Ajax is just a junior in high school, just there to get in and get out. She keeps to herself and stays behind the scenes but that changes when she's assigned to work with Peter Parker on a project. She's had her eyes on him since freshman year but n...
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Peter's hands shook at his sides while his heart raced against his rib cage. His mind was pounding with every passing second. Everything in his body was telling him to run the other direction. Leave. Never come back. Just fucking run.
Fight or flight.
That's always his option. No matter what, he's always in a fight or flight situation and being Spider-Man, he always chooses to fight and he usually wins. It usually pays off but this is different. There wasn't some bad or some villain. It was him and Ajax. In a building. A very large, dark, hollowed out building.
A warehouse.
The last place he wanted to be was in a warehouse. It's the place his nightmares take place and rightfully so. What was he supposed to do? Ajax was letting him in and he'd sound ridiculous if he suddenly suggested they head back. He knew she'd back out and not show him again. He needed to suck it up. But every bone in his body was begging him to go home, almost like a magnet pulling him back all while everything around him spun and his breath became shallow.
"You good, Spider-Boy?" Ajax quipped as she leads the way into a large floor room.
Peter took a sharp breath. "Y-yeah...good." His voice shook with the words and he shook his hands at his side, as if that were going to help ease any bit of his anxiety.
Peter kicks himself mentally as he tries to breathe right, his eyes darting in every direction. He needs to focus. But, when he's panicking, the last thing that happens is focusing. He's gotten good at handling his heightened senses but he's mid-panic attack and everything is out of control. He can hear cars from miles away, smell sawdust from when the building was originally being used, he can even sense Ajax's nerves radiating from her and there's nothing he can do. He just taps his fingers and thinks of every possible escape route. Remembers every way they turned in the building and looked for different exits, making sure he could get out safely and with her.
This was such a bad idea.
"Hey, seriously, you okay?" Ajax asks once they're standing dead center, her turning to face him only to be met with him a few feet behind her and his face paler than usual.
"Uh," Peter looks to her and tries to speak. "Y-y-yeah, it, uh, uh," Peter's breathing worsens and Ajax closes the distance between them. "It, uh, I-I can't breathe." Peter says in a shallow breath.
"Yeah, are...are you having a panic attack?" Ajax's brows furrow as she recognizes the expression all too well.
"Uh," Peter shakes his head. "Y-yeah, uh, t-they, I..."
"Okay." Ajax nods and takes a deep breath, pushing her own anxiety out of mind. "I'm gonna get it to stop but you gotta do what I say otherwise we're both gonna start panicking and that won't be good." Peter nods in response.
Ajax sticks out her hand and tells Peter to stick his out as well. His brows knit together but with weak muscles, he does as told and Ajax, hesitantly, grabs his hand. She wraps her hand around his, tighter than a normal handshake and Peter grips her hand as hard as he can which wasn't hard given the panic flowing through him. Ajax closes her eyes for a few seconds with a deep breath.
