A Few Times
I.
"Peter, you haven't eaten anything since last night!" Maisie half-yelled, holding a peanut butter sandwich in her hand and waving it around. "It's three o'clock in the afternoon!"
Peter glanced up from his work for a moment, regarding Maisie with a lazy nod, "Oh, hey, Maiz. When did you get here?"
She stared at him in annoyance and disbelief, "Did you go to sleep last night at all?"
Silence, then, "Er, yeah."
"Liar," she shot back.
Tony, who was pretending to work on his project instead of eavesdropping, smirked.
"Okay, but Mr. Stark and I were really close to figuring out how to—" Peter was interrupted again, this time by the lab doors opening and Pepper Potts entering the lab. "Uh oh."
As soon as the door closed behind her, Tony was away from his desk and booking it to stand in front of her.
"Nice try," Pepper scoffed, placing a hand on his chest. "I know you skipped the shareholders meeting today, and just looking at you, I can tell you've been awake for more than twenty-eight hours."
Tony opened his mouth, likely to respond with some sort of sarcastic comment or witty defense, but Pepper interrupted again.
"Go upstairs and shower," she ordered. "I already had FRIDAY put in an order for Chinese, and it'll be here by the time you get out. Also, If you aren't in bed by ten o'clock tonight, I'm canceling our wedding."
She leaned forward to give him a peck on the lips, turned on her stiletto heel, and left the room. Tony stared after her, smiling with a loving expression on his face. Maisie subconsciously took a step away from Peter, tossing the peanut butter sandwich onto a plate on his desk.
"Er, I'll be upstairs," Maisie cleared her throat awkwardly, and followed in Pepper's footsteps out of the lab.
Tony and Peter stood in silence for a moment, staring at where the two had exited. Then, Tony leaned forward, clapping a hand on Peter's shoulder.
"You'll learn, kid," the older man said.
Peter tore his eyes away from the lab door, "Learn what?"
******
II.
"I thought you were dead," Peter expressed, glaring at Maisie in exasperation.
"And, I'm not," she replied, taking off her mask. "Problem solved."
Peter stuttered to find the words to express what he was feeling, "You can't just teleport off into an exploding building! That's—"
"—exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, Pete," Maisie argued. "The whole point of being a superhero means saving lives, and I did that."
"But you can't just—" Peter exclaimed.
"I can, and I did," she glared. "If you have a problem with that, go be someone else's partner."
"I don't want to be anyone else's partner!" Peter frowned. "But if you just keep putting yourself into these positions... you're gonna be killed, and I can't stay around to watch you do that."
Maisie stared at him. She struggled to choose between defending her actions or apologizing, but neither of those options felt right.
"Just—ugh," Peter sighed. "I don't want to have to find your body, too."
The girl bit her tongue, knowing he was referring to Ben.
"I'm not sorry," Maisie mumbled. Peter's head shot up, frustration glittering in his eyes, but she raised her hand to stop him. "I saved someone's life by doing that today, and I don't regret it, but I think I can understand what you're talking about."
He waited for her to continue.
"My powers are kind of like a safety net," she sighed. "I remember Tony saying one time his suits were kind of the same thing. It's easy to rely on them, and I bet, one day, it could come back to bite us. Still, I'm not going to pretend like I can't teleport into a building armed with explosive and out of it within ten seconds. That's something I can do, and if it saves lives and keeps the world's enemies at bay, I'm going to keep doing it."
Peter frowned.
"If you don't want to be my partner anymore, I understand," Maisie sighed. "But, this is who I am, and I think it's who you are, too. That's why I wanted to be your partner in the first place."
The boy slowly nodded, "Okay."
Maisie frowned, "Okay? Is that it? I made a pretty nice speech about being, I dunno, a superhero, and all you say is 'okay'?"
"What else do you want me to say?" Peter flailed his arms in exasperation. "I'm not sorry for being worried about you—"
"Say 'thank you for saving the citizen in danger, Maisie, you're always right,'" she mocked, raising an eyebrow.
Tony and Pepper stared at the two arguing teens from their place in the doorway, varying expressions of amusement and exasperation.
"You know, when I asked you not to be a superhero anymore, you destroyed your suits," Pepper commented, shrugging.
"Didn't stop me from making a dozen more," Tony winced. "And Ultron."
The woman scoffed, "Those kids are gonna have a rough future ahead of them."
Pepper turned away, leaving Tony staring after her, "Hey! What do you mean?"
******
III.
Maisie stood along the side of the room, playing with the straw in her drink. She had to be the only person at the Stark Foundation Benefit younger than thirty years old. Her Sprite swirled in her glass one last time before she sighed and set it down on the nearest table, crossing her legs and plopping down into a seat. The dress Pepper picked out for the occasion was black and silky, and the shoes were the same color. She had to tell herself many times not to trip over the lengthy fabric, but she did think that the dress suited her well.
Peter was supposed to be there to keep her company, and as Maisie checked her phone for the fifteenth time, she saw that he was over an hour late.
Flipping her curled hair over her shoulder, she shook her head and stood up to search for someone she actually recognized amongst the inordinate amount of suits and designer dresses.
Peter finally arrived at the Benefit, straightening his tie as he walked through the huge double doors leading into the ballroom. He gulped as several older business people gave him confused look, but he pretended he didn't notice. He was late, he knew that, and he also knew that Maisie was going to probably kill him for leaving her alone with a bunch of strangers for over an hour.
As his eyes scanned the ballroom for Maisie's blonde head, he saw Tony and Pepper slowly dancing in the middle of the floor, looking like they were the only two in the room. Peter smiled, wondering if he'd ever get such an epic love like they did.
"There you are!" Maisie exclaimed, shaking her head in exasperation so a few of her blonde curls flipped over her shoulder. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you?"
As Maisie chewed him out for being late, he took in her full appearance. Her makeup was done expertly, making her green eyes stand out even more than usual. Despite the hands on her hips and stern glare she was giving him, Maisie looked beautiful, and he noticed.
Before she'd even finished her rant, Peter asked, "Wanna dance?"
"What?" Maisie raised an eyebrow. She seemed to remember she was mad, and replied, "No! No."
"Come on, let's dance," he smirked, taking a page out of Tony's book and holding an arm out for her to take.
"Peter!" she exclaimed, but her laughter betrayed her.
He took her hand, and led her out to the dance floor with all the older businesspeople reluctantly swaying to the outdated music. Maisie tried not to look surprised as Peter expertly led her on the dance floor, stepping carefully to the rhythm of the song.
"You can dance?" she finally said, more of a statement than a question itself.
"After the... incident," Peter lowered his voice, "I've been pretty light on my feet."
Maisie shook her head, smiling, "Well, you're pretty good."
"Thanks," Peter's pride shone on his face.
"But, despite your best efforts, you still can't tie a tie," Maisie laughed when she saw how crooked the boy's tie was.
Peter groaned in annoyance, "Why does this always happen?"
She reached out, pausing her dance to adjust the tie correctly before smoothing out his lapel and brushing nonexistent lint from his coat, "What would you do without me?"
"Die, probably," Peter shrugged. "I don't even know my social security number."
Maisie put her arms back around his neck, shaking her head, "That's really not good, Pete."
The two danced in silence for a while. Maisie scanned the room for Pepper and Tony, and Peter looked right at her, wondering how she managed to look so beautiful and how he hadn't ever really noticed it before.
"You look—" he realized he was speaking after he'd already spoken, and a sort-of cough interrupted his words. "You look really... pretty."
Maisie was caught off guard by the sudden compliment, but her cheeks warmed and her heart fluttered all the same. "Thanks."
She adjusted her gaze elsewhere in an attempt to disguise the blush on her face. Across the room, Tony was twirling Pepper around as she laughed, the two looking like a beautiful couple.
"They're pretty happy together, aren't they?" she mused.
Peter smiled, "Yeah, they are."
Maisie was caught off guard as Peter twirled her around, mimicking their mentor's dance moves. The two burst out in laughter, and Maisie tried not to trip over her feet as he pulled her back in for a dip. Maisie had never much liked to dance before, but with Peter as her partner, she could do it forever.