WHILE PETER PARKER RETURNED TO NORMALCY, DIANA SMITH WAS DOING ANYTHING BUT. While he was forced to return to a life without Spider-Man, she was working to live up to the name she had made for herself; though she wasn't going out and fighting crime.
She had overheard what had happened to Peter through her earrings as he explained it to his aunt later that night, something that made her stomach churn.
"Why would Tony Stark do that?" she demanded to Nicky on the phone, "He's a kid, he makes mistakes, but he did nearly save everyone, you saw the footage! He was trying."
"Sometimes, trying isn't good enough when lives are involved," Nicky tried to rationalize, "There's a line between 'you can't save everyone' and 'you're putting lives in danger', you understand?"
She sighed and fell onto her bed. "I don't like it. Tap into it, he was still crying when I turned the audio off. I have never heard him cry, it hurts, Nicky."
"Knowing Peter, he'll find a way," Nicky tried to soothe, "Just try to be kind to him this week, yeah?"
She chewed on his lip. "I always try."
He was probably smiling on the other end. "Then you just do that. Goodnight, Diana."
"Night, Nicky."
º º º º º
The next day, Diana tried to watch Peter, see how he was holding up. The thing about him was, despite how much he loved being Spider-Man, he was really good at hiding it from the general public. If anything, it just seemed as though he was excited to work for Tony Stark, which wasn't far off from what he was doing. He handled it well enough, though he looked sad the entire day.
"How're you holding up?" she asked, passing by his locker, "I saw what happened on the news."
He sighed softly and turned to look at her, glancing around before lowering his voice, leaning in close to whisper, "He took the suit."
"What?" she gasped, trying hard to seem shocked, "Peter, I'm so sorry."
"It's alright," he mumbled, "I-I'll live." He leaned against his locker, looking utterly devastated. His eyes darted to her earrings, then to the matching bangles on her wrist. "New boyfriend?"
She blinked. "What?"
He waved a lazy hand towards her ears, then to her wrists. "New boyfriend, you find someone new? He nice, you like him, what's he like, is he good to you?"
She shook her head quickly, too shocked to laugh. "Um, no, not new boyfriend, Nicky is not my new boyfriend. Uh, he just made me these to mess with in class if I get too overwhelmed."
"Oh," he said, expression barely changing, "Well, uh, I'm sorry? I dunno if you wanted to find someone new or something, I dunno."
"I'm not really looking," she said lightly, hand reaching up to touch a necklace that was no longer there.
He caught her movement, staring at her hand. "Oh. Yeah, uh, m-me too?" She raised an eyebrow and he sighed. "O-okay, so, yeah, maybe..."
"It's cool, Peter," she said, smiling, "She's pretty. Anyways, I gotta go, but I'll catch you later. Call me if you wanna talk, yeah?"
He nodded, watching her run off and disappear from view. There was something so strange to be on the receiving end of someone running off to be a hero while he stayed sad and stagnant. Not that he knew she was going off to train, but there was something in her excitement that made him melancholic.
He wasn't going to be left behind. He could handle being just Peter Parker again. Sure, Liz and Diana liked Spider-Man more, but Peter Parker was all that was left. He would make the most of it.
º º º º º
"Focus, Diana," Nicky said. They were standing in the living room area of the loft, all the furniture pushed to one side. Despite her qualms about destroying the entire building, Nicky and Rhett assured her they would be fine training there.
"I really don't want to be working here," she sighed, dropping her hands to her sides, "this is scaring me."
Nicky and Rhett groaned, looking at each other. "There's always the roof," Rhett suggested.
"Yeah, great, we can just alert the authorities and everyone else that I've actually been designing tech even though I said I wasn't," Nicky shot back.
"You can use that modified cloaking device from that one time," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but what if she hits it? Or anything else?" Nicky asked.
"Throw in that protection area. Plus, you can make the cloak long range, so it covers any of the aftershock areas where the light might reflect. C'mon, let's just try." Rhett motioned over to Diana who was looking at the floor, scuffing her shoe against the wood.
Nicky sighed. "Fine, okay. Take her up, I'll meet you in a sec with the stuff."
Rhett grinned and jumped to his feet, placing a hand on Diana's back, guiding her out of the apartment and towards the flight of stairs, the two blondes walking in silence until they reached the door, Rhett pushing it open.
"Why's Nicky so tense?" Diana asked as she looked around, not getting too close to the edge.
"Stuff's been happening. It't not that great," was all he said. It didn't explain anything, but Diana decided not to pry.
Nicky appeared a few minutes later with an armful of metal objects. Diana watched as he placed them on the corners of the building before fiddling with the tablet in his hands. A moment later he looked up and grinned.
"It still works," he breathed, moving to stand next to Rhett. "Alright, Diana, just hit the targets."
"What targets?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oops," Rhett said, fishing out a smaller tablet from his back pocket. He fiddled with the screen before glancing up. "These ones."
Suddenly, a group of blue holographic robots appeared in front of her, moving from side to side. She laughed, staring at the with a wide grin and twinkling eyes.
"They're so cute," she cooed, "Can I have one?"
"No, kill them," Nicky said.
She rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to kill them? It'll just go right through them."
"You underestimate me," Nicky said, moving forward and knocking his fist against one, a metal sound reverberating. "It's just like your screen. Now kill them."
She frowned and held out her right hand, aiming for one of the robots. "Um..." Suddenly, they stopped moving. She looked over at Rhett who had the tablet in his hands. "Thanks, okay, um..."
She aimed for the one closest to her, glad it wasn't moving. She tried to envision it exploding. Nothing happened. She tried again and again, envisioning different things happening to the robot, but each time nothing happened.
"What-what are you thinking?" Nicky asked after watching her struggle for a few minutes.
"I dunno," she said, cheeks burning, "I'm imagining them exploding."
"No, don't think that," he said, moving to stand behind her, "Imagine that the beam is traveling from your mind down to your arm down to your palm, then out. Got it?"
She nodded, running her tongue over her teeth. "Yup, okay. I can do this." She took a deep breath and did exactly as she was told.
Nothing happened.
She groaned and threw down her arm before raising both to rub her face and run her hands through her hair. She was getting extremely frustrated. All she wanted was to be able to protect herself and the people she cared about, but Nicky made this too complicated, he put too much faith in her. People put too much faith in her, but she wasn't good enough and people were going to get hurt because she wasn't good enough.
"Diana—" Nicky began.
"Don't!" she shouted, throwing her arms out.
Suddenly, she was thrown back by the sheer force of the beam eminating from her arm, her back hitting a harsh wall, though nothing was there. She fell forward onto her knees, clutching her right shoulder, tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.
"Diana, are you okay?" Nicky asked, though she could barely hear him over the ringing in her ears.
"What was that?" she asked, her voice too loud.
"Okay, so it plays on your emotions," Nicky said, "I'll fix that. I can fix that. Okay, we're gonna need to fiddle with it, so let's go back down. We're also gonna need to fix your earrings up so you don't lose your hearing. Come on."
He helped her to her feet and guided her towards the door, keeping her steady. Rhett went to collect all of the metal objects, turning off the robots, following close behind. When they made it back to the apartment, Nicky set her down on his bed, quickly checking her shoulder.
"You'll be alright, nothing's wrong, it's like the recoil of a gun," he explained, "I'll make it a lot easier for you. I mean, I thought envisioning would be easier, but I guess we'll have to make it more hairline."
"Is that smart?" Rhett asked, "What if she panics and ends up hurting someone?"
"Yeah, don't make it that easy," Diana piped up from her curled up position.
"It'll never be that easy," he replied, "Look, all I'm gonna do is make it so there will be various settings you'll be attuned to. I'm also making modifications to your earrings, any requests?"
"Can we make a two way comm between my audio and Peter?" she asked immediately.
He blinked. "That's not how that works..."
She groaned. "Then is there a way for me to get a two way comm between us, I honestly think that it'd be helpful."
"How're you gonna explain that to him?" he asked, crossing his arms, "I do see the perks in it, but you're going to have to explain it to him."
She chewed on her bottom lip. "I'll come up with something. But is there anything you can do?"
He sighed. "The tracker isn't just internal, there's an external aspect to it. I can remotely tap into it which means I could potentially divide it up so he would have an inserted comm and you would still be able to track him and his vitals. Here, wait, I can just try with yours."
He turned around in his chair, pulling up a file on his computer, furiously typing. After about ten minutes, he grabbed a microphone from his drawer and plugged it in, whispering. "Hey."
Diana jumped, her heart racing. She heard Nicky from the outside, but she also heard him perfectly in her ears, as if she were wearing earbuds. She stared at him with wide eyes.
"That's terrifying."
"Yeah, but you'll get used to it," he chirped, "Here, I'll set one up for Peter and attach it to your comm instead of my computer. Here, I'm gonna have to open up your earrings to attach the collapsable ear covers...they'd still need to be made of the same material..." he began mumbling to himself, taking Diana's earrings quickly, dropping them onto his desk.
Rhett, who had been watching the entire time from the doorway, turned to look at her. "This is going to take some time. You won't be able to master it right away."
She nodded. "I'm not planning to."
"Bracelets!" Nicky called out, still staring at his screen, hands out towards Diana. She tossed it to him, wincing as she missed. He moved forward and caught them easily, turning back around in his chair to full face his computer.
"Did he just...?" Diana asked, looking at Rhett with wide eyes. Nicky hadn't even been looking when he moved to catch the bracelets.
The man winked. "He's full of surprises."
Rhett brought in her homework and Diana worked alongside Nicky, glancing at the box of blueprints every so minutes, surprised to find that it seemed more empty.
"Did-did someone steal your prints?" she asked finally, motioning to the box.
Nicky looked up and shook his head. "No...I just finally got around to using them. Listen, this'll be done tomorrow and it's getting late, so you should probably head home. Come back tomorrow and we'll make some more progress, 'kay?"
She licked her lips. "Yeah, okay..."
So she left.
º º º º º
The next day provided more fruitful results.
Nicky, true to his word, was able to use the backlog of Diana's vital analyses to tailor the controls specifically to how she would work under pressure, but force her to find some clarity so as not to react too rashly.
"You got this," Nicky called out, headphones covering both his and Rhett's ears.
She took a deep breath and aimed left arm towards another robot. Nicky had made it so she could just imagine something happening to them and the severity of it would then cause the beam to manifest. She imagined it being thrown back, but not destroyed, the blue beam in her line of vision.
She yelped as she was thrown back, her shoes skidding, the beam hitting the protective shield rather than the robot.
"You did good!" Nicky shouted, giving her a thumbs up.
"Well," Rhett corrected.
"Shut up. Okay, Diana, try and plant your feet. Do you want boots or something because it doesn't seem like your shoes could hold up." He motioned towards her Keds with a flippant wave of his hand.
"Do you have some?" she asked, stretching out her shoulders. "And is there a way to work with this recoil, it's really bothering me."
Nicky bit his lip. "Stop asking me, because I have all these toys I wanna give you, but you need to work one at a time." He groaned. "Nope, I can't, stay here, I'll get the stuff."
Diana and Rhett watched him run to the door, slamming it behind him. Diana raised an eyebrow before aiming her right hand towards another robot, envisioning something slightly more severe. She was able to graze the top of another robot's head and didn't completely fall to the ground.
"You're a fast learner," Rhett commented, helping her to her feet.
"I'm desperate," she replied, "Peter's still transitioning and I want to be around when he gets his suit back."
"If he gets his suit back," Rhett corrected.
She frowned. "Tony Stark wouldn't do that, right? I-I mean, he made that stupid suit for him, who else would wear it? And, I mean, Peter could always go out in his old suit..."
"What if he doesn't return to the mantle of Spider-Man?" he asked.
She blinked. "I-I guess I'll just have this in case. A failsafe, you know? If Harrison somehow comes back or if just something bad happens."
Rhett smiled. "You're a good kid." He looked past her shoulder, calling out, "She's a good kid, right?"
"Yeah, definitely," Nicky groaned, a large cardboard box in his hands. "Here, Diana, we're just gonna play around with these, but you don't get to take them home."
She skipped towards him, stopping in front of the large box. Inside were a bunch of various items that, she figured, were in their open stage rather than their hidden ones. There were boots and arm coverings and something akin to a backpack.
"By the way, I made your earrings have another option which is an oxygen mask that way if you used this—which I won't let you, by the way—you'll be able to go higher up." He pulled out the backpack and handed it to her.
"What is it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the metal box.
"You know the Falcon, right?" Nicky asked in turn.
"Oh, here we go!" Rhett called out.
"Shut up!" Nicky shouted before turning back to her, "You know how he has those wings that help him fly because he's amazing?"
She blinked. "Yes...?"
"Yeah, so, Tony Stark made him a new pair, so I hacked him, copied the blueprints, and this has sorta just been laying around, so I decided to finally do something with it since Sam no longer owns the wings. So now they're yours." He thrust it into her hands and she was able to catch sight of the familiar rose gold color that matched everything else.
"These are your boots," he said, handing her the seemingly clunky objects, "They're super light, don't worry. And these arm coverings are dumb, you don't need them. Stick them on and we'll train some more."
She blinked. Once. Twice. "You had way too much coffee today, didn't you?"
He laughed. "I haven't slept in three days, what is life?"
She scoffed slightly and looked towards Rhett who was pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. "Um, okay...when we finish up the training, will you promise to go to sleep?"
He shook his head. "No promises, but if you manage to hit some moving targets while in the air, I'll think about it."
She nodded and pressed the side buttons on the boots, watching as they collapsed into tiny clasps which she placed on her shoes. She then pulled the straps of the backpack onto her shoulder, unsure of which button to press to eject the wings.
"Just try actually hitting one correctly, then move into the more complex ones," Nicky said, putting his headphones back on.
She nodded and planted her legs on the roof, holding out her right arm. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. She needed this to work. She needed it to. She opened her eyes and imagined the beam causing the robot to fly into the shield.
The moment she imagined the beam, it manifested and the she hit the robot dead on, its holographic body dissipating as soon as it made contact.
She shrieked with joy and jumped up and down, surprised to find that the boots were, in fact, lightweight. She looked over at the two men who were cheering as well.
"Okay, kid, try and go fast about it, don't focus on it as much, make it almost muscle memory. You won't perfect it today, but you'll get there eventually, yeah?" Nicky called out.
She nodded and held up her left arm, aiming for another robot. She thought too quickly and, as a result, nothing happened. She frowned and went step-by-step, which did earn her results. She tried again with her right arm, going only a little faster, not as fast as she originally tried. It took her two tries, but it did work.
She continued to work well into the darkening evening, making enough steady progress as to walk around while aiming for the targets which were now moving. Rhett made them move slowly, but it was enough of a challenge to get her frustrated, something that Nicky reminded her about constantly.
"You have to focus even when you're angry," he called out, "You can't just kill someone."
"I know!" she shouted, completely obliterating one of the robots.
"What did I just say?" he shouted. She held up her gauntlet towards him and he shrieked.
She pulled it away quickly and continued to work, trying to push away the guilt and fear that rose in her chest. She wasn't going to hurt anyone with this. She was supposed to help people, not hurt them.
By the time Nicky finally convinced her to go home with the promise of him going to sleep as well, Diana had managed to hit all of the moving targets while running around them, the targets moving fairly quickly with each hit; Rhett would be a fairly awful gym coach with how difficult he made things.
She returned home tired, but pleased.
She flopped onto her bed and pulled out her phone, surprised to find a text from Peter sent a few minutes before.
from: Peter (9:25 pm)
Hey, Diana, what've you been
up to?
She worried on her bottom lip, unsure if she should tell him about his tracker. She decided not to and instead said:
to: Peter (9:29 pm)
Nicky and I have just been
training. What have you been
up to?
from: Peter (9:30 pm)
Training? And I've just been
catching up. I rejoined band.
to: Peter (9:30 pm)
Oh nice!
from: Peter (9:30 pm)
Training???
to: Peter (9:31 pm)
Yeah, it's nothing, really, I
just test out his weapons and
stuff, no big deal
from: Peter (9:31 pm)
WEAPONS???
She inwardly cursed, wishing she had another word.
to: Peter (9:32 pm)
Not weapons, just equipment.
X-Men stuff I think
from: Peter (9:32 pm)
Oh are they like alien tech?
She frowned. He thought Nicky was working with that man he had been tracking in D.C.
to: Peter (9:33 pm)
He's not working with that
Vulture guy you were tracking
It was only when she sent it that she realized her mistake.
from: Peter (9:36 pm)
How'd you know about that?
Her fingers hovered over the keys, trying to come up with a lie.
from: Peter (9:36 pm)
Diana has Nicky been spying
on me? Are you like his snitch is
he working with Mr. Stark??
to: Peter (9:37 pm)
No I've been tracking you
She threw her phone across the room, watching it fall onto the carpet with a quiet thud. She buried herself under her covers, heart thudding wildly in her chest.
She was an idiot.
She fell asleep quickly, ignoring the buzzing of her phone that alerted her of all of the texts Peter had sent.
from: Peter (9:37 pm)
YOU WERE WHAT??
from: Peter (9:37 pm)
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
from: Peter (9:42 pm)
DIANA.
from: Peter (9:59 pm)
DIANA!!!!
from: Peter (10:11 pm)
DIANA SERIOUSLY ANSWER ME
from: Peter (10:45 pm)
I JUST TALKED TO NICKY HE
SAID YOU WERE WORRIED
ABOUT ME??
from: Peter (10:46 pm)
YOU SHOULD'VE JUST
TALKED TO ME I
WOULD'VE TOLD YOU
from: Peter (10:48 pm)
WHAT DID YOU HEAR?
from: Peter (10:48 pm)
HE SAID YOU WANTED TO MAKE
SURE I WAS OKAY AT ALL TIMES
OR SOMETHING?
from: Peter (10:49 pm)
WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST ASK ME
FIRST I WOULD'VE SAID YES!!!
from: Peter (10:50 pm)
DIANA I'M NOT ANGRY PLEASE
TALK TO ME.
from: Peter (10:51 pm)
DIANA PLEASE I'M NOT MAD
JUST PLEASE TALK TO ME.
from: Peter (11:02 pm)
COME ON!! I UNDERSTAND
WHAT YOU WERE DOING I
MISS YOU PLEASE TALK TO ME!!!'
from: Peter (11:11 pm)
OKAY. GOODNIGHT.
º º º º º
She didn't check the texts in the morning. She closed out of all of them and simply got ready for school. She just wasn't going to look or talk to him. It would be easy considering he probably hated her after what she just admitted to that night.
She went to school with Flash and Jesse as normal, fending off their prying questions with simple 'I'm fine's and 'Seriously, it's fine's. She made it all the way to lunch before giving up.
"Where are you going?" Flash asked as they walked towards last period.
"I just can't today," she sighed, already walking to the exit, "Cover for me?"
He opened and closed his mouth before sighing. "You owe me an explanation!"
She nodded and waved a quick goodbye. "I love you, you're the best!"
She quickly made her way out of the school, narrowly dodging the security guards and even Principal Morita himself, glad to have other students who wanted to skip as well. She didn't stop running until she made it three blocks away from the school.
"Is this what Peter felt like?" she asked herself as she hopped onto the train. She had some time to kill and decided to head back home to drop off her things.
She had felt antsy the entire day. Not just because of her anxiety at actively avoiding the boy, but also because she wanted to get back to Nicky's, she wanted to keep training. This wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to be a hero, but it seemed to be what was happening.
Hopefully, nothing would force her to actually have to fight.
She made it back to the apartment quickly enough, sending a quick smile to the people in the lobby, avoiding their questions of where the others were and why she wasn't in school. She rode up the elevator, tapping her foot, and practically threw her backpack into the apartment once she made it inside, heading out of the building and back onto the streets in record time.
She figured that Nicky probably didn't sleep again that night, so she decided to buy him some of the sleep medicine that Flash used. She made her way towards the drug store that wasn't too far away from her building, trying to remember how she knew about its existence in the first place.
She walked through the aisles, catching sight of the chewable melatonin Rosie bought for Flash. As she made her way to the front, she caught sight of the other aisle which held bandage wraps and antiseptic.
That was how she knew about this place.
She stiffly made her way towards the counter, placing the small plastic bottle on the counter, fishing out her debit card.
"Hey, I remember you."
She looked up at the cashier, blinking. "Huh?"
"You're the girl that showed up at, like, midnight," he said, "I only remember you 'cause I was sure you killed someone. Did you?"
She stared at him. He was a lot different when he wasn't as sleep deprived. "Erm...no. And I don't really plan to." She swiped her card and signed on the scanner.
"Well, thank God for that," a voice behind her laughed good naturedly. She turned around and found an older man smiling down at her. "Well, hello, again. Small world."
She blinked. "Huh?"
"Well, I probably would've forgotten you as well, but it had been a while since I have seen a couple of teenagers out a proper date," he laughed, "Especially since I don't get out much." He motioned to the cane he held in his right hand.
She gasped softly, realizing who he was. It was the man from Starbucks from the same time she had run into Johnny.
Memory Lane was just as awful as she remembered it to be.
She quickly grabbed the plastic bag, saying a goodbye to the two men as she went, rushing out of the store and down the street, not stopping until she was on her way to Brooklyn.
º º º º º
"You skipped class?" Nicky shrieked. He had walked out of his room in nothing but a t-shirt and boxers and nearly brained himself on a chair when he saw her standing at the door.
"I just didn't wanna see Peter and I didn't wanna have to wait," she replied, shrugging. It was the first time she had ever done it.
He sighed. "Did you read your texts?"
She scoffed. "No. Self-care is not reading your ex-boyfriend screaming at you."
Nicky opened and closed his mouth before sighing. "Nevermind. Um, what's in the bag?"
She held it up towards him proudly. "Sleep medication! You can't overdose on melatonin, Flash googled it. So you'll be able to sleep." She moved it closer to him, waiting for him to take it from her hands.
He smiled softly and took it from her. "Rhett isn't here yet, so you wanna grab some food?"
She shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Nicky dropped the plastic bag onto the table and the two walked back down to the street to pick up some food, Nicky wanting to actually go somewhere instead of ordering takeout. They just stepped out of the gate, when Diana heard a familiar voice.
"Green!"
Nicky tensed up and clutched at the back of Diana's shirt. "Stay calm," he hissed. He turned around, not smiling. "Toomes."
Diana turned as well, finding herself looking up at none other than Adrian Toomes. When he saw her he faltered, clearly surprised.
"Well, hey, Diana," he said. His smile was no longer as friendly as it had seemed those few days ago, now it seemed almost threatening.
"Hi," she greeted, glancing over to Nicky.
"What brings you over to Nick's place?" he asked, nudging Nicky lightly, the younger man grimacing.
Diana had to think fast. "I got out early for a therapy session," she breathed, "We're, uh, going to sit in a Starbucks and interact with people."
"What?" Adrian asked, smile never dropping.
"Yeah, it's an exercise used for social anxiety," Nicky jumped in; he had explained to her some of the techniques he used when she asked him a few weeks before, "We're making some progress, so if you'll excuse us, we need to be on our way."
"Now, hold on there, Nick," Adrian said, grabbing Nicky's arm roughly, "Mason told me that you're still considering our offer."
"I'm done considering," Nicky practically spat, "I'm saying no."
Adrian laughed softly. "You sure about that?"
Diana could see Nicky shaking. He took a deep breath. "Yes."
Adrian's smile began to falter. "I'd reconsider that answer if I were you."
"My friend's dad is a cop," Diana said quickly, pulling out her phone, "He just got Harrison, so he'll be quick in getting you too."
Adrian turned his attention to her, his smile causing her hands to shake. "We're just having a friendly chat, aren't we, Nick?"
"Doesn't seem too friendly to me," she retorted in a quiet, shaky voice. She waved her phone to emphasize her point.
The older man stared her down for a moment and she held his gaze, feeling her entire body shaking. Then he let go of Nicky's arm and backed away, his smile returning. "Okay. Hey, Nick, we'll continue, later, huh?"
They watched as he climbed into his car and drove away.
Nicky tugged at Diana's arm. "C'mon, we'll just order takeout. I gotta call Rhett, can you call Harry and ask him to put a guard in front of the building for the next few days?"
"Yeah, sure, what's going on?" she asked, chasing after him as he ran back inside the building, "Who's Mason? And how do you know Liz's dad?"
"Mason is my step-brother," Nicky groaned, "He's working with Toomes to make these illegal weapons from alien tech and they want me to work with them—"
"Wait," she said, holding up a hand, "He's the guy Peter was tracking? The vulture dude?"
"Shit," Nicky hissed, "Oh God, shit, it is him. Uh, don't tell Peter."
"What?" she exclaimed, "Why not?"
"This is way too big for either of you, don't go after him, don't tell him, don't do anything, do you hear me?" He was shouting at this point, unintentionally cornering her against the door.
"Okay, okay," she cried, pushing him back, "I won't! But shouldn't he know—"
"No!" he exclaimed, phone pressed to his ear, "No, because this is really dangerous stuff, Diana! You want to keep Peter safe?"
She nodded shakily. This was all getting too much and now Nicky was yelling at her.
"Then don't tell Peter."
She sighed and nodded, pulling out her phone. "Want me to call Harry?"
He shook his head. "No, I'll call him." He groaned and knocked over a chair. "Damn it!"
She jumped. "Nicky..."
He froze and turned to look at her, phone still pressed to his ear. "I'm sorry. Shit, Diana, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna—I won't—" he sighed and spoke into the phone, "Toomes came to the house, get home as fast as you can, stay safe. I'm calling Harry."
He hung up and dialed another number, glancing up at her. "We're gonna train today. We really need to train today, but we have to wait until Rhett is here and we can't go up to the roof."
She nodded. "I-I think I can manage the small space if you put up the shields."
He bit at the side of his finger. "Good. Harry, I need a favor..."
Diana leaned against the door, watching as Nicky paced around the room, asking Harry for security detail around his house, explaining his situation as vaguely as possible.
She didn't want to fight, but it was starting to look like she'd have to.
º º º º º
She returned home that night thoroughly exhausted. Rhett had returned home early, meaning that she was forced into non-stop training for the better part of six hours. By the end she was able to fly around the small area using her wings, shooting at the moving targets, but she was ready to collapse.
It was the exact same the next day, Friday, with Nicky pressuring her more and more, too tense to lay off. She understood why, but it was still scary to see him so worked up to the point of screaming. They worked her even harder then, Harry stopping by at one point during their break to say hi, surprised to find Diana there.
"Am I interrupting?" he asked.
"No, you're good," Nicky breathed, rubbing his eyes, "What's up?"
"I just wanted to say hi," he said, walking over and hugging the man, "You seem tense."
"I am," Nicky laughed mirthlessly, "How're you? Excited for Homecoming, I heard you're taking Johnny."
"Who told you that?" he asked. Nicky pointed towards Diana who waved slightly.
Harry grinned. "Snitch." His smile faltered. "Uh, did you hear Peter asked Liz to the dance?"
Diana pursed her lips. She actually had, she had her earrings turned on in class as she had been bored and was surprised when she heard Peter ask the older girl to the dance; despite everything, she was proud of him.
"Yeah, but I'm fine."
Harry smiled. "Gwen's going alone too. Unless, of course, you have a date."
She shook her head. "I'm not really planning on going."
"No!" Harry and Rhett both shouted. The younger boy glanced up to laugh at the man before saying, "Seriously, please come, if only to support me."
Diana groaned. "Don't use that on me."
"So you'll come?" Harry asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. Now, go on, go get ready or whatever. I know the dance is tomorrow, but I bet you have to get your suit fitted or whatever." Harry snorted, but left, saying on last goodbye to Nicky.
She worked for a few more hours after that, returning home with sore arms and a fairly sour mood.
She was making progress, but nothing substantial. She was still taking too long and couldn't work under pressure. All she could do was aim and shoot, but in an actual fight, she wouldn't be able to do anything.
She returned home, waving off dinner, and retired to her room. She was sitting on her bed, too tired to fall asleep, when Flash walked in. She raised her head to look at him, her eyebrow raised.
"You wanna be my date to Homecoming?" he asked, moving to flop onto her bed.
"I thought you asked Nora from Spanish," she said, looking back to the magazine she had idly open in front of her.
"She's going with Paul from Physics," he muttered, eyes dark.
She snorted. "Didn't she make you cry that one time?"
"Shut up!"
She laughed, but stopped when he grabbed her arm. She looked at him, unamused.
"Seriously, will you please go with me? It's tomorrow and I need a date." He gave her his best puppy dog eyes.
She frowned. "I'm your last resort?"
He scoffed. "You're like my sister, it'd be weird if you were my first."
"So I'm the equivalent of taking your cousin to the dance," she sighed, "Great."
"Diana, don't be like that," he said, nudging her softly.
"I don't have a dress," she said.
"Jesse bought you one," he replied.
She groaned loudly and he whined, shaking her. "Please...Please!"
"Fine, whatever!" she shouted, "I'll be the worst date ever, though."
He grinned and cheered. "I love you!"
"Whatever," she muttered, going back to her magazine. Flash jumped off her bed and walked out, heading back to his room.
She shook her head, eyes dark.
"Guess, I'm going to Homecoming."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
( 08.09.17 )
5678 words. NEVER BEFORE HAVE A WRITTEN A CHAPTER THAT HAS MET OR EXCEEDED 5000 WORDS OMIGOD YOU GUYS WE'RE HITTING SO MANY MILESTONES WITH THIS STORY I CAN'T!
I didn't want plan on including the Starbucks guy in that drug store scene, but you all imagined him as Stan Lee, so I figured I'd throw him in there as well, just for the nostalgia purposes.
That's really all I have to say besides the fact that Homecoming is next chapter. I know Diana progressed pretty fast in this chapter with her training, but know that she's really not progressed that much, most of it has to do with Nicky's modifications, she's still kind of awful at it.
Anyways...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!