After the War

Part 8

Peter's Pov

I slam my hand down on my alarm as it blares in my ears. I stretch my arms above my head, sighing when I hear a satisfying crack. Nestling deeper into my pile of blankets, I try to resume my dream but jolt awake when I remember the new guest at the compound.

Mr. Stark's daughter. I wonder where she's been all these years and why he didn't know about her until a week ago.

This past week, I've been showing her around a few places in the compound, but I have yet to give her an official tour. I even brought her back to Aunt May's and my apartment. She'd seen my old tech that I was working on and when I tried to shove it under my bed, face burning, she just grabbed it out of my hands and started asking me questions about it. At first, I'd been a bit shy, not used to people other than Ned asking me about it, but she seemed interested and I could tell from the time that I met her that she's not the type of person to make fun of someone.

When I'd started telling her about the one hiccup in making it, she gently turned it around before finding the problem with like, no effort. We'd spent the rest of the day just messing around with my new and improved molecular shrinker, aka a shrink ray.

The next day, Scott showed up and when Y/N told him about my invention, he threw it out the window on "accident" and proceeded to tell us that it had already been invented before so no harm, no foul. Y/N and I had shared a look, knowing that he was probably threatened by the thought of me being able to shrink as well.

Jumping out of bed, I run out the door to Y/N's door across the hallway. I raise my fist to open the door, but don't get the chance to finish the action when the girl swings the door open, an eager look on her face.

Instead of being surprised, she just smiles wider then smirks when she sees my hello kitty pajamas. My face grows hot as she tries to hold in her laughter, until she can't anymore and starts laughing uncontrollably. I stand there a bit awkwardly but smile at the sound of her laughter, knowing that I was able to do that in spite of all the bad that's happened to her.

When she finally regains her breath, she stammers, "I-I'm sorry, it's just," she laughs again, "just sorry."

I try to twist my face to look mad but my mouth turns up, ratting me out. "Ok, so now that you've finished laughing at me," I throw a pointed look at her, "maybe we can finally go on the tour that we've been waiting on all week."

"Why do you think that I woke up at 8 am on a Saturday?" She smiles, walking past me to the kitchen.

I follow her, not minding the strange looks that I get on the way from Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner for my choice of clothing, knowing that it brightened Y/N's mood.

"Pancakes?" I ask hopefully to the girl who's begun to open cabinets.

"Pancakes."

——————

After breakfast, Y/N ended up making like three dozen pancakes because people *cough* Mr. Stark *cough* kept stealing them.

I jog back to my bedroom deciding that it's probably time to change into some proper clothes.

I pull on Y/N's hand, her protesting as she tries to finish the dishes. "Come on, we got a lot to see and if we have time I've decided that I'm going to force you to join me in a Star Wars marathon."

She raises an eyebrow, "I'd like to see you try."

I roll my eyes, pulling her around the top floor, with brief descriptions of each room. As we stop by the lab, I suddenly remember the weight in my right hand, and look down at our still intertwined hands. I blush, glancing at her face but she doesn't seem to have noticed that we've been holding hands for so long.

Deciding that I'm not going to be the one to give Mr. Stark a panic attack by walking into his lab holding hands with his newly found daughter, I reluctantly release her hand, playing it off with a dramatic flourish as I whisk open the door for her. "M'lady," I welcome in an overly posh British accent.

"Thank you Lord Parker," she imitates with a smirk on her face and dipping down into a curtsy.

I push her shoulder playfully and she scoffs, feigning offense before pushing me back. Giggling like children, we keep pushing each other back and forth, before a throat is cleared from deeper into the lab.

"Hi, Mr. Stark." The man rolls his eyes but he still seems happier than he has in weeks.

"What are you two doing?"

I glance at Y/N but she's looking down at her feet, still shy in the presence of one of the greatest minds of the world.

"Um, we, well I- was just showing Y/N around the compound, and the lab is the best part so I thought she'd want to see it."

My mentor just nods, looking at her and sighing when she glances up, but breaks eye contact as soon as it's made. I wryly smile at him, knowing that he wished that his daughter was closer to him.

"Um, Mr. Stark if you wanted, we were going to watch the Star Wars movies later, if you wanted to join us." Y/N looks up, seemingly hopeful but trying to play it off.

Mr. Stark nods, "I'll see if I have time kid, thanks."

I nod, knowing that he probably wouldn't be ready to spend that time with her but he would at least try.

Y/N nods in understanding as well, taking the time to scan the room. "Well, we should probably get going, thanks again for letting me stay," Y/N says.

He waves her off, "Don't worry about it, come on have you seen how many empty rooms there are? I'm rich." He tries to smile, acting as if he's fine but his voice lacks his original confidence. He just sounds tired. But I guess we all we are these days. Maybe Y/N will be the one to change that.