In Different Worlds (MCU/PJO) COMPLETED

XI - Projects With Parker

Alena

I walk into the apartment complex of Peter Parker and don a smile on my face. It doesn't reach my eyes, but even so, the building has a stink unlike any other. I can't place the smell, but I know it isn't pleasant.

I walk up the stairs trying to drag them out. I don't want to be here as it isn't my first choice of preference, but for the sake of the mission, I climb the stairs. But I don't just want to be here in the complex. I don't want to be in America on a mission to subdue a potential target and feed him to the Red Room. Peter seems too nice to send into the horrible people of my home, but they are all I know. As long as I can remember (save the memory of Annushka) I can only remember being in the Red Room. It isn't a very pleasing thing to remember.

Just climbing up the stairs makes flashes of me walking up the stairs to the hallway where I killed for the first time almost makes me cry out in misery to make it stop. But on instinct, I immediately think that emotions make you weak. Not the greatest thing to remember when you're trying to forget. Focus on the mission, Alena. Grieve when you're dead.

I make it to the floor Parker claims he lives on, and search for the door number. The walls are yellow in the hallway, and it is a very terrible color, but the floorboards seem hollow, and walking on it makes me think of the ones in the Red Room that project every noise on it. The flashbacks fly into my mind again but this time I am prepared for them. I immediately shut them out. The first thing you learn in spy training is how to shut emotions out of your expressions, words, and mind. Then you can think rather than care.

I find the door from the address Peter had told me, and I knock on the door placing my fake smile on my face. They never reach my eyes.

A woman with long brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses with a small height (even compared to my stance of 5ft 3) she looks around 5ft 2. Her jittery eyes show her excited nature. She has a build that is fit but not used for my skill-set. She seems as if she was a dancer.

"Hi! You must be Allie! Peter's told me a lot about you! All good of course," the woman rambles. It is sort of relieving to see someone so unsure of what to say. At the Red Room, everything is said as if it is the only thing one said throughout their whole life.

"I'm May by the way. Oo! That rhymed!" May explains ushering me inside the apartment. I give it a quick lookover. There is a kitchen almost immediately left of my stance, and a small living room in front of me. There is a possible escape route need I have a quick getaway. There is nothing else to take note of so far.

I look at the hand in front of me, and my natural instinct was a judo-flip, but I hold back. My firm grip doesn't go unnoticed. "Allie," I briefly state.

"Well Allie, you have a firm grip," May acknowledges. I nod. As usual, my movements are fast, and May seems to notice that. I see her eyeing me suspiciously from my peripheral view from studying the room for potential weapons. I know what you're thinking, Stop scanning a normal person's apartment for weapons! I'm a trained spy and assassin. It's my natural instinct. So far I have noticed at least 8 possible killing devices. If May would ever get in the way of the plan, eliminating her should be easy.

The fact that I thought of that on my own free will is enough to make me grimace as I look down at my feet to take off the shoes I had put on. My blue sweater is baggy, and my black sweatpants with lines down the sides are feeling very heavy at the moment. I have my hair down in my natural middle part. Since I never wear my hair down, it feels strange and unnatural.

"Peter's in his room. I'm surprised he hasn't come out yet. He normally has his door wide open, but for the past few months, it's been closed every time he's in there. I don't know what he's been up to these days, but I have a bad feeling about it," May points out. I nod. But it is not your business what Peter is doing. He is of my concern.

"Peter! Allie's here!" May calls down the hall to Peter. He all but sprints down the hall to my position, and stumbles a bit in his haste. I let out a small giggle.

"Hey! So let's get this project started. I wrote down a few notes already, and I have started on the report already, so sorry if you wanted to do that part. But um, yeah. Wanna get started?" Peter asks me. I nod, and after that moment, I start the most boring hour of my life. Or at least the first hour is. After Peter explains everything it comes naturally. Like I am reading a book in any language and the plot makes perfect sense.

I don't know how but Peter has a way of explaining things in a way that makes it easier to understand. Sure I have all the answers and notes given to me but now I can figure them out just by Peter teaching me.

We work on the project for four hours before the woman Peter calls Aunt May orders us out for dinner. I don't know when but my hair had been changed into a messy bun that I forget when I put it there. And I certainly would never do such a thing as a Red Room girl. Nothing is ever messy. That is definitely weird. I can't believe I wasn't paying attention enough to notice that!

"Peter? Quick question.... of the rhetorical variety," I add quickly by seeing his very much surprised and confused face. I also notice his face change color a bit. Odd. "When did I put my hair up do you remember?" I am genuinely curious to hear his answer since I know I did not do it. By seeing his red face I have to elaborate so it won't come off as strange. "Because I do not recall doing so, I was wondering if you remembered something about it."

Peter's face turns red and his eyes wide. "You sure you didn't? Because I remember seeing you put it up," Peter explains. "Well, I guess you must have because I remember looking at the paper then asking you something and it was up. I just didn't say anything," he replies scratching his neck. He won't look me in the eye.

After dinner, or replace dinner with May's (horrible) interrogation, we go back to Peter's room and work more on the project. It isn't too hard since I understand what we are doing now.

About an hour later, the project is finished. "And..... done!" The science project is finished, and to my relief, I can finally relax and think about the mission.

"Finally! It is over! Who knew our computer science class would be the one we had to think about the most? I mean it is the one that I find the easiest and I am sure you do as well," I ask Peter.

"What? Oh yeah definitely. Well, we might as well turn it in now since it's already done," Peter suggests. I click on the turn in button on my laptop the school had given me, and make sure it sent before I close my laptop.

"So what do we do now? I told my mom and aunts I would not be home for another two hours, and every time I come home early, something bad happens," I tell Peter as I recline on the tiny bed we had been working on.

"Ummmm, since we already ate, we could go for a walk, but I wouldn't since on this side of town at 7:00 in September it's not a good idea to walk around especially someone like you," Peter says. His ears turn red after he realizes what he said. I force my cheeks to turn red, even though part of me is ashamed he thinks so little of my abilities.

"Ummm, I-I mean..... I-I m-mean... That on this side of town it isn't really safe for someone to go walking outside on the streets, well on the streets because there's lots of traffic, of course, it isn't safe, but um..... the sidewalk isn't safe for a pretty girl- I mean itisntsafeforpeopletowalkonthesidewalkonthissideoftownsincetheymightgetrobbedorsomething...." Peter trails off clearly embarrassed.

Now the red on my cheeks is natural. And a smile actually reaches my eyes for once.