a very spideychelle thanksgiving (AU)
in which college!peter and college!mj go home for thanksgiving and feelings are brought to the surface
ao3 || other writing
tagging @peterjonesparker because she’s my best friend and will hunt me down if i don’t lmao
“You know our families are doing Thanksgiving together this year, right?” Michelle asks as she opens the door to her apartment.
Peter grins, walking in and throwing his backpack on the couch. “Really?” He calls over his shoulder as he walks towards the kitchen. “It’s not like they haven’t done that before or anything.”
Michelle rolls her eyes. As far back as she can remember, she and Peter have celebrated Thanksgiving together. It started when both of them were still babies, wobbly on their legs and still wearing pull-ups. Over the years, what started as two kids who lived down the street from each other became the ‘dynamic duo’ according to her parents. It was no surprise when both Peter and Michelle picked the same college. Though Michelle got into schools on the West Coast, she couldn’t imagine leaving Peter behind. He was her best friend.
“MJ?” Peter snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. “Are you ok?”
Michelle shook her head. “Yeah, why?”
“I asked what time we were leaving and you completely ignored the question,” Peter put his hand to her forehead. “You’re not getting sick are you?”
She swatted his hand away. “No, loser. I’m fine.” She went over to the couch, making room for Peter to sit as she pulled out her biology textbook. “Ready?”
“Always,” Peter smiled, reaching over and taking the flashcards Michelle wrote the night before. “You’re going down, Jones.”
They both got a 97% on the exam.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Michelle woke up on Thanksgiving morning to the sounds of her two brothers arguing over football. “Yup, definitely home,” she thought to herself. She dragged herself out of bed and over to her desk where her phone was charging. Unlocking it, she saw a message from Peter.
“hey loser, aunt may told me to have you tell your mom she’s bringing the pie.”
Michelle sent back an emoji before putting her phone back on the charger. She yawned, shaking her torso as to shake the butterfly feelings that she’s been getting since college started whenever Peter is around. Peter has always been her dorky, loser best friend, but in the past two years he’s just…she can’t even describe it. He’s just Peter. Her Peter. Her Peter with his gorgeous brown hair and brown eyes and dorky smile with the dimples and his amazing shoulders from going to the gym after class and-
“MJ! Breakfast!” Her mother’s voice startled Michelle from her daydream. Telling her Mom she’d be right down, she grabbed her glasses and a sweatshirt before heading downstairs.
It wasn’t until she got syrup on the sleeve that she realized it was Peter’s.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Peter and May got to Michelle’s at exactly two thirty-three p.m. Not that Michelle was sitting by the front door or anything. After hugs and greetings were exchanged, Peter, Michelle, and her brothers were sent outside into the backyard while the adults prepped dinner.
“We’re adults and they still don’t trust us in the kitchen!” Michelle complained and she sat down on the back porch.
Peter sat down right next to her. “Rightfully so. Remember spring break when we tried to make that Shepherd’s Pie?”
Michelle winced. “That was entirely your fault.”
Peter scoffed, “Excuse me? You’re the one who forgot to set the oven timer!”
Michelle turned to look at him. Peter was wearing a dark blue button down shirt with black jeans and it took a lot of self control for Michelle not to look at how good his shoulders looked with that shirt. She took a deep breath. “You distract me!”
Peter blinked. “What?”
“I mean-“ Michelle faltered, “You distracted me! You told me the Justice League trailer was on TV!”
“It was on TV!”
Michelle was fully prepared to fight when one of brothers came out of the garage. “Hey lovebirds! Are we playing soccer or what?”
Michelle stood up suddenly in order to not see Peter’s reaction at that comment.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
“Dinner was amazing, Mom,” Michelle said as she helped clean up after dinner. “You did an amazing job with the turkey!”
“Oh stop it,” her mother laughed, kissing her on the forehead. “You’re just saying that so you have first access to leftovers tomorrow.”
Michelle shrugged. While she helped her parents clean up after dinner, Peter had gone back out with her brothers to finish the soccer game. It wasn’t that Michelle didn’t want to play, but she needed a break. A break from Peter and his damn shoulders.
“So how’s Peter doing?” Her mom asked May.
“Great! You know it’s funny, he’s been going on and on about this girl in one of his classes, Liz I think? He talks about her all the time, it’s adorable! I think he definitely has a crush on this girl.”
Michelle dropped the silverware she was holding. Peter had a crush? Sure, he dated girls in high school, but they only lasted for a few weeks at most, and same for Michelle with her past boyfriends. Dating was just not on either one of their radar’s.
“Sorry, my hand slipped,” she smiled awkwardly at her mother.
“Why don’t you go outside honey?” May smiled. “We can finish up here.”
“I spoke too soon,” MJ thought. Handing the dish she was cleaning to her father, she grabbed Peter’s sweatshirt from this morning and headed outside again. When she got there, her brothers were nowhere to be found, just Peter sitting on the back porch.
“No more soccer?” She asked, and Peter turned to look at her, flashing his adorable grin that sent her stomach into butterflies.
“God I love you,” she thought to herself, and she had to grab the doorway to stable herself.
She loves him? She loves Peter in a way that isn’t meant for best friends? No this can’t be right, can it? Does she actually love him?
“It’s getting too dark outside,” Peter said, standing up. “What’s wrong?”
“Huh?” She let go of the door. “Nothing!”
“You’re shaking,” Peter stepped forward and took her hand in his own as though to warm it up. “Jesus MJ, what’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing Peter! Let it go!” She yanked her hand back, pushed past Peter and stumbled down the back steps.
“Oh no you don’t,” Peter grumbled, turning on his heel and following Michelle away from the porch. She obviously didn’t go far, and ended up at the tire swing that hung from the big oak tree at the end of her yard.
Michelle knew Peter would follow her, but she didn’t know how she would explain this to him. He knew her better than she knew herself, and he would know if she was lying. She felt the tire swing swift as Peter sat on the side across from her, using his feet to gently move the swing back and forth.
“MJ, talk to me.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Bullshit.”
She looked up then. Peter wasn’t one to cuss unless he was serious, and right now as he sat across from her on the tire swing, she knew she wasn’t getting out of this without him knowing how she really felt about him.
“You never told me about Liz,” she said. This time, it was Peter who blinked.
“Liz?” He echoed. “What about Liz?”
“Oh come on Parker, I know all about your little crush on Liz. How you think she’s perfect and amazing and oh so smart and all these other things that boys think about girls!”
Peter was dumbfounded. “Liz Allen?”
“Why are you acting like you have no idea who I’m talking about? May told me you talk about her all the time!”
“Wait…she told you I have a crush on Liz, my physics lab partner?”
“Well I don’t know what she is to you, but apparently she’s something!” Michelle didn’t mean to snap at him. “Sorry, it’s none of my business.”
“She’s just my lab partner, I talk about her because we’re doing a midterm together and-hold on,” Peter fake gasped, placing a hand on his heart. “Michelle Jones, are you jealous?”
Not catching onto his joking attitude, Michelle threw her hands up in frustration. “Yeah! You know what? I am really jealous! I’m right here Peter! Why can’t you see that I’m right here!?”
“Wait…you’re really jealous?” Peter’s eyes were wide as his hand dropped down to the tire swing. “You…you weren’t joking?”
“…You were joking?” Michelle stopped the swing with her feet, placing both her hands on the ropes on either sides of her.
Both of them just stared at each other. Michelle honestly thought her heart had just dropped into the pit of her stomach. It was over, she was losing him. Her eyes filled with tears as Peter stood up suddenly.
“Peter-“ she was cut off by Peter leaning down, taking her face in his hands and kissing her as though his life depended on it.
Michelle felt as though her heart was shocked back into working again. Kissing Peter felt like the most natural thing in the world and damn was he good at it. She let go of the ropes to reach up and wrap her hands around his neck to pull him closer, but that caused the swing to move and both of them to fall back into the grass, Luckily Peter used his arms to break the fall.
“You okay?” He asked, moving some of her hair from her eyes. Michelle took a couple deep breaths.
“I didn’t ruin our friendship?” She asked as Peter rolled to the side of her so she could sit up and move her legs off of the tire swing.
“I mean,” he grinned. “I rather be your boyfriend considering I’ve been madly in love with you since we were thirteen but if you want to just be friends-“
“You’re WHAT?”
“You didn’t know?”
“How was I supposed to know you were in love with me?” Michelle shrieked. “That’s not common knowledge Peter!”
“I thought I made it clear!” He laughed, reaching and taking her hand again.
“You definitely did not,” she smiled as Peter leaned in towards her.
“I did,” he mumbled against her lips, and this time it was Michelle who held his face in her hands, as though she never wanted to let him go again. “Is this my sweatshirt?” Peter asked when they broke apart. “This has been missing for over a year!”
“God, I love you,” she giggled, and Peter grinned.
“I love you too, loser.”
“Kids! The pie is ready!” May called from the back door.
Peter stood up and took Michelle’s hand, pulling her up. “Ready?” He gestured towards the house.
She squeezed his hand and smiled, "Always."
