Starks Apprentice

Part 2

England.

The land of the wet and rainy. Also known as my home.

I bopped along to the tunes playing through my car radio as I drove through town, hearing my shopping bags fall off the seat in the back as I braked at the lights. Yes, once again, I had gone shopping because I couldn't find anything better to do with my time.

There was something oddly calming about driving at night, despite having to keep your wits about you a bit more. The lights, the air. It just hit different.

I sighed a little, leaning back against my seat as a familiar song came on. Ophelia by Lumineers. Tik Tok had ruined my perception of this song and I couldn't help but think of my brown eyed boyfriend who was across the pond.

I had come back home to celebrate my brother's 16th birthday and ended up staying longer than I intended. A few months longer than I intended.

Whilst I missed everyone back in the land of the free, I had missed my family and just being around them, plus it meant that Peter could get his head down and really focus on studying for his final exams. I couldn't believe he was finishing high school this month. It was surreal to think I had met him when I had just turned 17 and he was still 16, just over two years ago now...

"what's got you so glum?"

"nothing" my gaze rose from swirling my noodles around in my bowl, shrugging at my mum's question.

"Missing your boyfriend?" Cas grinned, wiggling his eyebrows as I rolled my eyes at him.

"Cas" my dad warned "what time is your flight?"

"10 o'clock"

"You'll have to get someone to record his reaction when he sees you" I couldn't help the laughter that slipped out at the thought. "You should've bought him with you"

"he's got exams to study for" I sent a pointed look at Cas who suddenly seemed very interested in his food "I don't want to distract him"

"Yeah, because all the love letters you sent him won't do that"

"Piss off" I hissed, and mum shot me a look as dad snorted. "Stop going in my room"

"I'm going to convert it into my new gaming pad, LED lights and all" yeah right.

I took my bowl over to the side and helped clear the table before heading up to my room and sitting on my bed, opening my laptop. No new emails from Tony and a lovely picture of Sam sleeping from Bucky.  I was actually buzzing to get back to everyone, they kept me in the loop pretty well and I was sent a tone of 'fan mail' as they called it. I recently put some shelves on the wall, and they were already filled with soft avenger's toys and merchandise, apparently it was some sort of joke on me, but it was pretty funny to get a random package only to see a pillow with the Hulk photoshopped into the black widow suit.

I had seen them appear on the news a few times, Spiderman seemed to be making more of an appearance as his recognition grew, it was about time that he was viewed as a proper avenger rather than just an associate. Peter wasn't too sure how he felt about it, he knew with publicity came with an increased risk. Or as May says, with great power comes great responsibility.

My phone began to buzz, and I hurried to dig it out from under my piles of folded clothes before it woke everyone up.

"Hey, give me two seconds" I whispered into my headphones whilst climbing out onto my roof, shoving my phone into my bra as I lifted myself up. I got settled before I gave my attention to Peter, smiling down at his bright face.

"Hey there gorgeous boy" he tutted, falling back against whatever, he was sat on.

"I forgot how late it is for you"

"Well, that's what happens when we're halfway across the world" I chuckled, leaning my chin against the palm of my hand, taking him in. "you look tired"

"I've been up studying" he yawned, running a hand through his mess of hair.

"Not too long left now, how're you feeling?"

"About graduating? Excited, nervous... I just can't seem to catch a break at the minute." His frown mirrored my own and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him, having to balance being Spidey and doing exams doesn't look fun. "When are you coming home?"

"Soon, I'm going to book a plane home next week" his eyes peered at the screen.

"I wish I could see you... I miss you"

"I miss you too," I touched the screen softly, thumb travelling over his face "try not to push yourself too hard, remember to take breaks" he sighed, glancing away briefly. "Only a few more months, then you're free"

"Just a few more months" he repeated followed by a deep breath. "We should go travelling after, like we planned"

"I would love that, a bit of heat, a bit of culture, you can't ask for much more" he let out a laugh, shaking his head with a grin.

"No, you can't. I'm already looking at Portugal" I made an excited noise before his attention turned elsewhere, eyes focused somewhere past the phone. "Duty calls"

"Be careful, text me when you get home"

"You should be asleep by then" he began to swing towards wherever he was going "I love you"

"I love you too, be careful bug" he winked at the screen, giving the camera a kiss before he pulled his mask down and ended the call.

I stared out into the distance for a bit, just thinking over the plan for the next few days.

Peter had no idea I was coming back tomorrow and trying to keep it a secret had been hell. I was such a bad liar, but I could kind of get away with it over the phone. He had roughly three weeks until his final exams and it was obvious, he had been stressed, between his hands sticking to the pages of his books or the sleepless nights. I had tried to help him through it but the courses he was taking are a lot harder than I had dealt with at home and I was especially shit at science, the most I could do was read him the questions over the phone and try and research anything I didn't understand. I was pretty much useless to be honest, if it had been art or even English, I could've helped but he was a Wizkid.

At least Mj and Ned could help him, he told me that had been going on little study sessions to local cafés which seemed to relax him, but then after hours of studying he would end up going on patrol til the early hours of the morning and repeat. He was gonna end up exhausting himself and I was worried, which is one of the reasons I was planning to come back early.