To All Those Brave and Lovely

Prom

"Are you sure I look okay?"

She'd asked this for what felt like a hundred times, but every time she looked in the mirror, she couldn't help but ask it again.  It just didn't feel like her, in this dress with her hair looking like it did, and even though she knew that she looked prettier than she ever had in her life, it was so different that nora couldn't help but turn back to Wanda and Natasha for reassurance.  

"Yes."  Wanda rolled her eyes and barked the word out, wrapping her over the knuckles with her hair brush.  "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Probably at least five more."  Nora smiled weakly, then gave a spin in front of the mirror just like she did the last time she tried it on, watching the skirt swirl.  

"And we'll tell you that you look beautiful each time."  Natasha leaned over her shoulder and looked at her in the mirror, tucking a stray hair back into place, smoothing her hand down her cheek.  "Peter's going to love you."

Pictures were at the house, so Nora didn't have to go anywhere, just wait anxiously until the others showed up.  And they did, one by one, Ned coming first and fangirling over Tony for a moment, then Evangeline, who told her that she looked beautiful and then tugged on nora's dress until it showed more cleavage, and then MJ and her date.  And finally, Peter, who stumbled in through the door with the corsage in hand and Aunt May trailing behind him, lugging a full size camera at her waist.

"Sorry, sorry, traffic was horrible at the-,"  He stopped dead in the middle of the living room, just a few steps from her, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Well?"  She didn't mean to sound so nervous, but she couldn't act like this didn't mean anything to her, either.  Pretending wouldn't have worked well, either- Peter could see right through her.  "What do you think?"

"I think you're beautiful."  He took his place beside her, and then slid the corsage onto her wrist like he'd done it a million times before.  Nora had never seen him this confident, but maybe prom, and the sense that things are different, brought out a different side in everybody.  "But I always think you're beautiful."

Pictures were strange, like pictures always were, all of them staring at their parents with plastered on smiles and trying not to blink even when their eyes burned.  Aunt May had to take a million shots of each pose, and Peter didn't know what to do with his hands, and Tony insisted that they take one of "just the girls," Evangeline being a complete boss and arranging everybody just the way she liked them.  Nora didn't like it, but she titled her head this way and that and smiled all the same, and when Aunt May told her to get a little closer to Peter, she actually went up on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek.

(She kept her heels off for pictures, as a curteousy to Peter, because she didn't want him to feel too awkward when he sees how much taller she is than him with them on.)

And then, finally, when the sun was setting and all the adults seemed satisfied that they had got enough pictures to make it a night they couldn't forget even if they tried, they finally got to leave, each of them going into seperate cars, Peter helping Nora into the passenger seat and then returning to the driver's side.  "Now, remember, not one scratch."   Tony dangled the keys from his fingers, trying his best to look threatening and failed.  "I want this returned in pristine condition, you hear me."

"Yes sir, Mr. Stark, sir."  Peter had mostly stopped his habit of just babbling whenever he got close to Tony, but sometimes when he's particularly nervous, it comes back in full force.  "Not one scratch, Mr. Stark, you can count on me."