CHAPTER 16 -

As I woke, I felt calmer than I had in a long time. I felt at piece. I slowly got up from my bed and made my way to the closet where I picked out the days outfit before heading into my bathroom. I turned the shower on and waited for it to warm up.

I didn't remember getting into bed the night before. Of course, I remembered the first time, I remembered waking to Pietro by my side and talking to him. I remembered going to the roof, and the complete sense of content I had there with him.

I stuck my toe into the steady stream of water before stepping in, letting my body be surrounded by the warmth.

Why was he in my room in the first place? I should be concerned about that... Until I realised I wasn't. If it had been a stranger, yes, but Pietro? I trusted him. In fact, I trusted him a lot - more than most others. I had even told him about James.

Besides, waking up from the dream and seeing him there, next to me, his worried eyes looking over me... I liked it, I realised.

I stepped out of the shower and got myself ready for the day to come. I bit my lip as I picked my phone up and went into our private chat.

I slowly started to type my message, deleted it a few times, rewrote it a few times, until I decided I wasn't making it any better anyway. My thumb moved around a few milimetres above the 'send' button. I took a deep breath and pressed it.

As Pietro felt his phone buzz in his back pocket, he couldn't help but gather his eyebrows in a confused motion. He couldn't bring his phone out at that moment, and everybody with his number sat next to him anyway. Besides, of course... Veronica.

He discreetly grabbed the phone and held it under the table, ignoring Fury's prior speech about respect for authorities.

Veronica: Hey Pietro. I really enjoyed last night, and I was wondering if you'd maybe want to hang out today?

Pietro: I would love to, but I am at the Avengers meeting

Veronica: Wait, what Avengers meeting?

Pietro: The one about the box Clint left here

Pietro: I assumed you knew of it

Veronica: No, sorry, I didn't.

"How come Veronica isn't here?" Pietro asked, not realising he was interrupting a talk. The Avengers looked between each other.

"She's a kid," Natasha mentioned.

"She is an Avenger. I am sure she would like to be here," Pietro pointed out.

"We're just looking out for her, Pietro," Steve commented; "She got hurt last time she got involved."

"You get hurt as well though, don't you? As long as she is an Avenger, she will be in danger, if you just trained her so she could take care of herself..."

"That might not be for long though," Tony mentioned, facing Pietro's stare; "I'm suing her mother. Soon enough her signature won't be important. Then she won't be an Avenger."

"You are still doing that?" Pietro asked.

"You know?" Natasha asked instead.

Pietro shrugged; "Veronica mentioned it. She is under the impression you are no longer doing that. She doesn't even talk to her mother anymore, she stopped replying."

"Yes, that might have one of my demands," Tony admitted.

"They've been in touch?" Bruce interrupted.

"They've been emailing. I told Angela to stop that and to retract her signature," Tony admitted coldly.

Pietro looked up as the door was pushed open. Veronica casually spanculated in, not paying attention to the stares as she took her seat.

"Veronica," Fury mentioned.

"Pirate," Veronica replied, facing his look with a cold smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I disturbing?" she asked, looking between her relatives; "You see, I thought this was an Avengers meeting, and as I am an Avenger, I figured you just forgot my invite." She shrugged as she told her story.

"Veronica..." her dad began, but was quickly interrupted.

"No, dad! I know you don't want me here, you've made that pretty clear, but for now, I am an Avenger, and you will fucking treat me like one!"

The room went silent.

"So. What's going on?" She leaned back in her chair, spinning back and forth.

"Mind control," Natasha stated.

"Loki?" Veronica suggested, fully paying attention to Natasha.

"Dead. We're calling in Thor to hear if he knows anything that we've missed," she replied calmly.

"Do we know of anyone else who can do it? Control people like that?"

"Not yet, but it seems there is someone who can. We think that's how Clint could have left the box without even realising."

"And what was in the box?"

"Nothing," Bruce interfered; "It was empty. It was just a warning. Whoever did it was letting us know that they could do it." His face was grim and his voice dark as he explained.

The ringtone of Tony Starks phone interrupted the meeting, but like Tony Stark tends to, he didn't care, and he merely pressed 'accept' and held it against his ear.

"Woah, woah, calm down kid!" he exclaimed. Veronica turned to Pietro and smiled gently, making him lose all feeling in his toes.

"I just wanted to thank you for last night," she admitted quietly, making sure noone else heard.

"Do not thank me, it was only my pleasure," he promised her, making her smile as she turned back to the meeting, not noticing Natasha's attentious stare.

"Okay, I'm on my way," Tony decided as he hung up; "I gotta go help out Underoos."

"Oh, that Spiderboy? I wanna go, too," Veronica decided as her father stood up.

"Me too," Pietro quickly chimed in, not sure why - he did definitely not want to go.

"You're not going," Tony decided, a finger pointed towards his daugther. He nodded to Pietro.

"Actually, I am, let me just get my suit," Veronica quickly decided and stood up too.

"You don't even have a supersuit," her dad claimed, crossing him arms above his chest.

"I don't have a supersuit, but I do have my old suit," she pointed out confidently.

"Tony, Veronica, you'll go together," Fury decided, making the older Stark roll his eyes at the same time his daugher exclaimed a happy 'yes!'.

"See it as teambuilding," Fury added.

"Fine. We leave in two minutes. Whoevers not by the front door by then doesn't get to go," Tony decided, a sassy smirk plastered on his face.

"I live with you, dad. I know you take over an hour to get ready. That bed hair doesn't come from being in bed," Veronica claimed.

"Two minutes," her dad warned her instead of replying. Veronica quickly turned to Pietro; "Could you help my room?" Pietro looked unsurely between the daughter and father with his mouth open, not sure what to reply.

"Pleaaase," Veronica sang to him. He did his best not to smile as he stood up; "Come on." He quickly picked her up bridal style before leaving the room. He could feel Veronica hide her face in the crotch of his neck, and he did his best not to get distracted by her.

The run probably took less than five seconds, but they felt like an eternity. One thing is getting to spend time with the girl of your dreams, another is to hold her close as you run.

As soon as he got to her room he placed her feet on the floor and helped her gain her balance.

"It's amazing how you do that," she exclaimed as she opened the door to her walk in closet and quickly disappeared behind her clothes.

"I suppose so," Pietro mumbled as he sat down on her bed to wait.

"How do you make sure you don't run into things? How can you see?" she asked from her closet.

"It comes with the..." Pietro didn't notice he had stopped talking as Veronica came back. A pair of black, tight pants and a black sports bra. A hoodie covered her shoulders, her hair in a ponytail, and a black mask clearly meant to cover her eyes was pushed up to her forehead.

"With the what?" she asked curiously as she zipped the hoodie up far enough so you could only see the lining of the sports bra.

"The speed," Pietro ended, trying to blink the images in his head away.

"That's so cool," she mentioned as she came over to him.

"Very cool," he agreed as he picked her up once again.

"It's teambuilding, dad, Fury said so, so cheer up," I asked my father as I turned to him.

"I would already be there if it wasn't for you," my dad pointed out, blinking off before turning left.

"Yeah and if you'd just been able to keep it in your pants 17 years ago, you would've come already - Oh wait!" I added.

"Oi, watch it," he warned. I rolled my eyes as I noticed something.

"Oh, stop the car, they're right there." I pulled the mask over my eyes, making sure both the holes were the right places, and placed the hood above my head. My dad pulled the car over and got out, a finger already pointed towards me.

"I don't want you getting in any troubles. I can handle this, you stay back," he ordered as he past me. I noticed the suit flying up behind me and rolled my eyes.

"I'm not backup," I argued.

"No. Because I don't need backup, I've got this," he claimed as he pulled the mask down. I rolled my eyes but none the less leaned myself against the ferrari and watched from a distance.

"Hey, kid, how's it going?" I heard him ask the kid in blue and red.

Kind of like Cap, I thought to myself.

"Oh, hey mr Stark," Spider-man greeted in what was clearly a boys voice. I noticed movement from the surrounded bushes and stretched my neck in order to see properly.

Was someone there? I pushed myself off the car and took a few steps.

The streetlights didn't shine that far, and I instead went over the cold sidewalk so I too was near the bushes.

"I think I got them all," I heard the kid exclaim proudly.

"Yeah? That's good, then," my dad replied as I was almost where I'd seen the shadow. Although, technically, I was The Shadow.

I felt a pull from behind, and immediately swung my legs up, using the momentum to knock the person down while I stood soundly on my feet. I looked at the person on the ground as I put my hands in my pockets, casually waiting for the guy to get up.

"You okay?" I asked as the middleaged bald dude got on his feet; "If I'd known you were old I would have gone gently on you."

"I am not old!" he claimed, clearly aching.

"Okay-dokey, whatever you say," I agreed with a shrug; "Anyway, you're a bad guy, right?"

He thought for a second, standing with his hands on his knees, kind of looking like the meme; "You could say so."

"Ah. Too bad," I decided, effortlessly knocking him over once again, this time ending with my foot on his chest, holding him down.

"So, wanna spill your secret plans, or do I have to hurt you?" I asked in a bored voice.

"What? I'm not telling you anything, you bitch! Who even are you?" the guy asked as he pushed to get up.

"Oi! Language!" I said, pushing my foot harder on his chest; "Now, who are you?"

"I'm no one, man!" he argued loudly; "But he is." I slowly turned around, but couldn't help but regret it as soon as I did. I felt my body being knocked over and my back hitting the ground before quickly getting on my feet, taking a step backwards for every step the guy in front of me took towards me.

"I guess the talking's over, huh?" I asked rhetorically as I walked further back, a nervous smile covering my face.

"Fine by me." I quickly got to my knees, pushed my lower leg through the air, hitting the guys legs and knocking him over.

I turned to the other guy in time to avoid his punch and throw one myself, which he quickly blocked.

The fighting went on for about ten seconds before I felt something that made me froze.

"Oh... Hey there," I greeted, the cold metal from the guns mouth resting on my temple.

"Not so smart now, are you?" he asked quietly.

"Well," I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying to wiggle my way out of his grip on me; "I won't be if you blow out my brains.

"Tempting," he mumbled to himself as his finger rested surely on the trigger.

"Oh. Hey there." The spider landed gracefully on his feet in front of us; "Hey guys." He lifted his hand and quickly sent a string of webs towards the guy behind me, pulling his gunholding hand away from my temple, finally giving me the chance to turn around and take it from him. I quickly turned it against him, holding it with both my hands.

"This is a Glock 22," I stated; "Pretty popular amongst police." He slowly raised his hands in front of him, showing his free hands.

"So, is this yours? Or did you either, A, steal it from a cop, or B, you are a cop?" I asked, distracting him from my dad slowly landing behind him.

"That's none of your business," he said surely.

"Well, if this is yours, I know I'd like to see the papers for that," I mentioned right before the guy hit my fathers metal chest.

"Enough playing detective, kid, we've got him," my dad mentioned.

"I'll bring him to Coulson, he can take care of this," he decided; "You get the car home, okay? Key's in it."

"Oh, and good work Spidey, you're invited to my daughter's birthday!" With those words, fire ignited from beneath his suit, and within five seconds he was on his way off.

"I don't have a drivers license! And why on earth would you leave the keys in a ferrari when we're in Queens?" I asked frustrated. I rolled my eyes, but none-the-less turned to the masked kid.

"So, need a lift home?" I asked, casually walking towards the car.

"Uh, no, I'll just swing home. If I even have one. Maybe I live in a layer," he mentioned, trying to sound casual. I smiled at him.

"Chill, Parker, I know it's you."

"Who's Parker? My name's Spiderman!" he claimed.

"First name Spider, last name Man? Peter, don't be stupid, I recognized your voice from the beginning," I said, pulling my own mask off.

"Wait, Veronica? Since when are you a superhero?" Peter asked, pulling his own mask off. His hair stood up and was a mix of bed-hair and hat-hair, while his eyes was curiously eyeing me.

"Since a few years back, actually. How about you? Since when did you turn into a spider?" I asked, equally curious as I entered the car and turned the keys.

"About a year ago," he explained with a shrug as he fastened the seatbelt; "When did you get your license?"

"I didn't. But how hard can it be, right?"