Peter's plan

Chapter 17

"Don't be an idiot too, Parker."

Peter walks around with Ned and Betty for a little while. The park is especially big, with a canal running in the middle, and they quietly stroll around, taking in the nice scenery. They walk to the entrance of the Cité des Sciences, and Ned and him geek out about all the cool stuff they'll see the next day. There's a temporary exhibition about spies that looks amazing, and they're both super excited to see the planetarium and the exposition entitled 'The Great Story of the Universe'.

When Betty gets a little bored of their geekiness, they resume their promenade. They list all the words they know in French, and Peter gets made fun of for the way he says croissant – which honestly he doesn't get because he really thinks he's saying it the right way anyway. He mumbles that they should ask MJ because she's the one that's good at French, and Betty gives him a curious look that has him blush. Luckily though she then spots Zoha and Yasmin and walks away to go see them.

He's glad that Ned doesn't follow her right away. He feels like a jerk because Ned really seems happy, but he's kind of missed his best friend a little since the beginning of the trip. He's about to tell him as much when Ned nudges him in the ribs and says with a not so subtle wink: "How do you know MJ is good at French?"

"Oh my… please tell me you're not insinuating anything," Peter mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose with a sigh, intently avoiding his best friend's eyes.

"I mean, isn't it called French kissing?" Ned retorts like it's fairly obvious, and Peter can hear his self satisfied smile in his voice. It's unusual for him, and Peter doesn't really like it. Or maybe he's just grumpy because nothing's happened between him and MJ yet and he's getting a little impatient.

"Yeah well I don't know about that do I?" he whines a little, kicking a pebble away with the point of his shoe. "I was supposed to maybe figure it out this afternoon, but then Mr Harrington had to go and ruin everything."

"I cannot in good conscience let you disrespect the exceptional movie we saw thanks to Harrington's change of plan, Peter," Ned chastises him, and Peter cannot help his chuckle.

"Ugh, yes alright that was super cool," he admits, meeting his friend's eyes with a pout. "But still."

"Don't worry, you'll get to it," Ned assures, bumping him in the shoulder with a smile. "It's looking good anyway, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he nods, feeling his cheeks grow red. "Yeah I think."

"Where is she anyway?" Ned asks casually.

"Um, she said she wanted to sit in the grass?"

"Oh, there she is, looks like Brad found her." Peter follows Ned's gaze and, sure enough, there is MJ, sitting with her back against a tree, her sketch pad propped against her knees. Brad is standing a few feet from her, apparently trying to engage conversation again, and Peter makes a face. "That one isn't smart," Ned voices his thoughts out loud, and Peter snorts.

"Yeah."

"I wonder why she hasn't told him to piss off yet," Ned wonders aloud. "Do you think she's scared of him?"

"Scared of him?" Peter repeats in disbelief, raising his eyebrows as Ned shrugs. "No, not MJ, why would she be scared of Brad? He's just an idiot."

"I don't know he's all tall and buffed." As Peter scoffs, deeply annoyed, Ned gives him an amused look. "Are you a little jealous?"

"Of him? Pfff, not at all. It's obvious she doesn't like him anyway."

"Right."

Peter avoids Ned's knowing gaze, trying not to glance at MJ and Brad again. He can't help feeling very annoyed for some reason, and he isn't sure what set it off in the first place. Ned's words resonate in a weird way in him. It is weird that MJ hasn't told Brad to leave her alone yet, except for the night before when she told him she'd rather stay with Peter than walk with him. It's kind of hard for him to imagine MJ being afraid of anything, or even just intimidated by something or someone really. But she is human – he's pretty sure –, so he figures that it most probably happens still, not matter how unlikely it seems.

It seems very unlikely, because it's MJ and she's bold and confrontational and she always says the harsh stuff no matter what, and yet there's an uneasiness in the way she's sitting right now that doesn't go unnoticed to Peter. He sees the tension in her shoulders, the small crease between her eyebrows, the way she impatiently taps her foot on the ground, and he springs into action without really thinking about it.

He walks towards them, ignoring Ned behind him, and talks loudly so that Brad turns to him. "Hey Brad!" He hears him sigh right as he spins to look at him with an annoyed frown, but he doesn't let him the time to speak. "Hey bud, sorry but Mr Harrington is looking for you."

"Really?" Brad looks suspiciously at him, but Peter doesn't budge.

"Yeah, he's around there, near the playground I think," he lies, and he's a little ashamed at how easily the words come to him. "Apparently there's been a problem with your room and your luggage? I didn't quite get what it was."

Brad gives him one last suspicious look, and then turns to MJ with one of his bright smiles that has Peter cringe. "Hey Em, sorry I have to go, we'll continue this later?"

Peter has no idea how Brad can be dense enough not to see that none of his attempts have been welcomed by MJ so far. She stares blankly at him, then shrugs dismissively, and Peter thinks if she'd been looking at him that way he would definitely feel super bad. "Whatever," she tells him coldly and Brad leaves, apparently none the wiser. Peter watches him go, a little satisfied with himself to be honest, but then he looks back at MJ and freezes.

Because she's looking straight at him, and she looks pretty much exactly like she was a second ago while she was watching Brad. Like she's deeply mad at him. And that's clearly not something Peter wants. Oh no.

x

His cheeks are more and more flushed with each second passing. There are so many things going on in his eyes MJ can almost see his brain turning at full speed in there. Good. Let him stew in it for a little while. Let him think about what he's done. When she thinks about it, she instantly knows that she's not that mad. Peter being Peter, he probably only did it not because he was jealous but because he thought she needed help getting rid of Brad or something. That would be so him. And it would perfectly fit with her theory that he is Spider-Man too. Is there such a thing as a super-hero syndrome?

It doesn't matter though, because in any case he has to know that she doesn't need him to do that. That she can take care of herself. Because if he doesn't, then she doesn't want anything to do with him, no matter how sweet and cute the idiot is.

"You're pissed at me," he says very quietly after a while, and MJ doesn't take her eyes off of him even if she kind of wants to. She's not used to stare so fully into someone else's eyes like this. But this is important, she thinks.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, I thought–" he cuts himself, scratching the back of his neck with a very nervous laugh, and MJ honestly feels for him, even though she keeps it to herself. "Never mind what I thought, that was stupid of me to assume anything I just– I'm sorry, MJ."

"You said that already."

"I know I'm s– I mean um, I'll just um," he stammers, looking down at his feet then back at her with an apologetic smile, "I'll just stop talking now." They stare at each other, and she's not sure what he reads in her eyes but when he looks down and turns to leave, she feels her heart drop in her chest.

"You don't have to save me you know," she calls after him and he stills, with his back to her, and she kind of wishes she could see his face right now. "I can take care of myself."

Peter slowly turns to face her, and she reads in his eyes that he was pretty sure he'd messed everything up. She fights the urge to curse him for being such an idiot. "I know, I know you can MJ I'm so–" When she raises an inquisitive eyebrow at this he chuckles and doesn't finish his sentence. "Right."

They stare at each other for a moment, and when she lets the corners of her mouth move up just the slightest, he barely manages to hold back his relieved sigh. She shakes her head with a smirk and he blushes a little, but then he's smiling shyly too, his eyes shining with relief and something warm too that makes her heart melt in her chest. "Just so you know," she adds, raising her eyebrows at him once again, "Brad is an idiot. Don't be an idiot too, Parker."

"I won't," he nods instantly and very seriously, and she pinches her lips to hide her smile. "I'll try."

She's pretty sure the look she gives him at that could be translated by 'you better', and from Peter's expression of mixed amusement, embarrassment and a spark of hopefulness too, he gets it. MJ breathes slowly through the pounding of her heart as they look at each other, and she wonders what he's thinking about right now. Probably trying to figure out if she wants him to stay or not. Dork. "So, what were you doing before you so rudely interrupted me ignoring Brad's rant?" she asks casually, flipping through the pages of her sketchpad like nothing major just happened.

Peter winces a little at that, but he still takes her words as an invitation to stay and smiles nervously. "Uh, well we went to see the museum we're visiting tomorrow morning, there are so many cool exhibitions it's gonna be super interesting."

"Nerd," she coughs lightly, and Peter laughs.

"What about you?" he asks after a moment of silence, "what are you working on?"

Looking down at her sketchpad, MJ feels her cheeks flush a little, crossing her fingers that Peter doesn't notice. It's not done yet. She can't show it to him right now. She did a pretty good job she thinks, but she still has to work on her shades, and on his hair too. He has more curls now than he usually does, probably because of the humidity of the French capital. She likes it. She wants to incorporate it in there but up until now it was difficult without the actual model in sight. For the rest of the drawing she invoked her memory of that moment in Washington, and of all the times she saw him swing around on the news. She's pretty satisfied with her work so far.

Pretty cool thing to draw Peter Parker in his Spider-Man suit minus the mask.

"Something cool," MJ shrugs dismissively, then meets Peter's eyes with a smirk. "Maybe I'll show it to you when it's done."