Chapter Song Rec: Popular by the Weekend ft. Playboi Carti and Madonna
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"What the hell do I wear??"
You muttered under your breath as you rummaged through your closet, pawing at the tens of hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans that fell out. What did people wear to go rob a hospital??
You'd need something that would cover your skin and probably your hair too. Maybe a hoodie and jeans? But you needed to look intimidating, not homeless. The Prowler wore cargos, Nikes and a cropped jacket...if you showed up in a hoodie and jeans he'd probably laugh at you.
No, actually he wouldn't. You were just working yourself up over nothing. But knowing that didn't make you any less frustrated as you simply pulled on a dark purple hoodie and some black jeans. You wore a black leather jacket over the hoodie and pulled the hood on to conceal your hair.
Earlier, after you'd come back home from your date at the mall with Maria, Ravi and Miles, you'd fixed up some temporary armor, made out of scrap metal that would protect only your shoulders and upper arms. Either way, it was better than nothing. You pulled that on too and once you were done, you looked fairly good.
With the mask you'd made on, you actually did look like a vigilante of some sort. Definitely not as cool as the Prowler, but with some design changes you might get pretty close eventually.
It was only a few minutes til 9pm, and you were waiting impatiently, pacing through the room with your sword in hand. You'd double and triple-checked the lock on your door to make sure no one would come in while you were gone and find you missing.
Although, it wasn't like your parents would bother to check anyways.
Ever since what happened to your brother...they didn't care. In fact, you didn't think you'd even spoken to either of them in a couple days. They came home from work late and you were already either asleep or hard at work by then. You made and ate dinner by yourself, and left for school in the morning by yourself.
Your family...was broken. It wasn't your fault, and it wasn't theirs.
No, it was Osborne's fault. For employing your brother, for employing him in this stupid V.E.N.O.M. project he'd been talking about and for not giving him the protection he needed when whatever that symbiote was, attacked. And it was his fault for lying, lying to the media, lying to your family, lying to you.
You'd get your revenge eventually. You had to. That's why you wanted to become the Prowler's partner in the first place, so you could get some experience under your belt and eventually break into Oscorp's facility on your own and find out what had really happened behind the scenes.
And kill that symbiote thing while you were at it.
While you waited for the Prowler to show up you pulled up the experiment video files on your computer. You'd been watching them the past week and were more than 70 videos in, but nothing real had happened so far. The symbiote wouldn't react with anything or anyone, just moving slightly whenever something came close to it.
How did this tiny little blob turn into the monster that killed your brother?
Your brother and the other scientists in the videos seemed to be getting tired of the experiments too, their voices and expressions turning more and more bored with every file. That was...until Day 76. That was the day you pulled up on your computer today, leaning back and expecting nothing more than a two minute video where the symbiote did absolutely nothing, just like all the rest.
"Today, we'll be testing the organism's reaction to sound frequency 4KHz." Your brother's face popped up, looking fairly tired as he adjusted the camera before standing to the side. Another scientist placed the vial with the symbiote in it on the desk in front of the camera.
Suddenly, a loud, shrill noise was emitted and you flinched, the shriek catching you off-guard. You watched intently as the symbiote reacted aggressively, knocking against the glass of the vial and breaking apart into uneven pieces, like it was ripping itself apart before coming back together as one.
The moment the noise stopped, the symbiote calmed down, going back to its unmoving position from before. The other scientists looked shocked as well as your brother moved towards the camera again. "Uhh, reaction to frequency 4KHz seems to be aggressive, of some sort. Could be lethal to the organism's well-being, but we'll have to check-"
You heard a tap on your window. You shut your computer, barely halfway through the video, and glanced back towards the opening.
The Prowler was closing the window behind him, having pulled himself through in the few moments it had taken for him to grab your attention. He looked you up and down, seeming slightly confused. "You look...uh, what are you wearing?"
"My disguise?" You looked down at your outfit, feeling a bit embarrassed now. "Why? Is it bad? Should I change it?"
"No, no-" he said quickly, tilting his head to the side slightly. "You look...good. Pretty good. I just wasn't expecting you to have a whole costume planned out-"
"It's not a costume! It's a suit." you retorted, folding your arms over your chest. "Come on, if you get to wear a suit, I should too! How else are people gonna be able to recognize me?" You teased, approaching him.
"I have to wear this. It has all my gear attached and a bunch of modifications and armor and-" he stopped himself, noticing your mocking grin. "Yeah fine, it's a suit." He grumbled before gesturing towards your mask. "Put it on and let's go."
You put it on and head to the window before hesitating for a moment. He stared at you, waiting for you to move. "What are you waiting for?"
"Uh..." you looked back at him. "Am I supposed to jump out, or...?"
He snickered, approaching you with his hands on his hips. "What's wrong? Didn't think it through?" You shook your head no in response, feeling extremely embarrassed at this point.
He laughed before casually putting his arm around your waist, pulling you a little closer. "Just hold on, okay?" Before you could even respond, he'd already pulled you out and was posing himself to jump.
You buried your face in his chest as your arms wrapped around his neck and you could have sworn that for a moment, you heard his heart stop. But you didn't get a chance to ask him before the two of you were already swinging out into the distance, with him shooting out his grappling hook in the same way he had done when he'd taken you home from Osborne's facility and when he'd taken you home the first night you'd met him.
He swung smoothly, making the whole experience somewhat soothing. As soothing as it could be with the sights and sounds of Brooklyn flooding your senses. Sirens mixed with the sight of the flashy billboards and ads swirled before your eyes as he accelerated, practically flying through the air.
He was a pro at this sort of thing. You tensed up a little as you closed your eyes. Having to be carried by him was extremely embarrassing and you could tell he was enjoying it with the way he kept loosening his grip slightly, just to force you to hold on tighter.
"What's wrong? Scared I'll drop you?" He teased. You let out a yelp as he let go of your waist for a split second before grabbing you again, a laugh escaping his lips. "Can you just-!"
"Can I what?"
You groaned, refusing to finish your sentence as you buried your face in his neck. Your face was hot with humiliation and you stayed silent the rest of the trip, ignoring his partially-hidden giggles.
Once you arrived at the roof of the hospital, he set you down on the floor gently before he removed his arms from around you. You flinched back slightly as he reached his hand up to adjust your mask, running his gloved fingers over the bare skin of your jaw.
Why did he make you feel so...? So what?
There was no one word for how he made you feel. Even with a mask on he looked at you like you were the only girl in the world. The way he spoke to you, the way he held you...it was infuriating.
No one had ever made you feel like this before.
No one's looks had ever made you feel so special. So seen.
You realized you were staring at him and you immediately turned your head to the side, although he didn't seem to have noticed. He was busy putting his gauntlets on, flexing the claws before glancing up at you. "You ready?"
"Ready for what exactly?" You asked softly.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, a chuckle escaping his lips. "You'll see. Follow me."
And with that, he jumped off the edge. "Wha-?!" You immediately looked over to see him hanging from the balcony of the floor right under you, pulling himself up and picking at the lock of the door.
You tried to follow him, timidly jumping onto the balcony. You nearly fell, but were able to grab onto the handrail, balancing yourself. You looked back over your shoulder at the boy who'd already opened the door, holding it so you could enter.
"Camera on your left."
You dodged to the side, making sure to stay out of the view of the security camera as you entered. You walked along the wall, running your fingers along the cold vinyl.
The hallways were long and dark, the kind that you'd see in a horror movie. The fact that half the doors were open made it even worse. Although, there didn't seem to be any patients in these rooms. In fact, they all looked empty, and there were no sounds of snoring or talking or anything.
All the lights were turned off.
Except one.
One room had the lights on and the door closed. The window was open so you could see into the inside as you walked past.
Nothing.
But then a slight movement caught your eye. You could have sworn you saw the faint outline of a face disappear behind the curtain. You peered a little more closely, but it was gone. Maybe it was a trick of the light?
Suddenly, your eyes widened. "Uh, Prowler?"
"Yeah?" He asked, barely paying attention as he tapped away at a screen on the back of his forearm, pulling up what looked like a map of the hospital.
"Is there a night shift?"
"There's no night shift on the 6th or 9th floor."
"Then why's this light on?"
He looked up, expression seeming slightly confused as he scanned over the room through the window. "Maybe they forgot to turn it off?"
He glanced over at you and sighed when he saw the fearful look in your eyes. "I'm telling you, these floors are always empty at night. But I'll check."
He tapped a button on the side of his mask, switching it to night vision mode. He opened the door to the room and scanned through, taking in every inch of his surroundings.
"See? I told you there was nothing." He said before switching off the light. "Come on."
You followed him, adjusting the hood over your head as your heart rate slowed. He was right. You were just jumpy because it was your first heist. It'd be fine. You trusted him.
"This looks like the room." You said, stopping in front of a locked door, the windows on the side covered by curtains. He nodded, motioning for you to step back slightly. He aimed his gauntlet at the lock and punched it, a quiet clang noise emitted from the broken metal that hit the floor.
He swung the door open and turned on the light.
"Shit."
He groaned under his breath at the sight of the hollow room. "What happened?" You asked curiously, picking up one of the empty med-kits and shaking it.
"Their supply train must be late this month. We'll have to go down a floor and hope there's stuff there." He grumbled. Seeing his reaction, this probably happened to him often.
"Why do you need all this medical supplies anyways?" You asked, looking at yourself in the mirror on the floor.
He hesitated, watching you as you admired your suit. "My client needs it."
"For what exactly?"
"Sh-They work at a smaller hospital. A children's hospital. They need the supplies way more than this bullshit rich people surgery place." He said softly, looking to the side.
You glanced back at him over your shoulder, taking in how tense he'd gotten. This seemed to be a very touchy subject for him. "Okay. Let's go." You walked up to him, hands clasped behind your back. "What's the plan?"
"You stay here. I hop down to the next floor and bash in the lock. I grab the supplies and bring them back up. We go home."
Your face fell. "Seriously?" You asked annoyedly. "I thought you said we were doing this together. I can handle myself!"
"It's not about you handling yourself, it's about me getting caught. I'm not even supposed to be bringing you here!"
"Why? Does the other Prowler have a problem with it?" You asked, folding your arms over your chest. You were referring to the taller, probably older Prowler that still roamed the streets sometimes. He was the original, or at least believed to be, and he'd been a villain for the past twenty years or so. It was only after this new guy showed up that the Prowler started being regarded as more of a vigilante than a villain.
"No! Yes! Maybe!" he exclaimed in a frustrated voice. "Just stay here and let me get the stuff."
You opened your mouth to say something, but then you closed it, realizing there was no point in arguing with him. He was...right, but you'd never admit it. "Fine." You grumbled, leaning back against the wall. "Just be quick. I don't trust this place."
"Yeah yeah, I'll be back before the hospital ghost gets you." He said sarcastically, opening the window lock with a click and pulling himself outside.
"That's not funny!" you watched as he slipped out, leaving you alone in the dark room. You sighed quietly, looking back towards the open door and the seemingly never-ending hallway past it.
It wasn't like you were afraid of the dark...but this darkness seemed different. You couldn't help but feel like someone was watching you, from behind the velvety shadows of black blanketing the corners.
The faint outline behind that curtain...
Suddenly, you saw something. You could barely make out what looked like a vague purple glow, molded in the shape of an oval. It was facing you, and as your eyes adjusted to the darkness, it no longer looked like an oval. More like a bunch of faint glowing violet lines. A mask.
You immediately pulled your sword off your back, extending it just slightly as you held it out in front of you. "Who's there?" You called out, pointing it towards the fig-the figure. It was no longer a small oval, but was now a figure, the figure of a person.
It looked so familiar but you couldn't make out what or who it was. As the figure kept changing, get larger, you realized it was walking towards you. "Stay back!" You said, waving the sword in front of you and taking a step back, your heart bumping and your breathing growing ragged.
And then, it stopped moving. It stared at you, and you could finally see who it was. "Prowler?" You asked softly, lowering your weapon.
It was the Prowler, or at least it looked like him, with his jacket and his gauntlets, but how did he get into the hallway? He'd just left out the window...did he climb in through the other entrance? He wasn't holding anything, no supplies, nothing...
"What are you doing?" You asked, eyes widening as you took in the sight of him. A chill ran up your spine when he didn't respond, and instead just stood there, arms limp at his sides. His hand reached out, and then his finger. He was pointing at you...no not at you. At your sword?
"Are you okay?" you whispered, your grip tightening on the hilt of your blade.
Tap
You jumped and looked behind you, eyes widening as you saw a claw, tapping at the window. "Who are you talking to?" The Prowler's mask appeared behind the glass as the window moved up.
You looked back towards the shadows, but that figure was no longer there. "H-How did you...?" you looked between the Prowler and the shadows, goosebumps littering your arms and the hair on the back of your neck standing up. "You were right there..."
"What?" He sounded confused as he stood up straight, holding a sack of what you believed to be the medical supplies he'd come here for, thrown over his shoulder. "What are you talking about?"
"You were standing right over there!" You placed the sword back into the holster on your back before pointing at where the figure had been before. "You pointed at me."
His eyes narrowed and he laughed. "Must've been a ghost." He stopped when he realized you were being serious, his expression falling. "Wait, you're not joking? There was someone here?"
You nodded and he looked back at where you'd been pointing, switching his gaze back into night vision before looking around. "There's...nothing there." He said quietly, tensing up slightly. "You sure it wasn't a trick of the light? You weren't just seeing things?"
"I'm not lying!"
"I never said you were...I'm just-" He hesitated. "It's late, this is your first time doing something like this, and after what happened at school today-"
"I'm not hallucinating!" You exclaimed, throwing your hands up in the air. Suddenly, you looked back at him, eyes narrowed. "What do you mean what happened at school today? You go to my school?"
He cleared his throat, backing up slightly. "No, no, I was there with you, remember?!" he said quickly. A little too quickly. "Look, I think I need to get you home. Come on." He said awkwardly, walking right past you and gesturing for you to follow.
You stared at his retreating figure for a moment longer before you walked behind him, your arms folded over your chest. As you reached the end of the hallway, he offered you his hand. "Let's go home."
You nodded, an annoyed look on your face. "Okay."
As he pulled you into him and began adjusting his grappler, you noticed one last thing. That one room from before, still had its lights on.
But hadn't he switched them off?
Before you could open your mouth to say something, he'd already shot his grappler out, and you were headed back towards your house, the silent tension between the two of you thick enough to slice with a knife.
When he finally reached your window, instead of simply letting you go back inside yourself, he climbed in with you, an apologetic look on his face. "Hey, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." You said roughly, pulling off your mask and placing it on your desk, your jacket following closely behind as you tossed it onto your bed. He watched, leaning back against the wall, his foot up. "You don't seem fine."
You looked back up, pointing towards him, ready to argue again. "I know what I saw."
He sighed, looking to the side. "I'm not saying you don't"
"But you didn't believe me."
"Because there was nothing there."
"There was something there! That light you turned off, when we left I saw it! It was on." You took a deep breath, kicking your chair. "Don't look at me like that!"
"Like what?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Like I'm crazy or something."
"Well..." he started, trying to lighten the mood. "Nevermind." he added quickly as you glared back at him, putting your hands on top of your head. "Tell me what you saw, then."
"I saw you!" You exclaimed in a frustrated voice. "You were standing there with your mask and your claws and you pointed at me!"
"But how could I have been there? I was on the 8th floor, you were on the 9th. You literally saw me leave."
"I don't know, okay? But I'm telling you, I know what I saw."
"Okay, okay." He put his hands up, trying to calm you down. "I believe you. I'll go back and check, okay?"
You stared at him for a moment and then sighed, putting your hands on your hips. "No, you don't have to do that." you said quietly. "I'm sorry."
He gave you an understanding look, a slight smile forming under the mask. "Look, whoever that was, they didn't do anything, right?"
You shook your head no, glancing back towards him with a guilty expression.
"Exactly. So it's fine. You're fine, I'm fine, we're both fine. It was probably nothing." He said softly, approaching you. He put his hands on your shoulders, shaking gently. "You should get some sleep. I have to go anyways."
"Okay. Fine." You said softly, looking up at him. Your gaze faltered as he made eye contact with you and you looked down. "Can I do something?"
"Mmm?" he asked, leaning his head down towards you slightly so he could hear whatever you wanted to say.
You pulled him into a hug, squeezing your eyes shut as his arms automatically wrapped around you in response. "I'm sorry."
You opened your eyes when you heard his breathing stop, as though he'd frozen. You looked up from his arms to see him staring straight ahead like a statue. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He squeaked out, his gaze towards the wall in front of him, completely unmoving. You smiled slightly, burying your face in his chest once again while he awkwardly moved to pat your back.
"Better?"
You nodded, taking a slight step back and putting your hands back on your hips. "Get out of here." You said with a smile, watching as he walked past you, putting his hand on your shoulder before he climbed back out of the window.
"See you, querida." he glanced back at you quietly, his voice faltering before he leaped out.
Your eyes widened and you immediately scrambled towards the window, watching him. "Wha-what did you call me?" You croaked out, but he couldn't hear you as he'd already swung away.
You stared outside in shock for another moment before you shook your head with a laugh. He was a jerk alright.
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The Next Day
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"I'm bored."
"I know." You glanced over at your friend, who was once again sprawled out on your bed while scrolling on her phone.
"Let's do something! Please!!" Maria asked pleadingly, lolling her head to the side to look at you, who was curled up in your chair playing with a tennis ball.
"Like what?" You asked, glancing back over at her.
Since school was out for the rest of the week because of that fight, Maria had come over to watch a movie with you. The only problem was, the movie ended up being terrible and now the two of you were just playing and scrolling on your phones, as bored as ever.
Her eyes lit up as an idea popped up in her head. "We could...stalk people on Instagram?" she suggested, a slight blush crossing over her face.
You smiled, leaning your head back with a sigh. "Yeah? Who do you have in mind?"
She hesitated for a moment and you stared at her. "You're joking." You said with an amused look on your face.
"Come on, it'll be fun!"
"You are actually insane." You said with a laugh, pushing her over as you crawled onto the bed next to her, lying down and staring at her phone. She pulled up instagram and began typing into the search bar.
"That's his middle name, right?" She asked, glancing over at you as you nodded in response. "Yeah, Gonzalo. I think that's it." You said, pointing at the first one that showed up. The profile picture was Miles, with a hat on and covering his face with his hands.
Maria clicked on his profile, and his page popped up. He had a private account, so Maria pressed follow. After she pressed it, she looked back at you, a terrified look on her face. "Wait, what if he doesn't accept it?" She asked nervously.
"Girl, look at you, of course he's gonna accept it." You laughed, pushing her shoulder. "He doesn't seem like the type to always be online though. It'll probably be a while before he accepts the request."
"Ugh, you're right." She said with a groan, putting her phone down. "What should we do then?"
"Man, I don't know! I thought you were the one with ideas!" You exclaimed, sitting up.
A notification popped up on her phone, and she opened it. "He accepted it!" She squealed, immediately opening his page. "And he followed me!" She looked about ready to fall head over heels for him right there.
You rolled your eyes, a warm feeling rising up your body at seeing your best friend so happy. She got so excited over the most trivial things and you loved her for it.
Suddenly, you got a notification too. You opened your phone to see a follow request from Miles G. Morales. "Huh." You muttered under your breath, opening it up.
"What happened?" Maria asked curiously, looking over your shoulder to see your phone.
"He sent me a request too. He must've seen it on your page." you said with a slightly awkward smile.
Maria's face fell and you quickly noticed it. "You want me to say no?" You asked softly, trying to read her expression.
"No, no, of course not! He's your friend too, it's fine." She said quickly, her smile reappearing on her face. You hesitated for a moment before accepting it and following back. You put your phone down while you watched her scroll through his pictures.
"He has like three posts." She groaned. "Either he doesn't do anything fun, or he just doesn't like posting."
You grinned in response, glancing at the posts she was scrolling through. "No face pics either." you added.
"Should I go through his following...or is that too invasive?" She asked, giving you a sly look.
"Eh, maybe some other time." you suggested, giving her a 'too much' look. She nodded, a slight blush appearing on her face as she put her phone down. "Yeah, you're right, it's too much."
"We could call Ravi over?" You suggested, trying to change the topic. "We could force him to watch a horror movie or something."
"Ooh, or we could make him cook for us."
"That's not a bad idea at all actually." You laughed, picking up your phone so you could call Ravi. As you slid past the opening screen, you noticed another notification pop up. A DM from Miles.
You quickly exited out of the screen before Maria could see, not wanting her to seem left out or anything. He was her crush, not yours.
Besides, you weren't really interested anyways. No...you had someone else in mind. And although it seemed extremely stupid, outlandish and even infuriating, last night's events had helped you realize just where your feelings lay.
Fuck.
You had a crush on the Prowler.
A/N:
I don't really like my writing style in this chapter and I'm sorry if it felt kind of rushed, but school is starting up soon so...yeah lol. Also I'm prob gonna be editing it a little bit before I post the next chapter so it might be a little while before the next one comes out (but don't take my word on that cuz I might get a random burst of motivation 😭) Either way I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! <3