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When Lance first put on the mask, he never knew it would go this far.
He never knew how important a hero would be to his home. New York was a huge place, with huge amounts of crime. A hero brought people hope. With every petty thief he took down, more people realized he was the hope they needed. But of course, with every mad scientist he got involved with, people would start to view him as an enemy. It was a vicious and grueling cycle of finding out there was a bad guy, the whole city gets mad at him for letting the bad guy go, he then defeats the bad guy, and everyone loves him. It was a draining cycle.
And the only person he could talk to about it was gone.
_______
“Come on Spider-man, you know this has to end somehow,” the burly man across the roof yelled. Lance only glared, keeping his focus on the one thing that mattered to him. His poor boyfriend, with a gun to his head, being held on the edge of the skyscraper roof by the big burly man.
“We can sit here all night, but your friend here doesn’t have much longer if you don’t cooperate.” The man pushed him back slightly. His toes were barely scraping the edge.
“Keith!” Lance yelled as he almost lunged out to grad his poor boyfriend. The man holding him smiled and pulled him back onto the roof slightly.
“I knew he would get you to crack. You’re not sly, Spider-man,” He laughed, “Just give me what I want.”
Lance didn’t know what to do. He was stuck in a stalemate with his own instincts.
“I don’t even know what you want!” Lance yelled back, slowly stepping forward. The man whipped his gun around, pointing it at Lance. He threw his hands up and stopped walking forward. His breath caught in his throat.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Spider-Man. You know what I want.” He growled, bringing the gun back to Keith’s head.
“Care to remind me what that was? I can’t help if I can’t remember!” Lance responded in the most sarcastic tone he could muster. The voice cracks weren’t helping. The man frowned, and it was obvious his patience was running thin.
“Tell me who you are and where the spider that bit you is!” He yelled, spitting as he did. Lance tried to take another step forward, only to be greeted by the gun again.
“You already know me, I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!” He yelled back. The man tensed and thrashed the gun around.
“Just what kind of fool do you take me for?! I am Sendak, the most powerful commander in the country! Tell me who you are and where that spider is!” He was spitting and screaming. He pushed Keith back to the edge, almost pushing him off entirely. Lance lunged at the Sendack, only for a gunshot to ring out. He flinched back. He felt around his body, trying to feel the wound, but found nothing. There was no pain, no bullet wound, he was fine. In a panic, he looked up, to be met with the sight of a bullet wound in Keith’s arm. Keith didn’t seem to notice it, probably from panic or shock. Sendack pointed the gun back at Lance.
“I’m done playing games,” He growled, “Where is it?” Lance looked around the roof, looking for a way to get out of the situation. His eyes landed on a small metal chimney. He looked back at the man, and raised his hands in surrender.
“Look man, that spider had been dead for like, a year now! I doubt you’re finding it!” he replied, laughing a little. The man glared and cocked the gun. Lance sighed and shook his head before shooting a web at the gun, blocking up the barrel. Before Sendack could react, Lance shot another web into his eyes, causing him to throw the gun away and reach for his face, also letting Keith go. He tried to grab onto something, only for his hands to find nothing. He slipped and fell backwards, falling off the skyscraper roof. Lance shot a web at the metal chimney and ran to the edge of the roof, jumping off. His eyes were trained on Keith.
“Lance!” Keith yelled, reaching out to him. Lance reached out, grabbing his hand. His grip on the rope tightened. He pulled Keith into his arms and shot a web towards another building, trying to escape as fast as he could. After what felt like an eternity, he was finally broken out of his thoughts by Keith screaming at him to put him down. Lance looked around until he found a small apartment building, and slowly lowered himself and Keith onto the roof. As soon as they stepped foot onto the roof, Keith pushed Lance away from himself. Lance, against his better judgement, took his mask off and threw it to the side. He ran to Keith’s side, only for Keith to push him away.
“Don’t touch me!” He yelled, stepping back. Lance stopped and stared at him for a second feeling hurt, but eventually backed away. His eyes were focused on the bullet wound in Keith’s arm.
“Keith, please just let me help you, you’re bleeding!” He tried to reason. Keith looked at his arm in shock, as if he finally realized something was wrong. He grabbed at the wound, trying to cover it up.
“It’s fine, it’ll stop bleeding eventually.” He squeezed at his arm harded. Lance lunged forward and grabbed his hand, pulling it away from his wound. Keith barely struggled to stop him.
“Keith, please just let me help you,” Lance begged. Keith looked up at his boyfriend and sighed. Lance smiled slightly and guided Keith to sit down. Keith always carried a small first aid kit on him from his brother-in-law. It didn’t have more than bandaids and burn cream, but it was better than nothing. Lance pulled it out of Keith’s coat pocket and pulled a large bandaid, and two smaller bandaids out. He gently wiped the blood away from the surrounding area, making Keith flinch a couple times. He stuck the large bandaid on first, and then the smaller two. It seemed to work for now.
“You’ll have to go to a hospital to get the bullet removed.” Lance muttered, putting the kit back into Keith’s pocket. Keith nodded silently and stood up. He walked to the edge of the food before stopping, realizing he had no way to get down. He didn’t look to Lance for help, instead just staring off the side. Lance walked up next to him, only for Keith to look away.
“How do I tell Shiro about this…” He uttered. Lance glanced at him. Keith didn’t return the look.
“How do I explain to my older brother that I have a bullet in my arm because my superhero boyfriend got me shot?!” he yelled. Lance flinched and stepped back. Keith turned away and waked away from the edge of the roof.
“Keith, I-” Lance started before stopping himself. Keith didn’t turn around.
“I know your job is important, but is it really so important that it’s worth me getting shot?” Keith yelled again. Lance looked away. Keith turned around, and stared directly at Lance, waiting for a response.
“I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.” He mumbled, defeated. Keith took in a deep breath and walked to the edge of the roof again. He sat down and swung his legs over the side, motioning for Lance to join him. The snow on the roof made it a little cold, but neither boy cared.
“Lance-” Keith stopped and took a deep breath, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get angry.” He breathed out. Lance scoffed and shook his head.
“You should be angry, I got you shot.” He muttered. He didn’t know how Sendack knew who Keith was, or how he knew his relationship to Spider-man. All he knew was that it caused Keith to get shot.
“Lance…” Keith started. Lance looked up at him, expecting him to continue, but nothing came out of Keith’s mouth. Lance placed his hand on Keith’s trying to urge him to go on. Keith took a breath and intertwined his hand with Lance’s.
“Lance- you scare me.” keith finished. Lance’s eyes widened in shock. Keith didn’t look at him. He squeezed Lance’s hand tighter.
“Why do I scare you? Lance asked, sounding small. He didn’t like when he sounded small. He was Spider-man, he wasn’t small.
“You put your life on the line everyday for-for what?! To get an old ladies purse back from a thug? To save the city from an evil scientist trying to turn everyone into lizards!?” Keith ranted. Lance couldn’t respond.
“You always say that it’s your ‘responsibility’, but putting your life on the line for a few ungrateful bastards isn’t your responsibility!” Keith continued to rant. He pulled his hand away from Lance’s and tangled it into his hair, frustrated. Lance felt a lump forming in his throat.
“Keith, I’m a hero. When I put on this costume, it gives me to responsibility to use my powers for good. It is who I am.” Lance stared at the red and black gloves covering his hands. Keith sighed and pulled his hand from his hair.
“I know. I know it is. But…” He paused. Lance looked over at him, shocked to find tears forming in Keith’s eyes.
“You’re fighting people bigger than you can handle. You’re putting yourself un too much danger!” He was blustering, “You’re going to get yourself killed! You’re going to die in that stupid costume a-and there’s nothing I can do to stop you!” Keith’s voice was breaking. Lance felt his own eyes tear up, watching tears spill out of Keith’s. He reached out to confort him, but quickly pulled away.
“And I never in a million years would have guessed that I would have been tossed off the roof by a maniac because of you!” Keith was shouting, “Or that I’d be wiping off blood in my clothes from a gunshot wound so that Shiro and Adam wouldn’t see it!” Lance couldn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at Keitth when he stood up and turned away from him.
“Someone is going to kill you, Lance.” Keith uttered. Lance just sighed.
“I know.”
Keith looked back at him, let out the breath he was holding, and turned away. He walked around to the fire escape and looked down.
“And I won’t be there to watch.” He stated firmly. Lance looked over at him and stood up.
“Keith… what are you saying?” He asked, his voice trembling. Keith didn’t look at him. He just continued to stare down the staircase.
“I can’t do this anymore. All those nights you’ve come to my door bleeding, all of those days you would never respond because you were being beaten up in an alley, I can’t handle it anymore.” He took one glance at Lance. Lance’s eyes were shimmering with tears. Keith could feel his tearing up too.
“I love you, Lance.” He muttered, “But I can’t watch you destroy yourself anymore.” And with that, he turned away, wiped his eyes, and walked down the staircase.Lance wanted to scream. He wanted to stand up, yell for Keith, beg him to stay, but nothing would come out of his mouth. His legs felt like jello. He couldn’t do anything. All he could fo was listen as Keith’s footsteps faded.
“Please don’t,” He muttered, even though there was no one around to hear it. His hands started to shake. Violent sobs wracked his body. He couldn’t breath. Suddenly, he wasn’t the mighty hero that villains feared and the city loved. Suddenly, he was a seventeen year old boy, desperately in need of the one person in the world who could understand him.
But that person had just walked out of his life, and Lance wasn’t sure he’d have him back in it ever again.