All Too Well (10 Minute Version) - Taylor Swift
And I was thinking on the drive down
Any time now, he's gonna say it's love
You never called it what it was
Til' we we dead and gone and buried
Check the pulse and come back
Swearing it's the same
After three months in the grave
Peter sat at the roof's edge - his and Amara's roof. It had been 16 days since they had... parted ways? Distanced themselves? He still wasn't sure why she had done it. Why she had felt the need to.
Peter had been on patrol, trying to distract himself from the confusion that had been clouding his brain these past few days. At first, he thought he had done something wrong. Then he thought about what she had said:
"We may be friends, but there's some kind of attachment there. One that's not supposed to be there. One that can't be there."
What does that mean? Peter thought to himself.
Then he remembered how desperate he was to tell Amara the truth; reveal his identity to her. Finally tell her everything so that there were no more secrets between them and Peter realised, maybe she wasn't so wrong about this 'attachment' after all.
Maybe that was the reason! What if she could sense you were about to tell her? What if she didn't want to shoulder that kind of pressure, and that's why she did what she did? Peter thought to himself.
He decided that he would try and find her. Try and convince her that they could remain anonymous friends and that's it. He would try everything he could, because all he knew for sure, was that he couldn't lose the friendship between Spiderman and Amara. The only friendship where he felt calm and cool enough to talk to her without messing up.
Peter was broken out of his thoughts when his spider-sense went off. He stood up, searching for the source of the disturbance. When he found it, he leapt off of the roof allowing the wind to rush past him as he plummeted towards the concrete.
He shot a web to a nearby building and felt that jolt when he caught himself at the beginning of a new swing. He got into a rhythm arriving at the scene in less than five minutes - just in time to see five armed men attempting to rob a convenience store. He swung straight into action, shooting a web to pull one of their guns away and using it to hit another one to the floor. He dodged punch after punch while getting a few hits in, until he felt one of the criminals jump onto his back, covering his eyes, not allowing him to see what was happening.
He sensed something - not the armed men, but something else. She landed on the floor, arms outstretched in a fighting stance. Aura.
She was powerful, confident and quick as she dealt with the men, encouraging Spiderman to get up and help.
Together, they finished them off quickly. Spiderman webbed them to the wall as Aura walked into the convenience store to return the lost items.
When she walked back out again, she headed straight for Peter.
"Hey, haven't seen you around in a while, partner," he said.
"I'm sorry. Avengers stuff has been... crazy," she replied.
"Yeah, I heard about Lagos," after looking at the hero's fallen face at the mention of that mission, Peter quickly assured her, "We don't have to talk about that, though."
She smiled gratefully, "Thank you. So how have things been?"
"Oh, uh well classes at school are getting harder, but it's still fine. Uh, I finished building the Lego millennium falcon a couple days ago with my friend. Oh - and uh, one of my best friends just stopped talking to me and then I saw her a few days ago she decided she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore. So, all in all -"
Aura cleared her throat, "I meant with patrolling. Like who have you fought in the past few weeks? Anyone new that we need to worry about, that kind of thing."
"O-oh. S-sorry, you can just ignore what I just-"
"But I'm- I'm sorry about your friend. I'm sure there must have been a reason."
"Yeah - I just wish she'd tell me that reason. But anyway. Um, there's this bad guy, calls himself the beetle. Don't need to worry about him, though. He's just a glorified suit of armour we could easily take him. Uh... I don't think anything else has come up," he shrugged.
"Okay, great," she replied, nodding as if deciding what to do next.
"Um... are you gonna stay for the rest of today's patrol? I could use the company," he suggested.
"I can't today. I have this thing, I have to get back. But, maybe next week?" She asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, okay, see you then. Bye," he waved at her.
She reciprocated with a small salute as she leaned back over the roof, catching herself as she began to fall and she flew over to the left.
Peter watched as she left, stuck in his thoughts of Amara once again.
—————
Amara's heart was breaking. Slowly, but surely. Hearing Spiderman, himself, talk about their situation, only made it ten times worse.
To hear that he truly thought that she didn't care for him, made Amara's head hurt. Of course, I cared about him! I still do! That was why I had to leave, why couldn't he see that?
She fought back tears on her way home and managed to be back at the tower just in time for MJ to arrive. She had invited her friend over for dinner that evening and had also devised a plan to bring Steve and Natasha together - and she needed MJ's help.
"Hey!" Amara hugged her friend, who was waiting in the lobby. "How long have you been waiting here?"
"Only, like 10 minutes," she replied.
"You could have gone up. I already updated you as an authorised visitor, FRIDAY should have let you up," Amara said, quickly double-checking through her FRIDAY lenses.
"Oh, yeah, you said that, I just didn't want to go up by myself. I still have to meet everyone. I didn't want to be rude," MJ replied, sheepishly. "Also... I didn't know what to do, to get up."
"Okay," Amara said, giggling. "Come on, I'll show you."
The girls made their way into the elevator, and as it started moving up, they stared out of the glass wall, watching the city grow further and further away.
"So, I need your help with something," Amara said, still not looking away from the city.
"What is it? Is it about Peter?" MJ asked, smiling suggestively.
"No, I- What?!" She looked away from the window and at her friend with an incredulous expression on her face, and when she saw MJ laughing, she shoved her, playfully, "I hate you."
"No, you love me... not in the way you love Peter, though."
"Okay, I've had it," Amara said using her powers to spray water all over MJ.
"Amara?!"
"It'll dry!"
Both girls looked at each other and burst into laughter. Amara leaned her head on MJ's shoulder, laughing into it.
"Okay, I really need your help with something, though," Amara said, facing MJ again.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I need you to-" the elevator doors opened, revealing Pietro Maximoff leaning on the wall, very obviously waiting for them.
"Finally! Come on! We have stuff to get on with!" He started to walk away, but then he turned around, "Did you tell her what we're doing?"
"I was just about to-" Amara started.
"Typical! Well, at least introduce me!" Pietro said.
"Chill out, P!" She turned to MJ, "MJ this is Pietro. Pietro this is MJ."
"Pietro... as in Maximoff?" MJ asked, incredulously.
"In the flesh," Pietro said, a huge grin spreading across his face.
Amara rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, let's go." Then she whispered to MJ, "Don't boost his ego, it's big enough."
MJ laughed and Pietro said, "I heard that."
"Good," Amara replied.
MJ watched this strange exchange between her best friend and this Avenger. It was easy to forget that Amara had this kind of relationship with the Avengers because she herself was one. MJ always forgot this fact. To her, Amara was just... Amara. Not Amara Stark, billionaire, Aura, superhero, Avenger. God the list was long.
Amara addressed MJ this time, "Okay, so... we need your help. I have recently gained some knowledge regarding... a certain Captain and a certain agent, and we need to help the Captain figure out how to tell the agent about his feelings for them."
"Captain as in... Captain America? And agent? As in... Nick Fury...?" MJ asked, confused.
Pietro looked at Amara and they both burst into fits of laughter. "No no no no! Not Fury! Definitely not Fury!" Amara exclaimed between laughs.
"Oh my god! That's hilarious! I like her!" Pietro said.
Amara cleared her throat and said, quietly, "Agent as in... Natasha Romanoff..."
A shocked look appeared on MJ's face, "You mean, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, together?"Amara and Pietro nodded seriously. "Since when?"
"Oh since never, right now," Amara replied, confusing MJ even more.
"Wait, what?"
"Well, I only found out a few days ago that Steve has feelings for Nat, but we don't know if Nat feels the same way. That's why we need a plan," Amara explained.
"A plan. So that's what I need to help with? But how am I supposed to help?"
"You don't have to help if you don't want to, j just thought it would be nice to be able to talk to you about all this."
"Okay... I'll think about it," MJ said, sheepishly.
"Great! In the meantime, let me tell you everything we know already-"
"Oh, by the way, there's been a development," Pietro said to Amara.
"What?! And you waited all this time to tell me?!"
"No it's not anything big, it's just... Wanda told someone else," Pietro said.
Amara sighed in frustration, the girl had been feeling down ever since Lagos, this was Steve and Amara's attempt at distracting her, however slight. "Wanda! Who?"
"Vision," Pietro's said.
"You know, they've been getting pretty close lately. What if there's something going on?"
"I highly doubt that! He's a machine!" Pietro scoffed.
"No, he's mostly human. Made of organs and muscles and a brain, which makes him feel normal, human emotions. The only difference is his skin is made of vibranium."
"And his brain is a computer," Pietro argued, obviously upset at the prospect of his sister falling in love with Vision.
"Uploaded by a computer, it isn't actually a computer. I should know, I helped to unknowingly create him," Amara corrected him, amused by how annoyed he was becoming. She knew how protective Pietro was of his sister and it was almost comical how easily he would transition into protective brother mode at the most random and sometimes inconvenient moments. "Anyway this is beside the point. The point was that we're trying to intrude on Steve's love life, not Wanda's, got it?"
Pietro grumbled in reply, muttering to himself as Amara turned to MJ, once again trying to say what she needed to say, but realising that they were now standing outside of her bedroom door, she frowned, annoyance showing on her face, clearly, "God, it's so hard to get anything done around you," she grumbled at Pietro, as she opened the door and gestured for MJ to walk inside, which she looked nervous to do seeing as Wanda Maximoff, Steve Rogers and the Vision were all sat on beanbags laughing, so Amara walked in first.
"MJ, right?" Steve stood up from his seat. "We met a couple weeks ago?" He reached out his hand for a handshake.
"H-hi. You remembered my name. Nice," MJ smiled at Amara in shock and took Steve's hand. Amara was proud of her, she had become so much more confident since her first visit to the tower.
Amara stepped forward, "Wanda, Vision, this is MJ, I don't know if you guys met yet?"
"I don't believe we have, but I've heard a great deal from Mr Stark," Vision said, shaking MJ's hand.
"It's nice to meet you, MJ," Wanda said, sweetly. Her warm smile extending across her face as she reached in for a hug, completely throwing MJ off guard. Amara could see her grow stiff and rigid as if she didn't know what to do. Wanda pulled away, and quickly apologised, "I'm... sorry. I'm a hugger."
MJ shook her head, "It's fine."
They sat down and Amara used her powers to lock her door. "Okay so here's what we know. Steve likes Nat, and Nat's feelings are... indefinite. She had a date about a week ago that she didn't tell anyone about..." she glanced over at Steve, who shrugged.
When the rest of them also looked over at Steve, he sighed, "She told me. She said she wanted me to know because were such good friends-" everyone collectively grimaced - Steve was stuck in the friend zone.
"Looks like Nats feelings towards Steve are non-existent," Pietro said, smiling proudly. Amara elbowed him as she saw Steve's fallen face. "What?! It's a win we solved one problem on the list!" Pietro replied, defensively.
"Steve," Wanda started. "Did Nat tell you who she was going on a date with?"
"Some woman she used to be close friends with when she started at SHIELD," Steve said.
"Do you have a name?" Pietro asked.
Steve shook his head.
"If you had a name, Captain, I could, potentially run a search on a SHIELD database that I think I could still get access to... if it's not been destroyed, of course," Vision said, sitting straighter now.
"That's a great idea!" Amara said. "Do you think you could find out who it was?"
"I could try," Steve agreed.
"Did she... tell you how it went? The date?" MJ asked, raising her hand. It seemed that she had been waiting a while to talk.
"Uh, now that I think about it, no. She never said anything after that," Steve thought.
"Could that mean it went good? Or... bad?" MJ asked.
"There's no way of knowing with Nat. She's unreadable. Steve?" Amara said.
"She may be unreadable, but she's also extremely paranoid. If she thinks anything wrong, it's gonna ruin everything. I can't ask her for the name, and how it went without making it sound like we're in an interrogation. It's either or," Steve said, confidently.
"Okay, I think that's probably what we need to find out first. And then we can worry about everything else," MJ said, confidently.
"I think Amara's our best bet," Wanda said.
Amara turned to her, "What?"
"You're the only person in this room that knows her well enough and is close enough with her that she'd trust you and willingly tell you about her love life," Wanda replied.
"Wh- what about you? You two are best friends," Amara questioned why she had to be dragged further into this.
"I'm not arrogant enough," she replied, simply.
"Oh, thanks," Amara said, her tone dripping in sarcasm.
"I didn't mean it like that. You know I didn't. You're the only person who could get this information out of her without sounding suspicious. If anything you say has a chance of coming off like 'an interrogation'" Wanda used air quotes, "then she would just think it was part of your character. You're smart and arrogant, like your father, but it's just enough, to make her feel like you're just wondering," She replied, clarifying.
"The only person who would believably seem like they don't care if she told you, like it made no difference to you, either way," Pietro continued.
"But how am I supposed to-" Amara started.
"Use your spy training," Pietro said.
"On a spy." Amara deadpanned.
"Just talk to her about your love life, make it like you're talking about you. Like you need advice and then switch it around on her," MJ said.
"What love life?" Pietro said, a hint of protectiveness in his tone, just like for Wanda.
"Kid, are you seeing someone?" Steve asked, confused. "You didn't tell me?"
"No! I'm not seeing anyone," she glared at MJ. "MJ's just being MJ. But the idea's not all bad. I could... make it up. Maybe I, went on a date and I only want to tell her because I trust her. Gain her trust and then guilt her because I told her about my life and I, apparently know nothing about hers."
"The probability of that working is extremely low," Vision pointed out.
"Yeah but did you factor in who's doing it? That's gotta raise the probability by at least 20 percent!" Amara joked.
Vision gave her a sympathetic look and her smile disappeared, instantly. "Ok, so no one thinks I can do it?"
"It's not that. It's that we don't see how Nat couldn't be suspicious when Steve and you are trying to get something out of her," Pietro shrugged, but then said, "But I guess it's worth a shot, what's the worst that could happen?"
"She loved the date and now they're together. A couple years time I get an invite for a wedding, and I'm the best man, I say I can't do it because I have feelings for her. She laughs in my face and never talks to me again," Steve said miserably.
"Holy shit! Would you calm down?! Everything will be fine! Stop stressing us out!" Amara said. "Let me think... Okay. Here's what we'll do. I'm gonna tell her about some pretend date that I went on and then somehow circle back to her, but only if the conversation gets that far. I'm gonna take the slowly. If there's any chance she might suspect me I won't mention her date and I'll end the conversation there. Try again next time. Steve, all you have to do is find out this woman's name. Vision'll take it from there. As for the rest of you, start thinking about our next steps. Think about every possible outcome and then how we need to react." She looked at MJ, "anyone who hasn't got the numbers of anyone here, exchange them and discuss. Is everyone okay with what they have to do.?" Amara addressed everyone.
Everyone nodded in agreement and Amara stood up.
"Okay, we're starting now. I'm going to talk to her now."
(A/N: Hey everyone!! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I'm so sorry about the late update! Like always if you have any ideas about what I should include in the story, I'm open to suggestions. Once again, thank you for reading! I appreciate you all and have a great Christmas!!!)