Be Careful What You Ask For (Closed to Peter)

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Liz walked numbly through the Inn after having spoken with Emma. It was as if her body were on autopilot as her mind couldn't really focus or process anything directly. What it all meant, how she felt, if she was around to see it happen - these questions were like vague fog in her mind that she couldn't quite grasp.

She thought, ever so briefly, that she might find herself in front of Kitty or Piotr's door, but it was Peter's door she came to a stop at. Liz swayed a little as she stood there, staring blankly at the door. She did that for a good five minutes before she was able to will herself to lift her hand and knock. It was a quiet two rap knock.

When the door opened, when she lay eyes on Peter, the numbness seemed to ebb a little. She stared at him silently, then slowly her face began to twist and contort as anguish spread through her features. She didn't move an inch except for her face. Everything suddenly felt intense and Liz stood there, stiff, and started to cry unabashedly. Cried with every fiber of her being.

Comments

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"But eventually he answers." Which she thought was saying something. She thought of Michael and how Maria often lamented on how he 'didn't talk about his feelings'.

"Do you like having him as a roommate?"

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"Yeah," Peter says. "Other than you, he's probably my best friend here."

Ned was still his best friend at home.

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She smiled at being included in that. She felt the same way about him, though obviously not of Alec - she didn't really know him all that well. Actually, she wasn't sure she had a 'best friend' here like Maria. Maybe it was Kitty, even though they weren't around the same age at all. Could you best friend be your teacher too? Liz wasn't so sure.

"I'm glad you guys get along. He seems like he needs friends. He reminds me of Michael back home."

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"Yeah? What was Michael like?"

Liz tended to talk about Kyle and Max a lot more than she did Michael, for obvious reasons. Peter idly draws a circle on on her knee with one of his fingers.

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"He's, um." She thought about him for a moment. "He comes off as very distance. He doesn't like really talking about himself and he and Maria argue a lot, but that's just because Michael is not a talker and Maria definitely is." Liz couldn't help the fond smile that spread across her features. "He's guarded, but really loyal and he'd do anything for Max or Isabel or Maria."

She paused, her expression faltering just a little. "He didn't have a good time growing up. Max and Isabel were found by the Evans and they adopted them and they're great. Michael... his foster dad wasn't very nice to him. He drank a lot and, um. hit him." She let her eyes move down to Peter's finger on her knee. It would be a lie to say the touch went unnoticed, but at the moment she was just thoughtful.

"He, um. Well, Michael petitioned to be an emancipated minor, so he has his own apartment now and he's doing a lot better." She smiled.

[st_arkintern]

There are occasionally times where Peter becomes acutely aware of how it might feel like to be the person without the dead parents talking to the person with the dead parents instead of the other way around. This was one of those times. Even though he'd lost his parents and later his uncle, he was sure that the family he had left -- May -- was better than most.

If not for Ben and May, he might have ended up in the same kinda place after his parents died.

"I'm glad he got out," Peter says. "I just wish he wasn't put in that situation to begin with."

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"Yeah, me too." She thought about the first few times she had been around Michael and then now.

"A lot of people think Michael's this like, big jerk with no feelings, but he's actually really sweet. You just have to get through a bunch of walls first."

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"Yeah," Peter says lightly. "Sounds like Alec."

Peter stops tracing circles on Liz's knees and instead redirects his attention back at his girlfriend.

"How long did it take before you and Michael became friends?"

Peter considers Alec his best friend here at the inn, but he was pretty sure Alec didn't feel the same way.

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"He didn't trust me at first. I think - I think he was angry at Max for using his powers to save me." Not really the 'saving' part as much as the alien-involvement part.

"He was especially angry when I told Maria, but she's my best friend and she was there when I was shot and she'd have been more dangerous not to tell than to tell." She stopped because somehow she felt like she was, again, justifying why she included Maria. Of course, Michael wouldn't necessarily object now.

"He stole my journal, actually." She had freaked out. "It was went Topolsky was around, too, so I was really worried she stole it."

Liz shifted a little on the bed. "I think after he read it, he realized I could be trusted." She tilted her head to the side, thoughtful. "But... I think it took a long time for him to realize I considered us friends. I think he's so used to people hating him or whatever that he just assumed we were all putting up with him instead of actually caring."

Even now, she was sure Michael might question if they'd come to help him. "I think after we helped him out with his dad, he figured out we might not just be because he hangs around, you know?"

She didn't know for sure. Like she said, Michael wasn't a sharer.

[st_arkintern]

Peter doesn't say anything while Liz talks. He just listens and takes it all in because even though he's not friends with any of these people and there's a chance that he's never going to meet them, they're Liz's friends, and on some level, it kind of feels like they're his friends, too.

"What did you do to help Michael with his dad?"

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"He refused to ask for help and was threatening to leave Roswell. We just.. we just tried to remind him he had people here." It had seemed to work. "But, to be honest, I think, um. Max.. and Maria. They helped him the most. He really loves both."

Differently, of course.

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"Was he already dating Maria when this happened?" Peter asks.

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She nodded. "Yeah." Then a smile crept in with a little bit of humour around the edges. "They're, um. They're on and off again, but you can tell they're crazy about each other."

She thought of Maria being here and how nice it would be. "I think she's the person I wish you could meet the most."

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Peter couldn't imagine being on-and-off-again with anyone he was crazy about, but that was probably because he and Michael were totally different people.

"Because you two were best friends, or because of something else?"

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"Yeah, maybe." She paused, thinking some more. "And maybe, um. Maybe because if you knew her then you'd know me completely? Maria - we've been friends forever. She's part of who I am, you know? I would be a completely different person without her."

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"Yeah, no, I think I get it," Peter says lightly. "I think it's the same with me and Ned. I mean, I don't know what I would have done without him. We've been friends since, you know, when my parents died and I'm just really grateful to him for that."

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"Maria would definitely like you." She had given this a lot of thought. Then her smile went a little sheepish. "She'd think you were cute, though obviously not as cute or handsome as Michael." She affectionately rolled her eyes, hearing her friends voice in her head. "And she'd think you're sweet. Plus she would find the Spider-Man thing really cool."

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"I'm glad she'd like me," Peter says, because even though it's unlikely he'll ever go there or meet Liz's friends, he likes the idea of them liking him. Or at least one of them. He suspects that Michael and Max wouldn't be crazy about him. He doesn't know about Kyle.

Not that Peter's going to go around asking about that, anyway.

"Do you think i'm as cute or handsome as Michael?" he teases.

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She flushed even though she had no romantic interest in Michael at all. The blush was being teased.

"Yeah. Yeah I do. I actually think you're a lot cuter than him." She glanced down at her hands briefly, biting her lip a little, before looking back up at him. "You're, um. You're actually really distracting most of the time."

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Peter smiles at Liz's answer.

"I find you distracting too. Even more than other-Liz, and I used to look at her all the time."

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Her cheeks grow even warmer and she ducked her head. It was nice to know she could compete with someone back home.

She paused.

"What was she like?" Liz looked up at that. She had never really asked too much about Peter's 'Other-Liz'.

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"She was really pretty," Peter says. "And really smart. She used to be the head of our Academic Decathlon Team. When Flash was being a jerk, she just ignored him and what he was saying, and that's kind of the right thing to do with Flash."

Not that Peter was ever successful at it; he had a tendency to react.

"I don't think I've ever seen her be mean to anyone, but she wasn't a pushover, either. And even though I was a sophomore and she was a senior, she still agreed to go with me to Homecoming."

Which really meant a lot to Peter, even though he ended up ruining it.

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It was hard not to be a little jealous of her the way that Peter spoke of other-Liz. She sounded really nice though and Liz wondered if maybe she and other-Liz would be friends. They were slightly closer in age, so maybe. Then again, they might have been rivals if they went to the same school and Peter was involved.

She couldn't help but wonder who Peter would have liked right off the bat if they had both been in the same room at the same time. Probably other-Liz since it sounded like she was more active in school life, like Isabel.

"She sounds really nice." Liz smiled a little. "I'm glad someone was able to see you for who you are." He deserved that.

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"Yeah, but I just screwed it all up," Peter says, more wistful than sad. "You saw it, though. The last time I saw other-Liz."

Peter returns to drawing little circles on Liz's knee. "I used to stammer around her all the time 'cause I was just that nervous. I don't really have that problem with you."

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She remembered how Peter felt the last time he saw Other-Liz. It had not been a good feeling.

"You did at the beginning." Liz smiled, remembering. "At the New Year Party? I thought it was cute." Liz felt herself blushing again.

"I... might have looked for you when the count down started, but I couldn't find you."