So, this past week has ended in a lot of sweaty nightmares and forced cold showers in the middle of the night, but it's been like a cleansing of your mind. It has worked so well that this morning when you went to change, you snapped your fingers, forgetting you were out of mouthwash, and a flame appeared. You widened your eyes, covering your mouth so you didn't scream, and then when you thought it wouldn't disappear, it did. With just the thought, you could control it in the palm of your hand, your eyes' igniting flames in their color, and you couldn't help but to smile to yourself.
You finally felt like you had a handle on it.
But you were itching to practice more, wanting to see what else you could do, and that's why you've been on edge ever since. You kept it hidden, slapped a relaxed smile on your face, and then when he asked to kiss you, those thoughts were pushed away.
A world where you got to be Peter Parker's girlfriend appeared before your eyes and you were no longer excited about your abilities. You wanted to smother them and pretend it wasn't happening because he didn't know that side of you, but maybe he didn't need to. He wanted to be with Y/n L/n, a normal girl from Queens and for a moment, you thought you could be that for him.
But then he acted shifty, leaving quickly, and that all vanished from your mind.
The heat where he had held your hand built up the second you let him go, hiding it behind your back, and when he left, you pulled it out, smiling at what you were creating.
You threw on a hoodie and grabbed a few things before leaving the apartment, telling your mom your homework was done, not a total lie, it was almost, before completely lying when you told her that you were going to meet Layla at the movies. She let you go, making you promise her to be back by eleven, your weekend curfew, and you nodded before making your way down the street.
You've lived in Queens for a long time, practically your whole life, and you know the dos and don'ts of this borough. You also know which places are heavy with foot traffic at which time of day and where it is abandoned most, if not all, of the time.
An old restaurant's parking garage about ten blocks away from where you live is completely empty after ten in the morning because it's illegal to use it between then and nine at night. After the place closed down last year, many homeless people started using the space to camp out and it became some kind of problem for the city, so now they only let them stay there at night.
You bought a bag of oranges and a bunch of bananas on your trip to the garage, arriving there around four. It was empty, as anticipated, and you smiled to yourself, setting the fruit and your bag down by a pillar.
You put your hood up, the reason you wore this in the first place, and tucked your hair inside before zipping it about halfway. There were a few cameras set up around certain spots and if you did anything you could get in trouble for, you didn't need them picking up your face.
You rolled up your sleeves and raised your fists that in a moment heated up. You took a deep breath, any uncomfortable feeling from them fading with your relaxation, and aimed for the wall on the far side. You drew one back and then acted as if you were punching the air, letting go of some energy once you hit the spot.
A huge ball of fire went out and hit the wall, setting it on fire for only a second because it was concrete which isn't exactly flammable with how it's set up for this place.
"Whoo!" You called out with a grin, doing the same move with your other arm.
When it worked, you felt so excited, your entire body buzzing with energy and it almost felt like a high, so you ran around, doing a goofy victory lap, hopping a bit, because nobody else was around and this felt damn good.
You put your hands down at your sides, palms facing the floor, and you were sure this wouldn't work, but decided to give it a go anyway.
"Ah, oh well." You laughed to yourself with a shrug when the pressure wasn't enough to lift you off the ground.
You put on your headphones, blasting Killer Queen, and started taking multiple shots at the walls to the beat. You were dancing around before shots, really enjoying it, and you couldn't stop smiling, feeling invincible.
You didn't even realize a couple of hours had flown by and you were covered in sweat from all the running around, dancing, and still being close to the heat. You carefully touched the wall right after sending out a hit, just as the fire taste the solid material, and you didn't feel anything. It was warm on your face, sure, but your skin didn't burn from it.
Makes sense, you're literally producing the stuff, it'd be weird if it could hurt you.
But it was still a surprise, and you took a deep breath in sharply with a smile still on your face.
Your eyes were swallowing up the sight, loving every second, and the more you used this ability you apparently inherited, the more you felt in control.
You also felt a connection to your dad that you hadn't felt in so long and it filled you with a warmth, almost like he was hugging you again. You missed him with every fiber of your being and with this, you could almost sense his presence with you, guiding you, and helping you to hone this new skill.
Even though you had been there for a long time, you hadn't seen the abandoned car parked near the opposite exit you came through and when you sent out another shot, this one bigger than any other, it expanded itself to hit the car, almost like it was drawn to it once it was near enough.
The whole thing exploded into flames, the impact throwing you on your ass with a cringe in pain. Your breathing picked up and soon the fire alarm went off, alerting the sprinklers. The water felt like acid on your skin, and you bolted for the door in a panic.
"What the hell?" You cried out in pain, sliding on your knees next to your belongings.
You just barely grabbed your stuff, covering your skin in your clothes the best you could to shield yourself from the demonic sprinklers and didn't notice, or care, an orange had rolled out of the bag.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." You hissed, running out of the building and down the stairwell.
Your skin slowly healed like nothing happened, but it was scary as hell, and you were worried what this meant.
About twenty blocks away, Spiderman was swinging around when he heard the firetrucks heading for a building. He followed until he saw where they were headed and went inside ahead of them just as you went out onto the street, hoodie damp and bags in your white knuckled hands, peering up at the building that now had smoke coming from the windows.
You saw him swing inside, probably to check for civilians, and you zipped your hoodie up a little more, keeping your head down as you walked quickly away as people started to gather.
What you didn't see was him smothering the flames with his webs and then curiously picking up a fresh orange from the floor, glancing around after as if this was a clue to something.
