Work Text:
Don’t get him wrong, being surprised by your boyfriend while on your job is generally not a bad thing, especially if your boyfriend is self-proclaimed romantic-al expert and trophy husband Lee Minhyuk. But Jooheon is sure that swinging through Seoul with only one available hand to shoot his webs, while the other one was busy holding an overly-large bouquet of carnations, is definitely a sign that all of Minhyuk’s New Year’s Eve extravaganza is getting a bit excessive. Because when his boyfriend had told him to watch out on the job today, he had not been joking. Oh, at all .
Jooheon had nearly socked him in the face when long, lanky Minhyuk had dangled out of their apartment window, still in his banana PJ’s, waiting to smash him with a huge heart-shaped pillow like a bad baby villain. Minhyuk had not flinched at all at the attack. Jooheon being the super-powered superhero of the big city is no equal match to Minhyuk being a dumb country boy with no fear, and this was one of the few occasions that it showed. It was cute though, and Jooheon forgave him quickly, thankful that he at least hadn’t forced him to bring the red sequin pillow that ready “M <3 J” along with him on his patrol. It would have been really embarrassing if the Ruby Spider (more commonly known as Spiderman) had been swinging over Seoul with something like that tucked in his arm. It would have been even harder to explain that it had come from a surprise from his boyfriend, because since when could Spiderman be surprised by anything? But after three years dating Minhyuk, he had gotten very used to the fact that his Spidey-Sense always let down its guard for the ever-unpredictable Minhyuk. (A lot of his senses toned down when Minhyuk was around, and only for Minhyuk, he finds this to be a relief.)
All the subsequent surprises had been cute too, even those that freaked the shit out of him, like a automated toy cockroach strapped with a love letter to Spiderman hung with a (used?) thong on a stick outside of a random window, or a little sobbing kid he saved from a tree laughing suddenly and telling him that, “Minhyuk loves you, dum dum”.
Jooheon swings over a traffic light (click, shoot, release) and drops by a convenience store to grab a snack.
“Spiderman, hey! What can we get you today?” The store-owner says to him cheerfully. Jooheon drops a two-pack of jelly beans on the table. He never knows why he bothers buying snacks while in the suit anyway, since it’s not like he can eat through the mask. Still, it’s better to have the food anyway, to know that if he would ever like to let down his guard, he might have these delicious jellybeans awaiting him after saving the world or a cat or whatever. Or maybe it’s because he likes talking to the people, seeing their faces when they see him. Him not doing this for the attention doesn’t mean he doesn’t like said attention. It’s the casual kind of attention, of thanks, like he had just thrown in a newspaper for them or saved a cat from a tree, because he’s their friendly neighbourhood superhero, and he’s their friend.
The store-owner, Hoseok, actually is his friend. They used to work together at the cafe before Hoseok’s mother had retired and passed on the little store onto her filial son and suddenly Hoseok had gone from minimal wage coffee shop worker to minimum wage store-owner. In his early days as Spiderman, Jooheon had been so desperate to hide the fact that he was his friend Lee Jooheon, that he had panicked hard when he first met him in the costume and had drastically raised the pitch of his voice. As a result, Hoseok has a distinct impression of Spiderman being much younger than Jooheon would like.
“Actually, I’m trying to get this Ruby Spider thing going. Can I count on you to spread the word?” He says jokingly (but he’s really serious), before paying for the jellybeans, ignoring the store-owner’s protests about accepting the money, and disappearing off into the Seoul skyline.
“HAPPY NEW YEAR, MR LEE!” Mr Lee . Jooheon laughs to himself as he scans the buildings for a comfortable spot. As if he and Hoseok hadn’t been dumb teenagers trying skateboarding together after watching some coming-of-age movie and landing in the hospital together for head injuries together. Happy New Year, Hoseok.
As he sits on the corner of a roof shaking the boxes of jelly beans and watching the headlights of the cars come and go, listening to the continuous roaring of the city, he thinks about Minhyuk again. He supposes it’s always nice to be a superhero with a love interest. It builds character, he thinks. Superman had Lois Lane. All the best superheroes have someone to fight for, someone who the cruelest people would consider a weakness to exploit who was actually their biggest strength.
Min is his.
He’s wonderful and perfect and too much as in so much more than Jooheon ever thinks he deserves, and he’s also just enough. His smile is enough to help Spiderman get up, get up, get up again and again and again, because in the end the most important thing was to go home to Min. He’s loud, like beautiful, neon-lit cities, but unlike the city he knows to stop, pull Jooheon’s head to his chest and level his breathing to go easy on Jooheon’s overworked senses even if nothing else and no one else would stop for him. He sheds tears frequently and infrequently enough to make Jooheon never want him to cry for him, and for Jooheon to want to claim all of his smiles. Jooheon places every smile into the sky like his most favourite stars and behind every punch he doesn’t pull. (So he always wins. He swears Min is his secret weapon.) Min is sweet and gorgeous and he’s Jooheon’s biggest cheerleader. He’s the yellow in Jooheon’s suit, and the stubbornness and never change said suit no matter how many critics hated it.
As the world-renowned Iron Man knock-off, sporting a red suit with yellow tracks running through it and a bright yellow spider emblem in the middle, Jooheon’s look been dragged thoroughly through the mud by disapproving critics for a couple of years now. Many times he’s had to autograph unlicensed Spiderman costumes held up by cute little children where the illegal producers had completely gotten rid of the yellow and replaced it with a more sophisticated colour like blue or black instead. He would always get offended, and Min would have to comfort him, because if you’re going to make unlicensed merch of someone, shouldn’t you respect them enough to retain their actual look? You’d think that after saving the world from total annihilation a couple of times, people would give you free passes on your fashion choices.
He decides move further down the street, shooting a web to the furthest building, kicking off of a glass panel, and thrusting himself over the shops below. He throws up a V sign at the people that wave up at him and a quick salute at a disapproving police officer. C’mon man, I’m like your buddy. We’re on the same side. In a second, the Seoul skyline is upside down and up again as he flips in the air. Acrobatics, babey! Mm , he thinks. Webs are a little shakey, but these will have to do . He hooks his legs over the railing on the roof and hangs down again. He can feel all the blood rushing to his head, the excess numbing him out and making his brain feel fuzzy. It’s what he wants, really, because his senses are giving him hell today, and he doesn’t know why, but he knows it’s obvious by the restless way he beats his legs against the railings and how he keeps jumping up and shifting from roof to roof.
Min disapproves of him working all the time. The city’s not going to break if you put it down for a while, give your soft hands to me instead. Jooheon shuts his eyes as a kettle screams from the floor below, focusing on Minhyuk’s voice instead. Don’t you get tired, baby? A web shoots to the roof opposite him out of his own subconscious before he even realises and he barely makes it safe to the other side. He must have activated the Emergency Sensory Signal that Kihyun had installed despite his protests. God, his senses are really going crazy tonight.
There’s danger in the air tonight. He can just feel it. Every sense he has is calling out to him to get the hell out of there. Down on the streets, a child begs her father to buy her that big Christmas-themed teddy bear in the shop window, and two girls slip their hands hesitantly together. There should be nothing in the air but love and excitement and confusion that the year was ending. But these people can’t get hurt just because he thought his senses were a little wonky that day. Or because he’s longing desperately for a break. And that’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just how it is. Their safety is on him, isn’t it? They’ve given him their trust, and in turn he gives them his devotion. Subconsciously, his fingers dig into the brick of the building. Oh, it’s really bad tonight.
It wasn’t always like this.
Now, Spiderman, the Ruby Spider, is the only one that prowls the night, beaming under his mask at the thankful glances of the civilians, packing enough power to lift a bus and planets if that was the best move. But it hadn’t always been this way. There had been another one, just like him, and he knows, clear as day, that this is why Minhyuk is worried. There had been another one-- powerful, masked, quick.
Not quick enough.
Star Sentinel had been the protector of Seoul before him. There were always dangers and evils lying in wait in the dark, and Star had been the city’s light. Some said he was an alien, and some took it a step further to say that he came from the stars themselves. Jooheon doesn’t know whether there’s a truth to any of these rumours, but what he does know is that Star was phenomenal. He had been a hero before they knew they needed one, and if Jooheon had never met him, he’d have believed him a myth. A man who came from the stars, whose footsteps left the cement smoldering just a bit where he walked– they also said he returned to the galaxies in the daytime, or that he lived in it at night, and saw everything. A little big-minded, but the fantasy had been killed years ago. Star got overconfident, and he hadn’t seen that beam come down.
Maybe Jooheon is the only one who remembers Star to be as human as he was, terrifying and powerful, and still… human. Real, at least. He’d sometimes meet him on the job, when he’d swing over a fight he was too late to join in his inexperience, and the yellow-black superhero would just be standing there, back turned to the defeated enemy, his hood pulled over his bowed head and his cape billowing in the wind. Terrifying. Phenomenal. And Jooheon could never tell if he was looking at him too, if they were looking at each other.
But since Star, Jooheon has been alone.
Of course Min doesn’t approve.
He’s swinging past Min’s workplace when a box of chocolates comes flying out at him through the window. What precision! Perfect aim! He cocoons it safely in his arms after it bounces off his face. His boyfriend is a trained and tested archer who uses his skills only to annoy the crap out of him, and Jooheon is not even a little surprised. (Well, he’s surprised, because he’s been hit in the face with a box of chocolates, just not by the idea that Min would do it at all.) The chocolates are heart shaped and wrapped in gold foil and he’s now actively thinking about how much he’d rather just be snacking then working right now. Crap .
“Thanks for the chocolates, dummy!” He shouts at the window, flying backwards through the air because he’s cool like that. He kind of wishes he has a cape, that’s how cool he feels. And then he slams into a window. Oh my God, I’m so dumb. He smacks his hand onto the wall to get a grip before releasing the web he had slung elsewhere. Ow, ow, ouch. He supposes he should really maybe invest in a helmet sometime. He’s been struck by bullets, buried in debris, practically ripped apart, but there’s just something about small injuries like this one. He sighs. When did this window even open? He could’ve sworn the coast was clear. There’s a ringing sound in his ear and he can’t tell whether it’s from danger, or just the fact that his head had just rammed into an open window, and then, he can tell.
A gloved hand shoots out of the window, and grabs him by the collar.
The room inside is empty, apparently still under construction and practically unoccupied, except for the man who has him hoisted into the air with a steel grip. Jooheon groans for longer than he ever knew he could handle his breath.
“Shownu.”
Shownu has a new look, apparently, and the glinting silver that used to climb to his neck only reaching the waist, his upper body covered in a sheer fabric that’s probably much sturdier than it meets the eye. Jooheon doesn’t even bother to involve himself in the confusion of trying to figure out whether the new look is just an optical illusion, just whines, “I was kind of having a chill day, man.” In a second his back hits brick wall, and he slides down. There are birds circling his head. This is definitely an illusion. “Oh my GOD, I hate you so much.”
The light shines on the other man as he steps towards Jooheon. So this is why his senses have been on fire all day. He slides his sensory muffler up and the ringing in his ears finally calms down. Finally. As quickly as he fell, he bounds up the side of the wall and springs off, flying at Shownu’s chest and running him into the opposite wall. He grins under his mask, “Damn, Shownu, I never knew you were so jacked. Was it because you were a cape before? Where’d it go?” He keeps Shownu pinned to the wall, cringing just a bit that the superpowered villain is dragging holes in the cement below. “Is it because you finally watched The Incredibles like I told you to?”
In the scramble, Shownu manages to grab a hold of his neck and in all technicalities throws him away. He sees debris fly around him. Oh no, the damages. And he’s part of it. “Yeah, watched it. Didn’t like it much, actually.” Jooheon scowls up at him, “Small talk in the workplace? How unprofessional.” He rolls over, pouting, and thanks the heavens that he hasn’t been drowned in broken cement as he crawls out of the hole he made. Behind him, he can hear Shownu tightening his gloves, the tight latex stretching and slapping against his skin, and following him slowly. Jooheon keeps talking, because that’s what he does, other than whatever spiders can. “Also, what is wrong with you villains? It’s such a great movie.”
He feels a leg swing over his side at the same time as he’s flipped around. Shownu is sitting on him. Like. A. Jerk. Before he can fight, his wrists are trapped in Shownu’s grip, his shooters pressed down too far out of his reach. Fuck. Today, it doesn’t seem like Shownu has any plan of world annihilation, but from the slow patience, to the mid-city location, it does seem like he has something planned. “C’mon man.” He says, “Don’t you have someone else to be straddling on this very joyous New Year’s Eve?” Shownu sighs, moving one of Jooheon’s wrists under his heavy boot (Ouch), and using his freed up hand to hold Jooheon down by the neck. “Shut up, Spiderman.” Jooheon’s neck really hurts, and he does not appreciate being told to shut up. “I don’t see how wasting your energy is helpful to you, so just let me tie you up.”
Jooheon laughs. Wel,l he croaks, since he’s quickly losing breath from the gloved hands pressed against his neck. No matter. “Is that… what you’re… gonna do? You need ro- Or… Oh my GOSH, you’re ruining my- moment-” At that moment, he pushes his wrist hard as he can against Shownu’s boot, sending a stream of webs behind both of them and sliding himself out. “You really ruin everything, Shownu. I had such a cool line. I was going to say, You need rope?” After a fit of wheezes, he shoots two at once, one at Shownu’s chest, the blast sending him crashing to the wall, and one, to the ceiling, that he uses to kick Shownu further into said wall. Perfect it, don’t pile on it. Poor guy’s lungs are going to collapse!
And yet, they haven’t. Shownu still looks adamantly up from where he’s landed. Mm, not a good shot. 6/10. Kihyun’s been slacking. He crosses the room to where Shownu is and pushes him back up against a wall. “Okay, now you sit still. I’m just gonna…” Is that his text tone? He webs Shownu up distractedly, patting him when he groans. Poor guy. Jooheon’s about to jump out to continue his patrol when another figure appears at the window.
And then there were two.
He sees blue, black, and a whip.
Venus Storm. Of course. The duo of complete and utter destruction. He had always been told the two came in a set, but had been lucky enough to only usually meet Shownu, which meant that Venus was still a bit of an unchartered territory for him. They say Venus Storm came from another planet, but the name itself could have been a stylistic choice. As always, he’s clothed blue and black, with glowing tracks of what seems to be liquid blue metal running through his skin. Jooheon always wonders how he hides it in daily life, if he has one, or if he hides it at all. The whip he wields is usually crackling with electricity, but now it seems mostly tame, and lies just by his side.
There’s no time to think. Jooheon grabs him, whip-first, and tosses him into the room behind him. He’s definitely expecting a fight, but when Venus lands (on his feet, as always), he’s clearly more concerned with his webbed up partner. While Venus is occupied with pawing at the webs that encase Shownu, Jooheon steals a quick moment to check his messages in his headset display.
Min: Help! I’m definitely 100% in danger on the roof of our favourite building where we had our first date! Come save me! And bring the chocolates from just now <3 (9.34pm)
Danger . Definitely. He is definitely in danger. Jooheon’s butt is sweaty with excitement for the Minhyuk-saving he is obligated to do.
There’s a crumble of debris as Venus stands up from behind him, brushing whole chunks of cement from his body as if it was dust. Oh right, the heroics, his job. He whips around and sends a web straight for Venus’ wrist, sticking him onto the wall behind, neatly packed next to Shownu. Very good, Jooheon. Not bad. Guess Shownu made for good practice. For good measure, he webs up Venus’ other hand, throws his scary whip a little out of reach, and hops out the window.
“Got a text about something I’d definitely rather be doing, so I gotta bounce, okay you guys? This was fun, though. Next time!” And then he lets the wind carry him away.
(He comes back immediately to grab the chocolates, but it’s a bit of an embarrassing thing to mention out of parenthesis.)
When he arrives on top of the promised roof, the first thing he sees is a gorgeous couch. He has to hope that it is rented, because between Jooheon’s coffee shop job and Minhyuk’s job they definitely are not in a financial situation for buying extravagant new furniture. He walks over to see beautiful Minhyuk sprawled dramatically across the couch with red plush ropes tied around his body. If this was cliche writing, what Minhyuk is doing would be described as looking up at Minhyuk through his eyelashes. It also kind of feels like Careless Whisper should be playing in the background.
Jooheon tries his best to not visibly cringe, “Hey, Min. We both know we’re not into that.”
Immediately the mood drops, the needle scratches on Careless Whisper. Min throws his arms out, and the fake ropes fly off of his body. He stretches out onto the couch, blowing a raspberry. “I just wanted to maintain the illusion.”
Jooheon takes off his shooters and shifts Min’s leg to make room for him to sit, drawing a whine from his lanky boyfriend. “Isn’t all this a bit excessive? I mean, who’s going to have to carry this back to wherever it’s supposed to be? It’s not going to be you.” His butt gets a firm kick for that stinger and he’s pulled over backwards onto the couch. “It’s New Year’s Eve, asshole.” Min says, nestling his cold nose into Jooheon’s neck, “Just let me have this.” He feels Minhyuk climb over him and off of the couch, moving to stand powerfully over his defeated body.
Jooheon takes off his mask, and he doesn’t cringe at the onslaught of senses, and the prickling cold on his face, and all the sounds that cry out for his attention. The sensory muffler isn’t for things like this. No need to block any of Min out.
“Plus,” Minhyuk has a slight purr in his voice now. “I have something to show you.” Only now does Jooheon realise that Minhyuk is in a silk bathrobe, wrapped up all the way up to his neck and to his legs. Oh no . What does he have under there? Just as the question crosses Jooheon’s mind, Min’s fingers crawl up to the collar of the gold neckline. What does he want me to do? Are we going to have sex on this roof? Is he wearing solid gold lingerie underneath? Jooheon springs up from the couch to stop Minhyuk before he did anything irreversible.
“Min, I don’t think we should-”
That’s all he gets out before he’s lasso-ed off of the roof, and all the air is knocked out of him by a black whip tightening around his stomach.
Venus Storm . Jooheon is quick enough only to pull on his mask haphazardly. Crap! It’s already way too late to regret not webbing them up properly and then he’s suspended, hanging only where the whip is wrapped around his middle. All of Seoul can see them right now, if any of them bothered to look up. The whip is pulsating with weak electricity, but Venus himself is practically snapping with power. At least the grip doesn’t hurt.
But it stings and is tight enough around his arms and wrists to keep him from wriggling out. This is so embarrassing , he thinks, as his head lols from side to side in the air. There’s something else coming. In the shadows, he sees a silver glint before he’s socked right in the mouth. There it is. There appears to be several Shownus surrounding him, and even though he can always distinguish Shownu’s optical illusions from reality, that doesn’t mean they’re not really, terribly, annoying.
“Gosh, you’re so dramatic!” Jooheon yells at him as he feels the whip biting into him and as every second passes, he feels the burning absence of his shooters on his wrists. This is really bad. Every second he spends in Venus’ claim deducts from him and he can feel his skin ripping under the mask with every hit from Shownu. This is not a fight. This is an ass-whooping. Since when did Venus’ whip get so strong? Did Kihyun betray him and update Venus’ tech instead? Of course, Jooheon knows that that’s impossible. He’s losing because he was caught off guard, and he’s hurting because he’s been in this lasso for so goddamn long.
If this was a movie, he’d have spit blood into Shownu’s shiny, masked face. He does spit, but what comes out is just cold air and saliva.
“Coward,” He spits into Shownu’s face. “We both know how this would go down if this was an actual fight.” Venus Storm answers for Shownu, with his long fingers caressing Jooheon’s chin and tilting him up to face him. “But this isn’t a fight, is it, Spiderman?”
“ How many times do I have to tell people it’s Ruby Spider now? Like the flower? I think it’s cooler and I’m trying to distinguish myself from Supermans and Batmans?” His whole face stings from where Venus’ fingers dig into his cheek, and he swears those things are made of metal. But he just grins teasingly at the purple-suited (possible) alien, feigning nonchalance annoying enough to anger the calmest of men.
“Well then, Ruby Spider…” Through the exposed part under Shownu’s mask, Jooheon sees him smile, almost smirk, victorious and cruel in celebration. And then he sees Venus’ fingers hover over his face. “Ruby Spider, let’s see what else we can call you.” Mask. Mask! No . He yells it out loud, “No, no, no, nonononono…. That’s a hard no on the mask-ripping.” They’re above the whole of Seoul, right now. The people walking the street were indebted to him, but they’d jump at a chance to find out who he was, too.
He had offered this city everything, his time, his love, his life, over and over and over again.
Not his name.
But this is hopeless. He’s just flailing up here, weak and helpless and not what Spiderman should be. He’s burning from the inside of his eyes and the ringing in his head changes to a blood-curtling shriek, and the roaring of the traffic below seems to climb in anticipation of his unmasking. There’s nothing to do. He closes his eyes and braces for the cold of the night.
But it doesn’t come. He hears the whoosh of something flying just as he opens his eyes to see the same. It’s Shownu, shooting away from him like a bird shot out of a sky, hurtling into the darkness. Now some civilians are looking up. “Nothing to see here,” Jooheon yells down at them, because he’s friendly and a little embarrassing like that. “Just a little scruffle,” He assures them, dragging out “little” to put a cherry on top. Venus spins around, retracting his whip to his side so Jooheon is now only held up by his too-tight, actual-steel grip on him. Then Jooheon sees his eyes settle on a point far behind them, his jaw going slack and his grip loosening just slightly. He swears he feels Venus’ skin run cold.
“What the fuck” is the last thing Venus says before he seems to fall, struck by a bright yellow beam of light.
That’s impossible.
It has to be impossible, because it is in no way possible, and yet, Jooheon would recognize the yellow and black ensemble anywhere. Quite impossibly, Star Sentinel floats there right in front of him, and Jooheon is sure, even being so far away, that he’s caught in the stardust halo that always surrounded Star after every shot he took. Not any more, though, as he drops downwards and possibly in slow motion from the absence of anything left to hold him up. He’s looking up at Star the whole time.
It takes him a while to really realise that he’s falling. Shit, he’s FALLING. His senses are really going off and his wrists are bare and there’s 200 feet of air to fall through into city concrete and-
Star’s body is warmer than he had ever imagined it, unlike Venus’ ice cold skin, and his arms are firm around Jooheon as he gently presses his head onto his. The ringing in Jooheon’s head quietens down, and they hover just slightly above Seoul traffic for just about a moment as Star allows Jooheon a moment to breathe before they’re rising again. It’s completely impossible, and still completely undeniable, and, closer up now than he’d ever thought he’d be, he can really see that. Star is glowing, hot and gold from the inside. Even through his mask, it’s evident that he’s practically an energy source right now. Jooheon can feel it seeping through his blood, and his skin stretching back over the wounds. He can feel Star.
He’s feeling almost perfect, more power running through his veins than he’d ever known it, when he remembers that he had just left his Min there, totally unattended.
Then, the wriggling starts.
“Dude,” Star scolds, and he sounds a hundred percent unlike what he seems like he should sound like. His voice is higher, and rougher, than Jooheon imagined, and also a lot more confused. And did he just call him dude ?
“What the fuck? Are you trying to die? I haven’t even put shooters back on you.”
He wiggles himself in Star’s grip until he’s facing the roof he’s recently been stolen off of. The only thing he sees, there on the floor, is the robe Min had been wrapped up to his neck. Jooheon has a horrible realisation that this means, wherever he is… Lee Minhyuk is running around naked. Crap! He thinks, and says aloud, as he has a horrible mental image of his poor boyfriend buck naked, with his whole flat bum exposed to the Seoul city skyline, whining at Venus Storm and Shownu to just “let me put something on, jeez, it’s right there.” In this mental scenario, he is gesturing angrily at the very expensive robe he’s left on the roof, and he is very unwisely not afraid of the two supervillains on his tail. The whole idea, though admittedly quite funny, is horrifying.
Star Sentinel slaps his shooters onto his wrist just as he comes to an end of his unsettling thought journey, and they have no time to talk before Shownu and Venus Storm come bouncing back like two demonic Roly-Poly dolls. Thank God, at least from what Jooheon can see, neither of them have Minhyuk, naked or otherwise, in their grips. ( Yet .) Jooheon nods at Star and they pair off, Jooheon taking Venus Storm just by means of position, and Star flying straight through three Shownus to take the final and real one and go on his way.
Jooheon kind of feels amazing, at this point, higher in the sky than most people could reach, skirting and dodging around Venus’ shots and jabs. This is what being a superhero is all about! He takes a quick moment to turn his sensory protectors on again and shoots a web to the highest building, swinging to he can kick Venus once, then twice, then, because he still has momentum, thrice. Very fun. And Venus absolutely hates him at this point.
(It seems that the evil duo of doom’s plan today is only to find out who Jooheon really is, and then kill him, so at least he can rest easy on the world annihilation worry he was having.)
“Let’s switch?” Star yells, and it is not a question, because in a second Star has Venus by the whip and has flown him away. Okay, sure. Shownu’s kind of Jooheon’s guy anyway. He kind of feels like he’s dancing, flitting around Shownu, getting hit in the face, hitting him in the face, kicking, swinging, getting almost violently killed. He hasn’t had this much fun on the job in a while.
He doesn’t even notice that he’s being pulled into a routine, just like he doesn’t notice Shownu coming for his mask again until one of his very own webs is sent straight into Shownu’s face.
Jooheon knows knows for a fact that he didn’t do that. When he checks his wrists, both his shooters are still firmly attached to them, and there certainly aren’t any other Spidermen running around the city with Kihyun’s inventions. And he sure hadn’t brought any refills out today because Kihyun hadn’t been ready for him.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I picked these up from K earlier today but I forgot to pass them to you but it’s okay because I used them to save your big soft butt.” Star says into his ear before flying off to fight Venus again. It’s a blessing that Shownu is preoccupied with getting bits of web fluid off his face since, for too long of a while, Jooheon is immobilised by shock. That voice…
His big soft butt? He stares after Star, just a golden trail of light next to Venus’ trail, and he listens to the way his hoarse laugh carries through the air, and he stares at Star for so long because it’s Minhyuk.
It has to be, even if there’s no way it can be.
He doesn’t even want to process anything, and maybe he’s unable to, since he’s just filled with... If elation is a word, he’s filled with that. It’s not unlike when he had been recharged with Star’s power, and it glows happily in his body now that he knows it came from Minhyuk. (And thank God he’s not naked.) Jooheon’s happy, and confused, and his body feels like a cloud, and he doesn’t even care that he’s still in total danger because Min’s here, how bad can it be?
And that’s probably how he ends up swinging right into Venus Storm’s face. Damn is he out of it. The voltage on Venus’ whip is much higher now than before, and it burns as soon as it touches him. It occurs to him that he had always been downplaying how terrifying Venus Storm actually was, and it occurs to him that he had been casually forgetting something. Behind him, Star (Min) struggles with an ever-persistent Shownu, and a train carrying curious onlookers and bored civilians passes. In front of him, Venus Storm is floating, casting a shadow over him and on much of the street below, and Jooheon remembers that who had been the one who sent that beam through Star Sentinel all those years ago.
“VENUS, NO!” Min’s voice seems to carry directly to the two of them, being delivered right next to Venus’ ears. Jooheon hates to hear him sound so desperate. Venus freezes for a second, metal fingers just barely brushing Jooheon’s face, before he’s grabbed a hold of the mask again, and Minhyuk screams, “Don’t you dare!”
Min says, “You don’t deserve to know who he is any more than I should know about you!”
“BUT YOU DO KNOW!” Venus yells, and it’s the first time Jooheon’s ever seen him lose composure. Minhyuk knows Venus Storm’s name? It’s probably fitting, he supposes, that Min would know. Star Sentinel and Venus Storm are both not of this world, so it’s fair to assume that maybe, just maybe, they were from the same one, at least. Somehow, now, Min has liquid gold tracks of pure light trailing through his skin, like the blue that runs through Venus’. They could have been two otherworldly creatures that had their own ways of going about being on Earth, and maybe Min had too much of a conscience to not just let Venus’ ways be ways, to try to put an end to it. Again, again, again. He was the light to Venus’ anger, and they worked like that. And sometime along in that journey, Minhyuk must have found out a name he didn’t want to know. And somewhere further along, Venus had decided that he wasn’t okay with that.
But now, the two of them are just staring at each other, fire behind their eyes and in their fists, so Jooheon chimes in, “Reminder that you are a supervillain and we have no sympathy for you!”
The moment is broken (he’s really good at that), and now Venus is really about to rip his whole face off, nevermind the mask. The crackling of the whip around his torso is making his brain fuzz, and Jooheon thinks this much electricity should probably kill him.
“Venus, please…” And Venus clearly doesn’t want to hear what Minhyuk has to say, but just like in his daily life, Minhyuk doesn’t care whether he’s welcome to speak or not. “Won,” Minhyuk says, and Venus hesitates where he’s about to take Jooheon’s mask off. It’s only for a second, but it’s enough, because Shownu has hesitated with him. In a blink, Min breaks free of Shownu’s slackened grip, kicks off from his chest, diving at Won and disappearing with him into the night.
“Won, NO!” Shownu yells, and Jooheon thinks maybe he gets it.
Shownu and Venus Storm, Venus Storm and Shownu, duo, partners. Partners . It’s the reason Venus didn’t bother to fight when he entered the trashed room and saw Shownu webbed up inside, and why Shownu’s flying after Star now, without checking whether Jooheon was on his tail. It’s for the same reason that Jooheon wakes up early in the morning to cook breakfast for Minhyuk even though it’s way too early to be smelling food, and the reason Minhyuk had planned all those surprises today.
But love doth not unmake a villain, and the same lovesick duo had also tried to kill him multiple times today, so when Shownu zips off, Jooheon follows. He doesn’t mean to catch him or to overtake him, but he has to keep him in sight in case he hurts his Minhyuk. They’re both following the trail of light, faint and almost unnoticeable, that Minhyuk’s flight had left behind. Usually Star didn’t leave trails, and he was practically untraceable, but he must have been too upset to notice. Jooheon makes sure to cover the light path in case they could have been followed, of course, being careful to pass right through it.
They trace the light to an otherwise dark alleyway after several blocks. In a corner, Minhyuk kneels over Venus’ slumped body, speaking to him in a low voice. All Jooheon catches is, “That’s enough, okay.” Venus doesn’t respond but just closes his eyes instead. When Min looks up at Jooheon, there’s the familiar tired but happy look in his eyes, like he has when he comes home from work and throws himself into Jooheon’s arms, sighing contentedly. This is just like that. This is his life. It’s Minhyuk’s world as much as it is Jooheon’s, and Jooheon wonders how he never noticed before that Minhyuk was not as oblivious to his superhero world as he had assumed. Jooheon runs over to him, dropping to his knees in front of him and collapsing into his embrace.
“Thank you.”
Behind him, Shownu takes a step over and Jooheon considers giving him the benefit of doubt, that maybe he just wants to make sure “Won” is okay. But he’s relaxed on him before. Not again. The journey to having his identity exposed for all the world to see begins with one single step.
The next step Shownu takes, he’s zapped into the wall by Jooheon. Jooheon sighs happily, “Ah, the good webs, at last. Thanks, K!” He yells that last bit into the air like Kihyun would hear it, and Min laughs with him, breathless and ecstatic. Jooheon leans against the wall, laughing, taking deep breaths, and thinking over and over and over again. This is crazy.
This is crazy.
When Jooheon has finally levelled his breathing, and his body has stopped feeling like there was starlight coursing through it, and Min has finished finishing up the duo, they finally decide to leave. “Let’s get out of here,” Min whispers into his neck, and he whisks him away like he doesn’t weigh a thing, large hands pressed protectively under Jooheon’s back and legs. Even while they touch, now Minhyuk looks like he could fade into the stars at any moment, like another one of Shownu’s optical illusions. It’s all too much, and just enough, just like every part of being with him. Jooheon wonders if he can hear his heart beating against his chest, because he can hear Min’s.
They land gracefully on the same rooftop they had been stolen from. In the second it takes Jooheon to blink, after Min puts him down, Min’s already pulled his own mask off. He’s unharmed, not a single scratch on his body, and he’s so beautiful. The gold light runs down the side of his cheeks too and he’s filled with everything right now. He’s just light now. His jet black hair tumbles down into his eyes and it contrasts with the gold, just like the colours on his suit. Ecstacy. Minhyuk smiles easily over at him, “What a great comeback for Star Sentinel, don’t you think?” Jooheon can only laugh and hold himself back from kissing him immediately.
And he’s still so confused.
“You… he… Star Sentinel… I mean you were struck by a beam of energy and it was like your kryptonite and you, like, blew up? Your whole body lit up and you disappeared. How are you here? And how are you… you?”
Minhyuk brings him over to the couch and sits him down.
He takes a deep breath before beginning, and Jooheon can tell he’s practised this. “I didn’t disappear. I had to leave. My body… it… it must’ve rerouted itself when it was hit by that beam, and it was blowing me up. My people are extremely adaptive, and when that thing made my body attempt a self-destruct, it rerouted itself so there’d be nothing to destruct. For that one horrible moment, I was nothing. And then I was human, and powerless, and for a while, not having powers was the best thing that happened to me, but then you happened, and you took that place. I couldn’t let you do it alone, dumbass. Ki’s been helping me rewrite my body, my DNA, and we got some access to remainders of technology from my planet? It rebuilt me. He helped me rebuild Star Sentinel, and I don’t really understand this stuff, but I’m back, and that’s why he’s been slacking on your web shooters, sorry.”
Jooheon just gapes at him. That was a butt load of information. He probably needs time to process, but Minhyuk only pulls off his mask off him, moving on, because Lee Minhyuk does not care if the world cannot catch up to him. Jooheon never wants him to change.
“Cool, right?” Min says, and Jooheon would never tell him, but he looks significantly less cool when he’s wiggling his arms like a noodle, gesturing for Jooheon to hug him, than when he’s fighting evil. Jooheon nods anyway, and jumps into his arms. Nothing even matters anymore. He gets to love Min, to love Star . All this, the gold tracks, the beautiful flushed skin that he runs under his fingers. He gets to have him.
“This is what I wanted to show you tonight,” Minhyuk mumbles into the hug, pressing his fingers into his back. All the surprises, all the annoying messages, and the extravagant “finish”. He should’ve known Minhyuk had something up his sleeve. Jooheon wants to say something romantic back, but what comes out is, “I thought you were buck naked.”
That’s enough for Minhyuk, like Jooheon has always been. He kisses him, and it’s everything Jooheon has ever wanted and everything he already has. He can taste pure gold in the kiss and then in his lips and then his body. They kiss, and the moment is not completely spoiled by the constant wailing of police sirens or the groaning of tour bus engines. In front of all the billboards and street signs and dark sky and the stars up ahead, they kiss, and it’s probably picturesque.
“Lee Jooheon, Spiderman, Ruby Spider, I am in love with you.” Minhyuk declares, all the stars reflecting in the pitch black of his eyes. Jooheon kind of wants to cry.
“Now, I think it’s time to let the city know I’m back. Happy fucking New Year!” He steps out to the edge of the roof, pulling his mask back on quickly, and throwing his cape out behind his back. The liquid gold light spreads throughout his body again and he starts to shine exceedingly bright, like a fire had gone off to the skies. Jooheon throws his wrist over his eyes, but even then he can see the light, and he loves to see it, and it’s like all the stars in the sky had converged into beautiful, terrifying Lee Minhyuk. His fingers unfurl from tight fists, and as quickly as he spreads his hands, the gold light seems to explode, to blow to every distant part of the city. It’s powerful, world-ending, and it’s Minhyuk.
His name is Lee Jooheon, and he’s Spiderman, the Ruby Spider, and he’s not alone, because if the people of Seoul hadn’t seen the fight go down on the rooftops of buildings and the alleyway blocks away, they wouldn’t have been able to miss the display of light even with their eyes closed. Star Sentinel is back, and Jooheon is not alone. And as long as he has Minhyuk, he’ll never be.
CHARACTERS INFORMATION:
ALIAS(ES): Spiderman, Ruby Spider
NAME: Lee Jooheon
POWER(S): “Spidey” Sense, Superhuman Strength, Speed, Agility
MISC.: Wants to be called Ruby Spider
-
ALIAS(ES): Star Sentinel
NAME: Lee Minhyuk
POWER(S): Flight, Superhuman Strength, Light, Super Speed, Agility
MISC.: Recently resurfaced, Previously thought defeated by Venus Storm, Rumoured to be an “Alien”
-
ALIAS(ES): Shownu
NAME: Unknown
POWER(S): Optical Illusions, Flight, Superhuman Strength
MISC.: Constantly by Venus Storm’s side, Spiderman’s rival
-
ALIAS(ES): Venus Storm
NAME: “Won”
POWER(S): Electricity, Flight, Super speed, Superhuman Strength
MISC.: Constantly by Shownu’s side, Famously thought to have defeated Star Sentinel, Rumoured to be an “Alien”