Chapter Text
"Alriiiight. A stick of butter....." MJ gestures her hand over to Peter to hand her the butter.
"Some but-tar for you miss." Peter offers with a horribly done English accent, leaving MJ to just roll her eyes and dump the butter into the bowl.
MJ sighs and leans over the counter to read over the next ingredient before she feels a poke on her side, causing a giggle to escape her. She however tries to shake this off and get back into finding out how many eggs they need before she feels the same thing again, this time a little harder.
MJ looks back at him and shoots him a glare.
Peter gives a playful pout, "I just wanna cuddle. Can't we bake cookies later?"
As tempted as MJ is by this; especially with those big brown eyes of his staring into her soul, she remains firm, "I have a sweet tooth and one particular craving. And that is sugar cookies, I will not rest until I have them."
She looks back to her recipe, "Now, can you get me 3 eg-" She is cut off by lips pressing kisses into her cheek, trailing down to her neck and she allows her head to fall back at this. "Don't stop you-" Oh wait. She sees what he's doing. He's trying to distract her from her craving, that fiend! She grabs a handful of flour and smacks him in his face, masking it with nothing but flour. "You brat!"
Peter immediately laughs at this, rubbing some of the flour off his face and dabbing some onto her nose, "Got your attention didn't it?"
MJ can't help but smile at this, then finally breaks out into a laugh as she rubs the flour off her nose, "I can't have a conversation with you like this. Wash that shit off your face. Then we're going back to baking. I need my cookies."
Peter, still smiling, bites his lip before charging towards MJ and picks her up and easily slings her over his shoulder; and despite her protests, winds up tackling her onto the couch, him pinning her down before he begins to tickle her below her rib cage.
"Peter! Sto-hop! Sto-hop it! You-hoo know I hate that." She struggles to speak through her laughs.
Peter is now grinning like the biggest idiot, "If I do you promise we can cuddle for a little?"
"No dea-heal. I to-told you I needed my cooooooho-kies." MJ replies, her laughs growing louder as she tries to shove Peter off of her; to no avail of course.
Peter smirks, "I know- I'll bake them for you. Just me. That'll be my way of repaying you." MJ tries shaking her head, "No-ho way, you can't bake for shi-hit a-and-" At that Peter starts to tickle her feet. That's it, MJ draws the line at her stubbornness here. "O-ok fi-hine just get offuh!"
Peter grins with pride at this and finally let's her go. MJ gets up trying to catch her breath, "But you better not burn them or I'll never forgive you Peter Benjamin Parker." She tries shooting a glare at him, but she can't fool him; he can see the amusement right there in her eyes.
He laughs, "You're in good hands." He scoots in closer to her and gives her a quick kiss, before grabbing her by the wrist and running into his room with her before he feels her stopping him.
He turns around to find a serious look in her eyes. "I uhm..." She bites her lip when she sees Peter gives her a confused look. "What's up?" He beckons.
'Just say it. Just say it. Just say it. Just say it." She thinks to herself. Screw it. She has to say it now because every time Peter goes out to do his crime fighting stuff she never knows if she'll never see him again.
"I love you." She blurts out, not only leaving Peter in shock but herself too by just how easily that came out. Honestly that was .... a lot easier for her to say out loud than she thought it would be. Now that she has finally said it she feels better. That is; until she sees the look on Peter's face. It's unreadable, and she can usually read Peter Parker the easiest out of all people. That's when she starts panicking. Oh no.
'I can't say it. I won't say it. I feel it but I don't want to say it. If I say it something bad will happen to her I just know it. I won't say it.'
Peter goes over and over in his head about what he should say to her, before this nonsense comes out of his mouth.
"Th-thank you." He blankly states, not knowing what else to say.
MJ looks down, clearly embarrassed and leaving Peter to feel nothing but guilt."You-you're welcome but uhm yo-you don't ha-have to say anything back and we can forget I said th-that-b-but-no-not that I'm taking it back or anything because I'm not I was just trying to say what was on my mind and I did now and wh-what do you say?" MJ finally looks up after her awkward stumbling, leading the following five seconds to be the most awkward in her life; unsure of what exactly Peter would say or do next.
'Say something dumbass.' Peter ponders in thought. 'Look at her face. Say something.'
"I uhm...." Peter trails off, "I-"
'NO!' His mind screams at him, before Peter hastily comes up with something else.
"I'd love to cuddle still!" Peter awkwardly proclaims, forcing a smile onto his face. "Then make those cookies as promised?" Peter finishes, trying to seal up how awkward he made this but quickly realizing nothing can save him. He will forever be awkward.
Surprisingly though, MJ's frown grows into a genuine smile, catching up to her eyes.
'Thank god. He doesn't hate me. Maybe he doesn't love me, but he doesn't hate me.'
"I'd like that." MJ nods, as Peter grabs her hand again and trails into his room with her, of course while getting some commentary from his brain.
'Congratulations Peter, you can't say I love you to the love of your life. Nice one Parker. Idiot.'
--------------------- 6 MONTHS LATER ---------------------
Time sped up.
Time slowed down.
Peter was pretty sure this was the time he actually died.
Fuck being snapped by fucking Thanos, that was nothing compared to this moment. Right now
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck! Fuck fuck!
It all happened so fast. One minute he's patrolling as Spider-Man, the next he sees thugs and he can hear distinct chatter.
Peter lands on a rooftop nearby, not close enough where he can actually see what's going on. But it's close enough that he can hear it without being spotted.
".....and so see? We kinda have to do this considering how well you know him." One gravely voice is overheard saying.
"Some people want his head? Us? Not really, I mean we just think if he loses something valuable to him he might just break."
One of the two men can be heard walking before saying, "Not just something either. Someone."
That's when Peter starts to make his move. He drops down and continues to go stealth and while he's not really sure what he's getting himself into, he's sure this is nothing the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can't handle.
Peter get's ready to make his grand entrance before he hears a distinct, "Go to hell." being said through gritted teeth, immediately followed by the clicking of a gun.
Wait that voice is familiar.
Oh god.
"MJ!" Peter quickly leaps and jumps into the scene; where one of the two men run while the other man is holding a gun to MJ's head and without wasting a single second, shoots her straight in the head.
That's when Peter feels all the air leave his body.
He can't move, can't think for a few seconds until her killer runs away and he sees her body thud to the ground. That's when Peter snaps back into reality.
"MJ!" He screams louder than he ever has running over to her lifeless body, scooping up her bloodied head, horrified at all the blood pouring out of her and notices her brain matter scattered all throughout the alleyway.
"Em." He sobs, moving her hair out of her face and completely losing it. "Em. Em em em em please." He cries out, desperate. "Don't leave me."
Rationally, he knows there's no point in begging.
She's completely lifeless. There's actually not a single sign of life. Uncle Ben was in bad shape when he found him but this .... this was different. MJ was dead the second the gunshot sounded off. Ben held on a little longer. He kinda got to say goodbye. He feels he definitely got to say goodbye to Mr. Stark.
He'll never get to say goodbye to MJ, and that will haunt Peter until the day he dies.
He scoops her body up and rocks back and forth, pressing all of her against him.
"I love you." He puts his mouth against her ear, "I love you. I love you." He begins to sob harder, almost choking. "Iloveyouiloveyouimsorryiluhloveyou so muh-uch." He brokenly admits to her.
But she'll never know.
Peter never said he loved her until she couldn't hear him.