Make My Voice Brand New [COMPLETED]

I'm A Nervous Wreck

Peter Parker was generally a nervous person, he was very aware of that. He wasn't a smooth talker like Mr. Stark, he didn't have that leadership effect like Mr Captain America, and he certainly didn't have the aura that Miss Widow exuded where you knew you could disappear off the earth without a trace for looking at her wrong.

No, Peter Parker was the person who dropped things during important meetings, fell over during training, took about five minutes to say a single sentence, jumped at loud noises, and made people laugh when he tried to intimidate them. He had certainly learnt a lot over the last few years as Spiderman, particularly when he accidentally went into space, but he was still a very nervous 20 year old.

Usually he could say his anxious demeanour was because of his spidey senses, being super sensitive to noise, light, smells, textures...but lately, he knew this wasn't the reason. Lately, he was even more anxious because of her.

You see, about 3 weeks ago (actually 18 days, 9 hours and 37 mins ago), he was minding his own business, sneakily trying to remove the newest form of the TRAINING WHEELS PROTOCOL Mr Stark kept sneaking into his suit, when he first met her. Or rather, she came crashing through the floor.

Haphazardly adorned with Iron Suit pieces, she stood up, whipping her long black hair out of her eyes and smiled at him. A perfect smile that made her brilliantly brown eyes sparkle under the glare of the sun coming through the window. She dusted some rubble off her shoulders, and he watched her mouth move, but he couldn't hear a thing. From the minute she smiled, his spidey sense spiked from what was usually a low hum, into an overpowering static, buzzing through his body, blocking out any other input. He watched her move towards him, but the buzzing didn't stop until he felt her hand on his shoulder, which for some reason, made him jump.

"Are you okay?" She asked. He felt his dry eyes blink painfully, and tried to nod. She smiled and took her hand away, so he assumed he must have managed it. "Sorry about all that," she gestured to the mess over her shoulder with her thumb. "Stark has got me analysing thruster capacity before assembling his new suit, and he forgot to tell me he set them to maximum first. Not what you should be doing in an enclosed garage. I'll get someone to come clean it up for you." He was absolutely mesmerised, and probably very creepily staring at her while she spoke. Her voice was enrapturing, sounding like when you pour melted chocolate over some warm brownies: delicious, warm, smooth and silky, as if her voice alone could wrap you up in a hug.

She kept talking. Turns out that she, Luka, was Mr Stark's assistant, she said for a long time, but Peter would have definitely remembered seeing her around before. With his heart pounding so hard it was hurting his chest, his throat feeling like it was swelling up from anxiety, and his hands gripped around his tools so tight he could feel his skin getting dented with the edges, he thought any attempt to try and converse with this goddess would just go wrong. So he nodded. Every time she paused, he nodded, even if he wasn't taking in her words. He just wanted to hear her speak forever. When she finally left (through the door this time), his lungs pushed out a loud exhale, as if he'd been holding his breath the whole time. He dropped his tools and held his head in his hands, trying to calm himself down.

Was he anxious because she was a new person? He tried to tell himself yes, but he knew it wasn't true. The fact is, she was gorgeous, and he was very attracted to her. And that terrified him. After the fiasco with Liz, he hadn't wanted to do the whole dating thing, and managed to avoid it since. He only hung out with the Avengers because he knew he'd never end up with any of them (suuuuper big age differences), and yet here he is, in the exact situation he didn't want to be in, falling for someone who's parent could try to kill him. Again.

He lifted his head. Nope, he wasn't going to do it. He would just not see her again. He won't like her if he doesn't see her, problem solved.

What actually happened, over the next 18 days, 9 hours and 37 minutes, was that he saw her another six times, as if her crashing into his room also broke the floodgates of his perceptive field. She was in Mr Stark's lab when he needed to work on his suit, she was in the garage working on the cars when all he wanted was to get on his motorcycle for some time away from the compound. Then she was even in the common room with the other Avengers when he just wanted to get a drink. The other Avengers all chatted about her as if they'd known her for years, and frankly, he had had enough.