Chapter one:

Along Came A Spider

"And what have we learned?" Spider-man taunted as the medics finished the last touches on White-Tiger's cast. The two of them had been tracking the Absorbing-Man when tracking became dodging thrown cars. White-Tiger had gotten too close to the front of tumbling Porsche and landed with a broken arm. Sure, in the end the bad guy went to jail but now they were standing in the med-bay and that was Spider-man's least favorite place to be after a mission.

"You're about to learn what it feels like to eat through a straw for the rest of your life." White-Tiger hissed. The feline beauty had been testy the last few days, scratch testy and put in madder than a cat in a bath tube. She constantly snapped at her teammates, picked fights when there was nothing to fight about, and even went to the jaw dropping extreme of actually not following an order. Spider-man would have sworn that it was that time of month if he hadn't already marked it down on his calender. That was last week, this was worst.

Peter took a deep breath to steady himself. As bad as White-Tiger treated the rest of her team, what she did to him was worst. She ignored him. Spider-man, ignored, even when his jokes were good. They saw each other everyday, ate breakfast at the same table, fought on the same team, but for some reason a week ago Ava just stopped talking to him, or acknowledging his very existence. And as far as Peter knew, he hadn't done a thing to deserve this kind of cruel treatment.

"Look, I don't know why you suddenly feel like scratching out everyone's eyes, or why you feel fit to pretend I'm not even there, but this team needs, I need you. What ever it is bothering you, you can talk to us about it. It doesn't matter what it is, what matter's is that I- eh- the team cares about what happens to you. We're all there for you, me too."

Spider-man didn't know what possessed him to do it, but after his heart felt caring speech he cupped her cheek and wiped away a piece of dirt just under Ava's eye, gently caressing her cheek. How Ava responded however, blew his webbed mind. She leaned into his palm, capturing his hand with her uninjured one, closed her eyes and purred!

A split second later her eyes snapped open and she pushed Peter's hand away in a panic. "Get out" White-Tiger growled turning away.

Peter was shocked beyond words, but luckily Spider-man is never truly short on words.

"Ava-"

"I said get out!"

Or not so luckily.

Parker House: Two days later

Ava still hadn't talked to him since that run in, and things had only gotten worst. Instead when ever Peter came into a room she would leave. The team all asked him what he had done, but honestly, he didn't know.

So when that Sunday night rolled in and the both of them somehow found themselves alone in the house it surprised him that Ava walked into the kitchen and actually spoke to him. "Peter" She whispered with a defeated look on her face "We have to talk."

"Talk? Talking is good! Talk away, I am the man of a thousand ears, actually I'm the man of spiders, but hey, I can be Ear-man too, though I'm not sure what kind of costume I would make for that, maybe something in-" Ava gave him a dirty look "shutting up now."

Ava took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and honestly Peter's little rant had helped. She didn't want anyone to know what was going on with her, it was embarrassing enough, but Peter needed to know. "I'm having trouble controlling the power of my amulet" she admitted.

The thought had crossed his mind but this time was very different from when Kraven attacked. Peter remembered it well, and definitely not because White-Tiger hugged him at the end. No, he remembered the animal-like Ava very well, but this time she was less tiger and more pissed off teenaged girl. "I thought you said you had in under control now?"

This was going to be the hard part, admitting the truth. "No female White-Tiger can ever completely control the Amulet, at least not fully. Once every few months there is a week or more where the female White-Tiger's... most basic instinct takes control."

Peter had a feeling he was going to regret saying this. "Er, what basic instinct?"

Ava looked down at her hands before looking up into his eyes and found the strength to say what needed to be said. "The instinct to mate."

"You're in Heat?" Another flurry of webs exploded in Peter's head. Well that explained things, er, sorta not. "So you've been mad at everyone because...?"

"Because I've been... frustrated" She admitted, blushing deeply. Saying it out loud felt worst then thinking it in her head.

Ah, that made sense, and made his face redder than Mary-Jane's hair. Just one more question to answer. "So then why have you only been avoiding me?"

Ava raised her eyebrow. "Think about it."

And then it click in. Oh boy, did it ever click in. If Ava was having trouble controlling her urge to mate she would avoid the person she wanted to mate with and if she was avoiding Peter that meant that she wanted to... "Oh. Oh! Oooooh..." Peter gave her a shocked look. "Me?"

"Well I'm not telling you all this because we braid each others hair" Ava snort. There was still a look of disbelief on Peter's face. "Really, is it that hard to believe that I like you?"

"Yes" Peter answered. "Okay, since we are having super honest time I'm just going to go out and say it; Ava you are way too good for me. You're beautiful, smart, funny, driven, passionate, and could do so much better than me, so I'm having a hard time believing that you like me. You're amazing, I'm just me"

Ava just stared for awhile, shocked that Peter thought she was all those things, then thought he wasn't good enough for her. "You're Spider-man!"

"No I'm not" Peter turned away, cloaking himself in self-doubt. "I'm just Peter Parker, Puny Parker. I become Spider-man so other people don't loose their loved ones and feel the pain I feel from losing my uncle Ben. I'm nothing sp-"

Peter was cut off when Ava grabbed him and pushed him up against the fridge. "That's the one thing I hate about you, it's the self-doubt! You're a hero, you're thee hero who inspired most of us to become heroes. Don't try to tell me you're not special when you-" Ava slowly stopped talking when she breathed in Peter's scent and her eyes became half-lidded "When you- when you smell so good" She purred, leaning into his neck.

Peter might as well have been paralyzed, because his whole body stopped listening to him. Ava was pressed right up against him, her leg in between his and her breast pressed tight against his chest. One hand snaked around to his back and the other one found its way into his hair. She held him close to her as she took in as much of his scent as possible.

Peter placed his hands on her shoulders in a vane attempt to push her away until he felt her lick his neck. He autocratically stiffened, his grip tightened on her shoulders and pulled her closer. Ava placed her forehead against his and pushed playfully, a gesture he returned. Their noses touched shyly and their lips drew closer to each other until Ava stopped and backed away. "I'm sorry Peter, that was wrong."

Peter threw his head back, hitting the fridge with a thud and let out a frustrated sigh "I have no idea what is right and wrong right now."

Ava blushed and looked at him shyly. "Did it feel wrong?"

"Not even a little." Peter admitted, a small smile dancing on his lips. "So when this... Heat thing is over, if you want, maybe we can talk about it some more."

"Sure, talking is good. I'm the girl of a thousand ears" Ava smiled, turning his own words against him.

"Hey, I comedy suffers when I don't have you around to keep it in check." Peter said, before turning to leave the kitchen. "No more avoiding please."

"I'll try" Ava grinned, happy that she had finally told him. "I'll see you around web-head."

"I'll hold you to that" was Peter's last response before going to his room to think about what had just happened.

Author's Note: I really like this pairing, I couldn't get out of my mind after the hug and purr. I hope you like. The more you review the more I write.