***
“Shit, it’s cold.” You muttered as you glanced over the temperature on the Quinjet. It had displayed the temperature around the grounded jet to be two degrees Fahrenheit, and you were suddenly regretting your begging and pleading.
“Regretting being with the big leagues, Y/N?” Peter joked from across the Quinjet, and you rolled your eyes.
“I was with the big leagues before you even knew about the Avengers.” You mocked him, rubbing in his face that you knew them longer and better than he ever will. You glanced over your shoulder to Peter, who rolled his eyes as the three adults were unbothered. Tony was getting set up to leave, you were swatting away your nervousness about the cold.
The sun was due to rise in an hour, and yet everyone was quiet, Tony was nervous about you going but you assured him time and time again that you were going to be fine. He was in his suit, while you were in your leather suit; it mirrored Natasha’s since you’ve been training with her since you were ten. She was (and is) your best friend, you’ve always wanted to mirror her.
Steve and Bucky were ready to go, and so was Peter. He was just waiting for your father to lead.
“Alright, let’s get a move on. We’ll be in two groups. Barnes, Steve, and I will be going in first and we’re going right, you two are to go to the left. When we get at least a hundred feet away, you are to start patrolling. If you find something, call me. If you’re in trouble, call me. If you can’t find us on the map, don’t call me. Just come back to the Quinjet. We are to meet here by dusk. Is that clear?” Tony’s voice was harsh, commanding, and you nodded. So did Peter, he glanced to you before looking to your father, you scoffed. You didn’t backtalk your father, you knew better. You just questioned his sanity with putting you and your arch nemesis on the same team.
He glanced to you, giving you the ‘don’t be a prick’ glare he always does before he pulled on his Iron Man helmet, its lights coming to life with a flash of white light. You get up from your seat, and you grabbed your backpack that sat near your feet. You slid your bag onto your shoulders, then you walked towards the massive open pantry where your white, fleece and wool poncho hung. You grabbed it and pulled it on, just in time, seeing that Tony had now began to open the back of the Quinjet. You felt the absolutely frozen air hit you in the face and you shivered, only to pull up the hood on your poncho and place your hands in its giant pocket. It was basically a massive sweatshirt without sides and was amazingly warm, but it still felt like you got hit in the face with a bunch of ice cubes. You fished out your own mask, one that encapsulated the front of your face except for your forehead, and placed it on your face, hearing it automatically click onto your leather suit underneath. Your hand slid up the right side of your head, pressing the small button twice to power it on. A bright light flashed, and now the dark outside was green, but you could see everything. You could see some screens of your health and locations of Tony, Steve, Bucky and ‘Spiderling’, as well as their health statuses. You had this because you were the most trained medically, other than Doctor Strange and Bruce. But on this mission, you were playing first responder.
Your boots sounded heavy against the metal, seeing that you were the last one aboard. But, you were walking down the ramp right after Bucky, who was in a Bomber Jacket. As long as you’ve known the secluded assassin, you’ve had the common ground of hating any temperature below sixty degrees. He was now catching up to Steve and Tony, who were almost fifty feet ahead, while you slowly felt the first crunch of snow underneath your boots. You were now three feet away from the ramp, and you looked to your right to see Peter glancing around. He was only a few feet away, but he was admiring the view through his glowing masked eyes. You shook your head, as you heard the ramp begin to close, leaving you and Peter alone in the unforgiving cold.
Peter coughed slightly, before he looked back down to you. “Are...Are you ready to go?”
You shrugged, the wind nipped at your nose and cheeks. “I’m ready to patrol with an actual Avenger.”
He scoffed, you could hear his eyes rolling. “Whatever. They’re almost two hundred feet out, we might wanna head our way.”
You shook your head again, and you turned towards the left, starting to walk towards the snow-blanketed forest. The crunch of snow began to double as Peter followed you, and he soon caught up to you, walking step by step with you.
“So, what are we even supposed to look for?” Peter asked, and you scoffed. Of course he would forget.
“We’re looking for any buildings that look like they’re rundown, it’s one of the main ways to camouflage. Dad and Steve and Bucky are going North, there was more of them up there. There was only one or two on the map that I saw around our location.” You spoke through the comms, blinking widely to look around the forest. Sunrise was due in an hour, so it was still severely dark in the forest, but your night vision made it perfect to see everything. Spiderling had half-night vision, since his eyes are too delicate to use a higher rate of night vision like you and your father can (Aka, you and your father spend days in front of computers, it’s not surprising).
“Do you want me to get on the trees and look for the buildings?” Peter suggested, you rolled your eyes.
“I’m not climbing up a tree to fix a broken wrist, you’re staying on the ground with me, you fuckin’ weirdo.” You barked harshly, yet quietly, as not to alert anyone in the vicinity.
“Wow, don’t have a better insult?” Peter giggled, and you rolled your eyes. He always riled you up.
“I will put your night vision at full max and kill your vision.”
“Woah woah woah, kids, don’t kill each other yet.” You hear Bucky’s voice in your earpiece, and you growled in distaste. “We’re getting snow up here, just a flurry. I’ll contact you if it get worse.”
You huffed, cradling yourself even tighter to keep your cold body warm.. “Okay, be safe. Going offline, emergency contact will reach only me.”
“Good luck, kids. Call us if you need us.” Bucky’s voice then disappeared, as you shut off your signal. You looked to your right at Peter, he cocked his head to the side.
“Turn off your signal, dude. They’ve got signal readers for a reason.” You rolled your eyes before looking ahead as you walked through the freezing forest. But that’s when you saw movement. “Shit.”
The air around the two of you tensed, as you see a figure appear around a tree, and you bolted forwards. Your hand went straight to your waist, where your weapon belt was concealed by your poncho. Peter was right on your heels, both of you were quick and agile, taking down the Hydra bases would be a piece of cake. But, you had be faster with this guy, it felt like he was already a mile ahead.
“This guy’s fast, take to the trees, Spiderling.” You commanded, and Peter yelled a short, “You got it!” as you heard the rustle of trees and a deep crunch of snow. Your hand grabbed the small cylinder that was strapped to your belt and you yanked it down, and your fighting stick, as you called it, was ready to beat someone’s ass. It was made out of Vibranium, it was a gift from Princess Shuri in Wakanda. And it was your favorite weapon by far, since it only took a few hits to take Peter down (he was taking it easy on you, but you didn’t need to know that). Your hand gripped it tightly as you followed the man, but you always checked your surroundings. You kept your eyes on him as you followed him through trees, until you both reached a massive clearing that extended down the Belukha Mountain and into the Atlai Mountain Range. It was like a path, like going down a hiking trail with a path. It was just snow, down a winding, wooded path to the massive valley. The guy had looked back to you for a split second, slowing down, and you gained at least three feet towards him before he sprinted down the mountain. You sprinted after him, down the dangerous path.
It was slick, and you knew you were going to break a bone if you didn’t land right. But you pressed on, sliding down some of the path and cutting every curve of the path through the trees. He was closer now, he was growing tired and you weren’t; your stamina was higher than Natasha’s, you could run a lot longer than Sam or Tony. You were ready to pounce on this guy, but you didn’t see the gun he was pulling from his waistband until he turned a sharp corner into the forest, while you almost hit a tree. Your feet slipped and your head almost hit the stump of the tree, and you let out a sharp growl in shock. You looked towards the direction he was going, only to growl in dismay.
Your hand went to your mask, and you pressed the communication button that went to Peter. “Fuck, I lost him.”
“Where are you? I lost sight of you ten minutes ago.” Peter’s voice was a little distorted, and you began to breathe heavily from the sudden stop.
“I don’t know, I’m down the mountain, there’s this winding path. Where are you? Your comm sounds distorted.” You sighed, placing your hand on your hip.
Peter sighed. “Is it snowing there?”
You looked up and around, seeing the daze of massive snowflakes, slowly falling to the ground. You cleared your throat. “Yeah, why?”
“It’s like a fucking blizzard here, I’m webbing away and I think I’m close to the path you’re talk about. Stand in the middle of it, I shou-” You didn’t hear him after you suddenly heard gunshots, and you bolted forwards, out of the forest and down the mountain again. You didn’t even look back as you heard a flurry of bullets zip past you, you ran fast and hard, cutting curves and through the trees. You wanted to stay and fight, but you’d rather not get shot...again. Last time, it was hella painful.
“Kinda can’t do that!” You squealed, as you grabbed onto a tree to swing yourself around a curve. “Got someone shooting at me!”
“On it!” Peter answered sharply, and you kept running. The bullets kept coming and coming, your heart was in your throat and your head was pounding. You held onto your staff tightly, as you looked around as you sprinted through the trail. You couldn’t see buildings, anything other than trees. “Keep running, Y/N, I see ‘em. Don’t stop ‘til I tell you, yeah?”
“Whatever keeps me un-shot!” You screeched, before diving through a wall of trees and back into the obstacle of the forest. It was only twenty feet until the cleared area of the path was placed, but you could hear the gunshots suddenly stop. You kept going, though, your feet were growing tired but you kept going until you heard Peter say, “Stop running, Y/N. You’re in sight.”
You slammed to a stop as you jammed your staff into the snow, slowing you down immediately. Your hands gripped the staff so tightly, you could feel your pulses in them. In fact, you could feel your pulse everywhere, but mostly on your side. You let out some heavy breaths as you heard Peter’s footsteps and his commentary, “Shit, the snow’s coming. I was up there a few minutes ago and it was turning into a blizzard, that means Mr. Stark- Shit, you’re bleeding!”
You looked to Peter, a confused look on your face. “I’m not fuckin’ bleeding-” You looked down to your white poncho, only to see that red was seeping through on your right side, and that was when the pain hit you like a train. It was burning, but yet it was freezing due to the blast of cold Siberian air. “Oh fucking fuck, come on!”
Peter didn’t laugh, he only moved forwards and grabbed your shoulders, making you look to his mask. He moved you backwards to a tree, and forced you down, you let out a loud squeal in pain. He mumbled his apology as he pulled back your poncho to see how bad it was. But he looked back to you, then towards the gray mountain. It was supposed to be sunrise in half an hour-
“Shit, the storm’s coming in.” Peter muttered before he looked at you. You were breathing heavily, your staff still in hand, seeing that he forced you to drag it away from where you stabbed it into snow. “I-I looked on the map before I found you, there’s an abandoned warehouse down a little ways. It’s not Hydra, it was cleared a couple weeks ago, the bases we’re looking for are farther up but I’m not taking you into the storm.”
You growled, glaring at him through your mask. “We need to get back to the Quinjet.”
“But we can’t. We could get ambushed or get separated. That wound needs attention in somewhere where it isn’t almost twenty mile per hour winds. Can you stay here alone for a bit?” He spoke harshly, and you kind of bit your tongue. You knew you couldn’t argue, so you nodded. He sharply nodded back before saying, “I’ll be back in less than ten minutes.” And he looked up, shot his webs, then he was gone again. You sighed out a pained breath, placing your poncho closer to your body. You moved up against the tree, remembering that your backpack was still strapped to your back as you moved against it. You growled in pain, looking around to see if anyone was coming after to you. But, you didn’t have to wait long when you saw the red and blue suit appear in front of you once more. His hands pulled you from your spot, and carefully into his arms. You hissed in pain, wanting to punch him for picking you up but you know he was doing it to protect you.
***
After Peter had patrolled the warehouse, he was back with you at the backwall of the massive warehouse he had found. It was as tall as a two story house and was as long as three houses, give or take. But, you sat at the backwall, cleaning the graze with some alcohol pads you had in your first aid kit. He was watching you bandage yourself up, and holding your flashlight for you. You both were silent, as you cut the bandages with your Swiss knife, and placed the excess and your knife back in your backpack. You looked to Peter, who sat only two feet away from you. Your back was against the wall, pain running through your body, and you wanted to curl into a ball and cry, but you wouldn’t let Peter see you weak and vulnerable.
Peter cleared his throat as he turned off the flashlight, now the only light left around you guys was the glowing snow outside. It was like a hurricane of snow, a white blanket was on every window and the wind howled against the warehouse. “Karen says that you’re getting colder, didn’t you bring some clothes with you?”
You nodded, and Peter grabbed your bag from you, only to pull out the small blanket and sweatshirt you brought. He sighed.
“I know those looks, Y/N, but I can’t let you get hurt or die. I’m being nice because we are alone and we have no contact with Mr. Stark. I’ve been trying to call them but it won’t get through, so we’re on our own.” Peter huffed sharply. “So, quit being a bitch for a few seconds, would you?”
You blinked at him, then you rolled your eyes before reaching for your bag. The pain began to flare up and you winced, falling back to the wall. “Whatever, you fuckin’ prick. Gimme my bag.” You snarled softly, but your voice wasn’t as intimidating as it usually was. Peter pushed the bag to you with his foot, and you looked at him, seeing your hoodie in his hands. “And my sweatshirt. I had to take the top of my suit off, gimme my sweatshirt.”
He tossed it to you before he turned around, giving you the chance to take off your poncho and you slid on your sweatshirt. You dug into your bag and grabbed your thin pair of sweatpants, and you took off the rest of your suit. You slid on your sweatpants with some difficulty of moving your butt up from the ground. After you were settled in some clean clothes, you placed your poncho on your legs as you sat Indian style.
“You can look now, I’m in my clothes.”
Peter turned back to you, and gazed at you for a moment, only to say, “Do you have any food?”
You raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“I checked the radar and the snowstorm is gonna last a day or two.” He sighed, and he pulled his mask off, his hair now shooting out in fluffy curls. His eyes met your’s and your heart sunk. He looked scared. The both of you went silent, now you could hear the wind grate against the warehouse. You shuddered, looking to Peter, who was looking anywhere else but you. He looked like he was shivering a little bit, his hands were on his arms. You both sat there for a few moments, and you felt a little guilty. You were in new clothes, you had something to keep you warm while Peter had his suit; that was it.
You sighed. “You can sit by me, I’m not gonna bite. We both have to stay warm.”
You pat the spot to your left, to make sure your injury wasn’t irritated. He looked at you hesitantly, but you shrugged, giving him a soft look before he gets on all fours to crawl over to you. He settled a few inches away from you, but you didn’t mind. Back home, you would’ve been trying to strangle him by now; now, you’re glad that he saved your life. Your eyes were growing heavy, and you sighed.
“Did you make your signal send to Dad or one of the supers?”
“Yeah, Karen’s sending it every ten minutes-”
“Ms. Stark, your core body temperature is getting close to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.” You hear Karen from Peter’s suit, and you grumbled. How were you this cold already? The two of you have been in this place for an hour, and you had layers on- Oh yeah, there is a severe draft coming from somewhere. That and your leather suit doesn’t do shit for keeping you insulated.
“Shit.” peter muttered, before he turned to you, looking softly. His eyes met yours and you swallowed the lump in your throat from being so close to Peter. “My suit has a heater.”
You narrowed your eyes. “And?”
It wasn’t long after that when Peter leaned forwards and hugged you to him. He used one arm to pull the poncho over both of you, and he scooted down to lay on the floor. He pulled you with him, letting you lay on your left side as he grabbed the blanket and draped it over the poncho, trying to keep you warm. His one arm was underneath your left side, as your cheek was pressed onto his chest, your leg awkwardly across his, and your arms were awkwardly around him. You wanted to go jump off the mountain, but, you did see how gentlemanly he was being. Trying to keep you warm, saving your life… Silently flirting with you. Oh yeah, he thinks you haven’t noticed the winks or casual flirting, but this… This makes you feel weird. You didn’t know why but it felt… right to be like this.
You banished your thoughts for the rest of the night, as you drifted into slumber.
***
“Y/N, come on, get up.” Peter shook you awake as gently as he could, and you mumbled, “Why?” as you softly sat up from your position on top of Peter. Your side burned and ached but it was dull, your mind was spinning and you felt very cold.
“Your temperature’s getting too low. You’re gonna have to wear my suit.” He says gently as he sits up in front of you, and you feel a cold chill run up your spine. Your mind was spinning still, but you hazily nodded as you let Peter help you stand. His hand were gentle as they turned you around so he could change, and you looked up and stared at the rest of the empty warehouse. It was dark now, the snow still blanketed the windows and you wanted to curl back up against Peter.
Woah woah woah, I don’t like Peter like that-
Don’t argue with yourself, bro, you have to admit that he’s cute.
He’s not cute! He’s a lazy prick-
“Y/N, here.” He grabbed your hand, which made you jump, but you didn’t turn around. You could now feel the soft suit in your hand, and you softly gripped it. “I’m turning around now.”
You began to strip, only to question Peter. “What about clothes for you?”
“I’ll just wear your sweats and hoodie. I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll freeze.” You bark softly, as you took off the sweatpants, only to place your left foot in the suit and you instantly felt the heat.
“Doesn’t matter to me.”
You pulled the suit on your legs and on your arms, pulling it on your shoulders. You pressed the Spider emblem, which when encased you in its warmth. You grumbled as you threw your sweats and hoodie over your shoulder, bending down to get them made your body ache.
“It should, Peter. You shouldn’t just give me your suit, I’m your enemy outside of the Avengers. We hate each other. We’ve never stopped hating each other, and I’m sure it’ll never change.”
Peter didn’t speak after that, he only tapped you on the shoulder. You turned around and he didn’t look at you as he laid back down on the floor, you followed suit. You laid back down on his chest, your leg wasn’t over his, your arm wasn’t over his chest. Only your head was there, listening to his racing heart.
“It’s true, Peter.” You say softly, gazing at your sweatshirt on the boy.
Peter took a deep breath.
“I wish it wasn’t.”
Your eyes widened, but you didn’t move to look at him. Your breath hitched, you could hear his heart pound as he continued.
“I wish we could’a been friends, Y/N. I hate fighting with such a wonderful person, I wish I didn’t have to be such a dick to you. I fucking hate being such a dick to a girl so smart and awesome like you.” He half chuckled. “Here’s some fuckin’ spoilers, I like you. I like you a fuck ton of a lot and I know you hate me with your stone cold heart, so let me just say that I’ve liked you ever since I’ve met you and now, I can’t let you get hurt because it hits me like a train, because spoilers, I love you, okay? I fucking love you and I hate hating and fighting with you and I just want it to stop, okay? Can we just stop being enemies and be on good terms? Can you get that through your brain?”
You couldn’t feel anything in your body. Your breath hitched when he said the ‘L’ word and you wanted to scream into a pillow. He just cussed you out, restarted your relationship with each other, and confessed his feelings for you? You felt like you hit your head too hard, but you were on Cloud Nine because your heart was racing too.
Your head moved from his chest and you hovered over him, eyes almost glazed with tears as you raced forwards, smashing your lips to his without a second thought.
