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The day Jeongguk’s life turned upside down was not the day he got bit by a radioactive spider that gave him the ability to crawl on ceilings. It was the day his best friend became involved.
The day Kim Taehyung had figured out his secret was not by his own suspicions or denouement but by pure inevitability.
What was Jeongguk expecting? Taehyung has always been a pivotal part of his life. Of course he would find out eventually. And by complete accident as well.
When the city’s beloved Spider-man called it a night and snuck back into his apartment, totally unaware that his best friend, with keys to his place and the privilege to invite himself inside whenever he wanted, would be awake inside Jeongguk’s bedroom. Silent as a mouse, Jeongguk crawled inside from the window onto the ceiling, but even quieter was Taehyung who sat completely awestruck on the bed as he watched the man he knew for most of his life unstick himself from the 9 ft tall ceilings, gracefully land on the floor, and peel off a Spider-Man mask from his face. All without Jeongguk realizing Taehyung’s presence.
Stealth like that could put Spider-man to shame.
Jeongguk only realizes his presence when the elder boy can’t hold his breath of awe anymore, letting out a strained gasp of complete befuddlement.
“Jeongguk!?!?” Taehyung exclaims.
The unmasked hero immediately turns with wide bugged eyes.
Taehyung stands up and steps toward his friend to take a closer look because the sight itself is already so unbelievable. “You… you’re the spider-man??”
“No, I’m not!” Jeongguk lies and stops Taehyung from coming closer with a hand in the air, “I’m not!”
“You were on the ceiling!!”
Jeongguk presses a button that lets his suit slip off his body as if it’s disappearance would make the other boy forget what he just saw. “No! No, I wasn’t!” He scrambles to step out of the suit because being in nothing but his boxers in front of Taehyung was less of a first than in his spider-man suit.
“Yes! You were!” Taehyung steps closer with a more accusatory tone and a finger pointed toward Jeongguk’s chest.
“That was… just…” Jeongguk shakes his head and drops the excuse, “What the hell are you doing here???”
Taehyung crosses his arms. “What the hell WEREN’T you doing here, mister?! Here I thought you went out clubbing without me which I know you would never do but now I know the truth.”
“Hyung, I’m not spider-man,” Jeongguk tries one last time.
Taehyung bends down and picks up the spandex suit that pooled by his friend’s feet on the floor. He finds the sleeve where the web shooters rest on the wrists and points it toward Jeongguk. His fingers hover the button threateningly. “Then what does this button do?”
Jeongguk raises his hands cautiously in surrender. “Tae, put it down.”
“Tell me what it is then!”
“It’s nothing! Just a watch!!”
“Oh yeah?!” Taehyung makes an exaggerated motion to the press the button—
“W-WAIT WAIT! OKAY!” Jeongguk pleads and Taehyung pulls away from the button. “Fine! I’m… I’m him…”
“You’re who?” Taehyung interrogates, already knowing the answer.
Jeongguk tilts his head in slight annoyance with his friend’s persistence. He takes a breath of patience. “I’m Spider-man,” he says through gritted teeth.
Taehyung drops the suit, letting the web shooter hit the ground with a thud and a string of web shoots out and hits the wall beside them. They stare at the web wordlessly.
“Sorry,” Taehyung exhales after an awkward amount of seconds had passed.
Taehyung was always meant to know Jeongguk’s secret. Spider-man’s truest love was always meant to know his identity. Except between Spider-man’s identity and his truest love’s identity, Jeongguk could only allow one of those secrets to be out in the open.
The days following the big reveal lead to a curious Taehyung badgering the hero with questions. “How did it happen? Did it hurt? Can you stick to walls with every part of your body or just your hands and feet?”
Jeongguk didn’t mind at all, it was endearing if anything.
But after a few more days, the curiosity turned into worry and concern once the gravity of his abilities sunk in.
“You fought those guys?” Taehyung asks softly as the news broadcast replays Jeongguk’s latest encounter with violence and crime.
Jeongguk just nods nonchalantly as he buries his face into his bowl of ramen. He misses the concerned look that fills Taehyung’s glossy eyes.
“It’s… kinda dangerous… isn’t it?” He says.
“Yeah… a little bit…” Jeongguk agrees without thinking too much of it.
“You could’ve died…”
Jeongguk pauses and glances from his ramen to the fidgeting hands of his friend across from him. “Yeah… I guess I could have…” he realizes.
He looks up finally and sees Taehyung’s worry, almost mournful expression. It’s then that it hits him what kind of life he’s been living. For the past few months it’s always been his normal, but for Taehyung, this is all brand new and dangerous and anything but normal. For the longest time, Jeongguk thought he was invincible, indestructible, unbeatable because no one else could do what he does. It was only until somebody that cares about his life found out his secret did he realize there are real risks to the battles he takes on. He may wear a mask but the blows that Spider-man takes are passed on to Jeon Jeongguk to live with day to day.
Jeongguk takes Taehyung’s hand and gently caresses the back of his palm with his thumb. “I promise I’m careful. And safe. I would never take on a fight I know I couldn’t handle.”
“What if one day you do? What happens to you?” Taehyung asks.
The hero swallows, hesitant to answer in a way that might upset his friend. “I’ll always find a way to get back up,” he assures.
“But what if you can’t?”
Jeongguk sighs, pulling back from his friend, “Taehyung—“
“What if you’re backed into a corner with no way out? What then?” Taehyung worries with a shaky breath leaning forward.
The hero shakes his head, not liking where this conversation is going. “I’m not gonna answer that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not important! We don’t have to worry about that because it’s never happened before,” Jeongguk puts his foot down, “it won’t happen.”
The hero feels his heart beat pounding against his chest suddenly, feeling a hull of anxiety hollow out his lungs. The beating reminiscent of fear and affliction that he had never felt with any kind of battle he’s faced before. Sure, Spider-Man can take on as many bad guys as he wanted and come back with the same lighthearted playfulness as always, but put Jeongguk face-to-face with the thought of losing his best friend? It’s the last straw to break his spirit for good.
Taehyung inhales with a troubled determination in his eyes as he watches his friend go back to eating his bowl of ramen. “Every night you go out to put a stop to some crime, I don’t see Spider-man fighting bad guys. I see Jeon Jeongguk putting his life at risk. I see my best friend— my Jeongguk taking blows that he may never recover from.”
Jeongguk pauses, playing with the noodles in his bowl, twirling them around with his chopsticks.
“Please look at me,” Taehyung asks.
The hero does as he’s asked and meets his friend’s eyes.
“I see you,” the elder breathes, “and I’m scared. Aren’t you?”
Jeongguk holds his breath and nods as his eyes fall somewhere between the table and Taehyung’s hands. He lets himself think for a moment, knowing there’s no easy answer for their worries.
The hero shrugs. “I can’t just walk away… turn a blind eye to the terrible things that go on here… I can’t do that.”
“I know that,” Taehyung nods dejectedly, “I just wish there was some way I could help you.”
The moment the words are spoken, the two best friends share a look as if they both thought of the same idea at the exact same time. However, their reactions are quite polarizing.
“No!” Jeongguk outright rejects before Taehyung could pitch such an outrageous idea with his brightened eyes.
“Don’t be like that,” Taehyung complains.
The younger shakes his head vigorously. “No no no no NO! You are not getting involved in this, are you kidding me?”
“I wouldn’t be getting involved!” Taehyung defends, “I’d be helping you from afar. From behind a screen! C’mon, you know I can do that type of stuff.”
The hero dismisses the point stubbornly. “Doesn’t matter, it’s still dangerous.”
“Koo—“
“No! The moment your name is attached to Spider-Man, you become a target. You become Spider-Man’s weakness. That CANNOT happen!” Jeongguk asserts firmly.
Taehyung’s posture shrinks. “Surely I’m not that much of a weakness,” he says lowly.
The hero sighs. “You know that’s not what I mean. Somebody could use you against me, I don’t want you in that position.”
“Then I’ll just go by a different name!”
“This is not a discussion, hyung! You can’t be apart of this!” The hero forbids.
“I’m already apart of this!” Taehyung shouts, “Every night you sneak into my apartment through my window with your suit on so I can take care of your scars, I become attached to Spider-man. I’m already involved with you, Spider-man.”
He says the hero’s name with a sarcastic attitude.
“END of discussion!” Jeongguk firmly says.
Taehyung huffs in frustration then gets up from his seat, marching around to Jeongguk’s side of the counter. With a firm grasp on the hero’s shoulders, he turns Jeongguk around on the barstool and lifts up his shirt that reveals his abdomen dressed in blood-stained bandages. Wounds that were inflicted on the hero only a few hours ago.
“Is this what I have to expect every time I see you? Bloody open wounds that I have to dress because you got reckless?” Taehyung inquires.
Jeongguk pulls his shirt out of his friend’s hand and covers himself up again. “I’m not reckless!”
“Yes, you are! You go into battle with no plan and fling your webs anywhere it can reach expecting you’ll come out unscathed. You were given so much power, Jeongguk, but your strength is in your brain not your body,” the elder explains. “I can help you.”
As Taehyung looks over him with hope in his eyes, it’s nearly impossible for the hero to maintain his stubbornness. “I’ll think about it,” he considers defeatedly, concurrently solidifying spider-man’s biggest weakness.
It’s only a few days after that conversation that the hero finds himself in a jam and is hopelessly seeking out the guidance of his brand new guy in the chair.
“Jeonggukkie??” Taehyung answers Jeongguk’s call immediately, hopping out of his comfortable bed to pace around his room.
“Tae— uh I mean…” the hero swings by a large billboard advertising the fifth movie of a franchise using the Roman numeral of five, “uhm V…? Sure! V!”
“V?”
“Just go with it!! Can you track my Apple Watch??” Jeonggguk urges.
Taehyung plants himself at his computer and taps into his friend’s location— well… his watch’s location. “Uhmmm it’s around Highpark and 4th… 5th… 8th now… where are you??”
“Why is he taking Highpark North?” Jeongguk asks to himself.
“Did you lose your watch again?” Taehyung scolds.
“What’s at the far North of Highpark???” The hero ignores his friend’s berating.
Taehyung types quickly on his keyboard and finds the answer in less than a few seconds. “The new electricity grid for the city by HexWire Inc. is up there.”
“Oh my god he’s gonna cut the power to the city!” Jeongguk realizes.
“What? Who?!” Taehyung’s voice cracks with worry.
“I gotta get there before him!” He ignores his friend’s questions again, hyper focused on the plan that he doesn’t have yet.
Jeongguk can hear more fast typing on the other end of the line followed by Taehyung’s voice. “Let me send you the blueprints to the power grid and you can get a head start on how to prevent the power from surging completely.”
In a moment, Jeongguk receives a handful of documents and pages that perfectly outline the schematics of the advanced power grid for the entire city. “Oh my god, where did you find these??”
“V never reveals his secrets,” Taehyung smirks with a teasing tone, rolling with the impromptu codename he was given.
Jeongguk rolls his eyes and smiles under his mask.
“But you better get there quick, this guy is moving at lightning speeds… no pun intended,” Taehyung warns.
The hero sighs in frustration. “God it’s gonna be impossible to beat this guy if I can’t get there before him! He fries my webshooters no matter what I try. It can’t handle any amount of incoming electric charge.”
“Have you tried magnetizing them?” Taehyung asks with an obviousness in his voice.
Jeongguk stutters as he swings toward his destination. “Magnetizing…. N-no I have not tried… magnetizing them…”
The silence on Taehyung’s end tells him everything he already knows. Taehyung is right as always and he should’ve listened to him sooner.
“I’ll uhh… get on that right now…” Jeongguk admits begrudgingly.
“Do you need me to teach you how, Spider-man?” Taehyung teases.
“No! No… I got it… thank you, V,” Jeongguk sighs and hangs up mid-way through an arrogant chuckle coming from Taehyung’s end of the line.
Several hours go by for what feels like minutes to the hero when he finally takes down Electro for good. The villain reduced to nothing but electrons and energy in the atmosphere and the damage to the power grid is minimal at best, easily reparable thanks to his guy in the chair. Jeongguk gathers his bearings and spends some time cleaning up the collateral damage, catching his breath and thinking of the words he’s gonna say to his best friend after tonight.
He swings back to the city but rather than heading straight home, the hero wanders into the side of Taehyung’s condominium. Quietly, he lands a few floors above his friend’s fire escape and quickly changes into civilian clothing.
Like the bug mutant that he is, he creeps down to Taehyung’s level without a sound and peaks through the window. The moment he’s about to knock on the glass, he realizes Taehyung is passed out at his desk while his computer screen reads “Server momentarily disconnected. Refresh to recover connection.”
A wave of guilt comes over his chest at the sight, coming to understand that his friend had stayed up as late as he could just to hear from Spider-man again. Just to make sure that Spider-man is okay. Spider-man made Taehyung wait for him. Taehyung. Not V or whatever stupid codename he tried to come up with on the spot. The person right inside there losing sleep over Jeon Jeongguk isn’t a masked hero with super human abilities, it’s his best friend and the one person he cares for the most in this life.
Jeongguk slowly moves away from the glass with a heavy heart. It’s better to keep Taehyung as far away from Spider-man as possible. And starting right now, that means no more nightly visits to get his wounds dressed by his gentle hands.
Taehyung finds himself waking up with his head pressed against the surface of his desk to a blaring phone call. He didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep while waiting to hear if his hero best friend is okay. When he answers his call, it’s nearly 1 in the morning and it’s Jeongguk himself sounding as out of breath as ever.
“Tae?” The hero clears his throat and lowers his tone, “ahem— V?”
“Jeonggukkie?!” Taehyung croaks sleepily but is still loudly urgent with worry. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah yeah I’m okay. Better than ever…” Jeongguk lets the corner of his mouth pull up, “have you been waiting for me all night?”
“Of course,” Taehyung admits. “How could I do anything else knowing you’re fighting for your life? I mean I probably I could’ve guessed everything was fine since the city still has power but—“
“Thank you, Taehyung. You really saved my ass,” Jeongguk cuts him off, endlessly endeared and heart-warmed but also slightly guilty, “you were right all along.”
“Duh…” his friend chirps nonchalantly.
“But that doesn’t mean I won’t do everything in my power to keep you as far as away from involved as possible!” Jeongguk promises with determination.
“Get to the top of our class first and then we’ll talk,” he teases some more, letting out playful chuckles from the both of them. “You get home safe okay? Let me know once you’re home?”
The moment is so pleasant and charming. As if a blanket of peace had landed over them, the hero feeling grateful for all that he has in Taehyung’s presence alone. A peace he feels so indebted to, it pushes a sudden urge to profess profound feelings of love toward the man. This is an urge that took every last bit of his strength in his exhausted body to suppress until the moment passed. But it couldn’t stop him from turning back around and knocking on Taehyung’s window for just one last moment of unconditional support for his superhero alias.
Spider-man works alone, but tonight he didn’t. And he wants to savour that feeling before this night ends because, once the morning comes, Spider-man will be all alone again.
When Taehyung turns and locks eyes with the hero, Jeongguk’s chest fills with warmth and relief. How can he possibly distance himself from a feeling as warm as this? Nothing feels safer than the presence of his best friend in front of him.
He watches Taehyung’s eyes light up and rushes over to open the window, tossing his phone to the side.
“I’m home,” Jeongguk says shyly as his friend lifts the glass.
Taehyung huffs an unimpressed laugh. “Get in here already,” he orders.
Jeongguk puts his phone in his pocket and lets himself be dragged inside the confines of Taehyung’s dim bedroom. The moment he has both feet inside, he gets pulled into a tight inescapable hug. An embrace so strong even Spider-man’s strength couldn’t get out of it. Jeongguk wraps his arms around Taehyung’s waist, hugging him back as tight as he can. Though he still feels weak from his fight.
“Hey, don’t squeeze so tight,” Jeongguk mutters into Taehyung’s shoulder, “I’m still bleeding in a lot of places. If I drip onto your carpet, that’s your problem.”
“Shut up and let me show you affection,” Taehyung quips, his tone half-serious. A beat passes as Jeongguk takes in the shift in the air.
“You finally let me into your world,” his friend whispers against his shoulder. “I know I didn’t do much tonight. You probably could’ve done your thing without me. But… I’ve seen you always fighting this internal battle all alone and… I don’t want you to be alone anymore…”
Spider-man works alone. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Anyone who gets involved with Spider-man puts themselves in immediate danger. Spider-man not just a hero, he’s a target and keeping a target small makes it harder to hit. That’s what makes him strong. Being alone.
“Taehyung…” Jeongguk sighs and pulls them apart, holding his friend’s waist at an arm’s distance with every intention to tell him this was a one time occurrence. That this won’t ever happen again, that he’ll never have to stay up late worrying about Spider-man again.
Except being in this space, in Taehyung’s warm presence in the safety of his bedroom that cloaks them from the rest of the world. How could Jeongguk do anything but greedily follow the wants of his heart? To keep Taehyung as close as possible.
“I’m really glad I have you… by my side,” Jeongguk admits, letting the vagueness hang in the air as even he doesn’t truly understand what he means by it.
The longer the masked hero kept Taehyung close to his endeavours, the more guilt he felt. Taehyung had been closer to the points of danger than ever before and all for the sake of Spider-man’s convenience. It didn’t sit well in Jeongguk’s heart. But his friend was persistent, taking on the persona of V, Spider-man’s guy in the chair (even when he was required to leave the chair to be on-site).
This only pushed the separation between Jeongguk and his hero persona. Once he put on the suit, anybody that Jeongguk cared about left his mind. Spider-man’s only accomplice is V, and what personal relationship does Spider-man have with V? None. No weakness. No vulnerability. No love. No torture. He was cold toward his partner in vigilance and Taehyung noticed it with a quickness.
“Jeonggukie, I’m getting disturbances to the east of Long Avenue,” Taehyung reports into the earpiece.
Jeongguk lets out groan. “V, I told you to refer to me as Spider-man over the intercoms.”
Taehyung clenches his jaw, holding down his irritancy. “Sorry… disturbances to the east, Spider-man,” he repeats begrudgingly.
The hero doesn’t respond. Doesn’t say thank you or even acknowledge him.
Was this Jeongguk’s plan to make Taehyung hate Spider-man? To never want to be involved in his heroism ever again? To stop caring if Spider-man eventually got himself killed? Taehyung didn’t know and Jeongguk wouldn’t let him know.
The truth couldn’t leave the younger’s mouth when he was confronted. Even cornered, he wouldn’t say what really was conflicting him.
“Why are you treating me this way? As if V is Spider-man’s doormat or something?” Taehyung questions him one evening immediately after a hard fought battle on the rooftop of a building.
Jeongguk turns toward Taehyung with surprise as if not expecting him to be there. Especially unmasked in civilian clothing standing directly in front of a suited-up spider-man, making it so much more difficult to separate his personas. “Tae— V… why are you here?”
“Don’t call me that stupid name!” Taehyung bites.
“You have to leave,” Jeongguk urges, pacing across the rooftop toward his friend, “Go now!”
“Is that an ‘order’… Spider-man?”
Jeongguk blinks, caught off guard, he stutters back slightly. “Excuse me?”
The elder rolls his eyes. “Take off your damn mask.”
The hero hesitates but complies as he swiftly removes his mask, revealing a cold distant look behind a face covered in bruises and cuts. Taehyung’s never felt so far away from his friend than he does right now.
A cold gust of wind runs through them, making Taehyung shiver and close in on himself tightly. “So this is how you look at your best friend…?” Taehyung mutters softly, eyes like glass.
“This isn’t the time to get personal, Tae…” Jeongguk can’t get himself to even say his full name.
“When is it ever the time?” The rooftop air whistles faintly yet incessantly around them. “Why are you being like this?”
“Like what?” Jeongguk’s hair unravels in the wind.
Taehyung steps forward toward the hero. “Are you kidding me? Every time you put on that mask and call me V, you treat me like some low level assistant.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted??” The younger counters, making a gesture with his arms in defence, “you begged me to let you help Spider-man, right? This is exactly what it looks like!”
“I begged you to not throw yourself into danger for fear you might DIE!”
“And now YOU MIGHT DIE!” The wind blows stronger, Jeongguk is able to stand still but Taehyung needs a moment to readjust his footing. “You should’ve never known about me! You should’ve never been involved! I never wanted your help!”
The wind whistles loudly as the sun sets in the evening sky, painting the clouds a dull purple and blue.
“You’re too important to know who I am. It only makes my job harder.” Jeongguk admits.
“So you were never gonna tell me on your own, huh?” Taehyung recounts, speaking over the wind that wants to silence him. “Is that what you do to important people in your life? You keep secrets from them?”
Jeongguk rubs his palm to his forehead. “Please, hyung, it’s not that simple. I’ve already told you, if you’re connected to me you’re vulnerable. This is not a burden I wanted you to have.”
“So what? Your solution to this was to treat me like dirt? Act like I’m some estranged sidekick at your beck and call? For what?? So I’m not deemed ‘important’ to you anymore?” The elder’s voice grows louder over the gusts of wind.
Jeongguk says nothing and puts his mask back on in attempts to separate his identity again. The mask will always keep Taehyung at a distance.
Taehyung scoffs. “Fine then. If me knowing you is such a burden then… maybe I shouldn’t anymore.”
His friend can’t see it, but Jeongguk’s expression falls immediately. “What?”
The elder turns and begins walking away toward the stairs without another word. “Taehyung!” Jeongguk chases a step after him but stops, having a battle between his wants as Jeon Jeongguk and his safety as Spider-man in his head.
The hero watches the boy shrink smaller and smaller away from him as he's soon enough about to exit Jeongguk's life for good. His best friend turned stranger once he reaches those stairs and he's still not sure whether this is what's best for them both.
The moment Taehyng's hand touches the door to the stairs, a reflex within Jeongguk's body he couldn't keep himself to control jerks his hand into motion. Activating his web shooter and aiming straight for the door handle, the web grasps firmly onto Taehyung's hand. Frozen, both of them look to each other, waiting for one of them to speak. The truth is, Jeongguk can only partly understand why he did what he did. All of the paralyzing fear of losing his best friend in some outrageous and heroic battle where he loses control of the situation, a battle that would be turned into a humiliating spectacle by the public eye, is nothing compared to losing his best friend right now where he knows he has control over the outcome and yet still let him go. That is not just loss, that is failure.
"What do you want from me?" Taehyung asks, voice cracking, pleading for an answer.
Jeongguk approaches him slowly, apologetically. The mask gives him the slightest courage to come completely clean, finding comfort in the fact that Taehyung can't look him in the eye. "I just want you in my life..." he admits, feeling his chest rip open, more secrets about to spill out as he stops just two feet in front of him, "I don't care in what way, I just need you alive."
"I'm not gonna die," Taehyung assures, eyes imploring through the hero's mask as if searching for his eyes. He reaches out to caress Jeongguk's face and possibly peel off his mask but the younger shies away.
"You can't be sure," Jeongguk exhales, "the same way you can't be sure that I won't die... I'm doing everything in my power to keep you away from harm but no matter what I do it just feels like I'm leading you straight to your..." he can't bring himself to say the word.
Taehyung straightens his posture, standing his ground. "I get that," he starts, "but I can make my own choices. I know how to hold my own, I know how to protect myself."
"I know... God! I know you do!" Jeongguk affirms, voice becoming more urgent. "It's just complicated! I--"
Something triggers his fight response that interrupts his train of thought, his mutant senses warning him of a threat several miles ahead of its impact. There's trouble headed this way and Taehyung is right in the centre of it. This is precisely why he needed Taehyung to stay far away from him.
Taehyung tilts his head, concern overtaking his expression. "Jeonggukie?" He asks. "What? What is it?"
Jeongguk comes back to reality, imperativeness motivating his every move. "You need to get out of here," he urges, frantically pushing his friend back inside the building's staircase.
"Seriously??" Taehyung exhales, peeved.
The hero opens the door to the staircase and guides Taehyung inside. "Please, just wait! Don't move, don't go anywhere! I'll come right back and explain everything later, I promise. Just don't walk out of my life, please!" He begs.
An ear-splitting scream from half a block away forces Jeongguk's attention away from Taehyung's answer, missing the defeated and pained expression that's plastered over his face.
"I'll be RIGHT back!" Jeongguk says one last time, backing away from his friend, watching the door shut.
Almost 2 hours have gone by when Jeongguk finally puts the trouble in it's place. There was an armed robbery at a local jewelry store full of handmade authentic pieces, 3 hostages trapped inside, and 2 robbers orchestrating the whole thing. The fight itself wasn't so tough, it was the negotiation, the tiptoeing around a dormant rage in the robbers just to save as many lives as possible.
As always, Spider-man came out victorious, no lives lost and the criminals arrested. He came out with a few scratches, some cuts from glass shards much deeper than he likes, but if he can walk then by all means, he's practically healthy. But Jeongguk may not have come out of this day as successful.
The hero returns to the rooftop with eagerness, rushing to the staircase expecting to see Taehyung just on the other side of it.
"Hyung!" He exclaims into an empty echoey stairwell. No one is there. "Taehyung?" He shouts again in case his friend is just a few stories down. But there's no response.
The hero rushes down the staircase to the bottom floor. He stumbles into the lobby of the building and looks around frantically. He sees regular people, residences of the building and some on-looking civilians from the crime he just stopped resting in the comfort the lobby provides. He sees everyone but the one person he needs to see.
Jeongguk's mind races with panic. No, he can't lose him like this. He can't lose him period. Where is he?
He pushes his way through the busy lobby and out the door, ignoring the curious eyes and excited fans that watch him. He bursts out onto the street and swings himself back up to a rooftop in a flash. He examines the streets for as far as he can see. Adamantly scanning below in every direction for that familiar head of blonde hair.
But to no avail, he lost him.
He can't lose him.
Spider-man doesn't lose anything.
And Jeongguk doesn't just lose Taehyung. No. That's not his fate. It never will. Because he loves him. Jeongguk is in love with Taehyung and Spider-man is in love with Kim Taehyung. And what kind of hero refuses to fight for what he loves?
The hero takes a deep breath as his vision tunnels in on his one and only goal. With a speed that rivals light, he swings through the city streets, heading directly for Taehyung's apartment letting nothing stop him on the way.
He lands harshly on the fire escape outside Taehyung's bedroom window, it almost shakes the entire building but he doesn't care. He pries the window open in one swift movement and steps inside. It's quiet, it's empty, dark. He rushes out into the living room, the lights are all off, deafeningly silent. He swings the front door open into the hallway and searches diligently throughout the rest of the building. Taehyung's not here.
Why is he not here? Where would he go after a day like this other than home??
The only place Jeongguk can think of would be his own apartment. There is no evidence that points Taehyung to be there, nothing would drive him to go back to Jeongguk's apartment after the argument they had. But it's the only option he has left.
He rushes back to his apartment, heart pounding in his ears as he swings with all the force he's ever been capable of but never needed until now. Nothing has ever called for Jeongguk's full power before but the thought of Taehyung being lost, from his life, from the city, from this earth, it releases an exertion of determination and borderline insanity from the hero's body.
Jeongguk swings into the wall of his apartment complex, landing right next to his kicthen window. He thrusts it open and forces himself through with an ungraceful landing on the kitchen tile. Leaving the window open, he dashes toward his bedroom door, then slows to stop just before opening it. Realizing he left his bedroom door open when he left earlier today. Someone's been here. Was it Taehyung? It must be. No one else has access to his apartment.
He peels off his mask and tosses it to the side carelessly before placing his hand on the doorknob. It turns slowly, so slowly as if some invisible force is stopping him and that force is definitely just his anxiety.
As the door cracks open, a chill runs down his spine as his mutant senses wrack his brain with warning. So loud and incessant as if breaking out of a cage. Before he can make sense of it all, he locks sight with a dark pair of eyes through the crack of the door. When it opens all the way, there are two bodies in his room instead of the one he was expecting.
"Nice to see you, Spider-man..." a menacing voice hisses its way around the dark room. Jeongguk's eyes follow the voice to the face of Kang Minjun, the young heir and first chair to the CEO of HexWire Inc.. He follows the face to an outstretched arm to the hand that points a handgun to the terrified face of his best friend Kim Taehyung.
"Looks like my hunch correct," Minjun chimes, "the lone spider has an accomplice after all..."
"Mr. Kang..." Jeongguk starts, voice shaky, "Why don't we put the gun down and talk about this... I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding..."
Minjun is no more older or younger than Taehyung, Jeongguk can see it in his fearful eyes and the shaking hand that has never held a gun before. This is just a boy who's down to his last resort and can't see through the haze of his desperation. Jeongguk can see himself in Minjun's eyes.
"How about I kill both of you!" The heir growls.
As Minjun points his gun to Jeongguk's head, Taehyung cries out, "NO!"
"SHUT IT!" Minjun screams, spit launching from his mouth, "Someone in this room is responsible for the death of my father and I'm not leaving until their blood is on the floor!"
Jeongguk shakes his head cautiously, raising his hands to show he means no harm. "Your father died from a skin disease," he tries to explain.
"WRONG!" He spits again, "For the last 6 weeks there have been security breaches in our system! Data, information, records, all WIPED from existence!! All of that data relates to every single Spider-man success story and every single HexWire failure."
Jeongguk throws a look toward his best friend. Taehyung gives him a wide-eyed stare that confirms that 'V' is the one responsible for this.
"Electro... Dr. Connors... Octavius... the vulture project..." Minjun pauses to take a deep breath, "and the Green Settlement. The fund that was supposed to cure MY FATHER! That was supposed to cure me!"
Jeongguk remembers that settlement and exactly why it had to be shut down. The experiments were unethical, testing on people who were plucked from the streets. The homeless who had nothing to lose that giving consent and full access to their bodies was inevitable. Spider-man interfered because V had a lead on a displaced little girl's missing mother.
"That fund was despicable,” Taehyung bites, venom in his voice as he stands his ground.
Minjun whips his arm around with a crazed look in his eyes. "So it WAS you?!"
"STOP!" Jeongguk yells, "It was me! I wiped the data!" He lies.
Minjun bores his twitching glare into Jeongguk's soul but still points the gun at Taehyung. "Oh, did you?"
Jeongguk sticks his chin up. "Yes," he assures.
He watches Minjun's lips quirk, suppressing a wretched grin that makes the hero want to be sick. "Well, I can't kill the city's one and only Spider-man, can I?" He asks rhetorically, his tone coming off as far too amused. "After all, you're the only reason we still have shareholders. All of them desperately waiting for HexWire to churn out another Spider-man."
The hero can guess where this is going and he needs to act fast. His mind races, rattling around in the cogwheel of ideas, plans, strategies, anything! Taehyung would know what do in an instant but one wrong move from him could him killed. It has to be Jeongguk.
"So if I can't kill you..." Minjun slurs, "I'll kill the one thing he cares about."
The man turns to face Taehyung completely, placing both hands on the gun and cocking the safety.
"WAIT!" Jeongguk shouts in a panic, "I can give you a cure!"
Minjun shivers with fury, barely holding the gun straight. If he shoots, he could hit anything past the back wall behind Taehyung. "N-No you can't!" He stutters.
"He can," Taehyung assures calmly yet firm and Jeongguk has to hold back a prideful smile knowing that his best friend is so on his level that he's playing along with the plan already.
"Look at me, Minjun," Jeongguk pleads, "look at me! Look what I've become! I can self-heal, I can recover from fatal wounds, I can walk from immobilizing injuries! The cure you're looking for is inside me." The heir looks over his hunched shoulder, locking eyes with the bargaining hero. "I can give you another Spider-man... you..." He continues, holding Minjun's gaze straight into his own eyes, solidifying the promise.
Minjun gives a small nod, slowly shutting his eyes as he processes the opportunity. His body is still tense with anger, his stance unstable, barely holding himself together. "Okay..." he exhales, "You can do that for me..." his head turns back to Taehyung, "..right after I kill--"
"NO!" Jeongguk shouts over him, lunging forward.
"--your world!" The heir exclaims.
A gunshot blares through their bones just as Jeongguk redirects the heir's arms. He hears Taehyung cry out in pain, then a thud on the floor, but can't do anything to aid his friend as he throws Minjun off his feet, right-cross into his jaw.
The gun drops to their feet, Jeongguk shooting a web to grab it but the pullback is intercepted as he's tackled backward out the bedroom door. They knock into one of the side tables in the living room, a glass vase shattering all over the floor then subsequentially tumbling down on the debris.
Jeongguk doesn't want to kill the heir of HexWire Inc., he doesn't have the heart to kill anyone, especially someone who's just as young as he is. He could put up a stronger fight but is convinced Minjun can be talked down from this toxic rage impairing his sound mind. That's how Spider-man, unmasked and vulnerable, is pinned down to the floorboards underneath a regular man's weight, trying to fit in any persuasive words in between the blows he takes to the face.
"Stop it, Minjun!!" The hero tries, catching Minjun's fist. "You're not thinking straight!!"
From behind Jeongguk's head, Minjun leans down, closer to his face as he reaches for a large glass shard with his other hand while distractedly struggling to pull free from the hero's grasp. "You took everything away from me!" His hand encloses firmly around the shard, drawing blood from his palm but rage blinds him from the pain. "Now I'm taking everything away from you!!"
In one large move, he swings his arm up above his head as the tip of the glass shard shines in the dark spilling moonlight. Jeongguk covers his face with his arms and as the heir thrusts the weapon down, another gunshot rings through his ears.
The shard only manages to cut the hero's forearm as the man on top of him goes limp. His body loses all tension and strength in a second and in the next second, his lifeless body flops to the side.
Jeongguk pushes the rest of Minjun's weight off himself and sits up, glass clattering beneath them. He looks back toward his bedroom door and finds Taehyung's injured self curled up in the doorframe, resting his back against the wood, clutching somewhere between his mid-section and his hip.
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck--" Jeongguk babbles nonsensically, letting himself talk just for the sake of talking as he scurries over to his friend.
He kneels over Taehyung's injured form, searching his body for the wound. "Taehyung, where are you hurt?" He asks as calmly as he can.
Taehyung groans, slowly removing his arm from his mid-section revealing a pool of blood the spreads through his clothes. Jeongguk rips the boy's shirt open and follows the blood trail down to the waistline of his pants. He rips those too and precariously pulls Taehyung's underwear down far enough until he sees a bullet lodged right above his right hip bone.
Jeongguk lets out the slightest sigh of relief but is still nowhere close to relaxed. "Okay, it's gonna be okay!" He assures. "I'm gonna apply pressure okay? Are you ready?"
Taehyung nods and holds his breath, shutting his eyes. Jeongguk pushes down on the wound, forcing out a guttural scream from the boy’s throat. Jeongguk winces at the sound but persists his makeshift treatment, using his webshooter to spray a concentrated web-bandage over the wound that keeps the pressure applied.
"Okayokayokayokayokay! Okay! It's over! It's over," he talks Taehyung down from the immense agony he's in, holding his face close to his own. "I'm gonna carry you now, is that okay? We're gonna go to the hospital really quickly, alright?"
The hero hooks Taehyung's arm around his neck, carrying the boy bridal style. As he hoists him up and prepares to leave the room, Taehyung makes frantic noises of protest, shaking his head. It makes Jeongguk panic.
"What? Whatwhatwhat? What is it?? Is it painful??" He asks wildly, setting the boy back down.
Taehyung shakes his head again then arduously points somewhere behind his friend. "Your..." he starts weakly, "...your mask..."
Dumbfounded, Jeongguk lets out a short laugh, as he grabs the mask he discarded earlier in the evening, then resumes to lift his injured friend. "I can't believe you..."
Days later, Jeongguk visits Taehyung in the hospital for the nth time this week. He's been by his bedside everyday since Taehyung was admitted and only ever leaves by his best friend's request just to come right back to his hospital room the very next day.
"Has Spider-man solved all crime in the city for you to be seeing me everyday?" Taehyung teases, voice hoarse with dark circles around his eyes to match.
Jeongguk takes the seat closest to his bedside and pulls it as close as possible. "Oh yeah... that and the fact that Spider-man is suspected of murdering the billionaire heir to HexWire, it's probably best he stays off the streets for a while."
Taehyung huffs a sad laugh but his contentment is cut short as he winces through a pang of pain in his side. He holds his bandaged wound with a groan and settles back down onto the bed's headrest.
Jeongguk's eyes turn glossy, swallowing down a hard lump in his throat as he watches the consequences of his actions unfold onto his best friend. "I'm so sorry," he chokes down a sob.
Taehyung doesn't say anything. His energy these days are scarce, holding conversation or even having any complex thought expends most of his strength for the rest of the day. Instead, he lets his actions speak for him, finding his friend's hand on the edge of the bed and taking it in his own.
When Jeongguk looks up at him, the elder boy does as best as he can to communicate his forgiveness through his eyes. The hero blinks back his tears, tossing his head back with a deep breath, then shakes his head. "No, it's not okay..." Jeongguk's voices wavers, "I knew this would happen, I knew you were in danger because of me."
Taehyung shakes his head quickly. "No, Koo..." he contends with a rasp.
"Yes, Tae, it's my fault! I should've--"
The wounded boy interrupts him with a hand in the air, effectively shushing him. "Jeonggukie, I'm very weak right now, so do me a favour and let me speak without raising my voice over yours?" The temporarily retired hero looks at him in awe and shuts up as requested. "I did this... these are the repercussions of decisions I've made myself. No one asked me to do what I did. I wiped everything because I wanted to, because it's the right thing to do."
"But that's not your responsibility--" Taehyung interrupts him again with a vigilant look in his eyes, making Jeongguk bow his head apologetically.
"There are things that I know that I can do that others can't. And I can use them for good. I know it's not as spectacular as sticking to walls and inhumane strength but it's enough to make a change." He explains gravelly. "If you were given just one chance to make a difference, wouldn't you take it? Spider-man?"
The hero sighs, defeated in understanding. "Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"
Taehyung just shrugs in response.
"You didn't want me to worry," Jeongguk guesses out loud, his own ethos projecting onto his best friend in a cruel kind of irony. Another wave of guilt and unshed tears pool in his eyes. With a shaky breath, he unfastens the tightness around his chest and finally decides to lay his heart out before the one person that has true power over him. "Taehyung, I'm so sorry for everything I put you through.
"There are reasons why I never wanted you to know about me, never wanted you involved, reasons why I'm so protective over you..." The hero looks down to their entwined hands, refusing to look at the boy's face. "I know it probably won't make any sense, even the explanations I've given you before won't even make sense of it."
God, this is so difficult, Jeongguk thinks to himself. Of all the fights he's had to take on, the hardest battle he'll ever have to overcome is the fear of rejection in the face of vulnerability. Still, he owes this to Taehyung. The one who doesn't search for the fight but is bedridden while the hero walks through the streets almost completely unscathed, the one who faces the most danger despite the hardships and responsibilities that the hero takes on.
"I'm really good at making a sense of things," Taehyung assures with a soft tone, encouraging the hero to continue, "that's why I'm your guy in the chair."
Jeongguk lets out a quiet giggle, sniffling back a sob. "Taehyung, I..." he takes in a deep shaky breath, "I really thought I lost you... and if I say this now, I feel like I might lose you for good... and it'll hurt too much..." he holds Taehyung's hand up to his face and presses his cheek against the back of it, "...because I... I love you..."
When he looks up, his eyes find a home in Taehyung's glossy ones. His heart pounds with an adrenaline similar to the rush he feels in a fight when he senses the tides are turning in his favour. "I love you intensely," he affirms with more confidence, voice trembling in time with his fluttering heart, "I love you profoundly.
"You're my one and only weakness. As Spider-man, as your best friend, as Jeon Jeongguk. All of my selves are weak for you and I don't know how to live without you." He rambles, his heart and his tears spilling out uncontrollably between them, speaking in intervals of breathless sobs and heaving gasps. "You are simultaneously my fragility and my fortitude."
Jeongguk's babbling is cut off by Taehyung's soft hand wiping the stream of tears from his cheek. The hero forces himself to breathe deeply and slowly, nose flaring as he attempts to calm himself down.
“You can’t just say stuff like that to a person in a hospital bed," Taehyung jokes softly through glassy eyes, making the hero huff a small chuckle.
When they lock eyes finally, he feels time stop. "I love you too," Taehyung confesses softly. "I'm in love with every side of you. Whether you're wearing the mask or not, I love you. No matter how you present. I won't ever leave the one I love. So promise me that you'll do what you do best and fight for us. Just like I promise that you won't ever lose me."
"I promise," Jeongguk nods fervently, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. "I'll keep you safe. I won't let anything come between us."
"I love you so much, Jeongguk," Taehyung reaffirms breathlessly.
Jeongguk's chest swells with a sweltering remedy that springs him forward toward his lover. "I love you profoundly," he declares one last time before his lips land with a velvety grace against Taehyung's, the air plucked hungrily out of their lungs as their lips lock for the very first time of many.
The end.