Peter spent some time mingling, making sure everyone was enjoying themselves, playing the good host. He soon found himself talking with Glory and Hobbie, two people that he never really got the chance to interact with all that much. In fact he didn't remember the last time he heard Hobbie speak.

It was then that he felt a tap on his shoulder, turning he found himself looking into the soft brown eyes of his ex-girlfriend, Liz Allan.

"Can we talk" the hispanic girl asked before adding "Please, Petey"

Peter looked briefly panicked before he schooled his expression and nodded "y-yeah, we can talk"

He left his cup on the counter and led Liz out the back door so they could have some privacy. Well maybe not total privacy Rand and Sally were making out in the corner so Peter and Liz moved to the other side.

Neither spoke at first, they just awkwardly stood there waiting for the other to start talking.

"So-" "I-" they spoke at the same time

"You go first" Peter said

"No you go" Liz responded

"I was just gonna ask what you wanted to talk about," Peter said.

The girl narrowed her eyes minutely. "what do you think I want to talk about" she said hotly

Peter rubbed the back of his head "Sorry, stupid question"

Another beat of silence.

"Why did you break up with me?" she asked, sounding calmer than she was. Rand and Sally stopped what they were doing and started to listen to the conversation across the porch. Neither Liz or Peter noticed this.

"W-well I mean, its like I said, I've was a really bad boyfriend to you, an-and you were so good to me, so understanding, I didn't deserve you, I still don't." He told her, head down.

She narrowed her eyes at the boy "Bull. Shit. Petey"

"No Liz it's true I swear, I'm sorry I-" she cut him off.

"I've heard it all before Peter, and maybe that is true, maybe you don't deserve me, but we both know that's not the truth." She accurately accused the brunet.

"Liz I-" he attempted to say something but she plowed ahead.

"I think I deserve to know, you wanted to break up, that's fine, but don't insult me with that 'its not you it's me' crap, I'm smarter than that and you know it." she finished in a small voice "of all people you should know it."

Peter took a step back and looked away in shame. She was right, about everything. He took a deep breath, looked her in the eye, and told her the truth.

"I fell in love with someone else," he admitted to her. It felt good in a weird way, to finally get the truth out there. Like a weight he didn't know he was carrying just slipped away.

Peter heard a gasp to his left and finally noticed that Rand and Sally were eavesdropping on their conversation. Rand had the decency to look sheepish at being caught, Sally just wore a face splitting grin at the gossip material unfolding in front of her. Both he and Liz gave the other couple heated glares.

"We'll just get out of your guys hair" Rand said with an apologetic smile. Taking Sally inside. Only for their faces to appear in the window two seconds later.

Peter sighed and took Liz further into the backyard in an attempt to get some privacy. They could still be seen from inside the house, but they shouldn't be heard.

Once they found a good spot Liz asked "who is it, I think I know already, but I need to hear it from you?"

Peter sighed, he really didn't want this conversation to happen, if only to spare Liz the anguish… except that wasn't really true was it? Because it didn't matter what he did, it was always going to hurt Liz.

The easy thing to do would be to tell her it didn't matter and walk away. The responsible thing would be to tell her the truth and let her find some closure.

"It's Gwen" he stated simply.

"I knew it," Liz said, a sad smile on her face, which quickly dropped as she asked her next question. "Did you cheat on me with her"

"No, never I swear, I would never do that, to you or anyone" Peter said as his expression mophed into pure shock and bewilderment, as if that was never a possibility that crossed his mind.

'Because of course it didn't' she thought sadly, he may be flaky and have terrible time management, but he was a genuinely good person who always tried to never hurt anyone, even when he ripped her heart out.

She still wanted him, even after all this she still wanted him. Liz knew it was a bad idea, she knew it would never work. He's moving away, he doesn't have time for her, he already said he loved someone else. She wanted to try, she had to try.

"But Gwen's with Harry now right, and-and I don't think they're going to separate anytime soon, are you sure you don't want to try again?" she couldn't quite keep the desperation out of her voice.

"Liz, you know that'll never work," he echoed her own traitorous thoughts "besides I'm moving tomorrow, trying again will just hurt us both." Peter tried to let her down easy.

"We can make it work Petey, people have long distance relationships all the time, it can work right, if we try hard enough." the corners of her eyes were glistening with barely restrained tears.

"Liz…" Peter trailed off unsure of what to say.

Then Liz dropped a proverbial bomb on him, "I love you Peter Parker"

It felt like he was just punched in the gut. Except he's been punched in the gut before, it was a lot less complicated than this. He looked everywhere but at her trying to find the right thing to say. Eventually he just dropped his head with a long exhale.

"I'm sorry." he said morosely, unable to meet her gaze.

Tears flowed freely down her face. She turned away, walked three steps, stopped, turned back to look at him. "You know what the worst part about this is?" she asked rhetorically

"It's that I can't even be mad at you, you did everything right, even when you did everything wrong." she took a shuddering breath. "Even after everything, after all the missed dates, the heartache, this conversation, everything, I would still take you back in a heartbeat." another shuddering breath

"You were the best thing that ever happened to me, Petey." she told him with finality.

"I'm sorry" he could only repeat himself, tears beginning to run down his own face.

A minute passed in complete silence. And then she said "I think I need to leave"

Peter grimaced "do you want me to call you a cab" he offered.

She nodded.

"Do you want to go back inside?"

She shook her head, no.

Peter pulled out his cell phone, and dialed the number of a cab company he hasn't had to use since he got his powers.

He waited with her out front for the fifteen minutes it took for the cab to show up. It was incredibly awkward, a few times Liz looked at him as if she wanted to say something, she never did. He just didn't know what could be said.

The cab showed up and she got up, Peter pulled out his wallet.

"Peter you don't need to." she told him

"I want to," he insisted.

She gave him a watery grin "can you stop being so damn nice."

He attempted to ease the tension, "I can't help it, it was how I was raised"

She gave him a nod, tears threatening to spill again, and got in as he looked into his wallet. He grimaced as he realized all he had was two tens, three dollars, and a dime in there, not nearly enough to get Liz home. After a half second of debate he yanked the emergency hundred dollar bill he always kept tucked in his sock.

"This should be enough, you can keep the change," he told the driver.

The diver grabbed the bill before he could even finish the sentence and said "pleasure doin' business" and drove off.

He stood there for a solid minute before turning and heading back inside.

It was like nothing changed. People were still partying, completely oblivious to the conversation that just occurred outside.

Wait a second, something was off. Doing a quick headcount Peter realized quickly what it was

He turned to MJ, who happened to be right by the door talking with Sha Shan. "Hey, what happened to Harry and Gwen?"

"They left right after you and Liz went outside, something about needing to have a talk" she told him before going back to her previous conversation.

Huh. Ok. That's odd.

Peter hoped they weren't fighting because of him, this party might have been thrusted upon him unexpectedly but the last thing he wanted was to cause drama right before he left. The fact that they left without telling him also kind of hurt, a lot.

Also the fact that he might never see them again, can't forget that. It's ok, it's fine, he could still enjoy the party without his two best friends, right?

Not knowing what else to do with himself he went to the kitchen to get another drink.

What followed was a bit of a blur. Alcohol was almost as embolding as the Spider mask he wore every night.

He didn't know how he got to this point, but he was on his fifth cup of 'punch' and was sitting next to MJ on the couch, with Hobbie on the other side, deeply engrossed in a… thing with Flash Tompson. Flash had Sha Shan on one side and Rand and Sally on the other. Glory was sitting in the arm chair, filming the whole thing on her phone. Because how often is it that Peter Parker and Flash Tompson manage to have a… thing without being openly hostile.

It could almost be called a discussion, but the two of them were way too aggressive about it. At the same time they both agreed with every point the other made so he wouldn't call it an argument either.

"I'm just sayin' if Spidey was susch a bad guy he would've achtually done somefin' bad by now" slurred the Blond jock.

Peter threw his hands up in response and said "Exactly! He does so Musch good for the city and what does he get… J. Jolly Jameson calling him a menace." His speech was considerably clearer than the football star's, but the Broxian accent he thought he outgrew came back with a vengeance.

"Yeah! Hey Parker, why'd you even do the pictures for the Byu-b-bugle anyway, all they do is slanda his good name" Flash asked with a dramatically raised eyebrow.

"Hey the guy got me in an excloosive contract deal, I can't sell to paypers that would give Spidey a fair shot" Peter said with a depressed nod.

"Dude. That. suuuucks." Flash said with an exaggerated groan

"Dude I knooow" Peter said equally exasperated.

They went back and forth like this while the rest of their friend group watched on in awe. Glory looked ecstatic to be filming the whole thing.

It's not everyday you see Flash Tompson and Peter Parker have a back and forth that doesn't result in Peter getting thrown in a locker, or Peter getting water ballooned, or Peter getting spitballs aimed at the back of his head, or… well you get the idea.

Best friends in preschool indeed.

After they went back and forth like that for a while Flash asked "hey Parker *burp* why's it that you's the only guy who can get solid pictures of spidey?"

Peter sat up straight at the question in surprise. Everyone else leaned in, curious how Midtown's resident hyper-nerd managed to be the only one capable of getting pictures of the webhead. Peter fished his brain for a convincing answer, before he realized he already had an excuse he used previously.

"Well the guy usually tips me off when somethings going down, sorry you have to hear this Flash but the guy's kind of a glory hog." he told the room.

"What no way Parker, Spidey's a true hero through and through, like Captain America or Derek Jeter." Flash said with conviction.

"Hey man I agree with you, but I'm just telling it how I see it, the guy loves to get his pictures taken." said with a shrug.

The jock looked like he was going to say something else but Sha Shan put a hand on him and whispered "it's ok Eugene, he can be egocentric and still be a hero."

Flash took that like he swallowed a whole lemon, but said nothing in response.

"Hold up a minute," Rand said and then asked "how is it that you're always in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to get those pics?"

Everyone turned towards Peter simultaneously.

"Uhh, what do you mean?" hadn't he just told them how, Spider-Man tips him off on when stuff happens, was that really that unbelievable?

"Yeah he tips you off, but Spider-Man's all over the city." Rand continued "How is it you're always able to get to where he is quick enough to get those pictures"

Peter sat shellshocked for a moment. What the hell was he supposed to do, what was he supposed to say to that. He could just say he was just lucky.

"Well I'm just lucky I guess" he tried.

Some people seemed to buy it outright, namely Flash and Sally, but everyone else was giving him the 'you really expect us to believe that' look.

"I gotta say that's some crazy luck Parker" Rand said, suspicion coloring his tone.

Peter wracked his brain for something he could say to get them to drop the subject. If he didn't put this whole thing to bed they would keep wondering, if they kept wondering they would start to investigate (at least some of them), if they kept investigating then things would start adding up, if things kept adding up…

He's been quiet for too long, he needs to say something, what could he tell them. Come on Peter you're a scientist, psychology is a science, what would a psychologist say to convince someone they weren't secretly spending their free time in a spandex suit punching criminals. Not the truth, that's for sure.

Wait a minute…

Peter plastered an easygoing smirk on his face and put up his hands in mock surrender.

"Alright I give up, you got me. The truth is I actually am Spider-Man. I've been setting my camera on automatic while I fight superpowered criminals and then cashing in the pictures at the bugle." he delivered the speech with abundant sarcasm, as if he wasn't gambling everything on their preconceived notions that he was a scrawny dork.

A breath of silence as he finished his speech, he watched with morbid fascination as their expressions morphed through several emotions.

At first surprise and shock what he said, then the puzzled expression as they realized just how he said it, the internal monolog of 'is he being serious or not', which then faded into 'of course he's not serious'

"Ah shadup Parker"

"Booooo"

"As if!"

"Puh-lease"

All echoed around him, and he let himself feel the relief flow through him. Even if it still kind of bothered him he was glad neither Gwen nor Harry was there. Unlike the rest of the people here they might've been able to tell that his bluff wasn't really a bluff.

Peter thought he was in the clear but then Glory asked "ok but still, how did that all start, like why'd he pick you to be his personal paparazzi?" going back to the original question

Peter blinked at the question, but was quick enough to get a feasible story out.

"Well I guess I was kind of there since the beginning, before he became a hero, he debuted as an underground wrestler, I actually managed to catch his only match" he told them. Hey if the truth works it works, he just wouldn't let it slip that the reason he was there from the beginning

Sally let out a mocking giggle from the other couch.

Peter looked at her funny, "what?" he asked.

"Oh Puh-lease, like Puny Parker could be caught anywhere that wasn't a lab or the library." she said with a dismissive sniff

It made Peter feel disproportionately defensive.

"Hey it's true, look it up, the Spider-Man vs Crusher Hogan at the Valencia in the Bowery, it happened last March like a week after our trip to ESU." he said indignantly.

Hobbie tapped away at his cell phone, "well I'll be damned, he's right."

Peter let himself lean back in juvenile satisfaction.

"That doesn't prove anything Parker could have just looked it up himself" Flash said with zeal.

Peter leaned forward to argue again, more out of habit than anything. But then thought better of it. They could believe whatever they wanted at this point so long as they didn't think he was Spider-Man. So he just gave the blond teen a shrug.

Then Sha Shan asked "Wait, so assuming that is true, how does that explain how you started taking pictures of him?"

They all turned to Peter again, that was happening a lot tonight. He knew he should stop talking at this point, just say he's just lucky. But something, whether it the drinks, or just the fact that he will very likely never see any of these people again made him want to share as much as he could with them.

"Do any of you know the first person Spider-Man helped put in prison?" he asked the room

They all looked at each other and shrugged

"Wasn't it some guys who robbed a Jewelry store last year?" Sally ventured

"No no, it was that Alex O'Hirn guy right" Hobbie said

"I think you're thinking of Flint Marko" Glory told him

"Guys you're all right, his first bust was on Marko and O'hirn who were trying to bust into a Jewelry store." Flash said with complete confidence.

Peter shook his head at all of them "The first person Spider-Man put away was a man named Walter Hardy"

They all shared a confused look, the name was unfamiliar to all of them. Hobbie began typing on his phone, obviously looking up all of this.

"Walter Hardy was a professional thief, he called himself the Cat Burglar. Apparently he did a lot of high profile heists a few decades ago. He prided himself on the fact that he never hurt anyone on any of his heists."

Peter heard Hobbie mutter 'oh, holy shit' on the other side of the couch as he continued. "But as he got older he couldn't do the things he used to do, he started feeling scared, he started carrying a gun."

He felt more than he heard MJ's gasp as Hobbie showed her his phone screen. Peter's voice gained a hard edge as he continued

"Last year Walter Hardy broke into this house thinking no one was home, he was wrong…"

He paused as he felt MJ grasp his hand and squeeze in a show of support, he squeezed back in thanks. Everyone else in the room were in various stages of realization and horror.

"Walter Hardy is the man who shot my Uncle Ben." He finished.

MJ scooted closer to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He felt grateful for the comforting effort and watched as Hobbie handed his phone around to show everyone the articles he found.

Several long moments of silence passed as everyone digested what they just heard.

"Whoa, just… just whoa" Rand said, breaking the quiet

"So Spidey nabbs the guy who killed your uncle and you decide that you're gonna follow him everywhere, do I have that right?" Glory asked

Peter nodded "yeah pretty much" he said with a shrug. Exhaustion washed over him out of nowhere.

More silence. He checked the clock and saw it was well past midnight. Everyone else seemed to come to the same realization and began to say their goodbyes. Most of them gave him some version of 'good luck, see you in a while' as they left.

Soon it was just him and Mary Jane, sitting on the couch together, they figured they would wait together until Aunt May came home. The lights were off, the only source of light being the TV that was playing a random crime "drama", they were only half paying attention to it.

"Hey tiger, are you ok?" She asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, why?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"It just seems like tonight might have been an emotional rollercoaster for you" she leaned forward to get a better view of his face.

"Oh. yeah… I don't know, I feel exhausted but also relieved?" The way he said it made it sound like a question. He continued "like it felt good to share a lot of that, get it off my chest you know?"

"Yeah I get that, I'm actually a little surprised at you, you're not exactly forthcoming about yourself." the Redhead said.

"Hey I'm plenty forthcoming, I'm an open book" he grinned at her.

"Sure, an open book written in invisible ink" she rolled her eyes.

"Invisible ink can be seen you just need a UV light" he said

"Is that your clever way of telling me I should look at you in a different light?" she smirked at him.

"Well what light are you looking at me in?" he leaned forward to match her.

"The light of a complete nerd" she smirked at him

He flopped back dramatically with one hand on his chest and another on his forehead. "Oh such cutting words, you wound me so." he said pathetically, earning a snort from the girl.

"Is that supposed to make me feel bad for insulting you"

"Depends, is it working"

"Now let me think, hmmmm, hmmmm, nope" she said with an innocent smile.

"Wow, cruel and heartless," Peter said, sitting up again.

"A necessity in my line of work" MJ said with ambiance.

"What line of work?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"The work of a star darling" she put a smarmy lilt to her voice.

Peter just rolled his eyes in response and settled into a more comfortable position on the couch. He was surprised to feel the girl snuggle up to him after a moment. Did this mean she liked him? Like like liked him?

No no of course not, he shook his head involuntarily. she made it quite clear that she wasn't looking for that kind of thing with him, this was just her normal flirtiness. Yeah that's it.

"What are you cold or something?" he questioned.

"Or something," she said cryptically.

Peter shrugged and let her settle into his shoulder as she got comfortable. "Can you get the blanket?"

"Sure" and he took the throw blanket off the backrest and managed to cover both of them in one swift motion. It made him feel weirdly proud.

A few minutes passed in silence, the. Which ment Peter was left alone with his thoughts. Thoughts which revolved exclusively around the fact that he was being picked up by some insane lady who was somehow able to figure out his secret identity and was now blackmailing him and threatening his Aunt's life.

He lost his parent's almost a decade ago, he lost Uncle Ben over a year ago, he wouldn't lose Aunt May anytime soon, not if he could do anything about it.

But what exactly would he be forced to do? Darkholme wasn't exactly forthcoming with what was expected of him. All she said was 'complete and utter loyalty' which could mean just one job or it could be indentured servitude for the rest of his life. He desperately hoped it was the former, but knew it was likely the latter.

Though maybe the more important question wasn't how long he would have to do what she says, but what it was she would want from him. Would it be thievery? Acts of terrorism? Assassination? All of the above? Something even worse?

What would May think if she found out? What would Ben think?

These questions and thoughts ricocheted in his head over and over again until they were abruptly broken by the feeling of a hand on his chest.

"Easy there Tiger, you're gonna give yourself a heart attack" he felt the Redhead's mumbled sentence in his neck more than he heard it.

It was then that he realized he was borderline hyperventilating. He forced himself to slow his breathing.

He looked down and was met with Mary Jane giving him a concerned look through her emerald orbs. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. She didn't look very reassured.

"Are you worried about going away?" she accurately guessed.

"Y-yeah kind of" he admitted.

"Well quit it I'm trying to sleep here" MJsaid in an attempt at humor, it was marginally successful. She continued "you'll be fine Tiger, think of it as a fresh start, you get a clean slate, to reinvent yourself. That's what I did when I moved into midtown."

"Heh, thanks for the advice. But I'm more worried about Aunt May" he told her

"Well I don't think you need to worry too much, that woman's tough as nails" she said with complete confidence.

"Yeah she sure is," he agreed "but she's not getting any younger, and with her heart attack a few months back…"

Peter didn't need to finish the thought.

He took a breath "MJ I need you to ask you something, something important."

She gave him a humorous smirk "no you can't tell the people at your new school that we're dating"

Peter found her hand and gave it a squeeze, an unspoken signal that he was serious. She sat up and looked him in the eye, as if searching for something. She must have found what she was looking for.

"Anything you need Peter" she said with complete sincerity, using his name for the first time that night.

"Promise me that you'll make sure Aunt May is safe, call me if anything happens." the love and concern for the last living member of his family was palpable

"Of course Peter, like she was my own aunt." she made the cross my heart motion over her chest.

Peter sighed in relief "Thank you, thank you so much"

In lieu of a response MJ just snuggled into him again. Another minute of silence passed, more comfortably than before. Peter even started to doze off, but then a question began to niggle his brain.

"Hey MJ?" he began

"Hm?" she hummed

"Um, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, believe me I get it, but why do you live with your Aunt." he ventured

Peter could feel him tense against him, followed by a shudder. "You don't have to say anything, sorry I pried"

"No its-its okay. Let's just say it's not really comfortable for me at home." she said tersely, her muscles still tense.

The silence lingered. Instead of giving a verbal response he let his hand find her hair, running his fingers through it in the hopes that it would give her some form of comfort. She shuddered again, but it felt different from the previous one. Peter felt her muscles relax as she cuddled closer to the brunet boy.

Soon her breathing evened out completely, signaling her passing into a peaceful slumber. Peter aimed his wrist at the remote sitting on the coffee table and made a familiar gesture, in an instant the remote was in his hand. He turned the TV off and soon joined the Redhead girl in a blissful unconsciousness.

Can I just say that between the last chapter and this one the number of views almost doubled. It's making me nervous, and a little power drunk. This is my first fic to break 1,000 views which Is just… just wow. So I'm just gonna say thank you all so much, especially people who review, even if it's just to yell at me about which pairing you want. Speaking of…

Current poll results

Also Just to answer some questions I got:

1. Will Peter have a dormant gene x and wake him up giving him a new power?

Sorry but no, I don't know if I'm in the minority here but I really prefer the idea that Peter Parker was completely and utterly unexceptional before getting his powers aside from the genius level intellect and sheer nobility instilled in him by Ben and May. Also, I think there's a lot more things I can do by having Peter be completely different from all the other mutants in the story.

Peter says "What do you mean you were born with your powers?" And then someone says "What do you mean you weren't born with your powers?" And then everyone is sent scrambling because what the fuck is this kid if he's not a mutant.

As for getting new powers however, well there are other possibilities.

2. Is there anyone in your story besides the Defenders, X-Men and Spider-Man, in one of the X-Men stories there was a cameo of Captain America, I think Stark is still a weapons dealer, Banner has not yet become the Hulk, and Thor is somewhere in space?

You pretty much got everything right in your question, Cap's on ice, Tony is still a playboy douche, Banner has just started his gamma ray research, and Thor is larping around in asgard. I will say though that most of the general public outside of New York isn't really aware of superheroes. The defenders tend to stay in their districts and aren't really talked about outside them and the mutants are still hidden, Spidey is at this point the only known and confirmed superhero but even then it's a lot of hearsay.

3. Does George Stacy know Peter is Spider-man? If yes, does Peter know that George knows?

I think the show makes it pretty clear that George Stacy quite possibly maybe almost definitely knows that Peter's spidey. Peter is aware that George is aware but deliberately chooses to not think or confront him about it because it hopefully will never matter and god forbid he's wrong about it. Of course neither of them are gonna say anything to the other, plausible deniability and all that.

4. Please don't make Daredevil like the irondad trope 's weird. He should be like a big bro/mentor to Spidey. It's just my suggestion though

He won't be around for a long time from here on out so don't worry about that. I view Daredevil and Spider-Man's relationship as something akin to an office worker who has been on the job for over a decade and knows the game inside and out just made friends with the overqualified new kid who works in another department. like they don't really get to interact with each other all that much, but it's clear that they appreciate each other and try to look out for one another. Also Matt's been around the block long enough to know where blackmailing a superhero can lead and he wants to make sure that the person he views as the regional manager in a few years is prepped and ready to deal with whatever BS happens (this analogy got complicated). If his calling Peter 'son' is what weirded you out it's just know its Matt's Catholic sensibilities (and also a Hamilton reference).

5. Whose deaths are on his conscience?I know one is Ben,whose the other?

The other death is Norman Osborn, who he thinks is 100% dead because of him. I feel like I might not be spending enough time on this fact but I also hate writing lengthy pieces of angst, it just feels overindulgent and kind of silly sometimes, like I worry it would go on for way too long.

6. Is there any loose schedule for updates?

No real schedule, I'm hoping to release one chapter a week, but the school semester is starting soon so that might not work out as planned. But expect 1 a week if and i'll lyk if something changes.

7. Well, Spidey is the Nightwing of the Marvel universe. He pulls more girls than people realize.

This isn't a question, I just think it's a funny and accurate parallel. Look up a list of Peter Parker's love interests across the marvel multiverse. Basically if you made a list of all the female marvel characters and threw a dart at it there's a 50% chance it hits someone who got with Spidey, I am not exaggerating… Shit, maybe the fandom is right and Peter really does have spider pheromones.