Marvel Fluff

Birthday:: Peter Parker

Ever since I can remember Peter had been in my life. His mother and mine had been friends in college and even after the death of his parents my family and his remained close. After the initial stage of avoidance due to the looming threat of cooties Peter and I naturally became best friends. Over the course of middle school and high school Peter and I were as tight as a drum. We had no doubt in our minds that for the rest of our lives it would be Peter and I against the world.

"Hey Pete, so my birthday is coming up in a couple of days..." I trailed off hoping he would catch my drift.

"Uh yeah of course it is. Two more days to be exact. It's only like, the biggest day of the year!" he grinned with a playful tone.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, anyway, my parents invited you to a little get together at my place."

"Oh, is that code word for 'we're gonna have a raging house party and get wasted with all our friends" he joked

"Yes. Yes, it is. Because we have so many friends." I rolled my eyes. "But seriously, come?"

"Of course, yeah. I'm there. You know I'm there." He spoke quietly and softly bumped his shoulder into mine.

*****

Laughter filled the dining room as we sat and ate dinner. I looked around the room happy and grateful to all the people who showed up to my birthday dinner until my eyes landed on the empty chair sitting across from me. Throughout the night I had remained patient for Peter to arrive and half-heartedly reassured everyone that he was coming when they questioned his absence. At the start of the night I had hope that Peter would arrive soon but as the hours dwindled my hope turned into disappointment and my disappointment has turned into anger.

Even Peter's Aunt May was beginning to question if he'd even show up. An hour into my party I had noticed her texting someone, no doubt Peter, with a livid expression on her face.

Tired of waiting I ushered everyone into the living room where a small store-bought cake sat on the coffee table waiting for us to sing happy birthday. As everyone sang my smile faded and I began to question, how could my best friend miss my birthday? Does Peter even care about me?

Just as I began to blow the sixteen candles out the door bell rang. Everyone looked at me expectantly, I supposed they all knew who behind the door. With a simple "I'll get it" I made my way to the door. Every step I took made the anger inside me build higher and higher.

Peter stood in the doorway looking dishevelled in a white dress shirt and black slacks with a thin black tie hanging loosely around his neck. His hair stood up in every direction as if he just stood in front of a jet engine. He wore a somewhat guilty expression.

"Happy birthday" he muttered holding up a gift wrapped in newspaper and twine. Although I was curious to hear the excuse as to why he came so late to my birthday dinner, I simply ignored the gift in his hand, left the door hanging wide open for him and walked back to the congregation of people in our living room.

"Lo and behold the benevolent Peter Parker has decided to grace us with his presence." I announced to everyone in a loud sarcastic tone. Picking up on the tense vibe I was giving off, my mother shooed everyone into the kitchen with the promise of cake and coffee.

Once Peter and I were alone in the living room he cautiously approached me and attempted to hold my hand. I ripped my hand out of his grasp as soon as he touched it.

"Don't touch me Peter. I'm so pissed right now, I don't want to do something I'll regret" hinting at the fact that I wanted to physically hurt him so he could feel the pain I felt emotionally.

"Y/N look- I know you're angry and I know I'm late but there was just something I had to do. But I'm here now, that's all that matters right?"

"What's more important than your best friend's birthday huh? What's more important Peter?" My voice strained against the lump in my throat.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you everything, just not here." He looked around the room and ushered me down the hall towards my bedroom where he proceeded to close the door. He sat me down on the bed while he took the chair at the desk.

"Y/N there's something I've been meaning to tell you. Something big." His tone suddenly became somber alerting me that this was serious. Although I was annoyed with Peter, his sudden dip in tone made me nervous and while trying to turn the seriousness of the situation into a joke was immature and even childish, humour was the only way I could deal with this on-edge feeling in my stomach.

"What? Are you dealing drugs? Cause that's totally fine. You know my cousin Bert is into that scene and he can show you some-" Trying to lighten up the mood.

"Y/N please. Just listen!" Peter interrupted me.

I braced myself for the worst as he inhaled slowly. "I'm Spider-Man." His eyes searched mine for any hint of emotion but my face remained deadpanned.

"Yeah and Thor is my uncle. Come on Peter, how can you expect me to believe bullshit like that? If you had better things to do tonight all you had to do was say so." I was pissed. I stared at him trying to figure him out.

"No really. I am Spider-Man. A few months ago, I was bitten by a spider and I don't know, it gave me abilities. I can climb up walls, I'm really strong now. And then I built this, like, web shooter thingy and then I go from like picking bad guys off the streets to fighting with freaking Iron Man!"

"Wait, so you're meaning to tell me that you've been Spider-Man for months and you're just telling me now? No. You see, the Peter I know wouldn't keep something like that from me, from his best friend. The Peter I know doesn't keep secrets from me. The Peter I know doesn't make up stupid excuses about superheros and bullshit. What happened to that Peter? Because this guy in front of me is not him."

"Y/N I'm telling you the truth. Please just let me prove it to you." His pleading eyes penetrated mine and with a sigh I gave into his crazy psychobabble.

"Fine."

Peter stood up and took my hands in his leading the way to the window. He climbed onto the fire escape then turned to help me through. I noticed he was slightly shaking. Was he nervous or just cold?

"Now whatever you do, don't scream."

"Peter, you know I trust you with my life but you're starting to scare-" before I could finish my sentence Peter had wrapped his hands around my waist and suddenly, we were flying through the air.

I tightly coiled my arms around his waist and despite what Peter said, I screamed.

"Peter what the fuck! What the fuck Peter! Holy shit! We're flying? You can fly?!" I yelled over the wind whipping around my ears.

"We're not flying, we're swinging." His mouth was level with my ear so I could hear him clearly. Looking up I noticed that we were swinging through building to building from a silk like string coming from a device on Peters wrist. When we finally landed on the top of an apartment building not far from mine, my legs felt like Jell-O.

I thought about what this new information meant. It made sense that Peter could be Spider-Man. I thought back to all of the incidents over the past three months where Peter would suddenly disappear or cancel plans out of the blue. As much as I didn't want to believe it, it was a plausible explanation for his absence at my party.

"Okay, so you're Spider-Man."

"I've wanted to tell you for so long. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," Peter looked at the ground with a guilty look on his face.

"Well since it's my birthday you can make it up to me by introducing me to Tony Stark since you're basically best friends now..."