Scarlet Season

Up in the Clouds

Once you and Steve finally reach the end of the extremely long hallway, you are faced with a large white door. 

You hear a great deal of laughter on the other side, some of the voices sound familiar. 

"Ready?" Steve asks you, motioning for you to walk in to the room; you nod.

You slowly open the door and, as you enter, everything goes silent. 

Looking up, you see your mom; the one person that you've been dying to talk to. Quickly, you run over and hug her. 

"Mom!" you squeak out. 

As the two of you release from the embrace you sit down on the couch beside her. 

"Hey Scar, how are you feeling?" 

"Mentally or physically? Because I'm not feeling great either way," you say with a small laugh. 

Seeing your mom made you completely forget that the two of you aren't the only ones in the room. 

You scan the room and see a bunch of new faces, and in the corner, Peter's. 

"I know this is all a big mess but, we're going to explain everything to you," your mom says as she reassuringly places her hand on your forearm. 

You turn to face her and then look back at Peter, he's shifting around uncomfortably knowing that you're watching him. 

"Can... can I talk to just Peter for a minute?" you ask your mom. 

She looks over at him as if to ask for his permission, he nods. You head towards the door and Peter follows, the two of you walk in silence to the hallway.

Once you enter the hallway and are far enough out of earshot, you speak up. 

"Peter..." you say, pausing for a moment to think about what you should say next. Before you can get any words out, he cuts you off.

"Look, I get I- I do. You're upset that I left you last night and you don't want anything to do with me now, that's okay; and I am r-really sorry," he sighs "really sorry," he finishes while looking down at his feet. 

"What? No no no. I came to say that I'm sorry, and thank you." You reassure him. Clearly this is not the response that he was expecting. 

"Why?" Peter asks with a very puzzled look; you laugh a little to yourself. 

"Peter, you can drop the act with me. I know that you're Spiderman," you giggle. 

Peter looks around in shock and then looks at you with a weird expression. 

"W-why would you think that?" he nervously laughs as he crosses his arms. 

"Chill, Tony told me. Which means that you're the one who saved me last night, not the one who left me," you smile.

He runs his right hand through his hair and lets out a huge sigh of relief.

"Well, now that you know my secret, no more pushing me away, physically or mentally, right?" He jokes.

"Thank you for saving me," you say as you gently pull him into a hug, he hugs back.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you Scarlet," Peter says. Your face is buried into his chest; you smile a little to yourself. 

The two of you stay embraced for a few moments before breaking apart. Once you do, you reach down and grab both of his hands in your hands and squeeze them, it's your way of physically letting go of stress. When you look back up at him, he looks at you with his adorable goofy smile. 

"I should probably get back to my mom," you say. As much as you don't want to leave him, there's too much that you need to be figuring out right now. 

"Okay," he says. The two of you walk back towards the room that your mom is in; your left hands are linked together. 

Right before you open the big white door, you pull your hand out of Peter's and let it fall to your side. You don't know what this connection is yet, but you sure don't have any time to focus on figuring it out right now.  

You flash him one more quick side smile and open the door. 

As you enter the room everyone, including Peter, leaves. 

You walk back over to the couch and sit down next to your mom. 

"What?" she asks, noticing the very upset expression on your face. 

Back to reality now, no time to let your head be in the clouds thinking about Peter. 

"I just want to be normal mom," you say, your voice breaking as you speak. "I just want to be like every other fifteen year old girl. I want to be able to go to the mall with my friends and go to parties and sneak out and have fun like everyone else. The only time that I ever snuck out, last night, I almost got killed. I don't want to be the daughter of some intergallactic super villain, I just want to be.... normal," you finish. 

You're aware that everything that you just said was completely insensitive to her feelings, but you needed to say it. 

She's taken aback by your quick and elaborate response, but after a few seconds she flashes you a sad smile and speaks up. 

"Scarlet, I realize that it's all strange and weird right now; it was weird for me when I first found out who your real dad was too but, like the quotes say, normal is boring. You're so much more than normal sweetie. You have the power to save lives and change the world, not just verbally but physically. You are capable of so much more than you think." She pauses for a minute, you don't say anything. "Loki is technically a bad guy, but he does have a good side to him," she says, smiling at you. 

Your eyes fill up with tears. "You really think so?" 

"I know so. He may be wicked in many ways but, his good side is genuinely good. He always always wanted to be there with you when you were young, but I-" 

You're crying now, silently sobbing. 

"You wanted me to have a normal life," you mumble between sobs. 

She pulls you into a hug and you stay there, crying out all of your pain. 

"I'm so sorry Scarlet," she softly says as she strokes your hair.