Lacuna (Spiderman X reader)

Chapter 3

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Coffee with Peter was arguably the most fun you'd had in weeks. He was witty, smart, cute as hell, and just the right amount of dorky for you to know this was all just genuinely him, no showing off, no acting. It was refreshing. It wasn't often you got to spend time with someone your own age who was just about as smart as you were.

Needless to say, you were practically floating on air when you walked into Noble's Super-Duper Secret Laboratory of Doom five hours later. That's what you called it in your head, anyway, Noble just called it her "private lab."

"Ah! Y/l/n! Right on time, as usual." She rolled away in a sleek steel office chair from a massive unrecognizable hunk of shining metal and colorful wires, suspended from the ceiling by three large chains. You didn't know what the hell that thing was, but you'd nicknamed it The Heart due to it's vague resemblance to the muscle that was leaping giddily in your own chest at that very moment.

"What am I working on today, Professor?" you asked, hanging your bag on a hook by the door and grabbing a work apron, gloves, and goggles from a shelf in the corner.
"I'd love it if you would continue work on some of your experimental ray-guns. Do you have the one you borrowed for your personal errand last night?"

Oh, fuuuck. "Oh, um-- about that--" you chuckled nervously as you wandered back to your bag, reaching inside for your utility belt and finding the pouch with the scraps from the gun that Spider-Man had knocked out of your hand. "I sort of ran into a little trouble last night."

"Trouble? What sort of trouble?" The ratcheting sound of Noble's wrench at her workbench stopped.

Turning around, you lifted up the scraps in your rubber-gloved hand. "I ran into Spider-Man. He knocked it out of my hand, and it exploded." Quickly, before Noble could berate you for being clumsy. "I got all the scraps, and if I did leave anything behind, nobody will be able to figure out what it was without all the main pieces."

Seemingly satisfied, your professor nodded. "Did anyone see you besides that... Bug?"

You shook your head, walking back to your own bench and dropping the scraps there. "No. I used my false accent, just in case."

"So detail oriented. It's what makes you such an excellent engineer!" Noble shot you a grin, which you returned. She took the shapeless chunk of yet even more wires and metal and rolled over to The Heart and around to the other side of it, and you heard the sound of metal hitting metal and a wrench screwing things into place. "I assume you fought him. How did it go?"

"I kicked his a- ahem, I mean, I won. The only thing he managed to do was knock the gun out of my hand, because he caught me by surprise. Which worked out pretty well, because now I know my current design explodes on impact with hard surfaces."

"I suppose you'd better fix that if you intend to use it for more petty errands."

"I think it might get more use than just for petty work, Professor." You paused. "You know that Parker guy?"

"The late one? Brilliant student, but he's always so frazzled. I almost considered recruiting him for my side project, you know. Just wasn't reliable enough."

You grinned at the implied compliment. "Yeah, Parker. He said he knows someone who can introduce me to Tony Stark. If I can meet him, I can probably find a way to get into his labs somehow--"

Your professor jumped to her feet, sending her wheeled work chair spinning away. "Y/l/n, if I can get my hands on even a piece of the Iron Man suit, or even better, information about the arc-reactor, it would change everything. It would take my work to the next level, I would finally-"

Something exploded out of the bottom of The Heart in a burst of white sparks that bounced of the clean smooth white floor, taking Noble's attention away.

"Oh, hell-" she rushed, crawling underneath the hanging monstrosity to find the problem, as you waited on standby with a fire extinguisher. After a few moments, realizing that there was no more risk of flames, you returned to your workbench to begin rebuilding the gun that Spider-Man had destroyed.

Four hours passed, and it was almost an hour til midnight. Time to call it a night, you had papers to work on the next day. Noble was still busy working on pieces for The Heart, blueprints scattered across half of the rubber mat that was laid out across her stainless steel table.

"I'm heading out, Professor," you called over your shoulder as you placed your goggles on their shelf and peeled off your gloves.

"I expect to see you here at the same time tomorrow, unless something pops up to get you closer to Stark and his labs," she said flatly, looking up at you from the nest of tubes and wires in her hands.

"Absolutely, Professor. I'll email if anything comes up."

She looked back down, nodding, immediately consumed by her work once again. You glanced at The Heart hanging behind her, looming frozen in the air. You blinked, half expecting it to start beating, and looked away. Slinging your bag over your shoulder after shrugging on your coat, you reached into your pocket to pull out your phone, gently shutting the door behind you. Scrolling through your notifications—a missed call from your friend at Xavier's, a few texts from your friend Stacy ("Girl, the dick I just had cleared my skin and cured my chronic stress issues"), some social media notifications, and at the bottom—a text from Peter Parker. Your heart did a tiny jump. A text already? You opened it.

From Peter: Hey, Y/n. I had a lot of fun today at coffee. What do u say to a whole meal sometime? My treat!

He even punctuated the end with a grinning emoji and a candy emoji. What a dork.

Smiling, you typed back as you walked down the abandoned subway rail, and hit send.

From you: I'd love to! What are you thinking? Lunch? Dinner?

As you were about to lower your phone and click the lock button, the three dots appeared, indicating he was typing back.

Peter: Well, I didn't wanna b too forward, but dinner is exactly what I had in mind. U wanna pick when?

You: I assume you have a place in mind??

Peter: U like Thai food, right?

You: Love it

Peter: I kno I said u should pick the time, but is tomorrow too soon??

You almost giggled.

You: I have a meeting with Prof. Noble tomorrow night

Peter: Oh yeah no that's okay we can do dinner another time

You: But I'll be free after 8:30pm. Is that too late?

Peter: You really had me there for a second! I can meet u at the school and take u to the Thai place from there?

Shit. Now you'd have to get out of weapons-of-mass-distruction-workshop-hour even earlier. Why hadn't you developed a jetpack yet to get you out of dealing with traffic and the subway?

You replied to Peter with a simple "Perfect!" and pocketed your phone, sneaking back into a public terminal. Your phone dinged, but you waited until you were seated on the subway to check it.

It was Peter again just saying he was looking forward to dinner. You smiled, and responded with a "Me too! See u then" and a smiley face, before going home and collapsing into your soft bed, putting in earbuds to drown out the sounds of your roommate Stacy apparently going for round two with this month's beau.

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