#1 STOPWATCH

Chapter 17

"Peter, I'm fine."

( I totally understand what you meant by not knowing if we could walk.) White was responding to the pain surging along the bottoms of his feet. 

'I know.' He was getting better at keeping his responses silent. 

"No, you're not. You might look better this morning but you are most defiantly not fine. How did you heal so quickly anyway?" Peter asks before shoving another mouthful of pancakes into his face.

"I heal from any injury, nothing can kill me. "

"I know. You talked about it earlier... About how it happened and all but I still have questions." Peter awkwardly poked at a pancake with his fork.

(Oh he's totally still jealous. He wants to be marked. In a non cutting way of course. We could make it on his throat so he can't hide it. To show everyone he's claimed and ours.)

"No, I'm his." Wade corrected quietly. He wasn't sure what the boxes thought Peter was jealous over.

"Hm?" Peter frowned.

"What exactly do you have questions about?" Wade asked rather than repeating the response to the box.

"Well. I know you live with the cancer but how does it change? I thought your healing factor held it in one place for something?" Peter was hesitant, intuitive enough to know he was treading on thin ice. I wanted answers to explain why Wade was . . . in such a gross predicament when Peter came upon him.

"Well no. No it doesn't do that. You see, I died at some point but managed to kick start my healing factor in the process."

(You mean he killed us and we kick-started the factor out of pure rage.)

[Thirst for revenge.] Yellow added quietly. [ That's all we wanted.]

They could tell themselves whatever would let him sleep at night. 

"But at the time my cancer had become worse in the process. So my healing factor started up when I had advanced stage four," Wade glanced down at himself. He couldn't remember if he was ugly back then or whether it was still hiding under his skin at that point. 

Peter had hesitantly but sternly denied him the option of clothing once he's recovered from the floor, declaring what clothes he could find to be too rough for Wade's still sensitive skin. Instead, He'd handed Wade his fuzzy Spider-Man blanket from the couch. Which had been more humiliating than the prospect of walking around bare. 

Peter nodded. 

"So the healing factor is stuck between trying to cure me of the sickness and recognizing it as being a part of me that needs to live. Past few days, last night especially has just been the healing factor bending to the cancer's favor. It goes back and forth."

"So this will happen again?" Peter asked, hand stopping the movement of bringing another slice of pancake to his mouth.

"Well, it doesn't happen often. Or I mean at least not lately. It can get worse. Nothing anyone can do about it." Wade muttered, hugging the blanket closer in an attempt to hide himself more. 

"Worse?" Peter's eyes wided.

[You shouldn't have told him that! He's horrified by the thought of us being able to become any uglier!]

"But it isn't permanent. Just lasts a day or so." Wade tried to reassure him. "Sometimes I can look really good too, almost normal." He could hear his own desperation as he spoke. He wondered if that was actually what Peter was thinking or if he was just following the prompts of the voices.

[Yeah. It looks like our fucking face is melting off on the even worse days. Don't worry Pete. You'll love it.]

(It's not that bad. Sure feels like it though.)

[Doesn't matter either way. All you are is a monster. A hideous monster from the nightmares of a nightmare itself. And you get worse.] Yellow hissed at Wade, causing him to physically recoil into himself.

"And there's nothing you can do? Is there nothing I can do? There has to be something right?" Peter asked.

"No," Wade answers.

[Not that he'd want to help you if he could!] Yellow snapped.

White and Wade both shrink away from the poisonous box in Wade's mind.

(But Peter says he takes care of what he says is his.) White tried to object.

[Oh, like anyone would believe we belong to him. Only someone desperate like you two would. Neither of you use your heads.] Yellow continued on with his rant of hate towards the two and Peter.

Wade hated when Yellow became like this. It was worse than when the box became depressed or when he would continue to whisper awful things into his mind, sucking away Wade's confidence and happiness purposely. Sure, sometimes White's mood could change easily but White never went out of his way to try and make Wade kill himself without deep persuasion on Yellow's half. Yellow was just a deep, dark black hole that only tried to suck the life out of Deadpool.

Wade wanted his gun. He wanted to shut up the boxes. If Yellow was right then he really shouldn't care if Peter didn't like it when his watch would go off.

"Wade!" Wade flinched. 

He looked back up at Peter who'd since stood up and was staring at him intently. "What are you talking about?" Peter demanded.

"What?"

" ou where just mumbling. What do you mean? Why wouldn't you believe that I see you as mine? Who the fuck is Yellow? "

Wade stared at Peter aware of the horrified expression he had put on unwillingly. 

He had been talking out loud.

No, worse.

Yellow had taken over and was talking out loud. How had Wade let that happen? He never allowed the boxes to slip up if he could. He thought he was in control. He'd just praised himself for keeping his mouth shut.

(Clearly not.)

"Peter. I- "

[Don't tell him that.] Yellow hissed

"Why should I listen to you?" Wade snarled venomously back at the box.

He received an offended look from Peter as his own face shifted back to the wounded and confused expression he had addorned moments before he stopped to speak to the box.

"Peter I didn't. I.."

"You weren't talking to me." Peter finished watching the Merc with a distrustful but steady expression.

Wade felt like sinking into the chair he was sitting in and just turning invisible. He doesn't want Peter to know about his boxes.

Special thanks to Patron Jade for their pledge. Their support has brought to you this edited edition of Stopwatch. If you would like to see more of Stopwatch edited in the future, consider pledging $1 to my Patreon. Link in bio.

(Originally published 2016, officially edited 2023)

Until next time~ Shadow-Assassin)

god I hate this story . . .