InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Maybe you were."

== (wants) wrote in rooms,
@ 2015-04-24 07:51:00

Entry tags:

!marvel comics, *log, flash thompson, mary jane watson

Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W
Who: Flash Thompson & MJ Watson
What: a ~pretend~ date
Where: New York Aquarium
When: not too long after this; early evening
Warnings/Rating: they might talk about dolphin dildos

It wasn't nice enough out yet to just stroll through Central Park. There was a bite to the wind and the sky was drawn down in a dusty, fast-moving gray, giving everything that cold, clammy feeling of impending rain. But, the New York Aquarium, just off the Coney Island Boardwalk, MJ had learned after some research, was handicap accessible—every exhibit! They'd gone there for a field trip in high school, she remembered, all the nerdy Midtown kids gathering around the blue-wash of thick glass, naming the types of reefs they were looking at like everyone else didn't already know, someone telling someone else about millet butterflyfish, or, as they called them, "the species, chaetodon miliaris."—So, maybe it wasn't like, the most romantic place or whatever. It wasn't very private and there sure as hell wasn't anything like wine to calm the nerves or embolden anyone. But she wasn't very good at this vein of things—dating. For as high-maintenance as she seemed, MJ was much happier just getting drinks or going dancing or, hell, staying in and watching a scary movie and cuddling close. (Really, all she needed was attention.) Harry had always wanted to take her galas, to fundraisers, whatever rich people lied to each other about and called fun, like it was some brand name, but MJ was from Queens. She'd have fun getting like, an ice cream cone. But, she and Flash needed to do this in public, where people would be turning their phones on the famous MJ Watson and her ~mystery date~, and posting the shit to Tumblr, so Pete could see it and believe it. (He totally ran a secret hipster aesthetic photography blog. Everyone knew that.)

Because, right, that was the whole point—Pete seeing. To neuter MJ as a threat to his whatever with Gwendy, so the idiot would remember she, MJ, was his friend first and maybe, idk, try talking to her again.—It was all make-believe! Right? Right! If MJ took a little extra time making sure she looked nice for Flash, well, she was in the public eye a lot, okay? Plus, she needed to make sure her mascara didn't run if it did decide to rain.

The girl stood outside the Conservation Hall, navy wool coat buttoned, hood up over red curls, bloom of red on her lips and Peter Pan collar more modest than she meant around her throat. (She'd been planning on something with a plunging neckline (also, it was leopard print), but then she got worried that Flash would think badly of her—you know, for their pretend date. So, for once in her life, MJ took the safer option. Outside, in the chill, she didn't have cause yet to regret it.) There were butterflies trundling in her stomach and she tried to tell herself it was nothing. It was just stupid Flash. It would be weird to see him without... yk, his legs, but she wasn't even really worried about that. Flash was Flash. It was just... what if he didn't like her? Even like, pretend?

Then what?

MJ didn't like that thought one bit. She bounced a little on her flats, her tights mesh and the cold climbing up her legs, and she ignored the graffiti someone had sprayed on the cement nearby in blue and red, letters cutting harsh angles: WE'RE ALL FLIES IN HIS WEB. She waited, knowing that if any spider came toward her just then, she'd crush it with her heel.

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Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

flashofvenom
2015-04-24 06:26 pm UTC (link)

The truth was, Flash Thompson wasn't ready to date. It wasn't because he couldn't be tied down by a real relationship or he forgot how to do this formal dating thing. It was because he wasn't ready for some chick to see him naked. It was a really simple thing, something that was always in the back of his head when MJ flirted with him. Everyone acted like him being in a wheelchair was no big deal, but it fucking was. He knew he was half the man (literally) that he used to be and at the end of this date, it was finally going to dawn on MJ that she was freaked out by the idea of fucking a dude with no legs. Flash couldn't blame her. He had a hard enough time looking in the mirror most days.

But, okay. MJ made him feel good when they talked over the journals and they were both obviously feeling lonely, so why not? He knew rejection was going to come at the end, so why not just enjoy himself on the way? The added bonus of keeping Gwen from freaking out and being a bro to Peter motivated him to get dressed and roll his ass down to the aquarium where she wanted to meet. He was dressed in a nice, clean t-shirt that had a local gym logo and jeans that masked the fact his legs were missing unless you looked really hard. This was the most presentable he looked in a long time; hair combed, face shaved and shower taken. Even though he was in a wheelchair, at least he had the handsome thing going for him.

"You write that?" He asked as he rolled up to meet her, thumbing towards the graffiti. "Pretty fucking heavy handed if you ask me." Flash shrugged and gave her a frat boy grin that really didn't look as good when he was at waist height. "Spidey SuXs with an X would be so much better."

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

wants
2015-04-25 04:33 pm UTC (link)

First of all, MJ Watson was not some chick. Second of all, she knew a wheelchair was a big deal, especially to someone like Flash. Growing up, he was always tall, he was strong—he was a soldier even, after high school, and now, this. It wasn't something anyone would deal with well, she didn't think, but him even less so. She knew he was self-conscious about it. He'd said so before. He told her she wouldn't want to be with him, to sleep with him, like he was, but she disagreed. Everyone thought MJ was some plastic, shallow Barbie bitch of a girl, but she wasn't. Maybe it would be weird or whatever, but like, Flash—he was cute. Like, really cute. He was nice. Kind of dorky and more than a little bro-y, but he was a good guy, and he talked to MJ like she was a person capable of having feelings, which was a huge plus in her mind. And, again, he was really cute.

She looked a little longer than she might've before, watching him roll up in his gym t-shirt and combed hair, but she grinned immediately, a little flushed with her teeth hooking her bottom lip as she bounced on her feet.—Her eyes went to the graffiti and she laughed, nothing very dainty or ladylike about it.

"As if I would call myself a fly," MJ replied with expert flippancy, batting an eyelash at Flash. "I'd go for 'you're all flies in his web. I'm the black widow that bites his fucking head off.' Not as succinct, but more me."

She smiled and bent down, because he couldn't stop her, and she kissed him—very nicely!—on the cheek, leaving a streak of red she thumbed away like she was practiced at it.

"Tell me I look good so we can start this thing." She tipped her head, looking at the chair, then back to Flash. She wasn't shy about it and she didn't beat around the bush. "I've never done this. Do I push you...?"

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

flashofvenom
2015-04-27 05:19 pm UTC (link)

Flash didn't mind the long stare. It was weird, okay. It was weird to see this super muscular, probably does cross fit, #getswoll motherfucker roll up in a wheelchair. He felt like he needed to wear his army shit or something as a way to explain why he was the way he was. "Yeah, you could totally cosplay as Black Widow." Flash said and did a really good job at taking the kiss to his cheek without freaking out. It felt good and familiar, like spring nights in high school and he thought it was funny how she even kind of smelled like old MJ minus the booze.

"You look hot as fuck." Flash told her obediently and gave her one of those old smiles she would have known backwards and forwards. "Little fucking stressed from living the famous life, but I'm not going to get on your ass about that." He was totally lying about leaving it alone and they both knew it. The MJ he grew up with never got famous past being a drunk mess that attracted blogs like honey and he wondered if being successful solved problems or made them worse.

"Uuuh, I've never done this shit either. I usually let Gwen-" But, it was very clear that Gwen was the only one allowed to push him. Not metaphorical at all. "I can do it. My guns have a new purpose in life." And so he pushed and rolled along side her. "So, what do people do in aquariums? Make fun of fish? I can do that."

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

wants
2015-04-28 10:39 pm UTC (link)

MJ bit her bottom lip and smiled, pleased by the compliment, with the rose-blush in her cheeks to prove it, even if she had told him to say it. Because she believed he meant it, coaxed out or not. (She left the cosplay comment, because snort, she was a famous actress, okay.) She forgot her lipstick might come off on the backs of her teeth, and she liked that familiar smile he gave her, the one that she'd known as long as she'd known Flash. She looked away in a dart of blue, feeling stupidly charmed by the idiot in the chair, and then she forced out a hard breath, bringing herself back to the present.

"You'd get on my ass about anything, slugger, just because it's my ass." MJ grinned in a part of ruby.—She didn't move toward his chair, even as he faltered. If she was somehow slighted by the fact that he only let Gwen push him, it didn't register on her face. It was a vulnerable thing, she knew, letting someone do that, and, well, Flash didn't like being vulnerable any more than anyone else. She supposed maybe she'd get there with him eventually.—She let her eyes move over Flash's so-called guns and she nodded like, okay, she'd allow it. Her fingers twined in front of her and she walked as he rolled, taking the zap of ramp up into the building. She tipped her head in a spill of burnished copper and smiled at her feet as they propelled her in black flats, tap, tap, tap. He asked about aquariums and poking fun at fish. "That's exactly what they do."

Inside, the Conservation Hall was dark, little bubbled windows backlit, bright flora and fauna simmering in saltwater, little educational placards or interactive screens here and there. It had that wet smell of aquariums—not bad, just like, moist and close and dark and cool, and it was really pretty, she thought, everything submarine blue or the tropical blooms of things like yellow and pink. It was calming. And maybe it would make Flash feel better because no one could really see him to stare—same for her, since everyone like, knew her face or whatever these days.

"The featured exhibit is called the cownose ray," MJ informed Flash with a grin, her teeth a little flecked with lipstick. She still couldn't afford anything fancy. Everyone knew her face, her name, but she was still from Queens. She stilled lived at home. It was drugstore lipstick. "I'll let you come up with the first insult for that, since I'm polite."

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

flashofvenom
2015-05-01 09:10 am UTC (link)

Flash wasn't used to the vulnerable thing, like how could he be? Dudebro had been the toughest guy in school and indeed his guns were the only reason why he was considered popular. It wasn't that he was funny or nice (he was both of those things) but because he could literally pick up Peter Parker and shove him inside of a locker while his bros high fived behind him. So, now he was in a wheelchair and even with Venom giving him legs, it was still him needing the assistance of something else. It sucked and thinking about it too hard made him want to stay indoors and play video games forever and ever.

He didn't know what he was expecting as he rolled into the aquarium, but the dark coolness of the air relaxed him a lot. It reminded him of wearing Venom without all the energy the goop alien gave him. "Clown nose ray?" Flash asked up at her, concentrating really hard to try and imagine what that would look like. He glanced up and noticed the lipstick on her teeth, but didn't say anything. He liked seeing something that reminded him of that crappy neighborhood they grew up in. "Nah, I mean with a name like that he's got his own problems." Good guy Flash.

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

wants
2015-05-04 04:07 am UTC (link)

Vulnerable—MJ wasn't so good at it herself. It led to hurt, invariably. She could Gwendolyn Stacy enough to take her experiences as data and plot them out in letters that red like a bad stripclub's neon sign: Bad Idea. She'd learned that lesson enough times over now, and again recently, that she should've been a touch more wary, perhaps. After all, distance from that vulnerability—that was the reason she had the veneer she did, it was why she smiled under sheen of glitz and gloss and bubbled. But, for whatever (likely stupid) reason, she didn't feel like she had to play that part for Flash. (In fact, she knew the reasons. She was very aware of them, gathered at the back of her mind the way lint collects in a dryer. She simply chose to ignore them just then. She had more important things to parse. Like, did she look good?}

MJ rolled her eyes at the boy in the wheelchair, smiling red-and-white, nervous fingers pushing her hair back from her face as they walked deeper into the cavernous building.

She sighed a little bit, instead of offering a witty retort, and she forced herself not to wring her hands together like a lunatic.

"I really like it here," she said airly, drawing to one of the glowing panes of glass, clouds of jellyfish illuminated blue in black, tendrils dancing, floating as ballerinas' tutus through air. MJ pressed fingers to the cold tank and smiled over her shoulder at Flash. "C'mere. Check these little guys out." She whispered to him, if he came closer: "They're almost as gay as your wrestlers."

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

flashofvenom
2015-05-06 10:19 am UTC (link)

"I like it, too." Flash said in a moment of dudebro earnestness. He let his mouth melt sideways, making his face stretch along with it and he looked up and around. There were parents with kids, other people on dates and the occasional wandering loner. "I bet it's cause neither of our parents would take us to a place like this, right? Everyone else is like whatever that's kiddy stuff."

Flash rolled closer to look at the jellyfish and lightly tapped her shoulder with his fist. "Not gay. Holy shit." Flash was laughing though and the tap felt like nothing at all. "Actually, you know what's weird? When I was in that door, before I got my legs cut off, all I could hear was you circa Freshman year calling me gay. Like that seal in the water you know, just going GGAAYYY at the top of his lungs." Flash snickered and shook his head, his voice was maybe a little too loud towards the end of that (just above a whisper), but he didn't give a shit. He was in a wheelchair. What were they going to do, tip him over? "I went out into the street and was like fine, you're right! I'm totally gay!" Flash laughed and it sounded like he was shaking something loose out of him. The last bit of fear from Silent Hill. "And you didn't care. You just got real cranky."

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

wants
2015-05-07 08:26 am UTC (link)

She was glad he liked it too. She'd worried a little bit. It wasn't typical-typical for girls like her or maybe bros. She couldn't attest to that. But, he liked it and that was good, and it showed in her face when she smiled at the cool glass in front of her.

"You're probably right," MJ replied about their parents. "But I don't feel bad about it. I think—and I know this sounds totally cheesy—but I think awe is, like, an important thing to hold onto. Maybe we're messed up, but we can still come into a place like this and find it cool, you know?"

She grinned at the tap of his fist and the curse that left Flash's mouth like it was a thoughtless breath, even if a little kid looked over with wide eyes. But, before she could say something about keeping it clean, with accompanying lascivious wink, he ws talking about the door and his legs, and she was trying to imagine it. She sputtered a little bit, a laugh she didn't know if it was okay to let out at the end, when he said she got cranky, and she covered her face with her hand, painted nails shining in the low light.

"God. I'm sorry. That was rude of me to follow you there and harass you for being gay. I mean, I'm cool with it, Flash. If you are. It's 2015." And she was kidding—she didn't think he was gay. Lol. It was spelled out in her smile and she pushed fingers into his hair to shove at his head lightly. She forgot about the little boy. MJ's expression softened a tiny bit into something like earnestness, because she hadn't talked with him about it. "So that's how you stood up to your boggart? I mean, is that what it was?"

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Re: Log, Marvel: Flash T & MJ W

flashofvenom
2015-05-14 07:29 am UTC (link)

"Yeah man. The fact that we can go look at fish and be like sweeet is pretty awesome. I know dudes who can't even do that. Too fucked in the head." Flash wasn't even only talking about the men he served with during the war. There were regular people who never experienced any kind of fucking trauma who couldn't appreciate shit. Who blankly looked at screens and buildings and other people and couldn't feel anything. For all the pain Flash was in, at least he could feel it.

The thing he always liked about MJ was that she didn't have a really great filter cause she never needed one. The redhead laughed and glared and shouted all she wanted. When they were in high school and she was stressing over modeling or acting, he told her to stop worrying. That she easily had that thing capable of captivating audiences. Hell, when she simply stood in a room, people looked at her.

And, yeah, now they looked at him too, but that was the chair. Not him.

He grinned at her. "Boggart?" Flash thought it was a Harry Potter thing but he really couldn't be fucking sure. "I don't know, man! I just wanted you to leave me alone. That siren shit is not cool." His smile softened at her fingers through his hair and he was surprised he liked someone touching him. Usually he got super weirded out. "I don't think you're like that, dude. For the record. I mean you can be annoying but never like fucking shrill." Flash was clearly trying to make sure she wouldn't get offended, a sort of last minute scramble as he realized having her as a boggart wasn't totally flattering.

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