The Revenge of Devil | Irondad, pepperony

Chapter 27

Peter stomped nervously in front of the school, trying to organize his thoughts at the last minute so he would not stutter in front of the brunette unnecessarily. He had such a bad feeling because he knew what he had to do, and he didn't really want to. But he knew he had no choice. He didn't expect her to tell him what was going on, and he couldn't just wave at it and forget about it. It would stifle it, and then it could go wrong between them. At least he had some control over it that way. This is how he hopes this is not the end of them.

"Peter?" Michelle, whom he didn't even see coming, said softly. He was probably too preoccupied with his thoughts.

"Michelle, hello," he muttered, his eyes darting all around. He didn't know if he could look at her. He would probably change his mind and ask for forgiveness, but that would be wrong.

"Hello," she returned his greeting, then tightened her grip on the straps of her backpack. She didn't like this at all. Perhaps she would eventually be glad if he chose to ignore her.

"I... It's not easy for me to say this, but it'll probably be best if we get it over with quickly, and class will start soon. Michelle, I think we should take a break for a while," he said, staring somewhere behind her. His voice didn't even shake that much, and he was quite proud of it because he felt like he was going to cry soon.

"You mean to break up," Michelle said without emotions, but the pain she was feeling was much worse than when Dad had left her. Because, unlike him, Peter really liked her and was interested in her.

This time Peter looked at her. Break up? He didn't want to, didn't she understand that? "No, I don't mean breaking up. Michelle, I really like you, but that's not enough at the moment-"

"But why not?" she interrupted, and there was despair in her voice.

"You know very well why not. You don't believe that if we stayed together now, we would be happy..." he sighed.

"Can't you just forget it?" she asked, anger added to the despair. She was angry with him for giving up after the first argument. She was angry with him for having to destroy the beautiful things they had among themselves. She must have been angry with him because if she hadn't been angry with him, she would have had to face the truth. She would have to be angry with herself.

"You know me. You know I can't. If we stayed together, it wouldn't be fair to you or me. In short, I think we need a little distance, that's all. I don't want to give it up with us, I really like you," he explained with a heavy heart, then gave her one last look to let her know that he meant it and entered the interior of the school.

Michelle stood there. She couldn't believe what had happened for the last ten minutes. How was she supposed to go to school now? What did he even imagine it would look like? And what did his pause mean? She wasn't stupid, there was no such thing as a pause. It was just a breakup in disguise. Stupid Peter and his need to solve everything. After all, he claimed that he liked her secret, so why did he suddenly want to change it?

"MJ! Are you waiting for Peter?" Ned pulled her out of her thoughts.

Michelle shivered. She stood in the cold longer than she thought. "Peter's inside," she muttered, checking the time on her watch. "And we should go too if we don't want to be late," she said in surprise, quickly grabbing his hand and pulling him inside.

•••

After work, Natasha changed into something more comfortable and went sat down on the couch with Bruce. Her boyfriend somehow didn't notice her presence, but the redhead didn't mind. She knew he needed to finish the chapter first. Bruce just didn't like leaving things unfinished. She was used to it.

"I had an interesting conversation with Pepper today," she said as he closed the book and set it down on the coffee table.

"And what was this conversation about?" he asked, pulling her closer. He seemed to be sitting too far away from him, and he didn't like it.

"She told me how she had scheduled a meeting for Tony in Malibu next week, and that she hoped to avoid another three-meter-long plush animal. I didn't understand what she was talking about at all, then she told me to look at the calendar," she shared their conversation with him and waited to see if he would realize it.

Bruce thought about it for a moment but didn't understand what it was all about. "You'll probably have to explain more to me," he muttered reluctantly. He didn't like it when he didn't understand something. After all, he had seven diplomas!

Natasha had to smile. She thought he would have no idea what was going on, but she still had to make sure because he and Tony were close and she wouldn't like to get a giant stuffed animal. It would be nice to practice throwing knives on it, but Bruce probably wouldn't appreciate it.

"Next week is Valentine's Day and I'm voting so we don't celebrate it," she told him confidently. The truth was, she was a little afraid of how he would react.

"I agree," he agreed simply.

"Seriously?"

"Nat, it's a stupid holiday. I don't need anyone to tell me when to express my love to you," he said with a laugh, and Natasha felt she fell even more in love with him.

They sat there in silence for a moment, but then she remembered another thing she was discussing with Pepper today, and she was quite curious about Bruce's answer. Plus, she knew it would help her in the whole Brunnhilde situation.

"Bruce? Have you ever been jealous?" she asked casually.

"Are you kidding?" he laughed. "Where should I just start? It would be better to ask when I was not jealous. Tony, Clint, Steve...You could have anyone, but you choose me? I still have to repeat how lucky I am. Steve sometimes bothers me a little now that he's back, but I wouldn't say I'm jealous of him. I'm definitely jealous of James," he replied much more openly than she expected. And he certainly surprised her.

"Why are you jealous of Rhodey?" She didn't understand.

"What? Not of this James! I mean Bucky," he specified. "I noticed you disappeared to the gym right away yesterday. But I have to take my jealousy with humor, otherwise, we would have a problem with the Hulk. In addition, jealousy is a natural emotion when it is healthy."

"Are you really jealous of everyone on the team?"

"What can I say? They are all the exact opposite of me. But what was, was. As I say, I'm just jealous of Bucky now," he grinned.

"But you know I've never had anything to do with any of them, do you?" She wanted to make sure.

"If you know I've never had anything to do with Valkyrie," he asked the same question.

"Let's stop talking about others," she muttered, joining their lips together before he could say anything else.