𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮-𝙩𝙬𝙤 — 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨
☕
BETTY GREEDILY DRANK the cup of coffee that Brendon, foolishly, placed in front of her as a free gift since she was staying up late to study for her journalism exam which was occurring in the following days. He felt bad giving her the caffeine which wouldn't allow her to sleep for the next couple of hours, but at the same time if he hadn't she would've gotten up and made herself a cup of her own since she was going to need to stay up anyway. He was just one option.
Bren was cleaning the different appliances as Brendon was supposed to be wiping off the tables before he got sidetracked and made Betty her last cup of the night (she had already had two since the time she had gotten to the coffee shop at nine), which he regretted as he looked at her now but it was too late to grab the cup away from her. If he tried he would be mauled by a self-deprived and coffee driven Betty Brant who was already in a terrible state since losing her internship.
"You are a god, Brendon," Betty praised him as she eagerly chugged the hot beverage, which must have burned her because he had just finished making it, "A god."
"Thanks," Brendon sent a smile to her before getting his rag and spray bottle, continuing to actually do his job rather than waste time, he did actually want to get some sleep tonight, "But the god of what? I mean I can't just be Brendon the Useless or whatever."
Betty scoffed, "The god of coffee and helping your friends, obviously." She rolled her eyes as she explained it to him in a duh tone as if he should have already known this, "But if you're going to be so dumb, I might just have to demote you to a mortal again."
"Whatever," Brendon shook his head, finishing up one table and moving to the next, "Who wants to be a god of coffee and friendship when Thor exists and is obviously so much better."
Betty pushed out her bottom lip, "You're right. Thor is pretty great."
"Pretty great? He's so fucking amazing and now he has this short hair and he looks hot – like absolutely stunning kinda hot. Like, if I wasn't with Peter and I met Thor, I'd so fuck him," Brendon said.
"I think the better question is who wouldn't fuck Thor?" Betty posed.
"You're gay," Brendon reminded her.
She looked at him blankly, "And?"
Brendon looked at her for a second before nodding his head, "Alright, you're right. Anyone would fuck Thor."
"Obviously," Betty rolled her eyes, "I'm always right – don't forget that."
"What the fuck are you guys talking about?" Bren shouted, coming towards them as he finished cleaning the appliances.
"How everyone would fuck Thor is they had a chance," Betty answered, closing her computer and standing up.
Bren shrugged, "That's fair. Thor's pretty hot and I bet he'd be so caring in bed, which is so hard to get, you know?"
"Is Harry caring in bed?" Brendon asked, breaking out to a grin and giggling at his question and how it made Bren blush.
"Shut up," he nudged Brendon fairly harsh, "We haven't exactly had sex yet. Like, I don't know. Obviously he's fit and everything, but I'm still scared that if I give it to him he'll just be done with me and he'll move onto someone else."
"Please, Harry would never," Betty said as if it were obvious, though she still placed a hand on Bren's shoulder to comfort him, "He likes you so fucking much it was kinda annoying seeing you too obviously be head over heels and do nothing about it because neither wanted to make the first move. He's not a guy who only thrills for the chase and then leaves after he's captured your ass or whatever."
"I guess," Bren shrugged, feeling only a little better and not fully believing her, "But I just, I don't know. I can't right now."
Brendon went to assure him, "And that's perfectly fine if you aren't ready. You shouldn't just have sex because Harry wants to when you don't."
"Well, he hasn't really made any advancements either," Bren admitted, "And, like, I think that's a good thing because that means he isn't chasing after me, right? But, like, it's also I feel like he doesn't want to fuck me."
"He's probably just waiting for you to make the first move. Maybe he knows you aren't ready and doesn't wanna push you," Betty offered.
Bren nodded, "Maybe. It's not a big deal, really."
"You should still talk to him about it," Brendon said, "I've heard that communication is important in relationships."
"From who? Your mother?" Betty snorted.
He rolled his eyes, "No, so shut up."
"I probably should, you're right," Bren told Brendon, smiling at him, "I think it'll be good for me to get this off my chest. Thanks guys."
"No problem," Brendon smiled and Betty nodded.
"We're always here to give the best advice because here at Betty Brant and Co. we're always right!" Betty cheered causing the other two to laugh.
"We can't be Betty and Brendon?" he asked her, looking at the shorter girl.
She shook her head, short hair flying wildly as she did, "Nope. You are the co. and nothing else. Take it or leave it, I don't really need you. Really, it should be Betty Brant is always right and sometimes the co. is good too."
Bren laughed as Brendon gave her an offended look. "How dare you, I am very right about things most of the time," he defended him.
"Most of the time? Yeah, that's why I say you sometimes get things right," Betty rolled her eyes, "And you didn't even know that Peter liked you when it was so obvious, who knows what you'll say to customers? Obviously, I can't trust you to be 100% correct all the time, can I?"
"Hey, I didn't wanna act like a fool and proclaim my love for him just so that he would laugh in my face.Of course I discredited every sign that would ever tell me he liked me," Brendon pouted.
Betty sighed, turning to Bren, "See what I have to deal with?"
"I see," Bren laughed. Brendon's pout just deepened as he started to whine, only causing the Cooper boy to laugh even more.
"That's rude. I am a very important part of this business and it should so be called Betty and Brendon or Brant and Winchester – something like that. I am valued and also the other fifty percent of this company so I should be promoted to have my actual name in it," Brendon said.
"Sure, sure," Betty waved him off before breaking her stone face to smile, "I'm only messing with you. Of course you're a valid employee."
"Employee?" Brendon screeched, outraged, "I am the other owner of the company or else I quit."
"Go ahead. Like I said before, it's really like Betty Brant's always right and that's all that matters," Betty smiled sweetly at him.
"Whatever. No more free coffee for you. Start paying like the rest of the customers," Brendon held his head up.
Betty's jaw dropped, and she looked incredulously at him, "You can't do this to me. Bren, tell him he can't do this to me!"
Bren shrugged, "Well, he can decide if he wants to play favorites and give people free coffee and I'm not the manager or anything so I hold no power over him."
"Well, will you give me free coffee?"
"Sorry, Betty, but I only give free coffee to my boyfriend," Bren said apologetically but not too sorry as he tried to muffle a giggle at the dramatization of the scene.
"You're useless to me," she told Bren before turning to Brendon, "And you can forget about this friendship after cutting me off."
"That's fine. I have other friends," Brendon told her and she huffed.
"Whatever, losers, I'm leaving," she grabbed her bag and the cup of coffee that Brendon had given her before their argument, "Bye, bitches."
With that, she got up and left, giving them the middle finger as she walked out the door. They just laughed and shook their head at her. "Well," Bren sighed, "I think I'm gonna head out, too. See you later, Brendon."
"See ya," Brendon waved him goodbye, watching as his name twin left. Then, when he was alone, he continued to clean and began to hum to himself so he wasn't left in the silence.
He heard the door open but he didn't look to see who it was before yelling, "We're closed," at whoever walked in.
"It's just me," a voice said. Brendon looked up and smiled, seeing the hero in spandex walking in.
"Oh, hey, it's you," Brendon smiled, happy to see the superhero but also so incredibly tired and really not wanting to spend another thirty minutes or hour here with him even though he was fucking Spider-Man and it was so cool that the guy was spending time with him at night instead of fighting crime. Like, he was special for once.
"Yeah," the superhero rolled up his mask to his nose before walking over to Brendon and bringing their lips together.
Instantly, Brendon reeled back before slapping the superhero. "What the fuck?" he yelled, "You just kissed me."
"Oh, shit!" Spider-Man exclaimed back at him, yanking his mask off revealing the man behind it.
"What the fuck?" Brendon repeated when he saw his boyfriend – Peter Parker, that fucking nerd – standing there in the suit, "I'm going insane."
"Shit, no," Peter said, "This was not how I planned on telling about this."
"Oh my God," Brendon just continued to mutter to himself, "This isn't happening. You're not – you're not really Spider-Man. This...it isn't happening."
"I had a whole speech planned for a couple months from now and it was going to be so well thought out and great and then I was going to explain how you don't have to worry and why I kept it from you for so long. And – and I was going to show you the suit and answer like any question you had about it," Peter rambled, eyes as wide as Brendon's.
"Peter," Brendon weakly said, "So you're really Spider-Man? Like, the Friendly Neighborhood but also sometimes Avenger Spider-Man?"
He nodded, "Yeah. It's been me the whole time."
"I can't believe this," Brendon said instantly after he finished his sentence, "You're – oh my God, my boyfriend is Spider-Man and he – you've been coming in here after my shift and I didn't even fucking know it. I couldn't told you something so embarrassing and I would have never known it was actually you – oh my God!"
"I'm sorry but I really didn't mean to the first time and then Ned urged me to come back because obviously I had a crush on you and then it kinda became a routine some days and I couldn't stop it," Peter explained himself.
"Ned knows?"
Peter nodded, "He kinda found out."
"And you were going to do the same thing tonight – before you kissed me and everything?" Brendon asked.
The boy in spandex stayed quiet for a second before responding with, "Well, I didn't want you to get suspicious or anything. Like, we start dating and then Spider-Man stops coming to see you but I really shouldn't have because I'm so tired and I forgot that you didn't know and I kissed you!"
Brendon blinked at him, "I think you need to go."
"Brendon –" Peter went to protest.
"Please. I just – I need to think because I don't really know what to say. I mean, this is really big and-and I just, I need to think about it."
Peter gave him a sad look but didn't say anything. Brendon looked at him and wanted to melt because of his eyes but he forced himself not to. Still, he sighed and said, "I'm not – I'm not gonna break up with you over this, I just need some time. It's a lot to take you, you know, and I just need some time to process everything."
The Parker boy nodded, "Alright. Just – please call me soon, okay? Like I said, I'll explain anything you want me to."
Brendon nodded at him and watched as his boyfriend put the mask back on and walked out of the coffee shop. He sighed to himself and blinked. This was not happening; his boyfriend wasn't really the crime fighting Spider-Man, was he? It's all just a dream – he's just really sleep deprived right now and his brain is fooling with him.
Yeah, it's not real at all. He doesn't have to give this night any credit, it's all just filled with illusions and everything. He finished cleaning off the tables so he went to the back and got his coat, turning off all the nights and walking out of the shop and locking it before walking back to his dorm.
All he needed was some sleep – well, a lot of sleep, apparently – and then he would wake up and laugh at his weird dream before telling Peter all about it and watch as the boy laughed along because it had to be a dream. Nothing else. It just, it couldn't be.
But as he laid in bed, he found himself staring up to the ceiling for what felt like hours as he tried to make sense of the night still until his eyelids eventually closed and he shoulders relaxed in his sleep.