Chapter Text
The room was spinning. A bit too fast for his liking.
And with that Peter knew that this was his sign to leave the party. It was hilarious how at first Peter had deeply considered bailing on the invite but changed his mind once he saw the newest pictures Gwen had uploaded. For some reason Peter hadn't unfriended her yet on Facebook, but Gwen had. The photo had been of her parents and her at some fancy looking resort in France.
She looked happy.
Which in return, made him happy too.
But his brain just wouldn't stop going back and relieving their breakup. It had been for the best Peter had told himself at the time. Even though he then went on to have issues falling asleep for months, went through intense mood swings and pretty much isolated himself from the outside world as Peter Parker. Apart from his Aunt May of course. Peter could try with all his might to keep her away and Aunt May would not budge a single inch. She would make sure to remind Peter that there was someone who loved and cared for him deeply. She was indeed his rock.
After Gwen had gotten dragged into his mess as Spiderman and had almost died during his fight with the Green Goblin, Peter felt like he didn't deserve to hold on to her any longer. That she was safer...away from him.
They tried making things work for a while but with her getting a job at a research centre all the way in New Zealand everything just got a lot more complicated. After several talks and a break, they decided it was best to break up. So, they did. Exactly two years ago.
It took him a very long time to get over his relationship with Gwen. She had been everything Peter could have wished for at the time. But Gwen Stacey deserved more than what Peter could offer her. He would always love who she was as person, but they had moved on.
Peter decided that spending the night at a college party sounded way more exciting, than staring at his wall for hours rethinking every single of his life choices. He had joined some of his newfound friends in various drinking games, for once enjoying the lack of hyperawareness and control. But as Peter felt the back of his head start to throb in pain and his walk become all wobbly, he knew his warm bed and multiple cups of water should be his next move.
He scanned through the room, attempting to find his friend Nolan so he could bid his goodbyes. But then he saw Nolan sneaking off to the bathroom with some pretty-faced guy. Yeah, Peter would rather not interrupt whatever was about to go down over there.
As much as his senses were acting all funky, Peter didn't have too much trouble pushing his way through the mass of sweaty bodies. Once he had made it outside, he started shivering as the cold air repeatedly hit him. Peter couldn't be more thankful for deciding on a thicker jacket as he was leaving his house, as it definitely kept him way warmer than his everyday leather jacket would have. The only good thing about the freezing weather was that it helped Peter sober up a bit. Not by much, but he at least didn't feel like he was stuck on a uncontrollable carousel anymore.
But right now, Peter wanted nothing more but to go back home, throw himself into his bed and just sleep for as long as humanly possible before Spiderman has to jump into the next emergency threatening New York.
There were rumours circling of a potential new supervillain who allegedly had some type of personal agenda against Spiderman. Like many others at this point in his life. This led to Peter having to increase his patrols from once a day to as much as his schedule would allow him in a 24-hour frame. And that in turn had caused Peter less sleep, less focus during his classes and less time with MJ. And that really sucked.
Peter met Michael James Watson, or how he preferred being called MJ, on his first day on campus a couple months ago. He had gone to the administration to inquire some information on his photography classes. MJ, who was working there as a student help, had been the one to give him some pamphlets regarding most of his questions. Peter distinctively remembered how stunned he had been by MJ's unnecessarily charming smile that he had flashed him. Peter found out through some…research that MJ studied journalism und was very well known in their college for not only his good looks but chill and friendly personality.
But for some to him unknown reason, Peter couldn’t help thinking about him, like constantly. Which was weird enough. But then he kept noticing MJ whenever he was on campus and would always catch himself staring after the man. And something that Peter wasn’t proud to admit was that…he may have sneakily taken a couple pictures of MJ. Of course that was also very weird of him. But whenever he would catch him daydreaming or listening to music, swaying his head with a big smile plastered on his face, it felt like his hands had a mind of their own and boom! Picture taken.
One day MJ had approached him while he was working on some essay in the study hall. The taller man had started a friendly conversation with him and that, predictably, had gone very embarrassingly bad. Peter constantly kept stumbling over his own words and couldn't help but to freeze any time MJ laughed, whether it was at or with him.
His sexuality had never been something Peter ever thought much about. The only Person he had ever really dated had been Gwen. So, one could imagine both the confusing and conflicting feelings Peter went through as he tried to figure out his…infatuation with MJ.
In the last month or so, MJ and Peter had formed an acquaintance of some kind, that had helped Peter realise that he was in fact very much so attracted to the other man. Especially after discovering that MJ also liked to skate and seeing him pull of multiple tricks with Peters skateboard. So not only was MJ physically blessed but also had a pleasent personality.
Peter still struggled with the fact that he might be in the middle of developing feelings for MJ. There was no point in it. They weren’t ever going to lead to anything as for one, Peter had sworn off any serious relationships for the unforeseeable future and two, MJ was most likely not even into guys. And even if he was, Peter doubted someone as highly sought after as him would be interested in him.
A quick glance his phone let him know it just a couple minutes after 2 a.m. and from his current location it should take Peter about an hour to get back to his apartment. He considered taking a shortcut as Spiderman, but he had purposefully left his suit at home, wanting to just be Peter for a night. Peter really did not feel like walking home or paying for a taxi.
But then he remembered that MJ, like Nolan, lived pretty close to the campus and the walk to his place should not take more than 10 minutes. Peter clearly wasn’t thinking straight.
Was he seriously going to show up at the poor guy’s house, just because he was too lazy to walk all the way home?
He had been at his place about two times so far and MJ had told him, that he was always welcome. Peter was pretty sure that he hadn’t meant an ungodly hour like 2 fucking in the morning.
Then again, they hadn’t been able to hang out for over a week now and Peter could admit that he missed the youngers cocky smile and warm personality.
And that was all it took for Peter to decide that he would be crashing at MJ’s place for the night.
It was embarrassing how many times he had tripped during his short journey. At one point he even almost fell to the ground which had him thinking that maybe he had a couple shots too many. Once he made it to the apartment complex, up the stairs to now in front of the door number 12, Peter hesitated to knock on the door.
What the hell was he doing showing up at his kind-of-but-not-really-crush’s place in the middle of the night?
Peter let out a frustrated groan as he slid down the door, resting the back of his head against it with his eyes shut tight. Maybe he should just turn back? He should have like 20 bucks in his wallet. That could possibly cover like half of the way home.
“Who’s there?”
A voice suddenly called out from behind the door and Peter flinched. He awkwardly scrambled to his feet and hurriedly said,
"Uhm, It's me, Peter!"
After a moment of deafening silence, Peter heard the sound of rustling keys and there Michael James stood. His expression was filled with a mixture of confusion and astonishment. He was dressed in a pair of grey sweatpants and an old graphic tee. MJ looked tired with his slightly slumped posture, but not the type of tired one would be when they got woken up in dead of the night. He looked...good. Frustratingly so.
"Parker, what are you doing here? Everything good?"
His voice seemed deeper than usual, rougher too. Peter felt his heart skip a beat then it dropping to the pitt of his stomach and considered just turning around and running away before he did something stupid. Well, It was definitely too late for that.
"I'm so sorry, MJ! It's around- I don't even really know anymore, but it's like really late and you probably need your beauty sleep. Because no one who looks as good as you should miss out on their beauty sleep. Which you definitely should keep doing, but then again, I just didn't feel like going home after being at the party for so long. It would have taken me ages and money I didn’t have. And I-, it doesn't matter.
All I want to say is that I just really wanted to see you. And- you know, it's been like a week since we've hung out, which is sooo long ago-"
His very drunk and sadly very honest rambling was interrupted by MJs low chuckles. Peter froze in his movements, face heating up as his head seemed to have finally caught up with his mouth. He dragged both his hands over his face and whined out of pure shame.
What was actually wrong with him today? It was bad enough for him to have randomly showed up at his home and now he basically admitted to MJ’s face how he found said face very attractive and how much he had missed him. Maybe, he should’ve stayed at home spiralling over Gwen and simultaneously his growing attraction for his new friend.
"Slow Down, Parker. We can talk about...all of that once you're sober. But first off, I need you to come in before my neighbours end up hating me."
MJ said as his expression softened, he then stepped aside and Peter stood there for a moment, his mind having gone completely blank. He sighed loudly, grabbed Peters hand and pulled him into the apartment.
After locking the door, MJ didn’t let go of Peter’s hand and continued to drag him all the way to the bathroom, which was a bit tight for 2 people, so they had to stand relatively close to each other. All of Peter’s senses instantly heightened. He became very aware of MJ’s warm body slightly pressed to his side as he rummaged through a basket of essentials. Peter thought that he still found the taller smelled incredibly good. To the point, where Peter had to hold back from actively sniffing him. He closed his eyes and hoped his irregular breathing hadn’t become too obvious.
Being this down bad felt like a humiliation ritual to Peter. He had never been good at playing things cool, so he wondered how obvious he had to be right now.
Peter stiffly stood there as MJ finally pulled out an unused toothbrush for him. He had turned to face him and was talking to him but honest to God, Peter was not paying attention to a single word. He was too distracted by both of their faces being only a few inches apart from one another. The dim light of the bathroom highlighted the other’s soft bronze skin beautifully and Peter felt himself get lost in MJ’s warm brown eyes. And those. damn. dimples. Those deep dimples that enhanced the hell out of his already majestic face were one of his many favourites’ features.
Michael James Watson was truly one hell of a man.
“Stop making that face, Parker.”
And with that Peter was back to the present once more. MJ looked highly amused, his eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief, smirking as he tilted his head sideways looking back at him.
“Huh- What face?”
Peter knew he was probably turning an embarrassing deep shade of red by the way the heat crept all over his body.
“I don’t know, man. It’s hard to tell whether you’re about to kiss me or throw up.”
Peter breathed out a laugh and tried playing off his rise of nerves with a simple shrug,
“Maybe I’ll end up doing both.”
Look, Peter never claimed to be good at flirting, because he very much wasn’t. If that what was even happening right now. It sure did feel like it.
“Please don’t.”, MJ said still smiling widely as he took a step backwards, clearly about to leave Peter to his own devices.
“I guess I will have to try really hard not to.”
“What exactly? The kissing or puking?”
MJ now stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He had an eyebrow raised looking at Peter expectantly. Okay, they had to be flirting at this point.
“That’s for me to know and for you to find out”
Was all Peter had been able to say as his stomach twisted anxiously from trying to pretend that this, whatever the hell this was, didn’t bother him. Wait. Did this mean that MJ might also be interested? Peter internally shook his head at the thought, he had to calm down.
“Just brush your teeth, Parker. And meet me in bed, it’s big enough for the both of us. Unless you’re uncomfortable with that?”
Huh.
“Oh- No! Its fine. Totally cool with me. Lemme just- You know brush my teeth and all that stuff- yeah…”
“Okay, then. There are some spare shorts and shirts in the laundry basket to your left. You can change into those for the night.”
And just like that MJ turned around, leaving Peter behind the small bathroom not knowing how to deal with the train of thoughts that were overanalysing every single word and interaction between them that had all happened in the past 30 minutes alone.
Yeah, Peter wasn’t coming out of this unscathed.