Xara's Guide To Befriending Superheroes (Not Clickbait):-
Rule 1: Call him a serial killer.
Rule 2: Blackmail him.
Rule 3: Be in love with his alter ego.
MCU!Peter Parker story.
Book [1] of the Paracosm series (but can also be read as a stand-alone).
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⋆ thirteen ⋆
The moment I get home from work, the yells pierce my ears. In the last couple of years, Dad barely spoke a word, but his shouts now bounce off the walls and I feel sick at just the thought. It gets even worse when I hear Ky yelling back – calm Ky, kind Ky, gentle Ky.
"You need to fucking grow up, Dad! Xara and I need a father, and I'm sick of this! You can't just keep bullshitting around the place like you have been!"
"You have no idea what you're saying! If you were in my position–"
"Yeah, 'if I was in your position then I'd understand', I've heard it from you a billion times already. But you know what, Dad? It's not only you that lost your wife! I lost my mom, too! Xara lost her mom, and she doesn't even have a dad!"
"She has a dad!" Dad yells back, and the constant mention of my name makes me flinch before I slowly close the door, edging around the door to see the two fighting by the kitchen. "But I have a lot going on right now! I'm still trying to cope, and as the man of the house and my eldest son, I expect you to understand that!"
"What, so am I meant to say that I'm still trying to cope, too? That I have a lot going on, too? I don't make fucking excuses, Dad! You're the father, you need to grow up and be responsible for your actions! I'm nineteen! I'm not supposed to carry the family! I'm not supposed to go out to work every day and know that the money I carry off my back is supposed to support the entire family! Even Xara's gone out to work because you don't do a fucking thing in this house!"
"How dare you talk like that to me!" Dad booms. "I am your father! Not the other way around!"
"So prove it to me! Prove it to all of us!"
"I wasn't cut out for any of this! Your mother–"
"Oh, right." Ky laughs scornfully, fury burning his eyes. "Because Mom was our only parent. Sure seems like it, doesn't it, Dad?!"
"I just want her back!"
"Yeah, you want mom back? Well, I wanted to go to college, Dad!" For a second, his words ring out, echoing around. College. Ky never spoke about college to me. "I wanted to learn, and make something of myself. But instead I have to help pay the bills because you drink away our money, and I have to be happy with it. I have to be the perfect child and keep us going, so Xara can get into college, so we can pay the bills, so our broken home doesn't seem as broken as it actually is! So don't talk to me about responsibility, Dad!"
"You don't–"
"Go out and get a fucking job instead of lying to Xara! Because in her heart, she still has faith in you. She doesn't dare show it, she doesn't dare say that she still has trust in you where I don't, because she still thinks one day you're going to change and fix our family when it's far beyond fixing! In nine years, you've done nothing but ignore her, make her feel like she's worthless, like she shouldn't even be alive!"
