Reborn From The Void

Chapter 15 - Springing the Trap

(Your POV):
Natasha let me stay on her floor for the night, knowing the other Avengers would never think to look for me there. She promised in the morning they would have a meeting and make sure that everyone was on the same page with what happened at Nextin Pharmaceuticals.

However the meeting had to wait until after everyone got to say goodbye to Peter, who no doubt was leaving still thinking that I was a traitor. I wish I had had the opportunity to speak to him before he left, but cornering him right before he was moving away to college and while the majority of the Avengers thought I had purposefully sabotaged a mission- well, let's just say that wouldn't have been my brightest idea.

Not that I didn't try to do it. But Natasha stopped me before I could leave her floor, with a promise that she would explain to Peter why I had done what I did before he departed. I knew it would mean less coming from her, but at least he was more likely to believe her as opposed to me, who had told him more lies than I could count.

I could tell, even after Natasha and Tony spoke to the Avengers, I had lost the trust of many. But that only encouraged me to win back their trust over the next few months. I volunteered for every mission that I could, of which there were not many, but at least I could help out here and there. They were mostly focused around finding H.A.M.M.E.R., which had gone far underground, although we believed that they were still operational.

So most of my help came in the form of lab work. I spent most of my days down there with Bruce and Tony running experiments, upgrading armor, fooling around with the high tech equipment that Tony had. It was amazing how much that man could still be like a child even at forty-eight years old. But it was fun not to have serious work all of the time. Plus he told me that if I wanted to attend college the following year, I could say that I took a gap year to intern in the laboratories of Stark Industries, which would certainly look good in the eyes of most colleges and universities.

I started feeling as though maybe I had found a family. Of course, every time I could feel that way, the thought of Peter entered my head again and guilt racked my body. This was his family, that much I knew to be true. Tony felt like a father to him, how could I be intruding like this? Peter deserved this much more than I did. But if I gave up the Avengers, I wouldn't know what to do.

Peter chose to remain on campus during his fall break, which I mostly attributed to him knowing that I would be at the tower and he didn't want to deal with that. Instead, May went up and spent Thanksgiving with him, Ned, and Ned's family. It really was his loss because the Avengers certainly knew how to celebrate a holiday that was all about food.

Knowing that I couldn't cook, I instead used my skills at baking and made a few pies. Wanda led most of the cooking, having everyone check with her first before deciding upon a certain dish. This was mostly so that no one accidentally made the same thing, but it also let Wanda make sure that all of the dishes would be nutritionally balanced (meaning we wouldn't just be eating all carbs, which is probably what would have happened).

I also kept in touch with both MJ and Ned, who had really turned into my rocks throughout my transitional period. The weeks following Thanksgiving, our roles reversed and I tried to be there for them as much as possible while they suffered through finals. It came to the point that I got permission from Tony to fly some backed goods over to MIT for Ned, which I had a feeling he shared with Peter too as they were roommates.

Soon finals came to an end and my friends both returned to New York, meaning that we could actually hang out together. It was still different without Peter, but at least I knew they were hanging out with him separately as well so I didn't feel as though I was stealing them from him too.

As what would have been our two year anniversary loomed closer, it got harder to know that Peter was still ignoring me. I was fairly certain that he had blocked my number on his phone and he would avoid me whenever he swung by the tower to train, which was something Tony was making him do more of now that he lived in Massachusetts with only Ned as backup.

MJ and Ned wanted everything to go back to normal as well, even if that meant that Peter and I would just be friends. Certainly that was better than being caught in the middle of two feuding lovers. So that's how they hatched their plan. Ned hacked into Tony's phone so that he could request Peter's presence at the tower, claiming that we had gotten a new addition to the training room specifically meant for him.

I was fairly certain that Peter wouldn't buy such a feeble lie, but went down to the training room to meet with him anyway. Ned and MJ stayed with me, Ned watching Peter's movements from the tracker that Tony had replaced on Peter's suit before he went off to college. To be honest, I was rather surprised he hadn't found that yet.

As Peter entered the building, Ned and MJ wished me luck and told me that they would meet me back on his floor. Now alone, I paced nervously across the floor. I looked up to the ceiling, "hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y., could you do me a huge favor?"

"A nice cup of tea to calm you down?" Came the disembodied voice in return.

My lips twitched upwards are her remark, "honestly, that probably wouldn't be the worst idea. But I was actually wondering if, once Peter gets here, would you be willing to keep him from leaving for a few minutes? Just like make sure he doesn't just leave as soon as he sees that it's me."

"I cannot leave the elevators unoperational for long, but I will give you a few minutes."

"Thanks, F.R.I.D.A.Y., you really are the best."

"I don't think you'll be thinking that when I tell Mr. Stark that you hacked his phone. But we can discuss that later, Peter is about to arrive."

My heart stopped as I dashed behind a punching bag, just in time for the elevator doors to slide open. There were the faint sounds of footsteps approaching me, though they seemed somewhat hesitant.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter's voice called out, clearly confused as to where his mentor was.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat and the feeling that I was about to throw up. Knowing that he was just going to leave if he couldn't find Tony, I stepped out from behind the bag and met his gorgeous brown eyes.

-

(A/N): Oh boy oh boy the confrontation is up next! What do you think will happen? Also, we stan MJ and Ned for being your biggest shippers ❤️