My Peter and My Wade

Peter and Wade are standing together in Peter's not-to-bad-a-size kitchen. There's a pot of homemade tomato soup being brought to a boil. The counters are littered with very tops of tomatoes, stray basil leaves, and annoying garlic shells.

Wade: "I'm impressed, Bambi. I thought you were like all the other cute college boys and only ate ramen and blue box mac."

Peter, his glasses fogging from the steam: "That is true most of the time. The once in a century I can afford real food, I like to go all out."

He brings up the wooden spoon and carefully blows on the soup before tasting. He adds some smoked paprika to the pot after. Wade tries not to cringe as he plops the same licked spoon back in the pot

Wade, now resting his chin snug on Peters shoulder: "Who taught you this anyhow? I assumed you were the type to burn water."

Peter: "You're making a lot of assumptions today"

Wade chuckles and Peter continues to mindlessly stir, then he clears his throat a bit.

Peter: "No yeah, but, Aunt May actually taught me. I've been making my own meals since middle school."

Wade: "Oh yeah? Was she as neurotic as you are about measure by weight not volume."

Peter: "You know it's more effective and it's way easier to keep your recipes consistent - I don't understand the culture around measure with your heart that's called guess work and-!"

Wade silences him with a squeeze to his middle

Wade: "Baby boy, please, one diatribe per week"

Peter, laughing: "Okay. Uh, no she was a real home-cook type. Most of her recipes were passed down from her mom, my grandma. I never met her though."

There's another silence full of bubbling soup

Peter: "Uh... yeah, after Uncle Ben died she decided it was time for me to start learning how to do things by myself."

Wade: "And she taught you?"

Peter pauses

Peter: "Yeah..."

Wade starts up a rhythm of gently swaying them both side to side while eyeballing the simmering pot.

Wade: "You sound pretty enthused about it. What was the issue, martyr in the kitchen? Yelled in a Gordon Ramsey accent?"

Peter snorts, actually snorts! And shakes his head no. He continues talking while grating a block of Parmesan into the pot

Peter: "No, Wade. My frail old Aunt May didn't use corporal punishment on me in the kitchen. It was just a hard time, yknow? Her husband died and she's suddenly like... like this single mom now. I can't imagine what it was like."

Wade is quiet, a rare thing. Peter takes it as a sign to keep going

Peter: "I think she was worried? Maybe? About me, I mean. Like, I guess loosing your sister and brother in law and, after that, your husband - it makes you think about your own life. Especially when you have a kid to take care of"

Peter uses his thumbnail to dig at a splinter in the spoon

Wade: "Did it make you think about it too?"

Peter shakes his head no

Peter: "Not really. I was already obsessed with the thought. Aunt May and Ben weren't really secretive with the fact that my parents were dead. I only have a handful of memories of them but a lot of it is wondering where they were - spiritually I guess."

Peter sets down his tools and reaches for the burner dial. He stares at the flame for a second, then he clicks it off. He shrugs Wade off his back before moving to grab some plates and bowls. Wade stays out of the way and observes

Wade: "I struck a nerve, baby boy?"

Peter shakes his head while grabbing pre prepared grilled cheeses from the oven. He starts to assemble the meal

Peter: "No, it's ok. It was just a weird time I guess."

Wade: "Weird how?"

Peter: "I ugh-"

Peter looks uncomfortable and doesn't make eye contact with Wade. Instead just plates up the meal and hands his boyfriend his portion

Peter: "The foods gonna get cold, lets eat, yeah?"

Wade decides to let it go, just for now. They eat grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and it's a nice time, even if Wade is lost on the plot. After a while when their plates are empty and the TV has become no more than background noise, Wade pokes again.

Wade: "I get that the whole point of this series is to look past our differences, but that one scares me."

Wade gestures to Data

Wade: "He looks like a ghost saw another ghost and got scared"

Peter laughs and leans into Wade's side. They're sharing a blanket

Peter: "Quit dunking on my favorite show, you know this is my life blood."

Wade: "You only watch it back to back 6 times a year"

Wade ruffles the hair on Peters head, then idly tugs and plays with stray tufts of hair. They're both quiet for a bit

Oh and Deadpool makes things worse*

Wade tells Peter that he shouldn't obsess over something he said when he was angry. Because Wade has experienced verbal gurrela warfare before, it's no big deal, and people will forget.

That twists Peter's gut even more, according to Peter, "JUST because other people are worse doesn't mean I have a pass to be shitty! If that's how the world works, everyone would be selfish, petty assholes." Because there always someone who's gonna be "worse" yknow?

Etc etc, he says we always need to be striving to be better, kinder versions of ourselves because the world is already overrun by assholes so we have to spread goodness.

Deadpool would retaliate with we can't raise our standards too high, b/c A: That's fucking exhausting or B: you'll eventually end up looking down on others for not reaching your perfect person status.

Spidey insists it's not about competition, just making the world better. So on and so on lol