Attachment? What Attachment?
He had Lyla reset the training room once he confirmed that the training course had been completed, and he gathered everyone around the entrance to the training room so he could talk to everyone at once.
"You got lucky with that rockslide, Gwendy," Hobie said, as they all discussed what occurred during the course. They all had their masks off, and bottles of water were being passed around. Miguel stood farther away from the chattering group, letting them talk it out before he came in with his observations.
"Lucky?!" Gwen exclaimed, giving Hobie a playful punch on the shoulder. "That was all part of the blue team's expert plan." Gwen boasted and gave a high five to Noir and a fist bump to Peni, who had gotten out of her mech suit.
Hobie shrugged his shoulders with a scoff, jokingly acting as if the loss wasn’t fair.
"I’ve got to say, Peni using a thermal scan to find me was a pretty genius move," Miles admitted, having a hand raised up and resting on the back of his neck.
Miguel walked closer to the group, their chatter getting off the topic of training, so he decided it was a good time to make his points before they scattered back to their respective universes.
"Great job, Blue Team, on using your knowledge to your advantage." He started resting his hands on his hips. "Morales," he said to the teen, who visibly stiffened at the attention from his boss. "You rely too much on your cloaking ability in stealth situations; it is only a matter of time before it backfires on you like it did today."
"It didn’t backfire on me; it worked fine." Miles muttered, his gaze on the ground, and his fist clenched slightly at Miguel's words.
"However," Miguel sighed, he didn’t want to be harsh on the kid for his mistakes when he did make some smart moves as well. "Your use of the environment as a distraction was smart."
Miles looked up at him, his expression going from confused to pleased surprise, accompanied by a nervous smile. "Wow, t-thanks"
He returned the teens smile with a quick upturn of his lips before he turned to the others. They all looked tired; Pavitr wasn’t even trying to hide it, draping the upper half of his body to lean on Hobies. Gwen and Peni just had blank expressions on their faces, their eyes staring off for a few seconds before they snapped back to reality. Noir was stretching his arms out while making half-hearted attempts to hide his yawns.
A part of him didn’t want them to leave and go to their own universes; a small voice wondered if they could stay here, where they would be safe and he could make sure nothing bad happened to them. His office was pretty big. Maybe he could use his webs and make a couple of platforms that they could sleep on.
What was he thinking?
They had no reason to stay here; they all had somewhere to go home to.
They didn’t need him.
Which was completely fine. Absolutely okay.
He would only want them here in case he needed them on a mission. No other reasons.
Right?
Realizing he hadn’t actually said anything yet and was just silently staring at them while he was thinking, Miguel clapped his hands together before speaking.
"Your performances were all good; you all still have flaws and areas to improve, but right now you are at a good skill level." He explained, trying his best to not just criticize them but give some encouraging words as well. "That ends this training session."
He turned around, ready to go back to his office to check if anything had gone terribly wrong in the few hours he had been gone, but a voice stopped him before he could leave.
"Hey! Um, Miguel?" Gwen's voice surprised him; he had expected them to run out of the room as soon as he confirmed the training was over.
"When is the next training day?" She said it so casually that it caught him off guard. Wasn’t this supposed to be a one-time thing?
Didn’t they hate the idea of him training them?
He didn’t say anything about another training day, did he?
Do they feel obligated to continue training with him since he was their boss?
The look on his face must have portrayed his confusion about the question, because Hobie butted in to clarify.
"We all think your training is pretty good; this whole terrain thing was a neat course, and we want to do some more." Hobie explained, adjusting his position so Pavitr wasn’t about to fall while using him as support.
They wanted to continue training with him.
Something made his chest feel light and warm, and the idea of continuing training was weird. He had a busy schedule, and then he would have to plan out more training courses. It didn’t sound like much of a burden; he had already thought of different skills that would be good to practice and train for the group.
"Um, yeah-um. Yes." He struggled to find his wording for a second before clearing his throat, fixing the confused expression on his face, and turning it into a more serious one. "One week from today. Same time, don’t be late."
With Miguel's agreement, the group lit up slightly. Hobie gave him a thumbs up, Gwen smiled, saying something like how she couldn’t wait, and Miles muttered a small agreement to add on to Gwen's statement, but Miguel saw a hint of doubt in his eyes.
After a couple seconds of awkward silence that filled the room, he turned around and walked out of the training room without another word, tapping buttons on his watch so they didn’t think he was just walking away for no reason.
Overall, the training day was a lot better than he had thought. He expected to be met with complaining and whining when he was explaining the training course, but thinking back on it, he remembered everyone's faces seeming interested and actually listening to his instructions. He also recalled how on edge everyone became when he entered the room, going from laughing and chattering to tense and quiet.
Miguel might not spend much time around teenagers or just people, but he was almost positive that wasn’t the reaction someone like Peter B. Parker got when he assisted with their training. In fact, he knows how the Spider-Gang reacts. When Peter was in charge of training, they greeted him with hugs and joking remarks, and during the training course, they often digressed into silly conversations before training in the most fun way possible.
Of course he wasn’t spying on people's training sessions; that would be weird.
It's just that sometimes he gets a little bored when he is shut away in his office, and he would pull up the recording on one of his screens for some background noise. Plus! He obviously needed to keep an eye on them in case Morales or Gwen decided to break the multiverse again.
Miguel let his body go on autopilot, walking across the bridges and moving around the loud crowds of variants that often wandered around headquarters. He kept to the pathways that were made so people could cross them without being sticky. He’d always preferred to use those pathways; it allowed him to focus on his thoughts without the burden of clinging to the ground with his talons.
He was just about to reach the peaceful walls of his office when a red-headed blur barreled into his upper chest. A growl started to creep up his throat before he looked down at the baby that was sticking to him.
Mayday Parker's big blue eyes met his harsh red ones, and the little red head crawled up to his shoulder before trying to stick her hands in his mouth.
"No. Nope, don’t do that; I have sharp teeth," Miguel said while he picked her hands away from his face, having to pry the little fingers off of his cheek when Mayday tried to stick onto him. He held the baby awkwardly in his hands, holding her away from him like she was something venomous and looking around for her dad, who was never far from the curious kid.
"Mayday Parker, we need to get you home; your day pass only lasts a day, and M.J. will—Oh! You found Uncle Miguel, perfect." Peter B. Parker rambled as he swung off of a bridge and took Mayday from Miguel's hold.
"I’m not her uncle, Peter," He deadpanned; he had crossed his arms once they were free of the baby, and he was currently giving Peter a look that said "Who allowed you to be a parent?".
"And shouldn’t you be keeping a better eye on your kid?" Miguel said, shifting his weight to his left leg as he said it. "Headquarters isn’t the most childproof area."
"Ehhh, it's fine." Peter drawled while Mayday tried to shoot a web to continue her exploration of the headquarters, but Peter kept a stronghold on the kid. "She is just a curious little ball of joy, aren’t you?" His speech went into incoherent baby talk as he played with Mayday’s hair, making her giggle and squeal.
Miguel cleared his throat loudly, uncrossing his arms and stepping forward to move past Peter to continue towards his office, giving a small wave of his hand to Peter.
"I can never have a serious conversation with you." He grumbled as he walked past, hoping the chatty Spider-Man would be too distracted with his daughter to pay attention to his departure. Unfortunately, and as expected, Peter turned around and started walking next to him, with Mayday now sitting in his carrier strapped to Peter's chest.
"I’m serious when it's needed, and any conversion I have with you, I’m the only one that makes it entertaining." Peter quipped as he and Miguel walked along the bridge, maneuvering around the crowds of Spider-Man variants that decided the perfect hangout place was in the middle of the walkways.
Miguel just gave him a tired sigh in response to Peter's comments. He wasn’t exhausted from training; all he did was stand there and observe, but the exhaustion was just something he always carried with him. It was probably a result of something about his tendency to spend days working without proper rest, but that was just a part of the job he gave himself.
The one-sided conversation continued until the pair reached the entrance into the hallway that contained the door to his office. They had to duck and move around multiple pieces of technology that all probably needed to be finished at some point. He also needed to clean up the scattered desks lining the hallway that were just used by anyone who needed them.
Oh, by the way, how did training day go? I haven’t seen Miles or Gwen yet to ask them about it." Peter asked the question, effectively pulling Miguel into contributing to the conversation.
"It went well; they are all improving at a good pace." He said figuring it out was a good enough answer that it didn’t seem like he was attached to the kids at all. "In fact, we are continuing our training every seven days." He added with a fond tone at the back of his words.
He added the last part without thinking properly, but before he could backtrack, Peter already had a huge grin painted on his face, and he slung an arm around Miguel, forcing him to hunch over thanks to the size difference.
"Awwww!! Miguel is getting attached!" Peter sang while he shook Miguel fondly, and Mayday giggled at her father's teasing tone while clapping her hands together. "I knew you couldn’t keep up that grumpy facade for long! They always grow on you, don't they?"
"Wha—wait—no. No, It's just training, nothing more, and Hobie said they wanted to continue the training; it wasn’t my idea." He blabbered, his words not having the effect he wanted when Peter's mood didn’t change, and he just continued with his knowing grin.
"Wow! You really must have hit the jackpot if they made the first move." Peter stated as he took his arm off of Miguel's shoulders, allowing him to return to a better posture. "I bet next you all are going to be going on missions, and then we will have a new member of the Spider-Gang!"
"You are taking this way too far, Peter. It is just training, and I’m not attached or something. I am just being a good boss. Nothing more." Miguel enunciated, picking up the pace to make it to his office faster and get away from the accusing conversation.
So what if he felt happy that he would have more time with the brats? It wasn’t like he was attached in any way more than boss and employee. Thinking back to his thoughts about the kids going back to their universes alone and without someone to properly look after them, the spider half of him wanted them to all be in the same room so he could protect them from danger. Maybe Peter could be there too, and Jessica as well. They could be trusted to keep the brats safe—wait, no. They all had someone or something that could watch over them in their home universes.
Plus, they were all superpowered spider people that fought multiple villains every week. They didn’t need Miguel to help them.
Too busy getting lost in his thoughts, Miguel didn’t notice how Peter was looking at his face, his eyes showing how he was decoding Miguel's facial expressions to figure out what he was thinking, and his eyebrows were furrowed with a hint of concern.
"I have work to catch up on," he mumbled, using his watch to open the door to his office before stepping in and letting the door slide shut behind him, leaving Peter in the dim lighting of the hallway.
He used a web to launch himself onto the platform that contained his work area. All of the monitors still had the charts and recordings that he was looking at before he went to the training room.
A familiar static glitch sounded to the right as his annoyingly intelligent AI took on her physical form.
"It took you long enough; normally you don’t leave your sanctum for more than a couple hours." Lyla remarked as she fully appeared, standing behind Miguel at her realistic height. She had her arms crossed and was giving Miguel a look on the back of his head while she waited for a response.
"The training ran a bit longer than I expected, and Peter B. Parker interrupted me on the way here." He said this as he started to pull up projection screens that displayed many different universes and the mission reports that came in today. There weren’t many reports, around fifteen at least, but approving the reports and then making sure the anomalies got sent to their home universes added more time to his workload.
"Looked like they had fun with your premium version of Capture the Flag; it had to be pretty enjoyable if they all agreed to continue your training." Lyla started glitching her form over to project her sitting on his control board, kicking her legs slightly.
Miguel kept quiet, tapping around on his screens and checking for any recent anomalies that needed to be taken care of. It was second nature to him at this point; it was basically a mindless activity that he did multiple times per day that allowed him to retreat into his thoughts.
If he hadn’t been busying himself with checking universes and reading over reports, Miguel would have seen Lyla's disappointed frown at his lack of conversation.
After a while of working in darkness and silence, Lyla broke the silence with a question he was dreading to hear.
"What do you think about them?" Lyla asked, her voice lacking its unusually sarcastic undertone and instead being replaced with a warm emotion that seemed unfamiliar.
"Who?" He responded that maybe if he played dumb enough, she wouldn’t press the subject any further and he wouldn’t have to deal with this today.
"You know who I’m talking about, Miguel." Lyla scolded; she always knew when he was trying to avoid something and it was getting annoying. "Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Hobie Brown—that whole spider group—what do you think about them?"
"They seem like pretty good recruits; they work well together." Just keep playing dumb.
"Stop that. You know what I’m asking." Lyla said as she glitched in front of Miguel, creating a barrier between him and the screens. "I know when something is up, and I want to know the gossip."
"Nothing is up, Lyla." He growled. Why were people so insistent on him talking about his thoughts today? What was their problem? "Now leave me alone. I need to catch up on reports."
The AI’s expression went from glaring at him to a softened gaze that still held a bit of frustration.
Alright," Lyla basically whispered, which was unnatural for the AI. Her pinkish hologram glitched a bit before she fully disappeared, leaving Miguel in the darkness without the dim light her presence emitted.
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, but it was unsuccessful. Lyla wasn’t wrong; of course she wasn’t. No matter how long he denied it or pushed it back, it was there. A small sprout of attachment that he didn’t know what to do with.
Last time he tried to have a happy family, it didn’t end well.
It wasn’t even likely that any of the younger recruits felt the same way. They just needed him for training and to approve their missions. Nothing more. Miles Morales always went to Peter for help, and he had his father as well.
The father, Miguel, had basically told him to let him die.
Miles could never forgive him for that, right? He had chased the kid around headquarters and through Nueva York just because he wanted to save his dad from death. It was a miracle that Miles even agreed to be part of the Spider Society after that. It was most likely because of his friends who were here.
He had sent Gwen home after scolding her for letting Miles into headquarters.
Hobie and Pavitr, he hadn’t majorly messed up with, but they both knew about his actions with Miles and Gwen. Same with Noir and Peni.
Miguel let out a sigh, closing out the screen that displayed the security recording of the captured anomalies. Why did he have to go and start getting so attached to the kids? This couldn’t end well, not for him. It wasn’t easy for a Spider-Man to try and get any form of family without the risk of them dying. He had learned his lesson the hard way, costing billions of lives all because he wanted something he wasn’t supposed to have.
A family.