Finding the Way Home

Chapter 4

Michelle pursed her lips and glanced at her phone, searching for a text from Peter despite knowing she hadn't received anything from him all day.

"You're only here on Pepper's word, then?" Michelle asked. Kate shrugged again, but Michelle had already had her doubts. "What did Peter say?"

Even if Pepper had texted Kate on Peter's behalf, Kate was just nosy enough to blow up her fiance's phone until she got a real answer. She wouldn't have bothered to stop by their apartment if she'd been satisfied with the answer, either. She also wouldn't take on the job of patrolling Queens if she didn't feel like she was needed. No matter how friendly Spider-Man and Hawkeye were, Kate wouldn't waste a whole evening just because Spider-Man "felt sick".

"Oh, nothing much," Kate said, running her fingers idly across the countertop. "Just that he had a good trip, Europe was a disaster, and that you're engaged!"

The last part was all but screamed. While Michelle flinched at the sudden and loud sound, she did smile and held up her hand for Kate to look at without having to be asked.

"You came all the way here to see my ring?" Michelle teased.

"I have priorities, Jones," Kate said vehemently. Her eyes never left Michelle's ring. "This is, like, the biggest thing to ever happen to me!"

Michelle raised a dubious eyebrow and Kate rolled her eyes.

"It is," she insisted. Tugging Michelle's hand closer, she leaned down until her cheek was almost pressed against the ring and said, "It's adorable how well he knows you."

Michelle smiled, thinking the exact same thing, only for her thoughts to be interrupted by Kate incessantly demanding that Michelle tell me everything or so help me, Jones, I'll leave spider boy to defend Queens when he really does get sick.

Fortunately for Peter and his future days off, Michelle did exactly that. The aspirin had started to kick in and her head wasn't pounding as painfully as it was before, but thinking back to Peter's choppy (and cheesy) proposal in Prague took her focus off her pain.

Kate was nosy and a romantic, so Michelle didn't skimp on all the cheesy things Peter had said or how he'd tried a couple of times before, only to chicken out or for Beck to interfere. Even if Kate was visibly annoyed that he'd run off with a drone in one hand and in his suit mere minutes after proposing, she was clearly too in love with the romance that Peter had managed before then.

"God," Kate moaned, slumping in the chair she'd claimed shortly after Michelle started the story. "You two are literally the cutest even if Peter is basically a walking disaster."

Michelle just hummed, bringing her now lukewarm tea up to her lips.

"That doesn't explain why he's taking time off, though," Kate said suddenly. She (finally) let go of Michelle's hand as she said, "You're engaged. Shouldn't he be here and not god knows where?"

"He's probably still at the Tower," Michelle said with a shrug. "He should be back soon."

"Yeah, but why go to the Tower at all?" Kate asked. Michelle frowned. "No one has told me anything, you know?" Kate said before Michelle could ask. "I asked Peter and he just said something had come up, but you were engaged now and I know it was meant to distract me―"

"And it worked," Michelle cut in teasingly.

"―but I do want to know," Kate said, scowling at Michelle, "what's going on."

With a sigh, Michelle set down her mug and said, "Beck caused a lot of trouble in Europe. He ruined London Bridge, took out a lot of historic monuments in Berlin, Prague, and Vienna, and now he's dead."