Hi again! Last chapter, although it's a bit longer to make up for it. I had a really great time writing this, and the reviews have been great, so thank you so much! By the way, MJ can tell if he's smiling cos she can see part of his cheek. (Just try looking in the mirror and grinning and you should be able to tell your doing it by your cheek). Anyway, I digress. I know it's a little strange, but I did warn you this would never ever happen! lol. Peter only stuck around cos MJ's worried about being left alone, and there's no crime going on at the mo. You'll all find out why it's called 94 in this chapter, and the ending should hopefully be a surprise. You'll see. ;)
94
Part 5
"How you gonna get it back up there?" MJ smirked, knowing the webbing trick wouldn't work the other way around.
Spider-man simply smiled and tapped his nose, then jumped up to land near the top of her wardrobe, where he put the box away, grabbed Monopoly and jumped down, landing in a one-handed crouch.
"Show-off" she snorted. He just grinned at her.
They had a great time playing Monopoly. Spider-man wanted to be Banker, and they played for well over an hour.
"I want to buy that house" MJ said pointing to a little green building.
Spider-man rolled his eyes. "That's a hotel MJ. And you can't afford that, look-" he counted her money and subtracted her money from the price of the hotel. "You need $675 more. But if you sell that one and rent that one over there the interest rates mean you should get $700, so you can buy it with $25 to spare", he finished.
MJ wrinkled her forehead and caught up with him a couple of seconds later.
"What?" Spider-man frowned, and she realised she'd been staring at him.
"Nothing" she said in what she hoped was an off-hand manner, still looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
She broke out of her trance to buy a hotel, and lose the game, rather ungraciously, some 30 minutes later.
She pouted and folded her arms in mock-anger. "You cheated!" she accused, "I knew there was something fishy going on when you wanted to be banker! No-one likes being banker!"
"I like being banker!" he protested, apparently more offended by her bashing of bankers than her accusation that he'd been cheating. "What's wrong with being banker?" he asked, insulted.
"You have to do math and stuff!" MJ exclaimed and threw her hands up in the air in despair.
"So?" he questioned, not seeing what she was getting at.
"Well I've had enough of maths in school, I don't ever want to go back there again!" she said, exasperated, as if talking to a four year old.
"Hey, you don't need to patronize me, I'm the one good at maths here!" he said indignantly.
"How do you know I'm not good at maths?" she retorted.
"Uh, well... you gave me a ten instead of a twenty!" he said, smirking a little.
She scowled. "That doesn't prove anything!"
"It proves you can't read", Spider-man muttered under his breath.
"Hey!" MJ swotted him, "I heard that!"
He ducked his head in the pretence of gathering up the fake money, trying hard not to smile.
"Hey how are old you anyway?" she shot at him suddenly, catching him off guard.
"Um, a certain age that needn't be known" he offered vaguely, not meeting her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" MJ poked him. "Hey, I don't want to be sharing my apartment with some dirty old man off the street!" she joked.
"Dirty old man?!" Spider-man exclaimed, "What happened to 'Superhero Stalker'?"
MJ shrugged. "Meh".
"Right, that's it!" he exclaimed jumping up, "It's high time you're put in your place!"
He leapt at her and started tickling her. She giggled and fell helplessly on her back, as Spider-man went for her armpits.
"High...time?" she choked out between laughs. "Who... says that anymore? God... how old are you... Grandpa?"
At this Spider-man renewed his efforts at tickling her. She laughed even harder, tears pouring down her cheeks, and managed to wriggle free from his grasp.
She leapt up and started running, still clutching her stomach with laughter.
She sprinted into the kitchen and hid behind the door, trying not to laugh as Spider-man skidded to a halt just inside the doorway. He looked around, confused. "MJ?" he called, and walked further into the room.
A sudden snort from behind him alerted him to her presence and he span round to see her making a break for the door. He ran and picked her bodily up, arms round her waist so that her legs flailed in mid-air.
"Hey! No... fair!" she shouted, laughing, as she squirmed, trying to get free. He carried her into the living room and laid her in a chair, settling himself on the floor, and began to tickle her again.
"Mercy... mercy!" she managed to get out between the giggles and Spider-man stopped and flopped on his back on the floor.
She poked him with a toe. "Hey, no time for lying down! We gotta get some serious playing done here!"
He still didn't move. She poked him again. "Spider-man?"
She rushed to his side; what if his head wound had reopened and he'd passed out or something?
Leaning over him, she said again, "Spider-man!".
His blue eye suddenly opened and he suddenly sat up, and shouted "Boo!"
She screamed and fell back in the chair, panting from shock.
"Oh my God, you gave me such a turn!" she said, clutching her chest. "I thought you'd fainted or something."
"'Gave you a turn?' Who says that anymore?"
MJ saw Spider-man's eye peering at her over the arm-rest, sparkling with amusement.
She whacked him lightly on the head.
They decided to stop playing games, and get to know a bit more about each other. Well; MJ decided, Spider-man wasn't too keen on the 'knowing' part. But he sighed and went along with her anyway, putting Monopoly back with the same wall-crawling trick.
When MJ brought up him jumping on the ceiling, he said he sometimes woke up and found himself on the ceiling of his bedroom. 'Sleep-crawling' he called it. MJ had laughed, commenting on how weird it must be, but he just shrugged.
"Not really" he said, smiling. "I guess I got used to it"
MJ laughed at the mental image of him in some kind of web-nest, and he gave her a strange look, she could tell even with the mask on.
"What?" he asked, perturbed.
"Oh, nothing..." she shrugged it off, a grin tugging the corners of her mouth. She looked away until she was sure she was in control of her facial expressions again.
Just before lunch, Spider-man stretched and got up. "I think I better get going", he said. MJ was disappointed but didn't show it. "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah" she bit her lip and followed him out onto her balcony. "I'll be fine, don't worry" she said, trying to sound upbeat about it.
"Ok, then... I'll head off"
"Are you sure? You can stay another night...?" she said, then instantly gave herself a mental kick. That didn't come out right...
"No I better not. Life goes on, and so does crime, whether I'm around or not. Can't be gone too long, not with my adoring public and all..." he grinned sarcastically, and she smiled back, relieved he hadn't noticed how awkward she was feeling.
"You know, I think people have started to come around" MJ said reasonably. "I mean all those people on the bridge helped you..."
"Yeah, so about a millionth of the city actually likes me, but you know JJ, he won't give up till he's twisted all the words and turned it around on me. Probably saying I planned the whole thing or something" he smiled bitterly. MJ didn't have a reply to that.
"Anyway, thanks again. I'll see you around... but hopefully it won't be to save you next time." he smiled softly at her.
"No problem" she grinned back.
He hopped easily up onto the balcony's railing. "I'm gonna go get some lunch!"
"Oh" MJ put her hands on her hips, a smile playing on her lips. "And what could possibly be better than my famous Lasagne?"
"Anything" he said, with a completely straight face, before launching himself off the balcony. MJ's mouth dropped open in surprise and she stood there for a second, gob-smacked, then ran to the edge and looked down to see Spider-man still freefalling... he was about to slam right into the road!
But then, he shot out a web line and soared back up among the skyscrapers. MJ laughed in relief, and she heard him whoop as he somersaulted in midair, then shot up into the clouds, laughing.
Later that night, MJ sat on her bed, reading. She was re-reading Pride and Prejudice for at least the hundredth time. A sudden 'THUMP!' from her balcony made her shut her book and go investigate.
There was nobody there, but she knew who had been. She looked around and found a note pinned under a stone. To her surprise, she found $369.99 exactly attached to it.
She picked up the note and smiled when she'd read it.
Dear MJ,
Thanks again, and this should cover you're couch. And by the way, I'm 94 this June.
You're friendly neighbourhood Spider-man.
She tucked the note into her pocket. "Thanks, Pete" she whispered.
Fin
I thought the ending left it open for a sequel, which I'm gonna start writing straight away, but it'll be at least a couple of weeks before I put it up. In the meantime, I wrote a little one-shot for Spider-man 2, I'll put that up soon so go read it! Lol. Pleeeease review, I really want to know how this turned out!
Ps. Diablodude1, did you get my email? I wasn't sure if it actually sent it cos my computers acting a bit funny...