Love in Ones And Zeros

[5]

Chapter 5: Better your image.

[Y/n] felt guilty, of course he hadn't meant to sound so rude to Peter, but all the bottled up frustration and concern got the best of him in the end. He really hoped his friend hadn't taken it too harshly, because he knew Peter never easily forgot things like this. It wouldn't get any better if he just kept beating himself up over it, of course. So he should just go to the party and apologize to Peter there. That would work, right?

Then again, he had every right to be a little bit worried, didn't he? It's especially clear to [Y/n] that his spider-friend saw his Spider-Man alibi as a better version of himself. So to make up for his lack of popularity, (something, at least according to [Y/n], due to his lacking charisma rather than his looks.) he would put on a show as a superhero's best friend, which would actually only attract people also wanting a connection to the friendly neighborhood superhero and not want to hang out with Peter for who he was. It also frustrated [Y/n], he had plenty of friends who wanted to hang out with him as "just Peter Parker". [Y/n], Daniel, Ned and even MJ liked Peter for who he was, not for his amazing connections with superheroes and celebrities.

Maybe [Y/n] wanted Peter to like him a little too much, because ever since he had become a mutant and thus something "special" he had tried to suppress it and hide it completely. He didn't want to turn into the governments' pet or some weapon for war, he stayed as normal as can be; the less he would use his powers and flaunt with them, the better. But on the other hand, Peter had managed to keep a low profile with his alias of "Spider-Man", doing small tasks and mainly helping out civilians and not necessarily for his own benefit.

Though he had been used as some sort of weapon or specialized force in combat. And by none other than Tony Stark himself. [Y/n] didn't know exactly why the man would need Peter to fight, but the fact that it had probably been to give the billionaire some sort of benefit or personal accomplishment had been enough for him to develop a strong distaste for the businessman. Of course he would never tell that to the sweet, innocent Peter. The boy still saw Stark as his hero, maybe even a father figure. Considering the fact, [Y/n] remembered how horrible it had been to lose his mother, and since Peter had lost his father figure twice at this point, he subconsciously developed some guilt for feeling this way about Stark.

A knock on the door, in the opening stood Dan, his arms crossed. "Hey dude, don't expect that shirt to put itself on while you're spacing out. C'mon, your dad's waiting for us." he said.

[Y/n] scoffed, but put on the shirt in his hands before getting up from his bed. "Who's the slowpoke now?" Dan teased. "Shut it, Martin, it's a one time thing anyway." [Y/n] replied, playfully shoving him and walking past him to the living room. As they walked out the apartment Dan said, hard enough for his father to hear, "oh yeah? Soon enough I'll have a whole list of times you were the one who came late, if you continue daydreaming about-"

Before he could even finish the sentence [Y/n] stamped on his foot. Maybe a bit harder than intended. The taller boy cursed in pain and held onto his foot as [Y/n] looked sweetly at his father, who as giving him a weird look, but apparently he shrugged it off. This was basically how the two friends would act on a daily basis anyway.

"Well, you two boys ready?" [Y/n]'s father asked. They both nodded simultaneously, "[Y/n] is especially raring to go, Mr. [L/n]." Dan said as revenge for that stomp. [Y/n] gave his friends such a glare that if looks could kill he would've been extremely dead.
"Oh? Is that so, bud? Is there perhaps some special person you really are looking forward to meeting?" and of course it would be something for his dad to wiggle his eyebrows after saying such a thing.

[Y/n] subconsciously felt his ears heat up from embarrassment, "n-.. ye-.. maybe." he settled for that vague answer. He him wasn't even sure if that was the case.
"Well, just know that-" his father started, "'you should get to know the person before going to far with them and make sure they're not using you in anyway or only want contact with you for their own pleasure without thinking about yours.' Yeah dad, I remember the advise you gave me after having that one date with the woman you met on our skiing holiday. I remember it vividly." He smiled, and now it was his father's turn to redden. "Let's just go now."

—————

[Y/n] wasn't enjoying himself. Even though his friends were here as well, some feeling in his gut made him unable to have fun like they were. He definitely agreed with MJ when she stated the party was lame and fruitless so far. Luckily Peter, so far, had not made any attempts to suit up and exchange his identity for that of his supposed superhero buddy.

After some time of awkwardly standing around, doing nothing but hold one of those red cups you see in movies, [Y/n] decided to fetch Peter to have some fun and dance together to clear both of their minds, you know, as normal totally not crushing on one another friends tend to do. Dancing wasn't really [Y/n]'s strong suit, actually, this was only the second "real" party he'd been to in general, but he managed if he didn't think about how people might judge his actions. What do other people know, anyway?

Considering most of them had gone to more parties before, probably more than you, a small annoying voice muttered in his head.

[Y/n] pushed it aside and eventually found his friend unhappily standing at a small table, Ned wasn't around. When he approached Peter, the boy straightened back up in surprise, splashing the last of his fruit punch in his face. [Y/n] chuckled at this, earning a pout from his friend, "It's not funny." He muttered, looking away bashfully. [Y/n] grabbed a napkin from his pocketed and wiped the fruity drink from Peter's face, which causatively turned the same red as the cup he had reflexively crunched during the contact. "It is kinda funny."
"It's also on my jacket!" Peter retorted. "Don't be such a prissy baby, you can wash the jacket." [Y/n] said, straightening his friends jacket. "I'm not prissy..." "Sure, Pete, wanna dance?" [Y/n] asked, nodding towards the dancing crowd a few feet away.

Apparently, that question was not what Peter Parker had expected, his mind exploded into billions of thoughts. Images of him and [Y/n] dancing together flashed around in his mind, he turned a brilliant shade of pink that looked maroon in the darker room. "B-uh, ah... I-I can't dance... at all, and I think I'm f-fine standing here, yeah... you know what, I'm going to get some punch, want some too?" Peter all said very quickly, his voice pitched uncomfortably high, leaving his friend to smile, "C'mon Parker, I can't dance either, it doesn't matter. I'm not asking you to dance a salsa with me. It'll be fun."

Before the brunette could protest again, he was dragged towards the makeshift dance floor by his friend. When the got there, Peter looked up strangely, not knowing what to do. [Y/n] smiled, and started moving to the music, simultaneously encouraging Peter to do the same. He danced like nobody was watching him, just like everyone else did.

Peter joined in, he was entranced by [Y/n] in that moment. The minute he'd spent staring at [Y/n] seemed to last a lifetime to him, everything he liked about him seemed so much more obvious now. How his hair had grown a small white streak because of his accident with the machine almost a year ago, how little lines formed at his eyes when he smiled. How the scare on his cheek made him look rough, while in actuality he was just a huge teddy bear. How he used to fiddle with his own hair, twisting small curls in it when he was thinking or tired. How he had a slight accent to his English and how he pronounced Peter's name with it. It all was so... so perfect to him. Like someone had designed someone for him.

All these feeling he had conflicted heavily with his feelings for Liz, the girl he'd had a crush on for a while already. He couldn't make out which person he liked more and over the past few weeks, his feelings for [Y/n] had grown exponentially. He was busy pondering about this when he heard his name get called. Flash had gotten up to the DJ station and had made a snide remark about Peter's staring. Using a word the made Peter want to vomit.

Oh how much he wanted to melt and sink into to floor. The music was still going on happily, as if it couldn't care less about how Peter's social life just collapsed as it played. A lot of people, including [Y/n] himself, had stopped dancing. Peter felt the weight of judgmental stares pointed at him. He felt his knees getting wobbly with embarrassment. How stupid he was, for not thinking about Flash's presence at the party. Just now he'd been having the time of his life and now he just wanted his life to end. [Y/n] probably found him strange now, how could he stay friends with him like this? Peter darted towards the backyard door while wiping his eyes and exited, supposedly for a breather. Flash snickered behind the microphone.

Anger boiled up inside of [Y/n], he gave Flash a deadly glare, and one of the speakers sparked and broke with a high pitched beep. [Y/n] rushed after Peter, but he couldn't find him anywhere in the backyard. He called for him, but still no response. He sat down on the cold and wet grass against the brick walls of the house, letting out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Pete."