The Spider and The Flame (Peter Parker)

Part 6- Snack

Following closely behind Peter, he leads me through the Avengers base. Following the modern exterior, the inside of the building is mostly wood, glass and concrete. A floor to ceiling window covers an enormous space with a view of the full outdoor practice range outside.

We reach a kitchen type area, with granite counters and perfectly painted white cabinets. Peter immediately walks over to the fridge and opens it, hanging one arm over the open fridge door while the other searches for food.

"Hungry?" He asks, rummaging through the vegetable drawer.

"Starving." I smile, sauntering toward the kitchen island and taking a seat at one of the three leather-backed stools. "What are we having?"

"Well... there's not much. I can make a pizza if you want?" He turns towards me holding a thin crust pepperoni pizza in hand.

"A gourmet home cooked meal by Peter Parker. I can't wait" I laugh, spinning around in the stool. Peter turns and sets the oven to 400 degrees.

Noticing something out of the corner of my eye, I turn towards the giant window. Vision is sparring with Black Widow and Black Panther. I quickly stand from the stool and run over to the window to watch, sitting cross legged on a fluffy carpet with a couch and tv nearby.

Vision flies into the air, and Black Widow throws her arms in the air, looking annoyed. Obviously the rules stated he wasn't allowed to fly... I can see why. It's not like she can jump up and meet him. Vision holds his arms outwards almost in a submissive motion and flies off without a word. He seems upset.

In my peripheral vision I see Peter sit down next to me, clutching two mugs of liquid. He hands me one and immediately I am completely overwhelmed with the scent of vanilla coffee. I turn towards guns and a small smile creeps onto my lips, "thanks."

I stare into Peter's deep brown eyes and find myself almost mesmerized. He's really good looking and he makes it hard to carry a conversation. He seems to be staring back at me, probably freaked out by the colour of my eyes. When I was young I had a set of bright blue eyes, but with everything that happened to me they turned into a crimson red. I thought my hair might go red as well, but luckily (I was NOT prepared to be ginger) it stayed a dark brown colour. I look a lot like Wanda, to be honest.

After realizing I've been staring too long, I cough and break our prolonged eye contact. I turn back towards the window and pull my knees to my chest, resting my chin on them.

"What's up with Vision?" I ask, trying to carry a conversation.

"He's been pretty mopey since he visited you guys in the prison," Peter licks his lips, "He saw Wanda in a straight jacket and couldn't handle it."

"They're pretty close, aren't they?" I raise and eyebrow and smirk.

"Yeah, weird if you ask me. He's a computer " He laughs, taking a sip of the coffee I forgot he was holding. Following his actions I sip mine too, feeling a sense of warmth wash over me.

"The Avengers seem like an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians." I chucked quietly.

"Why would you think that?" Peter's face twists into a confused expression and he chuckles.

"I mean, week after week you wonder, who's relationships have fallen apart? Who's dating who now? Are Steve and Bucky in a bromance? What shampoo does Thor use? Why aren't Bruce and Natasha together?" I rant.

"I think you spend too much time worrying about stupid things." Peter crosses his arms over his chest and smiles.

"It's important you ass! The most important of all of them is what's going on with Vision and Wanda. Relationship gossip is the best gossip, and they're definitely into each other." I turn towards Peter with my legs crossed.

"Yeah, I figured that much." He turns toward me, cross legged.

An awkward silence falls over us, while we both struggle to find something to say.

"What about you, Peter?" I come up with, "how's your relationship drama?"

"None to report really," his hand rubs the back of his neck nervously, "I'm not really boyfriend material."

"You must be into someone though?" I ask.

"There's a girl at my school that I've liked forever, but she's popular and beautiful and would never look my way" He sighs.

"You don't know, with a bit of confidence, you might surprise yourself." I sip my coffee.

"And yourself?" Peter raises an eyebrow mischievously.

"Other than my unreciprocated love for Steve's abs, I'm as single as they come. Guys don't really find it attractive when you burn them while holding hands, or while... you know" I blush.

Peter bursts into laugher, "Getting burned while... Oh shit. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."

"Shut up" I laugh, punching him in the leg. "Coming from a kid with grossly sticky hands and web semen squirting out your wrists, I think I'm winning."

"Did you just call it 'Web Semen'?" Peter laughs uncontrollably, "why would you add semen??"

"That's what it looks like when it's melted, by the way" I shrug, rolling my eyes.

"You're very strange," He concludes. "it doesn't come out of me, by the way. I manufactured it"

"Oh right, forgot that you're also a total geek" I add, smirking.

"You're just attacking me right now" Peter stands up and walks off into the kitchen. Quickly I follow behind him.

He pulls the pizza out of the box and slides it into the preheated oven. I sit up on the island and hang my legs over the side. "Sorry" I mumble, sincerity present in my words. "I don't mean to be so annoying"

"It's okay, I don't really care" He leans back on the counter opposite me and crosses his arms over his chest.

"You haven't always been this way, have you?" I squint my eyes. If he's had his powers his entire life, I just don't see why he seems uncomfortable talking about them.

"I- Well, no." He stutters, "Only six months maybe," he continues, "what about you?"

"I didn't want to be like this. My powers were... manufactured. I was maybe about seven or eight." I ramble, "I don't really want to talk about it. Will you tell me more about you?"

"What do you want to know?"

And for the rest of the day and late into the night, Peter tells me about how he got his powers, about his life in Queens, about his Aunt May, Liz Allen, his best friend Ned and his relationship with Tony Stark. We eat pizza and I listen intently, learning everything I can about this boy. While I share very little about myself, I can tell that Peter and I feel very comfortable around each other. By the end of the night we end up on the couch, cuddled up watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians on cable. I lean into his chest and close my eyes, falling asleep to the sounds of his heartbeat and rapid breathing.

Authors Note

Hey guys! How are you?

I'm in Ireland right now for an international rugby tour so I'm going to try to do a lot of writing during my down time, so I hope to write a lot in the next few days.

Leave a comment! Whats your favourite part so far? What do you think about Ash?