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The only thing worse than being bitten by a venomous spider is being bitten by a spider that turns you into a spider - or so Rikki Chadwick figures.
As she nurses a bloody wound on her shoulder, her ribs bruised and mouth tasting of metal, Rikki thinks that maybe she would’ve been better off dying to a Redback Spider. At least then she could have died in a hospital room with her loved ones by her side, rather than bleeding out alone out front of the stupid JuiceNet Café.
Okay, so maybe she’s being a tad bit dramatic. She isn’t bleeding out , per se. The gash on her arm is rather big, but it’s not deep. As long as she can get back to her trailer without being spotted by anyone - especially her dad - then she should be just fine.
She had just prevented a robbery, some shabby old mom ‘n’ pop shop just down the street being ransacked by a group of stupid brawny men. She managed to deal with them pretty easily, but not without taking a couple of blows of her own.
Her suit sticks to her skin uncomfortably, the dried blood practically gluing it to her. It aches, but she’s kind of over the pain by now. It’s more of a pain in the ass than a genuine pain. At least the blood isn’t noticeable; perks of having a red and black suit. She just needs to limp her way home, then she’ll be fine.
She’s jolted out of her moping by the sound of someone gasping very close by. She winces, glancing in the direction it came from only to find Emma Gilbert standing a few feet away, a garbage bag in her hands and that cute little uniform hat on her head.
That’s… not good.
See, the thing is, Rikki knows Emma. More than knows, even: they’re kind of best friends. One could even say that Rikki maybe, possibly, kind of has the teeniest tiniest crush on Emma. Rikki would call one absolutely psychotic, but they wouldn’t be completely wrong.
It’s embarrassing. Rikki pretends it doesn’t happen.
You wouldn’t think Emma and Rikki would be friends from the outside; they’re kind of complete opposites. Emma is smart where Rikki is dumb, calm where Rikki is hot-headed, responsible where Rikki is… well, a vigilante. But somehow, they click.
When Rikki first moved to the Gold Coast, she wasn’t expecting to make any friends - especially not with the top of her class, best swimmer in the school, student council president. But Cleo, the bubbly girl who sat beside Rikki in her first class of the day, instantly latched onto her and invited her into their friend group. Rikki and Emma didn’t get along great at first, but they grew on each other pretty quickly. Almost a whole year later, they’re still thick as thieves. Despite that, they don’t know about Rikki’s alter-ego. The safety of having a secret identity, and all that stuff.
All that to say: Rikki knows Emma. Which means, unfortunately, Emma knows Rikki. She knows her voice, knows her cadence, knows the stupid jokes she makes and the way she tucks her thumb into her hand whenever she makes a fist (something that made Emma go absolutely crazy and lecture her for hours). If Rikki can pick Emma out of a crowd in an instant, she’s positive the same goes for Emma with her.
Emma knows Rikki .
And now she stands just a few feet away and stares at Rikki, at the mask she’s wearing over her face and the ripped and dirtied suit that’s sticking to her skin. She stares right at her, and she knows . Rikki can tell. She sees it in Emma’s eyes, the way they minisculely widen, the way her mouth falls open in surprise for just a moment. She sees it in the way that betrayal colours Emma’s eyes, darkening her gaze and pulling her lips into a frown.
Emma steps closer, dropping the garbage bag to the cement. It’s hard for Rikki to take her seriously whilst she’s wearing that stupid, cute work uniform, but she manages to.
“Uh - hi, ma’am,” Rikki greets, and then immediately regrets it. Why would she call Emma ma’am ? Is there something wrong with her? Did her head get hit a bit too hard earlier?
“… Rikki?”
Yeah. She’s screwed. Completely and utterly screwed .
“Hey, Em,” she croaks, offering a little wave. “Surprise?”
Emma doesn’t laugh. She doesn’t look amused in the slightest. In fact, she rather looks like she wants to smack Rikki as hard as she can.
“I reckon you’re mad.”
Emma still doesn’t speak. She only glares at Rikki, lips curling down into that adorable frustrated pout she’s always sending Rikki’s way. Her eyes drift down to her shoulder, the suit torn open and bleeding, then down to wear Rikki is cradling her ribs. Her eyebrow twitches.
Rikki’s going to get an earful. She may have fought off dozens of men in her time as Spider-Woman, but this is where she dies: Emma Gilbert lecturing her for throwing herself into danger.
Emma steps even closer, closing the final distance between them. Rikki tenses herself and squeezes her eyes shut, preparing for whatever onslaught of words is about to come her way.
Arms wrap around her shoulders, careful not to touch the wound on her shoulders. Emma hugs her. Rikki doesn’t know how to react.
“You’re so stupid ,” Emma huffs, holding her even tighter.
“I get that a lot,” Rikki jokes, only because she has no idea what she’s supposed to do in this situation. She wasn’t prepared for this.
“I mean, I had my suspicions , but…” Emma continues, “I can’t believe you, Rikki. You’re so stupid. So reckless .” Her hands are shaking when she pulls away, meeting Rikki’s eyes through the mask. She loops trembling fingers around Rikki’s wrist and starts pulling her towards the front door of the café. “Let me patch you up. The café is closed. No one will see.”
Rikki allows herself to be pulled along, mainly because her brain is kind of malfunctioning. She’s never seen Emma this distressed before. She has seen Emma after she lost a swimming competition by three milliseconds, she’s seen Emma after her break-up with Ash, she’s seen her after her parents found out she threw a huge party just to prove to Rikki that she could - but Emma has never been this distressed.
Emma leads her to a booth but continues to grasp her wrist tightly to prevent her from sitting down. They stand there for a moment, just staring at each other. Emma’s free hand twitches, like she wants to do something.
“Your mask,” she says, slowly raising that shaky hand. “Can I…?”
Rikki’s mouth feels dry. She numbly nods her head.
Emma tugs off Rikki’s mask, her hands surprisingly gentle; it always astounds Rikki, just how soft Emma can be. She knows Emma can be gentle - she always is when the situation calls for it. Even when she’s upset with Rikki’s teasing and pestering, she still has her soft edges. The reminder is startling nonetheless.
It feels strangely intimate. Rikki finds herself holding her breath.
Emma’s fingers are warm as she brushes the pads of them over her cheek, the skin there surely bruised by now. Her lips purse like they do when she’s faced with a particularly large mess, a specifically difficult maths problem.
Rikki has Emma’s sole, undivided attention, and she feels herself very quickly flustering underneath it. She thumbs the split on Rikki’s bottom lip and Rikki swears she stops breathing.
“One guy didn’t think I was very funny,” she murmurs in explanation. “Punched me in the mouth to shut me up.”
Emma nods. She doesn’t speak. Rikki is unsure what to say once more.
“Does it, uh… look bad, or something?”
Emma seems to snap back into her thoughts. She blinks a few times, before pulling back as if she’s been burned. “No! No, sorry,” she shakes her head. Rikki misses the warmth of her hands. How corny. “You look… fine.”
“Fine’s good,” Rikki breathes out.
Emma stands up, shoves the mask into Rikki’s hands and takes a few steps away from Rikki as if she has some kind of infection. “I’ll… I’ll go get the first aid kit,” she states and then rushes off, leaving Rikki jarred by the sudden change.
“Alright,” she replies, but Emma’s already gone, crouched down behind the counter. Rikki idly fiddles with her mask before figuring she should take her suit off. She begins to tug it down, carefully sliding her wounded arm out first before removing the other.
The strap of the tank top she wears underneath is ripped, the formerly white fabric now coloured rouge. Rikki clicks her tongue. That’s going to be difficult to remove.
Emma stands up with a red bag gripped tightly in her hands. Upon sight of Rikki, Emma’s eyes widen, her jaw dropping as her cheeks colour scarlet. She slaps her free hand over her eyes - rather belatedly, Rikki figures, because her suit is down to her hips now.
“Chill, Em,” Rikki laughs, tugging her suit down her legs. “I’m wearing stuff underneath. You think I’d go commando under this thing?”
“You’re brash enough to,” Emma retorts, and, well, she has her there. Nonetheless, Emma uncovers her eyes and walks over as Rikki steps out of her suit, plucking some leftover red fabric off of her shorts. She ignores the booths and hops up onto the table, earning a scoff from the other girl. “I just cleaned those tables.”
Rikki shrugs, eyeing the cut on her shoulder. “It’s not that bad.” It really is shallow; the blood makes it look much worse than it is. It’ll be completely gone in a few days. Not even a scar, like it never even happened. “So, Doc? You think I’ll be okay?”
Emma rolls her eyes and doesn’t deign her a response, instead unzipping the bag and rustling around in it. She snaps on a pair of gloves, ever so rule-abiding, and opens a pack of gauze. She grabs a bottle of antiseptic and sprays it on the cloth, before looking Rikki dead in the eye.
“I hope this hurts,” she says, and Rikki doesn’t have time to respond before Emma is rubbing it over her cut.
“Ow!” Rikki hisses, because it does hurt. “What the hell?”
“You deserve it,” Emma snaps, and she properly meets Rikki’s eyes for the first time since she removed her mask. “Do you know how terrifying this is? Rikki, you’re a vigilante! You go outside getting into fights every night. You could get yourself killed!”
Rikki knows that. She’s known that since she started doing this. But she’s the only one who can do this, and so she needs to look out for those who can’t look out for themselves. She’s trying to be the person she wanted to have as a kid. Hearing it from Emma, though, is an entirely different thing.
Rikki can get herself killed as Spider-Woman. And if she does, she has so many loved ones she’ll leave behind. She forgets sometimes, just how many people she has now, how many people care about her. Her dad, Cleo, Lewis, Zane - still friends, even after they broke up - and… Emma .
“I’m sorry,” Rikki says, and it comes out much quieter than she intended it to. Much more genuine . “I just… I want to help, you know?”
Emma sighs, pulls the gauze away from Rikki’s now-stinging cut. The blood is all wiped away now, leaving a thin line that’s barely even noticeable. “I know,” she nods, placing the bloodied gauze onto the table. “I know you do, Rikki. You’re thoughtless, and reckless, but you’re brave . If I was in your situation, I don’t know what I would do. But…” She trails off, resorting to digging through the first aid kit in the resulting silence.
“Yeah,” Rikki murmurs, idly swinging her legs back and forth. “I guess I could improve my technique.”
Emma laughs, light and barely there, but she laughs nonetheless. “Well, if you need someone to teach you,” she offers, pulling out a roll of bandage.
“I think I’ll take you up on that,” Rikki grins, and Emma’s cheeks pinken; she’s always been bashful when it comes to sincere compliments from Rikki, probably because she doesn’t offer them very often.
Slowly, carefully, Emma begins to wind the bandage around the cleaned cut. “Who else knows?”
Rikki shrugs her good shoulder. “Only a few hundred people.” Emma pauses what she’s doing to give Rikki a look of disdain. When she wraps the bandage around Rikki’s arm once more, she pulls it just the slightest bit tighter. Rikki rolls her eyes with a huff of laughter. “Only you.”
Emma hums in surprise, a noise that seems almost against her will. “No one else knows? Not even your father?”
“No way,” Rikki laughs, but it hurts her heart to think about. She knows how deeply her dad cares; if he found out, he’d be absolutely ruined. “He’d freak. Probably lock me up in my room, or something.”
“I wouldn’t fault him,” Emma comments, making a point to eye each and every one of her bruises.
“I’m usually much better at not getting hit,” Rikki says, lying. She’s actually surprised she didn’t get more banged up this time. She really does need help improving her fighting skills. It’s a wonder she’s made it this far.
Emma fastens the bandage with a safety pin. She stares at it, carefully runs her thumb over it.
“You’re going to keep doing this?” she asks, like she’s hoping Rikki will say no.
Rikki doesn’t want to disappoint her, but she has to. “Yeah.”
“Of course,” Emma shakes her head as if she expected that answer, but she has the tiniest smile on her face. “It’s not like you to give up.”
Emma carefully replaces everything back into the first aid kit, and Rikki can only watch as she does. Her silly hat has slid to the side during everything, sitting lopsided on her head.
“It really is a cute hat,” Rikki states as Emma zips up the bag, turning to fully face her once more. The hat makes her look infinitely cuter. Emma makes a show of rolling her eyes, and Rikki straightens the hat atop her head.
Emma’s eyes fall down to the cut on Rikki’s lip. Rikki’s hand drops to brush a stray strand of hair behind Emma’s ear.
She’s not sure who leans in first; all she knows is that one second they were looking at each other, and the next there was a pair of lips against her own.
Her stomach twists, butterflies rapidly fluttering around, flames licking at her skin everywhere she is making contact with Emma.
Emma tastes like peppermint.
Her mind feels fuzzy as they pull away. Rikki’s bottom lip stings.
“Oh,” she says. She blinks. “Maybe I should get beat up more often.”
Emma laughs. There’s a look of relief on her face, her cheeks burning bright. “Maybe not.”
“Right,” Rikki agrees. “Reckon I can just ask you to kiss me again instead of having to get my ass kicked?”
“I think that’s better, yes.”
“Cool.”
Emma smiles - and Rikki doesn’t think she’s ever seen Emma this happy, either. She’s seeing so many new sides of the girl today, and it makes her want to find even more. She wants to find every side Emma has to offer.
“I should put this away,” Emma says, grabbing the first aid kit. She heads back to the counter without another word, and Rikki is happy to watch her go. “We should head out soon. I’m sure my parents are worried by now.”
Rikki hums her agreement, still in a bit of a daze. She feels so cheesy, like a lovesick school-girl from those rom-coms that Cleo forces her to watch. She gathers up her suit from the floor, examining the damage to it - thankfully nothing too difficult to fix up.
“Wipe down that table for me?” Emma asks.
Rikki bats her eyelashes. “But I’m hurt.”
Emma rolls her eyes. “Wipe down that table,” she repeats, an order this time. “And then… maybe you can come back to my house for the night? Just so your dad doesn’t see you like this and worry,” she quickly clarifies. She blushes very easily, Rikki realizes. That’s going to be fun to play with.
“Yes ma’am,” Rikki salutes, snatching the rag that Emma tosses to her from the air. As she wipes down the surface, she shoots Emma a look over her shoulder. “You sure the only reason you want me at yours is for my dad’s sake?” She wiggles her eyebrows. “No other plans?”
“ Rikki! ” Emma hisses, blushing once more. Rikki throws her head back and laughs.
Maybe she was wrong: maybe being bitten by the spider that got her isn’t such a bad thing.