AN ~ my first Spiderman fic, please be gentle ;)
Tête-à-Tête
-dutchtulips-
~*~
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs... It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, 7
~*~
"Only your friend, Peter Parker?"
"That's all I have to give."
Peter Parker absentmindedly rubbed the heel of his hand against his brow as he shoved some coins into a newspaper machine. Lifting the lid, he took out the paper and looked at it. Peter regarded it for a moment, and then hastily stuffed it under his arm. It had been a long day, and now he just wanted to get home.
He briskly crossed the street, leaping lightly onto the curb and on up the sidewalk. As Peter was rushing through the street towards home, someone else was doing the same, but coming the opposite way. He hadn't even been paying attention, or knew anyone was rushing at him until they both knocked into each other.
Peter stooped over to pick up the dropped newspaper and looked up to see who he had knocked into. When he saw her face, he didn't know what to say.
"Hi, Pete," Mary Jane said, smiling softly at him.
"Oh, uh, hi, MJ," he replied. "Sorry about that."
"It's all right," she answered, brushing back a stray lock of her red hair. She paused, and then said, "Well. . .how are you?"
"Fine," Peter said shortly. "You?"
"Okay." Mary Jane's voice was small, delicate. "Were you going home?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Come into Starbucks and have a cup of coffee with me."
Peter sighed. "I don't know, MJ. I was kind of in a hurry -"
Mary Jane bit her lip. "Please?"
"Well. . .all right." He agreed.
~*~
Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting in the coffee shop. Neither of them were speaking very much, thought they both looked as if there was something they wanted to say. Peter stared at the tabletop while Mary Jane traced her finger around the rim of her cup.
"Peter, I want to ask you something."
He blinked to look up into her eyes. "What is it, MJ?"
She seemed to stare at his for a long time. Peter shifted under her gaze. It had been a few weeks since they last talked, at the cemetary, and he was feeling particularly uncomfortable being with her again. He wished it hadn't had to be this way, that they could be together. It was the most painful thing he'd had to do, to say that friendship was all he had to give. Now that he thought on it, Peter wished he'd worded it different. That all he could let himself give was friendship.
Mary Jane opened her mouth, ready to ask what she wanted to ask, but before even a syllable emitted from her, Peter held up his hand to stop her. "Wait. I know what you're going to say."
"You do?" She inquired.
"Yeah. And you're right. I should have given you a reason why. I should have explained why. I just - I don't want you to - how can I put this - get. . .hurt, MJ," he said. "It's because I do care about you very much that I don't want to be selfish."
She seemed to nod, encouraging him to continue.
"I also want you to know that I'm sorry. I've already hurt you, by rejecting you so that you wouldn't get hurt." Peter sighed. "No matter what I do, I always make the ones I love pay," he added in a disdainful whisper, shifting his eyes to the tabletop once more.
"Why do you feel that way?" Mary Jane asked softly.
"I - I can't tell you."
She cocked her head, studying him. "Why is that, Peter Parker?"
He didn't answer her.
Mary Jane was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "You know, Peter. . .it doesn't really matter if you tell me how you feel or not." Pause. "You said that you couldn't because you don't want me to get hurt, as you put it. But whether you tell me or not doesn't hinder whether you do or not."
Peter was still silent, though he knew she was right. He traced his finger on the tabletop, thinking. She's right. So what if I didn't tell her, just because I want to keep her out of danger. It doesn't change the fact that I still love her.
She reached out and laid her hand softly on his, reassuringly. Mary Jane titled her chin and smiled, trying to get him to smile, too. Peter obliged.
"There's a book in the Bible called Corinthians," she started to say, suddenly. "In the first book, chapter thirteen, there's a specific passage there. Do you know how it goes?"
Peter shook his head. "No."
Mary Jane was still smiling. In a soft whisper, she recited, " 'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.'
"It always protects, Peter."
He looked at her. "MJ, there are things you don't know."
She smiled again. Leaning back in her chair, she returned Peter's gaze, and said, "Can I tell you something, Pete?"
He nodded for her to go on.
"You can imagine I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. The same things keep going around in my mind, and I've been trying to piece things together, to make sense of them. And the only thing I know true in my heart is. . .is, well, the other question I wanted to ask."
Peter's brow furrowed in interest. "What is it, Mary Jane?"
She stared at the tabletop. "Well, it's just that I. . .well, that is to say. . .I mean, something just keeps telling me so. . .it feels clear. . .after trying to put everything together. . ."
There was a long pause.
"You're. . .him. . .aren't you." It was more of a statement than a query.
His heart started to beat faster. "I. . .well. . ."
Mary Jane finally looked back up at him. "Tell me the truth, Peter, please." She reached over and latched onto his wrist. "Are you? Are you. . .Spiderman?"
Peter seemed to swallow hard and stare at the floor. He remained very quiet.
She waited a moment for him to say something. After a few more moments of silence passed, Mary Jane looked at her hand, which was still clasping Peter's wrist. She looked around and, seeing no one, turned her attention back to Peter's hand.
Mary Jane turned his hand over and studied it for a moment, trying to remember. He put up no resistance, but still refused to look at her. Suddenly, her eyes brightened as if a thought had just occurred to her.
Deftly, she stretched her fingers up over Peter's middle and ring finger, pulling them down into his palm. A long gossamer string of webbing shot from his wrist, attaching to a chair at the table behind Mary Jane.
"You are," she whispered, although she knew she didn't really need to.
He slowly raised his head to stare into her eyes, then sort of comically shrugged. Releasing the string of web from his wrist, he said, "Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman."
Despite herself, Mary Jane giggled, and even Peter laughed.
He stared at her for a moment, and then said softly, "How'd you know?"
"What. . .that you loved me or that you were Spiderman?" She inquired.
"Well. . .both."
"It's just. . .felt right, I guess," Mary Jane replied.
"Yeah, I guess. . .it does."
She gave him a warm smile. Peter returned it, then averted his eyes. "It's just. . .my life is perilous, MJ. It would be selfish of me if we were together. Villians would try to hurt you to get to me. I can't allow that. I'm sorry. I just can't."
The Mary Jane of a few weeks ago would have weeped at these words, but the Mary Jane now knew more than before. She had been anticipating him to say such a thing, and now that he had, she was prepared.
"You saved my life three times. If that's not the living personification of thirteen four and thirteen five in Corinthians, I don't know what is." Mary Jane beamed. "So reach down deep, Peter Parker. Deep down inside of your heart, and tell me that you can't ignore what's there. That love can't outweigh everything else in the world." She slipped her hand in his again.
Peter's bright blue eyes shifted back up to meet hers. "I'm afraid."
"Of putting me in the line of fire?"
"And of losing you," he added.
"You'll never lose me, Peter. You never will. You're a part of me, and I'm a part of you. If I die, you still have me. If you die, I still have you." Mary Jane squeezed his hand. "Like Earnest Hemingway said once, 'Man can be defeated, but never destroyed.' Love empowers everything. Evil is defeated in the Apocalypse because it's love that gives us the power to do so.
"And I love you, Peter Parker."
Peter studied her for a very long moment. All of her words flooded his mind as his whole entire body became enamored with the love he felt for this woman. Everything she had been saying was true, he felt it in his heart.
Without hesitation, he leaned forward - just as Mary Jane did so as well - and captured her in a long, warm kiss. They both sealed it with their love for each other, a love that created and empowered the bond between them that could not be broken.
el fin