Chapter Text
Mikey
Ever since Mikey had mostly healed from the attempted alien invasion, he’d felt a little smothered in all honesty.
Their dad and April hadn't let any of the boys leave the lair, keeping a constant watch on all of them. April leaves for her parents' place on occasion but tends not to stay long since they weren’t all that close to the main invasion. Draxum and Casey would stop by with food and med stuff but that was about it for outside interactions.
He’d understood at the beginning, he and Leo had both gone comatose for a bit. With Leo waking up two days after going down and Mikey taking nearly a week to fully wake up. And Junior had gotten horribly sick the moment his adrenaline crashed.
Don’t even get him started on the growths and tumors lingering in Raph’s eye and Donnie’s shell that had to be surgically removed. She hadn’t even been awake for the procedure but Mikey swears that they heard their eldest brother's screams from lack of proper anesthetic.
But now all they could think about was just how boring it was to stay cooped up in the lair. She didn’t know how little Mikey did it before.
So Mikey started sneaking out at night, picking up their less developed hobby of graffiti. His hands haven’t been steady since making that portal, but nobody expected perfection and straight lines from graffiti. And the work tended to be so big that small mistakes drifted to the background. A win is a win, as some would say.
-
Mikey shuffled silently through the subway system, before finding a station exit. Their bag of paints barely makes a sound as they move.
Pausing they checked their outfit, making sure there were no holes for anyone to see their very green skin. Black leggings, baggy cargo pants, and black combat boots splattered in paint. Orange turtleneck undershirt and black hoodie with the sleeve cut off also speckled with paint. Mainly because it was Raph’s at one point and he tends to just get rid of the sleeves to avoid the fabric getting caught on his spikes.
Thin black gloves, the kind that combine your fingers just to make it harder for people to notice him only having three. And of course a very colorful grey spray paint mask that Mikey decorated herself.
Tightening his orange ninja mask under the gas mask Mikey was ready to go. Nodding to themselves Mikey flipped up their hood and silently slipped into bright New York City night.
-
Mikey found himself back at a piece he’d been working on the past few days. Tucked away in the Bronx down an alley and starting at about the third floor of an abandoned apartment building.
An interpretive landscape, depicting a greying cityscape of NYC with bright roots. And the Krang technodrome halfway out the portal, tentacles reaching out and leaching the color from New York City. Everything Krang was in mauve pinks and purples with dashes of yellow, all ugly shades of the colors to Mikey nowadays.
Making art of things like this helped them process the event some. There was a mourning mural for Gram-Gram Karai near the old lair, and a piece for their fight against the Shredder a good distance away from the lair, to give their gram-gram peace mainly.
Pulling out a paint can Mikey lowered themselves down to the fourth level, using her kusari-fundo chain as a seat and pulley system. Chain wrapped securely around his body as they got to work.
Mikey could feel her awareness slip away as they worked on the piece. Paying close attention to the shading where they had finished blocking out colors a day or so ago.
Their family didn’t like it when they lost focus like this, it wasn’t hyperfocus, it was more a dissociation. The drone of the city as white noise, maybe music. Her sense of being shrinking down to what was in their hands, which tended to be a cooking utensil, or pencil. In this case a paint can. Everything just fell to the background, even their own body.
Mikey isn’t sure when they started doing this, it was probably back when Dad was neglectful and depressed. When Raph started to try and step in, but he was still a kid so of course he messed up sometimes. So Mikey would just step back and go quite so Donnie and Leon could get more attention.
Donnie with his soft shell and high sensitivity couldn’t go unnoticed. And Leon was just loud when he wanted things. So Perfect Little Angel that she is, Mikey shut up. Not like she blamed her brothers for it, she blamed her dad. Never really took it out on him, he knew he’s been trying since they all fought Shredder about eight months ago.
-
Suffice to say Mikey was equally embarrassed, but also supposed it was bound to happen eventually. When someone had successfully snuck up on him.
“Watcha making?” Someone asked surprisingly close to Mikey for them both being multiple meters off the ground.
Mikey jumped screaming in surprise as they pushed the person and promptly lost balance and started to fall.
Almost immediately the person grabbed their wrist as their lower body fell and the turtle got caught in their own chains.
“Woah sorry for scaring you!” They said,
And finally Mikey looked up, and saw someone he did not expect, “Spider-man!” She yelled, the whole block probably heard her.
The other vigilante quickly shushed, raising their finger to their face. Before quickly realizing that was a bad idea as Mikey started to fall again.
They quickly latched onto each other, Spider-man pulling Mikey to the wall he’d been sticking to.
“I am so sorry, are you okay?” He asked frantically, glancing over Mikey for any injuries.
“Here lemme just,” Spider-man easily pulled both of them up to the roof of the building, dragging Mikey’s chains with them.
Mikey just let it happen, in a bit of shock really, Raph and Draxum were the only people that ever picked him up this easily. Spider-man was rather small. And yeah Mikey himself was deceptively strong for such a small guy. But still her being a buff mutant turtle made Mikey rather heavy.
Out of curiosity he gently squeezed Spider-man’s arm as he set Mikey down. Well there was definitely more muscle than the almost skintight black and red suit showed.
“You alright?” Spider-man asked nervously, stepping back from Mikey as they regained their bearings.
“Yeah man, I’m good. Maybe warn a gal next time.” Mikey chuckled, the superhuman did as well although with an obvious nervous undertone.
Then they heard a police siren. They both hit the deck quickly, laying flat on the grimy rooftop floor.
-
Mikey held her breath listening intently as the cops stepped out of their car and walked around a bit.
“Oh god dammit – One of them said, obviously exasperated – It’s another vandal.”
The other hummed in annoyance, “Ya know, why don’t they just buy a mural spot then they all wouldn’t be getting in trouble all the damn time. Besides how are we gonna clean that, it’s to fucking high up.”
The first one responded, “Yurp, that’s what volunteers are for. Besides, we aren't looking for those perps, we're looking for the spider.”
“Yeah yeah, – they both started walking back to their cruiser – Think they could all be working together with the spider?” Said the second one.
Mikey could practically hear the first one shrug, “I don’t know, maybe?”
The two pigs speed off in their car.
-
Mikey and Spider-man slowly sat up, both looking around for any signs of the cop car.
Mikey turned to the spider, “Why are the cops after you? Couldn’t have been that loud, I’m wearing a mask and everything” She asked him.
Spider-man laughed, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, “May or may not have totaled one of their fancier cruisers when they got in the way of a fight. They kinda noticed it wasn’t an accident and have been on the hunt for me since.”
Mikey laughed, curling into themselves a bit. Of course the illegal vigilante was ACAB what else could he expect. The spider got a check in Mikey’s book for that.
“Really can’t expect much from pigs, you’re like what 15 too?” Mikey asked.
The spider stuttered, “I mean like maybe! Not like you’re supposed to know.” He grumbled in embarrassment.
“So am I! Damn, 15 and giving those incompetent bastards hell. Fucking rad man!” he said between giggles, raising his closed hand for a fist bump.
Which the spider returned after maybe a half second delay. Mikey looked up at him, noticing that they were a bit more relaxed and laughing a little.
She wanted to talk more with them, but then their alarm went off, pulling out their phone they sighed. It was getting early and they needed to head home before anyone woke up and threw a fit about Mikey being outside.
Getting up and unraveling themselves from their chains. Mikey dusted off their pants and sweater, as Spider-man jumped up as well.
“Gotta get back home, don’t wanna keep the fam waiting, sorry,” He said, giving the spider a smile he couldn’t see. As he tossed the kusari-fundo in his paint bag. Zipping it up and slinging it over his shoulder.
Spider-man shifted on his feet a bit, “It’s alright, no probs. We could maybe meet again, I really like your art. I've seen it around a lot of hard to reach places.”
“An artist never reveals their secrets – Mikey says cheekily – But sure, always wanted to meet ya, same time and place two days from now?”
Spider-man nodded with a yup, and Mikey was just about to run off. When he called out to him.
“Hey wait, what're your name and your pronouns?”
Mikey froze for a second, trying to think up a fake name to give to the other vigilante. Nobody was supposed to know they went out so they had to be creative.
Okay so Hamato Mikan Michelangelo. Mikan means tangerine so like Orange, it was already his color. OJ? Naw his family would figure that out way too quick. Mikey to M plus OJ. MOJ? No MJ, that works, nice and subtle and kinda familiar but probably not enough for anyone to draw connections.
“MJ, any pronouns are fine! – They chirped – And you?”
“Oh! Um, he/they! And Spider-man I guess.” He stuttered.
“Well then, see ya later Spidey!” Mikey said dashing off into the night quickly blending in with shadows of the night.
She smiled, a new friend. Not something that happened when you grew up isolated in the sewers. But the Hamato family has been going through some changes recently. So there's a chance for everything.
Miles
Miles ran quickly over the rooftops being closely followed by a pair of very persistent cops, Bailey and Carson.
They grumbled under their mask as they swung onto a different street. Pigs like these are the reason he only really respects his dad. And of course Peter Porker but he was thinking on the more theoretical side of pig
Deciding to just say fuck it he took a sharp turn and went invisible. Miles was not going to be the reason why half the Bronx had to deal with another speeding cruiser on their streets, blaring their sirens obnoxiously.
He watched silently as the cops sped by him. Sighing they stretched in their upside-down position.
Welp might as well continue patrol.
-
As he silently flipped around watching the streets for anything, and an ear out for police sirens, Miles noticed someone hanging off the side of a building’s alley wall.
Going invisible they creeped over sticking to the wall next to them, and fully saw the person.
They were doing a graffiti piece, a very pretty one at that. It was obviously about the alien invasion a month ago.
The thought of it made Miles feel a bit disappointed in himself. They hadn’t been able to fight the main source. Another vigilante group had done that, they’d been around a year longer than Miles, and were called the Mad Dogs, and maybe turtle something too.
But they were at least glad to have helped civilians escape, and incapacitate the infected for their own and others safety.
As they watched the artist work, they realized they recognized the style. Interpretive and heavy on the use of color. Slightly shaky line art, heavy perspective but surprisingly dynamic shadow.
Miles had seen some of their work around basically all of NYC. All in places that were very hard to reach normally. And Miles would know, he’d tried to get to a few of them before he got his powers. Man where those some falls he tried to explain away to his parents.
Taking a second to look at the chain wrapped around the artist. Which he quickly noticed was some sort of chained weapon. The handle and spiked sphere end locked together at their back.
It looked a little like a morning star, but also kinda like one of those ball and string toys, a kendama if he remembered correctly.
Taking their eyes away from the other person’s weird seat, Miles looked back at the art. Watching them work for a bit.
-
Finally deciding to do something Miles dropped his invisibility and spoke, “Watcha making?”
Their reaction was immediate and loud. They screamed long and loud, surprising Miles, who barely missed their shove as they tried to get away. Then they started to fall from their chains and get wrapped up in them. Miles just acted on pure instinct reaching out and grabbing them by the wrists.
“Woah sorry for scaring you!” He said frantically, holding the person steady as their body conformed to gravity’s pull.
They quickly looked up and gasped and yelled, “Spider-man!”
Wincing at the volume, seriously how Miles knew from experience that the mask they were wearing was hard to talk through. They quickly raised a finger to their lips, then immediately realized their mistake as the artist fell more into their chains and subsequently closer to the ground and or a very hard to get out of spot.
He quickly latched onto them, as they grabbed onto him with a much more desperate fever.
“I am so sorry, are you okay?” Miles said nervously.
Bringing them close to his chest cradling them a little in his arms as Miles stuck to the wall. He worriedly looked them over, thankful their thick pants and hoodie had protected them from the chain.
Letting out a relieved sigh he quickly climbed up the wall and onto the rooftop with their weapon, “Here lemme just,”
As he set them down, he felt them squeeze his arm. Like they were checking them out or something. Miles’ face quickly grew hot, they hadn’t really expected that.
“You alright?” He said taking a step back to calm down, and properly looked at the artist as they got their bearings.
They were shorter than Miles, by maybe three inches, maybe a little less. They wore all black aside from their colorful full face mask, a second orange mask under it, and bright orange turtleneck under their hoodie. Which happened to show off their muscles which were probably bigger than his own. And now that he thought about it, they did seem rather flexible as they fell. Like if Miles hadn’t been there to catch them they would have probably been mostly fine. That last thought made Miles blush more.
They laughed, “Yeah man, I’m good. Maybe warn a gal next time.”
Miles laughed a little as well, cringing at how awkward it sounded.
Then he heard the sirens again.
Mother of fu-
-
Miles and the artist fell to the ground quickly. Just to make sure the two weren’t getting anywhere with finding him. Miles listened closely to what the asshole cops had to say.
“Oh god dammit, It’s another vandal.” That was Bailey, Miles could recognize his voice from Carson’s pretty easily.
“Ya know, why don’t they just buy a mural spot then they all wouldn’t be getting in trouble all the damn time. Besides how are we gonna clean that, it’s to fucking high up.” Because Carson sounded like a pompous prick.
“Yurp, that’s what volunteers are for. Besides, we aren't looking for them, we're looking for the spider.” They could practically here Bailey do that obedient nod he always did cause Carson’s family practically owns their precinct. Miles had heard his dad complain about it many times before.
“Yeah yeah, – they both started walking back to cruiser – Think they could all be working together with the spider?” Said Carson, cause of course he would assume that.
Bailey gave his always polite response to Carson’s bullshit, “I don’t know, maybe?”
The two bastards speed off in their car.
-
After a minute they both sat up, still taking a second to look around to see if they were still there.
Then they turned to the spider “Why are the cops after you? Couldn’t have been that loud, I’m wearing a mask and everything” They asked him.
Miles groaned and laughed nervously, “May or may not have totaled one of their fancier cruisers when they got in the way of a fight. They kinda noticed it wasn’t an accident and have been on the hunt for me since.” His best moment recently to be honest, but the whole getting caught bit kinda ruined it.
Then they started laughing hard, a bit softly but hard like they thought what he did was cool. And that made Miles swell with a bit of pride.
“Really can’t expect much from pigs, you’re like what 15 too?” They asked.
He stuttered, not expecting them to have said that, “I mean like maybe! Not like you’re supposed to know.” He grumbled in embarrassment.
“So am I! Damn, 15 and giving those incompetent bastards hell. Fucking baller man!” They said between giggles, raising their hand for a fist bump.
Miles hesitated for a second before returning the gesture.
Before he could say anything, their phone went off in their pocket. Sighing, they stood up and easily untangle themselves and wrapped up their weapon, and put it in their duffel bag, throwing the bag over their shoulder.
Miles quickly stood up with them, shifting foot to foot.
“Gotta get back home, don’t wanna keep the fam waiting, sorry,” They said. Miles was inclined to believe they were smiling at him.
Swallowing his fear they spoke, “It’s alright, no probs. We could maybe meet again, I really like your art. I've seen it around a lot of hard to reach places.”
“An artist never reveals their secrets – They say giving him a cheeky hidden smile – But sure, always wanted to meet ya, same time and place two days from now?”
“Yup sure that’s good.” And they were about to leave when Miles realized he forgot to ask a very important question.
“Hey wait, what're your name, and your pronouns?” He called out.
And they froze for a second, they probably weren’t going to give him a real name. So they were probably thinking up a fake one, which was fair Miles was just Spider-man to them right now.
“MJ, any pronouns are fine! – They chirped – And you?”
Miles bluescreen the moment he heard them, and then fully took that information in, “Oh! Um, he/they! And Spider-man I guess.” He stuttered.
“Well then, see ya later Spidey!” MJ said, definitely winking at him as they ran off into the night.
“MJ.” He said wistfully, Miles stood there for a good minute enamored.
-
Miles finished up his patrol quickly and went straight home after. Not even bothering to grab a late night snack from a street vendor.
Tossing himself into their room, Miles quickly got out of their suit, just to be safe. And booted up his laptop, and opened up WebCord.
An interdimensional Spider people discord that any Spider’s added to when they become aware of the multiverse and travel it or encounter the other Spiders.
Opening up the server with just him and his friends Miles quickly began typing.
-
nowyaseemenowyadont : OHMYGODGUYSITHINKIMETMYMJ
dontfightadancer : NO FUCKING WAY 🥳
shorterandsmarterthanyou : omg miles!!! (*▽*)
notadilftechnically : congrats kid!!!
bacon&grittes : Spill the deetz sparky!
noirjailbait : yeah what he said!!!
dontfightadancer : tell us everything
nowyaseemenowyadont : okay so he uses any pronouns btw and they’re also fifteen!
nowyaseemenowyadont : and i met her while she was doing this awesome mural about that alien invasion i told yall bout
shorterandsmarterthanyou : weird fleshy eye infection thingys?
nowyaseemenowyadont : yeah those!
notadilftechnically : they looked so ugly 😣
nowyaseemenowyadont : those picture did not do them justice thankfully 😔
nowyaseemenowyadont : anyway so I surprised them because i was being sneaky and shit
nowyaseemenowyadont : and they almost fell out of their makeshift harness screaming and stuff
nowyaseemenowyadont : but then i caught them of course, but then they screamed my name
nowyaseemenowyadont : was being chased by the cops atm soooo
dontfightadancer : as is the life 🫡
nowyaseemenowyadont : as is the life 🫡
nowyaseemenowyadont : butanyway i tried to get them to be quiet then they almost slipped again so i just decided to hold them instead and they latched onto me
noirjailbait : like a true gentleman
nowyaseemenowyadont : thank you!
bacon&grittes : wait, were you holding him bridal style?
nowyaseemenowyadont has started typing
nowyaseemenowyadont has stopped typing
notadilftechnically : oh my god you did!!!
dontfightadancer : loser didn’t even notice! 🤣
shorterandsmarterthanyou : point and laugh! point and laugh at the loser 🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆
noirjailbait : 🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆
dontfightadancer : 🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆
shorterandsmarterthanyou : 🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆
nowyaseemenowyadont : *cries in embarrassed anguish*
bacon&grittes : children stop bullying your brother, they’re new to this!
notadilftechnically : 🤣👆🤣👆🤣👆
bacon&grittes : BENJAMIN!!! 😠
notadilftechnically : shit wait
dontfightadancer : oop! mama’s angry at dad!
shorterandsmarterthanyou : <(' o' )>
noirjailbait : hahahaha!
nowyaseemenowyadont : D:
bacon&grittes : Now look what you’ve done they’re sad! apologize
notadilftechnically : sorry Miley :[
nowyaseemenowyadont : you’ve been forgiven (◡‿◡✿)
nowyaseemenowyadont : now back to MJ
noirjailbait : yes back on track
nowyaseemenowyadont : she’s a little shorter than me and has these big biceps and when they moved i swear i was in heaven for a second
nowyaseemenowyadont : and she squeezed my arm when I was carrying them up to the roof
nowyaseemenowyadont : pretty sure they were checking me out 🤭
dontfightadancer : oh really 😏
nowyaseemenowyadont : just gonna ignore that cause i’m pretty as fuck so of course
nowyaseemenowyadont : and so like the police showed up and we hid for a second
nowyaseemenowyadont : he asked why i was hiding from them
nowyaseemenowyadont : and i told them about that expensive cruiser i murked!
noirjailbait : what’d she say what’d he say???
nowyaseemenowyadont : she called them incompetent bastards~
noirjailbait : fuckingkeeper!!!
dontfightadancer : 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
shorterandsmarterthanyou : i wanna marry them!!! 😚
nowyaseemenowyadont : ay no! go find your own soulmates 🙄
bacon&grittes : proud of you kid
notadilftechnically : know when you’re gonna see them next?
nowyaseemenowyadont : yeah!
nowyaseemenowyadont : two days from now tuesday, same time and place
shorterandsmarterthanyou : tell us everything that happens prty plz!
nowyaseemenowyadont : of course!!!
-
As everyone said their goodbyes and goodnights Miles closed his laptop and flopped in bed staring at the ceiling.
Almost every spider had an MJ of some kind, be that platonic or romantic. Miles had assumed that the only MJ in his world was the older redheaded woman he knew that dated this world's Peter Parker.
But meeting MJ tonight felt like fate. They weren’t expecting it and it wasn’t even a dire or lonely moment in Miles’ life. The two just happened to bump into each other.
Miles could feel his face burn as he smiled like a fool staring at nothing and thinking about somebody who could maybe be his everything. It was right, things were right and he could feel it.