Frostbite

Lightning Bugs

boss-man: storm tonite [2:31 pm]

boss-man: like lit eral shit ass snow bitch [2:31 pm]

boss-man: stg if ur crazy ass ends up on the news bc u swung arund nyc in a leotard at negatve butfuck degres im not payin workers comp [2:32 pm]

Me: crime waits for snow man [2:32 pm]

boss-man: yea [2:34 pm]

boss-man: thats comin out yuor pay chrck [2:34 pm]

Me: dang [2:35 pm]

Peter tipped some more hot chocolate into his mouth as he walked, mindlessly dodging melting ice patches on the sidewalk and nudging Ned away from the ones he almost stepped on.

"I always forget how much I hate snow until we actually get it," Ned grumbled after taking a gulp of his own hot chocolate. Peter could hear the crunch of peppermint bits between his molars. Traitor. "Like, what did I do to deserve this? You saw me slip this morning, and now my butt cheeks are still numb."

"I told you to stand in front of that space heater in the coffee shop."

"No one in there needed to witness my buns get toasted."

Peter snorted and shoved his phone and the hand holding it into the pocket of a thick-ish brown jacket that was a little too big, its sleeves hanging down to the tips of his fingers. He'd grabbed Thor's jacket by accident this morning—oh man Ned would freak if he found out—after the god stopped by for breakfast the fifth time in two weeks. Mom had been in the middle of pulling a tray of cardamom buns from the oven when Thor strolled in through the front door already talking about some creature Peter's never heard of before. His jacket went down on the couch arm next to the smaller also-brown one with sleeves that went to the middle of the palms but before he could say anything else, he'd stopped and stared at the tray of fresh bread in Mom's hands like it was the very last thing he expected.

"Alas, the things I do for divine honeyed rolls."

Mom wouldn't look their brother in the eye the rest of the morning.

But long story short, he picked up the wrong jacket when he left for school. It had roomy pockets and a stupid number of zippers, and Thor wouldn't mind if he had it for the day, right? Probably. Hopefully.

He gulped down some more hot chocolate.

All after-school activities had been canceled because of the weather, and it had to be a bad one if both Midtown and Sister Margaret's shut their doors for the day. That also meant patrol would be non-existent if people couldn't get out on the streets to even do crime, so if he was getting one of those rare days off from Ferret and Spider-Man, maybe Peter Parker could go out and do something for a bit. He could take his camera out and add to his picture board he hadn't been able to update in a while, or sneak into a library to chill out with a few books he wanted to read instead of barreling through this year's book list, or take apart the old stereo half dunked in a dumpster.

Or he could sit quietly for a while in the snowfall, just watching for a little while.

"Hey, so." Ned looked down. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm... I'm worried about you."

Peter's forehead scrunched as he turned his head. "What?"

"It's just, you've been kind of different lately. Not in a bad way! You're doing good, and I'm really happy for you." But then Ned frowned, and Peter's shoulder began to tense. "But I don't know how you're doing it."