Well this is awkward...

He looks worried, or nervous. Or scared. Emotions are stupid. But one of those things is making his face go weird. Is this some kind of secret? Something she should not know? Something he should not know?

Forbidden knowledge? Or just terrible knowledge?

"Nerdanel did be saying that mothers do be carrying their children inside them. But that did be sounding even weirder than peeking into their future."

Is she going to get him into trouble by asking?

"Do you be knowing?"

"St-Storks!" Peter squeaks out almost automatically. It was the first thing to pop in his head and he suddenly understands why adults tell kids that sometimes. Except, she's also put together the part about mom's carrying children inside them.

Give him a moment as he scrubs at this face, dragging his fingers slowly down and taking in a deep breath. Can he talk to her about this? Will he get in trouble for it? He doesn't really want to talk to her about it but since the stork excuse is out-.

"Yeah... yeah, I know." She might notice his face is a bit red as he rubs at his forehead. "So um..." How did he explain this to an eleven year old? "Do you uh.." Shit, he can't do this. His face is just getting redder and redder. Someone save him.

"Do you know what pregnant means?" Yeah, that's probably a good start. Nothing embarrassing.

Storks? As in birds? Birds were responsible for mothers?

This was getting more and more confusing and Peter was getting more and more red faced and nervous.

She had asked him because she hadn't wanted to look stupid by asking someone else. But now she wondered if it was less she didn't just know and more it was something that should not be known.

"Pregnant?" She shook her head frowning but then remembered hearing the word. "It do be being an illness?"

Maybe. She had heard once of someone who was pregnant and so could not work.

He is really gonna mess this up and this is kind of important life information that he really can't afford to mess up. He can do this. It's just a conversation-an extremely awkward conversation.

"No, actually it's more uh-it's a good thing. Usually." He probably shouldn't have mentioned the usually-that's kind of a loaded thing. "Um-yeah, good thing. It just means a woman is going to have a baby-that's what carrying their child means-their body grows a child and after about nine months the baby is uh... delivered fully into the world."

Oh. That woman who couldn't work was a mother? She wrinkled her nose. "Growing it? Like a tree?" She tried to imagine how a body grew a child. It was weird. "Do it be hurting to be growing a person? How do they be growing them inside of their body? Do it be being magic? Why can only women be doing it? What about people who do no be having mothers? Where do they be coming from? Can you be growing them in different ways? How do they be delivering it into the world?"

She has so many questions. Do babies need watered? Can you see the baby growing? Babies are pretty small but she can't imagine one fitting inside another person.

Edited 2020-02-01 19:31 (UTC)

He was really hoping to get through this with out going too far into detail but of course she'd have more questions. He's back on trying to figure out how to explain this without getting too embarrassed and not sending her off to ask someone not him.

"Well, I don't know, I've heard it's really uncomfortable in later stages of the pregnancy and that child birth is really painful-and I can definitely see how... But uh, when the process starts-after uh... conception-the baby starts as just a little tiny thing you can barely see, but as it spends time in the mother is gets bigger-it develops a heart beat and and lungs and a brain." He explains carefully.

"Only women can do it-" Well that's not entirely true but getting into the whole thing about people being born in the wrong bodies is probably going to confuse the issue so he's not gonna tell her about that yet. "-because only they have the right uh... parts." God, where are the Rappin' with Cap PSA videos when he needs them? He lets out a sigh and then focuses on the bit he was most worried out.

"And that's uh... well, you can't. You have to have both a mom and a dad to grow another human. So even if you don't remember her-or them-you had to have had them."

It was painful then. But to start with the baby was so tiny you couldn't even see it? But then it got bigger and got a brain.

And only women had the right parts to grow babies? Right. She understood that. She knew men and women were different to each other.

She was following, even if there were many things she didn't understand. But then... "You do be needing a mom and a dad? I did be thinking you did be saying only women could be growing babies?"

He had literally just said that. But now he was saying you also needed a dad and dads were men.

Also she didn't have either. So there must be another way for people to be made.

Yeah, okay. He walked into that one. Man he really wished he'd thought to download some Cap' PSAs on his laptop and too bad he doesn't just have access to the internet to pull up the puberty video.

"Y-yeah-I did say that." He admits. "Only a woman can grow the child in her but it does take some um-team work." Yeah, that's what they'll call it. Team work. "From both mom and dad-the mom has an egg in her body and the dad has uh-another part-" His face is getting red again. "called a sperm cell and you have to have both-the sperm and the egg have to meet which uh.. fertilizes the egg and from there it starts growing into a person."

Team work?

She looked at him in confusion. So a woman could grow a child but a man had to give him something from inside his body and there was an egg? Where did the egg come from.

"Do you be being sure this do be being how you do be making people? Because it do be sounding very confusing and there do be being so many people, I do no be thinking anyone would be figuring this out. Also you did no be explaining how the stork do be being part of it yet."

An extra layer to something that was already ridiculous.

And for a moment he thought he was doing better than he was expecting. Nope, he's just confused her even more. He lets out a sigh and rubs his face again.

"The stork's not part of it-I just panicked and it's a think in my world-is a kid asks where babies come from you tell them a stork drops them off on the door step. But that's not true it's a whole thing-and talking about it is uh... kinda awkward and uncomfortable." He sighs again, trying to think again about how to explain it.

"Okay, so uh... both men and women have what's known as a reproductive system. A women's is different then a man's but you need both in order to reproduce-or uh-have a kid. In a woman you have this organ called a uterus and that's where the baby stays while it's growing. But you also, in the uterus have these things called ovaries-they produce eggs and every uh... thirty or so days the egg implants itself into the uterine wall and if the egg gets uh... fertilized-then you have a baby-or the start of one." just don't ask him how the egg gets fertilized.

The stork was not part of it? He had lied to her? Urgh. She's more mad at herself for not picking it up. Peter as terrible at lying, he should not have been able to fool her even for a moment.

She is unsure why it is awkward. Perhaps because it is too stupid.

So people had reproductive systems and you needed both to have children. Women had a place where babies grew. Ovaries made eggs and then implanted themselves and a baby grew? Every thirty days? That was a lot.

Or wait. Only if fertilized. "How do that be happening?"

She gets it so far. Both were needed, women somehow grew babies inside them using the sperm and the egg and teamwork but... She's still missing something because it still doesn't make sense. "How do that be happening?"

It was really too much to hope that she wouldn't ask that question. Now how to answer that. He takes another breath, his face a little redder.

"I um... with the-" He can't say that. How to get the point across without getting too graphic. "Well, uh... the dad kinda gives it to her.. sorta. In a way." That's just gonna have her asking how again. "Like with a kind of..hug. But it's not really a hug but uh something they do when they're alone. Wh-which is why it's awkward."

How red can some get? Because Peter looks like he might die if he keeps talking. She has no idea what is wrong or why he is so awkward. She's never seen him lost for words like this before.

So the dad gave the sperm to the mum who had the egg. With a kind of hug. But not a hug. Something they had to do alone and was awkward. Something private?

"Like a hug but it do no be being a hug? Like a kiss or sex or... I can no be thinking of anything else like that. But I think I do be understanding."

They went somewhere private. Did something awkward and planted a baby in the mum and then she carried it around and then it got out somehow and was a baby.

It still sounded confusing and difficult to figure out. Yet there were so many people.

"Yes!" His voice squeaks so much he might have just exploded with how red his face is now. Oh, she knew about sex then-just not that it was how babies happened. He feels like he might have just made everything even more awkward then it really had to be.

"Yes. Sex makes babies." He squeaks again, covering his face because what even is this conversation? How is she not super red?

...

Why is she not red? He looks up, his face now full of apprehension and concern as he looks at her carefully.

"...How-How do you-if you don't mind my asking.. how do you know about that?"

Sex made babies? That was the big secret? The huge thing that he was acting so weird about? When people had sex babies were made?

It doesn't make sense in a million ways but also. Peter. Is. An. Idiot. How had it taken all of this confusion just to get to this point.

"Why did you no just be saying so?" She rolled her eyes and tilted her head, "How do I be knowing about what? Sex?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I did be working in an inn, I did be telling you that already. People do be talking and they do be singing and I do be having ears. I do no be being a baby. It do just be being a stupid thing that grown ups do."

Except apparently it made babies?

He can't help the huge wave of the relief that he feels at her explanation. He supposed it was normal that kids had at least heard the word sex they just didn't really understand it until they were older-Peter's not entirely sure he even fully understands it but that might because his first encounter stunted him a little in that area.

"I-Well.. where I'm from that's-it's kinda something people don't talk about around kids? It censored out of everything for the most part and you're taught that you shouldn't do it-in fact we're taught you're bad if you do." He tells her, still rubbing at his face but still immensely relieved her history didn't match his.

"You do be being taught that it do be being bad?"

She had never been told that? Were light addled told that? She didn't think so. It was a grown up thing for sure but it wasn't a thing the light found evil like murder or theft.

"So having children do be being a bad thing where you do be coming from?" But Tony had a daughter and he as a hero of light.

But if it was considered a bad thing then that at least explained why Peter was so awkward about it.

"Yeah, sorta-I mean no, well... I don't know. The way they teach Sex-ed doesn't make any sense. It's bad but also seen as good? It depends-if you're not married to the person there's like this stigma against it until you reach a certain age then you realize hardly anyone waits that long-which is supposedly a really bad sin but-" He shakes his head.

"Um, basically it's bad if you're a kid but if you're an adult no one really cares and the way they teach it in schools and stuff is kinda backwards and kinda really degrading." He takes a breath.

"It's just a really complicated subject and kinda really uncomfortable for me, especially."

In a way it seems like she picked the best person, because if she'd asked Tony he'd of gotten scrunch faced mad about it if his world was so weird about it.

In another way it seemed like yet another thing Peter was super weird about so maybe he was the worst person to have asked. But it's not like she had known. She shrugged.

"Okay. I will no be asking any more about it."

Even if she still thought that the whole thing was implausible. Sex making babies. One of the weirdest things she's ever heard and she lives on a train that travels through a multicoloured void to different worlds.

He lets out a sigh of relief and any left over tension seems to melt away for a moment. He leans back in the hammock, hands over his face as he deliberates over something for a moment. She was under the impression that was something just adults do-and that's good but at the same time-did she know that you sometimes couldn't trust adults? She worked in an Inn-all sorts of people probably passed through there.

He takes another deep breath and sits up again. "Um.. so listen-uh.. if anyone tries to force you to do something like that-you should stab them okay? Something happened to me back when I was just a year younger then you and I didn't understand back then-and I just-if I had then maybe..." He shake his head. "Just, promise me you'll stab anyone that tries to get too close, okay?"

She sat in silence watching him, feeling weird. She hadn't meant to upset him, truly. But then again she hadn't known how stupid this was going to be when she had come in here to ask what she had hoped would be a straight forward question.

She wrinkled her nose and her frown deepened. Something had happened to him? That was bad. She can guess from context what he meant. "I do be knowing that." She said softly. "Taiwin did be giving me that talk already."

She tilted her head. "He did be saying that if anyone ever did be trying to be touching me under where my clothes do be being then I should be biting them and kicking them and stabbing their eyes out and no guard would ever be blaming me for that."

Peter probably had not even had a knife when he was younger than she was.

Peter tenses up a little more at the graphic description but he's glad this Taiwin had told her that. It wasn't really anything most adults really thought about telling kids to be aware of-or else they did but phrased it as 'don't talk to strangers.'

"Yeah, do that-do exactly that. You deserve so much better than that. It doesn't matter who it is-or what they claim their reason is-if you're uncomfortable then do what you have to. The person who... did... that to me was a friend-or I thought he was and so I was too scared to move and just let it happen-and now I can't sleep at night because even now-six years later I'm so afraid I'll have nightmares about it-I do still have nightmares. And I don't want you to have to go through that ever-I don't want anyone to have to go through that, but especially you, okay?"

So he had been betrayed by a friend and he had been scared and now he had nightmares. Six years years later. Six years was a really long time, but Peter was also scared of needles because of something that had happened when he was a tiny baby and so she's not even surprised.

She's angry though, the person who did that should be stabbed. Peter hadn't been able to stab them at the time, maybe if he had then he wouldn't be having nightmares now.

"No one will be hurting me Peter. I will be stabbing anyone who do be trying. And I will be stabbing anyone who do be hurting you too. If anyone do be trying to be doing that to you again I will be stabbing them and killing them so they can no be hurting you."

Because she was his friend.

Peter listens carefully to her words and can't help the bubble of satisfaction at the idea she'd kill anyone that tried to assault her like that. Good! They'd deserve no less but then she mention she'd stab the person that hurt him. There's an odd pang in his chest at those words and he thinks of Skip again. Would he want that to happen to him? He did consider Skip his friend for a while and part of him still doesn't want to hurt the man. But the other part is still angry about what he had to go through-what he continues to go through.

At one point he did like Skip, he liked him a lot and used to look up to him like one might a brother and it's complicated because while he's still mad and never wants to see Skip again, he doesn't think he hates him even if he should. Rather than voice his inner conflict to an Eleven year old, he just smiles and lets out a breath.

"You are one Fierce friend, you know that?" He asks her. "That's a good thing-I mean there's nothing I wouldn't do to keep my friends and family safe."

She blinks at him. A fierce friend? A good thing? She was being good at being a friend? That was a relief because honestly she didn't have a clue what she was doing! So she's glad she's gotten it sort of right!

"That do be being because you do be being a good friend too." She smiled at him gently and fell silent. She has an awful lot to think about.

"Thanks, I try." Peter just leans back in the web a bit more and then grabs his laptop from where he's got it hanging nearby and opens it up-there's a crack in the screen up in one corner and there's a few pieces of duct tape on the outer shell and a few stickers-but never mind those.

"Wanna see something cool?" He offers, pulling up his recorded videos and quickly hunting down a specific one.

Edited 2020-02-06 06:29 (UTC)

She looks at the laptop, she's seen it before obviously. But she's still fascinated by it. It looks a bit more... broken than the one mister Stark has but it clearly still works.

She nodded, she always was happy to see cool things. Even if they were inevitably confusing. She moved so she was sat closer to him and could see the screen as the video started.

A film by Peter Parker. He had made a film? A movie? They were two words for the same thing.

There was a big ball in some trees. And things going past glass very fast. When her eyes focused enough she recognised them as cars. She had seen them on the snow world. But she had seen no giant balls in trees before. New York was where he lived and Queen? There was a queen?

Then the image changed and it was the back of a head, there were more cars. They were in a car? And it was Happy. She recognised the voice. He was telling Peter he couldn't show the video to anyone. Did that mean Peter was breaking the rules right now? Was he going to get grounded again? She glanced at him, but the video shifted again and caught her attention.

They were moving towards a... What was that? Transport of some kind. With wings. Probably flew. A space craft? Peter was rambling about a bathroom and then they were inside the transport that had no pilot but apparently that was a good thing?

It looks very fancy. Apparently it was a private plane and it was Peter's first time on a plane. Was this from a long time ago? He didn't look too much younger but he had said he had been in space so maybe he had made this before that.

He sounded nervous. Happy didn't seem... well happy with him. But he dealt with it mostly through ignoring him. He might be basically a fancy weird-world version of Taiwin but he had a lot less of a temper. Especially when Peter snuck up on him. She would never have gotten away with that. She would never have dared.

Then the scenes changed quickly, people and buildings and horses on rooftops and shaking and Peter still talking about not knowing why he was in Berlin and that Captain America had gone crazy. She knew Captain America, Peter had spoken about him before. Wasn't he a hero of light from his world? How had he gone crazy.

Then he was in his spider clothes, except different. And wrong. Apparently. More talking. More Happy being far more patient than any handler she had ever known. Not even the most pampered noble children she had seen on her missions would get away with being so... Like Peter. There weren't even words for what he was. She sighed.

But he found the case and a note and his suit. More like his real suit now. He sounded impressed. She guessed T.S was Tony Stark. He made the suit. She already knew that so it didn't take much to figure out.

She rolled her eyes when Peter asked if it was for him. Happy wasn't a spider person. There was no one else in the room. Of course mister Stark would want him to have the best things for the mission. If Tony was giving him the suit was this his first mission for him. She would hope this was his first mission. He sounds too stupid for it not to be.

But then again... She glanced at Peter again.

Oh different view. Now some people too far to see but Peter gives them names Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man. The last is mister Stark. She knows that as well.

Then he jumped and there was lots of movement and then... Wait he was filming in the middle of fighting? Was that allowed? Was that normal in his world?

And why was there a giant man?

Peter talking very fast, very excited and then Happy telling him to be quiet. Then mister Stark. Asking about the video. Peter sounding almost well behaved and respectful for a moment. They were making a video for May? Why did it matter what she was wearing? She got the feeling Tony had said something stupid from Peter's face and Tony's laugh.

Then they started again and Peter looked very nervous as Tony spoke. They were lying. To his aunt. So this was long ago, before she knew he was spider man. They were talking about an internship.

Then there was a loud noise and shouting from Happy and then mister Stark started saying about how Happy wanted to be asset manager. So this was a long time ago because he was asset manager now. Peter had told her that.

Happy wasn't happy about Mister Stark saying it, but he sounded sad rather than angry. In fact it seemed that he wasn't angry ever, just a bit disgruntled always. The image shook again and Happy grumpily went to get the case.

Peter sounded so amazed at getting to keep his suit. She smiled a little bit, it was a long time ago she thought. He seemed nervous around Tony in a way he wasn't here and he was clearly still trying to prove himself.

Mister Stark was telling him to not stress Happy out. Peter sounded very serious as he answered yes. So serious in face that the image showed the roof of the car and then the video stopped altogether, the screen going dark.

She glanced at Peter. "That did be being your first mission, yes?"

Peter watches her expressions every so often to see what she thought of the Avengers in action. Sorta. Cam quality wasn't great-he'll be the first to admit that but it's hard to record and fight at the same time.

"Yeah, my first mission with the Avengers. It was awesome-there are other videos I took too-apparently I rescued the chancellor of Germany? That was cool. Happy was not happy with me but like, he rarely is to be honest. but we have a kind of understanding-I think. At least now we do-I'm pretty sure he hated me at first. And then this whole thing happened and Mr Stark got mad and took my suit-and uh-it's kinda a long story but if you want, I can tell you all about the Vulture?"

She didn't think Happy had hated him. Not in that video. He had been far too gentle. Let him get away with far too much. They were soft on him, she had already known that. It was why he was so badly trained.

She lay back in the hammock, "All your stories do be being long, Peter." She pointed out. But she was happy to listen. She knew he would talk forever if she let him but she had nothing better to do right now.

She could listen to him talking about fighting a vulture.

Well this is awkward...

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cw: general talk of sexual assault etc also threats of graphic violence

general talk of sexual assault etc also threats of graphic violence

cw: general talk of sexual assault etc

cw: general talk of sexual assault etc

Re: cw: general talk of sexual assault etc

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