Finding Family (Life is Good for Peter Parker) Chapter Four
Summary: What if only good things happened to Peter Parker?
—
A fix-it fic where nobody dies, Peter has friends and family who support and love him, and we finish it off with a classic field trip.
Note: This is chapter Four! Make sure you start with Chapter One. Happy Reading!
Author’s Note: Wow, okay, so like, the subplot of this chapter came out of NOWHERE but it’s actually really relevant to setting up the field trip lol so I guess that’s the point???
Also just a note regarding accents, speech patterns and texting— please do not expect very much in terms of me writing out people having accents or speaking in specific ways. I have tried to have people speak uniquely in terms of tone, but for the most part the way things are written out is how I would say it myself with my own accent. I don’t have the time or energy to research domestic and international accents for writing a fanfic. That said, I do sometimes try to work in people having slips of tongue into conversation to make dialogue seem more natural. So if there is a word missing or something is ungrammatical in dialogue, as long as the sentence would still make sense if you heard it out loud, it’s intentional. Similarly with texting, I always try to balance out making things still readable and also realistic for text conversations. So if you see a typo in the texting sections of the fic, there is a 99.9% chance that the typo was intentional.
Also NOT THIS CHAPTER BEING AS LONG AS HALF THE FIC UP TO THIS POINT. I know I made you wait until it wasn’t Sunday anymore in several time zones but IT’S STILL SUNDAY ON THE EAST COAST Y’ALL and I feel like the length makes up for it. 💀
The next week is gonna be kinda hectic for me tho and I haven’t finished the last chapter (I really want it to be perfect for y’all) so even though I’m gonna do my best to have it out by Sunday please don’t hate me if it doesn’t come out exactly on time IT’LL BE WORTH THE WAIT.
CWs:
—An OC 16-year-old character gets kicked out of home because of an unplanned pregnancy. They immediately have a safe place to go and are never forced back
—12yo engaging in mild ageism
Chapter Four
Peter’s junior year of high school simply flew past him. So much happened that he could hardly keep track, but somehow he managed to keep his head above water. He was somehow managing to balance his personal relationships, SI, school, extra coursework, Spider-Man patrols, and training with the Avengers, something that Harley insisted was only possible because Peter had literal superpowers. As a matter of fact, Harley, and their other friends, were constantly trying to convince Peter to take a break every now and then, which he finally consented to do over the winter holidays.
The break gave him a chance to do something that he had been eager to do for months: namely meet the elusive Williams, who had been Harley’s best friend since childhood. Peter had been dying to meet her for months, and their week in Rose Hill from Christmas to New Year’s was the perfect opportunity.
The plan was to celebrate Christmas with Evelyn, Harley, and Abby on the day itself before Tony, Pepper, and May flew back to New York, leaving Peter in Rose Hill until they would come back for him on New Year’s. At some point during the week Peter would finally get to meet the elusive Charlotte, who had unfortunately been busy the entire weekend he had been there for Harley’s birthday.
Things never went exactly as planned.
—
They were all settling in for Christmas dinner when they heard a truck pull into the front driveway, followed by bags hitting the ground and a crying baby. Harley was out of his seat like a shot, and Peter quickly followed him, as did the rest of those at the table, food forgotten. In the front yard was a girl with dark brown hair that was thrown into a haphazard bun, her bright blue eyes slightly wet but also hard. She was attempting to soothe a small baby, maybe two months old, and there was a suitcase at her feet.
“Lottie? What happened?” Harley asked softly. Peter realized that this girl must be Charlotte. She looked different in person than in any of the pictures Harley had shown him. She looked older, in a way that was more than just physical. She looked… tired. And then he looked at the baby, and it clicked.
“What does’t look like? They kicked us out.” Charlotte replied, and Peter suspected that she would sound a lot more bitter if she was not trying to calm the baby— and Peter was wondering what the baby’s name was, but of course that was not really his business. He was slightly annoyed that Harley had never told him, but again, it was not really Peter’s business. As much as Peter had wanted to meet Charlotte she was not really Peter’s friend yet, and her child was not his business.
“On Christmas?” May asked, aghast. Charlotte looked away from her baby finally to see that not only was Harley there but that everyone had come out of the house.
“Yes. My parents are not exactly the most pleasant of people. Mama’s the one who’d finally had enough. Daddy didn’t want me to go but I told him I’d be safe here. I am… I can stay, right? He gave me a bit of money to give you, when mama wasn’t looking. And I can help around the house, earn my keep. It’s the least I can do after what you did for me.” Charlotte shared a significant look with Harley.
“It was nothing.” Harley looked away, red at the ears.
“Harley James, what’d you do?” Evelyn asked with narrowed eyes and Harley swallowed nervously. Charlotte looked at all of their confused faces with wide eyes before finally landing on Harley’s rapidly reddening face.
“I’m so sorry Mrs. Keener, I’d thought you knew, I’d thought he’d told you. He should’ve. You needed to know.” Charlotte was glaring daggers at Harley now too.
“Lottie—”
“Now I know I’d said I could do this on my own for the most part and I stand by that but ya can’t just keep this a secret entirely, especially not from your family —”
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Peter’s brain was moving very slowly as it attempted to connect the dots that he very much did not want to connect .
Meanwhile Harley closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Charlotte is my best friend. I was with her when Amy was born.” Harley hesitated for a moment. “And Charlotte’s ex-boyfriend’s an asshole is an asshole so… I signed Amy’s birth certificate.”
—
The rest of Christmas was awkward. Their food had gotten cold, but they were able to salvage it, and set an extra place for Charlotte. Despite his reservations, Peter did decide to stick to the plan of staying for the rest of the week. Much to his surprise, Pepper changed her plans and stayed as well. The two of them shared the guest room while Charlotte and the baby stayed with Abby.
They quickly understood the purpose of Pepper staying as she spent the week making sure that the house had everything it could possibly need for a baby, making sure that all of the expenses were charged on Tony’s card. She insisted that while Harley was not actually their kid, and Amy was only technically Harley’s kid, family was never that simple.
After two days of tension and walking on eggshells around each other Charlotte had enough of Harley and Peter’s avoidance and locked them in the attic “until they’d learned how to communicate.”
“I’ve only known her for two days, but I agree.” Peter laughed as he flopped down on a discarded mattress, staring at the ceiling.
“Agree with what?” Harley asked as he laid on his side next to Peter, propping his head on his hand.
“Charlotte’s just as scary as MJ.” Harley let out a burst of laughter.
“Yeah, it would truly be all over if the two of them ever teamed up.” Harley snickered, settling into a more comfortable position next to Peter. Their laughs slowly died down and a peaceful silence drifted over them. They were laying next to each other, arms almost touching, but not quite.
Peter sat up slightly and looked at Harley, whose eyes had closed. “Why didn’t you tell me about Amy?” Peter asked quietly. “Why didn’t you trust me?”
“I just— it’s not that I didn’t trust you. I just didn’t feel ready. It didn’t feel real. And Charlotte was still living with her parents. I only saw Amy every couple a weeks. I didn’t really think of myself as being a dad . I figured I’d be like a cool uncle or something. And that’s what I always thought. It didn’t really hit me, until she showed up here, what I’d actually signed up for. Is that ridiculous?” Harley sighed.
“Honestly? It just sounds like you saw the opportunity to do a good deed and save someone else a significant amount of pain and didn’t think through the consequences. Which… is kinda relatable honestly.” Peter laughed.
“Yeah, but now I’ve got a kid. A whole kid! That I’m responsible for, for the next eighteen years. Amelia Evelyn Keener.”
“Wow, she even gave her your last name? And your mom never noticed” Peter snorted. “How did your mom not notice?”
“Mama never asked for Amy’s full name. I’m surprised Mr. and Mrs. Williams never tried to call her about Amy but I’m also not. Mrs. Williams always hated Charlotte, and I think Mr. Williams was just glad I was claiming Amy instead of Billy. He hated Billy. I hated Billy. And Mr. Williams knows it wasn’t me, which is why I’m not dead. None of us thinks that Billy would actually want to be around Amy, but we didn’t want to take the risk, so…” Harley shrugged helplessly.
“I think you’re gonna be a good dad, Harls.” Peter took Harley’s hand in his.
“You think so?” Harley asked quietly.
“I know so. Plus, you’ll have plenty of help. We’ll take things one day at a time.”
—
Of course, there really was no such thing as taking life one day at a time when you are a superhero. Two days into the new year, Thor and Loki arrived back on Earth with the surprising news that they had an older sister that they had never known before. They had actually met her on Earth back in November, and there had been a touch and go moment where they thought there might be a conflict between them, but luckily Loki managed to stay Thor’s hand and prevent his brother from attacking Hela physically. By keeping their confrontation to a verbal one they quickly got to the heart of the issue and were able to come to an agreement about who among the three siblings was to rule Asgard.
As it turned out, neither Thor nor Loki actually wanted to be the active ruler of Asgard, and so once they came to an accord with Hela and ensured that she would not run them into the ground, they were happy to have her on the throne.
This came in useful as shortly after they returned to the golden realm they received word that the mad Titan, Thanos, had destroyed Nidavellir, and was preparing to siege Asgard in an attempt to procure the tesseract containing the space stone from their vault. Hela quickly sent Thor and Loki to retrieve the Aether from the collector in order that Thanos could not also acquire the reality stone.
Peter was not a fully fledged Avenger yet, but he knew that his dad was consulting with Dr. Strange and Vision, who both wielded infinity stones of their own. Additionally, Vision was working with Shuri to remove the mind stone from his physical body and Shuri was making sure to keep the group chat (which now included Charlotte) updated.
It was nearing the end of the school year and Peter was on a field trip to the MoMA (and of course he was on a field trip) when the spaceship landed. He was under strict orders not to interfere, but the space ships were blocking traffic and it’s not as though the evil aliens actually cared about civilian casualties.
So, while Peter stayed back and let the Avengers handle the aliens, he did make sure that he contributed to helping with evacuation and protection of the area. He couldn’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there was no neighborhood.
The sorcerers of Kamar-Taj easily defeated the two who came for the time stone, and Peter found out that the Dora Milaje similarly dispatched the two who came for the mind stone, not that they even made it past Wakanda’s borders in the first place. It was safely protected in their capital city now that Shuri had successfully removed it from Vision.
Meanwhile, when Thanos came for Asgard not only was his Black Order forced to combat the full force of the Aesir, Vanir, and Ljósálfar, but also Hela wielding the reality stone, Loki wielding the space stone, and Thor wielding Mjolnir.
Thanos never stood a chance, really.
—
The rescheduled field trip to the MoMA went well, thankfully, and the rest of Peter’s junior year was fairly uneventful. What he was most excited about, however, was summer, because Harley and Abby were coming back for an entire month , and they were bringing Charlotte and Amy with them for their first trip to New York. Peter had not seen any of them since Christmas, as his spring breaks had all been taken up with Avengers business and the others had not wanted to travel away from Amy, who was still very small. There was also the issue that Harley and Peter still had not admitted to anyone other than Charlotte and MJ that they were dating.
Neither of them were ashamed of the other, but they had grown used to the secret, and they also did not want to be separated from each other if their family members did think it was weird for them to be together. After that moment with Tony and May last year they were sure things would work out, but still, old habits die hard.
Nevertheless, it was more than a little bit embarrassing how people did find out.
“I knew it! I knew it! Aunt May! Aunt May you owe me ten bucks!” Harley and Peter pulled apart from where they had been making out on Peter’s bed as the door banged open and they heard Abby’s shrieking voice.
“Abigail Keener I know our mama taught you how to knock!” Harley groaned as he rolled off of Peter and stared at the ceiling. Well. His life was over. Or at least a part of it.
Abby stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m just glad I finally have proof. We’ve all been saying it for ages. Just waiting for you to tell us. Aunt May thought you would fess up but I knew better.”
Harley threw a pillow at her. “Get out!” He shouted. “And close the goddammed door!”
Harley shook his head and looked over to Peter, who was blushing, but had a small grin on his face.
“I guess us being together isn’t a problem then?” Peter smiled.
“Nah, I don’t think so. But also I don’t think you could ever be a problem.” Harley leaned over to kiss Peter again softly before there was a loud knock on the door.
“You boys better be decent in there!” They pulled apart at the sound of Tony’s voice and laughed at the joking tone.
“And what if we’re not?” Harley called out.
“Then you have to deal with the consequences once I pour bleach in my eyes.”
“Your eyes are safe, you can come in!” Peter called as he sat up on the bed. He did not fully pull away from Harley, but they did untangle themselves somewhat, both sitting against the headboard. Tony came in and sat on the edge of the other bed, which had been getting very little use as of late.
Tony looked at them both thoughtfully as he sat down.
“Dad? Is this… are you okay with us? With me and Harley?” Peter asked tentatively.
“Hmmm? Oh yeah, I was confused at first, but Pep pointed out that it was inevitable really. The only point of conflict is just,” Tony sighed. “I can’t really give either of you the shovel talk.”
Harley snorted and Peter held his head in his hands.
—
The only problem with spending time in New York was how much they all loved spending time in New York. As predicted, Charlotte and MJ got on like a house on fire, and it only got worse when Shuri was added to the mix. Amy, who was now nine months old, loved all of her new aunts and uncles. Harley could never get enough of spending time with Peter, to the extent that he came with Peter to his summer lectures at Columbia and even did some of the assignments— something that caught the eye of a few professors when they saw they had an extra student auditing the course that was doing better than some actual students.
Abby, too, loved the city, and she quietly admitted to Shuri that she was glad to be away from Rose Hill, where she had been bullied by a few of the kids there for being younger than others in her grade. New York was becoming another home for all of them.
On their second to last night there Charlotte could not sleep, and found herself sitting at the edge of the indoor pool connected to the tower gym. She was not wearing a bathing suit, just her pajamas, which consisted of a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that had been Harley’s that had been Peter’s that had been Tony’s that had been Rhodey’s. (The t-shirt had gone through quite the journey to reach Charlotte’s shoulders.)
She was staring into her reflection when she heard the door open behind her. Turning her head she was surprised to see Peter. “Hey Pete. Whatcha you doin’ up?”
“I just got back. I’m still feeling pretty energized so I thought I would go for a swim.”
Right. Peter was Spider-Man. Harley had been good about not letting it slip, because he could keep a secret, but Peter was not and it was a miracle that all of New York did not know at this point.
“Be my guest. I’m just getting my feet wet.”
“You don’t like swimming?” Peter asked curiously, setting down his towel.
“Nah, I’m fine with swimming. I just don’t have a suit with me, didn’t pack one. I kept meanin’ ask if we could go out and get one while I was up here and I just… kept forgetting. Now we’re leaving the day after tomorrow. I don’t see the point.”
“Oh, well we can get you one next time you’re here. Besides, you don’t need a suit to swim. You just need something that you don’t mind getting wet.” Peter slipped into the water and floated on his back for a bit. “What brings you down to the pool at the midnight hour?”
The pool was against a wall of windows, and so Charlotte stared at the New York skyline as she contemplated how to respond. Peter was quiet as he let her think, only soft splashes indicating that he was treading water. She had not really ever gotten a chance to talk to Peter one-on-one before. He was her best friend’s boyfriend, but that did not necessarily mean they were friends. She would not be surprised if he even hated her a little bit, considering the fact that she had convinced Harley to take the position of legal baby daddy.
“I don’t wanna go back to Rose Hill.” Her words were sudden, and perhaps startling, but Peter only looked at her with empathy and understanding as she continued. “I loved growing up there but now… Everyone there knows my name, whispers behind my back. They know that I was dating Billy but that Harley’s Amy’s father, they know that I’d Amy out of wedlock. I hear the things they say about Amy.” A tear went down Charlotte’s face. “She’s only a baby now, but I don’t want her to grow up in a small town, hearing all of that. I don’t want her to be crushed by it. I wish we could stay in New York. In New York we could be anyone. We could have a fresh start. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Charlotte laughed.
Peter was silent for a while. “Do you really want to stay in New York? 100% seriously. If you had a place to stay, would you make your life here?” he asked thoughtfully.
“Absolutely.” Charlotte nodded.
“OK. I’ll see what I can do then.” Peter nodded with determination.
“I— what?” Charlotte asked, bewildered.
“You’re a good person, Lottie. I have it on good authority we could use more of you in the neighborhood.” Peter winked as he climbed out of the pool. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
—
Two days later, Charlotte, Amy, Harley, and Abby flew back down to Rose Hill in a Quinjet. Three weeks after that, Evelyn, Amy, Harley, Charlotte, and Abby moved into their own floor of Stark tower.
—
“You’re late Parker! The Keeners were down here with Williams ten minutes ago. We were about to leave without you.”
“Sorry Happy! Sorry! Dad wanted me to look over something in the lab and we lost track of time.” Peter was still putting on his seatbelt as Happy peeled out of the parking garage. The first thing that Tony had done when the Keeners and Charlotte confirmed their plans to move from Rose Hill to New York was to arranged for Harley, Charlotte, and Abby to attend Midtown with Peter. Abby was in 8th grade, so she was actually in the junior school, which was in a connected building, but Harley and Charlotte were both seniors with Peter, Ned, and MJ.
Thus instead of only Peter needing an escort in the mornings it was now all four of them needing an escort. This of course necessitated a larger car, which much to Peter’s horror was the limo that he had campaigned against the previous year, modeled off of Cadillac One itself.
More unfortunate was that, since they were running late the four of them showed up at peak drop-off time instead of early like Peter had been hoping for, and so everyone saw Peter Parker and three new kids arrive at school in a limousine.
Charlotte, Harley, and Peter first helped Abby get to the junior school entrance before going to the main school, where Peter helped them with their lockers. Luckily they had been assigned lockers near his— he had always had empty lockers near his own and now they were full. He was in the middle of pointing out to them where their homeroom would be when Ned and MJ found them.
“Hey losers. Hey Lottie. That was quite the entrance you made.”
“Good morning to you as well MJ.” Peter rolled his eyes and doubled-checked that he had closed his locker properly. “How was the rest of your summer?”
“It was fine. What was with the car?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll give you three guesses but you only need one,” Harley drawled. Charlotte and Ned both snorted while MJ simply smiled in amusement. Peter, however, was frowning as he looked at the schedules they had been given by the secretary.
“But that makes no sense. It looks like we are all in the same homeroom.”
“And that makes no sense, why?” Charlotte asked.
“Homerooms are assigned by last name. Our last names are nowhere near each other in the alphabet, except for me and Peter and MJ and Harley. There’s no way that you three should be in the same homeroom.” Ned explained.
“The secretary must have made some mistake.” Peter scratched the back of his head.
Nevertheless, the five of them went to their assigned homeroom, where Mr. Martinez explained that for whatever reason they were all on his list so they might as well stay there despite the discrepancy, especially since Charlotte and Harley could use some familiar faces in a new environment. MJ coughed something that sounded suspiciously like “nepotism” but the rest of them decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
As it turned out, many of their classes aligned, and the five friends were able to stay close as the school year went on. That’s not to say that they did not experience stress— it was senior year after all, and the pressure was on harder than ever. Harley, Ned, MJ, and Charlotte were all busy applying to colleges, while Peter continued with the side courses he had been taking. This year he was actually attending classes in person, sticking to classes that took place in the evenings after school and decathlon practice were over.
As a senior with an internship he had actually tested out of enough classes and had enough credits that he was only taking two classes, with the rest of his classes being free periods. The only times he actually had to be in a classroom was homeroom, British Literature, and painting. All of his other periods he spent working on assignments and SI paperwork in the library with Mx. Singh and Mr. Diaz, or when he had an SI meeting he was allowed to borrow their office to make a video call. Along with Principal Morita, they had both signed an NDA to not reveal the extent of Peter’s role at SI or the fact that he was halfway through an undergraduate degree at Columbia despite lacking a high school diploma.
Still, even though he was attempting to steam through senior year the same way that he had steamed through junior year, there was now a major difference— his relationship with Harley was no longer long distance, and it was a lot more complicated.
Peter’s schedule was forced to adjust because he was not just accounting for his workaholic parents and aunt and his friends with his own family— he now had a boyfriend and sisters and a niece? daughter? baby he cared about to come home to every day. He was forced to slow down and enjoy small moments because Amy was growing so fast. Just a few weeks after they celebrated Harley’s seventeenth birthday it was time to celebrate Amy’s first. She had yet to speak with coherent words yet, though Harley and Charlotte were in a small competition to see whether they could get her to say “mama” or “dada” first.
Amy did not know it (being only a year old) but the guest list to her birthday party was very exclusive, and very impressive. Harley, Charlotte, Peter, Abby, Evelyn, Tony, Pepper, and May were there of course, along with Ned, Shuri, MJ, Rhodey, and Happy. Also present were T’Challa, Vision, and even Thor and Loki had come over from Asgard, and Hela had sent a gift. (That they were saving for when she was older because a baby did not need a sword.) Natasha, Sam, Wanda, Bucky, and Steve had also made the trip over from the compound.
The presence of the Rogue Avengers was not the surprise it might once have been. Since they had been pardoned they had begun training with Peter as Spider-Man. Over time they got more friendly with Peter and also mended their relationship with Tony. The offer had been made to train Ned, MJ, Harley, and Charlotte in self-defense since they would be targets in the future due to their association with Tony and Peter. The teenagers were hesitant, but decided that if Tony could forgive his parents’ murderer then they could too. Besides, they were not the only ones who needed defending. Amy was set up to be the most protected baby on the planet.
—
Loki had really only come to the party because Thor was coming and his brother insisted. He would have thought Hela would side with him, but then he realized that she was sending him so that she did not have to go hearself. Traitor. Loki was not particularly interested in the celebration of the birth of a midgardian infant. He did like children, but he was not sure why any of these Avengers would want him around their child. He was standing in a corner with a drink when he was approached by another midgardian infant, though this one could walk and talk. Unfortunately.
“Mr. Loki. Are you old?” she had her arms crossed as if to challenge him.
“I beg your pardon, child?” Loki raised an eyebrow.
“Well. I did the math. Asgardians—”
“Aesir.”
“Whatever. Aesir. Are supposed to get like, really old. But how old are you? Are you really old? Because a lot of the myths about you are lies, right? Because the myth says that your daughter is the goddess of death but she is really your sister—” Loki was slightly impressed by the audacity of this child. Another child, who he had been led to believe was actually the father of the babe they were celebrating — despite being a child himself — was walking over quickly with the boy who Loki knew to be the Spider-Child.
“Abigail Keener! What have I told you about antagonizing gods!” the first boy hissed, grabbing her arm. “I’m sorry about my sister, sir.”
“You haven’t told me anything, but some screws must be loose in your head because I’ve never heard you call anyone sir in your life, get off of me.” She wrenched her arm out of his grip. “Talking to a god is entirely unprecedented. Anyway, I want to know whether or not he’s old.” Abigail crossed her arms. “So, are you old?”
“I am 1,053 years old. Does that answer your question?” Loki sighed, taking a sip of his drink.
“Well what’s a year?” she asked. Her brother looked confused, but the spider-child looked like he had just understood something.
“What’s a— oh well maybe you do have a brain in you. Unlike your brother there.” Loki smiled.
“Hey! I resent that. I know what she’s asking. She wants to know how old you are proportionally to us.” the boy crossed his arms. “You look only a few years older than us, like you’re in your twenties. How old is 1,053, really? Was the whole invasion just like, your rebellious phase?” he asked sarcastically.
“Harley!” the spider-child snapped. “Were you not just saying that we should not antagonize the god of mischief!”
“Oh no, please go on, I’m very curious about this line of questioning. Do not dare stop him, spider-child.” Loki waved, amused despite the disparaging remark made towards the invasion.
“Well, I just wanted to know how old you are so that I could know whether we should consider you a group chat candidate,”Abigail informed him.
“Oh? And what is this group chat?”
“It’s a group chat for all of us who have to deal with superhero nonsense but like, are young enough that in theory we shouldn’t have back pain and depression even though we do,” the girl shrugged and Loki could tell that both the Spider-Child and Harley were trying not to laugh.
“I… see.” Loki did not see.
“So, are you in or are you out?”
“I am 1,053 years old.”
“That doesn’t matter. Your people live way longer than that. You’re basically a teenager.” Loki kept his mouth resolutely shut as he had no desire to explain how his aging worked to a midgardian, what was she, ten? “Give me your phone.”
“Excuse me?” Loki asked, somewhat affronted.
“I’m going to text myself, give me your phone.” Abigail demanded. The two boys were definitely trying not to laugh now. Loki, for some reason he could not explain to himself, released his phone from his pocket dimension and handed it to the girl, who, as she promised, opened the texting app and sent herself a message, which presumably was her name.
Abby Keener.
“I—”
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Loki. Catch ya later!” with a small salute she was gone, leaving Loki with Harley and the Spider-Child.
“Yes. She is exactly like that. I deeply apologize for her. Please don’t murder us?” the Spider-Child scratched the back of his head.
“If I wanted to kill you you’d be dead,” Loki smirked. “Besides, I truthfully do like children. Though very few trust me around them.”
Harley tilted his head to the side. “You know, I get the feeling that you’re not such a bad guy Loki. Do you want to meet my daughter?”
—
One might think that an alien god would not fit in well with their friend group, but then again, none of them were exactly normal to begin with, so naturally they welcomed Loki with open arms. Loki ended up spending much more time on earth than he had previously. He even joined their family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, traditions that were not typically celebrated on Asgard.
By the time that the New Year rolled around, Loki was thoroughly entrenched in their family, and a regular visitor to the tower. Loki was not the only frequent visitor. As the rift between the Avengers had mended, the floors that had belonged to the Avengers were once again being used. The Avengers still primarily lived and trained at the compound, but the birthday party had broken a barrier, and now they came over for more than just training, but also to spend time with the tower residents.
So it was not a particularly uncommon occurrence for the room to be full of Avengers when MJ, Peter, and Ned walked into the common floor after decathlon practice. MJ looked as composed as ever, Ned looked excited, and Peter looked stressed.
“What’s wrong ребенок-паук?” Natasha asked.
“The Academic Decathlon team has a field trip next week.” Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. “To Stark Tower.”
Life was ???? for Peter Parker.
Author’s Note 2: I want to state for the record that I kind of hate myself for romanticizing New York in this chapter. 😂 Firstly because I am from Boston and thus have a mild grudge against NYC coded into my DNA, and also because the summer I spent in New York was miserable so #CantRelate with Charlotte and the Keeners wanting to move there. But it needed to happen for plot purposes so here we are.
All that aside I’ve been having a rough time of it so I’m gonna go listen to my “Forever Falling Apart” playlist on Spotify and hydrate while re-reading pink raspberry cosmo for the thousanth time.