Boys like Boys|| Peter Parker

.6.

When the woman woke up, she went straight for Bucky's throat, punching it with all her might. It was a fight or flight response, which Oliver understood, but he still took out the knife in his pocket and aimed it at her throat, daring her to move.

The anger in her eyes vanished instantly, her eyes softening in confusion and fear. Slowly, she sat up in the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, still apprehensive of her surroundings and the people that surrounded her.

"You..." She looked at the boy. So much had changed, yet he looked somewhat the same and that was all the comfort she needed.

"Me...?"

Her hand flew to her nose. She grimaced when she felt blood but ultimately looked at Oliver with a grateful sparkle in her eyes. "You saved me."

She dragged her fingers through her blond hair, and scoffed as if she couldn't believe it.

"You saved me" She repeated. Then she started forward and for a second, Oliver thought she was going to murder him, but she only took his hands into her own. "Thank you"

"...And sorry" She added, looking at Bucky who was still wheezing. The man waved the concern away as if he was fine, but he didn't look that way.

"What's your name?" Oliver tried to smile kindly. Obviously this woman found some comfort in him, and he didn't want to spook her again.

"Madam Petrova used to call me Anomaly"

The broken nose was causing her some pain and her words seemed a little muddled up, but she didn't let that stop her.

"What is up with everyone having whack ass names?!"

"What— what he means by that is" Bucky glared at the boy, "You're free, you can choose your own name"

"She only called me that because Alyssa and I were the only ones who survived the tests" She looked at Oliver as if he would continue but he was lost in thoughts of his own. Now he understood why she looked familiar. They hadn't spoken at all when they had been sent to Baron Von Strucker, but he remembered a blond woman being escorted back to the red room along with him. Did that mean...

"Wait, do you have powers?" Oliver's eyebrows rose. He had never considered anyone else from that experiment having powers. Dreykov had sent fifteen or so widows and except for Anomaly and Oliver, all of them had died. Those were the worst few months of his life and as much as Oliver never wanted to remember the reason he had powers, right then, he had to.

He hated that place, and he so desperately wished he could erase all fourteen years of his life and start over again. He remembered being forcefully volunteered by Madam Petrova to be sent to Strucker for his fucked up experiments. 

None of them yielded any results and this Anomaly and Oliver were apparently the only ones to make it through alive.

After that, they were shipped back to the red room as 'failed experiments'. Not the best label. It was humiliating, and what was worse was that it made Madam Petrova harder on him. So, he pushed himself to prove that he really was as good— if not better than the other widows.

He didn't even know he had powers for months. And by the time he found out, he didn't want to face Madam Petrova's wrath. So, like so many things about himself, he hid it.

"Powers?" the word seemed foreign coming from her mouth and Oliver cringed as he realized she genuinely didn't know. "No, I don't have powers" She licked her lips and drank some water that Bucky had offered her. "But you do, Alyssa- don't you?"

"My name... My name is Oliver" He frowned. He couldn't worry about the woman's comfort when hearing that name made him want to throw up.

"Okay.. Oliver" Something about her tone made Oliver feel she wasn't as open minded as Bucky. "But that's the thing isn't it? Madam Petrova found something— something kept hidden by a widow. The widows are Dreykov's property, we're not allowed to be our own selves."