreciated the thought, she had never actually visited his apartment before, it felt weird considering doing it without him.

So she stayed, apparently Jess was on a Disney binge, which was blamed on the baby when Peter teased her about it. Apparently it was kid friendly, so maybe something to do with Gabby, assuming either of them didn’t hate it.

The first film picked out, mostly when Laura admitted she hadn’t seen many films, was one of the groups favourite, Lilo and Stitch. Peter was left pouting when he declared they should consider Mystery Science Theater 3000, but was quickly shot down by Luke and Jess, while Laura just sat looking confused.

As the film went on, she had a feeling it was chosen for another reason as well, finding herself relating to the story of Stitch. Some of the other characters also reminded her of people in her life, and how they had impacted her.

Peter declared it bullying when the other three compared his antics to those of Bleakley, though he barely hid a smile when Luke got compared to Jumba. Neither woman got compared to anyone, mostly out of a healthy respect for their ability to visit terrible vengeance, though Laura had a feeling her thoughts were echoed by the others regarding Stitch.

They started the second film, which was pushing it, when Laura woke up during the end credits having missed the second half. Peter was passed out at the other end, while she caught Luke picking up a likewise slumbering Jessica.

“The spare bedroom is the first door on the right.” He whispered, nodding to the door in question. “Peter will sort himself out if he wakes up, sleeps like a log when comfortable.”

“Thank you, night.” Nods exchanged, the couple retreated to their bedroom, while Laura glanced across at Peter. He had been left a set of bedding, so she draped the blanket over him before she made her own way to bed.

Sleeping in a strange place was usually a problem, but here with friends, or at least friends of friends, she felt safe enough to drift off, though not too deep. Some habits died hard after all.

********

Breakfast the next morning was a…. Chaotic affair. Peter was by far the best cook of the quartet, but very much not a morning person. Jess was sitting face down at the table, muttering about morning sickness. Luke was running back and forth, trying to keep the pair of them from causing mischief to either themselves, or the furniture.

Laura just sat cross legged on one of the sofas, sipping her cup of coffee, thinking this was still more peaceful than morning at the manor. Way more people made for way more chaos. This was more, well, relaxing, she supposed that was the right word.

At least for her, Peter nearly brained himself with the frying pan when Luke shouted about him nearly burning his hand.

The food was good, another first it occurred, they had only even eaten out when they met up. She even found out this was a semi-regular thing they did, sometimes with other friends, all because the flat was bought with the money Peter put aside for other heroes. As he refused to accept any form of repayment, he got kidnapped for film nights every now and then.

This was becoming a running pattern with him…

Overall, she was glad she accepted the invitation to stay.

********

“Alright, why are you being weird.” They had left the apartment block in civilian clothes, hero suits stored safely in bags. Letting them get a few minutes away, before Laura poked him in the side and started interrogating him.

“What? I’m always weird, why are you being weird!” He protested, before wilting under a fierce glare. “Alright alright, just, took you weeks to open up to me, then you’re best friends with Jess after meeting her for the first time.”

“She made a cool entrance. You’re not that cool.”

“I am so! I do cool things all the time….”

“Name one that’s as cool as dropping from the sky on a villain's head and striking a pose?”

“....ok, you got me there, but…” he paused, she watched him out of the corner of her eye and noticed something she hadn’t seen him do in a little while. Early on he had nervous twitches around her, around anyone he wasn’t comfortable with, something she had been told by Logan was to do with social anxiety.

Still felt weird thinking that Spider-Man was powered by anxiety and bad decisions.

“No, you have a point.” She admitted, coming to a stop when she realised he had stopped several paces back, looking at her in confusion. “I don’t trust easily, even among the X-Men there’s a handful of people I trust. I couldn’t say if I trusted her and Luke so easily because I’ve become more trusting, or because I trust you.”

“You… trust me?”

“You’re an annoying goofball, but you’re also the most self sacrificing idiot I’ve ever met.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Steve thinks you need to rein it in.”

“Oh name dropping Cap, my one weakness!”

“Stabbing, poison, explosives…”

“Please stop naming things that hurt me!” Peter was looking so bewildered by the turn in conversation that she didn’t hold back her laugh, which made him perk up for some reason.

“Seriously though, leather jackets are cool, but you are helping me be more open around people.” She declared before turning around and walking off, grinning to herself as she heard him yelp and rush to catch up.

“Well, I’m glad, but is that why you were acting so weird on the roof last night?”

“Nope, I was trying not to laugh at what I imagined that poor detective's reaction to you and your antics.”

“Aha! I knew you liked Spider-Cop!”

*snikt*

“Shutting up!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

It was a few days after the raid with Luke and Jessica, when she got the ominous text.

“I’m so sorry, but she found out about you and now she wants to meet you.”

She didn’t even know what the concept of final boss music was, but that message, and the several follow up ones as Peter freaked out, caused the meaning to spontaneously form in her mind.

********

“Hey, got a question for you.” Laura addressed the pair of legs that she sometimes knew as a sudo father figure. Once again, she swore he did this every time he felt her looking for him, he was under his car working on something.

“Shoot kid, what you got now?”

“Aunt May wants to meet me and Peter is freaking out. Should I be freaking out?” Logan rolled out from under the car at that, staring up at his sort of daughter in shock. The first time he had ever seen her this nervous, of course it would be that woman.

Standing up, he calmly cleaned his hands of oil, placed them on her shoulders and took a breath.

“That woman raised Peter, he will not hear a bad word said about her for good reason. She is the nicest little old lady you will ever meet. She has a spine so strong she hit a villain with an umbrella when he tried to take her hostage, and he was so surprised by this, he let her go without question.”

“You’re not helping…. Wait, what did she hit you with?”

“Rolling pin. Got her a nice new one when it snapped in half on my skull. The point is, she is lovely, but do not cross her.”

“I have threatened to stab her nephew several times…”

“Do not mention that. Just be polite. If you’re getting invited to meet her, then you’re already off to a good start. Peter adores his aunt, she’s the only close family he has, this wouldn’t even be happening if he didn’t think you were ready.”

“I did tell you how he nearly knocked himself out with a frying pan last week, right?”

“... ok he’s an idiot at times, but May is the one thing he takes great care with.”

“Are you scared of her?”

“Nope, lovely old lady, mean swing. What I am scared of is what Peter would do if anyone hurt a hair on her head.”

“That's all?”

“Well that and how she made me wear a shirt in my own home. The lady has a mean glare.”

“You folded to a mean glare?”

“The entire Avengers team at the time did.”

“...come again?!”

********

“Hey Ben, I’ve been invited to meet Peter’s aunt, I was hoping you could give me some advice…”

“Hey, sorry, it was my Aunt Petunia who gave the game away. May is lovely, just be warned she doesn’t tolerate nonsense.”

“Sounds like we will get on then.”

“Just don’t mention the stabby stabby bits.”

“....Logan already told me that.”

“Try her cookies if you get the chance, they’re amazing. Just don’t try them if you anger her, she poisoned Chameleon with them once.”

********

“Hey Cap, I’m meant to meet Aunt May.”

“Laura, you will be fine, just don’t give her a reason to glare. She has had twenty years of Peter to perfect that thing…”

“How are so many heroes scared of an old lady!”

“I’m from a Christian household from the twentieth century, my mother always told me that old ladies are that much closer to God than the rest of us, that they get a little bit of his power.”

“And the real reason?”

“She makes really nice cookies and never refers to me by my rank. It’s rather refreshing to have someone who isn’t bothered about that part of my life.”

“That sounds more like it.”

“Oh and she shot Electro one time.”

“Super Villain?”

“Super Villain.”

“What the actual…”

“Language!”

********

“Hey Jess, got a minute?”

“Oh hey Laura, sure, what’s up?”

“Hi Laura.” Luke chimed in from the background.”

“So I’m due to be meeting Aunt May…”

“Say no more, that woman is precious and must be protected!”

“The cookies?”

“Yes/no” the couple spoke over each other, having a muffled argument over the phone, before Luke took over.

“Mays baking is the best, no idea how Jess gets on so well with her…”

“School friend life hacks!” Jessica shouted, Laura grinning as they bickered before returning to the topic in hand.

“Look, you’ve never seen Spider-Man when he stops talking. Anything happens to her, Peter would tear the city apart…”

“Why is everyone so scared of her, but loves her baking?” Laura wondered aloud.

“The woman is a gift to cooking and knows no fear! I saw her once tell a would-be mugger off so hard he ran away crying!”

“Why didn’t you step in?”

“She told me to wait my turn while she dealt with him!”

“Then what happened?”

“She made Luke escort her home! He just went along with it before he realised what was going on, by then he was in too deep to back out without being rude.” Jess burst out laughing, ignoring Luke’s grumbles.

“The cookie was worth it though.” Laura was just baffled as the two started bickering about their various encounters, with whom everyone assured her, was an ordinary old lady. Except for the things that happened around her that defied logic.

********

Orore Munroe, better known as the X-Men member Storm, was surprised when Laura knocked on her door asking to talk about something.

“So you know the new friend I’ve been spending time with lately?” Orore was wondering where this was going with such an opening. The romantic in her was hoping her sudo daughter had a budding relationship, though Laura only really seemed to get on with Logan, her sister Gabby, and strangely enough Gambit.

“Of course child, is something wrong?”

“Well I’ve been asked to meet his aunt for dinner and half the super heroes in New York seem to be scared of her.” Not expecting that, the older woman blinked a few times before gathering her thoughts.

“You’ve met his friends, is this your first time meeting any of his family?”

Yes, as far as I know, his aunt is his only family.”

“Has he met any of your family?”

“Logan was the one who introduced us.”

“Have you considered that maybe that’s what is making you nervous?”

“No….”

“Has Gabby asked to meet him, or has he expressed interest?”

“Gabby is curious, he’s mentioned it in passing, but neither have pushed it.”

“I’m sure things will go well with his aunt, just don’t go overboard like Logan has been known to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know how many times that man has faked his death?”

“...can we stick to my problem?”

“Apple pie.”

“Apple pie?”

“When invited for dinner, it is traditional to bring some food or drink item. Apple pie is a good, neutral dessert.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m concerned about here…”

“Look, Laura, this is the first time you’re meeting someone not related to their job, right?”

“Yes…”

“A family connection is more personal, just think of it as getting to know this friend more. Maybe you can even do the same thing and introduce him.” Laura sat in silence for a while, thinking it over, before nodding, thanking Orore and taking her leave.

*********

That was how she found herself standing in front of an ordinary looking door, in front of a neighbourhood that could have featured in any typical New York film setting, clutching an apple pie like it was a shield.

Ben had kindly guided her to a bakery that he knew both his and Peter’s aunts loved. They had even provided some kind of cream that she was told paired well. She had just nodded and paid before beating a rapid retreat.

Kitty had overheard her problem, lacking any relatively smart clothes, Laura had ended up wearing a loaned grey shirt, along with her least ripped jeans. Hair tied up in a ponytail, about as well scrubbed as she could be after riding her motorbike into the city, she had been staring at the door for about five minutes now.

Alright, this was getting silly, she had faced down some of the strongest mutants on the planet, why was she so nervous? Well, it was easier when she could punch her troubles away, so she might as well bite the bullet.

Making it the last few steps to the door, she hesitantly raised a finger and pushed the doorbell. The door swung open almost immediately, much to her surprise.

“Welcome dear, you must be Laura?” She wasn’t exactly the tallest around, but Aunt May was smaller than her, yet immediately reminded Laura of some no nonsense people she had met in her past.

“Erm, yes Mrs Parker, nice to meet you. I brought pie?” Laura got stuck in a loop of holding out her hand, then the pie, then her hand, before May snorted with laughter, putting the pie on a small table just inside the door and pulling Laura into a hug.

“Call me May, you and Peter have at least one thing in common, I didn’t expect you to knock on the door for at least another few minutes.” Laura normally wasn’t a fan of physical contact, but the homely old lady caught her off guard before she could even think of protesting.

She quickly found herself standing in a kitchen, cup of coffee in hand, while May bustled around finishing up dinner. Her cautious offers to help were kindly rebuffed, Peter’s aunt living up to her reputation as a force of nature shown off as she commanded the space like a queen in her realm. Which also leads to the next topic.

“As you went to my favourite bakery, I’m guessing you spoke to Mr Grimm?”

“Yes, he was very helpful, in that regard at least.”

“Then I’m guessing you’ve heard all sorts of fanciful stories about me?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Less of that, you’re a guest, there’s no need to be so formal. I don’t know why Peter’s work friends think so highly of me, it was his parents that were the real deal.”

“He’s not really mentioned them, beyond that they died when he was young. What did they do?”

“They worked for the CIA and were killed in the line of duty, god rest their souls.”

“..wait, Peter’s parents were CIA agents?”

“Very good ones yes, that lovely Nick Fury still sends a card every year on the anniversary.”

“Peter, the dorkiest person I have ever met, is the son of two Nick Fury level badasses?” Laura had heard of the phrase ‘jaw hitting the floor’, right now she felt like the embodiment of it. Much as she also didn’t like Fury that much, she had to admit he was very good at his job.

“Language, but yes. Ben and I just picked a few things up from them. Peter has done so much more than anyone else in this family, in that regard, yet his friends seem to think I’m scarier for some strange reason.” May sighed wistfully, before the oven pinged, breaking her from her thoughts.

“Speaking of, where is Peter?” So taken aback by everything, Laura realised the person who had actually invited her here was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh he got held up by a bank robbery, he should be along soon. While we wait, why don’t you tell me more about yourself. I hear you’re Logan’s daughter?”

“Sort of, a female clone of his would be more accurate.” Laura wasn’t usually this honest, was this the mythical mom powers she had heard tell of?

“Oh dear, was it just you, or were there others?”

“Well I have my younger sister Gabby, we’re the only surviving ones I know of… you’re taking this rather well?”

“Didn’t Peter tell you? There’s at least… I think there are two surviving clones of him running around. They live in other cities. At one point there was more, one of Peter’s villains got really into clones, had one of Gwen living with us for a while…” May drifted off at that point, falling into silence, before shaking herself out of it. “The point is, clones are hardly a new thing for this family.”

“Huh.”

“Yes it’s hardly been a normal life ever since he got bitten by that spider, would have been nice if he had officially told me before I found him passed out on his bed covered in blood.”

“....what!?”

“It’s just nice to have someone who can keep an eye on him, I do worry about him. Especially after the third building that got dropped on him.”

“WHAT!?”

********

“Sorry about all that, I know Aunt May can be a bit much, likes to tease newcomers, but I’m glad you came.” Peter had eventually shown up, announcing his presence by falling through the window into his old bedroom when he had heard the laughter of the two women.

He had been glad to see them getting on, though he did have to stop his aunt getting the baby photos out. Something which had left Laura smiling as she watched the two of them, seeing another side of him, and a more domestic life.

A far cry from her usual life. Though she still wasn’t sure about how he was so…. Him, when his parents turned out were secret agent legends. His aunt's reputation was well earned as well, though she was a lot less intimidating than expected.
Just very commanding.

“I had a good time, better than I expected.” she admitted, Peter walking her to her bike. Dinner had been delicious, the apple pie had gone down well, ganging up on Peter with May had been some of the best fun she had had for ages, she just needed some time to emotionally recover from the series of bombshells that had been dropped on her.

They paused as she pulled her helmet on, starting the bike up, before she asked the question.

“Do… do you think she approved of me then?”

“Aunt May isn’t like that, the verdict is you’re good for me, so she’s a fan. She would like to have you for dinner again sometime.”

Her smile was hidden behind the helmet, she nodded in response. “I’d love to visit again. Just maybe don’t be so dramatic about it next time…”

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

After the stress of the previous week, with meeting his lovely aunt with a streak of bone chillingly terrifying, Laura had suggested that they should follow through on the film night suggestion from Jessica.

Which Peter had happily agreed to, ending up agreeing on going to his place for it. Her’s being a little too impractical for him to get to, as well as them most likely getting swamped by the mansion's other residents.

Which wasn’t a problem, she was making regular trips into the city now, except she had been sat across from his workplace half an hour past when they were due to meet. Not a single sign of him.

It was rather unlike him, while he could be late due to his… other job, he always made a point to be on time as much as humanly possible. Something about his therapist beating it into his thick skull that it would make it easier to maintain longer term relationships or any kind.

Also an ex had thrown a tv remote at him about it?

Growling to herself, she stood up from the bench, stretched, and made her way across the road. Peter and her had been friends, well she supposed they were friends after several months of hanging out, they had been friends long enough that the receptionist knew her by sight.

“Here to pick up Peter again? He’s still in his lab, do you know the way?” Smiling in understanding as Laura snorted and muttered about boys and their toys.

“I know the way, thank you, I’ll go drag him out….” Laura set off, getting buzzed into the elevator and hitting the button for the floor Peter was based on. Technically she could pull out her phone and buzz herself in, the clearance the Fantastic Four had granted her in their building applied to this one as well, but she hated drawing attention to herself.

As far as she knew, Peter’s coworkers knew she was the daughter of a family friend, she didn’t want to dispel that misconception quite yet. Peter wasn’t widely known as Spider-Man within the company, so it worked out best for both of them if she stayed low key.

Which is why she rang the buzzer at the door to his lab, instead of just swiping herself in, and why she was impatiently tapping her foot when he finally opened the door, looking confused to see her there.

“I thought we weren’t meeting until Wednesday?” He asked her, bleary eyed.

“It is Wednesday…” Her tone was neutral, but the glare was enough to make him wake up in panic. He fled back into the lab, grabbing his phone to check the date, while she stalked in after him.

“Dammit, Electro must have hit me harder than I thought…” he muttered to himself, scrambling through half assembled gear and blueprints. “He got a power boost, didn’t think I was this out of it…”

She watched and listened as he raced back and forth, recalling he had fought the villain a couple of days before. It hadn’t been a straight defeat, but Spider-Man had been knocked down long enough for Electro to flee.

Seems it was still hitting her friend hard. Though from the looks, and smell of him, he hadn’t slept since then. Solving problems like this was her department after all.

Besides, normally he would have clocked her swiping the dart gun from the wall. Or heard her loading the tranquilliser dart. Or dodged it.

So she felt less guilty when he slumped in his seat unconscious, checking his pulse to make sure she hadn’t given him too high a dose.

It was times like this she understood why people kept saying it was nice to have someone keeping an eye on Peter. They were as bad as each other in some regards.

She smiled fondly at his sleeping form, now there was no one to see her, before making sure he was resting comfortably on a sofa at the back of his lab. She flicked the lights off, gave him one last look, before exiting the lab.

She had been warned he had moments like this, she just hadn’t expected to see it in person.

********

Peter was surprisingly warm and comfy when he started to wake up, helped along by something tapping his forehead. He was almost surprised to find himself laid on the sofa in his lab, with Laura crouched down next to him, her finger raised mid tap.

“Oh, hey, sorry, must have fallen asleep, did I miss lunch?” Peter asked as he sat up, stretching, feeling more rested than he had in a while.

“Just a little, it looked like you needed sleep. We can still grab Chinese from that place you were telling me about and have the film night.” She suggested, before wrinkling her nose. “You will need to shower when we get to yours though.

The receptionist had to hide her laughter as a dazed and confused Peter was dragged out the building, Laura’s vice-like grip on his arm leaving him no way out.

********

She wasn’t sure what to expect of Peter's place, but it was very much him. The kitchen was stuffed with various cooking items, some obviously gifted and barely used, some electrical ones half dismantled, or upgraded.

In short the kitchen was a disaster, which was on brand. If not for his hyper metabolism, the guy would probably be in trouble from the amount of takeaway he seemed to order.

She had been left with instructions to make herself at home, before she practically threw him in the shower. Dumping the food on the kitchen counter, she began having a poke around.

He had said to make herself at home, she was pretty sure she knew his most important secret, besides, she was curious. A person's home said a lot about them, even her fairly empty room back at the mansion.

The building his apartment was in seemed a fairly secure one, less subtle than Luke and Jessica’s place, but she was told this building housed a lot of employees like Peter, that worked directly, or indirectly, for various big companies or government agencies.
The living room was more spacious than she expected, a massive, comfy looking L shaped sofa took up the centre of the room, facing a screen hanging on the wall?

It took her a couple of minutes of poking around, before she found a DVD player hooked up to a projector on the ceiling. It looked like the one thing he had actually spent money on was this setup, the rest of the room filled with bookshelves that were overflowing and had seen better days.

As she browsed around, she found DVDs of everything from old cartoons that meant nothing to her, to documentaries on all sorts of topics, to low budget action films, and more. It seems like he had a wide interest, but she noted a few seemed to live permanently on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

Including a much loved copy of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 she had heard mention of.

What space wasn’t occupied by DVDs, was taken up by piles of second hand books, again from a wide array of topics, both fictional and non-fictional. At least she assumed so, some of the books were probably related to his work, but she couldn’t make head nor toe of what they meant.

It was a two bedroom apartment, one was an actual bedroom that was surprisingly tidy, while the other room seemed to serve as his workshop. It looked mostly harmless, but she could spot the odd Spider-Man related gadget, as well where he hadn’t shoved one of his suits quite out of sight.

It was unlikely he had many people around who didn’t know of his other job, but the chaotic state of his apartment was so him, it felt rather comforting.

Now she just wondered what was taking him so long in the shower…

********

Peter was finishing up in the shower, relaxed enough that his mind was actually registering things, when he started in shock.

Electro! He was meant to be tracking the villain down, what if he’s gone on a crime spree, Peter would never be able to forgive himself.

Digging his phone out of his discarded pants, he quickly checked the news for any update on Electro, but was amazed by what he found.

The first video showed him trashing a warehouse, onlookers weren’t sure what had set the villain off, until someone in an all too familiar black uniform was blasted through a wall. Not that it stopped her, as she got back to her feet, smoking slightly, before launching herself back into the warehouse.

The next video showed the fight had moved elsewhere, Electro trying to keep Laura at bay, before finally hammering her with a bolt of electricity. Only for her to reveal she had used her claws as a lightning rod, shaking off the attack and charging forwards again.

Another video was from further up the street of the last one, Electro trying to flee the scene, begging for mercy as a semi feral, and still smoking Laura, chasing after him.

The final video he could find, that wasn’t alternate view points of the previous videos, was Laura dragging an unconscious Electro up the steps to a police station, opening the door, throwing the villain in and yelling that he was their problem now. Then she just left.

There were memes about her, people were aware of her, she hung out with Spider-Man too often for people not to, but it was the first time she had hunted down a villain on her own like that.

And apparently scared the poor guy senseless, Peter almost felt sorry for poor Max. He knew how scary Laura was when on the hunt. He had so many questions.

In particular, the main meme that was making the rounds based off a clip towards the end of the chase, where Electro had shouted about what it took to stop her. Laura’s line had been immortalised in internet history.

“May sends her regards!”

This led to a lot of people wondering what the month had against Electro, thankfully the only ones who remembered it was a name just made memes about Electro being weak to women. It was public knowledge his aunt had shot Electro in the past, but he had never expected her to become a minor internet celebrity because of it.

********

Laura had already made herself comfortable with her food, when Peter staggered out the bathroom. She raised an eyebrow as he tossed his phone to her, until she saw the paused video of her attack on Electro.

“Laura, what did you do?” Peter looked torn between looking proud and aghast, so Laura decided to have a little fun with it.

“He was interrupting our film night, so I removed him as a problem.” She paused for a moment, before holding one finger up like she was dispensing ancient wisdom. “Modern problems require modern solutions.”

Ok so maybe it was something she had picked up from Gabby.

“You… but… what?” Peter bluescreened, never expecting Laura of all people to drop a meme on him.

“I was warned about how you get with villains at times like this, you could have been distracted for days if I hadn’t stepped in.”

“But… wait, did you drug me?”

“If I hadn’t needed to do it, you would have easily dodged.”

“...I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not…”

“Then get your food and show me this Mystery Science 3000 you love so much.”

“I’m…. yeah let’s do that.”

********

“What do you love about this show?”

“What’s not to love?”

“It makes no sense to me.”

“How can it make no sense? You’d have to have no idea of pop culture and story… oooooh.”

“Did you really forget that part?”

“My bad, how about Finding Nemo?”

“What’s that about?”

“One clownfish and his search for his son, taken to be part of… a fish tank!”

“Sure, but if I don’t understand this one, you’re getting punched.”

********

She did understand it, loved it in fact. Would have to see if Gabby had seen this film yet. Also the sequel, they watched that as well and Laura was much happier with this choice.

********

In the end, Peter left her in a ball of blankets on the sofa to sleep. He tried stirring her, when she fell asleep not long after the credits rolled on Finding Dory, but gave up when the mound growled at him.

Though he did have a quick call to make.

“You’re a terrible influence on your daughter!” He hissed, when Logan picked up the phone.

“No idea what she did, I take full credit and you’re welcome.” Came the smug reply.

“Oh and she’s made a nest on my sofa, you might get her back tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks for the heads up, it is getting late. Don’t shock her awake, she gets stabby then.”

“Thanks for the… help?”

“What can I say, I’m a helpful guy!”

“And yet I have Laura occupying my sofa…”

“You’re the only guy who would complain about having someone be comfortable enough to do that around. Anyone else and she would freak out about it.”

“Stop being reasonable!”

“Only when it stops being funny.”

********

In the end, Laura was lured from her cocoon the following morning by the smell of ham and mushroom omelettes.

Logan convinced her to leave a Yelp review for Peter’s sofa, much to the web slingers dismay.

Aunt May got a mysterious package, containing a dart pistol and several darts, with a note “For when he needs calming down.” She wouldn’t admit the idea was tempting, but stashed it away. Just in case it was needed.

The most important fallout from the evening though, was it became a Wednesday ritual going forwards for the two. No he could not convince her to take the bed, while he took the sofa. Yes she claimed all his blankets.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

Sat before him was the greatest hurdle he had faced in recent times. The biggest threat to his relatively quiet and stable life. Maybe even to his sanity, what little of it he had left.

“So you’re the guy Laura’s been hanging around with lately…” Mirrored sunglasses stared back at him over steepled hands, making him feel like he was being interviewed.

Which he sort of was.

By a ten year old.

“I was expecting more, we have dorks a dime a dozen back home. They look even more interesting as well.”

A very sassy ten year old…

********
A couple of days ago…

********

“Hey, Peter?” When she didn’t get a response after a few seconds, she flicked a pen his way. In the kitchen, he didn’t even look her way, before snatching it out the air and twirling it between his fingers.

In the couple of months since their first film night, she had made herself quite at home, claiming a small section of his bathroom for her overnight visits, and a drawer to store things like a couple of changes of clothes.

She found his place comforting, but he didn’t mind her intrusion, even encouraged it. Said it stopped him from getting too stuck in his own head, when others weren’t around to drag him out. As a result, hanging around his apartment, even just turning up to browse his piles of books, or just hanging out while he worked on stuff, had become a common occurrence.

“Hmm, what’s up?” Raising an eyebrow, before tossing the pen back to her. Since she had managed to get him with the tranq dart, he hadn’t let himself get into a bad enough state like that since.

That all his other friends had given him grief for it, once they stopped laughing, had helped. They used to give him more slack, that was just how he was, but now they were towing the line set by Laura, who wouldn’t have any of his nonsense.

And to think, they had only known each other less than a year at this point, maybe eight months? She was such a part of his life and routine now, that he couldn’t remember how long it had been.

“I… well I’ve been thinking, since I met your Aunt May, you know Logan, but… would you like to meet Gabby?” He paused at that, they had brushed against the idea, but this was the first time Laura had mentioned it directly.

He set aside the meal he had been cooking to cook, it was basically done, before heading to the sofa to sit down with an obviously nervous Laura.

“Are you sure about this?” He made sure to take her hand in his, telegraphing it so she could stop him, or at least not stab him, using the contact to ground her. With her attention now fully focused on him, he carried on. “I know what she means to you, I would love to meet someone this special for you. I don’t want you to force it.”

“She’s been asking questions about you, wanting to know about who it is I’ve been having sleepovers with…” Laura grumbled, rolling her eyes at the memory. Logan had played both sides, agreeing with Gabby to tease Laura, but also refusing to tell Gabby who it was unless Laura agreed to it.

“Well kids can be curious.”

“Also Logan and Ororo have been teasing me about how I haven’t introduced you.”

“But Logan and Ororo know how I am?”

“Logan does, but I might not have told Ororo who you are exactly…”

“So, Gabby, then meet sudo mom sometime?”

“No being mean to either of them.” She glared at him over the top of the sofa, with no real heat behind it, leaving him gasping with mock shock.

“Me? One is a mini you and the other one is a literal goddess! Or a technical goddess?” Either way, she can summon storms and there’s a whole song about how spiders do in the rain!”

“Alright, then I will tell them to go easier on you.”

“I think that’s the best I’m getting, so I will take it.”

“Logan on the other hand…”

“He’s being nice to me lately and it freaks me out, don’t encourage him!”

********

Which is what led to Peter’s current situation. Sat in a quiet diner, across from both Laura and Gabby. One looking way more excited about this than the other.

“Ah, but Tiny Terror, I know something they don’t!” He declared confidently.

“What’s that? Also, if I’m Tiny Terror, what’s Laura?”

“She’s Teenage Terror!”

“Not after next week, she’s old then.” Peter clutched his heart in fake shock.

“You’re turning twenty and you didn’t even think to tell me! I’m gonna need to find you another name.”

“Or, you can stop showing your emotional age and stop arguing with a ten year old.” Laura was not impressed about this turn of events.

“I’m not arguing, I know the weakness of every ten year old!”

“Do tell.” Said both sisters at once, one drier in tone than the other. The younger burst into laughter when the elder glared at her.

“Everyone knows that kids have a second stomach for dessert. And I’m paying for it. So that gets me bonus points!” The small talk hadn’t gone great, so he was openly resorting to bribery.

Was it something he was proud of, no, he was bribing a ten year old with ice cream. On the other hand, if it worked, then he wasn’t going to complain.

It did get Gabby’s attention, as she leaned forwards in a conspiratorial manner. “Chocolate brownie and ice cream?”

“Of course, only the best for such a connoisseur.” They nodded, a bargain made.

“You two really are the same level of maturity…” Was Laura’s comment on the whole thing.

“Guess you don’t want any…” Peter leaned back, sharing a grin with Gabby, who giggled, the bribery working better than attempting to be a functioning human being.

“Only kids have the second stomach, she won’t have room after her burger.”

“I didn’t say that, I’ll have the cake!” Laura panicked for a moment, before flushed red when she realised they were teasing her. This new alliance being forged in front of her was making her regret introducing them, even though the lack of social skills between the three of them had set things off to an awkward start.

Dessert was ordered and supplied in short order, even Laura didn’t bother to hide how much she enjoyed it as they tucked in.

“Alright, you know how to appeal to me with food, but Laura never told me, how did you guys meet?” Gabby now furnished with her tasty treat, was back to asking the more serious questions. Also maybe getting something to tease her older sister with.
Laura and Peter exchanged glances, having already discussed this earlier.

“Finish up your food, then we can show you.” Gabby raised an eyebrow, knowing they were plotting something, but curious enough not to question it. For now.

********

“So we’re waiting here, why?” Gabby inquired, as the sisters stood in a sheltered alleyway, well away from prying eyes. Peter had paid and slipped out ahead of them, while directing them here.

“You’ll see.” A small smile flitted across Laura’s face as she heard the familiar sound of web shooters, seconds before a red and blue blur landed on the wall across from them.

Gabby had popped her claws out of instinct, thinking they were under attack, slowly putting them away when Laura didn’t react, and she saw who had arrived.

“Spider-Man!” The squeal of joy was the most ten year old Gabby had sounded like since the trio had met up. She turned to Laura, wide eyed. “You’ve been hanging out with Spider-Man and didn’t tell me!?”

“Bet your dorks can’t do that.” Laura could tell he was enjoying this, but seeing Gabby bounce up and down with joy. Well, for that, she would put up with it. She supposed.

“Can we go for a swing?” Gabby was almost vibrating at this point. Probably Kitty’s fault, she was a big Spider-Man nerd.

“Well, what does your sister say?” Peter pretending to be a responsible adult turned to Laura, both of them giving her puppy dog eyes.

Why was she worried about them again? They were like big kids.

“Alright, you can take her for a swing, but don’t go too high.” She sighed, crossing her arms as the pair of them high fived, before Gabby jumped on Peter’s back.

“Don’t worry, I won’t take her as high as I usually go.” He actually winked at her, cutting off Gabby’s questions about what he had been doing with Laura, when he launched himself into the air and swung off.

Based on Gabby’s excited screams, she was having the time of her life. Laura couldn’t blame her, swinging around when Peter was showing off was pretty fun. Someday she might even admit it to him.

********

They returned after twenty minutes, landing gently next to Laura. Gabby was bouncing up and down, hyperactive after her trip, and tugging on Peter's arm.

“That was amazing! Can we keep him?” Laura snorted.

“He’s not a pet, but if he’s up for it, I’m sure you can see him again.”

“I think I’ve bonded with the Tiny Terror, you could bring her to one of our film nights.” Gabby pouted at the name, before twigging what he said.

“Wait, you go to film nights with him, but not me?”

“I’m getting used to… “ She started, before getting interrupted.

“She loves Find Nemo and Lilo and Stitch, get something like on the screen and you’ve got a good chance of luring her in.” She glared at Peter for his betrayal, right before his alarm dinged, letting him know he had to head back to work.

“Well it was nice to meet you Gabby, nice to see a Wolverine that runs on sugar and not spice, but I must be off!” He was surprised when the smaller sister gave him a hug, even more so when the elder took his hand.

Stroking the back of his hand with her thumb, still getting used to physical affection, but she was getting dragged into liking it by this puppy dog of a friend. “Thank you Peter, I’ll speak to you later.”

Their smiles were worth it. She just looked fondly at Gabby, babbling away happily, as they drove back to the mansion. After that night, it was good to see her smiling again.

Peter had no idea what he had done for them both today, but she would find a way to let him know.

********

A few days ago…

********

Laura’s eyes snapped awake as she heard the key scraping against the lock of her door. Old habits died hard, she tended to sleep lightly, but didn’t leap out of bed in this case.

Only one person had a key to her room, not even Logan was allowed that.

She watched as Gabby let herself in, trying to quietly lock the door behind her, fully aware Laura would be awake. Still tried to not disturb her sister anymore than she needed to.

Padding over to the bed, pausing when Laura sat up in concern, before letting herself be pulled into a hug. They both still had nightmares, some more frequent than others. Laura isolated herself when she had hers, but Gabby, she sought out the comfort of her older sibling.

Curling up together in bed, Laura ran her fingers through Gabby’s hair until she felt the younger girl breathing slow, and her body still, as Gabby drifted off to sleep.

She knew what worried Gabby. Things a ten year old shouldn’t have to worry about. Such was the curse of their bloodline it seemed.

She would speak to Peter about meeting Gabby tomorrow. If he cheered her up half as much as he cheered Laura up, then it would give her little sister a glimpse at a brighter future.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

Laura had never been one for birthdays. Given her childhood, it wasn’t a concept she had even been truly introduced to until she was a teenager. As someone who avoided being the centre of attention whenever possible, it was not a concept she took to well.

There had been attempts by her fellow residents of the mansion over the years, to varying degrees of enthusiasm. They did the same for all the residents. Even Logan was more gracious about it than Laura.

Which is why last year she had spent her birthday hiding up a tree, ignoring an eye roll from Logan when she snuck back in through a window when everyone else was probably asleep.

As a result, when Logan said he was off to a grilling contest that day, she didn’t take much convincing to come along. Gabby came, naturally, not wanting to let Laura out of her sight, but both girls also enjoyed Logan’s burgers.

Even if Logan was grumbling for the first part of their car journey, when Gabby was bugging him about Spider-Man, still obsessed with the hero since the web swing she went on. If he wasn’t friends with Peter, Logan would probably have strangled the guy next time they met, for giving their hyperactive ten year old a new focus.

So Laura did her part and kept Gabby distracted, playing silly games with her like eye spy. It was a good thing she had Jessica’s number, the prospective mother had gone down a real rabbit hole with all the kid stuff, some of which was proving useful with her kid sister.

So it caught her by surprise when they pulled up outside a familiar house.

“Well I never said where the contest was happening, or who it was with.” Logan said innocently.

********

“Oh hello Logan, I didn’t know you were bringing company?” Aunt May was the picture of innocence when she answered the door. Apart from the twinkle in her eye.

And a familiar, rather distinct, motorbike at the side of the house.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the trio were ushered into the garden, revealing Ben Grimm and Steve Rogers light heartedly arguing over a trio of grills, before Logan strolled over to join them, and they started working out how they were doing to do their cook out.

Gabby was lured away by the promise of both cookies, and the mess that would be involved making them, leaving Laura alone. Which was what she wanted for the day, but how it came about left her confused.

Until she heard a familiar, apologetic sigh from her.

“Sorry about that, I never had many people around for my birthdays, so when May heard you prefer to avoid it, she cooked this up with Logan. Give you something to remember, but away from people.” Peter was scratching the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

Laura looked around. Logan was arguing with Ben and Steve, before they agreed to do burgers, steaks, then signature items for their contest. The rest of the food was already prepared.

She could see Gabby through the kitchen window, already getting carried away with the flour, a big grin plastered on her face. May didn’t seem to mind the hyperactive child, patting her head and helping clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, she was left with Peter, or could probably just sit quietly in a corner if she asked. Or even just leave, though with how this whole thing was set up, it was a less lonely version of her plans, which gave her enough reason to stay.

“Can… can I just sit and read?” She asked, hesitation evidence, which only got worse when Peter snorted.

“Sure, means it won’t just be me. You got a book, or need to borrow one?”

She elected to borrow one, his aunt was at least particularly responsible for. At least she got to hear Gabby’s laugh while she was browsing.

She glanced at what Peter was reading in his deck chair, seeing some science book and rolling her eyes, before settling down in the garden's loveseat with her crime novel.

It was a nicer way to enjoy her birthday, mostly peaceful beyond the grumbling of the cook. It was a pleasant few hours, Ben taking the prize from the four judges for his cooking. The cookies came out looking great, Gabby ecstatic, but too full to actually try them.

Having three lots of grilled food came back to bite them there, so the trio ended up with a tub of cookies to take home. Cookies that would most likely not survive the night at the mansion, but as long as she got to eat some, Laura wasn’t too fussed.

Peter had built her what he called a Parkertech phone. She hadn’t looked too closely, but she realised that his aunt had one, as well as himself, and from what he had told her, a few other close friends.

It was bleeding edge tech, the stuff you couldn’t buy on the market, tapped into Stark satellites so you had signal pretty much anywhere in the world, encryption only agencies like S.H.I.E.L.D had a hope of cracking, was DNA locked to her so even he couldn’t get into, and even came with access to his database on heroes and villains for her perusal.

Oh and unlimited data, texts and calls.

After playing around with it, she had agreed to use it, cloning her current phone over to it. Peter even proved his point about not being able to access it, trying to put the passcode in and it coming back with an unregistered user error.

He also told her about the feature he included in every phone, the main reason some people had them. If the phone was broken, it would send out an alert to him, the fantastic four and a few other close allies.

He knew she would never need it, just wanted to warn her. Even his phone had that, it was a default option.

One last thing he presented her with was a drawing of her curled up on the love seat with her book. She hadn’t even noticed him drawing, but she kept it for one reason. Aside from it coming from him.

She looked like a normal girl in it, just relaxing. Something she had trouble believing was possible, but now she had proof. In a more fitting manner than just a photo as well.

He didn’t quite know what to do when she kissed his cheek, thanked him, then fled to the car with the rest of her family.

********

Some day she might tell Peter about the new gloves Jessica got her. Like her old ones they had slits for her claws, but these ones were sturdier and had hidden, built in brass knuckles.

They immediately got added to Laura’s ‘hero’ costume that she wore when hanging out with Spider-Man.

********

Peter’s birthday was a more chaotic affair.

For Laura at least.

It was much like the previous celebration, except with even more people. She had a feeling he got dragged there by his aunt. Laura was out of her element here, mostly hiding behind an amused Ben, both literally and metaphorically.

Until Jessica kidnapped her, to introduce her to one of the couple's closest friends, and a sometimes member of their Defenders team, Misty Knight.

Lady had a cool metal arm, Laura could appreciate that.

She did actually learn Peter’s age, which she hadn’t even thought to ask about. At least until Gabby brought the whole birthday mess up. He was turning twenty five, older than she thought he was with his personality, but still impressive how much he had achieved at such a young age.

It gave her a funny feeling seeing him surrounded by so many people. It almost felt like a world apart from her. Jessica’s arm around her shoulders, as the other woman regained their raid to Misty, that reminded Laura that she was becoming a part of it.

A year or two ago, the idea would have, well not scared her, but not appealed.

Now, she couldn’t imagine her life without Peter in it.

*********

When she was able to get him alone, she gave her present. A thermal lined hoodie, she knew he had problems with the cold, and had stolen, erm, borrowed, a few of his already, so it only seemed far she replaced them.

********

“So did you have fun at Spider-Man’s birthday?” Was the first thing the small human missile known as Gabby asked when she tackled Laura upon her return to the mansion.

The whole secret identity thing had been hammered into the kid, so now she only called him by his hero name. Except when with Peter of course.

“You went to who’s birthday party!” came a shocked voice from across the large entrance hallway.

Laura froze, the one person she had dreaded finding out about her friendship. Kitty Pryde. Self proclaimed Spider-Man super fan. One of the few people personally trained by Logan. Who was currently pointing a shaking finger at the pair of sisters.

Gabby giggling didn’t help matters, but distracted Kitty long enough for Laura to put her escape plan into action.

Kitty shouted for her to get back here and answer her questions, as Laura tucked Gabby onto her back and legged it back down the driveway to freedom. Logan raised a confused eyebrow as the duo raced past him, Gabby having the time of her life, while Laura looked panicked.

When he saw who was chasing them, he groaned and intercepted Kitty. Least he could do for his kids.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

Something had happened. Laura wasn’t sure what, but it made her teeth itch one day, and she still wasn’t sure what had gone on weeks later.

Except that Peter had vanished for a couple of weeks. The longest she had gone without seeing him in the near year since they met. It was Avengers business, so she understood.

Oh and a bunch of new mutants turned up. It confused matters as they had both not existed before that day, but also always existed somehow.

********

Despite the strange goings on, things eventually settled down and they got back to their routine. Laura appreciated this, after a less than normal life, having a routine was rather grounding.

Which led to the Wednesday evening film night, which Peter said he had something important to talk about to her tomorrow.

Which annoyed her when she woke up to a note, saying he had been called away for an Avengers emergency. Probably the AIM invasion the news was on about, that had been stopped rather rapidly by tactical deployment of a Hulk straight into their floating battle fortress.

It was an effective way to get them to surrender, especially when the Hulk had only just got back to Earth and wanted a break.
He had left pancakes. This was an acceptable offering to tide her over until his return. She was down to the last couple when she heard the window slide open. Raising her eyes, sat at the kitchen island facing that way, she paused in surprise at who climbed in.

“Hey Peter, you wanted to…” The figure said, pausing in surprise when they caught sight of Laura. It looked a little like Spider-Man, except smaller, sounded younger and in a black suit with red trimming.

“Erm, where is… the owner of this apartment?” the intruder asked.

“Doggleganger…” Laura raised one hand, accusing finger outstretched. Half a pancake still hanging out her mouth.

“What?”

“No, clone!” She growled, swallowing the remaining food and standing up.

“Now hang on!” The intruder started edging back to the window in panic.

*snikt*

“What the actual hell!” The imposter Spider-Man screamed, before diving out the window as Laura discarded the baggy hoodie she had been wrapped up in.

*********

Well the whole AIM invasion had apparently been a dumb bet between M.O.D.O.K and one of the other head scientists about heroes and their sense of timing, so they had ploughed a battleship into New York while the Avengers were in space.

Proving M.O.D.O.K right, the Avengers had returned the same morning and quickly put down the attempted invasion. The research paper released shortly after by the villain, detailing how heroes generated a nuisance field, designed to foil evil plots, raised a few eyebrows.

Peter was leaving Avengers tower a couple of hours after it all went down, fighting a headache and hoping Laura wasn’t too upset.

Then he checked his messages and raised an eyebrow when he saw multiple missed calls from Miles. He was meant to introduce the kid to Laura… oh no.

Just as he was about to call Miles back, another call from him popped up.

“Oh thank god Peter, why is there a wolverine chasing me!” Peter got a strange sense of deja vu at that.

“How long for?” That headache was getting worse.

“Ah hour! I can’t lose her, she keeps finding me somehow, chasing me up buildings….” Miles was babbling, tired and stressed out by the morning, so Peter just cut to the chase.

“Ok Laura, I know you can hear my voice, he’s not a clone, I’ll explain everything, just don’t hurt him.”

“Don’t hurt me, what…” Miles was cut off by a thump and a scream. It was so weird for Peter to be on the other end of this conversation.

“You mean he isn’t one of those clones you told me about?” Came Laura’s voice on the line.

“Is Miles alright?”

“Kid Spider isn’t as comfy to sit on as you, too boney.”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!” Shouted an outraged Miles.

“Look, he’s a friend, just… get him back to my place alright, I’ll meet you there.

“Sure, can I get a lift?”

“Are you even…” the call disconnected, before he heard a piercing whistle. He found them two streets over, Miles face down on the ground, like he wished it would swallow him up. Laura waved happily, still sat on the kids back.

Maybe he needed to train her not to hunt down spiders like this, it was becoming a bad habit.

********

“So there was a massive merger of dimensions, which is where Miles, and the new mutants, came from?” Laura was beginning to think she had a handle on the situation.

“Yes.”

“He’s not a clone?”

“The clone stuff was a few years back, he is far too small to be one of the clones.”

“Hey!” Protested Miles.

“Dude, you’re seventeen…” Peter shot back

“You don’t have to out me like that…”

“Anyway, as far as I know, there’s only two clones left. Ben looks like me, but has blond hair, currently working out of New Vegas. Kaine is… well taller than me and last I heard was in Mexico? I should probably check on that sometime…” Peter trailed off, looking vaguely concerned.

“So he’s an alternate universe version of you?”

“Not quite, the Peter Parker in my universe died taking down our Green Goblin, I just got bitten by a different spider, similar kind of outcome.”

“And I wanted to introduce you two this morning, as I’m showing Miles the ropes in this universe, so you might run into him from time to time.”

“Never. Again!” Protested a slightly traumatised Miles.

“I promise to play nice next time.” Laura dead panned, Peter taking that as the best he was going to get.

********

When Laura made it back to the mansion, leaving the Spider people to do whatever it was spider people do, she heard what sounded suspiciously like the opening to Finding Nemo coming from the cinema room. She had mentioned to Gabby she would be back shortly, and hadn't expected her sister to take Peter’s advice for the kids film night.

“Stay right there, I will have answers!” Came Kitty’s voice from up ahead, as her head phased through the wall.

Seconds later, Laura was picking a giggling Gabby up and sitting the young girl down on her lap.

“Didn’t expect you to join in so easily.” Came the smug comment from the younger clone. Laura shrugged, snuggling up with her sister, ignored the stunned looks from the other kids, and settled down to watch the film.

“It was this or Kitty,” Laura could almost feel the frustration rolling off the other woman from the corridor outside, but too polite to interrupt the film now it was starting.

“You love spending time with me, just admit it!”

“Sure Nemo, now shush, it’s starting.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

Things had been weird since the merger of universes, so Peter wasn’t surprised when Times Square came under interdimensional invasion. The red lightning in the sky had been a hint, before they checked the news.

“What are those?” Laura shouted from the living room as she changed into her costume.

“Mindless Ones, more Dr Strange’s area of expertise, but he’s MIA so looks like it’s the Avengers problem now.” Came Peter’s reply from his office as he did likewise.

“Ready!” Laura shouted a minute later, Peter joining her, before they departed by the window, heading for the source of the chaos.

********

They were joined by dozens of heroes, the Fantastic Four were there, the Avengers, the street heroes, everyone was joining the battle. Peter and Laura hit the swarm hard, Laura carving through them, while Peter dragged civilians out of the cross fire.

Thor was there, blasting the creatures to pieces with lightning. The Thing and Human Torch driving them back from another street. Luke Cage, some guy in yellow in green blocking off another. Ironman bombarding the horde from the sky. Laura swore she saw Cyclops and other X-Men engaging across the square.

Even more heroes, both well known and not, were trying to hold back the growing horde, each enemy that fell was quickly replaced. The police were forming a line further back, shooting down any that made it past the heroes. S.H.I.E.L.D forces were deployed to back up both.

The lack of magical expertise was showing. The line was being held, but several heroes were forced to fall back to the outer cordon, unable to keep up with the Mindless Ones assault.

Things were in the balance, until news came over the comms that Mr Fantastic had identified a way to drive them back. A frequency to drive them back to the realm they had come from. Combined with the power of Thor, Ironman and more poured in to power the counter attack.

And it worked.

For a moment, before demonic laughter filled the square and the breach burst forth once more. Dormammu had returned to their plain of existence, followed minutes later by a furious Dr Strange.

It had all been a trap, now he needed the heroes to hold the line while he dealt with his ancient nemesis. Which again, worked, until it didn’t.

Locked in a stalemate with the two magical titans unable to gain the advantage, The Mindless Ones turned to assist their master.

Spider-Man launched himself over the fight, Laura hanging on with him, as they fought to protect Dr Strange. Until that too stopped working, and they were flung into the swirling mass of magic.

********

Peter was falling. Dormammu had unleashed some spell in surprise at the intrusion, what it did, he hadn’t a clue.

He saw the future, New York destroyed by the demon. Another where he died, old, alone, gunned down by the police.

Then something snapped him back, sending him tumbling back, landing hard in a cleaning cupboard. Getting his bearings, Peter was amazed at what he saw outside the door.

It was that day. He saw himself, glasses and all.

The field trip that changed everything for him.

Back before Spider-Man existed.

If this was back in time, the spider bite hadn’t happened yet. He could stop it now. Prevent everything that was to come.

But he couldn’t.

It was tempting, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Couldn’t imagine his life without the friends he had now.

So when Dr Strange's voice called him forwards, trying to lead him back to the present, he dragged himself away, hearing the pained gasp as his younger self was bitten behind him.

********

Everything faded to black, before he found himself in another familiar place.

“Deja vu…” Peter muttered to himself, before his spider sense went off and he dodged out of the way of…

“Sandman! Oh that lame striped shirt, it takes me back.” Their first encounter, all the way back in high school.

“Stay still so I can squash you like the bug you are.” Growled the villain, hurling long limbs of sand to smash the wall crawler, getting more annoyed as Spider-Man kept dodging out the way.

Peter remembered the fight being so much harder, but now he was practically dancing around the flailing villain. Teenage Peter had so much to learn.

“Now how did I… oh right, the vacuum cleaner!” Peter muttered to himself, until the memory came back to him and he dived for it.

Before Strange’s voice drew him away again.

********

He was falling again, this time through the sky.

“Die, Spider-Man, DIE!” screamed the vulture as he flew in for the kill, Peter managing to fend him off, but was sent flying through a water tower for his trouble.

Struggling to climb free, get his breath back, return to the fight, before he heard a hissing sound.

Suddenly finding himself in a jungle, a reptilian figure stood over him.

“Dr Connors, no, it’s been so long… this is the first time isn’t it…” Peter groaned, before rolling out the way of the Lizard's tail, a split second before it slammed into the ground.

Before Peter could recover, he was sent flying, chased by the monstrous reptile. It had been several years since Connors was cured, he had forgotten how fast the Lizard was. Sending his opponent staggering back with a double kick, he leapt onto the wall, giving himself a moment to breath, refocus, then counterattack.

He won this fight before, he was younger, less experienced and hadn’t realised his full powers then. It was still close, driving the Lizard back, hissing in frustration, almost nailing him, before the tail came back and sent Spider-Man flying into a tree.

“How shocking!” laughed a new voice, before Peter’s body was his with what felt like a thunderbolt.

Rolling away and to his feet, he found himself face to face with Electro. The old costume made it look like another early encounter. Rooftop, this had to be when Jamison had used his photos to try and frame him as Electro.

At least he had the rubber gloves on, making it easier to punch the villain across the jaw, sending him slumping to the floor, and Peter staggering on his feet.

Then it was Doc Oc, Bennet Brant dying in the cross fire, metal tentacles swatting at the hero. Betty slaps him for not preventing it.

Mysterio next, when he impersonated Spider-Man to try and gain credit for taking the rogue wall crawler down. Their final fight at Beck's old movie studio, when he had unmasked the villain.

Their fight was interrupted by a massive green fist that smashed through the wall, the Hulk bursting onto the scene as Mysterio vanished into smoke. Dodging the crumbling wall, failing and getting battered by falling rubble.

Suddenly surrounded by the sound of falling water, back at the lab that had collapsed on him. The time he had nearly died, drowned or crushed. Adult Peter could have escaped easier, but he was realising he was back in his younger body.

Back to back fights with villains had worn him out, but he remembered this moment.

How Aunt May needed him.

How Dr Strange needed him.

How he couldn’t afford to die here and now, thrown out of time and dying in this place that he had already escaped from.

It felt like he was tearing his muscles to pieces, but with a super human surge of strength, he screamed as he threw off the rubble and dragged himself free.

Crawling forwards, the fighting catching up with his body and mind, he staggered to his feet, just as the scene changed again.

“No, anything but this…” he whispered, the manic laughter of his nightmares filling his ears, the hum of the glider, the sound of pumpkin bombs.

The scream as Gwen was knocked from the top of the bridge, plunging to her death.

Leaving him watching helplessly once more, unable to save her, his body moving too slow. He screamed in denial, leaping forwards, but he knew it didn’t matter. He knew what was going to happen, had replayed it in his head so many times, but his best efforts weren’t enough still.

He was reliving his Spider-Man career, moving forwards, now he had come to the true nightmare.

********

Utter darkness surrounded him as he dropped to his knees, fists slamming into ground that didn’t really exist. A void surrounded him, tears leaking down the inside of his mask.

“I can’t do this again…” he whispered to himself, not even sure if Strange could hear him.

“You must Peter, please, follow my voice.” Turns out he could, answering after a few moments.

“Enough…”

“Follow my voice.”

“No.”
“Follow my voice.”

“I said NO! I can’t do this, not after Gwen. Years of fighting, so much violence, I can’t do it again. There’s years to travel and I’m so tired…”

“Peter…” came the strained voice, “We cannot save everyone…”

“Then what’s the point!” Peter screamed into the void, before an outline of the sorcerer appeared in front of him.

“Do you know what is the greatest gift anyone can receive in this lifetime?

“...no.”

“The greatest gift we can receive is to have the chance, just once in our lives, to make a difference. You have given and received so many gifts, enough for a hundred lifetimes. The lives you have changed, that they have changed, your good deeds have rippled across the world. If you give up now, trapped in the past, then everything you did after this moment will no longer exist. Everything you did will be for nothing, everyone you love will die, if we do not prevent Dormammu from overrunning the Earth.”

“I don’t like looking back Doc, it’s too much. I’ve been through so much, it never ends, looking back and I wonder was it all worth it. The weight of my past feels like it’s drowning me some days.” Spider-Man, Peter, either and both had never felt older, more tired, more beaten down, than the prospect of reliving it all again.

“Peter….” He felt what might have been the sorcerer's hand on his shoulder. “I can’t answer that for you, it’s not the question you should be asking.”

“Then what is the right question?”

“I can’t tell you that either, there is only one more thing I can tell you right now. The reason I took so long to find you again.”

“....what is it?” Peter blinked in surprise as he felt another hand on his shoulder.

“You won’t be doing it alone this time.” Laura told him, as she crouched down next to him, squeezing his shoulder gently. “I’ve got your back. You have already beaten all of this before, now we’re going to show every single one of them how lucky they were the first time around!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

“We must go Peter, follow my voice.” Strange intoned again, leaving him alone with Laura. Taking her hand in his, squeezing it gently, before he took a deep breath.

It was all he ever needed, a single reminder that what he did mattered. That people were better off because of him. It was just going to hurt so much.

“It’s just in our minds, the physical damage isn’t real, if we can keep going, we can get back to where we left.” She whispered in his ear and he nodded in response.

The first step was heavy. The ground beneath him cracking as if under an immense weight. The second was lighter. By the third, he was standing once again. The fourth left him panting, but standing tall.

“Hey, Wolverine?” He said over his shoulder, looking back at her with a renewed smile.

“Yes Spider?” She actually had a smirk on her face. It was a good look for her.

“Try to keep up.” Launching them both forwards once more into the fray.

*******

Green Goblin didn’t know what hit him, one minute he was gloating over a fallen Spider-Man, next minute he was slashed deeply and falling from his glider.

Then, before they knew it, they could see the path back stretching before them. Laura recognised a few of the figures and realised they would have to fight through both their lives.

The sheer number of his stunned her, she knew he had a lot of enemies, but this was madness.

Doc Oc, Kingpin, Shocker, Rhino, Electro, Vulture, Doctor Doom, Mysterio, Green Goblin Scorpion, Hammerhead, all ones she knew, all ones they fought many times.

He even fought Juggernaut once, which she hadn’t known about.

Then there were so many others she didn’t know. Ones he named as they advanced.

Venom, Carnage, Hobgoblin, Kraven, Molten Man, Spider Slayers, Alistair Smythe, Chameleon, Sandman, Morbius, Prowler, the Lizard, Jackal, the clones, Hydro-Man, Tombstone, Mister Negative, Vermin, Shriek, Silvermane, the Enforcers, the list went on and on.
There were even multiple versions of some villains, more symbiotes than Laura could count. Not that she had known about the alien species before today. Seems the entire Kravinoff family had a grudge against Peter, one to watch out for.

An actual dinosaur! Stegon as he was apparently called.

The devil! Well, a devil at least, plus a whole bunch of demons. She had so many questions about that one.

Watching him punch Magneto has been satisfying at least.

That wasn’t even going into the legions of thugs, hordes of aliens, his fights alongside the Avengers. She could see why he fell to despair, all of this in ten years…

And to think he kept fighting the same villains time after time, either by chance, or because they were out for revenge.

For her part, she had Kimura, Lady Deathstrike, the other Weapon X members, The Facility, Mojo, Sentinels, and dozens of the enemies she had fought as part of the X-Men. He might have been more active, but the difference was staggering.

They pressed on, fight after fight, when one stumbled, the other covered for them. When one fell, the other pulled them back up. When painful memories or fights arose, they stepped up for the other.

They got faster as they went. Experience fighting together from a couple of dozen fights, was honed as they fought hundreds of battles. Their confidence grew the further along they went, the disconnect between their bodies of the time, and their current bodies, blurring until the present became the norm again.

It wasn’t just them either, Avengers, X-Men, and other heroes of all kinds joined them throughout the fights. They never stayed for more than the fights they were part of, but it helped ease their progress forwards whenever they appeared.

Peter was dragging them forwards, most of them were his fights, he knew what was coming and he faced it head on. Laura knew he was strong, but for the first time truly came to understand why a number of the older heroes held him in such high regard.
She saw what no one else had seen, literally everything he had gone through, things he hadn’t told anyone else about. Things that would sound insane if he tried to explain.

He didn’t just stop villains, as numerous as they were. He saved lives. Helped those in need. What he had done for her, he had done for varying degrees for thousands. The battles weighed him down, but the reminders of everything else, it drove him on.
It wasn’t just her learning though, she felt his anger at a number of her memories, the treatment she had gone through, but also understanding and remorse at what her life had been. No pity, just respect.

They both got an unfiltered view at each other's lives, reliving the best and worst as they forged a path forwards.

They were fighting through time itself. A decade of struggle, for both of them, all at once, but also one after the other. Years condensed into minutes and stretched over hours. Fight after fight after fight, pauses to catch their breath taken where possible, otherwise following Strange’s voice towards home.

She knew they were getting close when she started recognizing the fights. When they relived battles fought as a team, not on their own.

When the flash of red lightning burst through everything.

********

“Don’t do it!” Peter shouted, as they both staggered onto the rooftop, startling Mr Fantastic and preventing him from firing his machine. They had arrived just before everything went wrong, Strange tweaking things to try and help. “It’s a trap, it’s what Dormammu wants you to do, you have to believe me.”

Mr Fantastic paused for a moment, Ironman, Thor and Cyclops assembled on the rooftop, questioning what was going on. Peter explained as quickly as he could what had happened to them, Laura backing his story up.

And they listened. Some of the most powerful men on the planet, and they listened to her dork. She knew why, they trusted him enough to accept him at face value. He had earned that from them, she had just seen how he managed it.

Even S.H.I.E.L.D accepted the change in plan, under the guarantee that Strange was indeed on his way. Hat shocked her way more, Fury always seemed uncompromising unless forced, but Spider-Man's word was enough even for him.

So they rejoined the fight below. It was twenty minutes of hell. Twenty minutes of holding the line. If the two of them hadn’t just fought through ten years of hell, this fight would be their toughest yet.

In the end, the faith placed in one man was rewarded. The heroes cheered in relief as Strange appeared in the sky, venting his fury on the invading force and driving them back to where they came from. Leaving several blocks of the city damaged to various degrees, but a whole lot better than what they had seen in the future where they failed.

With the threat ended, the heroes fell back, while others took over. It would take some time to catalogue everything, the damage, the losses, but now, they could start rebuilding.

********

The reunion with Dr Strange had been an odd one. He didn’t remember what happened before, it seemed to just be Peter and Laura. He did however find a mysterious box in his pocket addressed to Peter that he had no memory of, with their story, he declared it must be something the other him cooked up and handed the box over.

When they were cleared to go, they headed straight back to Peter's apartment, collapsing on the sofa. Masks were discarded on the coffee table, slumped against each other, Laura’s head resting on Peter’s shoulder while they just…

Processed.

Also rested. It might not have been physically straining in the normal way, but their evening had taken its toll on both of them. So they just lay there for a while, listening to the background noise of the outside world.

Until Peter pulled the small box out.

“What do you think it is?” She whispered, not quite willing to break their peace yet.

“Only one way to find out…” He waited several minutes more, until they both felt physically and mentally recovered enough. The box clicked open, revealing a scroll that said ‘you only have five minutes, use it wisely’.

Then a figure materialised in the living room with them. Laura had seen enough photos of the man, but the reaction from Peter said it all.

Uncle Ben, returned in spirit form.

Which is where she patted him on the shoulder and beat a hasty retreat to the room that served as his office. This was a moment for him, she felt weird intruding on such a personal moment. Even after everything they had been through tonight.

She didn’t listen in, what was said was for Peter only, but after five minutes she heard a thump. Sticking her head out, Uncle Ben was gone, leaving just Peter on his knees, crying, but smiling despite it.

She held him close, listening to his relief as he muttered “he’s proud of me.” again and again.

********

“The Spider is gathering even more allies, the devil and him are becoming a problem. He’s a menace on his own, now he’s working with more and more people, he is causing us issues. Luckily we broke you out of prison during the recent chaos for this purpose. Take care of him and your debt will be repaid to me.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

It had all started out a normal day.

“That helicopter looks like it’s in trouble.” Peter muttered, squinting up in the sky. Laura followed his gaze, spotting the struggling chopper as it wobbled down the street.

“Then we had best get changed…” Laura dragged them both into an alleyway, the duo rapidly remerged in costume. Laura moved to clear civilians, while Peter swung after towards the now smoking copter.

Just as he was getting there, the tail exploded, sending it spinning around him, the blades slicing his attempted web net to pieces as it spun wildly down the street past him. By the time he had reversed course, it was slamming through the side of a building.

Slingshooting after it once more, he managed to catch it as it spun out over the street again, securing it in a web net, before assessing the situation.

Laura had got nearby bystanders clear, which was something, but the building was one of those narrow tipped ones, triangle shaped ones and now had a gaping hole at the narrowest point… yeah he could hear the building creaking from here.

“Wolverine, get the pilots free and get that building evacuated!” He shouted over the panic as he landed next to her.

“What are you going to do?” She was right to look confused, this was going to be in his top ten stupidest ideas of all time.

“I’m going to stop the building from crumbling. The crash took out the main support bean at this end, if we don’t do something, it could bring half the building down and smash into those around it.

She nodded, leaping up to the copter, while Peter squared up with the hole in the building.

“Well this is gonna suck.” He groaned, webbing the top and bottom of the hole, before leaping in and bracing the building with his body. He pushed back against the slow tipping, holding in place.

********

Laura scrambled onto the side of the copter, frowning in confusion when she found the fallen vehicle empty. Not wasting time on searching for people clear of the danger, she headed for the building.

Pulling the fire alarm, she moved floor by floor, using her senses to reach out and confirm they were clear, before moving onto the next one. Most people cleared out either after the crash, or from the alarm, but she had a few stragglers to chase out.

Then she turned back down and headed for Peter.

********

He knew he forgot something before leaping into action, call for help. The building was manageable, for the first ten minutes or so, then he really began to feel the strain. He couldn’t hold out forever, but he had been so focused on preventing the disaster, he forgot to contact anyone else.

Now he was trapped under a building again, he could almost feel the water again, trapped in that place again.

His muscles were beginning to feel it after twenty minutes, when Laura reappeared, his heart leaping for joy at not having to do this alone again. Pushing down old memories, it wouldn’t end like that, she would make sure of it.

She had done so before, he had faith she would do it again.

********

She almost panicked when she saw him, taking the entire building on himself. Then she heard it, his heart rate was spiking, but slowed down as she entered the room. His body seemed to relax, the strain lessening.

Was it having help with a building collapsing on him, or because of her? He had been acting odd at moments lately. Ever since their trip through time, but that was a matter for another time. When they weren’t in danger.

“Might have slightly messed up, need to call for backup from the Avengers…” Peter managed to get out.

“How do we contact them?”

“App on your phone, will identify you as Wolverine and confirm who you say you are.” She nodded, taking her phone out and following his instructions, told in short order that backup was five minutes out after a crash on the other end of the line.

Then she watched in shock, over his shoulder, as the helicopter floated up behind them and exploded.

She saw his spider sense kick in, look over in panic, then move to place himself between her and the blast. Managing to stay upright even as the explosion rocked the building.

Glancing around, she saw the increased damage to the surrounding walls, which would only increase the strain on…. What was that dripping sound?

“No…” she whispered, looking back at Peter. The dripping was blood. Shrapnel had pierced him in several places, arms, legs, one through the shoulder, but the inch wide shard through his stomach was the worst.

And despite it all, his gaze was locked on her, holding the building up, even as his body began to tremble.

“No no no no no no… you idiot…” she should be shouting, as she moved to stand in front of him, hand over his chest as she frantically checked over his injuries.

His back was torn up, her hand already sticky with his blood, the floor beneath them red.

“I heal quicker than you, you didn’t need to…” Tears were beginning to blur her vision, but she still saw his smile, even now.

“Old habits die hard, I never was good at seeing the people I care about hurt.”

“That goes both ways, idiot…”

It was less than a minute before help arrived. Seconds that stretched on, the pair of them stood there, staring at each other, Laura trying not to panic as she felt his heart beat slowing.

“Man of Spiders, I, Thor… oh my, requesting immediate medivac!” Laura was broken from her trance as the building was lifted from Peter, seeing the God of Thunder floating behind him and taking the weight with one hand.

The second he had, Peter collapsed, falling into Laura’s arms, who didn’t care as his blood smeared over her. Slumping to her knees, trying to keep him up right, she was repeating his name, trying to get a response out of him.

When she felt hands try to take Peter from her, she snarled, claws out, until a rocky hand caught her arm.

“We’re here to help Laura, stand down. Please.” Ben Grimm, sounding like his name now, as he held the weeping Wolverine, while Peter was lifted away for emergency treatment by what seemed like half of the Avengers.

********

Peter was quickly transferred to the medical wing of the Fantastic Fours HQ. There was a steady stream of doctors that went in and out for the nine hours he was in surgery, based on what her enhanced hearing could hear, he even died on the table, before being swiftly brought back.

There wasn’t any seating outside the doorway that this was all happening behind, so Laura dragged a stool from a nearby lab, then sat on it cross legged, glaring at the door as if it had personally offended her. Which in a way it had, or at least, the person behind it had.

The tears had dried up, anger and fear warring in her mind, as she fought to stay calm. She didn’t even know what time it was when Doctor Strange stepped out, nodding at her, letting her know the worst of it was over.

Peter was still unconscious, with them having to cut open his healing body to extract the dozens of pieces of shrapnel, it would take time to fully heal.

When she made to follow Peter, as his bed was wheeled out of the operating room, and towards one of the recovery wards, she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder.

“I’m staying with him, until he wakes up. Then I will punch him for being an idiot.” She growled softly, starting in surprise at the amused snort, as well as the bag that was dropped in her hands.

“Figured as much.” Logan snarked, “That’s a week's worth of your stuff, Gabby grabbed it, don’t worry.”

“...what?” She must have looked confused, or distraught, maybe both, because he actually gave her a hug.

“We’re a stubborn family, you sat here most of the night waiting for him, I doubt you were going to leave any time soon.”

“And we can’t be accused of being bad hosts now, can we?” Ben Grimm added as he strolled past them, a fold up bed tucked under his arm, as he headed after Peter. “You keep an eye on him, the city will be protected until he’s back on his feet.”

********

And so she did. Taking up vigil over her fallen friend, kept sane with the presence of Ben and Sue, and a pile of books, she didn’t leave that room until Peter awoke.

Had a shower in the toilet area, meals were brought by robots, so she sat and waited, listening for the steady bleep of the heart monitors to spike. Waited for him to wake up.

It was strange in a way, she had never seen him so quiet. So still. The chatterbox silenced in almost the worst way possible.

The first day after the explosion was quiet. Newspapers somehow got hold of pictures of the event. One in particular was the most popular, when she was holding him up with one hand after the explosion.

In times of tragedy, people latched onto hope, Laura didn’t understand what they drew from this, but it was burning across social media.

Aunt May visited for several hours each day, a welcome presence, who was thankful for everything Laura was doing for her nephew.

She tried to protest that it wasn’t much, but all she got was a knowing smile.

The second day the city seemed to explode. Spider-Man was out of action, he was confirmed as still alive, but even he would take weeks to walk off those wounds, so the criminals took to the streets. Convinced they were safe.

The first hint about how badly they had misjudged things, was when reports of not one, or two, but four spider people taking to the skies to fight back. Laura knew about Miles, but the woman with a white hood was unfamiliar.

The Spider-Man identified as the one that had been haunting Vegas of late, would probably be Ben.

So she assumed the largest, and most vicious of them, would be Kane.

And it wasn’t just them either, the whispers soon filled the streets.

The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen was straying from his usual hunting grounds.

Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Misty Knight, at the head of a dozen or so street level heroes, Defenders or otherwise, leading the charge on the ground.

Rumours of thugs found beaten and bloodied, but alive, with crescent moons carved into the wall nearby.

The Human Torch and The Thing were out as well, when they weren’t keeping an eye on Laura.

Thor hadn’t left after helping secure the building, though he only went after the bigger threats. Scorpion had one hell of a shock when the God of Thunder dropped out the sky on him.

Hulk stopped a bank robbery by telling them to surrender, before he got angry. The robbers immediately laid down their weapons and sat waiting quietly under the green giant's gaze, until the police arrived to take them away. His cousin, She-Hulk was also active, no one was sure if they had agreed this together, or acted on their own.

There were even X-Men, Logan of course, but Iceman and Firestar backed him up.

One of the biggest surprises had been when a S.H.I.E.L.D quinjet had landed in Times Square, Captain America himself leading various agents and Avengers to join the fray. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Winter Soldier, Falcon, White Tiger, Shang Chi, and several others who weren’t well known enough to identify.

When asked by the media why he was deploying in such force to New York of all places, he only had this to tell them.

“One of New York's greatest defenders, one of Earth's bravest heroes has been taken down. He will return, until that time, we will hold the line. Those that want to take advantage of his absence, don’t realise what he means to so many people, and how they will fight to uphold his example and legacy. Spider-Man is recovering from his grievous wounds, but mark my words, he will return.”

This went viral, alongside the photos, and the stories of how Spider-Man, and his unknown female partner, had saved dozens, maybe hundreds, by preventing the crash, evacuating the area before the explosion, and from the heroic act of holding up a collapsing building, even while bleeding out.

Even Ironman showed up as things rolled into the third day.

By the fourth day, so many heroes had flooded New York, as well as locals taking to the street to help, that crime actually died out and left the fifth day onwards as days of calm.

Having arrested, or captured, that many criminals, the police had to call in reinforcements just to process everything. Thankfully, S.H.I.E.L.D provided the manpower. It wasn’t usually the kind of problem they got involved in, but the heroes were creating a problem, so Fury had to clean up after them.

Maybe he also owed Spider-Man a few favours as well.

In the end, the underworld of New York had thought itself free of the threat of one hero, only to realise they had summoned an even worse fate upon themselves.

Even Jameson ran headlines of begrudging praise for the wallcrawler.

Then, on the sixth day, it was announced that Spider-Man was awake from his coma.

********

“Don’t stress him out too much.” Sue muttered, side eying Laura, while checking Peter’s health now he had awoken.

“I make no promises.” Came the low growl.

“Well at least wait until I get Reed here to clear him.” Sue sighed, before going to fetch her husband.

“You didn’t wait here all this time for me, did you?” Peter’s voice was croaky after not talking for so long, before he had a glass of water shoved in his hand. Gulping it down, while waiting for an answer.

“I had to be here to tell you what an idiot you were.” Laura countered, standing over him beside the bed.

“I know, it’s a bad habit, but I hate seeing the people I care about hurt.”

“How do you think I felt! I have spent the last week waiting for your idiotic ass to wake up so I can slap some sense into you! You died Peter! I can walk explosions like that off, you shouldn’t be worrying about me!”

“I can’t help it..”

“Why do you have to worry about me!? I’m harder to kill than you are!”

“Because you mean that much to me. It doesn’t matter that you’re tougher than me, yes it was stupid, I’m an idiot, but no one should get hurt because of me..” She gaped at him, before grabbing him by his hospital scrubs and pulling him face to face with her.

“That’s my line, people around me always get hurt because I can take it, but they can't, why can’t you get that through your thick skull?”

“Because I always have people around me getting hurt. Even if the Hulk himself had been the one there with me, I’d still have tried to save him.” Tears were threatening to overwhelm her now, emotions warring inside her.

“But I’m not worth it… not worth you…”

“It doesn’t matter Laura, you are worth it to me, you mean that much to me. You always will.”

And in that moment, one emotion won out, as she pulled her idiot close and kissed him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

When her brain caught up with body, he was already kissing her back. One arm slipped around her waist, pulling her to sit on the edge of the bed, as the kiss kept going. If he wasn’t so eager to return her feelings in kind, she might have panicked and bolted already.

The gentle grip on her waist helped keep her grounded.

Eventually they broke apart, panting and blushing. Resting their forehead against each other. The corners of Laura’s mouth even perked up, before the self doubt set in again.

“I’m not good with words…” She started, hesitating.

“I say more than enough for us both.” Peter counters, cupping her head in one hand and stroking her cheek with a thumb.

“I’m too jaded…”

“There’s a reason I am the way I am, to keep myself sane, we can meet somewhere in the middle.”

“I’m not sure how good with physical affection I can be, you know my past…”

“You’re doing fine right now, I’m a cuddle bug you know.”

“I’m not sure I’m worth it…”

“Do you think I’m worth it?”

“More than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Well you keep reminding me of that, and I’ll keep reminding you how I feel about you.”

“You can’t do something that stupid again, I was afraid I’d lost you…”

“I’m your idiot, remember? I don’t want you angry or upset at me.

“But…”
“For someone who says they’re not good with words, you sure do talk a lot…” Any further protests were cut off as he kissed her again. She knew she wasn’t going to win this argument, so pressed into it, letting him slip his arms around her and pull her closer.

Until they both realised there was a strange, very high pitched noise in the background. Turning around, they froze as they spotted the crowd in the doorway.

The high pitched noise was Gabby, vibrating so much from her excitement that it was probably bothering any dogs in the area.

Ben and Johnny had their phones out recording, though Sue had gagged both of them.

Logan looked conflicted, which was the funniest reaction, with him not knowing if he should be happy or disgusted.

Laura’s eyes were wide as she realised they had an audience.

“And now I’m throwing myself out of the window…” She announced, attempting to clamber over the bed to the safety of a thirty storey drop, before Peter managed to loop an arm around her waist and drag her back to him.

“If I’m not allowed to throw myself in the way of explosions anymore, you’re not allowed to throw yourself out of windows. Even if you would walk it off.” Her back was pressed into his side, so she couldn’t see his look, but she could hear the teasing tone.

“Never thought I’d see the day she pouted.” Logan commented, making a quick retreat when Laura let out an outraged scream and tried throwing things at him.

“Honey no…” Peter said softly, holding her close and rubbing her back, while she decided to try and hide in his chest.

“Pet names already?” She muttered, caught between embarrassment and the warm feeling she got from it.

“Well honey badgers are like wolverines…” Ah, there he was ruining it, her glare interrupted by a hyperactive missile landing on the bed next to her.

“It’s about damn time!” Gabby squealed, hugging the pair of them.

“This is going to the group chat…” Ben declared, as Johnny and him were freed from Sue’s grasp and beat a hasty retreat with Logan.

“You should probably get off Peter before you squash him.” Sue pointed out, hiding a smile as she checked Peter’s vitals. Laura sighed, picking Gabby off, and transferring them to chairs next to the bed.

“Make sure she doesn’t run.” Peter winked at Gabby, who giggled and jumped onto her older sister's lap. “Hey, just making sure you don’t try to run away from me again.” He protested when Laura glared at him.

“I wasn’t running away from you, I was just… taken by surprise.” She admitted, hiding her blush behind Gabby.

“Yeah, it’s her first relationship, be gentle with her!” Came the protest from the younger sister, before getting shushed by the elder one.

Laura paused in surprise when she felt him take her hand, thumb rubbing her palm. “It’s my first relationship with her, I get the feeling we will both be winging it a little.”

“She likes cuddling me, maybe try sitting her on your lap, like she does to me!” Gabby offered helpfully. Which only sent Laura into another stuttering fit.

She swore the ten year old was doing it on purpose at this point.

********

They were left alone later that evening, Logan had taken Gabby back to the mansion after dropping off more clothes for Laura. May had shown up, looking smug when their new relationship was revealed.

Steve had turned up, congratulating them both, and assuring Peter that the city would be well looked after until he was fully healed. The initial flood of heroes and agents had wiped out crime, for now, what was left was laying low.

Nick Fury had even been quoted, when asked how he could justify deploying his agency to a city like this, had replied “because it was funny.” He was an odd man at times.

Laura was laid on the bed next to him, on his left side to avoid the remaining tubes and wires for the medical machines. His arm round her waist, her head on his shoulder, his thumb stroking the back of her hand.

“Feeling calmer now?” He whispered, lips brushing the top of her head as he left a soft kiss.

“Yes, it was all rather sudden.” She admitted.

“Well I’m not sure who was more surprised when you kissed me, but I’m glad you did.” She hummed softly, the silence stretching on for a few minutes before she broke it.

“So what do we do now? I’m not great with labelling things…”

“How about this? We are dating exclusively each other, then we see how things go? Don’t have to call it anything, just dating, sounds good?”

“And right now?”

“Well, when I’m healed and out of here, I would love to take you on a date, otherwise we can largely carry on as we already have. Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean everything has to be special, or romantic, we can still hang out as normal. Just with more kisses and cuddles.”

“You wish…”

“Very much so yes!”

“And I walked into that one, not used to being on this side of that…”

********

In the end it was another four days before Peter was cleared to leave. Laura still refused to leave, was even instrumental in keeping Peter from misbehaving and trying to leave early.

It was the longest he had stayed put in years and it was killing him by the time he got the all clear and the green light to leave. He was thrown in the shower before they departed though, there was only so much hygiene that could be done when bedridden, even with robots to help you.

Then, Peter entwined his fingers with Laura’s, gave her a small smile, then headed out the Baxter building.

Ignoring the signs Johnny was holding, acting like the new couple had just got married.

********

“What do you mean Galactus almost made it to Earth?”

“Well, while Peter was in a coma, it seems the Parker Curse stopped working, he almost made it to our Solar System!”

“Is that why he appears to be floating past us on his back, with a very fed up expression on his face?”

“Well he did slip on a comet when Peter woke up, though I doubt we have seen the last of him…”

“Reed, you are an idiot.”

“It’s Eccentric Stephen, I earned it as a scientist!”

“No honey, you do have your moments…” Remarked a third voice.

“Sue, please stop encouraging him…”

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

Once they made it outside, they headed back to Peters. After several days stuck in bed, he wanted to just go and sit with his stuff for a bit. He would love to get some web swinging in, but the ironclad grip on his hand convinced him not to push his luck.

It also reminded him of what he had to look forward to now, Laura’s usually confident and stony exterior was actually showing a small smile and a hint of a blush as they walked down the street.

It was cute, he would have called her pretty without hesitation, and while he found some of her mannerisms and habits cute, this was the first time he had seen her like this. More relaxed than before, especially when he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb as they walked.

“Are you feeling alright?” He queried, Laura was quiet, even for her usual self.

“I should be asking you that?”

“I’m emotionally me and physically run over by a truck, what’s your take?” He took it as a small win when she snorted at that.

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by an explosion in the distance. Checking the police scanner, there was news of a gas explosion that was rapidly attended by them and several heroes.

“We should…” He was interrupted by a finger in his face.

“They have that, we are going back to yours. Even if I have to drag you there. Understood?” Peter just nodded and bowed in agreement.

“As you wish…. Wait.”

His Spider-Sense went off a moment before his enhanced senses picked up on a dreaded humming noise. He barely had the time to push Laura out the way, while leaping the other way, before a pair of explosions went off where they had stood seconds before.

Laura was shouting in shock, only realising what was going on after she had rolled to her feet, before they both heard maniac laughter echoing down the street.

The glider he rode was larger than the ones she had seen in their trip back in time, but it was easy to identify the rider. Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, was somehow loose.

And out for blood it seemed, half a dozen pumpkin bombs rained down on Peter, who managed to stay ahead of the main blasts with his Spider-Sense, but was still recovering and ended up being sent tumbling into a car.

Laura moved to help him, but was yanked into the air as a thick cable wrapped around her, fired from the back of the glider as the Goblin flew past once more, pulling her up into the air.

“Peter, Peter, Peter, it seems you never learn.” Norman cackled as he circled overhead. “You survived my first surprise, but I think this time you’re going to fall for a classic!”

And with that, he pulled Laura up onto the glider with him and took off into the sky, as Peter scrambled to get his costume on and force his aching body after the fleeing villain. Laura had given him a glare when he almost launched himself at the Goblin, so she had a plan.

Or at least, he hoped she did.

*********

“Really, throwing me off the bridge like you did Gwen? You really are running out of ideas…” Laura didn’t look impressed as they flew in circles above that same spot she had dragged Peter from all those months ago.

“You’re taking this rather well?” Norman was confused at the complete lack of reaction, he apparently didn’t know more than she was Peter’s new girlfriend, so she had to stop him getting too suspicious before she could enact her plan.

“Well I’m emotionally repressed, besides, you didn’t kill MJ.”

“Oh you know about her? Well my son Harry is rather sweet on her. Poor boy is a disappointment, but family looks after family.”

“So why the big grudge against Spider-Man? Because she chose him?”

“As if! You’ve seen him, he’s been applying himself more lately and has become that much more powerful for it! If I can break him, he would be the perfect right hand…. But if I can’t, then I will make sure no one can have him!”

“Still seems awfully rushed to me?”

“Well some powerful people want me to kill him to pay them back, so I will need to find someone else. I hear those clones of his aren’t the most stable, maybe I can try them…”

“Sure your obsession isn’t because you can’t measure up? He beat you before he had training, you never beat him in a straight fight before. Even now he’s recovering from that bomb you dropped on him and you still need a hostage to hide behind.”

“You…” he growled, holding her up so they were eye to eye, too angry to even register that she still had the same bored expression. He was so used to Spider-Man’s quips, that he hadn’t realised what she was doing with her dry, bored tone.

“Hey Gobby, I know you have a man purse, but that doesn’t mean you can treat the lady like that.”

“Oh great, he’s here.” Norman muttered, getting back to the task in hand.

********

It felt good to be web-swinging again, even with the dull ache from his injuries and muscles that hadn’t been used in over a week. He trusted Laura, but he still worried about her being in the hands of the psychopath.

When he caught up with them though, Laura had already gotten under the madman's skin. Really didn’t take her long, was he a bad influence?

“Hey Gobby, I know you have a man purse, but that doesn’t mean you can treat the lady like that.” Landing on the bridge, Peter almost felt sorry for the guy as he was this annoyed at just one of them.

“Oh great, you have arrived!” Taking to the sky in a dramatic manner, he dangled Laura off the edge of the bridge. “I don’t have as much time as I’d like to toy with you, so let us see if a second failure like this will be enough to break your already weakened body!”

“Normie, we have already done this song and dance, it doesn’t end well for you.”

“It ends even worse for her… why are you so calm about this?”

“Because we have already done this fight!” Peter declared dramatically, before starting to pace back and forth, much to his villains' confusion.

“What are you planning?” the villain asked suspiciously.

“Absolutely nothing! This fight is already over, in a matter of minutes, you’re going to be on the floor, begging for mercy.” The webslinger declared confidently.

“....are you going to at least prevent yourself from being thrown off a bridge?” He queried Laura, not sure how to deal with this new Spider-Man.

“I wasn’t hugged as a kid, I’m already dead inside.” Laura’s deadpan response didn’t help him at all, so he hesitantly threw her off the bridge, watching in confusion as she plunged from sight, sighing like this was all just a nuisance to her. The Goblin turned back to Peter, who was standing with arms crossed.

“This feels like the wrong time to bring it up, but are you OK Peter?”

********

She let herself fall out of sight, before the claws popped out and her bindings were shredded. Shame, she liked those boots, but it couldn’t be helped.

Hooking her claws into the brickwork, slowing her descent until she almost hit the bottom, before beginning her climb back up. Months of chasing Spider-Man around the city had helped her practice, now she was able to scale walls much quicker than before.

And quieter, she would barely hear the scrape of metal on stone, but she could hear Peter regaling his latest therapy session to an increasingly done with it Green Goblin. Peaking over the top, she could see them, Norman’s back to her, distracted by whatever ramble her partner was going off on.

Shame he would never see this coming. What was that meme Gabby showed her? She was gonna stab a bitch…

********

Peter was doing his speciality, confusing and annoying the villain, when he saw what might be the most beautiful thing even.

Laura launched herself into the air, silent, hair streaming in the wind, looking feral as he had ever seen her. Aimed at the back of his nemesis.

********

The first moment Norman realised he had massively miscalculated, was when he was tackled off his glider. The second was when he realised he had been stabbed in both legs by something. The third was when two pairs of blades went through each of his shoulders, pinning him down and leaving him in agony.

Twisting his head to look over his shoulder, he was shocked to see the girl had sprouted claws and was responsible for the multiple stab wounds.

He froze in a retort, seeing the wild look in her eyes. The barely restrained blood lust. The fangs that were just ready to sink into his throat. The predatory growl rumbling through her whole body.

“What the hell! Spider-Man doesn’t kill! Who are you?” He screamed in panic, trying to keep still when the claws dug in deeper.

“That’s the only reason you’re still alive. You tried to kill Peter. You tried to kill me. I could turn you into a quadruple amputee and say I slipped when you struggled. No one would blame me. A year ago I would have just cut your head off and be done with. Peter is the only thing stopping me from tearing you limb from limb. I know how you work Norman, you go after his loved ones, you wear him down, then you go in for the kill.”

She leaned closer, almost eye to eye now, while he trembled.

“You can’t kill me. You can’t stop me. Peter is kind to his villains, because he believes in the good of people. I am a Wolverine. My father is a Wolverine. He’s the best at what he does, and none of it is very nice. If you come near him, his family, his loved ones, their friends and family, any of them, then we will hunt you down and you won’t die fast. Do you understand me?”

“Jesus Christ!” Whispered her horrified victim.

“Do. You. Understand. ME!” She practically roared in his ear.

“Yes! Please, just don’t kill me!”

“Then beg for mercy, like he said, and you might live long enough to get medical attention."

********

One of the upgrades to Peter’s costume had been a camera in his mask that recorded everything he saw, for future reference or investigation.

Which is how he got a recording of the whole thing. Laura taking down the Green Goblin, scaring him so badly he begged for mercy, then waited quietly for S.H.E.I.L.D to take him back to prison.

Probably because Laura didn’t remove her claws until they arrived, by which point Norman was begging for them to get him away from the feral beast. A little bit of webbing shut him right up, while Laura didn’t look offended at the comments, she did smile at the gagging.

Peter had swung them home, looking happier than before. Picking her up and twirling her around when they made it back to his living room.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to take him seriously after that. One less nightmare to worry about.” He had told her, before kissing her and pulling her into a hug.

When she had gone to make her usual nest on the sofa, he had reminded her she could share the bed with him now. He didn’t push it, just made the offer.

So he was pleasantly surprised about half an hour after he had gone to bed, when he heard the door open softly, the pad of her feet, before feeling her weight settle on the other side of the bed.

For different reasons, it was the most restful night's sleep both had gotten in a while.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

When she woke up the next morning, she was curled up into Peter’s side. When she looked up at him, getting a smile and a cheery “good morning”, she elected to ignore that. Burying her face in the crock of his neck helped hide her blush, but also relax into his scent.

As someone with enhanced senses, it was an interesting experience, but now they were together like this, she found his scent and his presence just that bit more relaxing. Which is why she had to be bribed out of bed with food, much to Peter’s amusement.
Things remained the same as they had before, apart from a few key changes.

Peter developed the habit of making sure he knew, that she knew, that he was there, before taking her hand and stroking with his thumb. If she responded positively, moved closer, pulled him closer etc, then he would slip an arm around her waist and hold her close.

Kisses were about her limit so far, though she had to say, Peter was a good kisser. She enjoyed the affection, it was new, both to allow it, but also to get it in the first place.

One habit they picked up early on, that Laura would deny enjoying to anyone who asked, was when Peter would sit her on the counter, stand between her legs, arms gently wrapped around her, and in a position where she had to lean down to kiss him. His smile helped, the way he looked at her, but it all came from a random thing he did one time out of curiosity and developed into a habit.

She enjoyed it enough that she rarely ever objected to it, even going out of her way to get him to do it. A bonus was she could run her hand through his hair, while he rested his head on her shoulder, just holding each other close.

After the first night, she didn’t bother with the sofa anymore, which Gabby was happy about when she stayed over. Just sharing a bed with Peter helped her sleep easier, leading to her spending more nights at his place.

Not that he complained, he liked it, just that she found herself at a bit of a loose end.

At the mansion, she had missions, training, hanging out with Gabby, working with Logan and Ororo’s guidance on life. The latter was something she wasn’t sure she needed, but she enjoyed the older woman's company.

While she enjoyed Peter’s company, and raiding his media collection, she found herself at a bit of a loose end. Heroes were still covering Peter’s patrols while he got back up to full strength, so she couldn’t even do much of that.

Which is when Peter had hit her with the hardest question she had ever been asked.

“What do you want to do with your life?”

********

It was kind of sad to admit that it had taken her over twenty years to even think about this. Her younger years had been raised in the Facility, then surviving, then the X-Men, then trying to do her best for Gabby.

What Laura wanted had rarely come up.

She had thrown a wrench at Logan’s head when he burst out laughing over the topic. She had come to him for advice, in the middle of a full midlife crisis, only for him to find it too funny to actually be of any real use.

So she went to her backup, who probably should have been the first port of call, Ororo. She at least took it seriously, once Laura made it clear that gossiping about her love life was a no go.

The former Goddess admitted it was a reasonable dilemma, a lot of the students had known a life before their powers came in, had dreams and aspirations to chase, while the school was the most outside life Laura had known, until she met Peter.

Having not introduced her boyfriend to Ororo, yet, Laura did have to keep steering the conversation away from her love life and her ‘mystery’ lover.

There were a number of mutants who were heavily limited in what they could do, due to side effects of their powers, or their appearance, but Laura had none of those issues.

After a few hours of discussion, they hit upon an idea. The only thing they could find that Laura expressed an above average interest in, was being a mechanic. She had been trained by the Facility, in case she needed to repair a vehicle during a mission, and had worked alongside Logan.

As it turned out, all she needed was a high school diploma, which she had acquired through the school, as well as hands-on training at an appropriate location. Turns out Logan’s endless list of qualifications he got over the centuries had their use and she could tick that one off.

All that was left was to find her a job, which as it happened, Peter was able to help her out by accident.

********

“So I stopped a robbery last night, at a mechanic of all things. Poor Jeff hasn’t had the best luck lately…”

“A mechanic? Don’t suppose he’s hiring?” She got a raised eyebrow at that, quickly explaining what she had been thinking about, and how she was actually qualified for the job.

“Well, let me make some calls.” He vanished into the bedroom with his phone. One thing that Spider-Man had been doing for a while, was trying to help down on their luck people's jobs to keep them out of trouble.

Sometimes it was to help out a struggling family, sometimes to stop people falling to a life of crime, it was just one of the networking things Peter did to help those in need.

In this case, she felt like she might be taking advantage of the situation, despite Peter assuring her otherwise. Though, luckily for her inner debate, Jeff was in a rougher part of town and struggling with employees.

The tearful thanks Spider-Man got next time he checked in on Jeff, for delivering him a mechanical genius, made her blush when she got teased about it. Apparently her training, combined with her enhanced senses, made her better at diagnosing, dismantling and reassembling vehicles than she realised.

While she impressed the other couple of employees with her skills, her willingness to do whatever task put to her, even getting dirty, made her firm friends of the three people who worked at the garage.

They were completely blown away when the nerdy guy picked her up one day, never expecting their quiet biker chick adjacent coworker to be dating a dork.

All in all, this normal life business was working out better than she expected. Peter’s support helped her take the initial steps, but she was never one for anxiety when she had a job to do.

********

Anxiety on normal, everyday things, that was another matter entirely.

“Honey, you can’t stay locked in the bathroom forever…” Peter’s voice was muffled from the other side of the locked door. Maybe barricading herself in the bathroom hadn’t been the most tactical of choices, but she had panicked.

“I… really need to wash my hair?”

“...even you don’t sound sure of that excuse. Will you come out so we can talk?”

“I’m comfortable here for the moment.”

“Alright, have it your way.” She listened as he retreated to the living room, making a phone call quietly enough that she struggled to hear.

Curling up against the far wall, staring at the door, hunched into herself, Laura tried to work out how to extract herself from this situation with her dignity intact. She was still trying to come up with a way, when she heard a newcomer enter the apartment.

“Laura Kinney, you drag your dramatic ass out here this instant!” Shouted a very angry sounding ten year old from the other side of the door. Gabby had arrived.

Laura found herself seconds later sitting on the sofa, a rolled up newspaper brandished in her face by her fuming sister, while Peter facepalmed in the background.

“Now dear sister, do you care to explain yourself? You interrupted my time with May!”

“Wait, you hang out with May?”

“Hi Laura!” Came May’s cheerful reply from the kitchen.

“...Hi May.” Was Laura’s confused response.

“Have been for weeks now!” Declared Gabby, like this was the biggest secret you could imagine.

“Gabby really is a delight, makes a change from the book club. I love those ladies, but sometimes they can be a bit much, you know?” May filled in.

Peter just looked to be questioning his life choices and staring at the ceiling.

“You let my sister learn from your Aunt?” Laura growled, glaring at her boyfriend, who found the dust in the corner of the ceiling the most fascinating thing ever.

“I didn’t see the harm?” He hesitantly said.

“She’s the most badass person we know!” The two sisters declared, while May just hummed smugly.

“But that’s not important, why did Peter have to call me to get you to stop hiding from him?” Gabby rounded on her again, the newspaper almost clipping Laura’s nose as it swung back towards her.

“...Peter was looking at a bigger flat for us…” Laura quietly admitted.

“I shouldn’t have sprung it on her, it’s my fault really.” Peter protested.

“Wait, that’s it?” When Laura nodded, Gabby just swatted her on the head with the newspaper. “I thought you guys had had some big argument!”

“Well I thought with Laura staying here more often, that we could use a bigger place, three bedrooms, so you have your own space…” Peter trailed off as Gabby’s head snapped around to stare at him, before slowly turning back to look at her older sister.

“You freaked out because he was being considerate of you?” Nod from Laura. “Because I could actually have my own room?”

“Well not that specifically…”

“Laura, I love you, but that man is willing to give me a room, of my own, where I can get some peace and quiet. If you don’t marry him, I’m getting Aunt May to adopt me.”

“I have the papers ready!” May announced, semi dramatically. Possibly serious as well.

“But…”

“If the next words out of your mouth are ‘I don’t deserve it’, then I am going to keep hitting you with this newspaper until you understand…” Whatever came next was interrupted when Peter picked Gabby up.

“I think maybe I should take it from here.” He smiled as Gabby pouted, disarmed her, and deposited her in the kitchen with May to finish up whatever she was cooking.

He sat down next to an uncertain Laura, checking she was ok with physical contact, before slipping an arm around her back and pulling her close. After a few minutes she opted for curling up on his lap, head resting on his chest, while he rubbed her back.

“Feeling better?” He whispered, kissing the top of her head when she nodded into his chest. “Is it because things are changing too much at once, us going too fast, or just panicking?”

“Yes..” Laura eventually spoke, hating how quiet she sounded. Peter hummed thoughtfully for a few moments.

“How about this, we don’t do anything now, but we talk about it down the line when you’ve had time to settle? Besides, I think Gabby might be crazy enough to actually want to live with me!” That got an amused snort out of Laura, before she looked up at him.

“Sorry for freaking out like that, I’ve not exactly done this before.”

“I’ve never dated you before, so we’re both learning. Just next time, please talk to me.” She nodded in agreement and hummed softly as he gave her a peck on the lips. “Now I think Aunt May was talking about brownies, think you’d be up for that.”

“I might need more cuddles. Though not too many, otherwise Gabby will eat them all…”

“That I can agree to. Gabby isn’t getting my share either!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 22

Laura had returned to the mansion, after staying at Peter’s for a couple of nights, to find Gabby waiting for her nervously. Logan was away on a mission, otherwise the youngest Wolverine would have gone to him first, so she had come to Laura instead.

A brief explanation, followed by an insistent tug of her hand, led to the sisters standing outside the door of the X-Men’s resident scientist.

Hank McCoy, aka Beast.

He had always been kind to the pair, not judging them for their past and lineage like some. Though it was a mutual thing, they were some of the few people not put off by his advanced physical mutation, leaving him looking like a bipedal blue cat.

Laura wasn’t sure why Gabby was so nervous, until she caught the faint sound of shattering glass. Not a small amount of it either. Sighing, she scratched the top of Gabby’s head, until the younger sister was humming happily, before sending her to find her friends.

If this is what Laura thought it was, she didn’t want the ten year old to see. Using her copy of Logan’s access card, which no one had called her out on having yet, she let herself in.

The inside of the lab wasn’t as bad as she was expecting, mostly confined to a far corner, where she spotted Hank. He was leaning on a work bench, smashed items littering the top, panting heavily like he had just run a marathon.

Which was odd, physically he was one of the stronger and more physically fit members of the X-Men.

"Hank?" Based on the way his ears twitched, he hadn’t been aware of her presence until she spoke. He turned, a growl caught in his throat, before he realised who it was and tried to compose himself.

“Ah, Laura, apologies. I was distracted. What can I do for you?” He adjusted his labcoat, before turning to face her properly, trying to conceal the carnage behind him.

“What happened?” His blustering attempts to say everything was fine failed under her glare. He barely put up a fight as she pushed him aside and gestured at the ruined workstation.

“Alright, but there’s nothing you can do to help, before you offer.” He sighed, walking over to a monitor and pulling up a rotating 3D representation of DNA. “My mutation is simply becoming more… unstable. I am struggling to find a way to halt it, at best I can slow it down, before it starts making my physical mutations more prominent. It’s my own fault really, dabbling with my own DNA when I was younger, but it’s in danger of unravelling and turning me into a giant, intelligent cat…”

Laura nodded to herself, understanding maybe half of that, mostly from sitting in a quiet corner of Peter’s lab and listening to his mutterings and explanations.

“Have you asked for help from other experts?”

“I have.” Hank sighed, pulling up a short list of names on a screen. “Of the ones that would actually help, or work with, a mutant, none have replied yet.” Laura spotted a familiar name on the list, Peter had a bad habit of ignoring his emails, but she could fix that.

“Challenge accepted. I shall fix the problem.” Laura turned and left the lab, leaving Hank standing there for several minutes in confusion, before he snapped back to life and tried protesting.

********

“Come in.” came the deep, calm voice from the other side of the door, following Laura’s knock. She shouldn’t be surprised he knew she was coming, he had a knack for keeping an eye on the goings on at the school.

She rarely saw, or spoke to him, outside of missions at least, but Professor Charles Xavier didn’t look at all surprised as she entered his study.

“I need permission to bring someone on site.” She stated, taking a seat in front of the desk.

“Ah, I assume this is to help poor Doctor McCoy?” Waiting for confirmation, before continuing. “You of course know that we can’t just allow anyone on the grounds, we have to know we can trust them, especially when they will be doing something sensitive like assisting Hank. I will need to know more about them.

Laura thought about it for a moment. This was logical, but at the same time she knew Peter prized his secret identity. Then, she came across a solution.

“He’s my boyfriend.”

“I see-”

“Denied, unless I can meet him!” Storm came bursting in the office, not even bothering to knock.

“You might as well tell Ororo who it is.” Charles wasn’t hiding his amusement as the two women stared at each other in shock and triumph.

“I’m dating Spider-Man. Is that enough, or do you need more?”

“Wait, really?” Ororo was thrown for a loop with that, until Laura nodded, looking slightly annoyed. “Well, they do say opposites attract, just as long as he treats you well, and doesn’t fight with Scott or Logan while he’s here, I see no problems.”

“It has been a while since he visited, many years in fact.” Xavier added, nodding fondly.

“You both know him?” Laura wasn’t expecting any of this.

“He has fought alongside the X-Men in the past, and been a friend of Logan, Kurt, and several others in that time. They just usually have to visit him in New York, due to our location and mutual need for privacy. Here’s your pass for him, I’ve set it for the following two days, let me know if you need more time.”

“It has been a while since I saw him since that business the Avengers got roped into helping Tchalla.” Storm added.

“Erm, thank you, I’ll bring him tomorrow then.” Laura left the office with so many more questions than when she had entered.

********

Ok, hard part over, now for the last step of her plan. Good thing she had contacts on the inside.

“Hey Laura, are you calling about this weekend?” Ben Grimm was used to random calls from Laura, but they usually fell within a limited range of topics if he wasn’t expecting them. In this case, dragging Peter out for an evening of board games with Ben, Susan, Jessica and Luke.

One day she would not get an exploding kitten, her luck hadn’t been great so far.

“No, we’re still on for that. I need to borrow Peter for a couple of days before then, who do I need to speak to about getting him the time off?”

“Just a sec.” It sounded like he tried to cover his phone, it was hard to tell. “Hey, Sue, do we need Peter for anything specific this week? Laura wants to kidnap him and needs to know who can sign off on that.”

“I can do that, Peter really needs to use more of his PTO.” Sue answered, sounding far away. There was a pause of a few seconds, before she continued. “That’s all signed off, tell Laura she is free to kidnap Peter and I’ll see her this weekend!”

“Susie says hi, you’re free to kidnap your boyfriend. Just return him in one piece.” Laura could hear the amused smile in his voice.

“Thanks Ben, I’ll see you this weekend, with Peter. Probably in one piece.”

********

“Oh, Laura? I thought you were staying at the mansion until the weekend?” Peter was confused when she wandered into his apartment. He was happy to see her though, it was no surprise he kept getting compared to a puppy dog, always happy to see her.

She had admitted to him it was endearing, once, when he was asleep. One day she might say it when he was conscious. She was still working on it.

“You’re being kidnapped tomorrow, Hank has… issues with his mutation. I need your science brain to help him.”

“I can’t just leave, I have work tomorrow.”

“Already sorted.”

“... I regret introducing you to Ben, or Sue, whoever it was that set this up for you.”

“Both, actually. How did you know I didn’t go to anyone else?”

“Reed only answers his phone if it’s Sue, or an emergency. You don’t like Johnny and he’s trying to find the right time to apologise, but a little jumpy after the time you almost stabbed him. So it had to be one of those two.” Ok his smug look was cute, but not the important thing right now.

“You have the rest of the week off. I just need you to have a look at Hank's work and see if you can Man-Spider him, unMan-Spider him?”

“I hate that you can use that as a verb and I know what you mean… how can I say no to you when you take charge?”

“You can’t, you enjoy it too much.” She smirked as he devolved into stammering denial, trying to find a way to prove her wrong. While she watched the tips of his ears turn red, giving away his already shaky bluff.

So she threw him on the sofa instead.

“That’s tomorrow’s problem. I have spent the day setting this all up, so I deserve cuddles.” Peter raised an eyebrow at her as she climbed over the sofa and curled up on top of him.

“You want to be rewarded for, what was it you said, kidnapping me?” He was already running his fingers through her hair, but she could hear his amusement.

“I am just using girlfriend privileges to help out a dear friend, by kidnapping a mutual friend.”

“You need to stop reading those weird blogs with Gabby, I swear it’s giving you bad ideas.”

“And yet you go along with them.”

“What can I say, I have a weakness for a woman that takes charge.”

“I know. Now, more head scratches.”

“Yes your majesty…”