Untamed

Chapter Four

"Oh, my God," I gasp.

I push myself off of him and try to stand up, but just end up tripping over myself. His face has gone red and his mouth his slightly agape as he stares at me. When he takes his gaze off of me, he stands up quickly and reaches down to help me up. I take his hand and try not to make eye contact with him as he easily lifts me up off of the ground.

"I- I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, I was just..." I try to explain, but I am unable to finish.

"Oh, it- it's okay. You, you don't have to apologize," he stutters.

"So are you... are you the new recruit?" I try to talk evenly and not stutter so I won't embarrass myself further.

"Oh, uh, no. I'm just an intern." He gulps. "For Mr. Stark."

I can't read people's minds unless I make physical contact with them and set the intention, but I can tell when someone is lying because the energy they give off changes. I can also sense others emotions and right now he is nervous, which doesn't help his case.

"It's okay. You don't have to lie to me." When he tilts his head in confusion and opens his mouth to object I lean closer and whisper in his ear, "Spider-Man."

He laughs nervously before speaking, "I'm Parker Peter- I mean, uh... Peter Parker."

"Hey, Peter Parker." I smile as he looks to the ground and scratches behind his ear awkwardly. "I'm Gracee Stark."

His eyes shoot up to my face and quickly glance over my body. "Are you... I didn't know he... are you related to Mr. Stark?"

"I'm his daughter. And yeah, no one really knows about me."

"That- that's cool."

I'm distracted by the nervousness that is radiating off of his body more with every word when I hear someone walking towards the door. I quickly lift myself and Peter up to the roof with my powers just as Clint walks out.

"Gracee!" he yells, glancing over the yard.

Peter looks at me, brown eyes wide. I put my finger over my mouth to show him to keep quiet until Clint walks back in, shutting the door behind him.

"So... you have powers?!"

"Yeah," I say between breaths.

I stand up and he does the same. I wipe sweat off of my forehead and I start to get dizzy, so I bend over, supporting myself with my hands on my knees.

"Hey, are you okay?" Peter's voice sounds distant.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I suddenly get nauseous and clamp my mouth shut after talking.

My ears start ringing and my vision blurs before completely going out. I get wobbly and fall but Peter catches me with lighting quick reflexes. His arms wrap around my waist and my head is on his shoulder as he holds me up. I can faintly hear his voice saying my name and I regain control of my limbs, opening my eyes and standing back up. Peter let's go of me but keeps one arm around my waist to support me.

"Are you okay? What just happened?"

"I... I fainted."

"Well, yeah, I kinda got that when you fell over on me, but why?" he asks in concern.

"I used to much power." I walk towards the edge of the roof and look down at the ground. "We need to get down."

"Why are we up here in the first place?"

I ignore his question. "I can't use my powers again and it's too high to jump."

Peter follows behind me and pulls back his sleeve to reveal something around his wrist that has cartilages filled with some type of fluid. "I can get us down."

He looks to me, making sure I am okay with it, before he wraps his arm around my waist. I wrap both of mine around his shoulders in confusion. It all makes sense when he shoots something that sticks to the edge of the roof.

"Web shooters." I say under my breath. "Did you make them yourself?"

"Yeah... I did." Peter blushes and I get butterflies. "Do you trust me?"

Maybe it's the way he's holding me or the look on his face, but when I look back at him I get the feeling that I can trust him.

"I trust you."

He looks back at the ground and holds the web in one hand while wrapping his arm around my waist with the other. I grip him tighter as he jumps off the edge and close my eyes, enjoying the feeling of falling. I feel the impact as we reach the ground and he lets go of the web. I realize that as we were falling I had wrapped my legs around his waist and quickly put my legs down, standing up and letting go of him.

I look away from him and walk towards the woods. "This way."

"Okay..." he says warily, following behind me.

When we reach the woods I can start to see my treehouse. I haven't been out here since before I got my powers, but I still remember every detail about it. From the art supplies on the desk, to every book on the shelve.

"My dad built it for me when I was younger," I say to Peter, who is looking up at it.

"That's sick."

We start climbing the stairs and when we reach the top I sit in the corner on a colorful rug while he takes a seat on a bean bag, waiting for me to talk.

"So, you deserve an explanation. I know you're probably wondering about my powers. Hydra took me a little over a year ago and I was there for a while before the Avengers rescued me. Hydra injected me with a serum that was supposed to kill me but actually ended up giving me my powers." I look down at the dark magic surrounding my hands before continuing.

"I have never been able to control them so I have to take this medication Bruce cooked up in the lab every morning. He said it helped me control my powers but really it took the most powerful parts of them away. Today I forgot to take my medication so Bruce tried to inject me with a purifying serum to ensure that my powers wouldn't kill me. It just reminded me of Hydra so I ran and now Bruce is laying in the lab unconscious." I take a deep breath. "I... I hurt him and I didn't mean to."

"I'm so sorry, Gracee."

"No, don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Don't feel bad for me. I can handle this."

"Yeah... you can."

He looks at me like he knows me, but he doesn't. I find myself staring back into his eyes and then quickly look away before I start thinking about how much I just loved it when he looked at me like that.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"We? No, I got myself into this mess."

"I want to help."

"I can't stop you, can I?"

He shakes his head and I laugh. He smiles when I laugh and can't look away from him. The way we are looking at each other would have been awkward if Pietro hadn't zoomed in, saving us from the tension.

"Speedy?"

"Witchy, Stark is looking for you," he says, out of breath.

Peter makes a face at our choices of nicknames, but I don't offer an explanation because it's pretty self explanatory. Since me and Pietro met around the time I first got my powers, we have always called each other nicknames based off of them.

"What? How does he-" I stop myself before finishing.

"He was wondering if he was here yet." Pietro looks at Peter and then looks back at me when he notices what I said. "Wait, how does he what?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Gracee you're good at a lot of things but lying has never been one of them."

"Fine," I sigh. "Long story short, I may have accidentally made Bruce go unconscious in the lab. I don't know how it happened it just..."

"Happened," Pietro finishes. "I'll cover for you. Wanda can wake him and wipe the memory."

"You're a life saver." I smile.

"I know." Pietro responds, before dashing out.