ya_assemble | Things that go bump in the night.

Time was strange at the North Pole.

As best Sandy could tell, it was somewhere around two or three in the morning, but she had found that it was often dark outside right in the middle of the day. It probably had something to do with the angle of the Earth, or maybe it was magic. Either way the clock on her communicator told her that it was in fact 2:25 A.M local time.

She had woken up in a cold sweat with her heart racing. A strangled cry muffled on instinct. The sweat beaded on her stone skin and she was curious about how long she'd had her powers turned on.

Chest rising and falling, she willed herself to relax and stared hard at the ceiling of her room. Lines of black had been traced and painted over in patterns like candy and castles. A space ship flying over a moon and a fox with an eye patch riding on a ship right behind it. Sandy had spent a good few hours working on that mural and it was supposed to help calm her down. Tonight it didn't seem to be helping.

Rising to her feet she tugged on a blue and fluffy fleece robe over green PJs with peppermint candies on it. Sometimes after her nightmares she could go back to sleep but not tonight it seemed.

Padding out of the room in her slippers she set off for the shared kitchen, moving quietly as to not disturb anyone who was still asleep. Elves and Yeti seemed to work all through the night in the main workshop area so the noise and activity at there hadn't slowed down.

Still looking pale, peaked and unsettled she was clearly not awake by choice if any other night owls were still up and about tonight.

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The expression on her face didn't make this any easier. Now he felt like he was about to tell her that her dog was dead.

"I...I lied to you before. You knew exactly who I was, and I said you were wrong. But you weren't wrong." Deep breaths, Parker. "I'm Spider-man."

Her face fell for a moment, and then it scrunched up in irritation.

"Come on really?" She burst out sounding like a kicked dog. "Why would you even...I mean with all of this and you were still protecting your secret identity?" She gestured to the workshop around them before letting her arms fall to her sides.

"Did you think I was a sleeper agent or something?"

In truth if she slowed down for a moment, she'd see that she was more angry about her nightmares and lack of sleep then she was about him fibbing to her. But as it was she was confused, unsure just how she should feel about this revelation.

"I...no! No, of course not, I just...it's just that it's my secret identity, and too many people know it already, and the more people that know the more chances there are that someone will go after my family and my friends, and, and..."

Peter slumped, as if all of his energy had drained out of him in that moment. "It was stupid, I know. I mean, I knew logically that it wasn't even going to be possible to hide here...but like. Telling someone, actually saying to someone that I'm Spider-man...that's a big deal. And I wasn't ready to do it."

She looked like she wanted to shout something but after his apologetic response she felt the wind draining out of her indignation. Her shoulders slumped and she offered a nod.

"OK, I get it. You were just trying to be safe." Then with half a smirk she added "If it's any consolation, my dad tried to kill you a bunch of times so it was probably a good idea to be safe around the daughter of The Sandman."

Never in her life or any of her fantasizing about meeting Spider-man did she ever think she would be making a joke about her father trying to kill him. But she actually felt a little bad seeing him hang his head in shame.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better about the fact that it was also completely idiotic, and was never going to hold up anyway." And the worst part was, he'd known that even before Nova figured him out with practically no information at all. He just hadn't wanted to admit it, and he couldn't afford to keep walking around with blinders like that on.

But even taking the blinders off wouldn't help with that blindsiding. "Wait, what?! The Sandman? The Sandman is your dad?! How the hell is the Sandman your dad?" Peter exclaimed, staring at Sandy with wide eyes. "...And don't answer that literally."

That reaction was enough to make her laugh out loud. All the stress of not being able to sleep was washed away by the expression on his face and the shock he'd registered.

"Good because I don't wanna think about how I literally came to be." She countered. "All I know is he retired when I was born. Went to work, came home. Took care of me and mom until the police came and locked him up for being a known metahuman."

"That's...that's good. I mean, not the being locked up for being metahuman thing - the not being a criminal anymore thing. I mean, I swear most of my time is spent fighting the same idiots over and over again, it's kinda nice to know that at least one of them manages to change and do something better with their life. But...what about you? You turn into a rock. You're metahuman too. They didn't try to take you away too, did they?"

"Probably...because I never told anyone. I transformed once in front of mom and she freaked out so bad I guess I just got scared. Then when I was older I figured out why it would be stupid of me to transform in front of anyone. The police were already always looking for an excuse to lock up kids."

Not to mention instead of standing her ground, whenever trouble came to call she ran as fast as she could.

Things that go bump in the night.

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