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A/N: Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you what actually motivated me to continue writing this story. Of course, it was No Way Home. But it was more than just that. It was the ending of No Way Home.
To me, something always felt missing with the MCU Spider-Man, which is part of the motivation that I had for wanting to write this story in the first place. But man… that ending was pure Spider-Man, through and through. The crappy apartment. Actual personal stakes. The loneliness that comes with being Spider-Man sometimes.
It brought me back to when I was a young girl where I read the 1960s-1970s Spider-Man comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. My love of Spider-Man started with those comics and not by watching any of the movies. I watched those after the fact. So, there was always a part of me that was just so dissatisfied by the MCU Spider-Man. I liked Tom Holland in the role, but there were rarely ever any serious moments. And beyond that, I didn't like what they did to the MJ character. I love Zendaya as an actress but in the first movie, when she revealed her nickname as MJ, I was internally screaming that this was not MJ at all. They wrote her as so sour and mean in the first one. But as time went on, she did start to grow on me as a character when they started to soften her edges.
The overall ambiance of the ending left me entirely satisfied and I was inspired to write this once more.
And on another note, I really hope that they give Andrew Garfield another chance at Amazing Spider-Man 3. That man truly loves Spider-Man and understands the character. Everyone can see it. He was one of the stand-outs to me in No Way Home.
Here's to hoping that they delayed Morbius so that they can add scenes of Spider-Man in there!
Thanks for reading this ramble and also for reading this story. I would really appreciate it if you left a comment.
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Chapter Fifteen
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It was only about an hour later when Peter was swinging back to his apartment. He felt comfortable in the fact that the crime was small-scale enough where it wouldn't end up on the news - where May and Tony would find out about it. He turned the corner onto his street and automatically, his eyes went to the rooftop where he left MJ. She wasn't there. Of course she wasn't still there. She wouldn't wait around all night for him to return.
Still, he found himself disappointed that their time was cut short. He had been enjoying himself, just talking about whatever topic came to mind. It was a sad irony that she happened to call both of his personas a nerd… but she did imply to the 'Peter Parker' side of him that he was a cool nerd. She never said as much to Spider-Man… but one could argue that being cool was just implied for Spider-Man. The words didn't need to be spoken in order for the fact of it to be universally accepted as truth.
Wow. Even while in his suit, he was jealous of his super-hero persona when it came to Mary Jane Watson.
He swung up to the side, his Spider-Sense alerting him that the coast was clear, and attached himself to the wall right outside his bedroom. He opened his window and crawled inside onto the ceiling.
"Hey dude!" An excited voice resounded from his bed. Peter looked over and grinned. It was Ned.
He jumped down from the ceiling and landed nimbly on his feet before he took off his mask. "Hey man!"
They did their handshake. Peter had only just remembered how to do it again last week. But Ned was patient with him and didn't force it earlier.
"What are you doing here? I thought you worked late tonight?" Peter asked as he pushed the spider symbol on his chest to loosen the fabric of the suit.
"It was slow, so they let me go early," Ned replied as Peter fished around for a t-shirt from his drawer. He found one and whipped it over his head.
"Dude, that's awesome!" Peter beamed at his best friend as he put his legs through some sweatpants. "I hope you haven't been waiting here too long."
Ned waved a hand at him. "Nah. Only about a half hour. And I was talking to May while you were gone. She told me that you were meeting a girl on the rooftop." Ned's tone was sly, trying to fish for more information.
Peter's eyes bulged as he very nearly fell over from putting on his socks while standing up. "What? How did May know?"
Ned looked eager. "So, it's true? Is she cute? Did you talk about Star Wars?"
Peter shook his head incredulously at him. "No, we didn't talk about Star Wars. But I did slip and mention Doctor Fate and now she thinks I'm a nerd," Peter paused and bit his lips as he thought on Ned's other question. His cheeks flamed. "And yes. She's cute. More than cute. She's beautiful, adorable, funny, sarcastic-"
"So did you ask her out?" Ned asked excitedly. Neither of them ever really had much of a chance to talk about any potential with a girl before. "Are you boyfriend-girlfriend?"
Peter looked at Ned as though he were crazy. "Of course not. Why would you think that?"
Ned's brows furrowed. "Well… I mean, did she not have a good time?"
Running a hand through the back of his hair, Peter sighed heavily. "Well, yeah. I think so? We were laughing a lot."
"Then what's the problem?"
Peter shot him a quizzical look. Wasn't it obvious? Or… "Did you not know that it was Spider-Man that she wanted to meet on the roof and not Peter Parker?"
Ned's jaw fell open as he gaped at him. "Man, that's messed up."
Sighing and closing his eyes, Peter shook his head. "No, you don't understand."
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. Peter looked up at Ned's soft and reassuring gaze. "Well, I'm willing to listen."
So Peter told him everything from the beginning regarding his short but hectic history with one Mary Jane Watson. Ned was a good listener, only interjecting with hums to let Peter know that he was still listening.
"So…" Ned finally said when Peter was finished. "She met you as Peter Parker?"
Peter nodded.
"But you think that she prefers Spider-Man over you?"
Peter sighed. "I don't think that I have even been a consideration for her, man. And honestly, the way that I was staring at her when she first showed up on my doorstep, I must have looked like a complete dofus. I don't blame her."
"That is kinda creepy," Ned agreed, "The blatant staring, I mean."
Peter grabbed his rubber band ball and threw it at the wall before catching it once again. "Thanks, Ned."
Ned held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying."
Outside in the hall, there was a loud thump of something heavy hitting the floor. It alerted Peter immediately. "Aunt May? You okay?"
"Yes," She called from the other side of the door, though he could tell that her voice was strained with struggle, "Just getting some boxes out of storage."
Peter turned back to Ned. "I'm going to go help her quick."
Ned nodded. "You want me to set up the PlayStation?"
"Sure," Peter said, as he made his way to the bedroom door, "Pick whatever game you want."
He opened the door to see his aunt struggling with a heavy box that she was trying to retrieve from high up in the storage closet. The other box that caused the noise was on the floor. Peter jumped to attention. "Let me get that, May."
He didn't wait for her answer as he sprung forward and reached up to take the heavy box from her hands and took it down from the top shelf. May huffed in gratitude as she reached up to pat his cheek. "Thanks, Pete. You're too good to me."
"Where do you want this?" Peter asked her, indicating to the box.
A soft smile graced her lips, though her eyes were a bit misty. "Let's take it to the living room. There are some things that I would like to show you."
Peter was unsure of what to say, so he followed her into the living room and set the box onto the coffee table as he sat on the couch.
May remained standing as she lifted the top of the box before she sat down on the floor next to it. "Go ahead and look. See if it jogs any of your memories."
Oh.
Peter leaned his body forward and peered into the box. It was packed full to the brim of miscellaneous items. But the first thing that caught his eye was a picture. He gasped and grabbed hold of it. "Is this Uncle Ben?"
May nodded her eyes becoming a bit red now but he could tell that she was trying to suppress it, so he didn't say anything in order to not draw any attention to it. Instead, he studied the picture. It was Ben alright, but not in the way that Peter remembered him from the little memories that he had. In this picture, Ben was young. Probably around the same age that Peter was now. It looked like he was on a road trip of sorts, with the background being the Golden Gate Bridge. He looked so relaxed and carefree - the complete opposite of how Peter usually felt.
"Ben and your father looked a lot alike," May said softly as she watched him study the picture. "There are so many times that I see either one of them in you. And that gives me comfort."
She reached into the box and pulled out another picture. This one of a young couple with a baby in their arms while sitting at the park. "That's your parents."
His eyes snapped to May before looking back at the picture. His parents were smiling wide while the baby - him - was looking to be on the verge of wailing. May was right. Peter did resemble his dad a lot.
"Do you remember anything about them?"
Peter shook his head, a lump forming in his throat from the regret he felt with his answer. He desperately wanted to remember something about his parents and it wasn't fair that they were virtually strangers to his eyes. It made him want to equally pound something and roll in a ball in weep.
May sighed. "That's to be expected. You were so young then."
Peter put the picture down and something else in the box caught his attention. He reached in and pulled out a nice, expensive looking camera. Peter's thumb absentmindedly caressed it. "This was Uncle Ben's."
Smiling wide, May asked, "You remember?"
Peter nodded as he turned the heavy camera over in his hands. "He used to take me with him while he took pictures of the city. I liked to watch him."
A specific memory of when they went onto top of the Empire State Building. Ben had bought Peter a warm pretzell that he nibbled at while his uncle started taking shots of the skyline. The lighting had been perfect. The orange hue of the golden hour casting a shadow on all of the skyscraper buildings.
He was brought out of his memory when May put her hands over his on the camera. "Take it. Ben would've wanted you to have it."
"Really?" Peter asked, that lump in his throat growing even more profound. May nodded, smiling at him reassuringly.
"DIE. DIE. DIE!" They heard from the other room and both Peter and May jumped. Then, they both looked at each other and laughed.
"Looks like Ned started without me," Peter said.
May's soft laughter died down a bit. "Go. Have fun with Ned. I'll leave this here for you to look through whenever you find the time."
Peter nodded and stood but before he retreated into his bedroom, he took May's hand and helped her to her feet into a hug. "Thanks May."
He felt her nod against his chest and then she pulled away, making sure to hide her face. He was pretty sure that she was crying. Peter wanted to go after her but he knew that she wanted to be alone now. He took the camera firm in his hand and made his way back into the bedroom, where his best friend was apparently going on a virtual killing spree.
….
Mary Jane sifted through the racks upon racks of dresses at the thrift store. There had to be something here that was nice enough for an elite charity ball? Especially something that would be sure to knock the boots off of Spider-Man when he saw her in it. But the majority that she came across were gaudy. And the nice ones that she found so far were not in her size. She sighed. Aunt Anna had started giving her allowance for helping to pick up around the apartment but there hadn't been enough time for Mary Jane to save enough money to buy a brand new dress from a nice store.
Which lead her to here. Midtown Thrift Store.
She was about to give up for the day when something finally caught her eye. She pulled it off the rack and surveyed it with her eyes and a beaming smile.
Oh yes. This one would work.
"Spider-Man, eat your heart out," She said under her breath before she folded it over her arm and made her way to check-out.
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A/N: I know, not much Mary Jane in this chapter but you kinda see where this is heading, so there will be a lot more of her in the next one. Please leave a review!
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