Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

six

Alexandra

"Peter!" Ned exclaimed as his friend turned on his heel and ran. Alexandra wanted to go after him, but Ned was already two steps ahead of her. He turned and left the tour group, following Peter to help. Alexandra sighed and turned back to Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. She folded her arms across her chest—this was going to be good.

Mark clapped his hands together excitedly. "Wow, aren't we in for a treat, guys!" He smiled. "Please welcome the CEO, Ms. Pepper Potts and former CEO, Mr. Tony Stark!"

There was applause from the tour group, many of the kids seemed awe shocked, but Alexandra was more curious than shocked. Why would today of all days Tony randomly decide to visit his compound in New York? Because it wasn't random.

Ms. Potts cleared her throat and smiled lightly. "Thank you for the warm welcome," She said. "Mr. Stark and I don't have a lot of time to stay and chat, unfortunately."

"Oh, of course, Ms. Potts!" Mark replied. "You are a very busy woman, after all! Running this company all on your own!"

Tony sniffed. "I wouldn't say all on her own..."

"Oh, I would." Ms. Potts smirked at him.

Alexandra couldn't help but stifle a small laugh and then immediately regretted it when she noticed Tony's gaze shift toward her. Her eyes widened and she looked away, but she knew it was too late—she had been spotted.

"Well, I think we should probably get going—" Ms. Potts began but Tony cut her off.

"Yeah—yeah, sure, Pep. Hey, would you mind if I borrowed Ms. Wallace for a moment?" He asked. All eyes in the tour group shifted towards Alexandra and she internally groaned. Why, why her?

Mr. Dorris glanced at her and then shrugged. "I don't see why not," He replied. 

He sucked. Worst teacher ever. 

Alexandra internally groaned. 

"Alrightie then! Let's keep moving everybody, follow me this way!" Mark exclaimed. The tour group began to shuffle forward, leaving Alexandra by herself.

Kai gave her hand a squeeze before departing, while MJ eyed Tony Stark quizzically before being guided forward by Kai. Then, it was just the three of them—Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and Alexandra—standing their in silence.

Alexandra folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head at the billionaire. "This better be good, Mr. Stark," She said, trying to remain as cool and collected as possible.

🕷

Tony led Alexandra up the stairs to an office space, which she could only assume belonged to Ms. Potts. The office was huge, and large photos of magazine covers featuring the CEO hung on the wall, along with newspaper headlines and other achievements. 

Ms. Potts glanced at her fiancée and shook her head. "I guess I'll leave you two to talk," She said, then glanced at Alexandra. "If you need anything, let me know."

Alexandra nodded. "Thank you, Ms. Potts."

She left the room, leaving Alexandra and Tony alone in the office. They both remained standing for a few minutes before Tony finally shifted towards one of the seats in front of Ms. Potts' desk and sat with a sigh. Alexandra remained standing, her arms folded across her chest.

"So," She said. "What do you want?"

"How's Peter doing?"

Alexandra scoffed, though she didn't really mean it. She understood why Tony had done what he did, but if Peter was mad at him about it, then she was going to side with Peter every time. If he was mad at Tony Stark, then so was she.

"How do you think?" She replied. "He ran off the moment he saw you and Ms. Potts coming down the stairs. He doesn't want to see you."

Tony's face fell, and Alexandra felt a pang on empathy for the man. He had only done what he felt was right, and even if it hadn't been the best way to go about it, he was only trying to protect Peter. 

Even if he did go about it in a—quite frankly—lunatic way. 

He ran a hand over his face exhaustedly and leaned back in the chair. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen," He began. "I was just—I was trying to help the kid out. It got out of hand, I should have told him—I know I should have. I shouldn't have—done any of it to begin with—I just have this—" He hesitated. "I'm always trying to look out for the people I care about, sometimes I don't do things the way I should and—" He looked at her. "And instead I screwed his life up." There was a scoff of laughter. "Well, I seem to be pretty damn good at that."

Alexandra's arms fell to her sides and she walked over and sat in the chair next to him. "Mr. Stark—you didn't screw his life up," She said. "As much as he doesn't want to admit it, I can tell Peter misses you."

"He does?" Tony looked up.

"Yeah." She nodded. "But Peter isn't going to forgive you—not yet, anyway." She paused. "I think he understands why you did it, I honestly think he wants to forgive you—but I don't think he feels like he can until May does first. You really need to apologize to her, by the way. Like—even if you already did—do it again. You really don't want to be on May Parker's bad side—trust me."

Tony raises an eyebrow and then sighed, because yeah, it made sense. Of course Peter wasn't going to forgive him until his aunt had. It had been her memories he messed with. Unless he could make it up to her and have her forgive him, he and Peter would never make amends.

"Right, I get that." He nodded, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I've been—trying to get in touch—I don't think she wants to hear any of what I have to say." He rubbed his chin. "Which—understandable." 

Alexandra closed her eyes and then let out a breath. She couldn't believe she was even going to suggest it, but if it meant that Peter would start talking to Tony again—

"Maybe I can help with that," She said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean maybe I can help you get a word in with May."

Before the two could continue their conversation any further, they were both thrown from their chairs and onto the floor of Ms Potts' office by a strong force. Alexandra looked at Tony with wide eyes.

"What the hell was that?!" She demanded.

Tony looked up, a dark look in his eyes. "Dammit," He muttered. "Who the hell just bombed my company?"

🕷

Eyyyyyyy another chapter! I think I'm finally going to be able to get into the swing of updating regularly.

Get it? Swing of updating? Spider-Man? Webs? Haha puns are good.

...

I'll go home.

~Mads