Peter slowly shut the bedroom door behind him.
Mary Jane didn't take her eyes off of the suit. A thousand things raced through Peter's mind. He felt panic and relief at the same time. He didn't make a move towards his girlfriend; he wanted her to get her thoughts in order before he said anything.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Mary Jane spoke.
"I am... confused." She looked up at him.
"Well, I think the Spider-Man suit laying across our bed kind of gives it away." Peter let out a nervous laugh and ran his hand through his hair.
"So that's the real suit then?" she asked in a shaky but curious voice.
"Yup." He made the "p" pop.
"Okay," she said as she moved the suit and sat down on the bed. She took the mask in her hands and stared at it.
"Does that bother you?" Peter asked.
She shook her head. "I can get over the fact that you're Spider-Man, Peter, but what I can't figure out is why have you stopped?"
Peter walked over and ruffled up her hair, earning a miffed look from Mary Jane. "So, you can get over the fact that I am basically a human-spider mutant, but you're confused about why I stopped being Spider-Man?"
"Well, yeah. My aunt always—" She paused and looked away from Peter for a moment. "—she always spoke highly of him. About Spider-Man. How he was the best thing that ever happened to this city. People always looked up to him. And then I find out that you— you're Spider-Man, and it doesn't make sense to me. Why would you, Peter Parker, the best person that I have ever known, give up something that helped people so much?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
"Not everyone thinks that greatly of Spider-Man, you know," he whispered as he intertwined her fingers with his.
"What do you mean?"
"You've read what the papers said, right? About... Gwen?" He was surprised to find that he could actually say her name without flinching. More relief swept through him.
"You actually care about what the paper says about you?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Everyone knows that Spider-Man had nothing to do with what happened, Peter. Ever since then, there have been paper after paper talking about how the city needs Spider-Man." She shook her head. "And this whole time you've just been in this house, sulking."
Peter quickly looked up at her. "I'm not sulking. I just— I gave up being Spider-Man."
"But why? It can't have been just because of a newspaper."
Peter took his hand out of hers and stood up from the bed.
"It's because— because I blame myself for what happened. The night that Gwen Stacy died, a part of me died too."
Mary Jane nodded to him. "What happened that night Peter?"
He shook his head at her. "I can't, MJ."
"You can trust me. You said you would tell me everything. I won't judge you, I just want to understand you better." She hopped off the bed and walked up to Peter, rubbing his arm.
He sighed and turned to her. "Gwen and I, we had just finished off Electro—or so I thought because apparently he's still alive—when Harry showed up."
"Harry Osborn?" Mary Jane questioned.
"Mhm. Except, he had changed. He wasn't Harry anymore. He was something much worse. And it took me until very recently to find out what exactly had happened to him." He shuddered.
"What happened to him?" Mary Jane tried not to sound too curious.
"He injected himself with the spider venom that I have inside me. He was dying. It was from the same disease that killed his father. He had it in his head that my blood, that Spider-Man's blood, would help him. When he asked Spider-Man for his blood, he—I, denied him. I wasn't sure what it would do to him. I wanted more time to research it. When he showed up that night and saw Spider-Man with Gwen, he put two and two together and knew it was me." Peter shook his head. "My 'betrayal,' I think, is what really set him off. He was so angry and hurt that I had betrayed him that he took Gwen and flew over the clock tower. I tried reaching them, I begged him to let her go and to fight me, so he dropped her. We both fell through the top of the tower and Harry continued to fight me. Gwen got knocked off of one of the gears and I shot a web out at her and she caught it. Harry wouldn't give up. The gears jammed up and—" He choked out a sob.
"It's okay, Peter," Mary Jane told him and she stood up on her toes to kiss his forehead.
"I failed her, MJ. She was so sure that I would save her, but I didn't. My webbing snapped and she fell to the ground and hit her head. I knew she was gone, but I couldn't accept it. She was... everything to me. After that night I didn't have it in me to continue being Spider-Man. I had let the one person who believed in me so greatly, die. To make matters worse, before all this happened, I had promised her dying father to stay away from her to keep her safe, but I didn't. I went back on my promise because I'm a selfish person, and Gwen is dead because of that." Peter felt a huge load lift off of his chest being able to say all this to another person.
"No, Peter. That was in no way your fault, you have to realize that. Harry killed Gwen. This is all his fault. I can't believe Harry— Oh my God and I— we—" She had a look of revulsion on her face. "We all used to be such good friends. How could Harry do something like that?"
"There's something else I need to tell you about Harry," Peter whispered suddenly.
Mary Jane gave Peter an inquisitive look.
Peter opened his mouth but no sound came out. How was he going to tell her that Harry was the one who killed her aunt? He had promised to tell her everything and that was what he was going to do. He took a big breath and tried again.
"There's no easy way to tell you this, MJ. But... Harry Osborn is the one who murdered your aunt."
"He— Harry!?" Mary Jane shouted. Peter nodded and went to pull her towards him, but she pushed him away. "No this— I cant believe this! Why would you keep this from me, Peter!? Where is he right now? Why isn't he in jail!?" she shouted.
"MJ, please, my aunt can't know about any of this. I'm asking you in the nicest way possible, please keep your voice down," Peter begged.
"Peter! He killed my aunt. Why my aunt? What did she have to do with anything?" Mary Jane started to cry.
"I'm not exactly sure about Harry's way of thinking, MJ, but I know it all comes down to hurting me in any way possible. That's why I don't want him near you. I can't lose you too," he said as he tried to hold her again.
"Where is he? I'll kill him, myself," Mary Jane said as she picked up her jacket and started to pull it over her arms.
"MJ, wait. Revenge won't help. It will just eat at you until there's nothing left. Also, Harry is a deranged murderer and I don't want you anywhere near him."
"Why didn't you tell the police?" she hissed at him.
"He was already in prison once. He got broken out. Jail won't hold him," Peter said emotionlessly. Mary Jane looked livid and he was hurt that some of it was directed towards him. He wasn't sure what to say to her.
"You need to be Spider-Man again," she said impassively.
"What?" Peter said taken aback.
"If you were Spider-Man, maybe this wouldn't have—" But she stopped when she saw the look on Peter's face.
"You blame me," he said in a flat tone.
"Peter, no, I didn't mean that," Mary Jane said as she strode over to him. She took his face in her hands and looked him straight in the eye. "I would never in a million years blame you for something like that. I love you." She kissed his nose and dropped her arms to her sides. "I just meant that people need Spider-Man. You don't realize how many people you save."
"You really think people need Spider-Man?" Peter said slowly.
"Yes. I don't think you realize what kind of effect your absence has had on this city, Peter," Mary Jane said as she brushed his cheek.
Peter let out a content sigh. "I want to be Spider-Man again. I've had a lot of time to think about it, I just wasn't really sure if it was the right thing to do. But if you support me on this, that makes the decision so much more easier for me."
"That's good, Peter," she said to him and then suddenly, mischievously, smiled at him. "So how do I know that you're really Spider-Man and not just pretending?"
Peter raised his eyebrow at her and suddenly he wrapped his arms around her and jumped backwards across his room onto his bed, cradling her above him as he landed on his back. The look on her face was priceless and Peter let out a laugh as she playfully pushed herself off of him. He sat out up straight and grasped her in his arms again.
"That. Was. Not. Funny," she said as she kept playfully batting away his arms.
"Aw come on, it was a little bit." He grinned. "Come here." he said as he held out his arm to her.
"Why, are you going to launch us across the room again?" she teased, narrowing her eyes at him.
"No, I just really want to kiss you right now. You're cute when you're annoyed."
"Whatever, Peter." She rolled her eyes at him, but snuggled up on top of him, hiding her face in his hoodie. Out of nowhere, Peter swiftly rolled himself out from under her and bent down over her and quickly kissed her on the tip of her nose.
"Gotcha." He smirked. Mary Jane suddenly moved forward and pecked him on the lips, then pulled away, biting her lip.
Peter eagerly pressed his lips back to hers. She returned the kiss, her hands gripping the back of his hair.
"Hey there, tiger," she murmured into his ear. Peter looked down at her and she raised her eyebrows and shot him a suggestive smile. Suddenly, they were undressing each other, trying to maintain their kiss. Peter wrapped his arms around her waist and Mary Jane peered up at him as her back was pressed against the mattress. She bit her lip and went in for another kiss. In this wonderful moment, everything was right in the world.
Peter opened his eyes and had to immediately shield them as the morning sunlight seeped through his windows. He looked down and saw that Mary Jane was huddled up next to him, still asleep. Very carefully, he crawled out of their bed, gently laid a thin blanket over her exposed body, and kissed her on the forehead.
He quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt and went downstairs to the kitchen. The TV in the kitchen was still on, but Aunt May had already left for work he realized. He didn't realize they had slept-in that long. He shrugged as he grabbed a pair of spoons, two bowls, cereal, and milk. As he poured himself and Mary Jane a bowl of cereal, the WABC-TV New York News Channel was interviewing a young woman about how she had been robbed last night. Apparently, her Louis Vuitton bag and Prada Aviator Sunglasses had been stolen from her by a women who had been wearing a tight black leather suit. Peter half listened to the woman and the news reporter.
"... is more crime in this city than ever before. Ever since Spider-Man has disappeared, there has been an increase in crime by nearly 70%. Citizens of New York City fear they may never see the wall-crawler again."
Peter quickly shut off the TV. Today would be the day that he would bring back hope to this city. He began walking back up the stairs to his room, balancing both bowls of cereal in one hand and searching through his phone in the other. When he pulled open his bedroom door, Mary Jane was sitting on the bed in one of his blue t-shirts with a huge smile on her face.
"Hey there, doe eyes," Mary Jane giggled as he nearly spilled the cereal bowls.
"Wha—what are you doing up? I didn't wake you, did I?" he asked as he set his cereal bowl down on his desk.
"No, my phone started to buzz, actually. My work expects me back later this afternoon," she said as she got up out of bed. "Did you make me breakfast?"
"Yup, my specialty: Lucky Charms." He handed her the bowl. "And I think it's great if you go back to work. It's kind of ironic they picked today to call you."
She finished chewing her spoonful of cereal before responding. "How is it ironic?" she asked, taking another spoonful.
"Today's the day we both go back to work."
Peter smiled as he saw her confused expression turn to excitement.
"Peter! That's great!" she yelled as she set down the bowl and leapt over to him, pulling him into a tight hug.
"I'm glad you think so." He looked down at her admiringly. He felt like the luckiest guy in the world right now. She peered up at him and the look in her eyes was full with adoration. Suddenly, Peter's expression went serious. "Look, MJ, if I'm going to be Spider-Man again, I have to be much more careful with you, okay? I'm not sure who Harry's told about my identity yet, but I'm sure he hasn't kept it a secret."
"I trust you, Peter. I know you won't let anything happen to me." she picked up her cereal bowl again and plopped on the bed.
"I won't. I won't let anything bad happen to you. You mean to much too me," he said with desperation in his voice.
A few hours passed and Peter decided to try out the suit for the first time in several months. He felt a sense of relief as he slipped on the suit, and the urge to swing through the city was stronger than ever.
"How do I look?" he joked as Mary Jane entered the room.
"Ooooh, very sexy." Mary Jane walked up to him. "This is so surreal. Actually seeing you in the Spider-Man suit," she said as she ran her hand down his chest.
"Maybe later tonight when you're off work, I can take you for a swing in the city?" Peter asked as he slipped on his mask.
"I might just like that," she laughed as she went to the closet. "I have to go now, though, so I'll call you when I'm off." She put on her heels, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and hurried out the door.
"Well, here we go," Peter said to himself as he opened up his bedroom window and swung out towards the city.