Chapter Text
Being an asshole is hard work , Michelle decided. I have to start charging those dorks for the emotional labor. Of course, just as she thought that, Peter freaking Parker just had to turn around and smile at her. Fuck, that’s unfair , she thought to herself. That smile needs to be registered as a weapon of mass destruction . Then she shook herself. If Peter Parker was smiling at her in class, it usually meant he needed something. This time proved to be no exception.
“Hey, MJ. So, Ned’s abandoned me for Betty-” he said as he gestured over his shoulder to where the aforementioned duo was already starting to whisper to each other. “-so would you please be my partner for the project?” Somehow, he turned his smile up a notch.
MJ did her best to disguise her deep breath--to solidify her insides back from the jelly that the Parker Smile had turned them into--as a sigh. “Whatever, loser. It’s not like I’m gonna work with Flash.”
“Is that a yes?” Peter asked.
Everyone at this school is an idiot, MJ thought, there’s no one Spider-Man could ever be but this dork. She would only ever admit it to herself, and then only in the privacy of her own room, but the only reason she had figured out the truth of Peter Parker’s double life was that she was, in fact, obsessed with him. A fact that was becoming harder and harder to disguise the closer the boy himself and Ned drew her into their incredibly geeky friendship. “Sure. Fine. Yes, I’ll work with you. One condition, though.”
Peter brightened, and MJ had to bite her lip to keep from smiling at the vigilante that had stolen her supposedly ice-cold heart. “Anything. Just name it,” he said earnestly.
MJ pushed the naughty scenarios-- I’m a teenager with all the hormones that implies, okay-- out of her head, and managed to say in a level voice, “My condition is that I get to meet this ‘hot aunt’ of yours that Ned can’t keep his voice down when talking about.”
She felt a flash of victory as his face paled. “I’m going to w- I mean, duct tape his mouth shut one of these days. Seriously, it’s like he doesn’t understand the concept of ‘subtlety.’” He rubbed his face. “Okay, fine. But don’t be creepy, okay? Please?”
Peter Parker, pleading me to do something. This is the best day. Trying to look like him saying “please” didn’t have her stomach doing blackflips with no signs of stopping, MJ sighed. “Fine, if you take all the fun out of it. When should we meet?”
He looked relieved. “I’ll text my au-”
“Parker, are you with us?” Their teacher glared at the two of them. “Anything you’d care to share with the class?”
He stuttered, “No-no! Just-just talking about the problem on the board!”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you come up her and solve it.”
As Peter hesitantly walked up to the board to show off his applied physics skills, MJ studied him. Cameras had caught Spider-Man getting hit clear through an abandoned factory near the docks just a few days ago, but today Peter didn’t even show any signs of soreness. MJ had already known that one of his powers was accelerated healing, but she revised her estimate of how fast he healed upward. As she did so, her eyes also traveled higher, picking out the muscular shoulders underneath the shirt Peter was wearing. That muscular form was the first thing that had tipped her off that something about the shy dork was off. He had been cute before, but post-whatever incident that gave him his powers, he had become--and she rolled her eyes at herself for admitting this-- undeniably hot.
The teacher spoke again, and MJ shook herself back to awareness. “Excellent job, Mr. Parker. I shouldn’t have doubted you. Please return to your seat.”
On his way back, Peter mouthed silently, “I’ll text my aunt to ask her.”
MJ’s only external response was a curt nod, but internally she had just discovered why people with crushes always said their stomachs were full of butterflies. She didn’t trust herself to not say anything embarrassing.
As it turned out, Peter’s aunt (May, as MJ discovered) was delighted for Peter to have a friend besides Ned over for once. MJ only bothered to send her mom a short text: going to a friend’s house to work on a project. be back late. She knew her mom had a late shift at the hospital. So, right after Decathlon (which Peter looked antsy during, but MJ pinned him to his seat with the Look she had perfected) MJ followed him to the subway, the only sign of nerves being her hands playing with her backpack straps.
“Hey, um. Just- don’t mind Aunt May. She can be… a little intense sometimes? But she means well.” MJ thanked all her lucky stars that Peter looked even more nervous than she did, and probably didn’t even notice that she wasn’t anything but completely calm.
In her most deadpan voice, she said, “Yeah, I’m really easy to scare off. I’m such a wimp.” Internally, she smiled as Peter scrambled to backtrack.
“No! I mean- I didn’t say you were easy to scare, I just-” She cut him off before he could hurt himself in his confusion.
“Relax, dork. I’m just joking. I’m sure your aunt’s great. She raised you, after all.” SHIT! MJ kicked herself. Too much! Too much! She opened her mouth to make a caustic comment.
“Yeah. I know. It hasn’t been easy for her, but…” His voice dropped to a volume MJ could only barely hear. “I’m really grateful for her.”
MJ couldn’t bear to say something after that. Seriously, that kicked-puppy look should be outlawed . Thankfully, the subway ride was fairly short, and she followed Peter off the train with only a minimum of shoving idiots glued to their phones.
Oh wow, that’s why Ned couldn’t shut up about her. MJ had to admit that the woman that met Peter at the door with a giant hug was stunning. As in, she actually stood still for a moment as Peter was welcomed home.
“And you must be Michelle!” Suddenly MJ found herself enveloped in a hug of her own. “Peter’s told me so much about you!” MJ’s heart inadvertently leaped in her chest at that.
Peter hissed, “ May! ” and his aunt laughed.
“Please, come in! I think Peter cleaned his room sometime in the last month, so it shouldn’t be too terrifying,” she said. “Please, call me May. And don’t hesitate to ask for anything if you need it! I know just how much teenagers can eat.” With that, May ruffled Peter’s hair and then disappeared into what MJ supposed was her bedroom.
“She seems nice.” A voice broke the silence, and MJ was surprised to realize that it was her own.
“Yeah, she’s awesome. Um, my room’s this way. Please don’t mind the mess, I wasn’t expecting anyone over today.” Peter looked sheepish.
Something suddenly struck MJ. “Hey, where’s Thing 2? Aren’t you and Ned pretty much joined at the hip?” she asked.
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, as Peter slumped down while reaching for the doorknob. “Not today. Today, he ditched me. I thought we had a code , y’know? Bros before-” He suddenly realized who he was talking to and cut himself off.
MJ couldn’t resist. “What was that, Parker? I couldn’t quite hear that.” She couldn’t stop the sarcastic grin on her face.
Peter blushed hard and pushed open the door, obviously looking for a distraction from what he had said. “Uh, this is my room.” He swung his backpack onto the floor and busied himself by picking papers up off the floor.
MJ stepped in and looked around. “Yep, this is exactly what I imagined. Messy, geeky, and reeking of teenage white boy.” She nodded. “Guess I’m suffering through it, though. Alright, Parker, what’ve you got?” She hopped up on his desk, then set her backpack down on the floor. “Physics is like, your thing, right?”
“Hey!” Peter sniffed the air. “Yeah, okay. I guess you’ve got a point.” He set the collected stack of papers in a corner. “Um, yeah. So, the project is to demonstrate air resistance affecting high-velocity irregularly-shaped objects, right? So I thought we could use the Iron Man suits as our model. Does that sound okay?”
“Nah. Come on, do you ever think about anything other than Stark and your internship?” MJ’s internal grin could only be compared to the Cheshire Cat. “We should totally do Spider-Man. He’s way cooler. Plus, he’s a lot more relevant than some old rich guy.”
Peter choked on air, and MJ inwardly preened. “You-you think so?” Then he shook himself. “Wait, isn’t running the calculations for Spider-Man going to be harder? Because of the non-linear motion and all?”
“You scared of a little hard work, Parker?” MJ asked sarcastically. “‘Cause I can go wirk with Flash if you’re not willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears.”
“Hey! I promise you I’m a much better partner than Flash!” Peter looked genuinely worried that she would abandon him.
MJ awkwardly reached out to punch him in the shoulder. “Chill. I’d rather stick grapefruit spoons in my eyes than willingly spend time with Flash one on one. Just don’t flake out on me, okay?”
Now Peter looked guilty. “Yeah. I promise. I’m not going to flake.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, so we should probably start by finding a couple videos of him swinging and use those to calculate his velocity…”
The rest of the project session got progressively less awkward as it went on, and by the time May opened Peter’s door to invite MJ to eat dinner with them, Peter had moved to press tightly against MJ, shoulder-to-shoulder. Over the dinner table, MJ discovered May’s strong opinions on politics, and MJ almost forgot that Peter was there as she launched into one of the most stimulating conversations she’d had since debating Disney versus EU timelines of Star Wars (Disney was more diverse, but MJ held Mara Jade in special place in her heart, and not just for her initials) with Ned and Peter a couple of days ago.
The second session the next day went even more smoothly. Peter seemed to get used to having her in his room (MJ would never admit aloud that she loved that) and even got better at returning some of her verbal jabs.
The third session on Saturday was when it all fell apart. The first sign MJ should’ve noticed was that Peter wasn’t there when she arrived. May welcomed her in and said something about Peter running an errand that MJ didn’t believe for a second. Nevertheless, she followed May’s direction to go to Peter’s room, and then plopped down in what had become her usual spot. Okay, so Peter’s backpack is here. That probably means he’s out being Spider-Man. Seriously? Does he not realize how bad he is at this? MJ asked herself. She pulled out her tablet and started to crunch the last few equations they had left in the project.
Half an hour later (she totally didn’t check her tablet clock every five minutes) MJ started to get frustrated. Just as she was about to text Peter, however, she heard the window open. A fully costumed Peter crawled through the window and onto the ceiling, apparently not noticing her.
In a low voice, he muttered to himself, “Just gotta change real quick and hope MJ isn’t too mad at me.” He gently eased the bedroom door shut, then dropped gently to the floor. Still facing the door, MJ saw him do something with the front of his suit, and the suit went baggy.
Now would be the best time to - MJ thought, before being cut off by Peter pulling off his mask and shimmying out of his suit. Red alert! Red alert! He’s commando! MJ was frozen by the unexpected sight of Peter’s pasty but well-shaped bare ass. And then he turned around.
That was the moment he saw her. Her jaw had dropped at seeing just his muscled back. Now her eyes traced his chest, and down, down… I should really stop staring at his dick. His very nice dick. Very proportion- OHMYGODHISDICKISINMYFACE. At the same time, MJ and Peter both blushed deeply.
Peter hissed, “What the hell are you doing in my room?”
MJ replied in the same tone, “May let me in because you weren’t here! Why are you naked?” She still coulnd’t tear her eyes away from his crotch, until her put both hands over it.
“Stop staring! I-I really need to do laundry, okay? I just-”
May opened the door. “Peter, you’re back! MJ’s he-” She saw the situation and abruptly closed the door. “Kids, please wait until after your project. And remember the box of condoms under your bed, Peter!”
MJ buried her face in her hands as Peter slumped to the floor, defeated.
“Put some clothes on, Parker. Let’s not talk about this until after we finish the project, okay?” MJ’s voice came muffled through her hands.
“Yea-yeah, okay.” Peter grabbed the first sweatshirt and sweatpants he saw and slipped them on. “Um. So, where were we?”
“You were out saving kittens from trees. I was calculating your surface area and how aerodynamic you are.” MJ lowered her hands, but her face still burned.
Peter scratched the back of his head. “Um, I already did a lot of those calculations back when I was first starting out? If you want that data.” He paused, and then MJ heard him take in a quick breath. “You… don’t seem very surprised.”
“No shit.” MJ still couldn’t bring herself to look at Peter. I never imagined anything like this in my wildest dreams. Those are usually sexy, not- not awkward like this. “I… I’ve known for a while. I was hoping that you would choose to tell me.”
Peter cursed under his breath, then said quietly, “I haven’t chosen to tell anyone. It’s- it’s kinda frustrating, really.” He jumped backwards to land on his lower bunk. “Mr. Stark walked into the apartment already knowing. I came into the room in-costume while Ned was here. Aunt May saw me changing when I got my suit back. And…” He gestured vaguely in MJ’s direction. “Now you. Y’know?”
MJ snorted. “Sounds like you have a situational awareness problem.” Tentatively, she slid her eyes over. Nope, still can’t look at him without picturing his dick. That’s just gonna be a thing now, I guess , she thought.
“Hey!” Peter exclaimed. “I’ll have you know that an extra sense dedicated to telling me when I’m in danger! It’s just- um, that… I trust you.” He mumbled the last words. “You don’t really register on that, because I know you’re not actually going to hurt me. It’s really nice, actually. You, May, and Ned are pretty much the only people I can fully relax around.”
Dammit Parker, don’t say things like that, MJ thought as she bit her lip. A girl can only take so much whiplash between sexy and sweet. Out loud, she said, “So, you felt safe enough around me to show your inner nudist?” SHe felt her face heat up again after that comment.
Peter sputtered. “Wha-what? No! I-I, hey, MJ, that’s not fair! I’m not a nudist! I told you, I really need to do laundry!”
“It’s okay, Peter. You can be yourself around me. It really means a lot that you’re willing to be that… exposed.” BRAIN NO. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? MJ screamed at herself.
Peter started making choking noises. MJ almost reached out to try to help him, but just as she did, he managed to regain control of himself. “You know that wasn’t intentio-” An expression flashed across Peter’s face that MJ knew from long study meant that he had just gotten an idea. “-nal… Actually. Know what? Thank you, MJ. Now I can truly relax.” With that, he pulled his sweatshirt over his head in one smooth motion, baring his muscled torso to the world.
MJ’s eyes went wide, and it was all she could to just to stare. She had gotten a glance earlier, but this was different. Her eyes traced over every ridge of muscle, intangibly caressing each shadowed abdominal with the tenderness of a leaf slowly drifting through a fall breeze. After long moments, she finally tore herself away to hesitantly look at his face. Her apprehension grew as she took in the increasingly satisfied look on his face.
“Michelle Jones, speechless. I never thought I’d see the day.” He smirked, and it was jarring to see an expression on Peter’s face that MJ normally wore on hers.
MJ still couldn’t form words, so she took the next-most mature route. She threw a pillow at him.