Iridescent ↳ Peter Maximoff

14 | finally happy

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FINALLY HAPPY

-

WHEN ASKED BY PETER, Brianna told him that she was in fact, feeling much better now than she had been the past week.

"Good, I don't like you when you're grumpy," he says bluntly, looking curiously around her room, of course, without her permission. He opens up her top desk drawer, pulling out a bunch of papers.

"And I don't like you when you're snooping," she replies, jerking the papers from his grip without ripping them and putting them back in the drawer, slamming it shut.

"Oh, look what I've done, I made you grumpy again," he says irritatedly, puffing air out of his cheeks.

"I am not grumpy! I just wish you'd know the definition of privacy."

"Oh, I know what the definition of privacy is, I just choose to ignore it when I'm around you."

"And why would you do that?" She asks, setting her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow. "I don't have the right to it, like everyone else?"

"Not as long as I'm around." He smirks, rifling through her things again.

Brianna groans in frustration.

"Don't pretend like you don't love it," he teases, winking. She just rolls her eyes and plops down on her bed, lying flat on her back with her arms outstretched across the mattress. "You look thoroughly bored."

"Wow, you're perceptive," she sasses, staring at the ceiling. It's a Saturday, and there are no classes, and training isn't until later. That is, if Brianna chooses to go.

"You know what? We should do something fun," he says, putting the things back in place. Brianna sits up and gives him a look. "Oh, not that, get your head out of the gutter."

Pink tints her cheeks as she stands up and faces him, a curious look on her face.

"What do you want to do then?" She asks.

"Whatever you want."

"Okay, I want to do nothing."

"Except that." She groans and turns, running her fingers through her brunette hair. "Forget it, come on," he says, taking her hand and pulling her out of the room. "We're going to have a fun-filled day. And you're going to enjoy it, whether you like it or not."

She scoffs, but follows after him anyways.

***

She could have just gave him an electric jolt with her fingers to stop him from being such an arse, but she was a bit curious about what he had in mind, so she followed willingly.

Peter did not bother to get the two of them to their destination the long way, instead he held the back of Brianna's head and ran the two of them there in a matter of seconds.

She stumbled, feeling the familiar wave of nausea like the last time. Peter took her arm to keep her from falling and helped her regain her posture. "W- where are we?"

He doesn't give her an immediate answer. She hears the sounds of distant conversations and cars zooming by near her and realizes that she is standing on a sidewalk. She lifts her head to the building in front of her, and finally turns her head to Peter, who is wearing a triumphant grin.

"Ice skating?" She asks, eyebrow raised curiously. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah," he says, and proceeds to drag her inside the place after him. The temperature seems to drop ten degrees as they step inside, surrounded by chilled air and happy faces.

Brianna had never been to an ice skating rink. She's never been hardly anywhere; she never left the mansion as a child and it remained that way as she grew older. Truth be told, she preferred being alone than around other people, especially strangers.

Peter was determined to change that.

He notices these little things about Brianna Xavier; the way she acts when others are around, the way she mumbles her replies, the way she stays hiding in the library all the time.

When confronted about this, she just shrugs and glances at her feet, tying up her ice skates tight. "I don't know. I don't really fit in."

"You're a mutant in a school full of mutants," Peter deadpans, as if Bree didn't already know that, "how can you not fit in?" He sits down on the bench, wielding his own pair of skates and sliding them onto his feet.

"Exactly." She chuckles quietly, even though she does not find any bit of this conversation funny. She thought if she tried to laugh it would lighten the air around them, but it didn't. "I think because Charles is my father, the other students assume that I can do whatever I want whenever I want without getting scolded."

Peter pauses his movements, glancing sideways at the brunette. "Don't you, though?"

"Oh, yes, I do, actually," she replies honestly. "But I do get scolded, and not just by Charles. Many of the other teachers give me hell for it, I just ignore them most of the time."

Peter sits up and nudges her shoulder, a playful smile on his face. "You're such a rebel." She opens her mouth to argue, but then closes it again. She does this a lot as she tries to figure out what to say. Peter laughs, the corners of his mouth turning upwards.

"I- I- no, I'm not!" She says, and she realizes that her and Peter are still shoulder to shoulder. Heat rushes to her cheeks and she looks at the ground. "Are we gonna..." she trails off, gesturing towards a group of people heading down the hall towards where the ice rink must be.

"Right, yeah," says Peter, getting to his feet and taking Bree's hand, pulling her up with him. He stood a few inches taller than her, but she didn't seem bothered by this height difference, so neither did he.

Peter doesn't mind actually taking his time walking with Bree, instead of using his powers to get them there faster. In fact, whenever he is with her, he wants time to slow down, wants to savor every moment with her.

"What are you looking at?" She says playfully, noticing Peter's eye lingering on her. He just shakes his head and looks in front of him, eyes glinting with happiness.

"Hey, can I say something?" He asks, and his voice wavers. Brianna has never heard Peter sounding nervous before and it worries her.

"Sure," she replies, and the next few seconds are a mashed blur, consisting of Peter turning to face her and taking a step closer to her, closing the distance between the two and pressing his lips to hers.

Brianna is tomato red by the time Peter pulls away, and she immediately misses the closeness of the previous seconds.

"Well said," she says breathlessly, trying to contain her blush, but failing miserably. Peter only finds it cute and grins at her, intertwining their fingers together once more and stumbling off towards the rink, both of them wearing stupid grins.

All Bree could think was that she was finally happy.