Spitfire »« Peter Parker

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Lily's eyes skim the newspaper in front of her, and at the sight of the headline, her heart immediately sinks.

She'd never really had hope in people; by this point, she'd learnt to be let down. But this? It's a whole other level of cruel she wasn't expecting, and by this point it's gotten irritating enough.

It's one thing to wake up to the news that they've run out of eggs. It's a complete other thing to see an exploited photograph of herself and Peter standing together at Harry's grave, with the standfirst claiming 'has the heir to Oscorp hooked up with her late brother's best friend?'

Of course she's had unsavoury news in the papers before - thank the Daily Bugle for that rubbish. But this? So soon after Harry? It just paints her out to look like she didn't care about him- doesn't care about him. It makes her look like a selfish, backstabbing young girl who cares about nothing except her own gains.

But now, her gaze takes in all the spare paperwork strewn about, the bills and the debts and the experiments, all of it waiting to be cleared up and sorted. Her father and her brother left behind a lot, too much for her to understand. After all, she's not stupid, but science was never really an interest to her. How is she supposed to run a multibillion dollar company?

She might never have really had hopes and dreams for her future, but it doesn't stop the sense of hopelessness from overcoming her. She's stuck, and she can't even ask her brother for help.

Bernard is still standing by the door after bringing in the newspaper, a nervously guilty expression crossing his countenance. However, Lily doesn't get angry like he expected, sick of the Daily Bugle ripping into her family. Instead she just sighs tiredly, dropping the paper onto the desk and perching her glasses onto her forehead. "Let them believe what they want to believe."

Bernard hesitates, then says in his slow voice, "They'll keep lashing out."

"They'd talk more if I tried arguing with them. It's one paper out of hundreds. Better for it to eventually die. People wouldn't cast me more thought after this is over."

"I'm not sure you understand, miss. You're important. You now own an entire empire. You're going to find yourself as a headline more and more."

Lily purses her lips, realising how true Bernard's words are. She saw it when her parents divorced. She saw it when her dad's company was failing. She saw it when Harry funded Doctor Octavius's failing research.

Is that really going to be her? Does she have no other choice?

"Maybe you should reach out to your friend, Peter Pa-"

"I'm not calling him," Lily interrupts instantly, something in her chest squeezing at the very idea. "I'm not getting him involved any more than he already has, and I refuse to cavort around with Peter Parker. Doesn't matter if he works at the Daily Bugle. If he talks to them, it'll only confirm their suspicions, and I don't want him getting involved in this any more than he has to. It'll just make things worse. I'll handle it myself."