Learn from the Master
"Peter. Peter, Peter," Ned said as he ran up to Peter through the school hallways. "Is it true? VITAE turned into a superhero association now?" Ned asked, somewhat excited.
"Looks like it," Peter replied. He didn't really know much either, since the adults seemed pretty busy and didn't have much time to talk to him. Even Richard, who was supposed to help him catch the metal crow, still hadn't come back since the last time. And it had already been a week.
"So, are you joining? Can I join? Or do I need special powers? Being able to eat ten burritos in under five minutes is a special power. I could be an intern. I mean, I could bring coffee to Miss Scarlet Witch," Ned said without stopping.
"Probably… I don't know. Again, I don't know. And no, eating ten burritos… wait, can you actually do that?" Peter shook his head. "And I already told you it's better if you forget about Scarlet Witch. She's engaged to Owe… The Soldier. Who, by the way, is my instructor," Peter said, answering every single thing Ned had said, already pretty used to his emotions.
"You can help me get in. I'm sure they'll need people without powers to help out. Maybe carry supervillain files or take care of their flying suits and X-ray guns," Ned said. After all, what Nicolas had done was basically a massive superhero recruitment, but he never said they had to have special powers.
"I don't know… I'll try," Peter said without crushing Ned's excitement, though Ned took it as confirmation and immediately said, "Awesome."
"By the way, are you okay? This week you've been pretty… calm, I guess you could say," Ned commented, remembering that ever since he discovered Peter was Spider-Man, he realized Peter basically never stopped to rest, running around everywhere trying to catch criminals. But now, suddenly, he was attending classes normally, participating, and calmly walking home.
"Did VITAE fire you or something?" he asked.
"No. Well… VITAE doesn't exist anymore, so… yes? But it's not that. They just gave me a break while they reorganize everything. And the agent I was working with seems busy, but he told me if I got into trouble looking around on my own without him, he'd take away my suit, so…," Peter explained, something that clearly annoyed him a little.
"Aah, I get it," Ned said. "Well, that's good, right? The dance is in two days. Do you already have a date?" Ned asked.
Peter, as if only now remembering that, made a somewhat painful expression for a moment. His mind had been pretty occupied even without doing superhero stuff because of the shock of VITAE dissolving and all that.
Then he saw Liz, the girl he had liked for a long time, walking toward them while carrying several dance flyers.
For a moment, Peter's eyes lit up remembering the way Richard talked with his aunt.
"Wait for me here," Peter said as if he had suddenly become a little bolder.
"Huh?" Ned said before seeing where Peter was going, making his eyes widen slightly in surprise. He was about to ask something, but then he saw Peter's confident steps. Peter even stood straighter, lifted his head, and walked without hesitation, making Ned stare at his friend for a moment.
Peter walked forward without stopping for even a second while wearing a pretty calm smile. Liz noticed him immediately and smiled back.
"Hi, Peter."
"Hi, Liz. Are you busy?" he asked her.
"Well, I have to hand out these flyers with the dance rules. You know how everyone acts," Liz said calmly while showing several of the flyers in her hands.
"Oh, let me help you," Peter said without waiting for her answer, taking half of the flyers.
"Oh… well, thanks," she replied calmly.
"By the way, do you already have a date for the dance?" Peter asked in a direct way.
"What? Are you trying to ask me out?" Liz asked with a slightly amused smile, like she wanted to tease him a little.
"Of course. After all, I really like you," Peter said directly, which didn't cause even the slightest change in his expression, acting unusually confident and calm, like a trained soldier.
That caught Liz off guard, and she opened her mouth for a moment without really knowing what to say.
"Uh… ah, well… mm… yeah, I already knew that part. I'd… I'd like to be your date, of course," she said, somewhat stunned, but at the same time clearly happy, not expecting this side of Peter. "Honestly, I've been waiting for you to ask me for a while. I mean… you're not very good at hiding secrets," she added before smiling sweetly.
"You'd be surprised, you know? People tell me that pretty often, but I'm actually pretty good at it," Peter said with a calm smile, though at times it looked like it was about to crack from the massive happiness he was really feeling, even while desperately trying to keep up his mature act.
"So… cool," he said, unable to say much else while forcing himself not to break into a huge grin, quickly trying not to break his mature act.
"Cool," Liz said while laughing lightly after noticing that.
"Then I'll see you later," Peter said while still trying to act mature, giving her a casual little wave before starting to walk in a random direction. But after only a few steps, he couldn't stop himself from celebrating, shaking his arms around and tossing the flyers into the air, making Liz turn around.
Peter instantly pulled himself back together, clearing his throat.
"Oh, sorry. They slipped out of my hands. I'll pick them up and hand them out now," Peter said quickly.
"Oh yes, of course," Liz replied while clearly finding Peter's mature act pretty amusing, though also genuinely cute. She watched him for another moment before going back to work, keeping a soft smile on her lips.
Meanwhile, Ned ran up to Peter with a look of complete shock.
"Bro… what was that?" he asked like he had just witnessed a superpower from another dimension.
"I don't know. I just copied someone who… now that I think about it, was flirting with my aunt," Peter said for a moment, like he had only just realized it. Like he had finally understood what Kamala had been trying to tell him.
And now he couldn't stop noticing it every time he remembered.
Now he didn't know if he should feel slightly annoyed… or actually happy.
Though Richard honestly seemed like a good guy.
"You have to teach me that," Ned told him while helping him pick up the flyers.
"I don't even really know how I did it. My legs are still shaking," Peter said, though he felt like he could run around the entire school from happiness after managing to ask out the girl of his dreams.
"Well, if you need more advice then… why not ask the same guy?" Ned asked, seeing that the results spoke for themselves.
Peter looked at him for a moment.
"Wouldn't that be too much? He's an agent, he has to be busy. Besides, I barely know him. He definitely won't want to help me… right?"
…
Richard was in a completely white apartment, with very few decorations, and the place felt cold and lonely. Like nobody really lived there… only rested between missions. He simply opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water from among the many inside. There was no food. Just dozens of energy bars similar to the ones Owen ate, though made more for humans, letting him skip most meals altogether.
Richard took a drink of water and looked toward the kitchen, as well as the dining room, which basically looked more like decoration because of how unused it was.
He grabbed one of the energy bars and walked toward the dining table while his footsteps were the only sound in the entire place.
He was finally going to take a break after working nonstop all week.
But before he could sit down, his phone rang, making him pull it out without changing his expression much. Though after seeing who was calling, he only let out a slight sigh. After all, it was one of the two brats he had to take care of, and throughout the whole week he had received calls from the smaller one, once again claiming she had discovered a supposed alien egg that turned out to just be a round melon.
Even so, he pressed the answer button while opening the energy bar.
"What is it, kid? Today is my day off and there still aren't any active missions for us yet," Richard said calmly.
"Well, sir… mm… umm… I wanted to ask you for some advice…"
Hearing that, Richard was about to reject the call, since he was honestly pretty exhausted right now. But before he could, Peter continued:
"Would you like to have dinner at my house? My aunt is making beef stew today," Peter said somewhat hesitantly.
"Sure," Richard replied instantly in his calm tone, tossing the energy bar aside without even looking at it. "I'm on my way," he said before standing up and grabbing his coat and car keys again.