strangetrip | "No One Told Me Why I'm In Berlin"

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"No One Told Me Why I'm In Berlin" - Tag Peter and Alec

When Liz found out that the new world was actually Earth and Europe, she couldn't quite hold back her excitement. The fact that the year was, according to the people at the desk, 2018 meant she was going to be closer to Peter's time than her own. She would finally be able to experience what his world was like, even just a little bit, and learn more about the internet and scientific advancement and maybe watch a few of Peter's favourite films they couldn't get at the inn.

"I still don't know why I'm here." Alec sat across from the two teenagers on the train heading to Berlin looking appropriately put-out despite not actually feeling that way. The truth was, he had never been to Europe and he had seen that semi-embarrassing video that Peter had of his trip to Germany and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to see it. Though he told himself he was actually just chaperoning because the world could be dangerous and both Liz and Peter were naive and believed the best in people, even when they shouldn't.

Liz was dialing another phone number on the smartphone she had been given. Thankfully she had enough practice with Peter's to be able to use the one she had and not look entirely inept. So far there had been no answer with Maria's house and the number for the Crashdown was out of service. Her home got a busy signal. She also knew it was a possibility everyone had moved or something. Then suddenly her face lit up - the Roswell police department was on the other end.

"Hi, um. Yes. I was wondering if I could speak to Sheriff Valenti please?" A pause. "Sheriff Valenti. Valenti." Another pause as her excitement lessened. "Okay, well, um. Can you at least tell me if there was a record of a Sheriff Valenti on the force?... How can you not know that." She caught herself as the words came out more tense and annoyed. Liz took a breath. "Yes, I'll hold." And hold she did. The more she waited, the more her expression dampened. Finally, there was a voice again. "Oh.. okay. Yes. Thank you. Goodbye."

She hung up. "They, um. They have no record of him working there. So I guess.. this isn't my world."

Alec shrugged, still looking out the window. "This isn't mine either. We can be twinsies, if you want."

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"... Clearly you have no idea what a one-nighy stand is." Alec looked at Peter. "The whole reason she gave me her number was for sex, not to settle down and have babies with. Plus she's hot, if I don't call I'm sure she'll find some other guy willing to sleep with her. She'll be fine."

Despite herself, Liz blushed. Though a few moments later there was an announcement got Berlin and it was obvious to train was slowly down.

Peter doesn't say anything at Alec's reply, because he knows that he has a point. Instead, Peter briefly sulks, then passes the brochure back over to Liz. He taps on it as she takes it into her hands.

"We should definitely go here," he says. "But where are we going first? Are we just going to figure out what hotel we're gonna stay at?"

He'd suggest the one Mr. Stark put him up at the last time he was in Berlin, but he was pretty sure it had to have cost a small fortune.

Liz paused. "Well.. they gave me a map to some places. A lot of them are like, hostels and stuff, but we could probably find somewhere else by just walking. Or we can ask around.... or we could look something up on here." She lifted up her phone. She knew it could do it, but Liz had no idea how to get to the internet yet on a smartphone or how to even use the internet yet and she didn't want to admit that.

Alec had so many comments he wanted to say right then and there, but stopped himself because he decided to needed to space out Peter's glares. So he remained quiet, beer finished, when the train came to a halt. Unlike Liz who had a backpack, Alec had seemingly nothing on him. "If you're worried about money, I could probably get us a discount." He glanced to Liz as if considering something. "Or... never mind." That would be a one of those movie montages.

Liz stood and collected her backpack. "I guess it depends on if we want one room or two... or three." Because she wasn't going to assume anything.

"I am not sharing a room with you two. I don't want to be kept up all night with you giggling and talking about chemical formulas."

"I'll see if I can find anything," he tells Liz. He's already going through a list of hostels on his phone when Alec opens his mouth and begins to talk about a discount. Before Peter can shoot him a warning look, he cuts himself short.

"We don't giggle about chemical formulas," Peter says, frowning. He passes the phone over to Alec, a website pulled up on the web browser. "This hostel isn't expensive, but I can't read anything on the webpage."

Alec looked at the screen. "Singles, doubles, bigger rooms with bunk beds." He shrugged. "Seems fine." Then again, Alec was used to sleeping in abandoned buildings, so he might not be the best person to decide on what was appropriate. "It's close to some of the stuff you guys want to see."

He passed the phone back. "Fine. I don't want to keep you two up bringing home one or more lady friends and making them giggle, if you know what I mean." Believe it or not, but Alec was already trying to temper his mouth.

Liz, on the other hand, just kept thinking how much like Michael he was sometimes. Other times he was like Kyle. She ducked her head and flushed a little, though couldn't help the comment. "Don't worry, we won't hinder your... tour of Germany." Not that she necessarily condoned random sex, but she though Alec was actually secretly a nice guy so if he did have one-night stands, it was probably done the right way - whatever that looked like (and she had no idea).

As they stepped out onto the train platform, almost as if on cue, the lady who had been working on the train stepped out, still in her uniform and as she passed them, she smacked Alec on the ass and said something in German with a wink. Alec followed her with his eyes for a moment or two. "...yeah, yeah I'm definitely going to have to take her home and make her giggle."

And then there was suddenly a not-so-happy looking guy with muscles who approached the woman. They were having a heated exchange and the man looked up and she pointed at Alec. "Uh... we should, probably start finding that hostel." He ushered them toward the opposite side of the platform away from the guy who was about to start walking toward them.

Peter shoots Alec a I-told-you-so look as they briskly make their way off the platform and onto the streets. Peter plugs in the address as they walk and the built-in nav system walks them to their destination.

He shifts his phone into one hand and takes Liz's hand into the other.

"I wonder where everyone else is going," Peter says as he rounds a corner. "Europe's a pretty big place."

Not that he knows that much from experience.

"I'd really like to go to the airport," he says. "I really didn't get to see it the last time we were here except when I was fighting. We flew in on one of Mr. Stark's private jets."

Alec rolled his eyes in response to Peter. It wasn't his fault if a woman was going to cheat on someone with him!.

"Why don't we then?" Liz squeezed Peter's hand. "We can probably see a lot of the airport without needing to go through security." She paused. "Did you guys end up breaking a lot of things when you were there last time?"

Alec rolled his eyes again, but refrained from sarcastically saying 'no, they just gently fought and avoided all the breakable things'.

"Yeah," Peter says, trying (and failing) to dampen his enthusiasm. "I crashed through an airport terminal and I knocked down a sign and then Falcon crashed through this glass stand and glass went everywhere!"

The whole airport felt like it was made out of glass.

"And then I threw the Winter Soldier and Falcon through this railing and there was more glass and then his drone dragged me out of another window."

Two windows down.

"And then there were a bunch of cars on the ground and stuff was on fire, and I think I heard an explosion earlier, but I didn't get to see it actually happen because I was fighting the Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America knocked this jetway onto me, so that broke, too."

He takes a breath. "Then Ant-Man got really big and he threw War Machine and I had to save him and I knocked over a truck. And then Ant-Man broke the wing of a plane and it exploded and Vision used this lazer out of his head to completely split the Air Traffic Control Tower. And then we knocked over Ant-Man using the trick they used in Return of the Jedi to take down the AT-AT and then he fell right into an airplane and it exploded."

It's only after the words left his mouth that he realized precisely how much he talked about it. He had Karen replay the video for him dozens of times, and it was still hard for him not to get excited about it even now, almost two years later.

Especially since he'd soon be fighting with them again.

"Wow." Liz looked amazed in a way that cried devotion. It sounded like so much was happening she didn't know how Peter could keep things straight.

Alec looked at the two of them, then rolled his eyes yet again - he was going to get a strain. "For someone who's all about the good deeds and whatever, you sure did a lot of property damage."

Peter is immediately on the defense.

"I couldn't help it," Peter argues. "Besides, most of the damage happened because of other people. I just crashed through two windows and knocked some people over. I wasn't exploding cars or breaking planes or doing major structural damage."

"You still contributed. What's that saying about bullying? If you stand there and do nothing, you're just as bad?"

Liz shot Alec a look this time. "That's not really a fair comparison."

Alec shrugged. He thought it was.

"I wasn't bullying anyone," Peter says. "They're all superheroes, and some of them were fugitives of the law."

Or so Mr. Stark told him.

"I was just helping apprehend them."

"Uh, huh. All I'm hearing is justification for vandalism" Alec was mostly screwing with Peter, but maybe it was because he was so eager to potentially get his ass kicked.

Liz looked between them and was grateful when she saw a distraction. She pointed at the goat logo. "Look, the hostel. Let's go in and get rooms or whatever and then we can figure out where to go from there."

Peter glares daggers at Alec, but his intense staring is broken off by the sound of Liz's voice.

"Yeah."

--

They're able to get two rooms at the hostel; they're small, but clean, and Peter figures that it's okay that they're small because they don't plan on spending much time there anyway. He felt that he spent too much time inside at the inn, anyway.

"There's a train that goes right to the airport not far from here," he says, looking down at his phone. "Is everybody okay going there first?"

Alec watched Liz nod and he was pretty sure she'd say yes to anything Peter suggested. Like 'hey, did you want to go watch paint dry?' and she'd smile and enthusiastically agree. Now he kind of wanted to see how far Peter could push it. Then he realized Peter would probably agree if the roles were reversed. Alec wasn't sure if he should find it cute or vomit. Maybe both.

The train ride was smooth - Europe seemed to have the train system down pat - and soon they were at the airport. Alec had three numbers of girls and, according to him, that 'wasn't his fault', but he had definitely been flirting with anyone who seemed to be interested.

When they got off, the airport looked impressive. The airport in Roswell was pretty standard, and small, but this was a whole different story. And Liz could see how would be a lot of breaking of stuff - there was so much glass.

As Alec got preoccupied with some South Korea flight attendants who were giggling at something he said, Liz pressed closed to Peter. "Is it weird being back here?" Her eyes drifted to Alec for a moment, then back to Peter. "He's, um.. he cares about you a lot." It had been a little obvious at the inn, but seeing the way they interacted in public outside of it was even more obvious. Plus Liz was picking up on some of the small things Alec did and now Liz couldn't stop seeing it.

"I never really got to see the inside of it before the fight started," he says. Mr. Stark had him ready and in position. Without Karen there to replay the video, he probably wouldn't have even remembered most of the inside. He was so caught up in the fight that the environment didn't even register. It was easier for him to remember these things when he could just re-watch a recording. "So yeah, it's a little weird."

Peter's gaze turns to Alec when Liz's does.

"Yeah," Peter says. "I know." He's known for a long time. "We take care of each other."

Peter wonders if Alec knows how much he cares about him, too.

It was a lot like how Michael was with everyone. Gruff and hard around the edges, but if you looked close enough he was trying to look out for everyone. It almost reminded Liz of home.

"Well, now you get to see it without worrying about someone punching you." Probably.

Alec pocketed a paper, looking pleased with himself as he approached the two teenagers. "Are we going inside or what?" As if he was waiting for them and not the other way around.

Liz smiled, holding back a giggle.

"Are you done trying to pick up women?"

"The word 'trying' would imply that I'm not being successful." He winked. Alec was used to sleeping with women without the threat of attachment. At the inn that was a much more precarious situation than in an other world of Europe where he'd probably, most definitely, never see these women again.

He needed to stretch his legs, Peter.

"Settle down you two or we won't get ice cream later." Liz teased, holding back another giggle, before she reached for Peter's hand and tugged him forward.

"Can we really get ice cream?"

Sure, there's nothing stopping them, but Peter is not sure that anyone would actually be interested in getting some.

--

"I fixed one of these," Peter says, pointing to one of the old computers on display at Computerspielemuseum. "I found it in a dumpster."

Yes, he was a dumpster diver. He even found some stuff back on the space station that he took back to the inn.

"That's incredible. I don't think I'd even know where to start." Of course, Liz tried not to mention how the computer looked a lot more like the ones she was used to. It was like going through a time machine to Alex's room, or Alex's dream room anyways. "This place would be like Heaven to Alex. I wonder if he went here - he's in Sweden right now on a trip. He could easily stop by Berlin."

This time Alec hadn't actually tried to pick up the staff here, but a middle-aged woman who was definitely not his 'type' had taken a liking to him and had been giving him his own personal tour. She had inserted her arm around his and was leading him around, speaking German, giggling and touching his body when she talked animatedly. He occasionally shot the two of them a 'please for the love of God help me' looks.

"Should we... do something?" But Liz was having a hard time not laughing again.

Peter really shouldn't be doing this. He should just let Alec deal with it on his own.

But he can't. Even if it's a little funny.

Peter gives Liz's hand a squeeze, then pulls her after him as he storms over to Alec.

Or tries to storm.

"Alec!" he snaps, hoping he sounded angry enough. "Dad's been looking for you for 20 minutes. Didn't you see his texts?""

Peter might not have a lot of experience with pretending to feel something you don't, but Liz survived with four aliens pretty much thinking on her feet. By the time they crossed the room to Alec, Liz had tears in her eyes. She nodded and gave a convincing, "He's really mad."

Alec turned and even if Peter hadn't looked vaguely angry, he would have rolled with it. "Right, right, sorry." He turned to the woman who looked confused because of the language barrier, but also concerned. He explained there was a family emergency and she reluctantly let him out of her grasp, though she definitely got one last big pinch on his ass before he pushed the two teenagers away from grabby-hands. "I think my ass might actually bruise."

Liz is a phenomenally good actress, Peter decides. He lifts the back of her hand up to his lips and gives it a kiss, then looks over at Alec, vaguely perturbed.

"If you stick with us, you might not get accosted by random women," Peter says.

Alec practically pouted. "That was not my fault that time. She clocked me the moment we came inside."

Liz looked between the two again. This time Peter looked pretty annoyed. "Look" she pointed with her free hand. "Why done you two try that?" There were two virtual reality units for some game called 'Night of the living dead'.

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