THE STATIC BETWEEN US
summary: Keys is a game developer secretly living a double life as Spider-Man. He’s in love with you, his coworker, who also slowly starts suspecting him, while also being a huge Spider-Man fan with a fan account, but Keys tries to keep his double identity secret to not get fired from his job.
tags: Slow burn, friends to lovers, fluff, reader is a female, second-person pov, reader is a nerd
pairing: spider-man!Keys Mckey x reader
notes : it's my first fic since middle school and my first time actually posting on Tumblr, i used to post on Wattpad so yeah and English is not my first language :(<3
chapter 1 out of ??
Key's mornings always started the same way, having his coffee, putting his glasses on, and checking whether you were already at work before him. The moment the elevator doors opened onto the Soonami floor, his eyes automatically drifted toward your desk, it's empty, but he was weirdly relieved by you being late today,that gave him at least a few minutes to settle down before seeing you.
Not that seeing you was a bad thing, quite the opposite actually and that was the problem.
Keys adjusted the strap of his bag and headed toward his desk, already mentally preparing for the mountain of work waiting for him there. He barely took three steps before someone grabbed his shoulders out of sudden.
"Looking for someone?"
A startled noise escaped him as he spun around. You were standing there just behind him, trying not to laugh at him.
"Oh my God," he breathed, pressing a hand against his chest, the other holding his bag’s strap. "You can't just do that out of nowhere."
"Do what?"
"Appear."
You laughed.
"Pretty sure that's a normal thing people do, can't really help it….."
"Not from behind."
"I'm sorry, next time I'll send an email first since you're so glued to your laptop."
Keys rolled his eyes despite the smile threatening to form, then your expression changed slightly but not dramatically, you looked up at his forehead.
"Wait."
Immediately, every alarm bell in his body started ringing and he stand up straight.
"What?"
"You have like….a scratch ?"
Keys froze when you said that immediately
"A scratch ?"
"Right there."
You pointed toward your own forehead to show him, safe to say his stomach literally dropped.
Last night in this alley, when the attempted robbery happened, probably where and when he got that suspicious scratch but Keys totally forgot about that detail.
"You didn't notice?"
Your eyebrows lifted, how can someone get hurt and not notice it or feel a little pain ? Keys laughed nervously.
"No, I just…."
He absolutely had not noticed….not the kind of details he'd remember after stopping a robbery as a masked hero anyway.
"I must've missed it this morning, I don't know, it's not important."
You studied him for a moment, a long one, where he felt like you could somehow see straight through him and what he's hiding
"How'd it happen?"
You asked quickly before he could even say anything to defend himself
"A pigeon."
Keys replied, fast too. Then silence between you two, you just look at him for a few seconds.
"A….pigeon…scratched your forehead ?"
"No."
Keys immediately regretted speaking and disagreeing.
"I mean yes ? Uh, sort of."
Your lips twitched.
"Sort of ?"
"It flew into me."
"A bird attacked you ? Like…before work ?"
"It wasn't an attack..."
"It sounds like an attack, Keys."
"It was more of a misunderstanding."
You stared at him and keys stared back at you.
Neither of you said anything for a second.
But then fnally, you nodded slowly.
"Right, okay"
"You don't believe me, I can tell by the way you're looking at me.”
"I didn't say that."
"You absolutely don't believe me."
You laughed and for once Keys didn't find it cute or funny because he know you're having suspicions about his pigeon attack.
"See you in the meeting I guess, don't be late and don't be attacked by birds again."
Then you walked away, Keys watched you go, which was a mistake because Mouser immediately appeared beside him, holding his laptop in one hand.
"Bird attack ?"
Keys closed his eyes immediately, maybe out of shame.
"I panicked."
"You told her a pigeon assaulted you."
"Yeah I know I was there"
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
"I know."
Mouser looked toward your desk, then back at Keys.
"There's no way she believed you."
Keys groaned.
"Don't say that."
Across the office, you looked up from your computer. Your eyes briefly met Keys' for a few seconds, then your gaze flickered to the scratch on his forehead, before returning to your screen.
Mouser sighed.
"Yeah. She thinks you're weird now.”
The meeting room is now full of employees taking their seats, it was quiet in a way that made every small sound feel louder, the tapping of pens, the soft shuffle of chairs…..
Keys sat near the middle of the table, shoulders slightly hunched, pen rolling between his fingers, he wasn’t really listening yet.
Because Antwan hadn’t started talking about anything important yet, at the head of the table, Antwan was already struggling with his laptop.
“This is ridiculous.” he muttered, clicking the trackpad aggressively. “Every time I have a meeting, this thing decides to act like it’s never been turned on before.”
Mouser leaned back in his chair, clearly entertained.
“Maybe it’s afraid of you.” Mouser said.
A few people snickered but Antwan shot him a sharp look.
“Funny.” he said flatly. “Unlike some people, I actually work with technology instead of against it.” He turned back to the laptop.
“Right. Let’s get this on the screen.”
He clicked once and still nothing happened so he clicked again, harder but still nothing. He sighed loudly, like the entire room was personally mocking him. “Unbelievable.”
He leaned closer, typing something aggressively, then finally managed to bring up his desktop, then opened a browser. YouTube.
Keys immediately straightened slightly, that was never a good sign with all those videos of him going around internet right now, and just like that, a v video loaded, and Spider-Man appeared on the screen. The footage was pretty shaky, clearly filmed from street level. Spider-Man swung between two buildings before landing too fast on a fire escape, stumbling slightly before recovering like it was nothing and continuing forward.
A few employees in the room chuckled quietly, not necessarily because it was funny, but because Antwan’s expression had already shifted, he leaned back in his chair with a long, exaggerated sigh.
“Oh great, just what we needed.” he said. “This guy again.”
A couple of soft giggles went around the table, everyone knew how Antwan felt about Spider-Man, hee never hid it.
Antwan waved a hand toward the screen.
“I swear, every week it’s the same thing with this guy.” he continued. “Spider-Man saves one person, breaks three windows, and suddenly everyone acts like he’s some kind of public service.” More laughter can be heard in the room, slightly louder this time.
“Funny, right? You’re laughing.” Antwan said, noticing it immediately. “But I’m serious. He’s causing more damage than he fixes, chaos everywhere he goes.” He turned slightly toward the room.
“I mean, at what point do we admit that this is not working ?”
The laughs kept going with a few people now nodding.
“Can I get some water ?” Antwan looked over sharply.
You were already standing, calm as ever, holding a glass, he blinked.
“Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”
You walked forward without hesitation, placed the glass gently in front of him, then turned slightly. But before stepping back, you said it anyway.
“He still saves people.” You said looking at your boss, not defensive or anything, but just a fact, spider man did saved lives after all, at least tried to. The room went quiet for half a second.
Antwan clicked his tongue, clearly uninterested in continuing that conversation.
“Sure. Whatever you say. Let’s move on.”
He turned back to his laptop, finally exiting the video, the screen switched to a presentation file.
But Keys didn’t move. His pen stopped rolling between his fingers. Because hearing you say that, that he saved people, like it wasn’t even a debate, did something heavy to his chest.
You walked back toward your seat and passed behind him. Keys barely turned his head, but he knew exactly where you were. You sat down beside him again, chair scraping softly against the floor, way tooo close for him.
And across the table, Mouser was watching him again with that same expression, "I know something you don’t know” expression, but Keys ignored it, or at least he tried to.
Antwan clapped his hands once.
“Alright,” he said sharply. “Let’s actually focus on something important now. Preferably something that doesn’t involve a masked man swinging through glass like a disaster in our city.”
A few quiet laughs returned, but smaller now.
Keys exhaled slowly, forcing himself to look at the table, not at you or at the screen, not at anything that might give him away.
But as the meeting continued, your voice lingered in his mind anyway.
“He still saves people.”
And Keys, sitting there with a secret he could barely hold together, had to carefully pretend that meant nothing to him at all.
By the time the office started emptying, the light outside the glass windows had already shifted and afternoon bleeding into evening.
Most of the floor had cleared out, the usual noise replaced by the sound of cleaning carts and the occasional beep of a locked computer shutting down.
Keys had gathered his things twice already before pausing because he noticed you were still there, at your desk, focused.
Typing with thee determination you always had when you were trying to finish something properly instead of rushing it just to leave.
He hesitated near your desk.
“You’re still here?” he asked.
You didn’t look up immediately.
“Yeah,” you said. “I’ve got a few things to finish.”
“But it’s getting late.”
“I know.”
He didn't say anything for a few seconds and adjusted his backpack strap.
“I can walk you home.”
That comment made you finally look up at him, but now he actually looks unsure like he had overstepped something without meaning to.
You finally just shook your head gently.
“I’m good,” you said. “I’ll probably leave even later anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
He hesitated first then nodded slowly.
“Okay. Just… text when you’re heading out ?”
It came out more carefully than he intended and he immediately regretted it. But you gave him a small friendly smile.
“Sure, Bird Boy.”
He immediately rolled his eyes at the nickname
“Please don’t call me that again….”
You shrugged and went back to your work, Keys looked at you for a few seconds before finally walking away.
Keys walked home with Mouser down the street, hands tucked into his pockets, listening half to Mouser talk about something completely unrelated and still thinking about the fact that you were still inside that building alone.
“You’re doing it again and you're not even listening to me” Mouser said.
“What am I doing ?”
“You're worrying.”
“I’m not worried.”
Mouser looked at him and Keys avoided his gaze.
“…I’m just saying she’s alone in the office.”
“She’s a grown adult…” Mouser replied.
“I know that, thank you.”
“And yet you look like you’re about to go back and personally escort her home like a bodyguard.”
Keys didn’t respond, Mouser just sighed.
“Relax. Nothing’s going to happen, she worked there for a long time, she know her way home, it's not like she's in danger or anything”
Probably one or two hours later, you finally left work to head back home, you grabbed your things and walked to the nearest subway. The subway car was almost empty but not unusual for that time of night. Just a handful of passengers scattered across the seats.
You sat near the middle, bag resting beside you, eyes half-focused on your screen.
But after a few minutes in, the train slowed, then stopped without any announcements.
The lights started to flickered a few times then went out. Someone sighed loudly, no signal.
You frowned slightly, looking around, it means you'll probably be home late and you still wanted to check your work for tomorrow, but now you're stuck in this subway for God knows how long, with no wifi and upset passengers, and you haven't eaten anything for dinner.
Then finally when everyone thought the train would be back on, a sharp metallic sound echoed through the tunnel, but not a normal train sound, something deeper, almost like something was wrong.
The car tilted slightly as power cut in and out again, a few passengers stood, confused, the train stayed still.
And then, a sound above you, a sudden impact on the roof of the subway car that made everyone froze with the sounds of a few hits
Something moved across the top of the train fast enough that it made the metal groan, followed by a sudden crash.
A section of the subway door bent inward slightly before snapping open, with wind rushed through the tunnel.
And in the opening, Spider-Man appeared.
Hanging upside down for half a second before dropping into the car with a controlled landing, in total silence, except a few people gasped at the view of spider man actually being here on time, a few people even take pictures and videos
You just stared, he didn’t say anything at first.
His head turned quickly, scanning the situation in a way that felt practiced.
“Everyone okay ?” he asked.
A few people nodded, he exhaled slightly.
“Good. Train lost power. We’re stuck between stations, but I’m gonna get you out.”
He moved fast, too fast to properly follow.
A panel somewhere opened, he worked like he already knew exactly what was wrong.
Like this wasn’t the first time you stayed still, not necessarily scared or anything. Just… aware.
Something about him felt familiar in a way you couldn’t place, of course you knew spider man, you knew basically all about him, but you never actually saw him this close or even be saved by him.
Then as suddenly as he came, he was gone again, but not before taking a glance at you.
“Stay calm !” he called before disappearing back up through the roof. “I’ve got it!”
It didn’t take long for power to return, the train jolted slightly and lights flickered back on.
Eventually, it started moving again like nothing had happened. You immediately stood up to look at the window to see if he was still there but no, he really did just disappeared after helping fix the train, you sighed and sat back down.
When you finally got home, the silence of your apartment felt heavier than usual, you kicked off your shoes slowly and left your bag by the door. You don't even bother making dinner, you just grab the nearest snack before brushing your teeth and changing into your pajamas.
Then sit down on your bed without turning on the lights, for a while, you just stare at nothing before picking up your phone and unlocking it just to look up “Spider-Man subway incident” then another search, and another, and another.
Clips from different angles of what had happened underground, people talking about him like he was real and impossible at the same time and you just keep scrolling and scrolling again, even watching other videos, some from last week or last month, you look up what people said about him online, the negative and positive posts.
You weren't even sure how much time had passed anymore, video after video played on your screen, people arguing about Spider-Man and defending him. People criticizing him, and obviously some trying to figure out who he was.
You scrolled through comments, then another video, then another.
At some point, you found yourself watching the footage from the subway again, the moment he landed.
The way he immediately checked if everyone was okay before doing anything else and the way he disappeared the second the situation was under control.
Your thumb paused over the screen, something about it felt familiar again, you frowned, then immediately shook your head. That was ridiculous.
Spider-Man was Spider-Man, and whoever is under the mask is probably some guy nobody ever heard of before.
But your mind immediately drifted to Keys, to the scratch on his forehead and his terrible pigeon story, to the way he'd offered to walk you home.
"Such a weirdo."
You locked your phone and set it on the nightstand. Within minutes, your eyes closed.
And for the first time in a long while, two people occupied your thoughts before you fell asleep.
One was a masked hero who saved you and other passengers today in a subway, and the other was your coworker Walter McKey.