Hey, Red - Peter Parker

It started the way a lot of messy things do: with late-night texts, quiet apartment floors, and a strict, unspoken agreement that they were strictly just casual. No commitments, no labels, and definitely no catching feelings.

For Riley Red, keeping things casual was a matter of survival. After escaping a heavy past of domestic abuse, she didn't know how to trust, let alone how to let someone close. A messy, complicated hookup arrangement with Peter Parker was supposed to be safe precisely because it didn't mean anything.

Except Peter was terrible at keeping distance.

He was supposed to be just a guy she blew off steam with, but somewhere between shared coffee cups, lingering touches, and the quiet hours spent hiding from the rest of the world, the lines started blurring. Peter wasn't just a casual hookup anymore; he was the one showing up when things fell apart, refusing to walk away even when Riley tried her hardest to push him back.

When a violent clash with Riley's past lands her in the hospital and shatters their fragile routine, the denial officially crashes and burns. Stripped of the "just friends" excuse, Peter drops everything to become her anchor, while Riley is forced to confront the scariest truth of all: she is falling for him, and he has already fallen hard.

What follows is the messy, slow-burn transition from denial to devotion. It's the journey of two people who swore they were just hooking up, navigating the terrifying gap between fear and intimacy, burnt toast in a cramped Queens apartment, and realizing that sometimes the person you least expect becomes your entire world.

A Peter Parker x OC slow-burn romance about denial, breaking down walls, quiet domestic intimacy, and falling in love when you least expect it.