Lacuna (Spiderman X reader)

Chapter 37

~
"Again." Barked the voice over the speakers.

You stood, panting, in the center of the training room, and began the drill over again, mind wandering as your muscle memory carried you through the movements. Punching, turning, kicking, jabbing with elbows. Secretly you imagined that you looked like an earthbender from Avatar: The Last Airbender, as you cycled yet again through the same series of blunt and powerful movements. You pretended that you weren't actually practicing moves to use on Iron Man, your new boss that you were secretly growing fond of. The whole trick Tony Stark into developing a familial soft-spot for you in order to bait him later if need be plan was starting to backfire, as much as you hated to admit it, you started to see him as a bit of a father figure. That was something you'd never had. You seemed to feel guiltier about your duplicitous plot than Harry, who had known Tony Stark much longer than you. Though, of course, you shouldn't be surprised, as the outcome of everything was far more personal for Harry than it was for you, in a way. Harry actually wanted Spider-Man dead, you just wanted to take down Spider-Man in order to keep Stacy, and especially Peter, safe from harm.

"If we're going to let you train with Venom, you need to drill everything so deep that you have to make an effort to even fuck it up. Again." Came the voice of your new martial arts trainer.

You took a deep measured breath, spinning around and punching a fist through the air, beginning the drill again.

-

"Okay, what's wrong?"

You were jolted out of your thinking by Peter, who was sitting on your bed while you sat at your desk a short distance away. He closed his textbook with a thump, tossing it away to the foot of your bed.

"What?" You asked, jerking your gaze up from your laptop to look at him.

"What's wrong? You've been seeming off lately, and you're always busy, and whenever you think I'm not looking you look like you're thinking about something terrible."

You sighed, averting your gaze while you turned your chair towards him, trying to come up with something that wasn't 'Oh I'm just part of a secret evil organization that I regret joining but I can't leave or they'll kill you and Stacy and also they want me to kill Spider-Man and attempt to take down Iron Man with the help of your best friend who I turned into an evil super-villain.'

So, instead of telling the truth, you brought up something that was bothering you, but wasn't the real source of your distress.

"I dropped out of school."

Peter's face went through a range of emotions. Most of them shock and confusion.

"You what? I thought you said you just switched around your schedule so you could work more-"

"I had kind of a—a breakdown after the whole ribs incident-" Technically true, though he didn't need to know it involved your reckless and thorough destruction of a cargo ship on live TV.

"Why didn't you talk to me about it?"

"I was overwhelmed, Pete. I wasn't totally myself, and I—you know me, I like to keep things to myself, mostly."

Peter scooted off your bed and came over to you, bending down to wrap his arms around you. You buried your face in his chest, hugging back. "You can always talk to me about anything, Y/n. I love you, it's what I'm here for." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I just want you to be safe and okay."

You took a deep breath. "I know, Pete. Thank you."

-