Be My Baby Boy

Caught in your web

A few weeks after their rooftop tacos after several accidental late night meetings, which, if Peter was perfectly honest, weren't quite so accidental, Wade finally plucked up his courage.

"Movie, pizza, you, me, my place? How about it, Spidey-boo?"

"Sure," Peter said, relieved Wade had asked, since his courage had failed every time he had tried to ask the merc out. How else was he going to find out if he was really interested in Wade, if not by going out with him? It was just science, right? Have a hypothesis and test it. Here he was, ready to test it. A shiver ran up his back.

"Ha! No takebacksies!" Wade said quickly and hopped into Peter's back, his powerful legs clenching around Peter's slender waist, making him flush under his mask. "Giddy up!"

Peter snorted fondly. He let his first web fly and started to swing them toward Wade's new apartment. Peter had dropped Wade off there a few times, his heart beating oddly erratically for some time afterward, the feel of Wade curled around him still lingering, the warmth of him fading slowly. No one had been that close to him before. The best he had managed with Gwen had been hand holding.

Luckily Wade was a fun passenger and Peter soon managed to let his grief over Gwen fade. Wade went 'wheee!' whenever Peter swung them loose from their previous web and cackled wildly at the shocked expressions of people they passed by overhead at the low points of their swings.

"That's right! I'm riding the Spidey Express!" Wade yelled with glee, making Peter laugh. The ride was over too soon, as Peter swung them toward the now familiar building.

"Where now, Wade?"

"Third window from the right and straight on till morning."

"Huh?"

Wade pointed, and Peter climbed to the right window, holding still as Wade opened it. They hopped inside and Peter stopped to look. It was... surprisingly neat. The first place Peter had taken Wade to had been a dilapidated building in a rough neighbourhood. The apartment had been dingy and messy, as the careless merc and Al, the blind old Black woman he cohabited with,  were clearly neither too particular about cleaning up.

"You sound sweet, kid. What are you doing with this scummy reprobate?" Al had asked Peter.

"He's no kid, my blind friend, he's the Amazing Spider-Man!" Wade had replied and flopped on the sofa after pushing aside some empty food cartons. "He's pretty and perfect and he likes me!"

Al had scoffed. "Nobody likes you, Wade."

Wade had clenched his fist over his heart. "You wound me, Al. You wound me deeply. Now take that ancient bag of bones you call your body to your room and let me and my friend catch up." Peter had chuckled at the exchange, but the presence of Al, and that offhand 'kid' comment, had made him even more awkward than usual and he had left quite soon.

Not long after Wade had told Peter he had moved and next time Peter swung him home they had come here. It was a much nicer neighbourhood with trendy little cafes and restaurants, but with still rough edges from a fairly recent gentrification.

Wade's windows faced a blind alley which was convenient for two vigilantes entering and exiting through a window. This was the first time Peter had gone inside. The flat was sparsely but tastefully decorated. The kitchen was compact, the couch super sized, the TV massive. An open door led to a bedroom with a super king sized bed and a closed door Peter assumed led to a bathroom.

"Mi casa es su casa," Wade said, and flopped on the couch, still in his suit. Peter had never seen Wade out of it. He blushed at the thought. He was feeling nervous and elated. This was the first time the two of them were alone, in private, in a place with a bed. The unmapped opportunities didn't help his frayed nerves.