Oh my God guys, this is it! Last chapter!

Hope you enjoy it, I'll see you one last time at the end!

67% sure

It doesn't take much convincing from her part to get everyone to go to the Starbucks Peter mentioned. Despite the fact that the entire elemental/drones/Mysterio thing happened like, ten yards from there, the coffee shop is still open, and filled with curious people trying to figure out what happened exactly. She waits for the others to place their orders and when they start going upstairs to sit, MJ discreetly sneaks out again, wondering where exactly Peter is hiding. She ponders for a moment, then chooses to go right – on her left is the waterfront, with restaurants and benches, a very opened space so not a good place to hide in a Spidey suit waiting for a change of clothes.

There's a passage under the building on her left, it's rather dark and empty except for two parked cars ignoring the 'STRICTLY NO PARKING' sign. She ventures there quietly, heart beating steadily in her chest but hands clenched on the straps of her backpack. She hates it, but she is kind of nervous. She doesn't spot him anywhere, so she checks her phone to see if he sent her another text – he didn't. "Peter?" she whispers, counting on his super-hearing to do its job.

It does. "Psst, up here."

MJ looks up, and spots the idiot's apparently very satisfied face above her. He's crouching on a small ledge, behind what looks like the AC installation of the hotel located above the Starbucks. She raises her eyebrows at him and scoffs. "Well that's good and everything, but how do you expect me to get up there?" she mutters.

His smirk sends shivers down her back, for some reason. "Can I?" he asks, and she nods even though she has no idea what he's asking permission for. He stands up and stills for a few seconds, and she takes this opportunity to look around and make sure nobody's in the close proximity or susceptible to see them. Next thing she knows she's hauled up in the air, flying for half a second before her feet gently touch the ground again. Peter swiftly grabs her arm to help her regain her balance and she stares at him in shock as he detaches from her shirt the web he used to hoist her up next to him.

"Hi," he tells her, and then unexpectedly kisses her on the cheek. She just stands there, her skin burning where his lips touched her, and he chuckles nervously at her silence. "Happy had some spare webs with him," he says, and she nods once again even though she has no idea what he's talking about.

The ledge they're standing on is larger then she thought it was, almost like a small covered balcony of some sorts. It makes them completely invisible from the streets which is exactly what Peter needs. There's a maintenance door at the far left, but it's covered in cobwebs – real ones, well, ones made by real spiders – so it doesn't look like it's been opened recently. Peter lets go of her arm and takes a couple of steps back. She looks at him and meets his nervous gaze. "Sorry," she says quietly, clearing her throat. "You kind of took me by surprise here." She's not entirely sure if she's talking about him hauling her up thanks to one of his webs, or him kissing her on the cheek. All this is just very confusing.

He takes it as the first one and pouts like the cute dork he is. "I asked you first."

"Yeah, well I had no idea what you were saying."

"But you said yes?" he says, apparently confused, and she just shrugs, looking down at her feet. There's a beat, and then he asks uneasily: "So um, you guys okay?"

"Yes," she nods, a little too fast, and she curses herself – why is this so weird?! "Yeah, everyone's fine. It didn't um, it didn't take much convincing to get them to go to Starbucks. Mr Harrington says we're waiting for the hotel to call us when our rooms are ready so… yeah." She's rambling. Why is she rambling? She discreetly wipes her sweaty hands on the side of her pants. Her mouth on the other hand is extremely dry, and she hates it. Why is she so stressed out? She kind of knows why, but she also kind of wants to play dumb because she doesn't like it one bit.

"Right, yeah," Peter says, clearing his throat too – ah great, now he's getting weird too, they're just the worse, aren't they? "I figured I could um, meet you guys there."

"Yeah okay, awesome." She mentally face-palms. This is a disaster. There's an awkward silence as they avoid each other's eyes while simultaneously trying to stare at each other too, then MJ remembers why she's here in the first place. She takes her backpack off and opens it. "Anyway um, here's some clothes." She hands them to him and he thanks her profusely like he always does when anyone does something remotely nice. There's another awkward silence, and she watches as Peter shifts his weight on one foot then on the other.

"Um, I'm gonna change now," he tells her timidly, and she feels her cheeks blushing instantly, eyes wide open.

"Oh. Yes, yeah, sorry I'll just –" She gestures a little wildly, hating her nerves deeply for it, then turns around to face the blank concrete wall.

"Yeah, okay," he chuckles nervously, and she almost wants to slam her own forehead on the wall for being so dumb. She hears the ruffling of clothes, wonders how he gets out of this very skinny suit, lingers a little on the thought that it's the second time in two days Peter Parker is undressing behind her. Then something strikes her.

"Crap, I don't have any shoes for you though," she tells him.

"That's alright," he says, his voice a little muffled, and she guesses he's probably putting his t-shirt on while speaking. Goodbye, abs. "Happy got me some."

"Oh, cool."

She doesn't seem to know what to do with her arms and stands there awkwardly, staring at the gray wall like it's one of the most interesting thing she's ever seen. Then there's a light pat on her left shoulder and she turns to face Peter. His hair is messy, his face clean, there's no sign of a cut on his lower lip anymore. With his nerdy t-shirt, his hoodie and his jeans, he looks like a perfect rendition of her favorite Queens dork. To think this guy is Spider-Man. This is not getting old. "Hey," he tells her, and she just stares, scared of not making any sense if she tries to speak. He hands her his crumpled suit and she puts it in her backpack without thinking. "Here, it's a little, well, a lot ruined, but um…"

"Don't worry, I'll keep it safe," she nods, and he smiles a sweet thing that has her heart jump in her chest once again.

"Thanks."

There's another silence, and after a while staring at each other, she feels like she absolutely needs to break it otherwise she's in serious trouble. "It's my, um, it's my favorite."

"What?" Peter says, confused, and she awkwardly points at his t-shirt, mouth exceptionally dry.

"Your, your t-shirt, it's my um, it's my favorite one you've got."

"Oh," he says, looking down at his Telekinesis t-shirt with the beginning of a smile on his lips. "Really?" She just nods shyly, and wow, he's just so close right now she even notices the bruise on his left cheek is not entirely healed. She wonders what his healing factor is compared to a normal human. She wonders if he's ever tested it out or not.

But then he's kissing her, and she's kissing him back instantly, and she forgets pretty much everything. It's dumb, and she feels like a stupid rom-com teenager for it, but somehow kissing him feels natural and just like she's home. It's amazing, feeling his lips moving with hers, and then his tongue timidly meeting her tongue and sending never ending shivers down her spine. She has no idea for how long they kiss like this, but at some point her hazy brain figures they've crossed the limit between kissing and full-on making out. She can't believe this is happening to her. She lost count of how many kisses they shared so far, which is kind of a bummer because she loves quantifying, but hey, she's not complaining.

"Does this, as Gimli would say, only counts as one?" the nerd in her wonders, and then: "Oh my god, just shut up."

She's dropped her backpack at some point without even realizing it, and now her arms are wrapped around his shoulders, fingers playing with the soft hair on the back of his neck. His hands are on her waist, and she feels like she's melting into his touch, which is definitely trouble. She breaks the kiss off, catching her breath, blinking a couple of times to try and come back to reality. Peter leans his forehead on hers and she shivers despite herself at how amazing this feels too.

MJ clears her throat, and they share a shy glance and a smile before breaking off their embrace. Peter takes half a step back, and she kind of misses his proximity already, although she is thankful for it because wow. "I should um, I should probably go," she tells him quietly, and he raises a hand to scratch the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle.

"Right, yes, of course, sorry."

"Don't apologize, dork," she smirks, and the fond look he gives her at that warms her entire self. It's very difficult not to kiss him again because of it, but she's proud of herself for not giving into the temptation. Damn this idiot and his amazing kisses. He's got her all confused. "See ya later?" she asks for good measure.

"Definitely," Peter nods very seriously, and she curses him once again as her heart does another back flip in her chest. She hides it by grabbing her backpack and zipping it closed. She puts it on, ignoring the look he's giving her because damn these puppy eyes of his. But then she remembers where they are and she makes a face.

"Um, so how do you want to do this?" she says, pointing to the street below and raising an interrogative eyebrow at him.

"Do you trust me?" he retorts, extending his hand to her, palm up, and she gets a weird impression of déjà-vu for half a second before she remembers exactly where she's seen this before.

"Yeah I trust you, Aladdin," she snorts, and his eyes widen at that, "although I guess you're more like Tarzan really."

His disgruntled face is everything. "Come on MJ, you're ruining this," he complains, but his sweet eyes are shining with laughter. She takes his hand, and he pulls her to him, wrapping an arm around her waist. She is very aware of how it feels to be pressed against his side, and somehow part of her is like 'Mayday, mayday' while another just relishes in it just because wow. "Hold on to me," he tells her, his stupid face way too close to hers for her own good.

Hell yeah. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and then before another thought comes crashing they're flying for a half second, then landing back on the ground, between a fire exit and a red telephone booth. Peter chuckles at the probably shocked face she's making right now, and she nudges him with a fake mumble that isn't fooling anyone.

"We should definitely go for a swing together when we get home," he says enthusiastically and she smirks.

"Okay," she simply nods, and his happy smile makes her heart jump.

"Awesome." They stare at each other for a moment, and MJ kind of wishes she could just stay with him until further notice, but the others are probably getting suspicious – although, that's not a sure thing, because these guys are not the brightest and clearly not the most observant people at all. They've probably not even noticed she's gone. One of the perks of being the snarky loner, no one really pays attention to you.

"Alright, now I really have to go," she tells him after a while, and without even meaning it her smile turns apologetic, which is dumb. Peter seems to like it though, because he blushes and looks down at his feet, before giving her another big Parker smile. What a cute dork.

"Right, yes, off you go!"

She smirks, hesitates for a second, and then goes for it. She plants a soft kiss on his lips before almost running away, barely looking back because her cheeks feel like they're burning for some reason. He's watching her go though, she can feel it, and it makes her heart pound in her chest. She goes back inside the Starbucks and orders herself a chocolate chip cookie and a Frappuccino – she's feeling confident and adventurous, okay? Besides, she swore an oath to never drink coffee again, or you know at least not until she gets back home. Then she finds the others upstairs, sipping their drinks and still blabbering about the attack.

She sits at a table like nothing, and she almost makes it without anyone really realizing she wasn't there before. Almost.

"Hey, where have you been?" Betty says, sitting next to her, looking at her pointedly.

"Um, bathroom?" Oops, wrong inflection. It's never gonna do it, isn't it?

"You're so obviously lying it's disappointing," she retorts and MJ makes a face.

"Alright," she sighs, fiddling with her straw, "I was uh, I was on the phone with Peter."

"Yes! That's more like it," Betty exclaims triumphantly. "Sooooo?"

"What," MJ plays dumb, and her friend rolls her eyes.

"Well, tell me more!"

Oh how she hates this. Let's get this over with. She can't really tell her the truth but she can probably disguise it a little, just enough to satisfy her need for gossip and then she'll leave her alone. Hopefully. "Well um, there's nothing much to say really, we just, we kinda kissed in Prague and then –"

"Kinda kissed?"

"And then," she repeats louder, ignoring Betty's pout, "he had to leave for Berlin, but um, now he's coming back tonight to leave with us tomorrow so, yeah. That's pretty much it I guess."

"That won't do," Betty retorts with a smirk, "Who initiated it?"

"Who initiated what?" Ned chimes in curiously, sitting next to Betty, and MJ slams her head on the table in front of her, exasperated – and mortified. This is a nightmare.

Luckily though, Mr Harrington calls out for their attention and tells them the hotel just called. They gather their things and leave, and MJ manages to avoid both Ned and Betty the entire trip to the hotel, which is near Heathrow Airport so it takes them a while to get there. When they finally do make it there, Peter is waiting for them at the front desk. "Hey guys," he says like a dork when he sees them, and for some reason MJ stops thinking.

She walks to him and pulls him into a hug, and he hugs her back instantly, although a little hesitantly. She can hear the others chuckling and commenting behind her but she doesn't care. Peter asks her if she's okay in a whisper, and she just nods, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, and he hugs her tighter. She's feeling worn out and exhausted, thinking it might be the aftershock of the whole situation or something. "You're okay," Peter tells her quietly, and she nods again, sniffling a little before stepping back and giving him a shy smile.

Later, after dinner – which consisted in ordering pizza and eating it all together in the common room – they spend a comfortable evening with Betty and Ned – and occasionally Flash, who obviously has a lot to say about what happened, especially to rub it in Peter's face because he wasn't there, which MJ finds very ironic. "How do you manage to deal with this idiot without punching him all the time?" she asks him in a whisper at some point, pretending to reach over him for her bottle of water on the side table. She shivers despite herself when she feels his lips barely grazing her right cheek. That was definitely unnecessary, and yet how can she be mad at him really.

"Honestly, I don't know," he admits with a small chuckle, and she smirks at him. That's when Flash storms out with a loud 'that's just unfair' that surprises them all for a second, before they start laughing because he really is just a diva sometimes. Most of the times.

It's almost midnight when Betty announces she's off to bed, and Ned shortly after leaves too. That only leaves Peter and MJ. They stare at each other for a long moment. She's curled up on his side, he's wrapped an arm around her, and this just feels so nice.

"You okay?" he checks after a little while, his voice barely over a whisper.

"Yeah," she nods with a small smile, "what about you?"

"Eh, still a little sore because of the fight but," he says with a face, and she unconsciously lifts herself up not to press on his side so much, but he stops her instantly. "Please, stay."

She blushes at that, but she lays back on him all the same, heart pounding in her chest. He's probably hearing it, he's probably heard her stupid heart every time it beat abnormally fast in the past because she was next to him, and it's a little embarrassing, and at the same time why didn't he act upon it if he heard it? What an idiot. He must have thought she had a heart condition or something. That would be so like Peter. She smiles to herself, pondering on whether to tease him about it or not, but that's when his free hand fly to her neckline, fingers grazing the black Dahlia necklace.

"You're wearing it," he notes quietly, and she just nods, incapable of uttering a word. They kiss a little after that – well, maybe not just a little – and then when it gets too late they stop and decide to head back to their rooms to get a not so good night of sleep because they're leaving in less than five hours. They'll sleep in the plane, Peter tells her, which makes her laugh for some reason. He walks her to her room and kisses her on the doorstep, and she thinks she's never going to sleep after that, but she actually does.

Waking up four hours later is an unpleasant experience, but she hangs onto the thought of spending eight hours beside Peter on the plane. While on the shuttle to get from the hotel to the airport, Peter tells her about the plan he had a week ago to try and sit next to her on the plane, how he bought a dual headphone adapter to watch movies with her the whole time, and how it evidently completely failed.

"You could have ended up with Harrington," she snorts, and Peter makes a face at that.

"Yeah, well Mr Harrington is very nice but I'm glad I didn't."

"And I'm glad it eventually worked out," MJ says after a while, looking down at her hands, because she's not really sure she's ready to meet his gaze after admitting this out loud. And somehow, he seems to get it. He doesn't say anything, but gently grabs her hand and doesn't let go of it until they pass through security. Check-in goes smoothly, pretty much all of them lost everything in the bus explosion so there's that.

They sit together on the plane, and end up sleeping for a good while, like Peter said. At one point she feels him stir in his sleep, and she realizes they moved while asleep so that Peter's head fell on her shoulders and she laid her head on top of his. He's moving away and she meets his sleepy gaze, and they smile at each other before he leans back into her, and it just feels nice. The eight-hour flight goes by fairly quickly. After their little nap they get some lunch, then they share a pair of earphone to watch a movie. "Such a shame I didn't get to actually use the dual headphone adapter I bought," Peter complains, and MJ just nudges him with a smirk. She herself kinda likes that they have to share, because that means she gets to snuggle into his side – but no way she's ever admitting that though.

They get off the plane and it's almost noon in New York – while for them it's around 5 pm. She gets a text of her mom telling her they had a problem with the car and won't be able to pick her up, and it's just so unsurprising she doesn't even mention it to Peter. He'll probably offer to drive her back with his aunt, but she kind of needs to be alone right now. Plus, she's got something very important to do, too. She's not ready to show it to Peter. Maybe one day she will. Right now she doesn't feel like it though. And it's okay.

They say goodbye to each other, she reminds him of their date, and then she's off.

July 3rd, 2024

I WAS RIGHT

I'm just stopping by, this is the last entry this Spider-Parker notebook will ever get because get this, I was right all along. I'm just dropping my stuff at home, probably taking a shower too, definitely changing, and then I'm off again. On a date. With him. This is unreal, and yet? It also makes so much sense it's crazy.

That's a nice way to conclude things, isn't it? I think it is. I started this ages ago, and now I'm finally ending it because I got to the truth. It feels amazing.

Peter, if I'm nice enough one day to let you read this, DON'T say anything about the 'science trials', or I'll kick your spider-butt. You've been warned. Nerd.

THE END

I'm super happy, I'm usually not very good at finishing stuff, but I STILL DID IT yay!

I want to thank you all for your support throughout this adventure, I'm thankful for each and everyone of you who subscribed and favorite and commented. You have no idea how much it means to me
Please, take a moment to tell me what you think, what your favorite part was, or anything, it's always great to have feedback, even on finished fics!