Chapter Text
It all started one Saturday morning when nine-year-old Peter Parker was playing in his room.
He was sitting on the rug in his bedroom, blueprints scattered in an organized mess around him as he meticulously built his Lego police station. Peter didn't have that many Legos, but he didn't mind— it was much more fun to write his own blueprints than to use the official ones, anyway. He had his Iron Man notebook open next to him, which he used to write down all of his best ideas (Tony Stark was great at building stuff, after all, so using that notebook always made him feel like his ideas were Iron Man-approved). His yellow bucket of Legos had been dumped out, organized into piles of size and colour, and he was giving it his careful attention when he heard a knock at his bedroom door.
"Come in," Peter said, looking up for a moment to see his Uncle Ben walk through the door, wearing his police uniform.
"Hey, bud, whatcha working on?" His uncle smiled at him, walking to Peter's bed and taking a seat on the Star Wars-themed bedding.
"I'm building a police station," Peter picked up his blueprints, holding them up to show his Uncle proudly. "Like yours. I've never built one before, so I don't have any police officers. But I can probably draw some for it after."
Uncle Ben laughed to himself, shaking his head. "I don't know how you do it, Peter… I wouldn't even know where to start."
"That's because you've never tried. I think you'd be great at it," Peter said as he put his drawings back down, continuing to work on the base of the structure.
"That's very nice of you to say, Peter. Thank you."
Peter nodded and looked up at his uniform-clad Uncle. "Are you going to work today?"
"Yeah, little man," Uncle Ben nodded. "Actually, I came to let you know that May's brother is coming by today."
"Aunt May has a brother?" Peter asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Uncle Ben smiled down at him. "Well, he's actually May's brother-in-law. But she's known him for years and is very excited to see him again, so I want you to be on your best behaviour, okay?"
Peter nodded, his curls bouncing in front of his eyes. He was always on his best behaviour, but Uncle Ben usually asked him anyway. "What's his name?"
"His name is Steven, you can call him Uncle Steven, probably."
"Steven like Captain America?" Peter's eyes widened in excitement.
"Well— he's not Captain America," Uncle Ben said quickly. "But they do have the same name."
"I know that, Uncle Ben," Peter laughed, picking up his pencil to scribble something in his notebook. "I was just kidding. I'm pretty sure Aunt May would have told us if her brother was Captain America."
Uncle Ben laughed, nodding his agreement. "You're right, she probably would have. Anyways," he stood up, patting Peter on the head, "I'm gonna head out to work, but Steven will probably be back before I get home tonight, so I just thought I would give you a heads up."
The nine-year-old looked up at this, again, with slight confusion on his face. "He's coming that late? Is he going to stay with us?"
Uncle Ben shook his head. "No, but he is going to live down the hall. So we'll get to see him all the time, really."
Peter smiled to himself, looking back down at his notebook. "That's cool. We'll have another person in our family. That's really cool."
Uncle Ben smiled softly at this, nodding his head. "You're absolutely right, Peter. It's very cool."
With that, Uncle Ben bid Peter goodbye and left the room, leaving Peter to sketch his idea for a future Lego creation— Captain America's shield. He really hoped his new Uncle Steven would like it!
*
Later that afternoon, Peter was reading a comic with Aunt May at their table when they heard a knock at the door.
"That's him!" His aunt stood up quickly, walking over to the front door in a few short strides with Peter close behind.
She looked through the peephole, her smile growing even bigger as she pulled the door open.
"Steven!"
"May!"
The two siblings-in-law wrapped each other in a big hug, giving Peter a moment to look at his newest family member. Uncle Steven had blonde hair, and he was tall. He was wearing a brown button-up shirt and a jacket, and he held Aunt May around her torso tightly for a moment before the two pulled away.
He turned to look at Peter, who smiled widely.
"And you must be Peter?" The man said, smiling kindly down at Peter and sticking his hand out to shake.
Peter nodded his head, shaking Uncle Steven's hand firmly.
"My name is Steven," the man said, bringing a hand up to ruffle Peter's curls. "You can call me Skip, though, that's what my friends call me."
"Uncle Ben told me to call you Uncle Steven," Peter said, following him and Aunt May into the living room to sit down.
Uncle Steven (Skip?) laughed, shaking his head. "That's way too formal— I want us to be friends, okay? So you can call me Skip."
Peter nodded slowly, a little disappointed. He was looking forward to having another Uncle, especially one with the same name as Captain America. But having a new friend didn't seem all that bad, either.
Skip saw Peter's comic on the table, looking at it in interest. "You read comics?"
"Yeah! I like Star Wars the best."
"Did you see the movies, too?" Skip asked, picking up the comic to leaf through it.
"Yes, I did! I have a few posters too, come see!" Peter ran over to his room, not far at all from the living room considering how small their apartment was.
Skip followed behind, and Peter pushed open his door to reveal his mainly Star Wars-themed bedroom. Aside from his bedsheets, he also had posters for the original trilogy, as well as a small Han Solo action figure on his desk.
"Wow, your room is so cool, Peter!" Skip looked around, probably exaggerating his reaction a little bit for Peter's sake, but he didn't mind. All it meant was that Skip was nice, and Peter liked that.
The man noticed the pile of Legos on the ground, surrounding a half-built structure. "Oh, you like Lego! What're you building?"
"I'm building a police station!" Peter smiled, pulling Skip over to sit at his little desk in the corner and grabbing a photo album that was on top of a pile of books. "Here, I build stuff with Legos all the time, but I don't have that many, so I take pictures and Uncle Ben prints them for me before I take them apart and build something new."
Skip took the album carefully, flipping through the dozens of photos of Peter smiling next to his creations. Many were buildings, like a hospital and the Empire State, but even more seemed to be taken from Peter's various interests, such as Thor's hammer, a lightsaber, and an Iron Man helmet. Most of them weren't very accurate when it came to colour, since Peter's Lego collection was limited, but they all looked accurate to what they were.
"This one is my favourite," Peter said, pointing to the Iron Man helmet. "I didn't want to break this one, but then Uncle Ben bought me a real helmet, so I didn't need this one anymore."
He turned and walked over to his closet, pushing the plastic sliding door open and bending down to pull out a plastic Iron Man helmet. He put it over his head, turning back toward Skip. "See?"
"That's very cool, Peter," the man smiled, Peter able to see him through the tiny slits in the mask.
"Last year, we all went to the Expo, and I wore my mask. And then a bunch of drones came and started shooting everywhere, and then Iron Man saved me!"
Skip looked surprised by this, but thankfully, he seemed to believe Peter. That made him like the man even more— people usually thought he was lying when he told that story.
"That's– so awesome! He must really be your favourite superhero then, huh?"
Peter nodded dutifully, slowly pulling the helmet off his head. "Definitely. Thor is cool too. And Captain America. But Iron Man is my favourite."
He put his helmet on his bed, not quite ready to put it completely away again after talking about Iron Man.
Skip continued looking through the photo album, pointing out various structures that he recognized and Peter explaining the inspiration and design process for each one. He even pulled out his blueprint binder from under his bed, allowing Skip to admire the Iron Man stickers that decorated the front before he opened it and showed Skip all of his blueprints.
Peter decided that he was no longer disappointed that he didn't get an uncle. Skip was a really great friend. Uncle Ben and Aunt May patiently listened to all of his ideas and explanations, but Skip was the first person that actually seemed interested in what he had to say, not just impressed.
After at least half an hour of excited conversation, there was a knock on Peter's bedroom door, and the two turned to see Aunt May standing there with an amused smile on her face.
"Dinner's ready, boys."
"We're coming!" Peter said, turning to pick up all his blueprints that now covered his bed and desk. Skip stood up, but instead of leaving to follow Aunt May as Peter expected, he turned and started helping Peter tidy up.
"You don't have to help me, Skip, I can do it," Peter looked up at him, reaching up to take the blueprints from the man's hands.
Skip passed them over easily, but didn't leave— instead, he continued helping Peter tidy up. "No worries, Pete, it'll go twice as fast if we work together."
He smiled and nodded his agreement, and the two finished putting everything back in Peter's binder and returning everything to its proper place in Peter's bedroom (except for his Iron Man helmet, which he decided to leave on his pillow).
Peter turned to leave the room when Skip called him back.
"Hey Peter, wait."
The nine-year-old turned back to Skip, who was fishing for something in his pocket. He pulled out a slightly crumpled $10 bill, and held it out to Peter.
Peter's eyes widened, looking up at Skip and shaking his head. "No, Skip, thank you but you don't have to–"
Skip shushed him, pressing the bill into his hand. "Take it, okay? For me. Please. If you don't take it, I'm just going to hide it in your room somewhere."
Slowly, Peter closed his fingers around the bill, and then he wrapped his arms around Skip's torso. "Thank you, Skip."
The man laughed, hugging Peter back gently. "Of course, Peter. I'm just sorry I didn't get you a real gift, I didn't know what kind of stuff you liked when I was coming. Just make sure you get something cool for yourself from me, okay?"
Peter nodded his head, pulling away from the hug and turning toward the door again.
"Wait!" Skip said again, making Peter turn around a second time.
"Put it in your room, okay? This is just for you, from me. I don't want your aunt or uncle to try to pay me back or anything. Don't tell anyone."
Peter nodded his head. That made sense, his aunt and uncle were definitely the type to try and pay someone back for this kind of thing. He went over to his desk and pulled out an old wallet that he had gotten as a little kid, which was really just an old coin purse of May's with a Yoda sticker on it.
Skip noticed and shook his head. "Next time I see you, I'm giving you a real wallet."
Peter looked up at him with wide eyes again, shaking his head. "No, no Skip you really don't have to, this works perfectly fine for me!"
Of course, though, the man didn't change his mind, just reached his hand out to ruffle Peter's hair as the boy put his wallet back in the basket on his desk. "No, you can't change my mind. A man needs a wallet. Don't worry, I'll get you a cool-looking one."
Peter didn't know what else to do, so he just smiled and hugged the man again. Skip laughed, putting a hand on his head and guiding the two of them out of the room toward the table, where Aunt May was setting a dish of food in the middle.
"Is Uncle Ben gonna be home soon?" Peter asked, settling down at the table next to Skip.
"Soon, I hope," Aunt May said, smiling at him a little sadly. She knew how much Peter hated eating dinner without all of them. "He hasn't called yet, and since he doesn't usually work Saturdays I have no idea when he'll come back."
Peter nodded sadly, looking down at his plate. Usually, he insisted on waiting until Uncle Ben got back. Since they had a guest today, though, it would be rude to force him to wait with them.
Skip seemed to have noticed this though, and spoke up. "Don't you think we could wait for him? It's not like I have some long drive ahead of me, there's no rush."
Peter perked up at this, turning to look at Aunt May hopefully.
She took a moment to think, making eye contact with Skip and doing that thing where grown-ups speak with their eyes, before sighing with a soft smile. "Sure, okay, I'll go wrap this up and we can wait. Does that sound okay, Peter?"
Of course, Peter grinned widely and nodded, not even pulling away when Skip ruffled his hair. "Thanks, Skip."
"Of course, man, what are friends for?"
When Aunt May came back from the kitchen, Skip suggested that the three of them watch a movie while they waited. So when Uncle Ben finally walked through the door nearly two hours later, it was to the three of them settled in the living room. Skip and Peter were on one couch and Aunt May laid on the other, the ending of A New Hope on the TV. Skip had an arm around Peter's shoulders, and Peter's head was lolled on his shoulder, asleep.
As soon as he heard his Uncle's voice greeting their guest, Peter's eyes shot open and he scrambled off of the sofa to give his Uncle a hug. "Uncle Ben!"
"Peter," Uncle Ben smiled tiredly, patting his hair with gentle fingers. "Did you have fun today?"
"Yeah! Skip is so fun! We looked at all of my Lego blueprints, and I showed him all my pictures. It was fun!"
"Did you?" Peter watched Uncle Ben look up at Skip with a smile. "Well, I'm glad the two of you had fun."
Peter nodded excitedly, continuing to talk to Uncle Ben about everything he and Skip talked about, as well as the fact that Skip agreed that A New Hope was better than Empire Strikes Back, and anything else that came to mind as the four sat around the table and Aunt May served dinner.
After dinner was over, the three of them stood to bid Skip adieu.
"Thank you all for having me, it means a lot," Skip smiled, putting his shoes back on at the door.
Aunt May smiled, hugging her brother again. "Of course, Steven. It's so great to have you around, truly."
Uncle Ben shared the sentiment, shaking Skip's hand. "It's great to have you, Steven. You'll be great for Peter."
Skip smiled, bending down and looking up at Peter. "It was great to meet you, Peter. Thank you for making me feel so welcome here. You're welcome to come over whenever, okay?"
Peter nodded with a smile, wrapping his arms around Skip's neck for a hug. "It was nice to meet you too, Skip."
The two parted with Skip standing up bringing him outside for a quick moment to show him that he was only three doors down. Peter nodded, smiling, and Skip ruffled his hair one last time before walking away, and Peter watched him go inside before going back inside his own apartment.
"Skip is great, Uncle Ben!" Peter said, shutting the door and locking it behind him. "He's so nice, and he likes a lot of stuff that I like."
Uncle Ben smiled at this, glancing at Aunt May who was washing dishes. "That's great, Peter. I'm glad you like him so much. We should visit him once he's settled in, yeah? We can bring him a housewarming gift."
The nine-year-old smiled widely at this, nodding excitedly. "Yeah, that would be great!"
After getting permission from his guardians, Peter ran to the living room to finish watching his movie. What did it matter if he had seen it dozens of times? He loved it for a reason, and leaving it to the next day would ruin the whole vibe of the movie.
After it was done, Peter was watching the credits as he sometimes did (he liked testing himself to see how fast he could read the moving words) when Uncle Ben and Aunt May came to sit in the living room, turning to face Peter. Judging by the looks on their faces, they wanted to have a serious conversation, so he turned the TV off and turned toward them too.
"Peter," Aunt May began, smiling reassuringly at her nephew. "Since we found out Skip was coming to live here, we were thinking… maybe I could take a job at the hospital, again."
Peter didn't say anything, a little confused, and so she continued.
"Your Uncle Ben works very hard to provide for us, and he does well." She paused to reach out and hold Uncle Ben's hand, who smiled at her sadly. "But it's no secret that things have been a little tight lately, right?"
Peter nodded slowly. "Will you work at the same times as Ben?"
Aunt May shrugged her shoulders. "Being a nurse is kind of random, but usually, the shifts are around 12 hours. I might be out longer than Uncle Ben if that happens. So we thought, if you liked Skip, that maybe he could watch you when both of us were at work."
At this, Peter gave a relieved smile. So that's why they were acting so seriously! "Yeah, that would be cool! Skip's really fun. Does he not have to work?"
"Skip's a teacher, and he got a job at a local high school, so he'll actually be busy the same times that you are. By the time the bus brings you home, Skip will probably be home already, since he's done working an hour before your school even ends. But," Aunt May sat up a little straighter, reaching out to hold Peter's hand and looking at him seriously. "If you don't like the idea, then it's no problem at all, okay? We don't wanna do anything that'll make you feel uncomfortable, or sad in any way."
Peter held his Aunt's hand tightly, looking into her eyes and trying to show how happy he was through them.
"Don't worry, Aunt May. Since I won't be home alone, that's okay! And since it's with Skip, that's even better. He's really nice, did I mention that?"
At that, his Aunt and Uncle laughed for some reason, and they all hugged before Peter was sent off to get ready for bed with hugs and kisses.
As Peter was drifting off to sleep, Iron Man helmet right next to him, all he could think about was what Aunt May and Uncle Ben were telling him. Sure, he was sad that he was gonna see less of Aunt May, but he had noticed that she and Uncle Ben hadn't gone clothes shopping in a year and that their fridge looked barer and barer as time went on. It wouldn't be fair of him to stop her. She deserved to be able to buy things she wanted, too, and not save all their extra money for Peter's new clothes and school supplies.
Besides, they weren't leaving him with some random, creepy babysitter. They were leaving him with Skip! How could he complain?