Summary:Helena and Peter talk about school while chowing down. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Summer is…well, it's almost over. And when summer is over, even the pretense of being kids without responsibilities will fade away. It's time for high schoolers to start becoming adults. Which is no doubt why Helena decided that the best place for her and Peter to meet was at a food truck selling gourmet ice creams. What else could celebrate the end of childhood?
She's already got a place in line, scrolling through her phone with a small smile. « What do you want if I get to the window before you get here? Or should I just surprise you? »
The freedom of youth. Well, that was defined a little differently for Peter. Childhood is filled with heartache, childhood torture, tragedy, bloodshed, and changes not many dealt with.
But childhood also had love, devotion, caring, compassion, and lasting good memories. So it was bittersweet.
Spider-Man is swinging towards the meeting place, and his handsfree voice-to-text message was quick. <Vanilla and chocolate sundae. Look for the one called Nice Dreams. They may look like hippies, but they have what they call an Ice Cream Mundae. Three scoops of ice cream on a wide brownie square, with hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry on top.>
Helena grins to herself, looking up from her phone to check the board with the day's offerings. « Boring. ;) Boring and boring for you, I'm going to try the dragonfruit lemon sherbert with the mango raspberry puree. That didn't seem like as much going on as it is until I typed it all out… »
It's still a hot day, even in New York. It's August, after all. Which means the line is moving slowly.
<Hey, I'm a simple guy. I have simple tastes. Order it for me anyway, you can have a bite or two. Girlfriend prerogative.> A pause. <Should be there in a minute…>
It's closer to 45 seconds when Peter jogs out of the alley and hustles towards Helena, smiling that same sheepish hangdog smile that seems to be his trademark. "Hey, honey. Hope I didn't keep you too long."
"Hey," Helena laughs as he comes over, reaching out to slip an arm around his waist as she leans in for a kiss on the cheek. "No, don't worry about it. Have you seen this line?" she asks, rueful. "No sense in both of us standing around here waiting for it. How's it going? You have all your books? Class schedule? Ready to start the whole college thing along with your other dozen part-time gigs?" she teases.
Peter chuckles. "Laugh all you want. One of those part-time gigs is going to make my Aunt May go like Ginger Rogers, and she can hang up her Little Mermaid act." He pauses. That might be a little TOO obscure. "In the original story, the mermaid got her legs, but they HURT. The writer wrote that she walked like she had knives in her feet. Aunt May is walking like that now. Her pride keeps her from submitting to a wheelchair, of course. Guess I inherited her stubborn streak."
"Yeah, I know the original," Helena smiles, wry. "I'm sorry to hear May's been having trouble, though. And glad that there's an end in sight for it," she adds, giving him a light squeeze. "Which one of your gigs has that going for it?" Sure, she can probably guess which one it is, but sometimes it's nice to let other people share.
Peter hmms and returns the smile with a little more wryness to it. "Kane Industries. Miss Kane said the design was going to revolutionize the medical industry. I think she might be embellishing a little about that, but it is going to improve a lot of lives. And that's the real payoff."
"Hey, Kate is not known for her tendency to exaggerate," Helena laughs, releasing him as they get closer to the front of the line. "I'm really glad you got that position. It's great experience, you're helping people, and it gets your foot in the door for the future. Because you should have a future, too," she points out, poking a finger at his shoulder. "You're not going to be young and spry forever, you know," she teases, winking. "How about school? You ready for that to go into the mix?"
Peter chuckles. "I have my books, my schedule, my map of the campus, and even which trains to take to get there. You know, for the bad days."
Yeah, the bad days. When he's hurt too badly for webslinging.
"I have Dr. Connors' private number, too. He says he wants to mentor me. He's one of the biggest in his field, even as good as that biochemist Morbius from Greece."
"You're going places, Peter Parker," Helena smiles warmly, pausing when they get up to the window to give the board one more look. "Could we please have the vanilla and chocolate sundae, and…you know, actually, I think I'm going to do the mint chocolate chip on the brownie, please. Anything else?" she asks with a grin in Peter's direction.
The with the beard and glasses says, "Hey, yeah…that sounds AWESOME…" He looks to Peter, who gives Helena. What the heck happened to the dragon fruit whatever sherbet?
Oh, well. Women had the prerogative to change their minds. It was kinda flattering she came around to the idea of the hot fudge Mundae.
"The same, thank you. Two of those."
The guy nodded. "Comin' right up, man…head around to the side, my partner'll sort you out."
Peter can't help but smirk a little at Helena's choice. As they walked around to the pickup window, he asked, "So, enough about me. How are things going with SHIELD? Are you set up with their academy yet?"
"I may not have actually talked to Mom and Dad about it yet," Helena admits, sheepish. "I'm ready to. It's time to. I mean, I talked to Bucky and Steve, and I talked to Natasha. So I got a few different opinions from people who really know what they're talking about. And they all seem to think it's not a bad idea. So…now I just have to tell Mom and Dad. Which is the hard part."
"Not because I don't think-" She hurries to add something then pauses. "I mean, I know they want me to be happy. I just…It's really important to me that they be proud of what I'm doing, you know?"
Bucky? Steve? Natasha? Those names should rings bells, but the context isn't there for him. Those names pass over him like wind.
But he does look at her with a gentle smile. "I remember a rule from one of Uncle Ben's Travis McGee books. 'The hardest option to choose…is the right one.' If they love you, they'll accept your decision. And I do believe they love you." He takes a breath. "Guts isn't always about facing armed men in some alley. Sometimes guts is looking your fear right in the eye and doing what you know has to be done. Whether it's fighting some lunatic or owning up to your choices in life. It won't make the papers…but that kind of bravery will earn their respect."
"Well I hope it will." Helena leans against the truck as they wait for their ice cream, smile faint. "Probably more if I tell them before they think I ought to have moved into a dorm somewhere by now. Minor detail." Her grin flashes broader for just a moment. "Anyhow. It'll probably keep me busy, but no busier than you are. And no matter what, I'll be visiting you at school," she points out. "So no skipping classes, buster!"
Peter looked astonished. "Skipping classes. MOI?" He places a hand over his heart, giving her a look of melodramatic hurt. "You have wounded my academic pride. WOUNDED it, I say!"
A Hispanic man with a large mustache holds out two Mundaes. "Here you go, man."
Peter breaks his melodramatic pose to take them, handing one to Helena, then gets right back to the melodrama. "My honor has been….been SLIGHTED!"
Helena grins as she takes one of the ice creams, stepping back to make room for the next person in line. "Well, I wouldn't worry too much. As long as I'm the only one questioning your honor, you should be good. Now, you get the rest of the family and the extended family questioning your honor and even you are going to be in a world of hurt."
She starts down the street, heading toward a plaza between buildings where they can take a seat. "So, uh. Yeah. Maybe hold back on the super strength if you don't recognize them as a villain immediately."
Peter drops the melodrama and shrugs. "I'm pretty good at it now." He winks as he pulls out Helena's seat for her. "I certainly took you by surprise," he whispers to her.
"What, with your revelation?" Helena laughs, already starting to dig into her sundae as she sits down. "Yeah, well. I have to be honest, you're the first boy who's ever confessed his secret identity to me." Probably because she basically grew up with the rest of them, but that's beside the point.
Peter sits down, then digs into his own. Hmmmm, chocolate. "Well…I had a good feeling about you. You seemed like someone who could…deal with it. Objectively, I mean. Besides, it caused so much trouble the last time…I felt you were worth it." He tilts his head, regarding her for a moment, with a dollop of hot fudge on his upper lip.
"Something abotu growing up with money sort of forces you to learn how to deal with the weird and unexpected," Helena winks, laughing as she leans over to try to wipe the fudge from his lip with her spoon. "I feel like that came off as a humble brag, but it's the truth. No one is weirder than rich people."
Her parents like to dress up as a bat and a cat and fight crime, for example.
Well, poor people dress up like spiders to fight crime. Does this mean he's not high enough in a tax-bracket sense to claim animal status? That's kind of a buummer.
"How about people TRYING to get rich? I submitted a few pics of Spider-Man fighting someone calling himself the Trapster. He USED to call himself…dramatic pause…Paste-Pot Pete. Guess it wasn't trending well."
"Woooooow," Helena laughs, digging into her sundae again. "All right, well, Paste-Pot Pete might win in the weird. Maybe it's not so much that rich people are weird as that once you've got a certain amount of money no one's going to stop you from being your weirdest self."
"Well, I saw something weird. Someone dressing up as Spider-Man for a local cosplay convention. He was a little muscle-bound. Looked liked Spidey was taking Spidey-Steroids…but it's also kinda flattering." He shrugs. "No one's going to think he's Spidey, though. I had to resist the urge to attend the convention, myself. Maybe next time, though…"
"I'm a little bit terrified of Spidey on Spider-Steroids," Helena teases. "I mean, I'm also a little concerned about where you'd put the extra muscle," she arches a playful brow, taking another bite as she gives him a speculative look. "You're pretty much already all muscles and bones to begin with."
Peter sighs. "Well, I'm not Captain America…or even Captain Cold…but I'm not the 98-pound weakling I used to be. Maybe if I was taller, broader, more heroic like Captain America?"
He's joking…kinda. He might not be scrawny anymore, but he doesn't exactly cut the heroic figure the real heroes have. Maybe that's why he turned down Kori's offer, because everyone was more epic than him.
Even superheroes have hang-ups. That's kind of a bummer, too.
"Peter." Helena's smile quirks as she looks at him, reaching out to boop the end of his nose with her spoon. "You can lift buses. I wouldn't worry too much about measurements." She winks, going back to her ice cream. "As Kori says, you are 'the shred.' And I for one have no complaints."
Peter chuckles. "I hope she's doing okay. I haven't heard from her in awhile, but running a team like that probably takes up a lot of her free time. I'm sure she's up to the task, though. She's had more training than I will EVER see." He smirks. "I'm sure she's fine. All right…my classes start next Monday. When do yours start?"
"They start new classes at SHIELD pretty regularly. So pretty much once I tell Mom and Dad, I'll probably be going. Speaking of training," Helena says with a rueful smile. "There's going to be a lot. But hey, maybe by the time it's done I'll be able to pretend to keep up with you."
Peter raises an eyebrow. "You'll probably get tactically superior, learn five martial art disciplines, urban tactics, and get the best mil-spec equipment. SHIELD gets all the best toys."
"They really do," Helena agrees cheerfully. Anyone who thinks that isn't a factor in her choice is clearly wrong. "I'm really looking forward to checking it all out. Maybe we'll be able to figure out some good upgrades for you from it too. Eventually. I think you're pretty top of the line right now."
Peter chuckles. "Except my fabrication time is measured in weeks. Meanwhile, you could probably get an equivalent suit as fast as if you got it through Amazon Prime." He takes another bite. "Governments have deeper pockets and access to entire facilities."
"Ooh, a spider suit of my very own," Helena grins. "Just what I always wanted. SHIELD probably only has 39 web combinations though. Not enough spare time and weird encounters with eccentric rich people to inspire them to come up with more."
Peter regarded Helena for a few moments. "Will I get my face slapped if, hypothetically, I would say you would look good in such a suit?" He cackles before filling his mouth in ice cream and brownie.
Helena grins, pushing up out of her chair to brush another kiss against his cheek. "Nope," she says lightly. "That gets a reward. Now you say something about getting out of said suit and you might get in trouble with one of the brothers," she chuckles. Her ice cream is already mostly demolished, despite the conversation. It's cold and delicious, after all. "We should go to campus so you can show me where your classes will be. That way I'll know exactly where to show up to shut up any doubters."