Peter & Bucky Are Pals

Chapter 46

Peter inhaled shakily as he headed down the hall to one of the conference rooms a couple floors above the gym, though he supposed conference room wasn’t quite the word for it, since Tony had previously deemed it boring and demanded that it be painted bright red and filled with lava lamps and bean bags. Peter paused outside the door, his hands trembling as possibilities whirled through his mind; after a long moment, he knocked.

“Come in!” called a cheerful voice, and Peter slipped inside.

He was met with a petite woman dressed in black who honestly didn’t look much older than him. Her hair was bright red, cut in an asymmetrical bob, and she had visible tattoos and piercings. She smiled widely, her pale blue eyes crinkling.

“You must be Peter.” Her voice had a pleasant, lilting tone. “I’m Faye. I love your hair.”

Peter lifted his hand unconsciously to his purple-topped head.

“Thanks?” he said, quiet and shy.

“You’re welcome,” Faye replied kindly. “Please, sit down. Pick a bean bag, any bean bag.”

Peter sank into a large bean bag about six feet away from her, twisting his hands together.

“I promise I don’t bite, despite my looks,” Faye told him.

Peter laughed, but he was pretty sure it just sounded like a desperate wheeze. Faye mercifully didn’t comment on the noise.

“Most therapists would ask you to talk about yourself first, but I have a feeling that would make you uncomfortable right now, so let’s talk about me,” she said. “My full name is Faye Cesare Sonnenschein, and I use she/her or they/them pronouns. My mom is from Turkey, my dad is from Germany, and I was born in Kansas.
I can’t really speak Turkish or German, but I know Latin and I speak Spanish and Korean fluently. My favorite animal is a tie between tree frogs and goats, but my girlfriend doesn’t like amphibians and we don’t have a backyard, so we have three ferrets instead. Their names are Furball, Doofus, and Lil’ Fart. My favorite subject in high school was lunch and my favorite food is steamed asparagus. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Peter echoed back, slightly stunned.

“Too much information all at once?” asked Faye, sympathetic.

“No,” Peter said quickly. “I mean… there’s just… How is asparagus your favorite food?”

Faye grinned. “It was my brother’s fault, really. He would pretend that asparagus was the best thing in the world whenever we had it, so I was always really excited to eat it. In retrospect, my parents probably put him up to it, but hey, it worked!”

Peter laughed, a little more genuine this time. “Also, did you or your girlfriend name the ferrets?”

“Well, their names were supposed to be Violet, Oliver, and Henrietta, but my girlfriend was away from home for a few months after we got them and I started calling them Furball, Doofus, and Lil’ Fart because they’re precious little idiots, and then they learned those names, so we’re stuck with it now.”

“They sound cute,” said Peter.

“They sure are. Do you have any pets?”