"SURPRIIIOoh" Both Peter and May quickly quite down from their cheer as their eyes finally layed on Wanda. She stands there a bit stiff and awkward shyly rubbing her elbow. "H-hi." Wanda gave them a little wave. "Hey y'all, what's with the party getu-oh fuck it's our birthdays isn't it." I drop my shoulders in disbelief and disappointment because I've been so busy this summer that I completely forgot about the one big thing that Peter and I became best friends on when we were kids. Of all the coincidences that this world could've made for me, I just so happened to almost share the same birthday as Peter. He was born on August 10 in the United States and I was born on August 11 in China. Now he could be older than me by a day or maybe less than 12 hours simply because of the timezones that we were born into.
May suddenly reach out to grab my shoulder. "Hey hey now there's no need for that. Come, come in Ned. Where have you been all summer?" May tries to shuffle me into the door. "And who's this friend of yours? She's so pretty oh my gosh." May waves for my plus one to come in before Peter shuts the door. "Uh guys..." I look at Wanda while we make our way into the kitchen of their apartment. "This is my girlfriend Wanda." She starts to turn a slight shade redder from that comment. Obviously we've never gotten the chance to discuss what we are exactly since our development was somewhat odd. We've been 'talking' for about a week now but never got really got anymore intimate than a hug until today. Even then it wasn't until just a few hours ago that we got closer together, in the morning Wanda was still mourning over her brother and all I could do was stay by her side.
"Ah I see...well Wanda, welcome to our home. It's a bit mess and slightly decorated for the boys but feel free to make yourself at home." May offers Wanda a pouch of juice from the fridge. "T-thank you so much for having me. I'm sorry if I disrupted any plans you two had with Ned." She accepts the juice hesitantly since she doesn't want to be a bother and inconvenience for this family of two. "Oh don't say such a thing. It's about damn time one of these boys bring home a girl. I was beginning to suspect that they were going to be loners for the rest of their lives with what their hobbies are." ""HEY!"" Both Peter and I shouted out at the same time before turning to look at each other and laugh. "I'm right here May. Did you think it was going to be impossible for me to have any game? Well yous right cause I didn't before but now I got ALL THESE GAINS!" I mockingly flex my body and being grunting as I mimic the poses Greek statues.
RIP!
"OH shit flexed too hard!" The back of my black button up shirt ripped open from my pushing my muscles a bit too much. It was also a slim and tight fit to begin with but I had forgotten about it. We all laugh and the tension between Wanda and the Parkers ease away just a bit. "Say you two look pretty cute today. Already had the matching outfits that you kids are doing these days." May rest her hands on her hip while checking out our outfits. At first I didn't understand what we meant because Wanda and I are still in our funeral cloth-oh... "Uh May...thank you but huh we didn't mean to dress up to be cute together." I scratch my head as I'm not sure how I should break the news. "We were attending a funeral this morning. I had to bury my brother and Ned was there to help me with the process." Wanda reach out to hold my hand as we all continue to stand around in the kitchen area.
"I see...well my condolences for you Wanda. Now would you kids like to build Legos together or eat the cake first?" May tries to change the topic as she didn't know that she had accidentally hit a sensitive spot. "Ahhh I have several questions but let's talk about it over Legos, Ned." Peter tries to join in on the conversation after his jumbled up brain had finally finished piecing in what is going on with his best friend. "Great, sounds like a plan Pete." I smile and pull Wanda with me as we walk over to the living room to begin building. I set Wanda down before looking around their apartment. I can't believe it's really been nearly a whole summer since the last time that I've been in this room. Now everything seems so different...everything had always been different, I just assumed that I was in THE MCU-'universe'. Welp I guess I can blame that on my protagonist bias since I saw the world from my point of view. But everything makes so much sense now. The slight difference of dates here and there, the supernatural world interacting with the normal world, the events from lesser known other marvel TV shows appearing in the newspaper. Hell, even the fact that that one academy exists in North Salem should had set off some fucking red flags for me.
"So Ned, I know you've probably forgotten about today, and it's probably because we haven't seen each other all summer but I got a gift to make it up for not being able to hang out with you." Peter tries to sound cool and tough before producing a bag from under the coffee table. "NO WAY MAN!! You got the Star Destroyer set that we saw back in fall? Hell yeah Peter!" My inner child doesn't resist the challenge and play of putting together a Lego set. No wonder this company has been raking in billions of dollars a year. Even as a super powered wizard I revert back into my child self in front of such a thing. "Wanna time ourselves on this one? We have three sets of hands now so we can definitely make it a lot quicker than last year's project." I look up at Wanda to invite her to come closer to me and Peter.
Wanda looks at me with a bit of hesitation in her eyes. I smile at her before turning over to Peter to keep him distracted. "Hey Peter, do you and May have my favorite drink available?" He lets out a laugh before getting up to go get me a drink. "Do we have your drink? What do you think this is? A bar for kids?" He got up to walk over into the kitchen. While he's away I reach over to touch Wanda's hand. "Hey, it'll be okay. What Peter and I are doing right now is kinda lame compared to what you and I did last week but come. Come join us and I promise it'll be fun." I can't stop myself from smiling from ear to ear as I hold her hand. "O-okay. I'll try." She puts on a smile as she try to lower her awkwardness in the Parker household. I raise her hand up to my lips to give it a gentle kiss.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Peter stands by the hallway with a confused look as he holds two ice cold glasses in his hands. "Please tell me that's liquor you have in those cups." Wanda looks at the refreshingly cool and slightly condensation glasses in Peter's hands. The juice pouches were fine but it's not a party without something strong to the cup. "Ahh Wanda just how old are you? Because this is just water." He puts on a shy and awkward smile as he hands me and Wanda our glasses. "Thanks Peter, there's nothing more refreshing than a nice cold glass of ice water." I smile at Wanda before chugging down my glass like a man who's been trapped in the dessert for decades. "Ahhh!" I set my glass down before grabbing on to my head in pain.
"There's the brain freeze." Peter laughs as if he's finally seeing his best friend instead of a stranger with the face of his best friend. "What do May and I always say? No one here is going to take your water away from you." I wince at the pain of my blood rushing back into the roof of my mouth as I hand Peter my glass. "More please." I smirk at him like always because I never seem to learn. Peter smirks back at me as he swaps the empty glass in my hand with the other glass of water. "I knew you would say that." Peter chuckles as he walks back into the kitchen. "Are you two always like this?" Wanda looks down at my new glass of water and then up into my eyes. "Like what?" I take a sip of the water as if I wasn't just suffering from a mild brain freeze a second ago. "Like this." Wanda waves a finger around as she points to the open space between Peter and I.
"Oh you mean goofing around? Yeah, Peter and I are like two peas in a pod. Two science dorks, always sticking with each other. You know back in middle school whenever Peter and I would share the same classes we always brought the grade point average of the class up by nearly thirty percent. We would mess around with the teachers so much that sometimes the teachers would prefer having the 'bad' students act up instead of the two of us." I set the glass down on the table before sliding over to her. "Just how much trouble could the two of you goody-two-shoes possibly do, that caused the teachers to prefer the delinquents over you two nerds?" Wanda gives me a slight side eye as I swoop in to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Oh a lot." I raise my eyebrows up and down.
As if on cue, Peter steps right back into the living room. "Have you ever seen a teacher get into a heated intellectual debate over their subject instead of actually teaching the class? Or win the school's science fair with a project about the properties of grass and backyards weeds? Make the school bully so embarrassed he developed a speech impediment for weeks? There's been a couple times where Ned and I would just talk around in circles with a couple of the teachers that they had to make sure we couldn't sit next to each other." Peter sits down next to me as he sets down his new glass of water.
"But that didn't last long because the other students loved it when we pulled our shenanigans and they would actually listen more and learn better when Peter and I were messing around." I let out a laugh as I reached out to touch Wanda's hand. "Did you have something similar in your days?" I raise my eyebrows to try and be funny but then it quickly dies down and I suck in my lips in cringe. Oh fuck why did I even ask that. Wanda remains silent for a moment as she switches her eyes back and forth between Peter and I. The sound of May's footsteps coming into the living room finally got Wanda to break the silence as she shook her head. "No. I grew up in a war torn country and I was never really popular when I did attend the little classes that we had."
"Foreign girl huh? Ned, just how did the two of you meet anyways? It's been a whole summer since I saw you and next thing I knew, you've gained like a hundred pounds of muscles and a girlfriend." May walks over to her favorite spot of the room before sitting down near us. I look over to Wanda before swallowing the cringe that was stuck in my mouth. "Uhhh...well we met at the community center. Since the start of the summer I've been going there to use their gym and that was where I met Wanda. Well I didn't meet her at the gym but I did at the community center. We had our issues at first because her brother and I got into some conflicts and arguments in the beginning but then we got closer and closer the more we hung out. Then uh...well Wanda's brother passed away last week because of an unfortunate accident." I gently squeezed Wanda's hand as I explained to them a half truth of our story. "And today...well we just got back from a funeral in upstate." I look into Wanda's eyes as raise her hand to my level so I can give it a kiss.
"Damn...well I'm sorry for your loss Wanda." Peter takes a sip of his water so he wouldn't continue to sit there awkwardly. "So how long have you two been together?" May pops open a pouch of juice to begin drinking it as she pulls a lever on the side of her recliner. "Uhmm well..." I look over to Wanda. "It's complicated. We're together but never really had the time to talk about it." She puts on a shy smile as she doesn't want to be judged for her words but she doesn't know how to answer the question at the same time. "Yeah it's kinda complicated. We've been talking for a while but never really had anything until her brother passed away. Ever since he passed, I've been the one spending time with Wanda and helping her out. So we never really had any time for a date or anything official." I scratch my head before reaching out to take another sip of water. "Hey there's no need to rush. You guys are still young and wild, just take your time and enjoy each other's company before deciding if you two want to be together." May puts her legs into a cross cross position while also leaning back into her chair.
I look over to Wanda and smile before gently squeezing her hand. "Like we said, it's complicated but we like each other and that we can be sure about." Wanda and I let out a chuckle as she scoots closer to me on the couch. "There is one thing I do want to ask about. Wanda just how old are you? I know that Ned is turning 14 tomorrow since today Peter is turning 14 but you look older than them. Well I guess Ned looks older than 14 now but what about you?" May takes a sip of juice from her pouch while Peter leans forward and away from the couch to get a better look at both mine and Wanda's face. "I'm..." I gently squeeze her hand. "17, she's 17 turning 18 later this fall." I try to put on a smile but May and Peter just had their jaws drop to the ground. "Ned you know that's not okay right? You're a minor while she's...well she's a minor too but YOU'RE the one that will get her in trouble if you to make this a serious thing." May tries to step up as the response adult to protect us from doing anything stupid to ourselves but she quickly quiet down when she remembers what I look like now. "I mean it is New York City. What are we, if not two additional people to our 18 million plus people in this city." I shrug my shoulders as I try to defend my situation and justify it. "And hell most people don't even think I'm 14. I've gotten so big now that I wouldn't look too far apart from Wanda's age group."
"You know what? I don't even know what to say anymore. It's like I'm talking to a completely different person." She raises her hands in defeat because of how complicated the situation has become. She gets up to go get the food ready for the four of us. Peter looks at me with shock and amazement as May walks away. "Ain't no way you're 17 Wanda. I do not believe that my Ned can do such a thing." He points at me before we both start to laugh. "Hey, what do you mean you can't believe it? It's simple math Peter. Big muscles and brains equals finding a girlfriend on normal difficulty. Being smart but chubby or scrawny is playing it on dark souls difficulty." I try to flex again but stop myself because my shirt already has a rip in it, I don't need another one.
"Wow not only did you break bro code but you also broke nerd code too." Peter tries to put on a betrayed look on his face but we couldn't stop laughing at the bit we're both doing. Wanda looks at us with confusion and a bit of worry in her eyes. "Do...do you not approve of our relationship?" She squeezed my fingers tightly while looking over at May before going back to Peter. "Wanda...you know Peter and I are just messing with you right?" I smile at her while running my thumb over her hand to try and comfort her.
"We uh...well we joke by poking fun at each other and trying to see who breaks into laughter first. After that we'll stop and move on to the next subject." Peter tries to chime in to help assist his best friend. He leaned away from the couch to be in view of Wanda's instead of being blocked by my door frame of a body. "Yeah I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Ned and I had always been with each other every summer since middle school and we always had a blast making each other laugh. This summer I've been so busy that I didn't have the time to hang with Ned like we usually do." He has a warm simple smile on his face to try and reassure Wanda that she is welcomed here. "Okay you guys, the food is ready!" May called out from the kitchen as Peter and I both stood up simultaneously. This greatly alarmed Wanda as our movements were nearly perfectly in sync with each other despite our size differences. "Come on Wanda. Let's go get some food, May's lasagnas are worth dying for." I smile as I extend my hand out to help her get up.