The Void

Chapter 8 - You're On

(Peter's POV):
"I just don't see why you are so committed to this partnership, it's just physics class. I mean, you invited her to lunch with us on Friday and now you're going out of your way to meet up with her in person to discuss your catapult. Harry and I literally talked about it for five minutes at the end of class," Ned spoke as I grabbed my backpack to leave my apartment and meet up with (Y/N).

"Yes, but we also never agree on things and both want a good grade, so our project requires a bit more communication," I responded, hoping that he wouldn't realize that that wasn't the full truth.

"Peter, I've known you from years, I can tell when you're hiding something. Except for the whole Spider-Man thing, but we'll just ignore that for now. What's really up with this girl? I don't understand why you'd want to spend more time than absolutely necessary with her, she's always so cold and antisocial."

I sighed, "I-I don't really know how to describe it, Ned, but there's something about her- it's almost like my spidey sense is acting up, but I don't feel like she's really a threat, you know? It's like this weird tingling, but I'm not really wary of her. And I didn't actually notice until we started working together, so she can't be an actual threat otherwise I would have felt something sooner. Besides, I don't see how she could be, she's just a teenager."

"Did you ever think that it could be a crush? Like normal people have? Does it have to be connected to your powers?"

"No, I've had crushes before, like with Liz. But this-this is different. I don't know whether it's just a weird crush or my spidey sense telling me that she's a threat, but I want to know what's going on. I'm hoping that spending more time with her, maybe dragging her out of her shell will help me understand my clouded feelings," I confessed, knowing how stupid I sounded. However, nothing like this had ever happened before and if she did turn out to be a threat, I needed to stay vigilant as opposed to brushing this feeling off as nothing.

"Alright, Peter, but be careful. I don't think this girl's the type for relationships if you realize that it is just a romantic interest in her."

"Yeah, I've figured that much out myself. She won't even allow herself friends, never mind a boyfriend. She thinks they're just distractions. Anyway, I should head out so that I'm not late. I have a sneaking suspicion that she doesn't accept tardiness."

"Just a sneaking suspicion?" Ned chuckled, knowing as well as I that she definitely did not tolerate people being late.

I quickly left my apartment, almost sprinting through the streets of Queen before finally reaching the coffee shop where we had arranged to meet. I would have offered my apartment as a meeting place, but I was afraid that it would seem too personal to her and I would scare her off, so instead I proposed more neutral ground to do our work in.

Taking a deep breath, I entered the shop and scanned my eyes over the crowd already situated. As I guessed, (Y/N) was already seated at one of the table, sipping from a coffee mug. I rushed over to her and dropped my bag beside my feet as I sunk into the chair across from hers.

She looked up and me and commented, "you're late."

"Yeah, sorry, Ned was over at my apartment and I lost track of time," I quickly explained, hoping to get over her anger as quickly as possible so that we could get to work on our project.

"Like I said, friends are a distraction," she replied, placing the mug down on the table. "Anyway, I felt awkward sitting here alone without having ordered something, so I hope you don't mind that I didn't wait for you. You can go up and get something if you want and then we can get to work."

"We can jump right in, I'm don't need anything," I replied, not wanting to waste money if I didn't need to. Mr. Stark had been very generous since discovering my identity, but I was still hesitant to spend anymore than was absolutely necessary.

She gave me a nod and began showing me some of the work she had prepared for the meeting. We began throwing ideas back and forth, surprising me with how easy it was to pitch ideas to her. I was half expecting her to be overly judgmental about every idea, but she clearly took her time thinking everything through and calculating whether or not it might work. We fell into a comfortable rhythm and I swear I almost saw her smile once.

I was equally surprised to find out that she also was awful when it came to artistic skills. She attempted to sketch out our final plans for the catapult, causing me to laugh lightly.

"What's so funny?" She snapped, looking up from her drawing.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to decipher what that's supposed to be," I replied, pointing at the random lines marking the page. Realizing that I was probably overstepping my boundaries and causing her to retreat back into her shell, I froze in a small panic as I awaited her reaction.

However she just hit my arm lightly and mocked offense, "hey, it's clearly a catapult! You think you can do any better?"

I took the pencil from her hand with a small smirk and began to sketch my own version of the catapult we had planned out. It took me a while to perfect it, making sure that I had successfully incorporated all of the elements that we had agreed upon. However, I was quite proud of the end result.

"Show off," (Y/N) muttered as I handed her the sketch.

"Well I have to better than you at something."

"For the record, you do tend to do a bit better than I do went it comes to the hard sciences, your brain is clearly wired for that kind of stuff. I just pretend like I have a fighting chance at being as good because I study like hell before tests and projects."

"Competitive, are we?" I teased, enjoying this more laid back side she was showing me outside of school. It was as though all of the pressure to seem like a cold-hearted monster was lifted from her shoulders and she could actually show me a bit of who she truly was.

She shrugged, "like I said, gotta graduate at the top to get into the good schools. Plus after the years of being neck to neck with you, it will feel really sweet to give the valedictorian speech while you're stuck as the salutatorian."

"That's a nice thought, but I'm not going to let that happen. Now that I know that this is a full out competition, you're on."

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(A/N): Aww does Petey have feelings for you? Also you're easing up a bit! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!