Sorry I haven't updated in so long, I was feeling a little disheartened but anyway, here's another chapter :)
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I jog down the stairs with my suitcase in hand, spotting Peter waiting for me in the lobby. "Hey," I chirp as I near him. His head snaps up when he hears my voice.
A warm grin forms on his face and I could swear I see his eyes twinkle when he catches sight of me. "Hey," he returns, turning his body to face me.
Right before I could reach him, someone jumps in front of me, blocking my view of my boyfriend. I'm forced to halt so I don't crash into the person and glance at his face. Brad is standing in front of me with his usual cheesy smile. "Hey! I could take your luggage for you," he offers, reaching down to take my suitcase.
"Oh," I voice, gazing down at the hand from which he pries the suitcase. "Thanks," I tell him, smiling politely at him.
"Yeah, no problem," he cheerily replies. He begins to walk off but turns to me when he notices I haven't moved. My eyes land on Peter, who's trying and failing to hide a sour facial expression. "You coming?" Brad's voice sounds.
I turn my head to him and respond, "uh, yeah, I'll be right there."
He looks between Peter and I, his grin slightly falling. "Okay," he quietly responds before walking outside. My focus is entirely on Peter now, who's bitterly glaring in the direction Brad went.
"Hmm, so jealous Peter is back," I tease as I take a step closer to him.
Peter turns to look at me and lightly scoffs. "I'm not jealous," he lies.
I narrow my eyes and smirk. "Of course not," I sarcastically reply before grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the front door. As soon as we exit the hotel, we find Ned standing by the entrance.
"Hey, man, are you sure you're good?" Peter asks him, letting go of my hand to set his on Ned's arm.
Ned turns to us with a content smile. "Oh, dude! I'm fine!" he claims.
"Okay, nice," Peter mutters while I nod in relief. I already knew he'd be fine but it's still nice to hear him confirm it.
"Okay, don't worry. Seriously, getting tranq'd in the neck by Nick Fury, probably the coolest thing to ever happen to me anyway," Ned continues. I chuckle and shake my head lightly. I love how happy he is about this, his positivity is admirable.
"It was funny," I state.
Ned smiles and breathes out, "yeah."
"It is pretty awesome," Peter chortles at the same time, taking Ned's hand to do their handshake. As he and Ned do this, he continues to speak. "I'm just happy I don't have to go to Prague."
"Seriously... wait, aren't you going?" Ned asks me.
I nod in confirmation. "Yup. If Fury contacts me," I state.
"Is he going to call or some-" Ned begins to ask before getting interrupted.
"Good news! We're going to Prague," Mr. Harrington's voice sounds. We turn to see him coming out of the hotel with a wide smile on his face. "Huh?" he cheerily voices as he walks in between us, heading toward the rest of the class.
Peter stares at him in utter shock. "What?" he blurts. We gaze at each other with our mouths agape.
"A call would have sufficed," I remark. So we never really had a choice. Fury planned to drag us into this no matter what we decided.
All the students question Mr. Harrington, confused by his announcement. "Yeah. Tour company called. They upgraded us," he explains. Ned, Peter, and I exchange a look, finding this situation fishy. Tour companies don't just graciously upgrade people for no reason. "You should've heard me on the phone with them. I really gave them hell," he proudly claims.
"All I heard was crying," Mr. Dell mocks. I refrain from laughing at this. Mr. Harrington ignores his comment and leads us away from the hotel to our mode of transportation. Peter, Ned, and I remain behind the rest of the class.
"Look at our upgraded ride, huh?" Mr. Harrington calls out. I hear multiple of my classmates marvel at the vehicle. I raise an eyebrow when I finally see our upgraded ride, which is a big black bus. In front of the bus's door is none other than Dimitri holding a sign that says: "Midtown High." This confirms what I suspected.
"Oh, come on..." Peter complains as he sees the bus.
"Guys, what...? What's going on?" Ned asks us, the confusion evident in his voice.
"I think Nick Fury just hijacked our summer vacation," Peter answers.
"This is how he's contacting me... or us," I depict, glancing at Peter. He gives me a tired look and sighs. I rub his arm in an attempt to soothe him and turn to observe Dimitri. I watch as everyone boards the bus while Mr. Harrington tries to introduce himself to Dimitri only to be ignored by him.
"Awesome," Ned chuckles before taking off toward the bus.
"Yeah... awesome," Peter dully voices. He turns to me and adds, "well, at least when you're done saving the world, we can go back to enjoying our vacation."
I send him a small smile. "We will. But how do you know this isn't for you too?" I ask, pointing at the bus.
Peter thinks about it for a second and shrugs. "I don't think they need me if they have you," he responds. I loop my arm through his and we slowly walk to the bus.
"Hm, I don't know... I'm way stronger with my sidekick," I joke.
Peter quirks an eyebrow at me. "Uh, I thought that we agreed that you are my sidekick," he counters.
"Oh, I never agreed to that," I reply as we get closer to the doorway of the bus, causing Peter to laugh.
•~•~•~•
Peter and I sit in the back of the bus as we drive through the Eastern Alps. I look at the passing scenery through the windows, a sense of tranquility filling my body. I feel like I have to bask in these simple moments because my life is anything but simple. With all the crazy and soul-shattering things I've experienced, you never know when disaster will strike next. I take a deep breath before laying my head on Peter's shoulder. As I do, I happen to catch a quick peek at his phone screen, which he immediately locks when my head makes contact with his shoulder. He rests his head on top of mine and sets his phone on his lap.
My heart flutters and I can't stop the smile forming on my face. Thanks to my fast reading skills, I made out the article title: Top 10 Romantic Places In Prague. It warms my heart to know that he's thinking about taking me to a romantic spot. "Don't you think I want to know the top 10 romantic places in Prague?" I speak up. I feel Peter's body tense up. I smirk, knowing I just made him nervous.
He lifts his head and nervously chuckles. "Uh... I- I was just-" he stumbles over his words.
I lift my head to gaze at him. "No, it's okay. Show me the article," I voice. His cheeks turn pink as he gawks at me, hesitating to show me. "I'd love to go to a romantic place... with you," I admit, shooting him a bashful smile. Peter ogles at me with his big eyes, searching my face as if to figure out if I mean it or not. "Come on, let's see," I speak again, gesturing to his phone.
He gives me a soft and joyful smile before unlocking his phone. I lean closer to him as he scrolls through the article, both of us sharing our opinions about the suggested places. As we're skimming the website, my eyes wander past the phone and land on Peter's open backpack on the floor in front of him. He glances at me, noticing that I'm not paying attention to his phone anymore. He follows my line of vision, seeing what I'm looking at. Inside his open backpack is the brown case housing the EDITH glasses. He reaches down and grabs the case, pulling it out of his backpack. He opens it, revealing the Stark-styled glasses.
My heart clenches as I study them. All I can picture is Tony's face behind those glasses... he always sported glasses like these. It was like his signature look. All of a sudden, I feel something warm on my hand, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look down at my lap, seeing Peter's hand over mine. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks, his voice laced with worry. I meet his eyes, which are also filled with worry along with grief.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I softly answer. "Are you?" I return, knowing how much Tony's absence affects him too.
His eyes wander off to the side for a moment. Sadness washes over his facial features. He makes eye contact with me again and replies, "I'm fine." I nod, giving him an empathetic look. His eyes fall upon the glasses again. He takes them out of the case and unfolds the legs before putting them on his face. His eyes travel everywhere, trying to see how he feels in the glasses before turning his face toward me. "What do you think?"
I study him, wanting to get a good look at him in the glasses. A fond smile creeps onto my face as the thought of him taking after his mentor comes to mind. "They look good on you," I softly opine.
Peter's eyes light up as he grins, relieved by my answer. He looks down at the case again, taking out a small white card. I curiously glance at it, wanting to know what Tony wrote. "For the next Tony Stark, I trust you," I read. When Fury mentioned that he left the glasses for Peter, I wondered why him and not me. However, I then remembered that Peter meant a lot to him as well, he cared for him as much as he did for me. I got to have a final moment with him and properly say goodbye. Peter didn't get the chance to do that... he deserves these glasses.
"P.S. say EDITH," Peter reads the next line. After he does so, he glances up and the lenses are now blue. I skeptically observe him, wondering what's happening. "Hello?" he suddenly asks.
"What? They're tech glasses, aren't they??" I ask. Of course they are, they wouldn't be Stark glasses without the technological aspect. Now I understand the "next Tony Stark" part. I think Peter is a better fit to be the next Tony Stark and he relies on technology more than me, I don't really need it.
Peter doesn't answer as he continues to stare into space. "Huh," he suddenly utters. This further sparks my nosiness.
"What??" I ask again, lightly shaking his arm.
"It's talking," he whispers to me before putting his hand up, signaling for me to wait. "So he made you for me?" he asks. I assume he's speaking to EDITH. "Cool," he says again. He glances at me and claims, "it's showing me what it can do." I merely nod before resting my head against my seat while Peter plays with his new toy.
I suddenly hear him chortle. "Yeah, he did," he softly speaks. He did what? Peter turns to me and informs, "EDITH stands for 'even dead, I'm the hero."
This makes me chuckle and shake my head. Of course it does, dad loved his acronyms. "That's so Tony," I comment, smiling at his memory. I stay quiet as I watch Peter listen to EDITH intently, looking out at everyone in front of us. I wonder what he's seeing.
"Woah," he mutters.
"What do you see?" I question.
He scans his surroundings with an impressed facial expression. "I can see everyone's information, including what they're doing on their phones," he responds. I raise my eyebrows at him.
"Wow... what's Mr. Dell doing?" I excitedly ask.
"Uh..." Peter trails off, looking at the teacher. An amused smile forms on his face. "He's looking up the history of witchcraft," he confirms.
Oh, that's right. MJ told me that he thinks the water monster was the work of witches. If only he knew it was a witch who helped to save his ass. "Mmm... he'd probably try to burn me at the stake if he knew what I was," I remark, making Peter laugh.
His head snaps to the far left and he makes a weird face. I turn to see Betty and Ned sitting together and smiling at their phones. "What's happening?" I ask.
Peter rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "They just texted each other, 'miss you' and 'miss you more," he responds.
I furrow my eyebrows before snorting. They are so weird but it's funny. "Oh, my God, why are they like this?" I laugh.
Peter shrugs as he laughs along. My laughter dies down and I give him a quirky smile. "Hey, Peter."
"Yeah?"
"I miss you," I state, smiling teasingly.
He returns the smile and replies, "miss you more."
I put my hand over my heart and give him a pouty face. "Aww," I voice, causing him to burst into laughter and shove me. His laughter makes me giggle and I shove him back.