Of Life And Hope

·.¸¸.·♩♪♫ 🄲🄷🄰🄿🅃🄴🅁 2 - 🄰🄽 🄸🄳🄴🄰 ♫♪♩·.¸¸.·

You simply fished out your phone from your backpack as soon as you proceeded down the street and sent Peter a quick message, saying you could meet him earlier than usual today. With a sigh, you started walking to a nearby rooftop where you could be unbothered until your friend came.

-~:~-

A few hours had passed, as you had expected would happen, and you had made yourself comfy on your sleeping bag. A familiar red and blue blur seemed to approach, hopping from rooftop to rooftop to get closer.

You sat up and greeted the newcomer with a smile. "Hey, Pete. Anything interesting happen today?"

"Not really," he shrugged, tearing off his mask and letting his backpack fall as he sat down. "What about you? Did it happen again? I mean you're here early and with all your things."

"Yeah," you sighed, leaning back against a random pillar you didn't really know the purpose of. "What do I do, Peter?" You sounded more miserable than you had planned to let on but there was nothing to do about it now. "I've been to every orphanage near here. Going further would mean that we wouldn't be able to meet up anymore."

He sighed through his nose. "I don't know, Y/n," he admitted. "You could-"

"No, I won't come to your place again," you denied the idea before he even properly finished recommending it. "I can't keep on being such a burden to both of you. Besides, I think May's been getting a bit suspicious about my excuses."

Peter sighed again, this time defeated. "Alright. I respect that." You two sat in silence for a bit before he spoke again, reaching for his backpack. "Anyway, I brought you a sandwich since I don't suppose you've had dinner yet." You nodded gratefully as he handed it to you.

"And here's the stuff we learned today." He slammed a few textbooks on the cement. "Where do you want to start?"

"Dunno, was there anything actually hard today?" You asked. Not to brag but, despite the fact that you didn't go to school, you were pretty smart. Ever since you knew Peter, you had been learning with him almost every day, catching up on the knowledge of other kids your age.

"Not for you we didn't," he chuckled but then a frown came to his face. "But I can't answer this one question about anthropology. Think you could help me?"

You took the notebook from him. "'Why do people differ in beliefs and behaviors?'" you muttered under your breath.

"It's a 'what's-your-opinion' type of question, isn't it?" Peter asked, uncertain. The question could've also required a scientific approach.

"Man, I don't know," you sighed, laying back on your sleeping bag and staring at the sky that was starting to dim slowly.

"Why do people differ in beliefs and behaviors?" you repeated, racking your brain.

Both you and Peter were silent for the following minutes, your brain working full speed to figure out an answer to that question. Why did people differ in beliefs and behaviors? Why wasn't everything the same? You hummed to yourself as you thought. Maybe people learn from animals around them and different animals live in different places...

Peter snapped his fingers, breaking you out of your daze. You didn't know how to prove why any of his actions didn't scare you enough to make your magic go out of control but you assumed that perhaps it was because you trusted him with your life and knew he wouldn't attack you, hence your survival instinct didn't automatically activate. "I know!" he exclaimed.

"What is it, then?" you asked, raising a brow. Perhaps he had thought the same way you did. That would've been interesting.

"You could come to the Avengers' Compound with me!"

"How is that even connected to beliefs and- ohhhhhhh." It dawned on you.

"Yeah!" he nodded eagerly. "They could help you control your powers - if anyone can help you, it's them - and there are so many spare rooms there that I'm sure Mr. Stark wouldn't mind you staying in one. At least for a little while."

"I don't know," you answered, drawing out the words.

"Come on, Y/n! They're really nice, I promise!"

You really didn't want to do this but you knew you would in the end and since you were sure you wanted it deep down and it would've made you look stupid when you gave in later if you started resisting even more now. Besides - how could you say no to Peter when he looked like a puppy when he was happy?

"Fine," you sighed, standing up and starting to pack your stuff. "How do we get there?"

"With the next bus," Peter answered without hesitation. He grabbed your phone from the cement roof of the building and checked the time before handing it back to you. "We have 20 minutes. The bus stop's right down the street."

You watched as he started walking to where the ladder was. "You planning on going on a bus when you're still dressed like Spider-Man?" you half-joked. He would've blown his cover if he did and that wouldn't have been good. He was dead set on keeping it a secret although you didn't exactly know why.

Was it to protect May because villains would go after her to get to Peter? Was it because he was afraid of what people would think? Was it because he still wanted to have a normal life?

The possibilities were endless but you didn't really think there was a deep reason for Peter to be as secretive as he was. Except for privacy reasons but that wasn't exactly a deep reason. It was a... reasonable reason.

"Oh, yeah," he nodded with a sheepish smile and dropped his bag and your sleeping bag which he had offered to carry. He pulled out a high-collared jacket and jeans from his bag and pulled them on top of his costume, finishing off with a pair of sneakers. Only a strip of red showed near his ankle but that could've been written off as socks.

"You ready?" he asked, casting his eyes over the roof once more.

"Yep, all good here," you confirmed, casting a look around for yourself, too.

-<>-

You sat at the window seat, watching the familiar houses and streets change into unfamiliar ones and your heart started to pound against your chest as you started to feel more and more nervous. You had spent your whole life in Queens, except for some field trips. It was strange to just... leave it all behind.

"Hey, you all right?" Peter asked in a low voice, tapping your shoulder.

"I guess I'll be," you answered honestly. "Just a little nervous."

"They'll like you, don't worry," he assured.

"Yeah but there's always the chance that they won't. And we're just walking in there when they're not even expecting you, not to mention me," you pointed out, biting the inside of your cheek. Perhaps you should've thought this through a bit more.

"Don't worry, I was supposed to go today, anyway," he shrugged. "I'll just be there a bit early."

"Okay, if you say so," you gave in, dismissing the topic although you didn't feel all that much more encouraged.

A few minutes later, the bus stopped and you felt Peter shift next to you as he stood up. "Come on, this is our stop." You followed him off the bus and when you had walked just around a corner, there it was. The Avengers Compound.