InsaneJournal

Who: Peter and MJ
What: Morning cuddling
When: Sometime over the past few months
Where: The Tower
Warnings: None

When Peter had suggested to MJ that they get together to study (and, well, do other things), they’d decided on meeting up at his room in the Tower. It was less cramped than the Parker apartment, and May was cool with him staying the night there as long as she knew he wasn’t going to be out on the streets past curfew. Besides that, it was private - for the most part, anyway.

Peter definitely hadn’t meant to fall asleep without walking - or swinging - MJ home, but the next thing he knew the sun was peeking through the curtains hours later. They’d been watching a movie and had cuddled up, and not much had changed aside from the movie being off. His arm was still tucked around MJ’s waist and his face was half buried against her shoulder, and it was…nice. More than nice.

*

MJ was one of those people who woke up slowly and needed a few minutes to get her bearings. As a result, she set multiple alarms on her phone of progressing volume and length. This morning though, none of those went off because she’d put her phone on silent the night before when she and Peter decided to watch a movie. As teenagers, they’d gotten slightly distracted by making out, but it was all very PG-13 with no clothing being removed.

As she came to consciousness, she became aware that she (a) wasn’t in her own bed and (b) wasn’t alone. It took a bit longer to realize that she was with Peter, presumably in his room at the Tower. Oops. Hopefully no one would be freaking out that she wasn’t home.

Knowing she should check her phone, she decided to stretch a little and lean back against Peter. It was kind of nice waking up this way.

*

For someone with as little experience with girls as Peter had, this was a first, but it didn’t have him feeling as jittery as he might have expected. It was a steady contentment he felt instead as MJ shifted beside him, and he began to curl closer to her in return. It was hard for him to find any normalcy when he was who he was, but having MJ as a friend, as a girlfriend - it was anchoring.

“…Morning,” Peter said almost sheepishly once he knew she was waking up too. “Kinda lost track of the time last night. You sleep okay?”

*

“Apparently,” MJ said. Considering that she didn’t remember falling asleep and had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, she must have slept well. “You make a good pillow.” It was a first for her too, she’d definitely never had a sleepover with a guy. In fact, she’d barely had sleepovers with any girl friends. Aside from worrying about morning breath, she found she didn’t mind it though.

She turned her head so she could smile at him. “Hopefully we aren’t going to get in trouble for this.” They were only a few months from graduating high school, so in theory, no one should be upset with them for spending a night together, especially so innocently. Adults could be weird though.

*

“I actually…can’t remember the last time I slept that well,” Peter admitted, and it was true - his nights were usually broken up by restlessness from his night patrols or the neighbors upstairs stomping around in the early hours. It was quiet here, or maybe it was just that the walls were thick and sturdy enough to soundproof. And having MJ near had him actually easing up in a way that he rarely did.

“We could always sneak out the window,” Peter teased, shifting and drawing her just a little closer. Sneaking out of a skyscraper was possible when you were Spider-man, anyway. “But I think Friday has cameras everywhere.”

*

As fun as it would be to sneak out the window and swing to the ground, MJ figured it wouldn’t prevent them from getting in trouble if that was in the cards. “Yeah, well, I don’t think sneaking out is going to save us from your Aunt May or my parents,” she said. And they both knew that May wouldn’t hesitate to call Tony who would definitely check Friday’s logs and know what happened.

Hopefully none of them would get the wrong idea about what happened. That would be embarrassing. MJ wasn’t quite ready to take that step.

“Guess we’ll have to face the music,” she said. “Which, we should have breakfast first.”

*

“...Good point,” Peter said, because their guardians were the real obstacle here. He knew he could tell May the truth and she’d believe him, but with MJ’s parents - this wouldn’t exactly be the winning impression he was hoping for. And stepping off on the wrong foot with them was a definite worry of his.

But breakfast first was an idea he could get behind. “I think I’ve got stuff for eggs and toast here.” Peter looked over at the mini kitchen, which all felt very adult to have. He didn’t use it too often, since he still lived with May, but it was useful when late night patrols had him in this area.

“Or there’s probably more food in the shared kitchen? I should probably warn you...” Peter leaned over to kiss MJ’s forehead before starting to sit up. “Me cooking is a disaster half the time.”

*

MJ grabbed her phone, shooting off a text letting her parents know that she’d crashed at the Tower last night after a study session and would see them later. If they assumed she’d been with Tandy, well, she wasn’t going to correct that.

“How about I cook,” she suggested. “We don’t want to add arson to our list of crimes this morning.” Not that spending the night together was a crime, but she figured making a joke would make this whole situation seem a bit less awkward. “You can make coffee.”

She was pretty sure Peter could handle that without it being a disaster.

*

“Coffee? I can do coffee.” Peter sent May a quick text too to let her know he was alive and kicking, and made a mental note to at least try to learn to cook something breakfast-y efficiently. Preferably without setting off any smoke alarms like he and his aunt tended to do.

“It’s weird to think that it’ll be like this after we graduate.” As long as the universe didn’t pull out any surprises between now and then, anyway. Peter knew that was always a possibility in a world like theirs. “Living like kind-of adults. In our own apartments.”

*

“Yeah, though I have to admit, it will be kind of nice not to have to lie to my parents constantly,” MJ said. It wasn’t all that bad, but it got exhausting sometimes having to come up with cover stories for why she didn’t remember some things since there were slight differences between this universe and her original one.

She leaned over and kissed him. “All right, let’s get up and get moving.”

*

“Good thing you’ve got a lot of practice when it comes to keeping secrets,” Peter said, giving MJ a quick grin. She was miles ahead of him when it came to subtlety, a characteristic he was grateful she had when there was his identity to hide. He could only hope that someday the universe would bring in everyone they loved so the strain of having to lie to them about everything else didn’t weigh so much.

Peter leaned in to follow her kiss with another one, squeezing her hand before he nudged the blankets aside and started getting up. He was usually a morning person anyway, but waking up next to his girlfriend had him in an even brighter mood. “Let’s see what we can come up with…”