DIANA RAN INTO HARRY WHEN SHE WAS GETTING COFFEE THREE HOURS BEFORE MEETING WITH NICKY. Her next appointment wasn't for a few more days, but he had started working on something and needed her help as Rhett was out and unable to assist. She had agreed to meet up with him and figured she could wander around and waste time. It was in front of Starbucks, just as she was about to open the door, that she was lifted off the ground and spun around.

She shrieked at the top of her lungs, prompting her assailant to immediately drop her, screaming, "It's Harry! It's Harry!"

She whirled around, throat hoarse, surprised to find herself face to face with the boy who was holding up his hands in surrender, shocked.

"Hey," she greeted, calming down.

He scoffed, dropping his arms. "Screams bloody murder and all she can say is 'hey.' They teach you that in London? Wait, don't tell me, I need coffee first, come on."

The two walked inside, Harry slinging an arm around her shoulder. They stood in line, staring at the menu, until Harry sighed.

"Do I have to bring up Peter or are you going to do it?"

She smiled up at him. "You can do it if you want because I don't."

He sighed. "He called me that night crying, Dina. He told me what happened and let me tell you, I cried. He was inconsolable and I think he broke something."

She bit her lip, frowning so hard it hurt. It didn't hurt as much as her heart, though. "I miss him, Harry."

"Then talk to him."

"He broke up with me."

"Yeah, but—"

She looked up at him again. "But what?"

Harry shook his head, sighing. "You have to talk about it yourselves. Communication is key to a healthy relationship, believe me, I'm dating Johnny Storm." Both Harry and Johnny could be wild flirts if they wanted, Johnny especially, so Diana had a feeling they didn't communicate as much as they should, regardless of if they did or not.

"How's that going, by the way?" she asked, moving forward in line.

"Don't change the subject," he said lowly. A pause. "It's going great, thanks for asking, we just sneak off to a closet or a room during parties and events, I love it."

She snickered lightly and turned towards the barista, ordering her usual. She heard Peter's voice echoing in her mind and quickly paid, urging the sounds of his 'white girl' out of her head.

Harry came to stand next to her on the side, both waiting for their drinks.

She didn't look up at him as she asked, "Did he tell you what happened with the necklace?"

Harry licked his lips. "I think that's what he threw. I didn't really understand him, he was sort of sobbing for most of it. He feels awful."

She scoffed. "So do I! This hasn't been easy for me, Harry, he broke up with me. I still love him." She cringed at her words; they sounded idiotic coming from a teenager who had only been dating a boy for a few months.

"I think he still loves you too. I don't know, Diana, you two should really talk it out some time. Flash and Gwen did." He nudged her softly, sitting down.

"They broke up," Diana pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "So did you and Peter. Maybe if you two make up, Flash and Gwen will talk it out and they'll at least be friends again."

She shrugged, watching as the baristas made her order. "I'll think about it. I'm gonna need some time."

He sighed. "Believe me, time isn't kind to those who wait."

º º º º º

Harry and Diana spent a good portion of her three hours together, going around and looking in various stores, talking, separating when she had to catch her train to Brooklyn.

"How's Flash doing?" Harry asked before she left, "I talk to him unlike Gwen, but he always just says he's fine. Is he?"

Diana just pursed her lips and shook her head before giving the boy a goodbye and turned on her heels, walking down the stairs.

She took the train to Brooklyn, having to stand this time around, searching for new songs that she could listen to as opposed to just listening to Taylor Swift for the better part of forty minutes. She gave up quickly and just let the breakup music scream in her ear; it was fitting.

She hopped off her stop and followed the others out onto the sidewalk, trying not to get jostled as she went. She checked the time on her phone, wondering if Nicky was seeing other patients at this time.

She reached their building and pressed the button for GREEN + REISER.

"Hello?" a voice answered through the machine; it wasn't Nicky.

"H-hello," she said, caught off guard, "I'm here to see Nicky? My name's Diana?"

"Oh! Yeah, of course, come in. Nicky's still on his way, but I'm here. It's Rhett, by the way."

The door unlocked and she opened it quickly, stepping inside and closing it behind her. She made her way up, a bit wary; she had nothing against Rhett, but she was more comfortable with Nicky. The idea of having to wait in his apartment for him with his roommate made her feel much more alienated.

She reached their door and knocked lightly. It opened to reveal the blond who smiled down at her, stepping to let her inside.

"How're you doing, kid?" he asked, apologizing for the mess of papers around the living room.

"Alright," she replied, not wanting to burden the roommate with her struggles. She checked the time on her phone, mostly out of habit, and was surprised to find a text message from Jesse.

from: Jesse (4:21 pm)
Do you wanna hang out later
tonight?

She frowned, confused by why the girl was asking her to do something that didn't need any real invitation, and replied.

to: Jesse (4:27 pm)
What did you have in mind?

It took a girl a few moments to reply.

from: Jesse (4:27 pm)
Idk. Nvm it's ok

Diana frowned harder, worried that she said something wrong. Not knowing what to say, she just pocketed the phone, looking up at Rhett who was watching her, holding out a popcorn bag. She smiled and took a few pieces, popping them into her mouth.

"So, kid," the man began, chewing on the snack, "I was talking to Harry earlier on the landline and he told me about what happened. Don't get mad at him, I was the one who asked. Besides, Harry trusts us way too much."

She wasn't happy, but she knew what Harry was like. She motioned for him to continue and he smiled, nodding.

"So," he went on, "He was telling me about you and your ex-boyfriend. I'm really sorry about that."

She shrugged, moving to sit on the couch. "It's fine. Really."

She wasn't fine, but she had already changed her lockscreen to a bland image of flowers and hid all of the pictures she had with Peter onto a folder on her laptop, so at least he was out of her mind; for the most part at least.

Rhett nodded and moved to sit on the couch, papers sitting in front of him. Before he could say anything else, the door opened to reveal Nicky who was balancing paper bags of groceries. Diana moved forward and took one of the bags from his arms, helping him place them on the counter.

"Hey, kid," he greeted, "Were you waiting long?" She shook her head and he smiled. "Great. Come on, I'll show you what I've been working on."

"Why can't I help, again?" Rhett called out as they walked towards Nicky's room.

"Because you're busy and told me not to bother you anymore," Nicky explained, closing the door behind them.

Diana stared down at the blueprints on Nicky's bed, some resting on his desk. Upon closer inspection, she found that they were specs for a metal glove, similar to that of Iron Man. She looked up at him questioningly and he shrugged.

"It's not for you, it's mostly for in case of emergencies," he explained, "It's hard to explain who it's for, that's kind of classified, but I need a test subject since my hands are too big." He held up his hand against hers to prove his point.

"Darn," she said, moving to sit on the corner of his bed, "I would love to be a female Iron Man. I could be called Iron Maiden."

Nicky blinked. "That's genius, I'm gonna design you a suit, hold on." He moved towards his desk, grabbing papers and scribbling furiously. When he was finished, he held up a piece of paper reading, in big block letters: NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

She pouted. "That was really extra, I don't appreciate that."

He grinned and ripped up the paper, letting the pieces fall onto the floor; he must not have slept the past few days. "I'm just saying, if I were to make you anything, I wouldn't make you a full-on suit. That would mean full body protection, but it also means that if something were to break within the suit, you could get impaled or just explode."

She shrugged. "I could get impaled or explode in a lot of other situations."

He snapped his fingers. "That is why you stay up in your room with your bandages and leave the fighting to Peter."

She frowned. She didn't like how he was dismissing her, but she wasn't really feeling any inclination to go out and fight crime the way the Avengers and Spider-Man did. Maybe Peter was an Avenger.

"I could also get impaled or explode by being your test dummy," she pointed out as he began sifting through his blueprints.

"That's why I have 'scientific martyr' on the back burner in case you die, I need to have a name that infers that you knew the dangers when accepting this job." He grabbed one of the blueprints and a tape measure, grabbing Diana's hand and measuring her fingers and palm.

"'Diana Smith, a Scientific Martyr, Died During an Illegal Weapons Test Gone Wrong. Psychologist Exposed.' That's a great headline, the Daily Bugle should hire me." She smiled to herself, Nicky snorting softly.

"Doesn't Jameson hate Spider-Man?" Nicky asked, making notes on a spare piece of paper.

"Yeah, which means I would be a valuable asset, I have access to the hero himself," she proclaimed, though she wasn't even sure if she did have access to him anymore.

"Peter takes pictures for him, right?" Nicky mumbled, closing one eye as he looked at one of his blueprints.

She deflated. "Yeah, so...I guess that's out." The less contact she had with the boy, the better; it was a shame they were going to start school soon.

"What do you mean?" he asked, now looking up, concern and curiosity etched into his face.

She shrugged. "You said that I should find something to focus my attention on. Everyone else is focusing on school, maybe I should too."

Nicky nodded slowly. "Is that what you want to do?"

She shrugged again. "I mean, I dunno. I think it's a smart option."

"But do you want to do it?" he asked, "Diana, the whole point of me telling you that was so you can do something that makes you happy. If focusing on school won't make you happy, focus on something that will. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you have to."

She frowned. "But I always just do things everyone else is. They're all doing it which means that they probably have an idea of what they're doing, and no one can go wrong with school. I don't know what I want to do or what I should do."

He sighed and turned to face her fully. "Then this is what you're going to do. You're going to find something that you want to do that isn't something someone else did first or told you to do. You need to start thinking for yourself."

Her heart dropped and she scowled. "I don't know how to do that, I don't make decisions for myself, it's hard."

She had decided to go to London and looked what happened there.

"That's why you need to do it," he said, turning back to his blueprints, "You know, I'm actually really toying with the Iron Maiden idea, I love the name. But, like, The Accords are a thing now. Also, like, I don't want to be responsible for whatever pain and damage is inflicted upon you or others."

She pursed her lips. "I like the idea too, but I also like hiding in my room and waiting to help, you know?"

He snorted. "Same. Ah, well, then you can be my apprentice for now. Until we figure out if we wanna go with Iron Maiden or just kill her."

"I'm so confused right now."

The two turned to find Rhett hovering in the doorway, a phone in his hands.

"Diana, are you staying for dinner?"

She nodded furiously. "Yes, please. Flash is over at Harry's tonight and Jesse is at her friend's and I can't stay in the apartment alone, I can't."

"Is Harrison living there full time?" Nicky asked as Rhett dialed a number on the phone.

She shook her head. "No, but more often than not. And Rosie is working tonight, so it's best if we all just hide out and let Harrison get hit by a car or something."

"Oh jeez," Rhett breathed, eyes wide, "No, not you. Yeah, it's Rhett, can I get my usual? Yeah, Nicky, too. Oh, can you add some..." he trailed off and away from the door, ordering food for Diana who told him to get anything.

"I like your roommate," she said, poking Nicky.

He smiled. "Me too. He's honestly my family, I would die if anything happened to him. Kind of like you and Flash."

Diana didn't respond, instead opting to stand up and walk towards the corner that had a large box filled with discarded blue prints.

"I haven't had time to burn them yet," Nicky explained, "And you can't just shred them or throw them away."

She hummed, thinking back to the story Rosie told her of the time when someone just threw away patient files, compromising literally every patient that was ever admitted into the hospital during a two year period and how they had to make individual phone calls.

She pulled out a blueprint for a watch rocket and showed it to him, raising her eyebrows. He shrugged. "They're in the box for a reason. Go through them if you want, but don't cast judgement."

She smiled and positioned herself on the top of the bed, leaning against his pillow, grabbing some blueprints and scanning over them. Some were interesting, others were downright idiotic.

"Nicky, why are you letting her—Diana, don't feel as though you have to read any of his weird ideas, they're in the box for a reason," Rhett said, reappearing by the door, shaking his head at her.

She pointed towards the blueprint in her hand. "Do I want to know?"

Rhett blushed a deep scarlet, a bashful smile playing on his lips. "Sexual urges and impulses are natural—"

"Okay, I've heard enough!" she shrieked, dropping the blueprint immediately, shuddering. Rhett laughed as he walked back to the living room, his head thrown back.

"You want it to be pink?" he asked, motioning to his new preliminary sketch of the glove.

She shook her head. "No, because then people will judge." She could already hear the comments about her being too feminine, something that made her inwardly cringe; being feminine wasn't wrong.

Nicky frowned. "There's nothing wrong with pink." It had taken him some time to unlearn certain things he was taught and was more than willing to help out the youth of the day.

"I know," she replied, "Jesse loves pink. But if we think about the way people will react, I don't know..."

He sighed and nodding, scratching out sentences from the paper, bullet pointing other parts, mumbling softly to himself. Diana just went back to looking over his other blueprints, laughing at some of his more outlandish, but well-intentioned ideas.

The delivery man arrived at the door a few minutes later, toting plastic bags filled with food. Diana smiled and sat at the table with the two men, eating quietly as she watched them talk about their days, commenting on the other's and generally having a nice back and forth.

"So," Rhett began, addressing Diana, "Are you Nicky's new project?"

She frowned, tilting her head. "What do you mean?" If he was talking about their therapy sessions, she was surprised at how word choice.

Rhett shrugged. "You know, you're the new hero on the block and he's designing you something. He doesn't really work with the populace of vigilantes, he usually just works with the X-Men and stuff, but who knows."

"I'm right here," Nicky pointed out.

"Shush," Rhett replied, holding up a finger, eyes still trained on Diana.

She drank some of her lemonade—pink, funnily enough—before speaking. "I don't think I am. I don't wanna be one of them, I'm more of the one that waits to help patch them up because they're dumb and keep getting hurt."

"Oh!" Rhett exclaimed, "So he's teaching you how to be him. That's pretty cool, you're like his apprentice. I'm proud of you, kid, you're passing on the tools of the trade. That's how it goes, right?" He leaned over and lightly punched Nicky in the arm, smiling.

Diana stared at the man. He was older than Nicky and at first glance, one would think it was just a few years, when, in reality, he would most likely be dying at this point, if he was not already dead. It was a wonder how he still had life in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking another bite of his food.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. And I'm more of his lab rat than anything."

Rhett smirked. "He call you his scientific martyr too?" When Diana nodded, smiling around her straw, Rhett turned to look at Nicky. "I can't believe you're cheating on me with a teenage girl. Am I not good enough for you? I used to be young."

"You're yesterday's news, old man, I gotta stay hip," Nicky joked, laughing when Rhett and Diana both gasped, Rhett feigning hurt and Diana laughing.

If anyone were to look at the scene, they would most likely be confused. Diana, who had no true connection with these two men, was eating dinner with them, laughing as if she had lived with them for years. It seemed as though, with motivation, she could firmly plant herself into the routine of any sort of family, parts of them becoming parts of her. Maybe she was compensating. After all, her real family had been gone for so long, any family would be better than nothing. But most importantly, it was that loneliness craved company.

Diana would do anything to stop being lonely. Anything at all.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 07.21.17 )

Wow, more character development and clarity on the three-dimensional human being that is Diana Smith and she makes mistakes, as does Peter Parker, neither of them deserve to get punched in the face, that's reserved for Harrison exclusively.

I just realized that my timeline isn't completely matching up with the Homecoming one, but whatever, it's too late to change it now, so we're just gonna go with it and pretend that everything is okay, I'm done by this point.

Remember when I said that she wasn't going to fight crime? Yeah, that doesn't mean that she doesn't have a weapon...? Okay, I don't even know what's happening anymore, but I guess this is good, so I'm just not going to say what will or will not be happening because I have no clue.

I just looked it up, apparently there is an Iron Maiden in the comics, she's an enemy of Black Widow as she was forced to live in her shadow and such? No relation to what Diana might be at all.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! (next chapter has Peter, so let's be ready)