Picking Up The Pieces

9. Ready For A Change

   "You're afraid of spiders?" I laughed, trying to scoop the remaining ice cream out of my bowl. Before Peter had come back, he picked up a quart of Neapolitan ice cream for us to share. I got the strawberry, Peter got the chocolate, and then we split the vanilla in half. "But you're Spider-Man! How can you not like spiders?"

"Because they're creepy little insects!" Peter fought back, holding his spoon out to the side. We both sat crisscrossed across from each other on the bed.

"Arthropods," I corrected.

"Blah," he said, making a face. "You get bit by a radioactive spider, then we can argue about giving them proper respect."

"Sure thing, Spider-Boy," I smiled. I looked down at my bowl and frowned. "Aww, it's all gone."

"Already?" Peter said incredulously.

"I like ice cream," I answered defensively, setting the bowl aside. Peter shook his head and smiled.

"Okay then," he chuckled. "Let's get to you. Heights?" I laughed.

"I'll stay on the ground, thank you very much," I said with a tilt of my head.

"I thought you had an Iron Man suit," Peter brought up, gulping down the last of his ice cream before he winced. "Ahh, brain freeze!"

"Marina?" I remembered. "Oh yeah. Well, after the Ultron fiasco, I ditched it."

"Why?" he said in disbelief. "You had a freaking Iron Man suit, and you just got rid of it?"

"It reminded me of something that I wasn't," I shrugged. "I was only allowed to use the suit at night, in areas nobody could see me. I spent months hiding from the Avengers before I actually got to meet them. Why keep something that reminded me of hiding in the shadows?"

"That... was actually a really good reason," Peter admitted. "But we're straying off topic. Heights."

"During one mission with Sa-Falcon, I had to jump out of a twelve story window after I retrieved a flash drive containing useful data," I explained. "The Falcon was two feet too far, and I began to plummet. I was twenty feet away from hitting the ground before he saved me. After that, I just avoided high places unless I could count on pure safety."

Peter mentally took that into account. "Be right back," he told me, grabbing our bowls and walking out of the room. A few minutes later, he came back and closed the door. "May's asleep," he announced. I squinted my eyes at him.

"And that's important because?" I asked. Peter through open the window and gave me a grin.

"Because I'm gonna take you swinging," he said. My eyes widened.

"What?" I heard a small noise, and I looked down to see a web strand attached to my metal arm. "Peter..." He pulled me forward, lifted me up, and threw me out the window.

I screamed for a few seconds, a few curses mixed in, before he grabbed me lightly and swung us up. His hood kept his face dark. I held on for dear life, hopefully not choking him, but he had an arm around me. We'd swing high above Queen's traffic before Peter would shoot his webbing, and again we went.

"Oh, God, don't let me die," I prayed as I looked down. I burrowed my head into Peter's chest.

"Look out, not down!" Peter advised. Slowly, I turned my gaze the way he was swinging, and I caught my breath. In that moment, I forgot about my fear as my eyes set on Queens' skyline. "Beautiful, isn't it?" I nodded. "Hang on tight!"