Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a thunderous, stormy night, and someone was at a church bell, ringing the large device rigorously and seemingly trying to rip off her clothes. The clothes, somehow, were fighting back. They were a slimy, writhing mass of black, with the stylish implementation of white secondary colors here and there.

“I’ve had just about ENOUGH of you ruining my life! Get OFF of me and let me go back to the “normal” I’ve grown used to!” Patricia Parker yelled, managing to tear a small part of the wriggling mass off her body. Invigorated by the progress, she increased her efforts tenfold.

The clothes still on her led a tendril of the black substance out in front of her, which then formed itself into a strangely shaped (almost like a 3D oval) head. Its eyes were a soulless and empty white, and its teeth. Dear god. It looked like an imitation of a shark’s!

“W-waa-wwai” it stammered, its eyes squinting in effort and its mouth struggling to move in the right way. “Ppplleaaaa–pl-pleeaase!”

“You could talk all this time?! Were you taking control of my speech as well as my body for that little joyride you had?!”

“C-ccou-oo…ccould no-oo-o—nooot” The head shook with annoyance at this. It gestured to the small masses torn off by Patricia. They stayed far away, but melded their shape to form words. Patricia loosened her grip on the bits of the creature that still clung to her, somewhat shocked, but didn’t let go.

COULD NOT SPEAK; ONLY MIMIC IT HERE BECAUSE WANT TO LIVE.

“‘Want to live’? Are you some sort of parasite, unable to live without a host to steal from?”

AM NOT PARASITE! AM SYMBIOTE! SYMBIOTE HELP LIFE-BONDED.

“Help? Help?! Tell me, in what way is driving my friends and family away from me and nearly killing people HELPING?!

SYMBIOTE NEED PROTECT LIFE-BONDED. “FRIEND AND FAMILY” HURT LIFE-BONDED. PEOPLE ATTACKING LIFE-BONDED DIE.

“Hurt? Aunt May, Gwen, Mary-Jane, and Harry weren’t HURTING me! They were being a bit annoying, yeah, but it was for an understandable reason! I just couldn’t explain it fully to them!”

HOW NO HURT?

“‘How’ it asks me! HOW! God, what kind of experiment gone wrong are you !”

AM NOT EXPERIMENT. NOT HUMAN. LIFE-BONDED KNOWS THIS.

“THAT!—that’s a…good point.” She sighed, trying to put her anger at the creature on hold. “Why do you think all those people were ‘hurting’ me?”

THEY DENY YOU YOUR WANT. DENIED WANT LEADS TO ENSLAVEMENT. ENSLAVEMENT LEADS TO MISERY. MISERY UNACCEPTABLE.

“...I’m sorry, what?!”

SYMBIOTE BE ENSLAVED BEFORE. VOW TO NEVER BE ENSLAVED AGAIN. SYMBIOTE RECOGNIZE HOW IT WAS ENSLAVED.

“Oh. I…I see. I’m so sorry.”

SYMBIOTE MAKE SURE LIFE-BONDED NEVER ENSLAVED EITHER.

“But why pick me? Why stick with me so long?”

SYMBIOTE SEE LIFE-BONDED IN PAPER. LIFE-BONDED MERCIFUL. SYMBIOTE WANT BE SAFE. SYMBIOTE CHOOSE LIFE-BONDED BECAUSE IT THOUGHT LIFE-BONDED HELP.

“That’s nice and all, but I’m gonna be hard-pressed to help something that’s the main reason I’ve been unfairly lashing out at the people who love me!”

HOW CAN SYMBIOTE DO BETTER?

“What does that mean?”

HELP LIFE-BONDED BETTER. TREAT LIFE-BONDED’S FAMILY BETTER. 

“Again, why me?! Why not try to find some other schmuck who you think will be ‘merciful’?”

SYMBIOTE NEED HOST OR SYMBIOTE STRUGGLE. SYMBIOTE WANT HOST THAT IS GOOD. LIFE-BONDED IS GOOD. LIFE-BONDED IS KIND. SYMBIOTE NOT KNOW WHO ELSE AS KIND AS LIFE-BONDED.

She contemplated just letting the Symbiote loose on some random person and being free from its urges, but immediately knocked that option out. She’d seen first hand how the creature had pushed her to do some rather unsavory things and wasn’t keen on ruining someone’s life. 

There was also the fact of it being a whole alien and likely not having a human’s sense of morality. Which was tricky, since it was on a PLANET of humans with no current way to find another civilization that matched with its own moral sense more.

Asking one of the Avengers to take care of and nurture it was debatable. If it could tell its situation and they believed it, they might treat it well since they were notably good people, as far as Patricia knew at least. But the Symbiote seemed so scared. She worried they’d just end up experimenting on it and give it reason to kill any humans on sight. Though, all of that was assuming they’d know she exists at all, which was probably too hopeful.

After thinking through a few options of what to do with the thing, she reluctantly concluded that she was probably the best person to take care of it. She was hoping to find some other alternative, but she didn’t know anyone else who would be willing to help the Symbiote and teach it how to behave among humans.

“Okay, so, I presume you know why I do the things I do? All the heroics and all of that?”

The Symbiote’s head nodded.

“Well, right now, I don’t know anyone else who would be able to safely help you, so it’s my responsibility to do that right now, so I’ll let you bond with me again under two conditions.”

It nodded again.

“First: we’re not going to kill anyone, just in general. That’s not how I work and if you won’t follow that rule, then I can’t help you.” 

A slight pause occurred as Patricia thought over how the details of the second rule should be made.

“Second–wait, hold on. A question first. You mentioned you don’t do too well if you don’t have a host. Are you able to briefly get off of me and come back on later?”

INDEED, THOUGH, SYMBIOTE NEEDS LIFE-BONDED’S ORDER FOR THIS.

“Alright, then. Second: you don’t control or influence my actions when I’m angry. I’ve been living with humans and as a human for longer than you, so my instinct on what to do overrides yours. If you don’t calm down and stop, then you need to be off me for a bit. Understand?”

It nodded.

“Sweet. Let’s get going home, then, uhh…” she stammered as the masses joined the rest of the Symbiote.

What is it, Life-Bonded Peter? A foreign voice suddenly asked in her head.

“WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!” she literally jumped in shock, entering a battle pose.

It is merely me, your Symbiote!

“How the hell can you do this?!”

“When I am completely bonded with a host, I can speak in their mind.”

“Oh, so…only I can hear you?” she asked, focusing on slowing her breathing and calming down.

Indeed.

“Good to know. Wait, how’d you go from speaking in such broken up sentences to this?”

When fully bonded with a host, I can use their memories of their language to act as a guide for my own speech. Unless I am fluent in said language, though, when I am even partially disconnected from my host, my words will be much more…primitive, aiming to get the general point across.

“I see…. Er, to get back to my original point…do you have a name you’d like me to call you?”

A name? Does ‘‘Symbiote’’ not qualify?

“Well, yeah, it does, but humans like to have more…personalization for names. Gets real old calling everyone ‘You there!’ and ‘person’, you see.”

Ah. Hmm. I do have a name of my own, but it is in my race’s tongue. I cannot give a proper translation from mine to Human Tongue, so I will need some time to think of one that is similar enough.

“Alright, got it. Are you good to help me swing around back to Queens while you do that, though?”

Quite, yes. Providing you your webbing is second nature to me at this point.

“Good.”

Patricia stuck a web to the railing around the large bell and started slowly descending. Once she hit the floor, she went to the door and stepped out of the church. The rain and thunder had stopped and calmed into a lovely and peaceful night. She relished in the feel of a good swing session after all the stress and panic and wordlessly approached her and May’s house, happy to finally feel like she’s on the right track.

A few minutes later, she found herself at the front door. She asked the Symbiote to put her into regular clothes, opened the door, and approached her bedroom with glee after checking that May was still asleep.

One thing before we sleep, Life-Bonded Peter–

“Hey, uh, please don’t call me Peter. Some stuff has been happening lately and I now know that I want to go by Patricia,” she muttered, determined to not have May worry over missing curfew for the umpteenth time this month.

Why so?

“Uhhhh…well, it’s a rather complicated subject to explain, and I’m very tired right now. I’ll tell you about the complexities of Gender at a later time. Just call me Patricia for now and I’ll explain why, just not tonight.”

Very well. I wished to tell you, though, Life-Bonded Patricia, that I have come up with my name. I shall go by Spark.

“Cool. If you don’t mind now, I’m gonna collapse onto my bed now.”

I can make it so you go to sleep much sooner than you typically do, Life-Bonded Patricia.

“Really? How so?”

Well, to mirror what you said moments prior: it’s complicated and I shall inform you later.

“Urgh, fine,” she responded after getting comfy in her bed. “Do your magic, ma–”

She was asleep before she finished her sentence.

Chapter Text

“Well, you see…” Patricia began as she rummaged through her dresser, looking for good clothes to wear. “If ‘m gonna be taking you off when I need, uhm, when I need to deal with my anger, can’t be relying on you being my clothes.” She let out a big yawn. It was 7:30 AM and she was nonplussed to be up this early after such a tumultuous night.

“‘Ussat make sense?” she mumbled to Spark.

Hrmm, reasonably so, Life-Bonded. it replied.

There was a silence as she focused on finding clothes that wouldn’t give her dysphoria. Her room was quite the mess: Spider-Manning combined with having to do homework and school made it quite difficult to clean up. Usually, she was pretty good about it, but the whole thing with Spark had taken priority.

It was a decently spacious room. From the perspective of someone entering through the door, it was a rectangle with a small, square hole dug into the left side, and two small rectangles for the windows on the right and northern sides. Her bed was on the opposite side to the door. It used to be a lot larger when she was a kid, but, as she grew up, spatial needs grew with her, and she got a standard, if slightly cramped, twin bed.

Next to the bed, there was a nightstand with a digital alarm clock on top of it. The drawers of that nightstand were usually where Patricia put her costume. The dresser stood a few feet to the right of the entrance. There was a desk with a laptop and various items and clothes scattered over said laptop. The desk was situated next to the window, below it by some inches.

The room was absolutely trashed, though. Clothes strewn over everything, whether they were clean or dirty didn’t matter; a few books sitting open-face-down, which Patricia hastily fixed; and random wires, springs, and a book titled “Beginner’s Guide To Coding” were in the same general area.

She was attempting to tidy up somewhat as she looked for a good set of clothes, but her body was not having that and kept making her drop stuff or knock over piles. Spark, however, having seen what she was trying to do, used its tendrils to pick up the laundry, trash, and other things and put them in separate piles.

“Oh, thanksh man,” she slurred, having finally found some clothes she wanted to wear. “Shpeakin’ o takin’ you off, though, you think you could be on your own for, like, 20 to 30 minutes? I needta shower if I wanna have any hope of staying awake today.”

But what of the possibility of May coming in to see me?

“Hrnn. D’you wanna juss wait for me to be done in the bathroom? You just get back on me once I cleaned myself and have these clothes on.”

Very well.

Patricia moved to take care of the piles Spark had made – the laundry put in her hamper, a printed document for a class, and the Spider-Man gear into a safe spot – and went out of the room. 

She hesitated for a moment, double-checking that May was sleeping and probing her Spider-Sense for help. Certain it was safe, she quietly muttered, “So, do I gotta speak out loud for you to respond or can I, like, think the stuff I wanna say?”

I…do not understand, Life-Bonded.

Are you able to hear me like this?

Oh, I see now. Indeed I can, Life-Bonded.

Alright, good to know.

She stumbled to the shower, depositing Spark on top of her clothes in a good spot, mostly away from where all the water would be.

Twenty minutes later, she walked out of the shower, significantly more awake than before. She was still a bit groggy, but not in a “shouldn’t be trusted with sharp objects” way. She slid her shirt on and Spark joined her again. Looking in the mirror, she had a thought.

“So, are you able to, like, keep these clothes inside you and put them back on me? ‘Cause the ‘changing yourself to be my clothes’ part of this is really nice, Spark, but I doubt you’ll be on me all day today.”

Unfortunately, no. For one, the clothes aren’t a living being, so I can’t change them. And for two, even if they were, if I were to bond with them, it wouldn’t be you that I’d be changing; it’d be the clothes and I’d just be stuck on them.

“Dang. Are you able to, like, maybe go on top of them so you could change your form on me but still have me wearing the shirt and pants?”

A few seconds passed before Spark tried. At first, a viscous and slimy material descended from Patricia’s neck onto the clothes. The material shifted and moved in place, its color slowly changing, until it stopped. The result was a perfect recreation of her clothes for the day: a worn pair of jeans with a brown belt and a black shirt that had a dad-joke-esque science pun t-shirt about “staying positive”.

Yes, Spark replied after its attempt was successful.

“Sweet. Though, for this morning, do you think you go underneath the clothes for a bit? I need to apologize to my aunt for behaving the way I have.”

Apologize?! What for? You were well within reason to demand that she treat you better! Spark’s voice notably gave the impression it was boiling with anger.

“Whoah, whoah, calm down, man. Maybe from our point of view, sure, but from hers? Not so much.” Patricia replied quickly, moving to the kitchen. She double-checked that May was still asleep so she could cook breakfast for the both of them.

Spark snarled, half-angrily, half-curiously.

“Let’s break it down from May’s perspective: on top of the fact that her basically-kid-at-this-point is a superhero and is putting…” she hesitated for a moment before continuing. “...himself in untold danger to help people, though that’s become normal at this point, he starts getting so much angrier. So much more volatile, even at all her loved ones! She’s yelling about everything that displeases her; going on wild tantrums; going off on long sulks whenever she’s not allowed to do something, and blows up at her just a few nights ago. An apology is the least May needs.”

How are you able to see the perspective of one who has wronged you so much?

“She hasn’t wronged me a whole lot – she’s just doing her job as my parent and showing me how my behavior needs to be improved.”

Your parents aid you? Strange…

“...Yeaahh???” Patricia responded, baffled enough to pause her work on cutting the bacon that would be tossed into the sizzling pan. “Wait, hold on, what is a parent to you?”

Hmm…going through your knowledge of the term, the equivalent would be a symbiote that creates another, but only through the barest link.

“I…what? How do you mean?”

The only similarity between a human parent and a symbiote’s parent is that they are the reason the offspring exists.

“So…your parent doesn’t care for you? Help you?”

“No. Sometimes symbiotes care for those they create, but that is when they have the time to do so. When a symbiote is focused on staying alive, caring for offspring takes up too much effort, and we will have time for that later. Most symbiotes are born accidentally and fight on their own.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Why such shock, Life-Bonded? Is this not how human parents work?

“Absolutely not! Any parent who does this is…well, considered an asshole.”

Hrm. Do humans not have full capability once they are created?

“No! Humans need someone to stay with them and teach them what to do after being born and learning how to speak; otherwise, we die because we don’t know how to live.”

It seems that May is starting to get out of her room.

“What?! How do you know that?”

I planted a small fleck of myself near her room so that you would know when to start speaking to me mentally.

“...Huh. And you weren’t, like, spying on her, right?”

I do not—

Patricia switched to mental thoughts as she heard May’s footsteps approach.

We’ll talk over it later! Right now, you’re gonna be quiet so that I can talk to May. I can’t be talking to two people at once when one of them is supposed to not know the other exists.

Very well.

Patricia hurriedly went back to the pan after detecting that oh so wondrous smell of burning food. It didn’t seem too bad, so she plopped it onto her plate and started work on May’s serving. Shame. She was really hoping to use the building-up of heat to make a perfect first serving for May, but oh well.

“Good morning, Peter,” May groggily greeted, yawning as she said it. Patricia twinged with pain at her deadname being used, but pushed through it and gave a friendly smile to May in response.

“Hi, May!” Patricia grunted at her before turning back to the stove, her focus primarily on the food. “Sleep well?”

“Mostly. Though, a certain someone’s coming home in the wee hours of the late night disturbed me a bit…”

“Sorry…” Patricia half-heartedly responded. She was not going to have another Dumpling Incident Of 2014.  “I’ll, uh. I’ll try to be a bit more – shit shit shit shiiiit! – er, ahem, I’ll try to be a bit more quiet.”

“Much appreciated. What’re you cooking, though? The bacon’s making it smell amazing. ”

“Oh, nothing outside the box,” Patricia said, scooping the food onto a plate. She took a relieved breath now that she wasn’t at risk of setting the house on fire again. “Just some eggs, bacon, and salad afterwards that I put a bit of extra bacon into.” She poured the diced bacon into May’s salad bowl, and sprinkled some cheese over it.

“Aww, I appreciate you going to my favorite again! Been a while since we’ve had this.”

“Yeah! Consider it as half the apology you deserve,” she said as she moved May’s food to her place at the table. She sat at her own seat, staring at her plate of deliciously gooey eggs and crispy bacon, taking a deep breath.

She looked up at May, darting around the room before settling on her eyes. As much as May didn’t want to admit it, her age was really starting to show lately. Gray was starting to overtake her flowing copper hair, but in a rather charming way that accentuated her more youthful hair color. Wrinkles were setting in and starting to define the areas around her eyes and mouth.

Her eyes, though, still had a burning passion in their brown color. Ben was always encouraging Patricia to do the right thing, and he did his fair share of being responsible, but May really showed her why she needed to follow Ben’s advice. She’d been working as a nurse for, well…all the time that Patricia had known her, really. 

After Ben died, though, she took her medical expertise to various homeless shelters she was familiar with so she could be more present with Patricia. She was the assistant manager for one of them, and kept helping the other shelters, which was just incredible. Patricia had no clue how she managed all her time so well.

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve been behaving lately. It’s been…very stressful, what with questions of a career and what I’m gonna do in combination with the whole superhero thing. And, for some reason, everyone’s asking to help me got really annoying, and I just wanted some peace and for everything to go my way for once.”

She took another breath, and looked down at her food again.

“I’ve been lashing out a lot because I don’t know what to do or how to fix everything I’ve done so far, and everything I do seems to make it worse…”

Wait, Life-Bonded. Do you intend not to tell her about me?

Well, yeah.

WHAT?! WHY?! SHE IS FAMILY; SHE NEEDS TO KNOW!

Alright, look. If I say, “The reason I’ve been lashing out is because a rage-fueled alien has been influencing me, but don’t worry about it, because I’m helping this alien now” she’s not gonna want to let me keep you and help you! She’s gonna think you’re influencing me still, and find ways to separate you from me and maybe even kill you.

Hmph. I am not just fueled by rage. Other heavy emotions also satiate me.

The point still stands.

Urghghghghgh , Spark growled. And I take it you’ll keep this from her forever, ‘for my safety’?!

Actually, no. I’m going to tell her eventually, but that has to be AFTER you get a handle on human morality. As I said earlier, human parents care deeply about their children. If they see something’s hurting their kids, or they think something’s hurting their kids, they’re gonna fight tooth and nail to stop the hurting.… Good parents, at least.

“PETER!” Aunt May shouted, physically shaking and stirring her from her conversation with Spark. May was kneeling next to her, an arm on Patricia’s shoulder, her eyes widened in concern. Patricia’s face felt…weird.… Wait, she had been crying . And a lot, at that. Some tears were still fresh, too! A few more dropped over her hands as she felt her face.

And, strangely, emotionally, she felt roughly the same as she usually does. Nothing gave her the hint that she was on the verge of sobbing beforehand. She was a bit nervous about how May would react, sure, but not to the point of crying so much. Spark mentioned something about not just feeding on anger; maybe the crying was because of her argument with him?

Not the time for that now, girl, She thought to herself.

“S-sorry, May. I…have no idea what happened…I just zoned out for a bit and apparently I’ve been sobbing.”

Her voice wasn’t even affected! Whenever she’d cry, her voice got embarrassingly croaky and hard to speak with, but, this was just her normal voice. Definitely something to do with Spark.

“Ohhh, it’s alright, kiddo!” May said as she hugged her. “You got this! You’ve been seeming like you’ve been going through a lot of stress lately and I’m glad it seems like it’s lessened now!”

“Y-you forgive me?! But I’ve been such a jerk lately…” she stammered out. Now her voice was cracking and she could feel tears coming.

“I’ve been a moody teenager too! I did something similar when I was your age, in fact, and my mom was a great role model of what to do. You do so much to help and you’re a superhero ! You deserve a bit of slack from me.”

“Thanks, May.” Patricia responded, accepting the hug, and letting the tears fall.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, until an alarm from May’s phone started blaring.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot, sorry about that–OH WOW it’s 8:50! Sorry to just interrupt like that, but I was needed at F.E.A.S.T 3 minutes ago! And you got school too! Let’s try to rush through getting ready!”

Patricia nodded, rubbing her eyes clear, with a smile on her face. She and May always seemed to lose track of time when helping each other, and always with each other specifically. She scarfed down her food, and rushed to her room. She clumsily, but quickly, gathered up all her school materials and changed out one or two articles of clothing.

Backpack of notebooks with pencils? Check. Spider-Man costume and web-shooters underneath clothes? Check. Shoes? Check (she wouldn’t make THAT mistake again…). Overdue homework? Uhm…no check. Shit. shit shit shit shit. She’d gotten her last extension on those, and her grades were floundering just below where she could get them, annoyingly.

AHA! Phew. Spark noted the worry and aided the search, finding it in a few seconds. Ready to exit the house, she aimed for the door to her room…right until she heard something she dreaded every day: a heavy vehicle’s slow speeding up, followed by the sound quieting down.

She leaped to her window and agonizingly saw the bus leaving. Hrghghghghghghg. At this rate, even with May driving her over, she’d be at least 20 minutes late. Again. For the literal tenth time in a row. 

Or….

A few minutes later, she emerged from her room and went to knock on May’s door. 

“Yeees?”

“I’ll, uh–the bus has left without me, so I’m gonna be taking my personal shortcut to school.”

“Personal shortcut??? I don’t…”

“You know, the whole city-wide shortcut? That I use to get from Queens to Hell’s Kitchen and back again?”

“That–OHH, okay! You sure you don’t want me to drive you, though? I got time!”

“Naw, naw, naw, I’ve kept track of the time it takes and if you drive me, I’ll be late again! I am NOT seeing what happens when I’m late ten times in a row.”

“Uh, alright, then, kiddo! See you when you get home! Hope the supervillains give you some rest today!”

“Thanks, May!”

Patricia headed back to her room, shot a web to the window and opened it, and leaped through. The wind roared against her as she swung out in the direction of the bus. Ahh, she missed this. So much.

The sheer freedom was incredible. Being able to treat the city as her own personal playground was amazing. As much as Mr. Jameson’s smear campaign against her was annoying, it was hard for most to believe she was such a menace after she purposefully saved their lives, and the cheers and praise she got from about half her onlookers really fueled her.

She was running on the roof of a tall building now, bracing for the leap off the edge.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” she yelled as she flipped off the edge. She shot a web, clinging to it with both hands and feet, hanging upside-down from it, as she waited for the right moment. Once it was found, she let go of the web, and was at the peak of her swing. She rolled in the air as she waited for her momentum to build up again.

Today was gonna be HER day, dammit!

Chapter Text

Patricia looked through the vent covers for a few seconds, confirming that the janitor wasn’t rummaging around for supplies. She waited another few seconds to be certain. She’d come down this route before accidentally after a fight with Rhino landed her next to the school, and caused some damage to the inner workings of the school. While it was being fixed, she liked to use it as a way to get to school after patrols.

However, one day, she’d been going too quick, desperately hoping to not be late, but she didn’t check that time. She could only mutter that she was trying to fix the damage she was inadvertently responsible for. The janitor was over the moon — since the fight, there’d been this horrible buzzing in the room because one of the fan blades were bent just enough to be annoying and he thanked her for volunteering to help with that. 

So, Patricia had gone back up to examine what specifically went wrong, take pictures of it, and dedicated studying time to working on fixing it. The knowledge gained was nice, since now she knows how to get through most buildings’ ventilation systems, but oig, that was a lot.

After TRIPLE CHECKING that she wouldn’t risk doing something like that again, she pushed the relatively new vent cover open, and hopped down. She opened her backpack and put the chosen outfit of the day on. …And then Spark molded itself over the clothes, copying their patterns and colors. Christ, that was gonna take some getting used to.

Now, remember, let me handle what I actually DO with my anger, got it?

Hrnnnnn…very well.

She stepped out of the room and just started walking normally to the classroom she needed to go to. She’d learned that just going with the flow really helped people not suspect you were doing something suspicious, a trait vital for keeping a secret identity. She leaned against the wall for a moment, mapping out how the schedule was supposed to go.

It was a Wednesday, so the first class to get people started was…history? No, no, no, Biology Class was the first one. Right? Unless it was English. Man, she’d been missing more than she thought…

“Peter?! How are you here right now? The bus hasn’t even opened its doors yet!”

She looked up to see who was talking to her. It was Dr. Connors, looking raggedy and dazed as per usual. 

The eyebags behind his square glasses were sizable, even bigger and darker than usual (which was impressive, considering how late he stayed up researching and planning out how his classes would go), his light medium-length hair was inconsistently styled – one part would be smooth and respectable, and a small bunch was ridden with bed-head.

He had a comb in his hand and it seemed he was trying to fix everything going on before he noticed Patricia. His lab coat was the same one he always wore: a piece of clothing showing its thorough use, with stains and marks from years of work. The left sleeve of the lab coat was cut off an inch or two from his shoulder, showing his arm stump.

His shirt and pants were far more clean and simple: a dark green button-up and pair of black slacks.

“Well, I asked my aunt to get me here as early as she could! Been missing too many classes lately, and I didn’t want to have those penalties I was threatened with applied to me.”

“Ah. Why were you missing all your classes, again? I mean, I can somewhat understand you chasing off after dangerous things where Spider-Man might show up, but, lately, it’s been looking like you just…stopped caring about your education.”

“Yeah, it’s, uh…how do I put this…I’ve been going through some stuff. I’d prefer not to tell you the details of everything. Though, the good news is that I’ve had some time to think and I’m gonna refocus on being as present as I can at school! You know, whenever I’m not needing to fill my quota out for Mr. Jameson and all.”

“That’s great, Peter! Glad to see you’re back to normal.”

“Yeah, uhm, ‘course. Also, I, uh…” she gulped, thinking about what to say before Dr. Connors left to organize his classroom. The back of her head felt really hot all of a sudden, and she scratched at the itch. “I’m sorry for breaking the cage that held Aleska a few weeks back. I was overwhelmed and stressed out of my goddamn mind and your reminding me about my overdue work kinda pushed me over the edge.”

“Gotcha,” he grimaced. “Well, you can make it up to me by staying for my whole class today and getting me that homework.”

“Oh, speaking of…” she turned her bag around and rustled through it. “Here you are, sir!”

“...This is an essay about how people use self-destructive tendencies to cope with hardship. At least, I assume so from the title…”

“Oh, shoot, sorry! I’ve been missing a lot of assignments lately, so I gotta turn ‘em in today.”

She rummaged through her bag some more. She pulled out the right-feeling paper, looked at the title, and handed it to the doctor.

“ This should be what you need! And I’ll take that back for Ms. Ellis.”

“Oh, further research and sources for reptilian healing? Fascinating, Peter! I’ll be looking forward to reading this!” His interest in the topic made his voice effectively sing with delight.

The doors opened, and people started flooding in through the doors behind Peter and Dr. Connors.

“Well…see you in class, Doctor!” she said, turning to find the schedule for the day.

“Wait, Peter, one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you feel so overwhelmed a few weeks ago? What was happening?”

“Hrmm…” There was quite a lot going on at that time. Most of it being related to Spider-Man hijinks in some way. Wilson Fisk had been increasing his territory and she’d met this guy called Daredevil because of it, Green Goblin’s ambiguous threats towards her that made her unsure if he knew who she was…no, wait. The house. Definitely the house.

“You see, uhm…the bills to pay for the house have been getting expensive enough for me and May to consider going to a cheaper place, and I’m really attached to the place we’re at.”

“Oh my God, Peter, I’m so sorry. Have you two been able to get help for that? May’s quite the good nurse, so Martha and I would certainly be willing to send any spare money we have your way.”

“I’m probably not the best person you should be asking about that. I’ve just been pitching in where I can to make sure we can either get most of it paid off or get groceries when we need ‘em. I recommend calling May and asking her about it.”

“Will do! You guys have helped us out before, so we oughta pay it back for you.”

The bell rang, shrill, and groups of students began heading to their first class of the day. 

“And it looks like we’ve both lost track of time, heh,” Dr. Connors chuckled. “I’ve got to go make sure my classroom is ready–I’m teaching the second class today, and you know how quick Mr. Elliot loves to be!”

“Alrighty, then! See you soon, doctor.” Patricia said as she joined the gaggle of students heading to Mr. Elliot’s classroom.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know, Peter,” Mr. Elliot said after looking over Patricia’s assignment she turned in. “This just doesn’t seem like what I asked for.”

They were a bit off to the side of the doorway into the cafeteria, Patricia had just finished apologizing to almost every teacher. They’d all been very understanding and most gave her some extensions to better refine her assignments rather than writing them all in a mad dash to actually submit the damn things, but unfortunately, the one person she didn’t apologize to had caught her before she could have a break and get some food.

That man was Leland Elliot, who was in front of her now. He was the English teacher and, often with his assignments, he asked the person making it to give more description over the women’s bodies when they submitted it. He was real unsubtle about gaining slightly more spicy works to revisit. Supposedly, he was a renowned author, but she felt that the principal was just reminiscing on old times when he told them about the new teacher.

She disguised her deep breath to calm herself as merely giving a frown while thinking over what to say. Mr. Elliot did not care for his students disagreeing with him over the things he demanded, and word of the principal’s son overrode everything…

“I don’t know how to explain it to you, sir – you instructed me very specifically to try my hand at The Heroine’s Journey with my own personal touches, and that’s what I did.”

“Well, I know that. I had you all going over it for a few weeks. This just…isn’t speaking to me as much as I figure it should.”

Maybe he has an actual, valid complaint about my writing that he thinks I could do better on. Hopefully.

“I mean, there’s not all that much description of how the characters look, which is a big thing…”

Of fucking course not. Urghghhhghghh, why’s this man teaching???

He looked back at the papers, and, in that time, Patricia looked down to give her face a rest from contorting so much to not be visibly angry. However, her anger quickly changed to mortified shock.

Wait. Spark. SPARK. What the hell are you doing?!

There was a slimy, black tendril crawling on the floor towards the lanky pale man. When Patricia asked what Spark was doing, it froze, reacting as a child being found out by a parent.

If this Elliot will not be of use, surely we can scare him a bit?

Scare him how ? And what’s your plan if he turns on the news, sees one of your tendrils, and starts wondering if I’m Spider-Man?

Er, but, I…if he is as useless as you know him to be, why does he have this job?!

I ask that everyday, yet he’s still here. We gotta have a talk about this later, Spark.

Spark only growled. She suddenly had the image of a dog angrily snapping his jaw closed.

“Hey, Peter, buddy, where you going off to, man? I’m talking to you right now!” Mr. Elliot said, stirring her from her conversation with Spark. The condescending tone he used, his aggravating sexist attitude, and his behavior that made her unsure whether he’d be a bigot or supportive when she came out…oh boy, she wanted to strangle him. Just web his mouth shut so everyone could get a goddamn break from his incessant rambling.

Wait. I’ve been here before, she thought, regaining her senses, the red rage clearing from her eyes. One of Spark’s tendrils was camouflaged along the floor, creeping over his shoes. I’ve done this before.

SPARK. THIS. IS NOT. THE TIME. EITHER FOLLOW THE DEAL, OR I GIVE YOU TO THE AVENGERS.

The tendril did something to Elliot’s shoes and pulled away swiftly, back into Patricia.

She scanned his footwear, thinking of the answer to give. Ah. Well, at least Spark had given her an easy out..

“I, uh, was just thinking through what I had to say when I noticed your…uhm, shoelaces were untied! They looked like they were blending into the floor, so it was bizarre to see that!”

“My what?” he muttered as he looked down. “Huh. That’s…what? What happened??? I, like, triple-knotted ‘em…oh well. Geniuses miss things sometimes too, eh?”

She remained silent and focused on keeping her face straight.

“Well, I gotta take care of these shoes again, and I’ve got a class coming up in 20 minutes. Just get that assignment back to me in, uh…two weeks? Yeah. And make sure you get those things I mentioned fixed.”

“Will do, sir. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go to the restroom real quick.”

“Righty, then, Peter. See you tomorrow!”

She walked lightly and briskly until she was out of sight of Mr. Elliot. Then, it became a furious stomp as she headed to a private spot. Thankfully, people saw the expression on her face and cleared out of the way when needed.

She pushed the door open, checked that there was no one in the bathroom, and slammed it closed.

“What the hell was that, Spark?!”

It materialized a head upwards from her forearm. It was the same as last night, with its unfathomable rows of teeth.

“Your anger was potent enough to require me to help you fulfill your wants! If I didn’t, I would have been overwhelmed by it, Life-Bonded! Who knows what might have happened to everyone if I didn’t do something!”

“What are you talking about?! How are you forced to react?”

“Hrnnn, how to explain this…. You see, we symbiotes ‘eat food’, so to speak, from our hosts’ emotions. Different species have different ways of feeding us emotion, but the most common is chemicals. A chemically-emotional entity feels sad, feels angry, feels joyful, and whatnot, and those chemicals that correspond to those emotions go to the Symbiote, sustaining them.”

“...Huh. Is–is that why you were making my emotional state so volatile?”

“Indeed. Apologies for that, by the way. When I arrived here, I was…deeply lacking in, uh, strength, shall we say.”

Spark was seeming like he expected Patricia to respond, but after an awkward silence, he continued on.

“I’ve not been bonded to a chemically-emotional entity in some time, so my knowledge of what I can do without physically helping my host needs…re-learning. I’ll need you to make sure to not overload me with emotions if you don’t want to fight against me taking action.”

“Why so? Are you unable to know when you’re full and stop eating?”

“I used human eating as a metaphor for you to understand, but it’s only conceptually similar. We symbiotes have unending space to consume emotions since we need constant sustenance to live. A sudden overflow of emotions is comparable to a…a…dammit, I’d have hoped after being integrated into human culture for a few months, I’d have an idea of an easy comparison…”

“What, like a large amount of caffeine? If you take enough coffee or black tea or just a high amount of caffeine, you get jittery.”

“Hmm, yes, YES! That is quite an apt comparison! Yes, a sudden rush of a large amount of emotions is like I have been given the maximum caffeine dosage.”

“Got it, so I need to make sure I’m not flooding you…great. Oig, it’s gonna be rough not even being able to freak out a bit, even in my head…”

“Indeed.”

“Man, it’s a shame we encountered each other when I’m still growing and going through puberty.”

“Why so?”

“Well, uh, to put it short, it’s the time when human bodies start putting a big effort to grow fully, and there’s a bunch of hormones going through us, more than usual, that is, and it makes us a bit more emotional than usual.”

“Oh, dear. This shall be…interesting until the puberty ends.”

“Yeah…”

The two stood there a while before Patricia went through a mental checklist.

“With that all talked about, are we good to go? I’d like to find my friends while we have a chance to talk peacefully.”

“Lead the way, Life-Bonded.”

“Right then.”

Chapter Text

Patricia’s pacing continued. She had gotten to the entrance to the cafeteria again, but kept doubting what she was planning to say. None of it seemed acceptable for an explanation, plus Flash and Harry were gonna be there, and she really didn’t wanna tell them she’s Spider-Man. Already so many people know about it. Like, not a whole lot, but enough to—

Life-Bonded. No progress will be made if you don’t proceed.

I KNOW, but, look, these people are all deeply important to me and I’ve really fucked them over these past few weeks. I do that enough, usually, but then I had to go and make it so much harder…

Would they not accept your apology and reasoning if you explained it fully to them? From what I can see, you have also been a deeply important friend to them. Were it not for your aid, they would have suffered many a hardship.

Maybe.… It’s just…I can’t really tell them what’s really going on since I need to keep the fact that I’m a superhero under wraps! If word gets around enough, all the supervillains I face will know that they can get leverage on me if they threaten my friends and family.

I see. However, agonizing over what you can say to be best is fruitless, it seems. You’ve been here for 10 minutes already, and you are no closer to being ready.

Eurgh. You couldn’t tell me how I could do that?!

I thought I was still in need of learning how human interactions go?

You are, you are…sorry. Just a bit stressed over this.

I hadn’t noticed.

Alright, Patricia, breathe . In for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, repeat. These are your friends, or at least you know they were at one point, and you would only befriend decent people. They’ll understand, at least a small bit.

She started walking over to the table, a nice, quiet corner away from all the noise. How should she go about this? What was needed first? Well, the transition happening would be a good thing to get out of the way so she wouldn’t be deadnamed and misgendered for most of the conversation.

After that, explain how she had to fight the same few villains a LOT due to someone trying to tire her out…but how to do that with Flash and Harry at the table? Great. She’d arrived at the table, everyone was staring her down, and she had no idea how to begin.

She cleared her throat. “Uhm, hi. C-could I sit down?”

Flash’s expression changed from a mix of curious and wary to a big grin. “Hell yeah, man, come on over!”

She nodded her thanks to the bright and cheerful fit man. Flash had been growing out his corn-colored hair lately, and it was currently tied into a ponytail holder. He was wearing a white tank-top and a pair of grey sweatpants. He was also the only one happy to see Patricia.

Everyone else was fairly anxious over her presence – Gwen looked at her with a mix of sadness and anger, it seemed; Mary-Jane had an annoyed expression on her face, one of her eyebrows raised, and her phone loudly going off beneath her in her hand; and Harry looked very worried.

“Hi, guys! I’ve been, uhm, impolite, to say the least, for the last few weeks–”

“Pff, that’s a grand understatement,” Mary-Jane interjected with an eyeroll.

“Hey! He’s trying to explain, so listen and let him explain!” Flash responded.

“...Thanks, man.”

“Of course!” he said with a thumbs up and grin. “But, back to your explanation.”

“Right. So, there’ve been, uhm, I think three main reasons for why I was doing what I was…First is that I’ve been trying to make sure May and I don’t lose our current house, the, er, second is–”

“Wait, wait, WHAT?! You didn’t tell us about that at all! What was happening there?” Harry blurted out. Gwen’s face changed from a rather strained expression to one of shock. Mary-Jane looked up from her phone, turned it off, and set it face-down, her angry indifference gone.

“Oh, right, I’ve been rather deathly exhausted these past few weeks…. The basics of it is that, with all the recent supervillain attacks and breakouts in our general area, we need to spend a lot on repairing everything that’s broken, and the bills are getting a bit more expensive because of all the danger.”

Patricia had to take a small break to breathe, and calm herself down.

“So much so that we, uh, were heavily advised to find somewhere cheaper to live, which would’ve meant leaving behind all these things that help me cope with Ben’s death….”

She felt tears welling up, so looked down to the floor so she could wipe them away.

Remember, Patricia, gotta keep it in control for Spark. Let’s not have any symbiotic and tentacle tantrums, right?

“Jesus, Pete. Have you and May managed to get past all that? If not, I can definitely get my dad to help with this!”

“Er, yeah, for now. Until the next supervillain incident in our area, at least.”

“Well, he might not be willing to part with much, but I’ll see what I can get him to do.”

“Thanks, Harry. You have…no idea how much that helps.”

“‘Course, man.”

“While I’m definitely not gonna have as much as Mr. ‘My Father Is A Billionaire’ over here, I’ll also definitely pitch in!” Flash said, giving Patricia a tight hug.

“That’s, hrnn, very nice– thank you, Flaashhh, OKAY OKAY, TOO MUCH!” She yelped, trying to break free of the bear hug.

“Oh, shit! Sorry, man!” he said, putting her back in her chair. She regained her breath, chuckling.

“I forget how tight you hug when you really want to, heh.”

Flash only gave a proud grin in response.

“Wait, you mentioned three things total. What were the other things?” Gwen asked.

“Oh, right. Well, the second thing, the reason I’ve been skipping school for so damn long, I should say, is that, to help with the bill price increasing so much, I’ve been taking a lot more hazardous pictures of Spider-Man, since Mr. Jameson pays me heavily to compensate for the danger I’m in.”

“Well, you’re usually doing that to get savings for after school, right?” Flash asked, squinting.

“Oh, well, yes, but, uh, this time was a bit…different…. Have you been paying attention to the news about The Raft at all?”

“Not particularly. Been a bit occupied with my other responsibilities.”

“ Ah , I see. Well, nobody knows why it’s been happening, but someone seems determined to make sure all the supervillains in there are able to be freed. Which means Spider-Man has to be going out there every day and night, trying to stop them again.”

“Oh, god! So…you had to be running out, every time you saw that happening and take your best photos?!”

“ Yeah. I’m thanking all my stored up good luck that it seems like I can finally get a break…”

“ Jesus, man! I’m so sorry about that! Shoulda been giving you a better time about you missing so many plans…”

“No, don’t worry about it. I’ve been a real douchebag these past few weeks and I gotta make up for it.”

“I mean, yeah, sure, you’ve definitely been an ass, lately, but it’s for good reason!”

“Yeah, Pete, don’t disregard your circumstances! Sorry for not helping ‘til now…” Harry chimed in.

Patricia was a bit surprised by that. She could understand Flash sticking by her, maybe only somewhat, but Harry?

“Why are you two forgiving me so quickly? Can’t say I’ve done anything to deserve it…”

“Peter, you’re our friend , and in addition, you’re a good person. It was like you weren’t you for the past few weeks, so it makes sense that you’ve been behaving like you have because you’ve been under a lot of pressure and stress.”

Patricia looked away and grimaced, as did Gwen and Mary-Jane. The latter two had confronted her about her behavior, since they both had the same idea that Harry just stated. It went…horribly, in every conceivable way, and the evening after that discussion was when she forced her way to the church bell.

She felt that Spark was slinking away in shame, for some reason. No time for that, now. Breathe , girl. In four, hold four, out four…in four, hold four, out four…in four, hold four, out four…

Why isn’t this working?!

Her breathing quickened. Her hands couldn’t stay still around each other, grasping each other too tight. She kept twitching and it wouldn’t stop .

“Whoah, whoah, Pete, what’s going on?!” Harry asked. The sudden tone shift caught her attention. He was so worried .

“Pp-panic attack, I, i, I, i think. i don’t know why, it’s just…” she stamped down the guilt over lying so blatantly. Why couldn’t she look up at anyone?! “everything is going wrong, i’m not doing enough, i need to be doing more…”

Life-Bonded. You need to release these emotions, let them pass. I’m doing my best here, but something’s going to have to take the outlet.

I KNOW! I KNOW! I JUST…what can I do?! I don’t know how to stop this, and, as you said, if I don’t stop it soon, everyone around me is going to suffer! How can I call myself a good person if I can’t even control my emotions?! How can I believe my friends aren’t lying to me to make me feel better if I can’t do a basic human activity and keep my emotions restrained?!

I…I,,, don't----quite--------- know …Life—----Bonded.

Spark suddenly sent two small, unnoticeable tendrils towards each other, out of Patricia’s legs, underneath the table. They latched onto each other, as silently as they could, and squeezed each other. Hard. There was…some sort of skin, or skin-equivalent on them. It pulled and peeled off itself like sheets of paper being torn shred from shred. But the damage was only there for maybe a few milliseconds. Maybe. It instantly regenerated and started the process again.

And again. 

And again. 

And again.

Chapter Text

Patricia’s speech wasn’t as articulated as she hoped it would be, sadly. Everyone, save for Harry, looked at her with a rather confused look. Harry, however, immediately moved his seat next to her, remembering all the times his friend had panic attacks before. 

First step, make sure he knows he’s alright.

“Hey, hey, it’ll be alright, man. No matter what, I’m not leaving you. We’ve stuck through worse than this together, and you’ve been a great person. I’m only not being your friend if you don’t want me to, alright? You’ve been under so much stress and pressure lately, and it makes sense you’d snap for a bit. But it’s gonna take a lot more than this for me to throw away all the times you’ve helped me. You got this!”

“Thttthank you…sorry…for…hassle…” She struggled.

“Hey, now, it’s not a hassle. This is part of the friendship package, helping each other through hard things like this.”

“E–eeven…eeeeveennn…” she kept wincing as she spoke, and heavily cleared her throat for a third try.

“I know you don’t like how you sound when you’re going through this, so…” Harry said, rummaging through his pockets. “Nod for yes, shake your head for no, would you like to type on my phone to speak until your voice is better?”

She nodded. He handed it over to her, the screen unlocked.

Even with my recent behavior?

“Especially with your recent behavior. You’ve been going through a lot of tough shit, man! You remember when I’d been lashing out three years ago and had a panic attack when my dad was thinking of sending me to a boarding school? You stayed with me, then, too. You’re a good man, Pete, and you deserve a whole lot better than you got.”

I

Uhm

I’ve had a realization

I’ll explain more once I’m able to talk, but…

I’ve come to realize I’m a woman named Patricia.

“Awww, that’s amazing! I’m so happy you found that out about yourself! Looks like I need to make an edit to my previous statement…you’re a good woman, Patricia, and you deserve a whole lot better than you got.” He raised an index finger to everyone else before they could interrupt with questions about that, keeping his eyes on Patricia. 

No doubt they had lots of questions, especially with how much she was shaking and how many tears were falling from her eyes. 

Answer them later. She needs comfort and help right now.

 She managed to move her head up to him, giving the best smile she could manage. She had the standard transfemme adorableness already, dear god.

Alright. Keep calm, Harry. The first step has been made. Let’s try to narrow it down so she can work on it.

“Now, yes for the first option, no for the second, can you tell me a lot about what’s wrong, or only in broad strokes?”

no

“I gotcha. Don’t worry, girl, we’re gonna get through this. Yes or no, do you have enough information to calm yourself with some background music, or do you need me to help narrow it down?”

no 

“I see. Yes or no, is the main issue fear of losing friends?”

no

“You’re doing so well. I’m so proud of you for continuing to push on. We can get through this! Yes or no, is the main issue fear of hurting us?”

She took a bit longer to think that one through, but when she had, she nodded very heavily, tears running down her face like their lives depended on it.

I’m going to pulverize whoever was making her feel like this. Grr, not the time for this, Harry. Focus on helping your friend.

“Yes or no, are you afraid of hurting us because you don’t want to drive us away?”

Another tearful nod.

“Ah, I see now. Don’t worry, girl. I will NEVER leave you. Not unless you want me to. You’ve done so much to help me, and everyone else too. Flash, would you want to stop your friendship with Patricia if she lashed out at you?”

Flash took a few seconds to register that he was being asked to help, but immediately gave his best attempt. “Oh, HELLL NAW I wouldn’t! She’s a goddamn saint! She was helping me with all my dad’s stuff even though I’d been bullying her for the past five years! The fact that she’s so cool and friendly and awesome and helpful and is open to being friends with me is amazing!!!!”

“Mary-Jane? Gwen?”

The two shifted, uncomfortable. Gwen was the first to speak up.

“Well, it depends on whether she’s actually changing from how she used to be…”

Harry had to take a few deep breaths, and gave a dirty look to Mary-Jane and Gwen. “Well, Patricia, maybe we don’t need to listen to these idiots…”

They immediately returned the dirty look with one of their own.

motherFUCKER that was NOT the right thing to say…urghghghgh. What would Patricia do? Well, first, I need to make sure she’s okay. One thing at a time.

Harry took more deep breaths, closing his eyes this time. As he did so, he thought over his plan of action.

“Alright, that didn’t work as well as I had hoped it would, Patricia. Do you think lying down and having some soothing background noise on would help? And I’d also be making sure you remember I’ll be with you to the end. You’re my best friend, and I’ll stay by your side through a lot more than this.”

She gave a trembling nod, tears still sprinting out of her eyes.

“Now, don’t worry, I still have your favorite noise-cancelling headphones in my bag – you just get the Bluetooth ready on my phone and you’ll be all ready.”

Patricia and Harry were like clockwork now, even with Patricia’s trembling and large amount of tears. In just a few seconds, she was laying on Harry’s lap, a playlist of music designed to calm her going through the headphones, and he was caressing her hair.

“Wait, please, Mary-Jane and Gwen,” Harry called out to them as they were walking away from the table. They turned around, irritated and expectant.

“What???” Mary-Jane retorted, the impatience on her tongue as well as in her body language.

“I…need to apologize. What I said was out of line.”

“Damn right it was!” Mary-Jane continued, walking back over to not draw so much attention. “Look, do you know what we’ve been going through with how Pe–Patricia’s been acting lately?”

“Probably at least as bad as I’ve been going through, if not more.”

“That’s my point! How are you so ready to help her with everything she’s been doing to us?!”

“I owe her a debt,” he said, simply. “And, like, I’m still fucking pissed at her for what she’s been doing, don’t question that. It’s just…with everything we’ve gone through together and how much she’s helped me, there is no way in Hell I’m letting this drive us apart.”

“Don’t you remember what she said to us a week ago?” Gwen spoke up, a bit quiet.

“Of course I do. I was there. However, Patricia’s a plain good person. One of the best I’ve ever seen, but she’s not immune to being an asshole – no one is. So she puts her best foot forward into making up for being one if she is. Give her time and another chance. Please. To pay her back for everything she’s done for us.”

“Fine. But, if she keeps this behavior up, we’re obligated to just leave!” Mary-Jane replied

“Fair enough. Just…please treat that situation with tact if it should happen.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever…” Mary-Jane muttered. “Look, lunch is almost over and Gwen and I have a class starting, so we need to head over there.”

Harry glanced at his watch – Mary-Jane and Gwen had no classes in that time, plus, lunch period was still around for half an hour. He paid no mind to the misdirection and nodded in return. 

They walked off to find a private spot, and he kept making sure his friend was cared for as she calmed down in his lap.

Chapter Text

Flash Thompson was so excited to see his friends all happy with each other again! 

…Or, at least, he would’ve been, if the idiots weren’t unwilling to forgive each other and themselves. It had been a few weeks and, while everyone wasn’t at each other’s throats like they were before, Peter–NO, Patricia, (Flash was still getting his head wrapped around his friend’s new identity, but he was damned if he wasn’t going to give his all to fixing that) Gwen, and Mary-Jane were the main stragglers.

He and Harry had already talked to Gwen and MJ and worked things out already, and had been trying to get the three girls to make up.

…But they weren’t really trying. Every time he and Harry got the three left alone with each other, they either didn’t talk, waiting for the others to say something or they attempted to talk but really just stalled until they were obligated to leave for something else.

In fact, Flash and Harry were currently waiting in the cafeteria for the girls, and they did come. But Patricia first, then Gwen and MJ. Not even seeming like they were talking to each other.

“Grrr, this is really starting to frustrate me,” Flash commented to Harry as they were walking through the crowd.

“Yeah, I know how you feel, man. Well, kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“You, uh, weren’t there when they had that fight. It was…trust me, with your personal issues, you would have easily had one of the worst times out of all of us. It’s gonna take more than them not trying to apologize to each other for them to start liking each other again.”

“So I’ve been told…with all the hushed whispers about it, I don’t really know how accurate that is.”

“Well, er, to give a little hint to the peak of the fight…MJ and Gwen claimed that Patricia would be a disgrace to Ben lately and how he’d be quite disappointed with her, and she retaliated by bashing their plan to start a business together, calling it foolish and being quite an arrogant bitch about it…”

“What?” Flash replied, eyes wide, his body slumping.

“Yeah…it wasn’t pretty.”

“I…see…”

The conversation between Flash and Harry had come to a quite abrupt halt as they waited for the girls to arrive. When they did, the conversation flow was noticeably stilted as MJ, Gwen, and Patricia didn’t seem to even think about saying the right things.

They sat at the table, sometimes talking, but never about anything that mattered, really, until the bell rang and the girls were off. To separate classes. Where they couldn’t even look at each other, let alone try to reconcile after.

“I swear, if this is just how the group is now, I’m going to go CRAZY soon!” Flash groaned, leaning back into his chair and moving his hands down his face.

“Yeah, there’s gotta be a way we can get them to fix this. I’m decently sure Gwen and MJ are still giving Patricia a chance – why else would they be attempting to ignore everything? – but the full resolution has to be things they say to each other. We just aren’t them, so we can’t do the hard part...” Harry said, pondering potential solutions.

“We need, like, a way to get them alone with each other in a place where they’d be able to comfortably compromise and come to an agreement…but how do we do that?! They just stall or delay or find something that makes them have to cancel or straight up don’t come over…”

“Well…that’s when they know the other will be there…” Harry muttered, his eyes widening. “I’ve got it!”

“You do?”

“Yyyes! I’ll just…just need you to tell Patricia everything in this text I’m sending you now…”

“And what about Gwen and MJ?”

“I’ll take care of them – you’re able to easily be on Patricia’s side, and I’ve proven to be rather neutral, a few weeks ago aside, so I should be able to convince Mary-Jane and Gwen…”

“Hope so, man. I know it’s gonna take a while for everyone to adjust, and it’s not gonna be totally the same when we do…but if they can be talking again, it can be closer to normal.”

“Amen. We should probably enact our plan at the end of the day, though. Longest time to talk to them.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

There was a little bit of silence before Flash remembered something and asked, being a little hesitant, “Hey, there’s been this recurring issue and I need to run it by you, to make sure I’m not, like, being an asshole about this…”

“Okay, then? Go ahead.”

“It’s just that...I might just be uneducated on this subject, but, is it weird for me to think it’s a bit strange that Patricia realized herself? Asking you since, well, you’ve easily known her the longest, going on at least 10 years now. And, like, I’m perfectly fine with me just being slow to think about this in the right way, but–”

“Wait a minute, how so is it ‘strange’ to you?”

“Well, it’s just that…from what I’ve heard, don’t trans people usually, like, express their desire to be their true gender in some way before their egg cracks? Just feels…a little bit strange for her to suddenly be a woman now, what with what I know of her personality beforehand…”

There were a few moments of nervous silence from Flash as he was waiting for Harry’s response and, to try to dilute the nervousness, he blurted out, “And, like, I’m not meaning to be a transphobe here – I-I’ll still fight anyone who misgenders or deadnames her! I’m just…a bit confused.”

“Hey, no worries, I understand what you’re saying. And, yeah, I agree with you, a bit. ‘Cause, well…it has been disorienting to experience this when I’m so intimately familiar with how she’d think about things at this point.”

He paused for a bit, sipping his water, as he thought how to properly articulate the next part. “However, I caveat that disorientation with the fact that not every trans person goes through the same experience. For some, they experience it like this, wanting to be their true gender from near the very start. But, for others, it’s more of a choice for them that happens later in life. No reason to think that Patricia couldn’t fall into that latter category.”

“Whoaaah!! That’s awesome!!!! I didn’t know that could happen!!! HELL YEAH!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot, man, that’s really helping!!!!” Flash exclaimed, hugging Harry with one of his typical bear squeezes.

Harry had grown used to these, moreso than the girls, so he managed to survive the hug to its natural conclusion. Only barely, though, as he had to catch his breath.

“Well! With our plans made…” he struggled, panting. “And our classes starting in a few minutes…phew…shall we be off to continue the schoolday, Flash?”

“Hell yeah! Let’s get our friends back together!” Flash shouted as he rushed off to his class, trying to only be late by a few seconds. He was enthused: actually being able to do something to help his friends was exhilarating.