Chapter Text
Okay, so he has a plan. Sure, it didn’t work the last couple of times he tried, but since then he’s told her he loves her at least twelve times a day. So his major flaw is no longer an issue. The plan now is to spend the day in their apartment, make her lunch, ask her to marry him and don’t tell her that he asked her Dad first.
He spends the morning sneakily adding extra mistletoe to their apartment while she sleeps. It’s their first Christmas Eve waking up with each other so he’s trying to tiptoe around to do finishing touches and then slip back into bed before she figures out he’s missing. He’s been awake since six am, but then again he’s never been able to sleep in and sit still when he’s excited.
He’s finishing laying out pancake ingredients when he hears her breathing change and runs into the bedroom to sneak into bed pulling her against his chest.
“Where were you?” She says as she pulls his hands to her mouth. “You weren’t here when I woke up.” She says like she knows what he was doing while kissing his knuckles.
“I was making sure your present is ready.” He says repaying her with lazy kisses down the back of her neck. He has to move her hair to make it work but he’s not mad about the extra effort.
“It’s not Christmas until tomorrow.” She says spinning to him and he hasn’t seen her face open and happy since last night and he missed her.
He moves the hair from her face, “morning.” He says kissing her mouth lightly, purposefully because if he deepens it now he’ll never get to ask her before they go to Ned’s this evening.
“Happy anniversary.” She says rolling him onto his back and dammit he’s never able to resist her. But the movement reminds him there’s a ring box in his pocket and he lifts her up to stand them both on the hard floor. She pouts. He loves her.
“I’m making pancakes.” He says and watches as the pout lessens and she thinks about whether or not to be mad.
“With chocolate chips?”
“And banana.” Her answering smile makes him even more excited for the day.
“Loser cooks!” She says running and slightly slipping on the floor to the kitchen. They both know he could win. He could win every time she played this game. He never does.
As she finishes her fourth pancake and Peter rounds of his ninth, he asks if he can put some music on. She looks at him like he doesn’t need to ask, but he’s nervous and that must show on his face because she kisses him quickly but firmly on the lips.
He puts the gift in her hands but presses play on his phone because it turns out he can’t find a CD player easily and if MJ found out he bought one specifically for one event she’d be rightfully mad. She’d probably forgive him given the circumstances but still.
As she unwraps the case and her gaze flickers up to him in amusement he tries to explain.
“I had an idea six years ago, to give you this -” he says gesturing to the CD “- and I had this grand plan that I worked out with May for like, an insanely long time. Anyway, I was going to give it to you and tell you that I liked you.” The first song starts playing and she looks around the apartment with tears in her eyes and he loves her. “But, I messed it up. Continuously, but I’ve added another song to the end that I think you’ll like. So, I wanted to give it to you now.”
“Pete -” She whispers while looking between him and the doodles on the front.
“I’ve known that I’ve loved you since I made this, and I held onto it in the hopes that one day I could give it to you. And I’m so lucky that I can now. You’re my life Michelle, and I’m so in love with you.”
She springs from her seat placing the CD a little too hard on the kitchen worktop but it’s okay, he forgives her as she throws her arms around him.
“Do you like it?” He whispers against her neck.
“I love it.” She replies holding her hand out to him, “dance with me?”
She dips him at the ending of the first song.
She lets him twirl her around when the second one starts.
He makes them sit on the couch when he finds her dancing in her hanukkah pyjamas to Christmas songs he prepared six years ago to erotic.
“Can I give you my present now?” She says sitting cross legged next to him on the couch and he’s resigned himself to the fact that he’s never going to get over how pretty she is.
“Not yet - there’s four songs left.” He says because the ring box has been digging into his thigh for half the day and he’s nervous and excited and terrified all at once. But he needs the song first. He’s waited six years to give her the mixtape, he can wait twenty minutes to ask her this.
“Pete -” she says with a low whine which they both know makes him cave usually, but not today - it’s their first anniversary and they’re only twenty-two so really there’s no rush. But he’s been sure he wants to spend the rest of his life with her since she first gave Ned half her sandwich because he forgot his lunch. He’s not even sure she knew his name yet. And he wasted so much time before - they’ve talked about marriage before, Peter mentioning it in passing embarrassingly soon into their relationship, but she didn’t mind.
He jumps slightly on the couch when he realises she’s used him thinking about her to sneak up on him, lightly kissing his neck, “please. I want you to have it.”
“Em-” but he’s already lost, she’s willing to trade. She moves her leg to straddle him, he moves his hands to her waist before she can pull herself flush to him - revelling in the way she yelps as he flips them so her back is on the couch and he can lean above her.
“Asshole.” She says looking up at him with a smile.
“I love you.” He says kissing her in hopes of a distraction.
“It’s a really good gift -” she says as he pulls away, rolling his eyes because when she wants something, she can have it “- I made it.”
“Okay -” he says leaning down to kiss her but she slips out from underneath him and he barely bites back a groan. It’s been the best year of his life, even when she pulls that trick on him numerous times a day - he falls for it every time.
When he’s sat upright on the couch again, in her space - he sees her holding a card and she looks nervous and he never wants her to be nervous with him but there’s an undercurrent of excitement and he wants to know what it is.
“So -” she clears her throat “- I drew this for you.”
“Spoilies.” He says so she’ll glare at him because she’s stunning when she glares at him. She doesn’t though, she smiles and bites her bottom lip and he chokes out a breath.
“As I was saying -” she says walking over to sit opposite him on the couch “- I drew this for you. And I was meant to give it to you when we were sixteen.” She meets his eyes and laughs as his slack jaw. She’s been waiting to give him something for six years? God, he loves her. He can’t wait to ask her to spend forever with him.
“I bought it with me when we went to Ned’s the first year we were friends. But I got too nervous to give it to you because you said you hated me.” He gasps because he’s never had a bad thought about her, and he’s heartbroken that she thought that’s what he meant when he was being a dumbass.
“I’ve never hated you -” He starts with pleading eyes until she smirks. “You’re messing with me.” He lets out a relieved sigh and grabs her foot to put in his lap, encouraging her to continue. There are only two songs left before he’s supposed to ask and he’s slightly panicking. But she made him something, so if he has to redo the proposal he can.
“And then I went to give it to you the next year - I couldn’t do it mid year because there are Christmukkah vibes to it and that’s weird - but anyway.” She says as if she’s flustered and he adores her. “I didn’t give it to you then because you outed yourself in the most Peter way possible, and I thought maybe it was enough secrets for one year. And then the party fiasco and Brad and Liz.” He finds he doesn’t wince when she says his name anymore - they’re it for each other. He’s sure of it. He wouldn’t have May’s ring in his pocket if he wasn’t.
“And last year I figured the drawing needed an addition - so - here.” She says handing him the envelope. As he opens it the song he’s been waiting all year for starts playing, but she doesn’t seem to have noticed the lyrics, too caught up in whether or not he likes what she’s drawn.
He’s crying before the envelope is fully opened and when he looks up to her she’s crying slightly too. Pulling the card out he can see a drawing of her, at sixteen and Peter, as Spider-Man. The drawing is flawless in the same way that everything Michelle does is flawless. As he brings more of the drawing out he can see the speech bubble that leaves her side saying, ‘I love you, nerd.’
“Did -” he clears his throat “- is that the addition? Or -” He lets out a happy sob when she shakes her head. He’s an idiot. He needs to find the addition if he has any hopes of pulling the proposal off - but he’s just found out she’s been trying to give him a gift for six years so he thinks maybe he can propose over pizza instead. He put the song on the tracklist at least six times because he thought it would take him so long to get it out. He’s found whenever he says something he loves about her, it takes him a while to stop. So he could try again when the songs on its third time round.
Or maybe he won’t have to. Because when he has the rest of the drawing out, he can see another speech bubble at the bottom that reads, ‘Will you marry me?’
“Michelle, oh my God.” He says breathlessly as he runs his fingers over the words again and again. He moves the drawing quickly when the tears start falling too fast.
“Pete -” his neck snaps up to meet her because she sounds uncertain. He pulls her towards him by her foot and laughs with her while she scrambles to get in his lap. Holding her face between his hands he kisses her once.
“Yes, yes, God - of course, MJ.” He says pulling her into him - not even caring that she stole his proposal. He can barely hear the sounds of the song over how happy they are.
“Sorry I didn’t get you a ring.” She says as if he cares if she ever gets him anything ever again.
“Then I guess I still win huh.” He replies with a kiss as he pushes her back until her back is on the couch and she’s pouting at him.
“How do you win my proposal?” She says with false annoyance but she’s smiling at him and she’s so beautiful in the fairy lights that he almost forgets what his point was.
“I got you a ring.” He replies far too shaky to be as suave as he was hoping. Oh well, she’s known him since he was sixteen - he’s not hiding anything from her.
“Peter.” She lightly gasps as he slides off the couch onto one knee in front of her. Opening the ring box towards him he takes a deep breath and spins it around, watches as she looks down at it and then straight back to him and he can do this.
“Em -” she lunges towards him grasping his face in her hands and pulling him into a kiss. He lets one hand let go of the ring to pull her closer by the back of her neck. It’s all teeth clashing and lip biting and europhic in the way that he hopes never changes, as she gets on the floor with him. He puts his knee down so she can straddle him and he thinks about how all their big life occurrences have happened with one of them between the other's legs.
She pulls his lips back to hers when her knees are either side of him. “Ask me.” She says between kisses and he laughs, pulling her away from him slightly but she pulls back.
“Ask me here.” She says slipping her tongue into his mouth as he groans around her. He gets lost in the feel of her lips against his when the song restarting reminds him he needs to ask her.
“Em, honey -” he uses some of his strength on her, just this once - or she lets him move her, he can never be sure. She leans back so he can see her, her arms still around his neck. She’s flushed and excited and his future wife and he adores her.
“Okay -” and he knows what to say, he’s been thinking about this moment for years at this point, but he can’t stop smiling. “Em.” He says with all the emotion he can gather, which is however he speaks when she’s around.
“Peter -” she says smiling back at him, leaning forwards again to capture his lips, “- ask me.” She kisses him again before he can speak, the ring box is trapped somewhere between them “- I love you so much -'' she says pulling back slightly, and he’s so in awe of her at all time “- I want to marry you, so ask me.”
“Yeah - I want to, stop distracting me.” He says lightly squeezing her waist and she twitches against him and his eyes darken.
“Sorry.” She says with a tone that suggests she’s not at all sorry. He cannot wait to spend the rest of his life with her messing with him. She starts tracing the collar behind his neck slowly and she knows him so she knows what she’s doing.
He pulls her hands from behind his neck and holds them behind her back with one of his hands, pulling her close to him - while his other hand searches for the ring box. When his head drifts back from the floor to look at her, ring box in hand, she arches her body to kiss him. He lets out a yelp which she laughs at without moving her lips away from his and he should have realised this is how the proposal would go.
He thought about a fancy dinner, but his favourite moments with her happen when they’re both just in their apartment. He wouldn’t change a thing about today, and he certainly wouldn’t change MJ slipping her wrists out of his grasp to pull on his hair. So he decides to do it whenever she breaks for air.
“MJ, I love you. I want -” and her lips are on his again and he can’t find the strength or will to stop her. So he enjoys the press of her body against his until there’s another chance.
“I want to spend -”
“Sorry. I’m stopping, I’ll stop.” She says looking sheepish and he leans forwards to pull her back.
“I never want you to stop.” But she does, and she looks at him like she wants him to ask her to marry him. So he clears his throat - after all, he really does want to see the ring on her finger.
“I love you. I have loved you since I first met you. Specifically the second lunch we had together where you split your lunch with Ned.” She quirks her eyebrow at him like she’s astounded he remembers that as if he could ever forget anything about her.
“I know you’re supposed to say that someone isn’t perfect, but you love them anyway. Flaws and all kinds of things. But, Em - you’re the most perfect person I’ve ever met. I can’t believe I’m this lucky, that you want to spend your time with me. That you let me love you. That you’ll let me love you forever.” He clears his throat and moves her slightly backwards so he can get the ring again.
He doesn’t kneel up again, but he does position it so she’ll see it in his hand. “I’m so crazy in love with you. I want to wake up cold every day because you stole the covers during the night. I want to eat omelettes every morning when you wake up first because you feel bad that you stole the blankets. I want whatever you want for the rest of time.” His eyes are full of tears and he blinks them away because they make his sight fuzzy and he doesn’t want to miss a second of Michelle’s reaction.
“I love you so much.” He says letting out a watery laugh and opening the box again to turn it to her, watching her smile grow even wider. He wonders if she knows it’s May’s ring. “Michelle Grace Jones, will you marry me?”
She nods her head while the tears flow down her cheeks and she pulls his faces to hers. “Yes, of course, I’ll marry you.” He slides the ring out of the box as their lips meet and when she pulls back he slides it on her finger watching with mesmerisation as she flexes her fingers with it on.
“Feels weird?” He says breathlessly. She’s going to be his wife. He’s going to marry his best friend and he can’t wait.
She shakes her head at him and he can see the fairy lights reflected in her watery eyes, “feels perfect.”
“It’s May’s -” he says quickly and her eyes snap back to his “- but when I told her I wanted to marry you when I was 18 she told me I could have it when I was ready to ask. But if you want something else we can do that as well. Whatever you want.” He carries on truthfully. He won’t be hurt if she doesn’t like the ring.
“It’s May’s?” She says and her voice cracks and he can’t believe he thought she might want to swap it. She might love May more than she loves him.
“Yeah.”
“I love you. I love you. I can’t believe I get to be a part of your family.” She says, wiping tears from her face.
“You always have been. Sorry, it took me so long to get here.” He says knowing it’s silly because they’re barely twenty-two but he would have married her the second he turned eighteen.
“It’s perfect - you’re perfect.” She says leaning in to kiss him again. He kisses her until his knees are sore from the floor until he lifts her in his arms to take her to the bedroom. But he can’t start the engagement keeping anything from her so on the walk he says.
“I asked your Dad. Well, I told your Dad. And kind of asked him, but if he’d said no I would have asked you anyway. But -”
“Peter - It’s okay. He would have liked that and besides, I asked May.”
“Of course you did.” He says with the sheer love and adoration he has for bursting from every part of him.
“I have two questions for you.” She says as he lays her down on their bed.
“The answer is yes.” He says as he crawls on top of her, peppering kisses up and down her throat. “But humour me, what are they?”
“Can I have Ned in my wedding party?” She says, breath hitching as he reaches her pulse point.
“He told me he was your maid of honour when we were seventeen,” he replies easily and she laughs like she should have known that.
“The other thing?” He says pulling her top over her head. “How do you get more beautiful every time I look at you?” He says before she has a chance to put in her second request.
“Dork.” But she blushes anyway and he leans to kiss her nose.
“Can we get married on New Year's Eve?” She asks with her lip between her teeth. Every decision she’s ever had is flawless.
“Yes. Let's do that.” He replies excitedly while kissing her neck “Is a year enough time? What do you have to do for a wedding? Where do you want to get married?” He is suddenly aware he’s desperate to talk to her about their wedding.
“I’d marry you anywhere. And I mean… this year.”
“Like in six days?” He says looking down at her and she nods like she’s unsure if he’s going to agree but fuck if he didn’t want to be her husband yesterday. He thinks to hell with it. He waited six years to tell her he loved her and yet waiting six days to become her husband almost feels like too much.
“Yeah, six days. Let’s get married in six days.”
‘Is it the look in your eyes or is it just dancing juice? Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you.’