Peter stood before the graves of his Uncle Ben and parents. He just stared at them. He didn’t have anything to say or ask, he just needed to be near them right now.
“I figured I’d find you here,” Peter heard from behind.
“Hey, Theresa,” he said without looking. “How’ve you been?”
“Here’s an idea, big brother: how about we skip to the part where you tell me why you’ve been avoiding my calls.”
Peter sighed. “I’ve just needed to be alone, lately.”
She crossed her arms. “Why?”
“MJ broke up with me.”
“So?”
Peter whirled on his sister. “So?!”
“Well, it’s not a surprise. I’ve lost track of how many times you two have broken up. Besides, you can do better.”
“How? MJ’s-”
“You’re too good for her, Pete. She may say that she supports you being Spider-Man, but she’ll always wish that you weren’t.”
“Yeah. It makes me want to hang up the suit for good, sometimes.”
Theresa raised a brow. “Seriously? You think that’s the problem? Peter, the problem isn’t that you can’t balance both sides of your life. It’s that you’re not with someone who accepts them both.”
“But…we’ve been through so much together.”
Her face softened. “I know. I understand how hard it is to move on from someone you care about. But doing what’s best isn’t always easy.”
The older Parker sighed. “That’s not the only thing bothering me right now. But it is the bigger thing.”
“What happened?” she deadpanned.
He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “I got evicted today.”
Theresa pinched the bridge of her nose. “What am I gonna do with you?” She huffed a sigh. “You can stay at my condo until you get a new place.”
“You have a condo?”
“Being a spy for Nick Fury pays very well.”
After a week of getting settled, Theresa decided to take Peter to a bar and just hang out like siblings.
“So this new villain who’s just some guy in a mask holds this woman at gunpoint.”
“How’d you get her out?”
“Well, he’d never heard of me. So I just kneeled down and said I was calling the spiders. Told him I could control them.”
“And he bought that?”
“He did! Then he dropped his gun and ran away!”
The brother and sister laughed at that.
“If only you had the same luck with your other rogues.”
“Yeah. That would be nice. But at least I’m not doing it alone anymore. I’ve got Miles, the Avengers every now and then, and even you sometimes.”
“I’m not a hero Peter.”
“You helped take down Kingpin.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m cut out for being a hero. I’m a spy.”
“So is Natasha Romanov, and look at her.”
Theresa sighed.
Realizing that this wasn’t going anywhere Peter brought up a new topic.
“How is the spy business anyways?”
She smirked. “Sorry, Bro. That’s classified.” Peter shrugged and took a sip of his beer. “So, how many women have you been with?”
The older brother choked on his drink.
“What?!”
“How many women have you been with?”
“I’m not telling my sister about my sex life!”
“It doesn’t have to be sex. It can be women you’ve dated.”
“Alright, fine! Fifteen.”
“Bullshit!”
“It’s true!”
She crossed her arms. “What were their names?”
“Betty Brant. MJ. Gwen Stacy. Cissy Ironwood. Debra Whitman. Felicia Hardy. Jill Stacy. Sarah Rushman. Michele Gonzalez. Carol Danvers. Carlie Cooper. Silver Sable. Cindy Moon. Lian Tang. Bobbie Morse.”
“Hmmm. That’s a lot of women that aren’t MJ.”
“Yeah…They all either died or didn’t work out.”
Theresa looked around them. “There are a lot of lovely looking ladies around. Wanna give it another go?”
Peter sighed. “I don’t know…”
“Tell you what. If you make a move on somebody…then I will too.”
His eyes widened before giving her a sympathetic look. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’ve moved on from David. This’ll be healthy for me too.”
“Okay then. Good luck tonight.”
“You too.” She rose up and started to walk away. “Oh! And before you take a girl home, don’t do anything outside of your room. You got that? I don’t wanna look at my furniture and immediately think about you doing it there.”
Peter raised his hands in surrender.
“Good.”
After she walked off, he looked at the bar to see a brunette woman sitting alone. He took a deep breath and walked right up to her.
“You can sit right there, Peter Parker.”
Peter stopped in surprise. Then she turned around and revealed herself to be…
“Wanda?”
“Hi.”
“Hi! I haven’t seen you since…”
“Washington.”
“Yeah. With the Secret Empire.”
“Are you gonna sit down?”
“Oh! Right! Sorry!” He sat down next to her. “How’ve you been?”
“For the first time in a long time, everything’s great. My life is actually stable. I even started a magic shop.”
“That’s good to hear. I’m happy for you.”
“What about you?”
Peter hesitated.
“That bad, huh?”
He nodded. “Sir, can I have another beer?”
The bartender poured him another glass.
“What happened?”
“My girlfriend broke up with me. Again. And I got evicted and am now living with my sister.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks.” Peter took a long sip of beer, drinking half the glass. “How’re your sons?”
The witch smiled brightly. “They’re great! Billy’s happily married to a Space King. And Tommy’s in the Champions.”
“Oh, yeah. Miles told me about that. He’s also on the team.”
“I think he also started dating Kate Bishop.”
“Wait, really?”
“I don’t know for sure. But I’m willing to bet it’s true.”
“Well, how about that. I’ll have to ask Miles the next time I see him.”
“So that girl you were with earlier, is that your sister?”
“Yeah. Theresa.”
“How come you’re not with her now?” But the smirk on her face showed that she already knew.
“I-I-I…We promised each other that we’d…make a move on someone.”
“So when you came over here to me?”
Peter froze. This caused the witch to laugh.
“Oh God! You’re so easy, Parker!”
“…You’re not mad that I was gonna hit on you?”
“No! I’m actually quite flattered.”
“What about Vision?”
“Vision and I…have gone our separate ways. He’s moved on and so have I.”
“…So if I offered to buy you a drink?”
Wanda smiled. “Sir, two strawberry daiquiris, please?”
The two sat there drinking and talking for hours. They talked about their lives as heroes. Their families. But the thing that came up the most was their pain.
“How the hell have we both been through the same awful shit?” Peter asked with a frown.
Maximoff sighed. “I don’t know. But I’m glad we talked about it. Not many people can understand what it’s like to…”
“To be the Universe’s punching bag? To get back up just to get knocked down over, and over, and over again?”
“Yeah. To lose everyone you care about, while the world thinks your a monster.”
“Or a menace, in my case. At least that part has gotten better for us.”
“I heard you reconciled with Jameson. Is that true?”
“Yeah.”
“Good for the both of you. Seems like you should be able to turn your life around.”
(Especially since Joe Quesada has left Marvel.)
“Maybe I can.” Then he scratched the back of his neck. “So what happens now?”
“Well, my place is upstate. So I could walk you home.”
Peter raised a brow. “Walk me home? No offense, but I think I can handle myself.”
Now she raised a brow. “Don’t you get stabbed on occasion?”
“Yes…”
“And I can make bad guys disappear with a thought.”
“…You know what, why don’t you walk me home?”
The two heroes left the bar and walked through the streets until they reached the condo.
“Thanks,” Peter said.
“Your welcome. I had a lot of fun tonight.”
They locked eyes.
“Yeah. Me too.”
“We should do this again sometime.”
“Yeah…”
“Actually…can I stay for the night? I’m too tipsy to portal or fly home.”
“…Sure.”
The condo’s front door opened and Peter and Wanda both stumbled in. And they were intensely making out. Their arms were firmly wrapped around each other. Feeling each other’s every curve.
Peter slammed the door with his foot.
Wanda then shoved him against it.
“Not here,” he gasped out. “My sister will kill me if we do it here.”
“Where’s your room?” she asked between kisses.
He responded by picking her up by the thighs, and she wrapped her legs around him in turn. He brought them to his room and closed the door behind them.
Maximoff got off his chest and pushed him onto the bed.
They saw the hunger in each other’s eyes and proceeded to take off their clothes.
Peter woke up with the Sun in his eyes. He tried to keep them closed and fall back asleep, but then he realized there was a weight on his chest. He opened his eyes to see the sleeping form of Wanda Maximoff lying on top of him.
Memories of the last night flooded in and he smiled softly.
He gently brushed a few locks of her brown hair out of her face.
God she is beautiful.
Wanda began to stir, and raised her head up to see Peter staring at her. The two blushed but couldn’t look away from each other.
“So…last night was fun,” Peter said.
Wanda chuckled. “It was.”
“Do you wanna have dinner tonight?”
She smiled brightly. “I’d love to.”
Peter kissed her passionately and she returned it. Maximoff then straddled Parker.
The door opened before they could continue.
“Hey, Pete! I made breakfast…” Therea stopped upon seeing that her brother wasn’t alone.
Wanda hastily climbed off of him and covered herself with the sheets.
“…Uh, sis, this is Wanda…”
The younger Parker blinked before her face morphed into a grin. “I’ll make another batch of pancakes. It should take fifteen minutes. You two go back to what you were doing.”
Peter blushed as his sister closed the door.
Wanda gave him a smirk. “Fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll take it,” he said before pulling her back on top of him and giving her a passionate kiss.
Neither had been this happy in a long time. Their lives had been one tragedy after another. But this. This was a new beginning for the both of them.