Daphne and Peter settled at the breakfast bar. They agreed that she would read through the subjects first to figure out where she gets lost and then he can help her with that. While she reads, he's doing his own homework. However, she can't focus on the books in front of her. Her brain keeps telling her she won't get the eighty percent on the tests anyways, so why should she even bother. It's like whatever's on the pages is in a different language. The long, difficult words that cover the paper almost make her dizzy.
Daphne glances at Peter, who's bent over his own homework. The end of his mechanical pencil rests in the corner of his mouth. He's completely focused on the exercise in front of him. A slight frown twitches in his brows and he scrunches his nose while reading the question. Cute. She raises her eyebrows at her own thought and quickly looks back at her own books. What's going on with her? Everything used to be so normal with Peter. It was just a regular friendship, right? But whenever she looks at him now, or even thinks of him, she feels... something. Isn't it way too soon to feel anything like this? It hasn't even been two months yet. But he's so kind... And funny... And he's... Cute.
Peter protected her from day one, when she was in the store with just him. He came to find her when Loki took her. He brought her home. He's going to help her with her pas de deux classes... She takes another peek at him. He's still frowning at his book. Sometimes he writes down part of an equation. A brown curl falls down his forehead. She wants to put it back in place. His hair looks so soft. She wants to touch it. Touch him. Hold him.
"You alright?" He asks, not looking up from his work. She snaps out of her trance and sits up straight.
"Wha- yea?"
"You've been staring at me for a while." How did he even notice? She barely had her head turned towards him. Does he have a sixth sense or something? He pushes the hair that's in front of his face back onto his head and looks at her. "It's a little distracting." No, Daphne thinks. You're distracting. "If you need help with anything you can ask me, you know?"
"I don't want to bo-" She stops herself when the kind look on his face twists into a glare.
Daphne knows he doesn't like it when she says that, but she just can't help it.
"You're not bothering me, Daph, I came here to help you study." He closes his own books and pushes them to the side. He stands up to move his stool closer to hers and sits down again next to her. His shoulder brushes past hers and she quietly holds her breath. He reads the paragraph she's stuck at. He clears his throat. "Alright, oscillation." He nods and scans the page one more time and then looks at her. When she turns her head to face him, she realizes how close she is, but she decides to push everything away that is not important to her studies right now. She absolutely has to get into this school.
If you get 80 percent on all tests you get to see Peter every day. The thought makes her perk up. Another reason to work extra hard this weekend.
"Yeah, I don't really get the concept cause it's so broad?" She mutters. "The book says it can apply to anything, from biology to economics?"
"Yep," Peter pops the p at the end. "So, all you really gotta know about it, is this;" He looks around the room and spots the kitchen towel. He gets up to grab it and stands in front of her, letting the towel hang from one corner in his fingertips. "Oscillation is when something moves back and forth at a steady rate, with a central value." He starts swinging the towel side to side. "Don't really have a pendulum or anything, but this works too." She stares at the towel and nods slowly. He stops the towel again and lets it hang still. "So, this would be the central value. Nothing happens."
"Uh-huh."
"But when an outside force uses energy on it," he says as he swings it again. "It starts moving around the central value. Oscillation."
Daphne thinks for a second.
"Like a heartbeat?" Peter looks up at her. Daphne's heartbeat is suddenly a loud thumping in his ears. He takes a breath and pushes the sound out of his thoughts. Stupid Spider-Powers.
"Exactly like a heartbeat." He grabs the towel with two hands and puts it on the breakfast bar. Daphne recalls being hooked up to one of those machines that reads your heart rate when she woke up after what happened with Loki. The screen showed a line and her heartbeat was moving back and forth with that line always at the middle. The central value.
"I think I get it."
"Think or know?" He cocks his head at her and she smiles.
"I know."
...
They spend all day going through the subject matter. Peter found out that Daphne learns better by seeing examples and discussing things, rather than just reading it from a book. So, he was constantly in search of items around the apartment he could use to explain different topics. And if she didn't have anything useful at home, he'd look up a video online for them to watch.
At around six o'clock they're interrupted by Daphne's phone. They just ordered Thai food and are waiting for the delivery by doing some calculus exercises. Derek's calling. The conversation is short, but Peter's not really paying attention as he's trying to figure out the answer to an exercise that even he finds difficult. When she hangs up, she presses her lips on top of each other and looks at Peter.
"So, uh... My dad's not coming home tonight." Peter frowns at her.
"Why?"
"One of the snow leopards caught an illness, he found it in the samples he took." Daphne walks to the sink to pour herself a glass of water. "He needs to stay at the zoo to monitor her all night. Possibly all weekend."
"Oh, wow," Peter breathes. He doesn't really know what to say. He feels bad for her father. Having to stay at work that long can't be fun. But he also doesn't really mind getting to spend more time with just Daphne. Alone. "I hope the leopard gets well soon." The comment sounded better in his head. Daphne looks into the glass absentmindedly as she twists it around to create a little whirlpool.
"I hope so too," she says softly.
Peter looks at Daphne with worry. She's tired, he can tell. He clears his throat and gets up from the couch, where they had moved to earlier that afternoon. They've been studying all day now, only taking a short break for lunch. Her brain must be fried from all the information she needs to keep in her head. He finds a playlist on his phone and easily connects it to the stereo system. He doesn't exactly know what music she listens to, other than classical ballets, but an 80s playlist is a safe bet, he assumes.
Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" starts playing. He walks up to her and takes the glass of water out of her hands. He places it on the counter and gently takes her hands in his. She looks up at him, confused. He smiles at her.
"It's good to relax after studying for so long." He raises her hands a little higher and cocks his head. "May I have this dance?" Daphne snorts and lets her head fall into his chest. "What?" He laughs and she looks back up at him.
"I was afraid you were gonna call me m'lady for a second."
"I left my fedora at home," he chuckles.
"You better burn it before I come over to your place." His heart jumps at the thought of her being in his apartment. His room. He realizes he can't wait for May to meet her. May would love her.
"I promise." He smiles at her glimmering eyes and starts shuffling side to side. "So? Wanna dance?"
"Please!" She groans as he pulls him to an open area in the living room. When they get to where they have enough space to dance, he twirls her with his hand above her head. She laughs as she stops turning and starts stepping in her place, moving her hips to the music. She starts singing along. She hasn't let go of Peter's hand yet and he squeezes hers softly.
He's surprised at her singing voice. It's not something you'd hear on a radio or a talent show, but she reaches all the notes, like a trained singer. She must've gotten singing classes at her art school. All Peter does is awkwardly bounce along to the music. He's not very confident in his dancing and he'd rather not ruin the mood by singing. Regardless of how he feels about himself, he's absolutely enamored by Daphne. Seeing her genuinely have fun like this fills up his body with happiness.
The song fades and Daphne stretches her back. Patiently waiting for the next song. There's a playful look in her eyes. Some kind of techno beat starts and Peter doesn't recognize it at first. Daphne, however, freaks out and starts jumping around giddily. When the piano kicks in, he realizes what the song is and bursts out laughing at the irony. Daphne runs to the kitchen and opens the fridge, grabbing a cucumber and practically throwing the door closed. She gracefully leaps over the coffee table that's filled with their books and jumps on top of the couch. One foot is placed on the arm rest and the other slowly sinks into the cushions. She moves dramatically as she sings along with everything she has, using the cucumber as a microphone.
"Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?"
She slowly moves her stretched out arm from one side to the other, making a big half circle in front of her while still using her other hand to sing into the cucumber.
"Where's the street wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?"
Peter can't contain himself as he's fallen to the floor with laughter. She awkwardly, yet still dramatically shuffles to the other side of the couch, trying to keep her balance with her feet disappearing in the soft cushions. She mirrors her previous stance on the other side of the couch. Her left foot now up on the arm rest and the other not even visible from where it got sucked into the couch. She holds her free hand up to the ceiling, not caring if her neighbours can hear her.
"Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed? Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need!"
She jumps off the couch and lands with her knees bent. She stands up straight with her legs wide and reaches out for Peter, who's now holding on to his belly, trying to get himself together.
"I need a hero!"
She walks up to him and grabs his hand, helping him get up.
"I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night!"
Daphne grabs his bicep and squeezes playfully to the beat.
"He's gotta be strong!"
She lets go of him and twirls quickly.
"He's gotta be fast!"
She pretends to wipe sweat off her forehead and softly punches him in the chest with her free hand.
"And he's gotta be fresh from the fight!"
She turns away to jump around the room and continue singing cheerfully. Peter lets himself fall onto the couch and lays down, endearingly looking at how Daphne releases all her stress, like a little ball bouncing around aggressively. Peter can't believe how well the lyrics of the entire song match her situation. When the four-minute song ends she falls onto her knees next to the couch and drops her face onto Peter's stomach, panting loudly. The cucumber now lies on the floor.
"You done?" He asks with a grin. She turns to face him and smiles through her deep breaths. Her head and body are warm against his. She still has her eyes closed. She wants to say yes until the intro to Careless Whispers kicks in.
"Nah," she chuckles.
"Oh my God," he laughs as she pulls him out of the seat. She leads him back to the more open area and pushes her body against his in a tight hug. She shuffles side to side slowly, leading him to do the same.
Instead of going all out again, she just stays where she is in his arms. Peter doesn't mind. At all. He holds her too, softly leaning his head on her hair. Pomegranate. He used to hate pomegranate but not anymore. She makes pomegranate smell like the best fruit in existence.
Daphne breathes slowly. She hears his heartbeat through his sweater and closes her eyes, being in the moment. Right there. With him. She never really thought of Careless Whisper as a romantic song. It was a meme. At least until now. She feels warm and safe in his embrace. Peter will always be there for her, she just knows. He's got her. When the song nears its end, she slowly looks up at Peter. He stares back into her eyes and smiles kindly. They're so close to each other.
Daphne silently thanks Tony for figuring out the regulator that Peter's wearing around his wrist. Their noses touch gently and he licks his lips, guiding her attention to look at them. She wants to kiss him. There's nothing else she wants right now but to kiss him. Her body feels like it's on fire. She wants this. She knows. She moves in slowly, feeling his breath on her lips. She closes her eyes and...
The bell rings. They both snap out of it and step away from each other. They stare at each other wide-eyed and chuckle nervously.
"That's... Probably the food," Daphne mutters as she quickly walks to the intercom. She's gonna kick that delivery guy's fucking ass. Well, she won't. But she will. Mentally. Peter stands where she left him. Frozen in place, as Careless Whispers slowly fades into silence.