Copycat & The Spider-Man (Marvel Fem!OC)

Homecoming.

"You have a date?"

"I can't decide," Pietro wrinkled his nose. "My first and last homecoming... you sure you don't want me to take Liz?"

"No, it's fine," She smiled a bit. "I've come to the conclusion that if I'm not ready to be honest about my feelings, then I'm not ready to ask him out."

"So you're not going to homecoming again?" He frowned. "C'mon, C.C. don't bail on me..."

"Oh, I'm going," She responded. "I asked Ned. I have to dance at least one song with him, even though I insisted that I don't know, and I don't like dancing."

"Why's that? You love music!"

"Yeah but I like it better when I'm sitting down listening to the lyrics."

"You're weird," Pietro laughed. 

"I'm a work in progress."

***

"I heard you asked Ned to homecoming," Peter tilted his head with a little smile. "I didn't know you guys were into each other?"

C.C. choked on her drink, she shook her head frantically.

"I asked him out as a friend!" She coughed. "I don't want a boyfriend!"

"I know, I know, I'm just messing with you," He laughed. "That was a really sweet gesture, he didn't have a good time last year, you know that..."

"I do," She bit on her lip, pulling a bit of the skin without meaning to. "Ouch!"

Peter dropped his pencil and got closer. "You okay? What happened?"

"It's fine, it's fine, I'm dumb," She pushed her chair far from his reach and covered her mouth. "I bit myself on accident, I'm okay..."

"Alright," He gave her a weird look. "I missed you these last few weeks, by the way, I'm glad we talked things through."

"Yeah, me too," C.C. ran her thumb over her lip, a bit of blood stained the tip of her finger and she winced. "I really don't like the taste of blood. It grosses me out. It reminds me of... well, I don't like it."

"Yeah, tastes kinda weird," He agreed, staring at her. "Can I ask you something?"

"As long as it's not getting your suit back," She tried to joke, but the boy didn't seem to hear it.

"Why did you stay?" Peter inquired. "You could have the craziest life, I don't get it. You're awesome. Why would you prefer to be just a student?"

C.C. took her time to answer, she was trying to find the words that would make him understand.

"What you call my life... that's only been a small part of the whole thing. I wasn't always a person. My file says 'mutant' on ethnicity, where my name's supposed to be it just reads 'subject zero'. They try hard to hide it, better than the doctor that created me, but no one ever saw me as a person until I got here."

With each word she let out, C.C. started to feel lighter, perhaps the truth was more necessary than she'd originally thought.

"You, Ned, and MJ treated me as an individual, and you wanted to be my friends. I can't explain to you how it feels to be hugged after a lifetime of nothing but punches and dry contact. I can't fully welcome it either, cause I can't process it right. Still, I want the late-night study sessions and the movie marathons with suspicious-looking pizza. I want the trips on shitty yellow busses and I want the silly stress the exams give me. I don't take those things for granted, I'm lucky someone like me gets to be next to people like you."