Hallie

It was a little surreal that less than an hour ago they were in Hallie's undergrad class at NYU, and now they were at MIT, just casually walking towards the building where Peter's Marketing Principles & Practices presentation would take place. They really were on MIT's regular campus instead of the business school campus, because apparently there had been some kind of sprinkler malfunction, and they'd had to switch to a different auditorium last-minute. Hallie could hear Alex trying to coordinate with Casey, who had gone ahead of them, and he sounded pretty put out.

"Why is he so upset about it?" Hallie asked Peter, very quietly. "It's not that far away."

He squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "They had done all of their security homework based on the first building, so they feel like they're having to plan on-the-fly now. They don't like it, but they can handle it."

"Oh, that makes sense. Are you worried about your presentation at all?"

"Nah. I've got it more or less prepared, and I've done quite a bit of public speaking in the last few years. I'm just kind of annoyed that they wouldn't let us Zoom it, but I suppose they have to see us in person occasionally…"

"I guess that's true. I would be a puddle on the floor right now if it was me, though!"

Peter scoffed cheerfully. "You would do fine. You do great in your self-defense class."

Hallie eyed him a bit scornfully. "That is so different from getting up and just talking about something like marketing. Especially in a big auditorium. How many students are in your class?"

"Hmm. About forty-five, I think? Alex?"

Alex, who had been talking to Casey at the same time, replied "forty-seven" without even looking Peter's way.

Hallie looked towards him in surprise. "How'd he know that?" she asked Peter.

He shrugged. "It's his job to know. I'm sure the team's done background checks on all of them."

"All forty-seven?" Hallie asked incredulously.

"Yep. But guests are allowed at the presentations today, and there's no entry screening or anything, and that always makes Alex twitchy," he said with an indulgent grin at his friend. Alex gave him a flat look back.

"Huh." There was so much to think about that Hallie would never have considered in her pre-Stark family life. There was a momentary breeze, and she shivered a little, regretting her lightweight sweater.

"You okay? Are you cold?" Peter frowned at her. He was wearing gray slacks, a button-up pinstripe shirt, and a navy tie. He hadn't brought a jacket with him.

She rolled her eyes slightly. "I'm fine, Pete. We'll be inside in just a minute."

"I try not to worry about you, but it doesn't seem possible at this stage," Peter said softly, slipping his arm up around her shoulder and squeezing her into his side.

"This stage, huh?" she repeated skeptically, the corners of her mouth turning up. "Tell me, do you still worry about Tony?"

Caught, he nodded in resignation. "All the time. But not so much about whether he might be a little bit cold," he said with a laugh.

They entered the building and took their seats (as directed by Alex) in the back row of the room.

"While I'm with you, Alex will just hang out by the back door, but he'll move a little closer to you when I go up, okay?"

Hallie nodded. "When do you present?"

"Towards the end, I think. You might as well settle in. It's a 3-hour block."

"Please tell me you have snacks in your bag. Not so much for me, but for you."

"Actually, I did pack snacks, for both of us," he smirked.

"Good, because it didn't even occur to me to bring my backpack off the plane!"

"Really, though, how are you feeling? Do you need more ibuprofen?"

"Mmm, maybe in an hour or two. But honestly when we're in contact, I'm not feeling much. It's kind of amazing."

Peter smiled and brushed a few fingers down the side of Hallie's face. "Just let me know if you need anything, please," then turned to pay attention to the professor who was welcoming everyone. He sighed and settled his arm along the back of her chair. Randomly being in another state was surreal, but sometimes she felt it was even stranger to have someone who cared this much about her. She was more than happy to get used to that, though.

Over two hours later, Hallie was drifting, just a bit. If these seats were just a little more comfortable, or if there wasn't a divider between her and Peter, she was pretty sure she'd be asleep by now. Some of the presenters had been really amazing, or at least interesting, but the current presenter was struggling with her visuals, which was making her presentation a little disjointed and Hallie couldn't pay attention anymore.

She picked up her phone.

20 questions?

She felt Peter shift next to her as he got the alert. He glanced down at it and smiled at her, removing his hand from her leg so he could use both of them to answer.

Do I get a turn?

No. You used all yours already

Pleeeease?

He paired it with a nudge, followed by those stupid puppy-dog eyes. Seriously, not fair.

Fine. You can have 2. 2 is ALL. And I get 5 first

He nodded, obviously pleased, and gestured minutely for her to begin.

If you could have a pet, what kind would you have?

Maybe a dog?

Or one of those cool flying squirrels

A flying squirrel? Is that a thing?

That's your second question, and yes, a friend in college had one and she said they were cool

She shot him an annoyed look.

Fine. Question 3- Favorite vacation you've ever been on?

Definitely Tony's villa in Italy

I need to take you there

Hallie's eyes widened. That sounded… well, kind of amazing. Especially if she was with someone who spoke Italian. She'd love to visit some other countries, but felt a little nervous about being there without knowing the language. There were all those stories of people getting detained other places because they hadn't understood the law and didn't know who to talk to. She really needed to start learning Italian.

I'd like that too

Before the bite, who was your favorite Avenger?

Iron Man ?

I don't know why I wasted a question on that

How many people have you kissed?

She glanced sideways at him as she sent it and could see his eyebrows shoot up.

Jumping right in huh?

Um… somewhere between 12 and 15

Her head involuntarily swiveled to look at him. She was surprised. He didn't even know? Seriously? Ha, he definitely looked guilty. Why was that, exactly? She turned back to her phone, smirking a little.

Hmm. You implied you didn't date seriously after you got your soul marks

What's up with that?

Well, you don't have to be dating someone to kiss them…

Haha, we are definitely going to discuss this later

I'll need details

She glanced at him, and his face was a little pained.

Okay

Can I respectfully point out that it's my turn now?

Do you really think it's a good time for that?

I'm taking two more questions on principle

Okay, but you've already asked six

Just for the record

She side-eyed him incredulously, then made a show of going back through their texts and counting them. Ah. Her clarifying question was the sixth one. She rolled her eyes.

You are such a punk

Yeah, but you love me anyway

I really do

She smiled at him, reaching for his wrist to run her fingers lightly along his covered soul mark. He closed his eyes in contentment and sighed. She pulled her hand back to return to their silent conversation.

Go ahead

He was writing for a minute, and she was getting nervous about how long this question was going to be.

Are you really upset about the kissing thing? Because it was all just for fun, mostly. A way to burn off tension. They all knew it wasn't serious for me beforehand.

Plus, it helped me improve my skills for when you finally came along

She glanced up at him briefly, trying not to laugh. He was the picture of earnest innocence, and she felt her mouth quivering with suppressed amusement.

Not really, just surprised

And it worked, btw

Though you saying you did all that kissing for MY benefit is a little sus, Parker

He huffed out a sound of amusement, then leaned over to kiss her temple.

Okay new subject

Please

Let's say my wife was not-really-but-kinda-annoyed at me

What could I do to make it up to her?

These are not 20-questions questions

Still asking them

I'll think about it

I'll take it

He shifted his phone to his left hand and started lightly scratching her back. He'd already figured out that was one of her favorite kinds of touch when they were stuck sitting for very long like this. Hallie hummed lightly in contentment, leaning forward on her little fold-up desklet to give him better access. She let all of her breath out in a silent sigh when his hand settled over her soul mark after a few minutes.

"Mnnn, you're gonna put me to sleep, Pete," she whispered lightly, knowing he'd hear her, as she sat back up, blinking her eyes open determinedly.

He pulled back to send her another message.

You might fall asleep anyway; it's almost my turn.

Hallie shook her head at his ridiculousness, smiling fondly at the teasing twinkle in his eye. She really thought the whole "twinkle" thing was fictional until she met Peter Parker, but she was a frequent recipient of one now. She liked looking at him so much that sometimes she forgot to blink. Or breathe. She sucked in a quick breath, turning back to the front of the auditorium, feeling flustered. He smiled, curling his fingers lightly around the base of her neck.

The current speaker finally finished, and then Peter was standing up and sauntering to the front of the room. Hallie could practically see him putting on his "public speaking" persona as he walked, morphing slightly from her funny, sweet soulmate into the fairly experienced (at least for this room) CEO-in-training of Stark Industries. He added a little speed, jogging up the steps when he reached the front of the room, and bypassing the laptop hookups, casually made a flicking-and-throwing gesture between his phone and the screen, casually commandeering the presentation tech. As he spoke, Karen handled the slides and effects he'd programmed in, and he took the whole room on an emotional roller coaster, demonstrating the ad campaign for a very-real medical assistance device SI was working on. Hallie was as mesmerized as the rest, even though Peter had walked her through it all on the plane. He was effortlessly channeling Tony, with a softening flourish of gentle self-deprecation, and no one was sleeping through his presentation.

Peter was just about to wrap it up with a big finish when suddenly there was a giant clatter over on the far side of the auditorium, as if someone had been holding a serving tray full of food, and had dropped it. What the… Everyone's attention was drawn to the noise, and people close to the loud noise cried out in alarm.

"Alex!" Peter's voice was still amplified, and Hallie's (along with everyone else's) attention jumped back to him. Peter was focused behind her in surprise and horror, but before Hallie could turn in her seat to see what was happening, she felt a gloved hand slide halfway around the back of her neck, and the cool metal of what she assumed was a gun pressed to the side of her cheek.

"Stand up. Very slowly."