Hello everyone!

This takes place in between Homecoming and Infinity War.

This is a stand-alone fic BUT I strongly advise you read my other fic (nudgenudgewinkwink) about how MJ got to the point where she was 67% sure Peter was Spider-man, because I'm basically writing Peter's POV of what happened in there.
Anyhoo, hope you enjoy this!

How Peter Parker got a crush on Michelle Jones

(and what he subsequently did, or rather did not do)

Peter Parker realizes it one day, out of nowhere.

It's not easy to pinpoint when exactly it all started, but thinking back, he would probably bet on his 16th birthday back in August. He had been celebrating it with Ned at that little cafe they both like so much because they make delicious Star Wars themed sugar cookies. They were talking about the latest upgrade he had managed to get Tony to agree on installing in his suit, when MJ had stumbled upon them with her brown curls hiding half of her face and her hands clamped on the straps of her backpack.

It's the fact that months later he still remembers exactly what she looked like that leads him to believe this specific moment was the starting point of it all.

It's dumb, but he's a sixteen year-old boy, and even though he still feels bad about it because May's lessons on sexism are clear and fresh and hold an important place in his mind, seeing Michelle Jones in a tank top and very short shorts had made him all stupid and fuzzy inside. He hadn't seen her in a while, it being summer and all. It was also very hot that day, obviously, like pretty much every 10th of August since the beginning of times anyway. It made sense that she had dressed like that, it absolutely did. He usually didn't pay much attention to how people dress back at school, not since Liz anyway.

But that summer outfit MJ had been wearing on this particular day had stuck to his mind as efficiently as the first version of web fluid he had designed back in Freshman had stuck to his then favorite sweatshirt – he had been so sad to throw his Millennium Falcon hoodie away back then, and to be honest, it still hurts to think about it.

That's not really the point though.

The point is, he still remembers perfectly, even now, how frantic he had been when MJ had appeared next to their little table. She had smirked at them, and at that time all he could think was wow that's a lot of skin, and then that she had probably heard him talk about his suit, which could have been quite problematic. He had told her they were just talking about Halloween to cover it up, and she had raised an inquisitive eyebrow at that, clearly not believing him at all. The suspicious – and somehow disappointed as well – look she had given him right before turning heels and leaving had made his heart sadly flop in his chest.

She hadn't given him the chance to mop for long though, because right before stepping out of the coffee shop she had stopped in her tracks, then walked back to Ned and him with a very stern expression plastered on her face. She had stopped in front of Peter, her brown eyes glaring into his own, which had made him squirm uneasily in his seat.

"Happy birthday, dork," she had deadpanned, and Peter had looked at her in surprise and in awe. He hadn't been expecting that at all, and it had taken him a moment before he had profusely thanked her, feeling his cheeks redden uncomfortably in the process. She had dismissed his thanks with a shrug like it was nothing, then had left without another word.

Peter had watched her walk away, still in awe, before realizing what he was doing and diving right back into his smoothie and Chewbacca cookie, cheeks burning, refusing to comment on any of what had happened even when Ned had tried to make him.

Yeah, that was definitely at that very moment it had started, although he hadn't realized it back then.

Now he does though. The realization came crashing in this morning in Chemistry, when he met her eyes from across the classroom while waiting for a new set of tests tubes. He's been meeting her gaze more and more often since the beginning of their junior year. And for some reason, every time it happens, it's now doing something weird to his heart.

The exact same feeling he gets when he jumps off of a building and waits for the last second to web himself up again.

And he pretty much knows what this means, even though he really did not expect that at all. With Liz it was different. He noticed her immediately, on the first day of Decathlon practice back in Freshman, falling for her all at once. And there's been no one else since her, too. Well, there was that girl who tried to ask him out last year, but he'd realized it too late and she had moved on – fairly quickly if you ask him, but she was probably just trying to be nice since he had saved her a couple of weeks prior from being run over by a school bus. He still feels pretty dumb about the whole thing. At the time, MJ had made fun of him. He hadn't paid much attention to it, because that was what MJ did.

But now…

Now here he is, all clumsy and dorky whenever she's around, which obviously seems to perfectly fuel her endless teasing wit.

How dumb does he have to be to get a crush on Michelle freaking Jones?

At first he tries to ignore it. Then when he can't anymore, he tries to explain it scientifically. Maybe he just has a rare genetic heart condition that prompts his heart to do back flips whenever he meets a pretty girl's eyes. He looks it up online but doesn't really find anything, obviously. He himself thinks that explanation is dumb. He doesn't even share it with Ned, which is to say. It doesn't add up anyway, because it only happens when he meets MJ's eyes in particular. Not that there are many pretty girls looking at him anyways. Man, he knows exactly what she would say if she could hear him.

"Stop looking for excuses Parker, you're just a dork that's all!"

In any case, it's definitely been happening more and more often, and he doesn't know if she's the one looking at him or if it's just a coincidence every time. He meets her brown eyes across the crowded hallways in between classes, at lunch, during Decathlon practice too, all day at school really. As soon as their eyes meet they both look away quickly like nothing happened. She doesn't seem fazed out by it the slightest, sometimes she even flips him off in that very classy MJ way she has to greet most people. It seems way more nerve wracking and awkward for him. Especially now that his heart is doing this weird thing every time. Multiple times a day, really.

This has never really happened to him before.

After a while, he decides to talk to Ned about it. One night, while they're building his Lego Death Star for the hundredth time it seems, he takes the leap. "So what do you think about MJ?"

Ned immediately looks up with a suspicious frown. "What? Why? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"What? No!" Peter exclaims with a nervous laugh. "No it's nothing it's just, I've been, I don't know… I caught her looking at me a couple of times these past few weeks and –"

"Really?" Ned cuts him, raising an eyebrow at him then looking back to his Lego pieces, clearly not believing him. "It doesn't seem very likely you know. I mean, she's MJ, she hates people and she reads books, that's pretty much it as far as I know. Why would she be looking at you anyway?" Peter doesn't answer for a moment and Ned finally sighs. "Dude, you sure you're not the one looking at her in the first place? You pulling another Liz on me man?"

"Of course not!" comes Peter's offended reply. "Absolutely not, why would you even say that." Ned gives him a 'you kidding me' look with a tiny laugh and Peter feels his cheeks grow red a little. "Whatever."

And he doesn't talk about it again, at least for a while. He is still meeting her gaze every now and then though, and he grows more and more restless each time it happens. He tries to stop this irrational crush before it becomes more, but he can't help himself and starts picking up on small things he had never noticed before.

The closed lip smile she makes whenever Mr Harrington says something particularly embarrassing in Decathlon practice. The focused and yet detached expression she has whenever she draws, how she draws on the inside of her arms when she doesn't have anything else to use. How she always has her hair up in a bun everyday except on Friday afternoons. How passionate she gets whenever they go off track at practice, how she rolls her eyes when Flash says something especially dumb. The way she goes through multiple books a week, the pleased look she gave him that one time when he actually recognized one of the books she was reading at lunch and told her he'd read it too.

His heart had bungee-jumped in his chest when it had happened. Part of him had wanted to recreate that look in her brown eyes, because it had been so genuine and heart-felt it had successfully knock all the air out of his lungs. Sadly though, he was an absolute dork, and all his subsequent attempts had failed, earning himself raised eyebrows at best, and dismissive snorts at worst.

They aren't close, at all, and he really wants to change that, but he has no idea how. To be fair though, he has no idea how to act around girls, the only time he managed to ask one out being that time he had almost accidentally got Liz to come to Homecoming with him. And it hadn't ended well, at all. To be honest, Peter still has nightmares about it, which sucks.

Can you get PTSD from fighting your ex-girlfriend's dad and sending him to prison? It would make sense. He's not entirely sure that's what holds him back from asking MJ out though. Well, at least not just that. The thing is, he's intimidated. She's just so cool, he thinks. Not in the head of cheerleaders / senior / captain of the Decathlon team kind of way, like Liz was, more like in her just being her. Passionate about social causes, bookworm, sassy smartass yet introvert. Her quips make him laugh, her wit denotes a caring person even though she tries to hide it behind her eternally bored expression. Her poker face is so good he has no idea whether she hates him or likes him, or doesn't care at all about him. Probably the latter. And he's not confident enough to try and ask her out without being sure first she doesn't actually hate him.

Most of the times he's pretty sure she has no opinion of him at all, like he's just another random classmate and that's it. Other times, not so much. Like that time she yelled at him for accidentally spilling out about Betty's surprise birthday party back in November. That had been scary. And he's dealt with scary before, fighting off heavily armed bad guys and everything, but angry Michelle Jones was on a whole new level of scary.

But then again, there are some times where he catches something in her eyes that might possibly translate at least some interest in him too. Like when she wished him his birthday back in August – she knew his birthday date, that meant something right? Or the satisfied look in her face that time she'd made him blush – he had helped out firefighters the night before as Spidey, had had a hard time getting rid of the burning smell before school, which she had noticed and had called him out for smelling like the Human Torch's underwear. He had panicked and blushed harder than ever, catching a look he'd never seen from her before, like maybe she thought it was cute? He wasn't sure about that last part, she was just so hard to read.

And yet, more recently, Peter had been the one to make her blush. Unintentionally, obviously, but still. He had run late to his PE class – thanks to some extracurricular Spidey activities during lunch break – and had changed into his shorts and t-shirt behind the bleachers outside of the football field, in a spot he'd thought would hide him well – he had a sense for these things, usually. He still has no idea what she was doing there, but she had run into him right as he was taking his shirt off, which would have been mortifying on his side if he hadn't been so surprised at her reaction. She had opened her mouth in shock, cheeks reddening instantly as she – Peter was pretty sure of it – checked him out.

Then she had stammered something about a lost ball and had scrambled out of sight, but not before Peter had picked up on her sudden increased heartbeat – enhanced senses for the win. And maybe she'd been running before and it made sense, or maybe, just maybe, it had to do with seeing him shirtless. He wasn't sure what to do with that kind of knowledge, to be fair. It had made him all jumpy and restless for some reason. She had ignored him for the rest of the class, but he had caught up on her right at the end to say he was sorry. She hadn't looked him in the eye when she'd told him that she was scarred for life, and he had heard it again: her heartbeat slightly picking up.

This new information had monopolized his thoughts for an entire evening after that – distracting him so entirely he had almost been knocked out by a signboard at some point during that night's Spidey patrol.

Roughly a week after that, she had spent an entire day throwing things at him, for seemingly no reason at all, which had confused him a great deal to be honest. Thank Thor for his quick reflexes that had helped him catch everything – he was especially glad he had caught that test tube in Chemistry class, because if he hadn't they would have probably ended up in detention. He still has no idea what this was about, but somehow he feels like in the past couple of months, the dynamic of their – still very scarce – interactions has changed. Not enough for him to finally take the leap and ask her out, but still.

Up until that day mid-April. It's a Wednesday, nothing's special about it as far as he knows, except for the fact that she acts super weird all day, sneaking up on him to seemingly try and scare him. At least that's what Peter concludes after she's jumped from behind a door in front of him for the second time that day. He heard her coming, obviously, there's not much that can surprise him since the bite to be honest, so he doesn't react and just looks at her in awe, wondering what that's all about. He sees it clearly though, her disappointment, so when she sneaks up on him again, he fakes it. He fakes being scared, even though he hears her coming every time, even though he has no idea what she's trying to accomplish, hoping she'll get what she wants.

He doesn't even think much about how weird it is. Maybe today is National scare-someone day, who knows – although, that one might be Halloween? He has no idea. In any case, he really just likes the fact that she's trying to get something out of him, even if he doesn't know what it is exactly. After the third time faking it though, she just lets out a very irritated sigh and storms off without a word. She even calls off Decathlon practice that afternoon, which is definitely weird, so Peter gathers up his courage and catches up to her right as she is about to go home.

"MJ, wait up!"

She barely turns to look at him and that's when he sees her slightly puffy eyes, and he feels his heart drop in his chest at this sight. "Practice is canceled, I'll see you tomorrow Parker," she tells him sharply, pointedly ignoring his attempt to meet her gaze.

"Ned told me," he nods, noticing how she tries to walk faster, but easily keeping up with her pace. "I just uh, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay?"

MJ stops in her tracks and turns to him, frowning. He stops too, a little scared that she's about to yell at him for some reason. But then her gaze softens and she offers him a sad smile. "I'm fine, Peter. Don't sweat it." Before he can say anything, she walks away, looking back at him once before disappearing in the flow of people heading out. And he stays here, in the middle of the hallway, heart pounding in his chest because she called him Peter. She never calls him Peter. It's always Parker, or dork, or loser.

She called him Peter. It probably shouldn't make him feel this happy, but it does.

Maybe there is something here.

"Alright, so walk us through your plan," May says calmly, leaning on the edge of his desk.

"Okay, um, well, on Thursday there's that field trip to the MoMa I told you about? She's going too, so um, I thought I could uh, I don't know, try and ask her if she'd like to go out with me someday?"

"And? That's it?" Ned interrupts, raising an eyebrow at him. "Dude, it's MJ you're trying to ask out, not some random normal girl. You gotta add some unsolved murder theory or at least some unheard opinion about that latest protest she's been too."

"Not helping, Ned," Peter sighs, fiddling with his pencil.

"She sounds like an interesting young woman," his aunt points out, and Peter slams his head on his desk with a groan. This is a disaster. He hears May's light chuckle at his reaction, and she pats him on the shoulder a couple of time before concluding: "Well, don't think too much about it okay? Trust your instinct and you'll be fine. You got this, Pete."

"Thanks, May," he mumbles, not looking up just yet as he hears her walking towards the door of his room.

"She's a lucky girl," May adds cheekily just as she closes the door, and Peter groans again. Maybe he shouldn't have told her about any of this. He really doesn't want to mess it all up, because something tells him that there's at least a slight chance MJ might say yes if he does this properly, but he also knows that his nerves could make him so dumb she could also hate him thoroughly by the end of the day too. Which would suck. He really wants her to like him. He kinda likes her. A lot. Maybe too much, but that's not the point here.

"I think I'd rather fight the Vulture all over again than do this," he tells Ned after a while, and his friend snorts. Getting this out of his chest might help, he thinks, so he keeps going, finally looking up and turning his chair towards Ned who's sitting on his bed. "This is just mortifying really. She's gonna say no, isn't she?"

"Dude, you're an Avenger, how can she say no to that?" Ned says absentmindedly, and Peter frowns.

"I told you, I'm not gonna use Spider-man to get her to date me, that's not right."

"I know, I know."

"Besides, it's MJ we're talking about. I'm pretty sure if she knew she would say no. Remember how mad she got when Flash tried to minimize what happened in Sokovia?"

"Ouch, yeah, she almost made him cry," Ned winces at the thought, before sighing again. "Man, why did you have to go and get a crush on Michelle Jones?"

"I know, it's super dumb," Peter whines, desperate. "Maybe I should just, ignore it completely."

He must admit, he did not expect Ned's reaction at that at all. "NO. WAY." his friend snaps at him, frowning deeply. "I'm sorry dude, I love you but you are so annoying when you have a crush on someone, I can't take this anymore!"

Peter stares at him, shocked. "What? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Well I am saying something now, Pete," Ned retorts. "If you don't ask her out for yourself, then do it for me. Or I'm gonna go and talk to her myself, and bear in mind, she pretty much terrifies me, so that's how desperate you make me, alright?"

"Alright alright, sorry."

"Want to rehearse one more time?"

Peter hesitates a moment, thinking back to what Ned just said, but his friend is pointedly looking at him, waiting, and he gives up. "That'd be great yeah, thank you Ned. You're the best bro anyone could ever dream of."

"Dude, I know. You're not so bad yourself. Well, at least when you don't have a crush on anyone."

Peter snorts at that, and they spend another hour going over what he has to say and all the possible ways it could go sideways. When Ned has to go home, Peter knows his lines by heart. Hopefully MJ sticks to the script they made for her with what they thought she would probably say – Ned got pretty intense about getting in character, which was fun, but a little disturbing too at first. Peter knows it will probably not happen like he plans at all, obviously, because she's MJ, she's always throwing him off tracks and he must admit he likes that about her. But he's thinking, rehearsing things with his best friend actually helped a little. He feels more comfortable now than he had a couple of days ago when he decided it was time.

He's gonna ask out the girl he likes at a field-trip to the MoMa. He's gonna do it, and hopefully she's gonna say yes.

What could go wrong anyway?

What could go wrong indeed? Poor Peter, if only he knew LOL

(you know, donut spaceship flying over Greenwich, going to space, fighting Thanos, getting snapped, e tutti quanti)

I don't intend on covering everything that happens in Infinity War, Endgame and Far From Home (the first two because WOW TOO MUCH WORK, and the third one because I did it for MJ already in 67% sure, although I'll probably do some of their scenes together because I love these two idiots) but I'll definitely write about the eight months in between the end of Endgame and the beginning of Far From Home, so there you go!

Any feedback is deeply appreciated, and if you wanna talk / be friends / give me prompts or whatever, I'm also on Tumblr under the same username :D