Chapter 27: Food Trucks and Evening Gowns
The days before graduation moved quickly.
Everyone had already figured out what came next.
Peter, Leo, and Gwen all chose Empire State University. Same city, same campus, familiar faces. It made sense.
Betty had a different plan. She had already arranged an internship at the Daily Bugle as a junior reporter. It wasn't Leo's first choice of workplace for her, given Jameson's personality, but Betty was sharp and determined. She would handle it.
Mary Jane had passed her audition. She was going into musical theatre full time. She had known what she wanted since she was twelve, and now she had it.
Leo had originally planned to skip university entirely. He already knew more than most professors. What was the point?
Then he thought about sitting at home every day with nothing pressing to do.
He enrolled.
Empire State University had a good campus. It was in Manhattan, which was convenient. And there were, as he had noted to himself, a lot of interesting people there.
---
Graduation morning was warm and loud.
The school had set up chairs on the lawn. Decorations on the gates. Staff directing families toward the right sections. The usual organized chaos.
Families came. Peter's Aunt May arrived early in a yellow dress that stood out from three rows back. Gwen's parents came together, George in a pressed shirt, Helen with a camera already out. Bella came with Betty, having cleared her morning at the newspaper.
Leo had no family section.
He found Gwen's parents first.
"Mr. Stacy, Mrs. Stacy."
Helen turned immediately. "Leo! Gwen said you chose Empire State too."
"Same as Gwen. It made sense to stay in the city."
"You two discussed it?"
"We did."
Helen looked pleased. George nodded and shook Leo's hand.
Gwen arrived and stood beside Leo while her mother photographed everything.
George's phone rang. He looked at it, then at Gwen.
"I'm sorry."
"Go," Gwen said. "It's fine that you came at all."
"Let me take a photo first," Leo said. "Quick one."
George looked grateful. Leo took the photo on Helen's phone. George said goodbye to Gwen, shook Leo's hand again, and left with his phone already at his ear.
Helen watched him go with the expression of someone who had accepted this a long time ago.
"He tries," she said quietly.
"He does," Leo agreed.
---
The group found each other near the main stage.
Peter was in his gown, collar slightly wrong, looking around for May. He found her. She waved with both arms. He waved back and immediately looked embarrassed.
Betty was with Bella, who had her phone out and was clearly going to document everything. Betty was trying to pretend she didn't know her mother was photographing every angle.
Mary Jane stood with her family, already in her gown, looking completely comfortable in front of crowds.
Leo and Gwen drifted toward Peter.
"Plans sorted?" Leo asked.
Peter nodded, then looked uncertain. "I was thinking about getting a job. Help with tuition, rent. I don't want Aunt May carrying everything."
"I have a better idea."
"What kind?"
"Food truck."
Peter blinked.
"Snacks. Egg burgers. Hand-pulled pancakes. Things people buy between meals. I'll fund the truck. You run it. I can teach you what to make."
"My cooking is terrible."
"I know. That's why I said I'll teach you." Leo paused. "We split earnings 80/20. You get 80."
Peter shook his head immediately. "That's too much."
"It's your labor and your time. The truck is an investment. If we ever stop using it, I can sell it. I won't lose money."
Peter looked at Gwen. Gwen shrugged. "He's not wrong."
"Okay," Peter said. "Deal."
They shook on it.
---
A man in a black suit and sunglasses appeared at the edge of the crowd, looking slightly out of place among graduating teenagers and their families.
Happy spotted Leo and made his way over with the expression of someone who had been given a task and intended to complete it professionally.
"Found you."
"Happy. Did Tony send you?"
"Mr. Stark and Pepper both."
Happy produced a bouquet of flowers and a wrapped gift. The flowers were from both of them. The gift was from Tony.
Leo opened the card on the second package. Then the box.
A watch. A good one.
Leo turned it over. There was a small note on the back of the card. Pepper's handwriting.
He put it in his pocket.
The other gift from Tony was more Tony's style. Something technical. Leo decided to look at it properly at home.
"Thank Pepper for me. And Tony, though he doesn't deserve it."
Happy smiled slightly. "He said you'd say that."
"Tell them both to come to the Villa tonight. I'm cooking."
"I'll pass it along."
Happy left the way he came, efficiently and without ceremony.
Peter had watched the whole exchange. "What did Mr. Stark give you?"
Leo showed him the watch.
Peter stared. "That's a very nice watch."
"Pepper chose it."
"How do you know?"
"Tony's gifts have a different aesthetic."
---
The ceremony began.
Gwen had been selected to give a speech as a student representative. She stood at the podium looking calm, which Leo knew was partially real and partially very good composure.
She spoke clearly. Said the right things about moving forward without losing what had brought them here. Thanked the people who had shown up consistently. Made one small joke that landed well.
George was not there to hear it. But Helen was filming, and Leo would make sure she had a copy.
When the names were called, Leo walked across the stage in the middle of the alphabetical list, accepted the handshake, and walked off the other side. Clean and simple.
He looked out briefly at the crowd as he crossed.
No family section. Just Gwen, who caught his eye from her seat, and Betty, who gave a small wave, and May, who had somehow redirected her attention from Peter long enough to clap for him.
That was enough.
---
After the ceremony, Liz Allan found him near the refreshment tables.
She was the cheerleading captain. Bright, social, always moving. She had invited a wide circle.
"Leo. I'm hosting a party three nights from now. Are you coming?"
"I'd like that. Thank you."
She smiled. "Bring whoever you want." She turned and moved on to the next group.
Leo watched her go.
Liz Toomes. Probably. Which meant the Vulture was somewhere in the city, possibly already feeling squeezed out of business by the rise of superhero activity in New York.
He made a mental note and put it aside.
---
That evening, Tony's car arrived at the villa first.
Leo was already in the kitchen.
"You're early," Leo said from the stove.
"I couldn't wait." Tony walked in looking around. "Your place isn't bad."
"You've said that before."
"I'm saying it again."
"Go sit down."
Tony wandered instead, which was what Tony always did. He ended up in the living room, hands in his pockets, examining things.
"I'm recording this," he announced. "Leo personally cooking. This is historic."
"I'm making this for Pepper. You get the leftovers."
Tony appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Unacceptable. I need my own dish. Specifically prepared for me."
"The condition was that I cook personally. Not that it would be exclusively for you."
"That's a technicality."
"Yes."
They were still arguing about this when the doorbell rang.
"That's Pepper," Leo said. "Go let her in."
Tony went. Leo adjusted the heat on two burners and checked the timing.
When Pepper walked in, Leo came out of the kitchen briefly.
She was wearing the backless purple dress.
Leo stopped.
She noticed him stop and looked uncertain. "Am I overdressed?"
Leo closed the distance, put one arm around her waist, and said, "A little. But you look perfect."
She relaxed.
"Sit. Food in twenty minutes."
Happy sat at the far end of the table when invited, politely and without fuss, and declined any wine.
The meal was long and easy. Tony ate enthusiastically, which was the most sincere form of compliment from him.
"You should be a chef," Pepper said at one point.
"He'd charge us by the dish," Tony said.
"I'd give you the family rate."
Tony pointed at him. "Define family rate."
"More than strangers, less than enemies."
Pepper laughed. Tony looked betrayed.
---
After dinner, Happy drove Tony home.
The villa was quiet again.
Leo asked Pepper to dance.
She placed her hand in his and they moved slowly to something quiet playing from the other room.
"Tony told me about the racing trip," she said.
"He invited me. I only said yes because of you."
Pepper looked at him sideways. "You don't like racing?"
"I like you. The racing is incidental."
She was quiet for a moment.
"I might not have much free time even there."
"Evenings. That's all I need."
She thought about it. "Okay."
---
Morning came bright and cool.
Leo made breakfast.
When he brought it back to the room, Pepper was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed with a complicated expression.
"Leo. The dress."
He looked at it.
"I may have underestimated the structural limits of the fabric," he said.
"I can't go home in this."
"Two options. I portal you back to your apartment right now. Or you borrow something of mine."
She considered. "Yours."
She came to the table twenty minutes later in an oversized shirt with her hair pulled back, looking comfortable and slightly amused by the situation.
"Racing trip," Leo said, pouring coffee. "About two weeks out."
"I remember."
"We should go shopping before then. You mentioned you have other dresses."
Pepper raised an eyebrow over her cup. "You want to help me pick dresses."
"I want to make sure the next one survives the evening."
She gave him a look. Then she smiled into her coffee.
After breakfast, Leo drove her home and then to Stark Tower, dropping her at the entrance.
She paused at the door. Looked back.
"Leo. We should talk. Properly. Soon."
He understood what she meant. There were things she hadn't asked yet. Things she probably already suspected.
"When you have time," he said.
She nodded and went in.
---
The afternoon was free.
Leo drove to Peter's house and knocked.
The door opened.
He had expected Peter. He had not mentally prepared for what Aunt May currently looked like.
She was young. Not young-adjacent. Actually young, the way someone looks when everything has been quietly, carefully restored. Bright eyes, clear skin, the particular ease of someone whose body was no longer working against them.
Leo recovered quickly.
"Hello. I'm Peter's classmate, Leo. Is Peter home?"
"He's still asleep." She smiled. "I'm May. Peter's aunt. Come in."
Leo followed her inside.
May had clearly heard about him. She poured water without asking and sat down to talk while Peter slept, which she seemed unbothered by.
"What brings you over so early?"
"We made a plan yesterday. Food truck. I wanted to get it sorted today."
May's face changed into something warm and slightly surprised. "He mentioned it this morning before he went back to sleep. You're actually doing it?"
"It was my idea. Peter needs something to do over the break that earns him money without running him into the ground."
May looked at him.
Leo talked to her for a while about the plan, and then about other things. Community work she was involved in. A volunteering program at the local library. She was involved in more than he had realized.
They were mid-conversation when footsteps came down the stairs.
Peter appeared, slightly disheveled, looking at the two of them with an expression Leo could not immediately classify.
"Aunt May. Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I was going to in a few minutes. Leo's been keeping me company."
May stood up. "I'll make breakfast. You two sit."
She went to the kitchen.
Peter sat down and looked directly at Leo.
"Leo."
"Peter."
"That's my Aunt May."
"I know."
"You already have Mary Jane. And Gwen."
"I'm aware."
Peter's voice dropped. "I need you to understand clearly. She is my aunt. If you have any ideas—"
"She might not even like me," Leo said.
"That's not the point. The point is whether you have ideas about her."
Leo looked at him steadily. "She worked hard her whole life to raise you. She's a person with her own future. If someone genuinely made her happy, would you try to stop it?"
Peter opened his mouth. Closed it.
"I'm not saying anything is happening," Leo added. "I'm asking you a hypothetical. If someone she chose made her genuinely happy, what would you do?"
Peter stared at the table.
"I don't want you to hurt her," he said finally.
"I know."
"That's all I'm saying."
"Understood."
May called from the kitchen asking if Leo was staying for breakfast.
Leo looked at Peter.
Peter made a complicated face that meant yes, stay, but also I'm watching you.
"Yes, please," Leo called back.
May served breakfast with the efficiency of someone who had done it ten thousand times, and the three of them ate together in the small kitchen, and it was comfortable and entirely normal, and Peter spent the entire time pretending not to monitor every exchange.
After breakfast, Leo and Peter went to look at food trucks.
---