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a continuation of the oneshot
in which he's almost too late
in realizing his feelings for her
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honestly this oneshot series was pretty fun to write! as you may know already angsty soft imagines are my favorites hahah :P this second part is a lil longer but i couldn't really cut off the first part in the middle of dialogue so i moved the next scene here. enjoy this cringey content yeeeee
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"You should get back inside," you heard Peter's familiar voice from behind you. "It's cold out and it isn't safe to be out here alone. You could get mugged."
"What are you doing here, Peter?" your turned around to look at him, and your voice came out as a barely audible whisper. "Just stop following me, will you?"
"Look, I'm sorry," he said. Peter carefully looked you up and down and tried to catch your gaze, but you refused to meet his eye. "I know I messed up."
"Damn right you did," you muttered as you kept walking down the sidewalk, increasing your pace. "Now leave me alone."
He quickly caught up to you, however, and took ahold of your wrist and spun you around to face him, so you had no other choice but to look him straight in the eyes.
Those chocolate-brown eyes that always lit up with excitement and curiosity. Damn you Parker and your perfect eyes, you mentally cursed to yourself.
"Let me go!" you protested as you tried to yank yourself free of his grip. "Parker! Let go of me right this instant!"
"Can you please just listen to me for a moment?" he pleaded as he loosened his hold that he had on you. You shook your head rapidly as you felt the familiar sting of tears to your eyes. "It's only for a minute."
"Give me one reason why," you angrily swiped away at your eyes with your free hand, "one reason why I should listen to you explain how your actions of secrecy were justified? That I should listen to you give me a sorry little list of reasons why she's not actually your girlfriend or that you don't actually like her? Of why she wouldn't be your first choice?"
"Look, I didn't mean what I said," he flinched slightly when he heard the cracked, raw edge to your voice. "I was stupid. I messed up and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of what I said, really-"
You looked up at him with your tear-stained face, firmly pressing your lips together to prevent a sob from escaping them. "Then why did you say that?"
"I wasn't thinking straight," Peter let out a sigh, reaching over to wipe your damp cheek with his thumb.
"You sounded like you meant every word of that and everything you did with her to me," you rolled your eyes, pushing his hand away from your face.
He let out another long sigh. "I'm sorry, really, I was just mad at the moment. And I know you have every right to be mad at me right now, not the other way around."
"Sorry doesn't cut it," you deadpanned, crossing your arms and rolling your eyes again. "All you're doing right now is repeating yourself."
"I don't have feelings for her, honest," he tried to reassure you, but his efforts didn't seem to be helping very much, "And I never will. We were just hanging out as friends, nothing more."
"You shouldn't be making promises that you won't be able to keep."
"I know this promise is one I'll be able to keep, because I know for a fact that I don't like her as anything more than a simple acquaintance."
"How do you know that?" you shouted as you picked up your pace and started to walk away from him once again. "How do you know you're not going to go off and do something like this again? How the hell can I trust you not to do that?"
"I don't have feelings for her of any sort because I'm already in love with you," he took ahold of your wrist before you could get any farther, gently pulling you back in his direction.
"Sure you are."
"W-well...you can't just leave now! It's dark outside and you could get hurt," Peter stammered. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"Says the one who hurt me himself," you said sarcastically. "It's so funny how you start caring all of a sudden."
"I've always cared about you and I'd be willing to do anything to make you happy," he let the hand gripping your wrist limply fall down to his side.
"Then leave me alone and never talk to me again."
"I can't do that," he shook his head.
"You told me that you'd do anything for me."
"I can. But not that. I couldn't stand being away from you forever," he bit his lip. "I'd be betraying myself if I did."
"Please, just leave me alone," you whispered, as you felt the the tears now flowing freely down your face.
"You don't mean that," his breath hitched in his throat as you uttered those words, "you don't mean it."
"I hate you," you voice was wobbly as you spoke, "I hate you. You hurt me, and I hate you for it. So just, please, just leave me alone. Just leave me alone-"
The words felt odd coming out of your mouth. You were just lying to yourself; you really didn't want him to leave.
"Please, Y/N. Give me another chance," his voice cracked. "Just give me one more chance to make things right."
"No," you sobbed, refusing to look up at him as your tears dripped down onto the concrete, leaving dark stains behind and blurring your vision as well, "I can't. I can't forgive you."
"I'm so sorry," he repeated, "I-I really didn't mean to hurt you , I didn't know it'd hurt you this much and I'll do anything to fix this-"
"Go away," you mumbled, putting your face in your hands.
He moved closer to you and placed a gentle hand on your shoulder, rubbing his thumb back and forth across it as he kept his gaze focused on you, and you could practically feel his heat burning you through your T-shirt.
Peter then pulled you towards him and into his strong arms, the heaving sobs escaping your lips making your body tremble violently. He squeezed you tighter against him and smoothed your hair back, placing a light kiss to the top of your head.
Your heart fluttered at the feeling of his body pressed against yours, despite the heaviness weighing it down. Despite your feelings of frustration and anger towards him you couldn't help but feel safe and protected in his arms. Those arms that had comforted you countless times before.
"Let me go," you cried, "just let me go, Pete, just let me go-"
"No, I'm not about to let you slip away from me when I almost let that happen already," he said, his voice coming out a in a hoarse whisper, "I'm not about to make that same mistake of almost losing you again."
You squeezed your eyes shut and your arms instinctively slid around his torso, burying your head into his chest.
"I never even chose her to begin with. It's always been you, and I'll keep choosing you for as long as I live or until something forces me to stop choosing you."
"Peter-"
"Please don't leave," he begged, a tremor in his tone, "I don't want to lose you."
"Talk to me, Y/N," he croaked out when you didn't respond, "come on, please say something-"
You paused for a moment and took in a deep breath, letting his words sink in.
"I should hate you. I should hate you for breaking my heart into a million pieces without knowing what you're doing or what's going on," you mumbled into his chest, fighting back against another flood of tears that was threatening to spill over the brims of your eyes. "I know I should hate you, but the person I find that I'm resenting the most for their actions is myself, because there's nothing that you could ever do to keep me from falling even more in love with you. I'm sorry, Peter, I wasn't-"
"I know, I know, shh," he murmured, rocking you back and forth. "It's okay."
He put a finger underneath your chin and tilted your face up so that you were forced to look straight at him; into those brown eyes that shone with the warm, rich color of chocolate and never failed to take your breath away every time you caught his gaze.
That was when you noticed he was also crying, his face red and wet with tears. The sight alone was enough to break your heart into a million more pieces than it was now.
His unwavering gaze sent a chill down your spine and you found yourself forgetting how to breathe properly for a split second.
Then suddenly you couldn't think, either. You couldn't think, you couldn't even breathe, and your heart had never pounded so fast in your life before because his lips were now on yours and he was kissing you.
Peter Parker was kissing you, and nothing had ever felt more right in the world up until now. He really did know how to tug at your heartstrings and make you come running back to him.
"I love you, and I'm never letting you go," he breathed out once the two of you broke apart. "Tell me that I'm forgiven now, or I won't be able to forgive myself for what I did."
"You're forgiven," a small smile made its way onto your face, but then the fact that it was freezing outside here at night hit you like a truck, and you began shaking like a leaf. "But can we please go back inside now? I'm gonna get hypothermia and I don't think Dad and Steve would want me to come home sick."
"Holy crap, you're freezing," he gripped your hand for a quick second and immediately pulled away, eyes widened in shock.
"I know," you rubbed your hands together to try to keep warm. "I hate having poor blood circulation. How ironic, a girl with firepowers has poor blood circulation. Funny."
"Here, take my jacket," Peter slipped his thick parka off and held it out, and you put it on without protest, "you need it more than I do."
"T-thank y-you," you said in between your chattering teeth, "but aren't you going to get c-cold-"
"Whether I get cold or not doesn't matter. I'm not about to let you freeze to death or Mr. Stark will get mad if you come back from my place frozen," he explained, wrapping an arm across your shoulders and pulling you closer. "Now come on, let's go back before May thinks we got kidnapped."
"I love you, Pete," you sniffed, resting your head against his shoulder and leaning into him.
His face broke into a wide grin. "I love you more."