Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It turns out that the best thing about dating Peter Parker is something that she never expected. It’s not his kindness or his resolute sense of responsibility. It’s not his perfect, crooked smile or his superhero body. It’s not his nerdiness or frenetic energy or his love for taking pictures of the city’s ‘wildlife’ while on patrol. It’s not even how good of a kisser he is, or how nice it feels when he hugs her or how he can make her smile even when she’s trying not to. Those are all amazing, wonderful things, but they aren’t the best thing.

The best thing is that on top of all of those amazing, wonderful things, MJ also finds herself part of a new family. One made up of a friend and an Aunt who both welcome her with open arms.

She has known Ned for years of course, but never really spent any time outside of school with him before. Even at school they were mostly in different classes as she leaned more towards the theoretical and political and he was in mostly engineering and programming classes at Midtown. But, dating Peter and being a ‘Friend of Spider-Man’ had changed that right away and she now finds herself talking to him almost as much as she speaks with Peter. They don't even always talk about Peter or Spider-Man anymore and had found some common interests and had formed their own friendship outside of Peter. His good nature did a lot to balance out MJ’s brusqueness and they could joke and tease each other without any hurt feelings.

Meeting May, while not under the best circumstances with Peter mostly naked and his identity freshly revealed, had been like the final piece in the Peter puzzle sliding into place. Even though they are not technically related by blood she could see May’s influence on Peter in almost all things. After the initial awkward first introduction, May had treated her with nothing but kindness. She had proved to be smart, affectionate, and funny in a way that made MJ feel welcome. They also had many of the same takes about the state of the current legal and political systems and had spent many hours since that first meeting ranting and discussing everything and anything. It had made her feel at home and comfortable in a way she wasn’t expecting to ever have.

Now, sitting on Happy’s uncomfortable, probably very expensive, modern couch, with Peter on one side of her pressed up close and holding her hand, and Ned on the other end slumped in the corner as they watch Mean Girls (MJ’s pick, sue her, they needed something more light hearted to watch after the week they had) MJ wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. They have a running commentary going comparing characters to students at Midtown with May chiming in from the kitchen here and there.

The week since Peter had been outed in front of the whole world had been chaotic and stressful, so they had decided on this movie night to try and get back a sense of normal. It wasn’t the same as being in Peter’s cozy apartment, or Ned’s home, but it was a step in the right direction and at least they were together. It was worth all of the effort to sneak into the apartment building unnoticed and in the hours spent convincing her dad she would be safe. He had finally met Peter briefly, the day before Mysterio turned their world upside down, and she thinks they really could have got along well if circumstances were different. Now, she can just see how worried her dad is and how he doesn’t want her to get dragged into all of the potential danger that being with Peter brings. MJ is afraid to tell him that there's nowhere else she is going to be, even now, but she thinks he may know anyway.

Whatever Jamieson’s reasons were for releasing Mysterio’s video and Peter’s identity to the world, all it really did was bring this little found family closer together. They had listened to each other rant, they had shed tears, they had written angry social media posts only to talk each other out of posting them, and they had each other through it all. Now, as she lies her head down on Peter’s legs, her legs over Ned’s, and the movie hits the midway point she is grateful. It may not be simple, but when is family ever simple.

She feels Peter put one hand on her shoulder while the other hand cards through her hair gently and she knows he is feeling it too in this moment. She knows he is scared about how this will change things, especially when they are due back to school in a few weeks, and he is afraid that he may have put them all in danger. He is also angry, rightly so, for losing control and for how it has uprooted his whole life. But, today they can just enjoy being together and try their best to forget the outside world for a few hours.

For a while she loses herself in the movie and the feel of Peter’s hand in her hair and she barely notices that Ned is quietly snoring on the other end of the couch. “Hey,” Peter whispers, “are you tired? I can take you home now if so.”

She turns so that she is looking up at him. “Not really.” He is looking at her with such tenderness, and she hasn’t had any alone time with him since everything went down. “I don’t want to leave yet… unless you’re tired? You must be exhausted actually. It’s ok, you can take me home now.” She doesn’t want him to feel like she’s overstaying. Just because it’s starting to feel like home for her to be with him, doesn’t mean he feels the same.

He chuckles, “MJ, it’s only 9pm and it’s Friday night. I want you to stay as long as you want. Or, until your dad says you have to be home because I know he’s still mad at me.”

“He said to be home by 11 and he’s not mad at you, just protective. I think he had high hopes that you were just some AcaDec nerd from school who he could intimidate if he wanted.”

“I understand,” he smirks, “he shouldn’t worry, he’s still intimidating because he’s your dad, no matter how many superpowers I have.” He looks away and says hesitantly, “do you think he’s going to ask you not to see me anymore?”

“Pete…”

“I would understand. He just wants you to be safe and people are being really mean and racist online. I know he doesn’t want that to be your life. I never wanted that for you either.”

MJ sits up so that she can look him in the eye directly. Only then does she remember that Ned is right there and May is still over in the kitchen reading at the table. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk?” She is getting better at sharing her feelings and talking things through, but she would still prefer to have this conversation in private. She should have known something was on his mind because he had been pretty quiet all evening, but she had just figured that he couldn’t get a word in between her and Ned and May all chattering at once over takeout Thai for dinner.

“Yeah, come on,” he says as he stands and holds his hand out. She takes the throw blanket off the back of the couch and puts it over Ned before grabbing Peter’s hand and following him out. He calls over to May, “we are just going to the patio upstairs.”

“Ok, be safe and respect each other,” May calls back. MJ’s pretty sure she’s trying to make Peter blush on purpose and she looks over to see that it worked. Red is creeping up the tips of his ears and she can’t help but think it just makes him look better.

"Maaayyy…" he whines as he leads her out the front door of Happy's apartment. MJ just laughs at Peter's embarrassment and squeezes his hand.

As they enter the patio area on the top floor Peter starts to lead them over to a seating area, but MJ tugs his arm to get him to stop and turn to her. As he does she walks right up to him and pulls him in and dips to put her lips on his. Peter gives a “hrumpf” in surprise, but quickly gets with the program and wraps his arms around her. Then they are kissing greedily and her tongue is in his mouth and he is leading her over to one of the outdoor couches.

“I missed you,” MJ says into his mouth a few minutes later when they separate to catch their breath. For someone who has always been reluctant to be seen as emotional or to share any part of her inner self with anyone it doesn’t seem to matter around Peter. It’s just too much to keep inside and she finds that it’s becoming less surprising with each passing day. Plus, every time something slips through her carefully honed filters it seems to light up Peter’s smile that much more and who is MJ to argue with that? She just wants to make him repeat that look as often as she can.

Right on cue he gives her that smile and she has to close her eyes for a minute because it’s too bright. She snuggles her shoulder under his arm and her head right by his neck. Peter hums and says in her ear, “I missed you too.”

“About what you said before,” MJ starts, “my dad isn’t going to ask me to stay away from you.”

“But, shouldn’t he? MJ, it’s really dangerous and you don’t deserve what people are saying about you.”

“Pete. He’s not going to ask me because he knows I won’t agree to it. In the end it’s my choice. I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but…” she hesitates with a huff because even though she is more comfortable talking to him now some things still make her shy, “he has been hearing me talk about you on and off for the last few years enough that I think he knows you’re nothing like what Mysterio and that god awful Jameson say you are. He likes seeing me happy and even though this whole thing got really complicated really quickly he can tell that I’m happy anyway. Of course he was pretty mad when the DDC arrested me and they didn’t even tell him, or let him talk to me, but that really wasn’t your fault. He doesn’t trust law enforcement normally and that really pushed all his buttons.”

Peter tightens his arms around her. They look out at the New York skyline for a few minutes, then, “so, you talked about me a lot huh?”

MJ snorts and hits him on the chest, “of course that’s all you take away from that.” They both laugh at that. “But, yeah I guess I did. Enough that my dad was not surprised when I told him you were my boyfriend which, god, that was super embarrassing.”

“I hope I lived up to all these amazing things you told him when we met. I was nervous enough, I didn’t realize there was going to be such high expectations,” he says, overly sarcastic.

“I definitely did not say that everything I told him about you was good.”

“Oh? So what did you tell him?”

“Just that you are late all the time, you’re a super dork who wears nerdy t-shirts everyday, you’re attached at the hip with Ned, and that you probably love Star Wars more than anything else.” He pokes her in the ribs where he knows she is ticklish and she lets out an undignified squeal. “Ok, ok. Those things are all true…but I also told him you’re probably the smartest person at Midtown, and about that time you gave Cindy a hug in front of the whole class when her grandma died and no one else knew how to react because we were just dumb teenagers in 10th grade. And I told him about how you started to actually show up and stay at AcaDec practices after Liz left and I asked you to.” MJ sighs, “I guess I told him a lot now that I think about it. No wonder he wasn’t surprised.”

“Well, I can’t even make fun of you for it because May probably knows almost everything you’ve ever said to me, especially when I was still trying to work up the nerve to tell you how I felt.” He grabs the hand she had on his chest and interlocks their fingers. “I just wish I could take it all back with Beck and things could go back to normal.”

“I know, but let's face it, you’re Spider-Man and this was never going to be normal anyways. It was always going to be a little crazy and complicated. Besides, it’s done now, we just have to make it work. I’m sure a Kardashian is going to do something soon that will make everyone forget all about you anyways,” she says, poking him back in the ribs, but of course he doesn’t even flinch. Stupid, beautiful, superhero boyfriend. He grabs her hands then and pulls her up until they are nose to nose.

“I sure hope so. I hate what people are saying about you.”

“I have been dealing with that racist shit my whole life. Now there is just more of it, but none of it is anything I haven’t heard before. It’s not like I’m on social media much anyways, I just don’t read any comments on any of the news articles anymore.”

“God, MJ, I’m sorry, that’s awful. People are terrible.”

“Yeah, especially people hiding behind pseudonyms on the internet. But, my point is that none of this is new really, so I can mostly ignore all that. Also, Ned and I have been working on a way to deal with the trolls and all those idiots online.”

“Really?! That’s awesome, when have you been working on that?”
“I’m not around you ALL the time, Parker,” MJ laughs. “We are going to tell you the plan once we make sure it’s going to work. Ned is still working on some of the coding.”

“That’s great! Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. That jackass Jameson shouldn’t be able to get away with half of the things he says.”

Peter presses kisses quickly to her cheeks, nose, and forehead in response, making her laugh. “You guys are the best,” Peter says quietly. Then, he is looking into her eyes with his hand on her face, thumb slowly rubbing her cheek, “you know you’re like my favourite person, right?”

MJ feels her chest surge and a tingling warmth spreads from her belly and up her neck at his words. She’s sure that her smile radiates some sort of combination of disbelief, happiness, and something else she isn’t quite ready to name yet. She puts her own hand over his where it rests on her cheek, “are you sure? I think I have some competition for favourite.” They know she’s trying to deflect a little by making a joke, but she’s thinking about May and Ned downstairs and about how many years they have known each other.

He seems to understand, as usual, “I’m sure.” And he doesn’t need to try any harder to convince her then because she can see it reflected in his eyes.

She leans in close to him, “you’re my favourite too.” The truth of it settles her mind as she leans in a little further so that their noses are rubbing together. She breathes him in. He smells familiar now, like boy and May’s lemony shampoo and that thing that makes him uniquely Peter. She closes her eyes and she hears Peter’s breathing hitch as he inhales deeply.

“Can I kiss you now?” But it’s not really a question because he’s already pressing his lips against hers. He tastes like the popcorn and skittles they had for movie snacks earlier and it’s probably another best thing about him. The feel of their mouths slotting together is getting to be more familiar now and they both seem to be a little more confident. She sighs in relief at getting to spend this time alone with him. She can hear the faint sounds of the road below, the ever present sounds of New York all around them, but all of her focus is on Peter. He must take her sigh as encouragement because he grabs hold of her around her waist and spins them so that she is lying on the couch with Peter over her, his legs beside hers. “Is this ok?” MJ just nods and he leans down to kiss her again. She won’t complain because he is warm and gentle and now she can run her hands all along the hard planes of his back and chest, committing the feel to memory.

Peter pulls back slightly to take a breath so she takes the opportunity to study his face. She runs her fingers along the lines of his nose and the curve of his jaw. She smooths down his wild left eyebrow and rubs her thumb softly over his bottom lip. From this close she can see the few freckles on his nose and the flecks of golden hidden amongst the brown in his eyes. After so many years of seeing him at a distance she savours this moment to study him up close. He seems to be taking the same opportunity because he’s found the small scar under her chin with his thumb. “I got that when I was six. I fell off the monkey bars at school,” she answers his unspoken question.

“I bet you were really cute when you were six,” he responds.

“Psst, I had wild hair and wore the same RBG costume everyday. You would have thought I was just weird or crazy.”

“I would have pulled your pigtail and ran away because I was too afraid to talk to you. But I still would have thought you were cute.”

“May showed me some of your pictures from first grade the other day. I would have thought you were cute too.”

“Please, I had big glasses and poofy hair and I was always super skinny and had bad asthma.”

“I remember from ninth grade. I thought you were cute then too.” MJ blushes at that confession, but it’s easy to talk to Peter like this when it’s just them, noses inches apart.

“Really?” He sounds surprised like she hasn’t been mildly obsessed with him since that first day she saw him at Midtown helping Abe pick up his books after he tripped over his own shoelaces and dropped them all over the hall.

“Yeah, Pete, I don’t like you because you’re a superhero.” And with a confidence she hasn’t felt before, trails her hand down his abs and adds, “though it’s a nice bonus.” He gives a self-deprecating snort at that and blushes up to his ears which makes her smile. The way he blushes is definitely another best thing. “I can’t believe it’s your birthday in two days. What do you want to do?”

“Can we just do this?”

She tugs him down for another gentle kiss, “well, it might make May and Ned a little mad if they don’t get to celebrate with you. What would you have wanted to do before all this happened with Mysterio?”

“Honestly just this.” At her pointed look he adds, “well, May always makes me breakfast pancakes in the morning, then we go down to FEAST for a few hours to help out and then I usually just spend the rest of the day with Ned eating pizza and junk food and watching movies and building Lego.” After a beat, “kinda lame for an 18th birthday I guess.”

“It doesn’t sound lame. It sounds like a tradition. It also sounds like something we can mostly still do this year. As long as you don’t mind me joining in?”

“Of course. I’d like to spend the whole day with you if you want to.”

“If May thinks it’s safe enough I think we can even go down to FEAST too. I always wanted to volunteer there anyways.”

“That sounds perfect.”

They lapse into a comfortable silence then, Peter snuggled tightly along her side, hands clasped together. “I don’t think I would have been able to get through all this without you.” He says it so quietly she can barely hear him.

“You never have to.” She turns her head so they are nose to nose again. “Pete, –”. She never gets to finish her sentence because her phone alarm is going off. She pulls her phone out of her back pocket with a groan, looking at the time. “Ugh, I guess I have to head home.” She would really like to stay, but her dad had been adamant on a curfew and she doesn't want to give him any more reason to worry.

“Just two more minutes…”

She snuggles in deeper, his head tucked under her neck. “Ok.”

Chapter Text

Peter wakes up on his birthday with a groan. He can smell the birthday pancakes May is making so he knows he has to get out of bed soon, but he’s tired. He was up really late the night before talking to MJ after patrol because no one in New York seemed to appreciate what he was trying to do anymore. He had stopped a mugging and the person he saved still called him a murderer. He didn’t mind really, he was going to help even if no one loved him for it, but it got to him sometimes and MJ seemed to understand that. She had talked him through it and distracted him by reading from her book and he just really liked hearing her voice. He doesn’t remember hanging up so he knows it worked, he just feels bad that MJ has to do that for him. She said she didn’t mind and he believes her, but he’s trying to not be too much of a burden on her.

Being MJ’s boyfriend has been everything he hoped for and nothing like he expected. As he flops back down on his pillow for just a couple more minutes rest he thinks about how much has changed since the trip to Europe. He had been so nervous to even talk to MJ then and now he can’t imagine going a day without hearing her voice or feeling her hand in his. He had expected her to make him laugh and to be smarter than him and make him flustered because she’s so pretty and she is definitely all of those things, but she is so much more too and he knows he wouldn’t be able to get through any of this without her.

She calms him down when he gets all worked up about Mysterio. She distracts him from his worrying and he’s been laughing a lot more than he probably has any right to considering the circumstances. Sometimes she just talks, like she did last night, so that he can forget for a little while and just focus on the sound of her voice. She also really likes holding his hand, and the way he plays with her hair, and he’s really glad because he really likes doing those things too. He knows it’s really hard for her to talk about her family, but she has told him some and he just feels so honoured that it’s him who gets to be the one she shares with. He just can’t wait to learn everything there is to know about her.

He sits up in bed with another groan and throws on an old t-shirt and sweatpants before heading out to the living room and kitchen. Expecting to see May there plating up his birthday pancakes he is surprised to see a shock of curly brown hair instead. Feeling a smile forming he lets out a shocked, ‘MJ?!’ as he rounds the corner of the hallway.

MJ spins around from where she was setting the table, obviously not having heard him come out of his room. “Pete, hey!” She blows a lock of her hair out of her eyes, hands full with silverware, and takes him in. A look he is starting to call the ‘MJ thinks I look pretty cute’ look spreads across her face as her eyes roam from his face, down his chest and lower to his abs, before making their way back up to his eyes. Peter looks down to take in his old, very tight t-shirt and very loose fitting sweatpants hanging pretty low on his waist. He knows a blush is erupting up his neck straight through to the tips of his ears because he can feel the heat spreading even as she gives him a shy smile.

“Uh, hi, good morning,” she stammers, and he’s pretty sure she is blushing too which is just the best thing, “Happy birthday!” She puts the forks down then and strides over to him, wrapping him up in a hug. “I hope it’s ok I’m here,” she whispers in his ear, “May and I thought it might be fun to surprise you.” She hugs him a little closer like she might be worried he didn’t want her there when really it was the most amazing surprise to see here this morning.

“Are you kidding?! This is the best surprise MJ,” he whispers back, right into her ear. “I can’t believe you let me keep you up that late last night when you were going to get up so early.” He loosens the hug to reach up to give her a quick peck on the lips. “Good morning,” he says and he just knows he has a goofy look on his face. His face has always been an open book, but he knows it’s even worse around MJ.

She gives him his favourite smile. The one that is half smirk and only for him. “Don’t worry, dork. I wasn’t going to get through that part of the book on my own anyway, it was so dry.” And he knows she is lying so that he doesn’t feel bad about needing to hear her voice last night, but he smiles anyway and reaches out to thread his fingers through hers. “Did you get a little sleep at least?”

“Yeah, thank you, I got a few hours.”

“MJ, if the table is ready come and help me get these all on plates,” May calls from the kitchen.

“Coming, May,” MJ calls back. She smiles at him again, then turns to head back to the kitchen, Peter close behind still holding her hand.

“Oh Peter! You’re up!” May says as she spots them coming in the kitchen. She smiles at them both, wide and happy. “Happy birthday!” Then she is launching herself into his arms and giving him a signature May hug. Despite everything going on outside of this apartment Peter can’t help but feel happy that two of his favourite people are here with him. He catches MJ’s eye over May’s shoulder and shoots her the smile that makes her blush. She sees it and whips her head back to plating pancakes so he can’t see the way her nose crinkles a little and the blush colouring her cheeks, but he knows it’s there. He’s more than a little proud that he can get that reaction out of her because she’s been making him blush like that for years, well before she ever realized it.

They sit down at their little kitchen table and MJ and May pick up on the discussion they must have been having before he woke up, a playful back and forth that’s basically music to his ears. He’s not even sure what the topic is today because he’s too busy trying to concentrate on his pancakes while his knees are touching MJ’s under the table and the way she occasionally runs her foot up and down by his ankle. He’s not even sure she’s doing it on purpose. After about the fourth time he takes a chance and nudges along her calf with his foot. She doesn’t react outwardly, but he hears her heart pick up a bit and a little puff of air escapes her mouth, so he knows she’s just as affected as he is.

He doesn’t know how she keeps up her conversation with May because he hasn’t had a new thought in his brain since he sat down across from her. Soon enough though they are finished with their pancakes and he quickly inhales his last two before they notice he barely touched his. He's a little sad when MJ stands up to take their plates to the kitchen, but he knows they have all day together so he can’t be too upset.

When they are done cleaning up the kitchen (they wouldn’t let him help because it’s his birthday, but he stayed there anyway to keep them company) he grabs MJ’s hand and tugs her to his room, May calling behind them to “keep the door open! Ned will be here soon.” He does as he’s told, leaving the door open a little bit as enter his room.

“Oh!” MJ says, “I forgot your gift in my bag, I’ll go get it.” She spins around to go grab it and returns a few seconds later with a package wrapped in brown paper (“it’s better for the environment, Peter”). She hands it to him as they sit on his bed and he sees that there are little sketches all over the paper.

“Wow,” he says as he looks at each little picture she drew for him. “This is amazing, MJ!” And it really is. She has drawn little cartoons of him and Ned together, and May, and their first kiss on the bridge in London, and the view from the roof he took her to on their first date.

“That’s not even the present part, dork.”

“I know, but it’s so awesome! I’m going to open this so carefully so that I can hang it up in my room after.” He gives her a kiss on the cheek and he can tell she’s pleased by his reaction. He takes his time unwrapping and sets the paper aside on his desk to put on his wall later on. There is a nondescript box underneath so he has no idea what it could be. “You know you didn’t have to get me anything,” he says. “Just being able to have you and Ned here today is all I really need.”

“I know, but I saw it and I think you’re going to like it.” She looks a little nervous, but she shouldn’t be. Whatever it is, it’s from her so he is going to love it. As he lifts the lid his breath catches and he looks up at her quickly, “MJ…” He pulls the camera out of the box and he can barely contain his excitement.

“It’s old and takes actual film. I figured you could use the dark room at school once we go back,” she says, shyly. “I found it at a vintage store and you know, you love taking pictures.”

He’s sure his smile is going to crack his face in two at this point. “MJ I love it! I can’t wait to get out to use it. Look at all these settings. This is so much better than my old camera phone.”

“You’re actually weirdly good at taking photos with that old phone,” she says, clearly happy that he likes it.

“Thank you. Thank you so much!” He sets the camera down carefully and grabs her into a hug. He can feel tears starting to form behind his eyes. No one has ever noticed his love of photography before. “I am going to take so many pictures of you,” he says into her ear with a smile as a warning.

She chuckles in response. “Well film is limited so don’t waste too many shots on me.”

“MJ it would never be a waste. I’m going to fill so many rolls of film with you, even if you’re flipping me off in every photo.” Then they are kissing, and why weren’t they doing this earlier? It’s so nice and he has his hand in her hair. It’s loose today and he can weave his finger all the way around the back, his thumb rubbing her cheek. She smells like pancakes and her floral shampoo and her heart is racing a little bit. He’s aware enough of his surroundings though that he hears Ned arrive a few minutes later. He pulls away with a smile at her before jumping off the bed with the camera, “May, Ned, look what MJ got me!” He can hear her laughing from his room so she can’t be too mad that he ran out of there in his excitement. He runs back in the room to grab the rolls of film she had put in the box along with the camera, kisses her quickly, and drags her out into the living room with him.

He spends the next hour looking at all the camera settings and taking pictures of his favourite people. He promises MJ he will only use one roll inside the apartment so he can’t get too carried away, but he’s excited to see how they turn out once he gets into a darkroom. He can hear Ned, MJ, and May laughing in the background as he makes adjustments and it’s the best sound in the world. He looks up at them and feels a surge of happiness seeing this little family together. It’s like MJ was the final piece that had been missing and his heart feels full. She catches his eye and he winks at her to make her laugh. It works and he feels proud because he did that. He wants to make her laugh everyday if she will let him.

Happy stops by shortly after to take them over to FEAST to volunteer because they still can’t walk down the street during the day, especially all together. On the way there Ned and MJ let him in on their secret project and he is literally speechless. Ned and MJ built a program that searches for all of the negative and false Spider-Man stories and posts on the internet (they assure him they are working to add Peter himself soon to the algorithm) and replace them with true and heartwarming stories instead. They are going to war online for him and he can’t believe it. MJ has been gathering the stories online and also from people he has helped that she could track down and Ned has been working to code the program to make it all work. When Peter can find his words again he chokes out, “I can’t believe you guys did all this!”

“Dude, of course we want to help,” is all Ned says about it like it isn’t the biggest thing anyone has ever done for him.

“If the world is going to judge you they should at least know the truth about it,” MJ states. “I mean, some people are still going to believe that dumb crap Jameson is spouting, but at least this way we can get some truth out there at the same time.” She reaches over to fist bump Ned and then leans over to give Peter a kiss on the cheek, “happy birthday, Pete.” May is smiling so wide in the front seat that he knows she is thinking the same as him, about how lucky he is to have these two looking out for him.

They spend the next few hours at FEAST helping May with anything she needs. They are doing laundry and making up beds and helping get lunch prepped and served. It’s nice and normal in a way that nothing has been since his identity was revealed. No one here cares that he is Spider-Man. They have their own problems and they just need to help to get through the day and to get their feet under them. Maybe they ask him to lift more of the heavy things than they used to before, but he doesn’t mind helping where he can.

MJ is helping some of the women get ready for job interviews next week and Ned is fixing some issues with the website when May comes up to him after they serve lunch. He is helping to clean up the kitchen. “You really have some great friends, Peter,” she says.

“I know, May.”

“Not everyone would have stuck around with everything that has happened. I’m just so glad that you have people in your life who support you and who will fight for you.”

“I know May,” he repeats. “I wouldn’t have been able to get through any of this without all three of you.”

He gives her a big hug then. “Don’t mess it up with Michelle either,” May says in his ear. “I love her.”

Peter laughs as he pulls away, “I’m going to try my best.”

“I don’t think you’re going to have to try that hard. I see the way she looks at you. Just treat each other with honesty and respect and I think you’re going to be ok.”

“Ok, May,” he chuckles. “I wish they didn’t have to get caught up in all this Spider-Man drama, you know, it could be dangerous.”

May looks at him thoughtfully. “I think you just have to trust that Ned and MJ will tell you if they are having trouble with any of this. They are both pretty stubborn and will want to stick with you through anything, but they are smart too. You just have to trust that they know what risks they are taking and they are choosing to be with you anyways.” Peter looks down at his shoes. He can’t meet her eyes because he’s not sure that’s true. He can’t be lucky enough to have people that care about him enough to sacrifice their privacy and safety for him, can he? May lifts his chin up with her hand, “hey, as lucky as you are to have them, they are lucky to have you too. You are a sweet, kind, smart, selfless boy. We are all lucky to know you.”

He feels tears welling in his eyes and she pulls him in for another hug. “Thanks, May. You’re the best.”

She releases him. “I know, now get back to work. Can’t let those Spidey muscles go to waste here!” With a watery laugh Peter turns back to stacking clean plates out of the dishwasher.

**********
MJ is tired when they all return back to the apartment later in the afternoon, laden with pizza boxes and bags of popcorn and snacks for their planned movie night. She usually avoids physical labour like the plague, so all of the cleaning and lifting at FEAST was catching up with her. She had fun helping some of the women practice their interview skills later in the day though and she didn’t really mind because helping May was always a pleasure. That being said, some pizza and flopping on the couch was sounding better every minute. It looked like Ned felt the same because he beat her to the love seat and laid down with a groan.

MJ put the pizzas down on the kitchen table and followed Ned, sliding down onto the couch. They had one last surprise for Peter, but they could deal with that once her feet stopped throbbing. Peter and May put the snack bags in the kitchen and grabbed plates and napkins before joining them in the living room. Show-offs! “Not a word, Spidey!” She tells him when he chuckles at them and sits down on the couch, lifting her legs up so she can rest them across his lap. “We don’t all have super legs that don’t get tired.”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything!” He laughs, “and May is doing fine too, you’re not complaining about her!”

“May has her own super powers,” she throws back, sitting up a little to reach for the pizza. They watch an episode of Mythbusters while they eat (Peter’s choice, it is his birthday) and he and Ned argue about how they would do better tests for the myths and really she believes them, the genius nerds. Near the end of the show Ned goes to setup their last surprise while she tries to distract Peter by counter-arguing all his Mythbusting tests while rubbing her feet on his legs to keep warm. It seems to work because he doesn’t mention anything when Ned leaves the apartment, but he’s probably just letting her get away with it. She looks over at him and he has no right to look that good after a day of doing laundry and dishes. His hair is all curly from the steam and his cheeks are red and he wore one of her favourite shirts today. She sits up to grab his hand and give him a quick kiss, “come on, we have a last surprise for you.”

She drags him out of the apartment and up the stairs, May calling after them to have a good night and not to stay up too late and Peter slinging his new camera over his shoulder. It gives her a surge of pride to know she got his gift so right. He hadn’t put it down all day. The look on his face when he opened the box earlier is one she is going to be trying to recreate in sketches over the next weeks.

She figures Ned had enough time to finish up on the roof so they go through the access door. She tells Peter to close his eyes just to be sure. It’s a small space on the roof here as most is not accessible, but they managed to set up some bean bag chairs, put up some of the fairy lights that she stole from her room earlier this morning, and hung a sheet on the side wall beside the stairs. The effect is really nice now that it’s dark and you can hardly tell it’s a grimy New York roof. “You can open your eyes now,” she tells Peter. Ned is still setting up the projector, but she can’t look away from Peter. His eyes are wide with awe and he looks all around like he’s never seen anything like it.

“Wow! You guys did all this?!” He turns to her and it nearly knocks her over with how happy he looks. He closes the two steps towards her and grabs her to twirls her around, laughing.

A laugh escapes her too, “ok, ok,” she gets out eventually, “it’s just a few lights.”

“MJ, Ned, this is great! Oh, is that a projector? What are we watching?”

“We got the Lord of the Rings extended editions on BluRay,” Ned answers. “Come on, I just got it started up.” Ned flops down on one end of the row of bean bag chairs and directs Peter to the middle. MJ takes the spot on the other end, Peter between them snuggled in close. His hand finds hers automatically and she smiles to herself as she squeezes his fingers gently in response. They eat their weight in snacks and watch mostly in silence for the first few hours, only interrupted with their quiet commentary here and there.

MJ rests her head on Peter’s shoulder, enjoying the ambiance and the time with her friends. She doesn’t have to watch too closely, having almost memorised the movies with how many times she has seen them over the years, so she can look over at Ned and Peter every so often. They have intense, joyful expressions as they watch and another wave of gratitude for these dorks flows over her. Peter catches her eye the next time she tries to steal a glance and they smile at each other like idiots. MJ can’t find it in herself to care right now. “Don’t tell anyone I’m a sap,” she whispers in his ear as she puts her head back down on his shoulder.

Peter squeezes her hand, but before he can respond she hears from his other side, “don’t worry MJ, your secret is safe with us,” from Ned. And screw him, truly. She throws a skittle at him and it bounces off his forehead. “Hey!” he yells and throws popcorn back. Of course, that sets Peter off throwing his M&Ms and they quickly hop off their bean bags to protect themselves and to get a better angle on each other. Before long there is food covering the ground and Peter is showing off by catching everything, so she teams up with Ned and they manage to get a few hits in. They dissolve into fits of giggles, sugar high and happiness, movie forgotten for the moment.

“This is so great, guys,” Peter sighs. “It’s nice to be kind of normal for a while. We go back to school soon and it’s going to be crazy.”

“Don’t be a downer, dude,” she jokes, throwing a forgotten skittle at him. He catches it, of course, but he laughs anyway. “We can worry about all that shit in a couple weeks.”

“You’re right,” he responds as they turn back to the movie.

“Obviously,” she says with a smile and he turns to her. She winks at him and she gets the desired response with her favourite smile.

“You guys are so cute,” Ned says.

“Shut up,” MJ responds at the same time Peter says, “I know.”

Damn these boys!

**********
They give up about a quarter of the way into The Return of the King. They had to pause for a bit while he went off to Spider-Man after he heard some sirens, but it had turned out to be a false alarm so it didn’t take too long. After he gets back they are all sleepy so they decide it’s best to enjoy the rest at the next movie night. Peter cleans up their mess because he can do it the fastest and they carry the bean bags and projector back down to the apartment. They wait out front for Ned’s Lola to pick him up and Peter gives him a big hug before he drives away. “Thanks man, this was a great day.” Ned just gives him a sleepy thumbs up, but Peter knows what he means.

He turns to MJ and they start the walk to her apartment building. She refuses to swing with him again even though it would only take a minute to get there instead of the 15 minute walk. “I ate way too much candy and popcorn to do any swinging tonight Pete,” she tells him. He doesn’t really mind. It means he gets more minutes with her anyways. She’s so pretty. He has so many good photos of her from today, he’s sure of it. Some of them he caught before she noticed so he knows those won’t have her flipping him off.

It’s late so he makes sure he stays alert, but it’s really nice to just walk MJ home like a normal person for a change. The sidewalks are pretty quiet and they wore big hats to try to disguise themselves a little bit. “Did you have a nice birthday?” she asks him.

“Yeah, I had the best day,” he answers as they make it to her apartment building.

Mj turns to him, “take me up?” She’s pointing up to her window.

“Really? I thought you had too much candy?”

“I don’t want to wake my dad up, he works early,” she pauses, “plus, I always leave my window open, just in case,” she says shyly, like he would ever make her feel bad for wanting to see him.

“Ok, if you’re sure.” He looks up and down the street making sure no one is watching. Everyone knows who he is now, and MJ too, but they have been really careful to keep her address as secret as possible. She grabs hold of him and he shoots them up towards the fire escape outside her bedroom window as gently as possible. She lets out a quiet little squeal, which he will definitely tease her about later, but no screaming this time as he sets her down. He smooths down her hair where her curls had gone wild on the way up and it hits him again how lucky he is to have her.

“Come on inside for a few minutes,” she says as she opens her bedroom window. He follows her in because he wants to even though it’s really late, and because he would probably do anything she ever asks him to. He steps in through her window, but before he even has his second leg fully through she has her arms around his neck and is kissing him. He takes a second to respond in his surprise, but he recovers and kisses her back, circling his arms around her waist. She is warm and her lips are soft so he’s feeling a little dizzy, especially when her teeth graze his bottom lip like he likes. She puts her hands on either side of his face and pulls away slightly, breathing heavily. “Sorry, I’ve just been wanting to do that all night,” she says quietly, forehead now touching his.

“Please, uh,” he stutters, “please never apologize for doing that.” She smiles at that and he’s not even sure his feet are on the ground right now.

“C’mon,” she says as she pulls him over to sit on her bed. She shuffles over closer to the wall and lies down. He settles beside her, pulling her in close so that they are touching from head to toe. They have done this a few times now, usually when he drops by after patrolling, but it still gives him butterflies to be so close to her in her bedroom where everything smells like her. It’s overwhelming in the best way.

“I can’t wait to do this everyday. Do you think we will get into the same college next year?” He asks her quietly. They haven’t really talked about it yet, but he hopes they can at least be in the same city. He wants to be able to see her everyday and to struggle through the ups and downs of college life together with her.

She pulls her head back a little so they are face to face. “I hope so. Where are you and Ned going to apply?”

“MIT is my first choice I think. Mr Stark always wanted me to go there and I’ve been looking at their classes and I think it’s what I really want. Columbia has a great program too and I know May is hoping I will stay in New York.”

“Do you think it might be a little easier to have a normal college life outside of New York?” She asks. “I know everyone in the world knows who you are now, but maybe outside of the City people might leave you alone more?”

“I hope so. Maybe by then no one will even care about me anymore. And I know Ned really has his heart set on MIT. What about you? I know you can get in anywhere.”

She smiles shyly like she doesn’t know she’s always the smartest person in the room. “Well, now that you said yours it’s going to sound like I’m copying you,” she huffs.

“You want to go to MIT too?” He’s a little surprised, but happy.

“Well, my grandpa went to MIT so it’s always been in the back of my mind to go there. I’m not an engineer like you and Ned, but they have some other great programs that can help me get into law school later or maybe even journalism in the science and tech related fields. I haven’t decided yet.”

“That’s great,” he says with what he knows is a dopey smile.

“The added bonus of being near you dorks is like 10th on the list of reasons for applying there.”

“I know.” And he does know that MJ would never change her choices about the future for anyone, even him. That’s ok, he would never want her to. Still, he can’t help but feel happy that it might all work out for them.

“I have Harvard and NYU as my backups too.”

“So…Boston or New York?”

“Boston or New York,” she repeats with finality.

“I can’t believe we are going into senior year and have to actually start applying soon. I can take you to prom right?”

She blows out a puff of air. “Is that how you’re going to ask me?” She gives him a withering look that would have downed lesser men, but he’s Spider-Man so he only panics a little. “But, yes,” she lets him off the hook. He can’t help it then and leans in to kiss her.

“Good, no take-backs!”

She just laughs at that and he can’t believe he’s so lucky. Her hand travels up his arm from his waist and trails along his shoulder and up into his hair. “You have to go home soon,” she states, but it doesn’t really seem like she wants him to go.

“Yeah,” he sighs. He doesn’t want to go either, but it’s getting late and her dad is two rooms over. Peter can hear that he’s still asleep, but he’s really trying to stay in Mr. Jones’ good books here. MJ is not helping. Her eyes are hooded with a sleepy look, but they are wandering along the path her hand just took like maybe she likes what she sees. He can feel a blush spread up his neck and hopes she doesn’t notice in the dark of her room. She smirks, because of course she noticed. “A few more minutes,” he says, but it’s a question too because he’s never going to push her for more than she wants, even her time.

In response she pulls his face close to hers so that their noses are touching and they are sharing the same air. “Yeah, a few more minutes,” she says as she closes the distance between their lips.

Chapter Text

Peter starts leaving her little gifts on her bedroom window sill and they make her smile every time. She will return home from her shift at the coffee shop to find little treats or little things he has built while she was away from her room. He still comes by to visit after patrolling, but not every night. Her dad has been on high alert for any inconsistencies with meeting curfew and she’s pretty sure he knows Peter comes to visit her, he just hasn’t been able to prove it yet so they are being careful. Peter’s freakish spider hearing has been helpful a few times. Not that they had done much more than kissing at this point, but his ability to hear when her dad seemed to be waking up has been handy. Her dad has never questioned why her window seems to be open more than before, but she’s sure he has his suspicions. She is 18 and under normal circumstances she likely would have brought this point up a lot more often, but she knows her dad just wants her to be safe.

Yesterday she had awakened to find a little dahlia flower made of Peter’s web fluid stuck to her window. Today, as she returns home from a long, boring shift, she can’t help but check the window sill before doing anything else. There is a photograph there held in place with a rock. She brings it inside to look at it and her breath catches in her throat. It’s a photo of her. It was taken on Peter’s birthday at his apartment and she is looking right at the camera. The sun is beaming in from the window behind her, but it’s the look on her face that stuns her. She is smiling and her eyes are bright and shining and if it wasn’t overly sentimental she would say it’s the look of someone in love. She doesn’t remember him taking this picture so he must have snuck it before she could flip him off. She turns it over to the back and Peter has written ‘my favorite’ in his messy scrawl. She’s not sure if he means her or the picture, but either way it sends a wave of tenderness through her.

She pulls out her phone to text him.

MJ: Where did you find a darkroom to develop the film?

Pete: I wanted to surprise you. I stopped a robbery earlier this week at a photographer’s studio. The owner let me use his.

MJ: I can’t wait to see the rest

Peter: Is that your way of saying you like the photo?

MJ: I can neither confirm nor deny
MJ: you stopping by later?

Pete: Ya if that’s ok? Pretty slow out here today

MJ: Window is open

At that she drops her phone on her bed and turns to change out of her uniform. Peter could be a minute away or hours, but she can’t stand to be in that awful uniform a second longer. Of course, he drops in through her window two minutes later when she’s only half dressed, sweat pants on but still searching for a shirt to wear over her bra.

He’s ripping off his mask and saying, “MJ, you’ll never guess what I saw at the park on the way over…” He seems to notice her lack of shirt at that point and stops mid-thought. Now, they have been in a relationship for a couple months at this point, but a lot of that has been spent in stolen moments so this is definitely the least amount of clothing he has ever seen her in. She has seen plenty of him, of course, while patching him up and there has definitely been a lot of touching, but he’s never seen her like this. They haven’t talked about sex yet either, but she senses they are getting closer to that conversation. Her dad is at work tonight, so maybe it’s as good a time as any.

She expects him to be flustered and turn away once his initial shock of seeing her without a shirt wears off, but he isn’t and he doesn’t. He has an altogether different look in his eyes and it takes her breath away. He steps towards her and she is held in place by his gaze, shirt forgotten in her hand. “Wow, Em, you’re beautiful.”

She gives a disbelieving snort because she just got off a long double shift, covering for a coworker who was sick, her hair is a mess and she’s sure she smells like old coffee and steamed milk. She knows she’s not looking her best. But he’s looking at her like she put the stars in the sky and it makes the breath catch in her throat. He takes another step closer to her and she takes a deep breath as he reaches out for her.

After a few moments staring at each other she ask, “Pete?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you fall in a dumpster?”

She didn’t want to break the moment, but he smells awful and as much as she wants to make out right now she is not getting any closer to him while he smells like that.

He huffs out a laugh, “MJ, you’re so mean to me. I was just chasing after Mrs. Brentwood’s cat. You know he likes to hide in there all the time and she worries about him.”

MJ is well-versed in the adventures of Mrs. Brentwood’s cat at this point. She fully expects there to be a full roll of film dedicated to that menace. “I’m going to have to talk to Ned about some deodorizer upgrades to your suit,” she says, “because that helion cat is not doing it any favours.” She presses the spider on his chest to get rid of the offending suit, and hopefully some of the smell. He tosses it over by the window and then he is standing in front of her and this is definitely the least amount of clothing they have had on together.

“I’ve been nervous to talk to you about something…” MJ starts before she gets distracted by those shoulders and wow, those abs.

“You know you can talk to me about anything,” he says quietly.

“It’s about sex.”

“Oh…” He searches her eyes for any clues about where she is going with this, “like about sex in general, or you and me?”

Mj snorts, “you and me, dork.”

“Ok, well I didn’t think we would have this conversation while I’m smelly and in my underwear and you’re not wearing a shirt, but when have we done anything the normal way?”

She looks him in the eye and she knows she’s well on her way to loving this dork. How could she not. “You’re right. You still smell and I’m all sweaty from serving old business dudes at work all day. Maybe we can have a shower and then talk after?” she says tentatively, holding her hand out to him.

“We? Like, you mean, together?” He looks mildly panicked at that which actually makes her feel better. At least they are both a little nervous. He puts his hand in hers anyway, threading their fingers together.

She gives him a shy smile. “Yeah, I mean we both need to shower and I would like to talk to you without smelling dumpster cat on you the whole time. This isn’t about sex right now, but,” she trails a finger along his collarbone and down his chest, “I am a little curious, aren’t you?”

She knows she is putting herself out there, but she trusts Peter and the signs have been there that they are on the same page about this. She’s nervous to be so exposed, but she feels ready to embrace that next step if he is.

He swallows loudly, adam's apple bobbing, as he nods.

“Verbal consent, Peter, it’s very important,” she only half jokes.

“Yes, MJ, I’m uh, I mean, we should shower.”

“Ok,” she says as she pulls him out of her room towards the bathroom before she loses her nerve.

As they enter the bathroom and he closes the door behind them MJ tries to quell the butterflies in her stomach. She turns to face Peter and sees that he is looking a little nervous too, so she does what she does best and goes for honesty. “OK, this is a little more nerve wracking than I thought it would be. Are you nervous too?”

“Yes,” he answers, “and I guess a little excited, and a little in awe of you for being so brave.”

Well, she definitely can’t stop the butterflies now. But, there’s also a surge of pride and happiness too because they have come a long way since those first hesitant steps towards each other in London. She smiles as the nerves start to retreat and puts her hand on his cheek and fingers in his hair, one of her favorite things to do.

“It’s easy to be brave when I trust you so much.”

“Em…” He tilts his head into her palm gently. “I trust you too.”

“Neither of us have done this before, so let’s not put too much pressure on this. It’s just the two of us. Everything else we can talk about once we smell better,” she smiles.

Peter smiles back, then reaches into the shower to turn it on and get it warming up. “Ok,” he says.

They kind of stand there looking at each other after that, not really knowing what to do next, so MJ takes a deep breath, ties her hair back away from her neck, and reaches back to undo her bra and lets it fall to the floor. They don’t say anything then as they each remove their remaining clothing. Then, MJ holds out her hand again just as she had done in her room earlier. Peter places his hand in hers and they step into the shower. MJ stands with her back to the stream of water, Peter in front of her. After a few seconds’ hesitation their eyes drift to take each other in for the first time.

When MJ’s eyes travel back up to his Peter’s he is already looking back at her. His expression is soft and his eyes flit through so many emotions in succession that she can’t name them all. There are still some nerves, but also happiness and a little disbelief too and definitely desire. She knows all of those things are reflected back to him in her own expression and she hopes he can see them all.

They smile at each other shyly and she reaches for the body wash and hands it to him. It is a lot more intimate than she was even expecting to do what is normally such a mundane, daily task, in front of someone else as Peter hands her back the soap so that she can use it once he has squeezed some out for himself. The smell of her body wash envelopes the room.

They realize quickly that they are going to have to do some shuffling around so that they can each get rinsed off and it helps to ease some of the tension in the moment as they laugh and juggle around each other under the shower.

Peter breaks the silence as she reaches to turn off the water when they finish rinsing off with a whispered, “wait.” She turns back to him. “Just one more minute.”

She just nods and blushes a little then because his look no longer holds any hesitation or nerve. She’s sure he can see the blush too, but he doesn’t tease her about it. “You’re beautiful,” he repeats, just loud enough over the sound of the water.

She resists the urge to deflect or to make a joke this time because she’s trying to get better at that. Peter is not shy to tell her things like that pretty frequently and she’s decided that at some point she has to believe him. She is standing in front of an actual superhero, who is naked, water running down the hard planes of his body, and she’s just Michelle Jones. But, she can see the truth of what he thinks in his eyes, so who is she to argue?

She forces herself to maintain eye contact with him so that he can see her smile in response. The water is running down the back of his head now, creating a cloud of steam behind him. His hair is slicked back from when he rinsed it out and he’s looking right back at her, and he really has never looked so beautiful. Her heart is hammering in her chest, all the feelings she has for him ready to bust out if either of them moves a muscle.

She forces herself to take a deep breath and reply to him honestly, “you’re beautiful too.”

He smiles bashfully at that, a flush spreading across his chest and she takes it all in. After another minute under the heat of the shower, not touching, but standing there only a few inches apart, Peter reaches back to turn off the water. They get out and dry off with the towels Michelle had set out earlier. Once they are dry and wrapped in their towels she breaks the silence, “well, that was kind of intense.”

He laughs at that and reaches over to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. “Yeah, it was really nice.”

They grab their clothes off the floor and head back to MJ’s room. She hands him a pair of her sweatpants and one the t-shirts he had left there before and they dress quietly. She puts on a pair of sleep shorts and her favorite hoodie (his of course, but he doesn’t say anything when he sees her put it on), then she climbs into bed, holding the covers up for him to climb in after her. They have done this enough now that they easily slot together, her with one leg between his and their arms entwined while they face each other on her pillow.

She has to speak now like she promised or she might lose herself in him, “I’m not ready to have sex yet.” Well, that came out a little sharper than she was planning.

He opens his mouth to respond, but she interrupts before he can say anything, “but, I don’t think it will be too long until I’m ready. If you’re ready to of course,” she adds. A deep breath, “sorry, that was pretty blunt. If I didn’t say it now I was going to lose my nerve to say anything.” She smiles at him, unsure, but hoping he understands.

It’s Peter, so of course he does. He squeezes his arms around her a little tighter. “That’s ok. I want you to be able to tell me anything, especially the blunt things. I think when we’re ready we will know, and we will check in with each other along the way to be sure. I will never pressure you.”

“I know. I’m not worried about that.” And she isn’t. She knows Peter. She knows he would never do anything to make her feel uncomfortable. There isn’t much more to say after that and really she’s not why she was so worried about that conversation to begin with. She lets herself settle in to Peter a little more closely.

“This is probably the most comfortable I’ve ever been,” he sighs after a few minutes, closing his eyes.

She chuckles lightly at that. “You’re so sappy.”

“You like it.”

She swats his arm playfully, but snuggles in closer. “Yeah.” And it’s true, she’s beyond denying it at this point. She never would have pictured this as something that she would like, let alone look forward to. Just sharing space with someone else, existing together in quiet. It’s beyond anything she dared dream of for herself. She stares at him now, only inches away from her with his eyes closed peacefully and the love she has for him forms a solid warmth in her chest. It’s too early to tell him, but it’s there, forming and getting stronger everyday. She reaches up to trace her finger along his jaw. He has a little bit of stubble there and it makes her smile, this juxtaposition between his baby face and this evidence of adulthood. Her finger moves slowly up to his bottom lip, then across his nose and cheekbone. She does it several more times, just a light touch, trying to memorize the lines of his face so that she can see it when she closes her eyes.

She can tell by the pattern of his breathing that he isn’t asleep, but he looks so relaxed now in a way that he almost never is. He normally has so much energy, whether it’s from the spider bite or he was always that way she’s not sure, but he is almost never so still. She savours the moment. When she leans in to trail her lips over the path her fingers had taken and finally covering his mouth with hers he responds instantly, meeting her with equal tenderness.

Soon their hands are wandering with a little more purpose than ever before and MJ feels a rush of excitement as she gets to really feel Peter's body for the first time (well, the first time that has nothing to do with a Spider-Man related injury). His muscles are hard, but his skin is warm and soft and it’s driving her a little crazy. After a minute she feels his hand beneath her shirt and she pulls back to look in his eyes as they explore each other in a way they haven’t done before. He’s giving her a look she can only interpret as, ‘is this ok?’, and she can only nod in response. She finds after that they don’t need any words to communicate.

**********

Peter’s not sure he’s ever seen anything so beautiful. They are still under the covers in MJ’s bed, but their shirts are now on the floor and they are breathing heavily and they are staring into each other’s eyes with a little bit of wonder, he thinks. At least, he knows he is. He’s not sure what changed between them today, but the shower, and the conversation with MJ had given them a confidence they never seemed to have before. She is just so breathtakingly beautiful and for once he didn’t second guess himself.

“Wow,” MJ breathes, and they both kind of laugh at that.

“Yeah,” he answers because really, wow says it all. He pushes a stray hair out of her face and rubs his thumb on her cheek just to be a little closer to her. She looks sleepy now and her next blink seems to last a full minute. Before she falls asleep he has to be sure, “we’re ok right, that was ok for you?”

MJ gives him a sleepy smile and opens her eyes. “Yeah, Pete, it was.” After a couple seconds she adds, “next time I really want it to be ok for you too.”

She really doesn’t have to worry because touching her felt like such a privilege that he didn’t even think about himself that whole time. Everywhere her hands did touch was still on fire with the memory. But she looks a little sheepish like she’s embarrassed that she’s so tired now, so he reassures her, “I’m happy when you’re happy Em. We’ll see what happens next time, but there’s no pressure.”

She snuggles into his shoulder then, leg slotted between his and arm over his chest. He can hear her heartbeat start to even out and he knows she’s close to sleep now. “I know, but it’s the same for me too,” she whispers and he can’t help but hold her closer at that. “Wait to leave after I fall asleep?” she asks. As if he could deny her anything.

“Of course,” he says into her ear, kissing the top of her head.

“But text when you get home, ok?”

He chuckles at that, “I will.”

It only takes about 20 seconds for her to fall asleep after that, but he holds her for another ten minutes at least, just savoring the feeling of having her close and thinking about everything to come for them together. Senior year and college and everything after that too.

He carefully gets out of her bed and covers her back up, leaving her shirt for her beside her pillow where she can find it when she wakes up. She snuggles into her pillow and buries her face under her blanket and he knows he was wrong. She’s more beautiful every time he sees her. He grabs his shirt and mask and puts them on, but ties his smelly suit around his waist for the swing home. Hopefully she won’t mind him taking more of her clothes home with him, but he can’t bring himself to take them off yet. They smell like her and they are all soft from the fabric softener she uses. He digs the photo of Mrs. Brentwood’s cat in the dumpster out of his suit and props it on MJ’s window sill before he leaves.

As he swings back to Happy’s apartment and into his made up bed on the couch he knows he has a dopey smile on his face, but he doesn’t have to pretend for anyone right now so he just lets it. He texts MJ that he is home and falls asleep instantly.

Chapter Text

The next ten days pass by slowly. Peter is stuck at Happy’s because some new threats had come in that he and May deemed to be credible enough to keep him confined to the apartment, almost full time. Peter understood. He didn’t want to put his friends or anyone else in danger either, but he was going stir crazy. He thought he did pretty good though, only sneaking out once or twice. He’d already done almost all his college applications and was just starting on the most important one, for MIT, but he couldn’t focus. He hadn’t seen Ned or MJ almost at all this week and there was only so much tinkering he could do with some of the Stark tech that Happy had lying around before he was making more of a mess than he was creating.

When he couldn’t stand the quiet anymore he threw on his Spidey suit, went to the roof and swung out into the night. It was 9:45pm and he knew MJ was closing at the coffee shop today. If he got there fast he might be able to see her for a few minutes before she had to go home. If he was lucky maybe Ned would be there too and he could see them both. He tried to stay high near the tops of the buildings to keep out of sight of most of Jameson’s sources, then snuck onto the roof above the coffee shop where he knew he was safe from cameras.

He was silently climbing down the side of the building by the back exit when the door suddenly slammed open right below him. MJ came out with bags of garbage to throw in the dumpster and boy, was she a sight for sore eyes. Even in her retro coffee shop uniform, carrying garbage, she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen.

She didn’t notice him, of course, because she wasn’t expecting him to be there and he can be quiet when he wants to be. He could hear she was humming to herself. He couldn’t make out the song, but it sounded familiar. He cleared his throat as gently as he could, trying not to scare her, but she whipped around when she heard him, dropping the bags of garbage and holding her hand out. He saw that she had a can of mace in her hand ready to fire. He chuckled at that and raised his hands in the air.

“Oh my god, Pete, you scared the shit out of me! What are you doing back here?”

He jumps the rest of the way to the ground, landing right in front of her and pulling off his mask. “Sorry,” he responds sheepishly. “I just got here, I was going to come in through the back door, but then you came out…oof”

Before he can finish his sentence she’s slamming into him and pulling him in for a hug. “Don’t do that again, I could have maced you.” He knows she’s just saying that to cover for her racing heart, and maybe a little bit to cover up how happy she is to see him.

“I won’t,” he promises, and then she is kissing him right there in the alley, and wow, he should have done this first thing.

“I missed you,” she says when they pull away. A month ago he knows that she would have been embarrassed to admit that, but now he doesn’t see any hint that she is now and that warms his heart. Before he can tell her he missed her too, she is pulling him by the hand through the back door, “come on, Ned is here, he will be pissed if I keep you all for myself.”

His brain catches up then, “wait, were you humming itsy bitsy spider?!”

She just laughs as she drags him in the back door.

There’s no one else in the shop so he sits down beside Ned while MJ finishes up her closing duties. Ned is showing him how they are coming along with the algorithm he and MJ have been working on since his birthday and he’s surprised to see how much of a difference it’s been making. His approval rating, whatever that really means, has gone way up since they launched it and he can see how much better the general media portrayal has looked these last few weeks. Obviously, the threats are still coming in and the Daily Bugle is still treating him like the next Thanos, so it’s not perfect, but he is filled with so much gratitude for his friends. He sees how much difference they’ve made, just the two of them.

MJ locks up at closing time and he helps her put up all the chairs so that she can mop up later right before they leave. She gives him a sweet smile when he helps so that makes it all worth it. They sit down in a booth together after that and it’s so nice to just be in their presence for a little while. MJ holds his hand under the table and Ned tells them about a cute girl at his Summer job and he pretends for a few minutes that everything is normal. MJ rubs her thumb over his knuckles anytime he gets too quiet and rubs her shoe against his a little and it always snaps him back to the present with them. She doesn’t even look over at him, she just seems to know when he’s getting into his head too much.

It’s over too soon though and they are saying goodbye at the front door to the shop. They are taking an Uber (something they have to do right now because of the threatening letters and phone calls they have been receiving). He does his handshake with Ned and gives MJ a quick kiss goodbye and launches up into the night. They don’t need to know that he follows their Uber home, just in case, as it drops off Ned then heads to MJ’s apartment, but then MJ waves to him as she gets in her front door so he knows he isn’t as sneaky as he thought. He swings back to Happy’s feeling a little lighter than he has in days.

**********

Michelle feels like a hoard of snakes has made a home in her stomach. She’s been nervous before, of course, but she can normally hide it a lot better than this. Today she is pacing her room trying to work out all the extra energy. Tomorrow is the first day of senior year and her feelings about it are a jumbled mess.

In a different world she would be really excited about it. She gets to be a senior at school, on her way to, hopefully, a full ride at MIT after all the hard work the last few years. She’s dating the boy she’s liked for a long time (erm, years), and she gets to see him and Ned after being confined mostly to home and work for the last two weeks.

But, it’s not a different world. She’s been isolated because stupid idiots have been threatening her (silly, pretty, superhero) boyfriend and, by extension, her and Ned. She’s not sure what tomorrow is going to look like, or the rest of the school year for that matter, but she knows for sure she’s going to be the centre of attention a lot more than she is comfortable with. She heard there is going to be some sort of demonstration outside of the school, and it’s just a lot. So, she’s spiralling a little and maybe wearing out a path on her bedroom rug.

A light tapping on her window breaks her out of her pacing. She waves Peter in from her spot by her bed as she walks over to the window. Instead of coming all the way in he sits on her window ledge once he has it open.

“Hey,” he says, chipper as always and maybe a little mischievous. He’s definitely breaking May’s rules about going out right now.

“Hey back.” She gives him a look which she hopes he interprets as ‘what are you doing here, dork, we were just facetiming half an hour ago’. He does.

“I know,” he sighs, ”but I missed you and I kinda felt like you might want to see me.” He’s looking at her like he’s not so sure about that, but he was willing to come anyway. How he knew something was bothering her she can’t say. All at once everything in her settles because no matter what happens tomorrow, and with the whole of the school year, they will get through it together. “I can’t stay too long.”

She sits down beside him on the window sill, her legs inside and his out and she leans her forehead onto his shoulder. “I missed you too. I guess I’m more worried about tomorrow than I let on before,” she admits.

“I’m worried too. Everything is so messed up.” He pauses to push her loose hair behind her ear and she closes her eyes at the comforting gesture. She loves it when he does that. “You know you can tell me anything right, even if you think it might upset me?”

“I know.” She takes a deep breath, trying to find the words to explain. “I think part of it is because I don’t want you to feel guilty about anything that happens, because it’s not your fault, any of this. But I also feel like I should handle it on my own because you’re always so strong for us, you know?” She waits a beat, nudging him with her elbow, “or, maybe all that optimism I have means you’re wrong and I’m just fine and you’re here for no reason.”

He laughs at her reference to their earlier conversation, but rubs her back gently at the same time in support. They sit there a minute in comfortable silence and she nuzzles her face into his neck, feeling more at peace than she had all week.

“How about if we list all of the worst things that could happen tomorrow and just get them out in the open?” He says quietly.

“You think that will help?”

“I think it can’t hurt.”

“Did you get that idea from ‘This is Us’.”

“Maybe.”

“Dork.”

“Well, you got the reference, so…”

She nudges him in the ribs again. “Ok, you start.”

“OK…There are so many media people outside the school that they mob us and you and Ned get hurt and never want to speak to me again.”

Her turn. “Everyone at the school stares at me all day and asks me all sorts of embarrassing questions that I don’t want to answer.”

“The teachers give us all Fs because they hate me and we don’t get into MIT.”

“The teachers give us all As because they are scared of you.”

“Flash wants to be my friend.”

“I think that ship has already sailed, Pete, have you seen his IG lately?”

“Don’t remind me. Ok, your turn.”

“Flash wants to be my friend.” She shudders at that and Peter chuckles.

“You and Ned get so annoyed with it all that you don’t want to be around me anymore.”

“You renounce being Peter Parker and go full Spider-Man all the time because you get fed up with all this.”

“Wow, dark.”

“It’s what I do,” she smirks.

“You and Ned get hurt because of me.”

“You get hurt trying to save us from something that isn’t your fault.”

They let that linger for a few moments. It’s the root of their current fears so there isn’t much else to be said. She places a kiss on the spot where his neck meets his shoulder and breathes him in.

“Do you think we can just decide not to let any of that happen?” He says hopefully.

“I think we can try.”

After a beat, “I think that’s the most optimistic thing you’ve ever said.”

That gets a surprised laugh out of her and she pulls back so she can look him in the eye. “Shut up.”

He gives her that smile she can’t resist, “OK.”

She kisses him lightly. It’s comforting with no real heat behind it. “You have to go.” It’s a statement, not a question, but she wishes things were different and he could stay.

“Yeah, I want to get home before May figures out that I left.”

“Ok, see you tomorrow before class?” She’s still nervous about it and pretty sure she’s going to hate all those vulture reporters, but she feels stronger now, like she can face it head on because they will be together.

“Yeah, I will meet you and Ned around the corner like we talked about so we can go in together.”

MJ just nods and can’t help but smooth out his wild eyebrow and run her hand through his hair one last time before he puts his mask back on. She kisses his masked cheek quickly, “don’t be late.”

She watches him swing off into the night before climbing into her bed. She falls asleep almost instantly thinking maybe everything would be alright after all.

**********

It wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. Well, arriving to the school the next day was not great, there were way more reporters than she predicted, but they mostly went away when no one talked to them (Flash doesn’t count), and everyone stared at them in the halls, and the teachers wouldn’t even look her in the eye, but she could handle all that. Ned seemed to be enjoying the attention, so she tried to fade into the back of each class like she did before their lives blew up, and it seemed to be working, mostly.

She is standing outside the cafeteria with Peter at lunch, but neither of them are brave enough to go in yet. Eyes are starting to turn towards them from inside and the feeling of being under a microscope intensifies. She knows it must have been terrible for Peter all day because he couldn’t avoid any of it and he didn’t have her history of being a wallflower to fall back on.

She feels him grab her hand, “do you, uh, want to go in there?”

“Not even a little bit,” she replies.

“OK, follow me,” he says and he’s already walking down the hall in the opposite direction, pulling her along by the hand.

“You’re not taking me to look at the shrine they built for you, are you?” she jokes.

“EmmmJayyy…” he whines, and she just laughs. “I can’t believe they did that!”

He seems to be leading them to the exit and really she doesn’t mind. Going anywhere with him right now seems like a better alternative to lunch in that cafeteria. She had spent so many years there going mostly unnoticed, nose in a book, and trying to ignore everyone (well, other than Peter, but no one needs to know that). The thought of going in there and being the centre of attention makes her stomach queasy. He stops suddenly once they get outside and she runs right into his back. She’d be mad about it, but it’s the closest she’s been to him all day and she doesn’t immediately back away.

“Sorry,” he says, spinning around. His face is so close to hers when he turns that thinks maybe he really isn’t that sorry. He’s got a dangerous glint in his eye. She smirks, but can’t come up with any intelligent response because the look lingers and his gaze drops to her lips.

She jumps in surprise as the door behind her slams open, “there you guys are!” It’s only Ned, thankfully, but they still jump apart like they were burned, feeling guilty for nothing at all, just the thoughts in their head. Ned doesn’t seem to notice.

“We’re avoiding the cafeteria,” she says when she can finally bring herself to say something.

“Yeah, it’s super awkward in there. I’m sure it will get better soon,” Ned says, and he seems so sure that she almost believes him. She looks over at Peter and the fact that he doesn’t seem sure either breaks her heart just a little. He’s supposed to be the optimist and to see him looking upset about this twists something in her gut. She squeezes his hand to show her silent support, hoping that’s enough for now. They find a spot on the grass under a tree near the football field. It’s a little exposed, but it’s out of sight of the reporters still lingering at the front of the school so it will do for today.

Peter and Ned get talking about some new Star Wars trailer so she just tunes them out and just enjoys their company. She’s lying down on the grass with her head propped on Peter’s legs and her book in front of her. She’s not really reading, but it’s there in case she changes her mind and can focus on it. She lets their voices wash over her and feels a sense of peace in that moment. After all the worrying for the last few weeks, and the chaos of the morning, the familiar exuberance of these two nerds calms her. Peter is playing with her hair absentmindedly, so she’s not mad about that either. She turns her head a little bit, still with the pretence of reading her book, so that she can see Peter out of the corner of her eye. Her heart flutters a little bit because he has that fond look he gets when he’s talking about something he loves, or when he’s talking to Ned or May. She’s starting to get to know his different looks and expressions now. She knows too that he has a different look when it’s for her and that fills her with a combination of happiness, nervous excitement, and something else she’s not ready to label yet.

MJ had read once that you should always expect disappointment because then you’d never really be disappointed. She had lived by those words for a long time and they had carried her this far. She’s trying really hard to keep hold of that mentality, but it can be really hard around Peter. She can still see the things that could go wrong - they could keep getting threatened and never be able to live a normal life, they could get hurt, Peter could get really hurt, they could not get into MIT, they could get into colleges in different states (obviously some of these things are worse than others in the long run, but still) - but she finds herself slipping sometimes. Once in a while those barriers fall and she thinks of all the things that could maybe go right for them.

Maybe no one will care after a while that Peter is Spider-Man and they will let him live his life.

Maybe they will all get into MIT like they always dreamed and get to all go to college together.

Maybe she can go on a regular date with Peter again.

Maybe she can tell Peter she loves him and he won’t freak out too much and then maybe he will say it back.

MJ closes her eyes and reigns those thoughts back in. She’s not ready yet to let them really be free. She feels Peter trace her ear gently with his fingertip and opens her eyes to look at him. He’s still talking to Ned, who knows what they’re on about now, but he has a little smile that she knows is for her and she can’t help but smile a little in response. She nuzzles into his leg and gets back to her book for real this time. She can still get a few pages in before next period.

Right before the bell rings Peter gets that weird look on his face and stops talking. “What is it?” she asks. “Is it your Peter-tingle?”

“Oh my god, did May tell you about that too?!” He groans, but his attention is elsewhere so she sits up, her and Ned both looking around to see what the problem might be. “Please do not call it that!”

“Too late,” Ned jumps in, “that’s what it’s called now and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m thinking of trademarking it.”

Peter stands up and they follow suit. She grabs his hand. “Seriously, what is it?”

He seems to snap out of it after another few seconds, “some reporters snuck in, I can feel cameras pointed at us.”

“Oookkk, that’s not creepy at all,” Ned sounds a little anxious now.

“Well, looks like we need to find a better spot because I don’t think I’m going to the cafeteria anytime soon either,” MJ says.

“What about the roof? I think there’s a spot above the gym with stairs on the side and I can bring you guys up there if that’s easier,” Peter suggests.

“Sounds good to me,” Ned and MJ say at the same time. They fist bump to that.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks pass by pretty uneventfully and MJ is grateful for that. They settle into a new routine and things feel a little back to normal. People still stare and say terrible things online and most of the other students at Midtown don’t speak to them, but MJ was used to that anyways. She spends most of her time not in class with Peter and Ned on the roof where they have carved out a little bit of private space for themselves. They talk about college, or MJ reads aloud the ridiculous theories about Spider-Man that The Bugle or Post have dreamed up that day, or they play uno, or they say nothing at all and just enjoy the quiet. Those were her favourite times, when she could rest her head on her backpack or on Peter’s legs and just enjoy being in the same space with her two favourite people.

She doesn’t get much time alone with Peter, but she’s doing her best to be patient about it. Ned is stuck in this with them too and they couldn’t very well leave him out of anything. Plus, she loves having Ned around. He helps carry the conversation with Peter when she wants to read or to just think. College letters should start coming back this week and most of her (non-Peter) thoughts have centred around that lately. So much is still up in the air and Michelle isn’t convinced yet that everything is going to turn out in their favour.

Even if they all get into MIT like they hope, will Peter be able to leave New York? She thinks about that a lot. About Peter and his parents and his Uncle Ben, all buried in that cemetery in Queen’s, and about how he’s only ever wanted to be Spider-Man for New York, never asking to be anything bigger than that, even when he’s been forced to. She knows he wants a change and maybe he thinks all the problems with his identity reveal won’t follow him to Boston, but Michelle isn’t so sure. She hopes that he’s right, but there is a part of her that she is reserving for the possibility they may all be separated next year.

She resigns herself to worry about that another day. The first step is to actually get in, all the other details will come later. As she squashes that little bit of dread down she comes back to the present, her current book forgotten and now resting on her stomach.

“Hey,” Peter says quietly, already looking at her from above as she refocuses on the here and now.

“Hey back,” she smiles. He tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear and rakes his fingers over the rest a few times unnecessarily, but nice all the same.

She hums and nuzzles into his hand. “You ok?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’m good.” And she finds in that moment, looking up at him, the sun a halo around his curls, that it’s true. He leans down to press a kiss to her lips and she notices then they are missing a third of their group. As much as Michelle and Peter like each other they have been careful about PDA in front of Ned, neither of them wanting to make him to feel uncomfortable. “Where’s Ned?”

Peter just laughs at that, “you really were in your own world. He left a few minutes ago to finish up something in the computer lab before class.”

“Oh,” is her intelligent response. She’s a little embarrassed she didn’t even notice Ned leave. She sits up and now that she’s face to face with Peter she’s also maybe a little happy at the turn of events. She grabs his shirt, the dorky telekinesis one she loves, and pulls him in towards her. Her lips muffle his grunt of surprise, but it doesn’t take him long to respond.

They stay like that until the warning bell rings for class before pulling apart. Michelle keeps her hand in his hair, their foreheads resting against each other in what has become a familiar pose for them. They catch their breath together and his thumb is gently caressing her jawline. She opens her eyes to find him already looking at her and her heart nearly does something cliche like skip a beat at what she finds there. As it is her heart is racing with all the things she’s left unsaid so far, the affection and admiration, and maybe even the love that she has for him.

“We better go,” he whispers between them.

“Just one more minute,” she responds, echoing an earlier conversation in her shower. She blushes at the memory, wondering if he remembers.

He just nods into her and she knows he is remembering too. He’s not blushing, but he has a radiant smile at the memory. Damn him if she can’t even be mad about it when he smiles like that.

**********

MJ is putting the final touches on her biology assignment when she hears the tapping at her window. She doesn’t look up from her laptop, but waves Peter in from her desk chair. He has been stopping by a lot more the last couple weeks since they had started getting the college rejection letters, so she’s not surprised that he showed up tonight. Plus, she knows May is working late at FEAST so she won’t worry when he doesn’t get back from patrolling right away.

It takes her a minute to realize he hasn’t come in through her window and when she finally looks up he’s still outside and alarm bells go off in her head. She rushes over to lift up the window and she can see that he is breathing really heavily. She quickly looks him over and can’t see any obvious injuries, but she knows they aren’t always visible with his suit on.

“Pete, what’s wrong? Come on, get in here,” she says as she slips her arm under his shoulder to help him through the window. He hasn’t said anything yet and his breathing is coming in gasps now. She gets him in her room, barely, and guides him to sit on her floor, back propped against the end of her bed. She quickly takes off his mask and his face is panicked and it looks like he is hyperventilating.

“Ok, ok, Peter, can you look at me?” She starts. She feels out of her element, but she wants to be there for him, so she is going to try anything she can. His eyes move to hers, “good, now can you tell me if you’re hurt anywhere?” He shakes his head no, but his breathing is still haywire. She thinks he must be having a panic attack.

It’s at that moment that there is a knock on her partially open bedroom door and her dad walks in. “Chelley, you ok, I heard a commotion…” he trails off as he sees her and Peter on the floor at the end of her bed.

“Dad…he’s…he’s having a panic attack I think,” she rushes out, her focus still mostly on Peter. His eyes are unfocused and his breathing isn’t slowing down. She will have to worry about her dad finding Peter in her room later.

After a shocked pause her dad flips into work mode and strides over in front of Peter. “OK, Michelle, kneel down in front of him and put his hand here,” he says, lifting Peter’s hand so it’s over her heart. “Peter, try to focus on Michelle’s breathing. Can you feel her breath in and out?” He mimes for her to breathe in and out really slowly. She follows his instructions, taking four and then five very deep, slow breaths. It seems to help a little, but Peter’s eyes are still wild.

“I can hear everything,” he says, “everyone’s heartbeat, everyone’s breathing, it’s too much…”

Michelle stifles her own panic at that and rushes over to her desk. She grabs the noise cancelling headphones she uses when she really needs to focus on her work and puts them over Peter’s ears. “Good idea,” he dad says. He puts his hand on Peter’s shoulders to help ground him and they all breathe in and out together.

Slowly, after what could be hours, but is probably only minutes, Peter’s eyes start to refocus and his breathing comes under control. She’s not sure it’s any better because then the tears start to flow and he’s apologizing in stuttered whispers, “I'm sorry, I’m sorry…”

Her dad is checking Peter’s pulse and looking at his eyes while she keeps breathing along with Peter and wiping his tears as they fall. She can’t help that a few of her own fall because she’s worried about him, and she can’t stand that he’s feeling like this, and she just feels so damn helpless.

“Ok, let’s get him up,” her dad says when it looks like they are through the worst of it. They each grab Peter under an arm and manoeuvre him over to her bed so he can lie down. “He should be ok now, just keep an eye on him. Let me know if anything changes.” He stands up then and puts an arm on her shoulder, “and we will talk tomorrow, ok Chelley?”

“Ok Dad. Thank you,” she says to him sincerely, over her shoulder. She can’t look away from Peter yet. He’s calming down, but she hates that he’s hurting. She texts May to let her know where he is, then removes the earphones so that he’s more comfortable and shuffles in her bed so that she is lined up beside him and they are touching nearly head to toe. She pulls him close as she puts the comforter over them both. He grabs hold of her around her torso and pulls her tight against him.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she responds quietly. They lie there in silence for quite some time before he speaks again.

“That hasn’t happened in a long time. Patrol wasn’t great tonight and I guess it just set off all my senses and I got overstimulated and overwhelmed. Thank you, I didn’t know where else to go.”

She hugs him fiercely at that, bringing him even closer if that’s even possible. “It’s ok, I’m really glad you came here. Are you feeling a bit better now?”

“Yeah, you always make it better, MJ. I’m tired now though”

“Ok, get some rest.” She makes herself comfortable, slotting her leg between his. She pushes his hair back from his face and kisses him gently, watching as his eyelids droop heavily. Her affection for him surges as she watches him fall asleep. This boy who puts everything on the line for people, and no one seems to think about the toll it takes on him. She can see it in the crease between his eyebrows and the little twitch he gets around his eye sometimes. She smooths the pad of her thumb over those spots now and it seems to relax him further. She falls asleep to the sound of his even breathing, gentle puffs of air on her cheek.

**********

Sunlight is streaming in through her window when she next opens her eyes. She forgot to close her curtain last night. She blinks the sleep away as she focuses on the mop of brown hair in front of her face. She looks down to see him still asleep, that boyish look back on his face after the stress of last night. She can’t help but smile because he really is beautiful, and if the morning light makes him look transcendent, well, no one is here to call her on it.

He must feel her move, or hear the change in her breathing because he starts to stir then and his eyes flip open to meet hers. His small smile when he catches her already looking at him is one she hopes she can sketch later so she can always remember it. Their legs are still tangled, but they have come apart otherwise in their sleep and she can’t take the space any longer. She pulls herself closer to him and nuzzles into his shoulder.

“Hey,” he says.

“Morning,” she says into his chest. They sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“You feeling ok this morning?” she eventually asks him.

He sighs, “yeah. I’m sorry about last night, I don’t really know what happened.”

“I told you that you don’t need to be sorry and I meant it, but you can talk to me about it, if you want.” She laces her fingers through his where they sit on his stomach and squeezes them to let him know she isn’t going to rush him, but she is there for him if he needs it. He brings their linked hands up and places a soft kiss on her knuckles, then gently rolls over so that they are face to face. His eyes are roaming over her face, but she knows he’s not really seeing her, focused instead on his memories.

“There was a man,” he begins, so quiet she almost can’t hear him, “he was texting on his phone, not looking where he was going. He walked out onto the street and he wasn’t paying attention and I saw this cab coming and I knew he wasn’t going to get out of the way in time. So, I did what I do, and I webbed him up quick to pull him out of the way. I set him down on the sidewalk, and…” Peter huffs then, looking down at this joined hands, “and then he called me a murderer and he punched me, MJ. He just hit me right on the side of the face. I was so stunned I didn’t know what to do, so I just swung away. I didn’t even stay to explain myself.”

“Pete…”

“Then, later,” he continues like he didn’t even hear her, “there was a little kid in the park and he was lost and calling for his mom, so I swung down to him and helped him find her. He had wandered away from the swings I guess and she couldn’t see him. When I brought the kid over to her she just had this hateful look and snatched him away you know, like I was going to hurt him or something. She didn’t even say anything to me.”

“Peter, I’m so sorry.” The look of devastation on his face is too much. She drops his hand and pulls him in for a hug, his head in the crook of her neck. The fact that anyone could look at him and see anything but kindness and that selfless need to help people he has is too much to bear and a tear escapes down her cheek. She wipes it away before he can see because he doesn’t need to deal with her tears right now.

“You know, I don’t do any of this Spider-Man stuff so that people will thank me, but the fact that anyone would think I would hurt a kid, it just…”

“I know, it’s not fair,” she says into his neck.

“After that I was pretty upset and my powers just started to go hardwire. I was hearing too much and feeling everything and I knew I was getting overwhelmed like I used to when I first got the powers. I just swung here on instinct I guess.”

“I’m glad you did, but that was pretty scary. I didn’t know how to help you”
“MJ, just being near you helped. You did everything right. You helped me focus on being here with you and not on everything out there.” He pulls back to look her in the eye. “Your dad helped too,” he says sheepishly.

Michelle rolls her eyes, “yeah, that should be a fun conversation today.” But she finishes it with a smile so that he knows she’s not mad and that it was worth an uncomfortable conversation with her dad if it helped him feel better.

“Oh, it should be ok now, I talked to him already this morning,” he says, innocently. “You’re a really heavy sleeper, did you know that? You didn’t wake up at all.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, you were still sleeping, but I heard him wake up and I wanted to make sure I thanked him…” he trails off after seeing the look on her face, “what?”

“Oh my god, Pete,” she groans, burying her face in her pillow. There is a 100% chance he made it worse and more awkward for her, but she knows he means well. She cant be too mad about his kind heart. “What exactly did you say to him?”

He seemed a little nervous to answer her question, which was not helping her nerves, but what was done was done.

“Just tell me so I know how embarrassed I need to be when he gets home from work today.”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to make anything worse for you…I just thanked him for helping me last night and I told him sorry I showed up here like that and woke him up and that it wouldn’t happen again.” When he saw the look on her face he continued, “I swear, that’s all. He was really nice about MJ, he said he was glad I was feeling better. We got talking about my powers after that a bit and he had some good suggestions for me so that it might not happen again...it all lasted like ten minutes, that’s all…are you mad?”

Michelle had always considered herself to be a pretty stoic person, thinking logically rather than emotionally. But, in the face of Peter’s worried brown eyes, thinking she might be mad at him, she found she couldn’t maintain that hard exterior. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, “no, Pete, I’m not mad. Just not looking forward to explaining to my dad today why you felt so comfortable coming in through my window in the middle of the night. It’ll be ok.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure.” After a beat…”but you owe me a scoop of ice cream for everyone one of his awkward questions I have to answer.”

His worried look broke at that and he laughed, “deal!”

He sighs then, “I guess I better get home. May is going to be worried. Thank you for texting her last night for me.”

“You’re welcome.” She’s smoothing down his eyebrow absentmindedly when he puts his palm over hers against his cheek. “One more minute?” She says with a smile. It’s becoming a familiar request between them.

“Yeah,” he responds, closing the small gap between their lips.

If one more minute turned into ten or twenty instead, well, no one was around to call them on it.

**********

Just two days later and everything is a mess. MJ would give anything to go back and replay the embarrassing conversation with her dad over and over instead of what was happening now. But she can’t and she’s here with Ned, watching the news with a lump in her throat and a rock in her gut and everything is upside down.

As she sits at Ned’s Lola’s house at their kitchen table, waiting for any news at all from Peter, she replays that conversation with dad to try to distract herself. It wasn’t as bad as she had been expecting really, but still mortifying. He had taken it easy on her, mostly concerned that she was taking care of herself and not letting Peter’s issues consume her. They talked about making sure he had help other than just her and she promised she would talk to May and Ned so that Peter had a good support network to lean on.

After that though he had looked at her with his most stern expression (a lesser person would have withered under that look, but Michelle mostly just cowered and tried to steel herself against it) and asked her why it was that Peter felt that he could come to her room in the middle of the night.

“Dad…” she whined, trying to stall.

“Chelley, I’m not clueless, I know you are 18 and we already talked about sex years ago. I just didn’t think you would be sneaking around and lying.”

“It’s not like that, dad. He’s just out late sometimes, you know doing Spider-Man stuff, and he stops by. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep it from you, It’s just…” she trails off as she searches for the right words to explain it to him.

“It’s just that it seems like that’s the only time we have sometimes, you know?” She meets her dad’s eye then, bravely she thinks. “Everyone is always watching and we never really got to just be normal. So he drops by sometimes here and we can just talk and try to take a little of that normal back.” He must have read something in her expression then because his eyes softened at that.

“Ok,” he says, “I trust you. And Peter seems like a nice kid, so let’s just say you let me know from now on when he’s going to be dropping by. No more secrets.”

“Ok, I can do that.”

“And Chelley. This thing with Peter. I just want to make sure you’re being safe…Not like that,” he says in response to her mortified expression, “at least not only like that,” he grimaces. “What I mean is, Peter’s life is hard, even more so now that his secret is out and Jameson is on this vendetta and I want you to be careful.”

“I know, I am being as careful as I can be, but I have to live my life too, otherwise, what’s the point?”

“Not just physically safe, Chelle, though I want you to keep being careful that way too, but life with Peter is never going to be simple. If it ever gets to be too much I want you to talk to me. Being in love will carry you through a lot, but there may come a time when you’ll have to decide if that is enough.”

So many thoughts run through her mind at that, but mostly, Peter will always be worth it. “And if it is?”

“Then you will find a way to make it work.”

Now, Peter is missing, something terrible has happened to May that she can’t even process right now, and she’s still holding a magic cube, considering their options. The reality of what her dad was saying crashed down on her faster than either of them could have anticipated. The rejection letters from MIT the next day, just because they are associated with Peter, the elation of Peter getting them a second chance, and all the mind-bending multiverse devastation that followed. She wonders if her dad was right and this is maybe too much for her. Too much heartbreak. Too much fear. But then she thinks about Peter, out there somewhere, alone, and she knows she still wouldn't change anything. He needs her, and he needs Ned too, now more than ever.

She looks over at the magic cube sitting on the table, “I’m going to push it…”

**********

They find Peter and her heart breaks for him all over again to see him so alone and grieving. She knows the whole multiverse situation hasn’t really sunk in yet because there are two other Peter’s here now, possibly other MJ’s in their worlds, and she isn’t freaking out. That will come later she knows, when she has time to process all of this. For now, her focus is on Peter, and finishing this plan, and getting out of here in one piece.

She looks over at him now (her Peter, that is) and she can see that he’s really trying to focus on the cures, but he’s starting to look a little panicked. He’s talking to Ned, but his hands are shaking and she can see that his jaw is tense, like he’s barely holding it together. And who could blame him at this point? May was his last living family member and she was his bedrock. Michelle knows that Peter is trying to honour May now, but she can see he’s barely holding it together.

As Ned walks away from Peter she feels herself move over to him before she even thinks about it. She may not be able to help much with the tech, but she can help him right now in the way only she can, and maybe that will count almost as much.

**********

The adrenaline built up over the last few hours is fading and MJ’s heart is sinking. It’s all happening too fast and she can’t think of a way out of it this time. Peter is so sure it’s the only way, but how can that be? She can’t forget him, that’s impossible right?

She’s telling him she loves him, and not letting him say it back, and he’s backing away from them and it’s too fast, it’s too much all at once. Two minutes ago she thought they’d won. Now, he’s telling them they are going to forget him and she doesn’t have time to say all the things she wants to say, to hold on to everything they have. She’s desperate to break down, to force him to stay somehow.

Instead, she closes her eyes as he jumps off the wall and swings away, determined to hold on to the memories, to hold on to him in her mind and her heart. She thinks about his curly hair squished down from his mask, about his brown eyes and the way they look when he’s only looking at her. She thinks about his perfect, crooked smile and his dorky t-shirts. Tears are falling as she feels things slipping from her mind already, but she clings to kissing him on that bridge, and their quiet moments lying down next to each other. And fiercely she holds on to how it feels to be wrapped up in his arms, warm, and comfortable and at home.

She holds on as tight as she can as it’s all slipping away, just one more minute, just one more minute