Disclaimer:

I do not own any character herein depicted, Spider-man and all related characters are property of Marvel/Disney.

This fan-fiction is written by SmoothlyDiF and carries DeviantArt's and/or 's usual Creative Commons license.

This story has a mature rating due to sexual content, use of the naughty swears and peculiar violence unsuitable for minors.

Personal note: this may not be everybody's cup of tea and I apologise in advance if the structure reads confusingly, but it's something I've wanted to write for some time now and hopefully you will get something out of it, feedback as always is greatly appreciated.

SmoothlyDiF

Chapter 4

Peter hit his bed like a sack of spuds, feeling strung out and mentally exhausted more than physically. "Phew... don't know what's come over me today. It's like everything's... coming back to me all at once."

He dwelled on how he couldn't shift the ever rising sense of premonition, as if his spider-sense was heightening like every other one of his powers recently, ever since... His eyes lackadaisically dropped to his suit as it reformed on his bed into its slick black textured usual self; he cocked his head at watching this. "I wonder how it does that... how does it know what I want it to do?"

His phone presented itself to him once more in a similar way as he reached for it, "I don't know where it even came from, or what it is... I've never heard of anything like this, maybe I can find something out..." He said out loud destractedly while typing away at safari.

He looked at the search results and froze, waited for a moment while his mind caught up with his vision and fell slack-jawed. '9 Honest Ways To Say "I Love You" – BuzzFeed', 'Translations of I love you in many languages – Omniglot', '3 Ways to Say "I Love You" – wikiHow'

He squinted for a second then hit the power button, dropping his phone as his mind drifted freely in a moment of bemusement. His eyes stared at the ceiling and eventually he uttered "This place brings back mixed feeling-wait..."

It occured that he'd missed something there, something... obvious! He'd been trying to do something, trying to... find something out... His phone presented itself to him once more in a similar way as he reached for it. He couldn't remember what he wanted to find out... his suit? Oh yeah, he'd forgotten how great this thing was!

His gloved hands strayed up and down the tight fabric to a pleasing sensation; it did seem pocked and high-tech to look at, but on him it felt... He smiled a little at that, putting his phone back away: pressed to his side it swallowed into the suit and seemed to vanish. No more weight, no bump or sharp edges, this suit always made sure he was perfectly streamlined no matter what he was 'storing'.

Peter stretched in his lethargy and yawned as he looked out onto the street he'd called home for so long, the same view he had when he'd first known Mary-Jane's (or any woman for that matter) touch. His mind swallowed this image, those ghosts, that ghost of times passed sharpening again into view and sensation and he knew he couldn't fight it any more...

Mary-Jane Watson nibbled Peter's bottom lip and positioned those moonbeam green eyes on his own; her body felt warm and almost moist to the touch as she flattened over him; Peter felt like the luckiest guy on earth, but couldn't imagine what she might be thinking.

"You ready for this, then?" She muttered softly, her feiry hair cascading all over his bare shoulders like wire tips brushing almost abusively across him: scratchy but tickly, another cutaneous sensation new to the self-titled 'Million-bucks Man'.

She waited almost uneasily, Peter not given right now to wondering if that was nerves on her part; MJ gave the impression of being eager, hungry almost for what they had decided upon, she'd belatedly even given Peter the opportunity to decide for himself if he was ready, not something he was used to - considering how readily she'd bossed every element of their time together up until now. But he was ready - not without anxiety – to do this with the girl of his dreams.

He nodded casually, "Yeah." he smiled and nervously let Mary kiss him, "Don't worry, I'll be gentle." She whispered, her warm palm clamped on his chest and she used it to push herself up with all the grace her self-satisfaction demanded.

"Just relax... relax..." She uttered gently as he inched her way to where any practised cowgirl needed to be; Peter was engorged again in the gravity of this moment, braving to running fingers up her other arm, gripping suddenly as she washed over him. Warmth and moistness took his breath away for a moment as it swallowed him whole; his back arched and his face slowly fell back to look her in the eye as MJ herself exhaled heavily.

Peter felt urges taking him, hands needing to wander, hands succeeding in wandering with random, unimaginative inaccuracy. Slow and sensual, gentle but firm a special moment was shared then and now.

He hadn't realised until he plateaud, hadn't imagined he could do so until he felt it, but - recalling every pock and pore of Mary-Jane as she rode him like a prized stallion, every pant and touch as they played 'what's this bit do?', then memorially cumming most gloriously - he startled back to reality, arse-in-air on the bed, ten fingers snaring sheets and abdomen lathered in creamy ode to a fond memory.

"Huh- huh..." he exclaimed softly, understanding and unashamed he'd done so. He lowered flat as he came down and lifted skin-tight black enclosed digits to his cream-lined midriff and felt how perfectly slippy it felt now between he and his costume.

He collapsed lazily, legs splaying with the flexibility his spider powers allowed him (flat to the side how any other gent could only dream of) and exhaled heavily with a slow blink.

Mary-Jane stared intently down, she felt she had a gift for this game and was more than a little pleased to find herself able to teach her powerful 'friend' a thing or two about the game of chess.

"So." Sandra piped up, staring knowingly down the table at MJ. "You decided the boy Parker would be your new beau. How'd that work out?"

MJ huffed with a smirk, her dainty fingers reaching down and picking up a faux-ivory piece. "Let's just say..." She placed it back down elsewhere, "-it needed a little work to begin with." She stopped to think about something, "Y'know I find it kind of amazing... the coincidence of it all I mean."

Sandy rubbed her chin as she sussed the board out, "You mean you knowing him, me knowing him, both of us having... interactions with him?" She glanced up with a satisfied smile at seeing the expected grimace of jealous anger she liked to illicit from Mary-Jane by talking like it had been something she wouldn't approve of.

Watson dissaproved of the other person finding such amusement in that, but swallowed her pride, she doubted there would be any meaningful way of unleashing that intent back on Sandra anyway. "Yeah... that." The love-hate relationship they shared was beneficial and snarky to both no doubt, MJ found Sandra to be the only real person she could bounce off here.

Mary's opponent moved her piece and said "Well... it's a smaller world than you think, babe. I guess in a way you made the man I met so that makes it all the more fascinating to hear what went into building that-" She bit her tongue before she could offer an insult, "-you were telling me about your difficulties!" She grimace-smiled tellingly.

"Mmm!" Watson nodded, "A little friend of his... thought she could be something more... thought I was a bad influence... Gwen... someone." She looked over the developing game between them as Sandra developed her next carefully constructed words.

"And you just had to deal with her I imagine."

Mary glanced up knowingly, "You're learning." She indicated towards the chess board and smiled.

"Is it true!?" The blonde-haired girl had demanded, having stomped up to the red-haired manipulator, Gwen slamming her hand against a locker next to MJ's to a loud bang and lots of people looking.

Mary-Jane had slowly closed her locker and turned to look her in the eyes with a 'clueless' head-tilt as she puckered out her lipstick. "What's that?"

"Peter! Did he..." She'd leant in closer, looking around to dissuade onlookers, "-did he really say I'm going with Tim Gordon?" MJ then holding back a smirk.

"Would it matter if he did? That's prettymuch common knowledge anyway, hun. Isn't it amazing how fast word spreads though?" She'd said with a severe arrogance in her voice.

"You-"

"Now I-" MJ interupted, "Would be far more concerned about Clara! You know Clara, right?" She had limp-wristedly pointed to the sporty athlete with her back turned across the hall, "Apparently she thinks you're using Tim to make Peter jealous and... rumour has it she looks after him like a big sister: very protective! I think there's more to it personal-"

"Cl-Clara?" MJ stared at her concerned look as she was interupted.

"Seems you're more worried about what she might do to you than you are about how I'd feel if you took Peter away from me! Or how he'd feel..." Gwen's attention had turned back to the frighteningly stern-looking red-head.

"You?" Mary-Jane got a bit more up in her face.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through since Flash fucking Thompson spread those lies about me!? Pete's the first guy who's given me a second glance and if you fuck that up for me, believe me, I'm gonna be your worst nightmare!" She'd said, swinging from abstract to overt threat deftly in mere moments.

"What do you mean? We're just fr-"

"And I'm 'just friends' with Clara and her Judo BFFs... if you get me!?" MJ almost snarled, "Wouldn't want them getting the wrong idea, now would we?"

"I-I Peter's been my friend forever! I just want to make sure he's OK!" Gwen had pleaded, as MJ remembered well.

"Yah! He is OK! And he's OK as a grown man... my grown man! So let it go or I swear-" The class bell had rung right then, just as she'd hoped it might so MJ straightened up, "Nice talking to you, Gwen... See you never!" She'd snarkily said in closing and walked away from the distraught teen, that suppressed smirk then blazing – by now out of Gwen's sight - into something only marginally short of a maniac's cackle.

"Mmm, cold..." Sandra admitted across the table as she intently listened, "Cut off his best friend so you could have him all to yourself." MJ tried to read her poker face as she just stared her down. The older person began giggling lightly to herself.

She burst into full-on hysterics which lightened Mary-Jane's mood, "Hahahaaa, I love your style, kid!" She shook her head with a grin still etched across her face. "It takes a special kind of bitch to ruin a guy's life for a little bit of action!"

Mary-Jane's expression faltered a little, her lips quivering some, Sandra spotting the change as it came. "Oh... Ohhh-ho-ho-ho! No!" She was honestly shocked, rocking onto the edge of her seat. "Really?" She'd pursued without fully asking, MJ's cold stare unbroken and turning back down to the board.

She didn't have to look up and over the table to see and know what her companion was thinking and wanting to know, but she fully enjoyed letting her stew a few seconds. "Bishop to F6."

"Huh? Oh-" The elder looked down and moved MJ's white piece one square as requested. Mary-Jane's eyes rolled back up to meet Sandra's waiting for her, an awkward moment passing "Alright, fuck it, I'll bite: why?"

MJ smiled widely and sat up and back, waiting a moment before pouting, "What makes you think there's a why?"

Peter knew he didn't need to, but it felt right. Somehow the mess he'd made had cleaned itself up with a thought and left not even the faint whiff of its former presence, yet he knew a shower was what was called for; the fact that the nearly uncomfortable chill of the water was waking him back up helped.

Somehow he knew he couldn't or... shouldn't sleep right now; the dread of what might or could happen continued to grow, now to the point where he couldn't stop his throat seizing up every time he tried to swallow. It was as if he was about to step into the most important interview of his life or some stage-performance beckoned that would spoil him forever if he cocked it up.

It was an awkward, disconcerting position and yet there seemed to be a part of him calling for it, pushing him to feel so on-edge, some masochistic desire to leave himself on awful tenterhooks. His mind traced for answers, for reasons and all he kept coming back to was the terrible idea that she might be back! His rival, Shriek, who'd caused such mayhem and panic on the streets of New York as she'd killed and destroyed everything around, but she couldn't be, he just knew that was all in the past!

That only left one option, one potential reason to fear: the original fear, the one who'd started it all for him, taught him the wrath of a woman scorned... Mary-Jane Watson had more potential to be on the horizon he reluctantly admitted. He shook it from his thinking with a start, "Come on, Spidey! Pull yourself together!"

His chastisement didn't do much for him though when he caught his scar with a stray nail and winced. "Ow... why's this thing still hurting?" He asked aloud, looking down to the only injury he couldn't heal from, the only physical one anyway, dating to back before that fateful spiderbite.

Perhaps if it had been different, he thought and yet it all seemed so intertwined, 8 legged things just happened to be a fixture in that troubling time.

"What would happen if it bit you, d'ya think?" Peter looked up from the glass box to Gwen as she asked this, smiling. He was happy she at least still came here, even if he wasn't supposed to... MJ would be so mad he didn't even care to think what she'd say!

"Well Hobo Spiders can be quite dangerous, rumours of their bites causing necrosis, death, y'know... minor stuff!" He could see her face crease up in disgust as he said this. "Fascinating, though!" He looked back into the tank.

"Yeah..." Gwen whimsically acknowledged, something seeming to eat away at her, though Peter was far too hard-headed and obtuse on such issues to take notice.

"Right! I've got to get ready or I'll spend all night here!" He said with a certain giddy charm about himself. He turned and began getting rid of some of the lab safety gear he'd had on.

"Uh, Peter..." He stopped as he removed a glove and looked back. "Are you... alright?" He just stared, his eyes just barely flickering as the thought (and fear) of being outed struck him, "This Mary-Jane, she's not... y'know...?" She seemed to struggle to explain all this.

"I, uh... don't know what you mean, Gwen!" He didn't mean it to sound accusational, she'd become distant enough already, but he reeeally didn't want pressing on this.

"But... I... You seem different, Pete! That's all..." Even recalling it, he felt like an idiot: every word that came out of his mouth after that was the work of a stupid teenager's brain performing a stupid teenager's antics.

"Whaddya mean, Gwen? You don't like that I'm happy with MJ?" He challenged accusationally, "What, is she too good for me? Shouldn't I be happy? What!?" He was suddenly flipping, overreacting and protecting a girl who was even then an abusive cyst on his life.

Gwen just stood aghast, looking honestly threatened by his sudden outburst. "I'm... just worried, that's all, jesus! No need to fly off the-" She jumped, staring wide-eyed as he slammed his hand down, losing his head altogether (though he never subsequently put real rhyme or reason to any of it.)

"Why, because you'd be so much better for me? Hate to break it to you, Gwen, but you're not even in MJ's league!"

Bracing the wall, water running off his chin, he could still barely stand himself for saying that. In hindsight – he knew – she'd been right all along, but it'd taken some serious soul-searching and questions asked of the right people in the aftermath to understand why he'd so forcefully stood up for his abuser against his lifelong friend.

"Abuser... yeah, that's a good word." He reckoned as he ran through it, when he'd got home he'd found out the true meaning of abuse alright. He'd hoped she wouldn't mind all that much, maybe that she would have forgotten she'd told him he couldn't do his usual extra-curricular science-club stuff, "Ohh how wrong could a guy be?"

He touched gently the thin gashes of scar tissue reaching out from his sternum like some brand he'd never be free of and with half reticence, half eager self-punishment, he thought of his triumphant home-coming or... something like that.

"I've never known someone quite so... twisted as you, May-Jay. You're one seriously fucked up little puppy!" Sandra said, undaunted, clicking down her piece.

"Maybe I was..." MJ shrugged, "-got what I wanted though, right?"

"What, you wouldn't do it again? I'm guessing you would. Sure we all grow up, but you seem to have spent all your efforts growing into a bigger, badder asshole! Fuck knows what you'd be capable of if you had super-powers, shit!"

MJ's interest was piqued, she'd often thought of what would be if she had absolutely no authority to bow to, if the world truly was her oyster and she could show them just how badly all that worthless rehab had failed. "Nuh-uh! I can see that glint in your eyes, you've got it all figured out aintchya? You've got everything but the power!"

Mary-Jane smiled and looked down to the board, "Rook to E5, mate." She softly spoke.

"Wait, what!?" Sandra lunged forwards, scanning over the chess board, "Whutthefuckhax?!" She raised her top lip in disgust then slammed her considerable power into slapping the board away, much to Mary's amusement.

She watched pieces ping off the divider between them, the board stuck hard and fast in/beneath it. "Anyway, if you were right about him, it could be a reality..." The flame-haired woman licked her bottom lip a little, calming the other.

"'Course I'm right! What do you take me for!?" She swaggered even in such an uncomfortable chair, looking fairly cool and composed suddenly despite the fashion nightmare adorning her.

"Oh yeah? How exactly did you find out and not put it to good use, then, hmm?" MJ challenged, leaning forwards onto the table.

"Look, kid! Me and the Spider went at it for three days straight! If I'd had two good limbs to keep going I'd have had him! Then I wouldn't be in this fucking place!" She looked around. "You just go see him and put it to some good use, you'll see!"

"Right OK... then come break you out, eh?" MJ semi-jested to a stern expression.

"ALRIGHT, LADIES! SOCIAL TIME'S OVER! BACK TO YOUR COZY LITTLE CELLS!" Announced the same powerful prison-guard MJ grudgingly accepted respect for when she escorted her from her prison-cell for dinner.

"Watson, you know what that means..." She then said as Mary-Jane stood and ironed out the creases of the purdy orange jumpsuit she still swore didn't match her hair (or anything else for that matter.) "Just wait till we get these little birdies out of here, then you get your wholly undeserved freedom... Not that I like it!" She sneered, up in the young woman's grinning face.

Ignored for a second, MJ turned to look through the super-power suppression barrier towards Sandra as she was ushered away from the other side of the table, receiving a wink from the inmate. "See ya, May-Jay. Tell Spidey 'Shriek' says hi!"