Peter left Gwen's late in the evening, staying just long enough to say hello to Mrs Stacy and the boys. He went out the front entrance, a very rare event. When he arrived back at the Avengers Tower he was greeted by Pepper who had just gotten back from an urgent meeting at Stark Industries. They got in the lift together.
"So, Peter, how's your day been?" Pepper asked, breaking the silence.
"Not bad, and yourself?" Peter replied.
"Stressful, sometime I think those board members are just hired to annoy me!" Pepper huffed with a small smile. She then looked at Peter and started laughing. Peter looked at her quizzically.
"You have some... Um..." Pepper started gesturing to her cheek. Peter was not getting the signals. "Lipstick. Left cheek."
Peter froze and then ferociously rubbed at his cheek with his jumper sleeve. After some vicious rubbing he looked back at a grinning Pepper to confirm that it had gone. Pepper just laughed but nodded a confirmation.
"Please tell me Tony doesn't know about your... Meeting." Pepper said looking at Peter with pleading, sympathetic eyes. Peter huffed and looked sadly back at her to confirm that, in fact, Tony did know about his little escapade. Pepper gave him a very sympathetic look.
"You poor soul." She said sadly. "That red cheek is not going to help your cause. Jarvis, avoid level five, go straight up to Steve's floor, please."
"Yes, ma'am." The robotic voice replied. Peter looked up at Pepper with a new found respect and smiled.
"So, who is this woman then?" Pepper asked cheekily.
"How do you know it's a woman?" Peter asked in a mirrored cheek. Pepper gave Peter a weary look.
"So you're dating a transvestite?" She asked skeptically. "I just don't see it."
Peter grinned.
"I guess the lipstick gave it away." He laughed. Pepper nodded.
"So?" She prompted before adding, "if you don't tell me now, I can just ask Tony and I'm sure he'll be able to tell me all her darkest deeds."
Just as she said that they arrived on Peter and Steve's floor. Pepper and Peter stepped out. Peter looked around before deciding that nothing had been moved or changed. Steve wasn't in then.
"Her names Gwen." Peter started. He felt a bit awkward going into his love life with this woman that he barely knew.
"Oh Peter, I'm just teasing you!" Pepper laughed. "I'm not a stalker like Tony, although, he probably does know every nook and cranny on the girl by now."
"Do you think that Steve will, you know..." Peter trailed off. He wasn't sure why he should care what Steve thought, but for some reason he did.
"What do you mean? Do I think Steve would like to know you're dating? Yeah, I think he might want to know that." Pepper said seriously. She led Peter to the sofas and sat him down before sitting with him.
"Peter, two days before you came Steve was terrified. He's normally a blank slate according to Tony but even I could tell he was terrified about something. We found out he was nervous about meeting you!" Pepper explained sincerely. "According to Tony he was an even worse wreck in the car. Fidgeting, huffing, sweating, the likes. Tony could see his rambling was annoying Steve to no end but he was sure the poor man would melt from nerves if he was left to his thoughts, then again, Tony is known to like the sound of his own voice. Peter, this man does want to be a part of your life, involve him. You don't need to do a large musical number or have a party, just say hi to him, strike up conversation, tell a funny joke from school, tell him your best friends names and mention that you have a girlfriend. He doesn't have to meet her, just, don't leave him out, you're the only family he has and he's your only family too."
Pepper finished and could see that her words had made an impact on Peter, she could see his mind whizzing as he combed through her words. She patted his shoulder in a comforting manner before standing up, bidding him good night and getting in the lift.
Once she had gone Peter sat in silence.
"Jarvis." He called out with a croaking voice. "Where's Steve?"
"Mister Rogers is currently working. He will be back in an undisclosed amount of time."
"Cheers." Peter croaked before heading to his room. Peter was too disconcerted to realise that he had no idea what Steve even did for his job.
Peter decided he needed to clear his mind and the best way to do that, was to fly!
Peter poked his head out of his room to check no one had materialised in the living room in the seconds he had been in his room before shutting and locking his door. He practically ran to where his suit was hidden and quickly gained access to it before stripping and changing into the red and blue costume.
"Jarvis," Peter called out, "if someone asks for me, say I'm in bed and asleep."
"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied.
Peter then walked to the window, fully clad in his spiderman gear with his mask in his hands, and looked down at the spectacular view of the city below him.
"Jarvis." Peter called out again. "Does Tony have any monitors on the window or cameras nearby."
"The windows are monitored but that can be changed. As for cameras, there are two within a ten metre radius of you outside as well as heat detectors monitoring the outside within a twenty metre radius." Jarvis informed.
"Okay, Jarvis, can you disconnect my window from the monitor discretely until I get back and put the cameras and other detectors within a fifty metre radius on a loop for the next minute." Peter ordered.
"Of course, sir." Jarvis confirmed.
"Before you do that," Peter said, "would you be able to detect me coming back?"
"If you allow me to scan your heat signature I will know you are nearby within the twenty metre heat detection range." Jarvis stated.
"Fine, scan away. Once you see me coming back, I want you to loop all the cameras and detectors again until I'm back in the room. Then put my window back on the normal whatever mode." Peter ordered. "Oh, and one last thing. Why am I able to do this?"
This was confusing Peter the most. He was just asking to disconnect several highly important security measures and Jarvis was doing this and not questioning a thing!
"Mister Stark has logged you as a resident of the Avengers Tower giving you practically full access to the security procedures and devices." Jarvis informed.
"Ah, cool." Peter nodded. He then turned serious. "Alright, Jarvis disconnect or loop everything like I said before starting... NOW!"
Peter pulled on his mask, pushed open the largest window and leapt as far away from the building as possible before allowing himself to fall towards the moving lights of the city below. After a moment of falling, Peter whipped his arm around and let loose some web fluid and then gliding through the city. Peter paused for a moment to look at the large tower he had just left, looking towards his room so it would be easy to find again.
Peter flew around cheering and whooping as he flung himself through the air. This was amazing and it helped him clear his head. Once Peter decided that he was ready to actually do something rather than just weave around avoiding cars, buildings and birds, he went looking for trouble.
Within two minutes he was swinging his way to a high pitched scream. He wasn't sure if he was just well positioned for that or if his spidey powers graced him with the powers of a trouble magnet, drawing him near to the dumb and deadly. Or maybe he was just dumb for chasing the deadly.
Anyway, Peter found the cause for the scream was a teenage girl being cornered by two, not very slim, men in an alley way, why was it always an alley way? Peter graciously landed in front of the girl facing the burly men.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's mean to pick on a woman?" Peter shot. Both men stumbled but one quickly regained his footing.
"Would you look at that! Spidey's sexist!" The fatter man chuffed.
This one had obviously been drinking. Even without his enhanced senses Peter could smell the stench of alcohol radiating off him. The other man looked slightly nervous though, he took a small step back.
"Fine, how about this, you pick on this woman, or bully anyone else and I swear you won't walk for months." Peter stated, venom drooling in his voice. He hated bullies. The slightly less fat man seemed to be the smart one, he started to edge out of the alley. He stopped when he realised his friend was deciding to be cocky.
"How about, we squash the spidey then get the girl?" The fatter one said in as menacingly a voice as he could manage at such a drunken level.
Peter stood up straight and shrugged his shoulders casually.
"Well, I'm up for it but I'd rather have a challenge." He taunted.
The fatter one growled and charged towards Peter. His spidey sense yelled at him to get out of the way as the man prepared to punch but Peter remembered the terrified girl cowering behind him. Instead, Peter used his extra strength to redirect the man as he attempted to punch and the man crashed into the wall groaning as he fell. Even though Peter had concluded that the other man was the smart one, he obviously wasn't that smart.
The man saw his unconscious friend and decided to defend said friends destroyed honour by attacking a man (or so they thought) who obviously out matched him. And he wasn't as sober as he could have been. The man raised his fists in a boxing style way and prepared to fight. Peter shrugged and stepped forwards. The man threw the first lunch which Peter easily avoided. He then dodged the next three before catching the fist on the fifth punch. The man stopped in shock and looked towards his covered fist and then up at spiderman. Peter began twisting the arm. The man began to struggle. Peter kept twisting. The man started kicking and yelping. Peter pushed the man back before doing a running leap and frog leaping the poor man so he fell face first into the dirty alleyway floor. There was a loud crunch as he fell. Peter picked the first man up before webbing him unconscious to the wall. He did the same with the other man and then looked over too the woman who attracted him to the fight. She looked about sixteen, seventeen. She only has a small amount of make up yet decided that even on this chilly night, it was appropriate to only wear a shirt and thin jumper. She wasn't thin, nor was she chubby but her face was a wreck. Tears streamed from her face.
"Hey, kid." Peter called cautiously, not wanting to scare her. She seemed to be in shock. Peter's voice broke her from her chain of thoughts and she looked around until she saw the men on the wall and spiderman looking directly at her, or at least his mask was.
"Ma'am, I need you to call the police, tell them what happened and then go home and get some rest. Maybe call someone you know to pick you up. Okay?" Peter continued slowly. The girl nodded but couldn't put a coherent sentence together. Peter nodded once he knew the order had been fully processed in her mind before checking that thick head one and thick head two (as he had now dubbed them) would stay unconscious and not frighten the girl further. He was about to swing off when he heard something behind him. He turned and saw the girl looking at him.
"I- I just wanted to say than -thanks." She stuttered. Peter nodded and the swung away looking for the next entertaining fight of the evening.
Hello, do you like the quick update? Did I do the Spidey scene justice?
To all those who reviewed for the last chapter (and any others where I didn't say thanks), I can't tell you how happy you made me feel, replying to my story so quickly! Sorry for not responding to all of you, just know that I do take time to think about what you've said and take your compliments to heart!