Adventures in Babysitting ↠ Peter Parker [1] ✓

13 | Sunflower

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xiii. SUNFLOWER

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   IT WAS RILEY'S FAULT.

   Everything was all Riley's fault.

   So much loss could have been prevented had Riley not destroyed the Infinity Stones. If she had just sat and waited for the others to find her, they could have ended Thanos's reign of terror and brought everyone back. The past five years—No, life would have been completely different had Riley not destroyed the stones. But Riley let her own desperation get the best of her, and now, she was the reason the world was still in shambles. God, how could she have been so stupid?

   Subsequent to sitting through a series of examinations, Riley learned that the only bright side to her current condition was that physically, she felt great. There were perks to being a human solar panel, as it turns out. She could sit underneath direct sunlight and feel her body gradually bounce back to peak condition. Sure, there were still some things that required special care, such as her broken ribs and reopened wounds from briefly fighting Carol fucking Danvers, but most of her trivial injuries had been somewhat healed, give or take a few scabs and scars.

   Riley's mind seemed to be stuck on two things. One was obviously the guilt and regret she was facing, but the other was the fact that she had actually tried to take on Carol Danvers. She additionally couldn't believe that Carol Danvers knew her name. Riley was totally starstruck.

  Unfortunately, Carol announced it was time for her to head back into space. Apparently, Riley had awakened from her week-long coma just in time for Carol's monthly check-in. Natasha said the teen was the luckiest unlucky person in the galaxy.

   A full two days had passed since Riley had woken up, allowing the teenager to settle back into the rhythm of everyday life. No one bothered her unnecessarily, knowing that Riley had to find it in her to become accustomed to the world again.

   She had originally tried to shadow Natasha like the old days, cruising the headquarters and striving to comprehend what it was everyone did these days; however, walking around the HQ prompted an unsettling feeling to descend into the pit of Riley's stomach. Everywhere Riley looked, she could almost perceive the ghosts of those who were lost to the Decimation. It made Riley feel worse kenning that she could have brought them back. Because of this, Riley took it upon herself to spend more time in her room than anywhere else.

   Something about sitting in the room that was meant to be Riley's in the Avengers HQ was utterly surreal. Riley never had the chance to live in the headquarters since she had been shipped off to Queens for a babysitting gig around the time the others moved in. She wondered what that life would have held for her, especially since her neighbors were Pietro Maximoff and Bucky Barnes (of course, he wouldn't occupy that room until he was pulled from cryogenic therapy in Wakanda). That all felt so far away now... like it was a lifetime away. Things were so much simpler then.