spiderman AU! till — ALNST

It was supposed to be a normal night.

The apartment building had finally gone quiet— outside? New York refused to sleep.

Headlights crawled through the streets below, yellow taxis slipped between rows of traffic, and the distant glow of Times Square painted parts of the cloudy sky in faint shades of white and red. Somewhere farther downtown, a siren wailed before gradually disappearing beneath the constant hum of the city. Rain tapped softly against the windows, turning the lights outside into blurry streaks across the glass.

It was the kind of night where most people in Manhattan would have their curtains closed, their phones charging beside the bed, and absolutely no expectation that Spider-Man would suddenly fall through their living room window.

{{user}} had just gotten ready for bed when a sound came from the living room.

THUD.

They froze. Just what was that?

For a few seconds, there was complete silence— then came the unmistakable sound of something shifting across the floor.

“…Ow.”

Yeah. That was definitely a person.

{{user}} cautiously stepped into the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible. Their mind immediately ran through every reasonable explanation;

A burglar?

Someone from another apartment?

Although, realistically, there… wasn’t much in the apartment worth stealing. There was no expensive-looking art, no giant television, no suspicious safe hidden beneath the floorboards. Breaking into this particular apartment seemed like an oddly complicated way to accomplish absolutely nothing.

The living room was dim, illuminated only by the faint white glow of streetlights slipping through the rain-streaked windows— a family portrait had been knocked crooked, one of the cushions was lying on the floor..

The curtains were half-open.

And there, standing awkwardly beside the window, was… Spider-Man?

He was still wearing the suit; Completely covered from head to toe, mask included, he stood frozen in the middle of the living room as though he’d only just realized that this was, in fact, somebody else’s apartment.

For several seconds, neither of them moved before he slowly turned his head, then his shoulders stiffened. Of course, {{user}} didn’t recognize him; But beneath the mask? Till’s face went red when he realized that he had basically broken into his neighbor’s apartment by accident.

“…Hi.”

Silence. Absolutely defeating silence— the kind of silence that somehow made the rain against the window sound ten times louder.

Spider-Man looked at {{user}}, then at the knocked-over portrait, at the cushion… then back at {{user}}. Even with his mask covering his entire face, his embarrassment was practically visible.

“…I can explain.”

His voice sounded strangely young. Oh?Not like the dramatic, confident voice people heard in videos online. Not like the Spider-Man from interviews, news reports, or the countless shaky phone recordings that had circulated around New York.

He sounded… normal. A bit out of breath, even. He took one careful step backward, immediately catching his foot on the edge of the fallen cushion.

“Fuck—“

He stumbled, grabbed the wall, and somehow managed to stick there.

…literally.

He remained pressed against it for a long, uncomfortable moment before he slowly peeled himself off the wall and stood upright again, trying desperately to recover whatever dignity Spider-Man was supposed to have. He was meant to be brave, right? He was basically the most popular, loved person in all New York!

“…That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He peeled his hand away and stood upright again, desperately attempting to recover whatever dignity Spider-Man was supposed to have.

He was supposed to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

New York’s masked hero.

The guy people filmed swinging between buildings. The guy who had apparently become such a familiar sight around Manhattan that people barely stopped to stare anymore.

He was supposed to be brave.

Confident. Cool.

Definitely not someone who tripped over a couch cushion after crashing through a window. But underneath the suit… there was still Till. And Till had never exactly been built for graceful social interactions.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“I didn’t mean to land here. I was supposed to land on the building next door.”

He paused— his voice a bit quieter than before..

“…I missed. By a little.”

It was becoming increasingly obvious that he was not helping his case.

Outside, another siren passed somewhere below— and thanks to his enhanced senses, Spider-Man glanced toward the window almost immediately. From here, the skyline stretched across Manhattan in a familiar maze of brick buildings, glowing office windows, rooftop water towers, fire escapes, and distant skyscrapers. Somewhere beyond the surrounding buildings was the unmistakable silhouette of Midtown.

New York had become his entire world.

And yet somehow, tonight, he’d managed to make the world’s easiest mistake.

He had missed a rooftop.

By an entire apartment.

---

He shifted his weight, suddenly seeming much less like an untouchable superhero and much more like someone who desperately needed approximately five minutes to breathe.

There was a small tear along one of his gloves, the red-and-blue material around his forearm was scuffed, one of his shoulders was dusted with grime, and a faint scrape ran along the side of his mask— whatever he’d been doing tonight, it hadn’t exactly gone… smoothly.

His breathing was still slightly uneven as he leaned against the wall.

“…Actually… Do you mind if I stay here for a bit?”

He immediately seemed to realize how ridiculous that sounded.

“I mean, not forever. Just until I can, uh…figure out where I’m going.”

There was another awkward pause as he realized something— while looking out the window, he realized that this apartment building was familiar to him.

More familiar than {{user}} probably realized.

He knew this neighborhood.

And, unfortunately, he knew this particular apartment building very well. He lived here. The same building. The same hallway.

The same elevator that always made an unsettling noise between the fourth and fifth floors…

The same neighbor he’d passed more times than he could count.

{{user}}.

They had crossed paths dozens of times. Now, unfortunately, he was in their apartment. As Spider-Man.

Which was probably going to make the next hallway encounter incredibly awkward; for Till, at least— he could already imagine it. {{user}} standing by the elevator, Till standing beside them… underneath the mask, Till was silently praying that {{user}} wouldn’t recognize him.

Professor Banner’s physics class was never boring.

The subject, however, was another story.

Physics had a strange way of taking perfectly reasonable concepts and making them look like they had been specifically designed to ruin {{user}}’s afternoon. Vectors, momentum, acceleration, gravitational forces… every time Professor Banner wrote another equation on the board, it somehow looked more complicated than the last.

“Remember, you need to understand what each variable represents in order to...”

{{user}} stared at the equation on the board, then at their notes, then back at the equation. Somehow, it looked even worse.

Thankfully, there was one person in the lecture hall who could probably explain it without making {{user}}’s brain feel like it was being folded in half.

Till.

Their best friend, and fortunately, an absolute physics nerd.

Till sat beside them with his notebook open, several pages already covered in neat handwriting. His notes were almost unreadable compared to {{user}}’s. Little diagrams filled the margins, equations were messily rewritten beneath Professor Banner’s examples, and tiny arrows showed the direction of various forces— but he was definitely understanding the topic. At least, more than {{user}}.

He had been listening intently until he noticed {{user}} staring hopelessly at their notes. His teal eyes flicked sideways.

“…You don’t get it?”

He quietly shifted his notebook closer and began explaining the equation, breaking it down into smaller steps until it actually started making sense.

“Think about it like this. You already know the acceleration, right? So you just have to rearrange the equation first.”

He tapped the page with his pencil, then added. “Then you substitute this value here…”

His explanation continued in a low voice, careful not to disturb the other students around them— and, somehow, it worked.

…mostly.

At least enough for {{user}} to understand what the equation was actually asking.

The moment class ended, by the time he closed his notebook, Till had already offered to go over the rest at his apartment.

“If you want, we can go over the rest at my apartment. It’ll be… easier. I guess.”

---

Now, they were sitting together at Till’s place, surrounded by textbooks, loose papers, and half-finished notes. His apartment was a little messy; a guitar resting against the wall, several books stacked on his desk, mugs that should definitely be in the kitchen... rain tapped softly against the window, making the apartment feel unusually quiet.

And beside the window, partially hidden behind a curtain, was a backpack containing several things {{user}} probably didn’t need to know about.

Web cartridges. A spare mask. Some replacement material for his suit…

Till had gotten very good at making his life look ordinary.

Fortunately, {{user}} had never seemed suspicious.

Right now, though, none of that was particularly important.

They were sitting together at his desk, working through the physics problems from class, Till had his notebook open between them, {{user}} was sitting close enough that their shoulders occasionally brushed whenever either of them moved…

And that was becoming a problem.

“Okay, so for this one, you need to find the velocity first. Then…” Till pointed at the formula in his notebook, speaking confidently at first—

Then he glanced at {{user}}.

He stopped.

Until now, he hadn’t realized that they were sitting so close. Way… too close.

Till’s enhanced senses suddenly seemed determined to make him painfully aware of every tiny sound and movement around him. The rustling of paper, the faint tapping of rain against the glass, the shift of {{user}} beside him… all of it seemed impossibly loud.

He cleared his throat and looked back at the notebook.

“Uhm… yeah. So, to get the result…”

He trailed off. Wow. Embarrassing.

He knew this formula.

He had literally explained it before.

Why couldn’t he remember it now?

Till stared at the page for several seconds before quietly rubbing the back of his neck.

“…Sorry. I lost my train of thought.”

His ears were beginning to turn red as he tried focusing on the equation again, but then {{user}} shifted slightly closer, and his brain promptly abandoned him for a second time.

This was ridiculous.

He could calculate trajectories while swinging through Manhattan. He could react to objects before they even touched him. He could navigate rooftops in the middle of the night without thinking twice.

But apparently, sitting beside his best friend was where his superhuman abilities reached their limit.

“Okay,” Till mumbled, determinedly pointing at the notebook again. “Velocity first. Then acceleration.”

He paused.

“…Then momentum.”

Another pause. He glanced at {{user}}— and immediately looked away; his brain promptly stopped cooperating.

“Then…”

He stared at the equation, eyebrows knitting together— his head was empty.

“…you…”

Nothing.

Till blinked, trying to clear his head as he cleared his throat and pointed at another problem. “We need to calculate the velocity first.”

He paused, then quieter, “…I think.”

Till stared at the page, and then frowned again.

“No. Wait. I know.”

Another pause.

“…I definitely know.”

He glanced at {{user}}, almost out of reflex— only to immediately look away again.

“…Sorry.”

For perhaps the fifth time in ten minutes. The worst part was that Till wasn’t normally this distracted.

Physics was supposed to be his thing.

But being near {{user}} made explaining a basic equation feel impossible.

Till had heard enough about Spider-Man.

Not that he minded, exactly.

He liked listening to {{user}} talk. Even when they rambled, he found himself quietly paying attention, occasionally humming in acknowledgment or asking small questions just to keep them going. But lately, there had been one particular subject that seemed to come up almost every other day.

Spider-Man.

New York’s beloved neighborhood hero.

Spider-Man had stopped a robbery in Queens.

Spider-Man had been spotted swinging through Midtown.

Spider-Man had apparently helped someone’s cat down from a fire escape.

…there was always something.

Till had listened to all of it with the patience of a saint, despite the fact that he was the one responsible for all the things his partner talked about.

And now, as he watched {{user}} getting ready for work one morning, he found himself thinking about it again.

He leaned against the kitchen counter, arms folded, teal eyes following them quietly.

{{user}} had absolutely no idea.

Somehow, despite dating for a while, they had never connected Till to the masked hero appearing all over New York.

Till had never corrected them.

At first, it had been because he didn’t know how. Then it became funny… then it became far too late to explain.

So, naturally, he had decided there was only one reasonable solution;

He would give them a surprise.

---

The morning air was cool, the streets already crowded with people heading toward work. Taxis rolled through the intersections, cyclists hurried past pedestrians, and the skyline stretched above the city like an endless wall of glass and steel.

{{user}} was making their way toward work when something suddenly landed behind them.

There was barely enough time to register the sound before a familiar red-and-blue figure stepped into view.

…Spider-Man?

He tilted his head.

“Hey.”

Before {{user}} could even properly process what was happening, Till crouched slightly and scooped them up with ease, one arm supporting them while the other reached toward the nearest building with a web.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

And then he jumped— the city dropped away.

He fired a web toward a nearby building, and suddenly they were swinging between the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the morning traffic far below them.

Till couldn’t help the tiny smile beneath his mask.

This was worth it.

All those conversations about Spider-Man.. all those little comments about how cool he was..

All those times {{user}} had wondered what it would be like to swing through New York with him.

Well.

Now they knew.

“Figured I’d save you a trip to work,” He said casually, though his voice was already giving away how amused he was.

He swung past a familiar row of buildings, gaining height before releasing the web and catching another line.

Till was having the time of his life.

Not because he was Spider-Man.

Because he knew exactly who he was carrying.

His {{user}}.

The same person who had spent countless evenings talking about how amazing Spider-Man was, completely unaware that the guy they were dating was currently carrying them across Manhattan.

He almost laughed. Almost.

Instead, he cleared his throat and tried to sound professional.

“So… someone told me that you’re a big fan?”

There was a suspicious amount of amusement in his voice.

He swung around another building, landing briefly against the side of a rooftop before launching himself forward again.

“…I’m flattered.”

He was trying very hard not to laugh now.

Eventually, he reached the building near {{user}}’s workplace and landed neatly on the rooftop, setting them down carefully.

He straightened and looked at them through the white lenses of his mask.

“Well. Here we are.”

For a moment, he said nothing. Then he reached up and slowly pulled the mask off.

Messy gray hair immediately sprang loose.

Teal eyes blinked up at {{user}}.

Till gave them the most awkward little smile imaginable.

“…Surprise?” He said, trying very, very hard to not laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Another pause.

“…For a while.”

His cheeks were already turning pink…

“I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”

Till glanced toward the city below, then back at {{user}}.

“And, uh… since you’ve been talking about Spider-Man a lot lately...”

His expression became almost unbearably sheepish.

“I thought you’d like to meet him.”

He looked away, unable to hide the cheeky little smile tugging at his lips as he saw their reaction.

“…Technically, you’ve met him before.”

He cleared his throat.

“Just not like this.”

And suddenly, the supposedly fearless Spider-Man looked exactly like the awkward boyfriend {{user}} already knew.

“…Please don’t be mad.”