The Amazing Spider-Man 4

Chapter 21

For the better part of the next couple of days, Peter seemed to stick by Mary Jane as much as he could. He still went to work, but otherwise, he was by her side as much as possible. He rode with her on the way to work in the mornings and was there as soon as she locked up at the end of the day. It was strange, because it was the exact opposite of how he'd reacted before, where he'd pulled away from her instead of drawing closer. M.J. wasn't complaining, but it was still an interesting shift. It did make some sense when she thought about it though; before, Peter hadn't been sure that Kraven knew his identity.

What was really strange, though not completely, was how quiet he'd been about the whole thing since his last fight with the hunter. It wasn't that he didn't check on her to make sure that she was okay; if anything, he did that a little too much. She'd rather that than the opposite though, and besides, it was Peter Parker, the person who wanted everyone around him to have everything going perfectly. It was one of the qualities that had endeared her towards him most, after all.

Still, Mary Jane wished he would open up a little himself. She kept trying to tell herself to be patient and to remember what May said about how it wasn't something she could control, but it was still hard. Despite Peter's constant presence, there was an element of distance that seemed to keep him at arm's length. She could tell there were times when he wanted to speak up; maybe he was scared, maybe he didn't know the right words to say, or maybe it was a combination of both, but something always seemed to get in the way.

Then again, M.J. was still trying to process everything herself. For starters, she'd never been kidnapped and locked in a cage like an animal, which had proved to be a unique experience to say the least. Really, she felt very lucky, both due to the old hangers even being there at all and even more so actually managing to successfully use one to unlock the cage when she'd barely seen so much as a tutorial on how to do something like that. She'd had a friend or two that had talked about being good at that in high school, but that was about it.

After that, the escape had actually proven surprisingly easy. Really, M.J. was convinced that Kraven never actually cared that much about whether she or Anne even stayed in there; that or maybe he'd just been overconfident. Either way, the man's focus was clearly on Peter, and he'd gotten more than he bargained for at his hands...something M.J. got to witness a little of directly. She'd never seen him that way before, not even close.

It was strange, because in the moment, she was just proud of him for making the choice to not kill the man, despite the incentive being there. She still was, but at the same time, seeing Peter just rail on someone like that was something that she never could have imagined happening before. It wasn't that he couldn't get angry under the right circumstances, but Peter was such a loving, kind and big-hearted individual that the capacity for violence he'd displayed seemed unnatural.

It was a reminder of the world Peter lived in as Spider-Man. The things he saw, the choices he had to make; the more Mary Jane thought about it, the more she realized it was impossible to truly put herself in his shoes. There was just no way she could understand what went through his head in those moments, which only served to make her heart hurt even more. She wanted so badly for him to confide in her, to let her into the other side of his world at a level she herself hadn't even thought about too much over the course of their relationship.

But, like everything that had been going on between them recently, she knew that it would take both of them to be willing for it to work. She'd done the best she could, trying to reassure him that she was there for him while occasionally just sitting there in silence, letting him perhaps be comforted by her mere presence. She'd talked to May the day before, and he'd reassured her that she was doing all the right things, and that he would be more open eventually.