Chapter 13: Steve Gets Recruited

Steve continued to eat with the dance team every lunch period, although Pietro and Wanda returned to their usual table. One day after school, Steve finally explained why he'd been invited over there in the first place. "Turns out, Natasha wanted me to sit with them at lunch because dance team is trying to recruit me." Peter thought that was an interesting choice for them to make. Wanda and Pietro burst out laughing.

Steve crossed his arms. "Why is that funny?"

"You can't dance," Pietro said matter-of-factly. He ran to the kitchen and returned with a Mountain Dew. "I thought you knew that."

"They don't want me to dance, they want me to manage. But even if they did want me to dance, that's no reason to laugh. I'm capable."

"You're capable of tripping over your own feet," Pietro said. "I don't know where all your coordination flees to when there's music on, but there's definitely not a shred left in your body."

"Ouch. You know, there's a lot I could make fun of you for, but I don't. Because I'm a nice brother."

Pietro rolled his eyes.

"What happened to the old manager?" Peter asked.

"Natasha was pulling double duty. But she wants to step down so she can focus on choreography."

"So, are you gonna do it?"

"You should," Wanda said. "Natasha's totally into you, and this is your chance to make a move."

"Natasha is not into me," Steve insisted.

"Ever since you coaxed Fury's password out of her, she's smiled at you every time she sees you."

"That's just friendly."

"No. There's a difference between a friendly smile and a flirty smile. And those are definitely the latter."

"You would know, since you keep throwing them at Peter's robotics buddy," Pietro quipped.

Wanda narrowed her eyes and tilted her head at him.

"What? It's true. You're totally crushing on Alex. And it's only gotten worse after you two had that lunch date."

Wanda's face turned as red as her magic. Pietro clapped Steve on the shoulder and offered to have Clint tell Natasha he was interested. Steve turned even redder than Wanda and said, "I assure you, that won't be necessary."

"How about you, Pietro?" Wanda teased. "Anyone special?"

He chugged the last dregs of his soda. "Nah. I didn't escape this dungeon just to tie myself to another person. I prefer the free-spirited lifestyle."

"Bullshit," Steve called. "You make eyes at practically every person you pass in the halls."

"I do not!"

Wanda laughed. "Yes you do."

"Name one person I've 'made eyes' at."

Steve started counting off on his fingers. "Quill. Layla. Carol. Joaquín. Monica. Thor."

"Everyone makes eyes at Thor. The dude's a specimen."

"That's fair," Steve relented.

"I'm serious, guys. I'm not looking for a relationship."

"We believe you," Peter said, glaring at Steve and Wanda to get them to agree. They reluctantly backed off.

"Anyway, back to the impetus for this whole conversation," Steve continued. "Should I agree to be manager? For reasons other than proximity to Natasha?"

"Absolutely," Pietro said. "If we can't play sports, might as well go for the next best thing."

"Is that why you joined archery club?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah. Also, Clint's a very convincing dude. Don't ever tell him I said archery is an alternative to sports, by the way. He'll kill me in my sleep."

"Archery is a sport. They have it at the Olympics and everything," Peter explained.

"They also have speed walking," Pietro scoffed.

"Speed walking is an oxymoron as far as he's concerned," Wanda said.

Pietro ran back to the kitchen and came back with a bag of Cheetos. "I don't know what that means. Peter, should I be offended?"

"No, it just means they're opposites."

"Then yes, speed walking is an ox moron."

"That's oxymoron, you moron."

Pietro threw a Cheeto at her. Wanda levitated it and tried to throw it back, but missed by several feet and almost hit Peter instead. Pietro picked it up off the floor and ate it.

Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Gross."

"It's a Cheeto, I guarantee the stuff in it is far more gross than anything it picked up from the floor."

"He makes a good point," Peter admitted.

"That's a first," Steve snapped.

Pietro got through several more Cheetos before he realized what Steve meant. "Hey!"

~0~

Steve accepted the manager position. Once he did, Peter felt like he never saw him anymore. He ate lunch with the team every day, and stayed for their practices every day after school. Apparently it wasn't in his official job description to attend all the practices, but he chose to. Peter couldn't imagine why, unless he was lying about wanting the position for reasons other than proximity to Natasha. If Peter liked somebody and had an opportunity to spend hours after school with them each day, he'd take that opportunity for sure.

While Peter missed Steve, and so did Wanda and Pietro, despite their continuous efforts to prove they didn't. Mr. Stark was upset by his absence for another reason entirely. "Steve, you're not keeping up with your training," he stated one night at dinner.

"How would you know if you're never home to watch?"

"FRIDAY tracks how often you complete the modules."

Steve stabbed his next piece of chicken with far more force than necessary. "Of course she does."

"If you're not back on track within the next week, I'm taking you off the dance team."

Pietro jumped to his defense. "What's the point of training if we never get to use our powers for anything?"

"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense," Wanda chimed in.

Mr. Stark put down his fork and cleared his throat. "You can't use your powers because to do so would put you in incredible danger," he explained calmly. "But there may come a day when hiding your abilities isn't enough to keep you safe, and when that day comes I want you to be capable of defending yourself and your siblings."

Peter noted his use of "when" and not "if" when discussing the day they'd no longer be safe. That sounded ominous as hell. Did he know something they didn't?

"Fine," Steve sighed. "I'll do the trainings."

Now Peter saw him even less. Instead of hanging out with them after practice, he went straight to training, then showered before dinner. On heavy homework days, training occasionally got pushed to after dinner. Eventually, Wanda and Pietro adjusted their schedules to train with him. Peter had never felt like such an outsider among his siblings.

"You seem down," Shuri remarked at lunch, on a day it was just them and Bucky. Pietro was off at archery club again, and Wanda had another lunch date with Alex.

Peter morosely poked at his pasta with his fork. "What gave it away?"

"You're a lot less chatty than usual," Bucky said.

Shuri nodded in agreement. "Bucky's probably said more than you in the past week, and that's saying something."

Peter shrugged. "I'm fine. Just busy with schoolwork, staying up late. I'm probably just tired."

"You are literally the worst liar I've ever met."

"Fine," he grumbled. "I just feel kinda left out, is all. Steve, Wanda, and Pietro started school after me and it seems like they already fit in better than I do."

"That's ridiculous. There's no such thing as being better or worse at fitting in."

"There kinda is."

"What? Because they have more friends? Or their friends are more popular than yours?"

"That's not true, you're very popular," Peter said.

"And that has little to no impact on my happiness. I could talk to anyone in this school if I wanted to, but I spend most of my time with you two losers because spending time with you makes me happy. Do you want to be the dance team's boy toy?"

"I don't think you're using that expression correctly," Bucky cut in.

"Whatever. Peter, do you want that?"

"No, I like hanging out with you guys. I just like hanging out with them too, and that's happening way less than it used to. But it's fine, they have their own lives, I just have to get over myself."

"If you say so." Shuri clearly didn't believe him. "But if it bothers you this much, you should talk to them."

Peter had no intention of doing so, but he nodded to get Shuri to drop the subject. "How did breaking the news to your mom go?" he asked Bucky.

"She was definitely mad that I broke thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but also glad it wasn't the other hand. Insurance won't cover a new one because I broke it, so I have to wait until I outgrow the socket."

"That sucks, I'm sorry."

Bucky shrugged. "I don't use it for much more than a counterweight, it'll be fine."

"This is why you should let me build you one," Shuri said.

"For the last time, you are not a certified prosthetist."

"I may not be, but I am very good with robotics."

"She really is," Peter added. He'd seen what she could do in robotics club.

"I will not be the test subject of your mad science experiment."

"Fine, fine. Live for the next year or two with your superglue-reattached fingers, see if I care."

Peter realized he'd gone this long knowing Bucky without ever asking about his arm. At first, it had felt invasive because they barely knew each other, but he thought they were good enough friends by now that Bucky would be willing to tell him. "Sorry if this is an awkward question, but–"

Bucky cut him off. "I was born lucky."

"Oh, okay." Peter didn't know what else to say. "That's cool."

"Oh thank god you're not one of those people who looks disappointed when they find out. I swear, everyone who asks does so thinking they're about to get a traumatic story about a shark or a crocodile or a hiking trip gone wrong."

"I'm glad it wasn't traumatic."

"Me too."

"You should see some of his old prosthetics from when he was a baby," Shuri said. "They're so cute."

Bucky rolled his eyes.

"Do you still have them all?"

"Yeah. They're so customized it's hard to repurpose them, so they're just sitting in a closet in my house."

"Bet that comes in handy." Peter barely got the sentence out before he burst out laughing. Shuri quickly followed suit.

"You guys are the worst," Bucky sighed. Peter found he didn't mind his siblings thriving without him when he was too busy having fun with his friends. As usual, Shuri was right.

At the end of the day, Steve met them where they usually waited for Happy to pick them up from school. He hadn't joined them for the ride home in weeks, so Peter was surprised to see him. "So…you know how Mr. Stark and May are going to that Stark Industries event over the weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?" Wanda asked.

"The dance team wants to have a party that weekend, and I may have offered up our house."

"Are you crazy? Steve, we'll get caught."

"No, we won't. It'll be less than twenty people, nothing too crazy. Are you guys in, or are you ratting me out to Mr. Stark?"

"I'm always down for a party," Pietro said with a shrug. "We are allowed to join, right? It's not just for you and your ballerina buddies."

"Yeah, of course you can come. I'm not going to host a party in our house and not invite you all, what kind of person would do something like that?"

"Just checking."

"Peter, Wanda, are you in?"

Peter had never blatantly broken the rules like that before. He'd never even been to a party, much less hosted one. The dance team weren't exactly his closest friends–most of them still intimidated him–but he didn't suspect they were the kind of people to completely trash a place when they had a get-together. Besides, it could be fun. "Yeah, I'm in."

Wanda tapped her thumb to each of her fingers in turn. "I don't see why not."

Steve grinned excitedly. "Yes. Thank you guys so much. I'll see you at home."

Without another word, he set off back through the hallway towards the dance studio.

"Our first real party!" Pietro exclaimed. "And it's at our house!"

"There's only, like, three hundred twenty nine ways this could go wrong," Wanda remarked.

"But there are also some ways it could go right," Peter said hopefully. "Right?"

Neither of them responded.

"Right?"

"I'm sure it's possible," Wanda admitted.