Spider-Son & Iron Dad two shots

Caught in a Web

Spooktober 06: Crimson

a/n: decided to give peter a break from the stabbing. have a nice little oneshot of a very flustered michelle jones instead

To make one thing very very clear, Michelle Jones knows that she can be difficult at times. She struggles with plenty of her relationships; snarks to people she wants to be friends with, doesn't believe it when people show signs of enjoying her company, and sure, she may have a bit of a problem with trusting people not to let her down. 

She's always preferred the much safer approach to friendship, the quiet lingering in the background, the listening, the studying, the paying close attention. She'll put the stones in someone else's hands, say she won't care, and wait for when someone finally notices that she cares actually a whole lot. She lived under the strong thought process that whoever noticed would be worth trying for, and would save her the grief of betrayal for those who would have disappointed. 

Then, sophomore year. 

As it turned out, all the people she considers her closest friends almost dying at one, treacherous, traumatic time made for an uncomfortable series of revelations. She isn't afraid to admit that standing there at the bottom of the Washington Monument, seeing it crack and crumble, she learned that the grief would come anyways.

So, she made a conscious effort to break out, little bits of thorn breaking off from her metaphorical walls and the vines breaking loose with every time she chose not to hide a book or a mug of tea. 

She befriended Abraham, Sally, Charles, Cindy... Betty took a bit more time, because she was closed off after Liz's sudden departure, and MJ could understand that. She had felt that loss too, having only relied on the small circle that was their team for comfort and, admittedly, a sense of family.

She even befriended Flash, she can't actually say for sure if that was through helping him in study sessions or her thinly-veiled threats of encouragement about Decathlon needing all of its members to be participating at their best. Either way, he's usually the first to laugh when she cracks a joke, and MJ appreciates that more than she thought she could.

Then came Ned Leeds and Peter Parker, who were strange to an excessive amount. They interested MJ the most, particularly Peter, who seemed to have a pension for keeping secrets. MJ loved secrets. Even better, she liked sniffing them out.

It took a while for her to naturally fall in with their tightly-knit duo, but once Ned stopped giving her suspicious looks, she was welcomed with open arms. Literally. MJ had a reputation, and it seemed Peter didn't care in the slightest given by the constant nudges and side-eyes in class. 

It was comradery, it was partnership, it was connection. It was-- well, it was friendship.

Then sometime over the summer, MJ started noticing something horrible. Something truly, truly awful. Peter had started making her jittery. 

He'd send her a two-am text of something that was downright moronic, something that should have her rolling her eyes, and instead she only found her face all warm and her cheeks hurting because she was smiling at whatever stupid thing he said. 

Or he'd be late to whatever movie they were going to see with Ned, and instead of being annoyed or teasing him about it with her usual sarcasm, she'd just wait outside the theatre and try not to swoon about the melted vegan chocolate Peter would pull out of his pocket for her, because 'they don't offer any at the movie counter, so I took a detour and got some from that store you like.'

Naturally, there was only one conclusion for this. She would just ignore it. If there was anything she had practice at, it was shoving all her emotions in a box and then pointedly looking away from it.