Chapter Text
MJ hadn’t made fun of Peters's Hello Kitty shirt once.
Which, essentially, defeated the entire purpose of him wearing the damn thing in the first place.
She had been off for days now, quietly muttering to herself, constantly distracted during class, leg bouncing so intently it shook her desk. She went so far as to cancel decathlon for the week; not even when she sprained her foot ice skating did Mj cancel decathlon.
This quickly inspired Peter and Ned to find ways to bring MJ out of whatever rut she found herself stuck in.
That's how Ned ended up wearing a neon blue Jojo Swija shirt and Peter in a bubblegum pink Hello Kitty shirt. (They decided through a coin toss) All in the hopes that it would get MJ to at least laugh, smile, and crack jokes that would embarrass them more than they already were.
Regrettably, all it did was bring them further down the popularity ladder, if that was even possible.
“I’m seriously never listening to you ever again dude,” Peter grumbled through a mouthful of fries, attempted to curl up as another student strolled by and sniggered, cursing himself for not bringing a jacket. “Like, ever, I mean it.”
Ned scoffed. “Whatever Peter, you thought it was a good idea too.”
Peter shifted to glare over at his best friend, but was unable to take him seriously, and ended up erupting into laughter. Because, God, they just looked so fucking ridiculous in those shirts. Ned soon joined in, running a hand through his hair, not caring that they were attracting more and more attention by the minute.
They shut up once they caught Mj approaching their table, eyes wild and anxious. Wild hair bouncing with every stride.
It was easy to tell the girl wasn't sleeping, her face losing its color, and instead of sporting intense eye bags. Whenever Peter ran into a door she no longer laughed at his embarrassed pout, her lips only twitched in what maybe was supposed to be a smile but seemed to give up halfway. Still, Peter grinned wide and Ned smirked at the dopey love-struck look his friend wore.
“Hey, Peter,” Her voice was awkward, weak. “Can I talk to you? It’s important.”
Peter could only look up at her, mouth opening and closing foolishly until Ned kicked him under the table, prompting him to jump out of his seat and stumble in front of her. “Uh, yeah, sure! Yeah, no problem!”
"In private?" She asked, squinting at Ned. "Tell you later, promise."
Ned grinned, grateful he wouldn't be out of the loop for long, and elbowed Peter with a lift of his eyebrows.
Michelle motioned for Peter to follow with a tilt of her head, Peter turned to flip Ned off to which he only blew him a kiss.
Without his powers, Peter wondered if he would have been able to keep up with MJ's quick pace.
She led them both to a dark corner, near the boy's bathrooms no one wanted to use. MJ took up leaning against the water fountain, in an attempt to appear nonchalant- Peter supposed. He noticed that she kept jerking her leg up and down, the sound of her heeled boots tapping against the tiles echoed around them. Peering up at her, Peter cursed the extra height she had on him, especially with those shoes. From this angle, all he could focus on was the way her lashes kissed her cheeks and the freckles that trailed up her cheeks.
Her uneasy posture and furrowed eyes did nothing to mask her anxiety, but it wasn’t like Peter was stupid enough to tell her that.
After a few seconds of Peter shyly shuffling from foot to foot, Mj crossed her arms and tipped her chin up.“What happened to you after you got bit?”
Peter blanched. “Wait-what?”
Out of everything she could have brought up, his powers were low on the list. A small - shy and hopeful- part of him thought she would try to ask him out, confess her feelings and admit not being with him had been eating her up....or something.
Nevertheless, MJ only had to frown for Peter to snap out of his daze. “Oh, uh, sorry-uh. Um so, that night I got a really bad bruise where the spider bit me um, it swelled up a lot." He admitted, raising his left arm awkwardly in the air, "And uh, I got sick right away. I couldn’t move or see, everything was really...intense. B-but that was just sen-“
Mj interrupted. “Sensory overload.”
“Yeah!” Peter nodded before his face contorted into confusion. “How’d you know that?”
She waved him off and clicked her tongue dismissively, but Peter still picked up her sharp intake of breath, the increase of her pulse. He could hear the tremor in her breath and the way her heart ached.
Peter wanted to ask why she was so nervous, what was scaring her so intently? What the actual hell happened to make the strong, indifferent girl he knew tremble in fear? What did she know that made her so desperate to ask Spiderman for help? Pride be damned.
“Did you get your powers right away? Like the next day or something? Or did it come slowly?”
Peter ignored the frantic look that flashed across her face, ignored how terribly bitten her nails were, the skin raw and red, and focused instead on her eyes.
He scuffed the toe of his shoe against the tile floor, unsure if he kept staring at Mj's distressed face he wouldn't burst into tears.
“Yeah, I mean, it kinda happened all at once. I mean, I think so. I kept just figuring out I could do something new each day, but I'm pretty sure I got them all when I got bit."
Peering up between his lashes, Peter couldn't help but think that MJ's eyes seemed to dance between brown and bright hazel, and any other time would have loved to be consumed by them.
“May said she was gonna take me to the emergency room if I didn't get better, and she freaked out when I told her I was fine like two hours later.” Peter chuckled, those were some lousy, painful days. "I think I even grew, like a couple of inches. She thought it was, uh, a really bad growth spurt. I mean it kinda was but, um, yeah." He deflated at the end, cheeks red and slightly embarrassed.
A look of understanding dawned on Michelle, she ignored Peter's blush and ran a hand through her hair. “That’s when you stopped using your glasses, you didn’t need them because of your powers!” She massaged her palm over her temple. “Your senses were heightened, all of them. Once your body adjusted to the radioactivity you got better.
Lunch was nearly over, Peter’s phone kept buzzing with curious texts from Ned, and Michelle looked as if she would fall apart any minute.
“Mj,” He began tentatively. “How do you know all this? What’s wrong? You've never really asked 'bout my powers,”
Peter reached over to gently rub her arm in what he hoped was in comfort and immediately froze. He forgot Michelle's big rule on physical contact -don't- but when she didn't object he kept it there. He prayed his sweaty palms didn't gross her out.
"I can help, Mj, but ya gotta let me, please. Please tell me what's wrong "
She seemed to calm at his words, the ghost of a smiling quirking at the corners of her lips before her face hardened. “Look if I tell you, you can’t tell anyone,”Peter opened his mouth. “Ned's fine but not May, and especially not Stark, got it?”
Peter wanted to argue, so very badly to correct her on how Tony wasn’t the villain she made him out to be. If whatever was causing her so much anguish was serious, having Tony Stark in the know could only help. He was trying to correct his mistakes and would do anything in his power to rectify a situation at any cost.
Also, it didn’t help that he sort of promised Tony that he would keep him posted on any sort of dangerous activity. After the whole Vulture incident, Tony started taking Peters's word much more seriously which was pretty amazing. Having Tony freaking Stark listening to you and texting you back never failed to make Peter giddy.
Besides, it never hurt to have a genius superhero billionaire on your side.
But MJ came to him, drained with her tired eyes and ruffled hair, and it killed Petter to see her so unsettled and that meant something. She had never really had friends to turn to, and Peter knew it was a huge step for her to depend on someone other than herself for once.
MJ and whatever was bothering her was so worth the speech he would later get from Mr. Stark.
He turned off his phone, smiling wide, and wiped a moist palm on his jeans. “U-uh, Yeah. I promise!”
He offered her his pinky, and it startled a laugh out of the anxious girl. She was overcome with how ridiculous the boy in front of her was, she let her pinky finger tighten around Peter’s before she dropped Her arm.
Mj swallowed hard, she clenched and unclenched her fist before letting out a trembling sigh.
"Okay, look, there's this kid that lives in the apartment right across from me,” MJ unlocked her phone and showed Peter her home screen, it was of her and a young boy, his eyes were kind and squinted in mirth. He was sticking out his tongue, and couldn't be older than eleven. “I've been babysitting him ever since he was little, his mom's a nurse and works night shifts, and his dad died two years ago. I pick him up from school and sometimes drop him off at his uncle's. He’s a really good kid.”
Peter had never heard Mj ramble, but that's all he could call her frantic way of speaking. She shut off her phone and clenched her fist, digging her nails into her palms. He could hear the skin break and gently reached for her hands, easing them out of fists with as much gentleness as his trembling fingers could manage.
Peter had never seen MJ so terrified, and that was including the times he gave her ‘rides’ home.
“Something really bad happened to him Peter” Her voice wavered and nearly cracked, they both ignored it. “A couple days ago he came back from a field trip or something with this big ass bruise on his arm. He kept crying and he kept having these, panic attacks. I thought he was gonna die, I didn’t know what to do,”
Michelle moved back until her back was fully pressed to the water fountain, she hid her face from view and wiped her cheeks before sniffling and looking at Peter dead in the eye.
"I literally fucking carried him to the emergency room. And we get there, we're in the waiting room and he just- I dunno, gets up and says he feels fine. They did a check-up and found nothing.”
Peters’eyes widened in realization, his blood froze in his veins. “MJ.”
She shook her head, curls dancing across her neck and shoulder. “We go home and then he started climbing all over the fucking place and-and just jumping everywhere and god,” Michelle then reached over to clutch onto Peters' shoulders, her nails slightly digging into his skin. “Peter, please, I need your help, he’s just a kid. I dunno what to do, he’s younger than us, he shouldn’t have to go through all this shit.”
Peter’s fingers twitched to reach out and hold her, rub her back in the way May would when he was upset. He settled on resting his hands comfortably on her shoulders. She immediately relaxed. “Hey, it-its gonna be okay,” Peter comforted, rather pathetically in his awkward little voice. "Um, What’s his name?”
Because what else could he say? Really?
It was the first time that day he saw Michelle smile, albeit rather angular and small.
“Miles,” She said, her grin left immediately as she continued to look at Peter. “He’s only like eleven, so of course, he's all fucking in love with Spiderman. God, all he talks about is you, this is like his dream, but it can’t happen.” MJ asserted with a deep rumble to her throat as if she would cry any minute. “I need your help, please Peter, I know he’s not gonna listen to me, I don’t want him risking his fucking life trying to be an Avenger."
"You can handle this, you..you have Tony Stark and a suit and you're not fucking eleven," She clenched peters shirt in her fist, eyes almost watering. "Peter I don't know what else to do, please, you have to help me."
Peter caught Mj in his arms, her knees seemed to be on the verge of giving out.
“He’s just a fucking kid Peter!” MJ muttered, on the verge of tears.
Peter rubbed his thumbs along the grooves of her shoulders, the same way May did to comfort him.
MJ was one of the strongest people he knew, and to see her falling apart in front of him was terrifying. “Michelle,” He felt a bit guilty saying her name, but it managed to grab her attention. “Look, uh, I-I promise I’ll help you, I swear to god I will okay? Want me to swing us to your apartment after school? I can do that if you want.” He offered, god he'd do anything if it meant she wouldn't look at him with tears brimming.
MJ seemed to like the idea because her eyes ceased watering almost immediately and instead took to roaming around his body, Peter's ears turned pink at the attention.
“Yeah, thanks that’d work. But like you’re gonna change first, right? Because, what the actual fuck are you wearing? Jesus Christ.”
Peter pouted, ignoring the warmth flooding his cheeks. “Hey me and Ned wore this for you!”
Bad idea.
“No you didn't, shut up. I didn't see," Michelle exclaimed. She pushed past him and made a mad dash towards the cafeteria.
Michelle practically jumped on their table, rapidly snapping pictures of Ned who was coloring horribly while Jojo Siwa was smirking back. She made both Peter and Ned sit side by side and take pictures of them, she had to keep covering her mouth to prevent the snorts and laughter detained. Michelle shoved her phone screen in their faces, showing she changed her lock screen of them both looking pissed as hell. Saying she will never change it, no matter what.
It was sort of worth it though; she never did stop smiling.
~.~
MJ agreed to meet him behind the school's alleyway, a much better alternative to the one he had been previously using. This one was much more secluded and was much less visited by humans and animals alike.
Peter rushed to change out of his clothes, hastily slipping into the suit, the cold air nipping at his skin. He always felt a bit stupid putting on the suit, knowing Tony could have easily made it so it bled onto his body efficiently with a push of a button, but no.
Now he was the idiot falling over a trash can trying to get his foot in.
“Hey can I go in?” Michelle yelled. “Like, are you done changing? I don't wanna see you naked, no offense.”
Peter rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the shiver that trailed up his spine at the thought of MJ seeing him naked.
"Uh, yeah, I’m good!”
MJ strolled in casually, but not so much so that Peter didn’t notice her eyes wandering over his frame. This time, he turned pink for a whole different reason.
Michelle caught his eye and scowled. “Here,” She chucked him a pair of black sweats and a thick hoodie at his face, it had a picture of Black Widow on the front and writing in another language. “You can wear this, I always keep extra clothes in my locker just in case. I’m taller though, sorry if it's kinda big shorty.” She smirked.
“Thanks,” Peter quickly slipped on the sweatpants and took to grinning into the sweater, he sniffed deeply and looked away from MJ. He bent to slip on his converse's, blowing hair out of his face. “I told Ned that you wanted to talk and that I’d text him later, so he wouldn’t like, show up. Cause he would, only because he cares a lot though, he told me to tell you to call him later by the way.”
Michelle went silent for a minute. “Losers.” She grumbled. She hid her smile with her hand.
Peter quickly put on his backpack, snapping it in place to make sure it wouldn’t get loose. He doubled checked his web-shooters by shooting them at the brick wall, startling a shriek out of MJ in the process, and slipped on his mask.
He greeted Karen and discreetly told her to play cool, (“Is that Michelle? Are you going on a date with her? I think that’s a great idea Peter! Good job!”), before turning to Michelle, arms spread out wide.
“Ready?”
She bit her lip and tightened her grip on her backpack straps. “I don’t-”
Peter curled an arm around her waist and hoisted her up, MJ instinctively wrapped her arms right around his frame. “Great! Let’s go!” He yelled, shooting a web at a high building.
“Hold on tight, 'mkay?"
Michelle shot Peter a dirty look, briefly reconsidering telling him about Miles and cursing herself for freaking out in the first place. Before biting her tongue and preparing for the ground to disappear. She learned the hard way that there was no room for pride when it came to swinging, all she could do was wrap her legs tight around Peter's waist and lock her arms around his neck. He was kind enough to not mock her for her clingy ness, going so far as to keep a stash of nausea relief pills tucked in his backpack for her.
As MJ focused on swallowing her pride, Peter made sure to remember not to inhale too deeply. Michelle’s conditioner and lotion overwhelmed him on a normal day, having her pressed so close only made him want to shove his face into her neck and breathe in her scent. He secured onto MJ before huffing and pulling them off the ground.
Payback was payback after all.
MJ’s screams never stopped, she coped by digging her face into Peters's neck.
Peter cursed as he sank further into her, praying for a quick arrival