Far From Normal (Peter Parker x Stark!OC)

III

"What kind of work?" Peter asked her, pulling his hand back from their juvenile but still cute pinky swear.

"You've seen The Parent Trap?" She asked him, sipping her champagne. Peter just nodded. "You know the scene where they teach each other about their lives before they switch? Like that," she said, which made perfect sense to Peter.

"Okay, what do I need to know?"

"We should probably establish ground rules," she mentioned. "What do we want to do for PDA?"

"P-" he stopped himself. "PDA, right," he nodded. That was a concept he was entirely unfamiliar with. He hadn't even had a girlfriend, and he was skipping right to Public Displays of Affection with Julia Stark.

"Kissing, holding hands, putting arms around each other-"

"Kissing?!" his words came out before he could stop them.

Julia's eyebrows raised at his shock. "Or... not," she added, which seemed to calm him down a little. He just couldn't wrap his head around kissing Julia. That was not an option. And Julia felt a little disappointment at him not wanting to kiss her. Any guy would want to kiss her. Why didn't Peter?

"I just," he was already making excuses. But he knew if he kissed Julia he would be done for. He wouldn't be able to maintain a fake relationship with her if he kissed her. "I don't think we should, because it's not real?" he asked. "If we were dating, we'd keep that private--probably, right?" he offered, but Julia just nodded, understanding the nerves, and starting to understand that maybe Peter hadn't... dated anyone.

"Yeah, I guess," she agreed skeptically. "I mean, it's just--kissing," she could not believe she was trying to convince Peter Parker to kiss her right now. "It's not a big-"

"Itdbemyfirstkiss," he couldn't believe he'd just said that. No way did he just admit to Julia Stark that he'd never been kissed. She sat back in her seat, looking at him, like she couldn't believe it, because she couldn't. "I just... don't want it to be... fake," the words were soft and they were slow, because he really didn't want to be saying them. When he very reluctantly met her gaze, it wasn't what he was expecting. She looked so understanding. It wasn't that he didn't think Julia would be this nice, but she continued to surprise him tonight.

"Yeah, sure, that makes sense," Julia told him, hiding her disappointment in not being able to kiss him well. "No kissing, but holding hands and arms around each other on the table?" she checked, watching Peter take a deep breath, and nod.

"Yeah, sure, that's--fine," he tried to hide the obvious nerves, but she saw them, and he knew she did. He just still couldn't seem to wrap her head around her wanting to do this. She could see it happening, see him trying to make sense of this all.

"And we have to have a few public appearances, in school, obviously, and parties, maybe, if they come up--"

"I thought we didn't want your dad to know-" Julia couldn't stop herself when she reached across the table to stop him from worrying, placing a hand on his wrist. Peter felt himself jump at the touch, wishing he had done anything but that. Julia waited for his gaze to meet hers.

"The amount of things I've been able to keep from my dad in the last two years is beyond a couple of parties," she assured him, making him nod nervously. "And can we stop bringing him up?"

Peter felt it eat at him immediately. He'd done it again. He was just like the guy behind the counter. It wasn't about Tony right now. Julia was trying to do something nice for him and he was being a dick by bringing up her dad.

"Yeah, of course, sorry," he said, and she nodded slowly, pulling her hand away.

"Thank you."

Peter needed to fix this quickly, he didn't want her thinking that was all he cared about. "Should I... be coming to your games?" He asked, making Julia's gaze soften.