Work Text:
Eddie Woodward had been working at Empire Sanitation for years. Close to decades plural now, probably. Getting that promotion from working the streets to fielding management had been both a blessing and a step further into hell. Now instead of dealing with the city’s physical garbage, he dealt with their verbal garbage.
Still. Better pay (marginally), and he didn’t have to slog through the temperatures and the snow and the hell jumping on and off the trucks all day every day did to his knees.
Among the hundreds of calls he dealt with on the daily, one stressed-but-still-polite voice was lost among the masses. A brief respite in the form of someone not cussing him out because his guys were just doing their jobs. The most note he’d given it was actually looking at the schedules and helping the guy track down the right truck. By the end of his shift he’d forgotten all about the guy that was apparently chasing his trucks across Chinatown.
Two months later, and Eddie figured if he hadn’t been closer to his retirement date than his start date at this point, then he might have actually quit. His guys weren’t in charge of the rubble that was still getting cleaned up. They couldn’t help the fact that their routes had to change every day as buildings and roads were brought down or repaired. Couldn’t help that sometimes as people emptied out apartments there was just too much trash for one truck and the whole collection was delayed as Eddie scrambled to send a second truck out to cover the rest of the route.
He was barely halfway through his shift, wishing he had a second tuna sandwich because he’d already eaten his lunch-dinner earlier. One of the guys that were scheduled down in the bays- Van- came up to his office, looking a little baffled, and Eddie’s first thought was that some angry civvie had gone from swearing on the phone to swearing at their door. It wouldn’t be the first time after all.
“Guy’s got a pizza for you.” Is what he’s told instead. Which is not what he was expecting at all. So Eddie gets up and takes the chance to stretch, groaning as all his joints crack and pop. He is too young to feel this old.
“Maybe it’s poisoned.” He mutters. Van laughs dazedly, shaking his head.
“I highly doubt he’s the poison-your-pizza type.”
He- as it turns out- is Spiderman. Spiderman is standing somewhat awkwardly in one of the open bays, shifting from foot to foot like he’s uncomfortable just standing like a normal person, and he’s got a pizza balanced in one hand.
“You’re Eddie?” He asks, and Eddie nods, not quite able to figure out how to respond. He’s dealt with a ton of shit before- the most fun was when his guys accidentally picked up and tossed a half-done homemade bomb, and then the bomb squad had to tear apart the truck and make a huge fuss of everything.
But this is Spiderman, and Eddie’s pretty sure he’s not caught up in anything that would require vigilante interference. Also, he has pizza.
Spiderman walks towards him- he bounces lightly with every step, like he’s ready to launch away at any second, and Eddie wonders how much coffee the guy has to down to contain so much energy in every step. It makes Eddie tired just watching him walk for crying out loud.
And then Spidey stops in front of him and offers him the pizza. The box is from Leo’s. Smells like Leo’s too. Damn.
“You probably don’t remember.” Spidey offers, sounding a little sheepish. “I didn’t even remember until I saw the call logs yesterday, but you helped me track down a truck that had picked up some of my stuff like two months ago. I offered to get you a pizza from Leo’s as a thanks. Figured I’d pay up on that.”
Eddie doesn’t remember it in the slightest. It feels a little weird to realize that at some point he was talking to a masked vigilante like a normal person on the phone. Actually, he probably was a normal person when he was running around town looking for his trash. And that led to the odd thought of Spiderman having an apartment and going shopping and cooking dinner and generally doing normal-people-things that made trash.
“Can’t say I remember.” Eddie admits, accepting the pizza anyway. It’s still warm, and he wonders if the vigilante swung it over or if he drove. Maybe he took the bus. Spiderman just laughed though, twisting and jumping up to perch on top of one of the cabs like he couldn’t bear to be on the ground anymore.
“Figured you wouldn’t- it’s been a while. Stuff got busy after all. Still.” He shrugged lightly and leapt out into the street, throwing out a web and making for the skyline, leaving Eddie with a pizza he didn’t remember earning.
Eddie glanced around the bay, at all his men staring either at the open bay where the vigilante had disappeared, or at the pie in Eddie’s hands. He glanced down at it, popping the lid quickly. Pepperoni and onions- interesting choice. Spiderman had taste.
“Two of these slices are mine.” He warned, carrying it into the backroom and grinning internally at the duckling trail that followed.