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Mark hates lying, but more specifically Mark hates lying to his boyfriend. Unfortunately for him, it happened more frequently than he would like to admit. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t simply go and tell him; “sorry babe, I was late for our date again because I was busy fighting against the bad guys.” I mean, he could try but, what were the odds that Jeno — his boyfriend and a big spider-man fan, would believe anything he said?
In the best scenario, Jeno would probably freak out because “how can you be so selfless, Mark” and would start worrying about his safety twenty-four-seven. In the worst one, he would think he’s crazy and would immediately tell his aunt Taeyeon — probably suggesting he needs therapy along the way.
So yeah, that’s why once he’s done changing back to his normal clothes he runs off that dirty alley towards the café table Jeno’s been waiting for him for a good twenty minutes, already thinking of an excuse.
“Hi, babe,” he hugs Jeno from behind as he catches his breath. “I’m so sorry…”
“What was this time, Mark?” He can feel the soft touches of the younger on his hand as he makes himself comfortable on the chair next to him. “Last time you said your dog was sick, but you don’t have a dog baby.”
“You know I treat Daegal as if she was mine…” he whines, earning a giggle from his pretty boyfriend’s lips. “And about today, I overslept.”
He could feel Jeno’s gaze over him, analyzing him only to fake a buzzing sound seconds after. “Wrong answer! Taeyeon told me you left pretty early today.” Oh no, he was giving him the pouty look. “But since I like you so much, I’m giving you a second chance.”
“I…” the sudden feeling of alert — courtesy of his spidey senses, makes him feel dizzy for a moment only to react just on time to see four police patrols chasing what it seems to be… a car on fire? Oh wait, they have guns too. “Jen! To the ground, now!”
Everything happened so fast. One second he’s on a date, and the other he’s covering his boyfriend’s body from the shattering glass, Jeno’s body pressed against the dirty sidewalk’s surface to prevent him from getting caught by another stray bullet.
“Jen, are you okay?” There's worry in his voice and his hands are shaking from the mere idea of Jeno getting hurt. “Baby, answer me.”
“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” he sighs in relief and hugs him tighter, causing some of the glass to fall to the floor. “Are you okay though? There are some window fragments in your hair…”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry,” once the coast is clear he stands up, and carefully helps Jeno to do the same. “Are you sure you are okay?”
“Well, I’m a little scared — astonished by how quick you reacted too, but I’ll be fine.”
“Great,” he kisses him on the cheek. “Would you be okay with going home by yourself?”
“What about you?” Jeno’s broken expression was like a slap on the face. “I don’t want to be alone…”
“I know,” he gives his hand a soft, almost apologetic, squeeze. “But you know that wherever the bad guys go spiderman does the same, and I really could use some pictures to earn a little bit of money.”
“But Mark,” the younger sighed when he saw the look of determination in his boyfriend’s eyes. “Be careful, okay?”
“Always.”
And he kisses him before running towards the danger because that’s what superheroes do. They lie to their loved ones and fight to keep them — and everyone else, safe.
Mark sighs as takes off his mask and lies on a building’s roof, where no one can see him. At least not the real him. On this roof, he’s just a random dude wearing a spandex suit. He’s not Mark Lee, the caring and clumsy boyfriend, the model student, nor the perfect nephew everyone would expect him to be. And he’s not your friendly neighbourhood spider-man either.
Because caring people are allowed to offer a hand, but when you’re clumsy enough to screw everything you have done up, you’re not. Because model students focus on their work and do their best to improve day by day. Because the perfect nephew wouldn’t lie to his aunt about his whereabouts or his job. And because it takes more than a suit, spider senses, and a pair of web-shooters to be a hero.
So he allows himself to forget about his real and his secret identity for a moment. Because right there, mask or not, he’s just a guy with big aspirations playing save the day.
And even though he hasn’t done his best yet, he has done it well enough until now. Even if James Jonah Jameson is stubborn enough to admit it.
His reflection — You call that pity party a reflection? What a loser. Fuck off inner voice! — was interrupted by an entrant call.
ID caller: Jeno ૮꒰.˃ ⤙ ˂꒱ა
“Markie!” he couldn’t help but smile at the cuteness of his boyfriend. “I was wondering if you can come? You know, since the battle against those thefts' already finished…”
“How do you know it finished?” he has an idea about it but it’s best if he hears it from Jeno.
“You know… Twitter,” he’s voice is lower than before, almost shy. “And I know you’re gonna say that I shouldn’t spend so much time on social media nor believe everything I read on it but you know how I get when it’s something spiderman related.”
Yeah, he forgot to mention his boyfriend had a little crush on his super-self. Is he even allowed to feel jealous? He doesn’t know it, but he allows himself to tease the other. “It’s concerning how much you look up to this guy. Should I wear a spandex suit to remind you that you already have a boyfriend?”
“Oh, c’mon Mark!” Jeno’s whines make him giggle, “you left me alone to go take pictures of the same guy in spandex. Plus, you answer your phone, right? Means you have already finished and can come here to give me cuddles.”
“Fine,” gosh, he loved Jeno so much. “Want me to pick up some cookies on the way?”
“P-” an explosion interrupts what he supposed was a plea from the other. “Markie?”
“I’m still here,” he’s already putting his mask on. “I gotta go, okay? See you in a bit.”
He shoves his phone into his backpack and along with the thwip thwip sound of his web-shooters, he swings from one building to another, towards the danger again.
The sounds — horns, screams, and explosions, get clearer as he reaches the centre of the city. Hanging against a wall he climbs higher, and once he spots his target — a big, green, dinosaur-like creature, he jumps ready to fight.
It was not his first time confronting The Lizard. The beast, also known as the doctor Curtis Connors in his human form, was witty. But also incredibly greedy.
Because of his condition — and other disabilities, he thought humans were inferior. And as a doctor, having the scientific knowledge and lab access in front of him, he looked for a way to change it.
Lizards have the ability to regenerate themselves, right? So, in theory, combining their reptilian DNA with ours would give us that quality too. We could cure cancer and a bunch of other terrible yet specific illnesses, and doctor Connors would be able to recover his arm.
Well, that's just a theory. And it kind of explains why the man has tried the serum on himself not once, not twice, but almost five times now.
"Hey, Doc!" He jumps in front of him, careful enough to not be caught mid-air. "Another failed attempt?"
A loud growl is all he gets as an answer.
"It's okay Doc, it happens to the best of us." He pointed his web-shooters to his feet and glued him to the ground in an attempt to control his movements. "Failure is part of the scientific process, don't you think?"
Another growl along with a tail punch was given this time.
Damn, that hurt. I always forget he has a tail.
"Rude, I'm only trying to help." He shoots him in the face as if reducing his view would give him some kind of advantage — the kind you need when you're going against a guy two times your height. But that's not the case, he just happened to make him even more furious.
There's growls, bites, and punches — some more breathtaking than others. Spider-web covers the streets from all the times he had tried to immobilize the other as well as smashed cars that had been thrown at him.
"I need you to stay quiet!" Even though he was a superhero he didn't have endless stamina. He had fought against Black Cat the night before, and then with Rhino in the morning. He managed to catch Trapster on his way to his date only to be surprised by common thefts during it, and now the Lizard…
He can feel how he slowly starts to drain. His energy disappearing and his movements clumsier than before.
Resist, Mark. Just a little. All you need to do is restrict his moves for a few seconds and inject him with the antiserum, just like the other times.
"You'll thank me later, Doc!" And as he pushes the syringe plunger, a pair of claws dives on his skin. There's blood running down his pecs, air leaving his lungs as he falls backwards on the dirty floor, yet his landing's soft and more comfortable than expected.
A small whimper leaves the mouth of the scientist — ex monster, under him. And he can't help but smile through the pain.
"Welcome back, Doctor."
A soft knock at the window alerts Jeno with his arrival. “You know that’s not the door, right?”
There’s damp-messy hair and a pair of tired eyes peeking through the frame. “I couldn’t risk the idea of anyone, not even Renjun, seeing me at your building entrance looking like this,” a whimper escaped from his lips as pain followed every move he made. When he finally manages to prompt himself inside, time seems to have slowed down, only for him to notice the shock and the worry slowly growing on his boyfriend’s face.
“Markie?” It’s almost a whisper as if speaking out loud would break him, and with slow yet long steps Jeno got closer just in time to catch him when his knees yielded. “Hey, I got you. I got you.” He leads him to the bed, carefully, trying to not pay much attention to the bloody suit he’s wearing. His priority was to make sure Mark’s okay, his questions could wait.
“Sorry,” that’s the first thing to leave his mouth since he entered the room. He can feel Jeno’s uneasy eyes fixated on him and that only makes him feel worse. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Shhh… It’s okay, Markie.” The sincerity in his voice makes him want to cry, “We can talk about that later, okay? Let me clean you up first.” He doesn’t get it, what has he done in his past life to deserve such a caring and understanding boyfriend?
Now, with his back pressed against the soft mattress of Jeno’s bed, he felt the cloud of tiredness over his head. His eyes flutter shut as Jeno leaves to the bathroom, his footsteps soon replaced by the sound of running water and the open-close doors of the cabinets. There’s a stirring sound — he’s probably looking for a first aid kit while cursing at Renjun for changing the bathroom arrangement a week ago , and loud gasp followed by hurried steps. “Mark, please open your eyes if you’re still alive.”
“I owe you a cuddling session,” he chuckles, his nose scrunched at the painful movements of his thoracic cage. “I can’t die yet.”
There’s a shift-weight on the bed, the mattress slightly sinking to his right exactly where Jeno kneeled. As he got closer, strong legs carefully resting on both sides of his torso, he noticed a wet towel and some band-aids on his hand. “Don’t move, okay? I’ll try to be quick.”
He starts with his face. There's a small cut on one of his eyebrows and another on his right cheek. He cleans them slowly — without adding unnecessary pressure, puts some ointment, and covers them with his very serious, spiderman themed, band-aids.
He prepares for the worst when Jeno's hand moves down to his chest. He can feel the dried blood glueing the suit against his flesh, wounds opening with every breath he takes… And the damp towel resting above all of it.
"There's a lot of blood," Jeno explains to him. "Dry blood. I need to get rid of it to look at your wounds. Tear them off — the scabs I mean, would be too brutal, even for a tough guy like you." He laughs at his joke because both of them know he's everything but tough.
"So now we wait?" His voice sounds tired, raspy.
"Now we wait," from his position, Jeno bends closer and kisses him on the jaw. "Tell me about your day, spiderman."
And he does. He goes on about how Rhino tried to rob a bank that morning when he was on his way to the cemetery, about how Trapster almost glued him to a building only three blocks away from the café where they were supposed to meet, about…
"Fuck," he cries. Jeno had kept him entertained yet the distraction didn't stop the pain from going back at him the moment the younger places a hand over his chest for the second time that day.
"Sorry, Markie." He apologizes as continue to move his hand, in an attempt to not make his boyfriend suffer any longer. "I'm almost done, I promise."
Jeno, baby… I love you, but don't lie to me.
He groaned, loud and deep. And if Jeno wasn't worried enough, he was now.
Curses and small whimpers invade the room. Or at least it does until Jeno shuts him with a kiss.
It's a long kiss. Soft, tender, and better than painkillers.
He sighs as he continues to savour his boyfriend's lips. Yup, definitely better than painkillers.
After taking care of his wounds and their little make-out session, Jeno decided that he needed to rest. So he took out the dirty spandex suit and wearing only boxers and his boyfriend's arm around his waist he fell asleep.
Now —almost two hours later, he stepped out of the bathroom fully covered in his boyfriend's clothes.
He had used his time in the shower to order his thoughts. And right now, fresh in body and mind, he's ready to give Jeno the explanation he deserves.
And maybe answer a lot of questions along the way.
Well, maybe later...
"Feeling better?" He looks at Jeno — worried face, cross-legged sitting on top of a very messy bunch of spiderman bed sheets. And smiles.
"A lot better, thank you." He kisses him on the forehead this time and steals a bite of the pizza in his hands.
"Hey! Get yours!" Jeno pouts, he laughs, and as he sits on the floor a comfortable silence fills the room.
He's on his third slice when Jeno speaks again. “You know, now I kind of get why you cringed so hard the first time you saw my spiderman sheets,” his eyes became crescent moons as he laughed. “But you know, thinking about all those times we made out here, with your heroic silhouette under our bodies… I think it’s kind of sexy.”
“Jen?!” His face flushed, bright red covering his cheeks. He wasn't expecting that.
“Ow, poor Markie. Did that turn you on?” He joked, a mischievous gesture on top of his lips. “Get up." He grabbed him by the jaw. "You better come here and kiss me senseless. You can help me change the sheets later.”
God. If those villains didn't kill him, his boyfriend definitely will.