It started with an interview. Spider-man did not often give them in fact… actually, yeah, this was his first one ever.
It was brief; he'd just been passing through, on his way back from another patrol, and wandered into the path of a film crew. A woman in a sharp dress and a well-fitting sweater on top had climbed over a pile of rubble to get to him and asked, "You're Spider-man, right?"
Feeling a muscle twitch in his jaw, Spider-man nodded.
"Can we interview you for a minute?" she asked, already gesturing for another woman carrying a large camera over her shoulder. She was filming the still-steaming remains of what had once been a very loud, very annoying monster that had tried to stop Spider-man from getting to the flash sale at a store on the edge of City Z in time.
"Uh, it's not really my thing," Spider-man said, awkwardly, scratching his cheek.
"Our viewers would love to hear from you," the newscaster said, smiling encouragingly. Spider-man really doubted that, but he shrugged.
"Okay."
"Great! We're live in three, two…"
The camerawoman held up a hand and the other, brown-haired and pretty, sidled next to him and addressed the camera which now blinked red.
"This is Jennifer Hudson reporting live from City Z. With me at this scene of total devastation is Spider-man, Class-A hero."
Spider-man looked blankly back and forth from the camera to Jennifer.
"Early reports say that this monster was eliminated in an instant by Class-S hero King," she gushed. "Tell us, Spider-man, do you think that's possible? This was a Demon-level threat."
Spider-man thought, folding his arms. On the one hand, Spider-man had to use a bit of his Cosmic powers to beat the thing.
On the other hand, his friend King only got to stay alive because of how everyone was so damn afraid of him, and this was a good chance for Spider-man to hype him up a bit.
And… even if Spider-man did say that no, it wasn't King, and he'd defeated the monster, would anyone believe him? Would they accuse him of taking credit for other folks' kills, like he supposedly always did?
Ms. Hudson was awkward from Spider-man's long pause and was about to stop offering the mic to him when Spider-man said, looking into the camera, "I'd believe it. King is stronger than anyone I know. A puny monster like that? Pssh - King could take care of it like that." He smacked one fist into his open palm.
Encouraged, she asked, "Oh? You've witnessed King's strength firsthand?"
One time King had smashed a bug on his kotatsu with the case of one of his old games, all without looking away from the TV and still managing to kick Spider-man's ass in his new fighting game. That was pretty cool.
"Yeah. Of course. He's my friend. Just last week he-" Spider-man thought, "-He snuck into an underground fortress and defeated a threat level Dragon monster all by himself."
"Ah, so you can attest to King's strength?"
Spider-man nodded. King was able to keep a poker face around the other S Classes which was impressive and some of them had massive egos and he was able to face them head on during the hot springs. Spider-man actually spoke to him and only him about King and he actually supported King and Spider-man to keep it a secret between them.
"Do you have a message for King, if he's watching?"
Spider-man shrugged. He looked into the camera, imagining King's scarred friend's face in front of him.
"Well," he began, "Keep it up, King. You don't need to prove your strength to anyone but yourself, all the same, we like to watch you succeed. Let's do dinner again soon with Blizzard! Oh and be sure to take it easy on the alcohol."
The camera turned, leaving him out of the shot. "You heard it folks," the newscaster said, "King, the strongest human alive, made his mark again on Z City! Soon a dispatch will come from the Hero Association to take care of the corpse, and…"
Spider-man figured that he was not needed anymore so he swung away. He jumped neatly over the small mountain of rubble, checking to make sure that there were no civilian casualties just to be sure, and then continued home.
~~~
Spider-man pulled up the Hero Association page. Online… hey, is that Fubuki! The name was just The Blizzard Group, and when he pulled it up, there was Fubuk still beautiful as ever, lounging on a couch, two black-suited B Class heroes lounging on the armrest and against the back of it, and answering civilians' questions. They looked like the cover of some movie film, and it made Spider-man grin into his fist.
"My favorite food is spinach mainly cause it's healthy." she said, rolling her eyes, "Don't tell me that's the best you have for me today, everyone."
Liar. Just like him, her favorite food was actually grilled cheese, Spider-man knew.
He smiled, watching her perform, her every action and answer dramatized. This was Blizzard, the hero, and not Fubuki, his girlfriend? Best-Friend? Yeah, best-friend is the way to go for at the moment since they decided not to reveal their relationship to the public just yet. Best-friend also felt nice to say that, along with Saitama, Genos, Tatsumaki, King and Mumen too.
King did not have an account, he noticed, scrolling the list of heroes who did. You could sort by class. In Class-S, Puri Puri Prisoner, Flashy Flash, Zombieman, Metal Bat, Tornado, and Atomic Samurai had accounts. In the little summary listed under each one you could see how many previous streams each hero had given - Metal Bat had the most, at 33. Zombieman had only one. Demon Cyborg, none, he figured that Genos wouldn't really be interested in that in the slightest.
In Class-C, Mumen. He'd done 12 so far. He'd never mentioned it to Spider-man. He wondered what kind of stuff Mumen did.
For the next half hour Spider-man browsed the active heroes' channels, seeing some of them working out, like Amai Mask, just talking, one or two crying, confessing their struggles with fighting monsters with a sympathetic public, and even more mundane things, like walking through a park.
~~~
Zero viewers.
Well… he hadn't really thought about what he was going to actually do once he got this far, so that was probably for the best.
Spider-man was looking at himself through the phone's front camera.
"Hey," he told nobody at all. "It's me. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-man."
Three viewers.
"Hey what's up" he said easily. "Welcome to my first stream."
There was only one comment: xXJayne7Xx: omg its Spider-man
"I know I can't believe it either."
Spider-man scratched his cheek, looking around his apartment. Seven viewers. "I'm not really sure what to do at the moment. I just thought it'd be fun to say hi and give this live stream a shot. What's everyone up to?"
He propped his chin onto his hand, watching the chat.
FlashyFlashFan: I can't believe he got an account hahaha. Is this for real?
PuriNoir: Hey Spider-man. Not much.
A real comment, engaging him! Spider-man ignored the other comment, watching some loser hero fail at streaming, and mentioned the commenter by name. "It's a good day to do nothing for the rest of the morning," he confirmed. "It's still kinda nice outside, and the sun is warm. Good for naps, especially if you're inside and in a patch of sun."
Eleven viewers.
"Anyway," Spider-man said, shrugging. "I don't really have anything to say. I just wanted to see how this whole thing works. Oh yeah that's right, did anyone catch me on TV the other day? I got interviewed and I hardly ever get interviewed."
He grinned underneath the mask as Spider-man shrugged. "You can be annoyed at me all you want, but there's no denying King is pretty cool. Maybe I'll take you guys to meet him sometime. I saw he doesn't have a channel."
0038105: Are you REALLY friends with King?
"Am I really friends with King? Yeah man. Why would I lie about something like that? To be cool? That's beneath me."
He didn't bother to read the comments - they were all probably agreeing with his alleged patheticness. Man, the people in this world really sucked.
"Anyways," Spider-man muttered, placing his phone on the table and leaning over it, giving the viewers a good view of his chin, "I guess I'm going to go now. Thanks for spending time with me."
He waved goodbye even though he got a couple comments saying wait don't leave and ended the stream. He got his stats afterwards: A total of 20 unique viewers.
20 people watching him, whether they were in line at a grocery store or at home taking a massive shit. That was pretty cool!
~~~
It had only been like, eight hours since his last stream coming back from patrol, Spider-man went live, holding his HA phone out in front of him, he was back in his hero suit, and people would probably think he'd stayed in them all day. Whatever. Besides, clothes make the man.
"Hey everyone," Spider-man said with a wave when it had started recording.
The sun had set, and his apartment was too dark to see his face clearly except for his red masked eyes. "Let me turn on some lights," he said, bringing his viewers with him as he moved to the wall and hit a switch. The living room overhead light flicked on. "Okay," he said, settling back down at the table. "How is everyone doing - holy moly, 84 viewers?"
Eighty four viewers.
There were more comments too. Spider-man stared and watched for a couple seconds as they scrolled by. Seemed like after his first stream word had gotten out that he'd done one, and people had been surprised? That they'd missed it? People actually wanted to watch him?
Grolphie: Now that I'm actually in this stream can i tell you how much I fucking hate you Spider-man?!
Spider-man held his finger over the username, the camera close to his face now and off-focus. A little row of options came up. Message Directly. Change Permissions. Block.
Block.
The annoying little punk disappeared and Spider-man continued with his stream, victory bubbling in his gut. He didn't particularly care if people hated him, but that language wasn't good in case there were any kids in the stream.
Yeah, okay. Maybe he did care, a little. If he had the option of listening to some fuckhead trash talk him and not listening to some fuckhead trash talk him, he was gonna choose to not.
As he watched his viewer count increased. He was close to a hundred now. When it did go into the triple digits? Spider-man said, "Wow, my first not so famous stream? Anyway, welcome, lovely people. It's your friendly neighborhood you-know-who."
He waved, weakly, at the screen, his fingers moving in a fast blur too close to the camera.
"Well," he said, "I guess I'll give you guys a tour of my small apartment."
It wasn't much. He spun in a slow circle, showing them the living room. "The other futons are for my friends in case they want to hang out and sleep over," he pointed out as the two folded things came into frame. He showed them a few of his manga gifted by Saitama, turns out some of them were pretty good to read.
"Do you guys like manga?"
BKH92: oh man he's an otaku, so pathetic
WeHot441: yeah I like manga. What's your favorite novel, Spider-man?
Someone actually talking with him! Smiling, Spider-man pulled the phone closer and told them his two favorite series that he currently liked. He liked Demon Slayer, and Dragon ball Z. Both the manga and show animations.
He continued the tour. "The kitchen is kinda small, but it works. My friends do most of the cooking. I'm still learning how to make more incredible dishes but I can only do the basic ones like omelets, grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, pancakes. What do you guys like to eat?"
He watched the comments roll in, occasionally saying something himself. Close to two-hundred viewers now. "Favorite side orders to have at a restaurant? French fries is probably the only side order I will always enjoy until the day I grow old. I'll probably have that as a last meal."
He quickly ran out of places to show them, and he hesitated going out onto the balcony. "I don't want stalkers, too risky." he said, "So I'm not gonna go out on the balcony. Sorry guys."
A bunch of people wanted to know who his other friends were, some just curious, and some wanting to know which unlucky depressing soul had to hangout with a guy like Spider-man.
"Just a group of good friends," Spider-man said, "Doesn't matter."
He sat at the table again, reading comments. Some people seemed to be arguing in the comments.
That roiled up half the people in the chat and made a few people grateful. The insults between them flew back and forth. Spider-man silently chuckles.
~~~
When he was washed up he wandered back out, seeing Fubuki sitting at his table, her hands around a warm mug of tea. "Put a shirt on at least." she said.
The mask-less Spider-man snorts in amusement, "Don't like what you see?"
Fubuki rolls her eyes, "Yes the sight of your well toned body and scars is making me tremble in fear."
"I thought I was supposed to be the sarcastic one. That means you really love and understand me." Spider-man replied childishly wiping a fake tear from his left eye.
"I'm already regretting coming here."
Spider-man laughs at that as he puts his upper suit and mask back on. Fully dressed and ready to stream.
Once they were both sitting and had some warm tea in their stomachs she let him know why she'd stopped by. "I saw your second livestream yesterday."
"Oh? Really?."
"Yup. Also, what made you want to do it?"
Damn, Fubuki got right to the point. He studied her, deciding whether to make something up or just tell the truth. "Truthfully," she said.
Fuck, this was embarrassing.
"I know that most people don't like me. And I know it's mostly my fault. I made up the lie that I'm taking other heroes' credit in the first place. Still, uh…" he rubbed the back of his neck, "I was thinking that maybe if I got to show me being me at least a couple people might realize I'm not all that bad."
Slowly, Fubuki smiled. "Okay," she said, "I'll help you."
As it turned out a whole lot of things went into streaming that Spider-man hadn't thought about. First on the list was lighting.
"Natural light will be best for your purposes," she said, opening the blinds to the balcony. It was sunny today. "We have a whole studio for the Blizzard Group's streams."
"You mean a whole bunch of lights in one of your cronies' apartments."
Fubuki scowled at him over her shoulder.
There was the background. "You want something that looks nice. No dirty dishes behind you."
Spider-man sat in front of his manga case. "So they know I have other things to do when there's no crime activities."
The look Fubuki gave him could have chilled forest fires. Truly, a Blizzard. "...None of those manga's are inappropriate, are they?"
"No, most of them are from Saitama. Just action packed manga. No gore or violence." Spider-man explained.
Next step was angles.
Fubuki put his phone into the face cam, and held it in her lap. "This is an unflattering angle." She poked the underside of his chin. "No one needs to see this."
She lifted it up with her esper powers, slightly above their heads and away from them to get a better view as if the people were watching from a wide-screen.
"See? Our faces seem slimmer, same with our necks. It just looks nicer."
"Oh."
She told him about posting schedules, and the different things the Blizzard Group did with their followers.
Fubuki looked exasperated but also fond. "Just don't do anything to make the HA mad at you or they'll terminate your account." She smiled at him. In a group she was a little more standoffish and somewhat professional but together with just him she opened up a bit more. "Ready?"
"Wait what?" he asked, but Fubuki was already pressing the GO LIVE button. Spider-man at the last second decided to hang upside down with a webline. Truly, a Spider.
She held it up at her preferred angle, smiling at the screen Spider-man did as well, copying her even though no one could see it with the mask in the way.
"Hello, everyone," she greeted.
The angle provided a rockin' view down the front of her dress. She clearly knew it.
"Hey guys what's going on," Spider-man said.
The sun made them seem youthful.
PxDxT: omg it's Blizzard. HI BLIZZARD I LOVE U
monnsterr: Blizzard and Spider-man whaaa
"We're going to wait until we get a few more viewers before we get started."
Fubuki seemed content to adjust her hair and do whatever, so Spider-man leant a bit closer to read the comments scrolling past. Mostly people were wondering what the heck Blizzard was doing with him.
When the 'currently watching' count got close to a thousand Fubuki addressed their audience, "Again - hello, this is Blizzard."
Spider-man said while giving a thumbs-up, "And this is Spider-man. Wanted to try this upside down in case you're wondering."
She continued easily enough. "I thought we'd do a little Q&A. I imagine the first question you're all going to ask is 'what are you two doing hanging out together?' Well -"
"We're helping one another," Spider-man interrupted, gaping at a couple of the questions scrolling by.
"In a way" Fubuki replied, breaking character and leaning in close to see it as well. "This guy is the one of the reasons why I'm helping others more often. Plus, we are currently dating, we've actually known each other before we've recently started. I thought he didn't have a chance in hell at first."
"Hey," Spider-man said, hurt, "No need to go that far. I'm a pretty good catch!"
"For who exactly, no one knows what you like. Except me of course." Fubuki countered with a smirk and a wink.
Fubuki said, more pleasantly, "Anyway yeah.. We're dating, we've known each other for what's it been nearly a year now? We figured that we would make an announcement sooner or later but may as well get it over with by doing this on Livestream. We're pretty much starting off on a good path."
Comments were coming in like crazy saying 'What?! Seriously!!! Wow lucky!!"
"Yeah, yeah," she said, "Hanging out with Spider-man, I know. Spider-man here-" she gestured at him, "-is actually not half bad most of the time."
"Most of the time?"
"Shut up, I'm trying to say nice things about you. I will break up with you right now if I have to. I want a real man."
"Wooow. Knife through the heart, Hellish Snowflake."
"What'd you call me Spider-punk!"
Judging by the comments, their little back-and-forth banter was a hit. Spider-man saw some laughing emojis scroll by.
"So ask us questions," Fubuki finished, winking at the camera.
Spider-man relaxed a bit, waiting, as Fubuki watched for a good question to answer. Spider-man thought he saw one or two about how he was the scum of the Hero Association, but Fubuki didn't pay attention to those, thankfully. Goodness knew what else she was seeing in there.
"How old are we?"
"Twenty-one," Spider-man offered. "FYI, don't you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?"
"Twenty-three," Fubuki said, "This manchild is lucky I even hang out with him."
"Oh, pssh." Spider-man didn't even have it in him to argue with that one.
Next question. She read, "Who's stronger out of the two of us?"
They looked at each other. "Spider-man," Fubuki said after a moment. "I understand not all of you will believe me, but it's the truth."
Spider-man stayed quiet for a moment, "And you're still getting stronger as the days go by."
Fubuki chuckles, and she reads the next question, "Who are our favorite heroes?"
Fubuki and Spider-man in sync pointed at each other without looking. Realizing what they just did they busted out in laughter, Fubuki was covering her mouth in her hand still laughing while the Web-slinger next to her was on the ground clutching his sides rolling on the ground even the audience was absolutely having a blast with this.
The two heroes finally calm down as they went back to normal, going back to the same positions as before.
"One Punch Man the new Class-S rank 1 hero," Spider-man said immediately, leaning in more. "All of you have heard of him, right? Isn't he cool?"
Tuunik: way cooler than you
Mika12: I don't know, I've seen him a few times. He seems kind of plain and simple, very neutral in a way. But nobody's perfect.
DemonCyBoy: ONE PUNCH MAN I LOVE HIM
Spider-man said, "What about you, Blizzard?"
"Mumen Rider," she said suddenly, sounding like she'd picked a random name on the spot. "He's a lot like you. Protects the neighborhood in a bunch of cities. Helps the little people. Has a big heart."
"Don't forget handsome," Spider-man said, elbowing her, waggling his eyebrows or red eyes. Clearly messing with her.
Fubuki rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guess he's decently handsome but you're still a sweetheart as always."
"Any of you guys fans of Stinger or Lightning Max?" Spider-man asked, grinning underneath the mask.
They answered questions for a little while, bickering on and off, entertaining their audience. Occasionally they'd get a comment about how Spider-man didn't seem all that bad after all.
Fubuki even made up a whole story about how they met wanting to not tell the audience of how she was trying to rookie crush Spider-man but to her it was probably the best thing that ever happened to her, intertwining her hand with his, and smiling widely.
"What type of songs describe you?" Spider-man read, "That's a tricky one honestly. Did you mean like songs that personally describe us or just as heroes?"
"I think it might be a bit of both." Fubuki guessed, "I don't have a personal favorite, I'm more into jazz, and classical music in general. But if I find one I'll let you guys know. How about you, Web-head?"
"When I was in middle school I was such a classical music fan by that time. It can be in any form from choir, instrumental, or dramatic. My favorite composers are Mozart, Beethoven, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Bear McCreary, Adrian Von Zeigler, the list can go on but there's three songs that I personally like that describe me as both a hero and a person. You should write this down, the first is Hero by Nickleback."
"Second, Be Somebody by Thousand Foot Krutch."
"Third is Born For This by Divide Music."
Eventually after a good 5 minutes both were able to say their goodbyes until one last comment came in that brought Fubuki's attention, 'Prove that you are dating or really like each other.'
Fubuki raised an eyebrow before she smirks at the screen, "This answer your question?"
"Huh?" Spider-man upside down felt his mask being pulled down moving pass his mouth, cheeks bring cupped by delicate hands as Fubuki's lisp made contact with his. Going on for a good 10 seconds. Fubuki broke the kiss as she looked back at the livestream to see shocked emojis just skyrocketing like crazy. It felt like the phone was going to explode, waving gracefully at the phone Fubuki ends the stream with her esp.
"Man," he said simply. "That was fun. And what a way to end it."
"Yeah, it was. I hope people check you out." She got up to make more tea. "You still suck at this, but you're not nearly as bad as they all make you out to be. Give it more time and it should be all good."
The answer took a minute to come. "I think it'll get better overtime. You know I still save lives regardless if people like me or hate me. Come to think of it, people are starting to get used to you being around and not fearing you after what happened months ago."
Fubuki nodded in understanding his words, "Yup, thank goodness it's all behind me and soon enough, half the people will start to like you for who you are."