Summary: 

Peter and Michelle go on a date. A plan is beginning to form.

Notes: 

Before you say anything, you're welcome ;)

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"I... hate this plan." Peter fidgeted beside Michelle, scratching his own cheek as they stared at their bait.

Michelle folded her arms over her chest, a satisfied smirk on her lips. "You are just too afraid to admit that this is an awesome plan."

"I agree with Peter," Liz said, "this plan sucks."

Ned added, "Ass."

"Maybe you suck ass, you ever think about that?" Michelle's cheeks burned, her hands clenched. She wanted to believe in the plan because she had to. If no one else did, she would be the one. She had to save Liz.

Peter gently tapped Michelle's arm to get her attention. "Hey, hey, be nice like you were at lunch."

She groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Do you have something to say to Ned?"

"Sorry."

"Apology accepted." Ned pursed his lips. "And when was this lunch that I wasn't invited to-?"

"Guys!" Liz clapped her hands in front of their faces, redirecting their attention back to her. "The plan?"

Michelle's stomach sank. The plan sucked. She and Peter had been hashing out and fleshing the plan the following few days to be a grand scheme of their intelligence and abilities, but honestly, it was a shot in the dark.

She placed her hands on her hips, gently brushing aside her jacket while she hung her head low to listen to Peter. "So," he cleared his throat, "he travels through the shadows, right? We have to make sure that he can't do that anymore."

That was why they decided to find a large open space outside of the city to put him at a disadvantage. He was able to manipulate large enough shadows to his will, but if there weren't any... well, it was a hope.

"We get him to the school's field." Michelle glanced over at Ned. "You and I will be in the press box. I can get us in, but you'd need to work the lights."

"How are you going to get us in?" he asked.

"Detention." She grinned at that. It was always a joy to be in detention even though she never belonged in that space. Michelle was a model student- that was what her counselor had said. Her academics were pristine and all but her social life was severely hindered. He told her to go out more and meet new people in different places. Michelle wasn't a big fan of that, but she tried in her own way.

Michelle was a wanderer. She can notice things that most people don't. Like how there was a secretly hidden locker on the third floor of the school where someone had stuffed pillows inside. Every once in awhile Michelle would use those pillows (after she washed them of course) whenever she read.

Anyways, Michelle wandered around school for the next few days after her meeting with her counselor. Her father was late to pick her up after school because he had to drive all the way from the other side of town so she was stuck there for about thirty minutes when she noticed one of the classrooms. There were a few students there sitting in desks, mindlessly staring ahead with happiness drained from their faces while an equally bored coach played on his phone.

Hey, she could meet new people in different places at least.

Michelle quietly went in but her arrival was as abrupt as an earthquake. The creak of the door turned heads, kids' ears twitched and their eyes lit up in what appeared to be hopeful excitement for something to happen...

When they all saw her, their faces dropped. That was what hit her so hard: the utter look of disappointment, these people in distress. It was amazing how quickly people could change from one little thing like her entrance.

She liked that. She liked people, don't let what she might say lead you astray. She was just... not a people person. They didn't like her. Michelle had learned to deal with it all of her life but right now, right in front of her, the people she cared about most felt the same way. She wasn't going to let this Paradox asshole ruin that.

"I'm kinda buddies with Coach Hayes," she said with a shrug. "Since football season is over, he does detention after school. I can get the keys to the press box easy."

May walked into the living room with a bottle of wine in her hands. She had abolished his grounding two days prior because his sulking made her sulk and depressed. Her glasses almost covered the redness in her tired eyes. She glanced at the gathering, obviously unaware of what they were discussing. "Everything cool, kids? You need wine- lemonade? Lemon. Don't drink kids. Lemonade is ten times better than..." she sipped and swallowed hard, "...than wine."

Peter rose from his spot on the couch and he quickly walked over to his aunt. He softly lowered his voice. "Aunt May, maybe you should go to bed, huh?"

She pouted and shook her head. "No, I wanna be here, I wanna..." She slowly blinked.

"Sleep?" he finished her thought.

"Sleep." She nodded her head, finally agreeing with her nephew. She waved at the other kids and bid them a good night as she slowly trudged into her own bedroom.

Michelle had turned her head to watch the whole affair, temporarily forgetting about... it. She had adjusted the collar of her jacket so perfectly to hide it but, of course, it was spotted.

"Whoa, is that a hickey?" Ned pointed at the abomination on her neck in wonder.

Michelle slapped her hand to her neck with her face burning red. Liz smirked at her, trying to stop herself from giggling. "It looks like one."

"H-Hey guys, let's focus, please?" Peter quipped from the edge of the living room, returning back to them at a hasty pace.

Ned stared at his best friend with such large eyes, Michelle was afraid that they might pop out of his head and roll onto the floor. His mouth fell open and he pointed that accusing finger of his at Peter then at Michelle then Peter and again at Michelle. "You two-you... you-ah! No frickin' way!"

"Shut up, Ned!" Peter hissed, his cheeks burning too.

"Oh my god." Michelle facepalmed herself. She didn't want to deal with this right now with her friends. Couldn't this discussion wait until the world was over, maybe? Like give a girl a chance to breathe, you know?

She could say the same thing to Peter...

...

...

I never really showed you how the rest of Peter's and Michelle's first date went. That was my bad, but let me make it up to you.

Michelle left Peter in the dark about her newfound plan. After they had eaten at the Mexican restaurant, they were met with a cold breeze straight to the face. Peter's cheeks were on fire, the sharp air bringing redness to his face and the tips of his ears. He immediately rubbed his hands together.

Michelle examined him and a thought dawned on her. They're dating. Like, really dating. Together. She suddenly had so much power. She could do whatever she wanted.

She could fix up his crazy hair that fell all over his face, and so she did. She could readjust the zipper on his jacket so it wasn't pulled together disproportionately, and so she did. She couldn't do anything about his mismatched shoes, but it was the thought that counted right?

This entire dating business was weird, but Michelle knew that in this relationship, she had the balls. She would initiate things whenever she felt like it because Peter was too chicken. Even now, he was hardly looking at her. He kept diverting his eyes. He must have been thinking: what happens now?

Michelle knew.

"Hey, hey." She grasped his brick cold hand in hers, gently tugging him. "Let's go back to my place. I'm kind of sick of College Point and supervillains. I wanna do something normal."

"Yeah. Sure." Peter nodded. He stared at their intertwined fingers. "How are you so warm?"

"Contrary to the popular belief, I am not cold-blooded."

They walked a few blocks, mostly just wandering through on their own free will until Peter sighed, "We need to catch a bus."

"Why can't Spider-Man zip all the way home?" Michelle lifted her brow.

"Because Spider-Man isn't going to 'zip' an hour back home with you to carry."

"You calling me fat?"

Peter's eyes widened. He impulsively dropped his hand from hers. "N-No that's not what I meant-"

Michelle sighed, "I thought this conversation would come later in this relationship." Then she laughed. She laughed, allowing for Peter to cool off and go back at ease. "You're so easy to mess with, Peter."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket and he craned his head to try to look for a bus for them to board. He spotted one and quickly took Michelle's hand and ran for it before they could miss it. They barely made it aboard before it was time for it to depart.

They took their seat in the front with Michelle beside the window. She got out her phone to give an update to her dad when Peter asked her something. "Huh?" she stared at him.

"I said what do you want to do at your house that's so normal?" Peter weakly gestured to himself. "As you have learned, I have surpassed normal."

"Hop off your ego, Spider-Man," she whispered, "Black Panther is cooler."

"Hurtful, but valid. But he's kind of like a furry so I'm honestly conflicted."

Michelle snorted. "Alright, fine. You're cooler only because I can do this." She leaned forward and kissed him gently, smiling as she did so.

Peter smiled into the kiss too, but it was brief. He pulled away blushing. "It didn't taste like barbecue that time."

"If it did I would have been so angry. I don't want to taste barbecue every time I kiss you." Michelle shook her head. "Anyways, I was thinking that this could be the normal thing we could do, maybe? Get practice in? Experiment without the sauce? Hopefully, it won't be so tangy. Would have been worse if it was mustard-"

"Stop talking about the sauce." Peter blinked rapidly, trying his best to get the thought of the taste out of his mind.

She snickered, her shoulders bumping onto his as the bus teetered over the road. Peter slid his hand on top of hers which she instinctively turned over to quickly link her fingers with his, holding him there. She didn't need to look at Peter to know that he was smiling like a dummy, just like she was. Michelle was definitely liking this whole dating business.

The rest of the bus ride was a peaceful quiet. She had leaned her head on Peter's shoulder and let her eyes fall so she could catch some z's. He woke her up however by knocking his knee against hers and gently elbowing her. "MJ, it's our stop, c'mon."

"How rude of you to wake me up," she mumbled with a yawn.

"Don't worry, I'll make it up to you."

And he gave her the dumbest cutest look then. A crooked smile with his cheeks tinged pink- this boy was a mess. But her mess, so that made it alright.

After they hopped off of the bus, they walked a few blocks back to Michelle's home. Thoughts only on them for a change. Nothing else seemed to matter as Michelle unlocked the front door, pushing it open wide with her shoulder until Peter gently grabbed her upper arms and spun her around against the door and kissed her right there. All sweet and smiles as he leaned into her, softly brushing his lips against hers, giving her arms a light squeeze. Michelle turned her head away, giggling as Peter still had his mouth on her, kissing along her jaw until he pulled back to ask, "Am I doing this right?"

"Yeah, dork, you are." Michelle sighed, "But we were supposed to do this in my room."

"Oh geez, sorry." Peter stepped back and his eyes lit up. "Race you there!"

"Race-?" And Peter was gone. The cursed boy used his damn powers to beat her up to the top of the stairs, flipping backward like an acrobat and crawling up the wall like a spider. Michelle blinked up at him, temporarily forgetting that he even had powers. She hadn't seen it so up close before. She wondered how he could stick to the wall without any adhesive, without any assistance from his suit but she shook the thoughts away. That's not important right now.

Michelle bounded up the stairs three at a time, almost tripping on a few. The simple exercise made her release a few pants when she got to the top of the stairs and she glanced around, expecting to see him waiting outside her door. He wasn't. Michelle frowned and opened her door just to see Peter swing down from his crouched position on the wall right above the door. He cupped her cheeks, preventing him from head-butting her (which would have been a disaster) as he kissed her upside down. Her nose brushed against his jaw as their lips met, his mouth warm and soft against hers. The entire action caught her in surprise, making her gasp slightly, opening her mouth to capture his bottom lip between her teeth.

Peter slowly dragged away, Michelle still pulling at his bottom lip until he was too far. He grinned, an upside frown as he proudly said, "I call that a Spider-Man kiss."

"You're not even Spider-Man right now." Michelle folded her arms across her chest, lifting an eyebrow at him. "I call that kissing my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Peter's mouth fell open in shock. He jumped down from the wall with another flip, landing in a couch in front of her before he rose up to a stand. "We were dating and now we're boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Exasperated, Michelle shut the door behind them and marched up to Peter. "Oh my god stop overthinking things." She shoved him on top of the bed and climbed on top of him, straddling his lap as she leaned down to hover over his chest. Peter's eyes were wide, suddenly blushing and nervous, trapped underneath her. Michelle ran her thumb along his jaw, wistfully glancing at his lips. "You've got a problem with being my boyfriend?"

"No," he swallowed hard, his Adam's apple moving along. He wiggled from under her, trying to get used to this provocative position. "I'd prefer it actually."

"Good, so let's practice." She slowly dipped down, biting her own lip right before she kissed his cheek, and dragged her mouth over to his own. They moved together, finding a perfect easy rhythm with their noses brushing slightly. Michelle subconsciously moved her hips against his, trying her best to get impossibly closer to Peter. His entire body tensed up and he opened his mouth releasing a low moan between them.

That's when Michelle felt something. At first, she hardly noticed and continued to kiss the living heck out of Peter as if there was no tomorrow but the more she rolled her hips, the bigger it got. Peter turned his head to the side, unable to focus on her anymore and he squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"You mean...?" Michelle sat straight up and cocked her head to the side, making her long curly hair dangle loosely in front of her. Peter chewed on his lip, his forehead crinkling as he squirmed- any movement would do for him. Michelle snickered, pulling at the hem of his shirt. "Don't apologize, Petey." And she couldn't blame him for getting flustered either. She felt incredibly hot and her belly was beginning to explode with fireworks with her heart hammering away.

She liked being the girlfriend.

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...

"Guys?" Ned snapped his fingers between Michelle and Peter, making them both blink in surprise. "What the hell is going on with you two?"

Both of them spoke at once- just gibberish and nothing tangible as they tried to explain themselves. Liz snickered at them, covering her mouth while Ned stared at them dumbfounded.

"Let's just move on, alright?" Michelle scratched her cheek, averting her eyes from her friends.

Ned shook his head and leaned forward to grab a pizza slice from the coffee table. They had ordered pizza to go along with this team meeting which was going absolutely nowhere with all of these distractions. The tv was on, playing an old star wars movie, blankets were on the couches and throw pillows which Liz was cuddling in. They were all wrapped up for the night, warm and happy together which felt so foreign given the last few days. It almost felt normal, like they were doing a movie night at Peter's.

That thought was when Michelle realized that they were never going to get back on subject. She sighed and lowered herself onto the couch beside Peter and pulled the blankets on top of her. "Never mind, let's just watch the movie."

"Hey, wait a second, we have to go over the plan!" Peter threw up his hands.

"Shut up, it's movie night." She kicked him and immediately pulled the sheets above her head so he wouldn't attack her- as if the blankets would prevent that.

Ned narrowed his eyes at Peter. "Yeah, man, it's Star Wars time. Learn to be quiet."

Peter stared at them. "I-"

Liz brought her finger to her lips and hushed him right then and there. Peter was not going to win this fight. He grumbled under his breath and he too retreated under the comfort of the blankets, bundling himself up in a little ball to watch the movie with his closest friends. Tonight wasn't for Spider-Man's problems, tonight was for them.

...

...

Paradox was an asshole, to say the least. He had his own plan which he had been working on for far much longer than Spider-Man and Co. He didn't know they even had a plan to begin with, but he knew that nothing could top his genius architect. For the following few nights, he had been making his rounds, double checking his teams, making sure everything was ready.

He operated in the lone night, taking cover in the comforting darkness that shrouded New York City, never once touching the light unless he absolutely had to. The people below him, still up at this late hour, made the city all the more beautiful. He watched from the rooftops how they moved, where they were going, the smiles on their faces. They won't be there for much longer. Soon, they would be too afraid to enter the streets once he was done.

Paradox materialized on the ground, just outside of the bar where the Russian mob was waiting for him. He entered through the back, blending in with the shadows until he came into the center of the bar. The Russians all froze, their jaws locking in place as they regarded him as an outsider, a powerful one.

"Where's Yuli?" Paradox eyed the crowd, searching for the brute.

A large man rose from one of the booths, a cigarette between his teeth. He was in his fifties and balding but he was large and in shape, his muscles bigger than anyone in the bar. Yuli approached Paradox, facing up to him, slightly shorter than the hero. Yuli blew a puff of smoke in his face, making him inhale the foul stench but Paradox did not flinch.

Yuli spoke in Russian, his voice gruff and hoarse. Paradox shook his head. "I don't have time for this, Yuli."

"Why are you here, Paradox?" he asked in English with a heavy accent.

"Just checking in on my workers." Paradox stepped away from Yuli and surveyed the other Russian mobsters in the bar. He spun back to Yuli. "Have you done it?"

The man spat cruelly, "We are not your workers."

This made Paradox snort, a smirk on his lips, making everyone frown. "If you're working for me then you are my workers, simple as that."

Yuli inhaled a deep breath and blew out another puff of smoke, making Paradox's eye twitch with annoyance. Yuli decided to ignore his statement and rubbed his stubbled chin. "We did what you asked."

"Good, I just wanted that simple answer from you." Paradox patted Yuli's shoulder as if they were old pals. "That means everything is in order. Thank you."

Paradox turned to leave but Yuli reached out and gripped his arm, forcing him back. "I can not let you leave," he said.

"And why's that?"

"We will not be following your orders anymore." Yuli glanced around, seeing the others nod their heads with agreement. "The bombings are bringing too much attention. This plan of yours? Insane. You want to rip this city apart."

"Know your damned place!" Paradox seethed, his green eyes narrowing with hate. He pried Yuli's large fingers from his arm and scowled down at the mobster. "It doesn't matter what you think, you just do. You work under me, I expect nothing but compliance."

"I will not follow the cravings of an inhuman boy." Yuli stood proud and true. "Your people are abominations."

Paradox captured his throat in his hands, lifting the man with his increased strength, making every single Russian mobster instinctively reach for their guns. It happened so fast. Paradox began to crush Yuli, the man turning completely purple. In a growl, Paradox said, "You are the abominations. I am your God, and I will free my people." With a swift motion, Paradox broke his neck. Yuli flooded to the ground, his body weak and motionless.

Paradox stared at the rest of them. "Does anyone else disagree?"

Silence. None of them stepped forward to stop him. Each person knew their place then, they knew they couldn't go against a superhero like Paradox.

He straightened himself and smiled once again. "Good. We have work to do." 

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A/N:

A much-needed chapter tbh even tho issa filler but important!!! Also, I can't believe that I make all of these references without even realizing it until y'all point them out to me?? Like the name Nico and "shadow stepping" thing from PJO? Now I feel the need to change his name smh.

Anyways, how do u guys like couple Peter/MJ and the big bad Paradox?

And I am so sorry about being bad with consistent updates :( I'm trying y'all.