CHOI YURIKO GIVES GREAT ADVICE.

As it turns out, when you become a superhero after being bitten by spider, the best way to get around is to act like one.

When he created a web in the sewers and awaited the arrival of New York City's latest atrocity, he really didn't expect his former mentor to attempt to waterboard him in the sewers and rip three large gashes on his chest. Did he have a real plan in mind? Not really but he did gain new insight on what level threat his enemy truly is and that...that terrified him more than anything.

Never meet your hero's, right?

Yet as he climbed the brick coated building through the fire escapes, letting out occasional hisses of pain at the movement—he vowed to be the hero you can meet and be proud of. The hero who would remember your face or name, the hero who would carry out justice when the NYPD wouldn't, the hero who spoke kindly and helped children and elderly cross the street with no qualms or complaints.

He wanted to be someone everyone could look to for help, even when he needed it himself.

For a moment, he stayed quiet. He watched the dark haired girl get up from her little white desk and run over to her bedside drawer, pulling out a piece of paper before running back to her computer and typing away ferociously. As all memories and brain signals of pain slipped away, Peter Parker watched Imane Morris with a smile on his face and a bleeding chest. Tipping his head back and forth he tapped the glass screen with his forehead, giggling at the way she jumped from her skin at the sudden intrusion.

Imane rolled her eyes and walked over to the window, removing the lock to push it up. "What are you doing here?" She whispered, stepping away from the window to allow the red and blue covered hero into her bedroom.

"Got caught in a spiderweb." He joked, wincing at the way his ribs suddenly felt uncomfortable against his chest. Imane stopped him at the seat of her window and sat him down on the plush seat cover, pushing his shoulder back as she examined his open wound.

She sighed, "Peter..."

"I know, I know, it looks bad- but I swear I feel better than I look." She gave him a pointed look and walked over to her closet.

"Take off your suit."

Peter raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Oh? Can't take a lady to dinner first, Ms Morris?" Although he couldn't see it, he knew she had just rolled her eyes.

When she stood up, she held a yoga mat and a towel in her arms along with a mini med kit. She placed the mat down on the floor and rolled the towel into a makeshift pillow, holding Peter's hand after he slipped out of his suit and resting his head on the towel before finally opening the kit.

Silence permeated the room like hot chocolate on a winter day or the smell of pancakes in the morning, comforting, in a way, but Peter couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in it. Subconsciously, he wanted her to bug him with a series of questions and insults as to why he would ever do such a thing, but it never came. The bombardment of investigation never seemed to reach his ears as he let his eyes skim her features, grateful he was even in her presence.

Her flat yet upturned nose, her lips that pursed in concentration yet shone in the afterglow of her lipgloss. Her round chubby cheeks that never seemed to go away at the end trails of childhood but that made her face so uniquely hers.

There were no words in any language, it seemed, that could describe the way Peter Parker loves Imane Morris. No words that could come close to how he felt being in the same room as her, feeling that same schoolboy crush creep in every time their eyes connected, even for a moment before splitting off. How tears wanted to puddle his eyes because his heart didn't know how else to deal with such feelings.

How was he was to fill all his love in such a small body? How was he to fill his love in such a small time?

Forever was not enough. It would never be. Eternity came close but he was a firm believer that the universe would never let such soulmates let the confines of time break them apart. As a human, a dog, as a chicken or as a frog, he'd love her in every dimension, every universe, and every afterlife that religion has to offer as long as he'd be with her.

"Aren't you gonna ask me what happened?" He asked quietly, never hearing his own voice waver to such levels before. Not in the face of fear or violence, but in the gentle hands of such a enigmatic woman he'd known as his best friend.

"Not if you don't want me to." She responded, her voice just as quiet as his and her eyes escaping from the bloody sight into the puppy dog doe eyes of her unofficial lover who stared at her like she'd hung the sky and crafted each and every star in this galaxy by hand.

Still in silence, he raised his arm and rested his hand over her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her skin and feeling his heart contract in his chest when she leaned into it just as the white swans in the rivers did for one another. Two swans in a river, entangled in each other as the world passes on, some snapping photos and aw'ing at the sight but in those moments, nothing and nobody else mattered, just them.

"I'm sorry you have to see this. I know it's probably not the best thing to see your...best friend covered in blood and scratches I just- didn't know who else to turn to, I guess." Peter said, breaking the silence and letting his words spill out before he could really think— his usual bad habit.

"It's okay, I feel better knowing you're coming to me for help rather than...I don't know, anybody else." Imane shrugged, busying her hands with wiping down any dried blood to avoid Peters piercing gaze.

"Do you like me better when I'm covered in blood?" He joked lightheartedly, sliding his hand down from her cheek to her waist with a goofy grin stretched on his face.

"I like you better when you're just with me and no one else." She mumbled, trying to hide the smile growing on her face with her hair. Peter smiled once more, tilting his head to attempt to destroy any space between them.

"Why did you...kiss me...last time?" He whispered. Imane blinked and opened her mouth to respond, suddenly jumping out of her skin as a sharp knock on the door had the two teenagers pulling away from each other in an instant.

"Um...wh-who is it?" Imane asked, clearing her throat.

"The love of your life, open the door, Imane!" Groaned the person on the other side, sending another punch to the door.

She sighed and turned back to Peter, packing up the med kit. "Okay, you gotta go before he sees you." Running over to the door, Imane swung it open to be faced with her shorter brother who looked up at her with an annoyed gaze. "What do you want?"

"It's your turn to give gram her medicine, dipshit." Runako said, holding up the large white bag up to eye level and shaking it harshly to add emphasis on the amount of medicine was actually needed.

"Fuck you." Imane snatched the bag out of his hands and walked around him, making an emphasis on closing the door behind her, "And don't go in my room, Ko!"

"Whatever you say, sister!" He called out from behind her, smirking to himself when she rounded the corner and slowly twisting the gold doorknob, trying to be as discreet as possible. He slid his thin frame between the crack of the door and wall and peaked into the room, his eyes catching sight of a red color breezing past the window but choosing to ignore it and continue his search for things to steal back from her.

In another room, just around the corner to Imane's, an older woman laid in bed with her arms wrapped around herself and a look of disgust on her face.

authors note
          i made a tiktok Account to post my edits
          of TROH and if you came here from my
          tiktok...ily, that's all <3