Chapter Text
Gus knocked on his friend's window, he hadn’t ever really been out ever since Steve was announced dead, and that was over four weeks ago. Occasionally Spider-Cement would show up to do his heroic duties, but Matt Tholomule refused to leave his room. He needs a break, but he also thinks he’s making his brother proud by continuing to be heroic even in tough times, Gus thinks he should at least rest a while. He is supposed to be moving in with him and his dad, for the time being at least, but all he could seem to think about was who killed his brother, and how much he wanted to get payback. He spent every waking moment either fighting as Spider-Cement or trying to figure out Steve’s case as Matt. Gus was worried about him, it was beginning to feel…unhealthy. Gus had been trying to convince himself it was his way of going through the stages of grief, but well, he wasn’t so sure anymore. The window creaked to life, startling Gus out of his thoughts, he entered the room feeling eerie, it was very, very messy. In a way that made Gus wonder how he even managed in here. Matt was on the floor, staring at a board he’d made, it was full of “potential subjects”. The doctors had made little progress, the cameras were old and glitchy and presumably, it wasn’t like anyone in their little town to sneak into rooms and pull people's plugs just for the hell of it. Gus took a deep breath and dropped some papers onto Matt’s bed, some work he’d missed, it was shorter than the other student's work given his situation at the moment. Gus approached with a smile, hoping to seem friendly,
“Heyy Matty, how are we doing?” He sat next to him, grocery bag in hand, hiding the concern in his voice
Matt turned to look at him, he offered a mischievous, broken-looking kind of smile, he came to another “conclusion” no doubt, Gus put on his best sympathetic face,
“I figured it out,” Matt spoke, his voice was raspy, it was probably the first words he’d spoken that day,
“Really?” Gus breathed out,
“Yep!” Matt leaned back on the palm of his hands, he lifted one finger to point towards the board,
“Bria.” His voice came out as a whisper as it creaked,
“Hmm,” Gus gave him a look,
“You’re sure this time?”
Matt rolled his eyes,
“Positive.” He said sternly,
Gus sighed and opened his grocery bag, he took out a clear plastic container, and inside was a piece of strawberry cake, he and Matt would go and buy one every few weeks, they hadn’t been able to recently so he’d thought it would be a good idea to bring some, maybe give his friend some grounding. Plus, he couldn’t eat it without him, it wouldn’t have felt right. Exactly as Gus wanted, Matt's eyes lit up at the sight, Gus smiled, opened the container, and offered him a plastic black fork, one of which was immediately snatched out of his hand, together they lay in comfortable silence, just them and some delicious strawberry cake, Gus accidentally picked up a piece of strawberry and offered the piece to Matt who happily bit it off his fork, Gus gave him a look, he expected him to use his hand to get it off, not his mouth. Matt stuck out his tongue in response and Gus laughed slightly, it was a nice bittersweet kind of moment, and he decided to enjoy it while it lasted. Matt was letting him in, even if only for the moment, soon enough he’d ask him about packing and he’d be shut out all over again, Matt wasn’t ready to leave. He knew that, but he shouldn’t have to live like this. No one should. Gus shuddered looking around the room, he went for another bite, thinking over how he should approach the topic this time, Matt always seemed to respond violently, his room got worse and worse every time he returned it seemed. Without warning Matt stood up and made his way toward the board,
“Think about it, Augustus! Bria hates Spider-Man, and me, well- I am Spider-Man. But that’s not the point-“ Matt started rambling,
“Matt- I don’t think this is-“ Gus tried,
“Now I know Bria would never be able to sneak into a hospital, their cameras are shit but they have good security, so she must have snuck into the place as The Purple Devil!!” Matt explained, ignoring Gus’ previous attempt at speech,
“I don’t think she’d kill my brother just because she hates me, but I know that she would do anything to defeat an enemy, in this case, Steve.” Matt’s voice broke slightly at the sound of his brother's name,
Gus noticed this and decided to just play along with this, just once more,
“An enemy??”
“Yes, as The Purple Devil. Spider-Man and the authorities have a rocky relationship but we have a common goal, locking up the bad guys. Bria, being one of those bad guys, saw an easy way to get rid of the captain of the police force in a weakened state and struck.”
Gus cocked his head slightly and squinted at his friend's board. What he was saying wasn’t completely untrue, actually it kind of..made sense?? But even then Bria is their age, no way she’d kill anyone. But then...Gus didn’t know her as well as Matt did, he’s said before Bria has a Kill-or-get-killed type attitude about her, as does he, but he didn’t think he meant it literally.
“Alright, I’m following,” Gus eventually replied, hesitantly looking back up at his friend who seemed to have some sort of supervillain glint in his eye despite being a superhero…
“I know that it was her.” Matt sounded angry but so sure of himself,
“I’m going to confront her, the next time she causes chaos today as The Purple Devil.”
Gus did a double-take,
“What?”
“When I see her, it’s. on. sight.” Matt spoke sarcastically,
“No, Matty, that’s not a good idea.”
Now it was Matt’s turn to be confused,
“What?”
Gus hesitated, he looked mad,
“You aren’t well M, I’m afraid if you fight her you won’t hold back.” Gus got to his feet, he took a step toward him but a spike shot up in front of him before he could get any closer, Matt’s eyes flashed that same bright orange color, the same color he’d seen that night at the hospital when he declared he was going to find out who killed his brother. The same orange that scared the life out of him, Gus backed up slightly, the spike disappeared with a snap of his friend's fingers. Matt seemed to take a deep breath before doing anything else,
“I’m going out, I’ll be waiting for her to strike, and when she does you won’t stop me from fighting her.” He spoke, his tone was demanding, this wasn’t a request. Gus stood in shock as Matt simply walked over to his bed,
“You’re not pushing me away this time. If you’re implying what I think you’re implying then you know there’s no going back from something like that,” Gus walked over to him, this time unafraid when another spike shot up, Matt’s expression changed for a split second before toughening up again,
“I’m going to follow you.” Gus firmly stated,
“No you’re not, this is your last warning.” Matt didn’t dare look at him,
“What are you gonna do if I don’t listen? Cut me with a piece of wood?” Gus folded his arms
Matt made a funny noise under his breath,
“Something like that,” he spoke quietly, walking away from him and grabbing his mask off a nearby dresser as he went. Gus strained to move toward him, confused when he couldn’t lift his feet, he looked down, Matt had trapped him. Matt offered a sly, sympathetic smile from across the room, he entered his closet to change into his suit without a word. Gus tried and failed to get free, a minute passed and Matt exited the closet, Gus let out a loud tired sigh,
“That's your plan? To keep me trapped in here until you finish?”
“Pretty much,” Matt shrugged as if it was a compliment and made his way for the window, just as he was about to put his mask on he hesitated, Gus took advantage of that,
“Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?!” Gus shouted at him,
Matt froze in place,
“I AM the good guy.” He turned around and narrowed his eyes,
“If you try to stop me you’ll get yourself hurt, or worse, killed.” His voice shook as he spoke,
“I can’t let you die too.” A tear strayed and trailed down his face, but he quickly wiped it away,
Gus immediately regretted what he’d said.
It went silent a minute, maybe ten, the silence seemed to stretch until Gus realized that Matt was approaching him, he avoided eye contact, Matt solemnly looked up at him, he looked as if trying to make a decision, torn between two wrongs or one right, Gus glanced over at him, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t be to mad at him, and he was mad at him. But then Matt hugged him, and he couldn’t help but melt into his touch.
Matt muttered something that sounded like an apology under his breath before he backed up and made his way toward the window, he slid his mask on and before he left turned around and webbed the remainder of the strawberry cake to him,
“Seriously?” Gus thought aloud,
Matt chuckled and smiled at him once before leaping out the window. Gus smiled slyly and reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, to his horror he heard another *thwip* and just like that it was out of his hands and onto the bed, the bed he’d be able to reach if his feet weren’t glued to the ground.
“So close, yet, sooo far.” Matt teased, Gus looked up just in time to see him wink and leap out of the window again. The window closed with a thud, he was officially trapped, and Matt was officially on the way to making a terrible decision, he knew he had to help. No matter what Matt said, he could handle himself, powers or no powers, although, in this case, powers would be very helpful. Gus looked over at the phone, with a sigh he stretched out to get it, but he couldn’t reach it. He continued for ten minutes, took a five-minute break, and was back at it again, he settled on reaching for the bed's framing, his fingers barely grazed it, with another breath he reached and managed to wrap one hand around part of the frame, perfect!!! Using the little strength he had left he pulled it towards him, it moved an inch. Another tug, another inch. This was going to be harder than he thought…