Day 58: Men's Showers (Fourth Shift)

[mustbethesuit]

The place was full of starry eyed heroes with hearts of gold. Perhaps not so much starry-eyed, he guessed. Just eager to please. Eager to help. Peter could count himself among those numbers on good day. At the moment, he had about had his fill from everyone else

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[sanguinario]

The day was half over. Half over. That seemed a small favor, because by the time the shower shift had rolled around, Edward was already completely exhausted. It wasn't only Bella he had to worry over now. While he had witnessed much more emotion from Venom than the man had ever meant for him to see, Edward had not realized how fragile he was. If he was still human, he probably would have been just as horrified as Venom was. Murder of an innocent, regardless of whether it was in self-defense or not, was an abominable crime.

It took much more effort than Edward wanted to admit for him to care.

Which sounded monstrous. It very much was. He wasn't even that old by vampire standards, but he had been subject to enough death that one did not seem to count for very much anymore. Many of the deaths he had seen had been by his own hand. While none of them had been innocent people, it was still murder at the end of the day. More accurately: slaughter. He had never really had regrets, either. Not for the sake of those he had killed. He never regretted ridding the world of such evil minds.

Or that was what he tried to tell himself. He knew perfectly well it wasn't true.

Bella had definitely changed him; whether for the better or for the worse in most aspects, he couldn't say. He wanted to believe it was better. Before her, he would not have been able to be friends with anyone like Venom, and he certainly wouldn't have cared whether the man was upset or not. He would not have cared about anything except getting out. Funny how priorities change.

After all of that blood that had been in Venom's memories - wasted a stray thought hissed - he was not looking forward to being stuck in a literal hotbox of human scents for any amount of time. The blood Bella had gotten for him was long past due for being thrown out, and he hardly had the heart anymore to force himself to drink rotting, congealed blood in a plastic bottle.

Unfortunately, there was no alternative that did not involve almost getting eaten himself.

He was surprised then to smell something that was not the normal beating blood of humans, amplified by the moist air. He undressed quickly, leaving his old clothes behind to take a close, open stall. It was definitely a different scent; sour, maybe. Bitter.

And it was coming from a small, heavily scarred boy that he had unfortunately chosen to shower beside. He looked like he might have been through several fires, and perhaps a war and a half. Despite the sheer amount of wounds, the one that stuck out most to Edward was a large bite on the right side of his neck.

His only thought was, "Why would anything want to eat someone who smelled like insects?"

If only there was a social convention for asking why he did smell like that. There wasn't a trace of the familiar smells of blood. Whoever this boy was, he may as well have been filled with mantis innards. While it was an intriguing thought, he was also a suitable person to be near when Edward was already very, very thirsty.

[sanguinario]

Well, he certainly knew what topic to avoid now, as curious as he was. That was a strange thought. He wanted to start a conversation in the first place. His excuse was going to remain that he was distinctly ignoring social conventions. Starting a conversation with someone while nude was usually a bad idea, but.

Call him curious. Even if the victim of his curiousity was in the age bracket of his body.

Well. Round two of taking chances. Go.

"You don't happen to know The Flash, do you? He wears spandex, too. I don't know if lasers are as big a problem for as they seem to be for you, however."

[sanguinario]

That was unfortunate. Wally had taken it a lot smoother.

Spider-Man. It was a very good thing Edward was an accomplished poker player by name alone. His inner, boyish glee was cleverly hidden behind a polite facade. That explained the smell. And wow, was that ever a strange thing to think. He could ignore the sad attempt at brushing the subject off. "I thought I might skip the ice breaker for once. Telepath, if you must know." He might as well be straight to the point if he was taking risks. He could've done a lot worse.

A mention of a Sam. He wondered if it was the same man who he had had an unfortunate run-in - literally - with. The institute was a small world, after all.

Spider-Man. Maybe one day he would meet Batman. That would be utterly fascinating, to be honest. At the very least, his run-ins with Wally had already exhausted his reserves of shock and awe.

"I don't mean to alarm you. My apologies. I'm just - I suppose it's a little awkward to call myself a fan?" A pause, in which he stared at the shower's dial. "Nevermind, that was incredibly awkward. I think I'm making the situation worse at this point."

[sanguinario]

Edward imagined it wouldn't really make Peter feel any better to know he was not the first person to imagine him naked, and that was including the people who also knew he was a telepath. If anything, Tanya had always used it to taunt him, if not outright attempt to seduce him.

Not that was the same as a small, awkward teenager noting how naked he was.

Anyway. Time to focus on how nice it was that out of the two superheroes he had met, they had both met telepaths before. And, for the most part, were not particularly perturbed by the ability in general. That was a lot more than he had ever expected home. Or in general, actually. The only one who had reacted very well about it was Aro. Aro was... Aro.

"That's..." Was that a mantra? "That's, ah, interesting. I can't say I've known anyone with something similar."