young avengers → infinity war & endgame [p. parker]

THE WAR: SIX

"This. This is what I am. This is who I am come hell or high water. If I deny it, I deny everything I've ever done. Everything I've ever fought for."

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FLASHBACK

AVENGERS COMPOUND

MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENTS OF INFINITY WAR

     "Michelle has been running the team really smoothly, we're going to nationals soon again. Ned and I won this past science fair. And Harry has actually been passing all his classes, with a few tutoring sessions from me now and then." Valeria couldn't help but fell warm and fuzzy inside at hearing a few updates about her old friends and how they were doing since she moved. Seeing Peter's eyes light up as he mentioned his friends was also a plus, even if it was through a computer screen. Their Skype calls became one of her favorite parts of the day, it allowed her to feel close to Queens after being done with training. With her weekend visits back home becoming limited as her duties in the Avengers compound grew, Val sometimes missed her old daily routine. But those thoughts were quickly dismissed as she remembered why she was doing what she was doing. She was going to be a hero. "Your uncle's restaurant has also kicked off even more, our academic decathlon team even asked him to sponsor us."

"I'm glad. You can never go wrong with a couple of quesadillas and tortas after a long, science and math filled practice." Valeria didn't really understand Peter's sudden interest in getting to know her uncle more, especially now that she isn't back home for most of the month, but she appreciated it. "How's Queens? From Spidey's perspective."

"The same old, same old. I've been able to keep up with my "Peter Parker" duties while being a neighborhood friendly Spider-Man so that's always a win."

"Yeah... that's why you're currently on a rooftoop in your suit while facetiming me?" Peter playfully pretended to roll his eyes, feeling the afternoon breeze hit him as he looked out to the city. It'd been peaceful, he liked to think that he played a part in that. It wasn't to feed his ego, but to convince himself that his decision to not join the Avengers just yet was the right one. On the other side of the screen, Valeria was hoping the boy wouldn't ask her how she was doing. Keeping up the lie was getting harder than she expected. Not because she couldn't make it believable but because she hated lying to Peter.

"I finished my homework at school, I got the afternoon off, let me live. Anyways, how are you doing? How's your uncle been doing with his physical therapies?" Valeria was so used to only referring Manny as her uncle that it almost slipped her mind that he was indirectly asking about Rhodey without knowing he was asking about him. She let out a sigh, keeping up with the lie gets harder and harder. "He's actually doing very good. He's walking more and more on his own, assisted with some tech but much better than how he was months ago." That wasn't a lie if you removed all the underlying context. Rhodey was recovering, slowly but surely. Sometimes during his physical therapies, whenever Valeria could feel the pain become too much for her mentor, she'd replace the feelings of pain with anything else. Anything Rhodey asked or Tony suggested.