Peter's POV

Nikki looked nervous. She kept pulling her hoodie sleeves, over hands, trying to hide them. I was still wondering what was up with her one wrist, but I wasn't going to press. I knew what it was like to have secrets, and how annoying it could be to have people constantly begging to know. *cough* Ned, sorry buddy *cough*

"Y'know, no one here will judge you for pretty much anything. You don't have to hide," I tried to reassure her.

"I know, it's just...self-consciousness, I guess."

I couldn't say I blamed her. She looked like someone who clearly got a lot of unwanted attention, and who despised it. She just had that kind of look in her eyes and posture.

"So...you wanna see inside?" I asked her, changing the subject.

"Oh my gosh, yes please," she said enthusiastically.

I pushed open the door, scanned my keycard, and showed her to the elevator. She walked slowly behind me, taking in all the fancy tech stuff that was just kind of thrown...everywhere. She looked like she was super into all the programming, so she'd probably hit right off with pretty much everyone else.

"You coming?" I asked after a bit, and she finally tore her eyes away from the piece of technology she was studying.

"Oh. Yeah, sorry." She had a bit of a red tinge on her pale ears and cheeks as she hurried over.

We stepped into the elevator. I pressed a button, and we awkwardly waited for it to reach the fourteenth floor; where all the main...well, pretty much were all the living area things were.

After 20, maybe 30 seconds, the elevator dinged and opened up to a huge room. Tony was sitting on a couch on his laptop, staring intently at the screen, facing us.

"Hey Mr. Stark, I brought a friend, if that's okay." I called to him. He glanced up quickly and nodded, then went right back to whatever he was working on.

I gestured for Nikki to come with me to the massive pantry, and she walked quietly, as if she didn't want to make any noise and draw attention to herself. She was biting the inside of her lip and staring at the ground, as if nervous.

I was actually pretty shocked at how skilled she was at moving so silently; like she had practiced. Even with her foot brace thingy, she made almost not sound. The only noises I could hear were Mr. Stark typing away on his keyboard, and the distant sound of someone hitting a punching bag in the gym - probably Steve.

As her whole body came into view to Mr. Stark, he looked up for just a moment and saw her foot, and while his face didn't change expression, I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. (They sounded very creaky and old, just in case you were wondering)

The Avengers hadn't had an assignment in a while, and we were kind of bored, so now Mr. Stark was probably going to come up with some plan to 'save' Nikki. Either that, or he was thinking really intently about what color to paint his bedroom or something.

"You want something to eat?" I asked her, as she looked at our huge variety of food - protein bars and shake mix for Steve, vegetables for Dr. Banner, fancy expensive stuff for Mr. Stark, casual, regular things for Clint, Natasha, and I, plus pretty much anything else you could think of.

"No, I'm good, thanks," she said, so quietly I could barely hear her.

I shrugged. "Suit yourself," and grabbed one of the little bags of chips from a box.

She followed me as I walked, slightly limping, though it wasn't pronounced. We just went into the next room over, which was empty of people.

I flopped onto a couch, allowing the soft cushions to envelop me. Nikki chose to sit on the floor, carefully lowering herself into a sitting position. I found it interesting, since it would probably be harder for her to get back up, but we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

"So..." she spoke quietly and a little delicately. "Why'd you bring me here? Do you usually bring girls you just met to big fancy towers?"

I could see why it was weird, I mean, I had (literally) just ran into her, and then immediately brought her to this weird huge building. But as May and now Happy called it, my 'Peter Tingle' (it's Spider Sense, people. Come on) had just felt like it was the right thing to do. I didn't know why, but I did kind of hope that we could be friends. We hadn't talked much, but I had actually enjoyed our random little two minute conversations in classes a bit ago.

"Just, y'know, thought we could talk, acquaint ourselves." Gosh that sounds stupid. Stop sounding like such a creep, Peter!

"Uhhh-huh." She sounded distant as she looked at the walls, eyes running over them like she was looking for something. She didn't seem to find it, and I couldn't shake the feeling that she'd been here before, and become familiar with the place.

"So, what do you do when you...intern...here? Just sit around like you're doing?" She questioned me casually.

Crap. Make something up, Peter...

"Oh, you know. Just kind of help Mr. Stark with whatever he needs me to do." I was trying (and failing) to sound just as casual as she had. Technically it was true, but...her gaze was so strong, so intense, it made me question myself.

She didn't look impressed, and definitely not like she believed me, but thank goodness she let it slide. I don't know why she was the one being intimidating, but it didn't even look like she was trying.

"What do you do?" I asked her. "How do you make your money?"

"I don't," she said simply. "I have savings money, that's how I afford my stuff. Well, I also do odd jobs for a bit of cash sometimes, but not regularly enough to be considered work."

"How-how do you have enough?? I mean, you can't have had a job long enough before you moved to afford payments for this long, can you?"

She stared at the ground. "I have...wealthy relatives. Well, relative. My uncle sends us loads of money for birthdays and Christmas. I've been saving mine for years."

Dang, she had a generous uncle. Like, having to pay for a New York apartment, and necessary things like clothes and food and school...that added up to a ton.

"I see. Well, you want the grand tour of the place?"

Her cheeks turned a little red. "Sure," she said absently. Then, as she used the couch to help herself stand up, she asked, "Why are you being so nice to me, anyways? I mean, we hardly know each other, and you're treating me like family."

Now it was my turn to awkwardly look away. "Because...I don't even really know. I've just always like helping people, making them feel comfortable and welcome."

She nodded. Now she was standing up, so I began walking back to the kitchen, explaining some little side room we came across on the way.

When we got to the kitchen, Tony was still there, on his computer, only he seemed to be staring at the screen instead of actually working. Nikki was back to staring at the ground and tucking her hands into her black hoodie sleeves.

I figured I might as well introduce them, so I said, "Nikki, this is Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark, Nikki." I could have sworn I saw a flash of recognition in her eyes, but seeing as he's pretty famous, I didn't think much of it.

They both nodded in acknowledgement to each other.

Tony's eyes were running her up and down, as if he vaguely recognized her but was just trying to place where from.

"I'm just showing her around. We're friends. From school." I stammered.

Mr. Stark nodded absently, still deep in thought.

"So...follow me, I guess?" Oh. My. Gosh. How freaking awkward could I get???

She nodded and shuffled toward me, and I thought I saw a hint of sadness behind her eyes.

We weaved throughout the building, occasionally moving up or down a floor, as I showed her just the main parts of Stark Tower. Sometimes we glimpsed one of the Avengers, doing who knows what, but Nikki didn't seem too into talking with them, so we wouldn't stop for long whenever we saw someone. Eventually, we ended up back on the fourteenth floor, at the gym. Why I seemed to think that was smart, I don't know, but it just felt...right, I guess.

When we stepped inside the lavishly supplied training room, Nikki seemed to brighten. Towards a back corner I could still hear someone mutilating a punching bag, but the rest of the gym was empty. She immediately went for the kickboxing ring, as though she had an innate pull towards it. As I walked up next to her, she was staring almost longingly at the mat floor of the ring.

"You wanna have a go?"

"If you really want to risk yourself like that," she said slyly. Okay, she definitely had experience. But I mean, I would go easy on her; I didn't want to hurt her worse than she already was.

Nikki pulled off her hoodie, revealing that she had a brace on her left wrist, and that she was actually terribly skinny - her long-sleeve skin-tight shirt displayed as much.

She started un-velcroing her brace for her foot, and I began to interject.

"Shouldn't you leave that o-"

"It's fine." Her eyes were focusing on all the many complicated straps and everything, but behind the concentration I definitely saw exhilaration and anticipation. "I mean, I have them on so long, it'll be fine if I don't for a few minutes. That's about how long it'll take for me to wipe the floor with you, anyways."

I shrugged and began unlacing my own shoes, and after a minute, we were both standing on the concrete in our socks. Nikki had also taken off her wrist brace, and wrapped both of them in her sweater. We grabbed some gloves and ankle pads from the corner pole, then stepped under the ropes and into the ring.

"Don't you dare go easy on me," she warned menacingly, but I didn't pay any mind.

I went over to the stopwatch by the edge of the mats, asked her if she was ready, and after receiving a confirmation nod from her, pressed 'start'. I stood still for a moment; same as she did. We both looked the other over, and then almost like we had read each other's minds, jumped forward at the exact same time.

She kicked and I blocked, then I punched and she ducked, and then I was knocked to the ground by a hard punch to the chest. I jumped up, and decided that I was going to have to try my hardest to have a chance of not being murdered by this crazy girl. I started punching rapidly, occasionally throwing in a kick. She looked almost bored as she effortlessly blocked and dodged, not even throwing in any offense of her own.

"Your moves are all for show," she pointed out as she yet again blocked a kick. "They're almost harmless. What you've got to do," she continued as I paused, "is this." She then proceeded to whirl around while kicking to get momentum, connecting her bony ankle to the side of my ribs, causing me to fall painfully to the ground.

My head was laying so that I could see that we had been going at this for only slightly more than a minute. I felt a hand pressing my shoulder to the ground, obviously to make sure I didn't get up, and heard the voice I was not coming to fear say, "Give up yet?"

I tried to nod, but couldn't get my head to move.

"Yes," I croaked, vowing to myself that I would never underestimate another opponent, no matter how harmless they might come across as. If she could do this well, injured in whatever way she was, and as tiny as she is...I was honestly terrified to think what she could do without any limitations.

I heard a thump of something hitting the ground behind where I was laying, and painfully twisted my head to look. Steve stood a few yards away from us, shock written across his face, having just dropped a replacement punching bag, probably for one he just broke.

Nikki shrugged her win off, and seeming to be finished, returned her gloves and pads to the hook on the pole. She then began putting her braces back on, and I, still carefully watching Steve, saw his eyebrows raise and eyes widen slightly in question to me. I shook my head to him, and thanked the heavens that he was one of the only Avengers that listened to me, so he wouldn't press Nikki.

"So," he said, trying to keep his tone casual, eyes flicking between Nikki and I. "What are you two doing?"

Word Count: 2144