Waiting outside his apartment building for an hour, Wade finally realized his date for the evening had stood him up. When he called the phone number he was given, it turned out to be the number of the taco place a few streets from his apartment. As soon as he heard the waitress on the other end's tired voice, he could feel his skin moving, a few more of his scars undoubtedly breaking, his body a collage of a million broken hearts, only a few untouched. Frustrated and (literally) heartbroken, he pulled himself together enough to order so he didn't seem like an idiot who called for no reason. Besides, even people who get heartbroken still get hungry. He had hoped this one would be different. Maybe this one wouldn't be grossed out by his scars, maybe this one would see inside him and want to get to know him better. Obviously he was wrong.

As he was nearing the corner to the restaurant and he noticed a few teenagers looking at him and sniggering. Thankfully, he had his hoodie with him in case it got cold, so he put it on and ducked his head as he entered the front door. He got to the To-Go counter and told his name, finally seeing the waitress from the phone's face. She was pretty and had long blonde hair and it made Wade jealous. As she turned to give him his food, she audibly gasped upon seeing his face, which made Wade feel even worse than he already felt. She cleared her throat and finally gave him his food, Wade giving her a half-hearted smile before turning to leave. Before he could even take two steps, he heard the same waitress calling over her other waitress friend, asking her if she had seen the guy she just gave food to with a "really scarred face". Wade just kept on walking, used to people making fun of him. However, he stopped when, to his surprise, she started complimenting him rather than making fun.

"He had the prettiest eyes I think I've ever seen. I'm scared I may have hurt his feelings when I gasped. I didn't mean to but I don't think I've ever seen anyone with that many scars, and I swear some of them looked like little hearts. He was kind of beautiful, you know? In his own way."

Wade just stood there for a moment, in the middle of the busy restaurant, not exactly sure what to do. Maybe she was kidding? No, she sounded sincere. Should I go over and tell her I heard her and thank her for what she said? Or maybe—

His pondering was cut short when all of a sudden a few feet from him he heard, "Hey! Ugly! You're making it hard for us to eat over here. Either find a dark place to sit or leave, why dontcha?" followed by howls of laughter from the other people at that table.

Wade looked over and saw who it was, a group of frat boys, who all looked like they had had to much to drink. Wade, really wanting to punch the guy, but not wiling to make a scene, was about to run out the door when behind him he heard another voice

"Hey, why don't you leave the poor guy alone? Besides, you're one to talk."

Wade looked behind him and saw another college-aged looking kid with messy brown hair and glasses, standing up to walk over to Wade. Wade noticed he was sitting by himself with his laptop and a few open books. Next to Wade this guy probably seemed scrawny, but looking close (and Wade did), one would see that he actually looked pretty buff, for a nerd.

"What'd you just say to me?" the frat boy responded, getting up quickly and almost stumbling over before straightening himself and puffing his chest.

The kid next to Wade just laughed and said "Oh, come on, sit down before you hurt yourself, Eugene."

Wade and the other frat boys at the table all laughed at the name, and Eugene started angrily coming for the messy-haired kid, before running into the same waitress that had given Wade his food, her tray of food she was delivering to a table exploding over both of them. Wade quickly helped the fully embarrassed and exasperated girl to her feet. They both looked at each other and smiled, before Wade was being pulled by his arm towards the front or the restaurant. It was the kid, who had gathered all his stuff in the time it took for Wade to help the waitress, who was now pulling him out the front door, trying to avoid a bigger mess with Eugene and his douche friends.

Once they were out of the restaurant, they both started laughing, neither really knowing why but it felt like the right thing to do in the moment. After their laughter died down a bit, Wade instantly felt awkward, not sure what he should do for the second time that evening. As he began wondering what to do, his thoughts were interrupted once again, only this time with an outstretched hand toward him and a voice saying "Nice to meet you. I'm Peter Parker."

Wade stared at Peter's hand for a second before taking it and saying "Wade. Wade Wilson. Nice to meet you as well. And uh, thanks for, you know... back there."

"No problem, man. I uh—" Peter cut himself off, noticing the sad look on Wade's face.

"Hey are you alright? Don't take anything Eugene says seriously okay? Ignore him, he's a huge jerk, especially when he's drunk. Sometimes he needs to be knocked down a few pegs."

"Yeah, there seems to be a lot of jerks in this city recently." Wade responded, remember why he had originally been there tonight in the first place. He had felt more of his scars break when he heard the rude comment made by Eugene, and even if Peter said to ignore him, he couldn't.

They both fell quiet for a few moments before Peter broke the silence.

"Oof, it's getting kinda cold now, isn't it? You- you wanna go get some coffee or something? Just to get away from here and to get out of the cold?"

As much as Wade hated being pitied, especially by cute nerdy guys that he had no chance with, he couldn't refuse his offer. He was cold now as well and coffee with this cutie sounded perfect.

They walked a few blocks before finding the coffee place that looked like the only customers would be hipsters and it would play weird indie music with low lighting.

"I don't come here very often, but it has good coffee and it's a good place to just sit down for a while. And you could probably eat your food in there too, they don't usually mind outside food."

"Oh uh, yeah that sounds good." Wade just remembered his to-go order from the restaurant and was now feeling very self conscious about how much food he actually ordered. He hadn't planned to be going anywhere but home to drown his sorrows in tacos.

Once they settled in with their coffee, Wade put his sack of tacos on their table and got one out, holding it towards Peter "Do you want some? I got a lot more than I should probably eat." Wade then remembered that Peter had been at the restaurant as well and had probably eaten before Wade had showed up. "Uh I mean you're probably not hungry since you were at the restaurant but maybe you could take some home or something or—"

"Yeah actually, I might take a couple. We left before my food got there, so I haven't eaten."

Relief flushed over Wade as he handed a few tacos to Peter.

They ate for a while, seeing who could eat more (Wade won after Pete quit at 7) and joked about the weird music that was playing while they finished their coffees. The two talked about anything and everything, from Peter's senior year in college to Wade's first pet. They ended up being the last ones there, only leaving when the manager said it was closing time.

They walked out of the coffeeshop together and they both shivered when they realized it was at least 15 degrees colder than when they got there. They started walking back the way to the taco place from earlier that evening.

"Can I walk you home?" Peter asked suddenly. Wade seemed genuinely surprised that Peter had spent all evening with him and yet still wanted to be around him.

"If you want to. I'm the opposite direction though, so if you get pneumonia from the cold, it's completely your fault."

Peter laughed at that and said he didn't mind. Wade had realized that throughout the course of their evening together he had fallen in love with that laugh. He could listen to it all day every day. And he really wanted to.

When they finally reached Wade's apartment building, they were both freezing. Nonetheless, they stayed outside to talk for a minute before parting. Peter gave Wade his number so that they could see each other again, and had Wade text him so he could get his number as well. The fact that it was actually his real number made Wade smile brightly.

After a moment, he noticed Peter staring at him. "...what, dude?"

Peter breathed out a smile before answering, "Nothing, it's just...you have a really great smile."

Wade felt like a stupid school girl talking to her crush. How had he already fallen for this guy in only a few hours? He always fell too hard too fast, but this time it felt different. This time he let himself think that just maybe this person felt the same.

He realized he was just staring at Peter and hadn't responded when Peter's gaze changed. He wasn't looking in his eyes, but rather at his face, at his skin. Wade felt self conscious again as Peter's smile dropped and he looked like he was trying to see inside Wade's head.

Wade looked down to stop Peter's gaze and then at his apartment door. He started to say something when he felt two soft hands reach over and pull him into an even softer kiss. It only lasted a moment but for Wade it seemed like a lifetime.

He didn't feel cold anymore. Wade kept his eyes closed for a second after the kiss, trying to stay in the moment for as long as he could.

When he opened his eyes, Peter was gone. For a second he thought that he had dreamed the whole thing and started to panic when he heard Peter's footsteps running across the street. "I expect you to call me tomorrow!" he called to Wade when he finally looked at him. He ran around the building across the street and then he was gone.

When Wade got back into his apartment, he went over everything that had happened that night. How it started off with him being alone and angry, and how it ended with him being kissed and feeling the most love inside as he had in a long time.

After a while of going over everything and telling himself that it was real, he went to the bathroom to take a shower. As he was taking off his shirt, he passed the mirror and did a double take. All of the scars on his face and a few on his chest had changed. They were hearts again. He hadn't felt them change like he does when they break, so he hadn't known. He then thought that that must be why Peter was staring at his skin, because he saw the scars changing. How did—

Peter.

Peter.

Oh. His scars had changed because of Peter.

How fitting that his scars were hearts, because those hearts perfectly described how he felt.