"Good afternoon, Mr. Parker, we apologize for taking you out of class, but as you know, we are doing this with everyone who was absent from classes after the incident," across from Peter sat his principal, and in the corner stood two men, both in suits. Peter silently replayed the story he and Lena had developed that morning, filling the time with a deep inhale.

"Yeah, of course, Mr. Morita," he curled in his lips, smiling without his eyes. He had to make a conscious effort to not clench his teeth. It was odd how he could fight crime, but a scenario like this had him more nervous than he cared to admit.

"Were you in the cafeteria during the incident?" Mr. Morita was reading the questions off of a piece of paper sitting in front of him. These questions were not developed by the school, and everyone was being asked the same thing. Peter flicked his eyes back to his Principal's.

"Mr. Stark needed his niece and me to come back to the Avenger's compound upstate, he had his driver come pick us up right before our lunch period."

"Oh!" Mr. Morita looked pleased, "So the two of you were not present?"

"We will need to see the record of them being signed out of school as well as parental confirmation that this is the case," one of the suited men spoke up.

Peter's heart rate picked up, but he continued on, "You won't find it," their heads snapped to him, and he realized how suspicious that sounded, "Because Mr. Stark said it was urgent, and that he would take care of it later."

"Is that her father?" the other man spoke up.

"No. Her uncle. Legal guardian. You know...Tony Stark?" Peter was surprised that they hadn't pieced this together yet. It wasn't breaking news that Lena went to Midtown.

The men were trying to mask their shock, but Peter saw one of their eyebrows twitch. Whoever these men were, they weren't keeping their composure very well, but Peter knew how to work those in authority. He interacted with them as Spider-Man almost every time there was crime to fight. They were usually unappreciative of him and Lena's work, so their exchanges were routinely snarky comments and getting out of their way.

"Lena Potts is Tony Stark's niece and one of our most distinguished students," Mr. Morita finally took control of the conversation, "Okay, so yourself and Miss Potts left at approximately…"

"11:45," Peter finished for him.

"And what do you know of the incident?"

"All I know is what my friend Ned told me and what I've seen on the news. The guy that Spider-Man and the Siren fought the other day broke and entered into the school, scared a bunch of kids, and then the two superheroes showed up and led him to the football field. Iron Man then came I think and the guy surrendered," he kept his language casual, not using the technicalities that he was used to going into detail with.

"That would be correct. Do you have any suspicions as to why he might have targeted the school?"

Peter did. Somehow, whoever this guy worked for had caught wind of where he or Lena went to school. It was no coincidence that less than 24 hours later, the man that had been demanding for them to brawl him had attacked Midtown Tech. Mr. Stark had to be starting an investigation, but he hadn't heard from him since their argument on the football field. Naturally, he lied to his principal.

"No. I'm not really a...fan of getting involved in all that stuff."

"Aren't you Tony Stark's intern? Wouldn't that provide some sort of...curiosity?"

Peter inhaled, "I guess it should...but I'm a computer science intern...I just do tech stuff. Not crime fighting," he smiled halfway again, hoping his lies were buyable. He wasn't the best actor, and he hated lying, but it came with the job.

"Of course," Mr. Morita was smiling genuinely, hopefully believing every word Peter said. The men in the corner, while he was avoiding even glancing in their general direction, had negative energy radiating off of them. They were most likely staring Peter down, second guessing it all. Peter exhaled and tried to cover up the anxiety that they were forcing onto him.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Parker, you can head back to class."

He didn't leave too quickly. Calmly, he kept his eye on his bag as he picked it up off the floor in front of him and swung it across his shoulders, smiling at both the men and Mr. Morita before making his way to the door. It took a couple paces before he let out a sigh of relief, letting his shoulder collide with a locker to his right.

He sat back down in his math class, Lena sitting diagonally to his right. She was furiously taking notes as Ms. Minor did practice problems on the whiteboard. She excelled at math, so she really had no need for the notes, but the anxiety of potentially getting anything wrong was what drove her to copy everything their teacher was writing. He could slightly feel the intensity of her blood as it pumped through her veins.

How did it go? She asked him inside of his head.

There were two men there that were suspicious of everything I was saying, but that's their job.

I can try and get a read on them when they ask me to answer questions.

"Could we borrow Lena Potts, please?" Mr. Morita had entered the open door and was smiling politely.

Lena placed her pencil on her notebook and stood, flattening the white linen pants she wore that day. She shrugged her braids off her shoulders so that they rhythmically hit her back as she walked out of the room, and Peter tried to ignore the twinge of jealousy when he noticed that most of everyone's eyes were following her, some for a little too long. After a few moments, when she had to be a few feet away from the room, he felt Lena silently chuckle at him, and his cheeks turned bright red.

…

Lunch the day after had an entirely different energy. About half of the kids who were at lunch in the cafeteria were there. Lena had quietly told him that the fear that the Arsonist had caused would stay with them for a while, and many of them would never return to the lunchroom. MJ, Ned, Lena, and himself took up their usual four seats, eating almost silently. So much had happened in the recent few days that no one knew where to begin with a conversation.

"Are you guys planning on going to prom?" Peter brought up a light subject in hopes that it would spark better conversation.

MJ and Ned exchanged looks, Lena kept staring at her food, hardly eating it, just tossing it around the bowl with her fork.

"I think I might ask Betty," Ned piped up, smiling a little before eating another french fry.

"Betty Brant? To prom?" Peter felt a bit of happiness for his friend grow inside him. "That's awesome, dude."

Peter knew that Ned had always had a thing for Betty, but Ned was never the type to make the first move. He talked about it but never followed through. He hoped that this would be a big step for his friend in growing his confidence. It was slightly saddening to see Ned avoid romance because he didn't feel as if he deserved it.

"Prom sounds lame, but if I know you losers, then I'll probably be going," she didn't look up from the notebook she was sketching in. Of course, MJ would give off an air of distaste. Peter knew that she wanted to go, but pretended as if it was the opposite of the case.

When he looked over at Lena, she was intensely staring at the other girl, most likely trying to get a read on her. He had no idea what could be so important that she was sifting through MJ's mind, but Lena had been reacting to the things MJ had been saying interestingly. He made a mental note to ask her about it when they were on patrol later.

"Well Lena and I are going together," he said it like it was any normal thing, but Ned's head snapped up and his fist banged on the table.

"Finally!" Ned exclaimed, "I mean, yeah! Yeah, that's cool guys."

MJ snickered, "About time."

…

Patrol was quiet. He looked at Lena on the rooftop of some building, her ponytail wavering slightly in the wind. She was listening to the police's radio com channel. He had seen her studying them in her free time so that they could get to crime before the police and hopefully solve the situation before it got worse. Lena was still rusty with the codes, but she had told him she enjoyed learning them.

"It is rather quiet," she said softly, staring off into the distance, "And the crimes that are happening are closer to the police force than they are to us."

Peter let his mind wander, and sat on the edge of the building, his feet dangling off the edge. Lena joined him, letting her head fall onto his shoulder. It was quiet nights like these that had been horribly awkward for them when their relationship was dwindling. Lena would sit and use her AI to do homework, while Peter would eat a sandwich and pretend to keep himself busy. In all actuality, he was wishing he could say something to mend the distance they had created. Now they were closer than they had ever been before.

"How did your interview with Morita go?" Peter inquired, pushing through the silence.

She sighed, "It went smoothly, I stuck to the story. The men were trying to question literally everything I was saying. It was...what is that 'I' word?"

Peter shuffled through negative adjectives that started with the letter, "Irritating?"

"Yes. It was irritating. I was lying. But I had a reason to lie. It was not because I had anything to do with the Arsonist."

"We got an identity to protect."

"We do. Other than that, I found out they were detectives from the NYPD. They were desperate to find out where Tony is keeping the villain."

"Mr. Stark will never give that information up."

They stayed silent for another minute or two when the other topic that Peter had on his mind drifted into his memory. He was hesitant to ask for a moment, and then decided it would be best to keep it inside their heads. Peter had learned that some things, even the simplest of things, were better left unsaid.

Can I ask you something? He felt his heartbeat pick up, oddly. There wasn't much to be nervous about going into this conversation.

Of course.

Why have you been studying MJ so intensely?

He could feel her clench her teeth on his shoulder, I think she knows about us.

Of course she does, we told her today-

No! No, I mean being Spider-Man and the Siren. I think she knows.

Peter didn't respond, not knowing how. For a moment he felt that there should be no reason that MJ had found out their secret, but then Peter caught himself. That would be a serious underestimation of his friend's intelligence. She was smart without effort, and Lena had described her mental stability as comparable to Mr. Stark's, who was a child prodigy and considered a genius.

Should we tell her? Peter asked.

Not yet. I do not think so. I...I do not know. There was a deep conflict hanging on her thoughts.

She flinched, sat up, clenching her hands into fists. She had heard something over the radio that had visibly upset her. Standing, she looked across the labyrinth of skyscrapers, searching for something. When Peter tried to look in her head to see what it was, he could feel that it was the equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. He stood next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

What's wrong?

She looked at him, We need to get to the Gotham Hotel as soon as possible.

He frowned, Lena, that's maybe 20 minutes away-

10-56a, attempting suicide. That means someone is standing at the top of a building right now, waiting for a sign. We have to be that sign. She looked troubled and upset, but simultaneously determined. Let's go.