A/N: HAPPY PRIDE MONTH YOU WONDERFUL LGBTQ+ BEAUTIES! I'm a proud straight ally and I love and appreciate you all so much. Don't ever let anybody tell you who you can or can't love and who you can or can't identify as because you're perfect and amazing, never forget that!
Also, happy belated Father's Day to all you fathers reading (if there are any).
—
It was a cold winter in Sokovia. The halls inside the large HYDRA base were nearly frozen, save for the rooms with heating and air conditioning inside the rest of the facility where the higher-ups stayed. But, down below where they kept the freaks and experiments, two sets of siblings were scattered across the floors of their conjoined cells.
One of these newly enhanced experiments was Danielle Harper. She had just turned twelve a few months earlier in November. Now, it was December, in the prime of winter, and the little brunette was pushed up against the cold bars of her cell groaning and writhing in pain as she held a hand over her abdomen, trying to stop the blood sprouting from the wound she had received minutes ago from seeping out. But, all it did was bring her more pain. And the cold didn't do much help but numb the feeling in the rest of her body.
Across the cell, the other three enhanced young adults were all laid out and unconscious from the large shocks of electricity they had been shot up with during the same encounter that Danielle had gotten hurt in.
The pre-teen had tried to wake them up, but they didn't hear her. She could've tried to walk over and nudge them, but she feared that if she moved her guys would spill out all into the cold, brisk air. So, Danielle had no other option but to sit in silence, weeping as she prayed she wouldn't bleed out in this cell. She didn't want to die here. Not now, not ever. She had cried, bled, and screamed in these cells, but she would never let HYDRA win. She couldn't.
It wasn't long before the first of her siblings across from her began to stir.
The oldest (by twelve minutes) of the Maximoff twins began to lift his white-haired head. Danielle felt herself gasp in anticipation and relief as she tried to gain his attention for help. "Pietro," she called out, barely barely a whisper. "Pietr– GAH!" She cried out after attempting to move, only to have the bright burning pain in her abdomen ground her again.
Her weep seemed to gain the eldest enhanced's attention. Pietro's head jerked up, and with wide eyes, he began searching the cell for any danger. He took a glance at his two unconscious siblings, Jack and Wanda, beside him before realizing that the little cry hadn't come from them. Pietro's head spun around and his heart seemed to drop at the sight of an injured Danielle. His blood ran cold at the sight of the crimson red ooze spreading across her lower abdomen area. "Oh, God..." he breathed in horror.
Within the blink of an eye, a bright blue flash jolted across the cell only for him to reappear by his little sister's side. She whimpered a bit as he kneeled down and tentatively moved her hand from her wound so he could take a look at it. "Dani," he whispered softly in sympathy as he pulled up the corner of her shirt to find a large stab wound spouting blood.
"Shit," he cursed as he quickly began to strip off his outer layer jacket and press it down hard on her wound.
"AH!" She cried out and writhed beneath him in pain.
Pietro held his hand out for her to squeeze as she sobbed. "It's going to be okay," he assured her as he stroked her cold, damp hair with his free hand. "Just hold on." He had to think fast. It was only a matter of time before she would bleed out.
Pietro whipped his head around the cell, checking to see if anyone was around. No guards, no superiors. They were probably all sleeping snuggle in their quarters, not worrying about a damn thing to do with them. The white-haired speedster let out a heavy sigh. This would be a lot easier if Wanda, or even Jack, were awake right now. But, unfortunately, both of the, were knocked out cold (literally) a few feet away and would most likely stay that way for a while. Pietro was actually quite surprised at how he was even awake. But it was a good thing he was because if he weren't, he was prett sure Dani would've already been dead by the time he would've come to.
Pietro winced at the mere prospect of the thought, but pushed it aside. He couldn't think like that. Not now. Not when she needed him. So, he pulled himself together and turned towards the far North wall.
Danielle, who was still writhing in pain and now shivering from the cold air, whimpered and grabbed a hold of his arm trying not to let him leave. Pietro froze in place and turned back to her pleading eyes begging him not to go. He frowned and set a hand on her cheek, brushing his thumb over her pale face that felt like ice. "I'm not going to leave you. I promise, little sister. Just let me go for just a quick second." Danielle didn't look too happy with it, but she reluctantly released her brother's arm.
He gave her a sad smile before moving within the blink of an eye across the cell to the wall. There on the very bottom, second to last brick was an open crease. Hesitantly, the speedster traced his finger along the open crack until he pushed his palm gently against it. The brick shifted and a sigh of relief escaped his lips as he gripped the edges of the brick and pulled it out to reveal a hollowed out case full of bandages, sewing needles, a liquor bottle, pieces of cotton, and other make-shift medical supplies the Enhanced had gone out and stolen on a few of their escapes from the HYDRA base to the nearby market place in the city.
Once in hand, Pietro was right back next to Danielle. She still had tears rolling down her cheeks, but she had kept her sobbing to a minimum. "Okay, okay. I need to clean it up or you're going to hurt more. You understand?" He asked her in his broken English accent. She looked frightened but she nodded nonetheless. He gave her smile before carefully lifting up his now blood-soaked jacket he had placed over her wound and setting it aside, then slowly peeling her shirt off her skin and pushing it up a bit. Danielle visibly winced, but tried her best not to move as he continued. "Sorry," he whispered, lifting a hand to comfortingly stroke her head.
After getting a clear look at the wound and where it was, Pietro then grabbed the bottle of cheap liquor from out of the hollowed out brick. He flicked the cap off and slowly began to pour it onto the wound, washing away the dirt and blood. Danielle couldn't stop the broken cry of pain from leaving her mouth and echoing through the empty cells. Pietro flinched at the sound, but had to keep on going.
Once the wound was cleaned, Pietro was able to see exactly how long and wide the open cut was just in the bottom left corner of her abdomen. Danielle cried some more as the effects of the alcohol took their course, and all her brother could do was shush her and try to soothingly stroke her hair. "We're almost done," he assured her as he began to prep the needle and fishing line from the make-shift First-Aid kit.
It seemed as though as soon as Danielle saw the needle, she began to worr even more. Pietro tried to think of a way to try and keep her calm while he worked on patching her up. Eventually, a light bulb went off. "Hey, Dani," he got her attention fairly easily. "You want to learn how to give someone stitches?" Through the pain, Danielle managed to give him a look that asked him silently 'why would I need to know that?'. He chuckled a bit. "Who knows? You may use the skill one day." He watched as she seemed to contemplate it for a moment before eventually nodding. "Okay. Just watch."
The speedster slowly leaned forward and pressed his fingers against the two pieces of skin, pulling me just above the wound. Danielle tried not to shift as she stiffed her cry with the sound of her head banging against the metal bars behind her, both her hands gripping them as she tried to watch her brother's actions through the tears building up in her eyes. Pietro winced and continued.
"Now, you see how I covered up all the area that it hurts?" Danielle nodded. "Okay, now we have to get the sewing needle and fishing line and just sew it up like its a piece of clothing being made. You got it?" There was no answer. But when Pietro turned to glance at her, he found out it was because Danielle was holding her breath in anticipation of the needle that slowly made its way towards her skin. Pietro clenched his jaw and mentally apologized to his sister before piercing the layers of skin with the needle.
Danielle abruptly let out a blood curdling scream. Immediately, Pietro used his free hand to clamp over her mouth to keep her quiet, afraid that the soldiers would come and punish them again. Danielle cried into Pietro's hand, trying to stay quiet, and eventually she calmed down enough for Pietro to remove his hand. "You have to stay quiet, little sister," he told her in a hushed tone. Suddenly, he began to pull off the belt around his pants, folding it then putting it to her mouth. She glanced at him in confusion. "You bite down on it instead of screaming, to keep you quiet." She nodded before doing as he said.
Once that was sorted out, the speedster continued. He pulled the thread through the puncture and started a new one. Each time Pietro pulled the line, Danielle whimpered and shifted a but, and each time he punctured her with the needle she but down hard onto the belt and sobbed a bit. But, the entire time, she kept her eyes open and watched him work, listening to what he said about might needing the skill later. And after it was all over, she watched her older brother tie up the line, cut the excess off, and use the bandages to wrap up her stomach.
"There you go," Pietro said in a soft voice as he cradled her in his arms, one hand over her bandages and another stroking her hair. "It's over now, little sister. You're going to be okay now, Dani." And that's how Danielle fell asleep that night, to the sound of Pietro assuring her she was alert while keeping her warm in the cold, sterile cells. She remembered that day. And she remembered her first set of stitches.
Although, she never actually thought she'd see the day that she would actually have to use the skill Pietro taught her all those years ago.
—
Today, back at her new Penthouse living arrangement, Danielle found herself skimming through that book of sheet music she'd checked out from the school library nearly a week ago.
She wasn't sure why she kept coming back to it, or why she even got it to begin with. Yet, she always seemed to find herself in her current situation of being sprawled out amongst her excessive amount of overpriced pillows and blankets on her new enormous bed while she flipped through the pages, mentally sight reading the notes depicted in each line of music while her fingers subconsciously began to play invisible keys on the mattress.
The brunette was intent on spending the rest of her night this way after her disappointing attempt at tracking down Spider-Man earlier that day. She was still a but upset about that even now. She used to be able to teleport and launch herself into the air with her powers, but now she was just a regular civilian. She was just about as super as the people around her. If no one else could tracked down Spider-Man, what made her so special? Nothing, apparently.
With a groan, Dani shut the sheet music book and threw it across the room, letting it fall on top of her backpack that lied at the foot of her desk a few yards away. She let out a heavy sigh and turned over on her back, laying spread-eagle as she closed her eyes and tried to remember what Clint had told her, to take this newfound normality as a gift and to take advantage of it. She was normal again. It was a new chance to start again, really focus on school, her friends, her family. She could do that. It wasn't too hard. What could possibly get in the way of just being normal for once?
THUD!
Danielle sat up so fast, she felt a bit dizzy for split second. That was until her eyes focused on the source of the sound.
She turned towards her balcony door and saw a dark figure hunched over just outside. Cautious and alarmed, Danielle began to crawl out of the bed, slowly making her way towards where the Rae kept a hidden handgun inside of her drawer (Danielle had found it s few days prior to moving in). But, the moment her hand had touched the handle, it was as if the light from her room shifted to reveal who exactly the shadowy figure was outside.
Danielle's blood ran cold and her heart skipped a beat. "Holy crap..." she breathed out in disbelief. Standing outside her balcony doorway was none other than Spider-Man himself, hunched over with a hand over his abdomen as if he were out of breath.
Danielle began to walk towards the balcony, cautiously at first. Until suddenly the hand he had been using to hold his abdomen came up to hold onto the glass of the door for balance, leaving behind a bloody handprint in it's wake. Danielle gasped, "Holy crap."
Throwing caution and common sense out of the window, Danielle followed her gut instinct of being a hero and ran to the balcony door, sliding it open. She froze momentarily, taking in both the briskness of the outside air and the actual sight of Spider-Man in front of her and injured. It all seemed unreal. That was until the vigilante coughed beneath his mask and staggered a bit. "Oh God," she cursed as she jerked forward, catching his weight with her palms, pushing up with both her hands on his chest trying to balance him.
"Help... me," he heard him groan as he pulled himself up a bit on his own.
"Okay, okay," she said breathlessly as she quickly wrapped an arm around his waist, throwing one of his muscular arms over her shoulder, leading him off the terrace and into her room. "Oh, God..." she continued to mumble beneath her bed as she tried to process that this was actually happening, that this wasn't some twisted dream.
Danielle paid no mind to the blood that dripped off the suit Spider-Man was wearing and onto the sheets of her bed as she tried to ease the vigilante onto the mattress, which ended up with him just falling down onto the bed with a groan due to Danielle's lack of upper body strength. "Sorry," she apologized with a grimace as she knelt down in front of the web-slinging hero.
"Let me see," Danielle said, placing a hand over Spider-Man's glove he held over the bloody splotch on his lower left stomach area. He understood her request and moved his hand away for her to get a closer look at the hole inside his suit that the blood came oozing out of. She winced. This was bad.
"Okay, you can do this," she whispered to herself before glancing up at the vigilante's wide-eyed white eyes on his mask. "Is the bullet out already?" Spider-Man answered with the shake of his head. "Alright, well, I need to get it out... Which means I need you to take off the suit." She watched his eyes go wide with fear and panic.
"No, no, no, no, no. I can't–" he protested in a strained voice, but she was quick to cut him off.
"You can keep your mask on," she assured him, knowing that that was what he was worried hour, her finding out who he was. It was why he fled from her in the alleyway and why he always seemed to mask the real tone of his voice whenever he was near her. He was hiding his identity, and Danielle respected that. It was something she still did with her friends and the public in general.
After hearing her rebuttal, Spider-Man visibly relaxed. Hesitantly, he raised his non-bloody hand and pressed on the spider emblem in the center of his chest. Instantly, the suit deflated off of him and he easily slipped off the sleeves from his arms and let the top of his suit (save for the mask) slide off his body until it reached his abdomen where it stuck onto his chiseled abs from the blood.
Danielle frowned as she peeled the rest of the suit off, letting it pool around his waist to reveal the bloody bullet hole in his abdomen. The web-slinger had let out a hissing sound, pulling Danielle out of her moment of awe and bringing her back to the harsh reality of the fact that she had to pull a bullet from out of this young hero. And she had to do so using what was left of her power...
As much as Danielle didn't want to give up her secret identity to this person she had met only a few times prior to this (the building fire, Germany, and the car incident a few days ago), she knew that if she didn't react quickly, the vigilante that had saved so many people– including Wanda and herself – would bleed out on her bed.
Reluctantly, Danielle let out a heavy sigh as she but her lip nervously, turning back to the Spider-Man in front of her. Here went nothing. "Okay, what I'm about to do is going to be really.. weird and unexpected," she began. "But I need you to not freak out, okay?"
Spider-Man, still writhing in pain before her, shifted a bit as he answered, "If this about who you really are... I already know." Danielle narrowed her eyes a bit, caught off guard by the fact that whoever it was beneath the mask knew about her alter ego already. But, how? Stark maybe? Thankfully, the wall-climber answered her unasked question. "Your mask came off in Germany... I saw who you were underneath... Sorry, by the way," he apologized before a war of pain over took him. "GAH!"
"Crap," Danielle cursed as she began to look around for something to put pressure on the wound. She needed a first aid kit before she pulled this bullet out. Where did Rae keep her first aid kit again? Right, there was one in every bathroom sink cabinet. In a swift act, Danielle ripped her button up from off her body and pressed it against Spider-Man's wound. He hit back a groan as she jumped to her feet. "Hold on," she called over Er shoulder, already halfway to the bathroom. It took only a few moments to locate and grab the first aid kit, and by the time she had come back, her shirt was already completely costed in the vigilante's blood.
"Alright," Danielle began as she knelt down in front of him again. She tentatively removed her shirt from over his wound, wiping away some of the blood wit it so she had a clear view of the entry of the bullet. "Here," the brunette said as she quickly took the web-slinger's hand in her own, letting him squeeze tight. She winced a bit at his strength crushing her bones just a bit, but she pushed the numbness aside so she could place her free hand above the bullet hole.
Focus, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes. She tried not to listen to the sound of Spider-Man's rigid breathing, or the beating of her own heart, the sound of her blood rushing in her ears, the bright light from her ceiling, the sound of the city outside on the terrace, or the pain in her hand that the vigilante was holding on to for dear life. Instead, she listened to the soft sound of Debussy's Clair De Lune playing in her head. A song that echoed in her mind, taking her to her safe place. That was what she focused on. And once her head was filled with only the soft notes of the piano, the invisible tugging feeling that sprouted from her hand, easily found its way inside the bloody wound where it touched the bullet lodged inside the tissue of the hero in front of her.
She got it. Now s head to focus on the metallic feeling of it. It was minuscule and she didn't want to lose her grip on it. She had to focus, just keep focusing. Danielle felt her power and mind slowly wrap itself around the small bullet, and the moment it was completely encased by her force, Danielle's fingers curled and she flinched as the bullet was quickly ripped out of the web-slinger's body and into Danielle's petite palm.
Spider-Man cried out in pain, throwing himself bad onto the bed as he squeezed onto her hand even harder. Danielle let out a gasp at the pain, but didn't pull away or protest, just letting him crush her hand.
Now that the bullet was out and tossed to the side, Danielle used her one free hand to dig through the first aid kit for the rest of the supplies. She pulled out the bandages, the rubbing alcohol, a morphine shot, and a medical stapler. It wasn't exactly the sewing needle and fishing line Pietro had taught her to use, but she figured this would be the quicker fix for the situation.
Quick to not waste anymore time, Danielle carefully inserted two shots of pre-prepped shots of morphine on either side of the wound. Spider-Man stiffened a bit, but otherwise remained unmoving and silent. Next, Danielle had to open the rubbing alcohol lid with her teeth before pouring a good amount of the open area to clean it off. This time, Spider-Man hissed and shifted beneath the cold, stinging liquid. It was quick to pass when he noticed Danielle pull out the medical stapler.
"This is going to hurt," Danielle grimaced as she prepared to staple the two pieces of skin she was using her powers to hold together.
It was taking all her concentration not to focus on the pain in her hand or adrenaline rushing through her body, she just had to focusing helping Spider-Man, who replied with a moan, "It already hurts."
Danielle couldn't help the brief smile that grace her lips before she stapled the skin on his stomach. This time, he managed not to cry out. Instead, biting back a groan as he tightened his grip on her hand. Danielle groaned aloud from the bone-crushing win, but pushed forward.
Second staple. Grip. Groan. Repeat.
Third staple. Grip. Whimper. Repeat.
And finally, fourth staple. Grip. Sob. Repeat.
By the time Danielle had finished patching up the vigilante, her hand hd gone completely numb. She let out a heavy sigh and watched Spider-Man fall back onto her bed breathing heavily. It was then that he finally released her hand. And when she lifted it up to get a closer look at it, she found it to be completely unmoving and extremely red. She tried to move her fingers, but only winced and whimpered in response. She figured it was probably broken. After all, she had let Spider-Man just use her as his personal stress ball. Spider-Man who had saved her from a speeding car with his own bare hands... twice.
"Ow..." she muttered to herself quietly. Well, it was an issue that could be fixed later. For now, she needed to put bandages on those stitches.
Setting aside her own injury, the teenage girl began fishing out the bandages from beside her. Setting on a layer of gauze onto Spider-Man's unmoving figure before she had to gently poke his chest to grab his attention. His head shifted a bit and she called forward, "I need you to sit up so I can finish the bandages." He nodded silently and moaned slightly as he sat up for her.
Danielle took her time in wrapping the bandages around Spider-Man's exposed mid-riff. And now that she was no longer under any sort of pressure, she took the time to notice how well-built the person beneath the suit was. His muscles looked like they belonged to a model out of a catalog and she had to stop herself from dragging her fingers along his broad and muscular chest as she busied herself with wrapping the bandages. Just keep wrapping the bandages.
"Are you mad?"
Danielle was so focused on trying not to focus on her 'patient', at first she hadn't realized the vigilante she was helping had spoken to her. The was, until she finally glanced up and realized the wide white eyes of his mask were looking down at her. "Um... Why would I be mad?"
"You mean aside from the fact that I kind of got blood all over your bed sheets and shirt?" He asked, a smile hidden behind the mask but clear within his tone. Danielle let a small chuckle escape from her mouth as she ripped off the bandage from the roll and secured it s it wouldn't be easy to break off. She figured the web-slinger would need it dne extra tight for the activities he partook in. "But also because... Well, I know who you are now and sort of followed you to your house after you tried to track me down. How'd you do that, by the way?"
"Um..." Danielle searched for the proper way to explain her complicated life story to the vigilante when something caught her eyes. Just below where the mask cut off at Spider-Man's collarbone, Danielle noticed a long line of blood dripping down his neck from beneath the mask. "Did you... Did you hit your head when you got shot?" She asked suddenly.
The web-slinger tilted his heads confusion. "What? Uh, no... I don't– I don't think so. Why?" Hesitantly, Danielle pressed her fingers to where the blood was coming from, then slowly began pressing her way up through the mask until she put slight pressure to the back of the hero's head. "Ow!" Spider-Man flinched from her touch.
"You must have a cut or something on the back of your head. I don't think I can use the staple for that," the brunette explained with a frown as she dug out the medical sewing kit from inside the first aid kit.
"W-w-wait, you're gonna give me stitches?!" The vigilante asked in panic. "On my head?!" He added fearfully. "But... my mask. You can't. No!"
"I need to stop the bleeding on your head!" Danielle quickly protested, halfway through preparing the needle and thread.
"No, I'm not taking off my mask–"
"You could bleed out–!"
"I can just go to hospital or something later!"
"You may not have a later!" Danielle retorted. She raised her hand to take the mask off when his hand shot up to grasp her wrist, a lot more gentle than when he had held her hand during the procedure of stapling his wound.
"No. Don't–"
"I need to take off your mask!"
"I can't!"
"If you don't let me stitch your head, you could die!"
Spider-Man froze at her words that cut through his panic like a sharp sword. Death. It was a notion he faced everyday going out in his suit. He stopped death each day and faced it twice as much. Stopping speeding cars, robberies, muggings, assaults, gang fights. Saving people from fires, car crashes, floods, collapsing buildings. Doing this stuff, Spider-Man knew that one day he'd look death in the face. But today wasn't the day for him.
The teenage boy beneath the mask had been struggling on the topic of whether or not he should tell Danielle who he was. However, all his previous reasons seemed to fly out the window as he sat here now on her bed, bandaged and taken care of by her. His friend. His trusted ally. She wasn't mad that he knew she was Eris. She wasn't upset about him following her to her home. She wasn't even remotely upset about getting blood all over her bed sheets and nice shirt. She seemed... genuinely concerned for him as she stated he might die if he didn't cooperate with her. And she didn't even know who he really was beneath the mask.
And that was all about to change.
With a sigh, Spider-Man bowed his head forward, reaching a hand to the back of his head. He winced slightly at the throbbing from where he had gotten thrown into a trash bin, giving him the injury on his head. Carefully, the vigilante grasped onto the hem of his mask and slowly pulled it over his head until it was limp in the palms of his hands.
Hesitant of Danielle's reaction, the now unmasked vigilante began to raise his head at a slow pace until he was eventually looking her directly in her wide brown eyes. "Hey, Elle," he gave her a half-smirk, half-frown.
"Peter?"
—
A/N: SHE KNOWS! Finally. Geez, it feels like its been forever. Peter has known her secret for literal months and just now has she finally found out that he's Spider-Man. She's so friggin clueless, I swear.
Anyway, Summer is officially here (it's fucking hot), but that does not mean its all rainbows and blowjobs for me just yet. I'm still like halfway through unpacking my shit at my new apartment here in Arizona (completely cross country from my previous apartment I had in NYC). So, you'd imagine it's gonna take a while for me to get completely settled. But, once I am, I have plenty of time to write. But I may also be Multi-tasking with wedding planning because my fiancée and I are trying to have a spring wedding around my birthday next year. Wow, that sounds so weird typing it out. Never would I have imagine getting married at nineteen, but... life happens I guess (and no, I am not pregnant. My mother already asked me before.)
Anywho, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
Chapter songs are: Pan's Labrinth Lullaby Piano Cover (not sure who it's by, but I thought it fit well for Dani and Pietro's HYDRA flashback – I honestly wish I could write more of the shenanigans the 4 OG enhanced siblings got into. More flashbacks tho maybe even some one-shots ;)) and Way Down We Go by Kaleo.
Reviews:
Love. Fiction. 2019: Thanks ;).
PrettyRecklessLaura: Welp, your suspense ends here, fam. Unfortunately, you get to wait another week to find out her reaction to the news. ;)
Wikked: *dun dun dunnn intensifies*
Hyraeth: So sorry... but here's another one so SUFFER. (just kidding). Well, close, but not exactly. Looks like the little spider found her. Lol, i love Ned Leeds. Hes honestly such an underrated character and I wish he got more credit for being the best best friend in all of the MCU. He's up there with Sam, Rhodey, Luis, Maria R., and all the other besties in the MCU. NED RIGHTS! And yes, Jack and Dani will have a much better relationship from now on. It'll have it's ups and downs but it'll make them stronger. Ha ha, the dogs just won't understand. For real, I feel like the MCU just forgets Peter has like crazy super senses, but I saw a sneak peek of FFH and noticed they somewhat included it, which is great, YAY! And thank you, love, don't let them get you down either. You're wonderful! .3.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
Dani: What'd you guys get for number 12?
MJ: I got 18.
Ned: Oh, I got 9.5.
Peter: I got Abraham Lincoln... for some reason.
[Another! Literally, I have a whole fucking document for this and I have so many to choose from, it's insane]
Peter: *runs in wearing fuzzy pajamas* I'm ready.
Tony: ...
Tony: ...this is a mission.
