Babysitting a Superhero (Stark's daughter X Peter Parker)

23. Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

"W-Woah, w-wait, wait! Please don't hit me again!" Her attacker looked away from Amara, but not before she recognised those goggles on his face.

Amara stopped struggling and relaxed, her hands still in Spider-Man's grip. "Spiderman? What are you doing?! You can't just grab me and pull me into some dark alley. I thought I was gonna get killed! You scared the shit out of me!" Amara said, pushing him back into the wall.

"More like you scared the shit out of me! Where the hell did you learn how to fight like that?" He asked, out of breath.

"Mixed martial arts and Boxing - since I was 6," Amara shrugged.

"That's impressive. You got me even with my... added advantages," he said.

Amara didn't want to make it look like it was too easy for her, she looked up at him his hands still holding hers as they rested against his chest. She gradually became aware of how close they were together. "Well, I mean, you knew it was me, so you probably went easy on me, subconsciously."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said, thinking nothing of it.

"So... why did you pull me into an alleyway?"

"First, you have to tell me why you've been avoiding me," Spiderman countered.

"What? I haven't been avoiding you. I've just been busy," Amara said, completely lying to his face.

"You are avoiding me because every time I see you and you see me when I'm patrolling, you always walk away in the opposite direction. You ignore me like you don't want to talk to me. Did I... do something wrong? Did I say something I wasn't supposed to? Just tell me, please, because I can't deal with this. When I'm Spiderman, you're my only friend, and I'm really sorry if I did something wrong. I'll try and fix it, I promise. Just give me a chance, please." Spiderman seemed extremely nervous and was talking so quickly that his sentences weren't fully making sense, he didn't want to lose this friendship, but Amara couldn't go on without compromising her mission.

She noticed how close together they were again. Spiderman's back was still to the brick wall and Amara was still standing in front of him, her hands still in his resting on his chest. This was exactly the reason why she tried to distance herself from him.

At first, the friendship was harmless, but then it started getting in the way. She no longer asked the questions she needed to, she was distracted during her training and she dreaded the day that Peter will find out the truth: that she had been lying to him since the day he met her. "No, I swear, Bug boy, you did nothing wrong. I just..." you didn't, what, Amara? You can't lie to him again, you should just come clean. "I just... don't want to get distracted."

"Distracted from what? School?" Peter asked, moving closer towards her.

Amara sighed, "...yeah? I don't know, I didn't want to get in your way either."

"You're not getting in my way. I swear," Spiderman said, hurriedly. Dropping their, still interlocked hands to their sides.

Amara's heart melted and she found her previous resolve shattering to pieces, too, "Okay, but I'm not walking around every day, waiting for you to show up, okay? I have other friends and a family and, yeah, school, so from now on, if we see each other, then that's great, we'll hang out, but if we don't, that's fine, too... deal?"

Spiderman considered this for a moment, "Okay, fine."

Amara smiled and shook his hand, "Great, I'll see you around Bug Boy."

She began waking away from him when he shot a web and pulled her back in. She landed in his arms once again. "Not so fast... I believe the deal was, if we see each other, then we'll hang out. I don't know about you but I can see you very clearly, right now," Spiderman said, moving closer to Amara by the second.