The Weight of Us ｡ Peter Parker [3]

22 - Carnival of Lights

Night had fallen over Prague; coloured in pastel lanterns, sweeping parades with citizens dressed in swirling rainbows and crowds that littered the streets to celebrate the city's annual Carnival of Lights. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay in our new fancy hotel and draw baths with bubbles or pretend we were locals dancing in the streets. No, we weren't so lucky, as we were hidden away with Nick Fury and his team for a debrief. 

My attention span had not lasted long, not when my phone kept vibrating in my pocket, messages coming in full blow from a few friends currently flying over the sea to meet us for an upcoming battle. Beside me, Peter's eyes had glazed over, his mind somewhere else. Which only resulted in Fury second guessing his idea to hire teenagers for a mission. 

"Are you both even listening?" Fury snapped, one eye focused on us by the crackling fire. I tried to sneak my phone from my pocket to read through my group chat, but when Fury tsked, my head snapped up. "Are you bored?" 

Cupping his hands in front of his torso, Peter shook his head. "No, sir."

"They're not bored," Quentin Beck said from the far windows. His calming voice, chilled around the edges, snaked up my spine and created a strange alarm in my mind. Earlier when we had sunk away from our class trip to meet everybody here, I had tried to reach my hand to his own, in some very obvious way to touch his skin, but he'd been too quick to sidestep away and blurt on about the Elementals. "They're wondering how you've ruined their vacation."

I did not like Beck playing mediator on my side of the argument. Peter went to open his mouth, something familiar in his eyes when he glanced across at the mysterious new hero, who had smiled at us both too many times for it to be considered likeable. He was playing far too hard in gaining our favour, but apparently, Peter couldn't see past his cape and chiselled features. Not that I blamed him, Beck was hot. 

"We're fine," I interpreted, turning to my chin to Elliott Mercer, who was cross-legged on the desk which hosted their array of computer screens. Her lips were coated in pink bubblegum and her eyes drifted towards Beck every other second. I tried to read her face, but she was a bubble wrapped mystery too. Damn spies. "Actually, we'd love for all this to be over, so we can get back to our friends and—" They did not need to know about our attempts to fall back into love in Europe. "And stuff. Surely, you guys must get that."

Elliott popped a bubble of gum. "We all want this mission to be over, kid." Her eyes snatched towards Fury, who kept his face blank. I had the feeling her words were not just about this mission, but the personal one she had in spying on Beck. Does Agent 47 find Mysterio hot? Had she gone as far to woo him all for her cover story? Why had she deliberately informed me that she was spying on him? 

"Well good," Fury said, "let's go over the plan." 

Peter fidgeted with his sleeve. "I'll be in the cathedral tower, keeping watch for the fire monster. When it shows up, I will radio you guys."

Fury turned his eye to me. "I'll be on the ground, hopefully in my suit, attempting to move along the crowds, since the city didn't care about your little evacuation warning," Maria Hill frowned with my comment, but said nothing. "Then hopefully, we take down the bad guy."

"That's when Mr. Beck and us—" 

Beck cleared his throat. "My name is Mysterio."

Watching Peter's face light up almost resulted in my eyes rolling so far back into my skull, that somebody might have wondered if I was about to faint. Elliott snapped another bubble of gum, her own eyes narrowed on Beck's handsome face. Peter chuckled a little bit, then turned his attention back to Fury. "That's when we move in and you know, what Florence said. Take down the bad guy." His voice did not sound confident.