"You broke up with him? Are you crazy?"
"No." To her credit, MJ didn't even scowl. "We're in completely different places. He wants to be a superhero, and I can't support that. We're still going to be friends, though."
"That never works out that way."
"It will." She was confident of that. Peter had seemed to be, too. Technically, they hadn't really been an item. Had they? "Besides, he's still on the academic decathlon team. We'll see each other at practices, and school when he comes back."
Ned shook his head, looking at her almost mournfully.
"That's terrible news. You guys were a cute couple."
"When we weren't arguing."
"Yeah." Good point. "Is he alright? How did he take it? Are you alright?"
"You didn't talk to him?"
"On the phone that he's grounded from?"
"I'd have assumed they make an exception for you."
He didn't even shake his head.
"Nope. Grounded from the phone is grounded from the phone." To his credit, he didn't remind her that it was an argument with her that had upset Peter so much that he'd driven his car without his seatbelt in the first place. "I'll shoot him off an email, but that's something that you need to talk about face to face, not in an email."
"Let me know if there's anything he needs and he's just not telling me," she requested.
"I will. But he'll just tell me that he's fine, you know that."
"His hand looks pretty good…" she said. "He showed it to me."
"They have him rehabbing it in the pool and with a little rubber ball. Even better, though – for him – he's going into the tower with Pepper in the morning to start homeschooling, so he doesn't get further behind than he already is."
"That's what he said. Why in the city instead of at the compound?"
"No clue. Probably because Pepper is more strict and can keep him on task. Mr. Stark is brilliant, but he's easily distracted, sometimes, and if Peter asked to go do something else – something avenger related – he'd probably allow it."
"And there are less distractions at the tower," MJ agreed. "I'd better go. I waited for the last minute to finish my report and mom's going to kill me since I told her it was already done. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Good night."
OOOOOOOO
"So they broke up?" Pepper asked Natasha, looking over at the assassin, who had joined her and Tony in the lounge a short time after she and Stephen had arrived back at the compound. "That's too bad."
Romanoff shrugged.
"He's alright. I think it's more of a relief, really, since he won't have her being annoyed with him about keeping secrets, now."
"Less annoyed, but still annoyed," Stephen corrected, discarding an ace that he didn't need. "She's like every intelligent kid; wants to know what's going on around them and hates secrets."
"True." Tony looked at his friend. "Speaking of secrets…"
"Were we?"
"You two have been awfully smug, lately…"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Tony. I'm always smug. It comes from being smarter than the people around me." Natasha raised an eyebrow at that. "Present company excluded, of course," he added, proving that he was as smart as he was claiming to be.
"Come on…" Pepper said, smirking at the silent reprimand and back-pedaling. "Something's going on with you two. Spill it."
"Nope."
"So there is something…?" Pepper asked, watching the two of them, intently. They had been smug and cheerful. Which were great things, of course, but since Peter had come into their lives, she was transitioning to mom mode, now, and liked knowing what was going on around her because of it. Even if it wasn't the teenager who was the focus of the mystery. "What is it?"
"Does Peter know?" Tony asked, suddenly. "Is that why he's so cheerful? You told him."
"And then promptly swore him to secrecy," Romanoff confirmed, catching Nutmeg when the kitten wandered over to see whose cards needed gnawing on. "So don't even think about going and waking him up to catch him in a sleepy moment of weakness."
"Peter can know, but I can't?"
"We can't," Pepper corrected.
"We can't?"
"You can…" Romanoff said. "We just… I don't want it to distract from the other things that are going on just now."
"You keeping a secret from me and not from Peter is already a distraction. What if I'm in my suit and trying to save the day and suddenly start trying to figure out what's going on, instead of concentrating on what I'm supposed to be doing? It could be the end of all civilization as we know it."
"Doubtful."
Stark scowled and looked at Strange.
"Well?"
The sorcerer shook his head.
"Not a chance."
It was Natasha's secret, after all.
"Did you propose?" Pepper asked, lowering her voice, even though the room was mostly empty.
"Not recently."
Romanoff smirked.
"You're making a big deal out of something that isn't," she told them. "It's not earth shaking, or anything."
"So tell us, then," Tony said. He gave her a look, a cross between a smirk and a challenge. "You know I'm not going to let it drop, right? I'll hound you all night. Walk with you to your quarters and pester you until you have to tell me or go crazy…"
"Or until she breaks your arm," Stephen pointed out.
"She wouldn't do that," Tony said, dismissing the suggestion with a casual wave of his hand. "She loves Peter, and Peter loves me. Vicariously, she loves me."
Romanoff rolled her eyes.
"Fine. But it doesn't go any further than you two – and I mean it."
"Yeah. Sure."
Both of them leaned in, and Natasha smiled and told them what she'd told Peter, earlier. With similar responses.
OOOOOOO
"Ridiculous. I'm not paying half that. It's a jewel."
"A rare jewel," Quill pointed out. "And worth a hundred times the small price we're asking."
"I'd pay ten times that if you bring me the boy." He noticed the frowns and raised a hand, placatingly. "Not to keep. Only to meet. To talk to. To learn what he is like."
"He's not on the bargaining table," Gamora said.
"Why not?" The collector asked, giving her a disarming smile. "Everything has a price. Surely he wants something as a reward for what he did?"
"He didn't do it for a reward," Carol assured him. "He did it to protect his own world, and his own people."
"He's a boy. There must be something here that he would like? Perhaps you could pick something out for him… take it back with you? As a sign of my desire to meet him? And an assurance that no harm would come to him? I could go there, if it is preferred."
"He doesn't need anything," Peter said.
"Definitely not a bauble with a tracker in it," Gamora added.
The Collector sighed, realizing that they weren't going to give in to his request. Stupid independents. He loathed people with minds of their own, sometimes.
"Just pass the word to him," he said. "That's all I ask. Tell him I'll show him my collection, and all its wonders and allow him to take anything he wants – aside from the stone, of course – in exchange for one chance to meet him."
"We'll pass the word," Carol promised. "No promises."
"Fair enough." He turned to Quill. "Half."
"Three times the original asking price."
Quill smirked at the man's annoyance, but the Collector should have known better than to make it so obvious that he wanted something only they could deliver – even if it was just to send a message to the boy asking him to come visit. The guardians had the upper hand in the negotiations, now, and Quill knew it.
OOOOOO
In his room in the compound, Peter rolled over in his bed, not waking from the dream, but slightly worried at the conversation.
"He won't come here," Alec assured the boy. "He knows it'd be risky and he's not the type to take such a risk, personally."
"Will he send people to look for me?"
"He already has."
"What do I do?"
"Nothing. This isn't something you need to worry about."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah. Relax, okay? You're going to have a long day, tomorrow, and you should get some sleep."
Assured by that calm voice in his mind, Peter relaxed and went back to sleep.