SpideyTorch Oneshot Collection

Always Gald You Came

Summary: Spider-Man is a relatively new, controversial vigilante, and Johnny has a crush the size of the Empire Building. The Four - operating under the assumption that Spidey is an adult - do not approve.
Word Count: 13,290
by @aloneintherain on archive of our own

Spider-Man is a mysterious, shadowy figure in the eyes of the public. All footage of him is blurry or captured from a great distance—climbing and swinging and moving in a way that doesn't seem human.

Rumours had begun to circulate of people being pushed out of the way of trucks, of muggers and rapists strung up in webbing, and people caught safely in midair before they could hit the asphalt. But even then, the Daily Bugle and the obsessed NYPD shout over the top of those claims. Louder. Drowning them out.

It's easy to see how a city might come to hate a hero. Spider-Man is this otherworldly, controversial figure.

Johnny thinks he's the coolest thing ever.

So maybe he harbours some small measure of hero worship for the vigilante. Johnny has watched shaky YouTube videos of the guy righting tipping buses and flipping high into the air, swinging so fast and so recklessly it looks like he's flying. And Spider-Man does all of this while being slim and silent, a dark protector of New York City. Not wanting fame, but wanting to keep his city safe.

Cool. So impossibly cool.

Slowly, other people began to think so too. Spider-Man memorabilia starts popping up; t-shirts and bedspreads, little necklaces and wristbands that proclaim the wearer's support for the masked vigilante. The city hates him for the most part, but there are some that don't. A niche who fervently support Spider-Man.

After the very public, very awesome defeat of the Lizard, Johnny is officially hooked. Posters are hung on his walls, t-shirts stuffed inside of his already full drawers. Spider-Man becomes his incontestable favourite.

His teammates don't agree with Johnny's enthusiasm, however.

Sue purses her lips when he comes down for dinner, his t-shirt red, an increasingly infamous symbol on his chest.

"Is that appropriate?" she asks, carrying a large salad bowl from the kitchen.

"What, my t-shirt?" Johnny glances down at it, as if to check that it hasn't suddenly sprouted swear words or pictures of naked women in his trek down the stairs.

Ben barges his way past Johnny, taking a seat at the end of the table. "She's talking about your school girl crush on that Spider-Guy, squirt."

Johnny splutters. "I don't have a crush!"

"Who does Johnny have a crush on?" Reed asks as he pops out from the kitchen, platter of skewed chicken in hand.

"Spider-Man," she says, fetching a pitcher of juice.

"Sue! I do not—"

"No? Then explain the t-shirt, and the posters, and the way you freeze whenever Spider-Man comes on on the news."

"I just happen to think he's cool," Johnny says, matter-of-factly. "A hero can think another hero is cool without making it weird. I admire his aloofness. And his badass-ness."

"His aloofness," Ben repeats, chuckling into his mug of beer. It's roughly the size of Johnny's head. "Yeah, sure, I bet that's all your admire, right?"

Reed sits down on Ben's right, cutlery in hand. "I've seen the videos, too. I know he does look rather fetching in that spandex."

"He does have a nice ass, doesn't he?" Sue agrees.