End Of Beginning

Karen

Karen exits Matt’s apartment quietly. She felt weird dressed in Matt’s loungewear and her high heels. She had her work clothes in a bag. They smelt like sex, there was no way she was wearing them home.

She turns around and pauses. Peter stares at her like a deer in headlights, having also exited his apartment. He blushes.

“Hi.” Peter says, moving away from his door.

“Hey Pete.” Karen replies, tucking her hair behind her ears. She had no clue how she looked right now, but it couldn’t be good.

“How was your night?” Peter asks. He regrets asking it as soon as it’s out of his mouth. Karen blushes.

“It was, um, it was good, yeah.” She fumbles. Peter scrunches up his nose, grossed out.

“Yeah I figured.” He says with a smirk.

“What does that mean?” Peter approaches her, leaning against the wall next to her.

“You’re probably familiar with something called enhanced hearing.” Karen groans, hiding her face in her hands.

“I’m sorry Peter. God that’s embarrassing.” She says, laughing. “Um, here, take this as part of my apology.” She reaches into her bag, pulling out Peter’s mask. It’s crumpled in a small ball and can almost fit entirely in Peter’s closed fist.

He hides it by his side, a relieved look on his face.

“Oh my god, thank you. You would not believe the amount of shit people were talking about the other mask I made.”

“I mean, it wasn’t great.” Karen admits. Peter's look of relief shifts into one of annoyance.

“Well I wouldn’t have had to wear it if someone didn’t steal my mask.” Karen shrugs.

“Maybe don’t leave it around Matt’s house.” Peter rolls his eyes, ducking back into his apartment to put his mask away. He reemerges and joins Karen in the elevator.

“Do you work this weekend?” Karen asks, adjusting her hair in the elevator mirror. She looked like a mess. Her face flushes when she notices the dark marks trailing along her neck and collarbones. She pulls her hair to the front hoping to hide it.

“Just a Saturday opening, why?”

“Perfect, I’m going to take you out. I intended on doing so for your birthday.” Peter raises his eyebrows, curious.

“Where are you going to take me?”

“Well, I originally thought about taking you to Josies, it’s a bar that Matt, Foggy and I like to frequent, but I think you deserve something a little fancier. I’ll take you to a club, there’s one close to here.”

She’d been there during a few failed dates over the years, and it wasn’t horrible. The drinks were enjoyable enough and didn’t drain your wallet all too much.

Peter nods.

“Sounds like fun, I look forward to it.” They exit the elevator, moving outside. The air is warm, blowing strongly against the two of them. Karen’s shirt ripples in the breeze, hair lifting away from her neck. She can feel Peter eyeing the marks on her neck but he doesn’t say anything. “Can I walk you home?” Peter offers.

“That would be nice.” The two walk together, dodging and weaving around the early morning rush of people on the sidewalk. It’s a nice day, sunny. Karen can feel sweat beading on her upper lip from the heat. “So who was that girl at your work? Was she a regular or something?”

Peter’s face flushes and Karen’s sure it’s not from the heat.

“What do you mean?” He asks, feigning oblivion.

“Just the way you two interacted, and the fact that you knew each other’s name. I don’t know, call me crazy, you guys just interacted like there was a bit of chemistry.”

Peter nibbles at his lip, staring down at Karen. She stares back, eyes narrowed.

“So, I don’t know if I ever mentioned anyone named MJ to you.”

“You did, yes. Was she a classmate?”

Peter nods.

“And my girlfriend. We were dating when Dr. Strange did his spell.” Karen’s face morphs into one of pity and it makes Peter’s stomach twist.

“Oh Peter. Did she know?”

Peter nods.

“She knew that she was going to forget me. She told me to remind her who I was after.”

“And did you?”

Peter pauses for a second before shaking his head.

“Peter!” Karen shouts, surprised.

“Shhh, Karen. I know, okay, I tried but like I said, she’s better off without me.” Peter groans.

“You are such an idiot sometimes Peter.”

“What! It’s not like I’m ever going to see her again. August is almost over and she’ll be going back to MIT.” Karen gawks at him.

“You know what school she goes to?”

“Yes, she told me when she got in.” Karen laughs, shaking her head. “What?!”

“I’m just so confused by your relationship with her.”

“There’s nothing to be confused about because there is no relationship.” Karen stops and a woman walking behind her almost runs into her. Peter pulls her away, apologising to the other woman. “What are you doing Karen?”

“Do you love her?”

“What? I did, yeah.” Peter answers, confused.

“Do you still?” Peter shakes his head frustrated.

“I don’t know Karen, she doesn’t know me.”

“You should change that.” Karen deadpans. Peter frowns.

“That’s stupid.” Peter begins walking again, pulling Karen with him.

“Are you ever going to date someone again?” Karen asks.

“I don’t know. Probably. Yeah.”

“When?” Peter sighs, annoyed with Karen’s questions.

“Jesus, why aren’t you still a reporter?” Karen laughs. She doesn’t ask any more questions about MJ on their walk, instead letting Peter tease her about Matt. They part ways once they reach Karen’s apartment and Peter starts his treck to work.

He’d started switching between swinging to work and taking public transportation, in an attempt to save his webs, and decided that taking a bus today would be optimal considering the summer heat.

He navigated his way to the nearest bus terminal, stopping once he saw the bus leave. He was going to have to wait for the next bus. He sat on a bench, leg bouncing impatiently. It wasn’t that he was going to be late, it’s just that he would rather be in a lukewarm bus than the burning outside heat. It had gotten progressively more hot on his walk and he found the heat made him feel short of breath.

He checks his phone. The next bus was delayed.

Groaning, Peter pushes himself up from the bench. There had to be a coffee shop or something near here. Hopefully with air conditioning.

He wanders around the block and is met with a small coffee shop. He walks inside and sighs. Air conditioning.

The thick smell of coffee and pastries filled the air. Peter was already jittery from not having breakfast and coffee always made him shaky, but he desperately wanted a coffee.

Getting in line Peter looks over the chalkboard menu above. He was relieved to find that this wasn’t one of those fancy expensive coffee shops that New Yorkers seemed to love so much. He’d be able to afford a small black coffee.

He orders his coffee and it comes out quick. The thin paper of the cup does little to prevent how it burns his hands.

“Who drinks hot coffee in the summer.” He hears from behind him as he’s grabbing a coffee sleeve. He turns around at the sound of the familiar voice and meets eyes with MJ.

What the fuck?

He finds himself almost calling her MJ and has to clear his throat to cover it up. “Michelle, hi, what are you doing here?” Peter asks. MJ holds up her iced coffee. “Right, of course.”

“Am I ever going to see you out of your work uniform?” She suddenly asks. Peter flushes, stuttering and stumbling over his words.

“Sorry, what?” MJ purses her lips.

“That came out wrong. I mean I’ve only ever seen you in your uniform, do you do anything other than work?”

Peter moves away from where he was blocking the counter, allowing the angry looking man that was walking over to have access to the coffee sleeves.

“I mean considering you’ve only ever seen me at work I’d expect you to only see me in my work uniform.” Peter reasons. MJ hums and nods, looking towards the door. “Um speaking of, I have to go to work now but it was nice seeing you.” MJ smiles politely and nods.

“It was nice seeing you as well Peter.” Peter turns on his heel, quickly making his way out of the store, almost spilling his coffee on the angry old man from before on his way out.

Why couldn’t he escape MJ? He’d stopped patrolling in Queens so that he wouldn’t have to see her. He’d moved to a different part of New York, never expecting to see her again among the massive population of New Yorkers, but she just kept showing up.

No matter how hard he tried his past just kept following him, he couldn’t escape it. First with Matt and Karen, then with Scorpion, and now with MJ.

Peter made his way back to the bench he was sitting on before, gulping down the scalding coffee, burning his mouth and throat as he did. The bus finally came and he threw out the empty paper cup, making his way onto the bus.

The temperature was almost identical to how it felt outside, people sitting and standing shoulder to shoulder. It was claustrophobic and smelt sweaty.

Peter wishes he’d just swung to work.

He stands the whole time, sticky fingers wrapped around a pole keeping him upright as the bus comes to jolting stops. The bus empties and refills, Peter too in his head to notice.

Maybe Karen was right. Maybe he should have just told MJ everything. He still had the note, clearly some part of him was holding out for something. It was too late now, seeing her today had just been coincidental, it was likely that he was never going to see her again.

MJ would go back to MIT and Peter would continue to work his boring tech job for the rest of his life.

~~~~~~

Matt could smell Karen before she even entered the office building. Her usual smell was masked by the chemical smell of makeup. A lot more makeup than she usually wore.

Matt hears her walk in and wave to Foggy before entering his office.

“Good morning.” She says, innocently, like she didn’t wake up, naked, in his bed this morning.

“Morning” Matt replies with the same innocent nonchalant-ness. She strolls over leaning down so her face hovers in front of Matt’s. Her breath smells like mint toothpaste and up close Matt can tell that her neck is what smells like the most makeup.

“I’m going to go out and get coffee, would you like some?” She whispers. Matt smirks.

“Could you not have texted me?” Karen nods.

“I could have, but maybe I just wanted to see you.” She stands back up straight, turning her back to Matt. “I’ll just get you your usual.” She walks out of his office and asks Foggy the same question, this time without the flirtation. Foggy enters his office as soon as Karen leaves to get coffee.

“So, Mathew.” He says, approaching his desk.

“So, Franklin.”

“How’re you doing on this fine morning.” Matt can tell he’s building up to something, all of this formal talk a clear tell.

“I’m doing fine, Foggy.” He nods and Matt raises an eyebrow, beckoning him on.

“You seeing much of Karen lately?”

“I’m not seeing much of anything, no.” Matt says with a smirk. Foggy rolls his eyes.

“You know what I mean.”

“If you’re asking how we’re doing then we are pretty good.” Matt says. Foggy’s heart rate increases.

“So you guys are dating again?” Matt shrugs.

“I don’t know, we didn’t really get the chance to talk about it.”

“Cause you guys were too busy having sex?” Matt almost chokes on his spit.

“Jeez, Foggy, straight to it I guess.” Matt says, trying to avoid answering. Foggy had always been open about sex, especially in university, always asking and talking about it. Matt was not.

“Karen thinks she did a good job covering up the marks on her neck, but she really didn’t.”

“Hmm I wouldn’t know.” Foggy groans.

“If you make another blind joke I’m going to kill you.” Matt laughs. “So I guess that sorts out your date for the wedding?” Matt hadn’t even thought about the fact he would need a date for Foggy’s wedding.

“I guess so. I’ll talk about it.”

He didn’t. They didn’t get a chance to speak about… them, until Saturday night when Karen had come over to pick up Peter. Matt knew that if he didn’t tell her to come over earlier so they could talk that they probably wouldn’t talk about it. Karen was forward about many things, but her emotions were not one of them.

Karen’s high heels click against the floor as she makes her way inside of his apartment. She once again smells like layers of makeup and Matt suddenly regrets all of the marks he left.

“Hi Matt.” She says as she makes her way to the couch, sitting next to him.

“Hey.” She pushes off her shoes, leaving them on the floor before tucking her legs under herself. Her bare thigh is warm against Matt’s clothed one. He brings his hand down to her knee, resting it there. Not daring to go higher.

“So, clubbing?” He says, unsure of how to bring up what he wants to talk to her about.

“Yup, taking Peter out for his first legal drink and hopefully setting him up with someone. That guy needs to get laid.” She laughs.

“And what about you?” Matt asks. Karen shrugs.

“Mostly there for Peter. I don’t drink much and I’m not looking for anybody so…” She trails off as she rests a hand over Matts. Well, here he goes.

“So what are we?” Matt asks. Karen shrugs.

“I don’t really know.”

“I don’t know why you still lie to me after all these years.” Matt replies. Karen laughs, resting her head on his shoulder.

“I know what I want, I just don’t know if you want the same thing.” She sighs. Matt takes her hand, placing it over his heart. It was beating fast.

“You’re the only thing that can make my heart beat like this. Karen, whatever you want, I want.” Karen’s head lifts off his shoulder, chin resting there instead. Her hand comes up and combs through his short facial hair. He’d trimmed it after she left the other day.

Matt lets his hand roam away from her knee, flitting over the skin of her leg. Her dress was short and he felt himself blush as his fingers skimmed under the hem.

“I have marks all over my legs from you. I didn’t cover them up so I just have to hope no one notices.” Karen says, smirking.

“I can smell the makeup on your neck.” Matt says, bringing his face down towards her neck. It didn’t smell unpleasant but Matt knew it wouldn’t taste great, so he kissed her cheek instead. It also tasted like makeup. “Do you want to be my date for Foggy’s wedding?” He mutters against her skin.

“I would love to, and as much as I would love to stay and figure out where this hand was going,” she pauses, removing Matt’s hand from where it had completely disappeared under her dress, “I have a club to take Peter to.” She stands up, bending down to place a gentle kiss on Matt’s lips. She laughs, wiping her lipstick off of his lips.

It tastes like artificial fruit.

“Can I possibly crash here later? I want to be able to walk Peter home if he needs it.” Matt nods. He would probably have time to go out tonight before Karen got here. Karen slides her heels back on and click-clacks her way back towards his door.

“I’ll see you later.”