[𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟼]

📍QUEENS, NEW YORK

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

"(Y/N), DID YOU UNDERSTAND THE HOMEWORK?"

Peter Parker, (Y/N)'s best friend, questioned as the duo stepped into the floor of the apartment they both lived in. Since they both went to the same school and clearly lived in the same building, the two never went anywhere without the other, which wasn't like they minded.

Ever since Kiara Schmidt, (Y/N)'s guardian, and Peter's Aunt May introduced them when they were only six years old, the two were almost inseparable.

(Y/N)'s expression turned into a teasing smile as she looked up to Peter. "Why do you ask, huh? Thought that you said it was pretty easy."

Peter's ears flushed red as he tried to come up with an excuse. "I — I wasn't — Well, I didn't do it, alright? Can you help me?"

"Anything for you, bug boy," (Y/N) replied while Peter rolled his eyes at the nickname, searching for the key to unlock the apartment's door.

The two teens entered the apartment and (Y/N) closed the door behind her with care as she placed her backpack on the floor along with Peter.

"Hey, May."

"Hey," May greeted from her place on the couch. "Kia made cookies."

(Y/N) smiled at the name of her guardian and she already could taste the delicious cookies as she followed behind Peter deeper into the familiar apartment, making their way to the latter's room.

"How was school today?" Kiara asked.

"It was okay, Aunt Kia," Peter replied. "This crazy car parked outside."

"Yeah, Peter drooled over it for five minutes," (Y/N) added on as she passed the small living room, but stopped in her tracks when she noticed a third figure.

Peter noticed that (Y/N) wasn't following behind him and turned to her with a questioning look when she had an awestruck look on her face, eyes widened in surprise. He followed her gaze and his expression matched hers as the man smirked.

"Oh, Miss Schmidt, Mr. Parker," the man, also known as the billionaire Tony Stark smirked up at the two as he held one cookie in his hand.

"Hey," (Y/N) tried to keep her cool to cause a good impression, but the boy beside her screwed it up.

"What are you. . . Hey! Uh, I — I'm Peter," the poor boy stuttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm (Y/N)," she cleared her throat and offered a shy smile to the man sitting in front of her.

"Tony."

"What are you doing here?" Peter continued stuttering over his own words.

"It's about time we met," Tony continued after he took a bite out of the cookie. "You've been getting my emails, right?"

Peter didn't get a chance to speak before (Y/N) took over the conversation, seeing the way he was beginning to turn red over the nerves.

"Yeah, sure." (Y/N) started.

"Regarding the. . ." Peter added on.

"You didn't even tell me about the grant," May turned to her nephew with a frown.

"About the grant," Peter nodded.

"The September Foundation," Tony explained, now grabbing the cup of tea from the table.

"Right." (Y/N) continued agreeing.

"Remember when you two applied?" Tony inquired. "I approved, so now we're in business."

The excited and proud look on Kiara's face as she looked to the two teens was heartbreaking, (Y/N) barely had an idea what was going on at the moment but she didn't want to break her heart.

"But you didn't say anything about it. What happened with that? I thought we agreed in no secrets," Kiara's motherly instincts popped in.

(Y/N) nodded silently at her statement and guilt washed over her like a wave. There was another secret she was keeping away from Kiara, but it was for her own safety.

"Well, Peter and I thought. . ." (Y/N) began as she looked over at Peter for support on the lie.

"We know how you both love surprises so we thought we would let you know. . ." Peter added on smoothly. "Anyway, what did (Y/N) and I apply for?"

"That's what I'm here to hash out," Tony said.

"Okay. Hash it out, okay."

"It's so hard for me to believe that these young ladies are someone's mother and someone's aunt," Tony continued on, a flirty look on his face.

(Y/N)'s expression shifted to one of disgust and confusion and exchanged her expression with Peter.

"Well, I suppose I'll take that as a compliment," Kiara looked down to hide her bashful expression.

"Yeah, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" May agreed with her friend.

"These peanut butter cookies are exceptional," Tony's flirtatious tone didn't drop and he continued looking at the women.

"Why, thank you," Kiara smiled, glad that someone else was appreciating her baking.

"Okay, that's where you draw the line," (Y/N) cut in.

"Yeah." Tony turned at the duo.

"Is this grant got money involved or whatever? No?" Peter asked when the strange change of subject was dropped.

"Yeah. It's pretty well funded," Tony shrugged. "Look who you're talking to."

"Can I have five minutes with them?"

"Sure."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

TONY LOCKED THE door of Peter's bedroom behind him as (Y/N) and Peter waited for him, seeing the way he was truly enjoying the last bites of the peanut butter cookie that he was eating.

"Tell Kiara that it was the best cookie I've ever had," Tony pointed at (Y/N), and she nodded in response.

Tony looked around the room and what caught his attention was the old and vintage stuff placed in the desk, scattered without any order.

"Whoa, what have we here? Retro tech, huh?" Tony said. "Thrift store? Salvation Army?"

"Uh, the garbage, actually," Peter replied.

"You're a dumpster diver?"

"Yeah, I was. . .Anyway, look, um, I definitely did not apply for your grant, I don't know if — "

"I didn't," (Y/N) answered before he could finish the question.

"Ah-ah! Me first," Tony interrupted loudly. "Quick question of the rhetorical variety."

Tony reached out to the breast pocket of his blazer and took out a phone, holding it with one hand as he projected a video tape from it.

When (Y/N) got a closer look to it, she noticed it showed a familiar figure in a red and blue suit swinging through the street while webbing a person against a car.

"That's you, right?" Tony said as his gaze was fixed on Peter.

"Um, no." Peter stuttered. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah?" Tony challenged as he showed another footage, this time projecting the figure in the suit stopping a car before it could hit a bus. "Look at you go. Wow! Nice catch. 3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour. That's not easy. You got mad skills."

Peter stared in horror at the video while (Y/B) was trying hard in suppressing a smile, hiding it behind her hand.

"Oh, and (Y/N)," Tony blurted out. "Don't think I forgot about you too."

(Y/N)'s demeanor changed. "What?"

"That's you, isn't it?" Tony questioned.

The phone changed the video and showed footage of a familiar person with a blue and black suit and a matching mask pinning a man to the wall, but the peculiar thing was, blue mist was wrapped around the poor man and the figure wasn't even touching him.

"I must say, I'm impressed. How can you hold a person down without touching them? It's amazing!" Tony continued, and (Y/N) couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

"That's all on YouTube, though, right?" Peter interrupted. "That's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake. It's all done on the computer."

"I must say, I thought you were smart, Mr. Stark," (Y/N) added on. "Nowadays people have access to millions of programs and technology, one of them must've been the creator of those videos."

"Mmm-hmm," Tony hummed in response.

"It's like that video. What is it?" Peter muttered.

"Yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFO's over Phoenix?" Tony pretended to listen as he grabbed the stick of a broom and raised it over his head, using it to push up the lid of a small compartment on the roof.

From it, a red and blue suit dropped down with a rope wrapped around it, and Peter immediately jumped from his place and threw it across the room.

"Oh, what have we here?"

"Uh," Peter leaned against the wall and (Y/N) winced at his actions, walking up beside him.

"Don't try to help him out of this one," Tony said while pointing an accusing finger at them before looking at the girl. "Where do you keep yours? Figure you'll have somewhere more secret to hide it."

"Her backpack," Peter blurted out before she could answer, and (Y/N)'s glare on him only intensified.

"Are you serious?" She muttered angrily.

"I'm bringing you down with me," Peter replied in a whisper with crossed arms without fearing (Y/N)'s anger.

"So, you're the Spider-ling and the Blue Magician." Tony deadpanned.

"Spider-Man," Peter remarked without meeting the man's eyes.

"It's Blue Dame," (Y/N) commented when Tony turned to look at her for an answer.

"I don't believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, Mr. Stark," Peter continued on and turned his back on the man as he walked back to his desk. "Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there and Algebra test, nailed it."

"Who else knows besides each other? Anybody?" Tony asked.

"No one/Nobody." Peter and (Y/N) replied at the same time.

"Not even your unusually attractive guardians?" Tony grabbed the red and blue suit and sat on the bed.

"No, she would kill me if she did," (Y/N) said.

"If she knows, she'll freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out." Peter muttered.

"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing," Tony continued on without acknowledging their words and threw a tube at Peter, who caught it without looking.

"That tensile strength is off the charts," Tony smirked. "Who manufactured that?"

"I did," Peter responded without batting an eye and missed the way (Y/N) looked at him with pride.

"Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?"

"It's a long story. I was — "

"Lordy! Can you even see in these?" Tony exclaimed as he held the goggles of the suit in his hands.

"Yes, I can."

"I'm blind!" Tony yelled out dramatically and Peter reached out to grab the suit again.

"I can see in those."

"And you," Tony's attention was now on (Y/N), who watched the interaction with curiosity. "Where did those strange whooshing powers of yours come from?"

(Y/N) opened her mouth to reply but didn't get the chance to.

"Radioactive explosion? Given from a glowing staff? Meteor?" Tony listed out but she shook her head.

"I was just born with it, I guess. Found out a few months ago," (Y/N) responded.

"Can you fly?"

"I can — "

"Ah, me too!" Tony replied with a smile and (Y/N) found herself doing the same action.

Tony's attitude suddenly changed completely. "Why are you doing this? I gotta know, what's your MO? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning?"

"Because. . ." Peter spoke up first when he saw (Y/N)'s discomfort. "Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months."

"Mmm-hmm."

"I read books, I build computers. Yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now." Peter followed on.

"Sure, because you're different." Tony nodded.

"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody else that, so I'm not. When you can do the things that I can, but you don't. . .and then the bad things happen. . .they happen because of you."

(Y/N) placed her palm against Peter's back and rubbed soft circles on it in a silent reassurance, knowing what he was referring to.

"I used to look at myself in one way," (Y/N) took over to give Peter a break. "But after this. . ." she swirled her fingers and a blue spark of blue mist escaped.

"I am someone else. I'm still me, I guess. But that's not what the world wants to see."

"So you wanna look out for the little guy, you wanna do your parts?" Tony questioned. "Make the world a better place, all that, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, just looking out for the little guy," Peter answered once he was able to speak again. "That's what it is."

Tony stood up from his seat and walked towards the bed, but he paused right before, staring down at Peter. "I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg."

He sat in between (Y/N) and Peter and pat their backs in the best way he could to reassure them. "You got a passport?"

"No, I don't even have a driver's license," Peter shook his head.

"Yeah, though I've never been out of this place," (Y/N) replied.

"You ever been to Germany?" Tony asked.

"No," this time (Y/N) and Peter shared the same response.

"Oh, you'll love it."

"I can't go to Germany," Peter stated.

"Why?"

"I. . .got homework."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."

"No, I'm being serious. We can't just drop out of school," Peter argued.

"Ignore him. He doesn't speak for the both of us," (Y/N) shook her head to dismiss her friend's words.

"(Y/N)!" Peter whined.

"Peter!" (Y/N) mocked his tone.

"I like her attitude more than yours," Tony smirked as he walked towards the door. "Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip."

Peter stood from his bed quickly and shot a white web towards Tony's hand, gluing it against the wall of the door.

"Don't tell Aunt May."

"All, right, Spider-Man." Tony said. "You joining, Blue Dame?"

"When do we start?"