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“-so now they pushed that exam a week earlier, which isn’t even allowed, just because this guy cant plan properly.” Grace had been complaining about his professors for the past half an hour without a single break. It made Simon wonder if it was possible for the guy next to him to be quiet even for just a moment. Not that he had an issue with it. And if he did, then it was his own fault for inviting Grace over once again. Quite frankly he enjoyed the other one talking.
Even though Simon has only been living in this apartment for a little under a month and a half the two have become friends relatively quickly, despite their weird first interaction. They were once again sitting at Simons kitchen counter, chatting and having lunch, with the tv running as background noise. Grace had brought over some take out left overs. It has already become a habit, something they did 2 or 3 times a week, if their schedules allowed it.
The news came on and Grace looked over excited. “Hold on, could you turn the volume up? I wanna see if they are reporting on the fight Spidey was in this morning” “Big fan, huh?” Simon said while doing what he was asked to. He did notice that Grace had a tendency pay more attention to a conversation whenever Spiderman got mentioned. Didn’t really matter if it was a conversation he was involved in or not, so Simon figured as much. Even if he was rather disinterested in the hero. Saw him swing around once or twice at best. “I mean the guy has saved quite a few life's so I think that’s admirable, no?” Grace responded, sounding a little unsure of what else to say. Simon chuckled at that as he sat back down and and watched with him.
Spiderman was fighting Rhino after he tried and failed to rob a store. The way he fought looked a little pathetic, really. Like someone trying to imitate the fight choreography of a movie. How did this guy manage to keep New York somewhat save for the past 2-3 months? Shouldn't he have picked up some slightly better fighting skills? “If it wasn't for his powers he would have gotten his shit wrecked.” “What do you mean?” Grace looked at him irritated as if Simon had personally insulted him. “Okay, so I’m obviously just judging based on what I just saw and without his powers he would have gotten his shit wrecked either way. It's just the way he throws a punch looks like a toddler flaring his arms around.”
“It’s- it’s not that bad” Grace stammered out, almost mumbling. He ended up making himself smaller on the chair. Simon sighed and looked him up and down and god what a sad image over something this… small. “Alright, you know what, since Spiderman doesn’t know how, I will just show and try to teach you how to throw a proper punch. Clearly you don’t know how to do that either and then I can at least go to sleep knowing that you know how to somewhat protect yourself. Especially considering how fucked this city can be.” God, why was that the first thing he could think of? That was so out of nowhere. It does make sense that he is worried about one of his friends, but there was nothing to be worried about right now. And why did he have to put it so bluntly?
Grace looked at him, thought about it for a second or two and then nodded. “You know what, sure. How could I deny such a generous offer, even though I do know how to protect myself. Actually.” At least Grace didn’t look so upset anymore. “Alright then, stand up and show me your form” and straight to it. Grace stood up, slightly turned his body and put one hand to his chest and stretched the other one out a little, both his hands curled up to a fist. His legs were relatively close together and he was slightly hopping back and forth. It was definitively based on some fighting game Grace had played or maybe a movie. Either way it was bad. “Okay, so first of all don’t curl your thumbs up in your fingers. Makes it a lot more likely that you break your thumb. And trust me even if you don’t actually break something, it can still hurt like shit.” “Sounds like someone is speaking from experience.” Simon exhaled sharply at the remark “Yes, which is why I’m telling you not to do that.” Grace quickly adjusted his hands and Simon moved on to the rest of his form.
How Grace should be standing more straight, how his legs needed to be further apart and for the love of god, he needs to stop hopping. Simon adjusted some of Graces posture himself and he could swear he saw Grace blushing a little bit more every time their skin made contact. Once he felt like he was done, Simon took a step back and yeah that was a lot better. He grabbed a pillow from the sofa and turned back to Grace “Think you can throw a punch?” Grace looked at him with concern. That sure was a great sign. “Listen, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to. I already pushed you more than-” “Nono, I got this. I think.” Grace exclaimed, still with some audible concern. Simon quickly explained how he should move and Grace took his first swing. To Simons surprise it was with a lot more force than he expected. Not bad. Grace certainly looked proud of himself. They repeated that whole process a few times.
“Sooo, seems like I am capable of protecting myself after all, huh.” Simon shook his head and rolled his eyes “Yeah yeah, congratulations. You can now throw a slightly better punch than your favorite superhero if he didn’t have powers. But don’t think you are fully off the hook just yet” Simon teased. He should probably show Grace some other stuff if he gets the opportunity to. They ended up going back to their usual hangout activities for the rest of the afternoon, before Simon had to leave for his shift.
🕷 ᵎᵎ ˗ˏˋ ₊ ✰ ₊ ˎˊ˗ ᵎᵎ 🕷
It was early. At least too early for a villain strike in Graces opinion. He appreciated the fact that Rocky made him a villain alert for his phone, but he would absolutely prefer sleeping in right now. It was Rhino again, trying to rob a store… again. Great. He quickly slipped into his suit and swung right to the area the alarm marked on the map. The fact that this case was so similar to the one a few days ago made Graces mind wander back to Simon giving him a fighting lesson. Or more specifically how he wished Simon had his hands on him again. Really good thing to think about right now. Grace really hoped he didn’t make anything too obvious back then, but he knew that he sucked at hiding it. Which was promptly demonstrated by the voice ringing in his ear. “You know, instead of day dreaming you can focus on getting there quicker.” “Good morning to you too Rocky.” Of course he was already up, loaded with energy and ready to give Grace comms if needed. “Do you have any more info for me or did you just want to make sure I’m awake?” “You know where you have to go, just maybe try to limit the property damage this time. And yeah, you and i both know you’re not a morning person.” Grace just rolled his eyes at that as he got closer to his destination.
Grace landed on a wall, looked over everything for a second before jumping off practically announcing himself “Okay, quick question. Do you just hate lazy mornings or why do you always have to do something when I could be sleeping in instead” Rhino looked over to him, clearly already annoyed. “If you want to sleep so badly, maybe just let me do the job.” he yelled back before charging in his general direction. Grace quickly jumped to the side and was now hanging on a street lamp. Okay, maybe starting this off with some complaining wasn’t the best idea he had. Before he could even think about what to do next Rhino flung a mailbox at him. Grace once again dodged, caught the mailbox with his webs and flung it back at Rhino. “Wrong address. Back to the sender” he could not stop himself from the snarky remark. Another not so good idea.
Now Rhino was charging directly at him, grabbing him and and smashing him into the ground. Grace felt like a rag doll. He is gonna feel that for the next few days probably… great. He somewhat managed to get free by pulling himself away with a web. Now standing close to Rhino. He thought back to what Simon said and tried his best to apply what he learned, just with the added bonus that he didn’t need to hold back as much force as he did with Simon. So he took a swing and it landed pretty good. Grace could feel the difference in the way he curled up his fist made and goddamn was he annoyed how right Simon was. Glad, but annoyed. Rhino tumbled a few steps back before getting back on his feet and getting right back at Grace.
Thank god for his spidey senses. While he couldn't dodge every attack Rhino threw at him, at least it was a large portion of them. Grace ended up throwing a few more punches at him. Both from the ground but also mid air. Trying to at least get the rotation and general movement in his upper body right. It seemed to work. He definitively owed Simon something for it. If someone would be keeping score, Grace would probably be in the lead right now. ‘Not bad’ he thought to himself. Grace went for a kick and Rhino just grabbed him by the leg and flung him against a wall. That certainly did kick the cockiness out of Grace.
Grace could hear a small chuckle from Rocky through his ear piece, who was watching via the traffic cameras. He groaned in annoyance “Alright, who’s side are you on again?” Grace could tell that Rhino was getting more and more exhausted. Good. He picked up the mailbox with his webs again and started swinging it against his opponent. And just like that Rhino decided to ditch. “Oh come on, you cant just leave the dance floor like this” Grace yelled after him, before he quickly started to follow.
Rocky tuned in as fast as possible, giving Grace directions on where to go. Him having access to the NYC traffic camera system and some additional security cameras was really helpful in situations like this. “Where the hell is this guy going? It’s getting harder to track him.” Rocky cursed through the comms. “Can you still keep track on where he is?” “I’m trying to, but it seems like he is outside of my camera range. Goddamn it” Rocky honestly sounded more frustrated in that moment than Grace and they were not the one that just got flung against a wall. “Alright then, no point in trying right now. I will head back to the store to check if anything got stolen and that really no one got injured. Pretty sure neither should be the case but better safe than sorry”
Grace was right. When he got back he confirmed with one of the employees that only one display piece got taken. It was just a cheap replica so nothing of value. No one got injured which he was very glad about. On the other hand, yeah the fight did leave quite a mess. So much about not damaging property huh. Rest in peace to the mailbox he flung around a bunch of times. Good thing it was empty,
Grace finally got back to his apartment, changed into something more comfortable and flopped onto the sofa. God he was exhausted. So much about going over to Simons again today, huh?
🕷 ᵎᵎ ˗ˏˋ ₊ ✰ ₊ ˎˊ˗ ᵎᵎ 🕷
Simon was sitting on his sofa, eating lunch by himself. Grace had made him a little bit more curious about Spiderman after their last lunch together, so he might as well check out whatever that guy got into this time. He turned on the tv and swapped to the news channel, hoping there might be something about the fight this morning.
He sure did improve his punches in a really short amount of time, huh…
