The next day was largely uneventful, other than Peter being a bit more distracted than usual for some reason. After school, I visited Hank again and found out that he had been waiting for me to realize the electronic issue and already had a device ready for me that was compatible with the machine on my glasses.

But I had finally figured out the direction I wanted to take in my personal research, and Wednesday was the day I'd begin. Shed or no shed, I was not going to stall. It helped that I didn't really need to read any labels or work with chemicals for the beginning.

In chemistry, where I was actually advanced past what the teacher was explaining, Peter was the only one to notice that what I was scribbling away on a piece of paper was not what was being taught. It figures it was him, because he was one of the only other people just as advanced (if not more so) as I was in that particular subject.

"Hebi," he whispered, directly to my right across the aisle, where he shared a table with Ned. MJ was on my left, sandwiching me between them. He was close enough for the sound to easily be picked up by my hearing aids, even though they weren't turned up very high since I didn't need to pick up every word the teacher was saying. I turned my head over to him, raising an eyebrow in question. "What are you doing? Is that blood?"

I blinked, and "looked" down where I had successfully gotten a small vial of my own blood set up in the drawer of my and MJ's desk. I was going to work with actual snake blood, but that would be hard to obtain so I was stuck with my own for the moment.

"It's a personal project of mine," I whispered back, and went back to facing my paper. Thankfully, Hank's machine worked with raising the temperature of pencil graphite too, or else my own scribbles would have been impossible for me to read. I kept a hearing-aided ear out to make sure the teacher was still droning on and ignoring us. "If I make any good headway, I'll tell you about it. But I'm just beginning it, so it's not very exciting yet," I informed him softly. I was still writing out hypotheses, things I wanted to test, and possible ways for me to examine the blood. I was also writing out ideas for how to extract specific strands or compounds of DNA, once I narrowed down what I needed, and other such ideas. "I'll be staying after school today to work on it, so don't wait for me."

"Hebi," the teacher called out when she realized I was talking. "Solve the equation on the board?" I raised my head, moving my hand to adjust the settings on my glasses as if I was just adjusting their position, and allowed the device to increase the temperature of the chalk on the board for me. Once it was in focus, I grinned and rattled out the answer before going right back to my work. The woman huffed and continued on, obviously realizing I was plenty caught up.

"Your personal project deals with blood?" Peter asked after a moment of pretending to pay attention. I smiled, pleased at his interest. I turned my head towards him, realizing with a flash of amusement that his nose was scrunched up in distaste. I bit the inside of my lip to keep myself from laughing— if I had actually been able to see it with my eyes, I might not have been as successful.

"DNA," I corrected softly. "And that's as far I'm going to elaborate for now," I tilted my head in thought. Could I extract DNA from a snake shed? Blood would be easier to work with on an experimental level, but sheds would be easier to get my hands on.

At lunch, I was still scribbling notes even as I listened to my friends converse and shoved food in my mouth every now and then. Matt had decided to switch things up so I didn't get tired of Japanese lunches, and even though he packed my lunch in a bento box still it was just miniature sandwiches, fruit, and vegetable soup in a cute penguin thermos he had Foggy buy for him off a Japanese website.

Plus, some iced tea I brewed for myself in a cute bottle from the same website that I had bought for myself several weeks earlier.

"Dude, internal hurts more," Peter was arguing with Ned over what injuries were worse, broken bones or internal injuries. "Right, Hebi?"

I raised my head, and then tilted it in thought. I had had just about every injury in existence, so I supposed I was a pretty good authority for that argument.

"Well. Broken bones can hurt more sometimes, especially if they're visible and you find yourself staring at blood and maybe even showing bone. It's just really gross," I wrinkled my nose. "But," I said before Ned could celebrate. "Internal injuries can just be more stressful over all because you can't see what's wrong, so you get paranoid that maybe it's not being healed right or the doctors overlooked something when patching you up. Plus, your torso is just more sensitive in general and it's the center of movement in the body so you'd bother your injuries a lot more easily than broken bones," I shrugged. "I guess it really just depends on the exact injury. A ruptured spleen hurts a hell of a lot more than a broken toe, for example. But if you break your arm or shin bad enough, then that could trump it. It just depends," I went back to my work.

"Did you actually get all those injuries?" Ned asked, curious. I groaned in despair as I wrote.

"Un-fucking-fortunately. Believe it or not, my body used to be incredibly frail and I was disaster on legs as a kid. I would climb on top of anything and everything, but I was also the clumsiest person I knew. It was a horrible match," I confided in them. "After I got into dancing and martial arts, it got better. Now you can't even tell I used to have two left feet or that I ruptured my spleen just from falling off the monkey bars at my school's playground when I was five."

"What the hell?" MJ asked, putting down her book to look at me incredulously. "A ruptured spleen is what people commonly get from car crashes!"

"And yet a fall from a five-foot-high monkey bar burst mine into bits that were too small for the doctors to even try removing," I agreed solemnly.

"Wow," Peter said from his spot across from me, shaking his head in disbelief. "I was pretty clumsy when I was little too, but wow."

I laughed, nodding. "Yeah, it was bad. It didn't help that I used to have mild asthma, so the teachers took a while to figure out if my shortness of breath was from that or my pain. Spoiler alert: it was my pain," I told them with a nostalgic smirk. "It was absolutely horrifying at the time, but now I just look back and think about how much of an idiot I was back then."

"You were five," Ned argued. "Some idiocy is expected."

I shrugged, still smiling. "Yeah. My mom was so mad at me back then, I'll never forget it. I was always running to the nurse's office to get out of class even when I wasn't sick or hurt, so my mom didn't think anything was actually wrong. Three hours after the end of school, and I'm finally taken to the ER," I sighed nostalgically. "Good times."

"You have a very odd definition of good times," Peter told me, sounding equal parts amused and concerned.

"I'll never get a good picture of you in distress, will I?" MJ just asked blandly from my side, disappointed. I stuck my tongue out at her unrepentantly.

"If we ever play an endurance game, you're on my team," Ned immediately voiced. "You hear that guys? I call Hebi. She's my ticket to victory."

"You would never actually agree to an endurance game Ned," MJ retorted. "Besides, why would we ever do that? Hacking the pentagon sounds more fun."

I snapped my fingers, pointing to her with a wide smile. "A girl after my own heart," I said dramatically. "We shall break rules and learn all the dirty secrets."

"Should you even be allowed near the computer hacking the most secure database in the country?" Peter asked slowly, tone teasing. "Your presence might spontaneously disrupt the connection."

I put a hand over my heart as all three of my friends laughed at that. "I resent that!" I said in the haughtiest tone I could muster. In reality, hacking was another essential assassin skill and as such I was well versed in it. It was nowhere near my favorite thing to do, but I could do it competently. "On the contrary, I am a fine hacker. Not anywhere near the same level as Nedry dear," I waved my hand to indicate our resident coding genius. "But I am more than capable. It's exposed wires and open circuits that don't like me."

"And monkey bars," Ned pitched in helpfully, making us all laugh.

—*—*—*—*—*

"I mean, the problem is that I don't know how much of it is psychosomatic," I was telling Matt over the phone, which was on speaker to the side of me as I used one of the lab's microscopes to inspect a drop of my blood. I'd need a much stronger one later, of which I would shamelessly use my connection to Hank and Pym Tech to get ahold of, but for the initial observations a normal one would do. Of course, I was still on my shed so I wasn't using my eyes to observe. Instead, I had the digital microscope hooked up to a computer screen, which had Hank's latest device attached to it to allow me to read the screen with my heat vision.

Not the most accurate thing in the world, but it was serviceable for my impatient self. It helped that I was the only one in the chem lab. All the chemicals were locked up, so there was no teacher in the room to watch me.

"What do you mean?" Matt's voice asked from the other side of the line.

"Snakes have a natural repulsion to alcohol. That's why it's a common practice to drop a couple drops of vodka or other alcohol into a snake's mouth if it bites you, to make it let go. They hate the stuff. But I also have intense psychological trauma related to alcohol and it's very repulsive scent, ala my mommy issues, so I don't know if my really strong aversion to the stuff is biological or psychological."

"Ah," Matt said eloquently. I jotted down the basic observations I got from my blood, and sighed in frustration. Most of my readings were skewed because of the trace radiation in my blood and DNA, which was changing the basic structure of it ever so slightly to make a difference. I wrote it all down, and then removed the sample slide of my blood from under the microscope so I could safely burn it when I got home.

"What now?" Matt asked when he heard my annoyed sigh.

"If I wanted to give people superpowers, I'd have somewhere to start," I said simply. "But I don't, so I don't. I need to examine normal snake DNA, my blood has too many different things going on for me to easily isolate what I'm looking for."

"You aren't allowed to leave the city to look for snakes."

I rolled my eyes from behind my eye caps, packing everything away and putting Hank's computer-reading tech in my pocket. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, and grabbed my phone.

"Wasn't gonna. I'm making a stop at an exotic pet store tomorrow after school, FYI. I should be able to ask for snake sheds pretty easily. Then I can make a call to the nearest exotic veterinary college and see if I can request a few sample blood vials be sent over."

"Don't forget to mention that you're a Midtown Tech student, that school's name has some serious pull in the science world," Matt suggested easily. I clicked the call off speaker as I entered the empty hallways and made my way out of the school.

"I will," I promised. "I'm heading back to the apartment now. In a way, it's kind of a good thing I need to go somewhere to get DNA samples," I mused out loud. I heard Matt hum curiously. "Well, Peter's been trying to get me to go over to his house. You know, the Tower," I lowered my voice a little on the place's name so I didn't attract attention. There weren't very many people walking around the front of the school so long after the school day had ended, but better safe than sorry. "But obviously I can't go over this week. The more legitimate things I have to do, the easier it will be for me to stall until Monday. Oh yeah, that reminds me. Can I go over to Peter's place Monday after school?"

Matt chuckled, probably rolling his eyes from where he was in his office. "Yeah, sure. But I'm going to come pick you up so I can meet him first. So tell him to walk with you so you can meet me a couple blocks from the school, okay? That way we don't make a scene in front of it."

"Sounds good," I agreed.

The rest of the week was a sightless blur. I was spending the whole time studying one of the snake sheds I managed to get from a pet store, and isolating the DNA from it. When Friday rolled around, I had ten pages—front and back— of notes filled out and I was still writing more.

"Okay, you need a break," MJ announced after school Friday, as I was using my glasses to "read" over my notes as we walked. "You've only looked up from your little 'personal project'," I could sense MJ's hands rise up to make finger quotations around those last two words, "To join in on some of our conversations or work on classwork. But you're going to burn out at this rate. Take the dorks up on their offer to visit the Tower already, they're getting annoying about it," the curly haired girl jabbed a thumb in the direction of the boys.

And suddenly I was glad for my temporary blindness, because both of them almost certainly had puppy dog faces on.

"Not today," I declined again, sighing. It was getting harder and harder to say no to the guys. "I told you, I like being somewhere familiar and comfortable when my eyes are going through their light sensitive phase. It should be over by Monday though, so I can come over then if you want?"

"Yes!" Peter cheered, pumping a fist in the air as we went down the stairs in front of the school.

"But," I held up a finger, making him droop in disappointment that there was a catch. "My dad wants to meet you first, so he's gonna wait for us a couple blocks that way," I jabbed my thumb is the direction of me and Matt's apartment. "So that we don't make a huge scene in front of the school. We can head over to your place right after though."

Peter hummed, bobbing his head up and down. "Sounds good. I'll tell my family about it, they'll probably want to meet him too, even though Uncle Clint and Aunt Nat already did."

I grimaced at the reminder. "I really hope they never pay us a surprise visit like that again," I groaned, sighing. Peter just chuckled nervously, unable to make that promise. A car honked, and Peter waved towards us.

"That's me," he told us. "I'll see you tomorrow for more Mechanics 101, right? Ten in the morning like before?"

I wrinkled my nose. "Peterrrrr," I groaned dramatically. "Not right nowwwwwww," I whined.

"You better have that laptop fixed by Monday, then!" He reminded me before jogging off to enter the expensive-smelling car that had pulled up to pick him up.

—*—*—*—*—*

I opened my eyes on Monday, peeled off my detached eye caps, and took in the light flooding into the room with unparalleled joy.

"Finalyyyyyyy!" I cheered, stretching out of my sleep-doughnut. "Oh I never thought I'd like the color purple so much," I moaned dramatically, talking about the bright neon sign that was still shining directly into our living room. Matt chuckled, and I sat up. "Are those blueberry pancakes?" I asked when I tasted the air.

"Yup," my dad confirmed, grinning back at me for a moment before flipping the one he had cooking on the pan.

"Have I ever told you that you're the best? Because you're the best," I praised as I got up and joined him in all my pajama-clad glory.

"Whatever you say, weirdo," he shot back fondly, using his spatula to slide the finished breakfast dish onto a plate and hand it to me before pouring more batter onto the hot pan.

I shoveled a few forkfuls of the fluffy delight into my mouth happily before getting up to make my breakfast tea, and hummed in thought. I still had about twenty minutes before I had to leave for school— plenty of time. I grabbed a few assorted containers of herbs and a couple empty jars, juggling it all precariously in my arms as I went back to my seat. Matt raised an eyebrow at me, wondering what the hell I was doing.

"I just realized it might be a good idea to take a gift," I told him simply. "I mean, Clint and Natasha—" man it felt weird calling them that, "—might be a little suspicious since they know about my background and everything, but they can suck it up and do tests on it to make sure it's clean if they want. I don't know how many of them actually like tea, so I'm just gonna bring two of my favorite blends," I explained. I shoved another bite of pancake into my mouth with one hand, and measured out the proper amount of herbs for my two best-selling home blends of teas on my website. It didn't take long. I sealed the containers and gave them a good shake to mix everything up, slapped on one of my sticker labels onto each lid, and then packed them in a cute drawstring bag with a few reusable tea bags.

I hummed, looking at the plain drawstring bag. I usually shipped my teas wrapped in one of them, inside the boxes and other packaging, whenever I shipped out an order from my online store. But it still seemed a bit plain.

"Maybe I'll see about starting up some store merch," I mused out loud. "I mean, WickedTea is doing really well, so I can afford it even if it doesn't sell. What do you think?"

"I think that if you do that, you'll somehow trick me into wearing one of your t-shirts to work and Foggy will never let me live it down," He deadpanned even though he knew the cotton shirts I was likely to order would never make their way onto his body because of how he thought of cotton as "itchy and uncomfortable."

Then again, we both knew I'd find a way to get one in silk just to trick him into wearing it if I really wanted to.

"Awesome. I'll start with bags, shirts, and baseball caps," I decided as I shoved the last bit of pancake into my mouth and my gifts into my backpack. Then I ran into Matt's room to grab my clothes from his closet and get ready for the day.

When I arrived to school without my thick purple tinted sunglasses, I could actually see Peter and Ned deflate with relief. I rolled my eyes at them, making sure they saw it as I pulled up even with my three friends.

"Back to normal," I assured them. "And yes, before you ask, I'm still okay with going to the Tower after school."

"Yesss!" Ned hissed, doing a little fist pump in joy. I snorted at him fondly, shaking my head. Peter was beaming too, and holy hell that smile was way more blinding after a week of not being able to see.

"Finally. Come on losers, before we're late", MJ drawled in her usual bored tone before turning and leading the way to English. I snorted, shaking my head in amusement and walking in between Ned and Peter as we followed her.

"We can finally show you the wonders of Legos," Peter was saying as we made a quick stop at our lockers, which were sadly far apart so we had to do it one at a time. MJ, as usual, completely ditched us to go to hers first. She'd meet up with us again before we got to class. When we got to mine, I traded the jars of tea I brought for the textbooks and journals I needed, which of course caught my two fellow nerds' eyes.

"What's that?" Ned asked, pointing to the bag. I smirked at him.

"It's a gift for Peter's family. Figured it was a nice gesture. But you don't get to know what it is," I teased, closing my locker before the hacker could try to peek.

"But it's a gift for the Avengers," he moaned in despair, making both me and Peter shush him, as usual, for being too loud. Luckily nobody paid attention to us losers, but still. Ned needed to learn how to keep a secret.

"It's nothing super expensive or special," I argued, frowning at him. As we walked, MJ casually strode over to rejoin us right as we reached the classroom. I briefly filled her in on what we were talking about before turning back to the techie. "I'll bring a smaller version for you tomorrow if you're that jealous, but I doubt you're gonna like it. I don't even know if Pete's family is gonna like it, it's just the only thing I could think of," I admitted as we all sat down.

"Well, there's a lot of them so I'm sure somebody's gonna love it," Peter assured me, patting my back. "Who knows, I might even end up stealing it all for myself," he joked. I snorted.

"If you do, tell me. I can get more," I agreed.

"You sound like a drug dealer right now," MJ butted in, raising an eyebrow and smirking at us slyly. I grimaced at her.

"If I was, I'd totally only sell the best shit," I joked. "But no, I'm a model citizen, thank you very much. It wounds me that you'd doubt my virtue," I held the back of my wrist against my forehead in exaggerated dramatics, pretending to faint as I leaned backwards to sprawl my head and upper back over her table behind me and cover her papers. "I'm devastated. Betrayed. How could you break my heart so?"

Ned and Peter laughed at me unashamedly, their laughter just getting louder when MJ only grinned and shoved me off of her table and I fell out of my seat because of her. I could have stayed in it, but I was trying to appear normal so I didn't.

Plus, making the boys laugh was often the goal of my day. It made me feel a little less like a monster every time I succeeded. That time was no different as I grinned up at them from my spot on the floor before getting up, dusting myself off, and sitting back down.

—*—*—*—*—*

Peter walked next to Hebi as the four of them walked out of the building after the end of the day. "You coming too, Ned?" The young vigilante asked his oldest friend, who smiled with a sly sparkle in his eyes before shaking his head.

"Nah man, my mom texted me. She wants me home early today for something. Have fun with Hebi!" The boy took off before Peter could call him out for the fact that he had forgotten his phone that day. He shrugged it off and turned to MJ, eyebrow raised in question. The curly haired girl snorted at the silent question, shaking her head.

"No way, I'm not gonna be a third wheel anytime soon. Have fun dorks," she waved at them before walking away with her nose in a book. Hebi blinked after them, slight confusion all over her face. Peter grinned at the way her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, but he could tell that she wasn't curious enough to worry about their mutual friends' odd behavior for long.

"Great. First Foggy was teasing me about dating you, now Ned and MJ?" Hebi asked with a long suffering sigh. Peter huffed a laugh in agreement.

"Oh my god, you too? My dad is constantly making jokes about us getting married. I hope he tones it down while you're over, but knowing him I won't keep my hopes up," he shared with the Asian girl. She laughed, shaking her head as they walked side by side down the street to meet up with her dad.

"Hey, I'm gonna look over my notes for my personal project until we run into my dad okay? Just wanna make sure I got everything sorted out before focusing on relaxing for the rest of the day with the World's Mightiest Heroes and their nerdy boy-child," she teased him easily, pulling out her latest sheet of notes even as she spoke. Peter waved her away.

"Don't worry about it, I gotta check up on where my dad is anyway," he assured her, holding up his phone before looking down at it and starting to tap the screen. The two of them walked in comfortable silence like that for a few minutes, only looking up when they needed to cross the street. Peter was the first to finish his phone-errands, shoving the device in his pockets and just looking around at the scenery as they walked.

That's why he was the first to pick up on the poorly-disguised Tony Stark and Steve Rogers standing in the middle of the sidewalk in front of them. His dad was wearing a thin black-and-grey hoodie and slightly-more-nondescript-than-usual black sunglasses and jeans. Steve was in a heavier jet black hoodie and a baseball cap.

Peter really had to have a talk with that guy about wearing shirts and jackets in a size too small. The blonde still stood out in the streets because of his all-too-noticeable large figure. The webslinger sighed, looking over to warn Hebi only to realize she was so deep in reading over her notes that she was mouthing them to herself. He knew from experience that she wouldn't hear him when she was like that, and shook his head in resignation.

Steve stood directly in her path, smiling disarmingly when he saw them.

"Hello there—"

And Hebi walked around him. Without ever looking up or acknowledging his massive presence right in front of her. Peter covered his mouth to muffle an amused snort. Tony decided to try his own luck, the much shorter hero stepping right in front of her so that she would almost have to bump into him. He didn't give her any time to register his presence, she should have bumped into him.

But instead, she just skipped backward, turned, and walked backwards around him without ever even glancing up from her notes. She was still mouthing them to herself.

Tony gawked, a little caught off guard. Steve jogged over, about to put a gentle hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

"Excuse me, um," the supersoldier started to say kindly, but Hebi easily sidestepped his grip without looking. It wasn't until a cane shot out, and she jumped over it, that she was startled out of her trance. She blinked rapidly, looking around her. And then a red haired body slammed into her.

She grunted, letting herself fall.

"Oh! Sorry, are you okay?" The man's voice asked, concern laced through his voice that Hebi recognized as being very fake. She sat on the ground for a moment, holding her notes in her hands, before laughing.

"Damn it, Matt, you did that on purpose!" She accused cheerfully, standing up and dusting herself off. The red headed man just smiled, lifting his white cane and collapsing it. Hebi was still chuckling as she put her notes away. It wasn't until her backpack was zipped up that she looked over at the three other surprised men with her, and she blinked as if just noticing their presence.

Oh, so that's who those heat signatures are, she thought to herself in epiphany.

"I didn't realize you were that observant, Hebi," Peter was the first to speak. "How'd you jump over the cane like that, you were completely lost to the world in your notes," he asked her. It had looked uncomfortably similar to how he reacted when he was distracted and was just reacting to his Spidey-sense instinctively.

"I'm pretty good at sensing when people and things are close by," she answered casually, hooking her thumbs in her pockets. "It's a learned skill. Comes in handy at home, when both my dad and I are walking around without looking where we're going," her grin turned impish. "Of course, he's never watching where he's going, but what else is new?"

Matt laughed, shaking his head at her in mock reproach. "Was that this Peter boy you've been mentioning?" He asked her, and she caught the hint and slipped into their normal charade. "And who was the man trying to talk to you, a minute ago?"

Hebi moved over and tapped Matt's arm gently, allowing him to gently grab her bicep like she had done to Peter the previous week. With practiced ease, Hebi maneuvered Matt to properly face the three men.

"Yes Matt, that was Peter," she confirmed. "He's about five feet in front of you and slightly to the left, now. His dad and Steve Rogers are here too. Steve is three feet in front and to your right, Tony is about two feet left of him," she told him as if she always had to explain proximity to him. Which she did, but only for show when they weren't alone or with only Foggy and Karen. "Peter, Mister Stark, Captain Rogers, I'm Hebi and is this my dad," I introduced them. Matt held out his free hand, his cane hanging by it's strap from one of his fingers that was around my bicep.

"Matthew Murdock," he introduced himself with professional ease and charm, smiling at them kindly. It was, as Hebi dubbed it, his "I am an innocent, harmless blind guy and you shall love me" smile.

"Ohmygod," Peter gushed before either of his family members could speak up. He walked forward energetically, taking the Lawyer's hand with a large smile. "I thought your blonde friend was Hebi's dad! Oh wait, do you know he's blond? He's blond. I'm being very awkward and I'm sorry, but oh my god I read all about your case against Wilson Fisk and I am a huge fan. And I've heard nothing but good news about you and—"

"Pete, you've been shaking his hand for twenty solid seconds," Hebi interjected, clearly biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She glanced over at her dad, who was caught off guard and slightly overwhelmed, but obviously pleased. Peter, at Hebi's words, instantly let go with a long string of mumbled apologies that finally broke Matt and made him laugh happily.

"Don't worry about it! Not many people recognize me until they hear my name, which I can relate to," his subtle blind joke made Peter relax slightly. "And it's always nice to know I'm doing something right. Keep an eye on Hebi at school for me, will you? She told me about what happened last Monday," Matt's face twisted into a disgruntled frown. "But she begged me not to do anything. Apparently a teacher having a power trip isn't a good enough reason for her to lose her job because Hebi can 'handle it,'" Matt made finger quotations with one hand.

"Matt," Hebi whined, wrinkling her nose in embarrassment, but he just plowed on ahead.

"And apparently Flash is just 'a pubescent idiot not worth your time killing,'" again with the finger quotations, "So my hands are tied. I'm relying on you, got it?"

Peter nodded so rapidly Hebi wondered if his head might fall off. Noticing Matt probably wouldn't catch the gesture, he nervously stuttered out: "y-yes of course! She's my friend, obviously I'll look out for her, Mister Murdock, sir."

Matt smiled at him in thanks, and that's when the other two adults decided to finally join in. Steve stepped up first, smiling at Hebi and taking the hand Matt had held out again at the sound of footsteps.

"Steve Rogers," the man introduced himself kindly. "Thank you for letting Hebi come over today. It's always nice to meet Peter's friends."

Matt shook his head, grinning. "Not at all, I'm just happy she has friends. She isn't the best at socializing all the time, so we're lucky Peter and their other two friends took the first step."

"Mmmmaaaaaatttttt," Hebi whined, looking at him with an exaggerated pout. He ignored her, and Tony came up to shake his hand next.

"You know who I am," the billionaire said easily. Steve elbowed the man's side, and Tony threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "What? He does, it's simple process of elimination Rogers. He's blind, not dumb," the engineer snarked at his friend, turning back to Matt. With a perfectly casual voice, he continued: "I am so sorry Steve is such an ableist—"

"Tony!" Steve interrupted, embarrassed and disapproving. "Sorry, Mister Murdock. I'm afraid Tony is always like this," the supersoldier apologized solemnly. Matt just chuckled.

"Don't worry about it Captain, I prefer it when people treat me frankly," Matt started, only briefly interrupted when Rogers told Matt to call him Steve. Matt's smile briefly widened. "Steve, then. He's right you know, I'm not going to be offended just because he's treating me like a normal person. Hebi makes blind jokes all the time, and I make deaf jokes right back at her. Stark's humor doesn't bother me."

"See?" Tony held his hands out wide in triumph. "He has sense. I like you, Murdock. You have a phone number? If our kids are gonna get married one day—"

"Dad!" Peter interrupted, face red with a furious blush. He was thoroughly ignored.

"— Then I should be able to call you, don't you think?"

Matt nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket as Tony did the same. They swapped numbers, Hebi putting Tony's number in Matt's phone for him. She set Iron Man as the ringtone, so the redhead would never mistake who was calling.

She couldn't wait until he found out about that.

"Test call," Tony said out of nowhere, and the song that blasted from Matt's phone made a shit-eating grin spread across the teenager's face even as Matt did his best to glare at her sightlessly. It startled a laugh out of Tony, and Peter was doubled over almost instantly.

"Okay, that's it," Tony said, amusement thick in his voice. "You're officially my favorite of Peter's friends. Sorry Pete, inform Ted of his demotion would you?"

"Wait for it," Hebi interrupted, holding up a finger before Matt could shut off the ringer. "It's a double zinger."

Can he see or is he blind?

"Okay, that's enough," Matt said after he heard that line, hanging up the phone and shoving it in his pocket. "Just for that, I'm not buying cheesecake tomorrow."

"You loooooveeee me," Hebi teased, much to the amusement of the three onlookers. Matt rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.

"For some reason," he agreed with fake annoyance. "Alright, we've stalled long enough. Home before eleven, you know the rules."

Hebi gave a mock salute just for Steve's sake, making the man roll his eyes, and chirped a cheery: "sir, yes sir!" Just to hammer it home. Matt shook his head with a sigh.

"I do not take responsibility for any chaos she causes while with you guys," Matt warned.

Steve chuckled. "I think we can handle it," he assured, and Matt rose an eyebrow.

"Famous last words," he said with a grin. "Don't destroy the world, Hebi. Nice meeting you, Steve. You too, Stark," he nodded once before extending his cane again and walking away.

"Alrighty!" Tony said, clapping his hands. "Lets go, wonderland awaits!"

—*—*—*—*—*

I wanted to continue, but this is a good length already and I don't want it to be too long. So I guess I'll cut it here.

And the stuff Hebi talks about with the ruptured spleen? That's not BS. That actually happened to me (omg, I've given my fictional character one of my real experiences nooooooo). I was nine though, not five, but yeah everything else is almost exactly what happened to me. My mom was definitely mad, and I was definitely the Girl Who Cried Hurt. So. Learn from my near-death experiences kids, and only go to the nurse when you actually need to.

see you next chapter~