Peter came home that afternoon to find the Spider-Man suit on his bed (the one he got in Berlin) — and how Mr. Stark managed that Peter will never know.

And, well, May may have seen him in the suit, and he may have had some explaining to do, and Grace and Ned may have laughed at him when he told one about it over the phone and the other in person. He still isn't sure which was more humiliating.

Once that situation was calmed, though, a new, better one arose: Mr. Stark and Miss Pott's birthday present to Grace — well, the biggest one of them.

Peter retrieved his tux, found a new tie (having lost the other one, though it wasn't Ben's anyway, nor was it the right color), bought a corsage, and then picked out Grace's birthday present after much deliberation.

The day of the important event, Ned is already aware and freaking out at home, Peter's hair is gelled and combed, his tie is tied, the present is wrapped, and the corsage is in his hand.

And still, he isn't ready.

"Why am I nervous?" Peter asks as he and May climb into the back of Happy's car.

May smiles as they buckle their seatbelts. "Because she's your girlfriend, and you're about to go on a real date with her."

"Sort of."

"Yeah, sort of," May replies, "but it'll be all the more special this way." She looks out the window at the passing buildings and cars. "It's just first date jitters, that's all."

"Hey," Happy says from the driver's seat, "Grace is probably just as nervous as you are. I wouldn't sweat it all that much."

"Yeah..." Peter trails off, wiping his hands on his pants.

May puts her arm around him. "It's gonna be great, Peter. You have no reason to be nervous."

"I know," Peter says. "You're right."

He calms more on the drive to the compound, but his nerves spike when it comes into view. May squeezes his hand to reassure him before they get out of the car and enter the compound behind Happy. Mr. Stark and Miss Potts are waiting at the door.

Mr. Stark smiles when he sees Peter. "Hey, Spider-Man — and, yes, I know that I can say that in front of your aunt now; Grace told me."

Peter sighs, shaking Mr. Stark's hand in greeting. "Yeah, I figured."

He says hello to Miss Potts as Mr. Stark greets May. Then, Miss Potts and May are introduced. Meanwhile, Peter is wiping his hands on his pants again, wondering where Grace is.

Mr. Stark checks his watch. "Grace should be down any minute now."

"She might be touching up her make up," Miss Potts says. "I'll go and get her." She elegantly but quickly makes her way up the stairs while Mr. Stark, Happy, and May make small talk that Peter doesn't hear. He just waits for Miss Potts to come back with Grace.

Miss Potts does come back in about a minute or so, though Grace isn't with her. "She's almost ready," she explains.

Then, finally, a few minutes later, Peter hears the click of heels on the stairs, a sound which drew everyone's attention to its source, though Peter himself was already looking — waiting.

And, boy, was it worth it.

Her dress is purple, frilly in the skirt but still understated and mature, if it does make her look like a princess. It nearly brushes the floor, but her silver heels peek out. The top of the dress, divided from the bottom by a thin belt of silver jewels, is the same two light and dark shades of purple as the skirt, and the sleeves slightly off her shoulders, which are half-covered by her loose, wavy hair. Two strands on either side are pinned back with silver clasps, and her bangs are neatly trimmed and straightened. Her make up is also artfully done, a darker purple on the outer corners of her eyes, a lighter one blended to the inner corners. Highlight dusts the length of her cheek bones and down her nose, contour opposite it, and her lips are also a dark purple. When she gets closer, Peter sees that her nails are painted purple too, and she has a silver bracelet on, right next to her Savior bracelet, that matches her belt, as well as a necklace. She smiles brightly, her blue eyes somehow standing out more with the eyeliner and mascara.

Peter always thought she was beautiful, but right now... Right now, she's the most gorgeous girl he's ever seen.

"You-You look... amazing," he stutters out when she reaches the floor.

She laughs a little. "I know."

"Grace!" Pepper chides.

Grace relents. "Oh, fine. You look amazing, too."

"Thanks, it really sounded like you meant it," Peter jokes.

Grace then smiles sincerely. "I did."

His tux fits him just right, and his hair is styled instead of messy or just hurriedly combed back — both good looks, though it's nice to see him all dressed up, now just barely taller than her since she has heels on. He was cute before, but, now, he could easily be a model.

Tony clears his throat, looking at Peter and gesturing to the things in his hands. "Do you... have something for-?"

"Oh, right, yeah," Peter says, handing Grace her present first. "This is, um, f-for your birthday."

Grace smiles and carefully opens the small present, revealing a box once the wrapping paper is off. Inside is a necklace — circular, the chain an off-silver. The middle of the circle is filled with a yellowed paper color, a quote written on it from The Great Gatsby: 'There I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn't care.'

Grace looks up at Peter, touched. "I love it," she says, leaning forward to hug him, then thanking both him and May, as she was certainly the one who paid for it.

Pepper says she'll take the gift to Grace's room in a moment, so Grace carefully puts the necklace back in the box and hands it Pepper. When she turns back to Peter, he puts the corsage on her wrist. Then, Pepper takes pictures on Grace's phone of the two of them, long after both Grace and Peter are ready to be done with it and go dance.

Eventually, though, with some persuasion from Tony, she stops. "Alright, alright, I'm done now. Let me lead you to the venue."

"Remember, kids," Tony calls as they walk up the stairs.

Before he can continue, they repeat it back to him. "Friday is always watching!"

"That's exactly right," Tony replies, then leading May and Happy to a living room area to spend the next few hours. Tony thought he should get to know May better since Peter is dating his daughter, and Pepper agreed, and so she was invited to come tonight. Later, after Pepper gets back, It doesn't take long for her to launch into the amusing story of how she found out Peter is Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, Grace and Peter are entering a large room decorated to look like a high school homecoming dance, complete with refreshments and music, which came from a large stereo that had a wide selection of songs to play. Pepper leaves to take the present to Grace's room, telling both of them to have fun.

Once she's gone, Grace turns to Peter. "So. You're the expert here. Exactly how do these things usually go?"

Peter shrugs. "I don't know. I didn't really pay too much attention the first time around, and I was only there for, like, five seconds the second time."

Grace playfully scoffs, heading towards the stereo. "Well, you're no help."

Peter laughs as she turns on some hit from the early 2000s, turning back to him and grabbing his hands, beginning to dance horribly.

Peter just laughs harder. "You look ridiculous."

"And who else is going to see me?" she replies. "Dance with me. We can look ridiculous together."

So, he starts dancing, completely out of his element but having fun nonetheless. Then, they both start singing along, glad that there's no neighbors to hear them — and hoping the party downstairs can't.

Eventually, they have to stop, both breathless, though Grace more so. Peter grins, heading back over to the stereo. "How about we slow things down?"

He takes forever to pick a song — so long that Grace starts singing the Jeopardy theme — but he finally finds one he likes and hurries back over to Grace to dance with her.

Only knowing this from seeing others do it, he puts his hand on her waist, then grabs her other hand, and she follows suit, placing her free hand on his shoulder. She furrows her brows at the intro of the song, not recognizing it.

But then the lyrics start, and she can't help but laugh at Peter's cheesiness.

"L is for the way you look at me. O is for the only one I see. V is very, very extraordinary. E is even more than anyone that you adore."

Peter sings along with the lyrics as he does his best to lead her around the dance floor, and she raises a brow at him. "Serenading me again, Parker?"

Peter, becoming more comfortable, pulls her a bit closer. "Only the best for you."

"This isn't even the original," Grace playfully argues. "This is Michael Bublé."

Peter frowns as he spins her. "What's wrong with Bublé?"

She laughs as she stumbles mid-spin, easily regaining her footing with Peter supporting her. "Nothing's wrong him. But this is a cover, and if you're going to tell me you love me it makes more sense to use the original."

Peter blushes. "But I didn't say-"

"You didn't have to. Bublé said it for you."

Peter smiles. "He's a got a way with words, you know." Grace hums in response, now close enough that she would hardly have to lean forward to kiss him, though she doesn't. Not yet. Peter marvels at her. "You make it hard not to fall in love with you, you know."

She smiles too. "I know."

"And I love you for it."

"That I know too," she replies, then pressing her lips to his, leaving them tinted purple when she pulls away. But Peter doesn't care.

"You are insanely beautiful, you know that?" he says.

Grace chuckles. "You're just saying that because of the make up," she teases.

Peter spins her outward, regrettably making the distance between them greater before he spins her back in again, her back now to his chest and his arms around her as they sway. He rests his chin on a shoulder. "I'm not," he says. "You're beautiful without it too. But you really do look nice tonight."

He spins her back out, and they join back together, facing each other again. "As do you." She smiles a little. "You look like a model," she admits.

Peter grins. "We can be hand models together."

"Gosh, we'd be such a power couple," Grace says. "Could you imagine?"

Peter laughs. "We'd be the coolest hand model couple to ever hit the jewelry magazines."

They lapse into a comfortable silence then, the music still playing in the background — neither of them sure if this is still the first play through or if it repeated while they were talking.

"And love is all that I can give to you. Love, love, love is more than just a game for two. Two in love can make it. Take my heart but please don't break it. 'Cause love was made for me and you. I said love was made for me and you. You know that love was made for me and you."

"You ever feel like that's true?" Peter asks quietly.

Grace smiles softly. "Sometimes," she says. "Like when I look at my mom and dad, I think love was made for them. Or when I read some sappy teenage romance — or even something like Jane Austen — I think love was made for those characters too. And, I guess it kinda was, by the author, but that love still came from somewhere.

"And I get it now. I get why everybody wants it. I get why it's the most powerful emotion in the world. I get why it can hurt so much because I don't know what I would do if I lost you. And it does feel like, maybe, we could be the only two people in the whole world right now. Maybe we could be the reason that love was created, and maybe it never existed before this moment, but I'm glad that's not true. Because the world needs love, Peter. Just like I need you."

Peter's eyes are glassy, but he tries to cover it up with a joke. "Well, you can slap that in a YA novel and print it."

Grace laughs. "Of course you could; all of that was staged. Don't turn around, but there's an Iron Man suit holding up cue cards that I'm reading from as we speak."

Peter raises a brow, taking a page from her book. "Oh, really?"

"Uh huh. But you're not supposed to know."

"Well..." And then he lifts her up, spinning around to face the wall she was just facing. She laughs, a small yelp of surprise having escaped her lips. Peter shakes his head when he sets her down. "You liar."

"You caught me," Grace says, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Well, I guess I can forgive you for it," Peter replies, leaning forward to kiss her, slowly and softly, one hand cupping her cheek, the other around her waist. Her arms stay around him, her hands eventually finding their way to the nape of his neck, nearly drifting into his hair, though it would be a shame to mess it up.

Peter pulls away, much to Grace's disappointment. But he smiles at her, amazed that this girl — this wonderful, witty, gorgeous girl — is actually his girlfriend. "I love you, Grace," he says quietly, and he hopes that that was one of the many times he'll get to say it to her.