strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

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One of the things that Liz really liked about watching movies with Peter, was his excitement. It was almost palpable in the air and it always made her smile. As the movie began, she found herself leaning against Peter more and more until her head rested on his shoulder while they watched. Soon, the sickness she had felt seemed to go away completely.

The movie continues, and Peter only interrupts a few times to tell her things about the movie. When they finally hit the point where Roy gives his big monologue, Peter gestures to the screen --

"This is it, this is it," he whispers hurriedly to Liz.

And then when he speaks it, Peter mouths the entire thing perfectly, as if he has seen the movie a million times.

It's not long before the movie is over, and Peter turns to look at Liz.

"What did you think?"

Liz liked it, but if she were being honest, she liked having Peter's excitement beside her more. "I liked it a lot. I thought, um. Harrison Ford was really good in it too." She smiled. "And you're right, that monologue was really good."

A little sheepish expression crossed her face as she drew up her knees. "Will you still say it for me?"

Peter takes a deep breath, then makes a genuine attempt to do the monologue -- and do it well. It probably helps that he's practiced it almost as many times as he's watched the movie.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe," he says, letting out a single, soft laugh. "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like --" He coughs. "-- tears in rain."

A small pause.

"Time to die."

Peter theatrically collapses onto the mattress.

It was probably the cutest thing Liz had seen Peter do in a while, even if it was supposed to be a very dramatic scene. And when he collapsed on the ground, she started to laugh and then she clapped for him.

"That was really good." He wasn't going to win an Oscar or anything, but it was so adorable. It was super silly, but Liz felt suddenly lucky to have been able to watch him do that. That he was comfortable enough to do that in front of her.

"How many other monologues do you have memorized?" Liz figured he definitely had more.

Of course he had more. Peter snaps upright and starts his next one. It comes out in one big dialogue, just as it had in the movie.

Liz is going to know this one. They've watched A New Hope six times already.

"Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars; now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I’m afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I've placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope."

He looks at Liz Very Gravely Indeed.

Liz pressed her lips together as he said the monologue, the smile pushing at the edges of her lips as a laugh threatened to escape and it was the look at the end that sent her over the edge. She laughed again, bringing up her hand to her mouth as she did.

A surge rushed through her and she leaned in to kiss him suddenly. He was just so damn cute.

Peter smiles as he kisses Liz back. There's some small part of him that's happy that he can be like this around her and she doesn't think that he's the biggest dork in the universe. He's pretty sure that almost every person at Midtown would think he was.

And when Peter finally pulls away, he's still smiling.

"Just a typical homecoming, on the outside of an invisible jet, fighting my girlfriend's dad."It's the first thing she heard Peter say and suddenly she was outside of a plane and she could feel Peter's distress. Peter didn't have his suit on. Then there was The Vulture and Peter was pulled from the plane, suspended in mid-air, then he almost went flying into a wing jet. There was fighting and Peter kept losing his hold on the plane and then suddenly Peter was turning the plane as it headed to crash into New York.

And then the planed crashed.

Peter might have pulled away with a smile, but when he pulled away, Liz, who's breathing had increased during the kiss, was clutching her chest, eyes widen, and there was a pained expression. Not just scared, but actual pain. And she seemed to be having trouble breathing.

It's only once Peter has full view of Liz that he realizes that something is wrong. Worry wells up inside of him. He really thought that Liz was doing better.

"Liz... are you okay?" He looks at her, eyes clearly trying to catch her own.

Know the pain was fake helped, but it was the sort of pain that no normal person ever felt and she knew that even what she had felt was removed from what Peter actually felt. She only got a glimpse of it. Peter had survived a plane crash from the outside of a plane.

The pain quickly faded and Liz blinked - the pressure from that action releasing tears from her face. She wasn't crying so much as her body was processing what it had seen and felt. Shock.

Her eyes searched in front of her before they actually focused and she found him and his look of concerned was mirrored in her look of concern. A frown was heavy on her lips.

"I'm sorry." She wasn't sure what she was going to say, but that came out. "I'm sorry." Liz had been starting to worry about how her flashes had been affecting Peter. She knew it wasn't positive. That underlying worry masked with the fact Peter apparently did things without his suit. It was a lot to process.

Slight panic crossed her expression and she climbed out of bed, taking a few steps to the dresser, back to Peter. She wished she could just lie to him, but the thought of keeping a secret from him - she couldn't do it.

Finally her soft voice filled the space. "I, um. I saw you on a plane with the, um. the Vulture. And you - you... on the beach after." She couldn't bring herself to turn around. She held onto the dresser's door knobs nervously, giving her something to focus on.

Suddenly she felt a little nauseous again.

Oh no.

Of all the memories that she could get from him, this was one of the ones he wanted her to see the least. It was up there with the time that she had seen him trapped under the building.

She had seen that, though. He should have expected she'd see this eventually, too.

He just hoped that she wouldn't.

Peter scrambles to his feet and joins Liz next to the dresser.

"Liz, it's fine. I'm fine -- I promise, I'm fine."

He tries to get her eyes to meet his. "I'm fine," he says again.

She was staring down at her hands on the dresser handles when he joined her. She nodded and then nodded again, her expression riddled with concern and worry - a mixture of what happened to him and what was happening now. She nodded again.

Peter sets a tentative hand on Liz's shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded again, her lips pressed together. Liz was still sort of processing.

"You were... you were on the outside of a plane." The idea still was hard to really wrap her head around. Just the sheer feel of the wind around him and when he almost got sucked into the plane jet - Liz's hands on the dresser handles tightened.

"How were you not scared, Peter? You should have..." Liz couldn't even say the word.

How can he even begin to explain this to Liz? He doesn't know. He knew it was dangerous from the moment he tethered himself to the Vulture when he left the ground. But while he was on that planet, there wasn't a moment he felt scared. He was just so focused on stopping him that the fear that should have registered didn't.

It's too hard to explain, so instead he just settles.

"I don't know," he says.

She took in that answer quietly, still processing.

"...I'm scared all the time." Well, not all the time. Her gaze remained focused on her hands. "When I got shot and I was dying, all I could think about was how I wasn't ready. That I hadn't even passed my SATs yet and here I am, about to not exist anymore." She paused. "And even when it was stupid things like, like trying to expose Topolsky, I was scared because it wasn't safe, you know? Even when I jumped off a bridge and we weren't sure how deep the water was... Every time I was scared."

Peter tries again.

"When you're doing the stuff I do, you don't -- you don't have time to be afraid," he says. The only times he was really afraid that night were when he was in the car with Eddie and when he was trapped under the building. Times where he couldn't do anything. But when he could do something, he wasn't afraid. He couldn't be. He couldn't afford to second-guess himself.

She listened and took it in and then found herself turning to look at Peter with a bit of a hesitant, but hopeful expression. "...You'd ask for help, right, if you needed it?" Her eyes seemed to plead for him to say yes.

"Yeah," Peter says, nodding. "Yeah, of course. Ned -- Ned was trying to get in touch with Happy so that I could have backup."

It didn't do anything to ease her heart like it thought it would. She wondered if this was what parents felt when their kids went missing. She wondered if this was how her parents felt when she was late coming home or had been gone for a day or two without a cover story.

Liz turned and embraced Peter tightly. The sort of tight embrace that wasn't just for comfort, but was as if to say I never want to let you go. She pressed her head against his chest.

"Remember... I'm your Spider-woman." She spoke it against his chest, wanting him to know she'd always try to help.

"Yeah," Peter says, wrapping his arms around her. "I know. Seriously, Liz, don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Peter knows that he has no idea what he's doing, but it seems like the right thing to say.

"I don't think I can stop worrying. I love you way too much." Her arms around Peter tighten. She knew it was selfish of her, but at that very moment, Liz Parker never wanted Peter to go back home again. She never wanted him to need to be Spider-Man ever again.

And a part of her hated herself for such a thought.

"... I'm sorry I saw that." A much smaller, softer voice against his chest.

"There's no need to apologize," Peter says, running a hand over the back of Liz's head. "You can't help it. I'm not angry, so it's fine."

He's not. But he wishes that Liz could stop worrying. He might not know what he's doing, but he was good at thinking on his feet -- and that's saved him so many times already.

She still spoke against his chest since it was easier to admit things that way without looking into his eyes.

"Sometimes I worry you'll stop kissing me or -" Well, maybe sometimes she worried he'd distance himself completely.

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