𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xvii. nina and the bug boy, ii

chapter seventeen!
nina and the bug boy, part two

    HER MOTHER had given her hot chocolate to help her sleep. Hoping the warm beverage would calm her erratic thoughts. Truth was, Nina is exhausted. She's so exhausted. She almost died more than once; Nina didn't think she'd ever be able to go into an elevator again. She'll be taking the stairs, no matter how many there are. But she couldn't sleep. She knew that if she did, if she closed her eyes for just a second, she'd see it again. She'd see the way she dangled from that clockwork; jammed from snapping between cogs by a desperate red-booted foot. But it wasn't strong enough. The cogs met, the thread snapped, and Nina had been falling somewhere else until Spider-Man caught her at the Washington Monument.

     Spider-Man. That was another thing.

    She couldn't stop thinking about him and Peter, either.

    Or should it just be the one?

    With the possibility, everything started to make sense. Everything after the death of Uncle Ben━all the disappearances, his height, how he lost his glasses, how he snuck out, gathered bruises, the Stark Internship ... but had he really been in Berlin to fight the Avengers? He returned just about the same time it all ended. Then everything else after that, too. Even ... even why he broke up with her. He didn't have time for the Stark Internship translated into:

     I didn't want you to get hurt.

    Spider-Man had said it himself, defending Peter when perhaps he had been trying to explain as himself: he broke up with her to protect her. And this whole time when he refused to explain more, kept his lips shut with that pained look upon his face ... it has always been more than what Nina had figured.

    And Nina didn't know what to think. Maybe she couldn't think anymore. She had driven herself to a blank page. She didn't even drink her hot chocolate. It still sat in her hands, now cold.

    When her phone rang, she almost spilt it.

    Nina's eyes shot towards it, and she cried to see it was Felicia.

    Passing her cup to her bedside table, Nina scrambled to answer the phone, pressing it to her ears to sob, "Cia?"

    "Nina?" She heard Felicia's voice crack with her own tears. "Are you okay?"

    Nina nodded, finding it hard to speak through her tears. When she realised Felicia couldn't see, she forced out a hoarse, "Yes, yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay." They both knew she wasn't, but that was okay. It was okay, because Felicia was here on the other end, and Nina felt better. She felt calmer.

    "I'm sorry," Felicia sobbed and Nina curled up against her pillows, pressing her fingers to her mouth to keep her own sobs in. "I'm so sorry I didn't talk to you earlier. I'm so glad you're okay. Oh, my god..."

    Nina closed her eyes, clutching onto her phone like it was her only lifeline. "A━are you okay? You ... you left me on open."

    "I'm okay," promised Felicia. They both knew she wasn't. "I ... I found out a name for Spider-Man."

    Nina's breath hitched, all of her thoughts about Spider-Man returning like a harsh sledgehammer. She knew Felicia was trying to divert the conversation to distract the both of them, but little did she know that half of Nina's worries right now surrounded the web slinger and how he might be her oldest friend. "Y━You did?"