I don't own anything except any original character and/or any original plot.

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Chapter Twelve: Normal Vacation

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The Friday after the wedding I was exhausted. It had been six days since Via and Jess got married, yet the grogginess I had the day after the wedding seemed to carry over to the rest of the week. That and the fact that it was the last week of the school year also added to that. But what got me through was the knowledge that the next day, a group from our class who'd had the highest overall scores on the midterms and finals were traveling Europe.

It was a vacation Peter and I sorely needed after the insane year we'd had.

Walking through the hallway, I paused the watch the horribly cringey memorial video to Tony, Natasha, Steve, and Vision play on the daily news. When it was - thankfully- over, Betty and Jason appeared on screen.

"Gone. But not forgotten," Betty stated dramatically.

"Thanks to Kenneth Laymour and Fian Raymour for their help with that touching video tribute."

"This year has been nothing short of-"

Jason's mouth blurred and beeped, "crazy. It's like insane."

"Jason."

"What?'

"No swearing."

"Yeah, it's like the last day of school, we're good."

Betty rolled her eyes, "Historic. Over five years ago, half of all life in the universe, including our own Midtown High was wiped from existence. But then eight months ago, a band of brave heroes brought us back. They called it the Blip. Those of us who blipped away came back the same age. But our classmates that didn't blip grew five years older."

"Yeah, like my little brother is now older than me."

"Yeah, it's math. And even though we had blipped away halfway through the school year and had already taken midterms, the school made us start the whole year over from the beginning."

"Totally unfair. It's not right."

"Tigers, it's been a long, dramatic, somewhat confusing road. As we draw this year to a close, it's time to move on to a new phase of our lives."

"Pray nothing crazy happens again because are the Avengers even a thing anymore? Does anyone even have a plan?"

Sighing, I continued on my way to my last hour. Thanks to it being a half day, I had thirty minutes to mess around with Peter, Ned, MJ, and Harry.

The teacher took role, and we were free. I moved to sit next to MJ and chatted with her about what she was looking forward to on the trip. Peter and Ned were talking quietly and rapidly to each other at the back of the class, and Harry was hissing something over the phone.

"Company stuff?" I leaned over and asked quietly.

Pausing, Harry nodded slowly, then ended his phone conversation with "You have the plan and you have the locations. Stick to them."

He set his phone down and sighed, running a hand through his hair, "There's a big project coming to a close and everything has to be perfect for it to work."

I hummed in understanding, "Have you had any time to write lately?"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, "You remembered that I want to be an author?"

"Of course! I was just curious since you've been busy with the company and all that."

"Oh, um. Sort of. This project relied on a lot of creativity so that counts, I guess?"

Chuckling, I nodded in agreement. MJ leaned over to whisper, "Those two idiots are conspiring over there."

Glancing over to Peter and Ned, I realized that they were still whispering to each other. Nodding at each other, MJ and I stood and walked over to the boys. Immediately, they hushed up and watched us approach.

"What's up, dorks? Excited about the science trip?" MJ questioned.

"Hey, uh, yeah. We're just talking about the trip," Peter stuttered out.

"Yeah, and Peter's plan," Ned added, and Peter smacked his arm.

Tilting my head innocently, I asked "What plan?"

"I don't have a plan."

"No, he's just going to collect tiny spoons while we're traveling to other countries."

"Like a grandma?" MJ asked with a laugh.

"I'm not collecting tiny spoons. He's collecting tiny spoons," Peter chuckled nervously.

"Okay..." Though I wouldn't put it past Ned to collect tiny spoons, he was more likely to collect things related to fandoms. Something was definitely up.

"By the way, travel tip: You should probably download a VPN on your phone, just so that the government can't track you while we're abroad," MJ advised in her classic fashion.

"Smart. Will do."

MJ left at that, and I leaned my arms against the table to get closer to Peter, "You wanna give me a ride to May's benefit tonight?"

"Sure, I'll swing by twenty minutes before it's supposed to start."

"Great," I kissed his cheek, "Oh, and watch yourself Bug-Boy. Girls always find out what their boyfriends are hiding."

I left with a wink, the only thing on my mind was to get through the day and make it to tomorrow.

~*~

Later that night, I pulled on my original - well, original as in the one Shuri made since it was easy to remove - uniform and joined Peter in his swing to the benefit. He was in his Iron-Spider suit. He was healing better than I was, apparently.

When we arrived, we waited in the industrial kitchen until May called us out to give our two cents at the end of her speech. It wouldn't take very long, and we'd be able to get home pretty quickly afterwards.

"I'd like to tell you a story. When one of my close friends blipped back to her apartment, the family living there was very confused. The wife thought that she was a mistress. The Grandma thought that she was a ghost. It was- it was really a mess. Thank you all for coming out to support those who we're misplaced by the Blip, and, of course, thank you Spider-Man and Riptide!"

Peter and I waved to the crowd as they applauded for us. It was weird, being such a public figure. Before the Blip, it was just a news article here or there. The Avengers always overshadowed us. But they didn't exist anymore, that shadow was gone. And we were in the spotlight.

"Thank you, Ms. Parker, for having us. And thank you guys for having us," Peter gave an awkward thumbs up. Rolling my eyes, I stepped up to the mic.

"We are very happy to do everything we can to support this cause. The Blip has been very difficult for the world, and we are dedicated to our little corner of it. Thank you."

Sending Peter a bright smile, the three of us stepped backstage as the audience cheered once more.

"That was amazing," Peter breathed out as his mask receded from his face.

"That was great."

All of us exchanged high fives.

"Ah, that was so cool. I was a little nervous!" Peter admitted.

I laughed, "It was easy to tell, Bug-Boy. But it was still good, and your voice was different so that's a plus."

"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine," May waved her hand dismissively, "Did you get your passport?"

"Yeah."

"Mini toothpaste?"

"Yeah."

"What about you, (Y/n)?"

"Don't worry, I've gone to Wakanda before. This trip will be nothing," I assured her. Speaking of which, I had to talk to Shuri about when I'd be starting up my internship again. I still planned on going to college after all.

With a giant check in his hands, Happy entered through the back door, "Hey, sorry I'm late."

"Happy, hey!"

"Oh, you look lovely," Happy complimented May's dress.

"Thanks, you too."

"Thanks. New dress?"

"Uh, yeah. Yes, it is. That's a new beard."

Peter and I shared a confused look. When... when did they get so close?

"It's my Blip beard, because I grew it in the blip. Blip beard."

"I see."

"Anyway, the reason I'm late is because this was misplaced," Happy held up the check, "Can you believe it? Because its enormous. Not the amount, the size. The amount and the size. From the very generous Pepper Potts. Sorry she couldn't be here."

May took the check gratefully, "I think I'm going to go check on the Vegan Lasagna. Spider-Man, Riptide, go shake hands."

May left with one last glance over her shoulder. Okay... that was new and slightly uncomfortable. But at the same time if it made them happy then who was I to say something about it?

"What just happened?" Peter finally asked after a too-long silence.

Happy dodged the question with an equally as shocking statement, "Heads up, Nick Fury is calling you."

"Nick Fury is going to call us? Why?"

"Why? Because he probably has some hero stuff for you. Superhero stuff. And you're superheroes."

"He has so many other people he could call," I argued, "If not the remaining Avengers then the X-Men or-"

Peter's phone buzzed in his bag, cutting me off. Immediately we knew who it was, and he rushed to answer it.

"See? No caller ID, that's him," Happy confirmed.

"I don't really want to talk to Nick Fury," Peter frowned.

"Yeah, not on my itinerary either."

"You have to."

"Why?"

"Because if you don't talk to him then I have to talk to him and I don't wanna talk to him!"

"Well, why don't you want to talk to him?"

"Because I'm scared- just answer the phone!" Peter held up the phone and made a show of pressing the Decline Call button, "You sent Nick Fury to voicemail?"

My phone began ringing. I pulled it out of my belt pocket and declined the call without hesitation. If Happy had pearls, he would be clutching them he was so offended.

"You can't send Nick Fury to voicemail! You were adults, I thought you'd be mature about this!"

"We aged back," I shrugged dismissively. There was that teenage immaturity that Jean mentioned we'd get back.

"Do you hear that? They're calling for us," Peter motioned to the curtains behind us, "It's- We gotta go. We gotta go. We're gonna call him. I promise you we're gonna call him," his Iron-Spider legs extended from his back and moved the curtains aside, "We will."

"You do not ghost Nick Fury!"

"I promise you we'll call him!" His legs closed the curtains again, and he sent me a smile, "After our trip. Ready?"

"Ready."

We pushed open the curtain, "Hey!"

After the first round of pictures and autographs - where I nearly wrote my actual name at least three times - the news stations were allowed to approach. Immediately it was like a mob was after us. Having never dealt with the press before, neither Peter nor I knew how to handle it well.

"Okay, okay," Peter pointed at a random woman near the front.

"Are you the head Avengers now?"

"Uh, no we're not," he pointed to another woman.

"If aliens come back, what are you gonna do?"

That wasn't a good question to ask, because neither of us knew. We were teenagers who didn't even have our new driver's licenses because we'd been busy. How would we know how to deal with an alien invasion?

Taking the reins, I pointed at a young girl who was too cute for words, "Are you and Spider-Man in love?"

The crowd actually became silent at that. I looked to Peter, who shrugged his approval, "Yes, we are."

Screams from the crowd. I jumped slightly in shock. Not what I expected from that answer. Though, enjoying the occasional fandom and ship myself, I understood the absolute joy that came from having it be confirmed.

"Does anyone have any neighborhood questions?" Peter asked weakly.

"Storm Winston, Queens Tribute. What is it like to take over for Tony Stark? Those are some big shoes to fill."

The crowd's voices became even louder at that, Misty gave me a warning that Peter and I were showing the early signs of panic attacks. Not wanting to take any chances, I grabbed Peter's arm.

"Thank you for coming everyone, we need to go now!"

Peter wrapped an arm around my waist and jumped through the curtain, taking a cautious peek through and grabbing his backpack when he knew Happy wasn't there. From there, he took the back exit and shot a web to the roof, swinging us up.

"That was a lot, wasn't it?" I sighed, pulling off my mask and pressing it against my belt knowing it would automatically attach, "I hate the press, always too nosey for their own good."

Mask moving away from his face, Peter nodded in silent agreement. I wasn't sure why he was being so quiet until I saw what he was looking at. A memorial to Iron Man. Sighing, I took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Relaxing vacation to Europe," I encouraged, earning a smile in return, "We'll just have to make Nick Fury wait a little longer."

Peter chuckled, "I can't believe we're ghosting the Nick Fury."

"Teenagers. Am I right?"