Chapter Text
They laid on top of a tall building next to each other, at least a hundred feet above the street. The cold concrete was pressing against their backsides. They stared at the sky, connecting the stars, making their own constellation in silence. The cool summer morning wind was the only thing keeping them awake, it was slowly getting lighter outside.
After the death of Tony Stark, most people have been depressed. Especially the people who have gotten close to him during his life. His death took a large toll on Peter since he had looked up to him. Tony had helped him grow as a hero, and now that he was gone, Peter felt like no one would be able to understand what it was like being a hero and having a normal life at the same time. Even May tried to help him with handling all the stress of having two different identities at once, but she honestly didn’t know what she could do to make it easier for him. When Peter tried to talk to Ned about Tony’s death and all the stresses it put on him, Ned would usually change the subject and ask him about his last patrol.
Now it wasn’t just Ned asking questions, it was the media, and police and, other regular people were asking questions. Like if Spider-man was going to step up to be the next Iron Man. This specific question scared Peter the most, knowing that people's expectations were high. And it didn't help that Spider-man’s popularity was growing fast. At first, he was only known in his home city in New York, but after the death of Tony, more people became aware of him.
After Peter and MJ got home from their school trip to Europe they started dating. MJ helped Peter through the loss of Tony Stark. She would help him if he looked sad. Peter would talk to her about how it was hard being both himself and Spider-man. They hung out together every weekend, usually just watching movies together at Peter’s apartment.
Sometimes at the end of Peter’s patrol, he would go to MJ’s bedroom and pick her up so they could sit together on the roof of her apartment building. MJ liked being able to see both sides of him. Comparing the differences between how he acted when assuming one of his identities. She saw that Spider-man is noticeably more confident than Peter Parker, and Peter Parker was way more fidgety and awkward.
Thursday evening had quickly turned to Friday. MJ was sitting at her bed, reading a book with her bedroom lights at the lowest setting, when she heard a thud by her bedroom window.
After the loud thud, she heard a familiar knocking. She walked to the window curiously, hoping it was Peter waiting outside her bedroom wall for her like he did most nights after his patrol. She hadn’t seen him since yesterday afternoon. But this night was different because It was the day after the reveal.
Peter’s identity was revealed to the whole world. He left her on the sidewalk when the large screen outed him, as he swung away from the lamppost she saw how his whole body was shaking.
MJ ran home as fast as possible once he was outed, scared of what would happen to her boyfriend.
Twitter was blowing up when she finally looked at her phone, the Spider-man hashtag was trending. She was spamming Peter’s phone with text messages asking if he was alright. Peter didn’t answer, there was too much going on for him.
The knocking on her window continued till MJ pulled her curtains back and opened them.
“Peter?”
“Yeah, wanna’ go to the roof with me.” He said, out of breath in his Spidey-suit. “I have a lot to tell you.”
“Sure..” MJ was just happy that he was okay. When he was called out in front of all those people earlier, there was a mob around him and there was a lot of yelling.
Peter helped MJ through her window, to her fire escape, before picking her up and using his webs to pull them up.
"What happened after you left?" MJ asked as they sat down with their legs dangling off the edge of the building.
"Happy picked me and May up to and took us to Ms. Potts cabin,” Peter said, turning his head towards her.
"Is May okay?."
"Yeah, she's fine,” He leaned back a bit. "After we got picked up, Ms. Potts and May talked, I don’t know what about though, I didn’t hear all of it cuz’ I was sitting downstairs with Morgan, the only parts I picked up were about suing the Daily Bugle."
"Shit... Are you planning on denying the accusations of being spider-man?"
"There is so much evidence that I am Spider-man, that I would just look stupid to try to deny it, and make up more lies." Peter chuckled, putting his face into his hand.
"You told almost everyone about your internship with Tony Stark, so It would make sense that you would be Spider-man" Mj’s hair blew in the wind as she looked into Peter’s eyes with a worried expression.
"I set myself up for this,” he sighed, smiling, just to hold back all the anxiety. “I made it obvious that I’m Spider-man, with my disappearances, like DC.”
“And in Italy, Brad even pointed it out, how it was weird you kept disappearing.” MJ laughed softly.
“Ugh…” He chuckled, looked up at the sky. “Me and May only came back here from Ms. Potts to pack our stuff... We will be staying with them for a while, well at least till we get all this drama figured out.”
"Will you be back in time for senior year?”
“...”
“Are you even planning on coming back to Midtown?”
"Even if I sort all this out, should I go back?”
“I mean, I’ll miss you, Ned will too. The ACA Dec team will miss you...” She took her hand off her lap and put it on the cement. “You won’t be able to see Flash’s face when you come back, he’ll probably shit his pants.” She laughed even though she felt like her stomach was caving in.
"I think I would be an endangerment to the school because people know who I am, people might try to break into the school, I might hurt people.” He responded as he gazed off into the sunrise.
MJ sighed. “If you do come back, what would your plans be after high school?"
“I don’t know, before this I was planning on going to college, but I don’t think I should anymore...”
"What are the other Avengers doing right now? Maybe you should see what other people like you are doing.” She breathed out.
“Most of the other Avengers are either dead or off the planet right now.” Peter sighed. “I think the best option would be working at Stark Industries, so maybe I could get closer to pepper.”
“Yeah,”
“But I don’t want to be a high school drop out, so I and May were planning on figuring this out once people don’t think I’m at murderer.”
“That’s good...What time is it, it’s getting light out.”
"I don’t know.” He replied, "You should go to sleep."
"You too," MJ stood up and reached out a hand to help Peter get up. He used her hand to lift himself off the ground. Once he got up he yawned, clearly tired.
“There would be no point for me to go to sleep, I’m leaving to go to Ms. Potts at like 8.”
He put one arm around her, and she put her arms around him, "you ready," He asked.
He held her tightly against his chest. “Yeah…”
He shot out a web and jumped off the building that they were once sitting on. Her stomach dropped once he jumped, in the same way, your stomach would drop while riding a roller coaster.
He felt her press her face in the crook of his neck. "You good?" he said as he landed on the outside wall of her bedroom, still holding her in his arms.
"Yeah..."
Her hands gripped onto the edge of the window frame. Peter slowly let go of her, as she pushed herself into her apartment.
He stood on the fire escape. “I’ll text you when I’m at the cabin, okay?”
“Okay... I’ll miss you.”
MJ’s hand reached for Peter’s mask, resting her other hand on the window sill, she pulled up his mask to his nose. Their lips leaned closer to each other till they met together. Peter moved very slowly, sliding his fingers up MJ's neck to her cheek.
Peter broke the kiss, “I’ll text you.” He whispered before swinging off.
Once he left she closed her window and pushed the curtains to cover the rising sun.
Undressing herself before putting pajamas. She put on her sweatpants one leg at a time, pulling them up and tying the waist so they fit. She pulled her hoodie over her head, then adjusting it. Once in her comfortable clothes, she walked back to her bed, where she pushed off some of the stuff that has been pilling there, so she could get under her covers. The stuff landed on the floor next to her bed. She told herself that she would pick them up later.
As she closed her eyes she wondered about the near future and how everything that was happening would play out.