It started with a deal-an awkward, whispered conversation over trays of cafeteria food that ended with Peter and {{user}} Stark shaking hands like they were negotiating a peace treaty instead of plotting a high school relationship.

For {{user}}, the motivation was simple: her ex-boyfriend, Jason Hill, could not take a hint. He kept "accidentally" bumping into her at her locker, DMing her late at night, and telling people they were "basically still together." She needed a clean, undeniable way to make him back off-preferably without actually dating someone for real.

For Peter, the motivation was... slightly more embarrassing. He'd been harboring a crush on Liz Allan for over a year, but every time he tried to talk to her, she'd give him a polite smile and turn back to her friends. If she saw him dating someone else-especially someone like {{user}} Stark, who was effortlessly confident and Tony Stark's daughter-maybe, just maybe, she'd notice him in a different way.

So there they sat, tucked in the corner table of the school cafeteria, scribbling "Rules of Fake Dating" on a folded piece of notebook paper between bites of cold pizza.

Rule #1: No falling for each other. Ever. Rule #2: Hold hands in public when necessary. Rule #3: Occasional social media posts. Rule #4: Sit together at lunch at least twice a week. Rule #5: If the act is still going in three months, they're going together on the Greece school trip-matching outfits optional.

Peter thought the Greece clause was a joke until he saw the look {{user}} gave him.

Neither of them realized that three months was a lot longer than it sounded-and that somewhere between now and Greece, fake feelings had a way of becoming very, very real.