Frostbite

Not in Our Stars

"-really shouldn't be that surprised he showed up out of nowhere because he just-it's a thing he does. Do I like it? Well, I'm not super psyched he does that. The first time I came home to him talking to my Au-Aunt about this internship I got with his company-a fake internship that I fake got, by the way. Like I get it was a cover for shipping me off to Germany to throw hands with The Falcon, The Winter Soldier, Captain America-wait, do you know those guys?"

Gold, glimmering eyes cast down his way. "I know of those warriors, yes."

"They were cool to fight. Less cool now that they're, like, war criminals? I'm still not completely sure about how all of that's been going down. Anyway. Yesterday, I got to my job to see that he's just there scaring the shit out of my boss, figuratively. I feel like there's going to be a literally at some point in the future, but I better not be there when it happens. So Tony says his piece, pulls out pictures of my friends, tells me they're dangerous, and he probably thinks I fell in with them like how kids fall into hitting vapes in the bathroom. Just because they look like a bad influence doesn't mean they are."

"Are they?"

click.

Peter lowered Ben's old Nikon, pulling down the biggest wall between him and billions of stars in this galaxy.

"... Yes. Maybe. Arguably. But they didn't influence me towards something bad, you know what I mean? I was already a couple months deep into working at the bar before we started talking. And after talking, they started teaching. Wade saw through my swiss cheese defense forms and vowed to make me as solid as chhurpi, this hard as a rock Himalayan cheese. His words, not mine. And when Domino was convinced I wasn't going to get my head popped for doing something stupid, she brought me to a range and taught me how to shoot. I didn't want to-I hate guns. At least, I used to hate them? I don't know. I learned because I had to, but then I got better and just... didn't stop." Peter leaned his back against the staircase of The Observatory's viewing platform, his eyes roving curiously to the only other being in the dome. "Is that me being influenced?"

Heimdall regarded the space between the heavens with the same heavy diligence he carried out for thousands of years.

"Why did you learn?" He prompted, voice like dragging silk.

"I'm going to stand behind a gun before I'm shot dead in front of one," Peter informed him dutifully. "That's what Neena told me at the start. It's not wrong, but I never thought it was going to apply to me, like, when was I going to ever need it? Jokes on me, though. Turns out I'm pretty good at it, and we hit up the range at least once a week. Maybe people should start calling me Spider-Shot. It's got a marketable ring to it."

"You skillfully wield a new weapon."

"Yeah, I guess."

"And you can now fight."

"Hey, I knew how to fight before! ... Sorta. Kinda. I held my own! But Wade's a good teacher, and I know you'd never be able to tell because of how he acts; he's not on a lot of people's good side and he doesn't give anyone any reason otherwise, but he's super patient, never gets frustrated, and gets just as excited as me when I pull off something sick."

"You care deeply for them."

"Of course I do!" Peter exclaimed. "Neena's like a cool older sister and Wade's one of my best friends. They don't have to have my back, but they do." An aurora of flares stretched out in the distance, pinks and greens and blues trying to blanket an endless void. His camera went up. "They mean a lot to me. So when Tony tried to say..." he trailed off.

click. click.

"Did his words have merit?"

Peter whipped his head above and over his shoulder. "What?"