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Two days after Peter was bit by a radioactive spider, he said his first word. He was newly 14 years old and had gone with Ned on a birthday trip to Oscorp against his dad's better judgement. Tony made the exception because Peter was deep into a bioengineering binge and his dad was the world's best and would do anything to make his kids happy.
The thing is, Peter had never actually said a word before. Sure he made sounds—grunts and groans and chirps and other noises. But his brain got twisted up with making actual words come out of his mouth and his tongue and lips couldn't quite seem to coordinate them either.
This disappointed his parents for the first 6 years of Peter's life, when they were still hopeful he would one day miraculously start speaking. For those 6 years, Peter sat through seemingly endless speech therapy sessions that didn't do much beyond helping him form occasionally accurate open vowel sounds. It was the rest he couldn't seem to get.
When Peter was 6, he met Ned for the first time. Ned's little sister Ann was Deaf since birth and his family had embraced the culture of Deafness, learning sign language and connecting her with other kids in the Deaf and otherwise nonverbal community.
Meeting Ned's family changed the Stark's perspective on Peter's disability. It helped them realize that the beautiful little boy they'd been gifted with was going to be okay and that just maybe they were unintentionally holding him back from living a fuller, more involved life.
So, they changed. They stopped trying to force spoken word and immediately started in on sign language, but quickly learned that a lot of the coordination issues that made it so difficult for him to form words bled over into a struggle in signing. But they saw progress. He could communicate with them just a little more than before. And the signs that he could do well he did repeatedly. It showed them that maybe he wanted to communicate with them just as badly as they wanted him to, but this just wasn't the way.
One day when Peter was nearing 7, he downloaded an app on his tablet. It was the first time he'd downloaded anything other than a book (usually about dinosaurs) on the tablet in the near 2 years he had it. The app was a text to speech app that he wanted so his tablet could read his books to him even when he was too tired to keep his eyes open.
For the first few days that's the only time he used the app, until one day his mom was making him a snack. As always, she told him to go wash his hands and come to the kitchen to eat. Since it was just a snack and not a full meal, he was allowed to bring his tablet into the kitchen with him. He had it open next to him when he saw his mom pull out a dark chocolate bar and some berries, his favorite snack. Grinning, he watched her pour some onto his dino plate, disappointed when she only gave him a handful of berries and two chocolate squares. He grunted to get her attention and shook his head.
“You don't want this?” she asked, already putting them back in their containers. Frantic, Peter tried to sign “more” but she wasn't looking. He quickly unlocked his tablet and opened his text to speech app, typing “More mom more please yes” before hitting submit three times. The statement repeated itself and Pepper froze.
She slowly turned back around, eyes wide. Now that he has her full attention, Peter hits submit one more time nodding his head.
“Tony?” Pepper calls with tears in her eyes, “Jarvis, get Tony.”
Smiling she pours two handful of berries onto the dino plate and breaks up two more squares to give Peter 4 total chocolate squares. Pepper walks around the counter, placing the plate in front of Peter and runs her hand from his cheek to his chin.
“Mmm” he hums while typing “thank you mommy” painstakingly slow before hitting submit.
Pepper bursts into tears just as Tony rounds the corner.
“Pep?” he asks, confused. At seeing her crying crouched next to Peter and Peter shoveling blueberries into his mouth he isn’t sure what to think.
All of a sudden Peter stops grabbing food and concentrates on typing something into his tablet.
“Hi Daddy” his tablet speaks in a chopped, robotic voice. Like Pepper, Tony freezes and like Pepper, tears start to make their way down his face.
“Hi buddy” he croaks.
—
After this, Tony and Pepper dive deep into the world of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Tony develops Peter a better app that includes preset words and phrases, with pictures, as well as a text field and a more human voice fitting of a 6 year old.
With his AAC, Peter began to flourish.
—
Fast forward to 2 days after Peter is bit by the radioactive spider on his birthday trip to Oscorp. Morgan, who was 8 at the time, was in the middle of filming a dramatic scene with her dolls and keeps blocking the tv while Peter, who is laying on the couch snacking on M&M covered popcorn and cream soda is trying to rewatch Revenge of the Sith.
“Move” he hits on his tablet, telling Morgan to move. Morgan shoots Peter an annoyed look but moves out of the way. Not even 5 minutes later she's back in front of the TV.
“Move. Move.” he hits again, twice this time. Morgan ignores him.
“Move”. Again, nothing.
Grunting, Peter starts hitting the button on repeat.
“Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move.”
Finally, he lets out a frustrated “M-o-gn g-uh”. It's heavy on his tongue and came out mostly from his throat. His voice, rarely used except for the occasional grunt of frustration, is rough and quiet. But Morgan freezes what she's doing and turns around, jaw dropped and camcorder slack in her grip.
In her entire 8 years of living, she'd never once heard a word or attempt at words come from Peter's mouth.
Peter, shocked too, slaps a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. He'd been practicing with Ned the day before when he realized he could coordinate sounds a little better since the bite and didn't expect the words clouding his brain to spill out. It's never happened before.
“Don't tell Mom Dad” he quickly types out on his tablet, flashing back to years of speech therapy and worried they'll use this as an excuse to start again.
Morgan opens her mouth in protest, “But, Petey!”
He shakes his head, hands trembling, “No please” he types desperately.
Morgan observes him for a moment, then nods. “Pinky promise”, she says sliding over to him and wrapping her pinky around his.
Tension leaves Peters body as he hits “Thank you” three times on his tablet. Relieved, he tunes back into the movie as Morgan leaves the room. She goes to her room and closes the door before replaying that section of her video over and over in awe.
To this day, that is the one secret Morgan kept safe and she took extra precautions to back up that clip with Peter's rusty voice saying her name.