As Darkness Falls Upon Us // MCU

mission totally scary but definitely possible

"The trainee Avengers were finally starting to find their rhythm together."

♦️

Maize came back later that afternoon with the four pizza boxes belted into the passenger's seat. All the victorious Avengers were awaiting her return, practically drooling over the pizzas as Maize got out of the car and carried them inside. Maize put down the pizzas on the counter and Tony approached Maize, a slight smile on his face and eager to hear her update on the car.

"So, how was it?" He asked. "Do you like it? Does it drive well?" He asked.

"Oh, my God. Let me tell you, there was a bit of a learning curve because I've never really driven anything that expensive, powerful and finely tuned. Speed was a slight issue because the gas is so sensitive, and I had started off driving like I would with my old, old car. I was caught off guard for a little bit with the flappy-paddle gearbox, but I got over that pretty quickly. It's just so nimble, it really reacts. It almost feels alive, but that's probably because I'm so excited." Maize explained.

"Perfect. Hey, grab some pizza. You deserve it, our own personal delivery girl." He said, gesturing over to the boxes of pizza. She grabbed a slice of chicken and broccoli pizza before heading back to her room and finishing up the massive amount of homework that was due at the end of the week. She worked on AP Biology, AP Psychology and AP English before attacking AP Calculus BC, which she remembered that Peter had looked at yesterday. She worked through the problems and felt confident, but she still had this inkling of a feeling that she should ask him if he wanted to help her and make sure she got them all right.

After a long period of deliberation, she decided against it. She didn't want to bother him, he was probably working on other things and didn't have time to work with her on her homework. He had his own mountain of schoolwork to deal with, and she'd ask him to review the problems with her tomorrow.

It was a long night for Maize, but she didn't completely confine herself to her room. She walked around the halls reading The Catcher in the Rye so she could stretch her legs and get out of her bedroom, and she settled in the lounge with her MacBook so she could finish and fine-tune her essay that was due at midnight. She pushed her glasses up into her hair as she rubbed her eyes, the sun setting around her as the minutes passed. There was a slow but steady influx of people entering the lounge, getting a snack or watching the sunset, but she didn't mind them. She diligently kept working, taking the occasional coffee break. As Tony was walking, he passed the lounge and saw her reading with one hand and typing with the other. He entered the lounge and brewed another cup of coffee for her, putting it down on the table, replacing her empty mug. She noticed but she didn't break her trance, reminding herself to thank him later.

She finished her English essay and downed the rest of the coffee in the mug that Tony brought her before she moved on to doing some yoga while reviewing her flashcards for psych. Once her brain had had enough, she returned to her room and put her school things away, nearly done with it all. She took a refreshing shower and changed into a striped crop top, mom jeans and her black high-top Vans before she grabbed her keyring and her journal and made her way down to the basement garage. She thought she would have some relaxing alone-time where she could write in her journal about her feelings, especially those of her father. It was his car, after all, and that struck a chord in her heart, bringing him up again.

She didn't know how to feel, exactly, mainly because she was feeling everything. She was off the walls ecstatic at her new car and grateful to Tony for giving it to her since it was an extremely generous gift, but even though it came from Tony in a positive way, it still had so much negativity attached to it. She wanted to work that out, because she wasn't going to let her dad ruin something that she loved- again, and he kept finding ways to make things hard for her even when he wasn't around.