The Amazing Spider-Man 4

Chapter 4

Peter sat back down, already on his second plate of food. It was a little bit of an extra trip to come to his old house in Queens for a lunch break during the workday, as he usually had to make sure that he got some extra stuff done in order to justify the time it would take to make the trip, eat and talk with May, then get back to it. It was the reason he tried to meet his aunt in the city whenever possible.

But man, whenever he did come over, her cooking made it oh so worth it. Plus, it was free, which was a nice perk as well. In Peter's mind, free food was never to be turned down, especially when he'd had some Spider-Man related expenses recently that had made his budget a little tight yet again.

"At least I know you'll always be hungry when you come over," May quipped. "It's nice to have a way to make sure that you come back to visit on occasion."

"Mm," Peter said after taking a bite of pasta, "the free laundry service here is nice too, so you have that going for you as well."

"Just as long as you don't wash your American flag again," May joked with a chuckle.

"Will you let that go, May?" Peter moaned. "I know it wasn't my best excuse."

"Really, it's a wonder that the whole world doesn't know who you are by now," she said.

Peter just shook his head, but really, part of him couldn't disagree with that notion either. There were so many times, particularly earlier on in his career, that he messed up in some way that someone should've stumbled across his mistakes or put together the pieces to deduce that he was Spider-Man. Thankfully, it hadn't happened yet, and he wanted to keep it that way, especially after seeing a world where it was revealed that Peter Parker was Spider-Man.

His younger counterpart from that reality had certainly made some bad choices as a result, but it was hard to blame him. Peter had always wondered how he would've handled the situation if that had happened; what lengths he would go to in order to correct the situation or protect his loved ones at least.

Also, how were Peter-1 and Peter-2 anyway?

"Hello," May said, regaining his attention.

"Sorry," Peter replied apologetically, stirring his pasta, "just lost in thought."

"About Mary Jane, perhaps?" May questioned, her tone and expression both perking up at the mention of Peter's girlfriend's name.

"No," Peter answered with a chuckle, "no, nothing like that."

"Uh huh, sure," May teased.

"What?" Peter said, his arms shooting to the sides of the table in exasperation. "A man can think about things other than his girlfriend at least some of the time, you know."

"Okay, okay," May said as she refilled his glass of water as well as her own. "How is Mary Jane anyway?"

"She's great," Peter replied. "Her and Liz are actually talking about trying to expand their business, so things seem to be going pretty well on that front especially."

"That's amazing!" May replied as she came back to sit down. "Ooh, next time I see her, I'll have to tell her how much I love the sweatpants that I bought there. They seriously might be the most comfortable things I've ever worn."

"Mm," Peter said, trying to swallow his latest bite of food. "Why don't you go and leave a review on their website?"

"Because I want to tell her in person," May answered as if it was obvious.

"And you can, but leaving a review helps the business," Peter said.

"You know I'm not good with all that technology stuff," May countered.