Work Text:
“I know my sister like I know my own mind…
If I tell her that I love him she'd be silently resigned,
he'd be mine.
She would say, "I'm fine"
She'd be lying.”
— “Satisfied”, Hamilton Soundtrack (2015)
Michelle’s fingers wrap around her champagne flute, fidgety and uncomfortable in a way she shouldn’t be.
She’s lived her whole life on the outskirts, flitting in and out of the conversation— feeling even more like a wallflower when she hears a peal of laughter from across the room.
Michelle doesn’t have the look to know that it’s Felicia, no doubt capturing the hearts of everyone around her.
It’s always been like that between the two of the them— even before the Blip and the years they spent fighting for scraps in a world that decided they needed none.
Felicia was beautiful and brilliant and the life of the party, someone who made you feel as if you were important just by being close to her. She was so easily able to switch it on and switch it off, a tribute to her personality but also maybe the color of her skin— shoving that down as she takes a sip of her champagne.
The fizz of the drink tickles her nose, forcing her eyes away from the adoring laughter of the men that Felicia no doubt has eating out of the palm of her hand and looking around— only for her heart to seize when she sees him.
Coffee shop guy, in the flesh— looking just as awkward and uncomfortable as she does in an ill-fitted suit.
Michelle almost chokes from surprise, quickly recovering and glancing around only for realize that no one’s looking.
They never are.
Michelle feels her cheeks get hot, embarrassed and even more mortified that of all places that she could see the same guy that she’s been casually flirting with would be here — so out of her own element at an Oscorp gala— that she has to leave.
Felicia said she could pull the card to leave whenever she wanted. Michelle was going to take that.
She downs the rest of her drink, setting it on a table and going to find her sister when she stops— watching in real-time as Felicia cuts across the room, making a bee-line towards coffee shop guy.
Michelle fees a tightness in her chest, confusion and curiosity ramping up in equal measure as she takes stock of the two of them— only for that confusion to increase when she sees coffee shop guy smile when he sees Felicia.
Do they know each other? She thinks, feeling an immediate betrayal and an anger that she shouldn’t— not when Felicia doesn’t even know who coffee shop guy is.
Nor when Michelle doesn’t even know his name.
Yet it’s right there in front of her, awkwardly ducking towards a standing table and seeing the two of them— clearly flirting as Felicia waves a drink around.
Coffee shop guy looks enamored, smiling and flirting with her from the way he leans in— a tightness in her chest that goes straight to the pit of her stomach from the raw, uncomfortable realization of what’s happening.
Of course they would know each other— because when hasn’t Felicia ever been unaware of an attractive person in her vicinity.
Of course he would be immediately smitten with her— because Felicia was beautiful, was smart, was funny and outgoing. Felicia always knew what to say and how to say it right — flirty and fun and the exact kind of person who wouldn’t have spent the past few weeks awkwardly staring at coffee shop guy rather than just going up and fucking talking to him.
He laughs at something Felicia says then, something that just cuts at something in Michelle’s heart as she takes a deep breath— a complicated mix of emotions deep in her chest as she evaluates the situation in front of her.
Felicia has taught her many things in life— protective and a fighter to her core. But it was this that she never could teach, this that came naturally in only a way it could to the little sister of Felicia Hardy.
Michelle was observant— a skill cultivated over the years out of necessity and desire, watching as the two of them flirt back and forth and seeing something there that only someone who knows Felicia could.
She liked him, in her way— some invisible thing passing between the two of them that would go unseen for anyone else but was clear as day to Michelle.
Felicia couldn’t know this was the same guy she’d been stupidly pining over for the past few weeks because while Felicia was many things, cruel wasn’t one of them.
Michelle knows, deep in her mind and in her heart, if she told Felicia who he is— knew how she felt about this stranger that didn’t quite feel like one— Felicia would do what she always did.
She would protect Michelle, prioritize her— the facade that she gave the world always melting away when it came to the people that she loved the most.
Felicia would give up whatever flirtation that she has with this man— a flirtation that a shameful part of Michelle thinks wouldn’t last anyway— for her sake.
Michelle knows this, considers it— and then watches as Felicia laughs, an instant shift from how genuine it is that it makes the decision for her.
Michelle knows her sister like she knows her own mind.
If Michelle told her that she liked him, she’d be resigned— bringing the two of them together and saying that she was fine.
She’d be lying.
And Michelle decides, right then and there, that she’s not going to let it happen.
Felicia already lies to her about what she does at night.
Michelle won’t let her lie about this.
Michelle wakes up with a start.
It’s quiet, her bedroom dimly lit from the moonlight.
Michelle’s tense before she relaxes, hearing the familiar creak of her living room window and the clacks against the glass that to anyone else would just sound like a cat.
They’d be right, Michelle thinks to herself as she turns over and tries to go back to sleep— only to freeze when she hears someone else come in with her.
“Ow. Fuck. Cat, this isn’t—“
“Shh!”
Michelle’s heart feels like it’s pounding in her chest, eyes open and staring at the wall before she slowly sits up— curious to know if her theory is right.
Michelle is observant, almost too much so— remembering the exact moment when she figured out the truth of what Felicia got up to at night.
It was better for the two of them that Felicia believed that she was fooling her, protecting her like she always did— something she did long before the Blip and would likely always continue.
If Michelle knew her sister as well as she thinks she does— she could guess her reasonings for going out as she did, the barely contained anger that Felicia expressed when the world was made “right” again only to go back to the status quo being something that fueled the both of them.
Something that Felicia took into her own hands— and something that Michelle wishes more than anything, that she’d let her into.
It hasn’t escaped her that Felicia has been spending a lot more time with Spider-Man lately, anxiously reading news reports of what antics Black Cat got up to and wondering when the day would come that Felicia would get into something she couldn’t claw her way out of.
Felicia was smarter than that, stronger— but having Spider-Man around didn’t seem to hurt.
It’s Spider-Man that she could guess is the one crawling into their living room now, forcing herself to close her eyes and not focus on the conversation that’s barely whispered.
“There’s someone here.”
“My sister.”
“You have a sister?”
“Do you really want to talk about my family tree now?”
“Felicia…”
Michelle takes a deep breath, exhaling and fighting the uncomfortable feeling of something she refuses to name as jealousy in the pit of her stomach— a shock that radiates from the inside out as she swallows down the lump in her throat.
She wasn’t jealous of Felicia dragging a superhero into her bedroom, the soft click of her door as they tumbled into her room all but muted as Michelle turns over in her bed.
What she felt was alone, thinking of coffee shop guy and how that had fizzled before it ever had the chance to begin.
Michelle wasn’t in the habit of judging her sister for her choices, not when Felicia’s double life meant that she had to wear a mask in more ways than one.
Passing— in the way that only Felicia really could.
What Michelle wants is to feel as if Felicia didn’t just love her and wanted to protect her but trusted her— to tell her the secret that she’s been keeping and let her in.
That Felicia was willing to let Spider-Man into her world before she thought to share it with her sister was a truth that Michelle didn’t feel ready to face.
“Where are we going?”
“I want you to meet someone,” Felicia says, arms interlocked with Michelle as they walk down the street.
“Who?” She asks, feeling less like the adult woman she is and more like the petulant little sister Felicia sees her to be— confirmed when Felicia rolls her eyes dramatically.
“Do you have to know everything? You’ve got to learn to live a little, Meesh,” Felicia jokes, something that Michelle knows is a joke but just feels unnerved by— ready to argue in a way that’s childish only to stop when someone calls out.
“Felicia!”
Michelle pauses, because she recognizes that voice— only for her eyes to widen she recognizes that face — coffee shop guy beaming as Felicia laughs.
“You ruined the surprise,” she says, voice low as he walks up to the two of them— a flare of recognition across his face as he looks between the two of them.
“You’re—“
“Michelle,” she says, cutting him off before he can embarrass her and say that he knows her— extending her hand out. “And you are?”
He blinks but quickly recovers as he shakes her hand.
“Peter,” he says, a question in his eyes that he schools— but not soon enough for Felicia to catch on.
“Do you two know each other?” Felicia asks, Michelle watching in real time as her guard goes up— eyes flicking over to Peter whose eyes widen slightly, a piece of a puzzle that Michelle hadn’t even realized she’d been building snapping into place.
“I think I’ve seen him around ESU,” Michelle easily lies— a lie that she knows will be true because she knows he has an ESU patch on his backpack.
It’s a lie that Peter goes with, smiling as he lets go of her hand and looks to Felicia. “Yeah, we might’ve bumped into each other.”
Peter is a terrible liar, immediately apparent as Felicia eyes him up and down before looking at Michelle.
Michelle isn’t— she learned from the best.
She takes control of the narrative, because she’s nothing if not good at deflecting— good at reorienting the attention back to the one person who was good at living in it as she asks, “Is this the guy?”
Felicia’s eyes narrow, ready to prod her further when Peter laughs— throwing Felicia off guard in a way that Michelle predicted.
“Guy? That’s what you call me?”
“What do you want to be called?” Felicia asks, easily able to banter with him in a way that Michelle knew she would— the voice that’s so eerily familiar now making even more sense as Peter grins.
“I thought boyfriend was a good enough thing as any?” He asks, light and fun and Michelle instantly seeing the sparks between the two of them— the guard that Felicia had put up almost immediately crumbling as Michelle watched silently.
“You would think that,” Felicia says with a wink before leaning in to kiss him— another laugh coming from Peter that confirms what she hadn’t realized she’d been looking for.
There had been something different about Felicia in the last few weeks— not just in the safety and the stories that she’d read about the Black Cat but in the daylight, Felicia’s effortless glide through life seeming less like a disguise and more like a truth.
A truth that hits Michelle square in the chest as Peter looks at Felicia adoringly, something easily mirrored in Felicia’s expression.
She was in love — with the man in front of her that she not only flirted with openly but with the person that man was at night.
Because there’s another truth that Michelle has in mind, one that she’s only 67% sure of but more convinced than ever she’s right.
That Peter wasn’t just the man who had stolen the heart of her sister, but was also Spider-Man.
The man that Felicia had allowed into her life and into her heart— let into her secret in a way she had never for Michelle.
“You guys are losers,” Michelle jokes and it’s enough to break the spell between them, easily slipping into her own mask as they laugh— Felicia rolling her eyes as she takes hold of her hand.
“Come on, Meesh,” she says, a look in her eyes that Michelle easily recognizes.
We’ll talk later, it says and Michelle just grins— walls already building not in defense but protection.
Michelle won’t say how she knows Peter— not when she doesn’t really know him and when he is so clearly in love with Felicia as she is with him.
Felicia will believe her.
She’s a good liar.
After all— she learned from the best.