"who the hell is that?" flash asked when happy walked over to him.

"i gotta get you guys out of here!" he replied, screaming. "get on the jet!"

mj wasn't convinced. "who are you?"

"i work with spider-man, okay?" he announced. "get on that jet."

flash, who loved spider-man, suddenly was interested. "you work for spider-man?"

"i work with spider-man, not for spider-man." happy corrected, visibly offended.

interrupting him, dakota flew to the ground in front of them, just as the jet blew up. "we're gonna need a plan b." she said to happy, looking over her shoulder at the wreckage. "into the tower." she suggested, looking to the students, who were all standing and looking at her in shock.

flash's eyes were nearly bugged out of his head as he saw her. "you're dakota stark." he breathed out, even though he'd already met her years prior at liz's party.

"and you're gonna be dead in the next ten seconds if you don't move." she replied, her suit dematerializing so she could run faster into the museum. "go into the crown jewels vault!" she ordered the students, pausing to let them go in front of her. "the walls are 8 feet thick, it's the safest place."

happy nodded his agreement, but let her wait behind on her own accord, running in with the other students immediately. once in the vault, they were met with a drone. it seemed to look at them, and they all gasped, hiding.

when another drone appeared in the doorway, happy grabbed a shield from one of the knights in the vault, flinging it at the drone to absolutely no avail. "how does cap do that?!" he mumbled under his breath, but kodie heard and laughed, making him hold up a hand to silence her mockery.

the doors closed, and the students all hid around the room, trying to find some sort of weapon to protect themselves.

"happy, say something, to let me know you're alive!" peter said on the comms.

"i'm here. i'm here." he replied. "kodes is with me, too, we have all your friends."

they could practically feel peter's relief on the other side. "i'm trying to get to beck, but i can't shake these drones!"

dakota, meanwhile, remained the only person in the room with armor, and so she stepped casually out into the middle of the room, raising her blaster at the drone (which still hadn't noticed her presence). as the drone moved closer to one of the students, kodie caught motion in the side of her eye as mj hit it with a mace.

"woah, holy shit." kodie said, though her voice made it sound more like a statement than an exclamation. "that was.. woah, impressive, nice job."

mj gave her a thin lipped smile, nodding. "thanks."

three drones slowly approached the students, who were now all huddled together with their makeshift weapons. dakota stood in the center, holding both of her arms up to fire.

"are we gonna die?" ned asked.

"nobody dies on my watch." happy replied solemnly.

ned began to fret, looking out at the oncoming danger. "i wasted my life playing video games, and we're gonna die." he admitted.

"i have a fake ID," betty suddenly exclaimed, "and i've never even used it."

"i post stupid videos daily for people to like me." flash said.

happy then turned to him. "hey, if it wasn't for those stupid videos, spider-man would've never found you."

flash then perked up. "spider-man? spider-man follows me? i saved us, guys!"

"if you saved us, why are we about to die?" mj retorted. everyone began to yell at her, and she held her hands up. "i'm sorry, okay? i'm obsessed with telling the truth even if it hurts people's feelings."

"i'm in love with spider-man's aunt." happy blurted. "we're sharing, right?" he said, when everyone looked at him.

dakota cleared her throat, looking to the group. she'd already shot all of the drones down, and the "gunshots" they were hearing had been from her blasters. "are you guys.. are you done?" she asked, looking among the terrified group.

happy seemed shocked as he looked at her. "you.. you weren't gonna tell us that you'd shot them already?"

"nah, i wanted to see how far you'd take this 'sharing our deepest darkest secrets' thing." she replied. "now, according to jeep," she said, pulling open the sleeve of her suit to reveal a screen, "the drones should be turning off about now." she then looked up to happy. "i think he did it."

without waiting for anyone else to say anything, dakota immediately took to the sky, flying out of the vault's doors and into the air. sure enough, the drones had all dispatched. "jeep, where's peter?" she asked, watching as her helmet's ai directed her towards him.

kodie landed on the bridge, her suit dematerializing as soon as her feet hit the ground. she made a bee line for him, throwing herself into his arms. he stumbled back a bit in surprise, but his arms wrapped securely around her waist as he held her to him. "you did it." she breathed out, pressing her face to his shoulder.

"he's gone, the drones are gone, it's over." he said, almost not believing it himself.

"you did it." she repeated, not able to think about anything other than how glad she was that he was okay. then, when she pulled away slightly to look at his face, she laughed, thinking about a joke she'd made the last time they'd been in a situation like this. "the blood looks good, really brings out your-"

before she could finish talking, his lips were on hers. she smiled into the kiss, her body instinctively moving closer to him. his hands were brushing the hair from her face, and she couldn't even think straight as she felt his heartbeat under her hands.

"i love you." he said as he pulled away.

she looked up then, her eyes widening with hope at the sound of his words.

"i'm sorry i didn't say it when you said it. i wanted to, i just got so nervous. and i've been spending this whole trip trying to figure out a way to tell you that would make it up to you, but everything.. well.. yeah, everything went to shit. and i just.. i can't take it anymore. i can't come up with something fancy again, i just have to say it."

when his little rant was over, she smiled, making him nearly go insane. what was she thinking? what was she ever thinking? she laughed, moving slightly closer. "say it again." she told him, a smirk playing on her lips.

peter smiled, his hands settling on her waist. "i love you, dakota stark." he said, looking into her eyes.

"finally." she replied, getting onto her toes to kiss him. this kiss was sweeter, shorter, than the last one, and she pulled away after a moment to hug him. "i love you, too." she reminded him, laughing as he let out a sigh of relief.

"oh!" he gasped, remembering the necklace, pulling it out of his suit, where it had been residing in a small bag.

dakota eyed it suspiciously. "whatever that is, it's gonna smell of butt sweat." she said, but the look on her face gave away that she really didn't care what it smelled like or even what it was.. she was too happy to be upset about anything.

seeing and recognizing this look in her eyes, peter opened the bag, revealing the golden locket. "i wanted to give you this.." he said, holding it in his hands. "it's a locket, and i.. i put my favorite picture of us in it." he looked up at her with sweet eyes, smiling. "i hope you like it, i didn't know if you would prefer silver, or-"

she cut him off by hugging him again, smiling into his chest. "i love it. i love you. it's perfect." she said, feeling the tension leave his body at her words. he put it around her neck, struggling a little with the clasp. "thank you, it's gorgeous." she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek, which made his eyes light up.

"we should probably get off this bridge." he said after smiling at her for a minute.

"probably should." she agreed, taking his hand into hers.

⎊‎⎊‎⎊

"i'm glad you're alive." happy told fury. "i guess the coded message worked.

"'appearances can be deceiving.'" fury agreed, quoting the coded message. "i'm surprised you didn't just wink in the camera."

"it worked."

"only because i had serious doubts about beck from the beginning." he defended.

kodie chuckled, shaking her head. "totally not true. he had zero doubts. he wanted to make him an avenger and everything. whole nine yeards."

"where's parker?" fury asked, ignoring her.

"almost off of his plane." she replied, looking at her watch. "which is, in fact. my cue. peace out, don't try to destroy the world again." she said before her suit materialized and she flew out of the nearest window.

⎊‎⎊‎⎊

"you guys are so cute." betty was saying as kodie met peter by the airport gates, holding his hand.

peter smiled over at her, squeezing his girlfriend's hand. "thanks! i was actually thinking we should all go on a double date or something."

"oh, we broke up." betty and ned said in unison, looking to each other.

peter then frowned. "no. what? why?"

"men and women grow apart, but the journey they share together will always be a part of them." ned said, looking into the distance as if he was a philosopher.

"you are so wise." betty marveled.

"where are your bags?" may asked when she saw peter and kodie. "oh, right. they got blown up. yeah." she said sarcastically, leading the way into the car.

⎊‎⎊‎⎊

"i faced a lot of deception. and i'm tired of the lies." peter began. "so it's time for the truth to be out there. are you dating?" he asked happy and may, who were sitting across from him and dakota.

"yes." happy said immediately.

"not really." may inquired.

"what?"

"well, i think summer fling." may explained.

happy nodded. "yes, that evolves.. and grows like any other."

"i still don't know where it's going to go".

"open to wherever it might lead."

"anywhere. on or off."

"to share it with people-"

"we'll always be friends, no matter what."

the two teenagers looked at each other, then back to happy and may, then back to each other.
"okay," peter said, his brows furrowed, "we've got a date, so.."

"bye." he and kodie said in unison, going one after the other out the window.

"you ready?" peter said once they were both landed on the ground, him with his mask and full spider-man suit on.

kodie gave him a look, shaking her head. "no, i don't understand why you wanna do this so bad."

"it'll be fun!" peter insisted. "you're gonna love this."

she pursed her lips, thinking about it for a moment before nodded. "yeah, okay."

"okay?"

"okay! i'm just not gonna watch. i'm not gonna watch." she said, assuring herself. before she could think about changing her mind, peter had wrapped a hand around her waist and was flying her around on a web. "oh, my gosh. no, no, i'm not gonna watch!" she said, tucking her face into his shoulder.

he let out a laugh, looking down at her as he swung around. "how is this so much different from you flying by yourself?" he asked.

"it is so much different!! so much different, you- you have absolutely no care with the webs, you are so reckless, i'm gonna die-" mid ramble, she realized that peter was already on the ground, and that she was just desperately clinging to his body. "oh."

"see, it wasn't too bad, was it?" he asked, and she could tell even through the mask that he was smiling.

she shook her head. "nope, never again."

"never?"

"never. you stick to your thing, i'll stick to mine."

he laughed, fighting the urge to kiss her (because the media knew her as dating peter parker, who wasn't spider-man), and instead just smiling as wide as he possibly could, not knowing how to convey how happy he was. "i'll see you later?"

"yeah." she said, clearly not actually upset about the web-slinging, because her own smile spread cheek to cheek. "besides, morgan wants to see you again; i think she's under the impression that you're our long lost brother."

"oh, i sure hope i'm not." he joked, shooting a web at the nearest street light. "see you later."

"later." she agreed, watching as he flung away. kodie began to weave her way through the crowd, not feeling the need to fly away in her suit. she'd never felt so normal, so perfectly human.

she listened to the sounds of the street; the people rushing by to get here or there, the couples having conversations, the slight ding of a shoppe door being opened. when she turned over her shoulder to watch for traffic, she noticed the large screen on the road across from her, from which the headline read 'breaking news'.

"this is breaking news." the news reporter on the screen was saying, as if the text box below him didn't say as much. "we come to you now with revelations about last week's attack in london. an anonymous source provided this video. it shows quentin beck, aka, mysterio, moments before his death. a warning: you may find this video disturbing."

dakota was now intrigued, and her steps had completely halted as she watched the screen switch to a haphazardly filmed piece of footage of the tower bridge fight. there was no doubt in her mind that the video had been altered in some way by beck, who was laying on the floor, clearly injured.

"i managed to send the elemental back through the dimensional rift, but i don't think i'm gonna make it off this bridge alive." beck said to the camera. "spider-man attacked me for some reason! he has an army of weaponized drones, stark technology. he's saying he's the only one who's gonna be the new iron man, no one else!"

the camera panned over, and now edith spoke in the distance. "are you sure you want to commence the drone attack? there will be significant casualties."

"do it. execute them all." peter (in the spider-man costume) replied.

"this shocking video was released earlier today on the controversial news website, 'thedailybugle.net.'" the news reporter continued, and the screen switched to j. jonah jameson.

"there you have it, folks," he said, "conclusive proof that spider-man was responsible for the brutal murder of mysterio, an inter-dimensional warrior who gave his life to protect our planet, and who will, no doubt, go down in history as the greatest superhero of all time."

dakota scoffed at this.

"but that's not all, folks." jameson continued. "here's the real blockbuster. brace yourselves, you might wanna sit down."

the screen then cut back to the video of beck on the bridge. "spider-man's real– spider-man's real name is– spider-man's name is peter parker!"

a photo of peter then appeared on the screen, and dakota felt her hands start to shake. "what the fuck?"

END OF FAR FROM HOME