Chapter Text
Living in New York for so long, MJ had gotten used to a lot of the city’s eccentricities; the unspoken rules of the subway and how she’d learnt not to blink at the sight of someone starting to breakdance in the middle of her morning commute before they’d even reached 8am, the fact that your pizza place of choice could and would be divisive in crowds and would and could lead to volatile arguments or even the sight of a man swinging twenty stories above their head on a barely visible rope. She could take that all in her stride now - though in recent months the last one had started to faze her just a little bit more. A substantial amount of her attention being drawn towards Spider-Man’s swooping form and grinning at the hollers she heard for one.
However, one thing that seemed to routinely take her by surprise, was how hot it got in the summer. The smog of the city makes the air humid, sweat and heat clinging to her skin and not moving. Days like today she’d prefer to spend hidden away in the shade of her apartment with the aircon as high as it would go, perhaps laid out on the floor pretending none of her responsibilities existed. Sadly, none of that was possible. Not only for the fact that her aircon unit is currently busted but because she’d somehow managed to raise a kid who enjoyed making the most of the good days in New York’s temperamental weather and had demanded they head to the park.
“Keep your hat on please!” MJ calls over to Janey who has ‘lost’ her sunhat for the third time already, watching with a smirk as the girl’s shoulders droop dramatically before stomping back a few paces to collect the hat. She deliberately places it askew on her head, likely thinking it as some statement or victory over her mom, but MJ’s happy regardless. Her scalp is covered and her face is shaded - classic mom win.
“Aren’t they meant to grow out of the tantrums by five?” Flash muses from beside her around a spoonsful of ice cream.
“You’d think. It hasn’t happened with you yet so I fear I might be stuck with it for a while.”
“Hah. Hah.” He grumbles dryly. “Kid! Your ice cream’s melting! Come grab it before it’s gone.” He shouts across the playground, sighing as Janey continues to stand there staring back at them, oblivious. “It’s going to be soup in a second!” He looks to MJ, “See this is why we get the cone and the cup. All the fun but none of the disappointment or the clean-up.”
“You sound like a walking mommy blog." She notes, pausing to check how much liquid is actually in the cup resting on Flash's knee. A half eaten cone sits in a bright pink puddle, only a small mound of ice cream left. Mentally, she prepares for the tears that are about to follow.
“Just call me parent of the year." He shrugs nonchalantly and bored, avoiding the truth behind the joke.
During the blip, Flash’s parents had adopted another kid. Late at night after they'd had one too many drifts, their conversation drifting from drunken nonsense to the fears they would never dare share sober, he admitted that it had felt like they were trying a redo. His relationship with his parents had always been distant. They worked long hours and tended to throw money at the gap between them to try and fill it. He wondered if his vanishing had been a catalyst enough for them to realise where they went wrong.
It left him with a lot of complicated feelings towards his parents in the same way MJ had.
While he didn't know how to speak to his parents following the discovery upon his return, he knew it wasn't the kid's fault. Whether it was for fear of history repeating despite his parents' apparent change in heart or something else, he'd tried his hardest to get to know his brother. Only made more difficult by the fact the kid was nearly two decades younger than Flash.
It'd been a hard time for him but it's paying off for MJ now with the hand-me-down toys she's gotten from him and the nuggets of insight he's offered her that is somehow less condescending than when her sister tells her exactly the same thing.
“It’s almost gone.” Janey frowns staring down at the cup, surprised to see that Flash had actually been telling her the truth.
“I did warn ya that happens when ice cream gets warm." He answers, "Least you can drink it though. Use it as a sauce for your cone."
MJ's nose crinkles, not liking the sound of a soggy wafer, turning her head away to hide her distaste from Janey.
Luckily, she doesn't pay her mom any attention instead starting to play her favourite game of all time with Flash:
“Why?”
Out of the corner of her eye, MJ can see Flash staring the girl down. Janey doesn't relent in her innocent puppy-dog eyes even as she slurps from her cup.
“Because it’s a cold thing and it’s a hot day.” He eventually says.
“But why did it melt?”
“Just how things go.”
“But why?”
Flash hums for a long second, debating how best to phrase his answer so that for the next week MJ is left dealing with questions far too deep and meaningful for a five year old to be contemplating.
“Ice cream teaches you to cherish the good things before they're gone, I guess.
MJ’s head drops with an exasperated sigh.
"Must you?" She asks under her breath, for once pleased to see that Janey is unperturbed as she continues to ask,“But why?”
Another victory comes as she disregards Flash's genius plan to avoid mess and attempts to stick her finger into the melted mess that was her remaining ice cream though given how dirty her hands are, MJ is forced to put a stop to that one.
“If I give you ten dollars will that explain why? That’s more than the tooth fairy will ever give you.” Flash asks.
“Can I use it to buy more ice cream?” Janey asks after thinking for a second. MJ proud she's using such reasoning. It's always nice when she isn't the one being outwitted by a child.
“Only one ice cream per day, kid, that's the law." Flash replies easily, too used to Janey's comebacks to be phased. "But at least you’ll have ten dollars.”
Janey hums in deep consideration before holding her hand out.
“He’ll give it to you later. We don't want it to get lost while you run around." MJ says.
"Can I use it to buy a cat?" Janey asks in between loud slurps from her cup.
"No." Both MJ and Flash say in unison.
A girl in her nursery class had recently gotten a kitten for her birthday. She'd been bragging about it continuously and planted the idea in Janey's head that a cat was what they needed in their lives.
It was one of the few instances where MJ was putting her foot down. Jackson had finally found some steady work in the city, they were balancing a good schedule but it was still all too new to be throwing a pet into the mix. It was an extra strain and responsibility that she didn't think they were ready for.
Flash just didn't want to pet-sit whenever they went away.
"Am I getting a cat for my birthday?"
"No, sweetheart. We're too busy to have a cat right now. Ask Flash to get one so you can visit it." She says, grinning as Janey's eyes bounce over to Flash, beginning to bounce on the balls of her feet.
"Fifteen dollars?" He replies, sidestepping her next set of listless questions entirely. With the promise of more money and her attempts at haggling a resounding success, Janey discards the last dregs of her ice cream and shoots back off towards the jungle gym, MJ casts a side eye to Flash. “You can’t pay my kid off every time you get bored of answering questions you started.”
“Why not? My parents did it with me and I turned out fine.”
MJ rolls her eyes and tips her head back, deciding if she's going to be stuck out in the oppressive heat, she might as well try to make the most out of the sun.
“You sure you don’t wanna stay tonight too? I’ve got the room.” He asks.
The apartment isn't unbearable without the AirCon, but it is stifling. Janey wouldn't have a good night's sleep there so she'd called Flash to see if he'd be willing to babysit.
“Someone’s gotta be in for the repairman if you ever want us to leave.”
Beside her, Flash twists. She doesn't need to look at him to know he's staring. MJ can feel the weight of his eyes on her, studying her carefully, gauging for any sort of reaction.
She gives him none. There's nothing odd about calling a repairman when something is broken. No reason for any sort of concern.
"Things still awkward between you two then?"
MJ debates feigning ignorance though knows that Flash would only take it as evidence for his point.
"No." She says pointedly, eyes still closed and facing the sky. "I just didn't want to bother him. He's been busy, or don't you remember how exhausted your teachers were by the end of the year?"
For once, when it comes to something Peter related, she isn't lying to herself.
Well.
Mostly.
He had been busy. Though not for reasons he's explicitly shared with her, which is where things had become awkward.
They were both adults and capable of moving past a few kisses, a night together and an unspoken promise of something more . That hadn't been too much of an issue after MJ had put any hopes of a relationship developing between them on pause, especially given that to Janey, nothing had changed. She had no idea that MJ and their neighbour had been flirting or talking about becoming something. To her, the biggest thing that had happened the night after her recital and the days that followed it was that she’d gotten a new dress from Jackson's mom.
MJ had been friends with an ex before. She was co-parenting a whole ass child with one. She could do it again easily with an ‘almost’. Peter occasionally worked with one of his exes, and had divulged more than once that he’d survived painfully obvious crushes on close friends so theoretically it wasn’t really an issue.
In practice however… It was a different story.
Janey provided a good reason to keep trying despite how they might be feeling themselves, at least.
To call it a ‘break-up’ felt childish since they hadn’t given it a name to begin with, but she does think that she lost something that night.
Peter has been careful with how much of Spider-Man’s life he shares with her since. In the few months that had passed, MJ could count on one hand the numbers of times he’d taken her up on the offer to patch him up. Any concerns about his safety were shrugged off in the same way they used to unless Janey had asked about it.
To a degree, she understands what he was trying to do. Spider-Man had been an issue between them, halted progress in their relationship and he’s trying his hardest to ensure that it doesn't happen again. MJ can see right through him and it doesn’t work because she isn’t as ignorant to his antics as she was before. She can watch the news, she can search his name, she can be sitting at work and see the city beat team rushing out the door and she knows that it’s him out there.
Peter is still Spider-Man, MJ and Janey still both know and it’s hardly ever talked about if possible.
In short, it’s a mess that they’re trying to wade through.
One that isn’t going to be resolved by asking him to fix her AirCon, leaving her to sit on her window ledge in the lounge, the slight breeze coming through enough to cool her just a fraction compared to the stagnant, stuffy air of her apartment, while she waits for another sort of hero to knock at her door. Her usual one can have a night off when he gets in, mabe gives himself the rare opportunity to relax though she doubts that Peter would ever take such an opportunity. He’s always been in motion. The few times she’s ever really seen him take a moment, stand still and just be were in this very apartment.
Her life has a funny way of torturing her, since her position gives her the perfect vantage point to watch Peter come hurtling down their street. He swings himself up, catches himself on another thread. His body is an extension of the web, lean and smooth with how he cuts through the air. He mind travels to dangerous places as she watches him swing towards their building before landing deftly on the wall beside his window.
She’s tempted to stay silent as he enters his apartment, wondering if it’ll be easier. The status quo right now says that they’re neighbours and Spider-Man is just a shadow in the corner that they never dare to address. Janey isn’t even around, something that has felt a lot like a prerequisite to their interactions, a reminder to keep themselves on track, but the decision is made for her when his head snaps up, the eyes of his mask narrowing and widening back open again just as quickly.
“Hey…” MJ waves. She goes to sit up straighter from her slumped perch on the window ledge, but loses her balance for a second, wobbling too far out the open window and having to slam her foot down to the floor, hand gripping the frame to catch herself.
When she looks back up, Peter’s hand is braced in front of her and even through the mask she can read his worried expression, imagining his pinched brows, the downturn in his mouth and the way his eyes would harden.
“This isn’t a chair, you know.” He remarks, clearing his throat.
MJ laughs weakly.
“Outside is cooler than my apartment, would you believe?” She explains lamely, figuring that she doesn’t need to justify her choice of window over their joint fire escape. The alley might be shaded but the dumpsters below had been sitting in the heat all day. She wasn’t subjecting herself to that.
“AC broken?” Peter guesses.
She nods.
“Want me to take a look?”
“I’ve got someone coming out tonight.”
“They’ll charge you a fortune for it. Let me try first. I’ll only ask for some lunchables as payment.” She goes to speak. “And don’t lie. Janey already snitched about ‘em.”
MJ’s mouth snaps closed, ignoring the warmth in her stomach at how familiar this all feels, trying hard to pretend she’s not thinking about how smu he probably looks beneath the mask.
“They’re not gonna be your dinner, are they?”
“Are you, the woman who gave her growing child this delicacy for her lunch, saying that they are not appropriate sustenance for a meal?” He asks in return, head tilting and voice teasing.
Knowing that she won’t win, MJ stands with a scoff for extra measure before gesturing for him to come in.
Peter doesn’t enter, however, hovering in her window still, hesitant.
“I’ll get changed then come over.” He tells her before crawling away.
There is nothing about the comment that should hurt or sting. Peter wants to get out the suit. In this weather, she can only imagine how uncomfortable it is to be in regardless of how Tony Stark’s technology and Peter’s brain have come together to make the fabric, the wiring and everything about it breathable and near weatherproof. She only remembers that because of how he’d babbled the explanation between kisses after she’d made an offhand comment.
It’s an entirely innocent remark. Peter stands by his promise and appears at her door a few minutes later but the warmth inside of her is quickly doused as reality sets in. It’s distance. A gap between her, this apartment and the suit.
It’s exactly what she’d asked for and it brings her no satisfaction to have it.
He borrows her tools, whacks the AC a few times - notably without the same frustration she’d been hitting it with earlier and she gets some joy in watching his mouth quirk up at the edges when she mentions that.
"Any plans this summer?" MJ asks, leaning up against the wall while he works. Her eye drifts down the length of his back, holding on the trim of his waist and then his ass, not realising that he'd replied until Peter clears his throat.
Her cheeks warm, eyes shooting up to meet his from where he's looking over his shoulder.
"You okay there?" He asks, playful and smug, forgetting for a moment.
"Sorry. What did you say?" MJ blinks.
Peter looks over her, wetting his lips as he takes in the loose top and jersey shorts.
It really would be easy to forget. His suit is next door. He's here. He's just Peter right now, what's so bad about that?
This is why Janey has to be around.
Their eyes meet, no words passing but they both know.
"Something's always happening." He answers again, vague enough that it's easy to assume he's talking about Spider-Man. Another reminder of why they can't just forget. The suit may be next door, but the man was still here. "Will probably be dragged out to the lake for a couple days. How about you two?"
"The usual. Work, birthdays, got Janey signed up to this holiday club, visiting my mom."
He looks back over his shoulder, brow arched in a silent question. At least some things haven't changed completely. MJ wants to tell him how much she appreciates that.
"I'll be fine. I've learned if I just stay where there's WiFi, I don't lose my mind as much."
"The suburbs will do that to you."
"Can't see yourself with a white picket pence and a garden?" MJ asks teasingly. Her gut sinks as Peter’s head drops with a forced laugh and a shake of his head.
Normally Janey would break the tension. She isn't there right now so it just hangs there, thicker than the air around them.
Within thirty minutes, he’s got it back up and running again. The only sign he’d even touched it is a piece of tape holding one corner together in place of a screw.
Peter accepts his payment, shaking the package in front of her and listening to the rattle of the crackers gleefully. Janey isn’t around so he doesn't linger, claiming he’s got a few last assignments to mark before the end of the year and she doesn’t ask him too, knowing that’s probably a lie.
He lets himself out.
The AC is running, her lounge, her bedroom, Janey’s room, all bearable to stand in the middle of. She texts to cancel her call-out, and reads through the messages Flash has sent her so far that evening.
Everything is perfectly fine, great even. Yet her eyes keep drifting to her front door, asking herself what good it would have done if she’d asked Peter to stay for a little longer.
Her phone lights up again. A contact from the depths of her call log making its way to the very top and forcing herself to take a breath before she answered.
“Hey mom.”
“Hi Sweetheart.” Her mom has a very specific way of talking to her. Years down the line and something like forgiveness forged between them, there’s a hesitancy that never quite managed to heal like her mom was always surprised to hear her on the other end of the line while MJ was always bracing some new bombshell to be shared. They mostly stuck to texting to avoid that. Only calling at the same time every other week to check-in. “You sound surprised to hear me. Is now not a good time?”
“No, mom. Now is the perfect time.” For once, she was more than happy to be distracted by her mom’s winding tales about Pennsylvania, eager to spend the time after the call rotating the lingering ache of the blip around in her mind. It would give her plenty of a distraction from thinking of Peter, something she was meant to be past doing. He was just her friend, after all. She’d decided that for the sake of her kid.
"How's Janey doing? How are you?"
"I'm great. Janey's fantastic, finally got her to accept that peas aren't the devil incarnate."
Her mom laughs in surprise. "How'd you manage that? Coated them in sugar?"
"No." MJ says slowly, fighting off a sigh as her heart squeezes fondly. "She found out Spider-Man thinks they're cool."