Breaking the Void

Chapter 34 - A Completely Uneventful Cookie Date

(Your POV):
"Hey, Pete," I smiled at him as he opened the door of his apartment.

The look of confusion mixed with a sprinkling of annoyance melted away into a beam as he saw me standing in the hallway, "(Y/N/N), I wasn't expecting you today!"

Peter let me inside as I replied, "Well, I wasn't able to stay long last night, so I want to hear more about what happened. You said that Spidercide was taken care of, but you didn't seem all that happy about it. Also, I brought cookies to make while we talk."

"I didn't realize that you had become such a baker."

"I have you to thank for that, I'm afraid," I flashed him a smile as I began to layout the ingredients on his kitchen counter. "Ever since I helped you and May make gingerbread, I've discovered it can be quite therapeutic. Except for when something goes terribly wrong and you're forced to throw it out. Anyway, it's your turn to talk, what happened?"

I gave Peter the dry ingredients to combine in one bowl while I did the same with the wet. As Peter began measuring things out he explained, "well, Void activated her tracker, so obviously I alerted the Avengers and went to help her out. When I arrived, she seemed to have become friends with Spidercide or something, they were acting really close. I actually thought she had set me up for a minute."

"And did she?" I turned back to the recipe.

Peter shook his head, "no, she was just playing him. She turned on him a moment later, just as the Avengers arrived. But then something strange happened, she disappeared from the fight and when she reappeared, she killed Spidercide."

"Well that's good isn't it? He's not a problem anymore."

"But if she hadn't killed him, we could have questioned him. I wanted to know where he came from, how he was so similar to me. The Avengers were there, we were easily overpowering him! She didn't need to stab him! But she did and now I don't get any answers."

"The threat is gone, Pete. Can't you focus on that?"

"He knew knew me, (Y/N), he thought he was me. I'm just afraid that if we hadn't gotten to him when we did-" Peter cut off, returning his attention to the bowl in front of him.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, realizing how emotional he had become, "what were you scared of, Pete? You had the Avengers ready to rush to your aid, he wasn't going to hurt you."

"It wasn't me I was worried about," Peter confessed, glancing over at me.

"Me? Why were you worried about me?" Panic flooded through my veins as I felt my blood rushing to my head. Had he figured it out, did he know who I was?

"Spidercide seemed determined to take everything that was mine. He thought that he was me. And I can't help but wonder if he knew about you as well. What if he had hurt you?"

I moved closer to Peter in an effort to comfort him, running my fingers through his hair, "no one's going to hurt me, Pete, I promise. Even if they try, I know self defense."

"But that's the thing, (Y/N), what if that's not enough? If Spidercide had gone after you, you would have gotten hurt. I couldn't even fend him off, I doubt self defense training would have helped you. And that's how it is with most of my enemies. (Y/N), you're not safe being my girlfriend."

"What are you saying?" I froze, his words sinking in.

"I can't see you get hurt, (Y/N). And you will if you are my girlfriend."

I huffed, taking a step away from him as anger began to boil up inside of me, "no, you are absolutely not doing this to me. And what's worse is that you can't even get up the nerve to tell me that you want to break up. Well I have news for you, buddy, it's not going to happen. I love you and I am not going to let you leave me just because you are afraid of some hypothetical bad guy who might try to hurt me. It hasn't happened yet and we've been dating for almost a year, so you're clearly just overreacting. Besides, if I someone did happen to come along, I know that you'll save me. But to be fair, I'm not much for being the damsel in distress."

"(Y/N), I don't want to have to separate, but I don't want to see you get hurt. This is real life, (Y/N), the hero can't always save everyone."

"Peter, do you realize how much of a hypocrite you're being? Do you remember when I broke up with you because I was afraid?"

"But this is different-"

"How? How is it different, Peter?! When I found out that you were Spider-Man, did I leave out of fear? No, I didn't. Do you want to know why? It wasn't because I didn't recognize the danger, it was because I care about you, more that I've cared about anyone else before in my life! Yes, I know there's a risk, but I'm willing to take that to be with you. Hell, there'a a risk when I walk out the door every morning, but do I stay inside, cowering from the possibility that I might get hit by a car or caught up in some firefight? Absolutely not. You are not getting rid of me that easy. Now move over, I have to fold your ingredients into mine."

Peter stared at me in shock as I angrily grabbed the bowl he had prepared and dumped the contents into the bowl in front of me. I then tossed the bowl back over to him and began mixing. I looked over at him, "if you're done being an idiot, can you line a baking sheet with parchment paper so I can get these cookies doled out?"

"Um, sure," Peter replied, still recovering from my attack. As he placed the prepared tray on the counter next to me, I reached up to grab the back of his neck, bringing my lips to mine. He melted into the kiss, despite his reluctance at the beginning, and I smiled at him as I pulled away.

"See, you would miss that if you had actually broken things off. After we get these cookies down, I can give you a lot more than that little kiss."

Peter frowned, "when did you get so flirty?"

"I guess you bring that out of me sometimes, or maybe it's just that I get excited when you anger me."

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(A/N): Ok but aggressively baking cookies is like one of my favorite things to picture so like I had to put it in here. Also look at you go, keeping your man! I figured that this conversation had to happen eventually, what with all of the threats Peter faces so there's no time like after a dude that thinks he is Peter attacks and may even know about his girlfriend!

I almost had Peter find out he had kidnapped you in your non-supervillain (?) super-powered gray character form just to see his reaction, but things would get messy and boy do I have the big reveal all planned out already so we couldn't mess that up. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!