Work Text:
Finally the door shut with Ned on the other side of it, he was going out to their favourite convenience store, MJ didn’t want Ned to leave, but her boyfriend had planned on coming over and he wanted to spend some alone time with her and MJ did not want to go out. MJ had been feeling off ever since she had read that letter containing information about a guy she supposedly used to know, Peter. Although it wasn't like MJ could remember anything, she didn’t love the guy so why bother thinking about it?
MJ apparently could not help it, it was consuming her from the inside out, somehow a part of her believed him, but it was so tragically far fetched, even for Spider-Man. Besides if he had really loved her like he said he did then perhaps he should not have made her forget him in the first place.
Mj went to the bathroom to make sure that she looked alright before Paul came over. She tidied her mascara and touched up her lip gloss, she didn't feel right. Something was off. Queezing started bubbling in her stomach. It was okay, it usually ceased to exist as soon as she was with her boyfriend
No it didn’t, it never had with Paul
If anything Paul made her feel more stressed, that was a good thing though, every relationship needed some healthy panic even if a part of MJ was telling her that’s not how it had always been.
Rapping on the door, then frantic knocking. MJ snaps out of her stupor and walks over to the door, she opens it without asking who it is, that was just the way Paul knocked, as if he was the FBI intruding into the space with all her well hidden secrets.
“Hey MJ” He walks in and hugs her, leaning away to give her a kiss. “Sorry I am early, I wanted to see you, ready to go out?” Those words stung in her brain ‘go out’ MJ had been having a really shitty week and she was NOT in the mood to go out to some cafe and try three different coffee mixes just so Paul could determine the differences between Colombia and kenyan beans and then continue to explain it to her.
“Is it okay if we stay in today, watch something, make food” MJ smiles pleadingly “I have just had a bad week and I would not mind a break with you”
Paul smiles and agrees and takes her by the hand, dragging her over to the couch.
The queasiness was back, his hand felt too cold but somehow they managed to be extremely sweaty. Though his hands were smoothed, he loved collecting what he called ‘man’ moisturizer but everyone knew that really it was normal moisturizer without the smell of peonies.
They sat down on the couch and he began suggesting movies they could watch and critiquing things they had watched in the past. Recently they had watched this old Aliens, which MJ enjoyed but Paul hated, MJ was still trying to get him to watch star wars. MJ and Ned used to binge watch the movies all the time and Ned would build the legos, he had always built them extremely fast as well, Mj would sometimes joke that it was like he had an extra set of hands.
While Paul is going through the never-ending task of finding something they both want to watch Mj checks her phone for any news of Spider-Man, there's a parade going on for him right now but the public seems disappointed because he has not shown up. MJ kind of understands why the guy wouldn’t want the attention, it must be hard all these people loving you but having no one really know you.
MJ wonders if in another timeline it would be her celebrating with him.
“Hey, have you seen what’s happening with Spider-Man” MJ asks Paul, curious on his opinions about it “You ever seen him”
“Nah, but the public property that guy manages to destroy amazes me to this day, and he doesn’t even pay for it!” Paul snorts “You want pop-corn?”
MJ nods but is left confused, Paul puts on the Great Gatsby and then leaves for the kitchen. MJ has watched this before, she found it quite boring but the idea was cute. A guy putting in so much effort for a girl in hopes that one day they can be reunited and be together.
The concept is cool, but why wouldn’t the guy just find the girl instead of making such a big deal of it? On top of that the girl rejected the guy even when she was unhappy in her marriage. So MJ hated the movie but she really wasn’t bothered to argue with Paul right now.
When Paul came back with overly slated popcorn they sat in silence for the duration fo the movie and Mj found herself wishing that Ned would come back, what was taking him so long, he had probably changed his mind and went to the parade after all.
Despite the TV flashing MJ with bright lights and the sound turned up quite high she finds herself falling asleep for the second time due to this dumb movie.
She hugs the side of the couch and lays down, yawning.
“Do I Bore you MJ?” Paul says, Mj can hear the eye roll.
She has that urge again, that sudden random urge where she knows shes missing somehting big liek a huge part of her has been ripped out and yes everythign is broing, this man is boring her.
Then it is gone again. SO she turns to this man
“No, just the movie” MJ says turnign back to her pillow fiddlign with her necklace, to try and distract her from the fact that she can feel Pauls eyes giving her daggers behind her.
“Well you could have said you didn’t like the movie” Another eye roll “You can’t just always stay silent MJ”
That name tasted sour in his mouth, she didn't like it, the feeling was back suddenly, a sense in her, she tightened her hand around the necklace that Peter had given her.
“I don't know what you want from me Paul” MJ sits up, trying to keep her voice calm “When I say something you always have a reason why everything I say is invalid” MJs voice rises.
“You can’t just expect to always entertain me, you don’t excite me Paul, maybe you just arne’y the person I am looking for” MJ clenches her jaw “Maybe if you could hear me over your non stop talking then I might be slightly happy in this relationship”.
“Im sorry im not ‘enough for you’” Paul sues quotation marks with his fingers and somehow that pisses off MJ more “BUt MJ its not my fault that you feel the need to constantly look for better, because guess what? I was the best you were going to get”.
Mj watches him walk out the door, she's not going to stop him, she won’t text him and if he did they she currently planned on blocking him immediately.
She walks over to the front door because apparently Paul couldn’t shut it, still twirling the necklace Peter-
Peter
Peter Parker.
That was who she had been searching for, that was her better, that was her one big thing missing.
Peter, my boyfriend she had said aloud. Kissing on the rooftop, teasing him, going on cute but stupid dates, laughing with Ned and almost dying multiple times and Peter blaming himself.
“I’ll come and find you and I'll explain everything, ill make you remember me”
He hadn’t tried to find her
He had left her until she had read that letter and had to figure it out for herself
He had promised.
When Mj saw him she was going to punch him
MJ knew exactly where Peter would be to avoid the emptiness of his friends forgetting him and the shallowness of a parade being celebrated in his honor when he still somehow felt like he was failing.
MJ ran down her street, it had been YEARS, she was on the verge of crying and she struggled to hold it in, how lonely had Peter been, how empty she had felt
All she could think of as she ran and pushed past other pedestrians on the way to their favourite convenience store was the look on Peter's face as she said the words that she knew would haunt her like a poltergeist for the rest of her life.
“I don't love you, I don’t even know you”
Over and over in her head as she turned the corner and looked through the window, holding his favourite bag of chips and staring at Ned as if he was some ghost.
They had been strangers, they were supposed to go to college together, they were supposed to be together.
MJ waited outside the store for a minute. What was she supposed to do, what if he had changed his mind? Maybe that was why he had not found her.
She owed him enough to try.
Through the window she saw Peter and Ned doing that handshake they had always done, swoop, elbow bump then guns, the same as always, Mj chose not to question it.
MJ walked inside, the bell twinkling as she entered. Peter turned around and stared at her the same way he had when she said those dreadful words.
“Peter” She gasped “I remember, I am so so sorry” The tears can’t be held in any longer, she starts to cry she tries to croak out an explanation, Peter looks confused, perhaps he thought she was possessed again, but beacause when somethings too good to be true, you would always believe it, that's how humans worked.
Even if you were part Spider.
He stepped over to her, agonizingly slow “I love you Peter, I have loved you for so many years, even when I could not remember, I loved you when we were 15 and I love you impossibly more now because the more I get to know you, the more I fall for you”.
He leans in and they kiss.
Mj grabs his hands and they feel so right, calloused, warm and undeniably Peters
It wasn’t much of a kiss if Mj was being honest, nothing like those in the movies because Mj was crying and her mouth hurt from smiling too much yet Peter seemed to be trying to get closer to her despite already benign wrapped by MJs warm embrace as tight as all those years of missing her Peter. The kiss was wet, sloppy and heartbreaking. Yet it was everything MJ had needed all these months.
Everything had been wrong, but she could make it right, they would make it right.
They hugged until MJ had run dry of all her tears and Peter had been able to support his own body without MJs help.
Ned came up to them and hugged them too, and he wouldn’t admit it but he had cried too because they were finally
Finally
Back together
Ned, Mj and Peter.
The way it was always supposed to be.
Everything would be okay
Well it was after they had finished with their stretched out reunion and Mj had made sure to punch Peter square in his jaw.