In The Webs We Weave

Chapter Three

It may have taken longer than the young insect loving teenager would have liked but with a little help from Peter, Tony finally allowed Paige to keep some of her bugs in her quarters.

'You get four, that it! And they're your responsibility; I don't want to be woken by some spider dangling from my ceiling!' Tony said before they left this morning.

Peter and Paige are dropped off at the closest pet supply store by Happy; the pair had an hour to find everything they would need to set up Paige's bug cages. Buying four cages and all their accompanying equipment they took the items to the counter. The clerk gave the two teens an odd look, considering they were caring around twenty kilograms of pet stuff with a little too much ease. Shaking the odd sight from his mind the clerk continued to serve the two teenagers,

'Will you be needing food, ma'am?' the young elderly clerk asked. His name tag read Stan, Peter smiled at the clerk and then to Paige with a questioning look.

'Yes please, Stan, do you have crickets?' she asked as Stan moved behind the counter to a box with containers of live crickets.

'Hear you go young girl, that's one-hundred-and-twenty dollars.' The elderly man smiled at the pair.

Stan shook his head as he watched the two teens carry nearly fifty kilograms of pet supplies with such ease.

Peter and Paige waited on the curb for Happy who arrived not much later. Flipping a switch on the dash Happy opens the automatic doors for the teens. He let slip a small laugh at all the items they bought and the content smiles on the pair's faces.

'Back to the compound I assume?' the not-so jolly man asks over the head rest while pulling from the curb. The drive back to the Avengers compound was mostly silent except for the Talk show Happy was listening to. It was the same talk show Peter often caught his aunt listening to from time to time, it was run by some lady called Trish, Aunt May admired the young woman.

With Happy's help the three of them take the tanks and equipment to Paige's quarters.

'Do not make me regret this, kid.' Tony says as he passes by the door.

With the combined effort of the two genius teens, they have all four cages set up in under two hours. Admiring their work the two sit against the far wall,

'It's starting to look like home.' Paige says quietly, more to herself than anyone else.

'I think we did a great job, and not just with this, yesterday, at that robbery, I didn't say it before but, we made a great team.' Peter says with a smile. Paige begins to say something along the lines of a thank you when Tony knocked on the door, opening it before the pair has a chance to say anything.

'Oh, should I give you two a minute and come back later?' tony says as he barges in, both teenagers look at the billionaire with mortified looks, Tony chuckles, 'Peter. Your aunt wants you to come home, something about your friend Ned.' Tony says with a shrug.

'Oh, crap, ugh, I promised Ned we would play his new video game tonight, how could I forget that!' Peter scrambles to his feet. The thin boy turns to wave a goodbye at Paige; Tony just gives him a friendly thump on the back as he passes.

'Happy is waiting out the front!' Tony calls after Peter as he turns down the wrong hallway. Tony gives a light chuckle as he sees Peter fly past the end of the hallway.

Once Peter is out of ear shot, Tony turns to Paige, 'There are more papers for you to sign in my office, Paige.' He says gently, knowing that her guardianship and the ton of paper work she has to do just to stay here is her least favourite subject. Paige gets up and dons a sad look as she walks past Tony.

'Hey, look at is this way, in four months you'll be sixteen and you can move out, but until then you have to sign all the documents, we don't want you taken away with some CPS assholes.' Tony gives her a wink and leads her to his office.