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⋆ seven ⋆
"Dad, are we seriously having this conversation again?"
Xara stops texting Peter when her dad makes a comment about it, sighing before dropping her schoolbag onto the table. "Fine. Rant it all to me. Complain all you want. But I'm still staying with Peter. You've been at this for four months, it's a losing battle."
"Don't be so quick to assume," Tanner replies sternly as he pours coffee into a mug, taking a long sip. Xara waits patiently, only for her eyes to widen a little when he says, "All I was going to say is... Peter's lucky."
"I..."
Lucky isn't exactly a word to describe Peter Parker. With social anxiety, a cloud of grief constantly hovering over him, and all these different situations coming back to bite him in the ass, lucky is not what Xara would call Peter.
Tanner seems to realise his mistake almost instantly, but shakes his head with the inherent stubbornness carried through their genes. "I don't mean in all this happening. But he's still lucky. You're a good person, Xara. Peter's lucky to have you."
Oh.
Xara's lost for words, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly like a dying fish, before deciding on shutting it. Tanner smiles, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. There was a time when they were completely estranged, and while they're still not the closest father-daughter duo there is, it's better than it was before, and this is proof. They're changing, even now.
"I... huh?"
"Just don't invite him over, is all I'll say. We don't need the paparazzi following him to our house again."
Yeah, right.
Regardless, Xara has a skip in her step as she heads through the school corridors, ignoring the weird looks she and Peter get and the phone cameras that are out even weeks after starting school again.
Peter can't help but chuckle when she starts humming, but even then, he gets it. It never really meant much to Xara if her dad approved or rejected what she did before, even though she got mad when it changed her plans, but this is different. This is healing.
"Even then," Xara suddenly says, breaking the silence, "if you come over, be sneaky. Come through the window, and let me know beforehand. No more surprising me in my room. The whole Spider-Man thing should blow over soon anyway."
"Okay."
"Promise?"
Xara Connolly holds her pinkie out, and the sight makes Peter smile. It's a thing they started doing back when they first began dating, and there's something strangely intimate about the linking of pinkies for even the smallest of promises.
Even then, he nods, curling his around hers. "Promise."
Xara presses a kiss to his lips, then takes a few steps away. "Okay, I'll head to the broadcasting room. See you in homeroom." With that, she starts skipping away again, Peter watching her go for a few seconds before smiling to himself and heading off to the library.
