Chapter 13

After you'd gone to yours, showered and headed to work, you had texts from both Peter and Adam. Subconsciously, you'd opened Peter's first, which was just an update that Ned had gotten to his apartment and they'd let you know if they found anything new. The text from Adam consisted of 'Good morning baby, call me on your lunch!'.

You didn't reply to Adam's text. It just riled you back up again. Why was he trying to be so nice and attentive now? Not that he had been horrible to you the entire relationship, but he certainly hadn't been attentive, which you had attributed to him working all those hours. Now that you knew he hadn't been working 60 hours a week, and with what he said at the club at the weekend, his sudden attentiveness was making you suspicious. Very suspicious.

You did call him on your lunch though, and 'hmm-ed' and 'yeah'-ed your way through the conversation as he blabbered on about his deadlines and work pressure. You doodled on a piece of paper as he talked.

After you called Adam, you called Peter quick. Him and Ned hadn't found anything, but they said they were going to try and follow Adam after work. He was very vague with the details when you probed him, giving up when he said he would text you updates. Today was an inventory day, which is why you were staying late, but you explained to Peter that you were finishing at 5pm tomorrow, so you could help them out. Peter offered to pick you up tomorrow so that you could go to Adam's work and have another stakeout, and you agreed, ending the call as your colleague came in asking for you.

You threw yourself back into work, trying not to think about the scheme, but of course, you did. Although you found yourself thinking more about how you were going to confront Adam. How you were going to present him with all the evidence, that by that point you would have collected, and how you imagined the conversation would go.

Each time, the daydreams ended with you breaking up with him.

You could understand a couple of little lies in a relationship. A couple of times where you say you're working late to have some time to yourself, and decompress. Or saying you were in one place but you were somewhere else, picking up a surprise present or something. Like when you were planning to propose to someone, and you sneak around getting the ring, booking venues, talking with their friends. You understood that. But that wasn't the case here. Adam had been lying in a big way for months, with no reasonable explanation. He certainly wasn't spending 4 months planning a proposal, and it was far too early in your relationship for that anyway. Sure, you hadn't caught him cheating yet, but you genuinely couldn't think of any other reason that you would need to lie for so long. As far as you were concerned, he couldn't earn your trust back after this.

On your way home from work, you called Ruby to update her on the last couple of days. She offered to go to Adam's place and beat the living shit out of him, which you (somewhat reluctantly) declined. She kept asking how she could help, but you knew there wasn't much for her to do until you had more information. You told her about your daydreams of confronting Adam at the end of all of this, which she became very invested in. Ruby was an attorney, so she wasn't free very often, but she promised to clear her schedule for when this was happening, as both back up, and to take pictures of his face when he realised he was in the shit.

The next day, Peter picked you up from work as agreed, and you quickly caught up on your days as he drove to Adam's work. Peter had already got you a sandwich from Delmar's which you happily tucked into as he drove, and before you knew it, you were parked a little down the street from Adam's building.

Ned was on his way over to meet up with you guys, having finished work a bit later than you, so while you were waiting for 6pm to arrive, you were filling your time by asking Peter once again about Spiderman.

"I'm just saying that you work for Stark, and Stark works with Spiderman, just ask him!"

"I'm not asking my boss to loan us an Avenger." He countered, sweating a little at the fact that he knew full well that he was using his Spiderman advantages already.

"But he wouldn't have to go out of his way, just while he's swinging around everywhere, he can keep an eye out! Then we can do something other than stalking people in our free time."

"I keep saying, I'm happy to stop, but you want to get proof before-"

"I knoooooow!" You whined as you slumped down in your seat. "But I've said before, he'll just twist it around to make us look like idiots. I need to show him that I've caught him out." You sat back up and leaned closer to him, putting on your best pout and puppy-dog eyes. "Pleasee Peter, for me? Just ask?"

He looked at you, his words dying on his lips. You leaned closer, and he felt hot. Then he shook his head stiffly. You scoffed and slumped back in your chair.

"Bet you've never even met him." You muttered angrily.

"I have met him."

"Pfft."

"Luka, he's just a very busy person. I can't ask-"

"Yeah, I get it." You said, rolling your eyes. Then you turned to him. "Although, if we could 'borrow' some of his webs, then we could parkour everywhere and not have to ask him."

"I've told you, he doesn't parkour, he-" Peter sighed as he let his head thump back against the headrest.

"I know, I know. He swings. From webs. So can we just, use his webs?"

"What?" He turned to you.

"Well you do the tech stuff, surely you've seen them, worked on them?"

"There's about ten different 'tech stuff' departments." He scoffed. "I don't...I don't do any Spiderman stuff." He said as he looked out the window.

"But you know people who do? Don't you speak to them? Can we ask them to use them?"

"You want to use his webs?"

"Well they're contraptions aren't they?" You asked, and Peter just frowned at you. Your eyes widened. "Unless they....do they come out of him?" You whispered.

"It doesn't come out of him." Peter snapped. "I don't work on his stuff, but I've heard a bit about it." He added. They're special web...shooters."

"So it's something we can borrow? They use an artificial web? Or are they real webs inside a contraption?"

"Luka I don't understand wh-"

"Hm. I suppose it can't be real spiderwebs, otherwise it wouldn't hold him up." You thought aloud. "Gotta be artificial right? How do you even make artificial spider webs? Some kind of glue?"

"It's not glue." He replied quickly, and you frowned at him. "It's strong stuff all mixed together, ike salicylic acid, toulene, methanol-"

"Oh you talking about Peter's web formula?"

You both snapped your heads round to the back to see that Ned had gotten into the back of the car, and was closing the car door behind him.

"Yeah the web stuff took Peter years to get right." Ned carried on, shrugging out of his coat and throwing it to the side. "He blew up a few things in the early stages but-"

"NED!" Peter shouted.

You looked between them. Utterly, utterly confused.

"I thought you said you didn't work on it?" You asked Peter, who was staring wide-eyed at his friend.

"Why would Peter not work on his own web formula?" Ned queried with a chuckle, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Your..your own..." You stuttered. Peter whipped his head round to you. "Your own." The realisation hit you. "You're.."

"Luka it's not, that's not what Ned meant-"

"Oh, did you not...." Ned muttered. "Have I just-"

"Ned!" Peter snapped at his friend before turning back to you. "It's not what you think, what Ned means is-"

"I am so sorry," Ned interjected, pulling himself forward. "I totally thought that you were just talking about-"

"NED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT UP!" Peter yelled.

You were still staring at Peter, your eyes wide, your entire body stilled.

Peter was Spiderman.

Peter, your friend, was fucking Spiderman.

You reached behind you, scrambling for the door handle.

"Luka, please," Peter said when he spotted what you were doing. He reached for your hand, the one that was closest to him, but you managed to open the door and had already started backing out. "Don't -"

His words were cut off by you running out of the car and slamming the door shut. He exhaled loudly, slumping back in his seat, his head hitting the window as he closed his eyes.

It was silent in the car for a few seconds.

"That was my bad." Ned whispered.

"Yeah thanks Ned."