Hush Little Baby (Discontinued)

Ch. 27

Harley fit neatly into the daily routine.

Every morning, Happy drove the two to school, returning to pick them up at the end of the day.

In the meantime, Harley joined them for lunch, and most of Peter's classes.

Tony was the only one surprised by their closeness, but that might be because he had seen Peter's reaction at the beginning.

Peter had apologized that night, and since then there had been no problems.

Except maybe for the fact that Harley insisted he had to be the other 'Guy in the Chair' not heeding Ned's protests.

Lucky for both of them, maybe, Tony intervened and set Harley to working in his lab.

With many safeguards.

The week passed quickly.

On Friday after school, Happy took the detour to May's apartment for Peter's weekend with her.

Harley sprawled over the back seat, idly reading while Peter made sure he had everything.

"Dude," he said finally. "I'm pretty sure you'd be ready for an apocalypse. You're fine, okay. Just go."

"What," Peter raised his eyebrow. "That eager to get rid of me?"

Harley scrunched his nose and grinned. "Nah. I've seen firsthand how terrifying your aunt is. No way am I getting on the end of that glare when you're late."

"Alright alright." Peter opened the door, standing up, and swinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Make sure Dad eats, yeah? Don't let him get caught up in inventing something crazy. You either. I'm trusting you, Keener."

"No worries." Harley shut the book with a thud. "I never forget to eat."

Huffing a laugh, Peter gave a playful salute. "See you Sunday."

"Yup."

With one last wave, Peter bounded up the steps to the outer door, dodged people in the lobby, and hit the elevator button for their floor.

Inserting his key, he pushed his way into the apartment.

"May? I'm back!"

The reply came seconds later, muffled, and tired sounding. "In here!"

He poked his head into her bedroom, raising his eyebrow when she was nowhere to be seen. "May?"

He jumped as the closet door flew open, revealing his aunt, hair going everywhere, and face pink with exhaustion.

"Hey baby. I wasn't expecting you this early. I thought you had patrol?" She lifted a box onto her hip, brushing past him into the living room. "Did something happen?"

"Nope. I havent seen you in a while, and we haven't talked except for phone calls, so I decided to come early. Thought maybe we could order Thai, do something fun?"

The box raised a cloud of dust as she dropped it on the kitchen table.

"Sounds great, sweetie. Why don't you order while I take a shower? I'll be more fun when I'm not sweaty and gross."

"Not gross, May," he said wryly. "But yeah. Shoo. Go."

"Don't shoo me," May tossed a towel at his head. "You need to get on food duty."

She bustled off, and Peter grabbed the Thai menu from beneath their phone, placing the order.

Once finished, he dropped onto the table beside the box May had brought out.

It was pictures, he realized, and letters.

Hundreds of photos.

Some printed, some polaroid.

Bundles of paper, covered in tiny writing.

If he had to guess, he'd bet that it was Ben's writing.

He picked up the top pile of photos, sifting through them with gentle fingers.

The ones on top were more recent, showing him and May.

Selfies, taken with their cheeks smushed together, with wide smiles and sparkling eyes.

Still shots, ones he had taken of May as she went through her days, in her nursing uniform, in her pajamas, laughing at something he had said, curled up under a blanket with a movie in front of them, and he hadn't known that she had saved them.

He'd thought they would have been thrown away.

Under those, though, were older pictures. Some of just him and May, but also of Uncle Ben.

Their whole family, all together.

But, he realized with a pang of guilt, it wasn't.

Digging deeper, he found that there were pictures of him and Tony.

There was even one that he had a clear memory of.

He would've been about eight, and there was no way his dad could've known it was him, but the photo was from the Stark Expo.

"Wow," he breathed.

He had been so small, and had kept a mask on the entire time.

A small, replica Iron Man mask.

He had gotten the picture, but hadn't wanted to take the mask off after being taken away.

So the picture had his had standing beside his younger self, one hand on his shoulder, and smiling at the camera.

Younger Peter had a fake repulsor pointed at the camera.

"Tony never knew," May said quietly.

He didn't flinch, already knowing she was there. "That it was me?"

"Yeah. I didn't tell him, and I stayed out of the way. Didn't want to make things harder for either of you."

"It would have," he said softly. "I think."

They stared at it in silence for several minutes, until a knock came on the door.

"That's our food," May squeezed his shoulder. "Why don't you take that picture back for your dad? Right now we can watch a movie, and eat."

Peter nodded silently, and she kissed the top of his head, and went to answer the door.