Hiding in the Shadows

Chapter 33 - Christmas Eve

After deliberating with the Avengers, who were shocked to see how well I fought in person, Tony and I reached an agreement that I was quite happy about, but he was not. I was now allowed to go out every night with my suit, as long as I had someone else with me. Most of the time my partner ended up being Spider-Man, so that was perfectly fine by me. Tony also reserved the right to tell me that I couldn't go out if there was something going on that he didn't want me to be a part of. And I had to demonstrate that my homework was in fact completed before I went out, because he believed that education, if you could call what they do at that school education, came first.

"(Y/N), MJ has arrived at the compound, should I have F.R.I.D.A.Y. send her directions to get to your room?" (A/I) asked, causing me to leap up from my bed.

"No, I'll go meet her," I replied, immediately teleporting the the entrance hall. She was talking with the front desk, apparently getting quite confused, so I called out, "MJ, I can bring you up."

"Sorry, ma'am, she doesn't have an appointment, or approval from Mr. Stark," the man at the desk argued, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y., why didn't Tony let the front desk know that MJ, Ned, and Peter were coming? Can you ask him to contact the front desk for me?" I spoke, hoping that this wouldn't take long. I then whispered to MJ, "sometimes I wish more people knew who I really was, to them I'm just a possible future agent that they've started training young and I have no real power to do anything."

"Michelle, you may go up with your escort," the man informed us, causing me to mutter a polite thank you, before leading MJ up to my room.

"So they don't even know that you're Tony Stark's daughter?" MJ inquired as we walked through the compound, seemingly unimpressed by being in the building in which the Avengers lived and trained.

"No it's like a clearance level ten secret, which is why you shouldn't feel bad for me not telling you earlier," I replied, giving her a smile.

"Clearance level ten, huh? So what clearance level does that make me?"

"Oh no, you're still not even on the scale and if you were, you'd probably be like a one, you're simply privy to the truth," I responded as I opened the door to my room, letting her enter before me.

"It's not as grand as I was expecting it to be," she commented, her eyes scanning the room.

"What more were you expecting? I essentially have a library in this corner, a monstrous walk in closet, the door leads to a master bath, and the one over there leads to my own person lab. What else do you think I would have?"

She shrugged, "I just thought it would be bigger and everything would be covered in gold, like you lived in Versailles or something."

"(Y/N), Ned and Peter have arrived, the front desk is about to send them up, should I stall him?" (A/I) asked, interrupting our conversation.

"No, as long as Peter's with Ned it should be fine. He knows how to get to my room and can escort Ned," I answered, sitting down on my bed.

"Oh, please explain how Peter knows where your room is," MJ inquired, clearly implying something inappropriate.

I rolled my eyes, "MJ, he works with me so yes he's familiar with the layout of the compound. And I will admit that he's been in my room a few times now that my father insists he picks me up at the compound before we go fight crime, but nothing remotely inappropriate has happened."

"Whatever you say," MJ replied with a wink, causing me to nudge her playfully.

There came a knock on my bedroom door and I sprang up to meet Ned and Peter. Ned was simply in shock, gazing around my room with an open mouth while Peter was used to the compound by now. He gave me a quick kiss and wished me a merry Christmas, causing me to blush.

"Peter, you really shouldn't kiss me here, Tony might see-" I began to reprimand him, checking to make sure my father was not in sight.

"Wait you still haven't told your dad that you two are dating?" MJ asked surprised, although I really didn't blame her.

"I've wanted to, but I'm afraid that he'll overreact. I just got my suit privileges back, I don't need to lose Peter. We will tell him eventually, we're thinking maybe sometime next month, or I'll invite Peter over for New Year's and he'll give me a kiss and pretend like it was our first or something. We haven't quite worked out a full plan yet," I answered, starting to run off on a tangent.

"You're lying to Tony Stark," Ned interjected, mesmerized.

"Well, I, uh, wouldn't call it lying, per se. We are just withholding the full truth," I replied awkwardly, quickly deciding to change the subject. "Anyway, you're not here to talk about that, shall we exchange presents?"

We had each decided to get one another presents and began to distribute them, although Peter and I saved the ones we got for each other as he was staying the night and celebrating Christmas with the Avengers the following day. We chose to open each present one at a time so that we could see what we had all gotten each other, strewing the discarded wrapping paper over my floor.

I opened the first gift, revealing a book series that MJ recommended I read. I immediately hugged them to my chest, thanking MJ, then ran to put them on my shelf, where I had quarantined a specific section for the books I needed to read.

MJ then opened my present, a pack of art supplies with consisted of a new sketch pad, a pack of 162 state of be art colored pencils, and a pack of sketching pencils. Ned got me a pack of the lightsabers that you could mount to the wall and use to light up the room, which I had a feeling Peter had approved as he was the only one who could've known I didn't have any of those, despite wanting them.

"No way," Ned breathed in disbelief as he got to his present from me, having unwrapped enough to tell what it was. "This cannot be real."

I smiled as I watched his excitement in revealing the Lego Ultimate Collector's Series Millennium Falcon. Peter perked up too, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Well, May mentioned you guys like to build the Lego sets and I figured you didn't have this one," I explained, pleased by his positive reaction.

"Of course I didn't have this one, it's so expensive! (Y/N), you really shouldn't have. Can we build it now?" Ned replied, talking rather quickly in his excitement.

"Um, yes," I responded as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "As long as I get to get in on this action."

-

(A/N): Ok so I would actually die for that Lego set so I'm living vicariously through my characters at the moment. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter!