After a successful day at school, Peter Parker walked with a skip in his step. Smiling to himself as he thought of another school day conquered, passing both his chemistry and Spanish tests with flying colors, even Flash didn’t annoy him today and that’s a great day in his book. Deciding to treat himself, he stopped into Mr Delmar’s for a sandwich and of course, to pet Murph the cat. Ordering his usual food order, including gummy bears, he paid Mr Delmar the five dollars, thanked him, and was out the door on his way home. Eating half of the delicious sandwich and the entire bag of gummy bears, Peter was already in the elevator on his way to the apartment he shared with his lovely aunt. Reaching the apartment door, Peter slipped the key into the keyhole, twisting the doorknob and entered the foyer.
“May, I’m home.” He said as he dropped his keys onto the table by the front door. Taking his jacket and shoes off, Peter walked to the kitchen to get a drink. While grabbing a water bottle, he heard a cough come from behind him. Closing his eyes, he silently prayed it wasn’t Mr Stark, after the good day he’s had he really wouldn’t want another lecture about being Spider-Man again. Peter turned around mid drinking only for him to completely miss his mouth and the water come spilling to the ground. Sitting on the couch with her arms crossed, resting on the sofa, next to his aunt was none other than agent Maria Hill. Peter looked down at the small puddle of water before looking back up, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
He quickly grabbed a few paper towels and immediately cleaned up the puddle he accidentally made, silently cursing to himself about the embarrassment he caused. On the couch, May and Maria held in their laughter, shaking their heads at the boy, now throwing out the wet paper towels, they stared at him with interest. Fidgeting with his hands Peter decided to finally speak,
“Um, hi agent Hill, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. I thought Mr Stark would be here to assign any missions for me” After May found out Peter was the “spider guy from youtube” as Ned put it, they sat down and had a long talk, he told her sincerely how it happened and that Mr Stark was his mentor. Although it did make her a little nervous for him to be out stopping bad guys, it did make her happy to see Peter become something great.
“Hello Peter, How are you? And no, I don’t have the big extravagant missions the other Avengers get. Actually, I’m not here on Avenger business but if I do say so I’m a little heart broken that you prefer Stark over me, at least I know one Parker doesn’t” she said smiling as she glanced over at May sitting next to her. May let out a little laugh as she shook her head, smiling to herself. She turned to look at Maria, who was staring back at her. They both had this little twinkle in their eyes that Peter swears he’s seen before. Letting out a little cough to get their attention, the sudden noise making them turn their heads at the boy.
“I-I’m doing very well agent Hill, thank you for asking. So if you’re not here on avengers business then, um, why are you here?” Peter asked. He started fidgeting with his hands again, a little habit of his, hoping he didn’t say anything out of term. Maria cleared her throat,
“I’m glad to see you’re doing better Peter. I’m actually here to ask you something. I was hoping we, all of us, could do something for dinner, if that’s alright with you. We could do something here or we could go out, or-.“ Maria’s rambling was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder, she turned to look at May. Taking a deep breath to let her anxiety leave her body, she glanced at May waiting for her response. May smiled at her, “Maria, honey relax, it’s just us. Anything we do would be perfect.”
Peter looked at the both of them, smiling to himself when he had a fantastic idea, well at least to him it was. “Agent Hill.” he said before being interrupted by Maria, “Enough with the formality, please call me Maria.” Peter stared at her smiling as Maria smiled back at him. Continuing with his train of thought, Peter quickly said, “Okay, Maria, still feels a little weird saying that, not going to lie. But what if we do dinner here and I’ll ask Ned to come over and it’ll be a little double date”. Peter raised his eyebrows and smiled at his little idea, hoping everyone would be on board for it.
May squealed with delight, “That’s amazing Peter! Should I make pasta? Is that okay?” She asked Maria who nodded in agreement. “Okay, okay I should start cooking now before Ned comes. Peter! Ask Ned if he wants to come over for dinner!” she yelled excitedly as she got up from the couch and dashed into the kitchen to make it a mess. Maria stared lovingly from the couch as she watched May tear the kitchen apart to make dinner. She recalls May frantically calling her during a meeting with director Fury, telling her how she messed up cooking turkey meatloaf for dinner then immediately going out for Thai food. Smiling at the memory, she didn’t realize Peter was staring at her.
Peter took a sip of his water. “The way you look at her.” He paused, walking closer to the couch so they were out of May’s line of sight, “I don’t remember uncle Ben looking at her the way you do. Thank you for making her happy, after everything that’s been going on with me and being spider-man, I really appreciate there’s someone else looking after her besides me”
Before Peter could say anything else, Maria quickly changed her sitting position on the sofa to a kneeling one, so that her and Peter were the same height, and pulled the young boy into a hug. Peter wrapped his arms around the woman in front of him. He leaned his head onto her shoulder, sighing deeply. Maria imitated him before pulling out of his gentle hold to look him in the eyes.
Her eyes darted back and forth, head moving along with, a sign she was thinking and or overthinking about what to say. She let out a deep sigh, “I will always be here. For you and for her. You got that, you can always come to me instead of Stark if you feel like it.” She spoke softly, chuckling to herself as Peter immediately responded, “I bet he won’t like that but yes, yes I will.”
They both pulled away as Peter’s phone rang, rummaging through his pockets to find his phone. Peter quickly answered it without looking at the caller I.D. Peter quickly said “hello.” Sighing happily as the voice on the other line was his wonderful boyfriend, Ned Leeds. Peter excused himself to talk to Ned about the double date tonight as Maria instantly shooed him away whispering, “Go! Go, talk to your boy!”
Peter gave her a thumbs up before walking out the room telling Ned the plans for tonight, of course Ned was on board and began asking Peter if he can talk to Maria about Avengers details and questions and all that jazz. Peter laughed before telling him “You’ll have to ask her when you get here, so hurry up”. Peter and Ned’s phone conversation lasted for thirty minutes more before he went to tell May and Maria that Ned would be here soon.
Not even stepping foot into the kitchen he smiled at the sight in front of him. May’s record player was on in the adjoined room, ABBA blasting through the small speakers. Maria had her arms wrapped around May’s waist as she stirred the pasta sauce, occasionally letting her taste the supposed family secret sauce but Peter knew it was store bought. Quickly, Peter pulled out his phone, snapping a photo of the two, deciding he’ll send it to May or Maria after dinner.
“Hey, Pete.” At the sound of his name being called he looked up at the two women in the kitchen, “Is Ned on his way-“ The sound of three knocks on the door interrupted May. She chuckled, “I guess that’s him”. Peter walked to the door, quickly fixing his mess of a hair in the mirror on the wall. Smiling he opened the door to see his lovely boyfriend dressed in the same clothes he wore to school, a blue button up shirt and dark jeans. Typing from his phone, not looking up, Ned walked passed Peter, quickly taking off his shoes and darting over to the dining room where Maria and May were setting the table.
“Hi May! Oh hi agent Hill! Peter told me you were here and I’ve been typing questions about Avengers stuff on my phone, I hope you can answer them but if not it’s totally cool!” Ned rambled on as Maria smiled, “Sure Ned, whatever your heart desires”
Hearing Ned and Maria’s conversation, Peter chuckled to himself as he shut the door, and walked into the dining room where everyone began to sit. Turning to his boyfriend who sat next to him, Peter frowned, “What, no kiss?”
Ned looked at his boyfriend, eyebrows raised and slightly confused, “Peter, you saw me what? Not even 4 hours ago?” A still frowning Peter, did a double take and put his hand over his heart, “Ned! I can’t believe this! How could you say something like that”. Ned rolled his eyes then chuckled, “Okay, fine, Spidey come here”, smiling Peter moved closer so Ned could give him a kiss, a little peck on the lips.
Maria and May walked in with two bowls, one filled with pasta and the other with sauce. Setting them down on the table, everyone began to dig in. Putting a forkful of pasta into his mouth, Peter’s eyebrows raised, “Wow, May, this is already better than that turkey meatloaf you tried to cook.” May stared at Peter, mouth agape.
“Nice, thanks Pete, but Maria over here can back me up, my cooking isn’t so bad, right babe?” May nudged her shoulder. Swallowing the bite of pasta she took, Maria smiled, “Yeah Pete, she’s good at everything, maybe you should cook sometime” Peter gasped, “That’s so not fair, you’re her girlfriend you have to back her up at everything!” On Peter’s left, Ned chuckled, it was a little funny seeing Peter get angry over the littlest thing, “Peter, you’re never going to learn how to cook.”
Eventually the bickering stop before clearing the table and relaxing in front of the tv. It was a school night so Ned left shortly after dinner, but not without asking Maria all of his questions, seeing a smile on Ned’s face while Maria talked about Avengers work was priceless and well deserving. Peter was in his room, probably getting ready for his daily night duties as Spider-Man.
May and Maria were cuddled together, sitting comfortably on the couch watching the news. On the coffee table sat two mugs, one filled with coffee the other with tea. They always had a cup before bed. Maria kissed May’s forehead as the newscast proceeded to say there was a robbery in progress.
“Peter!” May yelled from the couch, looking at the tv. Peter came running out of his room, dressed in his suit, mask in hand. “I’m on it!” He yelled before darting for the window. “Pete.” Turning around at the sound of his name, to see Maria standing halfway off the couch with her hand intertwined with May’s, “I got her, do your thing spider-man.” Smiling at the sight in front of him, Peter pulled his mask down over his face and began climbing out the window, shutting it.
Maria, now back in her comfortable position, pulled May closer, wrapping her arms around the tired, worried woman. Kissing May’s forehead once more, she let out a deep sigh, “It’ll be okay, he’s got this and always has. If it’s gets bad, he’ll call for backup”
May turned her head to look at Maria, “That’s what I’m worried about. He won’t call Stark for backup, he’ll call you, and with the both of you out there i-“ Maria quickly placed a gentle kiss on May’s lips. Kissing back, May wrapped her arms around the taller woman’s frame. Pulling each other closer than they could possibly get, Maria quickly pulled May into her lap.
Grabbing onto one another as if the thought of one of them disappearing could be any minute now would be devastating. The tv becoming background noise as the two women still kissed like it was their last day on earth. It wasn’t necessarily a heated kiss, it was one of those where you need the other person, you love them and would do anything for them.
Maria’s hands cupped the sides of May’s face as she pulled away from their kiss, “I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t let anything happen to Peter. You two are the best thing that has happened to me in a long time and I refuse to let the universe take you both away”
Wiping the stray tears that escaped May’s eyes, Maria gave her an eskimo kiss as May giggled. Touching their foreheads together, looking into Maria’s eyes, May whispered, “I’m so happy.”
"As am I” Maria immediately responded back.