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1.
School had started back up three weeks ago, and Peter and Ned were huddled by Peter’s locker talking, which really was nothing new. She knew they were most likely talking about Spiderman as they didn’t normally whisper if they were talking about nerd things. MJ’s locker was on the other side of the hallway, a good ten lockers down: perfect for some light observation. She watched them while she organized the notebooks and books she’d need for the day’s classes. Ned was practically bouncing in place, a huge smile split his face, while Peter was a bit more closed off, shoulders hunched in, with a bit of a frown. As MJ looked, Peter relaxed a little and went along with Ned’s excitement.
MJ wished they would talk spiderman with her. It was obvious that Peter was Spiderman, or well, she was 96% sure anyways. It was amazing to her that they thought she still hadn’t figured it out. They had been hanging out all throughout the summer, and neither Peter nor Ned were subtle, at all. The amount of times Ned had to cover for Peter bailing on them were too many to count, and Ned’s excuses were never that good. One time, he told her that Peter’s cat got sick and MJ is 98% sure that Peter didn’t have a cat. But she let it slide, mostly because good friends respect each other’s privacy, and MJ wanted to be good friends with them, but with the silence it was starting to feel like maybe they didn’t want to be good friends with her. And that was annoying, having such feelings over this.
Still, however much MJ wanted to go over announce that the gig was up and that she knew, she wasn’t going to. She wanted Peter to admit it. She deserved that, at the very least.
With that in mind, MJ slung her backpack over her shoulder, let her locker slam shut, then sidled up next to Peter and Ned. They both quieted immediately at her approach, which almost made her roll her eyes, because really, if they didn’t want people to expect they were talking about something suspicious, they had better come up with a different tactic.
Instead MJ smiled. “Hey guys, what were you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Peter said, as he finally finished putting his books in his bag.
Ned, the good man, didn’t let her down. “Spiderman. There’s some new videos of him posted online! He’s so cool.”
“Oh really? Can I see?” MJ asked.
“Yeah!” Ned pulled out his phone, and MJ moved closer to look.
The video was of Spiderman swinging around some buildings, then somersaulting onto the ground before flipping onto his feet before running off. There was a commentator in the background yelling some sort of encouragement. Ned then thumbed to another video where a person had caught Spiderman stopping a mugging happening in a back alley. MJ watched the videos closely but also kept Peter in her peripheral view. She didn’t miss the way he was tensing, arms crossed over his chest.
“Wow, those are all pretty good quality,” MJ said after Ned showed her another one before putting his phone away.
“They really are,” Ned said happily.
“Oh hey, Peter aren’t you friends with Spiderman? Will you tell him he’s looking really good lately in that spandex?”
“What?” Peter asked. “I’m not - I’m not friends with Spiderman. I’ve uh - I’ve only met him like twice through the Stark Internship thing, and-”
MJ bit her lip as Peter talked. The tensing had gotten worse, and Peter’s voice had cracked twice in the first two sentences alone.
“It’s not spande- well I’m pretty sure it’s not spandex, its gotta be more high-tech than that, and he doesn’t look that good.”
And oh, he was blushing by the end of that.
“What do you think Ned? Does Spiderman look good?” MJ asked.
“Oh, well,” Ned turned away slightly, “yeah, he looks,” he swallowed, “pretty good.”
And now Ned was blushing, and oh, wasn’t that interesting? MJ was definitely going to have to explore that later.
“Two against one, it’s settled, your pal Spiderman is looking very good,” MJ quipped. “You don’t have to be into men to see that.”
“Who said I wasn’t into me- oh whatever,” Peter grumbled. “We need to get to class.”
With that, MJ let the pair head off towards their first class while she went to hers. Oh given that little test run, MJ would crack Peter in no time.
2.
The next week, there was a huge armed robbery turned car chase through the streets of New York. Spiderman had been there. MJ had watched the news, and added this event to her mental tab of dangerous shit the highschooler Peter Parker should not be involved in but was anyways. The list had gotten quite long, and didn’t even include the first half year he started operating, because MJ hadn’t really bothered with Spiderman before she knew Peter well. And then, there were things missing because certain events were kept hush-hush from the news. That was one of the reasons MJ wanted to be on the inside, so she would know if Peter was dealing with something way over his head.
The armed robbery was not the highest of danger levels on the list, but it was still up there. The cameras only got shaky footage of Spiderman, showing him jumping onto the top of the car, then webbing a wall to stop the high speed car. He got thrown a little bit while trying to web up the robbers, and there were shots fired in his direction. MJ tensed at that. She couldn’t tell if any of those bullets made their target or not. Her hand twitched towards her phone, but MJ resolved herself to wait. The footage was already hours old, just being a rerun, and she would know in school tomorrow. If Peter wasn’t there, then she’d ask Ned, and just give herself up.
Peter was in school tomorrow, and MJ felt a huge pressure on her chest lift up, before it came back when she noticed just the slightest bit of a limp in his walk. Ned seemed concerned too. As MJ came up to them, she caught the tail end of Ned offering to carry Peter’s backpack, and Peter refusing.
“Hey guys, did you see the armed robbery news last night?” MJ asked.
Peter clutched his backpack strap tighter.
“Yeah,” Ned said, his voice lacking his typical enthusiasm, and his eyes scanned over Peter. MJ copied that. Peter was wearing his typical slightly oversized sweater and jeans look. There were no visible wounds or bruises, but who knew what was hiding underneath his clothes.
“It looked like he got out of there safely,” MJ continued, “but I wish he had some sort of social media so we could just know if he was alright.”
“Yeah,” Ned nodded. “Actually, that would be a great idea. Peter you should - “ he cut off abruptly. “If you ever happened to see Spiderman again through the Stark Internship, you should mention it.”
“Ha yeah, maybe,” Peter said.
“Well anyways, what did you guys get up to this weekend? I had an enthralling time reading Gone Girl,” MJ said.
“Homework and video games,” Ned said.
“Oh well, I just had a lot of homework this weekend too, and stuff for the internship,” Peter shrugged.
“Uh-huh, how did the english essay go?” MJ asked.
Peter’s eyes widened slightly. He looked at Ned for help, but Ned only shrugged. “English essay?”
“I’m just messing with you,” MJ smirked. “That’s due in another week, don’t worry.”
Then the conversation kept going down what was happening in classes route, boring stuff overall. No more mention of Spiderman was made. If they weren’t going to tell her about Spiderman after that, then she was going to have to get more creative.
At lunch time, MJ brought up Spiderman once more, this time to Ned while Peter was still going through the lunch line.
“Ned, do you remember that song you made up about Spiderman awhile ago? I’m trying to remember how it goes.” MJ hummed a few of the opening notes, then petered off about a quarter of the way through. She actually did know the whole song, but she wanted Ned’s input.
“Oh yeah!” Ned leaned in. He hummed the rest of the tune before singing some lyrics about Spiderman being a hero, and slinging in to always save the day. He was loud enough that you could hear him a few tables away at least. As Ned sung, MJ joined in with the tune Ned had hummed a bit before. She noticed that some of the lyrics had been changed, which was probably for the better.
“Uh, what are you guys singing?” Peter asked, suddenly standing next to their table.
“Oh, it's a song I made about y - Spiderman,” Ned said.
“It’s catchy, isn’t it?” MJ asked.
Peter sat his lunch tray down hard enough for the contents to jiggle. “Yeah, I guess it is catchy. Can I hear it again?”
Ned and MJ nodded at each other before beginning the song again. Peter asked a few questions about the lyrics, then was bobbing his head along with it, a small smile on his face. Well, maybe this didn’t bring Peter closing to confessing, but it was still good to see him brighten up.
3.
Sometimes it amazed MJ how quickly after school let out that there was a notification of a spiderman spotting. Most of the time, she had barely left the school (if there wasn’t a decathlon meeting), so she knew Peter must have been really rushing to get out. So, as much as MJ hated to rush for anything, she made it her mission to practically run out of class to try and catch Peter headed off to his extra-extracurriculars.
Unfortunately, she did not have her last period with Peter, so it took her that much longer to intersect what she’d thought would be his route of the school. It was after an entire week of her losing her breath while rushing after an elusive Peter that she finally stumbled into a hallway where he was currently lifting an entire row of lockers up and grabbing something from underneath before letting them slam down.
She stood there gaping, even as Peter started running down the hallway. She didn’t take action until Peter was already turning a corner.
“Peter, wait!” she called, stumbling after him as her legs didn’t seem to quite remember how to work.
Peter heard her fortunately, and turned, eyes wide. “Oh, hi, MJ, do we have a decathlon meeting today?”
“No, but Peter.” MJ jogged the rest of the way up to him. “You just lifted that entire row of lockers?”
“What? No.”
“Peter, I literally just saw you.”
“They’re uh - not actually that heavy,” Peter said. “I’m sure any of the footballer guys could lift them, and I’ve been working out so.”
“Well, what do you have that you need to store down there in anyways?” MJ crossed her arms. She was pretty sure that was wrong, they were pretty heavy. She couldn’t prove the footballer thing, because she knew she wasn’t as strong as a football player, and she didn’t have any football player friends to try and lift lockers.
“Oh um, a comic stash,” Peter said. He was holding one hand behind his back.
“Can I see?” MJ asked.
“Well, I uh, really got to go, but some other time, yeah?” and then Peter was off running before MJ could get another word in.
She huffed. The hallway had already filled with many more students, and she couldn’t see where Peter had gone off to in the crowd. Instead of pursuing, she turned back to the lockers. How had he never been caught before? There was generally at least a few students in the hallways or looking through windows or something. Also, there had to be a camera. MJ turned her head up and, yeah, there it was. The lockers weren’t even in a blindspot. Wow, they had terrible security. She was pretty sure that if the principle was aware of Peter’s hiding spot he’d have investigated it asap to make sure it wasn’t drugs, and there was no way the entire school body wouldn’t be gossiping about it.
She looked once more in the direction Peter ran off in before adjusting her backpack and deciding to just go home.
4.
It took a few weeks for the Spiderman song to pay off, though MJ hadn’t expected it to pay off. Still when she overheard some boys in her physics class talking about the latest Spiderman video, she was curious enough to want to see what it was about. Nothing about their conversation said anything about the song, but a Spiderman video was a Spiderman video. During the next break between classes, MJ got out her phone to take a look, and see if anything could help her with Peter.
The video started with a top view of Spiderman climbing the side of a building. As Spiderman got closer to the camera-person, MJ heard a familiar tune. Spiderman was humming Ned’s song. MJ scrolled the video back to the beginning and confirmed, that yes, that was definitely Ned’s song. He was humming it note to note. She watched from the beginning once more. Spiderman crawled up the building, getting above the camera-person, and then webbed off to a seperate building. The video kept going until Spiderman couldn’t be seen in the distance anymore. The whole thing was probably the closest video anyone had gotten of Spiderman scaling a building, and you could actually see his web leave his wrist shooters.
She pocketed her phone, and had to sit through another two whole classes before lunch. These teachers were even ones who were super strict about non-class reading material, so MJ set about doodling in the sides of her notebook and pretending to actually take notes.
When lunch time came, and her, Peter, and Ned were settled down, MJ brought the video up.
“Did you guys see the video of Spiderman climbing the building?” MJ asked.
“No,” Peter and Ned both said simultaneously. MJ knew they were sincere.
MJ pulled it up for them, and let it play.
“Hey, isn’t that our song we made?” Ned asked just a few seconds in. “That sounds like our Spiderman song.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” MJ said. “Wow, I wonder how he heard it. You didn’t post it online anywhere did you?”
“No, I only sang it for you guys.”
Peter was looking at his tray, pushing his food around with his fork.
“What do you think, Peter?” MJ asked.
“Hm?” Peter looked up. “Oh, I don’t know. I mean, it’s just a tune, maybe there’s a similar song out there?” Peter’s voice broke slightly at the end. He coughed. “I mean, songs sound like each other all the time. Doesn’t it sound like that one classic song?”
“Which song?” MJ narrowed her eyes at Peter.
“Oh, um.” Peter squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh shoot, I can’t remember the name, but you know?”
“Maybe,” MJ said.
“Exactly.” Peter was back to shoving more food in his mouth. It didn’t look like more was going to be said on the topic.
5.
MJ had debated going this far to get Peter to confess, but nothing else had worked yet, and this wasn’t really going to hurt Peter. Still, her fingers hesitated over her phone before typing out her message and hitting send.
“Omg I think the bank im at is abt to get robbed.”
MJ held her breath after she hit send. She was about to put her phone away, but a text message appeared only a few seconds later.
“Where are you”
MJ sent off her location, then pocketed her phone. Time to wait. The bank she was at, was indeed not about get to robbed, at least it was not likely. She had already finished the transaction she needed, and was now just sitting on a bench near the entrance.
Spiderman showed up four and a half minutes later. MJ didn’t know where he started from, but that had to be pretty quick from wherever he was likely to have been.
Spiderman entered the bank, did a quick look around, paused ever so slightly upon seeing her, and then finally called out, “Hey, did anyone see any bad looking guys in here?”
A few of the people in the bank gaped at Spiderman being there. A few got their phones out to snap a picture. A few just ignored. Someone finally called back that no, they hadn’t seen anyone suspicious.
And then Spiderman left, and MJ sincerely hoped he wouldn’t be too mad at her. There was just no way Peter could’ve alerted Spiderman to her whereabouts in that amount of time if he wasn’t Spiderman, so there was no way Peter could ignore this. MJ sent off a text a few minutes later to Peter about it being a false alarm.
Peter was a little bit more stiff with her at school the next day. She pretended not to notice, she knew she probably deserved his curt sentences. But she also had to know.
“So, the strangest thing happened yesterday,” MJ paused, then went on, “I was at a bank, and I texted you right about there being a possible bank robbery - sorry about that by the way, I hope you didn’t worry too much as it obviously was a false alarm - but then Spiderman showed up just a few minutes after, asking about whether if someone’s seen a bad guy.”
“He must have been in the area, and was looking for someone, I’m sure it was unrelated,” Peter said. He didn’t even look at her.
“Yeah, must be.”
Ned was glancing between the two of them at that point. He placed a hand on MJ’s arm, stopping their walk, as Peter continued on.
“You know, don’t you?” Ned asked.
“Yeah,” MJ conceded, after a quick look over Ned’s feature to determine if he was serious. “You guys really aren’t subtle. I just - I was hoping Peter would tell me, but nothing I do seems to make him open up about it.”
“He has a thing about people knowing,” Ned told her.
Peter was quite a bit further down the hallway at this point, so they continued their walking, but at a slower pace.
“I found out totally by accident. I saw him crawling on the ceiling in the suit, and he still tried to deny it.”
“Seriously?” MJ asked. “Actually, how does he do that? Is that part of the suit?”
“No, it’s part of the powers,” Ned shrugged. “I really want to tell you all of it, but he should probably do that. If you know, we can tell Peter. He thinks he’s protecting you by not saying anything, but he’s been tearing himself apart with the guilt of not telling you as well.”
That made MJ’s stomach do a weird twist, but she still didn’t want to give up quite yet. “I want to wait a little bit longer. I guess I’d prefer if he decided to tell me on his own, but if he doesn’t fess up soon, then alright.”
“Alright, I guess,” Ned laughed slightly. “I’ll try to keep it a secret.”
That wasn’t all that reassuring.
+1
“His suit is under the bed,” Ned said the next weekend when MJ, him and Peter were having a movie marathon in Peter’s room. Peter had just left to go and check in on the status of dinner. The Empire Strikes Back was paused where it was projected onto the wall from Ned’s laptop and his projector he had gotten for his last birthday.
MJ looked at Ned, but didn’t comment.
“I’ve been here since friday night, that’s where he dropped it when he came back.” Ned ate another small handful of popcorn.
MJ glanced at the door one more time, and with no sign of Peter yet, she quickly dropped to the floor to check under the bed. There was a lump of clothing under there, and with a bit of squinting she could make out the red and blue and web design. She got back up, gave Ned a smile, and reached across him for some popcorn. Ned moved the popcorn closer.
Later that night, MJ “accidentally” dropped her phone in such a way that it slid way under the bed. “Oops,” MJ said as she got down to pick it up. Peter barely even glanced at her. MJ slid under the bed slightly, grabbed her phone, then the suit which she dragged out with her.
“Woah, what’s this?” MJ held the suit up. It unfolded in her hands to reveal what was definitely the Spiderman suit.
And that got Peter’s attention. MJ had to hold in her laugh when Peter jumped so high in his spot the popcorn that had been in his lap got knocked off and spilled all over the bed. “That’s- That’s nothing!” Peter’s voice was way too high and loud. He tugged the Spiderman suit out of her hands, but that just left her with the mask which she promptly hid behind her back.
Peter jumbled the suit up, then crossed the room to toss it in his closet. He slammed the door shut.
“Nothing? That looked like the Spiderman suit.” MJ said.
“Well, I’m.. I’ve been getting into cosplay, and Spiderman is pretty cool, so I made his suit” Peter said. His face was turning red. “It’s embarrassing.”
“Peter.” MJ stood up slowly. “I know people who have been into the costume scene for years, both for school and out, that,” she pointed towards the closet, “is not something an amateur could make. Is there something you want to tell me?” She crossed her arms over her chest, taking care to hold the Spiderman mask in such a way that her arms still mostly hid it.
“I’m just really good at sewing?”
MJ knew Peter was trying to be convincing, but this was just so ridiculous. “So what, you fell into radioactive waste, and your superpowers are that you’re really good at sewing?”
“Actually, I was bit by a radioactive spider.” Peter immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide.
“Ah-ha, so you do have powers? When were you bitten by a spider?” MJ asked.
“I was not meant to say that! That was a joke! Radioactive spiders don’t exist,” Peter tried.
“Nope, no taking it back.”
“Fine! I’m Spiderman!”
“Finally!” MJ said. “Hope you don’t mind if I wear this.” She slid the mask onto her face, and wow, ok, she couldn’t see out of this thing at all. The room seemed filtered in a way she couldn’t quite make sense of. It made her a bit dizzy, but still, she was wearing the Spiderman mask.
“Hey, no! You have to ask before wearing that,” Peter said.
MJ could only sort of him see him approach but she didn’t try to get away. Mostly because she thought she would pitch over if she tried to move, but also because she didn’t want to get on his nerves too much more. She let him tug the mask off. “How do you see out of that?” She blinked as her eyes adjusted to actually being able to see everything again.
“I - my sight, and well, all my sense, are too much, so it helps filter things.” Peter tossed the mask towards the closet. His eyes narrowed. “Also, what do you mean by ‘finally’?”
“Oh my god, Peter, you and Ned are not subtle at all! I’ve known since the beginning of the school year. Actually I was pretty suspicious before then, but school starting and your schedule just kind of confirmed it.”
“You’ve known all this time, and-” the five stages of grief passed over Peter’s faces in five seconds. MJ knew he was remembering all the times he had to lie to her, and she knew she had not made it easy either.
“Yes, Peter, I’ve known all those times. We’ve been friends for months now, I just wanted you to tell me.”
“You should have told me!” Peter said. “But also you shouldn’t know. I- it’s dangerous being me and being my friend.. Do you still- do you still want to be my friend?”
“Peter, I’ve known for weeks, suspected for months, and I haven’t gone yet, have I? Ned’s still here too.” MJ said.
“You can’t get rid of me,” Ned quipped from the bed.
Peter bit his lip. “Ok, well, I’m Spiderman. Surprise? Or not.”
MJ smiled, then hugged Peter. He responded after a a few seconds. “Come join in already Ned,” MJ said.
Ned wrapped them both in his arms. “I’m so glad the secrets finally out, because it has been a real bummer not to be able to talk about it with you.”
MJ laughed. “I have about a million questions, but its been enough of a night, so how about we continue our movie marathon, and I’ll grill you later.” She loosened her arms and the boys responded by stepping back.
Peter offered a tentative smile. “Ok.”
They piled back onto the bed after cleaning up the spilled popcorn and resumed the movie - Ned had paused it at some point like a champ. MJ tossed a piece of popcorn at Peter without him even looking at her, and yet he still caught in his mouth. That turned into a food tossing war, and pretty soon they had all dissolved into laughing fits so hard they had to clutch their stomachs in pain.
Yeah, MJ had found a pretty nice friend group.