Hyukjae was sitting on his sofa in his tiny but comfy living room, skipping through channels and not finding anything interesting. But he wasn’t annoyed by this. He was actually glad his mind wasn’t occupied with something for once, because well, it had been a tough week. Or maybe a tough month. Better, a tough year.

Being Spider-Man wasn’t easy. He had to work (underpaid) for the Daily Bugle, a newspaper whose boss hated his superhero persona, while fighting bad guys and risking his life in the meantime. He wanted to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and he tried hard to keep that image for years, but life decided it wasn’t his decision to make. Things happened in his life and he somehow found himself being part of the Avengers, fighting villains who were way more powerful and dangerous than robbers and gangs making noise at night.

He never asked for this but somehow he couldn’t say no to protecting people, to make the world a better place and he couldn’t say no to Tony Stark recruiting him. It was just like that. Apparently his biggest flaw was being too nice and too caring but he couldn’t help it. He tried - he tried to not care about any of this but it just didn’t feel right and he liked to think he was a person who did what was right. He was a hero.

He tried to act like Donghae. But no matter how hard he tried, he never succeeded.

Donghae was, for lack of better words, different. Different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it came to Donghae, Hyukjae didn’t really know if it was good or bad. He thought a lot about this, about him, but he never found the right word to describe him.

Donghae wasn’t bad, he certainly wasn’t good either and that was out in the daylight and Donghae himself didn’t even try to hide it; he was just in the middle. Well, maybe he was more bad than he was good, but that wasn’t the point. Hyukjae knew he wasn’t totally bad and that was what he was holding on to.

Because he couldn’t work with a villain, he couldn’t be in an almost friendly relationship with a villain – he didn’t care about the fact the Donghae kept saying they were best friends. They weren’t. They were barely on friendly terms, but Donghae just liked to annoy him to no end.

The thing was, he would’ve ignored Donghae if he wasn’t all over the place. Somehow wherever Hyukjae went, Donghae showed up a while later. He was glad for the help of course, because even if Donghae was annoying and talked too much, he actually helped him against villains. While getting hurt and losing limbs in the meantime. But Hyukjae didn’t really care about that, Donghae had a very good healing factor and those always grew back up. He was shocked the first times but now he just shrugged it off.

It wasn’t easy, working with Donghae. Hyukjae himself was a chatter, he liked talking and making jokes during battles and his Avengers friends always told him off about this, but Donghae was even worse than he was. And that was saying something. He just couldn’t shut up, couldn’t stop making jokes, even dirty ones (mostly directed at him but he didn’t want to think about it), and most of all couldn’t stop getting hit and hurting himself. But then again, Hyukjae was getting used to it. He was getting used to Deadpool.

And there was even something he admired about the guy, he even respected him for it: Donghae never asked for his true identity. He never asked who Spider-Man was, what he did for a living, what his face looked like. He didn’t care. And Hyukjae was grateful, because he certainly wasn’t about to tell a violent mercenary with no concern about human (and non human) life who he really was and risk seeing him show up at his workplace or at his house. He valued his private life, thank you very much.

That was exactly why he was now sitting on his sofa, doing absolutely nothing, savoring the day off he decided to get himself. He wasn’t going to get calls from the Avengers or his annoying boss, they could live a day without him. He needed that break and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it for him.

He spent three hours on his sofa, watching trashy shows and eating ice cream (he was really glad about his fast metabolism) but he couldn’t stop glancing at his window. What if something was happening out there? What if some poor old lady was getting robbed and he wasn’t there to help her? What if there was a fire and a cat needed rescue?

What if Deadpool was looking for him?

He shook his head. He didn’t really care about Deadpool, he could manage himself. He cared about the old lady more.

He glanced at his bedroom door, where his suit was safely hidden, and then he glanced back at the window. He repeated the gesture a few times, then stilled on his spot and groaned.

Well, he tried.

A few minutes later, Hyukjae was webbing through the buildings, searching for something that could be going wrong or someone who needed rescue. It was three in the morning already and very few people were out in the streets, but it was a busy city and there was always someone who needed help.

Hyukjae was thinking. He was thinking how useless it was to try, every time. Because yes, it wasn’t the first time Hyukjae tried to get some rest or to take a day off and every time it ended like this: it just didn’t work. He liked being out in the street, flying through the buildings, punching bad guys and making the city a little bit safer day by day. He liked it, he had fun and it made him feel better, useful.

He liked spending time with Deadpool.

Well, he mostly liked not doing all that stuff alone, if he had to be honest. It’s not like his Avengers friends were used to be friendly neighborhood Avengers; they mostly showed up when bigger threats were putting the city or the whole world in danger. It’s not like they didn’t care, but they had bigger stuff to worry about than petty criminals who could also be stopped by the police.

But Hyukjae didn’t like to stay still. He didn’t like to be an “élite” superhero. He wanted to take care of the people whenever he could, because he was blessed with his powers and he liked to put them to good use. It was just like that, nothing more.

He swung through buildings for a while, not really finding anything interesting, but he was okay with that. He was just monitoring the city. It wasn’t like he was bored or anything.

He sighed. If Donghae was there he could at least have some fun and not be bored. But he was never there when he needed to be, of course.

Suddenly, Hyukjae got startled. "Ouch!" someone screamed, right after a loud thud. "I think I broke my wrist…" 

Hyukjae turned around and found Deadpool sitting on the ground behind him; from his position, it looked like he landed on his . Hyukjae smiled under his mask. "Where the hell did you come from?" 

Donghae looked away from his wrist and stared at Hyukjae. Well, his eyes were covered by his mask, but Hyukjae knew he was staring. Like he always did. "From there" he said, pointing at the sky. 

"You can fly now?" 

"Of course not, that's why I fell and broke my wrist." 

Hyukjae didn't ask further, because he knew he wasn't gonna get an answer and he wasn't sure he wanted one anyway. 

Donghae got up and tried to clean his suit from the dust, even though it was kinda useless. The suit was dirty and torn like it always was. Hyukjae had his fair share of ripped suits, some of them dirty with blood too, but Deadpool's ones were way worse. 

"Were you bored out here alone, Webs?" he asked, sitting next to him. 

"No" Hyukjae lied. "I was just resting." 

Donghae suddenly hugged him tight from the side, his cheek with his own and squeezing his hip with his good hand. "Well, now we can have some fun together!" 

Hyukjae almost screamed at the sudden skinship. "Leave me alone Donghae" he said, scrolling the other off himself. "I'm working." 

"You're no fun, Spidey." 

Hyukjae rolled his eyes. "I'll have you know, I am very funny!" 

"Well" Donghae said, getting up. "Let's do something fun then." 

He knew he was playing him but every time he fell for it. He really never learned. "Fine." he answered, getting up too. "What do you want to do?" 

Deadpool touched his chin with a finger, thinking about his answer, and after a few seconds he clapped his hands. "You know, I got this job…" 

"Absolutely not" Hyukjae interrupted him. "I don't want to know anything about your job." He knew Donghae was a mercenary and usually killed people and he absolutely didn't approve and didn't want to be a part of any of that. 

"Oh come on Webs" Donghae opened his arms, annoyed. "It will be fun!" 

"Stop saying that. Killing people isn't fun." 

"Who said anything about killing people?" 

"I know what your job is, Donghae." 

He just stayed still, then sighed. "You're so hot when you say my name." 

Hyukjae blushed, probably the same shade of red as his mask, and looked away. "Shut the up." he muttered. "Don't change the topic." 

Deadpool just tugged at his arm to get his attention back on him - not that it ever stopped being on him, but he didn't need to know that. "Come on Spidey! I need some help!" 

Hyukjae tried to shrug him off but he didn't really put much effort into it. "Why don't you ask some of your criminal friends?" 

"Because they're criminals!" 

"So are you." 

"Hey" Donghae pouted. He didn't know how he knew he pouted through the mask, but he could hear it through his voice. "I am your best friend." 

"No, you're not." 

Donghae acted like he was shot to the chest. "That hurt, Red Pants." 

"Don't call me that." 

Deadpool tugged at his arm some more. "Shall we go?" 

Hyukjae eyed him a little bit. He could refuse, go back to his house and get a few hours of sleep. That would surely be the best option. He really didn't want to go with Deadpool and assist him on his job - his very evil, criminal, illegal job. But if he didn't go, who would control him and make sure he didn't kill anyone? 

That was exactly what he hated about Donghae. Or better, about himself. He could just let Donghae be and do his job without him, since he had nothing to do with it, but he couldn't just walk away now that he knew he was gonna do something he wouldn't do. And any of his Avengers friends either. He had to check on him and make sure he didn't kill anyone. 

"Is your wrist okay?" he asked. 

Donghae touched his right wrist through his red suit, moving it a bit with circular movements. "It'll be fine in a few minutes." 

"Let's go then." 

"Nice!" Donghae clapped his hands again. "I need a lift though."

Ugh. Hyukjae should've known he would ask. "Yeah. Hold on tight." 

"Don't I ever?" Donghae responded, clinging onto him so he wouldn't fall. And well, he wasn't wrong. It wasn't the first time Hyukjae gave him a lift and every time he couldn't get the feeling of his strong body pressed on to him off himself. Hyukjae's body was built enough, he was in good shape