Chapter 15: Not Pet Sitting

They would've spent hours cleaning the next morning had Pietro not deigned to help them. With his assistance, it took only twenty minutes. After that, Steve took great pride in showing them the many thank-you texts he'd received throughout the night. Some of them were clearly written by people heavily intoxicated, but they were still sincere.

"I can't believe we did that," Peter admitted as they sat around the kitchen table eating breakfast. "It's such a stereotypical high school thing, and we did it."

"What, you don't think we fit the stereotype of high schoolers?" Steve asked.

"Most high schoolers don't need four bowls of cereal to make it to lunch without passing out," Wanda remarked as Steve slurped the milk from his third bowl of the morning. Well–it was actually twelve-thirty already, but Peter considered anything within two hours of waking up to be morning.

"Hey, it's hardly my fault!"

"I'm not teasing you, I'm just stating a fact." Wanda levitated a handful of Sugar Snaps from her bowl and tossed them in Steve's direction. Most of them hit their intended target, but one strayed and ended up in Peter's hair.

"Wanda, I swear you do this on purpose," he grumbled as he plucked it out.

"I promise you I'm not. It just happens."

"She's lying," Pietro declared.

"Am not!"

The front door opened, revealing May and Mr. Stark. "How was the party?" he asked.

The four teenagers stared, mouths agape and bodies frozen.

Mr. Stark chuckled. "You thought it was a secret? None of you are eighteen yet, I wasn't about to leave you home alone without enabling FRIDAY throughout the rest of the house. How was the party, FRI?"

"It was a lively four hours."

"That's what I like to hear."

Neither Peter nor his siblings had said a word.

"You're not in trouble," May affirmed. "In fact, the house looks better than when we left it."

"Yeah, I should have you lot clean the house more often."

"Would we get paid?" Pietro asked.

"Yeah, I'll pay you by the hour," Mr. Stark said dryly.

Peter burst out laughing. The sudden diffusion of tension combined with Mr. Stark's comedic timing just sent him over the edge. Soon, Steve and Wanda joined him.

Pietro crossed his arms and huffed. "No fair."

Now everyone in the room was laughing, except for Pietro.

~0~

The next day, the four of them walked into the lab after school to find Mr. Stark dumping live flies into a glass container. "Whatcha doin' there, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked.

"I'm borrowing my friend's spider for a few days. He mentioned at the conference over the weekend that he was going on a business trip and needed someone he trusted to look after it while he's gone."

"I wish I could say that's the weirdest thing you've ever said, but I don't think it even makes the top ten," Pietro sighed. He sped into the other room and returned with a bag of Doritos.

"So you're pet sitting," Peter said.

"No. I'm maintaining laboratory conditions necessary for the experiments being conducted on a live specimen from a fellow scientist."

"Sounds like pet sitting to me," Pietro said.

"It's not a pet! It's a genetically engineered spider."

"Genetically engineered to do what?" Peter asked.

"I'm not sure. Norman wouldn't tell me."

"You're pet sitting an experimental spider you know nothing about," Wanda remarked.

"I know what temperature it needs and what it eats. Anything beyond that is on a need-to-know basis among Oscorp employees. As I'm not an Oscorp employee on this project, I don't need to know."

"Sounds dangerous," Pietro said nonchalantly.

"If there were any known hazards, he would've told me."

"Unless he's trying to assassinate you to eliminate Stark Industries as competition," Wanda proposed.

"We're not competitors. We operate in two completely separate fields within the tech sector."

"Maybe he wants to diversify into your field within the tech sector."

"What's your angle here, guys? Are you trying to pit me against a life-long colleague and friend? Why?"

"Nah, we're just messing with you," Pietro said. "It's just pretty funny that one of the richest and smartest people in the world was asked to pet sit by another of the richest and smartest people in the world."

"For the last time, I'm not pet sitting."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Stark," Peter said with a smirk.

"I'm going upstairs. If I wanted to be judged by a bunch of teenagers, I'd go back to high school."

He walked into the elevator and didn't even turn around to face the doors as they closed. "He only does that when he's annoyed with us," Wanda told Peter.

Peter walked up to the enclosure to examine this special science spider. It was larger than most spiders he'd seen in his lifetime, its abdomen patterned with bright red and blue. The flies flew around the container and all got stuck in the web built in one corner. Peter watched as the spider walked up to each of them and wrapped it in a silk cocoon, except for the last one, which it ate with frightening speed.

"I wonder what it does," he said.

"Probably nothing special, or Osborn wouldn't trust Mr. Stark with it," Pietro said wryly.

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "There's a reason all his pets are robots."

"Is there?"

Steve shrugged. "Probably."

"I think he just doesn't like animals," Wanda said.

Pietro crumpled up the empty bag of Doritos and attempted to throw it into the nearest trash can. He missed. "Steve's explanation is funnier."

With a flick of her fingers, Wanda moved the bag into the trash can. She actually succeeded on the first try, and at no point did the bag approach Peter's head.

~0~

"Today marks one month until the Winter Formal. Tickets are available for purchase online; just scan the QR code on the fliers posted around school, or visit the table outside the front office during lunch. Hope to see you all there!" The morning announcements concluded with that reminder. Peter had never been to any sort of school dance before. The idea of standing in a gym with too-loud music and most of his peers either drunk or stoned did not entice him in the least. Plus, he never had either a date nor a group of friends to go with. He didn't particularly want to attend this dance either, but he had a sinking suspicion that he'd be peer pressured into it.

Sure enough, as soon as the announcement ended, Shuri turned to him and asked if he was going.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"He's going," Pietro cut in, a mischievous grin on his face.

"That's not your decision to make."

"You should come," Wanda reiterated. "It'll be fun."

Peter slumped down in his chair. "I don't really like dances."

"You'll like this one," Shuri assured. "This is a private school, they can afford to actually get a good venue and a good DJ and good food. None of that high school gym crap."

"Still doesn't sound like my scene."

"Come on, Peter, please? I want you to come with me."

"Are you asking me to the dance?"

"Not as a date. As friends. It's about half and half here, people who go with friends versus those who bring dates. You won't stick out at all."

"Who says I was worried about that?"

"No one."

"Fine. I'll go. But I reserve the right to duck out early if I hate it."

"Okay."

"Are you dragging anyone else along, or just me?"

"I'll force Bucky and T'Challa to come too. But T'Challa probably won't need much convincing. Dance team always plans a flash mob that I'm sure he'll be a part of."

"You should've led with that."

"I would if I'd known you're such a fan of dance."

Peter shook his head and grabbed his backpack to head to chemistry. All day long, all anyone talked about was the winter formal. Scott planned to ask Hope. Loki planned to buy two outfits because she didn't know how she'd identify on the day of the dance. Thor planned to ask Jane. Druig and Makkari were going together. Monica and her bandmates Carol and Kamala were trying to arrange to play a few songs live. He learned during math class that Alex planned to ask Wanda. He continued to talk about it during sixth period, and Peter listened to every word. He'd known the two were hanging out together, but he didn't know it had gotten this serious.

Instead of researching for their recently-assigned midterm projects, Bucky and Shuri were online shopping for dress gloves. "Peter, what do you think of these?" Bucky asked.

Peter leaned over to see their screen, which pictured dark red leather gloves.

"I don't know. To be honest, I think red gloves look kinda freaky."

"How about in brown?" Bucky clicked a button and the color changed.

"That's better."

"I think you should just go with your usual black," Shuri suggested. "Scott, what do you think?"

"Black is good."

"What are you doing?" Alex asked. Peter could see by his screen that he was one of the only people on task. Him and Phastos usually were.

"Glove shopping for formal," Bucky replied flippantly.

"Why do you need gloves for formal? It is winter, but I doubt it will be that cold indoors."

Bucky frowned at him. "I always wear gloves. You know why."

Alex, strangely, did not appear to know why, but he dropped the subject. He stood up from his computer, wandered into the woodshop, and returned with his backpack bulging suspiciously. Bucky, Shuri, and Peter exchanged glances of pure confusion, but decided not to confront him about it.

"Should I just go with the black gloves?" Bucky asked.

"I think you should." Shuri said. Peter agreed.

"Okay."

Peter was eager to be done hearing about formal, but when he met up with his siblings, he discovered that it was all they could talk about too. The entire ride home, he was forced to listen to Steve and Pietro debate how he should go about asking Peggy.

"Alex is going to ask you," Peter told Wanda, just for a chance to contribute to the conversation.

"Really?!"

"He said so."

"I wonder how he's going to do it."

"At least one of us is going to get a date," Pietro huffed. Steve punched him. They continued arguing all the way back into the house and down to the lab.

"I am not making one of those stupid signs!" Steve declared.

"Are you just gonna bring her flowers or something? This isn't nineteen forty three."

"She likes flowers."

Peter sighed and threw his backpack onto the lab bench. Then he noticed it.

"Hey guys?"

They didn't hear him over their argument.

"Hey guys!" he repeated, much louder this time.

"What?" They were clearly irritated at having been interrupted.

"Where did the spider go?" Peter was staring directly at its clear container, and there was no sign of it.

"It's not in its enclosure?" Steve asked.

"If it was, he wouldn't be asking," Pietro said.

"How could it have escaped?"

Peter walked a lap around the container and scrutinized it for possible escape routes. Sure enough, the access panel had been left open a crack. "Whoever opened it last didn't close it all the way."

"I didn't do it," Pietro and Wanda said immediately.

"It must've been Mr. Stark," Steve decided. "None of us have even touched it."

"It must be somewhere in the lab." Peter doubted it had managed to get into the elevator to escape the basement.

"I'll go look," Pietro suggested.

Wanda grabbed his wrist before he could speed off. "Don't! You might step on it."

"True, true. How do we find it, then?"

Steve sighed. "The old-fashioned way."

They each started in one corner and worked their way around the basement, checking every nook and cranny for any sign of the experimental arachnid. At one point, Pietro thought he found it, but it turned out to be an ordinary spider. He promptly killed it. Half an hour later, Steve shouted that he found it. Everyone raced to see if he was right. Sure enough, the spider sat at the intersection between the underside of the table and one of its legs.

"Wanda, can you move it back to its enclosure?" Peter asked.

She twisted her ring. "I don't know. I've never used my powers on something so small and…squishable. I might kill it by accident."

"The old-fashioned way, then," Pietro repeated. He dashed into another room and came back with a piece of paper and a cup. "Who wants to do the honors?"

Nobody stepped up. Peter didn't trust his clumsiness not to betray him.

Steve brought a finger to his nose. "Nose goes."

"Where'd you learn nose goes?" Peter asked. "You were raised in a lab."

"Natasha," he said sheepishly.

Peter and Wanda both touched their noses. She pointed at Pietro, still with both hands by his sides, and laughed. "For once in your life, you're the slow one."

He looked downright affronted. "Not fair! I don't even know what nose goes is."

"Last person to touch their nose has to do it," Peter explained. "You're already holding the paper and cup, so go ahead."

He sighed and mumbled something in Sokovian under his breath. Pietro crawled under the table and immediately stopped when he got into position. "It's gone," he said.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. I don't see a spider anywhere under here."

"Okay, let's fan out from here and look for it," Steve commanded. They each took a corner of the table and started looking from there. Peter got down on his hands and knees and crawled around, thinking the spider would probably be closer to ground level. He found a thick patch of cobweb in the corner of the lab, but no spider inhabiting it. He turned his head to check under the lab bench, and his hair brushed against his neck in such a way that gave him goosebumps. The sensation was immediately followed by pain.

"Something just bit me!" he cried.

"It's the spider!" Steve confirmed.

"Get it off me!"

"I'm on it." Pietro brought over the cup and paper. He used the cup to knock the spider onto the floor and then trap it.

"Does it look bad?" Peter asked.

"A little red, that's all."

"Should we tell Mr. Stark?" Steve asked.

"No! He can't know that it got out," Peter said.

"But it bit you!" Wanda said. "What if it's venomous?"

"Mr. Stark said it wasn't venomous," Steve reminded them.

"It could still be dangerous."

"I'm fine." Peter stood up and dusted off his pants. "I feel fine. If it was venomous, I'd already have symptoms."

"Let's get the spider secured, then we can talk," Steve suggested. He grabbed the piece of paper from Pietro, slid it under the cup, and tossed everything into the enclosure. Wanda closed it as soon as his hands were out of the way.

"Well, that was a near disaster."

"Near disaster? Peter got bit!" Wanda said.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Peter insisted. The bite didn't really hurt anymore. He brushed his fingertips against the site on the back of his neck and couldn't even tell anything had happened.

"I still think we should tell Mr. Stark," Steve said.

"No! I'm fine. There's no need to tell him anything."

"He's probably going to ask why there's a cup and piece of paper in the spider's enclosure," Pietro pointed out.

"It got out, and we put it back. Simple as that," Wanda said.

"Yeah. Simple as that," Peter agreed.

"Okay, fine. But Peter, if you start to feel weird, we have to let him know, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Peter couldn't even feel the bite anymore. He'd had bee stings worse.

"Peter, while you're down here, can you help me with my chem homework?" Pietro asked.

"Sure."

They all grabbed their backpacks and spread out around the lab, the spider incident all but forgotten. Peter helped Pietro work through his stoichiometry problems, then completed his own math and history homework. Then he helped Wanda with math. By the time dinner rolled around, he was mentally exhausted. Homework didn't usually tire him out, but it had been a long day.