Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They’re sitting in the grass of that park just outside the neighborhood that Peter used to go to when he was younger. The wind is soft and cooling on his heated skin and he blows out a puff of air.

“Are you even listening to me?” Tony asks, his voice ringing clear through the haze building up in Peter’s mind. Peter starts and Tony laughs a laugh that sounds just like bells.

The sky is full of stars that night. Peter swears he can see entire galaxies up there and he wonders vaguely what Captain Marvel is doing out there before reigning himself back in to listen to what Tony is saying.

“The suit will only give you so much protection, Peter,” Tony chides good naturedly staring off into space. The stars are so bright, they glint off Tony’s glasses.

Peter leans into him and realizes Tony’s Iron Man suit is gone and he can smell Tony’s aftershave on his clothes. It smells just like Uncle Ben’s, he thinks hazily.

Peter watches as the stars melts into tall buildings and shadows and Uncle Ben turns to face him.

“Peter,” Uncle Ben sighs, putting his hands on to Peter’s shoulders, “You know deep down, it’s all your fault.”

There’s a roaring sound in his ears that’s building, getting louder and louder.

Suddenly, a gunshot rings out and Uncle Ben slumps into Peter. Peter bears his uncle’s weight and already knows he’s dead before he lays him on the sidewalk.

When he turns the body around, Tony is staring back at him.

“You could’ve saved me, Pete.”

And the roaring gets louder.

…

Peter Parker wakes with a start.

The roaring in his ears is still there despite the dream disappearing like fog, and he wants to just shut his eyes and never open them again.

But there’s a blaring from the alarm clock on the nightstand that Peter knows is going to wake his Aunt May up at any second if he lets it keep going. So, despite the roaring in his ears, Peter sits up.

It all hits at once, but he doesn’t think about it again as he gets up to go brush his teeth.

He skips breakfast again, and kisses Aunt May just as she’s waking up before starting his commute to school.

Peter thinks for the second time that week that it’d just be faster if he swung to school as he touches something sticky on the pole of the train. He wipes his hand on his jacket, resolutely not thinking about what that possibly could’ve been.

The air is sweet and cold, a swift wind is blowing. He thinks about maybe packing a thermos of hot chocolate tonight while walking towards campus.

Other teens are milling about before classes start, chatting and eating. Peter determinedly doesn’t think about his stomach or breakfast.

“Peter!”

He whips his head around and sees Ned Leeds coming around the corner. Peter brightens a bit at seeing his friend, the dark cloud hanging over him receding a bit.

Ned jogs a bit to catch up with Peter and his face breaks out into a smile.

“Did you catch last night’s episode of Jeopardy?” Ned asks, a bit breathless.

Peter arches a brow. “Why would I be watching Jeopardy? And anyway, you know I was busy last night,” He elbows his friend at the mention of last night.

Ned rolls his eyes. “Didn’t know having a night life meant having no life.”

“Watching Jeopardy isn’t having a life, Ned.”

“We’re getting past the point, Peter,” Ned sighs, “You were on Jeopardy last night!”

Peter looks around at his peers before glaring at Ned. Ned looks abashed for a second and they walk further away from the students nearby.

“Sorry,” Ned whispers, “Spiderman was on Jeopardy last night!”

“What was the answer?”

“Friendly neighborhood superhero often seen around New York City,” Ned says smugly.

Peter smirks, “Who is Spiderman?”

“Correct!” Ned crows. They laugh and Peter feels the tension in him start to ebb.

Class begins the same. English, American History, Statistics go the same as every day. All are AP, but don’t give too much trouble. Just a lot of reading that takes too much time to complete. The reading eats at his sleep time, though, he refuses to give up any Spiderman time.

For his elective this semester, he and Ned decided to take Art which would’ve been fun to just goof around in if it hadn’t been for MJ.

MJ. Michelle Jones. Peter doesn’t know what happened. One day he’s sitting at lunch with Ned joking about some movie, MJ sitting next to them decidedly ignoring them. Peter still notices she has a smirk on her face like she’s listening, and the next day he can’t look at her without butterflies in his stomach. Maybe it was her hair, did she change it? Peter doesn’t know.

MJ is also in their art class and Peter can’t believe the things she can do with paint. Is she just naturally talented at everything? He’d pay money to someone who can find something she isn’t good at.

Her being there makes Peter feel like he’s being watched. He tries to goof around with Ned, but there’s always that prickling on the back of his neck that says someone’s eyes are on him.

Today in art, they are given free range of the materials to start their project for the week: a form of art that expresses your current emotional state.

The school has been trying to help students cope with their “emotional state” ever since half the population suddenly came back after five years of being gone. Peter still finds it weird that half his classmates grew up and are in college now, while him and Ned are still in their junior year of high school.

With what everyone has been calling the “blip”, there’s been a lot of displaced people. Homelessness is worse than ever in the area and so is crime. Peter works hard to keep it in check, but there’s only so many places he can be at once.

Peter and Ned don’t intend to take the art piece of the week seriously. They decide to do splatter art with some fun paint colors on canvas and the teacher waves at them idly when they go to have her approve their project.
Ned gathers green, yellow, and purple while Peter grabs red and blue.

Splattering the paint is fun, it releases a bit of the heaviness still in Peter’s chest with each grunt Ned gives off with each flick of his wrist, like he’s playing a particularly challenging tennis match. Peter laughs.
He’s still laughing when he sees MJ turn her head around from the front of the class where she’s painting quietly with some oil paints.

Peter quickly stops laughing and looks down back at his own painting, realizing it’s much too close to Spiderman colors. He should add another color. Maybe black? No still too close. He grabs Ned’s purple and starts flinging that on too, just to throw off any suspicion.

MJ slowly turns her head back to her own canvas and Peter hesitantly looks up toward her canvas. He can see what she’s painting if he cranes his neck out just a little.

She’s using a lot of black and some red to create a really shadowed piece. Peter can’t tell what it is exactly, but it’s dark and very contrasting. It’ll probably end up being showcased in the hallway like her last painting if the teacher likes it.

Almost as if she can sense his thoughts, MJ cracks her head back up and glares at Peter. He ducks his head again and sheepishly goes back to splattering paint.

When class is over, they leave their canvases on the racks to dry and head over to the cafeteria for lunch. Luckily it’s Tuesday: Pizza day.

Ned is happily chomping down on his pepperoni slice while Peter picks at his. MJ sits three seats over from them today, immersed in her book (Today it’s Sacred Ground by Eboo Patel, Peter thinks he might look up what it’s about later if he remembers).

The TV on the wall next to their table dings as the afternoon announcements comes on with Betty and Jason. They rant on for a few moments about class rings for seniors, yearbook preorders, and drone policies in the hallway before Betty gets a serious look on her face.

“It has now been six months since the blip,” she begins stoically and suddenly all the noise in the cafeteria dies down. Peter feels sweat begin to break out at his temple.

“Six months ago, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes joined together to bring down Thanos to bring back those who disappeared five years ago,” Betty begins, and a graphic comes up next to her on the TV of the Avengers in costume.

Peter’s stomach lurches and he regrets any pizza he’d just barely eaten.

“We’re thankful for those who sacrificed their life for all of us to be here today and once again, we’d like to take a moment to honor Tony Stark for sponsoring our school and giving his life in exchange for ours.”

Peter stands. The roaring in his head is back and he arms feel like Jell-O. Ned says his name quietly and tries to grab his arm, but Peter grabs his backpack and runs out of the cafeteria.

He can still feel the grime and blood underneath his fingernails if he thinks hard enough, the weight of the infinity gauntlet in his hand. The very stones in his arms that would moments later kill Tony.

He finds a stall in the bathroom that is mercifully empty and sits down with his head in his hands. Cold sweat covers his whole body and he can feel bile still dripping down his throat.

"You could’ve saved me, Pete," Tony in his dreams taunts him. Uncle Ben. Tony. How many others had he failed to save just by not being there?

Too many to count.

Chapter Text

MJ watches as Peter flees the cafeteria. She puts her book down and casts a quizzical look at Ned who flushes and stutters.

“He, uh, isn’t feeling well today. Probably went to the nurse?” Ned laughs. MJ quirks an eyebrow but doesn’t reply. She brings her book back up but doesn’t read a word.

Peter Parker. What was up with him anyway? She’s been watching him with an eagle eye lately and she knows he knows. He has a secret and while MJ probably should let him keep it to himself, she had a feeling it was getting out of hand. And she should probably do something. Right?

Ned knows. Obviously. He’s always lying for Peter and it would be great that someone knows what’s going on with Peter and can cover for him if only Ned knew how to lie. MJ sees right through him every time. She decides now is a good time to question.

“Ned,” she asks, and he visibly jumps at the sound of her voice. Peter has been gone for five minutes and they’ve been eating in silence. MJ puts on her most apathetic face; best for him to think she doesn’t care, right? “You’d tell me if you and Peter were doing anything, like, cool, right? You wouldn’t leave me out of it?”

Ned gulps. Actually gulps like they do in movies. He pauses and then answers. “Uh yeah, MJ. What are friends for if not to get them involved in sketchy stuff?” He says shakily, laughing a little.

Sketchy stuff? Is that what Ned thinks is cool nowadays? So, Peter’s involved in some sketchy business. That much is now established.

MJ smirks and goes back to her book. Ned looks shaken and smiles at her before taking his tray to the trash and goes off in the direction Peter ran off.

Now alone, MJ gets out her notebook. She, of course, has theories. She crosses them off as new things come to life. She’s been working off very little information lately, though. Peter and her aren’t really friends, are they? She very well can’t just question him about his life. She has to go off observation alone and that isn’t good because it turns out that Peter Parker is a very good liar.

She looks at all the different, crazy ideas she’s had the past couple weeks since she decided to get involved.

Sick Aunt

Second job

Prostitute?

Failing out of school

Actually sick???

Superhero

Drugs 

Mob business

She writes a star next to “drugs” and “mob business” and tries to think it through. It all seemed to start with his getting the Stark internship, which MJ still thinks is bullshit to this day. It was obviously a coverup. She feels like Tony Stark did have something to do with it. What though?

MJ begins to write:

Drugs: Tony Stark* finds a coked-out Peter in an alley and tries to help him get clean. Peter is continually in and out of rehab for drug addiction. Ned covers for him because he’d do anything for his best friend, even if he has problems. Tony Stark died and Peter is back on the road to addiction. Proof: seen ducking into ally after school sometimes, always leaving randomly and coming back sweaty and way too pumped (coke??), that time he left for "Stark Company Retreat" for a week?
*Known former alcoholic and drug addict; might be looking for charity case to boost publicity

Mob business: Tony Stark finds Peter working for mob in Queens while doing whatever it is that those superheroes do. Tries to keep Peter out of jail since he’s just a kid, but May and Peter owe a debt to the mob. Tony shells them money to get them out (Tony takes him out of school to meetings with mob?? Ugh)

MJ stops. That theory is falling apart. Honestly, the only one that works is the drug theory. She smirks at the superhero theory. It’s laughable that it’s even on there. Dorky Peter Parker a superhero? What? Was Stark training him to be Iron Man II? It’s so funny that MJ snorts.

“Something funny, Shelly?”

MJ rolls her eyes and turns her gaze up to the girls now stopping at the end of her table. MJ doesn’t recognize most of them (honestly she doesn’t pay attention to anyone at this school), but at the head of the group is one Gwen Stacy.

Gwen Stacy is pretty. Gwen is smart. Gwen is president of the biology club and has an internship at Oscorp. Gwen used to be MJ’s friend when they were younger and now for some reason they cannot stand each other. Maybe it’s the academic rivalry. Or maybe it’s just the fact that Gwen Stacy is a bitch.

MJ closes her journal and looks up at Gwen. “Actually, it’s hilarious, Gwen.”

Gwen narrows her eyes and looks down at MJ’s journal. “Writing about your love life? That’s a good joke.”

MJ rolls her eyes. “Wow, Gwen. That was killer. Can’t wait to see what quip you come up with next.” MJ pulls up her book from earlier and goes back to reading it, hoping it’ll make it group of girls go away.

There’s a sucking sound of someone slurping through a straw, a satisfied smack, before a smoothie is dumped into the book.

She leaps back to keep it from getting in her lap and snatches up her journal, but it’s too late. The journal and the book are covered in strawberry smoothie and Gwen is laughing as she turns to leave with her group of friends.

The boys at the table over are guffawing but are silenced with one look from MJ. She gathers her ruined books in her arms and hurries out of the cafeteria. Hopefully it’s just the covers that are ruined.

MJ turns into the bathroom, grabs paper towels, and starts wiping the mess off her journal first. Well, fuck. The pages are completely damp with liquid and when she tries to turn to the page she wrote on earlier, the page rips out of the book and the words are completely blurred.

Sighing angrily, she pulls more paper towels and checks on her book. Much of it’s the same, both book and journal are ruined. Angry tears are threatening to come out the corners of MJ’s eyes, but she manages to hold them back and takes a deep breath.

That’s when she hears the whispering coming from the vent above the stall behind MJ. Specifically, the vent that led to the other side of the wall that was where the boys bathroom was.

MJ isn’t a snoop. Well, except when she is. And right now, she needs a distraction.

Climbing carefully onto the toilet, MJ presses her ear closer towards the vent to catch any words from the conversation.

“-bout Tony maybe you should see someone, Peter.”

MJ thinks that’s definitely Ned’s voice.

“I’m fine, Ned. It was just a little too much in there.”

“You sure? You’re white as a ghost.”

“I'm fine, can I just have a second alone? I’ll be back in time for biology, promise.”

MJ hears the boy’s bathroom door open and close and she decides to step away. Thinking of her theories, the drug one is sounding better and better.

She hears a sigh from the vent before she steps away completely and goes back to her ruined books. She stares at them for a moment before dumping them in the trash.

MJ loves mysteries. Murder mysteries, specifically, are her favorite but this is also a good mystery to solve. Why is Peter Parker so mysterious and what shady business has he gotten himself into?

Maybe it’s time to start doing some detective work.

Chapter Text

It’s really hard getting himself to go back to class after hearing about the anniversary of the blip in the cafeteria, but Peter manages to get himself together enough to head to biology.

Today they’re learning about glycolysis and Peter listens half-heartedly, mind wandering and eyes unfocusedly staring at the figures on the board.

He feels a pencil pushing into his side. “Did you get that?”

Peter turns to Ned who’s looking nervously at the board. Peter looks down at his notes and flushes at the various doodles in the margins, no actual notes on the page.

“Um, I think it was something about mitochondria?” Peter hazards. Ned nods slowly and goes back to his notes. He has his notes spread out across their shared lab table and a textbook open.

Peter opens his mouth to ask a question, but the bell rings before it comes out and he loses his train of thought.

Ned shuts his notebook tightly and turns and grins at Peter, but it’s a little too forced and doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He grabs his notes and textbook and leaves the classroom and Peter behind before Peter can even shut his own blank notes.

Peter walks slowly towards the empty chemistry labs during his study period trying to process the day, but not really getting any thinking done. His head feels heavy with the day so far and thinking about it doesn’t feel like it’s making it any better.

He whips up another quick batch of web fluid in the lab before the period is over and puts it in his backpack before any teachers can come into the classroom. He peeks his head into the hallway and makes sure the coast is clear before shutting the door and strolling away, trying to look casual.

“What were you doing in there?”

Peter freezes.

MJ stands behind him with her arms crosses, an unimpressed look on her face.

“I-oh,” stammers Peter, “just, you know, studying!”

“You’re not in chemistry,” deadpans MJ.

“Yeah, but the classroom is quiet.”

MJ narrows her eyes and pauses a moment before nodding her head. Peter holds in a breath.

She finally shrugs. “Okay, cool.” She turns and leaves as quickly as she appeared.

Peter sags in relief. The web fluid feels heavy in his backpack, but he doesn’t think about it as he walks to the library where Ned is probably waiting.

The rest of the day, Peter feels like he’s walking through water. He hopes switching to Spiderman will clear his head for the night. He walks home from the subway and the cold seeps in through his jacket. It looks like it might rain tonight.

When he gets home, the lights are off and it’s chilly. He turns on the heat and takes his jacket off before calling Aunt May.

“Hey sweetie,” May answers breathlessly, “I completely forgot to text you.”

“That’s okay,” Peter says and decides he should probably start making himself dinner.

“It got so busy at work at the last minute and we could always use the money…” May trails off and the sounds in the background of the call fade for a moment.

“May,” Peter sighs, “You know that Tony left us that money-“

“Peter,” May interrupts, “You know how I feel about that.” Her voice is sharp and Peter feels chastised. He gets out a pan and starts making a grilled cheese.

He hears her sigh across the line. “Don’t worry about our finances, Peter. He’s already paid for your schooling and your tech, the last thing I want right now is charity.”

Anger flares inside Peter. “It’s not charity, May. He wanted to help!”

May is quiet for a moment. “I know how you feel about him Peter, but I’m not going to use that money to pay rent,” she says quietly. There’s loud talking in the background of the call and May sighs again. “Peter, I’ve got to go. Make sure you eat something before you go out. I’ll be back before you get home.”

“Okay,” Peter whispers before clearing his throat.

“I love you, Peter.”

“Love you.” He hangs up and realizes he’s burnt his grilled cheese sandwich.

He eats half of it anyway.

Peter suits up and climbs quietly onto the fire escape outside his window. He sits on the edge of the roof for a second just taking in the city.

There’s still a cold wind and drizzle of freezing rain has started. He can hear the bustle of cars down the street and a couple people talking downstairs.

There’s no stars in the sky.

Spiderman stands and takes a look around. He leaps onto the next building and keeps running until he’s close to the end of the street where the taller buildings start. He shoots a web and starts swinging.

Swinging is still the best feeling he thinks he’ll ever feel. The rush of the wind fills his ears, the drop of his stomach between swings, and the adrenaline that fills his veins and clears the fog in his head.

He swings with no real location in mind. Just trying to get away from his apartment.

Finally, Spiderman stops on top of a tall building. He’s slightly out of breath, but the exhilaration is worth it. He looks around trying to figure out where he stopped, and his breath catches in his throat.

It’s right outside the park he dreams about every night. He automatically looks to the sky, and mentally slaps himself after a second.

There’s a prickling at the back of Spiderman’s neck and he immediately scans his surroundings. There are still people walking home in the late evening shadows trying to get away from the cold drizzle. He notices a group of homeless women huddled together near the edge of the park, a shopping cart full of stuff between them and blankets piled high around them.

He turns his glance around to the other side of the building away from the park. There are few cars driving by, a passerby or two, and a couple more homeless people begging on the street corner.

Nothing seems suspicious, but Spiderman can’t seem to shake the feeling that he’s being watched.

Slowly turning back around, he takes one last look at the park. He finds the strength to turn away and then shoots a web to begin swinging in the opposite direction.

After that it’s a pretty quiet night. He stops a mugging by scaring the guy into running away and then Spiderman leaves him tied up for the police to find on the corner. He tries comforting the woman whose backpack was being stolen, but she runs away before he can say a word.

So much for friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

By the time Peter gets back to his apartment at 12am and he’s stopped two muggings, returned a stolen wallet, and helped a homeless man set up a tent in an alley way to shelter him and a small girl from the rain. He’d tried to suggest a close by homeless shelter for them, but the man firmly told him no and stayed silent the rest of the time they set up the tent.

Peter’s exhausted and he hasn’t even broken into his homework for the night. He puts the suit away and sits down at his desk and rubs his eyes.

The door to his room opens revealing Aunt May in her pajamas.

“Thought I heard you come in,” May chuckles.

“Yeah,” Peter sighs and blearily looks up at his aunt, “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“Nah, I was up watching the news,” May says tiredly.

Peter stares down at his textbook and closes his eyes. He slumps and puts his head on top of his folded arms. “I stopped two muggings and helped a homeless guy and I still have to do my homework.”

May tsks. “You got to keep on your schoolwork, Peter. You know the deal.”

Peter’s response is too muffled to make out and May rolls her eyes.

“Get it done,” she says, “I’ll go make you some hot chocolate.” She shuts the door with a click and Peter groans.

He starts with biology. It’s not too hard, just memorizing a bunch of products from some cycle and after about half an hour he thinks he has it down enough for their quiz in class tomorrow. He reads his assigned readings for his other classes and takes notes while May brings him a mug of hot chocolate.

He hears her go to bed sometime around 2am and he finishes his homework at 3am.

Peter sets up his alarm and dreads falling asleep. His lids are falling on their own accord though, and before he knows it he’s curled under the blankets and fast asleep.

...

They’re not in the park tonight. They’re in Berlin.

Tony’s standing with his back facing Peter, his hands in his pockets. He’s speaking softly and Peter walks towards his side to try and hear what he’s saying.

There’s a little girl in front of Tony that’s wearing a black dress. She’s looking at her shoes and scuffling her foot a little. Tony says something Peter can’t hear and then gets down on one knee to her level.

Peter knows that’s Morgan. He saw her at the funeral. He tries to hear what Tony’s saying to her, he feels like it’s important, but he get distracted by their surroundings.

They’re on the tarmac of the airport in Berlin. Peter looks up and sees nothing but stars as far as he can see in the sky. They’re in every color possible, maybe even more. They’re swirling all around and twinkling like Christmas lights. Peter doesn’t think he’s ever seen anything so beautiful.

He hears someone clear their throat and suddenly Tony is standing in front of him with Morgan in his arms. He hands Morgan over to Peter and has a very serious look on his face.

“You know what to do, Peter.”

Peter looks down at Morgan and she’s gone and in her place is a gun. He stars in horror at it and looks back up at Tony.

Except Tony is slumped on the ground; his Iron Man suit in ruins, the infinity stones glowing on his right hand. Half his face is burnt off revealing his skull and Peter feels bile rising up his throat.

“You could’ve saved me, Pete.”

Peter wakes up in a cold sweat and vaults from his bed towards the bathroom and throws up before he’s even really opened his eyes.

He empties his stomach and spits out the rest of the bile in his mouth before resting his head on the edge of the toilet.

“Did you eat something funny yesterday, honey?”

There’s a hand rubbing Peter’s back that he registers, and he realizes at some point he must have woken May up.

“Yeah,” Peter croaks, “Must have been that cafeteria pizza.”

“Do you need me to call the school?”

Peter thinks for a second. He can get out of the house as Spiderman the second May leaves for work. There’s no way he’s going back to bed and no way he’s telling May about his dreams.

“Yeah, I think I’ll just head back to bed for the day,” Peter sighs and sags against the toilet.

May bites her lip and thinks for a moment. “Do you need me to stay home with you?”

Peter groans. “May, I can take care of myself. I’ll be fine.”

She doesn’t look convinced. “You sure?”

“It’s not that bad,” Peter argues, “and anyway you said we need the money.”

May narrows her eyes but doesn’t argue back. She pats his back and goes to the kitchen. She returns with a glass of water and wet paper towel to drape on his forehead.

Peter stays in the bathroom pretending to feel nauseous until May leaves for work an hour later. It isn’t too hard; any time he thinks about the dream, his stomach roils.

When he’s positive she’s gone, he brushes his teeth and sneaks out of the bathroom.

Putting on the costume is easy. He feels guilt momentarily about sneaking out and lying to May, but he pushes it aside. This way he can help even more people. He’d been going out after school as Spiderman and staying out even later than ever to try and help more people. It left little time to sleep, but lately that had been a good thing.

Since the blip, they’ve had to move to a new apartment since new people had moved into their old one. Their new apartment is taller with a fire escape that faces a building with no windows and an empty alley. He quietly maneuvers his way on the fire escape towards the roof and takes in the sky.

The rain has stopped, and the sky is clearer. The sun is peeking out in the morning sky and Peter is relieved he doesn’t have to stop and look for stars. He thinks for a moment about his dream. About Morgan. He wonders if maybe he can call Happy and ask how she's doing. Suddenly, Peter has a thought.

“Karen?”

Immediately the suit responds. “Yes, Peter?” Her familiar voice relaxes his stomach a little.

Peter chuckles. “Just checking to see if you’re still there.” He hasn’t used her in a while. Not since…

“I’m still here, Peter,” Karen answers.

Feeling a bit brighter, Peter begins swinging.

Chapter Text

MJ knows she shouldn’t be skipping school today.

It’s stupid. Her and her mom had a fight last night. It was the usual fight: school, then money, then back to her dad. Always back to him. All fights always seemed to lead back to her dad.

All that because MJ didn’t want to tell her what happened to the book she’d been reading all week. What could she say? Her bitchy high school bully dumped a smoothie on it? Yeah, right. Like she was going to tell her mom that.
She’d probably try to get the principal involved for bullying or something.

MJ walks through the city with no real direction in mind. She kicks at a piece of trash and digs her hands deeper into her jean jacket pockets. She turns the corner onto a block she’s never been on.

A group of homeless people have set up a trail of camps along the side of the corner building. There are all sorts of people camped along the edge. Middle aged men, old women, teens that look around MJ’s age, and even small children and infants. MJ tries not to meet any of their eyes, not sure what to say to any of them.

She keeps walking when she feels a tug on the back of her jacket. She’s just passing the mouth of an alley where a small tent has been raised with a woman and her baby sleeping inside. A small boy peeks out from the tent and MJ realizes he’s staring at the girl who’s holding on the back of her jacket.

The girl is small, maybe six or seven years old. She’s thin and shivering, only a threadbare long sleeve shirt on. She’s clutching MJ’s jacket and looking up at her with big eyes and she lets out a tiny cough.

MJ pulls her backpack off and her phone out of her pocket before peeling the jacket off. She kneels in front of the girl and pulls the jacket around her tight and flips open her wallet from her backpack to grab what little cash she carries in there.

She hands the $10 to the little girl. “Take that to your mom, okay?” She whispers.

The girl nods and scampers off back towards the tent. She clutches at the jacket and turns to smile back at MJ before turning to whisper something to the boy in the tent.

MJ smiles sadly and puts her backpack back on. She continues on, ignoring all the muttering from the people around her asking for money. She feels guilty, but she gave the girl all she had in her wallet.

She keeps walking, putting her back towards that block. Her feet keep carrying her across town and she isn’t entirely sure where she is now, but she has her phone so she can figure it out.

Passing by a gyro shop, MJ debates stopping to get lunch. It’s well past 11am now. She’s been walking for hours and she missed breakfast. She stops and buys a small gyro and gives them a crumpled $5 she finds jammed at the bottom of her backpack. She stops a little down the street away from the shop to eat.

“Spending more of that money of yours?”

MJ jumps as a deep voice behind her cuts her out of her thoughts. She turns and there’s three large men leaning against the building next to her.

“We saw you give your jacket to that little girl back there on Judge Street,” the tallest of the men sneers. “Gave her some money but didn’t give nobody else no money.”

One of the other men moves away from the wall and towards MJ’s other side. He leers at her, “Still got more money, rich girl? Any more clothes off your back to give?”

The other two men move away from the wall and closer to her still. MJ steps back and finds herself backed against the corner of a building. The taller man gets closer to her and reaches a hand toward her and MJ does what comes naturally.

She throws her gyro straight into his face.

The guy jumps back as it splatters in his face and the other two men pause in surprise. MJ uses this to make a quick getaway.

Her feet pound the pavement as she runs, breathless. She can hear the men shouting after her and their voices get closer as they take off after her.

MJ turns the corner of another street and starts down it, completely lost. She keeps running despite the shouting behind her, dodging people on the sidewalk who wouldn’t be any help to her.

She doesn’t recognize this side of town and there’s more and more homeless people lining the roads, more and more angry looks directed towards her and less helpful looking places to hide. The shouting behind her is getting closer and MJ feels her chest constrict with each gasping breath she takes.

Running and running, she takes another turn and finds herself in a dead-end alleyway.

Fuck.

“Where you running, princess?” A voice behind her chuckles darkly. MJ turns to find the three men are blocking the entrance to the alley. She backs up farther into the alley looking for something to climb on top of.

“Nowhere to hide,” the taller man grins, “Just us now.”

MJ tries to remember anything from those self defense videos she watched last year. Knee him in the junk right? What part of the face should she go for? She’s pretty sure a good punch to the solar plexus, maybe an elbow in the Adam’s apple should bring them down. She’s just got to time it right…

The men are fanning out around her and MJ starts to crouch down, ready to face whoever dares to touch her first.

And right as the man on her left reaches out for her arm, a web slings out and slams his hand into the opposite wall.

MJ and the men make the mistake of looking up towards where the web came from and by the time they look, no one’s there and webs are being shot from another direction, already tying up goon #2 as he falls to the ground, a web wrapped around his mouth.

The taller man turns to see where the web is shot from, but MJ turns back towards the man, warily keeping her eye on him.

Spiderman flips down right in front of MJ and starts to shoot a web towards the man, but he’s faster and manages a solid punch right into Spiderman’s left jaw. That’s got to hurt.

Spiderman grunts but uses the momentum to swing himself around and uses his webs to incapacitate the man as he’s coming back from the punch. Spiderman even leaves him wrapped up on the ground like a present, web over his mouth like a bow.

“M-Ma’am-“ Spiderman stammers, “Are you alright?”

MJ stares at him for a second. Holy shit. That’s Spiderman? He’s…shorter than her?

“Um yeah,” MJ finally answers. “I had it handled, though.”

Spiderman is tying together all three of the men and he quickly looks up at her answer.

“You call being cornered in an alleyway by three huge men ‘handling it’?”

“I was about to take them down if you stayed to watch,” MJ retorts.

“And how were you going to do that?”

MJ thinks. “I don’t know throat punch, solar plexus, groin, really anywhere. I’ve seen self-defense videos.”

Spiderman laughs. “You were going to take out three large adult men based on Youtube self-defense videos?”

“Yeah, right until you came in saving the day. Are you always on the lookout for damsels in distress?” MJ feels vaguely annoyed. She definitely wasn’t one of those girls. She had it handled. She thinks.

“You’re no damsel,” Spiderman chuckles. He finishes slinging his last web and all three men are now hanging from the top of the roof, dangling like some weird Christmas ornament.

“There, the police can find them,” Spiderman says, dusting off his hands, “If you want I can wait here while you call them.”

MJ pauses. Police report would mean telling her mom where she is. Not like she doesn’t know she’s missing school, but knowing she got cornered by some men? She’d never be let out of the house again.

“Uh, no that’s okay,” MJ says slowly, “I don’t want to involve them. Just want to be on my way.”

“You don’t want to see these guys go?” Spiderman asks, a little bit of heat in his voice. “What if they corner another, uh, kid like yourself?”

MJ smirks. “First of all, don’t use kid. You’re like fifteen. Second of all, I’m not supposed to be here, technically. I’d rather not get involved with the police.” She starts walking out of the alley and away from him.

Spiderman catches up to her and seems at a loss for words for a second and when he starts speaking his voice is a little deeper, gruffer. “Yeah, well you can’t be more than like, sixteen? What are you doing out of school?”

“Oh, you know, fancied a walk in this lovely weather,” MJ laughs bitterly. She reaches into her jean pocket for her phone but finds it’s not there. She stops and opens up her backpack hoping to find it in there with her wallet, but it’s gone. Probably fell out while she was running. She ran maybe 3 blocks. But in which direction? Fuck, she was lost.

“Uh, something wrong?” Spiderman asks hesitantly.

“Peachy dandy, Spidey,” MJ mutters. She stands and closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I lost my phone. Probably while I was running from those guys.”

“Do you remember what streets you were running on?”

MJ bites her lip. “Actually, I have no idea where I am. I kinda got lost.”

Spiderman shakes his head and takes out his own phone from some kind of pocket at his waist. It’s just a regular iPhone with a plastic red case. MJ doesn’t know why, but the idea that the local superhero has just a regular iPhone is funny to her. She snorts.

“Do you want to login to find my iPhone and look for it?” He holds out his phone and MJ just stares at it for a moment before looking up at him suspiciously.

“How do you know I have an iPhone?”

Spiderman stops and stammers. “I-oh uh, wow. Well, who doesn’t now a days? Haha, but-“

“Messing with you, Spidey,” MJ smirks and grabs his phone. She’s tempted to go to the homescreen and see what his picture is, but that seems like just a little bit too much of an invasion of privacy. And he’s being so nice to her, she doesn’t want him to leave her stranded on the sidewalk in some weird part of Queens.

MJ puts in her login information and waits to see if her phone will pop up. It shows her phone location as just a block north of where they’re standing. She gives him the phone back, and they start walking in that direction.

They don’t say anything, and MJ sort of thinks it’s weird for a second, but then it almost feels like she’s walking with a friend. Comfortable sort of silence thing. Maybe he really is a friendly guy or something.

Luckily, her phone hasn’t been stolen and it’s just sitting on the ground by a telephone pole. She picks it up and inspects it for damage. The screen is completely cracked and won’t turn on. She starts walking towards what she thinks is the way she came from angrily and Spiderman follows.

Great.

“Probably should get that fixed,” Spiderman says uneasily.

“Duh,” MJ responds dully. “Shit, I don’t know how I’m going to get home from here.”

Spiderman thinks for a second and then MJ swears she can see a smile through his mask. “I can take you home.”

“You know where the nearest subway station is?” MJ asks dryly.

“We can swing you home. Just tell me where to go!”

“You’re just gonna pick me up and swing me home? Like carry me across rooftops and shoot your little webs?”

“Yeah! Where do you live?”

MJ pauses. Is he serious? Let’s see. She keeps walking.

“You know that park over by 164th street? With the lake?”

Spiderman stops walking and stares at her. Ha. Maybe he doesn’t know the city as well as he thinks he does.

“Oh, uh. Yeah, I know that one,” he says hoarsely. Damn, she’d been hoping to call his bluff.

He clears his throat. “Well, you ready?”

Oh shit. He is serious.

“It’ll be fun, promise!” He says cheerfully, holding out his arms.

MJ contemplates. She doesn’t even know where the closest subway station is. She could try and find a bus, but she’s not sure she has enough on her MetroCard. She’s been walking for over three hours in who knows what direction, she could literally be anywhere. She decides.

“Don’t drop me,” she warns as she grabs onto his neck. He chuckles softly and shoots a web up towards the closest building. They shoot upwards and MJ is suddenly glad she threw that gyro instead of eating it.

They’re running across rooftops and swinging across streets. It’s exhilarating, but honestly dizzying and MJ is feeling nauseous at the rushing of cars and buildings past her at such a fast rate. She hides her face in Spiderman’s neck to try and calm her stomach. She will NOT throw up on a superhero today.

She can’t help but think he smells good for a second. Kind of citrus-y, maybe eucalyptus? Whatever shampoo the famous Spiderman uses it smells better than all the scents of New York that are currently rushing past them at the moment.

They keep swinging and jumping until they suddenly stop.

“You can open your eyes now.”

MJ opens her eyes, not even realizing they’d been shut. She lets go of her vice-like clamp of Spiderman’s neck and jumps away, brushing her clothes and arranging her face into apathy.

“Yeah, uh. Cool,” she huffs. She looks around trying to figure out which building they landed on and realizes with a start they landed directly on her apartment. Creepy, she does not want Spiderman to know where she lives.

“If you want to help me get down I can get home from here,” she says, trying to keep her voice void of emotion.

“Oh yeah, let me get us down.”

He grabs onto her one last time and they swing down on the fire escape on the side of the building (that MJ has used many times and knew was there, but she wasn’t about to let him know that was she?) and he sets her down on the side street.

“You’ll get home okay from here?” He asks, concern in his voice.

"Yeah I’m fine,” MJ shakes her head, “Thanks for the lift though, Spidey.” She gives him a two-finger salute and starts off across the street toward the park.

MJ thinks about how the school probably called her mom about her unreported absence and how her mom is probably already waiting for her at home, ready to start another fight. Maybe she’ll go finish her book somewhere in the park.

She finds a bench near the edge of the park in the shade and sits down to read her book. She gets about two chapters in when she feels like she’s being watched again. She sets her book down and looks around. Thinking about Spiderman, she even checks the rooftops nearby. She doesn’t see anything.

MJ goes back to reading but can't focus and decides she can’t put it off any longer. Her phone is dead, and her mom has probably been trying to call her.

Best to get it over with.

She walks back across the street towards her apartment and climbs the stairs when it hits her.

She forgot to logout of find my phone on Spiderman’s phone.

Chapter Text

Spiderman swings up to the top of a nearby building after dropping MJ off and takes off his mask.

That was MJ. That he rescued. That was in his arms.

Peter sits down on the rooftop, staring off into the distance. She smelled good too. Like cucumbers and lemons. Not that he was smelling her, just…she smelled good.

He puts his mask back on and takes a deep breath and then another. He slowly gets into a crouch and watches MJ walk into the park from the building he’s on. She’s gone to a bench to sit down and read her book. Okay, not really getting home like Peter asked, but when had MJ ever done what she’d been asked?

He sits and watches for a little. She keeps reading and doesn’t seem like she’s getting up any time soon.

Just as Peter’s about to leave, he feels his phone buzz in his pocket.

It’s Ned. He’s asking to study with Peter for their biology exam tomorrow, which okay, Peter forgot he missed that quiz today by skipping school. He’ll just have to study harder when he gets home.

He decides not to answer Ned. He’s still feeling the adrenaline from fighting those guys with MJ and swinging around town with her. He needs to get all this energy out, maybe he’ll text Ned later.

It’s apparently a very busy day for crime.

Spiderman stops a lot of muggings that day. Protects a lot of homeless people from getting their stuff stolen, but also keeps a lot of the harder-eyed homeless from stealing from innocent people. The situation feels like it’s getting worse, all these people displaced by the blip. Feels like all the work the Avengers have been trying to do to help hasn’t made a dent in the crisis. Peter wonders what the rest of the country looks like if New York is this bad.

By the time he’s made it home, it’s well past 2am and he’s exhausted. He’s got a cut on his lip from letting a particularly aggressive store thief get the best of him and his bones ache. He can’t even remember half the crimes he’s stopped tonight; it feels like too many and not enough at the same time.

Peter strips and looks towards the textbooks sitting out on his desk.

He forgot to text Ned back.

Hopefully he understands. Spiderman is his job, after all. And sometimes that comes first.

Peter knows he should really study for biology, May wouldn’t be happy if she finds out he fails this exam, but he’s too tired. He lies down on his bed and falls asleep almost immediately.

Tonight’s dream isn’t too bad.

He’s sitting in the park with Tony.

The stars are still so bright. They almost hurt Peter’s eyes, but he doesn’t want to look away.

Tony turns to him to say something, but he fades to dust before he can open his mouth and Peter can taste his ashes.

...

Peter opens his eyes to his alarm clock blaring and the roaring in his ears is back.

He navigates the day blindly, his head aches like he didn’t get enough sleep (he definitely didn’t) and he decides to skip breakfast again in favor of getting to school early to meet Ned and apologize to him.

When he gets to school though, Ned is nowhere to be found. Odd.

Peter goes through his first classes without him. He’s not in those classes anyway, nothing to worry about. By the time Peter gets to art though, he’s feeling nervous.

Luckily, Ned’s there. They’re supposed to be finishing their “emotional” art piece and Ned is already splattering paint on his canvas when Peter gets to class.

Peter grabs his canvas and sits down next to his friend but finds he doesn’t know what to say. Ned is glaring at the canvas like it’s personally offended him and is flicking paint at it violently, the paint getting all over his smock and on the canvas on the floor underneath them.

“Hey Ned,” Peter starts, unsurely.

“Hey Peter,” Ned replies back dully.

They don’t say anything for the rest of the period. Just splatter as much paint as possible. They seem to be going for as many layers of splatter paint as possible on the canvas, and Ned’s has so many colors on it, Jackson Pollock would be proud.

Peter feels his neck prickle and looks up to catch MJ staring at him from the front of the room, but before he can meet her eyes, she looks back at her canvas.

Is everyone going to act weird around Peter today? Maybe it’s the half-healed bruise on his jaw. That guy he saved MJ from nearly broke his jaw and his fast healing can only work so fast. The bruise is still a yellowish green, but luckily his split lip is mostly healed.

By the time they get to lunch, Ned still isn’t talking to Peter. By the time Peter comes back with his lunch, Ned has his biology textbook, notes, and about a hundred flashcards set out around the table. Peter navigates a spot where he isn’t bothering any of the notes and sits across his friend.

“Worried about biology?” He asks, staring at all the notes.

Ned glares at Peter and then goes back to writing something in his notebook. “Like you care,” he scoffs.

Peter is about to apologize for yesterday when MJ slides into the seat right next to Peter.

Usually she keeps her distance, no less than two seats away. But today, she’s right next to him and Peter feels like his heart his about to pound out of his chest.

She starts eating the fries on her tray, not looking at the book she’s holding open, which is even odder. Peter is worried for a moment that she somehow hit her head in the scuffle yesterday.

“So, you missed school yesterday?” She starts out of nowhere after a moment.

Peter hesitates. Ned looks up at him out of the corner of his eye and then flashes his eyes over at MJ.

“Yeah, I uh. Wasn’t feeling well,” Peter says slowly and starts picking at the fruit medley on his tray.

“Nice bruise too,” she comments turning towards him and giving his bruise a good jab. Peter winces with the movement and tries to come up with an excuse.

“Yeah, got mugged coming home on Tuesday. Spent the day at home yesterday afterwards,” Peter says casually going back to his food, resolutely not looking at MJ.

She seems to take this as an excuse, nodding her head slowly with a look of no emotion on her face. She shrugs and goes back to her food, still sitting way too close to Peter for his own focus.

He can smell her shampoo again. Definitely cucumber and lemon like he thought.

Peter feels a buzz in his pocket and takes out his phone.

May has texted him again saying she’ll be late coming home. Peter sighs and sets his phone down on the table.

He starts picking at his food again and looks up at Ned. But Ned is staring at MJ with a strange look on his face.

Peter whips his head toward MJ and she looks like she’s having a panic attack.

“Woah MJ are you okay?” Peter whispers and starts to put a hand on her shoulder.

She smacks his hand away and stares down at the table. Her eyes are wide and her breaths are coming out in gasps. She finally stops and seems to calm down. She sits there for a second before smiling down at her tray.

“Just fine,” she answers shakily, before grabbing her tray and getting up from the table.

Ned and Peter watch as she throws the whole thing in the trash, tray and all, and exits the cafeteria.

“That was weird, right?” Ned asks.

“Totally weird,” Peter breaths back. He’s just glad she’s not sitting next to him anymore, thigh pressed up against him. He can finally take a full breath.

Peter leaves Ned to his studying and sits quietly during lunch.

They take their biology test next period and afterwards Ned is a little happier to talk to Peter. They talk about the old GameCube at Peter’s house that Ned’s been trying to fix so they can play Ned’s old Lego Star Wars video games. They make tentative plans to fix it, and after school ends Peter heads back to his apartment.

It’s another night of the same. Stopping thieves, helping a couple homeless people out, and actually this time he helped save a little boy from a burning building. That was nice. Felt nice to save a life in that sort of way.

Peter returns home for the night late. So late, that again, May doesn’t wake up to check on him. He doesn’t have any homework tonight by some grace and he showers to get all the soot and sweat off his body. He remembers the last time he was covered in that much soot and sweat but decides to shove that thought aside.

He’s so exhausted tonight that he doesn’t dream.

Still, in the morning the roaring is back. It’s always there, maybe his ears are messed up after that battle. The roaring calms down a bit once he gets to school though and sees Ned.

They joke around in art again, finally turning in their mess of canvases. They’re so splattered in layers of paint that the teacher raises an eyebrow at them when she sees them but doesn’t comment. She’ll probably pass a word onto the school counselor about their “stressed, troubled states of mind” or something, but Peter doesn’t care. It was just fun to make.

MJ isn’t in art class though. And she isn’t at lunch.

Peter doesn’t know why but that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The same hairs that tell him there’s danger, the same ones that told him SHE was in danger the other day. He’s not sure what to do about it, she could be anywhere.

He remembers though that she’s still logged into find my phone on his phone. He could check and see where she’s at, make sure she’s okay.

But that’s a huge invasion of privacy. He decides that he’s not comfortable with checking that at the moment and resolves to just eat his lunch. He eats about half of it before his stomach feels sick, and then he just pushes his mashed potatoes around the plate to make Ned think he’s eating them.

Ned is nervous going into biology. Peter can’t think of why; they already took their exam.

When the graded exams are passed back, Peter realizes he should’ve been nervous too.

54. God, May was going to kill him.

Ned sees his exam grade and doesn’t speak for the rest of the period. The teacher asks Ned and Peter to stay behind after class.

“You’re both excellent students, I can’t understand why you’d both fail this exam,” their teacher begins tiredly, rubbing his eyes while Peter and Ned stand at his desk.

They don’t say anything, so their teacher continues onward. “If you can’t get your grades up on the next exam, I’m to have to assign you both a tutor,” he warns.

Peter nods and his teacher excuses him but asks Ned to stay back for a moment.

He waits outside the classroom for his friend. It’s only about two minutes later that Ned comes back out and Peter takes one look at his face and realized his friend is pissed.

“I needed you Peter,” Ned fumes. Peter is taken aback.

“The other night?”

“Yeah the other night,” Ned shoots back. “I needed someone to study with. I’ve been really struggling with this class and I was hoping you’d be able to help me. You were doing alright so far until you missed that class.”

“I was busy, Ned,” Peter pleads, “You know I have a job to do.”

“Does that job come before school?” Ned asks angrily. “Before friends? God Peter, you need to get your priorities straight. You can’t run yourself into the ground being…Him all the time. Sometimes you need to take a break and do other things in life.”

“Yeah like what things?” Peter snaps, “What’s more important than helping people, Ned?”

“I don’t know. Helping your struggling friends? I’m FAILING biology, Peter. One more failed exam and he’s going to call my parents, Peter. Do you know what that would mean?” Ned hisses.

Peter faulters. He knows Ned’s parents care more about Ned’s grades more than anything. And Peter didn’t even know Ned had been struggling this hard in class. What else had he missed.

“Ned, man, hey I’m sorry-“ Peter stutters.

“Save it, Peter,” Ned says tiredly. “I don’t want to hear it right now.”

Ned walks away and Peter doesn’t bother following him.

Peter walks in the other direction until he finds an empty classroom, where he sinks on the floor against the door and presses his head against his knees. He breathes deeply and tries not to think.

He keeps breathing and not thinking until study period is over and it’s time to go home.

The day has exhausted him. Peter feels wrung out like a towel and his head is beating a tattoo against his temple. He walks but doesn’t really remember most of the trip home until he finds himself in his apartment.

Empty. Again. May’s working late probably. Peter doesn’t bother trying to call or text her, she’s probably too busy.

Peter sits down on his bed and puts his head in his hands to massage his temples. He lies down on the bed just to rest his head for a second. Anything to stop this headache.

He’s back in the park.

Uncle Ben is pushing him on the swing near the lake like he used to when Peter was younger.

Peter can’t help but look at the stars as he swings. They’re not pinpricks, they’re full on flashes of lights and whole planets to gaze at. They’re forming constellations Peter doesn’t know the names of since he’s never had to; you can’t see stars in New York City. Yet here they are, and they’re so bright he thinks he should look away, but the moon seems so close and his eyes are automatically drawn to the stars.

The swing stops suddenly and Tony’s gripping his arms in a reassuring way, and pointing out the constellations, but his words sound garbled like they’re coming through water.

“Peter, you listening?”

“Yeah, I’m listening,” he sighs back.

“Good,” Tony laughs. He comes around to face Peter who’s still sitting in the swing, gripping the chains tightly. “You need to remember to be more responsible, kiddo. A lot of people are counting on you.”

Peter feels his eyes start burning. “I know that,” he mumbles.

“She’s counting on you, Pete.”

Peter doesn’t know who she is. Morgan? Pepper? …MJ?

There’s a buzzing next to Peter’s head and he shoots up in a panic.

When did he fall asleep?

The buzzing turns out to be his phone.

There’s only one text and when he realizes it’s not from May, Peter feels his stomach sink for a second and then his stomach drops entirely when he realizes who it is from.

(8:34pm) MJ
Urgent: meet me in the alley by my apartment

Chapter Text

MJ is in a sour mood all morning at school.

Yesterday after she got home her mom started another fight. She found out about her broken phone and that combined with skipping class, well, MJ was sufficiently grounded. Two weeks. It sucked.

Luckily MJ had taken her phone apart and found the little piece that had wiggled lose and made her phone screen dark. She was able to get it back in place to get the phone screen to turn back on, but there was no fixing the screen. Just another thing for her mom to yell at her about.

History’s a blast today. They’re doing a group project about the civil war (as if that wasn’t enough to put a damper on MJ’s mood; her group members are arguing whether slavery was really the cause of the war. Great.) and she’s been put in that unfortunate group with Gwen. Just absolutely wonderful.

“Saw you were missing yesterday, Jones,” Gwen drawls, writing out something in her notebook while also steadfastly ignoring their fighting partners.

“Got sick,” MJ mumbles, eyes trained on the textbook in front of her, but body tensed as to what Gwen is going to say next. Why does she always get under MJ’s skin?

“Parker was also, ahem, sick yesterday,” Gwen clears her throat, “what were you two doing yesterday?” She giggles.

Peter was absent yesterday too? MJ’s thoughts immediately jump back to her ruined journal and all the possible secrets Peter could be keeping.

“I’m not gonna let you rile me up with insinuations about my love life, Gwen,” MJ intones. “Peter being absent yesterday had nothing to do with me.”

“But you guys are close right?” Gwen asks, scooting her chair a tad closer to MJ than she would like. “I see you sitting with him and his nerd friend at lunch, like, every day. And you’re in decathlon together. Smells like L-O-V-E to me,” Gwen finishes, smiling a vicious smile.

“The only that that smells here is you, so please scooch back to your desk, and leave me alone, Stacy,” MJ growls and goes right back to her textbook.

Gwen looks like she might say something but holds her tongue and narrows her eyes. She does move back to her seat and breaks up the fight on the other side of the table though. MJ ignores them and pretends to read the textbooks while she thinks.

So, Peter missed school yesterday. Her head goes back directly towards the drugs theory. The mob theory was definitely out. Just didn’t make any sense anymore.

Did he miss school yesterday to get high? Pick up something from a dealer? Is Peter more of a weed or coke guy? Hmm probably not heroin; that seems a little too hardcore. Or maybe it was heroin? You can’t judge a book by it’s cover right? MJ reads too many books to know that.

Horror drags down MJ’s limbs as she thinks about the worst possibilities. What if something happened to Peter and that’s why he missed school? What if he got into a fight and took a beating? Poor Peter probably couldn’t defend himself against whatever thugs some NYC drug dealer had hanging about him.

Oh god. What if he overdosed? She feels oddly cold at that idea and her stomach sinks.

MJ shakes her head. No. Not that, that’s way too much. Peter’s smart he wouldn’t, no couldn’t, be that stupid as to overdose on some stupid drug, whatever the drug may be. And anyway, he’d been getting clean right? All those trips disappearing for a long time with Tony Stark. That was rehab right? Or maybe he was spiraling since his mentor died?

MJ has a lot to think about.
She's suddenly anxious to get to art class next period. She sets up her canvas and is painting and he still isn’t there. Ned’s there angrily splattering paint on a canvas in the back. Is he angry about Peter?

Peter comes in right before the bell rings to signal the period starting and MJ breaths a sigh of relief. She doesn’t look at him, not wanting to get caught staring today.

She tries to focus on her painting, a black mountain landscape with a red sky, but she can’t help but sneak a quick look at Peter. He snaps his head up to look back at her as soon her eyes turn up, and she quickly looks down before he can meet her eyes.

She continues painting and tries not to think.

By the time lunch is coming, she feels like her drug theory is also falling apart and it’s frustrating not having her journal anymore. She can’t even write out anymore ideas; she’ll have to start entirely from scratch now.

She grabs her lunch and starts toward their table when she notices a bruise on Peter’s jaw.

Interesting. Guess it is time for detective work.

MJ slides right into the seat next to Peter. She feels him tense up immediately and he takes in a deep breath and doesn’t let it out.

She decides to just go right into it. She chomps on some fries, tries to look nonchalant.

“So, you missed school yesterday?” She starts out innocently.

He hesitates. She’s staring down at her tray, but out of the corner of her eye she can see Ned’s eyes flashing toward Peter before looking back at her. So, Ned obviously knows whatever is up with Peter.

“Yeah, I,” Peter coughs, “Wasn’t feeling well,” he begins slowly.

MJ turns her head towards him and reaches out to poke a finger against the greenish bruise on his jaw. “Nice bruise, too.”

That seems to match up with getting into a fight with a drug dealer’s goons. But…the bruise isn’t fresh. Did he have that on Tuesday?

“Yeah, I got mugged coming home on Tuesday,” Peter sighs, “Spent the day at home yesterday.” He still doesn’t look at MJ.

She stares at him for a second longer before shrugging in feigned apathy and goes back to her food.

She’s thinking about lies about muggings and maybe makeup to hide bruises earlier this week? Is that why it’s half healed? It’s not making sense…when Peter grabs his phone out of his pocket before reading it and sighing. He sets it face down on the table and MJ stares at it.

iPhone. Plain red case. She’s seen that phone before. Hell, she held that phone before. Yesterday, with Spiderman?

Her brain stops for a second before it starts again and it’s all hitting her and she takes a gasping breath.

Holy shit.

Tony Stark would be the only one with enough money and tech to help build a suit for one Spiderman and the suit yesterday did seem a bit techy. And Peter always disappears in times of crisis doesn’t he? Not just randomly, but always when something is happening. And-

Holy fuck.

The decathlon. Washington D.C. Peter going missing from the event and then Spiderman appearing in the same fucking city as them to save their classmates? It all adds up and MJ can only try to take a deep breath before stopping.

Peter’s hand is coming to rest on her shoulder, but she smacks it away. She needs to think.

She smiles down at her tray. “Fine,” she tells them. She grabs her tray and tosses it in what she thinks is the closest trash can.

She runs all the way to the bathroom. The far one over by the auditorium she knows no one likes to go to because one of the lights is always out and the stall doors don’t lock all the way. Blessedly, it’s empty.

She stares at herself in the mirror and grips onto the sink.

Does she tell Peter she figured it out?

Yes: She gets to see that dumb look on his face when she knows something he doesn’t know and of course she’ll get the vindication of apparently being the second (maybe second? Does his Aunt know?? Holy shit) person that knows Peter Parker is Spiderman.

No: It’s…obviously a secret for a reason. He would keep her secret if it was hers. Ugh, he’s just that nice of a guy, trusting. Especially if their interaction with him as Spiderman yesterday is anything to go by.

School after that passes in a blur. MJ can’t stop thinking about it. How many videos has she seen on Spiderman swinging around town, traipsing across buildings, saving people? God, he saved the fucking planet six months ago didn’t he? With the Avengers? Insane.

MJ’s walking home from school, still processing this revelation when she feels the sense that someone’s watching her.

Spiderman? She checks the rooftops. Doesn’t see anyone.

She looks across the street at the park, and swears she sees a shadow in the shade of the tree, but it’s gone in a flash. MJ keeps walking.

She gets home and of course mom is still pissed about last night.

“What took you so long to get home from school?” Her mother asks irritably, “I thought I said straight back after class.”

MJ grumbles. “It’s a bit of a ride from Midtown to Queens, mom.”

“And what about that phone of yours? I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.”

MJ checks her phone and sees a missed call from her mom. She was so wrapped up in her head, she hadn’t even noticed.

“I got it working yesterday, but sorry I didn’t notice you called,” MJ apologizes, dropping her backpack on the floor and sitting on the couch.

Her mom scoffs. “I’ll still have to fix that cracked screen of yours. Just more money I’ll have to put out.”

MJ puts her head in her hands and tries very hard not to scream.

She trudges to her room and does all her homework. It takes a couple of hours to sort through it all, especially since she’d decided that take that second math class instead of an extra study period this semester. By the time she’s finished it’s just past sunset and her mom is finishing up dinner.

They eat in silence under the dull light of the kitchen. MJ knows her mom was probably finishing her own work while MJ did her homework, since she worked from home. Feeling slightly guilty about all the things her mother has had to do today, MJ clears her throat.

“Food’s good, mom.” She tries to smile.

Her mom starts right back up again. “You could always get a job, you know.”

Here we go again.

“I study five hours a day after coming home from all my advanced classes from the most prestigious science school in Manhattan and you want me to get a job on top of that,” MJ shoots back.

“I work to keep you in that school, Michelle,” her mother warns, “I work to keep us in this apartment, and I work to get you the things you need. All I’m saying is it would help a little if you contributed a little around here every once in a while.” Her mother finishes her plate and turns to put the plate in the sink.

MJ doesn’t feel very hungry anymore and pushes the rest of her meal in the trash. Feeling spiteful she grumbles under her breath.

“Bet we’d be doing just fine right now if dad were here.”

Her mom whips around immediately, fire in her eyes.

“We’re just fine without that piece of shit,” she yells. Her hands are shaking. “Go to your room.”

MJ slams her door shut and paces her room. She stops and eyes the window that leads to the fire escape.

Fuck being grounded.

She opens the window and climbs on the fire escape and slowly climbs her way down and jumps the few feet onto the ground. It twinges her ankle a bit, but she brushes it off.

It must be almost 9pm going by the darkness, and the sidewalk is pretty empty for a Thursday evening. All MJ has on her is her keys with a pepper spray bottle on it and her phone.

She wanders the park for a little bit before settling on a bench not too far from the lake. There’s almost nobody out over here. All the displaced people camps are near the edge of the park and few people are coming out for a moonlight lakeside walk this time of night.

MJ sighs and buries her face in her hands. It’s nice and quiet and the night is clear, not as cold as it’s been the past couple of days and she’s thankful she doesn’t need her jacket, especially since she gave away her jean jacket to that little girl.

It’s been about ten minutes and MJ’s debating about getting back up and walking home when there’s a rustling and grunting from the bushes way behind the tree line behind the bench.

MJ debates. It could be a sex thing. Why would she want to stumble upon that? But also, it’s better to know than to wonder is what she’s always believed.

She creeps up around the bench and slowly approaches the bushes. There’s a small clearing in the bushes to where she can see into them where they’re hiding an open area where the trees are.

It’s two men. One of them is frail old man, probably homeless going by his clothing, and he’s lying there looking up at the sky. The other is a man in a long overcoat crouching over and has his lips on his neck. Oh, so it is a sex thing?

MJ’s about to turn around and mind her own business when the man in the overcoat lifts his head and she can see rivulets of blood running down his chin. His mouth is full of blood and there’s blood running down the old man’s neck too.

Holy shit.

MJ’s body is smartly telling her to run. This is a motherfucking vampire. But, this is also one of the coolest things she’s ever thing. Vampires are real? Well aliens are real; did she really expect anything else?

She can see his face now as he’s wiping the blood from his chin. His eyes are blood red and his skin is milk white. His features look waxy as if they’ve been melting in the sun, eyes and nose turned in a strange way and skin draped downward. He pulls the collar of the overcoat up over his face and begins walking away from the body on the ground and away from where MJ is hiding.

She should follow him, right?

Right.

She follows at what she thinks is a safe distance. Just far enough that she can see his shape, but he can’t really see her. They get closer to the edge of the park and he starts to appraise the homeless camped against the walls. Someone calls out for money from him and MJ swears she hears him hiss.

He leaves the park area and starts going further into the city. MJ thinks she should call Peter, but he doesn’t know she knows he’s Spiderman. It’s okay, she can figure this out.

They walk about six blocks before he enters a dilapidated, abandoned building. The bricks are crumbling, most of the windows are boarded shut, and the roof has holes in it in some parts of it.

MJ finds a cracked window that she can see into and sees…a science lair? There’s a desk with various test tubes and equipment she vaguely recognizes on it. There’s notes scattered across the desk and some of the test tubes look like they have blood in them.

She narrows her eyes and keeps looking beyond the desk into the building and holds back a gasp when she notices the pile of bodies in the corner of the room.

Fuck, she needs to call the police.

She goes to grab her phone and tries to type out 911 but the screen isn’t working. It won’t let her type out a text or call a number and she sighs in frustration. She pockets her phone and crouches down away from the window meaning to make a quick getaway from this den of horror.

Suddenly there’s a vice like grip around her upper arm and she’s pulled up and turned around quick as lightning. MJ’s facing the overcoat vampire guy and, boy, is he uglier up close and personal.

With her free arm MJ rears her arm back and gets a straight punch into his ugly ass nose. He shrieks and grabs his nose and MJ takes off running. She’s just barely gotten to the edge of the street though when she feels a needle go into her neck and her vision goes dark.

…

MJ lets out a groan. Her head feels like it's stuffed with cotton and her throat is scratchy. Before she’s even opened her eyes she registers that her hands are tied behind her back as are her legs.

Opening her eyes, she sees it’s now light outside. Light is coming in through the open rafters of the roof, while other parts of the building are still in complete darkness. Through the darkness comes a voice.

“You seem smart,” it drawls.

MJ stiffens. She tries focusing her bleary vision and can make out a figure in the dark over by the lab table in a dark corner of the room.

“Smart enough to know a vampire when I see one,” MJ croaks back.

The vampire guy stalks forward towards her but stops just short of where the light is filtering down into the room.

“I’m not a vampire if you must know,” he says stiffly.

MJ smirks. “So, you’re just ugly?”

He ignores her remark and continues on. “I had a rare blood condition when I younger, made it impossible to be around sunlight turned my skin white. I thought I needed to cure it.”

MJ stays quiet. Best to let the villain of the day rant while she tries to remember how to escape duct tape.

“I became a world-renowned scientist. Surely you’ve heard of Michael Morbius?” He pauses, hoping he’s caught her attention.

“Wait, the guy who died electrocuting himself after getting his Nobel Prize on some bat DNA breakthrough?” MJ tries to think back about that story she read on the internet a few years ago.

“He didn’t die, dear girl,” he smiles, “he became a monster. He used an experimental treatment using vampire bat DNA and electroshock therapy attempting to cure himself and ended up giving himself powers no one could believe.”

MJ narrows her eyes. “And you’re Morbius?”

He bows. “The one and only.”

“So what, you get bat DNA in your system and now you need to survive off human blood to live?”

“Indeed, but I have a theory,” he strides over to his lab table and shuffles through his notes before looking back at MJ, “that there’s a blood type out there that’ll cure my disease and this awful affliction.”

MJ stares back at him. “And what, you need my help to help turn you back or something?”

He smiles and flashes his fangs at her. “Something like that. Maybe you’ll be the one to cure me.”

MJ snorts. “Can’t cure ugly, dude.”

Morbius face contorts. “I’m not opposed to hitting little girls, child.”

“Take off this tape and I’ll show you how well I hit,” MJ snarls back.

Morbius smirks. He steps around the light patterns coming in and comes to stand just in the shadows next to MJ.

“Think it’s time to take another nap, child.”

And before she can protest, there’s another needle sticking into her neck and MJ is out like a light.

…

MJ flails this time when she wakes up. She gasps and is sweating and looks around. She’s still in Morbius’ dilapidated building, but he’s nowhere to be seen. It’s just around twilight, the sun just setting.

She gets to work on her bindings. She moves her arms from behind her back to in front of her by passing them under her legs. Luckily, she’s just flexible enough to get them underneath her.

She brings her duct taped arms above her head and brings them hard down at just the right angle to rip the bindings slightly. She keeps at it until they’re ripped enough that she can wiggle her wrists out of the bindings. MJ then begins unwrapping her leg bindings and the second she gets them free she takes off running from the building.

MJ checks her pockets as she runs and finds that he didn’t take her phone or her pepper spray.

Thank god.

She runs until she gets back to the park.

Ok, now would be great time to text Peter. Morbius is an actual, honest to God villain.

Not feeling safe in the park, MJ skirts around the park. She eyes every person she passes looking for a specific overcoat, finger on the trigger of her pepper spray the whole time.

She finally ends up in the alley right by her apartment near the fire escape. She texts Peter and hopes he’s out as Spiderman right now and knows to come in costume.

(8:34pm) MJ
Urgent: meet me in the alley by my apartment

Chapter Text

Peter immediately jumps into action the second he sees the “urgent” part of the text. He grabs his suit and is halfway dressed before he realizes this might not even be Spiderman business.

What if she needs his help as a friend?

Peter sits on his bed half dressed in his suit trying to figure out what to do for a full minute.

He finishes putting the suit on and slips his clothes over top and grabs a backpack. He can change if something comes up. The worst thing he can imagine is he needs to finally admit to MJ that he’s Spiderman.

Hopefully that doesn’t need to happen tonight.

Peter puts his mask on and swings across town towards her apartment. He thinks he must be a sight to see swinging around in his civilian clothes with a mask on. But this might be an emergency.

He lands on the top of her building and starts shimmying his way down the fire escape as quietly as possible. He doesn’t see MJ in the alley, so he jumps the drop to the bottom of the pavement. He’s just about to pull his mask off and stuff in his pocket when he hears a snort behind him.

Peter turns quickly and pales when he sees who’s behind him.

MJ’s standing there with her arms crossed, an amused look on her face as she stares directly at the mask.

She nods her head in greeting. “Peter.”

Peter whips the mask off his head, his heart beating a million miles an hour. “Wait, how did you-“

“Please, Parker,” MJ laughs, “It wasn’t too hard.”

“When did you figure it out?!”

MJ flushes and doesn’t meet his eye for a second. “Ages ago, but that doesn’t matter. We have a problem, change into your suit.”

Peter quickly shoves his clothes into the backpack and puts his mask back on and hides the backpack behind a dumpster in the alley.

“What’s going on, MJ?” Peter asks, starting to get worried. “Where were you today?”

“You’re going to think I’m crazy,” MJ sighs and brings a hand up to rub her face.

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” Peter assures her, and she gives him a strange look he can’t read.

“Thanks,” she says quietly. She grabs his hand and starts pulling him toward the park. Peter can feel his heart racing, but he attributes that to fact that his danger senses are currently tingling off the chart.

“There’s a vampire,” MJ starts, and Peter can’t see her face from behind her while she’s dragging him. He runs a bit to catch up to her to catch her eye.

“Vampire?” Peter asks, surprised. There’s a lot of weird things out there, but he wasn’t expecting vampire.

MJ speeds up and they’re walking quickly past the park and across town.

“There’s a warehouse of dead people and a science lab of this guy Michael Morbius? That Nobel Prize winner? Well, he’s a vampire now. Some science experiment gone wrong. He needs blood to live now apparently, and he’s convinced one day he’ll suck someone’s blood and it’ll cure him.”

Peter blinks and tries to process all that. Michael Morbius? He remembers some old article from three or four years ago about some Nobel Prize winner dead in some tragic accident. Was this him? And now he’s a vampire?

MJ is watching him process all that out of the corner of her eye. She scoffs. “Don’t trust me?”

Peter stops walking, but still holds her hand. “I trust you completely, MJ.”

They’re stopped in the middle of a quiet street, few people out walking. MJ stares at Peter with a guarded expression, before she smiles a little. She pulls his hand and they continue walking.

They walk a block more until they’re just outside an abandoned building.

“He’s probably somewhere in there,” MJ whispers as they get closer.

Peter stops and grabs MJ and puts his hands on her shoulders.

“Stay out here and wait for help,” he says emphatically.

“I’m coming with you,” MJ responds, annoyed.

“No, you’re not,” Peter retorts, “You’re staying out here and away from him.”

MJ moves his hands off her and grabs a lead pipe off the ground littered with trash next to them.

“I’m coming to kick his ass for getting a drop on me earlier,” she says, smacking her palm with the end of the pipe.

Peter rolls his eyes. “All the more reason for you to stay behind, MJ.” He reaches out for her hand and holds it tightly. “I don’t want you to get hurt, please don’t make me keep you out here.”

MJ bites her lip and studies his face, which Peter is suddenly glad is hidden by his mask. She nods and Peter squeezes her hand before he lets go and starts climbing the side of the building.

He climbs until he reaches the edge. From there he can see patches in the roof where he can enter in. He spins a web and slowly lowers himself inside the building, keeping an eye out for anything.

Peter freezes when he sees the door opening. He stops moving and waits in bated breath only for it to reveal...MJ.

She’s holding the pipe like a baseball bat and is creeping quietly inside. Peter rolls his eyes and takes a very, very deep breath. Why does he even try telling her what to do?

He keeps lowering himself and looking around. He sees the bodies in the corner; there’s about four people and he can’t make out much details other than the number. He sees the corner desk with science equipment on it, but there’s no one there. He does notice that the chair is swiveling ever so slightly, like someone had just gotten up out of it very quickly…

Peter cracks his neck quickly towards MJ right as she lets out a shout.

Morbius has his hands clamped around the tops of MJ’s arms in a tight grip and is pressing his fangs just barely against the skin of her neck.

Peter jumps all the way done onto the ground and flings his arm out, ready to throw a web in a second.

“Let her go!” Peter shouts. He hopes his voice doesn’t sound as desperate as it sounds to him.

Morbius noses at MJ’s neck and laughs softly. “You’ve brought a friend, I see.”

MJ’s frozen, staring at Peter with horror on her face. Peter’s brain is running a million different scenarios, trying to figure out how to get to her without this freak breaking her skin.

“Tell me, Spiderman,” Morbius whispers, “If you were a real spider, would you also suck her blood?”

Peter doesn’t respond, just glares and waits. MJ squirms in his grasp and Morbius squeezes her arms and brings her arms closer to his chest.

“I wonder how sweet it’ll taste,” he trails as he goes closer towards her jugular.

Peter’s shout is frozen in his throat. He’s about to move closer, hoping that he can stop it in time right as MJ looks him in the eye and smirks.

She brings her arm forward and knocks it back into Morbius’ solar plexus. Hard. He’s winded for a second enough that he releases her arms and she turns around and sprays him with…pepper spray? When did she get that?

Morbius shouts and covers his eyes, trying to move away from the spray. MJ heaves the pipe still in her hands and gives the most satisfying thwack Peter’s ever heard as she backhands Morbius across the face.

Peter finally unfreezes and shoots web out to catch Morbius’ arms against his body and another piece of web over those awful fangs of his. Gross.

Pushing him up against the wall, Peter shoots one last string of web to attach him to the wall to leave him there. MJ's still standing in the middle of the room with the pipe raised above her head. Peter comes over and takes it out of her hands and leads her outside.

They use Peter’s phone to call the police and are left staring at each other.

“We should probably get out of here before the police come,” Peter laughs nervously.

MJ’s still sort of out of breath, but huffs a laugh. “Yeah let’s get out of here.”

Before he can really give it a second thought or even give a warning, he has an arm wrapped around MJ and he’s swinging them up onto a nearby building. She wraps her arms around his neck, holding on for her life while he swings from building to building and across streets to get them back to her apartment.

She must really enjoy it this time though because she laughs a little as they’re slowing down and is smiling when he sets her down on the fire escape.

She shakes her head. “My room is the one under this, but good guess.” She climbs down the stairs. Peter decides to show off and flips down off the metal edge of the balcony, hanging upside down from a single web facing MJ on the floor below.

MJ’s smiling one of her rare smiles. The one that makes Peter’s heart beat really fast. It’s probably all that adrenaline.

He clears his throat. “Hey, so. Um. Goodnight, I guess.”

She’s staring at him like he’s grown a new head, but still smiling.

“God you’re so dumb, Parker.”

She walks slowly towards where he’s hanging on the fire escape and pushes his mask down enough to reveal his mouth and before Peter can even react she’s kissing him. Her mouth is warm and soft and it’s hesitant.
Peter quickly gathers his wits and brings his hands up to hold her face and returns the kiss. It’s honestly a little awkward upside down, but they make it work.

She finally pulls away and he can see her face is flushed, but she’s still smiling. Her lips are plump and all Peter can think about is kissing them again.

“Goodnight, Spidey,” she smirks. She gives him another two-finger salute and climbs through her bedroom window and shuts the curtains leaving Peter hanging. Literally.

Peter barely remembers the swing home. He’s so high on adrenaline and MJ’s kiss, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to fall asleep for the next week.

He gets home to find a light on in his room. He climbs into his room and finds Ned sitting on his bed playing Lego Star Wars on his tv. He takes off his mask and smiles at his friend.

“Oh hey, I guess you fixed the GameCube?” Peter starts.

Ned looks up and smiles sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry. May let me in a couple hours ago and said I could wait for you and I got bored.”

They both pause for a long period.

“Ned I shouldn’t have-“

“Peter you don’t have-“

“No, Ned,” Peter starts again, “I’ve been a really shitty friend lately. I’m so sorry.”

“Hey you’ve been going through a lot,” Ned sighs, “Don’t think both May and I haven’t noticed you barely sleep or eat, Peter. What’s going on?”

Peter sits down heavily on the bed and puts his head in his hands. “I’ve just been having a hard time since…you know-“

“I get it, Peter,” Ned says softly, “It was really hard on you.”

Peter looks back up at his friend. “It doesn’t excuse me blowing you off the other day though, man. That was shitty; you needed me and I wasn’t there.”

Ned scoffs. “It’s not like you didn’t have a good excuse. You were off being Spiderman, not blowing me off for some girl.”

Peter flushes at that, but doesn’t say anything.

Ned continues. “It’s not like friends can compete with Spiderman, anyway.”

Peter stands up. “You shouldn’t have to!” he says suddenly irritated with himself, “I shouldn’t be blowing you off to go moodily fight crime. God, I’m sorry dude.”

Ned sits there for a second and then pats Peter on the back. “It’s okay, Peter. I forgive you. Just as long as you promise to help me with biology next time.”

Peter grins. “Why don’t we start now?”

The grins slips off Ned’s face and he looks longingly at Star Wars. “Now?”

“Now.”

“But, it’s Friday.”

“Great, we can stay up even later!”

“Ughhhhh, Peter. Please, Star Wars!”

“Let’s go. Come on, cellular respiration waits for no man.”

Chapter Text

Saturday morning, MJ is watching the news. Police are bringing out bodies from the abandoned building as the newswoman talks about a “scientist gone wild”. Guess it’s a little weird to admit there was an actual vampire running around.

Her mom stands behind her and tsks at the news coverage before going back to her vacuuming, covering up the noise of the TV. MJ sighs; guess it’s back to work.

All day, she’s been cleaning with her mom: dishes, sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, laundry, anything to keep her busy since she’s grounded for the next month for not only missing two days of school but being out all night and not coming home. Like it doesn’t matter that she’s going to be eighteen next year.

After she finishes her chores, her mom shoos her into her room to study. MJ doesn’t dare try sneaking out, and she studies American history and does calculus problems until her eyes burn.

By the time her mom goes to bed, it’s 9pm. She’s always been one of those “early to bed, early to rise” types of people that really make MJ sick. But tonight, it comes in handy.

At 10pm there’s a quiet knock on her window.

She opens it and there’s Peter with his mask rucked up, a goofy grin on his face.

MJ smirks. “Thought I texted you to come over at 9?”

“I just wanted to come late enough to make sure she was really asleep,” he says as MJ steps out onto the fire escape and shuts her window. “Didn’t want you getting into anymore trouble.”

“Dork,” MJ says fondly, rolling her eyes.

They climb up to the roof. This time, MJ doesn’t hesitate to put her arms around his neck and she pulls her legs around him a bit to really make sure she doesn’t slip. Peter starts swinging and it all falls away.

She thinks she likes the swinging from place to place now. It really is just a rush: of people, buildings, cars, and wind past your face. She laughs as her stomach drops as he shoots out another web to grab and they drop for a moment. Yeah, she likes this.

They swing just for fun tonight. He takes her around the block, before they go over to sit by the lake in the park. It’s quiet and the night is clear tonight. You can see a couple of stars dotted in the sky if you look closely. There’s no one walking close the lake tonight, but they find a secluded part of the park close to the trees where no one can see them.

They sit down on the grass and just bask in each other’s company for a second. MJ feels that comfortable silence settling around them she felt when she thought of him as just Spiderman, and she feels just fine to continue sitting in it.

But she also feels like maybe she owes him something about herself, they’ve really never talked about themselves outside of school. She pauses trying to decide where to start.

She clears her throat. “I’m grounded because I keep skipping school after fights with my mom,” she starts. She stops, trying to decide where to go before continuing. “Sometimes I say stupid shit when I get mad at her and I get in ever more trouble. Always ends up with her yelling, me leaving, and somehow back to me getting grounded.”

Peter doesn’t say anything. He stares off into the sky and nods his head in encouragement though when MJ stops. She continues.

“I talk about my dad to get her riled up when she says things that make me angry,” she says quietly, “He left us almost two years ago. Just upped and walked out without saying a word.”

MJ feels her eyes burning and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “Mom pays for everything herself with her accounting job. School, rent, groceries, insurance, everything I need. And she loves to guilt trip me about it all the time. It makes me angry and guilty, so I throw dad back in her face when she does it.

“It’s probably cruel and definitely immature, but she hurts me. I work hard at school so one day I can get a job that’ll help pay for both of us, and she acts like I don’t do anything,” MJ sighs. This is probably the most she’s ever said to Peter. She looks over at him, and he’s looking at her now, but his face says he understands. She nods and continues.

“I don’t know, maybe one day we’ll get along. But until then I’m warning you, I’ll probably always be grounded,” she huffs.

Peter reaches his arm out and grabs her hand tightly. His hands are warm, and his suit feels soft, despite being so technologically advanced. He’s quiet for a long time and they sit in silence again before he finally steels himself and opens his mouth.

“I was there when my Uncle Ben was killed,” he whispers.

MJ stares. She remembers hearing about it freshman year of high school that Peter Parker’s uncle had been shot in the street and left for dead by some thief. Peter was there?

“I’d just gotten bit and decided I wanted to go out and do some good in the world, you know?” he starts. “I made some stupid, silly costume with my first web prototypes and tried to catch some guy robbing a bodega just down the street from our old apartment. I was in the store watching the guy threaten the cashier, but my web shooters weren’t working, and he had a gun and I got scared. I let him go.

“Next thing I knew, the gun went off outside and the guy went running. I ran outside and there on the ground was my Uncle Ben. He was coming to the store to grab some milk for breakfast in the morning.”

MJ doesn’t know what to say. All she can do is squeeze Peter’s hand and it seems to give him enough courage to keep going.

“And then there was Tony. Mr. Stark. MJ, he…was like my third chance. My third chance at having someone to look up to, make proud. He gave me my suit, helped me figure out who I really was, gave me a spot in the Avengers if I had wanted it, and helped me along every step.

“I wanted to impress him so badly. I wanted his attention; I’d do anything to help him. I’d even follow him to space.” He laughs bitterly.

He tells MJ about Titan. About the snap and disappearing in Tony’s arms; being so scared and then scattering into ashes in his mentor’s hands.

He tells her about suddenly appearing right where he’d left, but Tony was gone. Dr. Strange assuring him they were going to help him and opening a portal straight into the Battle of Earth.

He tells her how Tony sacrificed himself to kill Thanos and his army and how Peter barely got to see him before he had to say goodbye.

MJ holds his hand through all of it, giving him reassuring squeezes through it all. He doesn’t look at her throughout it all, instead gazing up at the sky; like he was still somewhere out in space.

“Right before he died, I held the stones in my hand. The gauntlet. I had the most powerful stones in my hand and I didn’t even think of putting it on myself and just doing the deed.”

“Peter,” MJ chastises.

He’s silent now, still staring off into space. MJ decides it’s time to say her part.

“You were brave,” she says, “braver than I think I’ve ever been on my best day. No one could’ve done the things you’ve lived through, Peter.”

He nods slowly and turns to look at her. MJ takes a deep breath.

“I didn’t know Tony Stark, but I know he wouldn’t want you this broken up over his death,” she urges. “You’ve been through so much and it’s already a lot to process without blaming yourself for not saving more people.”

“It should’ve been me,” he mumbled, “I should’ve saved them both. Tony, Uncle Ben.”

He tells her about his dreams. There are stars he’ll never get to see again, stars that you’ll only ever get to see in deep space. He can’t unsee them and he looks for them every night and sees them in every dream. He says in the dreams he sometimes sits in this spot by the lake, usually in this park somewhere; he’d used to come here with Uncle Ben when he was younger.

He finally tells her about the phrase that haunts his dreams. That he should’ve saved them.

“Oh, bullshit,” MJ exclaims, throwing her hand down.

“You couldn’t have saved them, Peter. You were just a kid. You’re still a kid! It’s not your job to save everyone, to stop every petty thief, to save the world. You’re just the unfortunate shoulder’s the job got put upon, but it’s not all your fault.

You were, what, fourteen when Ben died? Why were you chasing after thieves? And it sure wasn’t your job to save Tony, Peter. Where was Captain America? Thor? Where were they? Why does it fall solely on your shoulders to save everyone?” She’s out of breath and she reigns in her temper. She grasps Peter’s hand back in hers and turns back to face him.

He’s shocked by her outburst, to say the least. He’s blushing, the tips of his ears are red, and his eyes are a little red rimmed if MJ’s looking close enough. She moves a bit closer to him.

She has a thought.

She releases his hand and grabs her cracked phone. She opens up an app called SkyView and shows him the screen.

“It’s an app that shows you where the stars and planets are by using your camera to view the night sky. You can even see satellites and the space station,” she hands him the phone and he takes it and starts tracking the camera across the sky.

Peter’s face breaks out into a smile as he sees constellations fill the screen that you can’t really see from the ground in Queens. MJ points out a where a few planets are and a few of her favorite constellations before Peter puts the phone down.

His eyes are definitely a bit watery now, but MJ doesn’t comment on it.

“Thank you, MJ” he whispers and pulls her into a hug. She embraces him for a moment before pulling back to look at his face.

His hair is a little mussed from taking off the mask, and his eyes are red rimmed, but MJ still thinks his face is cute in the moonlight. Ugh, he’s making her sappy.

She kisses him anyway, her arms thrown around his neck and his palm comes to fit against her cheek. His lips are a little wind chapped, but she doesn’t mind as she presses hers against them. It’s a perfect fit.

MJ wouldn’t trade this moment for all the shining stars in the galaxy.