You and Peter strolled along the streets of Prague, a brisk breeze and shared nervousness causing both your teeth to chatter slightly amidst your fumbling awkwardness. You both searched for the words to begin the conversation but failed, continuing to walk in silence. Your bag was slung over your shoulder, holding the very valuable piece of evidence you were going to present to Peter to either confirm or deny your suspicions.
You made your way over a bridge, arms swinging by your sides. With one swift movement the back of your hands brushed. You both quickly pulled them into yourselves, looking at one another and smiling gawkily. Peter chuckled,
"Sucks that the trip got cancelled." He said, you nodded.
"Yeah really sucks..." there was a lapse of silence before you spoke again, "especially because you didn't get to complete your plane, hey?" With this sentence your heart gave a pang, but you masked it but looking at the ground.
"Wait- what plan?" Peter's voice went up at octave as he asked, genuinely confused. His heart lurched as the first thing his mind went to was the elementals and-
"You know with MJ?" you said, raising your eyebrows as if your answer was obvious. He screwed his face in confusion, so you continued, "you know, Paris, the necklace..." you trailed off. Your voice trembled slightly with the hurt you were feeling knowing that the plan was not intended for you, but also because of your inclination that Peter is Spider-Man.
"What?" he queried. He looked at you astonished- mainly because he had not thought about this plan since the bus to Prague. That when he knew Brad had that photo of him he was petrified he was going to show MJ the photo. But ever since you helped him, without judging, without knowing the full situation- hell, you even distracted the whole class, so he could jump out the emergency exited- he started to see you differently. (Especially after accidentally seeing your texts with your sister, thanks to Edith).
You were just the girl in a couple of his classes, the one he had hung out with on the trip, the one who gave him advice on how to get MJ, the one who had made his heart flutter when you asked to do something together and then made his heart sink when he had to bail for saving-the-world-duties. That's why he had agreed to hang out with you- to spend more time with you, develop his feelings, and maybe tell you he was over MJ.
"Oh that plan," he clarified, "oh yeah..." he said quietly before perking up again, "actually, NO!"
His sudden rise in volume made you jump slightly. You turned to him and he did the same, stopping in the middle of the bridge.
"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly, "I mean, I have a new plan actually. And I wanted to speak to you about it- "
"I wanted to talk to you about something too." He was taken aback by your words but nodded, indicating for you to continue.
You took a deep breath before letting the words you had been dwelling over for day leave your lips:
"Is your new plan to do with Spider-Man?"
His face whitened. His eyes widened. You saw his breathing begin to sharpen. His brows pulled together as he tilted his head to side.
Peter was freaking out- how did you figure it out? He knows he hasn't been the most discrete he could have been about it, but he didn't actually think you'd put the dots together. He ever had the stealth suit made so that this exact thing would not occur.
His mouth opened and closed repeatedly as he racked his brain for the right words to say, highly aware that the longer it took to do this, the less he was helping his case.
"What!" his voice squeaked as he narrowed his eyes at you, "No! What!" Me, Spider-Man? I'm not- no way! What, um, what gave you that impression?" he stumbled over his words, crossing his arms in an attempt to act nonchalantly.
You pursed your lips together, finding his words unconvincing.
"Well Peter, I mean there was the white string coming out of you in Venice. The ride to Prague where you literally jumped out of a moving bus! The fact you ditched the Opera and then showed up where the monsters were- you knew my name!"
"Have you been watching me, Y/N?" he asked coyly, raising and eyebrow. You were caught off guard- maybe you had been watching him, you did in fact like him, so it was hard to not watch him- but you played it off by scoffing.
"No!" you said (unpersuasively), "and stop trying to change the subject." You said sternly, pointing your finger at him. He uncrossed his arms and let his shoulders relax, looking at your sincerely.
"I'm not Spider-Man," and you could've almost believed him, "besides that guy last night was Night Monkey."
"Then why does Night Monkey have the same webs as Spider-Man?" you said, digging your hand into your bag and fishing out the silver contraption. You handed it to Peter, and he took it curiously, seemingly dropping his façade.
He looked at perplexedly, "What is this?"
"I have no idea, it just came off your web last night-"
"Hey, I said it wasn't me!" he said almost sharply.
"Then where were you last night?" you countered.
"I was sick..." he said slowly. You rolled your eyes slightly.
"You were the last one to come back!"
"I got lost," he tried to convince you again, but his attempts fell short.;
"Peter-" you said, beginning to become extremely irritated, but your frustrations were cut short when a beaming light emitted from the silver object. Peter dropped it as it cast a scene in between the two of you.
The monster was swirling around above you before it disappeared.
"What did you do?" you asked.
"I barely touched it," Peter grumbled, bending down to inspect the device. "What.." he whispered to himself lightly grazing his fingers along the metal and over the- his?- webs. "Does this mean-"
"is all fake?" you said finishing his sentence. You both looked at each other perplexed. Peter picked up the device holding it between the two of you.
"But we were there, everything was real- the destruction, the fire-"
"Wait, we? Peter you just said-" he ignored you as he continued to ponder.
"Who would do something like that?" his question was answered as quickly as it was asked. The device began to project again, but this time, swirling around the monster was a trail of puffy green smoke...
"Mysterio." You said, looking back at Peter. He was already looking at you, eyes opened as wide as they could, a look of sheer terror on his face.
"Y/N" he started, "I am Spider-Man" – your heart skipped at the confession- "And I messed up really bad." He said, cringing at the end of his sentence.
"Wait, you are Spider-Man?" you clarified. He nodded, his face still fear-stricken. "You're being serious with me right now?!" you screeched.
"Yes, I am. I'm Spider-Man and I need your help."
"Oh my god, Peter! You're SPIDER-MA..." you were cut off by his hand covering your mouth.
"Don't shout it out for everyone to hear! Come on, I'll explain everything on the way back to the hotel." He said, taking your hand in his and leading you back along the bridge. Your heart was already beating fast from the confirmation of your reservations but skipped a beat at the feeling of his skin against yours.
On the way back to the hotel Peter explained what had been going on- how Mysterio had showed up and claimed to be a soldier from another Earth. How Mr Stark (who it took you a moment to realise meant Tony Stark aka Iron Man, once you realised Peter had the Stark "Internship.") gave him the glasses aka Edith and how Mysterio must have been using the same technology to create the illusions.
"I can't believe I gave Beck those glasses. I cannot believe I was so stupid," Peter sighed, shutting the curtains in his room. "He's probably spying on me right now," he said moving towards his laptop, "or send drone to come and kill me."
"You had access to killer drones?" you asked dubiously.
"Yeah" he said, almost too indifferently, "but I didn't really want them especially after I nearly killed Brad." He slammed the compute shit and walked over towards you, picking up his phone on the way.
"You nearly killed Brad!" you whisper yelled, looking at him scoldingly.
"It was an accident! Besides you helped me!"
You looked at him in bewilderment, "I didn't help you kill anyone!"
"Oh no, like, you helped me stop the drone that was going to kill him. You know, 'baby mountain goats'" he said with what you could only assume was a terrible attempt at impersonating your voice.
"Oh," you said, nodding your head slightly, still confused as to how that situation got to the point that Brad nearly died.
"Anyway," Peter said shaking his head, changing the subject, "I have to call Mr Fury and tell him that Beck's a fraud, but I think he tapped my phone..." he said trailing off, looking up at you for support.
"What are you going to do?" you asked softly. You could see the cogs turning within his rich brown eyes.
"Uh, well I need my suit," he said, grabbing the large black bag from the corner arm chair. "And I have to go to Berlin and talk to Mr Fury in person."
In one swift movement he unzipped the bag and emptied its contents on to the bed, before moving his arms to the bottom of his torso and lifting his shirt over his head.
He turned to look at you in embarrassment, eye wide open. Your eyes however were drifting lower and lower from his eyes down to his toned chest...
Peter cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um," he started, still looking at you but at a loss for words.
"Oh! Sorry," you said blushingly before turning around. You hair created a curtain around your head, but you found yourself twisting slowly on the spot to have another look-
"No! That's so wrong and pervy" you thought, but still found yourself trying to catch a glimpse of his abs through the gaps of your hair. You saw movement from the corner of your eye and turned to see the hotel room door open. There stood Ned, a look of mild stress on his face.
Peter turned around and saw his best friend and sighed, "Oh, Ned, perfect."
"Costume looks great!" he spoke quickly, eyes darting between you and Peter. You narrowed your eyes at him, "for the costume party..." his voice trailed off as Peter shook his head.
"She knows, I told her." He clarified, and you see Ned visibly relax against the door frame.
"That's cool," he nodded.
"Technically, I think I figured it out," you said somewhat cheekily. You turned to Peter with your brows raised when a voice carried from behind you.
"See, another person figured it out Peter. You have got to get better at this." MJ was now stood behind Ned, arms crossed across her chest. Peter frowned at her, but you could only see his eyes squint because of the suit.
"MJ knows too?" you asked.
"Yeah, I figured out a long time ago," she replied, "like, a really long time ago. You know, you really should have a better hold on your identity by now..."
"We can work on better hiding my identity when I get back," Peter interrupted, waving a hand dismissively at her.
"Okay," she said looking disinterested, "I'll pencil you in." she deadpanned. Peter grunted, clearly frustrated with his friends antics before continuing.
"Mysterio is a fraud," he explained to them. Ned looked confused.
"But he saved me and Betty's lives. Y/N was there too."
"It was fake," you stated, "he's using illusion tech."
"He's using these hologram projectors to create the whole thing." Peter continued. Ned's eyes widen whilst Michelle's continued to be impartial.
"Wow that's...crazy." He said anxiously.
"Yeah," you sighed, looking at Peter. Both Ned and MJ noticed the way your eyes lingered on one another. MJ's lips fell into a smirk whilst Ned said,
"Were you guys working the case or something?" he laughed light. You nodded,
"Kind of, although, it has been mostly me," you whispered the last part, bring the back of your hand to the side of your lips. Ned's brows creased.
"Look Ned," Peter said stepping forward, "I need you to call May and ask her to call Mr Harrington and say that I'm going to be staying with family in Berlin until this all blows over." He spoke quickly, you having to blink a couple times to keep up and comprehend what he was saying.
Without hesitation Ned affirmed, "yep, got it."
"Wow," you said in astonishment, "you came up with that so fast. You lied so easily," looking between the two of them in surprise. Ned chuckled humbly.
"Get used to it," MJ said, picking at one of her nails, clearly not as invested in this as the rest of you were.
"I gotta go," Peter said, placing a gloved hand on your shoulder as he moved passed you. As he opened the curtains you saw a glint of light reflective off some silver.
"Wait," you stopped him, grabbing the projector and chucking it at him. "You're going to need this." He caught it in one hand with ease.
"Don't tell anyone about this okay?" he said, "anyone who knows about this in danger." You nodded. He pulled his mask down over his eyes and with a THWIP had swung out the window.
You let out a sigh and let your shoulder relax. Ned's voice cause you to turn to him.
"So, you know too?" he said. "That's cool, we have a bit of a squad going here," he laughed comically, referring his hand over his should to MJ who was still stood by the door. "But you know I've known first and the longest... but it's not a competition," he assured.
You laughed slightly at him, "Okay, Ned." You said turning back around to look out the window thinking- What the hell have I gotten myself into now?