16397/Miles to Go

Miles to Go
Date of Scene:	29 June 2024
Location:	New Lots, Brooklyn
Synopsis:	After too much time not talking, Gwen finally reaches out to Miles and catches up with him about current events... at least as much as they can until duty calls.
Cast of Characters:	Ghost Spider, Kid Arachnid

---

Ghost Spider has posed:
It not like they had designated areas of the city to patrol, really. They're not police officers. They don't get assigned a beat.

They all grew up doing this stuff at different times.

Peter was the first. The original Spider-Man.

Then came Ghost-Spider a couple years later.

Then came Kid Arachnid a few years after that.

And when you grow up doing it, you tend to kind of.. stick around your home neighborhood. Throw on a mask and catch a Bodega Bandit (which was Gwen's nemesis for the longest time.. until Vulture came along and suddenly she found herself in the big leagues).

So, when one of them wants to talk to the other, it's generally easiest just to go to other one's home turf, even if doesn't really matter. Peter and Gwen both grew up in Queens, and it's where they both still live. Separately (officially), though Peter had been spending most of his time at Gwen's... until their six month break.

Did Miles even know about that?

Gwen hadn't talked to miles in...

God, forever.

There was a whole thing with Damian Wayne.

Like.. Gwen actually slept with Robin.

What a head-trip that was. And she was feeling overwhelmed and... thankfully Peter broke out of his MIND CONTROL, because if Gwen found out that Peter had died while she was nursing her relationship-wounds and sleeping with another guy because she was too selfish to go looking for him..

Ugh.

Anyway, it was past time for a talk.

So Gwen sent Miles a text.

>> Hey. New Lots?

There's lots of crime, and it's not far from where Miles grew up. Lots of street walkers. Lots of muggers. Lots of drugs.

They've got a building with a water tower they usually meet up at.

And that's where Gwen starts heading before she ever even gets an answer from Miles.

Kid Arachnid has posed:
A short while later Miles popped over the rim of the building, silhouetted by the moon as he slowly approached the tower. "No I don't have a girlfriend yet, yes my mom's doing fine, no my dad's still grumpy about everything do even though he doesn't know I do it. Yeah..." he sighed, "...I still miss my Uncle. No, I don't wanna talk about it." he was in good shape despite suddenly sounding slightly glum, been taking care of himself, been active; he was full grown now but something about Miles was always growing, learning, maturing. "Yeah, its been a while. I was hope the next text from you was gonna be an invitation to dinner where you tell me something about the status of your dissertation. Or maybe just a bunch of hearts and a hug emoji and something like 'Hey, been giving this a lot of thought'." he smiled even if he was only just now in range, his mask half pulled up. 'You ever think about us like that, I do sometimes, but then I lay down for an hour and I feel better."

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen's upside down on the side of the water tower, phone in her hands, hood vaguely sagging under gravity, just slowly scrolling through whatever social media she was checking at the time until she hears Mile's voice.

Then the phone gets turned off and tucked into the pocket at her abdomen that was sorta like a Hammerspace type thing, since it didn't leave an imprint of the phone outline.

Magic.

"I'm sorry."

She still has her mask on, but those eyes are _so_ expressive. They're narrowed differentially. It's a sincere apology.

"I... should have reached out to you sooner."

Soft sigh.

"...a lot sooner."

Pause.

"I went on tour. With the Mary Janes." Duh. "Like... six months ago? And... Peter and I were _great_. And then texting just got less and less frequent. And by the time I got back, he wouldn't text me at all. And I sort of..."

She shakes her head.

"I freaked out. And I got really sad. And... I should have called you."

Pause.

"So, I'm sorry."

She flips easily off of the side of the tower and stand sup in that dancer's way that she has, posture _so_ perfect.

And then she lifts her arms.

"Hug?"

Kid Arachnid has posed:
Miles Morales gives her a moments pause, maybe he had been a little wounded by her absence, he was the type to play it cool.

"Bring it in." he said softly, giving her the hug she needed to salve her guilty feelings. "I always got your back, and that means always." He rubbed between her shoulders with his palm. "Yeah you should have called me." he admitted, but she was long forgiven in the midst of a warm embrace. "You know I like having you around. Somethin bout me pushing you away? I do somethin?"

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen's spider-eyes soften and then as she hugs around Miles's neck, squeezing for a while before she finally released him to step back again with a shake of her head.

"I just... thought I could handle it. Like I do everything else, you know?"

Soft sigh.

"The band.. modelling.. my job at Alchemax.. my thesis.. _this_.." She plucks at her costume.

Then's walking back up to the leg of the water tower and hopping up onto it.. it's narrow enough that, once she starts walking vertically, it's like a balance beam. Her arms come out to her sides as she 'pretends' to try to balance on a pole that's actually running vertically.

"Turns out... maybe trying to do _everything_ on my own isn't such a great idea..."

She tilts her head back to look at him again. Upside down.

"_Maybe_."

Once more, those big eyes soften into an apologetic smile.

"Turns out, Peter was kidnapped by some mind-control mutant right off on ESU campus. So, I'm feeling like a pretty awful girlfriend right now. Not only did I completely miss the fact that my boyfriend was kidnapped, I sort of didn't even realize Spider-Man was in trouble. And I'm not sure which one of those things is worse."

She shrugs, getting to a higher point and turning around, balance-beam style, and starting to walk back down towards the ground.

She sighs softly.

"I don't know why I didn't call you."

Kid Arachnid has posed:
Miles Morales smoothed the air with his palms, "Its ok, Gwanda. I'm here now, gonna fix all your problems." he smiled again, playing cocksure was his way of admitting his mortality, its how he did humble. "o/` If that mockin' bird don't sing, pappa's gonna buy you a diamond ring o/`", he disappeared up the tower, still strolling, then he gargoyle perched over the rim and looked out at the city lights. "How's Pete doin now? He looked good out there today? Hey and anyway, why you always worried about being a good girlfriend? What's that even mean. He's lucky to have you lookin out for him. Not everybody has that, doesn't count when you feel bad for messing up? Sure it does, means you care. You aint gonna make every jump shot, Gwen, but you gonna miss every shot you don't take."

Ghost Spider has posed:
Down almost to the bottom. About face. Slow walk back up.

"_Nobody's_ buying me a diamond ring," Gwen laughs darkly. And it's such a... flat, all-encompassing, from-now-to-eternity sounding statement. As if the notion of being proposed to at twenty-seven years old was absolutely ridiculous and completely out of the realm of anything resembling reality.

"He's... okay. He seems to be. He was pretty banged up..."

She makes her way over to where Miles is perching and 'sits' on the side of the tank beneath him so all he has to do is look down for them to be face-to-face again... well, mask-to-mask. At least she's right-side-up this time.

"Why am I worried? Because I'm quantitively a bad girlfriend. Because not only did I not realize Peter had been _kidnapped_, but I slept with Damian Wayne."

She just sort of... blurts it out.

"Bruce Wayne's son."

Pause.

"In Wayne Manor."

*Thunk*

She closes her eyes and lays her head back heavily against the water tower. So heavily there's a kind of hollow sound inside. Which is kind of funny, since it almost seems like the hollow part is her head.

"I thought Peter broke up with me. I thought he just didn't have the heart to do it, so he was... I don't know. Ghosting me. I though that's why he wasn't answering my messages anymore. I..."

Her voice gets quiet."

"I don't know."

Kid Arachnid has posed:
Miles Morales chuckled, genuinely thinking something she said was funny. "Damian Wayne? That dude named his only kid Damian? Like from the Omen?" he glanced over and got mask to mask, "What you want me to forgive you or somethin?" in his own way suggesting that was absurd and he was moving on. "Maybe you're not the -best- girlfriend." he recanted sincerely, "He probably likes complicated girls, especially ones that look like you. If you still want to be with him, that thats the focus. Anyway why am I tellin' you, its like taking dating advice from your kid brother, how's that make any sense." he admonished her. "You need to forgive yourself, then maybe you got a shot of getting something out of Pete. You know how he is, he's just gonna take it on the chin. He's a good dude, I like were his head is at most of the time, but lets be real, he still just people."

Miles leaned back, "And people need people."

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Because I promise I'll listen to _you_ when you want to go on for _hours_ about some girl."

Gwen tilted her chin up when Miles leaned back, watching him, and then she turned, scurrying up so she was sitting on the stop beside him, shoulder to shoulder. Gloved hands grabbed the ledge while her feet dangled.

"People need people, huh?"

There's a little lean, a nudge. A shoulder-bump.

A significant shoulder-bump.

"You _do_ know the phone works both ways, right?"

Pause.

"In case you ever.. you know. Need people. Yourself."

Kid Arachnid has posed:
Miles Morales leaned in, tossed an arm around her shoulder and popped out his phone. "We can go through my call log, gonna be real embarrassing for ya." but rather than call her out on the couple times she didn't answer, he pulled up a couple of pictures, showing her Rio and Jeff and then a pretty brown-skinned girl angled away but looking at the camera like a school photo. "This is Sabina. We went out once. She's nice, you'd like her. She wants to be a Vet." he paused and then gathered his thoughts. "With a girl like Sabina she only gets half of me, you probably get what I'm sayin. I guess we're kinda limited to who we can date. You know? If we really wanna be true to ourselves." he looked off into the middle distance, holding his phone in the space between them. "But were my gonna find a girl like me." he conceded, cocking his head to one side. "Just went out one time, theres a mofongo place popped up since we last did anything. We should assemble the squad, do take out." because likely the squad couldn't all be seen in civies together.

When it came to Gwen and Miles there were tons of rules and all of them way to easy to break.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen's head settled over on Mile's shoulder in that familiar, BFF's way when he put his arm around her, watching the pictures on the phone slide by with a soft sigh.

For six months, all she wanted to do was be back here -- for life to go back to the way it usually was. She liked her routine. She loved her friends.

Maybe it was time to quit the band, finally.

"Yeah. It was that way with Damian. It's... hard, not being able to be honest. But Miles? You have to trust someone, eventually. It's not that they can _never_ know your secret, you know? You just have to trust them enough to let them in..."

Finally she straightened to look at him.

"We could all go out, you know. Or we can always meet at my place. It's not big, but it's got a nice view of the ocean. You could bring Sabina. I could cook, or we could order in. No webs at the dinner table."

There's a little twist of a grin.

"I'll even try to get Peter to behave. I make _no_ promises, though. That man has a mind _entirely_ his own."

Not that Gwen would have it any other way.

Just then, though, there's the sound of a woman screaming from two blocks away, and Ghost-Spider's getting to her feet.

"Speaking of webs, I'm honestly impressed we got that far into the conversation without something happening. That might have been a record..."

Then she's leaping, stretching, *thwipping* out a line to a fire escape, and rounding the corner towards the sound.

"Last one there buys dinner!" she calls.