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mikavlcs · 1 year ago

Text

Start a Fire

Pairing: Gwen Stacy x gn!reader

Summary: Gwen saves you and you help her out in return.

Warnings: nothing besides some probable medical inaccuracies and my writing lmao (no atsv spoilers btw)

Word count: 2k

Notes: idk why everything i write is kinda unserious. this also may not entirely make sense, sorry about that...

Masterlist

Firsts were a special thing.

Everyone, for better or worse, remembered things like their first kiss, and their first date, and their first heartbreak. Because of the novelty of these events, their importance is inescapable, even to the most unsentimental of people.

This same principle applied to superhero activities—or, at least, it did for Gwen.

She would never forget her first high-speed car chase, or her first armed bank robbery, or her first (incredibly embarrassing) criminal interrogation. So, of course, she was excited when her police radio picked up reports of a burning apartment building over on the west side.

Okay, maybe excited wasn’t the right word since people were in danger and Gwen would never be excited about that, but she was looking forward to checking off another box on the list of ‘classic crime tropes’ she kept in her journal. Burning buildings were a staple in superhero comics, and after nearly nine months on the job, it was about time for her to experience it firsthand.

She zipped in and, after a quick chat with the outside firefighters, began extracting civies from the upper floors while they covered the lower floors. Thankfully, the fire wasn’t terrible. They caught it pretty early and since the apartment building was three blocks away from a fire station, there were firefighters on the scene within ten minutes.

Since the fire started on the first floor, the worst of it was easily at the bottom floors, which the firefighters elected to cover since Gwen had more verticality and speed, but there was still smoke. A lot of it.

Now, Gwen knew a lot about fire safety thanks to her elementary school’s yearly presentations on the subject, but by the ten-minute mark, she was beginning to see that she had vastly underestimated the effects of smoke inhalation.

She didn’t have the respirators that they wore, her only protection against the smoke was the cloth of her mask. And at first, that was enough, but it was starting to get to her now. Luckily, she only had one more person to grab—someone on the top floor, frantically waving out one of the windows.

Hastily, Gwen crawled up toward the window you were leaning out of. The smoke was much thinner up here since the fire was only just spreading a few floors down, and she was very grateful for that. She crept to the side of the window, offering a grin you couldn’t see and a wave.

“Hey!” she greeted, securing an arm around your waist. “Hold on tight. This will be quick, just, uh, close your eyes if you’re afraid of heights.”

Once your arms were looped behind her neck, she webbed a nearby building and swung toward a nearby alley.

She deposited you down first, making sure you were steady on your feet before releasing the web and stumbling toward the nearest wall. A series of hacking coughs forced themselves from her throat, making her lean most of her weight against the wall.

“You okay, Spider-Woman?” The question came from her left and she looked over to see you resting against the same wall as her, staring with a mixture of confusion and concern. Gwen flashed a shaky thumbs-up in an attempt to both placate you and preserve her image.

“Perfectly fine. This is actually my first burning building rescue, so this—” She cut herself off with a particularly painful wheeze then finished with, “This is actually a pretty big moment for me.”

“Uh-huh, well maybe you should sit down for a minute,” you suggested, but her mind was already on her next destination, wherever that may be.

She shook her head at the idea, fighting the nausea that came with the motion. “No, no, I’m good. Feeling great. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you around.”

There was an attempt to raise her arm and shoot a web, but it failed rather miserably. She didn’t think the limb even moved, but the sudden, heavy wave of drowsiness that washed over her made that really hard to care about. A sigh slipped from her mouth, eyes drooping.

“Okay, yeah, maybe I’ll just take a little nap first.” The admission came out mumbled, but Gwen didn’t really notice. Nor did she feel herself pitch forward and slip off the wall entirely as her eyes were already slipping closed.

The world went dark before she could even hit the ground.

—

When Gwen woke again, the first of two major things she noticed was that she wasn’t in the alley she collapsed in.

In fact, she wasn’t outside at all. Her eyes cracked open and instead of staring into the cloudy afternoon sky, she was looking intently at a ceiling. And instead of laying on hard asphalt, she was resting on something soft—a couch, maybe.

She was in someone’s house, she belatedly realized, and that was when the second thing registered all at once.

Her mask was still on.

And it wasn’t just on, it was still tucked snugly into the neckline of her suit, the way she always kept it to ensure it never rode up. That meant that either someone went to great lengths to put it back in the exact position she liked it, or it was never taken off in the first place. When she saw you sitting in the chaise lounge across from the couch, her suspicions leaned toward the latter.

You hadn’t noticed her wake, eyes glued on the tv to her right, so she took the initiative to speak. It was harder than she expected since her throat was so dry, but after a few swallows, she managed to rasp her question out.

“Uh, where am I, exactly?”

Your eyes flicked to her instantly, and you sat up straighter, leaning forward a bit. “My house. Well, my mom’s house actually. She’s at work, won’t be back for a while. Good thing, too, because she would lose her shit if she saw you passed out on her couch.”

“Not a big fan of vigilantes?” she asked dryly. You chuckled.

“No, she’s not a big fan of her furniture getting dirty.”

“Oh,” Gwen muttered, pushing herself up to sit, “sorry, I can—”

Her sentence was cut short by you standing and gently shoving her to lie back down. “It’s fine, I’ll clean it later. Stay there.”

You watched her and, once you knew she would obey, walked out of her sightline. Gwen listened to your footsteps, noting the way you stopped around fifteen feet away. Then, she tilted her head back to glance at the windows and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the light shining through the thin, drawn curtains. She couldn’t have been out for more than an hour.

Now that her initial question had been answered, she moved on to her secondary. “Did you drag me all the way here by yourself?”

“Well, I was visiting a friend’s apartment earlier, so we were only a few blocks away,” you called from somewhere on the other side of the couch, the faint sound of a refrigerator being opened and closed compounding the statement. “But yes, I did drag you here myself. You’re heavier than you look, by the way.”

Gwen’s eyes narrowed beneath her mask, but she chose to take it as a compliment to her forming musculature.

You returned a few minutes later with a glass of water and a pitcher filled nearly to the brim, setting them both down on the coffee table in front of her. Immediately, she pushed herself to sit up, hiking her mask over her nose and downing the entire glass in a few gulps. In her peripheral, she saw you sit back down and look at the tv again, letting the room lapse into quiet.

Gwen let the silence sit for a bit, then asked, “So, why didn’t you take off my mask? Most people would jump at the chance to figure out my identity.”

“I’m not into invading other people’s privacy,” you said plainly with a light shrug. “Plus, you saved my life. Taking the mask off after that would’ve been a dick move.”

She stayed quiet for a minute, absorbing what you said, then, with genuine sincerity, said, “Thank you.”

You waved it off. “Consider us even. I wouldn’t have made it out without your help, this was the least I could do.”

A nod was the only response she gave. She knew she should probably leave now; she was in a stranger’s house, after all. But you didn’t seem to mind, so she poured herself another glass and settled back on the couch.

Despite the unorthodox situation, the atmosphere remained calm and quiet with occasional thought-provoking questions from you such as “What’s it like being wanted for murder?” and “Why do you wear ballet shoes instead of shoes that will protect your feet in fights?” neither of which she had solid answers for but had fun with anyway.

It was nice. Weird, undoubtedly, but a nice change of pace from the more turbulent and fast-paced interactions she was used to having with people as Spider-Woman. You seemed to be enjoying it too, if the fact that you didn’t kick her out an hour ago was anything to go by.

Time continued to pass, the darkening sky outside the window escaping both of your notice. Her phone buzzed in her pocket a few times while you were talking, but she elected to ignore it. That is until the tranquil air was eventually broken by her phone ringing, the Spider-Woman theme song echoing throughout the room.

“Sorry,” Gwen mumbled, pulling her phone out of her suit pocket. She scanned the screen and her eyes widened. It was her dad. She squinted slightly, confused as to why he was calling already, but then she looked at the time, and her eyes widened. Her dad had been expecting her home over an hour ago.

Panicked, she shot to her feet, narrowly avoiding slamming her shin into the coffee table by the couch. She took one step, then another, testing. Her limbs still felt a bit heavier than usual, but it wasn’t as bad as earlier, and she’d be able to swing home with minimal issues.

“Gotta go?” you asked, eyeing her from your seat.

She sighed, nodded. “Yeah, sorry, just remembered I have somewhere to be.”

You gave an understanding hum and she ventured to the door. Her hands were about to twist the doorknob when an idea suddenly popped into her head. It was a stupid idea, which made it all the more pervasive to her waning self-control. She debated back and forth with herself for all of seven seconds before she spun on her heels.

Gwen cleared her throat and put on a casual tone, praying her voice didn’t crack. “Hey, do you wanna get coffee,” she paused briefly, combing over her schedule in her head, “this Saturday? Y’know, as thanks for all this.”

“I thought we established that we were even,” you said, eyes narrowed.

“Well, I’m unestablishing it. So, coffee?” She rocked back on her heels, watching you ruminate on the offer.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, you shrugged. “Who could say no to coffee with a wanted vigilante?”

Remembering that her mask was still pulled up halfway, she restrained the large smile threatening to creep onto her face to a small smirk. “Great, I’ll see you then…" Her sentence came to an abrupt end when she searched for a name and realized you had never given her one. “Uh, I didn’t catch your name?”

You raised a brow. “Are you gonna give me yours?”

She paused, then cocked her head to the side. “Fair enough. Then I’ll see you Saturday, stranger.”

“See you, spidey,” you said with a smile and a two-finger salute, both of which Gwen returned before pulling her mask down and jetting out the door.

She swung across the city with a speed that impressed even her, weaving through buildings and traffic with a racing heart and an immovable smile the whole way to her apartment.

In the end, Gwen wound up being grounded for a month since she was a little too distracted on her swing home to come up with a plausible excuse for her dad, but it wasn’t a problem. She would just sneak out Saturday during her dad’s shift for your coffee (maybe) date, and if she got caught and her punishment got extended, then so be it.

It would totally be worth it.

—