st_hotflashes | Time to Leave

Peter smiles.

"It's nice," he says. "I like it."

He likes how she really gets into the whole superhero thing. It's strangely nice having someone to cheerlead you. Ned might have had his moments of fanboying, but it was definitely different with Liz.

She smiled when he said he liked it - she had been a little worried he would find it weird. That he liked it made things infinitely better.

Liz realized she was still sitting on Peter's lap. Her smile turned a little sheepish as she climbed off of him. "Um.. sorry. I should have, you know, warned you about that before it happened."

"It wasn't like you had much time," Peter points out. Once Liz climbs off him, he starts sifting through his backpack, pulls out a new shirt, then shoves his old shirt and mask into it.

Peter tugs it on, then pulls out his cell phone; it'd buzzed in his pocket earlier. There's a notification from Liz on the home screen.

"Sorry I missed your text," he says, pulling it open to read it. It was weird, but sending text messages to Liz'd been one of the things he enjoyed about this trip. It just felt normal, like they were a normal couple and not two people trapped from different realities at an inn by mysterious forces.

The real question would be if the guy would come back. It was a question Liz was trying not to dwell on.

She looked around and took a second to find her own shirt, pulling it back over her head. Liz pulled her hair free of the neckline. "I was just... worried you might get caught or something." She paused. "Who knows what they'd do to you if you got caught."

And maybe Liz is projecting a little because she knew exactly what Max had gone through in the white room and it had not been pretty.

"It'd be hard for them to catch me," Peter says. "I mean, I'm really strong and I can climb walls, and then there's my web-shooters."

Peter wouldn't want to fight anyone, but as long as no one was shooting at him, he'd probably be just fine.

"I know." And she did know. She knew Peter could handle himself and, ultimately, he'd be okay. Liz trusted him more than anyone else, and yet, she couldn't quite shake that feeling.

Liz sat down. There was enough space that she drew up her feet onto the couch and wrapped her arms around her knees as she peered over at him. "I guess... it just hit home not everyone is used to superheroes."

And what he did wasn't just dangerous in the physical sense.

It didn't occur to him at all that Liz might not be talking about physical danger.

Peter sits down next to her.

"What do you mean?"

She put her chin on her knees thoughtfully. "I don't know, like... that people here, for example. They don't know who you are, right? And even if they did... it's not just bad guys who want to do bad things that can hurt you, but like, if there's a nosey reporter or something who figures out who you are outside of the mask..."

Peter thinks about that.

"Yeah, I mean, that'd probably be a problem," he admits. "Especially since we only have a limited time here." Neither of them knew what happened if you were still here when the portal closed.

He takes a breath. "I wouldn't want anyone back home to find out about me either," he says. "But if they did back home... it'd probably be better than anywhere else. Mr. Stark and the others would take care of me."

He's sure of that.

And Liz realized suddenly just how much she couldn't take care of him. Not like that, anyways. She could do a lot of things, but protecting him physically maybe not. She decided she'd have to think of some ways she could be useful in that way - maybe Quill would know. She'd ask Alec, but she wasn't sure he wouldn't just blow her off.

She shifted her gaze to the window. There was a blur of trees and fields. "I'm sorry I can't actually be someone like Web Weaver for you." He voice was quiet and a little distant.

Peter looks at Liz, utterly bewildered. He's not sure where this is coming from. Was it because it'd been a close call getting back to the train? Or was it because she couldn't provide the distraction that he could?

Peter's still not sure.

"You're better than Web Weaver," he tells her. "You're Liz Parker."

His words brought a smile to her lips abd even though there's the question 'maybe one day that won't be enough', she leaned against him and kissed the side of his face.

"Thank you." And she tried to push the thoughts of doubt away. Everyone kept telling her to live in the moment, right?

Liz went quiet for a moment, closing her eyes. After a few moments she spoke again. "You always smell... Really nice."

"Yeah?" Peter smiles at that. He was always kinda self-conscious about how he smelled since it wasn't like he could smell his stuff. "I just used the stuff in the hotel." He hadn't exactly packed up his shampoo from the inn for this trip. Even though he was sure Alec had.

She smiled stronger. "No, it's not that kind of smell." Liz lifted her head and looked at him. "You have this... Smell. It's always there, even when you use different soaps. Your hoodie used to smell like it too."

"You think?"

It feels weird knowing Liz is smelling him. But... if she likes it... it might not be worth feeling self-conscious about.

"I dont know how to explain it..
It's like...who you are? Like if I closed my eyes, I could tell it was you."

She blushed because she didn't think she was making much sense. "I'm sorry, that's probably really weird to say."

"Yeah, a little," he says, laughing lightly. "But if you like it, it doesn't matter if it's weird. I don't mind it."

She ducked her head a little, letting her legs unfold back to the sitting position. Somehow being weird around Peter felt safer than other people. She let the silence sit around them for a moment.

"...do you think that guy will come back?" They had 16 hours and the train made a lot of stops.

Peter's lips quirk up.

"If he does, we can just start making out again."

The obvious solution.

Liz looked at him with amusement. "Every time?"

"Not if you don't want to," Peter says quickly.

But he certainly won't object.

She laughed softly. "I don't mind, but I wonder what the guy will think." Amusement shone in her eyes. "Maybe he'll open the door and throw cold water on us at some point."

Though really, the idea of some poor guy thinking she and Peter were just constantly making out, or more, for 16 hours was kind of funny.

If they made out for 16 hours, even Alec would be impressed.

"Did you have another idea?"

"Oh, um... I don't know." She looked out the window, but thought about it. "I don't think saying we lost it would work. They'd probably ask us to buy more tickets... and I'm too young to flirt with him." Isabel would have done that. Liz didn't think she could pull something like that off.

"...We could try to make it so that he's really embarrassed and doesn't want to look at us again."

"You don't think him seeing us make out wasn't embarrassing enough?"

Peter's not sure how they can possibly be more embarrassing without taking off more clothes next time.

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