The world is shitty but I'm gonna keep fighting.

Chapter summary: Domestic fluff. So much domestic fluff.

Chapter Sixteen: Shits and Giggles

They moved into the bedroom area as time went on, Peter now perched comfortably on the wall, sitting with his legs bent and stuck in place while his hands were free to move about as he talked. It had hurt a lot at first, but then the wound became numb as it healed back up. Wade sat on his bed and watched him, and Peter tried to pretend like he didn't notice how the other's blue eyes tracked his every movement, like he didn't notice how Wade seemed enraptured by even the slightest twitch of Peter's fingers. Being put in a spotlight like this was uncomfortable, but it wasn't stage fright that filled his chest, it was a thick, hot and heavy lump that formed, and it caused his skin to flush and his words to stumble.

Wade looked so at ease, so happy, so caught up in everything Peter was saying, and this wasn't what they'd had a week ago. This wasn't who they were at IHOP. Was it? He'd have noticed, right? Or maybe not, because now he was hyper-aware of everything because now it was constantly at the forefront of his mind. "And so you can actually battle competitively with a Magikarp," he finished, and chewed on his lip as he counted each hair on the back of his hands.

Wade really looked like he was falling head over heels, and Peter still didn't know if he reciprocated to the fullest extent, but it sure felt like he was starting to. Talking to Gwen in class, trying to get up the courage to talk to her outside of class, it all felt like this but it had started off far different. Peter had had a crush first before engaging. This time he'd engaged and then fell.

"And on that note, I gotta go walk mine for a bit," Wade said suddenly, and Peter's head snapped up and he watched the older man get up, stretch, and then head towards his front door. What? Why was he leaving? Peter hadn't said anything wrong, he knew he hadn't. He just went back and analyzed every word, and there was absolutely no way Wade could have taken anything out of context. His lost expression must have shown plain as day, because Wade frowned and walked over to him and reached out. He hesitated for a second, before he touched Peter's jaw. "Hey, I won't be gone long. You wanna come with me? I'm just gonna hit up the CVS. But don't you have an essay to work on?"

Peter didn't feel any less confused and a little bit hurt. He felt like Wade was messing with him to an extent, but he didn't understand the reason. Now he was offering his company again, very freely actually, so it didn't seem likely that he was punishing Peter for something. "Yes," he said after a beat. He did have another essay, and he really, really needed to work on it. He'd been putting it off to spend time with Wade, and honestly, now was the absolute perfect time to get it done and out of the way for tomorrow's class. It was about the deaths of different types of cells. "I should work on it," he admitted, then added, "but I probably shouldn't be walking too much - shot, remember?" And then, he plunged into his question without letting himself think anymore. "Why are you suddenly going now?"

Wade's fingers dropped away from Peter, who hadn't realized he had leaned into the warmth until it was gone. "You were talkin' about Pokémon battling, and I thought about Go, and then I remembered I needed something. You think I'm running out on you?"

It was somewhat ironic that Peter was now the one having to be comforted about that. "It crossed my mind."

Wade's eyes softened and he shook his head. He seemed so much more confident now, nothing at all like who he'd been when they were first talking out of costume, who he'd been when he met up with Peter face to face for their initial date. "No. I'm gonna forget if I don't do it while I'm thinking about it. Nothing you did."

When he left, Peter realized just how lonely he had gotten, and much like the feeling of cold that crept in after the disappearance of lingering contact, he felt everything he was missing without Wade to help fill up the silence of his own life. He got down onto the floor (ow) and stared at his dark computer screen. He autopilot booted the tower up and sat down, his hands ready on the keyboard to get him into his account.

He thought about why he felt like this, and he realized that because there hadn't been given an allotted time to help him get used to this new them… he didn't know how to think, how to react, how to correct himself when he was suspecting Wade might be doing something to hurt him. That wasn't who Wade is, not anymore. They now needed to both actively work towards getting closer, instead of falling apart. He did like Wade, he really, actually did, and he wasn't just suddenly invested because Wade couldn't die.

He typed up half a page of soulless text before Wade came back, knocking loudly on the door. Peter felt… so relieved and he jumped up and limped over to open it and let Wade back in. The other man waltzed in like he'd done this a thousand times before and dropped the plastic bag on the bed before falling down into place beside it. "You would not believe the shit I heard this old dude say," he started, jumping immediately into conversation like he hadn't been gone at all. "He sounded like a young guy when I wasn't looking, so I was really surprised to look up and see some gray-haired balding guy talking about fist-fighting a ten year old over candy." He paused, noticing that something was off, and his fingers curled in on his palms, his shoulders sagging somewhat. "You're staring really hard there, buddy," he said warily, and Peter let himself fall onto his shitty old mattress next to the other, taking the pain in stride, and he leaned against the well-worn jacket sleeve.

He liked the contact. It distracted him from bad things. He was so happy for it. His head landed on Wade's shoulder. "I missed you," he said. He wanted Wade in his life. "I'm glad you're back."

Wade looked positively stunned, and then he melted into the touch. "Haven't heard that in a while," he said back.

"Get used to it," Peter answered, to both Wade and himself.

Wade gripped the plastic bag a little oddly. "So I kinda got you something," he said, and trailed off. He shoved the bag at Peter and the brunet took hold of it, lifting his head up and curiosity creeping up on him. "It's a little selfish of a reason, but I really want you to be able to update your game so we can keep playing together," he went on, like he had to defend himself over the gift. Which, honestly, with the way Peter'd been acting about having charity pushed on him, it was no wonder.

The bio-chem student uncrumpled the bag and peeked inside of it, finding only one thing in there at all. A brand new 64-gig memory card for his phone, with the price tag scratched off messily. He reached inside and pulled it out, looking up at Wade with his mouth slightly open. "Thank you," he said, and he blinked a few times. "You didn't have to."

Wade canted his head. "I know, that's literally the definition of a gift, you know that, right?" He seemed relieved that Peter was taking this so well. "I have a knife on me if you don't have scissors, those damn packages are such a pain in the-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before Peter tore the thick, melted-together plastic in half like it was tissue paper, and he dug out the tiny little chips inside, holding them both gently in his hands like they were precious. And they were. One of the memory cards was normal-sized, and he could use that in his camera, and he'd needed a new one badly. He took photos at the highest quality possible, at the highest resolution possible, and it really affected how many shots he could take in one go. The other one was just the right size to put in his phone.

"-...Totally forgot you were super strong. Well."

He was really touched, actually. This didn't feel like pity-charity, this felt like Wade wanted to give him something practical that he could use and they could enjoy together. His throat was tight when he tried to swallow.

"Thank you," he repeated, and he looked at Wade, made eye contact and held it. "Thank you so much."

Maybe Wade hadn't ever pitied him. Maybe he'd honestly just wanted to do something nice, the only nice thing he knew he could do at the time. Peter felt a small nip of guilt get at him about how he'd been treating the gestures before now. He was stubborn to a fault, in every aspect of his life, and he didn't take kindly to people he'd thought so poorly of before thinking Peter needed their help to get by.

He stood up briefly to grab his phone from the table beside his mousepad, and he carefully took the back off. It was so hard at first to figure out how much effort he had to use for everyday things, like toothpaste and doorknobs and throwing his shoes across the room. But by now he had it mastered like an art, and he gently set the removed back down, and used his thumbnail to pry one of the slots open. He laid down the memory card like it was a puzzle-piece and he pressed until it clicked. Then he replaced everything and it looked as good as new.

Wade watched him quietly, like it was truly something interesting, and preened himself when he saw that it worked. It took a few minutes, but Peter had the most up-to-date version of Pokémon Go.

"Okay, now go to your Pokémon, and then choose who you wanna be your best bud, and then tap that," Wade said, practically vibrating as he explained what Peter probably could have easily figured out on his own, but he let the other talk. It was endearing. He also felt the excitement of his inner child that he was going to be able to keep up with this silly game.

"Like that?" he asked, wanting Wade to keep talking.

"Yeah!" Wade congratulated, and then he held his own phone next to Peter's. "Whoa, Haunter's fucking huge," he muttered. Peter was surprised about that, too, eyeballing the looming ghost that was more than the size of his trainer avatar. "Holy shit. Think about meeting that in a dark alley. I'd shit myself."

Peter raised an eyebrow at Wade and was smiling. "I'll make sure to bring toilet paper next time we're out somewhere," he said.

Wade leaned over and bumped shoulders with him. "That actually wouldn't be a bad idea; you have no idea how awkward it is to have to pop a squat on someone's roof."

Peter looked disturbed. "Be joking. Please be joking."

Wade clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Desperate times," he said grimly.

Peter shoved him off of his bed and over onto the pile of clothes at the end. "You are going to be house-trained first thing," he said, pointing down at Wade with the hand not holding his phone. "That is so gross. You know there's gas stations on every corner, right?"

Wade reared his leg back and kicked at Peter in the least-committed way he had ever seen anyone move, and he dodged it easily. "You don't even know the story behind why!" Wade exclaimed. "I'm not just gonna take a shit on your carpet, you know?" he said, and sat up.

Peter leaned back on his legs, and inhaled just a little sharper than normal because of the pain that came from stretching the skin around his thigh in this position. "I don't know," he sassed back "You can't just say stuff like that and not expect me to judge you!"

Wade pulled himself over onto the twin mattress and Peter scooted back. "Even Professor's offended, and he's never on my side," he snapped playfully. "You got both of 'em on my side, and that's not an easy feat."

...Oh. The voices thing again. Yeah.

Peter set the foot of his uninjured leg on Wade and shoved him back off of the bed. "Well you can be offended down there for a while; I just cleaned my sheets."

Wade whined loudly. "Come on, Petey-pie, I'm cold and sad down here!"

Peter tossed Wade his phone and it landed on the guy's chest. "There. Scroll through /b/ or something," he said. Wade huffed and complained for a few more seconds before he grew quiet. Peter limped off of the bed and laid down on his back next to Wade on the floor-slash-kinda-dirty-clothes-pile. "An Eevee spawned," he said in a hushed but excited whisper.

Wade scrambled to turn the app on.