Avoiding Complicated Feelings
Summary: Peter Parker x fe!Reader -> You have had feelings for Peter for...a long time. But, when you try to deny them, Peter begins to question what has changed between you both.
Disclaimer: Angsty fluff, friends to lovers, deny feelings, Kate and Yelena being the best roommates, Yelena has adopted Reader as a sister (and sticks up for her like one), yearning, she falls first, he falls harder. Peter crawls through her window, twice. Fluff, light swearing, not fully proof read.
“You’ve been moping around all day,” Yelena announced as she entered your room.
“No- I have not been moping.”
You tried your best to deny it, but if you were being honest with yourself, you hadn’t stopped moping since you stole one of Kate’s purple sweatshirts, changed your contacts for your glasses and perched yourself on the cream coloured desk chair in the corner of your room and opened up your laptop.
The entire doc had been empty for forty minutes.
Yelena sighed as she collapsed onto your bed just behind you, pulling one of your throw pillows to her chest.
“So, tell Auntie Yelena what happened?”
“Nothing happened. There’s nothing to tell. Absolutely nothing.”
“Okay, but,” Yelena began. “When you say it like that, it just tells me that you do have something to tell so…spill. What happened between you and Spider-Boy?”
You shook your head. “Nothing.”
“Y/n.”
“I’m not lying this time,” you told her. “Literally…nothing. I just…I don’t even know.”
Shutting your laptop, you moved towards your bed before scooting in beside her. She handed you your own pillow to hold.
“You know, sometimes it’s them. They’re never any good at finding things, men. Like, ever. You know I had to help Bob find his Ferris Buller DVD when it was, like, right there, in front of his face.”
You hummed. “Maybe, but…I think I’m just being an idiot.”
“A love sick idiot.”
You hit her on the arm, but she simply exclaimed, “What?! You know I’m right.”
“I know. But I don’t like it when you’re right.”
“Pshhh,” Yelena sounded. “You love it when I’m right and since I’m right all the time, it just means you love me all the time.”
“Shut up.”
“See, I’m right.”
“Yelena.”
“Okay, okay. Okay, fine. Besides the fact that I know I’m right, what else?”
You let out a heavy sigh as you slumped into your bed. “I don’t know.”
“Hey!” Kate’s voice called out as she knocked twice on the door before opening it. “I’m ordering pizza, anyone want- is that my sweatshirt?”
You looked down at yourself. “No.”
Kate just hummed. “I’m ordering pizza, want anything?”
Yelena nodded, “Oh, yes.”, before rattling off her order and then yours.
“How do you-”
“Because I’m always right.”
“What’s up with her?” Kate asked Yelena, in reference to you.
“Spider-Boy is still an idiot.”
“Ooh, I’ll get the drinks then, too.”
Kate disappeared and reappeared ten minutes later with three chilled beers and the information that the pizza guy was ten minutes out.
“So, what’s happened?”
“Besides she’s an idiot?”
You hit Yelena again before looking at Kate. “I saw him in the library today. I think he was on a date.”
“Well, who was the girl?” Kate asked.
“Stacey…someone. I don’t know. I’ve seen her around campus a couple times. And she’s gorgeous. Seriously.”
“So are you!” Kate exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Yelena agreed.
“But it’s more than that,” you added. “She’s smart-”
“So are you.”
“And she’s exactly his type-”
“So are you.”
“And she can definitely afford to wash her clothes every day rather than doing two loads a week at three in the morning because it’s the only time the stupid washer doesn’t crap out.”
Yelena and Kate fell silent. “Okay, maybe not that.”
“You only do laundry twice a week?” Yelena asked, but Kate simply gave her a look.
“But everything else,” Kate assured you. “Peter likes.”
“Not that you should change anything about you,” Yelena added. “Because…no. Never change. We love you as you are, and so should he.”
You could have cried. “Thanks, guys.”
“But is there anything we can do to help?”
You shook your head. “I don’t think so.”
“Well…”
Both yourself and Kate looked at Yelena.
“And, again, never change. But…” Yelena looked over your head. “You could, maybe, run a brush through your hair once in a while. It does kinda look like a birdsnest right now.”
“Yelena!”
Kate grimaced. “She is right.”
“Kate!”
Pulling your hair from the worn out bobble, you let the mess fall around your face and down your back.
“And maybe get a new hair-tie,” Yelena told you before looking at her wrist. “Here. Use this one.”
Taking it from her, you pulled your hair back into a messy knot at the back of your head.
“Besides Peter, how’s the doctorate going?”
You’d been doing Ph.D for the last three years. You were three months from your final deadline…ever. It had also been on your course that you had met Peter. As a part of your doctorate, you had to take on a couple of classes as a TA and in doing so, you shared an office with the other TA’s and a desk with Peter.
It wasn’t until after six months you both realised you worked in the same building outside of your classes. Although Peter was a part of the Avengers Initiative, you were a part of Shield’s. Which had been where you’d met Kate.
What had been a ten minute conversation quickly turned into a long lasting friendship to the point where you’d become the person to take over Yelena and Kate’s extra room.
“Almost finished. I just…needed a break today and…”
“Then you saw Stacey.”
“She’s so good for him,” you sighed. “I can’t even be mad about it.”
A moment later, the buzzer went off to the door.
“That’ll be the pizzas. Hold that thought.”
It wasn’t hard to do. You’d been holding it for close to three years.
Stacey and Peter ended up dating for six weeks. Six excruciating long weeks where you had to watch with a smile as they moved around you, too happy to even be considered the ‘honeymoon’ couple.
Two weeks after that, you sat in the library finishing up the last of your thesis. Barely anyone was in the library since it was two in the morning and also a weekend.
“Mind if I sit here?”
You looked up to find Peter, still handsome and as charming as ever, standing in front of your desk.
“Not at all,” you answered, if only to watch him smile a little tiredly before pulling out his chair. “What are you doing here?”
“Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d get some work done.”
You nodded. “With what laptop?”
Peter looked around him.
“Shit. Guess I’ll read then.”
What Peter didn’t want to admit was that he’d been out on patrol since eight in the evening and had swung past the library six times, if just to catch a glimpse of you. And once the clock struck one, he started to get worried.
You had a tendency to just keep working.
“Is that your thesis?”
You nodded and paused typing for a moment. “Yeah. Just the last couple hundred words then I can copy the reference list over.”
Peter smiled, “Cool.”
You gave him a short smile back before turning back to your work. The next hour of your life felt like the longest since…since the last time you’d seen Peter.
He stayed sitting across from you the entire time, reading. Every once in a while, you could feel his eyes on you and you’d look up. He’d smile and then turn back to his book like he hadn’t just given you a mini panic attack.
“I’ll walk you home,” Peter told you as he watched you say goodnight to him and walk away.
Placing the book back in a random place, he grabbed his jacket and jogged up to you. Inside, your heart was hammering against your chest. But, somehow, between the busy streets of bachelor parties, and the night skyline of the city, your nerves calmed.
Even when Peter pulled you into his side and held onto your hand so tight you were almost certain you’d still feel his hand around yours a week later.
“Thanks for walking me home,” you told him as you got outside of your apartment door. “I feel kinda bad, though. Who’s gonna walk you home?”
Peter shrugged. “Don’t worry about me. Just…get some sleep.”
You smiled briefly, unlocking the door and stepping inside. “Goodnight, Peter.”
From the top of the stairs, Peter smiled. “Goodnight, Y/n.”
The moment you locked the door and turned around, a lamp flicked on.
“Hello.”
You let out a quiet yelp. “Yelena.”
She chuckled. “I’ve always wanted to do that. So,” her personality changed from Bond Villain to excited roommate. “Who was that?”
“Peter. He walked me home.”
“Ooh, is this progress?”
You shook your head. “I doubt it.”
She flicked you on the back of the head. “You need to stop thinking like that.”
You shrugged. “It just…it wasn’t anything. He walked me home. But, I did finish my thesis, by the way.”
Down the hall, a door clicked open before Kate stuck her head out of the gap, squinting her eyes at the light. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, Kate. Go back to sleep.”
“Peter walked her home,” Yelena told her.
Kate opened her door wider and stepped out. “What?”
You looked at Yelena, “It wasn’t anything. He walked me home, we said goodnight. That was it.”
“Well, what did-” Kate yawned. “What did you talk about on the way home?”
“We didn’t have much time.”
Yelena’s eyes went wide but you quickly shook your head. “Apparently every groom decided that tonight would be his bachelor night. There wasn’t much time to talk aside from, “Watch out, puke.”.”
Yelena huffed. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Despite the night of nothing, it continued to play on your mind for another six weeks until you saw Peter again. And it wasn’t in the way you thought.
You’d been asleep on the sofa since six in the evening when you’d got back from work. Your thesis had been handed in two weeks ago, and, aside from work, you’d taken the time to rest.
Which, mostly, was to sleep.
Until one night a constant tapping at the fire-escape window woke you up.
At first, you figured it might have been a bout of hail from a storm that hadn’t been predicted on the news. Only, as you turned over, you felt your jeans relax away from your stomach the same way a new bra would. Then you groaned.
You’d fallen asleep in your clothes.
But the tapping continued.
Until you finally woke up and lifted your head from the sofa cushion to look at the window.
“Peter?”
Were you dreaming?
Looking down at your wrist, you tried to make out the time. Maybe a little after midnight.
Pulling the blanket from your body, you tiredly shuffled across the wooden floor to the window. It took a few tries, but you finally managed to unjam the window and let him in.
“What are you doing?” You asked him.
“Is Kate or Yelena here?”
You shook your head. “No. Last I checked, they’re on their way to Austrailia…or Asia…someplace beginning with A. Why- Holy shit, you’re bleeding.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” Peter managed to get out as he stood to his feet. But the moment he wobbled, you reached out to steady him.
“Okay, you need a hospital.”
“No,” he shook his head. “No hospital. And no Shield, before you say.”
You let out a small grunt. “Fine. But…would you let me patch you up?”
Peter looked down to you as you tried to steady him. And with a heavy breath, he finally nodded.
“Great, come on.”
Leading him across the room, you helped him into the bathroom before sitting him down on the edge of the tub.
“What happened?”
“Nothing major.”
“Nothing major, he says, as he’s bleeding in my bathroom,” you said, mostly to yourself as you rummaged for the first aid kit Kate had put together.
Finally finding it, you lifted it up and turned back to Peter, only to stall for a moment. Somehow he’d managed to remove his jacket and shirt in the time it took you to find the first aid kit.
He was built like every fictional character you’d ever read about.
Holy fuck.
“What?” Peter asked.
“Nothing,” you kicked yourself into gear again, kneeling on the floor so you were closer to the deepest wound that had scared his side. “Don’t you usually have a sense to avoid this happening?”
Peter hissed as you started to clean the wound. “Usually. But…there was a lot going on.”
“Do you want to tell me about it? Or do I have to wait for Monday’s report?”
Peter chuckled, but quickly hissed again when you cleaned the wound some more. “It wasn’t anything major. Just some idiots thinking they could break into a record store.”
“A record store?”
“Apparently there’s a vintage shipment coming in, or…came in, I guess.” Peter continued to explain as you cleaned his wound and patched it up as best as you could, knowing his body and abilities would take care of the rest.
However, you took a break when Peter huddled forward, gripping onto your shoulder in a shock of pain.
“I’ll get you some painkillers,” you told him, quietly.
Turning his head a little, he was barely an inch from you. “It’s okay. I’ll be okay.”
You shook your head. “Behind the abilities, you’re still human, Peter.”
Fifteen minutes, you were out of the bathroom and keeping a close eye on Peter as he sat down on the sofa, still in agony a little.
“Here,” you told him, holding out a mug of tea. “It’s not, like, an ancient brew or anything, but…it can’t hurt.”
“Thank you.”
Peter watched as you stepped over his legs with your own mug before you sat down on the other end of the sofa.
“You should get some sleep,” you told him. “It might help with the healing.”
Peter nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
“Peter-”
“Have you been avoiding me?”
You looked at him, a little stunned.
“What?”
“You avoid me in every hallway at work, I don’t see you at the library anyone. I know you’ve finished your thesis, but I had to find that out from Kate. You were meant to be on my training programme last week, then suddenly the servers get hacked and you’ve been switched to Natasha’s team…” Peter listed. “Are you avoiding me? Did I…have I done something?”
The look in his eyes was killing you. So, you shook your head.
“N-no.” You looked at the swirling drink in your mug. “I’ve not-”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
You sighed, closing your eyes. “Peter, it’s more than I can even put into words. But it’s not you.”
“But it’s got something to do with me, right?”
You just stared at him.
“Because if it didn’t, you wouldn’t have made eye-contact with me in an empty hallway and then ducked into a janitor's closet.”
“I wasn’t aware you saw that,” you admitted, a little embarrassed.
“I see everything you do,” Peter told you, almost like a confession. “I always have.”
“Peter, you don’t-”
“Don’t what?” He sat up, laying his mug on the table. “Don’t have to worry? Because I am-”
“Peter!” You cut him off. “Please. Just…trust me on this, it’s not you. It’s me, okay? It’s…it’s for my own peace of mind.”
Laying your own mug on the table, you stood. “You should get some sleep. I’ll grab some extra sheets.”
“What do you mean ‘peace of mind’?”
You tried to ignore the fact Peter was swiftly following you down the hallway and towards the linen closet.
“Nothing, just- forget I said anything and get some sleep. You know how to make your own bed, right?”
Peter nodded, catching the sheets you laid in his arms.
“Goodnight, Peter.”
“Y/n-”
“I said goodnight!”
The last sound he heard was the deafening click of your bedroom door as you shut it behind you.
“What the fuck am I doing?” You whispered to yourself once you were finally alone.
Somewhere between the worry about Peter and whatever fight had just occurred outside your bedroom door, you laid back from the edge of your bed and fell asleep, once more in your clothes.
“I made breakfast.”
When you’d woken up, still in your clothes from the day before, and heard nothing coming from the living room, you figured Peter was either still asleep or had left in the middle of the night. But, no.
He’d made breakfast, instead.
“I thought you might have left.”
Peter shook his head, pouring another mug of hot coffee. “Not yet. I still want to know why-”
“I’m not avoiding you.”
“Then talk to me,” Peter offered. “Please?”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Peter.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Thank you for the coffee, but there isn’t anything to talk about.”
Peter looked you over. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Peter tried his best to believe your lie for as long as he could. But the more you started to avoid him, and the more you buried yourself into your work, the more he started to wonder why.
Why were you avoiding him? Had he really done something? You’d been friends, right? Maybe he grew a little distant with you in the last couple of months, but…that couldn’t have been it, right?
“Do you know why Y/n is avoiding me?” Peter asked as he caught up to Kate in the hallway.
She was, somehow, a worse liar than you. “Uh, no. No, why?”
“Kate.”
To her credit, Kate tried really hard not to break. But there was something about Peter that broke a part of her when she thought about lying to him.
“Look, it’s-” Kate looked everywhere in the hallway for help. Maybe Clint was still in the vents?
“It’s not my story to tell, just…be gentle with her, okay?”
Peter didn’t quite know what to do with that information, but he nodded anyway as he adjusted the strap on his shoulder.
“Always.”
Kate smiled a little but very quickly changed the subject onto a work problem she was having. But the information still played on Peter’s mind. And continued to do so until finally, one late evening when he’d worked over-time, he found you in your office.
“What are you still doing here?”
From behind your monitors, you looked up to find Peter standing in your office doorway before he walked inside. The building was mostly shut down and you both should have gone home hours ago.
“Yelena’s on a mission and Kate is, maybe, having a date stay over.” You told him. “I didn’t want to be in the way.”
“Want some company?”
In your tiredness, you managed to smile. “Love some.”
For the first time in months, it was like how it used to be between you both. Light conversation that didn’t send you into a complete and utter spin, quiet laughter and eventually comfortable silence that you didn’t have to worry over.
“Why don’t you come to mine? I’ve got a spare room and I’m pretty sure Kate left some pajamas at mine the last time she broke in.”
You sighed as you stood from your chair. “I told her she needs to stop doing that.”
Peter shrugged. “I don’t mind it. Mostly, she just uses my freezer to store extra pizza’s for Pizza Dog breakfast.”
You chuckled. “Of course she does.”
Like it was the most natural thing in the world, Peter took your hand in his after he’d helped you put your coat on and he led you down to the parking garage. Holding your door open for you, he closed it behind you and drove you in the direction of his apartment.
Just under forty minutes later, you were dressed in Kate’s pajamas which, funnily enough, consisted of your old undergrad sweatshirt and plain pajama bottoms you were pretty sure had been Clint’s at some point.
“I, uh, I washed the sheets last week and no-one has been in there so, they should be okay.” Peter told you as he stood by your bedroom door. “So…night, I guess.”
You smiled at him. “Night.”
With the awkward nod he gave you that you’d fallen for a few years ago, you watched him walk away and down the hallway to his room before he took one last glance at you and closed his door.
With his head against his door, he waited and listened to hear your door click, and once it did, he let out a long breath.
However, what peace he had over you finally talking to him again was swiftly disappearing when he woke in the morning to find a note from you, the pajamas left in a neat pile at the end of your made bed.
He didn’t see you, or hear from you, until later that evening when he got a grouped text from Yelena saying she was holding a movie night at the tower and everyone was to come.
Even then, you still tried to avoid him.
And for a while, it worked.
Until he’d had enough.
“In here,” Peter grabbed your arm when he finally found you on your own in the kitchen, popping the top of a beer bottle.
“Peter- What are you-”
The pantry door clicked shut behind Peter as he spun you both until he was the one blocking the exit. “Peter!”
“No,” Peter told you, pulling on the cord for the light so you could see him clearly. “No. We’re having this conversation. You’re avoiding me and I want to know why.”
“I’m not avoiding you.”
Although Peter didn’t know it, this time you hadn’t been avoiding him. Not intentionally, anyway. But first Kate needed help with her new string for her bow, then Yelena almost burnt the pizzas, then Scott was catching you up about everything Cassie was doing at college.
“Y/n, please,” Peter begged. “Please just tell me what I did. Because I’ve been racking my head for weeks and I can’t…I can’t think of what I’ve done. But please, if I have, I haven’t meant to hurt you-”
“I like you!” You yelled, a little frustrated, a little scared. “I like you, okay?! And I know it’s not the adult thing to avoid you but…seriously, Pete, you’re everywhere I go. And if you’re not, you’re still…there, in my mind. And while it feels nice to have, do you know how frustrating it is to know you’re falling for one of your friends but nothing is ever going to happen?!”
For the first time in months, it felt like you were able to breathe again.
“I was hoping if I managed to avoid you enough, the feelings would go away. Some silly work-crush that was being fueled by the main fact I saw you everyday.”
“And did it?”
You looked at him, puzzled. “Did…did it? Did it what?”
It was Peter’s turn to be frustrated. “Did it go away?”
“I don’t know.”
Both yourself and Peter knew it was a lie.
You sighed, “No. I just…I am sorry, Peter. And, I promise, I am trying my hardest to get rid of it-”
“Why?”
You laughed, “Why?”
He was deadly serious, crossing his arms across his chest. “Yes. Why?”
You couldn’t look at him. “Because…”
“Do you not want to like me?”
You scoffed, “No, Pete- look, it’s more complicated than that.”
“Then explain it to me. Surely someone as smart as you should be able to find the words.”
“Fuck you.”
“Very eloquent."
“Peter-”
He moved the same direction you did, blocking your exit. “I told you, we’re having this conversation. Why do you want to get rid of it?”
“Because…because of multiple reasons.” You finally gave in.
“Like?”
“Like…” You racked your brain to try and get it into order. “Like the fact we’re friends, and I like that more than I like the idea of you hating me for this. Like the fact we work together. Like the fact I’m not your type and I’m only causing myself more pain holding out hope. Like it’s wrong; see list above.”
“Do you have reasons why it might be wrong to get rid of it?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Well…what reasons do you have?”
Peter shrugged. “That you’re wrong about not being my type.”
You laughed, rolling your eyes a little. Unbelieveable. “Peter.”
“I’m being serious.”
You shook your head. “No, I’m not. And that’s fine. I’ll get over it. I’ve got my girls. Look, you don’t have to feel sorry for me and worry that, pff, I’m gonna, like, I don’t know, end my life in some Shakespearean Tragedy-”
Your next monologue was cut off when Peter moved forward and your brain eventually registered that he was kissing you.
Your jaw cupped in his hands, the kiss ended but you kept your eyes closed. The room was spinning as you lowered yourself onto your feet.
“You are my type. In every way.”
Rolling your lips together, you savoured the kiss. “You’re just saying that.”
“What would it take for you to believe me?”
Your heart was hammering in your chest again. “Peter…” God, this was killing you. “Sooner or later, you’ll realise I’m not and we’ll still lose each other.”
Peter shook his head. “No. No, we won’t-”
You found enough courage to look at him. “Yes, we will.”
Looking to the floor, you ran your hand over Peter’s chest. His hand paused yours over his heart.
“I’ll find a way to prove it to you,” he whispered in the yellow light of the pantry.
But you merely held back a sob and tears. “Goodbye, Peter.”
Finally finding your exit, you rushed past whoever was standing by the kitchen sink and walked as far as your legs could carry you. Turns out, they could carry you down three flights of stairs towards the employee bathrooms far, far, far away from the kitchen pantry.
Meanwhile, Peter waited a few seconds before leaving himself, only to be greeted with an odd look from Hope.
“Do I want to know what-”
“I need your help.”
Turning her hip, Hope looked at his face before nodding. “Sure, kid. What is it?”
Less than forty eight hours later, Peter was being tossed onto a training mat by Yelena.
“What the hell were you thinking?!”
“I’m guessing she told you?”
Yelena shook her head. “She didn’t have to! What the hell did you do?”
“So she…hasn’t…told you?”
Peter ducked from the flying spear that barely missed him. Though, he did catch it. “Yelena-”
“Ah! No, no! You don’t get to use my name. Kate told you to be gentle! And now she won’t even come out of her room!”
Peter stalled. “What?”
Yelena shrugged. “That might be an exaggeration. But, still. She’s not herself. She gets up, she goes to work, she comes home, she’s way too quiet for my liking. And all because of you!”
Yelena threw another spear. And once Peter was in range, she dived on him, tackling him to the floor. Though he did have the advantage, the moment he was locked above her, she hit him as hard as she could in the ribs.
“And I know that that thought hurts more than most, because she’s moping over a guy.” Yelena added as Peter rolled onto his back, holding his side in pain.
“She’s a freaking doctor! And, although she is changing the world, she’s worried over some stupid, idiot, moron-”
“I think I get it,” Peter told her as he watched her rant as she walked away.
“No. I’m not done.” Yelena said. “Daft, foolish, brainless, stupid-”
“You said that one already,” Peter slowly crawled onto his front before sitting back on his calves.
“Man-boy.” Yelena added. “I like you, Peter. I really do. But she is one of my sisters now, and you don’t get away with hurting her.”
Peter nodded. “I know. And I am sorry. But I meant every word I said to her.”
Yelena crouched in front of him. “What did you say?”
“That she is my type. In every way. And that, I don’t know what it will take to prove it to her, but I will find a way.”
Yelena was silent for a long time before she finally stood up. “Shit! Do you really like her?”
Peter nodded. “I have done. For a long time.”
“You’re both idiots.”
“You’ve already mentioned that.”
“Fine, I’ll help.” Yelena said.
“I-I didn’t-” Peter shook his head. “I’ve already asked Hope.”
“Then you get both of us. Come on, Spider-Boy, get a shower. You’re sweaty and you smell.”
Finally catching his breath, Peter stood and followed Yelena out of the gym. “Yeah, okay.”
A full week after the Pantry Incident, you were huddled in your bedroom.
In all of the stress, you’d decided to re-paint, re-arrange and re-organise everything in your room. And, after the biggest Everything Shower of your life, you were laying on your bed in fresh pajamas, staring at your ceiling.
For a while, you tried to fall asleep. Listening to the rain hit your window helped calm your nerves, but still sleep wouldn’t help drown you out from the world.
As the city turned closer to its night life and your apartment became silent since both Kate and Yelena were out on missions, you started to hear more tapping. And through bleary eyes, you reached for your glasses before finding where the tapping was coming from.
“Peter?”
“Can you open the window? I’m, like, thirty seconds from falling down the drainpipe.”
Jumping up with the realisation the rain was growing heavier outside, you hurried over to your window and pushed it up to let him in.
“Let me get you a towel,” you told him as he was half way through your window.
You returned twenty seconds later with a fresh towel from the radiator and handed it over to him.
“What were you doing out there?”
“Oh, you know,” Peter covered his head with the towel and rubbed the water from his hair. “Figured it was a nice night for a swim.”
You looked his clothes over. “I think Yelena still has some of Natasha’s clothes here. They consist of, well, everyone’s really. I’m sure there’s some of Steve’s things or something. Just, give me a second.”
Rushing down the corridor and towards the linen closet, you rummaged for a box until you finally found it. It took five minutes, but you eventually found some items that you’d hope would fit him.
“You can use the bathroom. Throw your clothes out here and I’ll put them in the dryer.”
“You have a dryer?”
You nodded. “Yeah. The building finally got maintenance done so we were able to get two working machines in here.”
Peter smiled. “Sounds great.”
Once Peter’s clothes were outside of the bathroom door, you picked them up and threw them into the dryer. When he finally emerged, you tried to keep your breath steady.
“Better?”
“Much. Thank you.”
“Can…do you want some tea or something? Kate and Yelena are on missions but, you know, sometimes they finish early and-”
“I didn’t come here to see them. And tea would be nice, thank you.”
You nodded, a little awkwardly, and turned towards the kitchen. But the moment you did, you slightly regretted it because Peter blocked your only exit by leaning and bracing himself against the doorframe.
“So…why are you here?” You asked, forcing everything in you to keep moving around your kitchen rather than looking at him.
“To see you. And to talk.”
You forced a smile at him, briefly. “You don’t have to worry about me, Peter. I’m fine.”
Pushing himself from the door, Peter slowly strode over to you before pausing right beside you. Reaching out, he flicked the kettle on to let it start boiling.
You thought you’d already done that.
“Clearly.”
Turning to look at him, you finally let the question slip from your lips. “Why are you really here, Peter? Because after last week, I thought-”
“That I’d let you go?” Peter asked. “You should know you’re worth more to me than just one fight.”
You sighed, “I’m being serious, Peter-”
“And so am I,” Peter said. “I like you, too, Y/n. And no-” Peter cut off your interruption. “Not just as my friend, and not just as my co-worker, and not just as Yelena’s sister. I like you. All of you. Even the parts of you, you think nobody likes. I like all of you, Y/n.”
All you could do was look at him.
“And the fact that you think I wouldn’t is baffling to me,” Peter admitted. “Jesus, from that moment you sat down across from me in our office, I was gone for you. Completely. I just…I didn’t know it. You can call me an idiot for it. Yelena has many, many, many times.”
You chuckled.
“I hate that it took you trying to avoid me, for me to realise that. And I will spend the rest of my life finding ways to make that up to you. Even if you never go on a date with me, even if you hate me-”
“I could never hate you.”
“My point is,” Peter smiled. “I should have noticed earlier. And…I could have handled the Pantry Incident a little better.”
You shrugged. “So could I.”
Peter nodded slowly, hoping his next sentence wouldn’t send you running out of the apartment.
“So, now that we’re on the same page…would you let me take you out on a date? Just one,” Peter clarified. “For now. We take this thing one step at a time.”
Despite the fear, you nodded. “I’d like that.”
“And…if I wanted to kiss you-”
You already beat him to it.
Leaning up, you pulled him closer to you. And just as the kettle finished boiling, Peter lifted you onto the kitchen counter before he pulled you closer to the edge by your hips.
“God, I’ve been thinking about this all week,” Peter moaned as he broke the kiss for a moment.
Smiling, you felt him cup your jaw once more and kiss you again. And again, and again, and again.
