Superfamily One Shots

MoF Day 17: Pretty Cool

The shampoo bottles clattered to the shower floor as Peter jumped back against his caddy, making loud thumps and bangs. The teen nearly fell over himself, as his foot caught on one of the bottles and he lost his balance. Leaning back, he tried to regain his balance, but the constant stream of water ran soap down his forehead and into his eyes, making him shout and quickly cover them with his hand.

"Ah!" Peter shook his hair out of his face, now more stable, and rinsed out the soap in his eyes. "Dude, not cool!"

On the other side of the shower dangled a small spider, who had startled Peter in the shower earlier. Peter looked over at him, stepping a little closer with caution. It wasn't a very big spider, barely the size of a quarter, but after the whole bite thing, Peter was a little jumpy around arachnids. Still, he felt bad for the poor thing, who looked just as wet and confused and startled as Peter did.

"Listen, man, I... It's cold outside, so I'm not going to put you outside. And I'm not gonna mess with your web. Just... Just, when I'm in the shower, could you not sneak up on me? I'm kinda vulnerable here, all wet and naked, and I got bit by a spider really bad a few years ago, which I don't think is, like, typical of spiders, but I'm just a little freaked out now because one bad spider got me. Okay?"

Peter looked at the spider, who didn't move, and huffed. Satisfied that he was officially crazy, the teen stepped back into the water, rinsed himself off, and got out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a few days later when Peter saw the spider again. Realistically, it was probably a different spider, ya know, because there are always a ton of spiders around, but Peter liked to think it was the same one.

Now, instead of the shower, the spider was in Peter's room, just above his bed, nestled into a web it had spun in the corner.

"You moved," Peter remarked when he saw the spider. "I don't blame ya. The shower gets pretty steamy and hot, I bet it was slippery. And awkward. Did you leave because of me?"

Peter paused, almost like he was actually waiting for a response.

"Mm, okay. As long as you didn't feel like you had to move for me. You can stay up there, it's a nice corner. Just don't, like, get in my mouth while I'm sleeping or whatever. Or in my laundry, if I put my leg in my jeans and accidentally smoosh you, I'll never forgive myself."

Peter flopped onto the bed.

"I can see you had a busy day, catching bugs and making a new web. I have finals coming up, so Ned and I studied..."

The teen continued rambling to the spider about his day and what he had studied. Every now and then, Peter would ask a question and pause, pretending to listen to the spider's response, and then continue. It was mostly just to have someone- something to talk to, but Peter enjoyed it, as strange as that sounded.

"-But I should really go make dinner. We'll talk later, k?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rain dripped down the window as Peter worked, a soft pitter-patter echoing from overhead. Peter was a sucker for storms, as odd as it sounded. There was just something soothing about the noise of rain hitting the roof and windows.

Peter looked up from his essay, glancing outside at the dark skies. Movement in the window caught his eye, drawing his attention to a spider on the window sill, who was moving its front legs like it was waving.

"Oh!" Peter exclaimed, smiling as he saw the little spider. By now, it was like a real friend. "Hey, man, what's up?"

The spider stopped wiggling around and quickly dashed up the side of the window. Peter laughed, turning back to his essay. Every few minutes, he'd look up and watch as the spider spun delicate strands of silk through a web. A shock of lightning illuminated the sky, reflecting off the web and making Peter furrow his brow. "What the-"

The teen leaned in closer, going side to side as he examined the web. There, in the middle of the web, were the words I like your room.

Peter was shocked for a moment, but then he let a huge smile come over his face. He quickly pulled on his web shooters and carefully spun his hands together, making his own web.

I like your web.

"Where'd you learn that?" Peter asked, a lopsided smile pulling the edge of his lips up.

The spider spun around again, recreating a new web with new words. Books.

Peter nodded. "Wanna look at my books? I have mostly science books, but I could pull out this really cool biological encyclopedia with info on spiders and stuff." Peter pushed himself backwards, spinning in his desk chair. He rummaged around the book shelves by his bed, pulled out the encyclopedia, and turned to the page on spiders. "Here you go."

The teen put the book on the window sill, letting the spider fall onto the page. Little legs scurried around the page as the spider read along. Peter went back to his essay, but looked up every few minutes to make sure the spider wasn't talking to him. At some point, the spider waved his little arms again, and Peter looked over. Webbed across the page were the words this one can eat birds!

Peter laughed. "Yeah, there are some huge spiders in the world. The one that bit me, the one I told you about, that one was as big as my fist! I think it's cool though, like, they are arachnids but they can take down birds!"

The spider danced side to side, reminding Peter of how Ned laughed when Peter had a particularly good joke to share.

"I used to be a little afraid of spiders, but you're pretty cool. Not at all mean or scary, huh? I should really get you more to eat, though, you're going to get skinny," Peter joked. The spider danced again and ran around, webbing more words to the book page.

Do you have any chicken?

"Oh, probably!" Peter said with a smile. "Let me go check, k? Then I probably have to finish this paper, but we could talk tonight after that. I'll tell you how I make my own spider webs."

The spider seemed to like that, and he especially liked the chicken when Peter brought it back. And when he climbed up the back of Peter's laptop and sat perched at the top, watching Peter work, it wasn't even scary or startling. Peter just sort of smiled, and talked out loud as he wrote, and when the spider fell asleep, slumped over the edge of the screen, Peter gently pushed him into his palm, stood precariously on his bed, and set the little spider into his web.