she's a killer queen
the warm water washed away the soapy bubbles that covered peter's hair, and he sighed in contentment.
he savoured the showers he could afford occasionally, and considering what had happened yesterday, peter would probably be getting a lot fewer washes.
he'd been fired from his shitty newspaper job. they'd had enough of his loose attitude, how he'd only drop in whenever he could.
seems they appreciate employees to be more hands-on, peter thought bitterly as he scrubbed his arms free of grime and dried blood.
it wasn't the end of the world. he'd had that job for a while and he was starting to get sick of the way he was treated by the company.
maybe this is a good thing, he pondered.
maybe I could snag a higher-paying job that doesn't treat me like filth.
peter hurriedly washed the rest of the soap off his body, eyeing the timer on a little slab on the wall ticking down to 5 seconds.
he breathed in the warm steam, taking it in, before the water shut off suddenly.
peter pushed back his sopping hair, and stepped out of the cubicle to quickly make his way over to his locker.
he dried himself off with the unpleasantly-rough towel he'd had for a year, and winced as it dragged over his tender skin.
ten minutes later he was jogging home in a pair of scruffy denim jeans and a hoodie, a pair of bluetooth earphones he'd made himself stuck in his ears.
they were on an incredibly low volume setting, so quiet he doubted anyone could even hear the music if they fitted them on.
as various indie bands blasted, he tugged on his lip worriedly as he thought about his pittance of money sitting on the table at home. barely enough for the coming week. he had to look for employment right away.
peter hummed along to the 1975 as he crossed the street, cars honking and city lights winking in the dark.
thoughts whirled in his head as he made his way down the winding alleys to his warehouse. a science job would be cool.
he had to abandon school when may died to focus on himself, so he didn't have any qualifications or anything.
maybe he could just impress a company with his knowledge, or maybe show them his AI??
no, no. he couldn't risk that.
peter flopped on his mattress with a deep sigh. no spidermanning today, he was just not up to it.
"are you okay, peter?" his AI asked worriedly from the speaker on the desk, and he grunted.
"well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. you got brains for days, man" she deadpanned, and peter snorted. he'd forgotten that he'd uploaded a library's contents of gen z humour into her database.
"thanks mate" he mumbled, feeling his consciousness ebb away slowly.
"i feel bad I haven't given you a name yet"
"don't feel bad. it'll make you sad. and sad backwards is das, and das not good." the AI said seriously, and peter's choked laughs were muffled by his blanket.
"goodnight, web boi" she whispered, and he drifted off to sleep.
"spiderman held you hostage??" steve asked confusedly, and nat bit back a laugh.
"he's kidding" she said, glaring at clint.
"he made like a kind of barrier of webs that I fell onto so I didn't, you know, plummet to my death" natasha said dryly, and sam whistled appreciatively from where he was rooting around in the fridge.
"he's saved like 25% of the avengers" clint said, twirling an arrow on the sofa next to nat, steve opposite them on the other sofa with bucky.
"that's not even.. close to right.." nat muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I hate maths, okay?" clint said.
bucky smiled one of his rare smiles. "he's got flair about him, doesn't he?" he said quietly, and clint grinned toothily.
"more than flair. this kid's wit would do tony proud"
"what'd do me proud?" came a voice from the doorway, and tony sauntered in, looking like absolute shit on one hour of sleep in two days, clutching a mug of presumably very strong coffee.
"jesus, stark, you look like shit" sam stated simply, pouring orange juice into a glass on the counter beside wanda, who was sat cross-legged on the surface.
"thanks babes" tony said sarcastically with a glare. "anyone seen my shopping list?"
"over on the coffee table" steve said, motioning toward the tiny glass table beside an armchair
"can you add doritos?" sam asked, passing a bowl of pretzels to bucky.
"uhhh, no." tony said flatly. "you only like the gross spicy ones"
"tones, it's not my fault you have dysfunctional taste buds" the former pararescue retorted. "you can only handle the cheese ones"
"which are the best ones!" tony exclaimed, scribbling on the tiny sheet of paper he'd snatched up from the little table.
clint nodded in agreement. "he's right, you know"
"дай мне" nat said casually, motioning to bucky, who smirked and and passed the bowl over.
she scooped up a couple of pretzels, holding the bowl out of clint's reach.
"we really should get that spider kid on the team" steve said.
"woah, woah. we're talking shopping and now we're going at this whole spiderman thing again?" tony said.
"we've been over this, guys. we should leave him alone. he's his own person and he can do what he wants with his powers as long as he's helping the city" bucky spoke up softly. clint high-fived him.
"yeah, the accords are over" clint agreed, still trying to reach the bowl nat was holding behind her.
"I mean, I'm just saying that.. this guy would be a lot more effective and efficient if he joined us" steve protested.
wanda spoke for the first time, fiddling with her rings nervously.
"I don't understand why some of you can't just accept that spiderman is his own person, and we cannot make him do anything. he's his own hero, and he may prefer it that way." she said faintly.
natasha threw her hands up. "exactly"
tony crossed his arms. "that's a fair point, but I have to say, he doesn't look so good. like he looks quite malnourished, you can see his ribs through the suit."
they all fell silent, mulling over the words.
"so we can either leave him alone, and accept the help he offers occasionally, or we can offer him a place on the team" clint summed up.
"well we can't just let him on the team straight away" steve said, rubbing his eyes. "we'd have to give him some sort of tryout."
tony snorted. "like auditions"
"exactly" steve said mid-yawn."but even if this guy doesn't want to join us, I'd like to offer him some sort of aid all the same"
"he may not want it. spidey's stubborn" nat pointed out, and the blonde grimaced.
"true. but he deserves it all the same for saving people almost every day."
the elevator dinged as the doors slid open, and pepper entered the floor, looking odd without her usual stack of papers or clipboard.
"theo's let me off for the evening so I've come to grace you with my presence" she announced, striding forward and collapsing tiredly onto a squishy armchair.
"and what an exquisite presence that is" tony drawled, walking over and kissing the top of her head.
they all greeted her warmly. it was nice to see the legendary pepper potts away from her work.
"god, someone get me a drink please" she said as tony joined her on the arm of the chair, wrapping his arms round her shoulders tenderly.
"of course, mlady" clint chirped, retrieving a bottle of red wine from behind the couch with a grin.
steve stared at him distastefully, and he shrugged, saying "for emergencies"
pepper eyed the bottle with repressed disgust. "no no, I need the real stuff" she said, and wanda hopped down of the counter to rummage behind the bar next to it.
she held up a bottle of vodka.
"oh wanda babe. I'm not looking to get hammered" pepper called, and wanda smiled, ducking back down. her arm reappeared a moment later with a delicate bottle displaying the words "Moet & Chandon"
"that's more like it" pepper said, stretching her sore arms and relaxing into tony.
nat and clint cheered, and wanda popped back up and levitated the bottle towards the CEO with her magic.
pepper chuckled, grabbing the drink and uncorking it with her teeth, ignoring the aghast looks of steve and sam.
"woah" bucky stated coolly, and pepper smirked.
"I can't be elegance and heels all the time, barnes"
steve swallowed. "no you cannot"
bucky grinned, his perfect teeth flashing. "she's a killer queen" he deadpanned, and everyone burst out laughing.
steve looked around, confused face akin to a poor puppy.
"huh?" he asked.
nat rolled her eyes. "uneducated swine" she said fondly.