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Chapter SixteenMo trudges down the corridor to her apartment. It's quiet, save for the faint sound of next door's telly filtering out from behind their closed door. She aches all over, stress thrumming through her as she drags her feet towards the door.
Her and MJ split a taxi back from the school constantly refreshing their news apps, worried that her Dad might chew them out for daring to step foot on a bus or a subway.
She slots her key into the lock and pushes open the door with a sigh.
"Mo? Is that you?" Her mum's voice calls from the living room.
"Yeah, it's me!" She toes off her converse, stationing them neatly at the front door.
"You're home early," Her da's voice follows. "Is everything ok?"
"Everything's fine. It was a school dance, not a rave!" Mo turns towards her room, "I'm gonna hit the hay though, all that dancing's puffed me out."
"Ok, sweetheart, we love you!"
"Love you too," she calls back before slipping into her room. She exhales heavily, leaving against the closed door. A glance at her phone reveals no new updates from her dad, so she shoots him a quick text to let him know she got back safely, and a message to Ned to let him know what happened.
"Psst!"
Mo jumps, throwing the nearest object to hand at the sound. A startled "ow!" follows the dull thud of a thick book hitting flesh, just as her eyes land on a hunched Pete curled against the wall.
"Pete!" Mo hisses, "What the hell, were you trying to give me a heart attack!"
There's a knock at her door, "Mo, everything ok in there?"
Pete frantically presses a finger to his lips, trying to tell her to keep quiet, to which she rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, sorry Da, I just stumbled into my bookshelf."
"Ok, love, we're going to head to bed shortly, so if you're staying up to watch your nonsense, try to keep it quiet."
"Sure thing! Sleep well!"
She waits until his footsteps have receded before she approaches Pete slowly. He looks battered, his face tinged with violent purples and blues and smeared with bloody cuts. She crouches down to his level to gently cup his face; he winces.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," he grins. "You should have seen the other guy."
She searches his face before throwing her arms around him tightly, her body relaxing into his as she inhales his soft warm scent. He's safe, he's safe, he's safe.
He lets out a soft groan, before gingerly wrapping his arms around her.
"I'm sorry for ditching you, Mo."
"It's ok," she says, leaning back. She traces the swollen skin around his jaw gently, her stomach twisting.
He grimaces as he tucks her back in under his chin, "Still, I know it wasn't the Homecoming you had been hoping for, I'll make it up to you."
"You being safe is enough for me, Spider-Boy." She says against his shoulder, savouring his warmth, and that warm umber smell, tinged with smoke and gasoline, that is so uniquely Peter, "You sure you don't need a medical kit or something?"
"Nah, it'll heal after a good sleep."
"Did you get the bad guy?"
"I got him. Wrecked the plane in the process though, I don't think Happy's gonna be pleased."
"Liz is gonna be devastated."
Pete's back goes ramrod and he stares at her with suddenly wide eyes. The look makes her alert again and she springs back, "What? What is it?"
"Happy Hogan is your dad."
"Oh."
"Happy Hogan is your dad."
"Uh yeah, Pete, you just said that."
He buries his head in his hands, "I've called him about churros and bike theft and he told me to stop calling and oh my god, I think he hates me."
Mo laughs as Pete's face increasingly flushes, "He doesn't hate you, Pete. Trust me, if he hated you, you would know."
Pete peeks at her from between his fingers, "What do you mean?"
"Let's just say there's a reason my dad was Tony Stark's bodyguard for so long."
The colour drains from Pete's face, "I'm going to die. My girlfriend is Happy Hogan's daughter."
Mo burrows into Pete's warmth, "You're a superpowered man-child, I think you'll live, Spider-Boy."
"Spider-Man."
"Aw Pete," she says. "You keep on telling yourself that."
He grumbles, resting his chin gently on top of her head.
"You were right, you know?"
"I'm always right," she mumbles tiredly, feeling lethargic now that the stressed strings that were pulling at her have been cut. "But what are you talking about?"
"I'm more than the suit."
"I know, Pete," she yawns.
"I should go get cleaned up," he mumbles.
"Me too, this bra is uncomfortable."
"So warm," Pete murmurs.
Mo nods off to the sound of Pete's soft snores, safe, warm and happy.
…
Pete's gone by the time the light filtering in through her blind wakes Mo up. But her corsage has been placed on her Spider-Man shelf along with a bright sticky note.
Dinner tonight? My treat, it reads.
She can't help but squeal, and do a little happy dance which is promptly and awkwardly interrupted by her da telling her to get a move on or she'll be late for school.
"Why are you so happy?" MJ asks as she slots into the empty seat beside her at Decathlon later that day.
"No reason," Mo replies with a wide grin.
"Congratulations Decathlon National champions," Mr Harrington greets them as he takes a seat at the head of the table, a large trophy in his hands. The group claps as he places it on the table, "I'm going to have to put this back in the trophy case soon, but just for motivation now at this practice."
He takes a deep breath, "I'm a little ahead of the game, but we will need a new team captain next year, so I am appointing Margaret."
Her head whips up to look at Mr Harrington in horror.
"Oh, oh no, I don't think you need to do that…" she trails off as everyone claps and Pete grins at her from the other side of the table. MJ elbows her in the side and she sighs.
"Uh, thanks, I guess," she says. "But if, if I'm going to be captain then Michelle will need to be co-captain."
MJ shoots her a look as Mr Harrington speaks, "Well, there's not really been co-captains on our Decathlon team before but sure why not! Our co-captains will be Margaret and Michelle everyone."
"Uhm my friends call me MJ."
"I thought you didn't have any friends," Ned asks, grinning.
"I didn't," MJ smiles at Mo, who grins back at her.
There's a buzz from across the table, and Mo glances up to see Pete reaching for his phone with an apologetic look.
"I, uh, gotta go."
"Everything ok, Pete?" Mo asks.
"Yeah, yeah," his voice squeaks. "Everything's fine, I just gotta go to the bathroom."
He lurches back jerkily and quickly makes to leave the room. Mo watches as he disappears around the corner with narrowed eyes.
"Alright, so we should run some drills," MJ's gaze lands on her and she raises an eyebrow. "What? Do you need to go to the bathroom too?"
"Uh, I think so," Mo replies. "Yeah, I'll be back in a bit."
She stands, moving to follow the direction Pete had left in. She turns the corner just in time to see him disappear into the men's bathroom. Mo hovers outside, chewing on her thumbnail. She could go in here, she could totally go in here, like Pete could be in danger or the Vulcan could have escaped and cornered him in there or something.
A boy walks out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face and she halts in her pacing to stare at him.
"Hey! Hey you!" She calls until the boy stops in his tracks. "Are there people in that bathroom? I'm waiting for a friend but it's been a while."
"There's a guy in there with a really old dude. He seemed pretty scared of him, but I don't think there's anyone else in there."
"Oh, ok thanks!"
The kid wanders off muttering to himself about privacy in bathrooms. She waits until he's rounded the corner before bursting through the doors.
"Pete-! Oh."
There, in the middle of a high school bathroom, stands her dad. His suit is wrinkled and he's wearing a faintly disgruntled expression until he sees her - and then he's furious.
"Uh, hi Dad?"
"Margaret, what are you doing here?"
"Margaret?" Pete asks, his nose wrinkling.
"Uhm, I thought Pete was in danger?"
"Who's Margaret?"
"Uhm, I can explain?" She says to an increasingly angry Dad and an increasingly - while admittedly still adorable - confused Pete. She moves closer to the boy, reaching out to grasp his hand. Pete's ears burn as Happy's eyes zero in on their entwined fingers.
"Margaret."
"So you know how I said I wasn't involved with Spider-Man?" She says slowly, "That may have been a teensy tiny wee fib."
Happy's expression turns dangerous.
"You're dating my daughter," his words are quiet, and Pete fidgets under the weight of his stare.
"S-sir, Happy, Mr Happy, I-"
"You." Happy points at Peter, "Let's go, move it. We'll talk in the car."
"Oh, where are we going?" Mo asks, tightening her grip on Pete's hand and ignoring the murderous expression on her dad's face.
"Uhm, he said something about Upstate-"
"We're going nowhere. You're going home and later we're going to have a discussion with your mother about dating and why you're not doing it until you're 30."
"Upstate, huh?" Mo resolutely ignores Happy, "Off to see Uncle Tony then. Oh, have you been Upstate yet, Pete? You're going to love it, it's-"
"Margaret."
"Harold," Mo replies darkly.
"I'm taking you home."
"No, you're not," Mo crosses her arms and stares up at him. "Because if you do, you'll have to explain to Mum why you ignored not one, not two, but eight missed calls from me last night, then we can talk about how I've been feeding Spider-Man on my fire escape for at least a year and despite you having semi-regular contact with both of us, you didn't notice. And then, you'll need to explain to Uncle Tony why, when his favourite niece was trying to warn him about the evil flying guy out to steal his tech, you ignored her."
"You're his only niece."
"That doesn't change the fact that he'll be on my side and not yours." Mo matches Happy's glare with a scowl, while Pete hovers behind her awkwardly, glancing between the two.
After a moment, Happy sighs and runs a hand through his hair, mumbling to himself about teenagers.
"So you like him, this guy here?" Happy motions towards Pete vaguely.
"I-I feel like I should be offended by that."
"Yeah, I do," Mo moves closer to Pete. "I'm fifteen, Dad. You can't stop me from dating people, I'll just end up doing it behind your back."
"What a cruel thing to say to your old man."
"Yeah, well, you're freaking Pete out and I don't want you to scare this one off like you've done before."
Pete chokes, "He's scared people off?"
Mo shoots him a droll look, "Pete, you can stop buses with your bare hands and you're scared of my dad?"
Pete glances between Mo and Happy, who's still glaring at him from over her shoulder. He gulps and nods, "Yeah, yup, definitely scared."
"Good," Happy nods while Mo just sighs. "Because if you hurt her, I will end you."
Mo pushes her dad towards the door, "Ok, I think that's enough of that."
Happy gives Pete one last sharp look before leaving the bathroom. Mo squeezes Pete's hand tightly as they follow after him.
"He's really your dad," Pete mumbles as he trails after Mo.
"Yup."
"And you said Uncle Tony."
"Yup."
"Which means…" Pete trails off, his ears burning, "I'm so dead."
Mo laughs, wrapping an arm around Pete, "Stick with me, Spider-Boy, and we might just make it out of this alive."
...
Edited 25-9-22