"Uh...wah... 'msorryitwasn't...PENGUINS!"
Peter got only the briefest whiff of something (pancakes?) and only the vaguest hint of panic (what time was it?!) before waking up violently from his oddly nightmarish dream (which he had no desire to discuss afterward).
While normal people might wake up due to an involuntary muscle spasm, (like a kick or rogue arm), it became apparent that spider-enhanced friendly neighborhood teenage students who have stayed up far past their bedtime after gallivanting around the city and eating Indian food with strangers who fell out of the sky do not, in fact, have the pleasure of waking up in that manner. Instead, Peter's spider side decided to attack the penguin-riding Iron Man of its dreams, and, after launching him bodily out of his desk chair, it careened him into the side of the door (which was open...he never left it open while he slept) with his face, and then it left him there on the floor, stunned. He could almost hear the ghost of that darn radioactive spider cackling as it left him.
He grimaced.
"Ouch."
On the top bunk, an arm dangled precariously over the edge. The sounds of the scuffle below made it twitch, and after a second a mop of red bedhead lifted up and peered over the edge, the green eyes blinking sleepily. "Oh, hey. Wassup Pete?"
Peter sat up and glanced upwards, scrubbing at his face. Wait...that's right. Wally. Kid...Dash. "Uh...hey. Just," the sleepy teen sighed before standing up. "On the floor.
He winced, but now he definitely knew there were pancakes. And he also knew he had better get to them before KD (that didn't sound right, but he chalked it up to the door injury) realized that May - amazing, amazing May - had actually made pancakes of all things. After that whole escapade last night, this was a miracle. A miracle that better not be gone by the time he reached the kitchen.
"Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, I can see that." Wally said slowly, wondering if this guy had been this weird yesterday. Eh, whatever. He sniffed the air appreciatively, catching Peter's worried glances to the door. "Does that smell like pancakes to you? 'Cause if your Aunt's as good at cooking as she is being gorgeous, then...well...LASTONETOTHEKITCHENISAGENOMORPH!"
Wally slipped into his superspeed to make a grand exit, only to trip on the bottom rung and fall flat on his face. Embarrassed beyond belief, he picked himself up and sped off again, hoping he didn't have a nosebleed.
"I should have just gave them directions to a hotel," Peter muttered, although he instantly felt bad after saying it. But really. He gave directions a gazillion times a day...why had last night been different?
Oh, yeah. They were from another dimension.
He took only a second to check how much he had gotten done on his homework last night, only to find that it was neatly tucked into his book. Complete.
"Huh."
Peter opened the door and went to get what was left of the pancakes. The sight he was met with was one that was was entirely unexpected.
For one, May was looking sternly at Wally, who was meekly sitting at the kitchen bar, his outstretched hand twitching nervously at the massive stack of buttery, fluffy pancakes sitting in front of him. Over in the doorway, Robin was grinning triumphantly and holding up several large shopping bags. The clothes he'd mooched off of Peter were replaced with dark jeans, black converse, and a green hoodie that still managed to look oversized.
"They didn't have your brand of deodorant in this dimension, Wally, so I had to get the next best thing." Robin said conversationally, shaking the bag.
This somehow managed to push the thought of forbidden pancakes to the back of the Speedster's mind and he sped over, holding open the bag and peering in excitedly.
"Thanks du - wait, WHAT? Old spice, really?" Wally glared at the younger boy, who immediately stick his tongue out.
"Like I said, next best thing. That bag's got all our hygiene stuff. Your new style is in this one."
Wally dug around in the offered bag a moment before pulling out a t shirt. He wrinkled his nose. "Maroon Five? Seriously?"
"Least it's not Beiber?"
"Truuuue. Oooooh saline and pool goggles!"
"I noticed your eyes were getting pretty dry last night, bro."
"Bro, this is why you're my bro, bro."
The teens briefly broke into giggles.
"Oh, and I got you a few pairs of the sturdiest shoes I could find, but hopefully you won't have to do too much long distance running. Is that coffee? I, like, need an IV line to the pot."
Robin all but skipped over to the pot sitting on the counter, somehow knowing exactly where the mugs were at and after careful consideration, chose a unicorn themed one with the words, "We're all a little Unicorny" written in cursive on the side. He filled it up and started chugging the straight up black liquid.
May relaxed, grinning at the humorous antics of her two new house guests and finishing frying the sausage, which she promptly plopped onto a nearby plate and carried to the table. She wiped her hands off, sighed, and smiled softly at disgruntled Peter.
She clapped her hands together. "Ok, boys. Let's eat!"
Peter sat down, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and yawned. He had never gotten his coffee last night, so maybe some was in order now...although May's slightly disapproving expression upon seeing Robin joyously slurp his up was a bit of a deterrent.
"You don't have to tell ME twice, babe." Wally said, grinning cheekily before zipping back to his seat, fork at the ready. Robin poured himself another cup of joe, this time getting the sugar bowl out and methodically scooping sugar into it. Not one, not two, not three tablespoons of sugar, but eight. And a half.
"Breakfast looks amazing, Miss May." he said politely, taking a seat and helping himself to two pancakes. "I'd hate for Wally here to run your grocery bill up, so I'd be more than happy to refund you."
"So h'w's that work an'way?" Wally asked around a mouthful of food. He swallowed before continuing, thankfully. "I mean, we're in another dimension so how is B's card still working?"
"It's an emergency credit," Robin replied offhandedly, sprinkling more sugar onto his pancakes and not daring to look at the adult in the room. "It was set up as a sort of virus that latches on to whatever account network you want it to. In Gotham we coded it to obtain funds from the Falcone's accounts (they're like, one of the biggest mobs) and they don't even notice because I programmed it to show up as having not touched any numbers in their banking reports. Here, I just did a little...uh, research using the info I got from your watch, Peter, and did the same thing. Just with your local crime network."
May sat down beside Peter and leaned back, pushing the pancakes and sausage forward so everyone knew they were free for the taking. She also smiled at Robin to let him know she had heard and acknowledged his gratitude. She took a sip of her own coffee and listened, fascinated, as he discussed his "emergency credit" setup. "So...did you program this pretty much by yourself?" she asked, eyebrows up.
Peter squirmed and looked down at his watch uncomfortably. Robin had said he'd wanted directions...not anything else. He felt slightly betrayed, but supposed it made sense with Robin's personality so far. He thought about Mr. Stark and the fact that this whole breach of security probably did nothing to boost how the man saw him. He sunk a little deeper into his seat. At any rate, it was only about half an hour until school, and then he could forget about this all for a while. He sat back up and tuned into May and Robin's conversation, his spirits lifted a little at the thought of Ned, MJ, and these delicious pancakes.
"Mostly. Batman helped with some of the finer details." Robin said modestly, although a hint of pride crept into his voice.
"He's a nerd. He even leads his school's mathletes team." Wally smirked, reaching over to ruffle his friends hair.
"WALLY, your fingers are sticky, stooooop!"
"Gotcha'." May winked, then shared a painfully obvious glance with Peter at the whole 'mathletes' thing. She decided not to comment on the "Batman" thing. Peter, however, latched onto that.
"Waif...B'man?" He said, interested, before leaning forward and forgetting the pancakes stuffed in his mouth. He swallowed painfully. "Is he, like, a guy with bat powers? Sonar? Wings? Man, a suit for that would look awesome!"
He wasn't exactly sure why the idea of a bat-man appealed to him so much, but it did.
Wally choked on his pancake, clearly snickering beneath the gross sounds. Robin frowned and leaned over, whacking his friend on the back. Hard.
"Something like that," the youngest smirked, privately wondering if Bruce would consider installing the Batcall into his own suit. Of course, that might not go as well with the bird theme... "Neither Batman or I technically have powers."
Peter deflated visibly, leaning back into his seat. "Oh...still cool, though. I mean, what about all your..." he made little sharp, quick motions with his hands, nearly upsetting the syrup pot. May put a finger on it just before it dropped off the table. "Zip, zip things, you know?" He felt his face heat up but forced himself to keep eye contact.
May cleared her throat and looked expectantly at Robin from over the rim of her mug.
"Um, my zip zi - ? Oh, right. They're called grapnels - they allow me to do what I do best - fly."
Wally cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows suggestively. "I'M the zip zip one. He's just a thirteen year-old kid who happens to have a bill - "
Robin hissed and slapped his hand over Wally's mouth, this time not caring if he got sticky.
Peter ignored Robin's little display of panic and tried to explain what he'd actually meant, but the whole ordeal left him feeling a little unnerved. Again. "Oh. I was actually talking about the...uh...ninja skills or whatever." Peter chugged the rest of his milk somewhat aggressively. "But the grapnel thing. That's cool, too. I didn't mean to, like-"
May put a hand over Peter's, startling him to jerking point. "Peter, honey, they get it. I'd like to ask some questions, ok? Do you need to go get your backpack and maybe...change clothes?"
Peter nodded, feeling the heat spread from his face to his ears. "Yeah, good idea. I'll just...go do that."
He hadn't actually changed clothes since yesterday, and, now that she had mentioned it, he had been smelling something funky since he'd woken jumped from his seat and tried to flee the room without seeming too much like a frightened... spider. He had a feeling he'd failed.
Meanwhile, May took her time sipping her coffee, and then she laced her fingers. She put her hands on the table in front of her, staring intently at Robin and Wally (although a majority of the attention was indeed on Robin). "I'm usually pretty cool with Peter's shenanigans," she said quietly. "But this whole..." she waved her hands over a facial expression of her own invention. "Mystery, not showing your eyes, all this needs to go. I mean no disrespect, either. Superhero stuff is tough, I get it. But there's no need for that here."
Another sip of coffee and a bite of pancake followed this statement.
"Besides, sweetie, no one here knows who or what you're talking about half the time anyway." She took a half a second to let him think and then added, "I guess I'm just trying to say that if you and your friend need a base of operations, I'm here! That's great! But the secrets have to go."
Uh oh.
When Peter's aunt sent him away and got that serious look (highly reminiscent of Alfred), Robin knew he was about to be in for it. Was it the copious amounts of sugar...?
A second later and he could've slapped himself for thinking it would be something as insignificant as that. Of course she would have a problem with him keeping it all hush. Wally was looking at him hopefully (the speedster hated Batman's no-giving-away-your-identity rule, and to be honest, Robin did too.
Besides, he'd already did a quick search for any Bruce Wayne's on the off chance that Batman and Robin would have a counterpart here, but nothing had come up. Not even a Gotham city.
And it would be nice to have a... Base of operations, as she put it.
Wally was waggling his eyebrows at him and making faces.
"Well, uh, you see... where I come from my identity can be linked to pretty much every single superhero in the Justice League, along with any sidekicks. Not only that, but my mentor heavily relies on his name being a secret to keep our city safe. "
Robin's leg started bouncing under the table and began to feel clammy.
"Even here it might be dangerous, simply because my eyes are kind of...easily recognizable."
It was true. Not only were blue eyes an uncommon characteristic to share with jet-black hair, but they had the misfortune of being an unusual shade of blue, too.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is, do you feel it's absolutely necessary to see my eyes in order to trust me?"
He figured he already knew the answer, but at least he'd have some sort of excuse if Batman ever found out. Which he probably would.
May raised her eyebrows. She didn't like making anyone uncomfortable, especially someone so much younger than her, but this situation required addressing. "Robin-or whatever your REAL name is-no, I don't have to see your eyes to trust you. I already DO trust you to some degree, evidenced by the fact that I was actually able to sleep with you in the house last night."
She flashed him a reassuring smile.
"But the fact is, you have no reason to hide yourself. At least here, that is. And if you really WANT to keep all the secrecy, fine."
May stood up and put her dishes in the sink to soak, then turned back to him. "Keep in mind, though, that we can only truly trust you as much as you trust us, and how much we can help each other is limited by that trust, too. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about your eye color. Have you seen some of the trends teenagers are coming up with these days?"
She made the little crazy circles by her head. Peter, at that moment, reentered the room. He hadn't showered, per se, but he was in fresh clothes and he had his backpack. He was ready for school...all chemistry aside.
"Just take off your glasses, dude. It's gonna be all right." Wally was saying softly, knowing that the fact Robin was even considering showing his face was an enormous show of trust for the little bird. May and Peter didn't know that, but it was there nonetheless.
"R-right."
Robin reached up, letting his hands linger on the frames for a moment, before quickly yanking them off and slipping them into his pocket.
Back to being nothing but a circus orphan. One who happened to be in another dimension.
"My name is Richard Grayson, but you can call me Dick. And yes, I have heard every. Single. Joke about my nickname but I don't care. It's old fashioned, but my parents used to call me that and I'm not changing it. Ever."
Dick knew he was babbling, but something about taking off the last mask made him feel young and inexperienced again, despite knowing he was the same as Robin. It was just a feeling he couldn't shake.
Wally gave him a not-so-subtle thumbs up.
Peter appeared in the doorway just, arms crossed over his chest, a little bit shocked at the sight of an unmasked Robin. Eventually, he decided to ignore the fact...it was probably just as uncomfortable for Rob-er, Dick-as it was for him. But his eyes were an unusual color – a darker blue than the usual shades people had. May, meanwhile, beamed and sat back down.
"Yes! See, I knew it would be ok!"
She did this weird little mom-ish hip and arm dance and got right back up again to turn to the cabinet, winking at poor wincing Peter as she did so.
"Uh...May? I'm gonna go now. To school," he said uncomfortably, hooking his thumbs under the straps of his backpack and not looking at his two companions from the night before. His aunt turned as if suddenly remembering something.
"Right. I was meaning to say something about that. Dick, Wally, I know you've had a long night, but how do you feel about going to school with Petey here?"
Peter's eyes widened involuntarily.
"What?"
May put a hand on her hip, faced Peter. It was a challenge, and he knew it; he wasn't out of last night's water quite yet.
Ohh an update? It's been like, what, a week? Two weeks? Shh... I try XD It's been crazy at work, but here's you a nice long chap. I'll probably update again this weekend and Loki's about to make his usual grand entrance again ;) And... SCHEWWL YAAYY (poor Pete)
