hiraeth

ten

A/N: this chapter was lowkey difficult to write bc peter and nia's relationship is complicated KSJSHSH

x. Nia

It was Peter's lovely request to search for his family, and by lovely, she means terrible, because she's sick of travelling back and forth. It feels like her and Enne are being flung east and west across the country like a tennis ball in a court.

She's over it.

Scratch that. She's over him, and it's been less than twenty four hours since they met.

At first, he hadn't seemed half bad. Their conversations had been - dare she admit it - fun. He'd proven himself to be reliable, tearing down monsters with her and coming up with strategic battle plans on the fly when danger approached. Spur-of-the-moment decisions came easily to him, like he was born to be a leader.

But honestly? His leadership abilities could use a little work. Okay, a lot of work. Because for every time he'd been confident, another spectacular moment would arise where he'd shout at her to get out of the way or ignore any advice she'd try to offer. His ego is a force to be reckoned with, and by the time they'd hopped on the train to Kansas City (for free, of course), Nia was able to reach the conclusion to her earlier hypothesis: Peter was both an incredible asset and an annoying, pain-in-the-ass liability. Check and check.

That's why she thinks it's stupid, how she can't stand within three feet of him without her heart pounding against her chest. It's stupid, because he's annoying and self-righteous, but there's a nagging voice in the back of her mind, telling her to give him a chance.

Luckily, Enne doesn't give her knowing looks, or worse, tease her verbally everytime the tips of her ears burn when he cracks a horrible joke. But Enne does fall back a step when Peter tries to strike up a conversation with her as they're hiking, or busies herself with reading street signs when Nia leans too close to him.

She wants to bury herself alive, because it's not like she's some school kid with a crush. There's something though, and she refuses to act on it.

"How much further?" Enne asks, interrupting her thoughts.

"Give me a sec." Nia inspects the compass. The heat is suffocating, the sun frying her skin and rising from the asphalt. "No idea, sorry Enne. It only says Missouri."

They'd spent an entire day and a half coasting along the tracks, napping and snacking in intervals. Once they'd arrived in Kansas City, they were left with nearly four hours to kill, finding taxis, boarding buses, and walking and fighting their way to the target state.

"Your siblings better be worth it," Nia grumbles to Peter as they approach the Saint Louis Art Museum, chomping on a granola bar. "I'm so sick of ground transport."

Peter looks longingly at her food but schools his face into passivity. "Remind me why you're helping me in the first place?"

"The prophecy we received said-"

"-to find the third," Peter interrupts. "I know. That's me. What's the next line?"

"Three to save, three to burn," Enne repeats from memory. "That's easy. You have three siblings, so we're gonna help you look."

"And then we'll burn them," Nia trills.

Peter sends her a murderous scowl. "Not if I kill you first."

"Try me," she says airily.

He flips her off. "What I'm hearing is you're only accompanying me to fulfill whatever your end goal is."