"I just really miss him..."
"Me too... every day."
We turn to Happy, who responds, "yeah, I miss him too."
"Everywhere I go, I see his face. Well, two faces. His and Cap's..." I commence. "Reporters and paparazzi won't leave me alone and everyone's asking me if I'm the next Stark Heiress or which one of us is gonna be the new head Avenger," I point between Peter and I. Although many people, mostly men, assume that I'm out of the running for leadership for obvious reasons. "I don't think I could ever live up to Tony or Steve," I confess. If anything, it should be Sam.
There's a moment of silence before Peter decides to share, "the whole world is asking who's gonna be the next Iron Man and..." His voice breaks as he speaks and he pauses to sniffle. "I don't know if that's me. I'm not Iron Man," he finishes, looking at us sadly.
Happy shakes his head. "You're not Iron Man. Neither of you. You're never gonna be Iron Man," he bluntly tells us. We exchange a look before gazing down at the floor. "Nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony. Tony was my best friend. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The only two things that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you, and taking you in," he explains, addressing Peter before addressing me.
I let his words sink in. Tony never had doubts about bringing a strange girl who was frozen for 32 years into his home? He was a good person, so it doesn't surprise me that he wanted to help me but anyone would second-guess inviting a stranger into their home. They certainly wouldn't adopt the stranger and let them live with them as if they're family. Although Tony wasn't just anyone. "I didn't know Captain Rogers all that well... but I'll tell you one thing, he truly did believe in you. That was obvious. He and Tony talked about how proud they were of you one time," Happy adds.
I dart my eyes to him, staring at him in astonishment and sadness. The thought of Steve and Tony discussing their pride in me brings tears to my eyes. Happy looks between us as he states, "I don't think Tony or Steve would've done what they did if they didn't know that you two were gonna be here after they were gone... Now your friends are in trouble, you guys are all alone, your tech is missing. What are you gonna do about it?"
I look away in thought. His speech definitely helped to motivate me. I'm gonna do what Tony and Steve taught me to do... and Wanda– can't forget Wanda... Peter and I share a determined look and shoot up from our seats. "We're gonna kick his ass," we declare in sync.
"But I mean- I mean, right now. Like specifically, what are we gonna do? Because we've been hovering over a tulip field for the last 15 minutes," Happy clarifies.
"Right, um, we can't call our friends because he's tracking their phones," I speak up.
"Yeah... uh, give me your phone," Peter chimes in, going over to Happy.
"What, my- my cellphone?" the man stutters as he takes it out of his jacket.
"Yeah."
"Okay. Here," Happy complies, handing his phone to Peter.
Peter walks back to me as he asks the man, "what's your password?"
"Password."
"No, what is your password?" Peter asks again.
"Uh, I think that is..." I trail off before Happy interjects.
"Password. The word spelled out. Password."
I knew it. "You're the head of security and your password is 'password?" Peter asks in disbelief.
"You should change that, bro," I chime in.
"I- I don't feel good about it either," Happy admits, making me chuckle.
"You cannot make fun of me for thinking Instagram was a telephone company now," I claim.
All of a sudden, I hear a familiar voice sound and turn my head to look at Happy's phone in Peter's hand, where Flash's live stream is displayed. "'Ello, governor! Cup of tea for you? Imma be in London soon-"
"They're in London," Peter announces, showing the phone to Happy.
"London, okay," the man replies, getting up and heading to the pilot's cockpit.
"Yeah, I need a suit," Peter mentions. My suit's still intact, I'm good.
"Suit?" Happy questions, smirking and pointing at us before heading into the cockpit. He presses a button on the ceiling and I hear a whirring sound behind me. Peter and I spin around, seeing the wall open up. We look at each other, then at Happy in pleasant surprise before my boyfriend walks into the tech-filled compartment. I watch as he places his hand on a pad, which scans his handprint.
He brings his hand back to his side and voices, "okay, um... bring up everything you have on Spider-Man." The machine does as he says and he starts messing with it. "Yeah, open that. Okay, no, no, no," he utters as he swipes through the options. A soft smile creeps onto my face as I observe him. He's acting like Tony right now. This brings back memories. He sticks his hand into a hologram of what appears to be a glove and turns around to get to the other side. He looks up as he does so, noticing me. "What?"
I shake my head. "Nothing," I respond, hearing another voice reply at the same time. I turn around, seeing Happy behind me. He looks at me and gives me a knowing smile. He saw Tony in him too.
"You take care of the suit, I'll take care of the music," he states, going into the cockpit. I go up to Peter to watch him work. "Back In Black" by AC/DC starts blaring through the speakers and I lightly chuckle. Of course he plays this song... Tony loved it. I remember how we bonded over classic rock.
"Oh, I love Led Zeppelin!" Peter suddenly claims. I furrow my eyebrows, in shock at what he just said. "What?" he asks when he notices how I'm looking at him.
"You did not just say, Led Zeppelin. Have I taught you nothing?" I've shown him plenty of 80s rock so it's surprising that he got the band wrong.
"Whoops. Sorry, got confused," Peter nervously chuckles, making me playfully roll my eyes and smile in amusement. He proceeds to work on his suit and I just stand by and watch. I love how invested and good he is at this. He reminds me of Tony in that way. I used to love watching him work too. Watching Peter design his new suit is oddly comforting, it brings me a whole lot of nostalgia. In a way, it makes it feel like Tony is back in my life again.
•~•~•~•
London
MJ's POV:
I walk through the train station in between Ned and Ezra. Ezra and I have been chatting and laughing but I can't stop thinking about y/n and Peter. Wherever they are, I hope they're okay. I was upset about y/n not telling me she was Amethyst but I've thought a lot about her perspective and I understand her better now. If the roles were reversed, I'd want to keep her safe too, even if that meant keeping her away from my superhero life. "Okay, guys, the company set up a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite and head to the airport," Mr. Harrington announces.
Suddenly, I hear Brad speak up, "is no one else gonna acknowledge how crazy this is??"
We all stop and turn around to look at him. "Oh, yeah, I get it. There's nothing scientific about this science tour at all," Mr. Dell claims. Ezra snorts and turns to me with an amused grin. I smile back. We've been making fun of Mr. Dell's witch theory.
"No, no, no. I'm talking about Peter and y/n. Has no one else here noticed how shady they are? Because I saw Peter in the back room of a rest stop with some woman in his underwear and y/n was cool with it!" Brad rambles. Ned sends me a concerned glance. Man, Brad is really mad that y/n didn't want him so now he's trying to drag her and Peter through the mud. "And they're always sneaking away, like back at the opera, huh?! And now what, they're suddenly off the trip, uh, like with Peter's family in Berlin? Is no one else here interested in the truth??"
To be honest, I used to think they snuck off to fool around before I started to suspect the real reason. Ned gestures to Brad as if to ask, what are we gonna do about him? I stick my hand out in front of him, signaling him to hold on. I turn to him and nod, giving him a reassuring look. "The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world," I quote.
Brad nods. He points at me and responds, "George Orwell. Thank you, MJ."
I nod with a smug smile on my face. "Yeah. Well, I mean, since y/n and Peter aren't really here to tell their truth, what about you, Brad? Why do you think it's cool to take pictures of people in the bathroom?" I ask, giving him a weirded-out look.
"Yeah, dude, what's that about?" Flash chimes in, pointing his phone at Brad.
He instantly becomes flustered. "No. No, no, it wasn't like that. It was, uh... I- I- I was trying to take a-"
"Uh, let's just put all this craziness behind us and have a nice, peaceful afternoon," Mr. Harrington cuts off his stuttering. Brad gives me a betrayed look and I send him one that says, yikes. "Sounds great, Mr. Harrington,' said the class. Okay," the teacher adds as we turn around and resume our walk.
Ned sighs in relief, sending me a grin. "That was awesome," he praises, to which I just smirk.
Ezra leans closer to me and remarks with a chuckle, "wow, he is obsessed with y/n and Peter."
I chuckle too. "I know. It's kind of sad." It always annoyed me how Brad was trying to get in between them for the entire trip. I wasn't gonna let him drag them down just because he's jealous.
"Yeah. He's making a big deal out of nothing. I'm pretty sure Peter and y/n just sneak off to fool around... Wait, maybe that's why he's so mad," Ezra comments. I laugh at this and shake my head. It's funny how we thought the same thing. Oh, if only he knew what they were really up to. God, I hope they're okay.
•~•~•~•
Dorset Coast, United Kingdom
Peter's POV:
Y/n is in the bathroom while I stand by the machine, waiting for it to finish my suit. Happy suddenly jogs over and announces, "Okay, Fury's got the coded message. Your friends are at the Tower Bridge."
"Okay," I reply, turning around.
"Your boy called it the London Bridge but I figured it out," Happy explains, to which I nod. "I'm gonna go scoop them up. Okay?"
"Yeah."
"We're close."
"We're close," I repeat.
"How's the suit coming?" Happy questions, peering at the work in progress.
"Almost done," I answer, turning my head to look at it as well.
Happy grins and shifts his eyes to me. "Good."
Something important suddenly crosses my mind. "Wait, woah, woah, woah, before you go..." I trail off, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the (y/f/f) necklace. "If something happens to me, could you please give this to y/n?" I ask, holding the necklace up by the chain.
Happy takes it from me as he replies, "you're gonna make it back. You'll give it to her yourself. Okay? You got this."
I nod. "I got this," I voice, trying to motivate myself. I'm gonna make it back, I have to. For Ned, for Aunt May... for her. As if on cue, I hear a click and a door slide open. We turn our heads to see y/n exiting the bathroom. She gives us a curious look as she approaches.
"What'd I miss?" Happy explains to her the same thing he told me, and she nods. "Okay, perfect," she responds.
"Now walk me through it," the man addresses us both.
"Okay, we know it's illusion tech," y/n commences.
"Right," Happy voices.
"So all we have to do is get inside the illusion so we can take it down," she proceeds.
"Then we find him, and he's just a guy. So we can take EDITH right back," I jump in.
Happy nods as he listens. "Right, but last time you guys got hit by a train," he points out. Y/n and I share a quick glance.
"True. But this time, I won't let him screw with my mind," y/n states with a smile. "We'll both be ready this time," she adds, patting my shoulder.
I nod in agreement. "Yeah, this time- How do I explain this? Uh... I have like a sixth sense," I chime in, shrugging.
"The Peter-tingle. That's what you're talking about, right?" Happy pipes up.
Y/n snorts and says, "yes, the Peter-tingle is exactly what he's talking about." I shoot her a pointed look and she just smiles amusedly at me.
"It's not working though. I heard it wasn't working right now. Is it?" the man continues while I just stare at him, unamused. I know Aunt May is the one he heard this from.
"It is working. Well, I don't- I don't know if it's working-"
"We haven't tested it. It might be working again."
"Good," Happy speaks up at the same time as us. "Okay, so you got the Peter-tingle. And you got the mind powers. That's the plan," he acknowledges us both. I purse my lips, annoyed that he keeps saying, "Peter-tingle." "I'm gonna go get your friends. You get that Peter-tingle back online," Happy tells me before looking at my girlfriend. "And you, make sure your powers still work," he orders before jogging away.
"Ay-ay, Captain," y/n responds.
Meanwhile, I turn back to the machine, mumbling, "I got this, I got this" to myself as I watch it build my new suit.
Apparently, y/n hears me because she steps closer and sets her hand on my shoulder, making me glance at her. "You do got this. We got this. Everything will be fine, we're the dream team, remember?" she softly reassures me.
I turn my body to face her and grin. "The best team," I state. She's right, everything should turn out fine. After all, it is us... and we're always stronger together. Plus, she's fought huge monsters and we both fought Thanos, which are way scarier than Beck. He just caught us off guard last time, but now we're ready. He should be the one that's scared.
Y/n grins and nods. "The best team," she repeats. "Beck forced us into his little wicked game, and now we make him play our game," she adds with a small smirk. I smile at this. I love when she gets confident like that.
"Yeah," I agree. I then furrow my eyebrows, wondering if there's more to her claim. "Wait, what do you mean?" I question.
She only smiles, her face unreadable. She takes my face in her hand and softly voices, "don't worry, darling. I have everything under control." I'm not too sure what she means by that and I don't know if I should be worried but the fact that she called me "darling" is sort of distracting. I don't think we've ever called each other a pet name before.
I merely nod and lean in to give her a sweet kiss. I don't know what's going to happen but I need to kiss her again, just in case. When we pull away, she smiles warmly at me and caresses my cheek with her thumb. Just this small action makes it feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest.
Her eyes shift to the suit in progress and her face falls as she walks around me to get a closer look. There's a glint in her eyes as she analyzes it. "Wow, you're adding black instead of blue this time?" she pipes up.
"Uh, yeah," I answer, studying the suit as well.
She nods, an impressed grin on her face. "Inspired by the Night Monkey suit?"
I chuckle slightly. "Uh, yeah... well, I, uh..." I trail off, scratching the back of my neck. She looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish my sentence. "I wanted to keep the original red but, uh... you said you liked the black so..." I claim, chuckling nervously. I avert my gaze as I feel the heat rise to my face. When I finally decide to look at y/n, I see her gazing at me with a soft expression, looking in awe.
"So it's for me?" she teasingly asks.
"Uh," I chuckle, timidly looking down.
She suddenly places two fingers under my chin and lifts my head so I can look at her. My breath catches in my throat when our eyes meet. "That is so cute. You are so cute," she utters, beaming at me. Joy shoots through my body upon hearing this, I'm glad she doesn't think it's weird. She pulls me in for another, longer kiss. She holds my face in her hand while I rest mine on her hips. We press our foreheads together once we pull away, gazing into each other's eyes. As I look at her, I can't help but truly believe that everything will be okay.
-
-
The big battle is coming up in the next chapter where y/n may or may not get some revenge 😏