stark, peter parker

xi. why are you drinking dr. pepper for breakfast?

peter parker scrolled through his endless unread messages to happy hogan. he was still waiting for his next mission, one that hopefully would be even more fun than the last one. dakota stark and peter had started visiting each other once a week, which he was thankful for, but it was mainly just dakota going to peter's apartment. he had never really been to the avengers compound, if he was being honest about it, and he wanted to feel useful again.

his day began, as usual, with flash thompson calling him names. peter always shrugged them off, but dakota had once found out about it and had threatened to rip flash's head off. as enjoyable as that would be, peter had said no; he didn't need kodie to fight his battles for him, even though he knew she would do so without hesitation.

in peter's mind, they were basically boyfriend and girlfriend. they were exclusive, for all he knew, and he was beyond head over heels for her. despite his certainty that their dates and time together were all positive, and despite the frequent opportunities he'd taken to kiss her, peter still couldn't gather the courage to ask her to be his girlfriend. 

which was exactly why peter was going to ask her to go to the homecoming dance with him in a few weeks. he'd ask her to be his girlfriend, officially, and then get to take her to a school dance (which would be a first for the both of them). 

peter's best friend, ned leeds, interrupted peter's thoughts when he appeared at his locker. "join me," ned spoke, setting an emperor palpatine mini figure onto peter's shoulder, "and together... we'll build my new lego death star." 

he looked at his best friend over his shoulder, his jaw dropping. "no way, how many pieces?" he whispered back.

"three thousand, eight hundred, and three." ned spoke proudly. "you want to build it tonight?"

peter immediately frowned, shaking his head. "no, i can't tonight. dakota's coming over, and i've got the stark internship."

"always got that girlfriend or that internship." ned sighed.

"not girlfriend yet." peter corrected. the boy, walking down the hallway with hands full of textbooks, then shrugged his shoulders. "and, well, hopefully, soon it'll lead to a real job with them."

the rest of peter's day carried on as usual; getting psychics answers correct and practicing for the academic decathlon. mr. harrington, peter's science teacher, was fretting about peter's inability to attend the academic decathlon national competition. "peter, it's nationals. is there no way you could take one weekend off?"

peter shook his head. "i can't go to washington, because if mr. stark needs me, then i have to make sure that i'm here." he explained.

"you've never even been in the same room as tony stark." flash replied from behind them. 

peter wanted to scoff. if only flash knew just how well he knew tony stark. 

after the whole team complained about peter not being there for nationals, liz turned to flash. "flash, you're in for peter."

"oof," flash replied, "i don't know, i gotta check my calendar first. i got a hot date with dakota stark coming up."

‎⎊‎⎊‎⎊

dakota stark dodged the giant box that the workers carried, sliding between them and underneath the box while they both yelled at her, not believing that she was almost seventeen and still as immature as always. she slid about on her socks, going into the kitchen of the avengers compound to grab an apple.

happy stood by the kitchen, telling some of the workers where to put their boxes. "hey." dakota said to him as she took a giant bite of her apple, sitting cross-legged on the counter.

he nodded in greeting, looking over at her. "your dad wanted me to tell you that you can't go to peter's tonight."

"what?" kodie asked around a mouthful of apple, getting out a dr. pepper from the fridge. "why not?"

happy shrugged in response. "i don't know, he just told me to tell you."

dakota sighed, taking her phone out of her jeans pocket to call peter. he answered, and kodie could hear heavy wind in the background, which suggested that he was swinging around new york (as he frequently did). "don't text and swing." she reminded him, listening to him chuckle a little into the phone. "hey, i can't come over tonight." she said, hearing the wind promptly stop.

"what?" peter asked on the other end of the line, sitting on the top of a building. "why not?"

"i have to help happy pack, or something." she explained, opening her can of soda.

peter furrowed his brows. "pack?"

kodie shook her head, having forgotten that peter didn't watch the news. "dad sold avengers tower, we're relocating somewhere upstate."

"oh." peter frowned. "well, i'll facetime you later, okay?" after agreeing to call each other after dakota had finished whatever she needed to do, they ended the call.

peter texted ned then, letting him know that he was going to be home in about an hour or so and that he should bring his death star over around then.

"why are you drinking dr. pepper for breakfast?" tony asked as he entered the room, taking the drink from his daughter's hand.

"because it's a delicious and nutritious beverage." the stark girl replied, stealing the dr. pepper back.

tony rolled his eyes, walking out of the kitchen to go catch up on american housewives. her phone buzzing made dakota look down, and she smiled as peter sent her, yet another, selfie of him swinging through new york.

🕷️🕷️🕷️

peter, meanwhile, had had an interesting run-in with bank robbers. they had used fancy tech to levitate peter-- a sensation that was new to him. he'd entirely forgotten about his plans with ned, and called happy to inform him about what he had seen. happy, meanwhile, was packing boxes of items at the compound. dum-e, tony's least favorite crane, was holding a vase, whipping around with it. "no," happy scolded the device, "no, put that down. that's worth more than you or me." he answered his phone, mumbling a "yeah." to peter, who was frantically running down a rooftop.

"happy," peter began, "the craziest thing just happened to me. these guys were robbing an atm with these high tech weapons-"

the man rolled his eyes. "hey, take a breath, okay? i don't have time for atm robberies, or the thoughtful notes you leave behind-- i have moving day to worry about; everything's gotta be out of here by next week." happy stopped, turning to look at dakota. from the phone, peter could hear her yelling at a worker for something along the lines of 'touching my rare, limited edition, 2011 harry styles doll'.

"well, what if mr. stark needs me, or something, i don't know, something big goes down?" peter said as he jumped to the ground, locating his things. "look, can i please just talk to mr. stark?"

happy shook his head, lightly slapping dakota's hand so that she wouldn't steal the last cookie in the kitchen. "look, just stay away from anything too dangerous. i'm responsible for making sure you're responsible."

peter leapt down into the alley where he'd stashed his backpack. "i am responsible!" he insisted, looking down at the empty place where he'd stashed everything. "oh, crap," he muttered, "my backpack's gone."

"that doesn't sound responsible." happy retorted, climbing into the elevator. "i'm hanging up now." he said dryly.

peter, phone still in his hand climbed up the wall to his apartment. with some minute difficulty, he managed to locate which room was his. after climbing in, peter hung from the ceiling, crawling down as carefully as he could to avoid startling may. peter landed without much of a sound, turning around to see ned sitting on his bed. the death star fell onto the floor.