𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

vii. michelle doesn't do friends

chapter seven!
michelle doesn't do friends

    NINA KEPT glancing back at Peter as Gwen arrived. Each time she did, he was there to meet her gaze, head down low but with a mischievous smile to say, what're you doing? Eyes front! To which she grinned and spun around on her feet only to shyly look over yet again. Seeing her friend reach the group of interns, Nina stood up straighter and sent a thumbs up over the shoulders. In seeing it, Gwen's lips tugged up slightly into a smile.

    "Welcome to OSCORP," she began. "I'm Gwen Stacy, I'm a senior at Midtown Science and I'm also head intern to Doctor Connors." Nina glanced back yet again, trying her best to hide her amusement at Peter doing his best to stay in the back, hiding his face behind one tall intern and his fingers over his eyes. Dork. "So, I'll be with you for the duration of your visit. Where I go, you go. That's the basic rule. If you remember that, all will be fine. If you forget that then━"

    She trailed off. Down below, echoes of desperate shouts caught their attention. Nina arched a brow, peering down past the escelator to the ground floor where someone was being dragged right across back to the entrance doors. "Look, listen!" he cried, struggling in the security guard's holds. "Tell them Rodrigo Guevara is down here! Please! Just tell them Rodrigo Guevara is here! My name's Rodrigo!"

    Nina's gaze snapped back up to Peter's. He gave her a sheepish smile.

    "Well," said Gwen after a moment of awkward━and yet quite bewildered silence, "I guess I don't need to tell you what happens if you forget. Shall we?"

    Gwen smiled, spun on her toes and started the way down the glass corridor. OSCORP was an impressive building; industrial, modern and polished contemporary with the world's latest medical, chemical, neurological and biological scientific advances. Nina was enamoured, eyes wide and mouth agape as she peered down and up the levels until her neck craned and she could see no more.

    She fell back a little, stopping to stare at a set of robotic arms manouvering a set of beakers in a tray onto the next desk with a lab tech just controlling it at the swipe of a tablet. Nina felt eyes on her back and she looked back. A blush rose onto her cheek to see Peter's amused smile. Nina walked up to him and muttered, "Shut it, Rodrigo."

    "No," he chuckled, "it's good! You ..." Peter made that awkward shrug again, "... you look like you'll really like it here."

    "I want to look at biochem," Nina found herself telling him as they walked at the back of the group, barely even listening to Gwen and just in their own pleasant conversations. "I know it's ambitious, but, I want to find a way where we can━I don't know━" Nina suddenly felt very nervous as she spoke of her dreams to Peter Parker; something so outrageous until she read about Doctor Connors, and the work he was doing here at OSCORP, "━take these attributes from different species of animals to heal cancer, loss of limbs, even Parkinson's ... I mean, the Zebra fish has the ability to regenerate cells on command. Apply that to a person with Parkinson's who's losing dopamine cells, well, there you go, they're healing themselves..." she faltered in seeing the look on Peter's face. It made her heart rise and her cheeks flush. "W ... what?"

    Peter Parker didn't say anything for a moment. They continued to walk, following Gwen and the group. Nina went redder. She tucked her hair behind her ear and couldn't meet his gaze, watching her feet walk along the tiled floor. Nina didn't look away because she felt belittled for believing these developments, no, it was the opposite. Nina felt like she wasn't outrageous, that what she spoke of was some gobsmacking, beautiful discovery that Peter Parker had found, and couldn't believe his eyes she stood right there beside him.