For Mai

[whateveraspidercan]

Peter was really terrible about this whole "blending in and act normal" thing. He'd never been normal to start with but throw in the fact that he was Spider-Man and Aunt May would freak out if she knew it was kind of a mess. It was safer that way of course but it still wasn't easy.

So Peter tried really hard to be your basic 18 year told. The problem was that he was kind of a weirdo even without Spider-Powers. He'd gotten better, he could talk with attractive girls without making a complete fool of himself, he could hang out and meet new people, things like that. But he still flailed mentally sometimes and was just generally a dork.

Which meant that during lunchtime he normally sat by himself. Sometimes people would sit with him and talk to him and on very, very rare occasions people would invite him to sit with them but usually he just found a table to himself and sat down by himself. Today he was left to ponder the mystery of school cafeteria chicken nuggets by himself.

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[whateveraspidercan]

"You should definitely come over for dinner some night," Peter said with a nod. Aunt May would be thrilled if Peter brought home a friend that wasn't Ned. There would probably be a million questions after about how much he liked Peyton and if he wanted her to be his girlfriend and all that but he could deal.

"And yeah, there's a place I know where we can go to eat, just follow me," he said, turning to take a slightly different way back to school.

[darkangelsawyer]

"A home cooked meal?" Peyton said. "I'm in." She'd be relatively well-behaved too, she did have some manners after all.

She smiled and followed Peter as he headed off. "Better be a good place," she said. "I have high standards."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Yeah, my Aunt is a really good cook. She makes the best Italian food," Peter said, the tone of his voice making it clear that he was incredibly fond of his Aunt. She had practically raised him and he knew it hadn't always been easy.

"Well, as long as you're not afraid of heights, I think this will meet them," he said, ducking into a side alley where he could jump up and grab the ladder to a fire escape, his weight pulling it down. "It's got the best view for blocks."

[darkangelsawyer]

"My dad and I make pizza together when he's home," Peyton offered. "Okay, we put crazy toppings on frozen pizza, but that should totally count."

She watched Peter jump up and pull down the fire escape. Damn, the guy had a better body than she'd realized. So, she maybe stared a little bit longer than she should, sue her. "I'm up for heights," she said following him up. "But I'm not sure what this city really has to offer beyond a lot of really tall buildings."

[whateveraspidercan]

“I guess you’ll just have to climb up and see,” Peter said, stepping back to gesture up at the building in front of them. Grabbing hold of the ladder he started to climb up. It was almost too easy and almost too slow to do it this way but it’s not like he could just crawl up the side like he normally would.

Once at the top he sat down on the edge and patted the space next to him for her to join.

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton flew up the ladder easily and seated herself next to Peter. "Oh wow, this is something else! Who knew the city could look so gorgeous from up here?"

She could see herself sitting up here, listening to her tunes and sketching. Maybe with Peter.

[whateveraspidercan]

Peter was kind of impressed with how easily she climbed the ladder. Not surprised really because she said she was a cheerleader but still impressed. She looked good doing it which was kind of a weird thing but Peter liked athletic girls. And smart girls. And funny girls. And just... girls. He liked girls.

"Wait, did you just say something complimentary about New York?" he teased, leaning over to bump her shoulder. "Or did I hear that wrong?"

[darkangelsawyer]

"Shut up," Peyton said easily, bumping him back. "Don't ruin the moment by making me give you a snide comeback. Let's eat our sandwiches and enjoy the view and then I can go back to being all dark and depressing."

[whateveraspidercan]

“Okay, just making sure that Dark Peyton was going to eventually come back,” Peter said, giving her a sheepish grin. For someone that had thrown him for such a loop earlier in the day he was actually having a really great time with Peyton. Maybe it had something to do with her being new and not much about him yet. If that was the case then this probably wouldn’t last. Although that was really unfair of him to assume she’d do that. He should assume that she wasn’t the type and honestly she did seem like it.

“So how is the sandwich?” he asked, taking a big bite of his.

[darkangelsawyer]

"Sadly for the world, Dark Peyton is never going to be gone for long," she said. "And don't think that this momentary insanity means I'm going to be all sweetness and light now."

But hey, once Peyton decided someone was a friend, they were a friend. End of story.

She unwrapped the sandwich and sniffed at it before taking a careful bite. "Wow, this is amazing!" She took a bigger bite and closed her eyes as she chewed. "I'm definitely going back there!"

[whateveraspidercan]

“You know? I kind of like Dark Peyton,” he said around a bite of his own sandwich. It was definitely good but it was obvious that Delmar had made hers just a bit more special. Peter couldn’t blame him, Peyton was kind of charming in a totally... different way than other people were charming.

“It’s okay to be edgy, right? As long as you’re not being edgy to be edgy. Dark Peyton is just you being you,” he said. Also? Bad girls were kind of awesome and she was a good bad girl. Or something.

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton lowered her sandwich and stared at him for a moment. "You like Dark Peyton."

All she could do was shake her head, even while a part of her kind of, well, was ridiculously happy that someone liked her however she was - good or bad.

"You definitely are crazy." She shook her head again, then smiled at him. "Lucky for you, I like crazy."

And Peter should be careful or she might just show him how much fun it could be to be bad.

[whateveraspidercan]

“That’s me, crazy. My nickname is Crazy Parker so you just... watch out,” Peter said, doing his best to give off a crazy vibe which mostly just made him look really, really stupid and he couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“You jus caught me on a boring day, usually I’m like... BASE jumping or bungie jumping off buildings after school.”

[darkangelsawyer]

"Oh, I see," Peyton said with a grin. "Lucky I caught you on your off day or you'd never have given me the time of day."

She bumped him gently. "Don't do that face around anyone else, it makes you look like a dork. Lucky I like dorks too."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Crazy Parker," he said, making the face once more just for her before laughing and bumping her back. He was glad she liked dorks because Peter totally was one, there was no denying it. He'd grown comfortable with that so he was glad that someone like Peyton was willing to put up with that. Dark Peyton and all she seemed like a good person. And maybe his stomach did little flip-flops when he glanced over at her or she smiled at him but so what?

[darkangelsawyer]

Oh be careful, Peter. Peyton would have no problem deflowering you should that situation arise.

"Peter Parker and Peyton," she said. "Gotta love some good alliteration."

She looked out over the city again. "So this is what you do? Sit on top of buildings and watch the city? Not that I'm putting it down. I think I could sit up here and sketch for hours, but there's gotta be more that you do."

[whateveraspidercan]

Peter would never say it without some coaxing but he would be 100% okay with deflowering.

“Academic Decathlon keeps me pretty busy. But I like to make stuff?” He said, biting off more of his sandwich as he chewed thoughtfully. How did he describe what he did with his free time. “You know, building my own computers or phones. I used to have an internship with Tony Stark and I still do some freelance stuff for him.”

[darkangelsawyer]

"Tony Stark? Isn't he that billionaire inventor guy who's also Iron Man?" Peyton asked. "He's hot. But I bet he's an asshole. He always seems so full of himself."

Peyton knew a little bit about asshole rich boys. She'd dated one for years and had finally gotten tired of being treated like shit unless he wanted sex.

"Still, it's kind of cool that you work for him sometimes."

[whateveraspidercan]

“He used to be like that. Now he’s also a really great guy but also those things?” Peter said with a laugh because Peyton was totally right about Stark. But Peter owed him a lot and Stark tried to do the right thing so Peter had to give him that.

“Yeah. I just like making stuff and helping people. Which sounds lame. But I think it would be cool to develop a new prosthetic or something.”

[darkangelsawyer]

"A really great guy who's also an asshole and full of himself?" Peyton said, laughing herself. "That's gotta be something to see."

She turned to listen to Peter, turning serious for a moment. "Seriously? Like that guy who came up with the sort of mind-controlled prosthetic arm? The one that can pick up and egg without breaking it and that looks like a real arm?"

(Couldn't resist, Dean Kamen is local to us and has created this totally AMAZING prosthetic arm. https://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm#t-293361 And they call it Luke after Luke Skywalker, cause he had his hand cut off.)

[whateveraspidercan]

"Yes! Something like that. That guy is amazing. I just think that the line between biology and mechanics is getting more and more blurred every day and I want to be on the side of using it to help people," Peter said. He was sure that the government would use some of that stuff for some shady purposes but there could be so much done to help people.

((That is so amazing!))

[darkangelsawyer]

"Wow, so I'm in the presence of a real life science geek superhero," Peyton said cheerfully. "I'm impressed. Some day I'll be able to say I knew you when!"

[whateveraspidercan]

"Oh yeah, that's me. Just your regular superhero of the science geek variety," he said, taking one final, huge bite of his sandwich to hide the grin on his face. He didn't want her to think he was laughing at her or anything like that.

"So, you ready to head back down to Earth and the basketball game?"

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton wrinkled up her face, then nodded. "If we must descend to Earth, we must. Any chance the basketball players are any good? I have to tell you, back home we go to States every year, so I've got high standards."

[whateveraspidercan]

"You are definitely going to be disappointed," Peter said as she started the climb back down "to Earth" as she had put it. He kind of liked her phrasing though, like being up there they were somehow above it. "But I thought we were going to check out he cheerleaders? Wait, that came out wrong..."