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𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 : 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨
𝘊𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 : 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱 : 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝
Achilles may be a warrior. She may fight like a warrior, carry her sword with grace and strike down her enemies with perfect precision but on the inside she was as delicate as a flower. She was soft. She was caring. She would give up her life ten times over than rather loose the ones in which she loved.
Over time the flower started to wither. With each loss. Each day of torture. Each nightmare. A petal would slowly start to shrivel away before only one remained. It was the loss of her new family that had completely destroyed what once was a magnificent flower. Leaving only a bare stalk of memories behind. Something once so delicate, so beautiful, now hardened over time.
Achilles watched the kid from afar. Her green eyes watching the false smile sat upon his face as he bade farewell to his friends. She knew what he was feeling. The guilt. The longing. Constantly asking yourself why? Why wasn't it me? Why was it them? She had promised Tony that if anything went wrong that she would look after them. Look after those she called family. Be the leader he once was. It was large shoes to fill but she knew someone had to. Tony was gone. Steve was gone. Nat was gone. Someone had to lead the avengers. Well, what was left of the avengers. Someone had to protect the world. Somehow she knew it had to be her, something inside her told her that Tony was right. It was her turn, but considering she couldn't even find it within herself to lift a spoon off her kitchen table with her powers, never mind going on a mission, the task now seemed impossible.
She had to start small. Something to put her back on track. A small project she could focus on in the mean time. Something that could help regain what the team once was and maybe even regain who she once was. That something was an eighteen year old student at Midtown High School by the name of Peter Parker.
Achilles knew Peter well. He was the nerdy kid with a cute smile that lived in the apartment underneath her with his aunt. He used to smile at her in the hallways, his big eyes gleaming with delight when she walked past. Years after she moved out, he told her that he had known who she was. Known what she could do and though most children his age at the time were afraid of her for it, he had looked up to her. He once even called her his first super-hero experience, Tony had almost broken a rib from laughter over that.
She watched him walk alone down the busy walkways of Queens. She noticed the dark bags underneath his eyes, the slight twitching of his fingers and the way he seemed to scan the area around him. He hadn't been sleeping. He was desperate to put his suit back on and patrol around the city, watching while safely tucked away in the confines of New York City's rooftops. He looked almost nervous to be without his mask, as if his adrenaline refused to subside, constantly searching for a threat. She looked at him with sadness, she didn't need to read his mind to tell that the battle had left its mark on him just like it had left its mark on everyone else and she felt guilt that she didn't reach out to him sooner. She knew his spider-sense wouldn't have picked her up, she couldn't explain why but she knew the only way of getting his attention would be to call him.
"𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳."
He turned quickly in shock. His eyes meeting hers across the road. He heard her. Her powers gently reaching outwards to the edges of his mind, her voice softly asking for his attention. She was comfortable using her powers for this, she couldn't cause any harm like this. She smiled gently at him before crossing the road, her black boots thumping slightly on the tarmac.
His eyes scanned her form, taking in her strikingly green coat and empathetic grin. Closing the distance between them she wrapped her arms around him in greeting. He hugged her tightly but carefully enough in order not to cause her any harm even though he knew he probably couldn't even if he tried.
"Hey."
His voice seemed as filled with fatigue as his face did. Her grin vanished as she placed her hands on his shoulders looking up into his face with worry.
"You look tired."
He snorted, a small smile forming on his face. "You were always one for honesty Ms. Achilles."
She chuckled at his words , flashes of a little boy with a mop of curly brown hair on his head shouting out 'Hello Ms. Achilles' when ever she passed him running through her mind.
"Come on Parker. Your aunt would kill me if she knew I let you carry on like this. That's go to that Japanese restaurant you like so much. I've been craving some Miso Soup."
Before he could even begin to refuse she had wrapped her his own and had started dragging him through the street, his protests silenced by her long red locks slapping him in the face.
They sat in the corner of the restaurant in a bright red booth. She had deliberately chosen this booth as she knew that facing the door of the restaurant would be a slight comfort to Peter, his eyes scanning the entrance as hers scanned the menu.
"Why do you even read the menu if you already know what you are having?"
She glanced up at him, smirking slightly at his slight jab. "Parker I'm the one paying for your meal, if you have a problem with me looking at the menu then you can pay for the ten platters of sushi you're about to eat on your own."
He nodded quickly, his cheeks flushing as he fixed his gaze upon his own menu ignoring her slight chuckles.
They ate their food in mainly silence, only asking each other trivial questions about such things as school, food and music. He looked better now, his smile now more genuine and his laughter more frequent. She smiled at him, her eyes crinkling as she laughed at a story about his friends. There was nothing better than some food and surface level conversation when it came to taking your mind off of things. This was what he needed. This is what she needed. Just a few hours where they could just be normal. No avengers. No powers. Just them and some soup.
When they arrived at his apartment building she gazed up at the structure she once called home. She had been tossed from lab to lab, tests after tests after being found by Shield all those years ago. Escaping Hydra only to feel as if she was in prison once more within Shield. It was only after the battle against the Chitauri that she had finally been allowed to live amongst other people once again. Tony had bought her the apartment on the top floor despite the thousand of times she had told him not to. He told her he owed her for saving his life. She didn't agree. All she did was catch him when he fell out of that wormhole but Tony was insistent.
"Brings back a lot of memories right?"
Her eyes flickered to Peter. Memories of the past disappearing from her mind.
"Yeah. It does."
She stared up at him, his face slowly breaking down as his lip quivered. No matter how tall he got or how old he, he was still a kid to her. Wrapping her arms around him as he cried into her shoulder she held him as tightly as he had done earlier that night.
He pulled away slowly. His eyes red with tears as sniffled. "Does it ever go away? This feeling."
She smiled painfully, she couldn't lie to him.
"No, but does get better. You'll never stop missing him but eventually it won't hurt as much. You kinda just, make peace with it."
He nodded sadly, his gaze turning to his front door. He hugged her once more before jogging up the stairs to the entrance, his sneakers squeaking on the stone steps. He turned back towards her, a small smile flickering on his face.
"Bye Achilles. Thanks for the food, and the talk."
"Bye kid. I'll see you soon."
She watched him turn around and walk inside. He was far too young to be feeling this much grief. He didn't deserve it.
Achilles fixed the sleeves of her emerald coat before walking down the pavement. Her apartment was ages away from where she was. At least a ten minute train ride away and she didn't really feel like taking one so late at night.
After walking for a few blocks, a neon sign caught her eye. A bar. Not just any bar but one she used to frequent. "Johnny's." The large red words glistening in the dark not unlike the neon letters that hung above the entrance of Mr Mizrahi's grocery store.
She sat upon a bar stool facing the small stage that sat at the back of the bar. A large burly man waltzed across the stage drunkingly belting the lyrics to what seemed to be a Shakira song. She watched him sashay across the stage, memories of the last time she was hear echoing through her mind.
Achilles had been sat between Nat and Tony. She had been nervous about leaving the tower, the thought of being in the presence of many people seemed daunting to her but the presence of the other red head's legs strung over her lap and Tony's arm wrapped around her shoulders had calmed her immensely. Each of them were silently chuckling as Clint danced around the stage. Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On blasting through the speakers as he sung along to the lyrics. He was terrible. Absolutely tone deaf, but his dramatics had earned him a fair share of applause. They drank, danced and sung around that bar all night, only stumbling home around three o'clock in the morning to be met with Steve's disappointed fatherly face and a splitting headache hours for later.
The image of Clint slowly faded back to the burly man as Achilles sipped her drink. A familiar head of hair caught her eye as she turned to face the person who had sat down next to you.
"Fancy seeing you here." She greeted.
He met her eyes with a sarcastic smirk. It seemed to be his trademark. He didn't seem to be a big fan of a smile but a smirk, a smirk he could do.
"You following me red?"
Red. A rather unimaginative nick name that he had come up with in the past few weeks. He knew she hated it and yet couldn't find it in himself to stop calling her by it.
Achilles rolled her eyes as she turned back towards the stage. "Please, I don't have enough time or better yet, patience, to follow you."
He chuckled slightly his gaze also turning towards the burly man who seemed to be going for an unwanted encore.
"He's brilliant isn't he?"
She hummed in question, " The next Shakira?"
He nodded, "Definitely."
She giggled slightly, covering her mouth in order to not attract attention from the other spectators. Turning towards him she was met with a grin.
"You wanna get out of here?" He asked his eyes hopeful.
She nodded with a smile, grabbing her coat that hung on the back of her chair. He stood, helping her put her coat on before outstretching his hand towards her. She didn't even think before taking his hand and entwining her fingers with his. She just felt so comfortable in his presence. His touch silencing her chaotic mind every time without fail.
They walked through the streets, turning down a quiet residential street their fingers interlaced.
"So why Johnny's?" She asked, her eyes fixed on the lights that flowed into the streets from the many windows of the many different homes. To her, each home was its own little universe, an entire new world sealed shut by a large wooden door. So much could be going on behind each door and the mystery behind it all fascinated her.
"I know the owner." Was all he said, his eyes fixed onto her rather than the homes that she seemed to be so enamoured with.
"You know Johnny? Isn't he like eighty-something?" She turned to him with a furrowed brow.
He chuckled slightly before nodding, his grin seemingly much more mischievous than before.
She couldn't help but chuckle as well, "You, Druig, are full of surprises."
"Yes, yes I am and you? Why were you at Johnny's?"
She turned away from him, her eyes landing back on the homes surrounding them as she took in a deep breath.
"I have some good memories there. With some people I miss. Just wanted to be nostalgic for a bit."
He nodded. He had some idea of who she meant but decided not to pry. It wasn't the right time and though he couldn't read her he knew she wasn't up to sharing tonight. She wasn't ready yet.
"So, where to now?" She asked meeting his eyes once more.
"Anywhere you want. Where ever you go I'll follow."
And he meant it.
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