Bug Bites

Chapter| Twenty-Four

Thirty hours.

For thirty hours Peter Parker waited in anticipation for Marinette to return back New York. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he could tell he freaked Aunt May out when he decided to do a sudden deep cleaning around the apartment.

"Why the sudden interest in keeping clean?" May had asked, and Peter realized he never updated her on what happened and what was going on.

"Marinette...she's on her way back to New York." Peter says, and there was something about saying it out loud that caused a weight to be lifted off his shoulders.

Yet there was still an unsureness he felt, and May saw it. She saw how his shoulders were still squared up and not relaxing with relief. There was more to the story, she knew it but she knew how hard it was on Peter when she first went missing. He hadn't been old enough to remember his parent's deaths, so Marinette was his first loss. She could only imagine what it was Marinette had gone through, but right now wasn't the time to ask what happened to her. Her priority was Peter.

"Penny for your thoughts?" May softly asks, reaching to touch Peter's shoulders to snap him out of his thoughts.

Peter turned towards her, "I was cleaning the apartment because this was her home too. This is her home, but what if she doesn't want to come back here? What if she thinks she no longer has a home? Or want anything to do with me? She was a savior of Paris, a hero over there and has so much responsibilities. I always thought being Spider-Man was hard, but she makes it look like child's play. She was taken, tortured and loss her kwami. She was mind controlled and made to hurt others-"

May silenced him by grabbing his hand tightly in her's, shaking her head and taking on a stern look in her eyes. She understood now it was the fear Marinette had outgrown him from her life and no longer had room. She knew how much he wanted her home to be here with him, because he didn't want her alone in the world. His heart had always been big, but she never realized how big it truly was.

"She's been through a lot Peter, but you being here as a constant- that matters. Most people would say at your age you don't know what love is, but I know you love her. You wanted to protect her from your secret, you were there for her to help pick up broken pieces of her heart. The bond you two share is truly beautifully mesmerizing. The first time you brought her here, I saw the change in you. Then I saw it in her as well. She looked at you with the same eyes you looked at her with." May offered him a smile, "I watched as she opened up to you, as she got comfortable here in our home and watched as she slowly made her way into your heart, and into mine. Yet she also had a secret of her own, one similar to yours and just imagining what she went through before she came here, and what she went through after she came here- she won't be the same girl sweetheart, but those eyes will be the same as well as her feelings for you."

"How can you be so sure about that?" Peter tenderly questioned.

May chuckled softly, "I lost your parents, and I lost your Uncle Ben. Loss isn't easy. Especially if someone else caused the incident. Your uncle was murdered, and there was this anger I felt. A part of me wanted to go out and find him, make him pay somehow even though I realistically knew I couldn't. Everyone reacts differently, but being constant in her life even if she pushes you away, it won't be something she won't notice. Reminding her of the life she had before, it can help but don't push her. Let her come back here when she's ready. Just be there. Be her rock."

Peter understood in parts what May was saying, but there was a part of him that knew somehow it was going to be a rocky road. He didn't understand the anger of loss, not on the level Marinette knew it. It was one trauma after another. He did remember the anger when she first was taken, he wanted to find her and make the person pay too.