Who: Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker, and Klara Prast-Coulson What: A game of Spidertag goes wrong? When: Backdated to Friday afternoon Where: Downtown Status: Completed gdoc
Gwen sat on the roof of a building, legs dangling lazily as she waited for her friend to show up. She was sure she’d dragged him from seeing Klara, but she didn’t care. She was bored. So she was gonna propose a game.
It was sure to backfire and end poorly. Which made it way more fun.
“Hey.” She flipped a hand up at him as he made his way to her and grinned, shooting him with a little ball of webbing. “Tag, you’re it.” with that she winked, and slid off the edge of the roof, the hoodie of her suit flipping up as she did so.
She may or may not have been laughing.
Peter didn't mind "being dragged from seeing Klara". First of all, they were just friends. And secondly, even if they were, you know, together, he would still want to spend time with his friends, too. So he had no problem showing up at the building Gwen had perched herself on.
When a ball of webbing hit him before he'd even scaled his way up the building, he blinked his surprise. It took a few seconds, but he did get what she was doing. Eventually.
And he rolled his eyes. "You're going to get us in trouble, you know." Somehow he had a feeling that was going to be a permanent thing in being friends with Gwen.
He scaled the roof so he could see which direction she was heading. Scrambling after her, he swung his way around the next building, cutting her off. "Tag yourself," he teased before flipping backwards and on to the next area.
Gwen was going to tease him about everything for like, ever. That was fine, it was fine, everything was fine. She needed this, she missed her Peter, and this Peter was just going to have to do.
Sorry not sorry.
“Cry me a river, Parker.” she called out over her shoulder as she hopped over a roof edge then got tagged. She changed directions to chase after him, content to let him get a bit ahead of her so she could drop in from another angle. “If you don’t wanna play, just say so” she winked.’
Gwen was looking for fun. She caught a light pole and swung up, in front of him, tagged him then launched off the pole over onto another roof, laughing.
He was out of practice. Maybe stuff like this was actually good for them. Sure, they could probably do the Training Terrain or maybe the Danger Room. But they were both under 18 and that wasn't usually welcomed. So this would just have to do.
Giving her a bit of a head start, he ran around the side of a nearby building, scrambled up the tree beside it, and waited out of sight. He could tell the moment she stopped to look for him and that was when he swung by her, shooting her as he did.
Peter landed neatly on a roof, smiling innocently down. "Come on, you're letting Queens down here, Stacy."
Gwen would be happy if he figured out this was good for them. She enjoyed keeping them on their toes, for now at least. Maybe later they could work out in a real place that wasn’t, you know, the wilds of the city.
She paused on a ledge, looking for him, head cocked sideways as she let her senses do their job. But he caught her off guard anyway - it was hard to tell where he was specifically. That was okay, this was good for her too.
Gwen blinked, “Oh you’ll pay for that one.” she called out as she pushed off the edge and swung up into a tree. She moved easily, disappearing into the leaves, trying to keep her speed up so he didn’t get a glance at her. She’d wait until he was mid-swing before she’d nail him from the side, cackling as she would swing away.
It was cute how she thought he was dumb, apparently. Maybe her Peter wasn't quite as smart? Either way, he knew at least about where she had headed.
It didn't matter, apparently, since she got him anyway.
The problem with two spiders fighting was they had such similar abilities. Yes, his senses were awesome. But so were hers. He paused, listening. She was good. Stealthy. Something he was still working on. But finally, he heard it. The scrape of a foot. It was all he needed and he skipped across two buildings before dropping down in front of her with a smile and a shot of his web. "This would be way more fun on skyscrapers," he commented and then took off as quickly as he could manage.
She moved easily, enjoying the movement. She didn’t fight the ground, the wall or the trees, she merely used them to run across. She liked the smoothness of the roof beneath her foot, the fact no one really seemed to be noticing.
She had to pull her way out of that one, hand stuck to the wall. She grew devious, grinning wickedly as she crawled up the wall and took off after him. She was laughing as she threw herself off one building, catching herself halfway down before tagging him from behind.
“It so totally would be more fun.”
A wink before she swung by him, and took a sharp left.
The thing with Gwen was that she was a more carefree version of himself. Someone who enjoyed the more thrilling parts of being a Spider. Peter had been working on that, at least a little. It made him wonder sometimes about the him from her world, the one she had lost. How had he ever kept up with her?
But it was really cool to have someone who knew not just his identity (most people here did) but both sides of being, well, what he was. The scarier parts and the really fun parts. And swinging? Was literally the most fun.
He paused and listened, letting his other senses do all the work. Looking for her hadn't been working. Well, it had, but it also got him hit, too. So Peter simply closed his eyes and waited. He could actually smell her. Her shampoo was too girly if she ever wanted to really be in hiding. A wind picked up and with that, he pinpointed exactly where she was. He didn't even move, just reached out and shot a web straight in her direction.
Gwen loved this. She loved being a Spider. Oh yeah, it could get hard. And there were days she hated it, too. But most of the time? She lived for the thrills.
Her Peter hadn't been able to keep up. That had been his downfall. If she ever talked about it, it was the biggest regret she had. Not seeing the warning signs. Until it was long past too late.
She swung easily, intending to whip around him, until she found herself trying desperately to get out of the way. It didn't work, merely, got her stuck by a foot to a wall. He'd get a lead while she freed herself.
But it wouldn't last long. As payback she was gonna web him to a wall. Little sneak
Beaming as his shot landed exactly as intended, he waved his fingers at her. "You smell nice, what is that, freesia?" Winking exaggeratedly, he flipped backwards for no other reason than he could and started to bound away while she figured out how to work her way out of the webbing.
If she couldn't, he wasn't a total asshole. He'd make his way back and release her. But watching her kinda flail about after the last hit was pretty funny, he couldn't deny it.
She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, okay noted.” she snarked at him as she worked her way out of the webbing. It took a few minutes to totally free herself but that was okay because by then she was planning her revenge. She laughed as she charged after him, swinging quickly across the city.
She swung up behind him, “Boo!” she called out as she hit him with a webbing and sticking him to a wall this time, laughing as she swung up and tried to swing away fast enough to avoid any other webbing. Not that it would work.
Was Peter caught off guard? Yes. Was he laughing anyway? Also yes. Was he going to get revenge even if he could barely move? Oh, hell yes.
Without even thinking, he let his reflexes take over and shot straight at her as she bounded ahead. He may have been stuck to a wall but his hand wasn't. And now, he was not the only one stuck.
He smirked at her. Wiggling his fingers, he shrugged his shoulders, a useless gesture from beneath webbing as she probably couldn't see. "Oops?"
Gwen dodged enough to not get stuck to the wall. Sadly enough she didn't miss getting stuck to the lamppost. Upside down. Swinging lazily. She tried to free itself and only got more stuck.
She burst out laughing. "Oh my god Peter. This is hilarious. But uh oops indeed!" She was giggling pretty hard as she dropped her hands over her head, fingers stuck together.
"This is a tiny bit awkward, though"
Peter was trying not to laugh. This was serious! They could get in big trouble!
But it was impossible not to when Gwen was just hanging there, her hair flopping around, cracking up laughing. "Oh my god, we're idiots. Honestly. Shit. Does your webbing have a time limit? Cause yours isn't dissolving for two hours and um…" Sure, they had way better equilibrium than those without their powers, but she was upside down, after all. That was going to get uncomfortable fast.
"I can't even reach my phone." Mr. Stark would come down. He'd laugh his ass off, but he'd come.
She was laughing far too hard to care. This was the most fun she'd had in awhile, and she wasn't afraid to say so. "This is the most fun I've had since I got here."
Gwen made a face, which was hilarious upside down, "you know… I have no idea. I don't think I've ever paid attention. Which in retrospect seems really dumb of me." She swung herself a bit, wiggling one hand, trying to see if she could manage a shot to pull her upright.
She missed the first few tries, but eventually got one so she could at least pull herself sort of upright. Her face was red from effort and being upside down. Now she was only sideways.
She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes, "okay here's the plan. I'm gonna try to wiggle my phone out of my pocket. Do you think you can snag it?"
"That's what you get for having someone else make your webshooters," he teased. Peter had studied every inch of his ability intensely, to the point he annoyed even himself. But there was very little about his webbing that he didn't know. Including the time it took to wear off.
He gave her a pointed look. "I have about six inches of hand available here, Gwen. Maybe next time don't aim for an entire body!" Okay, he had to think. He'd gotten out of way worse problems than this. "If you can get it out of your pocket, I can shoot it up to you?"
...god, they were a mess. All he could do was hope no one from school walked by and saw them looking like morons. Or Klara. She'd laugh, sure, but in the good way? Who knew.
"Look, bite me spider boy, clearly I'm gonna start paying more attention now." She teased back, Gwen was smart but sometimes things just escaped her. While they bantered she was wiggling her hips, trying to work the phone out. "I'll think about picking less of a target next time."
They were a hot mess and Gwen couldn't help but love it. Her nose wrinkled in concentration. "I think I've got it." She shimmied just a little bit more, the phone sliding out of her pocket.
The problem was, Peter couldn't exactly watch his friend wiggling her hips like that without looking like a total perv. And that was definitely not his thing. He knew he could come on too strong sometimes but he wasn't some kind of creeper.
At least, he didn't think so.
So he has taken his eyes off of Gwen just long enough to miss the exact second her phone came out. With his hand hardly at optimal movement, he had no angle to get anything on the ground. "Dammit!" he yelped, groaning as he looked down at her phone. "I hope you have one of those life cases." His was Star Wars. Because...obviously.
Gwen rolled her eyes as her phone hit the ground. "Well that didn't go as planned." She stared for a moment before bursting into laughter. "This is the most ridiculous thing and I know it's kind of a bad thing but I love it."
She swung there for a moment before her eyes went wide. Oh. Well this was gonna get even more awkward in a moment. She weighed telling him versus letting him see for himself. She opted for the latter.
Klara was out running errands when she heard a phone clatter followed by some mild swearing. She changed direction midstride to follow the sound. When she turned the forget to see Peter webbed to the wall and his friend Gwen hanging from a lamp she put her hand over her mouth, giggling.
"Would you two like some help?" She asked as she came fully into view, lips tipped upwards into a playful smile. "And uh, are you guys okay?"
If Peter could have buried his face in his hands, he would have. Maybe him being grateful she wasn't there was actually his Spidey senses warning him she was. If that was the case, he was getting rusty.
His face turned a rather obnoxious shade of red and he tried smiling, though he was sure it was a look of desperation instead. "Hi. Um. Yeah, we're fine. No bad guys or anything, no, of course not, not here. Just two idiots being idiots."
Because Peter felt socially stupid pretty often but right now he wished the earth could swallow him whole. "Could uh...could you do me a favor and grab Gwen's phone for us? We were going to call for help, see…"
Klara gave him a sympathetic look as he spoke. "I could also get you down. If you would like?" She did bend over to grab the phone though, smiling warmly. She waved to Gwen as she held the phone.
"I mean, I'm pretty sure there's a potted rose nearby that could help cut you free." She paused then grinned, "also there's a Hawthorne. He could help."
If Gwen could have fallen over laughing she would have. Instead she grinned widely as she wiggled a finger in Klara's direction to wave.
"We are the biggest idiots but that's okay. Don't let him fool you it was a blast getting here. Tag gets more fun with webbing!" She grinned as she looked at Peter.
"Let her help, Peter!"
She'd sheepishly tell Rose later.
If looks could kill, Gwen would be dead.
Also, if he were less comfortable with his masculinity, he would absolutely die on the spot at the idea of the girl he liked rescuing him.
But neither of those things happened. Instead, Peter brightened. After shooting Gwen a look that clearly said he would kill her when he had the time. "You don't mind? Do you think it would work? Mine will eventually dissolve but Gwen has no idea on hers, some scientists just aren't as good at their work, see…" Yes, Gwen, that was a jab at you. And no, he didn't care. She was going to mock him forever for this, he'd at least get his jabs in. "And being rescued by a tree would be really cool."
And a gorgeous girl. Peter wasn't too proud for that.
Klara nodded a bit as she looked around, “Give me a moment then.” she missed the looks he was giving Gwen. She was generally oblivious to a lot of things, after all. She located both the potted rose and the hawthorne, she coaxed them to help her out. She guided the hawthorn towards them in the best way to avoid getting into trouble with normal people.
She set the potted rose by Gwen’s lamppost and told it was it needed to do. She guided the hawthorn first to help cut through the webs holding Peter. It took a bit of time, it was a plant after all, but it would carefully cut away. The look on her face was pure concentration as she directed everything with careful gestures and thoughts.
Klara looked up as the tree cut Peter free, blushing a touch as she smiled. “There we go.” she said gently. She bit her lip as she worked the tree around him closely. “Test?”
Gwen stuck her tongue out at Peter. “Bite me, look, I’m gonna need time with Scott or Mr. Stark to learn about this one.” she was grinning despite his death glares. She didn’t care, it was good fun to be teased by Peter. It was like having her best friend back without the trauma.
She liked that.
She watched as Klara cut him free then directed the rose to cut her free. As the rose did it’s job she prepped to catch herself, but she was laughing. “Oh man this is the best day ever.”
"That's twice you've told me to bite you, do you think that's going to give you bonus spider powers or something?" He was laughing, though. It helped take his mind off of watching Klara work. He was in danger of looking really creepy at that rate.
But she just looked so...peaceful. She always did when she talked to her plants and when she listened as they talked. But now, with them working together? It was like when they'd made his class go to Lincoln Center to see the ballet.
And he knew Gwen knew. And that was annoying.
"You're the best," he told Klara as he scrambled down from his Gwen-induced prison. "I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't come along."
“Who knows it might, right??” she asked laughing, as she shrugged a bit. “Look, whatever.” she stuck her tongue out at him again. Gwen could tell Peter was crushing pretty hard and she was storing that info away for later use.
Because really, he was too easy to tease.
Once she was free, she let herself drop, flipping to land on her feet and dust her hands off on her thighs. “That was fun. New rule, no sticking each other to walls, right?” she grinned widely.
Klara was peaceful when working with her plants unless she was in the middle of a fight where she tended to get worked up. But now was all easy, peaceful motions. She was comfortable, and serene.
She patted each plant on the head and returned them to where they were meant to be before looking back between the two Spiders. “Oh I am sure someone would have come by and helped you.” She handed the phone back to Gwen and smiled softly.
“Though perhaps you two should invest in those bluetooth earphone things if you are going to play tag?” Klara might not be modern worldly but she was learning, even if she’d struggled for the word bluetooth for a moment.
She smiled shyly. “I am glad I could help.”
"Yeah, but anyone else might have told our fam….well, guardian families." Peter was used to not saying 'parents'. He had lived with Ben and May for as long as he could remember. But not having his real family to depend on was still weird. Even if his family currently consisted of just him and May. "Or they might have called the cops and told them we were being...I dunno, rowdy or something." Though really, if this town wasn't used to rowdy, why bother?
He shoved his hands into his pockets, suddenly a little shyer now that he was free. "Um. Yeah we should definitely consider some alternatives for next time. If someone," he began, his tone accusatory, "hadn't surprised me, maybe we would have!"
Gwen grinned wickedly, "my bad, my bad. You'll be fine. We're fine. But I'll letcha take Klara for a thank you snack." She wiggled her eyebrows as she plucked a twenty from her wallet and passed it to Klara.
"Thanks again, Klara." She winked and shot a web up and swung her way back toward home.
Klara was looking at something on her phone, the whole thing making her think of what she wanted to do for Christmas, and she was texting Pepper. She sheepishly smiled up at Gwen.
"Did you want to get something to eat, Peter?" She asked Peter with a gentle smile as she watched Gwen swing away, shaking her head a little.
Peter narrowed his eyes, watching as Gwen sped off. "Did she actually just pay you?" he asked, laughing slightly. And then he realized what had actually just happened. And what Klara had asked.
"Oh! Um, yeah. Definitely." How was it almost always her asking him to dinner? It wasn't that he didn't think girls could ask guys out. It was just that he knew she wasn't. Not like that, anyway. If he did it, maybe he could push to imply it was a date? "Hinkles again?" It was the place most likely for them to go anyway.
She laughed, "yeah I think it's for food?" She said with a smirk as she tucked it away and shrugged. "Her idea of thanks?" Klara blushed a little at the idea.
"That works for me. I am kind of in the mood for a milkshake!" She beamed a bring smile at him as she tucked her phone away too. She started towards Hinkles. She wasn't sure what she'd do about a date, but she would definitely turn red.
"In my world, superheroes don't usually get paid…" Still, he grinned. How could he not when he'd been having a fun afternoon with a friend and now he was going to dinner with another friend?
A really pretty friend who he cared a lot about. This was fine.
"You're always in the mood for a milkshake," he teased, nudging her gently with his elbow. "You can't just eat milkshakes. They're almost all sugar!" Not that Peter didn't consume his fair share of sugar.
Klara smirked, "I'm not really a superhero though! I mean we weren't like you or the Avengers, " they really were though, she just right quite feel that way. They'd been on the run a lot.
"They're delicious, Peter! I never had them until I got here!" She exclaimed, smiling shyly. But she nudged him back, eyes sparkling a little.
"But I won't have just a milkshake."
"You are, too, don't be modest. Hey, you saved our butts back there. Who knows how long we might have been trapped!" And he knew she was pretty useful back in her world, too. "The Avengers would be lucky to have you. Oh! You could meet Groot. He's a tree...kinda." Did it count as him being a tree if he was from a different planet?
Peter offered her an apologetic smile. "I'm only teasing. You can have as many milkshakes as you want. But don't blame me when you go into diabetic shock here!" He wondered if people with her kind of mutation were even susceptible to modern diseases. Or any diseases. He knew it took a lot to get him sick thanks to his own mutations, but she was born with hers.
"I've met some of them. We worked briefly with them but I was pretty quiet then." She shrugged a little bit, "that's okay. I don't mind." Klara paused, "Groot. That's kind of awesome. Not that I ever would but I wonder if my ability would extend to him?"
"I won't!" Because she took things far too literally sometimes, she was just happy to be going to eat with one of her best friends. While she had a crush on him, she wouldn't say anything or change her behaviour, she didn't know how to really.
But there were little signs. Like the way she looked at him. With that sweet smile.
"You could talk to him, probably. He speaks Groot, not many people do, I guess? He's from another planet and all. So it can be hard to communicate with him. But if you can speak to our plants, maybe you can speak to him!" Which got Peter's mind racing, as it so often did, wondering about her abilities and a planet filled with people who were basically trees and wondering if somehow, the two things were connected. Maybe there were more like Klara out there. Maybe Groot wasn't the first of his kind to come to Earth. There were so many possibilities that he almost missed that little smile of hers.
But of course he didn't. Because Peter Parker had a mental checklist of all the times Klara had smiled at him. He was a little in love with her smile.
"So we get you a milkshake, and maybe a burger? I'm actually in the mood for their chicken fingers, is that weird?" It was probably weird. But oh well, he wanted what he wanted and right then he wanted chicken fingers and honey mustard. "I should try to make those next."
"That would be interesting to see, I think. Since he's a plant based lifeform I can probably speak to him. That would be cool." Klara ran a hand through her hair, tugging on some invisible knots.
"That sounds perfect, Peter!" She laughed, then, and shook her head. "That's not weird, why would it be weird??" She blinked at him not really understanding why it was strange to want chicken fingers.
"I'm not sure how to make those but I bet we can figure it out together."
That laugh was basically everything to him. He really did have it bad, and he knew at least some people had figured it out. But this wasn't Liz, it wasn't MJ (apparently, that was still a new and somewhat odd revelation). Things had to be different with Klara. And that was okay. Things could move slower, they could ease their way into...whatever. And if she never wanted anything but someone to be friends with, well, that was fine, too. Because he liked her for more than just the pretty face.
"You can do anything. You're just...really smart like that." And he knew smart. He was, literally, a genius after all. And went to a school for incredibly gifted kids. Well. Back home he did. Here? It was just rough was all.
Turning a bit pink, he kissed her cheek lightly, reminiscent of all the times she had done so to him. "Thanks again. For rescuing us and all."
Klara broke out into a really bright smile, "Thank you! I'm not as smart as you but I'm just smarter in different ways." It had taken years to be okay with complimenting - herself mostly - but she still has little moments like this where she'd adjust it to got her, or how she thought she should.
Once he kissed her cheek she blushed, her cheeks warming, and it sent butterflies tumbling. Somehow she didn't get that same feeling kissing his cheek but if she thought about it, it was because she was just sweet that way. People didn't do it back!
She ducked her head a little, a shy smile on her lips, as she reached for the door too Hinkles. A quiet little oh sneaking out. She kind of panicked a little internally before nudging him gently, leaning into him for just a few seconds longer than necessary.
"Let's eat, yeah?"
For a second, he thought maybe he'd pushed her too far, too fast. But she was smiling. And then there was that contact. Brief though it was. Peter still reveled in it. Because he was a giant loser and he knew it, but even that was better than nothing.
Jumping in front of her, he reached for the door. "Let me! My aunt would be ashamed if she thought I wasn't holding doors for pretty girls." Oops. That part wasn't intentional. But, well, it was only the truth.
Klara's blush deepened a little - while being called beautiful never did much for her, somehow being called pretty did. Perhaps it was a combo of who was saying it and the fact she knew he meant it and not just in that shallow way.
She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before stepping inside and finding them a booth. It was delightful, really, to be this cheerful because of a few words and gestures.