"No!" Peter panicked, "Don't shoot anybody-" zipping up his jeans, he raced to follow Brad outside.

"Brad, it's not what it looks like buddy-" He finally got his zipper up, and caught up to the older boy. ""Hey man, look, that's-" he gestured vaguely towards the cabin they'd just left.

Brad turned around. "Look, Peter, I'm not here to judge your life choices, dude. If you wanna hook up with some random european chick on our school trip, that's on you-"

"No! No, that's not what that was-"

"I can't pretend that I didn't see what I just saw." Brad said, his voice lowering, almost threatening. "I thought you and Katya had some sort of special bond, but I like her, too." Peter tried to count on one hand the amount of times he'd seen Katya even talk to Brad, but then again they had some classes they didn't share so who knows what went on in there. Not that anything in that picture worried Peter- knowing Katya, she'd just laugh it off and make some snide remark, He knew she'd know there wasn't any cheating going on- but that picture was evidence that Operation Prague was still a go, and Peter had been beginning to think more about what they'd talked about last night- and what skills Katya felt she could viably use against a fire monster. And if he could avoid putting her in danger for no good reason-

-and he knew if she found out that's what he was doing, it would be a disaster.

"Wait a minute, you cannot show her that photo dude, come on," Peter pleaded.

"I"m sorry man, I have to. She deserves the truth."

"All right everybody," Mr. Dell called, "put one foot in front of the other, and it's back on the bus!"

—-

Once they'd all re-filed in- Peter took a seat closer to the front this time, and Katya made to sit next to him but he'd slung his backpack there. When she started to move it, he stopped her hand.

"I, er, want to see what else EDITH can do, but don't want any distractions from all of that-" he waved his hand towards the rest of the bus. "I'll report back to you after."

"So I can't even sit here?" She gave him a weird look, skeptical, and… hurt? Peter's chest twisted with guilt.

"Just for like, five minutes. I promise. Save me a seat in the back."

She kicked at one of his feet with one of her own. "Okay..." She muttered, skeptically- and, a bit angrily. "Make sure you ask her about where the defense drones are located."

He nodded, assuring her that he would, and let out a deep breath once she'd continued on.

"Edith?" He prompted.

Hello, Peter. How can I help you?"

"Hey- there's this guy in my class who's kind of going to ruin everything with Katya, but-"

Peter, I'm having difficulty hearing you. Would you please speak up?

Peter took a breath to collect himself. "Erm, Brad Davis. He has a photo of me-"

Brad Davis- is he a target?

"Is Brad a target? Erm-" Peter glanced back at the rest of the bus. Katya'd parked herself in the back where they'd been sitting before, but there was an empty seat beside her, the one that she was saving for Peter- and Brad was only a few seats away. He could see through the glasses interface that he was already scrolling through his phone's photo reel. "Yeah, he's a target. He's a target."

Copy that. Target is Brad Davis. Initiating strike.

"Initiating what, now?"

Intercept point determined. Releasing kill vehicle.

"Edith-" Peter watched through his interface as it became a drone feed, which had shuttled down from somewhere to start following the bus. The aim was zeroing in on the back of Brad's head. "Oh my god-"

Suddenly the glasses were ripped from his face as Flash, who sat in the row next to him, grabbed them off him and put them on his own face. "Dope glasses Parker, how'd you afford these?"

"Flash give them back-" he made to grab his arm. Flash swatted it away.

"No, no, no, I"m paying you a compliment-"

Peter continued to try to smack his arm out of the way when he accidentally slapped Flash across the face with his full strength, knocking him out instantly. Shit. "I'm so sorry."

He grabbed the glasses back and put them back on.

Peter, would you like me to cancel the drone strike on Brad Davis?

"Did you just punch Flash?" Alesha, another girl from the class, asked him.

Peter panicked. "No."

Okay, commencing drone strike-"

The first thing Peter could think of to do was shoot a web at the steering wheel of the bus, tugging it out of the way, before trying turn them back and overcorrecting. The entire class let out a cry. The drone shot, but missed, thanks to Peter's maneuvers.

"This is not the autobahn!" Mr. Dell yelled at Dmitri, who was trying to straighten the bus back out.

Peter glanced back and in her seat Katya was standing, scanning the bus in that calculative way she had. She glanced over at him, both concerned but also slightly accusatory- But through their eye contact, she could clearly tell he was in trouble.

Commencing second drone strike.

"Edith!"

He gestured with his eyes at Katya to where the drone could be clearly seen behind the bus, gearing up for a strike, and she looked back at him and nodded.

"Look at all the baby mountain goats!" She cried, too convincingly, pressing her face up to the side window. The rest of the class turned or got up from their seats to try to look through the portion of the window where she was, allowing Peter just enough time to web open the emergency exit at the top of the vehicle and jump out, covering the drone with webbing. It went down, and smashed to pieces on the side of the road.

He barely made it back to his seat before Mr. Harrington muttered, "I don't see any mountain goats."

"You must've missed them," Katya called from her seat in the back. "Sorry. They were really cute." What the fuck she mouthed up at Peter. He shrugged nervously, almost as in oops. She smirked and rolled her eyes.

"I know you think none of us have noticed, Peter," Betty spoke up from the seat behind him. Peter froze. "But your new look? Love it."

Oh thank god. "Thanks."

Peter collapsed back into his seat as he could hear Ned gushing to agree with her "Yeah, super classy, very European- " and took a moment to settle down.

"Okay, Edith, let's try again."

—-

After he was sure the picture had been deleted from Brad's phone, Peter made his way back down the aisle to grab the seat Katya had saved for him. It took her a moment, but she burst out in snickers.

"How the hell did you accidentally order a drone strike on us?"

Peter shrugged. "You said find all the locations, and it turns out they're everywhere."

"And you picked our bus as the target?"

Peter rubbed the back of his head. "Nah, It was just a miscommunication."

"Well let's try not to have a miscommunication like that again." She turned, so her back was to the window, and flung her feet across his lap. He rested his hands on them, as if trying to keep her there. A pang shot through his chest at the thought of the new suit in his backpack, which he felt like was visible to everyone, even though it was shoved deep in the bottom and the zipper was closed. He glanced over at Katya, who had looked down at her phone again but seemed to sense his gaze. She flicked her own upwards.

"What?"

Peter shook his head. "Nothing."

He knew that if he intentionally kept her out of this and she found out, it'd be going against all the trust they've built throughout their entire relationship. He knew she could more than handle herself- that wasn't the problem- he knew she could beat the shit out of him, that's for sure- but after the whole endgame battle, and the funeral…

He hated to admit it, but he was worried for her. And he knew that if he voiced it she'd just scoff, and again, he wasn't worried because she couldn't take care of herself- he was just terrified to lose someone else he loved. And this one, so fiercely.

He started playing with the laces on her boots, and it was like she'd read his mind. "Have you gotten anything else from Fury yet? No one's called me."

Peter shrugged, moving to tie the laces together. "Nope, not yet. I figure we'll learn more when we actually get there."

"They're sending us in blind." She grumbled.

"Pretty much. But who knows- maybe it won't be that big a deal at all. Maybe our Earth is just built different. Maybe Quentin can do it on his own-" he finished tying the laces together and smiled self-satisfactorily. She realized what he did and smacked him playfully, reaching forward to undo them. "Maybe the coordinates are wrong."

She undid her shoes and shrugged. "I don't know. Hill seemed pretty sure of herself." she started re-tying them one at a time. " That Quentin guy gives me a weird feeling. I don't know if we can trust him."

Peter drew back. Quentin had been nothing but welcoming to them, and helpful. "What makes you think that?"

Katya shrugged. "I don't know, it's like…in the way he moves. He's theatric, almost."

"He's from a different Earth."

Katya shrugged again and settled down further into her bus seat, her shoes now back to being tied properly. "Yeah, but he just reads weird to me. I don't know. He just makes me uncomfortable."

Peter reclined a bit in his seat by slumping down. "Well he's one of the only ones we can trust right now."

Katya looked at him seriously. "And that's why it worries me so much."