Chapter Text
There was nothing more MJ wanted to do right now than punch Gwen right smack dab in the face.
She knew Michelle and Peter had this weird, admittedly stupid, tension between them. It wasn't Michelle's fault he was a bit of dick but hot, he was a hot dick, also a nerd. Michelle would never admit it (or show it) but she kind of digged it. How cliche. Maybe she'd admit it on her death bed. Maybe.
So when Gwen announced she would be taking one tent with Ned, MJ was left fuming. She specifically told Gwen she would only tag online on this trip if the girls shared one tent and the boys shared another. Michelle couldn't care less that Ned was her boyfriend. The stupid camping trip was already stupid and now it was about to get stupider. Of course, MJ was the only one who understood what Gwen was doing.
She shrugged and muttered an 'oops' with a stupidly annoying smile on her face. Not another word was spoken as she grabbed Ned's hand, giving him a coy smile and sashayed off to one of the two tents. Michelle grabbed her duffel bag and looked at Peter.
"Either you follow me or sleep under the stars, your choice," Shrugging, Michelle stalked off to the other tent with her arms folded across her chest. He furrowed his brows but followed you anyway.
So there they both were, standing at the entrance of the two-man tent. Michelle was not drawn to enter it whatsoever, even if she was getting into it with Gwen. There also wouldn't be any kind of space between the two teenagers because Gwen had insisted that two double air mattresses instead of four singles would save space and be more cost efficient. She'd also insisted on bringing duvets instead of sleeping bags because 'they felt weird on her feet.'
Peter and Michelle both looked at each other before she sighed.
"I'm taking the left,"
"I sleep on the left,"
There was a wild scramble as MJ dropped her bag to the grass and they both tried to undo the one hundred pointless zips on the tent to get inside and to get to the left side. There were limbs flailing everywhere as they both attempted to lay on the left, Michelle ended up pushing her feet against his chest, causing Peter to fall into the gap between the mattress and the tent wall.
"Fuck, alright, alright," He stood up and rubbed his hip. "I'll go on the right, calm your tits."
"How about no?"
"Oh yeah," He fake mused, looking at you before pretending to pout. "You haven't got any to calm,"
"That's real rich coming from you, short ass. Go crawl back into your stupid hole in the ground or wherever hobbits live,"
Peter scowled at the nickname he'd heard from her mouth far more than he'd like. She smiled sweetly at him before sitting up and taking her shirt off, grabbing her pyjama shirt from her bag and pulling it over her head. Michelle discovered it was rather difficult to get changed in a tiny tent.
"Stop staring at me, perv," She turned to look at him, glaring when he raised his hands defensively and looked away.
"Not my fault you just ripped your damn shirt off in front of me, hardly even had time to look away,"
She took her pants off, again, with great difficulty and crawled back outside the tent, brushing her teeth and spitting onto the grass before going back into the tent to see Peter taking his shirt off. He sat in sweatpants on top of the duvet as he scrolled through something on his phone, his back facing her. "Stop staring at me, perv,"
She could hear the smirk on his face as she chucked her toothpaste at his back. "Are you seriously going to not wear a shirt?"
"Yes, problem?" His eyes followed Michelle as she organised all her things before laying under the duvet on the left side of the air mattress. "Are you seriously going to not wear pants?"
"Yes, problem?" Michelle smiled, smiling while also shooting daggers at him at the same time.
She lay down with her head in the pillow, facing away from him. Michelle could faintly see the glow from his phone screen against the tent wall before you could hear the occasional Instagram video playing.
The son of a bitch was watching fan-made edits of himself, well, Spider-Man.
"Are you serious right now? Go to fucking sleep," Michelle grumbled and pressed her face into the pillow. You heard him laugh to himself and you could just imagine his head getting so big it exploded. Oh, how you wish it would.
"Fine whatever, was just you know interacting with my fans, showing them I loved them and appreciated them but whatever guess I'll just ignore them'" A shuffling noise was heard as he sighed dramatically and the bed dipped as he scooted further down the mattress.
"You can't even interact them dumbass, sometimes I wonder how you keep a secret identity," A growl escaped her mouth and she took the pillow out from under her head just to hit him with it. He shouted protests, grabbing the pillow from MJ and placing it between the two of them.
"See this? It's a wall, I won't go on your side and you won't go on mine? Cool."
She huffed but said nothing, closing her eyes as she turned away from him again. The tent became quiet and stayed that way. The sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the bushes was strangely comforting. MJ decided to focus on the rather than the... suggestive noises coming from the tent next to them. She was just beginning to fall asleep when the constant sound of shuffling and movement of the deflated mattress interrupted her.
The tent began to shake too, making such a racket that MJ swore she'd never heard anything louder. Maybe that was an exaggeration but it was Peter making the noise, so it was horrific by default.
She took a deep, frustrated breath in, hoping that it would end soon and you would be fine. It didn't.
"Stop moving you twat," She mumbled under her breath.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, don't mind me, just trying to get comfy so I can get some rest,"
The sarcasm was not appreciated and Michelle showed that by tugging at the duvet cover, smiling when she knew she was successful at pulling them off him. Peter groaned and tugged them back. Hence, a war ensued.
In the end, Michelle let him win. She didn't have the time or the energy to fight so instead she shuffled in closer to the centre of the tent in an attempt to gain more cover.
So now she'd lost her only pillow, blanket and at least an hour of sleep to Peter. It was ridiculous but all she wanted was to sleep and not have to listen to Gwen's annoying giggles anymore. MJ could feel the cheeky smile radiating off him but she bit her tongue.
"Knew you'd give up,"
"Shut up,"
"I always win,"
"Shut up,"
"I'm Spider-Man,"
"Literally fuck off,"
"You love me,"
"Try the opposite,"
"You're a bad liar,"
"Not lying, shut up dickwad, I'm trying to sleep,"
"Dickwad, that's new,"
"No, it's not, dickwad."
"Hm, whatever you say,"
"My God you are so annoying, why do you have to be so ho-"
"So?"
"Nothing. Night,"
"Goodnight, MJ,"
-9 hours earlier-
It was Gwen's car, so obviously she was driving and Ned was sitting in the passenger seat, holding her hand over the centre console.
That meant Peter and MJ were stuck in the back, squished together in Gwen's tiny green beetle. MJs legs were far too long for the back seat of her car so that meant she folded her legs under her instead of stretching them out.
Occasionally her knee would bump into Peter's leg, making them both scowl at each other and sometimes, try pit the blame on the other before Ned would have to break the argument up.
"Can you get your giraffe limbs away from me? Thanks,"
"Which of the seven dwarves are you today? Grumpy?"
"I'm not even that short!" Peter exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.
Michelle looked up from her book and smiles cheekily at him. "I guess you're right, what's the weather like down there?"
"Wow, real original, nerd," Peter flicked the cover of her book, causing her to reach across and flick his arm.
"Did you just seriously call me a nerd? Have you even looked at the shirt you're wearing, don't flick my book,"
Of course, Peter flicked her book again, looking incredibly proud of himself. Michelle dog-eared her page and grabbed the book with two hands, bringing it down on top of his head.
Peter ducked as he was hit, grabbing the book out of her hands the second the thick book collided with his head. He then returned the favour, hitting her on the arm with it.
"Um, Ow!"
"You hit me first!"
"You flicked me first!" MJ reached across him to try and snatch her book back, but couldn't reach because he'd now dangled his arm out the window, the book only held by two of his fingers. "Don't you dare, Parker,"
He did dare, boy, would he regret that.
-1 hour later-
The bag of frozen peas Peter made Gwen pull over to get was now almost completely melted. He could feel the bruise on the side of his jaw forming and healing at the same time, a feeling he was pretty familiar with now.
Michelle had pulled another book out from who knows where seemingly unaffected now that she had decked Peter in the face and told him he had to replace the lost one. Well, screamed at him alongside a few choice profanities.
Peter was keeping up his grumpy attitude, a constant furrow in his brows. His arms were folded across his chest, one hand holding the peas to his jaw.
Empty sushi containers lay around the car, Michelle kindly placing hers on Peter's lap when she was done. It took everything in him not to pick it up and throw it at her. Instead, he placed the plastic onto the floor of the car, making a mental note to take all the rubbish out of the car when they arrived.
Peter decided on looking out the window and shoving his headphones in, doing anything possible to forget about the situation he was in. He was also pretending to be in a music video but that's not something he would like to admit.
When he agreed to go on this trip, he thought it would be fun. Camping with his best friend, even if he would be third wheeling a little. Even Mr Stark had encouraged it, saying that New York would be just fine for a few days without Spider-Man.
May had made him pack four days in advance, going through his suitcase a hundred times to make sure he had everything. She bought him a first aid kit, a walkie talkie, a new raincoat, a new sleeping bag, everything. Peter insisted a million times he never needed any of that stuff but nevertheless, he appreciated it.
Now he was wishing May would've packed a teleportation device.
"Peter?"
Peter hummed and looked forward at Gwen, taking a headphone out.
"Is your jaw ok?" She snickered, her eyes full of amusement as she noticed a smile stretching across of Michelle's face.
"Just great, thanks Gwen,"
"MJ has a pretty mean punch. I didn't know she had it in her,"
"Yeah," He sneered. "Considering I could snap her arm in half in a heartbeat she's pretty brave,"
"Peter," Michelle scoffed. "You called me while freaking out once because you punched someone too hard and their eyes watered,"
"I was having a bad day ok? I can be- mean," He stuttered and furrowed his brows as he thought of the right word to say.
"Sure, like a ball of cotton is mean,"
"A ball of- what?"
Michelle shrugged, continuing to read her book. Ned and Gwen laughed at Peter's expense. He huffed and slouched in his seat, regretting coming on the trip yet again.
-2 hours later-
The second Gwen parked the car at the campsite, Peter all but smashed the door to the ground with his legs. He'd never felt so cramped before and sitting for long periods of time was hard for him.
He lifted his arms over his head, causing his shirt to ride up a tiny bit. The hair on the back of his neck stood up a little, he looked up to see Michelle's eyes trained onto the exposed torso. Peter flushed a little and immediately lowered his arms, causing her to look away.
His eyes flickered up and down her frame as she too stretched out her long limbs. Peter watched as her own shirt lifted up a little but quickly looked away when too much was exposed for his comfort (which wasn't really that much.)
Ned and Gwen started to empty out the boot of the car, taking out the tents and various other camping gear they'd brought along. Peter helped take out the heavier stuff, like the cooler full of drinks and the box of food.
Michelle stood behind them, enthralled with her book. The peas lay forgotten on the grass, a small puddle forming underneath them. Gwen decided it was 'too hot' to help put up the tents, so she sat in the boot of the car and watched Ned and Peter put it up.
Once the tent had been pitched but not yet finished, Peter looked over only to see Michelle still reading her book, not having moved an inch.
"I don't know if you knew, Michelle, but you're sleeping in one of these tents too,"
"I did know, thanks Peter,"
"You haven't lifted a single weirdly long finger since we got here,"
"Don't pretend like you don't like my weirdly long fingers," She finally looked up from her book and quirked a brow.
"I don't like your weirdly long fingers,"
"Do you?"
Peter furrowed his brows and stuttered, finding himself speechless. It was a skill MJ had mastered, rendering people, Peter, speechless. She knew how to win the fight while still making sense but in a way that no one knew how to respond. If there was one thing MJ was proud of, it was that.
The two boys quickly returned to putting up the tent but managed to hit a wall at the second one. It was different, neither could figure out how to put it up.
Gwen was listening to music on her phone and Michelle watched, unamused. "You know, for a couple of nerds you're fucking stupid,"
"Alright, Michelle, you come put it up then,"
She shrugged, dog-earring her page and putting it down. MJ stretched her arms and walked straight to the tent, ignoring Ned offering her the instructions. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, the poles were in and the tent had been popped up.
Holding back a shit-eating grin at the boys' faces, she narrowed her eyes. "This is the tent I brought from home,"
-3 hours later-
Everyone was covered in mince.
Except for Peter.
He was the one who tripped and spilt the mince.
Gwen squealed, Ned laughed, Michelle, well, Michelle has never looked more murderous in her entire life.
She peeled off the shirt that was soaked in meat juice and threw it at him. The shirt stuck to his face and he cringed as he peeled it off. He peeled it off too late to see an angry MJ charging towards him. The fold-away table rattled as she stood up, it was also covered in mince.
"I'm a fucking vegetarian Peter! I literally don't even eat meat and now I'm covered in it! That's my favourite shirt too, you're so lucky I wasn't holding a book right now or you'd be fucking dead,"
Her hands collided with his chest and he raised his own in defence, covering his face with memories of being punched by her flickering through his mind.
Gwen ran forward and grabbed MJ, holding her hands in her own and forcing the angry girl away from Peter. He pushed apologies out at a million miles an hour and wiped his hand along his face to get the mince off.
Michelle ripped her hands away from Gwen, glaring at Peter with a stare so sharp he'd rather have a knife in his arm for the fifth time.
The tall girl turned her back to Peter and stalked off to the car, flipping the boy off without so much as looking back.
Peter cracked a small grin.
"I tripped, it was a mince-steak,"
Present
The next morning Michelle woke up, warmer than she usually felt. She took a deep breath in and opened her arms only to find herself buried into Peter's chest. She immediately recoiled, untangling her legs and slipping her now dead arm out from under him. The pillow that was between the two at the start of the night was now on the floor of the tent.
Sitting up, she attempted to run a hand through her thick hair and sighed, looking at Peter's sleeping form. He actually looked kind of peaceful and not like a prick for once. Cursing herself for staring, she heard him start to wake up and immediately pretended to be asleep, facing away from him again.
MJ would've been successful in convincing him that was how she'd slept the whole night if he hadn't woken up earlier before falling back asleep after deciding he didn't have the heart to move her.