Author's Note: Spoilers for No Way Home and Hawkeye. When I took the job at Bishop Security, I was convinced Kate Bishop would be my boss, nothing more. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd fall in love with her. Eventual Peter/Kate, with some Peter/MJ moments. T for now.
Reunion
By Ninazadzia
We visit a life we both left behind
Ignore the heart
Move to the ever-moving
Or, blazin', we go over
And over and over and over again
If I wait too long
I'll lose you from my sight
Maybe tonight
I could stop dreaming
And start believing in forever
And ever and ever and ever again
~Reunion, the xx
~June, 2025~
My first week in corporate America was a complete whirlwind.
"Corporate" isn't necessarily the best word to describe Bishop Security, but it was a far cry from any environment I'd worked in before. I had my own computer and fax machine, with a login and everything. I had a company email address. My office-slash-cubicle was in a secluded wing of the building down the hall from Kate, who I quickly realized came and went as much as her job needed her to.
"Settling in okay, Peter?"
That was Amy, my "supervisor," if you could even call her that much. Like Kate, she floated in and out on an as-needed basis, and her position seemed like it was a combination of a few different things that had very little to do with IT. Kate also wasn't underselling how much she wanted to clean house—in the three days I'd been at Bishop Security, I don't think I'd seen a single person over the age of 35.
Except for Jack Duquesne, that was.
"He's doing marvelously!" Jack answered for me. He clapped a hand on my back. "Don't think I've ever seen anyone make themselves at home quite so quickly, to tell the truth of it."
"Everyone's been really great," I managed with a shrug.
Amy rolled her eyes at Jack and flashed me a smile. "Great. I'm happy to hear it." She pointed to Kate's door. "You haven't seen her yet today, have you?"
I shook my head. I was thirty minutes until she normally broke for lunch. "I got in kind of late this morning," I confessed. "Subway issues."
"Ah. Which neighborhood are you heading up from?"
"I'm in Hell's Kitchen. I think they're working on part of the A train, I honestly couldn't really figure it out."
That last part was a lie. The A train was running just fine in Hell's Kitchen. The real reason I'd been late was because I'd been out until nearly three the night before, tracking a loose connection to someone I believed to be part of a mob in Hell's Kitchen. It wasn't my normal sort of rap—I tried to stick to the lower-level, friendly-neighborhood type crimes—but lately every single crime I'd come across followed a couple of different and bizarre patterns. Namely, that its perpetrators made what I at first assumed were hand signals, and later came to find out was actually American Sign Language.
I was close to a name, and more importantly, close to sussing out who to hand it off to. Because if my instincts were right, I was potentially wading neck deep into the criminal underbelly of New York. And as a publicly disgraced former Avenger, I definitely didn't have the street cred to take on an organized operation all on my own.
"Sorry! So sorry I'm late!"
That was Kate, bursting in through the door, holding her dog and his leash in one hand, and precariously clutching onto four iced coffees in the other. "Could someone—"
She didn't even have to finish her sentence. "On it!" I ran over before I could think twice about it, catching one of the iced coffees as it was about to fall to the ground.
I stopped in my tracks.
Shit. I'd just full-blown spider-caught it, in an office full of people.
I glanced to my left and my right. Yep. Amy and Jack were both staring at me. But that could be anything, right? I thought. You know—they could be thinking I'm spastic. Or awkward, or freakishly coordinated. Anything other than that I'm superhuman, dear God.
"Wow," Kate managed, clearing her throat. She tapped the coffee I caught. "Okay, so funnily enough, that one's yours. Killer reflexes, by the way."
I managed a laugh. Best to not draw attention to it and just move on, Peter. "Thanks."
"Amy, Jack—we all set for that lunch meeting?"
Amy clapped her hands together. "Yes! Let me just get some of my things together—Peter, do you want anything from downstairs? Salad, sandwich?"
"I'm fine for now, thanks," I said, holding up the coffee.
She flashed me a smile, and then turned to look at Kate. "Hey—that thing we're doing, for your birthday. Isn't it close to Hell's Kitchen?"
"Close to? More like smack in the middle of it."
Amy turned back to me. "Want to come? It's the best dart tournament in New York City—the beer isn't bad either."
It took me a second to realize that Amy was inviting me out for Kate Bishop's birthday. And to a dart tournament, no less.
"Well, I'll have to take a pass on the beer. I'm still underage."
"Not if you use that pre-blip ID," Jack said with a wink.
Amy and Kate simultaneously yelled "Hey" at him from across the room. "Ignore him," Kate said, brushing him aside. "It's 18+ for the tournament. You just need to show ID at the bar if you want to drink, otherwise you're good to go."
"And if your coffee catching abilities are any indication, we could stand to have you on our team," Amy added.
"Oh, no—that was dumb luck." I stopped and thought for a second. Going to a darts tournament with my boss and supervisor, in a setting that involved alcohol, no less? It had "bad idea" written all over it. But then I remembered the connection I'd been tracking the night before, and where it had taken me in Hell's Kitchen. "What's the name of the bar?" I asked.
Sure enough, it was a stone's throw from where I'd spent most of last night staked out. "Richardson's. I'll text you the address?"
"Yeah. Sure thing."
"What'd I tell you?" Yelena asked, the second they left the room.
"Yeah," Kate said with a sigh. "You were right. He's our guy." She narrowed her eyes on Yelena. "Why'd you have to go rogue and invite him to the tournament?"
"What?! So I want to win, sue me."
"Yeah, let's not forget that the real reason we're going there isn't to drink and play darts. If we're wrong about him—"
"—which we're not—"
"—still, on the off-chance we are, he could get really hurt. We're literally taking him into the middle of Maya's territory. If shit goes sideways, we can't protect him."
"All the more reason to have him there," Jack interjected. He smirked at Kate. "He likes you, you know. I can see it in his eyes."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Please. I'm his boss. I probably scare the living crap out of him."
"Well, Jack might have a point," Yelena said with a shrug. "Besides, if Parker has a crush on you, I doubt he'd let anything bad happen to you. Assuming, you know, his Spider abilities aren't limited to catching overpriced beverages."
Jack started to laugh, and Kate responded by elbowing him in the ribs. "Don't encourage her."
Jack was right, of course.
I didn't realize it, not at first. I thought it was what Kate had said—that she was my boss, and I was her subordinate, and that every time I looked at her I was overcome with a combination of admiration and intimidation. But as the months wore on and as Kate and I got closer and got to know each other, I realize now that what I thought were mixed feelings I had about Kate tied to her being my boss, were really feelings of fear I had about her. I didn't want to let her down. I didn't want to disappoint her. I didn't want her to figure out who I really was, and for her to be liable for me, or in any way hurt by being tied to Spider-Man.
I was so determined, in any way I could, to get her to like me—or at the very least, to see me as more than just some 18-year-old kid she'd rolled the dice on.
Little did I know, Kate Bishop had known who I was from long before I ever formally met her. And I could thank being Spider-Man for the reason I had a job at Bishop Security in the first place.
Author's Note: First and foremost, Happy New Year everyone! Hope you guys had a wonderful holiday. Thank you so much for the wonderful response to chapter one, I was blown away by all of your nice comments in the reviews. It really keeps us going (as I'm sure anyone who has written a fanfic can attest to) and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
Next off, slight continuity discrepancy—I got the year wrong at the start of this fic. I thought Far From Home and Hawkeye were set right after the snap at the end of 2023, but it turns out they were set a year after the Blip at the end of 2024. So I've adjusted the dates accordingly; we are in the year 2025, not 2024. Peter and Kate were born in 2002, not 2001. Cool? Cool.
Preview for next chapter – we get Kate, Peter and co. at the dart's tournament in Hell's Kitchen, and we find out what MJ has been up to.
I plan on updating this fic about once a week, so check back next Sunday for the next chapter! As always, thank you for reading.
Best,
xx Nina