Chapter Text
Peter swung his feet idly at the the counter, watching Alfred cook. He had a small dish of sliced apples in front of him that he was snacking on - the elderly butler having figured out a few days ago that his metabolism was much higher than most people’s, and giving him snacks outside of meals accordingly.
“Hey, squirt.”
At the sound of Jason’s voice, Peter turned to look at him. By now he was used to the cycling appearances of the others, all of them and his da- and Dick seemingly taking advantage of his presence to smother him in attention and affection in their own ways. It was a lot to get used to, but Peter was sorely missing familial attention these days, and he soaked it up like a sponge.
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I’m curious about now that we know you a bit better,” Jason continued. “When we first met you, you didn’t seem nervous to be surrounded by strangers, and you seemed to relax when you saw me. And I’m well aware of how the Red Hood comes off; that’s basically the whole point of my getup.”
“Oh, that,” Peter said, shrugging. He snagged a piece of apple and held it out to Jason, who blinked at him before taking it bemusedly. “You reminded me of a friend of mine. Or, several friends, I guess.”
“You have friends that remind you of Red Hood,” Jason deadpanned, before looking down at the apple, shrugging, and crunching down and devouring it in two bites.
“Yeah, you’re basically a combination of Deadpool, Daredevil, and The Punisher,” Peter commented, waving at Tim, Damian, and Cass as they walked into the room together.
“You have - what, vigilantes named Deadpool, Daredevil, and The Punisher ?” Jason asked, clearly feeling a little judgemental over the names. The other two who had just entered looked a little confused, glancing between the two.
“Hey, be nice,” Peter defended. “Matt didn’t choose Daredevil for himself, the media named him that based on their original name for him - The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen - back when he was taking down Kingpin and crime rings. He’s super cool, and he taught me a lot, but he also deals with a lot of stuff outside of my paygrade, as he puts it, so he keeps me out of his stuff when he can. And The Punisher is technically Daredevil’s frienemy, I’m still working him down to being friends. He’s technically an antihero, and he was originally basically a villain because he was going around and killing criminals. But Frank’s cool now! He has a cute dog, too, who I adore - I watch him sometimes when Frank goes out of town.”
“And Deadpool?” Jason’s voice was a little faint, and his eyes were wide as he stared at Peter. Tim and Cass looked thoroughly confused, and maybe a little concerned too.
“Oh, Deadpool is a mercenary for hire, but he’s cool too,” Peter said, looking a little sadly at his now-empty dish. Oh well, dinner was coming up soon, and Alfred had been making a point to feed Peter’s ridiculous appetite fully, so it was fine. “Follows a code and everything - no kids, will refuse contracts if they go against his morals, etc. He swings between antihero, vigilante, and mercenary depending on his whims, but he’s ultimately good.”
“That’s who Jason reminded you of?” Tim clarified, clearly catching on now to what they were talking about. Peter nodded. “Huh. What about the rest of us? Just off early impressions. You haven’t seen a lot of us, yet, but I’m curious to know how we come off to you.”
“Hmm,” Peter mused, leaning back in his chair as he thought. “Starting with you, Tim, you remind me of - I think you’d be Iron Man in my world. Tech genius, billionaire, kind of self-sacrificing, tired workaholic, a bit of a mad scientist vibe, but ultimately a heart of gold.”
Tim looked a little stunned as Jason clapped him on shoulder, barking out a laugh.
“Not a billionaire just yet, but damn kid, you’ve got him pinned!” he grinned. Peter smiled back, turning his attention to Cass.
“Hmmm, for you… I’d say maybe Black Widow?” he thought, frowning a little. “You’re more of a pacifist than Natasha is - Matt and I are pretty much the only ones who are super vocal about being anti-kill, so maybe a mix of him and her. Both were trained to be weapons by shady groups and were hurt by that, but turned around and decided to help people instead. Natasha also really stepped up during the Blip and took charge of a lot of things when others were struggling, so a lot of people look up to her.”
Cass smiled at the analysis, reaching out to pat him on the head. The pat turned to her straightening out his loose curls, before she signed her thanks at him carefully. Peter knew a little ASL already, but he was trying to learn more to communicate with Cass when she struggled to speak, though it was slow going so far since it had only been a few days. After the thanks, she made a sign he didn’t recognize.
“What’s -” he copied the sign, and Cass repeated it, before fingerspelling.
N-e-p-h-e-w .
Peter blushed at the address. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that - he and Dick were still figuring out what they were to each other, and were in a nebulous grey zone of affection and forced distance in the meantime.
“Ah,” Peter coughed, deciding to just continue and ignoring Cass’s silent laugh at him. “Anyway, Alfred reminds me a lot of the stories I heard about JARVIS, honestly. He was a sentient and sapient AI that was built by Iron Man, and he was super cool. He was destroyed before I met him, but he loved Tony and Tony’s family and friends a lot, was super helpful and smart, and was super protective of Tony in particular. His personality was based on Tony’s actual butler from childhood, who was pretty similar.”
“Huh, I can see it,” Tim mused, glancing over at Alfred, who sent them a fond glance but stayed absorbed in his work at the stovetop and counters. “What about Damian?”
“Hmm.” Peter had to think about that one for a minute. “There’s not a perfect match or combo for him, but maybe Gamora? Her father was basically the immortal head of a deadly space organization, and had her trained to be the most deadly woman in the universe with her main weapon being a sword. But she broke free of his control, and is now well-known as a hero across the galaxies and has found a new family of her own. She’s kind when she wants to be, funny in her own way, loyal to a fault, and very terrifying when she tries.”
“I thank you for the compliments,” Damian said after a moment, looking very pleased but trying to hide it behind indifference, his gaze skittering away from Peter, and the spider hybrid had to keep from cooing at the sight like his da- Dick would do at the sight. Tim apparently didn’t hold the same reservations, and gave an exaggerated aww that quickly turned into an oof as Damian drove an elbow into his diaphragm.
“I think the last of us you’ve met so far is B,” Jason interrupted, before a genuine fight could break out in Alfred’s kitchen, getting them all in trouble. “What about him?”
“Director Fury,” Peter said immediately. Then paused. “But anti-kill and full of anger and guilt like Matt, so another combo with Daredevil. Actually - a lot of you remind me of Matt, that’s probably why I warmed up to you guys so fast. Anyway, Director Fury was head of SHIELD - I mentioned them before, I think. Knows everyone and everything, founded the Avengers and Earth’s defense against space, etc. Kind of paranoid, but not a bad person beneath it all even if he doesn’t always make good decisions. Not sure how well that describes Bruce outside of Batman, but that’s my general impression so far.”
“Why’s everyone hanging out in here?”
At Dick’s voice, everyone turned around to where the man was walking through the door. Peter felt himself perk up at the sight of him in spite of himself, and was only a little mollified by Dick doing the same upon meeting his gaze.
“Hey, kiddo!” he grinned, draping himself over Peter’s back in a hug. “What’s up?”
“Peter’s telling us which heroes we remind him of back in his world,” Tim explained, eyeing Dick’s octopus arms a little warily. “So far Jason is a combo of Deadpool, Daredevil, and The Punisher. I’m Iron Man. Cass is a combo of Black Widow and Daredevil. Alfred is JARVIS, Damian is Gamora, and Bruce is a combo of Director Fury and Daredevil.”
“That’s a lot of mentions of Daredevil,” Dick hummed, keeping his grip on Peter as he began slightly rocking them from side to side. Peter didn’t call attention to it, some part of him guiltily enjoying the contact even as the others smirked at them. “You must like him a lot.”
“He’s cool!” Peter whined, feeling his cheeks redden a bit at the call out. “He taught me a lot about fighting, and helped me get a lot better with my senses. Up until he started helping me, everything I knew about either was from figuring it out myself and the occasional experiment with Tony. He also does a lot of pro-bono lawyer work to help people in his normal life too, and his secretary started out as an investigative journalist taking down corporations and kingpins. Why wouldn’t I be friends with him?”
Dick laughed a little, resting his chin on Peter’s head.
“You don’t have to justify your friends to me,” he snickered. “If they’re your friends, they’re your friends. What about me though? Who do I remind you of?”
“Besides the obvious?” Peter quipped, before thinking about it seriously. “Honestly? With your fighting style and personality… you remind me of, well, me . We both use acrobatic moves, use tech for a lot, are generally cheerful and quippy when fighting, are generally non-lethal fighters, and have a strain of anger underneath that - yes, I saw your old videos, don’t lie about it.”
“Who showed you those?” Dick hummed with a slight frown, pushing his chin into Peter’s head a little harder. The man sounded a little disgruntled, the topic apparently a bit of a sore spot with him. Peter nudged him in response, as best he could with Dick behind him.
The vigilante was in good company, after all.
“It was in your file,” he said, tipping his head up a little in an attempt to meet Dick’s gaze without dislodging him. Tim let out a questioning sound, and Peter looked back to see confusion.
“You… don’t have access to our files?” His… uncle? said, frowning. It was Peter’s turn to frown.
“I don’t?” he asked, genuinely confused. He thought back towards the time he was hanging out in the Batcave (which was super cool and he’d been so excited to explore it once his… alternate dimension family? Terminology was hard with all this - had trusted him enough to let him). Oh. “Wait, was that supposed to be your actual firewalls? I thought that was just general security - like, a password on a phone only dialed up to eleven since it’s a vigilante database.”
“You hacked the Batcomputer,” Jason deadpanned, staring at Peter for just a moment, before narrowing his eyes and sending a reprimanding glare towards Dick. “On accident .”
“In my defense,” Peter hurried, worried he might have offended them, “I was literally trained to hack by both the best tech genius on my version of Earth and my best friend who was sometimes able to hack his tech. And I sometimes emailed and collaborated with the girl who is believed to be the next up and coming tech genius to steal the previous one’s title.”
“...You live a strange life, kid,” Jason eventually said, shaking his head.
“Yeah,” Peter said, some weird mix of happy and glum. It was cool a lot of the time, but sometimes the bad interesting mixed with the good interesting enough to make an overall mixed bag of an experience. He shook it off as a hint of mischief took root. “Remind me to tell you about the time I fought in an intergalactic space war against a dimension-travelling maniac set on destroying the universe after I was brought back to life on an alien planet using time travel and magic sometime. Nothing is stranger than that.”
“Kid,” Dick said, squeezing him a little tighter. “You gotta stop saying things that’ll make me go grey. I’m in my late twenties, I’m too young to pull off looking like a silver fox.”
“I hear people start to go grey when they get old though, so I don’t know why you’re so surprised,” Peter said as Jason and Tim made exaggerated gagging noises at the description Dick had used for himself, hiding his smirk. “It sounds like it’s right on time.”
Peter then had the pleasure of watching the others figure out whether they should laugh or be offended too, since most of them weren’t that much younger than Dick was. Dick was definiely offended though, letting out a squawk of protest and play-biting Peter’s shoulder in retaliation, his lips tucked over his teeth to keep it from actually hurting. Peter gave a dramatic gasp of pain anyway, making grabby hands at Cass in a playful plea for help.
“Save me, Aunt Cass! He’s eating me!”
Cass sent a smug glance at the others for some reason, before stepping forward. She sent out a few quick jabs that had Dick yelping, his arms going limp by his sides as he tipped forward into the chair with the sudden lack of support. Cass’s arms wrapped around Peter instead, tugging him out of the chair and onto her hip in move that was simultaneously effortless for her and awkward for Peter, being about the same size as her.
“Mine now,” she laughed, sending a sparkling glance at her older brother who had since straightened up again with a pout.
“Damn, Cass,” Jason drawled, eyeing her. “You just that strong or is the hatchling just that light?”
“I am strong,” she affirmed, before turning her attention to Peter and freeing one hand to sign. You are also tiny .
“Then it is good that dinner is finished then,” Alfred chimed in before Peter could react to that, sending them all a glance that had them straightening into better postures. “If you would be so kind as to set the table for dinner, I shall fetch your father. Or, grandfather as is the case for the young master.”
Peter blushed at the clear claim to the family and did his best to hide the reaction behind Cass’s hair. He had no illusions that he hid it from any of them, given Tim’s snicker and Dick’s muffled fond murmur from where he was still draped over the chair limply, but it helped to pretend.
Cass carried him over to the table while the others grabbed pre-prepared stacks of plates, silverware, and cups. She set him gently but firmly down in one of the chairs, staring at him sternly enough he didn’t even try to get up despite every instinct telling him to be polite and help set the table.
One by one, the others sat down too, until the only ones missing were Bruce and Alfred himself. None of the others seemed annoyed by that, even if a few looked a little impatient to eat, but generally they were all waiting naturally for Alfred to return, and Peter had figured out it must be normal after witnessing something similar the last few days.
It didn’t take long though, before Alfred returned with Bruce. The elderly butler split off into the kitchen while Bruce came and sat at the head of the table. Alfred then began walking out with huge serving dishes of food in each hand, making several trips back and forth until everything was laid out in front of them.
Peter itched to help him, but the first time he’d tried, Alfred himself had scolded him and strongarmed him so thoroughly into staying at the table that Peter was a little intimidated to try it again.
There was a whole mix of dishes on the table that somehow all made sense together and smelled amazing. Peter gaped at the amount of food - still astounded at the sheer quantities Alfred produced each day, and at the fact that there were rarely leftovers.
Dick barked a laugh beside him, ruffling his hair before reaching for one of the serving dishes, having fully recovered now from the nerve strikes Cass had given him earlier.
“Still not used to this, huh, Peter?”
“Tt, we are all vigilantes living a very active lifestyle,” Damian said a little stiffly, glancing over at Peter. “We have high metabolisms and calorie needs. Additionally, you are enhanced and have an even higher metabolism and calorie needs. Of course we go through a lot of food.”
“Well, excuse me for growing up poor,” Peter snipped back, making sure to send a short grin at Damian to make sure he knew Peter wasn’t actually upset. He’d noticed the teenager sometimes had trouble telling what emotions were being expressed by others, and tried to incorporate more cues to help. “And, well, staying poor. They don’t exactly pay freelance photographers much, and my hours vigilante…ing? Don’t exactly help me pick up a normal job easily. Plus the fact that all my paperwork for existing went poof with the spell, so. You know.”
“You don’t legally exist?” Bruce asked, pausing from where he had started serving himself food.
“That kind of comes with the territory of magicking the world to forget you exist,” Peter said wryly, absently taking the plate Dick handed him, before double-taking at the amount of food piled high on it. “I can’t take - !”
“You can indeed, young sir,” Alfred said as he came up behind him, looking at him pointedly while he poured Peter a glass of water. “Unless of course you wish to imply I failed to make enough for everyone here?”
“I -” Peter stuttered, slowly realizing he’d been caught in a trap without really knowing he got there. “No, sir.”
“Very good, young sir. Please, feel free to get seconds,” Alfred said. He turned and walked back into the kitchen, leaving Peter blinking after him. Jason laughed at him, and Cass smiled happily at him from across the table.
“You just got fu- er, fudging played,” Jason laughed, looking amused even as he sent a wary glance towards the kitchen at the near swear.
“Tt, obviously Pennyworth is a competent servant,” Damian said, cutting into his own share of the vegetarian dishes on the table. “He is part of our household, after all. As Richard has informed me, he even has experience getting Father to behave in his own recalcitrant youth. If he can handle that, of course he can handle this.”
“Breaking out the big words today, huh, bat brat?” Jason snarked, shoving a full fork into his own mouth.
“It is no fault of my own if your mind is too tiny to comprehend them.”
“Did I say that?” Jason smirked, shifting his gaze to the side towards his little brother. “You dismiss the certitude that I am the individual in this menage that has a stalwart predilection towards the oeuvre of venerable wordsmiths.”
“Tt.”
Peter had to smother a smile at the banter happening across from him. Thankfully, he had a plate piled high with food to help him with that goal, and he dug in eagerly. Alfred’s food was amazing (though he’d been warned off of his waffles for some reason), and he was fully willing to enjoy it to the fullest extent while he could, despite his discomfort at taking so much of it at once when there were plenty of others at the table who needed the calories too.
“So, Peter,” Bruce said, interrupting that train of thought and looking at him curiously. “What is your plan moving forward? If you have one.”
“My plan?” Peter asked after swallowing his bite, tilting his head a little.
“You were going through a lot and… a little weepy when you first showed up, so we didn’t want to ask you then,” Tim explained not unkindly, but still wincing at the phrasing. Peter felt himself flush at how… overwhelmed he’d been with everything. “So we’ve been looking into several options, since we didn’t know what exactly you were wanting.”
“Options?”
“Well,” Bruce said, putting his silverware down to give Peter his full attention, “it depends on what you’re looking for. We haven’t asked until now, as we-” a cough came from somewhere around the table, “ my children didn’t think we should pry too much yet. But, are you hoping to return to your world? Go back and forth? Perhaps remain in this one?”
“I -” Peter stuttered, mind going blank. He did his best to ignore the way his da- Dick had gone stiff beside him, staring down at his plate intently. Taking pity on him, his grand- Bruce continued.
“I’m not going to keep you here against your will - if you want to go home to your universe, then we’ll do everything in our power to help you. But I’ll be honest, I don’t like the idea of sending you back, especially to so little support and resources. I just want you to know that the option of remaining here with us is always open to you.”
“I can handle it fine,” Peter insisted immediately, bristling a little at the implication. “I’ve been doing fine until now - I’ve fought things by myself that nobody else could have. I’ve been taking care of myself for months now, I’m fine .”
Dick made a quiet sound beside him, and it didn’t escape Peter’s notice that several of his uncles turned their attention to the man with a combination of solemn and knowing looks that he was seemingly missing context for. He kept his main attention on Bruce though, watching the flash of alarm in the man’s gaze before he settled. A momentary hint of wry amusement gave way to a more serious expression.
“That was not what I meant to imply, kiddo,” he said quietly. “You are capable. Your stories alone, alarming though they are sometimes, are enough to show that. But nobody deserves to be alone, and a hero shouldn’t be without backup. That’s how people get killed, and you have so much life left to live, Peter.”
That simple statement took all the wind out of Peter’s sails, and he deflated a bit in response. His lips pressed together tightly as he frowned, looking down at his plate. He pushed the food around with his fork a bit, trying to figure out how to respond to that.
“I can’t just abandon them though,” he finally said softly. “I’m meant to look after the little guy. While all the other heroes are dealing with big bads and world-changing or galaxy-level threats, I’m helping the guys on the ground who still have to go in for their morning shift, study for a chemistry test, or cook dinner for their families later. They matter too, and deserve to have a hero of their own. And yeah, sometimes I deal with those too, because the villains and threats impact the little guy too. Mr. Stark trusted me to help with both, and to fill his footsteps. I can’t just leave that behind.”
“Okay.”
The quiet voice came from beside him, and Peter lifted his gaze to meet his dad’s eyes. Dick had a slightly tight but still genuine smile on his face, and there was an odd mixture of sorrow and pride in his features.
“Okay?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, okay,” his dad said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “If it’s that important to you, then we’ll find a way to make it work for you, alright? We have some of the best minds in the world at this table, I’m sure we can figure out something between leaving you on your own there and trapping you here. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Peter said, the tension in his shoulders finally relaxing at the reassurance and the tension in the air dissipated a bit. After a moment, Dick nudged his attention back towards his still half-full plate, and Peter began eating again. He hummed happily at the taste, leaning into the contact around his shoulders. He reached for his glass of water, and absently, “Thanks, Dad.”
Dick’s fingers brushed his shoulder for a moment.
“Sure thing, Peter.”