Work Text:
When Sam walked back to his shared room after a short bathroom break, he notices two things.
One: the bottom bunk of the bed is missing his occupant. And two: the pillows in the empty bed are covered in what are most likely tear marks.
Sam instantly felt a pang of compassion for his roommate. He closed the door to the room and turned on the light. Usually his friend would be sleeping on the ceiling or the wall and the Sam would wake him up and tell him to go back to bed. But this wasn't the case tonight. His roommate was nowhere in their small shared living space.
Sam sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pulled up the flashlight feature and left his room looking for his buddy. He walked around the bunker as silently and quickly as he could to not awake the rest of his teammates.
He finally settled on the kitchen area and walked in on his roommate just sitting on the wall drinking water.
"Hey." Sam whispered as he walked up to his friend.
"Hey." his friend whispered back.
"You okay, man?"
"Yeah just couldn't sleep…"
"Did you have another nightmare?"
There was no response from his friend.
"Miles?" Sam tried again.
"Um.. Yeah. Kind of a nightmare."
Miles raised a shaky glass to his lips to take another sip of water before his friend intervened.
Sam grabbed the water from Miles' hand and set it on the counter. He looked at his friend in the eyes.
"You wanna get out of here?"
Miles silently nodded.
"Give me like 5 minutes and go get your Spidey mask, okay?"
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
A couple of minutes later, Sam dressed as Nova, was flying across the sky. Miles was holding onto his wrists beneath him. Miles also had a telescope strapped to his back.
The land turned from city to suburban to desert in less than half an hour. They flew in silence the whole time until Sam stopped and flew down when he approached a desert.
"Where are we?" Miles asked.
"Somewhere in Nevada." Sam replied as he extended his hand for the telescope.
Miles gave him the object and stood silently as the other person set it up.
"So what? We're gonna look at the stars together?" Miles finally asked.
"Yeah? I mean that's what I do when I have nightmares.." Sam trailed off.
Miles sighed.
"Look, I appreciate this. I really do. But you don't have to do this. I'm used to nightmares and I can handle them."
Sam finished setting up the telescope and stood up. He walked over to Miles and put a hand on the other's shoulder.
"I wanna do this for you. I know what it's like to have crazy nightmares. It sucks but it's better to not deal with it alone, right?" He finished with a small smile.
"Yeah…" Miles replied.
"Great."
Sam walked over to the telescope and Miles removed his mask.
"Okay so I know like a ton of constellations and stars and their origins because of either my helmet," he knocked on said object for emphasis.
"Or because I looked them up when I got home later. I can also see them from afar. And since you can't wear my helmet we're gonna do this old school style and use Hubbie here to look at them."
Miles squinted his eyes.
"Hubbie?"
"Yknow… like the first telescope invented by that German scientist guy?"
"Isn't this Amadeus' telescope?"
"Yeah. But he didn't even give it a name. Do you wanna see stars or not?"
Miles snorted at his friend's wild observation and nodded.
"Yeah space pants. Teach me about stars and stuff."
Sam smiled and removed his helmet. He looked into the telescope and started to move the knobs to adjust it.
"Okay so… this one is really easy. It's Ursa Major also known as the Big Dipper.."
"Yeah I know about that. Give me something new."
Sam turned around and looked at his friend.
"What?"
"Nothing… its just that you're sounding a bit better and we've barley even started."
Sam quickly turned back around and focused on finding a new constellation.
Miles thought about the comment for a few moments and nodded.
"I mean I'm around you, so that's probably why."
Sam paused his work and tried to hide the fact that his face was heating up a bit.
He cleared his throat.
"Okay so this one is called Corvus. It means 'crow' in Latin."
Sam moved so Miles could take a look at it.
"This looks like a weird looking square. Where's the 'crow part'?"
"A majority of constellations were discovered by a bunch of old people who thought the shapes represented something and made their own myths with it."
"So I have to use my imagination to see the crow?"
"Exactly."
Miles continued to look in the telescope for a few more moments.
"I don't see it." He said with a shrug.
"Hmm…" Sam looked down at the ground and thought and then he had an idea.
He stooped down and started to draw in the sand with his fingers.
"What are you doing?" Miles asked.
"Showing you what it looks like. So this is what you see right?"
Miles crouched down as well and saw the quadrilateral he saw in the sky. It had non perfectly straight lines but it was a pretty accurate depiction besides that. Sam even added the 4 stars that make up the picture with small dots where the lines intersected.
"Yeah." Miles responded.
"Okay so.."
Sam drew a rendition of a crow. An eye represented a star. Another was a tip of a wing. The 3rd was the middle of the wing. And the 4th was the end of its beak. It looked like a kid's drawing with its large strokes and un proportioned body but it was decent nonetheless.
"Dude, that sucks." Miles said with a small grin.
"Think you can do better?"
"I know I can do better."
Miles then picked an empty spot next to Sam's drawing and tried to do his own take of the crow. When he finished a couple minutes later, Sam was impressed. It looked like his drawing but it had way more detail like feathers and the beak didn't take up half of the bird's head.
Sam leaned in closer to take a picture with his phone.
"That's actually really good."
Miles smiled and brushed his hand on Sam's shoulder.
"Thanks."
Sam felt his face heating up again and walked over to the telescope.
"Wanna learn some more?"
For the next two hours, the pair did the same thing over and over. Sam would point to a constellation, explain what it meant, and they would draw the star picture with their own interpretation of what the figure was supposed to represent. Sam would then take a picture of their drawings with his phone for "future reference".
After a drawing of Hercules and arguing over whether the actual demigod had muscles as huge as Sam's drawing made them, Miles decided to web up a hammock and laid down in it.
Sam followed suit and laid down near his friend in silence. They were both looking up at the night sky.
"You okay?"
"Honestly? I don't think so."
Sam glanced over at his friend.
"You wanna talk about it?"
Miles sighed before he continued.
"You have them too, right? The nightmares?"
"Yeah."
"Let's make a deal, you tell me about yours and I'll tell you about mine."
Sam shrugged.
"Okay. So um mine are about my dad. You know how I keep saying that he's in space?"
"Yeah."
"Well I was close to him a year or two back I did find him and I brought him home. My mom and sister were so excited. And I felt happy that all my hard work paid off…"
Sam smiled at the thought of him having his dad back.
"But it wasn't really him. One day we were talking and his face just melted. It turned out he was a clone that the Chitauri made to get my attention so they could steal my helmet. There was a big battle with this other clone and we all ended up in space together on a Chitauri ship. And I saw these huge tubes of people that looked like my dad in them. I was gonna try and save some of them but the clone who impersonated my dad already had a bomb set. He told me to leave but I didn't. I mean I couldn't just let someone that actually believed in me and I trusted die, right?"
Sam could feel his eyes getting watery.
"But um…" Sam started.
"I um.." Sam started sniffing and he could feel tears running down his face.
He felt Miles move closer and wrapped his arm around Sam's shoulders. The shorter boy rubbed his eyes and continued.
"He hit the button and the bomb went off. When I came too he wasn't there anymore. My only chance of having my dad come back died right in front of me. And I couldn't do anything about it."
Miles lightly squeezed Sam's shoulder.
"And you dream of him dying all over again?"
Sam gave a silent nod.
"That and a bunch of clones killing me." He responded.
Miles sighed.
"I've only told Kamala and my roommate this… but my uncle died in front of me."
Sam looked at his friend in shock.
"Yeah but the worst part was that he said that I was 'just like him' before he died. Which isn't that bad but he was also a criminal. He called himself the Prowler and he had me help him do some of his dirty work or he would tell me dad that I was Spiderman."
"Oh." Sam replied.
"Yeah but it sucks because I was so close to turning out like him. My dad and my uncle used to do a lot of illegal stuff back in the day. The good news is that my dad turned his life around when he met my mom. So far, I'm doing okay. But I'm scared that one day I'm gonna slip up and become like my uncle. He kind of had a lot of anger problems and I have them too. But I don't really act on it, because what's gonna happen if I do? Do I end up beating someone really badly that they end up in the hospital? Do I end up accidentally killing someone who's actually innocent do I-?"
"Miles??" Sam exclaimed interrupting his friend.
Miles looked down and saw that his legs were turning invisible.
"Oh." Miles whispered.
He took a deep breath and started to control his breathing. Slowly but surely his legs became visible again after a few minutes.
"Um was that on purpose?" Sam asked.
"It's more a fight or flight thing. I was kinda- well I was having an anxiety attack and that usually triggers it."
"Oh."
"But yeah. My nightmares either involve my uncle dying or me doing something really bad to someone…. Sometimes it's both."
They sat in silence for a while. Sam grabbed Miles' hand that wants occupied and held it.
"I don't think you're a bad person, Miles. I don't know if it helps or not, but I don't think anyone else does either. You're out here saving innocent people any chance you can get."
"But what if one day, I do mess up?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders.
"Then you mess up. You're allowed to mess up and make mistakes. And even if you do harm someone it's okay. You're not gonna turn into the Punisher or whoever just because you punched someone too hard. I honestly believe that you're a good person and nothing's gonna change that."
Miles looked down and stared intensely at Sam.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Um-"
Just then Miles' phone went off. It was text from Kamala asking:
"Where are u? Where's sam?"
Then another message:
"Amadeus wants to know where his telescope is? What did you guys do?"
Miles laughed and showed Sam the text messages. The other snickered and jumped off the hammock to get his helmet and Hubbie.
"We should probably get going…" Miles said as he put on his helmet.
"Yeah.. Um.." Miles looked down and played with his thumbs.
"You okay?" Sam asked.
Miles jumped down from the hammock and walked over to his friend. He got as close as he could without freaking his friend out.
"I'm gonna do something really stupid, okay?"
"What are-"
Sam was cut off my Miles colliding his lips with Sam's own. Miles was actually kissing him and if Sam were to be honest, it was nice. Like really nice.
Miles broke apart and looked at the ground again. He rubbed his arm and started to play with his thumbs again.
"I'm sorry. I just really had to do that. It's okay if you don't like me too. I just wanted to thank you for bringing me out here and doing all of this and that's the only thing I could come up with on a short notice…"
Sam grabbed Miles' hand from his arm.
"Miles? Look at me."
The taller boy slowly lifted his head.
"Yeah?"
"Its okay." Sam said with a reassuring smile.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I've been trying to find a way to ask you out for months now."
"Huh."
There was a small silence between them. Both boys just looking at each other without a care in the world.
"Do you wanna go out?"
"Sure. But it has to be an actual date though."
Sam blinked.
"This wasn't a date?"
"I kinda have high standards for someone as cute as you."
"You think I'm cute?"
Miles phone then went off again. Kamala had texted:
"Guys??"
And then:
"Amadeus said that if sam took his telescope and it isn't in the right condition as he found it he's gonna kick his butt"
Then:
"He didn't say 'butt' he said the other word. But he does sound angry"
"We gotta go before Amadeus kills you."
Miles pulled on his mask and thwipped out a web. Sam flew up to catch it and they started to fly home.
"Wait… you didn't answer the question!"
Miles got closer and started to hang on to Sam's hands.
"Dude, I kissed you. How does that not answer your question??"
"I want like verbal confirmation, though."
Miles sighed.
"Yes. I find you cute, Alejandro."
Sam smiled.
"You're not so bad yourself, whatever your middle name is."
"It's Gonzalo."
"What?"
"Its Gonzalo and if you make fun of it, I'm breaking up with you."
"Dude we haven't even been on a real date yet."
"Sam…"
"Yeah yeah okay fine."
Silence filled the air as they flew back to the compound.
"I love you, Gonzalo." Sam said when they were halfway home.
"Don't push it…"