LIAR, LIAR. Peter Parker

six. happy birthday

"You know, Morgan has a really big mouth," the woman laughs softly as her daughter snuggles closer into Nina's lap, "And she tells me that you have a thing for cats."

Her eyes widen at the revelation - during their visits to the local playground, a bunch of cats would always surround them, and way more than often, the girl would always find herself playing with them, babbling to Morgan about how she would love to have a cat at home. She assumed that the five year old girl wouldn't say anything - but she did, but she couldn't find it in herself to get annoyed.

Not when Morgan was giving her puppy eyes.

As if on cue, an assistant (she recognized him as a senior in her school) walked in with a cat - looking a bit disgusted, but Nina didn't care about him. white furred fat cat with such full green eyes looks up at her - it looks like the cat at the park who she plays with every single time.

"Happy Birthday, Nina." Pepper smiles brightly, gently placing the cat in her arms in exchange for Morgan, who was now clinging to her.

The cat looked so fluffy that Nina melted away the instant her eyes fell on the cat, a bright smile adorning her face as she cradled the animal in her hand. It was cute, was fluffy, was fat, had this amazing green eyes and soft fur - so despite her fear of not being able to take care of it, at that moment, she wanted nothing but to take the cat home.

"What are you gonna name him?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Nina laughs, gently stroking the soft white fur. "I'll decide later once I get to know him."

Turns out, the cat was an utter nightmare - and Nina loved it. The cat would wander up on the counters knocking things over, he'd sleep everywhere, then once he'd lured you into a false sense of security leading you to think you could stroke him or tickle his belly, he'd murder you with his sharp claws. Nina decided to name him Chief, the brightest smile present on her face as she drove back home.

Betty, Alaska, and her decided to celebrate her day a day late because Betty was visiting family out of state and Alaska had a huge pageant that her parents forced her into - the two were apologetic for the fact that they could only greet Nina through the phone, but she was more than fine with that. She'd much rather spend time with her parents and Pepper; which was proven effective, because she was driving back to Queens smiling like a madman, chest warm and full of love - especially towards the violent cat sitting at the backseat.

The girl drives home first, right after telling her parents to watch Chief for a bit before she goes to patrol (which they refused, but she assured them it was okay and even uttered the very corny line — that crime never stops — and jumped out the window, flying through the air as she let out a loud, proud, whoop.

Patrol turns out okay. It was definitely the most stressful part of her day, there was that - but it was Saturday, a.k.a the designated 'lets do crime' day, so normally, a lot of shit goes down: she gets punched by a criminal (but he had his thumb enclosed inside his fist so he broke his finger, that was a bit funny), stopped a bank robbery, stopped a girl from stealing a car, stopped a guy from being a creep - and overall, she feels complete when the night is over.

She's helped people, she's done her thing; all that's left for her to do is to reply to the countless people bombarding her phone and that was it. Day over. Day spent. She's not waiting for someone, or hoping that someone shows up out of the blue, or that he would greet her right infront of her face instead of on the phone and—

A loud thwap echoes through the alley of the Strip Spot, and with that, a flash of red and blue crosses her eyes - Peter Parker falls down on the floor in front of her, mask removed as he grins down at the girl.