Light & Dark // Spider-Man: No Way Home [Book 5]

chapter ten {Third Person POV}

Arya smiled. "I bet it's a good picture." 

"It is," he said, nodding with a smile. "You know, I never thought I'd ever have a group of friends. I grew up as the weird kid in the class. And then I met Ned and he became the friend I always dreamed of having, but that's all I ever expected to have. One amazing best friend. And then I met you and we became friends. Kind of." 

She laughed. "Yeah, we didn't hit it off right away, did we?" 

"No, we definitely didn't. At first, I thought you were the most annoying person on the planet." 

When he stayed quiet for a few seconds, Arya asked, "And now?" 

"Oh, I still think that. I just learned to love that annoying person," he said with a grin. 

"I hate you," she said as she laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Love you too," he said, scrunching up his nose. "But yeah, after you we became friends with Skye and Luke and MJ. So now I have this whole group of friends that are amazing and at first, they felt like your friends 'cause you were friends with them first, but they don't feel like that anymore." 

"That's because they're not. You're an amazing friend, Pete, give yourself a little credit for that," she said softly.

He smiled, a hint of red creeping up his neck. "Thanks." 

"And," she added, "you're an amazing boyfriend." 

"Yeah, an amazing boyfriend who gave away your secret identity to a supervillain who then exposed you to the world," he said with a huff. 

She immediately climbed over to him and sat down in his lap, taking his face in her hands. "Hey, don't do that. I don't blame you for that so please stop blaming yourself. We're dealing with this situation the best we can and yeah, it sucks but we're gonna get through this. Just like all the other things we've survived," she said, running her fingers through his hair. "Okay?" 

He nodded. "Okay." He tilted his head up a little. "Can I tell you one thing?"

"Hm?"

"I'm really happy Morgan went to bed early." His voice sent shivers down Arya's spine and she didn't hesitate to lean in and press her lips to his. He sucked in a breath through his nose at the sudden movement. Peter's hands found themselves under Arya's shirt, running up and down her sides. She yelped a little at the feeling of his cold fingertips, but the heat radiating off her torso warmed them up within seconds. 

She pushed away from him just enough to lift her shirt over her head and toss it to the side, leaving her in a bra. Not long after, his shirt followed as well. His hands tangled themselves in her hair while hers cupped his face. 

Thanks to his powers, Peter easily stood up, holding Arya in his arms as he carried her to her bedroom and dropped her on her back. He hovered over her with a smile. "I love you," he murmured before leaning in again. Just before their lips touched, a loud ringing sounded in the living room. Arya immediately escaped from under Peter's body and ran to the living room to shut up the ringing before it woke Morgan up. She answered the phone without looking at the caller ID. 

"Hello?"

"Hey, Arya. It's Harley."

"Harley. Hi. I uh... I gotta say, I was not expecting you to call." She noticed she was a little out of breath and her face still felt flustered. 

"Yeah, sorry. I probably should have texted first, but I just wanted to check in with you after, you know, everything that happened last month," he said. 

"Uhm, yeah, we're all right. We're trying to go on but it's kinda hard to do that after everything." Still in her underwear, Arya sat down on the couch and wrapped one arm around her knees that she drew up to her chest. "There's still a lot of legal crap, though. I've been temporarily fired from Dad's company because they don't feel like they can trust me anymore."

"Oh, come on, that's bullshit," Harley exclaimed. "They can't just do that, can they?" 

"They can, and they did. Pepper's in LA right now to try and fix things." She let out a sigh and an involuntary shiver ran through her as her body started to cool down. Peter came into the living room, also still in his underwear and upon seeing Arya sitting on the couch, he took the fleece blanket from the armrest of the couch and draped it over her shoulders. She sent him a grateful smile. "I'm just really pissed at practically everyone right now."

"Yeah, I bet. Everyone here at school can't stop talking about it. It drives me insane 'cause I just wanna jump to you guys' defence the whole time. I can't imagine what it's like for you," he said.

"It sucks," she said with a laugh. "It really sucks, but we're making it work."

"Okay," he replied and she heard the smile in his voice. "I'm glad to hear that. And if you ever want someone to talk to, you know where to find me."

"Thanks, Harley. That means a lot," Arya said. Ever since their paths crossed at Tony's funeral, they had kept in touch through text messages. It had surprised Arya when Harley never brought up the whole 'identity reveal', only keeping casual conversations about school and colleges and work. Harley was currently studying engineering at Harvard while living together with his longtime girlfriend, Audrey. 

"But I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, okay? And say hi to Audrey for me," Arya said. 

"I will. Talk to you later, Arya." They said their goodbyes and ended the call. 

Peter didn't hesitate even a second as he swooped Arya off the couch and with her laughing into his shoulder to mute the sound, he took her back to her bedroom.

A bit of a more casual chapter this time, but I really enjoy writing these kinds of chapters. I'll be returning to NWH's storyline in the next chapter so be on the lookout for that :)

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