(Mmh I wonder what this was inspired by... 👀☕️)

Peter was sneaking into Norman's office in the Oscorp building from abusing his press pass to get into a group being taken around one of the labs for a pitching assessment. Still in his civies he slipped through the large heavy wooden doors and into the office. Once inside he looked around quickly catching a flash of a reddish-copper color disappearing under the desk. He approached the desk cautiously not sure what he was going to find hiding under it. As he stepped around the corner of it he leaned down to look under finding nothing.

"Huh, that's weird I coulda swor-" Peter mumbles to himself as something hard hits him directly on the back of the head. He fell forwards knocking Norman's designer swivel chair back into the wall and landing ungraciously on the floor face first. "What the hell..."

He was roughly turned around to look at the culprit of his injury being met with the face of a very familiar twenty-one year old redhead. "Peter!?"

"Rachael?" Peter asks confused, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. "Ow..."

"Sorry...I thought you were one of the Oscorp goons." Rachael says quickly biting her lip, setting the book down she had hit him with.

"What are you doing here?" Peter whisper yells.

"Looking into Norman's recent obsession with biological weapons and the cure for cancer." Rachael replies. "What are you doing here?"

"The same thing as you." Peter responds, confused.

"Huh...guess we're both working the same case then." Rachael says walking around him and going back to searching Norman's computer for information, putting in a flash drive to collect as much data about the topic as possible so she could go through it all later and not have to worry about getting caught.

"I guess so." Peter sighs. "How you get in here?"

"The building? I came here 'representing' my dad and climbed into the bathroom vent entrance crawl in here without getting noticed." She says pointing up in the direction of a loose ceiling vent grate.

"Smart." Peter nods. "So...any chance I can barrow that information off of you? Or do I have to get my own?"

"You can have it if-" Rachael says getting cut off.

"If? Why does there always have to be an if?" Peter sighs.

She rolled her eyes at him. "If we work together."

"Together?" Peter asks confused.

"Yeah, you're gonna need someone on the outside to be able to get inside while you're Spidey-ing up on the outside. I can do that and you could be brute force if I need help. Plus you'll possibly put a villain behind bars and get the inside scoop for the Bugle. It's a win-win. So if we're being honest you kinda need me." Rachael says, pulling the flash drive out once everything was downloaded and turned to look at him. "So what do you say?"

"You make a good case Ms. Stark." Peter nods as the big wooden door to the office begins to open.

"Well you better decide fast because either I'm leaving you here or we're getting out of this together." Rachael says anxiously watching the door and glancing back at Peter. She quickly swiped a file off the desk holding it to her chest and pocketing the flash drive.

"Deal." He grabbed her by the waist, shooting a web and swinging them up into the vents putting the grate back into place so no one would notice. They both looked down through the grate as Norman and his assistant walked over to his desk. He looked around for a file he left on his desk getting frustrated when he failed to find it. Peter looked over at Rachael who he could tell ,even in the poorly lit vent, was holding a well maintained Manila folder to her chest.

"Let's get outta here." Rachael whispers turning around and started to crawl back the way she came. Peter followed shortly after her, deciding that there was definitely more to the story than he was lead on to believe.

—

"So are fries to much for the whole eating disorder thing or-?" Peter asks looking up at her, from the other side of the diner booth they were sitting at.

"Fries can work. Plus I can always work them off later if I don't eat too many." Rachael replies causally. "And I am working on it so don't feel the need to lecture me I know. Plus Johnny force fed me some carrots yesterday so don't worry I'm not completely starving."

"That's not good, but I digress." Peter sighs before putting in an order of french fries and two drinks. "So what all do you know about the chemical agents Norman's developing?"

"Not much. Just that his end goal is to cure cancer, but in the file I took it seems that his team is working on making the exact opposite. A chemical warfare agent that could kill someone in under a matter of hours. What exactly it does or where it is, is still unclear. I'm gonna go through the documents again later see if I can find anything else." Rachael explains, as a waitress sets down her iced tea and Peter's coffee.

"Yeah, okay good." Peter nods, grabbing eight packets of fake sugar from the condiment section on the table putting them all into his coffee. "Don't be afraid to call me later if you find anything."

"Okay." Rachael nods sipping her tea. "So...why did you invite me here? It can't have been to just talk about business could it? Since neither of us really know that much yet. It's not to talk about when we slept together a few weeks ago is it? 'Cause I shouldn't have-"

"It's just...we're just...just friends having lunch or...well technically a snack in my case..." Peter sighs.

"Just friends?" Rachael asks. "That's all we are now?"

"Rachael? I-" Peter starts.

"Sorry no. Friends is fine. It's probably better that way...no it is better that way. I was just-...there's just a lot of history here..." Rachael rambles her voice breaking a bit as she spoke.

"Yeah...But history doesn't always have to be a bad thing. History can have equally as many good things as bad things." Peter says quickly.

"Yeah, but no one remembers the good things. History usually only focuses on the bad things. It teaches people not to make the same mistakes they did and to not do it again." Rachael sniffles.

"History always repeats itself though. For good or for worse-" Peter says hopefully.

"But maybe it shouldn't-" Rachael sighs sadly fighting back tears.

There was a scream down the street followed by the sound of an explosion. Peter looked out the window and then back at her. "I'm sorry I have t-"

"Go." Rachael sighs nodding towards the door.

"I'm so sorry. Call me if you find anything." Peter says getting up and quickly running outside.

Rachael sighs putting her head in her hands. "Rachael Maria Stark...What are you getting yourself into again?" She pulled out money from her purse setting it on the table and heading out of the small family diner.