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Peter held back an audible sigh and forced a smile on his face. Tony Stark may not be able to see him right now, but if he had even a chance of getting what he wanted, he had to hold his tongue.
"No thank you, Mr Stark," he said patiently, trying to convey the right amount of gratitude at the same time as shooting down the Tony Stark.
"Are you absolutely sure, Kid?" Tony asked again, for the fifth time. "I could make you look like my surrogate son, literally, for real. Then no one would harass you-"
"I know Mr Stark," Peter said, knowing that the exact opposite was in fact true. "But I'm happy with my life right now and I kinda just want it to stay the same..."
"So you want a low level intern access pass to the Stark Industries site?" Tony reaffirmed. "Explain to me how exactly that's going to help?"
"Because the 'Stark Internship' is the only cover story I've got for disappearing a whole bunch of times and not turning up to after-school stuff, Mr Stark!" Peter cried. "If I can't convince the other kids that I actually intern for you, I can't keep using it as an excuse to go...spider-ing."
"Spider-ing is at the bottom of your to-do list, Peter," Tony said. "That was the agreement we made with Aunt May. Everything comes before spider-ing. So you shouldn't have to skip out on stuff if you're actually holding up your end of the deal..."
Peter bit back a frustrated growl. "I know Mr Stark, but before we made that deal..." He blew out a breath and grit his teeth a little. "...I guess I just wanna save face, you know?"
"And what better way to save face than letting me give you an all-access pass?" Tony said. Peter could practically hear his smug smile.
"Look Mr Stark," he said, trying one last time. "Please, I'm asking you, begging you...please can you just let me lay low? Please?"
Tony huffed before relenting. "Fine! You can lay low. I'll give you like a level 5 pass or something, how's that?"
"Yes!" Peter cried, doing a little fist pump to himself. "Thank you so much Mr Stark. You're the best!"
"Yeah, yeah, Kid, whatever," Tony sighed. "Sometimes you astound me. Just have fun with your friends, okay?"
"Sure thing Mr Stark," Peter grinned, "Thank you!"
As the call was disconnected, Peter let out a sigh of relief. He'd been dreading the field trip for weeks, and he'd been dreading having to call Tony and ask him for this small favour even more. Despite the fact that he knew Tony Stark very well (so well that he and May often spent Sunday dinners with Tony, Pepper and Morgan), Peter didn't have any sort of access pass to Stark Industries or the Avenger's base. Whenever he was in either of those buildings, it was always to see someone or contribute to something as a member of a team. He'd never needed a pass since whoever he was meeting usually signed him in as a priority guest.
At least now he didn't have to worry about his friends finding out he was a fraud, even though technically he was. He also knew that none of the other Avenger's would be anywhere near Stark Industries, and that his class were going nowhere near the Avenger's base. He wanted to smack whoever thought this little field trip was a good idea; apparently the school had been specifically invited and were told that a group of 30 students could tour the first-rate, super high-tech science labs and engineering suites. Peter cursed himself for keeping up with his schoolwork once he'd found out he made the selection.
A week later and everything seemed to have gone swimmingly. Ned and MJ were among the students also selected to go, as were a few other members of the decathlon team, Flash included. At least he was there to see Peter use his intern pass; hopefully now he'd leave Peter alone about it. The day was coming to an end and it was almost time to get back on the bus and head back to school. Peter had stayed at the back of the group for most of the tour, keeping his head down and not really engaging all too much. It was exactly the way he wanted it to be.
Too bad you can't tell a five year old that you're pretending to be something your not for the benefit of the people around you.
"PETER!" Morgan screamed, slipping Happy's grip in half a second and careening down the corridor to one absolutely mortified Peter Parker.
He looked like the actual embodiment of a deer caught in headlights. It was only when MJ nudged him that he regained any real brain activity, at least enough to remember that Morgan was five and it would make her really sad if he didn't react like always.
"Morgan!" Peter grinned, sinking down on one knee to catch the little girl as she bowled right into him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled as he stood up, her still in his arms. "What are you doing here?" she asked excitedly. "Daddy said I wouldn't get to see you till next Sunday..." She pouted and looked up at him with large puppy dog eyes.
Peter chuckled, not having forgotten where he was or who was surrounding him. "Well, this is a nice surprise then, isn't it? I'm here on a school trip, with some people from my class," he said.
Morgan scrunched her face up and frowned at him. "Why'd you want to visit a place you've already seen a whole bunch of times?"
Peter cleared his throat. "Uh, sometimes that's what happens when you go to school. Sometimes they take you to places you've already been, but it's cool, 'cause you get to learn stuff that you didn't know."
"But you already know everything about this place," Morgan countered. "Daddy said you even helped build some of it."
His classmates collectively gasped. Peter's expression froze and then fell into a gentle frown. He sighed.
"I didn't help build any of this Morgan," he said, shaking his head. "I think you're Dad got confused."
"Daddy said-"
"Daddy put you up to this, didn't he?" Peter asked, looking at the incredibly smart girl as he raised his eyebrows, the hint of a smirk on his face. "What was the bribe?"
"He said we could go for waffles and ice cream after," she answered. "But that's only if you don't tell him you figured it out and I told you."
Peter mimed zipping his lips shut. Happy, who'd caught up moments before and had heard most of the conversation, merely gave Peter a flat look. Peter shrugged.
"Come on Morgan, you're Mom is waiting for you," Happy said, gesturing with his arms for her to let Peter go and come to him.
Morgan shook her head. "I wanna stay with Peter," she whined. "I promise I'll be a good girl and do everything he says..." She slipped her hand in Peter's as he put her back down on the floor, swinging their arms together as though she was the picture of innocence.
Happy looked from a wide eyed Peter Parker to a mini-Tony Stark and groaned. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped a few buttons. "Hey Pepper, Morgan bumped into Peter and now she wants to stay with him..." His eyes darted to Peter and back to the floor as he listened to Pepper talk. "Yes. Yes I believe so. Yes, he is. I think Peter might be first in line...Yeah, sure, I'll just pass you over..."
Peter shook his head, waving his arm at Happy as he tried to pass Peter the phone.
"Talk to Pepper," Happy said.
Peter glared at him, tipping his head at his intrigued class.
"Peter, you have her daughter," Happy said slowly. "Talk to Pepper."
Peter looked down at Morgan who grinned up at him. He rolled his eyes and took the phone. "Hey Mrs Potts-"
"Pepper."
"Yeah, so..."
"I'm sorry Tony is an asshole," she said, the hint of a smile evident in the tone of her voice.
"It's okay, you get used to it," he muttered.
Pepper chuckled. "Just make sure Morgan stays with you, and don't let her touch anything in the labs. And don't let her blow anything up again, even if it is only the press of a button. Got it?"
"Got it," Peter said with a nod.
"Thanks Peter, see you later," Pepper said. "I'll call May and get her to come up for dinner tonight. You can have your turn at Tony first, before I crush him completely."
"Thanks Pepper," Peter grinned. "See you later."
He hung up and returned the phone to Happy, instantly remembering that his whole class would have heard him call Iron Man's wife by her first name and acknowledge that he would see her later, as though he did so on a regular basis, which he did. He turned slowly to face them.
Before he could mumble some incoherent excuse for knowing the Stark family so well, the entire class collectively gasped and with wide eyes pointed to the space behind him. Peter turned around to see a sparkly orange ring forming from thin air. He groaned as Shuri stepped through the portal and into the building.
"Peter! Why wouldn't you answer your phone?!" Shuri huffed. "I had to come all the way from Wakanda just to speak to you!"
Peter let his head tip back as he sighed. "Where d'you get a sling ring from?" he asked, as though it was going to be the single greatest burden of his life, which it was.
"Oh," Shuri grinned, looking down at her hand, "I made the wizard give me one."
"You made Doctor Strange give you a sling ring?" Peter asked incredulously.
Shuri nodded. "It's faster and far easier than anything we have in Wakanda. I can grab a drink from my kitchen while I'm working and I don't even need to leave the lab!"
Peter gave her a tired smile and nodded back. "That sounds...amazing. But right now, I'm on a field trip with some classmates so I have to get going. Okay?"
"Field trip?" Shuri frowned, scrunching her nose up. "Why are you on a field trip to here? If you're going to visit a lab for educational purposes, you should have come to Wakanda."
"Yeah, well, we don't all own rings that make magical portals to wherever we wanna go," Peter grumbled. He bent to pick Morgan up again who was pulling on his t-shirt. "What's up?"
"Shuri!" Morgan squealed, launching herself into the Princess's arms.
"Morgan!" Shuri cried, beaming at the girl and giving her a tight hug. "I didn't see you there! I was so wrapped up in berating Peter for his inability to answer a phone, I wasn't really looking at anyone else."
Peter rolled his eyes and chanced a glance at the other members of his group, all of which were staring at him with a sense of morbid curiosity. He looked back at Shuri with a small frown. "Wait a minute...how did you find me? How'd you know I was here? Specifically in this corridor on this floor of this building?!"
Shuri had the good grace to look a little sheepish. "I traced your phone to here and then I hacked Stark's mainframe to gain access to the security cameras so I knew exactly where you were..."
Peter gaped at her. "What was so fu-lipping important that it couldn't wait?!" He just about managed to avoid cursing in front of Tony's daughter, and then he cut Shuri off again before she could even answer. "And what was so flipping important that you'd want to incur the wrath of Tony Stark for hacking into F.R.I.D.A.Y?!"
Morgan launched herself back into Peter's arms with ease, the two teenagers evidently apt at sharing the small child, something that didn't go unnoticed by Peter's classmates.
"Shur, he's gonna go ballistic!" Peter muttered frantically.
As if on cue, Tony Stark appeared out of the nearest elevator and began stomping his way down the corridor, towards the pair. Peter groaned out loud and closed his eyes, his head falling back a second time since his whole lay-low approach had imploded on him.
"Hey! You! Princess! What d'you think you're doing?!" Tony yelled, almost level with Peter, Shuri, Morgan and their audience. "How did you even get in here and what the hell d'you think you're playing at screwing around with F.R.I.D.A.Y?!"
Shuri took a deep breath and turned to face Stark. "It's not my fault that your system was so hackable. I managed to get in within minutes, and I fixed it for you by the way, so I think a 'thank you' is in order. No one is getting in now," she said.
"Yeah, except you!" Stark huffed, pointing accusingly at her and trying to not make it sound like a grown man was whining at a teenager.
"Well of course except me," Shuri frowned with a shrug. "What kind of genius locks herself out of any place she already has access to?"
"One with a good and moral conscience," Tony argued, crossing his arms and staring her down.
"I like to think of myself as more chaotic neutral than lawful good," Shuri said.
Tony frowned at her and shook his head. "Meaning?"
"Meaning she didn't want to leave your system open to the same kind of attack she carried out, but she wasn't about to give up the privileges afforded to her by fixing it the way you would have," Peter surmised for him.
"But now I can't even fix it the way I want," Tony said. "I can't shut her out." He gestured to Shuri in annoyance.
Peter shrugged. "Then maybe just don't give her a reason to use it against you..."
Tony glared at him. "I thought you were supposed to be laying low today? Huh? Smarty pants? What happened to that?"
Peter practically exploded. "I was laying low! And then Happy made me talk to Pepper and she made me agree to dinner plans and said she'd ring Aunt May and then a Wakandan Princess materialised out of a magical glowy ring, for reasons I still have no clue about! And then, and then, Tony freaking Stark stormed his way down the corridor to have an argument with her, in front of the whole freaking group!"
Tony put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly at him. "Kid, your cover was blown the minute you chose a little girl over what your class were gonna think if they knew you weren't just an intern." He winked at Morgan. "Hey sweetie."
"Hi Daddy," she said, leaning forward to kiss Tony's cheek.
"Don't break my daughter, okay?" Tony said, pointing at Peter as he went to walk away.
"Hold up!" Eugene 'Flash' Thompson had finally found his voice. "What d'you mean, Parker isn't just an intern?"
"Oh! He's my intern. As in, my personal intern," Tony said, waving as he started stepping backwards. "Don't know why he was so sensitive about it. I figured it was pretty cool..." Tony shrugged, smirking at Peter as he moved. "Uh, your highness, we aren't close to being finished here," he said, narrowed eyes staring at Shuri. "I will call your brother if I have to."
Shuri and Peter both snorted at that and Stark grumbled something inaudible that accompanied a roll of his eyes. "Any way, it was good to see you Pete, you're whole group are invited to dinner. Barbecue out back. Right?" He hitched his thumb towards 'out back' (a large garden area he'd for some reason placed halfway up the building) and paced backwards to the elevator.
Peter looked at his class, all large wide eyes, huge smiles and excited buzzing. He grimaced and looked back at Tony. "I'm not telling Pepper!" he yelled.
Tony waved him off. "Blame Morgan!"
"Hey!" the five year old cried.
"I'll give you waffles and ice cream even though you told on me to Pete...?" Tony bargained from halfway down the corridor.
"Yey! It was my fault!" Morgan clapped her hands and beamed at Peter who couldn't help the chuckle that slipped past his lips.
Peter shook his head. "Your dad's an idiot. There is no way your mom would ever buy that."
"No, but she humors him. It's a big part of loving him apparently," Morgan said. Peter snorted as he put the girl down again. "Come on, I wanna go on a high school field trip!" She squealed and tugged on his hand.
"Fine," he turned back towards the group, all of them stunned and excited at the prospect of going to dinner with the Tony Stark. "Sorry about all that. Can we get moving again?"
The tour guide simply nodded and looked back at Shuri. "Uh...will you be joining us too, your majesty?" she asked nervously, her voice barely a squeak as she did a sort of mini-bow.
Shuri screwed her face up and nodded. "Yeah, but only if you don't do that again, and you call me Shuri..."
The tour guide nodded. "Sure..."
The group finally started moving again and Morgan skipped around Peter's feet excitedly.
"So, which one is MJ?" Shuri whispered in Peter's ear, leaning in to ask him while looking around at the class. She noticed a young woman whose eyes had flicked back to them for a moment before staring resolutely ahead.
"What?" Peter squeaked, rubbing furiously at his ear as his cheeks turned red. "Why would you wanna know that? And what makes you think I'd tell you anyway?"
"Oh come on," Shuri teased. "I just want to put a face to a name. And you talk about her all the time."
"She's not here," Ned spoke up, falling into step beside Peter now that he was back with the rest of the group, albeit still trailing at the back. "Liz moved schools a few months ago."
Peter loved Ned, now more than ever. As far as Peter was concerned, he did not talk about MJ all the time. He talked about her a normal amount of the time. Normal amount of the time. Definitely normal.
"Who's Liz?" Shuri asked with a frown.
"Who were you talking about if it wasn't Liz?" Ned asked back, frowning too.
"Liz was the girl I had a massive crush on a few months back, before her dad was caught by Spider-Man and revealed as the Vulture. She moved away after that," Peter explained.
"Oh, well that was clever of Spider-Man," Shuri snarked, smirking at Peter.
Peter rolled his eyes and huffed, well aware that the entire class was listening to every word that left their mouths. His senses were turned up to eleven after all.
"What was he supposed to do?" Ned asked. "Let the guy go because Peter had a crush on his daughter?"
Flash took the bait Ned had unwittingly laid out. "Well, according to Peter, Spider-Man is a buddy of his-"
"Actually that was according to Ned," Peter said.
Morgan shook his hand, her own little frown on her face. "But Peter, you're-"
Peter's eyes went really, really wide as he watched in slow motion, Morgan revealing his biggest secret. He couldn't even move. He couldn't stop it.
"You're Morgan, right?" MJ suddenly appeared right in front of the small girl, crouching down as the sp of Spider-Man left her lips, cutting off her revelation. "I'm-"
"MJ," Morgan finished for her, her head tilted to look at Michelle as though assessing her. All confusion over Peter being Spiderman and no one knowing it was forgotten.
"Yeah..." MJ frowned, glancing up at a red faced Peter Parker who looked as though he wasn't sure whether to continue on his path of panic or revel in his relief.
"Peter said you were the prettiest girl in class and super smart," Morgan said, grinning up at Peter.
"I did not say that," Peter argued, sticking his hands up in surrender. "I swear."
MJ looked from Peter to Morgan and back again, her frown growing deeper. "So I'm not super smart? Or the prettiest girl in class?" She stood back up and folded her arms as she stared him down.
"What?" Peter squeaked. "That's not what I meant! I just meant that I didn't actually say those things. Those words didn't come out of my mouth." He glared at Morgan as she giggled, which only made her giggle more.
"So I am super smart?" MJ said, her gaze unfaltering.
"Yeah, obviously," Peter nodded, a little too enthusiastically.
"And the prettiest girl in class?"
"Uh...wh...well...yeah...?" Peter stammered, adding in a nervous shrug.
"You sound really convincing," MJ said, her expression unimpressed. "Pretending like I do believe you despite the terrible sense of conviction you seem to have in your own words, what would then be wrong with Betty? Or Maddison? Or Jade? Or Rachel?" MJ asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Uh, uh, uh, nothing..." Peter floundered.
Morgan giggled again, pulling on MJ's arm and slipping her little hand inside MJ's bigger one, smiling up at her. "I like you. Peter?" She looked towards Peter, who definitely looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "Can we keep her?"
"What?" Peter asked, his brain going a mile a minute as he tried to work out what the right answer was to this question as well as the other ones MJ had levelled at him.
"Can we keep her? MJ? I like her and I want to keep her?" Morgan said, looking at Peter like he was being a bit stupid.
"Uh, sure..." he said, feeling like that would be a safe answer.
MJ cleared her throat and looked between Morgan and Peter, completely confused. "Um, I don't think you can legally 'keep' people," she said, her cheeks dusted pink as she spoke, her eyes landing on Peter as she continued. "I'm pretty sure there are actual U.N laws prohibiting the 'keeping' of people..."
Morgan pouted and looked at Peter with wide, sad eyes. Peter tipped his head at MJ, a cheeky little smirk on his face. "MJ, you're going to make her cry."
Michelle looked down at Morgan and sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry Morgan, but you can't keep me. We can be friends though, if you want?"
Morgan grinned widely and nodded. "That means you have to come visit me all the time, right? Because I'm only five and I can't come visit you, not unless my Mommy or Daddy come with me. Or maybe Peter. Sometimes Daddy let's him take me for ice cream," she said, thoughtfully looking up at him.
Peter rolled his eyes and looked at MJ. "I can't believe you said 'no' to that face."
MJ shrugged. "You should have known a cute face and puppy dog eyes wouldn't work on me Parker, I say no to you all the time."
Peter watched as MJ tried to remain stoic in demeanour. It was only the small barely-evident widening of her eyes that made him aware of the fact that she had realised she'd called him cute. He smirked at her but chose to take pity and not question her choice of words right now since the whole class were riveted to whatever conversation he happened to be having. He'd never known so many people to be so interested in him and the things he was doing or saying.
"You know, he might not have said you were the prettiest girl in class or super smart, but he does talk about you all the time," Morgan said, swinging their still interlocked hands as they carried along on the tour.
"No I don't," Peter said, a little too quickly to be convincing. "Not all the time. We're friends. I talk about you a normal amount of time. Normal." Normal!
"You don't talk about Ned that much," Morgan said matter-of-factly. "And you said you really liked that Liz girl but I never heard you talk about her almost at all. Shuri didn't even know you loved her once."
"Because I didn't love her," Peter stressed, his eyes flicking towards MJ's as he watched for a reaction. The smallest tensing of her body and the slight increase in her heart rate didn't help him as he tried to work out what piece of information it was that caused her to react.
"What's the difference between loving someone and liking them then?" Morgan asked, frowning up at him.
"A lot," Peter said, trying to tell her with his eyes to just drop it.
Morgan gave him a flat look. "That's not a real answer."
"Yeah Peter, that's not a real answer," Shuri teased.
"You can shut right up," Peter huffed, pointing a finger at her.
"That is no way to speak to royalty," Shuri said, looking mock aghast and holding a hand to her chest.
Peter made sure Morgan wasn't looking when he flipped Shuri the bird. Shuri gaped at him before laughing loudly.
"Oh, my brother would've had your head for that!" She grinned.
"Well, your brother isn't here," Peter said, laughing too.
"Have you ever been in love Peter?" Morgan asked, looking between him and Shuri.
Peter shrugged and shook his head. "No, not really." A memory or two flashed through his head and he winced a little with the pain. "Maybe once."
"What was it like?" Morgan asked, letting go of MJ's hand and holding her arms out to Peter.
Peter picked her up and blew out a weighted breath. "I don't know. Kind of like hot ice cream, I think. Sort of heavy and light all at the same time."
"What was her name?" Shuri asked softly, detecting the change of tone in Peter's voice.
"Gwen," he said, barely above a whisper. "Kind of a summer lovin' sort of thing."
"Why isn't she your girlfriend anymore?" Morgan asked. "Why don't you love her still?"
Peter cleared his throat and shrugged, unable to squeeze the words out of his mouth.
"She died, right?" MJ murmured, her gaze holding Peter's as he nodded.
"Oh..." Morgan said quietly, her little arms tightening around his neck. "Sorry Peter."
"S'okay," he said, gently rubbing a hand up and down her back to sooth her. "It was a while ago now, and we weren't together very long."
"How did she die?" Shuri asked, frowning as she watched all three of them tense up.
"Spider-Man," was all Peter muttered.
"It wasn't Spider-Man's fault Peter," Ned said fiercely.
"Yeah, it was," Peter countered, his voice barely above a whisper but his tone hard and full of real conviction.
Shuri had no idea what they were on about until MJ spoke, a cold hard lump forming in her stomach as the young woman explained.
"Gwen got thrown off a bridge. Spider-Man caught her with his webbing but the whiplash it caused broke her neck," MJ said, wincing as she saw Peter close his eyes and clench his jaw. "Honestly, it wasn't his fault. Though I get the impression that he's the sort of guy who'd never believe it, even if she could come back and tell him herself."
Peter shook his head and sighed. "If he'd have thought his actions through, he'd have realised that catching her on one line would have killed her."
"If he hadn't caught her, she'd have ended up splattered all over the pavement beneath," MJ said, ignoring the way Peter sucked in a breath, since she wasn't supposed to know he was Spider-Man. "She was dead anyway, and if it was someone I loved, I'd rather they die intact and looking at peace than with their brains covering a radius of five or six metres."
Peter huffed. "That's my dead girlfriend you're talking about," he muttered.
"Yep," MJ said with a nod. "And considering Spider-Man is supposed to be a buddy of yours, don't you think it's about time you forgive him?" She stared hard at Peter after that and he couldn't really answer her. "You've never been one to hold a grudge Parker, at least not against anyone but yourself. So unless you're trying to tell me something, maybe you should cut it out with the 'Spider-Man killed my first love' crap."
Peter's eyes were wide as she continued to stare him down. Now he really couldn't answer her. "Sure..."
"Good," MJ said, giving him a final nod and turning to pay more attention to what the tour guide was saying. She felt sorry for the poor woman, since no one was really paying all that much attention to her anymore.
The rest of the tour was finished in relative quiet. Ned and Shuri snickered between themselves often enough, but everyone else was fairly attentive. Morgan had wriggled out of Peter's arms and went back to holding hands with MJ, giving Peter the perfect excuse to keep his eyes on them. There was something about MJ he just couldn't put his finger on; he was almost positive that she knew his secret, that she knew he was Spider-Man, but she'd never confronted him over it and he didn't have the guts to ask her.
After what happened with Gwen, Peter felt like the less people that knew, the safer everyone was. If both he and MJ could plead ignorance, since neither of them had out-right discussed the truth, then surely they were safer for it. Gwen knew he was Spider-Man, Gwen died because he was Spider-Man. He couldn't ever let that happen again.
"Hey Peter," Jade Fisher sidled up to him as the tour was ending, batting her eyelids.
Peter frowned. "Hi..."
"So, I was wondering, after all this is done and we get back to school...d'you wanna go on a date?" she asked, smiling softly and giving him what Peter assumed was her best shy, vulnerable, expression.
Peter didn't need spidey-senses to know that this girl would eat him alive, or that she wasn't interested in him at all, but more his knew and improved popularity status. Tony Stark's personal intern was not someone who should remain associated with The Losers, because The Losers were not people who should be connected to the Avengers (no matter how loosely) on a personal level.
"Do I wanna go on a date?" Peter stammered, repeating her question in the hopes that he had misheard her, and also trying to buy himself some time to think of a polite response since 'hell no' seemed a bit mean.
Jade nodded and chewed apprehensively on her lip. It did nothing for Peter, it didn't even make him smile like when MJ did it while she was focusing on her drawing, sketching someone in crisis. Not that watching MJ chew on her lip did something to him, it only really made him smile because it was one of the rare times she'd forget where she was and it made her look cute. Not that looking cute did something to him either, he can call her cute without it meaning anything. MJ called him cute not even half an hour ago and it didn't mean anything. The world as he knew it did not implode just because MJ called him cute, therefore, he could call MJ cute -in his head- and it also wouldn't change anything. Everything was still normal. Normal!
"Yeah, a date? D'you want to go on a date?" Jade was frowning at him now and talking slowly, as though he was two years old and hadn't quite grasped the concept of a question. He supposed that it was probably because he'd spent far too long rambling in his head than answering her.
"No," Peter blurted, wincing as Jade's face turned sour.
"No?" she repeated back to him, now looking at him like he had a second head.
"Yeah, no," he said, nodding. "Sorry."
"But...do you know who I am?" she asked, her voice a little shrill.
"Do you know who I am?" Peter automatically repeated back at her, without thinking, his voice deep and the twitch of a smile on his face.
"What?" Jade sour face had contorted again into something like confusion mixed with anger.
"This is not a game of who the fuck are you," MJ interjected, her own voice deep as she came up beside Peter, sniggering to herself.
"Give me penne arribiata or you shall die," Ned joined in, pointing at Jade and then Peter and MJ. "And you, and you. Death by tray it shall be!"
The three of them scrunched up, laughing at their little joke.
"What the hell?" Jade asked, hand on her hip as she looked disdainfully at the trio.
Shuri laughed too, stepping in to explain. She laid a warm hand on Jade's shoulder. "It's a comedic sketch, by a man called Eddie Izzard, about a canteen on the Death Star. It's very funny."
"Death Star?" Jade said, evidently still so confused.
"From Star Wars," Peter said.
"Oh! God, you're such nerds," she muttered. "Anyway...do you really not want to go on a date with me?" She turned back towards Peter, crossing her arms and staring at him.
Peter felt MJ tense up beside him, he saw Ned's jaw drop and Shuri suppress a smirk. Morgan was just looking between all the 'grown ups' as though completely intrigued by them all.
"No, sorry," he said, shaking his head. "I'm sure you're a really nice person, but I'm not interested."
Jade scowled at him. "Is it because of Michelle?" she asked, glaring at her in disgust.
"No, it's not because of MJ," Peter said, his voice now hard and cold.
"Good, because she's got nothing on me and you're way too hot for her," Jade said matter-of-factly. "I don't know what you were doing last summer Peter Parker, but you did come back all yummy." She smirked at him and sent him a wink.
Normally, Peter would have blubbered and blushed and stammered his way through some sort of thanks before being manipulated into actually going on a date with the girl. Normally. But right now, all Peter could focus on was the fact that Jade had insulted MJ, and thanks to his spidey-senses he could detect the sudden change in her heart rate, he could feel the drop in her shoulders and he knew there was a sigh stuck in her throat and tears welling in her eyes as she bent her head slowly to look at her shoes. Peter knew MJ, and he knew she was stoic and strong and ready to fight almost anything. Almost anything. Because while MJ would fight the corner of any worthwhile cause, it wasn't often she deemed herself a worthwhile cause to fight for.
"Well, you know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through insulting all his friends, right?" Peter said, a sarcastic smile on his face as he stared Jade down.
"Oh come off it, we all know you're only friends with her because you feel sorry for her," Jade snapped.
"Hey, I'm friends with her for a lot of reasons, none of them have anything to do with pity," Peter snapped back. "If you honestly think she's not all that, explain to me why you're greener than the hulk? Huh? Jealously doesn't look good on you Jade."
"MJ is a hundred times the person you are," Ned growled. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Whatever," Jade scoffed, promptly turning on her heel and stalking back to her giggling group of friends.
MJ let the sigh escape from her mouth and cleared her throat. "Great, I can't wait to get back to school so she can take all that out on me," she half huffed.
"Peter's right, she's just jealous," Morgan spoke up from the middle of the group. "You're super pretty and she wants Peter to like her like he likes you."
MJ chuckled, picking Morgan up in her arms. "Thank you, but I think she wants Peter to like her a lot more than he likes me," she said, smiling back at the small child.
Morgan pouted and shook her head. "Nope," she said, popping her 'p' as her fingers began playing with the necklace around MJ's neck. "Peter likes you the most. Liking her more would be impossible."
"As a friend, yeah," MJ said. "But Jade wants him to like her as more than a friend. You know, like how your dad likes your mom?"
Morgan nodded. "Yeah, and that's how Peter likes you."
"No it's not," both Peter and MJ answered her, Peter's response sounding a lot less convincing than MJ's.
Peter gave her a pained smile and a shrug. "It's not that...I just don't...I like you I just..."
MJ bit back a laugh and shook her head. "Cool it Parker, before you implode."
Peter let out a soft chuckle and nodded. "Thanks..."
"Don't mention it," MJ said, her eyes finding his and her gaze turning deep. "Seriously, don't mention it. Today has been one of the weirdest days of my life and I'd rather it stayed it's own entity than slowly leak into my otherwise normal reality."
Peter barked a laugh. "And I thought today was hard for me."
MJ twisted her mouth up into a half smile and shrugged. Morgan looped her hands around MJ's neck and gave her a tight squeeze before launching herself across to Peter.
"Kid, you've gotta stop going that," he sighed. "What happens when someone doesn't catch you?"
Morgan rolled her eyes and began climbing up onto his shoulders. "It's not like the fall is gonna kill me Pete."
"I thought you were five and not fifteen?" Peter muttered.
"I'm almost six," she said proudly, as though that explained everything. Then she frowned and looked down at Peter and MJ. "What is a game of who the fuck are you?"
MJ choked and Peter's eyes got wider.
"Uh..." Peter gaped at her.
"Shit..." MJ murmured under her breath.
"Shit!" Morgan said loudly.
"No! No! No!" MJ shook her head and waved her hands frantically at Morgan before Peter caught hold of her wrists and lowered them, sniggering softly at her.
"She knew that one already," Peter said, smirking at MJ. "And she knows she's not supposed to use it."
"It's Mommy's word," Morgan said, nodding. "Daddy told me."
MJ blew out a small breath of relief. "But I still-"
"So how do you play who the fuck are you?" Morgan asked, louder again.
MJ wanted the ground to swallow her up so she could die in piece.
"Morgan, fuck is Daddy's word," Peter said, trying not to panic himself. "So, like Mommy's word, it's not for you, okay?"
"Oh, okay," Morgan frowned. "So if I ask Daddy-"
"Tell you what, if you ever use it and someone asks you where you heard it, just tell them you heard it from me, okay?" Peter said, glancing at MJ as her head snapped up to his.
"But MJ said it," Morgan argued.
"Well, MJ heard it from me first, and you don't want to get her in trouble for something that I said, do you?" Peter asked, waiting apprehensively for an answer.
"If she knew it was a bad word, why'd she say it again, around me?" Morgan asked, narrowing her eyes at MJ and crossing her arms.
"Because I'm an idiot," MJ mumbled, her cheeks burning. "I forgot where I was and that you were only five. You've got to admit, it can be really confusing because you act so much older than five..."
Peter smirked at MJ and gave her a knowing look. Manipulating a five year old by stoking their ego was not only bold but kind of genius, especially considering that the five year old in question was the progeny of Tony Stark himself.
Morgan nodded her little head. "Fair enough," she said. She looked around and frowned. The tour guide had brought them back to reception and now they were stood around waiting. "What are we waiting for?"
"Escorts," Flash said, coming to stand with the small group. He glanced up at Morgan and curled his lip at Peter, obviously holding back whatever retort he had for him since Stark's daughter was still sat on his shoulders.
"Escorts?" Peter asked, mild panic setting in. "Uh...what kind of escorts?"
Flash shrugged. "I dunno. I'm not the one who works here, am I?" he snarked.
"Are you seriously going to go straight from tormenting Peter for 'pretending' to work here, into tormenting him because he works here?" Ned asked incredulously.
Flash shrugged. "If the shoe fits."
"Why can't you just admit you were wrong?" Ned said.
"Because I wasn't wrong, I was just highly unconvinced," Flash said. "And now Precious Parker is likely going to be the most popular kid in school because he personally knows Tony freaking Stark, and well enough to be left unsupervised with his daughter!"
Peter scoffed. "Please. The man owns this building, there's no way I'm unsupervised."
"Whatever, Precious Parker!" Flash huffed.
Shuri frowned at the guy. "This one is not very intelligent Peter. I mean, if I were going to torment you, I'd do it over something you couldn't change. Like your ears that stick out too far from your head."
"Or your height," MJ said, sharing a small smirk with Shuri.
"Gee, thanks guys," Peter huffed.
Flash snorted. "Precious, precious, Parker, so sensitive."
Shuri rolled her eyes. "He's super imaginative too! Precious Parker? I mean, where does he come up with this stuff?"
"Well, I'll take it over Penis Parker," Peter said with a shrug.
"What's penis mean?" Morgan asked from above him.
"Be quiet you," Peter grumbled, giving her a quick tickle. "You know exactly what it means."
Morgan shrugged and stuck her tongue out at the top of Peter's head. MJ and Shuri snickered while Ned merely rolled his eyes.
"Where the hell is this escort," Flash muttered, looking around. "I just wanna chill out and eat already."
Before anyone could answer, half the group had squealed and all rushed to one particular point in the room. Peter looked towards the middle of the cluster, assuming he was going to see Tony again or maybe even Pepper. He did not expect to see Captain America himself. He groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Uncle Steve!" Morgan screamed as she spotted him, shuffling around on Peter's shoulders in an effort to get down as fast as she could.
Morgan ran full pelt across the reception area and into Steve's waiting arms. Steve looked across to where she'd come from, spotting Shuri and Peter. He tipped his head and Peter gave him a small wave back.
Flash scoffed from beside him. "You know Captain America?"
Peter shrugged. "I know him better than you."
Ned gaffawed and Shuri laughed, MJ smirked at him and gave him a little fist bump. Flash just scowled, missing the fact that Steve had started to make his way over to them, followed mainly by Jade and her group of gaggling girl-friends.
"Hey Queens, how's it going?" Steve asked, giving Peter a small smile.
"I've been better," Peter said, grimacing at him a little.
"Stark said you wanted to lay low today, and then he told me he stuck Morgan on you and invited your whole class to dinner," Steve said, grimacing back at Peter. "Kid, why didn't you just call in sick?"
Peter shrugged.
"If he'd called in sick, no one would've believed he was really sick," MJ explained. "He talks too much about his internship here for anyone to think he was sick. They'd all have assumed he was faking it just so he didn't get caught lying."
"Huh..." Steve said, his eyes slightly narrowed as he looked at MJ. "MJ, right?"
"Yeah..." MJ now narrowed her eyes at Steve.
"Peter talks about you all the time," Steve said. "And I already know Ned - I mean, I spoke to him on a video call the other day." Steve waved at Ned who was grinning from ear to ear.
"I do not talk about her all the time," Peter half huffed and half hissed. "I don't, I swear!" Peter said, turning to MJ and looking at her with pleading eyes.
"He does, all the time," Shuri said.
Ned laughed and pointed at Shuri. "So that's who you were talking about!"
Shuri grinned and nodded at Ned. Peter now hated that he'd introduced them weeks ago, and wished he'd kept them apart for a whole lot longer.
"Oh my god, I hate you all!" Peter cried.
Steve laughed and tipped his head at Flash. "So, who's this guy?"
Peter stifled a snort as he watched Flash's face switch between terror and excitement several times.
"This is Eugene, but we all call him Flash," Peter said.
Steve gave one nod and looked intently at Flash. "Flash...right. I think I've heard Peter talk about you."
"All good things I hope," Flash laughed nervously.
Steve raised one single eyebrow. "Why? Would he have anything bad to say?"
"Uh, uh, uh," Flash stammered. "No...?"
"Sounds more like a question than an answer," Steve said, staring the teenager down.
"Flash is a dick, which is another word for a penis," Morgan said from Steve's shoulder.
"Where'd you learn that?" Steve said, standing up straight and looking with wide eyes at Morgan who was still perched in his arms.
"Peter," Morgan said, pointing at him for effect.
"Really?" Steve said, levelling an unimpressed glare at the sheepish shrug Peter offered in response.
"She overheard me talking to Ned," Peter mumbled. "It's not like I taught her the worst word she knows."
"I don't even wanna know," Steve said, waving a hand at the whole group and shaking his head in disappointment. "I just hope you're ready for how upset Pepper is going to be."
Peter shrugged knowing Pepper would be fine with it, but deciding that Steve needed to feel like they all acknowledged that what Morgan had learnt was bad. He was just super relieved that Steve hadn't been around when she'd learnt the word Fuck for the first time.
"Right, come on then, let's get you lot up to the balcony for something to eat," Steve said, hoisting Morgan up onto his shoulders. "I'm your escort."
"Yeah, because Mr Stark couldn't possibly send someone any less elusive, could he?" Peter muttered.
"I volunteered," Steve muttered back. "Brace yourself kid, you haven't seen the worst of it yet."
Peter's whole face dropped and he instantly went pale. "He didn't?"
"He did." Steve nodded, walking towards the elevator.
"Is it too late to call in sick?" Peter asked. "I'm genuinely feeling a bit peaky."
Steve clapped a hand on his shoulder and laughed. "Take the blow to your pride next time, Queens. Tony doesn't really do low key and I haven't met a person yet who can get him to stop when he's got an idea in his head. Even Pepper says it's one of the very few failures of her life."
Peter merely nodded and trudged behind Steve slowly, his head hung low.
"Peter, what did Mr Stark do?" Ned asked, looking from Peter to Shuri to MJ and to Flash.
"He invited the Avengers," Peter said sullenly.
Flash and Ned both whooped with joy, grinning manically. Jade and her group of girls all cheered and followed after Steve like excited puppies, the rest of the class not far behind. Shuri grimaced at Peter and MJ kind of shrugged in commiseration as he trailed in at the back.
Peter was quiet the whole way up the elevator and onto the balcony. Morgan had detached herself from her Uncle Steve and had instead climbed Peter again. He'd tried to tell her that all her Aunts and Uncles were going to be out back and joining them for dinner, but it didn't seem to stop her from getting comfortable on Peter's shoulders.
Peter wondered along the corridors and towards the huge outside area Tony had built. It spanned half the building and was basically the flat roof of the side Tony couldn't be bothered to build. He'd told Peter that he wanted somewhere outside for his staff to chill out and relax, especially if they were having a particularly hard or harrowing day. Pepper had told Peter that Tony got bored halfway through, and Peter knew who's word to trust when it came to stuff like that.
Stepping out into the sunshine almost made him smile, until he saw the group of people all lounging about in the middle of the rather large space. Bruce was there, Nat and Clint, his Aunt May had obviously got Pepper's message since she was already invested in what looked like a fairly heavy conversation with the CEO herself. Tony was stood with Rhodey, both men grinning like Cheshire cats. Thankfully Thor was nowhere in sight, but Sam, Bucky and Scott were all looking at him like this was the best thing to happen to them all year. Morgan, as predicted, screamed out a bunch of names, wriggled off Peter's shoulders and ran at all the adults.
Peter groaned and took a deep breath, bracing himself for the inevitable. Just as he was about to take a step forward, he felt a hand on his arm.
"Good luck Pete, you're gonna need it," Wanda said, giving him a small side smile.
"Thanks," he mumbled, sighing.
Within a relatively short space of time, he'd endured the worst of it, or so he hoped. Aunt May and Pepper had finished fussing over him. Nat and Clint had stopped berating him over every life choice they were aware he'd made. Tony and Rhodey had given up trying to tell super embarrassing stories, some entirely made up. Sam, Bucky and Scott had failed to throw him in the small pool at the far end of the rooftop, their continuous efforts postponed only by the mention of beer and meat.
Peter sighed, watching as his personal life clashed into his professional life, not that anyone would call Spider-Man a profession. Half his class were stuck in their own little cluster, unable to break away and actually interact normally with the larger-than-life superheroes. Those that had made conversation with his sort-of-extended family seemed to be giggling uncontrollably, getting a little too tactile or asking some really inappropriate questions. The 'team' Stark had put into play slowly started to gravitate towards each other and back away from the scary, excitable, obsessive students.
This was how Peter found himself in a strange little group that had come to reside in between the Avengers' part of the roof and the Civilian part (not that there was an actual devide, it just sort of happened). For the most part, Peter was not enjoying the topic of conversation, which they'd been on for a solid twenty minutes now.
"You should tell her that you like her," Shuri said, practically pleading with him. "It's so obvious Peter!"
"It's not obvious because it's not true!" Peter whisper hissed, beyond grateful that MJ had found herself deep in conversation with Bruce Banner and so was nowhere near him right now.
"You talk about her all the time!" Steve stressed. "All. The. Time."
"I talk about her a normal amount of time. Normal!" Peter huffed. "Come on Ned, back me up here!"
Ned grimaced at Peter and shrugged his shoulders. "I wouldn't say you talk about her all that much, but I'd definitely say you have a thing for her."
"Yeah, it's definitely a thing," Aunt May chimed in.
"Thing? There's no thing!" Peter said, getting more and more exasperated. "I promise you all, I do not have a thing for MJ!"
"You're so blind," Wanda laughed.
"I'm not blind, I'm just not crushing on one of my best friends," Peter snapped, starting to get a bit fed up.
"Well, she's crushing on you, if that helps," Wanda replied.
Peter scoffed. "No she's not. There's no way MJ has a crush on me."
"Eh..." Ned scrunched his face up as he looked at Peter, giving him an apologetic shrug.
"Oh come on Ned! You're supposed to be on my side!" he huffed.
"I am on your side," Ned huffed back.
"Why won't you just admit that you like her?" Shuri said.
"Because it's irrelevant!" Peter practically exploded. "I can't ask her out, I can't date her, so it's irrelevant." He made a final sort of sweeping motion and looked around at the group, his eyebrows raised and his mind made up.
"Who can't you date?" MJ asked, having finished her conversation and snuck up behind him.
"This girl I don't like," he said, glaring at the group.
"Who's the girl?" she asked.
"Doesn't matter, because I don't like her so I'm not telling you," Peter said.
MJ folded her arms and stared at him. Peter stared back, it being one of the very few times her intense gaze couldn't break him.
"Why can't you date the girl you don't like?" she asked, deciding on a slightly different tactic, Peter was sure.
"Because, I can't be honest with her," he said, looking around the small group as they all started to realise what he was getting at.
"Why can't you be honest?" Shuri asked, frowning.
"Because it isn't safe," Peter said, shrugging again. "I can't do that to her. I can't put her in that sort of danger."
"Isn't that up to her?" MJ frowned, her intense gaze deepening even further, if that was possible. "Shouldn't she be allowed to decide."
Peter cleared his throat and shook his head. "I can't lose her. I just...I can't."
"What secret could you possibly have that would be so bad you'd lose a girl you don't even like?" MJ asked flatly.
Peter could have sworn she was goading him. "It's not a secret," he forced himself to say. "It's the internship. There's a lot of stuff I can't tell people and I have to run off all the hours of the day. It's not fair on whoever I might want to date."
"Or not date," MJ added. "Since you're talking about a girl you don't like."
Peter let out a little snort and nodded.
"Liz must have been really special," MJ mused, looking up at him.
"Huh?" Peter's eyes were wide and he was very confused.
"Well, you asked her out, so you were either going to trust her with all your secrets or you didn't care that she might get hurt..." MJ said.
Peter winced and ran a hand through his hair, glancing up at the people around him. He noticed that most of them were either smirking at him or looking quite disappointed in him. "I..."
"You're not a person that doesn't care, Peter," MJ said slowly. "So you must have thought about telling her, at some point."
"No," he said. "I just...I suppose in the back of my head, I knew I wouldn't be all that heartbroken if she got fed up with my disappearing acts and broke up with me. I never intended to tell her anything."
"So what? Is it Stark that won't let you tell anyone, or is it you?" MJ asked.
"It's me, it's definitely me," Peter said softly.
"Then maybe you need to wait for a girl you don't like that you respect enough to give a choice," MJ finished with a shrug. "You're right. You can't date someone you can't be honest with. Because if you can't trust someone with all of you, why should they trust you with all of them."
"It's so not about trust," Peter said, his voice low and completely full of emotion as he locked eyes with the girl he didn't like.
"It's always about trust in the end Peter," MJ said just as softly.
Peter looked at her for a long minute, it was like he'd forgotten they were surrounded by other people; people who were holding their breath in case he suddenly remembered and the spell was broken.
"It's not like it matters though, right?" MJ said, forcing a smile on her face though her eyes were blank. "We are talking about a girl you don't like."
Peter forced himself to smile too and he nodded. "Definitely a girl I don't like."
MJ looked up and caught the intrigued stares of the small group she'd joined. "I'm gonna go read..." she said, frowning at them a little bit and stepping slowly backwards.
Peter held his hand up as she left, his eyes not meeting anyone's. "Don't. Just don't."
They all seemed to respect that and merely nodded, wandering off to other parts of the roof, inserting themselves into other groups and conversations. Peter just watched as MJ climbed up onto the small wall that enclosed the rooftop space, leaning back against one of the posts and stretching her legs out in front of her as she found her place in her book.
"What's up with you?" Tony Stark came to sit with a rather sullen Peter Parker about half an hour later.
"Nothing," Peter said with a shrug.
"Really? 'Cause nothing kinda looks like something kid," Tony said, taking his sunglasses off so he could look at Peter properly.
Peter sighed and looked up at him, squinting in the sunlight. "There's this girl I don't like..."
"There's a girl you don't like?" Tony asked, clearly confused.
"Yes, a girl I don't like," Peter said again. "I..."
"You in love with her?" Tony asked bluntly.
"What?!" Peter squeaked. "No! I'm barely seventeen! Of course I'm not in love with her!"
Tony laughed. "Age ain't got nothin' to do with it kid."
"I'm not in love with her," Peter huffed.
"Really? Because for a girl you don't like, you sure seem all twisted up in knots about her."
"I just, I think that she knows about Spider-Man, and I haven't told her, and now I think she thinks I don't trust her, but it's not about trusting her it's about trusting me," Peter rambled, trying to remember his point. "I don't wanna put her in any danger, which I automatically do if I choose to tell her, but at this point I run the risk of losing her if I don't. But if I do tell her, I run the risk of losing her permenantly-"
"MJ's a smart girl, kid," Tony said, stopping him. "She's got a good head on her shoulders and she can make her own decisions. She's the kind of woman who deserves that respect. But it's still up to you, still your decision first. It's your life and your secret and it's up to you who you tell."
"I didn't say it was MJ," Peter stuttered, his cheeks turning red.
"You didn't have to," Tony chuckled. "Oh, and f.y.i, if you aren't in love with her, you shouldn't be finding this predicament you're in so tormenting."
Peter scowled at Tony. "Thanks, that makes everything so much easier."
Tony laughed again and stood up. Peter glanced at him as he left, not sure if he'd helped or made everything a hundred times worse. He saw a good portion of his class throwing a football around the rooftop, playing some kind of made-up game, no doubt initiated by Scott and Sam who were running around with them. Steve had joined in with Bucky and Rhodey a few minutes after Nat and Clint had taken them all on and won hands down. Something about unfair advantages and special skills. Peter grinned to himself as he watched them play, the ball launching itself from one person to the next. He finally managed to breathe a small sigh of relief that his classmates had calmed down a bit and were now able to act like normal people. His relief was cut short when his spidey-senses suddenly dialled themselves right up and he watched in horror as the ball soared through the sky right at MJ, closely followed by Captain America who hadn't realised he was on point for knocking the girl off the wall. Which is exactly what happened.
Steve bumped right into MJ as he caught the ball, MJ went toppling over the wall, and Peter jumped after her no more than two seconds later. MJ screamed, nearly everyone gasped, Steve looked guilty as hell and the rest of the adults all winced as half Peter's class went careening to the side of the building, trying to see what happened to them.
"Mr Parker and Miss Jones have successfully been caught by the safety field and will be back up shortly," F.R.I.D.A.Y announced on the speakers, conveniently dotted about in strategic places on the rooftop.
"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y," Tony said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's get this barbecue really started, shall we?"
Everyone seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief, the class because MJ and Peter were safe, the rest of them, because Peter's spidey secret hadn't been revealed when he launched himself over the wall after MJ.
"Tony?" Pepper whispered, coming alongside her husband. "Do we have a safety field?" she muttered out the side of her mouth.
"No, but I think we should get one," Tony said.
"Really? Because the last I heard, we had a sort of shield around the rooftop, to stop anyone from falling off it?" Pepper said, rising her eyebrows at him and putting a hand on her hip.
"Kid needed a little shove, so I turned it off for a bit," Tony said with a shrug. "Besides, a safety field would be an excellent addition to the rooftop terrace, don't you think? And a whole lot more fun..."
Pepper smirked at him, rolled her eyes and shook her head. "What would we have done if Peter hadn't gone after MJ?"
"Uh...I'd have sent a suit after her," Tony said. "She'd have been fine."
"Mmhmm," Pepper hummed, smiling at him. "Safety field."
"One safety field coming right up," Tony said, raising his beer bottle at his wife. "Anything for you my dear."
For Peter and MJ, things were a little less relaxed. Peter had caught her as she started to fall, he'd shot a web at the underside of the balcony that stuck out from the rooftop and swung them up underneath it, so his classmates wouldn't see the web or figure out he was Spider-Man. He was currently stuck to the bottom of the balcony with both hands and feet, MJ basically lying flush against him, trembling as she saw how far down they had to fall. The only thing between her and certain death was Peter fucking Parker.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she muttered to herself. "Fuck fuck fuck, I'm gonna die..."
"MJ, you're not gonna die," Peter said, a light chuckle in his voice. He sent a message to the roof via F.R.I.D.A.Y before focusing back on MJ.
"I am so gonna die, we don't all stick to shit Spider-boy," she huffed, trying to breathe and calm down.
"MJ..." Peter let go of the roof with one hand and used it to run his fingers along her jaw, tipping her head up so her eyes met his. "You're not going to die. I've got you, okay, I promise. I won't let you fall..."
"Easy for you to say," she hissed. "You wouldn't trust me with this," she gestured to his whole body -stuck to the roof- before looking back at him, "how am I supposed to trust you?!"
"Hey!" Peter said, a little upset. He relaxed his feet so they swung off the building and left him dangling by one hand. MJ screamed and clung onto him tighter as Peter looped an arm around her waist. "You know I'd never let you fall! Throw that one at me when we're stood on solid ground and I'd get it, but do you seriously think I haven't got you? I jumped off the fucking building to catch you!"
"Oh I'm so sorry! My fucking hero!" MJ snapped. "Thank you for coming to save me, despite it forcing you to reveal your stupid little secret!"
"Oh come of it MJ, you already knew," Peter huffed, letting go of the roof altogether so he could shoot another web at it. It hadn't forgone his notice that she'd stilled upon hearing him admit that she already knew the truth.
"Can you stop scaring the shit out of me, for one sodding second Parker," she hissed, glaring at him as he began to slowly lower them to the ground.
Peter smirked at her and merely tightened his hold around her waist a little bit. "I told you, you're safe."
"And I told you-"
"I know what you told me," Peter said. "But I'm calling bullshit, because there's no way you'd be tearing me a new one dangling fifty stories up if you didn't feel safe."
MJ glared at him.
"Plus, you're arms are pretty loose around my neck, so..." He gave a little shrug and smirked some more.
MJ let out an irritated huff. "Fuck you Parker." She tightened her hold on him, as though to make a point. Peter couldn't help notice how close that put her face to his, he'd have to lean back a little to see her properly.
"Any chance we could speed this up," MJ muttered.
"We could, but I get the distinct feeling you're gonna run away the minute your feet touch the ground, so I'm taking my time," Peter said.
"You can't do that!" MJ cried, wriggling a little in indignation before thinking better of it.
"Well, unless you have secret web-shooters on your wrists, I think I can," Peter said. "I think I am."
MJ growled at him. She wanted to cross her arms but couldn't let go of him. After a few minutes of silence she looked up at him. Peter could feel her heartbeat increase slightly.
"You knew I knew?" she asked.
Peter shrugged softly and nodded. "You're observant. And you've covered my ass too many times for it to be coincidence anymore. Like earlier, with Morgan."
"But you still didn't say anything..." MJ said. "I don't know what to think about that."
"I'm sorry," Peter sighed. "I really, truly am, sorry."
MJ shrugged.
"I just figured that if I never actually said it, you'd be safer somehow," Peter murmured. "Gwen knew and Gwen died..."
"I'm not Gwen, Peter. For starters, I'm one of your best friends, not your girlfriend," she said. "And I'd never go running into a battle just because I knew who you were and I was worried about you! I'm smart enough to know that putting myself in harms way isn't fair on you, no matter how worried I am!"
"Are you saying it was Gwen's own fault she died?" Peter asked, not really knowing how to feel about that.
"No," MJ said, shaking her head slightly. "No I'm not. I'm just saying she wasn't completely innocent, either."
Peter sighed and really looked at MJ. She looked back and it sort of took his breath away.
"I'm not naive enough to think you'll ever believe it," MJ murmured. "I know you'll carry the guilt of her death to your own grave-"
"If she hadn't known who I was, she wouldn't have died," Peter reiterated. "It's really that simple."
"Then why'd you tell her in the first place?" MJ asked. "What made you want to share your secret with her?"
"I didn't tell her," Peter said, shaking his head. "I haven't actually told anyone. Gwen saw me in my suit, same as May and Ned. Tony just appeared at my door one day and then whisked me off to Germany to fight Steve...and you? Well, you figured it out before I could tell you..."
"Were you actually going to tell me?" MJ asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "For real, were you actually going to tell me?"
"I think so," Peter said, looking at her with large, slightly scared, eyes. "I...I could tell it was starting to come between us and that if I wanted to keep you as a friend, I was gonna have to tell you. I just hadn't figured out the how or the when..."
MJ stared critically at him, deciding that maybe he was finally telling the truth. She took a deep breath and let it out, smiling softly at him. "Okay."
"Okay?" Peter asked, his eyes all hopeful again.
MJ widened her smile a fraction and added a little nod. "Okay, I believe you."
Peter grinned, his whole body relaxing suddenly (well, as best it could hanging twenty stories up whilst holding his best friend and slowly lowering them to the ground).
"You're not entirely forgiven though," she said, her eyes narrowing at him again. "I wanna know about this girl you don't like."
"There is no girl I don't like," Peter said. "Well, actually, there's several. I'm not too fond of Jade, for starters-ow!"
MJ interrupted him with a swift flick to the forehead. "Shut up loser, that didn't hurt."
"Did so."
"Who's the girl you like?" MJ asked again.
"Don't like, I said girl I don't like," Peter muttered. "There's no girl, okay?"
"I call bullshit," MJ argued. "There is so a girl. I know there is because you've gone all red and you're breathing faster and you look all panicky."
Peter looked at her incredulously. "What the hell?! Have you got fucking spidey-senses or something?!"
"No, I've got Peter-Parker senses." MJ grinned.
"There's no girl!" Peter cried.
"So there's a boy?"
"No!"
"So-"
"It's you! Okay? It's, it's you..." Peter bit the inside of his lip as he felt MJ tense up in his arms again. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. "Shit. I should totally have waited till we were on the fucking ground..." he mumbled.
MJ snorted, hugging him as he brought them the rest of the way down. Peter wasn't sure whether this was a good sign or a bad sign. Once her feet touched the floor he loosened his hold on her, disengaging the web from his wrist as his own feet came to rest beside hers.
"So," MJ began, "are you telling me that I'm the girl you don't like? As in, everyone is telling you that they're seeing something that isn't there...or...are you telling me-"
"You're the girl," Peter said, the words out of his mouth before he could stop them. "You're just the girl."
MJ nodded. "Well, you might kinda be the boy I don't like, too..."
Peter's head snapped up so fast it almost cracked. His eyes were instantly on MJ's and he swallowed as he held her gaze.
"Yeah...?" he murmured.
"Yeah," she said, nodding again, nervously twisting her fingers but unable to draw her eyes away from Peter's.
"MJ?" Peter said, his voice cracking. "Just, you know, in the spirit of honesty? I, uh, I think I might actually be kind of in love with you...?"
MJ eyes went super wide and she gaped at him. "No."
"No? What d'you mean 'no'?" Peter stammered.
MJ shook her head. "Kiss first. Date second. You can bring that shit up in a year or two."
"I'm not waiting two years to tell you I love you," Peter said, giving her a deadpan look and then rolling his eyes sideways as he added, "again."
"I waited a year for you to tell me your Spider-Man," she countered. "Technically I'm still waiting-"
"I'm Spider-Man."
MJ scowled at him.
Peter kissed her.