I went back to my room alone. Sitting there on the bed, my fingers pressed to my lips, my cheeks blazing with heat. I could still feel Peter's lips against mine. A warm feeling overwhelmed my stomach and I could couldn't stop smiling. I did not know what to call such a feeling like this, it was completely new and completely wonderful. There was no way my mouth would move in any expression but a smile, I tried to stop but it only went back. I was giddy, like a young girl, like one of those women you see on the streets and she has been asked something exciting and she jumps up and down screaming and laughing. Except I was not screaming. I was partially giggling to myself.
I looked out the window, the sky was blue and white clouds blocked the sun, everything in shade. The day was beautiful and relaxed, outside it looked so peaceful and calm. I could not believe that such promising and good things were suddenly happening to me on a day like this. My powers no longer caused me pain, Peter adimitted his feelings for me and, in a way, I did the same. I had not felt this happy nor well in a long time, I actually could not remember the last time I was this happy. It must have been forever ago.
You cannot hide, Vele.
I jumped at the rough voice and looked around. There was no one in the room.
I will find you, Vele. You cannot hide. What makes you think that you have the ability to evade me? I can feel your presence, even in the eternity of miles that space holds I can find you still. No one, nothing can hide you away.
I stood from the bed and spun around. There was still no one around.
"Stop it." I said. "Who are you?"
You know who I am. You know my face and name. You know exactly who I am. I am no unidentifiable. You know me from my deeds, from my sacrifices and of course of desctruction. Go on, take a guess.
"Thanos." I froze, my breath catching in my throat.
"Vele?" I turned around and saw Logan walk into the room. "Hey, you alright? What's wrong?"
Everyone you are surrounded with, the people you call your friends have no place beside you. They are not worthy to be standing next to, let alone looking at, an immortal goddess such as yourself. Yes, you are immortal. Just as I am.
I could not answer him. I just stood there in fear, feeling all of my limbs go numb. That's when I started falling to my knees. Logan ran in by the time I was on the floor before he could reach me.
"Vele. Come on, talk to me. What's wrong?" Logan said. But I was too scared, too far frozen in fear to answer him back.
"Help!" Logan shouted, looking over his shoulder. He then turned back to me, "Come on Vele,"
Logan patted my cheeks, turning my head from side to side. "Say something kid."
I gasped, then with flooded eyes and a tight chest I uttered; "Thanos. He's in my head. I can hear him."
My eyes flew open and I sat up with a gasp. I was sitting back in the bed, my entire body covered in sweat. The room was dark except for the glow of an orange light, it felt hot and the air felt thick, making it hard to catch my breath. My hand pressed to my chest, feeling my rapid heart beating so fast I thought it would burst. My hand felt a soft fabric, I looked down and saw that I was in something completely different than the suit I had been wearing earlier. What happened to me?
"Vele?" I flinched and looked at the foot of the bed. Peter was standing up from the floor and he came and sat down right beside me on the edge of the bed.
"Hey, it's okay." He said, he put his hand on my arm. "You're okay."
"What happened?" I asked him.
"You collapsed. Logan came in and found you. He said you were terrified of something." Peter told me, looking at me softly, his hand brushed my hair back from my forehead. "The Professor made sure that you hadn't been affected by what they did to remove the blocks."
"Something is wrong with me. I can hear his voice in my head." I said starting to cry. "Thanos...my father, he was in my head. He told me that I could not hide, that he would find me."
Peter pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly against his chest, I felt his hand in my hair. "Nothing is wrong with you, Vele. I promise there is nothing wrong with you. I promise."
"Then why is he in my head? Why can I hear him?" I asked, gripping onto Peter's shirt.
Peter stayed silent. "I don't know why." He answered with a jagged breath that followed. "I don't have any answers for you. I wish I did. But there is nothing wrong with you, I swear it by the billions of stars in the universe that you are fine. "
"I'm pretty sure there are more than a few billion stars in the universe, Peter." I said, feeling the need to correct him.
Peter chuckled. "I'm betting you're right."
We were both quiet for a moment, then I spoke up.
"When he finds me-"
"If he finds you, not when." Peter corrected.
"If he finds me, what do you think he'll do to me, Peter? What will happen to you and everyone else?"
"I'm not sure." Peter went quiet. "But we'll cross that bridge if it happens."
Peter sat beside me by the windows, his arm around my shoulders, keeping me close. The doors open to let the night air into the room to cool me off. I had my eyes closed, listening to the insects that chirped and sang softly. I could not stop sweating, I just felt far too hot, but the breeze did help a little.
"I wish I could take you down to the lake to cool off. But I'm sure the Professor would have my head." Peter said. "You certainly look like you could use a good cool down."
"The lake? Where Hank cut me open and pulled out whatever it was?" I asked, opening my eyes, glancing out towards the garden. The glow from my eyes cause everything to look a bit pinkish with the light.
"Yeah. Same place." Peter said, I felt his lips press to my temple.
"Let's do it." I said, moving to stand.
"Really?" Peter quickly stood and helped me up to my feet.
"What else do we have to lose?" I asked him, turning to look up at him.
"Okay then." Peter shrugged his shoulders, then he suddenly swooped me up into his arms. It wasn't too much of a surprise, considering I felt a little weak and tired, so I just let him.
Peter carried me out the doors and across the lawn slowly and silently.
When we reached the edge of the lake I told Peter to set me down. I held onto his arm as I stood there and looked out over the water. The moon was high, full and white. Peter had told me about it while he was calming me down earlier. He told me that every year it was moving away from the Earth, because the Earth was getting too crowded and unhealthy and the moon wanted it's space and to remain clean. Though I hardly could believe the story, it was something you would hear a father tell their child, or a mother sing to their baby.
I let Peter go and stepped into the water, it was cold, almost chilling to my skin but it was perfect and felt wonderful. I walked deeper, until it went up to my chest. I turned around and Peter was removing his shirt and pants. He looked at me and then walked into the water,
"Whoooo!" he said as he lowered himself in, so the water went up to his neck. "That is chilly water!" his voice was high and squeaky sounding and it made me laugh just a little. Peter stood up and then ducked under the water, bursting out.
"Yeah, that's cold!" he said, his teeth were chattering, he shook out his hair and wiped his eyes, then he looked at me. "How does it feel?"
"It feels great." I told him. "I feel better."
"Great to hear it."
Peter came closer and lowered himself down enough that he and I were at eye level, both of us bobbing in the water against the light current, Peter looked like he was shivering.
I could hear the insects chirpping louder around the lake, hear the waves of water crashing on the rounded stones and the wind blowing through the trees.
"You did not have to come into the water."
"I know, but if I didn't then I'd look like a complete wimp, or at least a loser."
"You're not a loser, Peter." I told him. "If anything you are strong than you think that you are."
"Oh really? How so? Cause I feel like a giant idiot who thought that coming to this lake would be a good idea. Really I don't feel that it was the best idea that I could think of."
"I thought it was a brilliant idea. If you don't like it then blame me, I'm willing to take the fault for it since you've already taken so many faults of mine." I told him.
"Well I appreciate that, Vele." he said, smiling.
"Are you cold, Peter?" I asked him.
"Little bit, yeah." he said quickly.
"We can get out of the water." I said, "I'm alright with it."
"You don't mind?" he asked. "Cause if you want to stay in you can, I don't mind staying with you."
"Yes you do, Peter."
"Yeah, you're right." Peter said, he turned and started swimming back towards the shore. I followed behind him.
Honestly I did feel better, I didn't feel as anxiety filled as I originally did, but there was still some sort of fear left behind my eyes. I kept looking around, searching for something, I don't know what it could have been, but I knew that it had to have been something related to Thanos somehow speaking in my mind. Or it could have been me reading his. I knew about mind readers, there were some who would come to meet with The Collector and sometimes they would get bored with him and try talking to me. I would never respond, I'd just focus my tasks on something else until they took the message that I was not interested or was not allowed. Althought I don't recall whether or not my mother or Thanos had the skills to read minds, I could have just come up with it on my own. But who knows the probability of that actually being possible.
Peter and I sat on the shore, side by side, his arm wrapped around me to keep me warm as we dried off. Peter was looking at the moon, occasionally he would smile, so I knew he had to have been remembering something.
"You know, the last time I actually got the chance to relax like this was years ago." he said. "When you're a junker you don't get breaks, you're constantly running and hiding from people who want what you have. This guy, Yondu, chased me half across the galaxy trying to get this orb thing I had a while back. Didn't go too well, but I ended up realizing that being a junker was a dangerous job."
"Did you not realize it before?"
"I don't know, I can't remember. I could have but I must have been too caught up in..." he cut off.
"The junker business." I finished for him. "It's alright, Peter. I know what junkers do. Many have come to The Collector, I understand what happens."
"Just so you know the last time I was with anyone was like a year ago. And I had completely forgotten that they were on my ship when I was doing some junker stuff." he told me. "Didn't work out too well, she was pretty pissed off at me."
"I can imagine." I couldn't help but to laugh, thinking of Peter in an argument yelling or trying to prove a point didn't seem like something in one of his skill sets.
"Yeah well, we didn't get along."
"Did you get along with any?"
Peter thought about it a second, "Yeah, there was this one. She actually lives here on earth, at the institute. We were together for a little while but it didn't last because I was too busy being a junker and she was too busy kicking ass down here."
"Sorry to hear about that."
"Don't be, we were totally cool with it in reality. Sounds like we weren't but we were."
"What was her name? If you don't mind me asking."
"Kitty. Her real name was Kathrine Pryde, but she didn't like that so people just called her Kitty. She had this awesome power where she could phase through walls, she could go through anything. It was cool." Peter's eyes lit up as he talked about her. I knew that he and Kitty must have been close, because he spoke so wonderfully about her, not speaking a foul or negative thing. Well, to my knowledge it sounded like he was doing her justice.
"To be completely honest, Vele, I'm glad that I got to save you." Peter said quietly, he was still smiling, but it was cute on him. "I mean it, I am. I'd save your life a million more times if I could."
"Peter that sounds like a lot of dangerous adventures, I'd hate to be the one you'd have to save each time. It sounds like far too much trouble." I said.
"Yeah but it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't care. I'd keep saving your life, over and over again. Still getting to see you smile and see your eyes light up whenever I get near. Don't think I've noticed but I have, I've seen how you react to me." he said nudging my elbow. "You're cheeks turn bright red, kind of like a rose or like a bright apple."
I felt my cheeks burn, heating quickly.
"See! Just like that!" Peter pointed at me, a wide smile pulling at his lips, showing off his pearly white teeth. And I couldn't help myself but to smile at his laugh, at the way his eyes crinkled with his grin. It was cheeky and playful.
Vele.
I jumped, turning around and glancing over my shoulder. Who was there?
"What's wrong?" Peter asked.
"Nothing." I said. "Thought I heard something."
I turned back to Peter and he was looking around, glancing over both his shoulders.
"Do you think we should head inside now?"
"Nah, we can stay here. We're safer here than we are in the institute anyway." Peter said. "With all those people in there with different powers, it's like a nuclear reactor waiting to be set off. Not that those people aren't cool and awesome, just that sometimes it's overwhelming, you know?"
"I can understand." I told him as he turned back to the lake.
Vele.
The voice seemed to echo with a whispy light flutter, reminding me slightly of shadows. I attempted to pay no mind to it, hoping that it was just my imagination or something but it continued to haunt me even when it didn't speak. I tried to distract myself by watching the lake, gazing out at the far rippling waves on the other side against the beach.
"I am Groot." Both Peter and I jumped at the voice.
"You idiot!" someone shouted. We turned around, getting to our feet. There wasn't anyone around, but I suspected that Rocket and Groot were nearby, spying on us no doubt.
"You're supposed to keep your mouth shut!" Rocket shouted at him. "They're not supposed to know we're ever here!"
"Hey guys, we can hear you." Peter called to them. They went silent and slowly, both Rocket and Groot stepped out from behind the tall trees.
"Hey look who it is!" Rocket said, his voice quite loud. "It's peach face and galaxy eyes."
"Peach face?" Peter glanced at me then back at Rocket.
"What were you two doing?" he asked them.
"What are you talking about?" Rocket said, trying to seem distracted.
"You two were spying weren't you?" Peter folded his arms.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you should stop drinking pond water, Quill." Rocket climbed up Groots leg and sat on his shoulder. "And a bunch of other things."
"I am Groot." Groot nodded with a grin. I could hardly understand what was happening here.
"So, uh, Quill. Taking a dip are we? Nice place to, uh, you know..."
"Rocket!" Peter's eyes widened.
"I'm just messin' with ya!" Rocket shouted in defence. "Yeesh, touchy."
"Where are the others?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh they're back in the institute, sleeping probably." Rocket answered.
"Why were you spying on us, Rocket?" I asked him, "I don't want any nonsense either. Tell me the truth."
Rocket was silent for a moment.
"I am Groot." Groot nodded and shrugged his shoulders.
"We were bored, what do you expect from us?" Rocket said, standing up.
"Clearly not professionalism." Peter mumbled.
"I heard that." Rocket said to the side.
"You were meant to." Peter said louder. Rocket just rolled his eyes.
"You're an iditot." Rocket told Peter.
Peter shooke his head and rolled his eyes before he looked to me. "You want to go inside? You look tired."
I nodded, "Yeah." I yawned before I could say more and Peter patted my shoulder.
"Well, come on. Best if we get back before someone sends out a search party." Peter said.
We all walked back to the institute together, hardly saying anything between us. I was genuienly tired and sleep sounded so amazing in that moment. The second we walked into the room I climbed in bed and laid on top of the blankets, laying my head against the pillow and closing my eyes.
"G'night lovebirds!" Rocket called.
"Shut up." Peter said back.
"I am Groot!" Groot laughed and Rocket joined in with him.
"Just get out of here, you're both annoying." he told them. "Vele's trying to sleep."
"Nighty night!" Rocket called with a raspy chuckle. I couldn't help but to grin.
"Yeesh." Peter said quietly. I listened as Groot walked away, the unmistakable snapping of his branches was hard to miss. And no doubt Rocket was riding along on Groot's head or shoulder.