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Peter Parker was like a bonfire in that moment, so bright, so warm, so quick to burn.
“I have no one.”
Jean Grey would always remember the way the memory of May hugged her. The tears that came not because she felt like crying, but because of the relief that there was someone who understood. Who cared. Who saw Jean for who she was, even if that person was just a memory.
“You have me.”
A memory held close by the one person who Jean didn’t deserve forgiveness from. Warmth emanated from the sunny window. The new bunk-bed, not even creaky yet with the top bunk still without bedding. May Parker, so radiant, like a beacon and a fountain of endless wisdom which she no doubt once shared with Ben Parker, was warm.
But her thoughts would always float back to Peter. Peter, wearing an old sweater and looking at her with such kind eyes even in the depths of her misery. The same look, the same beacon that May Parker had been to Peter, now being a light for Jean. A moment where she saw no deception or guile.
This guy…
In all her life, ever since she’d woken up to these accursed powers, she’d been able to scrape the surface thoughts of people around her. And so many people were disgusting. Many more were simply boring. But the one thing that tied everyone she met together was that they lied. They put on an act. Every single person, even her, had a mask to hide behind when actions failed and words faltered.
But all Peter had was the mask. He had lived so long as Spider-Man that he had begun living the same lie Jean had—that he was alone. That he needed to do everything himself. No one even knew who he was anymore. No one cared about Peter Parker, and all that was left was Spider-Man.
And yet…
That was just another lie he told himself. One that Jean couldn’t fault him for when she had been lying to herself this whole time about Sara.
So when she saw the look in his eyes, so pure, so honest, so unbelievably truthful even in spite of everything Jean had done to him all because she couldn’t see past her own anger and selfishness—
BANG!
Jean saw her redemption fleeing. Saw the last vestiges of Sara’s sacrifice crying out. Saw the lonely boy who had lost everything he had ever loved, and still had enough love left to give to her, trying to smile while he was dying in her hands—
Every second blood pooled beneath him, every fraction of a second she hesitated, every millionth of a second he muttered for her to leave him, she remembered.
”With great power…”
She connected to him in the only way she knew how. Her mind was stretched so thin and yet—
”…must also come…”
—She knew how to breathe. All she had to do was share it with him. Keep his blood flowing. Keep his heart beating. Keep breathing!
”…great responsibility.”
Jean Grey breathed the fire of life back into Peter Parker. Then the rest followed. Days watching over him. Relaxing as he breathed on his own. Getting the shock of her life when he somehow got her number and asked how she was doing.
Conversations that began to run late into the night. Watching him save people on the news. Saving the multiverse with him.
Was it so hard to believe that she couldn’t stop thinking about him?
~ ~ ~
“…Jean?”
Jean Grey shook out of her thoughts as she stared out at the estate sprawled before her. Hedges lining the edges of Charles Xavier’s mansion stretched out into well-trimmed grass and a courtyard that doubled as a terrace overlooking fields where people of varying ages ran around and played. She spotted a particular group of kids each wearing cheap Avengers masks and smiled as her gaze settled on the odd one out wearing a Spider-Man mask.
“Jean!”
Glancing from where she was perched on a windowsill, Jean offered the girls before her a placating smile. “Hey, Kitty. Jubilee. Sorry, I was—”
Kitty Pryde, ever so quick on the uptake, nodded eagerly. “—Lost in thought? Yeah, I get that. I mean, we get that. But like, usually you’re so quick to respond to your name. We were a little worried actually.” Jean watched as Kitty shared a meaningful glance with Jubilee.
“You’ve been distracted. More so than usual at least,” Jubilee said. She was a little more thoughtful, observant, but a little more prone to outbursts than Kitty, and when her power was essentially to generate fireworks from her hands…Well, spontaneity was to be expected. Jean flinched as Jubilee grabbed one of Jean’s hands with both of her own and shot a pleading look towards her.
“Just tell us who it is!” Jubilee pleaded. “It’s a guy, right? It has to be a guy. Or a girl, we don’t judge! But there’s tea and I really need you to spill some! Even a little is fine!”
Kitty nodded again, almost like a bobblehead. Jean was honestly surprised she hadn’t accidentally phased through the floor yet with how she was vibrating from barely contained excitement. God, it had been so long since she’d seen such undisguised, unfiltered anticipation. Was this what Jean was like before everything that happened? It all felt like such a distant memory.
“It’s not what you think,” Jean started, but immediately cursed. She knew she’d messed up when their eyes somehow lit up even more than they’d been before. Admitting that there was something at all was a rookie mistake, and Jean had run right into their trap.
”So there is someone,” Jubilee whispered, fully awed. Jean didn’t miss the excited glance Jubilee shared with Kitty. She knew they’d been wanting to ask her about this particular topic for some time now—their musings were so incredibly loud she was honestly surprised no one else could hear them—but to falter in this moment was like forgetting to put in that one teaspoon of vanilla when baking cookies.
Now, that wasn’t to say that Jean hated the idea of telling them. In fact, she was honestly fine with the idea. It wasn’t like she absolutely was running away from her feelings or thinking about her feelings or the actions of a certain webhead that had upended her entire life in the span of a few mental moments and the better part of a few days keeping him alive. She didn’t think about the way her heart thundered in her ears and her fingertips grew warm, or the way her tongue went dry wondering if Peter had truly forgiven her.
No, Jean Grey most certainly did not have any boys she thought about in her life, and that was that.
“There’s…There’s no one,” Jean whispered, her throat croaking a little. She cleared it and shook her head as she left her perch on the windowsill. “I mean, there isn’t a guy.”
They shared another look. It was really starting to grate on Jean’s nerves in the kind of way that an annoying riddle tickles the brain, and she was so tempted to see what they were thinking but it was plain enough to see on their faces. They didn’t believe her one single bit.
“...Right,” Kitty said with a knowing smile. “We definitely believe you.”
Ugh, Jean groaned. Don’t do anything unethical. Don’t do anything unethical!
Outwardly she portrayed the image of an unfazed young adult, but inwardly, she started screaming into a suspiciously spider-themed pillow. Professor Xavier had started drilling into her mind the importance of keeping her powers to a bare minimum, of never entering someone else’s mind carelessly, of never completely removing someone’s autonomy without their knowledge. Jean had already started practicing all of these things and more ever since meeting Peter, and yet, the Professor still had the audacity to say she still needed a bit of work. Well, she’d show him and his aggravating smirk that said he clearly knew far more than he was letting on!
All this to say that Jean was exercising every ounce of patience she had not to just bolt and run or freeze both of them on the spot with a flare of her power.
”I get it,” Jubilee said, her own expression growing softer as she regarded Jean’s cool gaze. “Really, I do. I’ve had people I like reject me before, especially after I found out I was a mutant, but you know what always helped me? Talking it out with some friends. We’re here for you if you need—“
Jean’s thin patience finally cracked as her cheeks flushed and she clenched her fists. ”He didn’t reject me!” Jean shouted through gritted teeth, “He doesn’t even know I’m thinking about him like that! God, would you mind your own business?’
Before she could see their stunned or hurt expressions, Jean turned tail and ran, a supernatural force practically pushing her from behind as she left Kitty and Jubilee far behind her. As for the two, Jubilee winced with a bemused expression, while Kitty stared at Jean’s disappearing back in disappointment.
”Did you really have to go for that angle?” Kitty asked. “I thought we were going Plan A!”
Jubilee groaned, rubbing her face with both hands before shaking her head at Kitty. “I thought that was Plan A.”
”You thought she was rejected? I thought she was still in the ‘I don’t know if I’m in love but he’s special to me’ phase!” Kitty gestured towards the way Jean went.
They both sighed, and for a long moment, neither spoke. Finally, Jubilee straightened back up, a sheepish smile on her face. “We definitely went too far, huh?”
Kitty nodded, still looking down the hallway where Jean had gone, and further to where she knew Jean’s room was. “We should go and apologise.”
Jubilee grabbed Kitty’s shoulder before she could run off. ”Uh, let’s at least give the girl a few minutes to settle down. But like…damn. She must really like this guy, huh?”
At that, Kitty hummed in appreciation. “I wonder who it is. Think he’s a good guy?”
”I think the right question is if he can handle… all that.”
~ ~ ~
The door slammed shut behind her as Jean flopped onto her bed and let out a muffled groan into her bedsheets. Life was pain, relationships torture, friends an inconvenience, and boys frustrating.
”You have me.”
Get out of my head, get out of my head, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
Jean began rolling forward and back on her bead while clutching her head, groaning all the while she whined. Why was he such a good person?! It just wasn’t possible for someone to be that altruistic, so forgiving, so snarky and sassy and flawed and genuine, and yet, Peter Parker was all those things and more. Kitty and Jubilee’s words echoed across her mind, their faces looking at her with hopeful eyes, and she swatted at their faces before feeling bad all over again. It wasn’t like they were trying to pry into things that hey had no business at all prying into.
Suddenly, Jean sat straight up, her eyes going to her phone as it buzzed on her nightstand. Her breath caught and the whirlwind of emotions she thought she’d been doing so well at suppressing welled back up inside of her and the flutter in her chest magnified tenfold. She felt like a kid again, or the naive girl she had been before she lost her sister, or even the person she was before the multiverse collapsed and the universe reset.
And all of it was because of the sender of her latest text messages.
New messages from Pete <3 🕸️:
just saw this awesome sight at the top of the Chrysler bldg
Peter 2’s fav spot apparently
Might be a new haunt, you’d like it
[Image of a city skyline. View more.]
Jean snorted as she clicked on the banner and began idly scrolling up her conversation with him. It felt so natural to bicker and argue with Peter, and just as natural to say so many things and nothing at all late into the night, as if they could just keep bouncing around dumb ideas like the most mundane genie wishes or what they wanted to be growing up. She found it almost adorable that he had wanted to be an astronaut for so long.
Well, at the very least, he’d been to space. That was more than most could say. And she had been right there next to him.
Almost without thinking, her fingers danced across the touch screen and she had pressed send before her mind caught up to her body. The moment she processed what she had written, she desperately held down on the message bubble in a futile attempt to delete it, but it was too late. As quick as it had been sent, and a damning piece of evidence indeed, Peter had seen her text. Already, the chat bubbles were waving at her while the world crumbled around her.
Jean: do u wanna come upstate and see the sights over here?
Jean’s everything grew ice-cold and she could have sworn she saw her breath mist the air before Peter’s reply came back with a deafening ping.
Pete <3 🕸️:
I got nothing for the rest of the day so I can swing by haha
I can be there in an hour
If you want
And then, before she could question herself, she typed out a quick “dont u dare be late” before the whole situation finally hit her in full.
….Shit. Shit! Shit!
The fire in Jean’s core suddenly reignited with passion as she dropped her phone like it was a piping hot potato. She leapt from where she sat on her bed and ran to her wardrobe where she immediately lamented the fact that she hadn’t really had a chance to go shopping yet. Yes, Peter had already seen her at her worst, and even more, they had helped pull the universe back together while they themselves were in tatters, but this was entirely different.
Here, he was coming to see her because he wanted to. Change, happenstance, and luck had nothing to do with it this time, and that meant she could at least make herself presentable. Right?
She telekinetically flung the doors open, nearly ripping them off their hinges, and Jean felt her stomach drop. There was a dearth of good options. In fact, all she had was the green army sweater she’d had since before she met Peter, and it was barely hanging on to life as it was. Then, there was a leather jacket that Scott, bless his soul, had thought to give her, but she couldn’t possibly wear something another boy gave her when Peter came along. Finally, there was the yellow hoodie she was already wearing, but she hadn’t washed it in a few days and there was no telling what it actually smelled like at this point.
Throwing her dresser open, it was an even sadder state of affairs that greeted her. Two or three shirts. A good number of well-worn socks with simple designs, a couple of ripped and faded jeans, and that was pretty much it. She lamented her lack of options as she still hadn’t had a good opportunity to really go shopping, what with the end of the universe and all, but that excuse meant nothing in the face of her current situation.
The door to her room then sounded with a soft knock, and almost as fast as she’d fallen into despair, hope bloomed in heart. Jean already knew who was waiting just outside her door—their mental signatures were really quite unique—and opened her bedroom door with a whoosh and a thud. There, her hand still raised as if to knock some more, was Kitty, and just behind her stood Jubilee. Both stared back at her like a deer caught in headlights until she dragged both of them into her room with a yelp.
”H-Hey, Jean! Long time no see,” Kitty began, finding her footing as Jean let go of her. “Sorry about earlier. We came by to apologise—“
“You guys are right!” Jean cried, her nerves beginning to fray, the shadows at the edges of the room starting to stretch. “There’s a boy who’s always trying his best to save as many people as he could and he saved me and I owe everything I am right now to him and, and oh my god he’s going to be here in an hour and I’m not ready!”
The two girls stared at her, dumbfounded. Jean really couldn’t blame them. She had spent all these months dodging questions about this particular topic even as she’d hung out with them, all the meals they’d shared and the movies she’d been invited to were blurring together as she realised just how much of herself she’d really been holding back. She understood completely if neither of them wanted to help her when she had been so withholding, and yet…
Jubilee rushed forward and grabbed her hand, tiny little fireworks bursting above her fingerless gloves as Jean could have sworn she saw sparkles streaming from the girl’s eyes. “You’re not kidding. Oh my god, Jean! This is huge! This is amazing! This is—“
“This is an emergency!” Kitty yelled, though she herself couldn’t stop the smile that was splitting her cheeks. “I’m texting Ororo and Marie. Don’t worry, Jean! We may not have known the situation before, but I’m glad you told us now! It’s our turn to help you!”
As she rushed towards Jean’s wardrobe to begin her own lamentations on Jean’s lack of options, and as Jubilee began to fuss over her, finally asking for permission before she started looking Jean over and led her out of her own room, Jean felt a warmth well up from within her, different this time than the one she felt when she thought about that dumb webhead.
No, this feeling made the back of her nose burn and her eyes prick with tears as she looked over to Jubilee with a wobbly smile. “Thank you,” Jean said. “I’ve been a bad friend, haven’t I?”
“Nonsense,” Jubilee said with a wave of her hand. “We all have our secrets. We just saw that it had been bothering you for as long as we’d known you, and this last week in particular was really rough for all of us.”
“Was I really that bad?” Jean asked, curious. Jubilee snorted, turning the corner and walking down the hallway a bit more before stopping Jean at a door that couldn’t belong to anyone else but Jubilation Lee. A customized name plate hung on it, Jubilee’s name written down in beautifully bubbly scrawl , and the door itself was covered in stickers of cheesy quotes in large stylized fonts, among more mundane stars and rainbows.
Jubilee opened the door and pushed Jean into her room. “Girl, you usually tell Scott off for asking you too many questions. This last week, you didn’t even acknowledge he existed. He’s been moping ever since. You might think you have a good poker face, but you need to work on basically everything else before you want to fool anyone about what you’re really feeling.”
Of course, Jean had known she was deluding herself into thinking she was good at hiding her emotions, but then again, she hadn’t really known all too many people until recently to practice with. “Oh,” Jean whispered, wringing her hands a little. “Really?”
“Really,” Jubilee said with a nod and a raised eyebrow. “Now, I’ve got some clothes I haven’t tried on yet that I think would look great on you but—“
Kitty phased through the wall and grinned. “Good news, the cavalry has arrived!”
Both Jubilee and Jean screamed in terror, hugging each other as they leapt away in shock before they both realised who it was.
”How many times do I have to tell you to knock before you appear from a random wall?!” Jubilee shouted.
As if to punctuate her words, two shadows darkened Jubilee’s doorway: a girl with white hair and kind eyes, and another with almost all of her skin covered in some sort of cloth or leather. Ororo and Marie, otherwise known as Storm and Rogue.
”We heard there was an emergency and a teammate was in dire need.” Ororo looked over at Jean and smiled. “Ah, and there is the woman of the hour. Boy troubles, was it?”
Marie whistled as she leaned against the doorway and grinned. “Well, it would seem you are in quite the pickle. A paramour coming to visit the mansion, hm? Let’s see what we can do.”
Seeing the four girls around her get to work, Jean was almost awed at the way they worked together in a way she had never seen before. Ororo had joined Jubilee as she pulled out top after top after slacks after pants and discussed the colours and styles that would best suit a first-time house visit from a potential boyfriend (“He’s not my boyfriend!” Jean complained to deaf ears). Kitty rushed in and out of the room, keeping them up to date on the goings on of the mansion as she cleaned the main hallways and Jean’s own room (“He’s not going in there!” Jean groaned to Kitty’s amusement), and all the while, Marie leaned against the doorway, watching her with a thoughtful look.
”This is the happiest I’ve ever seen you,” Marie said, as if remarking on the weather. “And that includes the time you managed to subdue my entire team single-handedly.”
Jean folded her arms as she joined Marie at the doorway, the new position allowing her to see the efforts that everyone was putting in at the same time. “I didn’t do it single-handedly,” Jean said with a frown.
”You took me out without much fuss, and you did it with a smile much scarier back then too,” Marie said with a shiver. “You looked like you wanted me to ruin you with my power. That’s a scary thought. And with me out of the way, the rest of my team didn’t really stand a chance, what with being normal and all.”
”Normal people are still dangerous,” Jean whispered. “You should know that better than anyone.”
Marie nodded sagely. “Of course. Normal people are some of the most dangerous bunch, and there are much more of them than us. That just makes those of us dangerous mutants all the more so.”
Jean flinched at that. It was true that it was regular old human beings that had taken Sara away from her, but even in the terror and humiliation of dying as a lab rat, it was nothing that hadn’t already been done by others in the past. Whereas when Jean had found out on her rampage across New York…
”How can you live with it,” Jean asked, “knowing that you’ve hurt so many people?”
Marie grew silent, her eyes watching Ororo hold up a shirt and turn towards Jean with a grin as she closed one eye and looked like she was imagining Jean wearing it. “It isn’t so much that I’m living with it,” she said, “but that I’ve learned to make peace with it. Nothing I can do to change the past. But the future is mine, and I make of it what I will, whatever that may now be.”
The ghost of a smile then touched Marie’s lips as Jean watched Marie hug herself a little tighter. “We all have skeletons in our closet, Jean. Us mutants, maybe even more so. Can’t be letting ourselves get down every time we remember how we got here.”
And then… “You’re a good bunch,” Marie whispered. “I…my mutation isn’t really good for this kind of thing, but I’m glad you still thought of me. I should—“
Jean grabbed hold of Marie’s gloved hand as she made to leave. Marie gasped, almost flinching hard enough to make Jean let go, but she wouldn’t be deterred that easily. “I’m glad you’re here, Marie,” Jean said with a sincere smile. “Please.”
Marie stared at where her hand held Jean’s, and when she spoke her next words, it was clear that she was trying to hold back more than a little shock. “You are kind, Jean. It’s no wonder everyone was so quick to want to help. I’ll stay, for you.”
Jean gently squeezed Marie’s hand, who squeezed back as if Jean were a lifeline she was reluctant to let go of. “Whoever this boy is,” Marie said, her grin growing a little more sharp, “he better take good care of you. I’d have words, but maybe action would be preferable.”
“Please don’t kill him when you see him,” Jean managed to squeeze out, her voice trending a little higher than usual. “He’s a good guy.”
”We’ll see about that…”
Leaving Marie to those particularly ominous words, Ororo finally called her over, she and Jubilee both looking quite proud of their deliberation. Jubilee’s bed and closet looked like a whirlwind had gone through it, clothes tossed and discarded everywhere and hangers were strewn all across the ground. Considering what Ororo’s power was known for, it was quite the apt description.
“Wear this, Jean,” Ororo said, holding up a light yellow blouse that was thin enough to not make her overheat in the June sun, but also not sheer enough to let anything else through. The jeans they’d picked out were slim and of a dark viridian, almost black in shade but the colour was visible when held up to direct sunlight. “Good colours that complement your hair and bring out your eyes, and light enough and casual enough that it doesn’t look like you’re trying. The way you have your hair up, it’ll work with this vibe too.”
”Ororo…” Jean came forward and gave her a quick hug, which not only surprised Ororo, but herself as well. As quick as the impulse came, Jean let go of her and backed away with a light blush. “It’s been so long since anyone’s helped me pick out my clothes, much less without my input. This looks amazing!”
Jubilee grabbed the clothes and dumped them into a pile into Jean’s unsuspecting hands. She had to cheat with telekinesis to catch the fabric before it dumped all over the floor. “You can keep it after today too,” Jubilee said, a proud look on her face as she crossed her arms. “I have another one of each in a bag somewhere. This is why I always buy extras!”
Almost every one in the room, Jean included, glanced at her enviously, as if she’d just said the most outrageous thing. Jubilee, to her credit, or perhaps to her particularly developed sense of survival, did not notice these stares, and instead patted Jean on the shoulder. “Get dressed, Jean. If what you said is true, your boyfriend is going to be here soon.”
And then, Jean was being led out of Jubilee’s door while she protested, “I’m not, I mean, he’s not my boyfriend! He’s just a friend that’s a boy, that’s it!”
When even Ororo began placating her with meaningless words and a knowing smile, she knew she’d lost the battle long before any of them had shown up to help her. Then, they practically shoved her into her room and closed the door behind them. A little out of sorts and her dignity somewhat in shambles, she took off her old clothes and stared for a moment at the outfit Jubilee and Ororo had spent time and effort deliberating on. Then, with a humble smile, she put them on.
Brushing a few errant strands of hair from her face, Jean stepped in front of her vanity and stared at the girl standing there. Bright red hair, bunched up in a tight bun, some of it escaping to stream down the sides of her head. A pastel yellow blouse that flared out at the hem of the shirt, and pants that hugged her legs, finished off with the sneakers she always wore. A final piece that Ororo and Jubilee had both agreed would ground the outfit in reality, even if they’d rather that she had a cleaner pair.
…I wonder what Peter will think.
And that thought made her face flush a deep red, and suddenly, the girl in the mirror was no longer just Jean Grey, but a girl in over her head.
”Oh god,” Jean whispered, covering her face as she tore her eyes away from the vanity with a painful smile and in abject horror. “I love him.”
~ ~ ~
Professor Xavier had been informed that Peter was coming, and the gate had been opened in anticipation. Jean stood outside the front doors of the mansion and waved at Peter as he took everything in with no small amount of amused awe. He watched as the large wrought-iron gates shut behind him, and then Jean waited patiently as he made his way up the driveway, up the steps…
And then they were standing in front of each other. Jean looked up at Peter, noticing the way his breath caught a little. The faint musk of his exhilaration was a clear sign that he had swung most of the way here, but even so, he looked so damnably unruffled it was just unfair. He wore a maroon sweater over a light blue flannel button up, and those jeans of his really left nothing to the imagination. All-in-all, he didn’t look as harried and scraped up as the last time Jean had seen him, and for that simple fact, she was the happiest.
”Hey, Jean,” Peter said, a warm smile on his face.
”Hey yourself,” Jean said, her lips quirking up into a playful grin. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at his wrists. “Couldn’t help yourself huh?”
“Oh, well, you know,” Peter said, twisting around to motion at the nature that surrounded the mansion, and which stretched some of the way down to New York. “Sights to see, places I haven’t been before. Had to check it out, you know?”
Jean folded her arms. “So, you were so excited to see me that you had time to make a few detours, hm?”
Peter began to stammer. “That’s not what I, I mean, well there was this cat stuck in a tree and…” Then, a grin formed on his face as he relaxed and rolled his eyes. At that, Jean couldn’t help holding up a sleeve to her mouth as she stifled her own laugh at seeing him panic.
”It’s good to see you, Jean,” he said, sincerely. Then, he looked her up and down, and Jean could practically hear the appreciation screaming from his brain as if he was seeing her properly for the first time. “Wow, uh, you look good. Yeah, you look good.”
”This is what I look like all the time,” Jean said, turning her nose up, her smile still clearly visible. Then, her smile faltered as her eyes dropped to where the bullet from all those months ago had hit, the one he had taken for her. Her fingers reached up to brush the area, but Peter gently grabbed her hand and pulled it away.
”I already told you,” he said softly, “I forgive you. I told you then, I told you when the multiverse ending, and I’ll keep telling you. I did it because you’re worth saving, Jean. You need to let this go. I’m fine now, barely even a scar left. You need to let this go.”
Jean’s smile cracked and shattered as she nodded. “S-Sorry. I…It still hurts to think of what I did, even after all this time.”
And then arms were encircled around her. The warmth of Aunt May. The faint smell of vanilla. An embrace that she’d felt when he’d protected her from that bullet, when he’d pulled her away from a stray beam on Battleworld, when they’d held onto each other as every universe died and was reborn anew. And now, he was here again, and she could feel the heat inside her settle into a contented crackle, embers of something she couldn’t describe now satisfied.
”I told you, didn’t I?” Peter whispered into her ear. It was hot. Breathy. It tickled the back of Jean’s neck and she nearly shivered as she hugged him back. “You have me.”
At that moment, the mansion doors burst outward as Ororo, Kitty, Jubilee, and even Marie fell into a pile at their feet. Scott stood away from the pile, but still close enough to have heard at least some of it, a distant lost look present on his face.
Jean Grey was absolutely mortified as she pushed Peter away. Peter Parker was bemused, a faint blush painting his cheeks, but he had survived the clash of gods and multiversal beings. This much wasn’t enough to shake him.
”Hiiiiiiii Jean’s Boyfriend,” Jubilee said, a dopey grin on her face. Kitty waved enthusiastically from under the pile, Ororo gave him a nod, and Marie picked herself up off the pile and eyed him up and down.
”Don’t hurt her,” Marie said, no small amount of bite present. Peter chuckled.
”Trust me, I’m the last person she needs to worry about.”
Jean groaned, and sighed as the romance of the situation petered out and died a shameful death. With a disgruntled wave of her hand, she motioned at the dogpile.
”Peter, meet the X-Men. Some of them, at least.”
Peter took everything in. The dogpile that had now collapsed as Kitty phased out from underneath them, leaving Ororo to wheeze as she fell a little further with Jubilee stumbling back ontop of her. The ornateness of the mansion, but which did not detract from the homely vibe the decorations and furnishings he saw inside gave the place. The people laughing in the fields in the distance, and the people lounging on benches near the fountain in the courtyard.
Then, he looked at Jean, who stood there, hands on her hips, not a trace of the anxiety and anger and desperation he had known her for left in her expression. For once, she didn’t look like she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders. She looked happy. And that was all Peter needed.
He took a deep breath.
”Hello, everyone! I’m—“