The Secretery (SpideyPool)

Dinner

Spider-centric third person

Tonight was the night that he would go have dinner with his aunt, it was a dreaded ritual. He loved his aunt but dinner with her would lead to questions that he didn't want to answer and frustrating conversations that threatened his secret identity.

He was stood in front of his mirror, fixing his hair as anxiety rolled under his skin. Peter's logic was that if he concerned himself with trivial things then he wouldn't be so worked up over the bigger things.   The human spider was wearing a graphic tee, blue jeans and a red hoodie, his vans were splitting and scuffed. He sighed as he grabbed his phone and wallet and headed out. Maybe he should consider asking Mr. Stark for a car?

Peter walked through New York, weaving in and out of alleys. Sure, maybe it wasn't the smartest thing but when was Pete smart outside of a lab? "Come on, let's play nice and make this quick. I have tacos with my name on it waiting for me" A voice from further within the alley Peter was about to enter said. He didn't even need that ridiculous reasoning to recognize that voice.

And then it wasn't long before he saw it. Deadpool was standing tall with a gun pointed at two shady looking men in suits. There was a third one on the ground with a bullet wound. He had to remember thathe was not Spiderman right now and that he didn't have the time or the suit to deal with Pool. Responsibly the adult turned to leave but he mussed of stepped on something to alert the mercenary. He winced as he head two gunshots and then the sound of something falling. This was followed by a nesr deafening spidey-sense and rhe feeling of a kevlar glove on his shoulder. He jumped so high, he was lucky that he didn't stick himself to a wall on accident.

"Scared?" Wade's deep rough voice asked. "Y-you killed them!" Peter squeeked. Somewhere deep inside him he recognized that that meant Pool had broken his promise, and that angered him and scared him further. Was the merc going to kill him too to make sure there wasn't a witness? "Quick to assume much? Yeah, I know that! Shut up" Wade must have been talking to the boxes. "Tranq." Deadpool added. Tranquilers didn't leave that kind of bullet wound. And as if he was reading the younger man's mind. "First guy wasn't me. Now why were going down dark alleys?" Pool asked.

Peter didn't want to answer. He knew that the longer he talked, the more likely the mercenary would recognize his voice. And he knew that he needed to get to May's soon. So what did he do? He bolted. Definitely not the smartest thing he did but it seemed that he lost him so he would consider the consequences later. He did a couple of loops to hopefully make tracking him harder but he still tried to be mindful enough of the time to not be embarrassingly late, that would lead to even more questions. With uneven breaths, Peter watched as his pale knuckle rapped against the hard surface of the door. When Aunt May opened the door, she gave Peter a once over and couldn't help but notice the thin layer of sweat. She raised a brow in question. "Ru-running behind, I didn't want to be late so I ran?" His words came out more like anquestion towards the end of the sentence. She shook her head though the small smile revealed it was an act of fondness.

May ushered him inside and fretted over him like he was still a boy while he shucked off his shoes. Then she lead him to the dining room that he could have navigated himself to in his sleep. Everything was already on the table in a wide spread, two plates sat neatly across from each other. Both adults managed to sit down and load up their plates, it wasn't until Peter conveniently began to drink water that the first question was fired.

"Anyone you're interested in Pete?" She asked. The uni-student in question choked down the rest of his drink, spluttering and coughing. "N-no. There's not anyone" He said once he managed to regain composure. She frowned slightly. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know.

In all honesty Peter believed that he couldn't date, he would have to be open about his secret identity,which he couldn't do. He would be putting them in danger and he could never be that selfish. And his schedule was not exactly relationship-friendly now was it?

"You know, I really worry about you. You don't socialize" May said. He did too socialize! Wade had been a little distant, MJ still dropped by every two weeks and they would text after his patrol until the first one of them crashed, Ned had been soaking up every minute of Peter's down time that he could, weekly dinner with his aunt plus the avengers' occasional text, shout or team up. Peter would say that that was plenty of socialization. Plus if he ever got lonely on top of that he could have some banter with an enemy while he beat them up, though he still does remember that that doesn't always end well.

"Fine, you're an adult. How is school? Work? The Stark Internship?" His aunt asked. She must have noticed his silence. "School keeps me busy. You know that I would never describe work in any positive light" He said with a sigh. Was it normal for someone this young to be this tired all the time?   "And it's going great. I know you'renot the biggest fan but it's gonna sky rocket my career" Peter gushed.

Why was it that the happiest part of this conversation was a lie?