Chapter Text
“How did I get roped into this again…?” Silver Wolf grumbled. She tossed a few cheap souvenirs over her shoulder, missing the box entirely, and had to go pick them back up and put them in their proper place.
“This was your idea, technically.” Stelle attempted to extract a particular book from a stack on the floor, inadvertently sending the whole thing tumbling to the ground. “I distinctly remember you saying to March ‘the losers have to do whatever the winners ask.’”
“I thought she’d, I don’t know, make out with me or something?” Silver Wolf sighed. “Not just make us clean our rooms…”
“This intervention is a long time coming.” Firefly was lounging on Stelle’s bed, scrolling aimlessly on her phone. She didn’t have the strength or energy to help out physically, but she was there for moral support. “Also, it’s on you two for losing so badly. This room better be spotless by the time March gets back.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Stelle pulled a pile of old clothes out of a dusty old corner of the closet. What she had failed to consider was that in leaving them there for so long, an unwelcome guest may have found a home in them. “If she wants this done so bad, why doesn’t she– holy fuck that’s big.”
A shiver ran up Silver Wolf’s spine. A spider no smaller than her hand had just crawled out of Stelle’s closet, and Silver Wolf could swear it was looking directly at her. She could make out every minute hair, every twitch of its unsettlingly long legs.“What are you waiting for?” Stelle seemed completely frozen in place. “Kill it already!”
“Are you kidding? I’m not going near that thing!” Silver Wolf felt like her soul was about to leave her body. “It’s your room, you deal with it!”
“Girls, breathe. It’s more scared of you than you are of it.” Firefly’s cool tone fell flat when Silver Wolf looked back to see her cowering behind a hastily assembled pile of blankets.
“Okay, together then?” Stelle picked up a Pom-Pom-themed slipper, tossing the other to Silver Wolf. “On three. One… Two… Two and a half…”
“I told you, I’m not going near it!” Silver Wolf chucked the slipper as hard as she could toward the spider… and completely missed, sending it scurrying into a corner and out of sight.
“At least it’s gone…?” Firefly lowered the blankets cautiously.
“Great, now we have no idea where it is!” Stelle scanned the room as if she would be jumped at any moment. “I’m not sleeping while that thing’s still here…”
“Good luck with that, I’m out.” Silver Wolf power-walked to the door, flinging it open and nearly crashing into her girlfriend.
“Look who we have here.” March 7th set the bags of cleaning products she was carrying on the floor inside and crossed her arms. “If you’re in such a hurry to leave, you must have already finished without me.”
“Y-you don’t understand! There was this huge spider and–” Silver Wolf stammered. “I swear it was after me! It was looking at me like I was its next meal…”
“If you want to be my next meal, you’re going to help me turn this place into slightly less of a biohazard.” March handed Silver Wolf a spray bottle of cleaning solution and tossed another to Stelle. “It was probably just a common quantum weaver. Where is it now?”
“Who knows? It could be right behind me.” Stelle held the bottle in front of her like a loaded gun. “I swear if I see that thing again, it’s getting no mercy from the Galactic Baseballer.”
“What? Stelle, we are not killing it.” March put her hands on her hips. “We’ll just capture it peacefully and release it back into interstellar space where it belongs. Right, Wolfie?”
“Uh… Right.” Silver Wolf steadied herself. She had to act cool in front of March, at least. “One spider’s no problem. We’ll deal with it like we deal with everything else.“
“Badly?” Firefly supplied.
“Oh shut up, pillow princess.” Silver Wolf grumbled, hesitantly sifting through a pile of bootleg Aetherium Wars merchandise. “That thing could be right under those blankets you’re chilling under, you know?”
“Hey, don’t scare her like that!” Stelle protested as Firefly instinctively kicked the blankets off herself. Still, she held her slipper at the ready every time she picked something up after that.
The progress was a lot faster with March there, and the spider was soon forgotten about by the time they were allowed to take a break. Firefly gathered everyone around to watch a funny video she found on AurumaTok, and they all got distracted watching her scroll over her shoulder.
That is, until Silver Wolf felt a feather-light brush against her hand. At first she thought it was Stelle, but Stelle was on her other side. Maybe it was just a pillow or something, but were those supposed to tickle?
Slowly, Silver Wolf turned her head. She wasn’t thinking too much about it, still giggling softly at one of the videos. Then her heart stopped.
The spider was right there. Halfway up her arm. Staring her dead in the eye. Silver Wolf wanted to scream, cry, throw up, but then what? Look like an idiot in front of March? Prompt Stelle and Firefly to freak out too? Silver Wolf was frozen, and she had entirely forgotten how to breathe. If she moved an inch, she was probably going to die.
“Oh, there’s the little guy!” March cheerfully picked up the spider and held it up for a better view. “He’s so cute!”
Stelle and Firefly practically fell off the bed. Stelle positioned herself in front of Firefly as if to somehow protect her. “That’s– How do you know it’s a ‘he?’”
March shrugged, admiring the abomination in her hands. “Females are like, three times bigger.”
“Bigger?” Firefly squeaked, nervously peeking out from behind Stelle.
Silver Wolf’s brain finally caught up with reality. She was safe. March had… saved her? As if she couldn’t get any more perfect, March had just become her knight in shining armor.
“March…” Silver Wolf’s lip quivered. She couldn’t hold herself together, not when there was practically an angel right in front of her. Silver Wolf flung herself at March, wrapping her arms around her and sobbing pathetically into her chest. “You saved me! Thank you…”
“Aw, it’s no big deal, really!” March ruffled Silver Wolf’s hair and kissed her forehead. “You’re my girlfriend, of course I’ll protect– Wait, what are you looking at?”
Stelle and Firefly exchanged a glance, wide-eyed, unsure of how to say what they had observed. Silver Wolf’s hug had thrown March off balance, giving the spider the perfect chance to crawl up her arm and… directly on top of her head.
March 7th gained a new phobia that day.