VII's 12 Days of Winter Writing

Day 10: AU - Library

Peter stared at the three dots doing the wave. He was waiting on MJ to answer his text.

They'd been dating for a while now, since they were sixteen, and now it was their last month at MIT. Finals were done a week or so ago.

It was taking MJ an amazingly long amount of time to type out her text. It was understandable, since it was six in the morning and Peter was only up because he was so excited about the prospect about today.

His phone pinged and shook him from his reverie. Peter grinned as he read her answer.

MJ: Sure. I'll meet you in the library at 9ish? I need to catch up on some stuff.

Peter thumbed in his answer. Okay see youu.

He watched the 'delivered' part of the message turn into a 'read' and he turned off his phone and flopped back onto his bed. A sudden need to phone a friend seized him.

Peter waited patiently as he called the princess of Wakanda.

"My favourite white boy!" Shuri greeted him cheerfully. "What is up, Parker?"

Peter smiled. "Uh, remember the thing I was talking to you about last week? About MJ?"

"Oh my–" Shuri gasped. "You're serious? You're going to do it?"

"Today," Peter confirmed. "Hopefully." He checked his watch. "In about three hours."

"You're not doing it at sunset?" The princess asked. "It's more romantic like that!"

He sighed. "Yeah, but the library at sunset is usually full–"

"You're doing it at the library?!"

Peter chewed on his lip. "Why, is that bad?" When he got no reply, he continued. "I've got it all planned out. I grab us coffee, we have a bit of time to ourselves since nobody's usually in the library at 9 in the morning after exam week on a Sunday. We have a snack. I bring up partners and Dr. Banner and Ms. Romanoff and other various married couples we know and admire and then she laughs and calls me an idiot and I ask her–"

"Peter!" Shuri's voice startled him out of his rambling. "Do you have your ring?"

He jumped to his desk and opened the drawer. Peter opened the little box and looked inside. "Yep. A momento from Venice, June 2024. It's going to be awesome."

Shuri sighed. "Well, at least you're semi-prepared. Good luck, Parker."

"Thank you." Peter smiled and hung up. He suddenly frowned and called Dr. Banner.

The line picked up after two rings and his idol picked up the phone. "Peter?" the scientist asked.

"Dr. Banner! I'm glad you picked up." Peter hopped onto the ceiling and started pacing. "I'm going to propose to MJ and I need your advice."

He could hear the scientist sigh. "Peter, that's awesome. I'm happy for you and MJ." Dr. Banner sounded tired. "So what did you need help with?"

Peter paced harder, scratching his head. "Uh. I'm not sure. I–" he ran a hand through his hair. "How did you propose to Ms. Romanoff?"

Dr. Banner laughed. "I stumbled. A lot. And that's quite an understatement." He sighed. "Well, it was just a little while after I met her family back in... late September, 2016? Yeah. I proposed in late spring of the next year. It was a nighttime picnic on the beach. Floating candles on the waves. Stars were out. It had her favourite food, favourite flowers. I wore that shirt she keeps trying to take off. Told her, this is it. We've officially gotten through two years without dying, without killing each other, without getting arrested, running away, being declared public enemy number 1 again. Told her I loved her more than anything, that I was hers for the rest of the time she'd like me to be, and I asked her." He chuckled. "And by some miracle, she said yes. And now we'll be celebrating, what, 12 years in December."