𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍

experior

"You want me to run over water?" Pietro asks, an amused look on his face. "I suppose I've never tried it before."

The statement makes my jaw drop. "You have super speed and you've never tried to run over water?" I ask, astonished at the idea. "If I got powers that let me run really fast, that'd be the first thing I tried!"

Pietro laughs at my surprised response, taking a small breath while re-positioning his stance. He looks down to me with a smirk on his face and I watch as he shakes the hair out of his eyesight and leans forward. Right as he's taking a deep breath, I realize what's truly happening.

"Wait!" I yell, unable to contain my laughter. "Put me down! I don't want to be with you on the first trip if it turns out you can't make it over!"

Pietro fakes hurt, his mouth opening to scoff but the sound never coming out. "Oh, so you ask me to run over water, but don't have enough faith that I'll actually make it over? Thanks for the confidence boost." He drops me, making sure I land on my good leg. Rolling his eyes then giving me a quick kiss, I watch the blue blur race away, and within a matter of seconds he's back– but he's soaked.

"Well, I suppose it's a good thing you didn't come with," Pietro starts, walking toward me confidently as a devilish grin spreading across his face. "Or maybe I jumped in just so I could do this."

I see his attack coming. He jumps at me with open arms and I manage to duck and roll away before he can wrap his arms around me. I know he can't use his super speed to catch me, as he'd just dry himself off if he did. I laugh when I see Pietro realize this, his confident expression dropping into dismay, but he quickly takes to running normally instead. I test putting weight on my knee, and though it hurts some it just feels like I twisted it slightly. Knowing that I shouldn't put too much pressure on it, I lightly run away from Pietro. However, on top of me being cautious with my leg and Pietro being a fast runner even without his enhanced speed, he's caught up to me in seconds. As soon as he's close enough I'm engulfed in a bone-crushing, soaking wet hug– not to mention that the water clinging to his arena suit is freezing.

"Pietro!" I exclaim, shivering in his embrace. "You're so cold!"

"I thought you'd warm me up!" He turns me around so that we're face to face, or as close to it as we can be. Though I'm decently tall, Pietro still stands about a half a foot taller than me. "You were the one who insisted on staying here while I did my test run anyway. You probably got bored without me here, so I brought some of the action back!" He winks, and I roll my eyes as I continue to shiver in his arms.

"Very thoughtful, but that doesn't make this, or you, any less cold. And as much as I'd like to wait until you're dry so that I don't have to hold onto someone covered in freezing water, we should probably get moving. We won't be safe here for much longer."

Pietro's smile falters for a moment and he shifts his eyes to the ground. Taking a deep breath, he brings the full smile back to his face and looks to me. A glimmer of mischief hints at his blue eyes. "You're right. Hold on tight, love. This could get interesting."

He picks me up as I look to him in protest. "Wait! I thought you just said you made it across fine!"

"Well, I did," Pietro starts, tilting his head as if he's in deep thought, "but that was when I was carrying only one person across. Now there's two, which might be a bit different. So, be prepared to get a little wet?"

I laugh and shake my head. "Guess that's what I get for asking to stay behind on the test run."

Pietro laughs, then pulls me closer to him as he takes off. I'm immediately thrown to the memory of this morning, the same nauseous feeling overcoming me as we travel across the water. What feels like in less than a second, we've made it across the water. I look at Pietro in awe, seeing that not only did he get us across the water but he did so without sinking. He sets me down gently onto the sand, keeping an arm around my waist as I look up to him.

"I still don't understand how you don't feel sick after doing that. It still gets me. Every time." Pietro laughs, shrugging his shoulders.

"I've just had lots of practice, I guess." 

Pietro takes his arm off of my waist and bends over, and I almost expect to see him tying his shoes but I realize that the shoes we have don't have laces. They're sturdy, strapped boots, and look as though they've been specially made for environments like these. Instead, Pietro grabs tight onto the bottom of his left pant leg, and when he does so a stream of water comes out. I raise a hand to my face and try to cover my laugh as he looks at me with a teasing annoyance.

"If it's possible, I'd like to avoid doing that as much as possible. You might not have gotten wet, Ave, but I basically just went swimming." Pietro switches legs as I let out a laugh. I take a seat on the soft sand next to where he's standing, meeting his eyes.

"Sorry babe," I say with a small smile. "But at least you got to go for a swim?"

"Wasn't looking for a swim, but sure." Pietro stands up, water still dripping down his suit. "Now if you'll excuse me for a second," he says with a wink. A blue blur speeds past me, kicking up lots of sand, only to return within the second. Pietro is completely dry when he comes back and he runs a quick hand through his hair to smooth it down.

"Alright, now that that's all taken care of," Pietro starts, "where are we going?"

I ponder the thought for a moment, looking around at the new scenery. I have absolutely no idea where we should go, what we should do, or if there's anyone else around. I decide to act on the last idea first, because if we can find an ally over here before more people show up, it would be an advantage for us.

"Wherever there's people."

Pietro looks at me with slight confusion, and just as I'm about to explain my thoughts his face clears and he nods his head in understanding. He adopts a serious look as he looks at me once more, as if he's studying the features on my face.

"I'll start looking around." He's about to run off again when I stop him.

"No, wait. I think we should do this together. Without powers," I tell him. He looks a little unsure of the idea at first, but hesitantly nods his head after a moment. I begin to walk toward him when I feel the pain in my knee again, and I roll my eyes at myself. "Okay, one exception. But after this, no powers."

Pietro laughs as I place my hands on my knee and initiate the healing process. I feel the coolness of the power surround my knee, the pain already receding. In seconds the pain is completely gone and my knee is back to its normal size. I walk over to Pietro with confidence, and he smiles when I reach him, his hand finding mine. We look behind us at the seemingly small island, and when we turn our attention back to the forest in front of us, I say one last sentence before starting to walk.

"Let the search begin."