Spiderman Oneshots

We'll meet again

Peter smirked. "Race you," he said into the phone, then hung up and bolted towards the shop. A moment later Harry was running too. They arrived in the doorway out of breath and grinning.

"I won," Peter declared.

"You cheated."

"Wh- how could I cheat in a running race?"

"You tripped me?"

"Um? Lies and slander? We were running in opposite directions. This is defamation of character."

"Ugh, I forgot you interned at that weird lawyer place."

"I think you mean the highly esteemed Nelson and Murdock-"

"I said what I said."

A laugh interrupted their conversation. "Hello to you too."

Peter and Harry looked up, mildly embarrassed at being caught off guard. Harry's face lit up. Peter froze. "Hi! It's been too long, welcome back to New York!"

"Hate to admit it but I actually missed this place," Harry's friend said with a wry smile. "It grows on you."

Harry nodded. "Oh! Right, this is Peter. He's the other one you've been chatting to." He waited for Peter to say something then prompted, "say hi, Pete!"

Peter just stood there. He didn't know what he'd expected from the people he'd been friends with online for so long, but it definitely was't running into his high school best friends - the ones who didn't remember him at all. MJ was staring at him expectantly with a polite smile, and he could see Ned ordering at the bar behind her. murderous-jewel. m-j. MJ. He should have guessed.

He didn't know what to do. He hadn't spoken to them since that night when he'd swung away from the Statue of Liberty, thinking his life was over. It hadn't been, it had just gone in a different direction. But now he'd somehow come full circle.

Harry was frowning. "He's not normally like this. It's probably because he actually had to wake up at a sensible time for once." He waved a hand in front of Peter's eyes. "Earth to Parker. You there?"

Peter forced himself to respond. "Right, yeah, sorry. Hi, I'm Peter." He smiled at MJ.

"Michelle Jones, or just MJ. Nice to finally meet you in person. Ned's just grabbing our drinks, he's the one you've been all nerdy with. He's been ridiculously excited to meet you."

She wasn't wearing the dahlia necklace, Peter noticed once the awkward moment had passed and they were finding a table. Instead a small silver pendant in a shape he didn't recognise hung from a cord around her neck. Somehow seeing it made him realise this wasn't full circle. Just into the next chapter with the same characters.

He was Peter Parker, who went to NYU and was friends with Gwen and Harry, and he was meeting some people he'd been friends with online for a while for the first time in person.

Ned and Gwen arrived at the table at about the same time. Ned made a beeline for Peter. "You must be padawanparker! This is so weird, I mean, I've known you for ages but we're only just meeting now. I mean, you have a face!"

"I do have a face," Peter nodded with a grin. "So do you. I'm Peter. It's great to meet you."

"Ned. And same."

"Sorry to interrupt but before this devolves into your usual fanboy chatter I'm heading up to order, what do you want Pete?"

Peter gave Harry his order then proceeded to fanboy with Ned about the latest star wars fandom discourse, as predicted. It was no different to when they would text until it was so late it was early, or spam each other with memes at random times of day, except now Peter knew it was Ned. Except that didn't actually make a difference.

Peter got to chat to MJ as well, and was unsurprised to hear that she was planning to start up a true crime podcast with some of her friends. "But where we actually try to solve them properly, not choose dramatic unsolved cases and end with an ominous 'we may never know...'" He wished her the best of luck and promised to listen to it if she managed to get it produced. Then he, Ned and Gwen talked about the courses they were doing and how the modules were taught differently at each uni. 

All five of them voted on places to meet up over the summer before MJ and Ned had to head back to Massachusetts.

Ned and Peter exchanged phone numbers and agreed to see the new film together when it came out in two weeks.

MJ scribbled her number on a napkin, crumpled it up and threw it at the back of his head. "You're not so bad, nerd. Call me."

They took an awkward group selfie for the chat profile outside the store before heading their separate ways.

It was going to be a good summer.