A Friend

The following afternoon brought colossal gray clouds hovering in the sky over the city. It was more than likely to rain pretty soon. Hardly any wind was blowing. No birds were singing, no people outside laughing and talking. Everything was centered up at the gloomy clouds above, caving slowly in closer beyond Brooklyn. It was like a massive wall of gray making its way in the distance, as if hoping for the worst to come.

Peter was sitting at the table in the kitchen eating a bowl of cheerios, as he normally ate his breakfast later since he slept a lot, and his Aunt May kept sorting out things and preparing for work, wearing her navy blue scrubs under her green sweater. She then opened the fridge and closed it.

"Pete, you're still going to be out for most of the day, right?" she inquired.

"Yeah. Why?" he replied, anticipating what was next.

"Because we're low on milk and eggs. Can I trust you to bring that back before I come back home tonight?"

"Yes, Aunt May," Peter said, annoyed. "You don't have to keep pestering me about forgetting things."

"I'm just saying," the woman added.

Three knocks came from the door. Peter and Aunt May, both at the same time, immediately looked in that direction, and then at each other. It wasn't normal for them to have people knocking at their doors much. Not since . . . a lot of things.

"Uh . . ." Peter started, indicating that she should get it since he was already sitting down and still eating his breakfast.

The middle-aged woman then made her way to the door, seeing that it was what looked like a young lady through the blur of the front door window. This sparked much curiosity within May Parker, as the only lady who ever really came to visit used to be Gwen.

She turned the top lock on the door to the right, then the lock on the knob horizontal, and finally opened the door to see who it was. Peter watched from where he was. He was surprised she came to see him at this time of the day, knowing that Aunt May still hadn't gone to work yet. At least that's what he told her.

The girl had long nice red hair, and appeared to be much younger indeed, probably about Peter's age. It was the clothes she wore that said it all. A small gray hoodie, which we wore over her head, some skinny jeans, and a pair of black Converses made up to fit her seemingly young, bright spirit all the more. She had her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, and stood with a stature of someone obviously straight out of, or probably still in high school. But at least she looked nice, and not like anything slutty. Aunt May remembers rocking the style of her generation in her teens and embracing it, so it wasn't a big deal with her.

"Hi," the girl greeted politely. "We haven't met before, but I'm Cathryn – a friend of Peter's."

"Oh," Aunt May said, starting to piece things together. "You're a friend of Peter's." With that, she looked back towards Peter, who was sitting at the table still watching. He faked a smile towards his so-called friend and waved, to which she returned the same.

"Yeah," Cathryn replied.

"I was looking and wondering, 'Who is that?' We usually don't get visitors, so that's a surprise for us," May noted with a slight laugh, trying to come off friendlier now since she knew it was someone Peter knew. Cathryn laughed a little, too, trying to return the same friendliness. "I'm May, Peter's aunt. Or you can call me Ms. Parker." May put her hand out for Cathryn to shake it, to which she did.

"May's a pretty name," Cathryn complimented.

"Thank you."

"Well, I guess I should get to the reason why I stopped by. I just wanted to talk to Peter really quick about something, if that's okay with you?"

Aunt May turned her head back to him questioningly, to which Peter shrugged his shoulders a little and gave a look of loss in the whole situation. He looked at Cathryn, who just stared back, kind of hoping that he would pick up on what she was trying to do. The woman turned her head back to the young lady before her.

"That's fine," she said with a smile.

Peter then got up and made his way over to the door. May left to return to tending to her things that needed to be done before leaving for work, thinking that Peter was only discussing something that needed no further investigation into. She trusted him to do the right thing. After all, she practically raised him for most of his life. She knew the kind of person he was. Good, and only that, because that's all she ever raised him to be.

Peter stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

"Cathryn?" Peter asked, trying not to sound snide about the name.

"It's the only cover I could use for now," said Natasha, now breaking character. "This is only temporary. Anyways, we need to talk. Soon."

"About?"

"It's something important. Something that concerns you the most."

"Yeah, that seems to be the case a lot of the time."

"It's serious. It has nothing to do with recruitment or anything like that. Do you have plans for the rest of the day?"

"Not much. I just have to pick up a few groceries and-

"Okay, do you think you can stick around for a while so we can discuss what needs to be discussed?"

Stick around? It didn't necessarily have to seem like a date, but this was unusual. The last thing Peter thought the Black Widow and himself would be doing together was walking and talking around Manhattan.

". . . Yeah," he finally answered.

"Good. Meet me in 30 minutes at the Starbucks around the block."

"Sure."

Peter didn't know whether he made the right decision by choosing to take up Natasha's offer or not, but he felt that if he didn't, he'd be oblivious to what she had to tell him that was so important. If it had nothing to do with the initiative, which was on the behalf of SHIELD itself, which in turn is no longer functional, then Peter didn't understand what else Natasha needed to serve a purpose in his life, besides being an 'ally.' And still, some of his trust issues with her began to surface into his mind again just from that brief interaction.

"I know this is a surprise, but . . . at least I know I have a good reason to say that it's a hellalot important," said Natasha. Peter sure hoped it was, too.

"A good reason?" Natasha nodded.

Then Aunt May opened the door and had her purse over her shoulder.

"Well, I'm heading out for the day," she announced. "You be good."

"Alright, I will, Aunt May," said Peter, as he gave her a hug and kiss. Natasha stood sort of awkwardly as the two did so. Aunt May then looked at her.

"It was nice to meet you, Cathryn," she said, shaking her hand again.

"Nice to meet you, too, Ms. Parker," Cathryn replied with a smile.

"You two have a great day."

"You, too," Peter and Natasha said simultaneously.

May left the house and proceeded walking down the sidewalk in the direction of the hospital. Natasha looked back at Peter, quickly changing her sincere smile back to a serious gaze. Peter guessed that she was probably reading him since that's what she seems to do well with.

"I'll see you then," she said, as she walked off opposite of where Aunt May left.

He watched as Natasha disappeared. Not right before his eyes necessarily, as if into thin air, but into an ordinary citizen, which she wasn't. Just like that she could embody someone else; adapt to her environment like a chameleon. And once again, the two of them were having to meet places, it seemed.