Chapter Text
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Needless to say, I keep her in check
She was a bad-bad, nevertheless
- Sunflower, Post Malone
With a screech of the braking, the subway train slowed to a complete stop at 125th Street Station in Harlem and the doors swiftly opened up, Miles stepped off humming along to his latest favourite tune. Bopping his head as he weaved his way through the throngs of commuters stepping off or into the train, he quickly hopped up the stairs out to the busy street.
“Calling it quits now, baby, I’m a wreck”, sang Miles as he did a little dance on the sidewalk as though in his own world, neither the honking of impatient taxi cabbies nor the everpresent hum of activity of New York could take him out of his vibing with the song. One thing though caught Miles’ eye, the mural of Spiderman across the street from the subway entrance suddenly had a new addition to it.
That definitely caught his attention as Miles jogged across the street and towards the gated brick wall where the mural was painted, he pushed the headphones down his head where it rested on his collar and he gazed up adoringly at the painting. It was like staring at a reflection of his costumed self, the white lenses bordered by the bright red lines that made up the web-esque pattern on his mask. To Miles, it was just perfect.
While Miles admired the wall mural, he failed to notice a certain frizzle haired brunette climbing down the ladder and scaffolding below the mural. Reaching out with a hand, Hailey tapped Miles on his shoulder, startling him out of his moment of appreciation.
Hailey signed, “Hey! I’m glad you like the art! It’s about time Harlem had a Spiderman”
Still chuckling in surprise, Miles hesitantly brought up his hands to gesture back to Hailey, “It’s so awesome! How long did this take you, H-A-I-L-E-Y?”
“A few weeks, especially with the blizzard and what happened at Roxxon Plaza”, replied Hailey as she shrugged off her small backpack to allow a greater range of motion while signing.
She added, “You know, you don’t have to fingerspell H-A-I-L-E-Y. I could teach you the way I say it”
With the quick realization that he had been called out for fingerspelling, Miles reached up to rub his hand on his neck in embarrassment. He wasn’t just turning red because of the cold weather and his shyness, but he knew he was crushing a bit.
“Sorry, I didn’t know how to do it, I’m not the best at ASL. But I can try!”, replied Miles as he tried to recover from his flustered state.
Giggling a bit at the sight of a bashful-looking Miles, Hailey signed back to him, “Don’t worry one bit, so my name sign uses the sign for spray paint and a Z over the heart, like this.”
To demonstrate, Hailey held up both her hands towards Miles and made an X handshape accompanied by a Z-like motion over her heart as though she was painting with her hands.
Watching her demonstrate the way she did her name sign, Miles tried his best to repeat the actions, first by nervously making an X with his hands and then drawing a Z over his own heart, swishing his hands reluctantly. It dawned on Miles that his half-heartedness could be seen as rudeness so he repeated the name sign, this time with a tad bit too much gusto.
Hailey giggled once more as she watched him tentatively sign her name sign a few more times, she enjoyed watching him put so much effort in getting it right. Eventually, she took pity on Miles, removed one of her gloves and placed her hand on his. Ignoring his shocked face, Hailey took his hand and made the artful Z gesture over his heart then looked up at him and just nodded, smiling.
Gently pulling his hand back, Miles blushed an incredible deep shade of red, perhaps enough to rival the ruby colour of the other Spiderman’s costume. In an attempt to recover his confidence, Miles signed back to Hailey, “Thank you, Hailey! I was gonna get there eventually, anyway what inspired you to paint two Spidermen?”
“Beyond what Spiderman has done for the community, I thought maybe it’s time to honour Our Spiderman.”, replied Hailey, it was not lost on her how deeply Miles blushed as she drew her hand back away from him, neither did she miss how much pride filled his eyes when she said “Our Spiderman”.
Choking back his joy-filled tears, Miles gathered up his courage. If he faced down a Roxxon-powered super-Rhino and took down the Tinkerer, he could probably ask Hailey for a coffee, maybe.
Hands trembling in a mix of anticipation and adrenaline, Miles asked, “Would you like to come and get coffee with me sometime?”
Hailey smiled widely and nodded as she replied, “Of course! How does tomorrow afternoon sound? We can meet at Teo’s!”
Grinning with excitement, Miles was simultaneously surprised and overjoyed that Hailey had agreed, “Absolutely! I’ll meet you by the bodega at 1, should I, uhm, bring anything?”
“Yes, just the one thing, bring that scarf I gave you a few weeks ago, okay?”, signed Hailey as she bent to pick her backpack off the ground and shoulder it, waving at Miles, she climbed back up the ladder to finish up the newly painted mural.
Waving back at Hailey, Miles turned heel to leave the area and as he stepped back onto the sidewalk, he could have sworn that he saw Hailey wink back at him.
Pacing forward with excitement, Miles pumped his fist in the air once he cleared the view of the mural, he felt a tiny bit of bioelectricity dance across his fist and he quickly lowered it before anyone noticed any orange sparks. Humming the tune of Sunflower, Miles continued to grin not just because the girl he was crushing on had just agreed to go out with him, but she taught him her name sign as well.
Reaching for his phone to call Ganke and tell him the great news, the realization hit him harder than Rhino ever did… how did Hailey know that he had her scarf? The very same scarf she wrapped around his neck after he saved her from those criminal goons, but as the Spiderman.
“Oh god, I need to talk to Ganke!”, exclaimed Miles as the realization dawned on him. And off he ran towards the apartment.