Pointe Shoes and Spider Webs

62. Heist

Peter didn't want to argue with her, but Daphne is being very difficult. When she finally calmed down completely, she asked him not to tell anyone about her not being able to say the word Zephyrus. Not even Tony.
"Why not?"
"You know why not," she mutters into his chest.
"Daph, if your reason involves you not wanting to bother anyone, then I'm not gonna listen to you."
"No, Pete, I just... I-" She pauses and her breath hitches. He's right, she knows. And he knows too. But there's a little more to it this time. "He can't do anything with that info."
"He could ask Doctor Stra-"
"No-no, we're not telling him anything." There it is. The exact reason why she doesn't want Tony to know. He'll tell Strange and that's the last thing she wants.

Tony's nice to Daphne, but she feels like there's more to his kindness than him just liking her for who she is. Whether that has to do with Peter or with anything else is still vague to her, but he shouldn't know. He can't know. Double-edged sword. The word flashes in her head again. Maybe Peter got it from Stark.
"Why don't you trust him?" She doesn't reply. She can't. "But you trust the mist?" She knows it must sound strange from their perspective. She was ambushed by an alien, who told her a bunch of things, which he made her unable to say out loud by putting a spell on her and suddenly, she doesn't trust the 'good sorcerer' from earth anymore. Kind of sounds like he put a spell on her that makes her distrustful in general. Maybe they think he did something even worse, like hurting her. But he didn't. She knows he didn't.

Daphne opens her mouth to speak, but there's an immense pressure on her chest. A soft whine escapes her lips and he immediately pets her hair again, softly rocking her side to side.
"Ssh, ssh. It's okay, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"I'm sorry," she mumbles.
"Ssh..." he soothes again. He rests his head on top of hers and frowns. "I got you." He hates being helpless. He can't do anything but hold her, and as much as they don't mind holding each other, he definitely doesn't feel like he's doing enough. He knows she doesn't want him to tell Stark or Strange, but doing nothing feels wrong too.

...

Peter's never actually been inside the Sanctum. It's imposing, yet also dark. And dusty. And old. Still, it's very impressive. Peter's nervous, but he has to keep his act up. Lying to the Sorcerer Supreme is going to be hard, but is it really lying if you're just leaving some bits of information out when telling the truth? Yes. His own voice echoes through his head. He inwardly tells his brain to shut up and looks up at the big stairs.
"Doctor Strange?" He calls out and flinches at how insecure he sounded. He wants to call out again, but Stephen appears at the top of the stairs.

"What brings you to the Sanctum?" Stephen asks with a cocked eyebrow. His arms are crossed and Peter notices he's not actually standing on the floor. He's floating just above it. The cape is flowing like there's a small gust of wind, but they're inside. There is no wind.
"I- I, eh..." Peter stutters. He takes a breath and nods once. "I'm here for a school project on Ancient Greece."
"No," Stephen says simply and he turns away to walk- or well, float- back up the rest of the stairs.
"But-"
"Google it, kid." Somehow, when Stephen calls him kid, it sounds wrong. Tony calls him kid all the time and never did Peter think Tony said it in the degrading way that Stephen said it now.

Peter huffs. He's not ready to give up just yet. He makes his way to the stairs and runs up, skipping one or two steps with each hop. Peter spots Stephen walking into a hallway and he rushes after him. It takes all of his self-control to not get distracted by all the amazing artifacts that are on display.
"Please, doctor Strange, I just-" Stephen abruptly turns back to Peter and takes an intimidating step towards him.
"I have bigger things to worry about than one insignificant little school project. Besides, what you'll find in my books does not correlate with what your teacher would know. They'll give you a zero and say you pulled the info out of your ass." Peter purses his lips and looks to the side. He can't argue with that. He can feel his frustrations catch up to him. Strange turns away and continues through the hallway, leaving Peter behind with a wave of his hand. "Go home, Peter."