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Staring at the tiny mirror in the bathroom, his hair looks all right. Peter has spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to fix it only to end up with the same style he’s adopted over the last few years. Very little product to just keep it out of his eyes.
The only reason he isn’t freaking out about the outfit is because MJ and Ned are currently rummaging through his clothes picking it out. And both of them have a much better sense of style than he does. So he can trust they would pick out something nice.
“Ta-da,” Ned shows him to the bed where they’d laid out his outfit.
“Really?” Peter says. “That’s what you could come up with?”
“It’s a great look,” Ned tries.
“It’s a black t-shirt and jeans, Ned,” Peter argues back. “I could’ve picked that out.”
“It’s a good outfit, you’re just freaking out,” MJ says, walking into the bedroom holding a mug.
Going to his closet, Peter says, voice a little too high for comfort, “It’s too simple and I’m not freaking out.”
“He’s freaking out,” she tells Ned who just nods. “It’s a classic. Something from his time but with just enough of a twist so it’s not too on the nose.”
“James Dean.”
“I think James Dean was a little before his time,” Peter says, really starting to panic because his clothes are practical, not meant for dating.
“But he was probably a teenager swooning over him,” MJ says and Peter stops.
“And it accentuates your best feature,” Ned adds.
“My best feature?” Peter asks, stepping out of the closet, cautiously looking over on the bed.
“Yeah, man. Those Spider-Man biceps. He won’t be able to resist them.”
Groaning, Peter says, “You guys, this is serious. He’ll be here like any minute and I’m in my pajamas.”
“Then get changed,” MJ deadpans and it’s very hard not to just do as she says.
“Shouldn’t I have a tie?” He asks. “I feel like grown ups wear ties.”
“To see a movie?”
“We’ll go to dinner after.”
“And where’s he taking you?”
“I… don’t know,” Peter admits. “He wanted it to be a surprise.” He sends them out of the room to try the clothes on. “Which to be honest, I don’t know how to feel about.”
“Why not?” Ned calls out.
“Like shouldn’t we make these decisions together?” He asks, putting on his shirt.
“In the 60s men always made these decisions,” MJ says.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Peter makes a face. “I’m a man.”
“But he’s a man from the 60s.”
“Yeah, but…” Peter sits on the bed in his underwear. “No, his sister… No, he’s not like that.”
“Well, you don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know what movie you’re seeing,” MJ says. “Sounds to me he’s exactly like that.”
Opening the door in his date outfit, Peter comes face to face with MJ. “Are you mad at me?” He asks.
An awkward beat. “No,” she says. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“Because I said yes to going on a date with someone else.”
A sigh escapes her lips. “Peter… I’m not mad. I wish I could remember what you and I had but…”
“You don’t,” he finishes for her.
“It’s not fair for you to keep hanging onto a past that doesn’t exist for me.”
“But…”
“I’m not mad. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to get hurt by some asshole from the 60s. That’s all.”
It was sincere. He knew when she was lying, felt it almost, like an instinct but there was nothing tingling. She was telling the complete truth. He didn’t know if it hurt more than her being mad at him. At least then they might have a chance.
“Thanks.” But before he can hug her, there’s a knock on the door and his eyes go wide. “Shit.”
“What do you mean shit?”
“I don’t know,” he panics. “I haven’t done this in like years. What if I’m… I don’t know, too awkward?”
“You are awkward,” Ned says.
“Thanks, man…” Peter’s face falls.
“But he already knows that and asked you out. So he’s into it.”
“That actually makes me feel better,” Peter says. “I think.”
“Open the door!” MJ points to it with her free hand.
He scrambles to it, swinging it open to reveal a smiling Johnny Storm. Holding a bouquet of flowers. Orange and yellow, Peter doesn’t know the names but they’re nice.
“Hi,” Johnny says. Looking him up and down, he looks really nice. Simple enough that it made Peter’s heart stop freaking out about his own choice in clothing. Just cream pants, black shirt and a denim jacket.
Swallowing, smiling back up at him, Peter says, “Hi.”
“These are for you,” Johnny says, handing him the flowers. “Yelena said it’s kinda outdated here but you’d like them.”
In the spirit of discoveries since meeting Johnny for the first time, Peter can confirm he does like them. A lot. Enough that his belly flutters.
“She wasn’t wrong,” he stutters, feeling the heat creep up his cheeks. “Thanks.” For way too many awkward seconds, they just stand there, Peter smiling at Johnny.
“You look nice,” Johnny says finally when he realizes Peter doesn’t know what to say.
“T-thanks,” he smiles. “You do too.”
Someone clears their throat from inside. “Come in.” He moves to the side. “I’ll just put them in some water and we can head out.”
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Hey…” Johnny looks at him.
“These are my friends. Ned and MJ,” Peter says. “Ned, MJ, this is Johnny.”
“Nice to meet you,’ Johnny says.
“Huge fan,” Ned says.
“Heard a lot about you,” MJ says at the same time.
Why did he invite him in? He doesn’t own a vase. What is he supposed to do with the flowers?
“Is this like a double date or…?”
“What?” Peter calls out from the kitchen where he’s looking for a glass large enough. “No, they’re just hanging out.”
Hearing Johnny’s steps further into the apartment, Peter finally grabs a glass, fills it and sticks the flowers in it, regardless of how small it is.
“Bob said some people here have a lot of partners,” Johnny says. “Mentioned something about you and a bunch of Myst-”
“Nope!” Peter almost yells out, running to the living room where he can see Johnny looking at his work station. “I’m… no, that’s just- an internet thing. But it’s not-”
“They used to date,” Ned says, pointing between Peter and MJ.
Johnny spins to look at them with curiosity.
“Dude!” Peter whisper-shouts. “It’s complicated,” he tells Johnny.
“Sorry,” Ned says.
“It’s confusing,” MJ says.
“It’s a little-”
“Peter cast a spell,” Ned starts.
“I didn’t cast it, a wizard did.”
“It made us forget him,” MJ says. “And I forgot…”
“That we ever dated.”
“And why would you do that?” Johnny asks so casually Peter does have to wonder for a moment. Why did he do that?
“To save the world,” he responds finally.
“Right,” Johnny nods slowly. Then points with his thumb to Peter’s workstation. “And this?”
“Just where I build my suits and stuff,” he chuckles nervously.
Johnny eyes the set up again and without turning to look at them, he says, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Can you not tell Ben about this? At least for a little bit.”
“Ben?” Ned asks. “The rock guy?”
“Yeah, he’s like super cool,” Peter answers. “And nice.”
MJ’s eyes are on Johnny as he moves to inspect his systems. “And why shouldn’t he say anything to your friend?”
“Oh,” Johnny turns around. “He said that it’s in the Storm genes to fall for nerds apparently. And I don’t wanna give him the satisfaction of being right yet.”
Fall? Johnny said fall and Peter has to take a deep breath. “I’m not a nerd.” He looks to his friends for support but gets none. Just scrunched up faces.
“You can quote most of the original trilogy by heart,” Ned says. “But like you’re really cool and hot for a nerd.” He gives him a thumbs up.
With a chuckle and a small nod, Johnny says, “Should we go?”
“Yeah.”
“And don’t worry,” Johnny turns to Ned and MJ. “I’ll have him back home in one piece by curfew.”
“I don’t have-” Peter tries but Johnny just smiles at him. “It’s a joke. You’re joking.” And then he lets out a laugh.
On the stairs it feels like the date hasn’t even started and he’s already blown it. Like they’ll step outside and Johnny will get a fake phone call about how he needs to go and save the city or something and how sorry he is but duty calls.
“They seem nice,” Johnny says as they reach the bottom of the stairs.
“Yeah,” Peter confirms. “They’re like family.”
Nodding, understanding, allowing Peter to finally calm down, Johnny says, “So what’s the original trilogy?”
“Oh,” Peter says, hitting him that this is the only person he’s ever met who doesn’t know about Star Wars, who hasn’t had the greatest plot twist in cinema history spoiled to him by the internet. “The greatest movies of all time. We can- I’ll show them to you.”
“That’s a bold claim.”
“Trust me, if there’s one thing that’ll defy worlds it’s Star Wars.”
“Shall we?” Johnny extends his hand towards him.
Looking at it for a moment then eyes flicking up to Johnny’s face - there’s no phone call. There’s nothing but a sweet expression that does wonders to Peter’s nerves and unties the knot in his stomach, allowing the butterflies to flutter freely for the first time in years. He can’t help but take Johnny’s hand in his. For the first time in his life, Peter is holding hands with a guy. He doesn’t hate it.
*****
At one point during the movie Johnny grabs his hand. It’s just a jump scare, not particularly successful, but maybe Peter is just too used to things like that. Invisible monsters trying to rip you apart.
And then, about half way, when the two boys get lured to get hatecrimed, Peter can swear he hears sniffling from beside him.
“You all right?” He leans in to whisper.
“Yeah,” Johnny responds, eyes glued to the screen.
Then when the movie ends and the lights turn back on, he can see the not so subtle way Johnny tries to wipe his eyes.
Watching two kids being plagued by the physical manifestation of homophobia for a first date between two men is a crazy choice. Peter doesn’t say anything, too scared to embarrass Johnny.
“Jesus, sorry,” Johnny says finally as they’re getting up from their seats.
“It’s okay,” Peter reassures him with a hand on his arm. “It was intense.”
“Yeah, I just…” Johnny starts as they’re walking out the door, dropping their half finished popcorn bucket in the trash. “Bob and Yelena said it’s a good movie.”
“It is a good movie.”
“Yeah but not for a first date,” Johnny laughs. “I don’t know what you must think of me.”
Standing outside finally, just the two of them, Peter takes his hand. “That you’re a guy who has feelings?”
“Thanks.” Johnny smiles at him. “They said it’s queer,” he laughs sadly. “And I felt myself shrinking at that, like they were gonna hit me or something. But it wasn’t an insult. We don’t really… We don't have movies like that, and I got so excited. You know I’ve never actually seen two guys kiss in any context.”
“Oh.” The realization hits Peter like a train. And he’s been hit by a train before, it hurts and it sucks. “We have more. Some older ones too. We can watch them all.”
“I’d like that,” Johnny says. “I guess lesson learned, right? I’ll check the paper next time.”
Peter chuckles, unable to help himself and Johnny just eyes him. “It’s all on our phones now, but maybe don’t… Yeah just stick to the paper for now. But don’t believe everything they say about me.”
With a sparkle in his eye, Johnny asks, “What do they say?”
“Silly things.”
“You and the ten-”
“Please do not ever bring that up again.”
Nodding, all of a sudden Johnny says “Sorry.” Turning his head to look at Peter fully. “That’s not… this isn’t how this is supposed to go.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m supposed to charm you,” Johnny says, feigning a smile. “Not cry about how hard my life is.”
“You’re not crying,” Peter says, then lighter. “Anymore.” And Johnny relaxes which in turn makes Peter relax. “I like hearing about your life. Isn’t that the point of this?”
“Is it really that bad here too?” Johnny asks a few minutes later as they’re making their way down the street. They’d walked in comfortable silence as Peter watched Johnny watch the city. His own, yet completely different.
Sighing, Peter wishes he had someone who could do a better job at explaining this than him; who’s been queer for like a month and a half.
“Is it like that in your world?”
“I mean it’s not great.”
Peter looks at their intertwined fingers then back up at Johnny. “But you’re so… confident about it.”
“I’m a nobody here,” Johnny says. “There… I don’t think people would really like it if I was… bisexual.”
“That’s stupid,” Peter says.
They are at a restaurant that he feels a little underdressed for but it’s still nice. Dim lights, not too crowded. Not overly expensive.
“They’ve kinda cast us in these roles…” Johnny says and Peter really likes hearing him talk about anything and everything. “Like Sue and Reed are the image of this perfect family. Perfect parents, perfect husband and wife. And Ben’s made out of rocks so no one really thinks he’d ever start a family.” Johnny puts the menu down. “Which is such bullshit because anyone would be lucky to have him. He’s actually the best.”
Smiling, putting down the menu too, Peter says. “And what about you?”
“I slept around in high school,” Johnny says. “Mostly so I wouldn’t have to face the fact it wasn’t just girls I wanted like that. And then when we got famous and the whole world was throwing themselves at me… I became worse for a bit. Anyone would just have to look at me and I’d be in love because they wanted me. So that kinda became who I was. A heartbreaker. Funny thing is I don’t think I’ve broken a single heart. There were these NDAs people would have to sign and it was all the fucking time. It became embarrassing, stupid. Sue kinda put me on the right path but… the reputation stuck.”
“Jesus…”
Johnny snorts. “Sorry, I’ve just never been on an actual date with a guy. Fuck… the last person I was interested in was an alien.”
Peter leans in. “I’ve never been on a date with a guy either, so already we have so much in common.”
“Yeah.”
“So an alien?”
“Yeah, she was made out of silver,” Johnny says. “Almost destroyed my world.”
“And you’re… into that?”
“It’s more complicated. She was… it was against her will.”
They order and while waiting Johnny tells him about his crush on an alien.
“How did your friends take it?” Johnny asks when their meals get served. Steak for the both of them.
“Take what?”
“The being into guys thing.”
“Oh,” Peter almost does a double take. “They already knew I was Spider-Man. Coming out was less shocking.”
“Right, yeah. That must’ve been a lot more normal than being a superhero.”
“How did your family find out?”
“I told Sue immediately,” Johnny snorts. “The second it clicked, I called her and told her everything. Fully freaking out. It had just stopped being illegal. And she just… I don’t know man, she has this way of speaking where it feels like she knows everything and she knows exactly what to say and when. If I didn’t have her, things would’ve been a lot worse.”
“I’m glad you have her,” Peter says thinking back on how May was the exact same.
“And I told Ben a few weeks after we got our powers. Both different in our own ways, I think it helped.” He laughs. “Reed found out when I was sneaking a guy into the Baxter Building once. I mean, we were probably way too loud.”
“And he didn’t freak out?”
“He would’ve freaked out regardless of the gender. I think it was more so the fact he’d caught me taking someone’s shirt off,” Johnny responds. “But he’s too smart to have a problem with that. How did your family react?”
At that Peter cringes, looks down at his food. “I never got a chance to tell anyone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine,” Peter says. “I just didn’t figure it out until recently but if I had earlier, my aunt would’ve probably been like your sister. Supper supportive. But she passed.”
“Fuck… I’m sorry,” Johnny says. “This is supposed to be fun and I’m bringing up this shit…”
“I don’t mind.”
“Yeah but I’m not like this usually, I promise. I’m fun. I guess… It’s really nice to be able to talk to someone about it. Someone who isn’t just supportive but actually knows how it feels.”
“I’m having fun. And I don’t mind talking about this stuff. I’m still pretty new to it.”
“How new, Peter?”
“A couple of months.”
Johnny hums, eyes him but doesn’t say anything for a moment, chewing his food.
“What- why are you looking at me like that?” He can feel the tips of his ears burning.
“A couple of months?”
“Yeah,” Peter says. “I was busy with a lot of other stuff.”
“And I just kinda popped up here and all that stuff… fell away?”
“Shut up,” Peter lowers his eyes again, embarrassed now.
“No, like you have no idea how much better that’s making me feel,” Johnny says, the smile in his voice evident. “It’s honestly hot.”
“Hot?”
“You took one look at me and suddenly you wanna kiss boys? Yeah, Peter, that’s really hot.”
“It was more than one look.”
“Oh, so you’ve been staring?”
“N-no,” Peter says quickly. “Can we go back to you crying?”
For a moment Johnny doesn’t say anything, Peter’s worried he’s gone too far. “Not a fan of compliments,” Johnny finally says. “I can definitely work with that.”
The topic gets dropped even if there is a lot more Peter wants to know about Johnny’s life back home. But they start talking about space, and missions, and gadgets and that feels safer and easier; more first date talk.
It’s stupid but Peter keeps ruminating on a thought. When they are slowly walking back to his place, still hand in hand, he finally blurts it out. “Why aren’t you out? In your world?”
“W-what?” Johnny’s head snaps to stare at him.
“I- I just mean kids tell me it means a lot to them when I swing by pride events and stuff. I’ve been going for years and I didn’t even know I was into dudes.”
“Pride events?”
“Y-you don’t have that yet,” Peter says slowly. “It doesn’t matter right now. You could come out. Change a lot of things for a lot of people.”
“I can’t.”
“You’re their superhero. If you can’t, then who can?”
“Everyone will despise me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do!” Johnny says. “I’ve been working- we’ve all been working with different charities for years. They have me on this stupid fire safety thing with kids. And one time, I just overheard parents talking… Some teacher had gotten caught with a man. Not kissing, not holding hands, not anything more than just leaving his house kinda late. And that mom said… if some fag was teaching my kid, I would kill him myself. And uh… I can face monsters and aliens and all kinds of shit but when I heard her say that… I felt like a fucking kid again. So helpless and scared. When I was back home, Reed said I’d had a panic attack.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed,” Peter says. “Now I feel like an asshole.”
“This was kind of a disaster, huh?”
“What?”
“This date.”
“No, I- I mean I’m having- I like being with you. We could’ve just talked about what we’d do beforehand.”
“You hated the movie.”
“The movie was fine. It just put you in a headspace that I don’t know how to steer. Next time we can do something less intense, y’know.”
“Next time?"
Peter shrugs. “I mean, if you want to?”
“I do, of course I do,” Johnny says quickly. “I haven’t freaked you out by crying and being weird?”
“You’re like the least weird person I know,” Peter says, standing in front of his building. Should he ask Johnny to come up? Continue their talk or even move further. “How about we just take a walk next time? Around the city. See what’s different, what’s the same. No talk about coming out and homophobic assholes.”
“Yeah, that… yeah, Peter, I’d love that.”
Confidence. He is able to jump off tall buildings, go to space, fight anyone no matter how powerful. But his heart is hammering in his chest at the proximity of Johnny. So he just leans in and kisses him. With Johnny’s lips moving against his, things just fall into place.