Chapter 3

I was packing up my things from my desk. I was just about ready to leave for the evening but Tony popped his head out of his office.

"Pssst, Riley!" He whispered and I looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

"What?" I asked him and he motioned for me to follow him as he disappeared from the double doors. I sighed and followed. I closed the door behind me and I walked to his desk. He motioned for me to sit and I took my shoulder bag off and put it on the chair next to me and flopped onto the leather cushioned seat. I could've fallen asleep in it, it was so comfy. "Tony can you hurry up? I've got a dinner with my parents to get to."

"I appreciated how you snapped back into action earlier. I appreciate that you had been there, I'm giving you a raise." He smiled at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Really Tony? You keep giving me raises for the slightest things. Last month you gave me a raise for just attending a gala with you and pepper."

"You don't want the raise?" He questioned.

"No I'll accept it, but the next one isn't going to be for a while. I want to be able to earn it and not by something stupid."

"Alright. I know you're a sucker for planning Riley, been so your my personal assistant I want you to start planning mine and peppers wedding." He said.

"Wait what?! You and Pepper are finally engaged?!" I exclaimed.

"Well I need to propose and she needs to say yes."

"Well I won't start until she does."

"Alright."

"How are you going to do it?"

"I'm taking her out to dinner and we'll have an amazing view and she loves her view. I'll get down on my knee and she'll turn around and I'll propose there."

"Awh! That sounds really nice. That's made my day. Anyway is that it?"

"Uh yeah."

"Okay well keep me updated." I stood and grabbed my bag. I smiled at him and turned to start towards the door.

I approached the door grabbed the door handle but before I could open the door I heard Tony say my name. I looked back over my shoulder.

"Try to get along with Peter okay? He wants to make amends. Don't tell him I told you cause it's not my business and he'd kill me being the youngster he is. Just give him a chance, if you want to be angry at someone then be angry at me. After all, the stark internship he made up about Spider-Man was because I recruited him to go up against Cap with me."

I couldn't find myself to reply to it, it was as if I had forgotten how to speak. Everything he had said had a truth to it and I felt bad for putting it all on Peter's shoulders. He had recognised me instantly when he had saw me today and he hasn't seen me in a good few years.

I nodded and opened the door and walked to the elevator. I pushed the button to call the elevator and I entered it as it opened. I pressed the ground floor and it closed the doors. The elevator started to move and soon enough if it was on the ground floor. The doors opened up and I stepped out I walked out signing out of the building first as required. It was a security measure because Tony likes to know his buildings are secure just in case Pepper is in them.

I walked out of the building and turned around a corner and bumped into someone. I regained my balance and looked ahead and I saw Ned. We both smiled at the same time. His smile was bigger than mine as always. He had such a nice smile.

"Riley!" He exclaimed and I laughed a little bit.

"Hey Ned, how are you?" I asked him.

"I'm great, what about you? You look amazing." He said and I chuckled the boy was always charming just like Peter. Maybe that's what made them best friends.

"Yeah, I'm doing good." I smiled.

"What- What're you doing now? Job wise?" He asked and I pointed to the building we were next to. He looked up at it and his eyes went wide. "You work for Tony Stark?!"

"Uhm, yeah. I'm his personal assistant. What about you? What're you doing with yourself nowadays?"

"Oh, I'm interning at a science engineering company. It's not a really big company but it's something."

"Hey, you want to go grab a coffee and catch up? I've got time to spare." I suggested.

"Am I able to take a rain-check? I was actually going an errand for the company. I'm working late tonight. You still have my number right though? We can maybe arrange to meet at a more suitable time?" He said, he obviously felt bad.

"Of course! I never deleted your number. I take it it's still the same?"

"Yeah same old number, same old me." He said and laughed a little.

Awh, Ned.

"Maybe we can invite Peter as well?" I suggested a little reluctantly.

"Yes! Oh my god! Yes!" He got really excited and it made me laugh.

"Alright I'll let you go Ned, it was nice seeing you again." I smiled and he had the boyish smile he used to have on.

"Yes, it was great seeing you again! I'll text you!" He said and scattered off. I chuckled and continued to proceed down the road.

I was going to grab a taxi cab but I had decided against it. I could walk it besides it was a nice day. I got close to my parents house and knew there was a short cut. I didn't know whether or not to take it as it wasn't a good idea on most days. I stood pondering about it and studied it to see if there was any movement in there. I decided it wasn't worth the risk. I carried on down the street I was on.

About ten minutes later I arrived at the house. I grabbed my keys out and opened the door. I stepped inside and there was jazz music playing. I smiled to the sound. Steve loved his jazz music and had always danced around at it. I walked further into the house and the smell of Kate cooking was heavenly. I walked to the kitchen and she was in her own world, she always was when she cooked. She loved it so much. I leaned on the door frame and noticed she was doing my favourite. Shepherd's Pie.

"Now, I don't know if you know but that smells heavenly." I stated and knocked her out of her own world. I made her jump and she looked over at me. She came over to me and hugged me.

"Oh, sweetie! You look lovely, it's nice to see you take care of yourself since you've moved out." She said and pinched my cheeks. I always disliked it when she did that so I took her hands away and rubbed my cheeks so she couldn't do it again.

She chuckled to herself and went back to cooking. "The dinner smells great honey," Steve wondered over to the kitchen. He saw me and rubbed his eyes and then looked at me. I raised my eyebrow at him and he came running to me and hugged me. "Riley! I'm so happy you've come to visit!" I laughed at him this was his goofy side.

"I've come for dinner Steve." I told him and he looked at Kate and approved.

"So that's why you were doing shepherd's pie." He said and grabbed the placemats so I grabbed the cutlery. "Nuh-uh! You're our guest!" He said trying to get them off me and utterly failing perks of being small and wearing heels.

"Do not make me stand on your feet." I told him and he stepped away and looked at my feet and his eyes widened. He looked at me and pinched my cheeks.

"Who are you and what have you done with Riley? She never wears heels!" He asked and I glared at him stepping back and rubbing my cheeks again.

"It's required for my job." I rolled my eyes at him. I walked into the front room and I started placing the cutlery on the table. Steve followed by placing the table mats on the table where I had put the cutlery.

Soon enough we had sat down and started eating. I was in heaven with Kate's cooking. She was such a good cook, she had her own recipes and everything. She had always been told she could become a five star chef with recipes she had in no time. Steve always got agitated when someone said that as he wanted the food she cooked to himself.

"Riley, when you phoned earlier you sounded a little off. What's happened?" Kate asked me after we had finished eating.

I sighed and I stayed quiet for a minute, I was about to speak but Steve beat me to it. "Riley, you work for Tony Stark, Iron man. We worry about you when we know you're in that tower. He has enemies and they're dangerous. We want to know what was wrong, you don't have to carry whatever happened today on your own shoulders. That's what we're here for."

I smiled at him and nodded, "Thank you. You both have done so much for me when you didn't need to. You know when I went to high school and I freaked out because I was so scared?"

"Yes we do, you had read horror stories that people had posted on the internet about things that had happened to them during high school." Kate chuckled making me chuckle as well.

"Yes, I really shouldn't have done that. When I got there I saw Peter was there and we stuck together with Ned throughout high school. Until he went all private and odd. I made close friends with Liz after that. Well today at the tower, I sat through my first avengers meeting. I had met the avengers, but before I met them I met Peter there."

"Oh did he finally reach out to you and arrange to meet you there?" Kate asked and I shook my head no. Steve just watched and observed me listening to what I saying.

"I had thought that he was still doing the Stark internship when I saw him with Tony, but I hadn't seen him around the tower before. I had asked what was going on and Tony just let Peter speak. The reason why he went all funny with the so called Stark internship and we hadn't seen him at high school for a whole month was because he is Spider-Man. When he had a month off he must've been hurt really badly."

"Peter is Spider-Man? Just like Tony Stark is Ironman?" Steve asked and I nodded. He chuckled. "Guess I'm going to have to have a talk with Peter if he's coming back in your life."

"I don't even know if I want him to start talking with me again. He seemed genuine earlier when he had told me that he thought he hadn't lost me."

"Men are very confusing." Kate stated and I laughed and agreed. It is true. Truth be told, men are just confusing as women.

"Well why don't you just relax Riley? This could be a sign that you two were never meant to stop being friends. He was one of the few people who managed to keep you calm if you got angry or so."

"Maybe, I think I'm just going to go home so I can have a good nights sleep." I told them but Kate jumped in right away.

"There's no need, you're room is still set up. We haven't really moved anything out of it. If you want to stay you can use your bedroom." She explained and I smiled. I think they missed me.

"Well in that case, I'll stay." I told them and Steve and Kate smiled at each other. I really did owe them everything.

The evening went quicker than usual. We had all cleaned up the kitchen and table, afterwards having some pudding. Then we cleaned up again. It was a nice evening. We watched a film with popcorn and sweets. After that we were all pretty tired and decided to call it a night.