TROUBLE, peter parker

viii. spoons

Spandex-man took the liberty of shooting webs at his arms, legs, and all over, effectively containing him and sticking him to the wall. Once he was for sure stuck, the man in the suit walked up to the man to inspect his handiwork, and Maya went to retrieve her knife.

"Pretty good," Spandex-man said to himself, pretending to wipe his hands against each other. He held up his hand for a high-five. "We make a good team."

She only raised her eyebrows and gave him an incredulous look before pulling out her knife from the wall next to the man.

"Okay," he said awkwardly, dropping his hand.

"Ouch," the ensnared man said. "That was rough."

Maya held her knife at him before realizing he might've liked that.

"This thing is pretty cool, though," the ensnared man said, referring to the webbing he was caught in.

"Yeah, thanks, man," said Spandex-man.

He sounded a bit hesitant, probably because it's not every day someone admires your work of trapping them.

"Yeah, this, uh—this has definitely awakened something in me."

Maya's eyebrows raised, and Spandex-man cleared his throat. They walked away quickly in the direction that Maya was originally walking.

When they were far enough away from the man, Maya turned to ask why the man in the suit was still walking with her, but right when she looked at him, she burst out laughing from remembering what had happened.

The initial shock of that whole situation had blown over, and Spandex-man burst out laughing, too. They were wheezing along, quoting the man through laughs, before Maya remembered she didn't like him and cleared her throat, quieting down. He followed suit, sensing the moment was over.

"I could've handled myself back there," she said, flipping her knife once, twice.

"I—I know," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "but what kind of hero would I be if I didn't look out for the people?"

"One who could prioritize," she said. "So you're some sort of hero, huh?"

He made a noise to start speaking before blowing out a breath. "Well that could get philosophical—I mean, what even makes a hero? There's the entire question of morality—"

"But."

"—but I help people and catch criminals," he said. "So, maybe, yeah."

"Huh."

He looked at her before averting his eyes straight ahead of him again. "I'm not saying I'm some flashy superhero that—you know. I'm just your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man."

"Spider-Man," she repeated.

"That's me."

She turned to look at him, eyebrows furrowed. He looked at her, too, when he realized she was looking at him before clearing his throat and adjusting his mask (that didn't need adjusting) because of her scrutiny.

"Why are we still walking together?"

"I, uh, I figured I would walk you home," he said.

She raised her eyebrows and dropped her gaze down to the floor. "I said I was fine and could handle myself, did I not? There has to be something better for you to be doing right now."

"Right—right, but it's part of my duty to protect people, and ..." he trailed off a bit before regathering his thoughts. "It's—it's probably not super safe for someone to be walking home by themselves at this time."