Ajax is just a junior in high school, just there to get in and get out. She keeps to herself and stays behind the scenes but that changes when she's assigned to work with Peter Parker on a project. She's had her eyes on him since freshman year but n...
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Ajax made her way to Peter's room, her backpack hanging from her fingertips. She knocked lightly as she cracked the door open. Peter was moving around, picking up articles of clothing and tossing them into his hamper.
"Spider-Boy can climb walls but can't keep his room clean." Ajax chortles.
"Ha," Peter faces her. "I-uh, yeah, you're right."
"Quit looking at me like that before I hit you." Ajax looks to the floor and pushes her hair behind her ears.
"L-like what?" Peter furrows his brows, a t-shirt still in hand.
"Like," Ajax sighs and looks to him. "Like you feel fucking sorry for me. It's, it's gross." She shrugs. "Stop feeling sorry. I'm fine."
Ajax makes her bag by Peter's desk and heads to his bunk bed, Peter's eyes following her and watching her closely. Peter bites the inside of his lip as he clenches his jaw. He tosses his shirt in his hamper, Ajax making her way to the top bunk. How was he not supposed to feel sorry for her? He gets that she thinks she deserves it. But, it is okay for him to feel sorry for her. She's bruised and banged up and she is far from fine. For two seconds, Peter wants her to tell him she's not. He can feel it radiating from her bones.
"Are you, uh, you gonna call Mr. Stark?"
"Nope." Ajax says as she leans back on the top bunk, placing the bag of ice over her eye. "He'll call, soon likely."
"He really tracks you all the time?" Peter tosses his shirt in the hamper.
"Mhm."
"You're not gonna tell me why...are you?"
With a sigh, Ajax moves to her elbows, removing the ice and staring at Peter. All that goes through her head is how completely perfect he looks besides that damn broken shine his eyes hold while looking at her now. It's already different and she hates it.
"Nope."
"Later?" Peter raises his brows with hope.
"Maybe." Ajax lays back and puts the ice back on her eye.
Now, she wants to tell him of course. Of course she does because so far Peter has been completely open and hasn't judged a single word that's left her mouth. He's questioned things but never judged. He accepts how Ajax thinks and the things she does but she knows that if she were to even think of telling him, that look he now gives her, it'll be worse.
She hates the look of pity and that's how he's looking at her. Like she's some broken porcelain doll that needs to be glued back together, sanded out, and painted over. But, that's not her. Maybe, maybe, if it were different, if it weren't for the people she hurt, maybe she'd tell him. Because, at least then, he wouldn't look at her differently all over again, only instead of pity, disgust.
One of Ajax's many problems, she gets in her head. Now, she's laying on the top bunk of Peter's and he's below her and he's rambling about something he saw the night before on the Discovery channel but all she can think about is what she told him. She told him part of her story and now she's overanalyzing it, thinking Peter is just playing nice until it wears off, until her injuries heal. Maybe he's just being nice until he can convince her to call Tony or until he can get away to tell Tony himself. She didn't really know. She could feel what Peter was feeling when he touches her but she didn't know his intentions. All she knew was that he felt some form of emotional warmth with her but that doesn't mean much. That doesn't mean he's not creating a plan to get rid of her, just like everyone else wants to do once they see her paint start to chip away. She couldn't lose him, not if it meant him leaving first. She can't have that. She can't have one person leave before she's ready.
