Scrapes and Bruises [Ethan Landry x Reader]

five.

the next morning, sunlight flooded ethan's apartment from the window he always kept open. temperatures were beginning to drop as autumn neared and a light breeze swirled through the cracked window.

ethan woke up first — pulled out of a sweet, deep sleep and slapped with the soreness and pain from the night before. it was much more manageable now — he could move around without feeling like a rhino was sitting on his ribs.

ethan stretched, not all the way, mindful of your body next to his. you'd rolled on your side in your sleep, or maybe you'd fallen asleep looking at him, but ethan turned his head to admire you: the way the sun shone against your back, lighting you up. the way your face was relaxed, no lines of worry anywhere to be seen; and ethan wished he could live a life where you'd only look at him like that.

ethan was careful not to wake you. he wasn't sure how long he spent, wanting to hold your hand or press his lips against your nose before slowly, your eyes opened. you squinted for a little and ethan watched as you remembered.

you sat up quickly, ethan's blankets falling off your body and settling into your lap. you pushed them further, exposing ethan's bare chest - exposing his ribs, now a yellowish color.

the air was thick with anticipation as ethan's eyes widened, waiting for your new evaluation.

"that's impossible," you mutter, hands gently pressing on the area around the injury. you weren't a doctor, but you knew there were more stages to a healing bruise than this. "how does it feel?"

"a lot better," ethan assured, carefully sitting up - he could do that much easier now. there was still a pain in his side, but it was much duller than it was last night. at least ethan could breathe now.

you took the opportunity to examine the rest of ethan's upper body, noticing nothing but faint stains were the dark bruises once were - only a few hours ago, to be exact.

"ethan, your bruises are basically gone," you say, surprise evident in your voice.

"what?" ethan craned his head to try and see, his eyebrows furrowing and a small frown appearing on his face, his fingers moving to press on the marks left on his body.

"barely hurts," ethan muttered, looking back up to you with curious eyes, watching as a smile slowly appeared on your face. in a flash, you were out of ethan's bed, rummaging his desk, returning with a notebook and a pencil.

you took a seat opposite to ethan, next to his outstretched legs, looking at him with a glint in your eye.

"okay," you began, starting on a blank page. "spiderman: what we know..." you spoke out loud while you wrote, glancing up at ethan as you jot down his speedy healing.
"strength," ethan began immediately, crossing his arms over his knees.

"super strength," you grinned, watching ethan playfully roll his eyes.

"i can stick to things," ethan continued. "climb walls and things."

"wall crawler."
"my vision got fixed."
"you used to wear glasses?" you asked in disbelief, trying to imagine frames on ethan's face.

"i also get this... intuition, kind of," ethan said, his voice suddenly becoming serious, his voice capturing your attention fully. "like... i can tell when something bad's about to happen."

"sounds like a good thing," you offered with a smile, a hand coming up to rest on ethan's.

"it is! it's just... super weird," ethan laughed softly, scooting closer to peek over at your notes, watching as you wrote spider sense down.