tapas and the truth
Peter shoved his hands further into the pockets of his coat, a smart navy one that May had bought him as a graduation present, a bit of an odd gift considering that had been at the beginning of Summer. He was thankful for it now as it shielded him from the blustering wind that was turning his ears an unflattering shade of pink.
Peter loped down the stairs that led to the sidewalk from Dr Sam's clinic and started off in the direction of the Tapas restaurant that MJ had decided they meet at. Peter retrieved his phone from the pocket of his jeans and sent MJ a quick message letting her know that he was on his way. He breathed out a deep sigh as he waited for the crosswalk lights to change, tapping his foot as he watched the red man flash.
One more session down. Dr Sam had been glad to see him again and Peter was surprised by how much he had to tell her. Although, there was only so much he could say without revealing his identity. May had suggested that Peter tell her of his other identity, but Peter wasn't ready for anyone else to know he was Spider-Man quite yet. Instead, he got by with metaphors and twisting the truth a little. Besides, Sam knew the important things, Peter was an orphan, raised by his aunt and uncle, then just his aunt. When he was 15, he'd applied and been accepted as a Stark Industries intern and had developed a close mentor/mentee relationship with the founder of the company. He'd been one of the people lost in the Snap and the first thing he had seen when he got back (as far as Sam knew) was the news that Tony Stark was dead, another role model, another father figure, gone. Not only that but Peter was facing rising pressure from the media who seemed to have got it into their heads that Peter was Tony’s protégé and was the ‘future’ of Stark Industries. The thought of that made Peter go weak at the knees with worry so he often pushed it from his mind.
Today's session had gone well, and, in the end, Peter was grateful that he had had it. Sam had pushed him a lot more than usual that afternoon, which Peter found odd. It was like she thought Peter wasn't telling her everything, but he wasn't sure what more he could say. She hadn't seemed to believe him when he said he'd 'let go of Mr Stark' and it irritated Peter how intuitive she could be.
A blip from Peter's phone alerted him of a text from MJ which read 'waiting outside the restaurant' and he quickened his pace. Peter cast all thoughts of the session, of work and every other thing that was stressing him out, from his mind and decided to focus on his meal with MJ. After all, he hadn't seen her in two weeks and while they talked regularly through text along with the occasional facetime, it definitely was not the same as being in the same place.
The Tapas restaurant that MJ had picked out was in their neighbourhood and within walking distance from both their houses if Peter remembered where MJ lived correctly.
Peter had had a quick look at the restaurant online last week when they had arranged to meet and had found it to be pretty affordable which was good considering they were both students. Though Peter sometimes forgot that he didn’t have to worry about that as much anymore now that he had a steady income from Stark Industries. May was all over his finances, helping him organise it into savings and spending accounts, even setting up a retirement fund. Peter thought it was a bit odd to have a retirement fund at his age and it made him think whether he actually would retire. Being an Avenger seemed to be a full-time job from what he had seen so far, and usually you didn’t live long enough to retire.
With that morbid thought in mind Peter rounded the corner and saw the red and yellow awning that extended above the restaurant front and beneath it, wrapped in a coat and a scarf, her hair bobbing in the wind, was MJ.
Peter couldn't stop the grin that broke out across his face as he called her name and raised a hand in greeting. He saw his smile returned on her own face as they moved towards each other.
“Hey loser.” She said her voice casual but her smile warm.
"It's so good to see you." Peter said suddenly growing a little shy as they hugged quickly.
"You too." MJ smiled and then shivered, "but can we get inside, it is freezing out here."
The interior was everything that Peter has expected from a Tapas restaurant. It was warm and the air was filled with the sound of the chefs in the kitchen and the enthusiastic chattering of the restaurant’s patrons – a surprising number of tables were filled given how early in the evening it was. A waiter met Peter and MJ as they stepped over the threshold and directed them upstairs to the second floor where he assured them there were more tables and it was a little quieter.
“Oh…” MJ said and cast her gaze around the ground floor. It wasn’t a very large space and every table appeared to be taken. “What about that one by the window? Is that table taken?”
“No, if that’s alright with you, you can sit there. I’ll bring around menus in a moment.” The waiter said and smiled at them as MJ led the way over to the window.
“I thought this would be more authentic.” MJ said indicating the table before them. It was little more than a bench, risen quite far off the ground and pressed to the window with two dark wood stools to sit on.
“Perfect,” Peter said grinning, eager to catch up with her and not really caring where they actually sat. “So how have things been? I feel like we haven’t seen each other in ages.”
“It’s definitely been a long two weeks.” MJ said as they removed their coats and sat down at the stools. The waiter returned with two laminated menus in dark leather casings.
“Our specials are up by the bar,” the waiter said indicating behind him, “I’ll let you have a look and come back around in a bit to get your order for drinks.”
“Thank you.” Peter said accepting the menus from him and passing one to MJ.
“Ok this time can we figure out what we’re ordering before we start talking?” MJ said smiling wryly at Peter. “We don’t want a repeat of last time… or the time before that.”
“Or every other time we’ve gotten dinner.” Peter said grinning and opening his menu. MJ was referring to the unfortunate habit that they had gotten into by which they would be so excited to fill each in on their daily lives in their time apart, that they would forget about the food altogether.
Peter scanned the menu picking out a few dishes that he wanted to try and settled for a lemon and lime bitters as a drink
Having decided what he wanted he turned his attention to MJ whose brows was furrowed in concentration as she scanned the menu, deep in concentration. Peter could practically guess what she would go for from what he had seen on the menu. MJ wasn’t a strict vegetarian, but she avoided meat where she could and there were several delicious dishes that didn’t have meat that Peter thought might catch her interest.
His interest however, was focused on the person beside him. He took her in, from her hair and the way it was tucked delicately behind one ear, to her eyes which sparkled in the warm light above them, to the graceful slope of her neck.
“Done.” MJ said setting the menu down and shifting so that she was partly facing him.
“Same.” Peter said grinning stupidly. He just couldn’t stop smiling.
“So—” they both said at the same time.
Peter trailed of and laughed as MJ snickered. It was always like this, it usually took them a little time to slip back into the easy-going nature of their relationship.
“Sorry, you go first.” Peter said gesturing to MJ, and she leant forward as she laughed, her hair cascading from behind her shoulder as she did so. It made Peter want to reach out so he could brush it back and see her smile in all its beauty but before he could, she whipped her hand up to sweep her hair away once more.
“I was going to ask how you’ve been.” MJ said still smiling.
Peter grinned and hung his head as he tried not to laugh, he had been about to ask the same thing. “Ok so I was last here on the 9th? The 10th?” Peter wracked his brain trying to think, two weeks had seemed to pass with lightning speed and yet thinking back to the last weekend he had been in New York made it seem like years had passed.
“About.” MJ said shrugging and waiting for Peter to go on.
“Well,” Peter said shifting in his seat, so he was facing her more front on. “It’s just pretty normal you know? College has so much routine I have my timetable and I stick to it and it’s all almost boringly normal. I hear that Ned’s classes get a little more uneventful.”
“Yeah he said to ask you about the ‘chair incident’?” MJ said using finger quotes.
“Oohhh.” Peter said nodding, “you’re gonna love this.”
Peter proceeded to tell MJ the story that Ned had told him on Monday. According to Ned, his professor had made a rather wild comment about climate change and the next day he walked into his classroom to find his chair on fire and written on his desk in sharpie was ‘feelin’ the heat yet Boseman?’.
“Yeah Mr Boseman was not impressed from what I’ve heard.” Peter said as MJ raised her hands in triumph as he finished the story.
“Gold! I wish I could have seen that.” She exclaimed grinning. “If someone had done that in my class, they probably would have gotten expelled.”
They continued chatting, updating each other on what had happened in the last two weeks that hadn’t been conveyed in texts or facetime. Peter told her about picking Morgan up that afternoon and the fact that Happy had an admirer at her school.
A waiter stopped by to take their order for drinks and food and their conversation was momentarily diverted as they both struggled to recall what they had decided to get.
As soon as the waiter made any movement to leave, they jumped back into their conversation. Peter was eager to hear about what was going on in MJ’s life.
“You’d think doing a double degree would make the work load even but somehow it’s not? I swear I’m overloaded in both degrees but according to the system that’s just how it works.” MJ complained running a hand through her hair in frustration.
Peter for his part tried to be as supportive as he could. Before graduating MJ had made the decision to pursue both Science and the Arts and had been invited to complete a double degree in Fine art and literature with her second qualification being a science degree in physics – which Peter thought she was mad to do but tried not to say anything discouraging. After all, the double degree meant that MJ could pursue her passions, art and literature, while still ‘giving myself up to the capitalist gods and concede to the view that the arts are no way to build a career’ to quote MJ directly, a phrase she often said accompanied by over the top hand gestures.
“If anyone can do it, it’s you.” Peter said genuinely. “And you’ve got a little break now, and then in a few weeks it’s the holidays and you’ll have all the free time you could want,” Peter shrugged and added slightly sarcastically, “plus... I mean I’ll be here too so, maybe that’ll be nice?” He twirled the straw in the drink before him.
“That’s true.” MJ said thoughtfully.
“Which part?” Peter asked hopefully.
“Hmm? All of it.” MJ said taking a sip of lemon, lime and biters and looked at Peter from the corner of her eye.
Peter felt his cheeks warm and he decided to take a sip of his own drink to cool them down. It was times like these that Peter wished they were a little more specific about where they stood. He knew he should just ask but it was a difficult topic to broach and he still wasn’t quite sure what he was to MJ.
Before the air could grow awkward a waiter returned with their meal, their series of dishes brought out on cute, mismatched plates and bowls.
As they ate Peter found his usual rhythm with MJ slipping back into place. After they had completely updated each other on everything that had happened in the past two weeks they bounced from topic to topic. Before Peter knew it, it was 7:30 and still the conversation showed no sign of letting up.
MJ had asked briefly about his Stark Industries work but she knew from experience that there was very little Peter was really allowed to talk about, so she generally tried to avoid putting him in a bad position.
“It’s a lot really,” Peter said in response to her query about his work. “I don’t think I really had any idea how full on it would be between college and SI and other things…”
Peter trailed off and felt that the conversation had taken a bit of a sombre turn and he didn’t want to start complaining, not when he was so grateful for his position at Stark Industries and his MIT scholarship.
“But I’ve made a lot of progress on the project I mentioned last time, I think I’m on the verge of a breakthrough.” Peter said.
“You called it Chronos right?”
“Yep that’s the one.” Peter grinned, glad that she remembered. Peter hadn’t really told her a lot about it other than that it could potentially change a lot of people’s lives.
“Chronos was the Greek god of time, right? Is that why you chose it?” MJ said trying to draw some information out of Peter.
He shrugged, “Not really,” his heart twinged at the white lie, “all my projects are named like that, it makes them sound… I don’t know cool?”
“Ok what are some of the other ones called?”
“Oh, you know…” Peter mumbled bashfully, “Rogue One, Lazarus, Skywalker…”
“You’re such a nerd.” MJ said leaning her head on her hand as she looked at Peter with sparkling eyes. The air seemed to shift between them, and Peter felt as though something had changed.
“Are you ready for your plates to be taken?” A waiter said behind them and Peter started. The moment shattered.
“Yes, thank you.” MJ said coolly and leant to the side as their dishes were gathered a cleared away.
“Alright, it’s quarter to eight so still early.” Peter said glancing at his phone. “Do you want to go get a coffee or something?” After two weeks apart, he wasn’t ready to leave MJ just yet.
“Sounds good.” MJ said grinning.
“So, I guess we’re ready to go then?” Peter said reaching down to retrieve his wallet from his coat.
“I think so.” MJ said following suit.
“I’m just going to go to the bathroom,” Peter said gesturing clumsily over his shoulder, “but here’s my wallet to pay.” Peter said passing it to her, he knew it was a useless endeavour because MJ would probably just split it anyway, she always did.
She murmured something along the lines of ‘ok I will’ as she sifted through her purse and withdrew some money. Peter rolled his eyes but knew that it was useless to try and convince her to let him pay.
Peter left her at their little bench table and darted through the cramped restaurant, ducking past a waiter balancing an impressive number of plates and bowls. He followed the signs that directed him to the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant and followed a short staircase that lead to a small corridor.
Peter didn’t actually need to go to the bathroom… he just needed a moment to think without MJ there to read his facial expressions – which she was infuriatingly good at.
There had been a few moments tonight where Peter had really felt like they were onto something, like they could really be more than just friends. He wanted to broach the whole boyfriend/girlfriend exclusivity conversation with her.
Peter pushed open the door to the men’s room and, after seeing that it was devoid of any other restaurant goers, went straight to the mirror. He stood before it, hands on his hips as he scrutinised his reflection. He’d put on dark jeans and a navy-blue button down and a smart sweater over the top and he might have looked a little preppy but at least it was better than the alternative.
Peter ran a hand through his hair and spun around. “Hey MJ, I feel like this has been a long time coming—” he cut himself off with a groan as he shoved another hand through his hair. Were you even supposed to have these conversations? Didn’t things usually just work out how they were supposed to? All the movies seemed to tell you that once the guy kissed the girl then bam! that’s it, they were dating. Something told Peter that wasn’t quite what happened in real life, but he didn’t exactly have a whole lot of experience in this area.
“Y’know I really like you… I’ve liked you for a long time – I guess what I’m trying to say is will you be my girlfriend?” Peter groaned again, how could something so simple come across as that cheesy? He was in college now things were supposed to be different right? He was supposed to have shaken off that high school awkwardness.
“I’m just gonna go for it.” Peter said shrugging as he braced his arms against the sink and looked at his reflection with determination and a good amount of fear.
“Yeah, you go for it man!” A disembodied voice said from behind one of the toilet stalls and Peter almost jumped out of his skin. “Tell her how you feel!” The enthusiasm almost made him feel better but it was outweighed by the weirdness of the situation.
“Umm… thanks?” Peter said hesitantly mentally cringing at himself over the fact that some random stranger had just heard him rehearsing.
Peter didn’t wait for a reply and instead made a beeline for the exit and the welcoming glow of the warm restaurant floor.
Peter cast his eyes about for MJ, expecting to see her waiting by the door but instead found that she was still sat at the bench on one of the two stools that they had spent the evening at.
Peter strode over to her and when she noticed him coming MJ shifted slightly on her seat to see him.
His proposed question of ‘be my girlfriend’ was somewhat ready on his lips (though it was partially masked with a good deal of worry and awkwardness), but he stopped short when he saw what MJ was doing. She had a smug look on her face that made Peter want to backtrack all the way out the door.
That’s when he noticed it.
MJ had something in her hands.
She was spinning a sliver of what looked like reflective plastic between her thumbs and forefingers like she was a magician performing a card trick. The movement was mesmerising and Peter barely recognised that his feet were moving as he edged closer to their table.
MJ was focused on the card in her hands, her mouth upturned in a wry smile. Her eyes raised to his and Peter halted in his tracks, his heart thudding to a near stop as he met her eyes. They sparkled with amusement and something else deep past that, but he couldn’t quite identify the emotion.
That was when she held the card up with one hand so he could see it properly.
Peter shoulders dropped in absolute despair.
In MJ’s hands was his Stark Industries clearance card. Not the old Platinum X one, which might have been easier to explain, but the new one he had been left by the late Tony Stark. On one side the logo of the Avengers was clearly imprinted and on the other was his own black arachnid that graced his Spidey suit.