"L'amour platonique est le temps qui sépare la première rencontre du premier baiser."
- Paul Géraldy

  That morning, the general atmosphere in Tony Stark's house was a bit more peaceful. When he woke up, he had the pleasure to see his daughter smiling while she sprinkled sugar on her pancakes. He had been looking for the reason of her sudden good mood since she had come back from school the previous day, and he hadn't found anything. However, just before he left, Happy informed him of something that triggered his curiosity : Harper had met the young Parker. Tony had immediately hoped that he wouldn't tell her anything. He knew Harper would never tell him the truth without a good reason, he trusted her. Peter, however... Well, Tony had to admit that this boy could be quite clumsy.

  "Hey, Dad..."

  "Hm ?"

  "We have to make a lab report with a partner. It's for school. I'm going to Peter's after school today, is it okay ?"

  "Yeah, of course. I'll be working the whole afternoon, so..."

  "That's what I was thinking. But you know him, don't you ?" she said in a playful voice. "He's interning in your company."

  "Yes, I know him. Now go and don't let Happy wait for you !"

***

  When the bell finally rang, a slight feeling of anguish took a hold of Harper. She had never got to know her classmates and she had absolutely no idea how to do so. She exited her classroom and, as she tried to mentally reassure herself, she met with Peter outside the school.

  "We have to go to my place by bus," Peter said, just as shy as she was.

  Harper nodded and followed him to the bus stop where they waited a few minutes. Once on board, they made their way through the passengers to find seats.

  "You've ever been to Queens ?" he asked as a pretext to conversation.

  "No, never, I don't go out much."

  "Yeah, I got it," he agreed. "I don't either."

  Eventually they ended up in Queens and walked towards Peter's house. They stopped in front of some apartments and before going in, Peter tried to reassure her as much as himself.

  "Don't be surprised, my aunt May is...quite enthusiastic," he mumbled. "But she's nice, you'll see."

  Harper followed him inside and once they got to the door to his apartment, a very enthusiastic May Parker, indeed, greeted them.

  "You must be Harper, right ? Peter told me about you. Come in, come in. I gotta say it's quite a change to have somebody else than Ned come here !"

  May was a remarkable woman. At least, that's what Harper thought right away when she saw her way of looking at Peter. She considered him as a real mother would do and she seemed genuinely happy to see his nephew making a new friend. 

  "Did you guys eat ?" she asked. "I left sandwiches in the fridge."

  "Thanks May !"

  After she thanked her with a nod, Harper followed Peter again in his room, where he gave her a sandwich. She took it, a little embarrassed, then sat awkwardly on the boy's bed. 

  "Where do you want to start ?" she asked in a voice filled with nervousness. 

  "Well, we already listed the utensils so... We can write down the procedure. Do you remember it ?"

  "Yeah, I took some notes when we did the experiment. It's in here... Wait a minute..."

  She took a notebook out of her backpack and flipped through the pages as Peter watched her discreetly. There was all sorts of things on those pages : notes, mainly, but also memory tricks, doodles, all kinds of list and even a few drawings...

"Wow, you draw that ?" he couldn't help but ask as he sat next to her. "That's..."

"Oh, that's nothing. My father works in..."

Realising what she had almost let slip out of her mouth, she cleared her throat.

"He uses a lot of technical drawing for his job so through watching him... I picked up a few things."

"Yeah, but this is not technical drawing, its...it's really good !"

"Hum, thanks," she mumbled as her cheeks started to turn pink. "Ah, there it is !" she exclaimed as she found the procedure.

"We have the utensils, the procedure, now..."

"Observations," Harper concluded.

  Peter's eyes landed on Harper's drawing again and when he tried to turn the page, his hand brushed with hers. She looked up at him and got away from him in a subtle movement. His heart was beating loud even though he barely knew that girl. As for Harper, she felt her hand dangerously warming up. She closed her eyes a few seconds, focused as she had been taught, reminded herself of Tony's words and let herself open her eyes when the warm feeling was gone.

  "Are you alright?"

  She must've stayed like that a little bit longer than she expected. She nodded.

  "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get back to work."

  Peter nodded and took his own notebook. Without changing places, they exchanged their observations about the experiment they'd done in class. For about an hour and a half, they wrote down their observations, got to the right conclusions, all that while flipping through their books and talking a little bit, even telling jokes once in a while. When Peter told her about the time Ned almost filled a lab with laughing gas, she couldn't help but laugh out loud. She laughed so hard that she had to hold her stomach as she listened to his anecdotes. She would've loved to share some as well, but all of them were related to his father or to the electronic feats of Stark Industries.

   You still haven't told me where you live, by the way," Peter noted.

  "Oh, not so far from here. I live in New York City with my parents."

  It wasn't a lie, even though she only lived there during school periods. When Harper had started showing interest in studying in an actual school instead of doing so with J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony's artificial intelligence, the latter had decided to rehabilitate his late dad Howard Stark's old manor. He had never thought he'd be going back there someday but, once again, what wouldn't he do for his little girl ?

  "Cool. Well, I think we're done here," Peter said.

  "Already ?"

  "Yeah, I thought it'd take more time."

  Harper sighed internally. Well hidden in the subconscious part of her mind, there was a part of her that wished this group project had taken more time. The boy's company, she had to admit it, was quite pleasant. He was really sweet and his clumsiness gave him an adorable little charm. She tried to put her ideas back in place and sat up.

  "Do you want me to walk you home ?" Peter offered as he sat up after her.

  "No, I think I..."

  She couldn't finish her sentence : all she saw now were flames. They weren't the same flames as the ones in her dream, though. These ones were nourished by her most childish anger, these ones didn't consume her childhood house but the orphanage that had surprisingly agreed to take her in. The other kids were outside, crying in front of this sad picture. A woman ran to her. "What have you done ? How ? Why ?" She wanted that woman to stop yelling at her. She wanted everyone to be quiet.

  "Harper ? Harper, can you hear me ?"

  Peter's voice seemed to be coming from far away and she had to put a lot of efforts into coming to her senses. She sat up slowly with some help from Peter, who had apparently caught her when she collapsed on the ground. She didn't even remember falling.

  "Are you okay ?"

  "I...yes. How long was I like that ?" she worried.

  "Barely a few seconds," he told her, visibly worried about her.

  "Alright, thank you," she simply said. "I need to go home."

  "I'm going with you."

  "No, there's no need, really..."

  "It wasn't a proposition," he mumbled. "Something similar could happen to you on the way."

  Surprisingly enough, Harper answered with a simple "Alright" before she got her jacket and her bag back. Peter awkwardly put his hand in her back, right between her shoulder blades. A shiver ran down her spine and she walked slightly faster to slip away from his touch. She didn't want to feel that, whatever it was.

  "Aunt May, I'm walking Harper home !"

  "Be careful !" May advised with a tender look.

  After a few long minutes of silent walking, Peter finally dared to blurt out the question he'd been dying to ask.

  "What happened to you, earlier ? Not to be invasive, obviously, I..."

  "I don't know," she answered. "Honestly, I...I never felt like this before. I'll go to the doctor," she added (less honestly). "Here we are," she said once they got to her house.

  She showed him the manor, praying that Peter had never come here. If it were the case, she was screwed.

  "Wow, it's... You really live here ?"

  "Yeah, I know, it's kinda...huge. My family inherited, that's...that's why."

  Once again, it wasn't really a lie, was it ?

  "Anyhow, thanks for walking me home, it was...nice of you."

  "Oh, that was nothing. See you tomorrow ?"

  Harper nodded before climbing the stairs that led to the front door. She had just landed her hand on the handle when Peter called after her again.

  "Hey, Harper, I was just thinking...if you want, there's a lot of empty space where Ned and I eat, at school. I mean, if you're interested in, you know...eating with us ?"

  It had been so hard for him to say it that Harper let a smile appear on her face.

  "Why not," she answered. "That'd be a pleasure. See you tomorrow, Peter."

  She finally entered the manor and as for Peter, he stood there a few seconds, just to picture her laughing one more time, wondering how a girl could make him feel all that in so little time. A faint smile floated on his lips as he came back home and there, in his bedroom, in Queens, he put on his suit : he was in the mood to protect the neighbourhood.

***

Here comes Chapter 2 ! I hope you like it ; feel free to vote and to comment what you think. 
- Céline

P.S. : The quote at the beginning of the chapter is from a French poet. I didn't find any translation in English so basically it means "Platonic love is the time between the first encounter and the first kiss." I didn't want to write a translation because that's not my job and I was scared not to be close to the original meaning.