mattpeter star wars au
i will probably continue this and/or write something longer in the future. meanwhile: have this (T, schrĂśdinger's slash, 380w)
"Hey Matty."
Matt leans against the low wall next to him. Under their feet May Parker looks one last time through the window before closing it. A second later Matt listens to the click of a lamp turning off, her tired feet making their way across the room and to her bed. A sigh. The creak of an old mattress. A name. Matt turns away and to Peter. He hears it all anyway.
"It's been a while," Matt says. "I didn't know you were back."
Peter doesn't say anything at first. He smells like old sweat and hyperspace: burnt rubber and hot plasteel and cheap space station food. He must have come directly from the ship.
"How's she been?"
"She's doing fine," Matt replies after a while. He doesn't see the point of not telling him the truth. "She's been volunteering at the community center by the old medical office. She has a new tenant. She's nice. Works at a fancy shop on the Upper Levels."
She's also an ISB agent, but he doesn't need to know that. They don't think May Parker is dangerous: it's not her they're watching.
"Did you find what you were working for?"
Peter lets his head hang. He's tired, and hungry.
"They had moved on. The lab was empty." He doesn't sound defeatedâhe sounds just exhausted.
"You got somewhere to stay?"
Matt knows it's a mistake the moment the words leave his mouth.
"I'll manage," Peter replies. He pushes off the wall and turns away. Shame, fury, fear, grief. They taste like bitter ashes. Matt feels him putting himself away, closing the lid on himself.
"Peteâ"
Peter pauses. Cold knuckles under Matt's chin, the black seed at the root of him crackling on contact.
"You're sweet," he says.
Matt doesn't reach for him. He follows the sound of his footsteps as he steps away, as he vaults over the wall and down, as he lands on quiet feet on the alleyway almost twenty feet below. He walks it off and into the closest turbolift, and Matt could follow him and his heartbeat and the way he feels in the Force through the heavy darkness that covers Coruscant, he could follow him to the depths of hell.
He doesn't. But he could. Some day he will.
