something's off with peter parker
summary: something is wrong with your next door neighbor, and it's up to you to figure it out (from this request)
cw: set in BND so obviously spoilers for NWH. just a lot of whump (happyish ending) with poor peter :( detailed panic attack as well as death mention, SH (aggressive hair pulling during the panic attack) (sorry i like to make peter hurt). reader is gn! so read as you please, also set pre-relationship vibes that could be seen as platonic or in a mutual pining way idc
the first sign that something was off with your next door neighbor, peter parker, showed in his texting.
in the months he'd been in the apartment next to yours, the two of you had grown quite close. it was slow, at first. this meek, fawn of a man who had moved in just before christmas, seemingly closed off to all of your friendly neighbor charms and attempts at passing conversation.
he stood no chance against your grandmother's brownie recipe.
from that cold night in january on, you saw more and more of him open up. you'd gotten his number, and discovered the list of commonalities between the two of you. as he let you into his life more, you started to even find it endearing as he spammed your phone at all hours of the night, your notifications filled with nothing but the fleeting thoughts on his mind he thought to share with you.
but suddenly, a stranger was responding to you; single words replaced his once excited paragraphs to even the most of mudane things.
you: did you watch the nintendo direct tn???
peter parker (#1304): last night, technically
peter parker (#1304): AND YUPPPP
peter parker (#1304): already calculated how much overtime i’m gonna need to afford the new zelda and mario dlc
peter parker (#1304): see you after summer 😔
you: you literally don’t even have a switch
peter parker (#1304): no but i have the kindest most wonderful neighbor in the whole wide world who does
you: why the hell are you even awake rn??
peter parker (#1304): i should ask you the same question, miss.
peter parker (#1304): dude dude dude
peter parker (#1304): wake up and look at the sunrise
peter parker (#1304): loooookkkkkkkkkk
peter parker (#1304): lets go to the roof
you: if you send me one more message at this godforsaken hour, i'm going to murder you with my bare hands
peter parker (#1304): like you could even catch me 😏
you: do you want spaghetti or mac and cheese for dinner tmrw
you: those miiiiiiight be the only two things to my name rn
peter parker (#1304): is it the spongebob mac and cheese
peter parker (#1304): oh fuck yeah
you: are you breaking things over there? what the hell was that noise??
peter parker (#1304): lol
you: no like, you good????
you: no fear, i have acquired hot dogs for the mac and cheese
peter parker (#1304): can't tn
you: what!! i spent a dollar fifty on these clearance hotdogs for nothing?? guess i'll have to get food poisoning alone 🙄
peter parker (#1304): lmao
the second sign was the fact that he had dodged your weekly tuesday night dinner.
that alone wasn't unusual, as he'd cancelled plenty of times in the few months you'd grown to know peter. the day he swan dove through your window in stark red and blue, mistaking your room for his, you had finally found out why. now when he flaked, he'd attach a local news article of the crime he'd just stopped to his apology text an hour after he was supposed to show up. sometimes, you wouldn't hear from him until he got back just before the sun broke through, knocking on your window in desperate need of whatever medical attention you could offer him.
he had dodged you plenty of times, but today was different. peter texted you around noon, when he was supposedly mid chem-lab, simply saying he wouldn't be able to make it.
it wasn't weird that he bailed on your plans. it was weird that he let you know ahead of time.
but that wasn't what caused you to crawl across your shared fire escape and force your way into his bedroom. no, it was the third thing.
the third thing was the beyond heartbreaking, soul-shattering sobs that you heard come through the wall. paper-thin walls had become a bittersweet troupe to new york, and you often had done your best to respect your neighbors privacy whenever you could hear them and... whatever they were doing. especially peter.
you hadn't heard a noise like this from him before, though.
you were out of your window and onto the fire escape before you even knew your body was moving. climbing over the rusty metal through the dark, crisp night, you fumbled your way to peter's window just a few feet from yours. you'd only done this a few other times (in daylight, mind you), and how he did this multiple times a day was beyond you.
with the fight in your system to get to peter overcoming the flight as you resisted the urge to look down at the street 13 floors below you, a silent prayer left your lips as you hit peter's window and noticed it still unlocked from when he'd returned earlier.
there was a moment of hesitation, a flash of guilt as you contemplated the insane invasion of privacy it was to enter someone's bedroom window without asking. he hadn’t even noticed you yet, for fucks sake.
the moment passed as you heard peter choke trying to catch his breath.
pulling the window up and nearly falling through, you found him in his bed, the sight utterly gut-wrenching. if peter knew you were there, he didn't show it as he laid there, curled in on himself in fetal position, crying so hard you were sure he wouldn't have a voice tomorrow. you took a step closer, steadying your own breath as you took the view in of the strongest person you knew, spider-man, for fucks sake, choking on his own spit as he had his hands grasped around his damp curls. you watched in horror as he yanked. hard.
it was too much, and you had to intervene. you tried his name a few times, but it seemed peter was far too lost in his own head to notice.
god he can even hear her now. he tugged his hair harder, hoping the pain would drown out the voices.
"peter, please! you're hurting yourself!"
hearing her was one thing, but feeling his dead aunt's hands on his own was a new low. he'd officially fucking lost it.
"no! you're not even real!" peter screamed as he shot up right, the sudden motion catching you off guard and sending you to your ass on the hard ground.
you hit with a soft "oof", and it knocked some sense of reality back into peter as he met your gaze on the ground just below him.
"wh-what? what are you, how did you get in here?" he croaked out, confirming your previous suspicions that he'd shot his voice.
you moved to stand, watching as peter tucked himself small again to make room for you on his bed. it was immediately clear just how embarrassed he felt as he tried to wipe away his tears and snot, smoothing his tussled hair out as you cautiously sat at the edge of his bed.
"it seemed like something was wrong. guessing i was maybe right?" you tried softly, offering him what you hoped came off as empathy rather than pity.
it was hard not to - pity him - in that moment. you hadn't yet seen this part of peter. right now, he wasn't spider-man. he wasn't peter parker, top of his class at ESU. he was a broken boy, pieces shattered and laying out in front of you. you didn't know what was wrong, but from the look on his face, maybe just being here was handing him the first piece he needed to start putting it all back together again.
peter's face crumpled, fresh tears streaking down his cheeks as he launched himself into your lap. the dam broke as he let out wails that chilled down to your bones, broken "i'm sorry"'s filling the air between his gasps.
you didn't know what to do. you didn't know what was wrong. but it didn't matter in that moment as you held him tightly, pulling one of new york's mightiest heroes into your lap fully and cradling him as though he wasn't a 22 year old man. with a hand in his hair to soothe his obviously sore scalp, you whispered soft nothings into peter's ear as he continued to sob, and nothing but unintelligible "sorry"'s left his chapped lips.
you stayed like that for god knew how long, letting him get it all out. you didn't care that his tears were starting to soak through your sleep shirt, or that he was drooling against your arm as he fought to catch his breath. you didn't care. you just cared that he was as safe as he could be in your arms right now, and that he wasn't alone anymore. it broke your heart to see him so hurt. someone who saved you from a man in an alley with nothing but the flick of his wrist and a quick-witted comment, now bawling in your lap and apologizing as if he had been the one to hurt you that day.
after a while, peter eventually began to quiet down, his cries fading into soft sniffles. his once heavy, labored breathing started to even out as he used his remaining energy to match the deep and steady pace you had set out for him long ago.
soon, it settled even further, and you looked down to see a sleeping peter parker collapsed across your lap. you smiled at the sight, relieved to see his body finally relaxed. with the upmost caution, you shifted so that peter was laying back on his bed, and tucked his blanket gently around him. reaching up to brush some of the matted, sweaty hair from off his forehead, you gave a soft smile before you went to stand, but a hand landed gingerly on your wrist, causing you to turn back.
"don't go. please." it was so broken that it made tears spring in your eyes.
"i'm not going anywhere, pete. just grabbing a few things quick, okay?"
with a soft hum and the return of his steady breathing, you got up to get some supplies: a cold rag, some meds and a glass of water to soothe the headache you knew would be there in the morning, spidey-healing be damned.
you returned to sit next to him, covering his face as gently as possible with the rag. he hummed quietly, leaning into your touch as you wiped away the hours of tear tracks that had eroded his cheeks like a river does the land. you tossed the cloth to his dirty bin, tensing as you decided on your next move.
fuck it. you'd already broken in to his literal house.
you climbed into bed next to him, shimmying your way under the covers and molding yourself against his warm, tired body. he accepted immediately, arms finding their way around your waist and letting out a content sigh as your head laid on his chest. you smiled, noticing his heart rate had finally returned back to normal.
more unknown time had passed, this time much more serene than the last lost chunk of time. you'd thought he was fully out, feeling yourself pulled under the same lull before peter's voice quietly cracked through a whisper.
"it's my aunt's birthday today."
you moved your head to look up at him, your own eyes welling as you noticed the tears in his.
peter hadn't talked about her much. you only knew that she was gone and that he loved her wholeheartedly. he flickered down to meet your gaze before looking away again, and you began to draw comforting patterns over his chest in an encouragement to continue.
"i... i lost her last year. it was my fault, i... i-i couldn't-" he was cut off by his own choked sob, and you crawled further up the bed to hold him tighter, more properly.
"shh, hey. it's okay, peter. it wasn't your fault." you didn't know what had happened, but you knew there was no way in hell this was on him.
peter shuttered an exhale as he buried his face in your neck, newly wet cheeks smushed against your warm skin. "it's her birthday. and... and for the first time, she's just not here."
his voice was barely audible towards the end, and you held him even closer at the admission. you rubbed his back and exaggerated your steady breaths for him to mimic again as you laid there with him, allowing him to simply not be alone with this.
"i'm sorry i kept you up. i'm sorry i didn't come to dinner. i'm sorry about all of this." peter sounded like he was eight years old again.
you pulled back slightly, just enough to meet his eyes. "peter, please. you don't have to apologize to me. thank you so much for telling me."
his eyes wavered in your gaze before he dropped it, nestling his head back against you with a quiet, "okay". your hand found his hair again, the other still firmly planted on his back.
"can i ask you a question?" he just hummed in acknowledgment.
"what was your favorite thing about her, pete?"