Peter has grown used to Michelle Jones over the past few months, in the same way someone acquires a taste for fine wine.

In the first few weeks of their friendship, her sarcastic remarks and dry sense of humor caught him off-guard. he had not known what to do the first time she fell asleep on his sofa during a sleepover with him and Ned, and Peter had never quite known what to do when he could tell that she was upset about something.

But it only took a few months, because now, Peter is "fluent in MJ."

Now, he is well-versed enough in her humor to be able to quip back, and he and Ned have gotten used to draping their friend's preferred blanket over her curled-up, sleeping form. Peter knows now that when MJ is upset, there is only one way to fix it: chocolate chip waffles and TV-show marathons with her and with Ned.

All this said, even if it feels like they've been friends for forever, Peter and Ned have only been friends with MJ since the end of sophomore year. This means that there is one thing that the trio hasn't faced together: winter. As it becomes colder, Peter begins to notice little things about MJ that he has never seen before. As the temperature drops, he adds more and more tidbits to the growing collection of what he knows about their brunette best friend.

He learns that for some reason MJ does not seem to think that she needs a winter coat. She uses hoodies and jean-jackets every day, as if they are perfectly capable of shielding her willowy figure from the cold, and she refuses to accept any offer of a jacket from Peter or Ned. She does own a scarf, though, as well as a pair of fingerless gloves. She almost never takes off the gloves over the course of the entire school day. though MJ gives no reason for this, Peter privately knows that he has discovered something else about her that he did not know about her before- her hands are always cold.

There are other things he begins to notice, too. Hot chocolate stars to be used as a substitute for tea in the mornings, and every so often Peter and Ned catch a glimpse of fuzzy socks that have been squeezed into her combat boots. Doodles of mittens and scarves begin to replace MJ's normal sketches of autumn leaves on the corner of her papers. But there is one thing that Peter cannot seem to figure out about her now: MJ is glued to her weather app.

Peter catches her on her phone a lot more regularly than she ever has been before, and she refuses to cite the reason. She isn't talking to anyone, Peter is sure, because she never appears to be typing a text (not that Peter keeps tabs on her relationship status or anything, though). However, there have been several points in time that Peter has caught her refreshing AccuWeather in the middle of AP Chem.

It's only when MJ completely drops her phone from excitement that Peter realizes what it is.

It happens on a Monday in fourth hour. MJ's sharp gasp of excitement catches Peter by surprise, but what really causes him to pay attention is when the cracked iPhone 5 clatters to the floor. The phone skitters across the floor, spinning slowly until it comes to a stop at the foot of Mr. Cobbwell. The sound is enough to make Peter look up from where he is working on improving the web-fluid, and the entire class is looking up now, too. Cobbwell peers back at them with a look of disapproval on his face, one that causes MJ to tense beside him.

"Is something the matter, Miss Jones?" prompts the teacher, raising an eyebrow as he sets down the dry-erase marker he was using.

"No, I, um..." MJ says quickly, her eyes suddenly widening.

She seems to be frozen by all of the eyes in the class on her. MJ is normally one of the most relaxed people that Peter knows, but he also knows that she doesn't always know how to handle attention. It even took her a while to get used to being noticed by Peter and Ned.

"I was grabbing something from her bag for her, and I knocked it out," Peter speaks up, gesturing to the bag that is on the table between them. "It's my bad, sir. Can I grab it?"

Cobbwell hesitates for a moment, but after a second his face softens. Peter knows that both he and MJ have a good standing with him, since Peter is the only one who laughs at his science puns and MJ returns one of her own every once in a while.

"Alright, Mr. Parker. Just make sure it doesn't happen again," he decides, and Peter slides out of his seat in order to grab the phone with the worn, purple case. As soon as he has it, Peter returns to his seat and sits down beside MJ.

As soon as the lesson resumes, MJ glances back over at him with an acutely uncomfortable expression on her face. "Sorry," she mutters, allowing a piece of hair that has escaped from her curly ponytail to fall into her eyes. "Thanks, Parker."

She reaches for her phone, but before he hands it over, Peter turns it over and peers at the screen. There is a lightbulb moment in his head, and a smile plays with his lips as he passes it back.

"So, an 85% chance of snow on Friday, huh?" he comments as she takes the phone. He knows that the smug grin isn't gone as she slides the phone into the pocket of her bomber jacket. He is pleased because he finally understands why she's been on her phone so much, finally gets this one little piece of her.

MJ has been waiting for the first snow.

"Shut up, loser," she instructs as she returns to her online notes. That isn't enough to get peter off of her scent, though. He can see that she is struggling to keep him from noticing the rosy tinge of her skin, the reddened tips of her ears.

He doesn't bring it up for the rest of the day, though Peter can see she is waiting for him to do so. Still, he doesn't say anything in front of Ned, even though it's become a habit of theirs to recap for him what happened in the one class the three of them don't share. Ned is stuck next door in AP Computer Science, so he normally gets a play-by-play of the entire class... But not today. Peter lets her be lulled into a false sense of security over the course of the week as Friday rolls around, with all of its anticipation in tow.

Peter can see it in every inch of her body- an excited sort of tension in her muscle, a skip in her step as she walks. Peter pretends not to notice it, but the gleam in her eyes is just enough to warm his chest a bit, despite the bite in the air. She is barely being subtle about her phone anymore as she checks the the hourly forecast, but this is to Peter's advantage.

MJ is so preoccupied with her own phone that she does not see Peter doing the exact same thing.

It is scheduled to come during Chem, so Peter keeps an eye on the window the entire class period. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches the sky of swollen gray clouds, clouds that are waiting to unleash flurries of thick snow onto the city. Peter can't help but feel the childlike excitement brewing in his chest now. According to the app, it's supposed to happen any moment, and the lesson has just begun. Peter's mind has never been farther from thermochemistry.

And once he sees it, the subject matter flies out of his head, out the window, and into the air, which is carrying the first new, fresh flakes.

Peter glances quickly at the girl next to him, who is so focused on her phone that she has not noticed the flakes yet. It is then that Peter sneaks out his own phone and sends a quick text to Ned.

now.

Not even thirty seconds after Peter sneaks his phone back into his pocket, there is a flickering of the lights, and then the classroom is plunged nto darkness. There is a startled murmur that ripples throughout the room, and it is then that Peter acts.

"MJ," he hisses as Cobbwell struggles to regain control of the class.

In the darkness, Peter can see the outline of MJ's face, which is lit by the cool winter light coming through a single window. She does not even turn to him, still scrolling through her AccuWeather.

"What?" she hums. "Parker, in case you didn't notice, we've just gone full dystopian novel, so it's not the best time for me to help you with the homework problems. Maybe if you want to get ready for the Hunger Games together, we can talk-"

"What? No," Peter interrupts, a grin forming on his lips. "Come on. We've only got a couple minutes to get out."

"Get out?" MJ repeats, and now she's looking up from her phone. "I was kidding, loser, not-"

"It's snowing," Peter states, dropping each word with equal weight, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

MJ stares at him blankly for a moment, and then a playful grin crosses her face. "No way," she finally laughs under her breath, shaking her head. The laugh, the smile, cause his heart to skip a beat for some reason. "Even you two nerds aren't that good."

"Aren't we?" Peter hums smugly, thinking about the time they completely hacked Tony Stark's own spideysuit. "Come on. Do you want to go, or not?"

MJ peers at the open door, then back at him. One last glance is spared for the window, where the snow is coming down in increasing speed. Then, finally, she turns back to him.

"You first, then me," she instructs.

Without another word, Peter says something to Cindy Moon about going to grab his homework from his locker. As he heads out, Peter can hear MJ asking Abe to tell Cobbwell that she had to go to the bathroom. He is out the door first, and then a moment later MJ practically materializes by his side with a bathroom pass in her pocket and a little grin on her face.

"Come on, before someone sees," she instructs, and before Peter can fully process what's happening, she grabs his forearm and begins to run down the hallway.

For some reason, as they run, blood rushes to Peter face. He has run down this hallway many times before- to save people from a bus crash, to go and stop a robbery in progress, and even to fight with Liz's dad. But this is a good reason to be running, and he is all too aware of the warmth that her hand leaves on his arm as they turn and sneak out one of the building's side doors and onto the path to the football field.

For a moment, the cold air washes over them, and Peter can feel both of their muscles tense. Then, MJ tugs him father away from the building and into the openness of the courtyard behind the school.

The snow is falling in thick, fluffy flakes that stick together in the air, forming chains of cottony, clumpy snow. They flakes are so large that they appear to be spun from sugar, the sort of snow that is everywhere in the air. It surrounds them, as far as he can see, falling so slowly that is seems suspended in the air. peter feels like he is inside of a snow globe with her.

MJ is frozen still, and Peter's eyes travel to her face as she takes it in and ignores him completely. He doesn't mind being ignored in the least- he would much rather be free to study the childlike wonder in her eyes, the awe that is written into every line and curve of her face as she blinks, disrupting the flakes that have settled onto her long lashes.

For a moment, Peter can't breathe, because she looks like she belongs here and nowhere else.

The snow nestles into her kinky curls, dusts her shoulders, and settles on her long lashes as she tips her face slightly up to the sky. For a moment, her eyes close entirely, and she seems to be drinking in the cold air and the caresses of the snowflakes as they fall down around her.

For a second, Peter wonders what it would be like to slide his arm away slightly, so she was gripping his hand in that same gentle grasp that encircles his forearm.

But then, her eyes open, and they are wild with excitement. "Come on!" she insists. "We have to do that lame thing where we catch snowflakes on our tongues. For scientific purposes."

"Scientific purposes?"

"Gotta taste those chemicals the corporations are pouring into the atmosphere, Parker. Come on."

And then, they spend a good ten minutes outside tasting the snow and letting it settle in their hair and on their shoulders. Peter knows it is borrowed time, that Ned is going to have to come up with a good excuse later and that he and MJ are going to have to be extra convincing when it comes to their return to class.

But none of that matters as Peter Parker watches Michelle Jones spin like a child in the center of the school courtyard, with snow in her hair and an easy smile on her lips. All that matters is that he gave her that smile, the one that drives away the winter chill and leaves him with only her warmth.