headkiss on tumblr, credit goes to them (omg it's so cute like what??)
You and Peter have been friends for what feels like forever. He's in almost every memory you have, as far back as they go. Your childhood best friend, your now best friend, the only boy you've ever loved.
Growing up across the hall from each other had its perks. A mother figure in aunt May, someone to walk to school with, a door that was always open for you.
You've spent so much time with him that it's sort of impossible to imagine things any other way. Not that you'd need to.
Late September has a chill seeping into the city. Leaves changing color, hands hidden in jacket pockets, cheeks and noses bitten by cold wind. Fall surrounds you and you don't mind one bit. Not when Peter's beside you, too.
He'd come knocking on your door earlier (even though he doesn't need to knock, as you've told him countless times) and asked you to go for a walk with him. Easy, like breathing or blinking, you'd said yes.
It's nice to have someone to do these things with, to be mundane and quiet without a trace of awkwardness. All of this comfort and you've yet to tell him how you feel, how in love you are.
Peter walks close enough to you that your arms brush with every step, jacket against jacket, warmth seeping into your skin every time. When he walks alone, he's quicker, strides full, earbuds in. With you, he's learned to match your pace, to slow himself to stay next to you.
"You cold?" Peter asks, even when he's the one with his cheeks pink from the breeze.
"Mmm, just my hands." You tilt your head up to the sky, then towards him. "It's a nice day."
And it is. Despite the chill, the sun's shining, the trail you and Peter are taking tucked away enough from the city that it doesn't feel like you're in it. Rustling leaves in the wind, fallen ones littering your path, the smell of fall in the air. Your favorite boy as company.
"Yeah, it is," he says, eyes catching yours. Then, he reaches for the hand closest to him, his fingers curling around yours, and tucks your joined hands into his coat pocket. "There."
You feel warmer already, his palm against yours, but you try to play it off. "How's your pocket any warmer than mine?"
"'Cause your coat's a joke. I've got fleece-lined pockets, 'kay? Way warmer, honey."
"Leave it to you to be a nerd, even about a jacket."
He shrugs innocently, shoulder to a rosy cheek.
Peter takes any excuse he can to be close to you, to touch you, and he knows what that means. He knows he loves you, and he's not really hiding it. It sinks into everything he does. Walking closer to the road, letting you have the last sip of your shared milkshakes, going to see the latest horror movie with you when he hates the genre.
As much as Peter wants to tell you, he also wants this to work, to fall into place the way he thinks things will. You've had your whole lives with each other so far, and there's the rest of a lifetime to go.
"Did you just call me a nerd?"
"You heard me, Parker."
"Well, in that case..."
One second you'd been walking beside him, the next, Peter's pushed you over into a pile of leaves beside the trail. It's probably the most gentle push ever, but it's enough to make you trip over your feet.
"Peter," you groan, dragging out his name. "At least help me up."
You hold out your hand, laying on your back, leaves probably stuck to your clothes and in your hair. Peter takes it—of course, he does—and with a tug, you've got him laying next to you.
"I always fall for that one," he says, his hand still in yours, shoulders shaking a little with his laughter.
You turn your head to look at him, and he does the same, your noses an inch apart, twin smiles on your faces.
A lifetime to go, Peter thinks.