Reply to Capral90: Thank you! (Which shirt? Do you mean the NYC one? Because I think that it was from Tony.)
Reply to Guest: Sorry, but I'm not taking requests. I've already planned out everything that's going to happen, so, sorry, but I really recommend "find warmth in the middle of the night" by aloneintherain if you want to check out fics similar to this.
May's next.
She's not sure why or how, but she doesn't question it. (Maybe because she realizes the timing, it's right after Pepper Potts was kidnapped and Tony Stark had to rescue her, and maybe there's something in Peter that doesn't want to forget that May is still there, still alive.)
It's not that he just wears her clothes, either (though he looks stunning in that cute little number that drapes just above his waist, buttoned neatly and still a bit too big for him), but his touch lingers on her, and his eyes do too, curious but mainly needing, just a little reminder that May is still there.
(And she allows it, lingering back, reminding herself that her baby boy is still here with her, even if Ben isn't.)
She bears with it in silence for a little while, just drinking in Peter's presence, and to be completely honest, not caring that Peter wears her clothes as long as they're returned.
Then one day, she's doing the laundry and realizes that Peter's clothes aren't in the laundry hamper.
What he's wearing is. But what is for him specifically, isn't.
It's all her clothes, her's and sometimes Ben's, that oversized shirt he insists on sleeping in, her jacket that she's mostly given up on wearing (though she knows that he'd give it back if he thought that she wanted it, she doesn't want to take this away from him, doesn't want to make him feel guilty, not after they just got past that stage), the pale green scarf that he sometimes buries his face into when he thinks that the world is too bright and loud and overwhelming (those nights where touches to his back make him flinch and May's voice has to stay a gentle whisper).
And though she wants to be okay with this, wants Peter to feel safer, she knows that she can't keep up this charade forever.
She knows that Peter can't take comfort in clothes, understands in the back of her mind that it isn't healthy, that Peter needs more than just some cut cloth to make him feel safe, needs to let Peter know that May isn't so breakable. (But Ben was breakable, wasn't he? And can't May be as well? But she can't think about that, because if she does, she knows that she'll only remember that Peter is just as breakable, just as fragile.)
So, maybe it's an intervention.
Or maybe, it's just a gentle reminder.
Peter's next to her, rewatching Back to the Future and spilling popcorn over their floor (but she can't judge him, because she's spilling too, and he offered to sweep the floor anyways), one of her oversized shirts hanging over his knees again, and something in May's chest twists as she reaches out and presses her hand against him, the soft whisper of, "I'm right here," escaping her just as Doc Brown is shot.
Peter does something that's a bit of a flinch, mostly just coming back to the real world, mostly just remembering that May's still there, that she's okay and it's Doc Brown on the screen (and the Doc will be fine anyways), but he squeezes her hand back and whispers, "What about when you're not?"
And May wants to scream, wants to rip the world in half and mend it back again and do something to take out the absolute terror in his voice, the way that it shakes and his whole body along with it.
"I'm right here." She repeats, firm and solid and reminding him that she's there for now, and, "Isn't that enough?"
Peter stares at the screen, features blank and scared and numb and guilty all at the same time, and then he says, voice small but certain, "If you die, it will be on me."
"Never." May says, and Peter stares at her, long and hard, and fingers the collar of his shirt (her shirt) before he nods, slight and imperceptible.
He lets out a small breath, loose and shaky, and then he whispers, "Just... at night, then? I'll wear... something else... during the day."
She kisses him on the forehead and responds, lowering her voice to match his, "Take your time. Just remember that I'm right here, okay?"
"I know you're here, it's just..."
"You don't need to remember me just yet, Pete." May grins, shaky and a bit forced, but still wide and loving and fond. "Not while I'm still here making those memories."
And Peter nods again, small and cautious, and he wears her clothes a few more times, but later, he comes out to breakfast with a dumb science pun on his shirt and May can't love him any more than she already does, but she loves him for that all the same.
"Right here?" He murmurs as he pours a cup of milk, and May smiles behind her cup of coffee, blowing lightly on it before agreeing.
"Right here."