Chapter 1
A/N: Gah I’m sorry this is so bad. I love the idea but I’ve had no inspirtation however, I’m aware I haven’t posted any content in a while and since it’s Peter’s birthday I wanted to do something. Also, Wanda’s appearance in this fic was completely unplanned but I love the idea of college!Wanda. I would’ve made it Shuri but lets be honest, she’d have been the one teaching the lecturers.
From the day you had turned sixteen up until now, you’d gathered up a pretty decent collection of lost belongings. The occasional Lego brick, some shirt buttons, more stationary than one kid could ever need and once an entire collection of avengers trading cards. That last one you had made sure to keep safe, there was no way your soulmate wasn’t gonna want that one back. Over the past year or so, the items that your soulmate had lost were becoming increasingly peculiar. Pieces of technology and once a vial of some suspicious mixture labelled ‘web fluid 2.3’ were strange enough, but the backpacks? There were at least four shoved into the back of your closet. So far they hadn’t held many clues to the identity of whoever your stars aligned with. School books with no names, the usual stationary and a sweater from Midtown High were the only evidence that at least your soulmate wasn’t some old recluse. You did manage to find one gold nugget, quite recently in fact. The sweater had the initials P.B.P penned in the label. You wondered what that stood for. Patrick? Percy? Phoebe?
“Y/N, come on! The car’s loaded up.” Your father called out.
You grinned and zipped your suitcase closed. This was it, the beginning of the rest of your life. College awaited. You were excited to finally have some independence but also a little nervous. You’d chosen a college in New York because it had the perfect course for you, but were you also leaving your one chance at true love behind? Or was this all part of fate’s plan to bring two lovers together? Shaking those conflicting thoughts away, you grabbed one more pair of socks from your draw and heaved it shut, but the wood caught and the entire chest of draws shook, sending your stationary and tidbits sprawling across the floor.
“Shit!” You huffed and sunk down to your knees, reaching under the unit to grab at the various pens. Your soulmate would welcome the replacement, you were sure, but now you would need to make a pit stop to the local shop
“Dude this is awesome. I can’t believe Ms Stark was able to persuade them to make us roomies.”
Peter smiled at his best friend as he continued to fill his sock draw. “Yeah, well, I can’t exactly be climbing in and out of the window in the suit and scaring the crap out of some poor guy. And restricting the amount of people who know my identity restricts the amount of people in danger for their association with me. Can you unplug that charge wire?”
Ned nodded as he helped Peter pack. “And nobody else would be able to work as hard as your guy in the chair. Don’t forget that.”
The brunette smiled at Ned’s enthusiasm. “Are you kidding? Nobody could ever replace you.” His eyes performed one more sweep of the room. It appeared tidier than it had ever been since he’d moved in after his parents’ death now that most of his belongings were boxed up. It was surely going to make Aunt May cry when she came in to check on them. In true Ned fashion, he had already packed about a week in advance, Peter was pretty sure he was bringing more videogames than clothes. He noticed a thin shape rolling out from under the chest of draws and picked it up as it hit his foot. “Hey, check this out.” He held up the pen, decorated in various Spider-Man illustrations. “She loves me already.”
You were pretty sure the lobby of the library was just as big as the library itself, and it was packed. Freshers week was the biggest event of the year and there were a LOT of freshers. Unlike at high school, you were going to be in classes with students of all ages. Some of them were probably old enough to be your grandparent and you admired them for still chasing their dreams. What made you feel most out of place was the amount of people who had friends here. You’d chosen the university that felt right for you, but that also meant leaving all your friends behind. How could you make a whole new friend group and expect it to be just as great as the one you’d left at home?
“Look at these cupcakes. Do they not realise how obvious it is that they’re trying too hard? We already chose to go here.”
You turned to follow the accent and instantly froze when you saw the tall brunette, dressed in various shades of reds and maroons and looking iconic, just for a welcome event. She wore a baseball cap but her face had been in the papers enough times. Sure enough, she held a cupcake in her hand and the clumsy icing was enough to show they were homecooked.
“You’re the Scarlet Witch.”
Wanda hardly seemed fazed and shrugged. “Yes, I heard that’s what they’re calling me now. I assume they didn’t mean for it to seem so offensive. You looked like a scared puppy. I know what it’s like to find yourself all alone somewhere you’re now expected to call home.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you’d please make your way through these doors. The welcome talk will commence in ten minutes and seats are limited.”
Wanda barely paid attention to the over-excited student ambassador’s announcement and made no move to follow the crowd.
“I don’t think I can stand that much more enthusiasm. I’m going to find some better coffee and real cake. Let me know if there’s anything exciting, pup.”
“Oh, it’s Y/N.”
Wanda cracked a smile and something about her posture seemed to relax a little. “I’ll see you around, Y/N. Don’t worry too much about not making friends. You’ve got me now.”
You could barely process what had just happened. Were you friends with an Avenger now? There wasn’t much time to complicate the implications, as you were swept into the auditorium the seats were already filling and you needed to grab one fast. These talks always took longer than necessary and the writing on the projected powerpoint showed note taking would be a good idea.
Once settled, you searched through your bag and cursed.
“Shit!”
This really was a terrible start to the first semester of college. So much for that pit stop to the store. You could probably get away with just taking pictures of the board but that wasn't going to be as effective as writing your own notes so you tapped the shoulder of the guy in front of you.
“Hey. Do you have a pen?”
Peter sighed and shook his head as he caught sight of Wanda leaving the lobby. He would have joined her but Ned was insistent that this talk was too important to miss. He followed his best friend into the auditorium, sitting in one of the middle rows. The projector was already set up with some contact info and more photos of campus than needed. They’d seen it all on the way in.
“Shit!” Peter jumped a little as his senses picked up on the rustling and frustration behind him. Someone wasn’t very organised.
He turned his head to talk to Ned but discreetly glanced behind him to see a girl rummaging through her bag. And could he just say…damn. He smiled at the girl when she finally gave up the fight looking for something that clearly wasn’t there and nodded. “Yeah course, one sec.” he looked through his backpack and picked up the Spider-Man pen before deciding against it. It was a cute sentiment for him and although this girl seemed trustworthy, he didn't want to risk not getting it back. Instead he handed her a plain black biro. “Here.”
You sighed in relief and took the pen from the brunette curly haired boy. “Thanks. You just saved me from the worst first day ever. I’m Y/N. Do you have a name or shall I just call you my hero?”
His ears reddened as his friend tried not to laugh and just shook his head. “No. I mean- I have a name- but I’m not a superhero. Not that that’s what you meant but- I just- I’m Peter. Parker. Peter Parker.”
You smiled and nodded. “Hey, Peter Parker.”