Grace Stark hasn't talked to Peter Parker in two months.

It's not that she doesn't want to, it's just that she doesn't know what to say. Plus, she's secretly hoping he'll text her first. Though that doesn't seem to be the case.

Maybe that's because he doesn't want to talk to her. Maybe there's some girl at his school that he likes who can actually leave her house and hasn't cried in front of him like twenty times — a girl that makes him forget all about Grace and what happened between them in Berlin. Admittedly, it wasn't much.

She reread The Great Gatsby when she got home, thinking about him as she did so. She continued to watch new videos of Spider-Man that popped up on YouTube and laughed at the ones speculating about him and his identity when they were entirely off the mark.

But she couldn't talk to him. He probably doesn't even like her...

Probably.

She sighs, snapping out of her thoughts to see her cereal getting soggy on the table in front of her. She thinks of the chocolate chip pancakes her father used to make her all the time. He hasn't done that in a while.

He's in India right now, while she's at the tower with Happy as he prepares for them to make the big move to the Avengers Compound. She wanted to stay in the city as long as she could, though she never really went out in it. But she would miss the sounds and the view out of her window and off her balcony.

She stands, taking her bowl and going to dump it in the sink. At that moment, Happy comes in, probably to grab a quick breakfast and then get to work.

"If the kid calls me one more time," he's saying on the phone, "I'm gonna scream." He pauses as someone — probably Tony — replies on the other end. Grace looks at him, interested. He says, "I know, but half the stuff he says isn't even important — over half the stuff. And I have to listen to all his voicemails in case he does say something important." Another pause, then, "Yeah, yeah. Okay. Bye." He hangs up.

But as he goes to leave, a banana in hand, Grace stops him. "Who are you talking about?"

"The Spider-Kid," Happy replies. "Peter. He calls me everyday about his little 'patrols'. Stopping muggings, small-time stuff. But he's only supposed to call if something big happens."

"So... he leaves you voicemails?"

"Yeah."

"And you never answer?"

"No. I don't have time for that." He looks at his watch. "Speaking of, I gotta go..." He runs off, but Grace stays put, thinking.

Maybe, just maybe, he'd want to talk to her. If not as friends — or... more — then maybe just about Spider-Man stuff. And that's better than nothing.

So, she grabs her phone, takes a deep breath, and sends him a text.

'Hey, Parker.'

~~~~

During his English class, Peter's phone buzzes. His teacher, however, is crazy about phones, so he doesn't risk looking at it. It's probably from Ned, anyway. He's in Psychology right now, and he texts him in that class all the time.

So, when the bell rings, Peter pulls his phone out of his bag and checks it on the way to gym.

'Hey, Parker.'

He stops in the middle of the hallway.

It's from Grace.

'Grace?' he texts back. He doesn't know what else to say. Could it really be her?

There's typing, then, 'Yeah, it's me. You didn't delete my contact, did you, Spider-Boy?'

Peter replies quickly. 'No, of course not. I'm just surprised you're texting me.'

"Peter!" Ned shouts from down the hall. Peter looks at the time, realizes he's gonna be late to gym, and runs hurriedly towards Ned. "Dude," Ned says, "what are you doing?"

"Grace texted me," Peter replies, happy that he can say it out loud to someone.

Ned's eyes widen. "Whoa! Did you reply?"

"Yeah," Peter says happily as they enter the gym. His phone buzzes again, and he looks down at it.

'Well, I heard that Happy doesn't answer your voicemails.' A pause, then she texts him again. 'And I just wanted you to know that, if you want, you can call me after your patrols. I figured it might be nice to talk to an actual person.'

Peter beams as he replies, 'Yeah, that would be cool. I'm going out tonight, so I'll call you then?'

'I'll be waiting, Parker. ;)'

Peter blushes, then tucks his phone away as he and Ned go to change.

~~~~

Meanwhile, Grace is second-guessing herself after sending that last text.

Was it too flirty? Was that why he didn't reply? Or was he just busy? He is at school after all.

Grace has school work to do too, so, reluctantly, she puts her phone away and gets to work, trying to focus instead of thinking about Peter.

And, when she's finally finished, Peter still hasn't called her. His school most likely just got out, so he probably hasn't done any Spidey stuff yet. Plus, he'll call Happy first.

Grace decides to do some painting while she waits so she won't think about it too much.

She has an outline of the Eiffel Tower already drawn, so she decides to start painting that. She ties her hair back in a bun and grabs her paints, then sits down in front of the easel and gets to work.

As she paints, the passage of time gets away from her, and, before she knows it, the sun is in its early stages of setting and her phone is ringing. She jumps, some yellow paint dropping on the canvas — and her hand — where it's not supposed to be.

Her hands were already covered in paint, anyway, and her phone is sitting on her bed. The caller ID says 'Parker' with a blue heart at the end. "Shoot!" She scrambles for a towel, then finally remembers that she can say, "Friday, answer my phone!"

"Of course."

A quiet sound comes out of the phone — probably Peter's voice — as Friday neglected to put the phone on speaker.

Grace, her hands pretty much clean now, hurriedly grabs the phone and puts it to her ear. "Peter?"

Peter, while sitting on a rooftop and eating a churro, notices that she's breathless — and has to admit that he is himself, though not from any physical activity. "Hey. You okay?"

"What? Yeah. I-I'm fine." She pauses, taking a breath. "Sorry it took so long for me to answer. I had paint on my hands when you called."

He laughs. "It's okay."

She sits down on her bed, laying back on her pillow, a smile growing on her face. "So... How was Spider-Duty today?"

Peter shrugs, though she can't see him, and his voice sounding unsure. "Um... kinda okay, I guess?"

Grace quirks a brow. "Sounds like an entertaining story."

"Not really, but you're gonna laugh at me," Peter replies. "Like seriously."

"Why?" she asks, already laughing a little.

He sighs. "Well, I, uh... I stopped a bike thief. Couldn't find the owner of the bike, though, so I left a note on it... I did a backflip on a roof for two guys in the street. And, then, I saw a guy trying to steal a car. So, I go to stop him, right? The car alarm starts going off in the middle of these apartment buildings, and then the guy tells me that it's his car. And everybody in the apartments starts shouting at me, and the guy is shouting at me — it was a whole mess." He sighs as Grace chuckles. "But I just helped a nice old lady across the street and she bought me a churro, so... there's that."

Grace chuckles again, smiling at just the sound of his voice. She rolls over onto her side. "Sounds like a interesting afternoon."

"Oh, you have no idea," he replies, causing her to laugh. He smiles as she does, but then he sighs. "I just wanna do something more, you know? Stop a real bad guy."

"Well, there's just not much going on. The bad guys are pretty calm right now. That's a good thing."

"Yeah," Peter replies.

There's a short silence, then Grace asks, "So... how was public school?"

He laughs a little. "It was fine." Then, he stops, "I mean... mostly. I-I'm on the Decathlon team, and I told them I'm not going to Nationals in D.C. in case Mr. Stark needs me."

Grace's brows furrow. "They know about Spider-Man?"

"Oh, no, of course not. But I need an excuse when Spidey things come up, so I told everyone I have an internship with Mr. Stark."

"Ah." She laughs quietly at the fact that he calls her dad, "Mr. Stark."

"I mean, some of them don't actually believe me, but it's whatever. They're mad at me, though. Liz definitely is."

Grace frowns. "Who's Liz?"

"She's the captain of the team. Ned — my best friend — he really likes her."

And then her frown goes away. "Oh."

"Yeah. Like he's..." he searches for the right word "... mesmerized by her. It's almost funny to watch." They laugh a little, then Peter says, "I'm talking too much about me, aren't I?"

Grace shakes her head. "Oh, no, definitely not. Trust me, Peter, there is nothing interesting for me to talk about."

"Oh, that's not true-"

"It is," she insists. "I do my online schooling, then I draw and paint or read or watch Netflix. And sometimes I tinker with things, if I can. That's pretty much it."

"Come on, there's gotta be more," Peter replies. Anything she says is interesting — at least, to him.

"There really isn't."

"I still don't believe you, but I'll change the subject anyway. How was your day?"

"It was good." She smiles. "Great now, actually."

Peter blushes a little, but before he can reply, something catches his eye. Four men walking into a bank — which is closed. "Grace, I... I gotta go."

She frowns again. "Oh. Okay."

"I'm sorry, it's a Spidey thing. There's... There's something happening I gotta take care of."

"Be careful," she replies.

"Will do. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

And, once he hangs up, he swings off.

~~~~

Everything went bad way too quickly. The men, who had Avengers masks on, also had a weapon Peter has never encountered before. Some sort of anti-gravity gun.

They had another weapon too. Some sort of laser. It cut through the walls of the bank and went into the building across the street.

Delmar's.

Mr. Delmar and Murph were the only ones inside, and they're both safe. The robbers got away when Peter went in to save them. He still feels awful, though.

He called Happy about it, and, shockingly, he actually answered.

"Happy, the craziest thing just happened to me," Peter says, running along a rooftop to get to the alley where he left his backpack. "These guys were robbing an ATM with these high tech weapons-"

"Hey, take a breath, okay? I don't have time for ATM robberies," Happy replies.

"Yeah, but-"

"Or the thoughtful notes you leave behind. I have moving day to worry about. Everything's gotta be out of here by next week."

Peter stops. "Wait. Wait! You're moving? Who's moving?" Is Grace moving?

"Yeah, don't you watch the news? Tony sold Avengers Tower. We're relocating to a new facility upstate where, hopefully, the cell service is much worse."

So Grace is moving. Peter decides not to mention that part of his disappointment to Happy. "But what about me?"

"What about you?"

"Well, what if Mr. Stark needs me or — I don't know — something big goes down?" Peter sighs. "Can I please just talk to Mr. Stark?"

"Look, just stay away from anything too dangerous. I'm responsible for making sure you're responsible, okay?"

Peter reaches the alley and jumps down into it. "I am responsible. I- Oh, crap. My backpack's gone."

"That doesn't sound responsible," Happy says.

"I'll call you back."

"Feel free not to."

Peter had to come home in the suit, and, now, he's opening his window and crawling into his room on the ceiling. He closes the window with his foot, then pulls off his mask. After quietly shutting his door, he gently drops to the ground. Relieved that May didn't see him, he lets out a soft sigh and turns.

Ned is sitting on his bed. Holding the Lego Death Star.

In his shock, he drops the Death Star on the floor, causing a loud crash as it falls apart.

As he stands, May shouts, "What was that?!"

Peter somehow has enough sense to reply, "Uh, it's nothing! It's nothing!"

"You're the Spider-Man," Ned breathes. "From YouTube."

"I'm not, I'm not," Peter insists. He hits the emblem on his chest, his suit dropping and pooling around his ankles.

"You were on the ceiling," Ned argues.

"No, I wasn't- Ned, what are you doing in my room?"

"May let me in. You said we were gonna finish the Death Star."

"You can't just bust into my room!"

And then the door swings open, bringing May, her laughter, and smoke into the room. May fans a dish towel in front of her face. "That turkey meatloaf recipe is a disaster. Let's go to dinner. Thai? Ned, you want Thai?"

Ned starts to say yes, but Peter cuts in quickly. "No. He's got a... a thing."

"A thing to do... after," Ned replies.

"Okay..." May says. She turns to go, but stops herself and gestures to Peter. "Maybe put on some clothes." Peter nods, and then she leaves, closing the door behind her.

Ned turns to Peter in surprise. "Oh, she doesn't know?"

"Nobody knows," Peter replies, putting on a sweater. "I mean, Mr. Stark knows because he made my suit, and Grace knows, but that's it."

Ned stops. "Wait, wait, wait. Go back. Tony Stark made you that?" He gasps. "Are you an Avenger?"

Peter shrugs as he puts on a pair of pants. "Yeah, basically." Ned has to brace himself on the bunk bed, and Peter rushes forward. "You can't tell anybody about this. You gotta keep it a secret."

"A secret? Why?"

"You know what she's like," Peter replies, gesturing to his door. "If she finds out people try and kill me every single night, she's not going to let me do this anymore. Come on, Ned, please."

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'll level with you," Ned says. "I don't think I can keep this a secret. This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, Peter!"

"Ned, May cannot know," Peter insists. "I cannot do that to her right now, you know? I mean, everything that's happened with her, I..." He sighs. "Please."

Ned nods. "Okay."

"Just promise me, okay?

"I promise."

"Thank you." He walks away, running his hands through his hair. "I can't believe this is happening right now."

"So Grace knows?" Ned asks.

Peter turns, starting to calm at the slight change in topic. "Yeah. That's the whole reason we met."

"Wow."

Peter smiles a little, thinking about her. "Yeah. Wow."

Then, Ned asks, "Can I try the suit on?"

"No."

"How does it work? Is it magnets? How do you shoot the strings?"

"I'm gonna tell you about this at school tomorrow, okay?" Peter says, already ushering Ned out.

"Great. Okay, well- Wait." Ned stops. "How do you do this and the Stark internship?"

Peter sighs. "This is the Stark internship."

"Oh."

"Just... get out of here." Peter pushes him out the door, then leans back against it, trying to breathe. He tells himself that this is a good thing. He can tell Ned almost everything now; he has someone else to talk to about Spider-Man. And now he can tell him about what happened with Grace.