Far From Normal (Peter Parker x Stark!OC)

VII: Homecoming part 1

"You know you could tell him," Happy suggested, but Julia just laughed through her nose.

"How's that gonna go? Oh hey dad, by the way, I stay an extra hour at practice and games so I can be good enough at something that you'll notice?"

"Is that why you do it?"

"Can we stop talking about this?" she shut down the conversation with one sentence, but she couldn't even believe what she'd just admitted out loud. Yes, she liked that it was something that she excelled at that wasn't from her dad, wasn't sciency, wasn't about her looks, but she also liked that it meant she might impress him. Everything else felt handed to her, but she worked for her captaincy. Maybe she hoped he'd see that. "And don't tell him I said that," she pleaded. Happy said nothing for a minute, then a few, then almost the whole ride. And it was enough to tell her that he was almost as upset as she was.

"Hang on, how'd you get home?"

Julia groaned dramatically, making a show of how he'd disturbed her peace, but it made him almost laugh. "I took an uber," she said, though she knew that wasn't the whole truth. She bit lightly on her thumbnail, trying to decide what she could tell him. Did Happy know what she knew about Peter? "But we hit pretty bad traffic right around fifth so I... I walked," she said.

"Julia!" he scolded, and she just sighed, putting her phone away after texting Peter that they'd be there in five minutes.

"It's fine, I was fine, okay?" she assured. "I wasn't alone anyway," she finally admitted, looking at the cup in her hands, warming them as the temperature outside started to drop. Hence her oversized sweater and skirt combo today. "Uh," she willed herself to say it. "Spider-Man was there."

The car nearly came to another abrupt stop. "Happy, you've gotta stop doing that, you're gonna cause an accident," she said. But it was all the evidence she needed to know that he did in fact know what she knew about Spider-Man.

"Sorry, sorry," the head of security muttered. He glanced skeptically at the girl in the rear view mirror. "Spider-Man, huh?"

"Yeah," she said casually, trying to play it off as well as she could.

"You ever uh," he began, seeing Peter's building come into view. "Ever met him before?"

"No, actually," she said. "He was," she smiled a little, "he was really sweet." Happy's eyes narrowed.

"Uh-huh."

Finally the car slowed, and Julia didn't bother changing a thing. The need to not give him her attention and look really cool when he got in the car had faded in two weeks. She just picked up his coffee and waited for him, her heart pounding. She hadn't seen him since their exchange of secrets Friday night.

The door opened and he climbed in, in his recognizable nerd shirt and blue flannel. Blue really was his color. He smiled when he saw her, taking the coffee from her ringed hand.

"Thanks," he said, plopping down into his seat. She almost forgot about the conversation with Happy. The car felt warmer, the morning felt brighter.

"Sure," she said.

"Kid, have you heard about this?" Happy's voice ruined it. Julia pursed her lips as Peter gave him his attention.

"Huh?"

"She tell you she met Spider-Man?"

Peter froze, his mouth hanging open stupidly like he was gonna say something. Julia was going slightly red next to him, embarrassed that Happy just exposed to Peter that she'd been talking about him. But she admittedly found it pretty funny. After a moment, Peter closed his mouth and looked at Julia like he couldn't believe she told Happy. She just nodded a little, admitting it to him. Peter sighed, pulling the car door closed. "Yeah, she knows," he confessed.