Introductions
“You don’t want to do this, trust me.”
“Yeah? What makes you say that?”
I rubbed the ketchup off my mouth and licked my thumb, crumpling up the paper and throwing it in the trash.
The guy shifted his gun. Obviously didn’t know how to handle it. I pulled my mask down over my mouth, and crossed my arms. “Cuz it’s easier for the pair of us.”
“I’ve got a gun.”
“Safety’s on, buddy.”
He blinked behind the mask, and pulled the gun down to examine it.
I reached out and hit it out of his hands, and tossed it behind me into the trash. “Psyche, look at that I gotcha-”
He threw a punch, and I webbed the back of his head, saluting to the shaking worker at the gas station counter. “One sec.” Pulling him back, ducking under a wild punch, spinning him as I wrap him in the webs. A quick dip, and he’s completely immobile.
“See that? Crime doesn’t pay unless you want dance-” lessons- oh shit I’m late.
Scooping up a bag of chips and webbing the cash to the glass partition making the woman jump, and running out.
Alright, let’s do this one last time.
My name is Peter Parker, and I was bitten by a radioactive spider. You… pretty much know the rest. Saving the city, (looking not half bad in the Spidey suit while doing it) Couldn’t save my big brother, Ben, or my parents. But that’s a different story. College student in good ol’ NYC, and currently running late to my chem lab.
I almost drop my phone as I send a frantic text to MJ through the cracked screen, and dip down the alley to quickly clamber to the roof, my bag of chips clamped between my teeth with my mask pulled up.
My phone dings and I check it as I swing.
Prof just walked in 😬
I scramble to send a gif back as I run across the big glass windows, dropping down behind the big classic college lecture hall and yanking my gloves and mask off, hopping into my jeans and hoodie.
Sprinting through the halls, and slipping into the hall. It’s dark, and I duck around, peering through the stream of projection light. It’s another one of those career promotional videos, and I sneak my way to MJ. Easy to spot, because of the little glow-in-the-dark stickers in the back of his phone case, the one I made.
My bag makes a noise when I set it down, and he looks up and over, twirling his pen in his fingers. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” I whisper back, passing him the chips.
His eyes light up. “Oh, you-”
“Something interesting, Watson?”
“Watson-Jones,” I correct quickly, smiling at the professor in the dark, “and I was talking, not him.”
“A-ah, well, don’t.”
“Yes sir.” I nod quickly before MJ can protest, and dig around in my bag as he quietly opens the chip bag.
“Thanks, but you shouldn't've-”
“Remembered your snack? It’s a pleasure.” I whisper back, pulling the bandaids out and quietly adding a few to my scraped knuckles and fingers.
“What did you-”
“Tripped.”
“Again?”
I open my mouth to respond, and then shiver and quickly shut it just before the professor looks over. MJ ducks his head too, scribbling the answers out on his paper.
I pull out my workbook too, glazing over the task at hand.
When I tune back in, MJ is poking me in the side.
“Ouch- hm?”
“Nothing, you were just spacing.” He points at his book, and I squint at it in the dark, trying to copy.
“Oh, gotcha.”
“Boys!”
We both walk out of the class together, and I scoop his books from his hands without question when his phone starts ringing, humming quietly to myself. The hall is louder than it is normally, but, well, everything’s always juuust a little too loud.
I follow MJ outside, who’s talking quickly with the person on the other line. I watch the city zoom past, the light feeling of someone breathing down my neck that comes with this sort of… spider-sense(? Working title, obviously) present. It gets more intense when there’s real danger, like-
I duck quickly, and whip around, narrowly avoiding the second book thrown at my head.
“Parker!”
“Heyyyy Flash! What’s up?”
“You totally forgot about-”
“What? I don’t forget about things I-” I cut him off, but he closes the space between us pretty quick.
A couple steps back over my untied shoelaces, and he sort of reminds me of a rhinoceros.
“You gonna apologize?”
“For… what exactly?”
“For the thing you forgot?”
“What thing?”
He exhales, taking the front of my sweatshirt and pulling. “The chem lab, bitch, obviously.”
“Ohhhh right, yep no I remembered.”
“Yeah?”
“Mhm, it’ll be done tonight.”
“Like 8pm tonight?”
“I was aiming for 11:59 but-”
“Eight.”
“It’s your party.”
He released the front of my jacket just as MJ marched over, sliding his phone in his pocket. “Flash! What the hell are you doing?”
“Clarifying with our little lab partner here what he’s supposed to be working on.”
“I can do that just fine myself.”
“Well it seems little mister scatterbrain forgot it.”
“Did not!”
“Yes, you did, Parker.”
I roll my eyes a little, on edge. “It’ll be done.”
“By when?”
“By eight.”
Flash nods, and shoulders his bag, scooping up the books he threw. “Good.”
I flip him off as he walks away, shifting MJ’s books to pretend they’re heavy.
“Peter-”
“It’s fine, it’ll be done.”
“It’s thirty percent of our-”
“Of our grade, yes.”
“Do you always have to interrupt me?”
I catch myself. “Sorry.”
MJ shrugs a little, and offers me a small smile. “No, sorry, I’m just- yeah, no excuses, I’m sorry.”
I nod a little, watching the traffic.
“Hey, you wanna… maybe put your headphones on?”
“Hm?”
“You’re making that face.”
“What face?”
MJ shifts, and then makes a slack expression, with his eyes just a little wider than they normally would be, his dark eyebrows pushed together under his bangs.
“O-oh. I didn’t know I made a face.”
“You do.”
“It’s good, I’m-”
“May’s for dinner, right?”
“Yeah…?”
“Cool. We both know the way, I need to listen to something for work. You tune out, we’ll walk.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
After a while and a good meal by May, MJ was fast asleep on my bed, his face resting on the workbook. I stood up quietly, stretching, and padded to the window, slipping out. After all, I had work to do.
“Aww, a little birdy told me you can’t throw a good punch.”
The Vulture screamed with rage, and delivered a swift uppercut. I could feel my teeth rattle, and I hit the wall.
“Ugh, well that bird lied.”
“Shut up!” She screamed, rushing forward with her huge green wings.
I shifted to the side, webbing her wing and pulling her down. “Y’know, you seem more like a harpy to me. Why the vulture? Do you just not know mythology?”
She shrieked, her clawed feet finding my chest and knocking me to the ground.
“Right, so do you prefer the Twerp for posting your wins?” I squeak, squirming from under her. My hand found her scaly ankle, and I yanked back, jumping up to crawl across the ceiling. She ran after me, the plague-doctor style mask unable to conceal the dark green eyes. I scrambled up a few levels through the semi-finished business building, and she followed, bursting through just-laid floorboards. I quickly webbed her face as she came crashing down on top of me, and I pressed my feet to her chest and pushed.
The squeal of tires and sirens made my head whip to the side, and her claws pressed my cheek to the floor.
“Uh oh, po-po,” I hummed, watching her struggle to pull the sticky spiderweb off her eyes.
I kicked her again, pulling myself up and stumbling to the window, and jumping out. She followed, as I knew she would, and I quickly stick her hands and legs to her body, attaching two strands of web to the tips of her wings as I swung around her, bracing my feet on her back and pulling up, causing the odd pair that we are to glide right over the cars. I waved happily to the flustered cops, and then swore and pulled up, smacking her into the side of the adjacent building and dropping off.
She hit the pavement, unconscious.
I exhaled, dusting my hands off. “Alright guys, here’s your prize.”
“Hands up!”
“Hm?”
“Hands up, that’s a command from the chief of police!” He called it from behind the car, and I frowned under my mask.
“What? I just took her out for yah!”
“Do it or we’ll fire.”
I sigh a little, holding my hands up. “I mean… sure dude.”
“What?”
“Sure dude,” I reiterate, saluting with one of my hands, and throwing a web up to the light rail passing above us, swinging up and away.
I used the front door to get back inside, mussing up my hair with a yawn.
May looked up from the couch and made a noise.
I waved at her, and held up the QMart bag.
“Peg-Peter, what were you doing?”
I shifted my weight a little. “I was just running an errand. You said you wanted me to make dinner tomorrow, so I grabbed stuff.”
“Oh… well, it’s late. Is MJ staying over?”
I nod quietly, rubbing my eyes with my sleeve.
She walks over, pulling me into a hug. I set my chin on her shoulder, hugging her back.
“Love you, May.”
“I love you, Peter.”
I pull away after a moment, and put the groceries away when she heads to bed.
Slipping into my room, quietly organizing the mess that the pair of us made working. I’d left my phone on the desk, and I scooped it up, checking things.
A very angry barrage of texts from Flash, and an email or two from my internship, but other than that, nothing.
I finished cleaning, and cracked open my laptop, sending the work to Flash. From the glow of the screen, I could see MJ’s chest rise and fall with his breath. His black hair covering his eyes, his jacket on my floor. I pulled my eyes away and stood, silently pulling my blanket over him, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.
He shifted, turning over.
I quietly unfroze, and finished cleaning.
“Peter… Peter!”
My head shot up, and MJ stopped shaking me. “We’re gonna be late!”
I jumped up, scooping up my things. I must’ve fallen asleep on top of my stuff-
MJ shoved my jacket into my hands, and shoved the pair of us out the door, and we ran in the rain together to class.