strangetrip | Peter Parker Party(Closed to Piotr, Kitty, Sora, Alec, and obvs Peter)

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Peter Parker Party(Closed to Piotr, Kitty, Sora, Alec, and obvs Peter)

Liz had been organizing the small party for Peter for two weeks and it had been hard not to excitedly tell Peter everything. She knew he considered today his birthday. His sixteenth birthday and she wanted him to feel special today.

Once Peter was out of the room, she went in a decorated. Everything was simple, but made from the heart. She had, with Pike's instructions, made a chocolate cake with vanilla icing and piped a web in black on it with candles that said '16'. There were some finger-foods like pigs in a blanket anc chips, but the 'main course' was thai food. Or, something that maybe resembled it. Liz had worked with Emma to try and make some. There was Thai curry and Pad Thai and there was even an attempt at Larb based off of Peter's recount to Liz and then Liz's recount to Emma. There were red and blue streamers carefully places around the room.

Liz was dressed in a simple black tank top and jeans, but her hair was pulled back and clipped together by a Homemade bow.

There was music playing in the back ground of the borrowed boom box. She turned around in place looking at everything and wondered if Peter would have wanted more?

Once everyone else had arrived, it was just Peter they were waiting on. When he did, everyone but Alec shouted, to varying degrees of enthusiasm, 'Surprise'.

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Peter helps himself and then sits down on the edge of the bed, then waits for Liz to join him before digging in.

"It's pretty good," he says, taking his first bite of larb. "It's a little different from the place back home, but I think that's normal. All the Thai places make their dishes a little differently."

He takes another bite of Larb. "When's your birthday?" he asks. Now seems like as good a time as any to ask.

She smiled when he seemed to like it and she dug into her own plate too. It tasted good, though she still wanted to experience Peter's favourite place.

"September 19th." She wouldn't tell him the year because she did the math and he was born when she was out of high school by then. "I had just turned 16 a couple months before I showed up here so I guess we're the same age for a while now." Liz was kind of happy about that.

"Other-Liz was two years older than me," Peter blurts out suddenly. And he doesn't know why he felt the need to say it, but suddenly it feels embarrassing.

And for some reason, Liz suddenly felt embarrassed too. For him or for herself or some mixture of both, she couldn't quite figure out.

"Oh..." She wasn't sure what to say to that. Did he prefer older girls? Was he disappointed they were close in age?

It felt awkward so she searched for something to say. "I, um. I went on a date once with someone from college." She scrunched her nose. "It was - it was this whole like, radio show dream date/blind date contest thing Maria signed me up for."

Peter isn't even aware of it, so he can't begin to figure out precisely why it bothers him a little that Liz is older than him. It somehow made him feel a little self-conscious in the same way that Liz being pretty and smart and nice made him feel a little self-conscious. It didn't make logical sense, because none of those things changed the way she felt about him, even if somehow it felt like it should.

"Oh," Peter says, and he stops digging into his larb and his curry. "Did you -- did you like it? The date, I mean."

He presses his lips together.

"I mean, it's gotta be great to be around a guy who knows what he's doing. Who's got a lot of experience and --"

Peter stops, trying to find the right word.

"-- and things," he finishes.

"It was actually really awkward." And embarrassing, though that might be because the radio station followed them around and was giving a play by play of what they were doing.

"I mean, he was nice, I guess." And at the time things really sucked between her and Max so Maria had done it as a way to get her mind off of him. Then Max got drunk and it was hard to ignore him.

"It's just... I didn't know him, you know? And even though he was nice... I mean, yeah, he knew more stuff about some things than I did, but also... It was intimidating. Like, part of me kept wondering if he was going to expect more at the end of the night other than a kiss. Or if he would think I'm lame because I like certain things."

"Plus he wasn't-" he wasn't Max but somehow saying that, especially at Peter's birthday party, seemed like a bad idea. "He wasn't who I had feelings for."

"Yeah," Peter says with an awkward laugh. He takes another bite of his dinner, then frowns. "I guess that would be kind of weird. Especially if people were following you around, dictating everything to an audience."

That would make Peter really uncomfortable really fast.

"Did you, did you get anything from the contest other than a date?"

Maybe that would actually make it worth it. But Peter's not sure what would make it worth it for him. It'd probably take a lot more than what a radio station would be willing to offer.

"Well.. We were supposed to get front row at this surprise concert and to meet the band, but things kind of got messed up - Kyle got Max drunk and Max was using his powers everywhere and then somehow we all ended up on the stage of the concert and the radio host put me on the spot and, um. Well, it was really embarrassing." She looked down at her food. It was actually more than embarrassing. She had ran off the stage without answering. Thankfully Alex and Maria's band was there to distract most of the people.

"Maybe, um. Maybe we should talk about something else. It's your birthday." She forced a smile which was genuine, but not the full strength she normally had.

"I, um. I have one more present for you. I sort of gave you your big present the night of the dance."

Sometimes, it felt like Liz used to live in a world entirely different from his own. Concerts really weren't ever really Peter's thing. And neither was radio shows or blind dates or getting drunk, either. Sometimes, though, it feels weird. Like they were only together out of circumstance. Like --

-- if they met anywhere else, it wouldn't have happened.

And Peter hates that he's thinking about these things because it's his birthday and Liz put together this nice party and she even got him another present even though the outfit was more than enough. So when he turns to look at her, he returns the smile.

"You do? You really didn't have to, the shirt and the shorts? They were awesome. It's basically the best present I've ever gotten."

"It's nothing big. I just.. I saw it on the station and thought you might like it. One second-"

Liz got up and walked over to his round table where to food was and reached underneath. She grabbed a box the size of a show box, this time wrapped with tissue paper from the Inn's boutique.

She brought it over to him and held it out as she sat down.

Inside was a brand new set of magnet, multi-coloured blocks that could be used to build various shapes. There was an instruction manual attached in an alien language, but if he opens the booklet Liz had gone through each page and translated it to English underneath the words.

Peter sets his plate besides him on the bed, then accepts the box. He carefully opens it and his eyes widen as he he pushes the paper tissue aside to reveal a set of magnetic building blocks. He actually had seen one of these sets at the space station, but somehow had resisted the urge to buy them. He wanted to be careful about how he spent his water.

He looks up from his gift and up at Liz. "Thank you," he says. "We just -- we really need to build something with this sometime. You have no idea how much I've missed building things."

It was just so therapeutic.

Peter pulls the instruction manual off the back of the box, because that's the kind of person Peter Parker is. Instructions first, then build. The major LEGO sets were impossible to build without a guide. This might not be the same, but it was totally new material, and there might be ways of manipulating it that can't really be done with with plastic LEGO bricks.

And when he opens it, he discovers the alien script, now unintelligible, and beneath it, instructions written in a tiny familiar print.

Peter's head immediately spins to face Liz.

"You translated this for me?"

She blushed. "I realized when I brought it back here it wasn't in English. It's not a big deal, though. I just sat somewhere on the station and copied it out." Liz smiled. "I figured things like this the instructions are important."

"It's just... It's really thoughtful," Peter says. "And I appreciate that about you. You're always looking out for others."

He really wants to kiss her, but it already feels like they're doing a lot of kissing, and it's hard not to get self-conscious around so many people.

Even if it's a lot fewer people than at the dance. It's probably because when there's less of a crowd, it's more easy to notice the two of them.

"A lot of people might not appreciate that about you but I do."

Peter is slowly overcome with embarrassment, so he turns his gaze from her down to his gift, then says:

"I should probably finish up my dinner," he says.

Liz was suddenly aware of the space between them or maybe the lack thereof and she smiled and nodding, picking up her own plate too. "Um. After the party. I'll stay and clean up. Is that okay?"

"Yeah," he says, setting the gift aside to grab his plate. "I mean, I'd really like it. If you wanted to stay, I mean."

He could clean up easily enough, but he was happy for an excuse to have Liz stay a little longer after everyone left.

She perked up at that and tried to look like, yeah, it was only to be helpful, but she really did want to see him after, alone.

"I should - I should go get your cake ready and make sure Alec hasn't taken a chunk out of it yet."

"Y-yeah," Peter says, smiling. "Um, thanks again for everything. It's great, really great."

Peter takes another bite of his larb, and wonders why he has to be so awkward sometimes.

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Peter Parker Party(Closed to Piotr, Kitty, Sora, Alec, and obvs Peter)

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