PAY ATTENTION TO THIS NOTE!
Trigger warning in effect. Repeated and variously in-depth discussion of the following topics:
Character death, character suicide, substance abuse, childhood trauma, Overdosing, alcohol poisoning.
Stay safe.
—*—*—*—*—*
I woke up on Monday to total darkness. My heart stuttered for a moment as I panicked in my groggy state, until I realized what was happening and sighed in despair.
Right. My shed cycle was still a thing.
"Guess it's about time to test out our plan and see how well it works, huh?" Matt asked from where he was trying his hand at making miso soup for breakfast. The scent made me smile.
"You know, I've never actually been to Japan despite my biological father being Japanese," I mused out loud. "You don't have to make a traditional Japanese breakfast for me."
"I want to," he insisted firmly, and I just smiled wider, shaking my head in disbelief.
"Okay, Okay. Anyway, yeah. Time to see if this works," I sat up slowly and walked over to sit in my usual stool at the counter. "I needed a doctor's note to make sure all my bases are covered though, so I called in a friend of mine."
Matt tilted his head as he poured miso soup into two bowls. "That wouldn't happen to be the person making their way to our apartment right now, would it?"
I blinked, tilting my head up and taking a taste of the air. Yep, that was them. "I'll get the door for him," I said immediately, standing up and going to the door. I opened it before the person even got a chance to knock.
"I hope you realize I am no longer practicing," the man's voice drawled instantly, not at all caught off guard by the fact that I knew he was there before he had a chance to announce his presence. Which, of course, was perfectly in character for this particular grouch.
"I hope you realize you still have a doctorate and are still a medical professional, so you can still write me a note," I responded cheerily, stepping aside so he could come in. The man gave a long suffering sigh, but entered anyway. He almost immediately saw Matt, and walked over to greet him.
"Hello. I'm Doctor Stephen Strange, your daughter is calling in a favor and being a general nuisance."
I snickered, wishing I could see his face. I loved annoying him, and he knew it. Regardless of his tone though, we both knew he liked me.
"Matthew Murdock," my dad greeted back, shaking Strange's hand. Strange didn't mention having waited for him to hold his hand out first, and in return Matt didn't mention the trembling he could obviously detect from the doctor's grip. "I know Hebi can be a bit annoying, but thank you for agreeing to help. It means a lot."
"Yes, well," Strange shifted a bit in what I assumed to be discomfort. "Considering she has helped me on a few occasions, I suppose I owe it to her. Let's get started shall we?" He turned to me to take the attention off of anything remotely emotional, and I smirked. I sat on the couch, lifting my head so he had a clear view of my in-shed eyes.
"How many friends do you have, Hebi?" Matt asked, and I figured by the tone of his voice that his eyebrows were probably furrowed. Plus, all the right muscles in his face were contracted so it made sense. "Or at least, how many powerful friends do you have?"
I chuckled, and from the way Strange knelt in front of me to get a good look at my eyes I could sense his own mouth curled up into a smirk. Matt didn't even know the beginning of Stephen's power, he probably only recognized his name from his days as a high profile surgeon.
"Maybe you should start a list, Matt. You'll reach the end of it eventually," I teased. He groaned in response before walking over to the rice cooker he had set up and scooping some out onto two plates.
I briefly felt the heat of a flashlight, and I could even see a very, very dim pinpoint of light from it as it moved around.
"Can you register that?" Strange asked, and I frowned.
"Kinda? It's like, a tiny pinprick of very dim light. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was imagining it," I admitted.
Stephen huffed. "That was an inch from your eyes, Hebi."
I nodded. "I know, my heat pits are still working, thanks. We both know you don't actually have to be this thorough, the issue is very easy to see."
"Not for you," he retorted without missing a beat, shutting the flashlight off and tucking it away. A moment later, he pulled a sheet of what sounded like paper from his jacket and I heard the clicking of a pen. Matt and I both snorted at his all too true response, and I left to get dressed as the Sorcerer Supreme jotted down a note for me for school. By the time I got back out, there was a full traditional Japanese breakfast laid out and Strange was holding a finished note in his hands.
"Here," he handed the note to me. "I wrote that you have a light sensitivity issue, requiring you to occasionally wear thick tinted sunglasses to protect your eyes from light damage. Don't get discovered, because I would hate to rely on your father to bail me out of a legal issue."
I rose at eyebrow at the older man, not believing him for a second. "Yeah. As if you'd actually ever need him to," I deadpanned. He shrugged noncommittally.
"I feel like I'm missing something," Matt muttered from his place in the kitchen, and I could sense his lips turned down in a frown.
"You are," Strange and I said at the same time, but neither of us bothered to elaborate as the man straightened his suit jacket and walked out without another word.
Always a ray of sunshine, that one.
Matt was rubbing his forehead when I made my way over to the kitchen counter and sat on my stool again. "Is he always like that?"
"Yes," I answered instantly. "He grows on you. I like him."
"I know," Matt grumbled as he sat down to eat too. "That's the problem. If I leave you alone with him too long, you two will end up destroying the world. Or causing general mayhem."
I blinked, a piece of fish halfway to my mouth. Matt instantly caught my aborted movement, and looked up from where he had been about to take a sip of soup.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!" I responded too quickly, shoving the food in my mouth and refusing to answer him when Matt continued to interrogate me. "But, uh, for clarification. Just for clarification. Completely hypothetical. Does helping massacre an army of invading demons count as mayhem?"
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, if I was hypothetically the one who accidentally opened the portal that let them in after I was hypothetically tossed through Strange's window and hypothetically landed in the wrong thing—"
"I have so many questions."
"None of which I will answer in any satisfying way."
—*—*—*—*—*
Five minutes. Five minutes after I entered school grounds and met up with Ned, MJ, and Peter was as long as I lasted before a teacher marched up demanding I take off my sunglasses. I sighed in frustration, not having had enough time to even fill my friends in on what was going on, and I hadn't even made it to the front office like I had been trying to do yet.
Thoroughly annoyed, I looked up at the teacher and frowned.
"No," I said firmly. "I am heading to the office to file an official doctor's note to keep them on," I continued before the teacher could get a word in edgewise. I swung my backpack to the front of my body, reaching in one pocket to pull out the note. I presented it to her with a flourish. "See?"
The bitch didn't even look at the paper, she just reached for my face. I recoiled, absolutely hating being touched by strangers especially on my shed, and especially without warning.
"Well you can put them back on once the note is properly filed and put in the system. Until then, they are against dress code," her fingers closed around my glasses and I shut my eyes tightly.
"Hey!" Ned exclaimed, upset at what was happening. Unable to fight back for obvious reasons, I forced my body to remain still and rigid as I felt my only protection getting removed from my face. Those glasses were like shields, it felt horribly exposing to be without them in such a public setting. The teacher clicked the glasses shut and held them up in one hand.
"You can get them back once the paperwork is filed," she said with a tone of finality.
"How am I supposed to do that?" I asked, mortified at the very real vulnerability in my voice. It wasn't until I felt Peter's hands on my shoulders that I realized I was trembling. "I can't open my eyes or I'll risk light damage!"
"What?" Peter asked, shocked. I felt his head turn to me in surprise. I clenched and unclenched my hands to keep myself calm.
"I have an eye condition," I said slowly. "I was going to get all the paperwork filed sooner, but my doctor could only meet me early this morning at the soonest appointment to write up an official note. My eyes occasionally get extremely light sensitive, and if I am exposed to lights that are too bright while they're like this, I could temporarily or even permanently go blind depending on the severity," I recited, internally embarrassed that the trembling in my voice didn't have to be faked. I felt exposed, vulnerable, and humiliated. It was horrible.
Added onto that, I could feel the dry skin of my shedding eye caps rubbing against the inside of my eyelids. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and even dangerous for long periods of time. If I wasn't careful, the eye caps could scratch the sensitive skin and made them bleed, which would just cause a myriad of issues. I had to learn that the hard way years earlier.
MJ was tense, I could feel all her muscles rigid as she took steps towards the teacher and held out her hand. "You need to give Hebi her glasses back. This is a health issue, and she has the proper paperwork right here. You can't keep her property under those conditions," she said tensely. I grit my teeth, hoping it would work.
"If it isn't in the system, it isn't official," the teacher retorted. "But I'll walk her down to the office to get this sorted out. Come on."
"We're going with you," Peter interjected, voice strong and I could even sense carefully hidden anger. I turned my head towards him in shock, not expecting him to defy a teacher so easily. If he noticed my pseudo-gaze, he ignored it. "I don't feel okay letting her go alone with you when you were so quick to take away something she needs despite her trying to defend herself," he spoke sternly. I felt my shoulders fall, my mouth dropping open and opening me to all the horrible, mixed scents that floated in the crowded hallway air. Whoever invented Axe needed to be murdered, ASAP.
Peter was standing up to the bitch because he was worried about me. It made my stomach roll when I realized he was protecting me based on a lie, but I shoved the feeling away as best I could. I'd deal with that guilt later. He cared.
And hell, it said a lot about me that even after months of living with Matt and being friends with Karen and Foggy, the feeling of being cared for was still foreign.
"I'll need someone to lead me anyway," I spoke up before the teacher could, slowly moving my hands up to wrap around one of Peter's biceps. For a scrawny guy, he had surprisingly solid muscles. "I'm essentially flying blind until you can give me my sunglasses back, and I don't trust you after that stunt you just pulled."
The teacher huffed, and I suspected she probably rolled her eyes before turning swiftly on her heel. I turned my head towards Ned and MJ.
"It would be overkill if you guys all came," I said gently, and gave them a lopsided smile. "But it means a lot to know you guys got my back, so thanks. Go ahead to class, Peter and I will meet up once we're done with this mess."
I could feel them hesitate, before MJ nodded to herself. "Okay. Hurry up, losers," I could feel her gaze linger on my face for a long moment before the other girl turned and dragged Ned away by the arm. I took a breath and nodded to Peter, who began slowly leading me.
The guy was incredibly considerate, despite being new to the whole leading thing. Peter was careful to warn me of when people were getting close, and softly muttered when we were turning a corner or had to maneuver around something. With my heat pits I didn't really need the help, but I still really appreciated the effort he was giving. After a few minutes we arrived at the office, the bitchy teacher watching as I handed over my doctor's note and the office worker looked over everything before getting up to hand it to the nurse for filing. It wasn't until the office lady came back to confirm it was all taken care of that the teacher from before walked over and held out my glasses.
"See? Was that so hard?" She asked condescendingly. I turned my head to her.
"Considering I've had to do everything with my eyes closed? Yes," I snapped back. "I'd like my glasses back now," I said, holding out my hand as if I didn't notice how she was already holding them out for me. The woman placed them in my hand and walked away with a huff, closing the door just a bit too loudly on her way out.
"You okay, Hebi?" Peter asked gently as I put my sunglasses on and opened my eyes with a sigh of relief. I smiled at him, nodding.
"Yeah. Thanks for leading me, Pete. People usually assume I never need any help, which is better than treating me like glass at least, but it means a lot that you didn't hesitate to help me out. So yeah, thanks," I could sense the boy rubbing the back of his neck, and the heat of his cheeks rose a bit and alluded to him blushing.
"Uh, yeah. What that teacher did wasn't cool, and I'll always be there for you Hebi. You're one of my friends, I'm not gonna just let you handle stuff like that on your own. Come on, let's get to class," he led the way out of the office, and I had a small grin on my face the whole way to English.
"Hey," Ned greeted when we got in our seats. "Everything's taken care of then?" Peter and I nodded.
"What are you doing, MJ?" I asked, noticing she was on her phone since class still hadn't started yet. She held up her screen, reminding me I needed to find a way to deal with reading digital stuff if I wanted my charade to stick.
"Complaining," she said simply before turning the screen back to herself. "Well, doing research before I complain. I'm pretty sure what she did is against school policy or a law or something."
I stared towards her, and shook my head in disbelief after a moment. "You don't have to go that far…" I said slowly. "I've dealt with people like her a lot. Especially on the streets, I mean we are in NYC. Attitude is pretty inseparable from the city."
I felt three heavy gazes on me, before Ned leaned over his desk in front of Peter and put a hand on my shoulder. I tensed for a moment, not expecting the contact and not liking it, but after a moment I relaxed. Ned was okay. He was safe.
"You're not on the streets or locked up in a house anymore," he said softly. "We'll help you as much as we want. No arguments."
I made a sound somewhere halfway between a sigh and a laugh. "I guess I'll just have to get used to having people in my corner, huh?"
"Yup," Peter agreed cheerily. "Can't get rid of us now, you're one of us."
Yeah. I seriously doubted he'd keep saying that if he saw me kill somebody, but I didn't plan to do that anytime soon so it should be fine, I figured. Probably.
—*—*—*—*—*
Peter was making a call he never thought he'd make.
Luckily, Tony picked up on the first ring.
"Hey, Underoos," his dad greeted cheerfully, the sound of machines whirring and clacking in the background told of the engineer being in his lab. "Aren't you supposed to be at lunch?" A toilet flushed. "Wait, are you calling me from the restroom? You couldn't have chosen a classier location to call your favorite billionaire from?"
"Can you get a teacher fired for me?" Peter blurted out once the person who flushed the toilet left. The scientist on the other end of the call went silent for a moment.
"Um. Okay, did they murder someone in front of you or did someone hijack your voice and/or body, because that request is very out of character for you. Seriously. I offered to get your asshole of a math teacher fired last year for treating you unfairly, and I seem to remember you vehemently denying me and saying that it wouldn't be right for someone to lose their job just because they caused you a little bit of a problem with your grades."
"Well yeah, I can totally handle Mr. Smith being a low-level jerk," Peter retorted easily. "That was only affecting me as far as I know, anyway. But the teacher I'm talking about messed with one of my friends. You should have seen it— actually, I'm pretty sure it was caught on both the school security cameras and my backpack-strap camera. You should watch it. Now."
Tony, confused but intrigued, put down the tool he was using to work on one of his many suits. Kicking against the ground, he rolled over to where his StarkPad was and picked it up to access the footage from Peter's secret camera.
"What time should I rewind to?" The genius asked. Peter hummed over the phone for a second, thinking.
"About 8:40? Sounds about right," the teen answered slowly. Back in Avengers Tower, Stark nodded and dragged the continuous footage back to the appropriate time stamp. It took a little bit of adjusting and trial and error, but he eventually got the right start time.
Peter was tapping his foot on the ground, jittery. "Look Dad, I've been gone a little too long. I'm gonna head back to the table before the guys get suspicious. Watch the whole thing, with your volume up!"
Peter hung up before Tony could respond, but nonetheless the philanthropist sighed and stood up, carrying his StarkPad to the living room. If he was going to watch something almost undeniably upsetting if Peter was to believed (he usually was with things like this), then he rather it be while he was sitting on something comfortable and without sensitive machinery around to accidentally break in the event of a very likely anger-induced lash out.
If Natasha and Bucky were also in the room as a Plan B, all the better.
The two assassins were doing their own thing. Natasha was watching something mindless on TV, and Bucky was cooking something for himself. Without paying either of them a glance, Tony put the video on hologram and pressed play.
Bucky turned off the stove after ten seconds to turn and watch.
Natasha had muted the TV almost instantly. She watched, knowing what she did about the Asian girl now, as Hebi trembled on the video and had to be comforted by Peter. With the camera so close to her, it was easy to see. Now Natasha knew how to fake trembles, and she knew that Hebi at the very least had a very impressive poker face. But it was easy for the seasoned spy to tell that Hebi hadn't even realized she had been shaking until Peter touched her shoulders. That wasn't something she could have faked easily, and if she did then she deserved an Academy Award.
The redhead watched as the girl who had fearlessly met her gaze seemed to unravel as quietly and subtly as she possibly could.
Logically, Nat could pick out most of the lies Hebi strung in her words because of what she read from Dryad's database, but the overall situation didn't change or lessen because of it. The exact issue might have been a lie, but Nat knew that Hebi was most definitely vulnerable and needed the sunglasses for a health and/or security reason.
The video ended, and Tony shut off the hologram. The room was silent for a long moment.
"You said the background check you and Barton did on the girl checked out, right?" The former playboy asked. The redhead only nodded once. "Barnes, relax. I don't want to have to fix another broken—"
And a metal arm was slammed on top of a coffee machine.
"Damn it," Tony rubbed his forehead.
"Even if it hadn't checked out, that shit isn't okay," the supersoldier argued, ignoring the mass of metal he had just wrecked. He walked over to the other two, and stood with his arms crossed. "Why did you decide to check up on the camera footage, anyway?"
"Peter called. He asked me if I could get a teacher fired, and naturally I was intrigued as to why our goodie-goodie webslinger would ever ask something like that," Tony drawled. There wasn't any anger in his tone, but a practiced eye would be able to catch the way his knuckles were white where they gripped his StarkPad.
"Well, he does have a pretty strong sense of justice," Nat mused out loud. Bucky grunted and even though he was angry, a corner of his lips still managed to tilt upwards.
"He sure does. He doesn't care if people mess with him, but all bets are off if someone messes with those close to him," the man agreed. "So, you gonna get her fired Stark?"
The mechanic grinned, standing up. "Someone like that doesn't deserve to teach at all anymore, don't you think?"
—*—*—*—*—*
It was the last class of the day. Peter had returned to lunch after going to the restroom surprisingly relaxed, which made Hebi instantly suspicious. Ultimately though, she shrugged it off and they went on with their day. Besides the incident with the teacher, everything went well. There was no computer work that day, so Hebi was able to use just the Pym Tech on her glasses to get by smoothly.
Of course Flash had to ruin it.
He sidled into their last class, which he unfortunately had with them, and sat backwards on his seat in front of Peter, where he proceeded to turn to face Hebi.
She mentally prepared herself to deal with the idiot's shit for the day.
"I heard you guys talking earlier. It's not surprising someone like you was homeless, did your parents kick you out?" He asked as if it was the most clever thing he could have said. Hebi felt her friends stiffen— Ned had asked during lunch about tips in case any of them had to survive on the streets like she had, and it had turned into a whole discussion. Flash must have been eavesdropping. Peter bent over, adjusting his backpack as subtly as he could so his backpack straps were facing the bully.
"My parents are dead," Hebi said dryly, leaning back in her seat. "You're gonna have to do better than that to get under my skin, Eugene. I'm proud of my days on the streets, taught me how to knock someone out who was twice my size before they could rob or otherwise hurt me. Would you like a demonstration?"
Peter felt his lips twitch as he restrained a smile. Hebi's relaxed tone perfectly complemented her threatening words, and he watched with glee as Flash paled before getting ahold of himself.
"Yeah? What happened, your mom decided you were too much trouble and off herself?"
Hebi's eyebrows rose. Cute, she thought sourly. He can't even say the word 'kill.' "Careful Thompson, or I might accuse you of knowing too much," she replied, her tone carefully emotionless. Nonetheless, Ned, Peter and MJ could all see the stiffness in their Asian friend's spine for the restrained emotions it betrayed.
Hebi could feel the heat leech out of Flash's face again, and some distant part of her was pleased she got him to pale again. He hadn't been expecting to be right, had he? Served him right.
"Wait, she really—?" The bully couldn't seem to bring himself to finish the sentence.
"Hebi…" Peter whispered, all too familiar with the pain of losing a family member, especially to unnatural causes. He slowly and gently laid a hand on her forearm, and she found herself appreciating the gesture.
"It's fine, Pete," she told the boy easily. "If you must know, Flash," she paused and took a deep breath. "As shitty as you are, I still hope you never have to walk into your house to find one of your parents cold on the ground surrounded by empty alcohol bottles. Because you can save a person from getting murdered, but it's a million times harder to save someone from themselves," Hebi's voice was soft and solemn, but she sat with her back straight and her face level to Flash's. Even when hurt or broken, she would not be seen as weak. It was bad enough her friends had seen her vulnerable once that day already, she would not let it happen again.
Flash wisely turned around and shut up. "Shit, man," MJ muttered from behind them. Hebi turned so she could face all her friends at once, and gave them as wide and genuine a smile as she could muster.
"Hey, don't worry about it guys. I was six back then, I've had plenty of time to accept what happened. It's still shitty to think of, but I'm not gonna break just because I have to talk about it for a minute," Hebi assured them. None of them looked assured, but obviously Hebi didn't notice that and turned back in her seat to let the topic rest as the teacher started the class.
Peter shared a glance with Ned and MJ, and nodded to them after a brief and silent discussion they managed to have with just their eyes. Hebi's hearing aids were on, so they didn't want to risk her hearing them if they spoke out loud.
When class got out, Peter, Ned, and MJ walked with Hebi in the middle of their group as they exited the building, as if protecting her. The former assassin definitely noticed, and was secretly amused by the whole thing. Touched too, but mostly amused.
"Do you wanna come over to the tower tonight?" Peter asked from Hebi's right, sounding hopeful. "I picked out a lego set for us to start your descent into true nerd-dom."
Hebi laughed at that, shaking her head. In reality, she really wanted to do just that, but with her whole shed thing she wouldn't be able to put together a lego set without giving away the fact that she was currently blind.
"I don't know, I'm not in the mood for a puzzle or anything like that right now," she lied easily. Ned sighed dramatically.
"But you got permission to go over already! You have to. It's like, the coolest place ever!" He encouraged. Hebi thought about it, biting the inside of her cheek. She really, really wanted to go to Avengers Tower, but she knew it would be a bad idea to do it for the first time on her shed. For one, she wanted to be able to actually see it the first time she went. Two, the building was filled with tech. If she was handed a StarkPad or some other thing with a screen, she'd be outed.
"Look guys, I know what you're doing and I appreciate it. Really, I do," Hebi admitted, and Ned and Peter ducked their heads when they realized they were found out. "But probably not this week. My light sensitivity probably won't wear off for a couple days, and I'd prefer to be at home where I'm more comfortable—"
"Hebi!" Foggy's voice saved the girl from further explanation, and she found herself smiling when she sensed his form waving a hand high in the air next to Matt. Hebi laughed at him making such a spectacle of himself, not embarrassed in the least.
"Oh he's stupid," Hebi muttered fondly as Matt tried to hide behind his blond friend. "What's the point of keeping my name just Teal if he's gonna show up and let everyone notice him?" She shook her head with a smile. They were wearing hats, and Foggy had on sunglasses, but that was the extent of their attempt to disguise.
"Woah, is that Matthew Murdock?" Peter asked in a bad whisper, staring at them. Hebi sighed, figures Peter would recognize two lawyers. "He took down the biggest crime boss in New York!"
"Yeah, he did," I confirmed, "And apparently he can't get his friend to understand what the word 'subtle' means. A lot like you and Ned, actually— sorry dude, I only speak the truth. I gotta go guys, see you tomorrow!" She waved to her friends before jogging off to her dad and his best friend. Luckily the two's names were far more recognizable than their faces, so there wasn't a fuss over them.
"How was school?" Matt asked when she drew up to them and they began the walk home. She paused, considered lying for a moment, then remembered she couldn't and slumped a little.
"Yeah. Decidedly Not Great," she mumbled, kicking a stone. "Peter, Ned, and MJ made it bearable, though, so that's something. And I didn't punch anyone, so that's another point in my favor."
"You were close to punching someone?" Foggy asked, eyebrows high on his face. "That's not like you. You usually have a pretty good reign on your anger," he remarked idly. Hebi shrugged noncommittally. Foggy wasn't buying it. "What happened?"
"Well. The day started with a teacher forcibly yanking my glasses off."
"What?" Matt's voice was icy and his back immediately straightened.
"I closed my eyes in time, so nobody saw anything," she rushed to assure them before slumping again. "She was a real stickler for the rules, you know? Said I was violating the school code until the paperwork was officially filed and in the system, and said I couldn't have my sunglasses back until it was. Peter and the others argued and tried to get her to give them back, but even after I showed her Doctor Strange's note and explained the light sensitivity thing, she still refused," she could sense Matt's muscles just getting tenser as she went on, but she knew he wouldn't let her get away with a half-assed explanation. "I told her I couldn't open my eyes until I got my glasses back, but she still didn't budge so Peter volunteered to lead me to the office so we could take care of the paperwork. She made a big deal about staying until the office lady confirmed it was all in the system before handing them back," she finished her recounting of the ordeal.
"Peter, huh? Was he the skinny one you were talking to?" Foggy asked, as usual determined to lighten the mood. "When do we start planning the wedding?"
Hebi's face twitched and her cheeks grew slightly pink. She turned her head to glare sightlessly at the blonde, who was used to it from both her and Matt and thus remained unaffected.
"Hebi, that's not okay," Matt said softly, after elbowing his friend in the side for his comment. "Do you want me to talk to the principle for you?"
Hebi shook her head immediately. "No. MJ said she was already working on a formal complaint, Ned spent several class periods planning pranks, and I'm pretty sure Peter has a secret plan he's hiding from me because he was way too smug at lunch."
"How the hell do both of you know when somebody's being smug if you can't see it?" Foggy asked, exasperated.
"Usually? The voice," Matt answered with a shrug. "If they don't talk? It depends on the person."
Hebi nodded in agreement. "Pete didn't talk in a smug tone or anything, but he was way more relaxed and he shrugged off any questions Ned asked him about idea to get back at the teacher, where he had previously been eagerly fueling Ned," Hebi tilted her head. "The rest of the clues are hard to explain. You just kinda gotta feel it. But he was definitely smug."
"So it's Pete now, is it?" Foggy teased again, immediately picking up on the nickname. Hebi wrinkled her nose at him.
"Is that all that happened?" Matt asked, and Hebi didn't answer. "Hebi?" She remained silent. "What was it?"
"I rather not have to bail you out of prison and work with Foggy to get you pardoned for murder of a minor," she answered, tone too casual. Matt furrowed his red brows, frowning.
"Okay, So one of your classmates was being a shit. Was it that Flash kid you keep complaining about?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny."
Matt rolled his eyes behind his glasses.
"This isn't an interrogation, I'm worried about you. What did the little asshole say this time?"
Hebi was silent for a long moment, but the way she bit the inside of her cheek and stared towards the ground told them that she was thinking and not just refusing to answer. She rose her head after a moment, sighing.
"He may have, theoretically, asked if my mom killed herself to get away from me."
"Excuse me?" That was Foggy, that time. Hebi raised her hands to try and placate both suddenly irate adults.
"Look, he didn't know he was going to actually say something halfway accurate, okay? He was just trying to annoy me. He was fishing. He was scared shitless and went silent the second I confirmed that she killed herself, and I may have hammered the point home to make him extra guilty," she told the two gently, as if trying to calm two wild animals. Matt bristled— well, he had been bristling the whole time, but he definitely got even more riled up.
"Please tell me the emphasis on the word 'hammered' was not a very tasteless pun."
"I can neither confirm nor deny that."
"Hebi!" Matt ran his free hand through his hair, the hand clutching his cane barely even going through the unnecessary motions of scanning the ground ahead.
"Kid, using humor to deflect your pain isn't the best tactic in the world," Foggy said slowly, frowning. Hebi shrugged, and shoved her hands into her pockets.
"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly the shining beacon of mental health. And no, I don't want a therapist. Wouldn't trust anyone. Look, I'll talk to one of you when I'm ready, but I'm not right now. Can we change the subject?"
After some heavy hesitation, the men agreed and began a half-hearted discussion about their own day that slowly grew more and more relaxed.
—*—*—*—*—*
"How was school, Pete? You know, besides the obvious that I'm working on," Tony asked when his son got home. The young mutate sighed, shoulders slumping as he walked over and plopped into the rolly chair and slid over to be next to his dad in the lab. "Geeze, that bad?"
"Well, not really," Peter grumbled slowly, picking up a small project he was working on and starting to delve into it as Tony worked on a suit next to him. "Most of it was fine after the whole issue with the teacher. Along with the firing thing, MJ and Ned have their own revenge plan in the works. If you thought MJ alone was scary, those two teamed up is a nightmare," try as he might though, Peter just couldn't keep his voice as light and carefree as usual. His dad noticed, and looked up with a slight frown.
"Peter, what else happened then? If it's not the teacher thing then it's something else."
Peter tinkered for a moment, not looking up when he said; "Have I ever told you that I'm really thankful you don't drink anymore? Like, I really, really appreciate it. I know it had to take a lot of willpower to quit, and—"
"Pete," Tony stopped working altogether and spoke softly. "I'm glad to hear that, but where is this coming from?" Peter wasn't even tinkering anymore, just clutching his tools tightly. The screwdriver in his right hand started to bend slightly to the side. That just set off warning bells for Tony, because Peter almost never lost control of his super strength. It was kinda crazy, when he really thought about it, just how good of a handle the kid had on it.
"Flash was being a dick. Except, ever since Hebi stood up for me last week he's been focusing on her more than me, you know? Well, he said something about her homelessness. I didn't tell you that yet, did I?" He ran a hand through his hair, even while still clutching a tool. "She was homeless for three years before she was adopted. Anyway, she wasn't bothered by what he said and evens said she was proud of her homelessness and made a pretty funny threat. But then…"
"Then?" Tony pressed gently, knowing it was best to just let Peter's roundabout thought process work itself out.
"Then Flash asked this really random question. He didn't… only Ned, MJ and I know about Hebi being an orphan. And Flash asked if… if her mom killed herself because of her."
Tony took a slow breath to steady himself. That Flash kid didn't know how far was too far, did he?
"And, Hebi… she didn't look like she was angry at first, you know? Until I realized she was like you. She hid it deep, and I could only tell with the way her back was rigid. And she," Peter finally put his tools down, resigning himself to straightening out the bent screwdriver later. "She said her mom did kill herself. She drank herself to death, Dad. Hebi was six years old and she walked into her house to find her mom's corpse surrounded by liquor bottles."
Tony closed his eyes, jaw clenched. Now he understood Peter's mood. Many people had worried about Tony making the same mistake back when he was still an alcoholic, of walking in to find him dead. By the time he met Peter, he had already managed to cut down his drinking substantially but he didn't completely stop until a month or two after officially adopting him.
Peter was worried as hell about Hebi, and angry that she had to relive bad memories like that, but he was also imagining himself in her position. Tony realized that, and turned so he was fully facing Peter.
"Hey. Look at me," the older man ordered gently. It took a second, but Peter slowly obeyed. Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to worry about me. I've been sober for more than a year and a half, we managed to avoid that mess. Now, as for your friend. Step one, tell me what she likes so we can plan a way to cheer her up."
Peter relaxed, comforted by his dad's confidence and the fact that he had a plan. He nodded with a weak smile. "Okay. What's step two?"
"Planning what venue to rent out for your wedding."
"DAD!"
—*—*—*—*—*
Footsteps echoed across the chipped and cracked tiles as I walked forward, nudging the woman gently with one small hand. The light flooding in from the doorway illuminated her in a perfect line, like a runway carpet of golden energy. I could almost imagine her walking along it to leave.
Her soft hazel eyes were glassy, clouded, and sightless. The air stank of alcohol, it was cloying and thick. I felt as if I would drown in it like she did. One of my feet accidentally brushed a bottle, sending it and the small tower it had been supporting clattering across the floor in a rain of both disorienting cacophony and sharp shards of glass.
My mother's stiff body never so much as twitched.
I curled into her lap and cried into her shirt until I felt myself being peeled off of her an hour later.
I woke up much more suddenly than with my other nightmares, as if being tugged viciously away from my slumber as I had been tugged away from my mother's body all those years ago. It took me until I smelled Matt's familiar scent and "saw" his lump of heat in front of me to realize that I had been letting out a low whine like an injured dog since I woke up.
Then the lawyer gathered me in his arms, and let me weep into his warm shirt. He understood. He was safe. He was warm. He was alive.
I'd do anything to keep it that way.
—*—*—*—*—*
Sorry for the state of your hearts, this was necessary for Hebi's character.
until next chapter~
