It Started With A Mission (Peter Parker Fanfiction)

Chapter 18

In Riley's opinion, this whole fight thing was childish and was a kind of way that middle schoolers solved their problems. The fight actually lasted longer than Riley thought it would. They both got good punches and kicks in. It was actually pretty bad towards the end of it. Eventually, Flash gave up, because if Peter hit him one more time, his "brain would fall out."

After Flash left, Riley sat with Peter on the cold cement steps in front of Alice's house. "What am I going to tell my dad?" Riley said.

"Forget that. What am I going to tell May?" Peter said worriedly. He had a few scratches on his face that were clotted with blood. His back hurt even more since Flash did manage to get him on the ground at one point and the pavement did not exactly feel like a soft pillow.

"Do you have an emergency kit at your house?" Riley asked Peter. 

"Yeah," Peter said. 

"Good, so at least you'll be able to clean your wounds," Riley said, biting her lip. "How's your back? It seemed like you landed pretty hard on it."

"Yeah, it hurts pretty bad," Peter said. He still hadn't been able to properly clean it from the night he hurt it on the roof, so it was probably really bad by now. 

"If you aren't able to reach it, I could come to look at it if you want. I used to watch Pepper fix my dad after his really bad fights," Riley said. "I-I don't know if it would be weird though."

"That would be great, actually," Peter said, smiling weakly at her. Maybe Anastasia was right. Riley really could do anything. She took notice of the small cut on his lip and how it somehow made him even more attractive. God, what was she thinking! Peter was her friend! "It would save the explanation I would have to give May, and the time it would take me to do it."

"Yeah," Riley said, as the black car pulled up. When Riley and Peter got in, she was relieved to see that it was Pepper who was driving, not Tony. That saved them a particularly embarrassing conversation

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Pepper asked, looking back at him.

"I got into a small fight," Peter said, telling the truth.

"You should see the other guy," Riley said, jokingly, making Pepper laugh lightly. "Do you think I could stop in Peter's for a minute? I just wanted to make sure he gets cleaned up okay."

Pepper smiled. "Sure," she replied. I could tell by her tone of voice that she thought we were doing something else. Pepper had no idea how these two weren't dating already. 

Pulling up to Peter's house, before Riley shut the door she said to Pepper, "I should be no more than half an hour if you want you could drive around a little instead of just sitting here."

"Gotcha, I'll be back here around 12, but at 12:20 if you aren't out here, I'm coming up," Pepper said, raising her eyebrows. 

Peter and Riley walked to his apartment slowly, Riley following Peter. "How are you feeling?" she asked him.

"Honestly? Terrible. What was I thinking going into that fight? I mean, I won, but I wouldn't be feeling like crap if I just let it go," Peter commented, shaking his head. 

"Hey, don't blame yourself. I honestly think you did the right thing. If getting rid of Flash means getting a few bruises then so be it. I'm proud of you," Riley said lightly, smiling at him.

Peter unlocked his door and thankfully May wasn't home. She had the night shift tonight. He led Riley to the kitchen and then got the emergency kit from the bathroom, along with a damp, warm washcloth and a towel. 

Riley did his face first. She wiped any of the dried blood off with the washcloth and pressed the towel lightly against his face to dry it, careful not to hurt him. She got the hydrogen peroxide and before using it said, "Close your eyes. This might sting a little bit." She carefully dabbed a paper towel with some of it on his cuts and he winced slightly. "Sorry."