Author's Note: Hey guys! Just wanted to upload again today so people wouldn't lose interest. I know only one chapter isn't a lot to go off of. I also wanted to thank you all; I was truly shocked to see so many people were actually reading my work. So here's chapter two!
-o-
"Good evening, New York! I'm your host, Davey Moore, and this is Night Time in New York. Today, we have quite the gossip for you. Local genius Katelyn Stark has gone public with her first ever relationship! The lucky guy, well you'll have to stay to find out. But for now, here's the weather in your area." the tv boomed as Mom turned on the news. She started to change it, but I asked her to keep it on.
"I want to see how we did," I told her.
"Fine, but if it gets bad, I'm turning it off," she answered. "And we'll watch it after dinner," she added, turning it off anyway.
Suddenly, a portal opened in the living room, and Dr. Strange and Thor stepped out. Thor had been spending most of his time with Strange and Dr. Banner ever since Loki died. Strange had been helping him learn to govern his people, who now lived in Norway. The United Nations wasn't too happy that the Asgardians were on Earth, however. Something about their extended life-span or whatever. Not that they could complain; they were terrified of Thor. I jumped out of my seat. "Uncle Thor, Dr. Strange!" I cried, running to hug them. "How's Norway? Or is it Asgard now?"
"Hi, Mr. Dr. Strange! Hi, Mr. Your Highness God Thor!" Peter grinned- jumping from the ceiling- like the little fanboy he was. I loved hearing him embarrass himself in front of Thor. He never knew what to call him.
"Hello, man of spiders. Hello, daughter of Stark." Thor boomed, a smile spreading on his face. "May we join you for dinner?"
Mom smiled and replied, "Sure. As long as you left someone in charge back at Asgard."
Before they could reply, Dad walked in. "Hey! Point Break! Facial hair bro! How's it going?" he grinned at his nicknames.
Steven groaned. "Hey, Tony," he said, pretending to not want to be here, but I knew better. He loved Tony like a brother. We all sat down, and Pete served what somewhat resembled lasagna. No one complained about the bad food, though. We were all just happy to be together. It had been a year since Infinity War ended- technically four, depending on your perspective, time travel is weird- but we all still felt giddy with victory. Except for me. I had wanted to join in on the fight (my suit could have been a ton of help), but for Dad's sake, I agreed to sit and watch. It was awful, watching him fail like that. He was a mess. I pushed the memories aside. That was over; we won. After dinner, we gathered back around the tv. Mom had recorded the show from earlier. Peter and I dove for the couch, taking up as much room as possible. Dr. Strange and Thor sat on the floor, and Mom and Dad sat on the other end of the L-shaped couch.
"Hey, where's Uncle Bruce, Thor?" I asked, my voice muffled from Peter's chest. We were laying together, Peter spread out on his back, and I cuddled beside him, laying my head on his stomach.
"He's watching Asgard. I wish he could have joined us," he replied, a frown growing on his face. I would have to investigate that later.
Dad turned the tv on and pulled up the show. "Welcome back, folks, it's time for the main event," the surround-sound speakers shot out. "I know you're all desperate to know who this mysterious boy is. Well, you heard it from us first, it's been confirmed that Katelyn Stark is dating Peter Parker, another boy at her school, Midtown Tech in Queens!" I groaned. I was never going to escape the press now. They weren't supposed to mention what school it was! "Peter is on her decathlon team and is a fellow genius. Currently, he sits right behind her in GPA." Now it was Peter's turn to groan. We had an ongoing competition regarding grades. I stroked his hair and laughed. "The couple has been going out for about a year now, and we're just now hearing about it!" The host complained. "Katelyn is very protective of her personal life, but this time, we got an inside look." The infamous alleyway kiss photo showed on the tv. "Who is this handsome, bright young man? And what has Katelyn so protective of their relationship? While we might not know now, stay tuned. Just remember, Night Time in New York has all your celebrity gossip news." With that, Dad clicked the tv off.
"Well," he said, "that wasn't so bad, now was it?"
"Good job, sweetie. They don't have anything exponential," Mom commented, her PR brain flowing.
Pete placed a kiss on my head and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. "School's going to be interesting tomorrow, isn't it?" he said, and I just laughed. "I've got to get home and patrol, see you in the morning," he got up and headed out. Right before he got in the elevator, I called out.
"Wait!" I ran to him and kissed him, on the lips for the first time today. He pulled me in the elevator so we could keep kissing in private. Our tongues touched, and we gently moved our lips around one another. All our kisses were like that, gentle. But I didn't mind because it felt better than any kiss I had ever had before. Every kiss with him was like asking him out all over again. So maybe we never said, "I love you". That didn't mean we weren't feeling something. We got to the ground floor and pulled apart. He left, and I headed back upstairs, now giddy.
When I got up there, I was met with a very happy dad. You would think he'd be mad at our PDA, but no, the playboy in him thought it was hilarious.
"You two kids are adorable," he said playing with my hair. It was his favorite form of affection, messing with my hair. Hugs weren't his thing.
"Yeah, whatever," I replied, escaping his reach. I started toward my room. It was late, and tomorrow was a school day. Luckily, I didn't have any homework.
"Goodnight, I love you!" he called by me, allowing me to leave.
"Love you too, Dad," I grinned. The press may know, but everything still felt right. Maybe it was the kiss, or maybe it was the fact that for the first time in a long time, Dad seemed genuinely happy.
-o-
I woke to the sound of Alex calling me. "Katelyn, it's time to get up," her voice rang out over my room. My covers were pulled off me by my robot, Dummy 2.0. I preferred to call him Eddie, however. Since it seemed like I had no other choice, I dragged myself out of bed. Alex called back out her daily question, "Would you like help getting dressed?"
Normally I don't want any help, but I was tired. I knew today would be hard, so I gave her an affirmative. In less than two minutes, a group of four ladies barged into my room. They were the ones who usually dressed me up for galas and other social events. Silently, they picked out an outfit and began prepping me. Obviously, they had seen the news, and they didn't want to bother me too much. I showered, then they pampered me and styled my hair. They put it half up half down in a mini bun, letting the down hair curl fully. The outfit they picked was a simple white Tommy Hilfiger shirt with the iconic stripes across it, paired with mom style jeans that came up to where the cropped tee ended. They gave me a simple black choker, with a gold bracelet and earrings. For shoes, I was wearing simple white vans, and if it got cold, I had a black bomber jacket with flowers all over it. Once I was dressed and ready, I headed downstairs for breakfast.
"Hey, honey, how's your morning going?" Dad asked. He always waited to work until after he dropped me off at school. Out of the two of them, I saw Dad more often. Probably because of his emotional health. He had to be super protective of me. I didn't mind, though. It was nice to talk to him. On the table, there were blueberry spider-man shaped pancakes.
"Really, Dad?" I said, but I was grinning.
"What? I'm just supporting my favorite protector of Queens," he said dramatically. We ate in relative silence. He seemed to understand. Of course, he did, I thought. He'd been through this before. Dad knew how stressed I was and was trying to be supportive. Before I headed back to my room to get ready, I kissed his cheek gratefully.
"Thanks, Dad. You're the best!" I whispered. I got back to my room, brushed my teeth, and took the elevator down to the garage. Instead of Dad ready to take me, however, I ran into Happy. "What are you doing down here, Hap?" I asked, then mentally scolded myself. He was busy with work most likely.
"I thought I'd help take you to school today," he said, surprising me. "Tony will come too," he awkwardly added on in a rush. "We just thought you might need some, uh, security."
"Okay!" I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. I dumped my french horn and backpack in the back seat and crawled in after them. I'd let Happy have the front, poor guy was probably stressed too.
Happy hopped in the passenger seat. He always let Dad drive. After all, his parents had died in a car, so Dad wanted to be in charge. Speaking of Dad, he emerged from the elevator and climbed into the car. We left in silence, so Dad turned on the radio. It was a bit of a drive, so we might as well have music. All my good mood from yesterday was gone. I was somber and not looking forward to school. I tried to distract myself with details around me. The car was an all-white Audi, classic fancy car, but big enough to have a backseat. Dad loved his Audis. The interior was a bright red if you're into that. Personally, I thought it was a bit much, but whatever. It looked cool from the outside, so it was fine. Eventually, we pulled up to the school. At least fifty reporters were stationed outside, and as we drove in they crowded the car. Happy got out first and pushed them back, and Dad handed me a pair of sunglasses.
"Starks vs. Press. We always wear sunglasses. Welcome to the big leagues, kid," he smiled, trying to ease my mind. I had done this before, but usually, they were looking for my parents, not me.
I got out of the car after Happy, and Dad followed me. I hadn't expected him to come in, but I appreciated it. He guided me past them while Happy cleared a path. We finally got inside, and I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. What was with me? I was better than that This was just part of my life, so why was I so uptight? Happy took us to the office.
"Guys, I'm fine. I should probably head to the cafeteria. We sit there until school starts," I said, shrugging my dad's arm off my shoulder.
"Absolutely not!" Dad said, almost yelling. I was shocked; I hadn't seen him like this since Peter and everyone else disappeared. The amount of press must have freaked him out. He composed himself before continuing, "We need to address this with the staff." He called out to an office member, placing his arm back over me protectively.
"Hi there, how can I help you?" she asked. My dad took his glasses off. The office lady tried to hide a small gasped, but it was obvious enough. Dad didn't even blink.
"My daughter, I'm not sure if you've seen the news, but her school has been released to the public. We're fighting a lot of press, which is fine, but can you help us out? I'd like to make sure her classmates don't bother her as well. That can be very distracting from schoolwork." he said, putting his press/fan smile on his face. He was a great actor, I'll give him that, but I knew him. I could see how tense he was and I saw him tug at his shaking right arm.
"Oh, uh, I can talk to her teachers about it, but I can't promise anything during lunch. Maybe she could eat in the library?" she replied, glancing at me.
I interrupted. "That would be great. Thank you," I said before Dad could get worse. I addressed him quietly. "It's fine, Dad. That'll be enough. You and Hap can go."
"Are you sure, sweetie? I just don't want you to get hurt," he frowned, his Protective Dad™ face on.
"Really," I said, brushing his arm off and heading toward the cafeteria before he could change his mind.
When I got in there, all the students turned to look at me. I reminded myself that these were just classmates, and with as much confidence as I could muster, I marched over to Peter's table. I yanked him up, all eyes still on us, and kissed him. He looked shocked, but he kissed me back. Unlike most of our kisses, I pushed against him and aggressively shoved his lips into mine. He pulled away, uncertain.
"Kate…. Don't give them what they want," he begged, but I could see the conflict in his eyes. He was upset.
"What if it's what I want too?" I asked, leaning back in for another kiss. I didn't want him to be sad, too!
He pulled me into a corner, getting us away from the crowd. "It's not, we both know that." he scolded. "Come on, you've dealt with the press before. You can do this. I believe in you, but this," he gestured around us, "this isn't you." This time, he leaned in and kissed me. He just barely touched my lips, gently pulling me back to reality. I was just as bad as Dad, pretending to be fine all the time. He squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, then pulled me back into the cafeteria. Everyone was whispering about us. "Yeah, I'm dating her! Bet you're jealous!" Peter cried out, and the whispering stopped. We sat down, and once everyone was sure we were done, they went back to their private conversations.
"Thanks, babe. You really know me, don't you?" I said, blushing under his gaze. I felt much better now with Peter to ground me.
"Just a little bit. We've met," he quipped back, getting an honest laugh from me. That seemed to be enough for him, and we sat next to each other, hands intertwined.