I’m Not Becoming Spider-Man - Chapter 16: Spending the Night (Patreon)

After her shower, Harley changed into her pajamas and returned to the room. The moment she opened the door, an enormous bear's head lunged at her with a loud “Boo!”

“Whoa... Peter, that's not going to scare me,” Harley said, smiling at the bear head.

Then a hand touched her shoulder from behind.

“YAAAH!” Harley nearly jumped out of her skin.

Peter, who had been hiding around the corner, burst out laughing. “Man, Harley, you should've heard yourself. You squealed like a little rabbit!”

Harley went scarlet and punched him in the chest. “You jerk!”

“Haha! All right, all right. Have a seat while I shower. There are two cups of warm milk by the bed. Take whichever you want.” With that, Peter headed off to the bathroom.

Back in the room, Harley found the two cups exactly where he'd said. She picked one up and took a sip. It was sweet, probably from added sugar. Sitting on the freshly made bed, she found herself thinking that this might be the happiest day of her life.

On her very first day at school, she'd made wonderful friends and joined a mysterious little group. It was so much better than home. If she had her way, she'd stay here forever.

Aunt May and Peter were both so much warmer than that woman Norma. Sometimes Harley wondered whether her mother was actually a crocodile.

And Peter most of all!

Peter... he was... he was just so cool!

He looked like a nerd, but once you got to know him, he was incredibly fun and capable.

Harley sniffed her pajamas. They didn't smell of anything, though Peter had worn them before.

“Come to think of it... does that mean Peter's using a towel I've already used? Oh, right... and what I'm wearing underneath right now is also...”

Wasn't that a little too intimate? Weren't things moving awfully fast?

Her imagination running away with her, Harley lay back on the rather firm mattress and stared at the ceiling. Then she shook her head.

“Gwen and Mary Jane really are such good girls... But me, I'm a little...”

“What are you talking about, Harley?” Peter asked, opening the door.

“Whoa! How are you back so soon?!”

“Uh, aren't guys usually this quick...? Wait, that came out wrong...” Peter was rubbing his hair with a towel. Without his glasses, and with nothing hiding his modest but well-defined muscles, the shape of his chest and abs was obvious.

He was wearing only a pair of shorts. Harley blushed. “Oh my God, aren't you going to put any clothes on?!”

She hadn't expected his seemingly skinny frame to look so muscular once he took his shirt off.

“Come on, I'm wearing shorts,” Peter replied. “Besides, I've got some things to do before bed. Pajamas would just get in the way.”

“W-what things?!” Harley asked nervously.

“Exercise, and some sketches for the next issue. If I stop drawing, Gwen will be on my case again.”

“Oh... okay.”

“If you're tired, go ahead and sleep.” Peter took a hammock out of the closet and set it up. “I'll sleep in this tonight. You can have the bed.”

“All right.” With no idea what else to do, Harley crawled beneath the covers and tried to get comfortable.

But she tossed and turned without managing to fall asleep. It was her first time sharing a room with anyone, and she felt strangely restless. She'd had such an eventful day that her brain was exhausted, yet sleep refused to come.

Instead, she watched Peter lift dumbbells, draw with a pen, and, after a while, apparently tinker with something else. She was careful to move as quietly as possible, afraid of disturbing him.

Eventually, when it was time for bed, Peter changed into his pajamas, switched off the small light, pulled a blanket over himself in the hammock, and settled down.

Harley still couldn't sleep. By now, the milk she'd drunk was making itself felt, too.

She slipped out of bed and tiptoed toward the bathroom. Peter's hammock hung beside the door. As she passed, she stopped to study his sleeping face.

“Actually... the longer I look at him, the better he looks...”

He wasn't astonishingly handsome, but his face grew on you. And when she considered his physique and his personality... now that she'd gotten to know him, Peter really was a wonderful boy.

Peter opened his eyes. For one second, they stared at each other.

“WAAAH!” Peter yelped and promptly fell out of the hammock.

“AAH!” Startled by his scream, Harley screamed too.

“You scared me half to death, Harley! What are you doing wandering around in the middle of the night?” Peter demanded, clutching his chest.

“Heh... Hahahaha!” Harley burst out laughing. “It's nothing, nothing. Thank you, Peter.”

With that, she left the room.

“...” Peter rubbed his face. There wasn't anything strange about it, was there? Who knew what had gotten into her?

Whatever. Back to sleep.

But when Harley came back from the bathroom, she found she couldn't push the door open. She had to pound on it several times before Peter finally let her in.

“Uh... next time you go out, don't pull the door shut. The lock on my room is a real pain to open.”

“Do you seriously need all this...?” Harley stared at the combination lock, mechanical lock, and fingerprint scanner. What on earth was he protecting himself from?!

“I wish I didn't,” Peter said with a headache. But Mary Jane could find her way around just about anything.

At least with somebody else staying in his room, even Mary Jane probably wouldn't come barging in and start something.

...

“Come on, Harley, wake up!” Peter said, shaking her.

“Mmm... Is it morning already?”

“Of course it is. Get dressed, or we'll be late. I'm going downstairs. Hurry up.”

When Peter reached the living room, he found a beautiful redhead already waiting on the couch.

“Mary Jane...”

“What, aren't you happy to see me, Peter?” Mary Jane asked. “You'll hurt my feelings so badly I might cry.”

“You'd better mean that.”

Aunt May interrupted them. “All right, kids, come have breakfast.”

Breakfast was simple: buttered bread, fried eggs, and sliced tomatoes.

“Uh... Mary Jane?” Harley had just come downstairs after changing when she spotted that familiar red hair.

“Mm-hmm. You certainly look well rested, Harley,” Mary Jane said. “You should stay over every night. I'm sure Peter would love having you take over his little room.”

The jealousy was practically dripping from her words.

“That's enough, Mary Jane. Give it a rest. Come on, Harley, eat something. We have a bus to catch.”

“Thanks.”

After a quick breakfast, the three of them headed out together. Only then did Harley get the chance to whisper to Peter, “How did Mary Jane get here?”

“Uh... she lives really close by. We've always gone to school together.”

“Oh, I see...”

The three boarded the school bus. For Harley, squeezing onto a bus with the other students was a novel experience. She had always been driven to school in the family car. This was her first time riding with everyone else.

Taking the school bus was optional. Students were free to arrange their own transportation. In an era when the government was still throwing money around to compete with the other side, funding a free school bus was hardly a problem.

“Oh, hey! Look who it is, short stuff!”

Thompson's voice rang out.

...

Note: You may occasionally notice a mix of “he” and “she” when Harley is mentioned. Harley is female, but some characters mistake her for a boy. This also happens in the original text and has been intentionally preserved in the translation.