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“Did you know that I can tell when you are watching me?”
It was a bit too cool of a night to be sitting on the rooftop of her apartment, but Gwen ran a little hotter than average since her mutation, so she could take it for a little while longer.
Silence answered her for long moments, and she dropped her head back. The distressed straps of the lawn chair creaked with the motion. It was probably older than she was, and rusted to boot, but it’s not like tetanus was one of the greater dangers she faced each day.
A faint shadow blocked the sodium glow of the single light above the door. She hadn’t even realized she had half-closed her eyes until she had to blink them open to focus on the red blur standing over her.
“You get all tingly when I’m around?” His voice is rough, like he hasn’t spoken much today. That wouldn’t be something most people would consider possible for the large man, but Gwen is of the opinion that most people are purposefully ignorant. One doesn’t become a hunter if one can’t sit and wait for their prey. She would know. She’s a hunter as well.
“Yeah I do.” She agrees easily, giving her head a lazy incline towards the other ratty seat. There’s no guarantee that the thing will be able to take the weight of her new companion, but that doesn’t stop the mercenary from throwing himself into it anyway. The chair shrieks like it is dying for a moment but it does actually hold.
Gwen shifts enough to kick her slipper clad feet up onto one of the muscular thighs opposite her.
“Hey Deadpool.”
She can tell that her action took him by surprise. It would have taken anyone by surprise, really. This is the first time they’ve actually sat and spoken like this. This is the first time she knows, with any real certainty, that he’s seen her without her mask.
“Spider.” He greets back cheerily, his gloved fingers gentle as he wriggles her pink house slippers free of her toes. She giggles, ticklish, and he laughs in return before setting to pressing his thumbs into the soles of her feet. Well then, she might have to keep him around more often if this is the kind of service she can expect.
“You can call me Gwen, when I’m not wearing the mask, if you’re comfortable with that.”
His fingers still for a brief moment, his jaw working in a way that leads her to believe that he is chewing his lip. Funny how good she has gotten at reading microexpressions through a mask. Lots of practice.
“You can call me Wade. When you’re not wearing the mask.” He offers in return, his head dipping enough that it’s more difficult to get even the little read she might have. Clearly he’s aware of the nuances even a mask can give away too. Clever male, really.
“Thank you Wade.” She wiggles her toes in his grasp, stretches enough to really feel it all down her legs, and then sinks into a lazy, boneless sprawl. It’s her night off, she can relax if she wants too. It’s easier when there are two of them to patrol, easier to shuffle the guilt into the back of her mind and actually unwind. Peter has a lot more trouble with it, but she has come to terms with his need to always give just a bit more than he actually has to the cause.
“Let’s talk about my boyfriend's crush on you.” Wade freezes at her words, drawing a distraught noise of complaint from her and yet another toe wiggle to get him back on point. Come on, it’s not every day a hard working superheroine gets a foot rub. Gotta take advantage while she can.
“His...crush on me?” Wade closes hands around her feet. They are large enough to encircle each foot entirely. She’s always aware of her size. Being smaller than most of the people she faces, and the supers she helps, means she is more likely to be underestimated. That’s useful at times.
Right now, however, she really doesn’t want to have to heal through both of her feet being crushed. That would make for a very bad day.
Wade does not crush her feet. He gives each one a squeeze, releases the grip, squeezes again. She has to bite back a moan at the press and release skirts the border of pleasure and pain. She basks for a few silent minutes, well mostly silent, barring her small noises of contentment. Until Wade shifts back to rubbing his leather clad thumb along her soles.
“Oh yeah.” She is breathless, but she figures he understands. “His massive, glaring, gigantic, seen-from-space crush on Deadpool, A.K.A: you. Which I personally enjoy in many terrible ways. I mean, he’s had crushes before, and they are glorious and cute. This time, however, it’s serious. He honestly has a thing for you and it’s not often my nerdy boy wants something so bad.” She has closed her eyes again. Wade was really good at this, and she felt her legs going to jelly the longer she sat there. He was doing something to her toes, spreading them and then pulling, and it was fantastic.
“Just to be sure, we’re talking about Spider-Man here, right?” Wade sounds uncertain, which is cute since he’s been stalking them both for a few weeks now and is clearly aware of both their names, addresses, and the nature of their relationship. It’s been a serious pain in Gwen’s ass keeping Peter distracted enough to not have his spidey-sense trigger.
“Yep.” She pops the P, letting her legs go loose when he takes one foot in both hands and begins to rotate her ankle. The push and pull slowly increases as he tests her range of motion and tolerance. “That would be the one. As I said, he’s such a giver, you know?” They both make similar agreeable noises. Yes, Spider-Man is the epitome of ‘good guy’.
“So how can I not at least make the attempt to give him something that has been so good for him?”
Wade pushes a little too hard with this rotation and Gwen makes a low noise of discomfort. The leather clad man corrects the motion, and gives her foot an apologetic pat.
“Just to be sure,” He repeats incredulously, “We’re talking about Spider-Man?”
“Oh yes.” Gwen assures him, cracking her eyes open to ensure he is paying attention. To ensure he can see exactly how serious she is taking this subject. “We are talking about Spider-Man and Deadpool and the ongoing seduction you two have in back alleys and rooftops. We are talking about Peter and Wade and how I am going to do what I can to nudge that sweetness along and get you two to culminate said seduction.” Curling her toes, Gwen pressing her feet into Wade’s hands until the motion stops and she has all of his attention.
“I need to know if you really want to come in, or if you are happier just watching from across the alley way.” She says softly.
Wade flinches a bit, his broad shoulders curling inward in the most adorable show of bashful shame she has seen since, well, since Peter last did it. Man, her relationship with her boyfriend is really coloring her reactions.
“Uhh, noticed that, huh?” Wade hems.
Aww, he’s getting shy on her. In return, she flashes him her sweetest smile. It always makes Peter wimper. It makes Wade closes his eyes and whine. One day she is going to ask him how he gets his mask to do that, because it’s brilliant really. Right after she stops preening at the sight of a big, bad mercenary curled around her feet like he was caught with he fingers in the cookie jar.
Which, she supposes, he was.
“Yep.” She pops the P again, still smiling.
“It wasn’t for a job.” He explains quickly, and he is clearly gearing up for quite the torrent of words, but she curls her toes into him once more and shushes at him.
“Shh, it’s ok Wade, I know it wasn’t for anything bad.” She had to pause, because no, stalking is bad, “Malicious.” She corrects. “You weren’t looking to hurt either one of us. You didn’t do anything that made me feel threatened, once I figured out it was you.” She had to pause here and give him his due, “You’re really good. I don’t think I’d have ever caught you if it weren’t for,” she can’t help but snicker, “The way you give me the tingles.”
She wiggles her toes again, laughing lightly. His sharp bark of surprised laughter is a pleasure to behold. Wade laughs with his entire body.
“Oh, I’ll give you the tingles alright.” Wade does this thing with his eyebrows that sets her to pondering about his mask yet again. Question of the ages really, but she has to stay on track.
“Yeah you do.” Gwen confesses, “But more than that, you give Spider-Man the tingles. You give Peter the tingles. You are his guilty pleasure, and it looks like he’s yours too, right? You both pine at each other any harder and I’ll have to make really awful wood jokes.” Gwen groans, pursing her lips into a pout, “Don’t make me pun, Wade, please?”
Wade snickers, obviously only too happy to sink into juvenile humor with her. Except something must shift because he straightens in his creaky chair. Carefully, he slides a fuzzy slipper onto each foot in his possession and then gently shifts them from his thigh to rest on the dirty rooftop.
“You’re looking to negotiate a threesome? Some em em eff? Em eff em? Just what kind of fanfiction are you writing?” He doesn’t sound grim, but it’s close. It takes Gwen a moment to shift mental gears and track what just happened.
“Ah, you think I’m looking for a disposable toy.” She huffs and she can see her breath. Yeah, it’s pretty cold out. “No, I am not here to negotiate a threesome of any configuration Wade. I don’t want to use you and then excuse you from our bed.” Gwen mimics the mercenary’s pose, spine straight, leaning forward, “I am interviewing my baby’s potential paramour. I am here to negotiate a courtship.”
Wade opens and closes his mouth a few times, and Gwen waits him out. Deadpool is never left speechless for long.
“WHAT?!?”
She doesn’t flinch from his screech, but it’s close. He can reach a shockingly high pitch for such a big man.
“You clearly have intentions towards my nerd.” She waves her hand in the air, encompassing his even being there right now, “They are serious enough that you aren’t just flirting and copping a feel during fights now, you are really looking into Spider-Man’s life.” She points at herself, swings her hand down to indicate the apartment below them. “He’s terrible at relationships. You aren’t exactly off to the healthiest start,” she nudges him with her slipper when he starts to wilt, “Don’t get shy on me now Wade, these are facts as seen by me, ok?”
Rocking to the edge of her chair, a move that the thing whines and creaks through, she takes up the same hands that had been so careful with her just moments before.
“I’m not mad Wade. I’m not scared of you. We’ve worked together professionally and I admire you. I think that what you and Peter have is a good thing. That doesn’t matter though, Wade, if you aren’t ready for it to be anything more than flirting in the heat of battle. You matter in this equation and I am not going to encourage something if it’s not what you want or what you are comfortable with.”
She can’t help it, she starts rubbing his hands through his gloves, mimicking the small circles he’d rubbed into her feet.
“You don’t have to answer any of this right now.” Gwen explains, words quiet in the small space between them. “You take some time and think about it. About what you want and how often you might want it. I love Peter, but you matter too Wade. What you need and want is important too.”
There is something about the tension in the man’s body that leads Gwen to guess he doesn’t entirely agree with that statement. Yeah, she’s always drawn to the types who tend to give more of themselves than they have.
“Can I take a couple days?” She doesn’t know why his question takes her by surprise. She had half expected him to run. He’s jumped off a building to avoid her before.
“You take all the days you need. No matter what, you and I are friends now Wade.” She pulls her hands away from him and curls one into a fist, lifting it up, “You know why?”
When he finally looks at her, she laughs and answers, “Spider booty.”
Wades gives Gwen a fistbump over that.