Queens-Nueva York 2101 Earth - 938
3 months later...
5:44pm
"Alicia! Ven! Ayúdame un minuto por favor!"
"Voy!" My name, is Alicia Starkhaven, or Stark for short, and no, absolutely no relations to any resemblance of a wealthy man in his forty's in an iron suit. Anyways. I'm 23 years old and I used to live in my moms hereditary home that she passed down on to me in her will upon dying a few years ago. Three months ago, I lost my best friend. Lauren Davis, she used to be in the military then turned into a cop and...well, you know the rest...
She used to have a friend that always hung around with her, Miguel O'Hara, but...I haven't seen him since the day before the incident. I don't know wether he's alive or not...never answered my calls, my texts...it was as if he just vanished...or died...
It felt incredibly lonely to spend the weekends or pretty much every single day after work in the house. Those walls had to many hurtful memories...but also very good ones...
So, I decided to move out. Moved over to Manhattan to start a new life from scratch. I transferred from my old job at the nursing home back in Queens to another place here in Manhattan. The district was...overwhelmingly fast paced. It felt as if the city could swallow you up at any moment of the day. It never stopped. Peace and quiet seemed to be an unknown thing. Stopping, was an unknown concept. Everything...moved forward. And that's, what I so desperately needed.
But hey! I know Spanish now! And I can speak it fluently on my own in just three months! How cool is that!?
Alicia was just finishing the process of setting down the last of the movers boxes on the empty living room of her new apartment. "Ungh...!" She groaned, setting the box down at her feet, hunched over it.
"Ow..." she mumbled softly as she straightened out her back. The central spot on her back was killing her from having to move some of the boxes from the movers truck up to her apartment. Luckily, the movers were more than happy to help for an extra fee...
Other than that, she had Maria, her neighbor from Queens who came out all this way to help her settle in.
"Dime, Maria..." Alicia spoke fluently now, still having her American accent and slightly picked up the Puerto Rican one from Maria. She stepped away from the boxes, making her way towards the hallway that led into the bedroom. Maria was there, standing over the wall that was essentially a blacked out window that gave view of the thriving city outside.
"Que necesitas?" She asked, approaching the older woman.
Maria turned to look at her, she had darker tanned skin and curly hair, tied up in a bun. "Mira, mi amor...hasta dónde has llegado." Maria spoke with affection, words that reminded Alicia of her mother. "Estoy...tan orgullosa de ti." She spoke, turning to face her and opening her arms to bring Alicia into a hug.
"Ay Maria...me vas a hacer llorar..." Alicia spoke, wrapping her arms around Maria and resting her chin on her shoulder, embracing her tightly in the warm hug.
"Este es tu nuevo comienzo." Maria spoke softly, placing her hand on Alicia's back as she stroked along it.
"Lo sé..." Alicia replied briefly, letting out a shaky breath. The emotions were piling up, beginning to overwhelm her. I promised myself I wouldn't cry, come on, stop it. She told herself, but it was difficult. A small sniff was the only thing that escaped her nose as she closed her eyes tightly, fighting back to keep the tears within her eyes.
Maria slowly pulled away from the hug and looked up at Alicia, placing a hand on her cheek and giving it a gentle caress. "Cuídate, mi amor. Ahí te veo." Maria leaned in, pressed her lips to Alicia's forehead before moving away, heading out of the room and essentially out of the apartment. The door closing shut behind her with a soft thud.
Alicia, now alone, took a deep breath, moving over towards the wall that practically served as a window to look out at the bustling city. "You got this...how about some drinks to celebrate?" She told herself. It wasn't a bad idea, she wasn't worried about getting drunk, since she watched what she always drank. It was probably better to just run to the grocery store and grab a few bottles...but she wanted to meet new people, make new friends and get acquainted with her new community.
"Alright! Let's do it!" Alicia told herself. She reached into one of the boxes and pulled out numerous clothing items out onto the bed, picking out the outfit she wanted to wear for the night ahead. After settling on that, she went ahead and ran a quick shower, got dressed, added a little mascara and eyeshadow and she was out the door to take the city in.
She walked down the pavement of the sidewalk, her boots lightly thumping on the ground, the sounds of them getting swallowed by all the chatter and city sounds that occurred around her. She had black skinny jeans, a belt around her waist with a butterfly buckle, a dark red peplum shirt and on top a black leather jacket that was given to her by Lauren some years ago. She had tied her hair in a ponytail to keep it neat and in place instead of it having it fly everywhere across her face as she walked.
She eyed all the buildings that she passed through, a lot of apartment complexes, convenient stores, bars and stuff like that. She had searched on her phone along the way for a decently nice bar that was three blocks away. It caught her attention, mostly the good reviews on it.
Upon walking in front of the establishment , Alicia looked up at it, turned right and left, looked at her phone before finally deciding to head into the bar. Upon entering she was welcomed by loud guffaws from a table on the corner of a group of four men. A large pool table at the back with a set of instruments behind it on a small stage. There was a lot of posters and art and all sorts of decoration along the walls. Over at the bar, it was long and almost full. She spotted an open spot and moved over, asking the neighboring patrons if it was occupied before having the green light to sit down.
She let out a soft sigh once she settled in and looked up at the hundreds of liquor bottles that were all lined up perfectly in the shelves behind the bartender. Woah, look at all those fancy bottles...
Finally, when the bartender had an opportunity he approached Alicia an courteously introduced himself. "What can I get ya, sweetheart?" He asked, placing his palms at the lower counter before him.
"Uh...I think I'll just have a piña colada and a side of fries." Alicia spoke.
"You got it." The bartender said before quickly moving around the back of the bar, getting the opened bottles and what not before returning back to Alicia with her drink and so only after the fresh order of French fries.
"Thank you." Alicia replied to the bartender after receiving her order and took a long and hot French dry, taking bites of it before vanishing in her mouth. Mm! Nice!
After some minutes of sitting in silence, enjoying the piña colada and fries, Alicia felt a presence on her left, "Hey, you got a minute?" It was a male voice. She awkwardly turned to her side to see who it was. A tall guy, but not really past the 6 foot mark. He wore decently lazy casual clothes and had a shadow of his growing beard from the half bottom of his face.
"I guess?" Alicia answered. The seat next to her opened up and the man wasted no time to sit down next to her.
"My names Peter B. Parker." He introduced himself with a smile. "I'm uh...a friend of Miguels."
Alicia gave a couple of confused blinks as she stared at the man at her side. But when he mentioned Miguel, her attention was peaked. She rose her back slightly. "Miguel? Is he okay?"
Peter squinted his eyes slightly at that. "Define...okay...?" He asked with a soft awkward chuckle. "Listen...I think you should pay him a visit." Peter turned to look towards the wooden bar before them.
"Well, I would. But I don't know where he lives, his phone is never on, he never answers my texts. I don't know where he is. Wait, h-how is it that you even know me?" Alicia asked, almost forgetting how creepy it was for this man to know her and she knew absolutely nothing.
"I told you, I'm a friend of Miguel. He's...talked...about you." Peter said, leaning back on his seat as he stared at her. "He's been a little...kind of an asshole as of late."
"So he's, alive and well?" She asked, her hopes going slightly up.
"Oh yeah. He's kicking like there's no tomorrow, literally..." he muttered afterwards. He took in a deep breath and sighed. "But, I'm a hundred percent positive that he would enjoy to see you again."
Alicia smiled at Peter, slightly flustered at the comment. She grabbed her drink and took a sip of it. "Well... I would love to see him again." She admitted wholeheartedly.
Peter let out a chuckle and pushed himself to stand. "I gotta go. Don't worry, you'll see him sooner than you expect. You take care, Alicia." Peter said before placing a twenty dollar bill on the wooden bar before heading out.
Alicia sighed, glancing at the twenty dollars. She reached out and held on to it to give to the bartender later. Now it was back to sulking alone in piña coladas and French fries.
After around two hours of just sitting there and be approached by strangers with casual flirts and constant denies, Alicia stood from her seat, paid the bartender and was out the door, beginning to make her way back towards her apartment.
Something in her felt off. Her gut feeling told her to keep moving and fast. Her heart beat was increasing and so was her breath. She felt anxious about walking back home in the night alone, and for good reason.
A couple of feet away behind Alicia, a tall dark figure was following after her. It wasn't until they came into an alley in which he sped up, tossed his hand over her mouth and snatched her into the alley.
Alicia widened her eyes and instantly began to buckle and fight. The head of the person leaned into the side, right next to her ear, but didn't say anything.
They struggled, the man seemingly having his work cut out for him as Alicia struggled fiercely underneath his grip. It was probably a bad idea, but she opened her mouth underneath the palm of his hand and grasped at his skin, chomping down on his fingers.
The man let out a pained yell and quickly shoved her away from him, almost tossing her to the ground. Alicia yelped once she was released, almost stumbling to fall but quickly regaining her footing. She turned to look back at the figure, noticing they were hooded.
The man growled, shaking off the pain in his hand before beginning to move towards Alicia again.
"Get the fuck away!" She yelled, reaching into her back pocket for her pepper spray, but it wasn't necessary.
Suddenly, from the rooftops, a familiar neon orange and red web shot out, it wrapped itself on the man's torso before he was lifted into the air at incredible speed.
Alicia widened her eyes at the sight of the webs. They were familiar. Spiderman? She thought, looking up at the rooftops and barely seeing how the man was pulled over the edge. She caught a glimpse of red and blue markings. It is him!
She bolted for it. She quickly made her way to the fire escape of the building and rushed to the top, almost falling a couple of times but quickly regaining her footing. Upon reaching the rooftop, she saw no one. No red webs, no criminal guy, no Spiderman. Nothing.
"No...come on..." she muttered to herself. Light rain beginning to trickle on her clothes and the concrete beneath her feet.
She moved over to the edge and looked down into the alleyway that she had just been in before. She squinted her eyes to get a better sight, but there was obviously no one there anymore.
"You should get away from the ledge." The familiar voice spoke again, making Alicia turn around and face him. Spiderman.
"You." Alicia spoke softly, almost in a slight shock.
"It's me again." And there it was, that familiar tone of voice, the accent, his frame and then...
Alicia looked up at spiderman, up and down, examining him, then noticed something she hadn't before. The watch device on his left wrist. Her eyes widened. It was the same that Miguel had at her 21st birthday. She looked up to Spider-Man's eye markings once more, almost in a pure shock.
"Miguel...?" She breathed out.
At that, spiderman seemed stunned. The markings around his eyes lifting slightly, evidence that he was surprised. But he quickly shook his face, the markings returning to their original narrowed form. He shifted his body around, beginning to walk away from her towards the other edge of the building.
"Wait...wait...wait!" She called out louder, yelling at the last one. "Please!" She shouted, following after spiderman who was now standing at the edge frame of the building.
The rain got stronger, heavy droplets began to fall upon the two of them. Alicia's hair began to sink down to her scalp as the volume of it quickly diminished by the water falling on her.
Spiderman slowly turned around to face her, still remaining on the edge. The two stared at each other, before Spider-Man's mask slowly began to vanish, revealing his identity.
Miguel now stood there, his blood red eyes staring back at Alicia's ocean blue. He looked like shit, yet he still managed to compose himself.
Alicia took a few slow steps, shocked to see the true identity of spider man. It was her friend, Lauren's best friend. He was alive... and that meant she wasn't totally alone.
"You should go home, Alicia." Miguel spoke, almost coldly. His hands balled into loose fists as he witnessed how she continued to approach him.
"It didn't feel like home." Alicia replied, now standing face to face with Spiderman, she looked up at him.
Miguel took a step down from the edge so the two of them were at their regular height.
It all made sense now for Alicia, all the little indications that perhaps Miguel was Spiderman were true. She stared into his eyes, almost in disbelief before suddenly hugging his torso tightly.
Miguel gave a silent grunt at the sudden action that came from her, he stared down at the top of her wet head, her grip increasing on him, but...he didn't mind. He lowered his arms, placing one of his palms at the top of her head while the other he placed it on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, about everything that happened with Lauren." His voice was soft, one of genuine sorrow and grief.
"I thought I lost you too." Alicia closed her eyes tightly, pressing her head against his torso, right below his chest.
At that, Miguel was slightly taken back once more. Had she been thinking about him this entire time? He had kept an eye on her all these three months. Watching her from rooftops or blended in with the crowd whenever she decided to go out into the city or watch over her through windows while she worked at the nursing homes. He realized he had turned into a stalker.
After some minutes of hugging, Miguel's arms lowered down to her waist, slithering across and suddenly pulling her up over his shoulder once more. Like he had done all those months ago before leaving her be.
Alicia yelped suddenly and was back at the same position she was three months ago. Her face was now of a deadpanned. "You gotta be kidding me..."
"What? It's raining! You want to catch a cold?" Miguel argued as he began to move.
"We were having a moment!" Alicia retorted.
"This suit is waterproof, okay?! You're soaking wet already and highly likely now going to be sick." Miguel argued back, seemingly knowing exactly where to go, and Alicia realized that. "Have you been stalking me!?"
At that Miguel stood silence for a second. "I don't know what you're talking about." He spoke, but now he found himself climbing down the side of the building Alicia now lived at and snuck inside the apartment from the bathroom window.
"You SURE!?" Alicia asked, now inside the bathroom with Miguel, staring at his face with a Are you serious? Kind of look.
"Well— I—" Miguel stammered, trying to find the words to put into a sentence, but the situation wasn't helping him. "Just get out of those clothes and change, will you!?" He grumbled, stepping out of the bathroom and forcefully closing the door behind him.
Alicia let out a deep sigh, placing both hands on her face and rubbing along it. She groaned into her two palms before sighing afterwards. Miguel is Spiderman. Miguel is Spiderman. Miguel is Spiderman. Miguel is Spiderman. Oh my god! Miguel is Spiderman! And I was starting to crush on him. Argh!
Alicia removed her hands from her face and took a deep breath. She tossed all the wet clothes aside, took a quick shower and got dressed in a pajama set that she had set aside within the bathroom. She made her way out and into the main living room of her apartment, catching miguel looking over the window.
Alicia took another one of those deep breaths and walked over towards him, standing at his side. "So...Miguel O'Hara is Spider-Man..."
"We established this already..." Miguel muttered.
"So...when did it happen?" She asked, earning a sigh from Miguel.
"It's a long...story." Miguel replied, shifting his body to turn to look downwards at Alicia. Their eyes met.
Alicia remembered how his eyes used to be a maroon color, not a deep blood red like they were now. The dark bags under his eyes and the overall tiredness look gave something to imagine in response to whatever he was going through. Alicia worked with elderly people, and some of them had the same look Miguel had, just overall tired, lonely...and just ready to depart.
She took a step closer to him and wrapped her arms against his lower back, moving closer to press her body against his. She closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest.
This time, miguel wrapped his arms around her smaller frame and brought her even closer to him. One arm wrapped around her shoulders while the other cupped the back of her head. He leaned his head down, closing his eyes and pressing his cheek against her head. He truly needed that hug. He acted all tough, all cold, hesitant and distant, but he was still human after all. He thought he had managed to get his emotions under control before, but he was wrong. He had lost so many people before... he didn't want to loose anyone else.
"Don't ever disappear again, Miguel." Alicia softly spoke under him. "Your secret is safe with me." She added. Her hands tried to grip at the suit, but it was like it was glued to his skin, so she accidentally ended up pinching him.
"Ay!" Miguel suddenly winced in a very Spanish accent, raising his head and looking down at Alicia with furrowed brows. His hands moving up to hold her shoulders, holding her in place.
Alicia instantly gave a wide grin, trying to contain her laughter. "Sorry! Sorry! I thought the suit was some kind of fabric, but clearly not." She said with a chuckle her eyes then glanced over at his hands. More specifically at the topside of his wrist. Upon closer inspection she saw how there was a slight part that was raised. It almost looked like a very thin tube with a small hole at the end. "Mm..." she hummed curiously and grabbed at his much larger hand.
Miguel stared at her, confused on what she was doing. "What...are you doing?" He asked, one of his brows raised.
She turned his hand around in her face before moving to look over at the tubing in his wrist. Her other hand placed on his forearm and she began to trail it down to his wrist, trying to feel where the tubbing started.
Miguel blinked a numerous amounts of times as he stared at her. He assumed she was curious about the suit instead of how his webbing works. So, when he felt her fingertips begin to feel for his webbing tube he realized what she was doing, but it was too late. "Alicia wait-!"
Alicia had run down her fingertips along the tubing in its horizontal path right at the end, causing to shoot a small amount of the red and orange web into her face, splattering across her eyes and nose.
"Ay, coño..." Miguel pressed his lips together at the scene, watching Alicia stay there frozen with the neon web across her face. He held her wrists in place before slowly letting her go. The silence between them was intense, and it wasn't until Miguel couldn't help contain his amusement that broke the silence between them. He snorted, quickly placing a hand over his nose and mouth as he stared at the webbing on her face.
"This is funny to you?" Alicia asked, faking an annoyed tone, but she found the situation amusing as well, so she did the same. Her lips curled into a smile and she let out a heartfelt chuckle. The webbing was not so thick to stick to her skin, but it was ticklish.
"Funny?" Miguel gave a louder chuckle. "Very." He admitted. He reached into the webbing of her face and began to peel it off her skin. Her own hands went up to meet his as well and help out to peel it off her face, all while trying to contain her laughter at her silly situation. Once the webbing was off her face, it quickly disintegrated and vanished into nothing.
"Huh. Cool." Alicia muttered as she watched the whole process of the webbing vanishing.
"You know, that's not the first reaction people have to my webs...it's a nice...change." Miguel admitted, lowering his hands down to the sides of his thighs. After an amusing encounter, reality was starting to set in for Miguel. He let out a soft sigh. "I...I better get going." Miguel said, beginning to move towards the window but Alicia quickly grabbed at his hand, making a mental note on not to grab onto his wrists from now on, or at least where the tubbing was.
"Wait..." Alicia told him. "Stay the night, tell me what's been going on, how this all came to be and what you've been doing all this time."
Miguel glanced over his shoulder towards her and let out a long sigh. He seemed to be debating wether to actually go through with it or just leaving...but what did he have to loose? "Alright...fine, fine."
Alicia smiled, then moved over to the kitchen. They had moved all furniture and appliances two days before she moved fully here, so she had her pots, her pans and her coffee utensils.
Miguel watched how she swiftly moved to the kitchen and noticed her pulling out coffee items. He then realized that she was basically going to make themselves coffee to be actually able to talk the entire night. "That's not necessary, Alicia. Don't you have work tomorrow?" He asked, moving over to the counter of the kitchen.
"Nope." She cheerfully said as she continued to prepare the coffee, the same way Miguel's and her mother used to back in their old days.
Miguel sighed, defeated. He might as well just actually fully give in and tell her everything. It was probably better this way than to keep her alone in the dark without any information...he had to tell her everything since the day he met Lauren.
And so... we spent the entire night talking. How he met Lauren, how they both started working together and fighting crime side by side as well as his own story. I had so many questions for him, often having to interrupt him to have further knowledge and understanding of his story.
And then, he began to speak about the Spider-Society. An entire, quite literal society full of spider-people. The thought of it amazed me. He mentioned how he was the leader and founder of it, gathering all spider people that he found across multiple universes and creating a safe heaven for them. It was admirable. Not only that, but it was also to keep the balance of the world in check, to make sure events that didn't occur in the timeline wouldn't happen. So cannon events didn't break...and then he explained how Lauren's death was a cannon event in his life.
I was confused...but he continued to explain more in different ways so I could understand better...the thought of sacrificing one to save millions...
By the time the two of them had concluded the conversation, Alicia felt her eyes extremely heavy. The two of them were sitting at the couch in the middle of the living room. Alicia faced the window and her eyes slowly rolled to notice the hint of daylight that was beginning to peek through the horizon, behind the buildings of New York.
Miguel noticed her eyes and looked over his shoulder, noticing the daylight. He glanced down at the watch that rested on his left wrist, dialing a few buttons. Without a word, he pushed himself to stand. "I have to go."
Alicia's eyes shot over to him, returning to their original size while still incredibly heavy. "Will I see you again?" She asked, pushing herself to stand and grabbing at the two cups of coffee that had been long empty and dried into the cups.
Miguel rose his head slightly to look down upon Alicia, a small, almost faint smile formed on his lips before he gave a nod in her direction. "Yeah, I'll drop by when I can spare a moment, okay?" Miguel extended his hand out and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "Cuídate." Miguel spoke before turning around, making his way over to the window and swiftly climbing away.
Whenever he spoke Spanish, it melted her insides. Hell, and not even necessarily, whenever he simply spoke it made the dormant butterflies in her stomach act up, creating tornadoes within her. She had previously been crushing on Miguel AND Spider-Man, so she was more than delighted that the two of them were the same person.
Unfortunately now, it was back to her day to day routine. Only today she was going to fully focus on getting her apartment straight and clean. She had dozens of moving boxes laying around and there was still a faint echo within her walls, indicating more furniture was required to be placed.
But first... a quick nap.