Chapter Seven: Reading Buddies

*TIME SKIP: 2 MONTHS*

His outing to Midtown High had sated Hiro's action addiction for a while, though he regretted not being able to accompany Peter to lunch. So, for now he was content to hang around the Parker household and read his way through the small mountain of books by the boy's bedframe. Right now, he was balanced on top of said pile with an adventure novel that – while it couldn't compare to what he'd been through – was quite good. It was about a genius kid and an underground fairy civilization that he enjoyed laughing at, both the dry wit and some of the inaccuracies.

But he still liked the fictional world and was so deep inside of it that he didn't even hear the door to Peter's room open. The open tome was on the top of the stack, open to the beginning of a chapter while Hiro laid across the opposite page. In fact, it wasn't until he heard the jangle of the student's keychains – an ironic combination of Spider-man and Star Wars trinkets – when he tossed his pack aside that he remembered he should probably stop reading and at least pretend to have been sleeping. So, he not-very-convincingly tucked his head away on his paws and crossed his metaphorical fingers that Peter hadn't seen anything suspicious.

In the meantime, while Hiro was mentally berating himself, the high schooler had snuck across the room almost silently to flop on his bed like a cooked noodle, reaching out one long arm to ruffle the top of Hiro's head. The cat's ears automatically parted, and he cracked his eyes open to glare at him as a paw batted at the leftover finger softly. If Peter hadn't happily borne witness to his attacks on Flash Thompson, he might think the cat had been declawed before.

"Hey, Hiro," he said as he scratched. "What've you been up to all day?" His eyes searched the room absently as he put off any homework he hadn't finished before, finally falling on the books underneath "his" cat, specifically the open one. Fixing on the kit, who seemed to be ignoring him guiltily, but maybe that was his imagination, Peter's mouth turned down slightly in the corner. "Didn't I close that? Wait… did I even open it in the first place?" He honestly couldn't remember anything… or what he had for breakfast that morning.

All Hiro was thinking was crudcrudcrudcrudcrudCRUD. He wouldn't really mind Peter finding out, he guessed, but it'd be quite awkward if he couldn't turn back to a human… yes, that was his reasoning. Nothing else, no other reason.

Peter sighed heavily as he realized that he'd actually have to do his homework before going back out for more patrolling and shook his head, dropping it from side to side slowly. He finally got up lazily, only to slump into his desk chair and pull a thick textbook up in place of the old laptop, which was taking a vacation in his backpack and – in his opinion – taking up way too much space, the clunky machine. He'd much rather be upgrading it, or, even better, completely rebuilding a new one, than doing his mandatory schoolwork, like all teenagers. Though they usually wanted to be playing sports or videogames instead of advanced computer sciences.

A couple minutes into his reading, he felt a familiar weight and warmth wiggling into a comfortable position in his already messy hair. "You're lucky that I don't care about my image," Peter told Hiro cockily. "If you did this to Flash, he'd go berserk. Doubt you'd want to anyway… his is almost pure grease… and he's not your biggest fan." The kit chuffed his amusement atop the boy's head and settled into the perfect spot to read the history book. And Peter learned that a padded hit to the forehead meant to not turn the page quite yet.

Holy cannoli! You guys! This thing is up at over fifty favorites and over a hundred likes! Wow! I should say this more often, but a big thank you to all the people who favorite, follow, and review! And to those who just read! I just can't believe it! Y'all really like it that much? Even after this last chapter?

Speaking of which, sorry for the short chappie, 'specially because I've been doing sort-of-one-shot-ish stuff lately as fillers before the actual storyline gets going. That should start around Chapter… um, Twelve? Maybe? Somewhere around that. But I couldn't drag this chapter out without running the risk of ruining it entirely. And nobody wants that. It was bad enough already (seriously rough XP).

Anyways, I really enjoy how Hiro likes curling up on Peter's head. I think it's adorable. Also, I took it from something I actually saw in New York when I visited. There was this guy who was actually walking around with his cat on his shoulders, like he was giving it a ride.

Someone tell me they got the Artemis Fowl reference. Please, I need to know that there's hope for the world.

And last, but not least, in this long list of random rambles (ALLITERATIONS!), I will be gone on a trip to Whistler from Friday to Monday, so I won't be able to post or see much of anything online. Don't worry, you'll still get Chapter Eight. It'll be early this time, on Thursday, and I'll be sure to get back to posting the Tuesday right after I'm back. I promise I won't abandon you guys!

Now I should really stop talking. This A/N must be half the length of this chapter by now!

Lucky

To Vladimir Mithrander: I'm glad! I should be thanking you for reading and reviewing!

To xiu: It's awesome that you like my writing! Of course I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon! I usually update on Tuesdays and Fridays unless something comes up. In that case, I'll try to tell you guys in advance, like this time.

To Silvermane1: You just keep on going, don't you? I swear, there's a review from you every chapter! Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, it really warms my heart. So, thank you.

To EnigmaEric: Thank you! It's definitely an interesting juxtaposition to write with the peaceful/stressful thing that's happening. It can also be strange/challenging to write a character who can't really talk. It's also kinda fun, I've written mute/semi-mute characters before. You'll have to keep reading to find out about the human thing! ;P