A/N: The long awaited next chapter! I'm so sorry that I am late because I hit writer's block and my life has been a mess- everything is wrong!! But the feedback and support of this has helped me pull through, so thank you everyone!!

Also I didn't really bother with editing and I never want to look at this chapter again :)

.

.

.

.

.

Peter would never have imagined that he would wake up with his arms entangled on Michelle's body. All he saw when he first woke was the light hitting her skin and the collar of the striped PJ shirt she wore. Then, he felt the vibrations of her chest inhale and exhale. Every three seconds. Inhale. Three seconds. Exhale.

His cheek was smashed against the cotton material of her PJs, making his right eye squint. Peter's arms were tightly wrapped around her torso, holding her tight against his body. He felt one of her hands lazily draped on top of his head, her fingers still entwined in his curly hair. Her other hand cupped the side of his cheek. Peter had no idea how he ended up halfway on her body with his head resting on top of her chest, but damn it felt so relaxing. This was the first time in awhile where Peter felt at peace. He didn't want it to end.

"Hm..." Michelle drowsily hummed. She turned her head, her chin resting on top of Peter's. Her dark eyes were still closed but she opened her mouth to speak. Michelle whispered "Peter...?"

The sound of his name in her tired voice was going to be the death of him. He hoped that she couldn't hear or feel how fast his heart rate picked up. What was happening to him? "Yeah, MJ?" he tried to keep his tone soft and quiet to not disturb her too much.

"This isn't- this-" Michelle swallowed and tried again, "This isn't real, is it? You're not actually here. That would be crazy, right?"

"Yeah, it's crazy," he said. He didn't want this to be a dream. Peter wanted it so badly to be real, to be real with her. It was the only thing that made sense in his life. The only thing he knew that he wanted. He noticed that the pads of his fingers touched her bare skin on her stomach from underneath her top. Peter circled his thumbs across her skin gently. It wasn't scandalous or anything inappropriate. He just thought he needed to feel everything. He needed to know for sure that this was real. His smile was small. "But I like this."

"Me too." She released a sigh and she let her head drift off to the side to fall back asleep again.

Peter didn't remember nodding off again, but he woke up to Michelle poking his cheek. He blinked awake rapidly and lifted his head up from the top of her chest. She simply said, "Get off of me."

He obliged and scooted away from Michelle to the edge of her bed, his back pressed against the wall. He watched as Michelle sat up, pulling the sheets with her as she sat straight before she rubbed her eyes.

"Hey," Peter said, his stomach churning. He was so nervous, so anxious in front of Michelle now, it was insane. Her hair was more frizzy than last night but still so incredibly cute.

Michelle lowered her hands and turned her head to look at him. "Hey."

"Um... good morning, MJ."

"Mornin' Parker." Michelle adjusted her legs to sit in the standard criss-cross-applesauce position that they had learned ever since kindergarten. "So, uh, are you going to tell me what happened last night, or are you going to snap at me like you did at school?"

Last night. A mess. Peter had never felt so much despair and pain since Uncle Ben. It was consuming him. Suddenly, Peter didn't feel happy anymore. The darkness was taking over his heart. He felt himself begin to panic at the dying face of Charlie Callahan but Michelle sat in front of him, expectant and breathing. She was real. She was certain. She was hope.

But she couldn't know. Telling Ned about Spider-Man wasn't ever a part of Peter's plan. Ned caught Peter red-handed in the act and there was no way of explaining why Peter could crawl on the walls. He didn't have the choice of telling his aunt either, and she had caught him too. But with Michelle, Peter couldn't mess up again. The more people who knew his identity, the more people that could get hurt because of him. Tony kept reminding him of that. Peter couldn't take any more chances.

He didn't want to lie to her. He had already done enough damage to her with his lies and his outbursts. Peter couldn't hurt her anymore. Not ever.

"I'm so sorry about that," he said, thinking back to when he had yelled at her at school. That would never, ever happen ever again.

Michelle sighed. "I know. I know you are. But last night...?"

"I can't talk about it." Peter decided to say. It was true in a sense that he couldn't talk about his other life.

But that only made her frown. "Can't or won't?"

"Michelle-"

"I'm just trying to figure things out, Parker." She dipped her head to the side, her messy curls falling on her face as she did so. Her shoulders slumped and she hunched over in exhaustion. "Come on, it's me. Who am I going to tell?"

Peter felt his walls crumbling. He wanted this secret off of his chest but he made a promise to Tony to not screw up this job. Michelle could become a liability as much as Peter hated to admit it. He shook his head. "It's not that I don't trust you- I do trust you- but it's just not that simple."

She still pressed on. "Make it simple then!"

Michelle looked at him with desperate eyes. She didn't appear to be dreamy or sleepy anymore. Curiosity had her in a choke hold and she needed to know Peter's secret. For some reason, Peter guessed that she knew that this was bigger than last night. Michelle was an observant person. She knew what classes he had to drop because of being Spider-Man. She knew an awful lot about Peter than she let on. Last night gave her impromptu to ask him for clarity for his strange habits.

She was too smart and Peter knew that.

Michelle blew out an angry puff of air, making the hair in front of her face dance in the wind. She crawled off of her bed to stretch her arms above her head. She faced Peter again with her hands on her hips. "You know," she swallowed, "you're kinda being ridiculous. Just spit it out already, I know!"

"You know?" Peter gaped at her. "Know what?"

"What do you think, Parker?" Michelle spun on her heels and paced the length of her room. "I pieced it all together. I'm not stupid. You've been acting strange for months now. Ever since those YouTube videos started. You've dropped classes to free up time. You've got the Stark internship as if it couldn't be more obvious!" She studied him again, her eyes trailing all over his body. "You're the same height as him. You were in D.C. with us when he was in D.C."

Peter couldn't confirm it or deny it. His throat felt dry as he struggled to form words. She knew, oh god, she knew. He didn't even have to tell her. "What... what are you saying?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe this kid. "You know what I am saying, Peter. Do I have to spell it out for you?"

His eyes darted off to the side. He thought for a moment. "Um... yes?"

"Oh my god, Peter!" Michelle groaned and pulled at her hair. Her phone vibrated against her desk, interrupting their conversation. She froze and eyed the phone before she darted for it. Michelle read the message and her face fell.

"What's wrong?" asked Peter, shifting on her bed.

She shrugged. "Uh, nothing important."

They were both at a standstill. Neither of them wanted to budge their secrets. Peter assumed that this was a secret. Just the look on her face made him wonder what she had read about. It was just about the time that Peter should leave.

He pushed himself off of the bed and announced, "I'll head home and won't bother you anymore."

She lifted her brow. "And how do you suppose to leave without getting caught by my parents?"

Peter shifted to the balcony. He brushed aside the curtains and stood back to present it to her. "Ta-da!" he said with a smile on his face. "Same way as before."

"You're going to fall and break your back, and then it would somehow be my fault if you get hurt." She rubbed the bridge of her nose using her thumb and index finger in a circular motion to express her distress.

He chuckled, "I promise I won't do that."

"Oh yeah? Well-"

Michelle cut herself short when they heard heavy footsteps climbing up the stairs. Her father called her name, yelling, "Rise and shine, M, we got things to do today!"

Michelle lowered her voice and hurriedly whispered at Peter, "Go, go, go, go!" And Peter scrambled to hop over the balcony. Michelle pulled the curtains together behind him and spun around to face her dad as he entered the room.

"Oh, you're already up?" He asked skeptically. "Weren't you binge-watching last night? How are you up so early?"

Michelle gave him a shrug. "Kinda pulled an all-nighter and I feel great."

Peter gripped the edge of the balcony and he peered below him. He had to climb down three stories and land on the ground to safety. Thankfully, it was early enough in the morning so that there weren't a lot of people about... yet.
He clung to the wall and climbed down as fast as he could before he jumped down, landing in a low squat. Peter pulled the hood of his sweatshirt down to cover his head and stuffed his hands in his pocket as he made his way back home.

.

.

.

May would have killed him, but when he opened the door to the apartment, she knew that she couldn't berate him about his late-night excursion. She knew the kid went through something traumatizing again and that he needed his space and time... but that didn't mean she wasn't mad as hell.

She kept her anger at bay as Peter went through the fridge for a bite to eat. She sat at the dining room table with her glasses on her nose and her pen twirling between her fingers. "Where were you last night?" she asked softly, trying not to frighten him away. "I got scared when I saw that you weren't in bed this morning."

"I'm sorry Aunt May." Peter kept his back to her as he dipped down and grabbed ahold of an apple from the fridge. He spun around after he shut the door and leaned against the fridge. "I just... I had these nightmares and I had to leave."

Leave without telling me, May thought bitterly. She sighed with a shake of her head. "Peter, I know what happened yesterday was scary. You carry this incredible burden on your chest when you don't have to." She watched him as he bit out of the apple and slowly munched on it as he digested her words. "You've changed so much since you've got these abilities, and although you're trying your best, you're putting so much pressure on yourself and I'm afraid that you're hurting yourself because of it. You don't need to... you don't need to do this to honor your uncle Ben."

His eyes widened and the apple in his hand shook. She struck a nerve and she felt awful for doing so. It wasn't fair. Ben was the only father figure he had known and he was gone just months ago. But Peter had to realize that maybe being Spiderman isn't something that Ben would have wanted for him. "He and your parents," she assured him, "would be already proud of who you've grown up to be, Peter."

"I'm doing this so that I can help save people so they wouldn't end up like uncle," he quickly refuted, his jaw clenching. "I'm doing this to protect you!" He pointed at May with the hand holding the half-eaten apple.

May pressed her lips together, her cheeks puffing out. She couldn't contain her anger anymore. For all she knew, Peter could have been died in a dumpster after fighting some dirtbag. "I didn't needprotecting until Spiderman came! What if people find out who you are? Bad people, Peter. Your friends, me- we'd all be in danger-"

"But I can protect you!" Peter's voice cracked and his shoulders slumped. His eyes narrowed and May knew that he was trying his best not to break down in front of her. Do it, she dared in her mind, you know I'm right. He said, "I can save everyone!"

"But what if you can't? I'm trying to protect you, Peter, because I love you and it's my job. You being Spiderman makes it impossible for me to keep you safe."

"I-"

"Besides there are other heroes!" May counted a list off of her fingers. "There's that Daredevil guy in Hell's Kitchen, that bulletproof man, an inhumane strong woman and a guy with the glowing fist. And that's only a few of them, not counting the Avengers! Oh! Not to mention that new hero, Paradox-"

Peter's eyebrows shot up and he tossed the half eaten apple in the trash can. He huffed, with his face turning slightly red, "Paradox isn't a good hero. If he was there in time, he could have helped me save that man..."

"Peter," May said sternly, "this responsibility is too much for you. You're sixteen. You're too young and you don't understand how precious your life is-"

"A man died in my arms, Aunt May!" he shouted, pulling at his hair. His eyes were clouded and watery as he struggled to say, "I know how precious life is. I'm not giving up because you don't believe in me."

Peter turned and headed straight back to the front door, and May shot up from the chair she sat in. "Where are you going?" When he didn't answer her right, away she yelled at him again, her voice getting stronger. "Peter Benjamin Parker, where the hell are you going?!"

He stopped in front of the door, facing its white painted surface. His fists balled up and he breathed deeply through his nose. His mind raced, deciding on what to do and what to say.

May swallowed hard. She wasn't used to being a demanding parental figure. She was usually pretty lax with Peter because he had always been a relaxed kid. There was never any reason to really punish him until now. He wasn't the same Peter that she had helped raise. "I don't want you to leave anymore. I don't want you to be Spider-Man anymore. I want you to be Peter."

He shook his head. Peter retreated from the doorway and sulked to his bedroom with the door slamming. May called out to him, unsure and uncertain in this new territory, "Well, you-you're grounded, young man! No friends! No fun! No Spider!"

God, why is parenting so hard?