THE ARCHER - PETER PARKER

𖥻 ENCHANTED

"the lingering question kept me up, 2am who do you love? i wonder till im wide awake"

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          RILEY STOOD IN THE TRAINING AREA of the tower, the one good thing that came out of this was that she got to train here. she was dressed in a black tank top and athletic shorts, her hair in braids.

she started wrapping her hands, attempting not to bruise them. she stood in position, ready to start hitting the bag.

she threw her first punch, she liked the sting of it, she thought about everything that had been going on at the moment, her father. hit, her mother. hit. peter. another hit. this went on for about 30 more minutes, she took her anger out on the bag.

"woah calm down, a few more hits and the bag would be long gone." she heard a voice say, she whipped her head around, peter.

"oh, hi." she said, out of breath as she went and grabbed a water bottle.

he looked her up and down, noticing this was one of the only times he'd seen riley in something other than baggy clothes,

she set the water bottle down and ran to the middle of the room, where peter stood, he started circling around her slowly, trying to act intimidating, "damn riley, when did you get so strong?" he joked.

"oh ha ha— you wish you were me, don't you?" she said tilting her head.

"yeah you caught me, teach me your secrets" he said raising his arms to his head

"you know, just because we're friends doesn't mean i'll go easy on you." she said walking closer to him.

"i wouldn't expect anything less"

she started circling him, thinking of what her first move should be, she moved her hand to grab his arm— "don't ever let your first move be the arm riley, it's too predictable." he said to her as he grabbed it and threw her to the floor.

he stayed on top of her, maintaining eye contact, riley could tell he was distracted so she took this as her opportunity to flip him over, she put her legs around his waist and flipped him, so now he was the one laying down while she was straddling him. holding his hands down effectively.

both teenagers were shocked at this action, they both stayed in their position, maintaining eye contact as they caught their breaths.

"don't ever get distracted while fighting, even if your opponent is as cute as me." she said sending him a wink, mimicking his words.

he let out a light laugh, not making effort to push her off, they didn't seem to break eye contact, their eyes were locked, and neither could ignore the electric feeling flowing up their skin due to the contact

riley gulped, their faces were now only inches apart, she could easily press her lips against his, her heart was begging her to, and to be fair, peter was considering it too.

but suddenly, the door swung open, revealing natasha romanoff, standing there with two water bottles, "geez, what an unfortunate time for me to walk in" she said as she set down the two bottles

"tony told me you guys were training, figured i'd bring you water, judging based on how thirsty you guys look right now," she said with a smirk on her face, walking out of the room. and shutting the door,

causing peter to straighten up and for riley to roll off of him and lean against the wall. there were undeniable blushes on their faces, peter grabbed a bottle and handed one to riley.

she immediately opened it and started chugging, were we seriously about to kiss? she thought to herself, even more shocked that she didn't stop herself, regarding the events of earlier.

i should've kissed her. peter thought to himself, he knew he asked the wrong girl to homecoming, he just didn't know how he screwed up so badly. he had a crush on liz for ages, he would surely like to go with her, right?

she cleared her throat, "you're a good fighter." she broke the silence

"not to bad yourself harding." he said, smiling.

she thought to herself for a few minutes, deciding she would just ask the big question. she looked up at him, "what are we peter?"

the smile was immediately wiped off of his face, "what do you mean?"

"i mean, i thought we were friends at first, but then we almost kissed, twice! and it's not like you stopped me, or i stopped you, but then you asked liz to homecoming, i just don't understand it, there's moments where we act like we're more than friends, but then we deny it once anybody asks."

"i know" he answered, "i just— i thought i liked liz, i've been hung up on her for years, but then we started becoming friends again, and i won't deny any feelings, because i did want to kiss you riley.. i don't know why i asked liz" he sighed

"peter, i see the way you look at her— you don't need to lie to make me feel better."

"the way i used to look at her, i don't know if you realized but i asked her as a friend, to make up for the bullshit, i mean yeah i've had a crush on her— but it was just a dumb thing, it's like the equivalent to having a crush on taylor swift, plus i'm pretty sure she didn't reject me just because she's nice. i think we both know i'd never have a chance with her."

riley looked up at him, her eyes hopeful. "do you really think this would work though?" she said to him.

"yeah— i do riley, my whole childhood, it's always been you. once you started distancing yourself, i realized i'd probably never get a chance, but it's always been you" he sighed "i don't know if you feel the same way, but for me riley, i've only ever wanted you. no one else could even come close."

"but— what about the kiss? you know i'm always up to try new things." she said sending him a coy wink

"i think when the time is right, we'll have our moment." he gazed down at her, suppressing a smirk.

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authors note!
do u hate me for not making them kiss...
this was kinda a filler chapter + nat cameo!!
sorry this was short lol