the siren |peter parker x siren!oc|

Tranquility: Part 13

As Lena filled a backpack filled with things that she could possibly need on her short saunter across the ocean, she could feel Peter in the back of her conscious begging her not to, but she kept going. Her suit in hand, she felt a pull at her bicep from him, who was sitting on her bed. She let him pull her close, her forehead falling onto his. With a short, sweet kiss, she pulled away knowing exactly what he was about to say.

"You don't have to."

"Yes I do, Peter."

"Let me come with you."

"Do you want to die? I have to go alone," she stopped what she was doing, smiling at him with so much care and pity, wishing he would just understand in the way that she needed him to, "Tony set an autopilot path. There is not even going to be a pilot."

"I don't want you to do this alone."

It was as if every day people were underestimating her. They still saw her as the tiny, helpless sea creature that they had first found instead of the strong woman she was now growing into. Sure, the height did not help, but she figured if Tony trusted her enough, the person most important to her would as well.

"Peter," she swung the bag over her shoulder, "I have made my decision. You are just making me angry now."

Pulling her bedroom door open, she took off down the hallway, placing the nanotech at the base of her neck to let it pull her hair on top of her head.

The truth was that she was significantly more nervous than all of the people around her, and she knew that for certain. She could read their anxiety as if they had projected it in front of her and were frantically pointing at it with a yardstick, and for their sake, she hid the fact that she had never felt anything more overwhelmingly nerve-wracking in her entire life. She had been alive for 63 years, she had been kidnapped, she fought her way out of a crazy man's secret lair, she had gone to highschool, but this was the biggest feat she would be accomplishing. Confronting her sisters was not only something she needed to do for the sake of the lives that had been lost for centuries, but she needed to do it for the lives she could prevent from losing, and then her own life as well.

Living in deep, prodigious fear was no longer what she desired. The nightmares were never going to go away, the guilt was never going to dissipate, but the fear of placing one of her feet in the ocean terrified that she would be dragged back in and never return to Earth was unacceptable. It had to change. She was not going to allow them to micromanage every move she made regarding the place that was now and had been her home.

"Lena wait up!" she had almost reached the door to the elevator when Peter requested to catch up with her. She did not say anything as they waited together and stepped onto the moving box. She tapped the button to go to the landing pad where a jet and Tony was waiting for her, feeling Peter's eyes on her hand as it moved.

"What is it?" she asked, not sternly, just now wondering.

He decompressed, "I just want to see you off. I know that everything is going to be fine, you just ah-" she could feel the reluctance in what he wanted to say. "Listen I'm not very good at this, you know? The um...lovey-dovey stuff, you know? But I just needed to tell you that you mean a lot to me, and I just want you to come home safe."

The elevator dinged and opened while Lena's lips parted and she faced Peter, "I understand."

Standing on her toes and pressing a soft kiss on his lips, she let her hand linger on his cheek for a second longer, a habit she had found herself falling into. She liked the way the side of his face was soft, yet worn, a welcoming place that her fingers knew so well. Allowing her hand to slide off, she took one last look at those chocolate brown eyes and turned her back, facing what unknown and ahead.