𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘆𝗽𝘀𝗲, peter parker ( tasm )

13. COFFEE AND CROISSANTS

"Yes." MJ nodded sagely, a small, playful smile appearing on her lips. "I remember... a tree root, right?"

"Hey!" He nudged her shoulder, arm wrapping around her waist and snaking his hand into the back pocket of her jeans. "I remember trees having quite the vendetta against all of us."

"You've been hit in the face whilst swinging, haven't you?" MJ hid a smile as she felt his hand still. "I was joking, however...?" She looked up at him, eyes full of questioning.

Peter ignored her nudges and instead urged her forward and the queue did. "Let's just order." He suggested, and the pair did just that, putting in their drinks and food and being given the former - coffees were incredibly quick to make these days before being sent off to find a table to wait at for the food and then eat.

"It feels... mellow, doesn't it." MJ's fingers curled tighter around her cup as they took a seat at one of the back-most tables. It gave them more privacy than any other space, ensuring they wouldn't be overheard as they talked about the inevitable topic that nobody else could know about. "Thanks." She said as a rosy-faced worker delivered their food.

"Yeah, thanks." Peter began, before looking back at her. "What, now that we're not hanging off the side of a bridge?" Peter rose an eyebrow, tearing apart the croissant they had both decided would be their favoured breakfast that morning. There was also half a bacon sandwich sitting in front of them, and MJ was currently spreading ketchup on her half. "Sorry." He added, moments later. "It's too soon, right?"

"No..." MJ didn't sound at all sure, her voice almost wobbling as she did so. "No." She added more firmly. "It happened, nobody died, my boyfriend's Spiderman and I'm fine."

"It's okay if you still think about it." Peter sounded like an echo of her own self, considering it was usually vice versa in this situation; the Parker desperately needing advice for things out of his depths and MJ so easily being able to give it to him, forever wise in the ideas of the mind that he confused himself with. "I'm just... I'm sorry you even got into that predicament in the first place."

"It wasn't your fault." She promised as she took her own piece of the croissant. She was silent for a moment as she chewed, finishing it with a sip of her coffee. "Really - you can't blame yourself for me being on the bridge... or it being my car that was thrown off the side by the lizard thing. It was a lizard, right? Not some kind of gigantic amphibian. I imagine that it's something that lives in the sewers like the clown from IT and it just kinda slipped out. It looked slimy - was it slimy?"

MJ was smiling - and she was joking - about the events that had happened the night before. That was a change, but Peter wouldn't question it. He couldn't - that would only push uncertainty into anyone's mind. Instead, he shared her laughter and revelled in her smile as they ate breakfast together, following what was perhaps the most dangerous and hectic of nights in their lives.

🕸

Peter thought MJ was an angel on Earth far too often. He knew it was an awful title to put upon someone, to force them to uphold this idea that they could do no wrong and had to be perfectly nice all the time when really half the people around them deserved a good telling off, but sometimes, he couldn't help but let the thought unravel in his head for a moment, before he realised what he was doing and banished it entirely.

But how could he not, when she squeezed his hand when they walked past a store window full of TV screens showing Gwen's father issuing a warrant for the vigilante Spiderman, when she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone and earphones when the crowd around it revealed their views on exactly what was going on, handed them to Peter and announced that she 'didn't know how he could be the one who caused it, considering his whole thing was saving people' and then pulled him way to put on a song by some group he had never heard of but apparently loved.