Peter told May what he wanted to do, and she gave him all the advice she could think to give: what to do, what to say, what to wear. She even took him to buy flowers — violets, to be exact — and drove him to Stark Tower, telling him she would wait in the car. He walked into the lobby, then spoke to Friday, who had to verify his identity before letting him in the elevator that leads to the Starks' actual home.

And now he's going up, his nerves high, his hands shaky. Grace may be his girlfriend, but this is still incredibly nerve-wracking, especially considering the fact that he has to talk to Mr. Stark, too. And, last he checked, they aren't exactly on good terms...

~~~~

Grace has just finished packing a some of her clothes and books she won't read in between now and moving day in boxes, and she decides to take a break by eating some junk food and doing some mindless doodling. She sits at her desk, a bag of chips open to the side, and begins drawing an eye in her sketchbook, music playing in her headphones. It's a pretty mindless task, especially because she isn't putting effort into making the drawing look perfect.

Suddenly, her music stops.

"Grace," Friday says. "Peter Parker has just arrived."

Grace pulls her headphones out, then stands, looking out towards her balcony.

"He's downstairs with your parents," Friday clarifies. "They're talking."

Grace frowns. For one thing, he didn't tell her he was coming. For another, he's talking to her parents, and it makes her wonder what it could be about. Could he be here to ask for his suit back? She told him that Tony would probably give it back at some point, but they both agreed that he needed a break from Spider-Man, anyway. So, what's he doing here?

~~~~

The elevator doors open, and Peter walks out cautiously into the main room, both Mr. Stark and Pepper Potts looking at him expectantly. Friday must've told them he was coming. The elevator doors close behind him, and he holds the flowers at his side, his mouth going dry. Tony realizes Peter isn't going to say anything, so he starts. "Hello, Mr. Parker. You met Miss Potts yet?"

"Uh, n-no, no, I haven't." Awkwardly, Peter waves a little with his free hand. "I-It's nice to meet you... Miss Potts."

She nods slightly, a small smile on her face; Grace has talked about him in a much more positive light since they made up. "Nice to meet you, too, Peter."

Tony turns back to Peter, eyeing his slightly dress-y attire and the flowers at his side. "Alright, look, kid, I'm flattered by the flowers and all, but I'm still not giving you the suit back."

Peter shakes his head, absently adjusting their flowers in his grip. "Th-That's not why I'm here..."

Tony raises a brow. "Then, why are you here?"

Peter takes a deep breath, everything he planned to say disappearing from his head all at once. "I... I wanted to ask your permission to..." He sighs. "My school's homecoming dance is next week, and I wanted to ask you if I could ask-" But he stops himself, seeing the sad looks on Tony and Pepper's faces. Peter already knows the answer.

And Tony knows that he knows. "I... Look, this has nothing to do with what happened with the ferry, okay? You're a good kid, Pete — and, honestly, if my daughter is going to be dating anybody, I'd rather it be you. It's just..."

Peter realizes then what a huge mistake this was — and why. He was so caught up in the idea of it, he didn't think about anything else. "It's not safe," he finishes.

Tony nods sadly. "Yeah. It's just... It's too dangerous. Too risky."

Peter shakes his head again. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark, I just-"

"No," Tony says. "No, it's okay. I get it. It would be nice to go to a school dance with your girlfriend. But Grace can't... she can't do normal things like that. You can't see her all the time. It's hard, and I get it. But I can't... I can't compromise her safety, Pete. I can't."

"I know," Peter replies. "I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry."

Then, another voice joins the conversation. "Peter?"

~~~~

Grace waited for a while, trying to go back to her drawing, thinking maybe someone would call her downstairs, but she couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Peter asking for the suit back was only gonna make her dad want to keep it from him more. He has a lesson to learn from this, and that's a part of it. He knows that just as well as her dad does.

Finally, she decides to go downstairs. It's not as if that's a conversation that she can't hear. Pepper is down there too, and she wasn't even here when all of that happened — not until after. Plus, it's Peter, and she hasn't actually seen him in person since they kissed.

As she's coming down the stairs, Peter says something that confirms her suspicions — he's asking for the suit back. "I know. I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry."

"Peter?" Grace says. She wonders how long they've been talking about all this.

Everyone looks at her, and there's a sadness in Pepper's eyes, a guilt in Tony's, and a 'I'm-Trying-To-Pretend-Everything-Is-Okay' expression on Peter's face. He smiles. "Hey, Grace." She sees his more than casual clothing, then the flowers in his right hand.

Now she's suspicious.

"What's going on?" she asks when she reaches them all. She turns to Tony. "Are you... giving him the suit back or...?"

Tony just shakes his head.

She looks at Peter. "What's with the flowers?"

Peter looks at them as if he forgot they were there, then holds them out to her, all the while holding back the tears. "Th-These are for you."

She smiles a little, taking them and trying to make a joke to clear the tension in the air. "Still trying to make it up to me I see?"

Peter barely laughs, his faux-happy expression crumbling by now. "Something like that."

Grace looks at Tony and Pepper, now even more confused. "Ok, somebody tell me what's going on. Seriously. What happened?"

There's a long silence as she waits for someone to say something, then finally, Tony speaks. She won't just let this go. Someone has to tell her. "Peter... came to ask you to his school's homecoming dance."

And she already knows. She already knows what happened, what Tony said, but she turns to Peter anyway. "Yes."

He winces, knowing it can never happen. It hurts the both of them, but her blatant denial cuts into him, the knowledge that she would've said yes and gone with him making it that much worse.

Tony sighs. "No."

"Why?" Grace says, this close to yelling or crying or both. "Why not?"

"People would see you, Grace. They would recognize you, they would take pictures, who knows what else. That's too great a risk." He says it gently, clearly seeing that she's already about to cry, that Peter is already crying, and Pepper is hurting for them, just like he himself is.

And then she does yell. "But I don't care!"

"Grace-"

"I don't care how risky it is, I want to go!" Her voice lowers, closer to a whisper, and it cracks with tears. "I want to be normal, Dad. Just this once."

And Tony wants to say yes. He wants to let her persuade him, like he did when she told him she was ready to be in the fight when she really wasn't, like he did when Pepper was gone and it was his fault and he felt so guilty he would've bought her the entire state of Hawaii if she'd asked him to. But he can't let himself get carried away by her pleas and he can't put emotions over her safety. He just can't.

Can he? What could happen at a dance, anyway...?

"Dad," Grace implores.

Tony almost gives in, but then Peter speaks up. "He's right," he says, though with sadness.

Grace turns to him. "What?"

Peter speaks through tears. "Grace, your safety is more important than a dance."

"Not to me!"

But he shakes his head. "No. I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry. I was stupid for even thinking this was a good idea."

"Kid, no you weren't-" Tony starts, though only to reassure Peter. Not to refute what Peter said, to give in and say yes. Peter is exactly right. They can't. Tony's just glad Peter seems to be immune to Grace's sad, pleading eyes, though that may be because he can barely look at them at all.

He sighs. "I'm sorry for bothering you, Mr. Stark — Miss Potts. I... I'll go now." He looks at Grace. "I'm sorry."

He walks back to the elevator, pressing the button. He doesn't wait long, getting on and then turning back around, pressing another button to take him to the first floor. As the doors close, he wants to say something to Grace — one last thing to make it hurt less, for the both of them. But he doesn't. He just thinks it as he walks back to the car, tears running down his cheeks. May says nothing when she sees his face, but drives to Peter's favorite restaurant, lets him get whatever he wants to take it home.

Meanwhile, Grace says nothing else to her parents. She turns, going back upstairs to her room, wishing she never came down in the first place. She knows either her dad or mom — maybe both — will come up soon to check on her. Apologize. But she isn't really mad anymore. She knows they're just trying to protect her, but it still hurts that she can't be normal. And it scares her thinking that, one day, Peter will probably get tired of it. And it'll all be over.

She'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

~~~~

Peter called Grace again that night, after he finally told May what happened, and he was worried that she was mad at him and wouldn't pick up. But she answered, and Peter felt relieved. "Hey, Grace."

"Hey," she said. Her voice sounded a little far away.

"You okay?" he asked.

She sighed. "I'm packing up my art supplies right now, so, no, not really. I've stalled for too long, and now my whole room needs to be put in a box."

Peter chuckled a little. "That's what you get for procrastinating."

"Well, I'm not exactly excited to leave the city," she replied. "Guess it's inevitable, though. At least I'll be able to actually go outside without hiding my face." Suddenly, she laughed.

"What?" Peter asked, amused.

"I just pictured me walking into that homecoming dance with you with a bag over my head. I almost want to ask my dad if we could do it."

Peter chuckled again, then asked, "So, you're not mad about that or anything...?"

She sighed, and there was rustling, and then her voice sounded closer. "No. I mean, I get why. Mom and Dad both came up here and talked to me about it for who knows how long, but I understood before that, anyway. It's just... It's frustrating — seeing all that stuff on TV, reading it in books, and then never getting to actually experience it."

"If it's any consolation, I went last year, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. I stood on the wall with Ned the whole night. We got made fun of. It sucked."

"I'm sure bringing me with you would garner you some popularity. I am the daughter of a legend, after all."

Peter laughed. "I'm sure it would — even if they didn't know who you were. They'd all think I scored a date with a model."

Grace hummed in agreement. "Yeah, that makes sense. I'd clearly be a great hand model."

Peter laughed again. "Clearly."

They talked for an hour or so, then went to bed, as it was getting late. The next day, Peter told Ned what happened, and, after expressing his disappointment, Ned said, "Well, if you still wanna go with Liz and I, that's totally cool. Her dad's driving us — you could tag along. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, seeing as you guys are friends."

"I couldn't ask her to do that," Peter replied, sure he shouldn't be intruding on Ned and Liz's date.

But Ned waved him off. "No, it's cool. You won't be the one that's asking, anyway, I will."

"Ned, are you sure?"

"Of course. I'm not gonna let my best friend just show up to homecoming alone."

Ned asked Liz, explaining the situation to her as much as he could without giving away Grace's identity, and she said it was totally cool and that she would bring a friend to go with Peter — as friends, of course, but they both needed someone to talk to at the dance.

Ned told Peter and, that evening, when May asked if Peter was still going to the dance, he said he was and explained the situation to her.

May frowned. "You don't seem excited."

Peter shrugged. "I mean, I was looking forward to going with Grace..."

"Honestly? I was looking forward to you going with her too. But just because she isn't there doesn't mean you can't have fun with your friends. So, let's get a tux and figure out how to tie a tie. Because you're going to have fun."

Peter cracked a smile. "Alright."

The night of homecoming, he puts on his tux, ties his tie (which he has some difficulty with), and combs his hair back. He sends a picture to Grace, saying, 'Off to not dance in a smelly gym for a few hours,' and she sends a picture of her computer with Pride and Prejudice playing on it. 'Have fun. I'll be laughing at Mr. Darcy getting owned by Lizzie Bennet.'

Ned's mom shows up with Ned soon after, and she and May take pictures before dropping Peter and Ned off at Liz's house. Ned stops before going up the steps, turning to Peter. "Is my hair okay?"

"It's fine-"

"My shirt? Is it wrinkled?" he asks worriedly.

"No, Ned it's-"

"What about my tie? Is it straight?" And then he attempts to straighten it, even though it already is.

Peter laughs. "You look great, Ned. It's gonna be fine. Come on, she's probably waiting for you."

Ned hurries up to the door, Liz's corsage in hand, Peter laughing as he follows behind him, also holding a corsage (Ned gave it to him earlier, saying Liz got it so her friend would have one) and resigning himself to have a decent time tonight, even if he'll be spending it being abandoned by one of Liz's friends — who isn't his date, anyway, so what does it matter?

When he catches up with Ned at the door, Ned rings the doorbell, anxiously waiting for it to open. After a few moments, a man opens it, a smile on his face.

"You must be Ned and Peter," he says, shaking Ned's hand first. "I'm Liz's dad."

Ned says something, and the man replies, but Peter isn't listening anymore. All he can hear is his heart pumping in his ears.

He recognizes that face. He knows that man. He fought him.

He's the weapon's dealer.

Liz's dad is the Vulture.