Lark

Don't be a bippity boppity bitch, Steve

Aria's POV Wednesday

Tonight was the team's first game night. Aria was not looking forward to it for several reasons. The first being that she hadn't yet learned how to play any games. The second being she would be forced to be with the team for hours and the third was that she would be trapped with Rogers for the entirety of that time. Knowing that she was going to be at her limit for peopling today just from tonight, she told Peter that he had a free day. So Aria encouraged him to go see his friends in the city. Even going so far as to drop him off at his friend Ned's apartment before Barnes or anyone else was out on the common room floor to trap her into conversation or a training session.

At first Peter had been hesitant to leave her alone, but when Aria reassured him that she would be fine and would keep herself busy until she picked him up at five o’clock sharp he relented. Meeting his friend was blissfully short. Ned seemed to be an alright kid. Just as much of a talker as Parker, but kind of sweet. He had gone on for a solid five minutes about things he had thought up for her to experience and that he would write it down so her and Peter could check it out and choose what she wanted to do. She gave him a grimace of a smile in gratitude and drove away as fast as she could.

Not wanting to go back to the Compound and deal with anyone who was in the middle of babying her, Aria stayed in the city as well. She went to one of her favorite spots. The Central Park zoo. Yes it was crowded but in a crowd like that she could practically be invisible. Aria spent a good portion of the morning and early afternoon looking at all of the animals. Around one o'clock she found a quiet spot out in the park and sat down on a bench near to a homeless man who people were avoiding and shared her lunch with him. Having spent a good seven months on the run and being homeless she knew what it was like to go hungry and have people avoid her because she was a little rough looking.

People saw the homeless as trash to be ignored or reviled. These people were on the streets for several reasons. Bad luck, drugs or alcohol, mental illness, etc. Whatever the reason, more often than not they were some of the sweetest people. They would share whatever little resources they had within their community. Sure there were people who were dangerous, but there was a safety net of a sort. A kind of hierarchy to the community. If you didn't follow the rules then you could be banned from certain parts of the city or from the city as a whole. Giving the man a twenty for some food or whatever he needed it for she said goodbye and went on her way until she had to pick up Peter.

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Aria🗡️: I'm here. You have 3 minutes to get to the car or I'm leaving you.

Peter🕸️: omw don't go anywhere!

Aria laughed to herself at his panic. She wouldn't actually leave him and he knew that, but he was funny when he panicked a little anyway. Five minutes had passed before a panting Peter almost ripped the door off the car. "I’m here! I got held up by an old lady who dropped her groceries and her keys in the middle of the hallway. I couldn't just leave her to try and pick it all up by herself!" He spewed out in a breathless rush.

Aria gave him her standard fuck off glare, but couldn't hold it for long when Peter's face fell thinking she was angry. "Chill Parker, I wasn't going anywhere." He glanced over at her with more than a little relief. "Did you really think I'd leave you here and deal with Rogers' sad puppy dog eyes all night by myself?" Relieved Peter laughed and slumped back into his seat as he buckled up.

For the next forty-five minutes he waxed on about all of the stuff him and Ned had done. Then told her about how they met up with a girl he clearly liked based on the significant change in the tone of his voice when he talked about her. Michelle Jones or M.J. as she preferred to be called, seemed to be the complete opposite of Peter based on his description of her. He was sunshine and she was moody darkness. If she was being honest with herself Aria found herself kind of liking this girl by the time they pulled into the garage. Peter was talking a mile a minute and honestly she had tuned him out until something he said caught her attention. "She's obsessed with murders. Particularly the Black Dahlia murder.” Uh that was a little dark even for her. “M.J. wants to meet you. When she heard about you she was excited to talk to you, but I told her that you probably wouldn't want to talk about that part of your life since you didn't do that anymore."