All I Ask of You

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Wait you wanna what now?" Ned asked, raising an eyebrow at Harper.

Harper sighed, "Okay, I'm just saying it would be super fun to pull an all-nighter with everyone."

"But we've already been having a huge long-term sleepover, why do we need to stay up all night?" he shook his head.

Harper pursed their lips, "It boosts morale, and I barely know you and Peter. And you two barely know me. The only one who would probably not be surprised by all our shenanigans would be Annie."

"Don't overestimate me," Annie piped up, stirring her lemonade with a straw, "Besides, it would be super fun!"
Peter chuckled, "You're just saying that 'cause you already pull all-nighters."

"Actually, I've been sleeping a little bit more lately, not a whole lot, but it's better," she said, shrugging.

Harper nodded, "See? We already have one person who's just gonna be up regardless. And it's sounding like Peter's game. So, Ned, what're you gonna do?"

"Okay, fine, but shouldn't this just happen naturally?"

"Maybe, but I don't think any of us would do this very well naturally. No offense," Harper replied.

"So, how's it starting?"

Harper looked around the small kitchen, biting their lip in thought, "We could have a fire and roast marshmallows for a few hours."

"No!" Annie exclaimed, "S-sorry, I just... I don't do too well around smoke at the moment. I wouldn't wanna screw everything up."

Peter reached over, holding her hand, "Hey, it's okay. We just won't do that, we can do a lot of other stuff."

"Exactly, that was just me pulling something out of my ass. No one said I had great ideas in the first place," Harper pointed out with a small laugh, "We could watch some movies or something."

"We could try to make some snacks too, make them s'mores themed or something," Ned suggested.

Harper nodded, "Yeah! That's brilliant, see, I should have you do the planning and stuff."

"I mean, the real goal is to just stay up all night, right?" Peter asked, "That's easy enough, Mr. Stark's giving us all of tomorrow off."

"Well, I'd hope so, I think if we work on that webbing fluid any longer I'm gonna bash my head into a wall," Annie claimed, taking a sip of her drink.

Harper grinned, "Can't say the same, the new suit's coming along great. And I have Ned working on another possible idea, but it's a little bit different than the original ideas."

"It's been awesome, I've also been working on an AI because Peter has one. It's just a matter of making it compatible, which is a piece of cake," Ned explained.

Over the couple of weeks they had been in the middle of the woods, so much had gotten done. Yet, there was also so much that still needed to be looked at. There was also the fact that Annie didn't want to leave. Everything was so easy and calm. If something got to be too much for her, she had the time to work through it.

Still, that didn't mean things were perfect. Annie was still petrified by the smell of smoke, and she still hadn't quite explained what happened in that burning building in the first place. Quite frankly, she didn't see a point in reliving it.

Except, her subconscious still loved to bring it up. Two therapy sessions didn't fix all her problems. Not that Annie had expected such a miracle to happen. Though, she did figure out how to stop herself from throwing up and nearly passing out.