Lena had never been this angry in all of her life. Becoming semi-numb to human emotions in the first 63 years had blocked out this kind of rage. If she were to become this angry in front of her former sisters, it would have put her life at risk. Now that the walls were being broken down, she realized that seeing this collection of notes that Peter had taken on her filled her with a fiery rage that would take an extreme amount of convincing to tame. She felt the smoke that followed Miss Potts surround her.

He looked shocked, and the first emotion that started running through his mind was regret. Deep, deep regret was a bottomless pit in his stomach. She flipped through the pages, skimming the dates, the sketches, the different data logs he had created. It made her feel disgusting, as if she was some sort of science experiment that he only took interest in for his research.

"STUDYING ME?!" it was all she could say. It was all she could think. She could feel the tears welling up behind her eyes, but she was getting tired of that, too. All she did now that she was emotionally vulnerable was cry. She threw the notebook, hard, at his feet.

"Lena you weren't supposed to see that until-"

"Until? Why could I not see it, Peter. Explain! Why!" she was surprised that she did not speak inside his head. Articulating out loud was even more difficult with the passionate emotion tumbling through her system.

"It-it looks worse than it actually is let me explain-"

"Explain, Peter!"

"If you could calm-"

The rage built, and this time she spoke in his head, DO NOT TELL ME TO CALM DOWN.

His eyes widened, the anger blinding him briefly. That's why she did not want to speak in his head. It was harming him.

"You're...you're right. I shouldn't have said that. Could you stop doing that, though? It's hurting me."

She took a deep breath, "I am sorry."

"You're fine," he was panting, partially from the panic and partially from his vision giving out, "Mr. Stark wanted me to take notes on your progress in case I got something that Dr. Green missed. It was my intern work. I was going to show you...as your school gift."

She softened, the red creeping into the corners of her eyes going away, "Gift?"

"On your first day. The sketches were drawn by my friend. I described you to her. You're going to meet her and…"

It felt like too much. The anger from finding out his secret to trying to understand exactly what he had been trying to go for. Her head was pounding, as if her brain was going to pour out of her ears. She yelled and punched a wall, silencing her brain and bringing a sense of clarity she had not anticipated.

She had not made a dent in the wall, but when she pulled her hand back, a few of her knuckles were bleeding. Peter looked at her, horrified.

The regret that Peter had felt was starting to transfer to her. She had misinterpreted the situation completely and was left to look like a barbaric fool. She held back more tears, remorse replacing the anger. Her brain was crashing within her skull. She crumpled into the chair by his desk, putting her face in her hands. There was a feeble wall keeping her tears from pouring out, and it almost broke when she felt his hand on her back.

"I am sorry," she whimpered.

"No, I'm sorry. I should have just told you earlier and…" he trailed off again, and when she looked up he was running his hand through his hair. "Everything feels like it's going wrong."

She understood. She wanted the same thing he did, and he just did not know it. It made her think that she should hold back on her physical affection until she was able to explain what loving her entailed.

Nothing was ever as easy as it seemed. She was not like anyone else. She would have this baggage with her for the rest of her life, no one could love her in the way that they had to. Loving her came with a price to pay.

Peter's phone lit up, and she could see by the look in his eyes that it was from someone he usually did not hear from. His look of despair changed in an instant, lifting up and snapping into glee. When she tried to figure out what it was, Peter threw up a mental wall, keeping her out. She did not know whether to be offended or impressed,

"How are you-"
"It's a surprise! Happy is on the way to pick us up. Go change back into the clothes you own."

Peter left so that she could change - not that it mattered - but it took a moment to find her white dress amongst the clothes that almost completely covered the floor. When she did see it, she found it humorous how the white fabric completely stood out amongst Peter's colored t-shirts. She had taken a liking to the color, and the type of clothes that she had initially been given when she was out of the thank. The light, airy material, Mr. Stark called it 'linen,' was soft on her skin, sometimes the feeling of cotton or nylon felt itchy and uncomfortable. She was not used to wearing clothing, and a linen dress was the closest she could get to the feeling of water running over her skin.

She missed swimming. Not the tank, but the ocean. It was a shame she could never return, as the peace she had felt was something she would miss eternally, but it was an easy sacrifice to stay with Peter. She had the television show Planet Earth, and she was going to ask PET to play ocean sounds to help her sleep, so she would be all right.

She would be all right.

Mr. Happy Hogan did not say anything when they got in the car, a usual trait from him. Lena had not decided her opinion of him, he was guarded. She had tried to decipher what sort of mind he had, but it was strange how he could be so open and closed at the same time. The man cared about the people around him, sometimes a little too much. The only certain thing she knew about Happy was that he would die for Tony Stark, and one day she noticed that extended to her as well.

She liked that he cared, but she did not like that he definitely did not act like it.

"Oh, Mr. Stark asked me to put this on your eyes," Peter reached up to the front seat and grabbed something that reminded her of the goggles that went with her suit. As her vision was blocked, she struggled to find an explanation to go along with this, but did not argue. She had already spent enough time arguing with Peter that day.

A hand helped her out of the car, and moved to her lower back to guide her. It was complete darkness that she had never felt before. She was throwing her trust into Peter's hands without opposal.

It was similar to what he had done when they first met.

Up some stairs, turning some corners, and hearing Mr. Stark's laugh in the distance, she was not sure whether she should be nervous or excited, but the energy around the room felt giddy.

"What is happening?" she finally asked, still having no clue where she was.

"Take her in," was Mr. Stark's response.

She heard the creak of a door and was walked only a few more steps forward before the blindfold was removed. Her eyes needed adjusting to the light, but she recognized her location: she was in her room, but something was different. Where there used to be a window wall was now a new room, attached to the side of the building.

As she processed what she was seeing, her breath felt like it had floated away. She stumbled, and felt tears forming in the back of her eyes.

A pool.

Mr. Stark had attached a pool to the side of her room, three stories tall, starting on the floor her room was on and ending on the ground.

"Why am I crying? I am happy? Why am I…" she choked out a few more tears and let Peter wrap his arm around her.

"Oh, yeah, you passed the test by the way. Midtown will be expecting you on Monday," Mr. Stark chimed in, leaning on the wall behind them. Lena turned around and smiled at him through her tears. She could feel him swelling with pride.

"What are you waiting for, L? Go swim!"

She ran.

Behind her, Happy and Mr. Stark left, but Peter remained. She tore the dress off, not caring who saw her, because she was about to embrace her alter form, she was about to swim for the first time in what felt like years.

Five months ago, she would have called her tail her 'true form.' Being a seiren was all that she had known, and she was unsure if she would ever become anything more than that. She had almost expected Mr. Stark and Peter Parker to throw her back into the ocean once they had the information they needed. She never thought she would receive a purpose to her life.

Now, she felt human. In her time away from her sisters, she had not just become her mother, she had also become her father. His blood pumped through her veins, it put tears in her eyes, it forced her to be angry, and it expressed her love for her peirasmós in the only way it knew how.

Her physical manifestation of love could not be taught in the way that the seiren bonded.

It was a shame that her sisters would never know what it was like to embrace their peirasmós, for it filled her with energy, life, and joy.

Joy was a mystery until it was not.

The water felt like an old friend: familiar and welcoming. The water was the only old friend she had ever known.

It swallowed her into its loving arms, fusing her legs together into the tail that no longer was bound by rope. All around her she was able to see the minute details that Mr. Stark had put so much thought and care into. The walls were black with specs; if she relaxed enough it turned into the depths of the Atlantic.

She swam and sang, pumping her tail, the melody an airy, non-transical tune. It was peace. It was ideal. She had finally reached the happiness that she used to be so certain that she could never feel. There was only one factor missing.

Looking up, she saw Peter leaning over the edge of the water, searching for her. For a moment she was taken back to the first time she had ever seen his face, curious and dumbstruck, unsure of the secrets the sea had to offer. There was a warm feeling in her heart as she pondered the memory.

There was a word that she had come across in a novel Miss Gomez had forced her to read. The word had stuck with her, and she had longed to feel every essence of it. After reading it repeatedly, the sound of it echoing in her mind, she had realized she never would be able to. The only way would be if she were to swim again as freely as she had been able to in the ocean. She had asked PET about the word so many times, that the AI had set it as her alarm. She woke up to the definition every morning, wishing she could immerse herself in it, but no matter how many times she reached out, she fell short.

Yet there she was, swimming freely.

She was content.

And the word?

Serenity.

End of Act 1.