The monster in the walls

Great idea, really bad news

"Hey, runt. Peter?" A metal arm carefully grasped the boy's shoulder and shook him awake.

"Wha's up?" Peter lifted his head off the counter, forcing his heavy eyelids open. It proved more difficult than it should have. "Sorry, uncle Bucky," he rubbed at his tired eyes, "didn't mean to fall 'sleep."

"I know, kid." The older man ruffled the teen's hair before taking a seat next to him at the kitchen island, chuckling lightly. "Are ya up all night partyin' or something?"

"No, just really tired this past week."

"Nightmares?"

"I- yeah. Sorta. They're more like m-memories. Bad ones." Calling them "bad" was a gross understatement. Traumatizing, scarring, and awful were more accurate adjectives to describe the memories he'd accrued during his ten year stint with HYDRA. As much as he desperately wanted to leave those thoughts behind, his mind wouldn't let him forget.

Bucky's eyebrows furrowed in concern as his grip on his nephew's shoulder tightened. He knew exactly what Peter meant, having been a HYDRA prisoner himself. Every memory with them was a bad memory.

"Wanna talk 'bout it?" he asked, genuinely concerned for his youngest teammate and nephew whom he adored more than life itself. He'd go to the edge of the Earth and back if it meant sparing the innocent hero even a fraction of the pain he'd already experienced. A sentiment shared by all the Avengers.

"I..." Peter did not want to talk about it. Not at all. But if his suspicions were correct, then it wasn't just him that was in danger. His family and anyone within the tower could be at risk. "You know how Dr. Strange taught us about the multiverse and different dimensions?"

"Yeah, it was during the debriefing a couple of months ago. After that crazy octopus monster fell into Time Square from some other reality." That had been a new one for the WWII soldier. He'd seen a lot of weird shit and, apparently, things only continued to get more bizarre.

The teen nodded. "So there was something... something that HYDRA let loose. But it wasn't from our dimension." Peter wrung his hands anxiously before tucking them up into the sleeves of his MIT hoodie, a beloved gift from his dad. "They used some machine to tear a hole in our reality that allowed them to access another dimension."

"What?" Bucky gasped. "How did they manage to build a machine that could tear a hole in reality? That seems way above their pay grade. Even for them."

Peter scratched the back of his neck as his nerves went haywire. He debated lying, but eventually the truth won out. "I'm- I figured it out. I got th-the machine to-to work." Shame bubbled up inside him, and he was quick to explain his actions because he didn't want Bucky to hate him or think he worked for HYDRA. The words tumbled past his lips in a frantic attempt to clarify what occurred. "They made me! The scientists gave me basic blueprints, and I took it from there. I swear I had no idea what they were doing! Please trust me! Honestly, I did-didn't know I-."

"Hey, calm down. It's okay. Just take a deep breath." The soldier reassured him, an easy smile on his lips. "I know you didn't help them willingly. None of us would ever doubt that." He rested both hands on Peter's shoulders when his breathing picked up, tipping Bucky off on the coming panic attack; something he was all too familiar with. "Just breathe, kid. Follow me." He breathed in and out, drawing out each inhale and exhale for Peter to mimic.

After a good ten minutes of reassuring on Bucky's part and dozens of failed attempts to imitate the soldier's deep, rhythmic breathing, Peter finally calmed down. He'd barely gotten his breathing back under control before stuttering out apology after apology that Bucky immediately dismissed.

"Don't sweat it, pipsqueak. I understand." He ruffled the teen's hair again, more than pleased when the teen swatted playfully at the offending hand. "Now explain to me more about this monster."