╰┈➤ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱: 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦

                               𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 - 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘧𝘦𝘺

                        ❛ And I sound like a loon, but don't you feel it too?

                                       Confess I loved you from the start  ❜

EVERY SPIDER-MAN HAD A GWEN OR AN MJ.

Poppy had an MJ, Manon Jacques. A 5'11, redheaded, barista at the cafe they both worked at. Five months ago, Poppy was head over heels for the girl. Her sapphire blue eyes, her slender, tattooed fingers littered with dozens of sparkling silver rings, her charming smile. It was textbook Spider-Man shit. This was the woman she was meant to fall in love with.

Manon was a wonderful person, she did photography for Le Monde, a renowned international magazine company. She volunteered at animal shelters and was one of the coolest people she had ever met as well as the hottest. And five months prior if MJ had asked her to burn the cafe down with herself inside of it she would have done it in a heartbeat. Okay, she would have taken it into consideration. 

But that was five months ago. Five months ago she wasn't forced to show the new British recruit around. Five months ago, she wasn't getting butterflies. Five months ago, he wasn't infatuated with her. 

Fuck him honestly. He was messing everything up. Poppy was meant to fall in love with her MJ, Hobie was meant to fall in love with his. It was plain and simple, but he ruined everything with his stupid flirting, and stupid nicknames, and stupid face. His stupid personality and the stupid look he would get in his eyes anytime she smiled at him. He was simply dreadful.

Poppy didn't fall in love. She had meaningless crushes every once and a while but they would never go past intense adoration. She couldn't see herself ever falling in love if she was being honest. It's not that she didn't want to, it was just that as perfect as she was she couldn't find love in people around her.

She loved Isla like a mother, she loved her aunt, she loved Love even if she was a snitch, she loved her friends. But she didn't love anyone. She couldn't see herself loving anyone or anyone loving her.

Sure, she's had her fair share of admirers, but none of them really loved her. They loved the idea of her. That was the problem with marketing yourself as a perfect person. They fall in "love" with the person she was presenting, not the person they actually knew.

She opted for spending all her love on the world around her, it truly was a beautiful place. A place she worked so hard to protect. People needed her. And when you pour all your affection into things around you, you don't have to pour it into people. People who will hurt you. People who don't know a thing about you, rather about what they think you are.

Poppy Parker wasn't going to fall in love. Not with MJ. Not with Hobie. Not with anyone.

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐌𝐄𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐘,

he knew it was for a reason. He didn't believe in fate but the universe had intended for them to meet he was sure of it. 

The beautiful part was he wasn't even looking when he found her. He wasn't desperately searching for someone to love, that someone had just fallen in his path. One look and he knew he was hooked.

It was her smile. The first time he saw it, he knew he wanted to see it for the rest of his life. And he wasn't going to hide it either. Hiding it was pointless, and so was chasing someone who didn't want you. But Poppy hadn't given him any reason to believe she didn't want him.

She also hadn't given him reason to believe she did.

Hobie tapped a quick code into his watch, watching the vivid yellow light filled his dingy living room, stepping through he found himself once again in the soft pink chamber that was Poppy's room. There she sat, at her vanity, painting her lips in a soft strawberry lip product. The soft golden glow from the sunset, hit her features at the perfect angle, giving her an almost angelic look. The low melody of what Hobie had recognized to be a Édith Piaf song, a French musician Poppy used to rave about, filled the silence. She rubbed her lips together, puckering them before smiling. Hobie watched with a smirk from the corner of her room before slowly making his way towards her bed.

"I know you're here Hobart." Poppy vocalized, picking up her hairbrush, "Spider senses." She tapped her forehead gently with the brush, turning to face him as he rested his back against her pillows.

"I'd be concerned if you didn't." he smiled at her. "You need something? I have to pick up MJ's shift at the cafe tonight." "MJ?" he tilted his head, feigning confusion. "Manon Jacques. You know I always thought I'd have a Gwen." Poppy dropped the brush, instead opting for quickly tying her hair back. Hobie hummed.

"You love her?" Poppy shook her head, "I don't know if I'm capable of such." Bullshit. "But you have to eventually? Cuz canon and all." She didn't respond. Hobie watched as she put on a pair of gold circular glasses. "You wear glasses?" "Reading glasses." Poppy mumbled, "I just got them." "Imagine you swinging around Paris with reading glasses over your suit." "You're hilarious." "I'm aware." Poppy rolled her eyes, putting on her pearl hoop earrings.

"Hand me that black purse." Poppy stretched her hand out. Hobie shook his head, reaching for the ivory tote bag hanging off her bed frame instead. "This one matches your tights." "The other one matches my skirt." Poppy stood up, placing her hands on his hips.

"Trust me on this one." Hobie moved the contents to the black bag into the tote before handing it to her. Poppy puffed out her cheeks, once again sporting her mildly agitated baby bunny persona. "I'll trust you." Hobie licked his lips, his tongue brushing over the cold metal of his lip piercing.

He patted the space next to him, inviting her to sit. On her own bed. If there was one thing this man had, it was audacity. Reluctantly, she took a seat next to him on her plush pink comforter. "I think you already knew this, I think everyone already knew this actually," Hobie started, chuckling softly. He felt the penetrative gaze of Poppy's big brown eyes staring at him but he didn't look back opting for staring straight ahead. "I really like you Poppy." 

Poppy sighed, "I know Hobie." "And I know I'm not your MJ but if this wasn't meant to happen, why do we feel this way for each other?"

"I don't feel anything for you." A lie. "Not beyond friendship." Another one.

Hobie stared at her, knowing there was no truth behind those statements. "You don't feel anything for me?" Poppy shook her head. Slowly, he picked up her hand, cupping it in his large ones, placing a kiss on the back. "You don't?" Poppy shook her head. He scooted closer to her. 

She could feel his breath tickling her cheek, "Promise?" No response. A beat passed and Poppy slowly nodded. A soft kiss to her cheek. "You fibbing?" No response. Hobie let go of her hand moving to cup her face. 

Her eyes locked on his lips, if he was going to kiss her, he needed to get it over with. He rubbed a thumb across her cheek, staring into her eyes. "I don't love anyone." She mumbled, Hobie smiled.

"In the future," his thumb brushed her plush lips, smearing her lip gloss "if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love." He pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

"Fall in love with me."

Things about the real Poppy Parker that no one would know:

1.She goes to war for the things she adores

2. Despite her angelic demeanor, she was secretly terrifying

3. She was very easy to fluster

4. She appreciated little gestures

5. She was scared of being in love

LOVE SPEAKS! 

You will all soon realize most of my books are just purely pop culture and literature references.

OOC Hobie but I don't really care. Not proof read. Thank you for 20k reads. I wrote the first like three paragraphs two days ago and the rest today but I didn't proof read them so they may not match up or make sense.

Like at all. So ignore them. Also I do actually recommend listening to From the start by Laufey whilst you read this chapter, even if it's not in the provided playlist.