That night, after the fight with her father, Lee takes the subway to her new apartment, slinking through the underground of New York City with all of the grace of a lifeless puppet. Eyes blank and six train roaring, she leans against a silver pole and curses the moment she decided to tinker with that stupid Mark 7 suit, much less slide on the silver bracelet she found sitting beside it. She knows her father won't notice its absence, but its presence in the Iron Man collection is puzzling to the daughter, so she keeps it as a souvenir, letting it catch the light and her eye every so often. It seems to have some sort of communication capabilities, some sort of homing or tracking device, but with no idea how to turn it on and no desire to break into the thing with her toolkit, she just resigns herself to let it be nothing more than a pretty trinket stolen from her father's collection.
The subway connects her to the city's underbelly, the rats scuttling beneath the silver tube with gleeful silence. Headphones in her ears, she shuts the world out, even as she rises from her underground station into the real world, standing is quiet awe as the buildings loom above her. She lets the city lights play in her eye as she walks, keeping her chin tilted to the sky as her playlist rotates to something dizzying with a great baseline. The city streets tick by her as she counts the buildings that mark the distance from the subway station to her new home.
And that's when she sees him. At first, it's just a blip against the lights of an office building half a block away, something that catches the corner of her eyes, but not her attention. Then, it comes closer, balanced on what looks like nothing more than a string that looks as if it stretches infinitely into the sky when in reality it is only stuck to the window of a 52nd floor office. He swoops across her eye line, his red and blue suit making track marks across her eyes. All of her sluggish weight is gone from her body and she is born anew at the sight of him. The fight with her father is forgotten as she registers who it is that she is looking at.
Spider-Man. That's Spider-Man.
She's seen pictures in his file and read first hand accounts of what it looks like when he patrols the streets at night, but she's never seen it in action. And, by God, he's beautiful. Cutting through the New York darkness like a hot knife through butter, he dances through puddles of shadow and dips into pools of light, picking his way into her view. He releases another thread, and then another, pulling himself down the Avenue with breathless ease.
"Spider-Man!" She shouts before she can help herself.
It's instinct, it's reflex. It's a shout of a hope that she thought she had lost sight of twenty minutes ago in her father's presence. Her father may not be a hero, but whether he knew it or not, Peter Parker sure as Hell is. And, by God, is she glad that she didn't call him by his real name.
The masked man turns his head in the direction of the shout, unable to help himself. He's just coming back from a B&E call a few blocks from here, but the sound of someone calling his name makes his heart skip. Is someone in trouble?
And that's when he sees her. Lee McCarthy, waving at him from a street corner. The sight of it is enough to knock him out of rhythm as his mind skips like a broken record.
Lee. That's Lee. Lee, who he thinks doesn't know who he is beneath this mask, is beaming up at the Spider-Man, a distant triumph in her eyes. Holding onto a web with one hand, allowing it to swing him across the street and just over her head, he uses his free hand to wave back, relishing the feeling of watching her turn around, her eyes following him until he disappears down the street.
The apartment is nicer than Lee expected, but she knows almost instantly that it's nothing more than a S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house. Sterile hotel art covers the walls. The bookshelves are empty and lonely, a looking a bit like Lee feels now that the excitement from seeing Spider-Man in action has worn off. The living room is simple, but spacious, and the kitchen is barren. And when she walks into the bedroom, she's surprised to find a note on the closet door.
Bruce and I ran a few errands for you today. He got the clothes. I got the equipment.
-Pepper.
A hesitant hand hesitates over the door handle before pushing its way in.
"Oh, shit," Lee mutters to herself, looking around with wide eyes.
The racks are stocked with clothes, and as Lee thumbs through the selection, she wonders how many hours Bruce spent in statistical analysis of her wardrobe from her S.H.I.E.L.D. file to pick these out. A warm feeling spreads in her gut and she bows her head when she turns to find a collection of new tech, shiny with Stark Industries logos. A computer, a printer, a scanner, and a few odds and ends that Lee can't identify.
She's halfway through tearing into the new laptop when a thought occurs to her. It seems a little odd that they would stock her closet and not the fridge. That's when the doorbell buzzes. Hesitant and a little nervous, Lee tiptoes to the door, pressing the intercom button.
"Uh-Hello?" She asks.
The voice on the other end of the line is the tired voice of a college kid who can't believe he got stuck working deliveries at a 24 hour pizza joint.
"I gotta pizza here for Lee McCarthy?"
What?
"I didn't order any pizza."
The delivery man sighs and looks at the receipt stapled to the box in his hands, then presses the intercom button once more.
"It was paid for by a credit card with the name Bruce Banner on it?"
Lee chuckles to herself. Of course.
"Come on up."
She presses the button to release the lock on the front door, then waits for him to take the elevator. When the pizza finally reaches her hands, she looks at the note typed in the "special instructions" section of the receipt and rolls her eyes.
Pepper and I got a little excited with the shopping and forgot the food. Your dad said you just left the Tower, so I hope you haven't starved to death on the way there. Keep your chin up, Lee. -Bruce.
Lee brings the pizza to bed and falls asleep with it in her lap, the phone on her bedside table open to Peter's contact page. She had wanted to call him and tell him about her run-in with Spider-Man, but she fell asleep before she could even figure out what to say.
The next morning, her phone rings too early and too shrill to be kind, but she arrives to school on time, remembering all the while how much she wishes she could go back to being the 16 year old early grad, who doesn't have to worry about tardy slips or high school. But no. She made different choices. Dropped out of MIT and chased the dream of having a father. And now, she's Lee McCarthy, high school transfer senior who has to sit through Calculus that she could do in her sleep.
In first period, Lee waits expectantly for Peter's arrival, planning out how she's going to broach the Spider-Man subject with him. Should she at all? Would Lee McCarthy, high school senior, be excited and tell her new friend, near stranger Peter Parker all about it? She's not sure, but he gives her plenty of time to agonize about it.
Peter doesn't show up for school until lunch.
She's sitting outside, eating on a bench and watching the sun make shadows on the ground when she sees him walk in through the back fence and dissolve into the crowd as though he's been here all the time.
Her face lights up at the sight of him without her even knowing it.
"Peter!" She calls.
His face pops up from the crowd and he walks over to her, his steps slow and languorous.
"Where've you been?" She asks, not accusatory or even concerned, but merely curious.
Ah, yes. Exactly the question he was both dreading and expecting from her. In truth, he has been sleeping. After he saw her on the street yesterday, after he crossed her path as Spider-Man, he hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep until around 5 in the morning. Between their chance encounter and Gwen's word ringing in his ears- don't make the same mistake twice-he couldn't stop turning over and over the thought of him being friends with anyone, much less Lee, a girl who he is feeling strangely drawn to after knowing her a grand total of three days.
"Overslept," he mumbles, pulling at the roots of his hair as he drags his hand through his locks.
Somehow, Lee knows that it's bullshit, at least that it isn't the whole truth, but she pulls a piece of cold, leftover pizza from her lunchkit- courtesy of Bruce's little shopping escapade- and offers it up to him.
"Pizza?" She offers, knowing that any other questions would be foolish now. He takes a slice and begins to scarf it down; he can't remember the last time he wasn't hungry.
There's something off about Peter today, something that Lee can't quite put her finger on. He's distancing himself, it feels like. So, she desperately attempts to needle her way closer.
"You alright?" She asks after a few moments of them eating in silence.
Peter shrugs.
"Fine," he mumbles through a mouthful and cheese and dough and pizza sauce.
Oh, she can't lose him. Not now, not when things were starting out so well.
"You sure?" She asks.
His response is a snap, sharp and just as harsh as he intended. It would be easier just to push her aside; it would be easier just to listen to Gwen and lock people out of his life.
"Yeah. I need to run to the library," Peter barks.
But Lee isn't deterred, whether because this is her assignment or because she genuinely can't even begin to think about the possibility of losing him so soon, Lee honestly could not say. She isn't sure that she wants to look that deeply, that closely at herself.
"I'll walk you," she says, more of a statement of fact rather than a suggestion or offer.
Peter knows that Gwen it right. Peter knows that the more people he lets into his life, the more blood will end up on his hands. And so, he tries to make the hero's decision. But no matter how instantly Peter tries to deny her-
"You don't need to-"
Lee will not let him choose loneliness.
"I'm finished," she says, zipping up her lunchbox before shoving it into her backpack and rising to her feet, "I don't mind."
And there's something in her mysterious smile that quiets Peter enough to allow her to walk beside him through the hallways, slipping between the human bodies until she passes a boy someone calls Flash, who is wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt. Lee takes it as a sign, though she isn't sure if she's brilliant or stupid for it.
"You'll never guess who I saw last night," she says, snapping as if it's a new thought or idea that suddenly occurred to her.
Peter's palms sweat almost instantly and he struggles to battle down the nervous energy humming in his chest.
"Who?" He asks, not even bothering to pretend to guess.
Her smile broadens as she relives the memory. Of course, there is something beautiful about the idea of the masked man parading through New York City solving crime. That in and of itself is romantic and lovely all on its own. But... to think that the man inside the man is Peter Parker, and that he doesn't know that he shares her secret now...That's something even greater, more powerful. A normal kid from the city can be someone who changes the world. The smile she is wearing is as genuine as the one Peter caught her wearing yesterday when he waved at her from up in the air, and he's entranced.
"I saw Spider-Man. Like, actually him," she says, her voice tinged with something akin to joy.
Peter replies, offhanded and light.
"You don't say."
She nods eagerly, her words taking her away until she isn't sure if she's telling him this as the high school senior or the genuinely gleeful Lee McCarthy, Tony Stark's daughter.
"It was...Incredible. I mean... He's a hero, you know. He waved at me like we were friends."
Peter stops up short. How could he think that he could ever get rid of her? If he were more romantic, he might call her bewitching. Because that's what she is. Oh, he's a goner.
When Lee realizes that there isn't a tall and lanky boy walking beside her, she stops and turns back to him, her eyes focused and earnest.
"You okay?" She asks.
Then, the young man does something strange. He tells her the truth.
"Yeah. I'm good," he responds, smiling back her and continuing their walk down the hall.
Here we are! Another chapter! Please let me know what you think! The schedule for updating this story will be every Thursday, so look forward to that from now on and I trust y'all to keep me on track! :) Can't wait to read your reviews!