Hello everyone!

I spent an INSANE amount of time working on this chapter, for no apparent reason really, except that FFH's timeline is a little bit wonky and it bothered me because I like it when things make sense, so yeah. I won't bother you guys with how long it normally takes to do Berlin-Broek Op Langedijk by train, and how I tried to make it fit until I decided SCREW THIS it's 2024 they've probably built a high speed train line between Berlin and Amsterdam because THAT MAKES SENSE.

ANYHOO, hope you enjoy this new chapter, we're getting close to the end people!


67% sure

It takes them 10 more minutes to get back to the hotel. The sky is slowly clearing up, buildings and things revealing themselves to their eyes – maybe just her eyes, Peter has mentioned something about enhanced senses or something so, yeah. The sun won't be up for another hour or so but it can already make its presence known. It's a comforting thought, to know that no matter what happens, the sun will still come up and follow its course, impervious to whatever tragedy humans are facing at the moment.

It's really not the kind of thoughts that usually cross her mind, but to be fair there is nothing 'usual' about this situation at all.

The hotel lobby is empty. Peter's walking like he's got the devil after him, and now that she knows pretty much everything, MJ understands perfectly why. He goes straight to his room and MJ follows, a tiny bit shy at the idea of finding herself in Peter Parker's hotel room, but whatever. He's different, now that he's got everything off his chest. He's determined and focused, not his usual dorkish self or the sad scared bloke he was fifteen minutes ago, and MJ can't help but notice she likes that version of Peter she's discovering right now.

"I still can't believe I gave Beck those glasses I mean, how could I be that stupid," he rambles, heading straight to the curtains and shutting them off, while she closes the door quietly. "He's probably spying on me right now or sending a drone to come and kill me."

"And I still can't believe you had access to killer drones," MJ points out nervously. She stands still in the middle of the room while Peter runs around restlessly, heading to Ned's laptop on the desk and typing something on it.

"Yeah well, I didn't really want them," he nods absentmindedly, "especially after I almost killed Brad."

That's new information. MJ's mind runs wild with it, frowning deeply. "You almost killed Brad?" she repeats, a little breathlessly because what the hell? He absolutely failed to mention that earlier.

But Peter has already moved on. He shuts down the laptop and grabs his phone on the bed, already onto his next task. "Look, I have to call Mr Fury and tell him that Beck's a fraud but… I think he tapped my phone."

"Okay so what are you gonna do?" she asks, because at that point she figures all she has to do is roll with him, because clearly he's more experienced in this than she's ever going to be. Peter looks up from the phone he'd been fiddling with for the last two seconds, and there's something almost overwhelming in witnessing him come up with a plan on the spot. She can see through his eyes his brain is turning at full speed. She shouldn't be surprised though, Peter Parker is one of the smartest person she knows.

"Um, I need my suit," he tells her, reaching for his backpack and emptying it on the bed, "and I have to go to Berlin, to talk to Mr Fury in person." As he speaks, he starts taking off his hoodie, and his t-shirt, and then he's standing there with all his stupid abs and biceps and other muscles and whatnot, and she can feel her cheeks reddening as he looks up at her in shock, his hands already reaching to unbutton his pants. And she's pretty sure his hyperactive mind is suddenly going completely blank, because that's exactly what her mind is doing, except for one traitorous little thought circling inside it: 'is Peter Parker actually undressing in front of me?'

And then, does he keep his underwear under the suit or is he going commando?

A question for the sake of science, of course.

They look at each other for a couple of nervous seconds, then MJ slowly turns to face the other wall and let him change into his suit, clearing her throat in the process, cheeks very hot and, she's pretty sure, very red as well. And she can hear the ruffling of clothes as he takes off his pants, and what has her life become, she's in Peter Parker's hotel room, he's down to his freaking underwear, and wow who is she kidding she kind of wants to just sneak a tiny little peak… will he notice if she slowly moves her head to look? Probably, he did mention enhanced senses earlier… But then what if he notices, what would he think, what would he do, what would she do? She's suddenly completely overwhelmed by the endless possibilities. Or just by the compelling chance to actually see him in his underwear. Or less… What? Oh, she's in trouble.

She lets out a shaky sigh, heart pounding in her chest, silently moving her head to look at him, biting her lower lip in expectancy… of what? But then there's a small sound to her left and she looks up, and there is Ned, standing in the doorway with his mouth agape in his 'chilling' burgundy pajamas, a thousand different emotions crossing his round face.

MJ hears a zipper and then Peter's voice, a little muffled so she figures he's already put his mask on. Man, that was fast. "Ah Ned, perfect!"

Ned's panicking eyes are going from Peter to MJ, from MJ to Peter. Yeah, he definitely knows, no doubt there. The idiot's probably already trying to come out with a plan to explain why Peter's dressed like that, which doesn't make any sense because why the hell would Peter change in front of MJ if she didn't know already? "The costume looks great!" he awkwardly says, hesitating, and MJ narrows her eyes at him. To be fair to Ned though, it is 4 in the morning, so benefit of the doubt because of exhaustion. "For the… costume party at the… princess' castle."

MJ peeks at Peter, and he's indeed already in his full Spider-Monkey suit. For some reason, her heart picks up at this sight, and she scolds herself internally.

"She knows," Peter tells Ned, pointing at MJ. "I told her."

"He didn't tell me," MJ corrects with a smirk, "I figured it out."

"Oh, that's cool," Ned says with a slow nod and a fake chuckle that tells her he doesn't find it cool at all. What is this? Is he jealous?

"Like a long time ago," she adds just to mess with him – even though it is technically true. She did have her suspicions about him for ages. And she was right. Wow, still feels good to think that. Ned narrows his eyes at her with another 'oh', but Peter doesn't let him say anything else and cuts straight to the chase.

"Look, Mysterio was a fraud." he tells him, and MJ watches as Ned turns to him in confusion.

"But-but he saved me and Betty's lives." he stammers with a frown.

"No, he's been faking the whole thing with illusion tech." MJ explains.

"Yeah, he's using these like holograms projectors." Peter adds.

"Wow, that's… crazy."

They both nod, and then MJ is meeting Peter's gaze, and with the eyes of his mask up like this he kind of looks like an idiot, but her heart still picks up because they're staring at each other and sharing something in this stare, and it's electrifying and thrilling and scary too, because the world is kind of threatened right now but whatever. She curses herself, again. She needs to focus.

"So you guys were like, working the case together or what?" Ned asks, and she can hear it, his disappointment and unhappiness. She takes her eyes off Peter and turns to look at Ned, plastering an apathetic expression on her face.

"It's been mostly me." she tells him.

Peter Parker doesn't have time for this though, apparently. "Look Ned I need you to call May and get her to call Mr Harrington and say that she wanted me to stay with family in Berlin until this all blows over."

"Got it. Easy." his friend nods immediately, and MJ raises an eyebrow at this.

"Wow, you guys lie with such ease." she comments, and Ned smirks at what he might think is a compliment. It's not, not really. Once again though, Peter's already onto his next task, which is apparently to leave for Berlin. He walks to the window and opens the curtains and the window wide, getting ready to jump out, and MJ's heart drops in her chest. "Uh w-w-wait, the projector!" she stammers, grabbing the piece of tech and turning to Peter. "You're gonna need this," she adds, and tosses it to him. He catches it easily, meeting her eyes, then Ned's behind her.

"Don't tell anyone about this okay? Anyone who knows is in danger." he tells them seriously. He puts his, what are they, goggles? back on, then jumps out the window, and just like that, he's gone. Completely, utterly gone, and all MJ feels like she can do now is hope he stays safe. And she trusts him, and she knows he will be safe because she's not done with him yet, but still, it kind of sucks.

She lets out a small, exhausted sigh, wondering if this part will get easier one day or not. Hopefully she'll figure this out, if Peter still wants her around after all this is over. What do Ned and him call themselves, the Spider-Team?

"So, you know too." Ned states, and she turns to him, surprised to only just remember his presence. "It's cool, um, I mean I've known first and I've known longer but it's not a competition."

Yeap, dude's jealous alright. She smirks at him, and some part of her just wants to reassure him that she has no intention of replacing him, because Ned is sweet, and his friendship with Peter is definitely not the kind of relationship she was looking for with Peter – wow, that's some straightforward thinking there, dude – but then the other side of her just wants to mess with him just for the heck of it. Because deep down she kind of thinks that if Peter had to chose between Ned and her, he'd probably chose Ned. And it's fine, completely fine, she gets it, they're not that close anyway, and also she lied to him and he probably thinks she hates him or at least doesn't like him like that, but yeah. Wait, now who's being jealous?

She just really needs to sleep, she thinks. She sighs again, eyeing Peter's bed and debating whether or not it'd be weird if she took a nap in it. Probably creepy, yeah. She meets Ned's gaze. "Alright, now what?" she asks, because clearly that's the question. What are they supposed to do now that he's gone? Are they supposed to wait like two idiots doing nothing while their friend is off saving the world? If so, this definitely sucks.

Ned throws her an exultant look, apparently passed his initial resentment/jealousy phase and happy to actually be the one on the driver's seat. "Well I'm gonna call May and tell her the plan."

"Okay, don't tell her about Mysterio though."

"Yeah, you're right. In the meantime um, what do you think we should do with Peter's stuff?"

MJ looks around the mess of Ned and Peter's room – seriously, they've been here for less than 12 hours how can it be so messy? Boys. Wow, she really needs some sleep if she's starting to have that kind of sexist, narrow-minded thoughts. "Go call May, I'll figure something out," she tells Ned, and he nods and exits the room – by the door unlike some people.

She sits at the foot of the bed, letting out yet another sigh. This is insane. She still can't fully wrap her mind around all that happened tonight. The Opera, the fire monster, Peter on the bridge, the revelation, no, not so much a revelation as him finally admitting what she'd been suspecting for so long. The words feel like an ungraspable concept, and yet she knows now. They're true, they're real.

I am Spider-Man.

She shakes her head, shiver running down her spine, attempting to draw herself back to reality. He's off to Berlin, hopefully he'll be back soon, and then what? No, asking herself that won't help. She needs to focus on the now. She gazes around the room, the laptop on the desk, the discarded backpack and clothes on the floor. No underwear in sight, which means he probably doesn't go commando in his suit. She doesn't know what to do with that kind of information.

"Focus." she tells herself for the hundredth time tonight. Morning. It's getting clearer and clearer outside, the sun is about to rise. Peter left the window open, she walks up to it and looks outside. Her brain feels fuzzy and confused with sleep deprivation and an incessant train of thoughts swarming inside it. She shakes her head again, turns back inside to Peter's suitcase, grabs an armful of his clothes and stashes them inside her backpack before sitting back on the bed again. They won't be able to take his suitcase with them because it would probably raise suspicions since he's supposed to be in Berlin with his family – not that her classmates or teachers are that observant, because if they were they would have figured out that Peter is Spider-Man already. Because it's easy, to make the connection. But maybe none of them care enough about him to realize how obvious it is.

It's dumb. People are dumb. They are so self-absorbed they can't even notice the awesomeness of others, even when it's actually right under their noses. Did she just call Peter awesome?

"MJ?"

She jumps, effectively startled, and looks around to try and make out her surroundings. She fell asleep. Her eyes feel puffy and dried out, and she blinks a couple of times, heart pounding in her chest. She lets go of the remaining images of some dream she was just having, something about Peter swimming in a round aquarium filled with green smoke and screaming words she was trying to but couldn't understand. She's feeling useless and scared, and although the dream definitely has something to do with those pesky feelings, she knows she will probably feel like that until she knows for sure Peter is safe.

"Ah, good, you're awake." It's Mr Harrington. He's looking at her with tired, unfocused eyes. Luckily for her he doesn't ask why she's sleeping in Peter and Ned's room. She's still so exhausted she thinks she would not have been able to figure out a good explanation for that. "We're leaving in twenty minutes, please get ready."

"'K."

He exits the room and she slumps back against the pillows with a yawn, rubbing her eyes for a solid minute to try and infuse life back into them. She has no idea how long she slept for, but it must not have been that long because she feels drained and weary still. She thinks about Peter, about last night, about what he's doing right now, and for a second she thinks she's about to cry with how anxious she is about all this.

"Hey, MJ."

She jumps again and glares at the second person who startled her today. "Jesus, Leeds," she complains, hiding her face in one of the very comfortable pillows.

"Sorry," Ned chuckles, "here, I got you some tea."

She looks up and grabs the disposable cup he's handing her with an irritated 'hmpf'. She takes a warm sip, letting out an unconscious sigh of contentment because of it. She can feel Ned's satisfied gaze on her and she ignores him totally, yawning again and stretching her back. "I put some of Peter's clothes in my backpack," she tells him after a while, and she doesn't really know why she does, but somehow it feels nice.

"Yeah, I saw. I put some in my suitcase as well. I couldn't take much though, you know with the weight limit on planes and everything."

"What time is it?"

"Half past eight. We're leaving for the airport soon, we're stopping at Amsterdam and then all the way back home."

"What about Peter?"

"Don't worry about him, he'll get someone to pick him up in Berlin when he's done telling Fury everything."

"Right, as if that's all he's gonna do there," she mumbles with a scoff.

Ned lets out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, not really his style uh?"

"Nope. He didn't… take his phone with him right?"

"Nope, left it here."

Note to self: from now on, always carry around a stash of burner phones. "Well this sucks." MJ says, emphasizing the sentiment with a heartfelt shrug. The tea inside her cup splashes around and she steadies her hand, taking another sip to hide how truly bummed she feels.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Ned sighs, and she stares at him for a moment before letting the words escape her mouth:

"Do you like… get used to it?" Her voice is very quiet, almost shy, and she scolds herself for it, especially as Ned smiles sadly at her.

"Not as far as I know," he admits, and she hides behind her cup of tea again, letting the hot liquid burn her tongue.

"Dammit," she mutters, and she's not sure whether it's because she burnt herself or because Ned confirmed what she'd been afraid of. She clears her throat and adds blankly: "If I'd known I'd never have figured it all out."

Ned raises an inquisitive eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Yeah, there's no fooling him, or herself for that matter. "No."

"How did you figure it out anyway?" he asks curiously.

"Meh, I'm just very observant," she shrugs, but he's clearly not having it.

He doesn't pry though. She's lucky. "Riiiiiiiiiight," he says with narrowing eyes, and she just stares at him with her most neutral expression. But she can feel it, her cheeks and neck slowly reddening, and her heart beating a little too fast, so she stands up from the bed with a fake yawn.

"Anyway, I should go pack. Sorry I stole your bed for a few hours."

"That's alright," Ned smiles, standing up as well. "You looked really tired, I didn't want to wake you up."

"Yeah well I uh, um, thanks… nerd," she says, cursing herself for her hesitation. What's up with that? "I'll see you downstairs." she adds uselessly. She grabs her backpack filled with Peter's clothes and walks towards the door without a glance back.

"Yeah, see ya," Ned says quietly, and for a second she thinks she's escaped, but then as she reaches for the door, he speaks again and she stills. "And Michelle? Don't worry too much about Peter okay? He'll be fine, he always is." He lets out a small chuckle, then adds: "I mean, dude's been to space so…"

She nods and scoffs at the same time, still facing the door, and she can feel Ned's eyes burning a hole in her back. She waits for a second and then opens it and leaves the room, heart pounding in her chest. She feels like a coward, but she can't do this. If she had said anything else, she's pretty sure he would have realized how much she cares for his stupid friend. And clearly, she's not ready. Really, really not.

As she makes her way to her room and packs the rest of her stuff, it feels like her lie is tearing her apart. She hates liars, she's always felt surrounded by liars her entire life and she's made it a priority to be one of the few that only tells the truth. Even if sometimes it means hurting people.

And yet, yesterday she lied. And not to anyone, she lied to the very person she least wants to lie to. She looked right into his eyes and she lied to him. Her own eyes are now burning, and a hard lump is forming in her throat. She feels guilty and sad, and scared. So scared. She needs to set things right, she absolutely does, and yet she has no idea when, even worse, if she's gonna be able to do it. What if she never sees him ever again? Ned told her not to worry, but the what ifs are so present in her mind it's definitely hard not to.

Luckily she doesn't get that much time to think. Mr Dell knocks on her door, saying they're off in five minutes, and she straightens up, grabs her stuff and plasters a bored expression on her face before meeting everyone downstairs. Then they head to the airport, pass security, board their flight to Amsterdam. She sits next to Tyler and Sebastian, and listen to them argue the whole one and a half hour flight about who would win in a fight, Thor or Mysterio. Now that she knows what she knows, there's no contest here, but she keeps her mouth shut and pretends to sleep. Next to her, on the other side of the aisle, Brad is still sulking on his phone.

They make it to Amsterdam and as they disembark, Mr Harrington gets a call from the mysterious 'Tour Company' – Ned told her they went to Prague because Nick Fury wanted Peter there. When he gets off the phone, he tells them wearily that they're not going home just yet. "Tour company upgraded us again apparently," he clearly sighs, and Ned and MJ exchange a suspicious look at that. "They've booked us Eurostar tickets to London, and a city bus tour, before we leave tonight."

"This is weird," MJ mutters to Ned, and he nods slowly.

"Yeah, a little, but don't worry I'm sure we'll be fine."

She doesn't share his optimism. At all. Dammit Parker where the hell are you?

They take a tram to Amsterdam Central Station, and grab a bite there. As she munches on her sad turkey sandwich, she contemplates the idea of 'accidentally' spilling her entire bottle of water on Flash's head because he is still live-streaming the whole thing and it's the worse. But that would require getting up, so she decides against it. She's irritable and tensed, and so exhausted her brain is painfully pounding in her head. She just wants a good night sleep and the reassurance that Peter is fine. He's been gone for six hours now, and she hates that he hasn't been in touch.

But Mysterio is probably keeping him busy so that makes sense. Can't Peter just kick his ass and be done with it already? She hates this, she hates being left in the dark and not being able to help, she hates not knowing if he's okay and what's going to happen next. She scrolls through her phone to see if something out of the ordinary happened in Berlin, but there's nothing except an article about a few people who spotted the Night Monkey outside Berlin Central Station this morning.

They get inside the Eurostar at 1:30pm, and MJ takes a heaven-sent nap for the entire 2-hour trip. When they reach London, she finally feels like a human being again, which is a definite step up. Everyone else seem worn out still, Mr Harrington the most, but he still tries to act like the responsible teacher – Mr Dell abandoned that task a long time ago.

"Okay guys, the company set up a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite and head to the airport," he reminds them as they walk out the train station.

That's when Brad starts acting weird, and they all stop to listen. "Is no one else gonna acknowledge how crazy this is?"

"Oh yeah I get it," Mr Dell agrees, "there's been nothing scientific about this science tour at all."

"No, no I'm talking about Peter!" Brad exclaims, and MJ raises an eyebrow, surprised. "Has no one else here noticed how shady he is? Because I took a picture of him in the back room of a rest stop with some woman in his underwear, and he's always sneaking away, like back at the Opera, uh? And now what he's suddenly off the trip? With his family in Berlin? Is no one else here interested in the truth?"

Ned opens his mouth to say something, but MJ shushes him with a hand gesture. She's sick of lies. She's handling that one. "The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world" she quotes, and Brad meets her gaze with thankful eyes.

"George Orwell," he says, and she has to give it to him, the guy knows his quotes alright. "Thank you, MJ."

Still kind of a douche though. "Yeah, well since Peter's not really here to tell his truth, what about you, Brad? Why do you think it's cool to take picture of people in the bathroom?"

"Yeah dude, what's that about?" Flash adds pointedly.

Brad swallows nervously. "No, no it wasn't like that, it was – I was trying to take a –"

"Let's just put all this craziness behind us," Mr Harrington cuts him with a slow nod, "and have a nice, peaceful afternoon. 'Sounds great Mr Harrington,' said the class. Okay." MJ meets Brad's eyes and smirks at him, and the poor dude looks like she just kicked him the shin or something. She doesn't feel bad. He'll get over it.

A red double-Decker bus is waiting for them outside. They get in and all sit down on the top deck. Her classmates are excited to actually get to see London for a little while, but MJ can't help herself, she really has a bad feeling about this, even though she can't really describe why. Ned is sitting next to Betty for the major part of the first twenty minutes of the ride, but then he comes to stand next to her at the front as the bus engages on a very packed Tower Bridge – she almost rectifies Flash who's calling it the London Bridge on his live-stream, but that would be useless so she refrains herself.

"I don't like this. Something's definitely up," she tells Ned, and he smiles conspiratorially at her.

"You're an FOS now. 'Friend of Spider-Man'," he adds when she looks at him with her eyebrow raised. "And you have to remember, just stay calm."

Easier said than done. MJ sighs, she really wishes she could be as calm as she perceives Ned is right now, but she can't. She's not the stressful type, she's not easily scared, or worried, or anything for that matter, but she really does have a bad feeling about all this. It doesn't help that Peter's been gone for almost 12 hours now and hasn't been in touch at all.

Where can this idiot be? Can't he text or something? Uhhhh.

She's proven right a few seconds later. Thunder rolls, they turn to their left, and watch as definitely not natural clouds gather on top of some building across the Thames. "That doesn't look good."

"But it's fake," Ned reminds her with a nervous chuckle, "so there's nothing to worry about."

But the water and fire monsters destroying everything weren't that fake, the appearance of the monsters was fake yes, but the destruction, that was very real. She's witnessed it first hand. The dark fumes are gathering, closer and closer to the bridge, and MJ's heart is pounding in her chest. There's thunder and lightning above them. They need to get out of here. Now.


A special welcome to all the new subscribers, I'm very pleased with all the attention this fic is getting, it warms my heart, and you know what would warm it enough to hold on for the rest of winter? MORE COMMENTS!

Please, don't be shy, tell me what you liked in this chapter, what you didn't like, what you ate last week, talk to me I swear I don't bite. There are no required number of characters or whatever, I don't care if your grammar is approximative, I'm not even a native speaker I'm sure my grammar is sometimes wonky, so I REALLY don't care!
But I do care a LOT about hearing what you guys think, it is the best feeling ever, and the one reward I enjoy the most for all the dedicated work I do on this. So yeah, comment people, plus it will definitely encourage me to write the next chapter faster so it's a win-win, don't you think? ;)
Until next time!