Affliction (P.P.)

Part 5

(Peter POV)

Lottie's training has been going insanely well. Everyone is very proud of her. Especially me. She's been pretty good about fighting off her fainting so far, but it hasn't been tested yet. Famous last words, because me and Charlotte are at school, and in Science class. With Megan.
She sashays over to Lottie. "Aww, Penis Parker's here to protect our little Tottie Lottie." She taunts. I start to protest but Lottie puts a hand to my chest to stop me. She takes a deep breath, and looks Megan straight in the eye. "Megan, we're going to our seats, get out of the way and go back to your boyfriend." She says determined, mustering all the strength she has. Her hands are shaking slightly, telling me that she's having a harder battle in her mind. "You're so weird." Megan rolls her eyes.

"I'm not weird, I just fall out of your exceptionally narrow view of the world." And with that, Lottie turns and walks to her seat. Megan stands there for a minute, blinking. I stood there watching after Lottie, also shocked, but in a good way. Megan notices I'm still standing there, rolls her eyes, and goes back to her seat with Flash. I then run to my seat next to Charlotte. I sit down, and look over at her. She's breathing a bit heavily, and her hands are still shaking. "Hey hey hey," I soothe. I grab both her hands in mine. "You're okay. You did it. I'm so proud of you. That comeback was amazing." I smile at her. She takes a deep breath again, and the shaking in her hands ceases. "Thanks, I didn't know I had it in me to be honest." She laughs a little. "I knew you'd do it one day." I give her a side hug, then we turn towards the class. The day goes pretty well after that. I think Lottie kinda scared Megan off.

So for the next few weeks, Charlotte just keeps getting better and better. I'm sitting on the bleachers as her and Natasha train right now. I am absolutely amazed at how skilled in fighting Charlotte has become. She's not quite as good as Nat, but no one really is anyway. They finish fighting, and then stand in the middle of the fighting ring. They both go to the middle of the fighting ring, and begin their Tai Chi stuff. I notice Clint slowly creeping over to the ring, Lottie and Nat not noticing because their eyes are closed. Clint silently makes his way over to Charlotte. He puts his hands up, getting ready to pounce and-
"Don't even think about it Clint." Charlotte says. A smile takes over my face. Clint freezes. "How did you know?" He sags in defeat. "You stubbed your toe on the way in. I heard you trying not to cuss under your breath." Lottie laughs.

He smiles and shakes his head. "You've gotten almost too good over the past month or so." Clint remarks, looking Nat and Lottie over. "You should've seen her fighting. She's almost getting as good as me." Nat says. "No way, I could never." Lottie says, standing up. She walks over to the bleachers and digs through the gym bag she brought. She looks up and notices me sitting a few seats higher up. I smile at her. She gives me a big grin. She's so pretty. I walk down to where she's standing. She zips up her bag, slings it over her shoulder, then we both head over to say goodbye to Nat and Clint. After our goodbyes, we head to my apartment to hang out. "May! I'm home! I brought Charlotte!" I call when I open the door. "Oh good! She can help me cook." May says cheerily. I walk into the kitchen and give her a kiss on the cheek. "What are you making May?" Charlotte asks.

"I'm trying to cook up some Chicken Parmesan, but we'll have to see how well that goes." She jokes. May isn't exactly the greatest cook ever, but she really tries. "Well I think I'm gonna go patrol for a bit, if my two favorite ladies don't mind that is?" I laugh. May smiles and shakes her head. "Uh, actually, I wanted to talk to you about that Peter." Lottie says. I tilt my head in confusion. She grabs my hand, and leads me to my room. "I wanna go with you." She says once we're inside. I cup a hand to my ear sarcastically. "I'm sorry, what now?" I ask incredulously. "I can help you! All this fight training? It's paid off tremendously! And if there's a way I could help, that's a win win!" She insists. "Lottie..." I trail off. "Come on Peter, please?" She begs. "You could get hurt." I argue quietly, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear with my thumb.

"But we would have each other's back right? And this can just be like, a trial run. If I can't keep up, or it gets too hard, or I faint, then you can send me straight home. I promise." She says. I bite my lip and look out the window in thought. I shouldn't let her. This is a horrible idea. I look back at her. Her green eyes are big and pleading. I close my eyes and sigh. Which she knows means I've given in. "Yes! Thankyouthankyou! It'll be great!" She throws her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek. I try to ignore the adrenaline rush the kiss gave me, and put my hands on her shoulders. "Okay but there WILL be rules. One, you wear a mask of some sort. Whether it's a masquerade mask, whatever. Two, you always, ALWAYS, stay with me. I don't care what's going on. Stay. With. Me. Got that?" I ask. She nods stiffly. "And third, if it gets bad, like, guns are involved, you are going home." I say firmly. "But-"

"NO buts. I'm not getting you killed. It gets bad, you go home, or you don't come at all. Kapeesh?" I ask with a warning. She rolls her eyes. "Fine." She groans. I let go of her shoulders, go over to my closet, and open it. I pull out a Halloween costume box that I keep in there, dig through it, and I pull out a black masquerade mask. "Here, put this on. The outfit you have on should be fine." I say. "Wait, you swing, so how am I supposed to follow you?" She asks. I grin at her. "I can sort that out."
~~~~~~~~~~~
(Charlotte POV)
"PETER WHAT THE H-" I scream, but I'm cut off by the sudden lurch we make when he swings around a corner. I start to feel that slight tingle I get when the curse sneaks up on me. I am NOT going to faint if I have anything to do about it. I bury my face in Peter's neck and take a deep breath, trying to calm down.

He smells really good. I use him as my focal point again, just breathing in and out, and the feeling dies down. "How do you do this all the time?!" I yell over the wind. "It's fun!" He says with a joyous whoop as he flips, then thwips a web again before we freefall. "GAAAH! Peter! Don't do that!" I smack his head. "Hey! I'm trying to give you the full Spider-Man experience. You DID want to come with me right?" He teases. "Shut up." I laugh. We swing around the city, and do a few things here and there. We helped an old lady who got her purse stolen, returned a lost dog that was wandering the streets, and caught a pick pocket right in the act when we were watching the street from an alley way. Now we're sitting on top of a building, kicking our legs over the side.

"Thankfully tonight was a slow night." Peter jokes. "I wanted to get in on the action but I guess a lost dog, a stolen purse, and a sneak are all I'm gonna get." I laugh and role my eyes. "Depends on what types of action your into." He waggles his eyebrows teasingly. "Oh please, shut up." I laugh and shove his shoulder. He chuckles and nudges me in return. We talk and joke around some more. It's really fun. Forget the superhero part, just hanging with Peter was better. We're in the middle of talking about a chemistry test we have this week, when Peter whips his head around to look out over the city. "What?" I ask him. "Spider-Sense." He says, distractedly squinting into the distance. Suddenly, a huge flash of green light shoots from the sky down to a spot in the city a few miles away. Me and Peter look at each other. "What is that?"