"Hey Gwen!"

Gwen looked up at Liz, who had said hello to her, and Jaimie, who stood next to her. "Hey guys," she said with a smile.

The two girls sat on the other side of the table from Gwen and set down their lunches.

"Long time no see, what have you been up to?" Jaimie asked.

She held up her hefty textbook. "Honors classes," she said with an exaggerated eye roll. "Boyfriend, the usual."

Liz snickered. "No offense Gwen, but I didn't believe it when I heard you were dating Parker. What do you see in him?"

Jaimie giggled her agreement and quickly stuffed their mysterious sludge of a lunch in her mouth to cover it.

She put away her textbook and put her hands in her lap. "Plenty," she replied, searching the lunch room for her boyfriend. "He's... Amazing." Gwen didn't try to hide the little smile on her face. Her friends would mistake it as a contented smile, but it really was more boastful than that. If either of them knew who Peter really was, why he disappeared during lunch, they would be too jealous for words. Sometimes it was hard not to shout to the world that her boyfriend was Spider-Man.

Liz rolled her eyes at the obviously lovestruck young woman. "I seriously can't believe you, Parker has always been such a nerd."

Gwen narrowed her eyes at Liz. "Because Flash is such a perfect person."

The blonde looked astonished that the other would dare accuse her god-like boyfriend of anything but being, well, god-like.

"At least Peter has a brain, and respect for others, not to mention the hair."

"Or the ugly bruises and slouching. Not to mention he's a punching bag for every kid in school," she spat.

Gwen's mouth dropped slightly agape. She had no idea where those bruises came from. He saved the butts of a hundred New Yorkers every day, and she had the audacity to make fun of him? "Flash is the one punching him, so maybe if you could leash your dog of a boyfriend he wouldn't always be hurt," she retorted. It wasn't wholly true. Flash wasn't the only one beating on him any more. And technically, if he wanted to, he could have Flash on the floor crying for his mother before his fist had even come toward Peter's face. At that point, though, Gwen just wanted to hurt her for saying that about Peter. It was a nasty thing to do, she knew that, but the words were tumbling out of her mouth before she'd a chance to think them over.

Jaimie stood from the table slowly, moving to another table.

"Take that back," Liz exclaimed, standing.

Gwen remained in her seat, hands balled into fists in her lap. "No," she replied simply.

By that time, they'd gotten the attention of half the school room, who had silenced to listen to their rather heated conversation.

Liz trembled with anger, doing nothing but glaring daggers at Gwen for a moment. With no Spidey-Sense to warn her, she didn't see Liz's hand coming toward her face until she felt the sting on her cheek.

Gwen raised her hand to her cheek as she rose to her feet. Liz waited for the retaliation, but none came. Biting her lip, she walked out of the cafeteria.

After school, Peter jogged up beside her, on the side she'd been slapped. There was still a large red spot and welts on her cheek.

He stopped her and stooped over to look at her cheek. "God, what happened?" He ran a finger around the red flesh.

She smiled grimly and held onto his wrist. "I insulted Flash."

Peter's eyes went wild. "He hit you!"

She grabbed his arm before he could track down the jock. "No, no Peter, Liz did."

He calmed down slightly. "What- what happened? It doesn't sound like you to insult him." He grinned. "No matter how much he had it coming."

She shook her head. "Liz insulted you first."

Peter laughed. "You're serious? She insulted me, you insulted him, she hit you?"

Gwen smiled and nodded slightly. "Pretty much. But it was worth it. The look on her face was great."

"What did you say," he laughed.

"Something along the lines of leashing her dog of a boyfriend."

Peter dropped his forehead to touch hers and laughed. It was almost a giggle. "I'm sorry she hit you, you didn't have to defend me."

"No, but I did. You do so much for complete strangers... I wasn't going to let her talk about you like that. Sometimes it's so hard to keep your secret. If only they knew."

He kissed her gently. "But that's what makes it fun."

She chuckled airily. "You have a skewed definition of fun."

He kissed her again, deeper this time. She moved the hand not holding his wrist to the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair.

"I think that's fun, does that fix it?"

She hummed. "Yes, very much so."

Author's Notes: Just a short little thing I wrote because I miss them getting along. TT-TT In the multi-chapter fic I'm writing, Aftermath, Gwen is quite ticked at him right now. I had to take a break and write some fluff. Should I do a sequel where Flash and Peter have a 'talk' the next day? Leave me reviews! Thanks for reading :)