He noticed something was wrong the moment Stephen came back home via a portal. Actually, Peter was halfway to his feet when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he watched in utter confusion as the sorcerer ignored him and walked into the kitchen. Usually, if the teen is the same room that Stephen portals home to, the man will wait for him to approach him and welcome the doctor home with a hug. Even if he had a really bad day. Those he definitely waited for Peter's hugs because it made his day just a little bit better.

Stephen ignored him this time.

He never did that. In fact, he would have to be dead, dying, or unconscious to ignore Peter, and even if he was unconscious, the teen was relatively positive the sorcerer was astral projecting.

While being ignored was weird, his spidey-senses going off around Stephen was much weirder. Maybe the sorcerer wasn't out of danger? Peter looks around but his senses kept screaming at him, the intensity growing with each step he took into the kitchen. It was too late when he finally realized Stephen was the danger. Too late because the idea that his pseudo-mom would ever hurt him was preposterous.

But he was. Stephen had glared at him when he entered the kitchen, and then tightly conjured red bands around Peter's neck when he opened his mouth to greet the sorcerer. The teen's eyes widen as he struggles with the magical binding and the Sorcerer Supreme sighs with annoyance.

"I thought maybe you would take a hint. That I didn't want to be bothered...but I guess I gave you too much credit."

Peter's vision begins to spot and he gasps for breath when the bands tighten, and then they finally loosen when Stephen releases his end, sending Peter to his knees. He sucks in precious air as the sorcerer shuffles around the kitchen to make tea, and when the spots finally fade, Peter scrambles to his feet and escapes to his room.

Maybe he was being too clingy and Stephen had tried to kindly tell him to back off before? That would explain why he got so violent. Peter was pretty bad about reading someone's body language. It could also be that parenting Peter was too much of a hassle and he was done with it. He was technically only Tony's even though they were married, and Peter couldn't really blame him. Who would want a clingy, mutant teenager for a son?

The train of thought turned into a dangerous one.

What if Stephen told Tony to get rid of Peter?

The teen curls up into a ball on his bed and shakes his head. No, Stephen was just having a bad day. One where even Peter's hugs wouldn't make things better, as the sorcerer claimed. He would just need to give Stephen his space and hope that Tony figured out what was going on and help make things better.

He laid in his bed for hours. His room slowly darkening as the sun set until only the city lights dully lit his room. Peter did eventually move to his desk to work on his homework, and was only a little surprised when he checked the time halfway through his chemistry homework and found that it was past nine. No one got him for dinner.

His stomach growls at the thought of food and he bites his lip as he glances at his closed bedroom door. Maybe enough time had passed for Stephen to relax that he could grab something to eat? He didn't want to stress him out more. It was probably late enough that his parents would be watching tv in the living room and the kitchen would be open.

With that thought, Peter puts his pen down and quietly slips out of his room and down the hall into the kitchen. He found Tony sitting at the table with leftovers from last night and reading something on his phone, and Peter opens the fridge to see if there was leftover leftovers.

"What the hell?!"
Peter looks over at Tony and finds the man glaring in his general direction. Was he in a bad mood too? "I'm just getting something to eat."
"Did that happen on patrol?"

Patrol? Did Stephen tell Tony he was on patrol and that's why no one got him for dinner? Or maybe the fact that Tony was eating leftovers was why. It must have been a 'fend for yourself' night.

"Uh...what?" Peter jumps when Tony stands and approaches him and the elder grabs his chin and tilts his head to the side.
"There are bruises on your neck. Who did that?"

Bruises? Peter clears his throat and gently bats his father's hand away to heat up the food he pulled out of the fridge. Tony must not know what happened earlier, and if he was right, Stephen took advantage of his silence and took the opportunity to place the blame on criminals. Just thinking that felt wrong to Peter. First Stephen strangled the teen then lied to Tony.

Something wasn't right.

"Just your typical lowlife. I'm alright. It'll heal in a couple of hours." Peter answers.
Tony frowns. "Maybe you should let Mama Bear look at that."
It felt like the man had thrown ice water at him. It didn't take much to identify the feeling as fear. He was actually afraid of Stephen. "No. It's okay. I'm breathing fine and it doesn't hurt."
The billionaire looked unconvinced but nodded. "Alright. Just...take it easy. Eat and head to bed."
"Okay."

Tony affectionately ruffles his hair and returns to the table to finish his leftover casserole, leaving Peter to finish putting together a simple sandwich. The teen joins the mechanic at the table temporarily, and when Tony finishes he throws his dishes into the dishwasher and heads to bed with a 'good night' over his shoulder. He may be going to bed, but he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Stephen sort of made it a thing that if Tony was going to stay up, to at least lay in bed with a Starkpad so he was at least next to the sorcerer while he slept. That little rule was helping Tony have somewhat of a more decent sleep schedule.

Peter heads to bed as promised after he finishes his sandwich, with just a few minutes to finish his homework, and despite his interesting (terrifying) day, he fell asleep pretty quickly. He had his usual nightmares, but this was one of the times he was aware it was a nightmare. So the heavy feeling on his chest, and the difficulty breathing wasn't as panic inducing as they normally were. Peter discovered that if he relaxed in the nightmares he was aware of, he either woke up faster or the dream changed to something more pleasant.

He woke up...but he found himself in another nightmare. One he would rather replace with his dreams of being crushed by a building over and over again, because what he woke up to was horrifying.

He really was having difficulting breathing because Stephen was standing over him and strangling him again.

Every part of him was screaming that something wasn't right. This was not the sorcerer that was always so gentle with him, that was sometimes annoyingly overprotective of him. No. This Stephen was angry. His eyes, which always held love and fondness for him was filled with resentment and hostility.

Peter just didn't know why.

"W-Why?" He croaks out when he pries surprisingly strong hands away enough to talk.
"It won't matter in a minute."

The teen chokes on a whimper when Stephen tightens his grip, and as his vision began to spot again and confusion was about to set in, he realized that the hands at his throat weren't scarred. They were strong though so Peter could only guess the sorcerer was focusing his magic into his hands. While Peter would have been strong enough to throw him off, Stephen had the element of surprise and the teen was already too weak to do much of anything.

Just when he thought it was the end though, he faintly recognized the sound of a portal forming, and Stephen was pulled away. Peter gasps loudly and holds a hand up to his released neck and watches through blurred vision as Stephen is punched and Levi wraps itself around the sorcerer's arms after forcing them against his sides.

"You won't kill me." Stephen snarls.
The responding voice had Peter looking toward his savior. "You hurt mine. I don't know what happened in your dimension for you to do what you did," this was around the time that Peter finally recognized a second Stephen, and the man looked both enraged and devastated. "But I have no qualms against killing myself to keep my son safe."

Peter's vision clears a little more as Levi unravels itself from the wrong Stephen, who gets thrown through a portal, and the remaining Stephen turns to the ailing teen. He approaches him slowly, the teen recoiling just a bit when the sorcerer reaches out, and gently cups Peter's cheek. His senses, for the first time all day, were silent. This was the Stephen he knew. His familiar scent (something the other Stephen didn't have but Peter didn't process it), his gentle shaking touch (definitely amplified by fear), and kind eyes filled with worry and a bit of devastation still there.

"Mom."

That was all the other man needed before Peter was pulled into a tight embrace. He could feel the other man trembling when his face was quickly pressed into Stephen's collarbone. Sure, Peter was scared when he woke up to being strangled, but he could tell something was bothering the doctor.

"I am so sorry. A rogue sorcerer managed to switch me with an alternate version of myself without my knowledge. It took me getting to the tower in that dimension to realize something was wrong."

Well that already explained a lot. An alternative version of his Stephen would be messed up.

"It's okay. You got here just in time. I'll be okay."
Stephen holds him tighter. "Barely. Peter...you were dead in that reality. He killed you and apparently told that Tony that it happened during your patrol."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I can't think of anything that would turn me into that monster. I was already coming back as soon as I found out though. When I did..." Stephen's breath hitches.

They sat there in silence, Stephen's grip on him unwavering, until Peter finally manages to get them both laying down. The doctor lays down without a fuss, using magic to change his clothes, and directing Levi to a corner of the room. They both definitely needed the validation that the other was either okay or real, and Peter wasn't about to complain. In the back of his mind, he was still a little afraid that this was another dream, that the other Stephen had choked him out of consciousness, but then the man next to him clung onto him again once they got comfortable.

Being shoved into a world where someone he vowed to protect with his life was dead because of him (although indirectly) shook Stephen to his core. Peter was considerate and wore his heart on his sleeve, it kind of made the sorcerer wonder what caused so much hate in his alternate self.

"Your father doesn't know." It wasn't a question. If Tony knew, the other Stephen would have been dead.
"He thinks I got hurt on patrol."
Stephen swears under his breath. "I'm sorry cub...so sorry you had to go through that. I'm surprised you haven't thrown me out yet."
"My senses went off around him. I'm okay now though. He didn't have all the small things that you do, so I know for a fact that I'm safe again." He pauses for a few seconds. "I don't blame you by the way. I'm sure you're thinking about the what ifs and I just wanted you to know that."

Peter was far too good for this world.

Any world really.

"Love you Mom." Peter says after a few minutes of quiet.
"...I love you too Spiderling." Stephen whispers.

It wasn't guilt that kept the sorcerer up that night. It was pure unadulterated fear. Fear that one of the most important people in his life would be taken away if he closed his eyes.

So he asked Karen to turn on the tv to a quiet setting when Peter eventually fell asleep. It helped distract him from everything but his thoughts of having Friday delete any and all footage of the other Stephen harming Peter. Just thinking about it made him sick. He couldn't see it again, and definitely wouldn't let Tony either.