Late Work
Miguel desperately needed to catch up on his work.
The reports he needed to look over quickly piled up, and he still needed to check the progress with the "Go Home Machine" sending the anomalies to their universes. He had received a message from Spider-Byte that informed him about the delay in sending anomalies back; it said something about an issue with the DNA reading technology that would be fixed in a day or two.
Without an easy way to send anomalies out of headquarters, the storage area that was designed to hold the villains quickly became overfilled, causing Miguel to give the order to start storing the villains anywhere that didn’t become a burden to the workflow inside headquarters.
Currently, Miguel had just finished sending out a team, led by Jessica Drew, to a universe where a particularly strong anomaly had been detected. He would have loved to join in on the mission; he hadn’t left his office in about three days since the training with the Spider-Gang. It wasn’t like he had stayed in his office the whole time; he took brief breaks for personal hygiene and to grab a quick protein bar from the cafeteria before making his retreat back into the darkness that was his office.
He kept monitoring the many recordings of the multiverse, displaying different spider variants fighting and capturing anomalies. Miguel always made sure to keep an eye on the fights just in case he needed to send in backup or if anyone got severely hurt and needed medical help.
Shifting his attention to a screen showing a team fighting a medieval-themed Green Goblin, the team was none other than the kids he hadn’t been able to fully stop thinking about since their training.
After the loud group barged into his office, with Hobie somehow being able to disable the locking mechanism on the door, they admitted that they were bored and were wondering if there were any missions that needed to be completed.
Miguel was quick to scold them for not taking the multiverse seriously, but lucky for them, there was a recently reported anomaly that needed to be taken care of. Normally he wouldn’t send more than two people at a time on a mission; however, Pavitr and Peni made a semi-convincing argument that it would work as team building, and Miguel didn’t feel like bickering with the teens.
The screen showed the team fighting off the Green Goblin variant, with Gwen and Hobie swinging around and launching attacks while Peni, Pavir, and Noir took turns distracting the villain. It was a chaotic harmony of dodging, and the occasional attack from the Green Goblin would send one of them flying, only to recover by swinging back at the villain.
He stood there watching the group fight off the villain, the edges of his mouth perking up slightly when one of the teens made a perfectly timed quip.
The longer he looked at the screen, something felt like it was missing.
Counting the heroes that he could see, it became alarmingly clear that the inseparable team was missing one of their members.
Where was Miles Morales?
Was Miles hurt somewhere on the sidelines? No, no if that were the case, he would have gotten a call for help. Then where was the kid?
Quickly abandoning the screen he was watching the fight on, Miguel pulled up a recording of Miles Earth and checked the regular places that the teen would hang out at. His school was out for the day, His dorm was empty except for a lazy-looking roommate playing some video games, and Miles' room was quiet and empty.
Miguel continued to check all around Earth-1610. Something was telling him he was maybe overreacting about this; it wasn’t like he knew where every one of the spider variants that were under his command were at all times.
Why was Morales more important then?
The words of Peter B. Parker echoed in the back of his head.
"Miguel is getting attached!"
No. Nope. He wasn’t anymore attached to the teens than he was to the rest of the spider society. He just told them where to go to fight an anomaly and they went there, sure he was going to spend more time around them due to the training, and he found himself checking in on their universes more often. That didn’t mean anything.
Right?
Miguel shook his head to get his focus back on the issue at hand.
Well, it wasn’t as much of an issue, more of a concerning situation. Out of all the spider variants that could be lost, the one that caused the most multiversal chaos was not the best option.
Okay, okay, okay, this is fine. He is probably just tired; after all, he hasn’t been getting enough sleep with the overwhelming amount of work on his shoulders. There is no reason that he should be getting this stressed out about something as simple as this.
Maybe he just needed some fresh air, some time out of this office, and maybe some food. He had been drinking mass amounts of coffee, so he didn’t have the urge to pass out the entire day.
He made a quick injection into his shoulder using the injection gun filled with a green liquid, letting the liquid flow through his body and give him a small feeling of peace as the drug kept the spider DNA from spreading, before he turned away from his control board.
Shooting a web at one of the pillars above him, Miguel swung down to the entrance and started to make his way to the cafeteria. After he got some food, he could ask around to see if anyone had seen Miles recently. The absence of the teen was making him worried; the spider half of him tended to have a say in his emotions at times, so it was easiest to just blame his problems on his powers.
Making his way through the cluttered hallway that led to his office, he bumped his head against a low, overhanging device, which caused him to let out a small growl at the device. He made sure to look around for any glimpse of the black suit with spray-painted red detailing, and he also kept an eye out for the rest of the Spider-Gang as well.
After trying to walk on the overly crowded bridge, which was always crowded at random intervals during the day when different universes let people out of schools or jobs, Miguel grew irritated at the constant shoulder checks and just decided to web swing to the cafeteria.
Landing on the cafeteria floor and using the talons on his feet to keep from slipping, he casually walked over to see what was left after the lunch rush. He pretended not to notice how his presence caused some of the spider variants to tense up or to stop whatever they were doing to watch as he walked past.
Part of him wanted to make a snarky comment about the staring, but he withheld himself. Although the staring did sort of make him want to put his mask on and hide from the unwanted attention,
The idea of food became more appealing as he drew closer to the cafeteria counter, where multiple bins were set out, some empty and a few still holding food. He skimmed over his options; there were burgers that resembled his suit—courtesy of Jessica and Peter—a bunch of different forms of chicken, and luckily, two leftover empanadas sitting at the back of a bin.
The empanadas were his favorite out of all the cafeteria foods; it wasn’t because the rest of the food was disgusting or anything. It was actually pretty well made with natural ingredients instead of the artificial slop that was served in cafeterias in most universes.
Miguel snatched up the two empanadas that were pre-packaged in to-go boxes that said what fillings they contained. The two leftovers were a beef and chicken filling, which was not bad for a last-minute mini meal.
As he started his departure, his eye caught on a person in a black and red suit sitting at a table that was far away from the others that were occupied, and he was surrounded by books and papers chaotically scattered around the table.
Miles.
What was he doing in the cafeteria instead of hanging out with his friends on a mission?
Before he could overthink himself into stopping, Miguel headed over to where the teen was sitting. As he got closer, the expression on Miles' face became more clear; the kid was stressed and furiously erasing something on a piece of paper.
"Morales? What are you doing?" He asked, trying purposefully to make his voice sound casual and calm and not like he was getting on him for something.
Miles' head shot up from where he was hunched over the papers, his eyes going from scared to nervous when he saw Miguel standing over him.
"Oh! Miguel!—well, um, I have homework to catch up on." Miles gestured to the piles of papers surrounding him, his hands shaking slightly. "I totally forgot about it and had to back out on the mission, sorry."
Miguel looked over the papers Miles was working on; most of the papers seemed to already be graded, and there were multiple post-it notes saying that they needed to be redone for a better grade. His eyes skimmed over the text on the papers, recognizing the Spanish text.
"No need to apologize; what are you working on anyway? These papers seem to be graded already." He asked, hopefully prompting Miles into some form of conversation so he didn’t have to go back to work.
"Oh, well, they were graded, but I sorta rushed them, and that didn’t help my grade." Miles said he had put down the pencil he was using and rubbed the back of his neck like he was embarrassed. "Most of this stuff is due tomorrow, so I’m trying to get it all done."
"I don’t think the society's cafeteria is the best place to focus. Wouldn’t your dorm or even your room at your parents house be quieter?" Miguel commented, silently cursing himself for his word choice. It made it seem like the kid wasn’t wanted here, and that definitely wasn’t true anymore, at least.
Miles must have taken it that way because his expression flickered for a second, his gaze shifting down, and his leg had started to bounce under the table.
"Yeah, well. My roommate said he needed the dorm, and if my mom found out about my grades in Spanish, she would kill me." Miles muttered, picking up the pencil to continue his work.
Miguel knew that whatever excuse Miles' roommate gave him was a lie; the lazy boy probably just wanted the place to himself, and leaving him here didn’t sit right with Miguel.
He looked at the boxes in his hands before he held one of them out to the stressed teen, giving a small attempt at a welcoming look.
"It is only going to get more busy here, so why don’t you take a quick break, eat something, and then I can help you find a better place to complete your work?"
He held out the empanada, thoughts rushing around in his head about how awkward and unnecessary this whole conversation was. Miles probably didn’t need any help; he was doing just fine before he came along and messed up his work flow. He hated it when people did that to him. Why did he have to go and do it to Miles? Not to mention he basically told the kid to get lost; why would he take up on his stupid offer?
The overthinking going on in Miguel's head was interrupted as the feeling of the box in his outstretched hand leaving brought him back to the present. Miles had taken the empanada, a confused look on his face as he opened the box to find the fried snack.
The teens' look went from confused to surprised to happy. Maybe? He grabbed the empanada and put it in his mouth to hold on to it while he gathered up the scattered papers.
"Thanks, and yeah, sure, getting out of here sounds nice; it was getting kinda loud here anyway." Miles mumbled, the food in his mouth obstructing his speech while also leaving a few crumbs on the table.
Miguel started helping him gather up the papers, using one of them to bookmark a page of a textbook. He saw it out of the corner of his eye. Miles briefly stopped to look at him; the urge to put his mask on was back for a second, but the teen just continued scooping up the papers while occasionally stopping to take more bites of his food.
Once both Spider-men had one arm full of homework papers and textbooks, Miguel held the other empanada box with his free hand until he decided to just tuck it between his arm and the books.
The pair set off away from the cafeteria, with Miles walking to the side of Miguel so he could follow him without looking like a lost duckling.
After walking away from the crowds, Miguel shot a web to start swinging, but before he started fully, he looked over at Miles to make sure he got the message. The teen looked at him blankly for a second before smiling and adjusting the papers he held in his arm.
"Are we going to the sector where your office is?" He asked, a glint in his eye while he continued smiling at the older Spider-Man.
"Yes, there shouldn't be—"
"Race you there!" The teen called before swinging off in the direction of the sector, his laughter echoing as he left Miguel with a blank stare.
He wasn’t about to let a rookie Spider-Man beat him, now was he?
Miguel shot out one of his glowing red webs and launched himself towards the sector as well, with a determined yet happy look in his eyes.
The end results of the spontaneous race will not be confirmed. But on a completely unrelated note, Miles did have a head start, so the race wasn’t even fair to begin with.
"You had a head start on me; if it had been a fair competition, I would have left you in the dust." Miguel retorted while he and Miles had reacted to the sector and were now making their way down the cluttered hallway toward his office, exchanging words and debating about the results of the race.
"Eehhh, sounds like I just can’t take that I beat you." Miles teased, the teen had gotten a bit more comfortable after the whole racing thing; maybe it was a test to see if Miguel would get mad at him for goofing around.
Hanging out with Miles, even for just a few minutes, made him feel much better—less of a mindless workaholic and more happy. Part of it was that Miguel was no longer worried about the kid being stuck in another universe or if he had gotten hurt. Knowing that it was just a lot of homework that the kid was stuck with lifted a weight off his shoulders that he didn’t even remember being there.
Before they reached the door to his office, Miguel took a turn into a less cluttered area where the walls were lined with desks and a few spinning chairs were scattered around. He cleared off a large area so Miles could have room to work properly, setting down the papers and books he was carrying, and then he turned to the teen so he could set his armful of stuff down.
"Is this good? There shouldn’t be anyone coming through here; it's pretty dead around here most of the time." He said while he pushed a chair out with his foot, he didn’t really know what to do now; it didn’t take a spider sense to feel the growing awkwardness of the situation, or maybe that was just him.
Miles flopped down in the spinning chair, using his feet to steady himself so he didn’t start spinning. The teen looked around at the area before his gaze settled on the large pile of homework that he had to finish.
"Thanks for this, Miguel—ya’ know, helping me and letting me use this space. It's pretty cool," Miles awkwardly said, obviously feeling the weirdness of the situation now. The teen didn’t quite look Miguel in the eyes; he was really just looking in the general direction of the man.
"No problem, ki—Miles" Miguel caught himself before he could call Miles a kid. Sure, he was technically a kid,but he had seen how it made him feel when people called him that,and Miguel definitely wasn’t on a nickname level with him.
Luckily, Miles just laughed in response before spinning around in the chair to face his homework.
"This is going to take a while…" the teenager groaned, picking up a packet of papers and slipping through it to start where he left off.
Miguel's gaze lingered on the teen for a bit before he walked away and headed towards his own office to face the work that he had to do.
He was preparing to open his door when a pair of running footsteps seemed to be coming closer to him. Turning around, he was greeted with the sight of Miles Morales running over to him holding a stack of papers. The teen stopped his momentum using a web so he didn’t crash into his boss.
"What—" Miguel started, a confused look on his face. Why was the kid coming to him? He'd thought that he would be relieved for Miguel to finally leave him alone and stop distracting him.
Miles had a light smile on his face while he held up the packet of papers in his hand. Putting them where Miguel was able to see what was on them, his eyes widened in recognition, and he looked back to the teenager, whose smile had grown.
"You know Spanish, right?"
And that was how Miguel found himself sitting next to Miles with papers laid out before them, instructing him on his Spanish homework.
"All your answers have grammatical errors on this worksheet, and this one here." Miguel held up the worksheets, both of which had low grades written in red marker across the top.
"What? But I was so confident that was the exact translation," Miles groaned into his hands, then looked up to see the worksheets. "I know how to say all of that in Spanish; I use some of those phrases daily!"
"How do you use Spanish in your daily life?" Miguel asked, setting down the worksheets in front of Miles, who had his elbow resting on the table, supporting his head.
"How do I use it? I don’t know, my mamá talks to me in Spanish, same with a couple friends I have in my neighborhood, but we just use it mixed in with English," Miles answered, using his fingers to count off the examples.
Miguel hummed, rubbing his neck with his hand while he thought for a bit. Miles was a smart kid; there was no doubt about that, and he couldn’t picture him as the type to make mistakes on work this often.
"These answers are in a variation of what I’d call street Spanish, or just informal Spanish; that is probably why your teacher counted them as grammatical errors. It's still Spanish, but it's not the type that is taught academically and used in professional contexts." He explained using his hands to assist in his explanation. That was the best reason he could think of; he hadn’t really practiced his Spanish since he didn’t really need to at this point.
Miles' eyebrows furrowed for a second, processing Miguel's words, before he sighed, slumping over in his seat and burrowing his head in his arms on the table.
"That makes a lot of sense, actually." He mumbled into his crossed arms before straightening up and returning to resting his head on his hand. "No wonder my mom tried to correct my teacher on her curriculum."
Miguel let slip a small bout of laughter at Miles' comment; he didn’t notice the smile that the teenager gave him.
The tutoring session continued like that, with Miguel instructing Miles on proper grammar and what words meant what, Miles making quips occasionally that Miguel would try to hide his snort of laughter at. It was nice; he wasn’t thinking about his work with the multiverse; he wasn’t worried about any anomalies; it was just him helping out Miles.
It reminded him of his daughter, Gabriella, he remembered teaching her how to do things. Even getting him to learn a couple words in Spanish during the brief time he was about to spend raising her before he… No. Not right now; he can’t get sucked back into his grief. Not again.
He could feel his eyes starting to burn, and a lump was forming in his throat. Dang it, he just had to go and ruin one of his happier moments by thinking about his mistakes.
Miguel muttered a small excuse to Miles, who was working on correcting a packet, before he got up from his seat and walked to where he couldn’t be seen by the kid. He went through a few of the breathing exercises that he used when he got too stressed.
Deep inhale through the nose.
Hold.
Hold.
Exhale through the mouth.
Repeat until you get your shocking emotions under control.
He eventually returned to Miles' side, making up some other excuse about checking on the balance of the multiverse or something.