Day at the Seashore

With her parents at work, it was only Gwen at home today. She had planned to spend it holed in her room catching up on sleep and maybe later she would finally read The Hunger Games like Juliana had been nagging her to for the last six months before she went out for some evening patrol, but those plans came to an abrupt end before they could even begin. Gwen sprung awake half-past nine when someone rang her doorbell. Grumbling cuss words to herself, she threw back her covers and shuffled out of her bedroom. Gwen soon entered the front of the house to answer the door – which was now being knocked on obnoxiously. Grinding her teeth, she resisted the urge to sigh and went and yanked open the door. Unsurprisingly, Gwen found MJ's too chipper face was on the other side. Giving a shriek of excitement, MJ leaped at Gwen and wrapped her arms around her neck, bouncing them in a circle as she yelled, "Gwen! Go put on your swimsuit and get your towel and sunglasses! We're having an end of the summer beach trip!"

Squirming her way out of her bandmate's hold, Gwen said, nonplussed, "Hi, Mj."

Puffing out her cheeks, the other girl tossed her ponytail over her shoulder before crossing her arms and saying, "Did you hear me? Everybody's waiting, c'mon! Harry'll have the car back around the block again in no time!"

She blinked, a little stunned. "Harry?" Gwen said, "Harry Osborn?"

MJ bobbed her head. "Yeah, now, scoot!"

"Okay, okay!" she muttered, walking back toward her room with her bandmate on her heels. Once in her bedroom, she opened a drawer of her dresser and pulled out her favorite sporty black one-piece. Stripping out of her PJs and putting it on, she looked over at MJ as she gathered up some essentials for a day at the beach. Her bandmate was bouncing on the balls of her feet, eyes darting between Gwen and the cellphone she had in her hand, clearly waiting for the signal Harry was back on her block. Feeling it was either now or never, she asked, "So, tell me, why are we going to the beach with Harry, MJ?"

MJ sighed at her question and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. "I know, I know," she admitted, "it might be a bad idea." Her eyes then lit up and mischief pulled her lip from between her teeth and into the soft curve of a smile. "But… He's cute. Who turns down a cute boy when he invites you to go to the beach with him?"

Gwen pursed her lips. "I guess," she muttered, unconvinced. Cute as Harry was, he was trouble too. Gwen found plenty of that on her own and wasn't interested in getting involved in whatever commotion he was going to create today too.

MJ, realizing she wasn't won over, babbled, "He swears we're just going to have a nice day at the beach! Splashing in the waves, laying in the sun, ice cream for lunch, no booze or weed or anything. He even told me to invite along Liz and Juliana so we'd outnumber him and Flash—"

She gaped, before crying out, annoyed,"—Flash? Gwen! He's such a douche!"

MJ threw her hands in the air. "Yeah, but how could I pass up a beach trip?" she demanded, eyes wide and expression dramatic.

She frowned and grumbled, "I would have."

Puffing out her cheeks once again, MJ planted her hands on her hips and said, "Well, too late! We're all going, you, me, the boys, and Liz and Juliana."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Great," she sneered.

Her bandmate gave her a poke in the leg with one of her flip-flop-wearing-feet and chided, "Oh, stop looking like you sucked a lemon." Her eyes dropped to her phone, which was vibrating in her hands. "We're going to have fun, Gwen!" she declared.

She didn't believe MJ in the slightest, but followed her back to the front of the house all the same. "We'll see," Gwen muttered as she fished her house-keys from the bowl her family kept by the front door.

-o-O-o-

In spite of her reservations, the beach trip wasn't turning out so bad. Just like MJ had promised, Harry hadn't brought anything that could lead to trouble— Just some water bottles and cans of Pepsi in a small Iglu cooler for them to drink when they were hot. Even better, for once, Flash was behaving pretty tolerablely and not constantly putting everyone down every time an opportunity arose. Additionally, Liz and Juliana were their usual fun, chatty selves and with the help of MJ, were keeping the day moving along at an easy, upbeat pace.

The day's fun, however, was interrupted when her spidey-senses began to tingle. Looking up in just the nick of time, she managed to miss being hit by a stray frisbee. However, in the process, she managed to spill half the can of Pepsi she had in her hand all over herself. "Yuck," she muttered.

A moment later, as she sopped up the Pepsi with her beach towel, a familiar voice started to apologize. "Sorry about that, my nephew wasn't—" He stopped talking just as her head snapped toward his direction. He, Aaron, said, "Gwen?"

"Aaron?" she returned, feeling just as dazed as he looked.

Flash crossed his arms and sneered. "You know this clown?" he demanded.

Gwen closed her eyes and held back a groan. Of course it'd be now he decided to become the belligerent shit-head she knew best. "Yes," she ground out through clenched teeth as Aaron snapped:

"You watch yo'self, little boy."

Running back-quick, Flash was on his feet, growling out, "Is that a threat?"

Gwen snagged one of his fisted hands and yanked him down into the sand with her enhanced strength. "Flash, knock it off!" she scolded as he worked off the shock of being so easily brought to his butt by the pull of a girl's hand. "Aaron's the uncle of the kid I babysit," she explained. Getting in his face then, she jabbed a finger at him and hissed, "And I promise you, you will be the one carried away on a stretcher if you start any shit." Letting him go then, Gwen got up on her feet and went to greet Aaron, half-smiling at him. "Hi, Aaron. Are you hanging out with Miles today?"

He nodded looking more settled now that he'd watched her threaten Flash into friendliness. "Yeah. Miles starts school again soon so I asked Rio if I could take him out for the day."

"That's nice," she said. Gwen glanced around Aaron, looking for her favorite little Miles. "Where is the kid?"

Aaron looked over his shoulder. "Here, I'll call him," he replied before cupping his hands to his mouth and shouting, "Miles! Yo! Over here!"

A moment later, the little boy appeared at his Uncle's side. However, he was only there a split-second before he lept at Gwen, shrieking, delighted, "Gwen!"

Catching him, Gwen held Miles against her side as she said, "Hey, kiddo, how are you?"

He grinned at her, showing off two new missing front teeth. "Uncle Aaron 'n me are having a beach day," he replied.

She let him go. "That's cool."

"Are you too?" he asked, looking her over and then at her band and the boys, who were all watching with mild interest.

"I guess you could say I am, yeah," she agreed. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she angled Miles toward her band. Liz and Juliana were whispering to each other and MJ was wearing a big smile and waving at them now that Miles was looking at the three of them."You remember my band, don't you? MJ, Liz and Juliana?" she questioned.

Miles bobbed his head. "Yeah! Hi!"

"Hi, Miles," the three replied in tandem, offering waves and winks and toothy grins.

With a small amount of reluctance, she then gestured at Flash and Harry. Harry had pulled out his phone at some point and was fiddling with it, oblivious to her and Miles, while Flash had his eyes on Aaron behind her and Miles, his expression one of disgruntlement. Gwen cleared her throat loudly, drawing the two's eyes to her. "And the guys are Harry and Flash," she told Miles.

Miles perked up at that. "Is that your real name?" he asked Flash.

The boy blinked, seemingly surprised that Miles had decided to talk to him. "Huh?"

"Flash!" Miles repeated. "Is it your real name?"

He shook his head at the kid. "Nah, I'm just fast, so my coach started calling me that after I joined my school's football team."

Miles made a noise of disappointment. "Aw, that'd have been a cool name. It sounds kinda like a hero name! Like Spider-Woman or the Prowler!"

Flash frowned. "The Prowler isn't a hero!"

"Yes, he is!" Miles argued. "He's saved me an' Gwen from kidnappers and bank robbers!"

"What?" Flash replied, gaping at them. Harry was looking up from his phone now, and her band was watching her out of the corners of their eyes, catching on that things were getting juicy. Gwen, however, didn't want to talk about any of that. She'd seen the way Aaron tensed in her peripheral vision and didn't think he'd like hearing her and Miles expound his good deeds only to have them doubted and dissected by Flash, Harry, and her band.

"Uh, those are some really long stories," she said. Thinking quickly, she suggested, "Instead of trying to explain all of that, why don't we play some frisbee for a bit? That cool with you, Aaron? Miles?"

"Yeah!" the kid cheered as Aaron said:

"It's cool."

In no time at all, the eight of them were throwing around Aaron and Miles's frisbee. Soon, the game turned into a version of monkey in the middle with Flash as the monkey. They were having such a great time frustrating Flash and entertaining Miles they didn't seem to really notice when Gwen and Aaron bowed out and sat down on her towel together. Bringing her knees to her chest, Gwen rested her elbows on them and put her head in her hands. Eyes wandering out to the ocean, she asked, "When did he start to call the Prowler a hero?"

Aaron sighed audibly. "Rio says around the same time you guys got saved from the bank robbers," he answered tone lacking any kind of inflection besides weariness.

A breeze blew through and Gwen brought one of her hands in front of her face to brush back a strand of askew hair. "Shit," she murmured. Gwen had hoped their early conversation about the Prowler after the first incident would keep Miles from seeing him as a hero, but, clearly, that wasn't so. He'd saved them too many times for him to be anything but to Miles. Gwen was going to have to start putting in more effort as Spider-Woman to turn Prowler onto the vigilante path.

He nodded and admitted to her, "Yeah, I'mma bit worried what'll happen if he talks about the Prowler as a hero at school."

Gwen was worried too. Kids weren't always nice. Especially when they thought they were being lied to. She bit her lip and turned to look at Aaron, "Do Mrs. Morales and Mr. Davis plan to talk to his teacher about what's happened this summer? Before that? Because otherwise…"

"Yeah, they do," he replied, glancing at her before returning his attention to her friends and Miles.

She sighed and joined Aaron in watching the group. "It'll still sound kind of unbelievable," she said.

"Yeah."

Gwen reached for a handful of sand and began to sift it through her hands as she imagined what the next school year would hold for her favorite little goofball. After a time, she grew bored with the distraction and let the sand be blown from her hands. Unthinkingly, she grumbled, "I wish the Prowler would just finally do it and finally step over to the side of the vigilantes once and for all."

Aaron's head whipped from the ocean to her, his eyes wide. "What?" he said, aghast.

She rolled her eyes skyward. Fuck. Well, now that she'd said it, there was no point trying to pretend she hadn't, was there? Maybe Aaron would be spurred more to become a hero if she made her opinion firm. "I wish he would finally just become a vigilante once and for all," she repeated.

Aaron shook his head. "No, no, I got that," he said, "what I don't get is why you think he's becoming a hero at all."

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the man. "What else do you call rescuing a couple of kids from kidnappers, then helping Spider-Woman stop a hostage situation, and then a bank robbery after that?" she asked. Raising her voice just a little, she declared, "The guy's totally taking up the hero business!"

"Last week he was in the news for stealing a priceless painting from the mayor's mansion!" Aaron argued, scowling.

Gwen pursed his lips. Yeah, he had. But that was the first robbery she'd heard of him committing in almost two weeks. Historically, the Prowler robbed two to three places a week. Her usually being able to stop one or two of them. Huffing, she crossed her arms and muttered, defeated, "Yeah, okay, so he's still robbing places. But he's been doing it less."

"How do you know? Keep a tally sheet of New York's criminals' crimes?" Aaron demanded, sneering.

Gwen snickered like she thought what Aaron said was funny, when, really, she felt kind of bad he thought so little about the progress toward hero he'd been making. "No," she lied. "And wow, you sure seem to want to believe the worst of the guy who's saved your nephew from danger three times in less than a year."

He frowned. "I don't— People just don't change easy, is all," he muttered before looking back to the ocean.

"He's not doing it easy," Gwen asserted. She cracked a smile and bumped Aaron's shoulder. "He robbed the mayor's mansion last week, remember?"

Aaron's lips twitched with the start of a smirk, but before it could become a full-blown one, Flash yelled, "Hey! Chatty Cathys we're going down to the ice cream stand and the kid wants some!"

Aaron narrowed his eyes at Flash. "Some friends, Gwen," he remarked.

Gwen pursed her lips and said, "I really wouldn't call Flash a friend."

"Oh?" Aaron replied as he got to his feet.

Accepting the hand Aaron gave her and letting him pull her up to stand next to him, she explained with some hesitancy, "He's… Well, he kind was Peter's bully before he, um, died." For a moment the man looked gobsmacked. Then an angry furrow began between his brows and Gwen just knew he was going to give Flash a really threatening look if she didn't say something right this instance. Grabbing his wrist, she tugged on it, drawing his attention to her as she babbled, "It sounds stupid, but Flash is a lot better now!"

His expression turned from one of anger to distrust. "Uh-huh."

She bit her lip. "Really, he's all bark, no bite," Gwen insisted. "He sounds like a dick, but he is pretty… Okay to people now."

For a long beat, they just stared at each other. Aaron trying to break her and get Gwen to admit to lying as she attempted to prove to him just how earnest she was. Flash was still a jerk, she had no illusion about that, but he didn't go out of his way to try and make others feel miserable about themselves anymore. He even listened if you called him out now when he went too low when talking with people in their group. Sometimes he would even apologize afterward. Flash was better. By the time they graduated, he might even be an okay guy. Finally, Aaron crossed his arms and looked away. He sucked his teeth before saying, "I don't know why you bother with him."

"Bother with who?" asked Harry.

Gwen had felt him approaching, but she hadn't realized he'd come so near to them until this instance. Turning to look at the boy, she offered a strained smiled. "Oh, Harry," she said, ignoring his question, "how are you liking the beach today?"

He said nothing at first, but when he realized she wasn't going to answer his initial question, he upturned his lips into a small smiled and said, "It's a nice day, not too sunny."

Gwen returned his smile. "Yeah," she agreed. "It is not too bad."

"Uncle Aaron!" Miles hollered from where he was with Gwen's band and Flash some two or three yards ahead of the three of them. "I need your money! I want a Spongebert pop!"

Aaron sighed before shouting back at Miles, "I'm comin', kid!"

Gwen watched as Aaron jogged off to meet up with Miles and sweep him off the ground and put him on his back. She smiled when the kid began to laugh, clearly pleased to be getting a ride to the ice cream stand.

"Are you two together?" Harry questioned, causing her to snap her eyes to him.

"What?" she asked, shocked.

Harry looked uncomfortable and turned his attention to his toes. "You and Aaron."

Gwen said, "He's almost thirty."

"And?" he replied, glancing up, a look of frustration flashing across his face. Gwen was sure he thought she was avoiding the question. Really, though, she couldn't wrap her head around the idea of someone mistaking him and her for being a couple. He was so old compared to her. Yeah, he had all the charm her Miles did, but… No. Gwen couldn't go there. Not only was it wrong because of the age difference, but because she knew his secret and he didn't know hers. There were too many imbalances for a relationship to ever work.

She sighed and gave Harry's arm a nudge her elbow. He met her gaze after a brief moment of reluctance. "What makes you ask anyway?" Gwen questioned.

"You two were just pretty comfortable talking while we played frisbee," replied Harry. "You smiled a lot at him too."

She rolled her eyes. Ugh, boys. Why was it they always seemed to think if you smiled at a guy it meant you had a crush on them? "'Cause he's a friend and Miles's Uncle," she said, making sure he knew just how stupid she thought he was being.

Harry frowned before saying, "…That's all?"

She groaned and wiped a hand down the side of her face. "Oh my God, why do you even care, Harry?"

"I don't!" he denied only to run a hand over his shorn head and mumbled, "I mean, I think you're kinda cool and I was hoping you might wanna, I don't know, go to a movie? But if you were with him…"

She blinked, surprised. "Oh." He wanted to take her out someplace? That was… Wow. Gwen hadn't seen this coming. She looked him over. Just a few hours ago she had chided Gwen for agreeing to go the beach with him. Yet now she was seriously considering it. He'd shown he knew how to have a good time without booze or weed and that was big. That kind of scene wasn't hers. Gwen offered a smile to Harry. "Um. Sure?" she agreed. "Next week okay? You can pick."

He seemed startled. "Huh? Wait, really?" he said.

Gwen giggled. "Yeah."

Harry grinned and grabbed her hands. "Oh man, you're not going to regret this, Gwen!" he told her.

She smiled at him. "I sure hope you're right, Harry."

Still holding onto one her hands, he gave her a small pull and said, "Come on, let's go get some ice cream."

Walking up toward the rest of the group, Gwen felt a blush rise on her cheeks when Aaron looked with great exaggeration at their hands and then at her. Thankfully, that was all Aaron did. Putting a hand on Miles's shoulder beside him, he steered the two of them toward Gwen and Harry. Smiling, he said, "It was fun seeing you, but I think me and the kid are gonna head out."

She nodded. "You too," she said to Aaron. Letting go of Harry's hand, she then leaned down to hug Miles, who quickly returned it. "Bye Miles!"

"Bye Gwen!" he echoed as he pulled away from her.

Gwen reached again for Harry's hand afterward and with him, she watched Aaron and Miles walk away. When they were lost in the throngs of beach-goers, she turned to Harry and asked, "What are you getting to eat?"

I hope you all enjoyed this story. This isn't a very action-y addition. But I thought Gwen going on a beach trip could be fun, especially if Aaron and Miles made a surprise appearance.

I've also recently posted a new Spider-Verse story. To anyone curious, it's called Uncle Pete and is a What if? AU where Peter B. decides to stay in Miles 'verse and the consequences and situation that arises out of it.

Thank you so much for reading!