Title: Love & Misadventure (Yeet!)
Genre: Romance / Adventure
Rating: T
Pairing: Peter Parker x OC
Spoilers: MCU through Avengers Endgame and all of Spider-Man: Far From Home minus the end credits scene
Summary: Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.
Word Count: 1,278
Warnings: NaNo competitor

Disclaimer: Marvel and its characters do not belong to me. The summary is a quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

A/N: The only reason I chose not to make the end credits scene cannon is because it didn't fit with the plan I had for this story.

It wasn't hard to see that this was a trap. She definitely didn't expect it to be from this angle, but she expected something. But no, not this. She didn't expect to me in the middle of fine tuning her anti-grav boots to make the power supply last longer only to be interrupted by her boss flipping on the TV in the corner with an angry snap and saying, "What the fuck is this?"

Callie glanced up just in time to hear and see the buxom news reporter announce, "Still no further information on whether or not Inferno will show up to the school dance Spider-Man will be attending in hopes of reconciliation."

Anita clicked the mute button and turned to stare down at her prodigy with an arched brow and an expectant expression. Callie tried for aloofness, tried to be calm, but it was impossible. She could feel the flush burning her cheeks, her throat. She could feel a bubble of… something… blooming in her chest. She knew she had to answer, but her bafflement was real, so she just gaped at the television, where the reporter was interviewing students about their (she supposed) torrid love affair. "I…"

"Channel 5 has made you in to the Juliet of the fucking super world. You're a villainous Capulet and Spider-Man is fucking Romeo! How did this happen?!"

Her mind scrambles for an explanation that will satisfy her, but what can she say? Anita rants about Spider-Man, but all Callie hears is Peter. This wasn't some nameless, masked face setting this trap, it was Peter. Peter had done this somehow, set this up, but… but why?

"I don't… know." She doesn't have to fake the confusion, she really doesn't understand. Peter was… geeky Peter always asking questions at the library, always putting his nose where it didn't belong, always knocking things over and being too clumsy for anyone to suspect that he was a graceful hero arching through the skies of New York. But this was also a Peter that, in the past few days she'd started to see differently in her memory. At first it was Spider-Man she thought out, trapping her into revealing her identity and confronting her with it. But then… the days went by, and her mind dwelled on other things. How interested and amazed he had seemed at her research, how you could see the way his mind worked out a problem, the way his muscles looked in his suit as they fought…

"Well, you better find out, because you're going to that stupid dance."

"I… what?" She blinked in astonishment. "But… what if it's a trap?"

Anita laughed regally, her head thrown back like any Queen of Hearts about to behead someone. "Oh, I'm very certain that it is, little spark. But this is your mess. You fix it." And with that she turned on her stiletto and left Callie sitting in silent shock.

"Well, shit."

Stalking her small group of acquaintances was so easy it was worrisome for her. If she'd been trying to kill the, they'd be dead a hundred times over. Especially Ned, that boy had zero sense of self-preservation or situational awareness. But it also made it easy for her to see that it didn't look like they were setting up any kind of trap at the dance for her. No trap floors or fishing nets rigged to fall from the ceiling. They were just… there. It was driving her insane trying to figure out what their angle was.

Eric and Ned seemed like there were just along for the ride, pulled there by their friends. Samantha seemed angry, and Callie was honestly surer that Samantha would sock her in the jaw the next time they met than Peter would. Peter just seemed… heavy. His shoulders slumped, his eyes were far away, always lost in thought. He seemed sad. Her chest fluttered to think that it was for her.

"Can I help you, Miss?"

She started at the soft question, asked by a pimply face tween holding a clipboard. "Uh, yeah, I'm just here to drop some stuff off." She held up her bag. It held her Inferno suit, but she was praying that he didn't ask to look in it.

"What and for who?"

"I'm not sure. My mom's volunteers for the school board and she just told me to drop it off to the teachers here." She tried to plaster a mom's, am I right look on her face and it seemed to work, because the kid snorted in solidarity and ushered inside, pointing her back towards where the adults were lumped. She waved him off as she started over there, but as soon as he turned his back, she veered off, slipping into a supply closet in the back without anyone noticing her.

She had hours to kill before the dance officially started, but she didn't want to risk them showing up early and catching her sneaking in. So she waited until the lights dimmed and the music became so loud it was vibrating the basketballs in their bins, before she slipped out of her civilian clothing and into her all-black Inferno garb. She snuck out again, grabbing a trap of fluted punch to hold in front of her face, and snuck along the walls, sticking with the shadows, until she was in the darkest corner of the room, at the back of the stage.

It took her only a moment to locate Peter. Since he was the only "real" superhero here, the students were flocked around his perch at the top of the bleachers. She couldn't reach the expression on his face with his mask, but his shoulders seemed tense and rigid. They relaxed when Samantha parted the crowd like water and dispersed them, leaving just the two of them in quiet conversation for long moments. Samantha's back was facing her, and with Peter covered she couldn't read their lips, had no idea what they were planning.

When a surprisingly tipsy young girl teetered onto the stage, Callie watched Peter stand with a fluid grace and face the stage. She shrank farther back into the shadows so he wouldn't see her, but he seemed like he was just listening to what the girl said. She'd never paid attention to Peter as Spider-Man before. She hadn't faced him since she learned the truth. It was amazing how much his carriage changed in the suit. He looked every inch his height, his shoulders looked broader, the tilt of his chin more masculine. He was sure of himself in the suit, confident.

She had stepped forward towards him without conscious thought, not even noticing until someone shouted out. Since she was looking right at him, she was very aware when he looked at her. Though she couldn't see his eyes, she knew they were looking right through hers, looking for a clue as to what she was thinking.

Too late to turn back now.

"Hello, Spider-Man. I hear you've been waiting for me."