"Peter!" MJ watched Peter scale the side of the building they were constructing. She had seen him crawl across a wall multiple times in his various spider suits but it was disconcerting when he had jeans and T-shirt on.
"MJ, even if they saw me, who are they going to tell?" Peter swung a leg over the top of the wall and sat down. Using his web-shooters, he latched onto a bag of tools and pulled them up. "It's the benefit of being miles away from civilization." He took a hammer out of the bag and started working on the bracing for the roof. "Plus, they don't care that I'm Spider-Man."
MJ shook her head. "At this point they think that you're some kind of construction genius. They don't quite understand how you're getting all of this done when it's just the two of us."
Peter looked down at her and grinned. "I am a genius."
MJ threw a rag at him. "That's not what I mean. You put the header beam into place by yourself. When they build a building it takes all the men in the village."
"That's why we're in this particular village. Most of the men have gone off with the warlords in this region." Peter looked out over the vista in front of them. It was vastly different from what he was used to. When they'd go into different countries on missions he never really had a chance to take everything in. Early on, curiosity always got the better of him and he couldn't help but to be distracted by new sights, now, from the point the wheels of the Quinjet touched down his focus was 100% on the mission at hand. Without someone immediately trying to kill him, he had time to actually take in his surroundings. He was still on a mission, it was just wholly different than what he was used to and he found that he was really enjoying himself. He glanced back down at MJ and smiled. The fact that they were here together made it even better.
MJ squinted up at him. "When does everyone else get here?"
Peter sighed and went back to working on the bracing. "Tomorrow." He looked at the building. "Think I can get the roof on before they get here?"
MJ shook her head and went back to putting the waterproofing on what would be the door. "Probably. Are you surprised T'Challa let us stay out here by ourselves?"
Peter scooted down the top of the wall to continue installing the bracings. He only had a few more to put on before he could start on the actual roof. "They can get a clear signal from both of our watches and I think the War Dogs are closer than either of us think. I also think T'Challa understands." Decompression was exactly what Peter needed. After everything with Zeke finally ended, he realized exactly how stressed he had been. Within a week of getting a clean bill of health from Dr. Cho he and MJ had headed to Wakanda. Spending time in the capital city had been great but once Peter had gone out to one of the villages they had targeted for the joint initiative he hadn't wanted to leave. He was just thankful MJ was ok with the idea. It wasn't something he could do long term but it was nice for the couple days they had been out here. Plus, it meant he got a lot accomplished. Building a school wasn't that different than anything else he had ever built. It just didn't have a lot of tech in it. In fact there was no tech at all. And no power. Turns out super strength comes in handy when you're manually cutting wood.
MJ looked down at her watch. "Hey, it's almost noon. My guess is they'll bring us lunch soon." The last three days had followed an identical pattern. Some of the villagers would bring them food around noon and the kids would spend the rest of the day helping. It was kind of like Morgan helping Tony and Peter in the lab, which meant nothing got done. The first day it happened, Peter was frustrated that he couldn't actually do any work. That is until MJ reminded him that they were building the school for the kids...the same kids that wanted to 'help'. So, the next day they planned ahead and strategically left things for the kids to help with. Today's activity was "painting" the classrooms. Really, MJ was going to help them do hand prints on the walls. The fact that the roof wasn't on yet didn't mean a whole lot since the environment was so arid. MJ watched Peter lower the tool bag to the ground with a web and flip off the ledge landing in front of her.
His timing was perfect because as soon as he hit the ground he could hear them coming. He estimated they'd be walking around the bend in the road in about two minutes. Just because they were miles from civilization didn't mean they were completely without resources. Peter walked into the tent that T'Challa had given them. It wasn't your standard tent. It was a Wakandan tent that very much reminded Peter of either the Tardis or Mary Poppins' bag...the inside was way different than its outside appearance. He finished washing up and walked outside in time to see the kids running around the bend in the road.
The afternoon project actually went great. MJ had them involved enough that he could finish up the bracings and get the support beams in place. MJ had gotten fairly proficient at distracting the kids while he did something he shouldn't be able to do. He was getting careless though, there were more than a couple times when he knew some of the younger kids had seen him lift something he shouldn't be able to. But, like he had told MJ, who were they going to tell.
The sun started dropping in the sky, which meant that the kids started making their way back to their village. It wasn't too far away but it was far enough that Peter and MJ could enjoy the silence. It was part of what was helping Peter decompress. Ever since the accident in high school he had been very much aware of the fact that sometimes even a little stimuli was too much. They had gotten creative over the years. He had gone out to Clint's farm one other time after a bad mission. The lake house helped. It was almost as quiet as it was here. There were just different animal noises which he found fascinating. Of course it helped that he was fairly confident that between the tent T'Challa had given them to use and his own abilities he could keep them both safe from what ever was roaming around at night.
MJ walked out of the tent and walked over to where Peter was standing. "So what's going on in your head?"
Peter glanced over at her and shrugged. "It's just nice to be able to decompress."
"That's not what I'm talking about. You've never been overly great at keeping secrets but it's almost like you want the kids to know what you can do." MJ studied the expressions flickering across Peter's face. "Are you testing the waters?"
Peter kept his eyes on the sunset. "Would it be so bad if I am?" He turned to look fully at her, trying to judge her reaction.
MJ smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him over to the rock they had spent the last couple nights leaning against as the watched the stars. "It's a constant shock every morning when I turn the news on and another day has gone by where you haven't been outed. But it's a lot to think through." Sinking down, she pulled him down next to her. "Have you talked to your dad about it?"
Peter shook his head. "No. It really hasn't been this strong of an idea until this week. Maybe once we're back in New York I'll go back to wanting to keep it secret. Maybe this is just part of decompressing." He settled back against the rock. "Plus there's Miles to think about. He's got another couple years of high school. If it's out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, how does that affect him."
MJ crossed her legs and turned to look at Peter instead of the twilight sky. "It's a toss up. It either completely insulates him or it puts him in more danger. I'm not sure there's an in between."
Peter looked over at MJ. He was extraordinarily grateful she was in the boxes. "So what do you think. You do get a vote. I'm fact, I'm pretty sure your vote will probably outweigh mine."
MJ laughed. "I'm ok either way. But I don't want to be caught off guard so you can't do what Tony did and announce it without telling anyone what you're doing."
Peter laughed, "You'll have a heads up." He glanced up as stars started appearing in the darkening sky. He let out a sigh as more and more stars appeared in the night sky. This was some thing else he didn't have in New York, or Boston for that matter. You could see a decent amount of stars at the Lake House but nothing like this.
MJ smirked at the look on Peter's face. At the end of the day he was a complete science geek and she loved it. Most people enjoyed looking at stars, Peter was in awe of it. "Would you want to go up there?"
Peter tore his eyes away from the sky. "In space? In a heartbeat." He shrugged, "Other timeline me did." They had tried to figure out where exactly Titan was but Dr. Strange couldn't give them enough details.
"Other timeline you died up there." MJ frowned. That was one of the boxes she hadn't enjoyed being in, but she was still glad she had been allowed into it.
Peter smirked, "I'm pretty sure I would have died on Earth too. I don't think it was just because I was on another planet."
MJ scooted closer to a Peter and shifted until she was leaning against him. She pulled his arm around her, intertwining her fingers with his. "Let's try not to die in either place."
"Agreed." Peter sighed again. This was probably his favorite part of the last couple nights.
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Peter woke up with his Spidey sense fully ramped up. His hand immediately reached next to him. Once reassured that MJ was fine and asleep next to him, he swung his legs off the bed, slipped his jeans back on, and pulled on his boots. Tying the laces he focused on the sounds he could hear. He felt MJ stir next to him. Reaching back he put his hand on her and felt her immediately tense. He glanced back. "Stay in the tent." He slid his hand down to her wrist. "Use the panic button if you need to." Rising, he walked towards the door and slid the flap to the side to peer out.
