Lacuna (Spiderman X reader)

Chapter 21

~

The next day the two of you were splattered across every news outlet in town, every newspaper had a photo of the crumbling building on the front, often accompanied by a smaller, blurry photo of the Green Goblin carrying Black Light on his glider, dramatically illuminated by the spotlights of the news crews. You scanned the various headlines displayed on the newsstand, holding an umbrella over your head to protect from the heavy downpour while you waited for Peter. It hadn't stopped raining once since last night.

                               GREEN GOBLIN RESURRECTED
       NEW BONNIE AND CLYDE? BLACK LIGHT AND THE GOBLIN
                                 THE NEW VILLAINS IN TOWN
    BLACK LIGHT BRINGS BACK GOBLIN, BRINGS DOWN BUILDING

You were nervous from having this much attention on you, but it was to be expected from destroying a building and being seen with a reincarnation of one of the city's most feared and unpredictable villains—that everyone thought had died. Which was true, but the general public didn't know the details.

Peter appeared by your side, taking your hand in his. "Hey."

"Peter!" You leaned up and kissed his cheek.

He was staring at the papers on the newsstand now too, your usually playful or inquisitive Peter gone, replaced by unusually serious Peter, a Peter you hadn't yet seen.

"Hey, is everything okay?" You asked, squeezing his hand.

"Yeah, 'm fine. Just worried about Harry."

"Why? Did something happen?"

The two of you began walking to the restaurant you'd agreed upon for dinner.

He shook his head. "I need to figure it out first before I talk about it."

"I can help you figure it out, Pete..." You were staring at him, hoping he would open up. He looked at you, eyes flicking between both of yours, and he sighed.

"I think he's getting involved with some bad stuff."

"What, like... Drugs?"

Peter shook his head. "No, I... He's had some drug problems before. He's recovering right now but... This is different. He..." Peter huffed out a breath and looked up towards the sky. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Let's just have fun, okay? I've been wanting to see you," he said, smiling at you.

You could see he was upset and worried still, and squeezed his hand in an attempt to reassure him. "How about, after dinner, we go to the arcade and spend a bunch of money on games and win cheap shitty prizes for each other?"

Peter smiled gratefully. "That sounds perfect."

It wasn't until sometime after dinner while you were in the arcade together that Peter started to noticeably cheer up, bouncing from game to game. Ski-ball, Whack-a-Mole, racing games, pinball, even a vintage Pac-Man machine. You were a bit surprised at how well Peter was doing with the more physical games, like Ski-ball and Whack-a-Mole, where he earned perfect scores. He had never struck you as the most coordinated type. Of course, you failed miserably on Whack-A-Mole, underachieving out of fear of destroying the machine if you hit it too hard, and met his perfect score at Ski-Ball with the same, ribbons of tickets flying out of the slot into a pile at your feet.

At the end of the night when you both went to claim a prize as a gift for the other person, Peter chose the largest most obnoxious stuffed animal, and a small bright yellow rubber robot keychain with long stretchy arms to clip onto things.