mended 🕷️ peter parker [3]

15

Having changed back into her opera dress, Jessica was back in the hotel, holding her shoes and the bag with her suit on her hands as she made her way up to her room. She wiped the few angry tears that would form in the corners of her eyes and get her fingers blackened from the dirty she had in her face.  

When Jessica got into her way-too-spacious room, she threw herself in the bed and buried her face into the pillow before she let out a muffled scream. She wished she had screamed to Fury when she had the chance. She needed that, to just yell it all out. When she was starting to lack air, she turned around and laid facing the ceiling. She still couldn't believe he dared to say that to her. That was just mean. She let out another breath to relax. Or at least tried to. 

"That's my bed." 

Jessica jumped when MJ surprised her. She thought she was alone in the room. Her friend had her gaze fixed on the pillow, which was now filthy from the dirt on Jessica's face.

"I'm sorry, you can take my pillow." She sat down, taking her new pillow with her. MJ moved closer to her, concerned.

"What's wrong? You killed the fire monster, right?"

"Yeah..." It wasn't until then that she remembered seeing MJ in the crowd before the attack began. "Wait, I saw you there. What were you doing?"

"I didn't want to go through four hours of opera." She justified while raising her shoulders. "Also, I wanted to see where you were going."

Jessica tried to redirect the conversation to dodge the fact that she'd left her alone in the opera. "You could have got hurt."

"I didn't, though." MJ fought back. "Hey, everyone's safe now. What's the problem?"

"They're safe not because of me." Jessica finally spilled out. "I wanted to enjoy my vacation. But I also want to protect you, at all cost, and even at that I'm failing." She felt heat moving up to her face and tears ready to be shed.

And I just feel like - if I can't sort a thing like that out - I don't deserve to carry Tony's name.

She didn't say that last part out loud. She was embarrassed to say it out loud because of what Fury'd said.

"What are you talking about?" MJ said with honesty. "Jess, you're an Avenger. Everyone is counting on you, whether you like it or not."

"Thanks for that." Jessica said, sarcastically. That hadn't been helpful and especially after having been yelled the same thing by Nick Fury. "No pressure at all."

"What I mean is..." She rephrased. "You're doing what needs to be done because you're a great hero." Now Jessica looked directly into her eyes. "And it's only natural to want to relax once in a while but this is what you were meant to do. I can help you out with the excuses while you go kick some ass."

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Jessica grinned, feeling better after hearing that. "It's hard to come up with excuses..."

"Let's see if that's true..." Her friend mumbled as she looked for her backpack. "When were you going to tell me that you were dating Spider-Man?"

"I..." Jessica looked at her straight away, realizing what she'd just said. "Wait- What?" 

She still didn't look at her. She was busy searching through the bag. "Peter's Spider-Man, right?"

Jessica's eyes widened. "How did you come up with that?"

"It's pretty obvious." She said, plainly. "First, Washington, then you two disappear at the Opera. I saw you fighting. Look, it's either that or he's a male escort. If it's the second one, your relationship is pretty weird." When she lastly decided to lift her head up, she took out some sort of mechanic piece covered in spider-webs. Jessica knew they were Peter's webs. But the object... It had some cut off cables coming from one side like it was part of a bigger structure from which it had fallen.

"What the hell is that?" Jessica picked it up, putting the webs away.

"I don't know." MJ shrugged her shoulders and then picked up the webs again. "I just know Spider-Man's here."

Whatever it was, it was related to the monster attack. MJ had found it there and it was clear that Peter had been in contact with it. The mysterious piece intrigued Jessica so much that she had almost forgotten that MJ knew about Spider-Man's identity.

Almost.

"You have to promise me you won't tell a soul."

MJ was taken aback when the platinum blonde confirmed her theory. "Wait? Is it true? Did I get it right?"

"Yeah!"

"Because I was just like a 62% sure about it." She gasped, excited. "Oh my god! I can't believe I figured it out."

Jessica placed the mechanic piece in her bag so it wouldn't get lost. She wanted to have a look at it before sharing it with anybody. Not even with Peter. All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door and Jessica got up to see who it was. Conveniently, it was Spider-Man himself. 

"Peter!"

"Speaking of the devil..." Jessica turned to look daggers at MJ for that comment. Whereas, Peter stood on the door, not understanding their behavior.

"Were you talking about me?"

"No!"

"Yes..." The two girls spoke at the same time and only Jessica told the truth. They needed to tell Peter about that as well. After all, it was his alter ego. "She knows"

"I figured it out!" MJ corrected her from the back of the room.

Peter's widened eyes jumped back to Jessica, waiting for verification. She nodded. "She figured it out."

The boy came into the room and closed the door straight away. He walked in MJ's direction and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her as he talked. "You have to promise you won't tell anybody!"

"I do, I promise..." MJ put her hands up, wanting him to stop. "Don't worry, I can keep a secret."

Jessica let out a dry laugh. Yeah, right. Nobody seemed to be able to keep secrets around here.

"Okay..." Peter let the girl go, sighing in relief. After that, silence filled the room and Jessica turned to her boyfriend, remembering he had been the one to knock on their door.

"What did you come for?"

"Right!" He "I just wanted to check out if you were okay."

"I've been better." She replied honestly. "But yeah, I'm fine."

Peter nodded. "Well, since I found out we are going home-"

"We are?" Jessica cut him off. When she looked at her roommate for confirmation, she nodded. When did this happen? She figured their teachers had decided to cancel the trip after the second attack, what only made sense. There were monsters coming out of the ground everywhere they went. Of course, parents would want their kids home. After thinking about it a second time, Jessica understood it was the best option. At least everyone would be secure.

"Yeah, I'm not ready for this trip to be over and I thought that maybe we could do something fun that's not on the itinerary." Peter continued. "I want to make it up to you since we didn't get too much time together in Venice."

Was he asking her on a date? 

Jessica smiled. A date didn't sound bad at all, especially after such an eventful day, to call it something.

"Okay." She said. Then she remembered she was still in her dress and her face and hair were a disaster. "I'll meet you in the lobby in five minutes. I'm gonna try to fix this mess."

"Alright," Peter smiled in return. "see you in five."