Chapter Text
May was up to something.
Well- that certainly implied something much darker than it probably, actually was. Maybe a different wording would work better.
She was hiding something.
Back to the point- May was sneaking around, making shifty phone calls, and heading out at strange hours. If Peter didn’t know better, he’d guess that she was Spider-Woman or some crap. It was just utterly, completely, wildly out of character for his aunt. It wasn’t just that though- whatever was going on had seemingly infected her mind, because she was distracted in ways that she had never been before. Their interactions were reduced to texts, and she hadn’t hugged him or asked him about school or even sent him off with well-wishes in days.
And so, Peter decided that he was going to find out what was up via official spidey investigative work. Operation ‘Aunt May.’
Yeah, he was a creative kind of guy.
It wasn’t exactly difficult to track her down in the wild. All he had to do was wait for her to go out, and then (stealthily) follow her in the suit. He emerged from his room at exactly 5:00pm, the time she usually left the apartment for her endeavors, and confronted her in the living room.
“Hey, Aunt May! Where you going tonight?” He looked her up and down, taking into account the tight, but not revealing dress, covered by a nice cardigan and complemented with slight heels. Strange. She rarely got dressed-up this fancy, never really having anywhere to go where it’d be required.
“I’m having dinner with a few of the girls from work, nothing special. I’ll be home in a few hours, alright?” She didn’t bother waiting for a response, turning around and heading out the door without another word, staring at her phone all whilst exiting.
Her phone. Her phone.
It was a new model. A very, very new model, and 100% something that she would never be able to afford on her own. Was she just working more hours, and was too embarrassed to tell him? He didn’t know why she’d be embarrassed, but otherwise it made sense. Peter decided to follow her anyways, making his way into his bedroom and grabbing his suit from the place he usually stored it. He finagled the thing on with practiced ease, popping open the window and climbing out onto the wall outside.
Swinging was always something comforting to him, helping to calm his nerves with how quiet it got when he was up far enough into the air. He almost forgot the reason why he was out and about, right until he caught the sight of May climbing into a taxi below. His eyes latched onto the plate.
Peter, would you like me to track that number? Karen asked.
“That’d be great.” He mumbled back, busy changing directions mid-air. The taxi high-tailed it to the more restaurant-centric part of Queens, which was expected, but what wasn’t expected was where it stopped in front of, and yeah, that was definitely out of their budget. He dropped into a back alley, tucking his suit into the backpack he brought and awkwardly trying to get changed out of sight. He made sure the coast was clear before walking back onto the sidewalk and awkwardly peering in the window and-
That was definitely not any of May’s female colleagues. A man, somewhere in his early thirties, with slicked-back blonde hair and blue eyes sat across from May, though unfortunately turned away from the window. Unfortunately, because at that very moment, May made eye-contact with her nephew. She didn’t look very mad, thankfully, but beckoned him inside. Peter knew not to disobey.
“Uhm, my aunt is sitting over there and she wants me to join her.” Peter told the hostess, who eyed him warily but let him follow her to the table nonetheless. May stood up with a fake-looking smile, and held out an arm toward the man.
“Peter, meet my boyfriend, Skip. Skip Westcott.”