Hello everyone!
This chapter starts with a couple of entries in MJ's Spider-Parker notebook, and then we're back to classic third-person POV. Lots of MJ/Peter interactions in this one, hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I love these two

67% sure

October 18th

I cannot bring myself to write the full date. It's too much.

I found him. My dad. He's sitting right next to me right now.

Last night, when I left my mom's, I quickly came to the deduction that there were only two places my dad could have gone after he snapped back into reality: Midtown High School, to check on me, or the hospital my mom works at – used to work at? – to check on her. The hospital was closer, so that's where I went. Sure enough I found him there. He was disorientated like most of us, and hung onto me like a lifeline when I reached him in the crowded entrance of the building. He asked about mom, of course he did, so I told him everything. Something turned off in his eyes and from then on I had to make decisions for the both of us myself.

Really, all I want to do since then is yell 'Get a grip!' in his ear and slap his face, but I figured I could give the guy some time to process everything. It's always been like that anyway. I've always felt like the most adult-y person of our small malfunctioning family.

By the time I got reunited with my dad, it had been 8 hours since the Vanished reappeared. Things were still pretty much chaotic – they still are 24 hours later – but people were starting to get organized. Abandoned warehouses opened up to let homeless snap-backers have a shelter and someplace to stay while things got figured out. People dropped by all night and all day today, trying to find their loved ones. Others came by to bring us food and clothes and blankets.

A handful of sane people – from the Vanished and the others – have decided to list the names of everyone staying in the warehouse we're currently at, to make it easier to find everyone. I've offered my help, and we've been collecting names and taking pictures on a shared document on our phones all day. It's been a long process. There's hundreds of us in here.

The worse ones are the little kids. We've put them all in a little corner where they all hang out, to try and keep tabs on them and take care of them while we wait for their parents. Someone managed to get them some toys this morning, which helped a little. There's at least 30 of them, some barely older than 2. Scared and lost and crying. Somehow it reminds me of that movie I saw about the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.

It's overwhelming to see that many people needing help, and if you stop doing stuff for just a second it feels like drowning.

It helps writing all this. I drew people too, at some point. We're all in crisis, so if there's ever been a more perfect pool of subjects…

But I am still so angry. Imagine it, one day you're living your life, the next you're a homeless slob because a dumb ass alien thought he could decide all on his own what's best for the Galaxy.

It's getting better though.

Because now we know what happened.

She made a statement live earlier today. Pepper Potts. Explained everything. How the Hulk brought us all back. Then the battle upstate against Thanos and his army. How Iron Man snapped his fingers too, making them all disappear, and dying in the process.

I've always quite admire that woman. CEO of Stark Industries, all day putting up with Stark's bullshit. She was wrecked. Destroyed by grief. Her face was a pure mask of pain and sadness, and yet her words were steady and soothing.

People are calmer ever since then. I saw some cry at the news that Tony Stark had died. I must admit I do feel sorry for the guy, too. For his family. Probably only because I know how much Peter looked up to him.

I haven't seen him. Anywhere. I really do hope he's alright. Feels like that's all I've been hoping for, for him, these past few days. Ever since the donuts spaceship flew over Greenwich. I can't believe it's been more than five years for half of humanity.

Still feels like four days to me.

October 26th

We've been lucky. Mom reached out to us on the 19th. Turns out her new old boyfriend knew someone who knew someone who could get us an apartment. It's very small and only has one bedroom so dad's sleeping in the living room, but really that's still better than at least one quarter of the rest of mankind these days.

Last night I finally got enough. I grabbed him by the shoulders and prompted him to stop with his bullshit and get on with life. He stared at me from a distant boozy haze but he heard me. He left this morning, clean and shaved and finally wearing some decent clothes, to look for a job. Mom and what's his face are providing us for a little while, but we both know that's not going to last forever, so dad's got to do something.

I've been helping everywhere I could these past few days. Keeping up with the idea of a shared folder tracking everyone staying in shelters to help their families reach out. It's actually very rewarding and beautiful to see so many people working together to help figure things out. Earth is still an absolute mess, but smart people and authorities are slowly getting everything sorted.

And now I've just learned that Midtown Science has called out to every student that blipped – that's what everyone is calling it now, the Blip, which is so freaking weird if you ask me – to come back to school as soon as they can. So that's what I'm doing tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to see if Peter is OK.

I've looked it up. There's been zero sightings of Spider-Man these past five years. Either he blipped too, or he died trying to save the world from the evil donuts spaceship. It's a scary thought. I kind of wish I'm wrong now. I kind of hope Peter Parker is not Spider-Man. That he's just a regular kid who blipped, and who's coming back to school tomorrow, like the world hasn't almost ended ten days ago.

All this for the sake of trying to keep a tiny bit a normalcy in our completely messed up world.

Her stomach hurts in expectancy until lunchtime. She hasn't seen him anywhere all morning, and it's completely nerve wracking if she's being honest with herself. To be fair though, she hasn't seen any of her old classmates either. Teachers are still trying to figure out where they're going to put those of them who blipped. MJ heard people saying that their mid-terms might not be validated at all and that they'd have to start their whole senior year again, which is pretty unfair but whatever.

Right now she really doesn't care.

It feels weird stepping back into the cafeteria. That's where she was when she disappeared and when she came back one second – five years – later. The tables that were missing 10 days ago have been replaced. The room is packed, and not in the term she has experienced it this past week when she was helping in shelters for the Blipped. People are laughing and eating and chatting, and for a moment MJ lets herself sink into that weird, wonderful feeling that everything might actually be back to normal.

For a short moment.

Then she grabs her food and looks around. A group of people stands up and leaves a table at the far end of the cafeteria, and when they're gone, she sees Ned sitting there, across from someone.

She'd recognize those wavy brown curls anywhere.

It feels like her heart is about to explode. She lets out a shaky breath then walks towards them.

For some reason, there's only one thought circling in her head: Act natural.

She walks behind Peter, holding back the fingers that really, really want to squeeze his shoulder or, you know, hug him to death. She's so happy and relieved she could cry, but she doesn't. She plasters her usual neutral expression on her face as they look up from their food.

"What's up, dorks?" she asks casually, not looking at them yet. Her fingers shake a little as she sets her food on the table.

She doesn't sit at the far end like she usually does. She sits in the middle, leaving only one free spot between her and Peter. She meets his chocolate gaze when she's all set up, and he's looking surprised, and exhausted, and so very much alive she could just kiss him right there. She settles for something less obvious though.

She smiles. A smile that starts with her lips and goes all the way up to her eyes. One that fills her heart so much it's almost overwhelmingly too good. She doesn't usually let many people see this smile. She doesn't even let herself see it, either.

Today she has to, though. And it feels so damn good.

Even more so since Peter is giving her a huge smile as well. And he's a smiling whore that one, his emotions always show so perfectly on his face, but that smile is even more genuine and deep than usual, and she feels her heart jumping in her chest.

They've been staring at each other for just a bit too long now, she suddenly realizes. So she flushes, and right before she looks away she actually sees him flush as well, and it's so invigorating she has a hard time getting rid of her smile afterwards. She meets Ned's gaze and points her smile at him too, to make things less obvious, and then concentrates on her lunch.

The two boys are unusually quiet, but not in a bad way. The silence above the three of them is actually somehow peaceful, and it feels good. Normal. Friendly. Everything that her life had been lacking of for a little while now.

At some point, Peter sets his left forearm on the edge of the table, and MJ glances at him, fighting the weird urge to reach out and pinch his arm, to make sure he's real or something. It's dumb.

Get a grip, lady.

She sees him again just once, later that afternoon, right before she's about to go home. Okay, she did intentionally stroll by where she remembers his locker was five years ago – yeesh –, and sure enough just like her he's been assigned the same one. It's convenient.

She meets his gaze from across the hallway and remembers that time she'd changed his locker combination during her whole trial tests run to see if he was indeed Spider-Man or not. How he'd broken it open. How it had comforted her in her theory.

But now she's not so sure anymore. Spider-Man hasn't been spotted since the Blip.

Peter smiles sheepishly at her, and she gives him her best 'not impressed' look, which makes him chuckle. She continues walking as he closes his locker, and then somehow he catches up to her and starts walking beside her. She's painfully aware of how this never happens. She's pretty sure last time it did was that time ages ago when she'd caught him sleeping outside and nudged him awake so that Thompson wouldn't make fun of him. Ages ago.

They make their way out of the building in silence, and it's an awkward one, not at all like what they had during lunch. So after a little while, MJ decides to break it.

"So, what are you up to this weekend?" she asks, glancing at him as they walk down the steps.

"I'm uh moving into our new apartment, we had to find a new one, my aunt and I since we uh, blipped back and found another family living at our old place so," He makes a little sound that might have been a nervous laugh but she's not sure. They've made it down the steps, and now they're not walking anymore and are just standing there, and she feels like she has one too many arm suddenly because she has no idea what to do with either of them. Peter doesn't seem to notice though, and he keeps going, looking at his feet. "We were lucky though, people helped and we found something nice fairly quickly, so yeah… What about you?"

"We had to find someplace else to live too," she tells him, "My dad and I."

"What about your mom?"

MJ just shrugs and Peter doesn't insist, which she's grateful for. Wow, she's missed him way too much. This is probably bad, but she doesn't really care. They look at each other for a moment, and then back at their feet at the same time, and she feels stupid so she just stops things there before it gets worse. "Anyway, I'll see you on Monday then."

He smiles at her, and she has a hard time not smiling back and nods to him instead. "Right, yes, bye MJ."

"Bye, Peter."

She didn't mean to call him that, she rarely does, but now it's too late, and anyway it doesn't matter since he's already leaving towards his bus stop. He probably didn't even notice. She's being stupid.

In any case, considering everything that's been going on, today was a great day.

The weekend flies by with her helping out in a shelter near her place, and her dad still looking for a job. She meets up with her mom on Saturday night for some dinner, talking about stuff that doesn't matter and leaving out the rest. Her dad is refusing to see her mom, and MJ clearly sees that it hurts her, but what can she say?

All weekend she keeps an eye out in case Spider-Man makes his grand return in the streets, but he doesn't. It's weird, but she does feel worried for the guy. Now that she knows that Peter is safe, and if they are not one and the same, then she really hopes he's alright too. After all he is definitely one of the good guys.

Iron Man – and Tony Stark – is everywhere. On the news, they call him the greatest hero of all times. Homages are organized all over the world for the fallen heroes of the Battle of Earth. MJ isn't much for it, but it does help people focusing on something. She's a bit put off by the fact that it's pretty much the only thing people are talking about though.

On Monday, back at school, she gets her new timetable and starts her new-but-not-so-new classes. It's fairly easy, she remembers pretty much everything, it's not been that long for her and the others who blipped, but their teachers are insistent that it's what's best for them. She shares her mathematics class with Ned and Peter, her chemistry class with Betty and Flash, her history class with everyone who blipped – one of the few good ideas of their teachers, which is to update them on what happened during these last five years. Then they all go to their Spanish class while she gets to her Italian class, and then it's lunchtime.

She sits with Ned and Peter again, and after a minute or so, she kind of tunes out their discussion about their new classmates – they seem pretty annoyed at someone named Brad for some reason, but she herself hasn't even noticed him yet. Then at some point, a girl she doesn't know stops by their table and tells them that there will be a quick ceremony later during the week to celebrate the fallen heroes that saved the Earth.

"If there's any piece of art or writing you want to share, feel free to drop it into the library, we've put a box there to collect and organize them." she adds with a nice smile, before moving to another table.

MJ glances at Ned, then at Peter, and there is something in their expressions she can't quite explain. Then Peter stands up a little too fast, knocking over his tray and slightly stumbling. He shares a look with Ned then leaves without a word. Ned mutters a barely audible 'sorry' to MJ's attention, grabs his and Peter's stuff and follows him out of the cafeteria.

Somehow, this makes her think about Peter when he had just lost his uncle, three and a half years, no, almost eight years ago. Is he grieving for someone? He's mentioned his aunt was fine last time, but has he lost someone during the Blip? It is possible, MJ thinks, the casualties have been numerous, both when the Snap and the Blip occurred.

She feels sad and sorry for him. She thinks in a way she is mourning someone as well. Her mom. It's easy, coming back to school, to forget how screwed up things still are. Realizing this is like a big fat slap in the face.

But it's only been 13 days. It will get better. Eventually.

She spots him standing beside his locker twenty minutes later, as she's walking to her physics class. He is pressing his forehead on the cold metal of his locker door, and his fists are so clenched by his sides that his knuckles are white. She hesitates for a second, then leans her shoulder on the lockers, close enough for him to acknowledge her if he wants too, and far enough so that if he doesn't want to it's not awkward.

She watches as he takes a deep breath and opens the door of his locker. She takes his movement as an invitation to talk and so takes half a step closer to him.

"You OK there, Parker?" MJ asks quietly.

He slams the door of his locker a little too hard and quickly glances at her apologetically. He then just vaguely nods, sniffling a little, his eyes fixed on his feet. She doesn't say anything, still looking at him and his face he's obviously trying to hide. He must have mistaken her silence for her waiting for an answer, and so he forces himself to say: "Yeah, um, yes I'm fine."

He's so obviously not though. He finally meets her gaze heads on and here he is, with his red, puffy eyes, and she knows he's been crying and it breaks her heart. She wonders if he would like a hug. But knowing Ned, he probably got at least ten already since they left the cafeteria. Ned's a good friend. He's probably way better than her at these sort of things. She's too blunt, too harsh to be of any help, she's very aware of it.

So she doesn't say anything else. She nods too, and then takes a few steps to get around him and walk to her class. When she walks by him though, she stops for a second and gently bumps his shoulder with hers. She initially intended it to be just a bump, but it ends up being her pressing her shoulder against his for a few seconds, and even if it's small and probably doesn't mean much, it still makes her heart swell in her chest just to touch him. Especially since he actually seems to lean into her just the slightest, and turns his face to look at her. She can feel his breath on the sensitive skin on the side of her neck, and suddenly it's way too much for her.

"Alright I'll see you around then, loser." she says, a little louder than she expected, quickly removing her shoulder and walking past him without a look. She hears him release a small puff of air that might have been a chuckle, but she doesn't turn around to check. Her cheeks feel way too hot, no way in hell he's seeing her like this. What was she thinking? That was dumb.

She hopes she didn't screw everything up and make things awkward between them.

She probably did though.

She makes it to her class and sits at a random spot, crossing her arms above the table and hiding her face in it. She's the first one there, and she listens with her eyes closed as her classmates make their way inside, talking about random stuff. Nobody sits next to her. When she hears Mr Dell coming in she looks up, blinking her tired eyes away.

Just then someone moves the chair next to her, the only one free she notices quickly, and she turns and here he is with his puppy eyes, smiling sheepishly at her. He slightly waves his left hand as if to greet her, and she can't help herself and hard rolls her eyes at him.

He chuckles and then nods at the empty chair next to her. "Can I?"

"No, Parker, sit at Mr Dell's desk." she retorts with narrowing eyes, and he opens his mouth in shock like a fish out of water. He looks like such an idiot she can't keep a straight face for more than a few seconds. "Of course you can sit here, dork. There's no place anywhere else." she says with a smirk and he blushes.

Holy crap she made him blush. That's new. His cheeks are all flushed and it's so adorable she immediately feels the urge to make fun of him for it. He must have seen the spark in her eyes because he quickly averts his gaze and sits down on the chair with a small pout. He knows she's about to laugh at him, and he's trying to act casual to make it seem like it doesn't affect him. How could she miss this dork so much?

"Thanks." he mutters, before clearing his throat, and she smirks again. He's avoiding her gaze, taking his stuff out of his bag, his shoulders strained as if preparing himself for what she's about to say.

"So, hopefully nothing much is new with physics uh?" she whispers and he turns to her, very clearly surprised.

"Um, uh, yes, right, yeah, hopefully no major discovery since the uh, yeah," he hesitates and she bites her lower lip to keep herself from smiling too much. "Wow, I must say I uh, I kinda thought you were gonna make fun of me again."

"Well, what can I say, I'm magnanimous."

"Right, thanks."

"Yeah, don't get used to it though."

"I won't." he nods, and he's keeping a straight face while smiling with his eyes, and she thinks to herself that might be her favorite Parker smile so far. Then Mr Dell starts the lesson and they both turn their attention to him and don't talk much for the rest of the class. At times their gazes meet, and then they turn away quickly, and it feels like a dumb little game of hot potato or something.

She likes it though. When the class is over and they part ways, they say goodbye to each other and finally she feels like they're actually becoming friends. She likes that. She likes that very much.

And something tells her he actually likes it as well, and that's even more exhilarating.

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