Weird

When morning finally came Gwen half-expected Peter to be gone, so it came as a pleasant surprise when the first thing she woke up to was a head of brown hair and the sound of soft breaths.

He was facing away from her, but it was easy enough to tell he was still asleep; he would've been staring up at the ceiling like the film noir cliche he was if he hadn't been. Gwen's lips raised up in a slight smile and she buried her face into his bare shoulder, her right leg wrapping around his. She relished in the warmth and breathed in his scent, wishing that the time would stop for just a few more hours and leave them alone.

A part of her was still afraid of hurting him, but the events of a night prior helped ease her worries. She wouldn't say it was easy - especially not after his pained complaints the last time they'd done it - but the fact that it was possible at all was relieving all the same.

Her morning bliss wasn't going to last; something she was painfully aware of. Already Teresa's (was she really his sister?) words came back, 'Saving Uncle Ben killed Peter...' She bit her lower lip and traced her fingers across his chest. The feeling of his heartbeat through the warm skin was instantly relieving. She didn't know if she really believed (or wanted to believe) her mumbo-jumbo about fate and some giant web of destiny, though the fact that Peter came back from the dead made it hard for her to just dismiss outright.

And she definitely didn't like to think that indulging in common fucking decency ruined their lives. If this 'Anansi' really thought that her powers were worth losing her best friend or Uncle Ben then it could go suck an egg.

Of course that wasn't the only problem. Matt Murderdock was still out there and it didn't take a genius to figure out that there was something between that bastard and Peter that went beyond the usual Hero vs Villain fair. If she had to guess he was probably doing the same bullshit he did to her before she was declared innocent, though she got the feeling Peter wouldn't tell her if she was right or not even if she asked.

And those were just the two biggest problems...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shift of movement and a weak groan, "...Time is it?" Peter asked softly.

"About 7:30." Gwen (reluctantly) released her hold on him and watched as he sat up on the bed, her eyes lingering on his back before shifting to his posterior; again, she could be polite about her ogling. She lied back down on the pillow and looked through half-lidded eyes as he dressed himself, his movements somewhat awkward and stiff, "...Is something wrong?"

"Hm?" He buttoned up his pants and looked back at her curiously.

"You're moving kinda odd. Is it hurting again? Cause I thought tying my wrists would-"

"No, it's not that..." He let out a slight laugh and scratched at the stubble at his face. It looked good on him, she decided, "Just...never thought we'd do that again, especially not after how the last time ended."

"Yeah..." Sleeping out on the riverside followed by getting caught by her friends and then a reaffirmation that he still planned to go back to the 30's. All in all it definitely wasn't the magical or romantic experience one would think it was, "Well...at least you're not limping this time. Baby steps, right?"

"We take what we can get." He shook his head and grabbed for his shoes. Gwen watched him for a few more seconds before she eventually decided to sit up, the Trek Wars blanket slipping off her and crumpling to the matress in a lazy dip. The slight squeak of the bed caused Peter to look back again and his cheeks heated up slightly when their eyes met, "Uh...you might wanna put some clothes on."

"Little late for blushing, Pete." She rolled her eyes when he turned away and stood up properly. She'd learned to form clothes somewhat, though it was always the same hoodie, jeans and shoes; definitely not something appropriate all the time. That and she liked the feeling of clothes against her skin. Having just the suit on felt like she was wearing nothing at all sometimes.

She rummaged through the closet and grabbed a pair of baggy pajama shorts and a ratty gray sweatshirt with a weird smattering of colors at the front that she distinctly remembered picking up at a trash boat after her first disastrous fight with Vulture. She couldn't believe anyone would throw it away.

Her eyes drifted over to her reflection in the mirror and she paused when she saw the blue highlights at the tip of her hair. As if reading her mind Peter suddenly spoke up, "Didn't notice that dye before."

"Yeah...guess it's new." Gwen rubbed a tuft of hair between her fingers. She'd always thought about it, but she never really found the time for a dye job between everything else, "...The suit must have done it, I think." Or at least that was the only explanation she could think of right now. For all she knew Kate or Cindy did it as a prank before they left Washington.

"It's changing your appearance...that doesn't scare you?"

She snorted, "After everything else? I think blue hair dye's the least of my worries."

The two of them got dressed in comfortable silence, the only sound between the two being the soft shifts of cloth. As soon as her head popped through the collar she huffed in a tired breath and raised an eyebrow when she saw the sharp, serrated patterns of black ink on Peter's left wrist that the bunched up sleeve failed to cover. How did she not notice that before?

"Is that a tattoo?"

He paused slightly at the question before he eventually nodded with a soft sigh, "Lana thought it'd be a good idea." He rubbed at the skin self-consciously and frowned, "I didn't want to, but she was really damn insistent. Said it'd make people less likely to think I was an old man. Stupid idea; my costume covers everything up, but try telling her that."

"Hah, you just keep telling yourself that. I bet you really wanted it," she teased, getting a half-hearted glare in response, "Really, though, she lives with you, leaves her clothes all over your place and she can make you get a tattoo of...what is that, anyway? A spider or raven wings?" She shook her head, "Doesn't matter. Point is she can get away with all that but when I try to subtly suggest you put on a proper costume you set the damn thing on fire."

"By 'subtly suggest' do you mean 'shove the box in my hands and demand I change into it'? And that said 'proper costume' was so tight you'd see my pecker the second I moved my legs?" He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, though she didn't miss the light smile on his face, "No offense, Gwen, but not all of us are confident enough to swing around this madhouse with people taking pictures of our rear-ends."

Yeah...she really hated the fact that someone snagged a pic of her ass and circulated it all over tweeter. It was someone she rescued too, which just made it even more of a pain in ass (pun fully intended), "Pfft, so says the guy who hangs around Black Cat and Moon Knight." Seriously, how did Felicia not get a wedgie every time she moved in that thing? She knew from experience that leather was not the go-to material for acrobatics.

"You're just sour that I can wear normal clothes and still jump a roof."

"You're not doing it in style, though." She looked back at the closet and her smile turned into something more teasing, her voice dipping low. This was going to be good, "You know, I've got another copy of it if you changed your mind. Might make the next time a bit more...interesting."

The look of flat-footed surprise on his face made her snicker. So worth it, "...You're lying. I burned that thing and that was the end of it." He looked away with a huff and pointedly ignored the grin she was sporting. Still, the fact that he didn't say something along the lines of 'there ain't gonna be a next time, dollface' relieved her more than she liked to admit.

"So...breakfast?"

20 minutes later and they were sitting across one another on the dinner table. Gwen dug into the wide spread of eggs, sausages and hashbrowns greedily while across from her Peter made do with a few slices of toast. The blond raised an eyebrow and wiped her mouth with a napkin, "Uh...you aren't hungry?" she asked, pushing a plate full of eggs towards him.

"Nah...rarely am nowadays." He bit into the toast slowly and shrugged, "Lana does enough eating for both of us."

"If you say so..." That was worrying. Then again how hungry could someone who'd come back from the dead be? She shook her head; she really didn't want to think about that, "...This takes me back."

"Those first two months." She almost didn't want to answer. There were some good times she remembered, but the fact that she lied to him left a sour taste in her mouth. She hadn't meant for it to get that far, but it was small comfort when he found out who she was in the worst possible situation, "That fight we had...I'm sorry for saying I would've shot you. I know there's nothing I can do to make up for that... "

"It's not like I'm blameless either." She looked down at the plate and let out a soft breath, "I'm sorry for lying to you for two months and never listening." It was a miracle neither of them strangled each other at this point; they'd certainly done enough to one another to justify it, "I said I was tired of arguing before and I meant it. I want us to move on and stop fighting, whether you're 'my' Peter or whoever you want to be. Can we do that? "

"As friends?"

"...I was maybe hoping as more than that." She picked at the sausages on her plate and winced at the silence that greeted her. Their apologies didn't even begin to cover everything fucked up about them: the fights about Harry, the fights about Frank Castle, the fights about their methods...it was easy to say they could just move on, but it was a shitton harder to actually do.

"You really think that's a good idea?" he said finally, voice soft.

"A good idea? If you're looking for those then you're asking the wrong girl." The joke was weak and she knew it. He still smiled, though, even if just barely, so she'd say it was worth it, "Frankly it's probably a really terrible idea, but I still wanna try. And maybe this time we won't have an explosive breakup."

"Explosive's a bit of an understatement..." He chewed on the toast a bit more before setting it down, "...Do you really think this can work? Gwen...I kill people and one of the few friends I have in this place is a psychopath who gets his jollies mangling people. The only good thing I can say about that is that he does it to people who no one cries for, but I'm sure that's not good enough for you."

"Not really, no..." She pursed her lips and looked up to meet his gaze, "I'm not saying that I'm happy that you have Frank Castle or that Bullseye guy on your cellphone, but I've made my share of compromises. You were right about Harry being responsible for those people being infected but even now I don't want to see him rotting in prison. And S.H.I.E.L.D and that symbiote...shit, that entire clusterfuck's still fresh."

"So what? We just ignore that? Pretend that the bad parts don't exist?"

"No, but I don't wanna pretend that only the bad parts are there either." She sighed, "I just...I wanna try this, Peter. I don't want to spend days where we avoid one another or we walk on eggshells because we're afraid of setting the other one off."

"Why do you wanna try this?" He looked down at the table with a small frown, "You're Spider-Woman...you're one of Stars-and-Stripes' Avengers, this town's in love with you...you could have anyone you wanted. People would fall all over themselves if you looked their way."

"I became an Avenger and a mascot after they spent 3 years treating me like shit. Fuck, Cap even tried to arrest me when the Lizards showed up again." She laughed, though there was no cheer in it, "I won't deny it feels nice to see kids looking at me with stars in their eyes, but all the fame doesn't make me feel giddy or high like you think."

"Maybe..." He leaned back on the seat and looked up at the ceiling, right on cue, "Still doesn't answer why you're willing to try. I ain't exactly a hero and with everything that's happening...I feel like a dead man walking, Gwen. Honestly it's a miracle I made it this far, and even then it's only because Murdock thinks he can still turn me to his side. That's the only reason I can think of why he hasn't burned my place down yet, at least."

"I'm willing to try because I care about you..." She reached her left hand across the length of the table and grasped his right hand gently, "And I don't give a shit what your sister says; if Murderdock wants to try his Jedi bullshit with you then I'm gonna help." Gwen pointedly ignored the voice at the back of her head that reminded her of the lecture last night. She couldn't just sit by and do nothing, "Promise you'll call me if you need to."

For a brief, painful second it almost seemed like he'd refuse. Instead he nodded and squeezed her hand back, "I promise."

Those two words were enough to make her smile and sit back on her chair. Was it perfect? Far from it; they were barely taking steps towards being halfway decent. But still it was a step forward without a giant step back so she'd take it.

"...My birthday's coming up," she said, apropos of nothing. Peter looked up at her and blinked, "I mean maybe you knew that already or maybe you didn't, but...yeah." She wrung her hands together. The 20th birthday wasn't overtly special - still a year from legally drinking, after all - but she was leaving the dreaded 'teen' behind so that was something.

"I remember..."

"Right...good." She licked her lips nervously, "So...what are you doing later?"

"I don't know. Guess that depends on if 'sis' decides drop in with more of her cryptic words of wisdom. You?"

"I gotta go see Cap. She wants us to train for a bit so we don't end up getting in each other's way when shit hits the fan." She could see the value in it, though she personally thought they worked together just fine a week ago, "After that I'll go on patrol for a bit then hang out with with Glory and Betty; apparently MJ's been MIA for a day or two. You could join us...you know, if you want?"

"Tempting as it is to have Grant give me the stink-eye all day, I have to pass." She winced. Yeah, those two still didn't get along; and a week in an isolated cabin did little to change that, "...Although, are you busy next week? I heard there's a carnival in town...I'm kind of curious to see how different it is compared to...to the place I remember. You...wanna go?"

She should have said yes like a proper adult, but the stupid smile on her face was hard to keep down, "Peter Benjamin Parker, are you asking me out on a date?" she said, her voice teasing once again.

"Ah..." The tomato red cheeks were all the answer she needed. Gwen's grin widened and he looked away from her, face still aflame. She wished she had her phone with her to record this for posterity, "I won't deny that I care about you, Gwen, but an actual relationship...I still have something I need to do first before I can even think about that."

"You mean arrest Murderdock?" Or kill him, thouhgh she didn't want to say that out loud. She really hoped there was another way out of this...

"No...well, yes, but that's not the only thing." He sighed and looked her in the eye, "I know I'm not...him, but I still have his memories swirling in my head. I..." He took a deep breath, "I want Otto Octavius...even if he's not really 'my' enemy I can't just ignore him. I spent 6 months running around like a headless chicken but he was always on my mind...I want...I need to put that part of all this behind me."

"I guess I understand..." She bit her lower lip at the next question she wanted to ask,"What about, you know, him?"

"You mean the real Spider-Man." She nodded, though it felt callous. The real Spider-Man...it felt like an insult to Peter, "The dame with the eyepatch knew who he was so the spooks probably know where he lives. I can ask them and then...then I guess we can meet..." His hand shook, "I-"

"I'll go with you," she said in a rush, "We...I'm not sure how much help I can be, but-"

She was cut off when he nudged her left leg with his foot and smiled softly, "Thanks, Gwen..."

"You're welcome..." Another question drifted into her mind and again she blurted it out before she could stop herself, "If...If this Octavius guy does have a way back...would you take it? Go back with the other Spider-Man? I know you said it's not your home anymore, but-"

"I'm staying here."

Her eyes widened and her mouth parted. She hadn't mistaken that, right? "You..." There were a hundred things that ran through her mind at that moment, but in the end all she managed out was a stuttered, "A-Are you sure?"

"Am I sure? Hell no." He let out a single, dry laugh, "Half this place wants to lynch me and I've got a damn devil after me. Most other people would at least consider leaving this madhouse behind to try and escape all that, but I..." He took a deep breath and gave her a wry smile, "Guess we're both idiots, huh? We-"

That was as far as he got before she practically leaped across the table and pressed their lips together in a rushed kiss, her hands grasping for the front of his shirt to pull him closer to her. Peter stood stock still for a couple of seconds before he reciprocated the gesture and leaned into the kiss. She was vageuly aware of the sound of crashing plates on the floor, but right that second she didn't care.

Peter was staying. Those three words repeated in her mind on an endless loop. No more bouts of worrying whether he'd just disappear one day or how she'd tell the Parkers that they lost their son again, 'You're staying. With us. With me.' Her hands groped under his shirt for the warm skin underneath. She had no idea how far she was willing to take it considering they were smack dab in the dinner table, but she continued her actions regardless.

She was so distracted by it all that she didn't notice her door edging open or the sound of heels on the wood till it was too late.

The loud cough she heard didn't come from either of them. On instinct Gwen pulled back and nearly tripped on the chair, only managing to stay upright when her stick-em powers kept her feet glued to the floor. Peter fared a tad better, falling back on his seat and halfway managing to look like he'd done it on purpose.

Of course that didn't help much at the sight of Felicia Hardy standing at the entrance to the dining room with crossed arms and an annoyed look on her face.

"Well, I suppose that explains why you weren't answering your phone." The popstar threw Gwen a withering stare and she suddenly felt distinctly ashamed, though she had no idea why. It wasn't like she cared what Felicia thought of her, right? "I suppose I can understand Bullseye annoyance now. You have a poor track record when it comes to prioritizing."

"Hardy..." Peter wiped his mouth subtly and gave her a hard look, though it was difficult to take seriously considering the tears in his shirt...oops, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Your sister gave us information on another of Murdock's operations and 'suggested' I ask you for help." She uncrossed her arms and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Of course she didn't warn me beforehand that I'd walk in on you both in flagrante delicto."

"We...just got caught up." He mussed up his hair and stood, "Why didn't you call anyone else?"

"You mean the sadist with an obsession towards cards or the executioner who I'm halfway certain wants to kill all of us for being criminals? Yes, I wonder why I'd be wary about them watching my back." She rolled her eyes, "Now put on your costume and save me the spiel about being retired. Murdock wants your head so think of this as self-preservation."

"Hey, wait-"

"This doesn't concern you, Spider-Woman."

Gwen wanted to shoot something sarcastic back at her, she really did, but the casual admittance of her secret identity left her standing flabbergasted for the next few seconds; long enough for Peter to shoot Felicia a glare and for the vigilante/thief to shrug it off with a scoff, "W-Wait..." Gwen said, finally finding her voice, "You know who I am? Did Castle tell you?"

"Castle? I wasn't even aware that madman knew who you were." Felicia's smile was a mix of predatory and amused, mostly the latter, "No, it was Ben and May Parker who let it slip. I can only assume that because I knew who Peter here really is they saw no need to filter their words."

"They just said you were coming back from Washington. Hardy figured it out on her own," Peter added, still glaring at the other vigilante, "Look, don't worry about it. If Castle hasn't told anyone then I doubt Hardy will...besides, she forfeits my help if she does and I'm pretty sure she hates Murdock more than she does you. Your secret's safe."

"But..."

"Don't lose your head over it, Stacy. Like he said I don't have anything to gain by exposing you," Felicia said, "Though I'm curious if Jane and the rest of your band know your secret."

"That's none of your business," Gwen snapped back. There was no harm in her knowing the others found out months ago, but she couldn't help but feel defensive. Of all the people to know her identity Felicia Hardy definitely wasn't someone she wanted on that list (which included Matt Murderdock and Frank Castle), "Look, Peter, just...just be careful, okay? And remember that you can call me if you need help with anything."

"I'm surprised you have time for that considering your prestigious position in Captain America's hit squad." Felicia shrugged off her glare in addition to Peter's, "Now hurry up, Spider. His ninjas are hardly gonna wait for us to stop whatever they're planning."

"Right..." Peter sighed and threw Gwen an apologetic look, "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, of course..." She gave him a muted nod, "Uh, make sure to say bye to Uncle Ben and Aunt May too, okay? We kinda left them hanging last night."

With a muttered 'sure' Peter followed Felicia out of the house and she was left alone in the suddenly too-large dining room. Gwen eyed the broken plates on the ground with a sigh and began to pick up the pieces. This was going to be a long day.