I Know This Whole Damn City Thinks It Needs You (Interwebs)

I Know This Whole Damn City Thinks It Needs You

Despite the fact that they had to leave for school in 5 hours Peter and Ned were sat on the floor of Peter's bedroom feeding their terrible habit of staying up way too late finishing an elaborate LEGO project. Peter winced as he felt the painful reminder that he still had his binder on. All of this Spider-Man stuff was not easy on your ribs when you were constantly compressing your chest.

"Peter, don't you think you should take that off, it's hurting you." Ned asked resting their hand affectionately on his back. Peter winced again and shook his head, picking up another LEGO piece and adding it to the spaceship. Ned understood, they were non-binary so they too had their fair share of dysphoria but they just wanted Peter to be safe. Thats what a person in the chair was supposed to do, right? "Peter, come on man, its not like I haven't seen you without it before. Why don't we just stop working on this for the night and we can watch Brooklyn 99 and go to sleep."

Peter nodded and let Ned help him up and hand him one of their hoodies and his Hello Kitty pants for him to change into. Peter got changed and returned to his room where Ned was already collapsed on Peter's bed queuing up Brooklyn 99. Peter flipped onto the bed next to them in the most showoff manner he could muster. He immediately crossed his arms over his chest and shrunk back into Ned's hoodie ignoring the concerned look his best friend was giving him.

After watching only one episode Ned found themself struggling to stay awake and pulled their already sleeping friend off their shoulder and onto their chest so they could hug him as he slept. This was normal for them, they would often end up cuddled together after a long night and neither of them ever mentioned it or thought anything of it. Ned would never tell Peter but it was their favorite thing in the world. They loved knowing that Peter felt safe and loved that it was because of them even more.

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Aunt May knocked on Peter's door early that morning waking both of them up and alerting them that Peter needed to come do his T shot before he left for school. Ned and Peter untangled their limbs and rolled out of bed. Getting dressed took Peter forever because he kept changing his shirt in order to find one that made his chest flat before Ned got impatient and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around and aggressively reassured him.

"YOU LOOK FINE YOU BEAUTIFUL FUCKING SPIDER-BOY" Ned shook him jokingly before Peter surrendered and grabbed the nearest sweater he could find.

Peter hated doing his shot by himself so he always had Ned do it for him whenever he was over. He was always so dramatic when he took his shot even after being over a year on T. He always made Ned "kiss it better" and put one of his many Iron Man band-aids on his arm while he sat on the counter and covered his eyes with his other arm. It was another one of their things that they never thought much of.

  When they arrived at school they were greeted by the familiar yet unwelcome voice of one Flash Thompson. The only other person who knew Peter's secret.

"HEY, PENIS PARKER!" he shouted at him, an obvious jab at his lack of male body.

"Fuck off, Flash." Ned retorted, swinging their arm protectively around their friend and leading him away.

"Aw, that's so sweet," Flash mocked. "Your oh so precious BOYfriend coming to your rescue, or should I say girlfriend, or whatever the fuck it is."

That comment really got to Ned. They broke away from Peter and ran for an empty science lab. Peter found them minutes later mid panic attack under one of the desks. He lent down and wrapped his arms around them, pulling them into his shoulder. Peter was practically sitting in Ned's lap but neither of them cared enough to move. Ned just sobbed and gasped into the sweater Peter had spent way too long picking out that morning while Peter murmured words of comfort into their ear.