bad things | P. PARKER

8. when spidey saves the night

PETER PARKER WAS A SELF-SABOTEUR if ever there was one.

He had no doubt that the reaction he would get from Blair/Laney when he saw her once again would make him feel ten times worse, but it didn't stop him from beating himself up in the hours following their 'hang out.' No amount of people he had saved from muggings that night stopped the voice in his mind that continuously insulted him for being so late.

So, so stupid, it sounded out again, causing him to sigh as he leapt onto the next rooftop. It was bad enough that his mind was talking down to him, but to make matters worse it had managed to convince him to actually return to the bar nearer to its closing time. Just to really drive the image of her with someone else, having a good time, home.

Placing one knee down on the ledge of a rooftop directly across the street, he poked his head up to peer downward, watching as the bars patrons began to drunkenly stumble out into the streets to begin their journey home. It wasn't long before he saw her familiar blonde locks appearing in the entryway.

She was laughing hard, as he knew she would be, his eyes honing in on the way her nose scrunched up in the most adorable way. Shaking the thought of how bewitching he found her when she was so amused, he began to clock onto how drunk she actually was.

Laney was stumbling as she walked, her feet tripping over thin air and trying to send her flailing toward the ground had she not been steadied by the firm grip on her elbow. It was the same man he saw earlier that evening - Peter took a single guess at what his intentions were as he determinedly steered a completely intoxicated Laney in a clear direction. Peter thought the man would have hailed a cab for the inebriated woman, allowing her to safely return to her own address. But that wasn't the case.

His shoulders prickled defensively, his gaze fixated on the two retreating figures as he stood up and began to sprint to the building to the right, only removing his eyes from them when he had to leap over the gap.

"This girl should really consider moving cities," he muttered, voice tight with concern as he adamantly followed after them, waiting for a definite sign that she needed him to step in. Peter's mind was rampant with possibilities - Laney clearly had a target on her back, was this guy yet another one sent to take her out?

A few stories beneath Peter on the pavements of the street, Delaney was tipsily babbling to her brother about anything and everything that came to her mind.

"Remember the time you got in trouble for blocking the toilet?" she started off her current story, already giggling as Danny was huffing with annoyance, eager to leave her home already and be rid of her. "That was actually me, I was flushing the awful brisket Mom made for dinner and boom! The water is overflowing!"

"What?!" Danny snapped, his jaw falling open in shock as the great bathroom mystery of 2008 had been solved in mere seconds. "I got in so much shit for that, Delaney! You told them it was me!"

"Pfft," she smirked, "what was I gonna do? Admit it was me and plunge it? No way, José!"

"I was put on this Earth to suffer, I swear to god," he shook his head, tugging a little rougher on his little sister's coat as she tried to dawdle elsewhere. The duo had drank the same amount, but Daniel had the tolerance of a rhino and his sister had the tolerance of a teenager that reacted to Smirnoff Ice as if it were absinthe.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly shouted, coming from a red and blue clad body that out of nowhere dropped in front of them from the sky. "What exactly is going on here?"

"Holy shit, dude!" Daniel wheezed, his hand clutching his chest from the fright. "A bit of warning next time?!"

"Bugsy!" Delaney squealed with glee, using newfound strength to pry her brothers grip off of her as she hurtled toward the masked figure, practically body-slamming him with how hard her front hit his, her arms immediately wrapping around him.