01 | BABYLON ━━ 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿

epilogue

Things had happened since they beat Liz's father. May found out Peter was Spider-Man when he had accidentally left the suit in the laundry bin. May interrogated him for endless minutes including Nikolas in the talk where Peter had no choice but to explain everything. She seemed scared at first but then Nikolas told her that he would never hurt Peter as he demonstrated how he worked. May took a breath after that.

Nikolas turned 17. And a few months later, Peter too.

On his birthday, Peter baked a terrible cake at home. With pastry cream he tried to draw Nikolas in his transformation. That day they all met in the apartment, May, Tony, Happy, and Ned. Nikolas insisted on wearing ridiculous party hats.

Despite it had already been two years of living with all of them, even though they hardly saw each other in the corridors, Tony learned to distinguish when Nikolas was happy, sad, angry or when he didn't want to talk about his dates with Peter. When Nikolas was angry he would lock himself in his room for hours. Since then, Tony has been researching videos on how to understand a teenager.

At the end of his birthday, Tony and Nikolas were having dinner on the balcony of the facility, he asked for cheeseburgers. The moon reflected in the dark lake between the trees. Nikolas had told him a few days after the move that his favorite place was on the roof because he could see the landscape there.

"There's usually a lot in your head because when I hear it it's very loud inside, but now? It's just quiet. Are you going on a trip again?" Nikolas looked at him, still wearing his party hat. "If this is because I told you that it was necessary to wear the hat to enter the party, I'm sorry.

Tony changed the conversation, leaving among the forgotten things in his office that yellow envelope where inside was an adoption petition that he planned to give Nikolas that day. He had even discussed it with Pepper days before. But it wasn't the first time that Tony had to remind himself that he wasn't his real father and that Nikolas still had a mother out there. Tony didn't give Nikolas the envelope.

"Uhh Vanilla?" Nikolas licked the sweet-cream residue the straw had left on his lips. "These things called milkshakes are so delicious! I feel like my brain is freezing!"

Peter laughed exclaiming that chocolate milkshakes were better. They were both holding hands the whole way until they found a bench where they could sit and create stories for people walking by. Nikolas' charisma changed when he saw a couple being happily in love, wanting to have something like that in the future with Peter.

"Peter I think I need to tell you something." Peter set his milkshake aside, giving Nikolas his attention. Nikolas did the same and cleared his throat a few times before continuing. "I wanted to tell you this for a long time but...I-I just couldn't."

Peter looked down at his hands, those were trembling and Nikolas was crushing them with his own fingers. Peter put his hand over Nikolas's to calm him down. People passing by didn't notice that his eyes were turning black. Peter could no longer make out Nikolas's pupil, just a solid color where he could see his own reflection if he stared directly.

"I-I haven't been completely honest with you." Nikolas tilted his face from him, swallowing heavily. "I ended my father's life when I acquired this curse. And I can't lie to you when I say I didn't want to. Because I did. PETER HE WAS A BAD MAN!"

Peter slipped his hand from Nikolas's and stood up trying to breathe with his eyes closed. Peter felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown over his body. His ears plugged like an echo where he hardly heard Nikolas's voice talking.

"Y-You killed your own f-father?" Peter said in a weak whisper, almost without a voice.

"And I didn't stop when I still had some conscience in me." Nikolas said, his voice cracking, tears beginning to fill those deep dark eyes. "He was evil, he started with screaming, prayers, therapy. He decided to put an end to it when he entered my room and found everything upside down. He thought he could fix me before calling a specialist. There were therapists, neurologists, and lastly, there was a priest. He gave me a pact and i ended up being this."

Nikolas paused. Peter was pale trying to keep his feet on the ground.

"Then the police arrived and found me on top of his body while... well... he no longer had any vital signs." Nikolas suppressed the memory squeezing his eyes as hard as he could. "They took my little sister first and then beat me with a stun baton until I passed out. They did it because I didn't have the physique of a human, I couldn't control it at the time."

Peter ran his hands over his face. Nikolas immediately regretted telling him about his past. He took a step toward Peter with his hand outstretched but he took a step back and that made Nikolas return his hand with his fingers closed.

"Can you say something? P-Please?" 

"I don't know." Peter seemed not to be there, his face looked as if he would soon faint. "I should go home, May...I...I have to go..."

His eyes returned to normal. Peter got lost among the people and Nikolas sat down on the bench again, resting his elbows on his knees while he covered his face letting the tears fall.

Wondering if after that, there would be a; Beyond us.

(14/01/23)