Starlight › Marvel [1] ✓

007. months later

› CHAPTER SEVEN ‹

"Raleigh!"

Raleigh stopped in the middle of the hallway, receiving and ignoring the heated looks from his schoolmates as they were forced to move around him. He bit the inside of his cheek and stuffed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie as Peter Parker bound up to him, leaving his best friend, Ned Leeds, behind. Peter had a lopsided grin as he too put his hands in his pocket to stop himself from fumbling with them—something Raleigh, not too long ago, noticed he tended to do when he was nervous.

Raleigh met his tired blue eyes with Peter's energized hazel ones, and he sighed, knowing where this conversation was about to go.

"What do you want?"

Peter's hands slipped out from his jacket, and they found themselves squeezing the other in worried comfort. "Do you want to come with me after school to do... hero stuff?"

Vigilante, Raleigh wanted to correct him but knew it would do no good. Instead, he let out another heavy breath and ran a hand through the mess that is his ravenet hair. It had been two months since the battle in Germany, and Raleigh's hair had grown to a length that was beginning to aggravate him. He needed to ask Trystan about getting a haircut.

"I've told you, Peter, I'm busy." He didn't give Peter a chance to reason. "With Nationals getting nearer, Liz is doubling down and making sure we're beyond prepared for it, and ever since you left Robotics, I've been a lot busier."

"You were the one who said you were leaving robotics!" Peter exclaimed. "What happened to that?!"

Raleigh let a sly smirk cross his lips. "I said thinking... thinking, Peter." He tapped the boy's forehead, satisfied as his eyebrows scrunched. He moved to his locker and Peter followed with a pout. Raleigh put away some books and turned to Peter with a serious look. "If anything happens while you're out and you need backup or just something, just call me, please. Don't do anything stupid."

Peter agreed.

› › › ›

Raleigh pulled his phone out from under his desk and read over the messages he had sent to Happy Hogan. Each of his texts were left on 'read' since the male never bothered to reply, and Raleigh knew it was just as terrible on Peter's end since he was really looking forward to another mission. Raleigh was reaching out to Happy, mostly for Peter's benefit, but he would be lying if he said he didn't also have a slither of excitement at the thought of a mission—despite not having time at the moment. The excitement, though, was always buried under the annoyance due to Happy's failure of communication.

"Raleigh?" Mr. Johan called to the boy, bringing Raleigh to snap his gaze away from the phone in his hand and towards his World History teacher. "Care to tell us why the Korean War began?"