the spider whisperer

Partners [chapter 2]

"Morning, Sunshine," he sat his bag down in the empty space at their lab table. She'd usually ignore him, but there was something to the way he was speaking that wasn't normal.

He wasn't looking at her when she turned either. Her hand grabbed his jaw and she forced him to look at her. The brows on her face furrowed when she saw the dark bags under his eyes. Now she wasn't worried or anything, but... "Parker, did you even sleep last night?"

He slurred a sentence or two with a forced smile and waved her off. His words were incoherent, so she forced him to repeat what he'd said, "Yeah. I think I got like three , or four, or five."

"Three, four, or five... what?" she narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe seconds, maybe minutes," he shrugged. Folding his arms on the lab table, he placed his head in his arms. With a yawn, he titled his head to the side so it was facing her. His eyes were still shut, so he wouldn't see how focused she was on the small bandaid over part of his left eyebrow. "Wake me up when the teacher comes in."

"Parker, did you hurt yourself patrolling last night?" her voice was now in a whisper and she leaned closer to the boy so the chances of being heard were lower. It wasn't exactly ideal to have people knowing of his other identity. She reached a hand up and ran her thumb over the bandaid.

Peter liked the feeling of her warm hand running over his face, but at the same time he recoiled. The little scar he'd gotten still hurt when touched, "Yeah, but only a little scratch. We've seen worse." His eyes were still closed but a smile had made its way onto his face, "Like remember the ones after I fought the lizard. It's not nearly as bad!"

"Stop being so reckless," she scolded in a harsh whisper.

"Awww," Peter finally opened his eyes again. He gave a dazed smile, "Does l/n care about me?" His voice was in that cooing one that meant he was being a tease, "Well don't you worry you're pretty little head. I'll be safer just for you."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh my God. Shut up." She was going to turn away and start ignoring him again, but one question ate away at her mind. "How did you even get that cut anyways? You're always careful when it comes to face related injuries."

"I got slammed into a car," he mumbled. Then his brows furrowed and his tone turned serious, "But here's something cool: the guy had a KP pin on. You know, like the one that other guy had on two nights ago." He sat up in his seat and looked y/n in the eye. The usual playfulness that danced around in his irises had completely disappeared, "I think a big crime group is after me."

She studied his face, hoping for any sign of a lie. But there wasn't, so her mind wandered off to the worst of thoughts. What if they started targeting her too because they realized her relationship to Spider-man?— not that she had one... What if they get to her? What if he can't save her?

"Don't worry," he seemed to just sense her worry even if it wasn't quite written all over her face yet. "I'll always be there to protect my damsel if she were to ever be in distress."

In response, he got another eye roll, "Whatever." And then they took up their usual routine with Peter doing whatever and y/n studying something. They stayed silent together, not seeming to notice a girl across the room from them who gazed curiously at Peter.

The teacher walked into class, and their attention went to him. Well, mostly anyways. Peter was too busy making web fluid and having y/n being forced to hand him various different chemicals and beakers and whatnot. Y/n made sure to pay attention to both, the teacher and Peter, just enough to know what was going on with both parties. The teacher ended up explaining everything with ten minutes at the end of class to spare, so he allowed people to find partners and discuss what they wanted to do for the project.