Chapter Text
Keep it movin', that's my attitude
Lookin' back, I know they probably doubt me
Now the city on my back, I wear it proudly
I'm a hero in the makin'
- This Is My Time, Lecrae
In hindsight, one might think that Spiderman would be just as graceful on ice as he was swinging through the urban jungle and sheer concrete cliffs of New York City. Alas, Miles appeared more like a baby giraffe taking its first steps as he stepped on to the Bryant Park ice skating rink along with Hailey.
Miles gritted his teeth as he balanced his strength to ensure that he didn’t end up crushing the metal guide railing as he white-knuckled his way forward towards Hailey who was gracefully skating forward. Between his nervousness of embarrassing himself in front of Hailey and the irony of not being a graceful skater despite his side-gig, Miles was in for one heck of an afternoon.
“Miles, do you need help?” asked Hailey as she skated her way back towards Miles, her ability to sign was obviously not impeded by her need to hold the guide railing like Miles.
Miles huffed as he continued to struggle to get the skates balanced beneath him, even more, to get himself stable enough to let go of the railing and sign back to Hailey.
He was surprised when a warm hand gently rested itself by his forearm and urged him to leave the safety of the railing, instead, lending its support to him.
With one hand, Hailey gestured to Miles to follow her and with her other hand, she assisted Miles as he pushed off the walls of the ice skating rink and tried his best to wobble his way forward.
Miles silently thanked God that Peter wasn’t anywhere close by, otherwise, he’d be the butt of a whole lot of jokes. On the other hand, his face burned with a mix of blushing, embarrassment and nerves, he was sure that Hailey must’ve thought that he was pretty lame at that moment.
As if reading his mind, Hailey lifted her supportive hand away to sign, “Miles, it’s alright! Not everyone is great at skating, I guess it’s good you have a teacher with you?”
Grinning in jest, Hailey pushed off and did a graceful twirl on the ice as she left Miles slack-jawed and watching her in admiration.
“Damn straight! I’ve got the prettiest girl here teaching me how to skate,” replied Miles as Hailey finished a few pirouettes on the ice and returned back to where he was standing.
Giggling in response to his flirty response, Hailey didn’t even hesitate to drop her hand and take his hand in her own to lead him forwards through the throngs of families, couples and other skaters that were enjoying the rink as they were.
After some time having Hailey lead him, Miles eventually overcame his fear of slipping and became confident enough to try skating without any help, well any non-spidey power help that is. With just the slightest hints of his spidey-strength, he tested his limits while simultaneously trying to impress Hailey with his own mini pirouettes and doing a few swizzles.
All the while, Hailey was whooping as she observed Miles affectionately but alas, time soon ran out on their ice skating adventure.
Hand in hand, they skated together towards the exit and as they both sat down to remove the skates, Miles took the opportunity to tap Hailey’s shoulder and sign to her, “I’d love to do this again, maybe next time we could just get our own skates and go to Central Park instead?”
Hailey smirked a bit and replied with, “What makes you think we have a next time?”
Grinning right back at her, Miles didn’t let shock play out on his face, instead signing back, “well, I was hoping to ask you on a second date if this one goes really well.”
Setting her skates on the bench and slipping her boots back on, Hailey took his hand and pulled him up off his seat. She put a hand on his chest and signed with her free hand, “Smooth, just like the way you skate.”
Blushing furiously, Miles just ducked his head down into the striped scarf that Hailey gave him and placed a hand on her own, feeling the warmth that they shared through that connection.
Leaving the skates at the rental booth, they walked over to the Wafels and Dinges hut by the corner of the Bryant Park Winter Village and bought themselves a pair of fantastic hot chocolate drinks, churros and choco caramel dips.
Miles realized he hadn’t been back to Bryant Park since his dad died, but he was incredibly thankful that here he was creating new memories with a girl he liked and well, more importantly, liked him back.
Sensing the melancholy that had draped itself around his shoulders, Hailey tapped him and signed, “you know Miles, I just realized that you don’t have a name sign! I’ve just been signing miles like the measurement.”
Miles shed the melancholy faster than a spider could spin a web and his eyes crinkled as he smiled widely and chuckled as he too realized that Hailey has just been signing miles all the time since meeting him.
“Any suggestions?”, replied Miles as he took a sip of the scalding hot chocolate.
Hailey munched away on a chocolate caramel covered churro as she pondered what name sign Miles could possibly adopt for himself.
Before she knew it, there was a napkin beneath her chin held out by Miles’ outstretched hand as he caught the dripping sauce that was falling from her churro.
Hailey blushed as she signed, “Thanks, sorry!”, with one hand and struggled to finish off the churro in her other hand.
Miles smiled back, winked and replied with, “That’s what your friendly neighbourhood hero does, catches you when you fall.”
Giggling as she finished the churro, Hailey was hit with a bout of inspiration as she reacted to Miles’ creative comeback. Wiping her fingers with a napkin, she shook her fingers a bit to loosen them from the chilliness of New York winter.
“How about M…”, then she sprawled her fingers out and crawled them up her other hand, exactly like the symbol for spiders in ASL.
Miles nodded and tried it out for himself, it felt quite intimate and almost too personal to use as a name sign used with anyone from the ASL-speaking community.
Thinking about it for a bit, Miles suggested back to Hailey, “how about miles as my name sign and M-spider for just us?”
Hailey smiled brightly as she nodded excitedly and she clasped his hand in hers then leaned her head on his shoulder. Together, they watched the other skaters enjoy gliding across the ice.