☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

t h r e e

~ 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚 ~

Oh, he's good, Kahuna.

Amara rolled her eyes. Stupid Peter Maximoff, knowing exactly what to do to get her to do things she explicitly tries incredibly hard not to do.

He likes to see you angry, It whispered wickedly, swirling around in her head. It brings him joy.

No shit it brought him joy - that idiotic smile he put on his face every time she beat him would tell that to anyone. He's completely insane.

Why don't we just take him, Kahuna? Finally make him ours.

It chuckled.

Just think of how... delicious it would be to watch him writhe. Like a little worm on the end of a hook.

Amara quickly waved her power away, wrapping one arm around her stomach while she bit the nail of her thumb on the other.

Her thoughts were swimming.

Amara wasn't graceful like Jean was. She wasn't kind like Kurt. She wasn't happy like Jubilee, or brave like Scott, or funny like Peter. She didn't have anything going for her that would make the world like her the way they liked the rest of the X-Men.

She was just... scary.

She twirled one of the many rings that sat on her fingers - a nervous habit she picked up a long time ago.

What did she have to offer the perfect group that was designed to save the world? Maybe she could spook the bad guys into hiding.

Amara rolled her eyes and laughed at herself. Yeah, right.

Glancing over at the clock, she noticed that it read 4:37 p.m. Everyone should be gone.

That was enough encouragement for Amara to get out of bed. Her fridge was pretty much empty, so she was going to have to head down to the kitchen to get her restock supply for the rest of the weekend.

Slowly, she peeked her head out of her door and looked each way down the hallway. She kept her head down as she stepped out and made her way over to the stairs, giving small smiles to the people that passed her but ducking away before they could start any conversation with her.

The kitchen wasn't far, Amara knew that. All she had to do was get there and back.

That, apparently, was too much to ask for.

Amara's heart dropped as a little girl approached and grinned up at her.

"Aya, come outside with me!" she giggled, her dark hair and yellow dress bouncing as she grabbed Amara's hand.

"Not today, Daphne, I'm not feeling very well-"

"Please?" Daphne asked, batting her eyelashes and pouting her lips.

Like Jean, Daphne was a very persistent little girl that didn't give two shits about Amara's power, nor her desire to stay as far away from everyone as possible. Instead, she clung onto Amara and always pulled her out of her room to do literally anything else.

Daphne was lucky she was cute, or Amara didn't think she'd say yes so easily.

She sighed and smiled softly.

"Okay, but!" she said quickly as Daphne's eyes widened with excitement. "Only for five minutes!"

"Okay!" the girl agreed, immediately tugging on Amara's arm to pull her through the halls and out the door to the backyard of the school.

They both knew it was going to be much longer than five minutes.

Daphne led her off the patio and over the grass of the massive backyard, her dark skin contrasting the yellow of her sundress as the sun beat down on the both of them. The little girl said hi to almost every person that they passed while Amara simply kept her head down, hoping that no one would actually stop to talk.

Thankfully, no one did.

Daphne walked around the pond and passed the stump of what used to be Charles' favorite tree until she stopped at their usual spot: under the willow tree, which held the perfect view of the entire X-Mansion backyard.

Amara sat down and smiled up at the expectant girl.

"Were you missing Elijah?" she asked with a teasing smile and a quirked eyebrow, then quickly flicked her hands around to make the wispy horse Daphne absolutely adored.

Amara had to focus, since the creatures she created tended to have a mind of their own if she let herself slip, but the giggles that erupted from Daphne were enough to let Amara know that it was worth it.

She loved watching the cheerful girl dance around and play with Elijah - it was one of the few times she felt like she could use her powers for something that wasn't destructive.

Amara flicked her wrist to get the horse to climb up Daphne's arm and prance across her shoulders, then jump off her other arm to gallop through the air to make the little girl laugh. Daphne giggled and waved her hand to sprinkle some snow over Elijah, who whined and ran around in a circle to try chasing them all.

The smell of freshly cut grass was faint as Amara helped Elijah follow Daphne around the backyard and close to the edge of the forest, where Daphne gasped and bent down behind a bush.

She sprung up seconds later with a giddy expression on her face and a small flower in her hand, and Amara furrowed her eyebrows. The little girl sprinted over on her small feet and giggled as she raised the flower to tuck it behind Amara's ear.

Amara was surprised for a minute, but her look of shock melted into a tiny smile as she brushed Daphne's hair out of her eyes, then guided Elijah to nuzzle noses with Daphne.

A glint of something in Amara's peripherals made her look over, where she saw all of her friends (and Peter, whose hair was more than likely the reason she saw something) climb into one of the Professor's cars with huge grins on their faces. She watched as they all laughed and squished in together, with Scott driving and Peter having to sit on the trunk since there wasn't enough room in the Convertible.

Except, when her eyes moved over the silver-haired boy, she noticed that he was already looking at her with a small smile gracing his lips. Her cheeks reddened, and her body caved in slowly. She didn't like Peter looking at her. It made her feel weary of every move she made, like he would find something snarky to say about even the simplest action.

It seemed that he noticed this because he quickly turned around. Scott started the car and began driving away.

Relief flooded through Amara's body the further the car got, but as she let the horse jump through the air and dance around Daphne, she couldn't help the feeling that someone was still watching her. 

*****

w/c: 1133

a/n: who do you think was watching her? was someone even watching her at all? i hope you enjoyed!! don't forget to vote, comment and share!! xx