Peter

May had been beyond excited for him when she got home. She had insisted on taking them out for celebratory ice cream, despite the lateness of the hour and the sub-freezing temperatures. She was crazy, but he loved her. They had stayed up later than they probably should have talking about soul marks and soulmates, and her experience, and a few of her friends' experiences. It was bittersweet listening to her talk about her relationship with Ben, but Peter remembered how happy they'd always been together, and how they took care of each other. For some reason he figured he would never have a soulmate, especially after the spider bite messed with his DNA. It was definitely an exciting surprise.

The next day, though running a little low on sleep, Peter got to school early, as he'd agreed with MJ. He wasn't sure what was going on with his head. It was just hard to focus on anything. Sure, he had some finals to take too, but the importance of those seemed to pale with the revelation that he'd have a soulmate. Besides, all of their college applications were already in. And his grades were high enough he was unlikely to drop any of them to a B unless he completely bombed a final.

He saw MJ waiting for him near his locker and moved eagerly to greet her. When they met, she pulled him into a strong hug, then smoothed his hair back with a quick touch as she released him.

"I'm excited for you! Though a little sad it's not a romantic mark," she added quietly. They'd already been talking about what her romantic blank meant for their long-term relationship, and him developing a platonic blank now made the likelihood of him being her romantic match even lower, since most people didn't have both. Peter pulled her in for another hug, pressing his face into her hair and sighing.

He could see why people called having a soulmate a mixed blessing. When everything went well, it was fantastic, but when there were pre-existing relationships in place it could make things hard when romantic marks were involved. A lot of people with romantic blanks actually avoided dating relationships until they found their soulmate, but then they also ran the risk of never finding launch/word?auth=1eir soulmate and just being alone. For some, that was a risk they'd rather take though. Because if they were in a long-term relationship with someone and finally did find their soulmate, they had some really complicated decisions to make.

Platonic bonds were obviously easier, and in some ways, Peter was a little relieved that's what he had to look forward to. But that didn't fix the fact that MJ probably had a better match somewhere. They'd already started to back up a little bit on the girlfriend/boyfriend part of their relationship, anticipating it needing to end anyway, which sucked. They would probably have been going to different colleges in the fall anyway, though, so separation had been inevitable.

Peter had been so excited the summer before when he'd found out MJ returned his interest, and they'd been dating ever since. Thankfully, things hadn't been too awkward since they started cooling things off a little, waiting to see what the near future held, at least. She was still one of his best friends, along with Ned, and their relationship was still good so far, just different. He tried not to think about it too hard, because it was recent and still painful.

More people were already starting to arrive, and Ned walked in, grinning like a crazy person at Peter. They moved into their special handshake they'd developed when they were both like eleven.

"Dude! Congratulations! Can I see?"

"Mmm, too many people, now, Ned. After school?"

"Oh man, you're right. But I'm so stoked for you! My mom has a platonic, and Auntie Lena is so awesome! She was excited for you when I told her."

"Oh, that's right! I didn't remember that!" said Peter.

Ned's eyes jumped back and forth between Peter and MJ, finally noticing their subdued mood. "Oh. But I'm sorry that you guys probably aren't…" He looked around awkwardly now.

"No. No, it's okay, Ned. We'd already guessed it wasn't going to work. It's a risk anyone takes when they start dating before blanks show up, right?" He picked up MJ's hand, squeezing it. "We'll work through it. She's my friend first, and I would never want MJ to miss out on a soulmate bond because she was too close to me. My aunt and uncle had one, and it was amazing."

MJ bumped her shoulder against Peter's and smiled sadly. Then her expression brightened slightly. "You said you talked to Mr. Stark? Was he excited for you?"

"Yeah, he was excited. He didn't scream like May did, but personality differences, you know?" Peter joked.

"Oh man, I'll bet she was so psyched," Ned said.

"Yeah, definitely," Peter said. Just then the first bell rang. "Ugh. Guess it's time for that Physics final. Wish us luck, MJ!"

"Like you need luck, genius," she said fondly. Then a corner of her mouth quirked as she said, "Good luck, Ned."

"Hey!"

Peter burst out of his last class that afternoon so excited to be almost done with finals. He had a paper to finish later tonight, and one more test tomorrow, and then he was at the Tower for the weekend, and it was Winter Break. He enjoyed parts of high school, but was feeling pretty done with most of it by now. Even though this year was better. A lot of the more obnoxious kids, even including Flash Thompson, seemed to have grown up a little bit over the last year, and everyone seemed to be a little more focused on life after high school and how they were going to navigate it.

He ducked into an alley, relying on his spidey-sense to make sure he wasn't being watched, and changed quickly into his suit. Man, he couldn't wait until they were done with his nano-tech suit. That would make changing so much easier sometimes! He wasn't sure if he was going to give up his current suit completely though. At this point the fabric was very nearly bulletproof, and the flexibility was amazing.

"Hey Karen," he said, as he webbed his bag high up on the alley wall. He'd gotten better about where he left it, plus Tony had given him several kinds of trackers to test out with it, and he hadn't lost a backpack (for long) since. He shot a web up to the top of the building and started swinging.

"Hello, Peter. How was school?"

"It was pretty good. Aced my O-Chem final and did pretty well on Physics, I think."

"Congratulations, Peter! Excellent work! What are we doing today?"

"You hear anything going on near here?"

"Not at the moment. After-school crime has definitely decreased in this area. Another job well done."

"Yeah, but now what do I do?" he said softly.

"Is that a rhetorical question, Peter, or do you want me to look up some options?"

Peter did a neat forward flip to land on top of an apartment building instead of continuing to swing. He sat on the edge, knees tucked up to his chest with his arms braced around them. Even patrolling wasn't appealing today. Too much to think about. He'd been hoping for some distraction, but it seemed everyone was currently behaving themselves.

"Hey, Karen, what do you know about soulmates and blank marks?"

"I can look up anything that's available on the internet. What would you like to know?"

"I dunno. I have a lot of questions. But the people I know with soulmates have a romantic connection, not a platonic one. I just don't know as much about it as I thought I did."

"I thought you were quite excited about your blank mark."

"Yeah. I was excited, but now I'm feeling kinda anxious, you know?" It was crazy how his moods were roller-coastering today.

"What are you anxious about, Peter?"

"It's hard to know exactly what it is. I guess all the unknowns. I don't know who it will be. Or when I'll meet them." He was silent for a few minutes.

"And what if they don't want to live in New York? How's that gonna work? Or how it will affect the Spiderman part of my life? What if they're weirded out by all the mutation stuff? What if they don't want to be my soulmate? " He sniffed, looking up at the already darkening sunlight. It got dark so early in the winter. He shivered slightly.

"Would you like me to turn your heater on, Peter? Your temperature is beginning to drop. Mr. Stark said-"

"Oh, yeah. Please." Weird. He hadn't even noticed he was getting cold. He sat there for several more minutes, just staring, not even noticing Karen was unusually quiet as well. Her conversation skills and insight had gotten much more developed since she'd first been activated, and he knew she would continue to grow and change as Mr. Stark's other AIs had, but sometimes she still surprised him. Like she did with what happened next.

"Incoming call from Mr. Stark."

"Why is he…? Uh, yeah, put him through, Karen."

"Hey, Underoos, how's patrol?" His mentor had a forced enthusiasm in his voice.

"Um, hey, Mr. Stark. Pretty good so far, I guess. Not much happening today. I promise I'm not even bleeding or anything." Peter stood up and started pacing back and forth on the roof, jittery with emotions.

"How did those finals go? Good?"

"Did you really call me on patrol to make small talk?" Peter asked, curious. "You know I did fine."

"True. I knew you'd ace them. Uh, Karen may have told me you were freaking out a little bit, and might need to talk."

" Really, Karen? Since when do you…"

"Hey. Pete," Tony stopped him. "I'm happy to talk. What's going on in your head that has your AI worried about you, bud?"

"She's just being dramatic, Mr. Stark; I'm fine. Just… thinking a lot about all the soulmate stuff. I'm okay." His mentor was silent for a moment.

"She maaaaay or may not have played back the questions you asked her. Because she didn't know how to search for the answers, and genuinely thought I might be the best place to get help with them."

"Oh my gosh, Karen, are you serious right now?"

"She's not listening, Pete. I knew you'd be upset, and I told her to turn off for our call. She was honestly worried and just trying to help."

Peter sat back down and slumped against an air handler. He sighed deeply. "It's really not a big deal; I was just feeling anxious for a few minutes."

Peter sighed. He knew from experience that Tony was unlikely to let it go. Especially since Karen was feeling double-agent-ish today. "I just…. What if whoever it is doesn't want to be my soulmate?" he finally asked quietly.

"Oh, kiddo, you know soulmates are supposed to be close-to-perfect matches for you, whether it's a romantic pair, or a friendship, right? Your soulmate's not going to be anyone who wouldn't like you, bud. Actually, soulmate or not, who could not like you, honestly? You're one of the nicest, kindest, best people I know. And I know a lot of people."

"Well, I can make you a list of people who haven't liked me. And what if the connection thing was already coded in, but didn't take all my enhancements into the great soulmate equation? Lots of people are iffy about mutations and differences and all that stuff."

"I guess that's possible, but so improbable, Pete. If we're being hypothetical, why don't we think about some of the really cool possibilities instead of the possible traumatic things, huh? And remember, no one's forced to accept a soulmate relationship, if it's not going to work. You wouldn't be stuck with someone like that."

"I know. I guess that's why I'm worried. I really want this, but what if whoever else it is just doesn't when they find out it's… me?"

"Kid, we can't control any of that. But I promise you, they'd be making the biggest mistake of their lives to give up on having you as a soulmate."

Peter was silent, trying to get his emotions under control. He knew Tony loved him, but they didn't often talk candidly about their feelings, or what they thought of each other or anything. It was really nice to hear it. But he still worried. He should just be happy about this, right? Why all the complicated feelings and thoughts?

"Hey Eeyore, can you tell me five possible good things about having a soulmate, even if you haven't met them yet?"

Peter leaned forward against his knees, kind of wanting to take his mask off and breathe freely, but not willing to end the call yet.

"Uh, built in best friend?" he said glumly.

"Absolutely, yes. Next?"

"Someone who has my back. Um, hopefully someone I can work well with?"

"Those are good. And yes, with any luck, it will be someone who enjoys the same things that you do - but whatever kind of work you do together, soulmates usually mesh very well on any projects. Two more?"

"Um, if they have family, I kinda get more extended family? Is that right?"

"Yep. Their family is your family too, most of the time."

"That's kinda cool. I've never had much family. I mean, I had Ben, and I still have May. And… you? I mean, I'm not your family family," he said, backtracking, "but-"

"Sure you are, Pete. When I'm your second emergency contact at school, and you spend half your weekends and most holidays with me, we're family. Pep and Rhodey, too." Peter grinned under the mask, dealing with emotions of a different kind again.

"One more positive, buddy."

"Uh…" he was drawing a blank. "If I have a dog and want to go on vacation, they'll watch it for me?"

That last one elicited a surprised laugh from his mentor, and made Peter smile again, too. It wasn't easy to do, but he loved making Tony laugh when he could.

"Okay, okay. All good points, kid. So. I was thinking of heading to the Compound maybe Saturday, and seeing if Clint or Natasha, or both, wanted to come hang out with us. You could pick their brains. Would that be helpful? Would May be okay with you staying through Monday, do you think?"

"Um, yeah, definitely. I mean, if they're not busy. And we don't have any plans for Monday yet. I think May is working a lot of the weekend anyway." Peter was excited at the thought of seeing either of the duo (though they usually showed up as a package deal, using weekends at the Compound to "recharge" their platonic bond, since they lived apart most of the time) and relieved at the thought of having someone to ask questions.

"So, how you feeling now, kiddo? Any better?"

"Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Tony," Peter said softly.

"You gonna patrol some more?"

"Maybe a little bit. I do still have a final to study for, and a paper to finish, so not too long today."

"Okay, I'm sure you'll do great. See you tomorrow after school? I have a meeting until about 3:30, so Happy will still pick you up, but he'll bring you here. Then after dinner with Pepper, or maybe Saturday morning, we'll head to the Compound. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sounds great. I'm so ready for Winter Break!"

"There you go. Think happy thoughts, kid. See ya tomorrow."

"Bye, Mr. Stark."

Peter sighed, and finally tugged his mask off to breathe a little bit better. Plus he was still a little annoyed at Karen, though he knew she had his best interests at heart. He'd patrol for maybe thirty more minutes, and if nothing came up, he'd head home to finish that English paper.

Tony

Tony pushed his chair away from his computer in the workshop, head running through scenarios and fixes after his conversation with Peter. He always knew the kid was sensitive, but he hadn't realized he worried so much about the stuff that had just come out in their conversation. It's true that there were some people in the world that were prejudiced against enhanced humans and mutants, and anyone different than normal, but he didn't realize Peter feared stuff like that on a personal level, since most people he interacted with didn't know he had powers. But a soulmate would need to be told something that big before a bond was accepted. He winced, thinking of how it had affected Pepper, especially in the early years, being tied to a superhero that risked his life on the regular. It had been pretty rough at times. And he wasn't even enhanced.

He hated to hear the kid overwhelmed and anxious about something that should be so exciting for him.

"Hey FRI, see if you can reach Nat."

A few moments later, FRIDAY reported, "I have Ms. Romanoff, Boss."

"Great. Connect me."

"Stark."

"Nat, hey. How's it going? How's the family?" That was a loaded question. Earlier this year she'd reunited with a young adult she knew from her childhood, Yelena, because apparently they'd been raised as sisters for a period of time. It had been tumultuous, but most of the time, they seemed happy to be in each other's orbit again.

She ignored his question. "What do you need, Tony?"

"I can't just call to say 'hi?'"

"You can, but you usually don't." He could hear a bit of a smirk in her voice. "What's up?"

"Well, I have a Spider-kid who just got a platonic blank, and he's spiraling a little bit with all the what-ifs. I was curious if you or Barton, or both, might be available to pay a visit to the Compound this weekend and chat with him a little."

"Peter? A platonic blank, really? That's great news!"

"That's what he said at first, too, but he's all up in his head about it now. I'm sure it doesn't help that his girlfriend developed a romantic blank a few weeks ago, so they've been dealing with the complications of that."

"Ah, that sounds intense. He's probably got a lot of emotions going on. I can be free this weekend. Does Sunday work? Is he on break yet?"

"Yeah, he's about to be on break, and Sunday works."

"I'm not sure about Clint, but I'll call him. We're due for a weekend together anyway, so the timing would be good. Should he bring Laura and the kids, or less is more?"

"If that's the only way we get him, sure. But if he's available to come on his own, it might help keep the chaos factor down," Tony said with amusement. He loved Clint's kids, but they were definitely a handful.

"I appreciate it Nat, even if only you can make it. Kid has a lot of questions, and my bond is different, so I don't have all the answers."

"Bet that's a weird feeling for you, not knowing everything."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. See you Sunday, Romanoff. Thanks again."