#1 STOPWATCH

Chapter 4

Peter woke late that Wednesday morning.

Tuesday, the day after the situation in the office, the paper released the story about Spidey's mournful loss. The article was suspiciously not offensive, despite the fact that it was written by Jameson. That was until Peter turned the page to read a continuation of the article. Filled with a series of "what-ifs" and unsupported accusations that it was a scheme for attention or perhaps the arachnid had possibly killed his soulmate himself. 

Jameson sure had some balls to date and publish that article. Soulmates were a touchy subject for that large population of the world, New York very much included. To no one's surprise, people had swarmed the Daily Bugle's main office building in defense of New York's vigilante. Many were yelling in Spider-Man's defense or just generally protesting the absurdness of the topic. And that was just what was going on in the street, there were no words to describe what was going on with social media. To put things simply, Jameson was single-handedly to blame for the cancel culture that had swarmed his business. Spider-Man on the other hand was a boosted tag on all media. Supposedly, he hadn't personally checked yet. 

Due to the incident, Peter Parker, along with the rest of the Bugle staff, had the day off. And Peter had nothing to worry about. No class or work today. Hell, after yesterday, Spider-Man might as well take a day off too. And that left only his meeting with Deadpool to worry about and that was still hours, ahead of him leaving plenty of time to nap or scroll. When he got to his dingy apartment he decided nap time sounded more appealing.

Peter sighed tiredly when he walked to his bed, plopping down face-first into his pillow. Sunlight soothingly warmed the light skin on his back and arms as it shone into his apartment. The only thing that could have possibly made the moment more calming was the idea of a massage. But Peter would have to live without that until he won the lottery and had change to waste on such luxuries.

He started to drift off into a dreamy, fluid state. The kind where you're awake but tired enough that you might as well have as much reasoning skill as a  drunken sailor. He dreamed about Deadpool. Remembering how strong the man felt, how he could feel those strong muscles hidden under the suit and armor as Peter hugged the man close, all of that while being able to hear a strong heartbeat. The fact that there was a living person attached to the end of the clock he'd been watching all his life.

Could Peter love the man platonic or otherwise? Did he want to love this man? Would Deadpool love him back if he did? What about the moral clash between he and a gun-loving mercenary? 

How would it feel having Deadpool for himself? To be able to have someone, to wake up holding the other close to him. To cuddle up to on the far too frequent cold nights.

So many questions and Peter would only be able to find out the answers in one way...

And he was terrified.

__________

Wade

(Don't blow this up. This could be our only chance. If it doesn't work out, we will push him away.)

"I don't even have any explosives. How am I supposed to blow it up?" Wade countered with attitude.

[Not literally]

"I know that! I'm not that stupid!" Deadpool snapped at Yellow in annoyance. Not even the boxes in his head could tell when he was joking. You'd think when your existence is at the source of his thoughts, arguable a part of his thoughts, that they would have clarity in the realm of his meaning.