Adventures in Babysitting ↠ Peter Parker [1] ✓

15 | Pinky Promise Phenomenon

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xv. PINKY PROMISE PHENOMENON

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  FEAR IS A BASTARD. When requested to define fear, that's the simplest answer that can be accumulated. Fear is a common sensation that impacts each of us in more ways than one. We've familiarized ourselves with it from the beginning of time as our childhood's looming shadow. Whether it's spotting a cockroach in your home, desperately fleeing from whoever's "it" in a fierce game of Tag, or having a near-death experience, fear is unfortunately easily attained. It's an unpleasant sensation that acts as a leader for potential anxiety and trauma to frighten us to the point where we become fearful of fear itself. However, over time, we learn to overcome it, building courage as we do so.

   Riley knew fear like the back of her hand. She lived off of her own fear for years, using it as a motivator to keep going. Whether it was the fear that clung to her after her parents passed, after conquering deadly enemies, or after being kidnapped by an alien, She taught herself how to subjugate her own despair and keep her chin up. It was easy to forget who she was and how she managed to get to a brighter mentality in the first place, but she never gave up. She wouldn't let herself, no matter how often she'd think about it. After all, Riley called herself Valor because she was so damn good at having courage.

   All this to say that Riley considered fear as a bittersweet friend who she surmounted time and time again. Between aliens, HYDRA, robots, and facing off with her supervillain father, Riley would have never thought that the one thing that made her forget what it meant to have undeniable courage after all these years would be meeting Morgan Stark.

   Morgan Stark was their mother and father's pride and joy rolled up into a 5-year-old. She was everything to the Starks, and Riley could sort of see why just from hearing all the stories. Then again, how interesting could some kid be anyway? Maybe that was just the Natasha part of her subconscious talking, but truly, Riley was mostly confused.

   Riley didn't know how to act around children, which should have been incredibly obvious given that she only ever grew up around child agents who were expected to act 20 years older than they actually were. Riley never played with kids her age in a park; Riley grew up training and mastering weapons and combat. There was no such thing as a "make-believe world" for Riley, only reality.

   The people Riley surrounded herself with didn't exactly make it any easier. No one babied her besides Steve and many a few old friends she couldn't remember very clearly anymore. She was seen as a soldier, a weapon, not a kid. She saw herself through the eyes of others.

   Embedding all of this together, it only made sense that Riley was beyond nervous to meet her little sister.

   Riley stood before the mirror in one of the many bathrooms in the Stark household. "Hey! Hi... Hey there... Hey, what's up? Hi! I'm Riley... I'm your sister... Hey, I'm Riley!" Riley paused. She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, exasperatedly sighing.