Mind Full of Roses // Peter Parker

3.1: Multitasking at its Finest

The alarm blares, its shrill sound shaking the bank vault around me as the money flutters from the sky like confetti.

I dodge a punch being swung my way and catch the woman's arm, twisting it until I hear a pop. Peter shoots a web from next to me before grabbing my waist and pulling me away from an oncoming attack by the woman with the newly dislocated arm.

I turn around and smile at Peter, patting his red clad cheek whilst shooting a ball of energy from over his shoulder at another robber swinging a crowbar, knocking him into the wall. "Fancy going out for some food after this?"

A clang echoes through the vault. I twist around in his grasp and roll my eyes at the determined woman, pointing my hand at her and watching as the red energy hardens around her ankles, making her fall into a collapsed table and knocking her out cold.

"Where were you thinking?" Peter grabs the woman and lifts her up into a sitting position, webbing her torso to the wall and prises a gun from her steel-like grip. He straightens and shows me the weapon.

"Bloody hell, they've still got those?" The large weapon pulses with familiar purple light and I turn it over in my hand, already knowing what I'll see.

A black stone with purple veins running through it sits snuggly in a small compartment, wires snaking from the alien technology to cause the abnormal glow.

"Seems like the Vulture isn't fully out of the criminal system yet," I sigh quietly and Peter pushes a strand of hair that escaped from my braided crown around my head behind my ear, tilting my chin up and pressing his fabric covered lips to my forehead.

"He will be soon," Peter laces his fingers through mine and leads me out of the bank, his thumb drawing small patterns against the back of my gloves. "Anyway, I heard about this new Thai place that just opened up. We can go there if you want?"

I place my arms against his neck and jump, wrapping my legs around his waist and he secures an arm around mine. He whispers a small "ready?" to me and I nod, pressing my head into the familiar place where his neck meets his shoulder, bathing in the sense of homeliness I get whenever the action is done.

"What about the one you go to with May?" I ask him once we've landed on the fire escape just outside of my room, the curtains billowing through the open window.

Peter quietens and sits on the bottom step. I echo his action and sit on my window sill, crossing my legs and try to tame all the flyaways from my hair that came loose from my braided crown during the journey.

"Just wanted to go somewhere else," he says finally.

I nod slowly and place my hands in my lap, abandoning the impossible task of flattening my hair. "Does she know you left?"

Peter nods and fiddles with a small leaf, the brown cracking between his fingertips. "Yeah, I told her," he swallows. "She was a worried, like usual. She always has been since Uncle Ben, but now she knows about this she- she seems to be getting more so." I nod and lean over to him, squeezing his hand. "But, once I text her, she'll be fine." The melancholy disappears and is replaced by a more blithely tone. "Aunt May's usually quite happy when I tell her I'm with you."

I laugh and get up, dusting the dust from my black suit. Tony Stark offered me my previous suit back but I declined, preferring the suits that Yelena and Natasha wore when we went to the Red Room. I remember trying to keep the smile on my face and laugh politely when he offhandedly remarks on the missing accessories, asking if I knew where they were. Obviously I didn't say anything. That's how most thieves get caught: by becoming too proud and wanting to show off.

No. Instead I'll wait for him to notice. Surely he has by now. He'll come knocking on my door, taking a beer from the fridge without asking and saying it's compensation for his missing things and my larger wardrobe.