The World I Knew [Discontinued]

No Trick, Or Treat

By the time Peter's turn for driving had finished, the sun had disappeared, and it was time to stop for the night, because using the headlights would be a call for attention—and they couldn't afford that.

So they parked, and Hope took the first watch, leaving Peter to sleep.

*****

Two naps, and a shift-and-a-half later, morning rolled around, but Peter didn't wake Hope. He'd been planning to let her sleep, but she startled awake with a gentle gasp when he turned the engine back on, looking around quickly before remembering where she was.

"Morning, sunshine," Peter commented, quietly laughing at her surprise.

"Don't call me that."

"Too late."

"I really wish I didn't have to wake up to your jokes," she groaned, turning onto her other side so she wouldn't have to face him.

"Sorry, Hope. You chose the wrong person to live through the apocalypse with," Peter replied brightly.

"We might not live through it, though," she grumbled.

"Aw, where's your optimism?"

"I don't know. Lost it in a box with my childhood innocence when my mom disappeared."

"That's no excuse! Both my parents are dead, then my uncle, and now my aunt too, I bet, but I'm still optimistic!"

"How?"

"I dunno," Peter shrugged nonchalantly.

Once again, Hope fell quiet, Peter falling into the same routine as the day before, trying to get her to talk, trying to fill the silence, trying to keep her in the playful banter loop, even if that meant her expressing her irritation with him.

A few hours later, after a quick stop at an uninhabited gas station for gas and breakfast, (and to stock up on food) they met forest, and an hour after that, they came across the compound.

"Here we are," Peter said, making the van grow back to normal size, then parking. "Did you know I've only ever been here once?"

"Why?"

"Mr. Stark offered me a spot amongst the Avengers." His face fell slightly. "I declined. That's okay, though," he said, perking up again. "I don't regret it. Staying a street-level vigilante was all I was ready for." He opened the door. "Let's see if we can't some walking... undead?" He frowned, unsure how to phrase it. "Walking living? Just plain living? Non-lurching—"

"Let's just get in, scope the place out, then get out," Hope said, interrupting him.

Peter pouted. "How wude."

Hope looked at him, blinking in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"You intewupted me in da middwe of my sentence," Peter said in his best Jar Jar Binx impression.

Hope looked lost.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Peter gaped at her. "Have you not seen the first three Star Wars movies in timeline order?!" he gasped.

"No. I saw the first three that were made, but I didn't really want to watch anything else."

"You uncultured swine!" Peter gasped dramatically. "Okay, when we fix the world, I am forcing you to watch all of Star Wars!"

"Isn't the franchise, like, massive?"

"Yes!!"

Hope stared at him, then sighed. "Fiiine," she groaned.

Peter grinned stupidly at her, then just before he ducked down to grab his webshooters, having taken them off during one of his shifts, he thought he saw the corners of her lips twitch upwards, but when he stood back up again, it was gone, and he clipped his web shooters on again.