Chapter Text
“Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.”
― S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
You were unbelievable and you were undaunted
And you were exactly just what nobody wanted
-Jeffrey Lewis
Peter is sopping wet, freezing, and so irritable he can feel it in his teeth. He Spidermanned most of his way across town and aggressively fought friction to get his Peter Parker clothes on over top of the suit. Huge gray hoodie, oversized pair of jeans, duct-tape patched high tops, all soaking through with water from the inside.
He waited for folks to pass before hopping down from the roof onto the fire escape - he can see the bobbing head of Wade's war-torn hoodie in the parking lot, poking in and out of the back of an unfamiliar car, talking to an umbrella. Well, presumably somebody under an umbrella. Peter bites the inside of his cheek to keep a string of bitter dialogue inner instead of outer. Great, he's not going to be able to get into the apartment.
Option one is cower in the Freezing in front of Wade's door for God Only Knows how long, or to figure out what in the hell stupid ass thing Wade happens to be doing now. Peter tries to wipe his glasses off on his sweatshirt but it just smears wet with more wet. He slinks down the fire escape and hides as deep as he can in his hood, crouched against the wind and rain like a kid preparing for a punch from the neighborhood bully. Wade clocks him the second he's in view and he does a little salute, causing the umbrella woman to turn toward him as well, giving a small, charitable wave.
"Hey," Peter half-yells over the battered sound of rain on asphalt, "You guys doing okay over here?"
Wade's mouth does a small twitch on the side that Peter usually loves in this deep way that gives him a little snick in his gut, but today he hates it because it's like - don't give me the James Dean treatment, I just want to scream into one of your shitty, flat, threadbare old pillows right now.
"Hey, Pete. This is Teresa - have you guys met? Pete, Teresa; Teresa, Pete. I'm helping her get this fuckin' carseat installed in here...it's a real fighter, dude. It's not goin' down easy. Or, in, I guess...I think this is right though, what do you think?"
Umbrella woman - well, Teresa, a young lady with very large false eyelashes and a round, young face, dimple piercing on one side - leans down into the back and jiggles the carseat, presumably trying to see if it'll fall over or something. Peter doesn't know anything about child paraphernalia. He's held Jessica and Luke's baby a couple of times, but even then he kept worrying he was going to crush it with Spider Strength somehow.
Wade looks over at him, eyebrows raised above his dark glasses, rain flung across them like blood spatter.
"You okay?" He mouths. Peter mouths nothing back, just turtles deeper into his Wet All The Way Through hoodie.
"This looks GREAT, oh my god, THANK YOU Wade, I really thought it was broken and I didn't know what I was gonna do. I'm gonna make you some of that chicken, okay? When Lexi and I get back from the doctor, I'll do it, I promise, I owe you SO much."
She stands on her toes and flings her arms around Wade's neck, accidentally slapping Peter with her umbrella in the process without even noticing.
"With the cornflakes? Hell yeah. But no rush. Get Lexi feelin' better, kay? And call me if this stupid thing starts actin' up again. Craigslist is a bitch, eh?"
She laughs and hugs Wade for a second time (this time Peter dodges the umbrella - where the hell were his spider senses before? Probably washed down the gutter by the stupid rain) and Wade turns to him and throws a wet arm around his shoulders (EVERYTHING is so wet, it's like the world is a whole cookie accidentally dropped full-body into a glass of milk - he's certain he's right on the edge of dissolving) and starts to steer him back to the apartment.
"Hey there, crabby. Sorry to make you wait."
"It's....it's fine," Peter says in a voice like a crunched up ball of aluminum foil "I'm glad you helped that lady fix her car seat. Very heroic behavior."
"Yeah, I was trying to emulate my inner Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman"
Peter's grimace cracks up a little and he shakes his head, feeling pretty stupid for being mad at Wade for being kind to a person in need, but also still trailing the muck of a Terrible Day off the hems of his jeans.
They climb the stairs, and Wade keeps him squeezed to his side which is both nice and annoying...just like how Wade is most of the time.
"Hey..." Wade replies to Peter's silence, "I sure bet you're gonna get some free chicken outta this though."
"You're a fuck." Peter says, plastered to the wall to stay under the awning as Wade flicks through his keys, taking his sweet goddamn time.
"Accurate, though tremendously hurtful." He says doing that smile flick like a match being lit and finally shouldering the door open. He does an oversized, ridiculous bow and flings one arm out wide to usher Peter into the dark apartment. Peter starts trying to squiggle out of his soaked hoodie almost immediately, and regrets it equally as immediately because when his spider suit hits the air, it drops to sub-zero temperature and he starts to shiver absolutely uncontrollably.
"Heeeey there, kid, let me get you a towel, Jesus."
"Don't call me kid, I'm 30"
"I always call you kid, kid."
"I know. I hate it. I hate you"
"I hate you too, kiddo"
And something genuinely warm hits him in the center of his chest like some kind of alien plasma blast and they're kissing before he can even really process what's happening. Warm, warm, warm, he reaches up a hand and tucks his fingers around Wade's ear and under his jaw, feeling the uneven, blistered, sore skin beneath his palm. His favorite skin in the whole entire world. His favorite chapped, skin-sharp lips in the world, his favorite giant, rough hands helping to unzip the spider suit underneath the big, heavy blanket and their noses are both freezing but their tongues are warm and it's like eating a popsicle in summer but flipped around and upside down and for just a moment, just a moment, Peter forgets that he wants to give up on everything and just go live on Saturn.
***