|| GET WELL SOON || Peter Parker Love Story

Chapter XXXI

"Not to mention another reason," Lottie said, eyeing Harry before sending a loving gaze down to Peter. "You, Pete. She wanted to get better so that she could try and be your friend again. It was only recently when she felt like she had a hold on it . . . Until all this happened."

Peter sat staring at the floor, thinking back to all the times he slipped unknowingly into his own partner's room as Spider-man only to leave and see her again as Prayer and save the city. How many opportunities he missed within the school halls, over the phone, a short walk to her place to get her to open up. Maybe if he had tried harder, she would have. Maybe one conversation would have led her to reveal her secret to him, changing everything. Maybe he could have held her hand and supported her through all that darkness just as she had done for him.

Going forward . . . he would try harder. No more would he let insecurities and worries keep him from what he wanted. Because the answer was so clear now as to what he yearned for.

He wanted Sophia.

And he was going to get her back.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter shouted, rising from the plush seating, setting aside his apple juice and trudging to the other area of the jet. "Mr. Stark, I-I know you have this grand plan, but I really think we should--" His voice fell short as he entered the room, finding not one, but two people twisted their heads to stare in his direction.

Tony Stark raised a brow, his eyes shielded by a pair of thick sunglasses. "Kid, I believe you two have already been introduced."

Natasha Romanoff stood in her signature uniform, her stance and build strong enough to break mountains. Introduce was about all the time they had to accomplish before Peter was thrown into that battle back in Germany. But he had seen Natasha in action in that airport, and as much as it terrified him what she could do, he was glad to have her on their side.

"M-Miss Widow," Peter said, performing some weird combination of a bow and a wave. "You're coming with us?"

"No, she just wants to check to see if we have enough gas," Tony quipped.

"Oh, oh, t-thanks, Miss Widow."

"That's not why she's here!" Tony cried out, surely rolling his eyes beneath those shades. "No, let's not bring one of the most accomplished spies of this generation to help outmaneuver that of an equally impressive and profoundly immoral organization to ever grace our history books."

"Oh," Peter mumbled, staring between the two heroes. "That seemed sarcastic. So . . . you are coming?"

"Are you sure about this?" Natasha threw the question out of nowhere. "It was one thing to bring him to go against Cap and maybe get a bruise or two. It's another to throw him into the fire with Hydra. I can't have another life like that on my conscious, Tony."

"Uhm, I-I'm right here," Peter said, a little offended of the adults speaking about him as if he wasn't standing in the same room, heart leaping when they both turned to face him. Swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, Peter took a long inhale through his nose.

"I know the risks. I wouldn't have ever put on the mask without considering that one day I could die behind it. I know what could happen to me there. But I also know what could be happening to her there right now as we just stand here. I-I'll gladly throw myself in the fire if it means that I can pull her out of it."

Natasha and Tony took a long, hard stare at the kid before them. One look at him and some might not have been left with too much of an impression. Sixteen years old. A little lanky. Some might assume weak. Fragile. Unimpressive.