Mats ⚡️

When you're sizing up your future spouse

talons gloves 🥴 don't jnow what else to add to this design tbh .. plus the gloves are a minimal thing to fuss over design-wise when the rest of his outfit is a hundred times more lavish and noticeable. suggestions r always appreciated tho

Corny title, I couldn't think of anything.

! Suggestive !

It hadn't been the first time someone had attempted to flirt with them. "Them" as in mainly Mateo since he was the more charming one in the relationship. Whenever they were in his world, more people would giggle and point at him but never make the effort to come up and actually get his number. In the very rare times that it would happen, he always politely denied people and would say that he was already a taken man. During the early days of their relationship, most people assumed he was only saying it because of his marriage with Gabriel, even though he had died years ago. That was before the public knew that he was with Scarlet. Regardless, no one tried to push him to sleep with them and he always denied everyone. Having a loyal man like that always did calm Star's nerves down and helped her feel more relaxed in knowing he was only hers. Although she had trusted Mateo to the fullest, things started to change a bit after their date on the beach when a familiar man came to flirt with both of them. It was the first time in a while that she began to question their relationship.

A few days ago on the beach, Mateo and Scarlet were approached by a very handsome man who they quickly realized looked a lot like Gabriel. His name was Gally, a charming man on the beach that instantly had their hearts the moment he winked at them. Not only had Gally spent time flirting and teasing the both of them, he left them with his number with the promise of seeing them again if they called him. The man wanted them and they were starting to question if they wanted him. By the time they got home, the question was still lingering in the air. Call him for a hookup or delete the number and act like they never met? But the issue here was that they both wanted this. I mean come on, the man reminded them so much of Gabriel and it wouldn't hurt just to feel something like him again, right? They trusted each other with this and Gally was greedy enough to want both of them at the same time. But the biggest issue was Scarlet's insecurities beginning to return to her mind and make her overthink the whole situation.

Two days after their beach date, they still hadn't contacted Gally. Scarlet had been lost in thought about the situation, feeling that they should delete the number and ignore what happened. But another part wanted to try this new experience, she just feared what would happen afterwards. But while she was lost in thought one night, Mateo came into the living room and sat down on the couch, wrapping his arm around her. "Everything okay, shiny? Yer awfully quite today." He kissed her head, hoping that everything was okay with her. Scarlet finally snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him, "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine." She lied which he instantly caught onto. He frowned and took her hand in his, "Shiny, yer doing it again." He knew when she was trying to hide things from him. Frowning, she turned to fully face him, needing to finally bring up the topic. "Okay fine. I keep thinking about Gally and what he asked."

"Gally? I thought we were going to delete his number?"

"What made you think that?"

"Well ya haven't told me we should call him. This isn't just my choice here shiny."

"Yeah well…" Her cheeks briefly went red as she started to think about the main thing she needed to bring up, "…I've never exactly been in a threesome before."

"Oh. Right. It's not anythin' to be afraid of though."

"That's not.." Okay, it's true that having a third person did scare her but it was also something else. "We've never…let someone else come into our relationship like that. What if something happens? Like what if one of us…falls for him?"

"What do ya mean?" He slightly tilted his head.

"Gally looks a lot like Gabriel, sunshine. I mean come on, that's one of the main reasons we even started to get all flustered."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean anythin'."

"How? What if we do this and you like him better?"

"Star…?"

"I'm serious, Teo'. If he reminded you so much of Gabriel, you would leave me. He's from your universe too which would give you the higher advantage!"

He blinked, wondering where that assumption came from, "Scarlet, I would never do that to you!"

"Bullshit! You say that now but if we do sleep with him, how do I know that I won't be shoved away? That you won't remember Gabriel and just replace me with him! You got to marry your Gabriel so you still have that love for him!" She stood up from the couch and paced around.

"Scarlet, yer stressin' yerself out and makin' this worse than what it is." he spoke calmly, "Let's just talk about this…"

"This isn't stressing you out?"

"I…no, it's not stressin' me out that much."

"Then what is it?! Because for all I know, you could be thinking about letting more people come between us and you're just getting tired of me!" Her insecurities were beginning to slip out and only reveal how much the thought of a threesome was starting to scare her. Mateo was unable to respond for a second, catching onto how she was scared about him potentially allowing more people to sleep with them while hiding that he wanted someone else.

"Scarlet…do ya think I want to be with someone else? That having Gally come over will make me want more people over? That I want an open relationship?"

Scarlet didn't immediately respond but the way she looked at him with anger and hidden sadness gave her answer away. She faced the ground and sighed. Mateo wasn't done and he sat up straighter, leaning forward to try and see her eyes, "Star, I'd never want that. Having Gally sleep with us would just be…a quick hookup. And I told ya before, we don't have to do anythin'! I'll delete the number and this'll be behind us. If ya said no, I wouldn't be upset whatsoever."

"That's not just my only issue either, Mateo. It's how calm you are about this! Do you not understand what we're trying to do!? To sleep with another man?! You're not even getting mad about this!" She gestured to the both of them.

"Why would I get mad?"

"Because of this situation! Mateo, this is a serious thing and you're so calm about it that it's pissing me off!!" Then again getting angry had been pretty easy for her.

"Shiny, I told you, we could just delete the number!"

"But you want this!"

"I never said if I did or I didn't."

Scarlet became frustrated and nearly pulled at her hair before standing up, "You slept with multiple people in the past and had threesomes like it was the shocking thing to do! That's why this isn't scaring you or even making you see why I have an issue with it! This…this feels like some kind of break in loyalty!" Mateo slightly titled his head in response to that and she groaned louder, "Don't look at me like some innocent puppy!"

"I'm not!"

"You so are and you know it!"

Mateo sat up straighter, "Shiny, yer takin' this way out of proportion! Okay fine, I'm calm about this because yes, I've had a threesome but I'm not doing this just for myself! Yer the one who also was willing to do it!"

"Yeah but I thought about it more! What if you fall in love with Gally and realize he's a lot like Gabriel? What if I get kicked off the bed and you two forget I'm there? What if you realize you don't want me anymore?!" That made Mateo's eyes widen and he was almost speechless for a second. Here he was being calm as ever about this while she was worried about what could happen during the hookup. "Scarlet, I would never leave ya for Gally. We just met him!"

"That doesn't mean shock."

"Ya really think I'm gonna sleep with Gally once, fall in love, and then leave ya?" The way he said it made it sound like he thought that was stupid. And yes, she caught it.

"Fix your attitude, Orlin." Her calling him by his last name was a sore subject but not one to deal with at the moment. It was something she did when she was getting angry or annoyed and it's not like he was the first person she's doing it to. Whenever she was mad at Gabriel, she'd do the same thing.

Although he had been thrown back by her calling him by his last name, he continued, "I mean it, Scarlet. Ya can't just…" He paused for a second and sighed, "ya can't just assume that I'm gonna be the one to fall for Gally and leave ya. That's not who I am and ya know it."

"Well you never know!"

"Seriously Scarlet? I'm not going to go that low and cheat on ya. That's not what I do." He watched her pace around. "I love you, Scarlet. And…I'm sorry that this is scarin' ya so much. But Ya have to believe me when I say I'm not just willing to do this for myself either. I trust ya with this and even if we did sleep with Gally, who's to say we'd ever see him again? He's not ma boyfriend and he's not yers either."

"I'm just having second thoughts on this, Mateo. I mean do we need to call him right now?"

"What? No! No. Of course not. I wasn't trying to rush ya into doing this, Scarlet. We can take as long as we want, there's no deadline to this."

That finally made her relax and begin to realize that she was taking this farther than it needed to go. Maybe it was time for them to have a deeper conversation instead of diving head first into a hookup. After all, there were some unspoken things for Scarlet to bring up. "Can we just…call it a night please? The argument felt like it could only get worse if she didn't calm down more and she didn't feel like fighting anymore since he was being very reasonable. Mateo nodded and stood up, offering his hand to her so they could go to bed together. There was a moment of hesitation before she took it and followed him to the bedroom. In the room, Scarlet changed out of her clothes, putting on one of his shirts with nothing underneath. With both of them not saying a word, it felt like there was still unresolved tension between them and neither didn't know if it was time to apologize. But it wasn't Mateo's fault either since Scarlet was the one to get snappy first but that didn't mean he didn't feel bad and felt like he had some fault in causing her to get upset.

Even with the tension of the argument still in the air, Scarlet got into bed and laid down on her side as Mateo joined her on his side. For a second, neither of them moved or scooted over to the other, feeling like the tension still was too high for cuddling. Thankfully, Scarlet was the one to move first, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tighter than normal. Teo' didn't say a word and instead just held her close to his chest while gently stroking her hair. It was enough to make her tear up and quietly cry but not enough to hide it from him. He could feel her trembling, knowing it was because of her insecurities getting to her head. They should talk about it instead of going to bed so they could clear the air but right now this was all they could do.

Normally in the morning, Scarlet and Mateo would wake up together and take their sweet time in bed and eventually get up to have breakfast together or just laze around. They deserved that kind of peace together anyways. But this morning, Scarlet woke up first and looked at Mateo, making sure he was still fully asleep before attempting to slip out of bed. Only issue was that he always has a tight grip on her so she doesn't slip away. Any other day would have been fine but today she just needed to get away for a bit. She squirmed and tried to push him without waking him up but it felt like he held her tighter whenever she moved a few inches. "Jammit honey" She muttered and continued to squirm away. Barley using her telekinesis, she very carefully lifted his arms enough so she could escape and quickly shoved a pillow where she was at so he'd think he was still holding her. Standing up and staying completely still, she watched him mumble something in his sleep before settling into the pillow. Scarlet finally could breathe and make her escape. Guess there is some good things about being a thicker woman.

Throwing on a hoodie and sweats that she's left at his place before, she looked back at him for a second before leaving to get some fresh air. All she needed was a few hours to herself and maybe watch the sunset in a beautiful spot before the day officially started. She never had the heart to fully leave and it wasn't like her world was any more peaceful to roam around. Leaving his apartment was easy. Flying out into the sky and passing through the clouds as the sun was beginning to rise had been much more peaceful than staying in bed. Just for today though. The golden sun slowly began to rise and brighten the city, allowing Scarlet to feel its warmth and take a breath of the fresh air. It was much more different than what she experiences back in her world where the air feels too thick and often trapped. It was more a prison over in the universe than here. What a joy it must be to live in such a peaceful world where order is better controlled. Not run by a corrupt society where drones stalk every citizen and mutants would be deemed as monsters. It wasn't fair. But Scarlet was grateful to be able to experience it and see a universe where things aren't so bad. It wasn't perfect but it had been so much better than hers. As she continued to fly and feel the sun begin to wake the city up and warm the earth, she put on some wired headphones she brought with her and plugged it into her phone. Selecting her playlist, she pocketed her phone and continued to fly around, letting the music calm her down more. Random songs played while she flew past buildings and felt like she could fly without needing to run away from a group of people. She stayed outside for hours and let the whole playlist finish before she decided it was time to head home. On her way back, "Brooklyn Baby" by Lana Del Rey began to play which only made her chuckle to herself. "Kinda reminds me of a certain cowboy…" She couldn't stay mad at him forever. Although she was supposed to be heading back, she made a quick stop at a restaurant to pick up some breakfast.

The breakfast spot she went to was one they commonly went to when wanting something quick. It was called "Cozy Eats" and they would go so much that most of the workers recognize them. There weren't a ton of places where people would recognize Star so coming here actually made her feel good. Entering inside, the smell of fresh bread and sweet pastries made her stomach growl. The whole vibe of the restaurant was very calm and it was warm inside with the workers also being extremely friendly. Today for breakfast, Scarlet ordered them some breakfast bagels with some sweet coffee for herself and lavender matcha for Teo' with extra sweetener. Right before paying for it, there was a fresh batch of doughnuts being glazed in the back which instantly caught her attention. The cashier caught onto her gaze and smiled, "I'll add two to the order." Star's cheeks went red from slight embarrassment at being caught like that. "Could you actually make that two boxes?" The worker paused what they were doing and looked back at her with a surprised expression. "As in…2 dozen?" This poor worker. She nodded and the worker looked back at the baker that brought out the doughnuts. "I'll get that for you right now."At least they weren't judgmental about this because anywhere else they would have been concerned.

Getting everything which was a small bag that had the bagels, the two boxes of doughnuts, and a cup carrier with their drinks. Thankfully having telekinesis was helpful in times like these so she was able to carry everything back home where they would have a nice breakfast.

Back at the apartment, Mateo was barley starting to wake up once the sun was hitting the curtains and barley peeking inside. His arms instinctively tightened around what was supposed to be Scarlet but he caught onto how much softer "she" felt. When seeing the pillow in his arms, his heart stopped for a second when realizing she wasn't here and clearly had left in secret. The blankets flew off as he jumped out of bed, getting worried that she left him after the argument last night and only making him feel much worse. Did it go too far? Should he have apologized last night instead of waiting in the morning? Did she leave him for good? But even with these thoughts floating in his mind, he calmed himself down to process that she wouldn't do that. "She just…left real quick. She'll be back. He told himself while pacing around. It wasn't like her to just get up and leave without saying anything but this was their first argument in a while which did go the wrong way. His fear of abandonment was really beginning to kick in while he waited for her to hopefully come back. He was sort of like a dog that was waiting for their owner. Poor cowboy :(

Luckily it didn't take very long before the front door opened and in came Scarlet, carrying all the stuff she got from Cozy Eats and humming along to the song playing through her headphones. Mateo looked up quickly and rushed over to pull her into a tight hug. "Oof!" She squeaked when he unexpectedly hugged her. Didn't think he would already be awake but she did lose track of time and it wasn't going to take long before he caught onto the pillow trick. "Good morning, honey." She could feel him squeezing her tighter than normal, only giving away his worry. "Teo'?" When she said his name, he pulled back and really looked at her for a second before finally speaking, "I thought ya left and went home…"

Scarlet took off her headphones and saw how worried he looked, "Oh…oh no, I would never do that. I just needed some air and some time to myself."

"Ya could've told me, shiny."

"I didn't want to wake you up."

"Well do it next time. Please?"

A slight frown formed for a moment before she sighed and nodded, 'Yeah, I'll make sure to wake you up next time. I promise." She kissed his cheek and he hugged her tightly again. When they pulled away from each other, Scarlet brought the food into view and smiled softly. "I uh…brought some food for us." Mateo looked at the items and chuckled softly, "And you bought breakfast without me? I'm hurt, shiny."

"I won't do it again, I promise." She kissed him again, this time on the lips.

The couple went to the kitchen and Mateo carried most of the stuff now although Star had it. He just wanted to help her and she didn't argue since she already had him worried. Setting everything down, Mateo was already sipping at his drink and sat down next to Scarlet as they began to enjoy some breakfast. The breakfast bagels were sandwiches with egg and sausage, Scarlet's had bacon as extra, and then there were the doughnuts. Any normal person would have assumed the doughnuts had been for the both of them to split and eat over time but no. One whole box went to each of them because yes they could eat a whole box of a dozen doughnuts. But as they ate together in silence, there was still a slight tension in the air that lingered from the argument last night. They both were aware they had to address it eventually if not they would have lingering issues. For a while, no one ate until they finished their sandwiches. Mateo reached for his box of doughnuts and took one out while Star took a sip of her coffee that looked like it was a cup of milk. She finally spoke up, "Can we talk about what happened last night?" Mateo looked at her and nodded while still eating his doughnut.

"Look I'm…." The first rule of an argument is to admit that you were wrong. "…I'm sorry about what I said. I shouldn't have been making those assumptions and saying that you would leave me if we slept with Gally." She sighed and fiddled with her hands, rubbing her fingertips. "I should've been more honest about this whole thing and how it's been scaring me."

Mateo finished his doughnut and then closed the box, turning all his attention onto her, "It's okay shiny. That's ma fault too for not askin' ya how ya feel about Gally and this potential hookup. I was too calm about the whole thing and failed to see how it was effectin' ya."

"We messed up there. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really want to do this. You saw how I reacted when Gally came to flirt with us. I just got…scared thinking that if we do this that you'd leave me."

"Shiny, I would never do that to ya. I know he looks similar to Gabriel but he's not him and I could never do that to ya." He took her hands into his own, "I won't lie to ya about one thing though. My love for Gabriel is still there and….Gally does remind me of him. But I can't do that to ya and just abandon ya like that. We've built this relationship together."

"I know that you still love Gabriel and so do I. We lost him…" She frowned.

"I'm always going to regret that. I couldn't….save him."

"Hey…' Scarlet cupped his cheek and made him look at her. "It wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could do in that moment. Trust me, I always think about what I could have done to save him."

"The universe must hate us, huh?" Mateo lightly joked.

"When it comes to loving Gabriel, I guess so. That's something I can't control" She scoffed.

"That's just how the timelines work, I suppose"

"Stupid…" She scoffed again. Thinking for a second, she looked at him again, "You know I love you, Mateo. And I do trust you. I just got in on my own head.

"And I love ya too, Scarlet. I promise to talk to ya about somethin' like this if it ever happens again. Ya deserve that much." He kissed her head and she finally relaxed, now remembering that she had nothing to worry about. But the thought of a threesome still scared her only because she didn't know if she could handle two people at the same time. Butttt….she did still wanna try. "So um…did you…wanna try to call Gally? Or text him? Unless he somehow already got tired of waiting and deleted your number."

Mateo laughed at that and then grabbed his phone, "I could try. But yer positive that ya wanna do this? Don't agree just because ya wanna make me happy, shiny." She looked at him again and really thought about it for a moment. What could possibly go wrong about this? The most that could happen was just embarrassing herself. "I'm positive that I want this too. Besides, if I can't handle it then I'll just step out." "Well then I'm doin' the same thing if ya can't handle it."

"Teo'…"

"I'm serious, shiny. If ya get uncomfortable, we can always stop. I promise.:"

"…thank you."

"Of course." He pressed a kiss to her head. "We'll text him later today, okay? Why don't we just relax for now?"

She nodded, wanting to take the opportunity to take her time before they allowed Gally to come over. "Yeah that sounds good."

Later that day, Gally gets a message from an unknown number while he was eating some food alone at his home. Checking the message curiously and reading it over, he smirked when realizing who it was from. He sent a response back to say that he would be on his way in about thirty minutes which would allow him to get ready for this fun night. "Looks like that cowboy wanted me after all." He chuckled to himself and got up, forgetting about the food he was eating. Just as he entered his bedroom to grab some fresh clothes, he remembered the woman that was with the charming cowboy. He quickly sent another text to confirm how this night was potentially going to go. Either he would be sleeping with one person or two, which he wouldn't mind either or. But when he got the text back saying both of them were there, he grinned and felt more giddy, knowing he was about to have a very good night. Getting in the shower and freshening up, Gally put on his sunglasses and threw on a dark green plaid shirt over a white t-shirt followed by some jeans. He made sure to put on some cologne before leaving to really seal the deal. Not that he needed to since he remembered how flustered the two of them had gotten when he did simple flirting.

The drive to the apartment hadn't been a long one and he made sure that he still looked presentable by the time he arrived. Before Gally arrived however, Scarlet and Mateo had been making sure the place was clean and lets face it, that whole building doesn't have a spec of dust anywhere. Teo' rushed to change into something more presentable and Star went to go rush a quick shower. These two don't really need to get ready like that but when its a man that looks like their dead fiancé/husband, they basically forgot all their charm and flirting skills. By the time Gally managed to get up to the door, they had just finished and made sure nothing on them would give something away. None of Star's skin had been showing her true form for now and Teo'…well he doesn't need to worry about hiding much, everyone just sees him as the sexy country singer. They exchanged a quick kiss and smiled before answering the door. Seeing Gally there made both of them forget how to speak for a moment and blush. Gally himself smirked and place his sunglasses on his head, "Oh man, am I glad to see you two again." he winked and already knew he had them flustered. "Uh, it's good to see ya too. Come on in." Mateo let him inside. The moment Gally entered, he looked around and almost felt like he went back in time seeing the vintage looking theme inside. It was a two story penthouse and the entrance alone had a view to the stunning swirling staircase followed by a marble flooring. The lighting was warm and dim and it smelled faintly of cinnamon and vanilla. He let out a low whistle as he looked around, "Wow. Quite a place you've got here. The entrance alone feels bigger than my own room."

Mateo sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and had a faint blush on his cheek, "Ah, thank you. It is quite a ton of space." He chuckled. Gally nodded and wandered around but didn't get too far as he wanted to respect the space. "Soooo…" He started, "How are we doing this? Sit down and relax for a bit or just get straight into the good stuff?" Both Star and Teo' nearly stopped breathing when he said that and looked at each other. Scarlet managed to speak first, "Um! Why don't we just…relax for a bit?" "Alright, fine by me." He followed them to the living room where the couple sat next to each other and Gally sat across from the on the other couch. For about an hour or so, they all had a nice conversation together, mainly trying to learn more about Gally while also telling him things about them. He knew officially now that Star and Teo' had been dating for quite some time but were willing to have a third just for hookup purposes. Gally respected that, not wanting anything serious with them anyways, although the idea hadn't been a bad one. Although Star had been the one to try and stretch the conversation for as long as possible because she was becoming nervous, they started to discuss how the hookup was going to go. She let Mateo speak more which was mainly about consenting to certain things along with setting some boundaries such as Scarlet getting uncomfortable would mean they would fully stop. Once again though, Gally had been okay with that and wasn't one to push anyone out of their comfort zone.

"So, why don't you two go get comfortable and then I'll see you in the bedroom?" Gally suggested. The couple nodded, leaving to their bedroom. Mateo just went to take off his clothes while Scarlet went to the bathroom to fully change into something better. She had been more and more nervous as if this would be her first time sleeping with someone. "Why is this getting to me? It's one night and then we're done! It can't be so bad…jeez…" She mumbled to herself while getting undressed. Meanwhile, Mateo was perfectly fine while getting undressed until he was shirtless and looking charming as ever. By the time Star was done, she exited out the bathroom and came back to the bedroom while pacing around nervously. Mateo caught onto this quickly, "Shiny? What's wrong?"

"I dunno. I'm just…we're really doing this, huh? Sleeping with another person that looks a lot like Gabriel. I can't believe we're doing it." Although she had been stressing around and pacing back and forth, she failed to realize that she was wearing a new lingerie piece that was meant to be a surprise for Mateo but now was going to be a surprise for him and Gally. Mateo got distracted by the piece as it was a mix of a misty dark blue and purple to look like outer space that had white constellations patterned on it . The top piece had black lace trimming along the bra and waist whole the bottom piece had lacing so it could rest at the hips. It looked amazing on her which only made him flustered. While she was yapping away about how nervous and shy she was about this, Teo' had been staring at her and admiring how she looked. He eventually stepped forward and stopped her from pacing around. "Hey hey…listen to me." Putting his hands on her waist to stop her, she looked up at him curiously, "Everythin' is going to be okay, shiny. Just remember that if it gets too much to handle, we can stop immediately, okay? I'll be right there with ya."Scarlet took a deep breath and nodded, holding his hands to calm herself down more. "Right right…it's going to be fine. This is going to be fun." Her nerves began to calm down and she leaned against him. "Guh…this is so embarrassing. Feels like I'm having sex for the first time." Mateo chuckled at that, "There's just more work to put into it."

"Oh fun." She weakly chuckled.

"It's going to be fine. Just focus on me if ya need comfort. I'll guide ya." That was hot. He kissed her hand and then looked down at what she was wearing again. "How long have ya been hiding this from me?"

She blushed and chuckled, "Why Do you like it?"

"That's one way of putting it." He kissed her neck and she giggled softly, letting him kiss her more for a bit before Gally came into the room. "Aw, don't tell me that you two already started without me." He joked. The couple looked back at him and moved apart, getting flustered from getting caught for a second. They were different people when it came to Gally. But he chuckled some more and moved closer, "I never said stop." That definitely had them blushing more.

Scarlet and Mateo went to sit on the bed together while Gally began to take off his clothes. He stripped down slowly, giving them a mini show of his body as he knew how much he got them hot and bothered. First was his pants that he slid down and then his shirt which finally let them see his caramel skin that had some faint freckles on it. When he looked back at them, they were already staring and blushing more than before. He climbed onto to the bed to join them, not saying a word yet. Although Mateo was flustered, Scarlet was much more shy about this, more than normal. Often times, she gets flustered when Mateo takes the lead but this was on a different level and she didn't know what to do. She sat back in the bed and Gally noticed how tense she looked, "Hey, it's okay baby. I'll be gentle." He reassured her. Even though she knew that, it didn't calm her nerves down. But it wasn't enough for her to leave the room and Gally instead decided to focus on Mateo first.

It started off slow with them just kissing and their hands slowly beginning to explore each other. Gally laid him back and had his hand on his chest to feel his muscles while feeling how he twitched. He had to learn what made Teo' flinch and shudder first and that required him to take his time. His hands went to his waist while Teo' let him sit on his lap and continued to kiss him. Scarlet watched, her heart pounding rapidly in her chest as she saw Gally passionately kiss him. Gally wasn't silent as he let out quiet groans and soft whimpers when Mateo touched the right places. Their kissing led to Gally kissing down his neck and finding his sweet spots, occasionally nibbling certain areas enough to barley leave the smallest mark on him. Star didn't know how much time had passed while she was watching them get to explore each other better. But eventually, Gally pulled back from Teo' and gently pulled her closer to them to remind her that she was here too and was going to get the same treatment. Laying her back as well and next to Mateo, Gally came down to not kiss her on the lips bit on her neck. From how flustered she was from watching them and already feeling aroused, she was already whimpering and letting him know what spots felt good and what was making her twitch. Mateo joined in to make sure she felt as comfortable as possible in this moment and although it had been overwhelming at first, she was slowly beginning to melt into their embraces.

The first round together had Gally feeling both of them and getting to know their bodies. To figure out what made them twitch and what made them gasp. He never pushed it but learned that Mateo had been quicker with adjusting to him and certain spots he touched. Scarlet was a little longer as she was tense throughout most of it but started to feel more relaxed when remembering Mateo was close enough. Gally learned how both of them were into praise and Scarlet was into being guided through certain commands. It didn't take him very long to see how effected the two of them had been by him alone and it only made him feel much more confident in making them feel good. Every touch, every moan, every gasp, it allowed him to feel even better about himself.

The sheets were starting to get ruined and gripped, some of the pillows nearly fell off the bed and the creaking of the headboard surely had to make the neighbors notice that something could be happening. Overtime, Gally and Scarlet only became more vocal the more they went on, crying out in pleasure and moaning either names like it was a prayer. When they both focused on Mateo and praised him, whispering in his ear on how good he was doing, how good he felt for them, and begging him to keep going, it made him nearly melt right then and there, groaning louder and barley saying a curse under his breath that only gained him more praise. The room was beginning to feel hotter and much more tense with desire once the first round was done. Scarlet's stars were beginning to form in the room, something she wasn't able to fully control. She had to lie to Gally that it was just something he was seeing or was because of the lighting in the room. Thankfully, he believed it. But once they were done with the first two rounds, Gally assumed he had them finished for the night like most of his hookups were. However, when he sat up and looked at both of them, he quickly noticed how neither of them looked like they broke a sweat yet while he was already feeling tired. Scarlet's shyness had faded and Mateo was beginning to feel much more confident in what he was doing. Gally weakly smiled as they came in to handle him for the rest of the remaining rounds he could handle.

Scarlet focused on kissing Gally while Mateo did the majority of the work for the third round, occasionally switching positions and even attempting to try new ones that he could handle. Gally had been moaning much louder during these rounds, mainly because his body was becoming much more sensitive and he was slowly losing energy and becoming overstimulated. He hadn't complained once as he heard more praises while hearing the two of them either moan or grunt. Now he had been the one gripping the sheets, begging for more until he nearly lost his voice or couldn't handle much more. He barley was able to handle the fourth round when realizing neither of them were tired yet, only concerning him more about how his poor body was going to react overtime. But thankfully, the two of them finally stopped when they saw how tired he appeared along with how he was ready to pass out from exhaustion. "Okay, I think that's enough for tonight." Mateo pulled away from Gally and let him catch his breath while Scarlet helped him get comfortable in bed. "You two…are crazy." He was barley awake while forcing that out. The couple managed to lay him down in a better position and fix the bed so he was comfortable enough to get some rest. While they did this, he noticed the stars floating in the room and how it almost looked like they were in outer space. "Have those always been there?" He questioned while trying to clear his vision to get a better view. Scarlet noticed how much brighter her stars looked and knew this was something she needed to hide. But instead of trying to force them away or laugh it off, she lied, "You're just tired, honey. Think you're seeing stuff now." She giggled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Gally nodded, too tired to figure out the lie, "Yeah…you're probably right." His eyes fluttered shut just as Mateo kissed his head, "Get some rest now, darlin'.

Once Gally was fully asleep, the couple looked at one another and chuckled, laying next to each other but close to Gally so he knew they were there. He was completely knocked out from their night of passion and had visible marks on him such as bites and a few scratches on his back. His hair was messy and lips were slightly swollen from how much they had been kissing him. But he was going to be treated well by the morning time and for now he would have a warm bed to sleep in with Scarlet and Mateo. They both decided to recover together since they weren't tired yet but were now relaxing in each others embrace.

"You doing okay?" Scarlet asked Teo' while resting her head on his chest and holding his hand.

"Perfectly fine, shiny." He kissed her head and rubbed her back. "What about ya? Feelin' better than before?"

"Much better. After that first round, I felt so much more comfortable. Didn't think we'd try some new things though." She giggled.

"Glad he was able to handle that much though." They both looked at Gally as he slept, taking in how gentle his expression was while sleeping. Mateo was holding his hand while Scarlet was resting hers on top and rubbing his knuckles.

"Did he remind you of Gabriel?" She quietly asked.

"Yes…just a bit."

"I almost said his name a few times. I hope he doesn't remember that."

"I nearly did. But I'm sure he was too distracted to have caught it."

While relaxing for a bit and enjoying the aftermath of everything, Mateo kissed her head again, "Shiny, how are ya feelin' now that it's all done? About what ya said before all this?"

"Oh…that?" Thinking back to how nervous she had been about the situation and how she felt like Mateo would leave her, she finally realized there was nothing to worry about. Everything had gone extremely well and there was so much trust between each of them. Gally was patient with both of them during the first round when he was feeling them and even took small breaks if anything had been too much. The same applies to Mateo as he had been reassuring throughout their time together and would check in on her to make sure she wasn't too overwhelmed. Even when it was him over her, he would whisper sweet things and even slip in how much he loved her.

"I shouldn't have been freaking out so much," She finally admitted, "I shouldn't have put so much blame onto you and assumed you would leave me. I was just so scared about….y'know."

"About being abandoned?"

She nodded.

"Oh shiny, I could never do that to ya. And I'm sorry again that I didn't talk to ya about this before we texted Gally. This was a huge choice and I should have made sure everything was okay between us."

"I'm sorry too. But hey, this was sorta new for both of us. And it was good. Well, besides the argument part."

Mateo chuckled, "yeah, besides that." He cupped her cheek and made him look at her, "I love you, shiny. I really do."

Melting every time he said, she smiled, "I love you too, sunshine." They shared a quick but loving kiss and stayed in each others embrace for a second before Scarlet caught glimpse of her stars again, "Geez. I didn't realize how bright these things were going to be." She laughed.

"After so many rounds, I'm not that surprised!" Mateo laughed with her.

"Poor Gally probably thinks he was hallucinating. That's definitely not a normal thing for him."

"He might question why we hadn't been so tired"

"That too!" As they laughed and joked about how much Gally might be confused about, Mateo eventually looked at the stars in his room now and chuckled again.

"Could've changed how they looked so he wouldn't have questioned it." he started to bend the shapes of the stars, making them appear much different than normal. Scarlet's eyes widened and she gasped softly, "Wait, you can do that? Ohhhh its light…" She watched him mess with the shapes of them and giggled at how silly they started to look. Just a bunch of different shapes floating in the room. Scarlet was able to change how bright they were and was also able to move them, pulling them closer and even grabbing a handful and sprinkling it onto Mateo's hair. It almost looked like glitter that was able to faintly glow on him. In their moment together, they laughed about the stars and made different shapes and forms with two being shaped like a heart just as they fell asleep.

The morning sun was fully up in the sky when Gally woke up, only to find himself between Scarlet and Mateo. This had to have been heaven as both of them were holding him close and he was warm in the spot. The bed felt like a cloud, they were both next to him, and he was warm enough that he could sleep here for another few hours if he really wanted to. Although staying in bed sounded like a much better idea since this was probably the best thing he had ever woken up to, his curiosity was beginning to take over. What was supposed to be an easy way to get out of bed had quickly become a huge challenge for him. Just attempting to sit up, the couple kept him down and tightened their grip on him. Being squished by both of them was another issue since any kind of movement immediately alerted them that he was trying to leave. It was really nice but he wanted leave! Squirming around while not trying to wake either of them up, Gally had to slide down and off the bed to finally get free from their embrace. Standing up at the foot of the bed, he saw that they didn't wake up and instead scooted closer to each other to cuddle. It was pretty cute to him and he sighed while running his hand through his hair.

Finally free, he threw on his pants and walked around shirtless through the penthouse, taking a moment to really see what he had gotten himself into. While walking however, he was very sore in certain spots that almost made it hard for him to walk. "Jeez…how much did they do to me?" He chuckled to himself while also thinking about how much stronger the two of them really were. The bedroom itself had been extremely nice with the large white bed in the middle of the room with the actual mattress feeling like you were sleeping on a cloud. The dim lights that had a warm tone to it allowed the whole place to feel comfortable and that same warm tone continued in each room. The more he explored and saw each part of the area, the more he realized who exactly he just slept with. But even as he explored, something faintly came to mind. How many people have stayed here? He noticed a photo in one of the rooms that had a photo of Mateo and someone else that wasn't Scarlet. The closer he looked, it almost looked like it was…him? But that's not possible? How—

He didn't get the chance to look into it further when he suddenly heard the two of them waking up and talking. Forgetting the image for now, he went back to the bedroom to greet the two of them. "Morning sleepyheads." He smirked, acting charming once again. Scarlet yawned and stretched while Mateo sat up looking stunning already. "Whoa. Does bedhead even exist for you?" Gally joked while rejoining them in bed to share some kisses. Scarlet kissed him and smiled softly, "Morning pumpkin." She sleepily spoke. Gally, although finding the nickname to be cute, had been confused about why she suddenly called him pumpkin. "Pumpkin? Where'd that come from?" Scarlet was confused for a second before catching her slip-up, calling him by the name she gave Gabriel, "Uhhhh it's because you uh….smelled like pumpkin last night." She came up with a poor lie. Mateo caught onto that and quickly agreed with her to really sell the lie, "She's right, ya did." Gally looked at both of them and felt like that had been an odd thing to say but he started to believe it, "Huh…I guess I did." The couple looked at each other nervously but also glad that he ended up believing it again.

Although Gally had been expecting to start the day quickly with him changing and thanking them for the passionate night together, he was pleasantly surprised when the couple pulled him down back into bed to give him more cuddles and more gentle kisses. They were taking care of him and planned to for the duration of the morning. They spent about an hour in bed to snuggle and talk before finally getting up to start having breakfast.

"So what's for breakfast?" He eagerly asked, expecting a nice home cooked meal. "i'm thinking maybe eggs and some bacon with some pancakes or maybe french toast…oooohhh I can help cook!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, easy there tiger. Teo' and I don't know how to cook." Star stopped him and chuckled.

Gally was rightfully shocked, "No freaking way. Neither of you know how to cook?! But you've got the largest kitchen I've seen! And it just goes to waste?!"

"It doesn't go to waste. Star knows how to bake." Mateo chipped in.

"Bake what?" Gally asked her.

"Like sweets and stuff. Cookies, muffins, cake, brownies-"

"None of that is breakfast stuff." He deadpanned.

"I never said it was."

"That's all just a bunch of junk food. And although I would kill for some brownies, I don't wanna eat anything fatty."

"Well listen here wise guy-" Scarlet almost flew to him but Mateo kept her grounded, "Or-! Why don't we just buy some breakfast, hm? I'll pay for it." Gally looked at him and thought about it for a second, "Fine, okay. That sounds good…"

Mateo ordered breakfast to be delivered while Gally and Star had argued over what they could cook. It wasn't a serious argument and had been a more playful one. But he insisted on teaching her on how to cook an egg even though she did know how to make that.

"An egg is easy to make! I can scramble one!" Scarlet defended herself.

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try." Gally smirked.

"Fine!"

Grabbing a pan and snatching an egg from Gally, she turned on the stove and cracked the egg onto the pan once it was hot enough. Gally watched, already catching her mistake of not adding oil or butter to the pan. There weren't any shells in the yolk though so that had to be good. But not realizing how high she had the heat, the scrambled egg burnt pretty quickly and she was shocked to see how fast she managed to ruin it. Gally was laughing while she stared at her ruined creation from trying to prove a point.

"I—stop laughing! It's not that funny!" She yelled at him while he was holding his stomach and laughing more. Mateo was watching nearby and could see her ruin creation. It was pretty funny that she ruined it so quick. Gally snorted with laughter. "I can't believe you messed that up!"

Star was red in the face from embarrassment as she threw the egg away and scrapped off the burnt part with the spatula. "Whatever! I just got too cocky and put the heat up high! I can make an egg!" She still tried to defend herself.

"A crispy egg." Gally corrected and laughed more.

"Y'know what? I should've made you eat that shoc—" She realized she couldn't curse how she does at home and held the word for a second before correcting herself, "—fucking egg. Yeah. I should've made you eat the fucking egg!"

"No need to get hostile, honey" Gally chuckled and kissed her as a quick apology. She scoffed but wasn't too mad anymore. Mateo came up and chuckled, "It's weird hearin' ya say it like that." It was the first time he heard her actual curse instead of saying "shock". She nodded in response, "Yeah I know…" Gally didn't hear them but it was still a funny moment for them.

Their playful banter continued until breakfast finally came. Once again, Gally was questioning them because of the amount of food they got. While he got a protein shake, a bagel, and a doughnut since Star bought some, the other two looked like they were about to have a whole feast. Two boxes of a dozen doughnuts, one box for each of them, a drink that looked like it was more sugar than an actual drink, and a bagel breakfast sandwich. He had no idea what he had just gotten into but even with some previous slip ups and odd things happening like the stars in the room, he was definitely willing to see them again if they were willing to make it happen.

A redraw cuz why TF not. I can't lock in with my AU

I'm probably missing some stuff idk

Flight

Scarlet often will fly thanks to her telekinetic abilities and often will hover. She likes to float a lot more in the Spider-Society's observatory and will sometimes float when she's eager.

Force-field generation

Thanks to the energy from the star, she can use it to create a force field around herself as protection. She often uses it to protect others. She couldn't use it to save Gabriel since her father was able to limit most of her abilities.

Reality Warping

So Scarlet can mess with reality as she wants but she just chooses not to since there's rules for it and what not. The main reason this is here is just because she can create what she wants. In the sense of like making the Spider-Verse.

Cosmic Event empowerment.

During full moons, her powers become much stronger along with her pure form being revealed.

Cosmic Projection

This is her way of speaking to other cosmic beings, such as the ones that are on the planet where her star came from.

Interstellar Travel / Dimensional travel

I guess that would tie into Portal Manipulation. Much more simple, she's able to create a portal to any world/universe she wants. Of course we see this more when she wants to see Mateo.

Near Omniscience

I have an idea where the first time her cosmic abilities form, she sees the entire universe and much more. However, she only knows parts of different universes, such as the Spider Verse. Later on she develops cosmic awareness which makes her much more powerful.

Telekinesis

You already know what this power is.

Cosmic telekinesis. (Stealing this from Fandom for a deeper definition)

"The user of this power can develop physiology with both telekinetic and cosmic forces. These abilities benefit them on an incredible scale. Such as to fly, to absorb energy, to be physically and mentally invincible on a cosmic scale, to adjust one's own shape, to heal oneself, to transform into a gigantic being on a cosmic scale, to increase their speed on a cosmic scale, and so on. The user can create, destroy, move and manipulate planets, solar systems, galaxies, dimensions, and in some extreme cases, the universe and its fundamental forces; create creatures and play with them as if they were ants. Since they can manipulate telekinetic force on a cosmic scale, they can grant telekinetic powers and abilities to whomever they wish, as well as design an army powered by this force. While initially possessing only planetary-scale powers, they could eventually acquire galactic, or even universal, capabilities."

So, although this power is super cool and all, Scarlet can only do most of these things. Most of it is flying, absorb energy, sorta invincible, heal oneself, and gigantic being. I don't see Scarlet's abilities with the cosmos being super important since most of it is just meant for the spider society. Because if I said she can manipulate dimensions and the universes, then she'd solve all of the problems of there being anomalies and stuff to do with canon events. I don't want her to be an insanely powerful cosmic being since most of it is only important for the spider society. (sorry, repeating myself). All of her cosmic powers are thanks to that star.

Healing abilities

She can heal others by using the stars BUT it won't work on a regular human since it's too much energy. Her healing works with wounds in herself as well like when Todd used to cut her skin to see how fast her body would heal itself. Things such as her missing leg cannot be healed with the energy. Could she bring someone back to life? Depends on the level of power that person holds.

Spider abilities

I still am hesitant about her powers that she gets when getting bitten only because she's already a powerful being. One power that is very important though is her organic webs which are made out of energy (yes its the star). The webs are powerful enough to keep a person restrained and won't disappear unless she allows it to. Only downside about it is if a person has the ability to manipulate energy, they could easily get rid of it or even use it against her. The webs become more important in the spider society as she uses them to make a physical version of the Spider Verse which allows Miguel to keep track of canon events and the timelines. It later gets replaced by the observatory where she watches over the timelines and keeps track of them. Information on certain spider however are kept in files. Scarlet knows all the spiders and their canon events/history since Miguel also made her learn about them.

This is Scarlet's official lore! Guuuuhhh took me forever...

Art by cherri.ako on Instagram!

Creation

Todd Celeste and Amanda Howlls were two scientists that worked in Alchemax in different departments. Todd was the co-founder of Alchemax and worked alongside Tyler Stone as they worked together to take over other companies such as Oscorp and allow them to have more control of the city. Todd was known to be a serious yet intimidating man that many people did not want to interact with. He was the kind of person that entered the room and people would leave. Many felt like he was hiding things from the public's eyes while other saw him as a brilliant scientist that worked alongside the intelligent Tyler Stone. The two had worked on project together, including the plans to add enhanced security to the town which included drones and more sky security. Although this plan sounded great, what many people missed was how much control the two would have on the city to get control of resources while actively stalking people during their daily lives and activities. No one had discovered this yet.

But although Todd was seen as a man that shouldn't be trusted, Amanda found an odd charm to him. Although she worked in the astronomy department and away from Todd, she had accidentally met the man when he was coming to her department to see how things were being handled. She fell in love with him and overtime as Todd began to see her more, he fell in love too. Two years later, the two would marry and eventually try for a baby, only to find out that Amanda would be unable to have a baby. This had been a major block in their marriage and felt like things would begin to become rocky as they debated on having a child or not. This would mean going through adoption or possibly having a surrogate. Todd disliked both of these plans, having a biased opinion about both of them. Because of this, he instead had the plan to make the child himself in his lab with the hidden experiments.

One plan included using the alien symbiote they had discovered months ago that had been concealed in the private labs. But the symbiote being something that was foreign to them made it much harder to create a human child that would be stable with the alien. He attempted to use enhanced beings, including mutating a spider into a human that unfortunately made it become a horrific monster to look at. The baby spider would later die alongside other creations under Todd. During this time, Amanda would be unaware of this but have feeling something was terribly wrong.

One day, the space department managed to get something that should have been impossible to obtain. They managed to conceal space energy, something that was powerful and had an energy that was unrecognizable. The scientists that discovered it warned Todd and Tyler to avoid using it for anything until they had it contained and it was sealed away. Until Todd got his dirty hands on it to use for his own desires.

The space energy was implemented into the baby he created once it was premature. He was unaware what it would do to the child and could only hope everything would go well. Weeks of watching this child grow and contain the space energy, Todd was successful.

The baby was announced as healthy and alive on December 21st, 2076 (year to change) and was given to Amanda on Christmas as his gift to her.

Childhood

Todd and Amanda's baby girl was named Scarlet Celeste and was a healthy little girl. As she got older, things quickly were off when her powers started to show each year. She would float around the house, although uncoordinated, and often would be a glowing baby. Todd knew that this would only show Amanda that he did something to their baby so he did his best to hide Scarlet or find a way to force her to hide her abilities. As a baby, this was much harder to do since these moments had been unpredictable. Days when she was sick would have stars appear in her room every time she sneezed and it would often look like space! But full moon nights were the ones that were much harder.

On every full moon night, Scarlet's skin would change, becoming a dark hazy purple color with small stars scattered on her face and body. The freckles on her cheeks were stars and glowed whenever she giggled or showed any intense emotions. Her body itself would glow as well! Todd would struggle to hide her more from Amanda during these nights and would have to make up ridiculous excuses just to avoid her seeing Scarlet.

Growing up, Scarlet had to keep her powers a secret from everyone which included Amanda and anyone else she meant. She was kept in the lab, something Amanda thought wasn't right for their daughter as she was in an unsafe environment. But this didn't stop Todd and only allowed him to do more experiments on Scarlet such as testing what he abilities were along with how her body reacts to injury. These tests were also hidden yet Amanda grew increasingly suspicious whenever Scarlet would come running to her and crying.

When Scarlet was six, she finally moved into a proper home that Todd reluctantly allowed after several arguments with his wife. It was a penthouse in a building owned by Alchemax where they all would live in. Scarlet also started to go to school where she continued to hide what she was. Even she didn't know what she was.

By the time she was 8, the arguments at home started to get worse when Amanda finally discovered that Todd was the one who stole the space energy from the department without her knowledge or consent. She was unable to figure out what else Todd had done until Scarlet was 10.

Scarlet was 10 when everything began to get worse. She was the one to finally tell her mother about her powers, showing her what she could transform into. Her being innocent and thinking her mother would enjoy it, she had called herself Amanda's "little star", a nickname Amanda had given her when she was a baby. But rather than being impressed or even relieved at knowing the truth, Amanda was horrified and recoiled in disgust when discovering her child was nothing but one of Todd's experiments. She no longer saw Scarlet as her daughter and instead saw her as being an unknown result of her husband's experiments. Scarlet was heartbroken and lost her mother when Amanda disappeared one day and Todd would refuse to tell Scarlet about what happened to her.

Teenage life

Life at home wasn't the greatest after her mother disappeared. With Amanda gone, Scarlet no longer had anyone to protect her from Todd's experiments and she was in the labs more often than before. She still didn't know the full story about what she was and didn't know what happened to her mother. But the only thing keeping her stable was her life at school.

Scarlet attended a private school thanks to her father's status as co-founder of Alchemax. The school was also owned by the company and had the best students to attend where they would grow up to be the future of the company. Many students either were ones that wanted to be the best of the best while a fewer amount didn't want to follow this path. Since Scarlet was still too young to attend the programs Todd wanted for her, she was instead put in the lower programs that had the basic classes. Here is where she met Harry Osborn.

In this world, Oscorp had been shut down after Alchemax took over the city. The Osborn family however wasn't corrupted as it is in most world's. With Norman Osborn still having the money earned from his company, he wanted to restart with Harry and have a new chapter in his life. Emily also had been the one to encourage Harry to go down a different path unlike his father and wanted him to follow his own dreams. Harry wanted to help heal the world from all the propaganda Alchemax was spreading and although he attend their school, he was willing to make a change here.

Scarlet was moved by this and knew Harry would be a good person to trust and the two quickly clicked. Although she was unable to tell him about her powers, she still trusted him and his mother. Emily Osborn was basically her second mother and even Norman himself was much nicer to her rather than her own father.

When Scarlet was fourteen and now a freshmen in high school, one of her science classes took the students on a field trip to Alchemax. By now, Scarlet was already feeling that hatred towards her father and also felt angry being refereed to as Todd's daughter. Every one knew thanks to her last name. Even attempting to go by "Star" didn't help since her last name gave it away.

At this field trip, Harry and Scarlet were together throughout the whole event, bored out of their minds. They had managed to escape their group and went to explore the labs since Star knew her way around the building. While running around, they found a lab where a ton of different species were kept. Harry, being curious, went into the room and stayed there with Scarlet for a couple minutes and eventually discovered the spider collection. One particular spider, a Typhochlaena seladonia, also known as the Brazilian Jewel spider, had caught Scarlet's attention. The spider was able to communicate with them via morse code and tapping on the glass. Harry had some knowledge about it and was able to decipher what it was saying.

Scarlet felt like she related to the spider as it was trapped in it's little terrarium and was likely experimented on, judging from the files on it. After the spider begged to be free, Star let it free, only to be bitten seconds after picking it up. The bite stung and caused her to pass out minutes after it happened. Todd and other scientists found her and she was taken back home as a result.

Spider life

After being bitten, Scarlet went through changes and had enhanced her body further alongside the abilities she was born with. Originally, her powers consisted of telekinesis, flight, and cosmic manipulation but once she was bitten by that spider, her cosmic abilities became enhanced alongside new spider-related abilities. Although Scarlet has cosmic manipulation, she didn't know how to fully use these powers until she was bitten and even then, some things were still unknown to her. But with the spider bite, it included new powers such as organic webbing which was made out of the energy from the same star that created her. She is able to manipulate how her webbing acts whether it's a light material that allows her to swing through the city or a solid one that would be unbreakable to most ordinary humans. She also gained wall crawling and more ability to control when she goes into her "pure star" form which is when her skin turns into that purple mist.

Besides her new powers, she knew this was a big change and felt like she could do something with these abilities. After all, Alchemax had been starting to show their true colors in the city by attacking people along with new enemies coming to light. Someone needed to help around here. The spider that bit her never died either and instead was alive and with her at home. Scarlet gave in and kept it as her personally pet, naming the spider, Webby or Webs for short. With this new spider pet and her growing idea to go against her father and stop crime, she used her powers for good and eventually became Celestial Weaver.

Celestial Weaver was the new face in town, saving people and attempting to stop Alchemax along with other foes that were attempting to kill people. The first year as the hero had been all fun and games at first, only stopping low crime and wannabe bad guys that mainly were people who had crazy ideas. Plus it allowed her to live her life at school while also going out. The media quickly was catching onto the new face of the city and many had been debating whether they could trust her or not. Although she attempted to hide her identity as best as possible, her father had his suspicions but decided to watch from afar.

Losing her leg

When Scarlet was seventeen, she got into her first major battle with her world's Doc Ock. In this world, Octavius worked alongside Norman but lost his job when the company was shut down from Alchemax's rise in the industry. Norman, no longer needing Otto, cut all contact with him and took anything that he had made in order to make some kind of profit. Norman lied and claimed all projects were done by him. Octavius, rightfully angry, wanted to kill Norman for taking away his life's work as his own and taking away all the money he made from it.

Scarlet and Harry were attending prom at a different school they had been invited to when Octavius attacked, going after Harry as a way to lure Norman in. This hadn't been her first encounter with the insane scientist as a few years earlier, she had met him when he was still just a regular scientist. The thing that scared her the most was how intelligent he was and she feared he may figure out her identity and tell her father about it. But in the moment, she needed to save Harry and stop his plan. This battle was intense and for the first time, she had been scared about what would happen. Ock was rough and fast, making her get distracted as she was so fearful. Many eyes were on her, the news, the citizens that were running away, everyone. Although she managed to save Harry and get him to safety, she was still scared about fighting Ock and potentially putting more people at risk. With her mind in such a heavy panic, she lost focus and ended up getting grabbed by Ock. One of his robotic tentacle arms had grabbed her leg and tore it off in a moment of rage. It was a horrific sight and sound. Hearing the sound of flesh being torn and hearing the loud snap would bring nightmares to anyone who heard it. Her heart-stopping scream, everyone watched the young hero finally have a moment of defeat. Doc Ock threw her body away like trash and continued his rampage and this was the first moment Scarlet had a moment of realization. Could she really do this? It was truly a traumatizing experience and trying to come up with a story about how she lost her leg was harder to tell people she knew.

Harry was the one who found her and was the first person to now know her identity as Cosmic Weaver. He took her body back to his home and Emily was the next person to find out. She took her to one of the private hospital's in the city and protected her. Unfortunately, Todd also had to find out what happened after one of the doctors called him to explain the situation. He was furious to know that she was the hero all along, although he had known from the start. His anger caused him to kick her out his home and tell her she would never be allowed back home. Luckily, the Osborn's would allow her to live with them. It was a horrible night for her.

New Friends

Scarlet and her father cut contact for two years, not speaking to one another after she was kicked out of her home for being a hero and not following in Todd's footstep's. It wasn't until she was nineteen, onto turning 20, when Todd finally contacted her again, only to force her into working in Alchemax. No matter how much she denied it, she eventually was forced back into that life, only having two years where things felt like they were looking up again.

The main reason she was brought back was because Tyler Stone had hired his own son into working for the company. Miguel O'Hara, a 27 year old man that looked ready to burn the building down, worked in the genetics department but often time was in the main office of the building due to Tyler constantly trying to get him to take ownership of the company in his honor. Of course, he didn't want to do that at all. Scarlet and Miguel met when she was sent over to help him on something he was studying and the two clicked fast as they had a shared hatred for the company along with their father's. Later on down the line, she would meet Xina Kwan, an intelligent woman who, you guessed it, also hated Alchemax. She was also Miguel's girlfriend.

Miguel and Xina quickly became good friends with Scarlet and made working in Alchemax become much more bearable. While working together in the labs, she eventually met Gabriel O'Hara, the much hotter O'Hara.

Soulmates

Scarlet hadn't been with a ton of people in her life. Harry and her hooked up back in high school and had a short relationship that ultimately ended after they both agreed they would be better off as friends. Although that was a small heartbreak, falling in love with someone had been a dream for Scarlet and it finally happened when she met Gabriel.

His charming smile and silly attempts at flirting captured her heart and it was clear to Xina and Miguel that they had heavy feelings for each other. They made it official after having a date at his apartment where he gave her a custom made prosthetic that he designed for her. She never asked for it but he made it and had her heart. For the next three years, Gabriel and Scarlet dated, going on various dates and being with each other any chance they got. The couple did have some issues however such as an explosion in the Alchemax labs that nearly killed Gabriel. In the explosion, he lost his right arm and had to get it replaced with his own prosthetic. There was also the day when he found out that Scarlet was Cosmic Weaver which caused trust issues between the two, nearly splitting their relationship. But although they had these problems happen, they never broke up and stayed with one another. On Scarlet's twenty-third birthday, Gabriel proposed to her! Things were finally looking up and soon she would live her life with him where they would have a family and be happy!

Right?

Human spider

Engaged and happy, Scarlet felt like her life was beginning to turn around and finally have a peaceful end to it. Her and Gabriel were going to get married soon, Xina and Miguel were married and were expecting a baby, and she hadn't heard from her father in a while. But that was the issue. Something felt wrong and she didn't like it. She knew she should stay quiet but how? Whenever her father was gone, something had to be going on.

On the night of a gala organized by Alchemax, Scarlet snuck into the labs to investigate what was going on under the surface. Gabriel guided her thanks to an ear piece and him hacking into the building's systems to tract her and get into restricted spots. In an underground floor, there was a large private lab, one that she felt was too familiar. In the labs, she found over hundreds of files that were from past projects and eventually found the one that revealed the process of creating her. To her horror, she discovered how many babies Todd killed after they were unsuccessful just to keep making more until she was made. It made her sick to her stomach and almost leave until one other file marked as confidential caught her attention. The file had information on her mother, Amanda, revealing that she underwent a test forced by Todd that mutated her genes using Webby, the same spider that gave Star her powers.

Further in the lab was Star's missing mother who she assumed had been dead for all these years. She was mutated into a horrific spider-creature with multiple limbs that looked like they forcibly grew out of her body and grew to look like spider legs. Her two normal arms had fur like a tarantula and she had multiple black spider eyes on her disfigured head. Her body was stretched to be over 8 feet tall and judging from how disfigured her body had been, it was obvious that the mutation had been extremely painful for her. Scarlet was mortified and angry but too shaken up to do anything in the moment. Amanda, no longer human and able to recognize her daughter, became aggressive and wild, slamming against the glass of her prison and breaking out.

Amanda broke out and made it to the gala where she attacked and killed multiple people. Todd saw that she was free and instantly went to hide while Scarlet came back as Cosmic Weaver to stop her mom. It was a difficult fight, one that only broke her heart more to know that for years her mother had been alive and tortured by her father. It took hours before Scarlet had to make the tough decision to kill Amanda herself to put her out of her misery and end her rampage.

Heartbroken and traumatized from killing her mother, Scarlet found Todd where their argument finally happened. She snapped at him, pouring out all her anger and yelling at him for putting herself through torture along with her mother. She hated him and was making it clear in the moment as she screamed and cried. In that moment of anger, she nearly killed him by almost tearing his body in half with her telekinesis until Gabriel found her and prevented her from doing it. After this moment, Star cut him out her life for good. But Todd was furious and saw his daughter as nothing more but a mistake. His mistake.

Thorn

After their argument, Todd became furious with his daughter and only felt pure anger towards her. He wanted her gone forever since she disobeyed him while also threatened to reveal everything he had done to the public. When returning to the labs, his anger remained and only grew more when he realized she had downloaded all of his files to his life's work. If this got out, he would be ruined. His growing anger eventually lead him to the symbiote they had, one that he was going to take and finally end his daughter for good.

Merging with the symbiote, Todd and the alien called themselves Thorn, having one main goal. Kill Scarlet. It wasn't until a few days after the fight where Thorn revealed himself to the public and was looking for Scarlet. They caused hell in the city and were killing people to get her attention and it would eventually work. Scarlet came out and had to fight her father, something she had been dying to do for years. This was the moment everything would end and she would no longer need to hold back. But because Todd knew her and the way her powers worked, he was instantly able to overpower her. Scarlet was stabbed, not enough to kill her yet but enough to weaken her. Just as Todd was about to deliver the final blow, Gabriel came to the fight with his giant ray gun that was a gift from Xina. It momentarily got Thorn down while Gabriel attempted to get Scarlet back to safety, even as she begged him to run away. Thorn was back up quickly and grabbed her with a tendril to strangle her in the air and Gabriel quickly loaded up his gun again to fire another shot. But Todd knew how much Scarlet cared for Gabriel and he was in his way. Making Scarlet watch while she was being strangled, Thorn stabbed Gabriel in the chest with his large tendril, killing him instantly.

That was the moment everything changed for Scarlet. She couldn't scream as she watched Gabriel's lifeless body fall to the ground, now with a large hole in his chest and his eyes now empty. She sobbed, defeated in the moment. Thorn enjoyed her pain and threw her body before she had the chance to die and left her to sob over Gabriel's dead body. In that moment, all she could do was hold him and scream in pain from losing her soulmate.

Thorn wasn't able to escape though. Filled with anger and rage, Scarlet chased after them and gave it her all to finally kill Todd. With a fierce battle and her growing anger and hatred for her father, she would eventually forcibly tear off the symbiote and destroy it. When it came to Todd himself, she beat him until he was barley breathing. The media unfortunately would catch her bloodied body as she loomed over Todd and this would have a lasting effect on her image. But in that moment, she could care less. She wanted Todd to suffer for the rest of his days. Keep him alive and torture him every single day. But her anger didn't allow her to keep him alive. So, she wrapped her hands around his throat and looked at him right in his eyes, one swollen and one looking at her with fear and anger, strangling him and tightening her grip until his neck snapped.

Todd was dead.

What now?

Losing Gabriel, killing both her parents, having her identity as Cosmic Weaver revealed, people fearing her, Scarlet was at the lowest point in her life. The next few weeks consisted of her hiding from the media and scientists at Alchemax while she mourned over Gabriel's death. Xina, Miguel, and Harry were unable to get any contact with her in these days, knowing she was losing herself. Eventually, she would finally make a public appearance, announcing that she was no longer going to be Cosmic Weaver along. She also released all the files Todd had from his experiments so everyone would know that he wasn't a hero or a great innovator and was instead a monster. The files that were released were covered on the news for weeks afterwards and each week had a new file being covered.

In the months that followed, Scarlet would be at home for days, not knowing what to do with her life. All until another spider came. Another hero. Another…Miguel?

Spider-Society

Scarlet was recruited into the Spider-Society after their leader, Miguel O'Hara, discovered her on their radar and found out she had cosmic abilities, ones that would be able to control the multiverse. She originally denied, not wanting to have anything to do with being a spider again but Miguel didn't take no for an answer.

Our lovely celestial and cowboy enjoy a day at the beach together! But things start getting interesting

(Added art is by matchat_01 on Instagram)

Summer time is often the time of year where people get excited since it's break time from school and the hotter weather allows for some fun activities to happen with friends and family. You often see more people outside enjoying a nice cold drink together or sharing an ice cream! Maybe even swimming in the cooling pool or running around in the sandy beaches. Often time people enjoy this warm sunny weather and feel happier to see the bright shining sun alongside the blue sky. Some might even say that summer is their favorite season and would prefer the heat rather than the cold pain of winter. This is a time of joy and comfort!

Unless your cowboy boyfriend lives in hell. Which is Texas of course (no offense to anyone who lives in Texas). The plan was to come see him and spend a day in his world since we all know that Scarlet's world is too messy. Plus with summer coming it was a lot hotter in her world and felt very dry which made it hard to breathe. Coming to his world should have given her that break but to her demise, she was met with the angry sun and the dry heat of Texas. To make matters worse with the scorching heat, Mateo's AC broke which meant they would have to hope there was some kind of breeze to keep them cool. And since this is the worst time of the year for Star, there likely wouldn't be a single gust of air.

Inside Teo's home, the windows were wide open along with the door to let the air flow through. Scarlet was laying flat on the floor while looking like a starfish (get it? Starfish? Because her name is Star? No? alright um back to the fic…).

She wore one of Teo's shirts and nothing else underneath besides a bra and underwear but even then it still felt too hot! How on earth does anyone handle such heat like this?! She felt like she was melting with every second she laid on the floor. Yet even with her dying, Mateo wasn't even breaking a shocking sweat?!

"Sunshineeee where's the airrrr?" Star whined, unable to move from the floor.

Mateo entered the living room to find Scarlet on the floor. He chuckled, finding her dramatic act to be amusing although he was fully aware that she couldn't handle the heat.

"Shiny, I just opened the last window in here. It's not that bad today." He stood over her while shirtless and wearing a pair of shorts. Lovely view but not something she could enjoy since it was so damn hot.

"Oh uh huh, says the cowboy." Star grumbled.

"Is that supposed to hurt ma feelin's?"

"No! But it means that of course you wouldn't complain because the heat is normal for you! You live in Texas! It feels like hell here! I'm almost tempted to go back home!"

"We both know ya don't got the strength to leave. Also, ya came here to avoid being back over in yer town. Unless ya wanna go back and get chased by more scientists." He playfully teased.

"Shock you." Star muttered again and sat up, grumpy from the heat. She was sweating and it was only pissing her off more to see that he didn't have a single drop of sweat on his body.

"Awww c'mere shiny." Mateo made the mistake of grabbing Scarlet to try and cuddle with. But she was like an angry cat and tried to run off but his strong grip kept her still.

"Mateo!!! Let me go!!! It's hot!!! You're hot!!!" She squirmed while he nuzzled into her shoulder like he wasn't the problem. Scarlet continued to squirm and attempted to escape but nothing was working until eventually she had to lift him off his feet by wrapping her arms around his waist just to throw him off guard. But because she hasn't been lifting heavy things in a while, her legs became wobbly and she fell down with him on top of her.

Scarlet wheezed from the weight of him dropping down on her. She was used to him laying on her but falling down? Nope! It was like getting crushed by a boulder.

"Scarlet!!" Mateo pushed himself up and looked down at her, checking that she was still breathing after that fall. "Oh goodness, are ya okay?!"

She wheezed again. Getting the wind knocked out of you was never a pleasant experience. But when she started to breathe again, she let out a weak gasp of air.

"I'm never doing that again"

"Please don't." Mateo kissed the top of her head and helped her up, sitting her down on his lap so her back was against his chest. "I'm sorry, ma love. I just wanted to tease ya." He continued to press soft kisses to her head, something that made her weak.

"Mmh…I know. It's just so hot to cuddle!" Although she was complaining, she made no effort to get off of him. The kisses were keeping her down. "We cannot stay in this place. Why don't we just go back to my world and we can be in the nice cold room?"

"Darlin' ya came here because ya wanted to be away from yer world. Why would we go over there just for the AC?"

"Because it's hot as hell!!"

Scarlet was getting increasingly grumpy about the whole thing, unable to find any joy in being here with the heat. With his AC being down as well it was only getting worse. The only thing that sounded nice at the moment was to dip herself into some cold water. Maybe an ice plunge would help! But that's when it finally clicked. Water! The beach!! She quickly turned around and looked at Mateo. "Sunshine! The beach! We need to go to the beach!"

He looked down at her, "Huh. Okay, sounds good to me. We could take ma car over there."

"YES!! Finally we could cool off in the water and get a nice tan and feel the nice breeze and—wait did you say car? You know how to drive?"

He nodded. "Mhm but I don't drive that often. Haven't felt the need to since getting ma powers. But I do have a car, it's just been in the front for decoration."

"WHAAAATTT??? That's amazing! I never bothered learning how to drive because of my powers. But that's still so cool!" She got up and kissed his head. "Okay okay I'll go back to my world for a moment and get my stuff like my bathing suit and sunscreen and an umbrella—OH! Towels!"

Teo laughed at how eager she was but it was nice to see it. "Shiny, I can get that stuff. Ya just need to get ready and come back, okay?"

"Oh! Okay! Yes!" She kissed him again and bounced with joy, opening another portal and entering to return home.

Arriving back at home, Star eagerly flew straight to her room and went into her walk-in closet. She rummaged through her clothes to find the bathing suit she bought for summer one year. But she had so many! Ones that mainly hid most of her body and didn't look good enough to her anymore. Back then, she would hide her body due to insecurities but ever since she got with Mateo, things had changed for her! She actually was feeling a lot more confident in her appearance and felt like she could wear something better! Pushing the clothes past and looking at the bathing suits, she finally found a bikini she bought herself a while back but never got a chance to wear it. She gasped as she took it off the hanger and flew out to test it out in the mirror. It would be perfect!!

Back in Teo's world, he was gathering the needed materials for the beach and packing it into his car. He packed an umbrella, towels, and sunscreen for their trip. They shouldn't need a lot when going and he knew that he mainly wanted to focus on Star and their time together. Still waiting for her to come back, he went to go grab his swim shorts to change into. Once he was ready, he heard the portal opening up again and in came Scarlet. She had a two piece swimsuit that was dark blue and had small stars sprinkled onto the top. The trimming on the top piece was gold and the same was for the bottom piece. A mesh cover up was tied around her that had gold stars along with golden constellations all around it. The cover up only went to her waist and almost looked like she was wearing a dress. The mesh itself was a mix of a faint purple and dark blue, similar to the color of her skin when she's in her pure star form. The short sleeves that were connected to her top hung off her shoulders and had the same pattern and color as the mesh and had stars dangling from the bottom. She shyly blushed as she showed off the outfit.

"Does it look good?"

Mateo was staring and his cheeks went red as he admired how stunning she looked in the swimsuit. It matched her perfectly and she looked happy while wearing it.

"You look wonderful…"

Scarlet's blush became darker and she bashfully giggled, "Awww…."

Once Star was changed into her beach outfit, it was time to pack up the car. It was also early in the day but it was still pretty hot, at least for her. Going outside to see what they would be driving in, Star stopped in her tracks and saw a beautiful white convertible, one she had never seen before mainly because many old vehicles in her world were almost impossible to find. Mateo was packing the beach supplies and putting them in the trunk of the car. He looked up to see Star admiring it and couldn't help but feel a bit proud.

"Ya like it shiny?" He grinned.

"It's stunning. Never seen one in person before. Normally we just get taught about these cars in my world."

"Ah right. Yer world doesn't have vehicles like this anymore, huh? I'm glad we still do here if not I would've never been able to find this one." He shut the trunk and walked to the front of the car, admiring it with her. "This one dates back to 1957."

"Jeez! That's ancient!" Star gasped, surprised by how old the car was. "How did you even get it?!"

"I requested it. It's more of a decoration though. But driving it once in a while is nice too and now I get to do it with ya."

Scarlet looked at him and smiled softly, kissing his cheek. Doing anything with him always made her happy and now she gets to be in an ancient car with him. Most likely going to be admiring him more rather than enjoying the scenery. It's not like he'd hate that anyways. Mateo took her hand into his own and kissed the top of it, "Shall we? We've got a long drive ahead of us."

He takes her around the car and opens the door like a gentlemen, allowing her in first. Once he closed the door, she raised an eyebrow, "Long drive? How far is the beach for you?"

"Depending on traffic, it's about two hours or so."

"WHAT?!"

Mateo laughed and got into the drivers seat, "Shiny, it's Texas. Did ya think the beach would be right down the street?"

"I—Well…no? But my gosh! That's far!" She leaned back in her seat, processing that they would be on a long drive.

"We don't have to go." Mateo put his hand on her thigh, reassuring her that they didn't need to take the long drive if she didn't want to. He had always been so considerate of her feelings that she never knew how to answer him. How could anyone be so sweet like this?

Scarlet quickly shook her head and put her hand on top of his own, "No! No no! It's okay! We can go, I'm just being dramatic! I really do wanna go to the beach with you." She didn't want to upset him either considering they had already packed everything together for the beach. It would be a shame if she talked about going and then changed her mind at last minute.

"Are ya sure? We could always stay home." Although the idea sort of sounded nice, she had to remind herself that his AC was broken and it would only leave them in the hot house. And going to her world wasn't a choice since the whole plan had been to come here for a break.

"I'm positive. Besides, I'll be spending time with you anyways. At least I'll be able to enjoy the view." She giggled.

Mateo blushed from her comment and chuckled, kissing her cheek, "I knew ya'd find a way to convince me."

Finally settling on going to the beach, they checked to be sure they had everything and then drove out from his home onto the road to the beach. The drive itself was indeed long but Star didn't even realize it since she was with Mateo. During the drive, she would admire the view and look at him a ton of times like she hasn't stared at him before. Mateo would hold her hand while the other was on the wheel and occasionally Scarlet would snap a photo of them together or snap a photo of him driving. She took pictures of them holding hands and snapped more of the view. It was a beautiful sunny day, even though the blazing sun was sorta killing the fun vibe. But the air made it tolerable as they drove. The radio was on and every song they recognized had them singing together. They laughed whenever Scarlet would stumble on the words and would later talk about each song. She even learned a bit more about Mateo's career as a singer, admiring that he had a gorgeous singing voice. And maybe she felt a little cocky that his fans would be aware he had a girlfriend. She wins!

Two and half hours later, they made it to the beach. The lovely sounds of the waves crashing along with the smell of the ocean and sand brought a sense of peace to the couple. The beach was packed with people trying to cool off on this hot day but it wouldn't be too much of an issue for them. Just as long as they could find parking! But regardless, Scarlet was buzzing with excitement as she kept checking out the ocean and seeing how beautiful the beach appeared, even with the large amount of people. She took the opportunity to take more photos of the area to later post online. Mateo was driving around to find a spot to park in while she was busy looking around. After maybe ten minutes of driving around the beach's parking area, they pulled into a shaded spot and got out. Mateo came around and opened her door, helping her out and then getting everything from the trunk. Scarlet bounced with joy, feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning.

"I haven't been to the beach in so long! This is so exciting!" She squealed and nearly started to float. Mateo had to bring her back down to earth before she tried to fly away into the ocean.

"I'm glad yer so excited. But maybe we should find a spot to sit at first before ya go into the water." He held her hand and kissed her head.

"Right right! Let's go!" She dragged him to the beach where they would look for a spot to lounge at.

The beach had been large with people sitting around in their groups either lounging or playing in the sand. Some people were cooking or having large picnics together as a family. Friends could be seen in groups drinking together and loudly laughing or some spots had been taken over by volleyball players. Some older couples walked along the beach together close to the water but not enough to get in and some younger kids were laughing loudly as they splashed in the water to find seashells. Further out in the water were surfers attempting to catch large waves while further out you were able to see people on jet skis. The overall vibe of the beach was buzzing with high energy. Some music was heard as well as some people had their speakers on while they lounged under the sun to get a nice tan.

Mateo and Scarlet continued to walk along the beach with Scarlet more eager to feel the soft sand under her feet while also looking for a spot that didn't have too many people. As they walked, she could already see some people eyeing Mateo, likely more fans that recognized the singer but also respected his privacy. It was a blessing that no one would come to bother him or ask a million questions about who Star was. But even with people glancing over, it didn't ruin their moment and luckily some nice people offered them a clearer spot for them to lounge at. They finally were able to set up their beach chairs and towels on the chair followed by an umbrella to keep them shaded. Scarlet set up her chair and sat down, sighing softly as she finally took it all in. This was truly the life.

And it was about to get even better as Mateo finally took off his shirt. Insert Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback"

Mateo, looking like a Greek god, removed his shirt and tossed it onto his chair. His body—ooggghhh—was of course muscular and toned with visible scars from previous battles. Of course that hadn't been an issue to Scarlet but she was more focused on his physique. His biceps…goodness…they were huge and the amount of times she's begged him to wrap them around her neck—STOP—uhhh anyways, she was staring and was staring hard. Her eyes slowly trailed down his body before landing on his happy trail and it was taking everything in her to not jump him. Mateo was wearing rose colored swim shorts and had sunglasses on to continue to hide his eyes. A part of her wishes he would show them more but then remembered she was the lucky one to be able to see them when they were alone. He's so sexy!

"Shiny, ya look ready to eat me." Mateo snapped her out of her stare.

"What? Oh right, yeah. You're so lucky there's not a private spot for us to hide at."

"Oh, I'm lucky?" He smirked.

"Yeah. I would bree—"

"OKAY OKAY!!!" He got super red and made sure no one heard that. Star smugly grinned but decided to play it safe and not say anything else.

But after that little moment, Star got up and grabbed the sunscreen to apply it to herself so she could go dive into the water. Before she even had the chance to squeeze it out, Mateo plucked it out of her hands. "Let me help ya shiny."

Oh yes.

Scarlet sat back down and Mateo applied the sunscreen on her leg first. Downside of having a prosthetic meant she couldn't feel both his hands on her ughhh. But either way, his movement was slow as he rubbed the lotion into her skin and went slower when going up to her thigh. He knew what he was doing and Scarlet quickly became flustered as he took his time to rub her thigh and moved to rub the inner part of it. Damn him. But she wasn't complaining either. After her leg, he applied it to her arms and then had her lay on her towel on the sand, making her lay on her stomach so he could apply it to her back. That's where he started to take his sweet time to trace over some faint scars she had from past experiments and battles while also admiring the freckles that kissed her tan skin. Star was relaxed and felt like a puddle as he rubbed her back om the right spots. But now it was becoming much harder to not look for a private spot they could hide in.

Once he was done with her, she took the bottle. "Okay, your turn." She grinned, acting like she wasn't about to be worse. The amount of times she had to mentally remind herself that they were in public only made her more annoyed. But she's not some horny animal either! I swear! She's normal!

The lotion was rubbed into his legs which Star took her time on when feeling his muscles and seeing how large they were. If you really think her thoughts would be pure when doing this then you must be a fool. She traced over scars just like he did with her but eventually moved to his arms where she had to resist biting him for the millionth time. She was being pretty calm about this although all the impure thoughts remained in her head. But when she got to his back?

Scarlet took extra time on his back, admiring him like he was a Greek god, and slowly trailing her fingers down the sensitive spots on him. Every shiver she caught and small groan made her much more flustered. "We're in public, we're in public, we're in public" she had to keep reminding herself. She couldn't even go down and kiss his back without it looking suggestive and there was no way a person wouldn't stare at them. This was the most difficult thing she's done!

But finally after getting her teasing fill of his small sounds, she help him up and sat back on the chair to let the sunscreen sink in before even thinking about getting into the water. During this time, Scarlet snapped more photos of them together, holding hands, taking photos of the view, and looking back at each photo to see which one she liked. Mateo caught her taking many photos and thought it was cute that she was doing this. He admired her most of the time while they sat together.

After about twenty minutes, Scarlet got up from her seat and stood up proudly. She took off the mesh coverup and placed it onto her chair, looking ready for action! "Ocean time!" She squealed, "C'mon babe" She made him come with her to go splash in the water. Mateo followed behind her while chuckling and watched as she jumped into the water. Well ran into it. Because of how hot it was, the water had been the perfect temperature and cooled her off almost instantly. She splashed around, kicking the water to make bigger splashes while going deeper to be swept by the waves. Mateo came in as well to come closer to her and make sure none of the waves hit her too hard since she was being reckless. Not to say she would drown or anything but sometimes she could get careless. Scarlet laughed happily as she enjoyed the water and then would splash Teo when he wasn't looking.

At one point, she grabbed Teo and attempted to push him into the water but to her disappointment, she couldn't push him down. He didn't even move an inch when she pushed him. He looked down at her and she knew she was done for. He scooped her off the ground and lifted her in his arms, kissing her nose.

"Hey! That's not fair!" She scoffed, attempting to act like she was mad.

"Ya know ya can't push me down that easily, ma love. It's cute that ya tried."

"Whatever." Before she had a chance to act dramatic with him, she was dropped into the water with a loud splash. She yelped as she landed into the water, feeling the waves wash her away. But it didn't take long for her to quickly get pulled out the water as Mateo picked her up and she could hear him laughing. She sputtered and moved her hair out of her face, looking at him as he laughed like he just heard the funniest joke.

"What was that for?!"

"Payback, love." He continued to laugh. She couldn't even be mad at him about the situation since did try to push him into the water earlier.

"You are so lucky that I love you" If not she would've lifted him up and thrown him into the deep part of the ocean. But she quickly got over the moment and went back to swimming with him. The water was cold against their skin and Star could feel the sand go into her swimsuit which would be a hassle to handle later. But regardless, they had their fun together until Mateo picked her up again and took her back to their spot on the beach.

In the moment they relaxed on the sand, Scarlet was people watching, seeing how many people interacted with one another and how others invited people to come join them in eating. Most of the food in the area smelled amazing and it was nice to see everyone look so friendly with one another. It was something she wouldn't be able to see if she had been back at her world. No one would have spoken to another without some kind of argument happening. But everyone here was just happy. She was about to tell Mateo something about the people here when a Frisbee landed on her lap. Confused, she picked up the light blue disk and noticed it was wet with drool. Gross!

"uh…" Suddenly, a golden retriever barked and ran straight to the couple, bouncing onto Scarlet's lap. Mateo laughed again as the dog started to eagerly lick at her face. She sputtered again and laughed as well, finding the dog's antics to be amusing and fun. "Hey hey! Hi there! Hello!" Star laughed happily and patted the adorable canine on its head. The golden dog barked eagerly and spun in a circle before spotting Mateo and going in to attack him with more eager licks. Mateo managed to grab the dog and pet it's head and fluffy ears.

"Awww aren't ya just the cutest?" He cooed at the dog. Star giggled and watched the dog's tail wagged faster from the attention it was getting from him. They both had been so focused on the cute dog that didn't see its owner running back to apologize.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't see where the Frisbee flew over at and I lost sight of Cosmo!" The dog's owner apologized to them.

Scarlet and Mateo looked at the owner and smiled, not seeing an issue with the situation.

"No no it's alright. He's a cute fella." Mateo patted the dog's head.

"He's adorable! Just a big ball of energy, huh?" Scarlet continued to pet the cute dog until the owner finally took Cosmo back to go continue to play in the sand. The couple watched as they left to go play together.

"What a cute dog." Scarlet said as she sat back in her beach chair.

"Yeah. Drools a lot." Mateo chuckled.

"He did! I always wanted a dog growing up, yknow? But big ones used to scare me and my mom used to say they were too much to handle."

"They are but they'll become yer best friend over time. Golden Retrievers are more popular for that since they're so hyperactive."

"Sounds like someone I know." Scarlet smirked and looked at him.

"Oh yeah? Ya tryna say somethin' love?" Mateo grinned.

"Hmm I dunno." She acted like she didn't know what she was suggesting. "Maybe there's an animal world out there and your a golden retriever."

"Callin' me a dog?" He teased her.

"Oh don't be dramatic. It just fits you. Cuddly, loving, cute, big-"

"Big?" He laughed.

"Y'know what I meant!" Scarlet looked back at where Cosmo was in the distance and saw the dog chase after the Frisbee into the water. The dog was fast and carelessly splashed through the water like that wasn't going to be an issue in the future.

"So if this animal world did exist, what animal would you be?" Mateo asked her, adjusting his sunglasses.

"Me? I dunno, never really thought of it like that." She tapped her chin while thinking about what kind of animal she would be. "Probably a bat."

"Why a bat? Because of the night?"

"That and their nocturnal. Y'know I can stay up for a whole night."

"Oh believe me, I know. Ya should really fix that sleepin habit of yers, shiny. Going to sleep by 5am isn't healthy." He would be the one to show concern in her sleeping habits.

"Oh your one to talk. You can stay in bed for like a week and not be bothered by it."

"And who's there by my side doing the same thing?"

When she looked at him, he was resting his chin in his palm and giving her that smug smile. She scoffed and smiled as she looked away. "Shut up"

Mateo laughed again, leaning his head back as he did. Damn him and his smug ways. But she did love him so there was no doubting that.

"So we have a golden retriever and a bat, huh? Sounds like a unique pairing."

"Very unique. But if I was a small bat, I could dangle upside down on your collar. Like a really fancy dog tag!" She smiled brightly at the idea. "Ah but then again you'd probably be running around chasing your tail or something."

"Or sleepin'. Sounds a lot more cozy. Just havin' ma shiny there with me and sleepin' the day away? Perfect. And I'll be cozy enough to keep ya down so it's not like ya could fly away and escape me."

"Huh. Well how about that?" She giggled. "Seems like we're destined in other universes. Y'know…depending on the circumstances."

"Seems like it. I'm not complaining."

"Neither am I."

For a moment, things became quiet between them again as they listened to the crashing waves and people watched. Mateo had the easier opportunity to look at people since he had sunglasses on and no one could see what he was looking at. Heck, he could be asleep and no one would know. Unless he snored. But for Scarlet, she just looked at others as they lived their own lives. But her gaze would come right back to Mateo and look at his body as if she hadn't seen it so many shocking times. But who can blame her? With the sun kissing his body like that it was kinda hard not to stare. But even as she looked, she looked at the tulip on his bicep. As many times as she's seen it, she never did get the chance to ask him about it.

"Hey, sunshine? I've been meaning to ask you about your tattoo. The tulip. Is there any deeper meaning to that?"

Mateo glanced in her direction and then at the tattoo. A somber look came over him as he looked at it and that gave away what it could mean. "After uh…Blight…I got this tattoo for Gabriel. Blight took a lot from me and made me do some unforgivable things. I was still processing Gabriel's death too so I thought getting this for him would bring more memories." He sighed, "It was his favorite flower. Had some at the wedding too. Plus the color reminds me of his hair color."

"Oh." She quietly replied, looking at the tulip. "Of course he would like a tulip. I can see that comparison with his hair too."

"It reminds me of him everyday I look at it. Just being around tulips reminds me of him."

Scarlet nodded, looking at his tattoo and tracing it with her finger. It reminded her of her own Gabriel, "I wanted to get one for him. But I went against it because of well…the ring and my prosthetic since he made it for me." Scarlet looked at her prosthetic leg. Normally, she had a necklace with the ring he proposed to her with on all the time but she left it at her world after changing to go to the beach. "Plus my skin changing makes it harder to see."

"What would ya have gotten?"

"His Firelight emblem. Or just the day he proposed to me." She chuckled weakly. That's another thing hard to think about. The day he proposed to her.

"Both sound nice." he smiled softly. But sensing that they were both getting sad thinking about their passed lover, he cleared his throat and attempted to make light of the situation. "Did yer Gabe like the beach?"

"Like it? He did. Took me out one time for a date and he nearly got swept by the waves" She laughed. "Said I was a starfish every time I was in the water!"

Mateo laughed as well, "Mine would've sat on the beach with me. But wouldn't miss the chance to stare at him."

She snickered, "You liked to stare?"

"You didn't?"

"Fair."

They began to recall more memories about their Gabriel's. Past dates, funny moments, bad ones, even Mateo's wedding day. She would never admit it out loud again but Scarlet was jealous that he got to marry his Gabe before she could. Although the proposal was amazing, they never did make it to their wedding day. At least one of them got to be happy, even if it was taken from him.

People watching once again, Scarlet and Mateo were closer this time. They were sitting on a beach towel together and Scarlet was leaned up against his chest as his arms were wrapped around her. A nice tender moment between the two as they people watched together. Scarlet would point out some people and would sometimes joke about what a person was wearing to which Mateo would tell her to not be so rude and judge a person. It wasn't that mean of a comment but enough for him to make her stop. The conversation about Gabriel lingered in her head, making her miss him even more. Even years later, he was still stuck in her mind.

While Scarlet looked around, she thought she saw someone she knew or at least recognized. It was another woman, standing on the beach and looking out the sea. She had dark brown hair that was long and curly and swayed in the breeze of the beach. Scarlet's eyes narrowed while looking at her, feeling like something about her was uncomfortably familiar. But before she had a chance to point it out, someone ran past the woman and immediately caught Scarlet's eye. It was a man that looked like Gabriel to the point she truly thought it was him. Her eyes widened as she stared at him and felt her cheeks go warm as she followed him.

The man had dark caramel colored skin with dark brown hair and was wearing blue tinted sunglasses. He wore a pair of brown patterned swim shorts and seemed like the type of guy that often comes to the beach. From where they were at, Scarlet could see that he had some piercings, mainly on his ear, that shined in the light. Someone else ran past him and must have said something funny because he suddenly laughed and had the most charming smile ever. His brown hair looked fluffy and soft and was swept to the side where his bangs would slightly cover his eyes if he didn't brush it back. There was a necklace around him as well but she wasn't too focused on that. Forgetting that she was literally staring, her jaw was dropped as she stared at this handsome man who looked so much like Gabriel.

"Sunshine—Teo'—babe—Mateo—you—" She stuttered and Mateo just raised an eyebrow, confused about why she was stuttering and blushing so much. "Are ya okay?' He asked her and she squeezed his hand. Unable to form words, she subtly pointed towards the guy and he finally saw him. Mateo's eyes widened behind his sunglasses as he saw the Gabriel lookalike and suddenly both of them were pink while staring at him.

"He looks—" Star started to speak but Mateo responded quickly with "mhm". It was amazing how someone that looked just like their lover could still make them speechless like this. Things took a turn when the man saw them staring. Scarlet, who panicked, looked away instantly and felt her cheeks get even warmer. Mateo only averted his eyes away and tried to subtly make it look like he was staring at something else. But both of their reactions gave away what they had really been doing and the man smirked. He approached them and both of them silently panicked. In a good way.

"Hey there. Enjoying the view?" He smirked, putting a hand on his hip. Both Mateo and Scarlet were speechless flustered messy as they looked at him. It only made the man feel much more confident and feel good about making two very attractive people blush like this. "Already at a lost for words huh? Haven't even introduced myself." He chuckled. "Names Gally." He extended his hand out to shake.

Gally…😍

"Uh…I'm Scarlet but uh call me Star." She hasn't been this flustered in a while!! She took his hand to shake but he came down and kissed the top of it. That blush was painfully obvious now. Gally turned to Mateo and tilted his head. "Hey…aren't you that country singer? Mateo, right?"

Mateo fixed his sunglasses again and nodded, "Y-yes. That's me." Gally chuckled in response, "Wow! Never thought I'd meet a singer! Especially you." He took his hand and kissed it as well. These two were screwed! "So what brings you two here?" Gally asked.

"We're just trying to escape the heat and thought we could just come here" Scarlet explained to him.

"Ah the summer heat, huh? Yeah, this is the best time for that. Brings in a lot of people though." He looked at both of them again, "But I mean if I knew it was gonna bring some cuties like you then I would've come here sooner." He winked.

Stealing their hearts, they both bashfully giggled, easily charmed by his flirting. Normally one of them might have been able to make a flirty comment back but they had been taken by this charming man. And it seemed that Gally knew he had them right where he wanted. Something did catch his eye though when talking to them and it was how close they were sitting with each other. "Wait…are they dating?" Gally thought about it, "They don't seem too bothered by it though so might as well keep going" Neither of them looked uncomfortable about his flirting and instead seemed to be enjoying it! If only he knew.

Gally continued to talk to the couple, complimenting them on what they were wearing and how they looked. When looking at Mateo, he would stare at his body and take a mental note of how strong he looked. He was very attractive and there was no denying that he felt something for him. Same with Scarlet. As he looked at her, Gally couldn't help but feel like she had something mysterious to her, something that he wanted to know more about. Looking at her prosthetic leg raised some questions but for now he stuck with flirting and making them become all shy and bashful.

Mateo wasn't able to make any flirty comments back to Gally, feeling too flustered to think of anything that would come out clear. There was a lot he could compliment but it was getting stuck in his throat whenever Gally looked at him with a smirk. He caught him looking at his body a few times and at one point he had to avert his eyes away just to pull himself together. Scarlet, not really the flirty type, was too flustered to try and compliment him back and instead giggled shyly and said somethings just to keep the conversation going. All she knew was that both her and Mateo were a mess with this guy and were feeling some type of way towards him.

But just as Gally was getting more bold with his flirting, someone called his name and he looked back with a small frown. "Ah man. I gotta get back with my group over there." He looked at them and noticed their hidden disappointment in him having to leave. "Don't miss me too much, cuties. Maybe this won't be the last time I'll see you both." That's when he got an idea. "Hey…actually. Either of you got a phone on you right now?"

Both of them scrambled to find their phone and Mateo was the first one to get his. Scarlet pouted as Teo's handed Gally his phone. "Thanks." Gally opened the contacts app and then added his number. For the profile picture, he snapped a quick photo of himself winking with a peace sign raised and set it up before giving the phone back to Teo. "Why don't you give me a call sometime? If you ever wanna see me again. I don't mind having a bit of fun." He looked at Star and winked, "Even if it means I get to be with both of you." They were speechless once again. "Call me" He winked one more time before leaving to go join his other friends.

Mateo and Scarlet watched him all the way until it was too hard to see where he went. Once he was gone from their sight, they looked at Teo's phone with his number on it. Neither of them said a word and just stared at it until Scarlet looked up at him. Their cheeks were still red and that's what made her laugh. Mateo chuckled and then burst out laughing with her as they realized how flustered they had been when seeing Gally.

"Did that just happen? Like actually?" Scarlet laughed.

"It did! I can't believe that it even did happen!" Mateo laughed and leaned back.

"I haven't been that flustered in so long! But I mean he just looked so much like Gabe!"

"It might be ma world's variant of him. We didn't get his last name either but judging from how he looked, I'm confident in saying that its a variant."

Scarlet nodded, "It had to be him. Was that a sign? I mean we were just talking about Gabriel and then I see him."

"Could be." For now, Mateo put his phone away and held Scarlet, kissing her head, "Guess we're still a mess around him, hm?"

She giggled, "Yeah we are. That just proves that he still has our heart."

The couple stayed on the beach until sunset and finally drove back to Mateo's place. It was a little cooler now and the drive was relaxing. But even as they were going back and holding hands throughout the drive, Gally was in their mind. The way he flirted with them, his charming smile, his body, his laugh…they were screwed. Neither of them had said it out loud yet but they had been thinking about Gally and giving him a call back. Would that be crazy? To call this guy back and showing how much they wanted him? Who can blame them though, he was attractive and stolen their hearts in the few minutes he spoke.

Scarlet was lost in thought throughout the drive and was looking up as the sun was setting low enough to make the stars slowly peek from the sky. She stared at them and could feel the moon rising which made her eyes faintly glow. She couldn't stop thinking about Gally but also felt guilty for it. Both of them wanted him, that much was obvious. But she had never thought about letting someone else come into their relationship, even if it was just a hookup. It wasn't cheating nor would it be something they both dislike. But why did it still make her feel guilty? This guy wanted both of them, he said it himself so it's not like anyone would feel left out. Maybe she was just overthinking the situation. It's not like they would really call him!

Right?

When they finally got back to Mateo's place, They put every thing from the beach away and went to go cuddle on the couch. Scarlet was still lost in thought and hadn't said anything yet but Mateo could sense something was making her think more.

"Shiny, ya've been quiet since we left the beach. Is everything okay?" He rubbed her cheek with his thumb, trying to figure out what was going on in her head. Scarlet blinked and then looked at him, sighing softly as she realized she would need to bring it up eventually.

"I…I can't stop thinking about Gally. I know he gave us his number but I mean…we're dating. It's always just been us. And now there's him and I can't help but think that's wrong…" Looking down at her hands, she fiddled with her fingers anxiously.

"Wrong? Star, we haven't even called him. Who said anything about him being apart of our relationship? He was just flirtin' with us."

"Oh come on Mateo, you can't lie about not wanting him." She wasn't accusing him. Just saying what they were both thinking out loud. He didn't respond back for a second before sighing and nodding, "Okay. Yeah. Ya have a point there. But what's gettin' ya so worried? We don't have to do it if it makes ya uncomfortable. Just because I have his number doesn't mean I have to do it."

That was true. He could easily delete the number and that would be the end of it. But the thing was, did she want him to do that? No. "…Mateo. If…if we did call him…would you be comfortable with that? Because let's be honest here, we both want him. And maybe it's not in a way that means he'll be our boyfriend but like in a—"

"—a hookup?" He finished her sentence. Scarlet nodded and continued to fiddle with her hands. "I've never hooked up with a person like that. Like I've never…done it with multiple people." That's the truth as she had only ever been with three people in her life. Maybe a hookup once or twice but it was always just a person. Mateo scratched the back of his head and quietly chuckled, "I can't say I haven't."

"Yeah I know. Too busy collecting people, huh?"

"Hey! I'm not a hooker!" He defended himself and Scarlet laughed. "I never said you were!"

"I know, I'm just pullin' yer leg, shiny"

"Don't pull too hard, it might come off." Dumb joke about her prosthetic.

Silence filled the room once again and this time Mateo pulled out his phone and set it on his lap. They both looked at it as he pulled up Gally's contact. It's right there. Just a push of a button and things would happen. Could happen. Mateo looked at Scarlet.

"It's yer call."

"Oh don't put the pressure on me!!" Now it was in her hands. "…it's just a night right?"

"One night." Mateo repeated with a nod. Looking back at the phone again, they had the choice right there.

Delete the number or call him?

Maybe we'll never know.

(Reuploaded! This one is finished!) Star meets with Spider-Therapist again to discuss her relationship with Mateo. This is a continuation from my other fic, "Therapy session", talking more about what happened after the ending.

In the Spider Society, there was the popular Spider-Therapist who had the unfortunate pleasure of being the only therapist in a building with a thousand other Spider-Heroes that all had just about the same issues or slightly different ones. The amount of times he's heard about someone's loved one dying and feeling like they were to blame or hearing about another failed relationship or even how someone's best friend betrayed them unexpectedly—it had become common. Way too common. Although many of these issues had been common to hear about, he still would get paid to sit and listen to their issues. Albeit, some of these heroes did have strong reactions to negative emotions or just wouldn't be bothered to share anything about their life. Scarlet and Mateo were ones that had been like that as Mateo refused to see Spider-Therapist and Scarlet was forced to see him due to her long list of issues and her inability to handle trauma.

Today had been no different. Scarlet knocked on Spider-Therapist's door and opened it once he gave the clearing to enter. Sitting inside the comfortable yet oddly intimidating office, Scarlet leaned back in her chair with her hands resting on her stomach, already tense from whatever kind of conversation they were about to have.

"So Scarlet, I can already see how you're tensing up just from being in the office. Mind sharing why?" Spider-Therapist asked. He wore the same suit as always, a simple suit and Spider-man themed tie to match with it while also wearing his mask with glasses over them. In his lap was his tablet to keep notes on the session while he sat on a comfortable gray chair.

"Oh I dunno, maybe because every time I'm here I end up blowing up or getting into a panic attack. Your fault by the way." She sarcastically rolled her eyes.

Oh boy.

"Hm. I understand your anger towards me about these issues but it's for your health."

"My health? Yet every time I get these memories back into my head I end up panicking. How exactly is that healthy? And why am I the one to get forced in here? Not every spider comes here to see you."

"Because you have more issues that needs handling. You destroyed a world after a Gabriel variant took your prosthetic, nearly broke timelines when you hopped through different universes, and you're so mentally unstable that a blow up from you could kill the power in the Spider Society! Which, may I remind you, you did cause."

Scarlet looked at him bitterly before laying back against the chair with no further argument. She knew she had issues that had become unstable. But she's better now, right? Sort of? At least she isn't jumping through different universes again. Spider-therapist sighed and pushed up his glasses on his nose, looking down at his tablet. Did he want to risk getting her to snap or try to have today's session be about something more tame? Examining his list for previous topics they've discussed, he finally came across one that would hopefully keep her calm throughout the whole session.

"Okay. How about we don't discuss your trauma that bring back old memories? Why don't we talk about your relationship with Mr. Orlin?"

"Are you going to tell me he isn't mine again?"

"No. No. Not after what happened last time." He checked the tablet and took a deep breath after remembering the old session they had where she blew up. "Let's discuss your feelings for him but before you two made it official."

That had definitely been an unexpected question but also wasn't unwelcome since it wasn't too much of a sensitive topic. Sitting up in her seat, Star thought back to her past with Mateo.

"Well…to start, we happened to meet in his world when I was still world hopping. This was before my Gabriel was killed. I used to travel through dimensions just to see what they were like. During that time I was exploring, I landed in Mateo's world and eventually bumped into him. He had been suspicious of me of course because I was someone new and we just talked for a bit. I explained to him that I was universe hopping and that's when he told me a bit about himself. We talked for a while on some rooftop and when I told him about my Gabriel, he offered to take us out to dinner. For a double date." Star explained how Mateo and her met back then.

"So you both ended up meeting and then having a double date? What was that like?"

"It was sweet. Having our Gabriel's meet each other while we all enjoyed dinner was honestly funny to see. It's one of the good memories, yknow?"

"Did you have feelings for Mr. Orlin by that time?" "What? No. I was with Gabriel and he was married to his. Sure he was attractive but I wasn't in love with him. That wasn't until years later."

"Hm." Spider-Therapist took note of that. "When did you start falling for him?"

"When? Well I mean him and I didn't talk as much as we do now. Not until after our Gabriel's died and even then it wasn't so often. But when we did….oh…"

The Past

I had never felt such sadness and pain after my Gabriel was killed. Things just seemed to be a lot darker and more empty which made life harder to live. And I know that sounds super dramatic but it's true. How could I keep living when he was gone? The one that made that made my life feel worth living. I would cry a lot at home, stay in bed for days and stop eating. Relapsed on alcohol just to feel something else besides the pain of losing him. Shock, I felt like my life was over! Back at the Spider Society there wasn't much of a difference either since well…I had the better chance of traveling through the multiverse in hopes of finding Gabriel. But of course, no. I just had to find all the bad worlds where he could give a lesser shock about me. I was pretty stupid just falling for him just because they all looked like my variant. What was there to care about when he was there again?

Miguel tried multiple times to stop me, I remember that. He would always get mad at me when I would come back from a universe I wasn't meant to be in and I would ignore him like if he was a parent scolding me. But he was always right in the end and yeah, I regretted a ton of things. Including the stuff that happened with Dr. Haywire. God. That was bad. It felt like I could never find love again. Did I even deserve it after everything? I felt cursed. Like anyone that would fall in love with me would just end up getting hurt or worse! There had been a few people I was interested in but never went into it.

But then there was Mateo. That stupidly charming cowboy that stole my shocking heart.

I remember the first time I felt something different when talking to him. I was having another bad day and was just lonely in the observatory, getting all moody and depressed again. I hadn't eaten anything that day either and he was the last person I had ever expected to see.

He came in after knocking on my door twice. I was floating in the middle of the room while looking at past memories of Gabriel and I, crying for the millionth time. When he entered, I quickly wiped my tears away and rubbed my nose.

"Hey there, Star. Miguel said I should come check in on ya." He always spoke so gently with me. I never understood why at the time.

"He did? Ugh, I swear he treats me like I'm his daughter or something. Why couldn't he be bothered to come and see me?" I scoffed, finding it bit insulting that he would send Mateo here to check on me. "It's not like you're required to come check on me. You could just worry about yourself."

Mateo hadn't even flinched at my harsh tone because he knew I was struggling with my grief, even if it had been a couple years since Gabriel died. He didn't appear mad or even insulted. Just…calm.

He approached me slowly, watching for any negative reaction. "I know I don't have to come see ya. But I wanted to. I wanted to make sure yer okay."

It surprised me. He actually cared about me?

"Why? Aren't you dealing with your own stuff?"

He didn't answer that.

"Have ya eaten today?" He asked while getting closer.

"….no. I'm not hungry." I muttered and came down to the ground without realizing it.

"We both know that's a lie."

I scoffed in response but he was right. I wouldn't be able to keep up the act any longer because yes, food sounded delicious at that moment. Mateo chuckled as he noticed my act was beginning to falter. How could he break through me so fast?

"C'mon. The cafeteria should be serving some good food." He gestured me to follow him. I should've ignored him and stayed in place just to piss him off. But I couldn't. I followed like a puppy without hesitation and walked with him to the cafeteria where the smell of fresh cooked food filled my lungs and caused my stomach to growl. I'm sure he heard it since he glanced back at me with a faint smile.

In the cafeteria, there had been a ton of food options including that stupid burger that had Miguel's mask on it. The dye on the burger made it look like it would taste like blueberries. But it was a good burger to be honest. Mateo hadn't given me anything heavy, just grabbed a sandwich and some fruit for me since I likely wouldn't be able to stomach anything heavy. He didn't say much either, just handed it to me and I just took it. Wait….had I already been folding for him?

We found a table right before I managed to steal one of the banana muffins from the cafe after he got himself his sugar drink. A cup of caramel. Okay it wasn't just caramel, there was coffee in it too. Somewhere.

But besides that, we sat together where I ate the sandwich slowly like some sad kitten. He didn't judge me or make any kind of rude comments, just sat there and made sure I was actually eating. Something about him actually caring had made my heart feel weird. It was such a simple gesture but…I don't think he knows how much that meant to me.

"That cup looks like you're just drinking caramel." I finally spoke, pointing out that his drink looked disgustingly sweet.

He laughed. God his laugh…

"It just has extra caramel on it. Plus I love sweet drinks. Can ya really blame me?"

"Hm. I guess not. But still, don't have too much of it. You could end up with cavities." I said as I bit into my sandwich.

"Ha! With ma teeth? I doubt I'll ever get one."

"Hmph. Lucky ass." Not to say that I had any either. The most I ever had to handle was braces but eh. Maybe his charm was the reason his teeth weren't falling out. But I would later learn its because he has the money to afford a great dentist and his powers helped with his health as well.

We had sat together in silence for a bit longer. I finished my sandwich and moved on to the banana muffin rather than eat the fruit he picked out for me.

"And ya say I should be handlin' ma sweets?" He teased, pointing at the muffin.

"Whatever." I playfully scoffed. "These are good anyways."

"I agree. But what's wrong with the fruit?" "Nothing. I just wanted a muffin." "Fair fair." He nodded and took another sip of his drink.

There was more silence between us but it didn't feel uncomfortable. You know how when you sit with someone and its just the two of you but you don't know them very well so it gets awkward between both of you? That's what I had expected to happen with him and I but it just felt right instead. I felt comfortable with him and we hadn't even been super close! But he was taking care of me, cared about whether I ate or not, and stayed with me while eating so I wouldn't feel alone.

"Mateo. Why are you doing this? I mean no disrespect or anything and I'm not saying I don't like that you're doing this. I just want to know why you're doing it." Asking the question made me feel tense and fear that he was just going to say that he was pitying me.

He was quiet for a moment. Not saying much as he looked down at the table. It scared me for a second and only made me fear his answer even more.

"Well because I know yer mournin' over yer Gabriel. And I'm probably the only person right now that knows what yer going through."

Of course.

"Ah. Right. I mean I…I know I should be over it since it happened so long ago. I just…can't." I admitted quietly.

"No one is tellin' you to rush. Everyone mourns differently."

"Yeah but…look at you. You don't seem sad in the slightest and you lost him too! He was your husband! Mine was my fiance!"

I hadn't looked at him yet but the silence made me feel like something was wrong. When I did manage to look, he expression was serious and it kinda scared me. Did I piss him off? Looking back at it now, it was pretty shocked up to say to him. It could have come off as me being jealous that he looked fine but might've come off to him as rude. He was going through a lot as well, he was just never vocal about it. And yet there I was, dismissing his emotions. "Scarlet. Just because I don't look sad doesn't mean I'm not. Not everyone has to look upset while they mourn."

I felt like a dick when I realized what I said. He could be hurting just as much as me or even worse and yet I was saying he was fine because he wasn't sobbing his eyes out. Plus him calling me by my actual name rather than a nickname only further proved that I pissed him off. At least that's what i thought in the moment.

Panicked, I quickly apologized, "No no no! I mean I didn't—no. I'm….(sigh) I'm sorry. That came out way worse than I intended. You are mourning and you're allowed to do it in your own way."

Mateo looked at me for a moment and sighed, taking off his mask for a moment. I remember feeling my heart beat faster when his hair came down and still managed to look fluffy. Lucky.

"It's...it's alright, Star. I know ya didn't have any ill intention's with that." He looked down at the table again. "If I'm bein' honest, I miss him every day. Every. Single. Day."

Of course he did. He was like me then. "Heh….me too. I keep…looking into the past. Looking back at all our old memories like if he's still here with me and I just have to remember that he's not. But there's nothing on how to get over your dead loved one."

"I don't think ya ever do."

"…huh. Well isn't that fun." I sounded bitter to hear that. I didn't want to be this way for the rest of my life, continuing to hurt myself just to feel a moment of happiness with a Gabriel that wasn't mine. I wanted to move on and come to the acceptance that he was gone! But at the time, it felt like I never would. That I would always be stuck with these emotions forever until I died. But thankfully, I was wrong.

"But…we don't always have to make it so depressin'." "Oh yeah? How?" "By lookin' ahead of us. Look, I know it's hard and I truly don't think we'll ever get over the fact that he's gone. But we can't live the rest of our lives just mournin' over him. We'll just be ruinin' ourselves and likely fall into a faster grave! Because look at it this way, would Gabriel like that yer hopping through worlds to feel better?"

"God, you sound like Miguel."

"I'm serious, Scarlet."

There goes my name again. Jammit, why was it much more tense when he said my name? Guess I've been used to the cute names instead. I sighed and fiddled with my fingers. "….no. He would tell me I'm being stupid and I'm just going back into bad habits." "Exactly! So ya can't keep doin' this to yerself. And I can't keep doing this to myself either. It'll take time, trust ma. But it'll get better. Ya just gotta start somewhere."

Shock him and his smart words. It was pretty obvious that I couldn't mope around for the rest of my life. Gabriel would be pissed to know I spent the rest of it just crying for days and destroying myself. But I did need to hear that reminder from Mateo because he was the only one that could understand what I was going through. And honestly, it did help me realize what I was doing needed to stop sooner or later.

"…god you're so cheesy. But I mean…you're right. If we keep shocking up then…we'll never truly move on."

"Yes! We also don't have to be alone in this either, Star. Ya have me and Miguel and Webby!"

Oh yeah. My spider.

"True." I chuckled and looked at him with a softer gaze. "…thanks. For that."

"Of course. We can do this." He placed his hand on top of mine just for a moment and I felt something warm. It could have been his hand but I felt it in my chest. What an odd feeling. My cheeks felt warmer too. It wasn't until I looked at his hand and noticed his ring, reminding myself he was married. He likely wouldn't ever get with another person and I needed to respect that. Pulling my hand back, I smiled and told him I should return back to the observatory to work. I thanked him for talking to me and getting me food before I left with this new feeling in my chest for this shocking cowboy.

Present

"So he took care of you and didn't allow you to mope around?" Spider-therapist fixed his glasses and took notes of the event.

"Yeah pretty much. And he kept doing it for months afterwards and we just started to get closer. He'd hug me when I cry, always come check in on me, make sure I would leave and go to work instead of staying for hours."

"That…sounds like the basic things. Like he does that with any of his friends. Not much of that sounds special." Spider-Therapist was brutally honest.

Star looked at him with an annoyed expression when he called her out. It was true, a lot of what Mateo would do for her just sounded like friendly gestures rather than him being in love with her. But it made her fall for him because she didn't get that kind of attention anymore.

"I know it sounds like nothing but I swear to you, he did more than what others ever did for me. And yes, I did catch him doing this for other spiders as well. But it was just something about the way he looked at me every time we hung out and how he'd hug me that just…" Star blushed a little and groaned in response. In the past, it had been harder for her to admit that maybe Mateo felt something for her. There had been multiple times where she saw how he acted with others and realized that she was possibly falling for the most basic interactions and was just desperate. But when he started to hug her and invite her over to his home…things started to change.

It would start with a date and then coming over to enjoy a movie together while cuddling. Maybe a quick kiss on the cheek and little pet names. Like when he started to call her 'shiny' because of her powers and she jokingly called him 'sunshine' but he really loved it and told her to stay with it.

"We didn't just suddenly fall in love. We started off slow but I never told him how I felt because I was scared. But I mean we used to go on a few dates and cuddle at mainly his place." Star rubbed the back of her head. "It honestly had been some harmless flirting that just ended up getting much more serious." Spider-Therapist was struggling to understand how they managed to get together, considering he had see how Mateo acts with the others. Did Star get some kind of special treatment? He kept looking at his notes and was understanding that Star was the one to fall for him first and rather quickly but attempted to hide a majority of these feelings or try to push them down out of fear.

"So you two flirted often and Mr. Orlin is known to be a flirt back. Just playful banter, correct?" Scarlet nodded.

"And then you began to feel something for him. Where did this fear come in?" "The fear? Once I started to realize what I felt for him had been something more than just being friends. I feared that I was reading too much into this and he would dislike that I was falling in love. All we had been doing was flirting and checking in and I was just…falling in love too fast." There were multiple times she had caught herself staring off at him or leaving the observatory to find him. It wasn't ever to really talk, she just wanted to see him and get a quick hug. Seeing him had always made her heartbeat faster, especially when he would brush her hair back or rub her arm. But because of fear and insecurities, she never let herself admit that maybe he had the same feelings or actually felt something with her. Whenever she would get too close or she would see his expression, she would panic and immediately step back to avoid revealing too much. She had been afraid of her own feelings.

"Did he ever catch onto this?" Spider-Therapist wrote some more notes down. "He's never told me he did. But I'm sure he caught on." She admitted. Why? Well there had been times where he would rub her cheek or give her a quick hug and every time this happened, she would lean in closer to the hug or lean into his palm. "I'm sure being touch starved was no surprise to him."

"I see." While looking at his tablet, he noticed the notes he took from the last session where Scarlet blew up and snapped at him. "Now, Star, I'm sure you remember the last time we spoke."

A bitter scoff escapes her, "Boy do I…when you told me Mateo wasn't mine and I freaked out." "I…I do apologize for that. As a therapist, I need to be honest with you and not further feed into feelings that could be misread. But looking back on that now, I realized I was wrong." He apologized to her for causing her emotions to burst during that time period.

Surprised, Scarlet sits up and fiddles with the end of her hair. "It's…its fine. I know you were just trying to understand me. But…I will say, that had helped me finally understand what him and I had. Things didn't go so bad." "What do you mean?" "Well, I mean things did go bad for me but I mean like…when I ran away from here, I went to see him because I knew he would be there for me. But that was when I finally told him the truth. I wasn't supposed to but it just happened. "Tell me more."

Past

(Continuation from the ending of my other fic, "Therapy Session". First person.)

I woke up feeling a sharp pain in the right side of my arm closest to my shoulder. My heart had been pounding and chest had felt tighter than normal. The room had stopped spinning and something warm was dripping down my arm and pooling down on my kitchen floor.

"What…?" I was breathing faster and had to blink away the remaining tears to see what I had done. There was knife in my arm. My kitchen knife was lodged deep inside my arm. a bad reaction from my panic attack. That stupid therapist had made my head spin after telling me something I didn't want to hear. Was this a pretty dramatic reaction? Probably. But I still get those urges to harm myself. I was hoping I would stop. Leaning back against the kitchen wall, I just sat there and let my warm blood drip down onto the floor as I trembled. Staying here and letting myself bleed was very tempting but there was a very slim chance that I would die from bleeding out like this.

The knife was yanked out and clattered onto the floor. Getting up made me dizzy and nearly fall back down. The pain hadn't been too uncomfortable but was enough to be acknowledged by. I remember wanting to call Miguel for help but felt like he wouldn't answer or would just further scold me about doing stupid things for attention. Had I come off as attention seeking? I wanted to crawl into bed and just let the pain sink in for as long as possible and hope my healing factor would work as fast as possible. But the wound was too deep and it would take days for it to finally heal up into a scar. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I was numb.

But I thought of Mateo and I felt…better. Like I could think again and understand that there was someone out there who actually cared about me. Someone that wouldn't yell at me or call me an idiot. He was the only person I felt safe enough to go to and feel like I would actually be loved once again. But maybe my thoughts had just been desperate to be held while I cried my heart out.

Focusing my mind as best as I could, I raised my good arm and summoned a portal to Mateo's world, hoping to whatever god that it would send me directly to his home. Entering, I had been lucky to arrive into a warm home. The smell of cinnamon was faint, only giving away that he was home. I nearly broke down right there in his living room and he hadn't seen me yet. I wasn't making a sound, didn't even yell for him. Either his spider senses went off or he knew something was wrong. But either way, he came out from his room and I could tell his heart stopped the moment he saw me standing in his living room with visible tears rolling down my cheeks and the blood rapidly dripping out my arm and now onto his floor. I never did apologize for that.

"Star! Oh my god—what did ya—what-" He didn't even know what to say, that's how panicked he was when seeing me like this. I felt him cup my cheeks the second he approached me. Although his eyes had been covered by his hair, I knew he was worried. I had never seen him this panicked. But I was glad that he wasn't yelling at me or calling me names for stabbing myself like this. He just looked at me and then back at the wound.

"That…therapist. Miguel should've never sent ya to him. I swear to god I—" He was angry but not at me. Seems like he was blaming the therapist and Miguel for forcing me to go to the appointment. He had been right, I should have never gone to that session. Although some aspects of it had been good, not all of it was at the same time. Teo' couldn't stay angry for too long and instead shook his head and looked back at me.

"Never mind. I can't get mad about this. None of it was yer fault." He reassured me and I could've broken down right there. "C'mon shiny, let's clean ya up." He took me to his bathroom and sat me down on the counter top while He grabbed the medical kit. I hadn't said a word the whole time and he didn't force me to say anything either. Normally I would have panicked from seeing the needle about to come near me but I didn't even flinch. Funny how I'll flinch to a needle but when it comes to a whole knife I'm fine. How odd.

Mateo cleaned my wound, making sure not to press on it too much so I wouldn't wince in pain. By the time he started to stitch the wound closed, the blood had stopped spilling out. It did hurt but I never said anything since I was still struggling to understand my emotions and process what spider-therapist had said. How could Mateo be so kind to me? So gentle and kind and understanding? Why me? Why would he do anything for me? At the time, I had no idea why he would be so gentle with me. I felt like I didn't deserve it and felt as if I was making him fall for me just so he didn't feel bad. I was scared! But I never left him. I couldn't. Not when he looked at me like if I meant something to him. Even when he held me that night and let me cry into his chest, the last thing on my mind was leaving.

That morning after everything, I was still clinging to Mateo and he was still holding me. How did he manage to look so shocking good in the morning? Even though I wanted to stay here forever, I didn't want to be a burden to him and keep him strap down to the bed all day. My arm was sore but I could fight through the pain as I untangled myself from him and attempted to leave. My foot hadn't touched the floor when suddenly Mateo was grabbing me and pulling me back to bed. "Stay…" It wasn't a command and was instead more of a plea. He was asking me to stay? That was surprising. I should have denied and left. Should have summoned a portal and went home. But I couldn't. I laid back in bed and he hugged me, chest to my back as he kissed my cheek and shoulder. Such soft kisses…they sent shivers down my spine and I was blushing like crazy. Turning around to face him and being careful not to hurt my arm, I cupped his cheek and rubbed it.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to wake you…" I whispered.

"S'okay, shiny. I'm not in any kind of rush to send ya home." "Dummy…" I pressed a soft kiss to his head and he nuzzled closer to me. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest from how fast it was beating. Teo' stayed close and was falling back asleep, I wouldn't stop him from getting more rest. But in that moment, I just looked at him and kept stroking his cheek. How did I end up like this? Falling in love with the stupidly charming cowboy? And why was he so gentle with me? The way I felt hadn't been unfamiliar but it was one I was scared to acknowledge. But just looking at how soft he looked while sleeping next to me and how his hair covered his eyes, something softened in me.

I didn't mean to say it. I didn't think I would. But I just said it without thinking.

"I love you." It was a quite whisper. I was so lost in thought that I didn't realize I was leaning closer to his lips. The temptation was there. Just a soft kiss to his lips. That's it.

But he opened his eyes. I know he did because of the little "Hm?"

Freezing in place, we both were still for a moment before he processed what I was doing and what I said. "Wait—did ya just-" I panicked and flipped around, laying on my arm and feeling the sharp pain go through my body. But that didn't burn as much as my face did from the embarrassment. "NOTHING!!" I squeaked and buried my face into my pillow. "Shiny wait! Did ya really just say that?" He asked again, sitting up rather quickly.

"I-I didn't!" I attempted to lie but from how red my face was and the fact that he saw me get close, that was a dead give away from the truth.

"I…ya didn't…" He was speechless too, his cheeks visibly red.

"I'm….I'm so sorry…" I spoke up. He turned to look at me with a surprised expression like if he didn't understand why I was apologizing, In that moment, I could no longer hide my feelings. I already said the famous three words so now I might as well explain everything.

"I just…..I've been in love with you for so long. I just never knew how to tell you. And I know I shouldn't be feeling this since you and I were with Gabriel and you got married to your variant of him and I was engaged to mine and we both lost him—" I was talking faster and was starting to cry as the overwhelming fear of being in love again, while also fearing losing him, had gotten to me. Sitting up in the bed, I sniffled and wiped my tears only for more to roll down my cheeks.

"You've been so nice to me and actually cared about whether I ate something or check to make sure that I actually went home instead of staying there all day. And when you hold me and hold my hand or hug me, god, I just melt and I never want to leave. But people have been saying you're just being friendly with me and I don't want to mistake any of this as being anything more than being friends because I know you flirt with other people and so many care about you! I'm not that special for you to fall for me."

There was clear self-hatred towards myself, something I already was struggling with. But falling in love again had been scaring me since the last time I fell in love, I lost it. I didn't want to lose Mateo, even if he rejected me. I was waiting for him to tell me that he didn't feel the same. But that was stupid. Because the way he holds me, how he slept with me last night, has his own nickname for me, how he looked at me. How could I have been so blind?

Mateo just watched me cry for a moment and it scared me even more. I looked down at the bed as my tears landed on the soft blanket. But rather than yelling, he cupped my cheek softly and made me look at him. No words were spoken. He just wiped my tears away with his fingers and then pulled me in for what would be our first official kiss. I hadn't felt this way in so long. Hadn't felt this feeling since losing Gabriel. And everything in me never wanted to lose this again. My eyes closed as I leaned into our kiss, feeling how soft he was being with me. It hadn't been a long kiss, just enough to get the message across. When we pulled back, my breath was shaky and I could still feel his lips hovering over mine.

"Shiny…" He whispered and then looked at me. "Ya really think I don't love ya?"

"I…It's been scaring me."

"I've felt the same way for a while. Just never said anything because I was worried about ya. Every time I got close to ya, yer runnin' the opposite way." "I was scared! I didn't want to be pushy about this!"

"Shiny, yer the one I've been so close to. Yes, I care about ma other friends but yer the one that I've cared about the most."

I remember…not believing him in that moment. Here he was telling me that he cared about me so shocking much and I was crying like some baby. Because I never thought I could fall in love again or be loved. I thought once Gabriel died that I would never feel this again. Yet I was there, getting looked at like the brightest star in the sky.

Mateo chuckled at my crying as we kept talking and he could feel me softening up. I was laughing and crying once I realized I was worried about nothing. Although I felt so sensitive, he didn't find it annoying or dramatic of me. Just held me as we laughed at how much I was crying. He kissed my cheeks, my head, even a soft kiss to my nose as we laid back down together. As my tears started to slow down, I took a moment to really look at him, even as he kept kissing me in different spots.

"Do you really mean it? That you…love me too?" I asked, feeling anxious that he was lying to me.

Mateo had seen this before with his Gabriel. They met after the situation with Dana cheating on him with Miguel and Gabe ended up become very self-critical and was also asking for reassurance. He stopped kissing me and chuckled lightly.

"Star, I meant it. And I'll tell ya that I love ya as much as ya want. It's not a lie or a joke. It's real. I promise ya, shiny."

"…I'm gonna cry more." I softly laughed and felt some tears come into my eyes. He laughed with me and held me close.

"It's okay, ya can cry as much as ya want. Y'know I'm here."

"You're so sweet." I sniffled and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Shock. I had been really sensitive that day. But he was patient and let me cry as much as I wanted to until I was really done with the tears. It hadn't even annoyed him to see me like that. I think that's what made me love him even more. Finally having someone with me again was going to heal more of the past stuff I was holding onto. In that moment, I actually felt like things weren't going to end. I felt safe again.

(Third-person, still past)

Star and Mateo stayed in bed longer than they originally planned to. The stab wound on her shoulder had still be painful but nothing that was too much to handle. As her tears began to dry and Teo' held her closer to her chest, her breathing began to slow and it got quiet between them. For the moment, her head rested on his chest and listened to the gentle thumping of his heartbeat, something that had been calming her down. It was something that she used to do with Gabriel in the past yet it always made her feel calm. Mateo didn't say much, only stroked her hair in response to everything or stroke her back to keep her calm and stable. It was a quiet moment for both of them but it had been one that was welcomed.

Scarlet finally moved and looked at him, not saying anything and just taking a moment to admire him. Cupping her cheek, he rubbed her soft skin and looked at the freckles sprinkled on her face. They looked like tiny stars up close and it had been something he admired about her. Taking at a glance at her eyes, he found himself staring at her white eye, noticing how it matched the color of the moon.

"How beautiful…" He whispered. She blushed in response from the compliment and averted her eyes from his gaze.

His simple words were able to make her feel like a puddle as she got all sappy from the compliment. Being looked at in a way that made her feel like the brightest star had her ready to giggle and kick her feet like a girl first talking to her crush. But she smiled warmly and leaned in closer, kissing him.

His lips were soft against hers and she could hear her heart beating faster as neither of them pulled back. Teo's hand didn't leave her cheek while they kissed which only made Star take the risk of deepening it. She pressed herself further against him, slipping her tongue through his lips. She heard him let out a surprised grunt but didn't back away from her. They only continued to kiss until Mateo gently pushed her down flat onto the bed while he hovered over her. His kisses moved away from her lips and were instead brought down to her cheeks and further down to her neck. Each kiss was soft and gentle on her skin, sending shivers down her spine and allowing her to lean her head back and feel more of him. Her soft gasps only told him that she was enjoying the feeling of his lips on her sensitive skin. While his focus was on her neck, his hands went down and rubbed her waist, slowly moving lower to lift her shirt up and feel her smooth body. She was soft to touch and his fingers traced over past scars along with her stretch marks that formed from the weight of her body.

His touch was gentle on her skin and she could feel how warm his palm felt against her. Every time he traced over a scar, her body would shiver and arch into his touch. A part of her wanted to tell him to not touch her disgusting scars, especially her stretch marks. But it was the way he touched her that made her keep quiet. Because he was taking the time to feel them and acknowledge that they were there. He didn't flinch back and look at her with disgust or tell her she was unattractive. The thought of him even calling her anything negative was beyond her. He didn't see them as something disgusting or a horrible flaw. Just something that was apart of her.

Scarlet teared up from this but refused to cry in such a passionate moment. She couldn't interrupt this, nor could she lose it. But Mateo would eventually move away from her neck to move lower while also making sure she was comfortable.

"Can I take this off of ya shiny?" He quietly asked.

Ooooohhhghghghh melting-

Scarlet hesitated and her cheeks grew red from the request, "Um…"

Seeing her hesitation, he pulled back and let her make the choice. "I don't have to, shiny. If yer not comfortable its okay."

"No no! It's not that I don't want you to see er….no…no it is. I don't…think you'll like what you see." Being very self conscious of her body had made it harder to even consider being intimate with anyone. She wasn't exactly a curvy or skinny woman. But Mateo chuckled instead and kissed her head.

"Ma love, I don't care about yer flaws or what you find to be unpleasant. Every inch of ya is beautiful. Every scar…every stretch mark…it's still beautiful because its apart of ya. It's apart of my Star."

Speechless. She didn't even know what to say in that moment. Cry again? Yes.

"…why are you so perfect?" She whispered and covered her face while laughing. Some tears came back again and he laughed with her, kissing her head and cheeks again.

"Oh love, I'm far from that." He was perfect to her.

She let him kiss her and she was giggling more, sounding more amused rather than feeling sad now. Once she was comfortable, she gave a nod and told him it was okay to take off her shirt. He lifted it off of her and admired how she looked. Yes she was covered in scars and had visible stretch marks that went up her body but he didn't mind.

"Wow…more stars to look at" He warmly smiled, talking about the freckles that were also on her. Star giggled more and sighed when he came down to kiss more of her. He wanted to kiss every inch of her and he took his time when kissing her stomach and then going up.

Things began to get more intimate when he kissed her body and she would let out a few quiet whimpers from how sensitive she was. Her hand was on his head while he kept moving along her and eventually got to her bra. With her help, the black bra was unhooked and fell off, letting him see her even more. They shared another passionate kiss while his hands came up to knead her soft breasts, drawing out another moan from her. It began to escalate from there as more clothes were starting to get taken off and moans and grunts would be heard from each other. At one point, Scarlet found herself on his lap while he praised and begged her to keep moving against him. That would forever be ingrained in her memory while also appreciating the fact that he wanted to try new things with her.

The bed would creak from their movement, the sheets underneath them started to crinkle from how grip they would grab it, their clothes would be scattered onto the floor, and the blanket would fall off their bodies. Scarlet got deep into the moment and began to leave bite marks on his neck in areas that would be noticeable. He would grunt and hold her tighter but never enough to hurt. Every time his head went back from another moan, she would leave another bite. The lowest she went was to his inner thigh and she would never admit it out loud but she loved feeling his thighs clench around her head—WHAAAATTT. (sorry)

Of course the same thing was allowed when it came to Mateo leaving bites on her. None of them had been too rough, even when she begged him to bite her harder. Really was starting to show her true colors there for a moment. But there was a mutual trust throughout the whole night of their lovemaking.

Present

Scarlet saved the juicy details of their passionate night from Spider-Therapist but did share that they officially slept together that day. He was a bit flustered from knowing that but kept things professional for the sake of the session. He took a glance at his notes and then at her.

"That night, you two shared a passionate moment together and also finally expressed your feelings. Were there any regrets?" He asked her, leaning back in his seat.

"Uh…well yea, actually. I ended up feeling guilty about us finally having sex because I had felt as if I had taken advantage of him too fast. There I was saying that I loved him and then shortly after we had sex. I panicked the next day, thinking I pushed things too far but he—"

"Reassured you."

"I….yeah. He did. He didn't want me to think that he didn't like it. He actually uhhhh…probably shouldn't say that.." She nervously laughed and rubbed the back of her neck.

That following morning after their night together, Star had expressed her guilt of pushing things too fast but Mateo would reassure her and say that it was an amazing night. So good that the same morning they did it again. But she wasn't going to tell Spider-therapist that.

"Ah yes. Save the details again. Well Scarlet, it seems I was wrong to say that Mr. Orlin was merely showing you common kindness to you. I see now that you two have a strong love for one another and well…I will admit that I'm glad you have someone that loves you again."

Scarlet's expression softened and she smiled, "Thank you. I'm glad we can put that past us now and I don't have to blow up your office."

"Hm. Yeah, I hope we never have to deal with that again. But that does seem to be all the time we have for today. Maybe with the next—"

"Stop right there. I am NOT coming back here, trust me." Star laughed and got up. "Thanks for talking with me but yeah, I'm never coming back to this office. And if Miguel tries to drag me back, I'm not doing it." Spider-Therapist's glasses came down a bit as he looked at her. He knew she wouldn't like to see him again but was that a good idea? At the same time, that is one less spider hero to deal with and she was pretty risky to talk to. With a heavy sigh, he nodded and stood up to approach her. All he did was look at her and hold his hand out for a handshake.

"Very well. I hope your recovery goes well."

Scarlet blinked and looked at his hand before giving it a firm shake. "And I hope you can survive the rest of these people." She smiled before finally taking her leave. She should have been heading home or going back to the observatory to do more work but there was someone she needed to see.

Sitting at the desk with a holo-screen up and those same pink headphones, Mateo was focused on his work of sorting through different files for the different variants in the society. Miguel wasn't in the room with him for once and was likely somewhere else dealing with some other issues. While Mateo worked, his spider senses briefly went off but not to signal any type of danger. He looked up to see Scarlet floating upside down in front of him with a big cheesy smile on her face. He chuckled and removed his headphones to speak to her.

"Done with yer therapy session?"

"Mhm! Thank goodness too, that felt long!"

"What was it about this time?"

"About you, actually. All good things, don't worry."

"I would hope so."

Scarlet giggled and kissed his head before floating back to the ground behind him. When he stood up, she wrapped her arms around him and seemed happier than normal. He didn't mind of course and instead found her to be cuter like this.

"Yer not gonna let me work more, are ya?"

"Nope." With a smug grin, a portal opened behind him and she pushed him back, letting both of them fall inside. Luckily for him, he landed on something soft that he was immediately able to recognize as his bed. He laughed while keeping his arms around her.

"Did ya really just push us into a portal to ma house? Ya really didn't want me to stay at work, huh?"

"Why would I? If I let you stay, you would have never come home." She lifted his mask up to kiss him, not spending too long even though it was taking everything in her not to tear his suit off. Pulling back, she took the rest of his mask off and set it aside. "Now. Why don't you change out of your suit and get comfy? We could cuddle and watch a movie. Maybe order some food? I know you haven't had anything today." She flicked his head.

"Hey-" He chuckled, rubbing the spot she flicked, "Listen, I had a lot to do today."

"Mhm. Go change."

"Bossy much?" He got out of bed and sat her down while he went to change.

(Reuploaded! This one is finished!) Star meets with Spider-Therapist again to discuss her relationship with Mateo. This is a continuation from my other fic, "Therapy session", talking more about what happened after the ending.

In the Spider Society, there was the popular Spider-Therapist who had the unfortunate pleasure of being the only therapist in a building with a thousand other Spider-Heroes that all had just about the same issues or slightly different ones. The amount of times he's heard about someone's loved one dying and feeling like they were to blame or hearing about another failed relationship or even how someone's best friend betrayed them unexpectedly—it had become common. Way too common. Although many of these issues had been common to hear about, he still would get paid to sit and listen to their issues. Albeit, some of these heroes did have strong reactions to negative emotions or just wouldn't be bothered to share anything about their life. Scarlet and Mateo were ones that had been like that as Mateo refused to see Spider-Therapist and Scarlet was forced to see him due to her long list of issues and her inability to handle trauma.

Today had been no different. Scarlet knocked on Spider-Therapist's door and opened it once he gave the clearing to enter. Sitting inside the comfortable yet oddly intimidating office, Scarlet leaned back in her chair with her hands resting on her stomach, already tense from whatever kind of conversation they were about to have.

"So Scarlet, I can already see how you're tensing up just from being in the office. Mind sharing why?" Spider-Therapist asked. He wore the same suit as always, a simple suit and Spider-man themed tie to match with it while also wearing his mask with glasses over them. In his lap was his tablet to keep notes on the session while he sat on a comfortable gray chair.

"Oh I dunno, maybe because every time I'm here I end up blowing up or getting into a panic attack. Your fault by the way." She sarcastically rolled her eyes.

Oh boy.

"Hm. I understand your anger towards me about these issues but it's for your health."

"My health? Yet every time I get these memories back into my head I end up panicking. How exactly is that healthy? And why am I the one to get forced in here? Not every spider comes here to see you."

"Because you have more issues that needs handling. You destroyed a world after a Gabriel variant took your prosthetic, nearly broke timelines when you hopped through different universes, and you're so mentally unstable that a blow up from you could kill the power in the Spider Society! Which, may I remind you, you did cause."

Scarlet looked at him bitterly before laying back against the chair with no further argument. She knew she had issues that had become unstable. But she's better now, right? Sort of? At least she isn't jumping through different universes again. Spider-therapist sighed and pushed up his glasses on his nose, looking down at his tablet. Did he want to risk getting her to snap or try to have today's session be about something more tame? Examining his list for previous topics they've discussed, he finally came across one that would hopefully keep her calm throughout the whole session.

"Okay. How about we don't discuss your trauma that bring back old memories? Why don't we talk about your relationship with Mr. Orlin?"

"Are you going to tell me he isn't mine again?"

"No. No. Not after what happened last time." He checked the tablet and took a deep breath after remembering the old session they had where she blew up. "Let's discuss your feelings for him but before you two made it official."

That had definitely been an unexpected question but also wasn't unwelcome since it wasn't too much of a sensitive topic. Sitting up in her seat, Star thought back to her past with Mateo.

"Well…to start, we happened to meet in his world when I was still world hopping. This was before my Gabriel was killed. I used to travel through dimensions just to see what they were like. During that time I was exploring, I landed in Mateo's world and eventually bumped into him. He had been suspicious of me of course because I was someone new and we just talked for a bit. I explained to him that I was universe hopping and that's when he told me a bit about himself. We talked for a while on some rooftop and when I told him about my Gabriel, he offered to take us out to dinner. For a double date." Star explained how Mateo and her met back then.

"So you both ended up meeting and then having a double date? What was that like?"

"It was sweet. Having our Gabriel's meet each other while we all enjoyed dinner was honestly funny to see. It's one of the good memories, yknow?"

"Did you have feelings for Mr. Orlin by that time?" "What? No. I was with Gabriel and he was married to his. Sure he was attractive but I wasn't in love with him. That wasn't until years later."

"Hm." Spider-Therapist took note of that. "When did you start falling for him?"

"When? Well I mean him and I didn't talk as much as we do now. Not until after our Gabriel's died and even then it wasn't so often. But when we did….oh…"

The Past

I had never felt such sadness and pain after my Gabriel was killed. Things just seemed to be a lot darker and more empty which made life harder to live. And I know that sounds super dramatic but it's true. How could I keep living when he was gone? The one that made that made my life feel worth living. I would cry a lot at home, stay in bed for days and stop eating. Relapsed on alcohol just to feel something else besides the pain of losing him. Shock, I felt like my life was over! Back at the Spider Society there wasn't much of a difference either since well…I had the better chance of traveling through the multiverse in hopes of finding Gabriel. But of course, no. I just had to find all the bad worlds where he could give a lesser shock about me. I was pretty stupid just falling for him just because they all looked like my variant. What was there to care about when he was there again?

Miguel tried multiple times to stop me, I remember that. He would always get mad at me when I would come back from a universe I wasn't meant to be in and I would ignore him like if he was a parent scolding me. But he was always right in the end and yeah, I regretted a ton of things. Including the stuff that happened with Dr. Haywire. God. That was bad. It felt like I could never find love again. Did I even deserve it after everything? I felt cursed. Like anyone that would fall in love with me would just end up getting hurt or worse! There had been a few people I was interested in but never went into it.

But then there was Mateo. That stupidly charming cowboy that stole my shocking heart.

I remember the first time I felt something different when talking to him. I was having another bad day and was just lonely in the observatory, getting all moody and depressed again. I hadn't eaten anything that day either and he was the last person I had ever expected to see.

He came in after knocking on my door twice. I was floating in the middle of the room while looking at past memories of Gabriel and I, crying for the millionth time. When he entered, I quickly wiped my tears away and rubbed my nose.

"Hey there, Star. Miguel said I should come check in on ya." He always spoke so gently with me. I never understood why at the time.

"He did? Ugh, I swear he treats me like I'm his daughter or something. Why couldn't he be bothered to come and see me?" I scoffed, finding it bit insulting that he would send Mateo here to check on me. "It's not like you're required to come check on me. You could just worry about yourself."

Mateo hadn't even flinched at my harsh tone because he knew I was struggling with my grief, even if it had been a couple years since Gabriel died. He didn't appear mad or even insulted. Just…calm.

He approached me slowly, watching for any negative reaction. "I know I don't have to come see ya. But I wanted to. I wanted to make sure yer okay."

It surprised me. He actually cared about me?

"Why? Aren't you dealing with your own stuff?"

He didn't answer that.

"Have ya eaten today?" He asked while getting closer.

"….no. I'm not hungry." I muttered and came down to the ground without realizing it.

"We both know that's a lie."

I scoffed in response but he was right. I wouldn't be able to keep up the act any longer because yes, food sounded delicious at that moment. Mateo chuckled as he noticed my act was beginning to falter. How could he break through me so fast?

"C'mon. The cafeteria should be serving some good food." He gestured me to follow him. I should've ignored him and stayed in place just to piss him off. But I couldn't. I followed like a puppy without hesitation and walked with him to the cafeteria where the smell of fresh cooked food filled my lungs and caused my stomach to growl. I'm sure he heard it since he glanced back at me with a faint smile.

In the cafeteria, there had been a ton of food options including that stupid burger that had Miguel's mask on it. The dye on the burger made it look like it would taste like blueberries. But it was a good burger to be honest. Mateo hadn't given me anything heavy, just grabbed a sandwich and some fruit for me since I likely wouldn't be able to stomach anything heavy. He didn't say much either, just handed it to me and I just took it. Wait….had I already been folding for him?

We found a table right before I managed to steal one of the banana muffins from the cafe after he got himself his sugar drink. A cup of caramel. Okay it wasn't just caramel, there was coffee in it too. Somewhere.

But besides that, we sat together where I ate the sandwich slowly like some sad kitten. He didn't judge me or make any kind of rude comments, just sat there and made sure I was actually eating. Something about him actually caring had made my heart feel weird. It was such a simple gesture but…I don't think he knows how much that meant to me.

"That cup looks like you're just drinking caramel." I finally spoke, pointing out that his drink looked disgustingly sweet.

He laughed. God his laugh…

"It just has extra caramel on it. Plus I love sweet drinks. Can ya really blame me?"

"Hm. I guess not. But still, don't have too much of it. You could end up with cavities." I said as I bit into my sandwich.

"Ha! With ma teeth? I doubt I'll ever get one."

"Hmph. Lucky ass." Not to say that I had any either. The most I ever had to handle was braces but eh. Maybe his charm was the reason his teeth weren't falling out. But I would later learn its because he has the money to afford a great dentist and his powers helped with his health as well.

We had sat together in silence for a bit longer. I finished my sandwich and moved on to the banana muffin rather than eat the fruit he picked out for me.

"And ya say I should be handlin' ma sweets?" He teased, pointing at the muffin.

"Whatever." I playfully scoffed. "These are good anyways."

"I agree. But what's wrong with the fruit?" "Nothing. I just wanted a muffin." "Fair fair." He nodded and took another sip of his drink.

There was more silence between us but it didn't feel uncomfortable. You know how when you sit with someone and its just the two of you but you don't know them very well so it gets awkward between both of you? That's what I had expected to happen with him and I but it just felt right instead. I felt comfortable with him and we hadn't even been super close! But he was taking care of me, cared about whether I ate or not, and stayed with me while eating so I wouldn't feel alone.

"Mateo. Why are you doing this? I mean no disrespect or anything and I'm not saying I don't like that you're doing this. I just want to know why you're doing it." Asking the question made me feel tense and fear that he was just going to say that he was pitying me.

He was quiet for a moment. Not saying much as he looked down at the table. It scared me for a second and only made me fear his answer even more.

"Well because I know yer mournin' over yer Gabriel. And I'm probably the only person right now that knows what yer going through."

Of course.

"Ah. Right. I mean I…I know I should be over it since it happened so long ago. I just…can't." I admitted quietly.

"No one is tellin' you to rush. Everyone mourns differently."

"Yeah but…look at you. You don't seem sad in the slightest and you lost him too! He was your husband! Mine was my fiance!"

I hadn't looked at him yet but the silence made me feel like something was wrong. When I did manage to look, he expression was serious and it kinda scared me. Did I piss him off? Looking back at it now, it was pretty shocked up to say to him. It could have come off as me being jealous that he looked fine but might've come off to him as rude. He was going through a lot as well, he was just never vocal about it. And yet there I was, dismissing his emotions. "Scarlet. Just because I don't look sad doesn't mean I'm not. Not everyone has to look upset while they mourn."

I felt like a dick when I realized what I said. He could be hurting just as much as me or even worse and yet I was saying he was fine because he wasn't sobbing his eyes out. Plus him calling me by my actual name rather than a nickname only further proved that I pissed him off. At least that's what i thought in the moment.

Panicked, I quickly apologized, "No no no! I mean I didn't—no. I'm….(sigh) I'm sorry. That came out way worse than I intended. You are mourning and you're allowed to do it in your own way."

Mateo looked at me for a moment and sighed, taking off his mask for a moment. I remember feeling my heart beat faster when his hair came down and still managed to look fluffy. Lucky.

"It's...it's alright, Star. I know ya didn't have any ill intention's with that." He looked down at the table again. "If I'm bein' honest, I miss him every day. Every. Single. Day."

Of course he did. He was like me then. "Heh….me too. I keep…looking into the past. Looking back at all our old memories like if he's still here with me and I just have to remember that he's not. But there's nothing on how to get over your dead loved one."

"I don't think ya ever do."

"…huh. Well isn't that fun." I sounded bitter to hear that. I didn't want to be this way for the rest of my life, continuing to hurt myself just to feel a moment of happiness with a Gabriel that wasn't mine. I wanted to move on and come to the acceptance that he was gone! But at the time, it felt like I never would. That I would always be stuck with these emotions forever until I died. But thankfully, I was wrong.

"But…we don't always have to make it so depressin'." "Oh yeah? How?" "By lookin' ahead of us. Look, I know it's hard and I truly don't think we'll ever get over the fact that he's gone. But we can't live the rest of our lives just mournin' over him. We'll just be ruinin' ourselves and likely fall into a faster grave! Because look at it this way, would Gabriel like that yer hopping through worlds to feel better?"

"God, you sound like Miguel."

"I'm serious, Scarlet."

There goes my name again. Jammit, why was it much more tense when he said my name? Guess I've been used to the cute names instead. I sighed and fiddled with my fingers. "….no. He would tell me I'm being stupid and I'm just going back into bad habits." "Exactly! So ya can't keep doin' this to yerself. And I can't keep doing this to myself either. It'll take time, trust ma. But it'll get better. Ya just gotta start somewhere."

Shock him and his smart words. It was pretty obvious that I couldn't mope around for the rest of my life. Gabriel would be pissed to know I spent the rest of it just crying for days and destroying myself. But I did need to hear that reminder from Mateo because he was the only one that could understand what I was going through. And honestly, it did help me realize what I was doing needed to stop sooner or later.

"…god you're so cheesy. But I mean…you're right. If we keep shocking up then…we'll never truly move on."

"Yes! We also don't have to be alone in this either, Star. Ya have me and Miguel and Webby!"

Oh yeah. My spider.

"True." I chuckled and looked at him with a softer gaze. "…thanks. For that."

"Of course. We can do this." He placed his hand on top of mine just for a moment and I felt something warm. It could have been his hand but I felt it in my chest. What an odd feeling. My cheeks felt warmer too. It wasn't until I looked at his hand and noticed his ring, reminding myself he was married. He likely wouldn't ever get with another person and I needed to respect that. Pulling my hand back, I smiled and told him I should return back to the observatory to work. I thanked him for talking to me and getting me food before I left with this new feeling in my chest for this shocking cowboy.

Present

"So he took care of you and didn't allow you to mope around?" Spider-therapist fixed his glasses and took notes of the event.

"Yeah pretty much. And he kept doing it for months afterwards and we just started to get closer. He'd hug me when I cry, always come check in on me, make sure I would leave and go to work instead of staying for hours."

"That…sounds like the basic things. Like he does that with any of his friends. Not much of that sounds special." Spider-Therapist was brutally honest.

Star looked at him with an annoyed expression when he called her out. It was true, a lot of what Mateo would do for her just sounded like friendly gestures rather than him being in love with her. But it made her fall for him because she didn't get that kind of attention anymore.

"I know it sounds like nothing but I swear to you, he did more than what others ever did for me. And yes, I did catch him doing this for other spiders as well. But it was just something about the way he looked at me every time we hung out and how he'd hug me that just…" Star blushed a little and groaned in response. In the past, it had been harder for her to admit that maybe Mateo felt something for her. There had been multiple times where she saw how he acted with others and realized that she was possibly falling for the most basic interactions and was just desperate. But when he started to hug her and invite her over to his home…things started to change.

It would start with a date and then coming over to enjoy a movie together while cuddling. Maybe a quick kiss on the cheek and little pet names. Like when he started to call her 'shiny' because of her powers and she jokingly called him 'sunshine' but he really loved it and told her to stay with it.

"We didn't just suddenly fall in love. We started off slow but I never told him how I felt because I was scared. But I mean we used to go on a few dates and cuddle at mainly his place." Star rubbed the back of her head. "It honestly had been some harmless flirting that just ended up getting much more serious." Spider-Therapist was struggling to understand how they managed to get together, considering he had see how Mateo acts with the others. Did Star get some kind of special treatment? He kept looking at his notes and was understanding that Star was the one to fall for him first and rather quickly but attempted to hide a majority of these feelings or try to push them down out of fear.

"So you two flirted often and Mr. Orlin is known to be a flirt back. Just playful banter, correct?" Scarlet nodded.

"And then you began to feel something for him. Where did this fear come in?" "The fear? Once I started to realize what I felt for him had been something more than just being friends. I feared that I was reading too much into this and he would dislike that I was falling in love. All we had been doing was flirting and checking in and I was just…falling in love too fast." There were multiple times she had caught herself staring off at him or leaving the observatory to find him. It wasn't ever to really talk, she just wanted to see him and get a quick hug. Seeing him had always made her heartbeat faster, especially when he would brush her hair back or rub her arm. But because of fear and insecurities, she never let herself admit that maybe he had the same feelings or actually felt something with her. Whenever she would get too close or she would see his expression, she would panic and immediately step back to avoid revealing too much. She had been afraid of her own feelings.

"Did he ever catch onto this?" Spider-Therapist wrote some more notes down. "He's never told me he did. But I'm sure he caught on." She admitted. Why? Well there had been times where he would rub her cheek or give her a quick hug and every time this happened, she would lean in closer to the hug or lean into his palm. "I'm sure being touch starved was no surprise to him."

"I see." While looking at his tablet, he noticed the notes he took from the last session where Scarlet blew up and snapped at him. "Now, Star, I'm sure you remember the last time we spoke."

A bitter scoff escapes her, "Boy do I…when you told me Mateo wasn't mine and I freaked out." "I…I do apologize for that. As a therapist, I need to be honest with you and not further feed into feelings that could be misread. But looking back on that now, I realized I was wrong." He apologized to her for causing her emotions to burst during that time period.

Surprised, Scarlet sits up and fiddles with the end of her hair. "It's…its fine. I know you were just trying to understand me. But…I will say, that had helped me finally understand what him and I had. Things didn't go so bad." "What do you mean?" "Well, I mean things did go bad for me but I mean like…when I ran away from here, I went to see him because I knew he would be there for me. But that was when I finally told him the truth. I wasn't supposed to but it just happened. "Tell me more."

Past

(Continuation from the ending of my other fic, "Therapy Session". First person.)

I woke up feeling a sharp pain in the right side of my arm closest to my shoulder. My heart had been pounding and chest had felt tighter than normal. The room had stopped spinning and something warm was dripping down my arm and pooling down on my kitchen floor.

"What…?" I was breathing faster and had to blink away the remaining tears to see what I had done. There was knife in my arm. My kitchen knife was lodged deep inside my arm. a bad reaction from my panic attack. That stupid therapist had made my head spin after telling me something I didn't want to hear. Was this a pretty dramatic reaction? Probably. But I still get those urges to harm myself. I was hoping I would stop. Leaning back against the kitchen wall, I just sat there and let my warm blood drip down onto the floor as I trembled. Staying here and letting myself bleed was very tempting but there was a very slim chance that I would die from bleeding out like this.

The knife was yanked out and clattered onto the floor. Getting up made me dizzy and nearly fall back down. The pain hadn't been too uncomfortable but was enough to be acknowledged by. I remember wanting to call Miguel for help but felt like he wouldn't answer or would just further scold me about doing stupid things for attention. Had I come off as attention seeking? I wanted to crawl into bed and just let the pain sink in for as long as possible and hope my healing factor would work as fast as possible. But the wound was too deep and it would take days for it to finally heal up into a scar. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I was numb.

But I thought of Mateo and I felt…better. Like I could think again and understand that there was someone out there who actually cared about me. Someone that wouldn't yell at me or call me an idiot. He was the only person I felt safe enough to go to and feel like I would actually be loved once again. But maybe my thoughts had just been desperate to be held while I cried my heart out.

Focusing my mind as best as I could, I raised my good arm and summoned a portal to Mateo's world, hoping to whatever god that it would send me directly to his home. Entering, I had been lucky to arrive into a warm home. The smell of cinnamon was faint, only giving away that he was home. I nearly broke down right there in his living room and he hadn't seen me yet. I wasn't making a sound, didn't even yell for him. Either his spider senses went off or he knew something was wrong. But either way, he came out from his room and I could tell his heart stopped the moment he saw me standing in his living room with visible tears rolling down my cheeks and the blood rapidly dripping out my arm and now onto his floor. I never did apologize for that.

"Star! Oh my god—what did ya—what-" He didn't even know what to say, that's how panicked he was when seeing me like this. I felt him cup my cheeks the second he approached me. Although his eyes had been covered by his hair, I knew he was worried. I had never seen him this panicked. But I was glad that he wasn't yelling at me or calling me names for stabbing myself like this. He just looked at me and then back at the wound.

"That…therapist. Miguel should've never sent ya to him. I swear to god I—" He was angry but not at me. Seems like he was blaming the therapist and Miguel for forcing me to go to the appointment. He had been right, I should have never gone to that session. Although some aspects of it had been good, not all of it was at the same time. Teo' couldn't stay angry for too long and instead shook his head and looked back at me.

"Never mind. I can't get mad about this. None of it was yer fault." He reassured me and I could've broken down right there. "C'mon shiny, let's clean ya up." He took me to his bathroom and sat me down on the counter top while He grabbed the medical kit. I hadn't said a word the whole time and he didn't force me to say anything either. Normally I would have panicked from seeing the needle about to come near me but I didn't even flinch. Funny how I'll flinch to a needle but when it comes to a whole knife I'm fine. How odd.

Mateo cleaned my wound, making sure not to press on it too much so I wouldn't wince in pain. By the time he started to stitch the wound closed, the blood had stopped spilling out. It did hurt but I never said anything since I was still struggling to understand my emotions and process what spider-therapist had said. How could Mateo be so kind to me? So gentle and kind and understanding? Why me? Why would he do anything for me? At the time, I had no idea why he would be so gentle with me. I felt like I didn't deserve it and felt as if I was making him fall for me just so he didn't feel bad. I was scared! But I never left him. I couldn't. Not when he looked at me like if I meant something to him. Even when he held me that night and let me cry into his chest, the last thing on my mind was leaving.

That morning after everything, I was still clinging to Mateo and he was still holding me. How did he manage to look so shocking good in the morning? Even though I wanted to stay here forever, I didn't want to be a burden to him and keep him strap down to the bed all day. My arm was sore but I could fight through the pain as I untangled myself from him and attempted to leave. My foot hadn't touched the floor when suddenly Mateo was grabbing me and pulling me back to bed. "Stay…" It wasn't a command and was instead more of a plea. He was asking me to stay? That was surprising. I should have denied and left. Should have summoned a portal and went home. But I couldn't. I laid back in bed and he hugged me, chest to my back as he kissed my cheek and shoulder. Such soft kisses…they sent shivers down my spine and I was blushing like crazy. Turning around to face him and being careful not to hurt my arm, I cupped his cheek and rubbed it.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to wake you…" I whispered.

"S'okay, shiny. I'm not in any kind of rush to send ya home." "Dummy…" I pressed a soft kiss to his head and he nuzzled closer to me. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest from how fast it was beating. Teo' stayed close and was falling back asleep, I wouldn't stop him from getting more rest. But in that moment, I just looked at him and kept stroking his cheek. How did I end up like this? Falling in love with the stupidly charming cowboy? And why was he so gentle with me? The way I felt hadn't been unfamiliar but it was one I was scared to acknowledge. But just looking at how soft he looked while sleeping next to me and how his hair covered his eyes, something softened in me.

I didn't mean to say it. I didn't think I would. But I just said it without thinking.

"I love you." It was a quite whisper. I was so lost in thought that I didn't realize I was leaning closer to his lips. The temptation was there. Just a soft kiss to his lips. That's it.

But he opened his eyes. I know he did because of the little "Hm?"

Freezing in place, we both were still for a moment before he processed what I was doing and what I said. "Wait—did ya just-" I panicked and flipped around, laying on my arm and feeling the sharp pain go through my body. But that didn't burn as much as my face did from the embarrassment. "NOTHING!!" I squeaked and buried my face into my pillow. "Shiny wait! Did ya really just say that?" He asked again, sitting up rather quickly.

"I-I didn't!" I attempted to lie but from how red my face was and the fact that he saw me get close, that was a dead give away from the truth.

"I…ya didn't…" He was speechless too, his cheeks visibly red.

"I'm….I'm so sorry…" I spoke up. He turned to look at me with a surprised expression like if he didn't understand why I was apologizing, In that moment, I could no longer hide my feelings. I already said the famous three words so now I might as well explain everything.

"I just…..I've been in love with you for so long. I just never knew how to tell you. And I know I shouldn't be feeling this since you and I were with Gabriel and you got married to your variant of him and I was engaged to mine and we both lost him—" I was talking faster and was starting to cry as the overwhelming fear of being in love again, while also fearing losing him, had gotten to me. Sitting up in the bed, I sniffled and wiped my tears only for more to roll down my cheeks.

"You've been so nice to me and actually cared about whether I ate something or check to make sure that I actually went home instead of staying there all day. And when you hold me and hold my hand or hug me, god, I just melt and I never want to leave. But people have been saying you're just being friendly with me and I don't want to mistake any of this as being anything more than being friends because I know you flirt with other people and so many care about you! I'm not that special for you to fall for me."

There was clear self-hatred towards myself, something I already was struggling with. But falling in love again had been scaring me since the last time I fell in love, I lost it. I didn't want to lose Mateo, even if he rejected me. I was waiting for him to tell me that he didn't feel the same. But that was stupid. Because the way he holds me, how he slept with me last night, has his own nickname for me, how he looked at me. How could I have been so blind?

Mateo just watched me cry for a moment and it scared me even more. I looked down at the bed as my tears landed on the soft blanket. But rather than yelling, he cupped my cheek softly and made me look at him. No words were spoken. He just wiped my tears away with his fingers and then pulled me in for what would be our first official kiss. I hadn't felt this way in so long. Hadn't felt this feeling since losing Gabriel. And everything in me never wanted to lose this again. My eyes closed as I leaned into our kiss, feeling how soft he was being with me. It hadn't been a long kiss, just enough to get the message across. When we pulled back, my breath was shaky and I could still feel his lips hovering over mine.

"Shiny…" He whispered and then looked at me. "Ya really think I don't love ya?"

"I…It's been scaring me."

"I've felt the same way for a while. Just never said anything because I was worried about ya. Every time I got close to ya, yer runnin' the opposite way." "I was scared! I didn't want to be pushy about this!"

"Shiny, yer the one I've been so close to. Yes, I care about ma other friends but yer the one that I've cared about the most."

I remember…not believing him in that moment. Here he was telling me that he cared about me so shocking much and I was crying like some baby. Because I never thought I could fall in love again or be loved. I thought once Gabriel died that I would never feel this again. Yet I was there, getting looked at like the brightest star in the sky.

Mateo chuckled at my crying as we kept talking and he could feel me softening up. I was laughing and crying once I realized I was worried about nothing. Although I felt so sensitive, he didn't find it annoying or dramatic of me. Just held me as we laughed at how much I was crying. He kissed my cheeks, my head, even a soft kiss to my nose as we laid back down together. As my tears started to slow down, I took a moment to really look at him, even as he kept kissing me in different spots.

"Do you really mean it? That you…love me too?" I asked, feeling anxious that he was lying to me.

Mateo had seen this before with his Gabriel. They met after the situation with Dana cheating on him with Miguel and Gabe ended up become very self-critical and was also asking for reassurance. He stopped kissing me and chuckled lightly.

"Star, I meant it. And I'll tell ya that I love ya as much as ya want. It's not a lie or a joke. It's real. I promise ya, shiny."

"…I'm gonna cry more." I softly laughed and felt some tears come into my eyes. He laughed with me and held me close.

"It's okay, ya can cry as much as ya want. Y'know I'm here."

"You're so sweet." I sniffled and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Shock. I had been really sensitive that day. But he was patient and let me cry as much as I wanted to until I was really done with the tears. It hadn't even annoyed him to see me like that. I think that's what made me love him even more. Finally having someone with me again was going to heal more of the past stuff I was holding onto. In that moment, I actually felt like things weren't going to end. I felt safe again.

(Third-person, still past)

Star and Mateo stayed in bed longer than they originally planned to. The stab wound on her shoulder had still be painful but nothing that was too much to handle. As her tears began to dry and Teo' held her closer to her chest, her breathing began to slow and it got quiet between them. For the moment, her head rested on his chest and listened to the gentle thumping of his heartbeat, something that had been calming her down. It was something that she used to do with Gabriel in the past yet it always made her feel calm. Mateo didn't say much, only stroked her hair in response to everything or stroke her back to keep her calm and stable. It was a quiet moment for both of them but it had been one that was welcomed.

Scarlet finally moved and looked at him, not saying anything and just taking a moment to admire him. Cupping her cheek, he rubbed her soft skin and looked at the freckles sprinkled on her face. They looked like tiny stars up close and it had been something he admired about her. Taking at a glance at her eyes, he found himself staring at her white eye, noticing how it matched the color of the moon.

"How beautiful…" He whispered. She blushed in response from the compliment and averted her eyes from his gaze.

His simple words were able to make her feel like a puddle as she got all sappy from the compliment. Being looked at in a way that made her feel like the brightest star had her ready to giggle and kick her feet like a girl first talking to her crush. But she smiled warmly and leaned in closer, kissing him.

His lips were soft against hers and she could hear her heart beating faster as neither of them pulled back. Teo's hand didn't leave her cheek while they kissed which only made Star take the risk of deepening it. She pressed herself further against him, slipping her tongue through his lips. She heard him let out a surprised grunt but didn't back away from her. They only continued to kiss until Mateo gently pushed her down flat onto the bed while he hovered over her. His kisses moved away from her lips and were instead brought down to her cheeks and further down to her neck. Each kiss was soft and gentle on her skin, sending shivers down her spine and allowing her to lean her head back and feel more of him. Her soft gasps only told him that she was enjoying the feeling of his lips on her sensitive skin. While his focus was on her neck, his hands went down and rubbed her waist, slowly moving lower to lift her shirt up and feel her smooth body. She was soft to touch and his fingers traced over past scars along with her stretch marks that formed from the weight of her body.

His touch was gentle on her skin and she could feel how warm his palm felt against her. Every time he traced over a scar, her body would shiver and arch into his touch. A part of her wanted to tell him to not touch her disgusting scars, especially her stretch marks. But it was the way he touched her that made her keep quiet. Because he was taking the time to feel them and acknowledge that they were there. He didn't flinch back and look at her with disgust or tell her she was unattractive. The thought of him even calling her anything negative was beyond her. He didn't see them as something disgusting or a horrible flaw. Just something that was apart of her.

Scarlet teared up from this but refused to cry in such a passionate moment. She couldn't interrupt this, nor could she lose it. But Mateo would eventually move away from her neck to move lower while also making sure she was comfortable.

"Can I take this off of ya shiny?" He quietly asked.

Ooooohhhghghghh melting-

Scarlet hesitated and her cheeks grew red from the request, "Um…"

Seeing her hesitation, he pulled back and let her make the choice. "I don't have to, shiny. If yer not comfortable its okay."

"No no! It's not that I don't want you to see er….no…no it is. I don't…think you'll like what you see." Being very self conscious of her body had made it harder to even consider being intimate with anyone. She wasn't exactly a curvy or skinny woman. But Mateo chuckled instead and kissed her head.

"Ma love, I don't care about yer flaws or what you find to be unpleasant. Every inch of ya is beautiful. Every scar…every stretch mark…it's still beautiful because its apart of ya. It's apart of my Star."

Speechless. She didn't even know what to say in that moment. Cry again? Yes.

"…why are you so perfect?" She whispered and covered her face while laughing. Some tears came back again and he laughed with her, kissing her head and cheeks again.

"Oh love, I'm far from that." He was perfect to her.

She let him kiss her and she was giggling more, sounding more amused rather than feeling sad now. Once she was comfortable, she gave a nod and told him it was okay to take off her shirt. He lifted it off of her and admired how she looked. Yes she was covered in scars and had visible stretch marks that went up her body but he didn't mind.

"Wow…more stars to look at" He warmly smiled, talking about the freckles that were also on her. Star giggled more and sighed when he came down to kiss more of her. He wanted to kiss every inch of her and he took his time when kissing her stomach and then going up.

Things began to get more intimate when he kissed her body and she would let out a few quiet whimpers from how sensitive she was. Her hand was on his head while he kept moving along her and eventually got to her bra. With her help, the black bra was unhooked and fell off, letting him see her even more. They shared another passionate kiss while his hands came up to knead her soft breasts, drawing out another moan from her. It began to escalate from there as more clothes were starting to get taken off and moans and grunts would be heard from each other. At one point, Scarlet found herself on his lap while he praised and begged her to keep moving against him. That would forever be ingrained in her memory while also appreciating the fact that he wanted to try new things with her.

The bed would creak from their movement, the sheets underneath them started to crinkle from how grip they would grab it, their clothes would be scattered onto the floor, and the blanket would fall off their bodies. Scarlet got deep into the moment and began to leave bite marks on his neck in areas that would be noticeable. He would grunt and hold her tighter but never enough to hurt. Every time his head went back from another moan, she would leave another bite. The lowest she went was to his inner thigh and she would never admit it out loud but she loved feeling his thighs clench around her head—WHAAAATTT. (sorry)

Of course the same thing was allowed when it came to Mateo leaving bites on her. None of them had been too rough, even when she begged him to bite her harder. Really was starting to show her true colors there for a moment. But there was a mutual trust throughout the whole night of their lovemaking.

Present

Scarlet saved the juicy details of their passionate night from Spider-Therapist but did share that they officially slept together that day. He was a bit flustered from knowing that but kept things professional for the sake of the session. He took a glance at his notes and then at her.

"That night, you two shared a passionate moment together and also finally expressed your feelings. Were there any regrets?" He asked her, leaning back in his seat.

"Uh…well yea, actually. I ended up feeling guilty about us finally having sex because I had felt as if I had taken advantage of him too fast. There I was saying that I loved him and then shortly after we had sex. I panicked the next day, thinking I pushed things too far but he—"

"Reassured you."

"I….yeah. He did. He didn't want me to think that he didn't like it. He actually uhhhh…probably shouldn't say that.." She nervously laughed and rubbed the back of her neck.

That following morning after their night together, Star had expressed her guilt of pushing things too fast but Mateo would reassure her and say that it was an amazing night. So good that the same morning they did it again. But she wasn't going to tell Spider-therapist that.

"Ah yes. Save the details again. Well Scarlet, it seems I was wrong to say that Mr. Orlin was merely showing you common kindness to you. I see now that you two have a strong love for one another and well…I will admit that I'm glad you have someone that loves you again."

Scarlet's expression softened and she smiled, "Thank you. I'm glad we can put that past us now and I don't have to blow up your office."

"Hm. Yeah, I hope we never have to deal with that again. But that does seem to be all the time we have for today. Maybe with the next—"

"Stop right there. I am NOT coming back here, trust me." Star laughed and got up. "Thanks for talking with me but yeah, I'm never coming back to this office. And if Miguel tries to drag me back, I'm not doing it." Spider-Therapist's glasses came down a bit as he looked at her. He knew she wouldn't like to see him again but was that a good idea? At the same time, that is one less spider hero to deal with and she was pretty risky to talk to. With a heavy sigh, he nodded and stood up to approach her. All he did was look at her and hold his hand out for a handshake.

"Very well. I hope your recovery goes well."

Scarlet blinked and looked at his hand before giving it a firm shake. "And I hope you can survive the rest of these people." She smiled before finally taking her leave. She should have been heading home or going back to the observatory to do more work but there was someone she needed to see.

Sitting at the desk with a holo-screen up and those same pink headphones, Mateo was focused on his work of sorting through different files for the different variants in the society. Miguel wasn't in the room with him for once and was likely somewhere else dealing with some other issues. While Mateo worked, his spider senses briefly went off but not to signal any type of danger. He looked up to see Scarlet floating upside down in front of him with a big cheesy smile on her face. He chuckled and removed his headphones to speak to her.

"Done with yer therapy session?"

"Mhm! Thank goodness too, that felt long!"

"What was it about this time?"

"About you, actually. All good things, don't worry."

"I would hope so."

Scarlet giggled and kissed his head before floating back to the ground behind him. When he stood up, she wrapped her arms around him and seemed happier than normal. He didn't mind of course and instead found her to be cuter like this.

"Yer not gonna let me work more, are ya?"

"Nope." With a smug grin, a portal opened behind him and she pushed him back, letting both of them fall inside. Luckily for him, he landed on something soft that he was immediately able to recognize as his bed. He laughed while keeping his arms around her.

"Did ya really just push us into a portal to ma house? Ya really didn't want me to stay at work, huh?"

"Why would I? If I let you stay, you would have never come home." She lifted his mask up to kiss him, not spending too long even though it was taking everything in her not to tear his suit off. Pulling back, she took the rest of his mask off and set it aside. "Now. Why don't you change out of your suit and get comfy? We could cuddle and watch a movie. Maybe order some food? I know you haven't had anything today." She flicked his head.

"Hey-" He chuckled, rubbing the spot she flicked, "Listen, I had a lot to do today."

"Mhm. Go change."

"Bossy much?" He got out of bed and sat her down while he went to change.

Training blah blah blah I know what you're really here for WHORE! I'm kidding ofc but yes this fic has nsfw. More than the dinner date one so...you have been warned.

The Spider-Society was known to be the tallest building in all of Nueva York that housed what could be thousands of spider-heroes. What started as a small team ended up growing from dimension to dimension as Miguel O'Hara gathered as many recruits he could take to defend the fate of the multiverse. Being the tallest building meant multiple floors which each had something themed for the spiders. The lobby was the main area where the spiders stayed to hangout and relax. There was also the training arena, the labs, the observatory and the large cafeteria that kept as many spiders entertained. The one common area besides the lobby was the training arena where multiped spiders would go to either get lesson, participate in a simulated battle, workout, train, or spar with a partner. There were special rooms that allowed the heroes to stay in depending on how intense their training would be. Unlike the large gym area where most of them stayed to workout together. Of course with rules since some of the spiders would often get too pumped up and would destroy the equipment. There were still flaws but hey, with a whole building full of variants of Spider-Man what else did you expect? Not everyone was perfect.

One of the rooms was occupied with Scarlet and Miguel fighting one another. Miguel was trying to train Scarlet to have better fighting techniques rather than choosing to be reckless with her abilities. He had been attempting to get her to control her powers but he was quickly losing patience with her as she wouldn't listen to would become messy with her movement. Each of these rooms had windows to allow others to view inside and there had been a small crowd in front of it to watch the celestial fight their leader. There were some bets made but they all knew better than to bet real money on these two. Besides, what spider was actually rich enough to make bets. You'd be surprised actually…

Miguel was swift and agile, having advantages due to his spider mutations like his talons and paralyzing venom. His fast movements and quick dodges allowed him to get a few hits to Scarlet, either hitting her in the stomach or attempting to swing near her face. He wasn't holding back and neither was she.

Scarlet would retreat often, attempting to moving back as far as she could. But because she often kept running, Miguel would use his laser webbing to grab her, yanking her back to him or throwing her further away to crash into a wall. She sat up and wiped some blood off her face, breathing heavily while appearing both angry and annoyed. She was becoming bitter about losing the fight but understood she had a disadvantage in this due to not have similar mutations as him. During this fight, she had to put on her web shooters to help with far range combat and to make quick escapes. At one point, she quickly escaped to the ceiling and crawled into a vent to avoid him.

"Puta madre Scarlet, get out of the vents! You can't keep running!" Miguel frustratingly yelled, his patience quickly diminishing with how much she ran away.

He tried to listen out for her movements but lost her the moment the room went dark. The spiders outside gasped curiously, their attention focused more on how this battle was about to play out.

One of the vents in the room opened and out came Scarlet, now in her pure star form to blend in with the dark. Her steps were silent, allowing her to stalk Miguel from high points in the room. She could hear him complaining under his breath, muttering more curses in Spanish as he searched for her. He listened for her breathing, maybe even her heartbeat, to pinpoint exactly where she was at.

Only a few times was she able to punch him across the jaw before she quickly ran back up. Miguel's anger began to boil over while searching around the room, finding her tactics to be annoying. The worst part was he didn't understand what her end goal was in this. Was she going to trap him in webbing? Try to knock him out? Pin him down?

Landing back on the floor, she shot a web at his face and yanked him to the ground, causing him to fall forward with a loud thud. He only had seconds to recover and saw her jumping straight at him. Kicking himself up onto his feet, he grabbed her by the throat, slamming her into the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her lungs.

The lights turned back on and he looked at her with an angered expression. She became just as angry and focused her energy to a nearby box that was in the room. She had almost forgotten about the props in the room that were able to be used during this fight. Raising her hand, she lifted the box with her powers, sending it flying straight into him. With no spider-senses, the box crashed into him, making him fall back for a moment and giving her the upper hand. Understanding she couldn't face hi head on, she instantly webbed him up, attempting to use as much of her webbing to stop him.

The webs wrapped around his body but it didn't limit him for long. His muscles flexed and the webs snapped, giving him the chance to jump at her, swiping his talons across her face. Startled from the unexpected attack, she stumbled back and didn't have the chance to stop her when he snatched her body and sunk his fangs too deep into her shoulder.

"SHOCK!!!" She yelled, turning around and sending her energy into her hand and slamming her palm into his gut, sending him flying back into the wall. He crashed inside and she fell to her knees, breathing heavily.

Miguel got up with a mumbled swear, gripping his shoulder and bleeding from his head. Both of them would be fine but this was far from over. He approached her as she quickly was weakening. "You don't know what you're doing, Celeste. You keep running from your opponent which only makes you look like a coward."

"I…am not…a coward." She hissed.

"You act like one the more you end up running. You think when you're in a real fight that your enemy is going to let you run? How did that work out with Doc Ock? Not every enemy will allow you to do far-ranged combat and it'll only get you killed in the end!"

"That was different!"

"How? Because you were sixteen? Because you were young and stupid?!"

"Shut up, O'Hara."

"You have a disadvantage with your pathetic webbing. You don't have the proper abilities to try and copy what I do. I could see you trying to follow similar tricks. But you don't have the same DNA as me. And you thinking you're some sort of all powerful god isn't helping! You're a mess!"

"I said shut up!" She snapped at him, still on her knees and fighting the venom. Because of her DNA, she was able to fight off more of the venom for a slightly longer moment than most would be able to take. But that didn't mean she was invincible to it either. "Besides…you cheated…with that stupid venom…"

"Cheated? What difference does it make with your powers? You think throwing gravity off balance is going to give you an advantage? You don't even know what you're capable of and that's what's causing you to appear so shocking weak."

Hovering over her, she looked up with a bitter expression. She was getting tired and could feel her vision blurring in and out.

"You don't even have the strength to fight against my venom. And you know you can. You're just choosing to accept defeat."

It was the cold truth. She could easily fight against this but she had been taking his words to heart. She was a messy fighter and had no clear strategy in defending herself against someone like him. But to be fair, he bit deeper than she expected. Almost like he was ready to tear her flesh off. "Stupid…vampire…"

"Por dios—I am not a shocking vampire!"

"Considerin' how deep ya bit her, I'd say ya are." A voice came from behind them, making them both flinch at the unexpected third person.

"What the shock?!" They both flinched. Mateo raised an eyebrow and looked at them both like they were crazy. There's no way in hell he managed to scare both of them considering what they just went through. But then it clicked.

"Ah. No spider senses." He smugly chuckled.

"A knock would've been nice." Miguel scoffed."

"Ya wouldn't have heard ma." Mateo squats down to Scarlet and pulls out a syringe he brought that would remove the venom. "Quick poke, shiny." He warned before stabbing it in. The syringe gripped her where the bitten area was at and began to extract the venom. Scarlet sighed in relief, letting it do its work while she fully sat back.

"Stop babying her." Miguel rolled his eyes.

"I ain't. Just helpin'."

"You can't. This isn't your fight."

"Well if I was in the battlefield, I could be there to help."

"This isn't your fight. She needs to let the venom do its job like she would if she was alone."

"Ya because that's teaching her somethin'."

"Don't let your relationship start getting in the way of this."

"You're just mad because you're single." Scarlet attempted to joke.

"That has nothing to do with this, you immature brat." Miguel bit back.

Mateo checked on the syringe and listened for the small beep before removing it out of her arm. The venom was out of her system and she was already starting to feel better but it didn't mean she was fully recovered. She sat back on the ground and sighed, rubbing her arm.

"Thanks, honey." She smiled softly. Mateo nodded and kept the syringe with him for now to throw out later. He turned to look at Miguel, crossing his arms.

"Yer not very helpful with this whole sparrin' thing. She had a clear disadvantage."

"And that's her problem. She doesn't have any real fighting talent. All she knows is how to throw items at her enemy and quickly run away when she needs to. She knows how to take down her opponent when she's in a dark environment but other than that, she knows nothing." Miguel looked down at Scarlet. "You're weak."

"Tellin' her she's weak ain't gonna fix what she knows. Ya have to teach new moves and tell her what she can improve on. Just sayin' she's weak is only gonna weaken her more."

"More?" Star looked at him and tilted her head.

"Ya know what I meant, shiny."

Miguel rolled his eyes, only seeing Mateo's defense towards Scarlet being nothing more than him just defending his girlfriend. She did need a proper lesson on how to fight but he didn't have the patience nor time to deal with this. He was tired of babysitting and had tons of more important things to do back in his office so he made the smart decision.

"You want her to get lessons? Fine. You teach her." Miguel's mask materialized over his face and he left the room without another word, leaving the couple in the room. They both looked at the door and then at each other.

"That has to mean I win since he left." Star chuckled.

"Could be. But cmon, let's get ya out there for a break.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Scarlet was sitting down on a nearby bench around the training area to take a break after losing the fight with Miguel. In her hand was a bottle of water that she was drinking from while she ate some fruit to get her energy back up. A part of her had been bitter about the fight, thinking about all the ways she could have kicked Miguel's ass if she didn't keep running away. But unfortunately, Miguel had been right about her fighting style. She didn't have a special technique or skills to properly take an enemy down in a fight that also didn't require her powers to be involved. Something about that bothered her and although it hadn't been something important to know, she was bitter about losing.

While eating an orange slice, she observed the other spiders that were sparring and training. Each of them had their own skills and techniques when it came to fighting, using their abilities to their advantage and get the upper hand. Some of them knew how to dodge or swing a punch when the moment was available to them or used their webs to their advantage. She noticed how spider like each of them were with their abilities or gadgets, something she wasn't skilled at. Because the truth was, Scarlet isn't a spider. Never truly was one. Almost every spider hero here in the society had the same classic story which was they were bitten by a radioactive spider that gave them some kind of spider mutation that allowed them to have powers and extra abilities. Scarlet never experienced that and instead used the powers she was born with to turn them into something good. The only reason she made her hero persona into something spider related is because she used to study them. Also thanks to Webby, her pet spider. But although she didn't have the same abilities as someone else, it wasn't a good enough excuse to use when saying why she couldn't fight. With a defeated groan, she tossed her orange peels into the trash and slumped back on the bench.

"Stupid Miguel…I can fight! I was just holding back is all." She muttered to herself, fully aware that it was another pathetic excuse to her shitty fighting skills.

The other spiders continued to spar with one another while she watched from her bench. Things finally started to get entertaining when she spotted Mateo with another spider, seemingly giving them a short lesson on how to use proper techniques while going against an enemy. He didn't look impatient when they messed up and didn't even make some backhanded comment towards their swings. He was actually teaching them something, grabbing their arms and positioning it to show a proper stance. Scarlet knew he was a good teacher, better than whatever the hell Miguel was doing. Now that she really thought about it, Miguel probably just wanted to have a reason to kick her ass to get some stress out. Can't blame him since she does have a habit at pissing him off to no end.

Lost in her thoughts for a moment, she suddenly overheard Mateo grunting from the punch the spider swung at him, making her look to see if he was okay. Of course he was because well…its him. Not sure a simple punch is going to bring him down in an instant. Him and the other spider fought together, dodging attacks and giving words of praise when a move was done correctly. Although it had been a nice moment, Scarlet was more focused on Mateo and listening to the sounds he made whenever he got hit or would back away from his opponent. Every grunt and smug chuckle he let out only made her face slowly become more and more red as other kinds of thoughts quickly filled her mind. There was never a calm moment with this woman. She watched him get punched across the jaw, again, not really affecting him. Instead, he chuckled and praised them for landing a clean hit against him. Something about his praise, even though it wasn't directed at her, was getting her much hotter.

"Shock Scarlet, pull yourself together." She grumbled to herself and got up, entering one of the sparring rooms to have a moment to herself.

In the large room, she took a deep breath to focus more on her powers and lift objects up to see if that would give her an advantage in a fight. The objects in the room were weighed boxes with each having a different weight to them to act like real items in an actual battle field. Lifting them up had been no issue for her since she could just change the gravity around her and make them float while she controls where they go. Dropping them back to the floor, she got down and pushed the box up so she could lift it in the air. Having super strength had its benefits! Lifting up one of the less heavy boxes, she threw it as far as she could, watching it crash to the ground.

"Heavy. Lifting that up would allow my opponent to come to me if they aren't already on the floor and weakened. So powers it is." She spoke out loud to herself to point out some changes she needed to make.

The next few minutes had her lifting boxes and carrying heavier ones to toss them as far as she could. However with each box she lifted, the more she began to struggle. She wasn't exactly as strong as she was before. Approaching the last box, she huffed and brushed her hair back, mentally preparing herself to lift this heavier box. The moment she got down and tried to lift it, she struggled and kept attempting to get it even just a inch off the ground.

"Oh come on! How much does this thing weigh?!" She grumbled. Scarlet attempted to push the box, lift it up, even just tilt it but nothing worked. When she tried one last time, her body was strained and her powers were beginning to kick in from her growing anger and annoyance. It barley got off the ground when someone grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back.

"Whoa-!!" The box fell back down with a loud thud and she quickly looked back to see who grabbed her. "Wha—Teo'?! What are you doing?!"

Mateo held her and kissed her head. "That box was gonna crush yer foot. Yer standing too close to it and not liftin' it correctly."

She groaned, pulling away from him. "I was fine. I'm just struggling because I lifted up all those other boxes."

Mateo looked back at the scattered boxes that she threw, impressed that she managed to throw so many of them. "I'll gather them up and then show ya how to properly lift em."

"Fine." She gave in and let him gather them. Taking a quick break, walked to the table near the exit door and picked up her water bottle, chugging it. Setting it back down, she was typing her hair back with a headband when she suddenly saw Mateo carrying the boxes with one hand! Yeah. Boxes. Plural! Worst part was that he didn't even look like he was struggling. They probably felt like feathers in his hand!

"What the shock?" She whispered to herself and watched him walk back to where the heaviest box was at, dropping the rest down near it. She quickly approached him. "That's…that's not fair! How the shock are you just going to carry all that with no sweat?! I can't even lift this one!"

Mateo chuckled, "Shiny, ya know I can lift heavy things no problem."

"Yeah but…it's not that nice to see when I'm struggling here!"

"Why are you strugglin' anyways? Ya used to be able to carry more"

"I…" Why? Because she hadn't been working out like she said she had been doing. Being in the Spider Society's observatory meant she didn't have to do a ton of heavy lifting or fighting since her job was to watch the multiverse and make sure all was in order. She just never considered going to the gym because she felt like she didn't need to! But she had been lying to Mateo about going and now it was time for the cat to come out the bag. "…I just got weaker.

Mateo raises an eyebrow and looks at her suspiciously. Something about her tone and how she averted her eyes away from his gaze was giving away the lie. "Ya got weaker? And how exactly did that happen?

Scarlet got nervous. "Uh well I um…uhhhhhh…" She can't save herself! "Okay fine! I stopped working out and training so I can't lift things like how I used to! I just didn't feel like I needed to be like that anymore!

Mateo didn't say anything. He just stared at her before bursting out into laughter which surprised Scarlet.

"W-what?! Why are you laughing?!" Her cheeks went red.

"Darlin', ya didn't have to lie about it!" His laughter died down. "It's okay, I ain't gonna make fun of ya."

"Tsk, yeah right. And I suppose its better that I've been sulking at home and probably gaining weight?"

"Never said anythin' about yer weight, ma love. Regardless of that, y'know I don't mind." He held her from behind again, rubbing her body which quickly got her feeling warm. Damn him and his smooth talk. Then again, it didn't take much for him to do to make her melt.

"Yknow how to get to me. So that's cheating!"

"Is it?" He smirked against her shoulder, still feeling her body through her spider suit. For a moment, he got distracted on how she looked in the suit. "I haven't seen ya wear this in a while, shiny. Gotta say, it looks wonderful on ya…" He slowly kissed her neck and she could feel her knees buckling from how quickly she was giving in.

"You can't just say that and expect me to not give in." Scarlet muttered, leaning her head back. Mateo continued to kiss her neck, going lower towards her shoulder before pulling back. She whined in protest but knew he was going to say something about them doing it in the training room.

"Okay, enough distractions. Don't need Miguel comin' in here and catchin' us." He stepped away from her and looked at the large boxes.

"Whatever." She muttered, a little annoyed about him stopping so quick. Standing near him and looking at the boxes, she rolled her eyes. "You could probably lift a whole train to be honest. But that's not the point here. I need to be training."

"Right. I could teach ya. Just the basics for a warmup."

"Really sunshine? The basics? I know how to fight."

"It's just a warmup. Plus yer gonna need it since Miguel was too busy throwing insults at ya rather than training ya. Think he was about to throw ya out the window."

"He would've if there was a window in the room."

Scarlet stretched and moved away from the large boxes to a more open area which would allow them both to train. Her star shaped goggles on her head got tossed aside in case they fall off while training. Standing across from him, she set her hands on her hips.

"I don't think I've ever actually fought you. Even for training,"

"Never needed to. But it's good just to practice. Try not to get distracted though."

"Yeah yeah."

Getting into position, their training began with the basic moves like punches and kicks. With each error Scarlet made with the way she stood while throwing a punch or failing to dodge properly, Mateo would correct her each time. He never insulted her moves or showed signs of annoyance from repeated failure and instead would stop to position her arms in the correct way. But because its them, there were a few moments of them, mainly Scarlet, being unserious about the whole training. Anytime he was close or was fixing her position, he would steal a quick kiss or whisper in her ear which wasn't helping her focus at all. Although this was a lesson, she was barley learning anything.

After about an hour, things finally started to get serious as they really began to spar and stop holding back. The first few rounds had rules which included no powers. This meant Scarlet couldn't use any of her abilities to fight or assist her in the battle. It had been going well with the added knowledge of dodging and punching but that was making her feel cocky about winning. It wouldn't take long before she discovered how much she was underestimating his skills.

Their main battle was starting and outside other spiders had been watching in anticipation. They were silently betting on who would win with a majority assuming Scarlet would win since she's a celestial. But those that knew Mateo understood that he had a higher advantage with his fighting skills. Even though neither of them could use their powers, they knew he still had the upper hand. Scarlet was allowed her gadgets like web shooters and her star goggles that helped her scan the area. The moment they started to fight, things quickly escalated. Mateo was no longer holding back and it startled Scarlet to see how fast he really was. With no spider senses, she was on high alert, quickly dodging as many hits as she could. Any hits she managed to get in looked like he didn't feel anything and only made her feel like she was weaker without any powers. Although she couldn't use any of her abilities, she ran to the nearest box and grabbed it, throwing it at him to give her a chance to run and hide.

It wasn't the smartest tactic but she ran anyways and hid on the ceiling. Pressing the side of her goggles, it scanned the area to lock onto him but nothing came back. She just made it to the ceiling, where did he go?! For a moment she could only hold her breath to listen for him. There was a very small chance he could make a noise from moving, even just the slightest hitch of his breath could alert her. But she heard nothing and that was terrifying. Grabbing a web bomb, her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to spot him. For a second in the darkness of the ceiling, she saw a flash of light which likely had been his eyes. The goggles attempted to lock onto an enemy but couldn't find him. Somehow with her ability to see in the dark, she just couldn't find him and she knew he didn't leave. A chill went through her spine as the sudden realization hit her.

He's watching her.

The worst part of knowing that was she didn't know where he would be. He could be anywhere in the room while waiting for a moment to strike her down. All she could hear was her own breathing while trying to figure out what to do. Sneaking around wasn't helping either and it would be foolish to let herself come out just for him to attack. Unless…?

Scarlet dropped down from the ceiling to let herself be exposed. The web bomb was still in her hand and she took off her goggles to let them rest on her head. Mateo was smart, probably too smart but she needed to take the risk that he would come out and dive after her now that she was standing on the ground. Listening out for anything, she heard something behind her and quickly triggered the web bomb to catch him before he had the chance to strike.

"HA! I—what?" Turning around, her eyes widened when seeing one of the boxes trapped in the web instead of Mateo. He tricked her!

"No-" She gasped and didn't have time to react when suddenly his arms came from behind her, trapping her in a choke hold. He had her pinned against his body and she had no way of getting out. It was over for her but even though this was serious, the feeling of his large arm around her neck was too arousing for her since she's a loser—

"Hnngh—harder…" She moaned against him.

The spiders outside the room that had been watching went red from her moan and all stopped talking. Mateo, aware that there were people outside watching them, also had a faint blush on his cheeks. Scarlet was smug but also wanted to disappear once she processed what she just did in front of a crowd.

"Shock me." She groaned the moment he released her.

"Seriously? Ya couldn't be serious for one second?" Mateo looked at her like a disappointed mom.

"You can't blame me for that!" Scarlet squeaked out while her face was burning red.

"There's people watching, Scarlet!"

Oooooooh he said her full name. She whined and went into the corner of shame for what she did.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

After recovering from that embarrassing moment and taking a quick break, their next round of fighting had involved their powers this time which gave Scarlet a higher chance of winning. As soon as they started, Scarlet was in the ceiling to stalk him like how he did. The only problem here though was Mateo had spider senses and could sense when she was coming at any given moment. It frustrated her with every failed hit she had made and only allowed him to have upper hand. While throwing things, he was easily able to dodge them and when they fought in close combat, Star was able to use her energy to make a shield to block attacks faster. With every hit and swing, both of them would only become more determined to win. At one point, Scarlet managed to pin him to the ground and deliver a punch but he stopped it, throwing her back before she had the chance to land. Angered and quickly getting annoyed, a web bomb was thrown but he managed to grab it and toss it in the opposite direction.

The spiders outside continued to watch them dodge and attack one another when things finally came to an end. They were fighting each other head on and Scarlet kept using her shields to block him. But the moment she showed signs of weakening, Mateo took the chance and punched harder which broke her shield. Not having a chance to recover, Scarlet quickly was pinned to the ground and wheezed when the air was knocked out of her. Mateo's arm was pinned down to her neck, not to choke her but to show that the fight was over. Looking up at him, it clicked in her head how powerful he is and she laughed. Although tired, she laughed!

Mateo looked at her curiously, "What is it?"

"No no I just…I think you're the only spider here that could actually kill me."

"What?" He quickly took his arm off of her and got up.

"No no no! Don't freak out about it! I'm just saying that like…you're powerful. Damn near on the same level as me but likely stronger. If you really tried, I'm sure you could use your powers to kill me."

"Jesus Star, that's…"

"Hey…" Scarlet got up with a small wince but approached him. "Don't overthink that. You weren't about to kill me, I'm just saying that you probably could if we were ever enemies."

"Thank goodness we're not then." He kissed her head and took a second to look at her and how sweaty and tired they both were. "Think we did a number on each other."

"You think? That was rough!" Scarlet laughed.

"True true. But ya did really good. Some improvement on a few things could be used but other than than, ya did great. I'm proud of ya, shiny."

Her cheeks felt warm from the small praise. "Oh you." She giggled, "But thanks, sunshine. That means a lot."

The couple finally cooled off and reset the room so the next trainers could use it. Exiting out the room, the group of spiders that had been watching them moved away from the window and acted like they weren't watching them fight. They both knew they had an audience but it was funnier to not acknowledge it and to just walk away instead. Once they were out of the area, the group of spiders started to talk about the fight and decide who won.

Spoiler alert: Mateo won.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Scarlet opened the door to her observatory and groaned loudly just wanting to flop onto the couch and sleep for 20 years. The room was large and in the shape of a dome. The mahogany wood creaked under her feet with each step and the room smelled like vanilla and a fresh book smell (if you've entered a Barnes and Noble you know what I mean) since it also looked like a library. The walls had shelves filled with books which were really files about tons of different universes and worlds. Many had been organized by Scarlet either by the universe or the person itself. The middle of the room was large and had floating orbs which had worlds inside. Ones that she could monitor as much as often. The ceiling was a large dome that showed space itself, something Scarlet enjoyed the most about the room because it made her feel at home. The room was dimly lit like if you were in a library. There was a large window against the wall that also showed outer space, giving the illusion of the room being located in space although it wasn't. There was a soft red couch leaning against the window along with a blanket laying on it. Scarlet flopped down onto it and sighed.

"This room never fails to amaze me, shiny." Mateo said while admiring the unique room. Miguel had this all built for Scarlet once she officially joined the spider society. He joined her on the couch and sighed as well, finally letting his body relax from all that training. He looked ready to have a nap.

"Thank you. This is like the one place in this whole building that keeps me calm. But then again that's because it's literally my room." She leaned on him.

"I'm glad Miguel was able to give you this room all to yerself. At least I can come into here and take a nap on yer couch."

"True true. Could always hide in here." Scarlet giggled. They enjoyed the moment together and both looked ready to fall asleep. Mainly him since he had been working so damn much. Scarlet leaned on him and kissed his neck, peppering small kisses just to tease him.

"How do ya still have energy?" Mateo asked her while leaning his head back.

"You know I don't get tired that fast, right? I technically don't need to sleep either."

"Yeah but I won't let ya stay up for weeks."

"I know. I can't resist you anyways." Kissing his neck some more made her move to sit on his lap. She knew he was tired so she took her time to let him feel her and to see of he had any energy to do anything.

His hands found their way to her hips, resting them there while she kissed and nibbled at his skin. She could hear his short sighs and gasps with every bite she took of him.

"We don't have to do this. If you're tired you can just nap on me." Scarlet looked at him, willing to stop what she's doing since she knows that he's tired. Mateo stopped her from attempting to get off his lap.

"No no ya can stay…I'm just gonna be a little slow."

"Oh. I can take the lead then."

"Of course ya'd want that." He chuckled before kissing her.

Scarlet leaned into the kiss, her hand cupping his cheek to rub his skin and feel the stubble he had. His hands tightened around her waist until one moved to the small of her back and pushed her forward to press into him more. Her tongue swiped over his lips, silently begging to slip in and the moment his lips parted, she slid her tongue through and moaned from his taste. He was warm and feeling his tongue against hers always made her legs clench together. It shouldn't be that easy for her to get aroused but things like this make her feel hot and bothered. She wanted to be rough and tear off his suit already but had to remind herself he was tired from today and she was taking the lead here.

As their tongues moved around, she placed her hands on his shoulder and started to move her body forward to grind on his lap. The first hitch of his breath told her that he wasn't expecting it that quick but wasn't denying it. Her hips slowly rolled down on him and she could feel him hardening underneath her. One hand snaked to the back of his head, running through his soft brown hair while slightly tugging it back to hear that small whimper escape from him. The heat pooling down in her stomach was becoming harder to ignore now that she could feel him underneath her. But rather than rushing into things, she continued to grind against him and pull his spider suit off his body. Pulling it down, she was able to expose his chest and pulled away from his lips to kiss lower down his neck.

"Lay down for me, baby…" She quietly commanded, having him lay back on the couch. The moment he did, she took a second to admire his body and slowly look at him up and down to see how flushed he was already. The very quiet whimpers from him had her throbbing for him already. "Shock, you're so sexy."

Coming down to his chest, she kissed his skin in different spots, mainly kissing his pecs before getting low enough to slip his nipple in her mouth. She could tell he hadn't been expecting that from the way he gasped and tensed up. But when his hand came to the back of her head and only encouraged her to keep going, she sucked on the sensitive bud that drew out another moan from him. His other nipple was pinched softly with her free hand, making him arch into her touch and groan. It was always arousing hearing him make noises like this and she would do anything to hear them again. While she was busy with his chest, Mateo's hands gripped at her spider suit and started to pull it down to her shoulders.

"Patience, sunshine." She whispered against his skin.

But she's lying because not even she can be patient around him. From her laying on him and focusing more on his nipples, she could feel his erection underneath her near her stomach. It was hard to ignore and she finally slid down to be on the floor. Getting onto her knees, she pulled the rest of his suit off.

"Shiny what are ya-" He was flustered and was breathing faster,

"I told you I was taking the lead." She smirked and took off her spider suit so she wouldn't get it dirty. "But you're okay to do this, right?"

"i…yeah…yeah I am." He nodded and sat up, giving her room in between his legs.

Scarlet moved to be in between his legs and was already blushing more just from looking at how hard he was already. She finally pulled his boxers down to let his throbbing cock out, watching it pulse in front of her. Her cheeks only became warmer as she stared at it while he gripped the couch.

"….jeez i um…this isn't my first time seeing it but shock…I-" Of course she became flustered over this like if it was their first time.

"Can't handle ma, shiny?" He smirked and put his hand on her head.

"No no! It's not that! I just…doing this I…guess seeing it in front of me is just reminding me how big you are…" She laughed, trying to hide how flustered she was but it wasn't working,

"Shiny, ya don't have to do it if ya don't want to."

"No! That's not—no! I want to! Just…you try having a dick in front of your face!"

He only smirked and she paused.

"Don't answer that." She huffed. Looking at the way it twitched in front of her, Scarlet huffed and reached her hand forward, wrapping her fingers around him. The way his head fell back onto the couch had her mind screaming and her eyes widening. Pull yourself together Scarlet! It's not the first time she had done this but that didn't mean she wasn't going to get flustered about it. Taking a deep breath, her hand slowly started to stroke him, taking her time to really feel him as her hand glided down him. She felt him twitch in her hand and heard him breathing faster. His hips bucked forward into her hand, making her bite her lip in response. Her movements were slow and careful to see how far she could go with this.

He was definitely big, that's for sure. Her hand was able to wrap around him and feel how smooth he felt but how hard she managed to get him. Scarlet watched his reactions, noticing how his stomach would tense up or how his hand would grab the couch and grip it tight. There was some precum leaking out from the tip, slowly spilling down to the side. Staring at it, she leaned in close enough to slowly lick the mess. His moan was louder that time and it was getting harder for her to stay still. The ache between her legs was becoming unbearable but she wanted to focus on him and memorize every twitch and moan.

Scarlet's hand continued to glide up and down his length while she took the risk and squeezed him, watching more precum leak out. Whimpering herself, she kissed the head and licked his slit slowly, feeling his hips twitch and thrust to try and get into her mouth. He was breathing faster, hiding his whines but groaning as well. Watching him from this angle was doing something to her. Doing a lot actually. Squirming on the floor and continuing to taste his salty pre, she gave in and wrapped her mouth around the head and slowly took as much as she could. Another loud moan escaped him but this time with some praise.

"Shiny! For god's sake—please- you're so good—please keep don't stop-" He praised her while begging her not to stop. She whimpered in response and kept going. The wet sounds of her pleasing him were heard in the room along with their moans and heavy breathing. The deeper Star managed to take him, the more her eyes began to water. She didn't push herself to take him that far but wanted to hear him moan as much as possible. Her free hand came down to rub herself through her underwear, moaning from the sensation and desperate need to cum.

The longer she sucked on him and how he trusted into her mouth slightly, the closer he got to finishing. Mateo begged her to keep going while his hand gripped her hair to keep her down. It didn't take long before his hips snapped forward and body tensed as he spilled in her mouth. He grunted as he spilled in her, moaning while she took what she could. Pulling back with a wet pop, Star panted against him and watched him slump back against the couch to catch his breath. His cock was slumped against his stomach as any remaining cum spilled out on him.

"Shiny…c'mere…" He pulled her up onto him and on his lap, already fully aware that she needed him just as much. Removing her underwear, he could see that she was already soaked and needy. She whimpered and moved her hips against him, grinding against his thigh.

"Please…" She whimpered, begging him to finally please her. Seeing her needy, he quickly pulled her forward as he laid down. "W-whoa you're really going to—AH!!" Her hand flew to her mouth the moment he had her on his face, mouth quickly on her pussy and licking her wet folds. It was no surprise to Mateo that Scarlet was loud whenever they were intimate. To know that she was trying to keep quiet had been cute as they both knew she could not quiet her moans down.

Mateo's hands were on her thighs to keep her down as he licked her and his tongue got into her most sensitive parts. Scarlet's hips thrust forward as she moaned with each thrust. Feeling his tongue made her squirm against him and moan his name loudly in the room. Thank goodness no one could hear her. She whined and kept grinding her hips against him as he ate her out. It didn't take long before she was already close to finishing. The couch squeaked underneath them, Scarlet's back arched, Mateo moaned against her, and the stars were already beginning to appear as she got close. When he got to her sweet spot, her back arched as she came undone, making a mess onto him. Leaning forward, she whined and held his head as he cleaned her mess.

Finally after everything, they both settled down and began to catch their breaths from the mess of it all. Was it worth it? Of course it was. They eventually cleaned up what they could before settling back onto the couch with Scarlet sitting against it and Mateo laying down on her chest while holding her.

"Ya did so good, shiny." Mateo whispered and peppered soft kisses on her. He sat up for a moment and kissed her face. Her cheeks, her nose, her chin, her head, her lips, anywhere he could kiss. He was gentle with her and held her again, resting on her chest while she hugged him close and stroked his hair. Pressing a gentle kiss to his head, she smiled softly,

"So did you. I love you so much, my love." Scarlet whispered and cupped his cheeks so he could look at her.

"And I love ya too…maybe more." He joked.

Scarlet laughed and kissed his lips. "That might be impossible. But I'll let you have your victory for now."

He weakly laughed against her before fully relaxing against her warm body. Star pulled the blanket that was on the couch over the both of them and let Mateo finally get the rest he needed. She knew they would be here for a couple hours, maybe even days. That's fine by her. As long as the observatory door is locked and Miguel can't find them, she doesn't care how long they would stay in the room.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Hours went by after the couple fell asleep with each other. Mateo was asleep on top of Scarlet while she was snoring and exactly where she wanted to be. But all good things must have an end or in this case an interruption. The multiverse watch that Miguel gives every spider hero started to ring and only woke Scarlet up. With an annoyed groan, she looked at hers only to realize it wasn't hers ringing and instead had been Mateo's. She took his off and checked the screen to see that it was Miguel calling. Oh this should be fun.

"What?" She answered in an annoyed tone.

"What? What do you mean "what"? Where are—hang on. Scarlet, is that you?"

"No it's Kyoko." (My oc before I made Scarlet)

"Who the shock is Kyoko?!"

"Of course it's me, idiot! What do you want?!"

"Why are you answering Mateo's watch? Where is he? I need him here right now, there's still files to go over and I'm not doing it all for him."

"Hmm, I dunno."

"What do you mean you don't know?!" It was so easy to rage bait him.

"I mean I don't know." She shrugged while playing with Mateo's hair. His grip on her tightened while he slept.

"Scarlet Celeste, I swear to whatever god is out there, I will track your location right now and come get him from you!"

"How are you so sure he's with me?"

"YOU HAVE HIS SHOCKING WATCH!!!'

"Yeah? And? I could've stolen it." She smirked and heard him muttering some Spanish swears.

"Bring him to my office. Now."

"Mmmmmm nah."

"SCAR—"

She ended the call and muted his watch along with her own. "Yeah, no way in hell is he about to interrupt us." Scarlet muttered and set them aside on the small side table from the couch. She kissed Mateo's head and made sure he was comfortable before going back to sleep.

Star meets with Spider-Therapist again to discuss her relationship with Mateo. This is a continuation from my other fic, "Therapy session", talking more about what happened after the ending.

I didn't finish this....

In the Spider Society, there was the popular Spider-Therapist who had the unfortunate pleasure of being the only therapist in a building with a thousand other Spider-Heroes that all had just about the same issues or slightly different ones. The amount of times he's heard about someone's loved one dying and feeling like they were to blame or hearing about another failed relationship or even how someone's best friend betrayed them unexpectedly—it had become common. Way too common. Although many of these issues had been common to hear about, he still would get paid to sit and listen to their issues. Albeit, some of these heroes did have strong reactions to negative emotions or just wouldn't be bothered to share anything about their life. Scarlet and Mateo were ones that had been like that as Mateo refused to see Spider-Therapist and Scarlet was forced to see him due to her long list of issues and her inability to handle trauma.

Today had been no different. Scarlet knocked on Spider-Therapist's door and opened it once he gave the clearing to enter. Sitting inside the comfortable yet oddly intimidating office, Scarlet leaned back in her chair with her hands resting on her stomach, already tense from whatever kind of conversation they were about to have.

"So Scarlet, I can already see how you're tensing up just from being in the office. Mind sharing why?" Spider-Therapist asked. He wore the same suit as always, a simple suit and Spider-man themed tie to match with it while also wearing his mask with glasses over them. In his lap was his tablet to keep notes on the session while he sat on a comfortable gray chair.

"Oh I dunno, maybe because every time I'm here I end up blowing up or getting into a panic attack. Your fault by the way." She sarcastically rolled her eyes.

Oh boy.

"Hm. I understand your anger towards me about these issues but it's for your health."

"My health? Yet every time I get these memories back into my head I end up panicking. How exactly is that healthy? And why am I the one to get forced in here? Not every spider comes here to see you."

"Because you have more issues that needs handling. You destroyed a world after a Gabriel variant took your prosthetic, nearly broke timelines when you hopped through different universes, and you're so mentally unstable that a blow up from you could kill the power in the Spider Society! Which, may I remind you, you did cause."

Scarlet looked at him bitterly before laying back against the chair with no further argument. She knew she had issues that had become unstable. But she's better now, right? Sort of? At least she isn't jumping through different universes again. Spider-therapist sighed and pushed up his glasses on his nose, looking down at his tablet. Did he want to risk getting her to snap or try to have today's session be about something more tame? Examining his list for previous topics they've discussed, he finally came across one that would hopefully keep her calm throughout the whole session.

"Okay. How about we don't discuss your trauma that bring back old memories? Why don't we talk about your relationship with Mr. Orlin?"

"Are you going to tell me he isn't mine again?"

"No. No. Not after what happened last time." He checked the tablet and took a deep breath after remembering the old session they had where she blew up. "Let's discuss your feelings for him but before you two made it official."

That had definitely been an unexpected question but also wasn't unwelcome since it wasn't too much of a sensitive topic. Sitting up in her seat, Star thought back to her past with Mateo.

"Well…to start, we happened to meet in his world when I was still world hopping. This was before my Gabriel was killed. I used to travel through dimensions just to see what they were like. During that time I was exploring, I landed in Mateo's world and eventually bumped into him. He had been suspicious of me of course because I was someone new and we just talked for a bit. I explained to him that I was universe hopping and that's when he told me a bit about himself. We talked for a while on some rooftop and when I told him about my Gabriel, he offered to take us out to dinner. For a double date." Star explained how Mateo and her met back then.

"So you both ended up meeting and then having a double date? What was that like?"

"It was sweet. Having our Gabriel's meet each other while we all enjoyed dinner. One of the good memories, yknow?"

"Did you have feelings for Mr. Orlin by that time?" "What? No. I was with Gabriel and he was married to his. Sure he was attractive but I wasn't in love with him. That wasn't until years later."

"Hm." Spider-Therapist took note of that. "When did you start falling for him?"

"When? Well I mean him and I didn't talk as much as we do now. Not until after our Gabriel's died and even then it wasn't so often. But when we did….oh…"

☆☆☆☆☆

The Past

I had never felt such sadness and pain after my Gabriel was killed. Things just seemed to be a lot darker and more empty which made life harder to live. And I know that sounds super dramatic but it's true. How could I keep living when he was gone? The one made that made my life feel worth living. I would cry a lot at home, stay in bed for days and stop eating. Relapsed on alcohol just to feel something else besides the pain of losing him. Shock, I felt like my life was over! Back at the Spider Society there wasn't much of a difference either since well…I had the better chance of traveling through the multiverse in hopes of finding Gabriel. But of course, no. I just had to find all the bad worlds where he could give a lesser shock about me. I was pretty stupid just falling for him just because they all looked like my variant. What was there to care about when he was there again?

Miguel tried multiple times to stop me, I remember that. He would always get mad at me when I would come back from a universe I wasn't meant to be in and I would ignore him like if he was a parent scolding me. But he was always right in the end and yeah, I regretted a ton of things. Including the stuff that happened with Dr. Haywire. God. That was bad. It felt like I could never find love again. Did I even deserve it after everything? I felt cursed. Like anyone that would fall in love with me would just end up getting hurt or worse! There had been a few people I was interested in but never went into it.

But then there was Mateo. That stupidly charming cowboy that stole my shocking heart.

I remember the first time I felt something different when talking to him. I was having another bad day and was just lonely in the observatory, getting all moody and depressed again. I hadn't eaten anything that day either and he was the last person I had ever expected to see.

He came in after knocking on my door twice. I was floating in the middle of the room while looking at past memories of Gabriel and I, crying for the millionth time. When he entered, I quickly wiped my tears away and rubbed my nose.

"Hey there, Star. Miguel said I should come check in on ya." He always spoke so gently with me. I never understood why at the time.

"He did? Ugh, I swear he treats me like I'm his daughter or something. Why couldn't he be bothered to come and see me?" I scoffed, finding it bit insulting that he would send Mateo here to check on me. "It's not like you're required to come check on me. You could just worry about yourself."

Mateo hadn't even flinched at my harsh tone because he knew I was struggling with my grief, even if it had been a couple years since Gabriel died. He didn't appear mad or even insulted. Just…calm.

He approached me slowly, watching for any negative reaction. "I know I don't have to come see ya. But I wanted to. I wanted to make sure yer okay."

It surprised me. He actually cared about me?

"Why? Aren't you dealing with your own stuff?"

He didn't answer that.

"Have ya eaten today?" He asked while getting closer.

"….no. I'm not hungry." I muttered and came down to the ground without realizing it.

"We both know that's a lie."

I scoffed in response but he was right. I wouldn't be able to keep up the act any longer because yes, food sounded delicious at that moment. Mateo chuckled as he noticed my act was beginning to falter. How could he break through me so fast?

"C'mon. The cafeteria should be serving some good food." He gestured me to follow him. I should've ignored him and stayed in place just to piss him off. But I couldn't. I followed like a puppy without hesitation and walked with him to the cafeteria where the smell of fresh cooked food filled my lungs and caused my stomach to growl. I'm sure he heard it since he glanced back at me with a faint smile.

☆

In the cafeteria, there had been a ton of food options including that stupid burger that had Miguel's mask on it. The dye on the burger made it look like it would taste like blueberries. But it was a good burger to be honest. Mateo hadn't given me anything heavy, just grabbed a sandwich and some fruit for me since I likely wouldn't be able to stomach anything heavy. He didn't say much either, just handed it to me and I just took it. Wait….had I already been folding for him?

We found a table right before I managed to steal one of the banana muffins from the cafe after he got himself his sugar drink. A cup of caramel. Okay it wasn't just caramel, there was coffee in it too. Somewhere.

But besides that, we sat together where I ate the sandwich slowly like some sad kitten. He didn't judge me or make any kind of rude comments, just sat there and made sure I was actually eating. Something about him actually caring had made my heart feel weird. It was such a simple gesture but…I don't think he knows how much that meant to me.

"That cup looks like you're just drinking caramel." I finally spoke, pointing out that his drink looked disgustingly sweet.

He laughed. God his laugh…

"It just has extra caramel on it. Plus I love sweet drinks. Can ya really blame ma?"

"Hm. I guess not. But still, don't have too much of it. You could end up with cavities." I said as I bit into my sandwich.

"Ha! With ma teeth? I doubt I'll ever get one."

"Hmph. Lucky ass." Not to say that I had any either. The most I ever had to handle was braces but eh. Maybe his charm was the reason his teeth weren't falling out. But I would later learn its because he has the money to afford a great dentist and his powers helped with his health as well.

We had sat together in silence for a bit longer. I finished my sandwich and moved on to the banana muffin rather than eat the fruit he picked out for me.

"And ya say I should be handlin' ma sweets?" He teased, pointing at the muffin.

"Whatever." I playfully scoffed. "These are good anyways."

"I agree. But what's wrong with the fruit?" "Nothing. I just wanted a muffin." "Fair fair." He nodded and took another sip of his drink.

There was more silence between us but it didn't feel uncomfortable. You know how when you sit with someone and its just the two of you but you don't know them very well so it gets awkward between both of you? That's what I had expected to happen with him and I but it just felt right instead. I felt comfortable with him and we hadn't even been super close! But he was taking care of me, cared about whether I ate or not, and stayed with me while eating so I wouldn't feel alone.

"Mateo. Why are you doing this? I mean no disrespect or anything and I'm not saying I don't like that you're doing this. I just want to know why you're doing it." Asking the question made me feel tense and fear that he was just going to say that he was pitying me.

He was quiet for a moment. Not saying much as he looked down at the table. It scared me for a second and only made me fear his answer even more.

"Well because I know yer mournin' over yer Gabriel. And I'm probably the only person right now that knows what yer going through."

Of course.

"Ah. Right. I mean I…I know I should be over it since it happened so long ago. I just…can't." I admitted quietly.

"No one is tellin' you to rush. Everyone mourns differently."

"Yeah but…look at you. You don't seem sad in the slightest and you lost him too! He was your husband! Mine was my fiance!"

It was the first time I had seen him become more serious than normal, like he didn't appreciate what I said. and to be fair, it was pretty shocked up to assume he was okay just because he wasn't sobbing in front of me. His expression faltered and he placed his drink down before answering, "Scarlet. Just because I don't look sad doesn't mean I'm not. Not everyone has to look upset while they mourn."

I felt like a dick when I said that. I didn't mean to sound like I was mad or jealous that he looked fine while I didn't. At the time, I was just confused about him looking like everything was okay after losing the love of his life. But now I know that wasn't the case.

Panicked, I quickly apologized, "No no no! I mean I didn't—no. I'm….(sigh) I'm sorry. That came out way worse than I intended. You are mourning and you're allowed to do it in your own way."

Mateo looked at me for a moment and sighed, taking off his mask for a moment. I remember feeling my heart beat faster when his hair came down and still managed to look fluffy. Lucky.

"It's alright, Star. I know ya didn't have any ill intention's with that." He looked down at the table again. "If I'm bein' honest, I miss him every day. Every. Single. Day."

"Heh….me too. I keep…looking into the past. Looking back at all our old memories like if he's still here with me and I just have to remember that he's not. But there's nothing on how to get over your dead loved one."

"I don't think ya ever do."

"…huh. Well isn't that fun." I sounded bitter to hear that. I didn't want to be this way for the rest of my life, continuing to hurt myself just to feel a moment of happiness with a Gabriel that wasn't mine. I wanted to move on and come to the acceptance that he was gone! But at the time, it felt like I never would. That I would always be stuck with these emotions forever until I died. But thankfully, I was wrong.

"But…we don't always have to make it so depressin'." "Oh yeah? How?" "By lookin' ahead of us. Look, I know it's hard and I truly don't think we'll ever get over the fact that he's gone. But we can't live the rest of our lives just mourning over him. We'll just be ruinin' ourselves and likely fall into a faster grave! Because look at it this way, would Gabriel like that yer hopping through worlds to feel better?"

"God, you sound like Miguel."

"I'm serious, Scarlet."

Hearing him call me by my full name rather than just 'star' made me feel tense. "….no. He would tell me I'm being stupid and I'm just going back into bad habits." "Exactly! So ya can't keep doin' this to yerself. And I can't keep doing this to myself either. It'll take time, trust ma. But it'll get better. Ya just gotta start somewhere."

Shock him and his smart words. It was pretty obvious that I couldn't mope around for the rest of my life. Gabriel would be pissed to know I spent the rest of it just crying for days and destroying myself. But I did need to hear that reminder from Mateo because he was the only one that could understand what I was going through. And honestly, it did help me realize what I was doing needed to stop sooner or later.

"…god you're so cheesy. But I mean…you're right. If we keep shocking up then…we'll never truly move on."

"Yes! We also don't have to be alone in this either, Star. Ya have ma and Miguel and Webby!"

Oh yeah. My spider.

"True." I chuckled and looked at him with a softer gaze. "…thanks. For that."

"Of course. We can do this." He placed his hand on top of mine just for a moment and I felt something warm. It could have been his hand but I felt it in my chest. What an odd feeling. My cheeks felt warmer too. It wasn't until I looked at his hand and noticed his ring, reminding myself he was married. He likely wouldn't ever get with another person and I needed to respect that. Pulling my hand back, I smiled and told him I should return back to the observatory to work. I thanked him for talking to me and getting me food before I left with this new feeling in my chest for this shocking cowboy.

☆☆☆☆☆

Present

"So he took care of you and didn't allow you to mope around?" Spider-therapist fixed his glasses and took notes of the event.

"Yeah pretty much. And he kept doing it for months afterwards and we just started to get closer. He'd hug me when I cry, always come check in on me, make sure I would leave and go to work instead of staying for hours."

"That…sounds like the basic things. Like he does that with any of his friends. Not much of that sounds special." Spider-Therapist was brutally honest.

Star looked at him with an annoyed expression when he called her out. It was true, a lot of what Mateo would do for her just sounded like friendly gestures rather than him being in love with her. But it made her fall for him because she didn't get that kind of attention anymore.

"I know it sounds like nothing but I swear to you, he did more than what others ever did for me. And yes, I did catch him doing this for other spiders as well. But it was just something about the way he looked at me every time we hung out and how he'd hug me that just…" Star blushed a little and groaned in response. In the past, it had been harder for her to admit that maybe Mateo felt something for her. There had been multiple times where she saw how he acted with others and realized that she was possibly falling for the most basic interactions and was just desperate. But when he started to hug her and invite her over to his home…things started to change.

It would start with a date and then coming over to enjoy a movie together while cuddling. Maybe a quick kiss on the cheek and little pet names. Like when he started to call her 'shiny' because of her powers and she jokingly called him 'sunshine' but he really loved it and told her to stay with it.

"We didn't just suddenly fall in love. We started off slow but I never told him how I felt because I was scared. But I mean we used to go on a few dates and cuddle at mainly his place." Star rubbed the back of her head. "It honestly had been some harmless flirting that just ended up getting much more serious." Spider-Therapist was struggling to understand how they managed to get together, considering he had see how Mateo acts with the others. Did Star get some kind of special treatment? He kept looking at his notes and was understanding that Star was the one to fall for him first and rather quickly but attempted to hide a majority of these feelings or try to push them down out of fear.

"So you two flirted often and Mr. Orlin is known to be a flirt back. Just playful banter, correct?" Scarlet nodded.

"And then you began to feel something for him. Where did this fear come in?" "The fear? Once I started to realize what I felt for him had been something more than just being friends. I feared that I was reading too much into this and he would dislike that I was falling in love. All we had been doing was flirting and checking in and I was just…falling in love too fast." There were multiple times she had caught herself staring off at him or leaving the observatory to find him. It wasn't ever to really talk, she just wanted to see him and get a quick hug. Seeing him had always made her heartbeat faster, especially when he would brush her hair back or rub her arm. But because of fear and insecurities, she never let herself admit that maybe he had the same feelings or actually felt something with her. Whenever she would get too close or she would see his expression, she would panic and immediately step back to avoid revealing too much. She had been afraid of her own feelings.

"Did he ever catch onto this?" Spider-Therapist wrote some more notes down. "He's never told me he did. But I'm sure he caught on." She admitted. Why? Well there had been times where he would rub her cheek or give her a quick hug and every time this happened, she would lean in closer to the hug or lean into his palm. "I'm sure being touch starved was no surprise to him."

"I see." While looking at his tablet, he noticed the notes he took from the last session where Scarlet blew up and snapped at him. "Now, Star, I'm sure you remember the last time we spoke."

A bitter scoff escapes her, "Boy do I…when you told me Mateo wasn't mine and I freaked out." "I…I do apologize for that. As a therapist, I need to be honest with you and not further feed into feelings that could be misread. But looking back on that now, I realized I was wrong." He apologized to her for causing her emotions to burst during that time period.

Surprised, Scarlet sits up and fiddles with the end of her hair. "It's…its fine. I know you were just trying to understand me. But…I will say, that had helped me finally understand what him and I had. Things didn't go so bad." "What do you mean?" "Well, I mean things did go bad for me but I mean like…when I ran away from here, I went to see him because I knew he would be there for me. But that was when I finally told him the truth. I wasn't supposed to but it just happened.: "Tell me more."

☆☆☆☆☆

Past

(Continuation from the ending of my other fic, "Therapy Session". First person.)

I woke up feeling a sharp pain in the right side of my arm closest to my shoulder. My heart had been pounding and chest had felt tighter than normal. The room had stopped spinning and something warm was dripping down my arm and pooling down on my kitchen floor.

"What…?" I was breathing faster and had to blink away the remaining tears to see what I had done. There was knife in my arm. My kitchen knife was lodged deep inside my arm. a bad reaction from my panic attack. That stupid therapist had made my head spin after telling me something I didn't want to hear. Was this a pretty dramatic reaction? Probably. But I still get those urges to harm myself. I was hoping I would stop. Leaning back against the kitchen wall, I just sat there and let my warm blood drip down onto the floor as I trembled. Staying here and letting myself bleed was very tempting but there was a very slim chance that I would die from bleeding out like this.

The knife was yanked out and clattered onto the floor. Getting up made me dizzy and nearly fall back down. The pain hadn't been too uncomfortable but was enough to be acknowledged by. I remember wanting to call Miguel for help but felt like he wouldn't answer or would just further scold me about doing stupid things for attention. Had I come off as attention seeking? I wanted to crawl into bed and just let the pain sink in for as long as possible and hope my healing factor would work as fast as possible. But the wound was too deep and it would take days for it to finally heal up into a scar. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I was numb.

But I thought of Mateo and I felt…better. Like I could think again and understand that there was someone out there who actually cared about me. Someone that wouldn't yell at me or call me an idiot. He was the only person I felt safe enough to go to and feel like I would actually be loved once again. But maybe my thoughts had just been desperate to be held while I cried my heart out.

Focusing my mind as best as I could, I raised my good arm and summoned a portal to Mateo's world, hoping to whatever god that it would send me directly to his home. Entering, I had been lucky to arrive into a warm home. The smell of cinnamon was faint, only giving away that he was home. I nearly broke down right there in his living room and he hadn't seen me yet. I wasn't making a sound, didn't even yell for him. Either his spider senses went off or he knew something was wrong. But either way, he came out from his room and I could tell his heart stopped the moment he saw me standing in his living room with visible tears rolling down my cheeks and the blood rapidly dripping out my arm and now onto his floor. I never did apologize for that.

"Star! Oh my god—what did ya—what-" He didn't even know what to say, that's how panicked he was when seeing me like this. I felt him cup my cheeks the second he approached me. Although his eyes had been covered by his hair, I knew he was worried. I had never seen him this panicked. But I was glad that he wasn't yelling at me or calling me names for stabbing myself like this. He just looked at me and then back at the wound.

"That…therapist. Miguel should've never sent ya to him. I swear to god I—" He was angry but not at me. Seems like he was blaming the therapist and Miguel for forcing me to go to the appointment. He had been right, I should have never gone to that session. Although some aspects of it had been good, not all of it was at the same time. Teo' couldn't stay angry for too long and instead shook his head and looked back at me.

"Never mind. I can't get mad about this. None of it was yer fault." He reassured me and I could've broken down right there. "C'mon shiny, let's clean you up." He took me to his bathroom and sat me down on the counter top while He grabbed the medical kit. I hadn't said a word the whole time and he didn't force me to say anything either. Normally I would have panicked from seeing the needle about to come near me but I didn't even flinch. Funny how I'll flinch to a needle but when it comes to a whole knife I'm fine. How odd.

Mateo cleaned my wound, making sure not to press on it too much so I wouldn't wince in pain. By the time he started to stitch the wound closed, the blood had stopped spilling out. It did hurt but I never said anything since I was still struggling to understand my emotions and process what spider-therapist had said. How could Mateo be so kind to me? So gentle and kind and understanding? Why me? Why would he do anything for me? At the time, I had no idea why he would be so gentle with me. I felt like I didn't deserve it and felt as if I was making him fall for me just so he didn't feel bad. I was scared! But I never left him. I couldn't. Not when he looked at me like if I meant something to him. Even when he held me that night and let me cry into his chest, the last thing on my mind was leaving.

That morning after everything, I was still clinging to Mateo and he was still holding me. How did he manage to look so shocking good in the morning? Even though I wanted to stay here forever, I didn't want to be a burden to him and keep him strap down to the bed all day. My arm was sore but I could fight through the pain as I untangled myself from him and attempted to leave. My foot hadn't touched the floor when suddenly Mateo was grabbing me and pulling me back to bed. "Stay…" It wasn't a command and was instead more of a plea. He was asking me to stay? That was surprising. I should have denied and left. Should have summoned a portal and went home. But I couldn't. I laid back in bed and he hugged me, chest to my back as he kissed my cheek and shoulder. Such soft kisses…they sent shivers down my spine and I was blushing like crazy. Turning around to face him and being careful not to hurt my arm, I cupped his cheek and rubbed it.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to wake you…" I whispered.

"S'okay, shiny. I'm not in any kind of rush to send ya home." "Dummy…" I pressed a soft kiss to his head and he nuzzled closer to me. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest from how fast it was beating. Teo' stayed close and was falling back asleep, I wouldn't stop him from getting more rest. But in that moment, I just looked at him and kept stroking his cheek. How did I end up like this? Falling in love with the stupidly charming cowboy? And why was he so gentle with me? The way I felt hadn't been unfamiliar but it was one I was scared to acknowledge. But just looking at how soft he looked while sleeping next to me and how his hair covered his eyes, something softened in me.

I didn't mean to say it. I didn't think I would. But I just said it without thinking.

"I love you." It was a quite whisper. I was so lost in thought that I didn't realize I was leaning closer to his lips. The temptation was there. Just a soft kiss to his lips. That's it.

But he opened his eyes. I know he did because of the little "Hm?"

Freezing in place, we both were still for a moment before he processed what I was doing and what I said. "Wait—did ya just-" I panicked and flipped around, laying on my arm and feeling the sharp pain go through my body. But that didn't burn as much as my face did from the embarrassment. "NOTHING!!" I squeaked and buried my face into my pillow. "Shiny wait! Did ya really just say that?" He asked again, sitting up rather quickly.

"I-I didn't!" I attempted to lie but from how red my face was and the fact that he saw me get close, that was a dead give away from the truth.

"I…ya didn't…" He was speechless too, his cheeks visibly red.

"I'm….I'm so sorry…" I spoke up. He turned to look at me with a surprised expression like if he didn't understand why I was apologizing, In that moment, I could no longer hide my feelings. I already said the famous three words so now I might as well explain everything.

"I just…..I've been in love with you for so long. I just never knew how to tell you. And I know I shouldn't be feeling this since you and I were with Gabriel and you got married to your variant of him and I was engaged to mine and we both lost him—" I was talking faster and was starting to cry as the overwhelming fear of being in love again, while also fearing losing him, had gotten to me. Sitting up in the bed, I sniffled and wiped my tears only for more to roll down my cheeks.

"You've been so nice to me and actually cared about whether I ate something or check to make sure that I actually went home instead of staying there all day. And when you hold me and hold my hand or hug me, god, I just melt and I never want to leave. But people have been saying you're just being friendly with me and I don't want to mistake any of this as being anything more than being friends because I know you flirt with other people and so many care about you! I'm not that special for you to fall for me."

There was clear self-hatred towards myself, something I already was struggling with. But falling in love again had been scaring me since the last time I fell in love, I lost it. I didn't want to lose Mateo, even if he rejected me. I was waiting for him to tell me that he didn't feel the same. But that was stupid. Because the way he holds me, how he slept with me last night, has his own nickname for me, how he looked at me. How could I have been so blind?

Mateo just watched me cry for a moment and it scared me even more. I looked down at the bed as my tears landed on the soft blanket. But rather than yelling, he cupped my cheek softly and made me look at him. No words were spoken. He just wiped my tears away with his fingers and then pulled me in for what would be our first official kiss. I hadn't felt this way in so long. Hadn't felt this feeling since losing Gabriel. And everything in me never wanted to lose this again. My eyes closed as I leaned into our kiss, feeling how soft he was being with me. It hadn't been a long kiss, just enough to get the message across. When we pulled back from the kiss, my breath was shaky and I could still feel his lips hovering over mine.

"Shiny…" He whispered and then looked at me. "Ya really think I don't love ya?"

"I…It's been scaring me."

"I've felt the same way for a while. Just never said anything because I was worried about ya. Every time I got close to ya, yer runnin' the opposite way." "I was scared! I didn't want to be pushy about this!"

"Shiny, yer the one I've been so close to. Yes, I care about ma other friends but yer the one that I've cared about the most."

I remember…not believing him in that moment. Here he was telling me that he cared about me so shocking much and I was crying like some baby. Because I never thought I could fall in love again or be loved. I thought once Gabriel died that I would never feel this again. Yet I was there, getting looked at like the brightest star in the sky.

Mateo chuckled at my crying as we kept talking and he could feel me softening up. I was laughing and crying once I realized I was worried about nothing. Although I felt so sensitive, he didn't find it annoying or dramatic of me. Just held me as we laughed at how much I was crying. He kissed my cheeks, my head, even a soft kiss to my nose as we laid back down together. As my tears started to slow down, I took a moment to really look at him, even as he kept kissing me in different spots.

"Do you really mean it? That you…love me too?" I asked, feeling anxious that he was lying to me.

Mateo had seen this before with his Gabriel. They met after the situation with Dana cheating on him with Miguel and Gabe ended up become very self-critical and was also asking for reassurance. He stopped kissing me and chuckled lightly.

"Star, I meant it. And I'll tell ya that I love ya as much as ya want. It's not a lie or a joke. It's real. I promise ya, shiny."

"…I'm gonna cry more." I softly laughed and felt some tears come into my eyes. He laughed with me and held me close.

"It's okay, ya can cry as much as ya want. Y'know I'm here."

"You're so sweet." I sniffled and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Shock. I had been really sensitive that day. But he was patient and let me cry as much as I wanted to until I was really done with the tears. It hadn't even annoyed him to see me like that. I think that's what made me love him even more. Finally having someone with me again was going to heal more of the past stuff I was holding onto. In that moment, I actually felt like things weren't going to end. I felt safe again.

☆☆

(Third-person, still past)

Star and Mateo stayed in bed longer than they originally planned to. The stab wound on her shoulder had still be painful but nothing that was too much to handle. As her tears began to dry and Teo' held her closer to her chest, her breathing began to slow and it got quiet between them. For the moment, her head rested on his chest and listened to the gentle thumping of his heartbeat, something that had been calming her down. It was something that she used to do with Gabriel in the past yet it always made her feel calm. Mateo didn't say much, only stroked her hair in response to everything or stroke her back to keep her calm and stable. It was a quiet moment for both of them but it had been one that was welcomed.

Scarlet finally moved and looked at him, not saying anything and just taking a moment to admire him. Cupping her cheek, he rubbed her soft skin and looked at the freckles sprinkled on her face. They looked like tiny stars up close and it had been something he admired about her. Taking at a glance at her eyes, he found himself staring at her white eye, noticing how it matched the color of the moon.

"How beautiful…" He whispered. She blushed in response from the compliment and averted her eyes from his gaze. —

Teo' and Star hadn't seen each other in almost a month but once they reunited, they had a nice dinner date and it was tame and calm (I'm lying, nsfw/soft smut)

The multiverse never sleeps. It was something Miguel had mentioned the first time the Spider Society was made years ago. Unfortunately, that came out to be true as Mateo was stuck in the Society while making sure everything was in order. One moment he's working with Miguel, the other he's sitting at a desk with his pink headphones and doing even more work. That's all it had been just work work work. Normally this hadn't been an issue but since he actually has someone in his life again, it was starting to become increasingly annoying. This was the longest both him and Scarlet had been away from each other with almost little to no contact at all. Not because of anger or annoyance towards one another, never that, it had been due to them both being far too busy. Normally Scarlet would be down the hall in the observatory to also help watch over the multiverse but she had to return to her own universe and help with the issues there.

Back in Earth - 9851, Scarlet had to outrun the Alchemax lab agents as they chased her through the city. They had been after her since the death (murder) of her father, Todd Celetse. They weren't after her because they assumed she killed him, no, they were after her because they now knew that she wasn't human. She was just a walking test subject that should be tested on even more. It was annoying to dodge and hide from these men but also a thrill to watch them fail to catch her, even as they tried to attack her with things they believed would stop her. As she flew through her city and eventually lost these agents, she sighed and flew back to her home. She had some files to destroy first before she tried to to return back to Alchemax. But although she had these issues to clean up, she wanted to return back to the Spider Society to see her cowboy. It had been a pain to be away from him. First it had been a week, then it became two, and now this is the third. She's losing her mind not being around him.

During her flight home, she pulled out her phone to send him a message.

Shiny - 3:26 pm

"Hi sunshine, are you free today? I miss you so much and I don't think I can wait another week."

It wasn't safe but she stared at her phone while hoping to see him open the text and at least read it. But to her dissapointment, nothing had come back. She was begnning to get desperate and even more needy about this. How much longer until they could see each other?! Why did they have to be busy now?! She was almost tempted to open a portal and fly straight into him to tear off his shocking clothes and—

BONK!

"Ow! Shock!" Scarlet grumbled and rubbed her head after crashing head first into a window of one of the skyscrapers. "Stupid…" She mumbled before flying away and returning back to her penthouse.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Mateo finally returned home after a long day at work. He was tired and hungry, mainly wanting to crawl into bed and sleep for a week. But that was hard without Scarlet here to hold. Thinking about her, he grabbed his phone to send her a text, only to find that she had texted him hours ago. His eyes widened and he smacked his head when realizing she had tried to get his attention earlier.

"Uh oh." He whispered under his breath before finally responding to the last text.

Sunshine - 8:16 pm

"Shiny I'm so sorry, I didn't see yer text till now. I miss you too, ma love."

Scarlet's phone finally buzzed with a text from him. She nearly jumped out of bed to see what he said only to see that he hadn't been free to see her yet. Groaning loudly, she flopped back into her pillows and stared at the message. "Jammit! He was busy too…" She grumbled before typing out her response.

Shiny - 8:18 pm

"It's okay. I know that you've been busy with work and all. I just can't take this anymore."

Sunshine - 8:18 pm

"Tell ma about it. Every time I come back to ma desk there's more work :( "

Shiny - 8:19 pm

"Well at least you weren't getting chased by a bunch of agents."

Sunshine - 8:19 pm

"They were after ya again? Ya should've called me, I would've been there in a heartbeat."

Shiny - 8:19 pm

"No no, it's okay! I handled them myself! Those fools couldn't touch a hair on me!"

Sunshine - 8:19 pm

"That's my girl."

There was a pause between their messages for a few minutes. Scarlet tapped on the side of her phone as she waited for his next message. She could respond but with what? Another 'I miss you' text? A picture of what she's wearing? A naughty pic? No no, not yet. Just something to make it clear she really misses him! Maybe wearing the shirt he left over the last time he was here would be a good picture to send.

Just as she was getting up to get the shirt, her phone buzzed in her hand.

Sunshine - 8:23 pm

"Shiny, are ya going to be free soon?"

Scarlet let out a small squeal as she read his message and instantly sat back down to reply, forgetting about the picture she was going to send.

Shiny - 8:23 pm

"If I stay inside and delete these files then yeah, I'll be free. Why??"

Please say a date, please say a date, please say a date.

Sunshine - 8:24 pm

"Well I was hoping ya could come over for a date? There's a fancy rooftop bar out here that I would love to take ya to."

Star screamed into her pillow and kicked her feet. They've been on many dates in the past but this one was making her get extra eager about it. She sat back up and instantly was responding.

Shiny - 8:24 pm

"Yes! Yes yes yes! When and what time?!"

Mateo chuckled to himself when he read her eager text. He knew she was going to get excited about this.

Sunshine - 8:25 pm

"This Friday. Say…7 pm?"

Shiny - 8:25

"Done! Oh I can't wait to see you again!"

Sunshine - 8:25 pm

"I can't wait either, ma love."

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Date timeeee

The rest of the week felt like it had been taking longer on purpose since they had a date planned. As promised, Scarlet deleted Alchemax's files that she managed to steal and then stayed at home to avoid getting chased again. This was the only way that she wouldn't end up getting busy. She could have returned back to the Spider Society to help with the multiverse but that could risk her getting stuck with an even bigger work load. Waiting each day alone in her penthouse had been much more boring than normal. There were many times she had almost opened a portal and said 'shock it' to go see Mateo. But Friday was just around the corner, she had to be patient!

When Friday finally came, Scarlet was up bright and early, running straight to the shower to get ready hours before the date. She had to make sure she was extra fresh for him today since yes, they were going to spend all night together. After the shower, she had to fight her hair to make sure it stayed fluffy but not frizzy to the point it looked puffy. It was still super early in the day for her to be taking her time on her hair of all things. But thankfully, she managed to put it together into a small bun that had a braid wrapped around it while the rest of her short hair was down. When it came to the outfit, she started to debate on which one she wanted to wear. She had tons of dresses and some that Mateo had bought for her in the past. But none of them were doing her justice since she was becoming more picky with the color and the style.

"Too revealing…too bright…too small…ugh, yellow? Why do I even have this?" She grumbled while tossing out a yellow dress she had in her closet that she hadn't worn in years. It was beginning to get frustrating choosing a dress for tonight. She wanted something that looked good but also wasn't too revealing. Something that was enough to make Teo' blush tonight. But that's when she finally found it. There was a dark blue dress that Teo' had gotten for her a while back but she hadn't had the chance to wear it yet. It was meant for the dumb galas she had to attend for Alchemax but she never wanted to wear such a gorgeous dress to an event like theirs. But now she could finally wear it and look good in the process of it all.

Snatching the dress off the hanger, she throws it on and was careful to not ruin her hair. The dress was dark blue, almost matching the colors of the famous painting, The Starry Night. Around the dress had been gold moons and small constellations that would shine in the light. Gold trimming wrapped around the neck piece along with the chest. A beautiful clear cape flowed from the shoulders of the dress, draping down to her knees with the actual dress being cut to only go down to the middle of her thigh. The black cape had the same golden patterns scattered around it which also shined within the light. Scarlet went to her mirror and was in awe by how beautiful the dress looked on her. Everything about it just seemed to match her entirely. From the stars to the moon, it was all her. She could cry from how it looked but she just did her makeup so she held back. The finishing touches to the dress included dark blue heels that had white stars scattered around followed by a pair of silver earrings that hung down with the crescent moon. In the crescent moon was a smaller star that hung inside and the star had a blue gem in the center. With a quick twirl in front of the mirror, the dress flowed out beautifully. Giggling and admiring herself in the mirror, she knew today was going to be a good date and had only increased her eagerness.

It was already 6:45 pm and Scarlet was already fully dressed. She wore vanilla perfume for the date which completed her routine. "It shouldn't be too early to go see him." Scarlet mumbled to herself as she stared at the clock. Giving into her eagerness, she got up and grabbed her purse, quickly making a portal to Mateo's world. Entering inside, it was a quick travel to his world and to his house since she always summons a portal straight into his home. She patted her dress down to make sure nothing got on it and checked her hand, watching as the stars began to appear on her and reveal her true form.

"Jammit." She muttered to herself.

"Shiny?" Mateo called out from his room. Scarlet tensed up and smiled from hearing him. This was a terrible idea to come into his house early. It was just them. Alone. Together. After weeks of not seeing each other. Wonder how that would go…

"My love!" Scarlet smiled brightly and flew straight to his room where he was finishing up getting his suit on. One quick look at him already made hearts appear in her eyes (if that was possible) and make her blush. He looked so good but he always did. Tonight he chose to wear a black suit with the coat part unbutton since his muscles looked like they were going to make it pop off. The shirt was unbuttoned which showed some of his chest, a nice view for Scarlet. He didn't have his hat on yet but it was a black cowboy one that would match with his whole outfit. Star was already looking at his body from head to toe, already looking ready to jump him and tear off everything.

"Shiny wai—" There was no waiting and Scarlet didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence as she dived right at him, pressing her lips against his the second she was close enough. She felt his arms wrap around her as one of her hands went to the back of his head to deepen the kiss and feel his soft curls. It was meant to be a slightly longer kiss to just express how much she missed him but they got distracted with each other and instead fell onto his bed. Teo' ended up hovering over her while they kissed, his hands quickly went under her dress to feel her skin and grip her thighs. Star lifted her legs to wrap around his waist, forgetting that they had a date to attend to in a few minutes. His hips moved forward to allow friction between them, only making Star moan into their heated kiss. Teo' pulled back for a moment to catch his breath just to come back in for more kisses to her neck this time. Her head leaned back into the mattress to give him better access to her sensitive spots while her hand stayed on the back of his head to encourage him to continue. Nothing was stopping them from doing this since they were both quickly forgetting they had a date. When his hips thrust forward a little more desperately and caused Star to moan louder, it looked like they were just going to cancel their plans and stay here.

But of course, they can't always have nice things. Mateo's phone rang nearby on his nightstand which had been the alarm to remind him the date was soon and their reservations had been available. He groaned as it loudly rang nearby. "Darn it, I was just startin' to forget about the date." He chuckled against her neck.

Scarlet's whine turned into a chuckled as she started to wake up from her lustful daze and remember why she was here in the first place. "I think we got a little too excited about seeing each other"

"Ya think? If I'd had known ya were comin' this quick, I would've set the reservation for a later time." He smirked, pressing softer kisses to her neck.

"Oh blame it on me, huh? Sorry for being so excited to see my boyfriend again." She laughed.

Mateo chuckled in response and continued to kiss her neck with the occasional nibble. "Could always cancel em…" He suggested, hinting at staying home instead of going out.

Scarlet leaned her head back and whined. That was so tempting but she did spend some time getting ready for this date. "I want to…but I do wanna enjoy my time with you too. Plus we have the whole night to ourselves, love.

Mateo finally pulled back and looked at her, resting his chin on her chest. "Fine fine, ya have a point. But that doesn't mean I can hold back."

She giggled bashfully, kissing him on the lips.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Arriving at the rooftop bar, Scarlet and Mateo were welcomed inside for their reservation. Mateo was holding Scarlet's star hand, the one that changed after she went through the portal. She already noticed people looking at the both of them, most likely coming up with all of their own fan theories. Star blushed shyly and made sure to stay close to Mateo so people wouldn't stare as often. She was used to being chased, not being ogled at although the main focus had been on him. Approaching the host of the restaurant, they didn't need to say their names since Mateo was easily recognizable. The host checked his list and flipped the page where they had it for special guests. Of course his name was on there and the host gave him and Star a polite smile before leading them to the back where the elevator would allow them up. Pressing the button to call for the elevator, the doors opened to reveal the fancy interior. The elevator had a sleek black flooring that sparkled from the lights along with mirrors on the walls. The doors closed and Scarlet looked at one of the many mirrors to redo her lipstick. Mateo admired her, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist and nuzzle his chin onto her shoulder.

"Shiny, have I told ya how gorgeous ya look tonight?" He smiled and rubbed her waist with his thumb.

"On the way here you kept saying you loved how my dress looks." She giggled. "So yes."

"Well it's true. This dress does wonders to ya, ma love." He kissed her cheek, making her blush again.

"Oh stop, I'm gonna melt at this rate." Star looked up at him with a smile, admiring him for a moment. "Y'know, you look good too, sunshine. This suit looks sexy. Then again anything you wear automatically looks sexy."

"Can't help it, love. But thank ya. I try to look ma best for ya."

"Doing a real good job of that." She smirked.

"Try not to take it off so fast. We're in public, okay?"

"Hey! I can control myself!" Star huffs dramatically.

"Do ya? Because the last time I checked, ya were trying to tear ma clothes off while we were shoppin'."

"Okay that time doesn't count, I wanted to stay home that day and you were teasing me the whole time." She huffed.

"Ma love, I was just holdin' yer hand"

"Still" She could not control herself.

The elevator rang as it arrived to the top floor. The doors opened to reveal a fancy interior of the bar/restaurant where it had a gorgeous view of the city. The city could be seen from anywhere in the room. The golden marble flooring matched the curtains that hung above the windows along with the overall lighting in the room, allowing for a calming yet romantic environment for those enjoying an evening together. The soft cushions of the seating made it easier for guests to relax and stay longer which was likely a tactic from the restaurant itself to keep their customers so they order more drinks. Star and Mateo were brought to a table that was closer to the windows and since the building was tall, there was a lovely view of the night sky and stars. Mateo, being the gentlemen that he is, pulled Star's seat out and pushed it in once she sat down. He sat across from her and reached for her hand, looking at her with that loving gaze. Soft music played from the pianist that sat at one end of the room. Although this was their date, it didn't stop people from making some comments about Mateo being in the building. Comments about the famous singer here with a woman spread around for a couple minutes but was never uncomfortable for them since the people in this universe knew how to respect his space and privacy.

Star glanced at the menu to see what she would eat and drink. Likely some steak and mash potatoes since she never did like the fancy food they served here. Honestly she would get some chicken strips and fries but she must be fancy and have something nice on their date. The menu had a variety of foods with most dishes being small since guests normally came to enjoy a drink here. She scanned over their drink selection, debating on whether she should have wine or something stronger like rum.

"Sunshine, should I get a strong drink or something light? It's not like I can get drunk that fast but I'm not sure if I really want to drink tonight. Would that be wrong to come here and not order a—" She stopped talking when she finally looked away from the menu and saw Mateo just admiring her like some lovesick puppy. Her cheeks got warm from the way he looked at her and she lightly chuckled, looking back down at the menu.

"You know…we came here to have their food. Not to have each other." She joked.

"How can I focus on food when yer right here in front of ma?" Mateo smoothly spoke, only making Star's cheeks turn red.

"Shock you, you flirt." She giggled bashfully.

"And ya get whatever ya want, darlin'. I'm paying for it."

"Yeah but you say that like you're expecting me to max out your card."

"Eventually ya will."

Star dramatically gasped, "I'm not that expensive!"

Mateo laughed, finding her reaction to be amusing. He often liked to play with her when it came to their financial situations considering both of them were rich enough to last for the rest of their lives.

"I'm joking, shiny." He chuckled and kissed her hand. Star only scoffed but wasn't angry at all.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

The waiter came by to take their order on drinks and food after a few minutes, also offering them some wine to enjoy while they waited. They politely declined it and the waiter left to get started on their food. Scarlet had been updating Mateo about her issues back at home and how Alchemax had been on her ass about stealing files she wasn't meant to take. Normally he would be super invested in the issues she had but at the moment, he was undressing her with his eyes. She was going on about the chases she had to escape these pasts weeks and hadn't realized Teo' was not listening to a word she was saying. Most of the time Star is the one who ends up acting like this, ignoring what he's saying while imaging all the things they could do when they're alone. But they had been apart for so long and now it was his turn to start having sinful thoughts about her.

"I mean they ended up crashing into the building and their hover bike exploded but it's not like he died! I had to save him from crashing down onto the ground or else the whole shocking media would start calling me a murderer and a menace and all that annoying stuff. Not wearing the mask anyone was probably the worst thing i could have done. If I would have known it would bring me hell I—" She was cut off again when Mateo placed his hand on her thigh under the table. Once again, she snapped out of her rambling and noticed the look he had on his face.

"Babe. You're looking at me differently." Was this a bad thing? Of course not. But was it super unexpected? Yes. Yes it was.

"Our food is going to take long to come out. We should go somewhere private." He suggested, making Star blush a lot quicker.

"W-wait what?" She smiled nervously. There wasn't a chance for her to process what he said. Mateo got up and took her hand in his, dragging her to the nearest bathroom. "W-w-wait wait! Are we really doing this?! Here?! Now?!" She still couldn't process that he was the one taking the lead.

In the bathroom, the mahogany wood in it allowed the vibe to be darker with its dim lighting adding to a calm environment just like the restaurant. The gray marble sink was cold to sit on but Star didn't have much of a choice the moment they entered the bathroom and Mateo shut the door. The moment she heard the lock click, Teo' lifted her onto the counter and stood in between her legs as he kissed her. One hand rested on her hip while the other was on the back of her head to deepen the kiss. Star had been surprised by how bold he was getting, feeling more aroused by the way he took control of the moment. Her arms wrapped around him and rested on his shoulders as they kissed, she could feel his tongue brush over her lips as he silently asked for permission to slip it through. The moment her lips parted his tongue slid through, making her moan from how warm he felt. Goodness, she was already moaning from a kiss? Had she been that desperate? (yes). Mateo's hand that rested on her hip went underneath her dress and grabbed her thigh, quickly going higher as they continued to make out. His fingers brushed against her underwear just to tease her but eventually brushed against her sweet spot just to get a reaction out. She whimpered this time, her hips bucking forward as she quietly begged him to slip a finger inside.

"Look at ya…so good already…so needy…" Mateo panted against her lips. His voice sounded deeper and smoother, only making Star more aroused.

"Shock…please baby…c'mon don't tease me like that…" She was breathing faster as she kissed his neck. Teo' shuddered and leaned his head back to allow her to kiss him more.

"Mmm…shhh, I've got ya, shiny…just keep being good for ma, okay?" The hand that was on the back of her head suddenly tugged her hair back, not too rough, but enough for her to gasp and moan again as he kissed and nipped at her neck this time. His finger that was down under her dress kept teasing her through her underwear, feeling how aroused she was getting at such a quick pace. It was a bit of an ego boost for him to know he could get her this wet in just a few minutes. Listening to her moans made him smirk against her soft skin, only encouraging him to leave more marks like she's left on him before. Scarlet's hand held the back of his head to keep him from pulling back and begging to keep kissing her in her sensitive spots. She took off his hat so she could mess with his hair more if needed which it likely would be. Placing it on the side, she gasped when feeling his finger slip past the waistband of her underwear and pull them down.

"W-wait y-you're really—?" She spoke breathlessly as it finally clicked that yes they were doing it in the bathroom. She assumed it was just going to be a quick make out session with a few teases but he wasn't kidding.

"Do ya not want to?" He paused for a moment to make sure he wasn't overwhelming her.

"Are you kidding? Of course I do! I'm just…surprised is all." She admitted, getting flustered.

Teo' chuckled, kissing her neck some more while his fingers teased her down there. "Not used to this, shiny?"

Uggghhhh she could melt in that moment again. She bit her bottom lip to prevent a louder moan from escaping her. "No…but I'm not complaining either." She whispered. "Just hope that no one comes in here afterwards and is confused by the stars."

He laughed quietly against her, "Yer so cute…" He continued to tease her and listen to her whine. There was no rush to leave this bathroom as he wanted to see how long he could have fun with her before she really started to beg. Star tried to grind her hips against his hand but he stopped her, chuckling again and only making her whine for more. It was so amusing when she got like this. The moment Scarlet started to beg and whine for him to fully touch her, he complied without hesitation and slipped two fingers inside of her. Her hand flew to her mouth to hold back her loud moans as he gently pushed them inside and rubbed her sweet spot. The stars were already faintly beginning to appear around them, signaling her impending climax.

The wet sounds of his fingers slipping in and out of her brought a moan out of Teo' for a moment before he fully slipped them out. He cleaned the mess with his mouth and Star choked on her own breath. "Shock—!"

Mateo came down to his knees in front of her and moved his head between her legs. Of course she knew where this was going and she started to get even more eager about this. "W-wait baby-" She wasn't really trying to stop him. Just expressing how excited she was about this and if she was even ready to bite back every cry she wanted to release.

The moment his warm tongue made contact with her it was over. Her hand flew to the top of his head and gripped his hair while the other desperately covered her mouth to prevent any loud moans from slipping out. Teo' groaned against her and gripped her thighs, pulling her closer to get a better taste and dive his tongue deeper inside. Although every sound Scarlet made had been muffled, she was praying to every god that they wouldn't get caught since they still had dinner to eat. Even though Mateo's greedy ass was already eating— (sorry).

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

A couple minutes go by after the couple left to the bathroom. The waiter returned to the table with their food and was surprised to see that both of them were gone. He only knew they were still here since Scarlet's purse was on her chair. "Now where did they go?" The waiter mumbled to himself as he placed their food down on the table.

In the bathroom, Mateo was wiping his mouth with some tissues and grabbing more to clean the mess in between Scarlet's legs. While she was catching her breath, Teo' rinsed his mouth with the water and began to fix his hair. He looked at Star and admired how much of a mess she looked like after what he did. Pressing a quick kiss to her cheek and checking to make sure she was okay, he held her hand for a moment.

"Do ya need yer purse, ma love?" He asked innocently like he didn't just make her see stars again.

She giggled weakly and nodded, "Please…"

"Okay, I'll be back." Putting his hat back on, he exited the bathroom to go retrieve her purse. Scarlet stayed inside to recover and managed to get back onto her feet to check herself in the mirror. She needed to fix her hair and makeup as her mascara was messy and lipstick was smeared across her lips. A giggle escaped her when looking at herself. "Dummy…"

Meanwhile, Mateo returned back to their table where the waiter was standing there. "Mr. Orlin! I was worried you and your partner left nefore dinner arrived." The waiter had a relieved smile on his face.

"Ah no, ma love just needed some help with her dress, that's all." He politely smiled and grabbed her purse. "She'll be out in a moment, just need to bring her purse."

"Oh of course, no worries at all. Please enjoy your dinner when you return." The waiter gave a polite nod before leaving their table. Teo' returned back to the bathroom and handed Scarlet her purse.

"Here ya are, love" He kissed her cheek once the purse was back with her. "Are ya okay? Do ya need help with anythin'?" Oh he's a sweetheart. "Uhhh…I just need to redo my makeup, it's not an issue. But do you think you could fix my braid?" She was already removing her lipstick in the mirror. "I could try, love. Might not be perfect though." He reached for her hair and checked the braid that was wrapped around the bun. It was coming off from the bobby pins. Gently and carefully, he took the braid out and carefully re-braided any strands of hair that managed to escape. Meanwhile, Scarlet was reapplying her lipstick along with her mascara. The bathroom was now decorated with floating stars that glowed and of course it was her fault. Technically it was Mateo's but still, hopefully no one else would mention it when entering the bathroom.

Mateo put the braid around her bun again and although strands of hair still stuck out, it was at least enough to make it look decently nice. "I tried ma best."

Star finished her makeup and checked the braid, giggling from how messy it looked. She didn't really care about the hairs that were sticking out and instead found it to be cute since Mateo did try to fix it.

"It's okay, honey, It's cute."

Finally cleaned up and looking normal-ish, they left the bathroom together and returned back to their table to actually have their dinner date. There they finally shared a nice meal together while talking about previous activities within the Spider Society and Scarlet's earth. A few subtle touches were shared under the table but were mainly tame after what they did in the bathroom. They were both in their own world, looking out sometimes to admire the beauty of the city at night while also enjoying each other company. It was clear they had missed each other after being separated for so long. Next time, don't split these two from one another.

While they were in their own world, some of the other restaurant guests had shared how the bathroom looked beautiful with the stars floating in the air. Some assumed it was a light illusion or there had been something inside that was making the light reflect off a surface to show the stars. But the workers had been confused and when they seen the stars, they were speechless. It also smelled like vanilla and cinnamon in the bathroom? A lovely pairing but where did that come from?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

About an hour after being in the restaurant, the couple returned back home to enjoy some time together. Holding their leftover food in her hand, Scarlet floated inside Mateo's home the moment his door opened. She flew to the kitchen and placed the boxes down only to turn around to see Teo' taking off his suit.

"C'mere, shiny." He spoke suggestively. He didn't need to tell her twice as she flew right into his arms. Keeping her off the ground in his arms, he pulled her back to the bedroom where they would finally be able to enjoy each others company. In the room, he set her down on the bed in a sitting position and carefully removed her dress to not ruin it. She removed his suit and undressed him just enough. By the end of this, they were both in their undergarments and laid back onto the soft bed. Mateo hovered over her body, coming down for another heated kiss. Star's arms wrapped around him once again as they shared a passionate kiss with each other. Different from the bathroom earlier, Mateo took his time with her and caressed her body, feeling her soft skin, tracing over past scars she got from previous incidents, and taking his sweet time to feel how she shivered from his touch.

Pulling back, he looked down at her and stroked her cheek, pausing for a moment to admire his pretty star. "Yer so beautiful, shiny. So stunning…" He whispered to her, pressing soft kisses to her shoulder and neck. "How did I get so lucky to have such a beautiful goddess here with ma?"

Scarlet let out a relaxed sigh, letting him kiss her where he wanted. She always has and always will love moments like these with him. Just getting praised for her looks and how she treats him. It was a blessing in disguise.

"And how did I get so lucky to be with the cutest cowboy?" She cupped his cheeks and gently rubbed them with her thumbs. He melted and rested his chin on her chest, just laying there for a moment to admire her.

"Could say it was destiny." He quietly spoke.

"Maybe the stars finally wanted to give us a second chance of being happy." She played with his soft locks.

"Yeah? Ya think so?"

"Well…they are my stars." She joked.

"Oh yes, of course they are. How could I forget?" He laughed.

"Yeah how could you? Can't believe you would forget something so important." She poked his nose.

"Yer dramatic, love."

"Always will be." She continued to play with his hair and eventually brushed his bangs back to look at those gorgeous eyes of his. He always got flustered when she looked at them.

"Ya always do that…" He averted his gaze.

"So? Y'know I could stare at these all day. Makes me feel almost jealous that you have prettier eyes than me."

"Says the one with heterochromia." He playfully scoffed.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. You literally look like you have sunsets for eyes." She kissed his head and let his bangs fall down again.

"How am I supposed to handle ya?" Mateo smirked and leaned in to kiss her again.

Freaks. Kidding.

CW: Soft smut/suggestive

The day had been a cozy one the moment Mateo came over to Scarlet's penthouse. She had been eager to see him, feeling like today was the day she would finally get closer to him. They had slept together, like actually sleeping, and they've had some intimate moments but never a real long moment. She wanted to let him know that she was ready to go to the next level today.

During their movie they watched in the living room, Star had been moving his hand on her thigh but he gently rubbed it in a subtle way. When reaching for the remote dramatically, she nuzzled his neck, leaving a soft kiss on him but of course, he was clueless again. He just blushed and assumed she was trying to be cute. Later in the day, she was sitting on the couch with her legs on him as the TV played a show they had been watching together. Her focus was on him the whole time, taking in how good he looked today. He always looks good but today was different. "You look good, honey. Maybe good enough to eat." She said it suggestively but Mateo took it as a compliment and became bashful. Jammit, he's too precious for her.

When he was in the kitchen to get the food they ordered, Scarlet came up behind him, rubbing his chest and feeling his body. "Sunshine…" She purred, subtly grinding against him. How much more obvious can she be? Of course, he didn't catch onto what she was doing. He enjoyed the attention but didn't know this was her hinting at wanting to be with him. He kissed her but pulled back before she had the chance to hold him. She was close to pulling her hair out but knew she had to be patience since it had been a while for him. Her too but she was trying to be brave and leave some hints.

After dinner and sitting on the couch, she had enough. She had made many gestures and comments about sleeping with him but he either shrugged it off or just assumed she was trying to be cute. She had even said "save a horse, ride a cowboy" to him but he assumed she was quoting a movie! Finally giving in, she moved to his lap and faced him. He was surprised about her suddenly coming onto his lap but he didn't push her away either. He put his hands on his hips and looked at her curiously.

"Shiny? What's wrong?" He asked, rubbing her waist with his thumb. Scarlet looked like she was angrily pouting before she kissed him, not holding back. Mateo was shocked by this of course but melted into the kiss as well. Star was tired of holding back and instead moved her hips against his lap, getting a groan out from him. Now her message should be clear. They continued to kiss and Mateo was starting to guide her hips on his lap, enjoying how she felt. Before they could continue, he pulled back, breathing heavier.

"Shiny….what was that…? Is that what ya have been tryna tell ma?" He looked at her, his blush across his cheeks became darker.

"Yes! I get that's it's been a while but are you that dense?!" She tried to look mad but he found it to be amusing.

"I…well I had been getting an idea over it…I just didn't think ya were ready for that."

She softened up, "Oh honey…that's what I have been wanting to do today." She kissed his head, cheek, and then his neck. "I really want you…" She leaned towards his ear, "All of you."

That made him shiver and get warmer. "Yea? Well…I think that can be arranged."

Scarlet blushed, now becoming shy as Mateo lifted her up, turning the TV off and moving her to the bedroom. He gently kicked the door closed and got her to bed. They would be busy tonight.

—

The neighbors under Star's apartment had been enjoying a nice quiet evening together. A young married couple had been enjoying each other's company as they sat in the comfort of their own home, listening to the sound of their tv playing soft music to allow a more comfortable vibe throughout the home. The husband had a hologram screen up, checking his work and emails for any updates while his wife had been enjoying a book on her tablet. The quiet evening had been peaceful and allowed the couple to relax after a stressful day from work. Normally they never have to deal with any sounds from above or below them as their neighbors were never loud or disruptive. But something had been different today along with previous days. Their upstairs neighbor had been a little louder than normal as she had someone coming over more often. There was nothing wrong with that until it started to get a bit annoying.

Tonight was one of those moments. The wife had been engrossed in her book, getting to the action part of the story when she heard a soft thumping sound from above her. She glanced up from her book, assuming the neighbor happened to be having a rough night of sleep. Attempting to get back into her fictional world, she resumed where she left off in the paragraphs. But the noise wasn't going away fast enough for her. She glanced at her husband, noticing that he was too focused in his screen to be bothered by the noise. "It's nothing," she thought to herself and tried to return to her reading. But it had been much more difficult to focus on the action when she could hear that annoying thumping above her. She let out an annoyed sigh, trying not to talk about it out loud. But it quickly became uncomfortable when the first few moans slipped through.

This time the husband heard the noise, freezing from his work and slowly turning his head to look at his wife who was just as shocked. Their cheeks went pink as they realized their neighbor had been busier than normal. The moaning upstairs had only become louder along with the thumping becoming much more rapid. "S-sunshine! Please—nngh!!" Was all they could hear. They had been in this building for years and had never heard their neighbor react or sound like that. Of course, they had a clue of what was going on but were too embarrassed to acknowledge it. The husband shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, looking back at his screen.

"Uh…I guess the neighbor has a new…friend over…' He awkwardly spoke, trying to laugh off how uncomfortable he was about this. The wife nodded, looking down at her book. She didn't process what she was reading and instead leaned forward, reaching for the remote and turning up the volume of the music. After turning it up, the noise had been much harder to hear, making the vibe return back to normal. It also could have been the silence from upstairs which hopefully meant they were done with their activities. The wife relaxed and became engrossed in her book, focusing on the intense action of dragons flying above the enemies of hunters to end their rein of terror to keep their family—thump thump thump—uh of the dragon trying to keep its family—thump thump thump—ahem- of the the dragon—moan—"Oh for shocks sake!" The wife slammed her book shut, losing her flow of reading from the intimate sounds upstairs. The husband sighed, swiping his screen away and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This cannot be happening." He grumbled under his breath. Upstairs, they could hear groans and whines followed by the world's loudest headboard hitting against the wall. "She never does this! Why now?!" The wife stood up and stomped her foot. "This must stop!"

"What are we going to do? Go upstairs and tell them to stop?" The husband looked at his wife, thinking she was crazy for even wanting to stop them. There was a chance they could ignore their request and just continue staying in bed with one another.

"Hmph!" The woman marched out of their home, heading down the hall to get to the elevator.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Honey!" The husband chased after his wife, not wanting to get into it with their neighbor and potentially see something they didn't need or want to see. "We could just go to bed and play the TV much louder!"

"No! This is my moment of peace and she is ruining it! She could at least have the courtesy of quieting down! No lady cannot be enjoying sex that much!" (Well when she's with a hot cowboy twice her size then—)

They took the elevator to the top of the building where the biggest penthouse was at. The wife stepped out quickly the moment the doors opened, stomping to the neighbor's front door. Her husband tried to stop her but it was no use as she was determined to give her neighbor a piece of her mind. She rang the doorbell once.

—

*Every time Scarlet finishes during sex, stars will appear in the room.

Inside the bedroom, Star was laying on top of Mateo, biting at his neck while he groaned and arched his back into her touch. Her clothes were discarded on the floor while his shirt was missing and pants were at the edge of the bed. The whole room was slowly starting to get covered in stars due to Scarlet.* After every round, more stars appear which had been pretty cute. But it also showed how good she had felt. On top of Mateo, she made sure to leave multiple bites on him to really claim him. She was hungry—um anyways—she loved hearing the way he groaned and panted for her, holding her by the hips and moving her down on him. She could feel him subtly grinding his hips into her, making her weak in the knees. She moaned, pulling back from his neck to kiss him. One of his hands came up to the back of her head, scratching her scalp softly as his fingers went through her soft hair. Star had her arms around him, moaning into the kiss as their hips rubbed together.

"Mmph…honey…please…i'm so—" Before she could even finish her sentence, the doorbell rang. She whined into the kiss, wondering who the shock was at the door at this hour. "Shock me…who's at the door—" With Sam—her AI assistant—temporarily shut off, she couldn't ask him to check who was there. She pulled back for a second before Mateo wrapped his strong arms around her.

"No—please, stay. Ignore 'em. Please shiny…" He begged her to stay in bed, kissing at her neck slowly to make her weaker to move. Of course it worked, making her whine and lean her head back to give him better access. His lips were so soft against her skin, making her body shiver and get chills.

"Mmfggh…okay…I won't leave…" She gave in, staying in bed with him and coming back down to kiss his neck, eventually going lower to kiss at his pecs. His breathing became faster as she looked up at him with her mismatched eyes. Something about the look she had was making him dizzy. As she got lower and towards his hips, nipping at his skin, Star was able to feel his hips twitch with every small bite. "Stay still…" She whispered, getting down towards his boxers. Mateo was gripping the bed sheets (RIP Scarlet's bed) breathing faster while holding back any movement. Her fingers had barley sipped under them when the doorbell rang again. "UGHHHH!!" She groaned louder, sitting up. Mateo whined, nearly making her fold.

"Star! Please, just ignore 'em-!" He begged her. "Who the hell is even at the door?!"

"I know, my love, I know. But my no one ever comes here! I swear!" The doorbell started to ring faster, getting annoying. "Shock! Shut the shock up!" She gave in, getting out of bed. Mateo groaned, flopping back down on the bed as he watched her quickly get up and put his shirt on. She wasn't exactly fully dressed since all she had was the oversized shirt and looked disheveled from their activities. Scarlet ran out her room to answer the door, already knowing she would have to put her best smile on.

Yanking the door open, she attempted to fix her hair but knew it was too late and they would likely know that she had been 'busy'. "H-hi! Uh…can I help you?" She awkwardly spoke, putting on her best smile to convince them nothing had been going on. Only an idiot would be able to believe that lie.

The wife and husband paused, looking at her messy look. She had visible bites on her neck followed by hickies in different spots. The bites went lower and they were able to see some on her shoulder and thigh. The wife looked away quickly and noticed her husband staring at her. She nudged him roughly, making his snap out of it and sheepishly rub the back of his neck.

"First of all, you should consider putting some clothes on next time when opening the door for guests. Secondly, I am here for a noise complaint. My husband and I were trying to enjoy a quiet evening together when we heard the annoying sound of thumping followed by moaning." The woman crossed her arms.

"Ah. Right. Sorry." Star scratched her head.

"We have been living in this building longer than you and we have never heard such…disgusting activities happen like that. If you had any shocking respect, you would quiet down." Okay. Rude.

"Well I am in my own home so…you don't need to be so rude about it. I'm sorry we were loud but we're enjoying our time together.' Star wanted to be a little messy.

"I understand that but you must have some kind of respect for your neighbors. What if a child heard that?"

"I already know that you two don't have kids. So don't even use that for an excuse." Star was already getting partially annoyed by this woman. "Look, I know I don't normally get loud or anything but my partner and I are trying to enjoy some time together."

The woman didn't like that and she scoffed, "You can indeed quiet down from it. Sex is never that good."

"Sorry your husband can't give you an orgasm." Scarlet mumbled under her breath but still had been loud enough for the woman to catch what she had said.

She knew she shocked up when the couple looked offended along with the husband looking much more embarrassed. The woman's arms fell to her sides before she pointed a finger at Scarlet's face.

"How dare you?! That is a very insulting thing to say! My husband and I do just fine, thank you very much! Oh you need to learn some shocking manner young lady!"

Star rolled her eyes. "Look can't you just leave already? I would like to get back with my boyfriend." But of course things weren't going to be easy since the woman had taken the comment from before personally and wanted to keep yapping her ear off. So she had to stand there while the woman kept going on with how uncomfortable it was to hear her moaning along with defending her own sex life with her husband.

The husband looked embarrassed about the whole thing but had been focused on Star. She appeared to be very familiar to him, he just didn't know why. While his wife yelled at her, he looked down at her body, attempting to ignore all the marks on her from the intimate moment she was having. Then he caught onto her prosthetic leg and really took a second to stare at it. He gasped quietly and looked at her again, catching onto her mismatched eye colors. He knew who this was.

"Honey honey! Let's not…interfere with her. Just let the woman be and we can go home and just turn the TV volume up!" The husband put his hand on his wife's shoulder, attempting to get her to shut up so they didn't have to be in front of Star.

"No! I'm not done speaking to her!" The wife was about to continue until her husband spoke again.

"Honey! You don't understand! Let's stop talking to the kind woman!" He gritted his teeth, trying to put on his best smile.

"Oh why?! Why do you suddenly seem so afraid of this woman?!"

The husband stuttered, looking at Star and hesitating to speak again. He did look more nervous now that he knew who she was. He leaned closer to his wife, "That's Scarlet Celeste." And yes, the neighbors have not known about Scarlet being their upstairs neighbor as they never had the need to come and see her. The wife instantly froze and looked at her in shock.

Scarlet's eyes narrowed once she realized they had been scared of her now due to her status as a Celeste. There was nothing to fear but they probably were now scared of her due to knowing she wasn't human. The couple looked at her and the wife quickly got her act together.

"Oh. I-I'm um…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to complain and talk so much. I just uh…would you mind keeping it down? O-or not! My husband and I can always just turn the volume up to our home system so we won't hear you and your um…partner." The wife had tensed up and now appeared to be more nervous along with being embarrassed. There had been a part of Scarlet that was upset about the couple suddenly fearing her but at the same time they were finally willing to leave.

With a sigh, Scarlet nodded and looked at the couple. "Yeah yeah, sure, whatever."

The couple nodded and quickly left, running to the elevator and spamming their floor number so the doors would close faster. Scarlet watched them run away and nervously smile at her all the way until the elevator doors finally closed. She rolled her eyes and closed her own door, returning inside and scratching the back of her head. Coming back into the bedroom, she closed the door and returned back to bed, flopping down onto her pillow while Mateo had been laying on his side.

"mmfh mmph mmm" She tried to talk but her voice was muffled by the pillow.

"Er…what?" Mateo tilted his head, looking down at her.

Scarlet lifted her head up so she could speak clearer. "My neighbors were at the door. They're scared of me now." She groaned and let her head fall back down into the pillow.

"Scared? Why? Did ya spook em?"

"No. I barley did anything! The woman's husband was able to recognize me and it made both of them tense up." In Scarlet's world, many people began to fear her after finding out she wasn't human and was instead some cosmic being. There had been false rumors made up about her and her powers which made the public see her as a potential threat. It also doesn't help that the city guards along with Alchemax employees tend to chase after her whenever she is out in the city. They should be seeing her as someone incredible since her father was a famous scientist but ever since she revealed the truth about everything, the city was against her.

Mateo looked at her and frowned, understanding that she handles a ton of issues due to how the city views her. She never looked saddened by this and instead seemed more annoyed that anyone could fear her. It also had been messed up since years ago she used to protect these people under the alias Star-Spider. Mateo leaned in and placed his warm hand on her back.

"Hey…don't worry about em, alright? They're the last thing ya should be carin' about. At least they won't come back to bother ya."

"Yeah but now they fear me and I don't want them to! I mean come on, I'm not that dangerous!'

"Shiny, you erased multiple worlds after one guy managed to piss you off enough."

"I--" Dang. Really got her with that one. "That's not the point! I protected those people and now they all just...hate me!"

Mateo sighed and pulled her up towards him, wrapping his arm around her. "Look Star, ya don't need to worry about makin' all these people happy. Ya just need to keep yerself safe from them. These people want to hurt ya and…I don't want that happenin'. Ya need to forget about those people and focus on yerself." He kissed her head. "I don't want to lose ya…"

Scarlet softened up from his words and she sighed, leaning against him. "…you're right. It is pretty dangerous for me to leave my own house without getting hunted like a wild animal. Besides…I don't really know my neighbors. I just hope they don't tell everyone in the building about me." She sighed and looked down at her leg and noticing the hickies. "Or the fact that I'm loud during sex."

That got a laugh out of Mateo. "Yeah, I doubt they'd spread a rumor like that."

"If they did then I'd really need to move out." She laughed with him.

Mateo chuckled and pulled her onto his lap, her back was against his chest and he just held her there for a moment. He pressed some kisses against her neck and rubbed her thigh. Scarlet enjoyed how gentle he was with her and sighed softly, putting her hand on top of his for a second.

"Did I do good?" She asked, speaking quieter.

"Sendin' the neighbors away?"

She giggled, "No silly…I mean with what we've been doing. You and I haven't been that intimate before and I just…wanna make sure I was doing good." Scarlet hadn't had sex with anyone ever since Gabriel died. Then again she hadn't been with anyone at all since he died. "Also since…yknow…you've been with so many people in the past—

"Shiny!" Mateo playfully flicked her nose. "Don't bring that up. Ya did great. I haven't felt that good in a while…"

"I can say the same thing! It's been a while and I've only been with like...three people."

Mateo paused. "Three? Ya only told me about Gabe."

Scarlet looked at him and blushed. "Ah. Right well theres you and Gabriel and uh…Harry."

He blinked. "When did ya sleep with Harry?"

"That was a time long ago! It was just a hookup back in high school!"

"Hm."

"Pfft—don't do that!" She laughed and playfully patted his cheek. Mateo chuckled and took her hand, kissing her palm.

"Sorry darlin' I just wanted to see yer reaction."

"Mhm now you do." She giggled. Leaning in, she kissed him once. It was a soft kiss but Mateo grabbed the back of her head, playing with her hair for a second before pulling her in for another kiss. The moment it started to get intimate once again, Scarlet melted. His kisses always managed to make her feel weak.

"Yknow…we did get interrupted earlier. Why don't we continue where we left off, hm?" Mateo's voice was calm and smooth and the way he looked at her…uggghhhh…

Scarlet's confidence disappeared when he said that, making her blush a lot darker. She had been the one to make the suggestive comments but now he had the upper hand and it was making her weak. She barley had a chance to respond to what he said as his hand started to go up her thigh and spread her legs further apart.

"Honey-" Her breath hitched in her throat as he teased her and leaned in to kiss her neck. His hand had been warm against her skin yet gave her goosebumps. It went under his shirt that she was still wearing and came to cup her breast, gently massaging it. She gasped softly from his grip, moaning when his thumb started to circle around her stiffening nipple. Scarlet had always been sensitive which made it easy to arouse her just from some soft touches. Her hips rolled back into him, letting him feel how much she wanted him.

Mateo laid back on the bed and fixed her position so she sat on his lap while his hands rested on her hips. He took a moment to admire her while in this position, his hands went under her shirt again and pulled it off of her once again. Every inch of her body had been gorgeous to him and he never got enough of it. He traced over the freckles on her body and imagined them as small stars that had been sprinkled on her. Rubbing her hips, he could hear Star whimper and it made him chuckle.

"I'm barley touchin' you, my love. And yet you're tremblin'…" Mateo spoke lowly.

Scarlet blushed once more and looked away. "You know I'm sensitive."

"I do and I wasn't complainin' either." He smirked.

—

After that night and the neighbors complaining, it never fully stopped. It wasn't like they had been doing it everyday but every time he came over, they would have their special nights in the bedroom. It would be the same each night. Have a nice date with either a movie or dinner, maybe both, and then go to the bedroom after a few kisses and teasing bites. Scarlet had become more comfortable with her comments towards Mateo, always complimenting how good he looked throughout the day or making provocative comments. She also bit him more often either on his bicep or neck. At work in the Spider Society, Miguel would see these new marks on him and roll his eyes as he understood who gave him those.

"You've been seeing Scarlet too much." Miguel mumbled one time while him and Mateo were working. Teo' didn't hear him since he had his iconic pink headphones on while working. Miguel just kept looking at the marks on him and thought, "what is with that woman? Is she some sort of animal?". He never pried into their personal life but knew they had gotten closer. Honestly, that had been good for them. Mainly for Scarlet since she was so busy with Mateo that she wasn't destroying the timelines. Whenever he saw her walk by and would notice the marks on her neck, he rolled his eyes. These two were going to be annoying eventually.

In Star's world, when she hung out with Peter and Harry, they would notice the marks as well. It's not like she was ever flashing them or showing them off, her hair just happened to be short enough to let them be seen. Harry was the first one to see them and immediately had ten billion questions about who she was with. They had both known it had been a while since she's been with anyone, considering Gabriel had died years ago. Peter made a few jokes about the marks and had said she looked like a teenager who just had their first hookup. "Nah, I didn't leave that many marks on her." Harry had blurted out, making Peter and Scarlet freeze. "….WHEN DID YOU TWO HOOK UP!?" Peter exclaimed, making Scarlet laugh nervously. "ANYWAYS! Let's talk about something else!" Of course she didn't tell them exactly who she hooked up with and instead had been very vague about Mateo. The most she gave them was that she was serious about the guy and really cared about him.

Back at the penthouse, the downstairs neighbors from before had to adjust to all the new noises that would happen on certain nights. The wife did everything she could to listen out for Mateo and figure out when he would come to her home. The husband hadn't been too worried and had been making his own adjustments by buying some noise canceling headphones or getting better sound systems to blur the noises from upstairs. But on some rare nights, the slamming headboard and moans would go on for hours. The wife never understood why this would happen since no one could possibly handle that many rounds for so many hours. Her husband however had been trying to figure out how Scarlet's partner was able to have that much stamina. Unless he wasn't the dominating partner. Maybe he had been too curious about this.

--

As more time went on, the wife once again became annoyed by the constant noise and marched right back upstairs to confront Scarlet. She no longer cared about her status as a Celeste and instead wanted an end to this or else there would be consequences! Her husband tried to hold her back but unfortunately he had been too weak to pull her back. And he was interested in seeing what would happen. The wife rang the doorbell multiple times and angrily stomped her foot as she waited for Scarlet to open the door. She heard the sound of the lock turning and rose her hand up to start complaining. But the words died out the moment she had to look up to see who was at the door. Her husband froze as well and his jaw dropped.

Leaning against the door frame was Mateo, shirtless with only a pair of sweats on. His fluffy brown hair had been a bit messy due to his time with Scarlet again. He didn't look too intimidating and instead looked more handsome just from the way he was standing. This man is 6'5 with some nice muscles and skin that looked like it would glow in the sunlight. The wife and husband were speechless! Teo's eyes were covered as always but he looked down at the couple.

"Can I help ya two?" He spoke calmly to the couple, already assuming they were here again to complain.

The wife was speechless, not expecting such an attractive man to answer the door. This was Scarlet's partner?! She was staring hard and it wasn't at his eyes. She took in every inch of his body, mainly his chest, and had to remind herself that she was a married woman. Her husband on the other hand had to rethink his sexuality and shook his head the moment he had thoughts of sleeping with a man. How can a man be that attractive?!

"O-Oh! Well…I was just here to um…speak to Miss Celeste again in regards to the noise but I can see that you two are erm…" Her eyes trail down his body, "…busy."

Teo' wasn't blind to the woman's eyes, already used to getting ogled at from time to time. But he wasn't interested in her at all.

"Ah yes, we are. I apologize for all the noise we've been makin'." Mateo ignored the woman's gaze.

"Oh no worries! I mean…maybe you don't have to stop at all." The woman twirled her hair around her finger and bit her bottom lip.

"Honey!' Her husband snapped her out of it, making her become flustered for getting caught.

"S-sorry! I mean…you're just so stunning! I-I never expected Scarlet to have someone like you be with her!"

Scarlet came to see what the fuss was about and stretched as she walked over to the door, wearing Mateo's shirt again. She heard the comment the wife made and blinked, offended by the tone of it.

"The shocks that supposed to mean?!" She came to the door and crossed her arms.

The wife and husband jumped at Scarlet's sudden appearance.

"M-Miss Celeste! Oh, I-I had no idea you would come to the door with him! I didn't mean anything negative at all! I just…you…and him…well he's such a fine man and well, I never would have thought you would…erm…have someone like that!" She rambled on, trying not to sound rude. "He just….look at all those muscles…" This woman was basically drooling over him.

Scarlet looked annoyed, maybe a little possessive as well, by the woman's comments towards Mateo. She knew he was hot but jeez! Plus, this woman is married! Her husband is right next to her! Mateo noticed Scarlet's reaction and just chuckled. She looked like an angry cat.

"Look lady, just go, alright? Or else we'll be louder." Star was kidding about that. Maybe.

"Oh please do-" The woman was bold and Scarlet was going to jump at her but the woman's husband grabbed her quickly.

"Okay okay! We'll be going now!" He dragged his wife away quickly and started to have a conversation with her. "Do you still love me?" That was definitely going to be an awkward conversation when they get back to their home. Teo' and Star came back into the penthouse but Teo' was laughing.

"What's so funny?" Scarlet asked and tilted her head.

"Yer reaction to what she was sayin'!" He laughed more.

"Wha—?" Her cheeks became red from embarrassment. "She was flirting with you!"

"Shiny, I'm not sure that was really flirtin'. Think she just wanted to feel ma muscles."

"You think?! She looked ready to pounce onto you!" She stubbornly huffed.

Teo' chuckled from her reaction and knew she had been a little jealous from what was happening. So he came in and scooped her up in his arms, lifting her high enough to give her a loving kiss on the lips. "Star, ya know yer the one for me. Besides, I'm not goin' after a married woman."

Scarlet huffed but her blush now wouldn't go away after what he said to her. She knew he would never do that to her, she was just being dramatic. With a sigh, she softened up and relaxed in his arms. "I know I know…I'm just being dumb."

"Well I thought it was cute." He kissed her head, making her melt even further. Carrying her back to the bedroom, he laid her down and came back on top of her. Even though they had finished a round a few minutes ago, he wanted to take the time to appreciate her. So while on top of her, he peppered soft kisses on her neck and came down to kiss her chest and then her stomach. She giggled and squirmed with each kiss on her belly.

"Ticklish, love?" Teo' chuckled, glancing up at her.

Scarlet continued to giggle, "Mhm." She was so cute.

He continued to pepper soft kisses along her belly and hips, taking the time to show that he loved every inch of her. He kissed her hands and each of her fingers, nuzzled the inside of her palm, and gently traced over the scars that were marked on her body, including the one where her prosthetic leg sat. What she saw as ugly flaws on her body, he found them to be beautiful. He had scars as well and there was nothing wrong with them. Nuzzling into her belly, he pressed one final kiss and smiled.

"Ma beautiful star…" He spoke softly and lovingly.

Scarlet teared up from that, being such a little softie for these kinds of things. "Silly…" She giggled and rubbed her eyes. He came up and kissed her cheek, resting his head on her chest to listen to her heartbeat. Star smiled warmly and cupped his cheek, rubbing it with her thumb. She reached for his hair and hesitated for a second before finally pushing his bangs back enough to see his eyes. Her breath hitched and cheeks went warm the moment she saw them. His eyes looked like they had a sparkle to them, most likely from his powers. The golden-brown look they had to them made them look like the sun to her. She always thought her eyes had been unique but his were just….stunning,

"Oh…" She whispered.

He looked at her and realized his eyes were showing. Looking away, he became flustered as he spoke, "…sorry love…"

"What? No no…your eyes they're…" She cupped his cheek again to make him look at her. "They're stunning…reminds me of the sun." She giggled. "See? I knew you were my sunshine."

He blushed even more and chuckled, leaning in to kiss her. "I love ya…"

Ohhhh she could cry. Sob even. But instead, she hugged him close to kiss him back. "I love you too…"

(Chat, you don't understand how ill they make me. )

—

That night, Teo' and Star ordered some food through DroneDash and snuggled in bed together while watching a movie. This was the perfect night for them and it finally gave them a break from work at the Spider Society and the chaos happening in Scarlet's world. All they needed right now was each others presence and some food.

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