Lost Stars - A Post No Way Home Story

Let Time Pass

MJ walked away. He was a no-show.

Peter was nowhere to be seen or heard from, and there was nothing else she could do. Wiping away the last of her tears, she walked to Peter Pan. Maybe it was time to get a doughnut. Maybe, just maybe, he'd show up here and now.

Perhaps it was for the best that he didn't show up, but Peter Parker would always be the mystery that eluded her. He was the missing puzzle piece she couldn't find.

"Hey Sasha," MJ said miserably. "Can I have a matcha latte to go? And a cookie monster."

"Sure can, MJ, you look miserable," Sasha said.

You don't even know, MJ chuckled.

She closed her eyes. She remembered. She remembered the times that she spent here with Peter and Ned. Peter always had the same order... he never changed it. A creature of habit he was.

She felt miserable when she took the sip of the latte, but mostly because Sasha didn't know how to make a good matcha latte.

MJ hovered her hands over Peter's phone number, hoping that if she sent a text message, it would do something.

Anything.

She just wanted answers.

Then, she saw it. The three dots.

He was writing, but then it stopped.

So he WAS around. He was ignoring her.

MJ was furious. You might as well get a hacker to track him down –

Someone walked past the store, and MJ eyed a flash of reddish-brown hair. Their eyes met. Then, he shot off. Without thinking, she shot out of the store, leaving her drink and doughnut behind her.

It was Peter. His hair had grown longer, and there was a hint of stubble along the edges of his jaw. He looked older a little bit more tired.

"HEY!" she yelled.

He froze.

"Parker," MJ demanded. "I am right here."

"You're Spider-Man, aren't you?," MJ's voice quivered. "Is that right?"

Peter took a long time to turn around, but when he did, the look on his face broke her.

"Yes."

MJ continued, "I had a dream and I felt something was missing and then...," she held up the Black Dahlia. "I don't remember when I got it and... I had the same feeling. As when I dreamt about you. I kept seeing Spider-Man but all I saw was you."

"I gave that to you in London. It wasn't supposed to break."

"Whatever the reason is, Peter," MJ said. "It doesn't give you an excuse to ignore me and Ned without asking us. Don't you understand? Why would you make that decision without us?"

Peter rubbed the back of his head. Then, he slowly walked towards MJ.

"I haven't been on Earth, MJ. Not for a while. It's been... a while."

"So Ned has said," it felt slightly aggressive, but she took a deep breath. Keep cool, MJ.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Did you hear...?"

She didn't know if she could repeat everything she wanted to say to his face. A faceless recording was all that she needed to tell him all that she wanted to tell him.

"World-ending things that no one will know of," Peter insisted. "MJ, I heard your voice message the second I got back, I swear. I didn't find you there so... I thought you'd be here, but I was a co-"

"Afraid?" MJ added. "Because you were reminded of the people you could lose?"

"Yes."

He looked down, ashamed. "I did this to you. I made the decision and it impacted everyone I know, and I nearly got all of it back, but I want to learn from it. I have a life here now, but I need to know if you and Ned really, really want to be part of Spider-Man's world."

"No."

MJ shook her head.

"I don't want to be part of Spider-Man's world. I want to be part of Peter Parker's world, and you're doing a darn good job of hiding that away from the people you supposedly love."

"I'm sorry."

Her eyes stung. He was stubborn, a little bit reckless, but he was still... him. It was such a Peter thing to do.

His voice was shaky. "When Tony Stark took me under his wings, he told me not to do anything he would do but also wouldn't do. Every time, I would go against what he said. And every time an adult scolded me, I would say it's their fault I was there. I told Tony it was his fault I was in space and it was Stephen's fault that I had messed up his spell. I'm no longer an Avenger, I don't have a family, and while I think I finally found that ground. All it took was losing everything. So when you returned, I got scared, and when I got Ned again ... I got scared. Then, I got a chance to create something and wasn't alone. And then, well, it's not Earth without a world-ending threat, right? But we are here, and now I realize I have so much to gain from being me. I got to find out who Peter Parker was even before that.

"MJ, I'm afraid, but could we start over?"

She held out her hand.

"I'm Michelle Jones-Watson; my friends call me MJ. I am going to study Psychology now. I know I used to be your girlfriend, but that was a different life, and we can work on that in the future... if you want.

"And please, Peter Parker," she took his hand into hers and shook it. "Stop running away."

A tear fell Peter's face, and she wiped it away with her other hand. He rested his forehead on hers.

"Okay?" she repeated.
"Okay," he agreed.

As strange as it was, his presence reminded her of the times they would do this. She could feel what she had felt back then, even though she didn't fully remember it. There wasn't a remedy that could fix it, no magician who would take back the last year of her life that she didn't remember. But at the very least, it was a start again. A new beginning.

As it seemed, the New Avengers was one of the reasons that Wilson Fisk was no longer mayor of New York. Only one of them, though. It had been a collective effort involving heroes on all levels.

MJ was careful with Peter, but slowly, it melted away, and he seemed like himself again. There was a moment or two when he'd look at her, and it seemed like he was afraid that she would fade away, but he'd be back.

Ned nearly beat him up for going incognito, but quickly fixed it by telling him stories of different worlds and a tree at the heart of the universe.

When Peter showed up at Ned's lola's place, Lola was happy to see him again. As though nothing had happened when they were gone, lola treated them as she always did, and they turned on the television that played The Holiday on repeat.

Peter would tell them of his adventures, but they would not be involved, not and never gain. As time passed, they returned to MIT, and it was with bright and teary eyes that they saw that Peter had made it to MIT because New York had a group of heroes taking care of it in his absence.

And when he returned in the future, it would be like he never left.