There are few things that make Peter Parker happier than Aunt May's pancakes on a Sunday morning: carelessly swinging from building to building and rooftop to rooftop without a care in the world on a blue bird day, doing stupid shit with Ned (whatever that stupid shit may be), and for some odd reason, Peter's really grown fond of his English study sessions with Michelle at that nice little coffee shop midway between their places.
It helps that Michelle might be the object of Peter's unyielding attention, currently, but seriously, he really likes hanging out with her.
While Michelle may be the most beautiful, most intimidating, most clever and funny and fucking terrifying person Peter's ever had the pleasure of meeting, she's hard to get a read on – aka Peter's fucking stupid and can't really tell if she actually enjoys hanging out and studying with him.
She's got an artistically crafted wit, and she manipulates words so intricately Peter has to physically hold up his jaw from dropping. Her humor is dark, but in an endearing and uniquely Michelle type of way.
Plus, they both usually spend about twenty minutes of study screaming about being bisexual (as bisexuals often do).
Peter's never had a friend like Michelle.
Peter's also not sure if he and Michelle are even friends, honestly. She just helps him study English after school.
Peter really hopes Michelle thinks of him as her friend.
(Is that weird? He's starting to think it's weird.)
A few weeks later Peter decides it's time to add a new word to the dictionary.
(friend-lust - desperately hoping that Michelle wants to be or considers herself Peter Parker's friend. This is not to be confused with the ridiculous crush that Peter also happens to have on Michelle, also known as straight-up lust.)
As you can probably tell, English is not his best subject.
Although, it seems like his prayers have been answered because on one fateful day (right when Ned's in the middle of quoting a vine in an ill attempt to jog Peter's memory), Michelle plops herself (and her lunch) down across from the two boys. They're both a bit confused as to why she's sitting here, across from them, on a Wednesday, but by the look she throws to the both of them, Peter's pretty sure it's best not to ask questions.
Peter is inexplicably happy, and he knows that Ned and Michelle are watching him and his goofy face – but he doesn't care.
Michelle Jones only sits with people she thinks of as her friends.
(Peter goes home that night and does his best to keep Aunt May in the dark.
Peter fails, and before he knows it, Aunt May's forcing him to invite Michelle over next time he and Ned are getting together.
Plot twist: That's on Friday.)
Somehow, Peter doesn't shit a brick when he invites Michelle over to his house the next day.
Somehow, Peter manages to keep calm when she says she should be able to.
Somehow, Peter feels like the luckiest person alive because all his wishing actually worked, and he and Michelle might actually be friends now.
School passes quickly after that, and when Peter's out being the friendly neighborhood Spiderman that evening, he's never felt so free, so alive, and so full of hope.
The introduction of Michelle to Aunt May is not a disaster. Peter's aunt seems to be taken with the girl, and Peter's very sure that if he hurt Michelle in anyway whatsoever Aunt May would hunt him down, ruin his life, and send Michelle his life savings in retribution for the ill doings of her dumbass nephew.
They watch Michelle's favorite Harry Potter film by accident (it's the Prisoner of Azkaban, if you we're curious), and if Peter wasn't sure he was in love with her before this evening, he's sure now.
They've got the same favorite Harry Potter movie, they both hate Snape with every fiber of their beings, she's read the books just as many times as he has, she laughs at all of Ned's dumb jokes that he loves so much. She calls him names like 'loser', and 'dork', and 'nerd' with a tender affection that only friends do.
Peter comes out of that encounter feeling elated and proud – he only looked at Michelle when she wasn't paying attention, like, twenty-three times.
That's a new record.
(Ned adds her to their text group the next day.)
Here's the only issue with MJ's residence at their lunch table: it forces Ned and Peter to keep quiet about the Spider-Man thing.
Not that they weren't quiet before, but they weren't – and they still aren't. Peter knows from years of experience that when something exciting and extremely relevant happens in Ned's or his own life it doesn't stay quiet for long.
That's the long way of saying that Peter and Ned can't keep quiet or keep secrets.
But Peter doesn't exactly mind MJ knowing that he's a super hero (he's a teenage boy, alright?)
Plus, he's pretty sure she's got an idea of his secret identity. She's smart; she was in DC last year before the whole elevator fiasco in the Washington Monument. She sits across from Ned and Peter who whisper yell about Tony Stark and the suit and the job and pretends not to listen.
Peter pretends to not know she's pretending.
When his sophomore year of high school ends, the trio vows to do some cool shit over the summer.
And by cool shit, they mean coming over to Peter's flat basically everyday and doing cool stuff, like binge watching four seasons Brooklyn 99 on Netflix in three days, forcing Aunt May to make pancakes at three o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday, playing fuck, marry, kill – but avengers edition (and internally screaming when MJ says she'd marry Spiderman – he's so distracted he doesn't have a moment to murder Ned for putting his name in the mix).
She gives Ned and Peter book recs; they go to the Met and make silly videos imitating the ones their AP Art History teacher used to show them in class when she didnt feel like teaching.
It's fun, to say the least.
The thing is, Peter never explicitly states that he's Spider-Man; it's just sort of an accepted fact between the two of them that he is, and when he shows up at MJ's window in the dead of night, restlessness and angst and something like melancholy written all over his face; she lets him in.
They don't talk about it, but she'll get him a glass of water or a hot cup of tea, and let him slip into the bed next to her.
It's platonic and comforting, but god, call him selfish for wanting more.
Moments like these make Peter feel so glad to have MJ in his life – because he really doesn't know what he'd do without her at this point – but also there's a part of him that isn't satisfied, and he hates himself for it.
Junior year starts too soon. Peter's feelings for MJ only intensify – so much to the point that he thinks that he's imagining MJ looking at him wistfully from cross the lunch table, from across the physics class room, in pre-calc – basically everywhere.
They're English study sessions seems less like study sessions and more like dates – as in nary an English book gets opened – it's more so the two of them being loud and obnoxious and happy together.
Peter's never wanted to kiss her more in his entire life.
It's the worst form of torture.
titties out for str8 up murder
em jay: okay but like catholic church au where everything is the same, but the word father is substituted for daddy
nedward: mj I love u but this needs to die
peet: thanks i hate it
peet: also mj? it's like 3 am? y is this what ur thinking about
em jay: ap euro exam is in like,, three days
em jay: also Maggie just shared it in out ap euro gc and i thot id steal her genius and claim it as my own with u losers
peet: she's a genius and ur a fraud now pls sleep.
em jay: no.
Ned's the one who notices the shift in the dynamic of movie night first: usually he's in the middle, but this time Peter's taken his spot and is dangerously and suspiciously close to MJ. Peter's aware of Ned looking in his direction and takes a quick second to glare at Ned.
Peter knows that Ned's aware that he's been pining for a while now – and Ned just shrugs.
"I'm gonna go get some more popcorn."
Peter uses this opportunity to snake his hand with MJ's; surprisingly, she doesn't object. He tries to fight the rosiness appearing on his cheeks. Peter looks down at his lap. He can feel MJ examining his face.
Then she kisses his cheek.
"Loser," she smiles fondly and squeezes his hand.
(Peter short circuits. Thank god for Ned and his impeccable timing, because if he hadn't entered the room with the popcorn at that exact moment, Peter would have done something stupid – like kiss her or tell her that he's pretty sure he's been in love with her since like, the summer after freshman year.)
Junior year comes to an end like a swiftly approaching train. MJ and Peter are good friends.
Friends who sometimes kiss and hold hands and are head over heels for each other.
So maybe 'friend' is not the right word (but Peter refuses to make up another word, because the first one was just plain ridiculous and he's not subjecting himself to that kind of ridicule again).
Peter fights crime, swings with only spiderwebs from building to building, has told Tony Stark 'no', and has lived to tell the tale, but he's too scared to tell MJ that he doesn't think friends do this sort of thing.
Its mid-June. Peter and MJ are in the little coffee shop where they meet for their study dates, both talking about their preliminary list of colleges that they're thinking about applying to.
Peter thinks it's weird to think that soon there will be a time when he and MJ aren't joined together at the hip – that they'll be learning at two different institutions and doing smart things and having fun without each other – that movie nights and the group text and every stupid inside joke they ever had will just be a thing that they reminisce on every once in a blue moon when they think of life when they were young.
He thinks that if he doesn't say something now, this thing that's sort of happening between the two of them will be a 'what if' or a 'maybe' or an 'almost'.
Peter Parker is a lot of things, but he refuses to be defined as an almost.
They're both talking nonsense, hand in hand across a table for two (like they're lovers in one of Aunt May's terrible romance novels which he has never read) when he decides he needs to ask.
It's obvious she likes him at least a little bit (considering the way she kissed him last night – people just don't kiss like that if they aren't attracted to someone.)
Although in typical Peter Parker fashion, the execution is a little more jagged than the theory (in his defense, being a super hero is not his full time job).
"Are we dating?" he asks.
"I don't think friends suck face like we do, Peter."
"I know that, MJ," he rolls his eyes, "It's just there's a lot that we do without speaking - like you know about the internship with Stark – even though I never really told you out right that I was, you know, him – and while that's a big thing, I think this thing between you and me needs to be verbally confirmed." He rambles.
"You're my boyfriend, loser."
"Good." He smiles, looking directly and adoringly into her eyes, "I've only wanted to hear you say that for three years."
MJ laughs, beautiful and unapologetically loud.
"You're the biggest fuckin' nerd and I love you, you know that?"
Peter can't help but lean over the table to kiss her quickly.
"I do now." He smiles, quickly adding, "I love you too, by the way."
"I know."
"Good."
They smile goofily at each other for a minute before Peter interjects.
"Remember that time you said you wouldn't mind marrying Spiderman?"
He's never been happier to be the recipient of MJ's signature scowl.