#he could become an olympic athlete. but he just doesn't wanna. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

girlwonderofficial · 1 year

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To Michael: Thanks for always being such a good sport. I realized I hadn't written anything about the stuff we discussed off stream so here it all is. Wrote it from memory so I'm hoping I remembered the details properly.

It's Friday; she knows she needs to go back to campus and show up to the rest of her classes. And she does, at least physically, with the help of a lot of caffeine. But her head, and her heart? Definitely elsewhere. She's finding it hard to focus, even if she knows that he's okay, as okay as someone can be after taking a beating like he did. But she forces herself to focus out of necessity and that takes a huge chunk of her energy.

It's the stuff that happens after her classes that gets hard, the stuff that is arguably more important to her now that she's no longer focused on becoming a doctor. But somehow, even with everything that's happened over the last day and a half or so taking up the unoccupied spaces in her mind, she manages to get through her gymnastics training with the help of muscle memory and sheer determination.

She was never going to be an Olympic level athlete, mostly because she wasn't able to commit to a full time training regimen as a child. And by the time she was able to settle down somewhere to throw herself into the training, she no longer wanted to train at the Elite level. She loved gymnastics but had decided she no longer wanted it to be her entire life.

Even with that, gymnastics is the only thing that completely makes sense to her. When she's stressed, when she's excited, when she's upset…she could always count on on her training to help her burn some energy or work through her emotions.

She's almost disappointed when the team is dismissed at the end of their practice. Almost.

As soon as she's back in her dorm, she knows exactly what to do next. Without even really thinking about it, she picks up the stuffed blue unicorn from her bed and stuffs it in her backpack, along with her laptop and textbooks.

With a beam of blue light, she disappears, teleporting to the Command Center.

When she gets there, she asks Alpha to replicate the necklace she had created for Dana that grants access to her room, just in case. She doesn't explain the why in too much detail but she does tell Alpha that she intends to give it to Peter, just so he can gain access to Billy's journals without her having to be around.

The blue gem with compressed Morphin' Grid energy hanging on a chain, she puts it around her blue unicorn's neck and places it on Peter's bed for him to find when he inevitably makes his way back to the Command Center. She has no idea when it will be but she figures he'll come around eventually.

To pass the time, she trains. Morphed, but without her helmet on, she goes through the motions with her Bladed Bow in Dagger Mode, replaying his instruction in her head. Muscle memory kicks in yet again and she practices the moves, hearing his coaching in her mind.

And when she finds herself physically exhausted and her mind still racing at a hundred miles an hour, she spends some time in her room, hitting the books. She does actually study for class for a while and only stops when she notices the time on her laptop's clock. It's midnight.

She takes her time figuring out what she wants to send but eventually, she reaches for her phone and not her communicator to reach out to Peter.

Hey. Where are you?

I just got back. Thinking of heading to the lab or the training room.

You gotta take it easy. You’re still recovering.

I know.

Wanna go for a drive instead? Can’t sleep.

Sure.

When she steps out her room and meets up with him in the hallway, dressed in a blue hoodie and her jeans, the first thing she notices is the lack of a sling on Peter.

“You’re…you’re okay,” the statement comes out with in a surprised tone.

“Yeah, a little sore still but I’m all right,” he reassures her.

She wraps her arms around him and gives him a hug, lingering a bit longer than expected, as if to reassure herself that he is there and he is in fact okay.

When she finally releases him, they both teleport to her car to begin their journey. Sophie just drives for a while, her music filling the car.

Peter knows that when Sophie goes for a drive, it’s often to clear her head, which is why it is a little surprising to have her ask for his company. But she had needed a distraction the first time she had invited him and he’s more than willing to provide the distraction again, or whatever else she might need.

Sophie doesn’t ask for a distraction and she doesn’t lip sync along to any of the music like Peter does. She doesn’t speak for a while until they find themselves at a cliff, overlooking Angel Grove. She parks the car and takes the top off the car, revealing the stars in the sky and the view of the city.

"I love it here," she says quietly as she turns down the music to have it play quietly in the background, "I love the view and I love watching the stars."

"I know. It's really pretty out here." Peter doesn't pry; he knows better.

"I haven't been able to sleep between the dream I had last night and everything that's happened to you earlier…" Sophie admits after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, that was really rough…" Peter lets his voice trail off, his eyes fixed on Sophie, waiting expectantly for her to continue. He knows that if he waits long enough, she'll tell him what's bothering her. She's done it once before. "Is the dream you had why you were half asleep during Zordon's call?"

After nodding in response to his question, Sophie leans her head against his shoulder, looking up at the sky as she places a hand on his thigh before finally speaking again. “I had a dream that I was actually a part of Lightspeed and you weren't in my life, and it felt…so wrong, you know?” She doesn't dare to look up at Peter for his reaction. “It felt so wrong that you weren't a part of my life, that we weren't friends.”

“You know, it's good that it felt wrong, because you're an important part of the team. We need you.” Instinctively, he pulls her in close with his left arm and places his right hand on the hand that's on his thigh.

Sophie doesn’t know how to respond to Peter so she doesn’t. Instead she says, “I want you to know, I won’t be the one that tries to stop you when you take off; I’ll be the one right behind you. I hope you know I’ll always have your back.”

“I know,” Peter replies, his eyes up to the sky, looking up at the stars. “I appreciate that.”

“Sarah was asking about you; I didn’t tell her anything…”

“I plan to tell everyone else eventually, I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“I just didn’t feel like it was my place to tell her your story.”

They spend some time looking up at the stars, in comfortable silence, and Sophie finds herself settling into his arms, despite her mind still going a mile a minute. She is still a little tense and he can feel it.

“Hey, you okay?” he speaks quietly when he finally feels her energy levels drop, his eyes still to the sky, “Why don’t you let me drive? Why don’t you just try to relax?”

Sophie looks ready to protest but she can feel the mental and emotional exhaustion slowly start to settle in. She wordlessly pulls away from Peter and steps out of the car to switch spots with him. She’s stubbornly fighting her exhaustion and it’s not that hard to tell.

The rest of the drive is uneventful, with Peter lip syncing to the music while Sophie looks on tiredly, amused by his antics. It feels a little more like their first drive together, and she finds herself smiling despite everything. They manage to return to the campus parking lot and teleport away to the Command Center without incident.

As they walk down the hallway that leads down to their rooms, their hands find themselves interlocked and neither one questions it or reacts to it, feeling like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

She’s not ready to go to bed. She’s not ready to let him go yet. But then they stop in front of her room and she knows she’s going to have to let go.

"You should go get some sleep," Peter says in a quiet voice. "I still have a couple of things to work on in the lab..."

“No, Pete. I'm too tired to fight you on this. You need to rest too.”

“Then don't fight me, just go to bed, please.” There is a pleading tone to his voice, more out of concern for her than anything else.

"Only if you come with me." Sophie's tired brain doesn't filter her thoughts, the first thing coming to mind escapes her lips.

Peter is taken aback by the statement and takes a moment to figure out what to say. "I'll stay for a little while until you fall asleep," he offers gently.

Once they enter the room, it doesn't take much time at all for Sophie to fall asleep, still fully dressed, once her head hits the pillow. Peter tucks her in and sits at the foot of her bed, rubbing her back and watching her settle into a deep sleep for a few minutes before stepping out of the room and retreating to his own room.

#episode tag: power rangers let there be thunder #sophie marsh: true blue #power rangers let there be thunder: oops lightspeed rescue crossover #set between episode 17 and 18 #peter parker x sophie marsh: actions speak louder than words

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