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astronomyparkers · 7 years ago

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The Upside of Falling Down {II}

Warnings: Language

Pairing: University!Peter Parker x reader

Word count: 3.1k

A/N: Guys!!!! Thank you so so much for the positive response to pt. one of TUoFD!!! I’m so so so glad you guys liked it!!! Just to let you guys know, I’m going back to university in a few days, so I won’t be as active as I’d like to be :( I made a full post about it here, so check that out if you want to know my update schedule and ask answering schedule. Also, shout out to everyone who is going back to school this year, and I especially want to send all my love to everyone going into their freshman year at university!!! I get lots of messages from you guys asking for advice, and I just want yall to know that I am so proud of you for continuing your education, and I’m rooting for you!!! You’re killing the game, yall. And I’m sure university!Peter would be proud, too (didn’t know there would be so much discourse around where I decided to send him for university??? lmao oh well). All my love.

{masterlist}

You had been in awkward car rides before. There was the time that eight year old you threw up all over your friend’s cute older brother on a family road trip, or the time when you had accompanied your cousin and his girlfriend on a lake trip where she said no when he asked her to marry him. Once, on a high school band trip, you accidentally gave a boy a boner the night before travelling home, and spent the rest of the next day avoiding him over the entirety of the bus and the plane rides with the help of your friends. All of those experiences were sufficiently awkward, but, you had come to learn, none of them compared to the bus ride back to Columbia after you discovered that your biology partner was Spider-Man.

Each of you were tense in your stance, not allowing any parts of your body to touch the other, even on the small faux leather seat. You kept your gaze glued to the scenery outside your window, watching as the trees by the side of the road flew by. You were hyper aware of Peter next to you as he sat with his arms crossed, eyes firmly staring at his planted feet. He hadn’t shifted since you had settled into your seats an hour and a half ago, and neither had you. In your mind, you couldn’t help but reply the event that had unfolded in the cave, your discovery, and what had followed.

The moment the words, “You’re the Spider-Man,” had left your lips, you knew that you had crossed a line in yours and Peter’s relationship (a relationship that should have been over by the end of that field trip. A relationship that shouldn’t even be big enough to have lines.) As the boy stared at you with a mix of shock, anger, and fear, you had wished, not for the first time in your life, that you weren’t so impulsive and curious. You had to know the answer to everything the moment you asked a question, and it had always gotten you into trouble; this, however, had been the first time that the need to know the answer had been at the cost of someone else’s safety.

“I knew this cave was a dumb idea,” Peter had started running his hands through his hair anxiously. “I knew this was going to end badly, I could sense it—”

“Is that your Spidey Sense?” You interrupted him before you could stop yourself. “I read an article on arachnids last year that mentioned how spiders can sense things with the little hairs on their bodies, through vibrations—” Peter had given you an incredulous look, and you bit your lip. “Right, sorry. Not the time to discuss arachnid abilities.”

“Y/N,” Peter grabbed your shoulders, gripping them tightly as he looked into your eyes. The fire raced again from where he touched you. “You can’t tell anyone. No one can know about this.”

You had taken a step back at that moment, out of Peter’s reach, as you tried to focus your thoughts. “No shit I can’t tell anyone! I shouldn’t even know! Parker, seriously, this just made our relationship so much more complicated than it should be.”

“Are you really blaming me for saving you from a fall to your death?” Peter asked in disbelief, crossing his arms.

“No, I—” You took a deep breath and closed your eyes, pinching the bridge of your nose. “No. Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry, but I don’t really know how to react in this situation, okay? There’s no WikiHow on what to do when you find out your biology partner is Spider-Man.”

“How do you think I feel?” Peter had laughed once without humour, raking his hand through his hair again (it seemed to be a nervous tic). “Only three people in the world outside of the Avengers know about my abilities, and they’re all people I would follow to hell and back.”

“Well, how did they react when you told them?” You questioned, wondering if there was a correct response that you weren’t seeing.

“I, um—” Peter looked at the ground sheepishly. “Well, Aunt May and Ned kind of…walked in on me in the suit. And MJ just…figured it out.”

“So you’ve never actually told anyone on purpose?” You scoffed. “Parker, for someone with such a huge secret to keep, I thought you’d be better at actually keeping it.”

“I—we shouldn’t even be talking about this,” Peter had glanced around the cavern, then at the passage behind him. “We need to go catch up to the class, but I need you to promise that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Seriously, Y/N. Just…forget what happened in here, okay? Pretend you didn’t see anything, please.”

You sighed in defeat. “Fine, I promise. Lead the way out, Spider-Boy.”

Peter flinched, shaking his head. “Don’t call me that.”

By the time the bus pulled up to the school, he still hadn’t said a word to you, and the moment the vehicle had parked, he was out of his seat and heading towards the front of the bus. You stared at his retreating figure with a mix of curiosity and perplexity. Despite thinking about the events of the day the entire ride back to Columbia, you still had trouble wrapping your head around what had transpired.

You made your way off the bus and back to your dorm, shutting the door tightly behind you. Yesterday, Peter Parker had barely been a blip on your radar, but now you couldn’t get him off your mind. You knew that he wanted you to just forget about everything that had happened, but how could you? You were curious and inquisitive by nature, and had to know everything about everything. There was no way you would be able to make yourself forget about Peter’s secret, nor would you be able to stop yourself from trying to find out everything you could about how he got his abilities and what it was like as an Avenger.

You passed the rest of the day in your dorm, researching Spider-Man and watching clips on YouTube. You’d seen many of them before, but now that you knew who was underneath the mask, it was like a whole new perspective. Like you’d only ever seen the videos through muddy, streaky glass, and now you were watching them clearly for the first time.

Whenever Spider-Man was hit or seemed to be hurt, you felt your breath catching in your chest. It had never occurred to you that there was a real boy in there—a bit of an annoying boy, if you were being honest with yourself, but a real one nonetheless—and knowing the face underneath the mask made you so much more anxious.

For the rest of the weekend, you tried to put that anxiety behind you, and continue with your regular routine. You met with your study groups, you went for lunch with friends, you stayed up much later than you should have (with the help of three pots of coffee) to make study cards for an upcoming physics quiz—overall, a typical weekend in your life. Who cared if you were now a keeper of one of the biggest secrets of someone you barely knew? It was fine. Everything was fine.

Except, it wasn’t, because it seemed that while you were dedicated to keeping things as normal as possible, Peter had decided to become dedicated to watching your every move. You could tell he didn’t trust you with the knowledge of his powers from his body language on the bus ride back to campus, but your theory was confirmed that weekend. No matter what you were doing, or where you were, Peter seemed to show up. He was sitting in a corner with a book and a coffee cup when you met your friend Sadie for lunch at a café on campus. He was typing away on a laptop (and peering at you from over the top of the screen) while you and your study group compared notes in the library. On Sunday night, when you opened your door at 11:30 to pick up more creamer for your coffee, Peter was standing outside, trying to act like he hadn’t just been standing patrol outside your dorm room.

“Okay, Parker, this is getting weird now,” You rolled your eyes and shut your door quietly behind you, trying not to disturb the other students in your building. “When your stalking was happening in public places, I could ignore it, but camping outside my dorm room is a bit much, even for me.”

“I’m not stalking you,” Peter shook his head and crossed his arms, following you as you began to walk down the hall.

“Oh, sorry, does it have a fancy new name now?” You raised an eyebrow. “Like how people are saying they’re ‘alt-right’ instead of Nazis? What would you call this, non-consensual hanging out?”

“Surveillance.” Peter cut in front of you, stopping you in your tracks. “I need to make sure you’re not spilling my secret to anyone.”

“Listen, I’m not the Avenger here, so I don’t really know much about surveillance and secret keeping,” You shrugged your shoulders and flipped your key through your fingers over and over. “But I would think that surveillance is supposed to be more incognito than following me everywhere in plain sight. And a secret doesn’t stay a secret if you keep bringing it up.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Peter replied angrily. “A virtual stranger now knows the most private thing in my life; excuse me for being anxious about it.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” You questioned, crossing your arms. “That always helps when I’m anxious about stuff. I’m down for talking about it, if you want.”

“I feel like that’s not a good idea,” Peter shook his head, causing you to sigh in return.

“Parker, come on, I already know your big secret,” You rubbed a tired hand across your eye. “What else could possibly come out from talking that could be more dangerous for me to know?”

Peter didn’t respond. You uncrossed your arms and held out the key card to your room. The boy stared at the card uncomprehendingly until you spoke.

“Here, I’m room 29B, although it seems you already knew that.” You held out the key card until Peter took it, looking back up at you with confusion still in his eyes.

“What—?”

“I have to go get more coffee creamer, and the convenience store is only open for another—” You pulled out your phone to check the time. “Twenty-seven minutes. I’ll be back in about ten, so just…make yourself at home. I’d say don’t go snooping, but…I feel like I don’t have a right to say that? If you did, at least it would make us even. Sort of.”

“Oh, yeah, because going through your panty drawer to find your diary is totally the same as knowing I’m a superhero.” Peter nodded his head sarcastically.

“Actually, my diary is underneath my mattress,” You began walking away, throwing a smirk over your shoulder as you left for the convenience store. “It’s my vibrator that’s in my panty drawer.”

The convenience store employee’s name was Isaac, who was a fellow student. He obviously seemed to be having a rough night, as he was slumped over the counter nursing a cup of coffee the size of your face. You greeted him as you entered the store, heading to the refrigerated section.

“Hey, Y/N,” Isaac yawned as he scanned the plastic container you set on the counter. “Ooh, caramel flavour. Splurging tonight, aren’t we?”

“What can I say; I live a life of luxury,” You smile wryly as you hand over a few dollar bills. “Keep the change.”

“Thanks, big spender,” Isaac took a sip of his drink. “See you in Calc on Tuesday?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” You picked up your creamer and waved goodbye, exiting the store.

You made your way back to your dorm room as fast as you could, pulling your hoodie tighter around you in the chilly night air. When you reached your door, you raised a hand to knock, but paused upon hearing Peter talking inside the room. Intrigued, you pressed an ear to the door, trying to stay as silent as possible.

“No, I haven’t told Mr. Stark yet,” Peter’s muffled voice seemed irritated. “Why? Ned, are you crazy? Because he can’t know that some random girl knows about me!”

There was a pause, and you assumed the person on the other end of the phone call (Ned—that was one of the people that knew Peter’s secret identity) answered back.

“I just—I just have to make sure she won’t tell anyone,” Peter sighed, and you could hear him pacing slowly. “I’m kind of freaked out, man; I don’t even know her. It would be different if it was Liz or someone I was friends with. When MJ found out, at least I knew that—hey, don’t tell her about this, okay? I’ll never hear the end of—you already told her?” Peter groaned. “Oh, come on, Ned, whose side are you on?” Another pause. “I don’t blame you, man. If I had to choose sides, I’d pick MJ, too.”

Deciding you had heard enough, you raised your hand to the door and knocked quietly a few times. Inside, you heard Peter’s pacing stop.

“She’s back, I have to go,” Peter whispered, but you could still make out his words. “I’ll talk to you later. Good luck on your coding test.”

A moment later, the door opened up to reveal Peter, curls a mess as he stood back to let you in. You entered the room, surveying your home to see if anything had been touched or moved. Everything looked to be in place…except for your diary, which was laying on top of your bed and opened to the middle of the book.

“Find anything interesting?” You asked, making your way to your coffee maker. You began filling a coffee filter with grounds before starting the machine up and turning back around to face the boy. Your diary was more of a venting space where you kept track of classes, exams, dreams, and events of the day. You didn’t expect Peter to find any deep, dark secrets.

“Not really,” Peter shrugged, not bothering to pretend he hadn’t sorted through your personal items. “Except for the fact that you have really weird dreams. What’s up with that one about the cat and—”

“I read a lot of books with talking animals as a kid,” You interrupted, crossing your arms as your coffee maker beeped from behind you. “Coffee?”

“Sure,” Peter sighed, running a hand through his hair (seriously, this kid was going to make himself bald before he was thirty if he kept doing that). “Cream and sugar, please.”

You made a cup for Peter and a cup for yourself, making sure to be very liberal with the cream and sugar (you actually didn’t like coffee that much, but it kept you awake). You handed a mug to Peter and sat down on your desk chair, surveying the boy.

“So,” You blew on your coffee before taking a small sip. “Tell me about your friends.”

“What?” Peter’s brow furrowed as he took a sip of the drink you handed to him.

“Look, I was happy to never be more than casual classmate acquaintances with you,” You rested your head on your propped up hand. “But then all this spider bullshit happened, and you decided to stalk me—”

“Surveillance.”

“—so it’s obvious that we are now in each other’s lives.” You finished, glaring at Peter when he interrupted you. “I’m worried about you in the suit, you’re worried about me telling people about you in the suit…we have to coexist somehow. As annoying as it may be. So tell me about your friends.”

“But why—?”

“Because knowing practically nothing about you makes this a lot weirder than it already is!” You snapped, setting your mug down on your desk. “Do you know what you’re supposed to know about acquaintances? Their name and, like, where they’re from. That’s pretty much it. Do you know what I know about you? Your name, where you’re from, and the fact that you’re fucking Spider-Man!”

“Keep your voice down,” Peter hissed, glancing around the room. “Dorm walls are fucking thin!”

“Like. Full disclosure? This entire thing is freaking me the fuck out and I’m trying to stay calm, but it’s still weird. So, Parker, for the last time,” You inhale deeply and breathe out slowly. “Tell me about your friends.”

Peter sighed, took another sip of his coffee, and began to talk. He told you about his best friend, Ned, who was in California majoring in computer science at Stanford, and his other best friend, Michelle (“But we all call her MJ.”), who was a political science major at Princeton (“Didn’t Michelle Obama go to Princeton?” “Why do you think MJ picked it?”). He spoke about his aunt, who had raised him all his life (you didn’t want to ask about his parents; you had a feeling it was a touchy subject.), and a little about the Avengers. But just barely.

“Mr. Stark is kind of—” Peter cut off his sentence abruptly, glancing back up at you. “Um. I don’t think I should talk about that.”

“Whatever, Parker,” You twisted your hair into a bun and tied an elastic around it. “You should probably get going, anyways. It’s late.”

Peter nodded and stood up from his seat on your bed, setting his mug down on your desk.

“So,” He began as he walked to the door. “I’ll save you a seat in class tomorrow?”

“Why?” Your eyebrows furrowed as Peter opened the door. “We’ve been sitting apart for the entire semester so far.”

“No matter how many cups of coffee you make me, or how many diary entrees I read,” Peter paused in the doorframe. “I don’t know if I’ll ever really trust you. No offence, Y/N—”

“Some taken?”

“But I still need to keep an eye on you.” Peter walked through the door and set a hand on the doorknob. “So I’ll save you a seat in class tomorrow. Sleep tight. And don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

You watched in disbelief as the door closed in your face, and Peter Parker was gone.

{part iii}

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