Retrospect『 avengers au 』

Chapter V: The Peter Tingle

Peter nodded immediately. "Okay, I can do that. Is there anything else I should know before I meet her?" He wondered aloud, suddenly becoming nervous. The boy couldn't even handle the idea of interacting with a teenage girl despite the fact that she is literally a mutant who has no clue what's going on. He'd just have to pretend she's like his friend Michelle or something. Platonic, with no need to impress. Just befriend her. Make her feel comfortable. No biggie, right? I don't know, Peter thought.

Tony nodded in response to the teenage boy's question. "Yeah, a few things: she doesn't remember anything from before I found her except for little blips of the beach, and she hasn't spoken. We think she has a mental block due to PTSD," he informed Peter and the boy's heart fell slightly in pity for the girl. "And I told her about the team, including you, and about the city so she knows where she is and what to expect. Just make light conversation to get her mind off of things. She needs a friend. I don't think she's ever had one."

Peter nodded his head of sandy brown locks in determination. "I can be that," he assured his mentor and Tony nodded in relief at the boy's confidence. "Should I change before I meet her?"

Tony raised an eyebrow, sending his gaze over Peter's appearance- his red and blue spandex suit with a spider on the front. "Yeah, I don't know how she'd feel about a teenage boy in a red and blue skin-tight onesie," he told Peter.

Peter chuckled slightly in amusement before he raced off to the nearest bathroom to change out of his Spider-Man suit and back into his jeans, tee-shirt, hoodie and sneakers he had worn to school that day. His shirt had a witty pun referencing to Science with a cartoonized picture below it that he found quite hilarious. Maybe that could be the ice-breaker when he met this mutant girl so she could see he wasn't a threat in the slightest. To be honest, without his suit, Peter didn't look threatening at all anyway. Barely more so even with his suit on, actually.

The teenager looked forward to possibly making a new friend. And even more exciting, someone who was different like him- a mutant. Yes, there was the Hulk on the team of Avengers that he could bond with over his mutation, but this time it would be someone his age- someone unsure and afraid of their abilities, just like Peter. Maybe this was someone who he could also confide in as well... if she liked him. He always did his best to be a likable person but there were quite a few people at his school who picked on him. Then again, his reputation was unknown to the mutant girl. Peter had a clean slate with her. Maybe he could give off a persona of being confident and cool, unlike his nervous self whenever he was surrounded by fellow students from his school.

Taking a deep breath and one last look at himself in the bathroom mirror, Peter grabbed his backpack and exited, finding Tony awaiting him. He was soon being led down the hall towards the large elevator around the corner, enjoying a short ride before Tony was guiding him through a door into a laboratory. Peter was amazed by the elaborate setup of monitors, computers, scanners, etc. that had been arranged and organized so neatly and precisely in the modest-sized room that separated the hallway from the private room the girl resided in.

The girl was the next thing Peter noticed and he slowly made his way closer to the tinted one-way glass as his eyes examined her sitting atop her bed sheets, her focus currently on a notebook in her lap. Her shoulder-length brown waves provided a curtain of privacy for her face as her head tilted downwards closer to the book. She seemed to be drawing something, her hand slow and steady, circulating wider every now and then. Peter noticed the freckles that lightly sprinkled her arms and he smiled slightly to himself at how small her hands appeared to be.

"Whenever you're ready, kid. Stay as long as you want," Tony startled him out of his thoughts and Peter turned to nod his head in acknowledgement. "Just remember to keep a little distance at first until she's comfortable."