Peter Parker (One-shots and short stories)

Brighter

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings: none :)

Summary: You live next door to Peter, sharing a fire escape which leads to you finding out his spidey secret. The secret which is holding him back from letting himself have more with you.

A/N: This is my entry for writing challenge ! My prompt was "You make my days brighter."

Word Count: 1.4 k

You sat on the fire escape outside your bedroom window, watching the night life waiting for Peter to get back. It hadn't been long that you knew he was Spiderman, he never wanted you to know but he had to choose his battles and he'd rather risk you knowing than Aunt May. His window was a few feet from yours, since your apartment was right next to his, and since that was his only way in and out of his room without Aunt May seeing him he didn't have another option. Peter tried his best to sneak in and out of the window without you noticing or catching him except for one night three weeks ago.

-

You let your face fall into your hands, frustrated that you couldn't figure out your assignment, in the grand scheme of things it wasn't worth much but you knew it would be in the final exam which was worth more than half your grade, college is really dumb that way. You knew Peter would be able to figure it out in a under a minute, never making you feel dumb about it either. He wasn't even in your program he was just that smart, he said it was your detailed hand written notes but you knew that this stuff just came easily to him.

You pulled a sweater over your t-shirt and pj shorts and opened your window slipping out and closing it almost completely behind you, leaving it open a crack to get back in. You crawled along the fire escape and put your face up to the glass seeing no one inside but his window was also open just the slightest. So you opened it a bit dropping your textbooks inside and waited for him to get back, sat on his bed playing with your phone.

The two of you were quite close, you had been neighbors and friends for so long, sharing a window and a fire escape meant you had many late night chats and often snuck into each others rooms to hangout. You also told eachother everything, when Peter felt Aunt May was being too suffocating you assured him she was just worried about him, when your friends were too mean Peter promised he would never be intentionally mean to you like they did sometimes. There was one thing though that he didn't tell you, that he didn't want you or anyone to know, he never planned on telling Ned either.

As you sat on the bed, waiting for Peter to walk into his bedroom through the door, like a normal person, you were surprised when you saw him crawl through his window and collapse to the ground. You jumped up and went over to him, taking in his beaten up and bloody appearance, that's when you noticed what he was wearing. "You... you are not!" You said in disbelief mostly to yourself as you helped him sit up. He was in too much pain to even stress about the whole situation right now, tears in his eyes threatening to spill. "I think my ribs are broken." He muttered quietly.

"What, oh okay well I can take my mums car and bring you to the ER-" "No, i'll be fine, they will heal on their own, it just hurts like a bitch right now." He said through clenched teeth.

"Tell me how to help you." You said trying to remain calm, wondering how you never noticed or found out before.

"Can you just get me on my bed please." He asked, you saw the eyes of his younger self shine through like he was a small boy again.

"Of course Pete." You said smiling slightly and helping to lift him to his bed, you helped change him into normal clothes for when Aunt May would eventually walk in and washed the blood from his quickly healing wounds, watching astonished by the process.

"I'm sorry I never told you I-"

"Peter it's okay, we don't need to have that talk right now. We can do that tomorrow, you can also help with my homework tomorrow, get some sleep." You said as he quickly drifted off to sleep and you slipped back out the window. The next day he did help you with your homework, but you never really talked about the whole "Hey i'm spiderman my bones heal themselves after someone punches them so hard they snap in half." conversation.

-

It had been three weeks since then, every time you tried to bring it up he brushed it off or changed the subject but tonight would be the night you confronted him.

You watched him swing and land on his side of the fire escape lifting up his mask and smiling at you. "Hey there, need some help?" He asked playfully.

"From the friendly neighborhood Spidey? No. From Peter? Yes." You said smiling as he opened his window letting you in and crawling in after you. "Help with homework?" He asked again trying to find out why you were waiting for him so late at night. You looked around his room, matured a bit from when he was younger but there was still star wars lego projects proudly displayed and funny science posters.

"Nope, just couldn't sleep." You said settling onto his bed crossing your legs. Peter frowned at your statement. "Because of me?" Your smile faded too as you had to admit it, both to him and yourself, though you tried not to. "No, you weren't even here how could you be keeping me up?" You tried to lie to yourself.

"Exactly I wasn't here, you were worried weren't you?" He asked, no judgment directed towards you, but he had hurt in his eyes.

"Yeah." You admitted quietly playing with your fingers.

"This is why I never wanted anyone to know, why I didn't want you to know." He said in defeat falling and laying down beside you.

"Oh are we actually going to talk about this now?" You asked truthfully but with a bit of uncalled for sass. Peter put his arm over his face, he didn't know how to talk to you about this like he did everything else.

"I just wanted them to be two seperate things." Peter confessed, stress evident in his voice.

"Well you can't just divide your life into two things and expect them never to intercept each other, you can't spread yourself so thin Peter." You said as you lied down beside him, turning on your side to face him.

"I just wanted to help people and fuck with the bad guys and be an Avenger, but I also wanted to go to school and live with Aunt May, have Ned, have the girl next door." He said turning so he was facing you too now, studying your face."

"But you can have both, it just won't be perfect."

"No, I can't, that takes the target on me and puts it on you and Ned and May, I cant do that to you guys so I tried to keep it a secret."

"But you didn't have to hide it from us, especially me." You admitted.

"I just wanted to pretend like Peter Parker could still have a chance with you, but now you know I'm spiderman and I can't hide that from you, I can't pretend that i'm not putting you in danger,"

"Well isn't that my decision to make? I don't care if you're Spiderman, I don't care if you're just Peter Parker, I'll take both gladly. All I know is you make my days brighter and I don't want to lose that, if anything I want more." You and Peter were only inches apart, you placed your hand on his red and blue patterned chest, if there was loose fabric you would be grasping at it.

"Well, who am I to deny you that." He said, making a decision in his mind, maybe this would be okay, maybe it would work. He could keep you safe, hell you could do that yourself.

"Then give me more, Parker." You said smiling as he kissed you lightly, both giggling at the tickling feeling, a line being crossed from childhood friends to something more. You rested your forehead against his, just enjoying the moment, how the feeling in the room changed so quickly. Being beside him you felt safe, whether he was Spiderman or just Peter Parker, with him life was simpler, happier, and brighter.