Peter is trans, incredibly dysphoric, not out to anybody except may. May isn't supportive, doesn't appreciate him being at home while she is.
Context: Spiderman's identity is still unknown, Mr. Stark finds him after he hasn't taken his binder off in like three days
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Peter had been out on patrol for the whole weekend. He hadn't ate, he hadn't slept, he hadnt taken off his binder in at least three days, he stopped keeping up.
Being SpiderMan was great because everyone saw him as a boy. They saw his flat chest and the sock he stuck in his boxers and rolled with it, not thinking twice, and Peter loved it. Passing was something that bloomed a new wave of euphoria in his chest, it never got old. So other than his neverending urge to help people, he was motivated to patrol through the encouragement of passing, which he didn't do at home.
He had come out to his aunt a while ago, and she hasn't taken it well at all. The fights never stopped after that. Whenever he was home, she yelled at him. She stopped making dinners for him, then buying enough food for him to make his own.
They pretty much never saw each other anymore, and that was fine. Mr. Delmar always gave him a free sandwich. That didn't change the fact that he was literally starving though.
His ribs were beginning to stick out real far and his healing factor wasn't working so well anymore, and now, as he swung through Queens, looking for danger to help with, he felt a sharp pull at his ribs and suddenly was having a lot of trouble breathing.
He half crashed into an alleyway, stumbling to the ground and coughing painfully, hiding behind a dumpster, wheezing.
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Tony Stark was having a difficult day, to say the least. Okay, so it wasn't that difficult.
Pepper had just gotten back from a business trip and she was jet lagged as fuck. So naturally, Tony wanted to do something nice for her. By now, he'd gotten the memo that she hated all the big extravagant gifts he got for her, so instead he headed to his local convenience store (with his sunglasses and baseball hat) and started to pull together a little recovery basket. He bought a soft blanket, her favorite candy, some healthy snacks he knew she enjoyed, and a big gift bag to put it in. On his way back, he was interrupted by none other than Spiderman crashing into the alleyway right next to him.
He stood, shocked for a moment, watching as the boy wheezed and held his chest, crawling behind the dumpster to cough, not even realizing someone had seen all of this happen.
Tony was going to just move along until the coughing just kept going. He moved the bag from his hand to his elbow and slowly made his way into the alley, "hello?"
The coughing didn't stop and instead of spiderman, he found a person with mid-length, slightly wavy, unkempt brown hair holding the Spiderman mask in their hands. Their jacket was half off and they were tugging halfheartedly at the strap bottom of something underneath their makeshift, onsie looking suit.
Tony wasn't sure what to make of this until 'Spiderman' noticed him standing there.
He quickly lowered himself down to one knee, taking off his glasses and cap, revealing himself as THE Tony Stark, "so you're spiderman."
This person in front of him, now clutching their chest, nodded curtly, "please don't tell anyone." He mustered in as deep of a voice as possible.
Tony was confused to say the least, but he just nodded, "I won't tell anyone who you are. Is your chest okay?"
Peter just nodded, knowing his ribs underneath were likely broken from such excessive time binding. But it hurt him more to take it off. He didn't regret the injury at all. If it kept him feeling like a boy, then he wanted it on, no matter what it did to his body.
"It's fine." He wheezed, standing up, but stumbling forward dizzily as his lower, weaker ribs ached.
"It doesn't seem fine..." Stark said, "can I see?" He asked, hoping the boy's ribs wouldn't be broken. But instead of the simple comment finding a solution, the kid panicked and hopped up onto the wall, pulling his mask back on nervously, stopping, coughing again as he tried to scale the wall, but slipped back down as he kept heaving air into his arm. It sounded hoarse and painful.
He was clutching his ribs, standing unsteadily, like he was going to pass out.
"Woah woah, easy easy. It's fine, I won't look. Someone should though, sounds awful." Tony said blandly.
The boy sort of just looked at him through his goggled eyes.
"Jesus, how do you see out of those things?" He asked, cocking his head as he squinted to try and see the boy's eyes, "what's your name anyways?"
"Uh- Peter." He answered nervously, "Peter Parker."
"Well, Peter Parker. See a doctor." He said, checking his watch, "I need to go home to my wife.... See a doctor."
And with that, Tony left, hoping he had convinced the kid to get some professional help.
But he didn't.
Peter didn't even go home that night, which was problematic when it started to rain. Pour, actually. He was sitting on a rooftop, completely sleep deprived, feeling unwell.
He refused to take the binder off. He needed a shower so severely. He took off his mask and tied his long hair into a messy bun. He hated his hair. He hated it. He hated his hair, his face, his thighs, his hands, everything about him was so smooth and feminine. He hated it.
He felt like crying.
And then he took out a razorblade from the zipper pocket in his pants, snapping off his webshooters. He knew this was anything but sanitary, but on these hard nights when he knew he would be late to school in the morning because he couldn't go home for a change of clothes until his aunt left for work he needed to do it. When he knew he would be crying after his shower because of having to look at his body he needed to do it.
He let out a sob, and then dug the blade into his wrist. He felt his emotions loosen as he made another. Then another. When he was done he slid his soaking wet sleeve down and put the blade back in his pocket, zipping it up after.
He was freezing, and it hurt to breathe, but still, he snapped his webshooters back on, ignoring the blood underneath, and swung off into the night, his ribs hurting worse than ever.
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Peter showed up to school the next day with a huge cup of coffee, clean hair, and a huge hoodie on over his also massive jeans, doing everything to hide his body shape. He let his clean, silky smooth hair fall over his shoulders.
He looked like a girl. He knew it. He hated it. And he hated it. He hated it more when Flash came barreling by with all his flashy confidence and yelled slurs at him.
MJ, thankfully, was close by and told him to fuck off, knowing Peter wouldn't stand up for himself. It was the first time she'd seen him in a while.
"You okay, loser? You look like you haven't slept in a month." MJ asked. She didn't know how to convince Peter that she never saw him as a girl. He knew he didn't believe her.
"Only four days." Peter mumbled, messing with his hair, tugging on it angrily. Angry that it was still there.
"Shit, Peter. Why?" MJ she asked seriously.
He just shrugged, changing the topic.
"I don't barely see May anymore. Do you think I can chop off my hair?" He asked.
MJ's eyes lit up, "yes." She was overjoyed for him, but wouldn't show it, "we need to get Ned for this." Her heart swelled more when Peter smiled genuinely. She wouldn't tell him how handsome she thought he was. His smile was everything for her.
"Speak of the devil." MJ said, watching over Peter's shoulder as Ned came running up to them happily.
"Ned, we're cutting off all of Peter's hair later. My house. Be there." MJ said, watching as Ned got excited too.
Before they could discuss further, Peter broke out into a coughing fit, holding his chest. His ribs.
"Peter, do you need to take your binder off?" Ned asked, extremely concerned at the tears in Peter's eyes as he coughed. And coughed some more. Coughed so much he stumbled forwards and crumbled down to the floor, fully deprived of oxygen, Ned catching him before he face planted and hit his head.
"Shit, what do we do?" Ned asked as the bell rang.
"Pick him up, we're skipping. My house is like two minutes away." MJ said hurriedly as they rushed out of the school before the hallways filled with people, successfully escaping the gaze of any teachers.
When they made it to MJ's house, Peter was positively wheezing, but awake. Barely.
"Okay, Pete. Binder off." Ned demanded, "I'll turn around and close my eyes."
Peter shook his dizzy head, "no no, it's fine."
"No, it's not fine. You're ribs are probably damaged and I know you and May can't afford a hospital stay right now, so take it off please." MJ said sternly.
He sighed, knowing she was right.
"I'll change in the bathroom." He mumbled, getting up. He didn't want them to see his feminine body or his self harm.
He peeled off the hoodie he was wearing -one that used to belong to Ben- then his shirt, and then he was in his binder underneath. Slowly, he took it off. And slowly, he realized how much he had fucked up. His entire chest was bruised, the lower waistband where his floating ribs were held completely purple. He didn't know how to explain this.
He knew it had been worsened because of the fighting. He knew it. But he didn't know it had actually gotten so bad. He felt his chest tighten and his stomach flip in panic. He felt dizzy and he didn't know if it was from the onset of an anxiety attack or from the literal lack of oxygen his lungs were conveying through his body.
"MJ?" He called out nervously, quickly sliding on the hoodie to cover his arms and chest.
"Yeah?" MJ asked.
"Can you- uh. Can you come look at this?" He asked nervously. He didn't know what to do. Usually his super healing just took care of everything, but it wasn't now. He didn't know what to do now that it wasn't just healing super quickly.
MJ peeked her head in the bathroom and then closed the two of them in, "what?" She asked.
Peter shyly lifted up the bottom of the hoodie up to where his braline would be, revealing the purple ring around his chest and the way his ribs jutted out awkwardly.
"Holy shit, Peter how long were you wearing this?" She exclaimed, sounding a little angry, but was only worried in her own MJ way.
"Only four days-" he whispered.
"Four days!? You're supposed to break every eight hours." She shouted. Peter didn't break down though, this was how MJ was when she was worried. He knew this. He knew.
"It just-" he couldn't make eye contact with her as tears welled over his eyes and he cursed himself for being sensitive, "it felt so much worse to not have it on. It feels so bad to not have it on." He said, lip quivering and arms crossed protectively over his chest.
Very, very carefully, MJ pulled him into a hug.
Ned was shifting from foot to foot, listening outside, knowing he wasn't allowed in because he didn't have boobs.
"Well then let's chop off all your hair instead. And we're gonna put ice on... All that." She said.
Peter smiled and nodded, wiping his tears.
MJ went to get ice while Ned got out the scissors and cracked his knuckles. He also got a towel to drape over Peter's shoulders so they didn't get hair all over his hoodie.
When MJ came back she had a very long ice pack, "my mom uses this for her back. Hold it on your bruises." She directed.
He nodded and pulled it under his hoodie. And then they began.
First they started with putting his long hair into a ponytail, then, on his command, they chopped off the ponytail, leaving it very close to his head. They laughed and laughed at how he looked like a cheap version of Lord farquad, then they continued. They trimmed the back until it was close to his head -as close as they could get with desk scissors and no professional tools. Next, they went around his ears, contouring his hair so it looked normal for a boy cut. Then, to the best of their ability, they layered the top shorter and then let him soak and dry it so his natural curls would come back. There was so much hair on the floor.
When his hair was dry and he saw himself in the mirror, his jaw dropped. He really looked like a boy now. His jaw was so much sharper than he ever realized, and it really popped with his short hair. For once, he appreciated the rough look his slight acne scarring gave him. He didn't look so feminine anymore.
He ran his hands through it, dropping the icepack for his ribs and cracking the biggest grin either of them had ever seen from the boy. .
"Dude, it looks amazing." Ned muttered, in awe at how awesome his best friend looked.
"Bro, we are good fucking barbers." MJ said, not looking and going to high five Ned, who also tried to not look and missed terribly, ruining the moment.
Peter just laughed, feeling lighter than he had in a while. And soon they were all laughing and laughing. He barely even needed his binder with Ben's big hoodie. He looked like a boy. A real boy.
He had never been happier.
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Later that night, he was swinging around as spiderman. It was still fairly early, around 8pm. He was so happy. He felt so light and real.
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Tony Stark had been going out a lot lately. He had surprised himself with it, actually.
Today, he was taking Pepper out to the movies when someone tried to rob them, reminding him why he didn't go out in public very often. He grabbed Pepper's hand as someone pointed a knife at them. He didn't even look like he recognized who they were.
But before he even had to hand anything over, Spiderman swooped in and saved the man, giving him a spare dollar, knowing the criminal needed money for food and had the knife for self defense. He was a local in the neighborhood and always tried to share his free Delmar sandwiches with the locals.
"Don't do it again, okay?" Spiderman said, Tony watching in awe the whole time.
Then he turned, "sorry about that h-" he turned and coughed before he could finish. And then it didn't stop.
"Shit, kid you didn't go to the hospital did you." Tony said, immediately at the boy's side.
"Whats happening?" Pepper asked, completely clueless.
Peter had blood soaking through his mask. He was wheezing. He knows he shouldn't have put his binder back on, but he felt so dysphoric without it.
"Mask off. C'mon." Tony said, but Peter shook his head. "No you don't get to tell me no, this is for your safety. Take it off."
Peter angrily pulled the mask off, his new short hair sweaty underneath.
"Nice haircut, underoos."
"Underoos?"
"We've met twice now, about time you have a nickname. Let me see your ribs." Tony said, kneeling down, "you need actual help, you sound terrible."
Peter wiped the smear of blood off of his lip and carefully unzipped the jacket. Revealing his binder and then the bruising all below it. Suddenly everything made sense.
"Oh, you're trans." Tony said slowly, the bruising below greatly worrying him as he tried to figure out what Bruce or Strange would say about this.
"You didn't figure that out before?" He mumbled sarcastically.
Tony smirked, "no you really had me convinced, SpiderBoy."
Peter just sighed, starting to cough again afterwards. Similarly to earlier, he collapsed forwards, his nail beds slightly blue.
"Shit, kid? Kid?" Tony said, slightly shaking the boy in his arms until he regained consciousness, "c'mon let's go to the hospital, we'll take you there."
"No no hospital." He mumbled, still leaning into the billionaire. Pepper was still standing in the back, but now approached, helping him down to the ground, "why can't you go to the hospital?"
Peter just shook his head, "normal medicine doesn't work on me. They'll take me away and I won't be able to d-do SpiderMan anymore." He stuttered.
Tony understood, "this is too extreme to treat at home." He said, thinking around for a solution.
"Doesn't matter, can't go home much anyways." He mumbled, not really meaning for anyone to hear.
"Why can't you go home?" Pepper asked, reaching down to hold his cold, gloved hand.
"M'aunt hates me." He said as he pitied over the situation.
"And what about your parents?" Pepper asked.
"Dead." He said blandly.
Tony hightfived him, "dead parents club." He said with fake celebration that made Peter crack a grin for just a minute before pulling out his phone, "I'm gonna make a call." He said, then distantly his next words were heard, Happy
Peter looked back to Pepper, "what's your name?" He asked.
"I'm Pepper Potts." She smiled, "and you are?"
"Peter Parker." He said, and then they shook hands. A second later, with another inhale, the boy's chest swelled in pain.
"How did you get injured?" Pepper asked.
"I wore my binder too long and then-" he paused to cough, blood showing up on his sleeve, "shit." He mumbled, then looked up and the adult in front of him, "I mean shoot."
She saw his bloody sleeve and looked over to Tony, still on the phone, making no comment on his cussing.
A second later Tony was back, "ok, Happy will be here in a second."
"We're kidnapping him?" Pepper asked incredulously.
"Well what else are we supposed to do we can't just leave him here."
"I mean you could." Peter mumbled, "it doesn't really matter anyways."
"Yes it does matter, Peter. We need Spiderman, you do too much good to die from whatever is going on in with your ribs." Tony said, smiling as Happy pulled up, then rolled his window down and glared at the kid (who was now zipping his jacket back up.)
"What are you doing with a child?" Happy asked suspiciously.
"Kidnapping him," he said to happy, opening the back door, "c'mon kid you're coming home with us."
Peter was freaking out internally, but nonchalantly got in the car, squeezed in between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. If MJ and Ned knew he was spiderman, they would never hear the end of this.
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When they pulled up to the complex, and then elevatored all the way up to the penthouse, Peter was perplexed. It felt wrong for him to be here. This place was twenty three times the size of his apartment.
But when they made their way inside, Tony led him down a hallway and to a new room. His personal medbay where he usually tended to his own injuries as they came, but today Bruce Banner was waiting there.
"I've read all your research!" He said excitedly, sparking a coughing fit that made Tony come over and hold him up, supporting him under the shoulder as he turned away and hacked into his elbow.
"Okay, kid. I heard you've had some rib issues?" Bruce said, helping the boy up onto the bed. Peter just nodded silently.
"Any clue why that is?" He asked as Peter began to slowly unzip his homemade suit jacket.
The second his binder was revealed everything clicked in Bruce's head, "what's your name, kid?" He asked.
"Peter." He answered nervously.
"He/him?" Bruce questioned.
Peter nodded.
"Okay, I need you to take this off. This is severe." Peter nodded and everyone left the room for him to change.
Soon enough, he was covering his chest and Bruce was looking at his ribs, clicking his tongue every once in a while.
"We have an X-Ray downstairs, but I genuinely think your middle ribs are broken and your lower ones are heavily bruised or lightly fractured, based on your pain levels and symptoms. If your healing is doing what I think it is, one of your ribs is puncturing your lung, but all your energy is going into healing your lungs instead of your rib, so you're coughing up blood, having breathing problems, all of that."
"So how do we fix it?" He asked nervously.
"Well, when was the last time you ate a good meal?" Bruce asked, taking a seat in the chair next to the hospital bed.
Peter thought for a good long while.
"That's what I thought. If you can get yourself fed, your healing should kick in and fix it all. You need to be out of your binder for a few days though." Bruce explained, and Peter's face dropped.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes. You've done a lot of damage by being in it for so long." Bruce said, "your body needs a break."
"I can't wear it at all?" He questioned, his voice breaking.
"No." Bruce said sternly.
Peter grabbed his binder and tried to get up, pulling the blanket fully over his shoulders, "no thanks. It's fine, it doesn't hurt much anyways."
"You don't have a choice, bud." Bruce said, blocking him from going any farther.
"I do if I leave. I don't have to do what you say." Peter said coldly, trying to grab his hoodie from behind Bruce.
"No, no you can't leave." Bruce said, blocking him.
"You can't just keep me from going home!" Peter shouted, ignoring the fact that he planned on going straight to MJ's.
Tony peeked his head inside, "what's the fuss?"
"I'm going home." Peter said madly, successfully grabbing his hoodie and pulling it on, running up the wall and swinging towards the door.
"Tony! Stop him!" He shouted.
"Kid, you're hurt we gotta make sure you get better." Tony said, guarding the boy from leaving as he stayed hanging from the ceiling from one hand, holding his binder in his other.
He sighed and dropped down, hating the way he felt his chest when he did, "why do you care?" He mumbled, trying not to cough afterwards, "you can't make me not wear it."
Tony raised an eyebrow, saying nothing, then snatched the binder and ran.
"Wha-" Peter sprinted after him, shooting webs and swinging around the penthouse. Tony was running for his life, using his familiarity to his advantage, laughing as the boy chased him, enjoying toying with him.
Pepper had been sitting on the couch when suddenly her husband and this child they had 'kidnapped' were chasing eachother around the house, Tony smiling wide as he lept over furniture, she couldn't help but smile too at the. It was all fun in games until Peter let himself down to the ground and leant over his knees, wheezing. Then dropped down to one knee, hand on the floor, wheezing.
Tony stopped running and walked back, "kid, this is why we have to keep you here until you're healing kicks back in. I'm not letting you back out on the streets in this bad of shape.
Peter just let out a short whine, and then he was crying. He couldn't stop it. He felt like shit. The kind of shit that usually sent him stabbing blades into his arms - which had healed since the last time he had hurt himself.
Tony scooped him up and brought him back to the hospital room, letting him sob into his chest. And he just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed himself to sleep.
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Four days later, Peter hadn't returned home or to school, and his ribs were finally healing. He was feeling better than he had in ages.
He didn't have a phone for MJ and Ned to message him on, so when Mr. Stark gave him his phone number, and he replied saying he didn't have any way to call him...
Tony bought him a phone on the spot.
The next day, Peter showed up at school with a billionaire's phone number, a brand new phone, and his binder on. He walked through the hall with his new hair and got so many looks, but he knew he looked good. He smiled to himself and found Ned and MJ, who, at the second they saw him, attacked him in a hug.
"Holy shit Peter we were so worried. Where did you go?" Ned yelped, shaking Peter as he asked the question.
"I uh-" he didn't have an explanation ready, "I-"
"What's wrong?" MJ asked.
"Well I don't know how to explain where I was, but I got a phone! Can I have your phone numbers?" He asked as he handed the phone to them to type in.
"Peter, why do you have only one contact and it says Tony Stark?" Ned said, his jaw dropped.
MJ quickly grabbed the phone, "dude what kind of prank is this?"
Peter had no words, "uh, uh- uhhhh-"
"Peter!!!!!!" Ned exclaimed, jumping up and down, "I KNOW May did not buy you a phone."
"You- you would be correct about that." Peter said, looking at the ceiling, trying to see if he could get up there and crawl away without being seen.
"I need an explanation now." Ned said.
"Yeah, how do you have Tony Stark's phone number?" MJ asked, though it sounded rhetorical.
Flash came barreling by, "no way Petra has Tony Starks phone number, no billionaire even wants to be near a tranny."
Peter shrunk back.
Ned and MJ started barking out insults, successfully driving Flash away.
"Okay, okay. I have something to tell you guys." He said, "but I can't tell you here. Can we meet after schoo-" he paused as his phone dinged in his pocket. He pulled it out to a text from Tony Stark asking him to swing by the avengers tower after school.
"Okay, MJ can I just show up to your house at some point today and count on Ned to be there??" He asked, his voice shaking. They both nodded.
------
When Peter swung through the top of Mr. Stark's tower, none other than Tony and Pepper were waiting for him, one of them holding a rather fancy looking case.
"What's up guys?" He asked, jogging forward out of his landing and pulling his mask off as he approached, "what's that?"
"This is for you. Try it on." Tony said, not being able to contain his smile as Peter took the case and opened it, revealing an extremely cool display of a spiderman suit.
"I thought you could come around after school some days, tinker on that web fluid of yours." Tony said, pointing at his web shooters, remembering his four days of recovery in the penthouse and how he had proven himself a little genius, or "mini stark" as Friday had picked up calling him.
Peter nodded excitedly as he picked up the suit.
"Oh, and you don't need to wear your binder with it. Well... In theory. Go try it on let me know how it fits." Tony said and Peter all but sprinted off to the nearest lockable door.
He came back out bouncing off the walls. It had built in everything he needed to look like a man, natural padding and protection over his chest, but the suction of the suit kept him tight and flat looking without putting specific pressure anywhere on his body. It was literally genius. He swung to Tony, and landed in his arms, attacking him in a hug, making him top heavy and nearly toppling both of them over.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU." He screeched.
Tony couldn't help but laugh, "thank pep, it was her idea to make you a new suit."
Peter looked over, ready to attack her in a hug too before she declined and offered him a normal hug instead, shooting Tony a secret look that said "I'm a better parent than you."
Tony shot back a look that said "we're parents now?"
She gave back a look that said "basically" or "may as well be"
Tony just shrugged and joined in the hug.
Later Peter told Ned and MJ
And everything slayed
The end
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Almost 5000 words
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