Quiver | Pietro Maximoff ✔

Chapter Ten

~Eliza's POV~

"Wait. Wait, Eliza." Harley sat up from where he'd been lying on my bed. "What happened, tell me again?"

"He..." I groaned, and flopped onto the bed beside him. "He walked in here and told me he liked me." I muttered, dragging a hand through my hair. "Then I told him he broke my heart."

Harley grumbled, and lay back down, twisting his head as he rolled his eyes at me. "So you did all that - the teasing, flirting with me, to confess straight away that he hurt you?"

I shrugged, trying to avoid his eyes, "it's the truth. And I do like Pietro."

"So what are you going to do? Go and tell him you want to be with him?" Harley playfully narrowed his eyes at me.

"I don't know." I sighed, hiding my face in my hands. I'd fallen asleep after Pietro's confession last night, and Harley had appeared in my room when I was getting ready for the day to find out what Pietro had said to me. He was amused by the situation, but as he was leaving he wanted to be up to date on the gossip. "I need to eat before I do anything else."

He nodded, and rolled to his feet with a slight groan. With his arm held out for me, he escorted me to the door. His arm quickly slung over my shoulder as we stepped into the hallway, and I let him tug me into his side. He squeezed my shoulder softly as we walked down the corridors, and his head bowed down to my ear. "You'll be okay, just go and speak to him after breakfast."

"And say what?" I moaned. "Sorry that I flirted with a stranger, but I do actually quite like you. Would you go on a date with me?"

Harley laughed as he pushed the door to the kitchen, holding it open for me. "That is exactly what you should say."

I glanced up as the room fell quiet, a silence settling over everyone. I caught Pietro's hand freeze in mid air, holding onto a large spoon. A hoop of cereal plopped back into his bowl of cereal, causing a splash of milk to spill over the sides, and his eyes followed it so he could avoid looking at me.

"Queenie, you want a coffee? Tea? Juice?" Tony called from the counter, and I nodded, shrugging Harley's arm away.

"Coffee please." I slunk into the chair beside Thor, who only offered me an amused raise of an eyebrow, before turning back to his glass of orange squash, and plate filled with bacon.

Tony lowered the mug to sit in front of me, before the room settled back into quietness. I wrapped my hand around the warming mug of coffee, and glanced at the others.

Bruce and Steve kept a level eye with one another, careful to not make contact with anyone as the tension thickened in the room. I kept my eyes glued to my drink, biting on my lip as I waited for it to cool enough to drink.

I sucked in a breath, as Harley bowed his head to our group in a friendly nod of acknowledgment. "I'm heading back home now. I'll see you next time I come down?" He looked directly at me, waiting for me to nod in reply before he wrapped an arm around Tony's shoulders. "See you guys later."

A slow hum of chatter rose back to the room as Harley left. Everybody settled back into their conversations, not really noticing Pietro's exit soon after.

A few eyes flicked in my direction once the door shut behind him, and Tony tilted his head to the side, ready to interrogate as he crunched into his buttered toast. He'd obviously been waiting to ask  questions, and I was dreading my answer. "You and Harley?"

I gulped a mouthful coffee down, and feigned ignorance. "What about it?"

"Are you and Harley a thing?" He clarified, waving his hand in the air, "an actual couple?"