Ava did not know how she was going to do what she was about to. She bit her bottom lip as her mind wandered back to what happened this morning.

Flashback:

The sun had fluttered in through the window, successfully waking up Ava from her oddly pleasant dreams. She groaned before she lifted her head up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She then stretched her back, making a few popping sounds. She resembled a feline a lot what with the elegant curve of her back or the way her long nails scratched a few places that tended to give her an annoying itchy feeling just because they felt like it. She even let out a mix between mewling and purring when Danny had run his fingers through her hair after she had lied back down. She even growled when Danny had chuckled at her morning behaviour. Ava lifted her head up when he had started laughing. She glared at him halfheartedly before she said:

"Glad to see you're finding my sore back amusing."

Danny chuckled some more before he continued running his fingers through her hair. He smiled at her when she leaned into his touch. The warmth of her skin against his slightly colder palm was tantalizing. Danny relished in the flames her simple touch ignited. He closed his eyes when she gave in and relaxed completely once more. Danny started humming some sort of melody that was supposed to help her relax. Fortunately, even though Ava had heard it many times, it still managed to help ease her mind. That was the reason why she succumbed to her need and slept for another hour. During that whole hour she had felt Danny's fingers ghosting through her soft locks as though they were lulling her to fall asleep. And sleep she did.

By the time she had woken up it was eleven a.m. The visitations were over and she had missed her chance to speak with the doctor again. However, the smile Danny had given her when she had scolded him for not waking her up sooner had been enough to make every ounce of her resolve crumble. She sighed before she rolled her eyes, making Danny chuckle. Ava then stood up and sat on his bed. She looked at him before she brought her hand up and started caressing his golden hair. Ava would be lying if she said that she did not sometimes feel envy when it came to the silkiness of those golden waves. It should be a sin for a man to have such an addictively soft mane.

Danny's hand soon found hers and immediately halted her movements. His intense gaze locked with hers. It did not waver or leave as he slowly brought their joint hands towards his lips and kissed the tips of her fingers. He then moved towards her knuckles. He paid special attention to the one that led to her ring finger. His lips then moved from said knuckle toward the tip of the finger that followed, igniting a fire that was not supposed to be there. Ava would be lying if she said that she was not entranced. He had her mesmerized yet again with his gentleness, caring nature, careful yet sensuous movements. She had not doubt that Danny loved her from the bottom of his heart as did she. At that moment when it was just the two of them she did not know why she had decided to marry Peter. Now, when she was with him, it seemed like something foreign as though it was not her story, but someone else's; as it should have been.

Ava's eyes narrowed slightly as anger corrupted her heart and killed the warmth Danny's strokes and kissed had brought. He frowned when he noticed the lava that was blazing within her chocolate hues. While he was running his thumb across the space between her knuckles and wrist, he asked:

"What's wrong?"

With a humorless chuckle Ava looked at him with glistening eyes and enquired in return:

"What's not?"

Danny smiled sadly in response. He knew what she was referring to, but this time he was not going to allow her to escape. No, this time he was going to confront her because he needed to make sure one thing had stayed the same during all these years.

"Are you referring to Sam's departure?" He questioned as he carefully studied the shift in emotions that occurred in her unguarded pools of heat.

"Don't you mean betrayal?" Ava asked as she pierced his gaze with hers.

Danny sighed, but did not allow his resolve to waver. Instead, he pressed on:

"Don't you think you are being rash and unfair, Ava?"

Ava's mouth fell open. She was just about to retort when he silenced her with a look that told her one thing – he was disappointed. Ava looked away. She hated it when he gave her that penetrating gaze. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried, she could not escape from it. A soft sigh brought her attention and gaze back upon him.

"Ava, I cannot say that I am happy with what happened all those years ago. I also don't think I would be able to just forgive and forget. However, I do not know what his reasons for leaving were. And neither do you, so I suggest we stop living in the past, trying to answer questions that we do not have enough knowledge to give the answer to and focus on what is more important." Danny said as he studied thoroughly once more.

Ava rolled her eyes, but smiled, nonetheless. She nodded, and then smiled. Danny mirrored her expression, however, his eyes narrowed when she gave him a coy smirk. Ava brought her head closer to his, her lips a few inches away from his. Her eyes searched his, while her fingers played with a few tangled locks from his hair. Danny sent a questioning look her way, making her chuckle.

"What were you referring to when you said 'focus on what is more important'?" Ava asked, locking her gaze with his. Danny internally growled. Although the looks she was currently sending him made her even more irresistible, he hated it when she had such control over him. Internally he wanted to fight. Externally he gave in.

"Us." He answered simply.

Ava's eyes widened. Her fingers stopped their play and froze. She dropped her hands to rest on the surprisingly soft mattress and asked flabbergasted:

"Us?"

"Us." Danny confirmed before he captured her chin with his hand and brought her head up so that he could look her straight in the eyes when he said, "Normally I do not approve of such actions when one belongs to another. However, given the circumstances I gather Peter would not mind all too much, considering he, too, is having second thoughts about your relationship with him."

Ava's eyes widened. Her mouth opened in order to retort, but was not given a chance to utter a single word because once he was finished, Danny immediately leaned forward and captured her lips in a tantalizing kiss. Although brief, it managed to remind Ava what it was like to kiss someone who you truly cared about and who reciprocated your feelings. In that moment of so-called lapse of judgment, the twenty-five-year-old realized that things could not and should not stay the way they were. A change was in order and it would happen whether they wanted to or not.

End of Flashback

Her cheeks were slightly red when her mind recalled in vivid detail what Danny had done to her after that chaste kiss. She could not help but giggle. She giggling? She feeling lightheaded? She wishing to do something more than just making out in a public place? She not caring about the consequences of her actions? She losing every last ounce of self-control and surrendering herself to someone else so fully, so easily, so quickly? Ava chuckled. If that was not love, she did not know what was.

She stopped abruptly once her eyes landed upon Peter's apartment building. The lights were on which meant that he had either forgotten them, which was unlikely, or he was home. Although part of her wished he was not there, she knew that her racing heart would not calm down until she had put an end to their suffering; everyone's suffering for that matter. With a slow intake of breath and a followed exhale she managed to regain part of her self-control again. She was glad for the sudden rise of confidence or perhaps it was adrenaline? She did not know. The only thing she was sure of was that if she did not do it now, she would be betraying not only Danny and Peter, but herself as well.

Peter was pacing around in his living room. He had tried to contact Sam dozens of times, but had had no luck. It seemed that the stupid ring had ruined everything again. Peter cursed under his breath. He could not believe he had forgotten to take it off. How stupid could he have been? What kind of idiot went to see the person they loved and wanted to be with wearing an engagement or wedding ring? No one aside from a fool named Peter Parker apparently. His mind kept chastising him for acting the way he had had. He should have gone after Sam he knew, but something had stopped him. He did not know what. After all, that was what he had wanted right? He had wanted a second chance. He had wanted to redeem himself and give Sam a chance to do so as well. He wanted to fix what had gone wrong all those years ago. He had wanted…. God, he had wanted to do so many things…

A sudden knock on the door made him freeze. His eyes flashed toward the picture of him and Ava on the wall. It was taken during their one year anniversary. God, he had been so happy back then. Those were the good old days when he had been sure of himself and what he was doing. Those were the times when he had not questioned himself or his significant other. Those were the days he had been planning his life together with her. He had been happy. He had been in love, but… something had gone wrong. Peter did not know what he had done wrong, however. He had not cheated on her. He had not neglected her or at least he tried not to. They had both been busy with their studies yet they still managed to find time to spend with one another. They had been the perfect couple, the one in the movies that people wished they could be apart of.

Then please tell me – what went the fuck wrong?

Peter asked himself that while he walked towards the door. He opened it, hoping to see Sam. However, as always, he had been wrong. In front of him stood none other than Ava. He swallowed hard. The regretful look she sent him told him everything. This was the end. There was no turning back. Once he let her in, once she opened her mouth to speak he knew it would be over. A part of Peter wanted to shut the door in front of her face, to tell her off, to send her away. Another urged him to yell at her, to ask her why she was doing what she was doing, to question her verity. And then there was that small part that wished for everything to go back to the way it had been – to the happy memories they had created together when they had loved and been in love with each other. Now they only loved or at least cared about each other, but what had drawn them together so inexplicably at first was gone. And there was no turning back.

Peter smiled sadly at her and motioned for her to come inside. She walked with her head held bent down. Her shoulders were tense he noted. Her posture was slightly slumped. Her clothes were disheveled. Her hair had been combed through, but with a comb, but fingers… whose fingers were they? Hers? Or perhaps Danny's? Peter did not know and strangely he did not care. He only wanted for this to be over he realized. He wished he could just tell her that and send her away and out of his life. He wished he could snap his fingers and close this chapter from his life, but another part of him urged him to listen to her. He owed her that because after all, although he had not physically cheated on her, for the past few years or perhaps even before that his heart and mind had been held captive by none other than the person who had hurt him and the team the most.

"Peter, I…" Ava began, but was silenced by his lips upon hers. Ava gasped which allowed Peter to slip his tongue inside her mouth. He traced every last ounce of her wet cavern, marking every inch he knew all too well, eliciting sounds that were quite faint, compared to the way they had been before. His hands began moving and although she protested, he used his superior strength to lock her in place and slipped his hands under her shirt and traced paths he knew all too well as well. What he was doing was familiar. What he was touching was as well. However, the sounds and the person before him were not. The reaction he received was the inevitable slap. He stumbled back and looked aside. His expression was blank. He had not reacted at all. His body was as cold as it had been before she came. His heart was racing, but it was from the lack of oxygen, not their previous activities. He clenched his fists. He hated this. He hated her. He hated himself. He abhorred what they had become – such broken pieces of a puzzle that had once been whole. It seemed that physically they had grown up. On the outside they had been become different people. They had changed their appearance. They had gone their separate ways. However, on the inside they were still superheroes. They were still trying to glue each other back. They still lived in the past. That day when they had been betrayed was still fresh in their minds and no matter how hard they had tried to fool themselves, neither of them had moved on. Even Danny and Luke still had wounds that needed to be healed. Unfortunately, the first steps that needed to be taken in order for those two to move on were not theirs because as much as Peter hated to admit it he and Ava needed to make them.

"I'm sorry." He said in a monotonous tone of voice.

"You should be." Ava growled back as she wiped her mouth with her hand. She walked toward the bathroom, opened the door and then slammed it, making Peter cringe. He waited patiently for her to return, which she soon did. He made no move to fix his appearance. He felt no need to do so. After all, she had seen him at his worst and this was nowhere near to it. The bathroom door opened and Ava returned. Her clothes and hair were slightly less in disarray. However, her eyes were still blazing.

"Mind telling me what that kiss was for?!" Ava yelled.

Peter did not react. He looked her in the eyes, making her gasp slightly. While her pools were burning, his were dark and hollow. Ava immediately felt guilt well up inside of her. They had kissed so many times, but somehow now…. It did not feel the same. It had not brought pleasure to either of them. It had been a physical act that had not benefited anyone. Quite the contrary – it had brought nothing but anger, regret and guilt upon both of them.

"I wanted to try something… I….I wanted to prove something to myself." Peter answered as his eyes glistened. Ava was about to yell at him once more, but immediately shut up when a lone tear traveled down Peter's face as he whispered, "I am still in love with him."

He fell to his knees and started punching the floor, while he screamed, "Damn it. Damn it! I am still in love with him…. After all these years, after all the pain he caused me… I am still in love with him!"

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I hope you liked this chapter. A huge thank you goes to everyone who read, followed, favourited and reviewed this story. If you have time to spare, I would like to ask you some questions - What did you think about the description in this chapter? Was it too much? If so, then what solution would you propose? Should I focus more on developing the dialogues between the characters? And last but not least - is the pace too slow or dare I say too fast? If you leave a review by answering some or all of these questions, I would be really helpful as it would help me improve.

Until next time,

~ QueenofRhymes ~