Turned up too soon like daylight savings
Mixed emotions are congregating
Picturin' us in all these places
Ahead of myself's an understatement
Sky looks so purple, I can taste it
Couple days in, I call you, "Baby"
Three stories up here contemplating
But what the fuck is patience?
"You what?"
Admittedly, Felicia had said the same thing when she'd learned about Kate and Clint.
"- Wait ," Kate said, "Explain to me again what happened."
In the beginning, Felicia hadn't been jealous. 'Jealousy' wasn't the right word.
When Felicia had walked into the Bishop penthouse to Clint Barton - Hawkeye, The Hawkeye - sitting at Kate's living room table, she hadn't known what to feel. But there was something about knowing that your best friend was taking the city by storm, fighting side-by-side with an Avenger, living the dream. It was weird when your best friend was saving lives, tearing up the pavement, making headlines, without you. It wasn't exactly pleasant.
But still, Felicia had been happy for her. She still was happy for her. Kate was Hawkeye now. Kate was an Avenger. Had she been angry at her for keeping it secret? Absolutely. Had she been anywhere near as angry as Kate was now? Not a chance.
But then again, Kate didn't have a thing for Clint.
"I kissed him." Felicia shrugged.
"You kissed him?! Felicia, what the hell is wrong with you?" Kate whispered harshly, leaning over their table.
"Honestly, if I knew you were gonna react like this, girl, I would've waited until after brunch to tell you." Felicia said, reaching across the assortment of pancake syrups to go for the salt. Kate's big sister protectiveness couldn't kill her high. Not now. She could still the shape of his lips against hers, the sound of her name on his lips.
'Black Cat'. It had a ring to it.
Felicia did consider herself a nocturnal creature. She was use to the night, working late and pulling all nighters. If anything, she preferred it. And with a flash-drive in hand and a Spider on a thin, silk string, she'd riden that high all night, the taste of him on her lips, the buzz of the steal still ringing in her veins. She found adrenaline was the best remedy for sleep. Adrenaline, unlimited mimosas and brunch.
"Felicia, you don't know who he is." Kate said pointedly, a look of exasperation settling on her brow. "He could be anybody, like literally anyone."
Felicia scoffed, rolling her eyes over her french toast. "I know who he is. He's Spider-man." she said, waving her fork in the brunette's direction. And for Felicia, evidently, that was enough. Who he was by daylight was irrelevant if he was out saving cities and universes come nightfall. To Felicia, his middle name or his favorite food didn't matter, so long as he put on the suit and played her game.
Kate couldn't believe her.
And people called Kate hard-headed. And they called Kate irrational, or reckless. But those people had never met Felicia Hardy. "If Clint could hear you right now, his head would be spinning." Kate sighed as she fed Lucky a slice of buttered toast under the table.
"Well, that's what I mean." Felicia said. "You knew who Clint was, and he still turned out to be Ronin. So does it even matter if I 'don't know' who he is?" she said, and from her words alone, she could see the change on Kate's face.
"That's different." Kate told her.
"Is it?" Felicia asked, sipping her mimosa. "Look, all I'm saying is identity isn't anything. Besides, It's not like he knows who I am. I kissed Spider-man, he kissed Black Cat." she said, and Kate could see the look on her face when she said it, the tone in her voice when she thought about.
Kate could recognize it anywhere. Because she knew it herself. She'd felt it herself, not too long ago. It went without saying, meeting your hero could make you do crazy things.
And Kate knew it was an amazing feeling.
How could she not be happy for her?
"Fe," she hesitated. "I don't know-"
Felicia reached across the table, taking Kate's hands in her ring-covered fingers. "K, girl. From the day we met we both said it: If you ever meet Hawkeye you'd make him sign your quiver, and if I ever met Spider-man, I'd-"
"-be his biggest fucking problem.'" Kate said with her in unison. For years, they'd have the same conversation, what they would do, what they'd say, if they only got the chance. Years of talking on Kate's bedroom floor, late into the night, years of playing the scenarios in their heads over and over again, over homework, over facetime, over brunches like this.
And Felicia had always said the same thing. That she'd make herself his biggest problem. That if she could just get him alone with her, it'd be game over for him. Most the time, Felicia's answer was nowhere near as PG-13.
Most of the time, the answer was straight-up R-rated.
Felicia winked at her. "Damn straight." she grinned.
Felicia had done exactly what she said she would. If anything, when it came to the flirting, she was going easy on him.
Finally, a smile broke across Kate's face. She snorted, in disbelief at the audacity of her friend, at the mesmerizing, unbelievable fact that despite what any one had to say, they had done it. Somehow, someway, they'd gotten their way.
Just like they said they would.
"I- I know." Kate sighed, squeezing Felicia's brown hand in hers. "You know I just don't want you to get hurt, Fe. Meeting your heroes… you forget they're like, actual humans sometimes." And it was a lesson that Kate had learned the hard way. If anything, she had been lucky - Clint had never wanted to hurt anybody. He had said it himself, that he was a weapon, simply pointed the wrong way. Clint acknowledged the wrongs and he ran from them. He turned his back on him. It simply came with the hero territory.
"Humans fuck up, Fe, like a lot. Ask him what it was like meeting Iron Man and I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing." she sighed. "God, If this dude is some creep or some fuckboy that breaks your heart-"
Felicia stopped her. "Then we'll deal with him just like we dealt with every other one of my shitty exes." she said. "A little spandex and super-strength doesn't change anything, Kate" she shrugged. "Not if I got you. You know that."
They had gone through the worse. The snap, her uncle's arrest, the attack that had started her hero obsession to begin with. Whatever happened, they had each other. Picking up pieces and moving on was what they did. It was how they grew.
Kate smiled, but still the anxiety settled in her chest, even as Lucky whined by her side. She reminded herself that she wasn't trusting Spider-man, she was trusting Felicia.
"I still can't believe you did all that." Kate said. Or rather, she could. She chuckled softly, still in disbelief as she looked down at their hands.
Felicia grinned. "Yeah, and I 'can't believe' you impaled the Brooklyn Bridge with a giant arrow." she reminded her, as across from her, Kate brows knit together in confusion.
"Are those- are those rings new?" she asked.
Felicia slipped her hands from Kate's, as the gold bands on his fingers caught the light. They were bright, the familiar glint of 14k gold that Kate could recognized anywhere.
"Well," Felicia said, her smile pointed and smug. She turned in her seat, going for her purse slung over the back of the chair. "-before you rudely interrupted me, I was just about to make it all up to you. Mrs. Whelan has to taste of an old broad, but I made it work."
And on the table between them, amongst the pancake syrups and mimosas, Felicia dropped a smooth, oval Ray-Ban's case.
Felicia didn't even have to say it. Kate didn't even have to open the case to know.
" Ray-Ban Aviator Full Color Legends in Gold and Violet ." Kate squealed.
Felicia grinned. "You know I'd never leave my girl without some drip. That necklace Spider forgot to take off me was ugly as all hell, but the man at the pawn shop was more than happy to hook us up with some cash for my troubles."
"Felicia-"
" And our rent is paid. As is this brunch. Your tuition this semester taken care of. At least until you get your mother's account settled. So if you can't thank me for those shades, you can thank me for the roof over our heads."
Kate fought back a sigh. Kate had stopped believing they'd ever make peace about this long ago. Maybe it was a conversation of privilege, or a conversation of need. But Kate didn't think heroes should be in it for the money. She didn't think there should be any profit in it, whatsoever. And she didn't think heroes should steal.
Felicia however, would beg to differ. To her it was about basic security, respect. To Felicia, it was about intellectual property, and poverty in general. She knew that for Kate, it was a reoccurring reminder that she and Felicia did not come from the same place. Kate, on the other hand, had learned years ago to not to bring it up.
Kate bit her lip as she turned to the window, watching the people mill down the sidewalk, the January chill having left Manhattan under a light layer of frost and flurry. And yet the city outside still buzzed, with chatter and with life, with the latest news story or scandal. Probably with Black Cat and her Spider.
Kate set down her fork, turning to the matte case on the table. She picked it up, turning it over in her hands and watching the shimmer of the gold 'Ray-Ban's' logo under the diner's lights.
"You know you can't keep stealing from crime scenes, right?" Kate said, feeling her resolve waiver. "Like, you know they lock people up for that?"
Felicia smirked, finishing her mimosa before pointing the rim of her flute at Kate. "Take a look." she said. "They're gorgeous. Got the polarized purple frames. Not cheap." At least, by Felicia's standards.
"Yeah, I know they're gorgeous. They're on my wishlist like all Christmas." she spat under breath, as if cursing her. Kate hesitated. And finally, she caved.
She'd just take a peek. Just one.
And it had been a mistake.
Kate wasn't sure it was even possible, and yet, they were even more beautiful in person. Gold plated, polished chrome lenses, and the vibrant purple frames, exactly Kate's signature. She drove a hard bargain. Or maybe Kate was just really easy to bribe.
Felicia bit back a grin, unable to hide her excitement. "Girl, stop doubting me and try them on! You're gonna love this next part."
Kate slipped on the shades. They slid on to her face, fit like a glove. And when she looked up, her eyes landed on a 2 inch piece of chrome between Felicia's fingers.
The flash-drive.
"No fucking way." Kate said.
Felicia's smile grew.
" No fucking way. " Kate snatched the flash drive, tucking her shades up into her hair. "You could've led with this. Why the hell didn't you lead with this!?"
"Because." Felicia said, as her phone buzzed on the table between them. "Personally, I thought the kiss thing was a lot more interesting."
"Well, then." Kate snickered, "Since you seem to have an answer to everything, what are we gonna do about the vials? We still don't want what's in those things, and I'm not interested in experimenting and finding out." she said, eyeing the salvaged flash-drive skeptically before finally returning to her eggs benedict.
The vials. She hadn't forgotten the vials. Undoubtedly, Kate had a good point. What good was the flash-drive, if they didn't know what was in the vials? Felicia pursed her lips, turning her phone over as the screen came to life.
MJ (Midtown)
1 minute ago:
u busy today?
Felicia read the text, fingers hesitating to respond.
"I may have a solution for that too."
He had to tell her.
He couldn't tell her.
Telling her would make this worse. Telling people always made it worse. Telling people always got them hurt or traumatized or worse. Telling people got them killed. He couldn't tell her.
But not telling her was letting her run wild. Not telling her was letting her blow up half of New York City - as if Felicia needed his permission to do that. Not telling her was looking her in the face, and acting like she hadn't given him the kiss of a lifetime last night.
Peter considered his life proof that God had a weird sense of humor.
In his lifetime, Peter Parker had been with three girls.
The first had been Liz Allen. And it had almost gotten him killed.
The second had been Michelle Jones. And it had almost gotten her killed.
And as of last night, the third was Felicia J. Hardy. And at this rate, it was going to get the both of them killed. That is, if it didn't get them on New York's Most Wanted list first.
'Ladies and Gentlemen, the apple does not fall from from the tree! Manhattan's own Tony Stark Jr. has official hit his playboy phase. God help us all.'
Peter hated that the cable was included in his rent. He hated that they were trending on twitter. He hated that they already had a ship name. That every professed Spideyfan was talking, tweeting, streaming, all about them. As if overnight the city had decided that they were playing for the same team, that he was in her corner, whether he liked it or not.
Like sinking her claws in and leaving her mark.
But then again, every girl he had been with did. And each time it was different from the last.
Liz he liked for her smile.
He liked for her compassion, or kindness. He liked her for the fact that she forgave him, even when he really didn't fucking deserve it.
MJ, he had liked for her humor. For her sarcasm, for her courage. For the fact that she never backed down from anything, that she stuck with him through everything. He liked her for her eyes - that was his favorite thing about her, and the way she looked at him that still managed to make him feel light-headed.
And then, Felicia.
Felicia, who he liked for her nerve. He liked her for her audacity, and her confidence. His favorite thing about her was her laugh, and the fact that she laughed as loud as she wanted, that she said just what she meant, and that she did just as she pleased.
But he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a gigantic, monumental pain in the ass.
Maybe that was the appeal.
'When he isn't blowing up half of Manhattan, it seems that instead of saving lives and cleaning streets like his predecessor, our residential webhead is more interested in quite literally, chasing tail!'
"Oh, come on!" Peter said, dropping his spoon back into his bowl of Fruit-o-loops. "I'm not chasing tail. "
The image on his ratty TV set switched from 's stoney visage to the video that seemed to be on every timeline, every front page, every screen from Harlem to Staten Island. It showed them escaping near death, them blowing a residential penthouse to hell and back, Felicia getting her spot in the limelight.
And when they put it like that-
It did look like he was chasing tail. It looked like 4k footage of her hanging on his waist, him saving her life, her stringing him along. It looked like them playing on the same team, like them working as partners - it looked exactly how she wanted.
Just like she'd said.
He had to tell her.
He really couldn't tell her.
"Felicia." I know you're Black Cat.
"Felicia," I'm turning you in.
"Felicia-" I'm Spider-Man.
The words wouldn't come. No matter how much he paced in his living room, no matter how many ways or how many times he practiced - he could imagine her there, with that warmth in her eyes and that smirk on her lips.
Tony had given him many talks on 'bad publicity'. Peter had written notes on his lectures and rambles about toxic associations. ' Press problems ', in his words. And there Peter was, standing in front of his apartment door, mind blank.
When MJ had confronted him, she had made it seem so easy. She'd made it seem so obvious. She'd done her research, she'd gotten him alone. She laid out her evidence and she had just said it.
But then again, MJ made everything look easy. It was part of her charm.
All he had to do was go over there and say it. She lived next door. Worse case scenario, she wasn't home. Best case scenario, she was. Worse case scenario, She kissed him again.
Best case scenario, she kissed him again.
Peter took a deep breath. He'd been to hell and back. He'd been to space and back. This was nothing. He put his hand on the nob. He opened the door.
"Felicia-" Peter said.
"Speaking of the Devil,"
Peter looked at her. Felicia Hardy, standing on the other side of the door, hand falling as if it'd been poised to knock. Felicia, who stood in their hallway, with that brightness in her eyes, and new, 14k gold door-knocker* earrings in her ears.
He guessed she preferred pure gold over 's rubies and diamonds. It complimented her better.
"Looking for me?" she asked, head tilted. For once, her platinum dreads were tucked up, hidden behind a turban headwrap. Before he could stop her, she sidestepped him, craning her neck to see into his studio as she slipped by him.
Letting herself in, and getting comfortable, just like a cat would.
Peter tensed. "Yeah, I was, actually-"
"Nice place. Smaller than mine. Hope to god you aren't paying more than me." she snickered. "Not that I'd put it past the ." Felicia strolled about the place, eyes running along the tiny interior. It was small and bare, but it was all Peter could afford, and it was a work in progress.
Not that it mattered all that much to her.
As he watched her, nerves working into a bundle in his stomach, Peter cringed more at the fact that a girl was in his apartment - his slightly messy apartment - rather than the fact that she, Black Cat, was standing no more than ten feet from his suit.
Peter knew better. His apartment was tiny, the insulation was terrible and the walls were thin, but if it counted for anything, Peter's bedroom closet - and what was inside it - was probably the most protected thing on this block. But that didn't mean he thought that Felicia couldn't weasel her way in, if she just had a reason to go looking.
Not that she had one. Yet.
"Yeah, well my radiators broken and I don't have a fire alarm so I think I'm paying too much regardless." Peter said, rubbing the back of his head.
Felicia laughed, the sound as loud and bright as her, as she turned to him. "For real. But I mean, this barely counts as a studio. If there's a fire in here I think you'll notice." she said.
The thing about Felicia is that he could never tell if she was flirting with him or not. He could never tell if she knew or not. It had occurred to him that maybe she did know, maybe this was just another way to play with him. He imagined what this would be if this was all some kind of sick, twisted mind game of hers.
But if he knew Felicia, he knew that if she knew, she'd be doing something about it.
"You sew?" she asked, pointing towards the sewing machine that sat atop Peter's thrifted desk. Of all the things Felicia could imagine Peter Parker spending his time doing, - LEGOS, coding - she would admit that sewing was not one of the things high on that list. But color her surprised.
For a moment, the bundle of nerves tightened, for a different reason. "Yeah," he said, "My Aunt May taught me a couple years back, when I was younger. She thought it was crazy that they didn't do home-ec for kids anymore, so-"
Felicia grinned, more than happy to be taken along for one of Peter's rambles. "That's cute. You two close?" she asked, running her nails along his kitchen countertop as she strolled to a stop.
Peter cleared his throat. "Yeah," he nodded. "Yeah, we were."
At times like this he forgot how fresh the wound was. No one had ever asked about Aunt May before. It felt fresh still. It felt raw, the grief striking whenever it pleased. And yet every day that passed, he felt like he hadn't seen her in an eternity. As if he hadn't heard May's voice in forever.
He felt that way about Tony too.
Felicia frowned. She could see the change in Peter at the mere mention, the way he drew his shoulders up, eyes cast down in thought.
Felicia could recognize grief. She knew the feeling of grief herself. She saw it in herself, and she saw it in Kate, ever since they were younger. And she saw it in Peter too.
For a moment Felicia put her hand on Peter's sleeve, before letting it fall. "I'm sorry, about that." she said, and Peter could see her fight to find the words, even if they didn't come easy. "I mean, after my dad went to prison, my uncle kinda stepped up for me, took me in. And I can't even imagine losing him, so-"
For a second it was as if the sheet fell, as if her mask of confidence slipped, as Felicia fumbled with words of comfort to offer him. Odd to see, for a girl known for her sharp tongue.
Peter smiled at her. "Thanks, Felicia." he said softly.
Kate he expected the words from. Kate was the empathetic one, the sensitive one. Kate could make you laugh until you cried, and could hold you until you couldn't cry anymore. But for Felicia, they were a feat. A bit of tenderness reserved for those she deemed safe enough to let close. "I appreciate it," he said.
And when he looked at her face, he couldn't silence the thought. 'She's still her under the mask.'
Peter didn't have the words to describe what it was like, to feel a feeling so deeply, and then to look it in the face.
Spider-man was Spider-man. Peter was Peter. It was a battle he'd fight every day of his life, to have both exist at the same time. And if there was anyone on Earth that knew what a suit could do to you, it was him.
Black Cat was Black Cat. And Felicia was still her.
She was still a thief. She was still a problem.
But She was still his neighbor.
And she was still his friend.
Once upon a time, Tony had been the only one to understand. He had been the only person Peter knew that knew what it was like to live behind a mask. To have two sides fighting to make a whole. And even then, Tony had told the public the truth, eventually. Even then, people knew that Tony Stark was Iron Man.
Out of all the people who could understand, out of all the people who knew what it what like to wear that mask, it just had to be her.
Felicia tilted her head at him again, chuckling at Peter's signature absent-mindedness. "..You had been coming to ask me something, right?"
Peter blinked himself from his daze, and for a moment, neither of them said anything. "Yeah, I-" Peter stammered. "I don't know how to say this but, me and you-"
For once she let him get a word in, and yet he still couldn't find the words. For a second there was that flash of affection in her eyes and he nearly forgot where he was going with this. "There's something we need to talk about.-"
"Sorry if I'm interrupting your routine googly-eye time," Kate said, as she appeared in the doorway. "but some of us are starving."
Felicia jumped.
Leave it to Kate to be the Queen of Timing, Felicia thought, just when Peter was going to ask her out. But then again, she'd come here for a reason.
Felicia and Peter's eyes met, just as Kate set her aviators atop her head.
Felicia inhaled, unaware she'd been holding her breath. "Lunch," she said, finally remembering. "You busy? We're meeting Ned for lunch. We're gonna try out this joint by MIT's satellite campus."
"Yeah, and MJ's downstairs so if you're coming with us, I'm kinda gonna need you to hurry up and get dressed." Kate pressed, gesturing to Peter's witty tee and sweatpants.
Peter looked down at himself. "MJ's downstairs?" he asked,
"Yeah, and we're trying to get in before the lunch rush, so, hurry up!" Kate said, waving at him.
"Get dressed." Felicia grinned, fingers grazing his sleeve once more.
He had to tell her.
He couldn't tell her.
"Save it for after lunch." she told him.
"Yeah, good going, Kate!"
"Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that Peter was about to make a move on you?"
Felicia sighed, leaning towards the bathroom mirror as she applied a layer of gloss across her lips. "The body language? The eye contact? I mean, just when I think he's feeling me, he hears the name MJ and it's like, I don't know. I get the vibe that he's into her." she said.
"I call bullshit," Kate sang, taking her hair out of it's ponytail. The four of them had taken the train from their place all the way to MIT's mini-campus near Central Park, and Kate had seen the way they interacted first-hand. Kate Bishop, the ultimate wing-woman, who could smell a potential connection a mile-away. "I don't see it. I'm telling you, there's something there for you guys. You just have to, you know, actually ask him?"
Felicia turned to looked at her best friend, a ringed-hand propped on her hip. The two of them stood in the bathroom of the pizza place Ned had chosen - he claimed it was 'to die for' - doing what they'd done for years. Whether it was something written in the proverbial Best Friend Handbook, or something unique to the two of them, it wasn't rare that the pair found themselves in bathroom mirrors, going back and forth on things like best friends did.
"Well, I'm not gonna ask if he's gonna say 'no'." Felicia said.
"Yeah, but he's not gonna do that, now is he, Fe? Besides, you were gonna ask him to the musical anyway." Kate pressed, grinning at the shorter girl. "I've seen Roger's the Musical. I mean, Clint says he doesn't like it, but personally, I think it's a classic."
Felicia fought back a smile of her own. "Kate, just trust me on this. We'll get the back to the table, and you'll see what I talking about. Peter gets this bug vibe when he gets around MJ. And regardless, Peter isn't the one we should be focusing on here." she reminded her.
Kate crossed her arms, nodding. That, at least, was true. Lunch with them was a perk, but it wasn't the objective. They were here to work.
"Yeah, yeah. Run the plan by me again." Kate sighed, waving Felicia on. Felicia smirked, taking Kate by the front of the shirt and pulling her into one of the free bathroom stalls for a bit more privacy. Felicia swung the door closed, latching the lock before she started.
"What we need to get," Felicia said. "is MJ's keycard."
Because if they wanted to know what was in those vials they'd recovered at the club, they'd need a lab, a lab with an analysis machine. And when it came to labs, MJ's keycard was their golden ticket in. They just needed to get their hands on it.
"MJ told me she's interning at MIT's NY mini-campus until she moves up to the main site in the summer. I've only ever been on the NY campus one once, but if it's anything like NYU, it has a lab. And that lab has chemical structure analysis machine. You see where I'm going with this, sis?" Felicia asked.
Kate leaned in close, despite the cramped space of the stall, eyes narrowed in skepticism. "So, you're saying we break into MIT's lab with MJ's card to get the make-up of the vials?"
Felicia's smile grew into a smirk. Great minds did think alike. "Period."
"So what, you're gonna like go in her bag and get it?"
"What? So Peter could catch me looking like a crook? Hell no." Felicia said. "Look, just handle MJ, do what you do. I'll think of something for the guys. That's the plan." Because if anything, the two of them did work better under pressure.
If they could manage this without blowing the place up or getting caught by Spider-man, maybe they were in the clear. But they wouldn't know until they got those vials analyzed.
Felicia sucked in a breath.
"We set?" Kate asked, reaching her hand out for their handshake.
Felicia took her hand, linking their pinkies together as they went through the motions. "We set."
"Do you guys think this place is hiring?" Peter asked.
MJ looked up from her book. Peter found it comforting that even now, she still managed to carry around 500-page hardcovers for entertainment. "I dunno. Probably. I mean, like it's always packed." she shrugged, tucking a loose curl behind her ear.
"Yeah," Ned said. "They probably need a delivery kid or something. You should ask."
"Y'all order yet?"
Felicia slid in the corner booth first, across from Peter. Felicia and Kate took one bench, sinking into the red vinyl seats of Joe's Pizza, as MJ sat sandwiched between Ned and Peter in the other.
No matter the hour, no matter the day, Joe's seemed to be thriving with life, whether it was the early morning commuters, or late-night drunken college students. It sat just north of their apartment in scenic Hell's Kitchen, overlooking 59th street and Central Park, a stone's-throw away from MoMA.
"No, we were waiting for you two to do…whatever." Ned snickered.
"We were conducting official business," Kate told him matter-of-factly, only half-joking.
Felicia rolled her eyes. "So are we eating, or are we talking?" she asked, skimming over the place-card menu on the table in front of her.
"Eating." Kate said, pointedly. "I'm starving."
"Talking about talking," Ned said, snapping his fingers as the thought came back to him. "We forgot to ask him!"
At the mention of it, Felicia sat back as she folded her hands in front of her. The three of them had gone over this, going back and forth over the same one question. "Because y'all know he'll agree with me. Peter knows what I'm talking 'bout." Felicia said, a grin coming to her glossed lips.
Peter narrowed his eyes. "Ask me what?" he said, brown eyes tinted with suspicion.
At Felicia's confidence, MJ rolled her eyes. "Ask him," she said.
"So we were in the group chat and Ned was tryna tell me that the suit that Spider-man wore at the airport hangar in Germany is his definitive suit. Like, he thinks that's the best suit yet." Felicia snickered, as if the idea was preposterous.
"It was all downhill from there, I'm telling you." Ned shrugged, unwilling to budge on his stance. "I'm right and I should say it."
"You're so basic!" Felicia said. "Everyone says the 'Sokovia Scuffle Suit'. Anyone with any type of sense would say Iron Spider's the best. You've seen the CCTV of him taking down that mob in the restaurant. We cannot tell me that those mechanical arms aren't good for a thing or two." she smiled, but beside her, Kate shrugged in doubt.
"I dunno. Fe. I kinda like the OG Homemade Suit. With the hoodie and sweats. Doesn't get better than that." Kate grinned, nose scrunching as at the thought of it.
"Yeah, leave it to the girl who likes arrows to like the homemade suit." Felicia teased, as across from her, Peter sat forward.
"Wait," he said, brain scrambled at the conversation unfolding in front of him. "Wait-" For one, Ned thought the original Stark Suit was the best? And here he had thought that Ned had liked the work he'd done on the upgraded suit. At least, that's what Ned had said. And secondly:
"You guys have a group chat?" Peter asked.
Felicia turned to him, resting her elbows on the table. "Oh, yeah," she said, her gaze slipping to Ned, and it occurred to her they'd never brought it up to Pete. "It was kinda a Midtown grad thing, but we can definitely add y'all." she said, and already taking out her phone, her case covered in rhinestones and gems.
"And I'll think up a new name for the chat," Ned grinned, nodding.
In his pocket, Peter's phone pinged with the notification.
Fe has added you to the 'MT WildCats' chat
"Well," MJ said, finally, and next to him, she nudged Peter's side. "Felicia said you were this huge Avenger's fan. So which suit is your favorite?"
The odd thing was, it had never occurred to Peter. If anything, he found it bizarre to see Ned and Felicia talking about him, discussing him, as if he wasn't right there. When he figured that if he'd asked Black Cat, she'd say she'd love him in anything - or most likely, nothing at all.
The thought had never passed his mind, and for a moment, Peter wondered if he did have a favorite.
"I mean, the new one, I guess? With the bright blue? I don't know," he shrugged. "I don't know what it is about it, but it feels a bit more personal to me."
Beside him, MJ nodded decidedly. "See. That's what I said."
MJ always did have his taste.
Felicia threw her head back in a groan. "Ugh, you're no fun." she teased, winking at Peter as her fingertips grazed his across the table. "Play my side next time."
Peter could feel the hair along his arm stand on edge.
' Playing her side '.
Didn't he always? Regardless of whether he wanted to or not? Or at the very least, that how half the city saw it. And yet, this wasn't between Black Cat and her Spider. This was between Felicia and her neighbor, and Peter still had no idea if Felicia was actually flirting with him or not.
Ned had often used the words 'romantically clueless' to describe him.
"So-" Kate said, putting her hands down on the menu. "We're getting 2 supremes?"
If deciding the superior spider-suit was one feat, making up their order was another entirely, and after ten minutes deliberation and negotiations, they settled the score for 1 meat lovers, 1 veggie.
But now came the harder part.
Objective: Get the keycard.
Goal: To not fuck this up.
Easy as pie. Kate Bishop had managed harder, and even bigger mischief in her days. Would she be the wondrous Hawkeye if she couldn't? Probably not. To her, a little sleight of hand was child's play.
It was now or never.
MJ collected their crumpled bills from the pool they'd created in the middle of the table, and she counted through each one, flattening them out as she went. New York pizza, especially places like Joe's, were evidently not cheap. But Peter figured that if they left any behind, he'd be good on leftover pizza for a dinner or two.
'27.43 for the pizzas, plus 7 dollars for the drinks, and 4.50 for the garlic knots." MJ said, folding the bills, just as Kate rose from the booth beside her.
"I can help you grab those," she offered, a grin so sweet that Peter knew bait when he saw it. He didn't need his senses to know when they were up to something. Now, he knew Kate and Felicia were always up to something.
'Official business' must not have been that much of a joke.
MJ raised an eyebrow, but all but shrugged at the offer. "I mean, sure..I guess." MJ supposed she didn't expect Felicia's best friend to be so bubbly. Not when people would describe both her and Felicia as having 'an attitude'. But opposites attracted, didn't they? That was the reason her and Ned got along so well.
"Oh. Thanks, Kate." MJ said, as she slipped her wallet from her pocket, opening it as she pressed the money inside.
All it took was a pass of the eyes, barely a glance, and Kate had seen what she'd needed to. MJ's MIT passcard, sitting in the top slot of her wallet. MJ slipped the wallet back into her pocket.
Peter's stomach dropped, her eyes darting between the three girls as his gears worked in futility. They were trying something. He just had no idea what.
"I-I can help, too. If you want," Peter stammered, and across from him, Felicia narrowed her eyes, her head resting in her hands.
"I think they're good." she said. "It's two pizzas." But Peter didn't miss it as she passed Kate a pointed, calculated gaze. Back then, him and MJ use to do the same all the time. A coded look, a message between best friends that only they could decipher.
Kate saw what Felicia meant when she said he got weird around MJ. "I think we got this under control, Pete." she said, looping her arm through MJ's as she pulled her towards the register.
The pair headed to the counter, dodging the throngs of people waiting by the cashier, hanging by the ovens for their orders. The place was as packed as usual, the smell of cheese and pepperoni heavy in the air. MIT and NYU students lined the seats, flooding in for their mid-day lunch before trudging on towards the evening classes.
Peter's leg bounced with anxiety. Over Felicia's shoulder he could see Kate and MJ at the counter, Kate's bright smile and MJ's awkward laugh as Kate probably told her some convoluted pun. And he could see Felicia across from him, her gaze on him, brown eyes as lost in thought in his.
As his gaze slid to her face, he could see the thoughts behind her eyes, and the hesitation on her lips, words threatening to spill out before dying in her throat. As if ready to ask him something. And maybe that scared him a little bit. Maybe 'a little bit' was an understatement.
He needed to tell her.
Eventually, inevitably, he would have to.
Just like he needed to tell MJ. And Ned. And Happy. If not now, then tomorrow. And if not tomorrow then someday soon. Someday before she got herself in trouble.
Then why the hell did it terrify him that maybe Felicia had something to tell him too?
Why did it terrify him if she already knew?
"Hey, Did you guys see what I dropped in the group chat. Twitter is all over this SpiderCat stuff right now!" Ned said, sitting forwards beside him. In his pocket, Peter felt his phone vibrate with the notification.
Felicia hadn't realized she'd been staring, but like a spell falling to pieces, her eyes snapped to Ned, a well-groomed eyebrow quirked in confusion.
"SpiderCat?" she repeated, manicured nails clicking against the polished wood of the table. " SpiderCat . What is that? That's not a thing." Or rather, Felicia couldn't believe it was a thing. There was no way that was a thing.
God, she hoped that was a thing.
"Are you deadass?" Ned grinned, as Felicia turned, frantically searching in her purse for her phone. "I thought you'd be all over this!"
SpiderCat was a thing. Peter knew it was a thing.
Because if watching the Daily Bugle was his biggest guilty pleasure, then lurking 'SpideyTwitter' was one of his favorite ways to torture himself. And out of morbid curiosity, Peter saw it all.
The criticism, the backlash, the conspiracies. He saw the memes and the artwork and inspirations. And he saw the fans and their rumors, their speculations. He watched the hashtags, and when he was feeling particularly cynical, Flash's 'Spideywatch' stream.
He even saw their ships. And SpiderCat was without a doubt, their latest, and greatest obsession.
A knot worked its way in Peter's stomach.
Across from him, Felicia's heart raced and she tucked a stray loc behind her ear as she unlocked her phone, her face melting into an expression of pure focus as she opened up Twitter.
Felicia remembered the first time she'd seen Kate and Hawkeye on TV.
She remembered what it was like to see her in her suit, with her idol, doing it all, and fighting for her life. She remembered the feeling of wonder, of envy, of relief that finally, it had happened. That finally she had made it. But damn if it didn't hurt too.
The only thing that made it better, the only thing that made it worth it, was watching Kate watch herself. And seeing the look on her face. Back at Kate's aunt's place, it had felt so surreal, and as soon as Clint was out of earshot, they screamed, and squealed and cried about it.
Sometimes, Felicia still couldn't believe it. But maybe for them, it was only a matter of time.
"Some chick on Twitter posted some footage from that science guys apartment. Got everything all the way up to the explosion. It's insane!" Ned told them, as he pulled up the video for her to see. Peter watched as she sat forward, a hesitant hand coming close to cradle the screen, the way Felicia bit her lip in focus.
Footage. CCTV.
Peter had known about SpiderCat.
He had known about the hashtag, and their stunt on nation-wide prime-time news. But he hadn't known about the private footage.
"Wait, what?-" Peter said, as the both of them crowded around Ned's phone, faces illuminated by his tiny screen.
The knot grew tighter. Leave it to some rich scientist to have a Ring security system. Not that anything like that would ever stop Cat.
The video was dark, the night vision of the camera doing it's work to illuminate their silhouettes in black and white. Twitter had done what they'd always done, zoomed in where they needed to, trimming the fat and cutting to the good parts.
They had cut to the switch in her walk and the jewels around her neck. They'd cut to him giving her an inch and her taking a mile. They'd cut to her hands all over him, fingertips around his waist before they danced their offensive tango, all the way up to their explosive escape.
And maybe Peter hated to admit it. Maybe if he'd never admit it over his dead body, that from this angle, it did look like he was chasing tail. But it's not like she was making it easy for him. It's not like she was giving him much of a choice.
But it wasn't the replay he felt. It wasn't the footage, or the attention that mattered to him. Peter couldn't care less about the tweets and the replies. It was Felicia next to him.
For him, the novelty had long worn off. For Peter, seeing himself on TV wasn't weird. Looking himself up became a weekly thing, stopping for the kids became a priority. And he'd be lying to say he didn't care. It would be a lie to say that he didn't take it as seriously as he took every other responsibility.
Tony called it 'The Responsibility of Image'.
And he could remember the first time himself. He could remember being in his room, watching those YouTube videos on repeat. The same ones that landed Tony Stark in his living room. He remembered it felt bizarre. It felt surreal.
It felt good. It felt better than anything he could every describe.
And he could see it in her face.
Felicia watched, resting forward on her elbows as the video played out before her once, and then twice, on repeat.
It was one thing to live it. To do it in the nighttime and wake up feeling like it was all a dream. It was one thing to tell herself that it happened.
And it was another thing to see it from someone else's eyes.
It was another thing to look like, to feel like a hero.
It felt damn good.
"Holy shit," Felicia whispered, and Peter could see the goosebumps that rose along her brown skin. He could see the way her eyes scanned the screen in disbelief, in wonder. And he knew exactly how it felt. Hell, maybe he was the only other person in the world besides Kate who knew how it felt.
It felt addicting.
"I know, right!" Ned grinned, and as he went on, Felicia sat back. She'd stopped listening, focus engulfed with the notification in their group chat. In the video, and the replies and the tags. Each one a new rush, a new hit of euphoria.
Enough to make the hairs along her arms raise. Enough to make her hands shake.
Could he really take that away from her?
Felicia looked up at up him, and she didn't realize that tears had come to her eyes. "Did you know about this?" she asked him.
Peter swallowed thickly. "Nah," he said, throat dry. "This is news to me." He had always been a terrible liar.
Felicia blinked, feeling the moisture of a tear on her lashes, and she reached up, brushing one from her cheek that threatened to fall.
The answer was no. No, he couldn't take that feeling from her.
"Shit," Felicia whispered softly, looking down at the tear on her finger.
Across from her, Ned looked up from his phone. "You good?"
Felicia sniffled a bit. "Yeah," she said, clearing her throat as she blinked away the tears that had crept up on her. "I'll be right back."
Felicia stood, darting up from the booth, leaving her purse but taking her phone.
Peter could've stopped her.
He could've told her.
Just like he could've told MJ. Or Ned. Or Happy.
He could. If not now, then tomorrow. And if not tomorrow then someday soon. Someday before she got herself in trouble.
But for now, maybe he could just trust her. Like Tony had trusted him.
Maybe for now, he could just let her go.
"27.89." the Italian man behind the counter said.
"Shit." MJ said, shifting the bills around in palm. The coins turned themselves over, and she counted them out again before looking up at Kate.
"Gotta quarter?" she asked. "Quarter and a dime?"
It was now or never.
Had Kate ever stolen from a girl she'd just met? No, but she'd done worst. She'd stolen suits and entire superhero identities. She'd stolen her mom's Bishop Security passwords every time she changed it, and she'd stolen some of Felicia's shampoo every shower since she'd moved in.
What was stealing a little keycard?
Terrifying. Terrifying is what it was.
Kate shrugged, trying to manage a smile that didn't look nervous or suspicious as hell. "Oh, yeah, sure." she nodded, going to take out her wallet as MJ did the same.
"One quarter, a quarter and a dime." she said absentmindedly, and just as MJ opened the folds of her wallet, Kate jolted herself forward a bit, as if someone at the crowded counter had shoved her.
Did it matter that Kate probably had no change? Did it matter to anyone else other than MJ it looked fake? No. Because it didn't matter if they believed it, because now all their shit was on the floor.
MJ's wallet dropped from her hands, their wallets hitting the ground and spilling their contents. A bill from the pizza budget slipped from the pile, and MJ cursed under her breath as she squatted down.
"Oh god," Kate said, "Sorry. Shit, sorry." she apologized profusely, mixing the contents and collecting a handful as the girls gathered back their wallets.
"It's cool, no biggie." MJ told her, repressing a sigh as she turned her attention back to the money, counting through it to make sure she had it all - wallet and it's contents forgotten.
"Oh," Kate said, tucking the keycard into the back fold of her wallet. "I got the change too."
Kate grinned, handing her the quarter and the dime.
Her heart raced.
She could hear the sound of it in her ears, hands shaking as she clutched her phone.
Felicia shut the bathroom stall door behind her, hitting the latch once more.
'# SpiderCat' . The idea alone didn't seem possible.
The idea alone lit her up inside like nothing else.
She wished her Spider could see her now. And at times like this, she wondered where he could be, what he could be doing at a time like this. And she wondered if he was thinking about her too. Just the way she thought of him.
She couldn't stood there for eternity, reading every tweet, every article and every theory. She wanted to. And with each one she read, and with every video she watched, the tears came to her eyes.
It wasn't just him. It wasn't just the fact that she had him, or that the whole world was watching.
It was the fact that she had made it. Because it had been the only thing she had ever wanted. It was the only purpose she had ever had. To be a hero. There was no other way, no other future, no other outcome she could see herself happy. To Felicia, this was the only way.
And she had made it.
" Fucking finally ."
Her voice shook with the breath of relief, and she braced her hands against the bathroom stall, before slipping her phone back into her pocket and wiping her face.
All this time, and they had finally done it. And the person who had doubted her, the person who had hurt her, the person who had started this all, was rotting in hell. It felt good.
Felicia unlatched the stall door, swinging open the door of the bathroom to head back to the table, and just as she stepped from the restroom, she crashed face first into none other than Peter.
It seemed like he was always just two steps behind her.
Felicia jumped, nearly dropping her phone at the shock. "Peter,"
"Hey," Peter said gently, a hand braced on her arm. "You were tearing up back there, I just wanted to come and make sure you were okay." he said. "Is everything good?"
Felicia wasn't sure what came as more of a surprise: The fact that he'd startled her, or the fact that he'd came to check on her. To make sure something wasn't wrong.
For a moment, she stammered, embarrassment raising heat to her cheeks that her brown skin hid. Felicia shook her head, trying to laugh it off as she twisted a gold ring around her finger absentmindedly.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving him off. "Just..mascara in my eye, it's nothing." And yet, still her hands shook from the high. At times like this she wished she had her Spider on speed-dial.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
The question made her give pause, and it was at that moment that she noticed his hand was still on her shoulder. His touch was soft, as if asking for permission, and the gaze behind his brown eyes were even softer.
Felicia hesitated, and before she could stop herself, before she could talk herself out it, she figured it was now or never. If the rejection didn't kill her, then Kate would for not asking.
"Actually, I was thinking about what I wanted to ask you earlier," she said. Finally her brown eyes met his, and Peter could feel the knot in his stomach make a reappearance.
When she had him on a string like this, it made him lightheaded. A part of him really wondered that if this was it, if she was going to come out and say it, that she'd do it in a place like this.
"I was thinking about how to say this but-"
" Hey ! Do you two want to eat or not?"
Now it was Peter's turn to jump. He turned, Felicia craning her neck to see around him in the narrow bathroom hallway. MJ shrugged at them, holding up one of the pizza boxes as besides her, Kate got started on the garlic knots.
For a moment more, Peter's gaze met Felicia's, before his touch slid from her shoulder.
Kate Bishop, the perfect wing-woman, and the Queen of Horrible Timing.
But the look on her face was one that Peter didn't need context to decipher. When Kate looked at Felicia, in that coded look that they did, the message was clear.
It had went right.
"Yeah," Felicia said, question all but forgotten. "Strike while the iron's hot."
Fe
12:42am:
r u up rn?
Peter was beginning to learn that an insomniatic Felicia was a dangerous one. A Black Cat with too much time on her hands and a city to herself was one of the most dangerous things on his radar these days - for her own sake, and for everyone in Manhattan's sake too. Her and Kate got their best - or arguably, their worst - ideas at night, striking when the moon was high and leaving the consequences for some other time.
He was beginning to learn that they were fighting the same battle he was, mastering the same balance he had to. They were still kids, naive kids, running around in masks. Except they had chosen this.
If she wouldn't take 'no' from her Spider, why would she take 'no' from Peter?
He knew the answer to that question. She wouldn't.
So maybe it didn't matter that the words wouldn't come, that when he looked at her he couldn't think. Not when there was that same warmth in her eyes each time, the same touch on his arm.
When her name appeared on his phone, maybe it didn't matter at all.
Fe
12:43am:
r u busy?
He had been up.
These days, it seemed like Peter always found himself up at midnight. Sometimes, he'd sit up until the sky lightened over Manhattan, dragging night into day, just waiting for that call, that breaking news, that police radio. Just in case.
His phone buzzed with the notification, the screen illuminating his tiny studio in a radiant blue.
Not the group chat, but a direct text. From Felicia.
He sat up in bed, the windows in his apartment frosted from the heat of his radiators. And as he peeled back the covers, he took up his cracked phone to reply.
You
12:43am:
yes. no. in that order.
You
12:44am:
whats up?
Peter watched as the gray ellipses bubble appeared and disappeared, and in a moment, he could imagine all the things she could say.
He had no idea why Felicia would text him.
He had no idea why she'd text him at midnight . But the part of him, the part that craved normalcy, the part the clung to being just Peter - it wanted to be happy about it. He wanted this to not blow up in his face like every other single time.
He wanted this to go better than that night in Prague with MJ.
He didn't want this to fall apart all over again. And if there was one thing Peter had learn, if there was one thing he knew in his soul, it was that telling people made things fall apart.
And what would he do if she already knew? What would he do if she decided to do something about it? What would he do if she pulled an MJ, or worse - what would he do if she pulled a Mysterio, and told the whole world?
He didn't know. And that was the part that killed him the most. The not knowing just how close she was. Not knowing if she was right there, right in front of the truth - one step ahead.
Sometimes she seemed so close. Sometimes she seemed like she was right there.
Fe
12:44am:
look up
Peter read the message over again before it registered. His apartment was blackened and dark around him, the sky of the mid-January night outside overcast and hazy. Evidently, not to appealing for would-be crime-doers. The hiss of his radiators left a blanket of warmth over his place, a haze of condensation across his windows, and if he were anyone else, maybe he might've missed the silhouette of the girl on his fire escape.
But he could recognize her anywhere.
Now he could, at least.
Felicia, perched on the iron gate across from him, separated only by a panel of glass.
Right there.
She ran her nails along the edge of his windowsill, beckoning him closer with a curled finger. And he wondered if he'd ever tell her 'no' one of these days. He wondered when he'd stop trying to find reasons to.
She was Black Cat, a vigilante. But so was he, once upon a time. She was Black Cat, but she was still Felicia. Still his neighbor and still his friend. No matter what Black Cat did, that was between her and her Spider. For now, this could be between him and Felicia.
For now, he didn't have to tell her.
All he had to do was let her in.
The winter air brought a breeze with her, enough to rustle his blinds as he held the window wide enough for her to squeeze through. Peter moved over, making room for her on the bed as he set aside his papers. Beside him Felicia slipped in legs first, over his sill and radiator, to sit on his bedspread.
Every time he saw her, it was like chipping away at the paint, revealing the mosaic underneath, each part another colored fascet. In her silk bonnet and bare of her usual gold, she looked softer than he could ever remember seeing her.
"You're up late." she said, curling her legs under her as she sat beside him on his bed. "Thought you might not have had enough of me today. What were you doing?" Felicia reached over, looking over the papers and books that covered his comforter. And at the top of the pile, sat the 'Help Wanted' listing from Joe's.
Before he could help it, her eyes read over the bold text along the header, just as he slipped the flier from her reach.
"Yeah," Peter said, clearing his throat. "Just- looking over some job stuff. I saw it when we went by, so I figured..." he trailed off, and Felicia knew when she had seen something she wasn't meant to.
"You don't- You don't have a job?" Felicia asked, the regret filling her as soon as the words had left her lips.
Peter nodded. "Yeah," he said, taking a deep breath. "Yeah, at the end of the year some shit kind of hit the fan and I didn't really-"
He had no idea why it was so embarrassing, the thought of Felicia knowing he was unemployed, or that he was late on rent. He didn't know why the idea made him want to shrink, or why it made him want to hide - even as Felicia shook her head.
"You don't have to explain to me, P." she said. "I mean, I work for my uncle for a reason. And Kate can't keep a job to save her goddamn life." For Felicia, a job was nothing. Like everything, they were only means to an end. "There's a lot of ways you can make a killing. A lot of them don't involve jobs. Or money."
Peter looked up at her, and in the low light of his apartment, her eyes were unreadable, or even confused. As if trying to finish a puzzle she had none of the pieces to - as if trying to figure him out, or trying to find the words. In the quiet of his apartment, in the dead of night, it felt like she had finally crossed that line and taken that leap. Now, she just had to say the words.
Peter didn't know why the thought of her seeing his apartment, his life, as anything but perfect made him feel like he wanted to disappear.
He didn't know why he just couldn't tell her.
And in that moment it hit him. Maybe because he didn't want her to know. Maybe he didn't want to break the illusion - to admit that this was it.
That this was her Spider. Broke, jobless, and hopelessly, endlessly confused. That this was who she'd been chasing after, waiting for, worshiping, all these years.
That was the reason why. He didn't know what that'd do to her.
He didn't want to take that away from her. And he didn't want to lose her.
"Thanks," he said softly. "I half expected you to call me a scrub." he snickered.
Felicia laughed, her nose crinkling with the expression, and she leaned towards Peter on the bedsheet. "I mean, I might if I didn't like you so much." she said, and it was the truth. There was exceptions she'd made for someone like Peter. Someone genuine.
Behind the masks, it was so easy. So easy for her to say the wildest things, to run her mouth anyway she wanted. When she was with her Spider, she could be anyone she wanted to be. With Peter, she could only be Felicia. She could only be herself, and hope that's what he wanted.
"Sorry," Felicia said. "I didn't come here to be nosey, I came here to ask you something." The question stuck in the back of her head, the one Kate had been pestering her to ask. And what was the worst that could happen? She knew that answer: that he could say 'no'.
Peter could see the words coming to her lips, and he couldn't imagine what she could say that would make someone like her think twice.
"Actually," Peter said, "There was something I wanted to ask you too."
Felicia raised an eyebrow. She hesitated, biting back a smile. "Hopefully it's the same thing I wanted to ask you." she said. Hopefully she wasn't reading this all wrong.
"You can go-"
"You go first." Peter said.
Felicia chuckled as he beat her to the punch, her eyes searching his face one more time. "Okay," she said. Peter didn't think he'd ever seen her nervous around him. He had never expected to see her brows set in worry, her lips set in hesitation.
When MJ had confronted him, she had made it seem so easy.
"Peter," she sighed. "I- Do you wanna go out with me sometime? Like on a date? I got this tickets to Rogers and I figured I could ask..."
Peter let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
A sense of relief filling his chest that nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Yeah." he said, "Yeah, actually. That was the exact same thing I was about to ask you."
My feelings used to be serrated
But you speak in such a perfect cadence
Tiptoein' past so many stages
But what the fuck is patience?
These are fast times and fast nights, yeah
No time for rewrites, we couldn't help it
Outlines on bed sides, yeah
Give me a second to forget I ever really meant it
'Fast Times' - Sabrina Carpenter
A.N: It feels really good to be back.
Earlier this year I had a close family member pass, and had to step away from this fic, but it was always at the back of my mind. It feels good to be writing again. Thank you for every single one of you who stuck around.
Apologies if this one if a little rough around the edges. But let me just say I am SO hyped for what's coming in Chp.5. Expect some familiar faces.
And once again, thank you for reading!