Chapter Text
“C'mon Parker! I promise it’ll be fun, I'll be there, I told you we could match!” Johnny pleaded before twisting his head to catch a ball as he heard an outfielder calling his, dropping the ball into the plastic ball bucket he was standing over.
“Who, Maverick and Goose? Johnny I told you already, I don’t know the people you hang out with. I’d rather go see the new Superman movie, I'm really excited to see what James Gunn is doing with the franchise.” he said, subconsciously reverting to rambling as he changed the topic and packed up his camera kit.
Being Johnny’s best friend, he had volunteered to photograph the varsity baseball games. It was great for him because he loved photography and these jobs made sure he was never short of work.
He also got great publicity for his work because at their school baseball was the big sport, not football. And in return the team got pictures for their social media, and, guaranteed front pages on the school newspaper, not to mention great spots in the yearbook. And pretty good pictures if you asked him! For free too, despite Johnny’s protests. But that was the most he knew about the baseball team, I mean he couldn't even name at least half of the guys on the team!
“Oh yeah we should go see that this weekend!” Johnny said contently, lost in thought, planning the movie plans, before realizing he still hadn't convinced Peter. “Wait, Pete! C'mon you don't even have to dress up." Johnny pleaded desperately "It's just...the other guys are great and all, but I only have one best friend.” He said looking, at Peter with his signature puppy dog eyes as he walked over to him, carrying a now full ball bucket. Meanwhile he yanked his cap off before repositioning it to sit on his head backwards, as to pull back the frizzy hair strands that had freed themselves.
“It’s not about the costumes, it's about the people..” he trailed off, looking up to see Johnny walking over. He wasn't going to change his mind, until...he saw that stupid, adorable, manipulating face. He really had to strengthen his will. “Fine.” He sighed regrettably as finished packing up his own equipment.
“Wait actually? You'll go!?” Johnny said, his face lighting up as he ran into the dugout, throwing the ball bucket inside and ripping his baseball bag off the fence. He immediately raced back out to meet Peter and see if he was being serious.
“Not if you make a big deal out of it.” he sighed, full of pretend annoyance as he slung his own bag of equipment over his shoulder and joined Johnny to walk off the field.
“I won’t! I’m not-” Johnny said, panicking before letting out a sigh of relief. His worried expression turned into an excited smile as he sent a celebratory arm pump into the air while they walked over to his car.
“Dude look at this!” Johnny said with an excited, 'You need to see this' smile as he walked out of the bathroom in his Maverick jumpsuit costume, the zipper undone a little excessively. He fixed his hair in a nearby mirror before fully facing Peter. “Talk to me goose.” he quoted with a grin as he posed, giddy for Peter's opinion.
Peter chuckled as he watched him walk out, bleeding confidence. “No one's gonna beat this hothead.” he said, looking him up and down, unknowingly letting a big smile creep onto his face at the way Johnny lit up about the costume. He doubted a bunch of high-schoolers were gonna know who they were but he could care less.
“Alright, chop chop Parker, I need a Goose to complete me!” he said offering his hands to Peter who was sitting in front of him on his bed. Energetically Johnny pulled Peter up, accidentally pulling Pete up too fast and consequently pulling him right onto himself, so now their faces were inches apart and hands were linked together.
All of a sudden, Peter suddenly became hyper-aware of how sweaty his palms were, and the feeling of Johnny's breath against his face, and did he shower today? He was too distracted to notice that Johnny was not stuck in this trance and had maneuvered around him to break the proximity; as an arm was now on his back pushing him towards the bathroom.
“Let me know if it fits, it’s hung on the shower rod” Johnny said, as Peter snapped back to reality.
“Uhh yeah- right.” Peter choked out before shooting Johnny a smile that was supposed to be cool but came out really awkward as he shut the bathroom door to change.
A couple moments later Peter walked out of the bathroom with his costume, they looked relatively similar but Peters had a patch that said “GOOSE” instead of “MAVERICK”, and his collar was zipped up to the movie accurate length, with a white shirt underneath. He slid the sunglasses that came with the outfit onto his face as he took his turn to model for Johnny, who was leaning against a wall in front of the bathroom. “What’dya think? Anthony Edwards and I are basically identical twins.” he joked, chuckling as he gauged Johnny's reaction.
Johnny whistled as Pete walked out of the bathroom. “Oh yeah, if you were alive in the 80's he would've had some real competition.” Johnny smiled and Peter couldn’t help but blush a little, hoping it wasn’t too obvious. What? He literally made a wolf whistle, how else was he supposed to react? Thank god he put on the glasses.
“It looks good, I'm glad it fits because it came in this like weird two pack-” Johnny said, trailing off as he tapped his phone on the desk next to him. “Alright Pete you ready? We've gotta go now if we don’t wanna be late.” he said as he pocketed his phone
Peter glanced up at the clock on top of the door “Oh yeah I should be good, I just need to grab my digital” He replied while his eyes simultaneously began to search for a small camera. Eventually he spotted it on the floor, peaking out from under his bed as he sucked his teeth at his poor organization of his belongings, especially with cameras...which weren't exactly cheap.
“All ready Hotshot.” Peter said with a smile after he picked it up and headed for the bedroom door, opening it in a sarcastic overly gentlemanly way.
“Thank you sir.” Johnny chuckled as he headed for the door, strutting out of it as Peter following behind him.
Johnny knocked a little aggressively on the door to the house where the Halloween party was being held. The outside decorations were super sick, there were those cool spider webs on the bushes, tons of inflatables mixed with solid figurines, and a light projection on the entirety of the house, Peter made sure to snag a photo.
As they waited by the door it wasn't hard to hear the extremely loud music, accompanied by some sort of lights, both coming from inside. Which is why it took 4 knocks before the door swung open to reveal a girl dressed as a black cat.
“If it isn’t Johnny Storm..” She said as she sized him up before her eyes darted to the boy next to him who was about the same height. A knowing smirk creeped onto her face. “Peter is it?” she asked, hyper-focused on his face, trying to confirm her suspicions.
“Peter Parker at your service.” he said with an awkward smile, immediately regretting his word choice.
“I’m sorry, do I know you..?” he considered as his eyes fell on her long white hair, he would’ve thought he would remember a trait like that.
“Did Mary-Jane mention to you she had a date tonight?” the girl asked as she leaned against the door frame, not letting them in just yet. --- It was taking everything in Johnny not to snap at her. He just really didn’t want to deal with the lecture from Sue about good etiquette like he was some five year old, because she would find out one way or another, he swore it was like she had been granted the power of invisibility and was just stalking him all the time to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid, it was really fucking creepy! --- Point is, Her and Johnny have hooked up, but only once, so he swears. I mean have you seen her? She’s smokin, but also possibly a bigger flirt than him. She was just too egotistical, but he is too, so trying to mix the two together was impossible; plus there was just something about her that always seemed off...and the way she was toying with Peter now wasn’t making him feel any more reassured than before.
“Uhm yeah..how do you know about that? How do you know M…oh.” he questioned, before pausing for a beat of realization. This was MJ’s date. When he thought of a date he didn’t really envision a shitty high-school coustme party, but knowing MJ it wasn't really out of the picture. He wished she would've told him she was going, he hated people assuming what was best for him. Yes he didn't love parties, but of course he'd go to support his friend! He hoped she just didn't say anything because she didn't want a third wheel...a third wheel to a girl he didn't even know the name of he realized.
Almost like she could see the cogs turning, the girl at the door introduced herself as “Felicia, Felicia Hardy” with a poised smile, as she gestured to herself.
Johnny cleared his throat, interjecting “Well this has been a fun reunion but if you could just tell us where Henry and the rest of the team are that’d be great.” he asked as he narrowed his eyes at her. Maybe Peter wasn't entirely wrong, he could see the appeal of being single now, no exes or ex hookups really. Subconsciously he wrapped an arm around Peter and pulled him into his side. So what, he was a little protective? He had rights y’know! Best friends are supposed to be protective.
“Right..they're in the back, just head through the living room and take right you’ll see them.” She said as she loosened up and stopped leaning on the doorway so they were able to enter. “Have fun you two, just not too much fun.” She teased with a smirk as she invited them in.
“She seems friendly.” Peter noted as he headed for the kitchen, earlier he had spotted the makeshift bar he knew Johnny would want to visit first. Around them the living room was crowded with teenagers in Halloween costumes, some not. It was this mixing bowl of people dancing, talking or making out. It wasn’t really Peter's scene, but it was bearable for now…
He poured some Dr. Pepper into a red cup for himself and handed a beer bottle to Johnny.
“Thanks" Johnny said softly, taking a sip before his tone was replaced with un-interest. “Right friendly..that's a way to put it.” he replied, referring to Peters earlier comment and sighing as he grabbed an additional beer, or two. “Alright wallflower wanna go see what shit the guys are up to? I’d get that camera of yours out if I were you.” he said, shooting him a wink that weirdly made Peter's stomach become all tingly. Which was obviously because of the party! The party was making him nervous! That was it..
Johnny led them through the crowd of people, grabbing a firm grasp on Peter's wrist, as to not lose him through the crowd of drunk teenagers, and after knocking on a wrong door or two they found the one that opened up to a room full of mostly guys, fluttered with some girls, sitting around in a circle on the floor with a bottle in the center of them.
“Johnny, we were just about to send out a search party!” Harry joked with a small chuckle, looking up first to see them in the doorway. He was dressed as some kind of sexy goblin? Maybe if you squint your eyes…Costumes aside his face lit up when he saw Peter next to Johnny. They had met when Peter was interviewing the team for some promotional thing and they had really hit it off, Harry could listen to Peter talk about science for hours, he just made it seem so cool. So Harry was always looking for opportunities to properly befriend him, and was obviously excited to see that he had come. “Peter, you too! You guys came just in time, we're starting spin the bottle.” He said with an inviting smile and the two fully walked in and closed the door.
“Oh sick I've always wanted to play this!” Johnny mentioned, intrigued as he rushed to take a seat next to Harry, some of the guys making space for him. He immediately turned back to face Peter who was still standing by the door, but alone this time. “You wanna play webs?” He asked Peter. Yes ‘Webs’. It was completely stupid, but when they were kids Peter got bit by this spider and they were of the age where they were being told “If you swallow watermelon seeds its going to grow inside of you” so by that logic obviously Johnny thought Peter would be able to craft up a spiderweb by tomorrow morning. To no one's surprise but their own, he couldn't, but Johnny chose the nickname ‘Webs’ and Peter hadn't been able to get rid of it.
“Hey don’t feel pressured, ill sit out with you.” Johnny said a little quieter, turning his head so just Peter could read his lips, he figured he didn’t have to reassure him and the entire room, further abashing him. But Peter saw how excited Johnny was, he wasn’t gonna let him sit out of this. Plus just because he didn’t like flashing lights in his face and music blaring in his ear didn't mean he wasn’t down for a game of spin the bottle. What’s the worst that could happen?
Peter took a seat next to Johnny after some people scooted down. Finally, Harry went on to explain the rules. “Alright I assume everyone knows how this works but if you don’t it’s simple. We spin this bottle, whoever it lands on you gotta kiss! And not fake shit, full on the lips kiss for a minimum of 10 seconds. If you pussy out you have to take a sip.” He said as he opened the cap and took a sip from the bottle, but not enough to do anything. “Kinda like that.” He said with a smile as he put the bottle back in the center. “Because I'm so kind, I’ll start.” With that he grasped the skinny top of the bottle and sent it flying in a circle, teasing each person it went past. Finally it landed on a blonde haired girl dressed as a Winx Fairy who he thought he recognized from the school's track team. They made eye contact and confirmed with their eyes their plan of action. Harry leaned over the guy sat next to him to meet the girl who was next to said guy, gently he grabbed her face and gave her a good, definitely longer than 10 second kiss. There were a mix of reactions, some whistles, some wide eyed, especially the guy they were kissing LITERALLY right on top of, and he could've sworn he saw a hint of jealousy in this one guy dressed as flash.
Eventually he reclined back to his sitting upright next to Johnny, meanwhile wiping the end of his lips clean of her lipstick with a smirk. “Not bad Liz.” He said smugly, but there were still obvious traces of blush on his face.
Liz went on to kiss one of her girlfriends that she was matching costumes with, and the game progressed. Each time it landed on someone Peter studied everyone’s reactions, secretly discovering who liked who as he came to recognize the same look of shielded discomfort on someone’s face as they reacted to a kiss. After around 20 minutes had passed he was starting to lose interest, out of all the people there he was the only one it hadn’t landed on, even Johnny had gone, but still not him. I mean he wasn’t looking to kiss a bunch of people but watching people repetitively just make out gets painstakingly boring after some time and you want to participate too.
As if god could hear him he realized that the bottle was now pointing at him. Wait at him?! Oh shit. He looked up and his eyes met with a blonde haired girl dressed as..holy shit she was dressed as fucking David Bowie, that was convincing enough for him to dissolve any discomfort about kissing a random girl. Plus he’d seen her around and he was pretty sure she was friends with MJ.
“Have fun Parker.” Johnny said, nudging him in the shoulder as the girl walked around a person or 3 before she was standing behind him. Peter looked nervously at Johnny hoping it would give him reassurance, or encouragement, as he turned around to face the girl who had now knelt down to meet him at eye-level. He gave her an awkward smile before their lips locked, it wasn’t very long but it was good? He thought. That was his first kiss..like ever…so he didn’t really know what constituted as good. Nevertheless, he was more focused on the fact that some party game just stole his first kiss. At least it was with someone who seemed to have experience, he reasoned.
He really did want to enjoy it, I mean it was his first kiss! But his mind kept drifting, he couldn't help but dwel on the fact that his first kiss was supposed to be special and with someone meaningful. There had to be someone out there, right? Someone who he would get that meaningful feeling with? That spark? Relationships and love and all that fluff never seemed that important to him until now. Now he couldn't help but think if he would ever find that person. More than that, he hoped his internal dilema didn’t show on his face as he broke from the kiss.
He looked around him, a little flustered to see everyone's eyes on him, and really on him as kids craned their necks to see the kiss because they happened to be faced away from the circle. He spun back to face the inside of the circle and he realized that everyone else's reactions, visual and audible, blurred as he subconsciously focused on Johnny's expression. For whatever stupid reason, he couldn't help but wonder what he might say, intrigued was an understatement, but Johnny was silent. So he tried the next best thing and studied his facial expression. He almost choked on air when he recognized that look..the disappointed and slightly hurt look he had seen on the faces of other girls and guys as they watched who they liked make out with someone right in front of them. Seeing it up close, right in front of his face made him feel indescribably guilty, but also...it gave him a weird sense of pride? Not to mention the way his chest felt like it was about to explode! What the hell was happening to him?
His revelation was interrupted by Harry‘s chuckle. “Was it that good Peter? If you’re lucky maybe you’ll land on Gwen again.” He joked as he gestured to the bottle with his head, reminding Peter it was his turn now.
Peter forced a laugh that was utterly unnatural, trying and failing not to come off awkward as realized everyone was still staring at him. “We’ll see.” he coughed out with a dry chuckle as he grabbed ahold of the bottle and sent it spinning.
It seemed like it twirled for an eternity as he watched it go past person after person, his nerves building as the bottle indecisively kept spinning until gradually it began to slow down…even slower..until it came to a stop. Peter's eyes followed the bottle from the base up to the end of the neck, following it as he nervously looked up to see who it was pointed at.
Johnathan. Fucking Johnny Storm.
He felt his breath hitch as he finally made eye contact with the boy sat next to him. His heart was now officaly going a mile a minute as his eyes fell down to his lips involuntarily. “Uhm..” he croaked out “I can drink if you don’t want to.” Peter reasoned, awkwardly, leaning over to grab the bottle of alcohol while the other highschoolers let out disappointed groans.
But before Peter got close enough to reach the bottle Johnny interjected, grabbing his hand and hastily blurting out ”No-!” The room fell silent for a moment before he let out an awkward chuckle, and providing reasoning for his outburst, “If you drink who’s gonna drive me home? C'mon it’s just a little smooch” he teased, regaining some of his composure as he sent Peter an air kiss.
Upon receiving the air kiss he could feel the heat simultaneously rising in his face, before quickly shaking it off. He was right, it was just a kiss, just like the one a minute ago..so why did this feel so different? He took a deep breath and forced a smirk. “Think you can handle me Storm?” Peter joked looking straight into his eyes, hoping he was doing a good job at hiding the way his chest was falling in on itself.
“Confidence looks good on you Parker.” He said in a softer voice not giving Peter a chance to respond as he leaned forward and grabbed Peter's head, gripping Peters hair as he led him into a kiss.
It was like fireworks exploding in his bones. All rational thoughts and feelings left Peter as he leaned into Johnny's soft lips. He kept leaning inward, disappointing as he realized he was also close as he could get, subsisting his need for proximity as gripped onto Johnny, stabilizing himself with one hand on Johnny's back and the other on his chest, forgetting Johnny's zipper was not fully up, smiling as he made contact with the warm surface that was his chest. He wished he could say he was caught up in the moment, but who was he kidding? He was just surprised, because he was realizing..there was no multiverse where he was straight, not with the way he was devouring Johnny’s lips with his own.
His hand roamed over Johnny's chest like it had eyes, finally finding some cloth and pulling him closer by his shirt. Peter's other hand trailed down Johnny's shoulder until it found his waist, immediately allowing heat to rise in his hands, unsure where he got the conviction to be so bold, answering his own question as he felt his pants get tighter. Despite his courage, he was internally freaking the fuck out. He couldn't believe this was only the second time he had ever kissed someone! In the same like 10 minutes mind you. All he could hope was that his skill was somewhat acceptable, letting Johnny led him through most of it, tugging at his lips while intertwining his tongue with Peter’s. Despite his unfamiliarity with kissing he felt oddly comfortable and safe in a way he didn't feel with Gwen.
Time became irrelevant as everyone else in the room faded away, easily blocking out the hollers and counting, keeping any attention he had to give on Johnny and his beautiful mouth and his gorgeous large hands that were currently tugging at his hair. How had they never done this before?
Eventually they split to breathe properly, hands still clutched in hair and on chests while they rested their foreheads up against one another. Their exhales were short and labored as they sat there, still.
“Holy shit that was like a whole minute!” Peter finally heard Harry shout, Harry was looking at them in astonishment and a head filled with questions, so many questions.
Johnny took a deep breath remembering they were still in a room full of people and finally said something. “I'm drunker than I thought..” he said, breaking away from Peter and licking his lips discreetly.
“Yeah clearly..” someone muttered with their hand on their mouth, it was a girl Peter recognized, named Frankie, she was actually a really nice girl but he could easily read the jealousy all over her face. He never thought someone would actually be jealous of him, and that concept made him feel oddly smug and somewhat protective as a smile creeped on his face.
“I don’t remember that scene in top gun.” someone said genuinely dumbfounded, making the whole room laugh, thankfully changing the atmosphere as both Peter and Johnny weakly chuckled along.
With a sigh Johnny spoke again, “I think I've gotta tap out guys, this was fun.” He explained, forcing a friendly smile, asserting his final attempt of trying to kill any suspicion that that was anything more than a drunken kiss, both for everyone else and his own sake. He was met with groans and rolled eyes, more excessive ones from people who were waiting for him to continue the game with his turn, in hopes the bottle would end up pointing to them.
“Yeah Im sorry, but there will be other parties.” He explained with a shrug as he stood up. “You can take my place Flash.” he said as he grabbed some empty beer bottles around him trying to occupy himself with something to ignore him from the fact that his heart was currently performing a whole gymnastics routine. “You coming Pete?” he asked, turning to look at Peter as he headed towards the closed door. “Remember the whole “I need someone to drive me thing" *he said almost reluctantly. The last thing he needed was to be alone with Peter right now, but he seriously did need a ride, and they had came in his car and he wasn't trusting anyone with his car but Pete.
Peters head snapped to attention as he heard his name. Damn. That's right, that was the whole reason Johnny kissed him in the first place, so Peter remained sober. He couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment as he remembered the fact. “Right, yeah!” He blurted as he shot up to his feet. “Thanks for having me guys.” He said with a soft simile as he addressed the circle, it felt nice to be invited to something, not that he was a social outcast or anything, but he barely knew the team so he felt thankful for the invite and even more thankful that they weren't stereotypical stuck up jocks, everyone was actually pretty nice.
There were scattered replies of “Thanks for coming” and “See you later's” directed at both of them as Peter made his way over to Johnny who was waiting for Peter in the open doorway.
“Don’t have too much fun without us.” Harry shouted out with a smirk before he felt a nudge on his shoulder and saw a bottle pointed at him, his smirk dropping as an eager Flash Thomposon had spun the bottle already, realzing it was now pointed at him.
“Looks like you have enough fun to last you.” Johnny joked, but it fell on deaf ears as the blush in Harry's face grew and Johnny and Peter took their exit.