To All Those Brave and Lovely

Birthdays

It was meant to be a tiny celebration.

"Honestly small."  Tony had said, arms raised up like it would prove his innocence.  "No big surprises.  No giant party.  Just a little get together."

He had kept his promise, having Peter take her to a little cafe where Pepper, Tony, Bucky, MJ, and Natasha were waiting for her. There was a plate in front of her heaping with pancakes and a mug of hot chocolate dripping with whipped cream, and a pile of presents on the seat beside her, and for a moment, she actually thinks she's about to have a good day.

"I'm sorry!"  Tony was panicking, shouting at her from across the room in between repulsor blasts.  Peter was somewhere out front, trying to get all the civilians out of the street.  "Every time I walk out the door it turns into this!"

There was another round of gunfire.  Nora sort of wanted to just keep cowering behind this overturned table with her hands over her ears, but she was THE GIRL WHO WALKED AWAY, and now after what happened at Disney she had been given a sort of amateur hero status, so she didn't get to do that anymore.

"I think he's giving himself too much credit."  MJ said.  MJ was the only one being calm about the whole thing, and was actually draining the rest of Nora's hot chocolate in between peekng around the table to check on Peter.  "It's not a him thing, its a city thing.  Happened outside Peter's apartment once."

"You?  Not helping."  MJ doesn't normally shut up, but when the Black Widow launches herself over a table and forces a gun into your hands, it doesn't leave much room for a come back.  "Know how to use this?"

MJ stares down at it.  "No."  She shoves it back.  "More of a peaceful protest kind of girl."

"I do."  Nora yanks it back, ignoring the stares that both of them sent her way, because yes, she actually did know how to fire the gun.  ACtually making it hit the target was another matter, but they hadn't asked about that.  "What do I do now?"

"Nothing."  Natasha pokes her head up and fires her own gun, then hits the ground again.  "Just try not to shoot yourself in the foot, alright?"

It's over relatively quickly, but its also filed under the list of things that she hoped to never repeat.  "Im sorry,"  Pepper kept saying.  "We were such a high profile group of people, I guess they just couldn't resist."

"They didn't even like, make a plan?"  Peter said, kicking down at one of the guys that was still stuck to the floor.  It was a new web solution, one that he hadn't gotten the chance to try out yet.  Turns out he can't cut this one apart, and they were all hoping that it would dissolve soon.  They were on babysitting duty until it did.  "Just ran in here?"

"Oh, you're one to talk."  Tony came up behind him, fingers twitching at his sides.  There was a cut under his eye, but other than that, he was fine.  "Don't you just pick the first thing you think of and do it?"

"I threw your daughter in the air one time!"  Peter throws his hands up, angry.  "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"Try a few more."  His tone was teasing, but Tony wasn't really joking.  Both Nora and Peter had been in a lot of trouble for that, only none of them could figure out how to punish them when everyone else had been calling them heroes.  They were just told not to do it again unless it could be avoided.

(It couldn't be avoided then, they had both said.  Thats the whole reason why they had done it in the first place.)

"Sorry about the birthday, kid."  Tony gives her a one armed hug and then turns his attention to the man on the floor.  "We'll redo it some other time"

They woudn't.  Not like this. It would have taken a lot of effort to keep it this small and to have the security measures, and to have everyone's schedule line up. It actually would have been easier to throw a gigantic party and be done with it.

"It's alright."  She didn't expect much for her birthday, anyways.  Still, it was sort of sad to have seen the balloons ripped apart by bullets and her breakfast trampled underfoot.  "It was a nice thought,."

"Yeah,"  Tony echoed, staring down at the wreckage, fingernails digging into the place where the first bullet had dug into the table, inches away from Nora.  "A nice thought."

The rest of them had to stay, but Nora was allowed to go home.  She's tucked away in her closet by the time Peter comes to check on her.

She's not there because she has to be.  Nora's been able to sleep in her own bed every night for the past month. But while she was panicking, the closet had turned into a pretty nice place to hang out, and it was apretty good reading spot.  So she hangs out there, sometimes, when she doesn't want people to know where she is.

(Though it's pointless, because FRIDAY always knows, and she always tells everyone else.)

"Hey." She puts her book down when Peter crawls in and lays down beside her.  "That guy get unstuck?"

"Uh, no."  He rubs at the back of his neck.  "Still not dissolving.  Still can't cut through it.  Had to call in Dr. Banner, he and Tony are trying to sort something out.  Seems like a miscalculated... something."

"That's alright.  He was trying to kill us."  She falls back against him, the two of them melting together the way they have been since that night in the pool.  "I didn't expect to see you for a while.  At least not for the rest of today."

"I wanted to bring your birthday present."  He looks nervous and excited and like a little kid.  It makes something in her chest crack open, like someone had yanked on her ribs and split them apart, to think that after being shot at he still thinks of her present and wants her to have a good birthday.  

"You didn't have to-,"

"I know.  I wanted to."  It was a pointless arguement, and a redundant one besides.  Everytime anyone says that, you know that they still wanted the present.  "Close your eyes."

She does, and feels his hands brush against her wrist, replaced by the cold chill of a metal chain.  When she opens them again there's a bracelet hanging from her arm, simple and delicate, with a single charm in the shape of a star.  "I know you like constellations.  And that you can't always see thm, with all the lights, so I thought..."  His voice falters, trails off.  "It was stupid."

"No.  No, it wasn't."  She turns his arm over in her own and brushes her fingers against the inside of his wrist, traces the path of his veins up into his arm.  Nora can hear his breath catch.  "Do you still like me, Peter?"

"You know I do."  It sounded like he was biting back words, trying to keep them from spilling out.  "I never stopped."

"That's good.  That's more than good.  You know why?"  She crawls onto his lap, her hair falling over both of them like a curtain when she leans in to meet him.  "Because I like you too.  Did you know that?"

"I hoped so."  He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands.  He had been so sure of himself, back in the pool, but it was different when you were forced to talk about you feelings.  "But I wasn't sure-,"

"You're so stupid.  So smart, but so stupid."  It's like they were trying to twist themselves together so no one could pull them apart, like they woul reach the happy ending if they were able to turn themselves into a definite we, a single entity.  "Of course I like you.  How could I not?"

(He doesn't believe her, not at first, but by the time they crawl hand in hand out of that closet and she kisses him good bye, she thinks he understands.)