How Parker Met Stark (2)
Masterlist
Pairings/Characters: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader (Andrew Garfield’s Peter)
Warnings: Swearing, graphic depictions of violence, end fluff
A/N: COMMENTS/REBLOGS APPRECIATED/ENCOURAGED: Because, honestly, I don’t know if anyone likes it otherwise so I can continue or not.
Summary: Yet another prequel to my Hard Enough one-shot, and the third installation of my Crumble!Verse work:
You just couldn’t get enough of Peter Parker. Once wasn’t enough, and now you were determined to see him once again. Unfortunately, it seems like someone else might get in the way of that.
This is definitely post-college, adult Spider-Man
“Well, if it isn’t Peter Parker.”
Peter’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline. He did not expect to hear that voice again, especially not so soon after hearing it for the first time in-person. He slowly stood up straight, no longer leaning over and into the shelves in the supermarket to get the last tub of cream cheese. He spun around and spotted you standing there with a little smirk on your face as you studied him.
Peter smiled a little nervously, “Ms. Stark! It’s nice to see you again.”
“Please, it’s just Y/N.” You smiled and glanced down to see the cream cheese clutched tightly in his hands before looking back up at his adorable face. “I saw those pictures in the newspaper, Parker. Very nice.”
“Well, you did say to make sure I gave them a good picture. Lucky for me, I had a very photogenic subject. They were all great.”
Your cheeks burned as you saw Peter blush a little upon realizing he was, in fact, actually flirting and seemed to not have blown it so far. You nodded your head and took a step closer to Peter, watching as he stepped backwards, his backpack pressing against the display and brushing into a few containers of butter and knocking over a few. You chuckled at him.
Peter gazed at you, “How did you know where I was?”
“I’m very, very good at getting information, Parker,” you told him. “And I actually was looking for you.”
“What? For me? Why?” Peter balked. “I—I—uh, sorry. I’m just confused here.”
You smiled brightly, “I wanted to see you again.”
“I’m still confused as to why.”
“You’re cute,” you told Peter who turned red and seemed to be absolutely giddy and vibrating with delight. “I’m going to a premiere tonight. Small indie movie, but an old friend of mine wrote it so I want to go support her, get a little tipsy, listen to all these artsy, bullshit snobs act like anything they say matters. Are you interested?”
Peter cringed instantly. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel like going. He absolutely was keen on spending another night in your presence. After all, you were witty, a little dark, but you oozed charm, and he was a complete sucker for it. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps you, he had plans that night. See, the 3rd Avenue Boys were planning a robbery. He’d been staking them out for some time and learned that they were going to hit one of the jewelry stores near the Roxy. As much as he craved more attention from you, he couldn’t put innocent people at risk.
“Ah, that face told me all I needed,” you laughed a little nervously, embarrassed to have gotten such a reaction from him. Before you could turn around and just quietly make your escape, Peter reached out and gently grabbed your wrist, prompting you to stop turning to leave and face him.
“I’m sorry,” he began. “I would love to, truly, but I have work to do tonight. The lab I’m working at is close to a breakthrough, so…”
It was the way that his heart skipped a beat ever so slightly that made you feel like he was lying. You believed him, too. You believed Peter up until he said that they were close to a breakthrough. That was when his heart skipped a beat, and that’s when you could feel that he was lying.
You offered him a tight smile as you pulled your wrist away and shoved your hands into your pockets, “My bad, Parker. I think I misinterpreted some things. Have fun at work.”
You spun on your heel and away from him as fast as you could and ignored the stares from Peter, and two men who had been secretly watching you both from the ice cream section, listening in intently on your conversation without you or Peter ever realizing it. The two men shared a look and nodded before one took out their cell phone as the other grabbed their stuff and started to leave.
Meanwhile, Peter groaned and let his head fall back to hit the top of the shelves, “Stupid, stupid Peter,” he mumbled to himself. “How did I mess that up? Oh, right, because I’m an idiot who forgets she can feel vibrations. Damn it. Way to go, Parker.”
~*~
At your friend’s film premiere, you were giving yourself some time to be pathetic. You really thought you had a spark with Peter. You didn’t think the man was going to lie about his whereabouts and what he was doing just to not have to go out with you. Fuck, I mean, why couldn’t he just say something to you along the lines of him not being interested? A flat-out ‘no’ would’ve been better than the lie that he came up with.
Ugh, men. They were a plague.
You downed the shot and pushed the glass across the bar in a silent indication that you wanted another. Tony offered to go with you to make the event a little more ‘fun’ but you did not want to hang out with your dad that night. You didn’t want a girl’s night with Natasha and Wanda, and you certainly didn’t want two overbearing super soldiers and lovely ol’ Sam to join you and act overprotective of your feelings the entire night.
You really just wanted to disappear into the alcohol and the movie.
Which, at the rate you were drinking, you hoped you were going to be able to remember it. The movie had been delayed an hour so far because one of the ‘stars’ wasn’t there for the Q&A. Your friend was panicking and running around every which way possible. You attempted to offer your services in any way you could, but she wanted to handle it herself.
So, here you were, all dressed up and alone and not even a movie to get lost in.
Meanwhile….
Peter was dressed up in a suit of his own. Of course, his was red and blue and somehow more formfitting than your clinging outfit choice for the night. He swung and landed off the side of a building, his eyes darting down to watch the van he had been tailing for some time now.
“Why are they all the way up here on Sixth Avenue?” Peter muttered to himself as he watched them drive for a bit before leaping off and swinging once again. “This wasn’t the plan.”
It wasn’t! They had gone past every single jewelry store in the area and hadn’t stopped. What were they doing, looking for a good parking spot? There were a few alleyways they could have ducked into. This was so strange.
And, ugh, you were right there. Peter could see the glowing lights of the Roxy. He could see the setup for photographs outside, the small red carpet, the foot traffic in the area for the small premiere that night. You were so close to him, and yet so far away, because he could do absolutely nothing in the moment to get rid of that disappointed look that was burned into his mind when he rejected your offer to go out tonight.
In fact, Peter was so lost thinking about you, he momentarily lost sight of the gang. He floundered for a moment as he was web-swinging around to find their vehicle. Eventually, he did find it. It was parked in an alleyway, as he predicted it should be, right by the back entrance to the Roxy Cinema—oh, oh no…
They must have somehow learned about the premiere and the type of people that were going to be there and decided that live targets were going to be more fruitful than hitting up a jewelry store that probably locked everything away as a precaution anyway.
Peter landed on the roof of the building softly and looked around for the best entrance. He needed to get in quickly, quietly, and without alerting anyone that he was there. The last thing he wanted was for them to take hostages, or, worse, start shooting in fear and risk you being hurt before he could even step into the fight.
Although, you were a pretty god-like Avenger. You should be fine, right?
~*~
You were so not fine. Well, at least not fine enough to be trusted to use your powers without accidentally collapsing a building. You slammed your hand into the container of popcorn, shoved a few kernels in your mouth, and chased it with a cocktail before excusing yourself from the less-than-riveting conversation you were dragged into by a few people who recognized you.
You made your way to the restroom to freshen up and take care of yourself. Looking in the mirror afterwards, you shook your head and sighed. Men. You dumped one at a party, thought you met a new, nice one that very night, only to be lied to in a supermarket. Honestly, what the hell? This was utterly disappointing. Why the hell would your father go through so many women back to back — oh, right, he was a black hole of emotion for awhile.
Well, there’s that.
You left the restroom and could faintly hear shouting and orders being given. Finally, the star must have arrived and the night was going to proceed as promised, right?
However, when you left the hall and entered the main room, you could see several men with guns out. One was walking around with a collection bag, and you could see another one was separating some of the wealthier attendees away from the rest, likely trying to extort them for more money.
But then you saw the zip ties come out for that group, and you knew that this was going to go downhill incredibly fast.
Then there was you, drunk as a skunk standing there wide-eyed and knowing you were in no condition to be fighting. It wasn’t like you had the element of surprise, either. Your heel slammed into the ground when you skidded to a stop and made the most obnoxiously loud clicking noise. You were the new center of attention as everyone turned to you.
“Hey, Checkers was right, Y/N Stark is here,” one of them leered as he aimed a gun at you and started to walk towards you.
“Hey,” you swallowed back the urge to belch loudly. “I’m an Avenger! You don’t want to do this, man.”
“Actually, I think we do,” he placed his finger over the trigger and aimed at you. “Take off that nice jewelry, Ms. Stark, and get over there with the rest of ‘em.”
“I’ve got a better plan,” you hiccuped and clasped your hands together. “Why don’t we let everyone go, and I don’t snap your spine in half.”
He fired a warning shot at you. Your hand flew up to stop the bullet in its path, but in your inebriated state, you were just too slow. The bullet skimmed your shoulder causing you to hiss in pain. The shot, plus your current state, kept you at a disadvantage. Rather than stopping the bullet, you accidentally blew back one of the other victims into a column and knocked them out cold. You cringed at what you accidentally did while the gang roared with laughter.
“God, this really is like taking candy from a baby,” he laughed and switched how he was holding the gun as he marched towards you. He swung it into his hand so he was holding it like a bat. You stepped backwards to make some space and try to figure out just how coordinated you were at the moment and the best way for you to fight back.
Just as he got closer and wound back to take a swing, something jumped in front of you. You jumped backwards in alarm. Your hands were already up to try to catch the gun, but it never came to that. You stumbled backwards as your eyes stared into a back clad in red and blue. Glancing up a little more, you saw the back of Spider-Man’s head as his hand grabbed the gun and squeezed, the gun snapping in two in his hand.
“Well, that’s just no way to treat a lady, right?”
“Sp-sp-Spider-Man’s here!” He shouted.
“I know who I am, no need to yell!” Spider-Man quickly pulled him forward and tossed him far to the left and webbed him to a wall. He looked around at the rest of the gang. “So, do you guys feel like dancing or…? How do we want to do this, fellas?”
They all opened fire immediately. Without even turning, one arm reached back and pulled you into him just before leaping into the air and avoiding the gunfire. He shot a web and used it to pull the two of towards a spiral staircase. When you two landed, he stayed low and kept you law as well as he ran until you were able to hide behind the railing.
“Why don’t you stay here and get your bearings, Ms. Stark. I’ve got this.”
Within a second he was up and jumping over the railing. You listened to gunfire and people screaming. Slowly, with Tony’s inability to listen to anyone pulsing strong within you, you ignored Spider-Man’s suggestion and peaked over the barrier to see what was going on.
The attendees were all running and rushing out the building while Spider-Man was fighting. He was webbing their guns up so they couldn’t fight anymore, and he was taking them out so easily. A punch here, a dropkick there. It was like watching an interpretive dance as he had the entire gang webbed up and incapacitated.
“Didn’t even break a sweat. You guys are getting slow,” he chuckled as he dusted his hands off and quickly glanced up. He could see you peaking over the railing before you had a chance to duck. When you did duck, he smiled to himself and leapt into the air.
By the time you had turned around, back pressed against the railing, Spider-Man was standing in front of you. You looked ahead to see a gloved hand reach down to you. Carefully, you took his hand and let him pull you up to your feet. You exhaled slowly as you backed against the barrier again and slowly examined him.
For as many years as Spider-Man has been around, you two had never actually crossed paths. The types of things you both did for your superhero antics was just too different. He stayed close to the streets, his ear to the ground as he saved the everyday citizens of the city. You, however, did things that were a little more global or had a taste of aliens sneaking around. Your worlds just never really collided until now.
Standing before him, looking up at his mask as he tilted his head to the side and studied you, you could see how scary he was. The deafening silence of Spider-Man just staring at you would send a chill down your spine. He was clearly very strong, and fast, and when he wasn’t running his mouth with little jokes, he was incredibly intimidating.
And yet, this hero seemed to be soft as well as he reached out and carefully grasped your chin. He seemed to do a quick once-over of you for any other injuries before letting go and letting his hand drop to his side. Spider-Man cleared his throat, “Why don’t I take you home, Ms. Stark, so you can get that shoulder cleaned up?”
You exhaled slowly. The sudden jumping around wasn’t sitting well with you, and you couldn’t lie, your shoulder definitely stung, “You know who I am.”
“How could anyone not?” He replied. “The ethereal Y/N Stark, you’re kind of legendary. Can’t say I’ve ever seen you drunk in public, though, I thought that was a Tony Stark thing.”
“Bad day, Spider-Man,” you huffed, not noticing how his shoulders sunk. “I should go —“
“Let me —“
“It’s fine —“
“You want to go out where all those people are waiting to see the drunken avenger who accidentally knocked someone out?” he questioned. “Come on, let me spare you. I think the shoulder’s enough for tonight, isn’t it?”
You thought about it for a moment before nodding reluctantly, “Do you even know where to go?”
“I figured the giant tower that used to have your last name on it was a start.”
“Okay. Fair point,” you mumbled in agreement.
He snuck the two of you outside onto a fire escape. He turned around and glanced at your shoulder first. He webbed the injury to keep anything from getting into it, then he turned around and crouched down as he offered you his back. Before you could even climb on, he suddenly spun around and was scratching the back of his head as he faced you.
“Actually, given your gunshot wound I think you should put less strain on your arm for now.”
“Uh, okay — “
“So, here,” he cleared his throat and put an arm around your waist. He put your undamaged arm around his shoulder. He exhaled deeply, for reasons you were unsure of, before he continued, “you can, um, put your legs around my waist if you want, you know, more support. But you don’t have to, I’ve got you, but, you know, optional. Heights are, uh, big.”
The poor man was screaming at himself internally for sounding like such an absolute moron with you once again.
“I feel that, maybe, I shouldn’t be drunk and risk accidentally flashing someone my vagina while we’re swinging around,” you explained. “I can see the headlines now, bare starkussy on spider-waist.”
He had no idea if this was a sober or a drunk thought, but he thought he could die with the imagery.
“Also, I just didn’t wear underwear with this dress. That’s TMI, sorry, but, yeah, probably unsanitary. Who knows where you’ve been.”
Okay. He was going ot have a heart attack.
“Good to know,” his voice cracked and he mumbled for you to hang on as he jumped off the fire escape and began to swing from Lower Manhattan back up to Midtown to take you home.
You shut your eyes tightly when you were nearly at the tower. He ran across the top of one building and jumped off the side of it. You were free-falling together before he shot a web near the top of the tower and as he was falling, he started to swing and propelled the two of you up to the landing. You didn’t move until he whispered that you were home, his hands resting on your waist to keep you steady as you slowly adjusted to being on solid ground once again.
You opened your eyes and looked up to his masked face. You stared up at him for an uncomfortably long time before shaking out of your daze.
“Sorry,” you apologized, your hand sliding from around his shoulders and neck down to his chest. It was hard as a rock, and when you once again realized you were being kind of weird with him, you quickly retracted your hand and uttered another apology. “Thanks for the save, Spider-Man.”
“My pleasure, Ms. Stark,” he murmured “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
“I hope so,” you replied.
The two of you turned for different reasons. You could feel vibrations rushing towards the deck, and he could hear frantic voices. You both could just start to see Tony and Steve talking, or shouting, at each other as they approached.
“Goodnight, Ms. Stark,” he bowed his head and walked backwards until spinning around and diving off the side of the building.
“Oh, thank god I don’t have to hold this in anymore,” you rushed out quickly before keeling over and vomiting everything you ingested at the party.
By the time you were done vomiting, you were standing upright and wiping your mouth with the back of your hand just as Tony and Steve surrounded you.
“Now, I am so proud of you for pulling a, well, a me,” Tony explained. “But Cap’s a little worried. I’m not, not at all. Is that a gunshot wound?”
“Right. You weren’t worried at all,” Steve rolled his eyes. “Come on. Let’s get you inside. Someone should try to get a way to contact Spider-Man, say thanks —“
“Seems like spawn wants to give her thanks,” Tony remarked under his breath.”
“Shut up, dad,” you groaned. “I need water. And a bed. And a bucket. Also, maybe some food.”
“Ah, that’s my girl,” Tony squeezed your shoulder and kept his arm around you as the three of you got inside.
At least the night went by successfully. You had successfully pushed your troubles behind you. Peter Parker who? Spider-Man was just so much more enticing right now.