SLOW DOWN // X-MEN // PETER MAXIMOFF × READER

☆ Chapter 3 ☆

"Here, choose any one you want," said (Y/n) as she waved her hand to the shelf full of boxed junk food. "Unless you wanted... something else?"

   He turned to look at her with a raised brow. "Something else...?"

   She shrugged and turned to the other numerous shelves. "Yeah, there's plenty of other snacks and drinks back here if you wanted those instead." Without turning to face him, she walked off to grab a couple bags of chips to show.

   Peter coughed to clear his throat. "Oh, yeah, of course, totally," he said.

   "If not, there's magazines and packs of post cards and keychains if you collect those things," said (Y/n), leaning against a crate.

   He waved it off and shook his head. "I don't need anything, it's fine." With his hands in his pockets, Peter walked up to (Y/n) to lean against the crate beside her. "But, um, I was thinking... why did you say 'yes' to this job for?"

   "Excuse me?" She laughed.

   Peter crossed his arms and dropped his shoulders. "Okay, that sounded a little harsh— but, really, it's a sketchy gas station with a shady owner and an incompetent coworker so, like, why take the job?" He turned his head to look down at her, eagerly waiting to hear her explanation.

   She felt nervous by being placed on the spot, but answered nevertheless. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess it's understandable why you'd think that. The truth is, I'm trying to be better. You know, be responsible and get some money to pay for classes..."

   He pouted and nodded. "I get that, still, not gonna lie to you, you should've picked a better job instead of settling with this." He gestured to the space around them, emphasizing the leaking condensation from the air conditioner, the cob webs, and the broken cameras.

   "What if I like being here with all this?" Asked (Y/n). "Besides, if I didn't work here, I wouldn't have met you—"

And at that, Peter's heart began to flutter and his face started to tinge into a light shade of pink. But (Y/n) continued to speak.

"And if I hadn't met you, you wouldn't be getting free junk food whenever you wanted, you rat." She shoved his shoulder and chuckled.

   "Ah, that's true... but I wouldn't say I'm a rat," he said, squinting his eyes and laughing. Then it quickly got quiet after their laughter died down. He ran his hand through his hair and started again. "But, what I was trying to get at was, this was a pretty close call... so, I was thinking, maybe it'd be best if I stick around whenever you have your shifts?"

   (Y/n) turned her head to see him, to read his lips  to be sure she heard right. "You think this kind of thing would happen again?"

   He saw her eyes gleam in worry and that was the last thing he wanted to see. "Oh, no, no, but I just thought it would be better if I stayed just in case..." he pushed himself off the crate he leaned against and made way towards the door. "Forget what I said, nevermind—"

   "No, you're probably right," said (Y/n) as she caught up to him. "I asked myself the same thing. I wondered if what happened today would happen again next week or the week after that and it does worry me... just a bit."

   Peter smiled softly as he looked down at the girl in front of him. "Alright, then I guess we're basically coworkers now."

   She nodded in agreement and held out a hand to shake. "I guess so, Peter."

   Gladly, he took her hand in his and shook on it. Never did he think that their interaction would go this far in just one week of meeting her. He looked forward to their days together and learning more about (Y/n).