Falling Slowly

3. He's Safe

1.8k words

Emma waved at Peter as he walked in the English classroom. He smiled brightly and waved back at her. He jogged up the steps and sat in the seat beside hers.

"Crazy how we got the same classes with each other at two for the whole semester, isn't it?" Peter chuckled, getting his materials out.

"Weird." Emma narrowed her eyes, piecing together how Fury created her schedule like he did.

"So, we're in Chemistry together at two on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays." Peter said. "Then English at two on Tuesdays and Wednesdays."

"You're funny Parker." Emma lied.

"You too." Peter smiled innocently. "Parker."

Emma shook her head. The English professor rang a bell to shut everyone up. She stood up and paced across the front of the room.

"I'm Dr. Walker, and I'll be your English professor for the semester." She said louder than Emma expected. "Your work for today and tomorrow is to read Hamlet and write an eight page essay on its importance to American literature. It's due no later than Thursday at eleven fifty nine."

"Wow, that's a lot." Peter raised his eyebrows, writing the assignment down in his yellow notebook.

"Not really." Emma pulled her own copy of Hamlet out of her bag. "I've already read it, so I'll just start my essay."

"You like Shakespeare?" Peter tilted his head.

"Love it." Emma beamed, pulling her laptop out.

"What's your favorite quote?" Peter rested his cheek on his hand and propped his elbow on the table.

"It's really cheesy." Emma blushed, moving a piece of hair out of her face. "It goes, 'when I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew'."

Emma looked up at Peter. Her face softened at his small smile. She turned away from him and began writing her essay.

Peter watched her fingers tap away, transferring all her knowledge onto the screen. He jumped a little when his phone went off. It was a message from MJ, setting up a date for that evening. Peter quickly answered and went back to his own work of finding out if the library had a copy of the book.

Emma's eyes slowly moved from the laptop to Peter's phone. She looked at him with his bottom lip pulled between his teeth, searching for the book. She grabbed her copy and put it on his little table.

"Here, I've already read it a few times." She smiled. "You can borrow it."

"Thanks." Peter returned her smile.
___

After class, Emma slipped behind a tree and continued writing her essay. She didn't have too much of a problem with it, considering the amount of lessons she took with training to be a spy. She always grumbled that S.H.I.E.L.D. always gave her so much work, but now she's thankful for it.

"Hey!" Peter broke away from the group of people he was walking with when he saw Emma. He stopped right in front of her and stood with his hands on his hips. "I thought went ahead to your place."

"No, my place is too loud to write an essay." Emma shook her head, moving her laptop to the side.

"And the park on campus isn't?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"You got me." Emma laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, what brings you here, Parker?"

"Just saw you sitting over here and I figured I'd join you." Peter shrugged.