Pointe Shoes and Spider Webs

38. Med Kit

Peter and Daphne are walking out of Central Park when his phone rings. The melody is cheery and soft. It's cute. Daphne thinks.
"Ah, that's May," Peter says as he fumbles to get into his pocket to grab his phone. He looks at it and then at Daphne. She raises an eyebrow as the tune carries on.
"Go on, pick up already!" Daphne encourages him and he slides his finger on the screen to answer the call.
"Hi, May!" Daphne looks at Peter as May explains something to him. His expression drops. "Can't it wait? I promised Daphne I-" May seems to interrupt Peter and Daphne looks at him questioningly. Peter pushes his hand through his hair and turns to Daphne. He seems reluctant. He covers the phone with his free hand and sighs.

"What's up?" Daphne asks worried.
"May needs me at the homeless center." Daphne cocks her head, urging him to explain further. "The TV broke and there's a game on tonight." His face scrunches up and Daphne laughs.
"It's okay, Pete. I'll wait for the call with my dad." The corner of Daphne's mouth curls up. After all the hours he's spent on her the past few days, she couldn't imagine asking him to ignore his aunt now.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" She puts two thumbs up and smiles brightly, trying to hide her nerves about the phone call. Peter chuckles, noticing Daphne's off behavior. Her face is too expressive to conceal what she's going through.

"Really?" Daphne groans and grabs his hand that's holding the phone. She brings it to her ear.
"Hello?" She says. Peter wants to pull back his hand, but Daphne's glare stops him.
"Hi, who is this?" a kind voice says on the other side. Daphne gently holds on to Peter's hand. They're standing quite close to each other.
"Hey, it's Daphne! Sorry for taking up so much of Peter's time!"
"Oh, Daphne! Don't worry about it, he tends to spend a lot of time on what he likes- or who, I should say in this case!" Daphne chuckles and glances at Peter mischievously. Peter is trying his best to not let Daphne know he can actually hear every word his aunt is saying to her. Which means he has to try and contain the blood rushing to his cheeks.

"I, eh, just stole his phone to let you know that he's on his way."
"Great! Thank you, Daph!" Daphne smiles to herself. May is definitely the cool aunt. "Oh, by the way, feel free to come join us for dinner on Saturday!" May's directness makes Daphne laugh. She remembers Peter's text about her cooking, but she wouldn't mind learning about her skills – or lack thereof – herself. She'd love to meet May and she'd finally get to see Peter's house. And his room.
"Ah, thanks! I'll be there!" Daphne says joyfully. "I'm gonna hand the phone back to Peter now!"
"Alright, see ya Saturday!"
"Bye!" Daphne lets go of the phone and crosses her arms, shooting Peter a cocky glance. Peter presses his lips on top of each other and brings the phone back to his ear.

Peter finishes the call and puts his phone away with a deep sigh. He frowns at the ground, hiding his hands in his pockets.
"Guess I gotta go, then..."
"It's okay, Pete, really." She steps towards him and holds his face with both her hands, making him look up at her. Her thumb ghosts over his cheek and he leans into her touch. "Your aunt needs your help, go be a hero and save the day!" Peter chuckles at the unintended irony and takes out one hand out of his pocket. He caresses her hair, getting his fingers stuck in the knots that formed in the back because of her messy bun.

"Alright," he sighs. His hand goes down her arm until he can grab hold of her hand. "You'll call me when you find out, right?" Daphne snorts.
"Duh!" She takes a step back and lets go of him. She smiles wide and shoos him. "Now go!" Peter laughs and he turns to walk to the nearest subway station. He walks down the stairs and looks back one more time. She still stands there with the same smile on her face and shoos him again. He jumps down a stair to get a last little bit of height to see her, before he's too far down.

...

Ten o'clock. Spider-Man thwips through the streets of New York. He finished at May's homeless center quite early, but an armed robbery got in the way of him getting to Daphne before she'd get the phone call. It bothers him to the max, but he knows the robbery had priority. He can't not be Spider-Man, as he said before. He's swinging as fast as he can to get to where she lives. When he reaches his destination, he lands on top of the building next to hers. Its roof is on about the same height as her room window is, but he was supposed to get changed into his normal clothes first. Daphne, however, had already spotted Spider-Man. She quickly opens the window and leans on the window pane.