Trans Spiderman AU

Prologue(ish)

A/N: The timeline in this is all over the place. Occurs after the events of Captain America: Civil War. 

TW: There will be talk of depression, self harm, suicide, transphobia, verbal and physical harassment throughout the entire story. If this may trigger you then it might not be the best thing to read. I'll put a line of asterisks before and after anything that discusses these topics.

Peter Parker was far from an average teen. Now, every adult/parent/teacher will say that theirs is particularly exceptional, but Peter was much more. Not only was he one of the brightest minds of his generation but he also happened to have superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. On top of all of this, he wasn't always Peter. He started out as Penny. 

[Flashback to when Peter is 13 and Ben is still alive]

As he walked through the door after an arduous day of middle school filled with relentless name calling Peter sighed and dropped his bag in the middle of the cramped Queens apartment.

"Penny! What did I tell you about leaving all of your crap in the middle of the floor?" May asked as she walked into the room to start making dinner.

"Sorry Aunt May," Peter said as he quickly gathered his things and rushed into his room. He could feel tears starting to form in his eyes and quickly brushed them away. How he so hated his name. It sounded like some blonde little spoiled girl's name, which he most certainly was not. He had long, medium brown, curly hair that always seemed to be tangled due to a lack of maintenance. He was pretty tall for an 8th grader, but he wished he could get rid of his body altogether.

He sat himself down at his cluttered desk overflowing with random chemistry articles and lego bricks to work on his much too easy homework for the night. After an hour or two Uncle Ben got home and dinner was ready.

Peter quietly closed his door and made his way the whopping 7 feet to the dining table to sit with Ben. 

"How was your day at school, Penny?" Ben asked as Peter sat down.

"It was fine I guess," Peter lied after internally cringing at the sound of his given name. He was constantly picked on for being too much of a tomboy at school. Inside he knew he wasn't a tomboy, he was just a boy.

After dinner was over he hurried to his bathroom to shower and get ready for bed. How he loathed the shower. During the daytime he could hide his all too female body under masculine clothes and baggy hoodies.

**************************

As he got out of the shower, there wasn't enough steam on the mirror and he saw his chest. A horrid sight for him. He started to have a panic attack and the room quickly started to spin. His chest heaved as he struggled for breath. The only thing that relieved him was wrapping an ace bandage far too tightly around his chest until everything was gone. He accidentally went too tight and he cried out in pain as he took a deep breath.

May came running in afraid for her dear niece, only to see Peter in tears with a bandage on his chest. She had no idea what was going on.

*************************

"Penny, darling, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," Peter replied curtly, the mention of his name causing him more pain.

"Oh come on. You don't seriously think I'm going to fall for that crap."

"Look it's none of your business, May," Peter half yelled at her.

"You are obviously NOT okay, and you are my only niece who I was charged with. So cut the crap." May said starting to get annoyed.

Peter broke down and withered onto the floor. All will to fight her suddenly left. May enveloped him in a soothing hug and stroked his hair.

"Look aunt May, I'm not your niece"

"Unless I missed a whole 13 years, I'm pretty sure I am," May said with a slight laugh.

"No. I'm your nephew. Deep down I've always known, and I think you have too," Peter said in between sniffles and tears.

"Damn it!" May exclaimed. Peter knew he shouldn't have come clean. He knew it and he did it anyway. The world seemed to be closing in on him again, and he started crying harder and harder scooting away from May in the process.

"No, no, no, no. You've got it all wrong sweetie. I said damn it because I owe your uncle Ben $20," May said quickly.

Peter gawked, sitting there utterly bewildered.

"Come on, it's not like we didn't see it coming from a mile away," May smiled. "Ben knew it before I did, and I had assumed you would turn out liking girls instead. Either would have been completely fine with us and we support you no matter what."

Peter felt instant relief and started laughing with his aunt.

"Yeah I guess I didn't really hide it," he laughed.

"No you definitely didn't, Penny" May said, calming down. She notice Peter's wince at the sound of his name. "Oh I'm sorry kiddo, I guess the first thing is to decide your new name. Do you have one in mind?"

"Peter" he blurted out just a little too quickly. "My name is Peter. Peter Benjamin Parker."

At that, May smiled a smile so wide it could have melted the polar ice cap. "Ben is going to be so happy to have a nephew." 

Over the next two years things drastically changed. Peter's name was made legally official, as was his gender marker. He started Testosterone as his 15th birthday gift. Ben was murdered, and it nearly broke Peter and May. He was the light in both their lives, and they had to learn to rely on each other more. They became almost inseparable. 

Peter got bitten by the spider early in his Freshman year (making it even crazier), and it was one of the only secrets he ever kept from May. Spiderman might break her almost as bad as Ben's death did. That is until she found out. She flipped out. He had never seen her so angry, or disappointed in him. Eventually they smoothed things over after she saw the good he did for the city.