Title: Love & Misadventure (Weird Flex, But Okay)
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: 1,407
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.
Peter knows that it isn't him that leaps forward. There's not a single part of him that wants to be in this fight. For all that his voice might have wavered when he said it, he'd meant every word that he'd said to Samantha. He knew that Callie was a good person. She was misguided, yes; confused. She was maybe naïve and yes, how she was dealing with the patriarchy was stupid, but Peter knew that inside there was a different person altogether. The real Callie, who just wanted to create and make the world better with her inventions. With a different mentor she could be the next Tony Stark. Instead of this genius girl who thought the only way to get what she wanted was crime.
So no, it's not Peter that leaps forward with a fist drawn back. It's Callie. But even without his spidey-sense he'd have been able to tell that the punch was going to miss him. He sidesteps neatly, ears half listening as students scramble out of the way and form a loose circle around them. Someone starts chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" But they're cut off with an oomph as if they'd been elbowed in the stomach by their nearest classmate. Sure that they're going to stay out of the way (but not sure they'll survive any wayward flame attacks) he watches Callie come to a stop and turn around. Her movements are jerky, as if she's being controlled by strings. She turns to him as if her body weighs a thousand pounds.
"Don't make me do this P – Spider-Man." She tumbles over his name and though his heart skips a beat in his chest, he doesn't think anyone noticed her slip-up. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Then don't." She blinks in surprise, her mouth falling open. He takes it as a good sign, stepping forward slowly. "You're a good person. Otherwise you'd already be trying to kill me." That seems to take her aback anew. "I've fought enough criminals to know who's really bad and who's pretending. This isn't the real you."
Suddenly, her demeanor does a complete reversal. Her mouth presses in a thin, hard line, her eyes flash in ire, going almost black in her anger. "Don't tell me who I really am!"
This time when she swings at him, it's for real.
He crouches to dodge, but at the last minute he realizes that will just send her careening into the crowd, so he changes his mind mid-motion. He's off-balance when he reaches up to block her right hook so the force of the motion crumbles his legs and forces him to his knees. Her fist is suddenly grasping at the back of his neck, forcing him down, pushing her weight down. She's too slight for that to be an issue for Peter's strength, but the full power of her nanotechnology enhancing her equipment it feels like he's been hit by a bus. He feels the glossy floor beneath him creak as he pushes back against her.
"Callie…" he says, since they're close enough that no one can hear him over their yelling, "Don't…"
Her eyes narrow. "Stop… telling me… what to… DO!" She forces more and more weigh down with each word until the last is accompanied by her opposite fist suddenly igniting and coming towards his face. Amid the yells and scrambling of students stampeding away from them, Peter slips her grasp and crouches against the floor. Her fist flies harmlessly over his head and, while Callie is trying to regain her balance, he pops up, hands braced against the floor so he could kick out with two feet and send her barreling to the ground. Her fist hits the floor with the sound of a canon. Cracks ripple through the floor like an earthquake.
She yelps at the impact and stumbles forward, arms windmilling to try and keep her feet. He could continue his attack, but he doesn't, just waits for her to turn around, glaring. "Callie," his voice is low, earnest. "Please, I'll beg you if that's what you want." His muscles twitch, waiting for her to make a move. Is this how it was when Tony and Steve fought? Knowing that that was a friend on the other side of the arena from you? Knowing that you didn't want to hurt then, but also knowing they were wrong? "Please… stop."
"Why are men always telling me what to do?" He chin tilts up in a move that he's seen on the Red Queen's face more times than he can count. "What gives you the right?"
"I'm not telling you. I'm asking you to do the right thing. Was this," he gestures at the students fleeing for their lives, panicked teachers trying to keep order. There's scorch marks on the floor, still smoking and smoldering. "Really what you wanted to do with your technology? Was this how you wanted to make the world better?"
The expression on her face is sick. He knows the answer to both of those questions is 'no.' He knows that she knows it, too. "I tried. I tried to do good things and no one would let me. I tried to work hard and go to school and do my research but people just wanted to take it away from me."
"So you decided to take from them?"
"Yes!" Her hands are balls of flames again. What few people had remained to try and watch the outcome of their battle finally lose their nerve and vanish out the doors. Samantha, Ned, and Eric huddle by the exit, tense and wary. Samantha looks ready to leap across the floor at any moment, and only Ned's hand on her arm keep her in place. "I'm not a millionaire, Peter! I can't live without earning money! And they just expected me to hand over my research free of charge and go beg for scraps!" Her voice wavers at the end.
Peter wonders how close she had been to that, to begging for handouts before she resorted to a life of crime. He'd never asked how long she'd tried to do different until she reached her breaking point. He's suddenly ashamed of himself and his chest tightens at the thought of someone as brilliant as this being coerced into this because she was low. "You can still do good, Callie, it's not too late to change. You have m – your friends to help you this time."
The flames wavers, winking in and out of existence. He starts to relax. "You're smart – one of the smartest people I've ever met. You're strong and p-pretty," his voice catches on the word, but he barrels on, hoping she didn't notice, "and so incredibly strong to have just… done whatever you needed to survive. You could take on the world if you wanted. Change it. Make it better." He takes a slow and steady step forward with every sentence, arms spread wide. "I'll help you." He's almost right in front of her. "You're amazing just the way you are… but you could be so much more."
She blinks at him owlishly, looking up at his masked face when he's suddenly right in front of her. "But… I'm a good thief."
Callie sounds so honestly confused at what to do with that information that Peter throws back his head and laughs so hard it brings tears to his eyes. "Weird flex, but okay." Baby steps first? "Well, maybe you could just steal from bad people?"
When she smiles up at him, her mouth quirking just enough to soften her eyes as she stares up at him, he thanks his lucky stars for the mask that hides the sudden heat that suffuses his face. "I can try that… for you."
