stark, peter parker

xii. saturday is a day for sleeping

dakota rolled her eyes as her father watched yet another episode of the bachelor. "peter is clearly going to end up with kelly, who he met before the show even aired." she said to him, taking a handful of popcorn from his bowl before he could pull it away.

"but he's getting so close to madi!" tony argued, holding the popcorn further away so she couldn't reach it.

kodie shrugged. "so? the only reason he would have to not be with kelly is that she doesn't make enough drama for the producers to like her enough."

he nodded, eating his popcorn. "fair enough, but he and madi are honestly cute together."

"madi will probably go to fantasy suites, but no way is he going to pick her when he has that chemistry with kelly."

tony shook his head. "we can agree to disagree. besides, i think i would know more about love than you. i'm practically a bachelor myself."

"yeah? and how's that going for you? you're a single father with no women chasing after you."

he blinked a few times. "hurtful."

"accurate." dakota furrowed her brows. "i'm not watching this show with you anymore. saturday is for sleeping, dad, and damnnit, you will not take that away from me."

tony stole the popcorn bowl back from his daughter, moving further away so that she couldn't reach it. "fine. we're watching the news, then." he shifted the channel over, and both starks immediately sat up in surprise as they saw peter on the screen. tony dropped his popcorn.

🕷🕷🕷

ned, now aware of peter's role as spider-man, walked with peter to school, asking him various questions about his superpowers. "you got bit by a spider?" he asked peter. "can it bite me? well, it probably wouldn't hurt, right?" the rest of the day went on with ned asking peter questions in class. "can you spit venom?", "can you summon an army of spiders?", "how far can you shoot your webs?"

"hi," steve, in his early suit, spoke on the old, small television in peter's gym class, "i'm captain america. whether you're in the classroom or on the battlefield..."

ned leaned closer to peter. "do you know him, too?"

"yeah, we met. i met his daughter, too." peter said, leaning in. "i stole his shield." he said to the gasping ned, feigning nonchalance.

steve, on the screen, gestured to his "good friend" coach wilson, who was standing on the wrong side of the television, and who also was, clearly, not actually friends with captain america. "thank you, captain," coach wilson said, looking at the screen for a moment, "i'm pretty sure this guy's a war criminal now, but whatever. i have to show these videos, it's required by the state." 

with a brief introduction, the captain america fitness challenge commenced. it was certainly no one's favorite activity, but peter had to admit that all sorts of physical activity had gotten easier for him since he'd gotten bitten by that spider. like he'd told tony, though, he couldn't do football or anything. he couldn't act like things had changed, even though they certainly had. 

"do avengers have to pay taxes?" ned asked, holding onto peter's feet as he did sit ups. "hey," he said, "can i be your guy in the chair?" peter shot him a confused look, still doing sit-ups. "you know how there's a guy, with a headset, telling the other guy where to go? like, if you're stuck in a burning building, i could tell you where to go. because there'd be screens around me, and i could, you know, swivel around, and... cause i'd be your guy in the chair."

coach wilson complimented peter on his sit-ups. he'd forgotten that it was beginning to look too effortless, so he then huffed and acted as if the exercise was taking a toll on him. liz allen and her friends, charles and betty, who were sitting on the bleachers between their exercise rotations, had begun to talk about spider-man and the footage of him. they then began talking about dakota stark, who had been photographed recently to be swinging or flying around with spider-man. the girls complained, saying that the stark girl was 'soooooo lucky'.

ned heard them, looking up and, with a loud voice, exclaiming, "peter knows spider-man! ... they're friends. and- and he's dating dakota stark." everyone in the gym stopped what they were doing, turning to look at peter who blushed, standing up.

"no, i don't. no, i- i mean..." he stuttered, watching as flash slid down the rope he was climbing.

flash chuckled. "yeah, like coach wilson and captain america are friends."

peter looked around. "yeah, i've met spider-man. a couple times. but it's, um.. through the stark internship." he said awkwardly, turning to ned angrily. "i'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"and dakota stark?" flash raised an unimpressed brow.

"i, uh.." peter didn't know what to say. "yeah, i, um, i'm.. kind of dating her."

"well, that's awesome." an unconvinced flash said, looking at peter. "hey, you know what? maybe you should invite your two superhero friends to liz's party." peter looked around frantically, watching as liz nodded. "the party's gonna be dope." flash told him. "you should totally invite your personal friends; spider-man and dakota stark."

peter knew that he would be made fun of if he managed to ruin this. maybe this was his only opportunity to prove to everyone that he really did have an internship with stark industries. and, maybe, everyone would leave him alone. 

without thinking much more about it, he nodded. "yeah, yeah, they'll be there." he said confidently, crossing his arms over his chest. the bell rang, and he watched as the students slowly piled out of the gymnasium. 

peter pulled out his phone, immediately calling dakota on facetime. she answered, clearly in her room at the avengers tower. "hey," peter said, "i need to ask a favor."