Never forget the feeling

Chapter Three

aaand back again after a little hiatus, sorry for the wait! here's another chapter.

Tony's eyebrows rise in a relieved sigh at the sight of his precious daughter. His overly active imagination had worried him into thinking she had been kidnapped or hurt somewhere, when F.R.I.D.A.Y told Tony she had left the compound and had not returned within the hour, his paternal instincts kicked in; meaning locating his daughter was of utmost importance at this time.

The older man releases his distressed features into a relaxed smile when he sees Kassie emerge from the foliage, however he can't help but let the expression fall to a slight frown when the spider-boy follows his daughter from the dense forest.

Tony is, or was, the only person who knew about or had seen Kassie's little Garden of Eden she'd built herself. A feeling settles itself in Tony's chest; jealously. He's jealous about no longer being the most important man in his daughter's life, no one knows about her little hideaway, not even Clint and she tells Clint nearly everything.

Tony can see it in Kassie's eyes as she looks behind to Peter and back to him, the bright, shiny, beginnings of a first love. This realisation dawns on Tony, as he watches his daughter and his super powered intern cross the large patch of grass, separating the compound from the forest; looking on, as though he's watching his daughter age from a small bundle of tears and snot, to the young woman she's becoming with each step she takes. It nearly brings a tear to the old man's eye.

He forces the waterworks down and leads the two teens back into the compound, stalling in the common room, so he could shoot a look to Peter that somehow said 'I want to talk to my daughter'. He got the hint fairly quickly and awkwardly shuffled off in the direction of his quarters when he finally understood what Tony's glare meant. With Peter out of earshot, Tony turns to his daughter with a pointed look. Tony catches his daughter with a gaze that peers into her very soul, reading her like a book with the font size seventy-two.

'What...?' Kassie questions her father's soul-searching look.

After a quick look around the abandoned common room, Tony whispers: 'You know what!'

Tony narrows his eyes at the teen, 'You showed Peter your little cubby thing out there.'

Kassie smiles at her father, seeing something he's trying to hide, 'Wow, Dad if I didn't know any better I'd say you're jealous.' The mousey teen raises her eyebrows amusedly at her father.

'I'm not-' he pauses to fight the overwhelming urge to rolls his eyes like a teenage girl would and crosses his arms over his chest, 'I'm not jealous, Mouse, I'm just... concerned.' Tony says it like it's a question, as if he's trying his best to explain why he's not jealous when he very much is. He sighs and looks down at his daughter's unreadable expression. 'Don't look at me like that.' He gives into the urge and rolls his eyes this time.

'It's ok,' the young girl lets up her scrutinising gaze, 'I don't know what it is about him, he's just-' Kassie shakes her head as she tries to think of the right word.

'Cute, adorable, charming, pretty...?' The billionaire offers, smiling when Kassie's face glows pink. 'You like him.' Kassie is met with the Cheshire cat grin when she looks up at her father.

'Shut up.' Kassie frowns viciously at her father and gives him a 'boop' on the nose knowing he hates it.

'Hey!' he shouts after his daughter as she runs off.

Dinner time is uneventful, but the dining room table that usually seats twenty people is a sight to see; six roast chickens, thirty roast potatoes and nearly five kilograms of vegetables to feed two super soldiers, two scientists, two bug themed heroes, two sorcerers, an assassin, an archer, a war veteran, a former AI and Kassie. With eight Avengers missing, the table felt a little bare but still, none-the-less noisy.

While dinner is devoured, Kassie and Peter sit opposite to each other. Every time their feet touch 'accidently' they both blush wildly.

Steve sits next to Peter and observes the adorable blushing Olympics, with a front and centre seat. It takes him a moment to figure out what's going on but, getting kicked in the shin by Kassie is an obvious give away. Steve smiles to himself but gives no indication that he notices Kassie and Peter's little game of footsy.

Once everyone has left the table, scraped their plates and stacked them in the kitchen, Peter offers to help Kassie and Steve clean up. Thankfully, Tony had the foresight to install an industrial grade wall set dishwasher to handle all the dishes the Avengers accumulate. Four loads of dishes later, Peter and Kassie say goodnight to Steve. Peter can't help but feel a little jealous when Steve bends to bear hug Kassie good night, lifting her up, with a kiss to the top of the head when he puts her down again.

Kassie and Peter part ways with an arguably adorable smile. As they ascend the huge flight of stairs at the end of the hallway to the second floors quarters, Peter can't wipe the flaming red shade that's been smeared across his face all day.

Changing and settling into bed, Peter looks over the days memories with fondness. Today ended on a good note, the young boy concludes.

Heavy breathing and panicked whimpers fill Peter's quarters within the hour. The boy wakes with a start, drenched in sweat and his heart racing a hundred kilometres a second. In an attempt to calm down, he turns on the lamp; it illuminates the menacing shadows, revealing only plain old furniture.

He concentrates on his breathing, trying not to think about the horrors he'd seen under his eye lids not moments before.

Once he's at a point where he no longer feels like he's being suffocated, his heart still racing, the teen attempts to calm himself by watching old episodes of The Walking Dead. A little familiarity should do the trick.

A few episodes into the first season, thoroughly engrossed and the nightmare long since forgotten, Peter is startled by a message on his phone, sitting on the bed side table being charged.

'You awake?' the message bubble says, it's Kassie.

'Yeah, why?' Peter fumbles around with pulling out the charger cord before he replies.

'Meet me out side' the bluntness of the message and the lack of an emoji means something is up, never the less, Peter smiles and pauses his TV, noting the time; 5:50AM on his holographic alarm clock.

He instantly regrets just a singlet and no wearing socks; the floor outside his carpeted room is frigidly cold. The boy lets out a hiss as he descends the stairs to the ground floor.

Reaching the large glass doors to the patio he swings them open to a wall of hot humid mid-summer morning air. The sudden temperature change has him loving the idea of no socks and a singlet.

Looking around for Kassie, Peter hears a 'pst!' from the second-floor balcony. Of course, she meant come to the balcony. Now, however not wearing socks means he can climb the concrete wall up to the balcony, without fear of them slipping off his feet as he does so.

The young web slinging hero jumps up the wall as best he can, climbing the rest on his finger tips and toes. Kassie extends a hand to Peter, who doesn't really need it but will not refuse holding Kassie's hand in a million years.

Peter smiles brightly and Kassie returns the gesture, 'Follow me.