"Well, Sig, something unexpected happened..." Peter's words make me shudder for a moment as a shiver of fear travels through my spine.
"What do you mean?!" I ask, trying not to raise my voice, scared of the possibility, even if the more rational part of me tries to calm me down.
If something serious happened, his tone would have been graver, he seemed bothered, but not terrified nor harmed...
"I forgot that I had an appointment with Ned, and it seems that May let him in while I was outside... So, when I came back from the window, he saw me..." Says Peter with an embarrassed voice, probably scratching his cheek while talking.
"Damn, Peter..." I say while I move further from my family, trying to not let them hear what I'm saying.
"Yea... So, what do we do right now? I mean Ned is here, giving me the puppy eyes because he wants to know more, but I don't know what to say..." Peter continues with a tone that exudes how troubled he feels for having caused the situation we are now in.
"Pete pie, why do you always have to complicate things... Give me a minute, and I'll come to your room." I murmur after sighing, closing the call as I try to think about a solution.
After taking a couple of seconds to compare the possible excuses, I decided to go with the simplest one.
"Sorry, Uncle, it seems that I have to make a couple of important calls. Is it a problem if I use Ken's room for the next 10 minutes or so?" I ask, making the focus of my entire family shift on me.
"No problem, but try to keep it short, dinner is more or less ready, and we don't want to have it grow cold, do we?" He answers while glaring at my cousin, who was already starting to protest.
"Sure, uncle..." I reply, a bit surprised at how easily my excuse was accepted.
"Then go make your calls!" He says, more bothered about the food than anything else.
Eye-rolling at his antics, I move to Ken's room, closing the door behind me before texting Peter to cover Ned's mouth.
As soon as I see that my message has been read, I teleport to his room, causing a muffled yell suppressed by a well-placed hand.
"I don't have all evening. I have to go back in ten minutes, so you have that time to ask questions." I say, glaring at the two idiots in front of me.
"How did you do that?!" Neds nearly screams, his words muffled by Peter's hand.
"Shhhh, Do you want May to hear you?" Peter says, scared of the possibility of having his secret discovered again.
"Sorry... How did you do that?" Ned asks again, this time at a lower volume.
I give them a sigh and an eye-roll before answering, " that's part of my powers... Now, as I stated before, we don't have a lot of time, so ask the most important questions before I leave."
"Ok... Eeeeem... How have you gained your powers? No, wait, before that, since when do you have them? Ah, is there a way for me to gain superpowers? No wait, more important, have you met the Avengers? Wait..." He starts rambling, unsure of what to ask first, scared that he won't get all the answers before I leave.
"One question at a time Ned... My powers appeared last year, a couple of weeks before we went to the Obscorp trip, where Peter was bitten by a super engineered spider... For the other two questions, I don't know, and yes." I start replying, starting at him with a no-question face, hoping that he will not interrupt me every three words.
"That's so cool!" Screams Ned with a fanboy expression.
"What's so cool. boys?" May asks, yelling from the kitchen, curious about what has caused a scream.
"Nothing May. We were talking about Star Wars and lightsabers!" Yells back to Peter, trying to convince his aunt to not enter the room.
"Ah ok... The loaf should be ready in a bit, so don't start doing something that you can't stop, ok?" She replies, still yelling from the kitchen.
"Ok," Peter replies, still maintaining a volume high enough that his aunt would be able to hear from the other side of the apartment.
"Ned, what did we say about not screaming?" Peter asks while roasting his friend with a glare.
"Sorry, Peter, but I was so surprised..." Ned replies with a low, embarrassed voice.
"Don't worry, just don't yell again, ok?" My boyfriend replies, trying to cheer his friend up.
"Sure, no probs man," Ned says, still a bit down, before an idea appears in his brain, "Wait, but if Peter's powers came from a spider, can I gain them too if I get bitten by the same spider?"
"Theoretically? Maybe. But the spider died after biting Peter, so nope." I answer, a bit surprised by the question.
"Pity, having superpowers would have been so cool..."
"Don't worry Ned, even without superpowers I'm sure you will find a way to do good," Peter says, seeing his depressed expression.
"Thanks, Pete," Ned replies, unconvinced by his friend's words.
"And who says that you would not be able to become a millionaire with his own power armor or something..." I say, trying to cheer Ned with a bit of a joke.
"Hahahaha, thanks, Sig, even if I doubt it." He replies, unconvinced by my words but cheered nonetheless.
"Well it's unlikely, but if you asked someone about alien invaders and superpowers a decade ago they would have considered you mad. So who knows what will happen in the future..." I say, arguing about my joke, still trying to give him a bit of hope.
An unconvinced smile appears on his face as he processes my words, making me grin a bit, sure that he would reflect on my words.
"Well, I have to go now, my family is waiting and I don't want the turkey to turn cold, or my uncle will never stop pestering me," I say, having noticed that the situation is more controlled now.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it now..." Says Peter, now more relaxed after the secret has gone out.
I give him a peck before teleporting back to my cousin's room. Seeing that nothing has changed, and everything seemed the same, I move to the dining room, where the rest of the family was waiting.
"Sorry, it took longer than I expected," I say to the family, taking the free place at the table.
"Don't worry. You were fast enough, I finished cutting it moments ago." My uncle says while pointing to the plate full of both white and dark meat.
"Oh, cool..." I say, knowing well that he would be insufferable otherwise.
"But you still have to tell us about him!" Asks Ken, curious about the situation and unbothered by asking.
"Ken! That's now the way to ask..." His sister says before I could answer.
"But Chika! You want to know as much as I do!" He replies, shocked that she is reprimanding him.
"That may be true, but I know that's not how you ask..." Chika says, trying to be as proper as possible even in this domestic situation.
"Don't worry, Ken. I don't care if you sound rude..." I reply, unbothered by his blunt and direct way of asking.
"Thanks, Sig," Ken says, thankful for not being reprimanded for once.
"Well, we started as friends, and we had a lot of common interests... Then I discovered that I liked him. I was kinda bothered when I discovered it. I mean, we were friends, and I didn't want to risk souring our relationship because I liked him, and he didn't reciprocate." I start explaining, taking my time as I sample the food on the table, making everyone else focus their attention on my words.
"Oh, so what did you do?" Chika asks, now curious enough that she doesn't care about being proper.
Taking another couple of seconds to think about how to answer her, I finally chose my words and answered, "Well, nothing at first. But then I realized that I shouldn't hide my feelings. If I did, I would have lost not only the chance of being loved, but I would have lost the freedom of being who I am."