SPIDER-MAN: MARK LEE

56

𝟱𝟲: 𝗔 𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚

My eyes fluttered open, and the first thing I saw was the white ceiling of my room. My body was still covered with the smooth and gentle sheets of my bed, the warm morning light streaming in through the curtains, its light embracing my body. I could hear that the birds were woken up too, and begun their chirping and singing, their vocals filled with joy at the light of day. Everything was perfect. And somebody else's presence added more to the perfection of this morning.

Mark was laying on my right side, his right arm over my stomach with his head resting peacefully on top of my chest. When he noticed that I had awoken, he looked up at me with those pretty doe eyes of his. "Good morning." Mark murmured, his voice raspy and scratchy, so attractive and soothing at the same time.

I grinned. "Good morning." I slowly rose, my elbows keeping me up. "How long have you been awake?"

Mark sat up from the bed, the sheets slipping off his body and exposed his bare torso. "Long. I didn't want to wake you up." He explained, his shoulders shrugging up a bit. On the skin of his shoulders, I could see faint purple stains on them, and I didn't know if they were bruises or hickeys from last night. "Besides, I wanted to stay longer in bed." Added Mark.

"Oh." I said, trying to avert my focus from the marks I had left on his skin and sat up as well.

Before I could even say something else, Mark himself augmented his eyes at the sight of my shoulders, chest and neck. "Ah shit. I think we went overboard last night." He mumbled, now inspecting all the marks he had left on me.

I could feel my cheeks burn, as memories from last night flashed through my mind. Well, it was definitely a... night.

"We didn't." I said assuringly. "It was perfect."

Mark paused, letting himself admire me for a few seconds before grinning again. "It was." He lifted his hand in front of me, and tucked a piece of hair that dangled down my face.

I wanted this to proceed, but I knew it couldn't. At least not now.

"Mark," I said, my hand grabbing his to slowly pull it down. "I think it's about time for you tell me what truly happened yesterday." My voice was filled with seriousness and concern, and I couldn't help but look back at the bruises on his body, and the cuts on his face. "Is it about the Foreman?"

Mark nodded his head. He held tightly on my hand before proceeding talking. "Yeah. You see, when you were waiting for me at the cinemas, I was trying to take down a man who tried sniping you."

My heart dropped at his words. You were meaning to tell me, that I could've died if it weren't for him? The thought of me cluelessly standing in the open by the cinemas, not knowing there was an aim targeted on me shuddered my bones.

"I managed to force out informations from this sniper. Apparently, your father had already reported the Foreman to the police and revealed his real identity a week ago but..." Mark paused and took a gulp. "But the sniper was sent by the Foreman for a bribing scheme with the Captain about the entire situation and it worked. The Sniper said he left one task unfinished... And that's asking the Captain to delete any evidence about the report your father made. This means, the report might possibly still be there where it holds the identity of the Foreman."

I was appalled by the new information. It struggled to process in my mind.

I simply couldn't believe it.

"Fuck..." I muttered. "That's so fucking messed up."

"I know right?" Mark heaved, his eyes rolling upwards which expressed his deep resentment about the NYPD. "Fucking police corruption. This means we can't even tell them anything, because not everyone can be trusted in NYPD. Now we gotta act on our own again..." He rolled his tongue against his inner cheek and pondered. "But how are we gonna do that? We can't just waltz our way in the police station."

I smirked. "Naomi."

Mark's doe eyes widened even more. "What?"

"It's a genius plan." I convinced, shaking his hand a bit.

"It's a bad idea." Mark opposed. He laughed nervously and shook his head. "You know we're gonna get in so much trouble, if her dad finds out that we made her act unlawfully."

I frowned. "Not if it's a good cause. Come on, if we explain Naomi everything, she's definitely up for this." I smiled, trying to suppress a laugh. "And plus, she's a Spiderman fan. She'd do this for us."

Mark released a long sigh, his head pummeling down the bed for deeper contemplation. "Oh fine." He mumbled. "But this means we gotta call the team up for a gathering."

I nodded my head and eyed the clock that hung on my wall, discovering that it was 10 in the morning. "Everyone should be up by now, except Donghyuck, but that's fine because we'll force him to wake up." I paused, looking at Mark with a small slanted frown. "The question is, where do we gather? I mean, we were literally told to cut contact with each other. And we can't do much, considering that I'm being watched by those police officers like 24/7."

Mark grimaced. "Ooh, they better not have been watching last night." He chuckled goofily, but earned nothing but a smack on the arm from me. "Okay, well if they didn't see me swing here last night then they won't see me swing you out. And we could hold the gathering at my place, but that could lead danger to Johnny so no... What about we head to MoonDelibery's HQ instead? They said they shut it down temporarily, but we can always break in with Donghyuck's skills. Right?"

I pinched his cheek. "You're a genius Mark Lee."

Mark chortled, his cheeks blushing because of my pinch but as well as my compliment.

"Okay. We gotta move fast." I said and pulled off the blankets off my body, before pulling my legs to the edge of the bed. I slipped my feet into my slippers and stood up, now scuttling to the bathroom.

Mark tried reaching his hand out for me, but missed. "Wait! You up for at least 1 round?!"