LOUD MOUTH → PETER PARKER ✓

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Araneus Oscorpius

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍: ARANEUS OSCORPIUS

Peter didn't call back that night. It stressed Callie out way too fucking much, prompting her to write a letter she'd give to Peter if they did eventually decide to go separate ways, in lieu of her trying to fix things by talking. That would just be embarrassing. She called Gwen, who eventually convinced her to go to sleep and forget about the whole predicament for a few hours, which was good advice, but at the same time the last thing Callie wanted to hear right about then. But she slept, mostly due to the fact that she had work in the morning yet again, and she wanted to well-rested to sort through another million and a half files.

She woke up that morning not because of her alarm, but because of the steady buzz of her phone on her bedside table. She was still half asleep as she fumbled for the phone, not really worrying about or remembering who was calling. "Hello?"

Peter's voice answered. "Look outside."

For a moment, she had the thought of how tiring it would be to get out of bed, walk all the way to the window, and look out over the harbor. Then, realizing the fucking circumstances of her current life, she sprung from her bed and practically sprinted to the window, looking out over the harbor and the bridge. And she saw it. It took a little bit of squinting, but Callie eventually saw the words I LOVE YOU written in the structure of the bridge with a familiar looking web. It was big, too. Big enough to bee seen from miles away. The sight of it made a smile stretch onto her lips, her heart pounding.

She admired the bridge for a moment before a familiar face appeared in the window. Peter hung upside down from the building in his Spider-Man suit. His phone was held to his ear. "Can I come in?" she heard over the phone, the same words coming out muffled through the window.

She couldn't help but smile. "I suppose."

She unlocked the window, pushing it open. Peter stealthily climbed through, his feet landing on her floor swiftly. "Callie, listen—"

He couldn't say another word before she grabbed his mask, pulled it off, and pressed her lips to his. Every single confused, mixed, terrifying feeling was put into the kiss as she desperately tried to rid her mind of them, wanting this moment to replace them entirely. He pulled her in closer. When they pulled away, Callie bit her lip, smiling. "I'm assuming this means you got the voicemail?"

"No, what'd you say?" he said sarcastically, causing Callie to raise her eyebrows at him. "Of course I got it. And I listened to it about a dozen times because I was trying to think of what I could say back, but I kept coming back to that one thing I was talking about yesterday."

"You never told me what it was."

"It's what's written on the bridge, Callie." he said. "I love you, and I know there's a million different reasons why we shouldn't be together, but I'm tired of them. And I'm not gonna let the world make you choose, or make you settle, because we're not on different paths. I'm on whatever path you're on. You are my path."

Callie was probably smiling like an idiot right then, even though she felt like she could cry at any moment.

"So here's my though: Connecticut. Both of us. I'm following you now. I'm just gonna follow you there. I'm gonna follow you for the rest of my life. I mean, New Haven's nice, always wanted to visit there. And they—they got crime there, it seems. Tons of crime."

"Lots of crime," Callie said with a breathless smile, nodding, "They have a lot of homicide cases compared to the rest of New England."

"That's great, I love that you know that."