Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Natalie

Natalie was fidgeting with her fingers, like she usually did in the mornings, picking at loose skin and nails, not caring when tiny drops of blood seeped from the small wounds in her skin, when their homeroom teacher called the class to attention.

“Class,” She said, that annoying fake teacher smile plastered across her face. Miss Malek had never been good at hiding her hatred for her job.  “We have a new student joining us today.” She gestured to someone outside the room, who came in quickly, school bag slung around her shoulders. 

“Why don't you introduce yourself?” She asked the girl, putting her hand on her shoulder. The girl nodded, taking a step forward before she started speaking. Her voice was clear, as if she'd practiced this introduction like one would practice for an oral exam. 

“My name is Charlotte, but if you like you can just call me Lottie,” She smiled, when someone from the back of the class suddenly  asked, “Where are you from, Lottie?” That was Jackie, voice dripping with fake intrigue. “New York. I just moved here a few weeks ago.” Charlotte responded, nodding. 

There was a confused murmur throughout the class. Why would some fancy pants New Yorker suddenly decide to move to a middle of nowhere town like Wiskayok? 

“Alright Charlotte, thank you. Why don't you take a seat… over there?” Miss Malek said, and to Natalie’s horror, she realised that the over there Miss Malek was talking about was the seat next to her. 

Charlotte smiled and walked over to her, pushing back the chair and sitting down next to Natalie. She had the kind of face that gave you the indication that she absolutely could not shut up. Natalie had to force herself not to roll her eyes when she heard the almost chirped, “Hi there!” 

“Hey.” Came Natalie’s begrudging response. 

There was something off about this Charlotte girl, and Natalie was not going to find out what it was. No, she didn't have time for that. 

But what she was going to do was stay as far away from her – and whatever secrets she had – as possible. 

That task became increasingly more difficult as the day went on though, because for some reason – the universe probably just wanted to fuck with her – Charlotte was sat next to her in every single class they had together. 

In the final period – chemistry – was when things really got weird. Their teacher was a grumpy old guy that very obviously still thought that women shouldn't get an education, named Mister Odel, who stopped them from entering when the class tried to walk into the room. “You’ll be seated how I see fit. Not in alphabetical order, most definitely not in the order of your choosing. You’ll be ordered by your grades from last year – lowest in the front, so I can monitor you, highest in the back. I’ll call your names and tell you where you’ll be seated. Understood?” 

There was a disgruntled murmur of approval throughout the gathered students. Mister Odel took a clipboard from his desk and began to read. One by one, each student took their seats until- “Scatorccio.” 

Natalie stepped forward, contented with the fact that she had – once again – been the best. Only… she wasn't the last person to take their seat. No, there was one person still standing once Natalie sat down. Charlotte. 

How was it possible? She didn't even go here the previous year, so how were her nonexistent grades better than Natalie’s? Even if they had used the grades from Charlotte’s previous school, she'd have to have had practically perfect grades to best Natalie. 

To make matters worse, and to piss Natalie off even more, her brooding was interrupted by Mister Odel calling for Charlotte. 

“Osborn.” 

Osborn. Fucking Osborn . Of course, the fancy pants New Yorker that came to Wiskayok of all places, was also the nepo baby daughter of the richest man in the world. 

Natalie almost laughed. Charlotte took a step forward, then turned around to face Mister Odel. “Pardon me, sir, but the surname on the class list should be Matthews, not Osborn.” Her polite smile faltered slightly as she spoke to him. 

“Your father is Norman Osborn, correct?” Mister Odel asked, his voice strained. 

“Yes sir.” Came Charlotte’s response. Her voice shook slightly. 

“Then your surname is Osborn, is it not?” Tense silence stretched on throughout the classroom. 

“ Yes, sir, but-” He cut Charlotte off almost immediately after she said yes, saying, “Then your surname is Osborn. Sit down.” 

Charlotte opened her mouth as if to retort, but simply said, “Yes sir.” and walked in a disgruntled manner, muttering something under her breath, and sat down next to Natalie. 

Mister Odel began to speak, but was interrupted by the booming voice of Misty Quigley echoing through the intercoms as she began the morning report. 

“Good morning Wiskayok High! My name is Misty Quigley and these are the morning announcements! Today is an important day indeed, the very first day of the school year. We here at Wiskayok high would like to give a warm welcome to the freshman and any other newcomers here! Next up – coach Martinez would like to announce that soccer tryouts for the girls’ soccer team – AKA the Yellowjackets –  is today at four, so if you're a girl, a senior and interested, be sure to make your way down to the field after school.” 

Natalie stopped listening after that. Other than soccer, she didn't care what the morning announcements were. Instead, she surveyed the class, spying which dimwits she was up against this year. Most of them she didn't know by name, only their faces. She knew a select few from soccer, though. 

Taissa Turner, the smartest girl in class other than Natalie. Shauna Shipman, the resentful shadow of the school’s queen bee. Jackie Taylor, the aforementioned queen bee. 

None of them were any real competition, plus, they all thought of her as just some idiot that would get nowhere in life other than teenage pregnancies and drugs. It was rather obvious that they were all shocked to find that she'd done the best in the class. 

The announcements ended with a, “Have a buzz-some day, Wiskayok!” from Misty – whatever that was supposed to mean, and as soon as they did, Mister Odel started speaking again. 

“Alright class. Look at the person next to you, that person will be your lab partner for the rest of the year. If you don't like them, I don't care. You either work with them, or you get zero. And remember, the groups with the best grades will get a chance to visit Oscorp Headquarters in New York during the Thanksgiving holiday, so I would not recommend getting a zero in my class. Now, ungraded work, like homework, may be done individually, so make of that what you will. Do I make myself clear?” He said, nodding when the class murmured their agreement. 

Some of them, like Jackie and Shauna, were visibly excited about the prospect of being each other's lab partners, while others seemed more disappointed. 

Natalie was one of the few that felt angry about this rule, because now she was stuck with Charlotte Osborn. 

Now, honestly, Natalie shouldn't really have had a problem with Norman Osborn’s kid being her lab partner, she wanted to intern at Oscorp anyway once she was done with college. And if she kept her grades up like usual, she'd definitely be seeing Oscorp when Fall break rolled around. 

Still though, if there was one thing Natalie had learned in her life, it was that no one could be trusted. She couldn't risk making friends that would distract her from studying just to abandon her the moment they heard one of the three thousand rumours about her. 

She'd decided pretty early on that she'd rather have everyone hate her, but be the best, than have temporary high school friends who would start hating her the first chance they got. Her best play was to start making friends when she was already at the top, instead of having to drag them along with her throughout the climb. 

“... That Spider-Woman…missing.” Jackie’s voice cut through her thoughts. Natalie turned to listen, ignoring Charlotte when she noticeably tensed at the mention of the vigilante. 

As she listened in on Jackie and Shauna’s conversation, she almost scoffed. They spoke about New York’s most famous vigilante – The Spider-Woman – who had completely disappeared from New York a few weeks ago, only showing up to thwart the real dangerous crimes every now and again. 

Natalie paid no mind to it. If some girl wanted to dress up in halloween costumes and beat the shit out of bad guys, then that was her call, but Natalie didn't have the time to fangirl about some masked crime fighter. 

The same definitely didn't go for Shauna and Jackie though. Those two were sporting matching black bracelets, a golden spider simbol like the one on Spider-Woman’s chest woven into them. 

As mister Odel walked around the class handing out worksheets, Natalie completely pushed out any thoughts of masked vigilantes, because, like mister Odel had said – ungraded work was individually done. And she'd use any excuse not to talk to her lab partner. 

Before she could write down a single thing, though, she suddenly heard something whoosh past the classroom, followed by several more whooshes which were accompanied with sirens. 

The class stood up and crowded around the windows. Just outside the perimeter of the school, several more police cars sped away. 

“It's a car chase!” Someone shouted. Way to state the obvious. Natalie thought. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her work, expecting to find Charlotte next to her, seeing as Natalie hadn't noticed her getting up. 

Charlotte, though, was gone. 

Lottie

Her stomach lurched as she almost hit the cement below her. The buildings in Wiskayok weren't nearly as high as the ones in New York, and she wasn't used to swinging herself off of them. 

She followed the police cars for a bit, before spotting the car they were chasing. She jumped from a roof, practically launching herself from the building, then opened her web wings – which increased her speed tenfold – and finally began to catch up with the car in the front. 

The police broadcast crackled in her ear as she heard, “Spider-Woman also in pursuit of target.” 

Typical. She was pleasantly surprised to find that she wasn't being shot at by the police for a change. Maybe her bad reputation back in New York hadn't reached this small town just yet. 

She folded her arms to her sides, picking up speed as she descended, landing hard on the roof of a police car with a clang. She folded in her two middle fingers on both hands, touching them to her palms, shooting two strings of webbing, which both stuck to the criminal’s car. 

She pulled herself forward, landing on the car and slamming her fist into the roof. She pulled the metal away from the initial hole she'd made, pulling it apart to make it larger.

The person driving it wore a black mask, but the surprise on his face was still evident as he looked up to see his attacker. Lottie shot several webs into the hole she’d made, sticking his arms to his chest, then sticking him to the seat. 

Before she could carry out the rest of her plan, something in her head suddenly screamed at her to move! just before a bullet whizzed past her head. 

The second person in the car was also masked, but carried a gun. Fine then. She’d wanted to do this the quick way anyway, so if they were going to be difficult, then she'd resort to it. 

She left the webbed up man in the car with his accomplice, then jumped from the roof onto the street. The car collided with her seconds later, as she pushed her shoulder into it. They moved a few feet backward, the car screeching to a halt. 

She was about to swing away, but just to be safe, she broke the windshield and webbed the gunman to his seat, too, just as the police cars stopped around them. 

She shot another web onto a building a few yards away, pulling herself up and away just as the police stepped from their cars. One of them took off his hat, wiping his face as Lottie swung away, shock and confusion evident on his face. 

She guessed that no one in Wiskayok had expected New York’s own Spider-Woman to thwart a crime so far away from the city that knew her so well. 

She swung through the streets, switching to her web-wings every now and again when the taller buildings grew scarce. She landed on a building near the school, seeing everyone exit the building as the bell rang. 

Somewhere in that crowd was the bleach blonde girl that she sat next to in almost every class. Her name was… well it was something with an N, Lottie didn't really have the time to learn anyone’s names here, she was going to go back to New York as soon as possible anyway. 

It wasn't like the blonde girl liked her either. She didn't get her name because the only thing she had gotten from her was a scowl. 

When the last of the stragglers exited the school, Lottie zipped onto the roof, grabbing the backpack she'd webbed onto a door. She quickly changed while staying out of sight, then, after grabbing her school backpack and making sure that no one was near, she jumped from the roof, catching herself with a web just before she hit the ground. 

She then walked away from the school, walking down the sidewalk to get home. Once she'd walked for about half an hour, she saw her mother's house, it's odd tile roof and green painted walls a stark contrast to the rest of the beige houses in the suburb.

Lottie unlocked the door, then closed it behind her, locking it again. The house smelled like freshly baked cookies and her mother's perfume. It was much different than her father's penthouse back in New York, with its stark white walls and the nose-stinging scent of the alcohol cleaner used on every surface. 

Her mother was working at the moment though. That fresh-baked cookie scent was coming from a candle a neighbour or someone had gifted them. 

Lottie found it, blowing out the candle before it could set the house ablaze. She then made her way to her room, tossing her schoolbag onto her bed and sitting down in front of her desk. 

She clicked through several different news websites, refreshing to check if there was anything new. The newest article was from The Daily Bugle, called Spider-menace wreaks havoc in another state: New Jersey car chase causes major property damages in small town. 

That was one of the nicer titles about her written by The Bugle, though she'd argue that she had kept the property damage to the minimum this time. 

She closed the tabs on her computer, stretched, then began with her homework. She finished most of it within the hour, but paused at the chemistry homework, thinking of her new lab partner . She guessed that maybe it'd be smart to at least try to become friends with her, even if it was just to ensure that her grades would be secure. 

She quickly finished up with it, trying not to think about that blonde. It was slightly difficult though. There was something about her that Lottie couldn't exactly place, but it made that scowling face stick in her mind. Like a tick. 

When she finally finished up with all of the day's work, she packed her school bag for the next day, then checked the time. 3 pm. Lottie stretched, then quickly took off her school clothes, changing into a more athletic outfit. 

She'd sort of decided right on the spot that she wanted to join the soccer team. Her mother had insisted that she’d have to do some sort of extracurricular activity, and she'd chosen the first thing that came to mind. 

Though a sport – she now realised – could be rather problematic, seeing as she had enough strength to kick a soccer ball into the stratosphere, but she'd decided that possibly she could manage to hold her powers back for practice. 

Right before she left her house – backpack with her suit shoved into the bottom, just in case – she wrote went to tryouts, be back for dinner :) onto a sticky note, pressing it onto the fridge for her mother to find, just in case her mother got home before she did. 

She walked back to school again, scanning the streets for any sign of danger. It was something she had to do in the big city, but being constantly alert in this small town felt rather… Well, silly. 

About twenty or so girls stood on the field, talking to each other or stretching, with two men standing near them, talking to each other. 

When Lottie got close enough to be noticed, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her spider sense flared, giving her a momentary headache. To be fair, though, she always felt that way around girls that were her age. 

The older of the two men checked his watch, then nodded. “Right. Let's get started.” He said, beckoning for the girls to come closer. 

“Most of you know me already, but if not, my name is Bill, but you can call me coach Martinez,” He gestured to the younger man next to him. “and this is Ben, but you can call him coach Scott.” 

There was a welcoming murmur between the girls. “Now, today we’ll be testing your skills, assessing your abilities and sorting you into the team. Eleven of you will be on the team, and a few more will be chosen to be substitutes. You can split into two teams. The first team will be assessed by me, and the second will be assessed by coach Scott. Right, let's go.” He finished the sentence by clapping his hands once. 

The girls split into two groups as instructed and Lottie found herself in a group with a few people, two of which she’d seen before. Their names were… Sandra and Jessie? No, that wasn't right. She guessed she at least got the first letter right. Probably. 

They turned to her, and the blonde one smiled. “You're Lottie, right? I didn't know you played soccer!” Her smile was almost contagious. There was something about this girl that reminded Lottie of a rabbit. 

“Oh, uhm… I guess, yeah,” She shrugged. “Sorry, er… what are your names again?” Lottie managed an awkward smile. 

The blonde girl's smile wavered for a second, like she hadn't expected Lottie not to know her name, but her smile returned to normal after a moment, before she said, “I’m Jackie, and this is my best friend, Shauna.” She gestured to the brunette next to her, who raised her hand to give a small wave. “Nice to meet you. Have you played soccer for a while?” Lottie asked, unsure why she was striking up a conversation with these people. 

“Yep! We've been playing together since the sixth grade. Shauna’s a lot better than me though, so if you need help with anything, you’d be better off asking her than me.”

Jackie said, bumping Shauna – who had a light blush on her cheeks – with her shoulder, 

“I'm not as good as she tells you I am. She has been team captain since we started playing in high school, after all.” Shauna responded. Lottie nodded. She wondered for a moment if they were more than just best friends, but decided against mentioning it. 

As the tryouts began, they all started showing off their skills one by one, in smaller groups. It turned out to be rather difficult to suppress her powers for this specific thing, which made her slip up a few times. The first time, she forgot to run slower, which made her outpace almost everyone. The second time, tired from the practice, she didn't properly subdue her strength, which sent the ball flying into the net so quickly that the net snapped, leaving a hole bigger than the rest in it. 

This made every other girl – and both of the coaches – stare at her for a solid minute. That made her stomach turn and her spider sense scream at her again. 

“Looks like new girl’s got superpowers.” Someone said, laughing. It was that blonde girl. Lottie stiffened at the mention of superpowers. She knew that soccer was a horrible idea. She was going to be outed as the Spider-Woman now. She was so extremely fucked. 

For a brief second, Lottie was convinced that this was the worst moment of her life, until someone else piped up. “I think it's great!” That was Jackie, who started clapping seconds later. 

The next second, the whole team was clapping for her. What the actual fuck?! She thought, her spider sense still shrieking at her in her head. This was probably the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her. Well… other than the time she'd woken up sticking to the ceiling the day after her fifteenth birthday.

Finally, the clapping stopped, and she was allowed to go back to her group to watch some of the other girls show off their talents. Many of them certainly did have talents. 

She was glad that she was playing with such a seemingly good team. That is if she actually made the team, though. A few of the girls caught her eye. Shauna actually did seem as good as Jackie made her out to be – although Lottie found it rather strange that her spider senses flared up whenever Shauna did basically anything. A few other girls which she didn't know by name also seemed to have a talent for the game. 

And then, there she was. That blonde girl. The girl whose name still eluded her. Lottie couldn't stop staring at her. Her spider senses were quiet with all the other girls but Shauna, but Natalie made them flare up, too. Though with her, they were more of a whisper than a scream. 

Fuck, she thought. please don't let two of my classmates be super villains or some shit. It wouldn't be the first time either, which was odd to think about. 

When everyone had had their turn to show off their skills, they were rounded up into one big group again, with coach Scott standing at the front, looking rather bored. 

“Now, soccer is a team sport, which means that you should actually be nice to each other. I know that this is near to impossible for girls your age, but nonetheless, it's what we need to do. Now, in your two groups, you're going to stand in two circles and face each other and talk for a minute or two, when I tell you to, the outside circle will move clockwise. That way, all of you can get to know each other. Everyone understand?” He finished, and the group murmured in agreement, then followed his instructions. The first girl Lottie spoke to was a blonde girl with a sweet smile, who wore a cross necklace. 

“My name is Laura Lee, what's yours?” She asked, seeming genuine. “Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie.” Silence stretched on between them for a moment, both of them trying to come up with something to break the ice. 

Finally, Laura Lee said, “Do you like it here in Wiskayok? I heard from some of the others that you moved from New York.”

Lottie hesitated for a moment, then started to speak. “Yeah, I like it here. Everyone seems nice enough so far.” Laura Lee smiled again, somehow even wider. “Well if you ever need someone to sit with at lunch, you're always welcome with me!” 

She seemed sweet enough, and she didn't make Lottie’s spider sense go crazy, so she assumed that she was probably being genuine. 

Lottie was about to say something else, when coach Scott blew his whistle. Laura Lee waved at her, then stepped aside to let someone else talk to Lottie. 

The next person was a redhead, who introduced herself as Van – which was short for Vanessa. “Do you like movies?” Was her first question other than asking for Lottie’s name. “Kind of, yeah. But I haven't watched too many of them.” She left out the fact that she didn't have anyone to watch them with being the reason that she didn't watch them much. 

Following Van was Shauna. Her and Lottie exchanged a few words about their interests, but it was hard for Lottie to focus on what she was saying when she had an incessant screeching in her ear. 

It had been going well enough thus far. And Lottie guessed that she had at least made a few friends by now. She'd met most of the girls she'd seen in the day – Taissa, Mari, Robin – and they'd all seemed nice. 

Her heart sank into her stomach when she saw the next person she'd be talking to, though. Bleach blonde hair, eyes that seemed to change constantly. From greenish gray to a stormy blue. Or maybe Lottie simply couldn't get a grip. 

“I’m-” Lottie began, but the girl cut her off. “Charlotte. I know. Natalie.” Lottie tried to actually remember her name this time, because she guessed that Natalie wouldn't even give her the time of day when she didn't have to. 

“So, do you-” Natalie cut her off again. “Listen here Charlotte,” Natalie almost spit out her name, as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. “I don't have the time to make friends, okay? Whatever you’ve heard about me, which I’m pretty sure you already have – it's true. Every word of it. But don't think for a second I’m going to hook you up with anything, got it? I'm only even talking to you because I don't want to fail, but don't even think about even trying to get close to me.” 

That was unnecessarily harsh. And she hadn't even heard anything about Natalie, either. The rest of the minute they spent together was filled with a fuming silent glare from Natalie, and when coach Scott finally blew his whistle, Lottie let out a breath. 

It seemed that it had been the final whistle, as the circles went back to groups. 

It was nearing sunset by then, and finally, coach Martinez spoke to the big group again. “Coach Scott and I have been assessing your skills today, and we're glad to see we have a great batch this year. Now, we’ll be posting the team this Thursday, so make sure to check the bulletin board. Even if you don't make the team, just remember that you can still be a sub. Thank you all for coming today.”

He ended his speech, and there was a murmur from the group. Then, finally, they were permitted to go home. Lottie began to walk home, when someone touched her shoulder. It was Van. 

“Hey… I heard from the others about you and Nat. I just wanted to say that… listen, Natalie's a little intense sometimes, but she doesn't mean any harm. I’m sorry if she said anything too mean, though. You seem really nice.” She said, smiling at Lottie. 

Lottie hesitated for a second, then managed a smile. “It's really fine, but thanks anyway, Van. You seem nice, too. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Van patted her shoulder, then walked back to her friends. 

The walk home felt weird. She couldn't shake off what Natalie had said. It was mean, sure, but Van could be right about her not meaning any harm. 

When she got home, she took off her practice clothes and changed into something more comfortable, but with a few hours to kill before her mom got home, she started itching for some action. 

And so, fifteen minutes later, she found herself suited up and standing atop the tallest building in the town, looking out at the small town she'd be calling home for the next year or so. 

She felt rather stupid, looking for crimes in this small town. The car chase a few hours ago turned out to be a crime committed in a city twenty minutes or so away, but the criminal had tried to seek shelter here. 

So, instead of patrolling through town like she’d done every night back in New York, she simply moved through the town, swinging from building to building and using her web wings every now and again. 

The only things she really saw were a few cars, or people walking. Some of them even waved at her, which was new. 

She decided it was time to head home when she saw her mother's car driving into the town. When her mother finally got home, Lottie had already changed into her normal clothes again, and sat on her bed, reading, when she heard keys jingling in the doorway and her mother's voice, “Hi, honey! How was school? Good?” 

“It was fine, mom. How was work?” Lottie responded, not lifting her gaze from her book. “Yeah, I was fine, too. You want dinner?” Her mother asked, walking into her room and leaning on the doorframe. 

“I already ate. Thanks, though, mom. Good night.” A slightly awkward silence stretched on between them for a moment, until her mother let out a sigh and said, “Remember to pack for this weekend. You're going to your dad’s. Night, hun.” Lottie simply nodded, and her mother exited her room.

Lottie got up after a while, showered, got into her pyjamas and climbed into bed. She could only lay in the dark for a while, mulling over the day's events in her head. 

She fell asleep after a while, thoughts of stormy green-gray eyes and bleach blonde hair still swirling around in her head. 

Chapter Text

Lottie

Mornings like these were her favourite. Since summer break had just ended, but fall hadn't really started yet, it meant that the sun still came up pretty early. 

Back in New York, she used this time of year as an opportunity to patrol the city before she had to get ready for school, plus – it was a good way to wake herself up. 

But now, in small town Wiskayok, there wasn't much patrolling to do. Still though, even here, she found herself swinging and flying around town an hour before school even started. 

The early morning sun beating down on her, contrasting the cold air as wind whipped around her, she landed on a water tower and looked out at the town. 

She hated to admit it, but Wiskayok was kind of growing on her. 

She – apparently – wasn't the only one to be up this early, though. Down on the street, walking towards the large brick building that was the school, was Natalie. 

Lottie felt weird just staring at her like this, but what was she supposed to do? Go down there and try to be friends with her? Yeah, right.

She watched the blonde walk into the open school gates and sit down on the steps. She took a book from her bag and just sat and studied. 

Lottie knew that she'd been staring for too long when she saw several more people walking into the school. She didn't want to be late, after all. 

She swung back home, silently opening her room’s window and climbing inside. Just as her feet hit the wooden boards, she heard her mother knocking on her door, saying, “Are you awake, Charlotte?” she called. Lottie called back to her, then quickly slipped out of her suit and into her school clothes, stuffing her suit down under her school books for potential later use. 

And so – her stomach not empty enough to have breakfast – Lottie greeted her mother, slung her school bag over her shoulders and began the short walk to school. 

The day at school started off relatively boring, and with Natalie still actively ignoring her, Lottie instead found an early morning conversation with Jackie and Shauna. She regretted it though, when the topic changed from soccer and chemistry homework to the thwarted crime in town yesterday. The one that – unbeknownst to them – Lottie had stopped. 

Lottie tried to keep herself calm, but she knew that she was visibly tense, and that didn’t bode well for keeping her identity secret. Sure, it had been hard back in New York, seeing as there was a crime basically every day, which meant that she was late for practically every class, missed multiple tests, and was most of the time seen as a problem student. But her grades were good, and when she was in class, she kept to herself and did her work. Teachers never bothered to check up on her, either, and neither did her parents. They only ever saw the straight A’s on her report card and called it a day.

And while she tensed up at the mention of her superhero identity even then, so many people were talking about the Spider-Woman that she just decided that no one at Midtown High was smart enough to actually figure it out, anyway. And even if they did, there were about a thousand rumours about this or that kid being Spider-Woman, but no one ever had any solid evidence. Lottie had just hoped that she hadn’t slipped up enough to warrant someone actually gathering said evidence.

But here, in a town with less than ten-thousand people, a spider-person showing up and causing chaos at the very same time a new student showed up could very possibly lead someone to connect the right dots. And in a place like this, where everyone knew everyone, that rumour could only grow. 

“Hey, Earth to Lottie? You there?” Jackie’s voice cut through her thoughts and Lottie shook from her trance-like state. “Sorry about that, just thinking of what you said, y’know about Spider-Woman.” Lottie shrugged. 

“Oh, do you like her, too?” Jackie asked, her eyes glimmering. “Uh… yeah, I guess.” Lottie shrugged, trying to steer away from the subject, to no avail. Jackie and Shauna just kept talking about Lottie’s other identity, putting her heroic acts up on a pedestal, like she’d done more than stopped a single crime in Wiskayok. Eventually, the bell rang to signal the start of the first period, leaving Lottie thankful that she didn’t have to talk to Jackie and Shauna anymore. They were nice and all, but having to hear them constantly talk about her other identity like she was some kind of god was getting to be rather tiring after the first few days. 

Chemistry was similarly boring, just forty-five minutes of mister Odel drawling on and on about the day’s work, then leaving them with another worksheet to complete, only this time, he said, “This needs to be in by next Monday, and you’ll find important to know that I will be grading these, which means that you’ll be working on them together.” 

Lottie turned her head to look at her lab partner, who was – as usual – scowling at her. Natalie was gripping her pen so tightly that Lottie half expected it to snap in her grip. To make matters worse, they didn’t even get a chance to work on it in class. Mister Odel just had to add that they had to work on it at home. He didn’t care whether you couldn’t get to your lab partner’s house, you just had to get the project done by the following Friday or you’d be getting a zero, and if he only saw one kind of handwriting on the paper, your group would be getting a zero, anyway. Lottie had only had about three classes with Mister Odel, but he was shaping up to be rather annoying. She didn’t even want to know what would happen if she missed a class to stop a city from exploding again. 

And so, as uncomfortable as the conversation would be, Lottie decided to stop Natalie in the hallway after class to ask, “Your house or mine?” trying to keep her smile unwavering. 

Natalie only responded with, “Yours.” and walked away. Guess I’ll give her my address later. Lottie thought, scoffing. 

At lunch – like every day since Monday – she sat with Laura Lee. She was nice, and funny, and didn’t talk about Spider-Woman, so Lottie grew to like her a lot in the few days they’d been together so far. “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Laura Lee asked, when Lottie didn’t pick up a tray to get food. Lottie shrugged, simply picking up an apple and smiling slightly. Laura Lee frowned for a second, but didn’t say anything else, simply picking up a tray for herself and chatting with Lottie as she made her way down the lunch line to grab a full meal.

Lottie spent the rest of the lunch period talking to Laura Lee, who shared her excitement about finding out about who made the team that day, and as much as Lottie didn’t want to admit it, she was equally as excited about the announcement. That was if she could actually keep her powers in check for practice and not reveal that she was Spider-Woman to ten other teenage girls and two middle-aged men. 

It was nearing the end of the day when Jackie tapped her shoulder in French class and whispered, “I saw coach Martinez putting up the team list, Shauna and I are checking it out after class ends, you can come with us if you like?” 

Lottie nodded, and as Jackie had suggested, she followed her to the school bulletin board after the bell rang, with Shauna there to meet them outside of class. The team list was tacked onto the bulletin board, fifteen names written onto a yellowish paper. Jackie stood in front of Lottie and Shauna, reading down the line until she let out a squeal and said, “We made the team! All three of us, I checked!” she practically jumped up and down in excitement. Shauna smiled at Jackie, hiding a giggle behind her sleeve. “It also said that our first practice is… tomorrow!” Jackie squealed again. “Okay, come on, Jax, let’s get you home before you die of anticipation.” Shauna teased, rolling her eyes. Jackie bumped her gently with her shoulder, laughing loudly. Shauna simply stuck out her tongue at Jackie, who burst into another bout of giggles. Then, Jackie took Shauna’s hand, waved goodbye to Lottie with her free hand and walked away, Shauna on her heels.

Lottie watched the two of them walk away, they were holding hands, like they always did in the hallway. Fucking idiots. She shrugged, then went to walk away, when she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder from behind.

Natalie 

Natalie was about to go home when she remembered two things that she desperately didn’t want to do. One – checking the bulletin board for the team list, and two – asking Charlotte about her address. She would’ve preferred to do it by herself, then just write both of their names on the paper, but Mister Odel just had to say that he wanted two kinds of handwriting. 

Unluckily for her, coincidentally, both of the things she didn’t want to do were in the same spot when the bell rang. Charlotte was standing by the bulletin board, arms crossed and staring at someone in the hallway. 

Natalie walked closer to the board, staring at the off-white paper with several names written on it. At the top of the page was the school’s logo, and written beneath it was The Yellowjackets’ soccer girls of 1996. She scanned the page, reading names of people she’d seen of and heard of over the years of playing soccer. Right in the middle – just as she’d expected – was, Scatorccio, N. 

That left one more task that Natalie had to get over with. Charlotte was still staring at something off in the distance, so Natalie lightly tapped her shoulder. Charlotte turned around to face her, then gave a slight smile. “I was just going to ask if you could give me your address… for the project.” Short, curt, straight to the point. Exactly what it was supposed to be. Anything more might give Charlotte the idea that Natalie actually wanted to do this stupid project with her, but anything less might make her sabotage the project, and Natalie wasn’t willing to bet her grades on taking the easy route of not being nice to someone. 

“Oh!” Charlotte mused, “Thank you for reminding me, here,” Charlotte quickly pulled out a pen and scribbled something on a loose piece of paper, before handing it to Natalie, “Does tomorrow work for you? Like, after practice?” Charlotte asked. Natalie sighed, then nodded her head. “Yeah. I’ll see you then.” 

Without another word, Natalie turned on her heel and walked away. 

She couldn’t focus for the rest of the day. Her mind kept going back to her. Charlotte Osborn, who, really, she shouldn’t have despised as much as she did, but she couldn’t help it. Something was crooked and off and annoying about Charlotte, and as much as Natalie hated to admit it, she was still curious about what exactly this thing about Charlotte was.

But she still didn’t have time to investigate or trace back the secrets of Charlotte’s life and confront her with them, just like she didn’t have time to go to parties, or drink or have friends. She had nine more months left in this shithole, and she wasn’t going to throw all that away just so she could know about all the skeletons in Charlotte’s closet. 

Still though, she couldn’t focus on anything, not her stupid chemistry homework, not parabolas, not the questions about the poem they were doing in English. All she could think about was her. The tip of her pencil snapped under her grip and she groaned, tossing it aside. 

That night, she tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep for the life of her, struggling even more to fall asleep than she usually did. Her head swarmed with stress for the upcoming assignments, tests, and the following day’s soccer practice, and fucking hell, she really didn’t want to go to Charlotte’s house and do their stupid chemistry homework and have to actually say more than two words at a time to her. This wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d ever done though, so she’d just have to bite the bullet and get it over and done with, and then she’d never have to speak to anyone in this stupid town again, she’d finally be free. Or at least free enough. 

𖢥

Friday’s school hours went quickly at least. They – once again – didn’t get the chance to work on their projects in class, leaving out the idea that she could possibly skip out on going to Charlotte’s house and just do the work at school, but obviously, nothing could ever go the way Natalie wanted it to. 

It was after school that her problems started, and the first thing happened at soccer practice. 

“Welcome, team! I reckon we’ll have a great year, so gather round and we’ll start our first practice, but before that, coach Scott and I have an announcement to make,” Coach Martinez said, when everyone had shown up to practice, everyone waited for a moment, then, when he assumed everyone was listening, he said, “your team captain this year, will once again be… Jackie Taylor! Jackie, come on up.” 

Jackie smiled so wide you’d think that she was actually surprised that she’d been chosen again, then walked up to the front and said – loud enough for everyone to hear, “I’m so glad I get to be your captain again this year, I’m sure this year will be even better than the last, and that’s saying something, and also, thank you to coach scott and coach Martinez for giving me the opportunity to be captain again this year,” she looked like the main character of a rom-com giving a speech. 

After she was finished, everyone gave a half-hearted clap, and she stepped back to the rest of the group. That was when warm-ups started. After everyone had warmed up, they were split into two groups again to do a sort-of ‘practice match.’

Natalie ended up on the team that Charlotte wasn’t on. Even on normal occasions Natalie was extremely competitive, but now she had even more of a reason to be. After her stunt at tryouts, Charlotte had made it very clear that she had quite the kicking talent, and Natalie had every intention of humbling her.

But that would prove to be difficult, because, as it turned out, it wasn’t just kicking that Charlotte had a talent for. If Natalie had a dollar for every time she saw Charlotte kick a ball so hard that it practically caught on fire, she’d have two dollars, and that really pissed her off. 

It was nearing the end of practice when it happened. Natalie’s team was tied with Charlotte’s 1-1, and there were only about five minutes left, when the ball suddenly whizzed past her face and into the goal. 

She felt it more than saw it, a quick burst of wind past her face as a black and white blur flew across her eyes. And Charlotte’s team screamed. They’d won. Those absolute bastards had won because Charlotte had the kick of a horse on steroids. 

Natalie left the field as soon as she could, then walked home, fuming. 

She took a quick shower, pulled on her normal clothes, then packed up her chemistry books and left without a word to her mother. She reached Charlotte’s house about an hour after practice, but stopped before she knocked on the door.

She took several deep breaths, uncertain of why her heart was pattering this fast. She decided that it was just anxiety about actually talking to a person for once. Pushing the thought aside, she knocked on the door. 

About three seconds later, Charlotte opened it, all smiles, “Hi,” Natalie murmured, walking inside when Charlotte stepped aside to let her in, “would you like something to drink? Snacks, maybe-”

Natalie shook her head at Charlotte’s request, “No, thank you. I think we’re better off just getting this over with,” she said, not even bothering to muster a smile. 

Charlotte nodded, then said, “I’ll just be a second… you can just go to my room if you want, it’s the last room on the left.”

Natalie shrugged, following Charlotte’s instructions and found a room that was annoyingly cool. It was covered in green wallpaper, little white flowers in a pattern atop it. The walls were also covered in band and movie posters – a few of which Natalie actually liked, but she’d never say that out loud.

In the top corner of one of the walls was a spider web, which Natalie found strange. Why would a neat freak like Charlotte – whose room was so perfectly organised that you’d think she’d been in the military – leave something like that up?

Natalie scolded herself inwardly for once again thinking about something non-school related about Charlotte.

“Alright er… you can sit down if you like,” Charlotte said, making Natalie flinch slightly – which was really odd, seeing as she could always hear people’s footsteps behind her. Yet another thing to add to her mental list of things that are weird about Charlotte Osborn. 

Charlotte had grabbed another chair – seemingly from her kitchen, but offered for Natalie to sit on the more comfortable swivel chair that was originally behind the desk. And then, they got to work, and with their combined efforts, an hour later they were done. Charlotte pushed her chair back and stretched her arms out over her head, “Well, that went quick,” she murmured, “yeah, I better head home though, so…” Natalie cleared her throat, standing up and putting her books back into her backpack.

She reached for their project paper at the exact same time that Charlotte did, and their fingers touched for a fraction of a second. Natalie pulled away so quickly you’d think that Charlotte’s skin burnt her, “I’ll hand it in,” they both said at the same time, then, “no, you can- nevermind,” before Charlotte relented and simply put her hand on the paper as if to settle the matter.

Natalie gave her a curt goodbye, then let Charlotte lead her out, but not before stealing a last glance at the spider web in the corner of the room. The walk home was… weird. Natalie didn’t want to think about her lab partner or how kind of cool her room was, but her brain had been betraying her as of late. 

Once she got home, she started on the rest of her homework – english… math… tack. Natalie pretended not to hear that, instead lowering her head back down and- tack. She didn’t have time for this, she’d already wasted most of the afternoon- tack. She stood up and opened the window, narrowly missing being hit with a pebble, which flew through the window and hit the wall. 

“What do you want, Van?” She called, sticking her head out of the window, “I have homework to do.”

Van grinned up at her like an idiot, “Come on down, Scattorcio, we should take a walk,” Natalie rolled her eyes, pulling her head back inside and reaching out her hand to close the window again, “good night, Van,” another pebble whizzed past her head, Van grinned at her again, holding two cigarettes and a lighter. Natalie sighed, relenting, then pulled on her boots and stepped out of the trailer to meet Van. The two began to talk to each other as they walked around the trailer park.

“I heard you were at Lottie’s,” Van bumped her teasingly with her shoulder, “yeah, what about it?” Natalie scoffed, putting the cigarette between her lips. Van took it from her, “What the fuck, Van?” Natalie gave an exasperated laugh, and Van waved the cigarette above her head teasingly, “not until you tell me how it went.”

Natalie rolled her eyes, then said, “Charlotte’s nice enough, I guess.”

“You’re still calling her Charlotte?” 

“That’s her name.”

“Nat.”

“Van.”

Van scoffed after that last comment, but simply shrugged and handed her back the cigarette. Natalie took it, holding it between her lips, then lighting it with the provided lighter from Van. The rest of the walk around the block was spent mostly in comfortable silence, then, right before they got back to Natalie’s trailer, she stopped her, and said, “You like her, don’t you?”

“What?!” Natalie laughed aloud, “What could possibly give you that idea?!” 

“I don’t specifically mean you like her in a romantic way, but it’s pretty obvious you don’t hate her, dumbass,” Van chuckled, Natalie scoffed again, “and what made you think that, huh?” she rolled her eyes, “because when someone mentions her, you do the thing.” Van teased. 

“What thing ?” Natalie sneered, “ that thing, the thing you do with your mouth, yeah, that. ” Van pointed at the top corner of Natalie’s mouth. Natalie swatted her hand away, “You’re fucking insane,”

Van laughed again, “yeah, alright, I’m the insane one. At least I’m not delusional.” 

Natalie sighed, letting out a laugh, “Thanks for the walk, and the smoke, but don’t lie to yourself about me and Char-” Van glared at her, “ Lottie. ” Natalie reluctantly corrected herself. 

Van gave her a gentle punch to the shoulder, “G’night, Nat, don’t do anything stupid,” her expression became a little more serious, but that ever-present mischief glimmering in her eyes didn’t waver, “and stop being a bitch to Lottie, ‘kay? She doesn’t deserve that.”

Natalie was taken aback for a moment. Van must’ve heard what she’d said to Charlotte at tryouts, “Yeah, night, Van.” 

She turned on her heel and walked back to her trailer, slightly peeved, because as much as she’d never admit it, but she did kind of like Charlotte. Not much. Barely at all, actually, but she didn’t exactly despise her as much as she’d tried to convince herself that she did. 

Still though, even though she didn’t exactly hate her, Natalie still wasn’t going to be anything more than friendly with her, not unless her life truly depended on it. 

But if Van really insisted on it, she could at least stop being such a bitch, and she could at least start calling her Lottie. Maybe.

Chapter Text

Lottie

The drive from Wiskayok to New York was silent and cold. The cab her father had sent was driven by a guy Lottie had met a few times before named David, he didn’t talk much. 

Nothing about going to her father’s was comforting. Not the metallic scent of his penthouse, not the dinners he never even pretended to have made, not the backhanded remarks about her education, definitely not the things he said about Spider-Woman. 

She turned up the music on her headphones, drowning out any unwanted thoughts as the buildings in the city grew taller. Her father’s penthouse was in Manhattan, which left them a bit of time to travel since they were driving in from the bottom of the city.

As much as she hated being with her father, Lottie could never hate New York, it was her city, after all. She’d saved it so many times, plus, she could never forget what swinging around through Manhattan in the mornings was like, no matter how much time she spent anywhere else.

It was a few minutes later when David’s deep voice cut through her thoughts and the deafening volume of her music. She didn’t remove her headphones as she got out of the car, simply following David into the penthouse, carrying her backpack full of what she would need for the weekend – her suit was obviously in there, too.

Lottie thanked David when they reached the door, then walked inside without a word to anyone else. She was silent for the entire elevator ride up, and found the penthouse to be empty, but it would’ve been stranger if her father actually had been there. 

The moment she stepped inside, she was half-blinded by the hospital-like white lights coupled with the scent of the disinfectant they used to deep-clean the place every day. It also didn’t help that her heightened senses made it feel like the disinfectant was shoved up her throat. 

She let out a sneeze so large one could attribute to a sickly old man, then walked to her room. It was exactly the way she’d left it the previous week – bed messy, green bed sheets hanging half off the bed, some random book thrown haphazardly across the room, it was home, or at least the closest she could get to home here.

She tossed her backpack on the bed and walked over to the window to open it. She knew her dad wouldn’t be home until much later, so she walked back to the door, closed and locked it, then headed over to her backpack to pull out her suit.

Natalie 

Natalie was doing what she always did on the weekends – studying. Or at least, she was trying to. Her chemistry handbook sat useless in front of her, as if it was taunting her. 

It pissed her off just how hard it was not to think of Lottie. She fucking hated the way her heart started pattering whenever she thought of that split-second moment the day before when their hands had brushed. She was not going to like her. She wasn’t going to let Van be right. Lottie Matthews was annoying and stuck up and a nepo baby and had stupidly pretty eyes and- She grabbed her headphones from her desk, slammed her chemistry book shut and walked out of the house before she could think another thought relating to Lottie motherfucking Matthews. 

She’d been walking for about half an hour, just strolling through town, when she was suddenly tapped on the shoulder, “I’m not in the mood to talk, Van,” she murmured, turning around to face her. Only, it wasn’t Van who she turned to face, it was Shauna. Natalie was so taken aback by Shauna being there that she didn’t even think of sending her away.

“Shauna, what the fuck are you doing here?” Natalie said, an exasperated chuckle behind her words, Shauna shrugged, then said, “Saw you walking, you don’t look like you want to talk, but thought you might want,” she pulled a cigarette out of her pocket, nudging it toward Natalie, “together?” 

Natalie scoffed, but took it from her anyway, as much as she told herself she'd never drink or do drugs – that would impact her education – she never could refuse a cigarette, “Since when do you smoke?” 

Shauna shrugged again, then said, “Since like… junior year,” and Natalie simply let out a quick breath through her nose, and then, nothing else was said. They walked together for an hour or so, until the sun was low in the sky. There wasn’t an awkward silence between them, just tensionless, uninterrupted quiet. It gave Natalie the impression that they were feeling similar emotions, but she could tell that Shauna didn’t want to talk about it either.

They parted ways in front of Shauna’s house, not with words, but with a small wave from each of them, which left Natalie to walk home by herself – which she didn’t mind. She simply turned up her music, put her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, and began the walk back home.

Thoughts that she didn’t want creeped into her mind again, no matter how loud she turned up the volume, but she refused to let them have any merit. She’d been friendless her entire life – granted, it had only been by choice since high school – and she wasn’t about to start with friends now, no matter how cool the posters on their walls were.

And that fluttering in her chest when she thought about Lottie touching her hand? Yeah, that was just… because Lottie made her hair stand on end. No other reason. Definitely not what Van had been implying. 

She decided last minute that she did not want to go home just yet, walking straight instead of turning the corner to go home, as she began her walk through Wiskayok as the sun sank lower into the sky. 

Lottie

She had to admit that the charm of New York never faded. The sun was in her eyes, she could hear traffic from down below, the city smelled like it always did – trash, sweat, shit and sulfur – and it was home. 

Spinning through the air, she shot a web at a building, swinging off of it before letting herself fall for a bit, dragging through the air for a moment before webbing another building at the last second and flinging herself back up again. 

Clinging to the building, she ran up it, ran across the roof, and hurled herself down again, opening her web wings and flying through the air. She’d missed this. She’d missed it a lot. The last few weekends she hadn’t had time to ‘goof off’ in the city, only doing the bare minimum of bringing criminals to justice and such.

Touching down on solid ground again, she headed off to a place near where she landed – a pizza shop with a sign so faded you had no idea what its original name was, but they had pizza so delicious you’d think they’d put drugs in the cheese. 

She walked into the store and was met with a clamour of loud voices, all of them saying something along the lines of, “Well if it isn’t The Spider-Woman!” and, “Long time, no see, Spidey!”

She walked up to the counter and put a five dollar bill down in front of the man working there, who smiled at her and said, “I haven’t seen you here in ages, Spider, thought you’d forgotten about us,” his accent was so thick you could hardly understand him, but Lottie had spoken to him enough times to know what he was saying, “oh, come on, now, Henry, you know I could never forget about this place, now, get me a double cheese, will you?” 

Henry chuckled, put the five away and called her order back to the kitchen. With no room in the rest of the restaurant, she jumped up and sat upside down on the roof while she waited for her order. She webbed it up from Henry’s hands as he held it up to her, then walked from the building. Once outside, she swung over to Times Square and sat on the tallest building she could find, watching the billboards from up above as she ate. 

It wasn’t exactly time for a trip down memory lane, but nonetheless, sitting there, she couldn’t help but remember a day not too dissimilar to this one, two years ago, when she’d just gotten her powers, and it all started on the morning of her fifteenth birthday. 

𖢥

“Happy birthday, Charlotte!”

 Both of her parents’ voices cut through her dreams and stirred her awake. They were opening her bedroom door by the time she sat up, and were singing to her by the time she was properly awake. Once they were done singing, they sat down on the foot of her bed and began handing her presents – designer bags, jewellery, a fancy silver watch, all of which she was grateful for, but then, she saw the last present. It was a rectangular box, wrapped in pure black, not much bigger than a shoebox. 

“After my trip to Africa, I thought I’d bring you this – it’s really something special to have, Charlotte,” her father said, holding out the box for her to take, Lottie carefully unwrapped it, and found a pristine glass tank, lined with yellowish-green plants and other things you’d find in a terrarium. And sitting on a web in the top-right corner, was a huge spider, mostly black, but with white markings on its abdomen, and its legs tinted with such a bright yellow it almost looked golden. 

“A golden orb web, Nephila senegalensis,” her father muttered, “I’ve always wanted one of these… thank you, father…” Lottie stared up at him, smiling, “it’s genetically modified, it’s stronger, smarter, too. It’s one of a kind, nothing like its plain old brethren back in Africa. Perfect for someone like you, Charlotte,” her father tapped her lightly on the nose with his finger, making Lottie giggle, “because you – like it – are one of a kind.” 

Lottie beamed at him, then held the enclosure closer to inspect it further. Her parents left her to her presents, and she spent the rest of the day sitting by her desk, head on her arms, staring at the spider as it crawled around its home. She’d also decided to name the spider Napi, after the place in the African national park her father had found it. 

She’d read somewhere that spiders like these could build enormous webs, strong enough to catch birds – so this shoebox-sized thing wasn’t going to cut it. She tugged at the top of the box until it came off, before reaching her hand inside and pulling the spider out, letting it rest on the back of her hand as she smiled at it. 

Then, suddenly, she heard her door open again and flinched slightly, which was when the spider’s teeth sank into her flesh. She hastily put it back in the box, hiding her hand behind her back as her father stepped back into her room. When he saw the top of the box laying on her desk, he frowned and stepped closer, placing it back where it belonged, “Why did you do this, Charlotte?” he said, looming above her. Lottie swallowed, “I just thought… it needed a bigger place so it could build a bigger web… they’re meant to-”

Her father cut her off, pinching the bridge of his nose and saying, “Charlotte, some things need to be contained, I thought you’d have learned that by now. Did it bite you? You need to be honest with me, did it bite you?”

“No, sir.” She didn’t know why she’d lied, but something had suddenly flared in her head, and she’d lied. 

The next morning, she woke up upside down, hands stuck to the ceiling. 

𖢥

She stood atop a building, breathing heavily, shaking out her hands and running on the spot, trying everything to calm her nerves. Her homemade suit sat too-tight around her body, and her heart was beating out of her chest so quickly she’d imagined that the whole of New York would be able to hear it.

She pulled out a notebook and pen from her backpack and wrote, swing test 01 - web liquid formula 13, before placing it back in her bag and praying to whoever was up there that she wouldn’t die. The first 13 web formulas had either not stuck to anything, been too springy, not springy enough, or snapped under any kind of weight. One was even too thick to come out of the shooter, and after Lottie pressed on the trigger one too many times, it exploded, covering her and the rooftop around her in webs so dense it took her an hour to fully free herself. So she was hoping that this time it’d actually work. Taking one last deep breath, she put her backpack on the rooftop, double-checked that the trigger was working and stepped forward to stare at what could very well be the last thing she’d ever see. 

The sun was setting over the city, and the traffic was calming down slightly, so at least if she fell six stories to her death, her corpse wouldn’t be driven over. Small victories. 

Leaning over the edge of the building, Lottie took several quick breaths, then let herself fall. The fall was rapid and nauseating. She spun around several times, trying to get a grip of her surroundings. A pigeon almost flew into her face as it flew by, and her stomach dropped as the tar streets and concrete came closer into view. 

She pressed on the trigger of the web shooter. And nothing happened. She pressed it a second time, then a third and still – nothing. This was it. She was going to die now, and someone was going to have to scrape up her corpse like gum from the pavement. She’d die without ever kissing a girl, or being a real superhero. What a fucking life. 

Screaming bloody murder as she kept falling, she tried again and again to save herself, pressing on the trigger so much her fingers began to hurt. Then, suddenly, she felt herself being forced up instead of down, and then, she flew.

Or at least it felt like flying. For a second, it felt like she’d grown wings. She let go of the web and started falling again, then shot another one out, which stuck to another building and let her swing forward again.

Her screams turned to yells of excitement as she spun through the air, falling and catching herself multiple times over as she swung through the city, “This is fucking amazing!” she yelled, shooting yet another web and flinging herself up into the sky again.

Lottie turned around, swinging back to the spot she’d jumped from, and just sat for a moment, staring at the ever-darkening city before her. Times Square lit up before her as the sun disappeared, and she sat and watched it. 

She didn’t know why she’d gotten these powers, but she knew that she had to use them to make this place better. She’d do whatever it took. She knew even then that this was her city, and she’d do anything to keep the people in it safe. 

𖢥

Lottie closed the pizza box and sighed. Things were easier back then, before villains that had huge rhino costumes or robot octopus arms or giant scorpion tails, just petty criminals who were shocked at the fact that her suit was bulletproof. Now… Everything was complicated, and it also felt like hits were harder than she remembered them being two years ago.

Grabbing the empty pizza box, she swung down again and tossed it into the nearest trash can, before making her reluctant trip back home. 

It was dark by the time she was back, but it didn’t seem like her father was back yet, so she just climbed in through the window, slipped off her suit and hid it in her backpack, then changed into her pyjamas. 

Fifteen minutes later, she heard keys jingling in the door, before she heard her father’s voice calling for her. She stepped out of her room and into the living room, which her father entered shortly after, “Charlotte,” came his cold greeting, “Norman,” came her equally cold response as she folded her arms and stared at him, defiant as ever. 

“Come eat,” he said, simply, gesturing to something the chefs had no doubt prepared – something that he had no say in, “I’m not hungry,” she responded, arms still folded, “I don’t care, come eat.”

The stare he gave her would make a normal person’s stomach turn, but Lottie was used to it by now. Still, his expression gave her the idea that she didn’t have a choice in the matter, so she sat down opposite him at the table, and ate in cold, sharp, silence. 

Lottie did the only thing she could ever do with her father lately, which was to agitate him, “I’m thinking of changing my surname to Matthews legally, mother thinks it’s a good idea,” her father took a sip of water, placing it down with a scoff, “don’t be stupid, Charlotte, we’ve talked about this, while you’re still my ward-”

“Well I won’t be for much longer, I’m turning eighteen this year, or have you forgotten… again?” Lottie took a deliberately slow bite of her food as her father began speaking again, “Do you seriously want to throw away everything that comes with being an Osborn for some idiotic fantasy your mother has put in your head? The only reason you’d be anything more than some housewife is because you’re my daughter. Don’t think for a second that you’d be anywhere important without my blood in your veins, or my last name on your birth certificate. Now if you’d been born a boy-”

Lottie practically slammed her glass on the table, stood up with a, “Fuck you, dad,” and left, fuming, without another word. 

She sat on her bed, refusing to cry, even though her chest was tight and there was an ever-present lump in her throat. But she refused to let him have another win. This was going to be a long fucking weekend. 

She found herself wishing for someone’s company. She found herself wishing Natalie was there, which was stupid, because Natalie would probably make fun of her right now, but still. 

Her door still locked, she pulled out her suit again. She was going to do something stupid. 

Natalie

She hadn’t thought that the sun would set that fast, but she didn’t mind it. It only became a problem when she suddenly heard the sound of a car reversing, and red lights half blinding her. The lights of the car shut off, and Natalie’s heart sank. She knew this car, it belonged to Flash Thompson, some idiot jock on the football team that Natalie had only faced once before – when she’d told him to go fuck himself when he’d tried to get her to sleep with him. 

Natalie began to walk faster in the other direction as she heard two slams of a car door, one after the other, but heard Flash’s hollering voice calling behind her, “Oh come on, freak , you really going to try and run away again?” he laughed, Natalie said nothing, instead picking up the pace.

But they were still football players after all, and she suddenly found herself face-to-face with Flash Tompson’s smirking face, as he shoved her to the floor.

“Fuck off, Flash,” Natalie tried to get up, but he kicked her down again, “oh, no, no, freak, you’re not saying that to me again,” she was suddenly being hauled up by the collar of her shirt as Flash called for the other guy to keep watch. Flash held her by her shoulders as she squirmed in his grip.

“No one denies Flash Thompson, freak, no one,” he murmured, leaning in close. Natalie freed one of her hands, hitting him so hard against the side of his face that it made a sickening crack . Flash fell to the pavement, spitting out a wad of spit mixed with blood. He pushed himself up again, almost growling, “You think you’re funny!? I’m going to make you pay, you motherfucker!”

Flash lunged forward, and Natalie stepped back, readying herself to hit him again. Flash was right in front of her face, and the next second, he was on the ground. Only, Natalie hadn’t hit him, her hand was still clenched into a fist at her side. 

No, the person who had knocked Flash down this time was standing next to his groaning figure, opening and closing their hands a few times. The person turned around, walking into the lamplight so Natalie could see them properly – they were wearing a black suit with large white eyes on the mask, golden web-like patterns running down their arms and chest. 

“You’re-” Natalie began, breathless, only to be cut off by the person putting their hand on her shoulder, “Spider-Woman, yeah. Are you okay?” the Spider-Woman asked, staring at her – or maybe she wasn’t, the mask’s eyes might’ve just been that big. 

“I’m okay, I think, he didn’t hurt me… or anything,” Natalie murmured, her heart still beating from her chest. Suddenly, she saw a figure in the background, stumbling toward them. Natalie opened her mouth to warn her saviour of their assailant, but before she could, Spider-Woman simply turned around to kick Flash in the stomach. He basically flew across the alley, crashing into a few trash cans. The guy by the car ran to him, picking him up and walking him back to the car. They heard the car drive away, and Natalie truly breathed the first real breath she had in the last fifteen minutes. 

“Do you want me to walk you home? You look pretty shaken up,” Spider-Woman asked, holding out her hand, Natalie shook her head, slightly embarrassed, “no thanks, I’ll be fine,” she began to walk away, only for her knees to shake wildly before she fell to the floor, “I uhm… sorry, yeah, you can walk me home if you want,”

She heard a suppressed giggle underneath Spider-Woman’s mask, then, she felt arms under her armpits, before she was hauled up and felt her arm being slung around Spider-Woman’s neck. Without anything else to do, and her heart still beating from her chest, Natalie did what she could – talk, “So, does everyone just call you Spider-Woman?” she heard another chuckle behind the mask, “I mean… that is my name, so…”

“No, but like… you got nicknames?”

“The Daily Bugle calls me the Spider-Menace… er… oh, some villains call me the spider, or arachnid… but that’s about it, most people just call me, y’know… Spider-Woman.” she said, shrugging slightly. There was something familiar about her voice, but Natalie couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Could I give you a nickname?” Natalie asked, and she heard another exasperated chuckle from underneath the mask, “Why? Am I going to have to save you enough for us to be on a nickname-basis?” 

Natalie laughed, then said, “Maybe, but also, I think you need a good nickname,” there was a scoff from Spider-Woman, before she said, “oh yeah? Like what?” Natalie was silent for a moment, then said, “Spidey,” 

Spider-Woman laughed so hard she almost dropped her, “Spidey,” she wheezed, “seriously?!” Natalie joined in with the laughing, wincing slightly when there was a stinging pain in her ribs. The rest of the walk back home was filled with stupid jokes – one was apparently so funny that Spider-Woman actually did drop Natalie, but it was easily forgiven. 

Finally, Natalie showed her to the last corner that turned into her house, and – finally being able to stand again – she stood in front of her home, not exactly knowing what to do next.

“Well uhm… thank you for saving me, I’m Natalie, by the way if we ever see each other again,” she said, as Spider-Woman took her arms back from under Natalie’s, “I kn- uh… yeah… that’s cool, that’s a cool name, you’re welcome.”

Natalie sighed, wiping her hands on her pants, before saying, “I like your shoes, Spidey,” Spider-Woman quickly looked down as if she’d forgotten she was wearing any shoes – but there they were, black, high top Converse with spiders and spiderwebs drawn onto every crevice that could be inked. 

“Thanks… I should uhm… probably go, so…” her hands swayed at her sides as she fidgeted with her gloved fingers, “yeah, uh… yeah, thanks again, see you maybe, I guess,” 

And then she was gone, white string shooting from her wrists before she pulled herself back into the darkness. Well she could’ve at least taken me home like that, Natalie thought, but assumed that her injured ribs was probably the reason, walking back into her home, falling down onto her bed, then immediately passing out, the adrenaline suddenly fully drained from her body. How ironic was it that this was the easiest she’d fallen asleep in years?

She woke up the next morning remembering dreams of spiders with familiar voices and cool shoes. 

Chapter Text

Lottie

She woke up on Monday morning with the same kind of regret she’d awoken with back at her father’s place on Sunday. She’d stood up and went to the mirror, only to find a – remarkably fist shaped – bruise under her eye, leading down to her cheek, she had absolutely no idea how it had appeared – she didn’t remember those guys who were terrorising Natalie hitting her, but they must’ve gotten a good knock in without her realising.

It was still there on Monday – granted, it was a little more faded, but glaringly obvious. Her mother had been so concerned about what happened when Lottie came home on Sunday night, but Lottie had just made up some bullshit excuse about tripping on her father’s polished floors and her mother had dropped the subject.

Only – now she’d have to go to school and face her classmates looking like this. She tried her best to hide it with a layer of concealer, and it looked… pretty okay.

Her mother had left for work already, so Lottie simply grabbed an apple from the fridge, tossed it in her backpack for lunch and began walking to school. There was a strange air about the school, everyone was slightly tense.

She’d attributed it to the fact that one of their star football players had been beat up in an alleyway over the weekend, but she guessed that he probably hadn’t told the whole truth. So much for having a good reputation in Wiskayok… she thought, scoffing.

Her doubts were proven when she walked into homeroom and was immediately pulled into Jackie and Shauna’s conversation, “Lottie, did you hear about what happened to Flash this weekend?” Jackie said, putting her hand on her chest. Lottie shook her head, feigning ignorance as Jackie went on, “He’s been telling everyone that Spider-Woman attacked him out of nowhere,” Lottie couldn’t help but scoff, rolling her eyes, Jackie gave a slight smile, then whispered, “I don’t believe him either, Spider-Woman doesn’t just attack people for no reason… right? I mean, you’d obviously know more about it, right? Is she really as rogue in New York as people say she is?” and there Jackie was again, prying about Spider-Woman like she knew about Lottie’s secret identity, “I heard that he cornered some girl in the alley and Spider-Woman stopped him,” Lottie decided that she wanted to get the truth out there, or at least just let Jackie and Shauna know to satiate their need for Spider-related gossip.

Jackie opened and closed her mouth a few times, seemingly in shock, “Well if that’s true, then he deserved it,” Shauna chimed in, “a couple broken ribs and a few weeks off of football for a concussion should teach him a lesson.” 

Shit, Lottie thought, I didn’t mean to break his fucking ribs, her fists clenched under the table. She didn’t usually use that kind of force with stuff like this, just enough to subdue the guy, but something in the back of her head told her it was because it was Natalie that she was defending, but she wouldn’t admit that – not to herself or to anyone else – just yet.

Jackie nodded in agreement to Shauna’s statement, opening her mouth to say something, only to be abruptly cut off by the teacher coming in to take attendance.

The bell rang for first period, and Lottie made her way to physics only to find Natalie waiting for her outside of class. She was wearing a long-sleeved black top, which was a little odd seeing as it wasn’t cold at all this early in the semester, but Lottie had her suspicions that maybe it was to cover something – her arms had been pretty red when Lottie had dropped her off that night.

“Hey, uhm… you brought the project, right?” Natalie said, Lottie nodded, then sighed, “we could give it in together… if you er- want to, I guess,” that was a stupid request and Lottie had no idea why she’d suggested it, but Natalie simply shrugged, walking into class. Lottie took that as a yes and walked in after her, project still in hand. They handed it off to a scowling Mister Odel, who said nothing – Lottie guessed that they were the first ones to hand their project in, she also wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few requests for extensions, but something told her that those would not be given.

As soon as the class had been seated, and Mister Odel had taken attendance, he stood up from his desk and began to talk, “This year’s science fair is coming up, and I’ve been asked to tell you about it, you can join if you want, you’ll get extra credit,” Lottie felt Natalie stiffen next to her – Van had told her that Natalie had joined the science fair every year since she was a freshman, and had come in second place every single time, so Lottie guessed that it may be a sore subject – as Mister Odel continued, “also, this year, since we have so many students, and because Principal Berzonsky wants to encourage healthy academic relationships your projects may not be done individually, if you want to join, come sign up your group’s name by the end of the day, now…” and then he continued on with class as usual.

Lottie – thanks to her heightened senses – could literally feel Natalie’s eye twitching. Maybe she’d just… opt out this year, because so far it didn’t seem like Natalie liked group projects – well, rather, groups in general – very much.

 Which is why it caught Lottie horribly off guard when Natalie pulled her aside after class to talk to her. Natalie had basically dragged her into the school bathroom like it would cause a stir if they were seen together, “Listen Lottie er… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what I said at tryouts, I think we might’ve just gotten off on the wrong foot, so…” it looked like the words were literally painful for Natalie to say, and Lottie could feel the blonde’s pulse quicken as she stood in front of her, “it’s fine really, thanks for the apology,” Lottie waved her off politely, just as Natalie began talking again, “so, er… I was wondering, since you’re like the only other competent person in this school… if you’d maybe want to like… do the science fair together?” Natalie’s heart was beating so quickly now that Lottie wanted to burst into laughter – when Van said that Natalie was bad at the whole friends thing, she really meant it.

“Sure, sounds fun, you can come over to my house after practice today if you want?” Lottie suggested and Natalie nodded, her pulse slowing down a little as she walked from the bathroom, saying, “I’ll go sign us up… see you at practice.” 

And then Lottie was alone again, without Natalie’s weirdly quick heart rate thrumming through her ears. She actually did laugh then and she felt insane – she probably looked insane, too – but how could she not laugh when that had just happened.

She spent the rest of the day thinking about Natalie coming over – she’d probably be over a little bit after practice so she could clean up which left Lottie with a few hours in between to clean  up like she had last time. 

In the locker room after school, she talked with Van as they changed. Whether you’d want to attribute it to wandering eyes, curiosity, or Spider-senses, for some reason, Lottie had looked over Van’s shoulder over at Natalie, who was pulling her top over her head. There were finger-shaped bruises on both of her arms, which she quickly covered with her soccer shirt.

“...was wondering if I could come over after practice?” Van snapped her from her trance and she looked back to her, “sorry er… Natalie’s coming over after school, actually, so…” Van had seemed to follow her gaze, setting on Natalie, who was now straightening out the sleeves of her shirt – seemingly trying to achieve as much coverage as possible.

“Are you two hooking up or something?” Van asked, suddenly, and Lottie almost jumped onto the ceiling, her face going red, “what the fuck, Van, no ?!” Lottie blurted, exasperated. Van threw up her hands, “I was just joking! But going off of your reaction…” a shit-eating grin spread across her face. Lottie wanted to curl up into a ball and go die in a far off corner like a rat. Jackie came as her saving grace, calling the team out of the locker rooms and leaving Lottie unable to look Natalie or Van in the eye.

Natalie

Van was in a mood today, and unfortunately for Natalie, it was a good one. Because that meant that her teasing had ramped up tenfold. It also didn’t help that Natalie had let slip what had happened over the weekend and the singular dream that had followed, and apparently, she’d spoken about it with enough admiration for Van to say, “You have a crush on Spider-Woman?!” she chuckled loudly, the statement much too loud. Natalie kicked the soccer ball into her stomach, “Shut up, it’s not a crush … I just think she’s… sweet,” she huffed, rolling her eyes when Van smirked at her, tossing the ball back, “hm, yeah, so sweet that you wouldn’t mind her webbing you to a wall…right…” Natalie kicked Van in the shin after that comment, “I didn’t mean it like that , asshole, plus, it’s not like Tai ever saved you from a bunch of football players out for blood, or did she?”

Van shrugged, but simply said, “Maybe she didn’t, but at least we’re dating, dumbass, can’t say the same about you and Spidey , now can we?” her smirk returned to her face, and Natalie rolled her eyes, “If you utter a word of this to anyone I will literally sell you to Oscorp, I heard Norman Osborn needs more leprechauns to test on,” Natalie scowled at her, “oh hardy-har, I’ll have you know that-”

“Scatorccio, Palmer, back to warmups please, this is not a gossip session,” Coach Martinez called from the other side of the field, cutting Van off.

Natalie kicked the ball back to Van and they exchanged it between each other for a while until the coaches called the team together for another scrimmage game, only this time, Lottie was actually on the same team as her. Their team won – because of course they did – thanks to Lottie’s fucking kicking. Natalie still couldn’t wrap her head around how exactly she was able to do that. 

The next second Natalie noticed that Van and a few other girls from the winning team had cornered Lottie near the benches and were precariously hovering the large barrel of gatorade over her head. Natalie jogged closer, laughing as they dumped it out over her, yelling, “MVP! MVP!” 

Lottie was laughing along and wiping at the blue liquid all over her one second, until a horrified expression creeped onto her face like she’d come to a sudden realisation.

Natalie could guess what it was about as she suddenly saw the splotchy purple mark under Lottie’s eye. Everyone went silent like they’d been frozen in time for a second. No one really knew what to do. It was a pretty bad mark, for sure. It was undoubtedly from a punch, but no one was brave enough to say that out loud.

Natalie stepped forward as the others around Lottie stepped back, “Let’s go get you cleaned up,” she said, unsure of why she of all people was doing anything about this. Everyone else stood back as Natalie grabbed Lottie by the wrist and pulled her from the field to the lockers.

“That was so fucking embarassing,” Lottie said as they walked into the locker room, gently pressing her fingertip into the bruise, not wincing, “you should shower, I’ll like… keep watch or whatever,” Natalie still had no idea what exactly she was doing here.

Lottie had just finished getting dressed when the rest of the team walked into the locker room. The atmosphere was thick enough to cut with a knife. Lottie had changed into her normal clothes again and was standing in front of the team, looking around at anything but them – Natalie could’ve sworn that Lottie’s gaze had lingered on her for a second longer than it had on anyone else.

Jackie was the first to speak, stepping forward with a concerned expression on her face, “Are you alright Lottie?”

Lottie gave a nervous laugh, swaying slightly, “Yeah, yeah I’m good, just fucked up my face at my dad’s is all, tripped and… bang … ha…” she gestured wildy with her hands to illustrate her point. Jackie still looked concerned, but she didn’t press further. Neither did anyone else – Natalie certainly didn’t.

Lottie grabbed her stuff and walked out of the locker room and Natalie – against her better judgement – followed her out, “Listen, Ch- Lottie , are we still on for today, or…?” Natalie asked, fidgeting with her fingers where they rested in the pockets of her shorts.

“Yeah, if you can still come,” Lottie smiled and Natalie tried to look at anything but the angry purple mark under her eye, trying her hardest not to let her smile falter, “yeah, I’ll be over in like an hour or so,” 

Lottie nodded, then walked away, leaving Natalie to ponder about the last half hour.

𖢥

It was stupid to think that this would be easier the second time. To be honest, Natalie had no idea what had come over her and made her ask Lottie to be her partner for the science fair, but she had, and it was too late to back out now. Plus – maybe with some extra brains, she could actually win this year, but she doubted it.

She knocked on the door and Lottie opened it – bruise covered with concealer. “So, what were you thinking of doing for the science fair anyway? That is – assuming you have an idea already,” Lottie asked, “oh, yeah I have an idea, I’ll tell you about it in a second,” Natalie said. Lottie led her to her room, where Natalie found a glass of soda and a few mini sandwiches waiting for her, Lottie looked a little embarrassed when she saw Natalie looking at them, “ah… yeah, thought I’d make them beforehand this time, I didn’t know what kind of soda you liked, so I just got you coke, but I can get you something else if you want-” Natalie cut off Lottie’s rambling, “no, uhm… coke’s fine, thank you.”

There was an awkward stretch of silence for a bit until Natalie sat down, and Lottie followed suit. “Okay, so what’s your idea?” Lottie asked, and Natalie – about to answer – suddenly asked, “So how’d you get it?” pointing to her cheek.

Lottie sighed, then gave a small laugh, “Like I said, fucked my face up at my dad’s… tripped,” she tapped her fingers on the desk, Natalie narrowed her eyes at her, “I know what a punch bruise looks like, so how’d it happen?”

Finally, Lottie relented, sighing, “Some guy socked me over the weekend, It was-” she seemed to rethink her words, then continued, “it was just some drunk New Yorker, no biggie,” Lottie shrugged, then added, “now, how’d you get those ?” Lottie pointed to Natalie’s arms, well fuck , Natalie thought, but if Lottie wasn’t going to give her the full truth, the Natalie wouldn’t either, “same kind of story, drunk guy… grabbed me…”

Natalie couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about Lottie’s expression told her that she knew what had happened already – maybe someone had seen. That was fine though, she’d been called a whore before, it wasn’t the end of the world. She wouldn’t be surprised if Flash was already spreading rumours about Saturday, but from what she’d heard, he was kind of just throwing Spider-Woman under the bus.

“Anyway, back to the science fair, uhm,” Natalie reached into her backpack and pulled out a few articles she’d printed out in the school library, as she looked over them, heat creeped up her neck – big and bold at the top of them was, Oscorp biotech experiments – what is Norman up to now? 

Lottie’s expression made her feelings evident, Natalie had a rough idea of what was going on in Lottie’s head right now, of fucking course she asks me of all people to help her with her science fair project because she thinks I have insider knowledge.

Natalie didn’t care if Lottie was angry though, that’d be another easy quick break, and Natalie had become used to those by now.

Lottie’s expression shifted from anger and annoyance back to neutrality, then said, “So what’s your idea?” there was an obvious strain in her voice, but Natalie decided to continue – maybe she could dig herself out of this grave, or make it deeper.

“It’s uhm… not just about Oscorp, it’s biotech in general, you know?” she went on when Lottie said nothing, “it’s about genetic modification, you know, and it’s not even really about the corporations, just the idea of it, whether it’s a good idea or not.”

Lottie’s neutral expression had changed again, a tiny smile pulling at her lips, “That sounds… interesting. I’m not telling you anything about my dad’s company, though, you know that, right?” 

Natalie nodded, then said, earnestly, “I wasn’t going to ask you about Oscorp, I just thought you had the brains for this kind of thing,” Lottie was actually fully smiling now, “to be honest with you, I’ve wanted to do something about biotech since… well… since forever, you know, they say that…” she looked like she was revealing something confidential – maybe she was, “Spider-Woman’s powers come from the same kind of tech,”

Natalie actually didn’t know that. She felt a smile tugging at her lips against her will, and without warning, she suddenly just started going on and on about her interest in biotechnology and Lottie began to speak, too.

It was like some kind of floodgates had been opened and they were now just talking about their shared interest, previous tension – and the project – completely forgotten as they lay on Lottie’s bed – a considerable distance between them, staring up at the ceiling and talking for what felt like hours. Lottie still smelled faintly of blue gatorade.

Natalie left when the sun was beginning to set – they’d gotten literally no work done, but she actually didn’t mind it. She complimented Lottie’s shoes right before she left. There was something familiar about them, but Natalie would have to get a closer look if she wanted to put her finger on it. She hated to admit it, but Lottie’s company was stupidly enjoyable. They agreed on almost everything. Natalie guessed that Lottie was probably smarter than she was, and for once, that didn’t bother her.

She walked home with a pep in her step that Van would undoubtedly tease her about if she knew. 

Later, when she’d finished her homework and when darkness had settled over the town, the afternoon’s events really sank in. Was Lottie her friend now? It wasn’t the kind of friendship she and Van had – her and Lottie didn’t have a shared amount of baggage – but it felt… nice. She wouldn’t call Lottie her friend just yet, but she couldn’t get herself to feel that resentful anger at her anymore, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to feel like that about Lottie anymore.

It freaked her out enough that she grabbed a cigarette and lighter and walked from her room without her mother’s knowledge, walking through the dark streets and hoping that the cold would knock some sense into her.

She sat down on a bench under a street lamp, her leg bouncing and tried not to think as she smoked. Suddenly though, something pulled the cigarette from her fingers and up toward the street light. She only realised what had happened when a figure balancing atop the light said, “You know these are super bad for you, right?” as they jumped down and sat on the bench next to her. 

Natalie simply stared at Spider-Woman for a second, who had the cigarette in her hand with a web stuck to it, after a while, she gained her composure and snatched the cigarette back, “Well hello to you, too, Spidey,” she laughed, putting the cigarette back into her mouth, blowing out a puff of smoke, “I’m well aware of the side effects, but it’s too late to turn back now.”

Spider-Woman chuckled, “So what are you doing here anyway, blondie?’ she asked after a while. Natalie sat up straight, laughing, “Did you just call me blondie ?” she asked, and Spider-Woman shrugged, “if you get to call me Spidey I get to call you blondie, blondie,”

“I understand why people call you a menace now,” Natalie mused, then heard an exasperated laugh from under the mask, “and after I saved you, too, you know, people are usually pretty grateful when I save them.”

Natalie stifled another laugh, “ Save is a strong word, I have the marks to prove it,” she teased, Spider-Woman crossed her arms, “well I didn’t get off scot-free, either, took a fucker of a punch to the face for you, you know,” 

This time, neither of them tried to stifle their laughs, instead laughing on the bench for a while until Natalie reluctantly murmured, “I should… probably go, I have to get up early tomorrow, so,” Spider-Woman stood up, too, “I could always swing you home if you want, cause your ribs aren’t fragile anymore,” Natalie blinked at her as she extended her hand.

Against her better judgement, Natalie took it.

Lottie

She could feel Natalie’s heartbeat against her chest as she clung to her, hanging on for dear life as she swung them both through town. Lottie shot a web at a building and pulled them up again. Natalie’s grip on the fabric of Lottie’s suit tightened. 

It had taken a while to get adjust to the weight of two people – Lottie had only ever really carried civilians that couldn’t walk to safety, and never for this far of a distance. She still wasn’t completly used to it yet, and sometimes, she’d miscalculate and they’d fall a little longer than they should’ve, or lift into the air quicker than Lottie had anticipated, and then Natalie would bury her face – somehow – even deeper into Lottie’s neck and murmur an obscenity. 

Some little selfish part of her wanted to stay like this forever, just swinging through buildings as Natalie’s grip on her tightened every now and again. It was stupid, but it was kind of fun, in a really weird, kind of fucked up way.

But she’d taken a couple of wrong turns now already, and swinging was supposed to be faster than walking. Finally, the buildings grew scarcer and she dropped to the ground gracefully with nothing else to shoot at. It took a second for Natalie to let go of her completely, and when she did, she was as pale as a ghost. She stepped back from Lottie, her knees wobbling. She threatened to fall, but Lottie caught her by the part of her body that Lottie was closest to – which, coincidentally was her waist.

They stood like that for a couple of seconds as Natalie regained her composure. It was only then that Lottie truly registered where exactly her hands still were. She pulled back from Natalie, grateful for the fact that she had a mask on – her face was most definitely red.

They both stuttered goodbyes at each other, until a laugh from Natalie broke the tension slightly, “ Never offer to do that again, I almost puked,” she mused, and Lottie laughed back at her, “well, thank you for not throwing up on me,” and then they truly parted, Lottie watching with stifled giggles as Natalie walked back to her home on shaky legs.

On the way home, Lottie couldn’t help but wonder if Natalie still would’ve gone along with the swinging if she knew Lottie was the one under the mask. Lottie laughed at herself in her head, because of course the answer was no, but it felt really weird to feel this way about Natalie, because Natalie didn’t feel that way about her. If she even felt something at all, it wasn’t for Lottie , it was for Spider-Woman , and she knew that those were two different people in everyone’s eyes – possibly even in her own.

She didn’t think that she was in love with Natalie, that felt like the wrong word. She decided that it was the adrenaline that made her feel that way, even as she remembered her hands lingering on Natalie’s waist a fraction longer than needed. 

Back home, she simply lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. A little more than an hour ago, Natalie had been right here, next to her, talking. Talking like they were just a little less than friends. Acquaintances. 

Lottie sighed into her pillow. She had no idea what to do now, so she tried to sleep.  

Natalie

She genuinely wanted to punch something. Natalie Scatorccio who had no time for friends, for love, for anything had been genuinely giddy after saying goodbye to a fucking vigilante. There was something seriously wrong with her.

She groaned a long, drawn out, “ Fuck… ” into her pillow. Only it wasn’t just the fact that she had to dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from thinking of that split-second moment where latex-gloved hands had held her steady and stayed there for a little longer than they probably should’ve, it was the fact that she couldn’t stop replaying that thing Spider-Woman had said, took a fucker of a punch to the face for you, you know. 

And Lottie had told her that some drunk guy had punched her… in the face. Natalie scoffed. No fucking way. Lottie was in New York Saturday night. No, there was absolutely no way. It was just a stupid coincidence. 

She especially wouldn’t let Van’s assumptions be right. Twice. 

Lottie Matthews was not a crime fighting vigilante. Lottie Matthews was not the one who had saved her that night. Lottie Matthews was not the one making her feel like the fucking main character of some stupid romance novel. Lottie Matthews was not Spider-Woman. And Natalie Scatorccio was not in love with Spider-Woman. She was just being stupid because her brain had been shaken around while she was swung through the city by some superhero. 

She stood up from her bed and made herself study until midnight, until she was too tired to think about anything other than chemistry formulas and algebra. It’s fine, she told herself, you’re just tired, you’ll just sleep it off, it’ll be fine, it was just the adrenaline rush, nothing else, it’s fine, you’re fine. She repeated it like a fucking mantra until she finally fell asleep. When she awoke the next morning, it was, in fact, not fine. 

Chapter Text

Lottie

Lottie awoke with… well, it was hard to describe exactly the emotion she felt, because it wasn’t just a single emotion, it was… a million different things. Embarrassment was in there somewhere, boiling around in her chest, but there was also a wistful happiness and something like fear, too. A fear that she’d not only ruined Spider-Woman’s relationship with Natalie, but her own, too. Because really, how could she possibly face Natalie at school after… that?

She sat up, sighing. Looking out of the window, she noticed that it was still very early in the morning, with the sun just barely poking out above the horizon. Her mother was definitely still asleep, which left her gaze to wander over to where her suit was hidden in her closet. This was the perfect morning for a swing to clear her head, after all, so she quickly threw off her pyjamas and pulled on her suit, vaguely registering that it still kind of smelled like Natalie. She stared out at the little town she’d come to know over the last few weeks, holding her mask in her hands for a second as she sat on the windowsill. Then, she pulled on her mask and jumped out of the window, zipping between the suburban houses until she reached the slightly taller buildings that surrounded the district around the school. There hadn’t been a crime to stop since that night with Natalie and those jerks, which left her to just swing by, leaving any crime-spotting up to her spider-senses. Eventually – as if instinctively – she reached the school building and found Natalie sitting on the steps, studying, just like she had every morning Lottie had seen her.

This time, though, Lottie didn’t just stare at her until it was time to go home, she actually found herself shooting a web toward the lamppost above Natalie’s head, then landing on her feet right next to the blonde, who jumped half out of her skin.

“Oh, shit, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Lottie stuttered, giggling as Natalie gained her composure again, “you didn’t scare me, I just let you think that you did,” Natalie quipped back, zipping open the schoolbag next to her and sliding the book she’d been reading back in. Lottie sat next to her, noticing Natalie shiver slightly when the breeze blew, “You cold, blondie?” she teased, and Natalie gave a scoff, “ No , you’re just hot–” she stopped herself immediately, and Lottie watched as the blonde stuttered out something along the lines of, “I didn’t mean it like that,” before they both burst into laughter, even if it was just to ease the tension between them a little. Natalie had a light dusting of pink on her pale cheeks, and Lottie knew that she was probably blushing, too, once again thankful for the mask covering her face.

They sat together for a while after their laughter had subsided. It was silent, and a little tense, but not awkward , per se. “The sunrise is really pretty from that water tower,” Lottie said eventually, absentmindedly, pointing to a water tower in the distance, “if you’re offering to swing me there that’s going to be a big fat no , I don’t want to lose my breakfast right after I ate it,” Natalie chuckled. Lottie gave a laugh, too. The sun rose farther up in the sky as they sat together. Lotte noted down that Natalie had shifted a little closer, their pinkies brushing, even though neither of them would mention it. “Okay, well,” Lottie said, giggling when she saw Natalie frown at her, pretending to gag, but Lottie continued, “can I take you there tonight? To watch the sunset?” she asked, then immediately regretted it when Natalie teased, “Are you asking me out on a date, Spidey?” she asked, sticking her tongue out. Lottie laughed, giving Natalie a gentle slap on the arm, “Is that a yes?” she asked, and Natalie gave her a stupid grin, “Sure, Spidey, I’ll meet you back here at seven, cool?” Lottie nodded, and after that, they sat in a more comfortable silence.

And then… there it was again. That sour feeling. The if-you-were-Lottie-and-not-spider-woman-right-now-she’d-definitely-not-be-doing-this feeling. That made her pull her hand away to check her watch, jumping up with a, “I have to go, I’m super late,” to which Natalie frowned, “wait… do you have a job other than superhero-ing?” 

Lottie shook her head, already readying herself to swing away, “I’m a teenager, dude, I have school,” was the last thing she said before swinging away. And she regretted it almost immediately. Revealing her age was a very stupid, potentially secret identity revealing, accident. 

As she swung through town, she suddenly felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, a tiny ringing echoing through her head just as she heard a scream from the street down below, a very high-pitched, elongated, “Help!”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” she mumbled to herself, but turned toward the sound of the screams anyway, deciding that her fate of being late was already sealed. The source of the screams wasn’t nearly as serious as Lottie was expecting, but at least it wasn’t a kitten stuck in a tree. Well… it wasn’t just a kitten in a tree. When Lottie touched down on the ground, she found that the source of the screams was a young boy, who couldn’t be older than thirteen, clinging to the branch of the tree, still reaching out for a standoffish looking black cat who was cleaning its paws as it stared at the distressed boy.

Lottie had to take a deep breath, of all the mornings, she thought, then swung up to the tree, landing on the branch above the boy and the cat. The boy yelped, looking up at her. She noticed that there were tears in his eyes now, making her let’s-just-get-this-over-with attitude disappear instantly. “Hey there, you need some help?” she asked, gently. He nodded frantically, “I was just trying to get him down…” his voice was barely above a whisper. “What’s your name, kid?” Lottie questioned, trying to calm her down, her thoughts of doing this as fast as possible long forgotten, “Javi,” he replied. Lottie recognised that name from somewhere, but didn’t have the time to think about where she’d heard it, because the branch he was on gave a sickening crack, making him yelp again.

“Okay, Javi, let’s get you down from here, give me your hand, okay?” she said, reaching down her hand. Javi hesitated for a moment, then took it with a trembling hand, hauling himself onto the branch that Lottie was on. “Alright, hold on tight,” Lottie said, gesturing for him to climb onto her back before lowering both of them down, placing him on the ground again. She heard something soft landing on the ground behind her seconds later, before she felt the cat rubbing against her legs. She leaned down to scratch it on the head, “Next time, just remember that cats usually jump down on their own, okay?” she laughed softly. Javi nodded at her, “Thank you for saving me,” he murmured, and she gave him a pat on the shoulder, “don’t mention it, kid, anyway, I got to go,” and then she was gone again, having fully accepted the fact that she was horribly late by now.

She swung home as fast as she could, throwing on her clothes over her spider suit so she wouldn’t be wasting time. Eventually, she tossed her books into her backpack and then practically sprinted to school, dread creeping into her chest the closer she got to school. She ran into her homeroom class, throwing open the door to find… not her class, but another one, everyone turning their heads to stare at her.

“Charlotte! I marked you absent already,” her teacher said, gently, frowning at her slightly. “Sorry, miss… lost track of time,” Lottie murmured, “would you just… you know…?” Lottie said awkwardly, pointing to the attendance sheet still on the teacher’s desk. Miss Malek cleared her throat, then backed away slightly, picking up the clipboard on her desk before marking something off with a pen. 

“Alright, well… I should get to class,” Lottie gave an awkward laugh kind of thing, then began to walk away, only for Miss Malek to put her hand on her shoulder. Lowering her voice, she murmured, “If you ever want to… talk , Charlotte, I’m always here.”

“...Okay,” Lottie replied, rather confused. Her spider senses tingled gently, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up, giving her the idea that she was being watched. She only realised why when she stepped out of class and walked quickly past the glass cabinet that contained the school’s awards, catching her reflection. She’d completely forgotten to cover up the bruise under her eye in her haste to get ready. She suppressed a groan, quickly ducking into the bathroom and covering the mark, before quickly making her way to her first class, which, unluckily for her, was chemistry with Mister Odel.

“This should be fun…” she muttered to herself, before opening the door and stepping into the class, greeted by a scowling Mr Odel, who had the slightest smirk on his face. “ Osborn , glad you finally decided to join us,” he said, much too arrogant for Lottie’s taste, “sorry, sir,” Lottie murmured, keeping her head down as she made to walk to her desk, only for Mr Odel to stop her again, placing his hand on her shoulder – which made her spider senses flare up again.

“Now, now, miss Osborn, don’t you think it’s a bit inappropriate to not excuse yourself,” he said, making Lottie frown, “excuse myself, sir?” she asked, looking at him as his face flashed with something like conceit. “Yes, miss Osborn, now, will you please explain to me and to the class what exactly was so important to make you late for my class?” he asked, with so much iciness lacing his words that Lottie was expecting him to choke on his arrogance any second now. She stayed silent, rummaging through her for once empty brain to find an excuse other than oh well, sir, I was saving a cat and a boy from a tree, because I’m Spider-Woman . She was about to say something extremely stupid, when she was interrupted by a voice from the back of the class. The voice of one Natalie Scatorccio. “She was with me, sir. We were studying together,” which was about as dumb of an excuse as the one Lottie was about to say, but it made Mr Odel shut his mouth, arrogant smirk wiped off of his face, “Go sit down,” he said, finally.

Lottie made her way to her seat, feeling everyone’s eyes on her. She sat down next to Natalie, “Thanks for that,” she whispered, watching as a smile ghosted across Natalie’s face as she whispered back, “don’t mention it.”

Mr Odel called the class to attention again, a thick stack of papers in his hands, “I marked your projects,” he said, very obviously trying to make his voice sound ominous, “I’m… not not disappointed.”

He handed out the papers one by one, from the front of the class to the back. Lottie could feel everyone’s heartbeats quicken. It made her head hurt. She noticed that Natalie’s heart wasn’t beating out of her chest, which made her slightly proud that it seemed that Natalie trusted that they’d done good work together.

They were the last group to get their grades back, Mr Odel putting it down on their shared desk much more aggressively than he needed to. Lottie shifted herself closer as Natalie turned the paper, revealing their grade. 99%. Lottie looked up from the paper and found that Natalie had done the same. They looked at each other for a second, and Natalie actually gave a smile. “Alright, class, I’ve given you a memo so you can see what your mistakes were, if you think I did something wrong… unfortunately I’m not allowed to say that I can’t make mistakes, so come up here so I can double check,” he sighed, the tone of his voice giving everyone the idea that he was definitely being forced to do this.

“Guess it’s not that bad having you as a partner,” Natalie whispered, and Lottie found herself feeling slightly warm, “yeah, you’re not too bad yourself,” she replied, stifling a giggle. She then saw Natalie frown down at their project, flipping it over several times, “We didn’t get anything wrong,” she whispered, sliding the paper over to Lottie. Just like she’d said, not a single thing they’d written was marked incorrect, but their mark was still only ninety-nine.

Natalie stood up and took the paper before Lottie could protest. Then, against her better judgement, Lottie stood up and followed her all the way over to Mr Odel’s desk, where Natalie put the paper down. “Excuse us, sir,” she said, anything but polite, “I couldn’t help but notice that we didn’t actually get anything wrong, which means that our total mark is incorrect.”

He gave her a snarky smile, sliding the paper back to her, “Sorry, girls, I don’t give hundreds,” Lottie could feel Natalie’s heart rate spiking, but even if she couldn’t, Natalie’s anger was evident. She half expected her to punch Mr Odel in the face, and Lottie wasn’t sure if she’d stop Natalie if she did. 

She didn’t punch Mr Odel, though, instead, she just took the paper again, and stomped back to their desk, with Lottie on her heels. She sat at their desk, folding her arms and glaring at Mr Odel so hard that Lottie wouldn’t be surprised if the little hair that was left on his head caught fire.

“Asshole,” she whispered, and Lottie only registered seconds later that Natalie was speaking to her, “I bet he’ll give the boys fuckinh hundreds,” she almost spat. “We still did the best though, we’re well on our way to that field trip, right?” Lottie said, trying to be reassuring. Natalie actually gave a small smile, “Yeah,” she said simply, before being cut off by the bell ringing.

Lottie caught her again before she could exit the class, though, saying, “If you want, we can chill at my place and get some more of the science fair thing done,” she shrugged. Natalie nodded, “sure, see you at four?” she asked, and Lottie felt herself becoming warm again, “uh… yes, yeah, I’ll see you then,” she stuttered, then turned on her heel to walk to her next class, tripping over her own shoelaces and hoping that Natalie hadn’t seen. 

Natalie

She stood in front of Lottie’s house, feeling… very confused. It was hard for her to fathom how she’d gone from despising Charlotte Osborn to considering her a sort-of friend in no less than two weeks, combined with the fact that she’d also gone from no (other than Van) friends to two, one of which was a masked, crime fighting vigilante who could possibly also be the other non-Van friend, but she didn’t want to think too hard about that. 

She knocked on the door, and waited for only a few seconds before Lottie answered it, smiling. “Hi! I got a bunch of books from the library before you came over, so…” she rambled on as Natalie followed her to her room, listening intently as she talked on and on about the new things she’d found on their project, before they finally sat down together in front of Lottie’s desk.

Natalie pulled out her notebook and pencil case from her backpack, placing them on Lottie’s desk. “So, what’d you get from the library?” Natalie asked, then watched as Lottie’s face lit up again, standing up to grab a couple of thick books from her nightstand, placing them down on the desk in front of Natalie and starting to ramble again.

After a while of them talking, they actually started on their project together, making a large chunk of progress in the few hours that they spent on it. Eventually, though, Natalie found herself on Lottie’s bed again, with Lottie tossing a ball at the roof while they talked together. The conversation had shifted from their project to more random topics, but they stayed rather scientific. Natalie hadn’t actually had an intellectual conversation in a while. For one, no one really wanted to talk to her, and those who did, only really talked about movies or their spectacular love life . Talking to Lottie – even though she didn’t want to admit it – was a breath of fresh air.

“...Which is why I think it’s interesting that they haven’t tried to stop the extinction of non-extinct species, but rather trying to bring already extinct species back,” Lottie finished, tossing the small ball at the roof, with it springing back to her. Natalie had noticed that Lottie hadn’t missed it once, even when the ball went in a direction that Natalie thought wasn’t at all predictable. “Yeah, exactly ,” Natalie agreed, “I think we should focus on conservation efforts instead of trying to bring back flora and fauna when it’s already too late,” she nodded, and saw Lottie nod back in her peripheral vision. It occurred to her then that the sun was on its way to setting, and she suddenly remembered that she had something else to get to.

“What time is it?” Natalie asked, turning to Lottie as she caught the ball again, not tossing it back up, but instead putting it next to her before checking her watch, “Six fifty,” Lottie replied, “why?” 

Natalie sat up quickly, climbing off the bed and quickly stuffing her books in her backpack again, “Ah, sorry, I have to go, I have a… thing,” Natalie said, hastily, and something like realisation flashed across Lottie’s face, and she simply said, “oh yeah, that’s cool, uhm… do you want to come over again tomorrow?” she asked, smiling. Natalie nodded quickly, slinging her backpack over her shoulder but pausing at the door, “Yeah, same time?” she asked, and Lottie stood up, following her to the door, then out of Lottie’s home. 

“Have fun with your… thing,” she smiled, and Natalie found herself smiling back, “see you la- tomorrow, see you tomorrow,” Lottie stammered. “Yeah,” Natalie replied, feeling herself want to laugh, “see you tomorrow.”

Natalie walked away from Lottie’s house after one last wave, then quickly walked back to her house, quickly tossing her backpack on her bed and grabbing a jacket, remembering that it’d been getting colder and colder at night lately.

Finally, she made her way to the spot she’d agreed to meet Spider-Woman at, her mind working overtime as she walked. Lottie had let her go so easily, with nothing more than a flash of realisation spreading across her face. Like she knew who Natalie was meeting up with. Natalie shook her head as if to get rid of the thought, maybe just to let herself think that her two friends weren’t just one.

She sat down on the bench, then heard something land on the lamppost above her head seconds later. Looking up, she saw the familiar form of Spider-Woman hanging upside down from the lamppost, hanging on by just her legs. “You’re late,” Natalie mused, watching as Spider-Woman jumped down to greet her, “so are you,” Spider-Woman responded, making them both laugh.

“Okay, water tower?” Spider-Woman asked, extending her hand. Natalie’s stomach churned as she remembered what it had felt like to swing around last time, “Can’t we walk?” Natalie tried, taking Spider-Woman’s hand anyway. Natalie wasn’t sure how a latex mask could be as expressive as it was, because it was almost like Spider-Woman rolled her eyes, but she relented, taking Natalie’s hand and starting to walk down the street.

“Fight any good villains lately?” Natalie asked as they walked, and she heard a laugh under the mask. “Nope, I did save a cat from a tree though,” she mused, and Natalie laughed again. They walked down the street, hand in hand, until they reached the water tower a few minutes later. “Okay so, I’m going to swing us up,” Spider-Woman said, and Natalie felt her stomach flip again, “gently,” Spider-Woman continued. “Gently,” Natalie echoed, taking a breath.

Spider-Woman snaked her arm around Natalie’s waist, and Natalie did the same, “You ready, blondie?” she asked, her tone slightly teasing. “Nope, but do it anyway before I change my mind,” Natalie murmured, squeezing her eyes shut before she heard a web shooting from Spider-Woman’s wrist and then felt herself being pulled upwards, her heart dropping.

Seconds later, though, she felt something solid under her feet again, and she let out the first breath she had since she’d left the ground. She opened her eyes again, seeing the Wiskayok skyline stretching out in front of her. She sat down – or maybe her legs just gave out. “Wow,” she breathed, staring out at the setting sun. Spider-Woman sat down next to her, “Told you,” she said, and Natalie giggled again, “guess you weren’t lying.”

They sat in silence for a moment, until Spider-Woman said, “We should do this more often.” Natalie breathed a laugh, “ Wow , Spidey, that’s smooth,” she mused, and Spider-Woman gave a laugh, “so… you said that you were a teenager this morning,” Natalie said, after another while of comfortable silence. “I shouldn’t have told you that,” Spider-Woman gave an exasperated laugh, “you’re smart enough to figure out who I am,” she laughed. Natalie turned to stare at her, “Why can’t I know who you are?” she asked, frowning. Spider-Woman lifted her hand, “Well for one, if you like… turn into a super villain, then that would make it pretty easy for you to kill me,” she laughed, lifting up a finger as if to count, “two – if you know who I am, it’s dangerous for you, too, cause then people who don’t like you might torture you or whatever so they can find out who I am,” she lifted another finger, but Natalie cut her off, “okay, yeah, I get it, you’re way too cool to tell me who you are,” she joked, rolling her eyes, “and another thing, I would not become a super villain.”

“You’d be surprised how many of my friends become super villains,” Spider-Woman scoffed, making Natalie frown, “seriously?” she asked, and Spider-Woman nodded, “Three and counting,” she laughed. “Wow… unlucky,” Natalie murmured, “would you tell your boyfriend?” she asked, suddenly, the words out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Spider-Woman barked a laugh, “I don’t do boyfriends,” she said, simply. Natalie pondered for a moment if that meant what she thought it did, but she didn’t voice her questions. Instead, she simply said, “Yeah, me neither, kissing gets in the way of studying anyway,” that made Spider-Woman laugh again, “kissing gets in the way of spider-woman-ing, too, it’s really hard to explain why you can’t make it to a date without revealing that you were the one who beat the shit out of a guy with metal tentacles,” she shrugged, and Natalie laughed.

“You’re wearing those shoes again,” Natalie said, absentmindedly, watching as Spider-Woman swung her legs back and forth softly. “They’re my superhero-ing shoes,” she shrugged, “I like them,” Natalie continued, “they’re… nice,” Natalie stared at the shoes, finding something familiar about them, like she’d seen someone else wear them. 

After that, they sat in silence, watching the sun sink behind the horizon. When it finally got dark, Spider-Woman swung her down again – which was only a little less scary than the trip up – before saying their goodbyes. “I was serious about doing this more often,” Spider-Woman said, as they hugged goodbye, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow again, then,” Natalie said, looking up at her. “Yeah, seven?” she asked, and Natalie nodded, “Seven,” she repeated, then watched as Spider-Woman swung away into the darkness, leaving her alone. 

She walked home, not sparing a glance for her mother, who was asleep on the couch. Then, she cleaned up, finished the last of her homework, and climbed into bed, trying to stop herself from theorising, but she fell asleep thinking of those familiar shoes again, anyway. 

𖢥

Natalie had never experienced time going by in a blur. Her life had always felt like it was going by in a crawl, like the universe wanted her to suffer by experiencing her day by day in extreme – horribly slow – detail. But the few months since school had started passed in a blur, with August, September, October and most of November being over before Natalie could blink. She’d spent every day except the weekends either working on her and Lottie’s science fair project, at soccer practice or goofing off with Spider-Woman. In that time, she’d actually gotten kind of used to swinging around, or at least, she could swing around without wanting to puke now. She and Lottie had also grown much closer, to which Van had very annoyingly said, “I told you so.”

Suddenly, before Natalie could even really register that all that time had passed, it was the last week before the Thanksgiving break. Natalie stepped into class before anyone else, with Lottie following close behind – they’d somehow started up a routine of waiting for school to start together. Natalie wasn’t sure when it had become routine, but it didn’t seem out of the ordinary anymore.

“I just hope that test went well,” Lottie said, laughing. Natalie sat down at her desk and Lottie followed suit, “I think we’ll do the best in the class anyway, but don’t you get to go to Oscorp like… whenever you want?” Natalie joked, watching as Lottie chewed her bottom lip for a moment, before saying, “Yeah, but it’ll be more fun if you come with me,” Natalie returned her smile. 

They had gotten to class before anyone else – even Miss Malek – which left them a few minutes to just chat, “You’ve got all of the project stuff done, right?” Natalie asked, and Lottie nodded, “Yep, I’d remind you to practice your speech but I already know you have it memorised,” Lottie chuckled.

After a while, the rest of the class and Miss Malek walked in. Van shot her a knowing smirk, and Natalie simply glared back at her, even as she felt her lips quirking up in an unwilling smile. Homeroom went by quickly, and so did the rest of the day, until they finally got to the class Natalie was steadying herself for. Even though her and Lottie hadn’t gotten less than ninety percent on any of their projects and tests, but the test they’d written a week ago had been difficult, even for her. Still though, Natalie wasn’t surprised when her and Lottie’s names were reluctantly called by Mister Odel.

“These two did the best in the entire class, which, by the terms of what I said at the start of the semester, means that they get to go to Oscorp in the holidays,” he grimaced at the clipboard in his hands, “two other groups have also been chosen, that’ll be group four, Shauna Shipman and Jackie Taylor,” Jackie made a squeal kind of noise and gave Shauna a high five, “and group six, Taissa Turner and Misty Quigley.” It was pretty obvious that Mr Odel was unsatisfied by the fact that not a single boy had made it to the trip.

For once, they actually got an off period, but unfortunately for Natalie, that meant that people other than Lottie wanted to talk to her. More specifically, Jackie and Shauna wanted to talk to them about the Oscorp trip, and it meant that soon enough Tai and Misty were also sitting near them.

“I can’t wait , it’s going to be so fun seeing all that tech,” Misty squeaked. “Yep, and it’s in New York,” Shauna said, grinning at Jackie, “which means that we might see Spider-Woman,” they both said at the same time. Natalie would’ve rolled her eyes if it wasn’t so hypocritical. She and Spidey actually had planned to meet each other in New York, and she was kind of looking forward to it.

“I mean, you might,” Lottie cut in, shrugging, “but she’s pretty elusive, and she doesn’t like hanging around Oscorp,” that comment made everyone but Natalie turn to her, – because Natalie was already looking at her anyway – with Jackie frowning, “how do you know that?”

Natalie was curious now, too, listening in on what Lottie had to say as she stuttered out, “I- uh- just- I- You don’t… don’t see her around there a lot,” she cleared her throat, “she likes hanging around Times’ Square more, so you’ll have more luck there,” she nodded, self-assured. Natalie almost laughed, but suppressed it.

Jackie narrowed her eyes at Lottie for a second, and Natalie could almost hear the gears turning in her head, before she said, “Wait… do you know Spider-Woman?” she asked, and Natalie watched as Lottie’s eyes went wide and she stammered out a few unintelligible sputters, only to be cut off by Jackie and Shauna squealing and moving closer to her, almost knocking over her table. “You do !” Shauna exclaimed, and Jackie continued the sentence like their brains were connected or something, “Are you friends? What’s she like? Does she have a boyfriend?” 

Lottie’s head was in her hands now, and Natalie half expected steam to come out of her ears like a flustered cartoon character, Natalie cut in, saving her from Jackie and Shauna’s onslaught of questions, “You’re going to kill her, calm down, you two,” she mused, patting Lottie on the back. 

It took Lottie a second to collect herself again, but finally she said, “We’re not friends, but I have met her,” she murmured.

Natalie mulled over her words, silently scolding herself for her theorising over the last few weeks. Things made more sense now, she decided, if Lottie knew Spider-Woman, that sort of explained the shoes, as well as the fact that Lottie knew a remarkable amount about Spider-Woman’s powers, and if Natalie thought hard enough about it, she’d somehow find a way to relate it to Lottie and Spider-Woman both being punched in the face.

The bell rang after a while, and Lottie gave a sigh so relieved you’d think that the weight of the world had just been lifted from her shoulders. It made Natalie have to suppress a giggle. 

Lottie

The science fair was on the day right before the Thanksgiving break. Lottie awoke feeling excited, grabbing the little model and carefully placing it in her backpack along with the flash cards of her part of the speech. The day of the science fair was a free day, meaning that only the groups participating and any visitors had to be at school, which left the rest of the day after the fair completely free. Natalie and Lottie had decided that whether they won or not, they’d go to a little diner in town afterwards. They’d also decided that they’d meet each other for another sunset on the water tower, but that – to Natalie – was obviously not with Lottie.

Lottie walked into the school building with her hopes high and found Natalie waiting for her at their table, reading through her own flash cards like she didn’t already know her information by heart. They spotted each other in the crowd and Natalie gave her a wave, which Lottie returned.

“You ready to get first place?” Lottie asked, once Natalie was in ear shot, “Are you?” Natalie responded, her arms folded, even though she was still smiling. Lottie took the model they made out of her bag and gently unfolded it to put it on the table. They’d made a model of a few of the things bio-technology could be used for, spanning from medicinal use to use in the enhancement of human abilities – for which they’d used Spider-Woman as an example, the tiny Spider-Woman model that Lottie had sculpted and painted herself shown helping a civilian from a pile of debris.

She could feel Natalie’s heart beating quickly, and even without her superhuman abilities, she could tell that the blonde was nervous, “You good?” she asked, bumping Natalie gently with her arm, “Yeah, just… I’ve never won this thing, and this is my last year to try… sometimes I think they have something against me or something,” she scoffed. 

Lottie put her hand on Natalie’s shoulder, “Hey,” she murmured, “even if we don’t win, at least we tried, right? And I think our project is pretty cool, anyway, even without a blue ribbon.” Natalie looked up at her and smiled. She’d smiled at Lottie a lot over the last few months. It was kind of odd to think that this was the same Natalie who had chewed her out at their first soccer practice together and who had been nothing but abrasive for the first few weeks Lottie had known her. 

She liked that Natalie smiled at her now.

“We have some time to kill, do you want to check out some of the other projects?” Lottie asked, stepping forward, half expecting Natalie to refuse. Instead, she nodded and followed Lottie between the rows of projects, both of them admiring the creativity of the other projects. One thing that specifically caught her eye was Shauna and Jackie’s project. It was pretty obvious that Shauna had done most of the work, but Jackie’s charisma was at least helping to promote it. Lottie stopped in front of it, admiring the neatly organised writing on the board. 

Natalie stopped, too, reading the board alongside Lottie. “It’s for medicinal use,” Shauna explained, while Lottie read, “with this, people who’ve lost limbs can grow them back,” she said, an air of pride in her voice that Lottie didn’t blame her for. “Like a lizard?” Natalie asked, suddenly, staring at the model Jackie and Shauna had built. “Kind of, yeah,” Shauna responded. Lottie’s spider senses sparked a little at that, but she tried to put it off as nerves.

The booming voice of Misty Quigley suddenly rang out through the gym, and everyone turned to look at her from where she was standing on a make-shift stage, microphone in hand, “Welcome everyone, your projects should be set up by now, and the judging will begin shortly,” she said, and a sort of excited buzzing filled the air, anxiety and excitement swirling around. It made Lottie’s spider senses flare up, but she pushed it aside, waving goodbye to Shauna and Jackie before making her way back to her and Natalie’s project, with Natalie following close behind.

It took a while for the judges to get to them, which only made both of them more nervous, not that either of them wanted to mention it. Finally, after about half an hour, the three judges – one of them being Mr Odel – finally stopped at their project.

Their presentation was – in Lottie’s opinion – near perfect, with neither of them stuttering once, nor forgetting their words. She could see that the two other judges were impressed, but Mr Odel’s scowl remained ever present. 

After the judges left their table, Lottie let out a relieved breath, which Natalie echoed. They looked at each other and smiled. “So?” Lottie asked, “You think we’ll do good?” she watched as Natalie seemed to think it through for a second, before nodding, “Maybe, Shauna gave us some real competition though,” she chuckled.

A while later, Misty called everyone to attention again, telling the groups to gather at the front of the gym for the results. Natalie walked in front of Lottie and she followed her to the front of the gym, where the judges stood with the award ribbons. Mr Odel practically shoved Misty away from the mic stand, scowling down at his clipboard.

“Fifth place – group twenty-three, James Anderson and Travis Martinez,” the two boys stepped up to the make-shift stage, taking their ribbon with smiles. Mr Odel waved them away with a scoff, then spoke into the microphone again. He listed off the fourth place winners, then the third place winners, then, “Second place – group nine, Shauna Shipman and Jackie Taylor.”

Lottie exchanged a glance with Natalie. The fact that they weren’t in fifth through second place, either meant that they were in first place, or hadn’t even managed to make the podium. Natalie looked sort of like she was about to cry. Without thinking, Lottie took her hand. Natalie didn’t let go.

“And now, for our first place winners,” Mr Odel said, staring down at his clipboard like he could set the results on fire with his glare – which gave Lottie hope – before finally saying, “group thirteen, Natalie Scatorccio and Charlotte Osborn,” Natalie squeezed her hand hard enough that it would make a normal person yelp.

They stared at each other in disbelief for a second, before a grin spread across Natalie’s face. Lottie dragged Natalie all the way onto the stage, where the both of them shook hands with a reluctant Mr Odel, who handed them their first place ribbon, “Congratulations,” he said, through gritted teeth.

𖢥

They sat together on the water tower, staring out at the sunset. “Which is when we actually won! How insane is that?” Natalie said, more excited than Lottie had ever seen her. “That’s great, blondie, what are you going to do with the ribbon?” she asked, even though she knew the answer already, “Well, Lottie let me keep it, so I guess I’ll just put it next to my mirror or something, y’know, something nice to look at,” she shrugged, making Lottie laugh.

“New York’s going to be fun,” Natalie said, drumming her fingers on the metal surface. “Yeah, duh, ‘cause I’ll be there,” Lottie joked, Natalie rolled her eyes, shoving her gently, “Wow, Spidey, I knew most superheroes were narcissistic but that’s really something, even for you,” she said, sarcastically, and Lottie laughed again. 

“Well, I’ll definitely have to swing you around Times’ Square,” she said, “oh, and there’s this amazing pizza place I know, you’ll love it.” Natalie gave a joking scoff, “As long as we do the swinging before the pizza, or I’ll actually barf on you,” she said, laughing, “you keep saying that, but it hasn’t happened yet,” Lottie said, then began laughing when Natalie replied, “is that a challenge, webhead?”

“Oh, webhead ’s new, how’d you come up with that? Did you steal it from Jonah?” she laughed. Natalie scoffed again, “How dare you accuse me of something like that, I’ll have you know that I came up with webhead all on my own,” she stuck out her tongue.

They laughed together for a while, until Lottie suddenly felt Natalie growing a little more serious, “Hey, Spidey?” she asked, looking at Lottie, “You know how some people… uhm… like how some girls date other girls and some guys date other guys? Do you-” Natalie began, but Lottie cut her off, “Are you asking me if I’m gay?” she joked, but stopped laughing when she saw Natalie’s serious expression. “Not necessarily,” Natalie murmured, pulling her knees up to rest her chin on them, “just if you… like… are okay with those kinds of people,” she looked almost scared to be asking the question. Lottie understood that fear. Especially after she’d asked her father that same question and he’d sent her to bed crying.

“Of course I am,” Lottie said, as reassuring as she could be, “I mean, when you’re saving someone from being crushed by a car or being exploded or something, you can’t exactly ask them whether they’re a homo or not first, y’know?” she shrugged, “Plus, when I said I don’t do boyfriends, I was being serious.”

Natalie gave her a faint smile, “Good to know,” she said. Lottie gave her a gentle shove, “Let’s get you home, blondie, you’ve got to get up early tomorrow,” Lottie stood up, extending a hand for Natalie to take. Natalie hauled herself up, dusting her clothes off, “I’ll meet you after the Oscorp tour, right?” 

Lottie nodded, “Yeah, I’ll meet you then.”