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POV Peter
“Okay, you can do this Pete.” the webslinger told himself as he walked through Avengers Tower. “You can do this. You’re a spider, she’s a spider. Surely she can’t hate you that much, right?” Spidey asked as he thought back on the last interactions he had with Spider-Woman. “I mean, she only hit me once when I accidentally brushed into her, so I’ve got to be growing on her.” he looked back on everything and winced as he remembered her calling him a ‘dork’ or ‘doofus’ whenever they had a conversation. Strangely though, she seemed to be blushing as she said it half the time. She’d never actually gotten angry at him, now that he thinks about it. All she ever did was look away or give him a half-hearted glare. The angriest that he’d ever seen her was when a drunk She-Hulk had tried to flirt with him at the last Avengers Christmas party. As he thought about this, he bumped into something, or rather, someone.
“Pete? What was on your mind, doofus?” the object of his thoughts, Jessica Drew asked him with a slight blush as she bent down to pick up the papers that had fallen. “I hope you’re not looking at anything, Spider-Dork.” Spider-Woman teased him as she stood back up and looked at him.
“Actually, I was looking for you, Jess.” Peter admitted as he fiddled with the mask in his hands. “I was going to ask for your help with a stakeout, that is, if you’re not too busy…” he trailed off as he put his mask back on.
It might have just been the red fabric of his mask, or a trick of the light from his lenses, but it almost seemed like Jess blushed and smiled for a second before schooling her features once more. “You dummy,” she began playfully. “Of course, who better to teach you how to stakeout than a superspy like me?”
“Great!” Spidey exclaimed as the two of them made their way towards the main area of the Tower. “I’ll meet you here tonight so we can make our way over to the warehouse.” With that, he leapt out of a window and swung out into the city.
POV Jess
‘Did-Did he just ask me on a date?’ Jess thought to herself with a suppressed squeal as she remembered Spider-Man asking her to help with a stakeout. ‘No, no Jess. Focus, it’s just a stakeout, and it’s not like he likes me like that, right?’
“Jess!” Ms. Marvel called out as she flew into Avengers Tower as Jess continued to watch Spidey swing into the city. “Are you alright?” Carol asked her best friend.
“What? Who do you think I am? Why would I be thinking about Spidey sweeping me off my feet and holding me in his strong, muscular arms before lifting his mask up and kissing me into next week? Why on earth would I think about that doofus like that?” Jess blurted out as Carol looked at her in surprise.
“Uh, Jess? I didn’t say any of that.” Carol stated plainly. “How about we go have a talk…” Ms. Marvel began leading her teammate and best friend towards the living areas of the Tower.
POV Peter
‘Okay, Spidey. Can’t mess this up.’ The webslinger thought to himself as he webbed up a mugger and knocked out a couple armed robbers. His brain moved on autopilot, quipping and swinging as he continued to think. ‘Jess and I will be staking out a warehouse that has ties to confiscated Skrull technology from Osborn’s reign. With her SWORD expertise, we should be able to get this done quickly, as long as I don’t irritate her too much.’ As he swung towards his apartment in order to refresh himself on the logistics of the warehouse, his Spidey-Sense tingled as a rocket barrelled towards him. “Alright, wiseguys. There’s more to life than missile launchers and violence!” He continued to dodge rocket after rocket as he swung closer; he tried to web up as many rockets as possible to prevent collateral damage and redirected quite a few rockets back at their senders. “Alright, now that the toys are taken care of,” he commented after webbing the rocket launchers to the ground. “Why aren’t you boys playing nice?” he adopted a playfully stern tone before wagging his finger comically.
Gunshots rang out as Spidey dodged each shot. “Alright, I’m sorry about the ‘playing nice’ comment!” He began to web up each shooter’s gun and hand before getting closer. “As an apology, I’ll give each of you a facekick for free!” He made with the facekicks and soon all but one of the goons was unconscious. “Alright now, why did you guys decide to target little ol’ me?” He asked with a cock of his head and a narrowing of his lenses.
“T-The boss wanted to keep you away from the warehouse.” The poor man stuttered out as he shivered against the wall.
“And why’s that? What’s he afraid of me finding?” Spidey asked.
“T-The boss didn’t say.” As Spidey leaned forward, the man swallowed before continuing. “A-Alright, alright. He said something about some unfinished business. A common enemy leading to a worthwhile endeavor.”
“Fisk, huh?” Spidey asked as the man’s face paled. “Oh, come on! Who besides Willie uses the word endeavor unironically? Don’t worry, I won’t tell the big man that you gave him up.” With that, he looked away as the sirens began to come closer. “Wow, right on time. Well, sit tight. The boys in blue are on their way to escort you to a nice comfy jail cell.” He swung away with a chuckle in his throat as he made his way back to his apartment.
POV Jess
“So, let me get this straight.” Carol began. “The reason you refused Barton in that whole Fear Itself fiasco was ‘a mysterious man in your life.’ Who is actually Spider-Man, and that’s why you were so distant with me after I flew him back to Asgardia?” She asked incredulously.
Jess just blushed and nodded at her friend. “I did apologize for that, right?” Jess softly asked.
“Yes, you did, but I thought you didn’t even like him!” Carol exclaimed. “You’re always calling him ‘doofus’ or ‘dork’ or some other name like that. Not to mention all of the jibes and jokes at him that you like to make.”
“I’m embarrassed, okay!” Jess exclaimed before hiding her burning red face in her hands. “I’ve never felt so strongly for someone before. I usually fall in and out of love easily, and I used to get crushes on people somewhat often, but I can’t seem to get over Pete. I didn’t know how to express my love for him, so I tried to show it any way that I could. Unfortunately it took the form of teasing and name-calling.” The British Avenger pouted at that as Carol smiled and chuckled at the hilarity of it all.
“Okay, well the way I see it.” Carol began. “You just need to make yourself clear. After the stakeout, ask him to dinner.” Before Jess could say anything, Carol immediately continued talking. “And be clear with him because he is fairly unassuming in regards to women. Make sure that he knows it’s a date!”
“He did ask if one of our earlier stakeouts was a date.” Jess commented under his breath.
“Good! Even more reason to be upfront with him. Now, after the dinner-date-” Carol began before getting interrupted.
“Which he might not accept!” Jess interjected.
“After the dinner-date,” Carol continued nevertheless. “You tell him that you love him and kiss him on the lips. Or vice versa, I’m not too picky. If he doesn’t feel the same way, then we watch sappy rom coms all night while eating ice cream. If he does, well, I’ll leave that up to you.”
“I’m still not sure that this is a good idea.” Jess warily stated.
“Nonsense, let’s get prepared for your stakeout.”
“Let’s? What do you mean ‘let’s’?” Jess frantically asked as Carol dragged her towards her room. “Carol? What do you mean?”
POV Spidey
The rest of the afternoon went by painfully slowly for Spidey. Crime seemed to have taken a backseat, almost as if the universe wanted him to be ready for the stakeout with Jess. ‘Nah, what are the odds?’ Spidey thought to himself as he considered that train of thought. As the sun began to set, he swung up to his preferred window at Avengers Tower before crawling inside. As he made a half-hearted conversation with Hawkeye about accuracy and trick arrows, something that they both bonded over during their combined patrol, he saw Jess approaching out of the corner of his eye.
Her usual red and yellow costume was immaculate, as always, but she seemed to be glowing with happiness for some reason. Her ever present half-smirk that she always had on her face when she met him curled into a full smile as the two spiders approached each other. “Well, Petey. Are we going?” She asked happily.
“Of course, Jess. Let’s get going.” Spidey said after swallowing a couple of times and praising his full-face mask design for hiding his blush at how beautiful Jess looked at that moment. ‘What has she done to make herself so beautiful tonight? I’m going to get distracted at this rate!’ He thought to himself as the two of them traveled towards the warehouse side by side. As they carefully crawled through the window of the warehouse, Spidey began to debrief Spider-Woman on his intel.
“Alright, so it seems like Osborn confiscated a LOT of Skrull weaponry in order to try and reverse engineer it for his own profits. Not that I’m surprised, but still. Anyways, so Fisk bought out this warehouse under a shell company and made these goons dig up the weaponry that’s buried underneath the concrete. Some of them tried to knock me out of the sky with missiles, so I’m not feeling too generous right now.” He admitted as Jess looked him over.
“Is that why you’re wearing your black suit?” She asked as Spider-Man had indeed changed into the suit synonymous with his internal rage and darkness.
“Partially.” Spidey admitted. “But, I figured that my bright red and blue suit might attract more attention than this old thing.” He smirked under his mask as Jess stifled a laugh at that.
“So, Spider-dork, what’s the plan?” She asked and Spidey was distracted for a moment as he heard an affectionate, no, a loving, tone in Jess’s words.
After he took a moment to recollect himself. “Alright, so you have your fighting skills and bioblasts, and I have my webs. These jokers are scared of a black-suited Spider-Man, so I’ll use that to my advantage while you take out the heavily armed ones with your bio blasts.”
“After that?”
“We improvise!” He told her happily as he swung down into a group of goons and began knocking them out without any of his trademark banter.
“T-The Spider’s not talking!” A thug shouted in fear as he saw several of his fellow thugs get knocked out with ease. “It’s our worst nightmare! A silent Spider-Man!” With that, the warehouse turned into chaos. Several goons wet themselves while others fled through doors or windows. Spidey watched with a smirk as some goons outright surrendered as he came near to them. He saw the trademark yellow-green bio blasts from Spider-Woman as snipers and missile-men were knocked out with her efficient fighting.
The whole fight barely lasted twenty minutes. After all of the goons, including the runners, were caught and arrested, the two spiders met on a rooftop overlooking the warehouse that they had just fought inside. Spidey finished putting on his red and blue costume as he sat down next to a silent Spider-Woman. “You know, I really don’t like that suit.” Spidey remarked as the two of them looked at the still setting sun.
“Why’s that, Webhead?” Spider-Woman asked softly, her face lacking a smile and smirk.
“I don’t like what it brings out in me, what it brings out in others. I don’t like instilling fear in criminals. I prefer to instill hope in ordinary people.” He explained to her as they continued to watch the sunset.
“Wouldyougoonadatewithme?” Jess blurted out all at once.
“Could you repeat that?” Spidey asked, sure that he misheard her.
“I-I said. Would you go on a date with me?” She managed to say.
“Where’s this coming from?” Spidey asked incredulously. “I thought you barely even tolerated me?!”
“Well, where are your nicknames for me?!” Jess responded in a huff. “You used to call me ‘Work-Wife’ or ‘Milady Spider’ or any other ridiculous, charming name that you called me.
“I thought you hated those.” Spidey admitted.
“Well, I thought they were embarrassing, but-but I liked them.” She admitted shyly.
“W-Well, where are we going on our date?” Spidey asked, flustered by the sudden events.
“Well, Carol and I managed to find a good pizza place on the way back that’s still close enough to the Tower so we can change into civilian clothes…” Jess trailed off as she realized what Peter had said. “You-You want to go on the date?” She asked, stunned by the acceptance.
“Well of course.” Peter told her with a smile creeping up underneath his mask. “I’ve had a crush on you for a while now. Why do you think I called you Work-Wife?” he asked.
Before Peter knew what to do, Jess jumped into his arms and, acting on instinct, swept her up into a bridal carry. She blushed even more as she began to tug on his mask. Holding her with one arm, he quickly rolled up his mask above his face, not wanting anything to obstruct her from his sight. As he opened his mouth to ask what’s wrong, she pulled him down into a scorching kiss.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally came up for air. “Pete, I love you. I love you so much.”
“Jess, I love you too.” Peter told her as he felt their hearts beat faster before seeming to synchronize. As warmth began to spread from his chest throughout his whole being, he never wanted that feeling to end. “How about that date, Work-Wife?”
Jess blushed brightly even as she smiled brighter, “I’d love to, Spider-Dork.”
The End.