𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xli. honest

chapter forty one
honest

    "WHAT are you gonna do about the water monster?"

    Peter frowned at Ned from the corner of his eye. He jiggled the key they were given for their hotel room into the lock━desperately trying to get the damned thing to work. Chatter still echoed up the staircase from the lobby below and in the hallways that seemed to just tilt ever-so-slightly forward as if the building was rocking on the canals itself. Peter grew tense at each groan and each moan the foundations seemed to make━he was prepared for this whole building to collapse beneath his feet. 

     "Nothing," he said to his friend, giving his key another harsh jolt. Their non disturbano sign fell off onto the carpet and he sighed as he went to pick it up. "It's dead. And besides," he chucked it to Ned who barely caught it, giving him an estranged look, "that Mysterio guy's all over it."

     He gave the key another final shove and it turned. Though he was sure he broke the lock itself in his attempt to do so. Peter turned it━not really paying attention to how he twisted it so harshly the knob became ajar from its screw, dangling from the hole. Peter didn't realise and stepped into their hotel room. It smelt like canal water━like everything else in this hotel. The walls were a dark musty blue and the floorboards creaked under his feet. Peter walked up to his toiletry bag he had left on the single sink in the centre of their room, grabbing his toothbrush. 

     He wasn't thinking much about anything else other than the conversation he had with Nina at the stairs. It made his heart race and feel as if he could leap to the height of Saint Mark's Basilica━she smiled at him, and she leant against his shoulder (and apparently she liked his abs? That was enough of a compliment from the girl he had a super huge crush on━). But while he was ecstatic from such a great conversation with his closest friend and his ex-girlfriend who he hoped would become his girlfriend once more, there was a dreadful worry in the pit of his stomach at the way she had left ... after what he said, joking that she'd fall off the Eiffel Tower, she looked pale; terrified as if she saw her whole life flash right before her eyes. 

    Peter didn't want to think about it, because the look on her face scared him as well━he was scared to ask her about it, for a reason he couldn't quite comprehend, but it made him unsettled. And so he focused on everything else. 

     "Look," he squeezed the toothpaste onto his brush he had bought from the supermarket back in New York the day before they left, "I just wanna spend time with Nina━we were talking and joking around and I think she still really likes me."

     Ned made a face that said, no shit. "Dude━did you hear her? She likes your abs. She said you're strong." Peter shrugged to tell him, added bonus. 

     "Yeah, but she likes me as me," he told him, not completely dismissing the thought that yeah, he really did like the idea she thought he was strong (which then led into hot). "She likes me for being both Spider-Man and Peter Parker━she doesn't want me to be anything more, or anything less," Peter smiled to himself, his voice growing muffled as he began to brush his teeth. "Unlike the rest of the world."

     "That's nice," said Ned. "Reminds me of when Betty and I first fell in love," he closed the door behind him as he entered the hotel room. I had just finished my fruit cobbler, and..."

      It took Peter a moment to realise Ned hadn't finished, too busy contemplating on the fact that he only had a fruit cobbler this evening━

     The thud of Ned's body hitting his bed made Peter jump. He spun around, and his heart leapt into his throat to see something sharp and thin poke out the side of his best friend's neck: a dart. Peter's eyes widened. His breath hitched━something sparked; the hairs on the back of his neck stood up ...