Chapter Text
It had been approximately seven days since Peter Parker had been outed as Spider-Man, though that wasn’t the title as most of the world was now referring to him as. Peter was known as many things such as ‘vigilante’, ‘murderer’, and ‘a disgrace’. It seemed his Parker luck had finally hit its maximum capacity. He’d lost his parents, his uncle, his mentor, and now the one thing he could always hide behind. His mask. Even with it on, everyone now knew whose face was beneath it. It wasn’t some strong, tough guy as everyone had pictured. It was young Peter Parker who was supposed to be starting his senior year at Midtown Science and Technology in a few days.
Instead, he was on the run, from pretty much everyone. He hadn’t seen May for a whole week now, and after the short call he’d made to her on a burner phone, he presumed he wouldn't be seeing her for a while longer. He’d been doing a fair job at hiding himself and his face so far, with only the occasional run-in.
Peter hadn’t slept much, considering all of the running he was doing. He wanted to settle somewhere and rest, but he couldn’t find a place that wouldn't get him caught just yet.
Currently, the teenager was adjusting the dark hood he had on, keeping his backpack tightly strapped to his back. He’d managed to get some clothes in a good will without catching any glances. Now he was trying to find a place to at least shut his eyes for a few minutes. He hadn’t been sure when the last time he’d actually rested in the past few days was.
Buzz. Buzz.
The burner phone went off in the back pocket of his dark jeans. Peter looked around anxiously before quickly taking it out and answering it.
“Parker?”
Oh, thank God. It was MJ, she sounded incredibly nervous, her voice shaking as she said his last name. It was so good to hear her voice again. He hadn’t seen MJ in a week either, not since he flung himself off of the lamppost he’d been on and told her to run the other direction as fast as possible. “MJ?”
“Oh, thank God. H- hey, are you okay?” She asked, the panic in her voice only increasing.
Peter nodded shakily, his lip quivering. “I’m- I’m good. I’m okay. Are you okay?”
She laughed, letting out a breath of relief she’d been holding in. “I’m fine. Happy set Ned and I up at a secure location, I’m sending the coordinates through to your suit and EDITH right now- Well, Ned is.”
Peter’s eyes widened. A secure location? He almost let out a broken sob, thanking the universe for some good news. This call was everything that he needed and more. “A-Alright- g-great! Great. I’ll get there as fast as possible.”
“Peter, make sure nobody’s on your trail. Come slowly. I know you’re eager to get here, but don’t let anyone see you.” She told him, gaining some confidence as she spoke. “Be safe, okay? I’ll see you when you get here.”
Peter nodded, hanging up and stuffing the small flip phone in his back pocket, letting out some shaky breaths.
Good. Great. This was perfect. He had a secure place where he could go now, and he’d be greeted with his girlfriend and his best friend. This was good.
Peter knelt to the wet asphalt below him, not even noticing it had begun to rain during his phone call with MJ. He quickly unzipped his backpack after slipping it off of his shoulders and pulled his EDITH glasses out of it. Right as he went to slide them over his face, he heard a clatter farther down the alley and froze. His eyes closed for a single moment as his body screamed at him. DANGER DANGER DANGER.
Of course this was happening right now.
Peter swiftly placed the glasses back, quickly rolling out of the way of the threat and webbing his bag to the wall of the alleyway. With his hood still up, he let his angered glare meet the eyes of a person in dark clothing in front of him. They stood tall with a slender form, twirling sharp blades on each of their hands.
“What do you want?” Peter practically growled. He didn’t need this right now. He needed to get to his friends and sleep. Maybe eat first… and then sleep.
The person in front of him didn’t answer his very angry question. They also didn’t wait another second before kicking off of the wall and slashing at Peter’s chest. He dodged before the knives could ever pierce his skin, though he was slower than usual. It hadn’t occurred to him before how tired he really was, and how hungry. He wasn’t at full strength right now, and he really didn’t need to fight a random criminal.
“Not much of a talker, are you?” He asked with annoyance lacing his voice. He raised his hand and shot a web at one of their hands, sending it back to the brick wall beside them and sticking their hand and knife to it. “Can I maybe get a rain check? Got somewhere to be.”
“No can do, Peter Parker.” They answered with a low and slightly raspy voice. “Girl’s gotta make some cash, and collecting you -” She swiftly cut through the web like a knife to butter, freeing herself. “-would be desperately in my favor.”
She lunged at him again, Peter ducking under her sharp blades and rolling on the cold ground. He brought himself back up into an aggressive attack position. “Well, I’m afraid that’s not really in my schedule, so let’s just get this over with then.”
The teen ran at her, and she ran back, her knife ready to slice him. He grabbed her wrist when they met each other and flipped her onto her back, unarming one of her knives. "These look pretty high tech, especially if they could cut through my webs. Mind handing them over?”
“No can do, Parker.” She said, kicking him hard in the ribs before he had a chance to leap back.
Peter grunted, kicking her knife away before she recovered. How was this masked girl actually hurting him right now?
“Look, I really don’t have time for this.” He told her through gritted teeth, shooting a web to her shoulder and slamming her into the brick wall full force.
The other knife clattered from her hand as she fell, along with the dark mask concealing her face. It revealed her straight, platinum blonde hair that looked practically silver in the odd lighting of the alley. She reached a hand up to her lip and rubbed fresh blood away. She couldn’t have been much older than him, if she even was. Another enhanced teen. Got it.
“Two can play at this game, bug boy.” She told him, reaching back and pulling a circular blade out from a satchel on her back. She went to throw it at him, but he was already running at her again.
The blonde threw the round blade into a wall and it stuck, quickly going in for a punch to his face. She hit his cheek hard, no doubt drawing blood with the sharp rings on each of her gloved fingers.
“God, you’re not fun.” He groaned, slamming a fist into her ribs. She dodged, though she still took a mostly hard, enhanced person's hit. She went tumbling back into the alleyway, rolling over and trying to steady herself. “It’s been fun, but I gotta bounce.”
He shot a web at her, then with most of his strength, threw her into the back of the alley. She rolled over, groaning and not trying to stand again. Peter sighed, putting the black hood back over his head. He quickly grabbed the bag from the wall, removing the webbing and slinging it over his left shoulder. His brown hair was matted to his face now, droplets of sweat dripping from his forehead. Peter yanked the circular blade out of the wall. “I’ll be taking this, whatever it is. Thanks for the souvenir.”
He turned to walk away, gripping it tightly in his hand. Although, it quickly ripped itself hard from his hands, putting a big gash in his right hand. Peter whipped around to find it flying straight back into the girl’s hand, almost as if she’d called it back to her. “Nah, this is mine. I’ll gladly give you something to take home, though.”
If Peter was alert, awake, fed, and rested, it wouldn’t have happened. Though, he hadn’t even seen the knife in her other hand as he’d been preoccupied with the deep cut in his hand. She’d thrown it, and it's gone right into his shoulder. Peter groaned, nearly falling to the ground.
No. Get to your friends.
Without another word, Peter ran out of the alley and webbed himself up to a building, letting out a cry of pain as he gripped it with his bleeding hand. He stumbled to the roof, rolling over, the knife still sticking out of his shoulder.
“Shit!” He cursed, his face scrunching up in agony. He reached for the zipper of his back with his non-injured hand, gasping for breath, and pulled out his glasses once again.
The bright side was, the safe house- or wherever he was headed, wasn’t incredibly far from where he’d been. The down side was that he was trying to get there discreetly with a knife digging all of the way into his shoulder and various cuts and bruises from his new bestie, blonde knife throwing girl. He couldn’t simply take the knife out and bleed out on some street, he knew as soon as he did, he’d need to apply pressure.
He hoped Ned had actually paid attention to their vet science class, because he definitely hadn’t. Peter knew he wasn’t an animal , but he was sure they’d probably explained how to fix a wound, right?
Right. Peter was pretty screwed.
By the time Peter was a block away from the location, he was struggling to hold his tears back. Blood dripped from the stab wound on his shoulder and from the deep slice in his hand. His face was bruised and bloody, along with his ribs. He definitely looked absolutely amazing at the moment.
He tried to keep as quiet as possible, breathing shallow breaths and wincing with every step. Walking with a knife in him was definitely not ideal, but he knew he would have bled out minutes ago if he'd ripped it out. He also had to concentrate and make sure the stabby girl wasn't following him.
Thankfully, he didn't have any problems, and he was sure he had to have given her at least a concussion with the amount of force he used to send her into the brick wall.
Looking up, Peter realized with a puff of relief that he was feet away from his destination. He bit the inside of his cheek.
MJ was going to kill him. He could hear her now, asking him how on earth he had managed to get shish-kabobed when he had been fine on their phone call seconds before that.
Well, he hoped she wouldn't be like that, because he might just break down crying if she did.
Peter squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, new waves of hot pain rolling over him as he made it to the door. The teen knocked, letting his hood fall down with his good hand, his sweatshirt sleeve wrapped around his bad one.
The door flew open. MJ and Ned stood at the other end, their smiles immediately fading as they saw the state of him.
“Oh my god.” They both said in unison.
“Y- hey- hey… ran into uhm- and uh- she had knives.” He tried to explain, gulping. He was in a lot of pain now, any adrenaline that remained washing off as he was finally in the comfort of his friends.
“Is that a knife!?” Ned asked after looking him over.
MJ didn't spend another moment staring at her boyfriend in bewilderment before pulling him inside gently. She put a careful hand on his non injured arm and led him into the room.
“Ned, grab the med kit that they left for us, would you?” MJ asked quickly as she helped Peter sit down on an old-looking couch.
“They?” Peter asked shakily, trying to divert his attention from the pain he was feeling.
MJ nodded, meeting his eyes for a moment before going back to checking him over. “Yeah. The agents with Happy. They helped get some stuff set up for us.”
“Ah- Aghfm-”
“Sorry! Oh god, sorry Peter.” MJ quickly apologized, her hands immediately coming off of him. She'd touched his ribs and he’d jumped.
Peter shook his head, holding his eyes shut, trying not to let any tears fall. “N- no it's okay. It's okay.”
MJ stared at him. “God, you idiot. We're gonna fix you up, okay?” She put a gentle hand on his cheek and he leaned into it.
Peter nodded, grimacing.
Ned returned to them with a Med Kit and some towels, setting them on the coffee table. “God, Peter you look horrible ”
“Thanks man.” Peter told him, holding his breath. He could feel his skin trying to heal around the knife, which was only going to hurt worse when they pulled it out. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times. “Y- you're looking good though, buddy.”
His friend blushed lightly, smiling at him.
Ned really did look good. Right after their trip from hell with Mysterio was over, Ned had joined the track team. Peter wasn't exactly sure what had caused his friends’ sudden appreciation in exercise since the three of them had hated it forever, but he respected him insanely.
It had been a few months since their return, and Ned definitely looked great.
“Alright, Pete, you with us?” MJ asked, bringing him back to reality.
She'd opened the met kit and grabbed a pair of scissors. She raised them to his sweatshirt. “I'm gonna have to cut your shirt off to get a better look at this knife, alright?”
He nodded, a weak smirk appearing on his lips. “Jeez, MJ, didn't think we were there yet.”
MJ rolled her eyes. “I'm going to let that slide since you're bleeding out, Parker.”
He laughed, followed by a groan when he found out that his ribs were not enjoying the jokes as much as he was.
His girlfriend began cutting his shirt off, and even Ned wished it had been under different circumstances. Anything. Anyone there would've taken anything for a knife not to be in Peter’s shoulder right now.
As she navigated taking his sleeves off, she noticed the blood still coming out of his palm. “Ned, grab me some gauze and come over here.”
He obeyed her. MJ was really a natural, and Peter had assumed that Ned was going to be the one playing doctor when he arrived. He guesses he should've expected it. MJ was incredibly smart and talented, of course she probably knew how to stitch wounds.
“Hold it to his hand there, it's bleeding. Jesus Peter this girl really tore you up.” She told him, taking the last piece of his hoodie gently over his head, careful of the cuts on it.
“T- ell me about it. At le-least she didn't cut my arms off with that round blade thingy.” He muttered, trying to keep his breathing under control.
“And for that I'm thankful.” She nodded, silencing for a moment until she met his gaze. “Alright, Peter. This is gonna hurt, alright?”
“O-oh- you're gonna take the knife out? Okay- o-okay. I'm f-fine” He said, any confidence he was trying to muster all fading from his voice at once.
“Just don't think about it, okay? Think about something else.” She explained.
He stared at her, blinking. A few tears found their way down his cheeks, and she wiped them quickly with her thumbs. “I- hmmf- I- I don't-”
“Breathe , okay? Keep your eyes on me. Remember the bridge? In Europe? When I ran to you?” She asked him, wrapping gauze in her hands after applying some gloves. “I brought a whole ass morning star with me.”
Peter closed his eyes once again, smiling. “Y-yeah. And we hugged! And then we both got all- all gooey and--sentimental.”
“Yeah, nerd. And then what happened?”
“Well- we-- we kissed.” He told her, his smile widening. That was one of the best moments of his life by far-- kissing MJ. It felt so surreal. It was almost per-
“ AAGGGHHF- Oh god-” Peter screamed as MJ swiftly pulled the knife from his shoulder. He nearly slumped forward, Ned holding his opposite shoulder as gentle as possible.
“Good job, Peter. It's okay. It's alright.” MJ nodded, wiping away the several tears that were now falling from her boyfriend's eyes. She looked back toward the coffee table and grabbed one of the smaller towels Ned had brought and wrapped it into a cylinder shape.
“Next part is gonna suck, okay? Next step, and we're one step closer to being done.” She told him, almost reassuring herself just as much. It was not easy seeing the boy she cared for so much fall apart in front of her. “Put this in your mouth, it's something to bite down on.”
“W--why-?”
“Trust me.”
Peter didn’t question her again, taking the wrapped up towel she’d given him and letting her stuff it into his mouth. He took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes.
Michelle didn’t waste another second, uncapping the bottle of antiseptic she’d been hiding out of his view and squirting it onto his wound. She winced as Peter let out a muffled scream in front of her, bending over and nearly falling into her. Ned once again held him up softly, his own eyes were closed in despair. This was hard enough on all of them already.
A fresh wave of tears fell from Peter’s eyes, his breathing coming in jagged intervals as he let the towel fall into his lap. “Ow.”
“You’re okay, It’s okay.” MJ told him, her hands returning to the med kit beside her. She had said it to Peter, but it was also words of reassurance to herself. “We’re gonna get this done fast, alright? I know no pain medication we could give you would work.”
Peter nodded, wincing with each breath. “Wh- where did you learn-- all of this?”
She stared at him with a weak smile. “Took a medicine class last year… and watched some greys anatomy too.”
“You said that show was stupid.” Ned told her, gawking.
“Yeah, well I got bored, okay?” She told him shakily, looking down at her hands. They trembled, she was struggling to put the small thread through the hole in the needle. “ Come on.”
“What’s wrong?” Ned asked quickly
“C- can you get Peter some water? He’s lost a lot of blood.” She nearly snapped back, biting her lip as he ran off to follow her orders.
She shook her head, huffing air out of her nose. She needed to do this. She needed to help Peter. What good was she if she couldn’t even thread a needle? She mentally laughed at herself, wishing she could just be stronger for a moment.
MJ barely noticed Peter’s own trembling hand finding hers. It was scraped up and bruised, and covered in dried blood. He rubbed his thumb comfortingly over hand. “You- You got this- a-alright? You- you’ve done great so far.”
He looked worse than she’d seen him on the bridge. Maybe it was because Beck had never managed to stab him, or maybe it was because there was so much more trauma behind his eyes now. In a week, he’d lost any remaining hope that he’d had. They all had.
His girlfriend nodded, taking a deep breath and placing a steadier hand on his cheek. She pressed a quick kiss to it and pulled away, easily slipping the thread through the needle. “ Got it.”
“I knew you- you would.” He stuttered. Peter was struggling to hide his pain now.
“Peter. You can let it out, okay? I know stitches hurt. I know you’ve needed them before.” She told him, nodding as he stared at her. “Nobody’s going to judge you for being in pain. For being upset right now.”
“I- I don’t w-” Peter took a breath. “I can’t-”
MJ nodded again, tears threatening her own gaze now. “You’re allowed to be vulnerable, Parker. You hear me? Look at me. I’ll cry with you, okay? I’ll- I’ll cry with you.”
Michelle was already crying, pursing her lips and trying to see through her blurred vision. Peter never answered her, but she could hear his silent sobs that he tried to hide as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Okay. Okay, Pete. I’m gonna do this quickly.”
As she started stitching him up, Ned returned silently with water in his trembling hands. He sat next to Peter as carefully as possible and put a gentle hand on his back. “Can you drink this for me, buddy?”
“Y- yeah” Peter began to say, though he cut through his own words and practically groaned them out as a needle pierced his skin again.
MJ stopped stitching him up for a moment, letting him take a few gulps of water. He handed the glass back to Ned, almost spilling it. He was so incredibly weak right now. She hadn’t even thought until now that Peter probably hadn’t eaten or slept much at all in the past week. With his heightened metabolism, she knew he required both of those things more than anyone else.
“After I’m finished, can you make him something to eat? He’s going to need it, especially after the blood loss.” MJ told Ned. He immediately nodded, rubbing Peter’s back.
Peter let out a breath when he heard MJ cut the thread, meaning that his stitches were finally finished. He was trying so desperately hard not to cry in front of his friends, especially not his girlfriend. Though with the pain he was feeling, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could really hold off without letting out anguished sobs.
It didn’t take MJ any time to realize how much he was struggling now. She knew he needed to let it out. The girl met Ned’s gaze, and silently asked him to start on the food. He nodded, pulling away from his friend and exiting the room. She was thankful they were close enough to not need words now. They all were, really.
“You did great, okay?” She told him when their friend was gone, unwrapping a large bandage and quickly placing it over his shoulder.
Peter finally opened his eyes. She sat in front of him, looking as beautiful as she always did. Her curls were tied up in a loose ponytail, some straggling pieces of hair pretty much matted down to her face. Her eyes were glistening with tears. She was truly everything he needed right in that moment.
He let out a quiet sob, putting his head down. She leaned in, wrapping her arms carefully around him. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“M’ sorry.” Peter told her, shaking as more sobs shook him. “M’ sorry- this- this is all my fault, MJ.”
“No. No.” She told him, shaking her head. She pulled away and looked him in the eyes. “I promise you. None of this is your fault. And we’re going to get through this, you hear me?”
He looked at her with a pained expression, sucking in a big breath and nodding. His lip quivered as he tried to find a way to agree with her in his brain. It was hard with all of the guilt he was feeling. It did all feel like his fault. It always did.
She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips, and he immediately kissed back. Tears flowed down both of their faces, but it didn’t matter. Not even the pain mattered right now. He was here with MJ, and at that moment nothing else needed to exist. It was just him and her, and that was fine with him.
He was safe.
When Ned finally found his way out of the kitchen with three plates balancing between his arms, he saw a patched up Peter laying on the couch fast asleep. MJ was leaning against the couch, one of her hands laced with Peters’. She had turned the TV on in front of them, but it was on mute with the subtitles on, turned to a local news station.
“Guess I should put this in the fridge.” He murmured with a smile crawling upon his lips. It was good to see Peter’s face looking relieved for once as he slept.
“Oh- yeah- thanks Ned. I would wake him up but I think he really needs this sleep.” She looked back at him and responded just as quietly, meeting his gaze with a weak smile. She turned back to what she’d been watching.
“Other than the usual Spidey hate club? Not really.” She murmured, biting the inside of her cheek.
“These people have no idea what they’re even saying” Ned whispered, even though he felt like screaming it. “When has Peter ever hurt anyone in the past as Spider-Man? One crim makes a false story and they’re all so quick to turn.”
MJ nodded and Ned went to turn around to head toward the kitchen. He only paused when he heard her quiet voice disagree with him. “Well, maybe not all of them?”
Ned turned around, looking at the news. It looked like a bunch of reporters were crowding around… Quake? He had to see this. The boy hurried to the coffee table, setting down the plates and kneeling across from MJ. The subtitles that they both read caused his eyes to widen.
The woman was dressed neck to toe in a dark looking suit, and it looked like she was heading away from some sort of space-ship looking thing. She was squinting through many camera flashes and looking very obviously annoyed.
--MISS JOHNSON! MISS JOHNSON! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SPIDER-MAN AFTER HIS OUTING AS A KILLER AND THE WANT FOR HIS ARREST?
-Well, I- Excuse me? What did you just say?
--PETER PARKER WAS JUST RECENTLY OUTED AS A CRIMINAL A WEEK AGO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS? IS S.W.O.R.D. SEARCHING FOR HIM, TOO?
The woman shot the reporter with a nasty glare, looking completely unaware of the situation. MJ and Ned shared a look.
-Look, I just got back from an extraterrestrial mission for S.W.O.R.D., and I have absolutely no fucking idea what you’re saying to me right now. This is news to me of the kid’s outing.
--WHAT WERE YOU DOING UP THERE, QUAKE?
-Classified, jesus you guys are vultures. Back the hell up before I let my sister at’cha. She’s vicious.
--SISTER? DAISY, CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THIS?
---MS. JOHNSON, DO YOU KNOW PETER PARKER?
Daisy Johnson face palmed as she made her way through the crowd.
--No, not personally. He’s a good kid, though. Get off my back about it. I don’t think anyone knows what they’re talking about. I can’t make a statement until I’ve read up about it. He’s a god damn high schooler, don’t you people have better things to ask me? Like how gorgeous my hair looks? It’s insane that it looks this good after a six month space trip.
MJ and Ned were interrupted from reading the news’s subtitles when Peter stirred, groaning as he rolled over. They both turned to him.
“You alright, man?” Ned asked “Back with us?”
Peter didn’t answer him, he only sniffed a few times before opening his eyes. “ Is that spaghetti?”
They both laughed.
“Yeah, three hot plates of it.” Ned told him. “Get it while it’s hot.”
Peter was soon stuffing his face with spaghetti, looking way less pale than he did earlier that night. He and his friends had changed the channel after he woke, not wanting to involve him in all of the news drama. Things were okay.
Things were okay for the first time in a week and the three friends watched cartoons, laughing and hoping that it stayed that way for as long as the universe let them.
The universe definitely had other plans in store.