***

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***

"UP!"

Joey shoved the hands shaking her awake away before finally, begrudgingly, sitting up. "God," she muttered, scowling at her father who stood at her bedside.

"It's 10 AM, J," Tony complained, making his way to her door. "Pep doesn't have much wiggle room in her schedule these days. If we're going out today, we need to leave soon. I'll meet you in the garage."

Her bedroom door fell shut behind him as he left, and as she got up to get ready, her phone rang.

"Hello?" She yawned into the phone, before putting it on speaker so she could change her clothes and get ready to leave while she talked.

"Are you just now waking up?" Heidi asked, her judgment seeping through the phone.

"You too?" Joey scoffed. "It's Saturday, people. I'm allowed to sleep in a little."

She set her phone on her dresser, which she then dug through for acceptable clothing.

"That building operates like a machine," her mother reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah," Joey dismissed. "I just got this talk from Dad. No wiggle room on the schedule." She sighed. "I know."

"What's on your agenda today?" Heidi moved on.

"I'm going out with Dad and Pep. We're heading into the city, I think. Lunch and errands, and stuff."

"Fun," Heidi cooed. "I miss you."

"I miss you too, Mom," Joey smiled. "What are you up to? How are you settling in?"

"It's been just fine," Heidi reassured. "It's been nice getting to know the kids a little better. I understand why you and Lila get along so well."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she went on. "Laura's introduced me to a bunch of her friends, so I'm starting to find my place with all of them. And I've been trying to help out on the farm a little bit."

Joey snickered.

"Don't laugh!" Heidi laughed. "I know it's not my scene."

"No it is not," Joey concurred.

"I just feel like I should do my part, you know? So I've been, you know, watering plants and things like that when I can. I'm scared to go near the chickens, I feel like I'm going to get pecked; but Laura said the chickens are the kids' responsibility anyway."

Joey smiled. "That's amazing, Mom. I'm sure Laura appreciates the help."

"I hope so," she agreed. "She and Lila have been trying to convince me for days now to let them teach me to ride the horses. But that might be above my pay grade," she joked.

"I don't know," Joey countered. "That might be fun. Horses don't peck, after all."

"Oh, hush," her mom chuckled. "We'll see. If I give in, I'll let you know."

"I can't wait."

Joey stepped out of her room then, having changed into jeans and a tee. She brought her phone to her ear again.

"OK. I have to go meet Dad downstairs before he talks my ear off about Pep's schedule again," she told her mom, a little quieter now that she was out in the open.

"Alright, baby," Heidi replied. "I love you. Have fun with Dad and Pep."

"I will. Love you, too."

"Bye, honey."

"Bye."

*

Joey did a double take every time she looked at either of her parents as they perused through the mall.

Being public figures, with a daughter who was very much not, the two of them followed the same protocol everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. did when they didn't want to be recognized: widow-tech nano masks.

Rather than the programmed ones Joey had seen Pietro use on missions, these ones were of a more basic variety. She wasn't exempt from the mask's effects this time around— she could see how the technology had modified her parents' features just enough that they weren't recognizable as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Like Joey's tenth-grade social science teacher who looked eerily like Glen Powell, her parents right now looked eerily like themselves. Only, not quite.

So as they wandered from store to store, Joey wasn't the only one giving them weird looks— everyone else thought they looked familiar, too. They just couldn't place why.

Joey had half a mind to wonder what things would be like right now if they didn't have to have their disguises on. Lord knows Tony had no problem with the public recognizing and adoring him. But with Joey here, he couldn't. What if they could just be Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, and Joey their daughter? Would people like her? Would they crowd around while they shopped? Would they have security with them? Would it be easier than this?

They meandered into another store, and her mind still wandered. Her eyes caught an Avengers flier pinned on the bulletin board behind the counter, and she glanced at her parents. What was it like, to truly be a part of that?

"Do you think Ramona would like something like this?" Pepper asked, breaking Joey out of her thoughts. She was gesturing to a display of notebooks, of the same design but different colors.

"Shop for other residents on work hours, Pep," Tony said. "You're here to shop for you."

"Besides," Joey cut in. "I'm sure the Banners and the Parkers are both gonna go overboard on school supplies for Ramona, when the time comes."

"I know, I know," Pepper scoffed, shooing them with her hands. "I can't help it. My brain is hardwired to the compound."

"Which is why you're CEO," Tony chimed. Pepper made a face. "I love you, honey," he added, grinning.

"Speaking of other residents," Joey cut in, "Eris and Peter's birthday is in a few days. If you're planning on getting them anything."

"Knowing me is a gift," Tony responded.

"No it isn't," Pepper and Joey chorused, each making a face equal to an eye roll. "You should get them something! Or at least Peter," Joey went on. "It would make his year. It might just make his entire life."

"The kid does adore your father, doesn't he?" Pepper laughed.

"Yes," Joey confirmed. "You know, at the beginning of the summer, Mom was trying to convince me to come here, and I told her I wouldn't because I was worried I would ruin Peter's perception of you. He harps on and on about his Stark Internship to anyone who will listen."

"I am a national treasure," Tony boasted again, nodding.

"Oh my god," Joey laughed. "I can't stand you."

They walked up and down the next few aisles, tossing various items into the basket on Joey's arm, before checking out and doing it all again in the next store, and then the next store, and then the next store. Along the way she'd found a yellow mug with little suns on it, which she planned on giving Eris for her birthday gift.

They were getting ready to check out of yet another shop, when Joey spotted what she decided was going to be Peter's gift.

"Oh, that is so cute!" Pepper chirped when she noticed the trinket in Joey's hand: a Lego Spider-Man keychain.

"I wonder if Lego knows they're capitalizing off a 17-year-old decathlon kid," Joey said. She giggled as she flipped the figurine around in her hand. "Oh, he's gonna hate this."

She thought then about the Spider-Man calendar she had once seen hanging on the wall in Peter's room, though— who was she kidding? She knew he would love this.

*

It was a risk, of sorts.

It wasn't like Joey had never slept in Pietro's room before. But since they'd been officially together, Pietro always found a way to slip, "You should sleep in my room tonight" into the conversation. Joey, on the other hand, tended to be more logical about this. Joey tended to be more logical about many things in their relationship.

It was a Tuesday night. Typically, on weeknights, Joey was pretty adamant about not spending the night in Pietro's room— there was training in the morning, and everyone would be getting out of their rooms at about the same time. She and Pietro, leaving out of the same room, first thing in the morning? Yeah, right.

But, despite her better judgment, she not-so-reluctantly gave in to Pietro's suggestion. "You should sleep in my room tonight," he had said. At Joey's denial, he then proposed, "Or I can sleep in here?" In spite of herself... how could she argue with that?

It was 12:30 in the morning now, so while it wasn't technically the night anymore, the two of them were finally coming inside from their balcony. The overhead lights were turned off, and instead, a small lamp across the room on Joey's dresser was flicked on, filling the room with a dim, warm light.

Pietro lay in bed first, and before Joey joined him, she opened up her closet and pulled out a gray hoodie.

"Is that mine?" He asked as she pulled it on.

She looked down. "Not anymore."

Unlike Pietro, who was lying on top of the covers, Joey wanted to get under them. She pulled up the blankets, but they didn't budge much under Pietro.

"Move over, deadweight!" Joey said pointedly, quietly enough that Scott wouldn't hear her through the wall their rooms shared. She yanked on the blankets again.

Pietro laughed, moving over. "Give me a minute, would you?"

"It's frigid! I'm getting under the blankets! And you are so not getting this sweatshirt back."

"Good," Pietro told her, settling under the blankets himself now. "It looks much better on you."

Joey rolled her eyes. Of course, he would say that. Even about her stealing what she knew was one of his favorite pieces of clothing.

"Where have you been all day?" He wondered.

The two of them faced each other as they lay. Joey's hands were wrapped up in her sleeves for extra warmth— she had her ceiling fan on, for Pietro's sake; she knew he liked to keep his room cold— and when Pietro noticed this, he took her hands in his. She let him.

"I went out to run errands with my dad and Pep," she told him. "My dad wanted to shop around, Pep wanted to get out of here for a few hours since her schedule finally allowed it. I came along for the ride."

"Sounds fun," Pietro hummed.

"It was." Joey nodded. "A little weird with the widow-tech they had on. I haven't been out with them like that since I was little, and they didn't need to do all that. But it was fun. My dad bought a bunch of random crap for his lab and his office and his cars and stuff. Pep tried to buy stuff for basically everyone but herself. But I got Peter and Eris' birthday gifts."

"Oh, that's right," Pietro remembered. "Their birthday is on Wednesday. Thursday."

"Wednesday," Joey confirmed, delighted. "Wow, you remembered that!"

"Oh, please," Pietro said. "It is that hard to believe I can remember my best friend's birthday?"

"A little," Joey joked.

"What did you get them?" He asked, moving on.

"I got Eris a mug with this little sun design on it," she said. "And I got Peter a Spider-Man keychain." She laughed. "I think he's going to be embarrassed, but he'll secretly love it. I know he will."

"Sounds like Parker," Pietro smiled. At this point he was barely holding either of her hands— now, he was just tracing different shapes onto the back of them, distractedly. "Well, this morning, I patrolled," he told his girlfriend. "Nothing interesting really happened. Nothing interesting usually does happen on patrol, though."

"Carrelli was telling me about that the other day," Joey mentioned. "Patrolling. Do you patrol a lot?"

Pietro made a face. "Not much. Just when I do not have anything better to do. I used to a lot, when I first came here. It helped to get out of the building at first. Clear my head, and things like that."

Joey hummed.

"Why do you ask?"

She shook her head. "Just curious. Meg said I'm eligible for patrolling hours, I guess, now that we've been on so many missions."

"I see," Pietro said. "Do you think you will pick any up?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Leaving for missions is already risky enough as it is, for me. I don't know that patrolling on even randomer hours would be in my best interest at the moment."

"That is true," he agreed. "Not that things not being in your best interest has stopped you before." A sly grin grew on his face.

"Oh," Joey said. "You mean like me, now, letting you spend the night in my room when you could be asleep down the hall?"

Pietro's smirk didn't fade, but he did blush slightly.

"Mm, maybe something like that," he ribbed.

"Got it," Joey said. A small silence fell between them, and an easy smile rested on Joey's lips. Now that Pietro wasn't holding her hands anymore, she slid her hands back into her sleeves before pulling them close to the pillow to rest her head on them. A few strands of hair fell into her face in the movement, and Pietro tucked them behind her ear easily.

Pietro sighed. "Doamne, ești frumoasă."

Joey might not speak Sokovian, but she wasn't blind to context clues. Her smile widened, if only noticeable by the way her eyes crinkled at their corners. He picked up another strand of hair, and he twirled it around his fingers.

"I want to take you out on a date," he whispered. Joey's heart squeezed.

"I would love that," she told him. Her mind raced with make-believe images of the two of them over a picnic, and a movie, and an art museum, and countless other romantic excursions. Countless other situations that felt lightyears away from possible.

"I want to take you to the city," he described. "We would go for dinner, a walk, maybe a show. I don't know."

"That sounds wonderful," she said, her voice a whisper just a touch away from desperate. She wanted this, badly. She wanted to be with him.

"I think we could make it work," he went on. "I mean, obviously you and I cannot just pick up and leave this place together. But we can... I don't know. I will say I picked up some patrol hours, and you can say you... wanted to get out of the house for a night."

Joey smiled. He dropped the strand of hair he'd been playing with, and he sighed quietly again, allowing his thumb to trace her cheek before letting his hand fall.

"I wish this was easier," Joey admitted. "Not that this is hard, but... you know. I wish we didn't have to worry. About other people."

Her brows pulled together slightly. She felt awful for Pietro. Sure, this was a difficult situation for her, but she knew it was worse for him. Her dad may not be thrilled that she and Pietro had started a relationship, but she knew at the end of the day he'd be forgiving; maybe not so much about her signing onto S.H.I.E.L.D. behind his back, but at least of her falling for someone unlikely. Tony and Pietro may not like each other much, but they had a working relationship. Pietro lived in his building, after all.

Wanda on the other hand? Joey couldn't recall an exchange where she didn't get a snide remark, or at the very least, a dirty look from Wanda in passing. Sure, she hadn't peeked into Joey's thoughts in a while, but her blatant aversion to her was clear. Pietro may not be the only secret Joey was keeping, but Joey was the only secret Pietro had to keep. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she was the only secret he ever had to keep. And Joey may not agree with Wanda's logic, in terms of what she had against her, but she did understand the reasoning.

Pietro was all Wanda had left. Joey's father destroyed everything else they ever knew.

Wanda was all Pietro had left. And Joey could barely stand to watch him risk that, all for her.

"Me too," he agreed.

He leaned in then, and she met his lips with hers. The kiss was short, but it was sweet.

"What else did you do today?" Joey asked him. "Besides patrol."

Pietro made a face. She could tell he had dimmed slightly from the truth of their last conversation— there really was no telling if or when they would be able to spend a day out together, with no precautions necessary. She couldn't blame him; her mind was still slightly preoccupied with worries as well. "Nothing special," he told her. "I went for a run. Went for a swim, too."

"Are you a good swimmer?"

Pietro made another face— this time, one that said, look who you're talking to. "I am good at everything," he replied.

"Oh, right. I forgot."

Pietro grinned. Joey smacked him.

"You're an idiot. I'm gonna get you kicked out of here."

"No, you are not," Pietro said matter-of-factly. His eyes fluttered funnily when he said this, and Joey pieced that and the thickening of his accent together to gauge how tired he must be right now.

"My dad runs this place. And I'm his favorite daughter."

"I am pretty sure you are his only daughter," Pietro countered.

"I have six sisters and a brother," she told him. His eyes widened. "I'm kidding, you idiot," Joey laughed, following his lack of response. "God, you're tired. And gullible."

He shook his head. "No," he said coolly. "You cannot blame me for thinking there may be truth to your father having seven other children besides you."

Joey rolled her eyes, and she bit back a smile. No, she couldn't blame him. Sometimes, she thought there may be a little truth to her joke after all, with some of the things she had overheard Pepper say about her father and his ex-girlfriends— at least the several that were around between him meeting Pepper, and marrying her.

"Seven siblings or not," Joey went on. She flicked off the lamp across the room, telekinetically. "Let's go to sleep."

"I do not want to," he protested, pulling Joey closer to him.

She looked at him blankly, before smiling slightly. "You sound like me."

"You sound like me," he contrasted.

"And that, my friend, is how you know it's time to sleep," Joey quipped, poking him in the chest.

Pietro conspicuously looked down at Joey's hands on his chest, and he arm around her waist, with their proximity in her bed, and back to her eyes.

"I am not your friend," he said flatly.

"You're ridiculous!" Joey huffed. With that, she closed her eyes.

A beat of silence passed between them.

"Joey," he said.

"Shh! I'm sleeping."

"You are full of shit," Pietro deadpanned.

Joey opened one eye. "Watch your language, Quicksilver."

Pietro choked out a laugh. "Not fair! You cannot hero-name me when you do not even have a hero-name!"

Both of her eyes were open now, and she was laughing as she fought away the hand that Pietro was shoving in her face. Her victory came when she grabbed both of his hands and kissed him as a fair distraction.

He looked at her. She looked at him.

He yawned.

"Pietro!" She whined. "That's it. We are going to sleep."

"No—"

Joey silenced him by shoving a pillow in his face as she turned over to her other side. He tossed it to the side and wrapped his arm around her— a retaliation and a resignation.

He sighed and kissed her head. "Goodnight," he whispered.

Joey smiled, her eyes already shut. "Goodnight."

***

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