chapter ten!
disaster plans

     THE WORLD seemed to be against Peter Parker. A boy who lost his parents, and now, lost his uncle in just as tragic means. The day Nina found out, she had been breathless. Ben Parker had done nothing. He had been a good man; all he had done was try to be good, try to save a life, and he got a bullet wound to the stomach for his bravery. Nina had only met him once. She had seen him pick Peter up from school after he shattered the basketball hoop. "He's got you on his computer," Ben Parker had told her, and Peter had been a flustered mess. Just from that one interaction, Nina knew he had been a good man. He had raised Peter Parker as well as any father could, and now he was gone.

For a month, no one knew what to say to him. He had returned to school, broken and angry, with bruises under his eyes, cuts to his cheeks and looking worse than hell. Nina hugged him the first day he got back, but he hadn't said a word. He accepted it, and then slipped away, not even looking at her as he pushed onwards through the hallway with his skateboard in his school bag.

Nina didn't know much of what to do, either. She said hello to him every day, gave him the same smiles and tried to start a conversation, just to get his mind off things. Day by day, he might say hello back, give her a strained smile through the bruises on his jaw, or talk to her. They had a soft conversation the other day, and Nina thought for a moment he had tried to joke to her, but it came out dry. She held hope from it; hope that he'll make it out on the other side.

This month was the month of many things happening. Nina attended her new internship, studied and chatted with Gwen in school and on the weekends. But in the streets, a strange vigilante had emerged. Someone who went through many red masks, swinging from the buildings with real webs like a spider. Gwen told her that her father wasn't fond of him, at all, going after criminals with his own personal agenda. Nina didn't know what to think, seeing this stranger pop up on YouTube and Instagram, webbing criminals in front of the police station and disappearing off before anyone could ask who he was.

He became a common conversation at school. People debated the physics of his webs, who he might be, how he had become a living Spider-Man. Or how he managed to get out in that skin-tight red and blue suit.

    Nina pulled her feet up onto Gwen's bed, crossing her legs and watching her check her notes to see which ones Nina could have for a last minute catch up. The room was silent, mainly because Nina knew what she wanted to talk about, but Gwen had been avoiding it to make sure her father didn't go off in a huge rant about how Spider-Man was only creating dangerous disruptions. Nina's father would agree with him.

But she couldn't help but blurt out a quick, "What if the webs come out of him? Like━like web-blood?"

Gwen looked up, her amusement coming past the annoyance to scoff at Nina's choice of words. Her heavy bangs were pulled off her face slightly into her ponytail by a bright-pink clip. "Web-blood?" she repeated, snorting. "For someone so smart, Nin, you really don't always think your words through."

Nina grabbed a post-it note, scrunched it up and threw it at her friend who let out a laugh━but it sounded more like a squeal of delight, smacking it away with a dramatic gasp. Gwen quickly took the scrunched up post-it note back and chucked it in response. Nina cackled, ducking. It hit the wall and miraculously fell into Gwen's paper waste basket. The blonde threw her hands up, startled but triumphant over her small achievement. Nina gave her a clap and Gwen bowed, still laughing.

"So," Gwen controlled her laughter and passed over her book for Nina to double-check with her own. The two girls often studied together. But it was good that they studied a lot on their own, for whenever put in the same room, they got no work done and all but laughed and goofed around. But suddenly, her friend turned quite serious for her question. Nina frowned, confused, "how's ... how's Peter going?"

She quickly realised the reason for the tone and shrugged sadly. "I guess normal for someone who just lost someone really important like he did," Nina murmured. "But ... he smiled at me the other day," she automatically reached for her pen to tap it against her cheek, as she always did when nerves startled to bubble in her stomach. "He talks to me again, and jokes sometimes, so that's really good for him."

Gwen nodded. "I feel so sorry for him," she whispered.

"Yeah," sighed Nina. "I wish there was something more I could do for him, but I don't want to coddle him."

"No, I get that," said her friend. She frowned to herself, off in thought. Then, her eyes brightened as an idea hit her. "Why don't you━you know━ask him out? You were always going to, right? Take him out, give him something to look forward to. It's obvious he likes you, too."

"It's not too soon?" Nina met her gaze, considering the idea.

Gwen shrugged, "I don't suppose it hurts to ask?"

She was right. Nina pursed her lips, eyes wandering out through the window towards the city at night, thinking where she might take him. "I ... I guess ..." she sat up straighter, thinking it all through. "I mean ... he could always come to dinner tomorrow night. We're having a nice roast. That's ... that's not too much, is it?"

Gwen Stacy smirked, "No," she said, taking back her chemistry book, "I don't think so."

And so Nina grabbed her phone to quickly text her parents, her heart already beginning to stammer.

The next day at school, Nina was anxious. She waited in the morning by her locker, going over her words and how she'll say them. She tried not to think about him saying no, and focused on how he'll hopefully say yes, and he can come have dinner, and he'll have something to look forward to━like Gwen said.

She saw him reach his locker, the usual hoodie on that covered his tired, gaunt face and bruises━he tried to hide them, but she always saw them. It made her chest ache with worry ... what was he doing? Who was doing this to him? Don't focus on that, she told herself. Just focus on asking him to dinner.

    Nina took a deep breath and waited until he closed his locker to rush up to him in the hallway. She hopped into pace at his side and he glanced at her. His scowl softened, and he brushed down his hoodie, showing those horrible bruises that made her brows lift slightly, even without meaning to. "Hi," she greeted with a smile.

"Hey," said Peter, ruffling up his hair a bit and taking out his earphones. "How's it going?"

"Good," she said, fiddling with her pen. She tapped it against her cheek. Peter arched a brow at it, his hands falling back into his jacket pockets. Nina was nervous, but a good kind of nervous. "Where you heading?"

"Uh, Monday," he managed a tight, sad smile, "B track."

Nina bit her cap lid, "It's Thursday, Pete," she told him softly.

He stopped, staring at her, "It's Thursday?"

"What happened to your eye?" she asked instead. She resisted the urge to reach out, and instead went back to tapping her pen.

Peter frowned. He knew exactly what she was talking about, but tried to play it off, "What?"

"You're eye," said Nina again. "It's bruised."

"Oh," his eyes widened and he quickly looked down, hiding it from her and shrugging. He tried to show her that it was nothing, but she wasn't easily fooled. She knew his Uncle died, and he needed that time to himself, but if he was getting hurt ... it scared her a little. "Yeah, no, I don't ... Maybe I got a rash or ..." he faltered, watching her as she stepped up closer to get a better look.

"My dad's a doctor," whispered Nina, giving him a short look. "I know that's not a rash, Parker. It's bad," she hugged her stomach. "Have you gone to the nurse?"

Still watching her, Peter Parker nodded. She didn't believe him, but let it slide. Nina plucked up the courage again to ask what she had origianlly planned. She took a deep breath, stepping back a little to rock on the balls of her feet. Just say it, she scolded herself. "Um," began Nina, pursing her lips and finding it hard to meet Peter's gaze. "Do you━um━do you like lamb?" he frowned at her, a little confused. She blushed. "Like━like a Sunday Roast. Well, it's not Sunday, of course, but━um━Dad's cooking us roast, so ... um ... if━if you want━" she quickly pulled the cap off her pen and wrote her address down on the piece of paper she had ready (to seem nochalant and cool, of course, and like she hasn't been going over what to say and how to say it all last night and this morning), "━uh, you can come to this address at eight tonight ..."

Nina handed it over. Her heart raced, pounding against her chest as she watched Peter take it, anticipating his answer like she was suspended off a clocktower, waiting for someone to catch her. "My Dad's making a roast," she said when he didn't answer. Then, she blushed, realising she already said that. "Wait, um, you know that, I just said━um," this was going horrible, "just, maybe forget I said anything, I'll just ..." she went to leave but Peter quickly shook his head.

"No, no," he said and she spun back, eyes wide and hopeful. Peter nodded, shoulders hunched, but confident in his answer. "I━I'll come."

Nina thought her nerves would deflate if he said yes. Instead, it was the exact opposite. Her heart only got faster, and the butterflies in her stomach decided to join it. "O━oh, okay," she said, nodding too. "Well, um, okay━" she began to smile, still nodding. Another thought hit her, "Oh! Um, it's apartment 1509. I━I didn't write that part down. I'm sorry, I didn't know why I didn't ..."

"I'll remember it," Peter assured her. Nina smiled again.

"Okay," she said softly.

She managed to get a small, real smile out of him. Her heart fluttered. "Okay," copied Peter Parker and she chuckled, bright red.

"I'll see you there," went on Nina, awkwardly stepping back.

Peter nodded, starting the other way, "You will."

"Don't be late," she added, her cheeks beginning to hurt from her beam.

He shook his head, waving the piece of paper she had given him, "Wouldn't dream of it."

*ೃ༄

     AFTER her afternoon out with Felicia, Nina sat in her room, window open and waiting for her new web-slinging friend to arrive so she could show him the photo she managed to get (and was very proud of). She had finished packing for the short trip to Washington, including all her many notes. If they won Nationals, it would be amazing, and she wasn't going to not try and get it without a fight. She could recite complicated equations in her sleep by now━she was confident that she will do her part in the competition.

Waiting on her bed, Nina scrolled through her phone. She didn't know how she got onto her photos, looking at old videos, but she was. Nina often got like this, reminiscing memories that no longer mean anything to the person that was one of the few that meant the most. But Nina just kept putting herself in pain. She just missed him so much. Not her boyfriend, but her best friend.

They always say, you never truly realise how much you miss someone until you want them to see something, or hear something, and you turn, expecting them to be there ... and they aren't. Nina has that moment too many times than she wished to count. The amount of times she almost texted Peter to talk about what she's done, the days she's been out with alongside Felicia, even her growing friendship with Spider-Man, until she realised that those times were long gone now, and she'd put her phone away.

She found an old video from their first Decathlon excursion. They were Freshmen, excited and energetic. They had been allowed to go out at night for dinner, and instead of going to a resturant, or pizza like the others had, Ned saw a shop still open with lightsabers for sale. So, obviously, they spent their dinner money on getting lighsabers instead.

Except the money had been for a waste, because almost immediately, Ned and Peter went outside on the nearly deserted streets to battle. Peter kicked Ned's lightsaber to block it and broke it. Nina heard her laughter as Peter fell to the ground, wheezing at what he had done while she had said, "You idiot! You broke it! That was twenty bucks!" through her own giggles. Ned had to hold himself up on the wall behind him he was in so much hysterics.

Nina scrolled to the next, finding herself smiling despite it all. That smile grew to see the next video of her pressing a finger to her lips at her phone that Ned held before sneaking up to Peter later that same night, jumping up onto his back and he only just caught her under her legs. That had been a good night. It was also the first time he actually caught Nina since every other time they both would crash into the grass, couch or bed since they were kids. (That had obviously been the highlight of the trip).

Nina heard her squeal of delight at being caught, "Oh my god! You did it! He caught me! Ned did you get this━?!" she then cackled when Peter spun her around and dropped them into the grass anyway.

She realised Peter wasn't going to be there for Nationals this year, and her smile dropped again to one of annoyance. But she didn't stop, returning to the album of pictures she had just of them. Felicia told her to delete them, but she never did. She didn't smile as she looked at the picture they took in front of her bathroom mirror, making funny faces when they were thirteen.

It was later in the night that Spider-Man came. But, as soon as he did, Nina was on her feet and full on pulled him a little inside through the window. The superhero stumbled a little, surprised by her excitement, but Nina just whispered, "Quick, inside━but quiet! My parents think I'm asleep!"

Somehow, Nina had accidentally swiped back to the lightsaber battle video on her phone, and she didn't realise for a while. Racing to grab the numbers of the lisence plate she had written down for Spider-Man earlier as the video played quietly in the background. She didn't notice Spider-Man staring at it, his heart fluttering slightly as he was brought back to that night as if it only happened yesterday. He remembered how Nina had been so sorry for Ned losing his lightsaber, that she had given him her own and then swapped with Peter's so he'd have the broken one as payback. She later offered to give the good one back, but Peter had insisted she keep it. He still had the broken one in his cupboard back home.

"Here!" whispered Nina, finding the paper and grabbing it. When she realised Spider-Man wasn't beside her, she glanced back and blushed. "Oh ..." she raced and grabbed her phone, getting out of the video. "Sorry. I was just━um━they're one-year memory things. This was Decathlon last year━um━not that you'd know I do Decathlon, that's just ... anyway." She gathered her composure again, turning and passing over the piece of paper.

Spider-Man took it, lenses narrowing into a frown, "What's this?"

"The licence plate of those weapon sellers."

The lenses widened. His gaze shot up to her's horrifed. "What?"

Nina pointed at the paper, "Yeah. Strange, they came to my school yesterday. And━and I figured; well, one of them seemed to have that Shocker thing, and it was really strange, so I followed them and got their lisence plate number. I have no idea what they were doing at my school, though━"

"Nina," Spider-Man cut her off, standing closer to her. "Why did you do that? You can't do that. You could've gotten hurt. Or killed."

"I'm fine!" stressed Nina in a whisper. "I'm alive. They didn't see me."

"But they could've," Spider-Man shook his head at her. "Nina, I'm serious. You can't━you can't go around doing this."

"I said I was going to help."

"This is dangerous helping," the vigilante shook the paper a little. "I'm serious, okay? I'm not messing around. You could've gotten killed. Nina, I can't━" he stopped himself. Nina frowned. She knew she was going to get a reaction like this, but she didn't expect him to sound a little angry. Nina felt like she disappointed him when she had done this for him in the first place.

"I━I'm sorry," she said, a little miffed. "I just━I was trying to help. I thought you could track them using that, or something ... I told you I was going to help you. And If I hadn't followed them, I wouldn't have that to give you. I thought ..." Nina pursed her lips, stepping back a little, "I thought you'd be thankful."

"I am," argued Spider-Man; they were still using very harsh whispering, "I just━" he shook his head again, stopping himself from saying whatever he wanted to.

"Why were they even at my school?" Nina asked again. "I don't ... I don't understand that."

She frowned at Spider-Man, seeing him falter. That frustration and angry worry fell away immediately, replaced with a nervous freeze. Her stomach twisted, telling her something horrible part of her seemed to have figured out, but the rest of her had no idea what the other part meant. Or wanted to.

"I━I don't know," said Spider-Man eventually. Then, he grasped Nina's shoulders. She stiffened at the touch, the twist in her stomach suddenly turning into nervous flutters. "Just, Nina, promise me you won't do that again? If you get hurt ..." the lenses of his mask closed and he sighed. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Nina's heart was tumbling over and over. His touch burned through the finger-tips of the suit. This close, she could see the web indents of his mask and suit: fibred and intricate; thoughtful and she found it very fitting. She imagined what eyes were staring back at her ... brown, green, blue, grey? Were they soft? Gentle? Intense?

She was immersed by the imagination of what he could look like, and yet without it, her heart still played the beat to an entire orchestra. Nina has never felt so safe around someone; trust someone so easily like she has known them her entire life. When she was around Spider-Man, she felt like she was just greeting an old friend, and yet she had no idea who he was ...

But Nina couldn't help but think of someone else, still. Someone who hurt her, and yet she couldn't stop seeing honey-brown hair and hear his laughter after he broke Ned's lightsaber. There was an invisible string pulling her back to Peter when she strayed too far; her heart not wanting to ever let him go even when her mind told her she should.

Nina whispered, "Okay," and stepped back, clearing her throat and looking away. "Um ..." she hugged her stomach. "Just so you know, I'm going to Washington tomorrow, if ... you know ... you come to the window and I'm not here."

There was a small silence. "Right," then said Spider-Man. She heard him step away. "Right, yeah. Uh ... enjoy. See you when you get back, I guess?"

"Yeah," she mumbled.

For the first time since he started coming to her bedroom window, Nina didn't watch Spider-Man leave.

*ೃ༄

    TAP, tap, tap.

Nina looked up from her phone with a small frown, confused as to what was making such a noise on her window. Perhaps a bird had flown up and settled on the fires cape, pecking at the glass curiously. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time. But god, she did not expect to see Peter Parker stare back at her, waving and tapping away at the window cheekily.

She was surprised. She was shocked, but most of all, seeing him in such a place brought a giddy thrill to her heart. She felt like she was a girl in some movie, awaiting her boyfriend to serenade her on the balcony.

Nina didn't waste a moment. She hopped off her bed and rushed forwards to the window. Confused, with a small scoff and the shake of her head, she unlocked her window. With little effort, she pushed it up to stare at the boy on the other side. Peter Parker gave her a sheepish smile. "Hey," he said softly.

"Hi?" she chuckled, unable to believe the sight.

Nina stepped back to let him inside, her heart fluttering and her brows furrowing. "How did you get out there?"

Peter shrugged, gesturing awkwardly back at the rickety old staircase and balcony behind him. "The fire escape." He gave her another small smile before leaning forwards to climb through. "Your doorman's pretty intimidating."

"Stan?" Nina said, incredulous. "No, he's a sweetheart."

He swung his legs around, setting them carefully over her pillows at the window seat and onto the carpet. As he did, Nina watched him, still with a dubious smile on her face, "You just climbed fifteen stories."

Peter nodded, like it was nothing. He had changed his hoodie from school and put on a different shirt, but Nina broke out into a wider smile realising he basically wore the same thing. What a dork. "Yeah," he stood up and she had to tilt her head upwards to meet his gaze. "It's all right."

There was a second of silence. Nina pulled her the ends of her sweater sleeves into her palms, nervous. Peter glanced around her room, taking in her bed spread and the two stuffed animals by the pillows, the photos of her family and friends on the walls, and her many scientific posters. "This is your room," he said matter-of-factly.

The tone of his voice made Nina chuckle, "Yes," she said, feeling a blush rise onto her cheeks, "this is my room."

He nodded, hands in his jacket pockets. "Stuffed teddies," he stated. Her blush grew and she hugged her stomach. Peter arched a brow at her, "Shoes."

"Shoes?" she echoed, amused. "Yes, yes, I have shoes. I wear them on my feet."

"No, really?"

Nina chuckled, and the nervous air between them started to fall down. Peter's smile was sweet, and she was happy to see it (and her heart fluttered to think she was the reason behind it). A thought hit him, "Oh, hey━" he swung off his bag, holding it against his chest as he began to unzip the front pouch. "I got your mom these ..." he pulled out a small bouquet of flowers and Nina's brows lifted, surprised. They were falling apart, and a little damaged, and at the sight of them, Peter winced, but Nina was gushing over the thought. He was so sweet.

"They're lovely," she said through a smile.

Peter scrunched up his nose, "Beautiful, right?"

"So beautiful."

"They were━they were nice," Peter hid his face behind the flowers and Nina giggled. "I'm sorry."

"No, seriously," she reached out and pulled his hand down to reveal his face. His breath hitched to feel her fingers brush against his knuckles. "It's so sweet━that's━I mean, no boy has ever come and given my mom flowers before."

    Peter blushed a little. He pursed his lips and pulled the flowers back slightly, "I'm gonna keep these," he decided. "I'll━I'll buy your mom better flowers."

He said it as if there will be another time, and Nina's heart bloomed. "She'll love that," she decided to say. "She might paint them."

Peter zipped up his bag, "Paint?" he asked her.

Nina nodded, "Yeah," she smiled, "Mom's a painter. She painted that picture over there," she nodded to the painting on the wall: a beautiful swirl of colours to form a gorgeous set of irises.

Peter glanced at it and he grinned, "Wow," he said and Nina nodded, agreeing. "You're mom's really good."

"Yep," she rocked backwards and forwards on her toes a little. "Mom's a painter, Dad's a doctor, quite the pair, huh?"

He nodded, chuckling lightly, "Very."

There was a knock on the door, and it opened even before Nina could react. Her gasp got stuck in the back of her throat and she spun on her feet, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Peter to stare at her father as he entered.

He was still wearing his uniform from the practice; standing average size with brown hair, a thin face and glasses perched on the edge of his nose. Nina got most of her looks from her mother, but she definitely had her father's nose. It took him a second before he even realised there was a boy in her room. When he did, his sentence of, "Hey, pumpkin━" stopped midway.

Nina gave her best smile, stepping away from Peter a little bit. She thought having a little bit of space between them might work towards a good first impression.

Her father stared at Peter for a second, very confused. Peter held his school bag from one strap, and there was a long pause that made Nina want to cringe. The two of them stared each other off, her father suspicious, while Peter looking like he'd melt on the spot out of nerves.

Finally, her father said, "Peter, right?"

Nina quickly nodded, "Yes! Yes. Dad, this is Peter." She gestured to him like she was introducing some actor on stage. She dropped her hands instantly after realising that. "Parker," she added. "Um━Peter Parker. Yeah. He's ... he's very smart."

Why would I say that? She inwardly winced. He's very smart? Come on, Nina!

Peter carefully took the steps forward, reaching out a hand. Some part of Nina relaxed to see her father and her possible new boyfriend shake hands firmly. "Hey, nice to meet you, sir."

"It's nice to meet you," said Nina's father. Her Dad gave her a look over Peter's shoulder, a, why is he in your room? She awkwardly pointed to the fire escape, much like Peter had earlier. "My daughter has said quite a lot about you."

She gaped, horrified. "Dad," she whispered, embarassed.

He just smiled at her. He let go of Peter's hand and gave the teen a nod, "Dinner's ready. You like roast?"

Peter answered very well, grinning and saying, "Who doesn't?"

Her father gave a final━still quite suspicious━nod before leaving with the door wide open. Peter slowly spun around to Nina, amused. "You've been talking about me?" he asked her.

She went even brighter (if that was even possible). "Shut it, Tiger," she snapped at him, marching past. She heard Peter chuckle before following.

*ೃ༄

a/n: hey guys ... only like two days until no way home I CAN'T EVEN━

and since i'm watching it at night when the first streaming is in the morning, i'm gonna have to be off youtube, instagram, the internet, just everything so i don't get it spoiled ahahah.

today's meme:

peter trying to hide he's spider-man from nina like:

i also just realised like peter, ned and mj like all wanna go to mit, and considering nina's character and how she'd want to go into this next step with peter at this point of time, like they always did beforehand, it means i'm gonna have to create some plotline for her to want to change wanting to go to nyu *sighs*

we'll figure it out guys!!

also that little snippet scene where ned, peter and mj are talking they FRICKEN REFERENCED TASM 2 AGAIN! I AM SO SCARED RN!

'they have crime in england'

'they have crime in boston'

FUK YOU nO. nO!