Here to Help

Safe? Let's keep it that way

TWs: Discussion of suicide event, mentions of abuse, and while Peter doesn't actually have an eating disorder, his behavior/the descriptions may be triggering to some.

"Peter, stop looking at the price tags, they don't matter," I said. Peter looked up at me, then dropped the tag on a pair of pants and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking nervously around the store. Peter had only one thing in the cart: a pair of jeans from the clearance aisle. He seemed to be having a very hard time trying to find something that he wouldn't feel guilty for getting. I kept trying to assure him he wasn't being greedy but it wasn't doing much good.

Peter knew that he couldn't wear the same clothes every day, but he seemed to be terrified of getting new ones at the same time.

"C'mon kid, there's gotta be something in this store you like," I said. Peter looked around, an almost scared looked growing on his face.

"I--I'm sorry Mr. Stark, it's just everything here is so expensive looking--"

"Oh my god!" I said, smacking myself on the forehead. Peter jumped, then stared at me like I was crazy. "Jesus I'm an idiot , I brought you to a billionaire style store instead of a Peter Parker style store--"

"A what now?"

I grabbed Peter's hand and started pulling him out of the boutique.

"Of course you don't like any of the stuff here, you don't go to stores where they sew the clothes with gold thread. I'm taking you somewhere more your speed."

"My speed?" Peter said, as we hopped into the car.

"Yep." I pulled up the location on my phone, then held it out for Happy to see. "Drive us here Happy."

Happy grumbled and then set off. Peter wrung his hands beside me, looking more and more worried.

"Hey," I said, and he looked at me. He looked so scared that I squeezed his hand. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm just--I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You seem nervous," I said.

"I, um, well a little bit, but I'm okay," he said. But he didn't relax. I almost said more, but Happy pulled into a parking lot and I looked out the window. And I couldn't help but grin at what I saw.

It was a Target store. Not a billionaire, I-pay-people-to-look-at-me store. Just a normal Target.

"Is this more your speed Underoos?" Peter looked out the window and gasped.

"Are you kidding? My speed is fuckin' Goodwill--This is awesome!" he said excitedly. "Aunt May never liked buying me clothes, she would just grab random stuff off the racks in the men's section at Goodwill and make me wear them. Most of it wasn't the right size."

I couldn't help feeling sad for him, but he was out of the car before I could say anything.

When Peter entered the store, he gazed around it like a child on Christmas day, looking far too excited for someone entering a common grocery store. He practically skipped to the menswear area, and started sifting through all the clothes without having to be prompted at all.

Peter found several superhero and science joke shirts that he liked, and after I reassured him that yes he could buy all of them, we went to the changing rooms to try some on.

But it only took one outfit for Peter to realize something was wrong. He came back out of the changing rooms with most of the clothes still folded up in their original position, and a frown on his face.