Peter had been in the shower for what felt like forever, but he still wreaked of smoke. He had scrubbed and scrubbed so much that it was practically a miracle his skin hadn't started falling off by now. He'd used almost a whole container of body wash, which usually drowned out the smell of smoke after a fire rescue, but this fire had been unlike anything Peter had dealt with before. Luckily, he had only come away with some very mild burns on his arms, but he still felt it a little every time the water hit them.
To make matters worse, M.J. was going to be over soon, and his time was running out to get ready. Unlike him, she was usually prompt about being on time for things, especially dates, occasionally running a little early even. What was more frustrating was the fact that, in all the craziness of the day, he'd totally forgotten about the flowers he was going to get. M.J. was not one to need that kind of thing as a show of affection, but he could see how much she appreciated it when he did. Plus, he'd had to settle for calling in some pizza when making it himself turned out to be a disaster.
Bottom line, date night was not looking like it would go as planned.
Peter let out a sigh as he turned the water off, effectively giving up on completely ridding himself of the smoke smell. He'd just try loading up on some deodorant that hopefully didn't make it too obvious that he was trying to cover another scent up. M.J. seemed like she was used to a lot in their relationship, but Peter still tried to put her through as little inconvenience as possible. He was trying his best to live up to the guy, the man that she ideally deserved, and take Martin's advice regarding making her feel appreciated. May had taught him to put forth his best effort when it came to meeting up with a girl; "cut no corners" was her philosophy.
Peter stared at his reflection in the mirror. The smoke stains on his skin were gone at least, so that was a win. He dried off, applied the deodorant, combed his hair as nicely as he could before throwing on a nice but not too fancy button up shirt and his best pair of jeans. He checked himself in the mirror again, and for the most part, he was actually somewhat pleased, at least with the outside.
Inside, specifically his headspace, was another story.
He may have left Riri and Amadeus behind, but he had continued to dwell on them ever since, and the implications of them wanting to work together. At least Kate wasn't necessarily pushy about wanting to be permanent partners or form a team of some kind; they were simply working towards the common goal of uncovering a potentially dangerous secret. The other two, however, were talking it up to the press as if they were forming the next generation of The Avengers! What could possibly make them think that was okay?
Peter had a lot of other thoughts on the subject, many of which he hadn't even begun to process yet, but he put them in the back of his head for the time being as best he could. He still had a date to get ready for and the pizza would be there any time. If things went according to plan (not that they usually did), he would at least be able to spend SOME quality time with M.J.
With any luck, she hopefully hadn't heard about his new friends for the time being and he could get his mind off the subject for a while.
M.J. was getting bored fast. Usually when she rode the bus by herself, her people watching skills kept her occupied. Just like in high school, she would find herself studying even the little things people would do just for fun. The human condition annoyed and fascinated her in equal parts, and she figured one never knew when such knowledge could come in handy.
This evening, however, there weren't many people on the bus to observe, and the few that were had offered her nothing promising so far. M.J. would often bring a book to read while using public transportation as well, but Peter and Happy's apartment was not that far away from campus, so she had figured there was no need tonight. She was beginning to regret that decision though, so she pulled out her phone. M.J. prided herself on not giving into the tendency of the typical college student and staring at her phone screen all the time, but occasionally was considered acceptable.
Besides, she'd thought she'd overheard something about Spider-Man from one of her fellow students on campus, and that was usually fun. Peter was not one to brag about his exploits as New York's favorite wall crawling hero, so she had taken to reading eyewitness accounts and news articles online that detailed his heroic feats to a greater extent. M.J. was very careful in selecting what to read, not being very trusting of the media to begin with, but even more so when it came to Peter. By now though, she had a pretty good idea of who the best bets were to get the most detailed, and accurate, reporting of what her boyfriend had been up to while saving the city.
However, when she googled "Spider-Man," she found a bunch of articles that said the same thing.
"Spider-Man Forming New Avengers Team?"
Her usual caution disregarded, M.J. clicked on the first article that she saw. Immediately her screen pulled up the article that contained a picture of Peter as Spider-Man with two people that looked a lot like Iron Man and the Hulk. M.J. sped through the article, absorbing all the details as if her brain were a sponge. It talked about how these two newcomers had helped Spider-Man rescue civilians trapped in a fire at an industrial complex downtown before announcing themselves to the world as "Spider-Man's partners" and "The New Avengers" before they all disappeared together.
Upon completion of the article, she stared at the screen in disbelief for a moment. Everything about what she just read just felt so... random. Peter may not have bragged about his exploits, but he ALWAYS communicated important details (minus how hurt he might be) and recruiting a new group of Avengers was certainly a big deal.
Going back through the article, M.J. scanned it for any type of official comment from Spider-Man himself to confirm it. Sure enough, there was nothing in the article from Peter's own mouth, so she exited that article, selecting a new one from one of her more trusted sources. As expected, this article proved more detailed and focused on the facts, mentioning specifically that Spider-Man had left to "talk" with his new friends. This article also had more pictures from different angles, and M.J. observed that Peter clearly looked caught off guard, even uncomfortable in some shots.
Whatever had happened, it was definitely not planned on Peter's part.
M.J. sat back, her mind processing everything she had just read and seen. It had been over two years since the Snap, and the world was finally getting back to at least some semblance of normalcy. Apparently that normalcy included new superheroes too, but why would they just ambush Peter like that in front of the press? Why would they be so eager to join him?
That's when M.J. had a thought that made her smile ever so slightly.
It was because they idolized him.
Spider-Man had been the only active superhero, or at least the only one in a largely public context, for the last couple years. In that short time, he had garnered a following like what Iron Man or Captain America might have had when they were active. Social media was routinely flooded with pictures, articles and people's general opinions of Spider-Man, and the news talked about him non-stop (it was about the only thing on the news M.J. could even remotely tolerate).
In short, people loved him. Therefore, it made sense that somewhere down the line, others would try to come alongside him in his never-ending fight against the bad guys. However, there were other elements of these potential partnerships to think about, but M.J. put those to the back of her mind for the time being. She was still trying to process the fact that people were trying to rope her boyfriend into heading up a New Avengers team. All the intricacies and potential concerns were best expressed in an actual conversation with Peter though. Talking through it all would probably be best.
M.J. wasn't even sure she could process all this by herself after all.
Also, if SHE was struggling to organize all her thoughts, how much harder was it for Peter?
Well, the set-up wasn't quite as romantic as he hoped for, but it was going to have to work. Having elected to forgo the more traditional eat in the apartment dining room approach, Peter instead chose to take the pizza up to the roof of the apartment building along with some plates and a blanket, which he had spread out and tried to make it look as nice as possible. However, it ended up looking really... cheap, and he found himself really wishing he had spent less time on fruitless attempts to remove the still partially present smoke smell and more on planning the logistics of his spur of the moment date idea.
As he waited for M.J. (he had texted her just a few minutes ago regarding the updated plan), Peter turned out to face the city. Part of the reason he had wanted to come up here was because, when there wasn't a crisis calling his name, it was actually very peaceful. Many times, he had stopped mid patrol on some rooftop and simply stood, sat, or even laid down and just taken in the sounds, sights and smells of New York. Despite all the craziness of the big city, there was something strangely calming about sitting or standing on top of the world, the cars on the street appearing as if they were ants from such a great height.
It tended to help him get a new perspective on things.
He heard the door to the roof area open, so he turned around and, sure enough, there was M.J. She was dressed in a modest floral dress with a denim jacket and her hair down, something she had been doing more frequently since they had started dating.
"Wow," Peter said as she came over, "you look really pretty."
"Thanks, you look pretty too," she replied with a playful wink and a smirk on her face. By now, Peter understood that this response genuinely meant she thought he cleaned up nicely. They greeted each other with a quick peck on the lips before sitting down on the blanket.
"Sorry about this by the way," Peter said, "I had hoped to do homemade, but it didn't turn out very well, so I ordered something to bail myself out."
"At least you found something with some good vegetarian topping options," M.J. said as she opened the box that contained her pizza. Knowing her, she would by no means eat the whole thing tonight, but she would make good of the leftovers. She had grilled him early on about just throwing leftovers out, calling him out for just tossing out what was still in her opinion perfectly good food. It wasn't that Peter disliked leftovers (he didn't have them too often anyway), he just usually moved onto something else without even thinking about it. However, at M.J.'s insistence, he had made more of an effort to not waste anything.
It definitely helped that this was something Happy believed in as well.
"So," M.J. said as she took out her first slice in her hand, "anything interesting happen today?"
Peter was pretty sure by the look she was giving him that she already knew what happened, but he still opted to start with something else.
"Well, I paid a visit to Martin Li," he said. "He still seems to be doing well; hasn't had an incident since that one time, but I think it's still fresh in his head."
"He'll get through it," M.J. said as she took another bite. "After all, he has you in his corner."
Peter smiled lightly, letting out a small huff at her compliment.
"Thanks," he replied, "but he's the one doing the work. I'm just happy to be able to see it."
"Yeah," M.J. said before quickly changing the subject. "Anyway, how did patrol go?"
"Oh, you know, stuff," Peter said.
"Peter..." M.J. replied.
He let out a sigh as he set down the slice of pizza he had been about to take a bite of.
"Yeah, word travels fast when it comes to something like that," Peter conceded. He looked down at the blanket they were sitting on.
"What is it?" M.J. asked.
"I don't know M.J," Peter said, subtle frustration showing in his voice. "It's just... I love that I get to be in a position to inspire people. I recognize how fortunate I am to be able to have this kind of influence, but when those two talked it all up to the press about us being partners and stuff, it just all felt so overwhelming. I mean, I barely stopped Martin Li by myself two years ago, and now they want me to lead them against who knows what?"
M.J. remained silent, which meant either she wanted him to continue or was just trying to process her own thoughts. Since she was no longer making eye contact with him, Peter guessed it was probably the latter.
"What about you?" Peter asked her, drawing her attention back to him. "What are you thinking about all this?"
M.J. took a breath through her nose before letting it out in a steady sigh.
"I don't know, Peter," she replied. "A lot of things, I guess. It would definitely be nice to know you're not out there by yourself anymore. In a sense, I guess I wouldn't have to worry as much. It would probably help the nightmares, at least."
Peter tilted his head.
"Nightmares?"
M.J. looked nervously at him.
"I wake up some nights from dreams that I got a call that you'd been killed, or even that I saw it happen on TV or something," she confessed. "That's another thing too: if you do make a new team, then bigger threats will come, and the risk will still feel the same on some level."
"M.J, why didn't you tell me this before?" Peter asked, focused on the first part.
"Because I knew you would worry about me, and you'd feel guilty when you shouldn't," she replied.
Peter looked down. She was right; he did feel guilty. He knew she worried about him, but he never really considered the potential extent of it.
"I'm sorry," he finally said, "I didn't know."
M.J. reached over and grabbed his hand with her own.
"You don't have to be sorry," she replied. "I chose this, remember? No, it's not always easy, but I still wouldn't change my decision. Besides, for every bad dream, there are good ones too."
Peter smiled.
"You know I dream about you a lot too," he said with a somber smile. "Both good and bad, like you, I guess. Sometimes it's even both; it'll start out good, before something happens to you."
Suddenly, Peter felt tears threatening to come.
"M.J, if anything ever happened to you..."
"Hey," she said, squeezing his hand tighter, "it's okay. I can't promise you anything just like you can't for me, but... I believe we would both be okay."
Peter sighed, wiping away the water in his eyes.
"I thought I was supposed to be the optimistic one?" he teased.
"What can I say, I guess you're finally rubbing off on me," M.J. teased back.
Peter let out a couple of small chuckles at that.
After a brief pause, M.J. spoke up again.
"Is that also what's bothering you about this?"
"What do you mean?" Peter asked, giving her an inquisitive look.
"You know, after everything that happened with Thanos," M.J. clarified. "Are you... you know..."
"Am I nervous about losing them too?" Peter asked for her.
"Well, yeah," M.J. affirmed.
Peter thought about it for a minute.
"I would be lying if I said it wasn't on my mind," he said. "It would be different in a way too, because this time, they would be looking to ME. I just don't think I'm ready for that. I mean, you've seen the footage of some of my fights; I make up what I'm doing as I go along most of the time. That's not exactly a quality of a good team leader."
"Maybe," M.J. said. "Maybe not. Look, Peter, I don't know what the answer is to all this, but I want you to know that whatever decision you make, I'll be by your side with it. I just want you to be able to live with it."
Peter squeezed her hand.
"Thanks," he said, "and I'm sorry. I REALLY wanted this just to be a simple date where we just talk about our days."
"Well, it can still be that," M.J. replied.
"Okay," Peter said with a smile. "Well, let's talk about you then. How was class today?"
"Oh, you don't want to hear about that," M.J. teased. "It might be a little too boring, both for Spider-Man AND Peter Parker."
Peter laughed before recentering his attention back on her.
"Try me."
Hope you're enjoying it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Proverbs 16:8