#ragtagrunaways

tucked away on the practice field behind his gym, late into the night, away from any prying eyes or cameras to record them lucas and his team were taking on another challenger, a friend really, and for once the dragon type gym leader wasn't breezing through the battle. "you're doing better than i thought you would, no offense." he teased, his words more of an attempt to get into the other's head rather than meaning any real offense. "but don't get cocky yet, i've still got my ace up my sleeve and she is itching for a good fight." he challenged with an amused smirk.

"let's show him just how toxic we can be, come on out dragalge." tossing his last pokeball into the air it burst open in a brilliant, blinding light as his ace pokemon-- his partner from the very beginning-- erupted with a loud cry. "what do you say we make this interesting, dec." he teased with a wink, clearly trying to get into the other's trainers head still, "loser goes down on the winner." well that would certainly make things interesting, "--and i'm so certain i'm going to win if you manage to beat me, i'll even give you one of my badges even though this isn't an official match."

As a general rule, Peter tried to hold back when he was taking on others as Spider-Man. Mostly because his super strength could mean breaking someone's jaw (or worse) with a single punch if he didn't hold back and aim properly. But even with all that, Peter was still taken aback by Eduardo's actions and pinning him down like that - not necessarily because he'd been physically overpowered, but more so because of the sheer aggression of the action and the fact it ended up with Spider-Man on his bed of all places. Plus that whole hands above his head thing sort of felt unnecessary, not to mention how close his face was to his mask - talk about intensely intimate.

"Okay first of all, you've got a lot of fatherly issues that you should probably work on - jumping the gun like that. Second of all, I came to talk and I don't exactly have your number-" He began, only to be cut off by that sudden shift in tone and suggestion that seemed to come so far out of left field that it stunned Peter silent for a moment. A rare achievement indeed. "W-Where did that come from?" He asked, trying not to imagine the concept and suddenly put the position he was in all the more telling. "If anything that's a question to be asking you, jumping Spider-Man onto your bed - you got some masked hero fantasy there big guy? It's alright, no need to be ashamed - it's pretty common these days."

Booker hadn't fully realized what he'd said at first. He'd stirred awake slowly, first recognizing there wasn't a warm body against him, then slowly locked in on the faint rustling sounds moving around his room.

The words had been a thought that turned into being vocalized from a half-asleep brain that didn't want Oliver to leave just yet. He was blinking awake properly, better processing what was going on when Oliver spoke.

That hadn't been very aloof, who cares? jock of him, had it? The small panic in both realizing no he didn't want Oliver to leave and his general fear of being vulnerable in this way had words getting stuck in his throat and almost missing that gentle hope in Oliver's voice.

He shifted slowly, propping himself up against a pillow as he cleared his throat.

"I mean. Wouldn't mind it. I don't have anything going on but practice later today. So if you wanna hang out...I'd be okay with that."

And because despite being clever, he was also an idiot and couldn't stop his mouth from putting a little more distance there emotionally as he looked Oliver over where he was kneeling on the ground.

"Don't get to see you on your knees enough. Nice look for you."