"YOU KNOW, IT'S NICE TO SEE PETER WITH A NEW FRIEND,"     May commented as she handed Theo a can of sparkling water from the fridge, smiling, "of course, there's nothing wrong with Ned or MJ, but at least I know that Peter is expanding his inner circle. Lord knows what's gonna happen when he finally heads off to college."

    Peter's eyes widened, horrid. "Aunt May!" he grumbled and Theo couldn't help but laugh at the interaction. "He's not my friend, he's just my lab partner for the month."

     Peter wasn't a fan of having Theo over, but they needed a location for when they were working after school, considering they couldn't hide away in Midtown's labs  after hours. Unfortunately, May was already starting to warm up to Theo—damn his undeniable charm.

    "Yeah, we're just trying to come up with a science project," Theo agreed, shrugging.

    "You mean, you guys still haven't come up with a hypothesis yet?" May asked, eyebrows raised.

    "We may be the smartest, but not all great minds think alike, Mrs. Parker," Theo retorted jokingly.

     May waved a hand, dismissing him. "Please, call me May. I was Mrs. Parker years ago. That train has left the station."

     "Well," Peter piped up, "if you need us, we'll be in my room. Don't call nine-one-one if you start to hear screaming."

     Both Peter and Theo got up, Peter leading the way. It was clean for the most part, save for the hoodie that laid across the back of his desk chair and the disheveled sheets that covered his bed. The lamp was still on, and various sheets of paper were splayed across the desk, doodles of who knows what—Theo couldn't tell from where he was standing. Peter was quick to shove them into one of the drawers, Theo raising an eyebrow at the action.

    "Not planning on world domination, are you?" Theo asked after Peter finally finished frantically shoving sheet after sheet into the drawer before closing it shut. "A little ambitious for a high school junior, don't you think?"

     "You'd be surprised," Peter huffed out a laugh, looking around awkwardly at the space surrounding him. "Um, make yourself at home, if you want."

     "I thought you didn't want me over," Theo remembered, albeit letting his backpack fall to the ground as he went to sit in the desk chair, sliding back a few feet in the process as the wheels rolled him across the bedroom floor.

     "I don't, I'm just being courteous or else you'd give me zero stars on Yelp."

     Theo tilted his head, giving Peter an amused look before unzipping his backpack to get out his laptop. "I unfortunately can't give you zero stars, I'd have to settle for one. With valid reason, of course—severe lack of domestic warmth and hospitality. You'd make a terrible au pair."

    With the given chance that Theo wasn't looking in his direction, Peter stole a glance at him. It was odd to see him so relaxed and. . .at home, even though he had just shown up a mere month ago, brand new to Midtown and New York and he had already made his mark. He seemed able to fit in anywhere. He was a chameleon, almost.

    "Where ya from, Theo?" The question was already falling out of Peter's mouth before he could stop it. Theo raised his head and an eyebrow. "Hm? Oh, I'm from Indiana."

     Peter couldn't help but snort. "I'm sorry, I was not expecting you to say Indiana. California, maybe, but definitely not Indiana."

    "Wait 'til I tell you I'm from Municiberg."

    "Where the fuck is that?"

    "Exactly." Theo huffed a laugh, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "It's not that big a city and the only notable people from it don't even live there anymore."

    "Oh?" Peter's voice upped in pitch, his interest piqued, "Who were they?"

    "They were this superhero family way back in the seventies. The Incredibles, they were called. Uh, the dad was chosen for some sort of Westing Game-style experiment so this other guy could pretend to be a superhero. It was weird."

    "It can't be that weird compared to what's going on today," Peter shrugged, "half of New York was destroyed by the Chitauri and this Vulture guy practically came out of nowhere."

    Theo nodded, remembering, stiffening up at the name Vulture—he hoped Peter didn't notice. They returned to the silence as they both tried to come up with a decent enough hypothesis for their science project.

    After about twenty minutes of scrolling, Theo asked, "Hey, you ever hear of Einstein's Big Bang theory?"

    "Remind me what school we go to again?" Peter retorted playfully, laughing at the way Theo's face flattened. Theo balled up one of his sheets of paper and tossed it at the brunet, who caught it before it could hit him in the face.

    They both stared at the other, contemplating what to do next. Theo cleared his throat. "Nice catch," he commented.

   Peter put the ball of paper to the side and asked,  "Uh, what were you saying about the Big Bang?"

    "Right. It says that 'the Big Bang theory was the prevailing cosmological model explaining the existence of the observable universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution.'"

     "Meaning?"

     Theo sighed. "Meaning that the big bang is how astronomers figured out how the universe started, but, I was thinking about how Hawking also tied in his multiverse theory into this."

     "You think we can prove that multiverses exist?" Peter quirked a brow. "A little ambitious for two high school juniors, don't you think?"

      "What if we don't have to? Like you said, there are already things out there that stretch far beyond your post-pubescent mind."

    "Mine? What about yours?"

     "I'm smarter than you."

    Peter gave him a look, doubtful, but continuing on anyway for the reason that he didn't want to be stuck here with Theo all night. "Okay. . .so how are we gonna do this?"

     Theo opened his mouth to answer before clamping it shut, stumped. He thought about it for a moment before answering with, "Is there any way we can get our hands on the Space stone?"

    "I thought you were smarter than me."

    "I am smarter than you."

     "Flight of the Navigator."

     "Time dilation," Theo retorted, immediately catching on to Peter's little game, "as Einstein theorized in between paradoxes, the passage of time is limited to the speed of the observer. Meaning, that traveling to and from the planet they want two-hundred and fifty times faster than the speed of light virtually suspends aging. Duh."

    "Fucking show off."

     Theo only smirked in response.

When 8 o'clock drew near, with several balled sheets of paper littering Peter's bedroom floor scrawled with several theses that could defend the existence of the multiverse, the two of them decided to call it a night.

     "Wanna stay for dinner?" Peter asked as Theo finished packing up. Theo gave him a quizzical look and Peter replied, "I'm trying to get my Yelp review up."

    Theo nodded. "I'd love to, but I gotta get home. Unless, you wanna come with me? It's pizza night at Bartlett's tonight."

    "Bartlett's is good, but I can't. I got an early day tomorrow. Maybe next time? In a non-friendly, meet up kind of way, of course."

    "Maybe."

✧˖*° ━━ AUTHOR❜S NOTE
chapter three woo !!
let me know what you liked, anything you thought was confusing that i could help clear up, and all that good stuff !