SpideyDevil

Laid Bare

As Matt laid out his selection of alcoholic beverages and a glass for him, Peter's signature yet always genuine, kind smile branded his youthful face.
"Thank you," he said, wringing his fingers between each other to tug his gloves off and slip them from his slender hands.
He wasn't exactly one for hard liquors normally. Under special circumstances, after particularly hard nights, the kind that left him mentally and physically beaten and on the verge of screaming from a rooftop, he preferred more herbal methods to self-medicate.
But he wouldn't turn down the occasional social drink and this certainly wasn't turning out to be an average evening either.
He pressed his lips together as he considered his options before simply going for the bottle in front of him and pouring himself a glass. It didn't really matter what it was he picked anyway. His inhuman immune system would eat it up in no time at all. This was mostly for the sake of social conventions.
As Matt drifted off into his bedroom, Peter's eyes curiously followed after him like a shadow. His mouth curled with amusement at his self-deprecating humor on his interior decorating skills.
"Even so," Peter said as a light, airy glimmer of laughter left his lips. "Eyesight isn't the end all be all. My Uncle Ben could see just fine and it didn't help his case one bit. Interior decorating nor fashion style."
As his companion for the evening gradually peeled away at the red constraints of his suit, revealing his well-built figure underneath like it was his own personal armor, Peter felt his pulse quicken underneath the tender skin of his wrist.
He would be lying if he said there hadn't been a part of him that enjoyed nursing him back to health just for the ability to touch him.
Which, now that he thought about it, he could indeed see how well his scars and stitches had healed in the few days since their first encounter.
He cocked a curious brow. Well that was a good thing, wasn't it? Unexpected but good.
"You look pretty healed up," he said, voicing his curiosity as Matt returned for his drink. "I know I did a good job patching you up but not that great of a job."
He tapped his fingers against the glass he had yet to drink from before lifting it towards him.
"Toast to kicking some serious robber A tonight?"
-
Matt laughed a little, both at the simple reasoning that eyesight did not denote style, and that he had healed far more than was normal for someone who had received the kinds of injuries he had.
He clinked Peter's drink with his own healthy pour of whiskey, his preferred drink to steady his hand after a long pain filled evening, and took a healthy sip, humming past it with a nod and a smile.
"The advantages of meditation. The guy who trained me taught me that neat little trick, probably the most useful thing he ever did teach me. Keeps me out of the ICU."
He walked back around the bar to lean against the back of the brown leather couch, crossing an arm over his sturdy chest while the other cradled the glass in hand.
He had indeed clocked the rise in hormones, the quickening of Peter's heart and his own sank to his stomach, though it did not waver the smile on his lips.
This would be so much easier if Peter didn't like him back in that manor. If Matt could juggle his unrequited attraction with all the other feelings he couldn't talk about with anyone.
"If you like I have clothes that might fit you." He cocked his head, calculated before adding. "Unless you have something in the bag that is more comfortable."
He hummed and took another drink, neglecting to offer Peter's clothes back quite purposefully.
"But regardless it's my turn to ask some questions. The webs... those come from...something in your cuff? Got that, clever, some salicylic acid, toluene, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, potassium carbonate, some other shit I can't quite place but clever nonetheless.."
He pointed at him with the glass, "but how do you stick to walls?"
-
As Matt moved over to lean onto the back of the sofa and offered up a change of clothes, Peter lifted his bag from the counter and lightly shook it so his friend would be able to hear the fabric of his extra shirt and jeans brushing together in there. Although Peter knew he had given his sweats to Matt for good, and had no intention of wanting them back, he didn't think that's what the other man had referred to as the clothes he wanted to give him.
He perked up a little at the mention of questions. Crossing his legs in front of him, he leaned his elbows on the counter behind him.
As Matt began ticking off the chemical components of his webs, Peter's hazel hues widened, pretty impressed he could discern all of that without so much as putting his webs through any lab tests. But as he went on to ask him how he stuck to walls, a bright grin parted his lips.
"Well first off, bravo on being able to pick that apart. I'm impressed. But the sticking to walls thing is a tad more complicated than throwing chemicals together in my lab."
Pushing himself to a stand, the spider put his drink down and rounded the counter to join him at the sofa. He extended both of hands out and turned his palms up , inviting Matt to feel for himself.
"So..." He licked his lips as he thought of where exactly to begin. "When I got bit by a radioactive spider, it did something - along with a bunch of other stuff - to alter the engrams of my skin, which basically now allows me to control the electrostatic force on my hands and feet on a molecular level." His voice began to brighten with excitement the more he spoke. Because for the first time, in a really long time, the science enthusiast was able to discuss this with someone else. He could barely contain his enthusiasm.
"I'm not exactly sure what subatomic particle is responsible for this yet. But, it can overcome the mutual repulsion of electrons so I can stick to things. Feel."
With very little concentration on the hero's part, the soft pads of his fingertips became adhesive, and stuck to Matt's skin for a few moments before quickly relaxing and alleviating back to normal before doing it again a few seconds later.
"When I first got the ability, I caused a bit of chaos on a subway train. Unintentionally, of course. I didn't know how to control it, but it wasn't my finest moment."
He relieved the tension in his fingers once more, this time, he completely dropped his hands to his side and stepped away to return to his bag so he could fish out his change of clothes.
-
Matt smirked and shrugged a little when Peter complimented him on being able to name some of the chemicals in his web compound.
"I spent a good bit of time kicking around my college's labs back when getting my bachelors."
He cocked his head as Peter rounded the counter, setting his drink aside and presenting him with both his hand and an insane preface.
Radioactive spider was a big first pill to swallow but he managed it down and set his own drink aside as he gently placed his hand in Peter's.
Despite the explanation he was currently receiving he still sort of jumped when Peter's hand stuck to his. Though he made no move to retract his hand (not that he could), a look of confusion and shock crossed the vigilante's face as he processed all that had been laid out before him.
It didn't help that his heart spiked at the contact of the other man's hand to begin with, but the Daredevil sensed electromagnetic waves on a finite level anyway, it was one of those *other senses* he had brushed over.
Every hair on his body stood on end, he had a full bodied shiver and when Peter's hand fell away his still sort of hung there.
"Wholly hell...that was..." his lips parted but he didn't have a word right away, he shook his head then sort of shivered the tingle off and smiled.
"That was really cool. That was amazing. That you know that is amazing..." Matt's fingers still felt tingly and eventually he brought it back to his chest, flexing and unflexing them.
"I...gotta admit I um..." he hummed and grabbed his drink, moving to sit on the couch, still rubbing his fingers together slowly.
"I'm mostly impressed that you can begin to figure it out. I have never really been able to understand how I work, but... I didn't expect.. all that. You really are brilliant."
-
Peter, who had lived with his powers for years with no one else to share or experience them with, had sort of forgotten how unusual and crazy they were, especially at first.
So he bashfully smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were no big deal. As if he had simply shown Matt a little party trick he'd picked up somewhere.
"I'm a bit of a science nerd. It kinda runs in the family."
He pulled out his clothes from out of the depths of his bag and set them on the counter and crouched down so he could pull his boots from his feet.
"Besides, I'm a graduate student in biochemistry, remember? I've also had plenty of time to study myself and figure some things out." A soft sigh punctuated the sentence. Yep, with lots of time by himself it certainly led to a lot of time with nothing to do but examine his abnormal body.