Peter
"Isa?" Hallie tried to stumble up off the couch, but wasn't making it very gracefully. Peter took pity on her and stood, supporting her into standing as he did.
Isa gave her a quick hug, and then turned expectantly to Peter. "So you're the guy, huh?" She looked skeptical, and her arms were folded stiffly across her body.
"Uh, yeah, Isa, this is Pe- er, Nate Rushman?" Hallie was not a great liar, especially with no preparation.
"You seem really unsure about that name, Hallie," Isa said, even more suspicious. "I'm Isa Montez, Hallie's roommate. Well, I was, anyway." More glaring.
"Ah," Peter's expression cleared. "In that case, I'm Peter, Isa. It's very nice to meet you. Plenty of time spent with Tony Stark had taught him when to dial up his natural charm when necessary. It was as essential in the boardroom as Natasha's training was to his Avengers activities. He shook her hand, pulling her in a little closer to them, so he could explain things in a quieter voice. "For various reasons, I'm not using my real name on campus, and we're not advertising the soulmate stuff. We can explain more later, but obviously you don't need that cover story."
Isa's expression was less antagonistic now, and she looked intrigued. "Hmm. But I should call you 'Nate?'"
"If you don't mind, that would be helpful," Peter said, inferring that she'd be doing him and Hallie both a great favor. Isa seemed to consider that, and nodded.
"It's good to see you, Hallie. We've been a little worried about you." Her face was more relaxed, but her posture was still stiff.
"Good to see you too, Isa. You don't need to worry. I'm really, really good, I promise," Hallie said, pressing into Peter's side and smiling up at him. The fond look on her face made him want to kiss her again, but he didn't think that would help his case with Isa.
"We do need to come by and get the rest of Hallie's stuff soon," Peter said. "Maybe we can coordinate with the two of you and bring dinner or something, so we can chat more?"
"That would be really good," said Isa, smiling a little more naturally. "Just let me know Hallie, and we'll plan it."
"I've got to get to my job, but make sure you text me soon, Hallie."
"I will. Sorry I haven't been in contact. We were in California this weekend, and then I got sick. I'm good now, though."
Isa's eyebrows had jumped up in surprise, but then she nodded, then headed quickly in the direction she had been going.
"Well, that was unexpected," Hallie said quietly, sitting back down. "I really should have given them an update or something. I didn't know they might be worried."
"Well, they could have texted you too, sweetheart. Don't feel bad about it. We'll get with them soon and tell them some of the story. And hopefully if they spend a little time with us, and get to know me a little, they won't worry anymore."
"You're right. What time is it?"
"12:45. We've got about 10 minutes before we need to head to your next class." He glanced around, and finding them basically alone, ducked his head to kiss her. She was pretty sure this was her new favorite activity too. It was just getting really good when Peter suddenly eased himself away and put a decent amount of space between them. Her whimper of protest died as he touched a finger to his lips and said softly. "Sorry, dolcezza. My sense was just buzzing a little, and-" Before he could finish, two security guards walked by. There were rules against excessive PDA in the buildings, and though they would have probably just gotten a warning, they didn't need any extra attention.
"Hey, that's pretty handy, isn't it?" she said once they passed. "How exactly does that work? I thought it was just for danger?"
He sat back and urged her into his side. "I'm really not sure. We haven't ever figured out exactly what causes it. It's generally pretty reliable, and even warns me if someone is watching me too much, or with negative intent. I'm finding it gets a little iffy when I'm kissing you, though. I tend to get a little tunnel vision. Probably best not to get too carried away unless we're somewhere safe, in the meantime, until I figure out what it's doing."
"Hmm. That's unfortunate."
"Oh, I agree," he said fervently. "But, time to head to class. What is it again?"
"Biostatistics for Public Health."
"Sounds riveting; let's go."
Peter
Hallie's Biostatistics class was more annoying than the first two. The professor was kind of pompous, but obviously not an expert in his field. He wasn't presenting the current issues well at all.
On top of that, there were two guys in Hallie's class who were having a fairly unsavory conversation in the back of the room about what they had been up to during spring break. Peter was having a hard time tuning them out. He had kind of forgotten about this part of college, especially when stuffed in a room with a bunch of barely-adults with questionable habits and decision-making skills. He had most of what he could done in his own course without the professor approving the next step, so he was just going through schedules and emails for SI. To further distract himself, he was making designs and patterns on Hallie's back with his free hand.
When the professor said something just patently untrue about a current issue they were studying, he couldn't help himself, and he started texting FRIDAY. He pulled up the relevant article to back up his correction, and had her text it to man's personal cell phone, (how she got that number was a bit of a gray area) bypassing the Do Not Disturb function. That was fun. Almost as fun as the professor's face when he was stopped mid-pace by the sound of a frog croaking. He quickly fumbled with his phone, and looked in confusion at the article that had come through, with an explanation of how what he was teaching was false. The professor looked speechless, but covered it by asking the class to read silently from a link in the lesson for a few minutes.
Peter carefully didn't stare at him, but watched him out of the corner of his eye as the man furiously read and typed on his phone, probably trying to figure out who the message had come from. But FRIDAY was far too sophisticated for that. Peter couldn't help chuckling quietly.
"Hallie looked at him suspiciously, then at her distraught teacher." She narrowed her eyes.
"What did you do?"
A picture of innocence, Peter said, "Huh? What do you mean?"
"I've never seen him like that, and you seem way too self-satisfied. What did you do, Parker?"
I'm supposed to just sit here while he teaches your whole class something that's totally wrong? I just sent him updates information so he can make better life choices."
She seemed torn between glaring at him and laughing. "How in the world did you get his number?"
"Oh, that wasn't me. That was FRIDAY," he said with mock humility.
"You are too much, Pete."
"Nate." She rolled her eyes and reached under the table to run her fingers over his sleeve where his soul mark was.
His eyes closed in exaggerated enjoyment. "Is that your idea of a punishment? Because I can cause a lot more chaos in any class you choose without anyone finding out I'm behind it."
"It's a good thing I know what a good person you actually are. It's terrifying to think of someone with bad intentions having access to your family's resources."
He grinned at her. "Lucky world, right?" She scoffed as her teacher finally pulled himself together, backtracking a little bit on what he had been saying before.
Peter very carefully did not let his satisfaction show on his face, because the professor was obviously looking around for hints of who had sent that text to him.
Spanish II was actually fun. The professor wanted them working and conversing in small sections, but she and her aide were having a hard time getting around to all the groups to help with pronunciation or questions about how to phrase things. They seemed a little harried. When they came around to Hallie's group, Peter spoke quietly to the professor in (flawless, of course) Spanish and asked if he could help out. Being fluent in Spanish wasn't something that stood out as much as being able to teach the Physics lecture. He figured it was pretty low risk.
The woman gratefully accepted, and with a quick brush of Hallie's hair, he was circulating as well, enjoying his interaction with most of the students, and happy to finally be useful that day.
After about 20 minutes, he heard a quiet "Pete, I need you," and he nonchalantly made his way to Hallie's group, sitting close to her, pressing their knees together while he worked with her group for 7-8 minutes. He was able to set his hand on her back once as well without drawing any attention, which gave her a little soul mark boost. Most of the kids in her group realized he was her boyfriend already, so it wasn't anything surprising.
It was fun speaking Spanish, however rudimentary, with Hallie. He wondered if she would be interested in learning any other languages, or even just improving her Spanish to a full conversational level. That could be a lot of fun to work on together, if she enjoyed it.
Peter talked with her professor for a few minutes after. He explained that the soulmate thing was kind of on the down-low, but that he'd be in class with Hallie the next two class periods at least, and was available if they had more exercises they needed extra help with. She seemed very pleased, and he enjoyed their conversation. Hallie had been at his side for the conversation, a look of concentration on her face as she tried to follow some of it.
"Well, you're popular," she teased as they walked out. Did you mention to Señora Alba that you also speak Italian?"
"No," he said with a smile. "Along with a few others."
"What?" What else do you speak?"
"Um, Spanish and Italian are my best, then French, Japanese, and Arabic. I can understand most Mandarin, but my accent is still pretty bad. I'm working on that."
"Are you kidding me? Pe- um, I mean, is there anything you don't do well?"
"Probably lots of things. I just really like learning new things, and communication is important. Languages are something Karen can help me with while I'm patrolling or swinging, so I've had a lot of time to work on them. After you get it all down though, you usually have to spend some time immersed in it to solidify things."
"There is still so much I don't know about you," she breathed, shaking her head.
"Same. I'm looking forward to learning everything I can about you over the next few years," he said softly, smiling down at her." Then, "Starting with the rest of your schedule. Anything else today?"
"Mmm, I have my Organic Chemistry lab Tuesday nights from 7-10."
"Yikes, long Tuesdays."
"Yeah, sorry."
"No, it's fine. I think you told me that before, I just forgot. I got a lot of my coursework caught up this morning, but I do need to work on some SI stuff this afternoon, and I have a quick meeting with security at 4. You can come to that one with me; it's just Happy and the other building heads, and they know our situation anyway. I could really use a little exercise though. Are you up for running yet?"
"I think I'd better give it one more day. But I can come hang out in the training room and work on my homework while you do that?" We could do that right after your meeting and before dinner?"
"Good plan. What's on deck for tomorrow?"
"I have O-Chem at 10, Thermodynamics and Kinetics at 11, and then Psychology at 2:30."
"Sheesh, Hal, you sound like me. How many credits are you carrying right now?"
"Uh, 24? But Psychology and Biostatistics aren't hard."
"And you were working how many hours a week?"
"Usually 20-30."
"And you were going to add Bruce's internship on top of that?" Hallie winced a little.
"When did you sleep, Hal?" She had bunched her shoulders defensively, and he reached for them, rubbing them softly until she relaxed under his touch..
"When I could. It's the same price to take 12 credits as it is to take 24, and I did 20-22 the last three semesters, so I was pretty sure I could handle it. It was next semester, when I was planning to do 26 that I was really worried. Maybe that will be okay now, though," she said hopefully.
Peter didn't really have anything to say to that. He pulled her in close and just hugged her. He couldn't change the past. He could make the future a little more reasonable for her though. She had cut out the 20-30 hours at an exhausting job, and even if she picked up another day of interning with Bruce, she would at least be getting sleep now, and more predictable meals. He did have some influence on those. He had no doubts that she could handle the academics, but he hoped that she wouldn't have to kill herself to do so now. It didn't matter at all if it took her a semester longer than she planned, since she wasn't going to need to stress about adding more loans to make it happen.
"Should we go home for the next 3-4 hours? Get some stuff done, let me get some movement in? There were a few freshmen I had to keep myself from webbing up and hanging out the window, so I have some aggression to work out."
"Oh no, you could probably hear a lot of things you didn't want to! I didn't think about that."
"Baby, you have no idea. I was having major flashbacks from my first time around as an undergrad. You also had a few admirers in at least two classes who weren't at all happy to see me."
Her mouth dropped open. "What?"
"Yeah, that was exciting. No worries, from what I could hear, you dodged a couple bullets, if they had ever gotten brave enough to do anything about it."
After a quick snack, they went to Peter's security meeting, and Hallie was introduced to more people. Afterwards she said she didn't realize how nice the anonymity of school was, compared to when people at the Tower knew who she really was. Hallie worked on Calculus and Physics homework while Peter swung around the training room. No one was available to train with him, so he just concentrated on getting some energy out. It felt good, but he was really anxious to get back to at least a little bit of patrolling. He needed to talk to Tony, and maybe Dr. Cho about when that might be safe again, soulmate-wise. It was a huge sacrifice, but Hallie was worth it. Maybe if Tony shadowed him? As much as it felt unnecessary, it might be a way he could get out sooner.
Twenty minutes passed quickly, and he took a break to sit with Hallie. Since they were alone, they responsibly split their "together" time between "physical connection" of the kissing variety and him helping Hallie out with anything that confused her in her homework. They continued that pattern for about an hour and a half before it was time to clean up and eat before they had to get to Hallie's lab. Before they left though, Peter had a thought.
"Hey, Hal?"
"Yeah?" She was getting all her books and laptop put away, but paused to answer him.
"Are you interested in swinging with me a little bit?"
"Um, I don't know? How does that work? But yeah, that sounds awesome," she grinned at him.
"Some people get a little bit of motion sickness, but others enjoy it. I thought it might be good to know where you lie on that scale."
"How many people have you done this with?"
"Well, civilians, occasionally, when I'm getting them out of emergency situations. I haven't done any exit interviews about how they handled it though," he smiled.
"Tony doesn't enjoy it, but doesn't get sick. Morgan loves it. The one time I had to do it with Happy he said he'd rather die next time, thanks. Aunt May thinks it's fun, but only for a minute or two. Ned said he liked it, but I'm pretty sure he threw up after. MJ thought it was terrifying."
"MJ." Hallie's eyes were thoughtful. "You said I'd get to meet her?"
"Oh man, I can't believe it's been over a week and we haven't at least gotten on a video call. She lives with her husband, Jace, and their new baby in Seattle. I'd love to make introductions in person, but it might be a couple months if we wait for that. I'll see if I can set something up in the next day or two. Thanks for the reminder."
Hallie set her stuff down and walked over to him. "So, how do we do this?"
"Well, one of the most secure ways is to wrap your legs around my waist, and put your arms around my neck, but not so tight that I can't breathe?"
She laughed nervously, "okay, let's try. How do I get up?"
"Just jump into my arms? I'll catch you."
Her jump was perfect the first time, and he loved having her holding onto him closely like that. He put one hand around her back and got a solid hold.
"I'm using my spider stickiness to hold onto you, so my grip is more secure than it feels, okay?" She nodded, eyes bright. "You ready?" Another nod.
He shot a web out and jumped. It was a little awkward swinging one-armed (and they had actually rigged a harness that he could use with a passenger-of-sorts so he could swing two-handed, but he wasn't sure where it was) but still very doable. He couldn't tell how Hallie was handling it. She was squealing a little bit, and holding onto him a bit tighter than was comfortable, but it was still really fun. He loved listening to her heart rate, quick with excitement.
After about five minutes he landed them on the ground near the stairs to the viewing deck, and he looked down nervously to see if he could gauge her end reaction.
She let go and slid down to the ground, and then turned her face up to him, her eyes shining.
"That. Was. Amazing!" She was so excited, and didn't seem to have any adverse effects at all. Peter found himself grinning, so happy that he might be able to share this with his soulmate.
He pulled her in a big hug, and then bent his head to kiss her soundly. He couldn't wait to take her swinging outside. Hmm. If he wore his ear buds, and someone was on the ground watching for issues, was there any reason he couldn't swing - just swing - outside with her soon? The possibility cheered him more than he could say.