Mercy ▷ Peter Parker

TWENTY THREE. HEART OF GLASS

In the moments before they started talking, the silence was deafening.

Peter could feel his black eye begin to heal, Nora's hand still placed in his. For a second, he let himself believe that she wasn't mad at him, that this was after any other battle, but it wasn't. Even with his head in the clouds, he knew it was only a matter of time before he crashed back to earth. So, he just sat there, trying to commit this moment to memory, before the fight that would be worse than any other he would face.

When she was satisfied with how his face was healed, she took her hand out of his. "So," she said, voice wavering. "You're Spider-Man."

He nodded. "And you're Mercy."

God, he imagined meeting the girl under the mask to be so much different. He imagined meeting her and everything being alright. He'd be making a new friend, someone he could trust with his life and while he felt he could trust Nora with it, this felt a lot more melancholy than originally thought. Nora stood, walking over to his desk, fingers trailing the frame of the picture they had taken months ago. Her shoulder sagged as she leaned against the desk, turning back around to face him. Folding her arms, she asked. "How long have you known?"

He scratched the back of his head, as if he needed to remember when he found out. "A few hours before going to the airport." she frowned. "You must've activated your beacon without noticing." her whole face went pale, her eyes widening.

"You knocked on my door. You...you ran away!" she said, remembering her confusion when she opened her hotel room door to find no one there. She had thought it was just some rowdy kids from down the hall. "Why did you run away?"

Feeling a little defensive, he stood up. "I didn't know what to say, I panicked!" Nora stood straighter, her scowl returning slightly. "And we were going to fight the Avengers, our heads wouldn't have been screwed on straight!"

Stepping closer, Nora shot back. "Well, you seemed to do a pretty good job doing that even when you knew!" he glared at her and she sighed, running a hand through her hair. Then she stopped, looking him dead in the eye. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

This startled him, so much so that he blinked at the question. "What?"

"Were you ever going to tell me that you knew who I was?"

"I—"

"Were you going to tell me as Mercy?"

He couldn't get the words out. He truly didn't know.

"Or would you have told me as Nora?" All he could was shrug, because he well and truly didn't know. He hadn't thought that far ahead. "Oh my god, you weren't, were you?"

This was starting to feel more like an interrogation rather than a talk, so Peter felt the need to give it right back to her. "Oh, like you're one to talk about keeping secrets."

Nora frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Mr. Stark told me what you did." Nora went rigid, jaw clamping shut. "How you let Captain America go."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "That has nothing to do with it."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't!" Nora finally snapped, shouting. Realising that was a mistake, May was outside and did not need to hear any of this, Nora took a shaky breath, clenching her fists. "That wasn't personal. This is personal!" she seethed, pointing between them.

Peter stood before her, now feeling rage build in him also. "That was personal. What you did."

"Oh, sure, it was." she spoke, sarcasm laced in her words. "I did just so you wouldn't get the chance to hang out with your beloved Avengers."