Irondad and Spiderson

How Do You Do This Whole Dating Thing?

    “You okay?” Pepper must have noticed the hurting look on his face. Peter quickly wipes his face clean of emotion as best as he can. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He tries to muster a grin, but it comes off shaky and unconvincing.

    “Is it something about the date?” Pepper says quietly. “Or about coming here with me? Cause I can definitely call Tony if-”

    “No, Mrs. Potts!” Peter says quickly. “No, this is all amazing. I’m very excited for the date, and even more excited to get one-on-one time with you. It’s been great, thank you. It’s just-” He hesitates, but Pepper sees it in his eyes.

    “May?” Her voice barely leaves a whisper, but to Peter it sounds like she’s yelling. He just nods, not trusting his voice not to shake with emotion.

    “It’s okay, Pete. I know it’s hard, but you’re so strong. I’m sure it’ll be okay. Do you want to keep going, or should we go home?”

    “No! I want to keep going.” Peter smiles genuinely. “I’m fine, now. I promise!” He points forward. “Onward!” He laughs a little, and hears Pepper’s tinkling laugh beside him as they continue along.

    After striking out in two other stores, they finally stand outside one called Walton’s. Ned and Peter had always made fun of it, because it was the place that all the super rich (usually snobby people) shopped. I guess, Peter thought as they started in, that he fits that category now.

    “Pepper, everything here is so expensive.” Peter says under his breath. “We really don’t have to come here.”

    “I just know we’ll find something good here.” Pepper waves a crowd of whispering people. Probably gossiping about the fact that they saw Tony’s fiance with the same kid that had been seen with Tony.

Peter had gotten used to the whispering whenever he went out. It didn’t take a lot of effort to get over it, actually. Everyone at school always whispered about him when they thought he couldn’t hear them, but his spider powers gave him super hearing. It was a useful ability, he figured, being able to hear the bad stuff people said about him. At least it gave him an idea of who he should stay away from, and how he should act in front of other people.

They arrived at the teenage boys’ section and Peter rushed to a flannel shirt with colors that spoke to him. He ran his hand along the fabric, taking in the softness of it. He fumbled for the price tag, turning it over to see that the shirt was $40. He took a step back, making a face at Pepper, who laughed.

“Pick out anything you want, Peter.” She nodded encouragingly.

“But it’s all so expensive!” He protested. “I feel horrible, wasting your money like this when I could just be wearing clothes I have at home.”

“Aww, c’mon!” Pepper urged. “This is your first date! You’re supposed to wear something nice!”

“My clothes are nice.” Peter mumbled under his breath, before surveying the rack of clothes again. The patterns were sometimes okay, but none of them fell under $35. Thirty five dollars?! Peter thought. I wouldn’t even spend thirty five dollars on a backpack!

Eventually, he managed to wander his way over to the clearance rack, where the prices were a bit more his speed. He found a nice white shirt and a navy blue button up shirt to go over it for twenty dollars. Much better. He picked out a pair of light blue jeans, and Pepper grabbed a pair of gray dress shoes to go with it. They went to buy their items at the front counter.

“Thank you so much for taking me, Pepper!” Peter grinned excitedly. “I’ll pay you back for all this stuff when we get back to the tower.”