01 | BABYLON ━━ 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿

ten

The yellow vest hung off his shoulders and his hands were barely visible, Nikolas would omit the details of how he ambushed and convinced Mr. Harrington to let him be on the team as a substitute, he thought that would scare Peter. His mind was made up of new sensations since the kiss. He kept putting two fingers on his lips repeating  over and over again the moment in which he approached and kissed Peter's Lips.

Peter was 20 minutes late, he was the only one missing for everyone to get on the bus. Nikolas thought about going to look for him at his apartment until he showed up agitated and running. He thought that things would continue normal between them, that nothing about the kiss was something weird. But he was wrong.

Nikolas got up to approach him, a few steps were enough to stop him instantly when Liz appeared and received him first, Peter showing intentions of not approaching them when he seemed quite amused by what she was saying while they shared a few laughs.

"I want everyone on the bus! Washington awaits us!" Professor Harrington said excitedly. "I want to hear those emotion screams!!!!"

But he arranged his glasses awkwardly when no one had screamed. On the bus, although they shared a seat, Peter seemed to ignore him on the way. He did not turn to see him or greet him. But he was lying, Nikolas could hear the speed of his pulse. Peter was nervous about him and that was different before the kiss happened.

Nikolas saw Peter's free hand, his skin and texture were different from his lips. He reached for his hand slowly with the little finger stretching out, before Nikolas touched Peter's little finger, his cell phone rang and he returned his hand quickly. Peter said Happy's name before going to the back of the bus to take the call.

He let out a heavy sigh before putting on his headphones, crossing his arms and leaning his head against the window trying to rest. Nikolas had a feeling that as soon as they got to Washington none of them would rest properly. He closed his eyes and the music slowly faded away, replacing it with Peter and Ned voices.

"Oh dude,  Was it that bad?"

"The suit has a tracker on it and well...he also knows that Nikolas left New York too. I had to put together a whole story for him. We have to get rid of that tracker." Peter took a long pause. "Oh and Tony will sell the tower, can you believe that

His crossed arms tightened. He didn't thought Tony would sell the only place he could call home and that he was only temporary. Nikolas didn't want to go back to the place he came from, but he didn't know if he was included in Tony's life after the sale or if he would just disappear from everyone's life.

Everyone got out of the bus when it stopped in front of the hotel, surprised at the number of floors and the pool size on the other side. The things in his backpack were thrown on the bed and Peter started taking his suit apart making Nikolas and Ned look at him unsure once they were on their room.

"You know what, I'm not excited about this anymore." Ned's hands sweated every time he glanced at his computer screen, he had managed to get into the protocol system. "There is a wide variety of.....baby wheel protocol?

"Peter acts like a baby." Nikolas muttered. "Babies ignore people.

"I'm pretty sure babies do the opposite of ignoring people, in fact they cry for attention and...."

"BUT I'M READY FOR MORE." Peter intervened before Ned could continue. "We're the spider trinity remember? I can stop high-speed buses, Nikolas...he...well, he can be many things. And we both need our guy in the chair.

A couple of clicks and the suit's tracker was off. Nikolas pulled a zip up jacket from his backpack and followed Peter's lead after promising Ned that they would be careful. Before leaving, Nikolas closed his eyes making sure he didn't sense anyone who could see them leave. But his senses failed him, he wasn't concentrating, not since the kiss. The team seemed happy running down the hallways in swimming pool suits right in their direction .

"Hey guys, you should join us." Liz whispered. "Are you coming or what? It will do good for all of us! It is the competition of our future, we deserve a fun night before tomorrow, the others should already be in the pool.

"We don't know how to swim." Nikolas shrugged his shoulders. "But as soon as we vacate, we still won't be there so you guys shouldn't wait for us.

"W-hat Nikolas meant is that we'll be there." Peter responded nervously without understanding the rude tone of his friend.

"You two are weird." Liz said smiling discreetly. "We'll wait for you downstairs anyway and good luck with whatever you're going to do.

Without anyone seeing them they entered the emergency stairs until they reached the roof and Peter began to set up his things while he saw the others in the pool. The red dot on the tracker moved. Nikolas knew that something was bothering him but deep down in his feelings Nikolas knew that Peter didn't want to get mad at him, but Peter still stepped forward before he could ask him.

"That was kind of rude, she was just being nice. And I know how to swim by the way." He hissed, finally looking at him properly, his breathing stilling. "A-Are you..." Peter hesitated. "Jealous or something?

"I don't know what that is, I haven't had that talk about with Tony." Nikolas said innocently putting on goggles with alien antennae attached. Peter looked at him confused. "It's the best I could find in an old box of party stuff.

Peter sighed exhausted putting on his mask.

"We'll talk, about last night, just not now, okay?"

(4/01/23)