Avengers Academy

Chapter 17: Now or Never

WARNING ⚠️: YOU WILL STILL NEED TISSUES! I'M SORRY!

Laura has never felt this empty in such a long time. Every time someone tried to talk to her she'd run and hide. When May showed up, she couldn't even face her. Not only did she feel as if she failed Peter, but Laura felt as if she failed May as well. Met knew this line of work was dangerous and it was Laura's fault. But Laura did not see it that way. She was hurting herself more and more but thinking in that way. It broke May's heart to see such a thing happening to such a hopeful girl.

Laura was under the impression that it was all her fault that Peter was almost dead. She couldn't save him. All Laura wanted to do was find a gun. The only way to kill her and not come back was by blowing her brains out. She's done it before with someone who was just like her. First, she killed her own mother out of force. Then let her father die because she was too young and inexperienced. Lastly the only guy who showed her true love and not love from being stuck together for years is now on his death bed because she couldn't save him.

Laura already has enough blood on her hands and it keeps adding up. She's already except her fate. Laura will forever be the monster everyone sees her as. Even if she tries to be a hero. Again, she was by Peter's bedside, watching him just barely breathe. There was a knock on the door. It wasn't a normal one or a loud one, it was soft.

"Laura, I need you to come with me." Stark said through the door.

All she did was get up. Little emotions showing behind her pain. She didn't want to fight. She was too weak to do so. Laura sat in a chair across from Stark in his office. She couldn't even look up that's how much pain she was in. Everything was her fault and she was ready to accept her fate.

"Laura?" She reluctantly looked up tears falling.

When the whole incident went down, Stark was ready to kick her out of the academy for stealing and reacting to a situation that he didn't even realize at the time, should've had every young hero there helping out. He questioned the others as to why they didn't risk their identities just to save the school and their friends. Tony realized that even though she stole from him, it was a good idea that she did or she would've been dead. The suits were meant to withstand those situations, but they were flawed due to being the prototypes.

With the amount of alien matter in their systems, he's shocked neither of them are dead. Tony did not let his frustration over the suit get to him. He managed to get over that part. He was now angry with others for not helping the team out. There was almost two casualties because, for lack of a better term from him, they were too pussy to be heroes. When he heard the distress calls that Laura had sent him he realized that everything petty didn't matter. Peter was dying and so was she. Safety out of all of it comes first. Laura believes she was called into Stark's office to get the final confirmation that Peter was dead, she had been hanging around a dead body with too much hope and that she was getting kicked out.

Her heart ached. She just wanted him to euthanize her rather than give her the bad news. It would be less painful. Even through the pause that felt an hour long, she just wanted all of it to end.

"Laura, Peter..." before he could say anything she started sobbing.

His instincts kicked in and he got up. Tony didn't even need to get to gesture a hand before she shot up and hugged him.

"He's gone isn't he?" She sobbed.

"Laura, he's definitely alive." He said.
She looked up at him in disbelief for a second and then she started crying again.

"The alien matter is weakening. There is hope." Tony said stroking her hair. "What you did was heroic and more important than petty feelings towards prototype suits. You needed them, but I failed at providing them in time.

Tony and Laura headed to the infirmary again to see Peter. She had mixed emotions. Sadness, anger, and just the slightest bit of hope. Could Peter survive this?

"You saved him you know? If you didn't do CPR then he would've died not long after you did it." Tony was right.

Her attempts saved him by a matter of minutes before the right team showed. The reason why they were so late was because someone tried hacking into the system and they were trying to fight that off. Tony opened the door to Peter's section. He still looked lifeless. It killed both Tony and Laura to see him like that. He left Laura alone with Peter. She needed to be alone with him. Again she cried at his bedside, she couldn't stop.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm a monster."

She squeezed his hand a tiny bit. Laura repositioned his hand to where their fingers now intertwined. Weakly, she smiled at her thoughts from in school of them walking the halls hand in hand like this. This brought more tears. She lifted his hand and kissed his hand then held it to her forehead. She didn't know that she'd be stuck in this position for the next three days, three very long, heart wrenching days. After three days, she had gotten used to sleeping in weird positions. She began to eat properly again but refused to eat with the other students. Laura was angry at the lack of teamwork the other students showed. Despicable.

Tony had to come up with some odd excuse as to why they weren't in school. Every student at the academy was reprimanded for their poor decision. It was a rough week for everyone. The only other time Laura would leave was to get clothes to shower in the room he's in. Laura refused to leave. She even stayed when May came. They both help each other through the pain. May knew from the beginning that the two would fall for each other. She may seem like a skittish person, but she can detect when something will happen. May saw it in their eyes. Now that it's been a few days, Laura had hoped that Peter would be awake now. He wasn't which made this harder.

It had gotten to the point where she watched his chest rise and fall, rise and fall. Laura was about to give up and go back to the city but something told her to stay. She now sat there still intertwined fingers with his hand. Laura had dozed off from exhaustion. She didn't realize what would happen next. His eyes fluttered open then squinted from the bright light. Peter noticed his hand was being held. He looked to see a sleeping Laura there. He smirked at the adorable sight but became sad as he saw how her face looked. Tear stained, puffy, horrible bags under her eyes, still a little bit of bruising from the fight, her bone structure poking through from lack of food and water intake.

He didn't want to be mean because he didn't mean it as malice, but she looked like hell. Broke his heart to know it was because of him. Instead of squeezing Laura's hand to wake her up, he let her get the sleep she deserved. Peter still aches but mostly from a broken nose and a couple of ribs. The alien matter did majority of the internal damage. Even beaten, exhausted, bruised, and in so much emotional pain, he still thought she was so beautiful. Obviously no one knew how much he wanted to kiss her right now. Peter already assumed that Laura would be assuming that it was her fault that he's like this. He couldn't wait till she woke up so he could tell her everything she needed and deserves to hear no matter how stupid it was in that moment.

All he could do is stare at her. He let a few tears escape himself. This made him think of the future. This made him think of his dream sequence of Laura. He wants so much more than to make out with her in an alleyway. He wants to call her his. If he has to, he will even give up being Spider-Man to be with her. Peter thought that through but remembered Miles was also Spider-Man and was fully capable of taking over. Peter wanted to do everything he could to be with the sleeping girl who lay there holding his hand. It became too much and he decided it was time. He lightly squeezed Laura's hand. It was now or never.