NEW YORK CITY PLEASE GO EASY ON ME TONIGHT

[spider-managing]

Fifteen minutes? More than he usually got to save the world. Which this definitely was. He made a show of huffing about the timeline all the same, even as the warmth of his scrubbed-at cheek snuck a little higher, the start of a blush that'd rival MJ's absolutely signature lipstick if it got away from him. Which it definitely wouldn't. And totally didn't, lately. Especially when every time coming home really, really felt like coming home.

He caught the phone, anyway. Like only a spider could. If the spider was big enough to not get crushed on impact, obviously. "C'mon, I've had crunchier. And I'm not smarter with literally everything. Just nerd junk. That's, like, my ecological niche." MJ couldn't have forgot all the times he'd gone and made a total tool of himself tagging along to some red carpet or other, fumbling as the paparazzi grilled Mary Jane Watson's Plus One. The good old days.

Though, these days, they were - they were better than they could've been. Absolutely. By a lot. An unbelievable amount, actually. Peter scoffed that apology right away, tapping through menus and submenus. "Oh, yeah. Just okay. Better now, obviously." So much better. Better than he could easily string together and say, sentiments-wise. Not just because of the couch he'd slumped onto, gingerly, stretching out that beat-up spine of his. Man, that he was still feeling Spider-Man's first real run in with the Magistrate a week and some later - served him right, maybe. For all the jokes about how Gotham was exporting clowns, these days.

"Also, seriously. Are you kidding? As bombardments go, this was great. Really, really - really great. No shrapnel, even. The Queens judge gives it an eleven. Would be bombarded again. Anytime. And," he held the phone out, a victorious swap for the wine. "Done." World, saved. For now.

[xjackpot]

"Well, in any case, your ecological niche," whatever the hell that meant, "meshes perfectly with mine because nerd shit is definitely not my forte." Never had been, had only gotten worse as cell phones seemed to get smarter and her technological awareness stayed the same. "I'll keep the upper hand on dealing with the press, screenplays and scripts. For now, anyway." A quick grin was sent in his direction, around the rim of that wine bottle as she took another sip directly from it. "It will be even better in roughly...ten minutes, when there is pizza." Definitely the best way to end the day, as far as Mary Jane was concerned. She might still have work to do, but it was work from home with wine and pizza and Peter Parker. Reminiscent of nights from so long ago, back in the before - in that shoebox apartment they could barely afford, back in her happiest days before life had made things so damned unfair. Before the baby, before the divorce, before the snap when Mary Jane was slammed into facing what life without her favorite person was like. Those memories felt golden, full of light, and she could almost see the same shimmer now. Or maybe that was the wine. The wine definitely added to the haze. "Fair. At least my bombardments don't come with shrapnel, knives or toxic gas." One final sip of that wine before the bottle was passed over, and Mary Jane exhaled a long happy sigh when the phone was passed to her and finally, finally, she was going to be able to refresh and check her e-mail. "Oh my God, you are literally a life saver, thank you, thank you, I love you." It took a moment for that to land, fully land, and MJ was all at once wishing that the wine bottle was still in her hands and hadn't been traded for the phone. A slip, an honest hand to God slip considering the phrase was one she often tossed about without much thought, but it was...different, here. Far different, considering the mess and the history and that stupid golden glow that she could not only see but feel. She could feel her breath leaving then, blinking green eyes as she forced her expression to stay in that happy neutral (even if the smile did slip just a little, just a fraction, when it landed just what she'd said before she corrected) and felt her brain hard reboot (just like the phone in her hands, ironic) and struggle to touch down on what to say next, or any words, really. "...Another bonus of this bombardment," there were words, good, words were good, "is it comes with wine." Which. She might need more of, yeah.

[xosborn]

With each new person that entered the restaurant, Harry's eyes jumped upwards, excited and searching. It wasn't that he didn't think MJ was coming- it was just that even now, he understood why she wouldn't. His anticipation was justified however when she burst into the room, locked eyes with him, and sped her way right over. A delighted grin spread across his face and stuck there as he watched MJ settle in and he leaned back, giving her a little wave.

"Hey yourself, MJ," he said with a laugh, eyes sparkling along with the sound of it. No matter how late she was, he was still happy to see her- and delighted by the promise of her free time, however long his lasted.

"I shouldn't have anything else on my plate at work. Tied up all the ongoing disasters, so unless the office building spontaneously combusts, I'm free as a bird." His smile softened, and he reached for the menu he'd already read twice over while he waited. "It's been a second- how have you been? Anything new in the world of Mary Jane Watson?"

[xjackpot]

"I wish I tied up all of the ongoing disasters, but if that was the case then I would never be able to leave my office." Working for the UN had always been complicated, considering the state of things and her position (and very pro-hero stance, which only further complicated things), but it would seem that every day there was a new, fresh hell to deal with under the Magistrate's hold on the UN. "Or, maybe one or both of us get lucky and we can just let the flames burn. I don't know about you, but I can use a day off." Mary Jane set aside her phone aside (face down on the table, but well...never out of reach, a problem she was aware of and trying to work on but the addiction was real and raw) and reached for a menu, settling into her seat now that she'd dropped her bag and binders and everything else. "Oh, y'know. Same old. Busy with the UN, busy with other stuff, actively avoiding my agent's phone calls about when I'll actually be available to continue my contract for that one movie franchise." Mary Jane offered a red lipstick smile over the edge of that menu, pausing in her reading. "What about you? It's been too long. You're overdue to come over for dinner."

[spider-managing]

Jackpot.

What did it say, that the tension twisting up his spine just absolutely, totally, mostly, okay, just mostly, but a lot, an unbelievable lot, unraveled at the sound and sight of Mary Jane Watson? In an open doorway. Peter knew. He knew what it said. And what he wanted to say, now.

Just - not now, now. Instead, he bent right into that kiss, catching her, for a moment, or maybe two, a hand spread and solid against MJ's back. "Uh-huh, hey, hi," hi, home, he beamed, into the side of her neck. Despite... everything. All the everything. "Hi." A squeeze, and a kiss of his own, right there, against the softness of her cheek, and... Peter swayed back into kicking his shoes off. Over with those deadly heels. Easy as it'd be, to just - keep holding her. "I mean, I don't know if I know, but. Pizza. So I've got, like... twenty minutes, to figure it out?" Pizza meant Lombardi's, because MJ didn't have to settle for less, these days; she'd never deserved to. And you ate that hot.

(Speaking, or not, of which... wow, she was - how she always was. Beautiful. Crazy beautiful, swanning around this cityscape-view apartment, barefoot with her bottle. Man, the way this, staying, here, with her, again, kept hitting him like a ton of bricks. Which he'd been hit with, before. At least a ton. Wow...)

"Cool, cool, cool. Always do my best work under pressure. Gimme," Peter grabby-handsed for the phone, ducking out from under his messenger bag with a pop-crack of his neck that ran all the way down. He rolled his shoulder with another crunch, a wince, a huff. Oy. Then raised that hand again, ready, game.

[xjackpot]

Mary Jane had been happy to lean into the kiss he’d returned against her cheek, humming in content before pressing another quick kiss directly beside the one she’d planted on his cheek upon arrival. She instinctively reached up with a manicured thumb to wipe away the smear of red that had been left behind by her lipstick, swiping across his skin a few times before the mark was cleared away. “...Probably more like fifteen minutes,” MJ said after a beat had passed, a soft smile tugging her lips upward as she slowly took a step back and out of his way to let him all of the way into the apartment. Would’ve been happy to stay right there (with a big ol’ kiss to welcome him home, just like once upon a time before everything had gotten so damned messy) after a too-long day that was going to turn into a potentially longer evening with more work to do…but that was complicated. Messy, complicated, not the time to think about that. “Ordered on the Uber home. I'm starving and started dreaming of Lombardi's somewhere around 2:15. So we are in a time crunch.” Mary Jane lightly tossed that phone in his direction with the damned application open, taking another drink from the wine bottle she was toting around. “You’ve always been smarter than me with literally everything. I have faith. To be fair, I’ve been working on this for the better part of the afternoon. Kept getting like, two steps in at the office and then busy and now it turns out I’m incapable.” She rolled her eyes, took another drink from that wine bottle, and dropped herself to sit on the oversized cream-colored loveseat off to the side in the living room of the apartment. “Don’t work too hard, I’m sure someone at the office can figure it out tomorrow.” Definitely should’ve just tasked one of her assistants to do it, but it was too late for that now and work-from-home had become an unfortunate day-to-day reality. Mary Jane had become a little too addicted to e-mail once her career had taken off, a little more addicted than usual when her career had shifted towards working for the UN and the e-mails were a little more important and didn’t have a manager skimming through them. “Sorry to bombard you the second you got home. I was preparing a warning text where I begged for help, but you beat me to it.” Another smile went his way, and Mary Jane offered the wine bottle up and over in his direction. “Your day was okay?”

[ekdeduka]

Honestly, from down in the fluorescent glare of the lab… Curtis hadn’t known it was winter until he convinced his handlers to let him start slithering outside, now and then. It wasn’t a bad one, from how he remembered the boroughs. Still the closest he’d been to cold in years. When he’d had any say in it. Which he didn’t, now. But this was good, it was; he’d welcomed the chill, the way it softened the already drugged-dull scratch-scratch at the back of his brain. Yes. Good. 

Even if he was just ever-so-slightly sluggish with it, enough that it took him a moment, and a New York-volume try from the clerk, to realize that he was being spoken to. And a moment more, as he turned, head cocked, arms - still felt unbalanced, awkward, having both - crossed against the cold. The clerk gave it another go, creaking in her chair. “I said, what’s the occasion, sweetheart?” Curtis did some straightening up of his own, not quite inside the commercial door, all those bouquets stacking out onto the street around him. “Sorry. Ah… it’s - you got sunflowers?” The old lady blinked. “My wife’s favourite. Especially this time of year, you know? Little bit of sunshine, keeps the grey away. Always made her smile.” He’d started to, himself. Hard not to.

And so had she, crinkling very, very softly. At that made. “In back, maybe. I’ll see. Gimme a minute.” Curtis nodded, grateful. “Thank you! Thanks.” Left alone, he swallowed the sudden ache in his throat and drifted back onto the sidewalk some. Looked cramped, inside the place. Just an absolute cascade of carnations, and… “MJ?” Had to be her. It did, just - blooming into view, from behind the lilies. “Hey, MJ,” he rasped, picking that smile up from where it’d sunk to. Couldn’t not, for Mary Jane Watson. This’d get complicated, quick. For the moment, though - he’d just be glad. Glad the girl who’d thrown up in one of their mixing bowls over live first aid lessons was still around, to stumble into.

@xjackpot

[xjackpot]

Her lunch meeting had been canceled, and Mary Jane had gone from rushing through Manhattan sidewalk traffic, weaving and ducking through the too cramped streets as red-bottomed heeled click click clicked against the asphalt below (because, somehow, half-running in heels was somehow faster than the Uber app predicted any ride would be), to having a sizeable gap in her schedule that she wouldn’t complain about. Time to take a breath, take her time heading back to the office and actually get to eat lunch and run a few other errands that had been crammed to the bottom of her ever-growing to-do list. First on the list: to pick up some fresh flowers for her office, since she hadn’t loved the ones that her assistant had picked up last time. Those were long since dead regardless, practically dried and making her grimace every time she walked past (she really needed to just throw them away). Maybe she’d grab some for the apartment too, brighten things up a little for the dreaded Manhattan winter… She’d turned instinctively when she’d heard her name with a half-smile already in place on red-painted lips (she was used to recognition, at this point in her career, even more so when she was home in New York) and that smile froze in place when she recognized the face at the other end. Absolutely froze, not blinking, fingertips pausing in their exploration of the bright red-and-orange flower arrangement she’d decided on. All at once she was transported back in time to warm family dinners that she and Peter had been invited to, full of light and laughter that she hadn’t been sure was real within families. To a little boy’s laughter with pink chubby cheeks and a smile that lit up his eyes. To first aid lessons and shaking fingers fumbling with medical supplies. So this was how Tuesday was going to go. Excellent. “Dr. Connors,” MJ finally managed to reply, unfreezing, that smile still in place but a little more stiff than it had been upon turning around. “Long time no see. Back in New York for long…?”

[chewbacca]

Spider-Man (2002), dir. Sam Raimi

[xjackpot]

@spider-managing

“ – So I got a new phone after I dropped mine the other day and I needed to re-set up the multi-factor authenticator thingy for work stuff, right? Okay, started that, and it’s telling me I forgot my password? I literally have it written down, but whatever, so I started the process to change that."

Mary Jane had started talking from the moment she’d opened the door to the Upper East Side penthouse, a bottle of wine in hand that she absolutely took a sip directly out of as she kicked the discarded Louboutins she'd left directly in the doorway out of the way. “So now it’s saying my new password cannot be my old password and it’s still telling me that my current password is not my password. I haven’t even gotten to touch the multi-factor crap yet and I am about to throw my computer off the balcony so please tell me you know how to do this." Because if not then, well a new laptop would be joining the new phone and everything would probably be twice as complicated. "Also hi, welcome home," said after another hefty glug of wine directly from the mouth of the bottle, stepping forward to plant a red-lipsticked-kiss right against his jaw (his cheek had been the aim, but well, out of comfortable reach without the Louboutins). "I ordered pizza."

[xjackpot]

@xosborn

“ – Sorry, sorry, I know I’m late.” She could be absolutely and accurately be described as a tornado with bright green eyes and red hair as she hurried to sit in the chair on the opposite side of the table, dropping a binder on the restaurant table’s surface and her bag onto the ground. “I got wrapped up in paperwork and I really wanted to finish before I left; I didn’t want to have to go back.” She’d much rather wrap things up for the day than have to try to pick up where she left off. Besides, she’d spent her entire day buried in paperwork because tomorrow was for outreach work so she wouldn’t have time to play catch up.  And well. She was perpetually at least five minutes late and that was on a good day. A really good day, actually.

Scooting her chair in a little, Mary Jane moved the binder out of the way and onto the floor as well with her bag. “So while I’m late, that means I have nothing else on my schedule for today and I am all yours for however long you're free.” There was a smile there, curved onto signature red-painted lips. “Also, hey. Good to see you.”