Hey!

Thanks everyone for reading and following. I hope you enjoy this chapter - I really liked writing it!


"Oh my God I can't believe you made me come here-on a Saturday. No one ever comes here on a Saturday. God it's so busy!"

Chrissie was pulled away from her people gazing at the sound of MJ's voice.

Blinking briefly in confusion as she turned away from the window just in time to see her friend boldly pushing her way through the hoards of locals and tourists alike who were gathering in the lobby of Junior's waiting for a table.

Chrissie knew why she hated it, the place was always teeming with people but it was one of the reasons why Chrissie loved it so much - especially when she just wanted to get away and think.

To get lost in the crowd for a little while.

As MJ made her way towards her she briefly felt like telling her she never even asked her to come here in the first place but the look MJ shot at the few people brave enough to yell at her for bumping in to them gave Chrissie pause. Instead she just waited until MJ got to her table and raised a questioning eyebrow as the other girl plopped down in the seat opposite her and immediately grabbed the menu out of her hands.

"I seriously don't get your fascination with this place. Regular people avoid tourist traps like this place on a Saturday like the plague yet here you are."

Chrissie couldn't help but smile at that.

"Good to see you too MJ. Speaking of - why are you here exactly?"

MJ lowered the menu slightly and shot her a look.

"Well if you insist of trying and failing miserably at sneaking out of May's apartment at the ass crack of dawn." She told her dryly before diverting her attention back to the menu in her hands.

"If you must know Peter texted me. He saw you sneaking out this morning and figured you were having second thoughts about whatever the hell happened between the two of you last night and that I was the best person to talk to you about it. So did you two finally get over yourselves and start making out or what?"

"MJ!" Chrissie hissed loudly, glaring at her friend as her face slowly started catching on fire not only as a result of what she had just said but also because she had said it loud enough that table next to theirs had clearly heard and had started to snicker.

"Will you keep your voice down!"

"Oh so you two were making out last night you just don't want the whole of Manhattan to hear about it."

"Oh my God! MJ we weren't-"

"Hi my name is-"

The poor waitress who interrupted her didn't stand a chance. MJ immediately cut her off ordering a Lumberjack and coffee for Chrissie and a slice of Red Velvet Cheesecake and ice tea for herself before telling the waitress to go away and not come back unless she had their order.

"MJ that was so rude!" Chrissie chastised her friend as she watched the woman who was serving them turn and walk back towards the kitchen. As she did so Chrissie was in no doubt that she was probably planning on doing something to their food - if MJ had treated her like that Chrissie knew without a doubt that was what she would be doing.

"Well it was her fault for interrupting."

"She was doing her job!"

"Well now she's doing it quicker. Come on, stop wasting time and tell me what is going on between you and Peter."

Chrissie couldn't help but snort bitterly as she started fiddling with the cutlery on the table.

"What you mean more than what has been going on between us for the last few months."

"You know exactly what I mean. What happened last night?"

By the time the waitress had come back and placed their orders in front of them Chrissie had almost finished giving MJ the cliff notes version of what had happened last night.

Chrissie had taken one look at the waitress' face as she walked away before staring down at her food and wondering if it really was safe to eat. However, hunger eventually won out and she resigned herself to eating it and suffering whatever conquences may befall her. MJ however, attacked her cheesecake with not a single care in the world, something which Chrissie just found utterly amazing but not so surprising.

When it came to MJ she had come to learn that all bets were off and that nothing was to be expected.

"So" MJ mumbled around a forkful of red velvet cheesecake.

"Peter apologised to you for being such an ass and spent all of last night making it up to you and promising he wouldn't do it again."

Chrissie nodded, wondering where MJ was going with this as she continued to play with her food.

"And this was after he'd travelled 20 minutes across town to see Mr Stark, your biggest idol and his boss, to beg him to give you a Stark internship."

"Yes."

"And he promised nothing like this would ever happen again and told you that he was only keeping secrets from you to keep you safe."

"He did."

MJ hummed in contemplation and ate another mouthful of cheesecake before a look of confusion passed over her face and she pointed her fork (rather accusingly Chrissie thought) at her.

"So remind me again why you're upset about this?"

Chrissie sighed deeply as she leaned back heavily in her chair, her gaze shifting briefly to look at the people swarming outside as she tried to gather her thoughts.

"God MJ I wish I knew. It's just I was so so ready to forgive him last night, I still am."

"But how is that a bad thing? All you ever wanted was for him to explain what he was doing, why he was keeping secrets from you and to apologse for it so you two could go back to being your own freaky little peas in a pod. You got that. Why aren't you happy about it?"

"I am." She insisted weakly, causing MJ to snort loudly in disbelief. Chrissie sighed a little -even to her it didn't sound like she really believed that but it was true, or at least to an extent it was.

"I mean it." She told MJ a little more firmly this time in an attempt to convince them both. "I know last night he was telling me the truth, or as much of it as he could say. And I know that he is genuinely sorry for what he has done and will do everything he can to try and make it up to me."

"But-"

"No buts just..." Chrissie couldn't help but sigh in defeat as she slumped ever so slightly in her chair, her eyes searching MJs face in the hopes of finding some kind of answer there which would ease her mind.

"What if I've forgiven him too easily? Shouldn't I make him sweat it out a little longer?"

MJ raised a questioning eyebrow - now that she hadn't been expecting.

"Why would you want to?"

"Well - wouldn't you?"

MJ leaned back in her chair with a snort of amusement.

"Of course I would but I'm me, I like to make people squirm. I'd make him suffer just for the fun of it. But you're different Chrissie. You'd never intentionally make anyone suffer let alone Peter."

"But-"

MJ groaned loudly and with a roll of her eyes leaned closer to speak to her friend.

"Look."

Her no nonsense tone was enough to tell Chrissie that she was slowly growing tired of this conversation.

"Will holding this over Peter's head and making him suffer for longer make you any happier?"

"No not really but-"

"Then don't do it. You said it yourself "No buts". Chrissie, Peter makes you happy and you make him happy too. Yes he was an ass but from the sound of it he's genuinely sorry and he wants to make it up to you. Let him. God knows you deserve to be happy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that something is not right with you lately and it is more than just this thing between you and Peter."

Chrissie winced slightly and pulled back, more than a little unsettled that MJ was now venturing in to territory she wasn't entirely comfortable discussing.

MJ noticed the change in her friend's behaviour and in a move uncharacteristic for her reached across the table and squeezed Chrissie's hand comfortingly before continuing, her tone far softer than it had been before.

"I don't know what happened and unless you feel comfortable telling me I don't wanna to know. But Chrissie whatever's happened you need to talk to someone about it. Now that you and Peter are back on track again maybe you can tell him."

Chrissie shook her head sadly, her hand shaking ever so slightly in MJ's hold. Her words and the way in which she had reached out to her, tried to comfort her, had shaken Chrissie more than she thought, to the point where she almost caved in and told MJ everything but she couldn't - the same way she couldn't tell Peter.

Not yet anyway.

Even if she had decided to forgive him things would still be rocky for a little while as the two of them worked out how to fit back in to each other's lives. Not to mention the Stark internship was clearly having more of an impact on him than she thought if he was having to hide things from her for her own protection. He had enough to worry about without having to worry about her too.

"I can't MJ...at least not yet." She told her friend, adding the last part quickly when it looked like she was about to protest.

MJ watched her closely for a second to try and see if she was telling the truth. She must have been satisfied with the answer because a moment later she dropped her gaze and went back to eating her cheesecake.

"So now we have that settled time to move on to the any other business section of today's meeting."

Chrissie rolled her eyes a little at the dramatics of it all but couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face at her friend's antics.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like... when are you and Peter finally going to get your act together and realise that you two should be making out on a regular basis by now. I mean seriously the heat between you two - oof! I swear sometimes things just spontaniously combust when they're around you. Are you seriously telling me you haven't hit that yet? Because I've heard Liz talking about Peter and-"

"MJ! Would you just -wait... what has Liz been saying about Peter?"


I've only been to New York a few times so i apologise for any touristy errors! MJ is probably a little AU too but I really liked writing her like this.

Thanks for reading! :)