As Taskmaster was plotting his trip to Siberia, Peter was packing for his own trip to the country. He sighed as he threw in all of the clothes he felt were necessary (and he wasn't under packing; this wasn't his first trip.)... being an Avenger, he imagined, carried a lot of unexpected business trip with it. He guessed this wouldn't be his last either.
"Well... at least, there's gotta be some fun stuff to do in Siberia, right?" Peter said, near enough to where his phone could hear him.
"Yeah, there's all sorts of cool stuff!" said Ned from his phone. "Like, uh... Lake Baikal! And also, uh... a church called Yekaterinburg. Yeah I'll let you google the rest of these names because I am clueless on how to pronounce them."
Peter chuckled. "Sounds like fun."
"What are you doing in Siberia, exactly?" Betty asked; supposedly, she was with Ned. They were going to go to the mall today, from what Peter knew.
"Uhh... fighting potential Hydra remnants," he said. "Cap briefed me on that after the meeting."
"Badass!" they both said. "Hey man, take care, for real," said Ned. "You my homie, bro. Love you man."
"Love you too, bro," Peter chuckled. "See ya Betty!"
"Bye Peter!" Betty said.
And with that, the call ended. Peter sighed, deciding it was better to keep himself occupied than thinking about what he was currently stressing over.
"Hey."
A soft, gentle voice Peter knew well snapped him out of his trance. Wanda was standing in his doorway, leaning against its frame. "I... I overheard the call. I can understand why you're so stressed. Y'know, I was that way too."
"When you first joined?" he asked.
"Mhmm," Wanda nodded. "But... you learn to look on the brighter side of business trips. What with how long it'll take us to get a lock-down on Viper, I wouldn't doubt we'll get a bit of sight-seeing in. That's fun, right?"
"Yeah... yeah, that actually sounds really nice," Peter said, lightly smiling. "I-I, I'm sorry Wanda... you don't need to bear my burdens-"
"Hey, I'm okay with helping carry them," Wanda said, putting her arm around his shoulder. "You... you're my best friend. Its the least I could do."
Peter smiled. "You're my best friend too. Thank you... really. I honestly need a friend like you that I can speak in-person to right now. Ned will always be my best friend too, but my worst fear when I came here was that no one would like me; that I would be a complete loner on the team, the oddball that just doesn't fit in... good to know I was an idiot."
"Hey, you call yourself an idiot one more time, and I'm gonna lose it," Wanda said, slightly laughing at the end. "And Peter, I really don't see how anyone could dislike you! You're smart, you're funny, and you're... you're just the sweetest teenager I've ever seen."
"Tell that to Flash Thompson," Peter muttered.
"I want an address now," Wanda said, her big sister mode flipping on like a switch. "Funeral will be in two days-"
"W-Wanda, no!" he laughed, pulling on her arm. "Its okay... he just kinda picks on me, and I send back a roast, he shuts up for a while. Its worked like that since my middle school days."
Wanda nodded carefully... she already despised Flash.
"Hey, wanna stop packing for a moment and let me show you something cool?" she asked.
"Sure, anything beats packing," he laughed. Wanda pulled him into her room, and took off her boots - Peter was automatically confused.
"I found a life hack! Now I can actually dance - with noise!" she said, pulling up a pair of flats. "See this? Taped quarters to the bottom. Now I can actually hear myself tapping!"
"Woah, cool!" Peter said.
"I've figured out the steps necessary to make cheap tap shoes!" Wanda said, winking.
"...I am so disappointed, yet so proud of you," Peter said.
Wanda began to giggle lightly at Peter's comment - but the teenage superhero wasn't through.
"I mean, seriously, how? How can one be so disappointed and yet be so proud? I am so confused, and frankly - astounded!" Peter continued.
"S-Stop!" Wanda giggled.
Peter sighed. "Okay... fine. But I'm outta here."
"No no no!" Wanda said, jumping up and still giggling. "C'mon... I'm sorry about the tap pun, okay? That was bad, I know."
"You need to work on your pun skills... but for my first time hearing you pun, that wasn't bad," Peter admitted.
"What are you, some sort of pun master?" Wanda asked, scoffing jokingly.
Peter looked up, and pursed his lips.
"Per-taps."
Wanda looked at him with a shocked expression, before hugging him and laughing into his shoulder. "Dear God, you are amazing..."
"Naw, just Spider-Man," Peter chuckled.
"Well, you are... the amazing Spider-Man!" Wanda giggled. "I mean-I... oh! You need to teach me how to pun! But let me actually show you what I wanted to show you first."
"Alright," Peter chuckled, moving back into Wanda's room and sitting down on the bed. "Okay, now that that's out of the way - what did you wanna show me?"
"Watch this," Wanda said, smiling.
And with that, her phone began to play a slightly fast piano track - and she started to dance. It was nothing spectacular, by any means, but she was still doing her best - and Peter was astounded. He'd never been a good dancer (a reason why he ditched Liz at the dance, he liked to think), so seeing Wanda so much as move her feet rhythmically was like magic to him.
"Et voila!" she said, striking a pose before plopping back down onto the bed next to Peter. "Did you... did you like my dance?"
"Like it? Wanda, that was awesome! I can't dance whatsoever," Peter said, "so, like... you're on a whole other level from me."
"Aww, thank you," Wanda blushed. "Now-how is your singing coming along?"
"Oh! Oh, uh, well... its, its coming along well, I guess," Peter said.
"May... May I hear a little bit of it?" she asked gently.
"I-I'd love to! Love to sing for you, its just... I'm still a bit shy with it," he admitted. "S-So... it may be a minute, but I promise, I will sing for you soon, okay?"
"Peter... you know you don't have to sing for me at all," Wanda said, smiling as she patted his shoulder. "If you do want to though, just do it whenever you're ready, and on your own time. Okay?"
"Yeah," Peter nodded.
Suddenly, he found himself hugging Wanda again. "Thank you Wanda... you're a great friend."
The young adult hugged back, a soft smile on her lips. "You're welcome Peter... so are you."
Later on, it was time for dinner - the team was planning to eat together tonight, to celebrate T'Challa being there as their guest.
But when they walked into the kitchen... instead of the meal Clint had promised to whip up, there were about ten boxes of pizza from Pizza Hut.
"Look, I Uber Eats-d the pizza after I realized that without Nat by my side, I am a disaster in the kitchen," said Clint. "Either that, or cooking chicken at four-thousand degrees for ten seconds isn't an actual shortcut."
"Jesus Clint, you are a disaster," Natasha muttered.
"And you love me for it," Clint said, leaning seductively against the counter and waggling his eyebrows - Natasha quickly tried to hide her blush.
"I mean, I haven't had pizza in two weeks, so I see this as an absolute win!" Peter smiled.
"That does smell really nice," Wanda nodded.
"I am eager to try this delicacy," said T'Challa. "I missed out on pizza in Siberia - I do not intend to miss it again."
"See! The kids love pizza, and the king already likes it!" Clint said.
"I will need to put in at least two extra hours of training to burn these calories," Steve said.
"Oh come on, hush now," Bucky smirked, "because if you don't eat at least a whole pie-"
"Can you even call yourself American?" asked Sam, joining Bucky.
Steve sighed... he sometimes regretted his choices for best friends.
Wanda and Peter, however, like the best friends they were, were recommending King T'Challa different types of pizza to try - they were both also kind of arguing over whether pepperoni or sausage made a better topping. Y'know, as you do.
In the end, however, the king chose ham and pineapple - and Peter and Wanda somehow held back their disgust.
"Who the hell eats pineapple on a pizza? Ham, okay, but... pineapple?" he said, confused.
"Ugh, I know right," Wanda said, rolling her eyes. "But hey, we know what's good, right?"
Peter looked up at Wanda, and smiled - then, he held up his red cup filled with soda. "Heck yeah we do."
Wanda smiled, and clinked her own cup with his. And then, they went off to the dining table to join the rest of their fellow Avengers.
Peter knew he wouldn't be as scared about Siberia, as long as he had Wanda to talk to.
As long as she was there, he knew it would be okay.
Maui, Hawaii - Tony and Pepper's hotel room
Tony paced around the bathroom nervously, just rubbing his head with the info he had just been made aware of - some bounty hunter was going after Peter. And seemingly Wanda too...
"God, how could I be so stupid... why did I ever think to let that kid go in by himself... in such a dangerous setting too..." he muttered.
"Tony, babe?" Pepper called. "Could you please come back out here?"
Tony stepped out of the bathroom, and looked at his fiancee - she was looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Honey. Didn't you hear Cap? Peter and Wanda are both safe and sound. They're okay."
"That's gotta just be Cap's optimism, right? He wouldn't dare tell me if Peter was hurt, because he knows it'll-"
"Make you come back?" Pepper finished.
Tony sighed, feeling defeated. He flopped back onto the bed, feeling more stressed than he had in a while.
"Listen, honey... I am confident Peter is fine. Wanna FaceTime him? Just to make sure?" she asked.
He nodded subtly.
"Okay, I'll pull him up," Pepper said, sitting down next to her fiance's slumped form on the bed.
About five seconds after the first ring, Peter picked up - there was pizza sauce on his face that he quickly wiped away with a napkin. "Ms. Potts! Hi!"
"Hey Peter!" Pepper smiled. "You okay sweetheart?"
"Yeah! As good as can be!" Peter smiled. "Is Mr. Stark there?"
"Yes, he is," Pepper said, "Tony? You wanna say hi?"
"Pete! Hey kiddo," Tony said, relieved Peter was okay - for a second, he almost had a near-death experience from thinking the pizza sauce was stained blood on Peter's chin. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" asked Peter. "O-Oh... Cap told you, huh?"
"Sorry kid, I was just paranoid," said the billionaire. "I-I really hope I didn't-"
"Mr. Stark, its fine - I appreciate the concern!" Peter said, smiling. "I've had Wanda basically become my big sister thanks to that attack, so its really all fine."
Tony smiled. "Tell Wanda that she better not let a scratch get on you, or else she'll have to deal with Pep while I keep you distracted. 'Kay?"
"Alright then," Peter said, before chuckling. "I gotta get back to the guys, but I'll talk to you again when we land in Siberia! Goodbye Mr. Stark, goodbye Ms. Potts!"
"Bye Peter!" they both said, waving.
He then hung up, and Tony looked at his fiancee with a happy grin on his face. "See? Told you they were fine. And you were so worried..."
Pepper scoffed. "Me? Worried? Uh, if I have ever heard a bigger lie-which I haven't-"
"Hey, let's not focus on the lies," Tony said, sitting up, "and instead... some truths? One of which - I love you so much."
She smirked. "Here's another - I love you too."
And then, they kissed. And kissed. And kissed...
...I'm not gonna say anything else.
Taskmaster had just slid his sword into his sheath when he heard helicopter rotors outside of his warehouse lair. He sighed, muttered an "about damn time" underneath his breath, and walked out to meet his ride.
The rain was pouring down like never before, but this didn't mean much to him.
There were two people waiting in front of the chopper to meet him. "Mr. Masters, sir! Ms. Sarkissian says she is expecting you."
"Yeah, and what else?" asked Taskmaster, annoyed. "Just get me to Siberia, dammit. I don't have all night."
"Sir, she also requests that you have her intel," the other Russian pilot said; his English was not the best.
"Ophelia will have what she requested, and more," said the enhanced bounty hunter. "Now get this bird in the air."
As the two stepped on board, just before Taskmaster followed, he uttered some words to the wind.
"Spidey, Scarlet... see ya in Siberia.
Soooooooo... just saw Far From Home. Yeah... SO GOOD AMIRITE?! Please, if you wanna talk about it, PM me! I'm always open to discuss Marvel movies! :D
And as always, PLEASE review and let me know what you thought of the chapter! (I hope that) next chapter, we will finally meet Viper!
Also, special shoutout goes to my good friend, AuthorandArtist13, for all of those wonderful tap dance puns. She's so cool so like... go read her stuff. Now. :) Anyway, that's all for now guys! See you all next chapter! Love you all! :D