the siren |peter parker x siren!oc|

Tranquility: Part 14

"To our very own, Lena Potts, my lovely niece, for taking out a threat of the ocean in the most threatening, yet still diplomatic way possible. Cheers."

By the confusion on her face, Peter could tell that Lena had never taken part in a toast, before. Glasses of gold liquid, some champagne, some sparkling cider, clinked together only to her delight. The smile on her face was bright enough to light the room. At first, he was disappointed that he couldn't sit next to her, but being able to see the happiness gleam across her face was a much better gift.

Something about her had been different when she pranced off of the jet. She flung herself into his arms, wrapping onto him like a koala after he spun her around excitedly. The way she spoke, how she explained the way she demanded justice, it was like the weight in her voice had lifted. The burden of death no longer dragged her down in the arduous way that it used to. It drifted, it was still riddled amongst her elated words, but a majority of it had dissolved into the agreement that she had made with her former species.

It had been a dinner party that Mr. Stark planned, filled with the type of elegance that he was unused to. To his left was Colonel Rhodes, his laughter bouncing off the walls of the room. To his right was Happy, who, for once in his life, looked happy to be where he was. On one end of the table sat his Aunt, who had opted for a touch of makeup for the occasion, and the other end sat one of Lena's doctors, Peter thought it was her physical therapist but he wasn't sure. Across from him was Lena with Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark on either side of her. It was the first time she had worn that dress; a light, airy article that cut straight across her chest and had small straps keeping it on her shoulders. Hair wavy from her braids, she reminded Peter of classic depictions of Calypso. She flashed her eyes at him.

Some of my sisters spoke of Calypso. She was one of us until she decided to live the rest of her life on land.

Amongst the boisterous conversation, Peter half frowned-half smiled in confusion. What?

She bit the bottom of her lip, a habit she had picked up on when Peter made her nervous. He could feel the way her heart fluttered and knew that there was heat rising into her ears, followed by that lip bite, and her eyes bouncing all over the place. The interaction and sequence happened more than often, and Peter had memorized every detail.

They often said that I must be one of her direct descendants because our line of Seiren has a history of craving land. I will never know, but it is always interesting.

Peter had always thought of Calypso as a myth, but now that Lena mentioned that she was real, it made sense for her to be a seiren. The woman supposedly distracted men, the most well known being Odysseus, from their goals and aspirations. While Calypso was unconventional, she definitely still had her habits.

Odysseus was her Peirasmos.

His audible shock was masked by the adults laughing at something else entirely around them. He and Lena had escaped into their little world like they always seemed to do, communicating only with the thoughts in their heads. It was nice to be able to do that whenever they liked. It was like always going into a situation with someone on his team. And that's what they were, weren't they?

A team.

They brought the party to a parlor just outside the dining room, where the adults continued to laugh and sip champagne, while Lena and Peter found themselves drifting to the couch to politely listen. He felt a figure standing over him and found Mr. Stark holding two glasses with the golden liquid Peter had been seeing everyone drink all night. He leaned over between them, and set the glasses down in their hands.

"You each can have two glasses, go ahead and refill from the bottle on the dining table that I left behind," with a devilish wink, Mr. Stark went to find his place amongst the adults.