Chapter 68 - Tea

                                    

                                          
A.N: Sorry to any Steve lovers. 

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At night, the compound was quiet. November had brought a blanket of snow that wrapped them all in a solemn silence. The group was struggling, Peter rarely saw half of the team, the communication on missions had begun to falter and now the media was noticing, and not so helpfully reporting on it all.
"Avengers falling apart?"
"Crime is winning as the Avengers start losing."
"What happened to our team?"
Peter couldn't escape it. He had stolen Tuesday's newspaper to do the sudoku and instead was staring at large headlines and stories. He couldn't help but look at the report that a journalist had written, recounting the large scale arson they had responded to earlier in the week. Tony had snapped at him when he made a bad web shooting call and the reporters had overheard, now there was speculation that Peter had caused a riff on the team. Of course, no one knew what was really tearing them apart.
Seven's death had only been the beginning, they had each taken to their own space to grieve and it had consumed them. People hadn't figured out how to go back to normal, especially with everyone grieving at different rates.
It had almost been a year since she had died, and still no one was the same. Peter threw the newspaper across the room and stood from his place by the window, making a bee-line for the door. He closed it behind him and began the walk across the compound. 
He questioned why he was so far away from the kitchen and therefore half of the other team-mates. Often, he opted for crawling on the ceiling, as to avoid any possible conversation with others late at night. He never saw anyone though, and tonight he was too tired for crawling. 
Peter crossed through the kitchen and down the hall to the rest of the rooms on this side of the compound. He knocked lightly at the door when he had arrived and waited anxiously for her to answer. 
"Hey Peter," The girl looked up at him and smiled. 
"Were you sleeping? I didn't want to wake you up." 
"No, I couldn't sleep." 
Peter hummed in acknowledgement, "Do you want to go for a walk?"
Aria nodded, she was almost six now and stood taller than when Peter had met her. Her hair had grown and was now tumbling down her back in loose curls, and in front of her eyes from the bangs Wanda had cut for her weeks ago.  She was beginning to lose her baby teeth and Pepper and Tony had taken great happiness in embodying the tooth fairy as they had never had a child that small around before. 
Tony often taking it too seriously.
Tony had warned them several times about walking around the compound at night but Peter decided it was safe, calling him paranoid. The amount of hidden security measures in place was insane. Plus they always walked the same route. 
The small girl grabbed her boots and pulled on a jacket, preparing for the snow. 
"How was school?" Peter questioned as they began walking back the way he had come. 
"Boring, I hate history more than I hate parsnips." 
Peter laughed, remembering the first time Pepper had made them for the girl the first week she had been here, and then had to do extensive damage control when Aria assumed they had tried to poison her.