sporadic | avengers

TWENTY-THREE / when spider-man had his first kiss

He craned his neck down a few inches, and met her lips. Before he felt that tale-tell ignition, something stirred in his stomach and he awoke from his daydream.

Peter blinked at his laptop screen.

The blue bar blinked after his last bullet point, and somewhere in the distance he heard his teacher telling some 'witty' story about something or other that was somehow related to the lesson.

"You good?"

He turned to his desk partner, trying to let the words sink in and trying to inject meaning into them.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Alrighty, then," MJ shrugged.

Peter turned back to his laptop and rejoiced when the bell dismissed them. He was packing his things when he felt words flooding from his mouth:

"Do you want to get coffee with me?"

"What?" MJ asked, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. His eyes met hers as he did the same, and he smiled at her brave softness.

"You like coffee, don't you?" he asked, reminding himself she always smelled like espresso grounds and warm milk.

"I do, indeed. I thought you didn't, though."

The two made their way out of the classroom.

"I don't," Peter said, "But most coffee shops sell tea. I like tea." He shrugged. MJ furrowed her brow, undetected by his spidey-senses.

The two dove into the crowd of students, all trying to leave as it was the end of the day. Somehow they made it out, as most students do, and onto the sidewalk.

"I have a question," Peter stated once they got out of earshot of anyone.

"Yes?" she implored.

"When did you find out I was Spider-Man?"

"Well, Parker, unlike most of the people at our school, I actually have a brain. I'm able to piece things together and have independent thoughts."

"You're not answering my question. I asked when, not how."

"I'm getting there," she hushed him. "I found out on the D.C. trip. You had a bruise on your forearm, then you disappeared for almost an entire day; exactly when Spider-Man showed up, too."

He shrugged, defeated. The two climbed the stairs of the coffee shop and entered.

She ordered a simple latte and he ordered Earl Grey. The pair sat in mismatched chairs at the corner table.

MJ stared, bewildered, at the framed photographs on the wall. Each picture showed a different person with a quote from that person beneath.

Every person was unrelated, and every quote a random one.

"I think people are really strange," MJ stated absently. "We exist, as intellectual primates, and we die. We own the world and can't get along for five minutes... And somehow it all works. It's weird."

He listened to her, and watched her as she spoke.

"...It's wonderful, too, in its own way..."

His lungs filled with roses and his words got stuck in his arteries. Peter was stuck when she asked what his thoughts were.

She smiled loosely at his awkwardness.

"You're cute when you miss your train of thought."

Cute?

He smiled, not really knowing what else to do.

-

Soon, enough, they headed for home. They took the train to her stop and he walked MJ to her door.

Her key unlocked the door too fast. Her being stepped inside and disappeared too fast. Peter stood on her apartment's stoop and frowned. He smelled vaguely of her scent, espresso grounds and warm milk.

Peter had just turned to leave when the door opened behind him. Fingers knitted in his, too fast. He turned too fast.

Her free hand held his cheek to her and pulled his lips to meet hers.

The roses cleared from his lungs and bloomed in their meeting lips. He grinned in her embrace. It was over, far too fast, and she pulled away with a smile.

"You smell like espresso grounds and warm milk," Peter mumbled the words of his arteries. He looked at her sheepishly, embarrassed.

Stupid.

"You smell like lavender and vanilla," she replied and disappeared behind her door again.

He smiled on her doorstep.

For good measure, he pinched himself. He smiled deeper with the knowledge the experience was real.