Hi!
This is my very first posted fanfic. I swear I've started around 10 of them over the years, but here we go! I'm excited.
Lena has been in the back of my mind forever and it's nice to finally give life to her and her shenanigans.
Please let me know what you think. I hope to post a new chapter every Monday.
It starts off kind of at the beginning of Civil War and then takes off from there.
Lead on brave readers!
- Emma
"I swear to god Pete if you don't show up in the next 5 minutes I'm gonna rat your ass out to your aunt, don't push me Parker."
After leaving yet another voice message on Peter's cell, I struggled to shove my way through the throngs of businessmen and women trying to get through the station.
Maybe rush hour was a stupid time to set up a meet in Grand Central. We're both dumbasses.
The arched ceilings glinted with the setting sun. People ran here and there trying to get to their trains on time.
Hefting my backpack onto my shoulder once more, I grunted as a greasy looking guy ran by me recklessly enough to throw my bag off my shoulder, the bad then slammed into another lady's pinched face.
Not even bothering to say sorry I continued to trudge along, getting more peeved every time someone so much as brushed my elbow.
I darted through a hole in the rush and stood leaning against a pale wall right next to Shake Shack. The smell of greasy burgers and fries made my stomach churn even though I hadn't eaten since noon.
My class ended earlier than I expected. I guess I can give the kid some slack as to why he's not here yet.
I checked the time on my phone. Peter was only 5 minutes late...so far.
Teleportation really messes with your perception of time. Ever since I got 'powered up' I have never been late again.
Walking really just pisses me off when I know I can teleport, so it's not a shock that having to push through sweaty stock brokers just rubs me the wrong way.
Just when I was thinking of kicking off the wall and popping back home I saw the bobbing of Peter's head through a gap in the mob of people.
He stuck his hand out to wave and immediately smacked it into some tough looking guy in a gray suit. The man grunted, his sweaty bald head rounding around quickly. I don't think I had ever seen Peter duck faster than he did just then, the guy didn't even see what hit him.
Snickering, I shoved my arms through the straps of my backpack and meneuvered my way toward the teen.
"Pete, glad you could make it" I said, reaching up to ruffle his already tousled brown hair.
Batting my hand away Peter bouncing up on his tiptoes, trying to steer clear of the moving rove of people, "I'm only 7 minutes late this time! Ned made a mess in chem labs today and we both had to stay behind and clean it up, and had to apologize to the kid I kinda spilled web fluid on, which was actually really hilarious, he couldn't get his hands off this girl's-"
"Woah, okay Pete, I get it Ned's a lil' kooky, just give me a heads up next time, butterfingers." I yelled through the loud terminal hall "Why did you want to meet here anyways?"
Peter's gaze darted around the terminal before he crooked a finger in my direction and we both made our way down a more secluded hallway, only five or six guys in tailored suits jogged past us hoping to catch their train. Our shoes let out squeaking echoes on the polished tile.
Once Peter made sure nobody else was within earshot he tugged his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped it quickly, pulling out a severely crumpled piece of paper. Peter's hair was sticking up in the weirdest places, and his cheeks were dusted with a little pink from his excitement. His green hoodie was slipping on his shoulders and one of the strings looked like its been chewed on.
"Okay, so during lunch today I was talking to Gwen, and she said her dad, you know Captain Stacy, was talking to some buddies of his still down at the precinct and that they had busted these guys for selling some type of tech enhanced by the chitauri weapons they found after the whole alien wormhole thing a couple years ago, but that they hadn't found hardly any of the weapons on them when they were arrested because apparently, according to their source, they had way more weapons before when they were terrorizing people near Park ave. and 44th, and so since I thought 'Hey, Grand Central is near Park ave. and 44th' it just makes sense that they'd have their secret alien weapons base in some abandoned terminal in the station!" Peter caught his breath and finished his rant.
He smoothed out his crumpled sheet against his thigh and showed the somewhat detailed map of Grand Central. He had messily circled some terminals, which I assumed were older ones or ones that were currently unused.
I pinched my nose and took a deep breath. "So let me get this straight, you heard from your girlfriend" I rolled my eyes as Peter tried to grumble that Stacy wasn't his girlfriend "that some evil guys who might have had shifty alien weapons were arrested, and some other guy said those same guys had a massive weapons cache, and apparently they used to hit up Park and 44th near Grand Central but also there could literally be nothing here Peter, this is just a hunch dude! You dragged me here during rush hour for a hunch." I stated, slipping my bag back onto my shoulder. The strap was chafing against my shoulder and bumped a yellowing bruise that was covering the back of my arm.
This was a waste of time, I've got homework to do, and Nana was probably making dinner at home. I definitely didn't want to miss that. I shot Peter an obnoxious glare and then made to push off the wall and head home.
"Wait, Lena!" Peter yelled, grabbing hold of the edge of my dark sweater. " Come on, we could definitely at least check some of the abandoned terminals! Think about it, You wouldn't want some evil assholes to get away with their evil plan right? What happened to saving the little guys?"
Goddamn it Peter Parker.
Soffing, I pressed my palms hard into my eyes, not even wanting to think about the essay I have due tomorrow for class.
"Ugh, fine Peter, we'll just check each site and take a look around, see if there's any alien shit around, which I doubt there will be, and then I'm going home, I'm exhausted." I growled.
I yanked my backpack around to my front as Peter seemed to burst with excitement. Unzipping the bag I could see the wrinkled mess of my "suit" puddled at the bottom. I didn't bother to wash it since Peter and I went patrolling around Queens only two nights ago. Turning my neck too fast still sent a zing of pain through my back from that harsh landing I tried to pull with Pete. What can I say? I though it'd look cool.
"We gotta stop doing this so often, Pete. I swear the amount of times I tell my Nana that I'm tutoring you, she probably thinks you're dumber than a box of nails." I laugh. "Okay, go change into your 'spidey suit' and I'll meet you back out here in 5 minutes." I barely got three words out before Peter yanked his shirt up to reveal he was already wearing his suit. "Ugh, you dork."
The women's bathroom was further down the hallway and I made sure it was empty before locking myself into a disgusting looking stall.
Quickly I made work to kick off my jeans and beat up boots, only shuddering a bit at the stickiness left on my hand after I had to catch my balance on the stained wall. Yanking my sweater off, I pulled my suit out of my backpack.
The dark grey athletic shirt was a bit frayed on the edges, and the collar was definitely stretched out from too many hasty tugs to get it over my big head, but it held up. I pulled it down over my torso. Next I tugged on my favorite pair of stretchy yoga pants. Comfort is everything, especially when you're kicking were just a dark navy blue with a white stripe up the sides.
Blue is kinda my color.
I slicked my hair back in a tight ponytail, it wasn't that long in the first place so the end of the tail barely tickled the tops of ears. The dark brown waves made the angles of my face stand stark against the grey shirt.
Lacing up my scuffed running shoes, I tried to smooth my hair out again, rouge curls slipped out of the hair tie to lay on the nape of my neck.
I've always been cautious about looking at myself in the mirror in my gettup. It's unnerving. The bathroom mirror was cracked, and ran a ragged line right down through my chest, tapering off near my right thigh.
The woman that looked back at me only looked a bit like 22 year old Lena Ruiz.
Without the bandana covering the lower half of my face I could almost pretend I was just going out to the gym.
I pulled the crumpled bandana out of a pocket in my backpack and slowly tied it around my neck, pulling it slowly up to cover my mouth and nose. Only my eyes shone back at me in the mirror, and their normal brown seemed to darken to ebony in the shadowed bathroom.
Although Peter and I had been doing this for a bit over a year, the shift into the mask always left me with a shiver down my spine and a tightening in my gut. It has served as a reminder. Bandana goes on, and danger is near.
Making sure my other clothes were zipped in tight I stored my backpack behind the toilet and hoped nobody would steal it.
The hallway was dim when I exited the bathroom, it seemed the sun had finally set in New York City. I could clearly see Peter shifting nervously in a dark corner down below. He already had his suit on, I still don't understand how he can see out of those weird goggles he wears. At least my stuff isn't brightly colored like a piñata.
Shaking my head, I made sure Peter couldn't see what I was doing, looked around the hallway for stray train goers, and then opened a portal to my right.
I held my hands out in front of my body and then made a jerked motion, like I was trying to zoom in on the terminal wall with my palms.
Before me the air started to crackle and a shot of blue shined and reflected off the dull walls until the portal opened into shape, and I could clearly see Peter through the hole shifting back and forth, looking for me over his shoulder.
My grin spread into a full out smile as I thrust my arm into the opening and grabbed Peter by the back of the shirt and yanked him toward me. He let out a gurgled yelp and then stumbled over his feet as he appeared right in front of me.
I could only laugh at his annoyed shouts as he waved his arms back and forth like he was trying to convince himself not to throttle me.
"How many times have I told you not to yank me through your freaky time void without letting me know first. I think I peed a little." He pulled his mask up over his nose so he could heave in deep breaths and rested his forearms on his knees, his cheeks were a bright pink.
"Oh come on, you know you love it." Still laughing I slapped my arm over his hunched shoulders, and tugged him into a hug "You should've seen your face though, it never gets old."
Peter just humphed back at me and then straightened the mask over his face, he turned his back to me and crossed his arms in agitation.
"Look, I know you're technically older than me Lena, but sometime I wonder who's really the 'kid' here." I could see he wasn't mad, I'm pretty sure he was smiling under his spidey disguise. " I like popping through your portals when I know it's gonna happen, but not so much when I'm just pulled through the space time continuum." His foot stomp really made his point.
"Oh shush, what're these powers for if not to scare the shit out of people."
"I mean, you got me there." Peter replied.
We started walking down the tunnels. The air getting colder, light breezes ran through the hallways at random intervals, and the lights flickered off and on in some parts. Creepy.
Peter pulled out his crumpled map and attempted to straighten it over a bended knee.
"Ok, I'm thinking if you could just make a portal in each of these abandoned tunnels then we could just peep through and see if there are any illegal weapons caches, and then I'm thinking we just wing it from there."
"Um, Pete, I don't think I can just make a portal in a random tunnel from looking at a map." I stated, my voice was a bit muffled by the bandana, but I mean so was Peter's under the red ski mask.
"Why not?" Peter whined.
" If I can't see it, or haven't been there before I don't know what the destination should look like from this side." I tried to scratch an itch on my covered nose. "I could try... but the portal might just fizzle out, or we could jump through and end up floating in space which in hindsight might be pretty badass. I mean if you wanna risk it Pete, I hope you have a concrete plan for when you're falling through the void for eternity."
Peter sighed. "Is this why you never portal me to the top of Stark Tower when I ask?"
"Yeah, but also Stark's a dick so I wouldn't do it even if I could." I said.
"How would you know if Mr. Stark's a dick, it's not like you've ever met him!" Peter said indignantly. This conversation was like a broken record. Peter and his Avengers.
"Trust me kid, I just know, haven't you even been watching the news? If he knew about us he'd write us up on those accord things and give us straight to the government." I pulled the map from Peter and made to head toward the closest abandoned tunnel, but he crooked his hand around my elbow to hold me back. I almost thought I could get away with it, but Pete was always set on talking things through.
"I don't think he'd do that to us. What we're doing is important, Lena. Who else is going to protect these people, he wouldn't just lock us away, there'd be nobody left." Peter let go of my elbow, and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. "Even if we were put on the government's radar I'd keep fighting, I'd keep going out at night with or without you because I believe in what we're doing. I thought you did too."
That stopped me short. My shoes made an odd squeak on the tiled floor.
"Pete, of course I want to help these people, our people, it's the only reason I agree to go out in this stupid outfit and fight these assholes alongside you, a 15 year old kid." I pulled my bandana off my face, hoping Peter can see exactly how earnest I was "My Nana and I have had a hard life ever since my parents died, but we've made do, if anything happened to her I wouldn't know how to go on living. I can only imagine how hurt and devastated other families are from the losses they've suffered and the hardships they've had to go through, anything I can do to help them I'm going to do it, believe me." I tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear. " but listen Peter, Tony Stark has never been one of us. Sure, he could be a nice guy, he's got the funds to help whoever he wants at any given moment, but he couldn't possibly understand what we've had to go through to protect the people we love. Just think about your aunt and uncle, Pete, what has Tony Stark done to help them?"
Peter had by this point pulled off his mask, his face crumbled for a moment, "Lena, that's not fair. Mr. Stark works to save the big picture. He can't save everybody, not Uncle Ben, not your parents, all I can do, all we can do is make sure he's got help here on the ground. We can make sure nobody else goes through what we've had to in the last couple of years."
"I don't know Pete, does he even care that we're here on the ground? Or is he just concerned with his own problems? His only concern is the 'big picture' I'm not sure he'd be on our side if it ever came to it."
"So if you were one of them, one of the Avengers, you wouldn't sign the accords?" Peter asked. I should've known this was going to come up eventually. The bombing at the U.N. building was fresh on both of our minds it seems.
My hand tugged on the back of my pony tail, the bandana was becoming stifling"No Pete I wouldn't. If we signed those accords the government wouldn't let us save the little people, don't you see? They'd only send us out for the big shit, the world killers and manipulators, but then there'd be nobody there for us. Nobody there to stand between the death and killing in New York besides the cops, and they haven't been doing the most bang up job recently." I stated. "There'd be no way I'd ever tie myself to the jackasses in government and let them dictate who's important enough to save."
" But we're heroes Lena! We should be up there with the Avengers, up there saving the world with them. We could do it, both of us. At least by signing we'd have a voice at the table." Peter argued.
" A voice that would be snuffed out at every given moment! It's enough for me to be here on the ground, I don't have any urge to join their super group. I'm happy here looking out for my people and protecting my home. If they ever need us, If the people here are in serious trouble then yeah, I'd help out, but now? Now I'm good where I am. Maybe it's not enough for you, but that's not my problem, just don't drag me into it." It took a moment for me to realize that my fists were clenched tightly around Peter's map, after straightening it I could even make out crescent cuts and indents in the sheet from my own fingernails. "Just, forget it Pete, let's look around for the alien weapons and then call it a night."
It was tense between us. Although it was quiet in the station the air seemed to pulsate with the sound of our discomfort. We walked through the somewhat empty terminal halls and barely brushed shoulders but once, trying to keep far enough away from each other but also close by in case of trouble.
We had checked two abandoned halls that ended up being empty before Peter glanced at me and cleared his throat. His mask was still covering his face, but I thought I could make out pinched eyebrows and gnawed lip, or maybe that was just the impression he gave off.
I quirked an eyebrow at him as if to say, what is it now?
"I know that I-I lost Uncle Ben a year or two before you lost your parents, but when we met I was still really messed up from it, and I don't think I could've done it without you." Peter said, we had stopped in the hallway, our masks hiding our faces. "Look, I love you Lena, you're like my big sister and I'm pretty sure Aunt May considers you her second child anyway, but I hope we can still be friends."
"Peter you idiot, of course we're still friends." I shoved his shoulder hard "Hell, siblings fight, and we're basically brother and sister so we should expect it to happen. I love you a lot Pete, I guess I'm just trying to look out for you, but its okay for us to disagree on things, and its good that we can talk about it together. We're still good right?" I held out my hand.
I let out a grunt as Peter lunged into my arms, he had a tight grip around my torso, and his goggles bumped into my forehead harshly.
"Ouch Pete, ease up on the hug there buddy, your super strength is gonna snap my ribs." I laughed.
"Shut up and let me hug you, Ruiz."
"Oh it's Ruiz now, Parker?"
"Let's just go check one more hall and then head home, you're constant shouting is making my head hurt." Peter said, bouncing back after I shoved him off me. He reached out to poke me in the side, but I just chucked him in the hip and retightened my bandana.
We had quieted down to just echoed giggles. The station seemed completely empty now, I didn't even know if Peter knew where we were going. Suddenly, Peter shot a hand out to grab my arm.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
A loud crash came from up ahead, and we watched as a guy stumbled through a hidden door in a shadowed alcove not far from us. He was swaying on his feet and held a smoking gun in one hand, his other reaching up to rub at his shoulder.
He hadn't even noticed us yet, "Hot damn! That thing has a kick. Chuck, come over here and try this shit out!." He shouted, and then propped the gun on his shoulder once more, taking aim at an unseen target through the mysterious doorway.
I clapped Peter on the back, "I guess your girlfriend was right afterall."
I could hear Peter yelling "She's not my girlfriend" as I took off down the hall. Making sure my ponytail was tight and my bandana secured I bounded through the door.
There were only five guys, all dressed in grubby construction vests and dust covered boots, three of them held massive firearms at their sides, while the other two were watching on, crumpled beer cans littered the floor.
This was gonna be fun.
"Hey dumbasses, didn't your mama ever tell you not to play with guns?" I propped a hip against the door frame and looked on as their mouths either hung open or screwed up in confusion.
The loud guy with the smoking gun huffed "the fuck you doing here?"
"Hand over the guns and go sit in the corner pal if you know what's good for you."
That made a few of them laugh, but not one moved from their post. They all seemed pretty lax until I saw their mouths tighten further. Behind me, Peter strutted into the dim room, his lanky form easily commanding their attention.
"Guys, I'd listen to the lady, she's kinda got a temper." He said, crouching down onto his toes.
Again, not one of them moved. The loud one scratched at his beard with a free hand. Two of the guys to his left crumpled their beers cans and carelessly threw them over their shoulders to land in a pile behind them.
Nobody made a move until the big guy mustered a half-assed 'fuck it' and raised his gun toward us.
"Pete, web 'em up." and then he leapt into action.
Peter sprang off the floor and immediately landed an undercut to the main guy in front. His head shot back and blood sprayed from his mouth, specks landing on the garish orange of his vest. He staggered back and clutched a palm to his open mouth. He looked pretty pissed now. The moment the others registered their leader throwing his head back in pain, they split.
Two of them hefted up their guns and pointed them straight at me, probably thinking Peter was too hard a target to hit. And he was.
Peter jumped and dodged and zipped around the room on his webs. I think at one point a guy chucked a half drunk beer car at him.
Shifting my gaze to the tipsy guys before me, I widened my stance and held my hands out ready for anything.
"Come at me." I snarled.
The men sneered and then pulled their triggers, immediately the hall was filled with shot after shot, the noise ricocheting off the walls and making my head split, but the bullets were coming in waves. Their eyes were open in glee and one guy seemed to be chortling.
I thrust my hands out and watched as the electric blue of my portal blinded the dull orange tones of the cascading bullet fire.
The bullets disappeared through a portal right in front of me and came out through another portal behind the idiots with guns.
The sound was deafening and the bullets were splintering into the wall. Wood and tile flying everywhere.
"Peter you asshole, these are fucking machine guns, not alien tech!" I screamed over the noise.
Peter had already webbed up two of the guys, and they laid wriggling on the floor trying to get out of the sticky substance. One guys orange construction vest was even webbed shut over his beer belly.
Slinging a web out to latch onto the ceiling Peter swung around to get behind his last guy and yelled toward me as he flew over my head "Whatever, same thing!"
"Definitely not the same thing, Parker." I grumbled.
The idiots still continued to shoot toward my portal, not even attempting to inch to the side and hit me.
I closed the portal the same instant as I rolled to my left, I felt one stray bullet pass near my face but then I jerked to my knees and opened a portal directly under their feet.
The men let out surprised yelps and then fell through the floor.
A single machine gun clattered at my feet, and I kicked it to the side. Disgusting weapons.
Opening a portal on the ceiling I watched as the two men fell through, practically screaming their lungs off, it was pretty funny seeing one of the grown man clutch a machine gun to his chest like its a beloved teddy.
They flew through the air before falling straight through my portal on the ground again, and again, falling and falling.
They were getting faster every time. By the time they just made up an orange blur of motion, Peter thought it was time to let them go.
Peter and I stood snickering for another 30 seconds before I closed the two portals and watched as the two men slammed into the ground.
They both let out pained groans and then simply laid back defeated. The machine gun left ignored, but still clutched in the guy's hands.
The cops showed up not 10 minutes later and found them all webbed to the subway walls.
The cite was all but abandoned, and taped to the forehead of a large unconscious bearded man was a note reading - Sorry about the mess! From your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and a little further down the page, in much messier handwriting read, Blaze was here too.
"Nice job, Spider-Man" I said, snagging the water bottle out of Peter's hand and taking a sip. Thankfully my backpack had not been stolen from the nasty station bathroom. I didn't bother to change, and Peter just wrestled his school clothes back on over his spider suit.
"Hey you were pretty good in there too Blaze." He laughed, snatching the bottle out of my hand and chugging it in one go.
We sat on the edge of the roof, watching as a couple people jogged in and out of Grand Central. Stark's tower loomed over us from where we were sitting. Resting my weight on my arms I could almost lean back enough to make out the massive shining "A" emblazoned on the eyesore.
"Hey, that's the only name that came to mind when you cornered me in an alley asking for deets on the new 'vigilante' in Queens." I said, knocking into his shoulder.
"Well, it holds up pretty well, Blaze is badass." Peter said, and then muttered "Blaze and Spider-Man partners in crime, rogue heroes fighting to save NYC." and then laughed when I said it sounded like an intro for our own tv show.
We sat in companionable silence before Peter's stomach growled so loud it probably scared off all the pigeons in our near vicinity. The night life was picking up. We should probably head back before people actually notice us sitting on the edge of Grand Central.
"Come on Pete, I'm sure my Nana's still up and waiting for us for dinner. The old bat never sleeps, and I still need to write my essay for tomorrow, I want to die."
Peter groaned "I love your Nana's cooking, I swear I only decided to adopt you as my superhero sidekick just for the after fight dinner."
"Oh fuck off, sidekick my ass, Parker" I laughed, and then opened a portal in front of us and shoved Peter through. This time he didn't even scream, I think he was expecting it.
I spared one more glance at the sparkling city lights before following Peter through and landing in my apartment.
Peter looked up at me in a disgruntled heap, seems he landed on the floor. I chuckled and then tossed my bag onto the dining table to my right.
I could hear Nana puttering in the kitchen already, and the whole place smelled fantastic.
Peter was still sitting on the floor, complaining and rubbing his butt when Nana entered the room.
"Ay, dios mio!" She yelled, clutching a hand to her chest in shock. "Why didn't you tell me you were home, Mija?"
I shrugged, "We just got home Nana."
She made a humming noise and then placed both hands on her hips. My Nana shot us an annoyed glance, but I think annoyed is her default whenever me and Peter are in the same room. "Oh so you decided to 'pop' in instead of using the door like a normal person, is that right?" She said.
Having Nana know about my powers was so much fun, she's never gone through one of my portals but secretly I think she wants to. We decided to keep Peter being Spider-Man out of it.
I never told her I go out to fight assholes with guns either. . She still thinks we go study or hang out, which is fine with me.
Although, she does know that Peter knows about my 'popping' as she calls it, so we can be pretty chill at home.
God, I think she almost had a heart attack the first time she saw me jump into a portal, she just happened to walk into the room at a very bad time.
"Nana, portaling is so much faster than walking, wouldn't you want us home sooner rather than later?" I smirked, and pulled Peter up by the straps on his backpack. He smiled sheepishly at my Nana. She saw through our crap instantly.
She pursed her lips. Her hair was loose about her shoulders in soft waves. She probably dyed it today because it was a rich dark brown, and she had a somewhat dirty apron tied around her waist.
"Well, you're both just in time for dinner." She said, not even blinking an eye when I pointed out that it was already 9:30 pm.
"Peter did you tell your Aunt that you were staying late to eat, does she even know where you are?" She asked.
"Uh, no I should probably give her a call, our... tutoring session went a bit late." Peter then scurried out of the room, looking for his cell in his backpack and barely caught himself when he tripped over the rug.
Nana still looked unconvinced, but ushered me into the kitchen to grab utensils and set the table. Everything was quiet except for the TV running in the other room, and the beans on the stove sizzling. She almost always had the tv on, the static and mumbled voices were a calming backing to the hustle of New York life.
I was setting the last plate when Nana set down her dish a bit too hard and soup sloshed out the side onto the light yellow tablecloth. The red Fideo turned the cloth into a dull sickly orange.
I quickly handed her a napkin, as she started mumbling under her breath, dabbing at the cloth carefully with the napkin, but the stain was one that would need a more intense fixing up.
After the mess was sopped up she shot me a glance, "Mijita, you were out tutoring you said?" Her eyes were on the table but I could tell she was paying very close attention to me, I simply gulped and nodded, "and you weren't out, say fighting, or making trouble, si?"
"No, not at all Nana."
She hummed again, "and you're not dragging Peter into your nighttime activities are you?"
"Nighttime activities?" I asked innocently. I attempted to distract myself by straightening the napkins, though none of them needed it. Peter's voice was softly muffled in the other room as he called Aunt May, he was retelling a doctored version of his and Ned's chemistry class fiasco today.
Finally she turned to me, an exasperated expression on her face, her ruby red lips tightened over her teeth in a straight line, "Magdalena Angélica Ruiz, you expect me to believe I don't know you're out crime fighting with that araña in the mask?"
I spluttered, and just then Peter walked back into the room. He stopped short when he noticed the budding tension, his eyes widened and made to back out as fast as possible. I shot him a glare suggesting if he moved another muscle, I'd hit him.
"Nana, Peter and I were just studying, I promise! No soy una mentirosa, Nana!" I pleaded, Peter nodded his head in support when she looked his way, a nervous twitch in his eye, but then his face immediately went back to panicked and uncomfortable when Nana looked back at me.
"I don't believe you, but I won't push it. Mija, many times you have come home smelling like metal and urine or maybe blood who knows, but I definitely don't think you're just 'tutoring'." She abruptly sits down at the table, and slowly Peter and I follow, the rickety chair sways under my weight "Hopefully you're not putting Peter in harms way." Nana looked at Peter while spooning soup into her mouth a troublesome gleam in her eyes. Peter gulped, and awkwardly spooned soup into his own bowl.
Maybe Nana knows a lot more than we both thought.
Peter and I just looked down at the table in silence. The scrape of my metal spoon against the bowl made me cringe.
Peter was tapping his fingers on the table, and looking anywhere but at my Nana.
The quiet dinner was too much for him, he continued to shovel soup into his mouth and then dab carefully at his mouth with the napkin. His wide eyes would swivel from watching me, and from watching my Nana, who had yet to take one taste of the fideo.
"Lena's, a great tutor Mrs. Ruiz, I finally got my grade up to a B in U.S. History, and still had time to make it to all my club meetings this week" he started to babble, but all of us could tell he was babbling out of nerves, which didn't help the matter at all.
He stopped with a yelp after my foot met his shin under the table. My eyes said 'shut up Peter' and he grimaced, and went on to tearing small chunks out of the napkin in his lap.
It was quite an awkward dinner.
By the time the clock hit 10:30 my eyes started to droop, I was exhausted. First from the spat with Peter, to dodging bullets and then the thing with Nana, I was ready for bed.
I walked Peter to the door and patted him a bit too hard on the back. The clicking of china was heard as Nana started to clear the table.
"Text me when you get home Pete, and don't do anything stupid on the way there." Somehow he always manages to get into stupid situations.
I give him a quick hug and peck on the cheek and then he jogged down the hall, pulling his backpack up his shoulder when it slipped, and yelled out a quick 'Buenos Noches' before disappearing around the corner. The door clicked shut softly.
Leaning my forehead against the cool wood of the door I sighed, and then turned back around to face Nana. She stood beside the cleared table, her hand settled against the wooden chair to her side.
Her eyes hold mine steadily. I met her halfway as we walked around the table toward each other. Her hand is arm against the inside of my elbow.
Her nails are always red, red and manicured and beautiful.
"Te quiero mucho, Mijita.I only worry, If you ever were injured doing whatever you do-" she stops, quickly clenching her eyes shut, and then continues " Just be safe, be careful. What you do is important and I'm so so proud, and I know your parents would be too."
She knows.
She knows me well enough to realize I'd never stop.
I simply pulled her into my arms, and rested my chin on her head. Nana smelled like fresh cut roses.
"Always, Nana, I'm always careful."
spanish translation:
mija/mijita: my daughter
ay dios mio: oh my god
no soy una mentirosa: I'm not a liar