NEXT LEVEL|PETER PARKER (2)

2.1

"I'm missing the dance," Jessie groaned as she looked at the billions of text messages she had gotten from Liz.

Tony scoffed. "You really want to go to a sweaty party filled with a bunch of kids who spike punch and vote for the prettiest princess in all the land?"

"Yes," Jessie said shortly. "Yes I do." Tony sighed.

"Look, JT, I'm not trying to keep you from being a kid..."

"Oh, really? That's what it seems like to me," She gestured to the science lab that Tony asked her to meet him in so they could run tests on her brain activity when she was using her powers.

Tony clenched his jaw and went silent. He was sitting across the room from her when he decided to push his rolling chair
toward her so he could talk to her in a serious manner. "Jess, I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't want something bad to happen to the kid either. Can't you see I'm just...I'm just trying to keep you both safe," He explained to her but she shook her head.

"You're not my father," She mentioned and he quickly retorted.

"And you're not my daughter, but hell if I have learned anything from the time I've spent with you..." He sighed, trying to control his temper. "It's that you remind me of me. And I'm starting to remind myself of my father."

Jessie stayed quiet as Tony was looking down at the ground in a manner that the girl was not used to.

"I may not be your father," He said softly. "But...someone has to be or you're gonna keep putting yourself in danger and I can't be responsible for you getting hurt because I..."

"You what?" Jessie asked as he choked on his words. She could tell this was hard for him, but whatever he needed to say was what she needed to here. She wanted him to say it.

"I...I care...about...you," He said and coughed as if he needed to clear his throat from something. He started to air his shirt out when he asked, "Is it hot in here to you?" But he couldn't say anything else after that because Jessie engulfed him into a huge hug.

"I know we don't do this, but...please just let me," She said into his shoulder and he sighed before wrapping his arms around her back. He had never felt so willing to protect someone since Pepper and all he could think about was how this was so out of place for him.

But another thing plagued his mind as Jessie hugged him and he hugged her back. The same thing plagued Jessie's mind as she had her arms wrapped around Tony's neck.

They both felt comfortable holding each other, as if this one hug resolved a lot of tension between the two of them.

Jessie pulled away first and quickly sat back in her chair. "Um, so the tests," She cleared her throat and pointed to the scanner and Tony looked down at the ground in deep thought. "Uh, Tony?"

"Um, yeah," He snapped back up to look at her. "Actually, I have a better idea."

-

"What are we doing in here?" Jessie asked as Tony took her to a part of the building she had never seen before. He led her into a room that had racks upon racks of dresses and Pepper turned greet them with a huge grin.

"I figured you might still want to catch the dance. Or not, we could also go back to the lab and run some more.."

"No!" He stopped talking abruptly when she interjected and she laughed uneasily. "I mean, thank you! For...all of this," She motioned to the room. "Are you going to stay to help me pick out a dress?"

"Oh, you don't want me here for that," He said awkwardly and shook his head. Pepper watched the interaction until she couldn't help it anymore.

"Of course she does. Besides, I'm going to need help judging which dress looks the best on her," She took Tony's hand and flashed him a pleading look before he rolled his eyes and nodded.