› CHAPTER TWENTY ‹
While Peter Parker was getting his life back in order after having his suit ripped from him, Raleigh Ridley was struggling to find a way to fit back into his old routine with the new revelation of who his biological—and not so biological—family is. Of course, after letting the entire Odin—Loki, thing settle for another day, he was back to his normal self and even took a strange liking to the man that banished him from his birthplace.
Odin helped Raleigh perfect his use of the daggers, something he was excited about since Trystan was only able to show him what he could. Of all weapons, Raleigh was only ever willing to learn knife throwing, something he had a natural talent for. He never used them and they were more for a hobby instead of his hero work—but Trystan claimed as a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, it was safe knowing how to wield some sort of weapon.
Unfortunately, when Raleigh asked Odin about his powers, the elder claimed that Raleigh, himself, would be the only one to unlock the possibilities with it. He didn't know what that meant, or why the Allfather couldn't help him, but he just assumed the man just wanted him to grow with them and learn on his own time. In the end, Raleigh didn't really care, because while he would love to do more with his powers, he knew what he could and couldn't do right now and to him, that was all that matter.
To Raleigh's surprise, Trystan had also taken a liking to Odin. After another day of Odin being in the same filthy clothes, Trystan had taken the man out while Raleigh was in school and helped freshen the man up some. He had bought him new clothes since he couldn't fit in Trystan's old ones and while most of the clothing was simple and comfortable for the elder, a few were more elegant with a suit jacket and dress pants. He had also bought the man a new eyepatch and took him to the barbers shop for a haircut.
On that same day, Trystan had bought new clothing objects and constructed a new suit for Raleigh, which looked almost identical to the one that had been destroyed in Germany. The main difference being the cheap plastic facemask in place of the turtleneck that used to cover his mouth and nose. Despite Raleigh explaining he wasn't ready to get back out there, Trystan made him promise to keep it on him in case of emergencies, so Raleigh had shoved it inside his locker behind his textbooks. He didn't plan, nor want, to be needing it anytime soon.
Due to all the new number of distractions on Raleigh's life, he had completely forgotten that homecoming was in a few days. Despite the dance being advertised everywhere in the school, he hadn't given it much consideration. Had it been last week, then Raleigh probably would have decided to stay home, but since he had dropped two of his activities he didn't have any excuse for not going.
He was fine with just going with his friends, but he hadn't talked to Peter since the whole thing with Tony happened, so he felt it would be awkward asking him or Ned to come with him so he wouldn't be alone for the night. The longer he reflected on it, the more he realized he still had one person he could ask, but the thought of asking her made his stomach roll with nerves. He wasn't really sure if Michelle Jones would want to go to the dance with him. They weren't exactly friends, but they also weren't strangers.
For the next two days, Raleigh struggled with an internal battle on how and if he should ask Michelle to homecoming. He thought maybe it would be weird for him to ask her and feared she would reject him like the other times he tried to partner with her in their shared classes.
Finally, two days before homecoming, Raleigh turned to Trystan and Odin for advice.
"How do I ask a girl to a dance?"
Trystan grinned. He was excited about seeing the young boy flourishing and moving forward with his life, even though he was a sweating-ball-of-a-mess at the moment. "Just ask her. There isn't a better way to get around it. I guess you could ask her like some prom kids do?"
He imagined asking Michelle to homecoming in front of everyone and making the question flashy and eye drawing. He could see people staring in awe and cooing at the sight and pressuring her to accept his request.
Raleigh immediately shook his head with a grimace. "No, no, she'd hate that." He turned to Odin, wondering if the powerful God had any advice. "What would you do?"
The elder leaned back in the couch and thought. "I would do little acts for her every day to make sure she thinks fit of me. Then before the dance, I would ask her to accompany me."
Raleigh sighed. "That's all good and dandy, but I only have two days."
Odin frowned. "Then you should ask her tomorrow! She should be honored to go to the dance with you and if she doesn't, then she isn't the one."
"Wow, how sweet of you."
› › › ›
The next day, Raleigh promised himself he was going to toughen up and ask Michelle Jones to the dance because if he didn't, he would be going alone. He knew he would be doing, even if hadn't yet. He was just busy after History and Physics and just happened to walk the other way from where she was before Gym.
Then while he was in Gym, he kept his distance and tried to think of the different and casual ways he could walk up to her ask her. However, he didn't need to think of a way to walk up to her, because she was marching up to him once the class had ended. Raleigh panicked but was somewhat comforted seeing she didn't look annoyed, but she also didn't seem very happy.
"Okay, why have you been staring at me?"
Raleigh froze, unsure what she was meaning. "I—I wasn't staring."
She raised a brow. "Yes, you were. You were doing it in History and you have been since gym started."
He didn't even realize he was watching her, but as he thought on it, he realized she was telling the truth. He blushed a light pink. He was certain she was going to say no to homecoming no. "I didn't—"
"You didn't realize?" Michelle finished his sentence. "I could tell. Are you wanting to ask me something?"
Raleigh nodded. It was now or never.
"Sorry, I was just—I was just wondering if you wanted—if you would, uh..." He swallowed nervously and Michelle fixed her weight on her leg. "Would you want to go to homecoming? With me?" She didn't say anything and Raleigh's pink cheeks spread into a bright red and he stuttered on his words for a second. "I—I mean, as friends."
"As friends?" Michelle echoed and Raleigh nodded, letting out a weak yeah. She hummed, considering it. "Sure, I'll go to homecoming with you." Her lips tugged into a teasing smirk. "As friends."
Raleigh perked up.
"Really? I mean, really?" Michelle again didn't say anything and Raleigh bit his cheek to stop a stupid grin from appearing on his face. "O-Okay, great. Should we meet at your place or mine?"
Michelle nodded at him. "Yours." Raleigh nodded in agreement and backed away. He was about to leave, when Michelle stopped him. "Hey, I need your address."
Flustered, Raleigh jumped and quickly gave her his number, where she responded by doing the same thing. He sent her his address and asked about the what time he should expect her. Shooting off an evening time, she made sure to give him one last comical warning before he ran off. "You better be ready when I get there."
He smiled and agreed, before running off in a flushed grin.
› › › ›
Both Trystan and Odin were waiting for the news when Raleigh got home that evening. The boy was hiding his excitement as he walked through the door, hoping to surprise them with the story. He was surprised to find Trystan leaning against their kitchen table and Odin sitting on the couch, with both of their focus on him, though.
"So?" Trystan prodded Raleigh for an answer. Raleigh was about to tell him what happened, when a smile broke out instead and he nodded, silently letting them know she agreed to the dance. "That's great! That's actually really good because I can't return these."
He moved out of the way and allowed Raleigh to look in the shopping bag. He first noticed the white and pink corsage and set that aside. He pulled out a neat black and white suit with a black tie. It was all covered in a plastic bag to keep it clean. He laid it out on the table and turned to Trystan to thank him. However, as he turned, a large hand clapped him on the back.
The young teen boy nearly toppled over by the sudden force. "Proud of you, my grandson!"
Raleigh awkwardly patted the elder back on the shoulder. As much as he had gotten used to Odin and learned to like him, he was still uncomfortable when it came to him complimenting and calling him grandson. Obviously, he was trying, since Odin had claimed to only have so many months left to live, but he still felt a little weird about it.
Raleigh returned to Trystan and made a show of tugging his long and messy black hair. "I've also been thinking it's time I get a haircut..."
Trystan smiled and his head and shoulders slumped in relief. "I'm so glad you finally said something. It was starting to look ragged."
"You're saying that?" Raleigh scoffed, though he wasn't offended. "When I first met you, you looked like a homeless man."
Authors Note:
Okay, I love the MJ-Raleigh dynamic, to be honest. I've also decided there isn't going to be one set love interest for right now, because in reality a lot of people date multiple others before settling down with someone. Also, fun fact, I'm currently writing the very last bit of this story and it's so hard I swear since it's Endgame and like uh... With that said, this book is going to end at about 42-43 chapters, then the sequel will start with SM:FFH (which I haven't seen yet).