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“Fuck— Euijoo—”
Nicholas’s head tips back into his pillow, one hand twisted in bedsheets, the other buried in the absolute mess of Euijoo’s hair. A mess of Nicholas’s design, but a mess, nonetheless.
Euijoo looks up through dark lashes, his mouth attached to the inside of Nicholas’s thigh, tongue laving over sensitive skin, leaving a blooming, crooked line of bruises in his wake. They haven’t even gotten to the sex yet. Apparently, Euijoo is feeling sentimental today. Enough to take his time, at least. When he showed up thirty minutes ago, knocking frantically on Nicholas’s door, all out of breath and harried, Nicholas figured he’d want to be in and out— but then he got on his knees, and Nicholas wasn’t going to complain.
He still isn’t complaining. He’s doing more of a halfway between a moan and a whine thing— inhibitions loose because he’d literally just woken up from a nap when Euijoo showed up. He gets all pliant when he’s sleepy. Euijoo knows that. He’s currently using it to his advantage, his big, round eyes carrying that sparkle they do when he knows he’s driving Nicholas mad. Nicholas swears Euijoo gets just as turned on from riling him up as he does from reciprocated foreplay. When he gets up, Nicholas is sure his dick will be just as hard as Nicholas’s currently is— just beginning to leak over in his boxers from the insistence of Euijoo’s mouth.
Nicholas squeezes his eyes shut. Sometimes, when he and Euijoo are fucking, he can’t handle the eye contact. It’s much too intimate for what they’re doing.
Fucking.
They’re just fucking.
Euijoo’s eyes are so big, and earnest, and always looking at Nicholas, and they’re just fucking.
Teeth sink into the softest part of Nicholas’s thigh, a sharp gasp arching his back. He opens his eyes just to glare at Euijoo. Euijoo likes when Nicholas looks at him, and he’s not above playing dirty to get it.
His mouth is wet with spit until he wipes it off on the back of his hand, still sitting between Nicholas’s legs. Nicholas’s skin is shiny, evidence of Euijoo catching the mid-day sun filtering through the blinds. Euijoo grins, pink-cheeked and pretty.
“Quit it,” Nicholas complains, using the hand in Euijoo’s hair to try to push him back down.
Euijoo laughs, but he follows direction well, dipping back down, fingers scooching Nicholas’s boxers so far up his leg they’re exposing his hip. It’s inefficient, but Nicholas doesn’t want Euijoo to stop for long enough to take them off. Not yet.
Nicholas shudders when Euijoo’s tongue traces the crease of his thigh and hip. He tightens his hand in Euijoo’s hair— rewarded with a twisted groan in the back of Euijoo’s throat.
And then the phone starts ringing.
Well, it’s buzzing. Very violently buzzing in Euijoo’s pocket, which is pressed up against the mattress, sending little vibrations through the entirety of Nicholas’s system.
He knows exactly where this is going. He sighs, relaxing the grip in both of his hands, letting his arms fall lamely to his sides, palms to the ceiling. He glances down for long enough to watch Euijoo come out of his stupor, and scramble for his phone. His brow creases when he reads the message, a frown pulling down at the corners of his mouth.
When he looks up at Nicholas, face all torn apart with whatever sort of guilt he can muster, Nicholas is already sighing again.
“I’m so sorry, Nico—” he says, voice rough from disuse (and probably from the way he’s been using his mouth for the better part of an hour). “Fuma—”
“Go,” Nicholas cuts him off. He waves one hand, shooing Euijoo away.
“He needs help with—”
“Yeah. I got it.” Nicholas doesn’t really need to hear whatever excuse Euijoo is about to make up about his allegedly completely incompetent set of grown adult roommates.
Euijoo’s face crumbles. He looks like the fucking pleading emoji. “And Yudai—”
“Yep. For sure.” Nicholas nods, his shooing growing more violent. “I’ll see you sometime.”
Euijoo finally stands up, phone still clutched in his hand, knuckles turning pale from how hard he’s gripping it. “I’ll make it up to you,” he says. For what it’s worth, he sounds like he means it.
“Mhm.”
The phone starts buzzing again, a little more frantically this time. Euijoo looks down. Swears. He sets one knee on the bed, and plants a hand next to Nicholas’s shoulder, leaning down to kiss him.
It happens fast. Nicholas isn’t really processing it as it happens, but then it’s over, and Euijoo is shooting him a regretful smile as he grabs his backpack off the floor where he tossed it when he came in. His hair is still a complete mess. He looks like he’s just been up to something unbecoming— but Nicholas just gives him a little wave anyway. It’s not like anyone is going to see Euijoo’s face where he’s going.
As soon as the door clicks shut behind him, Nicholas covers his face with his hands and groans.
He’s not even motivated enough to finish Euijoo’s work himself, because he’s sleepy. If he’s getting off while sleepy, someone else has to do it for him. It’s a waste now that Euijoo so rudely left him here, half-naked and alone.
“Fuck,” Nicholas says out loud. Then, again, more forcefully, “Fuck!”
It doesn’t make him feel better. He expected it to make him feel better.
He leans over, fumbling for his phone on his nightstand. It’s almost dead, because he forgot to plug it in when he went to sleep. He clicks to his recent calls, all of them from the last week to his mother or Maki. He presses the top line, holding his phone to his ear and letting his eyes fall shut again.
“Suuuuup,” Maki answers on the second ring. It sounds like he’s eating something.
“What are you doing?”
“Taki put chicken nuggets in the air fryer. It’s fucking bananas, man. Revolutionary.”
Nicholas hears Maki take another bite of something, chewing into the receiver. He winces, holding the phone away from his ear until the worst of it is over. “How high are you?”
“Oh,” Maki laughs. “Super. But I swear— the airfryer thing—”
“Okay, I don’t care— I need you to lock in—” Nicholas interrupts. His head still feels like someone stuck a whisk into his ear and scrambled up his brain. “Euijoo just, like, kissed me as he left. What do you think that means?”
“Uhhhh,” Maki swallows. “Where was he going?”
“Where do you think?!” Nicholas hisses.
Maki laughs again. Nicholas can imagine how he looks right now. Laying draped over one of Taki’s ancient, ratty armchairs, limbs all splayed out. He always ragdolls when he smokes too much. “Right. He was probably distracted by whatever crime is occurring and didn’t think about the kissing.”
Nicholas lets out a half-relieved breath. “Right. Yeah. That’s what I figured.” He can feel some of the anxiety seeping out of his chest.
“Mm,” Maki starts chewing again. “Or he’s secretly in love with you.”
“Shut up. He’s not.” The anxiety zaps straight back into Nicholas’s chest.
“Okay, so he’s not,” Maki snorts. “Man, you should come over. These chicken nuggets are so good.”
“I’m not coming over. Getting high will make me more anxious.”
“Boo. Don’t be anxious. He was really probably just not thinking. Cockdrunk superhero kisses totally casual fuckbuddy on his way to fight crime. I can practically see the Spider-Base headline.”
Nicholas forces his body to unclench. Even incapacitated, Maki is probably right. Euijoo’s life is very cut and dry. He keeps everything fragmented and separate. When one area spills into the other, he gets flustered.
Maki makes a noise like he just thought of something. “Did he just leave? Are you still hard?”
Nicholas looks down at his lap. He’s nearly soft by now. “Boner rapidly dying thanks to the obnoxious tone of your voice.”
“Dude. Do you want me to get sexy with it?” He clears his throat, pitching his voice lower, “Oh, Nicho—”
“Goodbye, Maki.” Nicholas hangs up, dropping his phone onto his chest. It vibrates a second later with a text. And then another.
From Maki
u told me ud care about the airfryer after ur emergency
bastard
To Maki
ignoring you
From Maki
but i feel really bad that ur fwb is spiderman and keeps getting invited to spiderman things while ur hooking up
i really really do
To Maki
🖕
Nicholas chucks his phone to the other side of his bed. Like, four more texts and Maki is going to drain his battery for good.
He doesn’t plug his phone in. He’d be too tempted to log into Twitter and see what Spider-Man is up to. It’s a bad habit he’s trying to break. Keeping tabs on Euijoo’s extra-curricular activities. Or, maybe Nicholas counts as extra-curricular in the scope of Euijoo’s life. Whatever. Nicholas isn’t going to check Twitter. He doesn’t care what Spider-Man is doing instead of sucking on his thighs.
Really, he doesn’t.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man stuns saving two employees from a department store fire in Little Italy this afternoon. No injuries or casualties reported, thanks to Spider-Man’s quick thinking.
284 retweets • 4.3k likes
↳ @choiminho_1209
Great work, Spider-Man!
↳ @aerichandesu
yooooo that’s me!
↳ @choi3an
@aerichandesu ???? are you good???
↳ @aerichandesu
@choi3an obviously. can you read?
↳ @spidermanhater04
Gayyyyyyy
↳ @harunya
@spidermanhater04 yuma you are literally gay.
↳ @spidermanhater04
@harunya don’t dox me in SpiderBase replies dude
jojo | @spidermanlover04
Imagine being Spider-Man and saving citizens from imminent danger on an average Tuesday… Spider-Man is so kind…
0 retweets • 2 likes
↳ @spidermanhater04
if you’re going to suck off a man that doesn’t deserve it can you do me instead?
↳ @harunya
@spidermanhater04 Back off Yuma
↳ @spidermanhater04
fine, you can do harua if you prefer. he also doesn’t deserve it
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
would u guys unfollow me if i started engagement farming using spiderman as bait? like, “this ninety seven year old super freak saves damsels the old fashioned way!”
1 retweet • 5 likes
↳ @rikionbottom
nah man im locked in for life 👨❤️💋👨
↳ @MurataFuma
I’m blocking you ahead of time just in case.
↳ @rikiontop
yo who pqrted this
🕸️
Nicholas didn’t mean to start fucking Spider-Man. He meant to start fucking Euijoo. It’s really not his problem that the two are one in the same. It just happened that way.
When their arrangement started, it was a long time coming. Or, it felt like it to Nicholas, anyway. Nicholas and Euijoo just have chronically horrible timing.
They met in undergrad. Nicholas had just moved across the country for school, and Euijoo was living at his Aunt’s place so he didn’t have to pay for a dorm. It was in a coffee shop. Euijoo took Nicholas’s drink on accident. When Nicholas approached him to chew him out, because he was already having a bad day, Euijoo turned around and looked at him with big, round eyes, and Nicholas knew he was fucked. And then Euijoo’s lips met the cup, and he took a sip.
Allergic to cinnamon, as it turns out. Euijoo is horribly allergic to cinnamon.
Or, he was— the spider thing kind of cleared that up, but this was pre-spider-thing. Euijoo went into anaphylactic shock in the middle of the coffee shop, and it was Nicholas’s coffee’s fault, so Nicholas rode in the ambulance with him. He hasn’t been able to shake Euijoo since. As soon as Euijoo woke up in his hospital bed, looked at Nicholas, and said, “You’re the guy that tried to kill me,” everything fell into place.
Nicholas has always thought that Euijoo is attractive. He knew Euijoo would ruin his life in one way or another from the first second they locked eyes. But they were friends first. Are friends. Still.
At first, it was because Nicholas was so young, and frazzled getting the hang of going to school. Then, near the end of freshman year, right before they were leaving for the summer, there was a moment. A blip, really. Both of them drunk and sitting too close to one another on the floor of Nicholas’s dorm room. Euijoo looked at Nicholas, and his tongue ran over his bottom lip. He said, “I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’m going to miss you too,” Nicholas murmured. His eyes dropped to Euijoo’s lips, and he swears there was a pull— right in the middle of his chest.
And the fire alarm went off.
Their RA burnt her last bag of expired popcorn in her microwave. They had to evacuate. By the time they came back, the chance was gone. Nicholas left the next morning to go home for the summer, and when he got back, Euijoo introduced him to his girlfriend. “Nicho, this is Yerim. We went to high school together, but we reconnected over the summer,” he said, all smiley and proud, his hand on her lower back.
Nicholas swallowed his pride and shook her hand, which felt a little weird, but he didn’t know what else to do.
Yerim was great. Really, looking back on it, she’s definitely Nicholas’s favorite of Euijoo’s exes. Pretty, and kind, and fun. God, some of the ones that came after her were seriously lacking in the fun department.
Either way, Euijoo and Yerim were together for a little over a year. By the time they split up, Nicholas was seeing some guy he’d met at a bar one night while he was licking his wounds about getting blown off by Euijoo once again because of some couple-y thing he and Yerim were doing instead.
When Nicholas dropped that guy, Euijoo had a new girlfriend. And so on and so forth. Chronically horrible timing. It’s serious.
There’s been more pings on the radar along the way. Overlapping bits and pieces that never amounted to anything. Euijoo coming to Nicholas and admitting that he thinks he’s, “Not exactly straight.” His words, not Nicholas’s. (Only for him to follow up with, “I met a guy…”) One night when they were both freshly single and incredibly drunk and they tried kissing for the hell of it. (Euijoo threw up, and Nicholas couldn’t remember anything tangible in the morning.) Lingering hands when Euijoo was on the outs with his latest girlfriend, and Nicholas hadn’t quite started dating his next boyfriend yet. (And then Yuma yakked, which threw off the whole vibe of the party, and Euijoo avoided Nicholas like the plague for the rest of the night.)
It was a long time coming when both he and Euijoo had been single for more than a month. Euijoo had finally gotten over his last boyfriend, and Nicholas was in a weird limbo as he applied to grad school. They both had their lives together, more or less, and Nicholas thought that the universe was finally laying it out for an honest shot.
Euijoo was in his bed, laying down, a little buzzed, but not too drunk. He hadn’t stopped smiling all night. Nicholas remembers so clearly the way Euijoo’s shining eyes trailed him as he crossed the room and climbed into bed next to him, laying down on his back, kicking out his leg so their feet bumped.
Nicholas was a little buzzed, too. And he had some false confidence that Maki had instilled in him earlier in the night, when they were both stuffed into Jo’s tiny powder room, Maki’s hands on Nicholas’s shoulders, shaking him, saying, “It’s time, dude. The stars are fucking… lined up or whatever the saying is!”
And, truly, Nicholas had meant to ask Euijoo on a date. It feels stupid now— but that is what his original intention was. But, Byun Euijoo has a funny way of making sure things don’t go according to Nicholas’s plans. He’s a master at it, really.
Euijoo lolled his head to the side to look at Nicholas head on, smile still curving up his lips.
“Juju,” Nicholas said, testing the strength of his voice.
“I’m so happy, Nico,” Euijoo replied, voice light and airy. His hand moved across the bed, finding Nicholas’s, twining their fingers together. “I’m so ready to be single for a while. I think I’m done with relationships. It’s too much. I’d rather have fun with you.”
Nicholas’s heart promptly shot up into his throat. He felt like he was suffocating. His eyes went a little fuzzy, and his ears rang, and he, idiotically, said, “What do you mean have fun?”
Euijoo shrugged. “I just meant that we can spend more time together again.”
“Oh,” Nicholas laughed awkwardly. “I thought you meant— like— we could hook up while we’re both single—” He shut his mouth afterwards, trying to find the words to walk it back. His eyes stung, and his head hurt.
He watched as Euijoo took it in. Could see the process of Euijoo’s brain taking the information in and chewing on it. The exact second a lightbulb went off.
“I wouldn’t mind that. If you want that, too,” Euijoo said softly, almost shy, as if Nicholas wasn’t the one to suggest it in the first place. “I mean, we’ve always had some sort of… physical… y’know…” He waved his hand between himself and Nicholas. “Right?”
“Right,” Nicholas said, but it sounded muted in his ears. He nodded dumbly.
“We’re drunk, though. We should sleep on it,” Euijoo said, eyes skimming over Nicholas’s face.
Nicholas still isn’t sure if Euijoo could read his hesitation, or if he needed time to think— but it didn’t matter.
In the morning, Nicholas woke up to an empty bed. He found Euijoo in the kitchen, attempting to make them food, and he felt some sort of interference by a higher power. A hand reaching down and flicking him in Euijoo’s direction. A voice in his ear saying, “Maybe this is what was meant for the two of you all along. If you wait, who knows if you’ll ever get half of this.”
So, Nicholas cleared his throat, and announced, “I think we should. Start fucking. Hooking up. Whatever. It’ll be nice not to worry about it, right? To have something casual. Reliable.”
Euijoo crossed the kitchen in three long strides and kissed Nicholas right there. Lifted him up onto the counter and slotted himself between Nicholas’s thighs.
And then they just didn’t stop. They’re best friends, and fuckbuddies, and Euijoo is Spider-Man, and somehow, it works. Nicholas likes it a lot, actually. Nothing has really changed, except now Euijoo isn’t getting a new girlfriend or boyfriend every few months, and Nicholas doesn’t have to go out hunting for sex. None of the technical aspects of their friendship had to change. It’s a win-win.
They have ground rules. No kissing afterwards— they both like kissing too much. It’s dangerous. No making it weird. No secrets. If either of them start dating someone seriously, they stop.
Easy enough.
Of course, Euijoo broke rule number three immediately. Because of the spider-thing. But, Nicholas figured him out almost immediately, too, so it’s not technically a secret anymore. Euijoo just thinks it is.
The spider-thing started sometime around Junior year. At least, that’s the first recorded sight of Spider-Man on the internet— Maki has checked. Nicholas didn’t know about it until a month into hooking up with Euijoo.
It gets pretty hard to hide the fact that you’re secretly a superhero when you spend all of your free time with someone. Nicholas figures that’s why Euijoo gave up on relationships in the first place. After graduating, he really honed in on the Spider-Man thing. Spider-Man has been everywhere, all the time. He works a lot.
At first, Nicholas didn’t think much of it when Euijoo would get a text from his roommates saying he had somewhere to be. Or the late night walks to clear his head. Both of those things were pretty on par for Euijoo to care about or do. But then Euijoo started running out mid-hookup for roommate issues such as “Fuma dropped a jar in the kitchen,” or “Yudai can’t get the TV to work and he really wants to watch the dog show.” And he started coming back from his “late night walks” with fresh scrapes and cuts. Sweating more than he should.
Euijoo is a fucking terrible liar, and Nicholas isn’t stupid. He’s also a little bit too online, so he’s pretty up to date on Spider-Man’s comings and goings. Half of their friend group are bona-fide Spider-heads. He’s pretty sure Taki admitted while he was crossed that he doesn’t know if he wants to be or wants to fuck Spider-Man.
So, one afternoon, after Euijoo ran out of the apartment without putting his shirt back on, because he was in such a hurry to get back to Fuma and Yudai’s latest emergency, Nicholas picked up his phone, called Maki, and said, “Dude, what are the chances that Euijoo is Spider-Man?”
It took them all of twenty minutes to put the pieces together. And then they spent another twenty minutes with Nicholas drilling into Maki’s head that neither of them could ever let it slip. Especially not to Euijoo. Because if Euijoo finds out that Nicholas knows he’s Spider-Man, he’ll have a major, crash and burn spiral-level freak out and completely withdraw. That’s just how he is. Nicholas might lose Euijoo for good if that happens, and that is not an option.
Nicholas didn’t mean to start fucking one of the most sought after and mysterious celebrities currently in the public eye. He meant to start fucking Euijoo. It’s really not his problem that the two are one in the same. It just happened that way.
If Euijoo weren’t Spider-Man, Nicholas’s life would probably be easier. He’d be able to Google his problems, type Reddit at the end, and get good answers. Instead, he’s stuck calling Maki to try to piece together what it means when his superhero fuckbuddy accidentally kisses him while he’s on his way to fight crime, or whatever.
But Nicholas’s life has never been easy. Naturally, this has to be hard, too. The navigating the my-best-friend-slash-fuckbuddy-is-spider-man thing, sans Reddit.
Euijoo is worth it, though. And that doesn’t have to mean anything more than what it is. It’s just a fact. He’s Nicholas’s best friend.
🕸️
Euijoo is good at a lot of things. Math. Friendship. Sex. Nicholas could go on. Subtlety, however, is not one of the things Euijoo excels at.
The back of Nicholas’s neck prickles, gooseflesh raising where his hair touches skin. What little hairspray he used tonight is a horrible mix with the unrelenting weight of Euijoo’s eyes following him around the room. Nicholas’s hair feels too stiff, and it keeps tickling him, and Euijoo won’t quit staring.
Nicholas arrived to Taki's latest poorly planned house party an hour late, not of his own accord, but because Maki’s piece of shit car broke down (again) when they stopped for gas on their way over. Maki practically had to get on his knees to beg a group of girls with the only other live engine at the station to jump him. Nicholas sat in the passenger’s seat with his feet on the dash and chewed through half of Maki’s pack of bubblegum, just because he could, scrolling lazily through SpiderBase to see what he’s missed since he swore he doesn’t care about what Spider-Man is up to a few days ago.
The answer is a lot of heroic acts, and a few random good deeds.
When they finally got the car running and finished the drive across the city, the party was in full swing. Nicholas and Maki walked in without knocking, because everyone and their mother knows Taki’s door code.
And— like they were in a bad movie— Nicholas managed to lock eyes with Euijoo across the living room as soon as he walked in. Euijoo stood up from the couch like he’d been summoned via spell, pushing through bodies to reach him.
“Where were you?” he asked, his bottom lip all red and raw from being chewed on.
“Uh, Maki’s stupid fucking car shit itself again,” Nicholas laughed, already on his way to make a drink.
“My car isn’t stupid, it’s challenging,” Maki shouts over the noise of the party, slinging his arm around Nicholas’s shoulder.
Somewhere along the path to the kitchen, Euijoo got pulled into another conversation, held back. That’s when the staring started.
This party seems to be a physical and nearly perfect small scale illustration of how poor Nicholas and Euijoo’s timing is. Every time Nicholas starts to pull away to find Euijoo, someone takes him somewhere else, and every time Euijoo gets close to grabbing Nicholas’s arm, he’s pulled in another direction. They have a lot of friends that need a lot of attention, and neither of them are exactly advertising that they’re whatever they are. Friends with benefits. Whatever.
But, Euijoo won’t stop looking at Nicholas from across the room like he wants to tackle him and tear his clothes off right here and now. It’s highly distracting. Nicholas isn’t opposed to it, but he also thinks Euijoo could stand to hold out a little. Work on the art of patience. Yearning. Practice to remedy his abysmal lack of subtlety.
“Are you and Euijoo fighting again? He’s been staring at you like he wants to murder you for, like, half an hour,” Harua says, taking a step around the table after getting absolutely lambasted in beer pong by Nicholas. He stumbles, but Maki is there to keep him upright. Nicholas almost rolls his eyes.
He glances over his shoulder. Euijoo averts his gaze as soon as Nicholas makes eye contact, his cheeks going pink as if he has any right to be embarrassed by his overt behavior. Nicholas snorts. “Yeah, something like that,” he says dryly. As soon as he turns back around, he can feel Euijoo’s eyes lock onto him again. Hot and insistent.
“Wow. He looks really mad. You guys should talk it out,” Harua says, reaching out to pat Nicholas’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s so sad to see you two fight.”
“Alright, we should find somewhere for you to sit, the state of your knees is concerning me,” Maki interrupts.
“My knees are fine. See?” He drops his legs out from underneath himself without warning, causing Maki to drop with him to secure his weight before he hits the ground.
“Alright. I’m going to go… see if Euijoo wants to talk about whatever… might be wrong…” Nicholas juts his thumb over his shoulder. If Harua were less wasted, he’d definitely catch on to what’s happening. Thankfully, he’s super fucking wasted.
“Have fun,” Maki says suggestively, pairing it with a borderline offensive wink.
Thankfully, Harua is super fucking wasted.
Nicholas downs the rest of the one beer pong cup he was relegated to drink, spinning on his heel. He meets Euijoo’s eyes again, but this time Euijoo doesn’t look away. Nicholas raises his eyebrows. Euijoo raises his eyebrows back. Nicholas tips his head to suggest that Euijoo follow him, and starts moving as soon as he sees Euijoo get to his feet.
He takes two seconds deciding between the bathroom and Taki’s bedroom, and ultimately decides that the bathroom will be more sanitary and smell less like weed. He closes the door behind him, not bothering to lock it behind him, leaning against the sink as he waits, tapping his fingers against the counter. He blows out a long breath, cheeks full of air.
If Euijoo got held up again trying to meet up with him, they’re going to have to cut their losses and try again another time. Obviously, some higher power is deeply invested in them not finding the time. (That higher power might just be named Park Sungho, actually. Nicholas has seen Euijoo talking to him, like, five separate times tonight.)
The door opens just as Nicholas is preparing to consider it a bust. Euijoo looks flustered. Windswept, even though he did not have to face the elements to get here. He smiles sheepishly, fumbling as he locks the door behind him.
“Took you long enough,” Nicholas mutters, standing up straight.
“Sorry, I told Taki I’m going to throw up. So we should be left alone for a bit,” Euijoo breathes, and then he’s right there.
His hands find Nicholas’s hips, body pressing flush against him, their noses bumping as he hovers. He’s good at doing that. Caging Nicholas in and making him feel everything at once. Zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye.
Euijoo’s cold fingers slip up under the tight shirt Nicholas is wearing, a shaky exhale hot against Nicholas’s lips. “You look so fucking good tonight, Nico—” he murmurs.
Nicholas wants to say something snide. Maybe, I know. You looked like a fucking pervert staring at me so hard. But then Euijoo is kissing him, and every thought Nicholas has ever had promptly leaves his head.
It’s a little desperate. Hot, in contrast to the pads of Euijoo’s fingers pressing into Nicholas’s bare skin. He’s kissing Nicholas like he’s been planning it out all night. Like the staring was a vessel to master the technicalities of knocking Nicholas into orbit.
The lip of the sink digs into the small of Nicholas’s back, but the pressure Euijoo is putting onto his hipbones with his thumbs makes it worth it. Rubbing small circles against his skin as Nicholas’s shirt slowly creeps up.
Euijoo hums, tipping his head a little, asking permission to be let in. Nicholas knows how this progresses. He knows all of Euijoo’s moves.
He also had a thing to ask. To sort out. A self-imposed goal.
“Hey—” he breathes, breaking away from Euijoo’s lips for a second. Euijoo doesn’t have a problem adapting. He starts kissing down Nicholas’s jaw, teeth nipping skin every few presses of his mouth. Nicholas shivers, one hand twisting into the hair at the back of Euijoo’s head to tether himself. He has a goal. “You know last time—” he manages, hiccuping a little when Euijoo bites his earlobe. “When you left early—”
“Mmn—” Euijoo hums in acknowledgement, voice heavy in Nicholas’s ear. “I’m working on making it up to you.”
“Right,” Nicholas swallows. His eyes shut, chin tipping up as Euijoo latches onto his pulse point. All the blood in Nicholas’s body is rushing south, pooling under his navel. He holds back a whine when Euijoo bites him. He likes kissing way too much to be doing this in Taki’s bathroom. That’s the whole reason they had the no kissing rule in the first place— which is what Nicholas is trying to talk about— “But— you kissed me before you left,” he blurts.
The aftermath manifests in ringing ears, Euijoo pulling away from him, brows knit together, wet mouth twisted into a little frown. He always looks so cute confused. Or angry. Or sad. Or doing anything, really.
Nicholas swallows again, his breath coming like he just ran a race.
“No I didn’t,” Euijoo says.
“You did.”
Euijoo’s eyes skim over Nicholas’s face for a second. His eyebrows pull together, and his frown deepens. Then he straightens out, forcing his face perfectly neutral, eyes void of any hint of feeling like they are when he dissociates himself from a situation. Still, his hands haven’t left Nicholas. A few months ago, he probably would have run if Nicholas brought it up. Now, Euijoo just shrugs. “I must’ve been distracted,” he says easily. Then, “Did it bother you?”
Nicholas blinks. Shakes his head curtly. “No— I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going insane.” He laughs, breathless and awkward.
“Okay.” Euijoo’s smile returns slowly, lopsided and pretty. He licks over his bottom lip, and then dives back in, continuing mouthing across Nicholas’s throat. He doesn’t speak again until Nicholas is back on the edge of a moan, teeth clamped into his lip. It’s quiet, an admission given wet against Nicholas’s neck, “It didn’t bother me, either.”
“Right.” Nicholas nods, nails scraping against Euijoo’s scalp. He’s doing his best not to press his hips forward against Euijoo, his dick already half-hard in his stupidly tight pants. He feels insanely pent up. Euijoo staring at him all night made it so much worse. He’s going to die by Euijoo’s hand, and Euijoo doesn’t seem to give a shit.
Nicholas holds off for all of two minutes before he breaks, hips kicking up. He can feel the heat gathering in Euijoo’s crotch, even through their pants. They’re both on the same page. Great.
“Hold on,” Euijoo mumbles. He lets go of Nicholas’s hips to start toying with his button. Flicking it open and yanking down the zipper. He smiles at Nicholas— one of his blinding, toothy smiles— eyes completely blown out, and then leans in to kiss him once more before dropping to his knees.
“Juju—” Nicholas curls his fingers around the edge of the countertop, knuckles white.
Euijoo looks up innocently, already peeling Nicholas’s pants down his legs enough to get at what he really wants. “Let me make it up to you.”
Words fail Nicholas for a good thirty seconds. He nods dumbly— enthusiastically. Euijoo’s resulting smile sends a dagger straight through Nicholas’s heart. He can practically feel himself bleeding out as Euijoo pulls him out of his underwear, beginning to stroke him to full hardness.
It doesn’t take long. Not with the way Euijoo is looking at him. Smug and knowing. Like he could have guessed that Nicholas would fold for him instantaneously. Like he knows the power he holds, and he derives pleasure from using it.
Euijoo splays his hand against Nicholas’s stomach, fingers underneath Nicholas’s clothes. His palm is warm— putting easy pressure onto Nicholas’s abdomen, just how Nicholas likes it.
“No fair,” Nicholas exhales shakily, hand finding its rightful place in Euijoo’s hair.
“We don’t have that much time,” Euijoo teases.
It’s almost criminal how Euijoo smiles right before taking Nicholas into his mouth. A routine specially designed to send Nicholas to an early grave. He has to clamp his hand over his mouth to muffle the moan he releases, Euijoo taking him straight to the back of his throat without prelude.
“Holy shit Euijoo—”
Euijoo hums around Nicholas, eyes cast up. Always searching for reassurance. He’s a glutton for praise, even though he won’t admit it. He gets his fix by drawing reactions out of Nicholas, any noise he can get, any flinch or shiver.
He wasn’t always good at sucking cock. Nicholas was kind enough to sit still and look pretty until Euijoo gained some much needed experience. Now he’s a professional. Euijoo’s future partners should all be required to give Nicholas yearly Christmas presents to reward his unflinching bravery and the benefits reaped.
Actually, Euijoo is just really good at blowing Nicholas specifically. He knows exactly how to loosen his jaw to fit Nicholas’s shape, and exactly how much pressure to apply to Nicholas’s stomach to get him right up to the edge quickly. He knows that Nicholas likes when he uses the slightest bit of teeth, but only when he’s getting close— and when Euijoo moans around him, taking him as deep as he can. He knows Nicholas likes to see his eyes water.
His mouth is hot and wet, the slide of it beyond lewd. Nicholas’s hand is wound so tightly in Euijoo’s hair, he’s probably going to have a headache after this, but Euijoo doesn’t mind. He likes it. He bobs his head, gagging a little around Nicholas when he goes too deep. (Nicholas likes that, too.)
Euijoo’s fingernails bite into Nicholas’s stomach, probably indenting little crescents there. Nicholas has the fleeting, insane thought that he should get them tattooed to remember this. Euijoo on his knees in the bathroom, sucking him off like it’s the only thing he’s ever wanted to do.
Nicholas can feel his orgasm building in his gut. He bites his lip, trying to breathe, gaze stuck to where Euijoo’s mouth is stretched to accommodate him. Up to Euijoo’s teary eyes. Back down.
“Juju— I’m close—” he warns, voice weak.
Euijoo doesn’t stop. He presses against Nicholas’s stomach a little more firmly, slackens his jaw a tiny bit, and blinks a single tear out of his eye. He has his free hand shoved between his own legs— like he can’t wait. Nicholas isn’t in the position to make fun of him as he’s violently thrown over the edge.
Euijoo grunts when Nicholas cums, doing a bang up job of taking it all. (Another thing Nicholas taught him.) The corner of his mouth is messy when he pulls off. A thick string of spit connects him to Nicholas’s cock for a second. Nicholas might have blacked out at that if he wasn’t so focused on making sure his legs don’t give out.
“Fuck,” he mutters, too busy holding onto the counter to help Euijoo tuck him back into his pants. He’s not certain he has the fine motor skills to use a zipper coming off an orgasm like that.
Euijoo gets up, wiping the corner of his mouth with his thumb. His eyes are wet at the edges. He gets close to Nicholas, and Nicholas almost think he’s going to get kissed, but then Euijoo reaches around him and grabs a tissue off the sink.
“That was fun,” Euijoo says. He doesn’t remove himself from Nicholas’s space, their hips still aligned.
Nicholas’s eyebrows shoot up. “We’re finished? I haven’t done you—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Euijoo cuts him off. Smiles sheepishly. He goes back for a couple more tissues and then reaches to unbutton his jeans. Nicholas can’t do anything useful as he watches Euijoo clean himself up, hand shoved into his boxers. It’s a miracle he didn’t soak through his pants, really. A narrowly avoided disaster.
Nicholas lets out a breathy laugh, head still spinning. “Did you seriously cum from sucking me off?”
Euijoo shrugs, but the blush on his cheeks gives him away. “It was hot. You look really fucking good tonight.” He throws the tissues into the toilet, flushing afterwards. Nicholas seriously worries for Taki’s plumbing sometimes, but he’s seen worse flushed in this bathroom.
When he turns back to Euijoo, Euijoo is closer than he was. He plants his hands on the counter on either side of Nicholas’s hips.
“Is that why you were staring at me all night?” Nicholas whispers, swallowing the spit pooling on his tongue.
“I wasn’t,” Euijoo says seriously.
Nicholas blinks at him. “Euijoo…”
“What?” Euijoo leans in before Nicholas can fix him with a stop fucking around look. Euijoo kisses him. Off-kilter for a second, but quickly all-consuming once they get on track. He tastes like Nicholas. It should be gross. It is kind of gross, but Nicholas likes it anyway. His fingers twist into Euijoo’s shirt, letting himself be pressed backwards, counter digging into his spine again. Euijoo licks into him like he’s about to lose the chance. He hums against Nicholas’s tongue—
Then it’s over. Euijoo steps back, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, and Nicholas is cold every place Euijoo has removed himself from.
Euijoo smiles, crooked and pretty, and says, “We should stagger our exit.”
“Sure.” Nicholas nods. “Go ahead.”
He barely registers Euijoo reaching out to squeeze his hip before he leaves. He hears the door close, and it’s like he’s been chucked off the top of a very tall building. He’s been in freefall, but now he’s hitting the ground.
“Ah, fuck,” he says out loud, just to test the strength of it. He turns around, staring at himself in the mirror to try to gain some semblance of reality. He’s in Taki’s bathroom, and Euijoo just gave him head, and kissed him afterwards, but that’s fine, it’s something they’re both okay with doing now.
His features swim on his face in the mirror. He’s not even drunk. He’s had two drinks over the course of three hours. He’s not even buzzed. He’s just… fucked. Super fucked.
“God damn.”
“Anyone in there?” A voice calls from outside, quickly followed by a rapid pounding on the door. There’s not even enough time for him to answer before the door swings open, revealing a stumbling Harua and a pink-cheeked Jo holding him up. Maki must have passed the torch. (Probably at Harua’s request.)
“Oh, Nicholas! Hi!” Harua bubbles over with laughter. “Are you done in here?”
Nicholas awkwardly shifts out of the way, waving them in. “Yeah. Sorry.”
Harua smacks his shoulder, hand loose. “No worries. Jo just wants to defile me.”
Jo makes a noise of protest in the back of his throat. His lips press into a flat line. “No, I don’t. He’s going to throw up.”
“But then you’ll defile me afterwards,” Harua says, one finger waving in the air. He clutches his stomach a second afterwards. Jo helps him closer to the toilet.
“No, I will not.”
“Nicholas—” Harua tries to pander as Jo gathers his hair off his face, holding it back as best he can, awkwardly bent in half as he stands upright.
Nicholas waves him off. “I cannot stress to you how much this is not my problem.”
Jo gives him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”
“Not my problem,” Nicholas repeats, shooting them a thumbs up before taking his leave.
He’s kind of sick of partying by now. He doesn’t really want to hang around and watch Harua get even drunker after he throws up the contents of his stomach, or watch Yuma try to convince Fuma to let him climb onto the roof like he always does when he has had three and a half drinks. He’s kind of tired.
It takes him a while to find Maki, led by three drunken spirits delivering unhelpful clues.
Yudai, I think I saw him in a hallway. Or was it the kitchen? Yuma, He was not on the roof. I know because I got halfway out before Fuma pulled me back inside. And Fuma, He was not on the roof, I know because Yuma almost managed to get out the window before I caught him.
Where Maki is, as it turns out, is in Taki’s bed, pressing Taki into the mattress as he kisses him in a way that looks unproductive from where Nicholas is standing in the doorway.
“Yo,” Nicholas calls. He has to clap a few times to get their attention.
Maki swings around, cocking his head. Taki sits up, propped up on his elbows, grinning broadly. “Hey! What’s up, Nicholas?”
“Uh, not much,” Nicholas tries not to make a face. Fails. He looks to Maki. “I’m ready to get the hell out of here.”
“Aw. Already?”
“Yes. It’s been, like, three hours. I’m tired.”
“Oh, I got it. You came, so now you’re done partying.” Maki sighs, shaking his head. He swings his leg over Taki’s lap, climbing to his feet. “All good, man. You could have started with that. I know how you get post-nut.”
“Ew, please do not say it like that.”
“Who made you cum?” Taki chimes in. “Was it Sungho? I hear he’s trolling for it lately. He’s like a truffle pig. But for dick and balls.”
Nicholas presses his fingers to his temples. “Maki?” he begs.
“Yeah, I’m all good. Let's go.” Maki hops over the minefield that is Taki’s bedroom floor— everything he owns spread across the carpet. He gives Taki a half-assed salute and blows him a kiss before they go. Taki pretends to catch and eat it. Nicholas doesn’t bother asking.
They dip out of the back door, because it’s closer and faster, taking the creaky, wooden stairs down into the alley two at a time.
“So, uh, how long has that been happening?” Nicholas asks, gesturing vaguely in the direction they came from. “With Taki.”
Maki grins sleazily. “Only when we’re high,” he says, pulling his keys out of his pocket.
“Okay, so always.” Nicholas snatches the keys from him. “You’re not driving if you’re high.”
“No, dude, I’m not high right now,” Maki grabs Nicholas’s wrist with two hands, eyes widening to plead. “That’s just when it has been happening.” He slides back into his cocksure grin easily enough. “We’re breaking new ground tonight. I’m an innovator.”
“Gross.” Nicholas releases his grip, letting the keys fall against the pavement. He watches Maki scramble after them.
He must actually be sober. Huh.
Nicholas yanks on Maki’s car door until he unlocks it. Drops into the passenger seat with a sigh. His phone buzzes in his pocket.
From Juju ♡
Did you leave??
I wanted to hang out.
To Juju ♡
got tired.
maki was ready to go too.
From Juju ♡
Next time.
To Juju ♡
sure
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man spotted looking ravishing while apprehending a thief on the run in Midtown, eventually tackling the criminal and returning the stolen purse to its owner. No injuries reported.
490 retweets • 6.7k likes
↳ @zuhazana
Spider-Man is a feminist!
↳ @agustd
Do you think he’s into dudes?
↳ @rikiontop
@agustd yes
↳ @rikionbottom
@agustd no
↳ @rikiontop
@rikionbottom dude trust me on this one. Spiderman is bisexual as fuck.
↳ @rikionbottom
@agustd ok i changed my answer to yes.
↳ @im_ovation
Spider-Man sucked my dick behind Denny’s
↳ @42psy42
Click Link In Bio For Sexy Spider Females ❤️🔥🍆💦
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
This is what Spider-Man would be like as a boyfriend 😍😍I hope whoever his girl is can fight 💥🥊
[2 photos attached]
1.7k retweets • 15k likes
↳ @xx_wyx_x
you are so embarrassing oh my god
↳ @spider_man02
@xx_wyx_x You don’t think Spider-Man would be a good boyfriend?
↳ @xx_wyx_x
@sider_man02 not really, no. he’s always out fighting crime. when would he have time for me?
↳ @spider_man02
@xx_wyx_x I think Spider-Man would make time for the right person.
↳ @xx_wyx_x
@sider_man02 that’s cool. maki is not the right person.
↳ @spider_man02
@xx_wyx_x You should give Spider-Man a bit more credit… He’s a busy guy…
🕸️
“I’m literally going to fucking block you, dude.” Nicholas tosses his phone onto the kitchen counter, speaker on, tapping his fingers against the surface as he decides what to eat.
He hadn’t realized he’d wasted all day with his mind-numbing combination of working on his thesis proposal and doomscrolling through Twitter. It’s the pits. He’s been surviving off of whatever snacks were within reach of his desk— two sticks of beef jerky and an expired can of Monster.
Maki snorts over the phone. “Okay, that’s not going to stop me from getting hit tweets. It might help, actually, if you’re going to camp in my replies.”
Nicholas groans. “You are so fucking embarassing. You have Spider-Man fan bots in your mentions trying to fight with me.”
“You literally started it,” Maki laughs. He must be playing a video game— Nicholas can hear the clack of his keyboard. “And, who knows, maybe that’s Euijoo’s burner. Spider-underscore-man-o-two. Seems legit.”
“Euijoo doesn’t know how to use his phone. He still uses an IPod. I know because he left it at my house.”
“What’s on it? I bet his music taste is ass.” Maki becomes suddenly interested.
“Of course I have.” Nicholas scoffs. He’s been listening to Euijoo’s IPod all week, actually. He keeps bringing it to school with him. It’s a great mix for walking. “It’s, like, a lot of Talking Heads and Hall and Oates. Some nineties hip hop. Oughts punk rock. Weezer.”
“Hooooooly shit. He’s such an old man. He needs to stop living with Yudai and Fuma, it’s reverse Benjamin Button-ing him.”
“Reverse Benjamin Button is just normal aging, you idiot.” Nicholas stares at his barren cabinets. All he has to eat is a questionable loaf of bread, some honey, and two more expired Monsters. Why didn’t he go to the grocery store yesterday?
“Whatever— okay, listen to this—” Maki says, shaking Nicholas off like he does when he wants to focus on something else. Nicholas swears he has untreated ADHD. It’s dire.
Nicholas slams the cabinets closed. Sighing, grabbing his phone, and dragging himself to his couch, flopping down onto it, resigned to starve. “What?”
Maki clears his throat. “For my next viral tweet I’m cooking up something about Spider-Man’s grabbable waist. He kinda looks insane in his costume, by the way. You get to see him naked all the time, but the rest of us don’t.”
“You basically do!” Nicholas’s voice comes out a little too tight. “His outfit is skin fucking tight! Everyone can see his stupid, tiny waist!”
“Oh my god, dude,” Maki laughs. “You’re totally jealous of everyone thirsting over Spider-Man.”
Nicholas frowns. He makes sure that his voice is level when he replies, “No I’m not.”
“Good, because I’m posting my tweet. There’s going to be a lot more people thirsting over him now.” Maki chuckles in a way that can only be described as scheming. Nicholas can hear him typing again, this time more quickly.
“I hate you,” Nicholas groans.
“No you don’t.”
“I really am going to block you.”
“Hah! No you’re not. You’re way too nosy about how people are talking about Spider-Man online.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Guilty as charged, baby.”
Nicholas rolls his eyes, picking his phone up to hang up, and then laying back down afterwards with a frustrated exhale.
His apartment is rapidly darkening as the sun goes down. He forgot to turn on any lights while he was standing, and now he feels too tired to get up. His mouth is dry when he swallows, staring at the white, popcorn ceiling, arms flat at his sides. God— he’s really fucking hungry. His eyes are starting to swim a little bit.
He’ll probably end up ordering noodles from the place down the street, and coughing up the extra money to get it delivered to his door. He doesn’t think he has the strength to walk anywhere right now. He’s weak, and feeble, and his so-called best friend is posting a thirst trap tweet about his other best friend slash fuckbuddy who is also a superhero—
Nicholas’s life is stupid.
He’s very aware that his life is fucking stupid. He just doesn’t know how to stop it.
If he tells Maki to stop engagement farming over Spider-Man, he’d just say that Nicholas is jealous, which he’s not, he just has ethical standards for how they should treat their friend who also happens to be Spider-Man. Nicholas knows how people talk about Spider-Man. Spider-Man is hot, and cool, and he wears that tight fucking outfit that hugs his curves. Nicholas knows that Euijoo is sexy, and charming, and heroic. It doesn’t bother him that other people know it, because they don’t know the real Euijoo. Mask off, bright smile, round eyes Euijoo. Labored breathing, flushed chest, wet-mouthed Euijoo. That’s just for Nicholas.
Nicholas’s life is stupid.
His stomach growls angrily, tired of being ignored.
“Alright, fine,” he mutters to himself. He might be reaching a delirious state at this point.
As soon as he picks up his phone and clicks open his delivery app, he’s interrupted by an incoming call. He almost denies it on instinct. Maki is the only one who calls him. Maki and his mother. And his mother is definitely asleep by now.
His thumb hovers, blinking at the ID. He picks up.
“Eujioo?”
“Hey, Nico,” Euijoo says breathlessly. Like he’s been running full sprint in a marathon. His cheeks are probably bright red. Nicholas can imagine it. “What are you up to?”
“Uh…” Nicholas blinks again. “Laying on my couch?”
“Cool, cool.” Euijoo pauses for a second. “Can I come over?”
Nicholas makes a conflicted noise in the back of his throat. It’s not that he doesn’t want to see Euijoo— he’s just so tired, and so hungry, and if Euijoo tries to put his dick inside of him right now, Nicholas might actually have a major medical event. Probably not in a good way. “I’m not in the mood today Juju—” Nicholas says, already winding up his apology.
Euijoo doesn’t let him get that far. “No— I mean— I’m never opposed to that— but I just meant to hang out. Like, watch anime and order food.”
“Oh.” Nicholas exhales. His limbs feel heavy. Warmth starts blooming outward from the center of his chest. “Oh. Yeah. That sounds really nice, actually.”
“I thought so,” Euijoo hums. Then, more confidently, “Alright, I’ll be there soon. What are you in the mood for?”
“You choose. My brain is soup.”
Euijoo laughs. It’s the nicest sound Nicholas has heard all day, besides the twenty-two times he listened to Out of Touch on Euijoo’s IPod. But, Euijoo’s laugh is a close twenty-third.
“Alright, see you soon,” Euijoo says. “Drink some water. Have you had any water today?”
Nicholas makes a noise.
“Please drink some water, Nicholas.”
“Okay, mom.”
“Thank you.”
“Mmf.”
The line beeps, Euijoo hanging up first.
Nicholas manages to drag himself to his feet and fill up a glass of water, downing it all in one go. Then another. He fills a third and carries it back to the couch, clicking on a lamp so Euijoo doesn’t think he’s depressed and tired.
The keypad on his door starts beeping a few minutes later. Euijoo bumbles in with a bag of takeout over his arm, frazzled and windswept, as he so often is. His hair is so messy that Nicholas is positive he was just on spider-duty.
“Where did you come from?” he asks anyway, because he thinks it's cute when Euijoo flounders.
Euijoo points at himself, comically surprised, lips dropped in a little o. “Me? Oh— uh— just an odd job,” he laughs. Rubbing the back of his neck as he kicks off his shoes and joins Nicholas on the couch, dropping their food on the table. “Helping one of Fuma’s friends move. It was fine. I’m hungry, though.”
He got Nicholas’s favorite. A Taiwanese restaurant on the other side of the city. There’s no way he could have gotten it here so fast and so hot without superpowers, but Nicholas keeps his mouth shut. Euijoo inconspicuously tears the receipt off the take out bag— but not fast enough that Nicholas can’t read the SPIDER-MAN! written in red sharpie at the top.
Nicholas rolls his eyes fondly. Euijoo is so lucky he doesn’t care about the superhero thing. Instead, he leans in and kisses Euijoo’s cheek before going for the food. “Thank you, Juju, you have no idea how stressed I’ve been.”
A tiny wrinkle appears between Euijoo’s brows, mouth twisting into a soft pout. “School?” he asks, making sure to get Nicholas what he wants before bothering with himself.
“Mm,” Nicholas sighs, shoving a dumpling into his mouth.
Euijoo hops up to get him chopsticks from the kitchen as soon as he notices Nicholas using his hands. Nicholas chews slowly, eyes following Euijoo on his path to and fro. He swallows, smiling in thanks when Euijoo shoves chopsticks into his hand.
“Thesis proposal. I totally forgot to eat anything all day—” Nicholas realizes his mistake as soon as the words leave his mouth. He immediately goes to correct himself— “I mean— I ate beef jerky— so—”
It’s way too late.
“Nico!” Euijoo scolds.
“I’m sorry!”
“You need to take better care of yourself, seriously—” He scowls so severely as he forces more rice into Nicholas’s bowl that Nicholas has to bite back a smile. “You told me you’d be better about this in grad school.”
“I thought I would!”
“Nicholas,” Euijoo says seriously, meeting Nicholas’s eyes.
Nicholas matches his tone. “Euijoo.”
Euijoo breaks first, dropping his eyes and muttering something to himself. He nudges Nicholas’s hand to get him eating again. “I just want to make sure you’re okay,” he breathes.
“I’m fine, Juju. You’re here to take care of me,” Nicholas coos, leaning into Euijoo’s side. Euijoo pretends to be annoyed, but doesn’t push him away.
While Nicholas is inhaling his food, Euijoo finds something to put on TV. A show they were halfway through but haven’t had the chance to watch in months. They’ve been a little preoccupied lately. Every time they hang out, they’re fucking, and when they’re not fucking, they’re with their friends.
Nicholas almost forgot how nice this is. Just spending time together.
Obviously, he very much enjoys the fucking, too, but having Euijoo warm and steady beside him, and fussing over him is the balm he needed today.
They’ve spent so many nights like this. In college. Afterwards. Staying up too late and laughing until they cried. One time, Euijoo made Nicholas laugh so hard he threw up. Nicholas can call upon fragments of every night he’s ever spent with Euijoo, because they’re always the best nights. The ones Nicholas cherishes the most. Euijoo is his person in that way. In many ways— but especially this one.
Euijoo knocks their shoulders together lightly, breaking Nicholas out of his trance. “What are you thinking about? You’re zoning out.” He lifts his hand like he’s going to touch Nicholas— hesitates— and then does it anyway, brushing Nicholas’s bangs away from his eyes with careful fingers. He pauses to wipe a bit of sauce off of Nicholas’s cheek on his way down.
“I just…” Nicholas stops to swallow his bite. “I missed you. I don’t know.” He looks up to meet Euijoo’s eyes, but immediately loses his nerve, glancing back at the TV. “I know I see you all the time— but it’s different— I missed— I don’t know— it’s stupid—”
“No— I get it.” Euijoo’s hand finds Nicholas’s knee. He squeezes. “I missed you, too, Nico.”
Nicholas gives him the biggest smile he can muster in his state, dropping his now empty bowl on the coffee table and settling back into the couch. He waits for Euijoo to put his food down too before he leans over and rests his head on Euijoo’s shoulder.
Euijoo’s arm winds around his waist, hauling him closer. Nicholas lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
His life is stupid.
He’s very aware that his life is fucking stupid. He just doesn’t really want it to change. He’s terrified of it changing.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man looks elysian as he pulls car dangling off South Side bridge to safety. Mother and two children saved with only minor injuries.
458 retweets • 9.9k likes
↳ @chuuo3o
WOW!!!! ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ
↳ @haechanahceah
I could do that if i tried hard enough
↳ @MurataFuma
👍
↳ @0ct0ber19
Was she a milf?
↳ @yawnzzn
@0ct0ber19 every mother is a milf if you’re not weak minded
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
has anyone else noticed that spider-man has an insane body…? his tiny, grabbable waist… orz
[2 photos attached]
1.7k retweets • 15k likes
↳ @kaikamal_
body 🍵
↳ @gnabnahc
Not to be the friend that’s too woke, but I think we should refrain from commenting on Spider-Man’s body. We don’t know his history with trauma.
↳ @kaikamal_
@gnabnahc body 🍵!!!!!
↳ @gnabnahc
@kaikamal_ 👎
↳ @parksungheyho
Trust, I’ve noticed… 😼
↳ @yvesntual
@parksungheyho that makes it sound like you’re fucking spiderman
↳ @parksungheyho
@yvesntual So what if I am?? 😼
🕸️
Nicholas is, in an incredibly predictable turn of events (which he will never admit to), jealous.
It’s stupid, much like everything else. Euijoo isn’t even his to be jealous of. Much less Spider-Man.
Spider-Man belongs to the people of the city. He’s everyone’s to get collectively wet over. Or something. That sounded grosser than he anticipated.
He frowns at his phone, scrolling through the replies on Maki’s latest slew of Spider-Man thirst tweets. It’s obvious that the general public is enamored with Spider-Man. Fine. Of course they are. Spider-Man saves their cars from falling off bridges and shit. He’s a hero.
Nicholas doesn’t even have a good excuse for why he feels his stomach twist up at every inconsequential, stupid comment. Spider-Man would look so hot pregnant, someone replied to Maki. And Maki retweeted it, like a pervert. do u think spiderman is on grindr, another reply, and Maki responded, worth a shot! Nicholas is absolutely green.
Every time he reads a comment about how tiny Euijoo’s waist is, he huffs to himself. Mutters something about how they have no fucking idea. Every time one of Park Sungho’s tweets comes across his screen, he has the urge to chuck his phone out the window.
Sungho has taken to talking about Spider-Man online as if he knows him personally. He does, to be fair, but he doesn’t know that. At least, Nicholas is pretty sure Sungho doesn’t know that. But, there was that one response that said Sungho seems like he’s fucking Spider-Man, and Sungho didn’t negate it— which— whatever. If Euijoo was fucking someone else, he’d tell Nicholas. That doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about fucking Sungho.
It’s possible that Euijoo comes over tonight and says, “We need to stop doing this, I met someone. He knows all my secrets, unlike you, and I’m going to start fucking him instead!”
But, why would Euijoo tell Park Sungho that he’s Spider-Man instead of Nicholas? It doesn’t make sense. Unless Euijoo was romantically interested, and he and Sungho are a lot closer than Nicholas thinks they are.
Christ.
He exits the Twitter app, tossing his phone to the side and groaning into his hands.
Even if Euijoo was his to be jealous of, it wouldn’t amount to anything for Spider-Man. No one can know who Spider-Man is. They certainly can’t know of any civilian boyfriends or girlfriends. But, maybe if Nicholas knew that he was— and he could be confident in it— it wouldn’t feel so vile.
Nicholas presses his tongue into the inside of his cheek. He turns his head to look at the clock on his bedside table. Green digital numbers blink back at him— 04:42— taunting him. Euijoo isn’t coming over until eight thirty. That’s practically a lifetime.
He forces himself to get up, grabbing Euijoo’s IPod from where he’s been hiding it in his drawer and plugging it into his speaker. A couple days ago, Euijoo asked if Nicholas had seen it, and Nicholas lied. He wanted more time to copy all of Euijoo’s songs into a playlist.
Sweeping his hair into a pathetic ponytail, he hits shuffle and cranks up the volume. His apartment was in need of a neuroses-inspired deep clean anyway.
After college, Nicholas asked Euijoo if he wanted to move in together. At the time, it was an off the cuff ask fueled by the crippling fear that Euijoo would forget about him post-graduation. When Euijoo told Nicholas that he’d already signed a lease with Fuma and Yudai— two of his older friends that had moved their relationship from roommates to more than roommates, and now had an extra room— Nicholas was a little annoyed. He didn’t understand why Euijoo would purposefully live with two people with an active sex life rather than him. Now, he gets it.
The Spider-Man thing. Fuma and Yudai clearly know, and have for a long time. They’re clearly helping Euijoo with his superhero gig in some way or another. Probably have been since the very inception of Spider-Man. Nicholas was no competition for that.
Nicholas doesn’t mind living alone now— he got a nice studio with a good location— he’s just bad at keeping up with cleaning. He lets everything sit, and gets distracted by other things he should be doing, and he never has the energy to break out the disinfectant unless he’s spurred on by some emotional outbreak that makes him particularly restless.
Needless to say, he’s been cleaning a lot more regularly since he and Euijoo started fucking.
He starts in the bathroom, bleaching the tub and shower. Scrubs the sink until it’s spotless. Mops what little floor he has in the tiny room. Then he breaks out the vacuum, dancing to Euijoo’s old people music as he circles the apartment. He takes a break before the kitchen, because he hates that the most, but as soon as thoughts of Park Sungho start creeping back into his head, he’s on his feet again.
By the time Euijoo keys in the code and walks through the front door, Nicholas’s apartment is spotless, he’s freshly showered, hair dried, and more than ready to get sweaty again.
Euijoo pauses in the doorway, lifting his hands up a bit as he looks around. “Woah, it’s super clean in here— oof—”
Nicholas doesn’t let him finish his thought, dragging him inside by the front of his shirt and shoving him against the door to close it. He cradles one hand behind Euijoo’s head to brace the landing, and kisses him. Euijoo gets himself up to speed quickly enough, hands landing on Nicholas’s hips, making a surprised noise, shutting his eyes and opening his mouth in the next breath.
It’s clumsy. Euijoo is sufficiently caught of guard, unable to predict where Nicholas is going. Usually, he’s too on guard, always able to meet Nicholas before he gets there. Tonight, Nicholas wants to be in control.
He hikes Euijoo’s shirt up, hands running greedily over the soft expanse of his stomach. Back down the dip of his waist. He spends extra time there, because he’s been thinking about it all goddamn day.
Nicholas sucks on Euijoo’s tongue as he thumbs open the button on his jeans, pads of his fingers running over the soft, thin skin right over the waistband. The dark trail of hair connecting to his navel. Euijoo whines into Nicholas’s mouth, earning himself a bite to the lip, too. He gasps when Nicholas pulls away to tear his shirt off of him. Shivers when his bare back meets the metal of the door.
“What has gotten into you?” he asks, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, eyes shiny and bright. Nicholas can feel his heart beating through his chest, hard and fast.
“I dunno. I’ve just been thinking about this all day,” Nicholas excuses lamely. He cages Euijoo in against the door again, going for his throat.
Euijoo drops his head back with a soft exhale, fingers hooking in Nicholas’s beltloops to pull him closer. “About debauching me?”
Nicholas pulls off of Euijoo’s neck with a slick pop. He’s probably left a hickey or two. Euijoo didn’t tell him not to. A sick sense of pride swells in his chest. He blinks through heavy eyelids, finally meeting Euijoo’s eyes. “About taking care of you.”
Any semblance of indifference Euijoo was attempting to maintain is shattered in an instant. He breaks into a wide smile, eyes going a fraction darker. Nicholas can’t handle looking at him dead on for too long, it’ll make him even crazier than he already is, so he hooks his hand around the nape of Euijoo’s neck and pulls him in again.
They walk without splitting apart, Nicholas leading, Euijoo following. A slow path across the apartment to Nicholas’s bed. Euijoo giggles when he trips over the leg of a chair. Nicholas swats his ass, trying to keep him focused.
Nicholas turns them around so the backs of Euijoo’s knees are against the mattress before he pushes him down. Euijoo goes willingly, flopping back, boneless against the bed. His skin looks soft and pretty under the low light of Nicholas’s lamp, the dip of his waist outlined against the dark sheets. Nicholas bites his own lip as he yanks Euijoo’s jeans down his legs, leaving him in only his boxer-briefs. Nicholas positions himself to climb on top of Euijoo, wiggling his shirt over his head and tossing it carelessly to the side.
“Is this my music?” Euijoo asks, his eyes raking over Nicholas’s chest for a second before he turns to look at the stereo. His eyes go wide. “You do have my IPod!”
“Euijoo. Focus—” Nicholas grits, snapping his fingers in front of Euijoo’s face.
Euijoo looks up at him, schooling his expression. He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, Nicholas’s eyes following the path. “Sorry. Okay. I’m yours,” he says, grabbing Nicholas’s wrist and pulling him down the rest of the way to prove it.
Nicholas’s breath hitches. He knows Euijoo didn’t mean it like that, but maybe— for just a little bit— he can pretend.
He leans down, knuckles against the underside of Euijoo’s chin to direct his mouth up for a kiss he doesn’t give. Euijoo cranes his neck up to try to take one anyway, but Nicholas stays just out of reach.
“Good,” Nicholas says.
Euijoo makes a noise of complaint when Nicholas gets off of him. He moans when Nicholas palms him through his underwear, rolling the heel over his cock to get them started.
“Shit, Nicholas—”
“Can I fuck you?” Nicholas asks, half-breathless for no good reason.
Most of the time, Euijoo does the fucking between the two of them. It’s never a conversation, it’s just the way it pans out. A combination of Euijoo’s control issues and Nicholas being a little too keen on having Euijoo’s fingers inside of him.
But, sometimes, they do it this way, too. Euijoo letting go for a bit to allow Nicholas to handle everything. It’s hard for Euijoo, Nicholas knows that. He knows that Euijoo trusts him enough to give him this.
“Of course. Whatever you want.” Euijoo nods loosely.
Nicholas nods back, because he doesn’t know how else to adequately respond. Bowing with his hands clasped together in prayer may be a better representation of how he feels. Gratitude. But that would be a total mood killer.
“I want,” Nicholas confirms, fingers hooking under Euijoo’s waistband.
Euijoo hisses when Nicholas removes his last article of clothing, dick half-hard, flopping uselessly against his stomach. Wiggling uncomfortably while Nicholas retrieves the lube.
“Why are you wearing so many clothes?” Euijoo asks, knees clamped together.
Nicholas looks down at his sweatpants. “I’m not. I don’t have anything under these.”
“Take them off,” Euijoo demands. Nicholas laughs, but Euijoo puts on a pout. Pleads, “I’m serious, Nico—”
“Fine,” Nicholas gives immediately. He drops the lube on the bed, taking his sweet time untying the string on his sweats. He can see Euijoo writhing in anticipation, his eyes glued intently to Nicholas’s crotch. Pervert.
He shoves the pants down his legs, kicking them off. Euijoo visibly relaxes, edges going soft.
“Better?” Nicholas teases, running a hand over Euijoo’s thigh.
Euijoo nods, parting his legs, inviting Nicholas in. “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, Juju,” Nicholas says, missing the joking tone he was shooting for by a good mile. It comes out painfully earnest.
If Euijoo notices, he doesn’t say anything. He just takes a deep breath and lets it out, fingers curling into the sheets, preparing himself for what’s to come.
He always gets so flushed when Nicholas fingers him. Hand over his mouth to muffle his whines, pink from his chest to the very tips of his ears. Tonight is no different.
Nicholas takes his time. He tries to pry Euijoo’s hand from his face— swears he wants to hear him— but Euijoo holds fast. He’s hot and tight, but as soon as Nicholas eases his first finger in, Euijoo melts underneath him. Pliant and malleable, ready to receive what Nicholas gives him.
“Alright—” he gasps when Nicholas has been working him over three fingers for a while. He grabs Nicholas’s shoulder with a tight grip. “Please, Nico. I’m ready.”
“Impatient,” Nicholas clicks his tongue. He follows directions anyway. He’s only so good at denying Euijoo’s requests.
Euijoo’s thighs tremble when he pushes himself further up the mattress. “Horny,” he corrects.
His cock has been fully hard for a while now, weeping against his stomach. He has such a pretty dick. Nicholas isn’t even being weird— he likes dick in general— but Euijoo’s dick is just nice. It’s long, and soft, and slightly curved. And he always gets so wet when he’s worked up. It’s hot.
“Nico— what are you waiting for?” Euijoo complains, light catching his features in soft shadows, all long limbs and smooth skin, completely bare. He looks so pretty that Nicholas is nearly winded at the picture.
Nicholas swallows, shaking his head. “Sorry. I’ll grab a condom.”
“Eh—” Euijoo winces at the noise that he makes, sitting up to grab Nicholas’s wrist. His eyebrows pull together like he’s conflicted. “Just— skip it.”
Nicholas doesn’t move. He blinks. “Seriously?”
“I mean—” Euijoo winces again. He shifts his grip, hand sliding down until he’s just playing with Nicholas’s fingers. He chews his bottom lip, looking up through his eyelashes. Shrugs. “It’s not like I’m fucking anyone else.” Another shrug. “And I’m clean.”
“Yeah—” Nicholas nods dumbly, not fully processing what’s happening. “Me too. On both counts.”
Euijoo perks up a bit at that. Almost unnoticeable. Nicholas notices. Of course he does.
“I want it, Nico,” Euijoo admits. “I really, really want it.”
Nicholas nearly chokes on his own spit, body and brain finally finding common ground. He closes his hand around Euijoo’s, squeezing it reassuringly. “Yeah— Me too, Juju.”
Euijoo’s smile is blinding. Nicholas has to look away. He busies himself with the lube, making sure he’s adequately slicked up.
When he turns back towards Euijoo, Euijoo has flipped over onto his stomach. Nicholas doesn’t question him. He doesn’t know if he could handle fucking Euijoo raw and face-to-face, anyway. Maybe Euijoo is thinking the same thing. Or, maybe he’s just not looking to get that intimate with the man he’s simply fucking to fuck.
Nicholas exhales, sliding his hand up Euijoo’s spine. Euijoo arches into the touch, sliding up onto his knees, chest to the mattress. Nicholas swears under his breath. “You’re so—” Nicholas cuts himself off.
Euijoo laughs, more of an aborted huff. “So what?”
One of Nicholas’s hands runs over the curve of Euijoo’s ass, thumb dipping into the wetness. He feels drunk, even though they’ve barely gotten anywhere. “Beautiful,” he finishes.
“Nico—” Euijoo breathes when Nicholas lines himself up, head of his cock prodding at Euijoo’s entrance.
“What?”
Euijoo presses himself back, impatient. “Please.”
Nicholas is only so good at denying Euijoo’s requests. He presses in, one hand at Euijoo’s hip, holding him steady.
It’s been a long time since Nicholas has fucked someone raw. He used to do it a lot more, when he was young and stupid. But then Euijoo— and he forgot how it feels to be sucked in like this— body on autopilot— every ridge and curve right up against his skin. He stops when he bottoms out, hand sliding around to Euijoo’s stomach. He lets himself fall over Euijoo’s back just to take a second to breathe. Kisses Euijoo’s shoulderblade. The back of his neck.
“How does it feel?” Nicholas breathes against Euijoo’s ear. He can feel Euijoo’s body reacting. The shiver running down his spine, tightening around Nicholas.
“Good, Nico— you always feel good,” Euijoo replies.
Nicholas swallows back the desperate need for reassurance hanging in the center of his tongue. Tell me no one else makes you feel this way. That I’m the only one. Tell me you’re mine again— just once.
Instead, he exhales. Drops another kiss to Euijoo’s shoulder before he starts fucking into him. Peeling his chest away from Euijoo’s back, hands running down his flank, appreciating the view.
His thrusts are slow and deep, only picking up the pace when Euijoo asks for it. A wet plea of, “Nico— faster—”
Nicholas wraps his hand around Euijoo’s cock, pre-cum making the slide easier, though he knows Euijoo doesn’t mind if it’s a little dry, either. He’s gripping Euijoo’s hip so hard he might be leaving a handprint shaped bruise. Something to remember him by. Maybe he’d feel it under his suit when he’s out fighting crime. Fielding adoration from thousands of people that will never have him like this.
Euijoo is getting close— Nicholas can feel it from the inside out. He tightens his hands, urges him on with soft encouragement.
When he finishes, he’s too wound up to try to stifle himself, a twisted sob falling from his lips, eyes squeezed shut. Nicholas fucks him through it, gritting his teeth at the increased tightness.
“Juju— I can pull out—”
Euijoo’s eyes snap open. He reaches back for Nicholas’s wrist for the nth time tonight— Nicholas wishes he’d develop a bruise there, too. “Don’t,” Euijoo says seriously. “Come on, Nico. I told you I want it. Give it to me.”
Nicholas fails to hold back a pathetic groan, picking back up in sloppy, off-timed thrusts the closer he gets. Euijoo doesn’t let go of him. He holds on, looking at Nicholas over his shoulder, breath catching every time Nicholas nails him particularly deep.
When Nicholas cums, he nearly blacks out, heat rolling through his muscles, jerking forward as he spills into Euijoo, hot and deep.
“Fuck—” he croaks, working through the aftershocks with aborted little movements.
“Fuck—” Euijoo echoes, a little foggier than Nicholas. He sounds drunk. Nicholas can see the haze in his eyes, completely lost to it.
Nicholas pulls out once he’s solidly back in his body. He holds for a second, Euijoo’s ass in his hand, watching himself drip out of Euijoo like a fucking pervert. But then Euijoo starts complaining, so he hurries to grab something to clean them up.
It’ll take more than baby wipes and towels, but Euijoo says he needs to rest before he showers, and Nicholas doesn’t argue. He just shoves a towel under his hips and climbs into bed next to him.
“You really liked that,” he teases softly.
Euijoo has enough energy to roll his eyes, a tiny smile visible on his lips. “Of course I did.”
Nicholas giggles, rolling closer, right up against Euijoo’s side. Euijoo unrolls his arm to wrap around Nicholas’s shoulders, fitting them together. He stamps a kiss to Nicholas’s temple.
“You would look really good pregnant,” Nicholas hums, laying his hand over Euijoo’s stomach. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since he read that tweet hours ago. Euijoo would look good pregnant. If Nicholas were the one to do it to him, he doesn’t know how he’d cope. He’d probably live each day at risk of his dick exploding.
“Shut up,” Euijoo complains, swatting at his hand.
Nicholas laughs, refusing to stop touching him. He slides his hand up to Euijoo’s chest, turning to look at him. He forces his face to something serious. “I’m just being honest, Euijoo. I’m that attracted to you.”
Euijoo groans, breaking eye contact. His cheeks heat up at a rapid rate, visible even in the low lighting. Nicholas laughs louder, slotting a hand under Euijoo’s jaw and pulling him back for a kiss. Something he doesn’t think about until after it’s happening. And then it’s happening. And Euijoo doesn’t pull back, he sighs into it, and shifts so they can get more comfortable.
It’s lazy and slow— Nicholas’s thumb moving mindlessly back and forth over Euijoo’s cheek.
Hah, this is all mine, Nicholas thinks— some primal thought pulled from the very recesses of his hindbrain. He doesn’t have the energy to fight back against the idea with rationality. He figures it’s okay to pretend, just for tonight.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Telegenic Spider-Man stuns with quick thinking, interfering in a live robbery live-streamed by criminals. Spider-Man’s jokes and quick retorts go viral. Minor injuries reported.
938 retweets • 8.9k likes
↳ @onyourm__ark
Dude, am I crazy, or does spiderman kinda look like me?
↳ @johnnyjsuh
@onyourm__ark You’re crazy.
↳ @onyourm__ark
@johnnyjsuh nooooo dude its like a vibe thing
↳ @tenlee_1001
@onyourm__ark it’s definitely not
↳ @onyourm__ark
@tenlee_1001 @johnnyjsuh agree to disagree
↳ @igotyuandme
would.
↳ @katarinabluu
I don’t know if we can consider him “quick” if the livestream went on for thirty minutes before he showed up…
↳ @vernonline
@bumzu91 lmao i swear this is soonyoung
TAKI! | @rikionbottom
spiderman is totally FUCKABLE 👅🍑💦🍆🫦🔥 Like and Repost if you agree! 👉👌‼️
0 retweets • 1 like
↳ @rikiontop
you fucking suck at this bro
↳ @rikionbottom
@rikiontop you liked it tho :/
↳ @rikiontop
@rikionbottom yeah bc you sucked my dick earlier
↳ @spidermanhater04
@rikiontop @rikionbottom can we not do this on main???
↳ @rikiontop
@spidermanhater04 i fingered him too
↳ @spidermanhater04
@rikiontop @harunya @spidermanlover04 @muratafuma if i had to see this you do too
↳ @MurataFuma
@spidermanhater04 @rikiontop @harunya @spidermanlover04 👍
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
Spider-Man is totally prime son-in-law material… imagine taking him home to your parents…
[video attached]
1.7k retweets • 15k likes
↳ @fallingin_fall
Ughhhh he’s so cuteeeee
↳ @lnxexu
im a lesbian and i still want him
↳ @mo_onbyul
@lnxexu lmaoooo same
↳ @im_ovation
Do a flip
↳ @rikionbottom
i dont understand why this performed better than my tweet
🕸️
Nicholas is pretty sure he hasn’t been this sick since he was about fifteen years old.
He remembers it well, because it was the first time he took Benadryl, and it fucked him up so severely that he decided to never take it again, no matter how dire the circumstances.
Somewhere between his peak of one-hundred-and-one degree fever and a heat rash that climbed straight up his chest to his face, he forgot about the Benadryl thing. So, when Yuma shows up with a bag from the drugstore he swears will help and shoves a couple of pills into Nicholas’s mouth, Nicholas doesn’t think anything of it until it’s too late, and he’s in the full on high-out-of-his-mind portion of his Benadryl trip.
“Yuma—” he croaks, throat raw from disuse. He’s sweat through at least three pairs of pajamas. “I need to check SpiderBase.”
“No the fuck you don’t, you imbecile. You need to drink water,” Yuma snorts. He cranks Nicholas’s desk fan towards him, attempting to break his fever. Nicholas wheezes like a vampire being dragged into sunlight.
“I do. You don’t get it,” Nicholas argues. His head is spinning, dark shapes floating across his field of vision.
“You’re right, I don’t get it. Besides, you’ve had your phone all day, you could have checked SpiderBase all morning. You don’t even like Spider-Man that much.” Yuma shoves a bottle of water into Nicholas’s hands, attempting to get him to drink.
“Just go on there and tell me if he’s okay!” Nicholas begs. He’s had this horrible feeling all day, looming over his shoulder like a dark shadow, that he needs to know where Spider-Man is at. It’s probably the Benadryl, but it feels incredibly pertinent in the haze of sickness.
“Why do you care if Spider-Man is okay?”
“I don’t!” Nicholas groans, kicking his feet like a petulant child. He regresses when he’s ill. It’s a character flaw. “It’s Euijoo I care about.”
Yuma blinks slowly at him. “And what would Euijoo have to do with Spider-Man, Nico?”
Nicholas realizes what he’s done a beat too late. He stares up at his ceiling, heart pounding in his ears. Yuma’s laugh feels like knives against his skull. “I don’t know. I must be confused,” he says, squinting at Yuma trying to deduce if he’s said too much.
“Oh… wow. Thank god I came over instead of Jo,” Yuma says, patting Nicholas’s arm.
“What is happening?” Nicholas tries to sit up, but he quickly falls back down again, much too dizzy.
“I was wondering if you knew—” Yuma continues. “I figured, because you’re fucking him… but I wasn’t sure.”
“I’m— how do you know about that?” Nicholas yelps, heart rate picking up. All of his secrets… Yuma knows all of his secrets.
Yuma looks at him like he’s stupid. “Nicholas… everyone knows that you’re fucking.”
“What the hell.” Nicholas fixes his gaze back on the ceiling. He’s going to have to change into new pajamas soon, he’s sweating so much. “Oh my god.”
“But not everyone knows about the Spider-Man thing. Only me, and Fuma and Yudai, obviously—” Yuma waves his hand in Nicholas’s direction. “And you, I guess.”
“And Maki.”
“Wow,” Yuma blows a long breath out of his mouth. “Strange choice, but, okay, and Maki.”
Nicholas reaches out and grabs his hand, pulling it to his chest. “Yuma— don’t tell Euijoo I know. He can’t know I know.”
Yuma scoffs, shaking Nicholas off of his arm. “I’m not gonna tell him, Nico. I’m sorry I gave you Benadryl.”
Eyes squeezed shut, Nicholas lets out a dramatic breath.
“But, for the record, I don’t think he’d mind if you knew. If he knew you knew,” Yuma tacks on. He starts digging around in Nicholas’s dresser for new clothes, tossing shorts and a tank top at him once he finds something to his liking. “He gets all stressed about shit like that. It might be a relief.”
Nicholas shakes his head firmly. “No. I don’t think so.”
Yuma rolls his eyes, turning around to walk towards the kitchen. He calls over his shoulder, “Whatever. Change your clothes. You’re disgusting.”
There’s a stretch of time where Nicholas is in and out of consciousness. Having fever dreams, waking up from fever dreams, Yuma making faces at him to try to get him closer to the hat man, whatever that means.
Nicholas isn’t sure if he’s dead or alive after the sun goes down, and he doesn’t know why Yuma is still here, or how long he’s been here.
And then the door opens while Yuma has Nicholas propped up at the kitchen table like a doll, a cup of Pedialyte in front of him (they’ve been going back and forth about if Nicholas should drink it for a while. Nicholas hates the taste. Yuma says he doesn’t fucking care.)
“Hey, I bought another bottle of lube because I know you’re running out, and I picked up that shitty candy you like, because I’m kind—” Euijoo speaks first, looks up second. The door closes with a sad click, a wheeze of breath leaving Euijoo’s lips. “Oh my god… Yuma… what are you doing here?”
“Why are you replenishing Nicholas’s lube?” Yuma fires back, folding his arms across his chest.
“I— We—” Euijoo stutters, looking between Yuma and Nicholas helplessly, words not quite making it out.
“Okay, I’m tired of this already,” Yuma sighs. “Everyone knows you two are fucking. No one gives a shit. Now that you’re here, I can clock out.” He starts grabbing his things from where they’ve been left. Nicholas feels like a fake person. He doesn’t know how long Benadryl lasts, but he’s ready to be done with it. He glances up at Euijoo, meeting his eyes for the first time.
Euijoo’s shock morphs into a deep frown, forehead creasing as he finally steps into the apartment. “Nico— are you sick? What happened?”
Nicholas opens his mouth to explain, but Yuma beats him to it. “He picked up a bug from one of his classmates, it shouldn’t be contagious anymore, unless you, like, kiss him—” Yuma raises an eyebrow at Euijoo pointedly before continuing. “But, he’s just really out of it. He took Benadryl. Benadryl fucks him up.”
Euijoo nods very seriously, like he’s paying attention.
“And he won’t drink his Pedialyte,” Yuma finishes. “He needs to drink that.”
Nicholas scoffs, finally managing to get a word in, “It tastes like shit! I’m fine, the Benadryl is making me sicker than the sickness is.” He cranks his stiff body towards Euijoo to plead his case. “Yuma fed me Benadryl, Juju. He’s trying to kill me— hey, why are you here, anyway? What day is it?”
Euijoo blanches for a second, but then moves into action. He ignores Nicholas entirely, giving Yuma an awkward laugh as he herds him to the door. “Thanks, Yuma. We’ll manage.”
Yuma sticks his tongue out at Nicholas before getting lost for real. Euijoo closes the door after him and then leans against it like he’s exhausted. He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s Thursday. I always come over on Thursday,” he says evenly.
Thursday.
Nicholas groans, lowering his forehead to rest on the table, breathing shallow. His voice comes out warped from being trapped between his mouth and the table, “I’m so sorry, Juju, I completely forgot. Time has been… wiggly.”
He looks up when the chair next to him moves, Euijoo sitting down next to him. He doesn’t seem as mad as he should be. Nicholas keeps fucking things up today.
“It’s okay,” Euijoo murmurs, reaching out to brush Nicholas’s hair from his eyes. His hair must feel disgusting after how much sweating he’s been doing. Euijoo doesn’t seem to mind. “I wish you’d called sooner. I could have come over earlier.”
Nicholas had thought about calling Euijoo when his sickness got so bad that he couldn’t get out of bed. He had Euijoo’s contact all pulled up, but he hesitated. Thought that Euijoo was probably busy with other things. Like, stopping crime, or whatever. And he didn’t really want Euijoo to see him so completely trashed and gross, even though Euijoo has seen it before. It feels different now, somehow. So, Nicholas skipped over to Yuma’s contact instead. (He considered Maki, too, but he knew Maki would’ve brought a few joints and a can of Baja Blast rather than medication.)
“I didn’t want to bother you,” he says eventually.
“You’re never bothering me, Nico. I want to be there for you,” Euijoo says earnestly. It’s almost painful how earnestly he says it. The stupid, dark shadow over Nicholas’s shoulder starts laughing in his ear. Nicholas is starting to think the hat man isn’t a friendly figure, despite Yuma’s insistence.
“My superhero,” Nicholas jokes. It’s sloppy enough that it can be easily written off as a side-effect of his loopiness. Even so, he doesn’t miss the way Euijoo’s lips twitch.
“Okay, now drink your Pedialyte. You need to stay hydrated.”
Nicholas curls his lip, staring down at the glass Yuma had poured. “I don’t want to.”
“Nico—” Euijoo says, tilting his tone towards a plea. He runs his hand up Nicholas’s bicep, thumb rolling over his shoulder, urging Nicholas to look at him.
A mistake. Nicholas is weak to Euijoo’s stupid, big eyes.
“Please?” Euijoo says with a pretty smile, cocking his head.
Nicholas scowls, grabbing the glass and dragging it towards himself. “You can’t tell Yuma I drank this.”
Euijoo’s smile widens. “I’d never.”
The Pedialyte tastes just as bad as Nicholas expected it to, but it feels more manageable with Euijoo’s hand on his thigh.
🕸️
Nicholas becomes the model patient under Euijoo’s gentle care.
“You’re a lot nicer than Yuma,” Nicholas mutters, as Euijoo helps him into a fresh pair of sweats after a pathetic excuse for a shower. Euijoo got tired of watching Nicholas lean against the wall and complain every few seconds, so he gave up and just climbed in. Washing his hair for him.
“I doubt Yuma is trying to see you naked,” Euijoo says.
“Right. And you are.” Nicholas flops back into his bed (sheets fresh now that Euijoo has changed them). He looks up at Euijoo. “Are you taking advantage of me?”
“Yeah, definitely. It’s super fun to see you naked while youre on the brink of death.” Euijoo pops the lid off of Nicholas’s thermometer, bending closer to hold it to Nicholas’s lips. “Open up.”
Nicholas drops his mouth open, letting Euijoo place the device under his tongue. He hums as it works. He feels more clear-headed now. Still sick, but at least he’s not completely useless.
Euijoo sits on the edge of the bed, in the space next to Nicholas’s hip, fiddling with the waistband of Nicholas’s sweats, even though it’s already straight. He snaps back into action when the thermometer beeps. Pulls it out of Nicholas’s mouth and squints to read it. “Mm. You’re just on the edge of a fever. I’ll give you more Tylenol before you sleep.”
“Juju—” Nicholas blurts before Euijoo can run away from him again.
“What?” Euijoo asks, slotting his fingers between Nicholas’s like it’s second nature.
“Uh. I’m really sorry about earlier. With Yuma. I know you didn’t want anyone to know.”
Euijoo’s nose scrunches up. “It’s alright, Nico. I told you earlier.”
“Right, but I was out of it then—”
“It's fine. I’ll tell you again now. I don’t care who knows about us.”
Nicholas can hear his own breaths in his ears, heat pooling in his cheeks. “Even if they make assumptions?”
“What kind of assumptions?”
“I don’t know—” Nicholas winces. He doesn’t know if he can say it. Assumptions that we’re together for real. It’s too much. Asking too much. “Nevermind.”
Euijoo gives him a funny look. He squeezes Nicholas’s hand. “I don’t care. It’s fine. You can relax.”
“Okay.” Nicholas forces a nod. “Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me.” Euijoo smiles. “Not until after I make you soup, at least. I’m gonna go do that now.”
“Gimme my phone. Yuma took it from me.”
“Wow, he really is mean.” Euijoo follows Nicholas’s point to the top drawer of the dresser. He pulls the phone out of Yuma’s hiding place and brings it back. Leans down like he’s going to kiss Nicholas, but stops himself at the last second and pats Nicholas awkwardly on the shoulder. “There you go,” he says.
Nicholas blinks. “Thanks, Juju.”
“Mhm.” The tops of Euijoo’s ears burn bright red as he retreats into the kitchen.
Nicholas waits until he’s far out of reach before he turns to his side and opens his texts.
To Maki
dude
yuma knows about euijoo
From Maki
that u guys are fucking???
yeah
everyone and their mother knows
hate to break it to you bro
To Maki
?????? what???
ok we’ll come back to that later
no i mean the spiderman thing
i was high on benadryl and spilled
but he already knew
also i think euijoo almost just kissed me???
completely outside of sex
i’m sick as a fucking dog and he almost kissed me
From Maki
you can get high on benadryl?????
should i try that??
To Maki
maki
From Maki
im not surprised yuma knows
he’s smarter than all of us
and jo and harua are like fuckin obsessed w spiderman and they’re always hanging out
and im not surprised euijoo is trying to kiss you either
you guys are basically in love with each other we’re all just waiting for you to catch up
To Maki
…
i hate you
you never react how i want you to
From Maki
sorry
YOOOOOO THATS FUCKIN CRAZYYYYY
is that better?
To Maki
.
“Uh… Nico?” Euijoo calls from the kitchen.
“Huh?” Nicholas breaks his focus from his screen to try to peer into the kitchen.
“I think I burnt all the soup. I’m just going to order something.”
Nicholas sits up. “How do you burn soup that quickly?”
“I don’t know! It just happened.”
To Maki
me and euijoo can’t be in love with each other
neither of us know how to cook
“Also, I’m going to have to buy you a new pot—” Euijoo’s head pops up from behind the counter, an apologetic smile on his face.
Nicholas ignores the stupid, fluttery feeling in his chest. He’ll blame it on the Benadryl.
From Maki
delivery exists for a reason
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
What would have been a mass casualty event narrowly avoided as Spider-Man manages to prevent two trains (one with broken brakes) from colliding during rush hour. One subway car derailed in the process, leaving commuters trapped for hours. Multiple injuries reported, three victims in critical but stable condition.
1.8k retweets • 11k likes
[Replies for this post are turned off]
🕸️
For as much crime-fighting and good-deed-doing Euijoo engages in on a daily basis, he manages to keep himself safe and intact most of the time.
Something like this happens once every other month or so. A bullet that gets a little too close for comfort. A fall with barely enough time to shoot a web. One time, a building crumbling only seconds after Spider-Man made it out.
Every time Euijoo has too close a call— brushing fingers with death— he ends up in Nicholas’s apartment immediately afterwards.
Nicholas thinks it has something to do with the adrenaline. Euijoo trying to work through the comedown the only way he knows how. Placing his energy into something productive and tangible. An escape for how fucked the real world is— a momentary lapse in responsibility.
Of course, Nicholas is always right there with him. Blood pressure through the roof, pacing around his apartment until he’s nearly wearing holes in the carpet, refreshing the news repeatedly until he knows that Euijoo survived. Doing little more than breathe and bite his fingernails until the second Euijoo walks through the door and proves his liveliness.
And then, there’s this— the part that makes Nicholas feel guilty for craving close calls.
There’s something intensely intimate about an Euijoo that has just come close to death. Nicholas has noticed. He's always noticed. It makes him want to chuck a rock at Spider-Man’s head just so he can get the softness in Euijoo’s voice and the extra tenderness in his hands afterwards.
Afterwards, Euijoo calls Nicholas Nichol rather than Nico. He fucks him face to face, and breathes into his mouth as he does it. He stays close, and holds tightly, and it feels so real that Nicholas almost feels like he’s on the brink of death, too.
Nicholas hates himself for loving it. He hates himself for wanting more of this. As long as Euijoo is okay— then Nicholas can have this. He wants more of this, but he understands that it’s unfair. It’s hard to remember why his thumb is bleeding when Euijoo walks into his apartment and crowds Nicholas against the wall. That he was biting his cuticles raw an hour ago, hoping that Euijoo survived. It’s hard to remember that when Euijoo looks at him with such a raw intensity that Nicholas feels stripped bare while fully clothed.
“Nichol—” Euijoo breathes, pushing his hands up Nicholas’s shirt without any preemption. He’s ice cold. Shaking. He skims over Nicholas’s skin like he’s trying to memorize it, or check to make sure he’s still intact. As if Nicholas was the one in danger.
“Hi, Juju—” Nicholas says softly, the last bit of tension seeping out of his shoulders under Euijoo’s touch.
“I—” Euijoo chokes. His eyes are dark, flickering through emotions Nicholas can’t quite place. His breath comes out trembling. “I just— fuck—” he tries again, voice weak.
“It’s okay,” Nicholas whispers, knuckles brushing either side of his neck as his arms find a place over steady shoulders. “You’re okay.”
Euijoo seems to accept that. His throat bobs when he swallows, eyes shinier than usual when he blinks. “Nichol— fuck—” he repeats, just as desperate. “I need you.”
“I’m here, baby.” Nicholas cups a hand at Euijoo’s jaw, thumb running over his cheekbone. “You have me.”
Euijoo’s next breath comes out against Nicholas’s cheek, foreheads pressed together, as he nods.
The first kiss is off center. Finding footing. The second is searing. Euijoo claims Nicholas’s mouth, hands pulling him closer by the small of his back until they’re touching at all possible contact points. Nicholas melts into him. Lets Euijoo take what he needs. Mapping Nicholas out with his hands and his tongue, like he’s never been here before, and he won’t be here again.
He doesn’t bother taking off Nicholas’s clothes until he shifts them towards the bed, and then it’s slow. Deliberate. He lays Nicholas out, mouth hot against every inch of skin he uncovers, eyes cast up as if he’s seeking approval. Nicholas swallows his pride and gives it to him. Whispered reassurances, baby, baby, Euijoo, baby. Something he never allows himself unless he’s in this position.
They forgot to turn on a light, but the curtain is open, casting a pale white beam across the bed from the streetlamp a few paces from the window. Euijoo’s face is shadowed when he stands up, hair in his eyes. Shirtless, boxers low on his hips. He’s breathing heavy, tongue rolling across his bottom lip like he’s savoring whatever is left over of Nicholas there.
There’s a deep bruise forming on Euijoo’s flank. Nicholas can see it now that Euijoo has given him space. Dark red edges and purple turning nearly black at the center. Nicholas sits up without thinking about it, fingers gingerly meeting skin.
“Euijoo—”
“It’s nothing. I can barely feel it,” Euijoo mumbles. He picks up Nicholas’s wrist, lifting it off his body.
Nicholas frowns at the back of Euijoo’s head as he goes to grab the lube. “I just want you to be careful with yourself.”
“I am. It was an accident.”
The unspoken hangs in the air. Nicholas could tear apart the farce right now. Admit that he knows. That he wants to help Euijoo be careful, even when he’s Spider-Man. But, it’s not right. Not now.
Euijoo returns, placing a hand to the center of Nicholas’s chest to urge him back down onto the bed. “Don’t worry about me. I have a strong immune system.”
“I always worry about you,” Nicholas admits, parting his legs for Euijoo. Euijoo drops down, pressing a kiss to the inside of his knee.
“I know.” Another kiss higher up. “I’m sorry.” Another.
Nicholas lets his breathing even, going slack against the mattress. Euijoo knows what he’s doing. He presses into Nicholas slowly and patiently. Gauges his reaction and leaves marks up his thighs as he works. Two fingers. Three. He takes his time. Brings Nicholas right up to the edge before letting him simmer again. Nicholas’s heart stutters in his chest when Euijoo pulls out. He swallows the spit pooling in his mouth, watching Euijoo kick off his underwear.
He reaches for a condom. Nicholas thought they were past that, but he appreciates the thought.
“You can go without—” he blurts, a little too loudly. He forces his voice level, “Just— maybe don’t finish inside—”
In a perfect world, Nicholas would love the feeling. But he doesn’t. He’s strict with himself. He only lets people who love him cum inside of him. A self preservation method.
Euijoo bites his lip. “If you’re sure—”
“I’m sure, Juju— come on—” he urges Euijoo closer.
The bed shifts under his weight, clumsily moving in a tangle of limbs as Euijoo decides what he wants. He pauses for a second, sitting between Nicholas’s legs, looking at him. Nicholas feels his eyes burning across skin. He wants to hole in on himself. Ignore the implications— but he lets himself burn.
“Nichol— you—” Euijoo finishes with a broken laugh. Like he can’t possibly go on.
“What?” Nicholas reaches up to touch his cheek. Coaxing. Begging.
“You’re just—” Euijoo shakes his head. Squeezes his eyes shut. He’s not looking at Nicholas when he says, “You’re perfect.” He only looks right after. Big, round eyes wet at the edges, all his usual walls torn down. If Nicholas reached for his heart, he’d be able to pluck it from between his ribs with little resistance.
It’s then, when Euijoo leans down to kiss him, that Nicholas chokes on the feeling he’s been desperately trying to avoid for the better part of the last decade. Since he met Euijoo in that coffee shop on campus, and everything went awry.
I love you, he wants to say. An uncomfortable feeling buried in the center of his chest. I’m in love with you.
He takes the care to wrap it up. Pushed back to be dealt with later. He recognizes that now is not the time. That it would be disastrous. Euijoo has a bruise on his side, and he’s brushed fingers with death, and he wants Nicholas just like this. Nothing more complicated than what they’ve got.
Euijoo pulls back from a gentle kiss. He adjusts. Hooks Nicholas’s legs over his shoulders and fucks into him like that. Face to face, folding Nicholas in half to get close enough to kiss him again.
It’s wholly overwhelming. Nicholas’s favorite way to be fucked. Euijoo’s hands find his, lacing their fingers together, pinned to the mattress on either side of Nicholas’s head.
He hits Nicholas deep like this. Hard and fast, breathing into his mouth. Nicholas holds him so tight he’s afraid he’ll break Euijoo’s hands, orgasm building hotter than before, spurred on by the head start Euijoo got with his fingers.
Euijoo knows that it’s not easy for Nicholas to finish untouched. That he has to be propped up in a very specific way— brought close to the edge, and then down— fucked like it means something. He must have planned ahead. Set Nicholas up for success before Nicholas knew what he was doing.
They’re holding hands when Nicholas cums. Euijoo is looking in his eyes, and breathing out his name like a prayer. “Nicholas— there you are— let go, Nichol—”
Nicholas feels like he’s floating. His hamstrings burn. His throat feels raw, stomach cramping. He cums hard enough to make a mess of himself, spurting across his abdomen, up to his sternum, cock twitching helplessly.
His brain feels fuzzy when Euijoo pulls out, eases himself up, dropping one of Nicholas’s hands so he can jerk himself off. It only takes a couple of strokes. He still doesn’t break eye contact, finishing over Nicholas’s stomach.
What a mess, Nicholas thinks, on more than one count. Euijoo kisses him, longer and deeper than before. He tastes like he’s been crying, even though Nicholas didn’t see it happen.
What a fucking mess.
The comedown takes time. Nicholas nearly falls asleep waiting for Euijoo to clean him up, their cum going tacky on his abdomen. Euijoo wipes him down with a wet washcloth that he ends up sacrificing to the garbage bin at Nicholas’s insistence.
They don’t talk. They lay in bed together. Euijoo holds Nicholas, and Nicholas lets himself be held.
Euijoo’s stomach growls just before midnight, so Nicholas forces him to get up. They put on Nicholas’s clothes, and drop into the diner around the corner because it’s open late.
Under the table, Euijoo hooks his foot around Nicholas’s ankle. He chews slowly, and smiles sleepily. He mentions Park Sungho enough times that Nicholas’s hackles start to raise. Nicholas didn’t know they were that close.
Eventually, Euijoo seems to notice. He shuts up. Keeps eating. Drags his toe up Nicholas’s calf like it’s normal.
They hold hands on their way back to Nicholas’s apartment like it’s normal. Brush their teeth at the sink shoulder to shoulder like it’s normal. Curl around one another in bed like it’s normal.
Nicholas falls asleep faster than he has in weeks, the weight in his chest lulling him into a false sense of security.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man charms saving cat from tree and helping elderly walking group cross busy intersection. No injuries or casualties, just a whole lot of smiles.
834 retweets • 15.1k likes
↳ @dlstmxkakwldrl
lmao is he on a press tour after the train derailment???
↳ @spidermanlover04
@dlstmxkakwldrl Spider-Man doesn’t live to please you.
↳ @dlstmxkakwldrl
@spidermanlover04 i wish he did.
↳ @noodle.zip
I LOVE OLD PEOPLE!
↳ @for_everyoung10
Does anyone know of any Spider-Man fansites I can follow?
↳ @feat.dino
@for_everyoung10 @SpiderBase is good
↳ @for_everyoung10
@feat.dino ?????
↳ @hiyeahhh_
spiderman <3 pussy
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
This 97 year old NYC diner still serves their Coke the old fashioned way.
[video attached]
20.2k retweets • 45.9k likes
↳ @harunya
The clout has gone to your head
↳ @imfinalho_
i want to go to there
↳ @jutdwae
epic (check my link in bio)
↳ @wooyounggg__
this isn’t even about spiderman? i followed you for spiderman? where are the posts about spiderman?
↳ @MurataFuma
Are you even getting paid for this?
↳ @rikiontop
@MurataFuma no
🕸️
Euijoo is good at a lot of things. Math. Running away from his problems. Sex. Nicholas could go on. Subtlety, however, is not one of the things Euijoo excels at.
Nicholas is being ignored. Euijoo is ignoring Nicholas.
When Nicholas woke up the morning after the train incident, Euijoo was gone, and he hadn’t left a note. Since then, Spider-Man has been incredibly active, and Euijoo has ignored every single one of Nicholas’s texts. He doesn’t even have the decency to open them and leave him on read. He just lets them sit unread. Piling up.
So, Nicholas is surprised when his door opens on Thursday, Euijoo stomping inside like nothing is wrong. He stares at where Nicholas is elbow deep in a pot of ramen. He made four packs, because he was trying to drown his sorrows about the ignoring thing.
“It’s Thursday,” Euijoo says lamely, kicking off his shoes.
Nicholas finishes slurping up the noodles hanging out of his mouth. Swallows. “Uh, yeah, I kind of thought you weren’t coming.”
“Why would you think that?” Euijoo asks.
He drives Nicholas crazy.
The audacity alone is enough to make him fume. The indifference Euijoo brings with it is something else entirely. He has half a mind to get up and chew Euijoo out. Yelling, screaming, crying— the whole nine. Why did you treat me like you love me and then pretend nothing happened? He’d ask. Are you scared of me, or yourself?
Euijoo would take it, probably. Put up his walls and leave. Nicholas would come crawling back a couple days from now, tail between his legs, asking if they can go back to what they were. Because anything is better than nothing at all.
That’s what Nicholas considered doing when Euijoo walked into his apartment like nothing changed.
“Fuck, Nico— chill—” Euijoo grunts, pushing his hand into Nicholas’s bangs to keep them out of his eyes as Nicholas fumbles with the fly of his jeans.
His knees hurt, because he dropped onto the tiled floor of the kitchen too harshly when he shoved Euijoo against the counter. He just needs to feel like he has some control. He needs to feel like Euijoo wants him after pretending he doesn’t all week. He knows it’s dangerous, and unhealthy, and stupid— but Nicholas is only so good at pretending he wouldn’t bear all of it, and then some, for Euijoo.
He finally manages to get Euijoo’s button undone. Yanks down his zipper. He presses in, mouthing at his dick through his boxers, looking up to watch Euijoo swallow. Watch his eyes get heavy, hand curling into Nicholas’s hair.
“Don’t push yourself,” Euijoo breathes, but his lips are parted, and he’s on the edge of giving himself up completely. Nicholas can tell. He knows Euijoo too well.
He reaches for Euijoo’s waistband, dipping his fingers under cotton. Euijoo groans. His phone buzzes in his pocket.
Nicholas pulls back. Blinks.
He doesn’t know what he expects. Euijoo to pull his phone out and silence it, maybe. It’s not the clear violent buzz of the Spider-Man hotline— this is just normal text.
He doesn’t expect Euijoo to take his phone out, read whatever’s on the screen, and then put on an apologetic smile, releasing his grip on Nicholas’s hair.
Nicholas falls back onto his haunches. His breath feels tight for no good reason. He watches Euijoo type out a response with one hand, the other doing his pants back up.
“I’m sorry, I really have to go—” he says absentmindedly. Another text comes in. Another. Euijoo smiles, not looking away from his screen.
“Who is it?” Nicholas asks bluntly.
“Oh, uh—” Euijoo hesitates. “It’s Sungho. I need to go meet up with him for something.”
Nicholas is sore. He’s tender, right between his ribs, and aching like a bruise freshly repressed.
Euijoo has been weird since they fucked last. Distant, and off. And now he’s going to leave to see someone else— and there’s nothing Nicholas can say that will change any of this. Because this isn’t anything. It’s nothing. They’re just best friends.
Still, Nicholas is having a hard time not feeling used. He knows if he told Euijoo, Euijoo would look at him with this deep sort of pity, and keep on. He’d go to meet Sungho anyway.
So, what does it matter, then? If Nicholas self-destructs in the process? He figures he’ll be lying mangled on the floor at the end of this either way. He’d like to go down with a fight.
He pushes himself up off the kitchen tile, maintaining his last shred of dignity for at least a moment. Euijoo is still doing up his pants. He’s half-hard, but he’s leaving.
“This is the first time you’ve talked to me in a week, and now you’re leaving again,” Nicholas says.
“Nico, I’m sorry—” His phone buzzes again. “Sungho—” he starts reading as he talks.
Nicholas can feel the prick of tears behind his eyes. “Right. I know who Sungho is. He needs you. Go ahead.” He waves Euijoo towards the door.
Euijoo makes a conflicted noise in the back of his throat. His brows knit together, looking at Nicholas directly for the first time in what feels like hours. “Are you seriously mad?”
Yes, Nicholas’s brain screams. Yes, yes, yes. His teeth sink into his bottom lip, arms folding across his chest. “I guess I’m just confused because he kind of came out of nowhere.”
“What?” Euijoo laughs, sharp and bitter. “I don’t need to ask your permission to hang out with people, Nicholas.”
Nicholas rolls his eyes, bile creeping up his throat. “That’s obviously not what I meant.”
“What did you mean, then?”
“I—” Nicholas turns, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes. He feels like throwing up.
“What, Nico?” Euijoo’s words are too sharp. “Just say it.”
“Are you sleeping with him?” Nicholas blurts, spinning on his heel. “Are you fucking him, too?”
Euijoo has the audacity to look shocked. “Excuse me?”
“It’s obvious he wants that— It seemed like you did too—” Nicholas moves to start cleaning up his food from where it’s gone cold sitting on the table. He didn’t even kiss Euijoo. Maybe if he kissed Euijoo—
“What is wrong with you?” Euijoo grabs his shoulder, trying to keep him still.
Nicholas shifts out of his reach. “You’re not denying it.” He carries his pot to the sink, jacking the water up as hot as it goes. He can hear Euijoo trailing after him, footsteps heavy.
“What the fuck, Nicholas? Can you look at me?”
“It’s a simple question, Euijoo.” Nicholas turns, teeth clenched. “It’s fine if you are.”
Euijoo’s face twists like he’s in pain. “Jesus, no, Nico—” His shoulders relax marginally. “I’m not sleeping with him. If I slept with him, you would know. I’m not that much of an asshole.”
Nicholas bites his tongue. “You want to sleep with him. Just admit it.”
“It’s none of your business what I want, Nicholas.” Euijoo’s jaw sets. “You don’t get to control what I do.”
“Yeah. I’m well aware.” Nicholas forces a smile. He plucks a towel off the counter, wiping his hands free of imaginary grime. He sniffs. “It’s fine. I was thinking about sleeping with other people, too.”
A lie. An obvious, blatant lie. Nicholas isn’t good at subtlety where Euijoo is concerned. But, Euijoo has never been as good at reading Nicholas as Nicholas has been at reading him.
“Oh,” Euijoo says. The stillness is painful.
Nicholas shrugs, refusing to meet Euijoo’s eyes.
“Okay.” Euijoo clears his throat. Nicholas can feel the loss of his body heat when he steps back. “Well, it was always casual, wasn’t it?”
A lump forms in Nicholas’s throat, hard and painful. “That’s what we agreed.”
“Okay,” Euijoo says again. He pauses for a second, like he might say something more. Something worthwhile. He exhales. “I’m going to go.”
Nicholas nods. “Okay.”
“I might be busy next week. Not sure.”
Another nod. “Okay.”
“Bye, Nico.”
“See you.”
Nicholas stares into the sink. He waits until he hears the click of the door before letting himself cry. A single tear falls into his cold ramen, splashing against the surface. When he goes to turn the water off, he burns his hand under the spray.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man stuns in selfie with influencer after extracting two men from car wreck downtown.
284 retweets • 4.3k likes
↳ @agustd
is that jackson wang???
↳ @tbzuyeon
I bet spider man is a wife guy
↳ @hyojong_1994
@tbzuyeon doubt
↳ @min9yu_k
Spider Man Looks Sad… I Hope He’s Okay…
↳ @rikiontop
@min9yu_k i don’t
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
i wont be posting about spiderman for the time being. i decided i have beef with him. fuck that guy.
34 retweets • 65 likes
↳ @spidermanhater04
Yeah, fuck that guy!
↳ @spider_man02
???????? What did Spider-Man do???
↳ @rikiontop
@spider_man02 pmo
↳ @spider_man02
@rikiontop I do not know what that means.
↳ @rikiontop
@spider_man02 dw about it
🕸️
Nicholas didn’t want to go out.
He’s been shut up in his apartment rotting for over a week, and considering getting into cigarettes, just because it feels like that’s where he’s at in his life, and he finally drank the two other expired Monsters in his cabinet.
The coping is going well, he thinks. He’s getting over it. Really.
For example, when Euijoo texted him earlier and said, We should probably talk, Nicholas didn’t panic. Instead, he decided that he needed to get drunk expeditiously, and opened his messages with Maki to tell him that actually he would like to go to the Jackson Wang party tonight. A party that is a huge deal, according to Maki.
I’m bringing you instead of Taki because I know you need this, but this is a huge deal, Nico, we’re his actual words.
“How did we get invited to this thing, again?” Nicholas asks under his breath, Yuma and Maki flanking him to make sure he doesn’t try to escape before they get inside.
Jackson Wang is like— kind of famous. His house is huge, sitting on the outskirts of the city, and he’s known for throwing crazy parties. Parties that are hard to get invited to.
“Oh, I’m SpiderBase,” Yuma says casually. They’re halfway up Jackson Wang’s lawn. The house is thumping with bass, lights flashing in the windows.
Maki laughs. “Funny, Yuma.”
A few girls wearing next to nothing flit past them, one of them bumping into Yuma’s shoulder and giving him a flirty wave.
What the fuck is happening?
Yuma rolls his eyes like he’s put out. “I’m being serious. I started a couple years ago because I was bored.” He shrugs casually. “I was going to turn on him eventually— for the bit— but then I found out he is Euijoo, so I felt too guilty.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket, clicking open twitter. It’s logged into his spidermanhater04 account, but he easily switches to SpiderBase.
“Holy shit.” Maki takes the phone from him, acting like he can’t see.
“What the fuck is happening?” Nicholas whines. “Why did I agree to come with you guys?”
“Because you want to get drunk and kiss a boy that’s not Euijoo,” Maki says helpfully. He’s rapidly typing something into Yuma’s twitter, but Yuma snatches the phone back before he can hit post.
“Please don’t post I’m gay on SpiderBase,” Yuma scoffs.
“Oh, shit. Sorry, it was kind of redundant given the fact that you run a fucking Spider-Man update account, huh?”
Yuma glares. “I’m the reason you’re here, Maki. Don’t make me regret adding your sorry ass to the list.”
“I’m SpiderBase’s plus one, this is the best day of my life,” Maki gushes, all faux enthusiasm. “And Nico is the plus two! What luck!”
Yuma ignores him, continuing his trek towards the house.
“Do either of you have a cigarette? I’m thinking about getting into that,” Nicholas asks, slogging a few paces behind them.
Maki turns and hooks their arms together. “No. Bad Nico. No cigarettes. Only boys.”
Nicholas groans. “I don’t even want a boy, you’re putting that on me. I want to get drunk.”
“I just think it will help!”
“And I just think you’re kind of a slut.”
“Woah!” Maki grins, beyond delighted. “Thank you. I wear that badge with honor.”
Nicholas tries to explode Maki with his mind as they climb up the steps to the porch. Just before they reach the door, a clearly inebriated pair tumble out, one of them wide-eyed and excitedly saying, “Dude, apparently Jackson invited Spider-Man—”
Well. That feels like an omen. Nicholas spins around, ready to make a break for it.
“No!” Maki catches him by his arm and hauls him back towards the door. “Absolutely not. You’re here to have fun.”
“I’m not going to have fun if everyone is sucking off Spider-Man! That’s exactly what I was doing when I ruined my own life!”
“We need to know less about each other,” Yuma mumbles. “Please— be normal— let’s go get fucked up.”
Nicholas is aware his life is stupid.
Jackson Wang cannot be a serious person, Nicholas decides, standing at the back of a packed living room, watching the motherfucker climb on top of the DJ booth shoved into the front of the room, sunglasses on (despite the lack of overhead lighting), chanting something about Spider-Man. He might just be saying Spider-Man is my friend, over and over, actually. The sound quality is abysmal.
“Wow, Jackson Wang is a Spider-head. Who knew?” Yuma raises his eyebrows, shoving a cup of jungle juice into Nicholas’s hand.
“You knew!” Nicholas blurts. “You know everything about Spider-Man! We’re here because of your stupid Twitter account!”
Yuma glances around like he’s going to get caught. “Keep your fucking voice down, asshole!”
Nicholas rolls his eyes, hiding his scowl behind his cup as he knocks back his drink. He gags at the taste. It must be ninety percent vodka. Jackson Wang cannot be a serious person.
“Eugh,” Nicholas huffs, leaning against the wall behind him. He looks around, alcohol slowly working down through his extremities. Maki is right next to him, chatting with a girl who definitely doesn’t know he basically has a boyfriend at home. Yuma seems to feel too bad to leave Nicholas alone, bouncing lightly to Jackson Wang’s shitty DJ set. What a killer vibe. Nicholas loves it here.
Not one person at this party is sober. Some girls Nicholas is pretty sure he’s seen on a reality TV show are passing the biggest blunt in the world back and forth, there’s a few guys trying to play twister in the corner, and right at the edge of the dancing crowd is Yudai— Fuma hanging over his shoulder, whispering into his ear— and Park Sungho loitering nearby, looking around like he’s waiting for someone to come back.
“Why the fuck are they here?!” Nicholas hisses, fingers curling into Yuma’s sleeve. “Are they SpiderBase, too?!”
Yuma shakes him off. Snorts. “No. Yudai doesn’t even have Twitter. Only Facebook.” He switches Nicholas’s empty cup for a new, full one. “But, he does know Jackson Wang from prehistoric times, I think. They’re both reanimated fossils— should we go ask?” Yuma acts like he’s going to move, eyebrows raised.
“No!” Nicholas yanks him back. “Holy shit— If Fuma, Yudai, and Sungho are here, Euijoo must be here too—”
“Oh no,” Yuma monotones. He doesn’t sound very upset. “Would that really be so bad?”
“Yes! I’m avoiding him, if you haven’t noticed!” Nicholas polishes off his second drink. He coughs rather than gags this time. That has to be a good sign.
“I have noticed. Spider-Man has a horrible sadness about him the past few days—” Yuma gestures to his face, frowning animatedly. “It’s kind of pathetic. He’s lucky I didn’t report on him throwing bottles off a roof in Midtown and screaming in frustration yesterday.” He looks at Nicholas pointedly. “He was really doing that, you know. It’s sad. I think he misses you.”
“Can you shut up—”
“Did you say Euijoo is here?” Maki spins around, smarmy grin on his face. He switches his cup for Nicholas’s. “Maybe you can kiss and make up with him instead of a new boy. Huh. Funny how that works.”
Nicholas stares down at the drink in his hand, lips parted in betrayal. “Did you set me up?”
“I did very little setting up, it was more of a begging Yuma to bring us instead of Rua and Jo sort of thing.”
“You kept talking about me kissing other boys!”
“Yeah, but everyone knows you and Euijoo are endgame— I was trying to gentle parent you in the right direction!”
Nicholas looks at Yuma to gauge his reaction to Maki’s betrayal. Yuma just shrugs. “Everyone knows you’ve only wanted to kiss Euijoo for years.”
“I fucking hate you both,” Nicholas mutters.
He pushes off the wall, ignoring Maki and Yuma’s overlapping calls of complaint, swallows half of his newest drink, gagging and coughing, and drops the cup on the first table he sees.
You and Euijoo are endgame. Nicholas laughs, ignoring some wayward looks strangers give him.
Maybe he should kiss a different boy, just to prove he can. Maybe he should kiss another boy in front of Euijoo to really get the message across. Maybe Euijoo will be too busy kissing Sungho to see. Maybe Nicholas won’t be able to find anyone to kiss, anyway, because he’s giving off the vibe of a sad, wet cat right now.
He finds himself in a long hallway, the liquor hitting him all at once. Someone bumps into his shoulder, and he stumbles, running into a wall. He’s a lightweight, but it usually doesn’t happen so quickly. Jackson Wang’s jungle juice— who would have thought?
There has to be a bathroom around here. He just needs a second to breathe. To stare at himself in a mirror and convince himself that he’s a real person and not a ghostly entity.
Every door is locked. Does Jackson Wang have keys to all these doors?
This house is a maze. A maze for rich people. It’s kind of like the Clue game board, actually. He just walked through a billiards room and a foyer. He’s pretty sure his phone is vibrating in his pocket, but he doesn’t check to see. It’ll just be Maki and Yuma, anyway. Fuck them.
Nicholas is definitely lost. There are people everywhere. He doesn’t know how long he’s been wandering around, but the walls are kind of starting to spin. He’s really fucking drunk off of Jackson Wang’s jungle juice. Ostentatiously so.
He turns a corner, spit out in the hallway he started in. What the fuck?
His mouth feels too wet. He rubs his eyes, thumbs pressing into his temples. When he looks up, he suddenly feels very alert. Euijoo is standing at the other end of the hall, looking straight at him.
Everything goes fuzzy for a second. Muted. Nicholas watches Euijoo open his mouth to say something, pushing through the crowd to try to get to Nicholas. Nicholas blinks, legs moving faster than his head. He ducks through a door. Then another. He doesn’t quit moving until the music doesn’t feel so loud— on the far end of an obscenely luxurious kitchen.
He stops in front of the fridge, shutting his eyes and dropping his forehead against cold metal.
Really, it’s just like Euijoo to ask Nicholas to talk, and then show up to a party with fucking Park Sungho when Nicholas doesn’t respond. And, sure, Nicholas is here too, but Euijoo didn’t know that. He came on his own. With his new boyfriend. Not that Nicholas was ever his boyfriend, but— still. It’s the concept of the thing. They were close to it, weren’t they?
“Make out with refrigerators often?”
Nicholas jerks back with a gasp. There’s a man leaning against the counter next to him, smile pulling at one side of his mouth, one leg crossed in front of the other. He’s strikingly handsome. All dark eyes and charm. Like an old-timey movie star. Nothing like Euijoo.
“Who are you?” Nicholas manages, swallowing the spit pooling on his tongue.
“Myung Jaehyun. Just some guy, really,” the man says, sticking out his hand.
“Wang Nicholas.” Nicholas shakes. Jaehyun’s grip is warm and strong. They hold onto each other for a beat too long, Jaehyun giggling when he drops Nicholas’s hand. He bites his lip, eyes openly dragging down Nicholas’s body. Nicholas doesn’t hate it. He doesn’t know how to feel. He hasn’t been desired so openly in a long time. Publicly. The kissing thing doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
“Any relation to Jackson?” Jaehyun raises one eyebrow.
“God, no,” Nicholas snorts. “My friends dragged me here because I’ve been having a bad week.” His tongue gets too loose when he’s drunk. It’s a curse.
“A bad week?” Jaehyun cocks his head. He looks like a puppy, almost. He’s nothing like Euijoo.
“I’m in love with my best friend. We were fucking. It didn’t end well.”
Jaehyun winces. “Oof.”
“I’m sorry that I told you that.” Nicholas feels kind of sick.
“No. It’s okay. You have to get over him somehow, right?” Jaehyun stands up, taking half a step closer.
Nicholas nods. He and Jaehyun are the same height. He doesn’t have to look up to meet his eye. They’re on the same level.
Jaehyun is definitely not Spider-Man, either, which is a major plus. He’s just a guy. Nicholas likes that. His heart rabbits in his chest like he’s doing something wrong. Euijoo made it very clear that Nicholas is not tied down. He’s not doing anything wrong by talking to other people. There’s no harm here. He can’t cheat on someone that isn’t his boyfriend.
“Do you like to dance?” Jaehyun asks, voice low. He’s close enough to touch now.
Nicholas’s brain is moving a little too slowly to process what’s happening. What Jaehyun is asking. He’s ostentatiously fucked up on two and a half cups of Jackson Wang’s jungle juice. “I am ostentatiously fucked up on two and a half cups of Jackson Wang’s jungle juice.”
Jaehyun laughs. He breaks the wall between them, setting one hand on Nicholas’s waist. “Me too. Do you like to dance?”
“What the hell,” Nicholas exhales, glancing down at Jaehyun’s hand. It feels nice to be touched by someone that wants more. No matter how temporary. “Sure.”
Jaehyun’s smile is overwhelming. He has a great smile. Nicholas loves men with great smiles. Euijoo has a great smile. Jaehyun’s smile isn’t even touching Euijoo’s— but— it’ll do.
He lets Jaehyun take his hand and lead him away. He doesn’t know where they’re going. He never even managed to find a bathroom. The bass slowly heightens the further they move into the house, thumping straight through Nicholas’s bones.
They end up in the living room. Jackson Wang has abandoned post as DJ, leaving a lanky, tall man in his place (also wearing sunglasses inside, by the way). Jaehyun directs Nicholas to the center of the room, pulling him close by his waist. Nicholas lets his arms fold over Jaehyun’s shoulders, melting into him. Jaehyun smiles prettily, sliding his hands into Nicholas’s back pockets.
It’s nice. If Nicholas had finished that third cup of jungle juice it might be great. Jaehyun’s cologne smells good, and his lips brush over Nicholas’s jaw. They’re able to match each other easily, both of them have enough rhythm to make it work.
Nicholas sighs when Jaehyun kisses his neck. He tilts his head to give him more room to explore.
The room is hazy, smoke lingering in the air. It’s dark. There’s no reason for his eyes to be drawn to the far end of the room besides some sort of intuition. Magnetized to Euijoo’s presence. A third sense.
Euijoo stares directly at Nicholas, face completely blank. Nicholas’s hand twists into Jaehyun’s hair, holding him closer. Euijoo’s mouth twitches. His eyebrows turn downward with a flex of his forehead. The red solo cup in his hand bends in his grip.
Nicholas should look away. He can’t be haunted by Euijoo’s presence forever. He has another man giving him attention. Another man being open about his affections. Jaehyun could be good for him. He could be nice, and sweet, and everything Nicholas needs.
He’s just not what Nicholas wants.
Euijoo breaks eye contact first. He turns his head. If Nicholas were brave, maybe he’d go to him. Ask Euijoo to take him home. Ask Euijoo to stay until he sobered up, and force them to work it out. The thing is, he and Euijoo have terrible timing, and Nicholas has never been particularly brave where Euijoo is concerned.
Nicholas waits a second too long. He watches as Sungho takes Euijoo’s hand. As Sungho captures Euijoo’s attention— Euijoo nodding at him— not bothering to look towards Nicholas again before he’s drawn away, disappearing through a doorway. Nicholas is sure they’re going to hook up. Euijoo loves hooking up at parties. Sneakily tucked into a closet, running off the adrenaline of getting caught. Nicholas used to love that about him. He still would, if he were on the other end of it.
“Are you okay?” Jaehyun shouts into his ear.
A sour taste settles on the back of Nicholas’s tongue. “Not really,” he replies, already tearing himself out of Jaehyun’s arms.
He retraces his steps towards where he remembers seeing a door to the outside. He thinks he hears Euijoo’s voice on his way, but his ears are ringing too loudly to be certain.
The cold night air stings his cheeks when he makes it onto the porch. A porch. He doesn’t know how many porches this house has, but he’s on one of them. A couple sitting on a swing make way for him, scurrying off as he stumbles closer, probably aware of what’s about to happen.
Nicholas pitches himself over the railing of the porch, emptying his stomach into the bushes.
It lasts longer than he’d like to admit. When he’s finished, a few tears roll down his cheeks, head throbbing. He sinks down to his knees, hiccup caught in his throat, another pathetic cry falling from his lips.
“Jesus, Nico—” Nicholas doesn’t bother to look up. He already knows exactly the expression Euijoo is making, and he doesn’t want to face it head on.
He feels Euijoo’s hands on his back, moving down to his sides to try to help him up.
Nicholas shrugs him off, forcing his arms over the railing, instead. “I don’t need help, Euijoo.” It takes him way too long to get to his feet, muscles weak from vomiting. Euijoo steadies him with a hand on his waist when he’s up. Nicholas takes a deep breath, wooden railing digging into his fingers.
“Nicol—” Euijoo tries.
“Don’t call me that,” Nicholas snaps, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m mad at you.” He knocks into Euijoo, taking a few steps to make it to the porch swing, dropping onto the seat. His head rolls back against the chair, trying to quell some of his dizziness.
Euijoo looks sad. Mouth curved down, wrinkle between his brows, jaw set. His eyes are big, and shiny, as they usually are. He looks like he pities Nicholas. Nicholas gets it.
“Shouldn’t you be getting your dick sucked in some closet right now?” Nicholas asks, bitterness practically pouring out of his ears. It tastes bad in his mouth. “I’m sure Sungho is missing you.”
“Jesus Christ, Nico. I told you, I’m not fucking Sungho!” Euijoo explodes. He never raises his voice. He’s never raised his voice at Nicholas before. “I’m not interested in Sungho!”
“I just don’t know why you wouldn’t be,” Nicholas mutters. His stomach turns weakly, nothing more to give.
Euijoo throws his hands up helplessly, praying to a god that doesn’t exist, maybe. “Because I’m seeing you, you asshole! Because I only want to see you! You’re all I think about— there hasn’t been anyone else since you! I haven’t wanted anyone else!” When he’s finished, he’s flushed and unlaced, a bit of a mess. A lot of a mess.
“How was I supposed to know that, Euijoo?” Nicholas laughs sadly. He can’t help it. It’s so hard to pry and honest feeling out of Byun Euijoo. They both have to be at their worst to get there.
“You weren’t,” Euijoo exhales, fight visibly draining out of his body. “I’m selfish.”
Nicholas has a hard time looking away from him. The pale light of the moon streaked across Euijoo’s cheek. Captivating, even at his worst. Nicholas sniffs. “It’s not like I was cheating on you tonight. I didn’t even kiss him.”
“I never said you were,” Euijoo murmurs.
“You were looking at me like I was cheating on you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Euijoo lets out a huff, running his hand through his hair like he does when he’s nervous. “You’re impossible.”
“I’m just…” Nicholas chokes on nothing. His mouth tastes like shit, heart crawling up his throat. “Hurt,” he finishes quietly.
“Yeah,” Euijoo replies. He moves slowly, like he’s trying to decide if it’s okay. Rolling forward on the balls of his feet until he’s forced to take a step. Then another. He sits down next to Nicholas on the swing, chair rocking a bit until he plants his feet on the porch. His elbows meet his thighs, dropping his head into his hands.
Nicholas traces the line of his neck with his eyes. His jaw. Euijoo has always looked much softer on the outside than he is in. He’s an enigma. A frustrating, beautiful enigma.
“I really tried to get over you, y’know,” Nicholas admits, throat burning. “I really didn’t want anything to change between us, so I tried to get over it. For years, Juju. But, I don’t know…”
Euijoo lifts his head, frown settling onto his face. “Nico—”
“I don’t know what to do. I’m selfish, too,” Nicholas blinks away the wetness in his eyes. “I just wish you’d be more honest with me, you know?”
No recognition passes over Euijoo’s face. “About what?”
“Everything. How you feel. What you are. How we can figure this out—”
“I’ve always been honest with you.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Euijoo presses his lips together.
“You’re too hard on yourself, and it’s making everything bad for both of us. You’re emotionally stunted, and stubborn, and I’m just as bad, but at least I’m not afraid to want more than one thing—”
“Spit it out, Nicholas,” Euijoo turns his palms to the sky. “Whatever you’re dancing around. Just say it.”
“It’s okay that you want to be Spider-Man, Juju. I get that you feel responsibility, and burden— I just wish you’d let yourself want more than that. Especially with me. Especially when we both know that we’ve been fucking around with something that’s worth more than casual to both of us.”
Euijoo sits up, back straight, face completely void of emotion. He folds his hands in his lap, breath a beat quicker than it was a moment ago. His voice is deep and calm when he says, “You know.” Not a question.
A strangled noise worms out of Nicholas’s throat. His head feels like it’s full of TV static, nothing clear enough. He knows it’s too late. Euijoo is already shutting down. But, Nicholas’s tongue is always loose when he’s drunk, “Of course I know, Euijoo. I’m practically fucking in love with you.”
“How long have you known?” Euijoo asks tonelessly. No reaction to the rest of it.
“I don’t know— does it matter?”
Euijoo stands up abruptly. He shoves his hands into his pockets. The shadows on his face look darker now. Sharper. “It matters to me.”
Nicholas wants to throw something at him. Knock him over and force pry his chest open, forcing him to fucking feel something for once. But he’s too drunk, and too sad, and he just feels a little bare. “Eight months, maybe.”
“Eight months,” Euijoo repeats.
“Yes.”
“You’ve known, and didn’t tell me for eight months?”
“I knew you’d freak out.”
Euijoo swears under his breath. He fidgets restlessly. Fingers crooked, hand running through his already messy hair. Swears again. He doesn't get angry, or sad, because he’s already shut down. Just as Nicholas expected him to. He looks at Nicholas just once, a brief glance. “I’m going to go. I’ll find Maki and let him know where you are. I just— need some space, I think.”
“Yeah. No big deal,” Nicholas says. His heart feels like it’s expanding in his chest, on the verge of total collapse. He’s not often cruel. Only when he feels cornered. Trapped with nowhere to run. He’s always felt boxed in with Euijoo— but he’s never wanted out. He wanted it to be them at the end of the line. Now he feels trapped. “I’m always the one waiting around for you to catch up, anyway. It’s fine.”
Euijoo’s face twists up like he’s in pain. He opens his mouth. Shuts it. “Goodnight, Nicholas.”
Maki finds Nicholas slumped over on the porch swing a little while later, staring into the distance, arms hugged around his chest, cheek pressed to wood.
“Fuck, Nico—” Maki breathes.
“My life is so fucking stupid, Maki.”
“Yeah, I know.” Maki gathers Nicholas up in his arms. “Let’s go home.”
"Aren't you supposed to make me feel better?”
“That’s what I was trying to do. I was giving you reassurance that your life is fucking stupid.”
Nicholas groans, letting Maki haul him to his feet. “Thank you. I think.”
“You’re welcome, man. I’m sorry I tried to get you to kiss Euijoo.”
“It’s all good. I would have fucked it up anyway if you didn’t.”
Maki frowns, but he doesn’t argue. He probably knows Nicholas is right.
🕸️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man is Zephyral as he evacuates civilians from city bus that he prevented from driving off riverbank after driver had a medical emergency. Minor injuries reported. Driver is alert and well in the hospital.
1.7k retweets • 34k likes
↳ @woozi_universefactory
skill issue on the driver’s part
↳ @_imyour_joy
I was on that bus!! Totally scary, but Spider-Man is handsome in person!
↳ @bumkeyk
@_imyour_joy doesn’t he wear a mask?
↳@_imyour_joy
@bumkeyk Yeah but sometimes you can just tell.
↳ @jacksonwang852g7
I know him!
↳ @taeoxo_nct
Lame and gay. And I am the purveyor of all things lame and gay.
↳ @chungha.art
@taeoxo_nct you think saving lives is ‘lame and gay’?
↳ @taeoxo_nct
@chungha.art yah kind of
↳ @lafilledhiver_
Thank you SPIDER MAN!
jojo | @spidermanlover04
Spider-Man’s heart isn’t in it lately, I hope he’s okay…
2 retweets • 5 likes
↳ @spidermanhater04
he got broken up with he’s just being pathetic
↳ @harunya
@spidermanhater04 can you stop writing fanfiction about spider-man without a happy ending?
↳ @spidermanhater04
@harunya who said it has an unhappy ending? maybe he’ll get his shit together and make up with his dumb, gay boyfriend.
↳ @harunya
@spidermanhater04 😠
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
should i start reporting on nico like he’s a superhero?
0 retweets • 3 likes
↳ @rikionbottom
yes pls
↳ @rikiontop
@rikionbottom nicholas wang shuts door in friend’s face when friend comes to see how he’s coping. friend breaks in using door code only to get egg thrown at his head.
↳ @rikionbottom
@rikiontop hahahahahahahahha do another one
↳ @rikiontop
@rikionbottom nicholas wang refuses to smoke weed with friend and friend’s boyfriend even though it will help him relax. says it makes him too paranoid despite being paranoid every day anyway.
↳ @rikionbottom
@rikiontop wait you have a boyfriend??
↳ @rikiontop
@rikionbottom yeah. its you, dumbass
↳ @rikionbottom
@rikiontop ohhhhhhhhh hahahahahahahahaha
↳ @rikionbottom
@rikiontop 👨❤️💋👨
↳ @xx_wyx_x
@rikiontop why is nicholas wang never “stun”-ing
↳ @rikiontop
@xx_wyx_x nicholas wang hasn’t taken a shower in three days.
↳ @xx_wyx_x
@rikiontop fuck you i took two showers today
↳ @rikiontop
@xx_wyx_x doesn’t look like it
🕸️
Nicholas is coping fine, whether Maki believes him or not. (And Maki definitely doesn’t believe him, because he’s been camping in Nicholas’s apartment as if Nicholas is on suicide watch for the last three days.)
But, Nicholas is fine. He’s been finishing his thesis proposal. Pacing back and forth and biting his nails to the quick. Waiting for Euijoo to get over himself and call. Hell, he’d even take another we should talk message. Either or.
“There’s not going to be a call or text, Nico,” Maki said to him earlier, speaking softly like he was coddling a child.
Nicholas disagrees. He knows Euijoo. He thinks they made a fracture in the nearly impenetrable wall between them when Euijoo admitted that he doesn’t want anyone else.
Sure, it was a small fracture, but a fracture, nonetheless. Both of them are hurt. It’s not the best starting position, but they’ve had worse than Nicholas telling Euijoo he loves him, Euijoo ignoring him, and then Nicholas insulting him.
Okay, maybe they haven’t had worse. But, there was no crack in the wall between them before. Now there’s a crack.
“You’re stressing me out, dude,” Maki complains from Nicholas’s bed, taking a long rip from his pen. He coughs a little as he exhales. “Why don’t you just call him?”
“You know that’s not how it works with Euijoo! It has to be his idea!”
Maki groans, rolling his eyes back into his head. “I think you should take an hour long Spider-break. No cell phone. No computer. Just vibes.”
“Am I ten?”
“You’re acting like it.” He holds out his hand, making grabby fingers. “Gimme.”
Nicholas chucks it at him overhand, just because he wants to watch Maki panic. He’s rewarded with a surprised shout, Maki’s hands coming up to block his head.
“Yo! Violence is not the answer!”
“You’re making it the answer.”
Maki sticks out his tongue like a child. Nicholas returns the favor.
It probably will be good to stop thinking about it for a little bit. Nicholas walks into the kitchen, tapping his fingers restlessly on the counter.
He spent most of the morning scrolling through Twitter user spider_man02’s account. He’s, like, pretty sure it is Euijoo’s burner account after all, but he didn’t tell Maki that, because he knows he’d sound fucking insane.
Nicholas is trying not to spiral into a total pit of despair about whatever is going on, but it’s proving a little useless. He knows Euijoo too well to not be a little concerned. To know that if he made his move one second too quickly, Euijoo’s flight could be permanent. There’s always a sliver of a chance that Nicholas got his timing wrong, and ruined everything forever. That he and Euijoo will never be the same.
As pathetic as it is, Nicholas would go back to whatever they were when they weren’t admitting it rather than nothing at all. If all he can have of Euijoo is part— if he’s meant to just be Spider-Man’s fuckbuddy— he thinks he could deal with that. Sure, it would slowly kill him, but he’s going to die anyway.
His life is stupid.
He should probably see a therapist, or something.
If Euijoo says he didn’t mean any of it, and that they should go back to being casual, Nicholas will get a therapist. He swears.
The taste of iron stings his tongue. He’s been chewing on the inside of his cheek too harshly. He forces himself to unclench his jaw.
He can do this. He can survive his Spider-break. He’s strong, and brave, and he doesn’t care about Spider-Man.
“Um…” Maki says, pen hanging out of one side of his mouth, smoke leaking out of the other.
Nicholas scowls. “What?”
Maki winces. He’s typing rapidly into his phone. He glances up for only a second, brow set and serious. He kicks Nicholas’s phone to the edge of the bed without looking up from his screen. “Dude, you need to check SpiderBase.”
“Are you fucking serious right now, Maki? I just came to terms with giving up on Spider-Man.”
“Yes—” Maki’s pen falls onto his chest when he sits up, still typing, his mouth pressed into a thin line. “I’m, like, really sorry for the conversation that took place ten minutes ago, but I’m dead fucking serious right now.”
Nicholas’s heart picks up. He doesn’t like the way Maki is talking to him. He takes the few steps it takes to get to his bed, grabbing his phone and opening Twitter.
The tweet populates at the top of the screen— engagement numbers through the roof. Breaking news.
Nicholas’s eyes skim the screen— Spider-Man falls off highrise, using last second before fall to web a little girl to safety. No civilians harmed, Spider-Man seriously injured. Replies for this post are turned off.
“Holy shit. Holy shit. Oh my god.” A lethal mix of adrenaline and anxiety sinks deep into Nicholas’s chest, tremor settling into his hands. He has to remind himself to breathe. “What the fuck? What should I do?”
“Don’t freak—” Maki pushes himself up onto his knees. “It happened a couple hours ago, Yuma delayed posting until he knew he was okay— uh—” he’s reading off his phone, probably from Yuma’s texts. “Yuma talked to Fuma— Euijoo is at home, and he’s in a lot of pain, but he’s still, like, intact— his legs are fucked up— they took him to the hospital, but since he has Spider-healing his body is mostly taking care of it—”
“And Yuma didn’t think to tell us right away?” Nicholas breaks into an anxious laugh. He looks around, trying to determine if he needs anything to get across the city.
“He was trying to get in touch with Yudai and Fuma—”
“I need to go see him,” Nicholas interrupts. He’ll deal with Yuma later. He grabs his wallet. His train pass is on his phone. It’ll do. “I’m going to go see him.”
“Okay, yeah,” Maki nods dumbly. “Do you want me to come with?”
“No. Uh. I think I’m going to freak out.” Nicholas pats his pockets.
“Dude, I told you not to freak out—”
“He could have died, Maki!”
“But he didn’t!”
“This is why you can’t come with me.” Nicholas grabs a sweater off his chair, shoving it over his head. It’s Euijoo’s, actually. He’s been hoarding it for months because it’s his favorite. “Please don’t burn anything down while I’m gone. Spider-Man is not available to save you.”
“Good luck! Tell him you love him!” Maki calls after Nicholas as he shoves his shoes on, already opening the door.
It’s not too far to get to Euijoo’s place on public transit, but Nicholas never goes to Euijoo’s place. Euijoo is weird about it. Probably because of the Spider-Man thing. They always meet at Nicholas’s.
The train comes too slowly. Nicholas bounces on his feet, scrolling through news, trying to find any evidence of Euijoo’s wellbeing. He doesn’t really know if Yuma is exaggerating Euijoo’s health to make them feel better. He doesn’t think Yuma would, but there’s no way to be sure, given the current state of affairs between Euijoo and Nicholas.
Nicholas doesn’t know what the procedure is for the whole my-best-friend-slash-fuckbuddy-slash-spider-man almost died doing superhero stuff, but we’re currently on the outs because I confessed my love to him and that I know he’s Spider-Man, even though he didn’t want anyone to know. He tried to Google it with Reddit tacked onto the end and he got no results. Figures.
Once he’s off the train, he speed-walks the few blocks to Euijoo’s apartment. Lets himself in through the janky door in the back that only the residents know about, climbing the stairs up to the fifth floor two at a time.
He only manages to knock once before Yudai opens the door, flustered and disheveled. He has a streak of blood on his face, eyes wide and crazed. He grabs Nicholas by the arm and hauls him inside. “Oh my god— Took you long enough. Jesus Christ. He keeps trying to jump out of the fucking window.”
“What?” Nicholas yelps, tripping as he shakes his feet out of his shoes. “Is that Euijoo’s blood?”
“Huh?” Yudai looks at him blankly before understanding. He wipes his cheek with the back of his hand. “Oh, yeah. He’s not bleeding anymore. He cut himself trying to climb out the fucking window.”
“What?” Nicholas repeats. “Did he hit his head when he fell?”
“No, he’s just fucking stupid.” Yudai turns on one socked foot and starts stomping into the apartment, Nicholas chasing behind him. At the end of the hallway, he pushes through Euijoo’s bedroom door without knocking, throwing his hands up. “Okay! Look at this, Euijoo! Nicholas is here, you can stop trying to kill yourself now!”
“Yudai—” Nicholas hears Fuma scold.
Yudai rolls his eyes, waving Nicholas in.
It’s a lot. Fuma is holding Euijoo around the waist, both of his legs wrapped in complicated braces, as Euijoo attempts to claw his way across the bed to his window, a determined look stuck on his face.
Fuma meets Nicholas’s eye, giving him a little smile. “He’s super high on pain meds. He really wants to be Spider-Man right now.”
“Juju— what the fuck?” Nicholas blurts. He’s pretty sure he forgot to breathe for a few minutes, blood thundering in his ears.
His voice seems to catch Euijoo’s attention. He goes limp in Fuma’s arms, engaging his stomach to lift his head up. “Nichol— you can’t be here—”
Nicholas frowns, swallowing down the sting in his throat.
“Okay,” Yudai says unhelpfully. He pats Nicholas on the back. “We’ll leave you two alone.” He gives Fuma a pointed look. Fuma releases Euijoo and stands up, straightening out his shirt. “Just… yell if he gets close to the window. We put a baby lock on it, but he has surprisingly good hand-eye coordination on morphine.”
Nicholas makes a strangled noise, but he isn’t able to argue. Fuma squeezes his shoulder once before he and Yudai file out of the room, door clicking shut behind them.
“What are you doing here?” Euijoo asks, voice soft and slurred. All the fight seems to have drained out of him, laying splayed out in his bed, legs straight. “You’re mad at me.”
He looks so sad. He has dirt on his face. His hair is a mess. His legs are completely out of commission. He probably broke them both when he fell. They’re set, and his super-healing is obviously working— but it must hurt.
Nicholas makes another pained noise as he crosses the room. Euijoo reaches for him as soon as he’s close enough. Nicholas chokes on a sob he didn’t know he was holding back, taking his hand and sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed. “Holy fuck, Juju—” he manages, a couple tears escaping his eyes.
“I don’t know what happened,” Euijoo says. His hand is so cold. He’s not really holding Nicholas back, muscles too weak. His eyes are hazy, pupils dilated. “I should get back out there and fix it.” He moves like he’s going to try to make a break for it again, but Nicholas stops him with a firm hand at his hip.
“Juju, no— you need to take a rest. You’re hurt. You don’t need to hurt yourself any more.”
Euijoo groans, throwing his head back against his pillow. He pouts like a petulant child. “Why?” he whines.
Nicholas barks out a wet laugh. “Because I say so! You really scared me, Euijoo. You could have died.”
“But, I didn’t.” Euijoo’s mouth crooks up on one side into a smug smile, eyelids heavy from the drugs.
“Juju—” Nicholas squeezes his hand. “Please be good.”
Euijoo’s smile falls into a tiny pout. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
He nods.
Nicholas reaches out and brushes Euijoo’s hair off his forehead. He sticks his thumb into his mouth, holding Euijoo’s chin steady with the curl of his fingers as he wipes his cheek clean of grime. Euijoo lets him, eyes trained quietly on Nicholas’s face.
“I’m Spider-Man,” Euijoo says seriously. “I wanted to tell you that I’m Spider-Man.”
A surprised laugh bubbles out of Nicholas’s chest. “I know you are, Euijoo.”
“I wanted to tell you for so long. So many things— but I can’t remember—”
“It’s okay. Take a rest. You can tell me whatever you want when you’re not so fucked up. I’ll stay as long as you want.”
“Where is Jaehyun?”
Nicholas squints at him, wracking his brain for any hint of recognition. “What?”
Euijoo’s scowl is absolutely sour. Mouth twisted up and nose scrunched. “Myung Jaehyun,” he spits the syllables like they taste bad.
“Oh—” Nicholas understands, foggy memory returning to him. “That random guy from the party?”
“He’s not a random guy. He’s friends with Sungho.”
“Wow, how ironic,” Nicholas snorts. He runs a hand up Euijoo’s flank, trying to provide some sort of comfort. “You’re really going to act jealous now?”
“‘M not jealous—”
“I don’t even know him, Juju. I was just upset, and he was nice to me. I liked that he wasn’t afraid to want me like that.”
Euijoo visibly deflates. He’s pouting again— all round and cute. “I missed you, Nichol,” he says. “I’m sorry I’m stupid.”
“You’re going to have to tell me that when you’re not high out of your mind.”
“Eung—” Euijoo complains. Then he goes very still, eyes fluttering shut. He snaps them open quickly. “I’m so fucking high, Nico. My body feels crazy.”
Nicholas laughs, the last of his anxiety finally settling down.
He’s fine, and Euijoo is fine, and they’re going to be fine. He pulls his feet up onto the bed, lowering himself carefully into the space between Euijoo and the edge of the mattress. Euijoo turns his head, following Nicholas down. Nicholas lays their joined hands over Euijoo’s stomach.
“We have a lot of shit to figure out,” he murmurs.
“I know,” Euijoo frowns. He looks so cute right now, all soft and sleepy. “I’m sorry, Nico. I fucked everything up.”
“Hush,” Nicholas huddles closer, pressing his face into the crook of Euijoo’s neck. He’s warm there. Alive. Thank god he’s alive. Nicholas would have brought him back to life and killed him again if he had died. “We have such bad timing that some higher power intervened to force us to figure it out.”
“You think god shoved me off that roof?” Euijoo gasps in mock offense.
“Maybe.”
“Rude,” Euijoo hums, breathing shallowing out. “I should really go patrol, though,” he mutters, already half asleep. “What if someone steals a purse. Or a car?”
“Juju. Go to sleep.”
Euijoo makes a frustrated noise, but exhales, long and deep. His breathing evens out a few seconds later. Nicholas lets himself relax, folding his arm tight around Euijoo’s waist, determined to not let this go.
🕸️
When Nicholas wakes up, Euijoo is staring at him.
Nicholas startles, sitting up drowsily, wiping drool off his chin and folding his knees up under him. His legs press into Euijoo’s side, unwilling to part from his warmth just yet.
“You’re wearing my sweater. I thought I lost that, like, four months ago,” Euijoo says. No, good morning, or, I’m so sorry for being an asshole, and also scaring you by almost dying. No, I’m in love with you, too, by the way. None of that.
Nicholas folds his arms across his stomach, shrugging. He’s still blinking sleep from his eyes. He can feel the warmth of Euijoo’s hand on his lower back, steady and firm.
“You still have my IPod, too,” Euijoo adds.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nicholas grumbles.
Euijoo laughs, wincing when his leg shifts a bit.
“Be careful,” Nicholas tsks, moving to help him settle. “Did you take more meds?”
“Not yet. I was waiting for you to wake up.”
“Euijoo! You really should have them until you’re mostly healed, even if you are a superhero—”
“I wanted to talk to you!” Euijoo argues.
Nicholas shuts his mouth. He tips his nose up stubbornly. “Well. You could have called me before you fell off a fucking building— but, whatever—”
Euijoo’s lips twitch upwards into the suggestion of a fond smile. He lets his hand drag over Nicholas’s hip, down to his thigh. “Nico— did you mean it? What you said at the party?”
“Um…” Nicholas scratches his neck. “Well—” he runs through his memories of the party. His conversation with Euijoo.
I’m practically fucking in love with you. I just wish you’d be more honest with me. I’m always the one waiting around for you to catch up, anyway.
“Yeah.” Nicholas nods shortly. “Yeah, I pretty much meant all of that.”
“Pretty much?”
“Well, you know—” Nicholas looks away. “I’m not practically in love with you, I’m just in love with you— but besides that—”
“Nicholas, I’m sorry,” Euijoo says seriously. His eyebrows draw together, creating a wrinkle on his forehead that Nicholas wants to smooth out with his thumb.
“For..?” Nicholas chokes on a laugh. “Is this where you let me down easy?”
“No— god, no—” Euijoo shakes his head quickly. “I’m sorry I didn’t react appropriately— I’m not good at these things—”
“Yeah, no shit.”
“And I’m sorry for, like, dragging you along just because I didn’t know what I wanted— even though I knew what you wanted— it wasn’t fair. I’m an asshole.”
“Right…” Nicholas’s throat is sore, dread forming a lump in his trachea. It sure sounds like he’s being let down easy right now.
“Fuck— no— this isn’t coming out right—” Euijoo drags a hand down his face. “My legs hurt really fucking bad, if you can beleive it, and I’m just so bad at this sort of thing—” His eyes flit over Nicholas’s face, desperately searching for something. “It’s always been you, Nico. You were right. I’m selfish, and stupid, and I knew you’d always be there when I got over myself, so I took advantage of it— but it’s always been you— it’ll always be you—”
“Spit it out, Juju,” Nicholas begs, head spinning. “Whatever you’re dancing around.”
“I love you too,” Euijoo blurts, voice a little too loud. It surprises them both. He takes a deep breath before continuing at a normal volume, “I’m in love with you. I want you, and no one else, but I didn’t think I could have you and Spider-Man at the same time— because I’m stupid— and I’d been keeping it from you for so long that it made me irrational, and dumb— and I fucking hate doing this.” He waves his hands in a circle, visibly cringing. “I hate being vulnerable, and sharing my feelings, and seeming weak— even if it’s to you— because I’m a coward, and I’m maladjusted, or emotionally stunted, or whatever you said— but you’re my most important thing— and fuck— my legs hurt so fucking bad—”
“Juju, lets get you your next dose— I’ll go get Yudai—”
“No! Please, let me finish—” Euijoo begs, grip strong on Nicholas’s leg. “I’m not above webbing you to the bed.”
Nicholas sighs, settling back in. “I mean— that could be fun in the future…”
“Shut up,” Euijoo complains. “Yeah, it would— but— quit distracting me—”
“Sorry.” Nicholas feels a swarm of butterflies in his stomach, cheeks aching with the urge to smile.
Euijoo takes a deep breath before continuing. “I’m never going to be perfect, and I’m going to keep fucking up, but I want to get better. Because you deserve better,” he says. He squeezes Nicholas’s leg. “And, god damn it, Nicholas— you’re it for me. At the end of the line, it’s us. It has to be us. I want it to be us.”
“We’re endgame,” Nicholas supplies.
“I don’t know what that means, but— yes— sure—” Euijoo nods skeptically.
“I want that too.” Nicholas bobs his head, afraid that if he sits still for too long he’ll start crying. “I’ve always just wanted you, Juju. You must know that.”
“I do. Yeah, I do know that.” Euijoo reaches up, hand slotting under Nicholas’s jaw. “I’m sorry. I’ll say it as many times as you want. I’m sorry.”
Nicholas can’t hold back the stupid smile that washes over his face. He falls forward all at once, hands planted on Euijoo’s shoulders, until they’re nose to nose.
“Say it again, then,” he whispers, staying just out of reach of Euijoo’s lips.
“I’m sorry.”
“And the other one,” Nicholas hums.
“What other one?” Euijoo squints. “That I’m not fucking Sungho? He’s just helping me with Spider-Man tech stuff?”
“What?” Nicholas smacks Euijoo’s chest. “Why are you bringing up Sungho right now? Seriously, Euijoo?”
Euijoo grabs Nicholas’s shirt and drags him back down when Nicholas tries to pull away. “I didn’t know what you wanted!”
“Tell me you love me—” Nicholas sighs, nose bumping against Euijoo’s.
“Oh— right— I love you,” Euijoo says. Then, his lips moving against Nicholas’s, “I love you so much, Nichol.”
As far as kisses go, it’s not perfect. Nicholas tastes like salt, and Euijoo tastes kind of like a disturbing mix of blood and dirt. But, Euijoo’s hand is cradling the back of Nicholas’s skull, holding him close, and he hums happily when Nicholas swings his leg over his hips in a bid to get closer. Settling into his lap, very mindful of his legs. He can hear Euijoo groan, but Euijoo doesn’t complain.
Nicholas tips his head, licking into Euijoo’s mouth, possessive and claiming, fingers fisted tight into his t-shirt. He’s definitely stretching it out. He definitely doesn’t care. Euijoo shoves his hands up Nicholas’s sweater (Euijoo’s sweater), running his palms up and down Nicholas’s bare back, like he’s getting reacquainted. It’s perfect, Nicholas thinks. It’s very them.
“I love you,” Euijoo murmurs, between kisses. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I love you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Nicholas admits, turned to mush in Euijoo’s hands. “I was mean.”
Euijoo hums. “It’s okay. You were right.”
“We were a powder keg, weren’t we? Both of us are too stubborn. Too proud to be pretending we don’t care.”
“Speak for yourself, I was doing a good job pretending,” Euijoo teases. He laughs when Nicholas pinches his nipple.
“Shut up,” Nicholas mumbles, already leaning forward for another kiss.
When Yudai finds them, he screams and covers his eyes with his hands, the tray he was holding clattering across the floor, pain meds and water spilling everywhere. Then, he peeks through his fingers, totally unashamed to stare, and shouts, “Fuma! The kids are fornicating!”
Fuma gives a celebratory cheer from somewhere down the hall.
Nicholas’s life is so fucking stupid.
At least he’s having fun.
🕷️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Man STUNS in first appearance since accident, looking titillating as he swings through city center, handing out candy to babies.
9.2k retweets • 104k likes
↳ @choiminho_1209
Great work, Spider-Man!
↳ @page.soobin
i can dress like a baby if that’s what it takes for spiderman to give me his candy
↳ @spider_man02
@page.soobin Spider-Man is not interested.
↳ @page.soobin
@spider_man02 source?
↳ @spider_man02
@page.soobin trust me, bro.
↳ @spidermanlover04
We are so back!
emayekayeye | @rikiontop
Spider-Man is so goated, none of your faves could ever compare. He’s unlike anyone else!
[2 photos attached]
4.9k retweets • 42k likes
↳ @xx_wyx_x
we’re back to this?
↳ @rikiontop
@xx_wyx_x yeah i’ve decided spiderman is cool, actually
↳ @spider_man02
@rikiontop Thanks.
↳ @rikiontop
@spider_man02 you’re so fucking cringe
↳ @spider_man02
@rikiontop I just said thank you????
↳ @rikionbottom
@spider_man02 dude stop flirting with my bf its gross
↳ @MurataFuma
Maki, I totally forgot I had you blocked until I saw this on my second account, lol.
↳ @MurataFuma
This is Yudai on Fuma’s phone, I’m going to block your account again.
↳ @rikiontop
@MurataFuma so there’s this 56 year old woman here…
🕷️
“Fuck— Euijoo—”
Nicholas’s head tips back into his pillow, one hand twisted in bedsheets, the other buried in the absolute mess of Euijoo’s hair. A mess of Nicholas’s design, but a mess, nonetheless.
Euijoo looks up through dark lashes, his mouth attached to the inside of Nicholas’s thigh, tongue laving over sensitive skin, leaving a blooming, crooked line of bruises in his wake. They haven’t even gotten to the sex yet. Apparently, Euijoo is feeling sentimental today. Enough to take his time, at least. When he got home thirty minutes ago, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, takeout from Nicholas’s favorite restaurant in the other, Nicholas figured he wanted to have a cozy night in— but then he got on his knees, and Nicholas wasn’t going to complain.
He still isn’t complaining. He’s doing more of a halfway between a moan and a whine thing— inhibitions loose because he’d literally just woken up from a nap when Euijoo got home. He gets all pliant when he’s sleepy. Euijoo knows that. He’s currently using it to his advantage, his big, round eyes carrying that sparkle they do when he knows he’s driving Nicholas mad. Nicholas knows Euijoo gets just as turned on from riling him up as he does from reciprocated foreplay. When he gets up, Nicholas is sure his dick will be just as hard as Nicholas’s currently is— just beginning to leak over in his boxers from the insistence of Euijoo’s mouth.
Nicholas squeezes his eyes shut. Sometimes, when he and Euijoo are fucking, he can’t handle the eye contact. He cums so much faster when he’s looking Euijoo in the eye.
Euijoo’s eyes are so big, and earnest, and always looking at Nicholas, because he loves him, and it’s enough to make Nicholas come apart with just a little handiwork. Euijoo is very experienced in the area. He’s practically an expert.
Teeth sink into the softest part of Nicholas’s thigh, a sharp gasp arching his back. He opens his eyes just to glare at Euijoo. Euijoo likes when Nicholas looks at him, and he’s not above playing dirty to get it.
His mouth is wet with spit until he wipes it off on the back of his hand, still sitting between Nicholas’s legs. Nicholas’s skin is shiny, evidence of Euijoo catching the setting sun filtering through the blinds. Euijoo grins, pink-cheeked and pretty.
“Quit it,” Nicholas complains, using the hand in Euijoo’s hair to try to push him back down.
Euijoo laughs, but he follows direction well, dipping back down, fingers scooching Nicholas’s boxers so far up his leg they’re exposing his hip. It’s inefficient, but Nicholas doesn’t want Euijoo to stop for long enough to take them off. Not yet.
Nicholas shudders when Euijoo’s tongue traces the crease of his thigh and hip. He tightens his hand in Euijoo’s hair— rewarded with a twisted groan in the back of Euijoo’s throat.
And then the phone starts ringing.
Well, it’s buzzing. Very violently buzzing in Euijoo’s pocket, which is pressed up against the mattress, sending little vibrations through the entirety of Nicholas’s system.
He knows exactly where this is going. He sighs, relaxing the grip in both of his hands, letting his arms fall lamely to his sides, palms to the ceiling. He glances down for long enough to watch Euijoo come out of his stupor, and scramble for his phone. His brow creases when he reads the message, a frown pulling down at the corners of his mouth.
When he looks up at Nicholas, face all torn apart with whatever sort of guilt he can muster, Nicholas is already sighing again.
“I’m so sorry, Nico—” he says, voice rough from disuse (and probably from the way he’s been using his mouth for the better part of an hour). “Sungho just pinged a couple of people stuck in an elevator in an abandoned building— firefighters can’t get up to where they’re at—”
“Ugh. How do you even use an elevator in an abandoned building?” Nicholas groans.
“I don’t know. I think they closed the doors and can’t get them open— or maybe they found a way to get the power on, but then it knocked back o—”
“Go,” Nicholas cuts him off. He waves one hand, shooing Euijoo away.
Euijoo gives Nicholas big, puppy-dog eyes. He’s really good at looking guilty when Spider-stuff interrupts their alone time. Nicholas appreciates that, even when he’s being a brat about where he ranks against the good of humanity, or whatever.
“Nichol—”
“Go, Euijoo, it’s fine. You can make it up to me later—”
Euijoo pouts. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Pauses. His eyes widen. He visibly perks up. If he had a tail, it would be wagging. “Actually— Do you wanna come with me?”
Nicholas scoffs. “Excuse me?”
“Serious!” Euijoo nods excitedly. “I’ll drop you on a rooftop before I start working, and come pick you up after.”
“Are you insane?” A laugh falls from Nicholas’s lips.
Euijoo shakes his head furiously. “No! I’ll hold onto you, you’ll be fine.”
“I don’t fuck with heights like that Juju—”
“That’s a shame,” Euijoo sighs. He shakes his head sorrowfully. “I took Yuma and he loved it—”
Nicholas gasps. He narrows his eyes, tongue pressing into his cheek.
Euijoo is already digging around in their closet to get his suit out. He looks over his shoulder, smiling prettily. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Nicholas is only so good at denying Euijoo’s requests.
🕷️
SpiderBase | @SpiderBase
Spider-Boo?! Spider-Man caught kissing a mystery beau on rooftop in Uptown. The Spider-lover was wearing a hood and a mask, disguising their appearance. Could Spider-Man be in love? Is it just a fling?
16k retweets • 66.6k likes
↳ @spidermanhater04
Since when is this a gossip rag?
↳ @SpiderBase
@spidermanhater04 Since when are you the SpiderBase police?
↳ @spidermanhater04
@SpiderBase Good one.
↳ @SpiderBase
@spidermanhater04 Thank you.
↳ @i.2.n.8
@spidermanhater04 @SpiderBase why does it sound like ur talking to urself lmaoooo
↳ @spidermanhater04
@i.2.n.8 🤷
↳ @0ct0ber19
Milf?
↳ @yawnzzn
@0ct0ber19 definitely not. that is a lanky gay boy.
↳ @0ct0ber19
@yawnzzn How can you tell?
↳ @yawnzzn
@0ct0ber19 i have a phd in the field
↳ @parksungheyho
@yawnzzn @xx_wyx_x lmaoooooooo “lanky gay boy”
↳ @xx_wyx_x
@parksungheyho fuck off, park.
↳ @spider_man02
Spider-Man is so cool!