Walking the Wire | PETER PARKER [1]

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Peter hosts a movie night with Eloise and Ned. Eloise is pretty sure it was a way of trying to make her feel better, so instead of staying home buried under her sheets like she wants to, she decides that it wouldn't hurt. Who knows, maybe a movie night with the two friends she tried to help save the world with might be the thing she needs. Besides, staying alone while she drowned myself in her thoughts couldn't be any better than this. 

The boys let Eloise pick the movie. Usually Peter suggests titles and Ned shuts them down, but tonight they let her choose by herself. Eloise doesn't really care what movie they watch, so she picks one the boys will enjoy: Big Hero 6. It's a Disney movie, and it's about superheroes, so why not?

Eloise is sitting on the couch in Peter's apartment living room with her legs crossed Indian-style. Ned is lying down on his stomach on the floor, flipping through some pages of an old comic book he took out of his backpack while Peter tries to find Big Hero 6 around the house.

"Can you believe the president sent Peter a letter?" Ned blurts randomly. Eloise blinks at him in confusion. He flips the page of his comic book as he shakes his head. "Peter saved the entire frickin' world, and all he got in return was a lousy letter?"

From somewhere else in the apartment, Peter calls, "And a gold pin!"

Ned shrugs. "The pin was lousy, too. Probably not even real gold."

Seconds later, Peter enters the room, the Disney movie in his hands and a triumphant smile on his face. "I didn't do it alone," he says, sitting in front of the TV and slipping the disc in the DVD player. "You guys should've gotten a letter and a pin, too."

"I would rather have a stack of cash," Ned jokes. Eloise doesn't reply, though. She did more damage than good in New Orleans.

As Peter puts the movie in and gets it set up so they can watch, Ned pulls out a big bag of assorted chocolate bars from his backpack. The bag holds fun-sized KitKats, M&M's, Hershey bars, Snickers, Milky Ways, and Reese's. The way Ned tosses Eloise the bag—after grabbing a handful for himself, of course—tells her that he's trying to make up for what he said about his arm earlier. Eloise just smiles and takes out a handful too, even though she's not really in the mood for stuffing her face.

The movie eventually starts and Peter does a backflip and lands on the couch a foot away from Eloise. He lets out a small breath after landing and glances at her.

Ned scoffs, "Show off."

Peter's eyes tear away from Eloise's and he slips his shoe off his foot, throwing it playfully at the back of Ned's head.

The two are about to start bantering back and forth, but when the characters on the screen start talking, they turn and focus on the movie.

Eloise yawns and props her head up on her hand, her elbow resting on the arm of the couch. The dialogue between characters and the sound effects slowly start to fade into the background, her eyelids drooping. Within only a few short minutes, Eloise is out cold.

🕸

When Eloise wakes up, she momentarily forgets that she fell asleep on Peter's couch and the breath in her throat catches when she realizes she's not in her room. But, when she sees framed pictures of a young Peter and May on a table nearby, she instantly relaxes.