Light & Dark // Spider-Man: No Way Home [Book 5]

chapter five {Peter's POV}

After a very short debate, and by very short, I mean twenty minutes of intense going back and forth on who was sleeping where, we settled on a solution. Happy insisted that May would take his room while May said that Arya and I should take the bedroom because we could share the double bed. Arya and I, however, just stood between them and watched them discuss. Eventually, we came to a solution. May was going to sleep in the bed, Happy was taking the armchair, and Arya and I shared the couch. 

Night fell quickly, and after Arya and I finished an episode of Game of Thrones, the show which we had started watching together before the summer, we headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed, or couch, I suppose.

Arya sat down on the edge of the bathtub while brushing her teeth and scrolling through her phone. I sat down on the closed toilet, doing the exact same. We shared a few funny pictures and videos with each other in the two minutes we spent brushing our teeth and after that, we went back to the living room to find Happy hooked up to what looked like a life support machine.

"Okay, what on earth is that?" Arya was the first to speak up after we had both stared at the setup for a full minute.

"It helps with my sleep apnea. I hope you guys like sleeping with white noise," Happy replied, flipping a switch on the machine and making a low humming noise appear. 

"Not at all," Arya and I said in unison, both equally sarcastic. 

May came to say goodnight before she headed to the bedroom on the second floor of the condo. "FRIDAY, can you set an alarm for 6 am tomorrow?" Arya asked.

"Sure thing, Boss. Good night," FRIDAY replied.

"G'night." Arya sat down on the couch next to me and after an exchanged shrug, I lay down on my back, which was my preferred position to sleep in anyway, and Arya put herself between the back of the couch and my side. I put an arm around her, both because it was more comfortable but also because I was afraid I would fall off in the middle of the night if I didn't hold on to something. She rested her head on my chest and hooked one of her legs behind mine. 

I had overheard a conversation between Skye and Arya in the library at school once. Skye had told Arya all about how, when she and Luke went to sleep, they didn't touch an inch of each other's skin all night because both of them preferred to have their own space during the night. 

And while Arya and I could be like that sometimes, we both enjoyed each other's physical company. Most nights, Arya would fall asleep with her head on my chest and I was pretty sure it was because the sound of my heart beating was soothing for her after years of thinking she would never hear it again. This was both equally heartwarming as it was heartbreaking.

I let out a deep breath. "You okay?" Arya whispered. 

"Yeah," I replied softly. "I was just thinking." 

"About what?" 

"This whole mess that I caused."

"Peter..." 

"No, seriously. I made the mistake of trusting Mysterio and now the whole thing's blown up in our faces. I never should've trusted him." 

"Hey, listen to me," she said, propping herself up on her elbow as she looked down at me. "Never fault yourself for trusting and believing others. That's the reason I fell in love with you." 

I stared at her for a second. "And for all this time, I thought it was my incredible sense of humour." 

She rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. You were the first person to truly believe in me when I was absolutely terrified of myself and what I could do."