the siren |peter parker x siren!oc|

Serenity: Part 9

There she sat, next to him, looking completely human. Not even a second glance could hint at the idea that she was a siren. Miss Potts had dressed her in a pair of white linen pants, and an identical long sleeve shirt, and she looked like a middle-aged dad that just got back from the beach. It suited her, though. As she repeated back to him the new words, he pulled her hair out from underneath the shirt. It was damp, but drying, and fell long into a pool on her thighs, the longest hair he had ever seen.

She examined the way the clothes hung on her body with wonder. He could tell by the slight twinge in her eyes that she didn't especially like them. She looked at him and frowned, slumping into the bed so that the upper half of her body was slowly sliding down the wall.

"Oh, you'll get over it," he laughed.

I feel like I'm in a cage. Humans and their modesty rules are absolutely puzzling.

She was well-spoken. When she had the capability to verbalize her thoughts, she would be fiercely intelligent.

He continued to point other objects out in the room, making her repeat them back to him. She was a fast learner, and it made him wonder if that was a part of the siren half of her. She had learned how to understand English in a little under a month and expanded her mental vocabulary further than even some of the kids at his school could attest to.

She looked small and helpless, hugging her knees to her chest. He knew that with the proper education, she could be far from helpless. She was strong, willful, and most of all, determined. While his endless drills obviously got on her nerves, she pushed through them. She knew what her goal was. Although he didn't. She was adapting to human life, he just had no idea why.

Peter stood, "All right, let's go see if Mr. Stark is ready for the new update."

He hadn't wanted to get Mr. Stark initially due to the fact that he needed a woman to dress Lena. Now that she was dressed, had spoken a few new words, and didn't look completely mortified, he assumed it would be an okay time to show off her new legs. Peter's new discovery. Another piece to add to the puzzle.

She faltered, looking at the ground, her eyes tracing how Peter was standing. Carefully, she placed her feet down for hardly a second before shaking her head and recoiling her shins back into the safety of her arms. Peter laughed nervously, slightly confused as to what was going on.

Then it hit him. She had never stood. Standing and walking would be another thing that she would have to learn, all on top of language and basic human functions. He let the back of his knuckle graze her tense fingers, attempting to be some kind of comforting, but they ended up flinching at a menial spark that popped when their skin touched. It hadn't been an electric shock, but it had grabbed his attention.

He quickly tried to roll it off and refocused on helping his friend.

"Hey. I get it. Baby steps though, right?"

The way she furrowed her eyebrows when she was confused was getting familiar. He laughed again. Hopefully there would be a time when she could grasp figures of speech.

"Let's start by taking my hands," he held out his palms for her to take, "I promise I won't let you fall."

The confused furrow in her brow transformed into concern. She was nervous.

"Lena, you can trust me," he whispered it softly. Loud noises had their habit of startling her. By whispering, he was signifying her safety, "I'm strong, remember? Spider bite. I won't let you fall."

One quivering hand found its place in Peter's, and the other promptly followed. He engaged his arms, pulling her upright, allowing his senses to be wary of any misplaced balance. Every inch of her body was accounted for, and he was ready to catch her if she showed even a slight sign of toppling over. Peter was no physical therapist, but he wanted nothing more than to assist her in her first steps.

"Do you feel your feet on the ground? Let them rock. Put weight on every inch of them. They're your foundation, and while sometimes they don't always prevent you from tripping and falling, they're going to do the most to keep you upright."

He watched her feet as they wobbled. She was doing what he asked. Her silver eyes were scattered, trying to grasp onto something solid, but when you step into something unknown, that could feel impossible. She locked her stare on her unstable feet that were still exploring the floor beneath. Peter inched his hands upwards, finding a place gripping on her forearms. He squeezed her arm to let her know he was letting go for a moment and lightly lifted her chin to meet his eyes. Nodding, he returned his hand to her forearm. She was shaking under his grip.

Her legs were shaking vigorously, which brought Peter to take a mental note. In a way, they were going to need to rewire her brain so that she was used to engaging those muscles. For now, standing would be enough. It wasn't much, but it was progress enough.

He sensed a switch in her balance and caught her below the waist before she could pitch forward. They paused a moment, her arms clasped around his neck, their faces inches away from each other.

"Thank you," she said and finished the sentence in his mind, for catching me.

"You think I would let you fall?"

A subtle smile graced their lips.

...

When Peter arrived home for dinner, he wasn't surprised to find Aunt May hadn't gotten off work yet, but she had left some cash to buy a pizza. He placed the order online and clicked the TV on for some background noise, pulling out his journal to fill out the entry for that day.

The moleskine that Mr. Stark had bought him was almost filled by now, each page describing his time with Lena in extensive detail. Some days during lunch he described to MJ what she looked like under the alias that it was for a novel idea he was brainstorming. Ned was the only one who knew about his latest project under the Stark Internship, and Peter planned on keeping it that way until further notice. That was all under Mr. Stark's jurisdiction, anyhow.

Feb 2

Today has been the most eventful since we picked out Lena's name. I arrived at the lab to discover she had launched her way out of her tank. A key observation I made was that of the metamorphosis that her tail went through. Most likely due to evolution, her tail seemed to melt away, dissolve into a set of human limbs. She looked purely human. The closest comparison I can think of is how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Even so, the transformation was incredibly faster.

Verbal skills continue to improve on an upward slope. Since she is now sleeping in a bedroom I gave her the basic vocabulary. It seems as if once she hears a word and pronounces it, she is able to learn and keep it in her archive. Her speedy learning skills are something I envy.

She doesn't know how to walk, which I also found fascinating. She has never had a need to walk, as her 'sisters' forbid her from ever even attempting it. Since she trusts me, I was able to get her on her feet and standing for about a minute before she collapsed. I spoke with Mr. Stark briefly before heading home, and he assured me that he would be hiring a physical therapist to help move her mobility along.

I felt a spark when our hands briefly touched. I'm not sure what that was about.

-P