I stared at the teen opposite me, who was still tense around me. He was in different clothes from last night after I told him to go shower and then we can go have breakfast at a cafe nearby. I couldn't make breakfast because most of my ingredients and such ran out, so I plan on going out later to refill everything. Also so I can buy the boy's clothes and other necessities, such as a toothbrush.
Sighing, I flung one of my spare jackets at him because it was cold outside.
"Follow me, you can order whatever you want once we get there. Money isn't really a problem for me so you don't have to worry about that" I said as he followed me out the door, towards our destination. Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell he was sending me hesitant looks. I decided to ignore whatever had him so caught up in his head, and once we were in front of the entrance to the cafe I was fully prepared to take a 180 and head back to my apartment once I glanced through the translucent windows.
Logically, however, I knew that would be 100% suspicious, so I continued entering the establishment with a perfect poker face while making sure to locate the table as far away from the familiar trio as possible.
Walking up to the cashier, I continued to order my meal before quirking a brow at Peter as a silent question to order his part. He hesitated, glancing between the patient worker and I, who was about fed up after the first few seconds of silence, deciding to just tell the woman taking orders that he'll have the same thing as me.
"You aren't allergic to anything, are you?" I asked the teen, who stood awkwardly beside me, as I led him to a table.
"Uh, not that I'm aware of..."
"Hm, so no. Well then, Peter let's try and get along, and to do that, I'll need you to become more comfortable around me. So how you acted back there, hesitating and all that, really isn't going to cut it for our companionship" I said bluntly, not caring that he wilted at the statement.
Sighing, I look the boy in his eyes, talking with a low voice so he can be the only person to hear "Look, I'm not really good with being mushy but let me tell you this. I won't hurt you or take advantage of you, okay? Although this isn't really the place to talk about this stuff, I'll reserve the discussions of your un-attended baggage later-" "W-what? Baggage? I don't-" "-you have me now, and I know it's going to take time but I'm going to need you to bare with me. Until then, just let me help you out" I try to smile at him but before I could earn myself a response, I notice his eyes widening as he notices something behind me.
Subtly, I try looking behind me, before immediately turning back forward, poker-face back on.
Looking at Peter's face, I try to stop myself from face-palming as I watch him blatantly stare at THE Matt Murdock, before snapping himself out of his stupor, and acting like he's not sneaking glances back at the man and his table full of friends.
Just on time, the waiter arrives with our orders, and after politely thanking the man, I pick up my cup of coffee and fight the urge to down the whole thing as I blandly stare at the boy across me who doesn't seem to notice the way my mood dropped dramatically.
'Oh fuck me,' I think to myself as I try to stop myself from hiding my face in my arms 'how could I forget the fact that Peter not only has met Matt Murdock before, but he's also shit at avoiding attention. If he continues not-so-subtly staring at THE, and I mean THE, Daredevil, then-'
my thoughts are caught off as I hear a voice behind me shout out to our table. It just so happens that our table and theirs are the only occupants in the cafe, not including the workers who only shot us curious looks before continuing their original tasks.
The man, Foggy Nelson, comes over to our table, eyes flickering from me before settling on Peter "You know kid, have your parents never taught you staring at strangers is rude" he said jokingly while quirking a brow at the teen.
Peter, panicking from suddenly being addressed, blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"My parents are dead"
...
I snorted, the coffee I was sipping on spilling over, as I choked on the air. I think I also heard someone choke behind me. I tried to compose myself, sparing a look up at Peter to see that his face has completely drained of color as he processed what he just said.
Foggy stood next to our table, not knowing how to respond, before clearing his throat "Well- I, uh... sorry about your loss- losses? I mean- you know-" he groaned "-nevermind. I just wanted to say hi, since I've seen your friend here a couple of times before already, but you seem pretty new" he tried changing the subject, attention now on me, as a mocking grin appeared on his face.
"Oh, are you two perhaps," he said suggestingly.
Peter's face turned red in embarrassment and exasperation, while mine scrunched up in disgust.
"N-no, she's- we- it's not like that!" he shouted a bit too loudly, which earned us looks of amusement from the other occupants in the store. Deciding to come to the boy's rescue, I look the man dead in the eye and say, "No, we're not dating. Sorry to break it to you but I don't swing that way"
Understanding dawns on the man's face "O-Ohh, yeah. Sorry, I was just joking haha" he ended awkwardly
"Wait- what? You're g- gay" he whispered the last part to me, which I returned with a deadpan. Just to tease him, I respond "Yes, I'm g- gay," I said while whispering the last part as well.
He turns red, before quickly saying "I- I don't care, by the way, I was just surprised is all. You're not any different from before after all, you're still super cool and all, I just-" "Yes yes, I get it. No need to explain" I cut him off, chuckling in amusement at the way he deflated in relief.
"Foggy, stop bothering those kids," A pretty blond-haired woman said while coming over to our table. She sent us an amused glance before sending Foggy a look which he nodded to, and made his way to his two friends. Matt stood silent, at the girl's side.
"Well, goodbye kids," the man said before departing.
Although I knew Matt Murdock was blind, I felt as if his gaze was burning into me before the trio turned to leave. I could tell the same thing applied to the boy opposite me because he narrowed his eyes at the man as he left.
sighing once again, I tell him to eat his food already since it's getting cold, before continuing to eat my own.
'damnit, I can't believe I forgot just how much of a trouble-magnet he is. I'll have to make sure to keep a sharp eye on whatever he does or else I'll have the whole of the Avengers knocking on my door.'
I feel like I jinxed myself when I said that a week ago.
Everything was going great right? I bought him everything he needed the first few days, before looking for a house to move on and everything. The moving was easy, simple, nothing was going wrong. I knew now that it was less likely for us to run into Matt and his friends, with us being in a new neighborhood. It wasn't far from our previous location because I had to go back there for other businesses, but it was also the perfect distance that I won't have to worry about any unwanted meetings.
So, things were going great... right?
Well- WRONG. Because my dumbass thought it would be a good idea to bring Peter along with my patrols so that I could keep a close eye on him. I originally wanted him to stay home and recover from his malnourishment and other injuries he sustained while abusing his own needs, but he was clearly upset over the arrangement, and I needed to have my bots drag him back into the house more than once.
After the 17th attempt, I caved in and now we're patrolling together. I managed to fix his spidey suite, which was practically ruined because of how badly taken care of it was, which earned me quite the reaction from him.
"Hey, spidey-" "I said to stop calling me that!" "-come here, I have a surprise for you," I said while ignoring his groan in embarrassment.
"What?" He asked as he came over, squinting at me in suspicion. I rolled my eyes and shoved a red and blue suit into his arms. "Here, I fixed it, and improved it in some apartments"
His mouth gaped as he held his suit up in front of him, practically brand new. "W-what?" He whispered, as his eyes trailed all over his new and improved suit. "Well I'm not going to have you going around in that other torn-up suit you were wearing, there are blood stains on it you know? Plus the fabric is unpractical and flimsy. What kind of person would I be to let somebody who SHOULD be recovering, fight in something as pathetic as that? No offense of course"
He simply stared at me. I rolled my eyes again and pat him on the shoulder "Just do me a favor and don't put yourself in danger while we're out, okay? Seriously, I don't want to get our friendly neighborhood spiderman killed" I laughed a bit at the end before walking off to continue working on another project I was finishing off.
Before I could wander off, I heard a quiet "Thank you" which held way too much emotion for me to face, so I didn't. I just went back to work, not giving a response to his gratitude, even as he settled beside me to watch me tinker about.
Without any prompting, I started to explain what I'm doing to the all-to-eager teen next to me, asking him to pass me tools every now and then. If I noticed his eyes were a bit red around the corners when I turned to look at him, I didn't point it out.
After that, although he was still wary of me, our relationship improved. It's all about the baby steps after all.
The night was going normal, nothing serious going on, only the usual. But then, all of a sudden Peter stopped. I knew to be on guard because I've watched too many anime and action-based movies to not know what this means.
Seemingly out of nowhere, an alien-looking creature appeared and sprung toward me. I quickly brought out my gun and shot it straight at its head, or what I believe is its head. Not even a second later, even more of those same creatures appear, and cue both me and the spider-based boy to move into action. The both of us, with his webs trapping the aliens and my guns killing each creature off with a single bullet, quickly overpower them.
Although even more of the same creatures continue to arrive, and although I could continue killing them off, this is just getting annoying. I know Peter can hold them off, but if he continues shooting off webs, he'll run out, and I would like it best if he doesn't get into hand-to-hand combat because he's still recovering.
"Spidey! Catch!" I shout to him while throwing over two of my guns, which he clumsily catches. "What?" He shrieks "I don't know how to use guns!" He shouts out, before dodging an attack from one alien, and webbing another.
"Oh my god- just aim and pull the trigger," I tell him while continuing to shoot at my opponents, reloading the bullets every now and then.
"Uhm, okay, cool, I got this" He does as instructed and although he missed the first shot, the second manages to hit one
"WOAH- Did you see that? I just shot it right through the- EAK" he squeaked when I shot at something behind him, when he turned around he notices the body of one of the creatures that were about to pounce on him from behind.
"Focus!" I tell him, "Right! Thanks by the way-" before he could finish his sentence, a red blur comes flying between us, into a building wall.
With a closer look at the figure, I notice the signature red and golden robotic suit and have to refrain from jumping off of this roof. I hear a small choked sound from Peter
"Mr. Stark?"
Before I could say anything to the other boy, more figures arrive in the area, all fighting creatures who look similar to the ones we were up against, except bigger and uglier.
They weren't just any figures though. They were the Avengers.
"Oh, fuck me," I said out loud, this time I really did face-palm.
'I'm starting to think that meeting Matt Murdock would've been better than this'