Chapter Text
You sighed, feeling really frustrated.
The pile of documents and raports, that needed to be reviewed by your boss, Miguel O’Hara, were slapped on your desk in your office in Spider Society HQ.
„Why does anybody here use paper?” You asked underneath your breath. „I really thought that since, apparently, it’s year 2099 here, they don’t use an ounce of paper anymore.”
„Actually, they don’t. Maybe it’s just our boss preferring... more traditional approach to bureaucracy.” The voice could be heard from the ceiling, where your best friend, Ida, worked.
Well, worked - that’s an overstatement. Ida spent their whole days, sitting upside down on a ceiling, trying to figure out the best combination of materials for their web. That was a part of their Spider Power - they could play with the composition.
„You always know, what to say, don’t you?” You asked, looking towards them.
„Aye, don’t pretend like you don’t like talking to him.” Ida finally stood on a ground. „It lasts about five hours with aluminum. That’s a new record! Isn’t that exciting?”
Ignoring their new accomplishment, fourth this week, you snorted.
„Talking to whom? This old, grumpy, insufferable...”
„Oh, come on. He’s not that old! How old is he, like thirty two?”
„Who cares about his age?” You threw your hands up in a dramatic gesture. „He’s so obnoxious! Who would even want to work with him?”
„Apparently, you do.”
You silenced for a second. There was no point in further arguing with Ida, who always managed to get their last word.
„I’m just gonna get those freaking papers on his desk, and leave. Won’t be there even a second longer.”
How you promised, you’ve done. You fastened the documents that he was supposed to see, and left your office.
When you arrived to his headquarters, he didn’t even grant you a pleasure of noticing. As always, he sat on his large, high platform, and looked through something on the brightly orange screens. You assumed he was working.
"Boss, it’s me."
In response, you just heard a displeased grunt. Ignoring his demeanor, you shoot your web to approach him on his stupid... balcony.
„Documents and reports from the last week, sir. Need to be checked asap.” You exclaimed.
The only response you managed to get out of him was his extended hand, ready to take the burden. He didn’t even look at you. Sometimes, you wondered, if he knew, how you looked.
So, this time, you decided to enlighten him.
„Are you going to say anything, boss, or am I supposed to stand here like a cactus on a desert?”
„If you’ve come to bother me, and my work time, you can leave.”
Oh. That was something new. Not only did he use his words to communicate with you, he finally turned his gaze away from the screen, and looked at you above his glasses.
There was simply no way of not noticing, how exhausted must’ve he been. You didn’t ever see circles that dark underneath anyone’s eyes, not even mentioning, how bad his posture looked. Usually, his shoulders were tense, but not that tense.
Suddenly, you felt pity.
But, why on Earth would you feel pity for him? Wasn’t this the guy that shouted at you like crazy just a few hours ago, in Spanish, over the tiniest mistake that you did?
Nevertheless, when moved his glasses out of the way and pinched the bridge of his nose, you felt pity and couldn’t deny it.
„You should rest time to time, sir.” You said, before you could think about the consequences.
„The multiverse won’t manage itself.” The response was stern and unpleasant.
„I’m just saying, that you’re not the only Spider-Man here.”
„I’m the only competent Spider-Man here.”
Yeah, that... was expected. You stopped being annoyed about him degrading other Spider-people’s intelligence quite long of a time ago.
„When you finally kick the bucket from overworking and stressing, don’t blame me, boss.”
„Are you threatening me?”
„Just saying.”
An another annoyed sighed, and then, awkward silence.
Then, you had an idea. An absolutely deranged idea, even.
„You know about my Spider-abilities, don’t you?”
„What about them?”
„I could... use them on you, if you wanted.”
An another moment of awkward silence.
„I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
You shrugged. That was all that you could do for him, and since you were rejected, you didn’t care about it anymore.
„Well, if you change your mind, let me know. If you were just a tiny bit more relaxed, it would be beneficial for all of us.”
„I don’t need to be all cheerful and happy for the safety of the multiverse.”
„The work could be easier, though.”
„Are you aware, just how annoying you can be?” By then, he was already looking at one of his screens.
There it was again - that dreadful, awkward silence. This time, introduced by you.
It was always hard to communicate with him. Always stern, sharp and just high key rude, he was a lot to deal with. You became his assistant after Lyla stopped working completely, in a result of hacker attacks of one of the villains. And since she was an AI, Miguel looked for an equal perfection. When you were offered a new job with him, initially, you refused. But, since you were tight on money, you accepted it, and made a promise to yourself, that you won’t surrender to Miguel’s temper - despite his efforts to kick you out.
„Well. My work is done for today. I’m going home for the weekend, and I’m hoping to rest a little.” You put the documents on his desk, and stretched out.
„As my assistant, you’re expected to be ready at all times.”
Always the same. Well, at least, he did have an exceptional sense of responsibility for the world. All the worlds, actually.
„If you need me, I’ll be on the... goober. Gizmo.”
Without an another word, you jumped off the platform. You didn’t even expect any sort of reaction, leaving alone any word of appreciation. At least, he didn’t bother you.
When you left, and he made sure of your departure, he sighed with relief.
He rested his arms on his knees, and hid his head in his hands. He was really exhausted, both physically... and mentally.
Since Lyla was broken, Miguel haven’t had anyone to talk to. He wasn’t able to trust people anymore. From his point of view, all the other Spider-people surrounding him were too... themselves to be able to assist him correctly.
You were not an exception. He knew you very briefly - at one point, he didn’t even bother to remember your face and voice. He thought of you, as a tool, almost - to use and get new one, if you weren’t able to help managing the multiverse anymore. You both spend as little time together as possible, since you didn’t like each other at all. Miguel noticed too many of your disadvantages, and didn’t hesitate to point them out, and you were too stubborn to give up on a better paid position.
To be completely honest, he didn’t even know anything about your special Spider-abilities. Up until just now, he was simply not interested in that. You were there to bring documents, and coffee, and nothing more.
Now, he decided to check.
„Lyla, open the files.” He said, forgetting that Lyla won’t answer.
Maybe he did rely on her a bit too much.
He clicked on one of the bright, orange screens, putting up the files of all Spider-people. When it turned out, that the program was missing a feature of search engine for user without Lyla, he became even more frustrated.
However, there was something about you that he absolutely needed to check, and he knew that it would annoy him all the time, if he didn’t do that.
When he finally found the first letter of your name, after scrolling and scrolling, and opened the file with a picture of your face, he read about your whole life - your origin, your canon events, and finally - your Spider-abilities, which interested him the most.
You possesed a specific power, something on the edge of psychology, telepathy and metaphysics. You were able to see something, that you called, quite graciously, a mindweb - a web of all the current emotions of a person, and manipulate it by the movements of your hands. You claimed, that everybody had one, connected with the nervous system in their head. Depending on if you knotted, or untangled it, you were able to get a reaction out of the web’s owner - negative or positive one. Relieving the stress, or making it even worse. Aditionally, your power was useful in battle - tearing up a piece of mindweb brought so much pain towards the enemy, that they just fainted. However, since it drained you and your energy, you just worked behind scenes, patching up other Spider-people mentally.
Almost every Spider-person possesed some power, that made them stood out. However, Miguel didn’t ever heard about one like yours.
He quickly looked through your file once more. A few, quite important information were missing - the number of your dimension, anything about the spider from Alchemax, that bit you and gave you your powers. Did Lyla miss them? She never did miss anything.
He did rely on her too much. Damn it, the whole Spider Society did.
Returning to his daily tasks, he turned his gaze away from the screen. He will check it, later.
Maybe... just maybe, it would be... worthwhile, to make you look at his mindweb. But, would he ever invite anyone to mess with his head? He didn’t ever believe in therapy, let alone this strange, tangling thing that you did.
He will give it a thought, when he stops having so many liabilities - that is, never.
Then, he looked at the documents, that you brought him earlier. Since Lyla was unavailable, they had to physically print everything, using laser printers, that they brought from Peter B. Parker’s dimension. They glitched and broke down all the time, not to mention that they were powered by electricity - a thing that has also gone out of use in Nueva York.
He extented one claw, and cut the fastener.
And he realised, that he absolutely hated paper with a deep passion.