𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xxxviii. thinking about you

chapter thirty-eight
thinking about you

    A HOT CHOCOLATE was always a good answer to a stressful day. Though Nina barely drank any of it, the feeling of the warm around her fingers calmed her down as she thought over the near tragedy that could have befallen New York just a day before. If Spider-Man hadn't stopped him, the city would have been wiped out━caved into itself as the sun swallowed metal, and then bricks, and earth, dragging it all into its own gravity until there would be nothing else. The city had been saved, but Spider-Man didn't save Harry's investment. Nina hasn't heard from him since, and she was sure she wouldn't hear from him for a while━even if she tried to call and text, even visit, Harry wouldn't venture out of his study, or even his mind where a brewing vengeance and obsession was growing into something dangerous━something neither Nina, MJ or Peter knew how to settle. 

     Doctor Octavius had been admitted to hospital, his mechanical arms fused into his body━a prime reason Nina stayed with biochem ... 

     It had been a disaster she was unlikely to forget. It shook her━it seemed Nina always found herself into trouble. It followed her around like a shadow: the possibility of death, of falling ... her own life flashing right before her eyes. It reminded her of the moment she thought she was going to die, falling from the Manhattan Bridge, and felt like she's been through this all before━and it wasn't comforting, it wasn't something to tell her she'd make it out the other end; it was almost like a reminder: to tell her that one day, she wouldn't. 

     It plagued her at night, and during the day━every reminder, just like yesterday. And she couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard she tried. 

    She stared at her phone sat there beside her, feeling the sudden urge to call Peter━the automatic response she held whenever she was upset was to find him. He used to seem so wise; he knew exactly what to say to make her feel better, appreciated and even loved. And now, he was barely around━disappearing off into the wind and coming back, always when she seemed to need him the most. Now, whenever she searched for him, he was gone. Like a ghost of the friend he used to be to her, and it made her wonder, these days, whether she took that friendship for granted. 

    She had fallen for somebody who had already let her go. She didn't know why that hurt so much, but it did.

     Nina frowned when she heard something rapt against the glass of her apartment window. She looked up from her hot chocolate that had turned cold to peer through her blinds to the fire escape outside━her eyes widened. A small smile of disbelief scoffed its way onto her lips. 

     Getting onto her feet, Nina made her way to the window and pushed it upwards, poking her head outside to grin at the masked vigilante casually sitting in the corner of her fire escape. "What are you doing here?" she asked him, biting back her want to chuckle.

     His mask had been pushed up just to his nose, so he could eat away at the small meal he had wrapped in a MacDonalds takeaway bag. He wiped his lips and for a moment, Nina remembered how it felt to kiss them. "Having dinner."

     "Outside my window?" she asked, quite dubious he picked this fire escape out of every other ceiling in the city to enjoy his late night━very unhealthy━dinner.

     Spider-Man glanced at her, and even if she couldn't see the rest of his face, she could tell he was sarcastic when he said, "Is this your window, Miss Nina?"