while i'm fine with washing dishes

[shutterbugged]

WHO: Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man and YOU
WHERE: Around and about Heropa; Residence #11
WHEN: After the shuttle disaster, before the Summer Games
WHAT: Wandering about town, and a few loose ends to clear up before the move to De Chima
WARNINGS: Secret identity shenanigans


[ OPEN (SPIDER-MAN); Heropa at night ]

"You know, if I were a small-time crook -- which, contrary to the assertions of one cigar-chomping newsman in another universe, I most certainly am not -- I would've considered a career change or a move around the time the first new imPorts started showing up," Spider-Man said, wrapping his web line one final time around the top of the lamppost.

Dangling beneath his perch, one of the two thwarted muggers shrugged as best as he could from within the cocoon. "Gotta admit, he has a point," he said to the other.

"Vinny, shut up!"

"Hey, all I'm saying is, if you'd given the Etsy shop a few more months -- "

"And like I told you, Etsy's all wholesalers from China now, there's no chance --"

"Boys! I hate to interrupt, but I'm on a schedule here," Spidey cut in. He hopped down to the ground and pulled out his communicator. "Now, let me just take a photo for a quick text to Heropa's finest -- no, don't pull a duck face, Vinny, you're embarrassing yourself -- and you can hash out your business plans while you wait for them to show up. Sorry to web and run, but I have a bus to catch."

Spider-Man doesn't have the best mental associations with flying gliders, but he's considering trying his hand at building one anyway. Damn Heropa and its lack of skyscrapers.

[ OPEN (PETER PARKER); a drug store ]

So there's a man standing in the aisle of the drug store. Nothing unusual about that. Except that he's in the cosmetics section, and appears to be comparing different shades of concealer against the skin on his wrist.

Well hey, it's the 21st century (more or less). Poor guy, though, he looks a little confused.

[ RESIDENCE #11 ]

Stupid, Peter thinks to himself, real stupid. First he got himself knocked around during the fight with Starscream -- that was understandable, considering said opponent was a building-sized giant robot. But getting banged up during a routine patrol is just embarrassing.

He needs to stop trying to rescue cats out of trees, no matter how bored he is. It never ends well.

He also needs to cover up his giant face bruise before Flash or Scathach see it, let alone Valeria. But first he needs to get back through his window without dinging his ankle or making too much noise --

Too late. Crouched on the floor, he winces, both from the jolt of pain travelling up his leg, and from the realization that he was loud enough to wake the dead.

[ FLASH THOMPSON; on the boardwalk ]

Valeria is off with Miranda for the afternoon, leaving Peter and Flash free to relax and just hang out for the first time in… well, from his perspective, for the first time in close to four years. The sun beats down on their heads, the salt makes the air vaguely sticky, the hot dogs are terrible, and none of the tourists are wearing enough deodorant.

Peter's having a blast.

"D'you feel a little bit like we're playing hooky?" he asks, chewing up the remainder of his rocket pop.

[ MATT MURDOCK; at his office ]

Peter doesn't bother to call ahead, just shows up around lunchtime and takes a seat on a bench across the street from Matt's workplace, well within radar distance, a generously sized paper bag tucked next to him. All the cubano sandwiches and key lime pie two vigilantes can eat, with bottled water as a concession to Matt's regular health-consciousness kicks.

Comments

drug store!

[reptiledysfunction]

Peter's not the only person at the drugstore. At the moment, Connors is waiting for a prescription to be filled. As such, he's wandering the aisles of the drugstore, looking at hair products he'll never need and tacky college memorabilia he'll never want. It's something to do and (unwisely) he forgot to bring a book.

As he walks over to the next aisle, however, he spots Peter Parker...looking at the make-up? Okay...whatever floated his boat. He had known Peter for a while, and he knew that he had some eccentricities--but then again, didn't everybody? Connors couldn't judge. After all, he was here to pick up whatever the Heropa equivalent of Xanax was, so he certainly couldn't talk.

Mostly to be polite, Connors clears his throat before walking over to Peter, waving at the man with a smile on his face. "Well, I wasn't expecting to run into you here."

[shutterbugged]

"Oh! Hey... Curt." Peter slides the product he was looking at (seriously, what the heck is "bb cream?") back on the shelf as though that would make what he's doing any less inconspicuous. "I was just running errands, and I was curious..."

Hasty to clarify the curiosity is scientific, he adds, "You know, they have all this 'skintone matching techology, and I was wondering how it works." And whether it would work better to cover up bruises than the foundation he uses now.

[reptiledysfunction]

That was a pretty good excuse...though Connors was absolutely certain it was just that: an excuse. Still, if Peter didn't want to tell him why he was looking at foundations, then he wouldn't ask. He simply smiled, shaking his head, as he picked up a tube of foundation.

"Well, I wouldn't know much about skintone matching technology, but I do know that Martha always used this one." He looked at the tube of foundation for a moment, obviously nostalgic, before setting it back down on the shelf. "You'll have to tell me the results of your research," he adds, obviously teasing at this point, as shown by the small little smile on his face.

[shutterbugged]

Peter raises his eyes to the ceiling, but accepts the friendly jab in good humor. "You can peer review my monograph," he offers. "Anyway, how've you been? We haven't seen much of each other since the paintball thing, you doing all right?"

drug store.

[glassbox]

[ Given all that's happened in the past few weeks, Lil Crawley is feeling a little better. Circumstances in the aftermath of bad things haven't been as awful as they could be, and after half a month of moping around Matt's place, she's finally started to function with some semblance of normalcy. Getting dressed and going out to run ordinary errands would have seemed like a labor before, but she's apparently managing it well enough now -- even if "getting dressed" meant tugging on shorts and one of Matt's shirts, and "going out" means picking up a few things at the drug store.

That's when she spots the man in the cosmetics aisle, looking confused. She eyes him a moment, recognition hovering at the periphery of her mind. They'd spoken before, maybe. Or he was someone from back home -- an American, maybe. She had never paid enough attention to the line-up of American superheroes, certainly not enough to immediately recognize them out of costume.

Finally, she approaches, commenting a bit pointedly: ]

Y'look like y'need an intervention.

[shutterbugged]

[Peter jumps and turns around, fumbling behind him to slide the concealer back on the shelf. It takes a half-second to place Lil, and then all his effort not to blurt out her name -- they've only spoken while he was in costume. That extra jolt of adrenaline certainly adds to his frazzled demeanor.]

Oof, you startled me. Uh, no, I'm all right, really.

[There's nothing he can say to make this more dignified, is there.]

[glassbox]

[ She arches a skeptical eyebrow, as if to make it obvious that him sneaking the concealer back onto the shelf did absolutely nothing to conceal what he'd been doing when she walked up. But Lil's never shied away from awkwardness. She'd married an awkward man-- she's used to it, by now. ]

Really? Usually I ain't too good at sneakin' up on folks. Big gal, an' all.

[ Her tone is wry, but not unfriendly. ]

What d'you need it for?

[shutterbugged]

[It's not like it really matters what Matt's girlfriend thinks of his civilian identity, since they usually hang out as Daredevil and Spider-Man. But he's still prefer her not to think of him as some sort of weird fetishist.]

... If I said "intellectual curiosity," would you believe me?

residence

[smarterthandad]

[When woken by the sound of Peter falling through the window, Valeria, tiny bundle of science that she is, takes the logical step and makes the walls between her and where she estimates the noise came from invisible. She knows she lives with two vigilantes who refuse to use the door like normal people, so it's not like she's worried.

After she confirms it's Peter, the walls blink back into visibility, and hinges creak as she comes out of her room, rubbing her eyes with one hand and dragging a teddy bear with the other.]

Oh, just super, Peter. What did you do to yourself?

Re: residence

[shutterbugged]

[His door opens a crack, enough that he can show her he's mostly intact without giving her an eyeful of the... not-intact bits.]

I didn't do anything to myself, missy. The tree, on the other hand...

[Beat.] It's nothing serious -- you should go back to sleep, it's late. [He makes to close the door.]

[smarterthandad]

[Sigh.]

Do you need something splinted?

[Since he's together enough to be making wisecracks and she doesn't see any blood in his hair, it suggests the fall on entry was due to an injured leg, which of course Peter Parker would try to take care of himself.]

I'll get an ice pack.

[shutterbugged]

I'll get one after I shower. Go back to bed, Val -- I'll be fine, it's barely a sprain.

[Really, does she think he needs a keeper?

... Maybe he doesn't want to know the answer to that question.]

drug store!

[ecphrasis]

Molly's just popped in to the drug store after work to pick up a new shade of lipstick (and some crisps for dinner), and she can't help but stop and stare when she sees Peter in the cosmetics aisle. A grin tugs at her lips as she approaches, white lab coat draped over her arm.

"Need some help?"

[shutterbugged]

"Oh! Molly, hey -- I haven't seen you in ages! How've you been?" Peter's been missing her company, but to run into her now of all places...

Maybe if he can get her to socializing they can ignore the bull by the makeup counter.

[ecphrasis]

Her smile doesn't fade--she can see that he's trying to deflect, but Molly Hooper is not so easily dissuaded. She'll bring the conversation back around after niceties. "I've been alright, just keeping busy with work. What about you?"

[shutterbugged]

"Uh, nothing too spectacular." Nor amazing, astonishing or sensational, at least by his standards. "Getting ready for a move to De Chima next month."

A sentence which starts out breezy and comes out a bit more hesitant by the end. Even though he's moving to a city that's only a short hop away as the Porter, well, ports, he's finding it harder than expected to come to terms with leaving Heropa -- not the town so much as the people there who came over from the City, who he's come to think of as part of his community in exile. Molly, especially, is someone he'll miss.

[notdaredevil]

Matt's only surprised that Peter doesn't just show up in his office. It's the sort of thing he'd expect to have happen; come in, find Spider-Man in his seat, feet up on the desk, with a ready quip at hand. Or sitting on the wall snacking on a donut. Something like that. It's remarkably not obnoxious for him to just set up shop slightly away from his office instead, and wait for Matt to notice him and wrap something up.

He drops into the empty space on the bench.

"Since when do you bring me lunch?"

Obviously some of that is for Matt. Peter's not seventeen anymore, to put away entire pizzas on a regular basis. That's enough food for two people, for sure.

[shutterbugged]

Oh, Peter puts away entire pizzas, if not quite as often. He has to be stealthier about his eating habits these days since he can't pass them off as part of an ordinary youthful metabolism. But if Matt hadn't shown up he would've shrugged, and then demolished the entire bag.

Sitting with a foot propped on the seat, hands lightly clasped on his knee, he still resembles that seventeen-year-old of their first meeting. If he's been uncharacteristically restrained in reaching out to Matt today, it's only a reflection of his mood. Not that he really expects the other man to be angry with him, but he's feeling conciliatory.

"I heard that lawyers need to be appeased regularly with offerings, and since I was passing through the neighborhood I thought I'd knock it off my to-do list."

...Well, conciliatory by his own standards, anyway.

[notdaredevil]

What he should be conciliatory for, Matt isn't quite sure. His forgiveness has always been- well, not easy to obtain. But Matt doesn't hold grudges against the people he loves. He's forgiven Foggy and Karen numerous times; if he's fought extensively with Natasha, he's never kicked her out of his life. It's odd to think of Spider-Man as being restrained, and Matt isn't sure why.

This does count as restrained, for Spider-Man.

"If you're not in need of legal counsel, I think we can waive that requirement by this point. And you haven't done anything I can think of that would require a peace offering, Peter."

[symbionic]

It's been awhile for Flash, too. Before he left for Philly, and even then that'd been less of a friendly conversation than he would have liked. The memory of it still stings a little bit; it's hard, even from the people you love most, to be told bluntly the sort of damage you've caused them. And then later, when he'd tried to find some place to lay low, and Peter had sold them out...

But that's then and this is now. This is Peter as he should be, and Flash has buried the hatchet. It's nice to just get to hang out with his friend. It's nice to get to hang out with his friend and not have to be a pseudo-parent for at least a few hours.

"Dodging our adult responsibilities? Absolutely, man." These creamsicles aren't going to eat themselves, after all. "Do you feel bad about it?"

[shutterbugged]

"Not remotely," he says, tossing his popsicle stick into the nearest trash. (Making sure to lunge slightly, because Peter Parker only has hand-eye coordination when he's taking photos.)

"Well, a little -- but I'm sure Miranda has it under control for an afternoon. She won't let Val do anything dangerous. Unless -- wait." He gives Flash a wide-eyed look. "Did I just sound as much like Aunt May as I think I did?"

[symbionic]

If Peter Parker had made that throw, Flash would just have remarked in astonishment on his amazing luck. Because Flash Thompson is convinced that Peter has never really learned any sports or physical acumen, no matter what the evidence to the contrary. It's one of life's little ironies, like the fact that they're both trying so hard to cover up what they're hiding from each other that it's almost guaranteed they'll never notice any awkwardness from the other.

It's the little things that really make it.

"If you had a white wig and a cane I wouldn't be able to tell you two apart," he says, unable to control the huge grin. "But it's cute, when she does it. You just sound neurotic."

As though Flash isn't equally concerned for Val's safety. As though anyone who put her in danger should expect to walk away without his teeth in their throat.

"She'll be fine, man. How big a doomsday machine could she build in two hours?"

Spider-Man

[darkspider]

There is little that is more irritating than listening to Peter banter. That isn't to say that he dislikes Peter—or that he goes without his moments of banter himself—but he's largely restrained in his snide remarks, keeping them in unless the time calls for it. But this banter is largely lost on Kaine. He barely knows what Etsy is, but his best guess is that it's something pointless and ... therefore, very much up Peter's alley.

It figures.

Kaine adjusts his costume when Peter looks like he's done from his previous stealth mode, which gets a yelp from Vinny. It also reveals that he's been perched on the wall the entire time, but the suit makes it hard to spot him ... for many reasons (not to mention he's both soundless and invisible). "Going somewhere alone, Spider-Man?" After all, he's leaving soon himself; it seems fitting that he should at least tell Peter he's going somewhere, and this seems like the time to do it. It's also the best way to do it.

Of course, he had to be an audience to Peter's stupid antics, so maybe it wasn't. Oh well, it's too late now.

[shutterbugged]

"K-- Scarlet Spider!" Peter startles, but recovers quickly, spreading his arms in greeting. "We really need to get you some kind of nickname. One that doesn't say 'Disney villain' or 'southern belle' -- well, southern belle could work. But you don't actually give a damn, do you?"

He's not oblivious to the way his sense of humor grates on Kaine, but that's not an incentive to stop. Hey, maybe he's getting the hang of this "being a brother" thing after all.

"Not that I mind the company, but where are we headed?" Straight home or via a detour, is what he means.

[darkspider]

"There's an old factory downtown." It's one of the tallest buildings in Heropa, not that Heropa has many in that way. Still, there's a part of Kaine that appreciates tall buildings, much in the way that he assumes Peter is the same. After all, he was meant to be a fragment of Peter at some point.

Without much ceremony or waiting to see if Peter has anything snappy to say, Kaine takes off, a web immediately released before he starts swinging between the low-built buildings.