"HOW WAS STUDYING WITH PETER?" Beth asked over the phone. This was their ritual, always call each other the night before a test. Usually, it was for reassurance, but for once, Kaelyn actually felt good about her test the next day. "Did he look at you with heart eyes the whole time? Oh, and how are you after practice? No cracked ribs, I hope?"

Kaelyn shrugged even if her best friend couldn't see her. She was laying on her stomach on her bed, her door shut and locked to keep her curious brother at bay. "It was fine, I guess. Also, even if I did have a cracked rib or something, I can't afford hospital bills so I'm pretty sure I would just have to live with it."

"It's okay, you're pretty enough, we could always start a GoFundMe and just have people give you money," Beth suggested jokingly, her lively laugh ringing clear through the phone.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," the redhead snorted, rolling over onto her back and twisting a strand of hair between her gentle fingers, "I don't know, Peter was nice. He made me feel like I wasn't stupid, so that was nice."

"That's easy considering you aren't stupid," the other girl was probably rolling her eyes, Kaelyn knew her well enough she could tell just from the tone of voice.

Kaelyn scoffed, "Debatable. I might try and study with him again, there's something about him that makes it so much easier to concentrate."

"Probably because he doesn't flirt with you every two seconds like every other guy," Beth suggested, "Or did he do that, too?"

"No, no there was no flirting. Thank God," Kaelyn reassured with a hearty laugh, "Oh, gosh, I don't even think he would know how to flirt that kid has no game whatsoever, I mean, look at him. Like, he's cute, but he definitely doesn't know what to do with it."

Beth was quiet for a moment before she said, "Oh, you can't see me, whoops, but I just nodded because you're absolutely right. He's cuter than most of the football guys that get girls like crazy, and yet... he's hopeless. You should flirt with him just to mess with him, poor guy has probably never had a girl talk to him like ever."

"I'm not in the mood for mind games, sorry," the redhead giggled, a smile lighting up her face, "He's a dork, I don't even think I could pretend to like him."

"You say that, but I can hear the heart eyes in your voice."

"What does that even mean?"

"Oh, you know what it means," Beth sighed, a small and breathy laugh following her statement, "Ah, shit, my mom's calling for me, I gotta go. Talk to you tomorrow?"

Kaelyn agreed, "Talk to you then!"

After the call ended, Kae sighed, staring up at her ceiling and contemplating the words that had just been exchanged. Sure, Peter was cute, but he was not the type of boy Kaelyn would ever be interested in. Shaking her head, as if reassuring herself, she got up from her bed and stepped out into the hallway. Tip-toeing past her brother's closed door, she grabbed her key before slipping out the front door. Padding up to the roof, she sighed with relief once she felt the cold air hit her skin. The feeling was always able to lift her mood, even if she was already having a good day. The sounds of the city far below, the wind hitting her face, it was chaotic yet peaceful at the same time. This felt more like home than her own apartment did sometimes. She walked over to the edge, leaning on it with her arms crossed, eyes trained on the city of lights below. The city never slept, and neither did Kaelyn.

Unfortunately, her peace was interrupted when someone else joined her on the roof. She turned around and found none other than Peter Parker, or, sorry, Spider-Man. Kaelyn sighed, she was in the mood to be alone tonight.

"Peter, what are you doing here?" She asked with her arms crossed, jumping as she heard police sirens in the distance, driving by her building, "And what did you just do?"

"Well, first of all, I didn't know you'd be up here," Peter said, taking his mask off. He was sweating and his skin was red like he had just been exposed to some serious heat, "this was just the closest building to the bank robbery I just tried to thwart."

The redhead took a moment to comprehend those words before she gasped, "Hold on, what the hell did you get yourself into? You're sixteen and you tried to stop a bank robbery? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Well I didn't get killed, so we're fine," he reasoned poorly, "And why do you care? We aren't... we aren't friends."

"We don't have to be friends in order for me to care about you possibly dying," Kaelyn scoffed, adding in an eye roll for flair. The sound of a firetruck's siren whizzed past the building and she looked down at the street in bewilderment, "What happened?"

Peter shrugged, "I don't even know! They had this weird alien tech equipment and I probably shouldn't be telling you, but you're like the only person that knows I'm Spider-Man and I gotta tell someone. It was this group of people in Avengers masks and this equipment was going off while we were fighting and it-it made an ATM machine explode! And it set my friend's bodega on fire!"

"Is your friend okay?"

"Yeah, I was able to save him and his cat, but the guys got away," Peter ended the story sadly, clearly bitter about the bad guys being in the clear. Kaelyn could understand that. She was still a little more than bitter when her parents' murderer got away. "I just— holy crap! That just happened!"

Kaelyn shook her head, "Peter, you need a break and probably some sleep."

"Says you," Peter laughed, "I always seem to see you standing out here when I swing by. Unless there's another pretty redhead that spends her nights stargazing instead of sleeping."

Pretending to ignore the fact he just called her pretty, Kae rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but that's different. I don't spend my sleepless nights fighting crime and thwarting bank robberies. We are in two wildly different situations, I think. Get some sleep. As much as you must love talking to me, you need to rest. Big geometry test tomorrow, remember?"

The boy groaned, "Don't remind me! Also, I think you like talking to me more, not the other way around."

"Don't get too confident, Parker, I could still tell everyone your little secret," Kaelyn tapped her phone reminding him of the video. She had yet to inform him that video was now dead and gone, but she didn't plan on doing that any time soon. Was that a little sick and twisted? Maybe, but Kaelyn never said she was anything but. Sure, that was some messed up reasoning, but the girl couldn't find it in her to care all that much.

With a sigh, Peter said, "Whatever. You're kinda mean, you know that?"

"I know," she retorted with a winning smile, "And yet—" she stepped a little closer to intimidate him, "—You still seem to show up on this rooftop pretty often, don't you?"

"That doesn't mean anything," the boy shrugged, meeting eyes with her, "I'm gonna go, get some sleep like you told me to. Goodnight, Kae."

With that, Peter jumped off, his webs shooting out and latching onto something else, leaving Kaelyn standing in the cold. Suddenly, it felt like the temperature dropped about ten degrees and she was almost shivering. She had expected her to be the one to leave Peter out in the cold, not the other way around. All manipulation aside, she was a little discomforted by his absence. Part of her hoped he would stop by the rooftop again, but Kaelyn was going to ignore that little voice in her head. She shook her head, telling herself to snap out of it before she headed back downstairs for the night. Maybe she did need some sleep, especially if she was beginning to notice just how cute Peter Parker really was.

this is like my favorite fic of mine and no one reads it asjfgsdhgs! Anyway, this was like one of my favorite interactions of theirs so far and I'm so excited for their relationship development!