The life of one of the clerical grunts at the might Spider Society might not have been fascinating, but at least it paid well. It was easy enough to keep your head down and do your work and go home. Just mind your p's and q's, keep on your toes, and you'd go unnoticed.
File a little bit of paperwork, composite and archive anomaly sightings, pretty innocuous stuff. Yes, sir, just mind your p's and q's and you'd be...
"Y/N. My office, now." Miguel's voice sounded over the intercoms.
Screwed. Apparently, you'd be screwed.
You'd been enjoying your lunch. That's all. Nothing crazy. Just having lunch. Now you were walking that long green mile, doggedly keeping your head down to avoid making awkward eye contact with any of the many spiders staring at you. You might not have seen them, but your ears burned under the insistent whispers.
"Now!" His voice resounded through the halls of headquarters again.
"Oi, what'd you do to piss off the boss?" Hobie dropped from the ceiling and fell in step with you.
"Hey, Hobie." You glanced up at him, utterly dejected and shrugged. "When is he ever happy?" Hobie snorted. Coming to the opening to his darkened... you weren't exactly certain what to call it, but since you felt as though you were being dragged to your certain death by an apex predator, you went with cave. Sighing heavily, you hung your head.
"Courage, pidge," Hobie thumped your shoulder. "He can only snap your neck once."
"Gee, thanks, Hobie." Giving him a dirty look, your eyes flickered back to the mouth of Miguel's... cave. Taking a fortifying breath, you trudged forward, not failing to notice that any spiders that might have been in the vicinity had made sure to make themselves scarce. Looking over your shoulder, you saw Hobie give you a thumbs up. "Okay... let's get it over with." Muttering to yourself, you set your jaw and reluctantly entered.
"You wanted to see me, boss?" Turning around, you felt your apprehension growing when you were met with naught but silence.
"Up here." Your eyes followed the direction of the flat voice. Yes. Great. Of course. The asshole had made certain his platform was at its highest point, so you'd have to scale up to him.
"Talk about intimidation tactics." You grumbled under your breath, releasing a translucent line of webbing that latched onto the underside of the platform. The whole spider thing was still kinda new, and you hadn't quite conquered the aim thing yet. Closing your eyes, you took another deep breath before scaling the line, and climbed over the edge.
"Care to explain what these are?" Miguel was on you before you'd even managed to get on your feet. You squinted up at the screen that was being none too graciously shoved into your face. Irritation began rising in the back of your mind, but you tamped it down and stood to your feet, dusting off your shirt.
"What am I looking at, Sir?" Pushing your glasses up, you studied the screen in front of you. Miguel narrowed his eyes in barely concealed annoyance.
"Try taking a closer look." Biting your cheek, you fought the urge to roll your eyes and say something sarcastic. Instead, you leaned closer and looked intently at the rows of numbers scrolling up the screen. It was indeed your work, your little code signature flashed at the bottom of the screen.
Something caught your attention, and you ripped off your glasses and cleaned them furiously before putting them back on and studied the numbers further. You chose to ignore Miguel's clear look of derision as he stood to the side, arms folded, scowling. There was a discrepancy in the numbers. But that didn't make sense. You always double checked your data. Always. Shaking your head, you turned to look up at him in confusion.
"I simply don't understand,"
"You don't understand?!" His voice raised, and he stalked closer, fangs glinting in the screen light. Raising a hand, you took a step back and pinched the bridge of your nose. "These anomaly sightings don't match up, Y/N, it's pretty clear to see!"
"Yes, I see that, I just don't understand,"
"You screwed up! It's your department, and you let a mistake like this slip through the cracks, and we don't do mistakes, Y/N!" His body dwarfed yours, as he stood over you, practically screaming in your face. If he'd caught you on any other day, you'd probably have shrunken back and muttered some mousy apologies in an effort to placate him.
But that little niggle of irritation tapping on the back of your brain had other ideas.
"You know, would it kill you to just once, just once speak to me in a civil tone of voice, boss?" Taking a step forward you jammed a finger at his chest. Miguel's eyes turned blood red, and a flush of rage crawled up his neck as he took a step back. He opened his mouth to argue back but you pushed forward.
"You know, I'm sick and tired of taking your abuse, O'Hara! I come to work every day, and I do a good job. One little mistake, if it even is a mistake, and you're already down my back!" Miguel's back met one of the large monitors with a soft 'thump', and he looked down at you, fangs bared.
"I don't know who pissed in your cheerios this morning, Boss, but that's no excuse to take it out on me." Poking his chest once more for emphasis, you pulled back and folded your arms. Miguel's features went impassive, and he looked at you coldly.
"You done?" His frosty tone sent shivers down your spine. And not the pleasant kind. Stubbornly you set your jaw and squared your shoulders. Miguel leaned forward, until his nose was almost brushing yours. Any pretense of confidence flew out the window and a mortifying heat rippled through your body. Miguel smirked. "You're fired." Your blood began boiling again.
"You can't fire me if I quit." You spat back. Miguel's smirk morphed into a scowl, and he folded his own arms. Your heart thudded violently in your chest and the blood rushed to your head. He was too big, too angry, and way too comfortable invading your personal space.
And why was he looking at you like that? As if he'd like nothing more than to bite your head off. And why did a small part of yourself find that possibility thrilling? Was it just you, or did someone turn up the temperature? And why were you suddenly feeling really constricted in your own clothes? All of a sudden, the air was thick, almost as if someone had thrown a wet wool blanket over your lungs. And why where his pupils dilating like that?
Nope, nope, you didn't like that one bit. Taking a ragged breath, you reeled back just as you caught the tail end of what you swore must've been the strongest cologne you'd ever smelled in your life. And it was way too musky. Miguel really needed to lay off the cologne at work. Shaking your head, you pinched the bridge of your nose to, hopefully, bring the world back into focus. You seemed unaware of the fact that you'd bared your own fangs, and a little bit of venom dripped onto the platform.
Miguel hadn't missed it though, his eyes narrowed in on the small droplet and he bent, ready to touch it. Cracking one eye open, you saw him just as he was about to swipe a finger through the liquid, and you panicked.
"No!" You shrieked, pouncing forward to tackle him.
"Wha-" Miguel was knocked off balance, and your weight sent him sliding across the platform a few feet, and he landed on his back. You followed, landing on top of him with a soft 'oof'."Mierda!" He shouted, looking up at you as if you'd lost your mind. "Lo que da?!" Your body slumped with relief, and you sagged into him, breathing a sigh of relief. "Aye!" He grumbled, "Get off of me, eres una bruja loca!" He sat up, dragging your limp weight with him.
When you made no immediate attempt to climb off of him, Miguel began grumbling under his breath and started to shove you off, when his hand accidentally grazed your rear. And you groaned.
Miguel went rigid, hand still ghosting over your rear. You peeled your face away from his chest, and stared up at him, his features a mirror of your own shock. Miguel experimentally palmed the side of your ass. The scent of that strong cologne hit you again like a ton of bricks, and touch starved person that you were, and to your utter mortification, you groaned again. His eyes widened momentarily, and he sucked in a breath.
Your senses were growing hazy as you were again consumed with that oppressive heat crawling under your skin. Before you could further humiliate yourself, you scrambled out of his grasp and staggered to your feet. Mumbling some vague apology, you climbed over the edge of the platform, and swung back to the ground. The air at the bottom was instantly clearer, and with every step you took, that foggy sensation seemed to drain from your system.
Reaching the door, you were aware of Miguel scaling down the side of his platform, calling after you to wait. Turning briefly, you looked back to see him slowly walking towards you. Shaking your head, you dashed out the door and pulled up a portal to your own universe, jumping through and closing it before he'd even reached the door. Whatever that whole... thing was, it certainly wasn't something you wanted to dwell on any longer.
And Miguel O'Hara was the last person you wanted to discuss it with.
Miguel ran ragged fingers through his hair as the he watched the portal close. Making his way back to the platform, he replayed the events of the last twenty minutes over in his mind. He easily scaled the side of his platform, and his attention again narrowed in on the droplet on the floor.
He hadn't even been aware that you secreted venom.
"Lyla."
"Yeah, boss?" The hologram materialized with a bright smile. Miguel ran a scan over the droplet.
"Run a scan on this and give me a composite break down of its makeup."
"Lyla, run a scan..." She said with a tilt of her head. Miguel closed his eyes and sighed.
"Please." He grumbled.
"Sure thing, boss." Lyla winked. "And might I say, you handled that very well." Miguel frowned at her sing song sarcasm.
"Just run the scan, Lyla."