Work Text:
She said she would be back.
She promised.
Out of everyone, everyone who had ever promised you something, Liv was the only one who hadn’t broken one. Until today.
You met her when you were barely entering year two of college. The internship at Alchemax was the only way you could keep attending school seeing as scholarships only took you through year one.
She might have just pitied you. It was hard to believe she’d take you seriously. After all, you were only 20 and your work was hardly groundbreaking.
Still, when you met Liv, she promised you’d be able to get your degree. Of course it was hard to believe, she was a world rebound scientist. A CEO of a huge company, and she would probably be a millionaire if she didn’t spend all her paychecks advancing her projects.
But for some reason, she pulled it off. She got you a scholarship, and personally hired you to intern at Alchemax. You had been able to finish your degree after that, and you graduated at the top of your class once you didn’t have to worry about if you’d be able to pay rent for the month. It’s a wonder what a steady paycheck can do for a person.
The next promise she made had been more simplistic. It happened three months into your internship.
Liv had seemed awfully excited on that particular day. Of course, so long as people weren’t getting in the way of her experiments she was in a pleasant mood, but that day stood out to you.
Liv, who you knew as Doctor Octavius at the time, had run up to you with a dorky smile and a glint in her eyes. She grabbed your shoulders gently, but firm at the same time, and pressed her face so close to yours that your nose almost brushed against her. You thought she might burst from excitement.
“It’s your birthday on Sunday!”
You blinked, not fully registering what she was going on about. The doctor seemed to be waiting for a reply from you, since she just stood quietly, not breaking eye contact. It was slightly unnerving, so you glanced away, picking at your nails out of anxiousness.
“Yeah, it is,” before you could ask her how she knew such an unimportant detail about you, she let go of your shoulders and clapped, her smile only growing larger. “Great! I’ll take you to dinner, my treat! We can talk about your internship and what you’ve learned so far,” you didn’t pick up on the rest of her ramblings. Dinner? Alone with the doctor? Did she do this with all of her colleagues? That prospect seemed impossible, she spent too much time at work, to the point where sometimes you wondered if she even had a place outside of Alchemax or if she just lived in her lab.
Apparently, while your thoughts had trailed she had asked you a question. Because you looked up to see her staring expectantly at your face.
“I..uhm,” you looked at her nervously.
“Sunday, 6:30pm? Unless you already had plans with your family or something,” “No, I don’t.” It came out harsher than you planned, but the doctor had struck a sore spot. You looked to see her slightly shocked, before adding in a much softer “6:30 is fine,”
Dr. Octavius regained a bit of her smile, patting you on the shoulder. “I’ll see you then. It will be great, I promise ,”
She left before you could give her your address, and you almost thought she had been pulling some sort of nasty prank on you. After all, she didn’t even know where you lived, how would she pick you up?
But, just in case you dressed up anyways.
You swore you would just wear a casual outfit, that you didn’t need to dress fancy for her. Especially when she probably wouldn’t show up, you reminded the slightly more optimistic part of your mind. So, you chose a tight, pale orange halter top and a pair of black jeans and added a bit of cheap jewelry and makeup to finish the look. Then, you sat on the couch staring at the clock. Watching as it’s arms moved at an excruciatingly slow pace. 6:15...6:25… you were sure she wouldn’t show.
But then, at 6:30 sharp, you heard a knock on your door.
You don’t like to think about how quickly you opened it.
And there was Liv, sporting a white blouse and tight black pants, under a trench coat, topped off with her signature multi coloured scarf. She gave a sweet smile before gesturing outside. “Ready to go sweetie? I hope you like pub food, the place I had in mind serves a killer burger. Or we could try that new Mexican place, it’s just a couple blocks away…”
She was rambling again. You had begun to enjoy the sound of her voice as she babbled on about whatever topic she found interesting. You hoped she would keep talking to you like that forever.
Just like that, you and Liv started becoming closer. It took you three more weeks to pick up on your feelings for her, and once you did you realized you had fallen hard. Three days later, when you and Liv got together to watch some poorly made movie about High School kids time traveling, she asked you out.
The memory still made you chuckle. The movie had ended, and she turned to look at you with a serious look on her face. You held back a snicker, before engaging in her games.
“What?”
She tried to mimic the way the boys had talked throughout the movie. “You know what would be totally bodacious?”
You laughed for real that time, before answering in your own impression of the characters. “What, dude?”
After laughing at your horrible impression, she went back to using her regular voice. “You and me going out, on a date.”
You gave a smaller smile, and looked at her. Surely she was joking. “Liv, you know it isn’t nice to play with people's emotions,” she sat up and grabbed your hands. “I’m not!” She looked slightly more vulnerable than before, her eyebrows creased together and she looked worried.
Worried about what? Rejection? You refused to believe that Olivia Octavius, the CEO of a major corporation, probably one of the smartest people in the world, was worried that YOU would reject her. You shook your head.
“Liv, you know you can do better than me. I just don’t think that,”
She cut you off with a kiss.
A glorious, unexpected but welcomed kiss. Before leaning back, and cupping your face.
“I promise . I want to be with you. Please, just give it a shot?”
“What if...what if I mess it up? And you’re not my friend anymore?” You were scared. And vulnerable, and Liv knew it. She just smiled, a hint of sadness in her eyes.
“You won’t, I promise I’ll still be your friend even if we don’t work out romantically.”
There was that word again.
Promise.
Seemingly knowing what you were thinking, Liv gave you a slightly more lopsided grin. “C’mon. I’ve never broken a promise to you before, have I? Just give us a chance..?”
You agreed. And it was the best decision of your life. After that night Liv grew increasingly protective over you. She cared about you more than anyone ever had, from making sure you had full meals, and water, to making sure you always felt loved and important when you were with her.
You could have sworn you fell more and more for her every day.
As you got closer, she even revealed her true identity to you. That she was the Doctor Octopus that fought Spider-Man in the streets occasionally. You couldn’t say you were surprised, honestly the second you saw Doctor Octopus on the news you knew it was her. After all, not many people have such unique hair.
And she would come home late, bruised, and covered in dirt occasionally. Mumbling about how “she’ll get him next time” and, “he’ll be sorry he broke one of her tentacles” all when she thought you were asleep, or couldn’t hear.
Two months later, the collider was almost done, and Spider-Man had stolen the information needed to turn it off.
“But Liv, even if they DO come back, you can’t just run into the testing room in only your suit, and fight them! What if you get thrown into another dimension? What if they kill you?!”
She didn’t even look in your direction. She was focused on whatever code she was working on now, and with the stress of having to finish in less then 24 hours, she was getting testy. Even with you.
“I don’t care! The ONLY thing important to me right now is finishing the collider, so not only will I, as you say, ‘run unto the testing room in only my suit and fight them’, but I will win. And I will make sure my machine doesn’t fail. And to do that, I need to focus. So either help me, or get out.”
You were speechless. Never once throughout your relationship had she snapped at you like that, and it hurt more than you cared to admit. it seemed to take her a couple of seconds to realize the impact of her words, but when she did she swivelled around to face you. A similar look of shock was plastered on both your faces.
“Sweetie, I,”
You raised your hand, cutting her off. You didn’t want to hear her excuses right now. “I don’t want to get in the way of your project,” you turned towards the door. “Seeing as I don’t technically have clearance for this area, and I’m just an intern, I’ll ‘get out’ so I’m no longer a distraction. I’ll see you at home, whenever you choose to show up,”
Before you could leave, a soft, robotic tentacle wrapped around your arm.
“Sweetie, I’m sorry… I’ll make it up to you okay? The second I return home, safe, I promise .”
You gave her a sad smile, before pulling your arm out of her grip.
“I love you,” the door shut before you could finish your sentence, or hear her reply.
“Be careful…”
—-
The next evening you were back at alchemex, tired and anxious. As you expected, Liv hadn’t come home that night and you spent your time tossing and turning, worried about her. The hours seemed like days to you as the day slowly passed by. By 10, you were getting worried. The ground had stopped shaking an hour ago, that meant the super collider had finished doing its job. Right?
So why wasn’t she home.
Soon it was 11. Then 12. Then 1.
You spend the entire night sitting restlessly on the couch by the front door, wrapped in a blanket that still smelled like Liv.
Any second, you told yourself. Any second she’ll come through that door and complain about having to fight the spider people. Then she’ll look into your eyes and tell you how sorry she is, before cupping your face and giving you a kiss. You’ll tell her that it’s okay, she was stressed and under pressure and that you were just glad that she was home and alright.
That moment never came.
At 7:00 the next morning, you made your way to Alchemax.
Or, more appropriately, to what was Alchemax. The entire place was decimated, collapsed on itself. You felt sick to your stomach.
You couldn’t even get close to the wreckage because of the heavy perimeter of yellow tape and police officers stationed to keep people away. But you knew.
The pit in your stomach grew and you felt lightheaded. Liv wouldn’t be coming home that night.
For the first time since you met her, she had broken her promise.