❛  Can certainly use the help ❜

The bell rang through the house and Mr. Silas rushed to answer the front door. He was incredibly disoriented, his shirt stained in more place than one and his sweatpants hanging loosely on his hips. It was late into a Thursday evening and Mr. Silas had returned from work only to toss his comfortable clothes on and prepare dinner for me. Not even an hour later, the doorbell was ringing off the walls.

I stayed upstairs as he pulled the door open, for I didjt want to be revealed to the world if anyone was to recognize me. In front of Mr. Silas stood none other than Peter Parker, him awkwardly standing in the doorway. I watched carefully from the doorway. "Um, hi," he sheepishly smiled while raising his hand to wave a bit. Mr. Silas squinted his eyes to try and focus on the boy for he didn't have his glasses on, he was in quite a rush. "I-I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

Mr. Silas's face lit up and he held out his hand to introduce himself. "Peter Parker! It's an honor! You're pretty cool, like, woosh, you know?" the older man laughed while repeatedly shaking Peter's hand a bit too hard. The boy raised his eyebrows and returned the kind gesture before peering over his shoulder to see me as I began to walk slowly down the stairs while dressed in my hand-me-down pajamas from Cassie Silas.

"Mr. Silas," I spoke up, the man's attention drifting to me as he let Peter's hand go. "Oh, Aniya! Come, join us! Oh, and Peter, come in, would you?" he rambled, stepping aside so Peter could step in. I ordered the boy a gentle smile, one that he returned, before Mr. Silas was looking between us both. "What are you doing here, Peter?" I finally spoke up, the tension in the room being near deafening. I was fine with Peter now, though I still wished to keep my distance from growing close to the boy. "I wanted to see if you needed help finding your friends. I kind of took off my Spider-Man duties tonight to help, so..." Peter let his voice trail off at the end of his sentence and I looked at Mr. Silas, wondering what to tell him.

"We can certainly use the help, Peter. We set up our station in the kitchen, follow me," he told him. already walking toward the tiled room with a smile on his face.

I watched the two go, my thoughts running circles in my mind. I needed Peter's help, and he had agreed to help. But on some level I was scared that he would turn me and my friends in once I found them. They were my world, and I hardly knew Peter.

Mr. Silas and I had been working whenever he wasn't at his job in the city. We had been trying to locate them, or trace Forefront, or anything that would help us find my friends, but there was no luck, not yet anyways.

After a brief moment of standing alone in the foyer of Mr. Silas's home, I allowed my feet to move into the kitchen where Peter was already leaning over the laptop on the kitchen table. Mr. Silas placed a glass of water in front of the boy before smiling at me and motioning me closer as opposed to standing in the doorway as I was a minute ago.

I wandered over to the table where I quickly sat down and stared at the file before me. My eyes drifted over the name printed on the large tab on the manila colored document and I sucked in a sharp breath. Peter looked up at me, perhaps wondering why my hands were flayed over the material instead of opening it to read. "I haven't opened it," I said, my eyes lifting to meet his curious ones. "I watched her die," I continued, listening to the deep silence that overtook the room. "I don't know why I grabbed it."

Mr. Silas patted me on the shoulder before giving it a reassuring squeeze. Peter was still mindlessly staring at me, his expression a mixture of sadness and curiosity. "Have you ever watched someone die, Peter?" I asked him, his eyes widening as he now glanced between Mr. Silas and I. 

After a moment of not knowing how to reply, he shook his head and pursed his lips, "No."

I gently smiled at him to reassure him I was fine before pushing the folder out of the way, "Hope that you never have to."

There was an awkward silence that filled the room and Mr. Silas slowly backed to the corner where he quickly occupied himself with other affairs.

Peter sat down in the chair in front of the computer and continued to look at me. For some reason neither of us could turn away. We had an unofficial staring contest - something that I had become very successful at over my boring years at Forefront where we had to do anything to keep ourselves entertained. I had won against Peter when he blinked after a short minute and then looked down to avoid the tension between us.

"Aniya," Mr. Silas spoke, his hands clapping together as he smiled and walked toward Peter and I. "Why don't you tell Peter what you've learned about the Avengers?"

Peter smiled and nodded, "Sure! Yeah, uh, that would be great! I could quiz you, if you want. You totally don't have to. I was just suggesting - "

"The only Avenger with enhanced abilities like me are Amarillo and Scarlet Witch. You and Captain America have "super senses" and Thor is a God," I interrupted, a bit annoyed with his rambles.

"Well, sure, I guess. But I have powers, too."

"Your suit was made by Tony Stark and it has an AI that pretty much tells you what to do. You shoot webs out of a machine built by you and upgraded by Mr. Stark. You can do flips, sure, but I wouldn't consider that a superpower. And you have exaggerated senses, not enhanced. Shall I continue?"

Peter blinked. The only noise was Mr. Silas chuckling into his hand as tears leaked from his eyes because he couldn't contain his laughter.

Again, Peter blinked.

"Uh, I think that about covers it."

"There is Sam," I mentioned, looking over at Peter with a small smile as I was proud as to what I had learned. Peter snorted, "Sam isn't that impressive."

I raised an eyebrow, "Isn't he a Veteran?"

Peter shrugged, "Yeah, but he's not that cool. He's actually kind of mean."

I chuckled, "Awe, did the superhero hurt your itty-bitty feelings?"

Peter rolled his eyes and picked up a crumbled piece of paper on the table and tossed it at me. It hit me in the shoulder and I dropped my jaw playfully and threw my hand out, using my powers to forcefully hit Peter back with a light burst of wind. "Hey!" he complained and stood up quickly, looking immediately to Mr. Silas. My guardian raised his hands in surrender and took a step back, "Hey, I want no part in this. You guys just work out your issues and I'll stay over here."

"I have no issues," I responded with confusion. I didn't have any problems with Peter Parker, and I really hope he didn't think I did. I thought we were messing around. I had done research on how teenagers act and I read online that they mess around and play jokes - whatever that meant. Peter'seyes widened once he saw my confused expression and guilt spread on my face as I thought I truly hurt Peter's feelings. "No! No, we were just joking. There are no issues between us."

I leaned back in my chair and slowly nodded, "Are you sure?"

Peter nodded quickly.

"Okay, well, let's find your boys, Aniya," Mr. Silas said as he wandered over to us and turned the computer toward the edge of the table so he could begin his research. I smiled, "I think they would like that very much."