Newspaper scandals + death = your typical blooming romance... right?
Raimiverse!Peter Parker story.
Book [2] of the Paracosm series (but can also be read as a stand-alone).
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⋆ twenty-five ⋆
The day starts at Harry Osborn's grave.
It was a year ago today that Lily and Peter met for the first time in years, reunited by the person that let them meet in the first place all that time ago. It's at the same gravestone that they both stand at now , silent.
The rose Lily planted grew over it, soaking in the natural fertiliser and dropping more buds, turning it into something else entirely. In the end, Lily and Harry did get to grow together.
Only now Lily is older than Harry Osborn will ever be. She's twenty-two, an age he was unable to reach. And in December, she'll be twenty-three, then twenty-four, then twenty-five, then thirty, then fifty, then a hundred.
She'll keep ageing, but she'll never forget the short time she had with her older brother. She'll never forget playing bands or going to parties or sharing secrets during little sleepovers. She'll never forget the camping trips and pushing each other as high as possible on the swings and all the little things that made them Lily-and-Harry. Harry-and-Lily.
In the end, they'll always be Harry-and-Lily.
HAS LILY OSBORN – DUBBED 'OSCORP SPITFIRE' – MADE HER LAST MISTAKE?
The newspapers have gone wild after the reveal the previous day. Headlines of all sorts have crossed the front page, most unsure about what to make of all this. Except the Daily Bugle, surprisingly enough. Jameson's been throwing all the support he can behind Lily, probably a side-effect of him getting the scoop before everyone else. It's been giving him a lot of attention, which he's no doubt pleased with.
"I kinda like it, though," Lily muses as she spins around in her wheelie chair, seeing another use of the title on her phone. "'Oscorp Spitfire'. It would be such a cool superhero name. Or a villain."
"Oscorp doesn't have a fire villain though," Peter reminds her, chuckling before passing her the eye drops, which she takes gratefully. "Trust me, I'd know. I've fought them all."
"It could one day."
"Not after this press conference."
"Fair enough." Even then, she spins around again, giving a reminiscent sigh. "'Oscorp Spitfire'. I've got my own nickname now. Does that mean I'm officially famous? It's a bit ironic though, no? My house burned down, but they're calling me a spitfire. Why are they critiquing me, anyway? It's Maxwell that was the problem."
"But the press conference doesn't throw him into jail." He pauses, hesitating. "Which I meant to bring up, actually. I know what you're about to do, but court is a different matter. You took that recording without telling Carson about it. Doesn't that count as an illegal recording? They won't use it in court."
"Actually, they will. Because I'm one of the parties involved. Plus, I went in and recorded because I believed I'd collect evidence of a felony involving violence. That's why I asked you to hang around and get caught, and why I let him punch you. Because I knew he'd be violent towards you and threaten your life. It's evidence of a crime that can be used with the police and therefore later in court, which will lead to the reveal of his other crimes through an in-depth investigation by my lawyer. Told you I knew him well enough to get him to react."
