threeisapattern | starter for threeterparker

starter for threeterparker

When he moved to NYC, Stiles figured that things would be - well, not less weird exactly, he's seen the news reports about the giant lizards stuff and the guy made of electricity and the whole Spider-Man thing, but less weird around him specifically. Because here, he's just a guy going into Criminal Justice (and also somehow kind of dating a very cute nerd photographer, can't forget that), not one of the few people who knows what a magnet Beacon Hills is for the supernatural and how insanely close they keep coming to destruction.

Apparently, that was too much to hope for because here Stiles is, sitting in class and taking notes like the good student he'd like to convince his GPA he is, when the entire room gets an alert that everyone needs to evacuate right the fuck now because there's a giant lizard in the building. Which Stiles is absolutely, totally, 100% planning to do except someone shows him blurry photos of the giant lizard and there's reports of people in the creature's path struck down with paralysis and, well. Yeah. It really is like high school all over again.

So instead of running out of the building like it's on fire like a good, sensible average human, Stiles finds himself shouldering his backpack with the emergency stash of mountain ash he's kept in it for the past several years and heading towards the screaming without much plan except the knowledge that he's probably the only person who knows what this thing is and how to contain it.

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Peter nods, though he isn't fully grasping everything that Stiles is saying. He still has so many questions.

"Okay. Okay... So this kanima was just some regular person, until they got bitten by an... alpha werewolf? Or, were-something that we're not sure of."

He looks at the kanima, still thrashing against the mountain ash barrier, and he feels kind of bad for it.

"What do we do? Can we change them back?"

"It'll transform back to human form eventually. It'll still be kind of a ticking time bomb, but at least then we'll know who it is and be able to talk to it."

And with any luck, no one's controlling it and adding another layer of complication to this whole thing. And there won't be an unknown, possibly rogue alpha showing up to claim its mess. "The good news is that unresolved bullshit can be resolved, and then it should... settle, kinda. It's kinda hard to explain because even a werewolf transformation that works out fine is rough."

"So we just... wait?" He wants to ask how long is 'eventually' going to take, but he knows Stiles wouldn't use the word 'eventually' if he had any idea how long it would be.

He settles into a crouch, kneeling at a safe distance away from the captured kanima, mind still racing with so many questions about what kind of life his boyfriend has been living that he knows all this stuff about werewolves and kanimas and supernatural goings-on.

Stiles, meanwhile, has already begun texting up a storm. There aren't nearly as many werewolf packs in NYC as you'd think, given how many people live here, but there are a few, and he'd kind of had to negotiate with them when he moved. Not that anyone saw him as much of a threat, but he's still in a pack and his alpha is a True Alpha and that's a Big Deal and shit, so yeah, he still has contacts. And right now he's blowing them up looking for a rogue alpha, an alpha who's actively recruiting, or whatever werewolf pack considers rogue kanimas their jurisdiction to deal with. While he's at it, he sends a text to Peter to check that he's okay and safely evacuated the building.

A phone that is not his goes ding around the same time he texts Peter, but he doesn't really register it until he's getting nervous about the fact that he's not getting answers and tries again. And again. And hello there, the dinging is lining up.

No. Way. His last text is a resounding ???, just to make sure he's not hallucinating this from the high pressure situation of hanging out with Spider-Man, but no, yeah, that's definitely happening. And Stiles is staring at Spider-Man (Peter???) wide-eyed. " - Dude, are you serious?"

The first time his phone dings, Peter winces, wondering if it's May texting him because she saw that his school was on the news. But then it dings again, and he realizes it must be Stiles, trying to text him to see if he's alright. He reaches into the waist band of his suit to pull out his phone, and... yeah. The dings just keep coming, and Peter can't help but look at Stiles, feeling the weight of guilt dropping in his stomach.

After the ??? Peter just pulls off his mask, feeling entirely caught out.

"Don't freak out."

The freaking out part is very much happening right now, mostly because Stiles is trying very hard to shift his understanding of his own life from dating very hot, very nerdy scientist-slash-photographer to has been dating freaking Spider-Man, on top of everything he was trying to juggle already about figuring out what to do with the kanima. "I thought you kept bringing up Spider-Man because you had a crush on him, not because you were - "

Okay. Okay. This is fine, and it means Peter's okay for now. Putting himself in danger on a regular basis, sure, but not currently lying somewhere paralyzed and scared. So that's good. And he's not mad or anything because he gets why Peter wouldn't tell him, he wasn't exactly telling Peter everything about his past either, but still. Still! He needs a minute.

Or he needs to kiss Peter, in all his be-Spider-Manned glory, and kiss him because maybe sometimes the best way to process your feelings is kissing your hot nerdy (Spider-Man!!!) boyfriend. Thank god kanimas don't typically retain memories of what happens when they're all lizard-y.

The absolute last thing Peter expects Stiles to do when faced with the sudden realization that his boyfriend has been lying to him and leading a double life is to... kiss him...? But hey, better this reaction than outright anger!

He returns the kiss, sort of allowing all his own nerves that have been building since he first ran into Stiles in the hallway with those paralyzed people to flow out of himself as he lets himself relax for just a minute while no one is actively in any danger.

Finally, the kiss breaks so they can both come up for air, and Peter looks Stiles in the eye, feeling somewhat frantic.

"You're handling this alright, I think?"

Maybe this was a weird way to cope, but he was starting to feel kind of frantic and didn't want it to turn into a panic attack, and from experience he can say that kissing can definitely help derail something like that. Also, kissing his hot, nerdy (Spider-Man!!!!!) boyfriend is a pretty great pastime, absolutely does a good job of killing a minute while they wait for the kanima to change back.

"Oh, dude, I'm definitely still freaking out but I figure I can't be that mad cause it's not like I was telling you 100% the truth. Not that I've been running around in a mask or anything, just the supernatural stuff that you kind of know about now? Which I was going to bring up eventually, kinda had to if we ever wanted to - " Nope no nah, not getting into that right now. He somehow manages to get his mouth to stop talking unchecked by his brain. "Uh, anyway, if that thing does not get human-shaped soon we might have to figure out a way to move it cause I figure there's only so long we're gonna have privacy here?"

"You're freaking out?" His voice is bordering on high pitched, just because he still hasn't quite gotten over the fact that there's all this supernatural stuff Stiles has been hiding from him. "I'm the one who just learned werewolves and kanimas and who knows what else are real!"

He places a hand on Stiles' chest and leans back, eyeing him suspiciously. "You're not a were-whatever, are you? God, when was the last full moon, even...? Is that a thing I have to worry about now?"

Okay, so he knows this is serious and everything but Peter's kind of cute when he's panicking that Stiles might be a werewolf? It also strikes Stiles as kind of funny, given his status as Token Human, although he guesses it's not an unreasonable conclusion to come to. "Uh, no, still human. I mean, I am part of a werewolf pack but that's just because my best friend is a werewolf and it's his pack. I would be way less clumsy and way more supernaturally hot if I was. Also, the mountain ash thing doesn't work if you're a were yourself."

"Your best friend. Is a werewolf. And you're in his pack." Peter's just repeating things at this point, but that's just because he keeps hoping if he repeats what he's hearing, some of it might start to make logical sense.

No...? No dice.

Okay, moving on.

"This is your best friend from back home?" Peter would like to think he's Stiles' best friend here in New York, or at least that he would have noticed something off if Stiles was hanging out with a pack of supernaturally hot and coordinated people whenever they weren't together.

A movement out of the corner of his eye catches Peter's attention and he turns, noticing that the bulking shape of the kanima is starting to shrink somewhat within the circle of ash.

"Okay, wait. Freak out later. I think he's turning back."

"From Beacon Hills, yeah. You're gonna want to put your mask back on now, he's going to start remembering what's happening soon." One of the helpful things about a mountain ash barrier is that it works no matter what form the shapeshifter is in, so they don't have to worry about the kanima bolting once it's in human form. The human form, incidentally, Stiles vaguely recognizes from having seen around the halls. He doesn't think they have any classes together.

His phone rings, and he's about to ignore the call when he realizes that it's coming from one of the packs he'd been trying to contact. "I gotta take this," he says. After a minute of conversation, he approaches the now largely-human and mostly-conscious guy in the circle and offers out his phone. "Look, uh, Cameron? Your alpha wants to talk to you. Do not get any leftover venom on my phone, I swear to god, I did not help trap your ass just to get paralyzed at the last minute by accident."

Which is probably not the most empathetic thing he could say, but it's been an unpleasant time.

Peter glances at the person trapped in the ash circle, and nods, quickly pulling his mask back on. He lets Stiles take the lead for now, given that he has a better handle on the situation at hand.

He hears a sound coming from outside, though, of sirens approaching. Once the former kanima— Cameron, was it?— is done on Stiles' phone, Peter approaches again.

"Look, the police are here and they're going to have questions. We can play it off like you were a victim, and that the thing that did this got away. Just, ah. Don't do this again, okay?"

Stiles visibly winces at Peter's phrasing because okay, he gets that this isn't the kind of thing Spider-Man actually knows about and he's doing his best, but that was kind of, uh, insensitive. "What he means is, sorry you drew the short end of the stick on this whole thing, and we totally hope you work out whatever unresolved deal you have going on. For what it's worth, I know a kanima who went through this and fixed things and now he's kind of a better person than he was before, he was kind of a dick before. You know, work with your alpha and also probably a therapist? Maybe not Ms. Morrell if she comes up, though, she's kind of a brutal pragmatist - " shut up shut up shut up - "Anyway, I'll probably be in touch to, you know, keep an eye on things, give advice, since I've seen this before."

He gives Cameron and awkward thumbs up before grabbing his phone back and using his shoe to smudge the mountain ash circle and release Cameron. Then he steps back closer to Peter and says, quietly, "Hey, next time I start to ramble like that, can you just do me a favor and web my mouth shut. Maybe not seriously but also - "

Peter just nods, cutting Stiles off before he can ramble any further. "I've got you. Just... Get Cameron out of here. We can meet up after."

He wants to kiss Stiles again. After everything that's happened in the last few minutes, he really feels like both he and Stiles could use a kiss. But it'd be kind of awkward with Cameron right there, so instead he settles for surreptitiously reaching out to grab Stiles' hand and squeeze it.

Before he turns to go intercept the police and buy Stiles and Cameron some time to slip away, he does turn to Stiles and issue one last request. "On your way out, can you stop by the first floor guy's restroom? I stashed my stuff under the sink in there."

The hand squeeze is a good choice, A+, Stiles absolutely approves of the hand squeeze and gives Peter a squeeze back. "Yeah, okay. Meet you at your place."

It takes him some time to get there, mostly because he wants to make sure Cameron gets dropped off with responsible parties, i.e. his alpha or another member of the pack he's supposed to be a part of. He also ends up giving Cameron a pep talk, which he's pretty terrible at to be honest but it's the thought that counts, right?

Peter's bag has a key in it, so Stiles just lets himself in and makes sure one of the windows is unlocked under the assumption that's gonna be Peter's entry of choice, before sitting down on the couch and trying not to think about how completely insane today was.

It doesn't take Peter too long to deal with the police and then web it back to his apartment. He does end up having to take a brief detour to stop a mugging on his way home, but by the time Stiles is settling onto the couch, Peter comes sliding in through the bedroom window. He immediately pads out to the living room and tugs his mask off, exhaling a long, exhausted breath.

"Well. That could have gone better, I think."

"Kanimas can get pretty nasty, so that could've gone way worse," Stiles points out. "Unless you mean the whole mutual accidental reveal of secrets thing, which is - " Yeah, that probably could've gone better? But honestly, his life is already so goddamn weird that dating Spider-Man almost feels normal.

Also, uh. He might be eyeing Peter up a little? Now that they're out of immediate danger and it's sinking in all over again that he's dating Spider-Man, that is... quite a skintight outfit. "...So."

"Yeah, I meant the—" vague handwave gesture at the mask hanging limp in his hand.

Stiles is ogling him, and don't think that Peter doesn't notice Stiles ogling him, but honestly by this point he's so used to wearing the suit that it doesn't really occur to him just how skintight it is. At the moment, he's less concerned with being conspicuously checked out and more concerned with making sure that his boyfriend isn't freaking out over finding out about Peter's side hustle as a masked vigilante.

"So. Um. Do we talk? We should talk, right?" He moves to awkwardly perch on the arm of the sofa, a safe enough distance from Stiles so that he has space if he feels like he needs it, but not so far as to be ignoring him entirely.

"I've never actually had anyone find out by accident like this before."

"I - yeah." Okay, Stiles. Your boyfriend is Spider-Man and he's wearing an extremely tight costume and you're going to be very cool about this because you do actually have to have a serious conversation. "Yeah, we should. Do you want to, like, take turns asking questions, or....? Like, how did this even happen?"

And is Peter still 100% certain he's not a werespider? He could be.

"Taking turns probably makes the most sense, yeah..." Peter rubs a hand through his messy hair, then slides it back to brush his fingers over the phantom itch on the back of his neck where the spider had bitten him, those years ago.

"I was bitten by a genetically-modified spider." He makes a face. "Which, now that I say it out loud, definitely isn't helping my 'I'm totally not a werespider' case..."

"It kinda doesn't? But like. If you ever want to test that, we can. Cause you wouldn't be able to cross the mountain ash line like I set up earlier. Genetically modified how?"

Okay, so technically it might not have been his turn for a question, but Peter didn't ask one, so.

Peter didn't ask a question, no, and that's on him, so as far as he's concerned, Stiles is in the right to ask him to elaborate further. And to be honest, Stiles' whole deal is so baffling to him, be doesn't really know where he would even start with questions, so it's probably for the best he lets Stiles take the lead for now.

"It was an experiment in cross-species genetics. Mixing spider DNA with human DNA, to try to find ways to give people some of the enhanced abilities that spiders have. Oscorp did similar experiments with lizards, too, which, uh. Led to the last giant lizard person I fought, actually."

Ok. His turn for a question.

"How does the mountain ash thing work, exactly? Like, it doesn't make any sense."

Well, that's... totally beyond anything Stiles could probably hope to understand, even if it sounds like the plot a really awesome scifi B movie. Attack of the Giant Lizard Men? Gene Splicers From Planet Nine?

"It's, uh - I mean, it's magic? That sounds like a cop-out, but it's literally druidic magic. It's not just the ash, it's also belief that the ash works? You're probably gonna hate this because it doesn't make scientific sense but, yeah, it just... works. Like, the first time I used it, I had to put a ring of it around an entire building and I realized I didn't have enough, and I just sort of believed it would work and it did."

...Well.

"You're right, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever." But he's not going to go so far as to say he hates it, per se, because it's clear it's protected Stiles before, and... well. He isn't about to badmouth anything that's saved his boyfriend's life.

"Okay... Your turn. What's your next question?"

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