Peter's POV
"See? The game wasn't a total bust. I mean our team lost but at least you had a decent night off and you got to talk to Dianna. Right?"
"Did you and Skylar plan this out?" I asked as we walked home.
"This was a genuine coincidence. I wasn't even sure if they were going."
"I think she and I were both uncomfortable."
"Well, maybe in a couple weeks, you will have worked this out and things won't be so uncomfortable between you two."
I hope so. I don't know at what point of this moving on process that we'll both stand on neutral ground to be okay with being around each other.
"She seems to be doing fine though." he shrugged.
"Yeah, but sometimes she masks her emotions so that no one worries about her."
"Doesn't that just worry people even more?"
"Sometimes. Not always."
"But you always sense it don't you?"
"Yup." I said, popping the /p/.
"And did you sense anything tonight?"
"I don't know."
It was easy to read Dianna. She tends to play with her hair a lot when she was nervous. She never made eye contact if she was upset about something. Tonight, she was upset. She never looked me in the eyes, only while we had that brief conversation behind the bleachers. Her eyes were mainly focused on what was happening on the field. I mean yeah, we were all there to watch the game, for the most part, but she didn't really talk to any of us throughout the second half of the game. The four of us jammed out to the music together during halftime, but other than that, the only people who really talked to each other were Ned and Skylar. I didn't know if I should've ask her if she was okay or not, considering she tried to be there for me, but I felt like I would've been overstepping.
Dianna's POV
"Dad. I'm home."
"Thank goodness. I'm in the lab." I walked over to him, "can you help me piece this thing together? Your hands are a lot more delicate and smaller than mine."
"I'm still getting used to this new look of yours." I smiled.
I love spending time with my dad. When he's not out playing superhero, he's a big softie who wouldn't dare hurt a fly and cry over sappy rom-coms while eating ice cream with me. Which isn't something that you would expect from Hulk, but they're cooperating with each other and it looks like things are working out for the two of them.
My dad is the reason technology is so interesting to me. He would work on the science side of things and allow me to help him with the technological side of his work. It was all fun and games. Then the whole Hulk thing happened and he didn't want to hurt me nor my mom so they got a divorce for safety reasons, better safe than sorry. I never resented him for it, I understood. I would see him every now and then, when it was good for the both of us.
After being brought back from the blip, we've spent a lot more time together. He lost me for about a year because of Hydra, I lost three years with him after the whole Ultron thing and he lost another five years with me after the blip, but that's just made our bond stronger. He's afraid of losing me again, I mean he's lost three of his close friends bringing people back, as well as messing up his arm–which he's still recovering from the burns of the gauntlet. Dr. Helen Cho has been a great help.
When the whole Thanos thing started, I saw my dad briefly before he left to Wakanda. I begged him to let me help but he said that I needed to stay back and protect New York and my mom, so I stayed. No one would've ever thought that we'd be gone for five whole years. I mean maybe Doctor Strange had it coming, but not the rest of us.
"How was the game?"
"We lost."
"How bad was it?"
"We were behind by 21 points." I mumbled the last part.
"This was the team's worst game huh?"
"Unfortunately."
"How's Nick handling this?"
"He's managing. The boys are probably gonna go out and eat their loss away. They should be good by Monday." I put the piece in place, "there we go."
"You're the best." he kissed my head.
"You know, you can always use the tweezers to do this while I'm out." I smirked.
"Yeah, but having you do it means more father-daughter time, even if it's just for a couple minutes."
"I suppose you have a point there. I'm gonna go shower and I'll come back down to help you with whatever it is that you're working on this time."
"You rest up. It's probably been a long day."
You have no idea.
"Okay. Good night, Dad."
"Good night, sweetie. Love you."
"I love you, too." I walked to my room.
Every night, I lie in bed, hoping that Peter will stop by as he used to. Letting me bandage him up and clean out his "battle wounds" as he would call them. We'd sit there and talk about the silliest things and then cuddle for a bit until we realized that it was getting too late and he'd leave. Sometimes, he'd wait for me to fall asleep to leave, leaving a cute note on my mirror for me to wake up to.
Maybe someday, we'll move on and be okay around each other again. Right now, everything is just awkward and sad. I was barely able to keep it together talking to him today, let alone sitting through the rest of the football game with him. Skylar was bold to assume that either one of us was going to be okay with sitting by each other.
SpiderBoy🕷: are you okay?
Me: yes
kind of
sort of
for the most part, yes
SpiderBoy🕷: do you wanna talk about it?
I just want to make sure you're okay.
Me: well, thank you for checking in. all is fine.
don't worry about me.
SpiderBoy🕷: okay well... sleep tight.
Me: you too
I don't want him to feel like I'm shutting him out. But I need to figure stuff out on my own. Be independent for a bit before leaning back into this relationship.
"Dianna." my dad called.
"Yes?" I walked out of my room.
"Something in the system just went haywire."
"This isn't another one of your plays to have father-daughter time is it?" I asked.
"No, this happened two minutes ago."
"Who's trying to hack into our files?"
"More importantly, why?"
"Looks like they're trying to access all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files on all the supers. We need to warn everyone."
"Send out a boost signal only to them so that they're aware."
"If they're not safe, that means that we aren't either."
