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Peter could have convinced Aunt May he was too sick to go to school today. He certainly would have, on any other occasion- a school field trip that he had absolutely no interest in, surrounded by people he didn’t like, when he could be working on his webshooters, or spending the day in the chemistry lab. Mr. Warren would let him help the undergrad classes with their experiments, or do his own, in the event he couldn’t get the leave signatures to go on a field trip (usually because he didn’t want to stay in class long enough to get them).
But Y/N changed things. She was an artsy kind of kid, but her college goals required her to take a science courses. Likewise, he needed to take an elective arts course. She wasn’t the first person to ask Peter for help with her trigonometry this year, but she was the first who asked him to coffee over the weekend to work on it.
She gave him the sort of forest-dwelling artist vibe, who spent most of her days tending to her daisy garden and painting flower pots. She always had colorful swipes and splatters on her hands, and a new shade of eyeshadow framing her sparkling eyes. He hadn’t met her parents, yet, but he had followed her home one evening after a late-night test-cram session to make sure she got there safely, and saw her greeted by two dogs and a cat at her front door.
Peter had come to consider her a friend, and maybe even a little more than that. They hadn’t said anything out loud about it, but sometimes she would look at him longer than she needed to, or run her fingers through his hair while he was bent over an assignment, or let her best friend Cassie know she couldn’t make it to the football game that night, because she had so much work to do.
She wanted to go on their class’s trip to the Queens Art Museum, and she wanted him to come with her. He couldn’t have told her no, even if he wanted to, and he had all the necessary signatures two days after the slip was handed out.
He was glad, now, that he had come. It was rainy outside - Winter hadn’t yet arrived, but it was chilly enough to warrant scarves and sweaters. Y/N was bundled in a fluffy pink scarf and a National Parks sweatshirt, enraptured by the pieces on the walls. The class had free reign for a couple hours over the exhibits, and most everyone else had moved on, by now, but Y/N took a good, long time at each work.
He hadn’t paid much attention to them, yet. Something about the way the light filtered through the raindrops on the skylight and lit up her hair had him unable to think of little else. She was so genuinely interested in the material, and the obvious admiration on her face was a good look, he decided. Feelings had been creeping up on him for a while, and the sparkle on her skin only solidified them. He was content to stand a pace or so from her, or sit on the benches, and watch her enjoy herself.
After a couple of pieces, she noticed him looking at her, and a flush colored her cheeks.
“Would you quit staring at me and enjoy the artwork?” she protested. “We’re in an art museum, that’s what we’re here for.”
“I am,” Peter replied, a smile unwittingly stealing his lips. Y/N looked startled, and her blush deepened as she turned her head back to the last piece of the exhibit, sputtering about which one they should go to next, and where was the rest of the class?
She didn’t look at him when he followed her out into the hallway, but when he took her hand, she gave his a squeeze.