Work Text:
It was a bright sunny day in New York, birds passing by apartments and people walking all over the streets, minding their own business. It was just another day, as usual, which is why there was a burning zoo, fire catching everywhere and blocking off escape routes.
Animals scattered around, scared of the flames growing and coming close to their enclosures. A bright flame flies over the zoo, gathering the flames and smoke into her body. She sees a billboard sign collapsing over a group of people and rushes over to them. Her body absorbs the flames on the board and catches it in her hands.
Though chunks of the board crumble down, falling towards the civilians. "Watch out!"
Human Torch flies down in an attempt to get them out of the way, but webs pull the falling pieces away, causing her to stop in her tracks. The people holding onto each other open their eyes, confused to see nothing above them. Their eyes wander to the right, seeing a black figure swinging away.
"Uh, everyone okay?" Human Torch asked.
They all nod, and she flies away, going towards the next bundles of fires. Once they were stopped at one area, she created an escape for everyone who was there, ensuring they left safely. A loud scream caught her attention, and she flew towards the sound.
She sees a man jumping up and down, waving his arms to catch her attention from below, "Help! My daughter is trapped!"
The fire was coming close to the child who was inside a small shop that had its entrance blocked off by the burning rubble. Human Torch gets inside from the roof, stopping the fire and removing the large amount of smoke.
She sees the child underneath a table, unconscious. She picks her up, taking her to her father, "She'll be okay, I'll take her to the medical team that's at the front of the zoo."
The man quickly nods, "Go, a-and…Thanks."
Human Torch gives him a small smile before flying away with the kid, handing her off to the EMTs before flying back to the zoo. She gets rid of the remaining fire, helping people leave the zoo in between. Once it looked like everyone was safe and the fires were put out, she checked on the zoo animals, noticing that some had escaped.
There was a group of small baby cubs wandering around and she slowly approached them, "Aw, you little fellas looking for your mom?"
They looked at her, unsure and suspicious, but they did start to take some steps towards her. The blonde couldn't resist the cuteness in front of her, squealing as they got closer.
"Oh my goodness, it's okay, we'll find your mommy." She goes down on her knees and opens her arms out.
A loud roar rumbles behind Stephanie, making her completely freeze, "Ah, shit-"
Webs are shot at the mother bear, stopping her from attacking Stephanie. She turns around to see the bear wrapped in webs, including her mouth, to stop her from biting off the webs. Her eyes wander up, seeing Spider-Girl giving her a troubled look.
Even though Human Torch couldn't see her face underneath the mask, she knew what look she was giving, "Come on, how was I supposed to know the mom was nearby?"
Spider-Girl shakes her head and approaches the mother bear, carefully petting her to calm her down, "Bring her cubs here so that she doesn't think we're here to kill them."
Human Torch grins excitedly, picking up every cub and having her arms full of them. She brings them to the mother bear, gently placing them down to her. The cubs cuddle against their mother, happy to see her again and the mother eases down.
Spider-Girl removes the webs from her, trusting that the bear won't attack. The two girls give them space, letting them wander back to their enclosure. Stephanie raises a brow at Cassandra, "Didn't know you were an animal whisperer." She joked.
Cassandra fights back a smile, "There's more we gotta go check on."
Human Torch nods, "Count me in."
They walked around the zoo, searching for any more animals out of their enclosures. Spider-Girl notices a pair of flamingos walking towards a playground and makes her way to them, Stephanie following behind her happily.
"These guys are the only things that can pull full-on pink like that," Stephanie says as she pets one, seeing the other one make a noise with his beak.
"That's his mate. You should probably back off before he attacks." Cassandra states playfully, but honestly.
Human Torch listens, "Okayyy, relax buddy, I was just saying hi to your girl."
They walk behind the flamingos, guiding them back to their home and the rest of their flock. The pair stays close to each other, walking off to their favorite spot. Watching it unfold made them both smile.
"Do you think they, uh…" she puts her hands together, "You know? If so, how do—"
"I am not explaining that, nor do I know." Cassandra starts to walk away.
A chuckle comes out of Stephanie, "I'm joking, come on, Spidey."
Spider-Girl smirks, "Well, at least make the joke funny."
A dramatic gasp comes out of Stephanie's lips, "It was funny, you just take everything too seriously."
"You know that's not true, and…Maybe don't make a sex joke? That's so high school humor."
"What?! It totally isn't—" Stephanie notices the quiet laughter her friend is making and laughs with her, "I can't believe I just fell for that."
Light and fast footsteps are heard coming towards them and Stephanie looks down to see a baby spider monkey going towards Cassandra. The baby spider monkey wraps her arms around her leg, hiding behind her. Spider-Girl looks down, awkwardly watching the monkey.
"Aww, she trusts you! "
The baby monkey climbs up her leg and onto her back, wrapping its wraps and legs around her. Stephanie's jaw drops at the realization and she smiles widely, "Oh my god, she thinks you're one of her own."
The pointy bat ears on her head are played with by the monkey and Cassandra lets her. "No, she doesn't, she's just..domesticated…"
Stephanie shakes her head unconvincingly and takes out her phone, "Nope, you're a spider monkey too." She snaps a couple of pictures while Spider-Girl stands there, slightly embarrassed.
"W-Whatever, let's get her in her enclosure."
Human Torch follows them, watching them with a smile, "You know, this is nice."
Spider-Girl turns her head to her, "What is?"
"Having problems like these, putting zoo animals back with their little friends and not dealing with anything crazy for once."
She pauses before speaking again, "Yeah…it is."
Once they get near the spider monkey's enclosure, the baby monkey jumps off of Cassandra and runs to it. Before she gets inside, she turns around one last time to look at them.
They do another run around the zoo, making sure all the animals are safe and where they belong. Stephanie brings Cassandra into a side hug by wrapping her arm around her shoulders.
"We did a pretty dang good job here."
Cassandra looks at her, smiling at Stephanie's overconfidence, "Yeah, we saved everyone and…" she looks around the burnt area, "Somewhat kept the zoo intact."
Human Torch giggles, "I came as fast as I could."
They walk out of the zoo, seeing the owners of the place and a group of new reporters. There were also fan girls around too. As soon as they saw them, they hurried over to them, asking multiple questions at once.
"Whoa, easy, everyone. We took care of everything." Human Torch gave a smirk and a wink to the camera.
The interviewer asks some questions to her and Stephanie is about to answer before she notices that Cassandra had left. "Uh, actually, I gotta go, y'all. Sorry, everyone!"
She flies up and flies forward, looking for her friend. Luck was on her side, being that she was faster than Cassandra. Human Torch finds her sitting on top of a tall building's roof, dangling her legs at the edge. She slowly hovers towards her, sitting right next to her.
"What's on your mind?" She asks softly.
Cassandra keeps her eyes forward, "I…I don't like being put on the news. I'm not meant for it."
The blonde raises a brow, "What do you mean?"
"The Daily Bugle…They slander my image. The police don't trust me; I don't need to give them more reason why."
Stephanie places a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, whatever they say about you isn't true. There are people out there who love you and know they can trust you."
"That's true…But everything else just drowns it out and takes over it. You, on the other hand…They all love you."
Stephanie frowns, letting go of Cassandra's shoulder, "Yeah, they love the character I give them, but not the true me."
Cassandra looks at her, sighing with guilt, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I guess…I guess I was just jealous of you being able to show your identity without worrying about it."
Stephanie's eyes widened a little in surprise, "I kinda feel the same way about you, too. There are days when I wish the public didn't know my identity."
"Well…Look at it this way, they don't really know it."
Stephanie lets out a chuckle, "Yeah, that's technically true."
Cassandra smiles, "….I'm glad I'm lucky enough to know your true self."
They lock eyes, and every fiber in Stephanie's body wants to see the face underneath the mask. She resists the urge to pull the mask off and blushes heavily, turning away, "Me too…"
There's a moment of silence, and the two enjoy watching the sun start to set. Being like this with each other, with no words spoken, was comforting and felt normal. No awkwardness or need to start up a conversation because of it. Between them, there was no reason to fake anything.
But, there was a question Stephanie had been dying to ask, "Soooo, did you ever find out who was selling stuff from the museum?"
Cassandra nodded slowly, "Uh, yeah…"
Stephanie snapped her head to her, "That's it, yeah?"
"It was Black Cat." She whispered.
Human Torch almost became a ball of fire after hearing the name, "You mean, like, the one who has long white hair and somehow wears heels all the time?"
Spider-girl just nodded, clearly hiding something. Stephanie wasn't jealous or anything. It's not like Black Cat had a history of flirting with Spider-Girl every chance she had.
"What happened?" She bit her tongue, hearing herself ask quickly.
"We made an agreement. She returned the items and I let her steal from some criminals who did her wrong."
Stephanie hummed, not convinced that it was all that had happened, "That's it? That's all that happened?"
Spider-Girl was avoiding eye contact as if Stephanie could see through her mask, "Yeah…We, um, got together—J-Just for the night."
That wasn't what Stephanie was expecting at all and her heart dropped down to her stomach, "Oh…I didn't think you had that in you." She playfully pushes her shoulder, trying to hide the obvious jealousy she was feeling.
"I regret it already. She's been trying to catch my attention all week by doing her petty crimes." Cassandra complains.
Stephanie chuckles nervously, "Dang, she has it real bad…" The comment almost sounded like she was talking about herself.
"Unfortunately, but she'll get over it eventually."
It seemed like Cassandra didn't really care all that much about the whole situation. This gave Stephanie a glimmer of hope. "Good luck with that."
A wave of sand stormed down a street, making Spider-Girl stand up, "Mind helping me out here?"
Human Torch stood up with her, smirking, "Flame on."