Stark Life

PB & J

After an hour in my room I had a knock on my door.

"Peter I really don't want to argue right now."

"Grace? It's Pepper. Can I come in?"

I walked up to the door and opened it for Pepper.

"Hey sweetheart you okay?"

"I'm fine." I said sitting down on my bed.

Pepper walked over and sat next to me and put her arm across my back.

"Sweetheart I just want you to know that you can always, and I mean always trust me with anything."

I sighed and smiled looking up to her. "I know and I appreciate it. Thank you Pepper."

"I just snapped at Peter for scaring me."

"You know when your dad first became Iron Man he would drive me so - crazy. I thought every little thing he did was gonna wind up getting him killed."

I chuckled.

"But as much as I worry about your father I always know that I can always count on him to keep us safe."

"I know it's just I don't like losing people. When I lost my mom I thought my life would never be okay. I can't imagine losing the people I care about the most: you, dad, Happy, Rhodey, or-"

"Peter?" Pepper suggested.

I just stayed quiet.

"You know I don't know what's going on between the two of you and until your ready I don't need to know. But all I want to tell you is don't lose a good thing just because you're afraid it won't last. That's what makes life and love so precious. You treasure it and hold on to it for as long as you can."

I smiled at her, suddenly there was a knock at the door.

I walked up and opened it to see Peter holding a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich with some chips and a little rose pedal.

"I'm gonna let you kids talk." Pepper said walking out.

"I figured since you haven't ate I'd make you something but I'm not much of a cook so I made you a PB & J." He stood there looking at the sandwich and tilted his head up with a smile. "Can I talk to you?"

I nodded and he walked in placing the plate on the edge of the bed where we both sat.

"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have scared you like that. It was mean and I honestly don't know what I was thinking. Grace, nothing feels better than your presence. I just hope I didn't mess up what a good thing we have going on." He said looking down at the floor.

"Peter my mom was killed when I was younger. My dad does stuff that can almost get him killed everyday and dealing with that is hard enough. But I can stand the thought of also losing one of true friends I have. I just can't and that's why I got upset with you. But it wasn't fair for me to just lash out at you without telling you why I was upset and for that I am sorry too."

We looked at each other and gave each other a weak smile. I looked down at the plate and smiled at the sandwich he made.

"I know how much you like your sandwiches cut up into four pieces." Peter said

I picked up two cubes of the sandwich and handed him one. He smiled and we ate the plate of food together and talked a bit.

After a bit we decided to make our way back to MJ and Ned who were playing ping pong in the arcade of the boat.

"Hey guys I'm sorry for storming off like that."

"It's okay Grace. We're just glad your doing better."

"Do you guys maybe want to go snorkeling the boat is at a standstill for a few hours while dad and Happy fish?"

They smiled and all nodded. We went over to the room where dad kept the snorkeling equipment and grabbed some suits. They were adaptive and had an oxygen mask that let you dive deeper without needing to come up for air.

We all got into our suits and went over to the edge of the boat.

"Guys what if there are sharks?" Ned wondered in fear.

"Don't worry Ned the suit you have on is made from a special poly-adaptive technologically integrated fiber material. So even if a shark did try to bite you they could never pierce through. It would take an 80 megaton missile to get through the suit." 

"Oh." Ned turned to MJ and whispered to her, "Do you have any idea what that means?"

MJ patted him on the back. "It means you'll be fine." She then smiled and pushed him into the water.

"Hey! Not cool!" Ned whined.

"Don't start without me man!" Peter yelled jumping into the water. Me and MJ followed and we all activated the oxygen masks and dove down into the water.

We got to see a bunch of coral and reef life as well as a small manatee.

As I was swimming along the reef I felt a tap on my shoulder I looked to see Peter. He smiled and extended his hand signaling to follow him.

I grabbed his hand and we swam over to see a little village of cute baby turtles. I smiled and looked at him to see him pointing upwards signaling we should go back up to shore. We gathered MJ and Ned and swam back up. As we made it back up to sea level I realized something. I never let go of Peters hand.