He couldn't help but smile. Peter always had a way of making his day. It was sad that being looked at as a normal person felt exhilarating, but it was. Peter didn't treat him special and whether or not it was because he was polite or because he genuinely wasn't bothered by Wade's face, Wade didn't care. Being around the guy just made his chest swell with warmth and he wasn't sure what to do with all that happy energy. 

"So," Wade clapped his hands together as they walked outside of the facility together, unintentionally making Peter jump. The brunette was picking at the blue wrap he was given. He was given the terrible pattern, the one where the tech simply wraps it around your arm rather than wasting a few inches more to give a comfortable cross pattern to make the bandage bearable. "Here, let's fix that first." 

"What? No need, I don't want you to risk getting blood on you." Peter said, covering his arm with his hand when Wade reached towards him. 

Wade paused. Maybe Peter didn't want him touching. "If you don't want me to fix it that's fine, but I'm comfortable doing so if that's what you want." he offered. 

Peter pursed his lips and glanced down at his arm. The bandage was wrapped so tight that it was giving his arm a muffin top where there shouldn't be muffin tops. Upon closer inspection, it was actually cutting off his circulation in his skin if they were going to go off the white border surrounding the wrap.

"Not outside their front door, they might think there's something weird going on." 

"They're not going to think we're doing something weird, honestly we should march you back in and ask for a proper wrap." Wade cast a glance towards the reception desk they could see through the glass entrance.

"We are not doing that," Peter said firmly.

"I know, I know. Here, give me your arm." He began to unwrap his arm, waiting for Peter to hold down the first layer resting on the gauze before he redid the pattern into something like an infinity symbol encasing Peter's arm. "Feel better?"

"Tons," Peter admitted, awkwardly glancing back towards the reception desk, but there was no one there to watch or care about what they were doing. 

"Perfect. So, back to what I was saying." Wade started walking again, leading them towards a nearby bench to sit down. "The place is a little further than is reasonable to walk so I'll order us an Uber. Part of my treat," he added before Peter could say something about how that wasn't necessary. 

The brunette didn't seem entirely convinced but he didn't argue with him and waited patiently for their ride to arrive. From there it was a fairly uneventful ride to the restaurant save for the part where they almost died. They had been following traffic when some truck came barreling through an intersection with a trajectory aimed right for Peter's side. They'd both seen it, both tensed for impact. Peter had grabbed the 'oh shit' handle above the door and braced a hand out towards Wade while looking at the charging vehicle. In retrospect, Wade wasn't sure what Peter thought being ready to brace him would do in face of Peter getting his body crushed but that wasn't what was important. What was important was that the pickup in the lane just right of them slammed into the rear passenger side of the lifted pickup, sending it into a spin that their driver hardly missed and didn't even notice. Disaster averted, they continued on with their drive like nothing happened while a four-car pile-up blossomed behind them. 

"Oh wow, do you see that?" the driver said after they were a quarter mile away from the scene. 

"Don't worry, we saw plenty," Peter said, sounding reasonably on edge. 

"Good thing that wasn't us." their driver continued. Wade pinched the bridge of his nose and laughed.

That would be his luck, getting his date friend killed on the car ride to their outing. Peter had a healing factor, that was something he knew but he doubted it had any power to it, enough to keep a mangled body alive and heal it back to its perfect state. 

"We should take the bus back." Peter side-eyed him once they were back on the unmoving concrete outside of the restaurant. 

"What, you don't like the thrill of traffic and its oblivious drivers?" Wade asked as he watched their car go before looking down at his phone, trying to judge whether he tipped the guy well or complained about nearly being killed and their driver being oblivious. 

He opted to give a half-decent tip and not say anything since Peter was eyeing him when he was sorting out the questions. 

"No," Peter answered flatly, leaving no room for humor in his answer. 

"Fair enough," Wade shrugged and put his phone away. He fixed the hood of his sweatshirt and looked over at Peter, offering him a smile to try and relax his nerves. "C'mon. Let's get inside before someone steals the booth that the universe set aside for us."

"Did you make a reservation?" 

"No, I'm just hoping there isn't a waiting room full of people when we get inside," Wade said and waved Peter along towards the entrance of the steakhouse. Country music was playing at a reasonable level outside and the smell of grilling was in the air. They passed a couple walking out of the steakhouse and Wade avoided their gaze when they glanced over. 

"It smells like . . . peanuts?" Peter said as he trailed along at his side.

"You're not allergic are you?" Wade asked, suddenly concerned. But realistically if Peter were allergic then he'd probably already be in a situation where he could smell them right? 

"No, I'm good. It's just a bit odd." Peter admitted, glancing around before pointing out a pile of peanut shells. "Must be that." 

Wade raised a brow. "I'm not sure that handful is enough to give off an aroma of peanuts." He reached out and held the door open for Peter as he went in and stood to let a pair of older couples out the same door. Wade received a grateful nod before they went on their way and he stepped after Peter.

"Oh my god, the peanuts." The brunette hissed when they opened the second door. Wade almost couldn't hear him over the noise of the packed restaurant. Everyone was talking over their neighboring table in order to hear one another while the music rambled in the background. 

He looked down when something crunched underfoot and he smiled when he saw the floor was nearly an inch thick with peanut shells in the entire lobby, a barrel of peanuts sitting just off to the side of the host station, and a second barrel overflowing with peanut shells. "The peanuts." Wade agreed with a smile. 

There were already two parties waiting in the waiting area, both families of four. 

"How many?" The host hollered at them.

"Just two," Peter raised his voice, stepping ahead of Wade to take over the talking. He hadn't been expecting that, but he appreciated it. Peter was a kind person like that though, he understood without needing to be told and that was mystifying. He wished he knew more kind people like Peter who both knew how to not stare but take initiative too. He was a large man, muscular, over six foot, intimidating to women just by existing, he wasn't normally catered to so this was a nice change of speed. 

"You alright with a table?"

Peter glanced back at him for commentary, accepting his nod before relaying their answer to the Host who satisfied, began scurrying away into the maze of sections. They passed several fake cacti and numerous odd works of art that coated the walls all the while screaming midwest. Peter stared at a saddle sitting near one of the waitress stations, watching as it was picked up and carted away towards a table. Looked like they'd be getting a birthday show while they were here. Wade hoped they were sat far enough away they weren't deafened when the screaming began. 

Every table they passed had two little silver pails, one full of peanuts and the other of shells. When someone's pail got full they set it up on the half wall that ordered the sections of the booths and they were carted away and soon replaced with a fresh pail and more nuts.

"Your waitress will be with you shortly." The host informed them as she waited for them to sit at a little table that was hardly made for two given the buckets between them and all the steak sauces pressed against the half wall along with the menus. 

It was dark in there, but not too dark, just enough to give the entire restaurant a warm glow that kind of made it cozy despite the controlled chaos of the environment. He liked it. If he were wearing a hat he'd probably be able to get away without the hood, and if they were at a booth, the backs went up so high that it would be like having their very one corner to themselves. 

He looked over at the sound of cracking shells, chucking at Peter who'd made himself right at home, ready to eat the complementaries. Wade grabbed the two menus next to them and handed one over to Peter. "Get whatever sounds good." He said, trying not to tell him to get whatever he wanted because despite the sentiment behind telling someone that, he noticed that people like Peter tended to just get the second or third cheapest thing on the menu rather than the absolute cheapest thing in order to throw their companion of the scent trail. Peter didn't say anything, his eyes were on something just over Wade's shoulder.

"Hey guys, I'm Stacy, I'll be your waitress tonight." a young woman around their age set down a steaming basket of sweet bread rolls between them with what looked like cinnamon sugar butter. And two plates, but no one cares about the plates. "Can I start you off with something to drink?" 

"What do you have?" Wade asked before Peter could shoot in that he wanted water.

Stacy went over their Coke products, house lemonades, and the beers they had on tap. He hoped this was enough time for Peter to pick and choose as he opted for a beer. He was happy when Peter went for strawberry lemonade.  Very classy. Sweet without being a soda. 

"Sound's great, I'll give you guys a minute to look over the menu." She smiled before walking away only to get gestured towards one of her tables. The back of her shirt read "I heart my Job" across the entirety of her back, the heart huge and red. 

"I hope they aren't forced to buy those," Wade muttered, nodding toward the back of the nearest person that was within Peter's line of sight. 

"Hm? Mmm, hmm." Peter nodded, mouth full of bread.

"Is it good? Good enough to steal a few baskets?" Wade chuckled.

Peter nodded more. "It's so good, try it. I've never had sweet bread? It's so good."

Wade obliged, tearing a roll in half to layer on some of the sugary butter with his steak knife while looking down at the appetizers. The bread was good, certainly, something you could mindlessly eat until you were too full for the main course. It went well with the salty peanuts. 

"Do you like fried pickles?" Wade asked in between small bites of bread. he wanted to savor it so he could let Peter eat the bread to his heart's content. 

"I don't know. I like pickles but I've never had a fried pickle."

He nodded. "Perfect, I'm going to get to the appetizer combo so we can share some of the buffalo wings and tater bites, and you can have the fried pickles because I don't like pickles."

"You don't like pickles?" Peter cast him a look. "How distasteful. I appreciate your honesty though." 

He blinked. "Distasteful? like, half of the population doesn't like pickles. They're sour vinegar slices."

"They are an art form actually. Have you ever had homemade refrigerator pickles? The strong taste of freshly grown dill seeds and garlic?" Peter did that Italian chef kissing motion. "Baby jalapeno pickles? Zesty dill spears? Those huge juice pickles that you buy at Costco that they sell at school games?" He put a hand on his chest. "Wade, you hurt me."

"So what you're saying is that if this were Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, pickled items would be in your liked items?"

Peter sat up to lean in closer. "Harvest Moon rebranded as Story of Seasons didn't they?" He quickly brushed off the side thought. "But yes."

"What would be your loved gift?" Wade asked curiously.

Peter paused, smiling before he shrugged and leaned back again.

"Hated gift?" Wade raised a brow. 

Peter looked like he was going to shrug again before he stopped himself to look down at the table and laugh to himself. "Soggy newspaper." He answered as he met Wade's gaze. 

Special thanks to Poiuytre23.

Until next time
~ Shadow-Assassin