☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

o n e - y e a r - a g o | f o u r

~ 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 ~

The halls of the X-Mansion were swarming with children as Peter hobbled down the hall on his crutches, Scott to his left with all of his books while Kurt took up his right. Everyone was still a little shaken up by Apocalypse, but Charles had assured the students (and parents) multiple times that things were back to normal.

Maybe a little too back to normal.

"I'm just saying, he didn't have to give us that much homework," Kurt muttered in his thick German accent. "It's the first day back! Shouldn't we be given an exemption for trauma or something 'cause our school was blown up?"

"I still can't believe you're even thinking of doing it," Scott replied, shaking his head.

"Well, I'd like to be able to do something with my life, even if I'm stuck here!"

"Being an X-Men is doing something more with your life," Peter chuckled. "This shit isn't even gonna matter if we have to keep going out there to save the universe."

"And what about when we're not out there?" Kurt objected. "Which is going to happen a lot more than you realize!"

Peter grinned, waving back to a passing group of giggling girls. "I can think of a couple things to do."

"I'm just saying, this could be useful later," Kurt sighed, holding the door open for the both of them, "when we have more of a purpose than to stop the people that want to blow up the world."

"Sounds like a pretty good life to me without it," Scott chuckled, and Peter nodded, twirling the lollipop in his mouth with his tongue.

The training room was bright with its blue walls and white accents, and students were crowded around the ring that held two teenagers already sparring against each other. Peter sighed, eyeing all of the empty stands with slight disgust - until he saw, sitting on the other side of the ring and smushed into one of the corners with a book in her lap, Aya.

Scott snickered, shoving both of their books into his bag. "Maybe class won't be so boring for you after all."

Peter rolled his eyes. While Scott and Kurt went down to join the others (including Ororo, Jubilee, and Jean, who quickly scolded the both of them for being late and not being changed), Peter decided he was going to make the long trip to the other side of the training room.

His curiosity with Aya still hadn't left; if anything, observing her in the halls only made him more intrigued. The only problem was that his temporary disability made it annoyingly easy for her to slip away before she could even notice he was there.

The other kids' cheering filled the room as he hobbled through the stands, his eyes continuously glancing up at Aya to make sure she was still sitting in the same spot. She hadn't gotten away this time.

When he got to the same section as her, then moved all the way at the top, he cleared his throat to gather her attention.

"Hey."

Aya glanced up from her book, and once their eyes met, Peter smiled. She looked surprised to see him, and almost nervous, but he shrugged it off and cocked his head to the side.

"Mind if I sit?"

She gulped and gave him a brisk shake of her head.

Instantly, he sat down on the metal bench and slid himself all the way to her, despite the weary expression her face carried. Once he was sitting about a foot or two from her, he put his legs up on the bench below them and let his head fall against the wall.