#Leake street

[jaggedlensphoto]

Leake Street. London//2024

[iffeelscouldkill]

Spray-Painted Spiders (A PunkFlower ficlet)

A/N: In my day job, I work not far from the Leake Street tunnel, a tunnel in London's Southbank totally covered in amazing graffiti. One day, I was walking through and couldn't help but imagine how Miles might react to the place, and this little fic started to write itself in my head...

Originally I was going to have Gwen and Pav join them, but I decided to keep it simple, just Miles and Hobie, and then it turned PunkFlower-ish ;) How to impress your artistic, graffiti-loving crush, by Hobie Brown: bring him to the Leake Street tunnel :D

Pics of the real tunnel after the fic!

---

Miles' whistle echoed around the walls of the tunnel, every inch of them covered in colourfully-painted portraits and landscapes and swirling abstract patterns.

"So people paint... this whole tunnel?" he asked, gaping at their surroundings. "Don't the cops stop them?"

Hobie shrugged fluidly. The two of them were in casual clothing, spider suits tucked away underneath, and the dim light illuminated the smirk on Hobie's face. "They try," he said. "But we're persistent. Besides, they don't like to come down here too much. It's considered an "unsavoury" area."

Miles was busy leaning back to marvel at the ceiling, which was covered in an intricate black and white design. "Woah, how did they get up there?"

The longer his eyes travelled over it, the more the geometric design started to resemble something... familiar. Something like a series of spiralling, interlocking spider webs. "Did you...?"

Hobie's smirk was decidedly wolfish now. Miles was glad that the dark concealed his pink cheeks. "It could use some flair, I think," he said. He unslung the backpack on his shoulder and took out a can of red spray paint, which he presented to Miles with a flourish. "You up for it?"

Miles reached out to accept the spray can, and their fingers brushed. He answered Hobie's grin with his own. "Yeah, man."

Under cover of darkness, masks pulled down to cover their faces, the two Spiders leapt lightly up the walls and clung to the ceiling. Miles stared at the black and white canvas that stretched out below him. It wasn't often that he built on someone else's work, but this design... Colour leapt into his mind's eye, weaving in and out of the spaces between the webs. He could see it so easily. Mesmerised, and not even aware of Hobie watching him, Miles shook the paint can and got to work.

Hours later, the faint glow of sunrise was creeping into the mouth of the tunnel as Miles and Hobie beheld their completed masterpiece. The webs seemed to glow, highlighted with bright shades of neon green and yellow, while in and around the strands crawled spiders in vivid blue and red. Down the walls, spiders crawled and hid in the crevices of the other artists' work, even scuttling across the floor.

Miles eyed his last strokes critically, adding some pale blue highlights to a hanging spider. It was Hobie's turn to give a low whistle, and Miles looked over to see him nodding slowly in approval.

"It looks good. It looks really good."

Miles thrilled inside, even as he tried his best to play it cool. "Not bad, right?"

He could no longer see Hobie's face beneath the mask, but there was a smile in the older Spider's voice as he answered, "Not bad at all."

Miles took a breath to say something more - and then a shout cut through the air.

"HEY!"

The two half-turned, muscles coiled to spring at the first sign of danger. A police officer stood at the entrance to the tunnel, mouth hanging open. "What the hell..."

Hobie reached out a hand, and Miles took it without a second thought. "Let's Scapa Flow," he said in an undertone, and though Miles had no idea what that meant, he got the message. He squeezed back, and Hobie pulled him along as they sprinted into the dark of the tunnel.

Footsteps sounded and a whistle blew, but the officer was no match for the two Spiders. As soon as they got far enough into the tunnel that they'd be hidden from view, Hobie fired a web and leapt into the air, and Miles followed him. Soon, they were out and swinging through the silvery grey London dawn.

There was no-one around to notice the two figures that alighted on top of the stationary Ferris wheel overlooking the river. Miles was panting a tiny bit from the sudden chase, and with a glance at Hobie, he raised his mask. Hobie followed suit a second later.

"So, d'you like it, then?" Hobie asked.

"Like it? It's amazing. Your world is amazing," Miles couldn't help but enthuse. Playing it cool had kind of gone out the window, but he was too suffused with adrenaline and the thrill of the moment to care. He saw Hobie smile, genuinely pleased.

"You know you can come here any time," Hobie said.

"You mean... like Gwen comes here any time?" Miles couldn't help cautiously checking. Hobie glanced over and raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe a bit different to that," he said. Miles looked at Hobie's profile, wondering if it was the pink glow of sunrise touching his face or something else. He thought he knew what Hobie meant, but he wasn't sure how to be sure. Looking back across the water, Miles was searching for the right words when he felt soft lips press against his cheek.

He turned, surprised, and Hobie drew back a tiny bit, but still so close, his dark eyes searching Miles' features. "Too much?" he checked.

Miles smiled, knowing that he didn't need to find the right words after all. "Just right," he said, and leaned in to kiss Hobie on the mouth.

---

A/N: Scapa Flow = go (Cockney Rhyming slang)

In the real Leake Street tunnel, graffiti is actually legal, and it's quite a tourist hotspot, but since this is Hobie's world I decided to make it a more underground, subversive spot. But I kept the London Eye so that they could have a romantic moment afterwards on top of the Ferris wheel ;)

The tunnel really does have artwork on the ceiling - probably not painted by Spider-people, but who knows :D Here are some photos from my recent visit (the artwork changes every time):

[responsetoloneliness]

Leaving my mark in London

[hornetkun]

leake street, london; 2024年04月03日

[jessdoesphotography]

[geofflewriter]

A Tunnel Of Art #leakestreet

[heathersmy]

Leake Street 2023 Image by heathersmy Artist Unknown

[actaecon]

Leake `street London

[leakestreetbeat]

face the strange

[ukdamo]

Today's photo: from the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel

[rosemaryreality]

WAIT HOLD ON!!! The way Megumi has had so little agency his whole life...even with his "decision" to accept Gojo's help wasn't much of a decision as he would have ended up a sorcerer regardless (unless he and tsumiki wanted to brave it on the streets or something)

And then here comes Yuji that tells him that he can't just ask him to live. Because after everything he's been through he can't just force Megumi to face all that awfulness in the world. That's Megumi's decision to make.

All that he can do is try to smile, but even then he can't help but cry, and admit that he would be sad/lonely without him.

And so Megumi makes his choice.

Megumi fights.

[elapsed-spiral]

This made me feel insane on my lunch break so cheers for that.

[stochastique-blog]

Insert Random Comments

Street art 182.

A fab piece of street art by my super talented niece. She’s only 16! You can find it in Leake Street tunnel near Waterloo.

[pcktknife]

I am simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest fucker ever I can't believe this

[jessdoesphotography]

[jaimenesrallah]

no pride in policing, 2022