Owner	Pose
Cindy Moon	*THWIP* Silk swings through Manhattan's canyons of steel and glass. Each fluid movement syncs with the rhythm of the city below -- the hum of traffic, distant sirens, the heartbeat of millions. She's a silhouette against the amber twilight, an unexpected ballet dancing in the air. Suddenly, the tingling alertness of her Silk-Sense surges through her, pointing her unerringly to a familiar presence. Spider-Man. He's close, somewhere above the street level chaos, perched high on one of the city's towering monoliths. *THWIP* For a moment, she debates. She could steer clear and leave him to his solitude. God knows it's hard enough for her to be around him on a good day. They'd never really spent that much time together -- enough for them both to figure out who the other was, that they'd both been bitten by the same spider, and that (at least for Silk), her need for impulse control was at an all time high when he was within a football field's length. Peter Parker was the reason she interned at the Daily Planet instead of the Daily Bugle. She simply couldn't be near him that often without... something happening. Still, there was a lot going on. She had come to New York for a reason, and she'd accomplished it. Unfortunately, that reason ended up being to make a LOT of people REALLY upset with her. Not really anything new, but it led to some interesting developments and.. honestly.. she didn't hate the thought of seeing a friendly face. Mask. Whatever. *THWIP* Her decision is made. With a reach of her hand, a fresh strand of webbing sails out from her fingertips. It attaches to the corner of a skyscraper and she changes her course, a comet arcing upwards. The air whistles past her, the city blurring below as she ascends to the rooftop where Spider-Man sits. As she lands softly on the roof, her figure breaking the edge of the city skyline, she takes a moment to catch her breath. Her damn Spider-hormones were already raising the fine hairs all over her body, sending goosebumps crawling across her skin. Hold it together, Cindy. She steps forward, dark eyes peering above the top of her red half-mask. She knew he'd sensed her, too, long before she arrived. They couldn't hide from each other. "Hey, Pete." It's a warm (if tentative greeting) as she tight-rope walks right along the edge of the building, her heart pounding a little harder as her eyes sharpen. "Long time no see."
Peter Parker	No matter how bad the day gets for Peter, swinging in the air makes it better. He can forget about all of life's travails and tribulations, soaring over the New York foot traffic in a way few humans can ever appreciate. Work? Bills? Who cares! At least for a couple minutes at a time, anyway. But reality always comes crashing back to the webhead. Like the braying call of a New York hawker or the rich scents and sounds of garbage trucks backing into bollards. Spider-Man twists in midair to *splat* back-first against a building, fingers and toes reaching back for instant purchase. "Ah, the City," he says with a world-weary sigh of resigned affection. "God how I love it." He clears his throat and lifts a hand into the air with a theatrical pantomime. "Uh, Alas! Poor Yorick. Something something, slings and arrows of outrageous, uh, city-ness. 'Tis noble in my mind to suffer, the, uh--" His monologue starts to wander as certain preternatual senses start to overwhelm creative ones-- but he doesn't put it all together until Cindy hits the roof above him. "Gah!" he yelps, and promptly falls off the building. A second later there's a *THWIP* and he swings up and around in a fast arc, feet to the sky, and lands on the rooftop on his fingertips dainty as a butterfly. "I mean, uh, hey!" He clears his throat. "Cindy. Long time," he offers in a Too Chill voice, and orients himself into a comfortable crouch on the ledge.
Cindy Moon	Cindy's laugh is rich and throaty, hitting notes of both pleased amusement at his reaction to her presence and something more... primal. She watches him fall without a flicker of concern, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet as she merely waits on him, silhouetted by the setting sun. Her eyes track him when he flies up through the air in front of her again, the wind blowing across the top of the building setting her dark hair to whipping around her cheeks. But once he's landed, she takes not one single step closer to him, her forward-balanced weight serving as brakes to keep her rooted right where she was. "How's it hangin'?" Because Spider-puns. That didn't cut through the awkward tension, though. She always felt that it around him, the guy that she had an irrational heavy crush on because there was literally NO JUSTIFICATION FOR IT except that it existed. "Sorry if I should have called first. I was just in the friendly neighborhood, picked up your trail, and decided to drop in... see if you had a second and felt like catching up." Which definitely meant she had something on her mind, because given the distance she normally kept, she was either lying about just stumbling across him or she really had no one else to talk to.
Peter Parker	Spidey's knees flex and he rises to a standing position that (unconsciously) mirrors Cindy's; arms folding loosely across his chest, weight on his rear foot as if reminding himself of where the safe place to stand is. "Yeah. I mean," he clears his throat, "no, not-- it's a free city," he says, and his eyemask flickers with a wince. "I didn't mean it like that," he apologizes a hasty beat later. He grimaces and rubs the back of his mask, tugging at it as if trying to rearrange some invisible, irritating seam. "It's good to see you too," he clarifies, flexing his other hand in the air. "I mean, we're friends. It's not like we need to pick up the Red Phone and declare a demilitarized zone every time we're in the same area," he says with a more relaxed humor in his voice. An awkward beat drops, but before Cindy can speak: "Oh, May told me to say hi next time I saw you," he adds, with the hasty tone of someone throwing everything at the small-talk wall to see what sticks.
Cindy Moon	Cindy winces, and the hasty apology only seems to soften that expression a little. Her eyes shifted to the city. Yeah. /This/ was why she stayed away. Talk of a demilitarized zone brings those dark eyes back to him, wrinkling at their corners. Then she reaches up and tugs her mask down around her neck, freeing her face and making it easier for her to take in a deep breath of New York pollution -- and Peter, unfortunately. Oh, Aunt May. Such a sweet woman. "You sure we don't need that demilitarized zone?" A crooked smile tugs at one corner of her lips. They needed all the humor they could get until they could figure out how to exist within eye-sight of each other. Maybe that was the answer: make everything so stupidly irreverent that nothing could be serious, including the attraction. "I love your aunt. I should stop in and ask her for another jar of wheatcakes mix... I tried to make my own with her recipe, but they didn't turn out. I swear that woman is adding something to the mix she's not sharing." She rocks a little, her hand coming up to sweep her hair back from her face. It's useless. It just blows right back across. "So what's new and exciting in Spidey-world since I've been gone? Stopped any supervillains? Saved the world?" Beat. "And how's Peter?" As if they were two different people.
Peter Parker	Wind-tousled dark hair is the sort of aesthetic that strikes Peter as being *profoundly* unfair. Not for the first time he reconsiders a hair cutout atop his mask; a little unruly brown mop would be much more comfortable, and cooler in the summer, and after all, there's something so satisfying about running fingers through hair... Peter grabs the mental wheel and yanks it hard to the left at that line of thought, covering with a cough and unconscious flexion of his fingers. "Uh... here, check this out:" he blurts, and before he says another word Peter's weaving a cats cradle of webbing between his fingertips. It gets a little roll and a twist like a baker working dough and hey presto, he's webbed up a hair scunchie for Cindy. "It's breezy out," he comments a little lamely, and hooks a finger into the band to flick it across the short gap between them. Very, very pointedly *not walking forward* to do it. "Actually, I do have some... news," he says, carefully. "I, uh... I've been gone. For a while. Like, a /long/ while," he says, very apologetically. "I didn't know, I was in another dimension and I guess there's some chronological differential I wasn't aware of. But, uh, Ben's been covering for me. I mean, here." He gestures at his feet. "As Spider-Man, I mean. Though also as me, um, with work and school and, uh, other stuff." He coughs into his fist and tries to find something in the distance to channel nonchalance at. "Anyway. Thought you ought to hear it from me, if you hadn't."
Cindy Moon	Cindy's breath caught for a moment. She couldn't read his thoughts (thank God), but she could feel the ebb and flow of whatever connection they shared like waves crashing against a shoreline, like an undercurrent that occasionally gave her good sense a firm, unexpected tug out to sea and made her want to... "What?" she asks anxiously when he asks her to check something out, grateful for /anything/ to use as a distraction. Anything but that. She didn't even realize what it was until he spoke again and flicked it towards her, and even as she snatched it out of the air, she felt the sudden flutter in her chest that spread heat up through her neck, a soft pink hinting at her cheeks. Why, Peter?! It was hard enough to resist that pull when it was purely physical! The fact that he really was thoughtful and sweet was... ugh! "..Thanks." Stop blushing, Cindy. She could feel the warmth. That's something you can just will away, right? Like hiccups. Just.. focus. She's reaching up to tie her hair back into a ponytail when all movement ceases and she stares. She doesn't even blink. "What do you mean you were in /another dimension/?" Why does she suddenly sound angry? Whatever the reason, she definitely was. "Were you STUCK there, or did you go there on purpose? How did I not know?!" Because you /intentionally/ bury your head in the sand where it comes to Peter, Cindy, and these are the consequences. That heat wasn't going anywhere, now.
Peter Parker	At that Peter actually *does* step back, holding his palms up in surrender. "Nonono, it-- look, it was this whole THING, and I just--" Yep, nope, Cindy looks like she's torn between his carotid and his jugular, so he waves his hands a little frantically. Distraction! Look at the jazz hands! "I got a request from one of the other Spider-Mangs out there. He was dealing with something and needed backup. I was going to be there for ... a few weeks, /tops/," he says, speaking very quickly. "Ben was gonna hold down the fort-- I mean, he IS me, so it's not like it was some supervillain possessing me, as stupid as that would be." "But like I said, I got stuck there and when Ben and Gwen came and got me it was... three weeks my time, and most of a year for... well, everyone else," he says, and gestures a little lamely at Cindy.
Cindy Moon	Why was /everything/ with Peter so much more complicated? Even when she was angry, she wasn't really angry at /him/. She was angry at herself. Angry for not being there for him. Angry for not even knowing. Then he takes a step back, afraid of her, and there was an actual pain in her chest. Plus, it was ridiculous, but she was so aware of the scrunchie he'd given her that it was like it was tied to an anvil with the word ACME engraved on the side. ...Not to mention the ever-present desire to pull her claws out and shred that costume off of him. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, Peter. I should have been." That was literally the most sincere thing she'd said since she landed on the rooftop. It was still said in low, simmering anger, but it was focused more obviously inward. Then she blows out a sigh and turns to focus on the streets, the cars, the people the size of ants far below that were only a single step and an eighty-story fall away. "I'm trying to... be better. Less selfish. Less.. self-centered. I'm glad you're okay. I'm just sorry that I didn't have that moment of clarity over year ago. I know we've got... whatever this is. But, I want you to be able to call me. Or have Ben and Gwen call me, if you need me. I'll be there. Okay?" Of course, the fact that she was getting it under control might be more convincing if she could actually look at him and say it at the same time.
Peter Parker	Peter doesn't respond for a long moment. If Cindy could see his eyes behind the facade of his mask, she'd know that he is hardly alien to the conflicted emotions stirring in her. Because they are friends, and allies, and even when they grate at each other's nerves, there is that boiling undercurrent to every word and gesture-- knowing the effort it takes to not just *give in* to each other. When he speaks, it's with reluctance. Somewhere between stinging words and stinging silence. "Cindy, I.... know. I know I can count on you. We're adults, not adolescents," he points out. "You weren't along because no one was along. I went alone because I thought I had it handled. That's not on anyone but me." He hesitates a beat, as if on the edge of saying more, and then falls silent again, his expression behind that impassive mask anything but readable.
Cindy Moon	Cindy quietly watches the traffic on the street below like an ant farm as she listens to Peter, her weight gradually shifting forward onto her toes as if she was subtly trying to see how far forward she could push her center of gravity before she fell forward. She didn't wonder. She knew exactly how far she could push it. It was a Spider thing. But it still looks a little like a child playing the balancing game on the side of a curb in a parking lot just before they fall flag on their face. It was easier to focus on actual gravity than the gravity of what he was saying. It was also easier to dismiss it with humor. /Not adolescents.../ "Speak for yourself. I'm technically still in high school." She wasn't /in/ high school, but she hadn't graduated, either. Finally, she tears her attention away from the street to look over at him, a flicker of a smile ghosting across her lips. Even if that mask he wore entirely obfuscated his feelings -- even if it was like practicing your big speech in front of a piece of drywall rather a mirror -- her gaze lingered. The need in her eyes lingered. "Well, I wish you would have taken me with you. We're bite-buddies. If I'm going to live with being drawn to you from Metropolis, it'd be nice if it was actually used for something /good/ every once in a while." Speaking of being drawn to him... there /was/ a question that had been burning to get out ever since she landed. And after this conversation, it was perfectly natural for it to come up, right? Nothing awkward or forced about it... "Are you dating anyone?" Yep. Smooth, Cindy. Real smooth.
Peter Parker	Spidey's eyes go wide, and his frame stiffens with a slightly inhuman tension. Flexible as he is, he is also capable of being as *still* as a spider, and it shows in his panic. "Hooooh boy, that's a question," he mutters. Because as far as anyone knew-- as far as EVERYONE knew-- Peter Parker had gotten together with a dimensionally-displaced Gwen Stacy. Though the media speculated often about which superheroes were involved with others, in the little circle of the Spider-Family, it had been a bit of A Thing. Except it turns out that was Ben Reilly the whole time...? "Uh... I mean, I am. I mean, was. I wasn't. Ben was. Ben is," he clarifies with a complete lack of helpfulness. "But that's-- I mean, it's cool, it's Ben and Gwen, and Gwen knew I was Ben-- I mean Ben was I-- they're thems..." He's backing up with each step, and taking similar glances over the edge of the roof. "Listen, it's been great seeing you, but I really gotta get-- back, you know how it is," he says, with a forced laugh. A hand flops near his shoulder, gesturing vaguely towards Queens. "May's car needs some work done, annnnd -I've- got schoolwork to do. Plus internship, so I shuldaaahlp--!" Peter's last words are cut off as he runs out of roof and falls. Again. The Spidey-Sense is clearly focused on something other than his safety. Or dignity. There's a *THWIP* and Spidey swings skywards, turning to look over his shoulder at Cindy. "I gotta go, I'll-- I'll call--!" he says and gestures with thumb and pinkie to the side of his head, and then grabs the webline and pulls a hard right over the first convenient side street, and building up a head of steam to get a football field's distance.
Cindy Moon	Cindy watches Spider-Man's awkward exit with a mixture of apology and a kind of understanding disappointment. His answer -- or lack thereof -- was telling. And then the way he tripped over his words as he hastily excused himself... he was as off-balance as she'd been moments before. She gives a little wave as she watches him swing away. "See ya, Pete," she murmurs to herself, a fond smile curling the corners of her lips. She'd let that impulse get the better of her, and she should have expected nothing less. It was a reminder of the very real distance between them, physical and metaphorical. And there was that little bit about Gwen and Ben. Did it really matter? She thought so, but it seemed... complicated. But then again, when had anything in their lives been simple? Still, she couldn't help the fleeting thought that emerged: What if? Leave it alone, Cin. Spider-Man -- Peter -- was off doing his own thing, and she had her own city to protect. Plus, now there was SHIELD. Which, she hadn't even gotten to talk to him about. Just one more thing she should have known better than to try. So, pushing away from the ledge, she goes back to watching over the city. Was she really going to do it? Become a SHIELD agent, of all things? Why not? It had to be easier than talking to Peter. And she certainly couldn't be any worse at it. "And here I thought the fun was just beginning..." she sighs, her eyes twinkling with a combination of determination and mischief. She tugs her buff back up over her nose and leaps off the building, swinging into the night, ready to face whatever the city throws at her. Because she's Silk. And she has her own journey to follow.