Peter's room had been configured for a study session with the efficiency of someone who does not like wasted time.
Table pulled out, chairs arranged, books distributed according to subject and difficulty level.
Selina was asleep on the bed.
Caesar was on his platform watching cartoons with the attentive focus of someone who takes cartoons seriously.
Mary Jane worked through her notes and periodically glanced sideways at the space between Peter and Missy, which was smaller than it had been an hour ago and had the quality of smallness that is not accidental.
'Has their relationship progressed that far already?' she thought. 'He really moved on.'
She shook her head, lifted it with the specific determination of someone who has identified a goal and intends to reach it, and went back to her notes.
He had said he was willing to give her a chance. She just had to demonstrate she was worth it.
"Are you two dating or something?" she asked, in the tone of someone asking casually, which was not the tone she was actually using.
Missy and Peter backed away from each other by approximately two centimeters, which told her most of what she needed to know.
"Not really," Peter said scratching his back hair.
"Not yet," Missy said, looking at a point somewhere to her left, and her ears went red.
Peter looked at her with the specific expression of someone who has been surprised.
"Is it so surprising that I like you?" Missy said, which was the sound of someone who has decided to be direct and is committed to the decision now that it has been made.
"No," he said. "It is not that. I just did not expect you to say it first."
He smiled. "I can be a bit dense..."
Which is a lie
He paused. "...but I am not blind, Missy. I can understand certain things without them being said out loud. And you were not exactly hiding it."
"She was so obvious even a blind person could see it," Mary Jane said, in the tone of someone making a joke while also being accurate.
Missy covered her face with both hands. Peter laughed.
"I am glad you told me now rather than later," he said, leaned over and kissed her cheek, and stood up. "I will go find something to eat."
He left the room. Mary Jane watched the door close behind him.
"You are not that lucky girl," she said.
"Yes," Missy said, still slightly red. "I am."
....
Downstairs, he went to the kitchen and found a sight that stopped him in the doorway.
May was searching through the lower cabinets under the counter, which required her to be leaning forward with her back to him, and the shorts she was wearing were doing considerable work in the direction of displaying that May Parker's decades on earth had been extremely kind to her in certain specific respects.
One of her movements caused the waistband to shift, which provided a brief view of black lace beneath.
"Shit," he said, out loud, unaware that it would startle May, causing her to almost hit her head
May stood up fast and turned around, and the expression on her face cycled through several things before landing on embarrassment.
"Peter!" She looked away. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough," he said, "to confirm that black makes you sexier and that maturity is the best."
"I did not raise you to be a pervert!"
"Technically," he said, moving toward the fridge, "you took me in at ten, which I am grateful for, but Uncle Ben did most of the actual raising.... So." He shrugged. "And we are not related by blood.... Which is worth noting."
Especially his since it was modified.
May opened her mouth to respond and then appeared to lose the sentence.
He took things out of the fridge and began assembling sandwiches. The electric oven went on. May was still standing by the counter in the process of formulating a response.
"Even so," she said finally, "it is still wrong, you are like a par.... son."
She did not finish the word because he moved.
He covered the distance between them quickly and had her by the waist and pressed gently against the refrigerator before she had completed the sentence, one hand holding both of hers above her head against the door, one thigh positioned between hers.
She inhaled sharply,"Pete..." her breath caught in her throat when he put one finger against her lips before she could speak.
"Do not say anything yet," he said, close to her ear. "I am going to make a few things clear and I would like you to listen... Nod if you understand."
She nodded.
"First of all, we are not related by blood," he said. "You are connected to me because you married my uncle. After his death you became a widow, and the relationship between us has been something other than what it is supposed to be for a while now, and we both know it."
He traced her cheek with his free hand. "I do not see you as my aunt. I want to be clear about that."
May was surprised to hear those words come out of his mouth, but before she could say anything, he interrupted her.
"I see you more as a strong, beautiful, and independent woman than as my Aunt," he said, and kissed her neck once, which produced a sharp intake of breath that he noted.
"I don't like to beat around the bush, May, so I'll make this perfectly clear.
I'm a lustful person, and you're as hot as hell, and I don't care what other people or society thinks; they can all go to hell.
What matters to me is what you think of me, and I'm pretty sure I know what you're thinking. You thought you were clever, huh?"
"W.... what do you mean?"
"Don't act all shy and innocent with me, May. I'm not as stupid as I pretend to be. I've seen the way you look at me, those brown eyes of yours. I've seen them cloud over with the same amount of lust and desire as I have for you."
He held her gaze steadily. "And my boxers have been disappearing quite a lot lately."
May felt embarrassed at having been caught"I can expla-...."
"You cannot," he said, in a lower register, and kissed her neck again.
She made small sounds that she was not entirely in control of. He pressed closer, making certain she was aware of the effect she was producing.
"I care about you deeply. I will not let anyone hurt you or take you from me. I mean that in every sense. But I also will not force any decision from you."
He pulled back just enough to look at her directly. "Take your time. Think about this seriously. If you decide to reject what I am saying, it genuinely will not change much between us. I care about you either way. But I mean every word I have said."
"O.... okay," she said, and the word was barely audible.
He moved close enough that the air between their mouths had run out entirely.
He traced the line of her waist with one hand. Then, at the last possible moment, he took her by the waist and pulled her against him, making certain she could feel exactly what kind of effect this conversation had been having on him by letting her feel the erection in her belly.
They both breathed. She tried not to move against him and mostly succeeded.
He stepped back, picked up the tray of sandwiches, kissed her very close to her lips without making contact, and walked toward the stairs.
At the doorway he turned back and delivered one sharp, precise slap to her ass.
"Ah~"
She moaned as her legs finally gave way and she fell to the ground
She felt the ghostly tingle of pleasure wherever he had touched and kissed her; she wanted to feel that again and again. But she had watched him grow from a skinny, introverted boy into a handsome, self-assured man, and her morals were getting in the way of her needs. She was conflicted and horny.
"Shit," she said.
....