#i kept reading blood warnings on my vv piece

[zazrichor]

I’ll make sure no one interrupts. but man, I HOPE somebody tries!

[draqcnheartstrinq]

Vitalum Vitalis: Echo

Part X

Peter Parker x Female!Reader

Word count: 1.623 Warning: Sadness?

Hey and hello to everyone who is actually reading this series or just stumbled across. Just to be clear to everyone, this series indeed is a reader insert kind of series. Many might not realise that because the main female character is called “Alive” or “Ali” for short but as told in the first few parts of the series she’s only called like that because THEY DON’T KNOW her real name. You can easily put yourself in the main girl’s perspective because I never fully described any of her distinct features, like skin colour, hair type, eye colour,... Just thought I would let you all know because I’ve had quite a few asks pointing this out to me and saying they didn’t read further because of it. Of course you can choose for Ali to be an OC, it’s whatever you please her to be really. :) Now that this rambling is over: I hope you enjoy

Reminder: this is a slow burn series, don’t expect this to be quick and easy ;)

VV Masterpost | Part XI: Full Body Prosthetic

Two whole days were spent at the side of her own living but sleeping figure. Four whole days was she forced to keep away from Peter, the boy who she wanted to see and speak most, because he needed to recover and get things sorted with himself first, before hearing about all the things Ali wanted to confess to him.

So she decided to lock herself up, with herself as the only company she had, literally.

She often took off her gloves, revealed her metalic hands created by Tony Stark, and stared at them for several minutes in a row. She closed her fake eyes, cut off her fake senses and tried to feel those of the real her, peacefully sleeping on the bed. She guided her mechanic fingers through the real her’s hair, attempting to untangle the knots.

She wanted to feel all the things she was meant to feel. Touch, aroma, taste, her beating heart,... But she could only feel an echo of them, only a simulation of what it was like to actually live.

No matter how hard she tried, how long she stared at her own unmoving figure to just feel something, nothing came. An echo, not the real thing, never the real thing.

When she had Peter, at least the emotions were there. She had wanted his friendship, even craved it after weeks of having his company and now it was all gone again. She couldn’t see him, wasn’t allowed to. If she had gone against that, they had surely taken away this last piece of reality she got to witness, Tony would have turned off this machinery she was meant to call her body.

“Peter, at least give me Peter back”, she whispered to herself, hearing it like another echo ringing through the air. Her head hung low, her so called “eyes” trained on the tears dripping from her real ones. At least she was able to detect the emotions living inside her. It made her that little bit more human, and being human felt so right.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Cold sweat glistened on Peter’s forehead, his hands wrung in the sheets and his breathing was irregular. As soon as he perceived someone entering the room he sat up, distressed and out of breath, awoken from a bad dream. The fifth in only four days.

The people that were shot kept following him into his sleep every night, the thought of innocent lives being spilled into the corners of the New York’s streets kept haunting him. He really did keep himself responsible for all the deaths that day, whilst everybody told him he shouldn’t.

“Peter, are you okay? F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned me your blood pressure was rising”, the person spoke up. It was Tony, thank god it was just Tony.

“I’m fine, j-just another bad dream.”

“A nightmare you mean? Again?” It hadn’t been a secret that Peter was the embodiment of stress, but never had it been this severe. With the shooting, missing school, not being able to talk to Ned or May and not seeing or speaking to Alive once, he had reached his breaking point.

“Can I please see Ali? I-”, he stopped himself, not really knowing why he wanted her there with him in the first place. He just felt like she needed him, but most of all he knew he himself needed her. “I mean, it’s been four days. I want to see her, have her around again. I’m sorry I just… I… I don’t know.”

“You both need time, boy, you know that”, Tony told him, pitty lacing his words as his eyes lingered on Peter’s pleading and desperate glances.

“I know but… I also know I need her, and for some reason my senses are telling me she needs me too. Please, just, at least tell her I’m okay.”

“Then I would be lying to her, kid.” Tony turned himself around and made to walk away before sighing, “Don’t worry, I’ll go get her for you.”

Peter’s hope shone through his eyes, at only the thought of her being at his side again.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Merely the mention of Peter’s name was enough for Ali to jump up from the chair she had spent her nights in these last few days. She ran past Tony, ignoring the warnings he threw her way, something about taking it easy and not overwhelming the boy waiting for her a few floors down. It’s funny how suddenly the roles were reversed, how now Peter was the one everyone had to take it slow with instead of Alive. She didn’t notice the worried looks in Tony’s eyes, neither did she notice the words he directed to the lonely girl lying on the hospital bed.

The echoes were gone, only Peter on her mind.

She pushed doors out of her way, exclaimed excuses to everyone she bumped into, she even took the stairs because the elevator would take too long.

When she had finally reached Peter’s room and could see him from the other side of the window, her smile grew three times in size.

He noticed her presence immediately, as if a switch in his brain made his attention peek to a thousand and his senses accelerate to at least that same amount. Eyes caught one another, toothy grins appeared and hearts swelled against rib cages. One of those hearts may have still been located on the 6th floor, many floors away, but it thumped just as hard either way from all the excitement rushing through.

Alive hurried inside, not caring about the curious glances that were fixated on her. She reached the bed, took Peter in her arms as if they hadn’t seen each other in years, which it most certainly felt like. Relief overwhelmed her thoughts when she heard Peter’s regular breathing and soft chuckles. He was happy to see her too, his continuous smile and tight hold on her frame were proof of that. They swayed a little in each other’s arms and placed their faces right next to one another’s, noses brushing cheeks.

“Hey Ali”, he whispered right next to her ear. His name was the only thing he heard in response followed by a long comforting sigh.

She slid her hands to the nape of his neck, pushing his head away from her shoulder where he breathed in her sent, so she could look him in the eyes. Finally.

He beamed, he laughed, couldn’t believe the happiness that overcame him when he saw she was okay, that she didn’t kill herself like Tony had mentioned many times. But his happiness was short lived and quickly replaced by concern.

Her hands, they weren’t soft and silky like they were a week ago, the night she saved him. They didn’t hold the same warmth, didn’t caress his neck like they did his wounds.

They were cold, icy cold, hard, painful,...

He pulled away from her grasp, losing the smile that had adorned his lips. His fingers wrapped around both her wrists and forced them away from his skin.

Metal.

Silver metal, shaped like palms, knuckles, fingers.

Peter started panicking at the sight of them, trying to remember when something had happened to Ali’s hands that would explain why they were made out of metal now. Something that would be a sensible explanation for the loss of her own soft ones and the replacement by these machines. He could only imagine the horrible things that were possible answers to his questions, the pain she must have went through.

“Don’t worry,” Alive spoke up, rushed as to not let Peter’s thoughts run in directions they weren’t meant to go, “I’m fine, I’ve always been fine. I’ll tell you everything, just lay back down so you don’t hurt yourself.”

“Hurt myself? These wounds haven’t been hurting since the moment you took care of them, which I still don’t know how you healed them so fast! You’re the one with no hands!” he called out, astonished at how calm she was being.

She chuckled then, because of his wide eyes and agape mouth, the wrinkle between his eyebrows and the red colour that spread over his face down to the beginning of his chest. It looked quite adorable, not to mention ridiculous and out of place. A guy wrapped in bandages, hooked up to a heart monitor and placed on a hospital bed was shouting about how she was supposed to be in pain and thinking about herself. Peter Parker really was something else.

“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I have hands, they just weren’t meant to come out of their hiding yet, last week.”

He looked at her with a tilted head and confused eyes, not understanding what she was talking about or what she meant by that.

“Let me explain to you, Peter, please. I’ve been wanting to do nothing more than finally tell you what’s going on with me.” Her wrists freed themselves from his grip and placed themselves on his shoulders, resting there and waiting for him to brush them off.

But he didn’t. “You’ve shown me who you are, let me tell you who I really am too.”

“Go on then, love”, he whispered whilst carefully placing his hands on her waist and pulling her closer into another tight embrace. The nickname hung in the air like a spell, he was surprised by how easily the word had slipped from his lips. It felt normal and totally right to call her that, not forced or uncomfortable, just normal. She had saved his life after all, it was okay to be calling her “love” now, right?

His arms wrapped around her frame once more and his body relaxed against hers. “I’m listening.”

Part XI: Full Body Prosthetic

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