Clara walked towards the building on the right, heading the same direction the rest of the class was. "Ten minutes!" Mr Harrington called out. "Ten minutes, everyone!"

She glanced over her shoulder to see Dimitri holding Peter back with his arm across his chest. She stopped to watch the man point towards another building. Following the pointed finger, Clara saw a woman standing in the doorway under a sign that read 'Gasthaus'. The blonde-haired, black clad lady disappeared into the inn.

When Peter trailed after her, Clara pursed her lips in contemplation, trying to decide whether or not she should follow after him. It was certainly nothing to do with her, and she knew it was almost, without a doubt something to do with Nick Fury, but... she was definitely and undeniably curious. Plus, maybe she could find something out for her parents.

Yeah, that's all I'm doing – gathering intel for my parents, she told herself. With that thought, she stepped onward. There were no windows at the front of the inn so she couldn't peek in that way, but it meant she didn't have to dodge them either. "Hello." She heard Peter speak in a small voice, nervous with the strange confrontation he had found himself in.

"Close the door." The woman said, her strong voice and sharp tone highlighting the intensity she emitted. The words became muffled, a door clicking into place blocking the clarity of their voices. Clara moved into the building, leaning towards the closed door to try and hear what was happening inside.

She heard Peter speak again but this time couldn't make out what he was saying. Clara leant closer to the wooden door; the flimsy material was surprising soundproof. Still, she could only here mumbles. It seemed to get even quieter, time between speech lengthening.

Clara pushed her ear against the door, hoping that doing so would help with the clarity. It didn't – the muffles simply became the slightest bit louder. With her hands braced against the door, she frowned, focusing entirely on the conversation behind it.

"Five minutes!" Someone called from outside. Clara jumped, accidentally pushing against the barrier, her eyes widening as a click sounded. She stumbled forwards, taken off guard by the sudden lack of resistance to her weight.

The voices inside stopped abruptly at the sight of Clara falling inwards. Peter span round, his trousers round his ankles. Clara looked up from the floor once she had stabilised and immediately covered her eyes with her hands, letting out a small yelp as she set eyes on the boy. "Clara!?" He exclaimed. "No, no, no!"

She peeked through her fingers hesitantly at his hurried tone, seeing the woman he was next to standing with a hand behind her back, Peter's hand gripping onto her wrist. "I, er, I wasn't listening in, or anything – I swear!"

"Who is this?" The woman bit, struggling against Peter's inhuman strength to pull her weapon from her waistband.

"This is Clara! She's my- She's in my class!" Peter rushed out, looking between the two.

"I should go." Clara told herself, muttering the words before speaking louder for Peter and the black clad woman. "I'm gonna go."

She backed away from them, not wanting to turn her back to the woman, knowing if she did she wouldn't be able to stop any rounds that may start to fly towards her. Rounding the corner and out of view from them, she upped her pace, heading towards the first building she had originally planned to enter, with her face burning with a red blush.

"You okay?" MJ asked her, the taller girl standing next to Brad and seeing her flushed cheeks.

"Yeah, I just..." Clara cleared her throat. "I just needed to stretch my legs, go for a little walk."

"Oh, okay." MJ said, turning back to Brad who was still looking to Clara.

"You see anything interesting?" Clara's eyes widened for a second, wondering if he knew what was going on, and questions flooded her mind. How would he know? Did he see what had happened? "We saw a guy wearing a fez on the way in." He continued.

She let out a relieved breath. "Right. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed I missed that."

Brad seemed as though he wanted to say something else but instead, he turned to MJ once again, dropping back into their conversation. Clara followed the sign on the wall that pointed her in the direction of the toilet and saw the queue had emptied itself during the time she had spent trying to eavesdrop.

Once she had finished, she joined the others back downstairs, seeing Peter through the window as he came out of the inn. Clara made her way through the crowded room and sucked in the fresh air as she stepped down from the doorway. "Hey, Clara?" Peter called out as soon as he saw here.

"Don't worry, I didn't see anything." She said instantly, referencing both his half-nakedness, and the conversation he had been in. Peter looked relieved at her sentence, taking it whichever way he had need to hear it. "Did you want any snacks from the shop? I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving soon."

Just as Peter was about to answer, Mr Dell yelled from the rest stop. "Okay! Put one foot in front of the other, and everybody back on the bus."

"Let's go! It's been ten minutes, let's go!" Mr Harrington added.

"Crap, I didn't get a chance to pee." Peter admitted.

"Just go." Clara shrugged. "They aren't going to leave without you and Dimitri definitely wouldn't. Fury would have his head."

Peter looked dubious, his eyes darting between the coach and the shop entrance. "Okay, please make sure they don't leave; I don't want to be stuck... Wherever we are."

Clara chuckled lightly. "I promise, I'll try." With that, Peter jogged away, and Clara went back to the coach.

"Clara, where's Peter?" Mr Harrington asked.

"Sorry, I asked him to grab me something I left inside." She lied, thinking that would sound better than telling the teacher Peter was the one to be making them late. "He'll only be a second."

With the rest of the seats being taken, Clara dropped into a seat at the front of the coach, giving herself a wide view of the dusty road ahead of them. She held her bag on her lap, hugging it against her torso. A few moments later, Peter stepped in front of her.

He looked over the bus, seeing Brad was once again sitting next to MJ, and he huffed. "Can I?" He asked Clara, pointing to the seat next to her.

"Not if you're going to mope." She said seriously, keeping a straight face for a few seconds before letting it break into a mischievous grin. She nodded her head to the side, gesturing for him to take a seat.

The bus began rolling forward once everyone was seated, Dimitri starting the second half of the journey. They sat in silence for a little while, Peter taking nervous glances to the back row each time he heard MJ's laugh. Clara watched him, biting her bottom lip.

Over the passed couple of days, she had watched Peter's plan to talk to MJ fall through his fingers and slowly break apart. Not only that, but she noticed how close her and Brad had been since she had met them. It wouldn't come to a surprise to her if she found out they were in fact boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Look, I'm gonna be straight with you." Clara said, breaking the silence. Peter twisted to look at her, his brows knitting together with worry, unsure of what this was to do with. "I don't think MJ's into you."

She knew her words may hurt him, and she was right. They felt like a stab in the heart to the boy. He didn't say anything, he just turned to watch the road before them. Clara had made herself the bad guy because it was something Peter needed to hear. He was chasing an extremely unlikely reality.

It was no one's fault; Peter had a crush on MJ, MJ had a crush on somebody else. What Clara had said to Peter had only upset him because he had been denying the truth for so long. Since coming back from the blip, he felt something had changed within everyone - including both those that had survived and those that hadn't – he just didn't want anything to change, he wanted everything to be back to how it had been before.

Knowing Tony had died and having watched as he slipped away – that was something that would never be the same, something he could never control. He clung onto everything else he had known: his best friend, Ned, his Crush, MJ, and living alone with his aunt, having her to talk his day through at the dinner table.

Now, Ned was sitting away from him, spending time with his girlfriend alone. Now, MJ had grown close to Brad, no longer going out of her way to make conversations with Peter. Now, Happy Hogan had begun joining him and May for dinner in the evenings. Everything had changed and he couldn't hold tight to them anymore.

"I know." Peter whispered. Clara looked across at him, a light scowl evident from his words. "I just..." He sighed, not knowing how to put his thoughts into words. "I just don't know what else to do."

"What? What do you mean?" She asked gently.

"Everything's different now and we can't go back to how it was." He explained, his eyes misting over. "I'm just trying to... I don't know, carry on?"

Clara turned away, watching the road, too. "My parents and I, we move around a lot." She told him. "I've never really had an issue with it; we get to travel the world, learn new languages, all while..." She pushed her lips together, trailing off. She wanted to speak her mind fully but there were just some things she couldn't tell him. "I love it."

"I don't get what you're trying to say." Peter confessed. "Are you saying I'm over reacting?"

She shook her head quickly. "I love it, but... I have that constant: my family. We didn't, you know, 'Blip'. We've always had each other." Peter looked down, blinking his eyes to keep his tears at bay. "Still, though, sometimes I wish we could be like a normal family, you know? Stay in the same place, have a home, have friendships that last longer than a few months."

"You really move around that much?" Peter asked.

"We usually stick to the same countries for a year or so, but we move around them constantly." She explained with a grimace. "I'm not saying you should throw away any feelings you have for MJ, I just don't think you should rely on her, if that makes sense."

"I get it." Peter nodded.

"You need to find something that's just you. Like, being you. Not a super-hero, not a boy chasing a girl, and not who you used to be; just you now. We all changed, you've just got to move on and embrace the difference." They both sat quietly once she had finished, the words hanging in the air.

"Those are wise words for a teenager." Peter commented, trying to recover from the silence that had fallen over them again.

Clara shrugged. "You gonna give the necklace to Ned, or what?"

Peter let out a burst of laughter, snorting as he did. Clara smiled, watching his eyes light up and the smile spread across his face. "I'll have to think about that one."

Please comment and vote - It lets me know you're enjoying it!