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unspokenfaith · 5 years

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A Not So Surprising Romantic Gesture

Pairings: Peter Parker/Michelle Jones Rating: T Word Count: 2943 Genre: Fluff/Humor Summary: 5 times Peter tries to ask MJ to prom and 1 time he doesn’t have to.

So I originally had this planned for Spideychelle Month, but only recently had the inspiration to finish writing it. I just love the thought of Peter and MJ still being awkward idiots even after dating for a while :’) Also really enjoyed writing all the side characters in; it definitely added to all the fun.

AO3

Asking your long-term girlfriend to senior prom seemed like the logical thing to do. But then again, so did skipping over all the hassle and taking her anyway, because why wouldn’t they go together?

Peter knew how much MJ resented traditions, particularly gendered ones, but he also knew the smile on her face and the gleam in her eyes whenever he surprised her with a romantic gesture, and it was safe to say that alone outweighed anything else.

Under any other circumstances, he would’ve asked her opinion on the matter—some things he just couldn’t get a read on—but Peter wanted this to be a surprising romantic gesture. The surprising romantic gesture. MJ more than deserved that.

And perhaps there was a tiny, selfish part of him that always hoped he could ask the girl of his dreams to prom, even if he couldn’t dance to save his life.

Peter felt confident one sunny, April morning when he stepped off the bus, bouquet of flowers in hand. Black dahlias, of course.

He rehearsed what he was going to say at least thirty times in his head from the moment he woke up, but he couldn’t settle on the right words. What else was he supposed to say besides ‘MJ, will you go to prom with me?’ Even though we’ve been dating for nine months, so it’s not like we would go with anyone else anyway, right? It seemed so easy, yet it also didn’t feel like enough. At least the flowers would add a little something extra.

By the entrance, Peter spotted MJ with her back to him, talking to Ned and Betty. Inexplicably, the four of them made a habit of meeting outside every morning before walking in together. Cheesy and predictable as it was, it always put a smile on Peter’s face no matter how he was feeling that day.

Ned caught his eye, flashing him a smile. Peter shook his head furiously before he could say anything. He didn’t want MJ to see him yet.

“Hey, Penis Parker!”

Peter skidded to a stop, his heart jumping to his throat and the flowers dropping into a puddle. Flash’s shiny new car nearly ran Peter over, but that seemed to be the least of his concerns.

“Watch where you’re going! You could’ve hit my car!” Flash slowed down as he passed him, and his eyes widened at the drenched dahlias. “Aww! Did you get those for me, Parker? That’s so thoughtful, but I’m not interested.”

He couldn’t so much as lift his head and entertain a response before Flash drove away to find a parking spot.

He couldn’t even find himself to appreciate the irony of black dahlias wilting in dirty water. His only consolation was that MJ sure would’ve.

II.

Despite yesterday’s disappointment, Peter quickly contrived a new and hopefully Flash-proof idea. Unfortunately, this one required a lot more patience.

He never realized how little MJ went to her locker until he sped down the hallway and peeked around the corner after every period waiting for her to show up. Then again, she didn’t really have any reason to when she used one notebook for all of her classes—and every line of every page at that. And when she couldn’t fill a page, she would draw random sketches, mostly of Peter’s face in physics.

“What? It’s funny,” she would say. “You’re always so focused.”

And the way she said “funny,” like she really meant “adorable,” never failed to make Peter blush.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

Peter jumped at the sound of Ned’s voice.

“Hey, shh! I’m waiting for MJ,” he said.

Ned blinked. “You know she’s your girlfriend, right? Why are you hiding?”

“Ned, please!” Peter whispered loudly. “It’s a surprise, okay? I don’t want her to see me yet.”

“Oh! This is the prom thing!” he practically screamed.

“Dude, seriously!”

Their back-and-forth picked up a few glances from passing students. Peter laughed nervously before turning back to Ned.

“Try to be quiet about it, okay? Please.”

“Right, right, right,” Ned said. “Sorry. Should I—Hey, there’s MJ and Betty.”

Peter turned around, and sure enough, there was MJ, fiddling with the combination on her locker—Betty rambling behind her.

“Please! Pretty please!” Betty put her hands together, pouting. “You said you would.”

MJ sighed. “I know, but...I can’t this weekend. I’ve got…you know, stuff.”

Betty placed her hands on her hips. “I know you really want to go. You just don’t want to be excited.”

“I do want to. I just...we haven’t really talked about what we’re doing yet.”

Peter felt his stomach twist into a knot once he realized what she was talking about. Was she expecting him to have asked her already? Or was she not expecting him to ask at all? Was she mad they haven’t talked about prom at all?

Was he doing something wrong?

“Peter, she’s opening the locker.” Ned tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

As soon as the door swung open, Betty screamed, causing both Peter and Ned to jump.

“Jesus, Betty, don’t do that!” MJ said.

“Move!” But Betty shifted so she stood in front of MJ, then proceeded to toss everything out of her locker. Used papers and pens flew everywhere. Peter’s heart sank when he saw a particularly important one slide under a neighboring locker.

“Betty, what the—”

Betty stomped her foot, pushing it hard into the floor. “Sorry, there was a spider!”

“Was it really necessary to tear my locker apart?”

Their voices faded as Peter turned away, leaning on the wall and staring at the ceiling.

“Man, I’m sorry, Peter,” Ned said. “You can always try again tomorrow.”

III.

Peter did not try again tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that.

Four days was ample time for him to recover from another failed prom ask. He didn’t want to waste too much time, especially after overhearing MJ’s conversation with Betty.

Baking was all science. At least that’s what Peter told himself after spilling bags of flour and nearly setting the kitchen on fire. May insisted on stepping in, but he was determined to do this all by himself, even if it took him all night.

He might’ve lost valuable study time, and a lot of sleep, but it was worth it in the end to have five chocolate frosted red velvet cupcakes. While Peter’s original plan was to bake the whole batch, only half were worth saving. Luckily, he only needed four letters and a question mark’s worth.

MJ liked them because, supposedly, “no one else does.” Everyone always goes for the vanilla frosted. How she ever determined that, he had no idea. But the information made itself useful.

Rather than approaching her before school, he thought it best to keep them covered in his locker until the end of the day. Less people around. Less of a chance that everything will go wrong. Hopefully less spiders.

As soon as the final bell rang, Peter sprinted to his locker and carefully removed the tray. MJ was always the first one to arrive to Academic Decathlon, and he would make sure to be there before anyone else.

He checked his watch—2:18. Decathlon practice started at 2:30. Plenty of time.

Peter’s skin prickled as he approached the door of the classroom. He had no reason to be nervous. It’s not as though she would say “no.” But what she said to Betty still lingered in the back of his mind, feeding into his nerves, planting his feet to the floor.

After talking himself in and out of it several times, he took a deep breath and opened the door.

Much to his disappointment, MJ wasn’t in her usual spot at the front of the room. In fact, she wasn’t in the room at all.

Cursing himself for being too early, Peter set the cupcakes down on a desk. He looked from the clock on the wall to his watch, then back to the clock again, as though the little, red second hand would bring MJ here faster.

“Woah, Peter! Did you bring those for the team?”

Peter turned around to find Winston standing in the doorway. Before he had time to react, Winston rushed over to his desk and grabbed a cupcake.

“No, no, no! Wait!”

But Winston was already devouring the chocolate “P.”

“Winston, those were for—”

MJ walked in a few seconds too late. “Hey, dorks. What’s up? You guys are early.” She went to the front of the classroom to set her bag down.

Winston looked from MJ to Peter, eyes widening with the realization of what he just did.

“Peter, I’m so sorry...”

Peter forced a smile. “It’s fine, Winston. They’re all yours.”

There was no sense in asking MJ if she would like to go to “Rom.”

IV.

With everything that happened over the past week, Peter began to see the error of his ways. All of his promposals were private. There was too much risk in privacy. He needed to ask MJ to prom in a way that was unavoidable. Foolproof. But not too public.

Peter stuck with the decathlon room. It was never used until the team met after school. So early one morning, he got his robot spider to unlock the door. He wrote the question bold and large on the whiteboard then slid the chalkboard back to cover it.

Mr. Harrington always used the white board. The sound of the chalk on the board made him sweat. And then he would get so flustered that he’d continue. It wasn’t a good experience for anyone in the room.

Drumming his fingers on the desk, Peter stared at the empty chalkboard. MJ flashed him a confused glance.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Me? Yeah, totally. Just ready to get started.” Peter’s voice was at least two octaves higher than normal, and he knew it. He just hoped MJ didn’t notice.

Mr. Harrington walked up to the board. Peter hadn’t noticed how loud his foot was tapping under the desk until a couple of the team members gave him looks.

“Okay, guys, I want to go over a few of the logistics for the competition,” Mr. Harrington said, reaching for the markers, but paused. “Oh, where did they go?”

“Where did what go, Mr. Harrington?” Peter asked. But then it hit him. He was in such a rush earlier that he never put the markers back. He must’ve shoved them into his locker without thinking.

“My markers,” he said. “I don’t see them anywhere.” Mr. Harrington lowered his glasses slightly, scanning his desk. “Huh, well, I guess we’re using the chalkboard today.”

A chorus of groans sounded throughout the room.

“I know, I know, guys. It sounds like the lonely cries of a single man in his bed at night,” he said, followed by silence. “Well, anyway…”

Peter’s foot started tapping on the floor again. Sure, he could just walk up there and pull the chalkboard aside. But that completely defeated the point. It was supposed to be a surprise. It was supposed to happen naturally.

“Wait! Mr. Harrington, uh...doesn’t anyone have a marker?” Peter asked.

Not a single response. MJ eyed him curiously. By now, she knew something was going on with him.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Peter, but I think we’re all going to have to suffer together today,” Mr. Harrington said, turning back to the board and hesitantly picking up a piece of chalk.

“Man, he’s not having a good day, is he?” Ned whispered.

Peter knew the feeling.

Standing in the school library, card in hand, Peter was persistent in making this work. After a week of almosts, he was going to make sure that—no matter what—today would be the day. He was going to ask his girlfriend to prom, and no one or nothing was going to stop him.

He spent the previous night putting together a card specifically for MJ. Peter was by no means artistically inclined, so he did it all on the computer—cutting and pasting images of some of her favorite things. On the front of the card, he placed her favorite picture of them. Betty took it at her Christmas party. She had pointed out the mistletoe above their heads. Peter blushed as MJ kissed his cheek. Everyone cheered.

It might’ve been his favorite picture, too.

Peter slid the card into MJ’s favorite poetry book, Milk and Honey. She picked it up as a study break every time the two of them came to the library to do homework. Sometimes he asked her to read the poems aloud just so he could watch the soft, thoughtful expression on her face as she spoke the words.

So he knew when he asked her to meet him here after class, that’s exactly what she would do. Only this time she would have something new to read.

As soon as he heard footsteps, Peter scrambled to sit down and lay his books out. He started writing out random notes as she approached the table.

MJ squeezed his hand as she sat down across from him. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Peter smiled brightly.

“What’s up?” MJ squinted at him.

“What do you mean? Just studying is all,” he laughed.

“No, not right now. I mean in general. You’ve been acting weird all week.”

“N-nothing. Nothing’s up. Just nervous, I guess.”

“For what?”

“Oh, you know…” Peter said. “The test next week.” He wanted to kick himself for saying the first thing that came to his mind.

“Oh, yeah, I guess.”

Through all his prom planning, Peter somehow managed to forget they had a physics test next week. He’d have to worry about that later.

The two were mostly quiet while they studied, Peter too afraid he’d give something away by talking, and MJ too busy actually focusing on the material. He flipped through the pages of the textbook, pretending to read while he occasionally glanced at her. Waiting for her to take a break.

Suddenly, Brad walked into the library, passing by their table on his way to one of the shelves. The poetry section.

Peter fought every urge to start squirming in his seat, which only resulted in him starting to squirming in his seat.

MJ put her book down. “Okay, seriously, Peter, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I just…”

She followed his gaze behind her to where Brad was browsing dangerously close to MJ’s book.

“Brad? Is that what’s bothering you?”

Peter shook his head furiously, watching as Brad picked up Milk and Honey, about to open the cover.

He pushed himself up from his chair. “Brad! What are you doing?”

Brad shot him a look of annoyance. “Trying to find a book for my English project. Sorry if that’s a crime, Parker,” he said. “Although you’re one to judge.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “You’re really not going to let that one go, are you? No one believes that Peter’s a prostitute, so drop it already.”

“That’s my book!” Peter exclaimed. “I was just going to rent it out!”

“Wait, what?” MJ said.

Brad flipped through the book, and Peter’s chest tightened. “Don’t see your name on it anywhere. You don’t look in a hurry to take it.”

Without thinking, Peter went over and grabbed the book from Brad’s hand. “I said I’m borrowing it, okay?”

“Okay, chill.” Brad held his arms up in defeat. “It’s just a book.” He shook his head as he wandered over to the next section.

Peter sighed in relief. When he turned around, he found MJ staring at something on the floor next to him.

VI.

“What?” Peter followed her gaze to a small, familiar piece of paper folded on the ground. He scanned the pages of the book, even though he already knew the card was missing.

MJ rose from her seat and bent down to pick it up. Peter was about to stop her before he realized this was what he was waiting for to happen. Even if it wasn’t happening in the way he planned.

“It’s stupid. I’m sorry,” he said, scratching the back of his neck.

She said nothing. Just stared at the front of the card, her lips slowly curving into a smile. Peter remained silent as she opened it, studying every letter, every image. He wasn’t sure if he should be troubled by the fact that she still wasn’t saying anything in response.

MJ refolded the card, placing it on the desk.

“I know what you’re thinking. It’s really cheesy, and we’re already dating, so why am I asking, right?” Peter laughed nervously, unable to meet her eyes.

“Stop talking, loser,” she said.

Peter cleared his throat and nodded.

“You’re right. This is incredibly cheesy.”

His shoulders sank. God, why did you do it, Peter? So stupid.

“But,” MJ continued. “This is easily the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Peter looked up, beaming. “Really?”

“Really.” She smiled back.

“I’m really sorry I didn’t ask you sooner, or we didn’t talk about it and make plans, or….I’m just really sorry.”

MJ put a finger over his mouth. “My answer is ‘yes,’ okay?”

Peter kissed her right there, in the middle of the school library, catching a few glances and whispers. The librarian didn’t look too thrilled about it, but she buried her nose in a book as though she hadn’t noticed.

MJ gently pushed him away. “You haven’t been worrying about this all week, have you?”

“Of course not,” Peter laughed.

He was the worst liar imaginable, but at least he was taking his girlfriend to prom.

#spideychelle #spideychelle fic #petermj #peter x mj #marvel fic #my writing #mine

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