Chapter Text
Summer was two years since Gwen.
“I’ll always miss you.” Peter lay the flowers on the beautifully simple marker in the cemetery, a single stem at a time. Wildflowers for the first time he’d tried to apologize. Roses for the important days he’d missed while he’d been out trying to save the city. Mini carnations in the same color she’d worn to prom. Tulips like he’d brought the first Easter after Captain Stacy passed and Mrs. Stacy had invited Peter to supper, called him family and called him welcome. Orchids for their walks through the botanical gardens. Daisies for flower crowns they’d made in the park.
…lilies for the funeral.
“I’ll always be sorry.” Peter whispered the words into the brilliantly colored blooms and into the coldly carved letters on her memorial. Aunt May rubbed his back gently, a hand to her heart as she heard his voice break, his breath audibly hitching. She’d come along for the anniversary just like she’d come along for the first anniversary and for the funeral itself and it never got easier. Peter was always so close to cracking and May was always there to make sure he didn’t break.
“And I--” Peter spread his hands in the dirt, in the grass that had grown over her grave and closed his eyes. Remembered laughter and smiles and tears, sweet kisses and the warmest hugs and the trust he hadn’t deserved and tried so hard to honor and ultimately ultimately had failed.
“I-- um.” the words didn’t work. On Peter’s other side, Flash-- Gene-- ran his hand through his short hair, then reached down to run his fingers through Peter’s hair too, comforting and gentle and quietly grieving right along side his friend.
“I’ll always love you.” Peter finally got out. Dug his hands into the dirt before anyone else saw the black in his veins as the Other bit of him surged forward in response to his heartache. “I wanted to follow you everywhere. I wanted you to be my whole path. I was willing to be guilty forever, to love you and be sorry and be guilty forever.”
“But forever is a long time and I’m finally ready to see it, ready to find forever once or twice or a dozen other times and for that to happen, I have to say good-bye.” He whispered it too quietly for Gene or May to hear, leaned in until his forehead touched the gravestone and every breath brought the heady, dizzying perfume of flowers clogging at his nose.
“...good-bye, Gwen Stacy.”
May cried cos Peter cried, though her tears were nothing compared to the inky black that bled from his eyes. Gene folded his arms and hung his head in a respectful moment of silence while Peter lay a few more flowers down and finally stood back to his feet. The three visitors walked away from the cemetery hand in hand, arms linked and heads tilted towards one another as they discussed lunch, plans for the rest of the day, getting flowers delivered to Mrs. Stacy and whether or not Gene and Peter would come and visit May just for the chance to get out of the city and revisit the old days, of course she knew they weren’t dating and Gene, she was very proud of him for having the courage to date who he wanted after all those years but Peter, he hardly ever called anymore and it wouldn’t be the worst for him to spend some time with his dear old Auntie before she got old and gray and withered…
“Aunt May, you’re not a day over fifty, good grief.” Peter rolled his eyes at Gene, plonked a kiss at May’s forehead, then glanced over his shoulder--
--and from the trees at the edge of the cemetery, the Alpha vampire glamoured into view, scars stark in the sunlight and hazel eyes filtering green with adoration as he met his mate’s gaze across the distance, then shading red in determination as he blurred across the well kept lawns to kneel by Gwen’s memorial.
“Gwen Stacy.” The vampire bit into his thumb and traced the letters of her name with dark blood, staining it into the stone. It was a warning to anyone who might come to disturb the grave, a threat to anything who might come desecrating or haunting this place where his mate had laid his heart bare and gave up one dream of forever so he could reach out and find another.
“Don’t worry.” Wade kept writing over the letters, scoring his nails into the granite to push the blood deeper into the very makeup of the stone so it could never be undone. Gwen’s resting place was Peter’s territory and therefore it was Wade’s territory and anyone anything who would come to the cemetery would do well to leave the grave and the memory of the beautiful girl alone… or else.
“Don’t worry.” the vampire said again as he looked up to watch Peter tip his head back laughing, nose scrunched and eyes lit up gorgeous.
“I’ll take care of him now.”
*****
-- "Commuters this morning called in reports of graffiti on the Hell’s Gate Bridge, it sees as if some brave soul climbed the beams to spray paint MINE across the bridge.”-
-- "As of right now the assumption is that some bravely romantic soul is writing a love letter to their partner, much like how ‘I Love You’ was written into the suspension cables on the bridge a couple years back”--
-- "No no, don’t you remember? A few years ago! Everyone said Spider-man left a love letter on the bridge and the internet went absolutely bat shit trying to figure out who Spider-man’s girlfriend was! I’d bet anything this ‘MINE’ stunt is someone trying to be equally as romantic but failing miserably, graffiti isn’t the same as--”
-- “Absolutely gruesome news this morning, and let me be clear we haven’t had official confirmation yet, but it seems as if the word MINE spelled out on the Hell’s Gate Bridge this morning wasn’t in fact spray painted as some believe but rather spelled out with body parts?!”--
-- "Police sources have confirmed the word on Hell’s Gate Bridge was in fact spelled out with body parts, arms and legs and entrails”--
-- "Be warned, this is particularly graphic information. There was a body found on Hell’s Gate Bridge this morning, absolutely torn to shreds and then arranged in such a way to spell out the word MINE.”--
--”Confirmation that the body is that of Richard Fisk, estranged son of alleged criminal mastermind Wilson Fisk who was killed and displayed in the same brutal manner last year.”--
-- "Is this a vendetta against the family? Someone has had enough of the Fisk’s hold on New York City and is cleaning up in the most disgusting of ways.”--
-- "No no, this isn't a vendetta, don’t you remember Wilson Fisk’s body? It said something about not touching my mate and now this body says MINE? No this isn’t a vendetta, this is some psychopath being romantic to their partner, it’s horrifying.”--
-- "no matter the rumours, whether you believe it's a message to the criminal underbelly of the city or some bizarre, bloody courtship gift between serial killers, the fact of the matter is, someone or something has moved into the city and is marking their territory in the loudest way possible.”--
Wade didn’t make a habit of watching television. Human concerns meant nothing to him, there was nothing real about the ‘reality’ shows clogging up every channel and the news reports were always so often wrong about what really happened on the dark streets, they were little more than gossip.
Wade didn’t even own a television, but after Peter moved home full time, after he gave up the small apartment in the other neighborhood and brought his books and few clothes and bundle of blankets to Wade’s rooms, the TV had made an appearance mostly so Peter could watch reruns of his favorite shows and partly so he could check the news at times like this.
Times when the city was panicking with the realization that something much more monstrous than they’d every imagined was lurking in their streets.
Peter wasn’t home. He’d gone out with Gene and May after the memorial with Gwen and spent the night catching up with his old friend, leaning into May’s familiarly comforting presence and apparently at some point, slipping out to wreak some havoc on the city’s sensibilities.
Wade didn’t mind when Peter went out, so long as he always came home.
And the Spider always came home.
“You’re famous.” The vampire’s entire body shuddered when he heard the window unlatch, when he felt the air displace around something oddly shaped and not quite right. There was a quiet hiss as something purposefully breathed as if only barely remembering to do so, the click of claws that didn’t come from the floor but from the ceiling as it crawled along the ceiling with unnaturally quick motions. Wade smiled, fangs out and tongue already wetting his lips in anticipation, but he kept his voice even as he added, “Everyone’s talking about your artwork on the bridge. No one knows what it means, though.”
“They know what it means.” came the low answer from the shadows. “Someone something has marked their territory where the bridge cuts through the city.”
“They just don’t know.” Closer, claws clicking and breath hissing, the voice stopped directly above Wade’s head. “If it's someone something that will come after them next. They don’t know what the Fisk family did to deserve such treatment or who the Fisk family pissed off and I bet--”
The laugh was nearly a chitter, teasing and clicking and eerie. “I bet they are terrified to find out.”
Anyone human would have been horrified at the morbid joke, but neither the vampire nor his mate were human in the slightest.
“Did you like it?” was the next question, the rough voice tilting up at the end as if the creature was shy about it, uncertain about Wade’s reaction even after so many months together. “He wasn’t as big as his Dad, I didn’t have the canvas needed to carve a message into his chest, but I think it worked out.”
The vampire just tilted his head back and held a hand up to the ceiling, “Come into the light, beauty.”
A web ran down to meet him first, clinging to Wade’s scarred hand and wrapping between his fingers before dripping down onto his wrist, along his arm and to the couch to anchor on the fabric. Then a clawed hand, veins outlined in black as it stretched to touch Wade’s shoulder, to balance at his chest. The TV flickered in the background, bright then dark illuminating like a strobe light as Peter unstuck himself from the ceiling and stretched his lean body long long before dropping into Wade’s lap with an unsettlingly liquid grace. The next flicker caught the mirrored sheen of his eyes and the glint of a mouthful of jagged teeth but by the time Wade got his hands on the narrow hips to settle Peter across his thighs, Peter was all big eyes and long lashes and freckles again, smiling into a kiss when Wade bent to capture his mouth.
“Baby boy.” Wade rumbled low in his chest and Peter flushed in immediate pleasure when it vibrated between their bodies. “Welcome home.”
“Hello, my love.” Peter’s claws scraped at the ragged lines of scars on Wade’s cheek before disappearing entirely so he could brush gentle fingertips over the same spot. “You didn’t tell me. Did you like your present? Did you like--” softer. “--how I announced our forever?”
“You could have gotten me a ring and a marriage certificate.” the vampire teased with a little bite at the tip of Peter’s nose. “Isn’t that how humans do it? Ripping a man limb from limb to spell MINE out across a bridge seems a bit dramatic.”
“If either of us were human.” Peter lifted a slim shoulder in a half shrug. “Maybe I would have gotten you a ring. But--”
“But.” Wade agreed, tucking his mate closer over his slow beating heart. “Of course I liked it.”
“He shouldn’t have touched my mate.” Peter murmured and the vampire nodded, “I know the feeling.”
-- "In other news today”--
Peter picked up Wade’s wrist and licked absentmindedly across his pulse as the news droned on. He bared his teeth and unhinged his jaw, sank his jagged teeth directly into the skin and moaned at the first swallow of his mate’s blood.
-- "Spider-man saved a bus full of children downtown”--
Wade slouched on the couch and wrapped his other arm around Peter’s waist, holding his mate in close while Peter nursed from his wrist with quiet, contented noises.
-- "no matter what new thing is committing atrocities in the shadow, the city can rest easy knowing Spider-man is around to save us”--
Peter chuckled against Wade’s wrist and Wade just grinned.
-- "I’m sure at some point, whatever has been literally ripping through New York’s crime families and our friendly neighborhood Spider-man will have to come face to face”--
-- "But we just have to believe in our web slinger and know he won’t let anything happen to those he cares about”--
“That is the absolute truth, I won’t let anything happen to the people I love. Turns out I’m downright territorial about you.” Peter detached from Wade’s wrist and leaned up to share a kiss with his vampire, before stroking at Wade’s neck and murmuring, “Can I have some more?”
“Anything you want, baby boy.”
“Mmmm…” Peter purred and nuzzled at Wade’s throat a moment before snapping his sharp teeth into the rough skin and digging in deep. “Mine.”
“That’s right.” Wade’s eyes blurred scarlet before falling closed in easy contentment.
Mine.
*****
Chapter Notes:
Not me tearing up at the beginning part because Peter loving Gwen never fails to make me emotional. His line about wanting them to be on the same path is of course a movie reference, but I love how he is ready to find forever and for that he has to say goodbye. Also love May and Flash being there with him. Peter Parker consistently ending up alone is one of my least favorite things about his canon and I always want to change that.
Peter ripping Richard to pieces to spell out "Mine" the same way Wade ripped Wilson to pieces "Shouldn't have touched my mate" is romantic in perhaps the bloodiest of ways?
Nobody does happily ever afters like Spideypool, whether it's violent or traditional or AU or canon-verse-- somehow it always ends up being the sweetest thing ever.
Cheers to another fic written, and cheers of course to my lovely reader who upon getting the chance to have a fic written specifically for her, promptly let me create the most bitey AU I've ever written. Amanda, I absolute adore you. Thank you for always always supporting my writing!