Here to Help

Four days was perfect

TW: Panic attack/fainting

I was worried I may have overestimated how long it would take us to pack up the few things we needed to bring to the compound, but given how often we all got distracted by something or other, five days was the perfect amount of time.

Well, four days was perfect. The fifth day wasn't spent packing, nor was it anything like perfect.

We all had a bit of a routine we fell into. In the mornings me and Peter would wake up and make everyone breakfast, and while I set the table Peter would open up all the cupboards and sit on the counter for a bit, looking around just like Steve taught him to.

One thing we discovered was that it seemed to be best that Peter do his little ritual before he ate breakfast. If there was any time for Peter to panic and hide food it would be in the morning, when he was hungry and tired and could have possibly just woken up from a nightmare. So he used his time sitting on the counter to calm himself down, reminding himself he was safe before he had the chance to consider hiding anything.

And while it pained me a bit to hear Peter's stomach rumbling while he and I made breakfast and while he sat on the counter, staring at all the food, he said it actually helped to be hungry when he did his ritual. He said that when he was at his Aunt's apartment, usually he'd be hungry and there was nothing he could do about it. But being hungry now and seeing that he could eat, and that nobody would stop him from eating, helped him realize the difference between his situation now and the one at his Aunt's place.

Wade was usually the first one to come out of his room after us, and after explaining to him why Peter looked at all the food like that every morning, he would often jump onto the counter as well, and just sit quietly next to Peter. Even if his breakfast was waiting for him at the table, he'd sit with Peter until he was finished looking around, and then help him shut all the cupboards again.

Bucky and Steve would arrive last, always looking a little less bleary eyed than the morning before as they got used to the new timezone. Sometimes they came in while Peter and Wade were still on the counter, but most of the time they walked in just as we were beginning to eat.

The rest of the day tended to be more flexible, packing and taking a break every hour for Steve and Peter to have some food. Sometimes they'd make something for their Hourlies, and sometimes they ate a special protein bar that Cap knew how to make. He actually used to make them all the time when he lived at the compound, but I never knew the recipe, so I'd had to make do with the Hulk bars up until now. Cap's bars worked way better than the Hulk bars did, Peter could eat one and be totally fine until the next Hourly, though apparently they tasted gross.

Again, the Spidey-Bars are still in the planning stage.

If they decided to have something other than the protein bars then usually Steve would make something for them in the morning so they could have it throughout the day, and Wade, Bucky, and I, would find something to do while they ate. I usually ended up bringing something from the lab to the dining room so I could tinker around but still be in the same room, Bucky would read a book, and Wade would sit next to Peter, both coloring in Avengers coloring books as Peter ate. Apparently he'd bought them as part of a care package for Peter, and they would joke and laugh as they scribbled.

I noticed that Peter always skipped the Spider-Man pictures though. It probably made him miss it too much. He did seem to favor the Iron Man pages however, which always made me smile.

Wade just complained that there were never any pictures of him in there.

But from the very start of our last day in the tower, I could tell this wasn't going to be a normal day.