Touch the Stars {Peter Parker}

Act 4: Move Up With the Tides

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"If you move one inch from the splits then I'm making you do it for another five minutes."

Peter gritted his teeth, placing his head against the ground to stifle groans of pain. The inside of his thighs felt like they were on fire from how he was forced to do the middle splits. No wonder why Peter never enrolled in a martial arts class, if they worked on their middle splits every class, then call Peter out.

"Why is this necessary again?"

"Flexibility isn't something you need," Liam said as he was effortlessly doing the middle splits in front of Peter. "But it's an advantage you could have when it comes to hand-to-hand. Sometimes, they won't expect a kick to the face when you're punching each other."

Okay, fair, but still. This was excruciatingly painful. They stayed like that for another minute, Peter's face burrowed into the folds of his elbow as he weathered through the pain. "Alright, time's up."

Peter groaned loudly in relief as his legs automatically moved inward, desperate in their attempt to escape the uncomfortable position. "Uh, who said that we're done with stretches?"

"We're still going to do the splits?!" Peter almost screamed at Liam.

"Flexibility stretches," Liam corrected, an amused smile playing on his lips. Placing palms in front of his crotch and behind his behind, Liam shifted forward, his legs splayed at a 160-degree angle. "Come on, stretch."

Peter didn't bother to hide his groan of dismay as he shifted forward. Lodging his feet against Liam's ankles, he pulled himself closer to the point that they were chest-to-chest. It was getting a little hot, and Liam played with his bottom lip as a pink flush graced his cheeks. "Hands."

Peter raised an eyebrow but gave Liam his hands nonetheless. "Okay, now you're going to pull me as far as you can go."

Peter blinked, taking a moment to process the directions before he nodded. Pulling on Liam's wrist, the secret vigilante craned his back as far as it could before he ended up pitifully laying on the grass.

"Yup," Liam's voice seemed peaky from what Peter could hear. Though, it may be a trick of his ears considering Liam's face was almost buried into Peter's chest. "That's a good stretch."

Despite himself, Peter felt a flush rising in his ears. The position was awfully intimate, but there was no ulterior motive behind it beyond stretching. In an attempt to wave off the awkwardness, Peter decided to strike up a conversation. "So uh...why did you start practicing martial arts and stuff?"

"I just wanted something I could use," Liam replied. He pulled his head up, and his chin was resting on Peter's chest. However, Liam's face flashed a deeper red before squeezing his eyes shut and burrowing his face again. "Funny thing was, I actually didn't want to learn martial arts in the first place."

"Really?"

"Yup, I was there to learn something else, but my teacher just decided to teach me how to fight for the kick of it."

"How'd you meet..."

"Meet who?" Liam asked. He pulled at Peter's wrist and their positions were reversed, Liam on the grass and Peter splayed over him.

"You know..."

"Oh him? He...was my sparring partner," Liam eventually answered. "The first time he became the Ronin was the second New York Invasion. I bumped into him while we were separated, and the rest is history."

"Oh," Peter commented. He didn't have much else to say after that. It was cool and a little surreal to think that his friend was on good terms with Ronin. What was he like in real life? And sparring partner? That sounded scary. Sparring with a guy who could cut bullets with his blade at ease, Peter could already feel a pit of anxiety just thinking about the prospect. Though it did beg the question, what was the relationship between Ronin and Liam? Liam had a lot of...choice words about the vigilante.