A Job Offer
“Tell me, Miss Y/l/n, have you heard of an organization called A.I.M.?”
You wanted to fire off a quip about AOL Instant Messaging, but instead just smiled and shook your head. “I can't say that I have, no.”
Mr. Adams smiled. In addition to his perfectly tailored expensive soft gray suit, he had perfectly straight white teeth. You noted they looked even more dazzling contrasted against the mustard yellow of his pocket handkerchief and tie.
He was unsettling, like an evil Chris Traeger, and you couldn't put your finger on exactly why he seemed like an evil Chris Traeger.
“A.I.M., Miss Y/l/n, is an organization dedicated to technology and sciences.”
He was standing between you and Professor Noble now, nearly blocking her from your sight. You could see your teacher clenching and unclenching her jaw from here. You looked back at Mr. Adams, wondering what was setting Noble so on edge.
“Go on.”
“A.I.M.--a.k.a Advanced Idea Mechanics—is, like I said, dedicated to technology. Both advancing and implementing it for the gain of not only ourselves, but the world,” he punctuated the word world with a casual sweeping hand gesture. “We are always looking for talented minds to join our ranks, and skilled fighters to protect our interests. Keep nosy people away from our business.” He looked you in the eye, flashing his sly grin again. He knew he had you hooked. “From what I hear, you qualify as both.”
You kept your face politely stoic, but you were curious. It was your default state, curious. You wanted to know more about the organization Noble worked for but never talked about, and why he'd told Noble earlier that Spider-Man was a problem. Most organizations didn't attract attention from superheroes unless they were in the business of committing crimes and causing trouble.
“I know you've been working with our dear Doctor Noble here for quite a while, but we'd like to offer you an official job at A.I.M. doing some slightly different work.” Mr. Adams spoke so casually, so friendly, that despite the unsettling feeling you had in the back of your mind, you were beginning to trust him.
“What sort of work? I'm a scientist and an engineer first and foremost, Mr. Adams,” you said as you crossed your arms, leaning your hip against your workbench.
“Obviously you would still continue the work you do here now in Noble's lab, but as an official A.I.M. scientist,” he raised a single finger, seeing your excitement start to creep up your face at receiving a job offer before you even finished school. “We would also like you to put your special abilities to use.” He watched your face closely.
You furrowed your brow.
“Obviously, I don't expect you to make a decision right away. But it does come with full benefits, you know, healthcare, etc. And, funding for almost any project you could conceive of when we aren't commissioning special projects from our scientists. We may not be a well known organization, but we are very, very well funded. Of course, if you agreed to, ah, put your abilities to use for us, we would provide any training you needed, and of course, a specially designed suit--”
“A disguise. You want me to break laws.”
“Miss Y/l/n, by simply working for Noble and speaking to me you're already breaking several. And something tells me you don't have many qualms about breaking or bending the rules, either.” Mr. Adams raised a dark brow.
“And what makes you say that?”
“Commit any jewel heists lately?”
You swallowed.
He grinned, again. “Of course, we might not appreciate you committing more petty crimes like that if you work for us, any break-ins or fights you get into will be for the purpose of advancing A.I.M.” His phone beeped, and he pulled it out of his pocket to check it. “Well, I must be off,” he smiled, pocketing his phone and pulling a business card out. “Do some research on us, think it over, and give me a call if you decide either way.” He slipped the business card into your hand.
You looked it over. It was white with only a telephone number printed in black in the center of one side, and the back had the A.I.M. logo. You looked at Mr. Adams, and gave a small nod.
Grinning, he turned towards Noble and gave her a cheerful wave. “Lovely seeing you as always, Noble! Don't work to hard, now.” He turned and winked at you on his way to the door. “Look forward to your call, Miss Y/l/n.” And then he was gone, door clicking softly behind him.
“Fucking bastard,” seethed Noble from her workstation, slamming her hand on the table. “Always so damn cocky in his goddamn suits.”
You turned to look at her. “Is he really that bad?”
“Don't get me wrong, Y/l/n, he's excellent at his job. He's just an asshole.”
Noble's back was to you as you turned over the business card.
“Professor, is it dangerous working for A.I.M.? He made it sound pretty good-”
“Oh, being one of their scientists is highly rewarding, don't get me wrong there. A.I.M.'s purpose is worthwhile. It's the grunt work that becomes dangerous, especially if you end up going toe-to-toe with their enemies.”
“Enemies?”
“Let's just say it's only a matter of time before the Avengers find out about what A.I.M. really does, and they've caught the attention of at least one other masked vigilante.” Noble returned to fitting together more pieces for The Heart.
You swallowed. “What does A.I.M. really do? I thought Mr. Adams said it was all science-”
“Oh, it mostly is. But it's what we do with the science. A.I.M. supplies weapons for the government on occasion, and foreign ones as well. Computers, security systems, experimental tech—you name it, A.I.M. is involved as long as there's science and technology involved.” She made eye contact with you, and held it from across the room. “A.I.M. began as a branch of HYDRA.”
“Hydra?! As in the fu—ahem, as in the Hydra that destroyed SHIELD?”
“Yes. Bunch of idiots if you ask me. A.I.M. is different. We don't seek to eliminate or really even control like Hydra does, but we want to free and guide and lead the future. Unfortunately, to get there, we might have to destroy some things. Hydra taking down SHIELD sent us ahead by years, removing one of our biggest roadblocks.” Turning away, she resumed her work. “Though I don't like the idea of you fighting superheroes all the time for them—for us, I think you should consider becoming an official employee, since you're technically already helping us anyway.”
For the next hour while working, you mulled everything over. A.I.M. seemed like some serious shit, and you definitely wanted a job in your field. You already knew Noble did some not so good things, but you didn't know the specifics. And you yourself had some questionable morals—I mean you spent your free time designing weapons and committing jewel heists for fucks sake.
The hour passed quickly. You had half an hour to go meet Peter at the school for your date.
“Professor, I'm heading out early,” you called out, peeling off your gloves and placing them on their shelf alongside your goggles and lab coat.
“I'll see you next week, Y/l/n.”
You donned your coat and shouldered your purse. “Goodnight, Professor!” You gave her a wave and a smile, and left.
You arrived at campus with seconds to spare, and immediately rushed to the meeting spot you'd chosen with Peter, fixing your appearance in the screen of your phone. He wasn't there yet, and you let out a sigh of relief and sat on a bench to catch your breath.
After five nervous minutes of waiting, you got a text. It was Peter. He was running late, he was so sorry, but he'd be there to pick you up very soon. You rolled your eyes and smiled. Always the late kid, apparently.
You opened up Instagram to kill some time. After just seconds of scrolling through pictures of makeup, drinks, and cityscapes, a post from Stacy caught you by surprise. It was a video of Spider-Man, standing on top of a crashed taxi cab on it's side across the road, pulling a man out of the driver's seat as an armored van careened away down the road in the background. He took a second to make sure the man wasn't seriously injured, and then went swinging off after the barreling hunk of metal. The camera turned to show Stacy's face in a shocked grin, proclaiming “I just saw Spider-Man save like six people!” You double tapped the video with your thumb, and frowned as the little red heart popped up. Fucking Spider-Man.
Peter showed up fifteen minutes later, looking like he'd rushed as fast as he could to meet you.
“Shit, I'm sorry—there was a car chase, I rushed as fast as I could to meet you-”
You grinned. “I saw on Instagram, my friend Stacy posted a video of Spider-Man pulling a guy out of a crashed taxi cab.” You put your phone in your purse as you stood from your seat on the bench.
“Oh damn, yeah, must've been the same thing I got tied up in,” he scratched the back of his head and smiled. “How was your meeting with Professor Noble?”
“It was good! One of her colleagues offered me a job,” you fell into step with him.
“What! That's amazing!”
“Right? I'm going to do some more research about the organization though, before I make up my mind.”
“Oh, that reminds me, my friend talked to Tony Stark, he said he'd love to meet you,” Peter glanced at you as he hailed a cab.
“What?! Oh my god, are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. He said, quote, 'sounds like a regular Einstein, bring her by anytime.'”
You beamed at him. “You must've made me sound really smart.”
Peter smiled back at you. “I only told my friend the truth.”
The ride to the Thai place was short. It was a little hole in the wall restaurant with dark furniture, authentic art, and a loud and busy kitchen. You were both given a table against the wall, and as you slid into the bench, a waiter placed two menus in front of you and wandered off.
“So what do you usually get here?” You asked, opening up your menu.
Peter started rattling off his recommendations, and the waiter returned a moment later with two glasses of water. “Would you two like anything else to drink?”
You and Peter both picked your drinks, and the waiter left, returning just moments later before disappearing again, returning later to take your orders—an order of veggie spring rolls and a large order of curry to share.
Conversation quickly turned to current events, and then the food came. As you filled up your plates with rice and curry, you remarked “Did you hear about Norman Osborn last month?”
Peter instantly sobered. “Yeah, I did. I grew up with his kid, Harry.”
“Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize-”
He looked at you and smiled, returning the serving spoon to the bowl of curry in the middle of the table. “It's okay, Y/n.”
You had no idea. Sympathetic to his sad and serious expression, you instinctively reached over the table and placed your hand on his. “I'm sorry. You must have known him for a long time if you grew up with Harry.”
Peter blinked, glanced at your hands, and smiled, turning his palm up to squeeze yours. “Yeah, I did. I'm okay though, it's just Harry mostly that's got me worried.”
You kept your hand in his, cheeks turning pink, heart beating just a little bit faster. “It probably hurt him pretty bad.” Peter nodded. “How did it happen? The news all said it was a tragic accident.”
Peter looked at you seriously. “Can I trust you to keep a secret?”
You nodded, smiling reassuringly. “I'm excellent at keeping secrets. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”
“I just... I haven't talked with a lot of people outside of my Aunt May about it, and I have this feeling that you're someone I can trust,” he was speaking softly, leaning slightly towards you over the table and holding eye contact.
You beamed at the compliment. “Alright, go ahead then.”
“Harry said Spider-Man was responsible.”
You froze. “What? I got the impression he wasn't the killing type.”
Peter shook his head. “I don't believe he is, either. But Harry saw him there, right after the accident, and now he's obsessed with revenge. That's why I'm so worried about him.”
“Why would Spider-Man kill Norman Osborn?”
Peter lowered his voice. “I think Norman was the Green Goblin. The Goblin was using a bunch of Oscorp tech, and... There's other connections, too.”
Your mind was reeling. So Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin. That's what you thought you'd heard when you'd walked in on Mr. Adams and Professor Noble arguing at the lab. And Harry Osborn wanted revenge. Maybe you could use Peter to get to Harry, team up so you could help A.I.M. take down Spider-Man if you took the job.
“Wow. That's... That's intense, Peter.”
He nodded and laughed nervously. “I'm not really sure why I just told you all of that, honestly.”
You smiled. “Don't worry. You can trust me, Peter,” you said earnestly, squeezing his hand before letting go. “Now let's eat before this gets cold. It looks amazing.”
He smiled gratefully at you, and conversation turned to more lighthearted matters. With all of the talking, it took you both quite a while to finish your food and pay. You weren't far from you neighborhood, surprisingly, so Peter walked you home, slipping your hand into his halfway there.
You stopped in front of your building and turned to face him. “This is me,” you nodded your head towards the building. “I had a really amazing time, Peter, and the food was delicious. We'll have to go there again sometime.” Your hand was still in his, and the other held a dangling plastic bag filled with the leftovers.
He grinned. “Again?”
“I mean, as long as you wanna go out some more, then yeah. That food is definitely worth a repeat.”
“I'll probably have to show you some other places before I can take you back there, huh?”
“Probably. Don't wanna fall into a routine too quick, do we?”
“Nah, probably not.”
You were both inching closer to each other, exchanging nervous and excited glances.
“I get to pick the next place, though” you whispered, standing so close that if either of you took a deep enough breath your chests would touch.
“Good, because now I have to find somewhere even better than the Thai place if I wanna keep impressing you,” he was smiling just a little bit, glancing back and forth between your eyes.
“Sounds good to me,” you were both whispering at this point. You glanced at his lips, and blinked as you looked back up, and then his hand was gently touching the side of your jaw and your neck and his lips were brushing against yours, his other hand still warm in your grasp, and he tasted like fortune cookies and mint. It was soft and gentle and perfect, just like Peter. You couldn't help but smile at him as he pulled away, hand still on the side of your face. His thumb brushing your jawline lightly. You grinned at each other.
“That was-”
“Wow,” you agreed, dropping his hand so you could wrap yours around the back of his neck and pull him in for another one without dropping the leftovers. His hand went to your waist after a moments hesitation. Your second lasted longer than the first, and by the time you both pulled away, you were both breathing a little heavier than usual. You grinned. “I should probably head inside.” Your hand slipped from the back of his neck to his shoulder, and slightly down his chest until it was over his heart. If he hadn't been wearing a jacket, there was no doubt you would have felt it beating just as hard as yours.
He nodded, grinning as wide as you were, as he took his hand off your waist reluctantly and stepped back after one last brush of his thumb across your jaw. Your cheek felt much colder now with the breeze where his hand had been.
“I'll uh, I'll text you? Call you?” He put both of his hands into his pockets.
You nodded. “Yeah. Anytime.”
You both stood there, smiling like idiots for a moment, and you started the walk up the stairs to the front door of your building, turning around after you unlocked your door, resting the takeout on the ground so you could look through your keys easier.
“Goodnight, Y/n.” He was standing at the bottom of the stairs, hands in his pockets and looking up at you with the most beautiful smile you'd ever seen. You paused, pulling the door closed but leaving it unlocked, and rushed down the stairs. He raised his eyebrows, opening his mouth slightly, “Wh-”
You grabbed both sides of his face and pulled him down for another kiss, and even though you were standing on the last stair he was still taller than you. If you were in a movie, there would have been the biggest music crescendo right then, you thought later on. Peter's brow was furrowed, his hands were caught in his pockets and he was trying to get them out to pull you closer, but you pulled away first. You were still holding his face, and he looked at you dazed like a deer in headlights, totally speechless.
“Goodnight Peter,” you whispered, voice low, eyes twinkling, before running back up your stairs and disappearing in through the front door with just one glance back at him before you shut the it. He was grinning dumbly, clearly still dazed from your last kiss.
You were practically floating on air, and your face hurt from how big you were grinning when you walked in through the front door of your home. Stacy was still out, judging from the dark and silent apartment.
You were still jittery with adrenaline from the last kiss, you couldn't even thing about going to sleep, so instead you pulled out your laptop and began your research on A.I.M.
You already knew you were going to accept the job.