Chapter Text
The pair laid in bed, appetites sated after demolishing two and half pizzas. Miles lay on his back with Gwen at his side, her one arm draped across his him, hand under his shirt roaming the scars on his chest. He could feel her gaze at times, moving from the scars on his chest to his face and back. He knew she wanted to ask him something, so he looked down at her and waited for the question to come.
“How’d you get the big one?” she asked quietly as she touched the largest of the scars on his chest, the one that started at his shoulder, went down diagonally over his heart, and then jaggedly cut across to the opposite side of his chest, below his armpit.
“Why so serious? You know I don’t mind telling you” he replied with a small grin.
“I don’t know, it’s a part of your life I wasn’t around for, when you needed help. I know you don’t blame anyone but it’s hard to not feel a little responsible. And even if that weren’t the case, it can be hard to relive traumatic memories like that” she answered.
“Fair but I do have you hear to comfort me, right?” he said as he snaked his arm under her and wrapped it around to rest his palm against the skin of her stomach under her shirt.
Gwen shivered slightly and said “You could’ve warned me your hands were cold. But yes, you do have me to comfort you.”
“Where’s the fun in warning you?”
“Whatever, Miles” she retorted with a roll of her eyes and a weak slap on his arm before moving the hand back to his chest.
He smiled and continued “So the big scar. That one was pretty early on, only like a couple months after y’all went back to your universes the first time. I had just barely got ahold of how the whole Spidey Sense thing worked, not enough to actually be untouchable in a fight but overconfident enough to take everything head on.”
“Oof, that’s the worst part of the learning curve” Gwen winced.
“Yup. So I was chasing this dude who robbed a bank, super crazy cuz it was just one guy, he runs down this alleyway and starts taking shots at me with this pistol.”
“Big job that early on, a bank robbery? How’d you get a hold of that info in time?”
“Heard it over my dad’s radio, he was off duty, but he had a radio on him, and they called him in.”
“Ah ok, gotcha. Anyway, continue, you were being shot at in an alleyway by a guy with a gun” she urged while looking up at him with wide eyes, like a kid listening to a great bedtime story.
“Yeah, he was just shooting wildly down the alley, and I was dodging everything, even put a few flips in there I was cool as shit you shoulda seen me” he laughed.
“Totally wish I coulda been there babe” she giggled with a roll of her eyes.
“It was sick, I did a gainer and then halfway through I kicked off a wall into a front flip. Maybe it was for the best you weren’t there you woulda been too turned on to even continue the chase” Miles smirked before breaking out into a full laugh.
“Oh my god Miles I shouldn’t have even asked” Gwen said as she rolled her eyes yet again.
“You would’ve had to wash your suit too cuz it would’ve been drenched” Miles said while laughing and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Miles!” she yelled and slapped his arm again. She looked at him with faux anger for a few seconds until she too broke out into a smile herself at his sheer stupidity.
“What? You know you love me for it” he giggled back at her.
“Sure, bro. Now continue the story” she said.
“Ok, bro” he replied sarcastically. “So, I dodged this dude’s entire mag, he goes to reload so I get in close to disarm him. He gives up on the reload and pulls out a knife, but he clearly has no idea how to use it, just kinda waving it around everywhere, so I dodge that too pretty easily. I slap it out of his hand and web that hand to the wall, lean in and say, ‘Does your mom know what you’re out here doing?’”
“Nice one”
“Hey, it was early I didn’t have the best lines yet. But as I’m leaning in to say that, Spidey Sense tingles, so I jump back. Guy has a knife in his other hand now, but this guy is too weak to have such a strong warning from him. I thought it was maybe because I was so close to him, so I ignore it” Miles continues.
“Yikes, bad sign” Gwen chimed in.
“I know, right? I kick the knife out of his hand and web that other hand to the wall. Just as I finish that, an actual, get this, fucking ninja drops down from above me and takes a slash at me, gets me clean horizontally and I lean back to dodge a second slice, but this dudes fast as fuck and tries to thrust into my stomach. So I drop to my knees and bend even further back so instead of stabbing into me, the blade just slices right through my shoulder right here” he said as he pointed to the vertical scar coming down from his shoulder.
“That’s batshit fucking insane, what the hell. Was he, like, with the guy who robbed the place? Did you catch him? What the hell was his deal, was he an actual ninja?” she blurted out.
“Yeah, he was with the guy who robbed the bank. Apparently, he was there with the main guy while he robbed the place, but no one saw him cuz, y’know, ninja shit or something. I caught him right after he got me, I kicked upward into his stomach as I was leaning back and then webbed him to the first guy. He wasn’t from, like, a secret clan of ninjas or anything, but he did have black belts in a bunch of different martial arts, including Kendo apparently, which as far as I know doesn’t really translate to a real sword that well, but he fucked me up so who knows. The ninja vanish shit was just something he taught himself in his free time, I guess. Guy was a weirdo. After that I had to get out of there quick cuz the cops were coming so I started swinging away. Initially the slices were long but not that wide and pretty clean cuz the blade was sharp but as I was swinging, because my arms were carrying my weight, I could feel the gashes ripping open wider and getting longer. By the time I landed by the med supplies I had stashed, the cuts were much larger and more jagged so getting it back together was so much harder. I started panicking cuz the blood wouldn’t stop, I couldn’t swing to get home, or it would get worse, and it hurt so much more than anything had in a while. I started crying and just kinda trying to hold the skin together so it would heal back in place, but it didn’t work. I found some thread and a needle and did my best to sew everything back up. I couldn’t go home covered in blood and the stitches might have broken if I swung home, so I just had to wait there until it healed. The only reason the scar isn’t bigger is because of the faster regeneration powers. I waited there for around 6 hours or so until it healed enough to get home, but it was still tender. I had texted my parents telling them I was at the library studying so they were cool, but my mom hugged me tight when I got home, and I wanted to scream” he finished.
Gwen was silent for a while before saying “Wow. Miles, that sounds awful. How long did it take before it fully stopped hurting?”.
“Probably about a week until it quit being a little tender and sensitive” he replied.
“You’re so strong to make it through that. You know that right? Not many people could get through that alone without, at the very least, being too traumatized to continue being Spider-Man. It takes a lot to push through both the pain and the panic to patch yourself up, get home, and wake up the next day and continue being Miles at home and school, and then Spider-Man after that” Gwen told him.
“Yeah, I guess so” Miles replied quietly.
“Here, take your shirt off” Gwen commanded as she sat up and threw her leg over his waist, sitting on his lap, straddling him.
“Why- y’know what I don’t know why I’d question that, I’m all yours” he obeyed, throwing his shirt onto the floor beside the bed. He looked up at her sitting on top of him, put his hand on her shoulder, made a face, and said “Hey”.
Gwen burst out laughing before leaning down to touch her forehead to his. “Shut up you dork” she giggled.
“Make me” he challenged.
There was an almost immediate change of mood in the room as they maintained eye contact, and the smiles on their faces slowly faded. There was an almost electric energy in the air as Gwen was the first to act. She pushed her lips to his with force, locking him in a heated kiss. After nibbling on Miles’ bottom lip, she pulled back to look into his eyes again. “You can’t say that and not expect consequences” she breathed.
Miles blinked his half-lidded eyes trying to refocus and comprehend what Gwen was saying. She leaned back down and kissed his jaw near his ear and trailed down his neck to his collarbone. This elicited a small moan from Miles as he moved his chin up, pressing his head back into the pillow, so that Gwen had room where she was continuing her ministrations. She kissed his collarbone and started sucking long enough to leave a dark spot in the area. Leaving kisses along in a trail, she made her way over to his shoulder where the largest of his scars, ‘The one that was caused by a damn ninja’ she thought with a smile, began. She kissed the edge of it, right at the beginning of it where the skin just started to change in texture and rise. Miles shivered once more causing Gwen to look up, checking to make sure he was alright to continue. His eyes were closed but if the look on his face was anything to go by, she could continue without issue.
“Is this weird?” she asked as she continued to trail kisses along the edge of the scar down his chest.
“Huh? I mean- what?” Miles floundered. “Weird? No, it’s- it’s a strange sensation but not- not weird, I guess. I can’t really feel anything on the scar tissue but the- the area around it feels more sensitive for- for some reason” he stuttered between shivers as Gwen continued her work. “Is it not weird for you?” he asked.
“For me? Why would it be weird for me?” she questioned as she sat up a little and looked at him confused.
“I don’t know, isn’t it weird touching scar tissue? It’s like fake skin or something, it’s got a weird texture” he said, not fully meeting her eyes.
“And? It’s a normal part of healing. Most people have at least a scar or two. And in your case, I think it makes you more attractive. It’s proof of the incredible person you are. And it’s also proof that ninjas are real so they’ve got a lot of value” she said with a smirk. “I mean, we’ve talked about it a lot, that scars are lessons or proof of something or memories, but physically they’re just healed wounds and if they don’t hurt you or anything, they don’t bother me” Gwen said.
“You think they make me more attractive?”
“Was that all you heard from that whole thing?” she huffed
“Nah, I heard that I’m living proof of ninjas too. Maybe I could find a way to sell tickets. People could come and see the scar from a real, live ninja. I’d charge extra if they wanted to touch it, of course, that’s just good business” Miles grinned.
“You dummy” she grinned back. “No one’s allowed to stare at and touch your body but me, got it? When you wear your suit out there, you’re everyone’s hero but when you’re here like this, you’re my hero and my hero alone, understood?” she chastised.
“Yes Ma’am” he saluted with a smile.
She smiled back, leaned down to kiss him, and then moved lower to continue where she left off. By the time she was done he wouldn’t have one negative emotion associated with a single one of his scars.
She’d make sure of it.