#no dang ropes allowed in this house no sir | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

supernaturallyobsessedchic · 3 years

Text

Emergency! Part 4

Part 4 – Treehouse

Summary: A boy with an inner ear condition can’t hear and is trapped in a treehouse. Cas has a fear of heights, thankfully someone knows sign language. Dean and the reader head out on their vacation, a camping trip. But their trip is cut short when a fire breaks out, they turn into victims really quick.

Warnings: Smut (p in v, unprotected (wrap it up boys), shower sex), language, suspense, scary situations, fluff.

Word Count: 3,776

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Mobile Masterlist

a/n: First time writing suspense, please let me know what you thought of this part. Feedback is much appreciated.

Dean was up before Y/N’s alarm gone off.

She always got up to her alarm despite being off work today.

Laying on his side, killing some time he played with her hair. His mind wondering.

Where would he be without her? Can he imagine his life with her?

He’d be lost without her; he can’t live a day of his life without her. Not since the day they met in the hospital.

She stirred awake.

“Morning handsome.” She says groggily as she tries to wake up.

“Morning beautiful.” He says with a soft smile on his face. His hand still playing with her hair.

He wishes he didn’t have to work; he wish he could just stay like this.

“What’s going on?” she asked when he stilled, his gaze absent as he stared off into space.

“Move in with me.”

“Okay.”

“Really?” he asks, shocked.

“Yeah, I was going to ask you at some point, but yes really. I want to live with you Dean.”

He smiles, leaning in to give her a loving kiss on her soft lips.

Their lips began to dance along with one another, slowly heating up.

“Dean, you got to get ready for work, I don’t want you late.”

“You’re right, why not come in with us? Wouldn’t hurt having a nurse with us on a call.”

“I don’t see why not. Gives me something to do today.” She says, getting up out of bed.

“Did you shower yet?” she asks.

“Nope, I got up early and just didn’t make it out of bed.”

“Let’s shower together, save water.”

“Or waste it.”

“Dean, I don’t think having sex in the shower would be safe.”

“You’d be safe with me.”

“Coming from someone who is in the hospital more than his own team.”

“Hey what can I say, I’m a hero.” He smirks.

“My hero.” She returns a smirk.

They head into the bathroom, undressing and stepping into the shower as the water warmed up. The cool water waking them up quickly.

Just as they finished washing their hair, Dean’s hands wondered her back as she stood in front of him beginning to wash her body.

Though the water was not too hot but hot enough, goosebumps formed on her shoulder and arms as his fingertips ghost across her back.

She turns to face him. Their lips meeting in a heated and needy kiss.

He lifts her up, she wraps her legs around his waist, feeling his growing hard cock between her folds.

“Better make it quick Dean, don’t want to be late.” She pants against his lips, pulling away slightly from their kiss.

“Quick is my middle name.” he says, adjusting her so he could use a free hand and guide his member through her wet folds.

His hips began a fast rhythm. Hitting all sorts of sweet spots within her.

Her head in the crook of his neck as a moan escaped her.

“Dean.” She whines.

“Almost baby, go for it.”

And a few more thrusts and her walls clamped down hard around him, throwing him through his high.

As his thrust began to slow to a stop, the water began to cool down, and they stared intently at each other.

“I love you baby girl.”

“I love you too baby.”

“Y/N, it’s good to see you, what brings you here to our lovely station 51?” John asked as Dean and Y/N walked in.

“A little separation anxiety.” She says in a joking tone. John chuckling rolling his eyes.

“I wouldn’t be surprised; Dean won’t shut up about you.” Gabe says with a coy smirk.

“Good, good to know I’ve made an impression him.” She says looking up at Dean with a smile.

Dean kissing her on the check. Gabe making a fake gagging noise.

“Need to get that image out of my head.” He jokes.

“You don’t want Aphrodite to find out about being a fuck buddy?” Dean asks with a dark smile.

“I’ll stop teasing you guys. I’ll tease Cas then.” Gab says walking toward the kitchen off next to the garage in another room.

“Thanks.” Cas says rolling his eyes.

“Just roll with it and he’ll get bored.” Dean suggests.

The alarm going off just as the sun breached the horizon.

“Squad 51 person trapped. 465 Courtly boulevard. Cross street Hartley Court.”

“Want to ride along?” Dean asks.

“If it’s alright with John.”

“It’s okay, you’re a nurse, could be of use to my boys on the call.”

“Then, I’m coming along.” She says with an excited smile.

“Then lets hit it babe.”

They arrived to the location, walking to the side door.

“Over here!” the lady waved out.

“You called?” Cas asked.

“I am, it’s my son Brad. He has a condition, Ménière's disease.”

“That’s a disease of the inner ear.” Y/N says.

“Yes, he ran away last night and heard him crying out.”

“Where is he?” Dean asked.

The mother looked up to the neighbors treehouse.

“Oh god.” The nurse gasped.

“He had to have had a drop attack, he’s has been quiet for some time now.”

“Dean, they also suffer from vertigo really bad and suffer hearing loss.” y/n warned.

“Oh, when Brad has a bad attack and can’t hear for some time, we’ve all learned sign language.” The mother pointed out.

“I know sign, Dean, I can go up with you to check on the boy.” Y/N says.

“Cas you want to go up with Y/N?” Dean asked.

“Um, no thanks man, you go ahead.”

“What, why?”

“Dude, I can’t do treehouses.”

“I’m not Michael, I’m not Gabe. No one is going to mess with you or hurt you.”

“Don’t care Dean, I just can’t bring myself to do that.”

“Dean, it’s okay. You and I can do it.”

“Alright, Cas, we’ll tell you his vitals, communicate it to Rampart okay.” Dean says.

“You got it.” Cas says, setting down the drug box.

“Dean we might need the station to get here with the stokes and some latter’s.”

“Call them for assistance.” Dean says.

Cas nods and gets on to the radio.

Y/N Grabbed a hanging rope to climb to a make-shift latter made on the tree leading up to the treehouse. Dean followed not far behind.

They emerged from the trap door entering the treehouse. She saw him laying on his stomach, knees curled into his chest.

He looked to be in his early teens.

“Hey, son, I’m Y/N, I’m a nurse. Are you okay?” she asks.

He didn’t respond.

She went to face him; she shook his shoulder gently. He looked up at her, his eyes wondering in a manor as if he just got done spinning.

That’s vertigo for ya. She thought.

She signed, spelling out. “Are you okay?”

He began to sign back to her.

“I can’t hear, and the world is spinning.”

“It’s vertigo, it’ll pass eventually. But my paramedic friend here, and I, we’re here to help you.”

“Please.”

“Don’t worry honey, we will. Keep your eyes closed, and lay on your side. We’ll help.” She signed.

“Dean, lets get him on his side.”

“Alright.” Dean helps moving the boys legs to allow him to lay in a fettle position.

Y/N checked his pupils response. “Pupils react naturally to light.” She notes.

Dean began to work on getting his blood pressure.

“How’s his BP?”

“Normal, 117 over 75.”

“Cas!” Y/N shouts down. “You got Rampart on?”

“I do!”

“Pupils react normal, BP 117 over 75. Currently experiencing vertigo and can’t hear.”

Cas gave the thumbs up and began to relay it to Rampart Hospital.

“Wonder why Cas won’t come up here despite being high up in other places?” Dean wondered.

“It’s childhood trauma. If something happened in a treehouse that traumatized Cas, he’s going to stay away from treehouses at all cost.”

“I almost want to throttle Michael and Gabe for whatever they did to Cas that scared him this bad.”

“There may be no getting better, best case scenario, we get him in a treehouse, have nothing happen to him during his time in it. Warm him up to it. Worst case, he keeps staying away from treehouses all together, not wanting to get better.”

Dean nodded as he heard the sirens of engine 51 approach the house.

“Dean!” John shouted.

“Yes sir!”

“We’re getting the stokes up to you now, catch the rope okay.”

“Got it!”

The threw one end of the rope up, working on lifting the stokes, a basket they can use to lower the patient in safely.

Y/N helped get the boy into the stokes, strapping him in, and covering him with a yellow tarp blanket.

“Okay, keep your hands in here, and keep your eyes closed.” y/n signed.

“Okay.” The boy says with a nod.

They carefully lowered the boy down and another station with an ambulance responded onto the scene to transport the boy to the hospital.

“I’ll go down first sweetheart; in case anything were to happen.”

“Oh, you worry wort. Come on, lets go.” She says with a sweet smile. Dean returning it as he climbed down.

“Sweetheart be careful, this handle got knocked lose somehow.” Dean warned.

“Gotchya.” She says as she continued to climb down.

Dean jumped the remaining way down, feet landing with a soft thud.

Her foot felt the handle Dean warned wobble under her weight. She slowly lowered herself to the next handle when she heard it creak.

And before she knew it her foot fell with the broken handle. Her hand not letting go of the other handle.

“Ow, god dang that hurt.” She grunted as her weight was caught by her hands, catching her from falling.

She tried to get her footing on the tree, but her feet kept slipping.

“Babe, just let go, I’ll get you.” Dean shouted.

She saw Dean stand below her and she took the chance and let go.

Sure enough, she felt his hands catch her from losing her balance as she landed.

“You okay?”

“Hurt my hands a bit, but I’ll live.” She says showing him her hands.

“You got some splinters in there, lets head to the squad and I’ll patch you up really quick.” Dean says.

At the back of the squad truck Dean pulled up the drug box, grabbing the tweezers and working on getting the splinters of wood out of the skin of her hand.

“Wood must have been rotten.” She says as Dean pulled out a sliver of wood.

One after another.

“It felt like it. They must get that fixed before anyone else goes climbing in that tree again.” Dean says.

She couldn’t help but admire Dean as he worked on her. Her gaze stayed fixated on Dean.

“I feel you staring.” He says with a smile.

“Good, you know that I’m admiring you.” She says with a loving smile.

He looked up to meet her gaze, giving her a chaste yet loving kiss. And worked on bandaging her hands up.

“You scraped up your hands pretty good, better be safe.” He says.

“Now where would I be with you Dean?”

“Lost.” He answers with a sweet smile, kissing her cheek.

“Seems to me we both would be lost without each other.”

“Damn right baby.”

“Dean go home, your shift’s over.” John ordered.

“I better help Y/N pack.”

“When are you two gonna be up at the cabin?”

“Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon. Is it just the deck you want me to work on?”

“Yeah, the stairs and rails are bad. I just need you to replace them.”

“Will do dad.”

“Keep your girl from walking on the deck. I don’t want her getting hurt.”

“I’ll try dad. She’s pretty stubborn.”

“She’s just independent. That’s different. Drive safe you two and call me if you need anything.”

“Will do dad, see ya.”

Dean hurried to the Impala to hurry home to pack for he and Y/N’s first camping trip together.

Dean packed his duffle and supplies quickly before heading to Y/N’s apartment. Dean, letting himself in.

“Baby, you ready to go, we need to beat traffic.”

“Just about, I just want to make sure I have everything.”

“It’s almost that time of the month isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’m due in a few days and I don’t want it sneaking on me.” She says, coming out with her duffle and bag of toiletries.

“How is it camping if we’re gonna be staying at your dad’s cabin?”

“Oh, there’s old style camping and there’s Winchester Style camping.” He says with a smirk.

“Oh, and I take it this is the Winchester Style?”

“You know it. Now lets hit it if we want to get there before sundown.”

“Right, I know. I’m ready, let’s go.”

They had arrived sooner than anticipated, allowing Dean to start working on the deck early.

Y/N finding everything in the kitchen, getting the gas on to be able to cook lunch. Keeping all the drinks in the cooler while the fridge started cooling off.

Dean had managed to get plenty of gas for the generator so they could have the basic necessities.

Y/N keeping it simple with hot roast beef sandwich melts. Dean having already dismantled a good portion of the deck.

“Dean, want to take a break and rehydrate?”

“I spy good food.” He says from his latter by the deck’s ledge.

“And its getting cold, come on. Eat up and you can finish.” She says placing the plate on the table.

Dean coming around the house entering from the front door.

“Working hard?”

“Think I’ll be done with the rails by tonight hopefully. And I can start the stairs tomorrow. Then our fun can really start.” Dean says with a smirk.

“Oh, we’ll scare so many animals out of this forest.” She giggles.

“It’s a promise, I want to play and see if I can’t make you scream.” Dean growls in her ear, kissing at the base of her ear. Sending shivers down her spine.

“I’ll hold you to it.” she says. Kissing Dean on the lips as he pulled away from her neck.

“Dean!” y/n shouted.

Dean looked around, didn’t see her anywhere around him.

Until he looked behind him. He saw her standing by a clearing. They could see the mountains in the far distance, and the rolling hills in combination. Even the dark ribbon of road that wound its way around the hills and into the mountains of the park.

“What is it?” he asks. Walked to her side.

“Look.” She says.

Dean followed her gaze. They can see what looked like smoke coming behind a mountain.

“We don’t exactly have cell service out here sweetheart, and I didn’t bring my radio. I wouldn’t worry. No one has come out here to tell us of any wildfires in the area. We should be fine.”

“You sure.”

Dean looked back out to the smoke. The wind was still. Dean tried to guess if the fire was even under control or not.

“No, but worrying never helps. We’ll worry once we cross that bridge.”

They went to bed that night, sound asleep, when a gust of wind gently began to pick up.

“Dean!” y/n shouted.

Her screams were faint. Dean shot out of bed with a jolt.

“Y/N!” He shouted trying to find her.

She was no where in sight in the cabin.

He found her in the same place as yesterday, staring of in the now smoky distance.

He rushed outside to find flames closer than yesterday.

“We need to leave.” He says urgency in his eyes and tone.

“Dean, the fire is crossing where we have to get back into town.”

“There are other ways into LA, but we need to get out of the path. Like now.”

“It wasn’t this bad yesterday.”

“My guess is the wind picked up last night. And a spark carried on this far. Could be a separate fire, I mean we are in a drought.”

“California is always in a drought when aren’t we in one.”

Dean shrugs. Good point.

“Yeah, well these things happen fast when the wind isn’t on your side. Now, pack back up and we leave. Now.” Dean ordered.

They ran inside, hearing sirens as they entered.

“It’s a deputy, pack and I’ll talk to him.”

Y/N ran fast to their room they slept in, packing quickly making sure not to leave anything behind.

“I radioed station 51, they’ve responded to the fire.” Dean says behind her.

“You have an escape route in mind?”

“I do, I just hope it’s far enough away from the fire.”

They rushed their items to Y/N’s car, Dean’s 67 Impala unable to handle the rugged terrain.

Dean getting in the driver seat and driving quickly but safely out of the park.

“Dean, there are flames here too.”

“I see that y/n, just stay calm.”

“I’m trying, kind of hard when Hell just rose.”

“Joys of being a firefighter.”

Dean tried to weave his way around traffic who were also trying to leave.

Traffic coming to a standstill.

“The flames are getting closer.” Dean mumbles to himself.

“What do we do?”

“Wait here, I’m gonna see what’s going on.”

Dean puts the car in park, putting the hazard lights on. Getting out to scout ahead to see what was stopping traffic.

He saw a woman in distress and panic.

“Ma’am, I need you to stay calm, I’m a fireman and paramedic, what’s wrong?”

“It’s my daughter, she has asthma, and she’s having an asthma attack and we didn’t bring her inhaler. We forgot it in a panic.”

“It’s okay, my girlfriend is a nurse, everything’s gonna be okay.”

Dean hurries back to the car, getting to Y/N’s side.

“What is it?”

“A car stopped ahead, a mother just needing help. Her daughter has asthma, and is having an attack but no inhaler.”

Not saying anything she follows Dean to the distressed mother.

“We forgot her inhaler!” the mother cried as they approached.

“It’s okay,” Y/N assures.

She see’s the girl hunched, clutching her chest.

“’Kay, honey, I’m a nurse, I need you to sit up straight as straight as you possibly can.”

The girl tried her best.

“Take long deep breaths for me okay,”

The girl nods and tries her best attempt.

“Okay.” She tells the girl. Then turning to the mother.

“Dean, how much farther?”

“I need a radio to see where this fire ends.”

“I have a drone.” A teen boy, possibly early twenties.

“Get it out and fly it straight up give us a birds eye view.” Dean orders.

The drone being up in the air for a quick minute Dean could see this is going to be a never ending battle. They just need to get to the emergency vehicles.

“I can see where the fire trucks are. But its still a ways out. And with this wind the fire is going to be chasing us.” Dean says as the boy lowered his drone.

“Stay on this road, go straight. Don’t stop. We all need to get out of here.” Dean orders the woman.

The mother nodded, getting into their car and driving off.

“Dean, are we going to make it?”

“We need to hurry, then maybe we will.”

Everyone rushing to their cars, coughing at the increased smoke in the air as the fire neared them. Everyone speeding their way out of the flames as best as they could.

After a few miles around a bend.

“Dean!”

Dean slammed the breaks to a screeching halt.

“Rockslide.”

“Damn it,” Dean cursed. “Did you see any roads back there?”

“No, none.”

“Shit!” Dean cursed again, slamming a fist on the steering wheel.

“What if we go on foot? How far are we?”

“It’s not safe, all this smoke in the air. And the wind is not letting up.”

“Moving the rocks on our own?”

“Maybe the small ones, get it to a single lane.” Dean says, putting the car in park.

Y/N got out to help Dean move rocks off the side of the road, other drivers doing the same.

Everyone began to struggle with the smoke, even Y/N couldn’t stand up right with her coughing fits.

“Hang in there sweetheart, we almost got it clear.”

“I know,” she coughs.

Just as they saw the road open up from their hard work, the flames were a few feet away.

“Dean!”

“Get in the car! Drive don’t stop!”

“Hopefully there’s not another rockslide.” y/n mumbles, loud enough for Dean to hear.

Everyone hurries to their cars; Dean not even bother with a seatbelt he puts it in drive and presses hard on the accelerator. The tires screeching against the pavement. Y/N not paying any mind to it. Their lives were at stake.

“Cap, they’re saying that’s everyone.” Gabe says. After talking with the other stations and police deputies.

“No word from Dean? Or Y/N? They were up at cabin?”

“A deputy saw them leaving and that was an hour or so ago.”

Before he could worry more, he heard roaring car engines speeding past. One honking it’s horn.

John seeing his son and his girlfriend in the car. Coughing but alive.

“Dad!” Dean shouts getting out of the car, coughing.

“Dean, Y/N, you’re okay!” John says. “Get these two on oxygen now!” He ordered.

A paramedic from another station coming by with two tanks and masks. Giving them each one.

At the hospital, Dean and Y/N both having a room while under observation for slight smoke inhalation.

Y/N asleep at his side as they sat in Dean’s bed.

“Alright, you two are free to go.” Jack says coming in with their chart.

“Good, we’re exhausted.” Dean says. Y/N stirring awake.

“We good?” she asks with a yawn. Before letting out a cough.

“Yeah, you’re good. I think you can recover at home now. But if you don’t feel right, come back in.” Jack insisted.

“Will do, thanks Jack.” Dean says.

“Don’t scare us like that again Y/N, you’re one of my best RN’s, it’s be a catastrophe if we lost you.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen.” Dean says.

“I’m sure you won’t. But you’re one of 51’s finest. Just be safe next time okay.”

They smiled with a nod.

“Go on and get home, and get some rest.”

They got up gathering their things.

“When do you want to move in?”

“I thought I already did?”

“You’re apartment still has furniture in it silly. I meant—”

“I know, I was messing with you. ASAP, I want to start living with my man.”

“Then once we’re 100 percent, we’ll get right on it.” Dean says holding her close.

And then maybe, they could work on forever.

A/N: How was it? Let me know, feedback is much appreciated. :)

Dean Girls:

@pandazombie69, @luci-in-trenchcoats, @supernatural-jackles, @becs-bunker, @evansrogerskitten, @winchesters-favorite-girl, @mlovesstories, @jayankles, @jeaniespiehs20, @akshi8278, @flamencodiva, @anotherspnfanfic, @megzdoodle, @lyarr24

Copying and reposting someone else’s content is plagiarism and illegal. This work is property of supernaturallyobsessedchic. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher. An electronic reference link to the original posted work may be provided for purposes of promotion or assistance of publication by the readers discretion, if proper credits are given to the author in the re-post. 3/24/2021

30 notes · View notes

waeziverse · 4 years

Text

Royal Punch (chapter 8)

“Okay…” Nora took off her glasses and cleaned them. “This is on me. I should have seen this coming and I didn’t warn you.”

Ivan looked at the plants that had ruined his windows and slowly retracted themselves, like some sort of snakes that returned to their cave. “Yeah, I would have liked to be prepared for this.”

“Honestly, I never thought this would happen. Dimi’s mother wasn’t a plantmancer, neither was her grandmother.”

“So, Dimi can create plants? Why is she attacking us.”

“She is not. Well, not exactly, it’s a defense mechanism. It takes a toll on her body and drains her for energy as her body adjusts to her new power. And if she becomes TOO tired and even falls asleep, she will have a hard time waking up again. And as a defense mechanism she will unconsciously create plants to guard her.”

“Okay, but how do we stop this mechanism?” Ivan asked.

“First thing first, we need a way to be prepared for when the situation escalates. NO, Ivan, the situation hasn’t escalated just yet.” Ivan closed his mouth, he hated it when Nora answered his questions before he got to answer them. “Your house being the home of a plant octopus is small potatoes. Plant magic is rare, but it is also very powerful. One of Dimi’s ancestors, queen Dornröschen, spread terror and destruction-“

"What in tarnation happened here?!”

Nora and Ivan turned their attention toward the old satyr Sunmut who had picked the absolute worst day to drop by for a visit. The old goat looked as if he was about to have a stroke as he stared at the plant monster that had made its home in Ivan’s house.

“Um.” Ivan couldn’t say anything else as he tried to come up with an explanation that did not involve the words it, is or complicated. “Well, sir, you see-”

“A wizard did it.” Nora interrupted Ivan before he made a bad situation worse.

Sunmut looked at the house for a moment. Then he looked annoyed. “Those dang humans! You would think the orcs had done something about that cursed lot!” Then he looked at Nora. “Ah, no offence, young lady.”

“None taken.” Nora scratched the hat that hid her pointy ears and the fact that she was an elf. Once the old creature had left, she turned her attention toward Ivan. “As I was saying… Queen Dornröschen spread terror and destruction since no one stopped the defense mechanism in time. Her plants grew bigger and bigger and it became impossible to try and save the castle. But there is another problem: Dimi’s young body is not ready for magic of this size. It takes energy and stamina, part of why she falls asleep, and if it goes on for too long, she might actually die.”

“DIE?!”

“Yes, OR she will be stuck in there for at least fifty years. So we have more than one reason to do something quickly. The plants will grow and try to get out of your house. When they do, we must cut them down.”

“Alright.” Ivan pondered for a moment. “Then we need backup.”

“Ivan, no one can know who Dimi really is!”

“Don’t worry, I trust her with my life. I will be back as soon as possible, man the fort till I’m back.”

Nora wanted to protest as the minotaur ran for the so-called backup. The short elf looked at the chopping stump where an ax had been left on. She took the ax and looked at the house. “Don’t mess with me!” Nora yelled half-heartedly. The whole house creaked, making the elf take a step backward while tightening her grip on the ax.

***

Aura tied the griffin Hothoof with a rope to the fence. The big animal was displeased by this but accepted it since it respected the sphinx as it’s “pack leader”.

“I know you don’t like not being allowed to fly around as you please.” Aura stroke the giant half-bid-half-lion animal as one would stroke a cat. “But you can't fly properly with a damaged wing. But the nice faun doctor will come and have a look, then you will get back in the sky with the others in no time.” The griffin purred as Aura rubbed it on it’s beak.

Once Aura had made sure the rope was tied properly, she went to take a look at two of her other griffins that flew over her farm.

Magnificent animals, but difficult to raise. They needed freedom to fly, but you also had to make them respect you enough so they wouldn’t fly away. Only after you had made them understand who was in charge could you try and make them like you. The fact that Aura had three grown griffins that liked her said a thing or two about her abilities with animals. Then again, she had worked with them ever since she had left the army as a young girl and moved to the kingdom of Nesredna. She had worked from the bottom as stable-girl till five years ago where she could finally afford starting her own farm near the village of Jadedale.

She was quite happy that she had picked Jadedale for several reasons.

One of these reasons actually came, half an hour before he had promised to come.

“Ivan!“ Aura smiled as she waved at the minotaur who came running as if something was on fire. “Relax, you came way to earl-”

“Aura, I need help!” The giant bull-man looked terrified. “You have to come with me to my house! I will explain later.”

Aura did not hesitate and transformed to her beast form. “Hop on, I will fly you home.”

Ivan hopped on the back of the sphinx and the creature lept from the ground. She flew to Ivan’s home as she saw something that looked like a tentacles coming out of the doors, windows and holes that the thing had made in the house. And it moved it’s “arms” with red thorns left and right as if it was desperate to get out. She recognized Nora who looked like she tried to attack the things with a household ax. Nora looked up and noticed them. “FINALLY! I’m just about to get a heart attack here! Dimi has become worse.”

Aura looked at the insane scenario as she was about to land. She had just reacted on Ivan being terrified. Now she began to wonder what was going on as she saw the problem.

“Wait, I’m sorry, WHAT?!” Aura turned back to normal and looked baffled at Ivan. “Dimi is a what now?! What the hell is going on?””

Ivan sighed. “Okay, how do I explain this… You remember when the orcs conquered the kingdom?”

Aura shrugged. “Sure, that happened. And life went on.”

“Remember how we were told the human king Pater had gotten captured?”

“Um… yes?”

“And do you remember that the king had a daughter?”

“Ah, yes? Sure, her name was Dama-something-something.“

"Dimicatio.”

“Oh, right. Dimicatio. Kinda sounds like a fancy version of Dimi’s-” Aura paused herself as her eyes grew wide. “Dimi… Dimi…” The lion-lady pointed at the garden nightmare. "Dimi?”

“Yep.” Ivan groaned as he pointed once again at his plant-infested home. “Dimi. Long story short, now she does human magic without controlling it.”

Aura looked at the house. Then she looked at Ivan.

And then she punched him on his right arm.

“OUCH!?“ Ivan rubbed his arm. “What was that for?”

“You lying rat!” Aura growled at Ivan. “You told me she was your god-daughter!”

“She is my god-daughter!”

“What? HOW!?”

“It’s complicated.”

Aura made a terrifying and VERY angry face at the bull-man. “I AM SICK AND TIRED OF YOU COMPLICATED BULLSH-”

“Ahem.”

Ivan and Aura turned their attention toward the short person who looked tired and sweaty who dropped the ax. “Sorry to interrupt.” Nora said. “But can this… thing wait till after we got Dimi out of that mess? Preferably before the townspeople arrive and start to ask questions.”

Aura sighed. “So is she even Dimi’s aunt?”

“I’m not even human.” Nora took off her hat, revealing her pointy ears. “Long story, can wait. What is important now is that I need time to figure out how to solve this mess. So we need to cut down as much of that plant as possible.”

“So you need me to do some gardening? Not a problem.” Aura stretched her arms as she rocked her head left and right. She gave Ivan a glare. “When this is over, I’m gonna have a word with you, Mr. Minotaur.”

Ivan sighed and shrugged. “That’s fair.”

The winged stout lion-woman went down on all four and was moments later replaced with the human-faced winged lion-monster that roared as it charged toward Ivan’s house. One of the vines tried to strike her as if it had been a gigantic whip, but Aura simply buried her razor-sharp teeth into it and shook it violently as if she were a dog pulling a rope. And she DID pull, she pulled the vine so hard that she ripped it off. As several smaller vines attacked her, Aura’s claws appeared on her massive paws as she went nuts on her botanic foe.

Nora was stunned as she watched from a distance. “She is bad-ass!“

Ivan smiled like a love-sick idiot. “I know… But what do we do about this? How do we… wake up Dimi? Would that be enough?”

“Indeed it would and the solution is somewhat simple yet almost impossible.” Nora put on her hat again and looked rather annoyed. “Dimi just needs a true love’s kiss.”

Ivan looked at Nora with disbelief written all over his face. “Sorry, what?”

“You heard me. As I said, the plants are a defense mechanism. She is tired and weak and feels very vulnerable. So a kiss from a loved one will make her feel safe and calm her down… And yes, it sounds odd, but that’s human magic for ya. It’s something that should not be a problem since a parent who loves their child can provide said kiss. But-”

“But Dimi’s father is in prison, COME ON!!!!” Ivan lifted his fists threatening toward the sky. “GIVE ME A BREAK!”

Yeah, and I doubt the orcs will let Pater out for a few hours if we ask them nicely. So, we have to get that kiss another way. So…” Nora coughed. “Do you know if Dimi is… dating anyone?”

“What? Ah… I don’t think so?” Ivan did not like the way this conversation was going. Then he took a look at the woman of his dreams fighting a losing battle against the vines from the house with her claws, fangs and guts. “I asked her once, but that annoyed her.”

Nora slapped her face. “You asked a teenager if she was dating anyone?! Ivan, COME ON! YOU SUCK!”

“I was curious.”

“You don’t ask a young girl questions like that. Dear lords, you suck!”

“Nora, that is not-”

“Never mind.” Nora sighed. “Look, I will go to Onyxville and pull some strings, hoping to find an alternative solution to this problem. You must go around town and hopefully find someone who loves Dimi. It doesn’t even have to be mutual.”

Ivan gave Nora a tired look. “Yeah! Big, tall bull-guy walking around and asking people if they love his protégée is a great idea.”

“We have no better options! I’m gonna get myself a horse or something.”

As Ivan watched the elf leave as fast as she could and then took a look at the violent creature that was the love of his life trying her best to fight the plants, he decided that the best place to start would be at Agate’s place.

***

The dwarf woman raised a thick eyebrow at the minotaur at her front-door.

“That’s… an interesting question, Ivan.”

Ivan felt ridicules. “Look, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t an emergency. Did she mention to you or your daughter anything about being romantically involved with anyone?”

“Why are you asking? Oh no, is Dimi preg-”

“NO, SHE IS NOT!” Ivan felt as if he was about to explode. “There is a problem, but it’s not… that. But it is important for me to know.”

Agate looked at Ivan. It was clear that it was of the greatest importance to him.

“Wait here, I will get Amethyst.

Moments later, the girl with the fluffy beard stood in front of Ivan and looked up at the tall minotaur.

“Amethyst, you HAVE to tell me, right now, if you know about anyone that Dimi loves. Don’t” Ivan stopped Amethyst from starting a teen girl rant. “I have to know. I can’t tell you why, but I have to know. Please.”

Amethyst groaned. “Mr. Ivan, Dimi is not in love with anyone. Actually, now that I think about it, she gets sort of defensive whenever I wanted to ask her. Not as if she was embarrassed, she just did not want to talk about it.”

“Dammit.” Ivan grabbed his own horns as if he wanted to rip them off his own head. “Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!”

“Right…” Amethyst gave Ivan a concerned look before closing the door. “Have a nice day, Mr. Ivan.”

***

Aura huffed and puffed as she reverted to her humanoid form. Dead plant parts were scattered everywhere as she had gone crazy on the damn thing that was growing out of Dimi. But the plant vines kept growing and the vines she had cut down or chewed off were quickly replaced with new one before a minute had passed. Aura licked the wounds on her arm as Ivan returned. He did not look happy as he grabbed his ax.

“How did it go?” Aura dried her forehead for sweat. “What is it that can… fix this?“

“It doesn’t matter.” Ivan cracked his neck. “I just have to cut down the whole thing to save Dimi.”

Ivan charged toward the thicket from hell before Aura could object. He chopped and slashed like a mad man as he got whipped and got scratches all over his forearms. Aura returned to her monster-form so she could bite Ivan’s collar and drag Ivan away like a mother-cat would drag away a kitten.

“Ivan, stop.” Aura dropped Ivan on the ground after getting far enough away from the house that was more like bricks and wood that somewhat still resembled the shape of a house. “You are gonna get yourself killed.” As Ivan was about to stand up, Aura placed one of her massive paws on his chest and pinned him to the ground.

“My little- I mean, Dimi is still inside. I have to save her!”

“Ivan, I mean it. Stop.” The face of the giant lion monster looked at the minotaur with pity and sympathy. “We wait for Nora, she MIGHT have a solution. I’m sorry, I know you care for that girl as if she were your own, but you can’t do anything besides maybe getting yourself killed.”

Ivan sighed as he stopped trying to get himself free. But then, his eyes widened as he realized something. “Wait… You are right. I really do, don’t I?!” Aura looked confused as Ivan began to laugh in relief. “Aura, you wonderful woman, I LOVE YOU BEYOND BELIEF!”

Aura lifted an eyebrow. “Ah… I love you as well, but what are you talking about?”

“I have a plan!” Ivan looked determined as he stood up from the dirt. “I need you to fly me across the roof. Trust me.”

Aura bent her forelegs so that Ivan could get up on her back while armed with his ax. As they flew above the roof, the plant-tentacles tried to reach for them like a hungry animal.

“Here. This is perfect.” Ivan looked at the roof as if he was aiming for something. “I’m getting off here. Wish me luck!” And then he jumped off of Aura’s back and landed on the roof. Then, he began making a hole in said roof.

“IVAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Aura roared as she landed on the roof as well. Plants began to reach for them and Aura did her best defending her beloved that had apparently lost it as he kept chopping the roof.

“YES! That’s it!” Ivan succeeded in making his hole to Dimi’s bedroom. He jumped down the hole and saw that Dimi still lied on the bed. Her body was covered by greenery the same way a child was covered by sand when they buried themselves with it on the beach. Only Dimi’s face was still free. A big branch was connected to Dimi that had crushed a hole in the wall that it then moved through. Ivan’s guess was that it was the root where everything else grew from.

But that did not matter. What mattered was whether or not his theory was right. “Please let this work.” Ivan whispered to himself as he took a step closer to the unconscious Dimi. “Please, please, please let this work.”

Then he screamed in pain as smaller vines appeared from Dimi’s “quilt” whipped him and then tied themselves around him. Ivan pulled his arms free as he took another step closer and now stood at the bedside.

Ivan took in a deep breath and then breather out as he slowly placed his lips on Dimi’s forehead.

***

Aura desperately clawed her way out of the vines that had covered her as if they were a cocoon. She growled as she saw a massive branch about to hit her.

And then, it just stopped moving.

Aura studied the thing that had been just about to try and kill her. Cautiously, she stepped closer, sniffing the damn thing. It was completely still.

“AURA!” Ivan yelled from his hole. “Aura, please come help me! It’s all over now!”

The lion-creature smashed the roof above Dimi’s bedroom so a hole big enough for her would appear. The floor creaked as she landed on it. Ivan held Dimi in his massive and bloody arms. The human girl looked as if she was half asleep and sea-sick.

“I feel awful…” Dimi coughed. “And I’m hungry.”

“It’s okay, girl.” Ivan smiled as if he repressed a laugh of joy. “I’m here, I’m taking care of you.” Ivan looked at Aura who looked relieved as she turned to her usual form. “Could you help me get her down to the kitchen?”

***

Dimi devoured the whole bread as if her life depended on it and then attacked the mushroom salad. Meanwhile, Aura and Ivan studied the house that had been ravaged. The ton of plants lied lifeless around. Ivan had removed enough of the green to open his front door. Outside, Nora stood and explained to a couple of the townspeople what she wanted them to think had happened.

“What a disaster!” Sunmut the old satyr looked at the blacksmith’s home with his old weak eyes. “What sort of wizard does such a thing?”

“The cheap kind that refuses to pay his bills.” Nora shrugged. “It makes me sad to speak about my species like that, but humans can be rather relentless as well as petty.”

The gathering of creatures all agreed that humans could be quite petty, especially now after the orc’s takeover.

“I’m so sorry.” Dimi had finished eating and had been told what had happened.

“Not your fault, girl.” Ivan patted Dimi on the head. “All that matters is that you get better, you need to rest as much as possible.”

“Yeah, I have to get ready for next week’s fight.”

“NO. Absolutely not. I won’t let you work for a week, AND I won’t let you fight before at least two have passed.”

“What?! But-”

“No buts. You are benched till I say something else. You could have gotten killed, I won’t let you do anything too energy require for a while and boxing as it is is not harmless even WHEN you are in shape.”

Dimi pouted. “Whatever mom.”

***

They all went to Aura’s farm.

Dimi had been sent to bed after she had to her great annoyance been kissed goodnight by Ivan who took no chances. She slept in Aura’s guest room. In the kitchen, Ivan had just finished explaining everything to Aura.

“And you honestly think it is a good idea to let Dimi get into a fist-fight with an orc?” Aura asked.

“Honestly? I don’t know at this point. She surprises me, she is extremely stubborn and she is actually a talented fighter. And besides, once she reaches the age of eighteen, I can’t tell her what to do. I might as well prepare her as best as I can.”

“That’s not the same as saying that you should encourage her.”

“It gives her hope. I don’t know how I would feel if it was MY dad who was in the slammer.” Ivan sighed. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. But I have been sworn to secrecy.”

“I get it, I get it. Still…” Aura frowned. “You should know that you could have trusted me.”

Ivan nodded, looking ashamed. Then, he yawned. “I better get some sleep. I just lost my home, I have to figure out what to do tomorrow. The forge is still somehow intact, so I can still work… Can we live here? Just… for a few days?”

Aura did not answer right away. Then, she smiled. “You know… the two of you could just… live here. Period.”

Ivan blinked. “Oh?”

“Yes, but I have a condition.” Aura smiled as she stood up from the table. “You have to do it right. You have to get down on your knees and… Well, you can probably guess the rest.”

It took a moment before Ivan realized that Aura was serious. Ivan smiled from one ear to the other as he got down on his knees and grabbed Aura’s left hand and held it as he asked her the question.

#Royal Punch #RP #Ivan the Minotaur #Princess Dimi #Dimi #Dimicatio #Aurauaakarusaank #Aura the Sphinx #Aura #sphinx #minotaur #Nora the Elf #Nora #OC #waeziverse

1 note · View note

myspideysensesrtingling · 5 years

Text

In My Way (6)

IN MY WAY: TRAINING DAY

Pairing: (eventual) Peter Parker x Reader

Words: 7079

Warnings: none! well maybe one swear word but literally nothing

Notes: I'm excited for you all to read this!!! Enjoy and please let me know what you think! Any feedback is appreciated :)

Summary: It’s day one of training. Can you handle it?

previous chapter (5) | series masterlist | next chapter (7)

masterlist | taglist

The sun creeping had been your cue to wake up as long as you could remember. It signaled the day starting and the world warming up for you to tackle whatever came your way. Today, however, you didn’t need the sun to wake you up. You were wide awake long before it was. Today was your first training day. You were starting at 7 am in the gym with Steve yet here you were - dressed, wide awake, and completely ready to go - at 6:15 am.

Your shoes squeaked slightly in the hallway as you wandered to the gym. You thought you knew where it was, but Tony’s tour was also quite fast and the compound was quite large and it had been quite the week so far. Though you budgeted time for all the possible things that could go wrong, you were essentially only going downstairs and found the gym with ease. It was only 6:40. Oops.

From the hallway, anyone walking by could see inside the gym through the windows that ran its entire length. Reaching these windows, you peeked in and saw Steve sitting up from the bench press. There were too many plates on the bar to count (did Steve even need to lift weights to stay ripped?) but of course he was barely sweating. As you ducked in the door, incompetence swept over you. You weren’t sure you had ever felt so weak. It was easy to feel overwhelmed on day one in a gym built for superheroes.

“Y/N! Good morning, soldier! You ready to get going?” Did he ever take breaks?

“Yes, sir.”

“Ok,” he replied, “but first thing’s first. You’re on the team. We’re teammates. You don’t have to call me sir. I’m helping you because you’re new, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less valuable than me. So, call me Steve or whatever else you’re comfortable with. But not sir. Got it?” He spoke sternly yet his eyes glistened with encouragement. The tops of your shoulders dropped as the tension you didn’t know you were holding began to melt away. Here was Captain America himself telling you that you are just as valuable to the Avengers as he is. Bullshit, you heard the voice in your head say. Maybe it was right, though. How on earth could I be as vital to the team as a super-soldier?

“Yes, sir,” you sputtered, “I mean - um - Mr. Rogers?”

“Try again.”

“Steve?”

“Better. But it’s not a question. We’ll work on it,” he winked. “Let’s get going!” You followed him to the matted front corner where he led you through a series of stretches. You felt stiff from sitting in a chair all week at school but weren’t sure just how stiff until everything seemed to be pulling with each and every stretch. He even found a way to stretch muscles you didn’t even know you had. “Alright, now we’ll go for a jog to get the heartrate up and then come back for weights. That’ll be our routine each day: stretch, cardio, weights, cool down. Sound good?”

“Yes sir--Steve,” heat crept up to your face as you pressed your lips together and chastised yourself. “Dang it!”

Steve only chuckled. “You’ll get it, kid!” He patted your shoulder and nodded his head toward a door in the back. “Come on.”

You followed him yet again, first to the wall of windows facing outside and then to the door in the corner. The fresh air outside felt brisk but soothing as you breathed it in. The moon hid in plain sight up above while the sun approached slowly from the east. Your eyes swept across the sky’s gradient of colors - dark blue overhead softening to light blue and even to an orange glow at the horizon - until you found the tree line and Steve’s back already way ahead of you.

You raced to catch up, but jogging with a man - no, super soldier - that tall pushed your limits. By the time you did catch up, you weren’t sure you had much left in your tank.

“I was worried you changed your mind!” he joked, breath as normal as if he...well, as if he weren’t running.

“Nope,” you panted, “it’ll take a lot more than a jog to get me out of here!” Finding your footing more easily with your muscles warmed up, you let habit take over and fell into your running routine from home. The pace was quicker given you had a high-level partner, sure, but the sensation of feeling like you owned the world came back as you entered trails in the trees behind the compound. You fell in behind Steve as the trail narrowed and immediately found distraction from your fatigue in the way the light shined down through the forest canopy. It was as if the forest glowed with minimal sunlight trickling in.

The further you adventured into the forest, the further behind Steve you sensed you were falling. You could feel your legs straining - this was longer than your jogs at home - and your ability to use the scenery to distract you from the strain in your breath was fading. Not having much experience in pushing yourself this hardon your own runs, doubt wormed its way in to your thoughts. You’re not strong enough to be an Avenger. You can’t even keep up on day one! Tony and Pepper wasted so much time and energy looking for a kid only to end up with you. They’re probably so disappointed--

“Almost there, kid, you got it! Hard as you can - we’re in the home stretch!”

Though you were embarrassed by how the ease with which he spoke compared to your inability to respond at all, you pushed. The building of the compound became visible again as the dense forest began to open up. The buildings approached slowly - you could feel yourself dragging - but you were approaching and that was all that mattered. You were almost there.

Steve was less than 100 meters ahead of you now, trotting effortlessly and still without a bead of sweat on his shirt. He slowed and faced you just outside the building, immediately beckoning for you run all the way to him. “Sprint the last bit! You can do it!”

Summoning every last bit of energy you didn’t know you had, you pushed as hard as possible, feeling the air rushing past your face with every step propelling you forward. You had a new distraction: the closing distance. 90, 80, 70 meters. Faster. 60, 50, 40 meters. Almost there. 30, 20, 10 meters. You were going to make it.

You closed the gap and ran all the way up to the compound wall, gently crashing into it to stop your momentum. The building’s cool metal shocked you as it completely contrasted your warm skin. Despite feeling overtaken with aching muscles, one thought crossed your mind: you did it. Once again the stress coursing through you lessened, allowing your eyes to soften shut as you tried to regain your breath. You did it.

“Way to go!” Steve said with his hand up, suggesting a high-five to which you happily obliged once you pried yourself from the comfort of the cool wall. He held the door back into the weight room open as you wobbled inside. “I pushed you a little harder than I planned because you seemed up to the challenge, and you did great. You did a good job, kid. Now - are you ready for weights?” Oh, yeah. Weights.

“You bet,” you huffed as he grinned and raised his eyebrows. “I could do this all day.” He grabbed his chest and burst out laughing, beaming at you while you hunched over, smiling but working hard to get your breath back.

Back in the gym, he walked you through the different things you’d be trying. Thankfully, today was primarily form so you didn’t hurt yourself with the weights. He taught you to squat, bench press, and use all sorts of gym equipment you never saw before. There were ropes and bars shaped like hexagons and medicine balls that (obviously) had no medicine in them. It was almost like learning to play with a bunch of difficult toys. Steve’s twinkling eyes as he would pull out new gear for each exercise showed he felt the same way about them.

“One more--nice!” You stood up from your last squat and Steve helped you replace the weight on the rack as your legs teetered underneath you. He handed you a bottle of water as you turned around to follow him back to the stretching area. Your head, your eyes, your shoulders, your arms, your knees - every part of you drooped. You were wiped out; your heart was beating fast but weakly from the tough morning.

“Morning, bud! You just warming up?” Steve questioned, sending a chill down your spine as you realized you might not be done after all. Your eyes shoot up, preparing to glare at him with another goofy quip - you were really enjoying those, you noticed - when your gaze fell on someone else. Peter stood in the stretching corner in a plain black t-shirt and shorts with a black hat on backwards to organize his curls. The glare vanished along with any confidence you had a moment ago.

“Yes, Mr. Rogers, I’m finishing up right now.” His attempt to focus on Steve as he spoke was mostly in vain.

“No rush, kid, I have to finish cooling down with Y/N. But hey - like I told her this morning,” he gestured toward you, “don’t call me Mr. Rogers. It’s Steve--”

“Or a nickname of my choice,” you piped up with a smile as the brightness started coming back to your eyes.

“Yes. Or a nickname of your choice,” he chuckled along with Peter before pointing between the two of you. “You two did meet, right?”

Peter made eye contact with you with eyes almost as wide as yours had characteristically been with all the shocks that week. “Met” is an understatement, Peter thought as the night before and his subsequent conversation with Ned flashed through his mind.

“Ned?” Peter asked as soon as his friend picked up. “I’m in trouble.”

“What do you mean? Spider-man trouble?” Panic laced his voice as he sprinted to his house phone to call the police. “Where are you dude?”

“Ned, no, everything is fine…it’s—” the line fell silent as Ned sat on the other end of the line with bated breath. If something was going down, he was ready to jump into guy-in-the-chair mode.

“Ned, I…I don’t…I don’t know, but…ugh, I don’t know.” He sat completely slouched against his door, head heavy in one hand while the other pressed the phone into his ear, knuckles white from his nervous grip.

“Peter, what the hell is going on?”

“You know how you made Y/N and I be partners on the project?”

“OMIGOSH! YOU FELL IN LOVE! THIS IS THE GREATEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME! I--”

“No, Ned, I—wait, this is the greatest thing? Not me being Spider-Man?”

“HA! You just admitted it! Peter and Y/N sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G—”

“Ned! Shut UP! It’s not true. I just…I don’t know what to do. Ok?”

“Pete, the answer is simple. You’re Spider-Man. And she knowsit. Ask the girl out!”

“Don’t use the Spider-Man thing on me. I get to wear a mask for that.”

“Could you ask her out wearing the mask?”

“No, Ned, I’m not going to ask her out while wearing the mask. Let’s explore other options. First, I need to figure out what’s going on.”

“Ok. Start by telling me everything.”

“Everything? Ok, well we met at Stark tower—”

“No, dummy,” Ned interrupted. “You told me all that last week. Start from when you left school.”

“Oh, right. Well, we were walking to my house—"

In any case, Peter felt bad about putting you through the ringer all week after misreading your intentions. You smiled warmly at him, however, as you both nodded silently and a little too aggressively in response to Steve’s question. You both simultaneously looked back at Steve expectantly, hoping he would tell you what to do. Remind me to ask Tony why kids these days are so strange, Steve thought.

Steve showed you a series of stretches to go through while Peter kept warming up in the corner. Eventually, with your breath back, you thanked Steve and nodded to Peter just as JARVIS’ voice boomed down from the speakers.

“Miss Anderson? Mr. Parker?”

“Yes, JARVIS?” you replied, having become relatively familiar with the AI during your first week. You felt weird about him using your last name since it was basically assigned to you and asked him to use your first name.

“Whenever the two of you finish your respective sessions of ‘Getting Swole with Steve,’ Mr. Stark would like to see you in his laboratory.”

A loud snort escaped your nose and you didn’t even try to hold it back. “JARVIS, did Tony make you say that?!”

Moments passed before JARVIS finally answered, the quieter volume expressing nothing but embarrassment. “...yes…” was all he uttered as you laughed and waved to the boys.

“Thank you, Steve, and I’ll see you later, Pete.”

“R-right. See ya,” Peter sputtered. Did she just call me Pete? He wondered. He stood quietly as you turned away until Steve elbowed him in the ribs, noting the boy’s distraction.

“You ready to get swole with Steve, or are you just going to stand there?” Steve’s snicker and steps leaving behind him lead Peter to follow him to the racks and attempt to immerse himself in the workout.

You pressed your thumb up against the scanner outside Tony’s lab and walked through the door when it clicked and slid open. Tony was initially nowhere to be seen, but you followed the sounds of metal clinking against metal. It wasn’t hard to find him tinkering on a bench and manipulating hologram after hologram in front of him.

You waited a little way from him, afraid to interrupt his train of thought. “What took you so long? You get swole?” he asked, focus on the task in front of him unwavering.

“I--uh--” you sputtered. He lifted his eyes and brows up to you, briefly enjoying your unnecessary panic. At a certain point, he couldn’t keep the grin off his face and chuckled while walking around the table separating you.

“Seriously, it went ok?”

“Yes! I couldn’t breathe. But I suppose that’s the point. You know, cellular respiration and stuff.”

“Yes, I know,” he smiled and chuckled again, “Cellular respiration and stuff.”

“Well, you wanted me?”

“Yes! We’re going to tinker with some suits. You are going to get some hands-on experience, kiddo!” Despite seeing your wide eyes multiple times with everything that happened that week, he still couldn’t figure out exactly what they meant. “What? Are you excited? Terrified? Shocked? Don’t kids say shaken or something nowadays?”

“Shook?”

“Sure. Shook. Are you that?”

You continued staring without breaking eye contact. “Let me ask you this. Say you’ve never left one city in your entire life and suddenly the world-famous Tony Stark comes and adopts you. Within a week a week he asks you to work on his own suits. How would you feel?” You had definitely gotten snarkier with him over the course of that week, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Well,” he thought out loud, “that would be revolutionary. If I, Tony Stark, was adopted by Tony Stark, I think I’d be both confused by the circumstances and excited about the prospect of cloning. That’s an odd way to feel, but good for you.” You rolled your eyes aggressively and followed him as he turned to walk off.

“I saw that.”

When you reached the right wall of the lab from the door main door, Tony used his finger to get into a side-room. But it wasn’t just a side room; that was evident as soon as his identity was confirmed and the door slid open. Lights flashed on immediately, illuminating countless iron suits in cubbies lining the perimeter of the room. He stopped as your gaze scanned the room and you walked right past him. You wandered around, admiring the suits; some were damaged slightly while others appeared to have never left the lab. A couple in particular all in a row caught your eye. They weren’t built quite like the others. The leftmost one was taller and longer while covered mostly with blues and silvers.

“That one’s Pepper’s,” he said, walking up behind you. The two of you admired it, barely marked. “The scrapes are from the one time she wanted to practice with it in case of emergency. The emergency ended up being her trying to fly.” He laughed again, but your eyes were already moving to another different suit to the right. This suit was similar in design but painted with a deep eggplant purple, silvers, and even white accents that lined the panels of the suit. It caught your eye when you first walked in.

“That one’s yours,” Tony said, scooting over from Pepper’s suit while you looked at him with crinkled eyebrows.

“Isn’t that a little...premature?” you asked.

“You don’t want it? That’s ok, I’m sure I can find someone who does.” He shrugged and turned to go.

“What? No, how could I not want it?” He turned back around with a wink. “Oh. Messing with me. Well...I do want it, ok? Just seems like I have no skills yet.”

“I know.” To your dismay, he shrugged, agreeing with you. He snorted quietly and walked off to another group of suits. You rolled your eyes again before trotting off to catch up. Whatever increasing snarkiness you were developing, he surely dished it back out.

He asked JARVIS to move the suit in front of him to the lab to work on it. As it moved out of its display and into the light, you recognized instantly whose suit it was. Whose suit you’d be working on.

The emblem on the front. The webbed grid design. The wrist attachments. The suit belonged to Spider-Man. To Peter. To Peter Parker.

Back at the bench, JARVIS pulled up the suit specifications, Tony’s notes, and video of Spider-man - err, Peter - fighting crime in his current, homemade sweatshirt-suit thing. Today, he just wanted to show you a draft of the AI’s code, brainstorm a little, and test out some features.

You sat in a spinning bench chair and scanned through the documents one-by-one while Tony got to work. Once oriented, he slid the keyboard to you and walked you through the basic programming.

“What is this--” you paused, pointing at one of the programs on the screen, “Training Wheels Protocol?”

Tony snorted as you turned around to look up at him standing over your shoulder with his face buried in one hand while the other sat on his hip. “You weren’t supposed to see that. You see, Peter thinks he can save the world. But he’s 15 and wears a sweatshirt and swim goggles. So, I have to reel him in a little. We’ll just focus on the other parts of the operating system.” He paused briefly. “But that’s between you and me, got it?” He asked, amusement replaced by concern.

“Sure, got it.”

You scrolled through subsequent pages involving different types of webs for the web-shooters as well as the different functions of the visual in the mask. There were some blanks, however, and Tony explained that this is where he wanted your help. Your job was to come up with more web types the suit could have. The mask would have the same general functioning as his Iron Man helmet, so that part of the suit was mostly finished. But the webs? Iron Man’s suit didn’t have those.

You watched video after video of Spider-Man fighting crime all over Queens to try and come up with some new type of web. Peter’s homemade webs had insanely high tensile strength, supporting incredibly heavy weights while remaining very durable and elastic. Tony had a few ideas for modifications but thought this was a great opportunity to get you some experience. The video you were watching now showed Spider-Man wrapping up a criminal like a mummy. He spent minutes making sure the criminal was completely contained and unable to escape. You knew there had to be a quicker way to trap the bad guys. What if there were a bunch of them? He had to be able to web them up more quickly. What about a wider net? One that could cover more targets?

“What does that face mean?”

“Huh?” You stuttered, turning away from the video feed. You caught sight of the clock - you had been watching these videos over an hour now.

Tony’s eyebrows furrowed and a sly grin spread across his face. “You were sticking your tongue out a little and squinting really aggressively. Like an old person solving a puzzle while struggling on the toilet!”

“Am I interrupting something?”

Peter stood by the door and he stared at you and Tony with a blank yet confused expression. He had just showered after his workout; his slick hair reflected the light and shined under the lab lights. He wore jeans with a gray t-shirt and blue and gray flannel on top, covered on his shoulders by the straps of his backpack.

“No, of course not. I was just telling Y/N about her old person pooping face,” Tony explained, instantaneously bringing an intense heat to your face. Peter raised his eyebrows and looked to you as you cowered with your head in your hands on the bench in front of you to muffle a laugh you couldn’t hold back. Peter smiled as you sat up with an eye-roll at Tony, whose own expression was smug as ever.

“Poop faces aside,” Tony started, poking your shoulder while shifting his attention to Peter, “we’re working on a little something I’ve been putting together for you. JARVIS?” The suit rolled back out from around the corner. Peter’s jaw dropped, the spider logo on the front immediately drawing him in. The sleek red and blue fabric had dark lines running in a grid across the front and to a point on the mask, which had mesh eyes outlined by a thick black border. His backpack hit the floor and you watched as he walked up to it, inspecting everything from those mesh eyes to the characteristic web shooters on the wrists. You couldn’t help but smile as he walked around the suit in awe, admiring every detail, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Is this--for me?” he finally faltered, still unable to take his gaze off the suit.

“Technically it’s for Spider-Man, but sure,” Tony answered. “I’ve installed basic software and AI on it, but Y/N and I have been brainstorming ideas for more features.” At the sound of your name Peter’s eyes widened and shot up to you, the screen in front of you paused but still showing Spider-Man wrapping up the mummy criminal.

“Um, yeah,” you stammered. “I have a few ideas for new web types, actually.” You grabbed the notepad off the bench and turned back to face them. You glanced at Tony, who nodded. “I noticed it takes a while to wrap webs all the way around bad guys sometimes, so I thought it would be good to have a different web to more efficiently restrict the criminal in case there’s more than one or...something.”

“So,” you hesitated, suddenly afraid your ideas weren’t good enough. Better to have bad ideas than to have no ideas, you told yourself to push those fears aside. “I have a couple ideas to improve this. First, a web shaped like a net. It could wrap around the bad guy and link to itself on the other side to completely encase the criminal or whatever you’re trying to web up. Sec--”

“Let’s do it,” Tony interjected.

“You don’t...you don’t want to hear my other ideas first?” you asked, disappointment threatening to crack your voice.

“Oh, I want to hear them all. But I can see that being applicable in the field so I think we should go for it. Peter? Thoughts?”

“I…I really like it,” the boy nodded excitedly. “Y-you said you had other ideas, too?”

Your heart swelled. It wasn’t even your best idea. You looked from Peter’s gaze back to your list, stretching up taller in your chair, inflated by new-found confidence. “I also thought of a web that would ricochet? You know, so you could shoot it around a corner. And then a tracker web that would be really small and barely visible but would contain a small GPS tracker the suit could follow. And a split web that could fire out to multiple targets across your field of vision? That might be a little more difficult because you’d need software to detect targets, but based on self-driving car technology that can detect the presence of pedestrians-”

“Woah, woah, woah, kiddo. You’ve only been working for an hour. I don’t expect you to have all the details sorted out,” Tony reassured.

“You came up with all this...in onehour?” Peter questioned, nearly speechless.

“Yep,” you nodded slowly, “If you don’t like them, I can spend some more time reviewing videos or-”

“They’re so cool...I love them,” he muttered, voice floating through the air.

“Ok! Well,” Tony asserted, slicing through the momentary silence as he stepped between you and Peter. He pulled the suit off the mannequin and held it out for Peter. “Before too many sparks fly and everything flammable in here combusts, why don’t you step out and try this on so we can test out the basic features already installed?”

“Uhh, yeah, ok,” Peter said as he snatched up the suit and darted off to change, excitement and embarrassment working together to get him out of there as quickly as possible.

“Sooooo…?” Tony prompted once the door to the bathroom closed behind Peter. “Do I need to give you the talk?”

“Give me the talk?” you asked, puzzled by the phrase. “We’ve been talking, I don’t understand-”

“I forgot you lack some culturing. You know,the talk. The birds and the bees.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “The sex talk.”

All the blood drained from your face and your heart stopped beating. You visibly shook it off, heat now returning to your cheeks in excess. “No. You don’t need to give me that talk and I don’t know what would lead you to believe I need it,” you squeaked, eyes looking anywhere but his.

“Are you kidding? You couldn’t feel the electricity?” he mocked with jazz hands, smirking at your obvious discomfort.

“Electric webs!” you burst out, thankful for this lightbulb idea as a means to change the subject. “We could make webs with an electric current!”

“Sure, that’s actually pretty cool,” Tony answered. “But we’re going to talk about-”

“This...is so...awesome!” Peter said as he walked out of the bathroom. He stared down at his hands, flipping them over as he strode toward the workbench where Tony stood over your shoulder. The eyes of the suit were changing with what had to be his expression, you determined, as he tested out all the AI software within the mask. He bumped into the mannequin the suit came off of before looking away from the suit itself for the first time. The eyes stretched even wider as the AI analyzed his surroundings and data filled his visual field.

“Shall we?” Tony said, gesturing over to an open space he kept for testing suits. It looked like the floor gymnastics performed on - in terms of size, at least - but had Dum-E and U positioned nearby with fire extinguishers and video equipment. You made your way over with Tony and Peter, who still couldn’t believe what he was wearing. “Ok Pete. Let’s have you just test out the web shooters first. I kept your formula the same for the basic web so it should work the exact same as your dumpster-diver tech.”

Peter was still too much in awe to be offended. He shot the web at the wall, where it quickly splattered out as usual. “Y/N, you wanna grab one of those dodgeballs?” Tony prompted. There was a bin of dodgeballs off to the far side, so you trotted over and tossed one in front of Peter on Tony’s cue. He aimed perfectly; the web struck the ball and pinned it to the wall just left of the first shot. You tried this repeatedly, Peter doing flip after flip or swinging from the ceiling to web another ball to the wall. Tony started designing trick shots, where you’d bounce the ball off of something or Peter had to try and do it with only one hand.

You reached into the bin and noticed there were only two dodgeballs left. “Last one!” you exclaimed while your mind tried to craft the best trick shot for last. “Ok, Pete, you’re going to start hanging upside down from the ceiling. I’m going to slam the ball down on the floor as hard as possible, at which point you’re going to open your eyes and do whatever you can to web the ball to the wall while shooting your web through Dum-E’s hula hoop.” You weren’t sure why Tony had a hula hoop, but it was definitely helping you make trick shots for Peter. What he wouldn’t know is that you were planning to bounce both the remaining dodgeballs and see if he could react quickly enough to get both webbed up. “Got it?”

“Ok, yeah, yeah, I got it!” Peter shot his web up to the ceiling and got himself situated upside down, hanging by his feet. As soon as he said his eyes were closed, you showed Tony the two balls left and rolled one to him with a wink. Being the trickster he was, it wasn’t hard for him to figure out your intentions. You mouthed the countdown so you could both bounce your dodgeballs as simultaneously as possible: “three...two...one…”

You and Tony threw your dodgeballs down at the ground as hard as you could, the bounce sending them shooting into the air. The sound of rubber bouncing on the concrete floor - just like it did on school playgrounds - echoed throughout the lab as Peter’s eyes shot open and he literally jumped to action. He spotted the ball closer to you first, swinging down to his right while locating Dum-E’s hoop. In his periphery he saw the surprise second ball nearing its peak but didn’t lose a second turning around and firing a web toward the first ball through the hoop. You jumped as it hit the wall, but he didn’t have time to stop and celebrate. He aerialed toward Tony and the second ball, leaping up on the close to get just the right angle to aim through the hoop. He landed in a squat supported by his right hand while his left struck out and fired the web at the last second. It shot through the air, impacting the ball through the hoop and sticking it to the corner between the wall and the ceiling. He leapt up, tugging off the mask, throwing his hands in the air, jumping up and down, and flooding with excitement. Tony mirrored his enthusiasm, springing out of his chair and stepping forward to celebrate with bro-hug and high-five.

You bounded over to them, arms wide open and yelling all the same. Peter broke off from Tony, turning to face you with mirrored wide arms and elation. “That was amazing!!” you exclaimed as you collided with Peter, practically jumping into his outstretched arms. Your feet left the ground for half a second and you spun - both literally as Peter turned and in your head. You leaned back, feet returning to the floor, and placed your each of your hands on his shoulders as he let you slip from his grip ever so slightly.

“How on Earth did you do that? How did you see the second ball? I thought there was no way-”

“Spidey senses,” he joked, pulling his hands from you and wiggling his fingers in the air with a smirk.

“You two make a good team,” Tony piped up, causing you to instantly step back from Peter and link your hands behind your back. Peter once again mirrored you, struggling to look at Tony’s knowing grin. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m going to start engineering Y/N’s ideas for the new web formulas, but that’s all the science I had planned for you two today. Nat is expecting you pretty soon in the combat training room. Parker, if you’d put the suit back on the model so I can work on it that’d be swell. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, you crazy kids.” With another wink, he turned and walked into a side room that functioned as his office, the door shutting softly behind him.

Peter turned to you, huffing from all his leaps in the suit now that the adrenaline was wearing off. “More?” he asked, his eyebrows elevated. You shrugged, mirroring his disdain. He inhaled deeply and cocked his head to the side as he sighed. “Well, I guess we better get going. Wanna wait up while I change?”

“Sure!” you answered, still standing where he set you down. As soon as the bathroom door closed behind him, a firm finger poked your shoulder. Dum-E’s mechanical arm hovered beside you. “Dum-E thinks Mr. Parker has a crush on you,” JARVIS announced.

You shushed JARVIS and pushed Dum-E away hastily as the bathroom door swung back open to reveal Peter dressed once again in training clothes. “Ready?” you asked.

He nodded and the two of you set off down the hallway and around the corner quietly just as when you walked together to Peter’s after school the day before. Only your footsteps echoed through the halls, but the silence lacked discomfort. That didn’t mean you didn’t want to be talking.

“So…have you worked with Nat before?” you prompted.

He turned to you as if surprised you were talking to him before quickly rebuilding his composure. “Uh, yeah, a few times. But most of my fighting skills come from the spidey senses and knowing how to use the webs.” You watched him as he spoke, nodding along and listening intently. “Have you fought before?”

You snorted and burst out laughing. Here you were, an Avenger, and you can’t take seriously the thought of yourself in a fight. “No,” you finally spit out, “literally never. Not even an argument. I’m a wimp.”

“Aw, come on. What about standing up to Flash the other day and—”

“That was the most daringthing I’ve EVER done!” you shouted, still laughing as you reached the wall of windows looking into the combat room. It looked exactly like the weight room, but instead of racks, there were large mats for fighting on, punching bags, and a boxing ring in the corner.

Peter chuckled and reached out to open the door for you. He grinned as you thanked him and walked in. “Are you sure you aren’t hiding super-secret insane combat skills? Are you hustling the Avengers?”

“Trust, me, no,” you laughed over your shoulder. “I am as far from super-secret insane combat skills as you could ever get.” Peter shrugged and started to say something as Nat walked over but he didn’t get the words out. All he could do was shake his head with a mocking smile as you glanced over one last time before your session with Nat got going.

“Hope you guys have a little energy left. Nothing too much today since you haven’t fought before, Y/N,” Nat explained.

You turned to Peter with an “I told you so” look at which he only – once again – shrugged.

“The plan for today is to have Peter with punch mitts working on blocks while I teach Y/N how to punch.”

Peter strapped on the mitts while Nat wrapped your hands. She spent a few minutes working on your form – thumb outside your fist, being tight and compact, etc. – before demonstrating. She positioned Peter a few feet away from her and wound up, forcefully swinging her right fist into Peter’s right mitt. He absorbed the blow, but as soon as Nat turned back to you, he mouthed “ow!” to you and shook his hand out. It took every ounce of your willpower to stop the laughter bubbling up inside.

After a few punches on the punching bag, Nat had you positioned across from Peter to start throwing punches. “To get started, I’ll tell you where to hit. For this first one, go right-left-right.” You turned to Peter and met his gaze before quickly looking down at your targets. With a deep breath, you swung right, then left, then right, each of which Peter blocked squarely on the mitt. You straightened up and Nat gave you a few more pointers while repositioning your elbow.

“Again. This time, Left-left-right.” You weren’t exactly sure how to do two punches back-to-back from the same hand but found that a quick step back in between worked well. Once again, Peter swiftly blocked your jabs with ease. He knew where they were coming from, of course, but the fluidity of his response was striking.

“Good. Now I’m only going to tell Y/N and Peter has to dodge for himself.” Nat walked over to you and cupped her hand to whisper in your ear. “Left-right-right-left,” she breathed, stepping back. You looked back to Peter.

“You better block these, Parker, because if we have to explain to everyone at school that I gave you a black eye over the weekend—”

“Not going to happen,” he joked, gesturing as well as he could with the mitts on for you to square up. “Bring it.”

You stepped up, taking a deep breath before drawing your eyes from his face to the mitts. You swung out your left fist, then your right twice, all of which he blocked with elegant dexterity. You took the final swing with your left arm, which he didn’t expect given that the other trials had only three punches, and he barely blocked it with the edge of the mitt. You stepped back and rolled your head to each side as he grinned cockily back at you.

“Good. Again.” Nat walked up to whisper again the series of punches for you. “Whatever you want. Try to land one,” she encouraged with a thumbs up. Try to land a punch on Peter, you repeated in your head. Those were your instructions. You weren’t sure you wanted to.

Then you turned back to Peter, who continued to stare at you with the same cocky grin and stare from only moments ago. “Like I said, bring it on, Y/N,” he baited as you stepped into position.

This time, you skipped the deep breath, not hesitating for even a moment before going through the series Nat had already given you. Right-left-right, left-left-right; you made up a few new combinations to try and catch him off-guard. He blocked each and every punch easily, smack in the center of the mitt. Your arms started feeling heavier by the second and you knew you didn’t have much gas left in your tank. This worked in your favor, though, as your arm sagged while you punched and your fist dropped just below Peter’s mitt, striking his stomach.

He grabbed the spot of impact as he fell back a little, never actually falling but wobbling back for a brief second, a smile spread across his face.

“Peter, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt—why are you smiling?” you asked, confused why the boy you just punched seemed pleased while gripping his abdomen.

“Why am I smiling?” he chuckled and glanced at Nat, who looked at you questioningly with a similar smile on her face. “You got me! That was a great punch!” he exclaimed, pushing your shoulder.

“It was a good punch. Good job, Y/N. You learned a lot today, so I think we’ll call it there. Stretch for a minute while I go grab some ice for Peter.”

You walked through some of the stretches Steve taught you only hours earlier, already feeling the ache in your muscles. Nat returned only moments later and wrapped Peter up with the ice pack.

“Isn’t he going to need more than ice? I hit him kind of hard,” you confessed, hoping you didn’t do any damage.

“No, he’ll be fine,” Nat answered.

Not accepting that answer, you looked up to Peter’s eye line. “Spidey speed recovery,” he teased, wiggling his hands and fingers in the air again.” You rolled your eyes just as JARVIS’s voice came in over the loud speaker.

“Miss Romanoff, Director Fury is on the line and would like to speak to you in the conference room about a recon mission.”

“On my way. Kids, good job today. I’ll see you again later this week.” With that she stepped out the doors and jogged off down the hall.

“Um, I better head out, then,” Peter said, “May probably wants me home.”

“Oh, um, ok. I’ll...see you Monday?”

Peter walked toward the exit but stopped as he opened the door and looked back at you. “Yeah,” he smiled, peering deep into your eyes that stared up at him through your eyelashes just as they had the day before. “See you Monday.”

You waved and smiled as Peter stepped through the door and walked down the hall after Nat, waving again through the class windows. Once he was out of sight, JARVIS’s voice returned. “I agree with Dum-E,” he proclaimed, “Mr. Parker has a crush on you.”

“Piss off, robot,” you jeered, brushing him off as you walked toward the door to go upstairs, a tickled smile never vanishing from your lips.

taglist: @starksnack

previous chapter (5) | series masterlist | next chapter (7)

masterlist | taglist

14 notes · View notes

myspideysensesrtingling · 5 years

Text

In My Way (6)

IN MY WAY: TRAINING DAY

Pairing: (eventual) Peter Parker x Female!OC

Words: 7045

Warnings: none! maybe one swear word. I can’t remember

Notes: Thank you to @hollandbabesblog for her help!!! I've been working on this for a while so I hope you enjoy it :) Please send in any feedback - I really appreciate it!

Summary: It’s day one of training. Can Charlotte handle it?

previous chapter (5) | series masterlist | chapter 7 coming may 3

masterlist | taglist

The sun creeping had been Charlotte’s cue to wake up as long as she could remember. It signaled the day starting and the world warming up for her to tackle whatever came her way. Today, however, she didn’t need the sun to wake her up. She was wide awake long before it was. Today was Charlotte’s first training day. She was starting at 7 am in the gym with Steve yet here she was - dressed, wide awake, and completely ready to go - at 6:15 am.

Charlotte’s shoes squeaked slightly in the hallway as she wandered to the gym. She thought she knew where it was, but Tony’s tour was also quite fast and the compound was quite large and it had been quite the week so far. Though she budgeted time for all the possible things that could go wrong, she was essentially only going downstairs and found the gym with ease. It was only 6:40. Oops.

From the hallway, anyone walking by could see inside the gym through the windows that ran its entire length. Reaching these windows, she peeked in and saw Steve sitting up from the bench press. There were too many plates on the bar to count (did Steve even need to lift weights to stay ripped?) but of course he was barely sweating. As she ducked in the door, incompetence swept over her. She weren’t sure she had ever felt so weak. It was easy to feel overwhelmed on day one in a gym built for superheroes.

“Charlotte! Good morning, soldier! You ready to get going?” Did he ever take breaks?

“Yes, sir.”

“Ok,” he replied, “but first thing’s first. You’re on the team. We’re teammates. You don’t have to call me sir. I’m helping you because you’re new, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less valuable than me. So, call me Steve or whatever else you’re comfortable with. But not sir. Got it?” He spoke sternly yet his eyes glistened with encouragement. The tops of Charlotte’s shoulders dropped as the tension she didn’t know she was holding began to melt away. Here was Captain America himself telling her that she is just as valuable to the Avengers as he is. Bullshit, she heard the voice in her head say. Maybe it was right, though. How on earth could I be as vital to the team as a super-soldier?

“Yes, sir,” she sputtered, “I mean - um - Mr. Rogers?”

“Try again.”

“Steve?”

“Better. But it’s not a question. We’ll work on it,” he winked. “Let’s get going!” Charlotte followed him to the matted front corner where he led her through a series of stretches. She felt stiff from sitting in a chair all week at school but weren’t sure just how stiff until everything seemed to be pulling with each and every stretch. He even found a way to stretch muscles she didn’t even know she had. “Alright, now we’ll go for a jog to get the heartrate up and then come back for weights. That’ll be our routine each day: stretch, cardio, weights, cool down. Sound good?”

“Yes sir--Steve,” heat crept up to her face as she pressed your lips together and chastised yourself. “Dang it!”

Steve only chuckled. “You’ll get it, kid!” He patted her shoulder and nodded his head toward a door in the back. “Come on.”

Charlotte followed him yet again, first to the wall of windows facing outside and then to the door in the corner. The fresh air outside felt brisk but soothing as she breathed it in. The moon hid in plain sight up above while the sun approached slowly from the east. Her eyes swept across the sky’s gradient of colors - dark blue overhead softening to light blue and even to an orange glow at the horizon - until she found the tree line and Steve’s back already way ahead of her.

She raced to catch up, but jogging with a man - no, super soldier - that tall pushed her limits. By the time she did catch up, she wasn’t sure she had much left in her tank.

“I was worried you changed your mind!” he joked, breath as normal as if he...well, as if he weren’t running.

“Nope,” she panted, “it’ll take a lot more than a jog to get me out of here!” Finding her footing more easily with her muscles warmed up, she let habit take over and fell into her running routine from home. The pace was quicker given she had a high-level partner, sure, but the sensation of feeling like she owned the world came back as she entered trails in the trees behind the compound. Charlotte fell in behind Steve as the trail narrowed and immediately found distraction from her fatigue in the way the light shined down through the forest canopy. It was as if the forest glowed with minimal sunlight trickling in.

The further they adventured into the forest, the further behind Steve Charlotte sensed she was falling. She could feel her legs straining - this was longer than her jogs at home - and her ability to use the scenery to distract her from the strain in your breath was fading. Not having much experience in pushing herself this hardon her own runs, doubt wormed its way in to her thoughts. You’re not strong enough to be an Avenger. You can’t even keep up on day one! Tony and Pepper wasted so much time and energy looking for a kid only to end up with you. They’re probably so disappointed--

“Almost there, kid, you got it! Hard as you can - we’re in the home stretch!”

Though she was embarrassed by how the ease with which he spoke compared to her inability to respond at all, Charlotte pushed. The building of the compound became visible again as the dense forest began to open up. The buildings approached slowly - she could feel herself dragging - but they were approaching and that was all that mattered. You’re almost there, she repeated.

Steve was less than 100 meters ahead of her now, trotting effortlessly and still without a bead of sweat on his shirt. He slowed and faced her just outside the building, immediately beckoning for her run all the way to him. “Sprint the last bit! You can do it!”

Summoning every last bit of energy she didn’t know she had, Charlotte pushed as hard as possible, feeling the air rushing past her face with every step propelling her forward. She had a new distraction: the closing distance. 90, 80, 70 meters. Faster. 60, 50, 40 meters. Almost there. 30, 20, 10 meters. She was going to make it.

She closed the gap and ran all the way up to the compound wall, gently crashing into it to stop her momentum. The building’s cool metal shocked her as it completely contrasted her warm skin. Despite feeling overtaken with aching muscles, one thought crossed her mind: you did it. Once again the stress coursing through her lessened, allowing her eyes to soften shut as she tried to regain her breath. You did it.

“Way to go!” Steve said with his hand up, suggesting a high-five to which Charlotte happily obliged once she pried herself from the comfort of the cool wall. He held the door back into the weight room open as she wobbled inside. “I pushed you a little harder than I planned because you seemed up to the challenge, and you did great. You did a good job, kid. Now - are you ready for weights?” Oh, yeah. Weights.

“You bet,” she huffed as he grinned and raised his eyebrows. “I could do this all day.” He grabbed his chest and burst out laughing, beaming at her while she hunched over, smiling but working hard to get her breath back.

Back in the gym, Steve walked Charlotte through the different things she’d be trying. Thankfully, today was primarily form so she didn’t hurt yourself with the weights. He taught her to squat, bench press, and use all sorts of gym equipment you never saw before. There were ropes and bars shaped like hexagons and medicine balls that (obviously) had no medicine in them. It was almost like learning to play with a bunch of difficult toys. Steve’s twinkling eyes as he would pull out new gear for each exercise showed he felt the same way about them.

“One more--nice!” She stood up from her last squat and Steve helped her replace the weight on the rack as her legs teetered underneath her. He handed her a bottle of water as she turned around to follow him back to the stretching area. Her head, her eyes, her shoulders, her arms, her knees - every part of her drooped. Charlotte was wiped out; her heart was beating fast but weakly from the tough morning.

“Morning, bud! You just warming up?” Steve questioned, sending a chill down her spine as she realized she might not be done after all. Her eyes shoot up, preparing to glare at him with another goofy quip - she was really enjoying those, she noticed - when her gaze fell on someone else. Peter stood in the stretching corner in a plain black t-shirt and shorts with a black hat on backwards to organize his curls. The glare vanished along with any confidence she had a moment ago.

“Yes, Mr. Rogers, I’m finishing up right now.” His attempt to focus on Steve as he spoke was mostly in vain.

“No rush, kid, I have to finish cooling down with Charlotte. But hey - like I told her this morning,” he gestured toward her, “don’t call me Mr. Rogers. It’s Steve--”

“Or a nickname of my choice,” Charlotte piped up with a smile as the brightness started coming back to her eyes.

“Yes. Or a nickname of your choice,” he chuckled along with Peter before pointing between the two of them. “You two did meet, right?”

Peter made eye contact with her with eyes almost as wide as hers had characteristically been with all the shocks that week. “Met”is an understatement, Peter thought as the night before and his subsequent conversation with Ned flashed through his mind.

“Ned?” Peter asked as soon as his friend picked up. “I’m in trouble.”

“What do you mean? Spider-man trouble?” Panic laced his voice as he sprinted to his house phone to call the police. “Where are you dude?”

“Peter, what the hell is going on?”

“You know how you made Charlotte and I be partners on the project?”

“OMIGOSH! YOU FELL IN LOVE! THIS IS THE GREATEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME! I--”

“No, Ned, I—wait, this is the greatest thing? Not me being Spider-Man?”

“HA! You just admitted it! Peter and Charlotte sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G—”

“Ned! Shut UP! It’s not true. I just…I don’t know what to do. Ok?”

“Pete, the answer is simple. You’re Spider-Man. And she knowsit. Ask the girl out!”

“Don’t use the Spider-Man thing on me. I get to wear a mask for that.”

“Could you ask her out wearing the mask?”

“No, Ned, I’m not going to ask her out while wearing the mask. Let’s explore other options. First, I need to figure out what’s going on.”

“Ok. Start by telling me everything.”

“Everything? Ok, well we met at Stark tower—”

“No, dummy,” Ned interrupted. “You told me all that last week. Start from when you left school.”

“Oh, right. Well, we were walking to my house—"

In any case, Peter felt bad about putting her through the ringer all week after misreading her intentions. Charlotte smiled warmly at him, however, as they both nodded silently and a little too aggressively in response to Steve’s question. They then both simultaneously looked back at Steve expectantly, hoping he would tell them what to do. Remind me to ask Tony why kids these days are so strange, Steve thought.

Steve showed Charlotte a series of stretches to go through while Peter kept warming up in the corner. Eventually, with her breath back, she thanked Steve and nodded to Peter just as JARVIS’ voice boomed down from the speakers.

“Miss Charlotte? Mr. Parker?”

“Yes, JARVIS?” she replied, having become relatively familiar with the AI during her first week. She felt weird about him using her last name since it was basically assigned to her and asked him to use her first name.

“Whenever the two of you finish your respective sessions of ‘Getting Swole with Steve,’ Mr. Stark would like to see you in his laboratory.”

A loud snort escaped her nose and she didn’t even try to hold it back. “JARVIS, did Tony make you say that?!”

Moments passed before JARVIS finally answered, the quieter volume expressing nothing but embarrassment. “...yes…” was all he uttered as she laughed and waved to the boys.

“Thank you, Steve, and I’ll see you later, Pete.”

“R-right. See ya,” Peter sputtered. Did she just call me Pete? He wondered. He stood quietly as she turned away until Steve elbowed him in the ribs, noting the boy’s distraction.

Charlotte pressed her thumb up against the scanner outside Tony’s lab and walked through the door when it clicked and slid open. Tony was initially nowhere to be seen, but she followed the sounds of metal clinking against metal. It wasn’t hard to find him tinkering on a bench and manipulating hologram after hologram in front of him.

She waited a little way from him, afraid to interrupt his train of thought. “What took you so long? You get swole?” he asked, focus on the task in front of him unwavering.

“I--uh--” she sputtered. He lifted his eyes and brows up to her, briefly enjoying her unnecessary panic. At a certain point, he couldn’t keep the grin off his face and chuckled while walking around the table separating them.

“Seriously, it went ok?”

“Yes! I couldn’t breathe. But I suppose that’s the point. You know, cellular respiration and stuff.”

“Yes, I know,” he smiled and chuckled again, “Cellular respiration and stuff.”

“Well, you wanted me?”

“Yes! We’re going to tinker with some suits. You are going to get some hands-on experience, kiddo!” Despite seeing her wide eyes multiple times with everything that happened that week, he still couldn’t figure out exactly what they meant. “What? Are you excited? Terrified? Shocked? Don’t kids say shaken or something nowadays?”

“Shook?”

“Sure. Shook. Are you that?”

She continued staring without breaking eye contact. “Let me ask you this. Say you’ve never left one city in your entire life and suddenly the world-famous Tony Stark comes and adopts you. Within a week a week he asks you to work on his own suits. How would you feel?” She had definitely gotten snarkier with him over the course of that week, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Well,” he thought out loud, “that would be revolutionary. If I, Tony Stark, was adopted by Tony Stark, I think I’d be both confused by the circumstances and excited about the prospect of cloning. That’s an odd way to feel, but good for you.” Charlotte rolled her eyes aggressively and followed him as he turned to walk off.

“I saw that.”

When she reached the right wall of the lab from the main door, Tony used his finger to get into a side-room. But it wasn’t just a side room; that was evident as soon as his identity was confirmed and the door slid open. Lights flashed on immediately, illuminating countless iron suits in cubbies lining the perimeter of the room. He stopped as Charlotte’s gaze scanned the room and she walked right past him. She wandered around, admiring the suits; some were damaged slightly while others appeared to have never left the lab. A couple in particular all in a row caught her eye. They weren’t built quite like the others. The leftmost one was taller and longer while covered mostly with blues and silvers.

“That one’s Pepper’s,” he said, walking up behind her. The two of them admired it, barely marked. “The scrapes are from the one time she wanted to practice with it in case of emergency. The emergency ended up being her trying to fly.” He laughed again, but her eyes were already moving to another different suit to the right. This suit was similar in design but painted with a deep eggplant purple, silvers, and even white accents that lined the panels of the suit. It caught her eye when she first walked in.

“That one’s yours,” Tony said, scooting over from Pepper’s suit while she looked at him with crinkled eyebrows.

“Isn’t that a little...premature?” Charlotte asked.

“You don’t want it? That’s ok, I’m sure I can find someone who does.” He shrugged and turned to go.

“What? No, how could I not want it?” He turned back around with a wink. “Oh. Messing with me. Well...I do want it, ok? Just seems like I have no skills yet.”

“I know.” To her dismay, he shrugged, agreeing with her. He snorted quietly and walked off to another group of suits. Charlotte rolled her eyes again before trotting off to catch up. Whatever increasing snarkiness she was developing, he surely dished it back out.

He asked JARVIS to move the suit in front of him to the lab so they could work on it. As it moved out of its display and into the light, she recognized instantly whose suit it was. Whose suit she’d be working on.

The emblem on the front. The webbed grid design. The wrist attachments. The suit belonged to Spider-Man. To Peter. To Peter Parker.

Back at the bench, JARVIS pulled up the suit specifications, Tony’s notes, and video of Spider-man - err, Peter - fighting crime in his current, homemade sweatshirt-suit thing. Today, he just wanted to show her a draft of the AI’s code, brainstorm a little, and test out some features.

Charlotte sat in a spinning bench chair and scanned through the documents one-by-one while Tony got to work. Once oriented, he slid the keyboard to her and walked her through the basic programming.

“What is this--” she paused, pointing at one of the programs on the screen, “Training Wheels Protocol?”

Tony snorted as she turned around to look up at him standing over her shoulder with his face buried in one hand while the other sat on his hip. “You weren’t supposed to see that. You see, Peter thinks he can save the world. But he’s 15 and wears a sweatshirt and swim goggles. So, I have to reel him in a little. We’ll just focus on the other parts of the operating system.” He paused briefly. “But that’s between you and me, got it?” He asked, amusement replaced by concern.

“Sure, got it.”

Charlotte scrolled through subsequent pages involving different types of webs for the web-shooters as well as the different functions of the visual in the mask. There were some blanks, however, and Tony explained that this is where he wanted her help. Her job was to come up with more web types the suit could have. The mask would have the same general functioning as his Iron Man helmet, so that part of the suit was mostly finished. But the webs? Iron Man’s suit didn’t have those.

She watched video after video of Spider-Man fighting crime all over Queens to try and come up with some new type of web. Peter’s homemade webs had insanely high tensile strength, supporting incredibly heavy weights while remaining very durable and elastic. Tony had a few ideas for modifications but thought this was a great opportunity to get Charlotte some experience. The video she was watching now showed Spider-Man wrapping up a criminal like a mummy. He spent minutes making sure the criminal was completely contained and unable to escape. Charlotte knew there had to be a quicker way to trap the bad guys. What if there were a bunch of them? He had to be able to web them up more quickly. What about a wider net? One that could cover more targets?

“What does that face mean?”

“Huh?” she stuttered, turning away from the video feed. She caught sight of the clock - she had been watching these videos over an hour now.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Peter stood by the door and he stared at her and Tony with a blank yet confused expression. He had just showered after his workout; his slick hair reflected the light and shined under the lab lights. He wore jeans with a gray t-shirt and blue and gray flannel on top, covered on his shoulders by the straps of his backpack.

“No, of course not. I was just telling Charlotte about her old person pooping face,” Tony explained, instantaneously bringing an intense heat to her face. Peter raised his eyebrows and looked to her as she cowered with her head in her hands on the bench in front of her to muffle a laugh she couldn’t hold back. Peter smiled as she sat up with an eye-roll at Tony, whose own expression was smug as ever.

“Poop faces aside,” Tony started, poking Charlotte’s shoulder while shifting his attention to Peter, “we’re working on a little something I’ve been putting together for you. JARVIS?” The suit rolled back out from around the corner. Peter’s jaw dropped, the spider logo on the front immediately drawing him in. The sleek red and blue fabric had dark lines running in a grid across the front and to a point on the mask, which had mesh eyes outlined by a thick black border. His backpack hit the floor and Charlotte watched as he walked up to it, inspecting everything from those mesh eyes to the characteristic web shooters on the wrists. She couldn’t help but smile as he walked around the suit in awe, admiring every detail, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Is this--for me?” he finally faltered, still unable to take his gaze off the suit.

“Technically it’s for Spider-Man, but sure,” Tony answered. “I’ve installed basic software and AI on it, but Charlotte and I have been brainstorming ideas for more features.” At the sound of her name Peter’s eyes widened and shot up to her, the screen in front of her paused but still showing Spider-Man wrapping up the mummy criminal.

“Um, yeah,” Charlotte stammered. “I have a few ideas for new web types, actually.” She grabbed the notepad off the bench and turned back to face them. She glanced at Tony, who nodded. “I noticed it takes a while to wrap webs all the way around bad guys sometimes, so I thought it would be good to have a different web to more efficiently restrict the criminal in case there’s more than one or...something.”

“So,” she hesitated, suddenly afraid her ideas weren’t good enough. Better to have bad ideas than to have no ideas, Charlotte told herself to push those fears aside. “I have a couple ideas to improve this. First, a web shaped like a net. It could wrap around the bad guy and link to itself on the other side to completely encase the criminal or whatever you’re trying to web up. Sec--”

“Let’s do it,” Tony interjected.

“You don’t...you don’t want to hear my other ideas first?” she asked, disappointment threatening to crack her voice.

“Oh, I want to hear them all. But I can see that being applicable in the field so I think we should go for it. Peter? Thoughts?”

“I...I really like it,” the boy nodded excitedly. “Y-you said you had other ideas, too?”

Charlotte’s heart swelled. It wasn’t even her best idea. She looked from Peter’s gaze back to her list, stretching up taller in her chair, inflated by new-found confidence. “I also thought of a web that would ricochet? You know, so you could shoot it around a corner. And then a tracker web that would be really small and barely visible but would contain a small GPS tracker the suit could follow. And a split web that could fire out to multiple targets across your field of vision? That might be a little more difficult because you’d need software to detect targets, but based on self-driving car technology that can detect the presence of pedestrians-”

“Woah, woah, woah, kiddo. You’ve only been working for an hour. I don’t expect you to have all the details sorted out,” Tony reassured.

“You came up with all this...in onehour?” Peter questioned, nearly speechless.

“Yep,” she nodded slowly, “If you don’t like them, I can spend some more time reviewing videos or-”

“They’re so cool...I love them,” he muttered, voice floating through the air.

“Ok! Well,” Tony asserted, slicing through the momentary silence as he stepped between Charlotte and Peter. He pulled the suit off the mannequin and held it out for Peter. “Before too many sparks fly and everything flammable in here combusts, why don’t you step out and try this on so we can test out the basic features already installed?”

“Uhh, yeah, ok,” Peter said as he snatched up the suit and darted off to change, excitement and embarrassment working together to get him out of there as quickly as possible.

“Sooooo…?” Tony prompted once the door to the bathroom closed behind Peter. “Do I need to give you the talk?”

“Give me the talk?” Charlotte asked, puzzled by the phrase. “We’ve been talking, I don’t understand-”

“I forgot you lack some culturing. You know, the talk. The birds and the bees.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “The sex talk.”

All the blood drained from Charlotte’s face and her heart stopped beating. She visibly shook it off, heat now returning to her cheeks in excess. “No. You don’t need to give me that talk and I don’t know what would lead you to believe I need it,” she squeaked, eyes looking anywhere but his.

“Are you kidding? You couldn’t feel the electricity?” he mocked with jazz hands, smirking at her obvious discomfort.

“Electric webs!” she burst out, thankful for this lightbulb idea as a means to change the subject. “We could make webs with an electric current!”

“Sure, that’s actually pretty cool,” Tony answered. “But we’re going to talk about-”

“This...is so...awesome!” Peter said as he walked out of the bathroom. He stared down at his hands, flipping them over as he strode toward the workbench where Tony stood over Charlotte’s shoulder. The eyes of the suit were changing with what had to be his expression, she determined, as he tested out all the AI software within the mask. He bumped into the mannequin the suit came off of before looking away from the suit itself for the first time. The eyes stretched even wider as the AI analyzed his surroundings and data filled his visual field.

“Shall we?” Tony said, gesturing over to an open space he kept for testing suits. It resembled the floor gymnasts performed on - in terms of size, at least - but had Dum-E and U positioned nearby with fire extinguishers and video equipment. Charlotte made her way over with Tony and Peter, who still couldn’t believe what he was wearing. “Ok Pete. Let’s have you just test out the web shooters first. I kept your formula the same for the basic web so it should work the exact same as your dumpster-diver tech.”

Peter was still too much in awe to be offended. He shot the web at the wall, where it quickly splattered out as usual. “Charlotte, you wanna grab one of those dodgeballs?” Tony prompted. There was a bin of dodgeballs off to the far side, so you trotted over and tossed one in front of Peter on Tony’s cue. He aimed perfectly; the web struck the ball and pinned it to the wall just left of the first shot. They tried this repeatedly, Peter doing flip after flip or swinging from the ceiling to web another ball to the wall. Tony started designing trick shots, where she’d bounce the ball off of something or Peter had to try and do it with only one hand.

Charlotte reached into the bin and noticed there were only two dodgeballs left. “Last one!” she exclaimed while her mind tried to craft the best trick shot for last. “Ok, Pete, you’re going to start hanging upside down from the ceiling. I’m going to slam the ball down on the floor as hard as possible, at which point you’re going to open your eyes and do whatever you can to web the ball to the wall while shooting your web through Dum-E’s hula hoop.” She wasn’t sure why Tony had a hula hoop, but it was definitely helping her make trick shots for Peter. What he wouldn’t know is that you were planning to bounce both the remaining dodgeballs and see if he could react quickly enough to get both webbed up. “Got it?”

“Ok, yeah, yeah, I got it!” Peter shot his web up to the ceiling and got himself situated upside down, hanging by his feet. As soon as he said his eyes were closed, Charlotte showed Tony the two balls left and rolled one to him with a wink. Being the trickster he was, it wasn’t hard for him to figure out her intentions. She mouthed the countdown so they could both bounce their dodgeballs as simultaneously as possible: “three...two...one…”

Charlotte and Tony threw their dodgeballs down at the ground as hard as they could, the bounce sending them shooting into the air. The sound of rubber bouncing on the concrete floor - just like it did on school playgrounds - echoed throughout the lab as Peter’s eyes shot open and he literally jumped to action. He spotted the ball closer to Charlotte first, swinging down to his right while locating Dum-E’s hoop. In his periphery he saw the surprise second ball nearing its peak but didn’t lose a second turning around and firing a web toward the first ball through the hoop. Charlotte jumped as it hit the wall, but Peter didn’t have time to stop and celebrate. He aerialed toward Tony and the second ball, leaping up on the close to get just the right angle to aim through the hoop. He landed in a squat supported by his right hand while his left struck out and fired the web at the last second. It shot through the air, impacting the ball through the hoop and sticking it to the corner between the wall and the ceiling. He leapt up, tugging off the mask, throwing his hands in the air, jumping up and down, and flooding with excitement. Tony mirrored his enthusiasm, springing out of his chair and stepping forward to celebrate with bro-hug and high-five.

Charlotte bounded over to them, arms wide open and yelling all the same. Peter broke off from Tony, turning to face her with mirrored wide arms and elation. “That was amazing!!” she exclaimed as she collided with Peter, practically jumping into his outstretched arms. Her feet left the ground for half a second and she spun - both literally as Peter turned and in her head. She leaned back, feet returning to the floor, and placed your each of her hands on his shoulders as he let her slip from his grip ever so slightly.

“How on Earth did you do that? How did you see the second ball? I thought there was no way-”

“Spidey-senses,” he joked, pulling his hands from her and wiggling his fingers in the air with a smirk.

“You two make a good team,” Tony piped up, causing Charlotte to instantly step back from Peter and link her hands behind her back. Peter once again mirrored her, struggling to look at Tony’s knowing grin. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m going to start engineering Charlotte’s ideas for the new web formulas, but that’s all the science I had planned for you two today. Nat is expecting you pretty soon in the combat training room. Parker, if you’d put the suit back on the model so I can work on it that’d be swell. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, you crazy kids.” With another wink, he turned and walked into a side room that functioned as his office, the door shutting softly behind him.

Peter turned to Charlotte, huffing from all his leaps in the suit now that the adrenaline was wearing off. “More?” he asked, his eyebrows elevated. She shrugged, mirroring his disdain. He inhaled deeply and cocked his head to the side as he sighed. “Well, I guess we better get going. Wanna wait up while I change?”

“Sure!” she answered, still standing where he set her down. As soon as the bathroom door closed behind him, a firm finger poked her shoulder. Dum-E’s mechanical arm hovered beside her. “Dum-E thinks Mr. Parker has a crush on you,” JARVIS announced.

Charlotte shushed JARVIS and pushed Dum-E away hastily as the bathroom door swung back open to reveal Peter dressed once again in training clothes. “Ready?” you asked.

He nodded and the two of them set off down the hallway and around the corner quietly just as when they walked together to Peter’s after school the day before. Only their footsteps echoed through the halls, but the silence lacked discomfort. That didn’t mean they didn’t wantto be talking.

“So…have you worked with Nat before?” Charlotte prompted.

He turned to her as if surprised she was talking to him before quickly rebuilding his composure. “Uh, yeah, a few times. But most of my fighting skills come from the spidey senses and knowing how to use the webs.” She watched him as he spoke, nodding along and listening intently. “Have you fought before?”

She snorted and burst out laughing. Here she was, an Avenger, and she couldn’t take seriously the thought of herself in a fight. “No,” she finally spit out, “literally never. Not even an argument. I’m a wimp.”

“Aw, come on. What about standing up to Flash the other day and—”

“That was the most daring thing I’ve EVER done!” Charlotte shouted, still laughing as they reached the wall of windows looking into the combat room. It looked exactly like the weight room, but instead of racks, there were large mats for fighting on, punching bags, and a boxing ring in the corner.

Peter chuckled and reached out to open the door for her. He grinned as she thanked him and walked in. “Are you sure you aren’t hiding super-secret insane combat skills? Are you hustling the Avengers?”

“Trust, me, no,” she laughed over her shoulder. “I am as far from super-secret insane combat skills as you could ever get.” Peter shrugged and started to say something as Nat walked over but he didn’t get the words out. All he could do was shake his head with a mocking smile as Charlotte glanced over one last time before their session with Nat got going.

“Hope you guys have a little energy left. Nothing too much today since you haven’t fought before, Charlotte,” Nat explained.

She turned to Peter with an “I told you so” look at which he only – once again – shrugged.

“The plan for today is to have Peter with punch mitts working on blocks while I teach Charlotte how to punch.”

Peter strapped on the mitts while Nat wrapped Charlotte’s hands. Nat spent a few minutes working on her form – thumb outside her fist, being tight and compact, etc. – before demonstrating. Nat positioned Peter a few feet away from herself and wound up, forcefully swinging her right fist into Peter’s right mitt. He absorbed the blow, but as soon as Nat turned back to Charlotte, he mouthed “ow!” to her and shook his hand out. It took every ounce of her willpower to stop the laughter bubbling up inside.

After a few punches on the punching bag, Nat had Charlotte positioned across from Peter to start throwing punches. “To get started, I’ll tell you where to hit. For this first one, go right-left-right.” She turned to Peter and met his gaze before quickly looking down at her targets. With a deep breath, she swung right, then left, then right, each of which Peter blocked squarely on the mitt. She straightened up and Nat gave her a few more pointers while repositioning her elbow.

“Again. This time, Left-left-right.” Charlotte wasn’t exactly sure how to do two punches back-to-back from the same hand but found that a quick step back in between worked well. Once again, Peter swiftly blocked her jabs with ease. He knew where they were coming from, of course, but the fluidity of his response was striking.

“Good. Now I’m only going to tell Charlotte and Peter has to dodge for himself.” Nat walked over to her and cupped her hand to whisper in Charlotte’s ear. “Left-right-right-left,” Nat breathed, stepping back. Charlotte looked back to Peter.

“You better block these, Parker, because if we have to explain to everyone at school that I gave you a black eye over the weekend—”

“Not going to happen,” he joked, gesturing as well as he could with the mitts on for her to square up. “Bring it.”

Charlotte stepped up, taking a deep breath before drawing her eyes from his face to the mitts. She swung out her left fist, then her right twice, all of which he blocked with elegant dexterity. She took the final swing with her left arm, which he didn’t expect given that the other trials had only three punches, and he barely blocked it with the edge of the mitt. She stepped back and rolled her head to each side as he grinned cockily back at her.

“Good. Again.” Nat walked up to whisper again the series of punches for her. “Whatever you want. Try to land one,” she encouraged with a thumbs up. Try to land a punch on Peter, Charlotte repeated in her head. Those were her instructions. She wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Then she turned back to Peter, who continued to stare at her with the same cocky grin and stare from only moments ago. “Like I said, bring it on, Charlotte,” he baited as she stepped into position.

This time, she skipped the deep breath, not hesitating for even a moment before going through the series Nat had already given her. Right-left-right, left-left-right; Charlotte made up a few new combinations to try and catch him off-guard. He blocked each and every punch easily, smack in the center of the mitt. Her arms started feeling heavier by the second and she knew she didn’t have much gas left in her tank. This worked in her favor, though, as her arm sagged while she punched and her fist dropped just below Peter’s mitt, striking his stomach.

He grabbed the spot of impact as he fell back a little, never actually falling but wobbling back for a brief second, a smile spread across his face.

“Peter, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt—why are you smiling?” Charlotte asked, confused why the boy she just punched seemed pleased while gripping his abdomen.

“Why am I smiling?” he chuckled and glanced at Nat, who looked at Charlotte questioningly with a similar smile on her face. “You got me! That was a great punch!” he exclaimed, pushing her shoulder.

“It was a good punch. Good job, Charlotte. You learned a lot today, so I think we’ll call it there. Stretch for a minute while I go grab some ice for Peter.”

She walked through some of the stretches Steve taught her only hours earlier, already feeling the ache in her muscles. Nat returned only moments later and wrapped Peter up with the ice pack.

“Isn’t he going to need more than ice? I hit him kind of hard,” Charlotte confessed, hoping she didn’t do any damage.

“No, he’ll be fine,” Nat answered.

Not accepting that answer, she looked up to Peter’s eye line. “Spidey speed recovery,” he teased, wiggling his hands and fingers in the air again.” Charlotte rolled her eyes just as JARVIS’s voice came in over the loud speaker.

“Miss Romanoff, Director Fury is on the line and would like to speak to you in the conference room about a recon mission.”

“On my way. Kids, good job today. I’ll see you again later this week.” With that she stepped out the doors and jogged off down the hall.

“Um, I better head out, then,” Peter said, “May probably wants me home.”

“Oh, um, ok. I’ll...see you Monday?”

Peter walked toward the exit but stopped as he opened the door and looked back at Charlotte. “Yeah,” he smiled, peering deep into her eyes that stared up at him through her eyelashes just as they had the day before. “See you Monday.”

She waved and smiled as Peter stepped through the door and walked down the hall after Nat, waving again through the class windows. Once he was out of sight, JARVIS’s voice returned. “I agree with Dum-E,” he proclaimed, “Mr. Parker has a crush on you.”

“Piss off, robot,” Charlotte jeered, brushing him off as she walked toward the door to go upstairs, a tickled smile never vanishing from her lips.

previous chapter (5) | series masterlist | chapter 7 coming may 3

masterlist | taglist

#peter parker #fanfiction #fanfic #marvel #mcu #peter parker fanfic #myspideysenses fanfic #myspideysensesrtingling #in my way #peter parker x oc #peter parker x female!oc #original character #marvel fanfiction #spider-man x oc #tony stark #captain america #steve rogers

1 note · View note