Avengers Imagines

You're Not Safe Here- Peter Parker

(Gender Neutral Reader)

You tapped your fingers against your long empty coffee mug absentmindedly. Your focus was on the book in front of you, reading the same paragraph about gene therapy for the fourth time. It seemed the rest of the twenty-four-hour café, which was only the barista and a few stragglers, was foggy background noise in your tired state. The forces of exhaustion started to drag your eyelids down, which you tried to fight off. Tried. Three cups of coffee didn't do much to help, evidently.

Still trying to focus on the textbook in front of you, you brought the mug to your lips again, forgetting that it was empty. That was enough to pull your attention to your surroundings for the first time in who knows how long. A glance at your phone revealed 1:06 a.m.

You pulled yourself to your feet and dragged them over to the counter. "Could I get a refill, please?" you asked the barista with a small smile. He nodded, and you assumed he grabbed your mug to refill, but you ran your hands over your closed eyes. A tired sigh escaped your lips as you mentally cursed your professor for deciding to have a final after weeks of telling you there wouldn't be one. Well, you cursed yourself for putting off studying until two days before it, but still.

"And there you are." The barista's voice pulled your focus back to the real world.

"Thank you..." you muttered before turning back to your table with a freshly poured mug, which you were already gladly drinking. You had to will your eyes to stay open approaching your table.

Another sigh left your lips when you sat back down, and you tried to mentally prepare to finish the chapter in front of you. Only, your book wasn't in front of you.

"Uh, hi?" a confused voice in front of you pulled your focus up from the table, and to the eyes of a guy about your age. Suddenly, the tired clouds in your head seemed to clear.

"This isn't my table, is it?" you rhetorically asked. A glance over your shoulder revealed that the table you had been sitting at, was in fact the next one over. "Sorry," you tiredly chuckled, turning back to the guy across from you, "I think I've been here too long. I'll let you get back to your night." You went to stand up, but he quickly stopped you.

"No, it's uh, okay," he shyly smiled at you. "You can stay, if you want." You quirked a brow at him, slowly sitting back down. "I'm Peter." He swung his hand over for a proper introduction.

You smiled yourself, shaking his hand. "Y/N." In the midst of the exchange, you were able to get a better look at him. A few locks of brown hair stuck to his forehead, there was a warmness in his brown eyes, and some bright red fabric peeking out from under his t-shirt caught your eye.

"So, what brings you here at one a.m., if you don't mind me asking?" Peter broke your concentration with his question.

"Oh, just studying for a final that I should have been preparing for since last week," you said before a sip, and by the smile on his face, you could tell he knew the feeling. "What about you?"

Peter tensed for a moment. He tried to brush it off, but you still caught it. "Oh, I just uh, couldn't really sleep."

You narrowed your eyes at him. "While I just met you, I don't believe you," you teased, but there was something about him that made you really want to know if something was wrong. Peter cracked a smile, but it seemed it would take more effort than that to get him to speak his mind. "Do you want to talk about it? Whatever's bothering you?"

He looked up to meet your eyes. "How do you know something's wrong? What if I am just tired?"

"I just have a feeling, I guess. Plus, I'm a stranger. You'll probably never see me again, so what's the harm in venting?" you smiled encouragingly. He seemed to study your face for a moment, similar to how you did a minute ago, before softly sighing.

"You ever feel like the whole world is caving in on you? Like, everything that's gone wrong, it's because you can't stop it?" Peter said quietly. You had to admit, you were a bit stunned at that. Strong beginning...

"Like everything you do to help only makes things worse?" you added. Unfortunately, you knew the feeling. A spark of recognition lit up his eyes for a moment.

"Exactly. Any idea how to fix that?" The ironic chuckle that accompanied his question ultimately made it rhetorical. It was something neither of you had a concrete answer to, but you at least wanted to try and offer a suggestion.

"I guess just, know that it can never be just on you." You shrugged. "Just, trust that the world's never caving in on you alone." Peter stared at you after you spoke, and embarrassment started tainting the edges of your mind. "That sounded really cheesy, didn't it?" you said with a flustered smile.

"No, no, I mean" Peter started quickly, "...yeah it sorta did." You let out a short laugh and shook your head. "But I appreciated it. A lot, actually." Glancing up to Peter's eyes, you could tell the smile on his face was genuine. Genuine enough for you to smile in return.

The two of you talked much longer than anticipated, nearly two hours in fact. He even offered to help with your much less than appealing homework. And to walk you home.

"But the thing is, even if someone were to survive going through a wormhole with minimal protection, we wouldn't know what the repercussions would be until the person came back down," Peter rambled, seeming much more comfortable after a few hours of odds and ends conversation.

"If they make it back alive, that is," you added.

"Exactly!" The fact that he still had energy at three a.m. was astounding. You chuckled as you wrapped your arms tighter around your body, a chill whipping through an alley the two of you walked by. The two of you walked slowly down the unpopulated street, like you subconsciously wanted to extend your time together, which in all honesty, you did. You liked Peter. A decent amount despite just meeting him. And as his arm brushed against yours, you thought that maybe he was starting to like you too.

Suddenly, a commotion from across the street caught both of your attentions. It seemed to be coming from a fluorescently lit alleyway, and was getting louder. You'd been in Brooklyn long enough to what a mugging looked like. You and Peter slowed to a stop.

Peter tensed next to you, but a glance up to his face revealed that he wasn't scared, he seemed to have a determined expression.

Then someone cried for help.

"Shit, we have to go help that guy," you said quickly and started to cross the street, when Peter caught your arm. "Peter?"

"Please, just get out of here, okay?" he said frantically and moved to run past you, but you caught his arm that time.

"I'm coming with you. We don't know if those guys have a gun or- Look, we're both going, alright?" you matched his insistent tone.

"Please, don't argue okay? You have to leave right now, you're not safe here," Peter said with concern in his eyes.

"Neither are you!" you shouted. The two of you stared at each other in a moment of silent pleading, both hoping for the opposite answer. Another yell came from the alley, and you couldn't take it anymore.

You sprinted across the street, hearing a muttered "Shit..." from Peter behind you.

________________________

Hello! How's it goin? So this one is a two parter, and I was gonna try to shorten it to one chapter, but today the Far From Home trailer was released, (which looks fuckin awesome) so I thought Peter deserved more than one chapter lol Anyway, thanks for reading! Part 2 will be up soon! Love you guys