hey friends! Just finished polishing a new chapter for you guys! Thought I'd try my hand at a little sprinkle love since its almost Valentines! Please review in the comments! enjoy 3
Late afternoon sunlight was seeping through the blackout curtains of Peter's bedroom window. A singular crack in the thin wall of fabric sprinkled light onto the sleeping form on the bed. The lump released a tired sigh as the slither of light made its way into his squinting eyes.
"Ugh." The form groaned in utter dismay of moving his pummeled body.
Blinking away the remnants of sleep from his eyes, he wiped away the crust from the corners. Peter gingerly sat up, slowly removing the plush navy blanket off his torso. One of the sleeves to his grey hoody had been pushed up his arm while in his blanket burrito, revealing a wrinkled imprint of the blanket he had previously curled himself into. It had been a solid sleep.
His mind was slowly coming online after the prolonged adrenaline and exhaustion. Flashes of what happened in the last day came hurling down memory lane. It hurt to think of what happened—of what would happen in the future.
Peter felt a simmering anger in his chest at the injustice of it all. He could already sense the tension seeping into his nervous system again when a soft thudding on his front door jolted him into full wokeness.
Scrambling off his bed he fumbled through a pile of used clothes looking for his watch. Reaching into the pocket of his most recently used jeans, Peter hastily read the time: 6:39 p.m. He and Ned were supposed to take the 6:15 bus to meet up with MJ. The trio had plans for a picnic dinner in the park in lieu of a traditional party.
"Crap, crap, crap! I am so late!" Peter mumbled to himself.
He stumbled to the front door, peeking through the peep hole—one can never to too careless. The teen ran a messy hand through his cow licked curls in an attempt to collect himself and opened the door. He flashed a sorry grimace to a frowning Ned.
"Figured you were still here. Dude. You look like shit. What happened?" Ned said with a tinge of worry in his tone. He gave Peter a one-over, taking in his rumpled hoody and jeans.
"Everything okay with your patrol?" He whispered despite being inside Peter's apartment.
"Y-yeah, it's just—yeah, everything is fine. It's fine. I just had a rough night." Peter choked a reply as he looked anywhere but Ned's concerned orbs.
Ned knew he'd get the rest of the story later, maybe after Peter mulled over it for a few days. It was code for "I can't talk about it yet." Sometimes really ugly things happened on his Spiderman patrol—finding victims of assault, or not being able to save a citizen from a burning apartment complex—things that Peter didn't talk about, but that Ned would see later on the local news channel.
As a dutiful friend, Ned learned to give Peter space and love. So, so, much love and support for his geeky, second-brother-Lego-lover from another suburb best friend.
He would never pity Peter for his circumstance; he deserved so much more than pity considering all he's been through. If anything, Peter was the strongest person that he knew, literally and figurately. Peter was in some terms, Ned's personal hero.
He knit his eyebrows together, gently meeting Peter's apprehensive eyes. Something really bad had happened last night. Peter was struggling.
"Okay." Ned whispered.
Peter gave a short nod of gratitude at their unspoken agreement to not talk about it.
"It's still your birthday. Do you still wanna to meet up with MJ?"
"Yeah, I promised her I wouldn't bail this time. Give me five, I just need to…" gesturing to his crumpled form. Ned nodded with a peeking mischievous smile breaking the ice.
"Uhuh, I'm sure she'll notice…it's like totally not obvious dude. I mean have you seen yourself around her?! All googly eyes and stuttering! You should just ask her out, for reals this time."
Popping his head out from his closet where his search for clean clothes began and ended with a clean enough shirt.
"NED," he gave an indignant huff, "stop it!" But Peter couldn't stop a soft smile from curving his lips upwards.
He liked MJ. Like, really like-liked Michelle Jones. The only person who knew his deepest darkest secrets was Ned, Peter wanted to tell MJ too. That is if she hadn't already figured it out after D.C. and Europe. If she had, there was no indication from her words or behavior. It was probably best that she didn't know.
Ned groaned in exasperation, "Peter, man, she definitely likes you back! Just make a move already!"
Peter rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, I'll work on it. Ready?" Ned nodded as they headed out for their sunset picnic.
Peter wiped his sweaty hands on his pants as he and Ned turned the corner towards Central Park. The vigilante couldn't help but toss occasional glances to roof tops as his sense remained wary. It had been only a few hours since he fled the Avenger's tower, the supers could still be trying to track his location for all he knew.
The teen suspected the Avenger's didn't have a clear picture of who was under the red and blue mask, but what if they somehow obtained his DNA? What if they had run his DNA through their system and already knew who he was? What if they were hunting him down this very min—"Peter, earth to Peter?!"
Shaking his head at the intrusion of Ned's waving arms in his face. "Oh, sorry, I was just, uh, thinking—" the teen spotted a familiar figure sitting on top a red plaid blanket, "—about MJ."
Peter let his mind wander away from the creeping unease of being out in the open park; he felt so exposed. His thoughts drifted away from his bruised body, to how absolutely stunning MJ looked with the golden hour sun. A perfect place, for a perfect person. He officially made up his mind to tell her about how he felt tonight.
She was facing away from the duo, scanning the open grass area with a pencil and notebook in hand. The teen let his gaze admire her wild curls captured in the setting red glow. He pushed down butterflies trying escape from his stomach and took a deep breath.
He smiled as she turned and made eye contact with the pair. Soft surprise lit up her features as she put down her notebook with a quick close.
"I thought you two losers got lost and died." She said in a playful tone as she shot Ned a glare.
"Well, I was on time." Ned looked over to Peter.
Peter looked over to MJ. "Ah, yeah, I sort of lost track of time. Sorry bout that." He scratched his head and met her eyes remorsefully.
"Peter, only you would be late to your own birthday party. I'm glad you decided to come either way."
"Well, I couldn't miss my own sweet 18th now could I?" He jested while they all sat down around a large paper bag filled with goodies. His friends knew how important it was for Peter to be of age to leave the foster system.
Peter's mouth watered in delight at what MJ and Ned had compiled. Snippets of New York street food—pizza slices, falafels, hot dogs, giant pretzels, roasted nuts and more—littered the blanket. The teen's eyes widened as he took in the savory whiffs of warm dough a mass the conglomeration of the big apple's pallet.
"You guys didn't need to get me all this!" His pitch rising in excitement at the prospect of dinner.
MJ pulled out a massive falafel and shoved it into Peter's hand. "Parker have you seen yourself lately? You can't survive on boxed ramen for the rest of your life."
Peter gave her a challenging glare and she returned his stare with a ferocious smirk. He rolled his eyes at her; she was right. Ugh, what is it with women and common sense?
Ned broke their stalemate, "Well you guys can keep making heart eyes at each other!" Both parties broke eye contact and looked at Ned in shock at his boldness.
"I'm gonna eat. If you only knew how much walking we did Peter! There were so many blocks, too many." Without another word, he began to devour the meaty pizza in his hand.
"I bet." Peter chipped in, sparing a glance at MJ who had blush dusting her cheeks.
Only after the last slice of pizza was eaten and stories shared with carefree laughs did the trio start to wrap up the evening. The sang happy birthday—out of tune and all—but they wanted to make this day special for Peter. By the time they finished, the sun had dipped below the horizon half and the park looked more desolate by the minute.
Ned was the first get up and brush grass off his jeans, "Peter, happy birthday dude. I should get going before my Mom starts to freak out! You know how she is." He held his hand out and pulled Peter off the blanket into his arms.
Relishing the fleeting human contact, Peter smiled into the bear hug. "Thanks man, I probably wouldn't be here without you," pausing and catching Michelle's eye over Ned's shoulder, "—both of you."
Peter said those words with genuine love for his friends, they were part of the reason the teen didn't drop out of high school altogether between Ben's murder, Aunt May's passing, the constant bullying, and his spidery mutation, he had a lot on his plate.
"Yeah man, that's what friends are for. See you later this week!"
Ned gave a lopsided grin and waved a quick goodbye to MJ before the teen grabbed his bag and departed. The two remaining shadows were left in comfortable silence.
Peter turned to face MJ's figure. The light from the streetlamp illuminated her dark curls. "MJ, I've been thinking about something…. something I've been wanting to tell you for a while now." A bashful smile peeked onto Peter's lips as he met MJ's curious eyes.
His feelings for MJ hadn't always been there, if anything, at first, he saw her as competition on the Academic Decathlon team. Then his nerdy second-best friend who drew people in crisis with a no bullshit attitude. Eventually, Peter acknowledged he had a low-key crush on MJ, although was too afraid he'd lose his one of his best friends if he ever admitted it.
Now he felt, well, whatever his heart decided to conjure up that was closer than close friends. That is, if she felt the same.
He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. His words got stuck in the back of his throat as he felt his hands grow clammy and a prickling sensation coated his chest and neck. Michelle just watched the flustered teen with an amused but cautious gaze and squinted her eyes warily.
Peter played off his pregnant pause with nervous laughter. He broke her intense stare before gradually focusing on her features again. He cleared this throat and this time spoke with more courage and gusto.
"I just—I just, wanted to say that—," he took a brief pause, when both broke the silence simultaneously, "You're Spiderman—I like you MJ."
The teens sat gawking each other with wide eyes of shock at their overlapping confessions.
"What?! NO! No, I'm not!"
"Wait, what? You do?"
After a few tense seconds of processing what Michelle had asked, Peter stuttered a response, "Y-yes—I…wait, I mean no! I mean, I really like you MJ. I have been wanting to tell you for a while now but never really found the right moment…" His throat was suddenly very dry as he trailed off in trepidation.
He swallowed a low rising panic, hoping she wouldn't bring up Spiderman again. Or that he had just misheard. Or that she was joking—anything really but what he'd actually heard. It was a fat and a slim chance.
"You know," she started softly, looking down at where their hands had been brushing moments before, "I suspected it for a while…" the teen trailed off hesitantly, "first I thought I was over analytical, borderline crazy…but then I connected the dots…the bruises, and conveniently timed disappearances…"
She looked up at Peter's aghast reflection, and immediately sought to comfort him. "Peter, it's okay…I—" meeting his unnerved gaze, "I wouldn't ever tell anyone. I promise." Michelle confirmed with a solidarity she would take to her grave.
Breaking eye contact for a moment, she shyly added, "and um…I like you too."
"Oh." Peter piped in with a breathy response. He watched as MJ timidly gnawed on her lower lip, awaiting more than his simpleton response.
The vigilante wasn't quite sure what to say to MJ. He had taken every precaution.
"Michelle, I…" the teen moved to gingerly cradle her hands in his before continuing, "I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you from that part of my life. It's not all daisies and sunshine…" Peter lowered his eyes, embarrassed as she had not only guessed his secret but knew it for some time.
He furrowed his brows thinking about his recent bout of fun with the Avengers. His life was dangerous, between every quip and joke played there was a knife and a gun pulled. Then again, Michelle was the queen of dark, dry humor, she understood the crazy erratic wavelengths that ran Peter's brain.
"Yeah, I know. Just," she paused in awe at the raw confession rather than a flat out denial that she expected. "If you ever need help with anything, you've got me in your back pocket. And I mean anything Parker." MJ knew pursuing the superhero gig wasn't all glam and fame. She saw the televised battles in times of peril; even superheroes have vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
Peter couldn't help but release a shaky sigh. The worse that could have happened—happened. It was done.
The only other person in the world who he loved and cared for knew his secret. In a sense, he felt borderline euphoric relief to not have to hide or lie to MJ anymore. His mind worked on over drive as he worriedly contemplated other friend or foe who may suspect identity.
"Okay?" MJ asked quietly meeting the brunette's searching gaze.
"Okay." Peter closed his eyes.
For a moment he listened to MJ's steady heartbeat, doing his best to block out his own excited thrumming. He knew what he needed to do to protect his two best friends—his family.
Tomorrow he would confront the Avengers.