Chapter Text
Between his life as Spider-Man and as a student, Miles likes to think he’s balancing the two quite nicely. He goes to school, shows up to class on time, goes to his room and finishes his homework, and when he does he goes on patrol. The length depends on how rough the day was or his energy levels, but it isn’t too uncommon for Spider-Man to be crawling in to the most discreet window at 3 in the morning and go straight to bed. Then the cycle just repeats itself.
Miles tries his hardest not to think about the empty seat next to him in science, or the lack of people in his universe who know and understand him. He tries to ignore how much he misses them, focusing on his school work and… less legal extracurriculars. The good thing is, both practices do a fairly nice job of distracting him.
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“Whoa!” Miles dives down as flying daggers smack into the wall above his head. Red lenses squint incredulously, and he peaks above the dumpster that became his cover. "Hey, didn’t your mother ever tell ya throwing sharp objects is dangerous?” Miles jumps out from behind the dumpster, bringing his heel down into the criminal’s shoulder with a flip. The large man goes down with an enraged shout, blindly flailing his hands. Miles quick maneuvers away from the grasping hands, shoving the criminal’s face into the dirty pavement and leaping away. The black-clad Spider-man twirls around to face the two other men in the alley. One of them- the tall one, wearing a beanie? It’s actually a really nice beanie- pulls out what looks like a taser and points it at his chest.
“Make one move, Twinkle Toes, and I’ll zap the ever livin’ shit outta ya!” Beanie threatens, his buddy behind him like some sort of backup. Miles’ lenses shoot upwards in mock surprise, and he jerks his hands up. Beanie’s finger seems to get twitchy. "I said don’t move, Bug Face!”
“Wow, you see now that’s just plain rude. Mama didn’t teach you manners either, did she, Stringy?”
“Hey, l’m warning you-”
POP!
The criminals startle, the taser goes off and hits the wall, then is dropped on the floor forgotten. The two men anxiously spin and watch their surroundings.
“Where the FUCK did he go?!” Beanie snarls. He doesn’t see his friend get taken down behind him with a muffled gasp.
“Right here, Mr. Criminal!” A red and black fist enters the peripheral, then it all goes dark. Beanie-dude crumbles to the floor, and Miles webs him to the side of the wall, dusting off his hands. He surveys his handiwork. "Nice.” He comments, more to himself than anything. There’s a cough behind him, and Miles turns around.
“You better watch yourself, Spider-Man.” It was the other criminal, the one he took down second. He talked slowly, like he was really thinking things through. Eye lenses narrow, and Miles advances towards him. They stare at each other. "Something’s coming for you, man. Huntin’ you. Better be careful or else.” Miles feels a cold, creeping feeling in his limbs. The criminal breathes raggedly, and there’s a weak chuckle. "You’ve caught someone’s eye, Spidey.” Miles can feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest, and he wants to be angry, wants to tell this guy he can screw it to a higher place.
“Why are you telling me this?” Miles says instead, arms crossing as his eyes narrow in suspicion. "We aren’t exactly on the same side here, man. Why help me out?” The criminal studies him with his beady eyes.
“‘Cause…” The slow man says thoughtfully. He watches Miles the whole time. "I may be a criminal, but I stick to the light things.” Miles squints at that, about to mention that he just busted the three guys trying to break into a town store and how that’s not very “light”, but the criminal continues before he had the chance. "I still want a Spider-Man here. You protect people, my family is part of that people.” The beady stare hardens, and Miles suddenly gets the feeling that his whole soul is being exposed and evaluated.” So you better still be here, for them.”
Police sirens echo from the street, jolting the two out of their reverie. Miles takes an instinctive step backwards. The criminal keeps staring at him. Miles finds he has a hard time looking away. The sirens get louder, and the criminal jerks his head.
“Get outta here, Spider-Man!” Miles startles, scaling the brick wall to the roof easily. The criminal is still calling after him. "And make sure you’re here! For their sake and yours!”
Miles swings away, the criminal’s words ringing after him as he swoops between buildings and traffic. His heart is still racing, and it doesn’t slow down even after he does his precautionary four detours before sneaking into his dorm. He tears the mask off his face, chucking it into the open drawer on the desk. He’s breathing hard, hyperventilating maybe. He needs out of the suit. Miles pulls at the spandex, frantically peeling it from his body, knocking into things in his haste. His roomate, Ganke, stirs slightly at the commotion. Miles balls the suit and tosses it into the corner.
He throws on a night shirt, burying himself in the covers of his bed. Wide brown eyes stare out the window, and Miles urges his breathing to slow and to calm down. Can he even trust what that guy said? He’s a criminal, he could have been saying that to get under his skin. Not to say it didn’t work, because it definitely worked, but that’s exactly what a criminal would want to do, right? Miles hasn’t been at this for very long, maybe 4 months? 4 months since Gwen, Peter, and the others. Miles squeezes his eyes shut. They would know what to do, whether to believe the guy or not. He rubs at his dry eyes, willing the burning to go away. God, he misses them more than anything. He wishes they were here, telling him what to do in this situation.
Because the thing is, he thinks the criminal was being genuine. Miles believes him, and that for some reason he wanted Spider-Man protected, and it’s scary. Miles buries his head into the pillow and breathes shakily. The long night is starting to get to him. He needs to sleep. No more thinking about scary proclamations by a criminal that may or may not be true. That’s something for tomorrow.
Miles faces away from the window, and promptly falls asleep.