|Towards the Endgame|

•Chapter 77• How Was It?

"How was it?" Ned walked into the coffee shop right behind Peter. They had agreed to pick up MJ after her shift and get some pizza together. Peter hadn't seen his friends since before the anniversary celebration he had with Y/n, which was a few days ago by now. Peter had been too caught up with Y/n – checking in almost every hour – to chat with their friends. In the back of his mind, he was still thinking about her. But when Ned popped that question, he was pulled straight to reality. Did Ned know? How could he know? "What?" Peter managed to choke out. He tried to think of another answer to give, a better one, but he was panicking. "The date?" Ned frowned at him, "The present? The anniversary? We haven't spoken to you or Y/n yet."
"What's up, dorks?" MJ appeared in front of them with her bag slung over her shoulder and ready to go. Peter smiled at her and tried to shrug off Ned's questions. Ned kept nudging Peter's arms to get his attention. "Hey, I asked you something." Peter's expression was still panicked – although he thought he looked oblivious as if he hadn't heard anything – when looking back at Ned. "What's wrong?" Ned rolled his eyes. Wasn't Peter his best friend? They told each other everything, didn't they? "I was asking Peter about the anniversary with Y/n. That's all."
"Yeah, how did that go actually?" MJ asked. Peter's heart rate slowed a little when he realized they were just asking about the date. Of course, they were. They did not know about anything that happened. How could they? Peter felt dumb for a good few seconds. "Sorry. The date was good. She loved the photo album, scrapbook... thing."
MJ narrowed her eyes a bit at him but not in a judging way. She scanned his face. "Wha- what are you doing?" Peter asked her. "Seeing If something's off. And there is. You're nervous. You're hiding something." MJ pointed it all out as if Peter was an open book. How could she know that?

MJ's expression went neutral. What if she had it figured out? He wasn't sure if Y/n would want them to know. What was he supposed to do? "You didn't have a fight with her, did you?" MJ asked him. Peter raised his eyebrows. "What? No! No, no. We didn't fight. We had fun. It was good." Ned looked at MJ. Were they having a telepathic conversation that Peter was being left out of? "Should we head out?" Peter was already halfway through the door when his friends joined him. "Not gonna tell us anything else?" Ned asked his best friend. "What's there to tell?"
"You didn't do anything special? No details?" Peter frowned at MJ's sudden – outspoken – curiosity. He put his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Not really. You haven't spoken to Y/n yet?" Surely Y/n had spoken with MJ. At least a text, right? "Not really. I asked her if she would stop by for coffee but she said she couldn't. She had some work to catch up on or finish." Peter smiled a bit to himself. Y/n had cut herself off from work entirely when she and Peter had the day together. She's a workaholic and Peter loved her for it. But it was nice not to share his girlfriend with her job. For a few seconds, that gut-twisting feeling of a couple of years ago returned, when all she could think about was her job. It made sense. Her father had just passed away and she wanted to do it right. "Has she spoken to you?" MJ questioned. Every hour, Peter thought, because I kept texting her to check if she was okay "Of course he talked to her." Ned laughed at MJ's comment as if she'd said something stupid. Michelle was not too happy with it. "Not if they had a fight."
"MJ, we didn't have a fight. I promise. Y/n's just busy. I did speak with her. She's working." He said honestly, "It's nothing special. We just had fun on our date. Just us. That okay?" Peter couldn't stop smiling as he thought back to his girlfriend. He didn't think it would be possible to be in love with her even more than he already was. And yet, here they were. He was so smitten. He felt connected with her, now more than ever. The spider bite definitely had an effect. Peter didn't mind. He looked at his friends. MJ nodded her head, satisfied with the answer. "Great! Pizza?" Ned suggested.

It was very noticeable that they were tired. They wanted to get this done. Harley was dying to have a good meal. They had been living off quick snacks, coffee, water, and sometimes a donut. Y/n promised she would take him out but first, she wanted this to be done. And she wanted it to be done perfectly. Her phone rang on the desk. Harley quickly handed it to her whilst trying to stay focused on the drone in front of him. "Thank you." She looked at the contact name. "I need to take this." "Parker?" Harley's tone was almost mocking. "Actually no, not Parker." She answered him. "Secret girlfriend?" Y/n ignored all of Harley's guesses – with a roll of her eyes – and held the phone to her ear. "Ned, hey. Did you get my text?" She asked him. "Yeah, hey. Listen, I'm coming with Peter to drop it off. Hope that's okay. Lola doesn't want me going back and forth when it's dark by myself." Ned's grandmother was such a lovely lady and very protective over Ned most of the time. Understandably she did not like the idea of her grandson going back and forth in the middle of the night to the Stark Facility. "Ned, of course, that's okay. You do know that you're safe, right? Nothing's gonna happen when you're on my radars." It might have been a bit of a privacy invasion, but she tracked her friends whenever they didn't feel safe. She did so with their permission. "I know. I don't want my Lola to worry." Ned reminded her. "I get it. MJ coming too?" Y/n felt bad for not speaking to MJ. She wasn't sure how much Peter had told his friends yet about what happened between them. Maybe he didn't tell them at all. She certainly wouldn't feel ashamed if Ned and MJ knew about it. "No, she wanted to go home. Peter and I are just hanging out before we're heading your way." Y/n turned to look at all of the drones again and Harley who was almost fast asleep by the desk right now. He actually looked cute. "Alright. I'll see you guys later, then. Friday will let you inside." Y/n meanwhile walked toward Harley to pet his hair. The poor boy needed a break. Y/n was about to hang up when she heard Ned shuffle on the other side of the line. "Did you and Peter have sex?" He blurted it out.