Reunion

By Ninazadzia

We visit a life we both left behind
Ignore the heart
Move to the ever-moving
Or, blazin', we go over
And over and over and over again

If I wait too long
I'll lose you from my sight
Maybe tonight
I could stop dreaming
And start believing in forever
And ever and ever and ever again

~Reunion, the xx

June, 2025

As it turned out—for the CEO of a nearly-billion dollar company, Kate Bishop knew how to party.

Or, as the night of her 23rd birthday would prove, at the very least, she knew how to let her hair down. By the time I'd gotten to Richardson's, Amy and Jack had already lost their first round of darts. Kate was on top of a barstool, belting out the lyrics to Don McLean's "American Pie," trying to pull Amy up onto the bar to join her.

Amy laid eyes on me, mouthed "thank god," and almost as if on cue, Kate snapped her fingers and turned to me.

"Peter, you made it! Jack—bring him a shot."

Judging by the wavering tenor of her voice, the empty rocks glass in her hand and how she nearly fell off the barstool as she called out my name, I took it the three of them had been there for a while.

"No, that's okay…" I started.

Amy smiled, shook her head and then leaned in so her mouth was right up against my ear. "Don't worry about it, this isn't some corporate test. It's okay if you want to drink."

"No, seriously, I'm okay. I'm, um…" I scrambled to come up with an excuse. Tracking a potential crime boss/drug-lord? Could very well need to swing into action any second now? "…finishing up antibiotics." I winced as it came out of my mouth.

Amy snapped back away from me. "Finishing up antibiotics? What?"

As if I couldn't make things any more awkward for myself, Kate had somehow heard me too. "Please tell me you're not contagious."

"No, no," I started, scrambling again. Of course, I said the first thing I could come up with. "It was for a urinary tract…thing."

I could see my reflection in the mirror behind the bar. Just about all of the color had drained out of my face. And at that exact moment, Kate and Amy both burst into laughter.

"Holy shit, Peter!"

"Somebody's been having a 'hot boy summer,' eh?" Amy said, playfully shoving my shoulder. Almost as if thinking immediately about the implications of saying something like that to her subordinate, she quickly added, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, you don't need to disclose that to us."

At that exact second, Jack returned from the bar, holding a flight of what appeared—and smelled—to be tequila. "The bartender talked me into their mezcal flight."

I managed half a smile, feeling the tension in my shoulders ease up a little. Kate seemed too drunk to really care—or, frankly, that she'd remember any of our conversation the following morning. And from looking around the room, it seemed like just about everyone present was affiliated with either Bishop Security or one of the other tech or finance firms in our building. If the criminal underbelly of New York was based anywhere around Richardson's, it looked like they'd decided to take a night off of frequenting the bars. "Okay, actually, you know what, I think I'll take that drink—just promise me we'll talk about literally anything else."

"I'll drink to that," Kate agreed, raising her shotglass.

"Happy birthday, boss," Jack toasted, tipping his glass to all of us.

I knocked back the tequila. I'd only had it a few times before, but it tasted exactly how I remembered it did—except this time, I didn't use lime or salt, or "training wheels," as MJ and Ned had affectionally called it. "So, before you down it—lick the salt off of the back of your hand," MJ demonstrated, "take the shot, and then suck on a lime immediately after. It makes it go down a lot easier."

Whether it was the memory of that uncharacteristically cold, October night, or the lack of training wheels to my tequila, I couldn't say—but I felt an unmistakable shiver work its way down my back. Thinking about MJ would do that to me.

MJ. I couldn't help but keep tabs on her here and there, as the months wore on.

I only went into the coffee shop that one time, right after Strange had cast the spell to make everyone forget about Peter Parker. I figured it wouldn't be fair to her for me to lurk around her place of work. The last time I'd seen her in person had been in passing a few months ago, outside of the gymnasium where they hosted Senior Prom. Curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to see if she had a date—she did, and it was Ned, which I didn't know what to make of. Were they going as friends? The Ned I knew wouldn't do that to me, but then again, Ned doesn't know me, period, so maybe they'd gotten together in the time I'd been forgotten. Maybe she had already moved on—not that she really had anything to move on from, I guess.

"Peter. Where'd you go?"

The sound of Kate's voice snapped me right back to reality. Kate cocked her head to the side, narrowing her gaze ever so slightly.

"What do you mean?" I managed.

"You just went somewhere, up here." She tapped her forehead. "What's on your mind?"

I stopped for a moment, debating how much to tell her. She was my boss, and a young, female one at that—I didn't want to risk my new job talking about an ex-girlfriend, because that seemed like a stereotypically unprofessional thing to do.

"Nothing, it's just—I haven't had tequila in a while. It brings back some old memories."

"Memories of…?" she raised an eyebrow.

Then again, I thought, you literally walked into this bar to her dancing on a table and singing American Pie. You're probably fine.

"Um. My ex, she taught me how to shoot tequila—lime, salt, that sort of thing."

Kate nodded slowly. She'd apparently acquired a bottle of beer during my reverie, and was fiddling with the rim of the bottle. "Let me guess…" she thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. "First love, high school sweetheart?" I nodded. "It ended recently?" she followed up.

I shrugged. "Six, seven months ago? Don't know how recent that is."

"How long were you two together for?"

"Four months." I paused for a beat, before adding, "I know that doesn't sound that long, but we were friends for a long time before, so by the time we got together—"

"—it was expedited, right?"

"Yes, thank you, exactly."

Kate nodded. "No, I totally get it. My one serious relationship… well, let's just say that by the time we'd gotten together, it'd been a long time coming. Which fucking sucked, because of course we were done literally less than six months later—but hey, you live and you learn."

"I'm sorry," I offered. I thought for a moment. I didn't want to pry, but at the same time, it was nice, to talk to someone else about this sort of thing. I didn't get to do a whole lot of that, after everyone I knew had forgotten me. "If you don't mind me asking, why did it end?"

Kate sighed, knocking back a swig of beer before responding. "Said being in a relationship with me wasn't what he was expecting. I don't know, when we were friends, things were different—we had a lot of fun together, it was super easy and we just got along really well. And then we start dating, and then all of the sudden, he's showing up at my dorm room with flowers, and we start going out to eat at these fancy restaurants, and he's asking me about our future…I just, I don't know. I feel like an asshole for even talking about it, he didn't do anything wrong."

"But?"

She shrugged. "He wanted me to be someone I wasn't. I mean sure, I know I come from a bougie family and I know most girls want to be wined and dined, and I think he thought that's what I was used to, or what I wanted—but at the same time, that almost pissed me off more, because it made me realize that all of the time we spent being friends, he never really got to know me at all, you know? Like we literally only ever hung out at dive bars and got fucking drive through, I don't know why he thought that would change when we started dating."

I almost bit my tongue, but tequila offered me some liquid courage. "In his defense—I could see why he'd want to put his best foot forward."

"Oh yeah?" she raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Well, Kate, with all due respect, you've gotta admit—you can be a little intimidating."

She laughed. "Are you saying this as my subordinate, or as a man?"

"Maybe a little bit of both," I conceded.

She shrugged. "Shit, touche. I get it though. I can't say I blame you."

Whether it was the tequila hitting me, the ease with which Kate laughed, or the lighting in the bar, I couldn't say—all I knew is that, for the first time ever, in that moment, I saw her as a little more than my boss. I took a moment to drink her in, with her black jumpsuit and loose black curls and wide smile.

There wasn't any denying it—Kate Bishop was absolutely fucking gorgeous.

As this thought flew through my head, it was almost as if she timed her next question. "So. My turn—what happened with you and the ex?"

I opened my mouth to respond. And then, before I could say anything, the screaming began, followed by the unmistakable pop, pop, pop of gunshots.

Someone had opened fire inside of Richardson's.

Author's Note: Apologies for the delay/cliff-hanger! Finally done with school, thank god, plus I've recently been inspired by Multiverse of Madness to write some Scarlet/Strange, which should be published shortly. Drop me a review and let me know what you think of this chapter! Excited to get back to a regular update schedule.

xx Nina