Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aaron woke up, feeling like he was suffocating.

He gasped for air, and immediately noticed the intrusive tube in his nose. He started grabbing at it, and then immediately stopped when he felt the tube scraping along the back of his throat.

Okay don't panic. Stay calm. Where are you, Aaron?

He felt so weak and tired, and pulling his eyes open to look around the room was not easy. Glaring light immediately  blinded him, and he squinted in it, trying to figure out where he was. Judging from the beeping, the IV, and the general white clean look of the room, he was probably in the hospital. Which explained the tube in his nose.

So why was he in the hospital? He laid there for a bit, trying to remember. Oh .

Right.

It all came back to him in a rush. Prowler, King Pin. The fight in that civilian's house. Miles. The gunshot. 

Instantly, pain blossomed out from his lungs. Aaron grabbed at his chest, coughing and gasping. The heart rate monitor started ticking up, to an almost aggressive pace. He couldn't breathe right, the damn tube in his throat was keeping him from breathing. He grabbed at it and started pulling.

"No! Sir! Sir please don't do that!"

He looked up as a woman came running in, she quickly, but gently stopped him. He lashed out, trying to get her off, but she just gently grabbed his hands, holding onto him with a surprising amount of strength. 

"It's okay, Mr. Davis. My name is Erika, I'm a nurse. You're in the hospital right now."

"Why?" He croaked out.

"You were shot, you've been recovering from a collapsed lung. You need to leave the ventilator tube in to help you breathe."

He stared at her. She was young, younger than Rio, and she was staring at him with a mixture of worry and something Aaron could only guess was fear.

He just relaxed, no longer resisting this poor nurse, even though he still wanted to yank the tube out. She offered him a smile and let go of his hands. 

"How do you feel?" She asked, stepping back and grabbing a computer.

He just groaned. She nodded sympathetically. They spent the next few minutes playing twenty questions, and then he got a full explanation of his current medical state.

He had been in the hospital, mostly asleep, for nearly half a week, due to the amount of blood he had lost. His lung had been repaired and drained, and the gunshot wound had been stitched up. He had just been on a ventilator to help keep him properly oxygenated while he slept.

After finishing their little debrief, the nurse gave him some pain medicine. He almost immediately dozed off, already feeling exhausted.

"Hey, Aaron."

He opened his eyes to find Rio sitting in the armchair next to him, smiling softly.

"Erika told me you were awake, thought I'd stop by," she was speaking softly.

"Hey," Aaron answered, closing his eyes and readjusting a bit. He was still so tired, even after sleeping.

"How do you feel?"

"Like shit."

She snorted a bit. "I imagine. They'll probably see about taking that vent tube out today, so that should help a tiny bit."

"Hey, Rio?"

"Yeah?"

Aaron looked back over at his sister-in-law.

"Is Miles okay?"

He had no idea what had happened to his nephew after. Judging by the fact that they were all still here, the Spider Gang had stopped Kingpin, but past that? He had no clue.

"He's okay. He's worried about you. But he's back at Visions."

Aaron nodded, letting out a breath of relief. Did she know?

"What happened?" He asked again.

"I don't know. Jefferson said he just found you in an alleyway, bleeding out. He wouldn't say anything else, kept saying he didn't know, but I know he knows more. You know how he is."

Aaron did. Jefferson thought he had to protect everyone. That's what drove him to become a police officer. That's what had driven them apart, in the end. But Jefferson would know. He would have seen Aaron in his Prowler gear. He would know, and Aaron would have to deal with that later. But for right now, he was tired and hungry.

"Rio, can I have something to eat?" He asked, letting his eyes slide closed.

"Of course, I'll go talk to your nurse. I'll see you later, Aaron."

"See ya."

"Rest up, okay?"

He nodded faintly, listening to her sneakers squeak as she walked out. A few minutes later, a nurse came in to see what he wanted to eat, and it didn't take long before he was fighting down food.

Miles took a deep breath, barely thinking before he threw himself off the edge of the building. He was so used to it now; the feeling of falling, the pause before the catch of his webs, being thrown into the air by the retraction of webs, wind whistling in his ears. He lived for it. It was his freedom. This is where he got out of school, where he could go and just be him, and be free for a moment.

He’d only gone out a few times since the whole situation with Kingpin. He’d spent two days after just sleeping and recovering, and the first night he’d gone out had been chaos. He’d almost broken some bones just fighting a petty criminal. Last night had been fairly quiet, but with all the aftermath of the Collider, crime was ramping up. And frankly? It was so much harder to do this all by himself. 

Ganke was cool. He had been a little freaked out by the Spider-Man gig at first, but he seemed to be calming down now. But even having a friend who knew, wasn’t the same as having friends who were also Spider people. Miles missed Gwen and Peter B the most. He missed having their banter, and having them swing along beside him. But hey, what could he do but keep trucking along.

He was swinging downtown, headed to check in on his uncle. His mom had called earlier in the day to let him know that Aaron was awake, and obviously he couldn’t go in now, especially with how late it was, but he could stop by and peak in the window. Just see him. 

He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he actually did have to see Aaron. 

What would he say? How would he explain any of this? How should he react to Aaron being prowler? What was going to happen? He didn’t have answers for any of these questions, just more questions.

He was about two blocks from the hospital when he heard the sirens.

He immediately pulled himself onto the nearest building, turning to look for the source of the sirens. They were ambulance, and police sirens. Could just be an accident, could be something worse. Either way, he needed to go check it out. It was part of his job now.

He followed the screeching, ear piercing sirens back uptown. Due to traffic, he made it to the scene before them, which turned out to just be a minor accident. He sighed through his nose and threw himself upwards, swinging around, and landing on top of the nearest building. He reached up, pulling his mask up off his face, and checking his web shooters quickly. He was trying to get in the habit of making sure they weren’t low, else he risk getting stranded on the other side of town.

“Hey, Miles.”

A hand on his shoulder pulled him around. Miles screamed and without thinking, he activated his venom strike. He heard a high pitched yelp, and at the same moment, registered a Spider-Man go flying away from him, hitting the ground and tumbling head over heels.

“Oh shit!” Miles yelled, running after him.

“You gotta stop doing that, man,” a familiar voice groaned.

“Peter!?”

“Hey bud.”

Peter weakly raised a hand, waving, before pulling his mask up. He looked really dazed, which made sense, considering he had just been electrocuted. 

“I am sooooo sorry!” Miles exclaimed, crouching down beside him.

“Ow.”

“What are you doing here? How are you back? And more importantly aren’t you dying?”

Peter groaned. “I’ll explain it all, in a minute.”

Miles nodded understandingly and just sat there, staring at him. Peter just laid on the roof, staring up at the light polluted sky. Questions were bubbling up in his head, speeding through faster than he could swing.

“Okay.”

Peter sat up with a groan, pulling his mask all the way off, and turned to face Miles.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“I bet you have a lot of questions.”

“Yeah,” Miles confirmed, moving to sit with his legs crossed.

“Where do you wanna start?”

“Can I hug you?”

Peter’s eyes went wide, and he just blinked at Miles for a moment.

“I mean, uh, sure. Yeah.”

Miles lunged forwards and hugged him. Peter grunted and rocked backwards a bit, but hugged Miles back, just as tight.

“So I guess you beat Kingpin?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we won.”

Peter grinned at him, rubbing his knuckles on the top of Miles’ head. “I’m proud of you, kid.”

Miles couldn’t help but grin back. It was good to see Peter. It was so good, but he still had questions.

“How are you back here? I destroyed the collider. Like, full explosion, boom, Fisk tower in smoke.”

“I figured out how to do interdimensional travel safely!” Peter announced. “Or rather, some friends of mine did. But it’s a secret and we can’t tell anyone.”

Miles raised an eyebrow and Peter shrugged. “Hey, you know as well as I do what would happen if interdimensional travel was common knowledge.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” he said with a sigh. 

They just sat there and looked at each other. 

“How are you doing?” Peter asked, eyebrows creasing in worry. “Shouldn’t you be with family right now?”

“What?” Miles asked, frowning. 

“Your uncle?”

“Oh- Oh! No. Uncle Aaron is fine! Or well, not fine, he’s in the hospital with a collapsed lung. But he’s alive!”

“Oh, Miles, that’s great!”

Peter hugged him again and Miles just grinned. “Thanks, man.”

“What about you, did you talk to MJ?”

Peter shrugged. “We did talk, but. . . she’s seeing someone else, and I belong here.”

“What do you mean? What about your universe, who will watch it?”

“My universe has plenty of heroes, kid. It will survive for now. Right now? You need me more.”

Miles couldn’t help but grin a little bit at that. Peter chuckled.

“You wanna help me with patrols?”

“Miles. I would be honored.”

“So, Aunt May is letting me stay with her in her rental for a bit.”

“Oh shit right, what’s happening with her house?”

Peter shrugged, looking down at Miles. It was a little weird to be walking around with the kid in street clothes, no masks, no suits. Even when they first met, they were both kind of in suits of some kind. But currently he was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and jacket he had brought over from his dimension, and Miles was just in a hoodie and sweats, texting as he walked, yet not bumping into a single object.

“So what are we getting?” Miles asked, glancing around the supermarket they had just walked into.

“She sent me with a grocery list,” Peter explained, pulling out a crumpled list from his pocket. “And money too.”

“Oh sweet.”

Miles snatched the list from him, looking over it. 

“Okay, grab a cart.”

“A what?”

“One of those?” Miles pointed at a long row of trolley’s.

“Oh. You mean a trolley.”

Miles just stared at him. 

“Sure dude.”

Peter grabbed one, and then followed Miles as he started walking through the store. The kid was weaving between boxes of things in the middle of rows, clearly knowing right where he was going.

“Okay, here we go.”

They walked around the store together, picking up the different things Aunt May needed. And they were just heading towards the check-out when Peter heard a voice.

“Miles?” 

Miles instantly screeched to a stop, turning, eyes wide. Peter raised an eyebrow and Miles desperately tried to gesture.

“What are you doing? ” Peter asked, just raising an eyebrow.

“Get out of here!” Miles hissed.

“Miles, what are you doing here?”

Peter turned to see a man and a woman walking over, both holding groceries. Miles was as stiff as a board, and glanced one more time at Peter before sighing, shoulders slumping.

“Hola, mama.”

And that’s when it clicked for Peter. Well fuck.

“¿Miles, quién es?”

Miles glanced between Peter and the people who were apparently his parents. Peter could see the resemblances now. He wondered if Miles’ parents knew who their kid had become.

“Uh,,,” Miles glanced between them again. “This is my Uncle Peter.”

Everyone was quiet for a second. Peter had to resist the urge to smack Miles, and instead just groaned and facepalmed. This kid was the worst liar. 

“What?” the woman asked softly.

“Miles, what do you mean he’s your uncle?” his dad asked, crossing his arms. 

Miles started to look a little panicked. “Uh, Uh, nothing I mean uh-”

“Good one, Miles,” Peter grumbled under his breath.

Miles kicked him in the shin. Peter grunted, glaring at the kid.

“Uncle Aaron?” Miles said softly.

There was another moment of silence. Miles' parents looked at Peter for a long time. And Peter - a skilled liar, compared to Miles here - just smiled and held out his hand.

“Hi, nice to meet you.”

“Uh. . . yeah. Nice to. . . to meet you too? I’m Jefferson Davis,” the man, the one in the police uniform said, shaking Peter’s hand.

“Rio Morales,” the woman added.

“Uh, yeah, we gotta go, we’re taking Uncle Aaron some groceries. Adios!” Miles said quickly, grabbing the trolley and yanking on it, pulling Peter along.

“Bye!” Peter called over his shoulder.

Once they were safely away, Peter whipped around to Miles. “What the hell kid, what did you just get me into?”

“Whoops?”

“Whoops indeed!”

“I guess you’re married to Uncle Aaron now? Mazel Tov."

Peter just groaned and put his head in his hands.

The conversation with Jefferson had been awkward. That was the best way to describe it. Awkward, stilted, Jefferson was stumbling over himself, trying to explain to Aaron that he was sorry if he’d ever made Aaron feel like he wouldn’t be accepted for being who he was.

Somewhere, in the midst of all the stammering and confusion, Aaron had gotten the message that Jefferson thought Aaron was married to a man named Peter. Which was interesting, considering that Aaron was not, and the only Peter he knew was very straight. And on top of that, he didn’t know where Jefferson had ever gotten this idea from, because it’s not like Aaron had ever told him about being bisexual.

So this conversation had come completely out of left field, and Aaron had been so surprised, he’d barely had time to get a single word in before Jefferson was running back out the front door on an emergency call.

It was always weird, having his older brother go from being one of the goons to being a cop. Their relationship had been rather tense for a while, and certainly was still, but it was clear Jefferson had a bit of a change of heart, just from how often he talked to Aaron now.

But still, this led to the confusion of why the fuck did Jefferson think he was married to some white boy named Peter.

Jefferson had been back in his apartment for a few days, but he was still on high restrictions, and couldn’t even go grocery shopping by himself. He also still had yet to see Miles, which he was a little worried about. But he was supposed to come over tonight anyway.

There was also the small problem of another Spider-Man. It was clearly one of the ones Aaron had fought in that house. He recognized the suit and build. But Aaron didn’t understand why he was back. Or rather, why he hadn’t left. It didn’t make any sense to him. He had a lot of questions for Miles. 

There was a knocking on the window around five. Aaron jumped a bit, and looked up to find Spider-Man sitting outside on the railing of the fire escape. Miles Spider-Man. Aaron pushed up off of the sofa, feeling his heartbeat a little faster. This was it. This was where he was coming clean to his nephew.

“Hey, Miles.”  

Aaron stepped back after opening the window, Miles slunk in, stumbling a little. He had a backpack over one shoulder, he hesitated at the window, hand still on the frame.

“Hey Uncle Aaron. . .” he said, sounding a little wary.

It reminded him instantly what he had done to Miles, and it sent a pang straight to his heart.

“What’s up, dude.”

Miles sighed and reached up, pulling off his mask. He just stood there, looking at Aaron for a minute.

“A lot,” he said after a minute, shrugging.

He finally dropped his backpack on the floor, turning and closing the window. He then turned, and without hesitation, hugged Aaron.

“I’m really glad you’re okay,” he murmured softly. 

“Me too, Miles.”

After a moment, Miles stepped back, clearing his throat.

“I suppose you have a lot of questions,” Aaron asked, walking back to the sofa and sitting down with a grunt.

“Yeah. . . a few.”

Miles walked over, nudging the sandbag as he passed, and sending it swinging with just a gentle tap. He sat down on the armrest, facing Aaron. 

“When did you. . . ?”

“Become Prowler?”

Miles nodded. Aaron sighed.

“That’s a long story.” 

And he told it, explaining how he had always been involved in crime and bad things, though he did leave out a lot of Jefferson’s involvement in the whole thing. He told Miles how he got in with Kingpin  as a low level goon, but then when he built the Prowler armor, he quickly moved up to being one of Kingpin’s favorite enforcers. 

“And Miles, I’m. . . I’m so so sorry for what I’ve done to you. I had no idea- If I had- I wish-”

“I know. I know, Uncle Aaron.”

Aaron recognized the empty forgiveness, but he didn’t push it. He’d make it up to Miles later.

“When did you?” Aaron gestured at the spider on Miles' chest.

“That night you took me into the tunnels? I got bit by some wack ass spider then. Few days later, bam, I was sticking to everything. I went back to look for the spider, and ended up stumbling into the collider and. . .”

Miles squeezed his eyes closed, his hands clenched into fists. Aaron felt a little sick, knowing what he knew now. Miles had been there. He had probably seen his predecessor die. He had probably watched Aaron try to kill him as well. He had been chased by his uncle, who had orders to kill. He had gone from being a normal kid, to saving the world, in just a few days. And Aaron had been trying to kill him the whole time.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again.

Miles shrugged.

“I can turn invisible,” he said softly, glancing away.

“Wait, really?”

Miles nodded, and instantly flickered out of sight. Aaron’s eyes went wide.

“That’s dope, Miles!”

“And I can do this weird electrical shock thing too. I accidentally venom struck Peter the other day.”

Aaron froze. “Peter?”

“Yeah he’s. . . a friend?”

Aaron stared at him. And Miles grinned back sheepishly. 

“That’s interesting.”

“What do you mean?” Miles asked, laughing nervously.

“Well, you know. Your dad was just here this morning. He thinks I’m married to some white dude named Peter.”

“Oh. . . interesting ,” Miles said, voice cracking a bit.

“Miles. What did you do.”

“Well. . . it’s a long story.”

Aaron gestured to his chest. “I ain’t got anywhere to go.”

Miles hesitated and then sighed.

“Peter is. . . Peter is the other Spider-Man. Not the Spider-Man from here, but the one. . . the one who came after our Spider-Man died.”

There was a hint of accusation in his voice, and Aaron supposed that was only fair.

“We were walking around together, getting him a few things before he went to- well, where he’s currently staying while he’s here, and we just. . . happened to bump into Mama and da. And they asked me who Peter was and so I just. . . said he was my Uncle.”

Aaron instantly saw where this was going.

“Miles Gonzalo Morales,” he groaned, facepalming.

“Listen! I just said the first thing that came to mind! So then I had to pretend that you and Peter were married and that I was helping him get things for you.”

“Miles, I love you, man. But damn are you bad at lying.”

“I mean, I’m not that bad at lying.”

Aaron just raised an eyebrow at him. Miles shifted a bit in his seat. 

“Okay, so maybe I’m not the best, but I’m not the worst either. I can keep my secret identity at least!”

Aaron stiffened, and Miles winced, looking away. It’s not like Aaron could’ve forgotten what he had learned. After all, here was Miles, sitting in his Spider-Man suit, unmasked, on his couch armrest. But it had been easy enough to ignore while they chatted along, but calling attention back to it reminded him of everything.

“Do they know?”

“Mom and Dad?”

Aaron nodded, Miles shrugged, looking away.

“I haven’t told them. If they figured it out on their own, they haven’t said anything. But it’s only been a week or so since the collider, so I don’t think they have.”

“Anyone else know?”

“The rest of the Spidergang. . . My roommate, and you. Otherwise? No.”

Aaron nodded approvingly. “The less people who know, the better. If people know who you are, they’ll threaten your family to get to you.”

Miles was quiet for a minute. “Did Kingpin know who you were?”

Aaron sighed, leaning back into the sofa, feeling a bit of tightness in his chest. 

“Yeah. Yeah he knew. But I always made a point to make it seem like we had no connection. After your dad turned cop, I wanted nothing to do with him anyway, so it wasn’t that hard.”

Miles was quiet for even longer, staring down at his feet as he considered this. Aaron just looked at him. He looked tired, and stressed, but at the same time, he looked happy.

“Kingpin is going to jail, by the way,” Miles said softly. “Between Dad and Me- I mean, Spider-Man, there’s enough legal cases. Plus the people want revenge for Spider-Man’s death. The original one. And if you’ll testify-”

“No, I’m not going to.”

“But he could-”

“It’s not going to happen Miles, don’t ask again!”

Miles’ mouth shut with a click, and he clenched his jaw, glaring at Aaron a bit. He winced.

“I’m sorry, but I just. . . I can’t.”

“It’s okay,” Miles said softly. “I know.”

An awkward silence settled over them.

“You wanna get some pizza?”

Thirty minutes later, they were settled on the sofa, eating pizza, a movie playing in the background while Miles worked on homework (“Just because I’m Spider-Man doesn’t mean I can let my grades drop”). Aaron was just happy to have some company, even though he sat there, constantly thinking about everything that had happened in the last week.

“Does your dad know about me?” he asked after a long time of silence.

Miles glanced up from an english report he was aggressively typing away at.

“Uhh, he hasn’t said anything, but yeah, he does. After you passed out, he found us, and I had to disappear. But yeah, he found you in your Prowler gear.”

“Well shit.”

Miles just shrugged, looking back down at his laptop.

“I’m sorry, again, by the way.”

Another shrug. “I know.”

Aaron hesitated, feeling like he should say more, but having no clue what else to say. He’d never had to apologize for something like this before. He just sighed softly and looked back to the tv.

Around eight, Miles stood and stretched. “I gotta get out to patrols. It was good to see you.”

“Yeah, feel free to drop by any time.”

Miles just gave him a lopsided grin, packing his backpack back up. 

“Don’t you mean swing?”

Aaron chuckled, standing. “Be safe, Miles, okay? I’m always just a call away.”

“Yeah, I know. But right now, you need to stay here and heal.”

“I’m not a decrepit old man.”

“Yet.”

“Why you!”

Miles just laughed, pulling his mask part of the way on and walking over to the window.

“I’ll see ya, Uncle Aaron.”

“See you, Miles.”

Aaron stood there, watching as he slid the window open and slipped out.

“Oh, and Miles?” He called out, having thought of something.

“Yeah?” Miles poked his head back through the window, raising an eyebrow.

“I’d like to meet this husband of mine sometime.”

Miles' face flushed and he muttered something under his breath, grumbling as he slid the window shut. Aaron laughed and walked closer, watching the kid pull his mask down and then shoot a web. He paused, turning back and saluting to Aaron before jumping off, flying into the air easily. Aaron just shook his head, smiling slightly to himself.

Miles may be a horrible liar, but he’s a good kid.

Chapter Text

“So I didn’t tell him anything other than that you’re the other Spider-Man. He knows nothing other than your first name.”

Miles glanced over at Peter, the two of them swinging in sync.

“Well, I guess I still have that.”

Miles winced at the implication, but he had dug this grave, and the only choice the three of them had now was to lay in it.

He and Peter were currently on the way to meet Uncle Aaron. It had been about a week since Miles’ slip up with his parents, and Aaron was mostly back on his feet again, recovering really well. Miles had already apologized a million times to both of them, but they had both shrugged it off and said they’d just deal with it now.

So this was their first official meeting. Aaron had cooked dinner, and the two of them had agreed to be there at six. Part of the pros of living at Visions during the week was that Miles could practically do whatever he wanted during the weekdays, especially after his dad got off work. And today, that “whatever he wanted” included introducing his two “uncles”.

Miles swung up and landed on the fire escape outside Aaron’s apartment, and then glanced up at Peter.

“Here we are."

Peter gestured inside. “Lead the way, bud.”

Miles easily slid the window open, slipping through the open gap, and pulling off his mask once he was inside. The smell of chicken and sauteing vegetables instantly hit him.

“Uncle Aaron! It’s me!”

“Hey, Miles, I’m in the kitchen!”

“Wait isn’t this where you tied me up?”

Miles felt his face flush a bit. “No, shush.”

“No this is definitely where you tied me up I recognize that-”

Miles turned and shot webbing at Peter, hitting him square on the mouth. Peter cursed under his breath and pulled up his mask over his nose.

“That’s literally so ineffective if you do it on top of the mask.”

“It got the point across!” 

Peter’s eyes shot over Miles’ shoulder and he closed his mouth.

Miles turned to see Uncle Aaron.

“Hey!” He hopped over and fistbumped him.

“Hey kid,” Aaron grinned at Miles, then looked up at Peter. “Is this him?”

“Yeah. Uncle Aaron, this is Peter. Peter, this is my Uncle Aaron Davis.”

Peter reached up, pulling his mask fully off.

“Peter B. Parker. Nice to meet you,” he said, stepping forwards and holding his hand out.

Aaron just looked at him for a moment. Miles knew exactly what he was thinking, he had thought similar thoughts when he’d first seen Peter. His heart was pounding, feeling so anxious. These two had tried to kill each other before. They both knew that. So many terrible things could happen.

“Hey,” Aaron responded, shaking Peter’s hand firmly.

“What’s cooking?” Miles asked, interrupting the little staring contest that had started.

“Oh, bourbon chicken and carrots.”

“Oh my god.” Miles slipped past Aaron to walk into the kitchen. “It smells so good.”

“It should be about as good as it smells, if not better.”

“You a good cook?” Miles heard Peter ask.

“Well, I’m decent at least. I can feed myself stuff other than Ramen, at least.”

Peter chuckled. “Well, that counts as good to me then.”

Miles snorted, thinking that Peter probably was a Ramen chef, but didn’t say anything. They chatted for a bit, and then sat for dinner. True to Miles' assumptions, the food was amazing. Aaron really was a good cook, and Peter happily agreed with Miles.

“So, Peter.”

Miles winced in preparation, looking up from his plate to Aaron, who had turned to Peter. It was fairly tense, which was reasonable, all things considered. Peter also looked up, tilting his head a bit.

“What do you do, over in your dimension?”

“Uh, mostly the spider gig. I do work as a reporter though.”

Now that Miles didn’t know. He kept quiet, listening.

“Oh? Yeah? You any good?”

“Well, I’ve not won any pulitzers, but I pull my weight, and get paid fairly decently.”

Miles raised an eyebrow at him. Peter just shot him a glare back.

“What about you?” Peter asked, poking at his last bite of chicken. “I mean, aside from the obvious?”

“I’m a personal trainer, on the side.”

Peter nodded. “Checks out.”

Aaron just blinked at him. 

Miles had no idea how this meeting was going. It was tense, uncertainty almost palpable. He could see Peter constantly side eyeing Aaron, and he had noticed how tense Aaron was. If he had to guess, the only reason the two of them weren’t brawling at the moment was because of him. They were both here for him, he was the only thing tying them together.

Then his phone started ringing.

He jumped and stood, scrambling for it, pulling it from the nearly invisible pocket in his suit, which yes, he was still wearing.

“Ah shit, it’s mom.”

“Go, take it,” Aaron said, waving him away.

“Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.”

“We’ll be fine,” Peter assured, rolling his eyes.

Miles squinted at him suspiciously for a second before slipping out into the main room of Aaron’s apartment.

“Hola Mama."

“Hola Miles, what’s up?”

“Oh uh.” Miles glanced back to the kitchen. “I’m having dinner with Uncle Aaron.”

“Oh? You didn’t mention anything about it earlier when we talked?”

“Well, it was kind of last minute.”

His mom hummed. He could hear clattering in the background, she was probably cleaning up from their dinner.

“Speaking of your Uncle Aaron. . .”

Miles groaned in advance.

“Your papa went and talked to him, and said Aaron was acting really weird when he mentioned this Peter.”

“Well, he was probably confused how you guys knew.”

Rio was silent for a moment. “Why do you think he didn’t tell us?”

“I don’t know, mama. . . You know how he and papa’s relationship is.”

“I know,” she said softly. “I know. I just hope we can maybe change that.”

“Me too.”

He was starting to hear loud whispering from the kitchen.

“Hey, mama, I gotta go okay?”

“Okay, okay, Miles. Tell your uncle Aaron I said hi. . . and your Uncle Peter, if he’s there.”

Miles grimaced a bit. “I will, adios!”

“Adios, te amo!”

“Te amo, mama!”

Miles hung up his phone and poked his head into the kitchen. Sure enough, Aaron and Peter were glaring at each other, but were now quiet.

“Mama says hello to both of you,” he said, walking back to his seat.

“Hello to Miles’ mom,” Peter grumbled, looking away, out the empty window.

Miles rolled his eyes. “I leave you two alone for two minutes.”

Neither of them said anything.

Miles let them all sit there in awkward, tense silence for a while. Then he stood again.

“We should get going,” he explained.

Aaron nodded and stood as well, following them back to the window. 

“Miles? Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Oh, yeah of course. Peter, meet you on top of the bank?” 

“Yeah, see you there.”

Peter pulled his mask back on, and climbed out the window, pausing only to crouch and look at Aaron.

“See you around, hubbie.”

And then he turned and threw himself off the fire escape. 

“I’m going to strangle him,” Aaron said, decisively.

“We’ve all had the urge,” Miles grumbled, sitting on the windowsill. 

“Is he always like that?”

“Well, it's not like you two got off on the best foot.”

Aaron grumbled something, and Miles crossed his arms. 

“Listen, we just have to fool your parents for a little bit right? Then we can stage some pretend marital issues, and fake a divorce or whatever.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. And if we play our cards right, maybe we can avoid you guys both being around them at the same time. I mean, it’s not hard to see that you two can barely stand each other.”

Aaron sighed. “Miles, man, I tried. It’s just hard. . . knowing who he is, and who I’ve been.”

“I know,” Miles said softly, sighing.

He did know. He could see the struggle within Aaron. He knew Aaron was in the middle of rewriting who he was, trying to decide what he was going to do with himself now. And he knew a part of what Aaron felt every time he looked at Peter. Hell, he still felt a bit of it every time he looked at Aaron. Fear, hatred, the need to fight. It was getting better now, but if he didn’t prepare himself, sometimes he still felt that fear.

“We’ll figure it out,” Aaron promised. 

“I’m sorry, again, for getting you two stuck in this.”

“It’s okay, you did what you have to do. I understand wanting to not tell your parents.”

Miles swallowed and nodded. He turned and glanced out the window.

“I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Aaron nodded, holding out a fist. Miles bumped it.

“I’ll see you.”

Miles smiled, pulled on his mask and slipped out the window.

“Adios!” he yelled, jumping off and swinging after Peter.

He found the older Spider-Man sitting on top of their arranged meeting point, tapping his heels against the side of the roof. 

“Hey.” Miles landed beside him and easily dropped to sit down.

“So your uncle. . .”

“You don’t like him, it’s okay.”

“It’s just hard, Miles. Knowing who he is- was.”

“I know.”

Peter was silent for a moment, then sighed, head dropping a bit. “God, Miles, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about how-”

Miles shrugged, feeling a small pang in his heart and a spike of fear from somewhere inside him. He hated being reminded of it all. Yet he remembered it every day.

“It’s fine. LIke Aaron said, you guys just have to make this work long enough to fool my parents, then you can stage a breakup.”

Peter nodded. “I can work with that. Not the worst undercover work I’ve ever done.”

Miles cracked a grin. “Think you can survive it?”

“Well, it’s not like I’m actually married to him, right?”

“Right, so your webs can do a lot, but sometimes you gotta be ready for them to fail on you.”

Miles sighed so loud Aaron could hear him from the far side of the roof, holding still as Peter took his webshooters.

“You need to be able to fight hand to hand combat without your webshooters.”

“I can, quite easily,” Miles said. 

He disappeared from sight, and Peter went tense, turning slowly. Then suddenly he leapt to the side, just as Miles reappeared, sparks arching between his fingers. Aaron chuckled, smirking to himself.

“Okay! New rule! No venom strike while training!”

“You said I needed to be able to fight hand to hand combat. Shouldn’t that include my powers too?”

“Well, of course. But not always. What if something happens and lets say Doc Ock has dampened all your powers. What are you going to do then?”

“Run?”

“It’s Doc Ock.”

Miles sighed, staring at the floor. “I’d use a combination of my intelligence and fighting skills to escape and get far enough away to lay low until my powers resurfaced.”

“Good! Now how are you going to be able to fight your way out if your current method of fighting is your webshooters and venom strike?”

“I won’t.”

“Exaacctlyyy.”

Aaron rolled his eyes, leaning forwards slightly, putting his elbows on his knees, and then his chin in hands. He was sitting on an air conditioning unit at the moment, observing the two.

“You think I didn’t teach my nephew how to fight, Parker?”

Peter paused what he had been saying to Miles and looked over. 

“Oh I’m sure you taught him some things, but I can teach him to fight more tailored to our skill set.”

“You just told him he should learn to fight without his powers.”

Peter put his hands on his hips, scowling. “Yes, he needs to know how to do both.”

“And he clearly knows how to fight with the powers,” Aaron said, standing and walking over. “I mean, he bested you, didn’t he?”

He could see Peter’s face flush a bit at the reminder of last training session where Miles had soundly whooped Peter. 

“That was with the addition of his venom strike.”

“Hmm, sure, spidey. Let me teach him how to box, and we’ll see how quickly he takes you down next time?”

“Is that a challenge, Davis?” Peter asked, crossing his arms.

Aaron smirked, despite the slight annoyance that sparked up in him. He stepped forwards, crossing his own arms, and they bumped into Peter’s.

“Maybe it was. We’ll see who’s training method works better in the end.”

Peter squinted at him, opening his mouth to speak. Aaron just kept smirking. He wanted to beat this pretty white boy so bad. He still didn’t like him much, and he couldn’t quite pinpoint why. 

He’d decided that he was not returning to Prowler. Under no circumstances would he go back to that life. He wanted to make a legitimate change. He wanted to be around for Miles in the future. This kid needed people who supported him and would know where to look for him when he went missing. They had all agreed that telling Miles’ parents was a bad move, so he definitely needed Aaron’s support now.

They were working through some things though. He knew Miles still felt fear looking at him. But they were talking through it, working on fixing things. He could tell Miles was really trying to get past it, and while he wished for things to be back to how they were before,  he wasn’t going to push it either. He knew healing took time.

And speaking of healing, he had been talking to Jefferson more recently. Which was weird, but it was good. He had explained himself, explained how he had decided to throw away Prowler, to make a new life for himself like Jefferson had all those years ago. And they were talking, and healing, and Aaron wasn’t sure how he felt about it yet.

“Okay, uncles, ” Miles said, with a tone that let Aaron just hear his eye roll.

Peter spluttered something out, but eventually just decided to glare at Miles.

Miles and Peter had an interesting dynamic. Very Karate Kid, Daniel and Miyagi. Miles took great pleasure in calling Peter old, and then just laughed at him when he got all huffy. Aaron really wasn’t sure how he should feel about it. But he decided not to fight it, because even as much as he hated it, he had to - begrudgingly - admit that Peter seemed like a genuinely good guy. Maybe a little dense at times, but good.

“Lets see what you can do, babe.”

“Call me babe again and we’ll see exactly what happens.”

Peter made a little “oh ho” sound, holding up his hands and stepping back from Miles.

Aaron stepped up and eyed his nephew.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, wary of fighting the boy without confirmation. He didn’t want to accidentally scare him more.

“Come at me.”

Miles moved, putting one foot back, hands coming up into a defensive position. Aaron smiled. What Miles did know of fighting, he had taught him.

He lunged forwards with a couple of swings, and Miles easily blocked each, almost as if he knew what Aaron was going to do. He decided to up the stakes a bit and spun, kicking back at Miles. The teen easily caught his leg and yanked it, pulling him closer. Miles moved like he was going to ram his shoulder into Aaron’s chest, and instead he just gently shoulder bumped him.

“Gotcha,” Miles said grinning.

Aaron squinted at him, and swung up with an elbow that Miles easily dodged, shoving him back and flipping after him, twisting in a way Aaron had never seen Miles move before. He whipped around, kicking out. Miles’ foot sailed just a few inches past Aaron’s nose, and he landed easily, pivoting back around to face Aaron.

“You missed.”

“Naw, I just decided I didn’t want to send you back to the hospital.”

“Ooooh, burrrrnnnn,” Peter called from where he was standing, a few feet away.

Aaron squinted at Miles, and the kid just grinned back.

“How were you doing that? You anticipated my every move it seemed.”

“Trade secrets.”

Miles had this shit eating grin, and Aaron instantly knew he’d never get an answer from him. He just sighed and shook his head.

“So can we continue?” Peter asked, walking back over.

“Fine. But Miles, I want you to start coming with me to the gym.”

Miles sighed. “Sure, I’ll fit it in somewhere, between all my homework, patrols, training, and mom and dad.”

“You’ll just have to change some of your training days with Peter to training days with me.”

“Wait, what? He needs to be out on the streets training, learning as-”

“He needs to be taught basics first. You can’t build a strong tower without a good foundation.”

Aaron and Peter glared at each other again. 

“Oh my god, we’re not doing this again,” Miles exclaimed, walking over and pushing them apart. “Tuesday’s, Thursdays and Saturday’s, I’ll train with Aaron, the rest of the days I’ll train with Peter. Is that a compromise we can all live with?”

Peter grumbled. “Fine.”

“See! We’ll all live. Good talk.”

Aaron grumbled to himself and returned to his air conditioner seat, watching as Peter and Miles returned to sparing. The evening resulted in Peter pinning Miles a few times, and Miles pinning Peter just once.

Chapter Text

From there, it became a delicate balancing act for Miles. During the week, he was in class almost all day. From 8am to 4pm, he almost always had a class of some kind. When he wasn’t in class, he was slaving over homework. Then, immediately after class, he did homework for two more hours, got dinner, and immediately snuck out the window and traveled to his destination of choice. They very rarely broke from their arranged schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays(evenings), he was with Peter, doing various spider type training, or sometimes just swinging around town on patrols together. The rest of the days of the week, with the occasional exception of having to miss a Saturday morning training to spend time with his parents, he went to Uncle Aaron’s gym, where they either worked out or learned proper boxing techniques. 

He was constantly exhausted.

He knew that at any moment, he could call off and Peter would cover patrols for him, and he would be left alone, left to catch up on homework or sleep all evening. And sometimes he did. He had a couple times during midterms that he just had to take off, and neither Aaron or Peter gave him guff over it. They had both encouraged him actually. With Peter to watch the city, Miles didn’t feel quite so bad about it. But he still knew, one day he’d have to handle it all. 

Today, he was tired, he was in pain. He had spent last night battling Vulture, and then had been up until three am finishing handwriting an essay that was due this morning in his very first class. Despite his accelerated healing, he had woken up with a sore ankle which he was still favoring, and a sore back from where he had been thrown into a building a few times.

But it was a Thursday and he was going to drag his ass uptown to meet his uncle, even if he wanted to fall into bed and not move again for the next two days.

“Hey, Miles!”

Miles looked up as he trudged through the doors, his duffel bag over one shoulder. He would get off of training with Aaron, and then immediately go out for patrols. Tonight was one of his few solo nights, apparently Peter was doing something with Aunt May.

“Hi Uncle Aaron,” Miles muttered, walking over.

Aaron tilted his head. “You good?”

“Just tired.”

His uncle stared at him for a moment, then nodded. 

“Right. Come on.”

Aaron turned and walked to the locker rooms. Miles frowned but trailed after him, confused. Aaron would have been there all day, and he was clearly already in gym clothes, so why would he be heading to the locker room?

When he got in there, Aaron was pulling stuff out of his locker.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re not training today. We’re going to go get inner, and then go hang out at my apartment.”

Miles blinked at him. 

“You know I have patrols tonight, right?”

‘Yeah, but you’re mine for the next two hours.”

Miles sighed and followed Aaron back out of the gym, out to his car. Miles shoved their bags into the backseat, and they drove uptown to a burger joint. The same burger joint Miles had taken Peter to when he’d first met the man. It was where he and Aaron always went. It was familiar and calming and Miles instantly melted into his booth seat.

“Oh! Welcome back boys,” a familiar waitress called as she walked over, Daisy is her name.

“Heyo,” Aaron greeted with a warm smile.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve seen you two, everything okay?”

“Yeah, we’ve just been busy,” Aaron explained easily, relaxed.

“Fair enough, is it the usual for you two?”

Miles nodded when he was looked at. Daisy smiled and scribbled down on her order pad. 

“I’ll get those right out, good to you see you two!”

“And you!” Aaron called after her. 

And then she was gone and Aaron immediately rounded on Miles. He sighed and just plopped his head into his hands in advance. 

“Miles, how long do you think you can keep doing this?”

“It won’t be forever. Eventually you and Peter will decide I’ve trained enough and I won’t have to worry about that anymore, and over summer Ill-”

“Over summer you’ll have to deal with your parents more, and you know that.”

“Yeah but I won’t have as many responsibilities with school so I won’t have to-”

“Miles. You can’t keep pushing yourself like this. You need to step back somewhere, at least admit that you’re not able to handle it all by yourself.”

Miles stared at him for a moment. Then he rubbed his face and sighed.

“But I should.”

“What? Where did you-”

“Peter and Gwen and all them. They all handle it by themselves. The last Spider-Man handled it all alone. I should be able to do the same. “

Aaron looked at him silently for a moment before talking. “Miles when you met all those people, they had all been doing this for years, if not decades. You’re. . . you’re just a punk, a newbie. You don’t have the experience they do.”

“I know but. . . it just feels like I have to catch up to their standards.”

“I know, but you don’t. It’s okay to admit that something is too much, and if anyone wants to give you guff over that, I’ll punch them in the nose,” Aaron said softly. His face was full of concern.

Miles snorted softly, glancing away out the window. “Thanks Uncle Aaron.”

“I’m serious, Miles. You’re not like the others. You’re not doing this alone. You have me, Ganke, and Peter. And even though they don’t know, you still have your parents too.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t forget it. Or else we’ll come pound it into your head.”

Aaron reached across the table and rapped his knuckles against the top of Miles' head. He cracked a grin, kicking Aaron’s shin under the table. 

The evening was nice, admittedly. Just getting to sit and chat and not worry about training or boxing or dodging bullets. And spending time with his Uncle was always nice. He stayed until 9pm, which was later then he was supposed to stay. He hugged his uncle, and then jumped out the window, swinging downtown. He breezed past Visions Academy, dropping off his backpack and checking in with Ganke before heading out.

“Well look who it is! The little Spider!”

“Hey Rhino,” Miles quipped back, flipping over him with a hand on his back, sliding a bit as he hit the concrete sidewalk. 

“I’m going to squash you, little bug.”

“I think you say that every time.”

Miles hooked an already fallen light pole with webs and threw it at Rhino, smacking into his arms with it. Rhino grunted, but didn’t seem bothered. He charged forwards, but Miles danced out of the way.

“Come on, Rhino, can’t catch the itsy bitsy spider?”

“I don’t need to.”

Miles’ spidey sense started freaking out, and he turned around just in time to receive a metal pipe to the head.

“Is he okay!?”

“I think so.”

“Thank god. Here, lay him on the sofa.”

Peter walked over, carefully setting Miles’ frail body down on the sofa, pulling off the kids mask. He stepped back and pulled off his own, running a hand through his hair.

“Jesus Christ,” Aaron muttered, reaching down and gently touching an already healing gash on Miles’ head.

Peter shook his head. 

If he had been even ten minutes later, things would have been so much different. Miles might not have made it out in one piece. Peter was almost too late. He had just barely made it, and he wanted to throw up. It felt like there were thorns crawling up his spine, digging into his nerves. He couldn’t- if he had been any later. . . Miles would have died.

“He’ll be okay,” he said softly. “Us spider people, we’re durable.”

Miles had been out on a regular patrol. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. It was standard procedure. Except he got ambushed. Peter only found out about it because Aaron had seen something about it on social media and contacted Peter. He had been out with Aunt May, they had been furniture shopping - not that any of it was up to Peter, since he was just a temporary guest, he was just there to lift heavy things - but had instantly ditched. He had to save Miles.

He had just barely managed to find the teen. He had been hidden away in an old abandoned laboratory that was no longer abandoned. Different criminals had banded together, reviving the place, turning it into a hub of black market activity. Peter would have to go back later and make sure it was shut down, but in the moment, he had been far more worried about saving Miles.

“Until you’re not.”

Peter barely heard it. And he was sure that if he didn’t have super powers, he wouldn’t have.

He probably wasn’t meant to hear it. But he frowned, eyebrows drawing together, and put his hands on his hips.

“What does that mean?”

“You know exactly what it means.”

“I’m not sure I do.”

Aaron gently placed a blanket over Miles, then turned to Peter.

“How long can he keep doing this, Peter? Until he’s old and broken like you? He’s just a kid, and yet you let him go out there every night, and put his life at risk. You left him alone, left him in a dangerous situation. You let him get hurt!”

Peter just stared at Aaron.

Of course Peter had been thinking the same thing. But it was a different thing to have it screamed in his face.

“He’s not a kid anymore, Aaron! He has responsibilities and choices now! In case you don’t remember, he chose to train with us, to keep being Spider-Man. He wants to do this!”

“Does he? Have you ever asked him that? Are you sure that he actually wants to be out there every night? Or maybe he just feels like he’s required to. Or maybe he feels like he is being forced to?”

“Are you blaming me for-”

“Absolutely! If it wasn’t for you my nephew wouldn’t-” Aaron interrupted him, stepping closer.

“Wouldn’t what?” Peter snapped back, angry. “Wouldn’t be Spider-Man? In case you forgot, Prowler , the only reason Miles even has these powers is because of you! The only reason he even has to be Spider-Man is because of you! Or did you somehow forget that the other Peter’s death is partially on you!?”

Peter dodged the swing that came for his face before he fully registered it was thrown. He grabbed Aaron’s wrist instead, pulling him in and getting a good sucker punch to his stomach. Aaron grunted, stumbling backwards, grabbing for something to support him as he gasped for air.

“Aaron, you don’t have to like me. I don’t give a shit. But I’m never going to do anything to put Miles’ in harm if I can help it. I came back to this shitty ass universe to help protect him! I don’t have to be here, giving myself shots every week that make me feel like I’m going to die. But here I am! For him. Because I care about him like my own family! So don’t you ever accuse me of trying to hurt him.”

Peter was pissed. He didn’t trust Aaron. It was obviously Aaron didn’t trust him. He had simply hoped they would be able to set that aside for Miles. But this? He would not tolerate this. Fuck this guy if he thought Peter would ever let Miles get hurt. Peter would keep this kid from getting even a papercut if he could.

Aaron stared at him for a while, just trying to take steady breaths in and out. Peter glared back.

“You’re pushing him too hard,” Aaron muttered softly, looking away. “He’s overwhelmed.”

“It’s not going to get any better,” Peter said truthfully.

He looked down at the sleeping kid, one of his arms flopped over the edge of the sofa. He sighed.

“But maybe I do need to ease up.”

There was a tense silence over them for a bit. Peter glanced over Aaron. It looked like he was still having trouble breathing.

“Are you okay? Sorry for hitting you, probably could’ve pulled that punch a little more.”

“I’m okay,” Aaron responded, coughing a bit.

“I should go cover patrols.”

“Peter just. . . Stay. He’ll want you to be here when he wakes up.”

Peter hesitated, having been about to pull his mask back on.

“Okay,” he said softly.

Eventually they found themselves in the kitchen, since Miles was occupying most of the seating in the living room. Aaron quietly fixed them drinks, and then sat at the small table across from Peter. The tense awkward silence was going to kill him, but Peter didn’t know how to break it, so he just stayed quiet, staring out the window as he sipped his drink.

“I just worry about him. He’s just a kid, being out there, all by himself. Fighting guys twice his size.”

“I know.”

Peter turned and looked at Aaron. He was staring past Peter at the kitchen doorway, as if he was thinking he’d catch some sign of Miles before Peter did. 

Aaron really was quite handsome, square faced, the right mixture of strong and tired ruggedness. He just still struggled to look at Aaron and not see Prowler.

“I’m leaving it.”

“What?”

“Prowler. I don’t know if you knew that but. . . I’m not going to be the Prowler again.”

“Oh,” Peter said softly. He did know that. He had just. . . forgotten. 

Aaron nodded and finished his drink.

“I’m glad. I mean. Otherwise, it would have been a little awkward for you to know Miles’ secret.”

Aaron nodded just slightly.

“And I’m glad he has you, Aaron.”

Peter didn’t know why, but he reached across the table, gently placing a hand over Aaron’s. The ex-villain looked up at the wall crawler, and they just sat there, holding each other's gaze.

It all felt wrong, and yet perfectly natural.

Peter pulled his hand back first, turning as he heard Miles shifting around. 

“I think he’s up.”

Aaron jumped up first, darting past Peter into the living room. Peter lingered a little longer.

“What the hell are you doing, Parker?” he muttered to himself.

He shook his head and stood, following Aaron into the living room. Aaron was sitting on the coffee table, looking at Miles with concern. The kid was awake, and had sat up, hand on his head, grumbling to Aaron.

“Hey, bud,” Peter said softly, leaning an arm into the doorway.

Miles looked up at him. “I thought you were with May.”

“We agreed that furniture shopping was less important than you.”

Miles frowned. “How’d you find me?”

“Your uncle found out, gave me a call. I tracked you down to this underground criminal lab. We’ll have to go shut it down this weekend. You took quite a few hits to the head, it looks like. How you feeling?”

“I’m fine, just a headache,” Miles mumbled, rubbing his eyes. 

“He could have a concussion.”

“Probably,” Peter confirmed. “But there’s no point taking him to the hospital for it. A good day of sleep and he’ll be right as rain.”

Aaron stared at him like he was insane. Which was fair.

“Accelerated healing,” Peter explained, gesturing to the gash on Miles’ head that was mostly gone already.

“But we still-”

“No hospitals,” Miles groaned. “I’ll be fine. I’ve taken worse.”

“Miles-”

“No!” Miles snapped, looking up at his uncle. “You know they’ll call Mom and Dad.”

Peter stayed quiet, watching the interaction. Aaron stared at him for a bit, then sighed, hanging his head a bit.

“Okay. Okay.”

Peter stayed with Aaron and Miles for a bit, discussing with Miles what they should do with the secret lab. After almost an hour, he stood up.

“I should go. I’ll cover patrols for the night. Get some rest, Miles.”

“I don’t need you to-”

“I know you don’t,” Peter interrupted, smiling at the kid. “But right now, what you do need, is rest. And I need you to take care of yourself.”

“Peter-”

“Miles, come on dude, you know as well as I do.”

Miles sighed, letting his shoulders drop. “Fine.

Peter smiled a little wider, feeling proud. 

“And if you try to sneak out, I give Aaron my full permission to tie you to that sandbag and keep you from leaving.”

“You’re never going to let me live that down.”

“Nope.”

Peter pulled on his mask and pushed the window open. “See you around, Miles!”

He slipped out the window, and quickly jumped off the fire escape.

It had been a weird evening, that was for sure. But he was glad Miles was okay, and safe with Aaron now, and wasn’t that a weird sentiment. Safe with Aaron Davis. Ex-Prowler. But he was safe there, and Peter knew it.

“This has to be your worst idea to date, Miles!”

“I didn’t come up with it!”

“I can’t believe this!”

Aaron rolled his eyes at the bickering.

“I was fine with keeping up the lie but-”

“Listen, it’s just one evening! You two can pretend to like each other for one evening, can’t you?”

Peter spluttered in complaint, and Aaron turned around, looking at the pair in the food line behind him.

“You two gonna keep bickering and spilling our secrets to everyone?”

“No!”

Aaron laughed and looked back up at the menu board. 

In three days, Aaron and Peter were supposed to have dinner with Miles’ family. Jefferson and Rio were attempting to bridge gaps, and wanted to properly meet Aaron’s “husband”. Which would be very sweet, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was all a lie. And since the two had barely spent any time together, Miles decided it’d be in the secret’s best interest for them to spend some “quality time” together.

AKA he was abandoning them after they got dinner and was leaving them to do grocery shopping and get fake rings.

They were currently at a supermarket, ordering asian food from the food court. And Peter was still complaining, just like he had been since Miles told him ten minutes ago.

“Fake rings and everything?” Peter asked later, as he was shoving food into his mouth.

He wasn’t a polite eater, as Aaron had discovered.

“Peter. We’re in too deep at this point.”

“Miles, one day you’re gonna stop dragging me into your messes!”

Miles sighed, tapping his chopsticks together, then looking up at Peter.

“You chose to get dragged back in, remember?”

Peter grumbled into his food. Aaron looked up at Miles. 

“How’s school going, Miles?” 

“Oh it’s fine, I think I’ve finally gotten on top of all my homework, and I’m finally figuring out how to balance everything. Of course now that I’ve said that, midterms will start up and I’ll be swamped all over again.”

Aaron nodded sympathetically. “Seems to work that way every year.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I know you will, kid.”

After they finished eating, Miles immediately split, leaving the two adult men standing in the middle of this supermarket, awkward and lost.

“What groceries did you need?” Peter asked after standing there looking around.

Aaron sighed and pulled out his phone, turning and leading the way. He had only been to this store a few times, but that was still an advantage over Peter. They walked around, gathering Aaron’s different groceries, Peter trailing after him, looking distracted. 

“You okay, man?”

“What? Oh, yeah. It’s just. . .” Peter gestured around at the small crowd of people flowing around them. “Loud.”

Looking at him for a moment, Aaron realized he did look rather overwhelmed, and even a little skittish. Peter had gotten distracted, following a tall man with his eyes. He looked like he was about to jump out of his skin.

“Peter,” Aaron called softly, frowning.

The man didn’t respond, just started to turn. Aaron reached out, grabbing him lightly by the shoulder.

“Hey.”

Peter’s eyes snapped back to Aaron, looking surprised. Aaron rarely made physical contact with anyone other than Miles, and even then, most of the time it was playful head rubs or similar gestures. But right now, he realized Peter needed something to pull him back and ground him.

“Stay with me, Peter, we’re almost done.”

Peter nodded absently. He stuck a lot closer to Aaron after that, staying quiet, but acting like he didn’t need any sympathy. When they finally checked out and stepped out of the supermarket, Peter let out a breath of relief, power walking away.

“Hey, Peter, my cars this way.”

The second the car doors were shut, Peter dropped his head to the dash, letting out a shaky breath.

“What happened to you in there?”

Aaron didn’t try to start the car, just looked at Peter.

“It was just too loud.”

Aaron raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t that loud, he hadn’t been bothered by it. Peter sighed again and sat up, looking at him.

“My heightened senses sometimes make environments like that absolute hell.”

“Oh,” Aaron said softly. He knew both Peter and Miles had increased senses like hearing and sight, but he hadn’t even thought of that.

“I’m around loud sounds all the time, but they’re usually not so enclosed.”

“I get it, man.”

Peter nodded, offering a slight smile.

“Lets go get our rings, husband.”

Aaron rolled his eyes, but found himself smiling fondly at Peter all the same.

He liked Peter, and he hated that.

They found a lower end jewelry shop, and spent a considerable amount of time bickering over what type of metal, what type of band, and then price. By the end of it, they got out of there with simple gold rings that surprisingly weren’t that expensive. The ring was a warm weight on his hand, if a little clunky, but it’s not like it was permanent.

If he caught Peter sitting there, staring wistfully at his ring on the drive back to Aaron’s apartment, he’d never tell. Nor would he ask.

Peter ended up staying for dinner too. They ordered pizza, and sat on the sofa, watching some old detective tv show. It was quiet, but neither of them minded much.

Peter kept twirling his ring. He couldn’t help it, it was an old habit. Back when he’d been married to MJ he’d always take it off when he went on patrols, so having it on was just a reminder that he was safe and home. And it was weird, having a ring on again, and not having that automatic assumption. As well as knowing it tied him to Aaron Davis, aka Prowler. He kept having to remind himself every time he saw it. The weird part was, lounged out on the sofa like he was, he was completely comfortable with Aaron, and he actually was barely paying any attention to the other man.

“So, we should probably come up with some story of how we met,” Aaron commented as the tv flicked to commercials. 

Peter looked over at him. Aaron was sitting with an arm on the back of the sofa - which was just inches from touching the back of Peter’s head - and an ankle up on his knee. He had tilted his body towards Peter a bit and was just looking at him quietly.

“Uh, we met on a job?”

“Peter.”

“No I’m serious! I was doing an article for something like uh. . . I don’t know, something relevant, and did an interview with you, and while the article never ran, we sure did.”

Aaron snorted. “Okay, sure. I coached for a junior weight boxing team a few years back, maybe you were doing an article on youth and sports?”

“Sure.”

“Speaking of backstories. . . I can’t exactly be Peter Parker anymore.”

“Well, you’re Peter Davis now.”

Peter rolled his eyes, looking over. “Okay but what if they ask about anything before we got quote en quote married.”

Aaron sighed, slouching a little and looking over at him.

“I don’t know, come up with something then.”

Peter chuckled, shaking his head and looking back at the tv. “You’re so helpful.”

“I do my best.”

They were silent for a while. Aaron was still angled towards him slightly, but his eyes were trained on the tv. Peter glanced at him occasionally, but never said anything. It was a nice, peaceful moment, and he didn’t want to disturb it. He didn’t even notice it at first, just slowly he became aware of the sensation of someone playing with his hair. And considering the only people in the apartment were him and Aaron, that meant Aaron was playing with his hair, just twirling the long strands around his finger.

And Peter didn’t mind it. 

He didn’t pull away.

Twenty minutes later, his spider sense started going off, and he twisted to look at the window just as Miles landed on the fire escape. He tapped on the glass.

“Hey! You’re late for patrol!”

“Oh shit,” Peter muttered, jumping up, looking for his bag.

He rushed into the bathroom to change, and heard Miles and Aaron talking, laughing at something. He yanked on his suit quickly, everything except his mask, and pulled the door open, all while shoving the rest of his clothes back into his bag.

“Oh finally, took you long enough,” Miles commented, sitting on the windowsill.

“Oh shush you!”

Peter quickly closed the bag and pulled the straps on, walking over towards Miles.

“You can leave that here if you want?” Aaron suddenly offered, motioning at the bag.

Peter looked up at him, and paused. They just held eye contact for a moment.

“Okay.”

Peter passed the bag to him, and then turned, practically pushing Miles backwards to crawl out the window. Once he was out, he pulled his mask on.

“Bye!” He called hastily and then hopped off the balcony, swinging away.

His heart was pounding and his hands felt sweaty under the gloves.

Miles caught up to him a little bit later, matching their swings easily.

“So, what was that about?”

“Nothing. It’s fine."

“Ookaaaay. Good day?”

“It was fine.”

Miles just laughed at him, and Peter swung a little faster.

Chapter Text

The dinner with Miles’ family was a few days later, on a Sunday evening. Peter had swung over to Aaron’s apartment, and they’d driven across town together. Peter was wearing this horrible orange hawaiian shirt and a pair of jeans and Aaron had considered making him change. To be fair it wasn’t the worst he’d ever seen, but it was frankly pretty appalling and Aaron had just stared at him. Aaron was much more tastefully dressed, just jeans, a plain t-shirt and a leather jacket.

The drive over was quiet. Miles couldn’t help noticing how fast Peter was bouncing his leg.

“You gonna be okay?”

“Yep, I’ll be fine,” Peter muttered, staring out the window at the car beside them.

Aaron frowned at him, but didn’t say anything. They parked and walked a little distance over to Miles’ house. They stopped outside the door and looked at each other.

“How uh,,,, just how married are we acting?”

Aaron shrugged. “Just be chill, dude.”

He turned and knocked, glancing over at Peter once more. The man took a big breath, and then stepped into him a bit, bumping their shoulders together. They stood in silence for a moment, before the door swung open.

“Hi guys!” Miles was standing there, grinning at them.

“Hey, Miles,” Aaron grinned and reached out, rubbing his knuckles on top of Miles’ head.

Miles made an annoyed noise and shoved him off, then pulled a disgusted expression.

“Peter, man, we gotta get you some better shirts.”

“I like this shirt!” Peter complained, following Aaron and Miles inside.

“It’s kind of hideous. Like, peak dad fashion.”

“Kids these days,” Peter grumbled.

“It is kind of tacky,” Aaron commented, pausing, waiting for Miles to lead the way. He hadn’t been in this house before.

Miles led them through a narrow hallway, benches and coats and shoes lining the walls.

“Mama, Papa!”

Rio and Jefferson were in the dining room, looking like they had been bickering over something. They both froze and looked up at the trio standing in the doorway.

“Oh! Hi!” Rio exclaimed, putting some napkins down on the table.

“Hey Rio.”

“So, uhm. This is Peter,” Aaron said, pointing at him.

“It’s nice to meet you again.”

Rio elbowed Jefferson and nodded towards them. Jefferson walked around the table, stopping in front of Aaron.

“Hey, man.”

Aaron held out a hand, which Jefferson took, and they did a half hug.

“Good to see you, Aaron.”

“Rio, Jefferson, this is Peter,” Aaron introduced, stepping back a bit and gesturing at him.

Jefferson scanned him over quickly, then held his hand out.

“Good to meet you again, Peter.”

Peter shook Jefferson’s hand, smiling. “And you.”

A few awkward formalities were exchanged and then they were sitting down to dinner which was some chicken curry dish. Miles was sitting at one end of the table, looking kind of smug as they obviously floundered around the conversation.

“So, when did you two meet,” Rio asked casually, glancing between the “couple”.

“A few years back?” Aaron answered, glancing over at Peter, who smiled back at him.

“I was doing a story on some youth programs in the lower class communities and Aaron happened to be coaching a boxing team at the time. I went and interviewed him and we just kind of clicked,” Peter continued the story, looking back to Rio and Jefferson.

“Oh? Are you a reporter?”

“I was, I went freelance not long before we got married.”

“Oh? What do you do now?”

“I do a lot of research papers and I’m working on a book on the side.”

“That’s interesting! I’d love to read some sometime,” Rio said, smiling brightly at Peter.

“I’ll have to pick out a few choice ones for you!”

Aaron winced. Peter was really digging a hole for himself here.

“So when did you get married?”

“Last year, August 3rd,” Aaron answered, the date they had agreed on during the ride over.

The conversation eventually turned onto different topics as they moved from the dining room to the living room. Miles excused himself to go do homework - which probably meant patrols - which just left the adults. Peter plopped himself down right next to Aaron, and in order to be comfortable, Aaron moved his arm to the back of the sofa, consequently around Peter. Which he supposed was better than them sitting awkwardly next to each other.

It was weird, Peter seemed to genuinely get along with Rio and Jefferson. And what was weirder was that Aaron was finding himself pretty happy that this was the case.

And he had no goddamn clue why.

Why should he care if they got along? Hell it was probably better for their cover if they didn’t. But he kept catching himself smiling at Peter without realizing it, listening to him chat and smile and laugh. Peter had a nice laugh, and an even nicer smile.

Oh no.

The evening couldn’t have ended faster, now that Aaron had that realization. They escaped around eight due to the excuse that Aaron had to get up early to go to the gym. The drive back to Aaron’s apartment was quiet and a little awkward.

“You uh, you okay?” Peter asked after a bit, turning in his seat.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Aaron jumped a bit at him suddenly speaking. “I’m good.”

“Ookay. . . Dinner seemed to go good.”

“Yep.”

Another long stretch of awkward silence.

“Your brother seems nice.”

“He’s okay. A bit straight laced. Wouldn’t approve of what you and Miles are doing.”

“Most people don’t. I’m surprised you do.”

“I don’t have a choice. I know I can’t stop you two, so I just have to support you the best I can.”

Peter paused. “Aaron Davis. I’m sorry.”

Aaron glanced over to him quickly. “Why?” he asked, surprised.

“I misjudged you.”

“Well. I don’t think you can misjudge a guy who tried to murder you too much.”

“That’s fair, but I’ve been misjudging you this whole time,” Peter said with a chuckle. “I thought. . . well that you had some ulterior motive to helping Miles. But you really do care about him and I’m done pretending I don’t see it. You’ve been genuinely trying to change and care for Miles and that deserves recognition. So I’m sorry, and I hope we can get along now.”

Aaron snorted. “Man, I thought we already were getting along.”

Another chuckle from Peter.

“Well now we can get along more.”

They parked outside Aaron’s apartment and walked up to it. The only reason Peter had to come inside was so he could get back out through the fire escape, but once inside, he didn’t seem in much of a rush.

“Shouldn’t you go help Miles on patrols?”

“Yeah. Probably.”

Why was his heart beating so fast? And why was Peter looking at him like that.

Aaron cleared his throat, shrugging off his jacket and walking to the kitchen to get some water. Peter followed him, leaning against the doorway.

“Okay, what?” Aaron asked, turning back to him.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You’re acting weird.”

Peter shrugged, glancing away. “You’re right, I should get going.”

He turned and walked back into the living room and over to the window. Aaron followed him over, setting his water bottle down on the coffee table. Peter turned, leaning back against the windowsill, and Aaron stood in front of him.

“Be careful, Peter.”

“Aww, you do worry about me.”

Aaron rolled his eyes as Peter dug webshooters out of his pockets. 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Aaron. I can take a hit.”

It was quiet while Peter attached the small devices, fiddling with them real quick. Aaron’s heart rate hadn’t calmed any, and he had a truly horrible idea. He slowly reached out, almost as if he was moving in slow motion, and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Hey.”

Peter paused, looking up at Aaron through his eyelashes, smirking a bit.

“Hey,” he said back. 

And then they just stood there. Neither moving.

And now it’s getting awkward. Aaron dropped his hand.

“Uh, I’ll see you around?”

“Uh. . . Yep. Definitely.”

Peter straightened, turning to the window. He stopped, turned back to Aaron, leaned forwards, kissed him on the cheek, and then was out the window in a flash, swinging through the air. Aaron didn’t move for a moment, just staring at the open window.

“Oh no.”

Peter didn’t see Aaron for a few weeks after that. And this was a fully intentional choice. He was still in shock that he had been that bold. Sure he’d realized a few days ago that maybe he was interested in Aaron, but he hadn’t intended to do anything about it! But then Aaron just kept giving him looks all evening, and it couldn’t be helped how his heart beat faster and his hands got kind of sweaty and he was getting bad impulses all night.

And then he had been about to leave, and Aaron did that thing with the shoulder touch and he had been giving him another one of those looks and Peter just didn’t stop himself. His face had been burning all the way back to the rental place he was still staying at with Aunt May, and she had even asked him what was wrong when he’d gotten there. He kind of shrugged her off and hurried to change, saying he needed to meet Miles for patrols.

Avoiding Aaron was fairly easy, he just didn’t go with Miles when the kid went to visit, and he didn’t supervise any of their training anymore. If Miles noticed, he didn’t say anything, and Peter was grateful for that. 

The next time he saw Aaron was a few weeks later. Miles was late for their training for the third time that week, so he went to stop by Aaron’s to see if he was there. At first it seemed like no one was there at all, but after a few taps on the window, a tired looking Aaron walked over, wearing just sweats. Peter’s words died in his throat as Aaron slid the window open, leaning out of it to look at him, crouched on the fire escape.

“What’s up?” Aaron asked with a yawn.

“Miles.”

“What about him?”

“He’s not been showing up.”

“Oh, yeah. He’s been stressed with school and trying to spend more time with Rio and Jefferson.”

Peter frowned tilting his head slightly. “He didn’t mention anything to me?”

“Well no. He feels like he always has to match you step for step or else you’ll think less of him or leave. So he avoids you if he’s not at top performance.”

Peter opened his mouth to respond, and then shut it, realizing that Aaron was kind of right. Or at least, thinking back he was noticing this to be a trend.

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Hey, hold on webs. You don’t gotta swing off so fast.”

“Well I have to cover-”

“Peter, it’s freezing out there, come inside and warm up for a bit.”

Peter hesitated. It had dropped in temperature drastically overnight, and had barely picked up any. The wind was brutal and he was already chilled, despite the thickness of the suit he was wearing.

“Okay.”

He slipped through the window, pulling his mask off once he was inside the warm apartment. Aaron shut the window and closed the blinds. 

“Here.” He held a hoodie out to Peter.

“I’m fin-”

He cut short at the look Aaron was giving him. He actually looked worried. So he took the hoodie and pulled it on over his suit, adjusting it a bit to get it to lay right. He pulled off his gloves and left them and his mask on the coffee table, reaching up and mussing up his hair a bit.

“So um-”

“Coffee?”

“That’d be great.”

Aaron headed into the kitchen and Peter trailed after him, trying to not overthink too much. He sat at the kitchen table, watching Aaron move around the kitchen, grabbing things, starting a small coffee pot brewing. He turned and leaned against the counter, looking at Peter. Peter blinked back.

“You okay? It’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just busy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Aunt May’s house is getting finished and I’ve been trying to help her with that, and pulling late nights recently, and working this case for-” He stopped and shrugged.

Aaron nodded, turning and grabbing a mug from the cabinet.

“What do you want in your coffee?”

“Just some milk and sugar.”

Aaron nodded, but didn’t respond, pouring the requested items into the mug, and then dumped the steaming coffee into it, putting the keraf back for the rest of the brew. He stirred it, and then carefully set it on the kitchen table.

“Thanks,” Peter murmured, curling his hands around the mug, breathing in the warm scent.

He watched as Aaron moved around the kitchen, cleaning a few things up. The apartment was quiet, but outside Peter could hear horns and sirens and things he should probably be attending to. But he was warm now, he was safe inside Aaron’s apartment. This was. . . it was nice. It was the safest he felt since MJ. Since they’d first gotten married. He was. . . content, almost. Sitting in this small kitchen with Aaron.

He didn’t really want to process that.

So he didn’t. He just sipped his coffee and stared out the window next to him. Aaron was doing something on his phone, staying quiet, and Peter didn’t mind one bit.

“You’re still wearing your ring?”

They had been silent for well over five minutes, so Peter was a little surprised but the sudden comment. He looked down at his hand.

“Yeah. . . I guess it’s just familiar.”

Aaron raised an eyebrow, setting down his phone.

“I used to be married. Divorced a couple years ago.”

“I’m sorry, man.”

“It’s okay. She’s. . . she’s happier now, she’s with someone stable, someone who wants a family and doesn’t spend his nights swinging around in spandex, getting beat up by convenience store robbers.”

“Do you still love her?”

“I love the version of her I knew. But I don’t think that version has been the actual one for a while, just the one I remembered and wanted to see. So I guess no.”

Aaron hummed softly, reaching out and putting his hand over Peter’s. “It’s okay dude.”

“Yeah. Yeah I know. I’m fine.”

“You look tired, not fine.”

Peter sighed softly, bringing the coffee mug up to his lips and taking a long sip before looking at Aaron.

“I’m exhausted. My body is under so much stress being in this dimension, but I love it here, and I don’t want to leave you and Miles, or Aunt May. I have. . . I have nothing back in my dimension, but here, I have a family.”

Aaron was silent, just holding eye contact with Peter. He squeezed his hand tightly, and then smiled.

“You’re something special, Peter.”

“Well, I do have the proportional body strength of a spider. You don’t find that in a guy every day.”

Aaron snorted and pulled his hand away, shaking his head. That smile stayed.

“You’re a dork too.”

Peter stayed with Aaron for a while, just chatting, Peter nursing his coffee, sapping warmth from it. He should probably look into staying warmer. It got so cold in this dimension.

“I should get going.”

He stood and stretched, his back popping a few times. Aaron stood as well, putting his coffee cup in the sink, and then following Peter back into the living room, watching as he pulled his on his gloves and mask, though he kept his face uncovered.

“Thanks, Aaron, for inviting me in.”

“You’re welcome any time, man.”

Peter smiled, tugging off his hoodie and passing it back.

“I’ll see you around.”

Peter turned and climbed back out the window, onto the fire escape.

“Hey, Peter.”

Peter stopped and turned to find Aaron following him out.

“Oh fuck it’s cold out here.”

Peter chuckled, eyebrow raising as his senses started to tingle. “Yeah. Yeah it is. What are you doing?”

“Something impulsive.”

Aaron stepped forwards, putting his hands on either side of Peter’s face and pulling him into a kiss. Peter froze, one hand gripping the railing of the fire escape, the other one just kind of, floundering midair.

Aaron was kissing him. Aaron was actually kissing him.

After what felt like ages to Peter, but was barely three seconds, Peter put his hand on Aaron’s arm, and leaned into the kiss.

“Hey,” Aaron murmured, pulling back a bit, looking into Peter’s eyes.

“Hey,” Peter murmured back.

“Was that okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

Peter kissed him again quickly and softly, before stepping back.

“Um, I really should-”

“Right, Yeah.”

“Not that I’m running away or anything.”

“Nono, of course not, you have patrols and stuff.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, Peter?”

Peter stopped, reaching up for his mask.

“What?”

“Please be careful,” Aaron said, eyes showing how worried he was even if he was keeping a calm mask on.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Aaron.”

Peter offered a lopsided grin, and then pulled his mask down.

“See you around, husband of mine.”

Aaron just gave a little splutter in response, and then Peter was leaping off the fire escape, swinging into the night.

“Hey Peter.”

Miles watched Peter nearly fall off the roof from shock. Faintly he wondered how he had surprised him so bad, considering their warning senses. He must have been really focused.

“What are you doing?” Miles walked over and crouched down on the edge next to him. They were sitting on the roof across from Aaron’s apartment.

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring at my Uncle’s apartment. I think that’s something.”

Peter shot him a glare, rolling his eyes.

“What are you doing here, I thought you were out with Ganke?”

“That was last night, dude. I was on patrols tonight, remember?”

Miles was sure he had told Peter this. But then again, Peter had seemed a bit distracted when they’d last been together.

“Oh, must’ve missed that.”

“Are you okay, man?”

Peter nodded. “Yep.”

“Are you sure? Because you seem kind of out of it.”

“Tired.”

Miles snorted and leaned over, smacking him on the shoulder.

“Okay, out with it dude. I’ve never seen you this distracted, even when you’re tired.”

“I’ve just been busy! I’ve been running a lot of cases on top of working on Aunt May’s house.”

Miles sat there and looked at him for a moment. It was hard to get a read on him with his mask on, but he didn’t look tired. He was sitting up straight, his posture was good, alert. He was more in shape now, after months of swinging around, fighting crime, and training with Miles. He still had that overall “I’m tired of existing and yet I must continue” energy that had resonated with every part of him when they first met, but Miles could tell he was also happier now. 

“Were you going to visit Aaron?”

“Yeah. It’s cold out here dude.”

Miles looked down at the jacket he had zipped up over his suit. Then back at Peter who had nothing.

“Maybe we should talk to Aunt May about a Spider-coat.”

“Shut up.”

Peter jumped off the roof and swung over to the fire escape. Unlike usually, he didn’t knock, just pushed the window open and slipped inside. Miles hesitated, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with Peter, but eventually followed him inside, closing the window and pulling off his mask. He could hear Peter and Aaron in the kitchen and started walking that way.

“Uncle Aaron!” He called just before poking his head in.

“Hey Miles!” Aaron walked over and pulled him into a headlock.

Miles complained loudly and pushed him off.

“What are you two doing here?”

“Well, I was coming by to visit, I dunno why Peter’s here.”

“I’m here for the coffee,” Peter said, gesturing to the mug of coffee he was making himself, getting things out of the fridge like he lived here.

Miles mentally took a step back, looking at the two of them for a moment. In his silence, they’d started talking to each other, laughing and smiling. Aaron was following Peter with his eyes, and when Peter turned to lean against the counter and drink his coffee, they just kept smiling at each other.

That’s when he realized.

Peter had been brighter, less tired. Aaron had been happier, more talkative. He kept missing them. He’d get to Aaron’s apartment and no one would be home, or on days Peter usually patrolled he’d just be gone, and wouldn’t be answering his phone, and wasn’t with Aunt May. They were both wearing the fake rings they had gotten for the dinner with his parents. And the way they were smiling at each other.

“Are you kidding me?”

The two men froze and looked over at him.

“You’re kidding.”

“Miles, what are you going on about?” Aaron asked, crossing his arms.

“You’re actually dating aren’t you?”

Peter nearly choked on his coffee, turning and leaning over the sink as he coughed dramatically. Aaron just stared at Miles, mouth open.

“I invented a lie that you guys were together and now it’s no longer a lie, right?”

“Miles,” Aaron tried.

“Aaron, just,” Peter said, waving his hand towards them, still trying to breathe normally.

Aaron sighed, throwing a concerned look at Peter before turning fully to Miles.

“Yes. We are.”

“Oh my god.”

“Miles, look-” Peter tried, finally turning to him.

“Oh my god!”

“He’s going to be insufferable now,” Aaron said with a sigh, looking at Peter.

Peter sighed back, walking over and putting an arm around Aaron. “Yeah he is.”

Miles watched as they kissed, and the only thing he had to say was, “Oh my god!”