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"You what?"
It was shaping up to be one of those kind of days. You know, the kind where you had a good breakfast, stopped a bank robbery, rescued a cat for a little ol' lady without getting a single scratch, and aced the latest history test thanks to a few one-on-one study sessions with the World's Best Girlfriend Ever. That kind of great day. They happen so rarely--I mean, no attack by any big-bad? Yeah, uh, not gonna hold my breath on that one not happening--it's nice to be able to take a moment and just enjoy it.
"Wow, I always knew you were dumb, but this is really taking the cake!"
Well, not everything about it can be great...
Peter casually rooted around in his locker, swapping the morning's load of books for the afternoon's while he listened to their reactions. Honestly, they were reacting pretty much how he pictured they would, even if in one version of his imagination, they were all eerily supportive and threw him a party.
Yeah, that one felt weird to him, too.
When he turned around, he was met all four of his teammates facing him. Their expressions ranged from "unsurprisingly annoyed" (thanks, Ava) to "staring incredulously" (seriously Sam?) and "somewhat surprised but contemplative" (Danny, of course) to "seemingly stoic" (naturally Luke, sans sunglasses). In turn, he gave them one of his patented stubborn and stoic leader looks. "You guys heard me. I think she's ready. And...I'm ready." His voice shook a little with that last sentence. Come on, sound a little more confident! He swallowed and stood a little straighter. "I'm going to tell her tonight. I think it's time she learned who I am. It's not like I'm going to tell her about me and all of you and SHIELD and--"
"Speaking of," Ava took a step forward, lowering her voice. "You have cleared this with Coulson, right? And Fury?"
"Especially Fury," Luke chimed in, his arms folded over his chest.
His face twitched with frustration. Who did they think he was? Someone born yesterday? "No, of course I haven't. This isn't any of their business." He made sure to throw a glance at each of them as he sad that. Seriously, there was a line between how involved he wanted SHIELD in his life, and it'd been crossed far too many times for his liking. "It's only my secret here that's at stake. Not any of theirs." And with that moment of sudden defiance, he immediately took advantage of a Peter-sized opening that appeared between Luke and Sam, scooting out between his two friends into the open hallway. "But thanks for the support, guys. I really appreciate it."
Just as he turned to go, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Reluctantly, he stopped. "Peter, we really do," Danny said, his voice calm as he explained. "You must understand that you are our friend and teammate; we will always think of your safety, even if it is your heart that needs protecting."
"And your life because when Fury hears about this..." Sam followed his interjection with a motion mimicking a head exploding. He wasn't sure if he was to take that as Fury's head exploding, or his own. Probably his own.
Nonetheless, he felt a little better. "Aw shucks, you guys really do care." Okay, he didn't feel that much better, but better than he was a minute ago. And for his friends, that was still pretty big.
"I still think you're making a mistake, but we're not going to stop you. Just.." Ava trailed off, eyebrows knit with what he thought was concern, but for him? Nah, must've been a trick of the light.
"I know, " he cut in, picking up the thread of her sentence. He gently pulled out of Danny's grasp, and looked her straight in the eye. "Don't be stupid, don't do it public, don't let her record you, yada yada. Did I forget anything?"
Her eyebrow quirked upwards. "Yeah," she said flatly. "You forgot 'good luck'."
"...Oh." Now he felt dumb. "Thanks."
This time as he walked away to his next class, he wasn't stopped. Their conversation did, however, leave him thinking. His team and SHIELD may all know who he is, but the other very important people in his life didn't know what he did when he wasn't in school. Somehow, after all this time, he'd been able to keep it a secret from them--and in Harry's case, it was probably a really good thing. His friend wasn't fond of Spider-man. How was he going to do this? He's never had to reveal something so big about himself. Ever.
His feet carried him towards Coulson's office before he knew he'd made the decision to see him. He was sure Ethan Frome would wait for him. This was more important--and hey, he was actually taking his teammates' advice! Sure, it wasn't in the way they hoped but...
A few minutes and a nice chat about the weather with the administrative assistant later....
"You what?"
Peter sighed, slumping in his chair opposite his SHIELD handler. Suddenly, he was regretting his decision. "Why is everyone reacting like that today?!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "It's just MJ!"
'Principal' Coulson leaned forward on his desk, his eyes piercing and unblinking. Honestly, it was a little unnerving the way he could do that. "Precisely, Mr. Parker. Ms. Watson may be a responsible, intelligent young woman, but you know what she wants to do for a living. A journalist is not a superhero's best friend."
"Nor a secret agent's, who's pretending to be a principal?" That earned him a glare. "Er...one who's doing an awesome job, might I add?" He let out a nervous laugh.
Stony-faced as ever, Coulson continued. "There are a lot of risks tied to this venture, and many of them don't include you getting a kiss on the cheek at the end of the night. In the very least, she'd be a security risk. There are a lot of bad guys out there, Mr. Parker--"
"--Tell me something I don't know," he muttered under his breath. Hey dummy, you weren't supposed to say that out loud!
"--and any one of them could get their hands on her and find out who you really are."
"MJ isn't like that!" He sat forward; it was his time to glare. Hearing that Coulson thought so little of her irked him more than the thought of her being held captive. "She'd never spill secrets or sing like a stool pigeon or whatever you think she's gonna do!"
"No, but there's no denying that she is and always has been a liability for you." Peter watched as Coulson pressed a couple buttons on his keyboard, triggering the blinds to close on both the door and all windows, and for a holographic display to spin up in front of them both that he turned around for him to see. "SHIELD has documented countless incidents where Ms. Watson has purposefully put herself into danger." Coulson pointed at one bar in one of the graphs on-screen.
Peter squinted at it before he spoke. "Well, that's not too bad..." he supposed.
Coulson's finger moved over to the next bar, which was nearly triple the length of the other one. In fact, he hadn't noticed it before; it looked like the border for another graph altogether. "And these are the documented cases of her presence and resulting endangerment in other such situations. I'm sorry Mr. Parker, but I don't think it's a good idea to reveal your identity to her."
He practically felt himself deflate in his chair. It'd taken a lot of nerve to work himself up to this point. After all, how often had he come close to telling her and never following through with it? "I guess...you're right..." Slowly, dejectedly, he started to gather his strength and pride. There'd be plenty of time to discuss Frome now. He sure felt he'd had his own 'smash-up' just then.
"Just a moment, Mr. Parker," Coulson said before he'd made it to the door. "I may not think it's a good idea, but I think you've already made your mind up about what you want to do. Trust that. It's gotten you this far."
A small smile began to grow at the corners of his lips. "Would you ever tell my aunt about what you really do?"
"That's classified." Of course. Why would he give you a straight answer?" "But then again," a hint of an all-knowing smile appeared as he continued. "Maybe I'm not as brave as you are right now. You've stood up to your friends and me. That's no easy feat."
Peter nodded, unsure how to take that compliment. Agent Coulson, when he wasn't being their handler and babysitter, was actually a pretty cool guy. So he simply said, "Thanks, Principal Coulson," and left.
A few hours and a chase around NYC later...
"You what?"
Peter stared the beautiful dinner Aunt May had cooked and set up in the dining room.
"You heard me," she said, a mischievous tone in her voice. "I saw it was your six-month anniversary on the calendar, and figured I'd treat you both with a home-cooked meal! Sadly, I won't be able to share it with you two. My evening is full as it is!"
She continued to flit about the kitchen while he stared open-mouthed at her. Here he was, sweaty and sore after a thankfully quick battle with Batroc the Leaper. He hadn't even changed out of his costume. (Times like this, he was glad it was finally cooler here so he had an excuse to wear long sleeves and pants over his costume.)
"Peter, honey, are you going to go change? You looked like you jogged all the way here." He hadn't realized she'd stopped moving around and had settled her sights on his slovenly appearance.
He glanced down, then at the clock, then ran over to her, throwing his arms around her. "Thanks Aunt May. It means a lot." More than she'll ever realize.
"Yes, you're welcome!" she said as she wriggled out of his hold. She looked far too amused to be bothered by his sweaty clothes. "Now go on, hurry up!"
In record time, he was in the shower, clothed, and had a load in the laundry. Aunt May left a minute before MJ arrived, and Peter was suddenly glad she had gone. He didn't want to share this night with anyone else. MJ came in, rubbing her bare arms to warm them up, heels clicking on the ground.
"Wow, you look..." He struggled to find the right word. Too many came close to how beautiful she looked in that green dress, but none felt absolutely perfect. He also felt a little underdressed, but at least he had a tie. That made up for it, right?
She smiled, laughing to herself as she closed the door, then turned to put her arms around his neck. "You look..." she purposefully paused, "too." She gave him a chaste kiss, then stepped away. "It smells amazing in here. Did you do this yourself?"
"Well...no, I had some help. But MJ... there's something I need to tell you before we eat. Just in case."
Now that got her attention. She looked at him curiously, propping a hand on her hip. "You're not breaking up with me, are you?"
"What?! No! It's nothing like that!" He reached for her hand and moved her over to the sofa. "Trust me, you'll want to sit for this."
"Peter..." she started, looking worried.
He took a huge breath, trying not to lose his nerve. You're brave, remember? Coulson even thinks so! "MJ, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for...for like forever. Even before we started dating. I've never really been sure how to tell you but--"
The communicator on his wrist began to buzz. No, why now?! Any other time but now! He stared at it like he hoped it'd burst into flames and somehow not burn him at the same time.
But MJ reached over, covering his hand with hers and smiled. "You should get that. You're needed."
"U-uh," he stammered, putting his wrist behind his back. "I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Come on, Peter. It wasn't that hard to figure things out. I was just wondering how long it'd take for you to tell me. And if you hadn't gotten interrupted by that thing, I was going to wait all night if I had to." She smiled and leaned forward, her hand slipping behind his head to pull him forward and meet her lips.
He stared, dumbfounded, his wrist continuing to buzz. When he finally found his tongue, he asked, "How... How long have you known?"
A fond little grin stayed on her face. "Remember that Spider-man musical? The one where you guys went horribly off-book and destroyed most of the set?"
Oh god, don't remind me... I still have nightmares about Flash Thompson singing that awful song. "Y-yeah, that's kind of hard to forget..."
"I knew when you took off that mask and 'confessed'. Well, no, I didn't really believe you were. But it made me look a bit closer at things. Plus the one thing about dating you, Peter Parker, is that you're almost always late. Look at it and police reports closely, though, and things add up. Only you would be late because super-powered villain tried to hurt people and you stopped them."
Silence fell between them, only broken by the continued sporadic buzzes from his communicator that he was failing to mute between him and the sofa cushion. "MJ...I...I don't know what to say."
"Just say I'll see you later. We'll have dinner when you get back."
The amount of relief that washed over him was immeasurable. Not only did she already know, but he'd worried all this time about it for nothing! Wait until he tells his team! "Do I have to say all of that?" he asked teasingly.
"No, now get out of here." She gave him a playful nudge to encourage him to move.
He scrambled to his feet, began to run up to his room for his spare costume, then turned right back to give her a quick kiss. "You're amazing, MJ."
"Yeah, I know." She sat back in the sofa, looking proudly at him. "Go get 'em...Spider-man."