Bug Bites

Chapter| Twenty-Eight

"This is the Asgardian refugee vessel Statesmen. We are under assault. I repeat, we are under assault. The engines are dead, life support is failing. Requesting aid from any vessel within range. We are 22 jump points out of Asgard. Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here. This is not a war craft. I repeat this is not a war craft." 

....................

A year can change a lot for a person, sometimes it feels like not much changes or it feels like everything has changed completely. Sometimes things change for the worse, but sometimes they also change for the better. In the span of a year, a lot had changed in many aspects. 

Adrien, Nino, and Chloe had moved into the apartment that Audrey had previously gotten Chloe, the one Marinette had taken residence in when she first came to New York. Chloe had taken up finishing her GED through the summer, and given a sparkly recommendation from Tony Stark she was currently taking business classes online to take reign of Style Queen within the next few years. 

Adrien had taken to having his freedom, to finding who he was personally for the first time without his father's over bearing nature and all the tight schedules. He usually spent time going through Peter's physic books and reading them for fun, and when he wasn't doing that he was in Tony's lab playing with experiments with Plagg, who would rather be anywhere else. 

Nino had taken a spot next to Marinette as one of Stephen's students, learning the way through the Mystic Arts. He wasn't a natural like she was at first, but within a few months he had taken to Stephen's teachings, along with Wayzz's help. Watching Nino learn through the year gave Marinette some memories to reminiscing on from when Tikki was there to help through her teachings. 

Then there was Marinette, who kept her promise to Peter. She took residence in the Parker apartment, often making sure Peter didn't blow anything up with his tinkering and up keeping the apartment when May was out at work. She did make the transfer to midtown high, and was currently a student there with Peter. When she wasn't there or with Peter, she was training with Stephen on control with her powers and spells from the books he had in the library- the ones that were off limits to most. Of course she spent some nights patching Peter up from wounds he would occasionally get being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, lightly chastising him for not being more careful.

She remembered him asking why she didn't take up being a hero again, and all marinette could really think about was the fear of losing control on her power. She was still learning about it, how to use and control it in a controlled environment for training. Out in the open, where there were people who could get hurt wasn't worth the risk. She missed it, sometimes, but there was something she didn't mind about waiting for Peter to return home and knowing by keeping him healthy and patched up she was helping him be a hero himself. 

"Hey, Penis Parker!" Flash's voice yelled through the school hallways, causing Marinette to grip her textbooks and her eyebrow to twitch.

"Deep breaths." Ned's voice cut in, seeing her try not to strangle Flash for the day. It was a daily struggle she hadn't quite got a grasp on yet."One, come on Marinette you have to follow my zen voice. Follow my voice. One, two-"

"Say three and I'll strangle you without touching you." Marinette's empty promise falls on deaf ears as she openly stares at Flash, who found all the joy in trying to make Peter's life hell on earth. "I just don't get why he can't be anything but a pain in the ass. I'll bet you money he's secretly in love with my boyfriend." 

Ned snorted at the last part she whispered just for him to hear, yet Peter in favor ignored Flash's taunting and wrapped an arm around Marinette's shoulder as the three of them made way to go find MJ before the school field trip.