(Metal) Claws of Destiny

Chapter 6 - Fire in the Water

TW: Drowning.

There was a long, long, perhaps even endless bridge, very high up above the water. You weren't sure which bridge it was, you've been to many, but there you stood atop the thin metal railing, balancing and looking downwards. The powerful burning sun stared at you from above. You are a human. You are a spider. You are special, extraordinary.
And yet, although your balance is abnormaly perfect, and you have webs, strong silky webs that can do just about anything, which saved the city of New York multiple times from destruction and annihilation, you begin to fall.
You fall quickly, but endlessly, towards your peril, and with no control whatsoever.
You hear a voice, as smooth as the surface of the water, deep and lovely. It is a familiar voice, but you cannot tell what it is saying. You want to keep hearing the voice, you yearn for the voice to keep on speaking, you yearn for the warmth it provides you in the moment.
And yet, although you'd let yourself fall, the voice seems to tell you not to, but the webs don't seem to work, they are not there right now, and suddenly you get the feeling that you are no longer extraordinary. You are just a person, falling from a tall, tall bridge, somewhere in New York, and then you hit the cold, hard water, it looked so smooth but it hurts so excruciatingly, more than you thought it would.
The water absorbs you, consumes your body, consumes your lungs, you breathe through your nose and mouth, and breathe, and it is everywhere inside you, and no matter how hard you try to swim your arms fail you, your legs fail you, and everything around you becomes blurry, dark and unrecognisable.
Everything is burning, as if you were suddenly consumed by fire.
You let the water become one with you. It's cold.

You hear the warm, comforting voice again. It makes it all hurt less, but this time it forms words.
"Wake up- hey!"
And your eyes open to the new day, a new morning, and a pair of brown eyes staring back at yours. One of his actuators was gripping your arm, seemingly shaking you awake, and he was looking down at you with a frown.
"You were having a nightmare"
You hummed, once again woken up by Octavius and once again not fully awake yet.
You've had this nightmare before, yet a voice, especially his voice had never appeared within it. Maybe it was because he physically spoke to the sleeping you outside of the dream and your mind registered the outside surroundings on the brink of awakeness.
In a quiet whisper, and with the gentlest smile, you muttered-
"You have a very nice voice" 
His frown deepened, and although blurred, your vision hasn't failed to register the slightest pink tint that coloured his cheeks.
"Wh-uh- now you're just being nonsensical. Are you okay?"
You chuckled, slowly adjusting to the real world around you, reminding yourself subconsciously that your insides are no longer burning with cold water. It was just a nightmare. You got up and followed your guest into the kitchen/living room area. Once you began to wake up a little, you felt the subtle taste of alcohol on your tongue. You sigh.
"Help yourself to anything in the fridge, since you're probably hungry. What time even is it?"
You groggily rubbed at your eyes and looked at the clock on your bedside table- it was 8:34am, the sun has risen about an hour ago, and you felt less alive than ever.
You plopped down on the couch, but the realisation that he actually stayed at your house for the night, for whatever reason hit you, it hit you harder than the annoyance which came with the loss of memory after the light in amount, but nonetheless strong in character alcohol, a bottle of which you have stored away for any special occasions only.
"Where did you sleep Otto?"
He was now facing away from you, looking into your fridge and taking some things out. You got a chance to notice that he has left his leather coat draped over one of the chairs in your kitchen area, his gloves laid atop it, balancing perfectly. He was wearing a sort of undershirt and some nice dark pants which looked quite comfortable; but most importantly, his cool, characteristic glasses were nowhere to be seen, not on him, not anywhere in sight, they were gone. You wondered what you did with them, only remembering that you took them off of him at somepoint in the night, but didn't really want to cause yourself a headache by trying to remember little details.
"Who says I slept?"
You raised your eyebrow at him, as he turned around to face you.
"Okay- I slept on your sofa. You didn't give me many options after you passed out and-"
He trailed off, focusing on buttering a piece of bread.
Oh yeah, you did find yourself in your bed, somehow, not really sure how, but then again alcohol was involved so there wouldn't be much you'd remember. You doubt you managed to offer where he could sleep before you fell asleep, after all you were tired and he did come to you after midnight, a time at which you'd usually be asleep.
"Sorry..."
Not really sure what you were sorry for, but you still said it.
Otto just scoffed from the kitchen in reply and came over to you, handing you a piece of buttered bread with your preferred topping on it, and a mug of coffee .
"Thank you Otto, that's nice of you, and you do remember how I like my coffee."
He gave you an awkward smile, which felt nice. It felt nice somewhere within you, and you forgot the cold dark water, the bridge and the sadness, you had Otto here in front of you.
You chewed slowly and thought about what you were going to do today, then remembered the promise you made to Otto before you were drinking. You promised to see the experiment, to help, to assist. That was your job still right? how could you say no.
You finished eating and drank the rest of the delicious coffee, getting up from the couch and once again thanking him for making you breakfast, even though he was technically your guest.

"Let me just get changed and then we can go see that experiment okay?"

He nodded eagerly, and sat down on the chair on which his jacket was draped over, showing an expression of patience on his face. You got a good look at it, and noticed the eyebags underneath his eyes, he looked... tired. Was he actually saying the truth? did he not sleep?
You left the room and went over to your bedroom, taking off your pajamas and putting on some nice clean clothes. You looked in the mirror and ignored the mess that was your hair, deciding to put a hat on and feeling increadibly flustered for looking like an absolute bird nest in front of Otto, and a little angry at him for not saying a word about it.

The outside air was heavy and damp, clouds covered every inch of the sky, making it a rather dark and mysterious day, and the aftermath of rain during the night could easily be smelled. The city was quite uncharacteristically calm- there weren't many people out today, you wondered whether it was some kind of a holiday maybe, you seemed to have lost track of time for the past month, unsure of even what day of the week it was today.

You walked alone towards the abandoned warehouse, Otto took a route that was more discrete and away from you as to not make anyone suspect anything about you- How sweet- he'd never risk putting you in danger.

The puddles on the ground reflected the tall buildings above, which towered over you, looking down at you with disapproval - after all you are technically helping the person who has been recently labelled a "villain", a "fiend", a "thief", and although the last one could have been partially true, you still sided with Otto- people didn't know the whole truth, and they never would anyway because nobody would listen.
Unless, the unlimited power supply could actually be fixed, and then maybe he could just be labelled a "hero" instead.
A funny thought to think, knowing that people don't really change, and would rather see the bad in everybody else around them.

"Let's do this..."
You said as you walked towards the old, rusty warehouse ahead of you.

Note:
I am sorry about the slow updates. Soon I am breaking up with my partner of 4 years and I am mentally devastated, it's been a lot, so please excuse me while I sort out my life. I promise to write as much as I can, it's honestly a comfort to me, especially at a time like this, to write a fic like this and enjoy doing it. :/
Side note: if I ever get bored I might write a Khonsu x reader fic, so look out for that if you're interested.