He didn’t have the money for this. Miles had been raised on fruit from Wal-Mart, frozen dinners from dollar stores and the occasional smoothie at McDonalds. It was impossible to live a luxurious life in New York City if you were really living in New York City. Miles wasn’t Lena Dunham. He was a struggling law student who was forced to starve because he spent his time webslinging through streets and trying to find ways to pay his way through law school. Even after he graduated he would practically be drowning in student loans. Yet he had hope for the future that one day he could legitimately shop at Farmer’s Market. The only reason why he was here today was because he had been invited by a friend to find more healthy alternatives to eating. Miles had to admit that he hadn’t been treating his body very well in the past few months. All the knife wounds and fatty dinners hadn’t been doing his body any favors. He was as muscular as ever but he had been forced to cope with exhaustion and occasionally food sickness due to his poor life choices. So when Kitty Pryde had asked him to tag along at the Market he had decided to say yes.

“A healthy alternative to Altoids?” Miles quirked an eyebrow as he stared at the groovy hipster who was offering him two minty fresh pills. He glanced at the napkin and furrowed his brow. He wasn’t even sure if she was going out of her way to be pretentious or if they just handed out scripts for this type of thing. Miles wasn’t looking to be healthy when he ate mints. He was trying to freshen his breath. Then again maybe that was his problem. Maybe if he tried to be healthy and freshen his broth instead of just choosing the latter he’d be feeling a little better about his bodily state when he woke up in the mornings. “Thanks.” Miles took the napkin and popped the mints in his mouth. He rolled them under and above his tongue for a moment before swallowing. “I’m feeling healthier already.” He deadpanned; though he was coming to realize that the teenage before him did have a point about the mints being good for your body. Well, atleast they tasted good. Miles was aware that it wasn’t exactly the same thing but ultimate it didn’t matter to him. They were mints. “How much a pack?” “Seven dollars a pack.”

Miles cocked his head to the side and waited a moment; wondering if he had heard correctly. When he realized he had he burst out laughing and walked away from the sample table. He walked down the vegetable aisle back towards Kitty who was inspecting a pack of cucumbers. “I could never eat those things.” Miles said casually as he picked up a four-pack of cucumbers. He stared at them for a minute and let out a low whistle. Nine dollars? “This is where I draw the line. 9 dollars? I can feel money falling out of my pocket. Besides, d’you really want to eat Larry Boy? He saved lives.” He waggled his own pack of cucumbers in front of Kitty to drive his point home before tossing it back on the other packs of cucumbers. He then shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around the vegetable aisle. He couldn’t find anything that he really wanted or even needed. Besides, he had made a pact to never eat vegetables again the day he moved out of his mother’s house. So far he had been successful. The occasional date or two had resulted in him being forced to eat broccoli or a salad but for the most part he found another place to get his nutrients. The costs of these vegetables did little to convince him otherwise.

“You know there’s a ten for ten deal at Publix, right? I’d say we’re beyond the age necessary to prove hipster cred by shopping here.” Miles was very careful to say we. He had no intention of diving into the sea of emotions that could be triggered for people who had recently passed 30.

Kitty hadn't exactly been raised by parents who were overly concerned with eating healthy. Sure she was made to eat vegetables and they generally worked on having a meal that was at least semi-balanced, but there'd been plenty of happy meals and pizza in her life as well. Well, in all honesty her life still featured plenty of pizza and other unhealthy foods of varying sorts (ice cream for dinner? Kitty was all about that), but she balanced it with more than enough exercise and she did try to make a proper meal at least a couple times a week, and she did usually manage to stick with a homemade salad for lunch most days. (Her goal was supposed to be fast food only on the weekends, but she so rarely acheived that that it didn't even matter.)

Back to the point at hand, salad. The phaser may not always eat the best, but she did make an effort to eat organic, locally grown produce whenever possible, though the prices often made her cringe. But it was good for the environment and good for her and yada, yada, yada, cue the usual spiel that everyone had heard a million times before, so here she was at the farmer's market inspecting cucumbers.

Insert joke here. (At least they weren't melons.)

She'd lost track of Miles for the moment, but assumed he was somewhere nearby being appalled at the sight of so much healthy food in one place. Or maybe appalled at the prices. Actually, it was probably a little of both, knowing him. Kitty would never claim to be the healthiest eater in the world (or even in her neighborhood), but that boy...frankly she was amazed he hadn't already had a heart attack or something.

Speaking of, here came the sarcastic little devil, and she was far too used to him to even bother looking up as she set down the pack of cucumbers in her hand and decided that she didn't really care for cucumbers all that much anyway, so passing on them wasn't a huge loss. "Larry Boy?" She eyed him sidelong as he tossed the pack back down. "Do you normally go around naming vegetables?" She'd never been one for cartoons, even as a child, far too busy stuffing that curious little brain with as much information as she could get her hands on. "And if you've got money falling out of your pockets maybe you should try patching the hole in them." Practical advice in the face of his sarcasm, though it was paired with a brief grin after a moment.

"Come on," she said, rolling her eyes as she reached for his arm to tow him forward with her. "it won't kill you to eat something healthy for a change, and the prices aren't horrible." A beat. "Okay, they're pretty ridiculous, but it's good for you and the environment and whatever. And it's gotta beat eating frozen dinners every night. Just give it a try." Her tone was cajoling, eyelashes batted prettily at him in a transparent attempt to coerce him into going along with her.

It was for his own good. Honest.

“You don’t know who Larry Boy is?” Miles let out a fake gasp. “Whatever happened to your childhood?” Miles’ parents had always encouraged him to do well in school and study hard. However, for all their encouragement he still had been an avid fan of a television. The upside to being really smart meant that you could finish your work sooner and watch television for longer. Miles hadn’t necessarily been the most attentive in school growing up and before his days as Spider-Man his only friends had been Ganke and cartoons. As a result he still couldn’t help but make a wisecrack or two about some type of pop culture. He could hardly blame Kitty for not getting his reference. Though that didn’t mean he couldn’t pout. “I generally try not to name vegetables because if I do than I might start feeling a little affectionate and guilty when its meal time….not that I ever plan on eating vegetables.” Miles had moved out of his parent’s home right out of high school and had never looked back. During the occasional visit he’d force down some leafy greens but the benefit to living on his own is that he didn’t have anyone telling him to.

Except for Kitty. She just couldn’t drop it, apparently.

“No…wait.” Miles reached into his pockets and pulled them out, revealing the empty lining of his jeans. His wallet tumbled onto the floor and he stooped over to pick it up. “Well, you get my point.” He said as he shoved it back into his pocket. His cash flow was severely stunted right now. His rent and bills were paid which was good but the moment he graduated he’d truly understand the meaning of college debt. Miles would have to either sell out or start robbing banks if he wanted to stay above a sea of debt. He could already feel himself starting to drown right now and he hadn’t gotten his first bill from ESU yet. “It’s not a question about killing me it’s about killing my bank account.” Miles complained even further though he didn’t draw away when Kitty grabbed his arm. He couldn’t help but feel the proverbial butterflies in his stomach flutter as he followed her to the next section of healthy veggies.

“How are they good for the environment?!” Miles questioned incredulously as Kitty batted her eyes at him. Still he couldn’t help but smile and if he was a shade lighter she could see that he was blushing. It wasn’t often when he got one on one time with Kitty and he wondered if she enjoyed it as much as he did. Miles doubted it seeing that he spent most of his time pushing up against her optimistic personality. He would have to work on his snark in the future. Was there anyway to be more optimistic while cracking wise? He wasn’t sure but he’d have to work on it in the future. The last thing he wanted to do was to have less personal time with his friends due to them assuming he was a kill joy. That hadn’t happened before but he was paranoid that it would. “I’ll buy vegetables if you show me how to cook them.” Miles said. “Not sure if you’re supposed to eat them raw or boil them…” He frowned. “Maybe I should stop eating those frozen dinners.” It was like they had diminished his cooking ability.

Not that he ever had such a skill.

"Nope," was her cheerily unconcerned reply to his shock, accompanied by a little shrug. "I spent my childhood taking apart computers. And playing video games." Because obviously she'd lose all her nerd cred if she wasn't a gamer girl as well as a tech-head, and we couldn't have that now could we? "And I'm not talking about all these fancy-pants games you guys have now, with the super realistic graphics and guns and whatever," a dismissive hand wave, though she'd been known to do fairly well at those "fancy-pants" games when she wanted to (she'd used three of her sick days the first time she played Skyrim), "I mean the real games. Nintendo, Sega, Super Nintendo..." she trailed off with a wistful sort of sigh, and the 'kids these days' sentiment was written all over her face, for all that she wasn't actually that older than Miles. Seven years was nothing, really, when you got right down to it, especially for someone like Kitty, who rarely acted her actual age (and most certainly didn't look it). But the fact remained that she was older, so she was allowed to look down upon his entire generation when she felt like it.

She snorted, rolling her eyes at her friend's dramatics. "Oh yeah, wouldn't want you to get weepy over eating a plant. That might result in years of therapy, delicate boy that you are." A light pat on the cheek accompanied that statement, as well as a light-hearted laugh. "Yeah, I know, those pesky college expenses don't leave you much to eat on. Tell you what, I'll buy, and I'll think up some manual labor for you to do to make up for it. You'd look really cute in an apron, doing my dishes. Or maybe cleaning the bathroom?" She grinned, cheeky and unabashed as she pulled him over to the summer squashes, eyeing the zucchini laid out there.

Another dismissive hand wave was the answer to his question, with Kitty releasing him in order to pick up a zucchini. "I don't know, supposedly it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide because it means less semis trucking around or something. That's not the point, the point is that it's good for your body. And it supports local farmers and doing that makes you a good person. Are you a good person Miles Morales?" The zucchini was pointed at him to emphasize her point, while the phaser waited for his answer with brows arched high.

That look transformed into one of disbelief and then a quiet, long-suffering type sigh as he bowed to her friendly bout of peer pressure. "Honestly, sometimes I think I should make you live with me so you at least got some decent food in you. You're going to end up having a heart attack by the time you're my age the way you're going. Is that what you want?" Oh, judgey much there, Miss Pryde?

“I wish I had the luxury of taking apart computers when I was a kid.” Miles had gotten one computer. His parents had made it clear that if he broke it he was paying for it. They had also made it clear that if he wasn’t using the computer to somehow advance his education he definitely wasn’t going to keep it. His father had always been a harsh man when Miles had reached his teenage years. Computers had been a precious commodity in the 90s and early 21st century. Miles had used the same computer until jsi Junior year in college when he had finally gotten a macintosh laptop. He still had the same laptop and depended on it like it was his life force. Yet he couldn’t deny the fact that he felt somewhat embarrassed using it in public. The hipsters who went out of their way to dress poorly spent all their money on expensive computers. As a result he was the one nerd who had shitty clothes and shitty technology. Luckily his laptop didn’t have feelings so he didn’t feel guilty when he used it in the comfort of his home. That being said he would be in desperate need of a new laptop pretty soon. He was pretty sure he had downloaded a virus.
“Fancy pants games?” Miles scoffed. “I’m a 90s kid too! I grew up on Nintendo. I’m still on Nintendo. Mainly because Microsoft and Sony are really expensive.” Miles had actually figured out how to download pokemon on his I-Phone. That discovery had been the highlight of his month. He had considered telling Kitty about it but had forgotten. “Did you know you could download pokemon games on cell phones these days? Free of charge.” He paused. “Who am I kidding? You probably knew that already.” This was why he loved Kitty. Instead of bemoaning her age she embraced it. She had more time to enjoy the 90s than Miles did and wasn’t afraid to talk about it. At the same time she was perfectly fine with her age and the decade she was living in. Miles had to admit that it was one of Kitty’s finest qualities. Though he wasn’t entirely sure if he had run into any bad ones. She was one of those people that wasn’t fake. “That’s a good point. What did plants ever do to you? They just want to sit in the sun and chill.”

He couldn’t say that this would be the first time Kitty had bought him something. As far as their jobs concerned they both demanded some form of intellectual exercise but working at Stark Enterprises was much more impressive (and profitable) then working at the Daily Bugle. A lunch here or a movie ticket there. It made Miles feel somewhat awkward since years of watching television had made him think that he was supposed to be the provider. The idea of taking her out and spending money on her instead of the other way around was an intimidating idea to Miles and as a result he had never made a move. She patted his cheek and Miles rolled his eyes in a fairly exaggerated fashion. Sometimes he thought that Kitty basically lived for physical interaction. “Cute in an apron? Are you trying to domesticate me?” He glanced towards the front of the store. “There were some organic cocoa bars at the front of the store.” Cocoa bars. Not chocolate bars. “You can buy me those and I’ll dress up in a sexy apron for you.” They were like twelve dollars per bar and Miles was pretty sure that he’d hate them. He was a simple man.

Again she pulled him to another aisle and again he found himself staring at vegetables he didn’t recognize but he didn’t complain. He liked hanging out with Kitty. She made him interested in things he normally didn’t care about. “Supporting local farmers makes me a good person?” He had one main response to this but he had no intention of making it. “I’ll put that on my list because I’ve always been concerned about me being a bad person.” He glanced at the zucchini in her hand and snatched it away. He glanced at it and frowned. “What can you make with this? Give me one good meal that can be made with zucchini and I’ll buy you your vegetables for this evening.” He laughed at her next comment. “You practically live at my apartment already. I don’t even think I’ve ever been to your place. Do you even have an apartment?” He glanced at the zucchini in his hand. “You just went from playful to downright scary.” He pointed the zucchini at her, mimicking her early moves. “Are you really concerned about me Kitty or is there some type of deal that gives you a discount by forcing some gullible college grad to buy fruit?” His grin told her he was just joking but he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

"It wasn't a luxury." She rolled her eyes at that. It was true her parents hadn't really struggled for money, equally true that, on the whole, there weren't a lot of things she wanted that she didn't get, but she was pretty sure that hadn't had that much effect on her propensity for taking things apart. "I always put them back together afterwards. And usually they worked after I did." That was the best way to figure out how something worked, she'd found. Being very much a hands-on learner, Kitty never felt like new knowledge was properly settled in her head until she'd done something with it. Taking things apart and putting them back together again was just the fastest way for her to understand the whats and whys of it. It wasn't foolproof by any means, especially in the beginning, but every mistake was just another opportunity to learn. Or so she'd always told her parents when she hadn't quite been clever enough to put something back together properly.

"Do you notice how you keep using money as an excuse?" Yes, money was important. Yes, Kitty did not have to worry about it because SI was an extremely generous employer. Regardless of that she was a very firm believer in not making excuses, in either working harder to improve your situation or sucking it up, accepting what it was, and not complaining about it. She really hated whiners. She frowned at him a little, with that look in her eye that heralded one of her lectures. Poor Miles was getting a lot of lectures from her today, apparently.

"I mean, if the Bugle pay is that bad, why don't you quit and get a job somewhere that pays better? Or do both, maybe, the Bugle stuff you can do as a freelance, right?" Suffice to say she'd never paid much attention to the specifics of Miles' job. "Sure maybe it's not ideal and maybe you'll spend most of your time in a haze of exhaustion wishing someone would hook you up to a caffeine IV," spoke the voice of experience, with a nonchalant shrug like that was a perfectly normal state in which to live, "but at least then I wouldn't have to listen to you moan all the time." This commentary was given without even the tiniest hint of malice, just another example of Kitty being a little bit (okay, a lot) blunt about what she thought on a particular subject.

It wasn't that the phaser minded spending money on other people, not even a little. In fact she quite enjoyed it, and didn't even give it a second thought most of the time. She had the funds, they didn't, and friends helped one another out, right? Right. Plus, there was no fun to be had in being a scrooge.

"Domesticate you?" She snorted, and it was her turn to roll her eyes. "I wasn't aware you were a wild animal. And the point of this was to make you eat healthier." a pointed look was tossed his way, because clearly even organic chocolate didn't fall under her idea of healthy. "A sexy apron wasn't what I had in mind, anyway. I was thinking one with a big old floral print on it, like my great aunt used to wear." Another one of those bright grins tossed his way, though she did look a little thoughtful as she eyed the zuchini in response to his question.

"Zucchini bread is a thing, right? Pretty sure it is. And there's this vegetarian lasagna you can make that's got eggplant and zucchini and a bunch of other stuff in it. So there are two things you can make with it. And Google probably has about a million more." Because Google had the answer to pretty much any question you cared to ask...mixed in with a whole lot of stuff you never wanted to know, of course.

She sniffed at him a little haughtily then, making to snatch the zucchini back from his grasp. "I do not practically live at your apartment, if I live anywhere it's at work." Kitty, getting wrapped up in her work? Never. "And the reason you haven't been to my apartment is because usually when I'm there I'm sleeping and that would make you some kind of weird stalker. I'd hate to have to call the police on you." Kitty had a very full calendar pretty much always, which was exactly how she liked it. Work, the other work, hanging out with friends like Miles, visits to the Institute...some days it was a wonder she even had time to sleep, but the busier she was the happier she was, so that worked out rather nicely.

She made a face at him for the last comment, sticking her tongue out in a rather juvenile fashion. "Yeah yeah, make fun of the lady trying to save your life, why don't you." A beat. "But there's nothing wrong with discounts."