May Parker knew her 16-year-old nephew was Spider-Man. She had known for about 2 months now (not that she was counting). It had taken time for her to reconcile with this revelation, but eventually she'd accepted Peter's double life thanks to reassurance of his safety from both the hero in question and Iron Man himself.
May Parker knew Peter was Spider-Man, but to her he still seemed like Peter. Smart, awkward, caring Peter Parker. He acted completely normal and not at all like one would expect of a person with spider abilities. In fact, as irrational as she knew it was, May thought of Peter and Spider-Man as two separate people. The only time those people blurred together was on the occasions that she caught a glance of Peter, unmasked, in his suite after patrol.
That's why when May walks in and sees Peter casually sitting Indian style and reading, on the ceiling, she freak out a little. After getting home from work, she had called him to ask what he wanted for dinner. He responded, but she couldn't make out his answer. So, she walked into the living room for a repeat of his response only to find him not on the couch where she expected, but dangling just above her head.
May jumped a little and rested a hand on her heart, a gesture she picked up from her mother. Peter was facing away from her, legs crossed on the ceiling, arms dangling toward the floor, clutching a science textbook. His hair flopped awkwardly around his head, as if it wanted to follow gravity down but was too short to fall very far. Peter's band T-shirt from the beginning of the year scrunched around his torso, and his shoes sat beneath him on the floor.
When May moved, Peter whipped his head around to look her. She stared at her nephew, eyes wide and pulse racing. She looked like a deer in headlights, and it took Peter a few seconds to realize why. When he figured out the source of her shock, his cheeks went red with embarrassment and he dropped his textbook. Reaching up, Peter attached his hand to the ceiling, righted himself, and lowered his legs so he was dangling by one arm. His body unfurled with grace before dropping to the floor. All the while he was babbling a string of apologies and excuses that made no sense whatsoever.
May watched Peter with curious wonder. She was perfectly still, entranced with his casual display of ability. Peter grew more red under her gaze and stopped his nonsensical speaking, opting to shift his feet in an uncomfortable silence instead. May didn't seem to notice; she was too lost in her own thoughts.
It was just so strange to see him using his powers without the suit. May knew that Peter's very DNA had been altered by an experimental spider bite, and that all the suit provided him with was webs and an AI, but it still seemed...off. May's brain couldn't seem to stop separating her nephew's identities. Peter Parker couldn't climb walls and stick to ceilings; that was Spider-Man, the hero in the red and blue suit. Not the self conscious teenager standing in front of her.
"Um...May?" Said teenager questioned while rubbing the back of his neck. Peter's voice brought his aunt out of her stupor. She realized that she'd been standing, mouth agape, for quite some time.
"I...am I interrupting you?" May asked in return. When she recovered from her initial shock, May realized that her entrance had robbed Peter of some much-needed study time. Between decathlon, Tony, and vigilante-ing, Peter barely had time to get his homework done, let alone study. His grades were still excellent as always, but the boy's stress had increased while his average tests scores decreased. Tonight, Peter took a break from being Spider-Man to study for his physics benchmark in the morning.
"No, it's fine," Peter responded quickly, trying to push the awkwardness of the past few minutes from his mind, "I was reading ahead to next week's chapter anyway."
May smiled. That was Peter, always an overachiever, especially when it came so science.
"Alright," May responded hesitantly, "I was just wondering what you wanted for dinner. I can make chicken, homemade pizza, or we can call up that new Chinese place on 43rd street."
Peter brightened a bit at the subject of food. "Homemade pizza sounds perfect," he answered cheerfully. May's cooking was usually subpar at best, but her pizza was an old family tradition from Italy itself.
"Alrighty then, I'll get it started and you go back to studying." May clapped her hands together once before turning on her heel to return to the kitchen. However, she noticed that Peter scooped his textbook up from the ground and started towards the couch. He glanced at the ceiling, almost wistfully, before flopping into the old green sofa. May froze and turned to face her nephew once again.
"You know Peter...you can sit on the ceiling if you want." May's voice felt small in her mouth and the absurd sentence slid off her tongue like molasses. She blushed and attempted to form an encouraging and understanding expression. Why was talking about this so hard?
Peter seemed at a loss for words, for once. The flabbergasted teenager took his sweet time processing her words, and May was afraid her forwardness had been out of line. Was Peter embarrassed? Ashamed? Afraid to talk to her about his abilities or use them around her?
These thoughts moved May Parker to charge forward and wrap her nephew in a bone-crushing hug. Peter let out a yelp of surprise, but returned the sign of affection.
"Peter," May started in a serious, yet gentle tone, "you don't have to be afraid to use your powers around me. Sure it's a little weird-ok maybe a lot weird-" May cut herself off when Peter started giggling.
"Hey!" She interjected, "I'm trying to be supportive over here!" Soon May was giggling along with Peter. She couldn't help it; his grin was infectious. The two stood together, laughing and grinning, for the better half of five minutes. When they finally calmed down, Peter looked to his aunt with trust in his eyes.
"Thanks May, you're so incredibly chill about all this..." Peter's voice trailed off as he tried to gather a million thoughts. "I'm still not completely used to my powers being a part of me. They feel like part of Spider-Man, but not me, you know?" Peter glanced awkwardly at his Aunt, hoping for a sign that she understood where he was coming from. Words continued to tumble from his mouth as they often did when he was nervous or excited.
"At first I was scared to embrace my powers, but now that I have, it feels like I have to use them. It's super weird...but it's kind of, comfortable up there? Just dangling and being able to look up at the ground...it's hard to explain, but it clears my head. That's why I decided to study like that, but I'm sorry I scared you Aunt May." Peter eyes had drifted downward during his confession, but when he finished, his eyes snapped up towards his aunt's.
Of course, May couldn't truly understand what Peter was going through-heck, she hadn't even caught half of what he said when he was talking so fast. Crazy mutant spider powers were an insane, uncharted territory that seemed like something out of a book or movie. But, May knew that Peter's smile and need for her were real, and that she would always love and support him.
"It's alright Peter. You know what? How about we make that pizza together. While we're rolling the dough, you can tell me all about your powers and scientific discoveries. I am still a little in the dark here."