timeisluck | [ psl ] a day in the life

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[ psl ] a day in the life

Gwen Stacy likes to pride herself in being the best girlfriend in the world.

Or at least on this side of New York City, where she is currently leaving her Oscorp internship for the day. She hasn't been deterred in the least from continuing her work term, preferring to go on as though her mentor hadn't just turned into a giant lizard only a little more than a month ago.

In fact, maybe it's even more important that she does continue her work at Oscorp - so that she can keep an eye on things for Spider-Man, and so she can find a new mentor, someone else to give her a glowing reference letter and recommendation to whatever school she wants to go to after the year ends.

That's something she hasn't quite made a decision about. Before Peter, she considered Oxford and Cambridge, but things are a little different now. It's not a bad thing but her plans now require a little more care and a little less impulse.

In any case, she's on her way to the subway station when she passes a TV playing (loudly) in a cafe-diner announcing the latest exploits of her (she'll never grow tired of the thought) boyfriend webslinging across the rooftops in pursuit of some new chaos-mongering culprit.

"Increased sightings of Spider-Man continue to bring up the question of police authority over the protection and well-being of New York's citizens. The opinions are split, with those who believe in the masked arachnid and those who think he's more of a danger to the city than what he claims to be.

"But is he a hero or a menace?

"More after this short break."

Gwen rolls her eyes, and continues on when she hears the familiar sound of sirens. A fleet of police cars suddenly wail by at mach speed, whipping the interested heads of random passersby.

Well, where there are sirens, Spider-Man is sure to be too.

She half-considers going home anyway; after all, she's got a lot of work to do ... but Peter's been doing a lot more people-saving than studying lately, and she's allowed to be concerned.

She might be able to help him a little, from the outside of course, and leave the rest to the police. That is what they're there for.

She bites her bottom lip and speeds up her pace, following the sirens.

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She was right about the sirens. Peter had spent so much time around sirens lately, he was pretty sure he heard them in his dreams. Or, okay, so actually it was his alarm clock trying to wake him, something that was getting harder and harder these days. Gwen was also right about him spending too much time webslinging and not enough time doing anything else. Not enough time sleeping, or doing his homework, or remembering the errands Aunt May tried to ask him to do.

It isn't Gwen's fault that when he kisses her goodnight or walks her to class, he can't help but see her father. Remember the promise he made, to stay away from her to keep her safe. He'd made that promise and broken it thoroughly, so maybe at the very least he could pick up the slack that had been left behind with the Captain's death. Crime rates have definitely hiked since he died, and Peter manages to feel guilty about that too.

So he's been working overtime. Doubletime. Tripletime, maybe, and he's still not sure it's helping. His police scanner attachment is practically always going off, and the more times he gets involved the more scrutiny he gets, and yet he can't stop himself. If he can do something, he should. He has to.

He's on his way to his next mission, webslinging across the skyline trying to catch up with the mobsters currently running a deadly caravan through the city, when he spots a car careening out of control. People should just stop driving panicked, why would anyone get behind a wheel when they're too frightened to control it? ...well besides to get away from the thing terrifying them, maybe...

He lands behind it and throws a few strands to catch the back of the car, straining as he tries to slow the momentum to a safe stop. The car strains the strength of his web, before starting to pull backwards toward him, and he releases it. There, better, and...

"Gwen?" That blonde ponytail was pretty familiar. What were the odds of her being on this sidewalk?

One might say the odds are very, very convenient at the moment. And that's because they are.

She followed the sound of sirens, which eventually led to the sound of Peter's spider-webbing, very close by. It didn't take a hell of a lot of skill, and barely seconds passed before she caught sight of the red and blue costume, and a large car caught in a web.

Now that she's here, Gwen feels ... well, a little dumb. A little out of place, even. Because there are all of her dad's old colleagues and friends, and a superhero and she -

She's here for a purpose and that's enough for her to feel like she belongs here.

"Pe -" She stops herself abruptly, shaking her head. "Spider-Man. Hey."

Nice save, Stacy. Peter really doesn't know what to make of her being on the street, besides that he really doesn't like it. Spider-Man is not an escort, he can't stop and make sure she gets home safely, but it is driving him a little bit crazy that she was here, in obvious danger. This would sort of be what her father didn't want her involved in.

"It isn't safe," he points out, which should be obvious with the bellowing sirens and crashing cars and trucks. "You should get inside and wait for-" It to be over, was what he was going for, but a screeching car intent on running him over (or at least crashing) distracts him. He jumps to a lamppost above his head and attaches the car to a wall, slowing it to a sticky stop. Seriously, people needed to stop driving, he was constantly always getting hit by panicked drivers...

"Come on, I'll get you to a safe place," he decides, and it's not breaking any rule, right? Spider-Man protects everyone. Including cute blonde girls he loves.

Gwen shakes her head, rooting herself to her spot as best she can without literally holding on to something.

Spider-Man could probably just whisk her away against her will, but Gwen really won't be happy with that. (And Peter probably knows that.)

She has no need whatsoever for an escort, and she doesn't need to get home safely. Home is in the opposite direction anyway, and if she'd wanted to go home, she would've done it when she had the chance.

"I can help you."

He is definitely strong enough to take her home whether she likes it or not. And he is well aware that she would fall on the or not category. Peter has yet to actually restrain her or drag her away against her will and no part of him wants to, but he can't just drag her into danger. He can practically hear the captains dying wish, whispers of a ghost. This was not keeping her safe.

"It's dangerous," he says, because it is. Beyond the cars crashing and Russian mob (Russian. Mob.), if people spotted her next to him she might be a target. Gwen does not have super strength. Her body doesn't heal in days instead of weeks. "I'm supposed to protect people, not bring them closer to the danger." He hears the sirens changing and he can't help it, he needs to see what is going on. He could just leave Gwen behind but instead he grabs her and bids, "Hold on." They can finish this conversation from the roof. (And maybe he can leave her there.)

"I know it's dangerous," Gwen says. "I know that."

She's well aware that this is not the sort of thing anyone might do, but she's not just anyone. She's Gwen Stacy, first in her class, one of the top interns at Oscorp, promising undergraduate student in molecular medicine, daughter of a police chief, and girlfriend of New York City's masked superhero.

"And you're -"

She doesn't get to finish her thought before Spider-Man's got an arm around her waist and is webslinging them up up up towards the sky, landing on one of the nearby rooftops. She can see the cars below, sirens flashing a frantic red and blue and as she finds her footing again, she isn't sure she'll ever get used to the feeling of being suspended in the air like that.

It's kind of amazing and she gets why Peter enjoys it.

He does enjoy it. Most of the time. He knows how dangerous it is but that is probably a part of what makes it so fun. He'd been a bit of a daredevil even before the spiderbite. It is less exhilarating at such a vital moment, though. Not only does he have Gwen who is far from invincible, but he knows the situation unfolding is dangerous and he doesn't know how to stop it without more people getting hurt just yet. Gwen is safely on the roof and he pauses long enough to make sure she's okay before he scrabbles up a wall to a high point to try and get a eye on what's happening.

"It looks like they're trying to barricade them on the bridge," he tells her, but he's not sure that's a good idea. And then he goes back to their conversation like there had been no webbed interruption. "You know it's dangerous. So why are you asking?" He couldn't just bring her into a shoot out unarmed, she's gonna get hurt and he'd never forgive himself.

"Well, that's kind of the thing, Peter," Gwen starts, knowing that since they're far from crowds or any other nosy types, she can use his real name instead of his superhero alias, "I'm not asking. I'm saying I can help you."

She's not trying to butt into his superhero gig, honest, even if at this very moment it might seem like she ... is.

(She is aware of how she sounds.)

"I hate to bring this up but ... I mean, you've been kind of skipping out on your homework, and falling asleep in class, and falling asleep during our study sessions. I thought maybe you could use a hand. It wouldn't be the first time."

He tries to keep his attention on the mess going on below, but it's difficult when Gwen is present, and... okay, yeah, this might not be a good time. Not that she doesn't have a point, she does. He'd like to give her the same lame excuses he gives Aunt May, but there's no way she'll buy it—she knows who he is and she knows how often Spider-Man has been splashed across the news lately.

Peter drops down from his viewpoint, even pulling his mask off because he doesn't like this conversation going to a mask. "Yeah, okay. I've just been stretched a little thin lately. You could still get hurt, Gwen, you know that."

No, she's definitely on a different level of truth accepting than Peter's dear Aunt May. Not that she blames him either - she can understand why Peter would keep his secret identity from her.

(Though a part of her thinks Aunt May could probably handle it, if he told her. From what she knows of his aunt, she's a tough, more than capable lady.)

In any case, she glances up at him, concerned and a little exasperated. They've had this conversation a number of times already and it's still the same old song.

"I could get hurt in my own house, Peter. Or walking across the street. It doesn't change anything.

"I'll be careful."

She wasn't wrong, but then the sort of injuries she could get in her house were a lot different than potentially being pumped full of lead by angry mobsters. Peter didn't want to drag her into danger, and being seen with him was going to paint a target on her back. There was a reason he wore a mask, and it was to protect the people he cared about.

"What am I supposed to do if you get hurt?" he asked, brokenly. He paused, his police responder buzzed about the caravan being trapped on the bridge. He frowned a bit, because he probably should have focused on that.

"You do what you always do," Gwen says gently. She can hear the brokenness in his voice, and despite all of her strong willpower to just do what she wants regardless of Peter's opinion, it affects her.

She almost - almost - reconsiders sticking around, but Spider-Man isn't responsible for her, just like her dad wasn't, and this? Helping him, helping New York regardless of her physical strength, is what keeps her from giving in.

She touches his hand.

"You keep going.

"And hey, I don't plan on getting hurt tonight or any other night, okay?" She adds (infusing her voice with a little humour), "I'm tougher than you think."

Keep going? She says it like it's so simple. Just get over her getting hurt, like it wouldn't destroy him. He can take a hit and not even think about it, but it is different with Gwen. She doesn't think it's his responsibility to protect her but she's wrong. Spider-Man is supposed to protect everyone and okay fine, her safety is probably more important to him in the long run, but he couldn't just keep going if something happened to her.

He can't give her a laugh, even though he can tell she's trying to lessen his discomfort. "You don't even have a mask," and he's trying to joke but he just can't get there. "If we trapped them on the bridge I could deal with them, and the police trying to get a blockade together won't get hurt, but..." Yeah he doesn't know how they'd possibly go about doing that, unless they raised it.

Oh, Peter. Wonderful, amazing, taking-on-more-than-he-should Peter.

This is admittedly one of the reasons she loves him so much (though she hasn't exactly had the chance to a) think about how deep her feelings are for him yet, and b) tell him), his ridiculous concern for everyone's well-being - especially hers.

But does he not think she feels similarly about him? Sure, he's got super-strength and can stick to things and websling everywhere. But despite all that, he isn't invincible either. And he is still only seventeen. Seventeen and a student slowly slipping in his grades.

She worries about him too.

She keeps tabs on Spider-Man's latest escapades through the paper; she's got yearly subscriptions to most of the major online news publications. She needs to be the first to know what Peter's been up to when behind the mask and make sure he's okay too.

"Well, there's a way to raise it," Gwen says. "Keep them stranded on the centre of the bridge. If I can get to the control room, I can override the commands ... get it to lift off schedule."

She smiles, a subtle way of encouraging Peter to keep his sense of humour because it's what makes him him.

"And I don't even need a mask to do it."

He drags his hand over his face, trying to sort out her suggestion. Could he maybe manage the same thing on his own? Probably? He's not sure. He's a whiz with all sorts of things, but he doesn't take to things half as quickly as Gwen does. She could probably get it done faster than he could, and while she's at it he could maybe work on rounding the crowd up.

He doesn't like it, doesn't like anything about it. "If I get you over there, then you've got to stay out of sight, Gwen. Promise me." Those mobsters weren't going to care that she wasn't a cop if they spotted her.

Well, Gwen doesn't expect him to like it, but that isn't going to stop her from trying to help anyway. He can thank her later when they're back home and he's passing his classes again.

But for now, she is going to take this very seriously. Because it is a serious matter, and she would never downplay the very real danger of getting involved in Spider-Man's life.

But it's her choice. It has and always will be her choice.

"I promise," she says. "I'll be careful."

He feels like this might be the worst idea they've ever had, and there are a lot of terrible ideas... well at least on his side, he never seems to realize a bad idea until it explodes in front of him. It's just that Gwen is a hell of a thing to lose. She wants to help and he, well, he could probably use it.

"Okay. Okay." He almost sounds like he's trying to convince himself along with her. He tugs his mask back on, before he waves her over. "You're going to have to hold on tight. And I'm sorry about your hair." Because the time they got to the bridge? Yeah, it was not going to be a neat ponytail anymore.

"My hair?" she asks, resisting the urge to laugh.

There's a cluster of police and the Mafia and probably superhuman villains amongst innocent bystanders and civilians, and he's worried about her hair?

(No, she gets that he's trying to lighten the mood and she appreciates it.)

She steps towards him, still amazed in her own way that she is standing here with Peter Parker who is actually Spider-Man (and vice versa), and that this? This is his life.

And this is her life.

"Okay. I'm ready."

Yes. Her hair. He likes it like it is, perfectly neat and orderly. It is not going to maintain its style by the time they make it the few blocks they need to the bridge. Oh sure he can warn her about the mobsters and the gunfire and the obvious danger, but he's done that already. This is a terrible plan but apparently it was going to happen and they were going to have to figure it out as they went.

He considers demanding she start wearing bulletproof armor if she intends to sit in on anything else, but he doesn't have time. Neither of them do. She steps closer and he puts an arm around her, waiting for her arms around his neck. "Just hold on, I won't let you go." A quick warning, before the zip of the web slinging out and then them lifting off the roof into the air.

Gwen doesn't have time to respond, but it's not like she's really got anything else to say. She's helping Spider-Man, he's agreed to it, there's been countless warnings about the danger involved and countless reassurances that it'll be okay.

She holds on to him, arms wrapped tight as they're lifted off the ground, the only thing supporting her being Peter's grip and the thin but incredibly strong biocable that makes up Spider-Man's webbing.

She can already feel her ponytail beginning to loosen, just as he'd predicted, but she looks ahead for where she needs to land. The bridge's maintenance tower.

"There -" she says.

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[ psl ] a day in the life

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