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SHIELD Academy
Queens. New York
12:30 AM
It had been a good idea, at the time.
Spending the night at the academy, all the Web Warriors together - it sounded okay to Ben. It wasn’t like he had anything to hide, afterall. He’d been open about his mental issues since that first birthday of his, and he was officially getting looked at for them by Dr. Connors and a psychiatrist. Did he trust the psychiatrist? Hell no. But Peter had been accompanying him every time, so so far he had had that to trust at the very least. Ben was thankful for his ‘twin’ doing that for him.
So when Peter suggested this ‘slumber party’ at first to Ben, he was unsure. Afterall, the last party he was in set him off in a lot of ways. Peter explained to him that it was going to be a small affair, and would even have dimmed lights and horror movies. After that, Ben was in. He packed himself a set of pajamas, his toothbrush, his hoodie of course, and especially his stuffed cat Jason, which he gave a final pat as he put it in his duffel with a soft smile. He was excited, if he was honest. They rarely invited him to anything.
And Peter had been right, he did enjoy himself. He munched on hershey kisses as they watched a variety of movies, not just horror (Princess Bride was not a bad movie in his opinion, he was going to have to add it to his normal rotation, told stories to one another (Ben got to scare the shit out of Flash, that had made him laugh a little), play video games (He absolutely took the trophy in Mortal Kombat, Amadeus’s skills as Sektor were nothing compared to Ben’s as Reptile), and eventually they all got ready for sleep and settled on into their respective bunks, one of the reasons they decided on SHIELD Academy for the location. Ben pulled out Jason close to then, sliding on his gray fleece hoodie and falling asleep with the stuffed cat in his arms, hugging it closer. It had been enjoyable. Ben almost wanted to suggest another in the morning.
Then the nightmares came.
They started off tame, with the Web Warriors not accepting him back. Not comfortable, but definitely something he could disregard and sleep through. Then it stepped up, with the memories of Kaine turning the Spider Slayers on him. Not pleasant, as Ben screwed his eyes a little and squirmed, but he could still remain in sleep.
Then Doc Ock’s cackle and grin flashed in his head.
Ben’s breath hitched, as he squirmed more in his sleep from memories, fake and real, tormenting him. The memories of him being nothing but a loyal hound to Ock were something Ben tried to never dwell upon, and he usually kept it pretty stuffed into the far reaches of his mind.
And now it was coming right back to him.
“ I will be back, Scarlet Spider. Just you wait. ”
“NO!!!” Ben shot up with a scream, his barbs shooting up from his wrists. One stabbed into the bunk, and the other nearly pierced Peter’s face as he immediately got back. Ben breathed heavily, tears budding in his eyes. Shit, he didn’t mean for that to happen. “Peter- You okay-?” He tried to swallow, as his barbs retracted and his hands began to shake. Peter took them, running his thumb over his hands as he tried to calm him down. Ben appreciated the sentiment, but him calming down wasn’t his focus. He tore his hands away from Peter and began to wring them, like a raccoon washing it’s hands. “I didn’t hurt you did I-”
“I’m okay Ben, honest.” Peter reassured, making Ben relax just a little bit. The horrible, twisted vision of Doc Ock was still fresh in his mind, as he tried to breathe. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Ben tried to swallow again, unable to get his breathing in order. He couldn’t form words, as he tried to play off his clear terror. He hated being vulnerable like this. Too much attention. But he just kept mumbling and slipping over words, eyes darting across his bedspread. “Take a few breaths, calm down. MJ is grabbing you some water.” Ben nodded, trying to calm down a little more before talking. Miles ran over and handed over his pillow to give Ben a different fidget so he wasn’t twisting his hands. Ben took it, twisting the corners of the pillowcase a bit. It was helping a little bit, but he rather would wring his hands so he just used it as a cushion while he continued to do that. Miles frowned but let him be. “Better?”
“A little.” Ben admitted, taking another breath. “I’m able to talk, at least.” He kept his eyes pointed to the ground, focusing only on noise. “I think that was that non-verbal thing the psychiatrist talked about.” He admitted more softly, trying to keep noises low. Louder noises were just going to make his current state worse.
“Alright, it’s a start. Now what happened? Do you wanna tell us?” Peter asked in the same soft voice, as MJ came back with a glass of water and set it on the nightstand. The images flashed in his head again, and Ben narrowed his blue eyes. He didn’t want to give it more attention than he already was. He’d let it rest tonight.
“Maybe in the morning.” He decided, giving Miles his pillow back. “I don’t want to think about it anymore.” Peter sighed.
“Ben, we’ve talked about this. If you just bury stuff, it’s only going to get worse - worse than even nightmares.” He stressed. “You need to talk eventually.” Ben frowned. He didn’t get why Peter was pressing on the issue. He said he’d talk in the morning.
“Yeah, and I said I will in the morning, Punk .” He argued, getting his cat and getting comfortable. “Just… go back to bed.” Peter frowned as well, but did as told as the lights turned back off. Miles frowned, sitting on the bed Ben was on. Miles and Ben were fairly close by now. Ben would help him with homework or even sparring, and almost became like a big brother for the young teen. He even sat through most of Ben’s horror movies, no matter the gore or scary events. Probably because Ben wouldn’t shut up about the different special effects or the importance of the scene, or even his own notes on it. They even were writing their own horror stories together, Miles being the artist and Ben doing the writing, which he found enjoyable to use as an outlet. The two of them found their way together, and Ben enjoyed his company in some moments.
Why he hadn’t gone to bed with the others was a mystery to him.
“Was it Ock?” Miles whispered, bringing his knees up a bit. “I know it’s been a while since you’ve talked about him, but you only wring your hands that badly when talking about him.” This was true. Ben just didn’t think it was noticeable. “I won’t tell anyone, honest.” Ben took a breath, sitting up a bit as he set the stuffed cat aside. Damn this kid was observant. He didn’t want to lie to him, and Ock was still prodding against his mind.
Miles would keep his word.
“...Yeah.” Ben whispered back, averting his eyes then looking at the African American spider. “I’m okay though. I’ll… I’ll be okay, at the very least.” He tried to reassure him. “I’ll discuss it in the morning. You just get to bed, punk.” Miles took a breath and nodded, sliding off the bed. Then he paused, and turned back to Ben.
“Actually… can I stay with you? I was having a dream about my mom again and you woke me up before it could get worse.” He requested, wringing his own hands. Ben blinked, then snorted, making room on his bunk so Miles could wiggle in.
“Just don’t kick me.” He warned, pulling a blanket onto the two of them so they could use each other as nightmare repellent, Jason the Cat standing guard with his little smile.
Yeah… maybe they should do this again.