#poor babies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

berriweb · 10 months

Text

╰┈➤ ❝ the end of all things ❞

: ̗̀➛ ft. miles morales x reader

: ̗̀➛ warnings. some descriptions of injuries, just mentions of blood and someone dying

: ̗̀➛ part three / part five (w.i.p)

: ̗̀➛ a/n. how do I explain to y’all thay the reason this part took so long is because Ive been wasting away reading venom fanfics for days???? trick question, i just did

3:00 PM

The ticking of the clock on the way was the only thing keeping Miles grounded as he scribbled away on his paper.

Well…that, and you.

The lack of interest was prominent in his body language, hunched over the desk and peering at the paper through laugh lidded eyes with gravity tugging at the ends of his lips. The work only seemed to get easier and easier for him. The majority of class he would spend finding ways to buy time and entertain himself long enough to take up most of the lecture and class time spent working. If he timed it right, he’d avoid being seen as a try hard for turning in his paper too earlier or a slacker for waiting until the last minute to turn it in. During that time where he’d mindlessly find new tasks to keep his mind running is when his true distraction would come into play: you.

Or at least the one he knew anyway.

Thunk.

Pausing just as he’d finished shading in the eyes on his doodle, Miles sat up and looked around to find the object that’d collided with his forearm and drawn in his attention. When he noticed the culprit, a balled up piece of notebook paper now sitting idly next to his foot on the floor, he discreetly reached down to scoop it up and smoothed out the crumpled paper.

‘i can tell your mom redid your braids. they look good on you ;)’

Miles hoped he’d angled his head low enough to hide the dopey smile that crossed his face as he read the note, recomposing himself before he grabbed a pencil to scribble underneath the writing.

‘Gotta look fresh for our date, can’t be out here looking rough for you.’

He folded the paper up, using the straight edge of his folder to crease the paper before holding it up to examine the neatly folded paper airplane he’d created. After deeming his work good enough to send out, Miles turned back in his seat. His eyes scanned the classroom to check for wandering eyes or any sign of the teacher noticing his shenanigans, only to meet a familiar pair of eyes trained on him from across the room in the back, hidden away just far enough in the corner of the classroom.

He craned his arm back, and with a swift through sent the paper airplane flying in her direction, watching it gracefully float through the air before slowing to a stop just before it reached her desk. He winced for a moment, watching it slowly begin to descend towards the classmate sitting just in front of her, only for a sigh of relief to leave his lips when she stood and snatched it out of the air just before it landed on his desk, shooting him a confident smile and a thumbs up.

Miles turned back in his seat, leaning down to mimic his posture when working on his assignment, but his eyes pulled back to watching her open up the note, eyes scanning the paper before she gingerly smiled and looked up. Glancing from over his shoulders, he shot her a wink and flashed a smile only to turn away, returning to his paper before he could see your reaction to it.

Unbeknownst to him, from just afar on an empty desk that would’ve been preoccupied by a classmate who’d been absent that day, a small arachnid slowly climbed its way onto the top of the desk. It skittered across the smooth wood, the seemingly dead set path it was following towards Miles, as prominent as the 42 cleanly shown on its backside, being cut short when a portal open, small enough to swallow the spider whole without gaining much attention.

From the corner of his eye, Miles noticed a flash and turned his head in the direction of the distraction, only to shrug and return to his doodles when he saw nothing worth taking note of, missing the return of the spider as it reappeared moments later. Only this time, it dawned a new number. The spider turned and abandoned Miles, eyes now set on the target sitting in the corner of the classroom.

“42.”

The number indicating their initial success was the first thing that left the doctors mouth as the matter around the portal shriveled and disappeared.

In front of them sat two empty glass containers, sealed and displayed just underneath the machine. Using her middle and ring finger to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose, she leaned down to marvel at the sight of the small, hazardous spider now frantically crawling around from inside the tube. Beside it, the matching glass tube was now empty, a mark of a new beginning.

She shot up without warning, consequently smacking her partner right in the nose with an accidentally head butt she didn’t even seem to notice.

“Jesus, Liv- my nose-”

The scientists hands covered his nose while groaning and grounding himself to remain upright as Olivia practically pounced on him, a wicked grin stretching her lips thin as she grabbed him by the shoulders and began frantically shaking his body back and forth.

“Forget your nose! We’re making HISTORY! Inter dimensional transportation, Johnathan! This is huge!”

He shrugged her hands off her shoulders but that did little to subside her buzzing excitement, evident by the enthusiastic resolve in her eyes. “What about our spider, it took ages to recreate that thing!”

“Forget the spider too, we already have our replacement, no need to make a third-” Liz made a point of picking up the tube, waving it in his face and tilting it over to watch the arachnid slide across the side of it. Concern for her enthusiasm aside, Johnathan’s grin matched the fire in her eyes. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

3:15 PM

The bells rang and Miles was out of his seat before the sound could register in his ears, slipping out of the classroom and making a beeline for the lockers. Just when the familiar locker number was within sight, Y/N raced past him, making a point to stick out her tongue as a sign of mockery, only to come to a screeching halt as she turned back forward and was suddenly face to face with one of the school administrators.

Miles made sure to return the same favor, pulling at the sides of his mouth with his index fingers and sticking his tongue out after he passed her in the halls. If not for the teacher, she likely would’ve started a fight right then and there.

After a not-so-kind scolding and a promise of detention if she was caught running in the halls again, Y/N strolled up to where Miles stood, leaning against her locker with a hand on his side and a smug grin.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up-” “Don’t have to tell me twice.”

Idle conversation ensued as he waited for her to gather her things from her locker. An arm snaked around her waist and his head rested on her shoulder, mid-complaint about his second period teacher being too harsh on the whole “no drawings on assignments” rule when she suddenly yelped, drawing her hand back from inside her locker. Miles’ eyes locked on the back of her hand as you winced, spotting the eight-eyed culprit and swatting it off her hand without a second thought. The bug hit the ground, and he raised a brow as he noticed the small markings on its back resembled numbers more than any bug patterns. 1610. “Weird.”

“You good?” He asked, grabbing her fingers to hold her hand up and once over the red bump rising on her skin.

“Yeah yeah- don’t hurt or anything,” she confirmed, inspecting the bite before twisting her hand around to intertwine their fingers, shutting her locker closed with the opposite and shrugging her bag over her shoulder. “Think it’ll get infected?”

“Yup, poison’s probably runnin’ through your veins as we speak.”

“Don’t play like that Miles,” she scolded, rolling her eyes as he merely shrugged in response before tugging her arm to usher her along as they headed to exit the building.

“I’m playing, chill, you’ll probably be fine.”

“No, it’s not fine!”

Miles buried his head further into the palms of his hands in an attempt to quell the embarrassment course through his body as he watched his mom practically shake down his girlfriend.

“You’re leaving already?! I even made your favorite! Te encantan las empanadillas! Can’t you stay just a little longer?!”

Between Rio almost begging for her to stay and Y/N rushing to shove everything back into her bag that she’d left scattered across his room, Miles didn’t know who to focus on more.

“I know I know, I’m really sorry Mrs.Morales, I promise I’ll swing by later for leftovers!” She flashed her an apologetic smile while slowly backing up towards the door, but it didn’t take much. “I can’t even remember the last time you stayed for dinner you’re always so busy, we miss you! Miles does too, don’t you papa? I hear him complaining about it all the time!”

“Ma!” He turned back to throw his hands up at her exposing him while moving to walk she out, and Rio shrugged.

“Be safe, honey! Streets have been a little dangerous ever since that new hero hit the scene. And we better see you again soon, at dinner!”

As soon as the front door closed Miles shot you an exasperated look and she giggled. “Your mom does a good job at saying what no one else will,” she teased, punching him in the arm as her voice echoed throughout the halls. “Please do not defend her.”

“I’m not, I’m not!” She raised her hands defensively, but the skeptical look on his face made it clear he didn’t believe her. Lowering her hands, she placed one on each of his shoulders. “Was she telling the truth, though?”

“You have been flaking out on all of our dates recently,” Miles pointed out as his arms wrapped around her waist. “Well- I mean, it hasn’t been that many…”

“Two weeks ago we were supposed to go to that fair together and you bailed.”

“Something came up-”

“That one time you stood me up at the new burger place on the corner?”

“I heard their food sucked anyway, blander than a white mans casserole.”

“Just the other day we were supposed to go to the park together and you showed up two hours late.”

“In my defense, there was traffic.”

“It’s New York, there’s always traffic! And you don’t drive! Did you even remember that we had plans to go to that museum today?”

Y/N froze, and the guilty look that crossed her face after the moment of realization made Miles regret bringing it up. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry Miles! I totally forgot, I swear I would’ve-”

“It’s fine, Y/N,” he tsked, cupping her face and running a thumb across her cheekbone. “You have a life, I get that, I don’t need to be in it 24/7.” She smiled in relief and turned her head to kiss his palm, but he continued.

“-but, something’s tellin’ me this is different. I barely even see you anymore aside from class, and you been skipping classes too! I don’t know what you got going on, ma, but you know you can tell me anything. Your head always feels like it’s somewhere else.” He poked at her forehead to make a point, his voice lighthearted but the undertone showing his real worries.

Miles could only say so much to voice his concern, but he meant every word of it. Feeling like she was keeping something big from him would’ve been a understatement.

“I promise you’re overthinking it,” Y/N pulled back, grabbing both of his hands. “I‘ve just had a lot going on, nothing that important. You know I’ve got it covered, have I ever let you down before?”

Miles smiled gingerly, despite the obvious signs that you were caught up in something, he was willing to put it aside for you. “You better not start.”

“Course not,” she leaned forward to catch his lips in a kiss that lasted longer than most of their normal goodbyes, and likely would’ve gone on longer if not for the sudden sound of someone clearing their throat making the two instantly jump and pull apart. The distance between the two suddenly doubled upon seeing Jefferson standing with his arms crossed, still dawning his police uniform and wearing a disgusted yet disapproving expression, mostly pointed at Miles.

“Dad!”

“Sir- Mister- Captain Morales! Crazy seeing you here-” Y/N fumbled over her words and tried to swallow the crippling embarrassment.

“I live here.”

“Right…” she looked between the two Morales’ for what felt like an eternity but was only a few seconds before deciding to remove herself from the situation before she could embarrass herself any further. “I was actually just leaving-”

“Oh, yeah, uh huh-”

“And something came up and I uh- bye.”

She ran down the staircase before she could elaborate, leaving Miles standing their with slumped shoulders as he followed his dad back inside, left to endure a lecture on how ‘if you’re going to make out with your girl at least have the decency to not do out right outside of our house.’

“-and now she’s off doing whatever, so I don’t know man, thoughts?”

Tapping at the bar screwed into the wall, Miles mimicked the action with his other hand while reading one of the signs displayed on the elevator doors showing off one of many scientists honored in the museum. Despite the fact that Y/N had bailed on him, he still wanted to go out to at least get his mind off of things while he had a chance; and knowing that his best friend had nothing better to do, that turned into him replacing you and the two touring around the building while he vented to Ganke about his concerns.

The elevator dinged, and as the lit button signaling that they were on the tenth floor dimmed and the doors slid open, he felt a rough smack on the shoulder.

“I think that you’re a massive loser and only nerds go to science museums for fun,” he remarked, walking up to a portrait statue of some popular physicist and making a face at the odd expression.

Miles rolled his eyes and stepped out to follow him, narrowly avoiding bumping into a stranger before joining his side. “Yeah? And only nerds go to fancy ass boarding schools for smart kids so what does that make you?”

“We go to the same school, dipshit.”

“At least I know I’m a nerd, dumbass.”

Ganke forced a sarcastic laugh before pulling out his phone and tapping away, leaving Miles to read the next sign on his own. “On a real note, though, if you’re that worried about keeping something from you then you should just fess up and tell her to tell you.”

“Tried that, she just insisted she was busy and told me not to worry about it.”

“Yikes, man. If thats the case you might just be a side pie-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence before Miles smacked him upside the back of his head, wincing and shooting the boy a glare. “Relax, I was joking!” “You think you’re funny?” “Hilarious, actually.”

Ganke looked up from his phone, “if you’re really that worried about her and she won’t tell you what’s up then you just gotta wait it out. Y/N’s a cool girl, she’s probably just not ready to tell you. Nothin’ you can do about that, just wait until she is.”

He stared for what was at least five seconds, causing Ganke to look up after noticing the small moment of silence and blink at Miles. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing. I just didn’t think you were capable of giving good advice.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Miles shrugged, pulling out his own phone to take a picture of the goofy looking statue. He opened the messages to text you just as Ganke moved to take a selfie for it.

‘reminded me of you.’

*Photo Attachment*

Just as he sent the messages, Ganke turned around and hummed to get his attention just as his phone dinged and he viewed the notification, holding the screen up for Miles to see. It was a news reporter, warning the citizens while simultaneously covering live footage of a fight going down in the city.

“Crazy, right? Ever since Spider-Woman showed up it’s like villains have been popping up every day,” Ganke pointed out as he moved around to watch the scene unfold with him.

“Yeah, I don’t hear the end of it with my dad, keeps complaining about all of the damage they have to deal with…” he had to admit that the way the vigilante was fighting was impressive, seeing her use her webs to temporarily hold back the weird-dinosaur-hybrid being she was fighting. Even though it was clear the helicopter couldn’t get close enough to get a good view of the fight, Miles started to notice the buildings they passed looked awfully familiar.

From the camera they could see the villain tied up in webs, being tossed around like a sack of potatoes as it began to break from the confinements. Spider-Woman began running up the side of the building, dragging the reptile along with her, and just as she brought her arm back and started swinging the webbing was when it dawned on Miles. Judging by Ganke’s jaw being halfway to hell when he met his eyes, he’d realized it too.

“Isn’t that building the-”

Ganke didn’t get to finish his sentence before a loud boom followed by the sound of glass shattering filled the floor. People were screaming, he could already see the crowd rushing for all of the nearest exits and Miles could barely wrap his head around what had just happened before he was grabbed by the arm and Ganke was following in everyone else’s lead.

“We gotta go.”

The elevator was out of the question as no one was willing to risk ending up stuck if it got damaged during the fight, or end up falling to their death, but that was one of the worse options. They opted for the stairs instead, a lot more work but their only viable option. The security guards and officers who’d showed up at the scene were trying to direct traffic to get everyone out as quickly as possible, but with so many people all trying to flee at the same time it inevitably became difficult and caused a lot of shoving and commotion. They’d only made it done to the seventh floor by the time they ended up stopping, Miles pulling Ganke away from the crowd both because they would’ve just been trying to wiggle through everyone else and because his friend was clearly out of breath.

“Holy shit,” was the only thing he could get out between breathes, and Miles only nodded. “You good?”

Ganke sighed. “Absolutely not.”

“Good, let’s go.”

Miles was already dragging him towards the exit before Ganke could fully recover. Luckily for him, the floor had two separate staircases, meaning more got out faster than anticipated and they didn’t have to fight to get out. Unluckily for them, they were one of the last to head for the stairs, and just as they reached the stairway the ceiling above suddenly caved in.

Neither got crushed, but the force of the crash was enough to send them flying back. Miles fell back into one of the displays, not enough to seriously injure him but there was for sure going to be a bruise he’d worry about later.

On the other hand, when he looked over he noticed Ganke wasn’t as lucky. If he had to guess, based on the noticeable hole in the wall and the blood seeping from his best friends forehead as he lay limp on the ground, he’d knocked his head and gone unconscious. Scrambling to his feet before he even realized what he was doing, Miles ran over, bringing one of his arms over his shoulders and pulling him to his feet. He silently made a note to later remind Ganke how he owed him one for this as he dragged his friend towards the other staircase, thankfully still in tact.

The last of whatever visitors remained were heading down the stairs, the only ones left being a child who’d seemingly been separated from her parents and hurt her leg, crying and frantically asking for her mother. An officer was still left behind, likely looking out for any others and rushing to help the girl when realizing she was still present. He’d just picked up the girl when Miles’ eyes suddenly widened.

“Dad?!”

The sudden voice made him turn, and as the two made eye contact his dad mimicked Miles’ surprised expression.

“Miles?!”

“What are you doing here?!”

“It’s my job!”

‘He was the captain,’ Miles had to remind himself, ‘of course he’d be here to help the citizens.’ “Right…”

“Is he…” His father gestured to his back, and Miles remembered the friend he’d been lugging along with him, glancing to the side to see that Ganke was still out cold.

“He hit his head, he’s fine.” Miles brought a hand up to check his pulse and reconfirm that statement, letting out a sigh of relief when he felt his pulse and nodding at his dad, who nodded in confirmation.

Using his free hand that wasn’t holding the girl, his dad pointed towards the stairs. “Get to safety, and fast. There’s people waiting at the bottom to-”

Miles was started to get tired of the sounds of destruction cutting off every conversation, but this one held far more danger as the vigilante and villain responsible for the chaos came crashing down onto the floor, right between the distance that separated him and his father. He got a full sight of the Spider-Woman standing on top of the criminal, holding together two webs keeping either one of the man(?)’s hands at his sides.

“Don’t you ever get tired of getting your ass kicked?” That statement was short lived, as the villain flung his tail straight into her side, sending the masked woman flying and crashing into a nearby pillar.

“Don’t you ever get tired of getting in my way?” The being rose back to its feet, surely towering over any normal human being as it’s head would’ve hit the ceiling had it not been destroyed.

“Hmm…no, not really.”

The spider suddenly spit out a web that stuck itself to the lizards chest, pulling harshly and sending the thing crashing into a nearby wall. The hit was harsh, and almost made Miles wince, but he was far more preoccupied with the fact that their fight was blocking his path to the stairwell and his dad. With his friend on his back he wouldn’t stand a chance trying to run past, so he resorted to backing up to the nearest wall.

Spider-Woman had webbed the reptile to the wall, fast enough that it wasn’t able to recover fast enough to break free from the webs before she’d used enough to leave him completely stuck to the wall. Miles could only watch in awe as she stood tall, clapping her hands together as if dusting them off, but just before she could make a proud remark about bringing him down, what started off as a low rumble but turned into loud crashing started to sound.

“Oh shit,” Miles cursed before he could think as the ground beneath him began to shake. The sudden noise must’ve caught her attention, and as the masked woman turned to look at her Miles could’ve sworn the wide eyes sewn into the mask went even wider at the sight of him. Had she not noticed him before?

Before either could take action was when the floor caved in from underneath him. The destruction that the lizard (mostly) had caused practically ruined the foundation on some of the floors. Whatever was left to support the floors was giving way, that part was made clear by how his heart nearly jumped out of his chest when Miles was no longer standing on a steady floor. He hardly had any time to grab onto a half destroyed rail before the side of the building started to collapse. He was able to lift himself enough to loop his elbow over the pole, keeping himself from immediately falling to his death, but that fate wasn’t completely out of the question yet.

His legs were hanging freely, and had it not been for the fact that his other arm holding onto Ganke’s waist for dear life to keep his friend from slipping out of his grip and falling to his death, he might’ve been able to pull himself up. His eyes were screwed shit and he muttered under his breathe, wondering that if he believed hard enough he might open his eyes and still be in the museum and not hanging off the side of the building, it could’ve all been a weirdly horrific daydream.

“No mires hacia abajo, no mires hacia abajo, no mires hacia abajo…”

The sudden gust of wind sent more shivers up his spine, and despite his constant reiterations, he hung his head and reluctantly opened his eyes. The sight of the ground being hundreds of feet below him made his stomach turn, but the call of his name gave him the much needed diversion and he looked up.

Just barely being able to see the floor he’d just been on, Miles saw the aforementioned Spider-Woman running towards him. How did she know my name?

The relief that would’ve crashed over him when realizing she was going to save him didn’t get to come, as instead his eyes zeroed in on his father, far behind the vigilante. The floor above was still coming down, the building was still collapsing and his dad was doing his best to avoid the falling rubble while protecting the girl clinging to his chest, but the drywall that’d fallen down just in front of the stairwell entrance prevented him from going down. The direness of the situation hit him like a brick, and Miles was sure the adrenaline was the only thing keeping him from throwing up due to the amount of stress boiling up in his head. As he watched his dad slowly getting backed into a corner by the debris, it finally started to click. There wasn’t enough time. She couldn’t save both. “No no no no no…”

It started off as a mutter, but his voice progressively got louder until he was all but shouting at the hero. “Stop!”

Surprisingly, she did, likely due to the suddenness of his random protest and the strain in his voice. “Stop! My dad! That’s my dad! Save him!”

Miles spoke without thinking, and it might’ve been selfish for him to silently admit that the child he was protecting hadn’t even crossed his mind as he worried, but it was true. The danger that his father was in caused far more concern than anything else he could’ve been worrying about at that very moment. Unbeknownst to him, you were having a far more conflicting dilemma in your head than he’d imagined.

Her chest was heavy and any words that she could’ve thought up never would’ve had a chance to leave her throat, she couldn’t muster up her voice. Her boyfriend was dangling over the edge of a building with a drop that would kill anyone immediately, made worse by the fact that he was also in control of his best friends life.

‘Miles needs me.’

Her head then whipped towards the police captain, holding the little girl who was likely no older than 10 to his chest, a hand over her head to protect her from the debris, most likely. The odds of him making it down with the floor crashing down on itself were zero to none, and Captain Morales was a good man. He was more than accepting when she’d come over, he deserved the title of Captain, he earned it.

‘But Miles needs his dad too.’

The tension was worsened and she was reminded of the lack of time she had to debate as the building shook again. A loud creak followed it, and when she turned her head again, as the rest of her body seemed to be frozen, the railing Miles was holding onto was bending further, and if she didn’t act fast it’d snap and send both him and Ganke free falling.

“Please!”

The sound of pleading combined with falling rubble and the cries of the child were starting to mix together in her head, forming a garbled, distorted mess that was worsening her stress.

The look on his face as he begged, she’d never seen it before. His eyes were so wide she could clearly see the white surrounding his pupils, eyebrows knitted together so tightly that the veins you’d never seen on his forehead were visible. The despair in his eyes made his pupils shrink in a way she couldn’t recognize, and the desperation made her heart ache. The expression didn’t look good on him.

“Save my dad, you have to save him!”

The building shook again, and as if being the final cue, the metal railing that had been resisting gravity finally gave in. Miles’ head disappeared over the edge, and before she could blink she was jumping over the side of the building to catch him.

The image that would remain engraved in Miles’ head for a long time to come passed as the pole finally broke, watching his dad duck and use his body to shield the girl as the rest of the building came down.

He couldn’t describe how he felt in that moment. Saying that he was afraid, that he was shocked or sad wouldn’t do the emotions that crossed him as he fell any justice. He couldn’t recall at one point he lost his grip on Ganke or when the thought crossed his mind that this might be the last thing he thinks before he dies.

He doesn’t remember when he felt the arm wrapping around his waist either, or what he felt when Spider-Woman pulled him into his side. He doesn’t know at one point she’d shot out a sticky web to catch Ganke and pull him in and over her shoulder.

Miles does remember the cool sensation of the wind hitting his skin as she shot out another web, managing to pull all three to hang off the steady side of the building before anyone could hit the ground. He remembers hearing the wind rushing past his ears when she carried them all up to the top floor, or what was left of it anyway. He remembers being set down on top of left over pieces of wall, ceiling and artifacts he could no longer remember. He remembers seeing you carefully set Ganke down by his side as Miles sat on his knees, hands being covered in gravel and dust as he leaned forward, trying to remember how to control his breathing, how to breath. He recalls seeing the vigilante rush over to what was now nothing but piles and piles of rubble, and at no point did he bother to question how she could lift what were clearly such heavy objects. He remembers the cry of joy she let out as the sound of a crying girl became prominent, pulling the child out of the mess only to see her freeze when she reached for something else.

And then he remembers seeing you.

Miles doesn’t know when he pulled himself to his feet or why he left Ganke’s side. Intuition, maybe? He’s running before he realizes it, and the closer he get, the harder it is for him to understand why it‘s his girlfriends face he sees when the hero pulls off her mask. He doesn’t understand why you look grief-struck, why you’re apologizing before he’s even stopped running or caught his breathe, or why you’re trying to explain how you couldn’t save his dad.

How you had to make a choice, there was nothing you could do, how you swore you could explain everything later.

Miles doesn’t understand because his gaze, his head, his mind is entirely focused on his father laying unmoving, half of his body trapped underneath a broken piece of debris, one he couldn’t dream of lifting up. Why is there so much blood?

“…dad?”

She stops talking when she realizes Miles’ isn’t listening. He repeats the questions, like he’s testing the waters, waiting for him to open his eyes and laugh at him for really believing he’d lost his life. But he doesn’t get a response. His hands start to shake, no, everything starts to shake. His vision blurs for a moment, and if not before, he’s certain now that there’s no air going in or out of his lungs. He starts to sway as if he’s going to lose his balance, and she scrambles to her feet, reaching out to grab him before he can, but he catches her by the wrist and steadies himself before she can help.

“Y/N?” He phrases the question as if he’d only just now noticed her presence. Her gaze softens, and she wants to comfort him, but the empty, paralyzing look in his eyes fades away when his gaze sharpens and his grip tightens. It doesn’t hurt, but part of her wonders if he meant for it to.

“I told you to save him…” That same choking feeling rises up her throat, but this time it doesn’t stop her from talking. “Miles…”

“I told you to save him! Why didn’t you save him?!”

“I- you and Ganke! I couldn’t let you fall! I couldn’t leave you two! There was no way-”

“There’s always a way!” Miles was never the type to get violent, she knew him well enough to know as much, which was probably why when his hands collided with her chest she couldn’t stop herself from being shoved to the ground. “You could’ve done both! You could’ve saved him but you didn’t!”

There were tears welling up in her eyes; before this, if he’d seen them Miles would’ve wiped them away and asked her what’s wrong.

“What did you expect me to do?! Miles, I wasn’t going to let you-”

“You destroyed the building, you brought the fight here…” he was hissing, but the gritting of his teeth as she got back to her feet made it come out as a mumble. “You killed my dad.”

She took a step forward, cautious, as if she were somehow afraid she’d hurt him. “That’s not fair and you know it,” she tentatively reached out a hand, aiming for his shoulder but it was smacked away and she took the hint, this time taking a step back.

“You killed my dad.”

That must’ve been the moment Y/N realized there was no way to defuse this situation. He wasn’t going to listen, why would he? She’d never seen him look at her with such disdain before, and she didn’t want to keep standing here and enduring it. She wasn’t even sure if he’d noticed the tears that’d started streaming down his face. She took another step back, and Miles didn’t budge. He reiterated his statement, he blamed her for his death, and if she had the choice between taking a bullet to the chest or experiencing the pain she felt as he stared at her like the worst human being on Earth, she would’ve chosen the bullet.

Miles didn’t look down, he was sure he would’ve emptied his stomach if he did, which might’ve been the reason he was unable to look away from the superpowered vigilante, his girlfriend, as she gave one last solemn look before jumping over the side of the building, catching one last sight of her swinging between buildings before e disappeared from sight.

The last thing he remembered from that day was laying eyes on his dad for one last time before the shock finally set in and he felt the weight of it all come crashing down. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he was unconscious before he hit the ground.

What’s the right thing to someone who’s just explained to you that you (but technically not you) were the reason his father is dead, even more crazy being the fact that he’s another version of your boyfriend?

Trick question, there is no right thing to say to that, which may have been why you simply stood with a dumbstruck and pitiful look on your face as you stared down the other Miles.

The initial revelation was enough to send you into a shock, but as he stood holding up a newspaper detailing the exact event he’d just described after making you follow him to his room if you wanted an explanation, you couldn’t help but feel this was much worse.

Glancing into his eyes was almost just as painful as such. The emotion in his eyes was completely unreadable, one you assumed had to be a mix of grief, scorn and bewilderment.

He thinks you did this.

When you showed no signs of responding once he finished speaking, his eyes narrowed and he turned away. Miles shuffled between all of the papers he’d pulled down from the wall of his room silently, and you made no move to ask what he was doing. Instead, watching as he picked up a few before boldly holding them up to you.

“You disappeared after that day, without a trace, and so did Spider-Woman. No more saving the city, no more heroes, no more Y/N. Of course they searched but no one had any leads. There was a bounty out for you with a pretty nice reward too once the criminals started realizing you weren’t going to show your face again,” you took it he was referring to Spider-Woman when he said that, “and it’s still out. No sign of you since that day.”

The piece he held up showed said bounty, which you highly doubted was a legal one, and the one beside it pointed out the missing person’s case on you that you’d noticed earlier.

“I…” you started a sentence, but nothing you could’ve said would’ve answered any of his questions, so you stopped before you could finish.

It was clear to Miles that he wasn’t going to get anywhere, not right now anyway, and the words he was likely going to spill were cut off as he opened his mouth by a buzz coming from his pocket. He dropped the papers back on the desk, harsher than you would’ve appreciated, and pulled it out to check the messages.

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife, but still you remained silent. He turned around and walked to the opposite side of the room as he picked up a phone call, leaving you to your thoughts for what felt like an eternity. In an attempt to move something along, you reached for one of the articles laying on his bed, but just as your arm came into view a gut wrenching pain came over you and you doubled over.

Pain wasn’t the right word to describe it. Your body started to flash with colors and pieces suddenly felt like they were missing from you. The best way to describe the look of the sudden attack would’ve been glitching, you assumed, and it lasted a few seconds longer than you would’ve liked. Your body was tearing itself apart and rebuilding itself at the same time, you hated the feeling.

When it subsided you were hunched over the bed, breathing heavily and groaning as you caught your breath. Miles had turned around at the sound of you being in pain, surprising rushing to your side and inspecting you when seemingly nothing was wrong before that moment, phone call long over.

“¿Qué ocurre?” Despite the earlier described events, there was still concern in his voice as he questioned your state and grabbed an arm to help you back onto your feet. You couldn’t help but wonder why.

“No- I, I’m fine. I don’t know what happened…” his confusion confirmed that he must’ve missed the trippy sight of your body glitching out, and for now you were glad he did.

“Look,” once you were deemed stable by his standards, Miles pulled back and let you go, a wary look in his eyes. “I don’t know what you could’ve done while you were gone or why you don’t remember what happened, only you can explain that to me.”

He walked past you, grabbing his coat and a suspiciously sharp mechanism you hadn’t noticed underneath his desk before heading for the door. Pausing, he turned around and looked you in the eye.

“I’ve got business to take care of, stay put. Doesn’t seem like you have anywhere else to go anyway.”

Miles slipped out of the room before you could come up with an appropriate reply, the door nearly slamming shut behind him. Seconds later, you heard what must’ve been the front door shut as well.

The stress of it all was starting to settle back into you, and you wanted the nightmare to be over. With nothing better left to do, you picked up all of the papers left behind, reading off the many articles grieving over the police captain’s death and the search for you as you placed them all in a pile before tossing it aside somewhere in the room. You didn’t bother remembering where.

A headache from the worries and injuries formed inside your head and you fell back onto the now-neat bed, rubbing at your temples. You couldn’t bring yourself to get tired or want to sleep with all that’d gone on and how much you’d learned so you resorted to closing your eyes and trying to relax instead. You weren’t sure how long you laid in that idle state since he’d left, trying to quell your thoughts before the sound of a window sliding open caught your attention.

Your eyes shot open and you sat up so fast it made your head spin and your side ache. Your eyes adjusted in the dark to the figure climbing through the window, getting defensive before you realized that you knew that familiar figure. Even more so, you recognized his hair, his mannerisms, it was like you could sense it without having to confirm. You were on your feet before you could even realize it, just in time to see him collapse onto the ground, breathing heavily.

“Miles!”

He jumped higher than you would’ve expected and sat up, and that’s when you got a good look at the tattered suit you couldn’t understand why he was in. The fear in his eyes when he realized you were in ‘his’ room must’ve matched the shock in yours when you realized what he was wearing.

“…Miles, what the fuck?”

2nd a/n. i mischievously tapped my fingers together as I wrote this whole thing out, also somethings to mention:

1. the whole time I was planning this out in my head I was STUMPED bc every idea for the backstory I had kind of conflicted with some of the major stuff in atsv like 42 miles being the one who was supposed to become spiderman, butttt then I realized that I’m literally writing fanfiction and can do whatever the fuck I want because fuck the canon so what did ol girl do????

I JUST MADE ANOTHER SPIDER AND SWITCHED THEM!!!!! problem solved. for now. which also means that

2. reader was actually supposed to become the second spiderman in 1610 but since the spiders switched the one in their world went after miles instead

and 3. Jesus Christ this was longer than I thought I wanted to split it into two but I felt like it would fuck up the tension so I didn’t <3 if you noticed plot holes then stfu it’ll just be our little secret, same goes for typos, i might come back and rewrite some stuff to make it better if I feel like it

4. in case I need to explain I changed the pov from 2nd because 42 y/n technically isn’t you <3

╰┈➤ ❝ tag-list ❞

— @brokeb1mbo, @ravieaesthetic, @sp1derm4nluver, @isa-444, @wassuppartypeople, @namtaeh, @whoisgami, @ponyboys-sunsets, @go-to-sleep-salem, @hana-1235, @j-natsuka, @lavzxx, @itzmeme, @iimng, @nycweb-slinger, @empress-pug-pug, @planetliaa, @mividaasi, @dolliied, @ukranianacearo, @solecitoszn, @izukusnovia, @abbyrxx12-blog, @conventionally-unconventional, @mileslovelygf, @ditto737, @iinlovewithfictionalppl, @superiorbyfar, @bingewatcheraf, @the-smut-plug, @whotfismirah, @gyuville, @blackspideysstuff, @1uv4jiya, @hobiesrockstargf, @pwettymoss, @a-pansexual-with-pancakes, @nefelibata-kopfkino, @ruttteerr, @randomhoex, @jcngw0ns, @danyxthirstae01, @noooooo222222, @browniebattermix, @asimpwhohatedlife, @6thhokageswife, @zeyzeys-stuff

462 notes · View notes

superlarva · 9 months

Text

We finally meet Echo! :)

I didn't have as much time as I thought I would this week, so have a sketch with some colors slapped over it... sorry :|

Also, I think I settled on a name for the fic. Does "Raising Dominoes" sound okay? In any case, here's Chapter 5 - Echo, I hope you enjoy!

Prologue: 00 Previous Chapter: 04 Next Chapter: 06

Summary: Rex and Fives visit Echo in the ICU.

CW: Implied/referenced child abuse, missing limbs, hospitals

Chapter 5 - Echo

The waiting room was packed with people. Even though he had told Cody to go home earlier that morning, Rex made a quick scan for him, but it was too difficult to see over the hordes of visitors and patients. Fives was also looking around the room fervently.

“Rex, sir?” The boy asked straightening up and squaring his shoulders to address Rex.

“Yes, little soldier?” Rex joked, guiding Fives towards the front desk.

“I don’t see Echo.”

“Echo is in one of the rooms back there,” Rex explained, pointing to the door leading to the rest of the hospital. “This is the waiting room. It’s for people waiting to get help or people waiting to see friends or family in the hospital.”

“Do we have to wait here to see Echo?”

“We’ll see,” Rex said as he approached a young man behind the desk.

The man looked up and smiled, “Hello, how may I help you today?”

“We’re here to get Echo,” Fives piped up in a slightly more authoritarian tone than Rex would have expected from him.

“Echo Se, we’re here to see him,” Rex clarified, ruffling Fives’s hair.

“Right, of course, sir,” The man behind the desk nodded, but paled a bit and shifted forward in his chair to see Fives over the desk.

“Problem?” Rex asked, raising a brow.

The man smiled nervously, “We don’t allow children under the age of 12 to visit patients in the ICU, sir.”

Shit. Rex hadn’t thought about age limits on visitation. He looked down at Fives, then gritted his teeth and leaned in closer to the man, “Look, they’re twins, and I promised he’d be able to see him today.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the man replied still hiding behind a false smile. “It’s hospital policy. For the health of our patients and your sons, I can’t make an exception.”

Rex sighed, moving away from the man. He was right. It would be bad if Echo got sick in his condition. But, had Cody not said Kix thought they could visit? Maybe he could drop Fives off with Cody and visit Echo and have them face time, or-

“Rex!” A familiar voice cut through his thoughts.

Rex’s eyes shot up as a lean man with an intricate buzz cut pushed through the doors leading to the ICU, “Kix!”

Kix’s white coat billowed out behind him as he strode over to the desk and smiled down at Fives, “And this little one must be Fives.”

Fives tried to mirror Kix’s cheery expression but fell short as his attention turned on the door swing shut behind the man. To quell any temptations of running off through the ICU looking for Echo, Rex put a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Kix walked behind the desk and leaned down to whisper something to the man. The clerk’s face turned a little pale as Kix pulled away to smile at Rex and Fives, but he nodded and began typing away on his computer.

“I cut a little deal for you two,” Kix said, motioning for them to follow him through the door.

Fives looked up at Rex and Rex nodded his permission to follow Kix into the ICU. The boy smiled and ran to catch up.

Rex looked over at the clerk. He was deliberately avoiding eye contact and his hands trembled at the keyboard. Rex sighed out a sympathetic “thanks” to the poor man before following after Fives. He sometimes forgot how scary Kix could be.

The ICU was full of doctors, nurses, technicians, patients and visitors, and others Rex couldn’t quite place. Most moved with purpose and didn’t give the trio a second glance, but a few workers shot Kix inquisitive looks. None of them approached them though.

They took a few turns before Kix stopped outside a bathroom and ushered them inside, “We have to get all cleaned up before we see Echo.”

Fives nodded in understanding and began washing his hands at the sink. Rex and Kix joined him and soon Kix was ushering them back out the door.

“Now Fives,” Kix started as he stopped again outside a room. “I know it’s going to be really hard, but it’s important that when we go in to see Echo you don’t touch anything, okay?”

Fives nodded.

“No touching any of the machines and definitely no touching Echo.”

Fives looked up at Rex before turning back to Kix and nodding again.

“It’s because he had a lot of surgeries and if he got sick or hurt right now, it would be really bad, so we don’t want him to get sick because we spread him our germs.”

Fives nodded again.

“And it’s really important if you start to feel sick that you leave the room as soon as you can and try to make it to the bathroom.”

“Okay,” Fives said in a small voice.

Kix nodded and opened the door, walking in before Fives could sneak his way past, and situating himself in the far corner of the room.

After Rex shut the door behind him, he was met with a dim room, the only light coming from behind closed blinds and the lights on the countless machines hooked up to a small body lying on the bed under papery white sheets. Fives stood motionless at the foot of the bed. Rex made his way over to the boy and put his hand on his shoulder. Fives looked up and Rex saw tears spilling down his cheeks.

“Here, come here,” Rex said softly, picking up the boy carefully.

As soon as Fives was in Rex’s arms, he wrapped his limbs around him, holding on for dear life and trembling with each sob. Rex stepped over to a chair at Echo’s bedside and sat down, carding his hand through Fives’s hair as he held him.

At Echo’s bedside Rex had a much better view of Fives’s sleeping twin. They looked identical, the only differences being Echo’s slightly shorter hair and the noticeable lack of lumps under the covers where his legs and right arm should have been.

Fives sobbed into Rex’s shirt loudly and Rex grimaced, “How are you feeling, Fives? Do we need to step out for a bit?”

“N-no!” Fives shouted, squeezing Rex harder.

At Fives’s shout Echo’s whole body seemed to convulse and Rex looked to Kix, thinking maybe the boy was having a seizure. Kix didn’t look up from Echo’s body, but he also didn’t move to help, so Rex turned his attention back on the boy in the bed. His eyes were open now, but looked glassy and unfocused, staring towards the ceiling. He looked dead.

Fives’s turned his head from Rex’s shoulder to face his brother, “Ech- Echo?”

Echo’s eyes didn’t move, but he did open his mouth in response, and panicked but hoarse and weak words spilled out, “We- we need to get to the wall to escape the citadel. No. I’ll go first. No. No. No! N-”

“Echo,” Rex interrupted softly as Fives buried his head back into Rex’s shirt and let out a wave of fresh sobs.

The boy stopped babbling, but his breathing became more and more labored.

Rex wanted to pull the injured boy into his embrace as well, but refrained, “Fives came to see you. Fives is here.”

Rex extracted Fives from his torso and turned the boy around so he would be facing Echo before placing him back down in his lap.

“Fives…” Echo said drowsily, almost as if he were in a trance.

“Echo, I’m here,” Fives said tenderly, though his voice was still shaky from the tears.

“Fives.”

“I’m here.”

“Fives?” Echo shifted his head and locked eyes with his brother.

“Eh-Echo!” Fives tried to reach out to his brother, but Rex restrained him. “You’re okay!”

Echo flinched away from the noise and Fives looked from his brother to Rex with a hurt expression.

“It’s too loud for him,” Kix explained. “Sometimes that happens when you hurt your head. We just need to be quieter.”

“Sorry,” Fives whispered.

Echo turned back to Fives, brow scrunched and eyes searching his brother’s face, “What- what happened? Where are we?”

“You got hurt,” Fives supplied. “We’re in the hospital.”

Echo began to look panicked.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” Rex said. He needed the boy to hear that, even if he probably didn’t believe it yet.

Surprisingly the words seemed to calm the injured boy down, so much so that he drifted back off to sleep.

Fives twisted to look at Rex, confused, “W-why’d he go back sleep? He- he just woke up.”

“He has to get a lot of sleep right now because his body is healing.”

Fives turned back to Echo and Kix walked over to the bed and adjusted the blankets to fit around the boy more snuggly.

“Should we let him get his rest?” Rex asked the doctor.

Kix nodded, “We can talk in the waiting room with Cody if you want.”

“Cody’s still here?” Rex said incredulously, standing with Fives in his arms to follow Kix out the door. “I told him to go home and get some rest.”

Kix shrugged, leading them out into the hallway, “I told him the same thing.”

The trio made their back to the waiting room quickly and found Cody dosing in one of the corners.

“Cody,” Rex said as he sat in the free seat next to his brother.

Cody woke with a start, then locked eyes with Rex, “Sorry, I must have fallen asleep.”

Rex shrugged, “I told you to go home anyway.”

“Didn’t want the kid to be alone.” Cody looked from Rex to Kix, “How is he?”

Kix crossed his arms in front of him and leaned against the wall, “All things considered, he’s doing really well.”

Fives looked up at Rex from his perch on his lap, eyes full of hope.

Kix continued: “The good news is so far the surgeries seem to have gone successfully and he appears to be on the mend. We have him on a morphine drip for now to keep him comfortable, but I’m hoping we can get the dosage lower soon. The broken ribs and concussion all we can recommend is rest. For the legs and arm, once he’s feeling well enough that he can stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, we’ll start physical therapy. It’s going to be a long and painful road to recovery, and even with the best of the best, there’s no guarantee he’ll ever walk again.”

Rex and Cody nodded simultaneously with matching grim expressions.

“When can we- When can he leave?” Fives asked, looking to Rex for the answer.

Rex looked to Kix, who responded to the boy in an even tone, “We’d like to get him moved to the regular part of the hospital in a few days. Then he’ll probably stay there for around another week if things continue to go well. After that he’ll be able to go home.”

“Can we see him again?” Fives asked in a small voice.

Kix smiled, “Once we move him to the hospital you can visit him any time you like. Does that sound okay?”

Fives nodded.

“Do you have any other questions?”

The boy shook his head slowly.

Rex had so many, but he was not sure all of them were suited for Fives’s ears, so he kept his mouth shut and shook his head, “Thank you, Kix.”

“Don’t mention it,” Kix smiled cheekily. “It’s my job.”

Cody snorted.

Kix pointedly ignored Cody’s obvious eyerolling, “If anything comes up, you already have my number.”

As Kix weaved his way out of the waiting room Cody stretched back in his chair and turned to Rex, “How’s everything going with you two?”

“Good,” Rex said, looking down at the small boy in his lap. As Kix would say, all things considered, things were going surprisingly well. Fives seemed to trust him—as long as he wasn’t yelling at him—and was fairly easily calmed down with physical contact. Rex could tell Fives was a good kid and already knew he would do anything for the boy’s happiness.

Cody nodded, then turned to Fives, a slight upturn to his lips, “He treating you okay?”

Fives nodded vigorously, “He let me sleep in a real bed and we made pancakes! Do you know what pancakes are?”

Cody’s eyes flicked to Rex’s for a millisecond in what Rex could only assume was horror, before they focused back on Fives, feigning innocence, “No. What’s a pancake?”

Five’s face lit up, “It’s a food that you make from a box. You mix it all up and then pour it in a pan and you get to flip it! Then you eat it when it’s done. And you get to put syrup on it!”

Fives was breathless by the end of his choppy explanation.

“Was it good?”

Fives nodded in an exaggerated movement.

“I’ll have to try it sometime then,” Cody said, standing from his seat.

Rex stood as well, depositing Fives at his feet, “Echo’s in good hands, you should go home, Cody.”

Cody nodded, “What’s your plan for the day?”

“Give you a ride back to the station, then I think we might go to the store and get Fives and Echo some things they’ll need.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Cody praised as they walked towards the exit. “If you need any help, Kix said Hardcase is suspended again this week. Give the kid something to do.”

Rex searched Cody’s face for any hints on what possibly could have happened this time, but Cody just shook his head sadly.

Rex sighed, “We’ll pick him up on the way to the mall.”

@marierg @stressed-cherry @ffdemon @renton6echo @bambambunny @tearfulsolace @rndmpeep @brokenphoenix99 @nerdy-valkyrie @xylionet @tazmbc1 @eyayah123

#poor babies #next chapter will be a little lighter #clone wars #tcw #the clone wars #captain rex #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives #clone trooper echo #clone trooper fives #commander cody #domino twins #baby dominos #superlarva #star wars

307 notes · View notes