The Stark Internship // Spider-Man [Book 1]

eleven {Peter's POV}

"Hey, Arya, it's me again," I said into my phone as I headed down the street from the bus stop to the Avengers Tower. "I'm on my way to the Tower because I'm a little worried about you. If you're okay, can you please call me? If you're not, I'll be at the Tower in three minutes." I ended the voicemail and shoved my phone in my pocket, continuing my speed-walk down the street. 

I entered the lobby of the Tower and greeted the lady behind the desk. She acknowledged me with a smile as I passed her. I had visited the Tower a few times since I got back from Germany, asking to speak to Happy, but he hadn't been there any of the times. Or so I was told.

My handprint had apparently been added to the database of people with access to use the elevator because the doors dinged open when I scanned my hand. I asked the AI to take me to the floor where Arya was and the elevator took off. 

As the doors slid open, I immediately picked up the sound of voices yelling. I headed down the hall and followed the sound into a cleared out office. A blonde woman that I didn't know stood in front of the tall window, across from Arya and Mr Stark. 

"Why didn't you come back?! You knew where I was all this time and you didn't even bother to come to see me!" Arya yelled at the woman. Her hands were balled into tight, shaking fists.

"I already told you, HYDRA knew where I was and I couldn't risk putting you in any danger," the woman said with a raised voice. "And I find it hard to believe that you don't understand that, given the environment that you ended up in." She flailed her hands around the room and her eyes locked with mine. I involuntarily took a step back. "Who are you?" the woman asked. 

Arya whipped around. "Peter?" she asked shakily. 

"Hi, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," I said almost in a whisper. "I was just looking for Arya." 

Arya's eyes filled with tears and she ran past me. I quickly looked at the woman and exchanged looks with Mr Stark. "Go after her," he told me softly and I nodded before running after Arya.

I ended up in an empty hallway. "Arya?" I called. 

"Up here," a muffled voice said and I glanced up, finding an air conditioning vent. 

"What the..." I muttered before shooting a web at the ceiling to open the vent and swing myself into the rather large space in the ceiling where I found Arya sitting against the wall. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks were blotchy. 

"Hi," she said, offering a weak smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you. What happened down there?" I asked, sitting down across from her. 

"So that was my mother. She came by because she's leaving for Seattle in the morning and she wanted one last chance to see me," she muttered, tugging at a loose thread on the cuff of her sweater. "I grew up not knowing who my parents were. My mother left me at an orphanage when I was just a baby because she got knocked up by some random guy she met at a bar. She was a SHIELD agent working undercover at the time." She stopped for a second to breathe as her voice started to tremble.  "But that random guy turned out to be a HYDRA agent, also working undercover. They didn't know about each other's occupancy until later, so she had to go into hiding after she stole important files from HYDRA." 

She fell silent, and I wondered if she was done telling me about her life, but she continued after a few minutes. 

"When I was nine, Tony found me and took me home. He has been like a father to me ever since," she said. 

I let the information sink in before letting out a sigh. "Wow," I managed to say. She let out a soft, humourless chuckle and wiped away a stray tear. "And you don't want her in your life?" I guessed. 

Arya shook her head. "No, she made the choice of leaving me behind. Apparently, she's known all this time where I was. She just never bothered of coming to visit." She shrugged weakly. I studied her expression for a second and noticed real pain in her eyes, even though she tried very hard to hide it. 

"Are you okay?" I asked softly. She didn't answer, so I decided to change the subject, "How do you even know about this place?" I motioned around the vent. 

She looked up, relief washing over her face at the change of subject. "Clint showed me. It's a great way to escape everything."

My jaw dropped. "Hawkeye?"

"Yes, Hawkeye. Close your mouth, you're gonna catch flies." 

"Arya?" we heard Mr Stark's voice call from the hallway below. 

"I'll be out in a minute," Arya called back after a few seconds. She smoothed down her hair and cleared her cheeks from any escaped tears before turning to me. "Thanks for stopping by, Peter. Truly," she mumbled softly. 

"Yeah, of course," I said, nodding. 

Arya flipped open the vent and jumped down, waiting for me to follow her. Mr Stark was standing in the hallway, not at all phased we just came from the vents. "She wants to talk to you," he told Arya. 

"I don't want to talk to her," Arya replied, averting her eyes as she crossed her arms defensively. 

"All right, then we're gonna have a problem because she said that she's not leaving until she's talked to you," Mr Stark said. 

Arya straightened her back, letting out a deep sigh. "Okay," she agreed. "But after this, I never want to see her again."

"Okay," Mr Stark told her, nodding. He led the way back to the office and knocked on the doorpost. "Elizabeth?" he said to Arya's mother. Arya stepped past him, into the office and shut the door behind her. 

Mr Stark leaned against the wall. "It's nice of you to show up, Pete," he said. "Arya's never been one to make friends easily." 

I smiled lightly. "Yeah, of course," I muttered, still somewhat thrown off by the fact I was at Avengers Tower, talking to Tony Stark. And that he was actually glad I was there. 

A few minutes later, the door opened again and Arya stepped out, sniffling softly. She kept her eyes on the ground as she stood next to me. Her mother, Elizabeth, stepped out too. "I should go," she said, her voice somewhat raspy, presumably because she had been crying, judging by the redness in her eyes. 

"There's a car waiting outside to take you to the airport," Mr Stark told her. 

She nodded and without saying anything else, she walked away.

Fifteen minutes later, Arya and I were sitting in a diner down the street, each of us a cup of hot cocoa in front of us. Neither of us had said anything since we left the Tower, and I figured Arya wanted it that way. We just sat in silence as we drank our hot chocolate.