Within the Spiderverse ! !

Chapter One.

      Hobie stumbled in through your window past the time the sky was dark, and you hardly glanced up from your book, only looking over when he let himself fall backwards onto the couch across from you. He dragged his mask from his face, his arm draped over his torso in an awkward position. This was the first sign he was injured, the way he tried to cover himself subtly rather than sprawling out. That and the fact he didn't greet you as usual.
   You set your book down and came to stand beside where he laid, moving his hand out of the way before he could protest much. He looked up at you without a word as you sighed and headed over to a standalone cabinet in the corner and returned to his side with a makeshift first aid box. 
   "So.." Hobie started to ask up to you, moving his hand to grip the side of the couch cushion as you undo the top part of his suit and start to wipe down the raw injury with hydrogen peroxide and water. "Whatchu do today.?" His voice and breath hitched a bit halfway through his sentence as you applied a bit of pressure and he winced.
    You didn't try to correct him as he strayed the topic away from himself in a casual manner. "Groceries. Bought a book." you replied quietly as you held the cloth to his wound and undid the cap of a petroleum tub. "Not much."
   He looked up at you as you tended to him, but your gaze was busy on his torso as you carefully applied some of the petroleum as soon as the skin was clean. "You went out?" Hobie questioned lightheartedly and you nodded a bit. From anyone else this would sound like some sarcastic jab, but it wasn't. At least not from his mouth. "That's good, mate... that's good." Hobie muttered with a small smile as he leaned his head back against the cushion and continued to look up at you as you laid a mesh cloth over the area and grabbed for a roll of bandages. 
    "Sit up." You intoned, letting him take hold of your free hand before you helped ease him up and continued holding the mesh to his wound. His breathing went rugged for a few moments before he relaxed into the new position.
Hobie leaned slightly forward, putting his hand on your shoulder as you reached behind his torso and started wrapping him with the thick ace bandages. "What book?" he ventured calmly and you watched his gaze fall down to your hands and their repeated motions.
     You finished wrapping his torso pretty quickly and rummaged through the box with your free hand for scissors, "Discus. It's a play script." but ultimately you grabbed your pocketknife from your pants and slit the bandage roll. A safety pin or two was enough to hold the bandages securely and you let him stretch his arms out over the back of the couch steadily.
   Hobie cracked a lopsided smirk down at you. "Yea?"
"Yeah." You watched him from your peripheral while putting the unused materials back in the box and taking it back to the cabinet.
There's a quiet, audible grimace from behind you as Hobie leans forward and takes your purple paper-covered book off the table and opens it at random. "Ahem..." He began with and you turned to face him, crossing your arms and leaning against the wall to watch.
"Hyacinth--'Apollo. Come on, you're talking about love like it's a science. Have you really never known a love before?'
Apollo-- 'Well, the only experience I've had with it'-" he cut himself off and gestured vaguely to you with the book. "This is dred."
    You simply rolled your eyes and pushed off the wall to walk over and snatch the script, returning it to its spot on the table. "This is dred, innit~" You mocked him, pitching your voice up before dropping your tone again and glancing down at him and starting to walk past the couch. "Go to sleep.."
He reaches behind the couch and grabs your wrist, pulling you roughly down onto the couch beside him. "You first, geezer."
The pair of you both seemed to flip each other off in unison but he put a hand on your chest to keep you from sitting up as he reached behind the couch again and used his webs to turn the light off.

"Showoff.." You muttered and he echoed back a quiet curse as the two of you settled down on the couch for the night.