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Miles was pretty sure his day couldn’t be more messed up than it was, but this wasn’t the first time in his life that he’d thought that and been horribly wrong; not that it had ever been to this scale before.
His dad had found out about him being a spider-person; specifically, Kid Arachnid, who had taken Spider-Man’s place as one of New York’s defenders.
Needless to say, his dad wasn’t very pleased with this new development; thankfully, his dad didn’t try to stop him from patrolling the city.
He did, however, lay down a lot of rules, including a curfew.
And this was all before Miles returned to school for the week, where he had to jump straight into a fun day of tests.
By the end of the day, he was so ready to get out as Kid Arachnid that he thought he might combust.
His roommate, who was also now his friend, picked up on this pretty quickly.
“In a rush to get out?” he questioned.
“ Yes !” Miles hissed back, accidentally venting his frustration on his friend.
They didn’t talk the rest of the way back.
When Miles could finally pull his mask down over his face and leap out of the window of his room, shoot out a web and swing away across the city, he really didn’t didn’t expect to be interrupted by two equally annoying Deadpools.
One moment Miles was slinging his way across the city, the next he was landing neatly on a roof, already prepared to fight the two masked figures before him.
Then one, who looked about Miles age (but he was just guessing based on proportions), raised their hands in a sort of calming gesture, and yelled, considerably louder than necessary, “WE’RE NOT BAD GUYS!!!”
After hearing them out, Miles found he was faced by two equally annoying masked mercenaries.
Both of them were named Wade, apparently, and both used the name of Deadpool, which made things confusing, at least, until the younger-seeming one said, “I can go by Kidpool if that makes things easier, but he-” Kidpool gestured to the other Deadpool- wait, no, Deadpool- god this was messing with Miles’ head already -
“-kinda needs your help.”
“Woah, woah, wait.” Miles reached up to run a hand over the top of his mask, similar to the movement of running your fingers through your hair. “What do you even need help with?”
At that moment, Deadpool glitched, collapsing onto his knees, and the eyes on Miles’ mask widened.
“He’s from another universe,” he murmured, and Kidpool nodded, his unusually expressive mask showing that he seemed impressed.
“You realised pretty quickly,” Kidpool commented.
“You try dealing with five other spider-people, one being a literal pig.”
“Come again?” Kidpool then seemed to shake off his confusion. “Look, we heard you’d dealt with this kind of stuff before.”
“Yeah. I helped five other spider-people.” Miles then turned to Deadpool. “Let me guess, you want to get home to your family? Friends? Kids?”
“Back to my boyfriend,” Deadpool corrected.
“Don’t ask-”
“Your boyfriend?”
“-about his boyfriend,” Kidpool finished, with as a groan as he facepalmed.
“Well, his name is Peter Parker-” Deadpool began, looking as if he might continue for years if Miles didn’t interrupt with, “There’s another Peter Parker? Man, that’s the fourth Peter Parker I’ve heard of this past week . Don’t tell me he’s secretly Spider-Man.”
“Of fucking course he is!” Deadpool exclaimed loudly, and Miles flinched back at his raised voice.
“We’re wasting time ,” cut in Kidpool, pushing the two of them apart with considerable strength. “We need to get him back to his universe.”
“Right, of course. How exactly do we do that? The particle accelerator thingy is destroyed, I made sure of that after I got the other spider-people home- wait, how are you even here?”
“Long story, kid. Basically, we need to get back some stolen tech.”
“And this tech is yours ?” Miles questioned.
“Hell no, its Stark’s. I, uh, ‘borrowed’ it.” Deadpool coughed into his hand, while Kidpool gave him what Miles guessed was a disapproving glare.
“Okay, so your universe has a Tony Stark in it too.” Miles paused. “My dad might be able to help on this one. He’s a cop, so he’s got some good resources.”
“So you want to tell him about this?” Kidpool demanded.
“He already knows I’m Kid Arachnid,” Miles said with a small shrug.
“Fine, but I’m coming with you,” announced Kidpool, and with that Miles knew he didn’t have their full trust.
“My dad won’t let you in if you wear that ,” Miles said, gesturing to the mask.
“I’ll take it off once we get there, idiot,” Kidpool replied moodily.
“Good. Think you can keep up?” Miles refused to be unsettled by Kidpool’s attitude.
Kidpool sniffed. “Easily.” Then he turned to Deadpool. “Meet you at the den later, okay?”
Miles didn’t stay to hear Deadpool’s reply; he shot out a web to swing away, then another, then landed neatly atop and sign and glanced back; for a moment, he felt slightly satisfied at the fact that Kidpool hadn’t been able to keep up.
Then his senses seemed to return to him and he cursed under his breath, swinging back the way he’d come to find Kidpool again.
“You said you’d keep up.”
“You didn’t warn me you were fucking going anywhere!”
Miles bit back a retort, instead wrapping some webbing around Kidpool to secure him before swinging away again, this time carrying Kidpool; something he did not seem happy about.
Good, Miles thought, already finding Kidpool to be annoying, pompous I-know-better-than-you mutated freak.
He set them down at the end of the street where his parents’ apartment was.
“Alright, mask off,” Miles ordered, his patience with Kidpool having run thin.
The small grumble of annoyance gave Miles a bit of satisfaction, until Kidpool removed his mask to reveal a heavily scarred yet handsome face, with short, jet black hair and bright, almost electric, blue eyes.
Shit. He’s hot.
Miles didn’t even realise he was staring until Kidpool angrily said, “Staring at the freak with all the scars because there’s nothing better to do?”
“No, I, uh…” With no way to actually save himself from the situation, Miles just looked away and then removed his own mask before turning back to Kidpool, who seemed somewhat shocked upon seeing his face before regaining his composure.
“Now we can officially meet. Miles Morales.” He extended a hand towards Kidpool, who stared at it for a long moment before taking it and saying, “Wade Wilson.”
“Nice to meet you, Wade,” Miles said, and found he wasn’t lying; yeah, sure, he was annoying the living hell out of him, but surely Wade wasn’t all bad?
That was when Wade simply sniffed in response and released his grip on Miles’ hand. “We going to see your dad or what?”
Ok, yeah, maybe he was that bad.
“This way.” Miles led the way down the street and to his parents’ apartment; he led Wade inside, and knocked on his parents’ door.
His dad seemed surprised when he opened it, a quick “Miles?” leaving his lips before the two of them were ushered inside.
“Dad, I- we need your help.”
“What happened? Did you get hurt? Did someone die?”
“God, dad, no!” Miles hurriedly tried to explain what had happened, in as quick a way as possible.
“So… it’s what happened with all those Spider-people all over again?” His dad continued before Miles could even speak. “No. And you’re not helping them either.”
“Dad, this is different! Besides, it’s my job to help protect the city!”
“How is this different?”
“Last time there was the collider, and the King Pin. This time it’s just some stolen tech.”
“More like a misplaced-inter-dimensional-travel-machine-disguised-as-a-bracelet,” Wade supplied from beside Miles.
“And you want my help…?” Miles’ dad raised an eyebrow.
“To find it,” Miles said, giving Wade a glare.
“I don’t know, Miles. Maybe I can try and do something , but I can’t guarantee anything-”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Miles sprung forward to give his dad a tight hug.
“If you’re quite done , we need to find King Pin’s old lair. He has tech that can help, ahem, Deadpool, survive in our dimension for longer.” Wade looked almost disgusted by the display of affection, and Miles pulled away from his dad to shoot a glare at the other teen.
“Bossy much,” he muttered, then turned back to his dad. “Thank you again, dad!”
The two then left the house, Wade almost instantly pulling his mask back over his face.
With an eye roll, Miles followed suit with his own mask.
“I heard you knew where the King Pin’s old facility is?” Wade’s voice was now slightly muffled beneath his mask.
“Had the pleasure of visiting it when all those other Spider-people ended up in this dimension,” Miles replied, then pointed towards the distant forest. “It’s in there.”
“Not exactly close by,” Wade muttered angrily.
“What did you expect, for a villain like him to live and operate right under our noses?” Miles was surprising even himself with his reactions; normally he’d be looking to calm the situation instead of inflame it, but with Wade his patience seemed to have run thin; and pretty quickly, too.
“I expected something closer, ” was Wade’s reply.
“We’d better get on a bus if we want to make it there before midnight,” Miles said, more to himself. “There’s a bustop only a few blocks away… though the bus heading that way leaves in a few minutes…”
Without warning, he grabbed Wade’s arm and dragged him behind him as took off running towards a nearby building.
“Hey! Spider-Kid, let me go!”
Ignoring Wade’s protests, Miles shot out a web that took them both up into the air, then released it to shoot out another, swinging them along.
Wade was now visibly panicking, despite the fact that they’d travelled in a similar fashion to reach Miles’ parents apartment.
It only took about twenty seconds before Miles was setting them down at the bustop, and instantly Wade was stumbling away from him, backing into the side of the bustop shelter.
“ Fucking hell .” Wade was shaking a bit, too. “Fucking. Hell.”
“I wasn’t gonna-” Miles was going to say “drop you” but Wade cut him off.
“You can’t just…” Wade suddenly just sat down.
“Are you okay?” Miles couldn’t believe it, but he’d gone from feeling like antagonising the other teen to trying to help calm him down.
“Just…”
Whatever Wade was going to say was cut off as the bus pulled up.
“We should get on the bus,” Wade said, getting to his feet.
Miles caught his arm, stopping him as he walked towards the bus.
“We’re not getting on until I’m sure you’re okay.”
Wade stood there for a moment, silent, studying Miles; probably trying to work out Miles’ motives, which would have been easier if they weren’t both wearing their masks.
The doors to the bus closed, and it drove away, which seemed to snap Wade out of his trance, and he yanked his arm out of Miles’ grip angrily.
“We missed the bus!” Wade was practically yelling, but Miles knew it wasn’t the fact that they missed the bus.
“There’s another one in five minutes,” Miles said softly, which seemed to calm Wade slightly.
Silence fell for about a minute before Wade finally spoke again.
“They were killed.”
Miles didn’t say anything, not wanting to force the other teen into elaborating.
“They were all killed. My friends, my family, my boyfriend. All of them.” Wade finally pushed up his mask, and Miles could now see the tears that were beginning to build in his eyes. “It was a stupid accident, the aliens took over the wrong guy…”
Miles pushed up his own mask and moved to sit down next to Wade. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Wade said, meeting Miles’ gaze. “The aliens just managed to gain control of Spider-Man, and just happened to target my family…”
Miles reached out to put his hand atop Wade’s, give it a small, comforting squeeze.
The next bus then pulled up, and after a moment, Wade pulled away again, this time with less anger, and pulled down his mask before getting onto the bus.
Miles followed suit, pulling his own mask back down over his face and boarding the bus.
He joined Wade, who had wisely chosen to sit at the back of the bus.
However, he didn’t try to start up another conversation, and Miles didn’t want to push his luck, so silence fell between them and didn’t lift until the King Pin’s old facility loomed over them, and they were exiting the bus.
“ This is it?” Wade’s voice was full of doubt.
It was then that Miles took in the facility; broken windows, part of the building actually exploded and it looked like it had stood abandoned for a long time rather than a mere few weeks.
“I suppose we did make quite a mess of it last time,” Miles muttered with a wince.
“ We? Oh, right, you and those other Spiders.”
“What did you need again?” Miles asked, the two having reached the door- or what was left of it- to the building.
“They’re canisters. They contain a serem that stops m- Deadpool’s cells from breaking up in other dimensions.”
“And where exactly is this serem?” Miles pushed open the remainder of the door, stepping into the King Pin’s old lair.
“The King Pin keeps the canisters all around his lair.”
“Helpful,” Miles commented dryly.
“Most of them are stored in his old office, though,” Wade added.
“I think I know where that is.” Miles took the lead through the old, abandoned facility.
They’d barely reached the King Pin’s office when Wade’s footfalls stopped.
Miles turned quickly, expecting an ambush of some sorts, expecting someone to have captured Wade, but instead he saw… nothing.
Wade had simply stopped, and Miles would have shrugged it off if it weren’t for the fact that the other teen had his arms wrapped around his stomach, almost as if he were about to be sick.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine, fine! Just get the canisters!” Wade waved him off, and with a final troubled glance at Kidpool, Miles entered the King Pin’s old office.
Almost immediately he was confronted by articles pinned on the walls; some depicted battles between the King Pin and Spider-Man that had happened throughout the city, but the majority of them were all different coverages of Spider-Man’s death.
For a moment, Miles froze, unable to tears his eyes away from the many depictions and explanations for Peter Parker’s death; then he pulled himself together and opened the drawers on the King Pin’s desk, finding the canisters fairly quickly.
All save for a few where in cases, making them easier to carry.
Each case had quite a fair few canisters, and Miles was pretty sure this supply would last a long time.
He took the canisters back into the hallway, struggling not to drop the few that weren’t in the cases as he carried them out.
“Alright, got the- Wade!” Miles dropped the cases and the loose canisters, running over to Wade’s side; the other teen lay on the floor now, arms still wrapped around his stomach as if he were going to be sick.
Wade’s eyes were unfocused at first, then seemed to clear and make out things again. “Miles?”
And that was when it happened.
Miles instantly stood up, taking a step back. “You’re… you’re from another dimension.”
As the bout of glitching ended, Wade nodded weakly, looking smaller than ever.
Forcing back his shock, Miles reached for one of the loose canisters and leaned back down to offer it to Wade, who took it and, carefully, placed it inside a small machine, and, without warning, plunged the machine down against his thigh.
There was obviously some sort of needle in the small machine, and after a moment Wade was letting out a small sigh of relief and putting the machine away again, back into one of the small bags around his waist.
Finally, Wade looked up to meet Miles’ gaze, then he slowly removed his mask; Miles quickly followed suit, wanting to allow Wade to see his emotions too.
“Yes. I’m from another dimension.” Wade sounded almost guilty. “I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to… to send me back.”
“I won’t send you back, not unless you want to go back,” Miles promised.
“It’s just that… in my dimension I have no one. At least here, I can see some of my friends and see my family; I can’t visit them but… I know they’re safe.” Wade looked down at his hands. “And now I know you’re safe, too.”
“Me?”
“In my universe… you didn’t have powers.” Wade lifted his gaze to meet Miles’. “You were… my boyfriend.”
For a moment, Miles was stunned into silence.
“Wait… I was…?”
“Remember I said I lost my boyfriend? You died in my universe.” Wade looked back down at his hands.
“Well, I’m not dead here,” Miles said, getting back up from the awkward crouch he’d been in.
He then offered his hand to Wade, who took it, and he helped the other teen to stand.
“We’d best get some of this to your friend,” Miles said, gesturing at the now-scattered canisters and cases.
“Yeah.” Wade’s voice was slightly unsteady, as if something Miles had said had upset him, but he picked up a couple of the cases and a few of the loose canisters, leaving Miles to take what was left.
The two of them left the old facility, catching the next bus back to the city.
“He had articles up.”
They’d been travelling on the bus for only a few minutes when Miles broke the silence.
“Who?”
“The King Pin. He had articles up of… of Spider-Man’s death. Almost like he was gloating about it. Showing off.” Miles paused for a second to collect his thoughts, to try and work out his emotions. “I was there, Wade. I was there when he was killed. I watched the Goblin kill him.”
Wade was silent for a moment before replying, “I guess we all have someone who’s died, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess,” was Miles’ reluctant reply.
The rest of the bus trip was filled with a heavy silence.
Miles woke in his dorm, in his room, which was so familiar, a great comfort to wake to in the mornings; especially after a day like the one he’d had the previous night.
He dragged himself through classes, not at all reassured by Wade’s last words to him the previous night; “Don’t worry, at the worst we can die, and that doesn’t sound very bad to me at all.”
Wade didn’t seem to think he was worthy of still living, probably a result of something that happened when his family, friends and boyfriend- Miles, apparently, which was hard to wrap his head around- were killed.
When Miles finally got out of class, he was racing to his dorm, throwing his stuff in a random direction and hastily pulling on his suit, then leaping from the window and slinging away.
He soon reached the place where Deadpool and Kidpool were- he didn’t want to call Kidpool Wade at this moment, not wanting to confuse Deadpool at all- and quickly checked his phone.
Nothing from his dad about where the dimension traveling device was.
“About time you showed up.”
“Not my fault that some of us have school, Kidpool,” Miles shot back, landing neatly by the doorway.
“Enough of that,” Deadpool said, pushing his way between the two, shocking Miles with how… mature he sounded. It wasn’t a way Deadpool had acted earlier, that’s for sure.
“What, you found something?” Kidpool’s voice was full of hostility.
“I actually did,” Deadpool responded. He looked as if he might continue, but then a nasty bout of glitching took over.
“Hold on,” Kidpool said, without any real urgency. He drew out the small machine and a canister, slotted the canister into the machine and plunged it into Deadpool’s leg.
Almost instantly the glitching stopped, and a few seconds after Deadpool visibly relaxed.
Kidpool withdrew the machine, stowing it away while, rather carelessly, tossing the canister in a random direction.
“As I was saying,” Deadpool began again. “I found out where our dimension-hopping device is.”
“You found it?!?” Kidpool leaped to his feet excitedly. “Where is it? We can send you home!”
“Slow down,” muttered Miles out the corner of his mouth.
“It’s gonna take a bit of effort to get. Cletus Kasady- that is, to say, the man who was Cletus Kasady-”
“Deadpool! Who. Has. The. Dimension. Hopper?” Kidpool had taken a half step towards Deadpool, and effectively cut off his rambling.
Deadpool cast a glance at Kidpool, then at Miles, before speaking again. “Carnage.”
Surprisingly enough, sneaking into the house of an evil alien symbiote who was bonded perfectly to a human was actually one of the easiest things Miles had done; sneaking into the King Pin’s lair had been harder than this, but, then again, the King Pin was a criminal mastermind, until his downfall.
They went through the vents, but where in the King Pin’s lair Miles had actually had to sneak, in Carnage’s house no sneaking was necessary.
Case and point; Deadpool tripped in the vent and fell with a loud crash, which raised exactly zero alarms and didn’t bring anyone running to their location.
When they finally dropped down into Carnage’s office, they found it empty.
“He’s out?” Miles muttered incredulously. That was when his Spider-sense tingled; he didn’t get time to react before something cold, hard and round pressed against the back of his head.
“ He is right here,” came a voice from behind Miles; it was almost as if two people were speaking at once, but it was more mixed, a fusion.
An arm wound around Miles’ shoulders, but it didn’t feel at all friendly.
Then he was being forced to walk backwards, the gun, or what Miles assumed was a gun, since his Spider-senses were going absolutely nuts, now pressed against his temple.
“Look, all we’re after is the Dimension Hopper you, uh, found so that we can send him,” Kidpool gestured to Deadpool, “home to his dimension.”
A short laugh from the man who was holding Miles hostage, quite obviously Carnage, split the air.
“You think I’d give up some of Stark’s technology?” Carnage drew the gun away from Miles’ temple for a moment to gesture at Deadpool with it. “He can die for all I care.”
Kidpool took a threatening pace forwards, and instantly Carnage harshly pressed the gun back to Miles’ temple.
“Let him go.” It was the first time Deadpool had spoken since Carnage had entered the room, and it made Miles try to meet his gaze, which he failed at.
Carnage chuckled again, but abruptly stopped as Deadpool held something up.
Straining to see, Miles saw what he thought looked like a glorified wristwatch.
“Let him go, and we’ll return the Dimension Hopper,” Deadpool said quietly.
There was a moment of still silence, then a red, almost liquified, tentacle of sorts snapped across the room to pin Kidpool to the wall.
“Hand it over,” came the voice of Carnage, once again seeming to be two voices mingled into one. “Or I’ll kill them both.”
Deadpool seemed to waver for a moment, then he spoke. “No.”
Miles’ eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the inevitable bullet in his skull, his Spidey-senses going absolutely crazy.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Kidpool somehow managed to free one of his katanas, and had sliced through Carnage’s tentacle-like arm, causing Carnage to stagger backwards with a roar of pain.
His grip on Miles’ loosened, and, seeing his chance, Miles twisted free, sprinting across the room to join the other two heroes.
Carnage came charging at them; Miles shot a web on the ceiling to pull himself out the way, Kidpool ducked to avoid getting punched while Deadpool sliced at Carnage with his own katanas.
Miles swung himself up to land on the roof, eyes flicking over the fight below him.
Kidpool dodged another punch before slicing at Carnage’s leg with his katana, while Deadpool went straight for Carnage’s neck; the villain turned his full attention to fighting Deadpool, and Kidpool began to creep back in to attack again.
Seeing his chance, Miles shot out a web and swung forwards, kicking Carnage in the back of the head as he did so.
A roar of outrage came from the villain, and as Miles made to do the same thing again, he noticed Kidpool drop to the floor for a moment, glitching.
Knowing the only way to help Kidpool was to defeat Carnage, he swung at the villain, kicking him in the head again.
At the same time, Kidpool struck Carnage’s leg with his katana, and with a roar of anger, the villain toppled to the floor.
Deadpool then delivered a quick blow just under Carnage’s jaw, knocking him out.
“We’d better get you home,” Kidpool said, starting to stand before glitching heavily again.
“Kidpool-” Miles began.
“No! Send him home, then worry about me.”
Miles met Kidpool’s gaze for a moment, then nodded, and turned to Deadpool. “You’ve got that Dimension Hopper?”
Deadpool lifted his wrist to display the device. “Yeah.”
“Well, I guess this is goodbye then.” Miles paused for a second, then held out his hand; a moment passed, then Deadpool took it.
“Thanks, kid.” Then he turned to Kidpool. “And thanks to you too, kid.”
Then he turned a dial on the Hopper, lifted his hand in a wave and disappeared before their eyes.
A grunt from where they’d left Carnage made Miles turn.
Carnage, now more of a raging puddle on the ground, raised a gun- a gun Miles hadn’t thought to retrieve earlier- and time slowed.
Carnage pulled the trigger, and the bullet hurtled towards Miles.
A red and black blur began to fill Miles’ vision, and time seemed to speed back up.
A thump below him caused Miles to look down, finding the source of the noise at his feet; a furiously glitching Kidpool, blood beginning to pool from a wound on his chest.
Turning back to Carnage, he just saw the villain leap from the window, obviously fleeing away into the city.
Miles quickly dropped down next to him, fumbling hurriedly for the last canister, the one Kidpool- Wade - had entrusted to him earlier.
He began to slot it into the machine when a weak hand on his arm made him stop.
“Don’t.” Wade was sitting up now, clutching weakly at his chest as the bouts of glitching grew steadily worse. “I’m a goner anyway. The glitching… it’s depleted my powers. Don’t waste the canister on me.”
“You’re not dying!” Hot fury ran through Miles at the thought of Wade resigning to his own death. “This’ll save you.”
Wade removed his own mask, giving Miles a weak smile before coughing violently, blood dribbling from his lips. “I don’t think I’m going to survive both cancer and a bullet wound, Miles.”
“I won’t just let you die!” Miles finished placing the canister into the machine.
“That’s not…” Wade broke off with another cough. “Not… your choice… let me… see your… face… before I…”
Then he collapsed backwards, limp, and Miles just managed to catch him in time to gently lower him the rest of the way to the floor.
No breath entered Wade’s lungs, and Miles desperately plunged the machine into Wade’s leg.
The canister emptied, and the glitching that had still been plaguing Wade’s limp corpse stopped, but still no breath entered Wade’s lungs.
Miles pulled off his own mask, not trusting that it wasn’t hampering his sight; Wade had to be breathing, he had to be.
His vision began to blur; yep, those were tears.
“Wade…” he managed to say, softly, brokenly.
Before he could completely break down into tears, though, he heard a gasp from the direction of Wade.
Lifting his head, he saw that the other teen was hurriedly sucking in breath after breath; Miles hurried to help him sit up, keeping his arm around him to support him.
“Thank god,” Miles muttered, and the two sat in relative silence for a couple of minutes, the only sound being Wade’s gasping breaths.
When Wade’s breathing seemed to have returned to normal, he finally spoke.
“Guess you saved my life, huh?”
“Wasn’t just going to let you die. Who else would annoy me to hell and back?” Miles’ voice shook a little, and it was an effort for him to meet Wade’s gaze.
A small smile came across Wade’s face. “Well, thanks. But what happens if we run out of canisters? The King Pin couldn’t possibly have that many.”
“We’ll work out the formula for it,” Miles promised.
“But what if you can’t?”
“Wade, we’ll work it out.”
“But-”
Miles stopped whatever Wade was going to say by kissing him fiercely. “We’ll work it out, okay?”
Wade nodded breathlessly, and Miles smiled at him.
“Now I’d really better get back to school. I’ve got tests tomorrow.”