Aim: Hydra | Y/N Story | Sequel to "Aim: Avenger"

14. Improvement

"Road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!" Peter suddenly exclaimed with an odd sort of enthusiasm. 

I laughed with him, asking, "what? Where did that come from?" He stopped in his tracks, literally. I had to stop my steps and turned back to see his face full of shock. "What?"

"You are not telling me you don't know that Vine."

This boy and his language, what in the world was he on about. "Vine? What do road signs and flora have in common?"

His jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God. Okay, come here." He grabbed my wrist gently, pulling me to the side of the street and pulling out his phone for a second. After a few seconds of furious typing, he flipped the screen towards me. It was a video of a boy with short brown hair driving, passing a road sign just like the one we'd passed, saying the same phrase Peter had. "So, that's what a Vine is, or was, I guess. It was a social media platform where you'd post a short video."

I giggled, both at the silly video, an his excitement. "Are there more like this?"

His face light up. "So many."

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I woke up with a start; something was wrong. I did a check of my surroundings, listening, but from what I could hear no one was around me. There was nothing around, no reason for me be awake.

'Y/N!'

A voice shouted out, but no one spoke. It was Peter's voice, in my head. I leapt up from my bed, throwing the window open and running across the creaky fire escape to my neighbor's window. He was asleep, but he was flinching in his sleep. He's having a nightmare, I realized, opening his window and moving to wake him. "Peter. Peter, wake up, it's just a dream." He still wasn't waking up, so I did the only thing I could think of: I grabbed his arm, and was pulled into the nightmare with him.

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I was standing in front of a large brick building. 'Midtown School of Science and Technology.' Flames licked up the walls, burning wood and charring stone, and people were screaming, trapped inside. One voice rose above the others.

"Peter! Save me!" A boy cried.

Peter's head snapped up, spinning around to face the building as his face drained of color. "Ned! Hold on, I'm coming!" He tried to shoot a web from his slingers, but nothing happened. When he gave up on his webs he tried to sprint to the building, but the more steps he took the farther he got. 

"Peter!" The boy, Ned, called out again, sounding shrill with panic.

"I'm trying, I promise." Peter pleaded, but before he could try another strategy, the building exploded in a cacophony of broken glass and shrieking metal. 

The worst sound, however, was the pained screaming of dozens of people trapped in the explosion, quickly being replaced by complete and utter silence.

"Peter! Wake up, it's not real. It's just a nightmare!" I yelled, trying to get his attention. My voice sounded muffled and was almost inaudible, but he turned in my direction, trying to find the source of the sound. "No one's in danger, Peter. I promise." I spoke, and as I stepped closer to the panicking figure, my voice became more clear. "It's time to wake up, okay?" I reached for his hand, holding it gently and forcing him awake.

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He startled awake, grabbing my hands tightly and pushing me away from him. I tumbled backwards, landing on the floor with a dull thud. "Y-y/n?"

"Ow." I grumbled, rubbing my bruising skin.

"Oh my god, Y/n! Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry-" He scrambled to help me up, pulling me back onto his bed with ease.

"Peter, you're fine. You were having a nightmare, and were just acting on reflex. I'm okay, really." I interrupted. There was a pause from the conversation as he took a shaky breath, raking his hand through his hair. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently.

"It was just a nightmare. Just a really, really bad dream." He started, voice still shaking. "I just . . . I can't forget it. I hate it. How you deal with it, I have no idea."

"At first, I dealt with it by not dealing with it. That backfired pretty quickly though." I chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. God, I was really bad at words. I was, however, good at coming up with plans, and one popped into my head. "Peter?"

"Hm?" He hummed in response, not meeting my eye.

"Can I try something?" I asked gently, holding out my hand, letting it glow a gentle red to indicate I was going to use my powers. He took my hand without hesitation; it still surprised how much he trusted me sometimes. "Take a deep breath with me."

He followed my orders, breathing in and out. As gently as I could, I let my magic roam over his memories, trying to pick a good memory. And one came; it was short, but effective. 

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"Welcome to your first day of first grade class? To start, why don't you all turn to the person sitting next to you, and introduce yourself. Tell them your name, and something you did over summer break?" A teacher smiled at the students at their desks, waving her hands in a circle to indicate turning. A certain, very tiny brown-haired boy spun around in his seat excitedly, facing his partner.

"Hello, my name is Peter, and I built a fort with my aunt." He said.

"Hi! I'm Ned, and I built this cool new LEGO from Star Wars." A young Ned responded, flipping open his desk and pulling out a small, plastic figurine of a cloaked figure. "My mom wouldn't let me bring the whole thing, but she said I could bring this guy to show the class."

Peter's face light up, and he held out his hand. Inspecting it further, his eyes widened. "Woah, this is so cool! I've never seen Star Wars."

Now it was Ned's turn to look surprised. "No way! You have to come to my house to see them! We have all of them,and they're so cool!"

"That would be so fun! We could be best friends!"

"Yeah! Hey, we should make a secret handshake."

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I pulled him out of the memory gently, not wanting to upset him further. When I opened my eyes, I noticed his eyes were misty. I immediately began to panic, saying, "I'm sorry, did I pull you out too fast? I know it can be painful if I don't do it right, I didn't mean to-"

He cut me off by wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer to him, burying his head in the crook of my neck. "No, it was perfect. Thank you."

I relaxed in relief, returning his embrace. "Oh, good. I was just trying to show you that you have to focus on what is real, not your dreams. Dreams, as in, like, the visualizations your brain creates when you're asleep. Dreams meaning wishes are good to have, they-"

He chuckled at my ramblings. "I know what you meant. Thank you, Y/n. It means a lot."

"You're welcome," I smiled. 

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