PETER PARKER
Present

Contrary to everyone thinking that I'm irrational and stupid, I had a plan. And a good one at that.

Shadow- first off, what kind of name as that? It sounds like some uncreative writer bullshitted it out in a lame attempt to sound cool. It wasn't working. But anyway, yeah. My plan was a good one.

He was planning for me to get there tomorrow, so I was going right now to catch him off guard.

First off, I sneak next to wherever the place is. I use a reconnaissance drone (it's like a tech spider that's made for exploration, it's really cool) to scope out the building. It'll detect where MJ is, as well as this so-called Shadow dude.

I'll be able to figure out what he was planning to use against me and sneak attack him or whatever.

It was a great plan. A plan that I came up with during the fifteen minutes it took for me to get from Ned's to the abandoned building.

It looked super dusty and old. And there were spiderwebs everywhere.

Gross. I hate spiders. Ironic, I know.

"Suit Lady," I whispered, "are you there?"

Suit Lady was like the guide inside of it that Mr Stark designed. It was like EDITH in the glasses. I named her Karen.

"What do you need?" her monotonous voice responded and I jumped a little bit.

"Go send a reconnaissance spider into that building," I told her and tried to keep my voice as low as possible.

I raised my hand and shot the fake spider onto the doorstep. "It's in," Karen replied.

I watched the camera inside my suit as it crawled inside. Inside the building looked even grosser. There were so many spiders that it blended in easily.

"Find MJ."

It creeped along the floor and I tried to memorize the layout but everything looked the same. Once it scoped out the bottom floor it inched up the stairs.

Have you ever noticed how slowly spiders move? I always thought it was fast, but a good twenty minutes of nothing had passed. I didn't expect my Friday night to be spent watching a spider take ten hours crawling up a flight of stairs.

Once it reached the top it slid under a door, and there was MJ. Her wrists were tied behind her back and her legs were glued to the chair she was forced to sit on. She looked as beautiful as ever, but that's not what caught my eye.

There, right in front of MJ, stood Quentin Beck.

My heart pounded in my chest and I felt my mouth go dry. I blinked twelve times to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but it went a question anymore. He was alive.

"What the fu-"

"Language!" Karen scolded.

"H-he's alive?!" I spoke louder than intended.

I watched MJ and Beck having a regular conversation and I tried to listen in on it.

"Shadow has a plan, he wants revenge, it's a long story," Quentin explained and I melted at the sound of his rough, masculine voice. "Just normal, psychotic villain stuff, okay? He wants revenge on Tony Stark but he's dead so he's using Peter. In order to hurt Peter he wants to hurt everyone he loves."

I barely processed the important words he was saying because he looked so handsome in front of her. He had five o'clock shadow leading down to his broad shoulders and muscular body. Instead of my mouth going dry it began to water instead in want. In that moment I forgot all about everything he had done to me and focused on how perfectly the dim light hit his face.

He couldn't get any more perfect.

"Peter is going to show up here tomorrow to fight Shadow. I'm going to step in to protect him if anything goes wrong. Then, while Peter gets you out of here, I'm going to beat the living shit out of him," he hissed and clenched his fists.

He wants to protect me? He's never cared about my wellbeing in the past!

That was when rage replaced the lovey feeling in my gut. After all he did, after all he ruined, he has the audacity to protect me? He faked his own death! He tricked me and broke my heart! What more did he want from me?

He began to look MJ up and down and study her features. So not only was he straight, which meant he wasn't remotely attracted to me ever, but then proceeded to flirt with my girlfriend?

Well that was a blow to the ego.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I promised her quietly, more to myself, before turning to walk out. When he faced the spider's direction I got a good look at his face.

He looked sad. Really sad. Like he hadn't gotten enough sleep and wasn't taking care of himself at all and I frowned at the thought. I hated him, but I still wanted him to be happy. I suppose I hate love him.

I stared into his blue eyes dreamily but froze when he looked directly at the spider. "Ew, gross." He grimaced and his foot blocked the view of the camera. "I hate spiders."

Then the screen went black.

"Shoot, Karen!" I whisper-yelled, "do we have any more of those?"

"That was the only one, Peter," she informed me.

"Ugh, great," I moaned and tried to figure out what else I could do.

I guess my plan isn't so foolproof after all.

"Suit Lady, what should we do?" I asked in a panic.

"Well, we already know where Michelle is. She might know what Shadow's plan is, so if you get to her first then you still have a shot."

I silently cheered in victory and quietly approached the building. Shadow wasn't on the bottom floor, or at least the spider never found him down there, so it should be clear until I get up the stairs.

I slowly slid up a window rather than going through the front door to avoid any extra noise from escaping. I pushed the screen out and climbed through the small space.

Easy peasy.

I gently walked over to the stairs, my breath hitching in my throat when one of them squeaked. I heard rumbling from upstairs, a sign that someone was coming.

Okay- maybe not easy peasy.

I started to panic until Quentin's gaze met with my own. Both of us just stared at each other in shock.

"Peter?" he whispered in shock, coming down the stairs. "You weren't supposed to come until tomorrow!"

"That's exactly why I came today!" I explained breathily. "So there wasn't any suspicion! It's a sneak attack!"

He gazed down at me fondly, as if he actually appreciated my presence. I wanted so badly to just fall into his arms and kiss the life out of him but I knew he didn't feel for me the way I did for him.

"I thought you'd be more surprised that I'm not dead," he admitted. I saw him reach his hand up to hold onto my waist but stopped midair, pausing for a moment before dropping it back down to his side.

"I already saw you," I told him. "In the spider cam."

"The spider cam?" he questioned me confusedly.

I nodded. "Yeah. The one you stepped on."

His eyes widened and he face palmed in realization. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." He suddenly tugged on my arm and a whimper caught in my throat from the contact that I'd been craving for so long. He pulled me into the corner of a random room. "He can't see you here, he'll kill you."

I shrugged. "I don't care. I just wanted to make sure none of my friends and family got hurt."

He looked at me in mortification before his gaze softened sadly. I looked up to face him and noticed how close we were. I knew I should push him away but I wanted him so close so badly. He almost looked like he wanted the same.

That's a funny joke.

"I'm not letting you get hurt," he murmured and ran his fingers through my hair. I let him.

"Why are you acting like you care?" I scoffed, subconsciously pushing my head against his fingers.

His big, warm hand trailed down to my cheek and cupped it so that our eyes were locked together. "I do care, Peter," muttered sadly.

I narrowed my eyes at him and shoved him away this time. "You already pulled this once. I'm not stupid enough to fall for it twice."

His breathtaking eyes filled with fake sadness and he looked like he wanted to crumble into a ball and die.

So great that I was so close to willingly smash my lips against his and press his body against mine until we were both gasping for air. I shuffled nervously in my uncomfortable suit under his intense stare. I felt it get a little tight around the old web shooter-

"Peter, look at me."

I refused.

He softly took my hands into his and pulled me closer to him. "Please."

I begrudgingly looked up and watched the raw emotion pouring out of him in waves.

"I was never faking it," he confessed softly as my heart thudded in my chest. "At first, I was meant to become your friend so that you'd want to give me EDITH. But just after just one conversation with you, I was hooked."

I wanted to believe him, but I just couldn't.

"Right..." I whispered unconvincingly.

"Every single little thing about you drives me wild. I love how soft your hair is, your chocolate brown eyes, the pink tint that's permanently placed on your cheeks." I blushed harshly. "I love how much shorter you are than me, how easily we fit together, the way your lips feel against mine.

"And more importantly, I love the little things. I love how you ordered lemonade at the bar when you could've pretended you didn't blip. I love how you stepped in when you first saw the Elementals to help. I love the way you melt in my arms when we kiss. I love how selfless you are. How humble. How undoubtedly kind no matter what. How nerdy you are. How sweet you are."

I looked at him, lovestruck. He leaned in to press our lips together. I almost went to kiss him back before my knee crashed into his crotch before I could help myself.

He grunted out in pain as I jumped ten feet away from him in shock. But I knew there was no way I could do this again... Even if he wasn't lying. Which I still wasn't completely sure of yet. Either way, he lied, broke my heart, outed my identity to the entire world! And then he pretended to be dead when all I did everyday was miss his annoyingly handsome face.

"Okay," he groaned. "I deserved that. Too soon. Got it."