Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 8 ~ deception

The next morning I woke up to the sound of pigeons squawking. I groggily looked around only to realize that Peter and I were both still sitting in the window.  He had fallen asleep, and I fallen asleep on top of him. I slowly raised my head from where it had lain on his shoulder.

I quietly groaned as I rubbed my stiff neck. I guess this meant I didn't dream my complete emotional breakdown last night. Fudge. While I did somewhat trust Peter, there was still a part of me that I like to keep hidden from everyone. And my past as Hydra's secret little weapon was not exactly something I was proud of, even though it wasn't my choice.

I slowly stood up and grabbed a change of clothes from a dresser drawer. Slipping into the bathroom, I quickly changed. I ran my fingers through my hair trying to work out the snarls that had mysteriously formed throughout the night. I glanced at my appearance in the mirror; it wasn't a great hair day, but it definitely wasn't my worst.

Satisfied that I didn't look completely horrendous, I headed downstairs. I glanced at a nearby clock and saw that it was barely five o'clock. That was one habit that I still hadn't been able to shake since my days with Hydra.

I headed to the kitchen, hoping that I would be able to find some food. After a quick search, all I could find was some expired cereal and an empty box of pancake mix. My stomach loudly growled, reminding me that I was still definitely hungry.

I headed to the living room where I found Jack fast asleep on the couch. The coffee table was cluttered with remnants of last night's taco feast. On the floor, I found the backpacks that Peter and I had both lazily discarded on the floor. I quickly shifted through my backpack hoping I had a pop tart hidden in one of the pouches.

After having no luck, I grabbed Peter's backpack. I glanced around quickly almost feeling guilty for invading his privacy. But hey, I had helped him. I had saved his life, fed him, and given him a free place to stay. Borrowing some snacks from his backpack really could be argued as cheap payment for all I had done.

I shrugged and unzipped the backpack. My mind quickly memorized where everything was placed. The kid had almost everything. T-shirt, comic book, toothbrush, deodorant, jeans, wallet, and a really wacky pair of glasses. But absolutely no snacks.

I let out a sigh as I realized that it was either expired cereal or waiting until Jack woke up and went to get food. Knowing Jack as I did, the chance of him getting up before ten was extremely unlikely. I glanced at the clock. 5:30 am. By the time he woke up and made it back with breakfast, it would probably be another five hours. I shrugged. I was hungry, but I also felt lazy enough to wait for him to get up and then complain about how lazy he was.

As boredom began to set in, I pulled the glasses out of Peter's backpack. They were definitely heavier than normal glasses. I quickly zipped his backpack and laid it down exactly how I had found it.

I walked over to the nearest mirror and examined how the glasses looked on me. They were definitely clunky. Whoever had designed these did not have the best fashion sense. I pulled the glasses off my face and began to play around with them.

My normal go to when bored was taking apart pens and putting them back together. I had also taken apart laptops and larger tech items when given the chance. But, there was just something about pens that was super addictive.

I slowly began to mess with the glasses. Within a couple of minutes, I realized that these were not ordinary glasses. There was tech built into these things. I bit my lip as I stared down at them. Peter had said that Tony Stark was basically his mentor. Maybe Stark had built these.

Finding tech built by Stark would bring a really nice price tag with the right buyer, but it would also be really fun to mess with and potentially improve. While Stark was a genius, some of his designs could be a little clunky.