Thea was woken up the next morning in the most pleasant way. Tony Stark scaring her awake.

"Jesus fucking Christ Tony," Thea said while holding her hand to her heart and now sitting up in bed. "You couldn't have woken me up like a normal person?" Thea lifted a single fist to her eyes a rubbed out the rest of the sleep in her eyes.

Tony pondered her question for a moment before he shook his head and said, "No because I'm special and you too. Now let's get going, we have a lot to do today." He pulled her out of her bed with one arm. Going along with his playful demeanor, Thea let her body become limp on her bed, not wanting to leave the warm comfort of it. But with one hard tug from Tony, Thea slid off of her cozy bed and onto the harsh, cold floor below. She groaned quietly on impact and with the unfamiliar contact, she proceeded to curl into the fetal position. Tony placed a single knee onto the ground, sighed, and bent down to her on the ground. He took his finger out from his pocket and poked her forehead with it. "Let's go, kid, we haven't got all day." He sighed in frustration as he saw she wasn't moving.

"You left me no choice," he rolled his warm brown eyes. Thea looked up at Tony from her fetal position and saw Tony's arms slowly make their way toward her. Before she could react to this, Tony began to tickle her sides, immediately causing Thea's reaction of laughing. She tried to squirm away from him in vain. Thea stood up abruptly and stared at Tony, who was still kneeling on the floor.

"Tony, I will kill you in your sleep if you do that again," Thea said with murder in her eyes.

He laughed at the prospect of her doing so and said, "Yeah right, you'd miss me too much, plus you would be down a dad." He jumped up from his kneeling position on the ground next to Thea's bed. Thea tried to keep her murderous glare but she couldn't with Tony smiling down at her. Thea smiled back at him and peered down to her disheveled clothing, specks of dust and lint fibers now stuck to her from her time laying on the ground. While inspecting her clothing, a lone hair strand fell in between her eyes. With a puff of breath, Thea blew away the hair and began to pat down her body, trying to get rid of any unwanted items on her person.

"Get out now Tony, I still have to get dressed," Thea said. She took a long stride over to her dresser, her bare feet hitting the cold wood floor. With one hand, she pulled open the top drawer of the dresser. The disheveled girl pulled out a simple t-shirt and a pair of leggings from the drawer before she closed it. Thea rotated back around to find that Tony still had yet to leave her darkroom. "I won't ask you one more time Tony," Thea stated.

Tony smirked in reply and took slow steps to the door. His hand was already on top of the doorknob and the door was cracked open slightly, but before he left he turned back around to Thea, who was watching him with a glare in her eyes, and he said, "You know I would actually-"

Tony was interrupted by the sudden force around his waist, his body now flying into the other room without his consent. He looked up from his new place on the floor and managed to catch the door to Thea's room closing with a harsh slam. Purple mist slowly dissipating from his body and the door. Tony scoffed in response and slowly rose from the ground. Looking around the empty apartment, Tony walked over to the kitchen by the front door.

The kitchen was clean, almost too clean. Almost like it had never been properly used before. Tony brushed off his knees and sauntered to the nearest cabinet to him. Inside the cabinet were only an old toaster and a sad-looking can of beans. Tony snorted at this and pushed aside the can of beans to get to the toaster. The toaster looked fairly new but a fine layer of dust on top of it said otherwise. Tony took out the toaster and placed it on the counter beside him. He pivoted on a foot to the fridge behind him, with one hand he pulled out a loaf of bread and turned back around to place it on the counter next to the toaster. Tony grabbed the loaf and opened up it, pulling off the wrapper. He plucked out two slices of bread and pushed them into the slot in the toaster.

Tony pulled down the tab on the side but nothing happened. He did so one more time but nothing happened yet again. Tony growled at the toaster and muttered inaudible words to it. He raised a hand to the machine but was stopped suddenly when the sound of a door hinging open interrupted. Tony saw Thea walk over to the kitchen, her thick eyebrows raised in confusion. "What exactly are you doing?" she asked.

Tony switched his raised hand into a point as he pointed to the toaster and said, "It doesn't like me. You need to throw it away." Thea rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Maybe it would help if you plugged it in first."

Tony looked between Thea and the toaster and scoffed. "You...are exactly right." Tony reached around the toaster and was about to plug the cord into a nearby socket when the familiar purple mist wrapped itself around Tony's wrist and yanked him away from it.

"No time for this remember?" Thea stated. With Thea's powers still wrapped around his wrist, Tony said, "You know kid, I should ground you from your powers if I could."

Thea smirked and relinquished her powers, the mist slowly retracting back into her body. Tony followed Thea, who was making her way into the living room. Thea took a seat on the couch, pulling her backpack up with her. Tony, however, saw a laptop laying on the table nearby. With a single click, the screen grew bright and turned on.

Tony asked, "Whose this Peter Parker kid? You seem to have him in here a lot."

Her face felt hot and her eyes widened at these words. Thea ran over to Tony, her hand slamming the lid of the laptop shut while glaring at Thea. "He's just a friend in school, he lives in the floor below me," Thea stated to Tony, her hand still holding the lid down.

Tony raised his hands up in defense and began to walk over to the apartment door. Over his shoulder, he called out, "You know, Pepper and I were 'just friends' at one point. But look at us now." Thea scoffed at Tony and picked up her backpack on the couch and slung it over her shoulder before she followed Tony out the door.

Little did Thea know that Peter Parker saw her leave with a mysterious man.

~~~~

The morning after Peter had an intense conversation with Thea felt less than normal. Hesitating to get out of his warm, comforting bed, Peter knew he would be late to school if he didn't get up. After five minutes of contemplation, Peter got out of his twin-sized bed and began to get ready for the day. Peter threw on a sweater and some slacks and called it a day.

Peter waited to see if he could spot Thea before she left but he waited in vain because he turned his head and there she was. She was walking outside with a man whom Peter did not know from just his back. Thea and the mystery man climbed into a rather expensive looking car and drove off together.

So many thoughts went through his head all at once. Who was this man? What was Thea doing with him? Why did she leave alone with him? All of these questions Peter would have to ask Thea when she came back, or if she came back that it.

~~~~

School today seemed a lot more boring and empty to Peter without Thea in it. Peter never noticed before but she seemed to breathe a new life to it. Lunch came by and Ned had noticed that she wasn't here too. Peter had to explain that even if she were here today she wouldn't sit with them. He told him about what happened yesterday. Ned took in this information for a while before he noted, "Well maybe if you weren't such a jerk to here she would maybe be here."

Peter looked at Ned in disbelief, scoffing he said, "I thought you were my best friend dude?" Peter raised his arms in an example to show his disbelief.

Ned shook his head and said back to Peter, "Yeah, a best friend who knows when to be honest. You needed help and I provided." He said this as if he gave him the answer to all life's problems.

Peter sighed in defeat and admitted, "Yeah you're right, I was an asshole to her." he placed his head on the table they were currently seated at. Peter slammed his head against the table gently after every word he said in the next sentence, "Why...can't...I...just...apologize."

"Just do it," Ned quipped. Not seeming to care about Peter's current physical state. "Next time you see Thea, go up to her and explain your point of view," Ned looked down at him, his head still on the table.

"Say that you're sorry, and tell her how you feel."

Thinking about what Ned just said Peter raised his head from its place on the table, "How I feel? What do you mean by that?"

Ned looked Peter dead in the eyes with a blank face, "What I mean is go up to her and explain that you like her...even better go up to her and kiss her next time!" Ned exclaimed, his hands waving in the air wildly.

Peter face felt as if it had been lit up with a burning flame, his eyes widened to the point where he thought they would pop out. His speech also seemed to have failed him at this point, "I-I...um..I-I..I...T-that-that's not how I feel about her."

"Sure it is," a monotone voice interrupted their conversation. "Just look at your face right now, it's as red as a tomato." The voice stated. Both Ned and Peter looked over to see down the table was a girl, not put together particularly well. Her hair was placed in a very messy bun and her clothing choices were a sweatshirt and jeans. A small book lay beside her, marked with the page she was currently on. Ned looked as confused as Peter did when he asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Michelle," she said. "I'm in your math and history class. Now what I was saying, before I was interrupted, was that even I can see that you like her. Just tell her."

The redness slowly re-took its place back on Peter's face. Ned pointed at the girl, who we now know as Michelle, and said, "See even she knows it better than you do, now just do it." Peter took into consideration what both of them had to say.

"Fine, I'll tell Thea next time I see her."

Ned stood up from his seat and shouted out to the cafeteria, "YES!"

The entire cafeteria went quiet at this and everyone turned to Ned and Peter. Ned quickly sat down after seeing all the faces turn toward him. Peter half whispered half yelled at Ned, "I meant I'll apologize as soon as I see her, not the other thing!" His head was ducked down for some reason and so was Ned's. Ned shook his head at Peter and sighed, "Peter, Peter, Peter, when are you going to realize that you can't outrun love."

Peter rolled his eyes at his comment and he thought some more.

Why did everyone think I liked Thea?

~ Author's Note ~

All rights to Spider-Man and original plot goes to the Marvel franchise and their fantastic movies and comics. I own new story lines and new characters, like Thea Quinton.

As you can tell by this chapter people are beginning to catch on to the relationship between Thea and Peter. It's all slowly coming together and forming the story I originally planned.

How are you liking the story so far? What are your theories? I would like to know.