The World Is Quiet Here | Peter Parker x Reader

IV. Fresh Start

She was taking him to the very top floor of a studio apartment. Her hand kept hold of his and they made their way up the dusty concrete steps very slowly, careful to not let their bare feet pat against the ground. He wondered how many flights of steps they had to go up before they were where they could stop. 

He was about to take a step up on the next flight when she tugged on his hand, making him spin around. She gestured to a crack in the wall, covered with a patch of newspapers. It looked like they had been pasted to it. She got on her knees and peeled the newspapers off. He realized, with a start, that it was a wood board they were pasted on. 

Inside of the crack was pure darkness, but she still gestured for him to go on inside. He hesitated, eyes wide. She pulled his hand. 

It's safe, she mouthed. I promise.

He had no choice but to trust her, right?

He got down on his hands and knees and began to shuffle his way inside of the tiny doorway. Cobwebs hit his face and he shook his head to get them off (he hated spiders) and then kept on crawling. The little light flooding in from the staircase disappeared as she closed the wooden board behind them and crawled in behind him. 

He kept on going down the one direction the tunnel lead. After several minutes of crawling, his palms and knees hit the soft cushion of pillows. He nearly fell on his face. The room he was in now was more open, but still just as dark. He got out of the way and listened to her stand up and walk over to the other side of the room. 

She grabbed a flashlight and flicked the light on. A stream of bright white light ran along the shelves that were full of books and candles. One by one, she lit a candle, until the entire room was lit up a soft, flickering orange. 

Peter could finally see. He saw the amount of blankets and pillows that made up the floor. The walls were lined with newspaper. Layers and layers of it. There wasn't a window in sight.

"You can talk in here, by the way," she said, and he jumped. "It's safe. They can't hear us in here."

"It's safe?" he asked, unable to believe it.

"Yeah, I know." She sat down next to him. "I made this place when it first started. I haven't been in here in months. Not since I met... not since I met him." She sighed and pulled one of the throws off the floor and put it around her shoulders.

"That guy you were with?" he asked. 

"Yeah," she said. "I didn't know him very long, but... yeah. He was important to me."

"I'm sorry you lost him," he said. "I lost my best friend. My aunt..." He blinked. "This world sucks."

She laughed bitterly. "Yeah, it does." She looked at him and smiled. "You can help yourself to anything you want in here, since it's sort of my fault that your home was destroyed."

"My home?" He raised his eyebrows. "A dirty old van isn't a home."

"I know," she said, smiling. "But I feel bad."

"You don't have to feel bad," he told her. 

"Still. Anything I have is yours, too. I have a lot of food and a ton of books. That's... about it, really." 

He grinned. "I think it's great."

She stared at him as he looked at her bookshelves. "Yeah," she agreed. When he looked back at her, she tore her eyes away. "It's kind of cool, being back here. Like I can start over."

Peter nodded. He pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned against the wall. He held out his hand to her. When she gave him a confused look, he went ahead and grabbed her hand, shaking it. "Hello, I am Peter Parker."

She smiled. "I'm __ ___."

"It's great to meet you," he said. "Tell me about yourself. I see you like to read." 

She ducked her head and laughed. "Uh, yeah. I like to read."

"And why is that?" His voice was strained with a fake professional tone. 

"Because... because when you're reading, your head fills with conversations and noises that you can't hear or make anymore. And that's... that's what I miss most about the world."

He smiled softly. "I like that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He looked down. "I, uh, liked science a lot. I went to Midtown, the science and technology school."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I was supposed to graduate in May."

"Me too," she said. "I was sort of dreading it. Walking across the stage in front of hundreds of people seemed like the most terrifying thing in the world. Now that just seems so stupid."

"No one really expected the world to fall apart the way it did," he said.

"It happened so suddenly," she whispered. "When things started to get real bad, and a lot of people got killed, I found this place. I gathered all the newspapers I could from the street and made my own glue. Every morning, I'd paste a layer until there was no way they could hear a sound made inside of here."

"You were smart," he said. "I just found a van."

She grinned. "Your van wasn't so bad."

"Thanks," he laughed.

"Thank you, by the way, for saving me. I don't even want to think about what might have happened if those things had got me, too. So thank you."

"You're welcome," he said. "And hey, you saved my life, too. Now we're even."

"I guess so." She smiled.

How weird was it, Peter thought, that this place already felt like home.