𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐄 | ❝The world's watching my every move. Might as well give them the performance of a lifetime, right?❞
In which saving the universe was the last thing the Avengers expected to do, but the dust has sett...
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THERE WERE THREE INSTANCES in which Peter Parker lied to Riley Stark's face.
Out of those instances, he never got caught once.
The first time, it was nearing January's end. It was an early morning, so gray that it hardly seemed like nightfall had receded. Most dawns looked like this these days. Dull, static, colorless. It didn't help that snow season was at its peak, so everything was slick with ice. His suit didn't provide much warmth, but when he was swinging around the city, he warmed up well enough. He had been coming off another shift of nighttime patrol when he decided to visit May before heading home. He only had so much time to squeeze in a nap before his shift at F.E.A.S.T. later.
It was funny, in retrospect. There he was, thinking that the gray sky was beginning to take on a violet sheen with the sunrise, when he noticed it. In front of May's tomb, crawling through the frostbitten soil like a hand clutching at the heavens, was a sunflower.
He hesitated to come closer. His sleepless mind was torturing him, surely. A violet dawn. A lone sunflower on May's grave that hadn't been there the last time he was here. The ghost of Riley was haunting him everywhere he—
His head snapped up.
Behind him, he heard something.
It was the faintest sound. Even with New York slowly rising, it would've been hardly audible for someone with normal, human hearing. But he heard it. A tiny, little sniffle.
The webbed hero paused, lingering as if he hadn't heard anything. Then, he turned and— TWHIP!
"Hey!" Riley Stark shrieked, turning visible. She swatted her hands, struggling to tear through the web that had caught her forehead and hair. Clearly, Peter had been anticipating someone much taller than her. He almost would've preferred that to see his (ex?) girlfriend in public without warning.
He couldn't believe he didn't realize he wasn't alone sooner. This graveyard lowered his guard too much for comfort. Now that he was facing her, he could see his footprints in the snow had been smudged. Riley had been stepping in them, covering her own tracks. She was a spy to her core. Not only was she following him, but she hadn't wanted him to know.
"Riley J. Stark," Spider-Man began, crossing his arms. He could've laughed, watching her struggle with his webbing. "Do my eyes deceive me, or are you stalking me?"
Riley scoffed. "No, Spider Hypen Man, I was not," she said. Finally, she melted through the webs. The heat her sunlight generated was enough to thaw a circle around her feet. Still, the winter air made her sniffle. Drifting snowflakes caught her raven eyelashes as she glared up at him. "Ugh, was that necessary?"
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