AVENGERS ANONYMOUS

SIX: CAUGHT

.:::.

I took a tiny sip of my hot tea and read over the few paragraphs I'd typed so far. I was on a roll, and I was almost up to date with all the schoolwork I'd put off for obvious reasons. I tried not to think about how incredibly boring it was and how long I'd been sitting there. It had to be done.

Onyx was stretched out at my feet. She was getting lazier and lazier every day that went by without our walks in the park. I considered taking her when I finished my paper. It gave me motivation to get it done quicker.

I finished another sentence and noticed a very subtle change in the atmosphere of my apartment. It was difficult to explain, and the sensation I felt was bizarre...almost like I developed my own version of a spider sense.

I didn't turn around. "I really hope you aren't leaving footprints on my ceiling again."

I heard him sigh, ashamed of his inability to surprise me. "Dammit. You've gotten better at that."

I twirled in my spinning chair and looked up at him, mid-crawl on my ceiling in his full spider getup. "Seriously, I'm going to have to repaint the ceiling if you keep walking all over it."

"Relax, there aren't any footprints." He was partially cut off by Onyx's crazy bark that she did when she was still half asleep and felt threatened.

"Shh, it's okay." I pet her head, but she kept growling. "See? Now you've upset the dog."

He jumped down from the ceiling and crouched down near her. "Hey, girl. It's just me." Peter tugged off his mask and smiled at her. It took her a moment, but she skipped over to him and started licking his face. "That's a good girl."

I tried not to let him see my heart melting. "Where are you going? I thought you were supposed to be lying low." I turned back to my computer screen.

"I'm sick of taking those back alleyways to get to Stark's Tower." He complained. "From here, it's a straight shot, and it only takes a few minutes."

"You're going back there again?" I changed a word I didn't like in my last paragraph. "Peter, what did I tell you about -"

"I know, I know, I already finished it."

I twirled around again. "You finished all of your work?"

He nodded seriously.

I didn't want to believe it. "Did you forget to eat again?"

"Nope." He took a short pause. "But I may have forgotten to sleep this time." He yawned, scratching Onyx's belly as she stretched out for him. We always made jokes about her being too easy. "I'm meeting with Dr. Banner to start working on interpreting those DNA codes."

I sighed heavily and turned back to my own work. "You're going to kill yourself if you keep this up." I warned him.

"I'm fine." He promised, his voice much closer. He rested his chin on my shoulder. "Why don't you come with me?"

"You know I have absolutely no business being over there."

"Of course you do. You can help if you want."

"I can't help."

"Why not?"

"I'm not smart like you." I gave him the simplest answer I could think of while trying to focus on my work.

"It's not hard, it's just matching up purines with pyrimidines and looking for the mutations hidden in the sequences."

I laughed. He didn't see what was so funny. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll have to pass."

Peter took in a breath and let the air out through his lips. He sounded like a horse, and his breath tickled my neck. I let him stay there for a while, only because he wasn't distracting me. But then he started brushing the tip of his nose over my skin, nuzzling up to me like a kitten.

I smiled because it tickled a lot. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." He claimed, drawing a line with his nose up the side of my neck and placing a soft little kiss behind my ear. He kissed me repeatedly in a line all the way down to my shoulder. He must have felt me become tense. "Don't mind me." He added.

I cleared my throat and continued proof reading, although I read the same sentence four times over. I was still proud of myself for resisting him for so long, but soon his lips reached that spot just beneath my jaw. He knew exactly what that spot did to me, which is why he'd been purposely avoiding it until then.

My breath suddenly caught in my throat, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of successfully remembering the precise location of that damn spot. "Don't you have somewhere to be." I said it as a statement.

I was actually surprised and a bit disappointed to feel him back away from me so effortlessly. "Yes, I do."

I peeked over my shoulder at him. He was smoothing the mask back over his face. "Don't stay out too late. Remember we have that thing tomorrow morning." I reminded him.

"I know." And then he tumbled right off the balcony. He didn't like to linger on the subject of his special appearance at Toys 'R Us. It made him nervous, and I didn't blame him. It made me nervous, too.

I took another look at my unfinished paper and grimaced, slapping the laptop shut. Onyx looked up at me expectantly.

"How about that walk, huh?"

. . . . . . . .

"Olivia? Where is she - oh, there you are!" Daniel scuttled over to me. "Did you bring your camera?"

I folded the last Avengers t-shirt and showed him my camera dangling around my neck.

"Oh, good! Be sure to take lots of photos so we can post them on the website." I could see the nervous sweat building at his hairline.

"Are they here yet?" I looked to the front of the store at the tables designated to each Avenger, including Spiderman. A series of red ropes were shaped to form organized lines for autographs and pictures.

"We aren't expecting them for another few minutes. Do you thing everything looks alright?" His eyes bounced around all the decorations and balloons set up around the store.

"It looks great!" I recognized the voice over my shoulder, and after seeing the expression on Daniel's face I realized I should have acted more surprised.

I turned to find Tony Stark hidden in one of his incredible iron suits. He lifted the mask to reveal his face. "Seriously, I couldn't have done it better myself."

Daniel managed to pull himself together. "Mr. Stark! Thanks so much for coming!" He grabbed one of Tony's metal hands and shook it in both of his.

"Anything for charity." He looked at me doubtfully. "This is for charity, right?"

"The children's hospital." I confirmed.

"Have the others arrived with you?" Daniel asked eagerly.

Tony checked over his shoulder. "They should be in any minute. I lost some of them in the Barbie house."

Sure enough, the other four were making their way out of the girls' section of the store. I heard Daniel gasp. They were quite the sight, each donning their own unique super suit - except for Dr. Banner, of course.

"That Barbie house is really something." Clint said.

But one was still missing.

I leaned over toward Tony as Daniel introduced himself to the others. "Where's Peter?"

"How would I know? You're his mother."

That joke was getting old and I was starting to panic. "He wouldn't just ditch us, would he?" What if he was so nervous that he didn't show? What would happen then?

"Give him a call, maybe he's taking the scenic route." He suggested.

I dug in my pocket for my phone and listened to it ring. "Excuse me," I removed myself from the commotion and started biting my nails.

It kept ringing and ringing and ringing.

He didn't pick up.

I sighed, debating whether I should call him again. I knew I should have made sure he was okay that morning, before I left myself. Frankly, I was just as anxious as he was, and I just wanted to get it over with.

I heard something behind me and whipped around to discover Spiderman squirting me with a can of Silly String. I bet under that stupid mask he was smiling.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" I slapped my phone shut and marched over to him.

"I'm not late, am I?"

He was only late by five minutes. "Not really." I admitted.

"Cool shirt."

I looked down at my red Spiderman t-shirt. We were selling them along with Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk for the special event. "I had trouble deciding which one I wanted." I teased.

"Obviously you made the right decision."

I bit my lip. "I don't know..." He wrapped me up in his arms in a playful hug. I laughed a little and squeezed him back. "Are you still nervous?"

I heard him swallow before he spoke again. "A little good luck kiss wouldn't hurt."

I smiled and rolled his mask up over his chin and lips to kiss him for good luck.

"Oh! I am so sorry!" Daniel was shielding his eyes.

I quickly tugged down Peter's mask and stepped away from him. "Is something wrong, Daniel?"

"I-I just wanted to see if you got a hold of - I mean, if you reached Spiderman - but obviously that's unnecessary." He laughed nervously. "Okay, whenever you're ready, we'd like to get set up." He slipped away faster than he appeared.

"Oh, crap." I muttered, imagining what he must have thought after catching me kissing the newest Avenger.

Spiderman just started laughing.

I grabbed his wrist and towed him behind me. "Come on, you've got a city to win over."