after rain ||| peter parker (cancelled)

Chapter 9.

It always seemed to rain on days with funerals. That's what Felix noticed at least. When he looked to see how Aunt May and Peter were doing he felt bad. Someone was holdi ng an umbrella over them, but he felt as though they would've stayed in the rain all day if nobody had been doing so.

They had gotten better the more family that showed up, but it was still a hard day for anyone involved.

At the reception they had taken seats near the back. It didn't feel proper to impede on such an event in the first place, but they wanted to be close at hand for Peter.

"So..." Orya said, looking down at her hands. "You and Peter kissed?"

Felix spit out his drink, choking a bit.

"Um!" He was red, dabbing the juice from the corners of his lips. Corven was watching with a twinkle in his eyes. "He was really close! And I was like, high off the endorphins from meeting his parents!"

"He took you home to meet his parents?" Corven leaned forward, tilting his head. "That sounds like you're dating."

Felix sputtered as his friends watched him grasp for words.

"Hey guys." Peter said, waving to them, briefly saving Felix. His hair was still moist as he took a seat in a spot they cleared for him next to Felix. "Thank you for coming. Everyone here is so sad, it's kinda nice to see some people laughing."

"Felix was talking about how you had introduced him to Ben." Orya had said. "And... after you had introduced him to Ben." She raised her eyebrows.

"When we ate ice cream and he spilled half his bowl on himself?"

"Um, you like elbowed my bowl into face doing some weird flip over the couch!" The two chuckled, to themselves. They were all sitting in silence for a couple of seconds, and Felix could see the glow come to Corven and Orya's eyes. "My dad's back in town!"

"Whoa!"

"Wait really?"

"How-hows that?" Peter looked at him cautiously.

"It's um... its weird." He nodded. "He doesn't sleep at the apartment. I can only really see him at certain parts of the day."

Everyone nodded.

"Do the cops know?"

"No!" Felix shook his head. "Detective Clemons died some weeks ago."

"Oh shit." Corven said around a drink of juice.

"Yeah, so Black Cat's sort of on the back burner for now." Felix twiddled his thumbs. "He's been in Japan. He's working with some rebels there or something."

They all nodded, unsure of what to say.

"It's sort of cool... you know? That your dad is this world famous cat burglar!" Corven said. "I mean, who knows maybe he's been secretely training you your entire life, and he's back to hand you the mantle!"

"He secretly trained one of his assistants for 3 years," Felix said, looking down. "And gave him the mantle when he left. He wanted me to have a normal life." The boy shrugged as his friends looked at him.

It was a good lie. It would be easy to keep up with. While his father hadn't wanted him to have a normal life, a normal father would. And it was what he had told Detective Clemons. but the truth was that his father had been preparing him for this his entire life. When he was 12 he even bought him a book on how to lie.

"Geez. That's rough." Corven pat him on the back.

"I think it's good." Peter said, and Felix felt pressure on his fingers, glancing down to see Peter had taken his hand. He gave it a comforting squeeze, giving no sign of the interaction to his firneds as the continued to talk.