Spiderman Oneshots

Peter's wonderful mind

Requested by  @animallover496 

Peter had always been this way. Most of the time, his mind was a haven; an oiled, efficient machine. Everything had its place, everything was in its place. He saw the world in a way few people could, and could solve problems most students would never dream of understanding.

Other times, it was like somebody had come into his head, turned out the lights, and rearranged all the furniture. Peter knew everything was still there, could feel the familiarity, but he couldn't find anything and he made a fool of himself as he stumbled blindly through the dark. Sometimes they were so sneaky he didn't even realise anything was wrong until he tried to open a cabinet that had been locked.

Peter was born with brain damage. It hadn't been noticed until he was five or six, when his parents started worrying about how sometimes Peter was more advanced at reading than any of his primary school friends, but other times he could barely seem to remember how to count to ten. He was diagnosed, and they started looking for ways to 'fix' him. Peter didn't know how to tell them that he didn't think he needed fixing.

His parents were investigating a new treatment when their plane crashed and Peter was orphaned. It took him months afterwards for the fact to really settle - he would wake up terrified at the unfamiliar house, or stand confused after school wondering why Dad wasn't there to pick him up yet, or frown at the dinner table and ask his uncle how long it would be until his parents got back from their trip. Then he went through it all again when Ben died. 

May was the only person left who knew about Peter's condition. He wasn't ashamed of it, as such, but he'd seen how people reacted to the news and how they treated him differently after they knew. He just wanted to live a normal life, and his aunt seemed to understand that. His parents had told him that he was special and they loved him. May just said she loved him.

So Peter didn't tell anybody else. Most of the time, he could hide it when he got a bit confused, using the information around him to figure out what was going on until the fog cleared. If anybody noticed something was wrong, he'd wave it off as being tired. Most of the time, he stuck to a schedule, something predictable so he always knew where he was.

Then he got bitten by a spider and became Spider-Man. At first when his eyesight and asthma had been cured, he'd wondered... but then he'd gone into school prepared for a test they'd done the day before, and realised that this must just be a fundamental part of who he was. And Peter was okay with that. 

Being a hero was a steep learning curve, he'd admit that much, but he loved it, loved saving the city. And after the whole fiasco with the Vulture... He knew Tony hadn't been testing him, but he'd still turned down the opportunity to be an Avenger. To boil it down, being Spider-Man was easy. He wore a bright costume so he'd always know when he was being his alter-ego, and even if he temporarily forgot what was going on in the middle of a fight, the rules were simple and buried deep within him: Protect the citizens and stop the bad guy. If he had an episode in the middle of a fight and hesitated whilst he tried to get his bearings, the only person who would get hurt was him.

Being an Avenger, on the other hand, was complicated. He could be called in at any time, which meant upsetting his strict routine. Often the fights were more covert, with webs of lies and betrayal that Peter could usually unravel with ease. But if he was caught off guard with the lights out, that web would trap him just as easily before he could remember what he was doing, and the stakes were much higher if he messed up. So Peter was content to continue being the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

Despite this, Stark insisted that Peter come work for him as a personal intern. Peter leapt at the opportunity, but it meant being very careful. He spend a lot of time around the Avengers (who knew he was Spider-Man), and he couldn't bear the thought of his role models finding out his other secret and treating him as something... lesser.