Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader
Warnings: slight smut? just at the very, very end, and cursing
Genre: slight angst?, fluff, bestfriend to lovers
Summary: Peter and [Name] are forced to confront their feelings about one another when she turns to him for comfort after being stood up.
Inspiration: @spiderbabyparkerâs long-ago (when you were still lovely-parker, haha) ask sent to @petersshirts - âStark!reader getting stood up on her date and rushing to her room crying when she gets back from her date leading to Peter (her best friend) going to comfort her, and he kisses her forehead and says âitâs okay babeâ and they end up admitting feelings for each other?â
Notes: So itâs a little different from the ask, but I hope itâs still up to par :)
At the time, [Name] wasnât even sad. She was pissed. She had put way too much time and energy in to be stood up like this - no call, no text, nothing. Not to mention she had bought a new dress specifically for this occasion (she blamed her dad for raising her to believe a new outfit had to be bought for every event).Â
[Name] plopped down on the spinny bar stool and flagged down a waitress. After ordering a milkshake and cheese fries, she pulled out her phone and opened TikTok. Already her âgrwm: date editionâ video had a couple thousand views. There were those stupid comments like âfirstâ and âearlyâ; annoying ones like âlegend has it she replies if youâre earlyâ (what do you even say to that??) and âbet she wonât replyâ (guess what, youâre right); heartwarming ones like âomg where did you buy that dress??â and âcan i be that prettyâ; and then excited ones like âlet us know how it goes!â and âsomeone remind me to come backâ.Â
When the waitress came back, [Name] thanked her and gave her exact change. [Name] scrolled through her For You Page for the next hour, long after sheâd finished her shake and fries. She probably wouldâve sat there until the diner closed had it not been for a TikTok Flash had posted featuring - are you fucking kidding me? - Lance Thompson, Flashâs cousin but more importantly: [Name]âs date.Â
[Name] had tried giving Lance the benefit of the doubt. Maybe his phone had died, and his car had broken down. Maybe his mom had gone into labor. Maybe heâd been attacked by a pack of sewage rats while taking the subway.Â
The last one was a bit extreme, but after seeing that Flashâs video had been posted a mere seventeen minutes ago, [Name] wished it had actually happened. She clicked on the tag that led to Lanceâs account -- for why, she didnât know. She didnât know what she expected to find, but multiple videos of her was not on the list. She clicked on the most recent one, a video taken just the other day.Â
âLance, Iâm cold,â [Name] had pouted, tugging on Lanceâs hoodie sleeve.
Lance raised his eyebrows, but after seeing [Name]âs wink and playful smile, he knew what she wanted him to say. âWell, damn, [Name], I canât control the weather!â
After a giggle and a combination of pouty lips and puppy dog eyes up at him, Lance had yanked off his hoodie and given it to [Name] before planting a kiss on her lips.
The bittersweetness of watching the video proved to be more bitter than sweet after [Name] read the caption: week five of making the snobby rich girl fall in love with me before giving her a taste of her own medicine.
Snobby? Her own medicine? Confusion washed over [Name], but it was nothing compared to the heartbreak she felt. She wasnât in love with Lance by any means, but she had started to genuinely care for him.Â
This small heartbreak would take a little time to get over, but there was one person who could make it just a bit more bearable.Â
To say that there was no privacy between Peter and [Name] would be an understatement. After May had told her that Peter was in his room, sheâd walked in without even knocking. Without a word, really, because her heart hurt so much, she didnât feel like talking.Â
â[Name]!â Peter exclaimed, surprised yet happy nonetheless, to see her. âHowâd your da--â He didnât need his Spidey sense to tell him that that question was better left unfinished.Â
[Name] went to Peterâs desk where she kept a drawer of the things sheâs needed before that she couldnât snitch from Peter (bras, panties, etc). Been through this routine a million times, Peter turned his back to [Name] as she stepped out of her dress, pulled on a sports bra, and stepped into a pair of his sweatpants. [Name] threw her hair up into a bun, then yanked the scrunchie out and hoped Peter would play with it; that always seemed to put her at ease and content.
After crawling under the covers and wiggling her way into Peterâs arms, [Name] finally mumbled, âHe stood me up.â Peter didnât say anything, just started twirling a lock of her hair. She closed her eyes for a minute, enjoying the moment. âHe doesnât even like me. He put it on his stupid TikTok.â
âAre you serious?â Peterâs temperature was rising; he never liked this guy from the beginning, and him being Flashâs cousin didnât help his case.Â
âYeah, something about giving me my own medicine?â [Name] picked up Peterâs phone from his chest and went to Lanceâs TikTok. âI didnât even know he had an account, and now thereâs all these videos of us being all cute together and his caption is always the same: âweek whatever of making the snobby rich girl fall in love with me before giving her a taste of her own medicineâ. I donât even know what that means.â
âLet me see.â [Name] gave Peter his phone and watched him scroll through the videos, even the ones without [Name] in them. âWho records the videos? The ones of you and him?â
âI dunno, I never really paid attention,â [Name] sighed. âI mean, in all those videos, weâre with our friends.â
Peter paused a video [Name] herself had recorded; it was some football TikTok Lance and a couple of his buddies had done. âWhoâs this?â Peter asked, pointing to a guy with dyed black hair and one dangly earring.Â
âBraxton?â [Name] looked up at Peter. âThatâs Lanceâs best friend from, like, Kindergarten. Why?â
Peter didnât answer for a minute; he was concentrating on something. âDo you remember that party your old friend Lorelai threw back in middle school? The one her parents sent her away to some troubled behavior school because they couldnât keep her under control?â
âShe preferred Rory, but yes,â [Name] answered. âWhere are you going with this? That I had a lapse in judgement when it came to friends and hung around the wrong crowd during my preteen years?â
âWell, you did, but no,â Peter chuckled; this provoked a small chuckle from [Name] as well, which meant Peter was doing something right. âRemember the kid with the round glasses and freckles and carrot top hair?â
âYeah,â [Name] furrowed her brows and thought back to that dreadful night. âI didnât like him, but she knew he liked me, so she forced us to play Seven Minutes in Heaven. I didnât wanna hurt his feelings so I let him kiss me, but then I dodged him at school and avoided his texts. Oh gods, the rest of that semester was SO awkward and embarrassing.â
â[Name], thatâs what Lance is getting you back for,â Peter realized with a heavy sigh. âThat kid was Braxton.â
All the color drained from [Name]âs face. She felt like sheâd been sucker punched in the gut. Maybe Rory was right; being nice did backfire.Â
[Name] didnât feel like talking anymore. She grabbed her phone and pressed play on her previously made breakup playlist. As the songs spoke the words she felt, [Name] synced her breathing to Peterâs and fell asleep to his heartbeat.Â
Not long after [Name] had fallen asleep, her phone rang. Peter picked it up off his stomach and saw that Mr. Stark was calling. Peterâs face burned; Mr. Stark and May both had seen he and [Name] cuddling and sleeping on the same bed or couch or even chair, but when it came to Mr. Stark, Peter still felt as if they were caught doing something they werenât supposed to be doing--even though they werenât even together. Not wanting to make Mr. Stark wait even longer, Peter slid his thumb across the screen. âH-Hi, Mr. Stark.â
âPeter. Howâs she doing?â At Peterâs scrunched eyebrows, [Name]âs dad elaborated, âMay told me sheâd come over visibly upset and looking for you. Donât tell me it was that boy.â
Peter pursed his lips, but there was no sense in being vague; Mr. Stark already knew. âYes, sir. Apparently heâs been playing her all this time.â
Mr. Stark groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. âPeter?â
âTake care of her, will you? And one more thing.â
Peter raised his eyebrows.
âShe loves you more than she realizes. Remember that.â And just like that, Mr. Stark was gone. Peter refused to let himself think about Mr. Starkâs last message. Heâd morph it into something it wasnât, and his and [Name]âs whole friendship would be ruined.Â
The first thing [Name] noticed when she woke up was that Peter wasnât there. She rubbed her eyes, which were irritated from crying, and looked around his room. He was nowhere to be found. He was most likely in the bathroom and grabbing a late-night snack, but that didnât soothe the ache in her heart that always came when Peter wasnât around.Â
[Name] grabbed her phone from the nightstand and checked the time.
She turned the brightness down. 2:16.
As it always did, the picture of Peter made her smile. Theyâd done the chubby bunny challenge, and Peter had stuffed so many marshmallows into his mouth, it was impossible for [Name] not to snap a picture.Â
The events of last night felt like a faded memory, even the hurt. Peter always managed to do that, somehow, make everything else disappear. Some lucky girl was going to have an amazing husband that would make a wonderful father.
Hopefully [Name] herself.
[Name] dropped her phone. She ignored it as it clattered to the floor. Consciously, she had never thought of Peter as anything but a best friend. But now everything--the way her face lit up when he walked in a room, the tingling down her spine that accompanied Peterâs breath when he whispered in her ear in class, the giddiness in getting ready for their friend dates, even the occasional dreams of them together that sheâd refused to acknowledge--all made perfect sense.
Peter walked into the room then, his shower hair now curling in ringlets.
âI love you,â [Name] blurted, before her fight or flight had a chance to stop herself.
Peterâs face warmed as blood rushed up his neck and on his cheeks. He seemed happy for a split second, before he laughed nervously. âUh, yeah, I love you, too, p-pal.â
[Name] shook her head vigorously. She was filled with so much adrenaline now that sheâd have a panic attack if she didnât release it. âNo, not like that, Iâm in love with you, Peter. You make the world disappear and thereâs only me and you, and every time you put the suit on I lose my shit worrying about you, but then you come in my room every night to assure me that youâre okay, and Iâm always thinking about you, and it pains me if I ever think you might not be in my future. You werenât my first kiss, Peter, but I want you to be my next and the one after that and the one after that until itâs my last. Stark is a very infamous and honestly really cool name, but I donât want it forever, I donât want anyoneâs name but yours, Peter Parker, and I love you so much it hurts, and I may have only just realized it now but Iâve loved you for so much longer and now that I think about it, you may not even feel the same, and I very well could have just jeopardized our who--â
No longer was Peter standing by his bedroom door. It was closed now, and Peter was hovering over [Name], his hand around her throat. âDo me a favor, baby girl, and stop talking.â He smashed his lips against hers, and when he pulled away, he raked his teeth along her bottom lip.
Peter rested his forehead against [Name]âs, his eyes closed; they were both breathing heavily. âYou have no idea how long Iâve wanted to do that,â he admitted breathily.
âThen get back here and do it again.â [Name] grabbed a fistful of Peterâs shirt and pulled him back down to her.Â
Needless to say, there was not only a meeting of the minds and souls that night, but also the bodies.
tagged: @marvel-lously @k-a-t-h-r-y-n-sbin @lilyholland