"Hi, hello!" May opened the door and greeted the two siblings standing outside. She moved to the side and beckoned the two to come in with welcoming arms and a kindhearted smile. "I was just about to start on dinner now."
Cairo gave a smile that mirrored May's. He and his younger sister stepped into the Parker residence, taking off their shoes and leaving them by the front door. May led them through the house and to the kitchen. The Parkers kitchen, dining area, and living room were all open and connected; much like the l/ns apartment.
Peter sat with his back to them as they entered the room. He turned his head around when he heard footsteps coming closer. He didn't really care much at first, but he had to do a double take when the faces registered in his mind. A grin slowly spread across his face when he and his "bestie" made eye contact. He held up a hand and waved over the couch, "Oh, hi, l/n."
"Hi," Cairo waved back, seeing exactly who Peter was looking at. He didn't like the way he seemed so happy by her simply being present. Cairo was offering a warming smile, but his eyes held nothing but coldness. An open threat; daring Peter to try anything on his younger sister who'd he'd spent his whole life protecting.
Maybe not in the physical sense like Spider-man, A.K.A Peter, did, but in the mental one.
But with that one look, and the passive aggressive greeting, Peter was able to come to a realization. Over the years he'd gotten to know them— from when Cairo would come over and trade funny stories with his aunt; to when he teased his best friend since preschool over the smallest of things— he'd never once been in a room with both of the siblings at the same time.
For years, Peter Parker had been in love with y/n l/n. For years, Peter had cracked several jokes with Cairo. For the first time, Peter was seeing the protective side of Cairo, and Cairo was seeing the pining side of Peter.
Cairo knew he had it in him. All teenage boys did. Well, except maybe Cairo himself. He was too busy taking care of someone he shouldn't have been and balancing his own life to take note of any girls. And any possible relationships he could've had were all turned down because he didn't want to know what would happen if another girl became one of his priorities.
It would've been messy if he strayed away from the path he'd worked so hard to pave. So hard to keep clean for his sister to able to walk down without nearly as much struggle as he did when he first discovered it.
"Well," May clapped her hand together once. Just once. "I'm gonna go start on dinner. You lot go ahead and get comfortable in the time being. Sound good?" She looked in between Cairo and y/n for approval, and left when she got nods from the set of siblings.
Cairo and y/n sat down on the couch, and Peter stiffened when he felt the spot next to him become occupied with the warmth of Cairo's body. Cairo offered another smile; this time it was a bone-chilling kind, "So, Peter... how are you? It's been awhile since we've last seen each other, hasn't it? How's school?"
"Um..." Peter tried to search for some words. It felt like he was talking to Cairo for the first time again. One thing he hated about himself was the fact he didn't have the ability to so flawlessly talk to someone he barely knew. So Peter gulped, "We— I, uh... It's good. I'm good. Nothing out of the ordinary. No secret identities, or crime fighting, or being hunted down by drug lords!"
Cairo blinked, giving a concerned look, "Are you okay?"
"Me?" Peter's voice had gotten far too high pitched to sound like it was his own. "Yeah! I'm fine. Totally fine. The finest I've ever been." He was going to absolutely die by the time dinner was over.
"Why are we here anyways?" the girl chose to speak for the first time since they'd gotten there. She stared at the only two guys in her life with bored expressions.
Peter tiled his head to the side, "You didn't tell her?"
"Tell her? Of course I didn't tell her!" Cairo looked at Peter like he was a crazy person. He gestured to his sister who sat on the other side of him. Cairo had deliberately sat in between Peter and y/n. "Do you even know this girl? She won't leave the house if she's going somewhere that involves her talking to someone more than once."
"Hey! I'm not that bad..." she trailed off. She looked at Cairo who was raising a brow, and then she looked over to Peter. He was apologetically agreeing to what Cairo said. She pouted and slumped, crossing her arms, "Shut up."
Cairo just rolled his eyes, "We're here to celebrate you and Peter getting A's on your science and math finals."
"That's it?" she furrowed her brows. Was that all it took for her to be thrown a celebratory dinner? Well that was pathetic. "I've been acing my finals since eighth grade when I first started taking them."
"I know, I know," Cairo mumbled. "You're the smartest person on this planet. Consider this an apology and a celebration; for every single A you've gotten on a final that I didn't have enough time in my schedule to give to you. Sorry." There wasn't an ounce or sarcasm laced in his tone. All with sincerity; especially on that last sentence.
She didn't know how to respond to that, so she wordlessly got up and escaped to the bathroom. It wasn't that she actually had to go, but she wasn't going to stay in that awkward silence. Peter could deal with it for her.
"So..." Peter pursed his lips, not having a clue what to say to Cairo.
"You staying out of trouble?" Cairo was quick to back up with the interrogations. He had to make sure Peter was good enough for his little sister. She was like a rag doll that had been through so much it wasn't even funny, and Peter did not need to mess the doll up anymore than she already was.
Peter nodded his head quickly, "Actually, I stop trouble from happening." He was surprisingly good at hinting that he was Spider-man without blowing his cover. The only person that would've been able to figure him out already knew... because she had— well, figured him out.
"Good," Cairo mumbled. He sat up straighter and placed one of his arms, the one that wasn't on the side of Peter, across the back of the couch. He let the other hand run through his hair, "Because I can promise you: jail is no fun."
Peter gasped and he found his eyes widening, "You've been to jail?"
Cairo nodded his head. He let out a sigh of what sounded like shame but could easily be confused as annoyance, "Once." Cairo held up the appropriate number of fingers. He shook his head and tilted it up to the ceiling with another sigh. Maybe he was more ashamed that he'd gotten caught than he was about the fact he had a criminal record. "In Monopoly."
Or maybe he just didn't like losing board games...
Peter let out a huff of amusement. Now that was the joking, non-hostile Cairo he was used to. So, for the rest of the time they waited for May to finish up dinner, they cracked jokes with each other.
Y/n had snuck her way into the kitchen when she saw how well Cairo and Peter had been getting along. It would be rude to intrude on whatever bonding experience they were having. So she and May worked together in the kitchen. It was mostly May though; she was the one who really knew the recipes anyways.
"Dinner's ready!" May called out, taking a plate off of y/n. She was going to end up dropping it. "I appreciate the help, but maybe don't overexert yourself. Okay, sweetie?" May had just prevented her from carrying five different dishes; all of which were rather heavy.
"It's fine," May was brushed off, and the girl tried to persuade her to put the plate back on her sturdy arms.
Aunt May just rolled her eyes and started to head to the table with a protesting girl following right behind her. They set the dishes down, and May sent her off to go clean her hands of any food she'd gotten on them from making dinner. Once everyone had sat down, they all muttered their own prayers of some kind before digging in.
"Butter?" May handed the container across the table to Peter who had been the last to receive it.
Peter accepted this, "You butter believe it."
Cairo snickered. He looked down to his plate and picked up the spoon he was provided with. Bringing the utensil down into the corn on his plate, he brought the spoonful up to eye level, "Well, that was corny."
May and Peter found themselves chuckling. May decided she wasn't going to join in on the joking, but instead just observe the two with amusement. On the contrary, y/n was unamused. She stared at the two with something that could either be disgust or disbelief.
"Shut up," she gave the two a flat look.
They were both quick to deflate. "Sorry," Peter apologized, and Cairo was bummed out by Peter's quick submission. He let out a sigh and started piling some of the salad he knew y/n had made onto his plate. "Lettuce continue this celebration in peace."
Cairo, who had previously been downing some water, started choking. He sat the glass down and slammed his head down on the table, uncontrolled laughs seeping through his lips from Peter's fake-out. May covered her mouth with the back of her hand and turned away from the table. But even with her attempt, she laughs could still be seen through the way her shoulders fell up and down in a steady pattern.
"Lord, give me some patience or an untraceable handgun," the girl prayed. This just worsened the onslaught of laughter.
May finally chose to pitch in, but only to switch the conversation from the somewhat violent turn it was starting to take. "I remember one time when Peter completely trucked one of our lamps," May mumbled. "I still have no clue why he did it."
"Maybe it was just shinning too brightly," Peter smacked his lips together.
"I remember when y/n was little and she tried to go swimming in our bathtub," Cairo said. He grimaced when thinking back to the flooded bathroom and how long it took to clean up the mess, "Here's the funny thing about it all: she didn't even know how to swim."
The girl placed her hand over her face and lightly kicked her older brother's shin, "Stop, that's embarrassing."
"Well," May started. She rest her forearms on the table and let her fingers intertwine with themselves. "If it makes you feel any better, Peter didn't know how to swim for the longest time either."
"May!" Peter whined, a light flush infecting his cheeks.
The woman just flicked her hand in a sign of dismissal at his beginning of a complaint. She looked like she could care less about him being embarrassed, "Oh, hush."
"When did he learn?" y/n asked, intrigued by this new information. It was rare for her to not know something about Peter Parker and the many issues and quirks and strengths he harbored in his somewhat scrawny body.
"Hm..." May hummed and tapped a finger to her chin in thought. "Maybe at the end of fifth grade."
The girl looked to her forever lab partner with a bemusement written all over her face, "Peter, how come I didn't know this about you?"
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," Peter nonchalantly shrugged in response.
With those words, she left the conversation. Her body moved on its own, finishing up dinner, politely nodding or laughing when it was appropriate, helping to start clear the table when dinner had ended. The whole time her body was on autopilot, she let the words run through her mind.
There's a lot of things you don't know about me.
Like what? What could she possibly not know about him? She knew everything about him. She knew he was Spider-man, and she was the only one. She knew he hated when different foods on his plate touched because he felt like the flavors mixing together was weird. She knew he didn't like hot drinks because they always seemed to burn his tongue. She knew he couldn't add without using his fingers or a calculator.
She knew all the things no normal person would know bout Peter Parker.
And Peter knew everything about her. That's why he grabbed her hand and started dragging her off towards his room after he saw an opening to safely do so without Cairo looking like he wanted to kill a bitch.
Peter shut the door to his room once the two of them had made it inside. He looked at her with furrowed brows, seeming hesitant to ask something. But he did anyways because he knew she'd answer anything he asked. Even if she only insulted him in response.
"What is going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Peter tilted his own head to the side and knocked on his skull for further emphasis. "Are you okay? You kinda just zoned out in the middle of dinner."
"No I didn't," she answer back almost harshly.
Peter rolled his eyes, "Yes you did. Now, stop keeping everything up in your cranium and tell me what's bothering you."
She stayed silent for a moment, weighing out the pros and cons of laying everything out to him. Pro, she would find out more about him. Con, he'd coo about how he knew she actually did care about him. But for every pro, she found a con. So she quickly gave up on that.
"What don't I know about you?"
Peter blinked. Was that what set her off? That she didn't know he couldn't swim— that she didn't know every little thing about him? "Well, for starters," Peter mumbled. He took off the glasses he was wearing and pressed his thumbs through the holes where the glass part was supposed to be but wasn't. "I don't need these anymore. My vision cleared up right after I got bit by that spider that gave me my powers."
"Then why do you still wear them?" she asked. She'd won twice. Not only was he telling her more about himself, but he also wasn't making fun of her for it. In her opinion, she'd hit the jackpot.
"Because of May," Peter said like the answer was simple. But then he reevaluated his words and decided to elaborate. "I didn't want her to get suspicious. She knows I need— needed glasses, so she'll start to question me if I suddenly stopped wearing them."
Huh, he really was smarter than he gave her credit for. He could think of small details that normal people would just breeze by. Because, I mean, he did have freaking superpowers after all. Any normal person would think, holy shit, I can stick to walls. Not, oh, God. I can't let May see me without glasses or she'll be suspicious.
Peter Parker really was something else. Something good.
"Oh, and," Peter trailed off. He placed his hands behind his back and balanced unevenly on his toes. A boyish grin spread across his face, "Awww! You care about me?"
"..."
"Cairo, I'm ready to leave!"
here's a chapter 1000 words longer than a normal one as an apology because i'm not going to be updating until maybe wednesday(?)