CHAPTER SEVEN
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In spite of everything, the world around Mae is pitch black.
Starless blankets of nearly-black tones of violet tucks the earth into what feels like a dreamless night. The moonlight cascades through the window paintings, translucent as ghost and Mae is laying on her stomach, eyes blankly boring into the wall in front, dimly lit by moon's light.
Her eyes feels heavy as the skin around them are swollen, a redness on the puffy skin that adds a burning sensation to it. Shutting her eyelids should help ease the pain, Mae knows that to; but this particular night she'd rather if it hurt. Peace isn't about to welcome her tonight, her tired eyes might as well be the death of her.
In a gut-wrenching tug, Mae's mind wanders back to her father, injured and unconscious. She has no idea how he is now, or if the operation was even done. Just try and go to sleep honey, Maya had instructed, we'll keep you updated. Being an outsider to her own family wasn't new, but it never hit her as hard as it does now.
She's still living with the Stacy's and Mae was thankful when Gwen said she would sleep in the guest room tonight. Her periodic breakdowns feels easier when she's alone. Her pillow is soaked in salty wet tears and yet they keep pouring. It has to be way past midnight now, Mae doesn't have the energy to even spin around to look at the clock on her nightstand. Anyone knows how empty things are almost weightless, and Mae knows it much better with all her scientific facts and formulae—but strangely the emptiness within her felt heavier than a mountain.
Mae has always been this budding ray of sunshine— an ever glowing, optimistic little flower that saw the good even in the darkest places. A young petal-bound girl who held onto hope like a second skin despite everything that she goes through. On any other given day, Mae would profusely blush whenever someone complimented her of these things. Tonight however, it feels sickening.
Mae has never hated herself more.
For being so grossly optimistic, for thinking like she can live the perfect life with an almost incurable disease, for being useless when her father needs her the most . . . the list goes on. All she wants is to be wrapped around an unbreakable cocoon and never break free. That seems more ideal than her life right now.
She furrows her eyebrows when a tapping sound chimes in suddenly, interrupting the horrible silence. Disregarding it, she doesn't bother turning around until it came again—more strongly this time.
She sniffs, scrunches her nose in confusion and somehow gathered the energy to twirl around in her salt stanching bend. Narrowing her eyes to wash off her blurry tears, she gasps in horror when she sees a dark silhouette crouching against her window. Fully alert with her eyes wide open, she doesn't dare move towards the window. Using her senses, she slowly turns around and stealthily starts to tiptoe out of her room, ready to scurry down and wake up George Stacy.
"Mae?" A familiar voice whispers. She contorts her eyebrows, which forms a deep frown on her forehead as she twirled back around, confusion painted all over her face. She looks more carefully at the silhouette, "Peter?" She almost shouts out his name, flinching at the unpleasant crack her voice makes.
"Erm . . ." Peter says unsurely. "Can I come in?"
"What are you doing?" Mae demands, not moving from her position. She watches his silhouette as Peter tries to get in through the window, only to realise that it's locked.
Chuckling, she walks towards it, unlocking the bolt from inside. Peter almost falls in, losing his balance. He looks back at her, giving a toothy apologetic grin. But Mae frowns as she takes a closer look at him. "You look like shit." She bluntly says, referring to the fresh wound near his lips and a hideous black eye.
Peter gives her a look, scoffing. "Speak for yourself."
"Did you get into a fight with Flash?" She asks, ignoring his comment. "Did you call him by his real name again?"
"Not important." Peter says quickly, browsing the room. "Where's Gwen?" He asks.
"She's downstairs in the guest room. I kinda needed this room for myself tonight." Mae replies slowly, trying her best to wear a smile that's believable. Sympathy can be seen all over Peter's face as he shows a soft smile, "How's Dr. Evans doing?"
"I wish I knew!" Mae croaks, her eyes threatening to tear up again. She quickly turns her back to him, blinking back her tears to avoid Peter seeing her cry.
"Listen . . ." Peter softly starts, pausing in between that suggests he's thinking over his next words. "Did you see the Lizard on TV? The one that attacked the bridge?"
"The one that almost killed my dad? Yeah, I saw it. It looks hideous." She snaps, clenching her fists in anger as the scene flashes back behind her eyes.
Peter, oblivious to her rage, smiles at the hint of sarcasm in her voice. "It's kind of the reason I'm here." Mae looks at him with furrowed eyebrows, indicating for him to continue. "It's not like an eight foot tall lizard can naturally exist without some foreign substance injected in it. Someone made this happen on purpose. I don't know why but . . . you get what I'm trying to say?"
Mae skeptically raises a single eyebrow at him. "Are you suggesting mutation?"
"Yes!"
Mae gives him a teasing look, stifling a laugh. "Right, so you're saying this Lizard is a teenage mutant ninja?" She looks away from him as she hears herself and scrunches her eyebrows in thought. When she looks back at him, it's not skeptical anymore. "That actually . . . sounds fair."
Peter's face lights up like a lamp with her agreement. "I knew you were the right person to talk to! Anyway so I know for a fact that no other organization other than Oscorp can have all the means to help create something like this. That is, unless there's a secret evil underground scientist seeking revenge, but I highly doubt that."
Mae nods slowly in agreement, "And this scientist for some reason sent his ninja to go after my dad? That makes no sense he's the sweetest soul alive."
"I think we should sneak into Oscorp." Peter conveys without a second thought. "Snoop around. Find out who this scientist is and then we can talk to Captain Stacy."
"That's easier said than done," Mae sighs. "I don't think we can pull this off of our own." She bites her lower lip as she contemplates, this was a habit she picked up long before she even realised that she did that. Thinking always helped ease her mind somehow.
"Yeah. We can ask Gwen."
"No, that's not what I meant." Mae cuts him off. Her eyes widen and sparkle, literally, because of unshed tears lingering. And without the puffiness around her eyes, Mae would've looked like the happiest person on earth. "Spider-Man. We need to get him."
Peter's content face immediately turns into panic. He looks at him wide-eyed, cheeks flushed. "S-Spider-Man? What do you need him for?"
Mae raises her eyebrows at him, "Did you not see the way he fought the Lizard? And I bet it was him who saved my dad from drowning to death." Her eyes well up again at the last sentence but unexpectedly, she breaks into tears the next second, salt water flooding over her face.
Peter stands there in horror, his heart slowly breaking as he watches his best friend weep. "Mae . . ." He softly pleads for her to stop crying and slowly reaches out to her. Mae hurriedly wades her hands over her face, determined to wipe away her tears and stop more from coming. She feels embarrassed about Peter seeing her cry, and then without warning, she feels his large hands hold onto hers and pulls her into a tight embrace. Mae stands still, feeling startled by the action. She doesn't return the action but simply stands there, successfully dragging back the tears in as she profusely blinked.
She pulls back from his hug, and Peter lets go, his worried eyes scanning her. She turns around again, suddenly very aware of the fact that Peter Parker just witnessed her in tears. Her cheeks flush red.
"Are you okay?" He asks softly.
"Yeah!" Mae immediately says, "Yeah, sorry. It's just a chemical reaction whenever someone mentions dad. He'll be okay, though. He is okay."
Silence, and then, "Are you?"
Sometimes Peter's kindness makes Mae's heart melt. She automatically smiles, and spins to face him to see it too. Like she expects, Peter smiles back, exhaling a sigh of relief. Although his smile looks strained and painful with the wound near his lips.
"Don't you need something for that?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't worry about it." He assures, still smiling through the pain. Their cheeks are glinting red and Mae is thankful for the dull moon as the only source of light. She doesn't think she can handle him seeing her blush . . . she certainly can't handle the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
"So . . ." She awkwardly starts. "The plan."
"Right," Peter clears his throat, breaking eye contact. "So we identify the scientist and while the hunt goes on we can find a cure? If there is one that is, or do you think it's just temporary. But something tells me it's gonna be back."
"Which is where Spider-Man comes in." Mae says, nodding her head.
"Why-why—we don't need Spider-Man!"
Mae narrows her eyes at him suspiciously, "Weren't you the one who defended Spider-Man against Captain Stacy just a few days back?"
"Exactly!" Peter almost shrieks, causing Mae to reprimand him with her wide eyes. "I mean . . . Spider-Man and the captain don't get along! Bringing Spider-Man in would just create more problems and we need the captain to arrest Frankenstein as soon as possible!"
This causes Mae to think some more. "You're right. But we really need Spider-Man. The Lizard will surely butt in and I doubt we'll be able to kick his green ass. And bullets won't do so we can't count on the police as well."
"Fine," Peter sighs longingly in defeat. "We can try and get in contact with and if we don't—"
"—we handle this ourselves. Or try to. You got it."
Visibly holding a breath, Peter nods his head. Mae furrows her eyebrows as confusion fazes her but doesn't push it, shaking her head. "I can't believe this is actually happening." She says, a frown curving her chapped lips.
"Crazy how everything changes in just a night, huh?" Peter says, chuckling lightly. Mae smiles, although it's hidden away from Peter by the lack of light. She walks towards her bed, leaning on her bedside table to look at the clock. Her eyes widen, "It's two a.m.?" She gasps, flipping her head instantly. "What are you doing here at two a.m.? Go home Pete!"
Mae waddles quickly towards Peter, the smile on her face still present. The brunet boy only catches her wide grin when she steps into the translucent moonlight and finds himself grinning wider. He immediately regrets it as the fresh wound near his lips sting and he winces at the pain.
Mae's forehead creases in worry as she frowns. "That looks painful."
Peter raises an eyebrow, "You think?"
The honey blonde girl finds herself chuckling again, Peter's subtle hint of sarcasm helping her feel slightly better. Nevertheless; that made all the difference.
"Fine," Mae gives a dramatic sigh. "I'll help you clean your wound and then you can go home and sleep."
Peter wears a toothy grin. "I would like that very much."
a/n: ok look I KNOW that this isn't the best chapter and tbh i'm not really happy with how this turned :(( i literally haven't written anything for TWO MONTHS and then i came up with this... i love the opening though, i think that's my favourite part about this chapter!
currently i'm just so inspired for SUNFLOWER alone and i don't even know why lmao, i'm not even in marvel phase anymore. hopefully, i'll be able to update more often because of this but you know me.... i don't keep my promises :3
ANYWAYYYY PLSS LMK WHAT YOU THOUGHT!!! it's been ages since i've heard from anyone and i love reading what you have to say!! <3