"Uh… thanks? I think that was a compliment." He shrugged, looking down below and seeing a cop put the purse snatcher in cuffs and drag her away.
Man, he had kinda forgotten about leaving her on the ground for a minute.
...
They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, simply enjoying their food and the sounds of the city around them.
This was probably the time to make some small talk, right? Might be a good idea to get to know her better now that they had some downtime.
"So…" Peter began, making Mirko raise an eyebrow at him mid-bite. "Uh, you're from Hiroshima, right?"
Pretty sure he read that in a random article somewhere.
Next to him, Mirko grinned and nodded as her ears twitched a bit.
"Born and raised! Why'd you ask, kid?"
Shrugging, Peter took a bite of his hotdog before answering.
"Why are you in Hosu? Seems pretty far from your hometown, why didn't you just patrol there?" He asked, rolling his wrist idly.
"Oh, that? Cause this place has one of the highest crime rates in the country and barely anyone did anything. Outside of that Ingenium guy, I'm the only big name that hangs around here." She shrugged, looking down at the people below them.
Huh.
That was… a pretty noble reason, all things considered! If this place was anything like New York, then it was understandable that the crime rate was high.
Still, it was kinda cool to know that Mirko willingly moved here to help out with the crime rate. Real heroic, you know?
"That's… actually a really cool reason! This place kinda reminds me of New York a bit, you know? With fewer rats and no bodegas, but it kinda figures it'd have a lot of crime" He laughed a bit, taking a bite out of his hotdog.
Man, these were really good! didn't beat what he could find back in Queens, but still!
"Oh, I forgot you're from New York! What's that like? You guys have the Avengers flying around a bunch, right?" Again, her ear twitched.
At the mention of the Avengers, his mind couldn't help but flash back to S.H.I.E.L.D and Tony Stark. Why couldn't he go a week without thinking about that?
Well… now that he thought about it, it'd be pretty hard to go a week without hearing about the Avengers.
Peter waved her off, shaking his head. "Nah, they got the tower in Manhattan but they're almost never there. They go all over the world and only show up when a giant monster crawls out of the Hudson."
Peter wasn't joking, by the way! He could count how many times a monster with some sort of giant quirk attacked the city on both hands.
Which seems like way too many times to have that happen, you know? You'd think Reed Richards or someone else could take care of that stuff before the empire state building got trashed.
Also, now that he knew that mutates were a thing? A part of him now guessed it was some sort of experiment gone wrong instead of some animal with a quirk.
Wonder how many crazy things out there are actually mutates? That was something he'd have to think about later.
"Shit, you guys get Kaiju over there? That's sick! I haven't fought one months!" She exclaimed, laughing in a way that made her look kinda crazy.
"Yeah, and a lot more villains than here! And it's always the same ones, you know? I think you guys do a way better job at keeping them locked up." He laughed, making Mirko snort.
Man, this was… kinda weird! Not in a million years had he thought he'd see someone like Mirko be so… normal? Is that the word?
Like, she was just being an actual person right now! A slightly unhinged person, but still! He only knew her personally as a hero from interviews and stuff.
And you know what? It was nice.
Hanging out with his friends at UA already showed him how much he enjoyed the downtime between doing hero things, and this just reinforced that.
Right now it felt like he wasn't being Spider-Man for a second, which was… nice.
That's how time went by for a few minutes, Peter and Mirko simply talking about regular things. Things like how Mirko used to play volleyball when she was young or how she went out for drinks with Hawks and Edgeshot every week.
Also how Hawks was apparently sad that Nejire went with Ryukyu, which was something he'd have to tell her when he got the chance.
Seriously, Peter barely knew about Hawks but he can't really picture the guy as anything other than smug and laidback.
Kinda like Tony Stark but a bit less of a dick.
"Hey." Peter began, the boy kicking his legs idly over the ledge as Mirko sat beside him. "I kinda want to ask… what made you wanna be a hero?"
A part of him thought she'd have some tragic backstory or something, but another part of him was a bit more realistic and guessed she just liked helping people.
"Honestly? Just kinda liked fighting people!" She laughed, Peter narrowing his lenses in confusion.
Huh?
Seeing his confusion, Mirko chuckled and waved her gloved hand before sitting with legs crossed.
"I ain't gonna sit here and pretend I had some bullshit tragic origin, alright? People told me a rabbit quirk was weak, so I figured if I fought a bunch of random assholes then I'd be strong and prove them wrong, which is why I crashed fight pits! After I got arrested, I figured another way of proving I was strong was to become a hero!"
Peter furrowed his brow as the woman gave off a chuckle, pushing some of her snow-white hair off her forehead.
"I don't do teams to prove my strength is my own, so I won't have any asshole saying I rely on other people. And honestly? I ended up loving helping people by the time I made my debut!" She laughed again, Peter finding himself giving a small smile.
It wasn't what he expected, you know? Although he could believe it since Mirko always prided herself in her strength.
Either way, she helped people! No matter how she got there, no one could deny she did good work.
They fall back into comfortable silence after that, Peter eating the last of his hotdog before pulling down his mask and looking at the streets below.
Everyone just went their own way, not caring about anyone else. A few people looked up for some reason, noticing them before waving happily at Mirko who waved back.
And then, they saw him.
At first, it was a look of confusion before they took in what his costume looked like. Immediately, they frowned before looking between him and Mirko in confusion.
Which made sense, he guessed.
If he looked a bit closer, he swears he could see a few of them rolling their eyes and scoffing, mouthing how he was a criminal before walking away.
And yeah, it hurt.
Sighing, Peter looked down for a second before looking back up at Mirko who only raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
Mirko… man, everywhere he looked he could see that they loved her! He knew why, but… how does he get that? When does he get that?
Okay, he knew it was selfish to think about that, it's just… he wanted that love and respect people showed to heroes like her.
"Hey… can I ask you a kinda lame question? You don't even have to answer." He began, looking back down at the streets below.
"Shoot, better not be how to ask a girl out, or I'll kick you off the building."
A small chuckle escaped him, his eyes landing on a few people down below before he looked back at her.
"When you started as a hero… did people like you? Like, I know people love you right now, but was it always like that?" He asked, getting a raised eyebrow from her.
Man, that question was way lamer when he said it out loud.
"When I started out? Shit, a bunch of people brought up my record but that ended up dying down after a while. What's up with that, kid? Getting self-conscious out of nowhere or you just making shitty small talk?" She said, ears folding down a bit.
"So, people brought up your record back then? Like, they didn't see you as they do right now?" She didn't respond, silently trying to figure out what he was even talking about. "Okay, so…"
He trailed off, hands laced together on his lap as cars passed by.
"When did people start liking you?"
And with that, something clicked in the woman.
"This about how people have been shitting on you all day?" She asked, Peter silently nodded.
"Uh, yeah. It's dumb, right? I feel like I shouldn't even care about that since I'll help out no matter what. " He chuckled dryly, seeing Mirko's ears go straight as she sat up in the corner of his eye.
"Hey, I get it! Fucking sucks that people have been assholes to you all day, right?" She asked, Peter giving a small shrug. "So you know what? Fuck 'em."
Behind the mask, Peter raised an eyebrow at that last part.
If he was gonna get advice on this… he wasn't expecting it'd be that.
Noticing the confusion that his narrowed lenses showed, the woman rolled her eyes before jabbing a finger into his arm.
"Kid, if people don't like you? Think you're a menace or some shit? Fuck 'em! Who gives a fuck about that? I'm so high up in the ranks cause I don't care about what people think of me, just do that! Just keep doing your friendly neighborhood bullshit, and fuck 'em."
A few seconds passed, Peter trying to search Mirko's eyes for some deeper meaning behind what she just said.
Honesty? It didn't look like there was any deeper meaning.
All he had to do was just… not care and keep being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Huh.
A small chuckle escaped him, Peter quickly moving Mirko's finger from his arm and looking at her.
"That… was actually not that bad of advice! Thanks for that, Mirko. It was really cool of you to tell me that"
Hearing that, Mirko scoffed and ruffled his hair even if he had a mask on before grinning brightly.
"Kid, everything I do is cool! It's my job to help people out, so don't sweat it!" She laughed, Peter found himself smiling behind the mask.
It looked like she was about to say something before her ears twitched as she furrowed her brow, with Peter feeling a strong buzzing shoot from the back of his skull through his entire body.
...
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