Sunflower (or, a Solangelo Spider-Man AU)

Kiss Me Twice, 'Cause It's Gonna Be Alright (YIPPEE YIPPEE)

Pretend everything is okay.

Will sort of made that his motto throughout the next few weeks. Now that his mom knew about his secret life, she was constantly trying to pretend like she wasn't on edge. She was really terrible at it. Will caught all of her small grimaces, her worry lines, the darker circles under her eyes. Whenever some report about a crime came on the tv, followed by the caption "Spider-Man Saves the Day!", she shook her head and quietly changed the channel.

Will didn't want to blame her. It was probably terrifying to her that every night her son was going out and putting himself in that type of danger. Which had been why he didn't want to tell her...didn't matter. It was too late now.

And anyway, not that his mom would know, recently there hadn't been nearly as much crime as usual. Will wanted to see this as a positive thing, but in his gut he knew that it was bad. His brain flashed back to that stupid message. Big things are coming. Maybe the crime rates were receding to throw Will off his game, just to yank out any stability from under him with a full scale attack from the dumb Mansion of Night.

The Mansion of Night. He still knew little about the organization. He had obtained tiny bits of information from his research (googling on his phone when he remembered) and from passing remarks Nico made to him.

And at the mere thought of Nico, Will snapped out of his worries. Because right now he was sitting on the roof of Nico's apartment building, waiting for him to show up.

They had continued their little late night meetings for the past few weeks. Somehow, every time Will struggled to sleep, Nico was right there, ready to talk to him. Will still hadn't told Nico who he really was. Nico hadn't asked yet, so he didn't exactly feel pressured. And he worried that it might make it weird. If Nico knew that the superhero he made casual chat with most nights was the weird guy at his school who blushed every time he talked to him. Okay, that probably wasn't what Nico thought of him, Nico liked him, at least as a friend, but Will could still worry.

The squeaking of the rooftop access door shook Will out of his thoughts. Unlike a few weeks ago, though, he no longer ran and tried to hide behind a table. Instead he stayed seated and waited until Nico di Angelo settled himself beside him on the roof.

"I thought you might be up here tonight." Nico said. He had blankets piled in his arms. "I brought extra."

Will smiled under his mask. "Well, I knew YOU'D be up here tonight. Spider-Sense." He squinted at the blankets. "So we're not trusting my amazing warming powers anymore?"

Nico nudged him with his shoulder. "Shut up. These aren't for warmth. They're for comfort. You can't tell me you seriously enjoy sitting on cold concrete."

Will laughed lightly. "Guess not."

They spread out the blankets on the roof (Nico had brought a LOT) then sat back down on top of them. After a minute, Nico flopped back with a sigh. "I miss the stars."

"Whaddya mean?" Will asked.

"Back in Italy. That's where I used to live. It wasn't...great, but some of my best memories are me, my mom, and my sister watching the stars. My sister loved that stuff. Knew a bunch of constellations. But here..." Nico gestured at the polluted night sky.

"Huh." Will looked up at the hardly visible specks of what he could maybe call stars coming through the smog that covered New York. He leaned back next to Nico. "I used to love the stars too. Back when I was little, in Texas."

"You lived in Texas?"

"Yeah. We moved here when I was six."

"Huh."