Thea walked down the bustling hall with Peter and Ned, stepping in time with them.

"So what you're saying is that my journalism prompt should be on the academic decathlon?" Thea queried. Her wide eyes looked over to Peter as they continued on their path to her journalism class.

"It would be the perfect way for you to come! Don't you think?" Peter asked.

Thea's mind paused for a moment as her body continued on its course.

"Yeah, I guess that would work if Ms. Torres allows it."

Her eyes stared straight forward at the door in front of them.

Thea pushed open the door and looked back to the pair behind her and smiled. She then shut the door and looked into the empty classroom and locked her eyes onto Ms. Torres'.

~~~~

Thea and Peter ran to the yellow bus that was being loaded up by students in yellow jackets.

Ms. Torres had allowed Thea to create her journalism prompt on the academic decathlon team's trip to Washington DC. Of course, Thea wouldn't be actually writing about it the entire trip. She had something more important to deal with.

"Guys," Peter said, out of breath. He wore a basic flannel shirt, paired with a backpack filled with items he would need.

Thea stood by silently, with her own filled backpack, watching as Flash stepped forward when Peter asked if he could rejoin the team.

"No, no way. You can't just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone," Flash said.

The aggressive tension that Flash dished out was quickly subdued by Mr. Harrington who stepped out of the bus and happily welcomed Peter back to the team. The shock and disbelief on Flash's face were enough to make Thea smirk and it only grew larger as Mr. Harrington announced that Flash would be back to first alternate. Flash's disbelief was cut short as the rest of the team chuckled to this news.

"Excuse me," MJ interrupted, appearing from the back of the group. Her hair was unkempt and her eyebrows furrowed as she pushed through the group. "Can we go already? I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner... so," she stated boldly.

Thea sidestepped from her place next to the bus over to MJ, where she laid a hand on her shoulder and smirked up at her. Her hand placed firmly on her shoulder was a friendly gesture and MJ saw it as that. Thea then dragged her hand off of MJ when Mr. Harrington stated.

"Protesting is patriotic. Let's get on the bus." He pointed a thumb toward the open doors of the yellow school bus.

Thea waited behind the group and eyed Flash as he begrudgingly threw his mustard yellow jacket over to Peter. She rolled her eyes and walked over slowly to Peter as his sight followed the back of Flash as he entered the bus.

"So," Thea bumped her hip against Peter. He angled his gaze downward to look into Thea's piercing eyes. "You're not going to leave Ned and me for Flash right? Cause I could be mistaken but that was some pretty intense sexual tension there." Thea tilted her head back and laughed as Peter's eyes widened ever so slightly and his face dusted with a light red. She sauntered forward to the bus and paused, one leg on the first step. Her brown locks cascaded over her shoulder as she looked over at Peter. "Come on homewrecker, let's go finish some shit." She laughed out with a wink.

Peter's hands clenched tighter around the yellow jacket in his hands as his face heated up. His steps closely followed after Thea's as he entered into the bus and sat down.

~~~~

Bell's ringing was a constant sound throughout the entire bus ride to D.C as the team practiced. Nonsensical answers were thrown out into the air. Words like Fort Sumter, and Frank Sinatra. Voices overlapped each other as people tried to fight for the correct answer. But there was one voice that was silent throughout the ride.

Thea sat in the back of the bus, her laptop out as she wrote down quick notes about the team. Her fingers clicked against the keys, sending out quiet sounds to the loud bus. Her hands followed a similar and familiar pattern as she typed out bullet notes.

Practicing on the bus for the majority of the ride

Topics range from science to pop culture

Some team members more vocal than others

Her eyes scanned across the bus before they landed on Peter who was hunched forward on his seat, participating in the current discussion. Thea's brown eyes stared at the back of Peter's head full of hair. Tiny curls stood out more than others against the dark canvas of his skull. But her soft gaze was interrupted as a familiar ringtone rang out. She watched as Peter quickly answered the call, his hand racked through his hair multiple times. The tiny waves that she had been watching early, now brushed away.

Peter's lips moved, but Thea couldn't make out the words. Low mutters of words flowed out of Peter's mouth as Thea tried to read them. She could barely make out the words, violation, and privacy as Peter stood up and walked further back to sit next to Ned.

A few moments passed as Peter continued to talk on the phone before he eventually hung up. However, the call seemed as if it transferred from Peter over to Thea's phone as it buzzed. Thea gripped the phone that laid beside her on the bus seat and flipped it over to reveal one new message from Happy Hogan. Sliding her finger across the glass screen, she opened up her phone and read the simple and short message he sent.

Keep an eye on Peter, will you?

Her gaze moved up from her phone to Peter, sitting just a few seats ahead of her. Her eyes managed to catch what seemed to be the end of a conversation with Ned as Peter looked back at her too. Peter's eyes grew as he realized he had been caught and he quickly shrunk down into his seat.

Thea slowly removed her eyes from Peter's figure and set them back down on her computer. With quick fingers, she quickly wrote out on her notes.

Peter looks good in yellow

But as fast as she wrote it, she deleted it.

~~~~

A few short hours later and the bus arrived at the nation's capital, Washington D.C. The team entered the hotel together and all gazed in awe at the sight of the inside.

The tall ceiling of the hotel was paired with rows of rooms lining the center of the grand entrance. On the bottom floor were booths all associated with the academic decathlon as their many stickers and signs placed on and around them said so. A faint chirping could be heard coming from the top of the hotel.

Thea stuck close alongside Peter and Ned. Although she wished she could share a room with them, she knew there would be no way to do so. Instead, she got placed in the same room as MJ. This room was conveniently located only a few doors down from Peter and Ned's room.

Inside her shared hotel room, Thea quickly discarded her backpack on the floor, only taking out her laptop to place it on the single desk hidden in the corner of the room. Thea swiveled out the chair from the said desk and sat down, opening her laptop as she did so.

Thea flipped through a few tabs of her browser before she heard the sound of the door opening. Her head whipped around to see MJ walking through the door with headphones in her ears. She paused at the door, looking at Thea curiously before she continued through to the bathroom without saying so much as a "Hello" to her.

Thea pondered for a moment about this awkward interaction before she breathed out and pushed herself up out of the chair. Thea decided to go and visit Peter and Ned in their room, seeing as the real reason she was here was to help find the villains. She shut her laptop and grabbed it, tucking it under her arm and walked to the hotel door. As she grabbed the doorknob, she heard the sound of the shower turning on and inaudible songs playing from the closed bathroom door.

It was night already, the dark covering the hotel, causing the harsh lights to be turned on in order to see. Thea peered down the open hallway, making sure no teacher would see her sneaking out of her room to go and visit Peter's. Quickly, Thea stepped out of the doorway and hurried down the hall to Peter's room, which was only a few rooms away from her's.

A do not disturb sign hung from the door handle, indicating that something was already going on in there without her. Thea knocked quietly against the wood causing the sign to sway slightly, her knuckles making a soft tapping sound as she waited for someone to answer it. Finally, someone did.

The wary face of Peter greeted Thea as he opened the door slightly. His face soon turned into one of realization as he opened it up further, letting her into the room.

On the bed laid Peter's suit, inside out, showing all the wires and technology that made it work. Hooked up to the suit was a wire that connected to a laptop. Ned sat up on the bed, with the said laptop in his lap, looking down at the bright screen in confusion.

"There's a ton of other subsystems in here..." Ned spoke hesitantly.

Peter hummed in confusion as he walked back to the bed that held the suit. Thea followed Peter as she shut the door. They both leaned over the bed to peer at Ned's screen.

"But they're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol," Ned smirked.

Thea held back a laugh as Peter pleaded for it to be turned off. She leaned back on the bed opposite to the one that Ned was currently on. Her legs dangled off the edge of the bed as she sat back against the headboard of the bed.

"I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, they're probably blocked for a reason," Ned shook his head and pointed at the screen.

Peter scoffed and stood back up and turned to face Thea.

"Come on, man. I don't need training wheels," Peter whined. His arms flung out as he jumped up on the same bed that Thea sat on. The sudden movement caused Thea to jolt slightly as Peter continued to jump. "I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time. It's not cool."

Thea eyed Peter as he continued to flail his arms about. His hands slapped his thighs as he sighed out.

"But you are a kid," Ned confirmed.

"Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands."

Peter spoke down to Ned, who looked up at him in disbelief.

"Peter, I just don't think this is a great idea. I mean, what if this is illegal?" Ned said.

Peter hopped off the bed that he was standing out, causing Thea to shake slightly as the bed bounced. He kneeled down next to Ned and pleaded with him, only for Ned to cave in once Peter whispered, "The guy in the chair."

Thea smirked as Ned sighed and reluctantly clicked a key on his laptop, causing the entire suit to flash blue for a second and a whirring sound to happen. All of their eyes trailed down the length of the suit as they waited for anything else to happen.

Thea sighed with a smile on her face as she stood up from her place on the bed. Taking a step over to the other bed, she leaned over next to Peter and spoke in a low voice, "I guess you're a man now." She chuckled for a second. "Well according to your suit you are." Thea gestured to the suit next to them. She gripped the suit with a tight fist and handed it over to a stunned Peter. "Better get dressed Spidey, you have a villain to chase."

Peter cleared his throat as he looked up at Thea, noticing the close proximity between the pair. His face heated up slightly as Thea smirked, looking down at him. She backed up until her knees hit the other bed and then sat down, bouncing as she plopped down.

"I'm going to go down to see what the team is doing... I think they might be holding extra study practice right now," Ned spoke out with a cough as he pointed to the door. "I'll make sure to keep the glowy thing safe," Ned said hastily as he closed his laptop, and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Thea eyed Ned as he did this with a brow raised in slight confusion. She slowly turned her head to see Peter, now standing back up with his suit in his hands. She crossed her legs slowly and tilted her head as Peter awkwardly pointed to the bathroom door with his suit in his hand. She watched as he stumbled to the bathroom door before shutting it behind him.

A few seconds passed before Thea heard things falling and slamming against the bathroom floor. Hesitantly, Thea walked over to the bathroom door and spoke softly. "Peter? You okay in there?"

"I-I um, yeah!" Peter called back out. "I just slipped on a towel in here... I think."

Thea nodded, although no one but herself could see it and sat back down on the bed, waiting for Peter. Suddenly, the door opened slowly, revealing Peter in his Spider-Man suit and pants and shoes over it. Thea raised a brow at the odd outfit.

Peter's eyes avoided Thea as he grabbed his jacket and pulled it over his suit, covering him completely. Peter grabbed his backpack silently and walked toward the door. Thea fought with herself internally, not knowing whether or not to say anything. Finally, she spoke up.

"Stay safe," Thea called out to Peter, who was standing by the door with his back turned to Thea.

Slowly, he turned around and half-smiled at her, his eyes meeting hers for only a split second. He nodded slightly, acknowledging her statement. His reluctance to meet Thea's gaze, however, caused something to stir within her. And as soon as he gripped the doorknob and turned it, almost opening the door, a sudden force stopped him.

"Peter... wait," Thea said. Her hand was outstretched slightly, a familiar purple pulse wrapped around the doorknob, stopping Peter from going any further. Peter looked down at his hand in shock before he turned back around to see Thea, only a few feet from him. She dropped her hand, and along with it came the purple mist restricting Peter.

"I just," Thea hesitated. "What am I doing wrong?" Her eyes looked down to the floor.

Peter was stunned. His eyes widened as he looked at Thea in confusion. He didn't know what she meant by this. Doing wrong with what? If anything, he is doing something wrong by leaving her here.

"I-I I don't know what you mean," Peter spoke softly, a tinge of confusion riddled his voice.

Thea sighed as she looked back up at him, her piercing hazel eyes meeting his unsure ones.

"I mean... It seems like you are almost avoiding me. Not all the time, but sometimes, and... I don't see why. Is it me?" Thea confessed.

Peter's mouth gaped at this confession. His mind tried to wrap around what he had just heard come from her mouth. He parted his mouth slightly, ready to speak whatever he could come up with, however, Thea beat him to it.

"I just..." Thea breathed out. "What... What are we? With what happened that one night and everything else. I don't know what is going on."

Peter blinked, his eyes glossed over her body, which seemed to be closed off. He placed a hesitant hand on her shoulder, to which she looked up. He gulped, trying to find the right words to combat what she just said to him. Peter's heart began to pump faster at the look on her face. An indescribable look that he would never have known that Thea could make.

"We... We are..." Peter breathed out a breath he was holding in. "I don't know," he confessed. "But I know it's not just acquaintances."

Thea smiled softly at this and batted her eyes lightly at him, causing Peter to flush. She reached up to her shoulder and gripped the hand that rested there. Bringing down his hand and grasping it firmly with a soft hand, she sighed out, "Well... until we can figure it out, I guess I'll do this to help."

Thea took a step forward, stepping into Peter's personal space until there wasn't any room left between Peter and the door. His head rested against the door lightly as his neck craned down to see Thea. She stepped further, placing a leg in between his own, causing Peter to gasp slightly at the sudden invasion of personal space. With the same hand that once held his own hand, she trailed up his chest until she stopped at the base of his hair at the back of his neck.

Peter didn't stop her, nor did he encourage her. He watched as Thea leaned forward, pulling his head down, to capture her lips on his own. Thea fingers played with the hairs on the back of his neck as she closed her eyes. Peter's shock was quickly replaced as he set his hands down on her waist, bringing her into his chest.

His eyes closed automatically into the kiss as their lips pressed against each other naturally. Thea placed her free hand on his cheek as Peter tilted his head to the side, deepening the kiss more. She almost groaned as Peter's grip on her waist hardened. Her own grip on Peter grew stronger too as her once stagnant hand on his cheek soon moved to his hair, gripping and pulling it.

Thea broke apart from Peter, leaving her cheeks flushed and her lips pink from the feverish kissing they had just done. Peter, with his hands still on her waist, looked down at Thea with a dazed look in his eyes and an ever so slight smirk on his face.

Thea placed her hands on Peters and removed them from her waist, leaving her feeling almost cold from the lack of touch. She smiled as she saw his usually neat hair, now messed up. Taking a hand up, she tried to smooth over the messed curls. Once she finished, she took a step back, viewing her masterpiece.

Peter, parted his lips to speak, only for Thea to place a finger on them.

"Don't," she whispered. "Just... stay safe."

Peter swallowed and nodded before he turned around and walked out the door silently.

~A/N~

Soooooooo..... it's been a while, hasn't it? But hopefully, this chapter makes up for all of that. From this chapter on, it will get more heated in terms of kisses and stuff (nothing too bad) but a fair warning. 

I am also planning on updating somewhat more often. So keep an eye out for that. 

Until then, <3