Our Little Family (Peter Parker)
Plot: You and Peter are first time parents.
Character: Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) x Reader
Requested by anon : thank you! I’d written this and then lost the file so this is rewritten with as much of the same detail I could remember! xx
He doesn’t know what to do. He’s waited a little under nine months for this moment to come and now that it’s here, he doesn’t really know what to do. His heart hammers in his chest as he stares at you in complete awe and shock. He almost wants to pinch himself to make sure that this isn’t a dream. He doesn’t though because if this is a dream then it’s the best damn dream he’s ever had and he doesn’t want to ever wake up from it.
“Pete?” You ask, voice croaky and tired. You can see the fear in his eyes, see the hesitation he has, “You want to hold her?” You look down at the tiny sleeping baby in your arms. She’s barely an hour old and he’s yet to hold her, he kept shaking his head and telling you to have her first. ‘I know how important skin to skin is,’ he said. But now, it’s his turn and you can see how panicked he is at the prospect. You tell him that it’s okay, she’s okay and it’s going to be fine.
“Y-Yeah,” he nods quickly with that kind of ‘I’ve no idea what you just asked me’ nod. She looks tiny in your arms, almost impossibly small. Tiny, he muses in his head, maybe that’ll be her nickname. You haven’t even named her and yet he already had a nickname lined up. He liked nicknames, that’s why he had hundreds for you. He had cheesy ones that would make you roll your eyes and laugh at him, had ones that were sweet and had ones that could never be heard outside of the bedroom. He likes nicknames, likes the intimacy between the two people who know the story of the nickname. He imagines calling your daughter Tiny and telling her when she’s a little older how small she was, exaggerating the story to make her laugh by saying silly things like ‘you were so small I could fit you inside the palm of my hand and carry you around in my pocket’. He’s excited for those days where you can run around and talk to him but he doesn’t want to wish away your childhood just yet. He just has to get past this stage, hold you for the first time and then he’ll be okay.
You extend your arms, holding her out to him as you watch him. He’s terrified as he reaches forward but he puffs his chest out to make himself feel braver, a habit picked up through years of forcing himself to be brave. He’s terrified that he won’t be good for your daughter, that he’ll end up causing harm to her or to you; it’s happened in the past and yes, he’s much more careful and thorough but the worry still lingers. He’s terrified of leaving you and your daughter, what if what happened to his dad or to Uncle Ben happens to him and he’s taken too soon and too quickly? He hates that thought. It took years of reassurance from you and through the help of a therapist to get out of that mindset. He wishes he didn’t feel this way. You always told him that you liked that he had these worries, not liking how they upset and plagued him, but you would tell him to use them to his advantage so that they never came to fruition. Even despite losing his father and then losing Uncle Ben way too soon, he wouldn’t change it for the world. All he can do is try to make them proud. They did their best and that’s all that he can do too.
You help him take her, helping to adjust her position in his arms. “Hey, hey,” he coos gently as she fusses from being moved, “You’re okay, everything’s okay.” At this point, you don’t know if he’s reassuring himself or her. Once he’s got her, you lean back, watching with the widest smile on your face. He looks down at her with the same expression you see when he looks at you; love. It’s a different kind of love now but my god, you’d recognise his love a mile away especially with that wide, toothy grin. The way he looks at her, so awestruck and in love. Tears steadily track down his cheeks as he stares at her and then, her eyes open and she’s staring up at him, blinking in the bright hospital light, “Hi,” he croons, laughing out a half laugh half sob, “hey, pretty girl. Look at you, huh? It’s me, it’s your dad.” This was Peter’s destiny, his next great adventure. He had a lot actually. He was Spider-Man, a son, a nephew, a friend, your boyfriend, your fiancé, your now husband and now… now he was a father too. This was his next great adventure and you knew that once he got over that initial fear and that initial hesitation, he’d be great. You can’t help but cry as you watch him laugh and speak with her. Your daughter’s limbs flail and he takes her hand. She clutches onto his finger and he raises his head to look at you, “She’s holding my thumb!” He says in a half whisper, half exclaim.
Then you’re laughing that kind of laugh that says, ‘I haven’t slept in over twenty four hours and I don’t know whether I’m laughing or crying’. He approaches you, pressed a long kiss to your forehead, “Can you believe this?” You ask, wiping at your eyes as Peter sits on the edge of the hospital bed and the two of you stare down at your little bundle of joy who’s now back to sleeping in his arms, “We’ve got a beautiful little girl who still doesn’t have a name.”
“May,” he murmurs, smiling down at her. He doesn’t mean to say it, it just kind of happened, “I-I’m sorry, I know we never spoke about it- I just… I can’t help but think how much Aunt May would’ve loved to have been here to meet this pretty girl.” Aunt May had passed a little over eight months ago, a couple of weeks after you’d told her that you were pregnant. She was overjoyed and you knew that she would’ve loved to meet your little one. You and Peter hadn’t yet picked a name, you’d narrowed it down to a few and May wasn’t on the list.
You looked down at her, tracing circles on her tiny little hand, “May,” you whisper, mulling it over as you stare intently at her. Peter tenses, “I love it.” He breathes out a relieved breathy laugh, “May Parker… it’s nice to meet you.”
He kisses your cheek before looking down at your daughter, “May Parker, you are the most loved girl in the whole world.” He makes a promise to himself in that moment; a promise to keep you both as safe as possible, to make you happy and to always be there for the two of you, no matter what, “I love you,” he whispers in your ear, “I love our little family.” He isn’t scared anymore, he’s excited.