☼ ☼ ☼
The next morning, Andi stood outside against the hotel wall with her luggage at her side. Her classmates surrounded her, all of them waiting on their transportation to arrive. Andi wasn't sure how long they'd been waiting, but it felt like a lifetime. She was exhausted due to her ventures with Peter and Gwen the previous night, and she wanted nothing more than to take a well-deserved nap on the bus. She couldn't exactly do that standing up against a wall, however.
"Hey, Andi!" Ned greeted her excitedly, though his excitement faltered when he noticed the expression on her face. "Wow, you look kinda horrible."
Andi let out a breath. "Thank you, Ned. That is exactly what every girl wants to hear in the morning."
"I take it yesterday wore you out?" Ned said with a chuckle.
"You could say that," Andi said. "You seemed to have gotten a good nap out of it, though."
"It's not every day one can say they've been tranquilized by Nick Fury," Ned replied. He seemed thrilled almost, and Andi couldn't understand why, at least not for herself. Nick Fury was just another person to her.
"And it's certainly not every day one can say they've been thoroughly annoyed by the presence of Nick Fury," Andi muttered in response.
"What's new, Andi?" Ned chuckled. "Everyone annoys you."
"That's not true!"
Ned raised a brow at her. He certainly didn't believe her. He'd known her for years and considered her to be one of his best friends. He saw right through her fib. "You're in love with Peter, yet he annoys you more than anyone else on the planet. If he annoys you, everyone annoys you."
"I'm not in love with Peter," Andi said to him, though she knew he likely wouldn't believe her. The expression on his face spoke louder than his words ever could.
"You've been trying to convince yourself that's the truth for about six months now," Ned replied matter-of-factly. "I know you broke up with him, but I also know it wasn't because you didn't love him anymore."
"Your point?"
"Tell me something, Andi."
"What, Ned?"
"You love him, right?" Ned asked with hopeful brown eyes.
Andi's expression softened when she heard the question, and she couldn't help but smile. There was one very obvious answer to the question. Since Andi had met Peter, he'd been her very best friend. She never anticipated the two of them becoming anything more than that, but the world clearly had other plans for the two of them. Her feelings for him had completely taken her by surprise, and even to this day she still wasn't sure how to handle them. Peter was the one person who knew Andi better than anyone, even her Aunt Pepper. He was always there for her without question, simply because he cared so much. He made her feel as if she truly mattered. He was the one person she could think of when she was feeling down, and suddenly she wouldn't feel so down anymore. He showed her what it truly meant to feel, and it was because of that she felt so much torment inside her.
Since Andi's family was killed, she'd retreated into the darkest part of her mind. She was so young when she'd lost them. She wasn't young enough that she was unable to comprehend what happened to her family, but she was young enough that the emotions associated with their loss affected her in such a way she refused to let anyone else in. It wasn't until she met Peter that she found it much more difficult to keep people out. He'd broken down her walls one by one, and she couldn't keep him out no matter how hard she tried.
"You know I love him, Ned," Andi finally answered her friend.
"Then why aren't you with him?"
"It's a bit complicated." And it was. Andi had never been the best at managing her emotions because she'd spent so long suppressing them. She felt such a deep love for Peter, however, that she now felt everything else just as deeply—her anger, her sadness, her grief, all of it—and it was because of that she could not love him the way he truly deserved to be loved. Until she could find a way to manage her emotions in a healthier manner, her relationship with Peter couldn't work. At least that was what she continued trying to convince herself of.
"Complicated or not, there's nothing complicated about your feelings for each other," Ned told her. "Aside from MJ, you're the expert when it comes to hiding your feelings, but whenever you look at him or talk to him or talk about him, I can see it written all over your face. To love someone like that, especially at our age, isn't something a lot of people can say they get to experience. Don't just let that go, Andi."
Andi smiled softly. It was rare that her and Ned ever had a deep conversation, and she wondered if his newfound relationship with Betty was the cause of it. "Thank you, Ned," she replied.
Peter made his appearance a few seconds later, his eyes stopping on Ned. He hadn't gotten the chance to truly talk to him since earlier that morning, and he was desperate to know if he was okay. "Hey, man, are you sure you're good?"
Ned turned his attention away from Andi and smiled at Peter. "Dude, I'm fine! Getting tranq'd in the neck by Nick Fury is probably the coolest thing to ever happen to me."
"I remember when finding out you were friends with Spider-Man and Recluse was the coolest thing to happen to you," Andi said quietly, a laugh escaping her as the words left her mouth.
"Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty cool, but I've gotten too used to it," Ned told her.
"So have we," Peter said, glancing between the two of them. "Which is why I'm super stoked we don't have to go to Prague."
"Yeah, same."
"Good news!" Mr. Harrington's voice sounded as he stepped out of the hotel doors. "We're goin' to Prague!"
Andi practically choked on the air in her lungs, while Peter stood staring at Mr. Harrington in disbelief. Gwen, who'd been talking to MJ and Brad since they'd been outside, looked over at Peter and Andi. She, too, was rather perplexed by the information.
"The tour company called," Mr. Harrington explained to his confused students. "They upgraded us! You should've heard me on the phone with them. I really gave 'em hell."
"All I heard was crying."
Andi groaned and closed her eyes, leaning her now-aching head back against the brick wall. This was what Nick Fury had been up to. She remembered the look on his face after they explained all the reasons they couldn't go to Prague. Fury didn't care that they couldn't go, because he knew he was going to do what he could to make sure they could go, and that was exactly what was happening. He was sabotaging their vacation, and Andi was thoroughly displeased because of it.
A nudge on her arm caught Andi's attention, and she opened her eyes to see Peter in front of her. He smiled softly at her, though Andi could see the annoyance and aggravation in his brown eyes. He gestured her forward, and together the two grabbed their luggage and followed their classmates to their upgraded transportation, which Andi knew was courtesy of Nick Fury as well. Her assumptions were proven correct the moment she saw Dimitri standing outside their bus. She couldn't help the glare on her face when she met his eyes, though her expression did not faze him at all. She doubted it would have.
"Guys, what's going on?" Ned asked Andi and Peter.
"I think Nick Fury just hijacked our summer vacation," Peter answered.
"Awesome!"
"Or not," Andi muttered.
Andi followed closely behind Peter as they boarded the bus. Peter sat down in the very back. Andi made an attempt to sit in front of him with Gwen, but he grabbed her by the arm before she could sit down and pulled her into his seat.
"What the hell, Peter?" Andi breathed out, pulling her arm from Peter's hold. "If you wanted me to sit with you, you could've just asked. You didn't need to pull my arm out of its socket."
"I'm sorry, I just—you're the only one I can talk to about all of this," Peter told her.
Gwen, who could hear the two perfectly from her spot in front of them, turned around in her seat. "You do understand we're now all in this together, right?"
"I know, but—"
"I know, I know," Gwen cut him off. "You and Andi have been doing this thing together for years. I promise I'll never come between that, but I just want you guys to know I'm here."
"We've known that since we met you, Stacy," Andi told her. And it was true. It was the reason why Gwen was such a good friend. She cared deeply and was always there when her friends needed her to be. She was the heart of the group, much like Peter was.
"Know it won't change, Andrews."
"Guys, what are we supposed to do?" Peter asked the two of them.
"I say we make our escape when passing through the Alps," Andi suggested sarcastically. "We'll ditch our gear, our suits, everything, and live the rest of our lives as mountain people. Nobody will ask us to do anything ever again. Ever."
"Is that, like, a genuine solution or are you just being Andi?" Peter asked her with a raised brow.
Andi rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "Look, I don't want any part of this more than you guys do, but Fury obviously doesn't care what we want. I don't think we're going to find a way out of this. Not this time."
"Way to be positive, Andi," Gwen muttered.
"I'm just being honest!" Andi retorted, though she did so quietly to prevent unwanted attention from her classmates. "No matter what happens in our lives, we will always be the ones responsible for giving up our happiness to make sure everyone else can have their own. It's just the way things have to be."
"Are you saying you aren't happy?" Gwen asked with furrowed brows. "I mean, I know we've had to give up so much because of our powers, but we have a gift, Andi. All three of us do."
"This 'gift' has taken so much from me, Gwen," Andi revealed. She could not stop the words from coming out of her mouth. "I have seen so much that I will never be able to unsee. I'm only seventeen years old and have experienced more trauma and chaos and bloodshed than ninety-percent of humans on the planet. I suffer so other people don't have to, and even that isn't completely true. I've ruined the people I love the most because I don't know how to handle the emotions of what I've been through."
Gwen's mouth fell open a little bit. She hadn't been expecting the quiet outburst from Andi at all. Andi was not one to open up, at least not to her, but she had, and Gwen wasn't too sure what to make of it. She did, however, take her words seriously. Andi was nothing but sincere with her words, and Gwen could see that just by looking at the desperation in her eyes.
Peter, on the other hand, had a frown on his face. He knew Andi better than anyone, which was the reason he knew the words that'd just come out of her mouth had been fighting for a way out for quite some time. Andi was fighting a horrid battle inside herself, and she was crying for help, though he didn't think she realized that on a conscious level.
"Andi—"
Andi shook her head quickly, cutting Peter off before he could say too much. "Let's just help Fury and Quentin deal with this fire monster and get back to our lives before they're inevitably interrupted again."
"O-kay," Gwen responded quietly. She turned back around in her seat and placed her headphones in her ears, hoping her music would help pass the time.
Once Peter could see that Gwen could no longer hear them, he turned to Andi. She looked so tired, so defeated, and he couldn't stand it. All he wanted was to help her find her way through the dark storm in her mind, but he feared she wasn't ready to let him. Regardless, he planned to try again. For her, he always would.
"Who've you ruined, Andi?" Peter asked her.
"I don't want to talk about this, Peter." Andi's voice was almost inaudible, but he heard her loud and clear. However, he wouldn't be listening.
"We're stuck on this bus for the next nine hours," Peter reminded her. "There's nothing to talk about but this. I'm just trying to help you, Andi. I'm trying to get you to see that you don't need to keep pushing me away."
"But I do."
"Why? Because you're afraid you've ruined me?"
"Yes!" Andi replied, running a hand through her hair. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about, but as usual, Peter always had a way of bringing out the emotion inside her, whether it was good or bad. "You are so smart, so awkward, so kind, so charismatic, so happy. You are everything, and I can't sit back and watch you drain yourself trying to make up for my lack of emotional intelligence. I refuse to."
"Have you ever thought about the fact that me watching you go through this alone is the draining part?" Peter asked her.
Andi met his eyes, and she frowned. "Peter—"
"We went through hell together, Andi," Peter cut her off. "We experienced the same trauma, the same loss, the same pain, and you retreated to your corner of seclusion. You like to deal with things on your own, and I get that, but for once I had someone in my life to relate to. For once, I had someone that could genuinely understand the pain I was going through. And then suddenly I didn't, and dealing with that? Well, dealing with that was pretty draining. Not just because I didn't have you, but because you didn't have me either."
Andi couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes, though she fought to prevent them from falling. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, but Peter's words were still heavy on her mind. "I didn't even think about that," she told him quietly.
"I know you didn't," Peter responded with a soft smile on his face. "And I know it wasn't because you didn't care, because I know you do, but I was never afraid of you 'ruining' me, Andi. I was only afraid of how long it'd take for you to realize that you didn't need to go through this alone—that you didn't need to push me away."
"Y'know, I've never really had a strong support system," Andi explained to him, her voice quiet. "I lost my family at such a young age and then spent most of my time alone because Pepper and Tony were away so much with work. I just became accustomed to pushing it all away, but then I met you and everything crashed down on me like a wave. After I fell for you, I started to feel everything so deeply. I still do, and I have no idea how to handle it, so I do what I've always done and push it away."
"And how's that working out for you?"
A single tear fell from Andi's eye as she looked at Peter. "Remember that wave I mentioned?"
Peter nodded his head.
"I feel like I'm drowning in it," she forced out as a few more tears fell over her cheeks. Peter raised his hand to whisk them away, and without hesitation, he gently pulled her closer. Andi welcomed the gesture and relaxed into his side, resting her head on his shoulder as she cried silently.
"You don't have to keep pushing me away," Peter reassured her.
"I know." Andi stopped for a moment to think about their earlier conversation with Gwen. She'd gone on a rant about the "gift" they'd been given and how it'd done nothing but take from her, but as she sat there next to Peter, listening to the soft sound of his breathing and the gentle heartbeat inside his chest, she knew she was wrong. "Earlier I mentioned how this life—how this 'gift'— had done nothing but take from me, but I was wrong. Through everything I've been through, through all the pain I've experienced, you've been the one good thing I've been able to come back to, and to me that's everything. You're everything, Peter."
Peter smiled at the sound of her words and laid his head on top of hers. "You're everything, too, Andi."
Andi smiled in content and closed her eyes, focusing on calming her muddled mind. The feeling of Peter at her side comforted her, and she nestled further into his side. She couldn't deny how much she missed him. She couldn't deny how much she missed being wrapped inside the solace of his protective hold. She found that when she was with Peter, the world around her stopped turning. In that moment it was just the two of them, and that was enough for her aching heart. His presence kept her at ease. He kept her at ease. Andi loved him so much, and she knew she'd never let that go.