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celestialrosesgarden · 3 months

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[SPIDER-MAN X READER] Silk Threads 1.6k words

Chapter One: New York State of Mind

The city was not made for everyone. While almost every person claimed they had a 'New York state of mind' after visiting just once, only a certain kind of person can truly capture New York's real essence. The hustle and bustle of the city was exciting for the few hours of a trip to Times Square and Central Park, but day after day could break a person down. Not to mention the current uptick in crime that began a few years ago that seemed to only be getting worse with every passing day. The city was not made for the weak; the tourists only experienced the glitz and glamour while every true New Yorker was forced to face the bad and ugly the city provided.

This led to where the girl was right now. The first day of classes of her sophomore year was complete, and while the biggest issue of her day should have been the pile of work she already had accumulated, she had found herself in a worse predicament. She scoffed as she shoved herself past the group of tourists that had decided to stand in the middle of the sidewalk discussing God-knows-what. Formalities that normally slipped past her lips had been retired the first couple weeks of her freshman year. Either people would not respond, or if they did, the person would harass her— men no matter the age took her niceties as flirting and tried to take advantage of the situation. The weirdos and jerks overruled the few nice, genuine few that roamed the city, and 'excuse me' became less frequent.

However, none of that matters right now. All that mattered was getting back to her apartment as soon as possible; Knocking out her work as quickly as possible so that she could cook dinner and watch a movie as she ate to unwind from the long day. This feat was starting to seem almost impossible, and despite her fast walking the path back to her home was taking far too long. If it weren't for the singular earbud in her ear playing one of her favorite songs at a soft tune she would have freaked already. Peering through the dark screen of her sunglasses, she quickened her pace at the site of her apartment building.

Almost there, just a few more minutes.

She readjusted the backpack that was starting to slouch off her shoulders; her fingers had barely run over the cloth of the straps before she was shoved to the ground. A hooded figure darted away; her brown backpack held tightly in his grasp. The crowd around her parted, quickly trying to get out of his way.

The city was not made for the weak, and today was proof of that. Despite living here for over a year, at the end of the day, she would never be strong enough to deal with the catcalls, the hustle, the tourists, and as of right now, the crime. She glanced up from her position to a young teen with a phone in hand recording her— and to rub salt into the wound, he was sporting an 'I love NY' t-shirt. Man, how she hated this city.

"You know, it's rude to take other people's things."

Her head snapped in the direction of the voice, the crowd furthering its spread more as this newcomer dropped down from the air. The thief froze at the sight of the masked vigilante rising from a crouched pose.

"Besides, that bag does not match you at all." He turned to the pedestrian next to him and leaned towards him. "Totally not his color," he shook his head.

The thief seemed to collect his bearings, quickly whipping out a knife from his pocket: "Back up, I'm not joking around! I'll—" he jutted the knife towards the blue and red spandex dawned man, causing the people around him to back up— "I'll stab you! Just let me go."

Spider-Man raised his hands as if to surrender. "Is that a knife? Is that a real knife?" He lowered himself to the ground, before raising his hands back up as if to defend himself. "My weakness. Small knives. Anything but knives!"

The thief stood there perplexed, consequently lowering his knife. Spider-Man quickly raised his hand and with a thwip, the hand holding the knife adhered to the wall behind him with the webbing.

"Hey! Let me go!" The thief raised his other hand to pull off the webbing. With another thwip, the other hand was stuck. The man continued to struggle, yelling out obscurities. The masked vigilante turned his back to the petty thief to face the civilians that surrounded him. He raised his hand so that his thumb was pointed to said criminal over his shoulder in a 'get a load of this guy' type of manner. He then webbed both his legs. He turned before raising his hand so that his index finger laid over his mouth to 'shh' him and webbing his mouth shut.

He walked over to the thief, plucking the girl's backpack up and carrying it over to her figure that was still lying on the floor— as he walked over, he pointed to the kid in the t-shirt that was still recording the fiasco. "Hey kid, why don't you call the police for me." All the kid could muster up was a quick nod before stopping his recording to call. It wasn't until he stood right before her that she snapped out of her daze. "Need a hand?"

Her mouth remained agape for a second before she grabbed his outstretched hand. He pulled her up quickly, and a slight pain ran across her palm up to her wrist. Perhaps he was able to see the rapid wince on her face, as he gently turned her hand over to observe the palm. "Looks like you took a pretty bad fall. Make sure you clean these cuts well and patch them up." He turned his head back up to her, those big white blobs of eyes staring back at her. When seconds passed with no response, he tilted his head slightly: "You good? You didn't hit your head, did you?"

She yanked her hand out of grasp, all thoughts returning back into her head. "Yes, no. I mean—" she slightly backed up from his tall stature which seemed awfully close to her— "Yes I'm good, and no I didn't hit my head. And I'll get these hands all cleaned up once I get home." Those white eyes of his seemed to widen at her frantic words, but to her relief did not comment on it.

He raised the brown backpack into her view, "I think this is yours." She nodded, grabbed the bag, and jumped at the sound of applause around them. Despite the crowd being there for the whole situation, she seemed to forget about their existence until now. Her first run-in with the masked vigilante in her time living in the city seemed to startle her more than she anticipated. She always assumed any run-in with him would be as a bystander, not the victim. "Honestly are you alright?"

She quickly turned her head back to him. "I'm so sorry. I've never been in a situation like this before and frankly," a slight laugh slipped past her lips, "I'm overwhelmed, to say the least. Sorry, by the way, for all the staring. I'm not like this normally."

He laughed, leaning his head back and placing both hands on his hips. "Oh, trust me, I'm used to it. I have that effect on people" he tossed her a wink, causing a genuine laugh to arise. She covered her lips with her hand and as she slightly shook her head. Well, wasn't he humble?

"Thank you, by the way. I need this bag, but I feel like if he got away, he really wouldn't be happy with what's in here." Spider-Man did that little head tilt again, and his eyes slightly squinted. "All I've got in here is my laptop and my organic chemistry notes and homework. He would've been so pissed."

He laughed; head tossed back. "Honestly, I don't know what he was expecting out of a backpack other than schoolwork. But no need for thank you, it's all in a day's work for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." He looked down at her before looking at the ground, stopping low to grab objects. He straightened his back before holding the items out, "I believe these are also yours."

In his hand lay her earbud and sunglasses which must have fallen off when she was shoved. She grabbed both, placing the sunglasses on top of her head and putting the earbud into its case. She looked back up at him, eyes softening, and gently spoke: "Thank you."

He seemed to almost respond before the sound of a siren cut him off, "Well that's my cue. Just talk to the police real quick about what happened, and you can go. And try to stay out of trouble." She nodded before turning to peer at the blinding flashing lights from the cop cars that seemed to be getting closer. She lowered her glasses back onto her face to help ease the pain of the bright lights, before turning back to the masked hero.

"Got it. I think I can manage that; thank you again." She looked into those reflective big white eyes of his mask and watched as he turned his head. He raised his hand and with a thwip, he shot a web onto a nearby building.

He turned back, and the girl waited for his words— as if he would say the most groundbreaking, life-changing worlds to her. "Nice shades." And with that he was off, swinging from building to building until he disappeared out of sight. What a bizarre day. New York City was definitely not made for the weak.

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