Variation - W.M.

Chapter 69 - January 15, 2017

Back in my timeline a certain curly haired high schooler had never really been on my radar, especially given the circumstances of his induction into the Avengers and his closeness to Tony. Being here, however, I was not going to let myself miss out on a chance to hang out with the kid.

"Woah, seriously?" Peter gasped, taking the box from me and turning it over with wide eyes. "These things are so expensive."

"I heard from a little tin bird that you and your friend enjoyed legos and star wars so..." I trailed off, gesturing to the box of the lego set.

"Ned will flip! Thank you!" Peter chirped, his eyes sparkling.

I laughed, my heart aching. "You remind me of my brother."

"I do?"

I hummed, nodding a bit. "He was a fan of legos too. I can't really remember which ones he liked but he liked the complex ones like this with a million pieces. I always got stuck helping him unless I wanted to step on one of those demon bricks in the middle of the night."

Peter's face softened a little at my words. "What happened to him?"

"He, uh, died. In a real shitty way. We never got to finish the one we were working on."

Peter frowned, looking between me and the box for a moment before clearing his throat. "Would you maybe want to help me? Ned is visiting his grandmother right now."

I was taken aback by the offer, although my face soon morphed into a smile. "I'd love to help you. We probably won't finish it all though."

We set up on the floor of the main room, bags of pieces spread between us and the instructions book propped up so we could see it.

Conversation flowed between us as we worked, although the conversation mostly revolved around Peter-not that I had a problem with that. I learned about his friend Ned and his friend Mj who he said was always grumpy and didn't like anyone. I learned about his academic decathlon team and their results from nationals.

We worked on the Lego set for over six hours in total, although that excluded the hour and a half break we took, during which time we raced to Peter's favorite deli to get sandwiches-I won, of course-and he showed me one of his favorite spots on a roof to eat said sandwich. I wasn't a fan of the fact that I had to fly to get up to the roof but i had to admit, it was nice to sit and listen to the bustle of the city after being in the middle of nowhere at the compound for so long.

By the end of our day it was growing dark and I had practically inserted myself back into the familiar older sister position. Peter reminded me of Oscar deeply and I couldn't help but wonder if this is what he would have been like had he made it to fifteen.

"I have a time traveller question for you" Peter said suddenly, breaking the silence we were in and I blinked, looking in his direction.

"I'm more of a timeline traveller than a time traveller. Think of it like a parallel world."

Peter let out a soft "oh" and nodded, looking back to the lego creation in his hands. After a minute he turned back to me. "Okay, then I have a different question for you." I hummed, gesturing for him to go on as I turned my body towards him, giving him my full attention. His face scrunched up and he opened and closed his mouth a few times before asking "did the Peter Parker in your timeline have a girlfriend?"

I grinned, reaching out to push his shoulder a little. "Do you have someone you like?" He flushed red, nodding a little. I laughed again. "That's adorable. I'm sorry to report that I don't know, though. I supported Wanda in the falling out and ended up on the run with them after helping Steve, so I never had much contact with Stark or Peter."

Peter's face drooped a little, although he quickly hid the expression. "That's okay. Thank you anyway."

"Tell me about this girl you like" I prompted, snickering as his face grew redder.

"She's the captain of my debate team and she's a senior."

"Ooh an older woman, I get it" I teased and he laughed a little.

"I was going to ask her to homecoming but I got too nervous, so I was thinking about asking her out on a date."

"Just be yourself Petey. You're smart and adorable and any girl would be lucky to go on a date with you, so don't feel like you need to act cool or be someone you aren't" I said seriously, smiling at him. "If you need to change yourself to get someone's attention then that person isn't worth getting the attention of."

He smiled, nodding confidently and standing up. "Thank you, Ollie! You're really good at this! You must have had a lot of girlfriends before Wanda." I laughed in place of an answer, watching as he discarded our lego build in favor of his phone, typing away as he walked speedily towards the kitchen.

I couldn't help the rock that settled in my stomach as I tried to brush off Peter's comment, although it wasn't the comment that made me uneasy. It was the fact that I knew I had had romances and flings before my time in the compound back in my timeline, but I couldn't seem to recall any of them.