Frostbite ❆ Peter Parker

one

Frostbite - One

    Tony glanced at Beth as she sat in the passenger seat of his car while they drove to get his new recruit. Beth's eyes were sparkling with joy and curiosity. Tony pulled up at an apartment building. Beth immediately was speeding towards the entrance. Tony laughed at her excitement.

    "Remember no powers," Tony stated as they rode up the elevator. They arrived at the door, Beth knocked on the door before stepping behind Tony. A woman opened the door, her eyes widening when she saw Mr.Stark.

   "Mr. Stark, it's an honor meeting you." She fumbled over her words, "you can call me Aunt May," she introduced. Then her eyes wandered off to Beth hiding behind Mr.Stark, "who is this lovely lady?" She questioned.

    Tony nudged Beth forward, "I'm Bethany." Aunt May smiled at her and welcomed them inside. They sat on the couch, Aunt May brought them tea and a walnut date loaf. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?"

    "Your nephew, Peter Parker applied for a grant at the September Foundation." Tony went and had a conversation with Aunt May as Beth wandered around the living room. A lock clicked from the entryway and a boy entered the apartment.

    "Hey May," he called not noticing there were other people in the apartment. "Hey," she called back. "How was school today?" She asked him. "It was okay. This crazy car parked outside." He said finally coming into view.

   "He's cute," Beth whispered to Tony. He gave her a look which made her put her head down. She was sat in between Aunt May and Tony. The boy finally noticed them sitting in the living room, he stood there in shock. "Oh, Mr. Parker," Tony said nonchalantly.

   "Um, wh-what are you doing... Hey, um, I'm Peter." He introduced himself. "Tony and this is Beth." Tony introduced. "What are you- what are you doing here?" Peter asked, crossing his arms. "It's about time we met. You've been getting my emails, right?" Tony winked and Peter went with it. "Yeah, yeah. Regarding the uh..."

    "You didn't tell me about the grant." Aunt May pitched in. "The September Foundation," Beth added. "Right." He said still looking confused as ever. "Remember when you applied? I approved so now we're in business."

    Beth watched Aunt May give Peter looks of disbelief which made her laugh silently to herself. "But you didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?" Aunt May questioned.

   "I just know how much you love surprises so I thought I would let you know.." Peter trailed off. "Anyways, what did I apply for?"

"That's why we're here to hash it out," Tony answered. "Okay. Hash it out, okay."

"It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt," Tony said.

"Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" She said.

"This walnut date loaf is exceptional," Tony said trying to get on her good side. Bethany doubted Aunt May even had a bad side.

"Let me just stop you there. Is this grant got money involved or whatever? No?" Peter budded in.

"Yeah, it's pretty well funded. Look who you're talking to."

"Can we have five minutes with him?" Beth asked politely. Aunt May agreed and they headed to Peter's room.

❆

    As soon as they were all in the room, Tony shut the door then locked it. He then went over to spit out the walnut date loaf in the trash. "As far as walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad." He said walking over to Peter's desk which was covered with old technology.

    "Whoa, what have we here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?" Tony questions looking at the tech. "Uh, the garbage, actually," Peter says, nervously. "You're a dumpster diver?" Tony asks.

"Be nice, Tony." Beth scolds. "Look anyway, I definitely did not apply for your grant," Peter says looking at Tony. "Ah-ah! Me first." Tony buds in loudly.

Pulling out his phone, "quick question of the rhetorical variety. That's you right?"

The phone projected a video of a someone in a red and blue outfit stopping a car from hitting a bus. "Um, no. What do you mean?" Peter stutters, nervously. "Look at you go," Tony says flipping the phone.

"Nice catch. 3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour. That's not easy. You got mad skills." Tony says putting his phone on the desk. Peter tries to make up an excuse saying that everything on youtube is fake and edited.

Beth watches as Tony picks up a wooden stick and pushes open a flap on the roof. A familiar red and blue outfit falls out. "No!" Peter says running and grabbing the suit before Beth could get a good glimpse of it.

Peter let out a sigh, "so you're the Spider-ling." Beth made her way over and stood next to Tony.

"Crime fighting spider. You're Spider-boy?"

"Spider-baby."

Beth got a weird look from Tony while Peter's face turned red.

"Spider-man," he said. "Not in that onesie you're not," Tony said which caused Beth to start laughing quietly to herself.

"Sorry," she muttered, looking down.

"It's not a onesie," Peter says walking back to his desk. "I don't believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there, and Algebra test nailed it."

"Who else knows? Anybody?" Beth asks.

"Nobody," Peter shook his head sadly. "Not even your unusually attractive aunt?" Tony smirks.

"No, no, no. If she knew she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out." Beth thought it was cute how much Peter would do to make his Aunt's life easier.

"You know what I think is cool? This webbing." Tony says, throwing the webbing at Peter. By reflex, Beth's hand shot out and froze the webbing before it reached Peter. Peter caught the webbing before it fell looking at it in awe.

"Bethany," Tony scolded. "I'm sorry," she said looking down. "Go wait with May please," she sighed and made her way back to the living room. She sat there waiting for Tony to come out when he did he looked at Beth and sighed.

"Peter wants to talk to you."