1.
“You know this probably looks way worse than it actually is.”
Pavitr gave Hobie a noncommittal hum at his words, shoving papers and various writing utensils aside as he dug through his drawer.
“I’m serious! Your head bleed more than the rest of your body because of-”
“I know, Hobie.” He interrupted him, pulling the stapler he had been looking for from his drawer. He popped the top open to check how many staples were left before snapping it shut again when he deemed there was enough.
Pavitr could see Hobie’s shoulders slump in dismay at Pavitr’s tone, his gaze falling to the floor in front of him. Pavitr released a strangled sigh pinching the bridge of his nose as he walked back across the room to Hobie.
He hadn’t meant for his words to come across as so irritated, but Hobie crashing through his window injured always put him on edge.
“This is going to hurt.”
Hobie made a face at Pavitr’s words, raising one of his eyebrows as he walked around the bed to stand behind him. Pavitr gently pulled the hand Hobie had been using to hold a towel to the gash on his head away, wiping up as much of the blood as he could in the process.
“I mean it already hurts, but way to ominou- AGH!!” Hobie cut himself off as Pavitr pressed the stapler into the back of his head. Pavitr rubbed his thumb along the nape of neck in a silent apology as he raised the stapler again, pressing a second staple along the cut.
Hobie flinched each time the stapler clicked, but remained mostly still as Pavitr worked. It only took a few minutes and Pavitr planted a kiss on Hobie’s shoulder once he finished, placing the stapler on his nightstand.
“Sorry for snapping at you” He apologized, wrapping a roll of gauze around Hobie’s head.
Hobie leaned his head back to gaze up at Pavitr, his eyes scrunching up as a smile spread across his face.
“It’s alright, I’m sorry I’m always stressin you out.”
Pavitr let out a quiet huff at his words, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Hobie’s. He hated how often Hobie got himself into trouble, it wasn’t exactly a hard conclusion to come to even without him scolding Hobie each time it happened. Could you blame him though? He could feel his heart constricting each time Hobie tumbled through his window bleeding and he wasn’t entirely sure how much more strain it could take before it would give out on him.
Not that Pavitr would ever ask him to stop coming, he would rather Hobie come to him for help than attempt to deal with his injuries on his own. Something Pavitr was almost certain he would do if he asked him to.
Pavitr’s attention was dragged away from his musing as Hobie leaned back against him giving Pavitr a better line of sight to the way Hobie was clutching at his left hand, his fingers squeezed together in his other hand.
“Is your hand okay?”
Hobie startled at Pavitr’s words, having dozed off against Pavitr’s chest. He shifted gaze down to his hands, grimacing as he released his vice on it.
“Yea, I just…” He pressed himself closer to Pavitr as he spoke, tilting his head forward to avoid irritating the staples. “...He said he was gonna cut my fingers off.”
Pavitr’s brow pinched together in fury as the implications of Hobie’s words settled in his brain. Hobie had already told Pavitr about the fight he had gotten into, recounting the way he had been used as a pinball against several walls. This, however, was his first instance of hearing any verbal threats that had been made against Hobie during the fight. There was a brief moment of shuffling as Pavitr looped back around the foot of his bed and sat in the empty space facing Hobie.
He didn’t fight him when he reached out to pull his hands close to him. Pressing their palms together as he planted a kiss along his knuckles with a quiet apology.
Hobie smiled at Pavitr again, leaning his head forward to rest his forehead against Pavitr’s shoulder. Pavitr released one of his hands and wrapped his arm around his waist to pull him closer. He could feel Hobie wiggling his fingers against his hand, reassuring himself that they were all still there.
“I wouldn’t be able to play my guitar.”
Pavitr felt bad about laughing, but couldn’t manage to hold back the chuckle that squeezed its way out of his chest.
“I think you would have a few more issues than not being able to play your guitar.” Pavitr was mostly joking, Hobie’s guitar meant a lot to him and he had no doubt that it would be an emotional hit for Hobie should he lose the ability to play.
Hobie grumbled at Pavitr’s jab, tilting his head to stick his tongue out at Pavitr. Pavitr broke out in a fit of giggles at Hobie’s childishness, leaning back to lay his head against his pillow.
Hobie squirmed on top of him, adjusting his body to tangle his legs with Pavitr’s. He laid his ear against Pavitr’s chest, letting out a content sigh as he listened to the sound of Pavitr’s heart beating in his chest.
His head had mostly healed by the time he awoke the next morning, courtesy of his super healing. Pavitr removed the staples for him, wiping down the area one last time to prevent any infection.
Hobie pressed a kiss into the corner of Pavitr’s mouth once he finished yanking him back down by the collar so they could doze for just a little longer.
2.
Hobie’s insistent tapping on the table is what pulled Pavitr’s attention away from the tea kettle. Turning his head to find Hobie splayed across the table, reaching one of his arms out to beckon him over.
Pavitr set the kettle on the stove before making his way to where Hobie was sitting. Hobie grasped the hem of Pavitr’s shirt tugging him down to plant a kiss against his cheek. Pavitr giggled as Hobie tugged on his shoulders, pulled him closer to pepper kisses over his face and down his neck.
Hobie's face morphed into a look of frustration as his attempts at speaking resulted in him letting out a high pitched wheeze, similar to the sound of the tea kettle heating up behind him.
Pavitr rubbed a gentle thumb along Hobie’s jaw, his stomach churning as Hobie struggled. He had felt sick when he had found Hobie laying on his bedroom floor, his leg forming a puddle of blood on his floor and a necklace of deep purple bruises covering his neck.
Hobie hadn’t been able to speak at all since he arrived. All of his attempts ending in raspy squeaks and several painful coughing fits. Pavitr had stopped the bleeding from his leg, wrapping the cut on his calf before helping Hobie limp into the kitchen with him. He had wanted Hobie to stay in his room and lay down, but he had refused to let Pavitr leave the room without him, clutching at his wrist until agreed to let him go.
Hobie scrunched up his nose as he gave up on his attempts to speak and Pavitr’s heart stuttered in his chest. He could never quite get over how handsome Hobie was, or how cute he was when frustrated.
Pavitr cupped Hobie’s face in his hands, planting a gentle kiss on his forehead before pulling away. Hobie made a strangled sound of distress as he did so, reaching out to try and catch him. Pavitr shot Hobie an apologetic look as made his way across the room to pull a pen and pad of paper out of one of the drawers.
Hobie perked up as Pavitr returned, reaching out to snatch the pad, scribbling a sloppy heart onto the page. Pavitr chuckled as Hobie beamed up at him before turning back to the paper to continue writing.
“Pretty.” He wrote, grinning at Pavitr as heat rose to his cheeks. And then just below it. “Milk and sugar.” With a little doodle of a tea cup next to it.
Pavitr raised one of his eyebrows at the message, glancing back at the tea kettle heating on his stove.
“Did you think I was gonna give black tea?”
Hobie shrugged at the question, scribbling a quick note of “bland” on the paper. Pavitr hummed in agreement, pulling up a chair to sit beside Hobie as he wrote. He was halfway through explaining the fight he had gotten into when the kettle began to whistle.
Pavitr gave Hobie a peck on the cheek as he stood, pouring two cups for them. He added sugar and milk to both cups, and cinnamon to his own before returning to his seat, trading Hobie’s cup of tea for the notepad.
Pavitr read over the writing as Hobie sipped at his tea, wincing in pain with each swallow. Pavitr took his hand under the table as he read, running his thumb across Hobie’s knuckles in an attempt to comfort him while he drank.
Pavitr had suspected that the bruises around Hobie’s neck had come from someone’s attempt at strangling him, but it didn’t make it any easier to read. Hobie had placed his tea on the table when Pavitr’s hand clenched around his own, planting his chin on Pavitr’s shoulder as he watched him look over the note.
Pavitr was glad he had friends that could help him in his universe, his “Spider-Band” as he had dubbed them. Something which he voiced to Hobie as he tilted his head to squish another kiss into his cheek.
Hobie reached for the pad again at Pavitr’s word, writing something before changing his mind, crossing it out to rephrase what he wanted to say.”
“Meet them?”
Pavitr had nearly choked on his tea when he read it, staring at the words for several minutes too long as Hobie shifted in anxiety beside him. Hobie looked like he was about to reach out to take back his statement when Pavitr finally collected his thoughts enough to speak.
“I- you- you want me…to meet them?”
Hobie went to nod his head before pausing, raising his hand to make a “so-so” gesture at him as he took the paper back from Pavitr.
“I want YOU to meet THEM.” He reaffirmed, “Don’t want THEM to meet YOU.”
Pavitr squinted at the paper for a moment. He understood what Hobie meant, or at the very least he thought he did. Hobie wanted to let Pavitr in on an important part of his life, he wanted Pavitr to meet his friends, but he wasn’t ready for his friend to meet him.
Hobie let out a frustrated sign, mashing his face into Pavitr’s shoulder.
“I can meet them whenever you feel ready.” He promised, sipping at his half empty cup in an attempt to hide the blush spreading across his face.
He had been dating Hobie for several months now and he still managed to make Pavitr blush with almost everything he did.
Hobie visibly relaxed at Pavitr’s reassurance, smiling up at him. He opened his mouth to rasp something Hobie still couldn’t understand, but shook his head when Pavitr pushed the note pad back towards him, not wanting to repeat whatever he had been attempting to say.
Pavitr didn’t pry.
3.
Hobie looked exhausted.
That was all Pavitr could think about as they ate together with Auntie Maya, he looked like he was on the verge of passing out in his food. Auntie Maya seemed to notice it too, raising one of her eyebrows at Pavitr in question. Pavitr gave a slight shrug, tugging Hobie away from the table when Auntie Maya gave him the go ahead.
Hobie had followed Pavitr down the hall to his room without a word, which made Pavitr’s anxiety for him even worse. He had only looked away for a moment to open his bedroom door, just a few seconds, but he still nearly missed Hobie’s legs buckling underneath him as he collapsed forward.
Pavitr just barely managed to catch him, curling his arms underneath Hobie’s to hoist him up. Pavitr’s attempts to rouse Hobie were met with silence, he was out cold. Pavitr took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm his rising panic before looping his arm underneath Hobie’s knees to carry him the rest of the way into his room.
He laid him out on his bed, bringing one of his hands up to rest on his forehead. His temperature felt normal, which meant he wasn’t sick. Pavitr couldn’t see any visible injuries that would have caused him to pass out, which only managed to stress him out even more.
Pavitr’s panic was postponed by a gentle knock at the door, Auntie Maya waited a few seconds before pushing it open enough to poke her head through the gap. She considered Hobie’s sleeping form on his bed before turning back to Pavitr.
“Is he alright?”
Pavitr blinked up at her for a moment before realizing he still had Hobie’s head cradled in one of his hands. He pulled his hand away from Hobie as casually as he could, something which he failed at if the look Auntie Maya gave him was any indication, opting to curling his hands together in his lap instead.
“I think he…was just tired.” Pavitr wished he was more surprised, but he knew what it was like to be Spider-Man, and he knew how Hobie’s universe could get, at the very least this time he wasn’t bleeding all over Pavitr’s sheet.
Auntie Maya hummed in agreement, telling him to make sure he was comfortable as she retreated out of his room and back towards the kitchen.
Pavitr waited until the sound of Auntie Maya’s footsteps faded to tuck Hobie under the blankets on his bed, pressing a kiss to his temple before sitting at his desk. He spent a few hours flipping through various textbooks in an attempt to distract himself.
He had been in the middle of finishing his biology homework when Hobie turned over in his bed. Pavitr watched as he reached out to pat the empty space beside him in, what he assumed, was an attempt to find him.
A frustrated whine escaped his throat when he wasn’t able to find Pavitr, his eyes finally cracking open to search the room for him. Pavitr was already halfway across the room when his eyes landed on him and didn’t resist when Hobie reached out his arms in a silent request for cuddles.
Pavitr would characterize the way Hobie slept as similar to a koala, wrapping his arms and legs around Pavitr’s torso as he hid his face in Pavitr’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
“Tired.” Hobie stated into Pavitr’s shoulder, squeezing him closer in the process. “Had a busy week.”
Pavitr pressed a kiss to Hobie’s ear as he mumbled a quiet apology to him. The sun was still in the sky and Pavitr knew he could be up getting things done, but Hobie was quietly snoring next to his ear and some things were more important than pointless school work.
4.
Pavitr never really got used to the way Zero communicated across the web. With everybody else there was always a beep from his watch to signal a call, or a bright portal tearing through the fabric of reality that was fairly hard to miss.
But with Zero, one moment he was alone in his room and the next her disembodied voice was speaking to him from several thousand universes over.
Pavitr had nearly fallen out of his seat when she first reached out to him. Her voice was filled with dread and the mention of Hobie’s name was all it took for Pavitr to be entering the coordinates to Loomworld into his watch.
Pavitr felt like he was going to puke as he exited the portal, the smell like burnt flesh and the ash hitting him like a punch to the gut. Hobie was curled up on the stone floor, the back of his jacket and suit were almost completely burned away and the skin underneath was charred.
Gwen was leaned over Hobie, grasping at his wrists to stop his attempts to reach back and claw at his back. Zero was standing a few feet away and looked about as nauseous as Pavitr felt.
“Hobie!” Hobie flinched at Pavitr’s words, yanking his hands out of Gwen’s grasp to press them against his ears, a pained whimper escaping his throat as curled in on himself even more. “Hobie, jaan, it's me.”
One of Hobie’s hands shot out to grasp at the fabric of Pavitr’s shirt. He was attempting to drag Pavitr closer but he wasn’t able to muster the energy to pull him hard enough to actually get him closer. Gwen scooted backwards as Pavitr approached, giving him the space to pull Hobie into his arms. Pavitr was careful to avoid Hobie’s burns and swallowed any complaints as Hobie’s nails dug into the skin on his back.
“I don’t know what happened.” Gwen nearly choked on her words as she swiped tears away from her eyes. “We were fighting a villain and then there was an explosion and I-” Gwen’s words cut off as a sob fought it way out of her throat.
Zero was across the room in an instance, pulling Gwen into a hug of her own as she devolved into an incoherent mess. Pavitr returned his attention to Hobie to assess his back. The burns were already starting to bubble up into blisters and he had several shards of glass and various other bits of shrapnel lodged into his skin.
Pavitr shuffled his legs underneath him to pull Hobie up. He made no attempt to get his feet underneath him, leaning all of his weight onto Pav as he began to tremble from the pain. Pavitr managed to drag him across the room to a bed Zero had set up in a makeshift first aid area.
Hobie tried to protest Pavitr laying him out on his stomach, but was too weak to do anything but let out a feeble whine of protest. Pavitr turned to the cabinet next to the bed, pulling out several wraps of gauze, burn cream, and tweezers.
Zero had managed to calm Gwen down enough for her to sit on her own and had joined Pavitr by Hobie’s side.
“Can I help?”
Pavitr paused at her request before instructing her to get a towel from the bottom drawer of the cabinet and hold it for him. He used the tweezers to remove the glass and shrapnel and placed it in the towel Zero was holding, rubbing his thumb into the skin on Hobie’s hip that wasn’t burnt in an attempt to comfort him.
The fact Hobie was able to stay conscious eased some of Pavitr’s anxieties, even if he hated having to listen to pained sounds Hobie made every time he pulled one of the shards out of his back.
Zero helped Pavitr prop Hobie into a sitting position once he was done, and Pavitr gently peeled the remains of the top half of Hobie’s suit away from his skin. He spread the burn cream across the worst parts before wrapping his back with the gauze and letting him flop back onto the bed, hiding his face in the pillow as he did so.
Pavitr pulled up a chair to sit beside Hobie as Zero returned to Gwen where she was still sitting across the room.
When Pavitr turned back to Hobie he was met with Hobie’s eyes, trained on Pavitr with an intense look he didn’t understand the meaning behind. Pavitr took the hand Hobie reached out with, pressing a gentle kiss into the bruised knuckles.
Hobie gave him a weak smile that made Pavitr’s heart do flips before letting his eyes drift shut. Pavitr held his hand the entire time he was asleep.
5.
Hobie let out a frustrated grumble as Pavitr shook him awake, swatting the hand that was shaking his shoulder.
“Hobie.”
“Wwwhat?!” Hobie whined, burying his face into the skin on Pavitr’s hip. “Lemme sleep Pavi.”
“You have a concussion.”
“You hate me.” Hobie complaints were muffled in Pavitr’s hip, and Pavitr tried his very best not to giggle at the tickling sensation it caused. Hobie discovering that he was ticklish was not something he was prepared to deal with right now.
“I’m sorry.” Pavitr wrapped one of his hands around the back of Hobie’s neck in an attempt to comfort him. He succeeded in ebbing some of Hobie’s frustration as the arm he had wrapped around Pavitr’s waist tugged him a little closer so he could press a kiss into his hip. “I just had to check on you mera pyaar, you can go back to sleep now.”
Hobie sighed before rolling further onto Pavitr with a pained grunt. He settled between Pavitr’s legs, hiding his face in Pavitr’s stomach. Pavitr leaned back against his headboard as Hobie settled into his lap, closing his own eyes as Hobie got comfortable.
It was 3 in the morning and Pavitr hadn’t slept at all. It wasn’t that staying up late was something that he wasn’t used to, but the warm weight of Hobie pressed against his side had been taunting him all night.
Hobie mumbled something into his stomach that Pavitr wasn’t able to decipher. His request for Hobie to repeat whatever he said was met with the same intense look he had given him last time they had been in a situation like this.
Pavitr felt like he had done something wrong and was relieved when Hobie’s expression finally softened, a grin tugging at the corner of his lips.
“How long do you have to do this?”
Pavitr groaned at Hobie’s question, sinking to lay down properly on the bed.
“24 hours.”
Hobie snorted at his distress, pressing his cheek into Pavitr’s stomach before speaking again. “Everything hurts.” He whispered against Pavitr’s skin, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to ease the headache he no doubt had.
Pavitr rubbed a gentle hand down Hobie’s back in an attempt to soothe his tensed muscles. It was times like these that Pavitr absolutely loathed the metabolism that came with their powers. Any painkillers he would have had would be useless with how quickly their bodies would burn through them.
But there was nothing he could do to fix that, so instead he would help Hobie replace the dressing on any wounds he got while being Spider-man, and he would make sure Hobie had a place he could be safe while he healed. He would stay awake all night and check on Hobie every few hours and he would do everything in his power to make sure Hobie had someone there to help him through the pain.
Hobie had fallen back asleep at some point during his brain’s rambling, his cheek pressed into his stomach and his breath tickling the exposed skin where his shirt had been pushed up when Hobie had rolled on top of him.
Pavitr had the brief thought of wondering what he would do without Hobie. A thought which he promptly shoved to the back of his head almost as soon as he had had the idea, reminding himself that Hobie hadn’t shown any signs of getting worse and the 24 hours since he had gotten his concussion were almost over.
Hobie would be fine, and once Pavitr was sure that he wasn’t going to die in his sleep he was going to force Hobie to nap with him on the couch all day.
+1.
“Ap ap ap! Stay awake lovie!!” Hobie’s words were delivered with several light taps to Pavitr’s cheek. Pavitr jolted back to attention, straightening out his spine in his daze. The action ripped a pained hiss from him as it strained the claw marks running across his chest.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Hobie apologized, pressing the blood soaked towel he had been using harder into Pavitr’s skin. “I know it hurts, but I gotta close these up.”
Pavitr grumbled at Hobie but made no further attempt to get away from his hands as he continued stitching the gashes. Pavitr’s brain began to wander as Hobie worked, eye twitched as his thought drifted to Dr. Kumar, he could still feel the faint electric tingle on the back of his neck where he had jabbed Pavitr with wires from the machine.
He was still out there, running around as a giant lizard doing who knows what. Pavitr should have been out there trying to find him, but the pain from the gashes across his chest had gotten the better of him and Hobie had already been waiting for him in his room when he got there.
“Okay, all stitched up!” Hobie announced after a few more minutes, patting Pavitr’s hip as he pressed a kiss to his forehead. Pavitr smiled up at him as Hobie buried his fingers in his hair to gently scratch at Pavitr’s scalp.
Hobie wrapped Pavitr’s chest before rounding the bed to sit behind him, gently tugging Pavitr backwards to lay his head in his lap. Pavitr squinted up at Hobie as he leaned down to pepper kisses along his face. Pavitr wrinkled his nose at Hobie’s antics, reaching up to hook his hand around the back of Hobie’s neck to pull him into a proper kiss.
Hobie smiled against his lips, rubbing circles into Pavitr’s temple. Hobie’s joy was short lived as he pulled away to find Pavitr beginning to zone out again in thought.
“What are you thinking about luv?”
Pavitr hummed as his question, turning to direct his gaze out the window at the surrounding houses outside.
“They hate me.” Hobie raised an eyebrow at Pavitr in question, following his gaze out the window as he continued. “I was just trying to help and they told me to get out…”
Hobie cringed at the way Pavitr's voice cracked at the end of his sentence. It wasn’t an unfamiliar story, he had heard it dozens of times in other universes. Stories of the people turning on Spider-Man despite all the good they did. He had seen and heard plenty of hate fueled slander campaigns in various news outlets, calling Spider-Man a masked vigilante menace. He hated that Pavitr had to be the victim of the same issue in his own universe.
“I don’t hate you.” Hobie pointed out. Pavitr didn’t turn from the window, but raised one of his arms to rest his hand against Hobie’s knee to indicate he was paying attention. “In fact, I lo…like you. I like you a lot!”
“You’re biased.” Pavitr complained, finally turning his head back towards the ceiling. If he had noticed Hobie’s slip up he didn’t acknowledge it. “You don’t count.”
Hobie chuckled as Pavitr’s eyes fluttered shut, leaning forwards to press one last kiss to his cheek as he drifted off.
“I suppose I am huh?”