"Are you sure you want to follow me shopping?" I looked at Peter with narrowed eyes. Making him feel intimidated was amusing. I didn't know someone as chatty as him could feel that way.

     Peter's Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped. If I didn't pay attention to him, I wouldn't see him nodding his head. "Yes, I'm sure," he answered, cowarding at the far end of the seat.

     "You'll hurt your legs because you won't be able to sit," I said. "You'll get bored because I'm not the type of a fast-shopper."

     "Fast-shopper?"

     "Someone who shops quickly?" I answered. I didn't want to admit that I was lying to him. I was the opposite type of the person I described to him, but, like I said, it was amusing to see him intimidated by me. No one had ever made me feel this way.

     "But you- we'll get something to eat, right?" he asked. "Before you go shopping?"

     I smiled when he mentioned about eating. "For sure, don't worry."

     Minutes after that, we hopped out of the car. My driver left me and Peter alone at the front gate of the mall to find a parking space somewhere in the building. We walked side by side, but I was still leading him. I got a feeling that Peter was being watched by the locals, but that was because he was with me. People around us were staring at me to be truth. Why? Because I was a Stark. Even though I go to the same mall everyday, people were still curious of my existence there.

     Some said hi to me and I couldn't help but to smile and say hi to them back. In just a second, I was a celebrity and being a celebrity, I couldn't get away from people asking for a picture, in which I had to decline politely because I had a time limit today. But the big thing was that, I was very happy that no one stopped me just to ask about my father. Maybe they already know. The news spread fast nowadays.

     Peter was too afraid to open his mouth and say anything to me about the locals. I wonder what will he do if they know who Peter Parker is. And I wondered how he handle it. It must be adorable seeing him taking pictures with small kids and all. But the thought of him hugging other girls made me roll my eyes.

     Wait, why did I even think of that?

     Not long after that, we reached Pizza Hut. We sat at an open area, a table for two. I ordered the set according to the voucher I received two months ago from book-shopping and Peter didn't object anything at all. I asked and confirmed him if he didn't want any add-ons, but he just denied it. Looking at me in the eye in three seconds and then averted his eyes away while blushing.

     "Are you okay, Peter?" I asked, suddenly worried after having a very awkward silence between us. The wall between us was getting thicker and I didn't want it to happen. I didn't know why he suddenly changed because, as I recall, he wasn't like this the first time we met.

     "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered confidently. But his eyes weren't telling me the same.

     "No, you're not," I said. "You don't look comfortable. Is it me?"

     Peter stared at me again and quickly shook his head while saying no.

     "Then what's wrong?" I asked again, still was not feeling satisfied. "Is it about my father?"

     I waited for his reaction. As I expected, he didn't respond. He didn't shake his head no or nod his head yes. He just looked worried and guilty and confused. I hate my dad for bringing a youth into this mess, but who am I blame him?

     "What's in your mind, Peter?" softly I asked to persuade him. "If you were going to keep quiet like this, I'll just have to ask my driver to pick you up and send you to the airport right now. You can wait me there or have an early flight without me. I can tell my father that you want to be alone."

     "No, it's not about you," Peter told me after a few seconds. "I just....I'm sorry. I guess what happened still shock me."

     I smiled sweetly at him. "Don't apologise to me, Peter. I think I'm the one who should be apologising to you. My father dragged you after all. He-"

     "Please stop talking," Peter snapped, in which caught me speechless. As I stared at him in surprise, Peter quickly gave me an apologetic look and said, "Sor-sorry. I-I didn't want to remember, please. Can we talk about something else? I just....I don't want to think about it at the moment."

     "Oh." I gulped. I felt guilty though I believe I was innocent. "Well, what do you want to talk about?"

     Peter opened his mouth to speak, but abruptly stopped when a waitress came with our drinks.

     "Thanks," we said in unison. The waitress nodded and smiled before turning around, leaving us alone once again.

     "So?" I raised my eyebrows.

     "Hm," he hummed while thinking. "Can we talk about you?"

     "Me?" I asked, surprised. My heart leapt when his question crossed my ears and I felt my face hot. "Why me? Why not talk about you? You have better hobbies, I heard."

     Peter laughed. I guessed he understood that I was talking about his inventions before Dad met him. "No, I'm nothing compared to you," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm seriously interested in you since the first time we talked."

     "Interested in me?" I asked, surprised again, suddenly, felt self-conscious. I tucked my hair behind my ear shyly and nervously laughed.

     Obviously, this version of Peter was not the version I knew....and expected. He was so chatty and alive when I first met him. He knew how to distract me when I was all thinking about my mother when Dad and I came to recruit him a few weeks ago. He looked younger, though his face already didn't look his age, but right now he looked more mature and sweet like the chatty Peter and the serious Peter are two different people.

     What's with everyone nowadays? Dad was getting stressed day by day especially with Rhodey's condition and with his relationship with Mom. Steve Rogers was turning his back from Dad for this man called Bucky, and then everybody was keeping secrets from me. Dad didn't tell me--

     "Wait, wait, I don't think I want to-" I snapped, but stopped myself from saying it more when I remember Peter didn't want to be asked about it. "Oh, that's okay. Let's just talk about me."

     "Is there anything bothering you?"

     Right, now, we both have questions lingering around our heads what we didn't intend to tell each other. If Peter didn't want to be asked or remembered, it was sure enough that what happened was tragic. The fight was, of course, too violent. They were Avengers, after all, and they were extraordinary. Dad was using his Iron Man suit with Rhodey. Scarlet Witch; Vision. And then Bucky had a metal arm. If Dad could recruit Spiderman, I wonder who else Steve called for help.

     But I just wanted to know what happened, about my dad and all. I wanted to know why Dad suddenly wanted to find answers when he thinks was right. Or was he not?

     I started to get anxious.

     "Terri--"

     "Yeah, I'm sorry," I woke up from my day dream - or rather it was my daymare.

     After a little assurance to Peter that I was okay, Peter and I finally engaged into comfortable conversations that did not include about the war. We paused when the same waitress came with our pizza and we continued to talk about Peter's passion in technologies right after.

     When we talked about my passion in trying to ride every motorcycle on Earth, I realised how Peter had become himself again. I became more open with him with everything I think about and he seemed to take them a joke, rather taking them all seriously. It could be good since we both needed distraction out of different reasons.

     We literally took two hours to finish our pizzas, but that was after a few stops when Peter's Aunt May called him a few times to confirm his flight and landing and also when my mom called just to say that she missed me.

     I was in a good mood. I was travelling alone with Peter and I have no one to stop me so I told Mom quickly that I'll be flying to Queens in just a few hours and I wanted her to fetch us. Mom was quite reluctant when I mentioned Peter, but when I explained to her, she seemed to understand and was quite delighted to meet him. I hope she won't make a scene, though she was not that type.

     When we finished eating, Peter insisted on paying the bills. He accompanied me shopping while telling me great stories about his aunt and his friends at school and about his first crush.

~•••~

I couldn't stop yawning as we walked towards the imigration. Lucky I had my sunglasses on so nobody could see how worn out I was. Even though the flight was short, but I couldn't get a comfortable sleep in the plane all because of the seat and the people in the plane. Or maybe I got used with flying in Dad's jet that I got grumpy when I couldn't sleep. Peter looked fine.

     Speaking about Peter, although he looked fine, but he was also wearing a pair of sunglasses. I didn't know why, but he did. And it made him look 10 times better with it. The sunglasses fit perfect on his bony face. His jaws stood out. Although his hair was messy, but he looked flawless, like no one could ask for anything better. I'm glad I had my sunglasses on so I could enjoy staring at him without him knowing.

     "Who'll be picking us?" asked Peter. It was literally the first question/conversation we had since we fell asleep on the plane. The flight attandence was the one who woke us.

     "My mom," I answered shortly.

     Peter nodded. "Great because I don't know what to tell Aunt May yet," he said.

     I whipped my head around while standing in line at the imigration. I gave him a curious yet engry look. "Why don't you ask me earlier?"

     He smiled cheekily. "Because I thought it was weak of me to ask someone else for what I'm doing," he answered. "Plus, I'm not exactly don't know what to say. Your father told me that we're doing some sort of charity, right? I just don't know what else to tell her when she asks more and more."

     "Oh." I nodded my head understood. "You could just say you don't know if she wants to know more. Tell her that she has to call Tony herself. Dad is always good lying."

     "Yeah but the story won't tally then. And then I'll have to-"

     "Right," I cut him off. "Since I was also involved: how about you tell her we're doing the charity in Germany? Tony Stark organised them all and we were there just to help with his work."

     "And what will his work be?" he asked as he pushed me a step to the front behind my upper body.

     "Um." I pressed my lips into a thin line. "Wait, I don't know what happened between you guys there. Where did the fight taken place? What happened? Someone said something to each other?"

     Peter grimaced as he recalled what happened and sighed. "It was too nasty to remember." He lowered his voice when he added, "One guy literally turned into a giant human like....as tall as the airport building."

     "You guys were fighting at the airport?" I asked in shock. My loud voice caused attention from people around us and I quickly smiled nervously at them. Though they still looked at us oddly.

     "Mr Stark got beaten up badly," he said, causing my heart to drop. Not that I wasn't prepared to hear this, but it hurt me to imagine how Dad got beaten. "He helped me a lot. He stopped me from fighting anymore and asked me to be back."

     "No wonder you were so quiet," I muttered.

     "Yeap, anyway," Peter changed the topic, "about what to tell Aunt May."

     "Oh!" My eyes went wide as my mouth formed an 'o'. "Okay, I got an idea. How about you tell her that it's a charity for school. In Germany. Like, we team up with school teenagers in Germany. It think it's better."

     "That's not really bad, Miss Stark," Peter praised me, though he was also laughing at my suggestion. "I'll try to think more of it when she begins to ask creepier questions. Let's head home."

     As he finished that, it was my turn to pass the imigration and I took off my singlasses. The imigration woman looked at me with her big light brown eyes inspecting every inch of my face as if to see if there was any pimple on my face, in which it was very awkward. When she finished checking my passport and gave it to me, I exited the imigration and waited for Peter somewhere that I was allowed to stand and wait.

     When Peter emerged from one corner, I felt a smile spread on my face. I waited for him, walking beside him. I quickly said, "Did you see the woman in the imigration counter? She looked at me as if I was a foreigner like there's something not right with me."

     Peter turned around and glanced at the imigration boxes. "I don't know." He frowned and shrugged. "She looks normal to me. She even said hi to me."

     "She said hi to you?" I stared at Peter in bewilderment. "Seriously?"

     Peter laughed at me, amused. "Yeah."

     As we walked fast towards the escalator where it marked the end of our journey, I took out my phone and switched it on. Once it was ready, I noticed that I got tons of missed calls and text messages from Mom. I ignored the rest of the messages and opened the latest one. It read:

I'll be at Starbucks when you landed.

I told the same thing to Peter and we quickly read the sign, searching for Starbucks.

~•••~

"How's your aunt Peter?" Mom asked as we rode in her limousine. I was sitting with Peter side by side and Mom was sitting in front of us. Happy was driving.

     "She's great, I guess," he anwered with a little too much enthusiasm until he squeaked.

     "I hope she does," Mom answered. "Waiting for her nephew without knowing what is happening is really worrying."

     "Mom."

     My mother raised her eyebrrws at me as if she didn't understand. "How do you know Peter, Terri?" Mom asked me.

     I looked at Mom as if I'm in trouble. "Dad," I answered. "He showed me some sort of his heroic action. That's where I knew him."

     "Showed you some sort of heroic action?" Mom looked rather impressed than confused. "Can I watch it, too? I mean- uhum- if Tony allowed you to see it, Terri, than I want to see it too. He must not keep any secrets from me."

     I smiled bitterly though it sounded not right. But Mom had seen so much that by this point, there was nothing to keep from her. Now, I'm using Dad's and Rhodey's line.

     "I'll show you later," I told her. "His house is here. I need to send him back to May."

     "Okay." Mom nodded. When we hopped out the car, she didn't move to follow us. Only Happy stood against the car's passenger door to keep an eye on me.

     When soon we arrived at Petter's front door, I could see his face that he was glad there was nobody around the floor and that the door was closed so there won't be anyone watching us. I didn't know what we're doing, but I knew I'm glad that it was only us on the floor at Peter's apartment. My heart just kept on beating too fast.

     "So."

     "So," I said just a second after he said that.

     We both laughed.

     "You first," I said.

     "Me first?" Peter's eyebrow raised. "But I have nothing to say?"

     "Nothing?" I frowned. I felt my heart dropped immediately. "Nothing, really?"

     Peter bit his lower lip, battling with himself either to speak his mind or not. After a few more seconds, he said, "Yeah. Nothing."

     I faked a smile. "Okay. Think I should get going. Can't keep my mother waiting too long."

     "Okay." He nodded his head weakly as if guilty that he didn't have anything to say.

     I stepped aside to get going, but, out of my surprise, he stepped to the same side as me as if to stop me on purpose. I looked up at him with curiosity, my eagerness risen. When I looked at his brown eyes, they were twinkling under the light.

     "Um, thanks....for sending me here. Send my regards to Mr Stark. Tell him I am sorry and thanks."

     I smiled sweetly and said, "I will tell him, no worries. Take care, Peter. I'll go first."

     "Wait!" He stopped me again, stepping to the side in front of me one more time. "I actually have.....something...."

     "What is it?" I frowned.

     Peter hesitantly leant closer to me. He was doing it slowly with his eyes on me as if to see if I accepted what he was doing. I found the clue right away, and I leant closer to him too. My heart beat faster and faster when we got closer and closer. I closed my eyes when I saw him closing his eyes.

     At first, our noses touched. His pointy nose touched my pointy one. And even that, it made butterflies in my stomach went wild as if they were celebrating with me that I'm going to kiss Peter Parker. And then, I felt his soft lips brushing against mine. I didn't get to savour them lips much when he quickly connected and locked our lips together.

     He kissed me.

     And I kissed him back.

     We shared our first kiss for only a few seconds when I suddenly broke it up. By that time, my fists were clutching his shirt on his chest and his hands were on my side. His eyes stared into mine in confusion.

     "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. His eyebrows creased worriedly as if it was his fault.

     "My father," I said.

     "Your father what?" He searched for my eyes when I looked down, avoiding him.

     "He- He didn't allow me to have a boyfriend."

     As if there was something hitting him, his face showed a reaction that he snapped out of his thoughts. "Your father didn't allow you to have a boyfriend?"

     I nodded guiltily, though I was still standing in his arms. My fists had opened and I was palming his hard chest, feeling every beat of his heart.

     "But he didn't know if you didn't tell him, am I right?" He smirked.

     And it only took me that word to kiss him one more time.