Chapter Text
It was a Saturday morning and Peter was working hard to grind down his father’s last nerve. He sat crisscross on the ceiling, face turning a little red and hair standing straight up. Bucky was below him on the couch, reading a book about the fall of the Soviet Union while Steve typed up a debrief beside him.
“Pleeease.”
“I don’t know Petya.”
“But I’ll have my phone on me at all times! It’s just the mall and Ned will be there and he’s the most responsible kid alive.”
Bucky glanced up at the ceiling, quirking an eyebrow, “I thought you were the most responsible kid alive?”
“Ned’s the second most!”
Steve chuckled, “He’s got you there, Buck.”
Bucky shot Steve a glare who just laughed. Bucky sighed, dropping his shoulders into the back of the couch and putting a bookmark on his page before shutting it.
“Get off the ceiling Petya – No, not like – Oh my God.”
Peter backflipped from the ceiling and landed perfectly between Steve and Bucky with the cheekiest grin. Bucky seriously started to regret letting him join that gymnastics team. They could claim it was “recreational” and “just for fun” all they wanted, but it didn’t stop the fact that Peter was picking up on too many skills too fast. And practicing them in their tiny apartment was going to get him hurt.
“Nice landing, Pete,” Steve praised.
“Don’t encourage him,” Bucky grumbled, picking up his book again. He tried to read the next paragraph but the feeling of a pair of eyes burning a hole in the side of his face made it hard to concentrate. He exhaled very slowly.
“Please, can I go?”
“Peter.”
“Please? I promise we won’t go far –”
“Peter.”
“And I’m twelve now and every other twelve-year-old can –”
“Peter.”
“It’s just not fair –”
“Okay!” Bucky snapped, putting his hands up, “Alright, fine, you won. We can go.”
“Yay!” Peter cheered, pumping his fist in the air before attacking Bucky in a hug, “Thank you! You’re the best dad ever and – wait, we can go?”
“Yeah,” Bucky said, closing his book once more and heaving himself off the couch. Peter dropped his arms and fell back against the cushions, “You ready Steve?”
Steve huffed and closed his laptop, “No, but I guess it doesn’t matter.”
Bucky grinned at him while sitting at the kitchen table to pull on his shoes, “That’s the spirit.”
“Why can’t I go alone?” Peter whined, throwing his head back against the cushions.
Bucky raised his brows and folded his arms to ask, “That wouldn’t be whining, would it? Because we can just stay home.”
“No, but I don’t see why I can’t go alone,” Peter pouted, lifting his head up to look at his dad but keeping his body flat on the couch.
“Petya, if something happens, I’d rather be there than have to sprint across all New York to get to you,” He finished lacing his shoes then shot Peter a pointed look, “Right?”
Peter grumbled, throwing his arms over his head, “Fine.”
Bucky smiled, “Great. Now get your shoes. You too, Steve. We’re leaving in ten.”
Bucky let Peter and Ned wander on their own only with the promise that Peter would check in every fifteen minutes. He and Steve would be shopping, too, which meant they’d hide in the quietest area of the food court and wait for Peter to be done.
Peter and Ned dug through the comic store and hurried past the Victoria Secret. They ran around the home goods section of Macy’s until the manager asked them to leave.
Finally, they found themselves deep inside a Tilly’s, digging through the clearance section.
“Do you know what you’re going to wear on the first day yet?” Ned asked, examining a t-shirt of a holographic Bart Simpson before shoving it back onto the rack.
Peter shrugged, “Just clothes. I’ll figure it out that morning.”
“But I thought you wanted to impress Liz –”
“Shhhhh,” Peter hissed, looking around the nearly empty store in case she magically materialized behind them.
He had developed a slight infatuation with the girl who had moved to their school halfway through the seventh grade. Peter had talked to Ned about her nearly all summer.
She joined the decathlon team where Peter watched her silently instead of solving any of the problems. Mr. Harrington expressed his concern to Bucky, thinking that something was bothering Peter and distracting him from his studies.
When Bucky brought this up to Peter, Peter blushed and stammered so bad that Bucky deduced for himself what was going on. Which then led to a very long and awkward talk about puberty and all the gross that came with it that neither of them wanted to have.
Peter continued to dig through the clearance section, finding nearly nothing that fit his style or allowance budget of twenty dollars a month. Until a jacket with blue sleeves and a red vest listed as $12.98 caught his attention. He pulled it out and his lips turned up upon seeing a spider design stitched into the front.
The Little Spider. Maybe not so little anymore.
The days this summer where he wasn’t packed with summer curricular courses, gymnastics, decathlon and therapy, he spent his time in Tony’s lab.
He had nearly perfected a concoction for the ideal web mixture. It was stronger than they made at the compound and looked more like spider webs. He also tinkered with making his own weapon to go on his wrist, one that he could take off himself.
Of course, he did this all while Tony’s back was turned and Papa was at work. He wasn’t even quite sure what he would do with it yet, just that…
Just that…
He kind of had an idea.
“That’s so sick!” Ned exclaimed, touching the spider print on the front, “You should wear this when we get back!”
He smiled down at the hoodie and tucked it beneath his arm, “No, it’s for something different.”
“For what?”
Peter grinned, “You’ll see.”