Sock on the Door (For Peter)

[st_x5_494]

It was sometime in the afternoon when Alec returned to the room. He hadn't been back since he came upon a sock on the door and so he spent the night with someone else. He had to give Peter props for the amount of times the kid was using the sock, but he was slightly surprised every time he'd come in, take one look at Peter, and just know nothing happened. Alec often wondered what the hell was wrong with Peter since it seemed like they were both willing to get busy with one another, but at least he was having sex and at the end of the day, that was wall that mattered.

When he pushed through the door, he called out a 'hey! I'm back." In case Peter cared, which Alec knew he would.

Comments

[st_x5_494]

Alec held the mask out in front of him and blinked. He did not want to put it on. He was pretty sure he would look like a big tool. "Do I have to?"

[st_arkintern]

"If you wanna see Black Widow, yeah. I don't have any pictures of her on my phone."

[st_x5_494]

He stared at Peter for a long moment, then reluctantly lifted the mask over his head. "I'm I supposed to... say hi or something?" Which was a question directed to Peter than to Karen.

[st_arkintern]

Peter and Karen both start talking at the same time.

"Tell her hi!"

"Hello, Alec. Though it is not necessary to say hello, it is polite," Karen says pleasantly.

[st_x5_494]

Alec was uncomfortable. He was glad they were in their room so no one else saw this. "Uh... hi." It was just a computer though...

"Uh.. .can I see black widow?"

[st_arkintern]

"Certainly."

Clipped video of Black Widow starting with Peter's entrance display on the in-house monitor.

In the first scene, she's just in the background, looking in from behind Captain America. Even though Peter's eyes were likely not focused on her the whole time, the masks' cameras managed to capture everything -- not just what Peter was paying attention to -- in perfect clarity.

As soon as she's out of frame, the video abruptly cuts to another brief shot of her as Peter turns to look at the long line of other superheroes beside him.

Once she leaves the frame again, she's running in front of Peter. Then next to Peter. The video abruptly blips out as soon as she falls behind him.

"I was really hoping I'd get to meet her after the battle," Peter says. That didn't happen.

[st_x5_494]

When the video turns off, Alec waits a moment, then pulls off the mask when he was sure it was done. "She is pretty hot." And Stark definitely looked like a douchebag. At least his face was messed up. "There's really some guy called 'Captain America'?"

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, the guy in blue," he says. "With the A on his head."

Peter gestures to his forehead.

"There's a Captain America Fitness Challenge every year, too," Peter says. "In gym class. It's this thing where they see how many push-ups and pull-ups you can do." It was more than push-ups and pull-ups, but he figured that would give Alec enough of a picture.

Peter takes the mask from Alec. "You didn't say goodbye to Karen," he says, sounding almost sad.

[st_x5_494]

"Uh..." That tone of his voice made Alec pause. He glanced down to the mask in Peter's hand. "... bye, Karen?" He didn't think the mask would mind, it was just a computer program, right?"

[st_arkintern]

"I'll tell her you said bye later." He takes the mask back to his drawer and places it neatly on top of his folded suit.

"I might have a crush on her even though she's too old for me." Peter closes the drawer." "Natasha, not Karen," he quickly clarifies.

[st_x5_494]

"Well, yea. She's hot. I'd be concerned if you didn't have a crush on her." He sat back. "I bet she kicks ass really well too."

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, she's really good. I mean, I didn't get to see a lot of her in that fight, but I did get to see her on some old black-and-white CCV footage once that was posted to the Avengers subreddit."

Peter briefly wonders if there'll be threads about him on the Avengers subreddit once he's officially made an Avenger. Then he wonders if he'd want to read them. Then he realizes he's in the middle of a conversation with Alec. He turns around.

"There was another woman on the other team, but I don't know her," he says helpfully. "I haven't met any other woman superheroes."

Hopefully Alec now understands the dearth of women superheroes in his reality.

[st_x5_494]

"Maybe it's because most of you have really lame names and they're all too embarrassed to show themselves?" He was mostly kidding... mostly.

[st_arkintern]

"They could come up with better names, then." Peter would never admit it, but Black Widow was probably his second-favorite superhero name. Then again, Peter was biased towards spider-based names.

He looks over at Alec.

"Do you think Spider-Man sounds okay?"

[st_x5_494]

Alec thought Spider-Man was also dorky, but for some reason it sounded less dorky now than when he had first met Peter.

"It suits you."

[st_arkintern]

Peter doesn't know how to take that answer, so he decides he's going to take it as a compliment.

"I still think we should come up with a superhero name for you. Maybe using a pun or something."

[st_x5_494]

"Technically my name isn't my name." He thought back to the first day he met Max and she had given him a name.

"Max named me Alec from Smart Alec."

[st_arkintern]

"Neither is X5-494," Peter argues before Alec can continue.

And when he does, Peter's eyes light up. "Smart Alec. That's a great superhero name!"

The only thing Peter could think of was Alectricity, but since Alec didn't have lightning powers, that didn't really work.

[st_x5_494]

He blinked and looked at Peter. He should have expected that. Somewhere back home, Max was snickering to herself. "What am I even supposed to do with a superhero name?" Because Alec knew there was probably no going back from Peter's excitement.

[st_arkintern]

"Be a superhero," Peter answers vaguely. "Do superhero things, like rescuing Peter Parker from a band of hyenas."

Peter smiles.

[st_x5_494]

"Why do I have to be a superhero to do that?" Alec legitimately didn't understand why all these names and titles we're important.

[st_arkintern]

Peter hates to admit it, but Alec has a point.

"Because it's fun," Peter insists. "Why are you so against fun?"

[st_x5_494]

Alec was just more pragmatic about stuff. "I'd rather just not have to save you at all. I'd rather be able to sit on a beach drinking umbrella drink things and watching topless women sunbathe."

Alec's life goals.

[st_arkintern]

"Don't you think I'd rather be watching Babylon 5 when I have to go out and fight bad guys?"

Actually, Peter wouldn't. He'd much rather be fighting bad guys.

"Forget that," Peter says, because he knows Alec's going to call him out on it. "Sometimes you got to do things that you don't want to do because they're the right thing to do."

[st_x5_494]

"Sure." He shrugged. He knew pointing out you don't need to enjoy it though would probably make Peter upset. Despite being made for it and being good at it and it also being his first response when he got angry, Alec didn't want to fight.

"What the hell is Babylon 5 anyways?"