LIAR, LIAR. Peter Parker

thirteen. fine line

He fails. Miserably.

Mantis sees the whole thing happen, now finding herself bored at the fight brewing between Nina and Tony against Quill. Instead, she inches closer to Peter, a curious look to her, "Are you two... together?"

"No," Peter answers a little bit too quickly, cheeks turning into a bright shade of red. "I—I'm supposed to hate her."

Mantis looks up at Peter, at his earnest eyes directed at the girl who's currently saying something incomprehensible, wondering how he had entertained the thought that he could ever hate the girl his heart eyes are directed at. "But you don't."

Peter shakes his head, "I don't."

He doesn't notice Mantis' finger tapping itself on his cheek; a small gasp escaping her lips as her antennas light up.

"You're supposed to hate her," Mantis concludes, learning just enough from that single, small touch. "But look at you crossing the fine line. I can feel it."

Peter quirks a quizzical brow. "The fine line between what?"

Mantis nods knowingly, shaking her head softly as she stares at Nina. That single touch - it seemed so little and insignificant yet she understood how Peter felt. It's the pure need to want nothing to do with the girl yet there's a feeling of somehow being irresistibly drawn to her the same time. It's lovely. It's exhilarating. It's interesting. It's exciting.

"I think you know." she mumbles, before disappearing into another area.

Now that makes Peter wonder.

At this point, Nina is summoning a quad blaster, pretending to shoot at a rock while Quill watched with a straight face. Yet, there's an inner dialogue going on his head: I wonder why she makes me feel self conscious and careless at the same time and how my heart flutters when I'm around her. Nina smiles and laughs at Quill (were they getting along now?) which makes his brain scramble. I want to rip off her pretty smile and put it in my pocket for safekeeping so it'll never go away but also how every single thing I see somehow reminds me of her what- oh. Oh.

Oh.

Oh so that's what Mantis had meant.

...

After a thorough discussion of the plan from top to bottom, covering every single detail and every possible thing that could go wrong, Tony had told them to take a breather for a bit before things got too intense; ten minutes, fifteen tops before they all waited at their positions to ambush Thanos.

Nina thought it was a bit stupid, considering Thanos could come at any minute and the chances of him ambushing them when they weren't ready was quite high, but Tony had stressed that a break was necessary and indirectly told her to shut up and just sit.

So that's what she did - sit on a spare rock like a dumbass.

Mantis was jumping around, taking advantage of the abnormal gravity pull, while Peter walked around in circles, playing with his webs until a panicked chorus of no's had left his lips.

"What's got your panties in a twist, Parker?" Nina questions in sheer boredom, her elbows perched up on her knees while her fingers cup her face.

Peter, who's already in the middle of a big crisis makes the stupid decision of glancing at Nina; the sight of her squished cheeks making him lose his mind even more. "I—uh, my web fluid. I was supposed to refill it after the trip and now I'm almost out of it. Now I think I'm screwed."

He genuinely looks like he's freaking the hell out; and a small part of Nina is enjoying this but the other part is concerned, not only for Peter but for the possible repercussions it may make for the rest of the universe.