A Perfectly Good Heart | Miguel O'Hara x OC

Chapter 4: Sirena

Miguel was off work for a couple of weeks while his stitches healed. In that time, Jess and Peter held down the fort pretty well. Which didn't surprise him, if he was being honest. He knew they were both very capable spider-people, there was no one better to take the lead while he was incapacitated.

Meanwhile, Ariel used this opportunity to get to know her new teammates better, joining more missions with the kids and getting the hang of being a member of the spider society.

One afternoon, after a particularly irritating day, chasing a Doctor Octopus variant. Ariel came back to the apartment, quite exhausted.

"Que onda Miggy, estás vivo?" She called, sounding quite out of breath.

"I'm in the kitchen," he said back, walking towards the hallway to greet her. "Madres. That bad huh?"

Ariel's hair was a mess and her suit had a tear on her shoulder. She hadn't even bothered pulling up her mask on the way back, it ripped anyway.

Luckily, she wasn't hurt.

"Don't even, I already don't like Otto," she groaned, "but today I got the one who learned how to add guns to his tentacles!"

"Somebody's gotta do it," he replied, going back to the kitchen and taking two bottles of juice out of the fridge. He threw one at Ariel.

"You always say that... it's getting old," she sassed, catching the juice with ease.

"It's not going to stop being true," Miguel reminded, "by the way, I'm going back tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" She asked, worried it was still too soon to go back to doing spider work. "I mean... What did Lyla say?...  About the wound."

"She said it was practically already healed," he explained. "It's time I got back to it anyway, I can't let Peter be in charge forever, something's bound to go wrong if I do."

"You're so mean to him," Ariel snickered, "le ha de gustar la mala vida, cause he adores you."

"I'm not mean," he defended, "I keep it professional, simple as that."

"A little too professional, if you ask me," she murmured, Miguel only rolled his eyes in response.

Almost everyone in the society was either weary or down right afraid of Miguel, especially the younger spiders. Except for Inez, that girl wasn't afraid of anything. Whenever Miguel would call to check on the teen's missions, she would answer in a sassy:

"¿Qué quieres?!" 

He didn't fight her much on it though, after many failed attempts at getting her to respect his authority, he just gave up. It was easier than bickering with a child, plus he had a soft spot for the kid, she reminded him of what he was like at that age.

"Just try to take it easy Mig," Ariel warned, a tone of worry in her voice. "As much as I like the look of a house husband on you, unfortunately the multiverse needs you to be spider-man," she finished teasingly.

"Mira que confianzuda me saliste," he shot back with a smirk. "But I'll be fine, unfortunately for you lot. I'm the only one the multiverse can depend on."

'Were you not the one who put that load on yourself though?' Ariel thought to herself.

If she was able to be honest with Miguel, she would let him know that it wasn't all his responsibility to keep the fabric of the multiverse intact. It was his and the rest of the spider-society's job, they were supposed to be a team. But he's over here killing himself because, in his head, it's all up to him.