Chapter Text
The final bell rang for one of Midtown High School's last classes of the semester. A 16 year-old brunette with his tag sticking out from the beige sweater under his blue tee unceremoniously packed his papers and notebook. He strode out of class, passing flyers upon a hallway bulletin board for a film club, a reminder from the school yearbook club to pick up physical copies of the yearbook by 3:15 PM next Wed, and a flyer calling for interns at his former mentee's company. He made it to the school entrance without confirming his next move: patrol or studying?
Aside from occasional evenings supporting his aunt's summer creativity blooming in the kitchen and backyard, he was either tutoring his redheaded drama pal and her new studious acquaintance or collaborating with Captain Stacy. Collaborating with Captain Stacy was a welcome team up in a world where supervillains birthed faster than the feral cats at the local animal shelter. Hesitation lingered internally, given the only collaboration Peter had ever initiated before, with Tombstone, had enabled a sickness he'd never want to re-fertilize. However, given The Daily Bugle's latest crusade against Spider-man, Peter savored the intel he received from the NYPD.
With Tombstone, Silvermane, and much of the Sinister Seven(?) locked up, and his most nefarious foes Dr. Ock and Green Goblin out of the picture, lower-rung gangs took the lead including Blackie Gaxston's people. The prestigious Daily Bugle sent its most hardworking reporters to unpack the one-year anniversary of Spider-man's arrival through examining the sprouting of supervillains intersecting with the rumble within the black market and resulting institutionalization with Ravencroft Institute related to the quick out-of-town move by the Connors.
Peter had barely heard his direct supervisor, Robert Robertson, remind him to replace his camera now that final exams were tying up. His belligerent executive director J. Jonah Jamison's words rang in his ears: "Spider-man is the cause for all of this ruckus, and it's time we proved it to the world. There'll be no escape from the world seeing him for who he truly is."
Who really was he? Black Cat's threats of never forgiving him, from a month ago, rang in his ears and he focused on the sidewalk cracks by revisiting physics final exam concepts. His eyes and feet surmised his brain already knew the concepts and distracted out of desperation by tracing outlines of people he walked and bringing him to visit local cafe fav Silver Spoon. As he walked in, he heard an unsuspecting giggle.
On instinct, he faced the cashier line to hide from the source that would most probably result in a gloating from Midtown High's most temperamental parrot: Sally Avril happy to see,"Stinky Pete back in his place." If he turned around, a favorite headband-ed clever beauty's hand in his childhood friend's, as they exited the cafe with the football squad, would have ignited the punishment Sally wanted to scar him with.
Turns out, your father dying makes disqualifying the football champion through juicing nothing short of ancient history. If he'd turned around, he would have seen what a remaining redhead had observed. His favorite headband-ed partner-in-lab lingered, wanting to say hello but continuing with the sports squad in fear of re-igniting a scene from a month ago.
The scene played constantly in the background of our brunette's head. It claimed all corners even if whistled away by reciting school concepts or by him pretending he just wanted hot cocoa in summer all the time when it reminded him of a time before that flash of a scene clutched his inner world. He already had his cocoa in hand and lingered now by himself at the cafe exit when a sultry request grounded his stormy conscience.
"Hey Tiger, looking for company on the bus back home?"
It's not that he'd been avoiding MJ. It's just that he was in deep shit with her best friend's best friend and wasn't talking to her other close friend. When did Gwen start confiding in MJ and not me?! Probably when you fell into a relationship with the second person who fell into your lap… and then you didn't even have the decency to show up for that person either… "I see Season 2 Pete is back."
"Huh?"
"This is my third season here Tiger."
"Oh right."
"Look Pete, let's ride the bus."
"Y'know Tigers fine… there's only a few people who call me Pete and, well," Peter punctuated with a sigh. The storm hiding the flash of scene threatened to disperse and then-
"Tiger it is!" MJ pulled Peter forward by his arm and he barely registered what would have had the hair all over his bristling months ago. He didn't remember when he got so used to MJ being close even when they mostly saw each other for her to counsel him or him now tutoring her and Sha Shan for finals. Peter surveyed the bus out of habit. Ever since he and Gwen had run into Rhino that fall day nearly a year ago, his vigilance had grown. Sometimes he wondered how much more his vigilance could grow after the prison test and Osborn's bomb hurricane. The storm revealed a different flash.
"You ever hated someone so much you forget they existed?"
"You talking about you and-" MJ inquired.
"No, say there's this person who you had no idea they could potentially even exist," A vision of Black Cat's father solemnly asking to atone for his sins captured all of Peter's headspace, "and they just reveal how deep something you never thought inside you could go."
"Well, we are watching Memento in the film club, maybe you'd want to join?" MJ's eyes sparkled.
"And feel the burning avoidance of my ex on my back the whole time? No thank you."
"Liz probably won't be there, she's been starting to prepare for a summer without Mark given y'know…"
"Right," Peter muttered and internally flinched.
"Look Tiger, it's summer. I thought it was some SAD or something, but ever since you and-"
"I'm clicking the fast forward button on this memory and it doesn't seem to be working," Peter mimed.
"Ha-ha, this isn't some science problem you can fix in the lab with Gwen." Pete pretended he didn't know why he internally flinched when she said that either, "This is your oldest-"
"Actually that would be Flash and I."
MJ rolled her eyes and Peter lightly smirked. "Look, I'm no scientist like you or Gwen and now even… but I do know a thing about people, I've been tasked with studying them now for acting."
Something rumbled internally and Peter felt like a prized artifact had shattered in a rare museum exhibit- he'd seen a lot of that with his last on-land encounter with Sandman. "You could have stopped at 'about people'. You think you know people, but we've only known each other for a few months before you decided to flaunt around with Flash and-"
MJ's eyes flashed a red deeper than her hair ever could be. "Are you being for real?"
"Yeah, I am." Peter practically marched out of the bus as MJ gently scurried in that forever nonchalant way of hers. She was the breeze to his tsunami right now.
"Okay, that is it Peter." He couldn't keep walking away, but he didn't turn around. He'd never heard MJ sound so serious. "I don't care how much you're going through, you don't say shit like that to me." MJ's chest stung. She scrunched her eyes, a sight Peter would have gaped at if he still didn't have his back turned to her. "You're starting to remind me of that time Eddie took me on a motorcycle date, and god was that freaky!"
Peter turned and felt the urge to initiate a hug, but immediately stopped himself. Peter, you idiot. How many times would he say that statement to himself in his life? "MJ, I- look I-" MJ looked shaken unlike anything Peter had ever seen from her in his civilian form. Something stirred and then Peter was sprawled on the floor huddled as if a tornado was coming, shaking. He couldn't move.
"Tiger?" By the sound of her voice, MJ was kneeling by him. A cold voice turned into a cackle. Green gas filled his gaze. He felt like he couldn't breathe. "Tiger!" Peter gasped and flipped onto his bottom to sit up and catch MJ's nervous gaze as she had hunched to meet him at eye level.
"MJ I'm sorry, I think I need to be alone right now."
MJ's eyes firmed. "Yeah, probably a good idea for the both of us." They hopped to their feet and gave each other sidewalk cracks of space. Peter dusted off his sleeves as if he'd fallen into a garden patch and hadn't just spontaneously mimed a tornado drill in broad daylight.
MJ's eyes leveled with his. "I don't know what's going on. I don't know if I'm the person to trust given how you lashed out at me… but it seems like your photojournalism career is affecting you more than you think… and I work admin part-time at a doctor's office so I hear things like this. Please get help Peter." She turned towards her block. Peter copycatted to his respective residence, and closed the house door behind him. He had some thinking to do, but first gardening…