Chapter Text
College was amazing, you had managed to cultivate a supportive friend group and live an, admittedly, pretty thorough party life in the four years you’d attended Empire State University. Now with a degree in hand, you had the world to concur, businesses to run, and sciences to study– yet all you got was an internship at Ozcorp. Running coffees and sorting paperwork into the right channels. But hey! It paid just enough to cover your share of the rent. Plus you got your very own badge and cubicle.
Some future. You slouched in your seat as you stared at the screen of your company issued computer with a frown. The soft blue glow illuminating your face as you clicked absently through emails. Your heels, which you’d regretted wearing the second you stepped out of your rundown apartment this morning, sat abandoned under your desk. So much for looking put together. You sighed and leaned back as you ran your hands through your hair.
“Hey!” A voice that was far too cheerful for 9:03 in the morning cut through the mundane white noise of mouse clicks and computer keys. You shifted your eyes up, taking in the sight of a man around your age leaning into your cubical, grinning cordially down at you. His brown hair tussled, like he’d ran his hand through it one too many times and given up fixing it. His outfit wasn’t much better. The light blue pinstriped dress shirt half untucked and black tie hastily done. At least he’d matched his pants to his shoes, both a rich dark brown color. Had you been in a better mood, you would’ve found him very attractive, but in your current state, all you could muster was mild acknowledgment.
“Can I help you?” You asked uninterested, tilting your head as you finished your once over and shifted your gaze back to his. He had nice eyes, kind and a pretty earthy brown with flecks of gold in them.
“Sorry, I was just– I’m new here– the new intern,” He smiled awkwardly, clearly caught off guard by your tone, “They told me to go to Mr. Steinman’s office in the lobby. I was just wondering where that was, exactly.”
You leaned back in your chair and slipped your heels back on with a fatigued sigh. You stood up and grabbed a folder of papers from the stack next to you, “Yeah, I’ll show you. I’ve got to drop some paperwork off there anyways.”
You led him through the isles of cubicles in silence. There was nothing particularly interesting about Ozcorp’s architecture. It was just the same series of white walls, gray carpets, and modern art strewn about. He sped up slightly to place himself at your left shoulder.
“So… how long have you worked here for?” He asked casually.
You side-eyed him before responding, “Two months.”
“Wow, I would’ve thought it was longer! You seem very…” He hesitated for a second before seeming to settle on a descriptor, “...unenthusiastic here.”
You bristled up at his words. Yeah so you were in a bad mood, what was it to him? It’s not like anyone grew up saying ‘I want to work a minimum wage internship even though I have a bachelors degree!’.
“Yeah well… it's basically just a secretary job with the added perk of maybe seeing something actually interesting through a crack in a door while bussing coffees.” You shot back, pausing as you two approached the private office that housed your boss, “So sorry if I’m not exactly Ms. Sunshine about it.”
You knocked gently on the fogged glass door before stepping back a step.
“Yeah– come in.” Your boss’s muffled voice called out from inside.
You pushed the door open and stepped inside the room that was probably three times the size of your cubical. The sunlight bouncing off of nearby skyscrapers filtered into the room through the massive floor to ceiling windows. Putting on a pleasant smile, you handed him the stack of papers, “These are the files you wanted on the newest reactor experiments, Mr. Steinman.”
He hummed in acknowledgement as he took the papers, barely looking up at you. Your smile faded slightly as you took a step back, fading into the background as he flicked through the papers.
He looked up, his eyes passing by you as he finally noticed the man standing awkwardly in the doorway behind you, “Who are you?”
“I’m Peter– Peter Parker,” He stepped forward and extended his hand, “Very happy to be here sir, I’m the new intern.”
Mr. Steinman stood up and shook his hand, “Ah! It’s nice to meet you, I apologize I forgot what day you were coming. I usually meet new interns in the lobby.”
“No worries, I had help finding your office.” The new intern, Peter, smiled at you before turning back to your boss and adding in a joking voice, “Even if it was a bit unenthusiastic.”
What a jerk! You bristled at his jab, shooting a glare at his back. Mr. Steinman seemed surprised you were still there when he followed Peter’s eyes, “Ah, yes. You two will actually be working pretty closely together–”
You stiffened. What? This was just what you needed, some idiot pretty boy messing up the very delicate schedule you had worked out during the months you’d been here. No way. You certainly didn’t need someone who could potentially get in the way of a potential job here once your internship was over. Your disgruntled thoughts were interrupted as Mr. Steinman addressed you.
“You two can share a cubicle. I’ll have Daisy bring you guys an extra chair and computer,” He clapped his hands together, pleased with his idea, “ You can show him around in the meantime.”
You smiled stiffly as you nodded, turning to exit. Peter brushed past you and held the door open with a borderline giddy smile.
“Thanks.” You snapped as you stomped past him.
“No problem, tour guide.” He followed after you.
You led him through rows of offices, showing him where the printer room was along with telling him how to get to the cafeteria.
“And those are the labs. We don’t have access to them because we’re interns, but sometimes you’ll have to bring them coffee so they’ll buzz you in.” You moved briskly past the locked doors. Peter paused and looked them over like he was searching for something before he hummed and followed after you.
You walked through the office in an angry daze, not looking back at Peter as you started back to your, now shared, cubicle.
“He seems like a nice boss.” Peter said happily as he trailed behind you.
“Steinman?” You asked incredulously, almost laughing at him, “Sure man.”
“Well, I thought he was nice,” he shrugged, “You seem to have a poor opinion of everyone.”
“Or maybe I’ve worked here for two months more than you and seen how he treats those ‘beneath’ him.” You corrected him.
God these heels were killing you. You turned into your small, soon to be smaller now that you were being forced to share it with Peter, cubby, tugged the demonic shoes off your feet unceremoniously and threw them under your desk before you sat down with a huff. Peter paused at the entrance, caught off guard.
“...Where should I sit?” He asked hesitantly.
“I don’t care.” You grumbled as you pulled up a new tab and started typing, ignoring Peter as he stood awkwardly behind you.
You finally turned as the sound of a chair being wheeled closer cut through your angry typing. You pushed back away from your desk, turning to watch as Daisy, Mr. Steinman’s secretary, grew closer. Peter, who had taken to leaning against the desk on the opposite wall of your cubicle from a lack of a seat, followed your movement with his eyes before he copied you in looking at the incoming secretary.
Daisy was nice, she’d never done anything to you, but you couldn’t help but feel a shred of annoyance towards her as Peter instantly stood taller once he saw her. She was attractive, long blonde hair that was always perfectly curled, a pink blouse that fit her in all the best ways, and a black skirt that cut off just above her black stilettos. Of course he was looking at her like that. You frowned.
“Delivery!” She smiled as she spun the black leather chair around to face Peter, a new computer sitting on the cushion.
He thanked her, moving the computer to his desk before turning back to face her with a charming smile, “Do you need a signature for it too?”
She laughed, you rolled your eyes and turned back to your computer. Trying to tune them out.
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Daisy finally left after– you glanced down at the small clock on the right of your computer– twenty minutes. Peter sat and started to set up his computer. If he kept this up, you’d be doing both of your guys work to make up for him. Yeah, that wasn’t going to cut it. You'd dealt with enough of that in college to take it in the workplace.
“Are you always so talkative or is Daisy just special?” You jabbed as you glanced over your shoulder at him, taking in his back profile. He must work out or something.
He turned, a look of surprise on his face, “Are you initiating conversation with me? I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”
You glared at him, “Very funny. Look, I need this job, so I can’t afford to be blamed if you spend more time making heart eyes at the secretary than doing your share of the work.”
“Are you always this prickly or am I just special?” He shot your words back at you. Your face flushed in anger.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Parker.” You grumbled, the smile he shot at you at your use of his last name only worsened your mood.
You stood up, pulled your painful shoes back on and walked away, “I’m taking my lunch break. Don’t touch my computer.”
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You came back from lunch to Peter gone, a yellow sticky note on your blackened screen that read ‘Gone out for lunch, don’t miss me too much – Peter’. You threw it away and sat back down.
By two o’clock, you’d finished your work for the day and started scrolling the internet for an interesting story to occupy your time until your shift was done. Landing on some article from the Daily Bugle about Spider-Man’s latest action in stopping a runaway train. You missed Peter coming back from his break, engrossed in the section talking about some guy trying to sue Spider-Man for causing him to be late, only he couldn’t because how do you serve papers to someone whose identity is a secret?
“You a web head or something?” Peter teased you, leaning over your shoulder to read the article better.
You jumped, not having heard him come back. Looking up at him with a flustered expression you stumbled over your retort, “What? No, I’m not twelve. When did you get back?”
“Calm down,” He laughed as he walked backwards and sat down. The leather creaked slightly under him as he leaned back “I’m just teasing you.”
You huffed and turned back to the article, “Shut up.”
“It’s not a bad thing to be.” He added, unwilling to let the conversation die.
“No, but I’m not one of them.” You turned to face him again, unwilling to let him have the last word.
He grinned, “Oh come on. He’s pretty awesome.”
You rolled your eyes, “Yeah he’s cool and all, but at the end of the day he’s just some dude in spandex. Plus I bet he’s like fifty and balding.”
Peter laughed, crossing his arms, “Wow! You better hope you don’t run into trouble on the streets. I don’t think you’d be able to contain your excitement."
“Whatever. Do your work.” You turned around to face your desk, closing out of the article.
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You shut your laptop off at five and packed up your purse. Dread filled you at the thought of the fifteen minute walk back to your apartment building that awaited you. God, you just wanted to take a shower and go to sleep. You could practically feel the water on your skin washing away your irritation.
“You headed out?” Peter asked, turning in his chair to watch you.
The sound of his voice snapped you back to the present. You turned and met his curious gaze with a blank one, “Yeah, about to.”
“Okay, I’ll walk you out–”
“No you don’t have to.” You interrupted him.
“No, I want to.” He grabbed his bag and stood up, smiling at you as he motioned for you to lead the way.
You sighed in defeat and started for the exit, pulling your bag tighter against your side in irritation. God you couldn’t wait for that shower.
“How far away are you?” He asked as you rounded the corner into the elevator hall and pressed the button to descend.
“Why? You going to follow me home?” You grumbled, glancing up at him.
“What?” He looked taken aback, “No! I was just wondering since you’ve been complaining about your heels the whole day.”
“I have not! I didn’t even mention my heels.” You glared at him, ignoring the ding that signified the elevator had arrived.
“Yeah well,” He nudged your elbow, pushing you gently into the elevator, “You’ve taken them off every chance you’ve gotten so far.”
“So? Why does that bother you?” You pressed the lobby button with more anger than necessary.
“It doesn’t!” He ran his hand through his hair as the door closed, “God why are you so argumentative?”
You gaped at him, stepping forward to jab a finger in his direction, “You keep instigating me!”
He opens his mouth to respond, but quickly shuts it as the doors snap back open. A middle aged man walked in, engrossed in his phone. You both watched him enter, stepping back to your respective sides. Peter shot you a look over the man that said, ‘This isn’t over’. You rolled your eyes and turned to watch the numbers tick by as you got closer and closer to salvation in the form of freedom from Peter.
The second the doors opened you shot forward. Your heels echoing off the tiled floors of the lobby as you belined it for the doors.
You heard Peter call your name, but ignored it as you slipped through the revolving doors. Letting yourself get swept away in the crowd of busy office workers departing at the same time as you.