Chapter Text
Most teenagers would either be at a party at midnight on a weekend, or they’d be asleep. Me, I was sitting on the rooftop of my building, legs dangling in the air. All Night by R5 was pounding through my earbuds, taking over all my senses. This was a typical Friday night for me.
I had stumbled upon our rooftop a few weeks ago when MJ and I were trying to get away from the yelling between my parents. We had found the perfect corner that overlooked the pretty part of our block. This spot became my oasis at night and I found myself here a lot. Homework was done here some nights, and when our foursome would get together it would be here.
I laid back against some pillows I had set up a few weeks ago, looking up into the dark sky. My phone buzzed beside me, text from MJ coming through. I’m going to bed, don’t fall off the roof. I don’t want to have to find a new best friend.
“Well, how sweet,” I mumbled to myself. Pulling my earbuds out of my ears and placing them to my side, I shot a text back to her. Maybe Spider-Man can come to save me. A girl can hope, right? I laughed to myself and looked down when my phone pinged with her response.
You’re sick. Love it. Night, dork.
I set my phone down, laughing at my best friend. She had this quirky attitude, sometimes it seemed like she couldn’t care less about people. Other times it’s like she couldn’t get enough of them. That’s just how she is. We had met freshman year, bonding over a novel I had brought to lunch, and kicked it off from there. We had eventually grown closer over our agreement that our other friends were just complete dorks, and obviously, we were less dorky than them so of course, we had to stick together.
“You wouldn’t actually fall off a building just to see if id save you, would you?”
I let out a screech, jumping to my feet and whirling around. I was not expecting to come face to face with the man in front of me. My mouth dropped, eyes wide. In front of me was none other than our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He was standing there, hands on his hips, watching my dumbfounded ass squirm in his sudden presence.
“Holy shit. I was only joking. What the hell are you doing here?” I was internally, and clearly outwardly, freaking out. This isn’t real. It can’t be. No way in hell was Spider-Man really on my rooftop in front of me.
The suited man put his hands up, walking closer to me ever so slowly as if I was a skittish animal. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Just stopped by to check on you during my patrol.”
“Check on me?” I cocked my head to the side, clearly confused. Why would Spider-Man need to check on me?
He scratched the back of his covered neck and made his way towards me, dropping into my previous spot. I sat beside him after he motioned for me to do so. I watched as he rolled his mask up to his nose, taking a deep, relieving breath. Cocking my head for the second time, I looked at his jawline, something eerily familiar about the angle of it.
“Something on my face?” I looked up to see him staring back at me, hands now on his face. I shook my head, him nodding in approval. “I’ve seen you here every week. You’re usually gone by the time I go home though. Why is that? Ae your friends busy or something?”
“Excuse me, Mr. Creepy. Are you stalking me?” He shook his head quickly and I rolled my eyes, turning my face up to the night sky and watching a plane go by. “This is my favorite place to be at night. It’s peaceful and quiet. During school nights I’m usually up here for homework. Weekends, I stay up here as long as I possibly can since my parents are usually both home, which means arguing.” I stopped rambling long enough to take a breath.
“As for your last question,” I continued. “My friends all have their own things going on. No clue what Ned does, but Peter is usually MIA. I’m seriously convinced he’s up to no good. MJ is a book nerd so she’s either studying, reading, or going to bed early like she did tonight.” I clicked my tongue and shrugged.
I looked over at the masked man beside me and narrowed my eyes, watching him carefully. He was looking up at the sky, hands on his knees. Up until now, I had thought the man behind that mask was older, but looking at him now, he had a very youthful presence to him. Noticing the relaxed posture, I took a slight mental note of it. Again, there was something familiar about it and I couldn’t put my tongue on it.
“It’s not safe to be out so late.” He was looking at me now and although I couldn’t see his eyes, I could feel the intense stare. I snorted in response and looked at the empty streets below us.
“I’m up here, not down there. The worst that could happen is falling off the edge.” I arched a brow looking over at him. He tilted his head and pointed at the fire escape behind us.
“Do you know how many times I’ve seen criminals try to get away by using those? Just because you’re up here, doesn’t mean you’re in the clear.” He shrugged his shoulders at me and continued watching the streets.
“Thank you for caring about my wellbeing, Mr. Spider-Man. But I’ve been here plenty of times. I’m sure I’ll be fine. Besides, now I know I’ve got you keeping an eye on me.” I smiled at him and shot him a wink, earning me a small grin from the man.
Spider-Man suddenly shot up off the ground, whipping his head to the left. I followed suit, slowly standing up on my feet again. Wrapping my arms around myself to stop the sudden cold breeze from hitting my skin, I watched him pull his mask back down over his mouth. He took a few steps closer to the edge of the building before stopping and looking back at me.
“Promise me something?” I nodded quickly. “Be safe up here. If you need help just call for me. Or if you just need someone to talk to. I’ll be here. Go home and get some rest, Lana.” With that he jumped off, only to swing away on a web a moment later. I had no chance to even ask him how he knew my name.