Chapter Text
Sam Winchester didn’t mean to become Spider-Man.
The bite on his arm was swelling to the size of a golf ball- it was hot to the touch. He let out a hiss of pain when Gabriel's finger cautiously prodded it.
“Dude, what is that.” Gabriel, who was unfortunately his best friend, said from beside him. Readjusting himself on the couch, Sam could only let out a groan as Gabriel’s words sent knives through his brain. “I swear it’s pulsating we should get paramedics or something-“
“No..” Sam ran a hand down his face. “Look man, I can’t. Dean’s only off for today, then he’s back on call for Monday and Tuesday down at the station, and I don’t want to annoy Cas.” The first part wasn’t a lie, and he knew damn well the last thing Cas would be was annoyed, but Sam didn’t really want to confront his crippling fear of hospitals. If Castiel saw the bite on his arm, he would drag Sam out the door kicking and screaming all the way to the doctor's office. Of course, he wasn’t going to say that to Gabriel, who already had enough to make fun of Sam about.
Gabriel gave him a disbelieving glance at that, seeing through his blatant bullshit. “Cas, Castiel? As in the same Cas who treats you like an orphaned baby bird? As if.” All Sam could do was grunt in response, his migraine worsening by the second. He felt as if his brain would explode at any moment. Gabe squinted at him, somehow more concerned than before.
Sam took the lapse in conversation as a chance to survey his surroundings, the walls that were normally a soft blue colour kept morphing into red, then green, before going back to blue. The comics and video games splayed across the carpeted floor kept growing and shrinking every time he blinked, Maybe he was going to vomit. He felt the couch shift under him as he desperately tried to tune out the thumping in his head or how all of his senses seemed to be way more sensitive than normal. It was like every cell in his body was screaming at him while simultaneously trying to escape his body.
He had been sitting in Gabriel’s room for the better part of 2 hours after the spider bite. The only real memories he had of the bite, or at least what led up to it, was him wandering around in a murky sewer for a reason he couldn’t remember, finding some sort of lab, and from there? Hell if he knew. He just remembered seeing a big spider, a type he’d never seen before, and it had bit him. All Gabriel said was that Sam showed up at his door, and in his words, Sam “looked like a twitching skeleton with a plastic glove stretched over it and also a compressed jpeg of a 6-piece chicken McNugget.” However charming, he tried to not think about whatever that could mean too hard or he would have to beat Gabriel over the head.
Sam really hoped he wasn’t going to turn into some mutant or something, like a nightmare X-man. His stomach twisted at the thought, worst case scenario he dies, he supposed.
He was suddenly snapped back to reality as Gabriel stepped back into the room, brows furrowed with worry. There was also a look in his eyes, like a dog who was caught chewing a new pair of shoes. He looked to Sam, who hadn’t even noticed the fact that Gabriel had left.
Gabriel took a breath before stopping and pausing to think. He breathed in again, before letting out a rushed “I called Cas to come pick you up.”
Sam swore he could feel his eyes bug out of his head. He was going to get the scolding of a lifetime from Dean, Sam thought, before black dots took over his eyes as he promptly passed out again.
It was a pleasant surprise that when Sam woke up, it was not to hellish fluorescent lights and pure white bedsheets, but to his room. He had no clue how long he’d been passed out but his guesstimate was that it was the next day. His head was still pounding and there was a deep ache in his bones, but all the lights in his room were off and his vision was no longer blurry. He could feel the bite throbbing under the quilt of his bed.
There were two rather loud voices beside him, Cas and Gabriel, he realised.
“-Then he just shows up at my door sweating and shaking!” Gabriel threw his hands up in exasperation while Cas raised his eyebrow. “Do you know where he was and if he had anything? Maybe-”
“Can you two quieten down?” Sam groaned, covering his eyes with a pillow. “You’re so loud.”
Silence. He could practically feel Gabriel and Castiel stare at each other. “Sam, we were whispering,” Cas said with a tinge of concern in his voice. A silence encompassed the room for a second, Sam internally squirming due to the looks the two were giving him. He couldn’t really look like a compressed chicken nugget, right?
Castiel glanced back at Gabriel for a second before standing up. “You should rest,” he spoke. “Dean will be back soon. I sent him down to the pharmacy a little while before you woke up.” Gabriel followed suit, standing up and following Cas as he walked out the door, sending Sam a sheepish half-smile before attempting to shut the door as silently as possible.
He sat on the bed, doing his best to ignore the pounding in his head as he looked around. His room was undisturbed, wardrobe and desk still in place. His blinds were shut, which he was thankful for, however small beams of light streamed through the gaps.
Rolling back over, Sam deciding to see if sleeping it off would work, Sam tried his damned hardest to take a nap despite the noise that seemed to surround him. He could hear the floorboards creaking, the birds outside his home. He heard Gabriel fall flat on his face as well as the yelp when he hit the floor, (Sam may have laughed.)
He woke up a mere hour later, giving up on sleep and deciding that now that he was awake again, he’d take a look at his arm and Oh boy, that does not look good. His veins were blue and very visible, and the bite? It had somehow swelled up more, throbbing angrily like it was trying to break out of his skin. There was a hypnotizing red glow that grew and shrunk with every pulse of the bite and that’s when Sam started to regret refusing to go to the hospital. He dumbly reached out to touch it, shocked by the heat radiating from it. His fingers barely brushed it, making him flinch and reel back from the sensation- it was similar to something of a static shock.
Pausing for a moment, he decided to try and get up. That’s when he noticed he seemed to be quite literally stuck to the bed. He internally grumbles as he hears much-too-loud footsteps thundering up the stairs. The door cracked open, the light slicing through the dark, Sam looked up to see a concerned Castiel peeking at him. “Sam, are you feeling ok?” the only response he gets is a small hum from Sam signifying that he is, in fact, alive.
The bed dips with the weight of Cas as he tentatively puts a hand on Sam’s head. “You have a fever. I could feel the heat even before I put my hand on your head, I’m starting to think we should've taken you to the hospital.” His voice was low with concern. Sam tried to push Cas off, but his hands were still stuck to the damn bed- even if they weren't, he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to move them, Sam’s whole body felt like lead. Cas lets out a loud sigh. “There’s no way you're going to school tomorrow, Sam. You're staying home.” As Sam weakly opened his mouth to argue, Castiel spoke again “No buts. If that fever didn’t kill you, Dean would. I’ll bring you some breakfast if you want to eat it.”
With that, Cas started his thumping back down the stairs, and he was left alone again. Sam pouts and huffs to no one in particular before closing his eyes. His eyes are stinging, everything smells weird and it feels like his whole body’s being twisted inside out, chewed, and spat out again. Sam could’ve been having a fever dream, but he swore he could hear Dean and Cas’s concerns talking from downstairs while butter sizzled on a pan. Miracle’s claws pattered around on the floor and he could smell one of Dean’s candles burning right in his face.
After a few minutes spent questioning if getting up at this point was even worth it, he realised he actually felt really good despite all the overstimulation, shocked to realise that he actually meant that, considering he was bitten by a questionable spider and had previously felt like death. The headache Sam was fostering had mostly cleared up, and his vision no longer felt like he was a living kaleidoscope.
Slowly climbing out of his bed and cautiously taking a few steps, he was hit with a sickly sweet smell so violent it made him flinch. Sam gagged and backed up, falling back onto his bed. Hell, whatever that was, it was strong. Maybe it was another candle added to Dean’s collection. Changing out of his rather sweat-drenched clothes, he edged down the stairs, trying to find the source of the smell that was making him feel legitimately nauseous. It only got worse as he went further down the stairs, as if he was a single inch above a massive pool of liquid syrup.
The kitchen and living room looked the same as ever, dark wooden floors with granite countertops, dishes assorted nicely in cupboards finished with a light overhead that most of the time was never on anyway, no one likes evil florescent lights. Cas was humming and moving around the kitchen wearing the ‘ Kiss the Cook’ apron Dean had bought for him as a joke. Speaking of Dean, he was sitting on the counter, drenching his pancakes in syrup and drinking a lethal amount of orange juice. He looked up as he noticed Sam. “Rise and shine, Sammy!” He smiled before pointing to his unholy pancakes. “Want some?”
So that’s what he was smelling.
“No thanks, Dean…” Sam cringed. “That’s got to be expired or something, dude, that’s actually disgusting I’m not joking.” Sam gagged again as he was hit by another wave of pure sweetness. Dean looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “I’m serious! Smell it, put your ungroomed nose hairs to the pancakes and tell me it dosen’t reek!” It was coming from the orange juice too, citrus.
“Seriously dude? You love Cas’s pancakes. You feeling ok?” Dean questioned as Sam began to make his way back upstairs. The smell of the syrup was still absolutely annihilating his nose, and he did love Cas’s pancakes! Smelling that syrup had put him off any food for the moment, though. It should be illegal to have that much sugar in maple syrup. It probably was, but they were in America, which was not exactly known for its food restriction laws.
Something about the citrus had seriously set off his, well, everything. Tolerating the wretched scent for another second (but only to pet Miracle of course, who could do no wrong ever,) before scurrying back up to his room in an attempt to calm down his senses.
Sitting in his room, he could hear Dean talking to Miracle clear as day, as if they were right outside, which was weird because they were still downstairs, were they not? Dean's shoe scraped against the floor as he began talking to Cas again. “I’m worried, Cas. The kid comes back from Gabriel’s with a funky spider bite like something out of Alien and now he’s not eating? Maybe he is becoming a zombie. Go for the brain, Cas” Sam could even hear Castiel’s small chuckle in response to the comment.
Sam absentmindedly decided to turn the fan mounted to his ceiling on.
“I’m sure he’ll be okay, Dean. He’s better than what he was last night. I say we keep an eye on him before we jump to do anything. If anything happens while you’re on shift, I’ll let you know.”
The fan stuttered for a second, before swirling for a few seconds, then jittering once again before abruptly stopping. Sam frowned as he looked up at his fan, standing on his bed to inspect it. He put a hand to the ceiling, steadying himself from falling back on his bed before inspecting his fan. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until, of course, he tried to get his hand off of the roof.
His hand was stuck. Sam had no clue how but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t freaking out. He did not, believe it or not, want to be the world's stickiest man, which now that he’d thought it sounded really gross. He put his other hand on the ceiling, trying to force his other hand off, just to discover he’d got his other hand stuck, too.
Sam shut his eyes as he heard Dean come up the stairs. “Hey Sammy, you good? I’ve got to go to work but if you need anything, especially anything medical, let Cas know. I’ll message you later and see you on Tuesday.”
Sam didn’t reply as he flailed his legs wildly, hoping that with enough pull he could get them off.
“Sam? You all good in there?” Dean called again.
“Yeah, just give me a second.” A minute passed as Sam seriously started panicking. Dean was still outside his door, talking at his normal volume yet it sounded like yelling, Sam was still flailing on the ceiling, having managed to get a leg stuck along the way, too-
The door opened, just as Sam fell back down onto his bed. Dean stared at him, Miracle pattering in after him. “Did you just… Fall from the ceiling?” How was Sam even meant to respond to that?
“Uh…” There was a beat of silence. “No.” Dean just looked at him funny for a second before shrugging, letting Miracle charge at Sam and start licking his face while he desperately tried to push her back and get off his bed. Dean walked to the blinds before opening them and holy hell it was bright. “Oh my God my eyes Dean, holy shit close the blinds oh my god.” Sam hissed, his own voice sounded like a banshee scream. “Christ, ok kid,” Dean said before pulling down the blinds and walking back toward the door. “If you need anything-”
“I know, I know, ask Cas, hell you’re so loud I can’t even hear myself think -” Sam whined and rubbed his face. “Why are you yelling anyway? You know I have a headache.”
That made Dean pause from where he was, turning back around to face Sam again. “Dude, I’m talking normally. I told your little prankster friend you’re not going to school today.” Dean was talking softly now, still slightly loud before he gently closed the door and left Sam alone with one last whiff of sugary syrup.
With the sugary demon spawn gone, he flicks a quick message to his group chat with Charlie and Gabriel that he’ll come in tomorrow before making the daring decision to go downstairs once Dean had left. Waiting a few minutes before venturing downstairs again, shielding his eyes from the bright lights streaming in from the windows. Cas was sitting in the living room, cup of coffee in his hand as he watched some nature documentary. Noticing how hungry and thirsty he was without the nauseating syrup smell, he put some bread in the toaster before opening the fridge and grabbing a jug of cold water.
The toast popped and Sam finished preparing his breakfast before sitting down next to Cas. He didn’t turn his head away from the documentary but gave a little wave, Sam waved back and took a swig of his water and holy shit it was good to have a drink. In a matter of seconds, the whole cup was down. He looked into the cup sadly before getting up to get more. The cycle repeated, with Sam not noticing how much he was drinking while Cas slowly grew more and more concerned. It was only when Sam opened the fridge door again that he noticed just how much he had drunk. The once-full jug of water was now empty. “Oh.” Was all he could muster.
The pure disappointment made Cas look over and raise an eyebrow before tuning back into the documentary, avidly watching the beehive that had shown up on the TV. Sam walked back toward the couch, sadly thinking of the water jug before looking at the toast on his plate as his stomach rumbled.
He lifted a piece of toast and was just about to take a bite when there was a loud crunch from his other hand .
The plate was now in pieces. Cas let out a noise of surprise as he looked over, Sam smiled sheepishly. “...Sorry?” The toast was that still in his hand fell to the floor. Cas stared at him. “How does that even happen?” He said slowly. Sam didn’t have an answer. He cleaned up the mess he had made with a broom while Castiel shooed Miracle away from the toast that had fallen from the floor. He then decided to put the now empty glass that had held his water in the dishwasher, but as soon as his hands tightened around it, the glass exploded into shards. “Sam- how- why?” Cas says with his head tilted. Sam facepalms. “I don’t even know, Cas.”
Later that day, he found himself on a video call with Charlie and Gabriel. It was their lunch period, the pair were sitting in the library as other students sat around the area, reading or playing games. Apparently Gabe had given Charlie the rundown about the bite, because as soon as he clicked to answer Charlie had burst out with “So you’re a vampire!” sending a shockwave through Sam’s skull. “Dude.” He says weakly. “Oh yeah, right. Sorry.” She apologizes. “I’m not even kidding anymore Sam, you should go to a doctor. I know you said you feel way better but we can’t even talk to you without whispering, and Gabe said that bite looked like a cyst that was gonna explode. Which is totally gross, by the way.” Gabriel picked absentmindedly at the carpet. Sam can see the library lady in the background glaring at them. “We should put him in the sun and watch him turn to ash it would be really funny.” Gabriel said through giggles.
“For the last time, I am not a vampire, werewolf, or other cryptid.” Sam spoke, curling in on himself.
“I’ll believe you when you go into the sun or get in contact with silver, demon.” Charlie smiled.
“Did Dean or Cas end up saying anything to you?” Gabriel asked. Sam couldn’t bring himself to be mad at him. “Not much,” Sam started, wicing as the voices clawed against his eardrums. “Mostly the good old mother hen attitude on both ends. They left me alone to sleep it off mostly.” Gabriel seemed satisfied with that, as he looked at Sam through the screen for a second before immediately launching into a tirade with Charlie about the newest gossip they had uncovered, apparently Charlie was convinced the English and Science teacher had something going on.
The bell unexpectedly cut them off, the loud ring causing Sam to tighten the iron-grip he had on his desk and to Sam’s annoyance, it cracked. Seriously? He thought. If this is like, superpowers or something I do not want to go around breaking all my belongings.
He hadn’t told either of them about the whole ceiling-sticking shenanigans, or the weird orange juice bit that happened, but he needed answers. Saying a quick goodbye to Charlie and Gabe, he looked at his fingers oddly. Why did he stick to the ceiling? How the hell did he break all that stuff? Since Cas had gone to get groceries (and hopefully more orange juice,) now was a better time than ever to find out. First, he peeled off his shirt to note any physical differences and was shocked to see he was beefy. Which Sam knew should not be possible as people don’t just gain that much muscle in a day. Sam was always a lanky skinny kid, yet he had gained a good amount of muscle that was definitely not natural.
Pulling out an old journal he had bought but never used, he noted everything down. He noticed he had a tiny hole where the inner wrist meets the hand, and the pads of his fingers seemed to have deeper grooves, looking closer, they almost looked like tiny holes. Thank god he didn’t have trypophobia. He shivered, that sounded gross. Actual holes in his body that were not there before that damn spider- nightmare fuel.
Tentatively, he stuck his fingertips toward the ceiling, and it stuck. He dangled for a minute before willing himself to come back down, practising it a few times. That is not something a human should be able to do. Then again, neither were exploding glass cups like it was nothing. His fingers didn’t seem to stick to one another, which he was grateful for.
He put his shirt back on and climbed up to the roof of their house, crawling out of the window in his room, not before putting sunglasses on. He hoped no one saw him otherwise- yeah that’s weird. Thankfully he did not burn to death in the sun, so that's the vampire theory gone.
Crawling back in, he could hear Miracle begin to whine downstairs, Sam stepped down to greet her, Miracle wagging as she looked at him, then back to the door. He felt a small smile appear on his lips as Miracle dashed out the door, grabbing her ball and running back over to Sam.
He sat on the grass, playing fetch with the dog before receiving the slobbery ball and throwing it straight into a pretty tall tree. The ball was caught between two branches, a decent way up the tree he couldn’t climb up to get. Without really thinking about it, he pointed his hand and made a motion similar to those 'rock on’ poses Dean did sometimes, and a long white stringy thing, almost like a web, rocketed out the hole in his wrist. That was gross and most definitely unnatural. He was snapped out of his stunned trance due to a bark from Miracle, who was smiling and wagging her tail in front of Sam. There was no way he had done that.
Yanking the ball back to himself, Sam peered with wide eyes at the web-like fluid that came out of his wrists. This was starting to sound like the book he was assigned in English class, where the guy turned into a cockroach. He really hoped he wasn't turning into a spider or something.
Miracle barked again, nudging at the ball in Sam’s hands, he chuckled before throwing it again a few times, worries and noises not bothering him and he fell into a tranquil state until Cas came home in a rather stormy mood. When Sam asked what was up, all he said was “I ran into Metatron at the store. He can pull up a high chair and eat a four-course meal of my ass.’ Before sassily whisking away in his trench coat, and boy, if that didn’t sum up how he felt about everyone including Metatron who worked at Gabriel’s dad’s company.
That night, Sam was plagued by some super weird nightmares about the lab he found, but he couldn’t quite get a tangible memory of it. It was like reaching into a void and sifting around yet finding nothing when you know it’s there.
Sam would deal with all of this tomorrow.