CHAPTER NINE | I'M TRYING BUT THEY'RE HOT
Oliver decided to walk home. After school, Leo had come up practically begging him to play volleyball, but Oliver used the excuse of his terminally ill Grandpa. It worked out well, but Oliver had no intentions of going to see his Grandpa on his own.
Instead Oliver was going to try and find Nimue. The mysterious alien-lady hadn't shown up, and Oliver was starting to get nervous. The Accords, once he calmed down, he realized were the ones that she told him about.
Nimue had started to cause a lot of trouble for Oliver's sanity. She seemed to be the breaking point for him. Not the internship, the superpowers, the accords, the pressure of school. No. It was the alien-lady that showed up and told Oliver, that on top of everything else, he had to save the world.
In all fairness, he was just a teenager. He should be studying and doing stupid teenage shit. He should not be trying to save the world from another psycho alien attack. There were so many things going on that Oliver just wanted to lay in bed and do nothing.
When he got to his bed, there was somebody in it already.
More than a little freaked out, Oliver yelled.
The person sat up, stiff and kinda familiar.
"Ah, you're home."
"What the fuck, who are you? And what are you doing in my house?" Oliver shouted while backing away.
"Oh, I forgot I look different." Suddenly the room started to spin and Oliver felt his body getting lighter. "I'm Nimue, I told you I'd meet you in a week."
"Huh?" Oliver was shocked.
Nimue sat up, she definitely didn't look like the statue from before. Her hair hung around her shoulders, and she was at least six feet tall. It occurred to Oliver that Nimue was not actually a girl.
"But, you were a girl last time I saw you?" He was confused. Sure Nimue was an alien, so it was possible, but there was too much shock rushing through Oliver for him to think clearly.
"Yes, but it seems that in this century, it would be less conspicuous if I was a man."
"Oh, okay then." Oliver sat down on his desk.
"I have come to train you how to use your gift. We should start immediately." Nimue, sat up and started to walk towards Oliver.
He held up his hands, "W-wait, I have homework, I need to do a physics proj-" Before he could finish, Nimue had already sent them away.
Oliver was hunched over, his hands on his knees taking deep breaths.
"To remain on schedule, you must start now." Oliver looked at him incredulously.
"I think you should train yourself for social situations, and maybe some manners," Oliver mumbled. Nimue turned his head and shot a cold look at him.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, it was nothing." Oliver laughed it off nervously.
"Great. Now, let's start. Do you know how to fight?" Nimue asked. Oliver shook his head. "Do you know how to control your powers?"
"Not really, I can go short distances, but it makes me pretty tired if I do it too much."
Nimue having a face was probably even scarier than when he didn't have one. Now, Oliver could see his emotions. Plus it didn't help that Nimue was really hot. He was the androgynous hot, like if Nimue was a human he'd be in some underground band and played the bass.
"Well, the first thing we'll focus on will be teleporting, then the rules of time travel." Oliver nodded.
"For you, you don't need any reference for teleporting. You're simply imagining where you need to go. The fact that you haven't ended up in a wall is a good sign too. Basically, your body's natural survival instinct will keep you from harming yourself like that. To be able to teleport to people, on the other hand, you lock onto their energy signature.
"A person's energy signature is unique, even twins. Really all that you need to do is think about them really hard. Meditation will be helpful, your mind needs to be able to remain calm, which it can't right now, in shocking situations."
Oliver was half accepting the information Nimue was pouring out. He had already figured out that his powers worked something similar to how Nimue described it.
"Time travel is completely different. There have been people who could time travel, but not travel in space, so they were useless to the cause. With your combination, you're able to do both, it'll be extremely important for you to visualize where you're going through.
"Though, figuring out when to travel is similar to deciding where to walk to. All you need to do is think the year, or how far away in time it is, and you'll be there."
Nimue fixed his glance on Oliver, trying to figure out if the teen was absorbing everything. Instead Nimue was met with a blank stare.
Oliver was sent out of his stupor with a flick to his forehead. Nimue was way too close to his face, and glaring at him.
Once again Oliver was shocked by how pretty Nimue was. He had eyes that were so dark they were like a mirror, and long eyelashes. He had high cheekbones that were dusted a couple moles. Nimues hair was darker than his eyes, and the underneath was bleached white. All in all, Nimue was pretty fucking hot, and Oliver didn't know what to do.
Before, when Nimue looked like a statue, he was fine, if not a little freaked out. But now that Nimue looked like a fucking god, there was no way Oliver could focus.
"Stop spacing out and focus, if you don't learn how to control your powers then the whole universe will end." Nimue said as he stood up.
"That's totally not stressing me out, not at all." Oliver muttered, Nimue just rolled his eyes. "Now that you have a face, you're a lot more mean."
"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to teach you how to save the universe." Nimue shot back, even more pissed off.
Oliver and Nimue spent three more hours practicing teleporting, and Oliver spent another hour being lectured by Nimue about the logistics of time.
By the time Oliver was back in his bedroom, he was close to passing out. He'd never used his powers so much in a day.
Right when he was about to fall asleep, his phone started to ring.
It was Leo. Oliver sighed before picking up the phone.
"Yeah?" Oliver slurred.
"Whoa, okay, are you high?" Leo snickered. Oliver just groaned.
"No, I'm exhausted, I feel like I'm going to sleep for a hundred years."
"Anyway, wanna stay for my practice tomorrow and help me after it? Please? I need help and nobody on my team puts up with me after practice!" Oliver rolled his eyes and Leo's whining, but agreed anyway.
"You are a lifesaver Oli, I promise that I'll get you food after!" With the promise of food, Oliver was even more motivated than before.
"'Kay, see you tomorrow then," Oliver hung up before Leo could talk anymore.
The next morning Oliver showed up to school with bags under his eyes. They were more noticeable than his usual ones, they even made Emma ask if he was okay.
The day passed quickly, Oliver spent most of it half asleep. Though he fully fell asleep in French, mainly because they were watching "Petit Nicolas on Holiday", which was a fever dream in itself.
Oliver couldn't escape Leo after school. It must've been a sight to see, Leo was dragging Oliver to the gym while Oliver was whining behind him.
For the practice, he just took a nap on the bleachers, covering his whole head with his hoodie and playing a podcast helped to block out the volleyball team.
Oliver was woken up by Leo poking his nose a few hundred times.
"I'm up," Oliver mumbled groggily.
"Great! Now it's time for volleyball!" Leo was way too enthusiastic for just finishing practice.
"Yay!" Oliver replied, raising his fist weakly.
"Great, all you need to do is receive, I need to practice serving." Oliver nodded, it was like whenever he would help his friend practice.
Oliver's arms and face were bright red by the time Leo declared he was finished. Not to mention that he was drenched in sweat.
"I think my arms are gonna be bruised tomorrow," Leo just smiled brightly.
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Leo threw Oliver his backpack, "Now let's get food, I know a great sandwich place."
Oliver followed Leo out the doors, dragging his feet tiredly.
The walk was shorter than Oliver expected, though the store was surprisingly busy.
Leo took Oliver's order while he went to grab some snacks. While they were standing in line, Oliver decided to check through his email.
He saw a Stark one and opened it, expecting more papers to sign.
Oliver,
I'm not going to be able to hold the internship for the next two weeks. There's business with the Sokovia Accords that the Avengers need to deal with. Pepper will be sending an email from SHIELD that should get your Mom in contact with some people to protect you from the Accords. Good luck with school, keep up the good work kid.
Tony
Oliver closed out of the email quickly before Leo could see it. He was shocked that Tony was actually concerned (?), or at least noticed Oliver's situation.
Leo and Oliver ended up sitting in a park. In the back of Oliver's head was Emma nagging him to tell Leo his secret. When he finished his sandwich Oliver stared at the side of Leo's head. The only light was the blue glow from their phones, and a street lamp on the other side of the playground.
The gentle rocking of the swings helped Oliver calm down slightly when he made up his mind to tell him.
"Hey, um, I have something I need to tell you." Leo could tell the change in Oliver's voice.
"If it's a secret I promise I'm good at keeping them." Leo tried to reassure him.
"Uh, thanks. But just promise that you won't, like, hate me or anything, because I told Emma already." Leo nodded for him to continue.
"Well, when I was a kid there was an accident and I became one of the Inhumans. So, um, I have powers and stuff."
Leo was silent. Oliver's hands were clenched tightly around the swing, his knuckles white.
"Oh. I didn't expect that." Leo started to swing again. "But why would I hate you? I think that it's actually pretty cool."
Oliver sighed, and turned to a grinning Leo.
"Plus, my cousins a Mutant, so I've seen a fair share of crazy."
"That's cool too," Leo stood up from the swing and grabbed Oliver.
"Now you're practically obligated to show me what you can do," He bragged.
"Well, I can teleport,"
"Epic, now, you should take me home." He continued. "I don't want to walk that far."
"But I don't know where you live? How would I take you?" Oliver shot back.
"Ugh, fine, but can you take me closer?" Oliver laughed at Leo's laziness. It was a big difference from when he was playing volleyball.
"Yeah."
When he got home, Oliver texted Emma to tell her she owed him twenty dollars.
~
hello
I think that I should stop saying I'm going to have a strict updating schedule bc mentally I cannot. BUT I am going to keep writing this bc I realized that I've been writing this story for two years? Like what? I've deleted it and restarted it a lot since then though, and now I'm actually writing it? I dislike the passing of time.
Anyway, it was my birthday two weeks ago and I am now a year away from being an adult and that's scary.
I was thinking that I should write a Halloween special kind of thing to get into the spooky spirit, so that'll probably be the next chapter. It won't have anything to do with the main story, but it'll be fun!!!
Also going pumpkin shopping this weekend and idk if I want a huge ass pumpkin or one with warts. It'll be fun though. By the way I have no idea what to be for Halloween, even if I'm not going trick-or-treating I'm still gonna dress up and watch horror movies in my room.