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Of all the things I expected Uncle Tony to tell me when I got back home, what he told me wasn't one of them. I was ready to hear "Lila Barton, I cannot believe you!", "I'm ashamed of you.", or as far as "there's a cell next to your father's with your name on it." I was prepared for the worst of the worst.
But when I parked Ninja behind the unloading school bus, I was met by Happy, thankfully not Uncle Tony. Standing outside his black car, arms folded over his chest with a hard-to-read expression on his face. I avoided his eyes, instead I scanned the crowd of kids for Peter. First I saw Aunt May, and realized the tired boy she was speaking to was Peter. He caught my eye, mumbled something to his Aunt and made his way to me.
I realized my expression mirrored his, utter exhaustion, and an ounce of relief that we had made it back to New York alive. Seeing him was a reminder of everything we had just endured. We had lost one battle, but in the end came home as champions, after the successful encounter in the Washington monument. We saved all his friends, personally I wouldn't have minded if we didn't save the Flash boy, but that didn't seem like a very fair thing to do in that moment in time. At least that's what Peter told me.
When Peter approached me, neither one of us spoke, he just fell into my arms, and I did the same to him. It was a silent decision we both agreed on: Just hold the other, make sure, and be thankful that they're in one piece. I didn't care about the fact that his head was resting against my neck, or that I could feel his body heat radiate against mine. I didn't care that his arms enveloped me, holding me against his beating heart. Our embrace didn't repulse me, the feeling of human contact. In this rare occasion, all I wanted was the feel of his body against mine, the comfort and compassion that swelled through me when his arms held me together.
When our embrace came to an end, I pulled away, offering him a lazy grin. "I'm glad we're alive."
"I was about to say the same thing," he agreed lowering his arms from my sides. He looked so tired, like he could fall asleep right then and there if I let him. "I'll uh, see you tomorrow? We can regroup at my place after school."
"Yeah, okay, your place, after school," I took mental notes, hopefully that would stick with me through the night.
I pulled away, saying a small goodbye, then pushed my bike over to Happy, away from the worried parents who were enlightened to see their children. I approached him, my head lowered, looking for the right words. When he didn't speak, I looked up and decided to speak first, "I'm not sorry about D.C., you or Uncle Tony can yell at me all you want. I did the right thing, I know it was the right thing to do, and"-
"Lila," Happy's interruption caused me to pause my speech I had been practicing in my head, "you did good. Boss thinks so, too."
