MJ had watched Peter leap onto the lamppost, landing with graceful ease. Her heart had still thudded from the terrifying swinging, but being part of this side of his life… there was a certain joy in it. For years, she had only watched and suspected from afar, and now she was privy to everything. She knew where he ran off to, she listened to his stories of the scuffles he got into, he shared any food grateful people gifted to him with her.
She was part of his life in a way she had never been a part of anyone's life, and it was with the cutest, sweetest guy she knew, and she loved every second of it.
Until now, staring at J. Jonah Jameson and Mysterio let the whole world into his life too.
Except they hated the truth.
"He's up there!"
"Oh my God, he's right there!"
"Hey, she was swinging with him! Do you know him?"
As the broadcast ended, the crowd erupted into chaos. People screamed in terror, yelled in rage, called for children and friends and spouses. Some ran towards Peter, some ran towards MJ, most ran away. MJ couldn't hold back a scream as she was suddenly crushed between all the bodies, whacking at hands reaching for her, struggling to stay on her own two feet.
Abruptly, she was flying again.
A web shot out, latching onto her open palm. From a rooftop he'd jumped to, Peter yanked her into the air. She barely had time to throw her arms around him and bury her face in his shoulder before he was moving again, fleeing the crowds below.
His grip had been tight before, but in a reassuring way, a silent promise that he wouldn't let go.
Now it was fierce, pinning her against him, a warning to others that he would fight anyone who tried to take her from him.
She opened her eyes only when he set her down gently, smoothing her hair back from her face. "Are you ok?"
They stood on a rooftop in a less crowded part of the city. She stared at him. "Am I ok?" she echoed. "Am I ok? Peter, did you see that video?!"
He pulled his mask off, and underneath his soft eyes were dark with horror, but still his voice was gentle. "You were the one in the crowd. They were going for you."
That made her soften, opening up a door in the walls she'd spent a lifetime building to keep people out, a door that Peter always seemed to have a key to. "I'm fine."
Peter let out a breath, lowering his hand to take hold of hers. He twined their fingers together, and only then did he react to the fear, edging closer to her as he looked out across the city. She rested her hand on his shoulder, ready to fight the city for him but knowing it would be pointless. "What are you going to do?"
"Run," he answered, swallowing as he looked back at her. "Happy will find me, and someone'll come for you, and then…"
"And then you disappear," MJ finished quietly.
"Maybe not," he said with half-hearted hopefulness. "Mrs. Stark might be able to work it out. Legally, I mean. I might never have to go farther than the compound or their cottage."
"Have I taught you nothing about how notoriously awful the government is?"
Peter laughed, his mirth bordering on desperate and broken. Still, MJ found it catching on, found herself laughing with him, because it was that or cry, because this might be the last time she heard his laugh in a long, long time, and she wanted their last memory to be happy.
She wanted to be happy.
She wanted him to be happy.
She wanted them to be happy together.
Didn't they deserve that much?
But when has the universe ever been that kind?
We're only 16.
"Peter," she whispered, tears burning her eyes.
"MJ," he whispered.
He said it slowly, as if savoring her name on his lips. The way he was looking at her, she knew he was committing her to memory, and she knew she was looking at him in exactly the same way.
"You'd better come back, Parker," she threatened. Her voice wobbled, betraying her attempt at normalcy.
"I've come back from the dead – what's a little legal trouble?" he asked, his own voice wobbling despite the light tone.
A million things ran through MJ's mind. A million things she wanted to say, but knew she never could. Peter had to go, and he had to go soon. There was no point in begging him to stay, no time to say much of anything at all. So she did what any superhero's girlfriend would do in this situation: She kissed him.
She let go of him to pull him close, wrapping one arm around his back, her other hand rising to bury her fingers in his hair, cupping the back of his head. She pressed her lips to his with the ferocity of a lioness and the tenderness of a midnight snuggle, with the heat of a thousand suns and the warmth of a long hug. She held him and kissed him, counting the precious seconds they had left, communicating through the touch everything she couldn't say.
He kissed back with the same intense tenderness.
They broke apart only when they had to breathe, their cheeks stained with each other's tears. He took a deep, shuddering breath, slipping his mask back on. "Goodbye, MJ."
She stepped back, their arms falling to their sides. "Goodbye, Peter."
He hesitated a moment longer, then shot out a web. He was gone in a rush of wind, leaping off the roof to swing over the streets below.
She spun around to watch him until long after he disappeared, her hand going to the broken black dahlia beneath her shirt.
Come back to me.
-MCU-
Five Months Later
MJ had vowed never to let her happiness depend solely on another person, not even Peter. She missed him, her heart aching for him in between the messages Happy helped them pass along, longing for the future they had almost had, but still she'd found ways to make it through the summer, ways to make it through the suspicion the cops had aimed at her. It had been rough, but she had found enough normalcy to survive.
Returning to school was an entirely different matter.
The stares and whispers the other kids aimed at her drove her insane. Some were subtle – or at least tried to be – while others were blatantly obvious. Some were suspicious, antagonizing, others sympathetic. Some kids came up to her, some to challenge her, some to offer sympathy.
She rebuffed them all. She lifted her chin and marched ahead as if she didn't notice. Some days, though, it was all she could do not to cry at the nice ones. Other days, it was all she could not to punch the rude ones. But they weren't worth her time, and Peter wouldn't want her hurting any of them on his behalf anyway.
So she soldiered on. She looked at the pictures she had of him more than she cared to admit, especially the one mid-kiss selfie he had taken, and she soldiered on.
Until Brad.
One day, he dropped into the seat beside her while she doodled on an old English assignment. "What's up?" he asked, pulling out his notebook.
"The sky."
He laughed at the awful joke. "You don't seem too broken up about Peter."
She barely kept her hand from clenching into a fist around her pen, remembering the flood of vindicated Instagram posts she had seen from him before deleting the app. "Why do you care?"
"I just thought you'd be sadder, you know, since he was your boyfriend."
"For like a week."
He looked at her curiously. "You really aren't broken up about him."
MJ turned to fully face him. "What do you want?"
"Well, since you've clearly seen the truth about him, I was wondering if you'd to go out with me."
MJ dropped her pen and punched him.
His nose cracked beneath her fist. His head snapped back, blood spurting from his nostrils. His hands flew up to cover it as he jumped up and stumbled back a step, staring at her. "What the hell?"
"How dare you?" MJ challenged, voice low and dangerous. She rose, advancing towards him. "How dare you ask me out?"
She was vaguely aware of the teacher yelling at her, more aware of her conscience telling her to stop, very aware of a voice that sounded very much like Peter's pleading with her to stop, but the anger had been building up for too long. She couldn't control it anymore, couldn't keep it inside.
In this moment, with this boy, she didn't really want to control it.
She jabbed a finger into Brad's chest. "It's people like you who drove Peter away. You're jealous that I picked Peter over you, and you let that blind you to the truth. If you knew Peter, you would know that he would never murder anyone, let alone be a terrorist. Peter is the kindest, gentlest person in the universe, and he's worth more than a million idiots like you."
Brad kept stumbling back until he tripped and fell into a chair. MJ pressed her advantage, looming over him.
"Will I go out with you?" She scoffed venomously. "I would rather date Thanos. No. I'm with Peter, whether he's here at Midtown or on the run halfway across the world. I. Choose. Him. Always."
Except when I do what he would never want me to do.
She spun around, grabbed her things, and marched out the door.
Once she was safely out of sight, she closed her eyes and touched the broken black dahlia, wishing she could feel sorry for what she'd done.
Come back to me, Peter.
Please.
A/N: That... was supposed to be a triumphant moment. Because I hate Brad, and I hate how vindicated he's gonna feel in Spidey 3. I don't. I don't know what happened. The angst works (probably works better tbh), but... I'm sorry