Flower Child (Peter Parker, MCU)

Peter Tries Train Travel

Boy's a liar — PinkPantheress

Dawn had approached faster than Lila even realized. If she thought about it, she did manage to pack a lot into a single evening. The group arrived at dusk, got settled in, went to the opera for four hours, got attacked by a fake fire monster operated by some illusion-based technology, Lila went on a date (was it even a date? What did Peter want to tell her?), Michelle Jones found out Peter Parker's secret, and both Lila and MJ nearly fought away their friendship. Somewhere in there, Lila even managed to see something science-related, so she pat herself on the back for being so accomplished.

She was still in MJ's room by the time the first rays of sun appeared. It hadn't been long since Peter left at all, he was likely at the train station on his way to Berlin, Lila figured, but it wasn't like she could text and ask. Once the last of Lila's tears had dried, she started pacing the floor. Michelle had resided on her bed, taking her shoes off and watching Lila think.

It turns out, without all the secrets bouncing around in her head, Lila had a lot more room to think and come up with a plan. While her steps were absorbed by the soft carpet, she put her hands on her hips and sighed. Her thoughts were on a constant loop of contemplation, then concern, and then nothing. She hated feeling so restless, so unable to help. "I really hate this."

"Tell me again how Peter had access to these drones in the first place?" MJ asked. She was a stickler for details, especially when those details concluded with her being correct. But in this instance Lila was aware she was only asking as a distraction.

It did the trick, though. Lila launched into the story of how Peter had been recruited by Tony Stark, and how funnily enough, their partnership started in Berlin. She talked about how she subsequently met Tony during homecoming week, when she and Peter had been briefly on the outs. She even pulled out the business card that was safely kept in her wallet, showing MJ the words he'd written on the back ("'Troubleshooting for web-shooting?'" MJ read, a soft smile on her face.).

And she kept going, kept filling in the blanks where she could about her adventures with Peter. Lila talked about the greenhouse, how after the Blip she'd completely gutted and restored her mother's greenhouse, complete with storage and first-aid for anything Spider-related. She was excited to go back to New York and show MJ all these things, let her help with Peter if she so chose. Eventually, MJ was caught up, and the sunlight was brighter through the curtains.

"So..." MJ turned sheepish, smiling apologetically at Lila, "Before I interrupted, what — um — what were you and Peter talking about?"

To be completely honest, Lila was surprised her friend brought it up at all. She wasn't one to talk too much about boys, or about Lila liking boys. She was really good at listening to Lila talk about Peter (because really, it was only Peter she talked about with any kind of romantic interest), but she never initiated these kinds of conversations. But Lila welcomed the still-needed distraction.

She blushed and said, "I was planning on telling him how I feel about him, you know?" MJ hummed in agreement, so Lila continued. "I don't know, he — he said he wanted to do something with me that didn't involve the class, and th-then right before he said he wanted to talk to me about something."

"That he likes you?" MJ asked.

Lila sighed, "Well, he was laying it on pretty thick, b-but he never actually got to tell me." There was a moment of silence between the two, and Lila paused in her pacing to face her friend. "You don't — you don't think I'm reading too much into this, do you?"

MJ shook her head. "No, no way. He definitely has feelings for you."

"And you're s-sure about that?"

"More than I was about him being Spider-Man," MJ shrugged. "Actually, him liking you was why I asked about Spider-Man. I didn't think you going into a relationship was a good idea if you didn't know everything. But obviously, you already knew, so..."