Comfortember #4 - Overthinking

Whirling Thoughts

Peter wasn't sure what was happening in the movie. He hadn't been paying attention for at least fifteen minutes - pretty much since it started. He felt a little too warm, but his hands felt cold. So wouldn't that be weird if he tried to hold MJ's hand with cold hands? He slipped his hands under his legs, trying to warm them up. Wait, did she even want him to hold her hand? He'd been trying to decide the answer to that ever since the movie started, but he wasn't any closer to knowing what to do.

They had been spending lots of time together, sometimes even without Ned, and he had held her hand a few times, and she had held his a few, and she had even kissed her the night before. Which was… amazing. But he didn't know what the rules were here. They had only held hands while walking together, not sitting watching a movie. And they had only held hands when it was just the two of them, or when they were out in public, but without anyone else that knew them. Ned was here, on the other side of Peter. He didn't think Ned would care. His best friend knew how much he liked MJ, and he had told him some of what had already happened between them. But would MJ care if Ned saw them holding hands? Would it make it awkward between them? What would MJ even do if he tried to hold her hand and… and she didn't want him to? What if she did want him to hold her hand, but he wasn't doing it, and she thought maybe he didn't want to, and-

MJ interrupted his spiral of self-doubt by shifting closer to him until her head was leaning against his. She put her arm through his and tugged his hand out from under his leg so she could hold it. Oh. Okay. All of the swirling thoughts in his head seemed to settle like a dust devil that had just run out of wind.

"Finally!" Ned said in exasperation. "Now will you answer me when I ask you questions?"

"Yeah," MJ said nonchalantly. "I was going to wait and let him decide if he cared if you saw us holding hands, but I could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears while he tried to decide what I might want him to do." She softened her teasing tone by leaning in to kiss Peter's cheek, and he felt himself lean into her lips, prolonging the contact an extra second. He let out a huge breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"So," Ned continued, as if nothing monumental had just happened, "watch this part, and tell me if you think it's plausible, or if they took just way too much creative license…"