Peter was tired as he swung along the streets of Manhattan to get back to the apartment he shared with MJ and their daughter April. Originally, Mary had wanted to name their little bundle of joy May in honor of his late Aunt May, he had said no. It had only been around a year and a half since she passed away, the pain from losing her still too fresh in his mind to be reminded of it everyday. So, they had compromised with April and they couldn't be happier. Peter was a stay at home dad while MJ worked for the New York Times. Well maybe he could admit things could be better but, until Miles was ready to take over, and he was willing to let go of the mantle of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, their arrangement would have to do. He wanted to see MJ more than just the weekends too, they just had opposite shifts right now. Nights like these though made him consider training Miles faster.
It started out simple enough with Shocker having escaped from Rykers for what felt like the four hundredth time. Seriously, he felt like he needed to send Yuri more locks in the mail just for Shocker, or maybe a meme of Tom and Jerry. The ones where Jerry would inevitably hit Tom in some cartoonish fashion, catching Shocker after he escaped had the same inevitability. She probably wouldn't get it, surely Yuri wasn't forced to watch the show everyday by an adorable four year old with her mothers beautiful blue eyes. Just one bat of those eyelashes, and Peter would be rushing to get whatever she wanted. He was definitely the good cop in the whole Mom and Dad thing, sometimes to MJ's annoyance, she got over it though. He just felt guilty disappearing from April when the city had an emergency Miles couldn't handle and so, showering her with love was his way of compensating. It wouldn't be like this forever he promised himself for the last year now.
Normally, these nights always went the same way: he would chase Shocker across the city, they'd fight for some expensive something, and finally Peter would drag him back to prison at the first opportunity. He considered it a warm up most nights to stop more dangerous criminals, tonight though had been different. When he finally caught up with the Emperor Palpatine wannabee, he had help in the form of Mysterio. The two of them tricked him into a hall of mirrors, never a good idea with Mysterio around. After at least fifty punches, shocks, and who knows what else, Peter dragged them both to Yuri and left. Everything hurt badly, he hadn't been in a fight that brutal probably for a few years now. Since Otto was his best guess, and even though it wasn't as emotionally damaging, he was going to have a new set of scars. Maybe he couldn't keep up anymore with all the ways villains were improvising to take him down a peg? He had to put that fear aside, he could see their apartment building in front of him.
Knowing it was close to two in the morning, Peter swung himself against the wall next to his living room window. He would've knocked on his bedroom window so MJ could let him in but, it was late and she deserved some sleep. She was working on a huge exposé on Oscorp and he couldn't be more proud of her even though it soured their already awkward friendship with Harry. Could they even call it that after all these years of only getting letters from him? Sometimes he just wished his mind would stop having random thoughts so he could focus on unlocking the window with the key he made. It was one of a kind and if he dropped it, he was going to have to wake MJ up. Thankfully, it worked after a couple of tries and he could finally slip into his home. Pete told himself he would take a quick shower and then crash on the couch, simple. That was before he stepped on the pink building block on the floor.
He could take a lot of pain, thugs and super villains alike tried to kill him everyday of the week, there was something special though about the pain of stepping on a building block in spandex. Yes, Miles had warned him not to get Legos for this very reason but, these weren't Legos. They were bigger and more colorful so surely he'd be able to avoid them. And April had really wanted some, how could he say no? It turned out these terrible, horrible, awful bricks were made out of the same hard plastic. He bit his lip trying not to let out a yelp of pain and wake up the entire apartment, he was still in costume after all. Hoping up and down on one foot was the best way for him to silently express just how much pain one 'stud' on the brick could deal out to his foot. Thank whoever was watching out for him that Otto hadn't tried making the project with Legos.
While he was hoping up and down like a crazy person, Peter almost didn't hear the tiny shout of surprise coming from behind the couch, "Spidey Man? Is that you?"
The eye lenses of his mask were probably comically large at this point having heard April's voice. What was she doing up so late by herself? He knew eventually the possibility of her finding out what he did at night was a real thing, Peter just hoped it would've been years from now after he retired from the role. MJ had agreed with him to keep it a secret as long as possible not wanting her to worry about him every night, she already did enough worrying for the three of them combined. Right now he had to come up with a plan and fast for how to respond. He could zip back out, wait till he was sure she was asleep and then try to sneak back in again but, that just seemed wrong. She was admittedly only a mild fan of watching him saving cats from trees and not his other work but, it made zipping away as fast as he could feel cruel. This was like meeting a lesser version of Santa Claus for her. He could handle this, just don't be Darth Vader to Luke and they'd be fine.
Peter stood up and had a friendly tone, "Did my suit give me away? Or was it the big friendly neighborhood spider on my chest?"
She giggled at the joke, a sound he loved coming out of her, "Hehe, nooo those big bug eyes silly."
His lenses narrowed and he gripped at his chest in pretend hurt, "Oww, that's not nice, I spent a long time trying to make these eyes not creepy or buggy." He kneeled down in front of her taking just a slightly more serious tone, "Hey there sweetpea, what are you doing awake so late?" Great work Pete, only a minute into the conversation and you were calling her sweetpea something only he called her.
April shuffled around the couch in her Iron Man pj's looking down at the floor, "I was thi...thi...thirsty and wanted a dwink of water."
She was still having trouble sounding out most 'r's and he found it sweet she was trying this hard in the middle of the night, "Well, how about I get you some water and tuck you back in bed? I'm sure you have school tomorrow and it's important to have a good night's sleep beforehand." Your one to talk Peter, how many nights did you stay up for twenty four hours straight to stop Fisk in high school?
April nodded emphatically with a huge smile on her face, "If it wouldn't be too much twouble Mr. Spidey Man.. I know I shouldn't be awake but I don't have school tomorrow, it's Parent Teacher conference day."
He had forgotten all about that, it was going to be fun trying to explain the bruises around his neck from electrical wires to a kindergarten teacher, "No trouble at all..." He moved to the cupboard to get a glass and then the fridge, she only drank filtered water, "Are you worried about it?" He asked gently, this was a good way to get early intel apparently.
Her immediate response was too fast, "No!" Waiting just a few seconds she continued, "Maybe a little... I got a B in my coloooring homework. Ms. Dawson didn't want us to use blue in the art we were making but..I had to use blue. It's my first B and I'm scared Mom and Dad will be mad.."
Peter forced himself not to laugh given his own grades in school. Before MJ started helping him with homework, when he wasn't ambulance chasing that was, he was a C or even D student. He was always incredibly smart but, if it didn't involve web shooters or what coding mechanism it would take for his masks lenses to follow his eye movements, Peter hadn't cared about it. Put another mark on the list of things he could thank Mary Jane for. While grades were certainly important, maybe it was time to have the talk that they weren't everything. She definitely shouldn't be worrying about a B at two in the morning thinking they'd be mad at her. That conversation would have to wait until he was just 'daddy' again and MJ was awake to contribute to the conversation.
His hands focused on filling the glass halfway and put a swirly straw in it knowing it was her favorite, "Well that doesn't sound very fair for a coloring assignment. I'm sure your parents will understand why you had to use blue."
April took the glass from him and started sucking on the straw, "I know, I'm still worried about it. We..we had to color in our favoite supee hero in colors they weren't usually in.. I couldn't think of anything different.."
Now Peter felt like he was trying to piece together a crime Yuri sent him on and some of the puzzle pieces weren't making sense. Her favorite superhero of all time had to be Iron Man, and he couldn't blame her. He had thought Tony was so cool that he worked for him and was part of the Avengers for awhile. She was wearing the Iron Man pj's right now, her lunch box was Iron Man, she even insisted on having toothpaste that had Iron Man's picture on the tube. Peter was excitedly counting down the days till her fifth birthday because he was going to have quite the surprise for her. And in his opinion it was a lot better than the unicorn she was asking for. However, the most important thing right now was the fact that Tony's armor was always a deep red. Why wouldn't coloring him blue count towards the assignment? Either April didn't fully understand the assignment or, Ms. Dawson just had a problem with the color blue. If it was the latter, Peter was going to have some choice words for the teacher that weren't appropriate for April's ears.
He tenderly took her hand making sure the adrenaline from the fight still pumping through him didn't result in crushing her sweet little hand, "Whose your favorite superhero? Let me guess..umm Thor! He's funny anndd looks cool with all the blue sparkles. If you tell me, maybe I can help you think of a better color for next time."
Peter wasn't paying attention to the answer knowing it off the top of his head, "I ummm...I used to have a diffewent favorite but, I changed it up a few days ago.. Maybe it's better if I show you."
He had to stop his face from whipping around to face her like she had splashed him in the face with that cold water. April changed who her favorite superhero was? When? To who? It was certainly news to him since she was thrilled with the Iron Man shaped pancakes he fed her this morning. Peter forgot how late it was wanting to solve this mystery, luckily April was quietly dragging him to her room. One of them at least had the idea it was late and they both needed some sleep.
She reached in her backpack and pulled something out of it to show him, "It's..it's not perfect but, I hope you like it Mr. Spidey Man! It's you saving my mommy."
Once he looked down at the picture, Peter's heart stopped after doing a few backflips. It was a crude drawing of...of him hanging on the side of the Empire State Building holding MJ. This moment had been all over the news just a few weeks ago, Mary had been questioning a former member of Oscorp about what was going on at the company when oh so convenient armed guards had shown up to end the interview. Peter had just barely caught her when she was forced to jump out of the building, it had been one of the scariest moments in his life. He then had to pretend he knew nothing about it when she came back home later that evening for April's benefit which had been so hard.
Several kids on the streets had given him gifts over the years, the best was when he saved a little boys red balloon and he received a similar drawing. Peter didn't gobble up admiration the same way Tony did, yet he still appreciated the gestures because they were just kids. This was different though, it was coming from April. Plus, he hadn't just saved a balloon or a cat stuck in a tree, he saved her Mom. The planet itself was crashing down around him at the realization HE was her favorite superhero on the entire planet just because he saved MJ. People already looked up to him and gave him an almost impossible standard to follow but, now that his daughter was one of those people it was as though Rhino stepped on him with the weight of that responsibility.
His voice was shakey trying to not burst into tears from the happy pride radiating off of him, "Th... Thank you sweetpea, I'm... I'm honored to be your favorite superhero."
April beamed up at him pushing the drawing into his hands, "Your welcome! Thank you for saving mommy. Will you..keep the drawing? To remember me by?"
Peter clutched the drawing to his heart as though it was his most prized possessions, "Of course I'll keep the drawing." He wanted to say he was going to frame it AND put it on the fridge, or maybe put it in his F.E.A.S.T office all at the same time but he couldn't. "And I'm never ever going to forget you!"
She wrapped her small arms around his neck and he thought he was going to start crying, if only May could see this, "Thank you Spidey.. Will you tuck me in now? I need to sleep and you have to go save more mommys."
He was extremely careful in lifting her, remembering the first time he held her, he had been so afraid of hurting her. "You get some sleep ok..? And don't worry, Mo...your Mom and Dad aren't going to be mad at you for drawing me."
April let go of him only after he wrapped the blankets around her just how she liked it, "Ok, I trust you Spidey Man. Goodnight."
He watched her go to sleep before whispering, "Goodnight April, sweet dreams."
Seeing MJ waiting at the doorway to their room made him jolt in surprise, she had a sweet knowing smile on her face. "I guess it's time we're going to have to start buying all your merch now huh?"
His hands were still clutching at the drawing against his chest, "Yeah, and I know what we're doing for her fifth birthday now." It was going to be a few days before he let go of this high.