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“You ready?”
Peter looked up at his dad, a little nervous, but also excited. He nodded, giving him a small smile, and Dick ruffled his hair and had them both enter the zeta tube. Moments later, Peter was blinking as his vision adjusted to the sudden change in scenery, as they arrived at the famous Titans Tower.
It didn’t look too terribly different, style-wise, from a typical hero base. But it was still interesting to see the place where his dad had spent so much of his time growing up. The decor was relatively simple, if a bit futuristic, but Peter was fascinated nonetheless.
“This looks a little like a spaceship and the Compound merged together,” Peter said, looking around curiously.
“Nah, the real spaceship is the Watchtower. I bet you’ll see it too, one day. This way for now, though, kiddo. I told the others I had something to tell them, and to meet me in the common room.” Dick rested his hand on Peter’s shoulder, guiding him down a short hallway that opened up into a room with couches and chairs scattered about in a way that was almost tasteful, but looked a little too lived in to reach it.
A group of people were clustered around the seating area, talking and laughing. Peter’s eyes widened behind his mask as he recognized them from photos and his dad’s stories, and he paused, abruptly feeling nervous in a way he hadn’t since he’d met the Avengers for the first time. Arguably, this was even more important, because these weren’t just his heroes, but some of his dad’s oldest friends. If they didn’t like him…
The hand on his shoulder squeezed reassuringly, and he glanced up briefly to meet Dick’s gaze, before the older hero flashed him a grin and cleared his throat loudly.
The chatter cut off abruptly, and they both were suddenly faced with the abrupt attention of all the others in the room. Having faced down alien invasions, villains, and the end of the world, Peter was still a teenager, and he couldn’t help but shuffle a little closer to his dad’s side after suddenly being stared at by a room of strangers.
“Hey guys! Thanks for coming,” his dad said, guiding them both a little closer. His hold on Peter shifted, so that instead of grasping Peter’s shoulder, he had wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “I have someone for you to meet.”
“No way,” Gar said, eyes lighting up. Peter was pretty sure he remembered his dad saying his hero name was Beast Boy. “Don’t tell me you have another new sibling? Bats has to chill out sooner or later.”
“Not a sibling,” Dick said, smiling like a cat just served a whole bowl of cream. “Guys, meet my kid.”
There was stillness in the air for a single moment, before everything erupted into chaos. Peter watched as his dad smiled smugly through it all. Eventually though, he raised a hand and the others fell silent. A woman covered in stars looked over to Peter first - Donna, Troia, if he remembered his dad’s stories right.
“How old is this kid, anyway? There’s no way he’s any younger than fourteen at least,” she said, studying him closely. “How long have you been hiding him from us, Boy Wonder?”
“I’m eighteen,” Peter said before he could help himself, unable to not sound slightly offended at being mistaken for being four years younger than he actually was. “Well, barely. But still.”
“Eighteen.” Cyborg - Victor - would have done a spit-take if he’d been drinking anything, Peter suspected, based on the look on his face. He glanced severely at Dick, emphasizing his words and demanding the other explain.
Peter got it. He’d have questions too, if he found out one of his friends had been potentially hiding a kid for eighteen years. Or had a kid that was just about a decade younger than his friend - he still hadn’t asked exactly how old Dick was, but he knew his dad was in his late twenties.
“I know, he’s gotten so big,” Dick said, the slightest hint of genuine remorse in his tone that had Peter looking at him in surprise, despite the broad, entertained smile on his face. “All grown up and everything.”
“Dick,” a woman with hair like fire said softly, and Peter knew immediately she must be Starfire - Kori, in most of the stories his dad had told. A moment later, Peter got to witness his dad crumple like a soggy paper bag in front of her ‘interrogation’.
“Okay, okay,” Dick said, losing a bit of his smugness for sincerity as he gave in. “This is my kid, he is eighteen, but he’s from another universe. He’s here to stay, though he works part-time in his old universe, still.”
At that, Dick glanced down at Peter encouragingly, and Peter turned his attention back to the others who were now looking at him expectantly. Beneath his mask, he bit his lip briefly, lifting a hand to wave a little awkwardly.
“Hi, I’m Spider-man,” he said, then hesitated. Flicking one more glance to his dad, he signalled the suit to retract his mask. If his dad trusted all these people with his face and identity, then Peter could too. “My name is Peter, it’s nice to meet you all.”
An eager noise sounded a moment before a pair of strong arms wrapped around him excitedly. Peter’s sixth sense - the name was still a work in progress - hadn’t warned him, so he didn’t worry he was in danger. But, he was surprised, and he sputtered a bit as fiery-red hair got in his mouth.
“He looks just like you, Dick!” Kori exclaimed, pulling back to look at Peter’s features more closely, a smile wide across her face. She was so genuine in her enthusiasm, that Peter found himself relaxing almost instantly, and smiling slightly back at her. “And he’s a hero, just like you!”
“Different gimmick though,” Victor pointed out. “This one’s a bug, not a bird. How’d that happen?”
“I have spider powers, why would I style myself after a bird?” Peter asked, a slight mischievous glee forming at the bafflement in the older hero’s expression. After letting the others sit on that for a second, he gave in and explained. “Lab accident. Kind of. Also, spiders are arachnids, not insects.”
A quiet snort from the corner caught his attention as his eyes caught on the last member of the Titans his dad had led. Raven, or Rachel, was curled up in the corner of a chair. She caught his attention, and winked subtly. Peter smothered a smile of his own.
“So, spider powers, huh? What does that look like?” Donna asked, looking curious.
Peter glanced up at Dick to see if he should, and when his dad just looked at him expectantly, grinned back at her.
“Like this!” He took a step sideways from his dad and Kori and tensed, then jumped and flipped midair so that he was clinging to the ceiling. It was one of his favorite things to do to mess with people, even once they knew. Sure, he could use his web shooters, but that wasn’t a natural ability. If someone had enough strength to cling to the webs while swinging, anyone could do it with enough practice. Theoretically, at least.
“Gar, do not turn into a giant spider!” Victor said immediately, catching Gar just in time for the other hero to pause, halfway to his feet. The other pouted a little, but sat back down. Victor turned his attention back to Peter. “Is that the suit or you?”
“Me,” Peter said simply, before shooting a web to the ceiling and lowering himself down slowly, upside down. “This is tech, though. Well, not in all universes. Apparently in another universe, this is me too. How cool is that? I want spinnerets, too, it’s so not fair.”
“How interesting!” Kori flew a short ways into the air and inspected the webbing. “Did you create this?”
“Yeah! I made it during science class in my freshman year of highschool,” Peter said, grinning at her excitedly. “The teacher was always busy with the other students, so I had plenty of time to… experiment.”
“He’s a genius,” Dick said proudly, looking up at him fondly. “Made a new element in the Cave while we were on patrol one night, and built a particle accelerator from scratch the same evening.”
“Okay, but Mister Stark made the element first,” Peter protested, bending backwards a bit to meet his dad’s gaze. “That was just copying. I’ve read his formula and notes.”
“But, you still managed to understand it and successfully remake it yourself,” Dick countered. “Unless you’re saying he showed you that before?”
Peter fell silent, narrowing his eyes a little at his dad as he tried to come up with a counter to that, that still proved his point. After a moment, he finally sighed and righted himself, dropping soundlessly to the floor.
“Still, following instructions is easy,” he murmured, feeling a slight pout on his face. Dick laughed and ruffled his hair again, squeezing him to his side briefly.
“Whatever you say, kiddo,” he said in a sing-song voice.
“It’s so weird to see you in ‘dad mode’,” Gar said, looking fascinated. “You were kind of similar when you were in charge of Damian, but not like this. This is… like, full-on dad mode.”
“Well, he is my dad,” Peter pointed out. “At least, the version of him in this universe, anyway. So it makes sense. Right?”
“Perfect sense,” Dick agreed, exchanging a grin with him.
“I think it’s wonderful you two found each other!” Kori said, reaching out to hold each of their hands with one of hers briefly. “Neither of you had any obligations to each other, but you chose to stay with each other anyway.”
“I couldn’t have left him,” Dick said simply, glancing down at Peter again. “Not once I knew.”
“And I couldn’t walk away from him,” Peter admitted quietly, looking away from the group. “Not after… losing all the others.”
Silence met that statement, until Dick’s arm pulled him close.
“So yeah, this was kind of inevitable,” he said, drawing the attention away from Peter again. He quirked a smile at the others. “And, now that he has settled into everything here, I wanted him to meet you guys. In another life, you’d have been his honorary aunts and uncles since birth.”
“Honorary?” Donna asked, smiling with her eyebrows raised.
“He’s got plenty of actual ones,” Dick shrugged, matching smile on his face. “Honorary is the best I can do, Wonder Girl.”
“We should celebrate!” Gar said, an excited grin taking over his features. “Pizza from the usual place? Peter doesn’t have any allergies or restrictions, does he?”
“Not that we’ve found so far,” Dick agreed, causing Gar to cheer and race out of the room.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t go too wild,” Rachel said with a slight smile as she stood and followed him out of the room.
“Oh, I’ll go get the cookies I made the other day!” Kori grinned, floating in her excitement as she flew out of the room too.
Peter figured that would be the end of the abrupt exits, but Donna and Victor both exchanged alarmed glances at Kori’s words and took off at a run behind her without another word. He stared after them, baffled, then glanced up at Dick to hopefully get an explanation. He found his dad pinching the bridge of his nose with a fond but exasperated smile.
“Kori is notoriously bad at cooking,” he explained, opening his eyes and looking over at Peter. “Seriously. Don’t eat what she gives you without checking it first.”
“Got it,” Peter said, before smiling slyly. “So when you get back together with her, and she inevitably stays the night, don’t stick around for breakfast, you’re saying?”
Dick’s eyes went wide, and he sputtered entertainingly as a flush spread across his cheeks. He stared at Peter with a mix of shock and betrayal, before his eyes flicked tellingly to where Kori had disappeared.
“You need to stop spending so much time with Jason,” he said with feeling, rubbing a hand over his face. “He tells you too much.”
“The two of you have pretty obvious soft spots for each other,” Peter pointed out, watching his father grimace in renewed embarrassment. “But, if you are the Nick Parker to her Elizabeth James, consider me your Hallie and Annie two-in-one.”
“What?” Dick asked, embarrassment forgotten in favor of his confusion. Peter sighed. Nobody ever got his movie references - especially in this dimension where some of them didn’t even exist. Not like Ned did. Feeling a pang of grief he didn’t want to explore right then, Peter moved on from that thought quickly, shunting it to the side.
“What I’m trying to say is that if anything does happen with her,” he said, choosing his words carefully, wanting to make sure it all came out right, “I approve. I like her, and you look… happier around her.”
Dick blinked, then smiled at him, dragging him in with the arm around his shoulders to press a kiss to his hair. It was Peter’s turn to feel a little embarrassed, still not used to this kind of affection from anyone but his Aunt May, despite getting more of it from his current family than he had in quite a while.
“You’re a good kid,” Dick said fondly, before looking towards the door the others had disappeared through and sighing. “We’d better go join them. You’ll find heroes of any age left alone together for long tend to find trouble.”
“Sounds about right,” Peter laughed, thinking back to the heroes of his home dimension, and the chaos they all got up to. “Hey, Dad? Thanks for letting me meet them.”
“Of course, you’re family, and so are they.” Dick’s voice was matter of fact, as if there were no other option. He opened his mouth to say more, but the sound of a crash cut him off. Exchanging a look with Peter, they dropped the conversation for the moment, rushing into the other room to see what was going on.
Heroes weren’t as different across dimensions as one might think.