CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
( WHAT A FEELING )
"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE you fucking kissed and you're still not together," Olivia said, eyes glued to other things around them, and her chin rested on top of Marty's head as he gave her a piggyback ride around the Smithsonian.
It was a week and a half since Peter and Nick first kissed, and like Olivia said they still weren't technically together. Neither boy minded, though, because Nick was going to tell his parents about his sexuality soon; who did mind were their friends who were tired of getting corrected about their confusion relationship status when they hung out at one of their places. School was still out. Things still needed to be fixed, but the students did get a few at home work to do from their teachers. With everyone helping one another, they finished it as fast as they could, only having a few more days until school would officially start back again.
Marty had brought up the idea of going on a day trip to the Smithsonian if they all got their work finished early, and surprisingly their parents – or legal guardians – agreed to it once each of the teens brought it up. The group was Shawn, Peter, Ned, Nick, Anita, Marty, Olivia and Anthony. No one really wanted Anthony there, but the only way Olivia could get to go was if her twin and mom tagged along. Gwen Stacy couldn't go because she already had plans with her family, and Harry Osborn couldn't make it for family reasons as well. Something about his father.
The four hour car ride was interesting, to say the least. Ryan got a grand idea to rent a van large enough for the teenagers, himself, Evie, and Marty's parents. To put it simply, they felt like a can of sardines, mostly because four people had to squeeze into the seats in the very back. Currently, though, they were walking through the museum and taking everything in. It was Olivia, Marty, Peter and Nick while Anita was with Shawn and Ned somewhere else, Anthony stuck with his mom and Ryan, and then Marty's parents were doing their own thing. What even gave the adults an idea to be by themselves was beyond them, but the teens were happy.
"I can't believe you're still bringing that up," Nick said, glancing at his phone as his mom texted him asking if he was having fun. He quickly answered back that he was before stuffing his phone back in his pocket. "What, like you two aren't slowly becoming a thing."
Peter looked away from one of the dinosaurs and to his friends, pointing to Olivia and Marty. "What? Wait, you guys are-?"
Marty blushed red and scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "What? No. No, we're just friends. Great friends."
Olivia nodded, avoiding eye contact as she continued to look around. "Oh, yeah, nothing romantic here," she said and gave a nervous chuckle, looking to Peter and Nick finally, the boys looking unimpressed with the others' answers.
"Oh yeah. Of course. Totally," Nick drawled sarcastically.
"Completely platonic," Peter stated.
Marty glared at them both and rolled his eyes again, walking off in another direction, Olivia yelping and holding on tighter as he turned around abruptly. "Let's just go to the World War Two stuff already."
"Oh, right! I wanna see how hot that Harbin dude was!"
"What the fuck, I'm offended."
"Shut up, Pete, you have a crush on Thor."
+++
Ned let out an excited gasp. "Yo, he's from Filipino decent! His mom was Filipino on Earth! That's so cool!"
"Wait, really?" Nick asked and turned around, going up to Ned where he was reading about some of Harbin's back story. Anita, Ned and Shawn had ran into Nick, Peter, Marty and Olivia on their way to the World War II section. They decided to just stay together, especially after they realized they were going to the same spot. Anita was with Olivia near the Captain America exhibit that also had stuff about Bucky Barnes, while Shawn was looking at stuff about Peggy Carter, and Peter, Ned and Nick were reading and looking at stuff about the two demigods who came to Earth. There reason was still unknown to others as to why the did exactly, but most tied their trip to Earth with Thor's trip some years ago.
Nick looked at Ned who looked in complete awe at the silent video of Harbin laughing at something his friend Alayla said next to him, the two clad in armor. Ned then went back to reading about Harbin. "Yeah, it says he tried to come to Earth earlier to go to the Philippines to see his mom, but couldn't."
"I wonder how they got all of this information," Peter said, walking farther down the wall where there was a complete section about the gods and demigods from Olympus who have made trips to Earth. "Hercules is real?!"
Ned and Nick stopped looking at the section about Harbin and looked to where Peter was, standing in shock near a black and white picture of what the boys guessed as Hercules. Before they could go over and look as well, Olivia was rushing over with Marty close behind, the others behind him.
"Hey, my mom called, we have to meet up for lunch," she told them, holding up her phone as if to show proof.
The three frowned, and Nick was ready to protest but Marty gave him a look from behind the blonde. At that, Nick groaned and let his head fall back, walking to the rest of the group. "You ruin fun," he mumbled.
"You three were just freaking out over Olympus demigods," Shawn said, looking at the picture of Alayla nearest to him.
"Like you don't take the chance to stare at Captain America any chance you get," Peter said to his older brother, Shawn's brows quickly furrowing as he looked over to him. Though, the older brother didn't get a chance to respond – actually, he didn't even try to – because Olivia and Anita were hurrying the boys along so they wouldn't get in trouble for taking so long. But that didn't stop their conversation.
On their way to meet up with the adults, and even through lunch, the teenagers talked animatedly about Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Peggy Carter, Harbin, Alayla and Hercules. Each of the teens had their own opinions on who was the most attractive. Ned and Nick were dead set on Harbin, Peter threw all of those choices out and said Thor, Marty thought it was Alayla, Shawn believed it to be Steve Rogers, Anita said it was Peggy Carter, Olivia's opinion was that it was Bucky Barnes, and Anthony even cashed in his own opinion that it was Hercules. Evie butted in at one point, saying she'd take Bucky Barnes over anyone else any day, which made her two kids gag and yell in disgust. Especially Olivia, shocked to have the same taste in men as her mom.
To put it simply, none of them could agree – except for Ned and Nick.
"Thor is superior!" Peter shouted.
"He and Harbin are a tie at least," Nick tried to reason. "I'll say that. But not that he's superior. Fuck the others."
"Literally," Olivia mumbled, earning a few laughs of agreement from the other teens.
"Language," Marty's mom warned from her seat at the table beside theirs.
Nick muttered a sorry as Anita spoke up, "Three words: Margaret Peggy Carter."
"That's a name, so technically..."
"Shut it, Anthony."
Marty sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. "The beautiful demigoddess, Daughter of Athena, and Steve Roger's possible girlfriend, Alayla. Are you blind?" Nick just raised an eyebrow at Marty, silently telling him, no he isn't blind. He's just not attracted to girls. Marty quickly added quietly and quickly, "Other than Nick. For reasons."
"No, but have you seen Cap's ass?" Shawn asked.
"Language," Marty's mom spoke again, a bit louder that time.
"Sorry, Mrs. Milton."
"More like who hasn't?" Olivia asked. "But, c'mon, I'm sure if those pictures of Bucky were in color those pretty blue eyes would win y'all over in seconds."
"Steve has pretty blue eyes!" Shawn argued.
"Hercules does, too," Anthony muttered.
"So does Thor," Peter stated, nodding his head while stuffing his mouth with french fries.
Ned scoffed. "Blue eyes? Pfft, brown eyes for the win." He then hi-fived Nick across the table, the white haired boy humming in agreement as he ate.
They continued to argue, but it was all fun in games. Nick looked up from stuffing his face with chicken and looked around the table he and his friends sat at. Slowly, a smile tugged at his lips as he looked at them, even Anthony Green who he was starting to learn to tolerate. Despite the disagreement, they were all laughing and smiling and having fun.
Ned was being included just as much as Peter was, and that made Nick more than happy. Anita was getting along well with Shawn, which wasn't that much of a shock since they were in the same grade. Olivia didn't have her eyes glued to Shawn despite her earlier statements of him being hot, and instead she was stuck with Marty, making the tall teen all smiley. Anthony was fitting in well, too, despite him being from a rival school; once he shed some of that hard exterior, the others started to converse with him more and more. He then looked over to the adults, spotting the flirting between Ryan and Evie, and Marty's parents clearly teasing them. His smile grew.
They were all happy. Nothing was going wrong. He was surrounded by people he knew who wouldn't hate him unless he murdered someone. (Not Anthony, though, they didn't know each other that well). What a feeling it was to be beside them all at that moment, and he hoped it would never go away.
Unfortunately, happy times don't last. They get knocked down by the bad times, and sometimes the bad stuff overcomes the good in the long run.
***
A/N— A short & sweet filler before I give y'all the angsty stuff! I honestly loved writing it, and you can't tell me that Peter doesn't has a big fat crush on Thor, because he does.
Harbin and Alayla are two OCs of mine from my Steve Rogers fic, A War is Coming. It has really slow updates, but I am working on writing it. And Hercules is kinda my OC but kinda not bc he originally belongs to Disney but I'm planning on making a Disney/Marvel crossover fic with Hercules. Idk when it'll be up but yeah, I'm excited for it! It's a platonic Peggy Carter fic, basically. And uhhhh that's all, I believe?? I was going to make this longer but I really like it ended with Nick just loving his friends. And sometime tomorrow I'll update again, maybe when I first wake up or maybe not idk, so I can get Part One over and done with.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! Don't forget to vote and comment & feel free to say what you think will go down next chapter! xx