Chapter Text
It was a surprisingly quiet midday in New York as Rocky and Grace were sitting in their favorite cafe during Grace’s break from work. They were just catching the other up on how their day went so far and quite frankly Grace’s day was a lot more interesting than Rocky’s. He didn’t really have anything other to do than studying.
Now granted, the last week has been kinda boring in general since Adrian was on a work trip, so hearing Grace go on and on about the samples he was working with and how annoyed he was that some of the scientists treated him like a glorified janitor was definitively their daily highlight.
“By the way” Rocky interrupted Grace's rambling, “how about we do a co-studying session this evening. I have an exam next week and I could really use someone to keep me on track, so I don’t lose focus.” “I mean sure, but you are saying that as if I’m not just as bad” Grace chuckled to himself. It was true that both of them had issues with the way they focused on things. Just that Rocky would get tangled up in 100 tasks at once, while Grace can get so incredibly tunnel visioned on one small thing that he forgets to work on other things… or eating… or sleeping… sometimes for days.
“Alright, so A) I would argue that we are both more efficient when working together. Can’t fall into bad habits when there is someone else to basically monitor you. And B) maybe you can fiiiinally introduce me to the so called angel that moved in next to you” and that got exactly the reaction they were hoping for out of Grace. They really had to hold it together to not burst into laughter as Grace's face turned completely red and he began to stammer. “Woah woah woah, okay slow down. I’ve known the guy for 2 weeks now. I’m honestly not even sure if we can already be considered friends. Heck, I wouldn't even be surprised if he thinks I’m a complete weirdo and he’s just spending time with me out of pity. I mean-”
If it wasn’t for Rocky interrupting him, he could probably create a whole list with reasons why his incredibly handsome neighbor doesn’t actually want anything to do with him, but alas, “Okay loverboy, slow down. If he doesn’t want to actually spend time with you, he sure sucks at it. Why else would you two have lunch or dinner together this often in the first two weeks of knowing each other?” “It wasn’t that often and the fudge do you mean loverboy?…” Rocky just rolled his eyes at that and grinned.
“Yeah suuuure. Ryland, it is Thursday and you have already told me about you two eating together twice this week. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if you guys had lunch more often together than we did last week. I don’t think anyone would agree to that this often if they can’t stand you. Even as a pity thing”
“I mean, yeah probably, but that doesn’t mean-”
“It means that at the very least you two are close acquaintances. Calm down”
“Okay, okay. Could we get back on track though? Who decided that we have to meet up at my place to begin with? Can’t we go to your apartment?” Grace was absolutely stumped and Rocky was really proud of himself because of it. “Nah, I haven’t been at your place in weeks. Someone has to make sure that you don’t live in a pile of dirty dishes and laundry.” Just thinking back on how bad Grace's room looked during finals season in high school sent a shiver down Rocky’s spine.
Gross. Gross. Gross.
“There is no way I can convince you that we meet up at your place instead of mine, is there?” Grace asked with a slight bit of annoyance in his voice. He is not going to win this one. “Nope. And if you even try to show up at my place, I will ask Spiderman personally to drag you to your apartment.” Rocky said it as if it was something he was actually able to do. As if they could just quickly call Spiderman, just to get their best friend dragged back to his apartment.
“Okay fine, you win. Is 6pm okay then?” Grace slumped back in his chair. “Fine by me. Just don’t cancel last minute because you took on some extra work. Got it?”
“When was the last time I did that?”
“Literally just this Monday.”
Grace just stared back at them. Trying to look find an excuse and clearly not succeeding at that.
“Grace?!” Rocky snapped him back to reality. “Okay. I will try my absolute best to be there and not cancel on you last minute.”
Grace quickly checked his wrist watch. It was 12:23pm and he had to be back in roughly 15 minutes. “But I think I have to head back to the lab Rock. My break is almost over. See you at 6 then.” Grace quickly gave Rocky a fist bump and headed to the exit.
“Remember to introduce me to your future boyfriend then, will ya.” Rocky shouted after him with a mischievous grin.
“Shut up!” Grace shouted back and stepped outside.
**🕷 ᵎᵎ ˗ˏˋ ₊ ✰ ₊ ˎˊ˗ ᵎᵎ 🕷**
Okay, maybe Rocky’s boredom took over a little bit too much as he was climbing up the stairs to the third floor where Grace's apartment was. It was ca. 5pm. He quickly walked down the hallway and stopped a door before Grace's. The small nameplate next to the door read “S. Fisher”. Jup, that should be the guy Grace has been head over heels for the past weeks.
Rocky can remember Grace texting them the day he moved in. He got spammed by a bunch of texts mostly reading ‘OH MY GOD’, ‘I'M SO SCREWED’ or just button mashes. After he tried to figure out what was going on Grace texted them ‘I think an angel moved in next door’. Not really what they expected back then, but still a really funny response.
Grace telling them how their first conversation went didn’t make it any less amusing. Apparently he just went over to introduce himself and immediately got starstruck as Simon opened the door. He also did tell them that after that he was merely capable of stammering his name out before dashing back to his apartment. Really smooth and graceful, Grace.
Rocky knocked on the door and a guy that was slightly taller than him opened. He had black hair that reached his shoulders, dark brown eyes and a beard. The guy was pretty muscular and there were also some slightly older looking scars on both his arms. He was undeniably good looking, although Rocky still thought that Grace overreacted (ignoring that he would have probably reacted the same as Grace if Adrian was the one that opened the door).
“Uhm, hello?” the guy, who was presumably Simon, answered looking pretty tensed and confused.
“Hi, I’m Rocky. One of Grace's friends and I’m guessing you are Simon. Sorry to just show up here out of nowhere, but I thought I should probably introduce myself.” That at least cleared some of the confusion on the mans face. “Oh, yeah Grace told me about you. Is there a reason why you are here or…”
Rocky did not think that far. Usually they would have, but curiosity killed the cat and they really just wanted to know who their best friend has been talking about this much lately.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“Yeah, do you know if Grace is home? We wanted to meet up, but you never know with him.” That seemed like a plausible excuse. Although it wasn’t really an excuse. There was the possibility that Grace was at Simon’s apartment or went to the lab due to an emergency, even if he promised to not ditch Rocky for work (ignoring that Rocky is an hour early). Meeting Simon in the process of figuring that out was simply a bonus.
“I heard him come home, but I don’t think I heard him leave. Couldn’t you just figure that out by knocking though?” Simon scrunched his face up in confusion or maybe even frustration at the last sentence.
“Yeah sure, but then I would have to walk over to his apartment first, be potentially disappointed that he isn’t opening the door, then go back to your door so I could ask you and then go back to Grace’s door to let myself in. So I essentially walked in a circle for nothing, instead of asking you first and then just going to Grace’s apartment.”
Simon looked at Rocky even more confused than before, which was weird. It made perfect sense to Rocky.
“So even if he isn’t home, you are just - gonna go inside?” Simon asked very slowly.
“Yes, I have done that before a few times.”
“And Grace is fine with that?”
“If he wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t have a key.”
Simon looked at him for a second and then huffed, trying to hold back a chuckle. The tension he had before was gone alongside the confusion. “I can see why you and Grace a friends. Like I said, no I don’t think I have heard him leave and he isn’t here, so your chances should be pretty good.” Simon said, leaning against the door frame.
“Alright, thank you very much. I will head right over and check if you are correct. See you around” Rocky started to walk over and waved at Simon. He waved back and closed the door.
Rocky liked Simon so far.
Rocky knocked on the door, waited for a few seconds and then just unlocked the door themself. They stepped inside and looked around for a bit. Hoping that maybe Grace was just napping and that’s why he didn’t open the door, but nope. Not a single sign of him anywhere.
Not only was he not home, but he forgot to turn off the light above the kitchen island. The apartment wasn’t as messy as Rocky expected though.
There were some clothes on the couch that looked like they had been thrown there in a hurry. Some dishes in the sink that still needed to be cleaned up and a bunch of papers scattered over the kitchen island.
This was fine.
Rocky has seen worse from Grace.
After some thinking and consideration, he came to the conclusion that Grace probably just wanted to grab some food and forgot to turn the lights off. Probably because he was in a hurry and is gonna be back any minute now. Didn’t really explain why Simon didn’t hear him leave, but no one is perfect and maybe Grace was just really quiet for once.
So Rocky pushed the papers on the counter to the side and sat down to already start going through his notes.
5 minutes passed, then 20. Rocky slowly started to get frustrated that his best friend still wasn’t home. It was 5:34pm when Rocky checked their phone and there wasn’t even a message from Grace as to why he could potentially not be there in time. Rocky was just about to call him as a loud noise came from the bedroom.
He jumped up and grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on. A spatula. Very intimidating.
With their weapon in hand they slowly moved towards the bedroom hearing a voice coming from inside as well as someone rummaging through the room. He took another step closer and all of a sudden the door swung wide open.
“- really need to change and clean this up before-” he stopped mid sentence. It was Grace. A very panicked looking Grace. Staring at Rocky with absolute horror in his eyes.
Why?
Rocky has showed up uninvited before. They had been in Grace’s apartment without Grace being there before. Grace even gave Rocky a key. He should expect that. But also,
how?
Rocky had looked through the whole apartment when he got here. There was no way he missed Grace wearing something like…
Oh.
“You… are Spiderman.” Rocky said really slowly, not quite believing their own eyes.
“NO, this is just-” Grace was barely able to end his sentence. Stammering more than saying anything, before he was finally able to form words again. “- a Halloween costume.” he got notably more quiet at the end of the sentence.
Rocky stared at him in disbelieve.
“A Halloween costume? In May?” There was no way Grace thought they are actually this dumb.
“Okay, fine!” Grace groaned and rubbed his hands over his face clearly frustrated. “Yes, I am Spiderman, but listen I-”
“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME! WHY WOULD YOU NOT TELL ME? We have known each other since we were kids. We literally grew up together and YOU decide not to tell me something this important.”
“Rocky, I-”
“Like I was half joking about you being Spiderman to Adrian, because there was always an emergency at the lab right when Spiderman was needed. But there was no way it could be you, I mean you wouldn’t lie to me I thought. Hell, you get dizzy going on elevators. You don’t go on most rides at theme parks because you throw up afterwards, so how would it even be possible for you to swing around New York like that. Like if it was Colt, sure, BUT YOU? I can barely even get you to watch horror movies with me, because they scare the shit out of you, but throwing yourself into actual danger is fine I guess.”
Grace just stared at them throughout their rant. Rocky wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.
“Does anyone, other than me now, know? Because I swear, if your little crush next door knows I will never speak to you again.”
“No, Simon doesn’t know. No one knows. Rocky we both watched the same superhero movies as kids and most of the time it didn’t end well if the hero told anyone their secret identity.” the last part came out more frustrated than it was supposed to.
“Grace this isn’t a movie. I could help you. I literally have access to the traffic camera system. Imagine if we were like a crime fighting duo.” Grace avoided looking Rocky in the face.
They just stood there like this for a while, before Rocky broke the silence.
“Can you at least tell me how that whole mutation thing happened?”
Grace looked at them for a second, really considering his options.
“Yeah, I can do that. You should probably know now.”
