|Towards the Endgame|

•Chapter 132• A Simple Warning

"Karen, show me the night footage from a few nights ago," Peter ordered. The hologram coming out of his mask scrolled through the different files with a variety of titles. "That one." Karen showed them the video of what happened that night. Spider-Man tries to talk to her, she annoyingly keeps going around in circles, and then the kiss happens. It was so quick. Y/n wondered how she even managed to take a picture that quickly of the sudden moment. Spider-Man shoved her away without hurting the stranger. Y/n could not understand. She listened closely to her voice but did not recognize it in the slightest. If it had been Liz, she would have known. That was a relief. Peter sat beside her, watching the same footage replay, waiting for it to be over. "I'm still angry at you," Y/n told her boyfriend as soon as it was over. Seeing your boyfriend like that with another woman is the last thing she wanted or needed. Peter nodded his head understandingly. "You have every right to be." He said. The woman was a little odd. Silver hair and a black suit with a mask. At first glance, anyone could think that she is a superhero. The fact that she disappeared without a trace made Peter suspicious, and Y/n as well. Black Cat. Who gets a name like that? It doesn't sound very much like a superhero. She talks in such a mysterious tone. She is definitely trying something, and not just with Peter. This woman has a plan. "She just showed up?" Peter nodded his head again. "I've already had Karen pull her voice and face through the system and all the databases, but she didn't find anything. She's like a ghost. Comes and goes whenever she pleases and disappears without a trace. She didn't even leave a hair behind or a thread from her suit." Peter explained.

Like a ghost. How do you catch something that does not want to be caught? Y/n looked at her face a little closer. She tried to imagine what she would look like without the mask. So much of that woman's face was visible, but that little part was covered up, that little part that made the picture complete. At least it was not Liz. Imagine if it had been her...
"You don't have a crush on her, right?" Y/n blurted out. Peter looked at her with a frown. "Or like a tingle..." She sounded very serious, but her face screamed jealousy. "No," Peter stated. "She annoys me. And not in a good way." The footage backed him up on that. Peter did not sound happy at all when he talked to her, though Black Cat was more than happy to see her bug boy. Y/n despised that nickname already. She may have used it in the past. Never again. If that is what that woman calls him. Disgusting. "I'm still mad at you," Y/n told Peter. He could not think that he would get away with it that easily. It still happened. Even if he did not initiate it. He should have pushed her off the building, if you asked Y/n. The young Stark could not yet decide if she hated this more than what happened with MJ and Liz. Perhaps she should make a ranking one day...
"I'm mad at me, too," Peter mumbled. Y/n watched as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. His cheeks were flushed, and his shoulders hung low. He rested his head back against the table on which Y/n had spent these last days. "I'm really sorry." Peter apologized to her again. He felt his gut twist every time he said it, not because he did not want to apologize, but because he had to think about what happened. Peter knew very well that Y/n could dump him forever. Why hadn't she? It might be best if he did not ask that question out loud.

The tension in the air was thick and awkward. Nobody said a thing, and every sound felt like it was too much. Peter even tried to hold his breath for a few seconds. "Karen, I've seen enough. Thank you." Y/n told the AI. The hologram disappeared, and Peter's mask was nothing more than a piece of fabric. He should have that washed to get that woman's traces off of it. But who was she? "I'm starting to feel a little claustrophobic in here." Y/n spoke up to kill the silence. "Pretty sure I've counted all the dots on the ceiling. More than once." Peter forced his eyes open again, which he hadn't even really noticed had fluttered shut. "That's a little sad." He would have taken her out for some fresh air if Tony had allowed it. He has super strength. Being Spider-Man has its perks. "I just... I wanna go upstairs, to my room." Peter was close to telling her he would take her, but Tony would not like that at all if he saw it. Peter is very lucky he gets to be here right now; he is not going to push that luck. "Are you in a lot of pain?" Peter questioned. "A little," Y/n answered in a dull tone. "I can feel my stitches when I talk or move." This was an easy day, she has had way worse. She feels good now. "You don't have to talk if -" Peter tried. "It's not painful. Uncomfortable, that's all." Y/n assured her boyfriend. She shifted slightly to face him. Peter's breath hitched for the shortest second when she grasped the zipper of the zip-up hoodie that she wore. Nat brought it for her, which she stole from Clint years ago. After all this time, it is still very soft and comfortable. Y/n pulled down the zipper to reveal the stitches in her skin. She wore nothing underneath that hoodie.