Their lips touching was like stepping back into the Atlantic Ocean.

She felt a wave through her bloodstream and a change in the wiring of her brain. Behind the darkness of her closed eyelids she saw eternity and its timeline, laid out for both her and Peter to acquire and hold in their fists. The bond was sealed, and the hole in her heart finally felt filled. A rush of colors was what spiraled throughout her mind. It was odd to feel colors, but somehow the beams of light were all that occupied the space. When she opened her eyes, Peter's were still closed. Gently, she placed one hand on the side of his face, and the other on the back of his head, letting her fingers slide through his hair. She knew what she intended to do. Guiding him forward, he opened his eyes and kept them on her, letting his arms fall around her neck as he came into contact with the water.

He could breathe in the water as long as they were touching. As soon as he let go, he would lost that ability, but now all she had to do was think it, and he knew. Their lips reconnected, and then they were dancing.

It felt like it was what they were born to do. The seiren were not meant to live their lives killing, especially killing those that they loved above all else. Maybe if they had allied with the humans way back before they had formed society, the seiren would have been able to live peacefully with them rather than become predatory in nature.

She surfaced, smiling softly as Peter shook his hair out of his face and looked at her, adoration in his eyes. They had the same element as a young dog, holding onto her every move with cautious excitement.

"So will you be my girlfriend?" he asked breathlessly. She took a moment to recall what that word meant, then the memories of romantic comedy movies flooded in, reminding her that it was what humans called their romantic partners. She kissed him again.

Peirasmós

"Yeah," he laughed, "that."

"It took you two long enough."

Mr. Stark - or Uncle Tony - had a habit of making an entrance. Their heads whipped towards him like a set of deer in a car's headlights, they could feel each other's heart rates pick up. She stifled a smile at the feeling of Peter looking through her mind. It was a new skill of his that he would have to adapt to. They sat there, clutching each other, hair matted from the water, staring up at Tony without any certainty of what they could say that was appropriate.

Peter's presence in her mind and soul made her feel like she was finally complete.

"Now the door really needs to stay open when Peter spends the night," Tony smirked and left. If Lena knew anything about him, she knew that he felt proud of himself for that one.

They hoisted themselves out of the water, Lena waiting on the edge for her tail to dry into legs. She requested PET to activate the fan that Tony had installed into the ceiling, the cool air sinking into her scalp and adding goosebumps to the surface of her pale skin. Peter helped her up, and she tiptoed and shivered over to her dresser to get some clothes.

Peter needed some clothes as well. After throwing on a set of white, silk pajamas, another material that did not irritate her skin, she grabbed an extra large t-shirt that she would usually sleep in and an pair of old sweatpants she had once stolen from Peter's apartment after a night on patrol. She tossed them to him and let him change.

When she turned around, he had only just pulled the sweats over his waist, the upper half of his body exposed. She found her eyes lingering on the distinct muscles that protruded in his stomach, chest, and arms, her lips parting in a way that was hardly discreet. She heard him chuckle before pulling the oversized shirt on.

Pulling her into a hug, he kissed her again, short and sweet, "I can't believe this is actually real now."

She smiled at him, letting them sit in the moment. In a fast-paced world, she had to remind herself to embrace moments like these where they could absorb every inch of each other's feelings, the dull joy humming in their fingers and lips like a bee looking for a flower. She wiped an eyelash off of his cheek and let her lips find his one last time before heading back into the depths of the Avengers Compound that she finally felt comfortable calling home.

They made their way to the lounge, a spot that Tony said the people who used to live there spent a great deal of time. Peter had known to grab her hairbrush, and went to work on detangling her hair as she turned on the deepsea episode of Planet Earth. By now she knew it almost word for word, but still felt like she was seeing it for the first time. It was the only good way, other than swimming, for her to feel nostalgia.

The last time Peter had brushed her hair was shortly after she had started school with him, and since then she had forgotten how relaxing it was. The feeling of her hair being pulled back, but not all the way out, over and over, like a massage intended for her scalp. She would have closed her eyes if it were not for the TV holding her attention. She let out a deep breath as the brush made its way up her hair and onto the top of her head. When he was done, he tied it into a braid as his aunt had taught him and placed it on her shoulder for her.

"Thank you."

"Of course."

She slid up onto the couch next to him, outstretching her arms above her head and laying across his lap. She could feel the weight of his arms, one resting on her waist and the other interlocking their fingers in her right hand. It was where she wanted to stay for the rest of her life, but unfortunately, duty always called.

"Kids!" Tony tapped on his phone a few times, the TV's screen contorted, showing a projection of what was on the tiny device. She sat up, her fingers still holding onto Peter's. Tony had appeared behind the couch looking mildly frantic.

A fire had broken out in an apartment building, but that was not what he was directing their attention to. Atop the building was a large, brutish man, waving a torch that was ablaze. He was yelling something that was unidentifiable.

"It was clearer when the fire wasn't as loud but he wants you two. He's practically begging you two to come and fight him," Tony continued. There was a level of uncertainty that accompanied his voice. She could tell that he was calculating the situation meticulously.

"Why are you hesitant?" Lena had gotten better at asking the questions that were on her mind.

"I want you two to go," he was pacing now, running his fingers along the back of the couch nervously, "But I'm going to be close by, keeping an eye on you two. I want you two to branch out, but I don't want to put either of you in a dangerous situation."

She could feel Peter's heart swell with excitement, happy that he was finally getting an opportunity to impress his mentor. Little did he know that she felt Tony's immense pride for him quite often. It was one of the strongest feelings that he felt from a day to day basis. Lena had a particular difficulty reading Tony, which worked well for him being her father figure, but the one thing she could decipher from his brain, sometimes almost effortlessly, was his content with Peter's progress. Tony's mood immediately dialed up whenever herself or Peter walked into the room.

"All right, let's get on with it."

They jogged towards Lena's room where they had initially shed their suits and pulled them on quickly, Peter almost falling over as he pulled his left leg up his body. The nanotech headpiece secured her hair out of her face and the goggles secured to her face, PET coming to life inside her ears.

Out front, Tony was in his own suit, which she had only seen from him in images online. It was not as bulky as she had anticipated it being. It fit to his body almost perfectly.

"The fastest way to get there is via Iron Man," Tony's voice was on the verge of laughing, yet still urgent, "I'm going to hang onto Lena, and Peter just, please stay sticky on my back."

Lena had always wanted to call herself brave, but she never felt she was. As Tony clung to her tightly, she wanted to keep her eyes open, but the height was petrifying. Every time she saw the speed at which they were moving combined with the complete possibility of her falling, her eyes would snap shut and her stomach would churn, hinting at the idea of her vomiting into the abyss.

"We're approaching. See that smoke?"

She tilted her chin forward to try and get a glimpse. The scent hit her before she had the chance to open her eyes. It was a thick pungent smell that forced her to cough upon breathing it in.

"Careful," she heard Tony's warning tone of voice.

The fire was centered on the top two floors, and the perpetrator still had not moved from where they had last seen him. Helicopters were starting to swarm, but could not get nearly as close as they needed to, shouting things over a radio to try and make contact with the strange man. The roar of the flames muffled most of what they were saying.

"I'm going to drop you in the midst of it and try to stay out of sight. As far as the public knows I'm not even in this suit. I'll be watching and listening through your suits, let me know if you need assistance."

She ignored the wave of anxiety as they got closer to the building, the man getting larger and larger. He had to be more than a foot taller than her, and his bicep was likely to be larger than the size of her head. For once she was glad she was not as well versed in combat, because she knew Peter was going to take the lead in that regard.

"Three...two...one…"

And they were falling the short distance from the sky onto the roof, a sinister look crossing the odd man's face.

"Hey mister!" Peter yelled as they touched ground, "You think arson is the solution to your issues? Man I just see a therapist," he shot a web at the torch and yanked it out of his hand. The man's face turned red and sweaty, a vein appearing on the outside of his temple and running into his neck.

Lena did her best to sing, but it was far too loud for anyone to hear anything. It was forcing her to feel useless. Peter was finding objects to launch at him, and she was just trying to get a read on his mind. All the could feel was fire and anger, and the one objective, which was to capture her.

Peter.

I'm a little-

She cut him off, He wants me. Very badly. His primary mission is to capture me.

What? Why? She saw him launch his body at his target, kicking him in the face and backflipping away, landing in a squat.

I am-I am trying to- She was focusing all of her energy into reading him, but it was so chaotic that she could not decipher his motive. Her alias just repeated in his brain like a broken record.

She was about to try and get closer, when something yanked at her arm, almost ripping it out of its socket. A man with his face covered by a black mask and a top hat had pulled her towards him, shoving his hand into her neck, forcefully suspending her in midair, her airways completely blocked. She could not breathe, and her vision was going white.

"You are mine now," was the last thing she heard before she blacked out.

AN: Hey everyone! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story. Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what you think! So much love, Allie x