#i hope i did a god job representing selective mutism

[verybadatwriting]

White Fang

ReaderxPeterParker, Teen!ReaderxAvengers

Background: Pre-civil war. Pretend that Spidey-Boy joins the team on Christmas break before the Sokovia Accords are even thought of.  I think I kept it gn, but please tell me if I mess it up anywhere.

Warnings: Reader starts the story off not getting enough food, and is thus dangerously underweight. Unhealthy eating habits. 

(Slight rant: I feel that as a group we don’t recognize the dangers of being underweight as much as we should. Part of what made me write the reader this way was my sister’s ongoing struggle with getting to a healthy weight. I modeled many of the reader’s eating habits after hers.)

Gn!reader

Word count: 3,753

    A few rumpled up newspapers and some wrappers were the only contents of the trashcan. Not to worry, you still had the dumpsters behind the restaurants to raid. Besides, it never hurt to check. Once you had found three rotisserie chickens, still in the packaging! You couldn’t help but wonder what the story behind them was.

    The cold night air sent a chill down your spine, and you decided it was best to switch forms. A shiver descended your spine once more, this time it was warm and familiar. Your hair turned white, and covered your whole body as it grew and contorted to the shape of a wolf. Your wolf form grew until you could walk above street signs with no difficulty.

     Yours wasn’t a majestic form, with your scraggly, matted fur, and bones peeking from beneath thin layers of muscle, but it functioned, and it was significantly warmer than a being human. On a cold New York night like this, it was needed.

    Long legs leapt through the streets, weaving through the shadows. You stuck to the quieter streets, and eventually found your way into the right alleys. First stop was behind Delmar’s Deli-Grocery. 

    You transformed back into a human, and began rummaging. You tossed any edible-looking stuff out of the dumpsters onto the cold ground. It was covered in a thin layer of snow by the time you had finished. The dilemma you faced was whether to eat small bits as you went from source to source, or save it all to eat at the end of the night.

    Measuring how late it was, you decided to munch on what you’d gotten from Delmar’s before crossing Central Park to get back home. On the way back you’d probably pick up a few extra bites. Internally accepting this plan, you transformed into the wolf form, gobbled down the pile, and sprinted towards your home.

    A salty taste stayed in your mouth as you bent around a corner and into the park. You smelled something in one of the trashcans, and were split on whether it was worth transforming again. At that moment, you heard a noise behind you. Turning quickly, you saw a strange teen sitting on a lamppost. 

    He wore a bright red hoodie, a red mask with goggles, a blue shirt and pants, red shoes with knee-high socks, and mechanical looking gloves. On his hoodie, there was the outline of a bug. A spider maybe?

    You weren’t nervous when people saw you. It was mostly crack-heads out this late round where you were. Nobody would believe them if they said a huge wolf was stalking the city. Initially, you assumed this was just a very athletic crack-head. When he launched some sort of rope from his wrists and swung to the ground, you realized you may have misjudged him.

    “Woah…” He whispered in amazement, “What the heck are you?” He reached a hand towards you, but you growled and shrunk back slightly.

    “Oop! Sorry about that.” Without taking his eyes off you, he fished around in his pocket until he found a stick of beef jerky. 

"Here," he said, tossing it towards you. Hesitantly, you picked it up and ate it. 

“How on earth did a wolf get so huge? You look pretty skinny too… Are you eating alright?” He continued speaking.

A moment later, you shifted to a more relaxed position. Neither of you was going to hurt the other, and you both knew that. For a few minutes the two of you sat there. The boy quietly rambled on about how his life was.

Hours later, you stood to leave.

“Hey, wait. Um.. Could we meet up again tomorrow night?” After considering for a moment, you nodded as he hastily added, “I’m Spider-Man by the way. Yeah.” You nodded once more, and ran into the night.

The next morning you quietly got ready for school, so as to not wake Kara. For the past six months, you’d been living with a couple named Lindsey and Walter Miller. They were good foster parents, and thankfully they tried. It wasn’t their fault that you needed more calories than most humans could physically consume in a day.

“Hey there Y/n.” Lindsey said, “Did Kara wake up?” 

You shook your head. 

“Very good.” She said, passing you two muffins. “We were sent an extra. I made the executive decision you would get it. The last thing we need is a fight over a muffin, am I right?” 

You nodded.

“You ready for school?” Lindsey asked, “Need anything else?” 

I’m missing my Physics book. You signed. 

“Unless it’s on the miscellaneous shelf, I can’t help you with that.” Lindsey turned and went back to packing the little kid’s lunches. 

Most of the kids in the Miller House weren’t teens yet. Kara was seven, Nathaniel was eight, Keyon was five, and Finn was three. You and Kara shared a room, which was difficult when you had to stay up late studying (or sneak out for some late-night food-gathering), and especially since you woke up for school at different times.

Waving goodbye to your foster parents, you walked out the door. In the minute it took you to go from the kitchen to the front porch, you had already finished the muffins. They weren’t small muffins either. Despite that, you were still hungry.

At school you had a hard time focusing because of it. You often zoned out, and missed vital parts of lessons. Sometimes when you stood up dots would descend from the sides of your vision, and you’d have to sit back down again. Coughing usually helped, along with focusing on a specific muscle and flexing. From your limited research, this could be from low blood sugar or low iron. 

Either one could be solved if you didn’t have to eat for a gigantic carnivore. Even with all the negative side effects, your wolf form was worth it. Especially if it meant you’d get to know that athletic crack-head more.

    Your whole school was decorated for the holidays. Well, as decorated as they could afford, which meant a few cardstock snowflakes the 5th graders made hanging from the ceiling, and posters of snowmen scattered about the walls.

    Bungling the first half of the day, you made it to lunch. Since you were eligible for free lunch, you got that. You also brought home lunch. Because you were already so ravenously hungry, you couldn’t help but gulp down the food. You knew there was a choking hazard. You knew it wasn’t a good way to eat. You also knew that if food was delayed much longer, it wouldn’t be pretty.

    All too quickly, lunch was over and your food was eaten. Physics was next, and you still hadn’t found your book. That was alright. Probably. (It wasn’t.)

    After the disappointing Physics period, and another boring class, you got to English. From all the way down the hall you could smell the aroma of hot chocolate and other sweets.

    Your English teacher made it a habit to bring in hot cocoa at least once a week in December. “To be festive!” You found it less difficult to focus, especially on the days like today where she brought snacks. The boost in blood sugar probably had something to do with that.

    With that class over, you had officially finished another week of school. You found it boring, partially because it was, partially because it was difficult to form friendships when you didn’t speak their language. Especially difficult when you don’t speak at all.

    You could physically talk, but the mental aspect of it wouldn’t cooperate. You could speak to Kara when you were both alone. Somehow the anxiety dissipated. 

    Skidding on the icy ground, you arrived at Central Park four minutes before midnight. You went to the exact lamppost you had first seen him on and waited. Six minutes later, a red-clad figure swung into view.

    “Cool, you showed up.” He said, “Not that I expected you to flake or anything! Uh… How was your day?” A moment of silence passed before he realized. 

    “Oh, shoot, can you talk?”

    You shook your head.

    “Okay… I’ll have to stick to ‘yes or no’ questions then. Also, I brought more food.” He put a round container of deli meats on the ground between the two of you. “I don’t know what kind you like so I just got an assorted jumble.” He opened the container and slid it closer. It was fairly sizable, at least on the human scale. Nevertheless, you were grateful and ate it.

    Spider-Man swung himself up onto the lamppost, and lowered himself down upside down while squatting. The look you gave him was so confused that he had to explain. 

    “These shoes aren’t really made for the snow. And I don’t want to get frostbite. I love New York, even if it does try to kill me a lot. What about you?”

    You nodded.

    “Do you like the Christmas decorations here?”

    You nodded again. Your conversation continued for a while. He talked about everything and nothing simultaneously. He seemed very interested in your life, especially how you managed to live this long without arousing suspicions from Animal Control.

    “How do you hide yourself during the day? Do you turn human?

    You nodded.

    “Oh my gosh!” He said, “So it’s possible I’ve met you before without even knowing?”

    You shook your head and bopped your nose. After hesitating, Spider-Man took a guess.

    “You… would have… smelled me?” 

    Nod.

    “That’s…” You braced yourself, ready for the disgust you were sure was coming.

    “So…

    “Cool! Can you remember every person you’ve smelled? How does your human nose process those scents? Is the nose fully wolf and fully human at the same time?” The little guy was fully geeking out when your stomach grumbled. 

    “Oh… Is that why you come out here? To find food?”

    Yet again, you nodded. The two of you set off on your trek around the city, to all the closed restaurants and grocery stores you could think of. Spider-Man hopped inside the dumpsters and chucked food out since you couldn’t fit inside as a wolf. And you definitely weren’t going to transform back into a human around someone. 

You met up nightly for weeks after that. With this team effort it was much easier to keep yourself fed, and your grades reflected that. Rumors eventually started to abound that either the rat population was out of hand, or there was a large creature stalking the trashcans of New York.

Sometimes on your walks you’d come across someone in distress. You allowed Spider-Man to take the fame, and opted to stay in the shadows. Occasionally, he’d need assistance, and you’d step in. These happened just often enough for there to be a few credible sources about you.

It was three days before Christmas when Spider-Man said the following.

“My Aunt May has plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Tomorrow’s the last time I’ll see you for a few days.”

You sat up abruptly after hearing this. Logically it wasn’t that long, and there was always a lot of food during the holidays, so you might not need to go foraging, but you’d still miss him. Over the weeks you’d created a strong bond, despite only knowing each other via your superpowered sides. He’d also given you your name: White Fang.

    Maybe that’s what made your friendship work. Another person who could understand, and who you wouldn’t have to worry about spilling the beans. 

    The next night you got there ten minutes early to add a buffer between your arrival and that of Spider-Man. You transformed back into a human and set down a tupperware container of homemade spider-shaped cookies. On top you placed an even smaller box with the label: ‘To Spider-Man, From White Fang.’

    After the boxes were situated, you shifted back to wolf form to wait. Moments later, your favorite arachnid came out of the darkness and landed on his signature lamppost.

    “Hey Fang!” He said, “I dunno if you celebrate, but I brought you a Christmas present!” He hopped down, placed a cellophane wrapped hunk of meat on the ground, and unwrapped it. Then he noticed the boxes in the snow.

    “Are these for me? And can I open them?”

    You nodded twice. He went over to inspect them. He picked up the box, and opened it. Inside there was a small spider-shaped trinket. It was metallic and opened to reveal a small compartment. 

    “Woah…” He whispered to himself then turned to you, “This is so cool! I’m assuming the cookies are for us to share?” He glanced at you as you nodded. “The meat is for you, of course, and I also got you a necklace.” He opened a box he had in his pocket, and held the contents up so you could see.

    He held a tiny silver wolf on a thin chain. You did a little jump of joy, showing how much you appreciated it. The two of you spent the rest of the night hanging out as usual. Spider-Man left around 3, and once he was gone you transformed back into a human to scoop up the cookie container and put on his gift to you.

When the two of you met up next. Spider-Man had a new suit, and wouldn’t stop talking about the Avengers.

“Mr. Stark brought me to the tower, and I got to meet Captain America and the rest of the team! I’m also part of them now. I think. I could be wrong, gotta check. Their last mission was to fight the huge robots – You know, the ones that lifted up that one city? –  and they told me all about it!”

    “How could you be so reckless?” Lindsey said. “This could get my fostering license taken away!”

    “Lin, calm down.” Mr. Miller said, “Let Y/n explain what they were doing.” He handed you a pen and pencil. You froze and couldn’t think of an excuse. How do you explain that you snuck out at night because you had a superpower that required massive amounts of food? You can’t explain that without sounding crazy.

    “At least tell me it wasn’t drugs.” Lindsey said, “If it’s boys – or girls – I can deal with that. But drugs would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

    “Y/n?” Mr. Miller said, “Is it drugs?”

    You looked both of them in the eyes and shook your head. The two foster parents breathed a sigh of relief. 

    “You’re still in big trouble kid.” Mr. Miller reminded you, “We’ll be checking in on you throughout the night, okay?” You nodded sadly, accepting that your nights of food and friends would be long gone. You’d never get to see the Spider-Man again.

    The first day back from break, all throughout your commute you kept seeing the same man out of the corner of your eye. You just shook off the feeling. The next two days, you saw him, but never enough to get a description past ‘has an eyepatch’ (which you couldn’t really do much of anything with). Finally, on the third day back, you only saw him on the morning commute.

    On your way home you still kept a look out, glancing behind yourself. You didn’t see him. As you reached the Miller House, you breathed a sigh of relief. Jangling the keys in the door, you opened it. Your horror was immeasurable when you saw the man sitting in your living room, conversing with Mr. and Mrs. Miller.

    “Oh hi Y/n!” Lindsey said. “Mr. Fury was just telling us something very strange. I was wondering if you’d like to weigh in on it.”

    “Hello Mx. Y/l/n.” Mr. Fury stood and extended a hand. “I’d like to talk to you about the Avengers.”

You took his hand.

“Y/n,” Mr. Miller said, “If what Nick here was telling us is true, I’m sorry for punishing you for sneaking out.” 

With a shaking hand, you pulled a piece of paper out of your pocket and wrote.

What, exactly, did he tell you?

“I know about your ability.” Fury said, “And now they do too.”

“He was wondering if you would be willing to be adopted by the Avengers.” Mr. Miller said, “If you don’t want to, nobody will force you. Whichever decision you make, we will stand by you.”

“Both of us will.” Lindsey added.

“At Avengers Tower you’ll get a proper diet for a wolf the size of yours." Fury said, "And all your material needs will be met.”

Are there any others my age? You signed. 

“Y/n wants to know if there will be other people their age.” Lindsey said.

“Yes, there’s one I believe.” Fury said, “But he doesn’t live there. You’ll still go to school, you’ll just live with the Avengers and occasionally go on missions.”

I promise I’ll think about it. You signed, first tell me why you were following me.

“Y/n will think about it, and wants to know why– What what?” Mr. Miller stopped, “Repeat that Y/n?”

Why was he following me?

“Mr. Fury, they want to know why you were following them.” He continued, “And frankly, I do too.”

“We were keeping surveillance on them.” Fury replied simply, “We were unsure if they were a threat to those around them.” 

“Okay… I suppose that explains it.” Lindsey said, “In the future, keep in mind that trailing underage people isn’t the best course of action.”

“If we had another option, we would have taken it.” He stood up and walked towards the door. 

“Y/n” He turned, handing you a paper, “These numbers will get you in contact with me, Maria Hill – a trusted advisor – and Tony Stark. When you move into the Tower, he will be the person introducing you. I hope to see you soon.” 

With that he turned and walked out the door. The next few days you and the Millers discussed the best course of action. Eventually they came to the conclusion that you should be adopted by the Avengers. 

While you were excited, you were a little sad. Leaving homes was never easy, no matter how temporary the stay was. The Millers were a nice family, much better than some of your previous families, and you were very close with Kara. 

Three days later the papers were signed. Normally it takes much longer to even receive the documents, but when a billionaire wants something, it gets fast tracked. A day after the signing, you packed your bags, said your tearful goodbyes, and climbed into the limousine sent for you. To your surprise, Tony Stark was in the passenger seat.

“Hey kid.”

You waved in reply.

“How are you?”

You nodded.

“Not much of a talker, eh?”

I’ve got selective mutism. You signed. 

“I have no clue what you just said.” Stark said. “I’ll have to get an interpreter… FRIDAY? Could-” You cut him off by handing him a paper.

I have selective mutism. That’s what I signed. 

“Ok, I’ll be sure to tell the team when I introduce you.”

Once you got to the Tower, an assistant came outside to get your bags. He had a cart ready and everything. You had a duffel bag, and a backpack, both of which you preferred to keep on your person. 

Stark led you up to the living room, where the rest of the team had been instructed to gather. 

“Hello everyone,” He said, “This is Y/n, our newest recruit. They’re deaf, so be patient.”

I’m not deaf, numbskull. You signed. To your surprise, a man in the corner let out a small laugh.

“They’re not deaf, Stark.” He said.

“What makes you think that, Barton?” Stark asked. “They told me themselves.”

“They just signed that they’re not deaf. And they called you a numbskull.”

“... Moving on… Y/n that’s Steve, Sam, Natasha Romanoff, Peter Parker, Clint Barton, Rhodes, Vision, and the Maximoff twins.” You nodded.

Only Natasha and I know ASL. Clint signed. If you wanna talk behind people’s backs, it’s the best way around here.

I’ll keep that in mind. You replied.

“Peter’s around your age.” Stark continued, “And besides for him the Twins are our newest recruits. If it’s okay with you, I’ll open the floor to questions.” You nodded.

“What are your powers?” Steve asked.

“They turn into a giant wolf.” Stark replied for you. You noticed that Peter’s eyes widened slightly. Taking a small sniff, you tested the air to see if there was anyone you knew. Just one.

After what felt like hours, the questions were over, your room was found, and you were peacefully on your phone in the living room. Peter walked in and sat across from you.

“Hi!” He said. You waved and put down your phone.

“So… This is going to sound really weird, but… do you – were you the same wolf – what I’m trying to ask is.. Did you hang out in the park with Spider-Man?” Recognition dawning, you nodded and pulled up the necklace Spider-Man gave you. At the exact same moment, Peter took the trinket you’d given to Spider-Man out of his backpack.

“Holy shit.” He said.

“Holy shit indeed.” You replied with a voice that sounded like it hadn’t been used in a very long time.

“What the!” He jumped off the couch. “You can talk?!”

“I always could, physically.”

"Why do you sign to the team?"

“The mental components just don’t add up for some situations.” You paused, “I think it also has something to do with how I meet people. Meeting first in wolf form seems to allow me to speak with them… These are all still guesses, even I have no clue why it doesn’t click for some people.”

“This is so cool.” Peter marveled under his breath. “Can I ask something?”

“Shoot.”

“Okay. These past few days, you… didn’t meet up with me…” His voice was laced with pure sadness and confusion, a far cry from what it was a second ago.

“I’m so sorry Spidey!” You said, “My foster-parents found out I was sneaking out, and I didn’t want to tell them about the whole ‘superpowered wolf’ thing. They enforced that I was in bed from 11pm to 6am. I would have kept meeting up with you if I could have. I’m sorry.”

“Oh thank goodness.” Peter said, “I thought that you didn’t like me anymore.”

“I don’t think I could ever not like you, Spidey.”

#marvel #y/n x peter parker #avengers x teen!reader #marvel x reader #avengers x y/n #avengers fan fic?? #selective mutism #i hope i did a god job representing selective mutism #prolly not tho #I'm sorry this wasn't out over the weekend. #i was busy binging wednesday #it was pretty good. #gn!reader