Curate, connect, and discover
A/N: y’all have no idea how excited I am for you to read this chapter! it’s a long one and full of emotions so make sure you’ve got some water with you. Likes and feedback of any kind are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!
Summary: In which we see how Peter feels about Moonlight and just how far Luna will go to protect the one person in the world she cares about
Word Count: 5.6k
Warning: violence, blood, gunshot wound, slight nudity
Chapter 4: Ditto
Time passed with the same routine but Moonlight and Spider-Man grew closer…and flirted more. Luna would always initiate it but Spider-Man would always follow. Sometimes if she was feeling extra spicy that night she would pull the zipper of her suit down enough to see the insane amount of cleavage the tight leather suit gave her. Out of the corner of her eye she would sometimes catch him looking for a second. It would only make her grin wide but she never called him out, not wanting him to stop looking.
The pair were currently sitting in a very empty central park after having had a very slow night. It was nearing midnight which was usually around the time they would call it a night. They sat beside each other, Luna with her legs crossed and facing Spider-Man’s side who had his legs stretched out in front of him as he leaned back on his hands as they talked about movies, specifically Ghost.
“Look, I’m not saying that it was a bad movie!” Spider-Man argued from his place beside her. “I’m just saying I didn’t like it!”
“That’s fine. You’re entitled to your wrong opinion.” Moonlight shrugged.
“Name one good thing about it.”
“The end when he tells her he loves her and he’s always loved her and she says ditto like c’mon!”
“That’s my issue with it!”
“What?!”
“I would never say ditto when someone tells me they love me.” He scoffed.
“What would you say then?”
Peter stared at the woman beside him and sat up so that he could lean in closer. The smile fell from Moonlight’s face but her doe eyes looked at him in a way that spurred him on to do what he wanted.
“I would…I would cup her face.” His hands came up to tentatively cup Luna’s face, her mask grazing the edges of his thumbs. “And I would.” He breathed, hearing her heartbeat pickup just like his had. “And I would tell her that she’s my everything and I love you cannot compare to how I feel about her.”
Even though he stopped speaking, his hands never left her face. Luna leaned in, her hands finding their way to his chest, resting them flat against it as her eyes fluttered closed when their noses brushed together. Her hands slid up to his neck where the edge of his mask was. He could feel her breath against his mask and he could smell the sugary cotton candy she had had earlier in the night from a street vendor. It made his head spin and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His mask started to come up and Peter trusted her to know that she wouldn’t take it off and she didn’t. She let it rest on his top lip like she had seen him do before.
Hands falling down to her neck, he brushed his lips against hers. They always looked so rosy and soft and pillowy and he wanted to kiss them so badly.
The sound of sirens had them breaking apart quickly. They couldn’t be seen like that in public and they had very much forgotten where they were, Peter especially. Moonlight made him forget a lot of things.
“I should uh check on that.” Moonlight breathed as she ran a hand through her alabaster hair, her heart still beating faster than usual. “Just one cop car so it shouldn’t be anything crazy. Probably just a B and E.”
“Yeah.” Peter agreed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Smirking, she nodded. “Of course. Night, buggy.”
Peter watched her go until she was out of sight before he turned and headed home. He replayed their almost kiss over and over again in his head. He could feel her hands on his chest and hear the way her breath hitched when he cupped her face. He wanted to kiss her so badly. But if they kissed then it would change everything. If they went beyond their partners in fighting crime status then eventually that would lead to finding out names and identities and becoming important to one another.
But Moonlight was already important to him. Over the course of the last six months she had become someone that he cared deeply for. He wasn’t madly in love with her but he did love her. She was one of his people and he only had one other person, Aunt May, and he knew that if he were in the situation that he would take a bullet for Moonlight.
He already loved her and he knew that if they took things further- if they kissed and learned names and identities then he would be in love with her. He knew that he would fall so fast and hard for her. Peter knew that he looked at her like she hung the damn stars in the sky when she was rambling at ninety miles an hour about wilted lettuce or some random ass topic. He knew that he was so physically attracted to her that he would have dreams about taking her skin tight suit off of her. He knew that it would be so easy for him to fall in love with her. It would be like breathing. They fit together so well. Their banter, their sarcastic remarks, the way they fought alongside each other like they always had been partners. He knew it would be so easy.
Peter hadn’t been with anyone since Gwen- not seriously any way. A year ago he had come back from another universe and found a way to get himself out of the grief he had been stuck in for so long. He had been stuck in Gwen’s death for years and meeting his brothers, seeing that he could be happy like them, changed him and gave him hope. Then just six months later Moonlight came along. It was like it was meant to happen.
At the beginning his reasons for trying to tell himself they couldn’t be together was safety above all. He didn’t want Luna to end up like Gwen had. But Moonlight was already her own hero and fought the bad guys everyday. Whether they got together or not she would be on the front lines still, just like he was. She was already her own target and plus, she could take care of herself. Moonlight was insanely powerful and he was in awe of that every day.
There was no reason they couldn’t be together.
As he got into bed, he couldn’t get her out of his head. Now that he was opening up to the idea of them he was wanting it more and more. He had half a mind to get out of bed and find her and kiss her. He wanted so badly to kiss her. To hold her face in his hands and feel her body pressed against his and taste the cotton candy on her tongue. Feel her soft hair beneath his hands. He had such a thing for her hair. It was so thick and voluminous and the way it moved in the wind; there was something about it that he loved.
He decided then that tomorrow when he saw her he was going to kiss her and nothing was going to stop him.
Well, other than quite literally everything possible. He found it nearly impossible to get out of work on time due to a small break through in the team he was overseeing. He couldn’t just leave in the middle of it which was right around the time he was supposed to leave for the day. Then when he finally did get out he missed his bus. Not worrying about it, he changed into his suit in an alleyway right by the lab only to be accosted as soon as he was leaving the alley by an elderly woman who had lost her cat. All the while Moonlight was probably already out on patrol and he wasn’t kissing her like he so desperately wanted to be.
After finding Mittens the cat, he made his way to the Empire State where Moonlight may or may not be. Of course, she wasn’t up there when he showed up and Peter groaned, pulling out his phone and opening up the police scanner to try and see if he could find out where Moonlight was. It took a few minutes but her name came across the scanner making him perk up.
“Possible bank robbery on Fifth and Madison. Be advised Moonlight is on scene sans Spider-Man. Looks like it might be Kingpin.”
Before the last sentence was even finished, Peter was swinging off the building and headed toward Fifth street, excited to have another chance at maybe taking down Kingpin, kicking some criminal ass, and kissing the girl.
The scene he walked onto was just starting to unfold, a shootout beginning. Moonlight was stationed behind a car and sending out blasts of energy to try and take out those shooting at her and the cops. As Peter landed behind the car a few feet away from Moonlight’s, he realized it wasn't the Kingpin but the Russian mob by the patches on the back of their jackets. They were nasty to deal with but they weren’t anything he and Moonlight couldn’t step on.
“You’re late to the party!” Moonlight called with a grin as she used her magic to remove a machine gun from some guy's hands fifteen feet away.
“Sorry, long line for ice!” Peter snarked before webbing one guy to a wall. They were being shot at by maybe ten guys, all behind parked cars
Moonlight couldn’t keep the grin off her face as they worked to take down those who were shooting at them. She was in high spirits from a great day at work, she got a wonderful tip that would go toward buying a new phone since her current one was starting to randomly make calls because it was so old and messed up. Last night when Spider-Man almost kissed her had really set the tone for the good day, though. She had decided that she was going to kiss him as soon as she had the chance. There was something between them and she wanted to find out what it was and explore it.
Everything stood still when Luna saw Spider-Man get shot.
It was at the hands of one of the mob's men who was too good of a shot and he got Spider-Man right in the chest. It made Luna gasp as she saw the bullet hit him, time feeling like it was moving in slow motion. Her eyes were wide with horror and her heart feeling like it had stopped. It made him stumble back from the force and fall behind a car.
He didn’t move after that and Luna knew that if she didn’t get to him and heal him, she might very well lose the only person in the world she cared about.
Not worrying if she got shot, she ran out from behind the car that acted as a shield and into the open, covering her head with her hands and trying to remain low as he got behind the car Spider-Man was behind.
Luna dropped down to her knees in front of him where he lay unresponsive and bleeding too fast for her liking. She desperately searched for the bullet inside his chest, anxiety pouring off her in waves and tears gathering in her eyes as she searched frantically, her heart pounding in her chest like a jackhammer. Her gloved hands were making it more difficult so she ripped them off.
When she found the bullet she cast it aside and put her blood covered hands over the bleeding bullet wound and closed her eyes, letting it flow through her and heal. She unfortunately barely got started before she heard the sound of bullets hitting the car they were behind. She needed more time that she didn’t have. Not there, anyway. She needed to get them out of there.
Not caring about the consequences, she closed her eyes and let the energy gather in her hands like a spring before she released it. She let it come out of her hands like weapons towards the shooters, sending anyone in its path flying back like a bomb had gone off. It gave her the time and clearance she needed to run at blurred speed to Spider-Man. He was all she was thinking about.
Using her magic she picked Spider-Man up and ran, damn near floating, to the one place she felt safe and was just two blocks away: her apartment. She didn’t care about anyone seeing them or Spider-Man behind in her apartment. She only cared about making sure he lived.
She didn’t even know if Spider-Man was alive anymore by the time she was bringing him in through her window to lay him down on the tile floor.
Luna ripped off her mask before bringing her hands to his chest and trying to heal him as fast as she could. There was so much blood and she was so terrified. If there was anyone who deserved to be saved it was him. Spider-Man was the physical embodiment of good. He was who she strived to be like. There was no purer heart on this earth than him. And she was falling in love with him. They would have nights on the top of the empire state building when they were waiting or on slow nights where they would talk for hours. He had come to learn her story; he knew things about her no one else on the earth did. He was so gentle when he was around her and no one had ever been gentle with her before. She was falling in love with him and if he died she might shatter.
She didn’t know his name yet. She still didn’t know who the man behind the mask was. She didn’t know his favorite childhood memory or who was his favorite person on the planet. She didn’t know if had any pet peeves, like people chewing gum loudly. She didn’t know what his favorite season was. She didn’t know if he wanted to kiss her as badly as she wanted to kiss him. She didn’t know if he had brown eyes. She didn’t know any of it and it was breaking her heart.
Tears leaked out of her tightly shut eyes as she kept letting her powers enter his body.
“Please don’t die.”
“I didn’t plan it.”
Her eyes flew open and Spider-Man was starting to wake up, shifting under her.
Before anything else could be said she was throwing her arms around him, body crashing into his. He was surprised but wrapped his arms around her, welcoming the embrace.
“I thought you were dead.” She sniffed before pulling away, letting him sit up halfway.
He stared at her and she wet her lips, looking down his chest that was most healed, nothing but pink skin left. “Are you okay? I can heal you some more.”
“You’re beautiful.” He breathed.
Peter felt like he was seeing the sun for the first time. Even though she had tears down her cheeks and red rimmed eyes, she was more beautiful than he could have imagined. He had an idea of what the rest of her face looked like but the way her nose came to a sharp point was something he didn’t know about but thought was adorable. Her thin arched brows and red tinted cheeks were new to him and he loved every part of them. There was a small deep dented scar on her left cheekbone that made him wonder.
Looking at her like she was Aphrodite herself, she may as well have been with how beautiful she was, he smiled softly because he finally knew what she looked like.
Her hands flew up to her wet face, fingers feeling that the black cat eye style mask she wore was gone before remembering she had taken it off just minutes ago.
“Well I guess I'll have to get a face transplant now.” She deadpanned in a breath, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach that he thought she was beautiful. “Can’t have Spider-Man knowing my identity.”
He reached up to the back of his head and pulled off his mask without hesitation. He wanted her to know what he looked like. He was ready for her to know Peter Parker. No one in the world, his world anyway, knew that he was Spider-Man and hadn’t since Gwen died. He was ready for that to change.
All she could think was how beautiful he was. Those deep, warm brown eyes looking at her captivated her and she had to blink to break free of their hold and take in his fluffy brown hair that looked like a purposely disheveled mess and the way his nose was rounded perfectly. But she kept going back to his eyes. They were so warm just like him. He was like a warm spring day with the sun shining down and the breeze hitting your skin and making you feel alive; that’s what his eyes reminded her of.
God he was so handsome but in such a gentle way and everything she hadn’t expected but had dreamed off.
Luna’s hand reached up, cupping his jaw and feeling the stubble under her palm. His hand reached up to cover hers before bringing it down to put on his chest. His other hand reached up to cup her cheek as he sat up fully and closer, their noses brushing together, just like the night before. Then he kissed her.
Luna had been kissed before, she’d had a couple one night stands over the years, but she had never been kissed like that. It was with the same gentleness as he spoke to her with but the passion she had never felt from him before. They were a mismatch of lips before he gave a suck on her bottom lip before he pulled away.
“Peter Parker.” He breathed. “My name is Peter Parker.”
Luna felt like she couldn’t breathe; Peter Parker. It fit him so well.
Her lips lifted. “Luna Carter.”
Of course her name coincided with her alias and of course it was something so beautiful.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Luna asked again, looking back down to his chest to make sure he didn’t have a scratch left.
Peter couldn’t tear his eyes away from her beauty. “I’m perfect.
“I should go back and clean up the mess I left.” She realized before jumping up and finding her mask that was on the ground by the couch. “Just stay here, I'll be right back.”
Peter was on his feet, ignoring how weak he felt, and grabbing her bloodied wrist as she made her way to the window. “What mess? Just give me a second and I’ll come with you.”
Stressing her bottom lip, she exhaled shakily, looking up at him. “I may have…gone to extreme lengths to get you out of there so I could heal you. Please just stay here, Sp-Peter. You’re not showing it but I know you feel drained right now. It's normal when I heal someone with an injury as bad as yours. I’ll be okay.”
Peter felt winded by hearing his name come out of her mouth and past her kiss bruised lips. His eyes searched hers and he worried that if he went he would only be a burden. He knew he didn’t feel right and he might put her in danger by going. She was strong and knew what she was doing. He had to trust her. He did trust her.
“Okay.” He conceded. “Just…” He cradled her face in his hands and dipped his head to kiss her deeply, drawing it out as their jaws moved together, Luna’s hands finding their way to thread into his locks.
Luna was the one to break the kiss, panting hard and resting her forehead against his, Peter’s chest rising and falling just as fast as hers. “You have one hour to wrap it up or I’m coming after you.”
“Typically that’s the most effective way to make sure she’s satisfied.” Luna deadpanned and Peter let out a breathy laugh before giving her another kiss, this time quick and chaste. He watched her jump out the window and take off in a blur before closing the curtain right behind her only to lean against the wall in exhaustion but with a beaming smile on his face.
He took in her apartment and realized this was Luna he was meeting. There were parts of herself all over the place that he didn’t know a thing about. For starters, the place was covered in plants. There were some on shelves, some hanging from the ceiling, and some on the walls. The green velvet couch that was definitely thrifted was a few feet from him and a small glass coffee table in front of that with a few books and a mug that had what looked like a half drank cup of tea.
Wandering further, he made his way through the very small apartment, taking in the small things like the ivy that looked like it had been in its place so long that it had taken over the wall it was against. Her kitchen had a bar cart with various liquors and wines and an entire station on the counter dedicated to coffee. There was a coat rack by the front door, also definitely thrifted, with a long black wool coat and a couple of purses hanging off of it. Below that was a pair of black Chelsea boots and a pair of worn out converse.
In the wall space between the front door and the bedroom was a bookshelf that looked like it had seen better days. It looked like Luna herself was trying to keep it alive with nails shoved into the planks at odd angles to keep the shelves in their place.
As he looked through her books, he was surprised to see so many romance novels of all kinds. From classics like Pride and Prejudice to those very raunchy ones with shirtless men on the covers.
The bedroom door was open and he didn’t think Luna would mind very much if he just took a peek inside.
Her bed was in the center of the room with a plush viridian comforter and black pillows against the gold metal frame of the bed. More plants filled her room but he took note instantly of the record player on a side table with a shelving of records beside it.
He found artists from Coldplay to Taylor Swift to Bring Me the Horizon. There were at least two hundred different vinyl albums on the shelves.
He looked down at the record player and lifted the lid to see what was underneath but he couldn’t tell so he turned it on. Have You Ever Seen the Rain started playing mid song and he stood there, taking in the fact that what she played last on vinyl was his favorite song.
“It’ll rain a sunny day I know; shinin’ down like water.” John Fogerty sang.
He let the song play out as he looked around, smiling at the small things about her that he was learning. She had fuzzy black slippers by her vanity that was full of makeup and hair products. A hydroflask sat on it with various stickers on it. One was from a women's gym and there was one for the band Muse and another was for BLM and another that was of the Vine about the roommates.
Taped to the outer mirror of her vanity was an opened card and Peter read the message.
“Luna, your service is always such a delight and Jerry and I always look forward to coming to Vetro’s to see you! You always give such a lovely smile and are always so kind to Jerry. We hope this makes things easier on you during the holidays. Love, Yolanda and Jerry.”
Peter smiled softly before pulling his phone out to google Vetro’s. It was a restaurant in Brooklyn which horrified him at first to think that Luna was working in an entirely different borough of New York until he realized it was on the border of Brooklyn and Queens and probably took her no more than half an hour to get home with the subway.
The song ended and Peter closed up the record player before making his way out to the living room and sitting on the couch, finally starting to feel his strength come back to him.
It was two minutes before the hour mark and Peter was getting ready to put his mask on and head out, worry for his…whatever she was now, filling him.
But Luna walked in through the front door, dressed in black ripped jeans and a vintage black t-shirt with a brown wig on.
“Everything okay?” Peter asked, striding up to her, eyes scanning to find any injuries.
“No- fine.” She rolled her eyes. “Neighbor was down in the alleyway looking for something he tossed in the trash by mistake so I had to improvise.” She pulled off the brown wig, hands clean of Peter’s blood, and then took her hair out of the bun, it falling down past her shoulders and to her ribs.
“And the crime scene?”
Her eyes met his. “Well, I don’t think I’m going to face charges for the damages I caused but the police chief was very clear that I can’t do that again.”
“What did you do?”
She inhaled, pressing her lips together for a second. “That entire block we were on looks like a bomb went off. I didn’t…when you were lying there dying, Peter…I just…” Her mouth remained open like she didn’t know what to say or how to explain it.
He pulled her into his chest, arms going around her and finally feeling at ease now that he had her in his arms. “Hey, I know. You don’t have to explain it to me.” He reassured her, dropping a kiss down on the top of her head. “You never have to explain it to me, Luna.”
“How do you feel?”
“Like I could run to Brooklyn and back.”
The silence was comforting and Luna was the one to pull away but her hands found his and she took them both and her eyes met his. “We should talk.”
“Probably.”
“Yeah it would be best.”
They stared at each other for a second until Luna couldn’t stand it anymore and pushed up onto her toes to kiss him, arms going around his neck. Peter’s hands found their way to her hips to grip tightly, nearly groaning at the way it felt to have his hands on them finally. They had teased him far too many times.
Peter stumbled back, leading them to the couch and falling back onto it, Luna on top of him as they made out like two teenagers. Luna bit down on his bottom lip lightly and it wound send him into a fog for a second because of how erotic it was. If this was how it felt to be kissing her he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to do anything beyond that.
Luna pulled away with a gasp, chest heaving and eyes half open but Peter didn’t stop, only moved his lips down to her neck. The sucks he gave had her letting out soft moans, her hands weaving their way into his hair causing Peter to whine softly. The sound sent a wave of heat through her body.
“Peter.” Luna moaned, eyes falling shut and grinding down onto him where she could feel how hard he was under her. It made her head swim with pleasure and her body beg for more at the same time.
Breaking from her neck and panting, he looked to the goddess on top of him. “Say it again.”
Knowing exactly what he was asking, she bit her lip, breathing still heavy. “Make me say it.”
Cocky was a term some would associate Spider-Man with but not so much Peter but he was very cocky when his hands slid up Luna’s shirt to yank it off as he sat up with her still in his lap. His mouth kissing down her bare chest and his hands pressing into her bare back sent a wave of goosebumps across her skin and he couldn’t help the small grin that came across his face.
He couldn’t help but having spent a few nights wondering what Luna’s breasts had looked like under her form fitting suit. Would they fit in his hands or spill out? Were her nipples a soft pink or a darker brown?
He found his answer was soft pink when he gave a suck to a pebbled nipple, feeling like he was living in one of his wet dreams. He was sure he had this exact dream too; sucking on her tits with her in his lap and his hands on her back clutching her close to him. He wanted so much more and feeling her press down onto his aching cock was making him crazy.
“Peter, fuck.” Luna moaned, her hand dropping from his hair to the back of his neck while her other gripped his bicep. “Peter.”
Peter sucked and kissed hickeys all over her neck and chest, feeling like was in heaven with her moaning his name and his mouth on her breasts. Maybe he had actually died and gone to heaven when he was shot. If this was it he didn’t mind. He was more than happy to drown in the angel in his arms.
“Okay.” She cleared her throat, panting softly. “We should stop.”
Looking up at her with glistening lips, he worried he had gone too far too fast. “Did I do something wrong?” She hadn’t said anything and he feared he had missed a signal or a body language.
Her eyes softened, the corner of her lips lifting just a tad. “No. I don’t really want to stop but…I’m so tired and I’m not going to lie I was starting to fall asleep for a second because it felt so good and you’re so warm. You have no idea how much I want this. I’ve been thinking about it for so long.”
Reaching up to brush his thumb across her bottom lip, he took in her tired eyes and remembered that she had almost quite literally brought him back from the near dead and then had finished everything where the shootout had taken place. Of course she was tired.
Giving a gentle kiss to the middle of her throat, eyeing the splotches of red and purple that littered her neck and chest, he pulled away.
“You should get some sleep.”
Luna found her shirt behind her and slipped it back on before getting off of Peter, hands running through her hair. She watched Peter pick up his mask and start to put it back on but she was quick to grab his wrist to stop him.
“Are you leaving?”
“Did you want me to stay?”
“I watched you almost die tonight. I…really want you to stay.”
“Then I’ll stay.”
She eyed his bloodied suit. “I think I have something you can wear.”
Luna, ever the thrifter Peter was learning, had a shirt that was three sizes too big on her but fit well on Peter along with some sweats that were only a little tight on him. Both items were black and he wondered if she owned anything other than black clothing. He’d never seen her in any other color; even her suit was black.
“My fucking god, Peter.” Luna laughed as she stared at her chest in the mirror in the bathroom.
He smirked from the bedroom, stepping into the black sweatpants. “You said make me and I take that very seriously.”
“I look like I was attacked.” She shook her head with a smile before sliding her shirt back on and switching the light off.
Peter was sitting on the bed, waiting for her and she stopped walking, eyes lit up at seeing him there waiting for her. She looked at him and it really hit her that she knew the man behind the mask now. The man she had been daydreaming at work about and fantasizing about when she read anything by Nora Roberts. He was waiting for her and they were going to go to sleep together. It was a daydream come true.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” She breathed.
Luna got in bed and Peter followed, unsure of how wanted to do this. If she just wanted him to sleep beside her he was okay with that. He wanted to make sure she was okay after such a long day and after such a big step was taken.
He didn’t get the chance to ask what she wanted because she was curling right into his chest, arms tucked up and hands pressing against his chest. He noticed that she liked having her hands on his chest and made a mental note to ask about it later. For now, he draped an arm across her and pulled the blanket over them.
“Peter?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m really happy right now.”
He dropped a kiss down on her forehead. “Ditto.”
A/N: okay so I know I said that chapter 4 would up today but chapter 4 is incredibly long but this chapter is very important to Luna’s character so I decided to do a 3.5 so that chapter 4 isn’t quite as long. I promise it will be worth it! Enjoy this short one to tide you over for 4!
Summary: In which Spider-Man learns more about Moonlight than anyone else
Word count: 1.2k
Warnings: none
Chapter 3.5: Too Cool to Be From the Moon
Moonlight stared at the masked man twenty feet away from her and wondered what his life was like. He had to have a job like she did but what did he do? He was really smart so he had to do something like engineering or maybe he was in business and was one of those people who didn’t actually work and got to take a hundred vacation days in the year. It would make sense on how he had the time to be Spider-Man because he was out way more than her. Luna could only come out as Moonlight during the night for the most part because she was at work during the day time. She of course got her days off but she tried to pick up shifts whenever she could to make rent. What did Spider-Man do that allowed him so much time to be Spider-Man?
“I can feel your stare.” He called just loud enough.
Instead of looking away, she got up and made her way over to him, plopping down bedside his crouched position. “You know I don’t know anything about you. Not what you look like, not your favorite movie, not if you think pineapple belongs on pizza-”
“It does.”
“Heathen.”
“See that right there. You just told me something about yourself.” Her eyebrow arched. “Any native New Yorker knows that pineapple belongs on pizza. You’re not from New York.”
“Incorrect.” She hummed in a sing-song tone. “I was indeed born in New York. But you’re right. I’m not actually from New York.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything about you like I don’t have to tell you anything about me.”
“What if I wanna know something about you?” She breathed.
He finally looked her way and they stared at each other for a minute, Spider-Man debating on what he wanted to do. “I will answer three indirect identity questions.”
Luna squealed. “Goodie! Okay, so first, what’s your favorite song?”
Thinking for a second, he nodded. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain by CCR.”
“I see that. That song fits you. Okay next-”
Spider-Man interrupted. “What do you mean it fits me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Just does. But to my next question: Tequila or Vodka?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” He mused with a chortle.
“Just answer the question, Spidey.”
“Tequila.”
“Were you born with your powers or did someone give them to you?”
The silence that filled the space between them was thick but Luna stared, waiting for his answer.
“I um wasn’t born with them. A spider bit me.”
“You’re actually joking right?”
He was confused. “Why would I be joking?”
“Because that’s just so…funny. Like you got bit by a spider and turned into a spider human. Like what the fuck ya know?”
“Fine. How did you get your powers huh? Did some mad scientist give you your powers Ms. I’m too cool to be from the moon or something?” He teased, being sarcastic.
“Yeah.”
Spider-Man froze, mouth open with the next word he had been planning on saying. “Wait, really?”
She shrugged a single shoulder, trying to play it off. “Yeah. Gregory Manheim. My foster parents sold me to him when I was seven and then he turned me into this. But I did have my healing abilities before that so I guess I was also born with them.”
He swallowed, the mental image of a young Moonlight in his head. Then the mental image of her as a young child scared and alone took over and he wanted it gone. He didn’t think Moonlight knew what scared meant because she faced everything head on and never showed any type of fear but he was so wrong. She faced everything head on without fear because whatever she was facing at the time wasn’t the scariest thing she had been through.
“That’s really terrible, Moonlight. I’m sorry.”
Moonlight stared off at the city. “Florida.”
“What?”
“I’m from Florida. I was born here but Manheim’s lab was in Florida. You know I didn’t even know I wasn’t in New York anymore until I was nine? He never let me go outside so I didn’t know I’d left the state. I was so young I thought it was a different country.” She chuckled dryly. “The energy…that didn’t come until I was fourteen. I’ll never forget the first time I was able to externalize it.” The way she stared off was as if she was back there. “He put a bite guard in my mouth and I just knew whatever it was it was gonna hurt. Then he hooked up the particle accelerator and…I felt like I was an exploding ball of fire.”
Spider-Man stared at her, heartbroken and horrified behind his mask. A particle accelerator was what gave Moonlight her powers and it made so much sense. They were made to propel particles to high speeds…and energies. That was where she got her speed from and the light beams that came out of her hands were exactly the purpose of them. In summary, she was a human particle accelerator.
“You know you’re the first person I've ever told that to?”
“That you’re from Florida? Yeah I wouldn’t go sharing that with everyone.” He chuckled before his smile fell and he became serious. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“I don’t know how you do it. You just make me- people feel safe…and other things: irritation, rage, annoyance.” she listed off before letting out a soft laugh, Spider-Man joining in. “So now you know where I come from.”
“Jesus. You were just a baby.” He shook his head.
She hummed, eyes on the city she vowed to protect. “I was. But he never realized something very crucial.”
“What?”
Moonlight looked back at him. “That he was creating the very weapon that would eventually kill him. Last year I tracked him down to Russia and I made sure he would never do to another person what he did to me. I made sure I get to sleep at night knowing he’ll never come for me and ya know what?”
“What?”
“I sleep like a baby.”
Spider-Man was a very morally inclined person but he didn’t blame Moonlight for a second. This one he could excuse and wouldn’t think or look at her differently. Who knows what all had been to her in the ten years that she had been a human lab rat. He didn’t want to think about them. It put him in a rage to just think about and there was no one he could direct that at because the person responsible was already dead.
It was obvious to him that she was making herself incredibly vulnerable to him in that moment. It then all became clear to him that the sarcasm, the jokes, the dicking around was some sort of defense mechanism or coping mechanism.
The police scanner beside them burbled to life with some key words that had their attention and the two were off to save the city from whatever villain of the week decided it was their turn. One thing for certain that they both knew was that Peter now knew more about Moonlight than anyone else and he was the closest thing she had to a best friend.
That night, all Luna had been able to think about as she laid in bed trying to fall asleep was that she was getting dangerously close to Spider-Man and it terrified her but at the same time she wanted it. She wanted a friend, she wanted someone to know her and care about her. She just didn’t know if it was what was best for him- or her.
A/N: this is arguably my favorite chapter so I hope you like it!
Summary: In which we see just how much tension is between Spider-Man and Moonlight and how their new partnership is going
Word count: 3.1k
Warnings: violence, injury, sexual innuendos
Chapter 3: Hot Dogs and Quesadillas
Moonlight stared at Spider-Man from the roof she was on and wondered what he looked like under his mask. She had no idea what he looked like at all. He had some semblance of her face since her mask only covered the upper portion of her face and he knew her hair color, though she wore a brown wig anytime she wasn’t home or running around New York as Moonlight, so he a pretty good idea of what she looked like but Luna knew nothing about his face. Did his face match his voice? Was he as good looking as she pictured in her head? She pictured him with a wide set, strong jaw and blue eyes, she loved blue eyes, with pitch black hair that was a little lengthy, maybe grazing the bottom portion of his neck but as she got to know him her image of his face evolved. At first she thought he might have blue eyes but then as she got to know him she decided he was a brown eye kind of guy because of the way he loved cats and dogs equally and didn’t prefer one over the other. She had wanted to think he had black hair but she was starting to lean toward blonde lately because of the way the sun always seemed to bathe him so beautifully.
Of course, this was a fantasy based on his voice and it took her back to the point of: she had no idea what he looked like. They’d been working together for six entire weeks now and she knew as much about him as the people of New York did.
Luna smirked as she floated down onto the roof of the Vanderbilt, being as silent as she possibly could. Spidey was overlooking the city with his arms crossed, a slow night hitting them for the first time since Moonlight had fought with Spider-Man the night she got shot. It had been a whirlwind ever since.
Moonlight was on the front page of every paper and magazine in New York City and the people loved her. Little girls everywhere were wearing crescent moons on their chests and masks just like hers, claiming that they wanted to be a superhero just like Moonlight. It was something she hadn’t anticipated and it made her strangely emotional- in a good way. She’d gone her whole life without very much attention, save for one crazed scientist from Florida, so to be the current topic was a lot. There were, of course, some people who thought she was a menace just like Spider-Man, but for the most part the public loved her. The one thing she could go without was the catcalls from men she got when she was Moonlight and the vulgar comments and propositions made to her. It really bothered her and she tried to ignore it and she would never let it show just how it made her want to shrink away but it always put something in the pit of her stomach.
So things were going well. For the first time in her life Luna felt like she knew what she was created for and what her purpose was and why she was given her powers. It was to help people.
Having a purpose had changed her. She was happier and lighter and she was starting to actually make friends with the people at work. She laughed more and there was a perk in her step. She’d started singing in the shower and genuinely meaning it when she told people to have a nice day. She didn't know she could ever feel so good. She’d never felt that way before and it made her just know that she was doing what she was meant to be doing.
As Luna floated over to Spider-Man she held her breath, really wanting to catch him off guard and maybe even scare him a little. He was always prepared and she wanted to catch him unprepared for once.
Right when she was about to put her hands to tickle his sides, he spun around and captured her wrists in his hands tight, almost a little too tightly, making her gasp. He was so close to her that she could almost see through the tinted eyes of his mask and feel his breath on her lips.
They stood there for a second, staring at each other with Spider-Man holding her wrists. Luna was almost wondering if he was going to kiss her. She wanted him to. She hated how she couldn’t read a thing about him. Did he feel the same tension she did? The only thing that told her maybe he did was the rise and fall of his chest being just a little faster than normal.
“S-Sorry.” He exhaled. “I didn’t know that-that uhm it was you.”
He dropped her wrists and turned back to the city.
“It’s okay.” She shook her head, trying to get the feelings to go away. “How did you know I was there? I made like no noise.”
“Spider sense.”
Luna was quiet for a second. “Come again?”
“You know how spiders don’t have to see you to know you're coming? It’s kind of like that but it’s this feeling kind of like anxiety. I felt you coming. I knew you were right there.”
“Maybe Manheim should have invested in spiders.” Luna mumbled before plopping down to the edge of the building, feet swinging off the side. “So Spidey what does your sixth sense tell us about tonight?”
“That it’s gonna be a slow night.”
“Oh good.” She groaned. “You know when I decided to get into the hero business I didn’t realize how exhausting it was going to be. It’s like I went to sleep for ten hours straight the other night as soon as I got home. I just crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow which is nice because I kind of have trouble sleeping but I don’t know if I like sleeping that much because when I woke up it was already like one and the day was mostly gone. And you know what sucks?” She looked up to him but spoke before he could answer. “We don’t even get paid for this. Like I knew that going into this and it’s not why I’m doing it but the city could at least offer to pay our medical bills or something.”
“You don’t have medical bills.” He snorted, arms still crossed.
“Well no, but the government doesn’t know that! For all they know we could be spending thousands a year on ibuprofen!”
Peter stared down at the small ball of energy who was talking his ear off and he was smiling so hard behind his mask that his cheeks hurt. She was so damn adorable and he thought the way she rambled was cute. So cute that it made his stomach flutter.
He had to admit that when Moonlight first came on the scene he was very hesitant and unsure but as they worked together over the last handful of weeks he found he not only wasn’t bothered by her but he actually liked her. She was a strong fighter and actually really helped him. They worked well together. Plus, when he found out she had the power to heal people he hadn’t gone home beat to hell anymore which let him sleep a lot better which gave him more energy for patrol the next night. It was a new rhythm that he welcomed.
Moonlight’s company was something he welcomed as well. He was a little lonely before she came along but now he looked forward to going on patrol at night. He would be counting down the hours until every single sun ray was gone and he could go meet his new partner in fighting crime who would talk his ear off all night and refused to let him go home without knowing he was pain free.
Luna’s chatter was interrupted by the sound of sirens. They looked at each before nodding and heading in that direction, Luna running at comet speed and Spider-Man swinging on his web.
It hadn’t been anything too crazy- only a grocery store robbery that ended with the robbers putting their hands up and dropping the gun as soon as they saw Spider-Man and Moonlight show up.
“Hey are you hungry? I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who makes the best hot dogs in the city.” Spider-Man suggested as they left the crime scene parking lot.
“Street meat? No thanks, I actually really enjoy keeping my intestines in my stomach.”
“I’m serious!”
“No.”
“Come on!”
“No way, Jose.”
“Just try it!”
“Spider-Man, for the last time I don’t want your meat in my mouth.”
Spider-Man inhaled, ready to argue only to process what she had said and he clamped his mouth shut, Luna throwing her head back in laughter. “Now I know how to make Spider-Man speechless.”
Under his mask, he was blushing furiously, trying to fight back a smile. She was good, he had to give her that.
After a second, he felt like he could speak properly. He would have to get her back some other way later. “Just trust me.” He mused. “I’ll let you pick the next place.”
Luna pushed back a smile at the idea of a next place.
“Fine but if I get food poisoning and die I’m getting “Spidey did it” on my headstone.”
“I’ll even autograph it.”
True to his word, the hot dog stand was just around the corner and Luna had to admit she was starving so everything smelled extra good. She got one with mustard and relish and one with just mustard while Spider-Man got four with quite literally every condiment known to man on his.
“Are you really going to eat all of those?” She asked as they found a roof to sit on.
“Nah ones for Herman.”
“Who’s Herman?”
“My pet spider.”
Luna bit back her laughter. “Well tell him to stay away from my hot dog.”
He nodded. “Got it.” Then he looked down to the ground beside them and whispered so softly Luna couldn’t hear before he looked back up to her. “He says he doesn’t like relish anyway.”
This time Luna chuckled, biting into her hot dog.
She watched as he started to lift his mask and for a second she wondered if she was about to see his face but he stopped at his upper lip, resting his mask there. The mental image of his face that she had in her head matched at least his jaw. It was a strong jaw that looked like it could cut glass and had the start of a five o’clock shadow, something she adored on a man. His lips were a soft pink and slightly chapped, the upper lip deep set but his bottom plush.
Seeing part of his face fueled her theories that behind the rest of that mask was a strikingly beautiful face.
They ate in silence, Spider-Man somehow finishing all four of his hot dogs in the same time Luna spent on hers. It was…disturbing to witness to say the least.
She put her hand on his stomach, swallowing when she felt the rock hard abs. “Spidey, I got some bad news. I think you might have a black hole in there.”
“A curse of being Spider-Man. You should see the size of my grocery bill.”
“I have a feeling it might scare me.”
Spider-Man’s mind went right into the gutter and he knew what he wanted to say but he hesitated for a second before deciding that he felt like he could.
“Do big things scare you?” He asked, teasing in his tone.
“Not really…?”
“Good to know.” He hummed with a light chuckle.
Luna put it together and she dropped her jaw with a gasped chuckle. “You sicko!”
“You started it!”
Luna fell into hysterical laughter and Spider-Man joined, falling back to lay down. Luna mirrored him and they fell quiet.
“You know Moonlight I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.” Spider-Man mused.
“We’ll see how the hot dog sits and then we can talk about friendship.”
~~~~~~~
Moonlight dodged the punch thrown by Kraven. “Listen dude! Why can’t you just chill out!” She dodged another punch and hit him with an energy blast. “Why can’t we be friends? Kumbaya and all that shit!”
“Kumbaya my lord!” Spider-Man sang from a few feet away where he was fighting with one of Kraven’s men. “Kumbaya!”
“See!”
Letting out a loud grunt or irritation, Kraven pulled a machete from the straps on his back. It was sharp and big.
“Okay fine! I was just trying to make friends!”
The knife had made things harder and Luna was very narrowly missing blows as she tried to subdue the man three times her size. Her size was an advantage and a disadvantage. She was small and fast so she avoided a lot of hits but that also meant her enemies were usually big enough to crush her and once they had her would really do some damage. Like right then the Hunter grabbed her by the throat.
“You are a little pest.” He hissed, lifting her up, making her kick her legs as her hands clawed at his. She wasn’t getting any air because his grip was so tight.
“But I’m the spider!” Spider-Man whined, shooting web onto Kraven's eyes, forcing him to drop Luna who was gasping for air as she hit the ground.
Spider-Man took the advantage to knock Kraven out by shooting a line onto his head and pulling it down to bash it into a pipe.
Luna got back on her feet, hands at her throbbing throat and pulling down the neck of her suit.
“You okay?” Spider-Man asked, trying not to seem too concerned as he jogged over.
“I think so.”
She pulled her hands away and Spider-Man could see the red marks in the shape of Kraven's fingers. It rubbed him wrong and bothered him to see.
“Lemme see.” He reached up, tilting her chin back so he could inspect her neck. His hands were on each side of her neck and his fingers brushed gently. “That’s going to bruise.”
“Not with my…super powers of healing!” She boisterously said with a chuckle.
He dropped his hands and watched as she healed her neck. When she pulled her hands away the redness was gone and Spider-Man was put at ease as she fixed the neck of her suit.
The clean up was easy and soon all the suspects were in squad cars and headed for the station.
“Where to?” Spider-Man asked. “We’ve still got time to kill.”
“Okay so just hear me out.”
Spider-Man groaned. “Hell no.”
“Why?!”
“Because I know I’m gonna hate it.”
“No you won’t! You’re gonna love it!”
“I think it’s time I go solo.”
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna regret this.”
Ten minutes later and Spider-Man was absolutely regretting every choice he’d ever made that led up to that moment in his life.
He was sitting in a Mexican restaurant wearing a sombrero that Luna had put on him the moment they walked in the door and wouldn’t let him take it off.
“I look ridiculous.”
“I know.” She gushed. “It’s great.”
“You’re the worst partner in fighting crime ever.”
“You love me.”
“I really don’.”
“You do. Couldn't live without me.”
He shook his head but didn't argue further because really he knew she was right. He couldn't imagine going back to being a lone wolf.
“So I’m thinking of the arroz con pollo but I don’t know if you know this but rice does not sit well with me but I really do love it and the chicken. Maybe they can change it out for beans or something but not all places will do that. I once asked them to do that on this place on seventh and they just really didn’t take that question well so you never really know ya know?”
Peter, grinning behind his mask, hummed as he looked over the menu.
“Buuuut there’s also the chicken burrito which sounds so good. Four types of cheese? Sign me up. What are you gonna get? You’re a quesadilla guy aren’t you? No shame in it.”
“I am indeed a quesadilla guy.”
“Knew it.” She triumphed under her breath.
They ordered once Luna finally decided what she wanted and Peter slid the hat off his head, Luna not noticing.
“Okay I gotta pee I’ll be back.” She announced before jumping up and heading for the restroom. Peter definitely did not watch as she went and he definitely did not love the way the suit hugged her figure. He was a gentleman and definitely did not let his eyes glance as she walked away.
When she came back he almost choked on air. The zipper that was always right up the collar on her suit was so far down her chest was visible and her cleavage was very out in the open. He couldn’t look away for a solid five seconds before forcing his head down to the chips he was eating, his mask resting on his top lip.
Moonlight acted as if nothing had changed and chatted about whatever. Peter couldn’t focus because all he could do was make sure he wasn’t looking at her chest. He tried not to speak too much, knowing his current mental state would make him sound like an idiot.
Except that he wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Moonlight was insanely beautiful. Only half her face was visible but it was plain as day that she was stunning. It was something that anyone with eyes could see so of course he was attracted to her but he couldn’t be attracted to her. For one thing, he promised himself he would never put another person in danger because of who he was, not after what happened to Gwen. He wouldn’t do that to someone else. Another thing, they were partners in fighting crime and mixing business with pleasure never ended well. They were strictly co-workers and co-workers didn’t look at other co-workers' boobs.
“You okay, Spidey?” Moonlight asked, sipping from her drink. The condensation of the cold glass dripped down the side of the glass and into her chest, making it glisten. Peter gripped the table.
“Y-Yeah yep yeah. Just got a um a headache coming on I think. I’ll be right back.”
He jumped up from the table and made his way to the bathroom, ignoring the looks he was getting as he went. He knew someone had tried to ask for a picture but he couldn’t let anyone see the state he was in.
It had never happened before but he had a hard on in his suit; his very thin, revealing suit.
At their table, Luna was laughing silently, shoulders shaking as she dipped a chip in some salsa. She knew what she was doing the whole time. She had been wanting to know if Spider-Man would be affected by her in that way. They were so flirty at times and she didn’t know if he was just messing around or not but if they were going to play games she needed to know what kind of hand she had.
A/N: Hi! This is my first posted Peter fic so I’m very excited about it. I haven’t consistently written in a couple of years so I am a little rusty. If you liked this I would appreciate a like and a reblog or message about it would send me over the moon! Thank you for reading if you decide to take the time to do so!
Summary: Luna is trying to master the new life of being a superhero and the best thing for her would be some kind of partner in fighting crime like Spider-Man right? Not like their banter and shameless flirting had anything to do with it of course.
Word count: 2.9k
Warnings: violence, brief mentions of sexual assault
New York had been home to Luna Carter for almost three years. Three years of feeling like she could blend in. Three years of feeling like she was free. Three years of finding herself.
When she had first gotten to New York she was beyond lost and scared; she was terrified and on another planet. Now she felt like she had a good head on her shoulders and wasn’t afraid of herself. She was a strong woman who didn’t fear herself anymore. She hated when people talked on the phone so loud the entire block knew their business and she loved when people were so clearly in their own world and couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what was around them. She loved the show Golden Girls, Blanche was her favorite, and hated jelly filled donuts. The last year of her life had been the best because that was when the living had really started and she had felt safe for the first time in her life. She was truly free and had stopped looking over her shoulder and double checking her front door lock and waking up at all hours of the night to look out her window to make sure she wasn’t being watched. She was free.
New York was home and she was happy.
“Five bucks says he pukes.”
Luna looked to Cassidy who was looking at the kid at table four who was scarfing down ice cream after already having had more food than she herself could eat. His parents paid no mind and continued on with their conversation with their friends. It was some dinner to celebrate some business deal. Her restaurant was a five star restaurant in Brooklyn where the cheapest item on the menu was a bowl of tomato soup at 37 dollars- made with organic sundried tomatoes from the garden out back and fresh cream that came from a fairy upstate of course.
“Glad that’s not my table.” Luna chuckled as she proceeded to clock out on the screen in front of her. “In fact, none of these are my tables. You wanna know why?”
Cassidy groaned. “Cause Robbie cut you?”
“You know it.” Luna snickered. “After that table with the football guy left me a three hundred dollar tip I have been so ready to go. I’ve never wanted to be cut so bad in my life. And you wanna know what I’m gonna do when I get home?”
“What’s that?” Cassidy was amused.
“I’m gonna get into a very hot bath with a glass of rose and watch Mr. Darcy tell Elizabeth Bennet that she has bewitched him body and soul.”
“You bitch. I wanna be you so bad right now.”
Luna couldn’t keep the grin off her face and did a shoulder shake. “I would wanna be me too.”
The sound of a child retching followed by screams had Cassidy groaning.
“Good luck with that, girl. I hope they tip you good.”
Cassidy rolled her eyes before heading to table four. “Not likely.”
Walking out the back door of Vetro’s, Luna headed home. She worked in Brooklyn but lived in Queens and took the subway every day. She didn’t mind it very much except when it snowed but that night wasn’t one of those nights and she was in a good mood as she headed for the subway.
It was already dark out and she hugged her thrifted wool coat closer, missing the long summer days when there would still be some form of light out when she got off of work.
The ride home felt longer than normal, her excitement to get there making it feel like she would never make it. Eventually her stop came and she walked off eagerly and headed up, already thinking of what kind of bath bomb she was going to use and dying to get her brown wig off.
She was only two blocks away from her building when something caught her eye. It was a scuffle in an alleyway on the other side of the street. It took her a second to realize a man was being mugged.
Frozen in place, she watched as she tried to figure out what to do. She knew she could easily help the man but at what cost to herself? She didn’t know if she could keep watching and do nothing but she didn’t know if she was willing to expose herself.
Before she could figure out her decision, a flash of red and blue appeared and the two men were broken apart. She could only just hear what was said.
“Didn’t your mother teach you it’s not nice to take things that aren’t yours?”
She watched as Spider-Man webbed the mugger to a wall. She’d never seen him in person before and had only seen him in photos and in the news but she had a coworker who had and Luna now understood what she had meant when she said he was tall looking even if he wasn’t barely six foot.
Not wanting to be noticed and her concerns for the man who was being attacked qualmed, she walked the two blocks briskly. The entire time she kept replaying the moment she did nothing but stand there when the man had been attacked. What would have happened if Spider-Man hadn’t showed up? Would she have witnessed a murder? No. She wouldn’t have let that happen. She wouldn’t have been able to stand by as someone’s life was taken.
As she sat in the bubble bath with a glass of rose, she felt guilty and regretful for not helping the man. She could have stopped it with ease but she hadn’t because she was worried about herself. She wished she had stopped to thank Spider-Man for doing what he did. She never really thought much about it before but he was an extremely selfless person. He gave up his time every day to keep the city safe and put himself in danger to protect others. She hoped he got some kind of compensation for it.
What she had thought about was where he’d gotten his powers from. Had he been born with them or were they given to him like her? How much did they have in common? He was clearly better than her because he, at least, was using his powers to help people.
But why couldn’t she? Why couldn’t she put on a mask and use her powers to help people? To help keep the city safe? She had weapons built into her hands and she was doing nothing to use them for the greater good. Maybe she could take the curse that had been forced upon her and find a way to turn it into something good. She had had her curse for six years and she hated it every second and wished she could find a way to get rid of it every second. But maybe she didn’t need to get rid of them. Maybe she just needed to do something with them.
It wasn’t like anyone could hurt her. There had only been one person who had ever physically hurt her before and he was a special case and was long gone. The safety thing wasn’t an issue. She truly didn’t believe anyone could not only best her in a fight but kill her.
As she laid in bed she couldn’t calm her thoughts. All she could think about was if she was going to actually do it; become a superhero. She knew that it wasn’t something she should jump right into but she also couldn’t stop thinking about it and the more she thought about it the more she wanted to get out of bed to make a trip to wherever she could find fabric and sewing kit. Maybe she could track down Spider-Man and ask him what he used to make his.
Over the next few days Luna crafted her suit. She had quite a few errors and had to start from scratch at one point when she realized she’d mixed up two measurements and had more band aids on her fingers than she could count from the needle pricking her finger. She had hand sewn the entire thing since she didn’t have a sewing machine but by the end of it it fit her like a glove and felt like a second skin.
It was made of black spandex and covered nearly her entire body. She’d given it a collar that wrapped around her neck as well as gloves that she could take off if she wanted, the seem at her wrists nearly invisible, and a zipper that went from her belly button to her collared neck that only she could open from the inside. For her feet she’d had to copy Spider-Man and tried to mirror the way he’d put built in shoes in his suit, which had been the hardest part of all. On her chest was a silver crescent moon. But her favorite part was the cape she had made. It was made of black pleather and had small silver stars on it. She had seen the fabric when she was on her way to check on and just knew she had to have it. She didn’t think of the cape until much later. It had been a last minute decision but she loved it.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she picked up the black mask she’d made. It was in the shape of cat eyes with sharp ends that flicked off and rested on the bridge of her nose. It was without a band and had eyelash glue on the inside. She tested it out and she was able to jump up and down and move around without it budging and felt confident it wouldn’t fall off. She would have to change out the glue every day but she liked the way the mask looked without a band better.
Wearing the mask and in her suit, her stark white natural hair down and free and brushing her ribs, she felt like she was a real superhero.
She was Moonlight.
Her hand reached the front door knob when she froze. She couldn’t go out like this. Someone might see her coming out and know instantly she was Moonlight. How was she going to get out of her apartment? How the hell did Spider-Man get out of his?
Looking to her window, she sighed before walking across the room and opening the window. The cold air hit the exposed parts of her face and she was glad with her decision to line the inside of her suit with fleece. Very, very thick fleece. She would have to make a new suit for the summer but for now this would be perfect.
Making sure none of the windows that were in the building across from her had their blinds open, she jumped out of her window and onto the fire escape. Maybe she would be able to drop a backpack down into the alleyway of her building and change there. She would have to start doing that in the future when it didn’t take her ten minutes to get her suit on.
Her first night as Moonlight was…disappointing to say the least. Quite literally nothing happened. She hadn’t been able to find any crime or any attacks or anything like that. She had no idea how Spider-Man did any of this and she had even tried to find him to ask him but that had also not panned out.
It was when she was walking to work the next day that she passed a police officer and his radio was on, allowing her to overhear a call about a breaking and entering. Her head had whipped up when she realized she needed a police radio. She didn’t know if that’s how Spider-Man did it but this would be how she did it.
That night she sat and waited until she got the call about a bank robbery by a “bird man” only seven blocks from her apartment and she was jumping out of her window and letting her magic do half the work of her run. It wasn’t that she could fly exactly but she could exert the power to carry her body partially.
When she got there, she halted upon seeing that Spider-Man was already there. She didn’t know what to do. Was there some kind of rule where if one hero was there it was their save? Should she wait on the sidelines and see if he needed help? Or should she just join in on the fight?
She didn’t have time to decide because bird guy clocked her and headed right for her with his very large wings that looked like they were part of an attachment on his back.
“Okay I guess here we go.” She mumbled to herself, raising her hands and putting out the energy to entrap the villain. It worked and he was suspended in her magic. Luna had two different parts to her power. There was her energy which she had been given unwillingly and then there was her magic that she believed was an evolved part of her energy. The energy was dangerous and deadly but the magic was good and quite literally magic.
She felt so exposed and like she was naked. She had never used her powers out in public before, let alone in front of anyone that hadn’t been in Manheim’s lab. But she needed to get used to it.
“What the fuck is this?!” He screamed.
Spider-Man landed beside her, ignoring bird mans profanities. “Whoa! How are you doing that?” He was in awe but she didn’t have time to explain. She’d never held that much weight in her magic before.
Her arms started to shake as her muscles struggled with the weight. “Magic. I’m going to lose him so do whatever you gotta and do it quickly. He’s like really heavy!”
Just as Spider-Man was about to web him up, he flapped his wings hard enough to break free of Luna’s magic. She felt fear for the first time and for a brief second wondered if she was in way over her head.
A wing shot out at her but she dodged it, letting out a shaky exhale.
The two of them took him on in a fight, Luna learning his name was Vulture and not bird guy. It was intense and they ended up on the freeway where Luna ended up doing a lot of saving rather than fighting which was good because her fighting skills were limited. She had some experience, Manheim having intended on making her powerful in every way but she hadn’t done hand to hand in years.
He was beginning to piss her off. Vulture would knock a car over and Luna would pull the people inside of it out. Vulture would pick up a running civilian fleeing for their life and let them drop as a way to distract Luna and she would end up having to use her magic to catch them so his method was working. It did make it easier for Spider-Man who didn’t have as many people to save and was able to get more punches in.
The two fought together as a team like they always had been one. There was an unspoken way they could tell what the other was going to do next and Luna was kind of freaked out by it. She’d never really had that with someone before. The closest thing she had to a best friend was her coworker Cassidy.
Soon Vulture was webbed up, screaming his head off albeit, and Spider-Man was taking the bag full of money from him before making his way over to Luna.
“That was so cool!”
Finally able to take him in, she noted that he seemed much taller in person, his frame easily towering over hers- not that she was by any means tall at five foot three. His voice also took her by surprise. It was...somehow attractive.
Luna chuckled, legs starting to shake as she was feeling the come down from the adrenaline. “Thanks. You were pretty cool too.”
“What’s your name?”
“Moonlight.” She replied, the name flowing out of her mouth as if that had always been her name.
“Well thanks, Moonlight. I don’t ever have help and you were really helpful. I mean your powers are sick! When that stuff came out of your hands I was kind of freaked out at first.”
“Yeah it tends to do that to people. You were pretty great too. I’ve never seen you up close before.” She looked him up and down again and it made the energy shift.
“Oh w-well I’m always around. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” He chuckled nervously. “But I mean seriously what even is that stuff that comes out of your hands? Is it telekinetic?”
She smirked. “A lady never tells.”
Turning to go, she made sure to look back and wink at the masked man before zooming off like the comet she was, her magic carrying her shaking legs.
Ending up on the top of a building, she swallowed down the vomit and breathed through her nose, eyes shut and trying to calm down. It was her first real superhero fight and she was freaking out a little bit. She felt like you were allowed to freak out your first time fighting as a superhero right?
“No going back now.” She mumbled to herself.
~~~~~~~~~
“Really? You knocked down an old lady for nine dollars and a fifteen dollar Starbucks gift card?” Luna scoffed as she put the money and gift card back into the small brown shoulder bag, the purse snatcher on the ground in front of her groaning in pain. Luna had just given him a solid gut punch moments ago that knocked him to the ground. Her new self defense classes were really starting to show their value.
“Fuck you, bitch.” He whined.
“Oh how you’ve wounded my feelings.” Luna stated dryly. “How will I ever get over this?”
The sound of sirens came and Luna crossed her arms, waiting for the cops to show. She was standing in the middle of the sidewalk so they wouldn’t have to look for them.
The one thing she hated about this new side gig she’d recently taken on was the police. Apparently a couple years back Spider-Man made a deal with the police department that he would stick around to at least give a statement on what had happened whenever he caught a thief or attacker so that they could actually put charges on the guys that were apprehended by him. By vigilante default that same rule applied to Luna which she had to learn on her fifth day by way of the police chief tracking her down and personally giving Moonlight the message. So now she had to stick around and wait for the cops to actually show up.
Giving her statement as Moonlight was quick since it was a quick incident. Some nights it wasn’t so easy and she would have to go down to the station and fill out a signed statement, especially if it was something like an attempted murder or sexual assault- but with those two she didn’t really mind and was willing to do whatever it took to make sure they faced their consequences.
Something she hadn’t seen coming with the job was the toll it took on a person.
Luna was struggling immensely with the things she saw every night for the last two weeks. She would go home at the end of the night, sometimes beat to hell and the energy feeling like it had fully drained from her body, and feel unable to get the horrific things she had seen out of her head. She knew the worst of humanity, she had seen it up close and personal, but this was different somehow.
When she was in Manheim’s lab she hadn’t been the only one there. She had seen dozens go through experiments that might be different or similar to her. Manheim had other visions and desires other than the one he had for her. She had watched a boy only a couple years older than her use his vision to burn a hole in the floor. There had been a girl who had been born with the ability to touch something and either kill it or make it die but she hadn’t been able to control it until Manheim got to her. She had seen them all be experimented on and tortured like she had. Most of them died, a couple escaped and she could only hope they were okay, but some of them had been freed by Luna herself the day she took down the entire building. So she was used to seeing horrible things done to people. She had laid in her bed while she heard the screams from those who were imprisoned alongside her. But this was somehow different.
Maybe it was because it was happening to her too or because everyone expected that stuff to happen to them but she had never been affected by any of that like the current stuff was affecting her.
Last week she had pulled a man off a woman in central park who was screaming. He had his pants down and she was crying. Luna knew instantly what had happened and wanted nothing more than to kill the man then and there. She knew she could and she wanted to so badly. No one who sexually assaulted another person deserved to live. But she also knew that she couldn’t do it. She had promised herself she would never use her powers to harm someone, even if that someone deserved it. She didn’t get to play god.
She hadn’t slept that night. The sound of the woman's screams replayed over and over again.
Then there was two nights ago when she had found a body. That had shaken her too. He was a well dressed man with a grocery bag that had milk, cookies, and a new barbie. It had taken Luna a second to realize that he had had a family. He was on his way home to his family and someone murdered him. She had to call into work the next day because she kept vomiting every time she thought about him.
How had Spider-Man been doing this for years? She didn’t know how she was going to do it another night let alone years like he had. She couldn’t imagine the things he had seen in all the time he had been doing it and yet he was still doing it.
Maybe she just wasn’t cut out for the hero business.
It was late in the night by the time she caught a break, it being a busy one after the purse snatcher. But when it was finally quiet she floated her way up to a skyscraper where she could take a second to sit and breathe and have a moment.
As soon as she sat down on the ledge, she felt the tears prick her eyes and she let them flow out of her and past her mask. Thank god for waterproof eyelash glue.
The city below was quiet and she wished for once that it was loud so that she could let out the cry she wanted to.
The sound of feet hitting the ground made her freeze for a second before she realized it could only be one person.
Wordlessly, he walked over and sat down next to her.
“How do you do it?” Luna choked out, continuing to look ahead.
Spider-Man sighed, knowing exactly what she was talking about. “I don’t know. It gets less…shocking with time but it doesn’t get easier.”
“I saw someone getting raped.” She sniffed. “She was screaming and he just…didn’t stop.”
“I know. I can’t even count how many…those are really hard. And anything with kids.”
Dropping her head, she bit her lip and tried to keep herself together. She knew what it was like to be a scared child being harmed; she didn’t know how she would be able to handle it when she did eventually see it.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
“You can. I’ve been paying attention to you and I see something there.”
Finally looking at him, her glistening eyes showed how vulnerable she was. She felt like she could trust Spider-Man. He was a good person, maybe the only truly good person she had ever met.
Spider-Man continued. “I see the way you talk to someone when they're in crisis. It’s like you know exactly what they need to hear. You genuinely care about people. You want to help. I know you can do it because your will to do good is bigger than what you think about when you’re laying in bed at night.”
“You do that too?”
“You learn how to deal with it. Doesn’t get easier to see that kinda stuff but…you learn how to handle it.”
“Thank you.” Luna exhaled shakily. “I really needed to hear that.”
“I could tell.”
It was silent for a while, a breeze picking up and Luna’s hair flowing gently in the wind. Sitting up there in the breeze with the view of New York next to Spider-Man felt so peaceful. They were just two vigilantes who were trying to do their best and no one else could understand that life better than the other.
“I kind of have a question for you.” Spider-Man spoke, breaking the silence.
“I mean as long as you’re not asking me to flash you sure.”
“W-What?! Why would I ask that?!”
“You would not believe how many guys have asked me to flash them this week alone.”
“I-I would never!”
Luna started laughing as his panicked tone, his hands up in defense. She could only imagine how he looked under his mask. “I’m messing with you. I know you wouldn’t ask that.”
He groaned. “Sorry that men are pigs.”
“I know you’re not one and I think it gives me hope that there are more out there like you. But what’s your question?”
“How does your mask stay on?”
Luna had several questions in mind that he might ask her like how did he magic and energy work or why her eyes turned black when she used said magic or energy but she hadn’t been prepared for that to be the question. It was the least invasive of them all.
She couldn’t help but smile. “Oh. It’s eyelash glue. Waterproof of course.”
“Huh. Never would have thought of that. Your mask just stays on so perfect and never looks like it’s going to fall or even move at all. I was so sure it was some kind of high tech adhesive.”
She shrugged. “Just lash glue. It’s specifically the Duo brand. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my mask off at the end of the night because it’s so strong.”
A horn was honked and Luna swung her feet, content with where she was. If Spider-Man wanted to talk they could but if he didn’t want to she didn’t mind either.
“Can I ask another question?”
“Go for it, handsome.”
Spider-Man let out a stammer that seemed like he had started to speak but he wanted to but was so taken off guard by her calling him handsome that his brain malfunctioned. Luna couldn’t help but let a small smirk grace her lips. She was a huge flirt and had a feeling that Spider-Man was a very good looking man underneath the mask. She was also sure he had an amazing body underneath the red and blue.
He shook his head. “Um I um was going to ask uh why your eyes turn black sometimes but then sometimes they’re a normal brown like right now.”
“I was waiting for that one.” She hummed. “Side effect of the energy is the theory. Not totally sure though. My hair is also a side effect. It was brown before and then one day when…it just kind of turned white. Something about the energy just drains color.”
“Ever researched into it?”
“Nope and I don’t plan too. There’s more research on why I am the way I am than I care for there to be.”
Spider-Man took the hint and nodded, dropping it.
“Can I ask a question?”
“I mean I guess it’s only fair.” He teased, sounding like a smile was behind his mask.
Her eyes scanned him up and down, tongue wetting her lips. “Do you ever get bored on nights like this? Seems a little lonely.”
She heard his intake of breath and decided that if didn’t reciprocate her flirting that she would drop it.
He leaned in, humming. “I used to but you make things very not boring.”
Luna beamed, letting out an amused hum.
The silence fell upon them again and Spider-Man stood up. “Well I’m gonna make another round of the city and then call it a night.”
“I think I’m gonna do the same.”
Spider-Man was about to swing away when Moonlight called his name, making him look back at her. She walked up to him, feet lithe on the rooftop and hair flowing in the wind. She was right in front of him when she stopped, making him stop breathing but heart pounding in his chest. She took his hand and he watched as she put a small folded up piece of paper in his palm and then closed it for him.
"For when you might need me to help beat up a bad guy.” She gave him a wink and then turned to go, floating down the side of the building.
Opening up his hand, he unfolded the piece of paper and felt his stomach fill with flutters at what was on the piece of paper.