A/N: Last part! Hope you guys liked this series. I was toying with the idea of doing maybe a prologue chapter, back before when the reader and Peter were still friends? Anyone want that? Let me know!
Warnings: HELLA FEELS, Making Out, Language
"Goddamn it," you muttered, staring dejectedly at your empty contacts box. With everything going on, you hadn't thought to check and see if you had extras.
You didn't like your glasses much, but the only thing you could think of was how much Peter liked them. He used to call you adorable when you wore them, obviously meaning it in a friend way, but it made your heart swell whenever he said that. You used to wear them all the time back when you two were friends, just because he liked them.
Over the past months though, you stuck with contacts. You liked them more, and it was ridiculous, but you wore them also to keep the memories of Peter away.
Today, you didn't have a choice but to wear them, otherwise you'd be blind. You pushed them back up your nose and sighed, grabbing your bag and heading for the subway so you could get to school.
It had been a week since you saw Spider-Man, which made you slightly nervous. Had he regretted kissing you again? Or telling you he cared about you? Or maybe he got hurt somewhere and you didn't know, because you didn't know his true identity?
It stressed you out, because you were getting feelings for him that were almost as intense as yours had been for Peter. And that scared you, because you were secretly afraid that Spider-Man might just drop you like Peter did.
Those thoughts consumed you every morning on your way to school, and during school, and after school.
The only thing that could distract you from them was Peter. He didn't stare as much, but when he did, it was slightly different. Not as sad as before, but more...hopeful? You didn't know exactly what to think of it - after all, you had thought maybe it would end with the confrontation last week.
But every day you walked into first, he gave you the same bright-eyed look, and you avoided his gaze. You wanted so badly to know what the hell he was thinking, but at the same time, you didn't want to know a damn thing.
When you walked into first today, you didn't look at him at all. The glasses made you feel more self-conscious than normal, especially since it had been so long since you wore them.
"Hey, Y/N!" Your friend greeted you in a way more cheerful way than normal. The class already started, so she was talking in a slight whisper. "What's with the glasses?"
"Couldn't find my contacts," you muttered, giving her a look. "What's with you?"
"Guess who asked me to homecoming!" She squealed, pulling out her phone and showing you pics, hiding it slightly so the teacher wouldn't see. The guy she'd been crushing on had showed up to her house with a poster and flowers, and they had a few poses together.
"Congrats!" You gave her a smile, hoping it didn't look too forced. Now you had to go alone, or not at all. Great.
"Well now we have to find you a date," she gushed. "What about-"
There was a loud bang behind you two, causing pretty much the whole class to look back at Peter Parker, who had apparently dropped his book right onto the floor.
He was staring right at you with blushed cheeks before he realized the rest of the class was staring at him.
"Uh, sorry," he apologized to the teacher, who was giving him a glare.
"Pay attention," the teacher brought the class back, you looking back almost reluctantly.
"Someone's jealous," your friend muttered, causing you to kick her shin to shut her up, though your cheeks were just as red as Peter's were.
She couldn't be right. Even if Peter was trying to fix things, he wouldn't be jealous that you might get a date to the homecoming. You were nothing more than a friend to him in the past, and now you weren't even that. She was being ridiculous.
Besides, with the whole confusing Spider-Man situation, you didn't want to take a date to homecoming. It wouldn't feel right to dance with someone else, if it wasn't Spider-Man. And, if you admitted it to yourself, if it wasn't Peter either.
Unfortunately, the thought of Spider-Man brought you back to your previous thoughts, and the rest of the day you couldn't get them out of your head.
By the time school was over, you were exhausted. Mentally and physically. For some reason your gym teacher thought it would be a great idea to make the students run two miles around the track, which you didn't enjoy at all, so the whole walk home your muscles were screaming in protest.
You were grateful for the shower awaiting you, and comfy pajama pants and a sweatshirt you found. Your parents were out again that night, so you had chosen to stay in and watch movies in the living room until way past eleven.
Once you decided it was late enough to go to bed, you trudged into your room, the tiredness hitting you like a truck. But it immediately disappeared when you saw a familiar figure outside your window, waving at you.
You tried not to run to the window, your heart beating quickly in your chest. He came back, you thought giddily to yourself. But you instantly felt bad when you noticed he was clutching his shoulder.
"We really gotta stop meeting like this," you managed to say as you helped him into the window. You took notice that he wasn't nearly as hurt as last time, but still it was bad enough.
He let out a laugh as you sat him on the bed, "You should see the other guy."
"I'm having deja vu right now," you said cheekily, grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom. "You aren't too badly hurt this time, are you?"
"Not too bad," he said, "Maybe a few bruises."
"Could I get you some ice?" You asked, raising a brow. He hesitated for a moment but nodded, so you left the room to grab some from the fridge, keeping quiet.
When you came back, he had already pulled his mask up halfway and you saw the nasty bruise on his jawline, making you frown.
"Suit off," you demanded, noticing his smirk when he pressed the spider emblem, letting it slide down his body. You managed not to blatantly check him out this time, brushing your fingers against his shoulder where there were more bruises and cuts. You handed him the ice pack, then reached for the first aid kit.
He winced slightly, but muttered a "thanks" and held it to his jaw. You got some cotton balls with rubbing alcohol and cleaned some of the smaller cuts on his collarbone, glad it wasn't as terrible as that first night.
You two remained in silence for a moment while you cleaned out his cuts, feeling his eyes on you. Every once in a while you had to push your glasses back up your nose so you could still concentrate.
"Cute glasses," he commented, making you blush and roll your eyes.
"I couldn't find my contacts this morning," you replied, dabbing at his cut some more, "I don't like them too much."
He reached up and took them between his fingers, sliding them off your nose while you stared at him in confusion, his head becoming slightly blurry without your sight. You could see his figure moving slightly and guessed he put the ice pack down.
"You know I can't see anything right-" He interrupted you by leaning forward, his lips pressing at first gently to yours.
You dropped the cotton ball and moved on of your hands to cup his face and the other resting on his chest, shutting your eyes and deepening the kiss. You didn't know where it came from, but you couldn't care less. All you could think about was his lips on yours and the way his bare chest felt under your hand.
He suddenly moved his hands to you waist, turning you over so you were flipped on your bed and he was leaning over you. The action made you let out a gasp and he took no hesitation to slip his tongue in your mouth and somehow manage to get even closer to you.
It took everything in you not to rip his mask off and run your hands through his hair as his lips moved to the corner of your mouth, then your jaw, his hands still holding you tightly to his body.
Then, your hand instinctively went to his hurt shoulder, causing him to wince against your mouth and pull back.
"Shit, sorry," you said while trying to control your breathing, which made him laugh.
"It's fine," he replied breathlessly, his lips going back to yours in a softer kiss, "Kind of a mood killer, huh?"
You let out a shaky laugh, sitting up next to him when he rolled off of you. "You should've let me finish bandaging you up first."
"I couldn't help it," he murmured, his hand brushing your hair back. You sight was still blurry, but you thought he was smiling. "Those glasses made you look too adorable."
You blinked, noticing the familiarity in that sentence, but too flustered to question it. "Well, speaking of those glasses...?"
You held a hand out and he chuckled, placing your glasses in your hand. He took your free hand in his, letting his thumb rub circles on the back of it, making your skin tingle.
"So, can I know your name now?" You asked in a still slightly breathless voice, which made him laugh lightly and lean his forehead against yours.
"I don't think you'll like me much when you find out," he replied, making you frown while you fumbled for your glasses to be put back on.
"What, are you an axe-murderer in real life?" You teased as he came into focus, and he managed a laugh at that. "Look, I admit it's strange not knowing your name or what you look like, but I do care about you even without knowing any of that. Honestly."
"I care about you too, a lot," he admitted, his hand lifting to trace your jawline, a sad smile on his lips. "And I don't want to lose you, which is why I'm afraid to tell you who I am."
"You won't lose me," you said firmly, giving him a small smile. "Why would you think you would?"
He sighed through his nose, leaning back from you but keeping one of your hands gripped in his while the other went to his mask, pulling the rest of it off. You regretted putting your glasses back on, wishing suddenly that you were too blind to see the boy in front of you.
"Oh, that's why," you managed weakly, taking in the face of your ex-best friend.
"Y/N," Peter shut his eyes, lips tight, "I'm so, so sorry."
"For what?" You asked tensely, eyes looking everywhere but him, "Is-is this some joke to you, Peter? You let me rant to you about you and then you just swoop in and-"
"No," he said firmly, moving his hands to your cheeks and pulling your face to look him in the eye. "No, it's not like that. Just let me explain, and then you can yell or leave or punch me or whatever you want, I promise."
Your E/C eyes searched his, looking for anything that would make you doubt he was being sincere. But all you saw was truth. Remembering the thought you had the other day, where you didn't think you could turn him down if he tried to explain a third time, you nodded in agreement, but still pulled away from his grasp.
"Sixth months ago, I got my powers," he started, and you noticed pain in his eyes and his fists tighten on his mask, "I panicked. I shut everyone out, thinking I was protecting them. That meant including protecting you, especially you," you flinched when he said that, hoping he didn't notice.
"And for a while that was fine," he continued, "But Ned came to my room one time when I was basically on the ceiling, and I couldn't lie my way out of that one. And since he knew, I didn't need to push him away anymore."
"I convinced myself that I was protecting you by hurting you," he looked back at you, and you noticed his eyes were slightly red, "It was killing me to ignore you, but it was better for you to hate me than to get involved in this part of my life. So I watched you move on, and you were becoming happy, so I thought I made the right decision, even if it was hurting us both in the process."
"Then why did you decide to come back?" You asked, your voice shaky.
"I'm getting there," he avoided your gaze again, looking to your window. "I got hurt so bad that night, that I came here. I honestly thought I was done for. I know it wasn't that terrible, but I couldn't tell how bad my injuries were, I just felt the pain."
He looked back at you again, hesitating before cupping your face with one hand, his fingers trembling. You let him, not pulling away this time, just waiting for him to go on.
"I wanted to see you," he said simply, "I thought if I was going to die, I wanted you to be the last person I saw. I know it's ridiculous, the injury wasn't that bad, but I was a bit delirious. I missed you so much and I just wanted to see you."
"You were pretty out of it," you managed to whisper, making him crack a small smile before continuing.
"When I was talking to you, it was like we never stopped being friends. You didn't know me but you helped me, you teased me, and you made me remember every reason I fell for you in the first place."
Your eyes widened slightly at his confession, but he didn't pause for you to react.
"So I tried talking to you at school the next day, almost like I forgot you hated me," he let out a small laugh, but it didn't reach his eyes. "With good reason, of course. You didn't like Peter Parker, but you did like Spider-Man. So I came back as him, just to talk to you again. When you told me that you missed me as much as I missed you, I almost told you right there who I was. But I was so scared, Y/N, I still am. I can't lose you again, not after all this."
You raised your hand hesitantly, letting it rest on the side of his face. It felt so strange to be so close to the boy who you used to be such good friends with. He shut his eyes and put his hand on top of yours, holding it to his cheek tightly, like he was afraid to let go.
"I thought you hated me," you whispered, and you noticed a flash of pain across his expression, "And I couldn't figure out why, Peter. It kept me up at night, going through various reasons for why you would drop me like that."
You took a deep breath as he opened his eyes, staring into yours and waiting for you to finish your side.
"I'm really glad this is the reason why," you finally said, biting your lip as the tears spilled over, "I thought you decided you didn't need me anymore."
"I need you," he let go of your hand and moved it to your face, lifting your glasses slightly and wiping away your tears, "I love you."
You knew he was telling the truth just by looking in his eyes, and you knew that you felt the exact same way. You had loved him even when he had first started avoiding you, and the feelings hadn't changed even with the craziness of your relationship. It was relieving to finally know the truth, even after all this time. And it was relieving to know that the reason he dropped you was because he cared about you so much, not the opposite like you had thought.
"I love you, too," you said softly, and he didn't need to be told twice.
He kissed you desperately, like he was truly afraid you two would never be able to kiss again. And you moved your lips against his in the exact same way, trying not to smile too hard when he pulled back for air.
He continued kissing your cheeks, forehead, and nose until you laughed and shoved him a bit, taking in his goofy grin.
"I missed you so much, Y/N/N," he played with a strand of your hair, tucking it behind your ear, "I'm so sorry, for everything."
"I forgive you," you smiled, your hands going to the nape of his neck and twisting your fingers in his hair. "I missed you a lot, too."
You couldn't help but kiss him again.